[Modern War Institute] This essay explores the individual-level determinants of trust in the US military. Prior research has identified five possible drivers of societal trust in the military: performance, professionalism, persuasion, personal connection, and partisanship. Using data from the American National Election Studies and the General Social Survey, we emphasize the importance of understanding trust at an individual level, as perceptions of military performance and professionalism are not objective but mediated by individual-level factors. Our findings reinforce mixed support for trust being linked to assessments of military success on or off the battlefield and undermine arguments that relate high trust to a widening gap between the military and civilian society. We also present new evidence for generational and ideational sources of military trust consistent with recent speculation that trust in the military is declining. Overall, we show that individual-level trust may be difficult to change but that public trust in the military has consequences for a variety of defense-oriented policies.
#1
The idea that there is a secret cabal of righteous generals has always seemed very strange to me. There is some virtue in military service, but most of the flag rank officers I have admired over the past 40 years have disappointed me.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
11/17/2022 12:45 Comments ||
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#2
Yeah, one guy, or a couple guys, against the rest. I don't think so. See: 7 Days in May
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
11/17/2022 13:02 Comments ||
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#3
Some survive the political process and retain their sense of Duty, Honor Country, but many, perhaps most, suffer significant erosion over the post-company grade years and more succumb to the Flag Officer Hubris syndrome which often accompanies the General Office lobotomy process by the General Officer Management Office (GOMO)!
https://www.gomo.army.mil/
In fact The chairman of the Ukrainian Center of Defense Strategies Andriy Zagorodnyuk, claims Putin likely only allowed Russian commander Surovikin to retreat from Kherson on the condition that he intensifies efforts to capture the rest of Donetsk Oblast. The first step for them now is to grab Bakhmut seemingly at the cost of everything else. Putins got tunnel vision for the city of Bakhmut. Could it actually be more valuable than the Ukrainian Armed force is letting on?
One thing is for sure, this bet on Bakhmut has a bad side effect for Putin. He is now dependent on these Wagner mercenaries and their shadowy leader Yevgeny Prigohizin. Prigozhin has become untouchable as long as Putin remains reliant on him for his only chance of a battlefield advance.
Prigozhin is now able to go around town openly saying negative comments to the Russian press about how regular Russian army units are performing terribly, how Russian politicians are cowards and he disapproves of field commanders. His criticisms of Russian general Lapin may have led to him being fired. Prigohzin is allowed to do all of this with impunity afforded to no one else in Russia. He could be a major threat to Putin’s power.
Intelligence estimates place approximately 30,000 Russian forces deployed in the offensive against Bakhmut making it their largest concentration of forces in the country. Let’s analyse, What’s so important to Vladmir Putin in Bakhmut? Why is Russia betting the entire farm on capturing this seemingly unimportant city of Bakhmut at the cost of everything else.
In order to understand why Russia seems to have tunnel vision on Bakhmut we need to analyze its strategic value. Bakhmut is Located in the eastern Ukraine Donetsk region. At this point 20,000 civilians remain of Bakhumuts original population of 80,000 citizens many have already been evacuated. The surrounding farm lands have been flattened and turned into world war I style trenches. Russia recently annexed Donetsk as part of their recent referendum vote. The UN Secretary-General António Guterres called the referendums a "violation of the UN Charter and international law".
So is Bakhmut really as strategically unimportant as Ukraine claims? In 1701 Russian Tsar Peter the Great first ordered Bakhmut be settled and the salt there to be mined. At the time salt was an extremely valuable commodity and important for food preservation. The strategic importance of the city was once very high.
Today 300 years later The city of Bakhmut is still mainly known for its salt mines that account for 90% of Ukraines salt. However there are conflicting reports of just how much strategic military value Bakhmut actually holds today and I believe there are 4 possible explanations for this.
The 1st theory is that Bakhmut truly holds little strategic value for Russia at all. Evidence of this comes from the fact that there are no major transportation railroad hubs to be found here, no manufacturing industry key to a war effort, and clearly the landlocked city has no major naval ports last time I checked.
[Well, if it's true The Donald took money from Pfizer, then I suppose we should not be surprised.]
[WSJ] March, 29, 2020, is a day that should live in infamy. The national mitigation plan against Covid-19, "15 days to stop the spread," was about to expire. In the Rose Garden, President Trump declared that lockdowns would continue for another 30 days. I tweeted: "President Trump just lost the election."
When Mr. Trump announced his 2024 campaign Tuesday, he didn’t apologize for the lockdowns or even mention them. I supported him in 2016, and during his tenure he did much to dredge the political swamps, but his decision to approve and extend drastic Covid interventions should disqualify him for a second term.
The White House Coronavirus Task Force, led by Vice President Mike Pence, Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, put the Constitution into an induced coma. Mr. Trump’s decision to adopt Chinese Communist Party tactics and close down the country gave license to states to amplify and extend these terrible policies, to governors to wield unprecedented executive powers, and to school districts to shut students out for months or even years.
Mr. Trump did very little to constrain this overreach. His dramatic Covid order shut down your business, barred your kids from school, denied you access to your church, your gym and your coffee shop. It suppressed screenings and treatments for cancer and other illnesses and kept people from visiting loved ones in the hospital or attending their funerals.
Studies appear weekly confirming what almost everyone now acknowledges—the lockdowns were futile as well as onerous. One set of researchers wrote: "Overall, we conclude that lockdowns are not an effective way of reducing mortality rates during a pandemic."
Mr. Trump paid lip service to the need to reopen the country but never rallied lawmakers or other officials to do anything about it. It was left to governors like Brian Kemp of Georgia and Ron DeSantis of Florida to do that on their own.
Mr. DeSantis signed legislation that put specific triggers in place to prevent county health directors from declaring an emergency with unending powers. He implemented a patient’s bill of rights. He has continued to lead the battle against Dr. Fauci and his unending fear tactics. Little wonder the governor was resoundingly re-elected last week while Mr. Trump’s favored candidates went down in swing states across the country.
Covid-19 weakened America’s political immune system, leaving the country vulnerable to confusion, panic, unease and cowardice. Mr. Trump had been elected to combat this kind of insanity. He failed when it mattered most and doesn’t deserve another term.
Mr. Hart is founder of Rational Ground, author of "Gone Viral: How Covid Drove the World Insane" and an adviser to the Posterity PAC.
#3
He let himself be used by the deep state. I won't forget.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
11/17/2022 11:28 Comments ||
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#4
It was a state by state decision, but it is Trump's fault for not forcing New York/Michigan/California etc. to open.
Kansas had Easter, seeds for sale, and the only mask mandates were from schools and businesses. Sorry your children got the gulag while your politicians ate fine dining.
#5
I always wondered when the Dims would use the "But it's a Trumpian vaccine" meme.
If there ends up being unhidable side effects, or politically expedient ones. This is just a political hit skirmish fire from 'a trusted paper' to prep the field.
#10
A more important question: Why didn't Brandon, who undid nearly everything Trump, undo the covid mess?
Mr. President? Ms. Karine Jean-Pierre? Senator Schumer? Speaker Pelosi? Bueler?
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/17/2022 16:52 Comments ||
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#11
Yes, #9, that right there was bad. Trump can't even control what comes out of his mouth. I don't buy the proposition that "this time things will be different" when it comes to his personnel decisions.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
11/17/2022 16:55 Comments ||
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#12
Brandon just continued what Trump started, more or less.
Really, "fifteen days to stop the spread" says it all.
What's even more absurd was the gang from the looney left saying they weren't taking "Trump's" vaccine or that Trump wanted to "kill all of us" by taking the vaccine, and those same arse wipes later were all for the poisonous sludge they call a vaccine.
#13
I'm not sure the Fed could force open or closed any state without some really severe interference.
A specific even or location, say, Sturgis, would be a much easier task. I do seem to remember a lot of media, especially Allahpundit, braying it should be shut down.
There was even a story spread around about some local Sturgis transplant all a clutch about the motorcycle rally anyways But Now That Covid! Was some local transplant, city council member or something, had just moved there recently. Media calls for states to stop the motorcycles from making the trip, everything opposite of what this article claims.
#14
Ah, sorry, probably look better with a question mark at the end, rather than stating the premise of this article.
And Fauci, he had 5 major position changes and a number of minors by the end of "4th week to flatten'. People wanting to open then were smeared at flat earthers. Science deniers. Sub-human death dealing dog creatures to be mocked, hounded, cowed, and even arrested dare they go paddle boarding.
The very fact that New York didn't live like Kansas, and Kansas didn't live like New York, debunks this article as a hit piece.
#15
And what did get shut down, international travel, especially origins reporting large Covid case outbreaks, was hounded at. Remember Go Hug a Stranger who Looks Chinese Week?
The major media outlets were the ones who gave Fauci the Great Unfettered Stage, which then justified states' lockdowns, and peoples' hatred of states which were open.
Looks like 1/3 followed or supported Fauci's Protocols, 1/3 went along with it, and 1/3 gave the finger. Those are traditional splits.
#16
...and even arrested dare they go paddle boarding.
That happened to one of my buddies who lived in San Diego; fortunately they only hassled him and his buddy who was with him. He said 'that's the last straw' and moved to AZ a few months later.
[Townhall] Politicians praise electric cars. If everyone buys them, they say, solar and wind power will replace our need for oil.
But that's absurd.
"Batteries leak, and they don't hold a lot," says physicist Mark Mills.
Mills thinks electric cars are great but explains that "oil begins with a huge advantage: 5,000% more energy in it per pound. Electric car batteries weigh 1,000 pounds. Those 1,000 pounds replace just 80 pounds of gasoline."
But future batteries will be better, I point out.
"Engineers are really good at making things better," Mills responds, "but they can't make them better than the laws of physics permit." Miracle batteries powerful enough to replace fossil fuels are a fantasy.
"Because nature is not nice to humans," explains Mills, "we store energy for when it's cold or really hot. People who imagine an energy transition want to build windmills and solar panels and store all that energy in batteries. But if you do the arithmetic, you find you'd need to build about a hundred trillion dollars' worth of batteries to store the same amount of energy that Europe has in storage now for this winter. It would take the world's battery factories 400 years to manufacture that many batteries."
Politicians don't mention that when they promise every car will be electric. They also don't mention that the electric grid is limited.
This summer, California officials were so worried about blackouts they asked electric vehicle owners to stop charging cars! Worse, if (as many activists and politicians propose) we try to get that electricity from 100% renewable sources, the rationing would be deadly.
Yet today, few of California's cars are electric. Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered that all new cars must be electric by 2035! Where does he think he'll get the electricity to power them?
"Roughly speaking, you have to double your electric grid to move the energy out of gasoline into the electric sector," says Mills. "No one is planning to double the electric grid, so they'll be rationing."
This is just math and physics. It's amazing supposedly responsible people promote impossible fantasies. Math B hard, especially when elections are involved.
"It's been an extraordinary accomplishment of propaganda," complains Mills, "almost infantile ... distressing because it's so silly."
Even if people invent much better cars, wind turbines, solar panels, power lines and batteries, explains Mills, "you're still drilling things, digging up stuff. You're still building machines that wear out ... It's not magical transformation."
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/17/2022 08:59 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11128 views]
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#1
Simply moving the toxicity to an earlier stage in manufacturing.
#2
As the article said "Miracle batteries powerful enough to replace fossil fuels are a fantasy." The Greenies are not strong on thermodynamics/science.
[YouTube] In the early hours of November 16th, an oil tanker was struck by an armed drone off the coast of Oman. Strikes like this might not sink a ship with 1 or even 5 hits...but it is a sign of the changing times in maritime shipping.
As I mention in the transport section of my latest book - The End of the World is just the Beginning - "Inhibit [safe and cheap transport] and the rest of...everything simply falls apart." What we saw yesterday was only the tip of the iceberg.
As the safety of the world's shipping industry becomes more vulnerable, prices will increase and the long-range trade and maritime shipping the world has grown accustomed to will be changed forever.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Townhall] Politicians praise electric cars. If everyone buys them, they say, solar and wind power will replace our need for oil.
Politicians don't mention that when they promise every car will be electric. They also don't mention that the electric grid is limited.
[YouTube] In the early hours of November 16th, an oil tanker was struck by an armed drone off the coast of Oman. Strikes like this might not sink a ship with 1 or even 5 hits...but it is a sign of the changing times in maritime shipping.
