“What else is a TARDIS for? I can take you to the Battle of Trafalgar, the First Antigravity Olympics, Caesar crossing the Rubicon, or Ian Dury at the Top Rank, Sheffield, England, Earth, 21st November, 1979. What do you think?” – Dr. Who
What do modern people call socks worn with sandals? Birth control.
History doesn’t always repeat, but it rhymes.
On January 10, 49 B.C., Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon River at the head of his troops. He had been ordered to leave the troops beyond the Rubicon. After crossing the river, it is said he uttered, alea iacta est, or Latin for “I know you are, but what am I,” (Caesar was a big Peewee Herman fan).
Caesar didn’t pay any attention to the order to leave his troops behind, and Legion XIII, Gemina, followed him to Rome. What followed was a four-year civil war that ended up with Julius Caesar taking over the Roman Republic and founding what soon became the Roman Empire. That lasted until the Empire was split in two by a pair of Caesars.
One of the most scrupulous traditions in the United States has been that there are three independent branches of the Fed.Gov: the legislative, the judicial, and the executive. What’s missing? The military. That’s just as intentional as Biden wearing Depends® the day after he eats prunes.
What determines the length of a Biden press conference? Depends.
That’s because the military is unique: the legislature controls funding it and declaring the war it should fight, and the executive is their commander-in-chief. It should be pretty straightforward.
Except: the military went from a citizen-militia type military fairly early on. Even then, it was still pretty lame by today’s standards: it had a core of officers and smallish numbers of troops. The armed forces were expanded during times of war, of course, through citizen volunteers. This lasted until the Civil War became such an unpopular party that you had to force Northerners to come and play because the Southerners were being such meanies.
Sure, the military wasn’t always used just for wars – Congress has authorized use of force 23 times since the end of World War II, and at least once of those times wasn’t related to “scaring up some hot chicks with daddy issues” for Clinton. Declaration of “War” has become out of vogue since war has such nasty connotations. Thankfully people can’t die unless war is declared. I’m surprised the Department of Defense isn’t called the Department of Peace.
I guess both of these guys rubbed women the wrong way.
But, sorta, the idea has still worked out. Congress authorizes the use of force, and the President wages war peace with tanks. What’s missing there is the military deciding what it should be doing. The military is a verb: kill and break stuff. The civilian government provides the noun, which is as simple as the name of a person or nation.
The system has some drawbacks: in my view, it’s much easier to use the military than it should be. I can understand in a world that has grown much smaller due to things like missiles and the Internet why we can’t wait a year to get ready to make war peace with bullets, but that should be our last resort.
This brings us to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
General Mark A. Milley is the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). That particular job is not really as cool as it sounds. The JCS isn’t technically even in the chain of command for war peace with artillery. They have no command authority over combat forces – that goes from the President to the Secretary of Defense to the commanders of the various Unified Combat Commands.
What does the JCS do? The short version is that they’re the Human Resources group for the armed forces where they make diversity policies and pick who gets what job. They also help make sure that “stuff” like food and bullets and goes to the right places. It’s important – but the JCS aren’t fighting wars providing peace with torpedoes.
I’m not saying he’s woke, but his favorite animal is a pander.
This makes me wonder what General Milley was up to when he decided to tell the Chinese that he would let them know if we were going to attack them. Of all the things that a General in the United States Armed Forces should be, promising to our (potential) enemies that he would give them a heads up if the elected Commander In Chief decides that even more vigorous peace with a particular country is required, is . . . not his job. He’s Human Resources, and his job isn’t to set the priorities of the country or conduct diplomacy. His job is to decide what happens if Jeff steals Julia’s salad in the break room fridge.
Yet, here General Milley was, conducting a policy discussion and taking orders from a sworn enemy of the United States: Nancy Pelosi. I kid: Pelosi isn’t completely evil. She only wants the complete destruction of the United States after she retires.
I put Jesus as my lock-screen picture. Now he’s my screen savior.
But here is the danger: Leftists will talk about how wonderful General Milley Cyrus is. He won’t be charged with any crime. He’ll retire from the JCS in 2023, and write a book about how great all of his decisions were. He’ll get hired by a company that makes components that the Chinese will buy to make weapons for their military. He’ll get to fly corporate jets and eat bacon-wrapped shrimp at parties with very fancy people.
That’s (mostly) not dangerous. Unless you have to read the stupid book he’ll write.
What’s dangerous is that it sets the military up as being able to define the noun. They get to do all the killing of people and breaking of stuff, but now they get to pick who they kill and what stuff they break. That’s the dangerous point – the Rubicon.
I’ve warned in the past that I see two possible futures for the United States – a balkanized America. For two decades beyond World War II, the nation was coming together and becoming less regional and more homogeneous. The influence of television gave us another set of shared experiences.
But splits have been engineered, and now even though New York has a McDonalds® and so does Des Moines, the two places aren’t remotely alike in values or even, in many cases, language. A balkanized America is one very real possibility as the polarity of the nation increases.
That’s one possibility.
I never judge a book by its cover. I use that little paragraph on the back.
An American Caesar with a follow-on American Empire is another. Besides being treasonous, Milley’s call with China is scarier: it was an independent act of the military at the highest level to circumvent civilian leadership.
There is no doubt – this is close to crossing the Rubicon. If the allegations are true, Milley should be tried, and if guilty, convicted. As I said above – I think Milley’s insubordination will likely be rewarded and then he’ll be praised like a pet poodle, and he won’t be punished.
Somewhere there is a colonel taking notes, and waiting for an opportunity to strike in the coming unrest, getting ready to cross the Rubicon.
We’ll see if he has the chance.
Here’s what one former Lt. Colonel who is no stranger to controversy had to say. What’s even scarier than the military taking the initiative from civilian control is the generally ambivalent comments many/most civilians responded to his tweet.
https://twitter.com/avindman/status/1437843079294238724?lang=en
A half dozen of the comments on that thread and I have an even lower opinion of humanity than I thought possible. These people really think we were on the verge of nuclear war, not based on any evidence but simply because that is what they were told to think 8 months after the fact.
re — LTC says milley is a douche
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As I glanced through a few of the ‘saved us from nuclear! war!’ comments, my only thought:
* turning peking into a glass desert would solve a lot of niggling problems.
.
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An aside:
Turning peking into a glass desert sometime around 1946 — seven-eight decades ago — would solve a lot of niggling problems.
‘Nip it in the bud’ as they say in LawEnforcement circles.
Twitter makes me want to shower. And not in the good way.
Sadly, the comment from the “vet” about Milley being within his rights per the UCMJ to not follow an illegal order; only speaks to ignorance. Trump didn’t order Milley to do shit, so no order to disobey. Milley was in cahoots with the Gin Soaked Hag to try and usurp CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY vested in the President. There are no reasons, exceptions, becauses, excuses – none. The Constitution is clear, as is the UCMJ. The one and only decision for both traitors now is: firing squad, or rope. To allow either one to ‘skate’ on this, ends in blood…
Holy cow! I’ve never agreed with anything that Leftist toad has said. *That* is how far off course Milley is.
I vote for the Balkan thing. The Caesar one sounds too much like whats already happening.
Yeah. I’m really, really well situatated for balkanization. Caesar? Unpredictable.
The problem with Balkanization is that they already have the Hapsburgs and the Ottomans waiting.
Good point. Where is our Arthur?
Without a basic understanding of history it is hard to comprehend how radical the political shift in America has been. As a relatively astute political observer as a yute in the 70s and 80s I couldn’t imagine a Democrat/liberal person cheering on a general who had gone rogue like this. Those people hated the military. Today the “my body, my choice” people are in the vanguard of demanding people be held down to be injected or summarily shot, and either is fine, and applauding people accused of trespass being held in solitary confinement and without bail. It is remarkable and not in a good way.
For real, Art. Sometimes, I think we’re stuck in some weird, alternate reality that’s not, well…grounded in reality.
The US in the 70’s and 80’s was an industrial age nation with a homogeneous and young White populations who were culturally Protestant for the most part .
Its now much closer to Brazil, somewhere between the nation and the movie.
The culprits were greed , easy divorce and immigration. Season lightly with atomiztion and corruption et viola., Clown World
There was a lot less stratification as well. My dad was a doctor but the people who lived right next to us were working class people. Now where I grew up is priced out of the range of most working class people.
You had a really good post on this one, Arthur. My hat is off.
I enjoy seeing your articles over at Burning Platform.
i should have trademarked ” Soylent Greed ” and ” Hanoi Harris “
I try to send Jim only my very best stuff. I want people over there to look forward to it. I think my next post fits.
Technically the paragraph on the back is still on the cover. You should switch to the inside paragraph. That’s the insider’s information after all.
Doh! I’ve been judging books by their cover THIS WHOLE TIME.
Huh. I’m kinda good at it.
Imagine being the U.S. translator on that phone call (assuming that Milley Vanilli doesn’t habla Chinee)…
MV: “No worries, Xi. I’ll give you a head’s up before the missiles launch.”
Translator: “Uh…you sure about that one, boss?”
Hoist the mofo with his own woke petard.
I’m sure that’s why the translators aren’t armed.
If Milley isn’t prosecuted, most former, and current, military will know higher command is subverted by traitors. Time will tell how this works out, but there’s a huge number of citizens that won’t be kind if they see him on the street.
They’ll never see him on the street. He’ll never be forced to consort with the hoi-polloi again . . .
Ease off, man.
Milley didn’t do anything that wouldn’t normally require him to be court-martialed, convicted, stood up against a wall, and shot.
Which is exactly what would happen in a functional republic.
But we haven’t been one of those since November 2016, so him committing high treason doesn’t matter.
I also wouldn’t get too worked up about his post-retirement career.
He’s going to have to wake up every day for the rest of his life, wondering if Today Is The Day that some patriot walks up to him, and executes sentence on him with a .45 slug in the face at point-blank range. And one day will be that day.
O frabjous day! Callou! Callay!
If he’s alive five months after he retires, it’s probably a Vatican-reportable miracle.
And it would help if they don’t hire the hitmen at the Braille Institute.
True enough. Actions, in this reality, still have consequences. Waiting for them to materialize, I still have issue with.
We need more helicopters, and more telephone poles.
John, you are quite the perfumed prince of the pun, sir!
Thank you! I’ve been working at it for . . . OVER A MILLION WORDS.
I love writing.
“One of the most scrupulous traditions in the United States has been that there are three independent branches of the Fed.Gov: the legislative, the judicial, and the executive”.
” That’s because the military is unique: the legislature controls funding it and declaring the war it should fight, and the executive is their commander-in-chief. It should be pretty straightforward”.
Except two of the three get campaign contributions from the MIC so no difference there. Good write up there.
Thank you again
re — ‘three branches’ nonsense
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Americans have FOUR branches of government:
* exec
* legislative
* judicial
* thinking folk with firearms.
10/10 Marge. In fact, in the United States, that’s the first branch.
Thank you. Love to see your comments showing up.
Caligula wanted to make his favorite horse a consul in the Roman Senate, but he was “liquidated” before he could do it.
In the U.S., high offices are frequently awarded to horses asses.
That’s progress.
Well, a horse could do less damage than AOC. Just sayin’
It’s far more endemic than Milley. The military not being in charge is an historical rarity, almost unheard of. There is a reason why a vast majority of leaders throughout history are pictured in military regalia of some sort.
I’m pretty sure Biden didn’t want the Afghan pullout to go poorly since it might queer his deal with China. The MIC/CIA were horrified at the prospect of all that lost money, and so intentionally sabotaged it, while telling their kept media to push for us to go back to right the wrongs of the pullout.
Trump had a deal w/ the Taliban where we’d only use air support for our own troops and they wouldn’t attack our troops. Some time later we bombed the Taliban in support of Afghan army troops, and the Pentagon announced it was legit because they needed to do it… If you’ve studied history you know this is the time when either heads roll (literally), or the military ends up in control in a short period of time.
We are very close to a cultural and civilizational collapse. It’s not gonna take much.
Immigration by tens of millions of 3d worlders….that’s the most important reason for the disintegration of post-1965 America..
It is significant. Social cohesion depends in large part on shared experience.
Not only is the Republic dead, the people of the US are primed for a dictator, and probably a string of them. They have never known one, for real, and they’ll probably just gaze at one in wide eyed wonder when he appears. A colonel somewhere taking notes? You bet. Maybe not Scheller, or maybe him anyway. Either way, the ice is broken, and I don’t think Cassius (Milley) is long for the JCS, and I don’t think the JCS is long for itself. I see Sniffs as a member of what used to be, fading from every view for just about everything. Oh, when it’s all a complete wreck, they’ll beg for Trump, but the Colonel will see Trump as inconvenient. You know the rest.
The thing is, we need a dictator of our own. We are already living in a dictatorship, so there will be no voting our way out of this. In a decade or 2 the only ethnic group that opposes liberalism in the majority will become a minority. Even in supposedly red states, a significant % of the population (at least 1/4) are dirtbag liberals who will never accept any way but their way. There is no compromising with them, and while we relax after winning the war they’ll just be getting geared up to win the peace. Strict adherence to the Constitution and Robert’s Rules of Order will not get us to where we need to go.
Don’t dismiss Roberts’ Rules of Order! It’s the foundation of small group civic engagement, a process for getting decisions MADE, rather than endless debate to exhaustion. You present your motions, take your votes, and move on. The losers of one vote know that there’s be another. What’s the alternative? Rule by an autocrat (even if only in his own neighborhood)? Rule by concensus (see “endless debate…”)?
Very well said. He is out there. And he is planning. I’m betting at a combat command near Washington . . . .
It won’t be a Colonel, unless it’s a Colonel who’s married to someone who runs Google. What an unholy alliance that would be. More likely to be a senior level google exec who compromats a General who does the visible heavy lifting.
Keep in mind that the business folks thought they controlled Lenin/Stalin/Mao/etc. until they showed that the point of a gun trumped financial power.
Tardis? It never settles down and Doctor World Health Organization loves you and wants to keep you safe, comrade.
Still laughing at the photochop of an updated art of WAR with Milley Vanilli on the faux cover saying give your enemy a heads up before you attack.
You do that for the big WIN in Chiquitastan.
Maybe the best bananastan that money can buy is just too stupid to exist?
Dumbed down to lowest common muh democracy egalitarian cargo cult denominator.
We have met the enemy and he/she is one fat purple haired rainbow stupid azz mofo.
“What the Alchemical managers have bred over a millenia is a human race of the most wretched stupidity and ignorance unrivalled in thousands of years.
These blind slaves are told they are “free” and “highly educated” even as they march behind signs that would cause any medieval peasant to run screaming away from them in panic-stricken terror. The symbols that modern man embraces with the naive trust of an infant would be tantamount to billboards reading, “This way to your death and enslavement.”
Micheal Hoffman II
Well, the purple hair isn’t the brains. There is always someone behind them . . .
They gave away an American base in AFGAG, don’t be surprised when it happens here. All these foreign military age males on American bases here. Who left the back gate open?
Well, they’re already assaulting women and children on the base. Why not just give the base to them?