United States Marine Corps Major Gen. Chris A. McPhillips reportedly announced Tuesday that the 248th Marine Corps Ball has been canceled by U.S. Central Command as a result of “unforeseen operational commitments.”
There are other matters you don’t know about if it’s gotten that far. Like it or not, saddle up.
27 comments:
A long time ago I stood in a campus bookstore, pondering the page, after page, after page of the words of mankind. The realization that no amount of knowledge was ever more than an infinitely small bubble within eternity, just struck me. That said, we are designed, created actually, to observe and learn. It strikes me that the BRIC wall has decided to call the bluff of our de facto empire.
Good poker players analyze risks based on learned experience, and often conclude that ceasing to play the hand of the moment is the wise move. I do fear our government has already decided to double down in pursuit of dominance. Wisdom is not the first attribute that comes to mind about our contemporary ruling class.
Congress declares war.
Where is the declaration?
Fuck em. No Declaration, No War
Congress declares war. I have that in my notes from High School Civics class.
Also that the right of the people to keep and bear arms meant you can not be arrested for wearing short sleeves in winter. All us 15 year old boys thought that was hilarious. Also infringed is one of those old timey words that no longer has any legal meaning, except for colloquial Cajun where the phrase: “Lord that spanish moss has infringed on your bald cypress” is understood in cases of disputed property claims.
I kept notes in pencil in case mistakes had to be erased. Powers not delegated, yada, yada, yada, are reserved to the people. Textbook reality really is the best reality.
Everyone here understands that the Constitution clearly states that Congress (and only Congress) shall declare war. We also understand that there hasn't been a declared war in more than a generation, but there's sure been a lot of war.
Likewise, Article I Section 8 spells out the only matters that Congress should act upon; and Article I also spells out that only legislatures (state or Congress) can make rules governing elections, not state health boards or governors or Federal agencies. Strictly speaking, there is no constitutional government of the United States and hasn't been for quite a while.
Sometimes the Supreme Court stands up for a portion of it; but whole sections have been let go (The Ninth and Tenth Amendments, for example).
In any case, if the USMC canceled the Marine Corps Ball, better get your leathers in order.
I wonder if the Commandant's apparent heart-attack also played a role in the cancellation. (I have no opinion one way or the other, just mildly curious.)
LittleRed1
On 7-December-1941 we were at war with Japan, whether Congress had acted on our response yet or not.
I accept that the cancellation of the ball means we are (or are about to be) at war, but - in all seriousness - who are we at war with? And where? And with what objective?
And for the first time in living memory, we may have war on our own soil as a continuing fight.
Speaking for our potential adversaries, they would have been negligent if they had not been sending in soldiers through our undefended border.
Since we no longer have a Congress that takes its role seriously, none of that has been debated in public. My guess would be that we’re going after Iran to foil their attempts to turn the Hamas war into a pincer movement; but nobody has told me either. I know it’s not just the Marines and the two carrier groups, though. Other deployments have been made.
If you are correct in that assessment, Grim, it would be an amazing reversal of policy in what many have called Obama's third term due to our appeasement of Iran to this point.
I wouldn't give them credit for a coherent policy guiding them; I think they're down to panic and reaction. The White House wanted to appease Iran, and bribed them accordingly, but there was no appeasement: Iran was already planning the Hamas front, and training the Hamas strike force, to set up an anvil for the hammer-and-anvil move.
The US Navy intercepted nine hours worth of Iranian-paid-for barrages from the Houthi in Yemen; it absorbed 24 attacks from Iranian-backed militias and IDF strikes in Syria (one servicemember reported dead, the others minor injuries and returned-to-duty same day). The military then struck back at Iranian sites in retribution.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/us-military-attacks-two-syrian-facilities-it-says-are-linked-to-iran/ar-AA1iVpCT
We moved two carrier groups, Air Force fighters, and "900 troops" -- some of them missile defense, but some of them not -- in the last little while. And we're not even talking about it: not one of the top stories on the Washington Post today is about the American war we're entering into. The press is all totally distracted with Gaza and domestic politics. Congress isn't debating it or discussing it, and the White House isn't telling them enough to make them aware that they probably ought to be.
I don't doubt that panic is likely the reason for the reversal and also agree that various groups that gained power under Biden have working at cross-purposes. It looks like State along with whatever area Val Jarrett has been able to weasel back into were the forefront of the appease Iran faction, and DoD is doing what it feels necessary to protect our forward deployed troops. Likely somebody is working that combination as away to forestall an Israeli strike on Iran or Iranian assets.
I ain't surprised at all that the elite media aren't talking about this. I remember how the almost daily body counts and broadcasts from Andrews AFB disappeared on 20 January 2008, how Afghanistan became the 'good war', and the deafening silence after the complete botch-up of the Afghan bug-out.
"I ain't surprised at all that the elite media aren't talking about this. I remember how the almost daily body counts and broadcasts from Andrews AFB disappeared on 20 January 2008, how Afghanistan became the 'good war', and the deafening silence after the complete botch-up of the Afghan bug-out."
yes, it was a wonderful verification of what the media was really about- being the propaganda branch of the party.
They will talk when some US town gets 10/7'ed. And then probably blame the maga types.
I wouldn't give them credit for a coherent policy guiding them; I think they're down to panic and reaction.
I take from this that I can't reason my way to answers to my questions - who, where, for what - because there is no reason behind it. Reassuring as to my mental capacity, not so reassuring overall.
I wonder if the US would land troops in Gaza to retrieve the kidnapped hostages (perhaps) and the Americans and other nationals who were in Gaza on 10/7 and are being prevented from leaving (definitely). This would show the Administration is doing something to free trapped Americans and would make it difficult for Israel to continue military action for fear of killing US troops.
As I was thinking about this, my subconscious delivered up "Grenada" and I found this:
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/reagans-grenada-response-lessons-biden-israel-gaza-threat-more-complicated-expert
" (one servicemember reported dead..."
In the interest of precision and accuracy, one US Contractor died.
You must have seen a different report than I did; yours was probably less sloppy journalism.
Still, somebody should say something for the worth of the American contractors. Half of the Americans in Iraq were there that way, because the military wasn’t large enough and lacked important skills it needed. If they died in the service of their country, it was also diminished by their loss.
I also saw the report that it was a contractor who was killed. It bothers me that the report didn't give his (or her) name. He should be acknowledged and remembered.
We need to stay out of this war completely
We are not Israel's piggy bank
We are are bancrupt with a huge national debt
Former Congressman David A. Stockman was Reagan's OMB director has a great piece everyone should read.
Israel really isn't paying for this war, We are. and that is a crock of crap.
..........In truth, Israel has not yet even begun to tighten its own economic belt to pay for the war policy that its militaristic and religious extremist government insists upon. Indeed, the pending US aid package amounts to only 2.5% of Israel’s GDP and comes on the back of Netanyahu’s ceaseless decades-long campaign for a Garrison State national security policy, but one funded on the cheap via a quasi-pacifist defense spending level.
That’s right. Israel’s military expenditures had plunged from more than 20% of GDP at the time of the last existential crisis during the Yom Kippur War of 1973 to just 5% of GDP on the eve of the October 7 attacks. In effect, Netanyahu falsely told Israeli voters that they didn’t have to take the risks and make the territorial concessions implicit in a two-state and diplomatically-based solution to the Palestine problem. But at the same time, they could also avoid having to be taxed to the gills to pay for the alternative—a costly, heavily militarized Garrison State........
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2023/11/david-stockman/uncle-sam-doesnt-have-one-thin-dime-for-joe-bidens-106-billion-war-package/
Greg
Israel has over 200 nukes.
Why are we sending them any money or arms or anything?
We are breaking our own law.
.............The reason for acute sensitivity by the Israel Lobby and its bought-and-paid-for politicians over its nukes is the Symington Amendment in Section 101 of the US Arms Export Control Act of 1976 which bans foreign aid to any country that has nuclear weapons and has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Which means that Israel’s annual $3.8 billion in aid would be in jeopardy if Washington were to enforce its own laws, though one cannot imagine that President Joe Biden or the Attorney General Merrick Garland, both fervent Zionists, will take the necessary steps to do so.........
and when are we going to apply the Leahy Amendment?
I remember reading about the Hospital that was blown up?
......Another sticky bit of law consists of the so-called Leahy Amendments, which prohibit the US Department of State and Department of Defense from providing military assistance to foreign security force units that violate human rights “with impunity.” Israel’s numerous brutal assaults on Gaza, including the current one in which it is targeting hospitals and churches, bombing and killing helpless civilians, half of whom are children, is a textbook case for when the Leahy Amendments should be applied, but, of course, they never will be. That reality illustrates once again the actual political power of the Jewish Lobby in the United States backed up as it is by Christian Zionists like the new Speaker of the House Mike Johnson.............
-Pray for Peace.
Greg
The Gaza Genocide Continues
https://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/the-gaza-genocide-continues/
Grim: I wouldn't give them credit for a coherent policy guiding them; I think they're down to panic and reaction.
Elise: I take from this that I can't reason my way to answers to my questions - who, where, for what - because there is no reason behind it. Reassuring as to my mental capacity, not so reassuring overall.
Yeah, this really feels like a "Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor!?" moment.
On contractors, they put themselves in danger for our country, so I certainly think they deserve both credit and honor.
....On contractors, they put themselves in danger for our country, so I certainly think they deserve both credit and honor.....
No they don't.
Contractors put themselves in danger for MONEY & PROFIT
Contractors deserve both Prison and fines for bribing govt officials.
Beware the Military Estabnlishment
Greg
I've said before that you are welcome to leave if you don't like the company. Let me encourage you even more strongly. In the time you've been here, you've never said a nice or a kind thing about anyone, but have had unmixed venom for whole categories of men and women among whom I have known very good people -- such as veterans, and now the civilians who came to Iraq even though they could have avoided the wars and stayed home.
I dare say you don't measure up to the worst of them. Take your poison and get out. You haven't said one thing worth listening to in the whole time I've known you.
It's not just the contractor whose death and name doesn't seem to be talked about. US citizens died on October 7; it feels like there isn't really a national outcry about that. Similarly, US citizens are being held hostage; ditto. And it's not just Americans. Reportedly the nation that lost the most citizens after Israel in that attack was Thailand. I'm not hearing much about that.
Maybe I'm just too much in one little corner of the Internet and in the wider world people are talking and writing about those deaths and kidnappings. But it feels like a lot is just being ignored. I hope it's just my focus because otherwise it's kind of creepy.
I agree with you, Elise. I’ve read one story about a Palestinian-American stuck in Gaza, and why isn’t the Government doing anything to get her home? Nothing about US citizens killed or held hostage. I’m trying to avoid the conclusion that they’ve been found unworthy of mention in the narrative of the mainstream media.
Perhaps it's that US citizens killed and kidnapped and other non-Israelis killed and kidnapped disrupt the narrative of the Palestinians as good guys. Or perhaps it's a speeded-up news cycle: the victims are already old news. Or perhaps it's an obsessive focus on what it all means for US domestic politics. Or perhaps it's a lack of simple humanity. Or all of the above.
I've thought the same thing, and comments at twitter about this being our worst terrorist attack on Americans since 9/11 haven't got much traction.
I think it's mostly the media's power to drive narrative, and the media running cover for an administration that doesn't know how to deal with a real crisis, and is hoping the Israelis will take care of it while the media make sure Americans don't pay it much attention. No "Day 39" banners on the news to track the *American* hostages this time.
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