Tag Archives: Greg

Current Events

Comedic Lives Matter

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Another great article filled with truths about the sick society in which we find ourselves today. Thank you Greg.

By: G. Maresca

 With the recent death of Carl Reiner, some perspective is in order.  The longtime actor, writer, director, and straight man for Mel Brooks believed humor fostered his longevity and his curtain call proved it by enduring two years short of a century.

For decades, Reiner’s witticisms and wisecracks were a perennial favorite that crossed generations.  He was the last regular of “Your Show of Shows” and “Caesar’s Hour” that had no hidden agenda other than obtaining laughs.  The comedians, writers and producers of Reiner’s era possessed intelligence, imagination and talent.

 Today’s comedic monologues, quips and routines have been lost to angry, political diatribes that are more lecture than laughter – Fractured Farley Tales, they ain’t.

 Late night television has devolved into ghastly versions of an agonizing Chris Cuomo and Maureen Dowd where self-righteous, condescension is the standard.

Comedy?

It departed with Johnny Carson.

Even David Letterman in his later years succumbed to spreading the butter of the leftist credo.  Proving that comedy, through political correctness, had become another weapon of leftism.

The entertainment industry promotes leftism and maligns anyone who disagrees.  One’s humor is another’s insult and the left has taken this to the extreme.  Leftists are anything but funny because their partisan snark and loathing is dispiriting and adds nothing to the conversation.

Once upon a time in America, we didn’t know the personal politics of Carson, Jack Parr, Bob Hope or Carl Reiner, nor did we really care.  Comics were not intimidated by anyone or anything and every person, place and thing was fair game and everyone was in on the jokes.

Today, any political satire from the conservative or libertarian side of the house that fails to meet leftist orthodoxy is deemed hateful.  You are “racist” if you joke about Barack Obama, a “homophobe” if you poke fun at gays, “transphobic” if you do an impression of PA Secretary of Health Dr. Levine, and “sexist” if you are not on board with the platoon of fuming feminists who populate The View.

Since the time of the ancient Greeks, free societies have used political satire as a means for introspection, while at the same time keeping government in check. Autonomous and unconstrained comedic talent has the trifecta capacity to make one laugh, contemplate and think about an issue(s).

The problem with today’s political satire is not that it derides and ridicules. Rather, our politically correct epoch has rendered it archaic and vain.  Lost is our collective sense of humor and the unrestricted resolve to actually be amused and enjoy a good laugh.

When things are difficult and challenging, we find the humor in it not because it will change the situation, but because it can help alleviate how we feel about it. Jokes are rarely singular in meaning as there is always an undefined nuance to every quip.

With the ability to laugh and make fun of ourselves lost, everyone loses.  Few, if any of the old great comedians, would exist today.  Plenty of comics, even those who are non-ideological make it a point to avoid college campuses, with their interrogational and hypercritical environment.

“We have become stupidly politically correct, which is the death of comedy,” Mel Brooks said in 2017.  This lack of humor is a legacy of the leftist orthodoxy that is sweeping the country.

In leftism’s utopia, nothing would be allowed to be funny unless they declared it so.  Think of the comedy talents of Yakov Smirnoff, or the minions leading North Korea.

Is this what we need, or worse, want?

Perhaps the joke is on us on how we used to laugh.

Psychologists tell us that possessing a sense of humor does indeed matter.  Sigmund Freud believed there was no better human interaction than two people laughing at the same joke.

Popular culture was once defined by its willingness to challenge, enlighten and awaken.  Artists, musicians, comedians and writers enriched us by delivering specific slights to the sensibilities of those who were cultural avatars and lawmakers.  Today’s performers mostly fall over each other to demonstrate how much they are “woke” with leftist bona fides.

They may believe to be woke, but in reality, they are on life support.

And we are all poorer because of it.

Amen!

Originally posted 2020-08-15 10:42:55.

Current Events

Four Months To Go

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27 reasons and counting

By: G. Maresca

 

As the lead-in to the November midterms gears up, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi thought it wise to delay passing legislation that would provide additional security for Supreme Court justices and their families saying, “nobody’s in danger.” This was after a gunman showed up in the middle of the night at Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home. For the first time a justice on the Supreme Court faced an attempted assassination.

Nor was it enough that the pro-abortion group “Ruth Sent Us” tweeted they are watching Kavanaugh’s wife and children, along with Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s home and where her children attend school. Leftists support a woman’s right to decide, unless that woman is Amy Coney Barrett.

The Democrat’s version of job creation is selling maps to the homes of conservative Supreme Court Justices. Notice how no one has attempted to kill or in the middle of the night yell obscenities at the homes of those justices who identify with the left.

In Pelosi’s America, parents’ confronting local school boards results in domestic terrorism investigations, while harassing and intimidating justices at their homes is applauded. Perhaps Pelosi was too consumed with Gay Pride month as she surfaced at “Ru Paul’s Drag Race” saying, “This is what America is all about.”

Pelosi should do the honorable thing and resign for subjecting these justices to threats of violence and hinting that she would not mind attending a funeral for a justice, so Biden could nominate a new one.

The 82-year-old Pelosi is simply shameless.

The bipartisan legislation finally passed 396-27 and parallels the protections offered for senior members of Congress. Twenty-seven Democrats voted against such an essential security measure. Since they swore to uphold and defend the Constitution and in the hallowed name of equity, these infamous 27 need to relinquish their protection and be removed from their committee assignments because they cannot be impeached.

The bulk of the 27 hail from New Jersey and New York and yet they wonder why their states are losing seats in Congress. The notorious 27 underscore how the demarcation lines are shaping up for the fast-approaching November midterm election. They should be routed out of office but that remains to be seen.

There is simply no rational reason to vote against such a bill other than wishing harm on others. But what did you expect when Democrats failed to censure Sen. Chuck Schumer who blatantly threatened Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh on the steps of the Supreme Court saying, “You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”

Where is the Department of Justice investigation of Schumer? Here is a sitting senator threatening Supreme Court justices, while President Biden is MIA. This is extreme even for Democrats.

Threats to our constitutional system are of no consequence provided it does not coincide with leftist dogma. Whatever happened to civil discourse and common sense? Many need to do some deep soul searching.

From urban anarchy to ignoring death threats, the chasm between extreme and moderate Democrats provided there are any left within the party, are an endangered species. Conservative justices are not the only ones threatened – just rally against leftist dogma and you will incur their wrath. Rioting, protests, and looting will not win over the majority who are worn-out from these narcissistic hypocrites.

Taking a knee in prayer is bad, while taking a knee in protest of the national anthem is good. School choice is unhealthy, and abortion is healthcare. Such noxious behavior underscores how far we have fallen from comprehending what is necessary for a sustainable and free society.

Anything the left perceives as disorder from the right is condemned, prosecuted, pilloried in the media and weaponized against conservatives; whereas any lawlessness from the left is ignored, unprosecuted, whitewashed by the media, and tacitly endorsed by Democrats.

Until the rule of law is stripped of its partisan underpinnings, this is not going to get any better.

As the demarcation lines are being drawn in the religious, cultural, and political arena leading up to the critical November midterms, a thorough empirical examination of the issues will be appraised in this space.

With all the news always going in the direction that the Dims want, let me ask you a question. How are your 401Ks and IRAs doing?  As of the market this a.m., my combined IRAs have lost 19.12% in the last 12 months, and 25.28% YTD. And I have good stocks, which I feel certain will eventually rebound. That is as soon as we get an administration that has a clue what they are doing. What was that saying “It’s the economy stupid.” November looms gang, get ready and be damn sure you vote!!!

BTW, do you know where the Strategic Oil Reserves went to and where they are going now, which was stated by Joey to lower our gas prices? Well they went and are still going overseas. Can someone please explain to me how that is supposed to lower our fuel prices? You don’t need to be an Economist to answer that question.

Current Events, Recent Posts

Task & Purpose

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Greg Newbold is one of the smartest, most professional Marines with whom I ever had the pleasure of serving. We were Captains together in the Ninth Marines at Camp Schwab, Okinawa 1977-78. Even among us captains, we all had a sense that Greg was destined  to become a flag officer.
Captains Tad Curtis and Greg Newbold outside the BOQs, Camp Schwab, Okinawa,  1977. Tad was my suite mate.

Knowing him as I do, it comes as no surprise that Greg has been one of the few flag officers of any branch who have come out against the travesty besetting our military today.  He never was one to mince words, and no one could exchange verbiage with him. I remember a story going around from  years ago about, a “word war” ensuing between Greg and his boss. As I recall, Greg was two-star  and at a press conference he used the word eviscerate. Later his boss, a pompous Air Force three-star “tried” to make fun of Greg by saying he didn’t know Marines were smart enough to use such big words like eviscerate. Greg started using words at press conferences that the news reporters didn’t know their meaning. The three-star lost the war.

Greg does a great job of laying it out in simple terms for everyone to read and “hopefully” understand. Of course the arrogant, know-it-all, Woke generals of today in every branch, including our current CMC,  aren’t smart enough to truly understand about which Greg is speaking. Sad. None of them could hold a candle to this Officer of Marines. Read and be informed by someone who has been there , done that!

From “Task & Purpose”

BY  | PUBLISHED FEB 10, 2022 9:03 AM

Many Americans, particularly our most senior politicians and military leaders, seem to have developed a form of dementia when it comes to warfare. The result is confusion or denial about the essential ingredients of a competent military force, and the costs of major power conflict. The memory loss is largely irrespective of political bent because all too many are seduced by a Hollywood-infused sense of antiseptic warfare and push-button solutions, while forgotten are the one million casualties of the Battle of the Somme in World War I, or the almost two million in the Battle of Stalingrad in World War II.

This “warfare dementia” is a dangerous and potentially catastrophic malady, because the price for it could alter the success of the American experiment and most assuredly will be paid in blood. The condition is exacerbated and enabled when the most senior military leaders — those who ought to know better — defer to the idealistic judgments of those whose credentials are either nonexistent or formed entirely by ideology.

The purpose of this essay is to explain the fundamental tenets of a military that will either deter potential enemies or decisively win the nation’s wars, thereby preserving our way of life. What follows are the tenets of Critical Military Theory:

1. The U.S. military has two main purposes — to deter our enemies from engaging us in warfare, and if that fails, to defeat them in combat. Deterrence is only possible if the opposing force believes it will be defeated. Respect is not good enough; fear and certainty are required.

  • Relevant Wisdom: “If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known that we are at all times ready for War.” George Washington.

2. To be true to its purpose, the U.S. military cannot be a mirror image of the society it serves. Values that are admirable in civilian society — sensitivity, individuality, compassion, and tolerance for the less capable — are often antithetical to the traits that deter a potential enemy and win the wars that must be fought: Conformity, discipline, unity.

Direct ground combat, of the type we must be prepared to fight, is only waged competently when actions are instinctive, almost irrationally disciplined, and wholly sacrificial when required. Consensus building, deference, and (frankly) softness have their place in polite society, but nothing about intense ground combat is polite — it is often sub-humanly coarse.

  • Relevant Wisdom: “We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to do violence on those who would harm us.” Attributed to George Orwell, possibly originally from Richard Grenier.

3. There is only one overriding standard for military capability: lethality. Those officeholders who dilute this core truth with civil society’s often appropriate priorities (diversity, gender focus, etc.) undermine the military’s chances of success in combat. Reduced chances for success mean more casualties, which makes defeat more likely. Combat is the harshest meritocracy that exists, and nothing but ruthless adherence to this principle contributes to deterrence and combat effectiveness.

  • Relevant Wisdom: “I shall see no officer under my command is debarred….from attending to his first duty, which is and always has been to train the private men under his command that they may without question beat any force opposed to them in the field.” The Duke of Wellington

4. A military should not be designed to win but to overwhelm. In baseball, you win if your total score is one run better than your opponent’s. In war, narrow victories incur what we call “the butcher’s bill.”

  • Relevant Wisdom: “But these things do not belong to war itself; they are only given conditions; and to introduce into the philosophy of war itself a principle of moderation would be an absurdity.” Carl Von Clausewitz.

5. Wars must be waged only with stone-cold pragmatism, not idealism, and fought only when critical national interests are at stake. Hopes for changing cultures to fit our model are both elitist and naive. The failures of our campaigns in Iraq and especially in Afghanistan confirm this.

  • Relevant Wisdom. “They enjoy playing poker with someone else’s chips.” B.V. Taylor

6. A military force’s greatest strengths are cohesion and discipline. Individuality or group identity is corrosive and a centrifugal force. Indeed, the military wears uniforms because uniformity is essential. The tenets of Critical Race Theory – a cross-disciplinary intellectual and social movement that seeks to examine the intersection of race and law in the United States, but which has the unfortunate effect of dividing people along racial lines – undermine our military’s unity and diminish our warfighting capabilities.

Recruit training teaches close order drill and the manual of arms (drill with weapons) not because they still have relevance to maneuvers on the field of battle, but because they instill a sense of how conformity creates efficiency and superior group results. Upon a firm foundation of cohesion, imaginative leaders can spark initiative and innovation. But when we highlight differences or group identity, we undermine cohesion and morale. Failure results.

  • Relevant Wisdom: “Four brave men who do not know each other will not dare to attack a lion. Four less brave, but knowing each other well, sure of their reliability and consequently of mutual aid, will attack resolutely. There is the science of the organization of armies in a nutshell.” Colonel Ardant du Picq.

7. “The enemy gets a vote.” An objective lens for military theory is how the nation’s foes regard our martial ethos; after all, that is what constitutes deterrence…or lack of it. Ferocity, not sensitivity, prevails.

  • Relevant Wisdom: “We will not fight them. They are not normal. When we shoot at them, they run towards us. If we fight them, we die. They are worse than the sons of Satan.” Taliban radio intercept after engaging U.S. forces.

8. Infantry and special operations forces are different. The mission of those who engage in direct ground combat is manifestly distinct, and their standards and requirements must be as well. Not necessarily better, but different. For direct ground combat units, only the highest levels of discipline, fitness, cohesion, esprit, and just plain grit are acceptable. Insist on making their conditions and standards conform to other military communities, and you weaken the temper of steel in these modern-day Spartans.

  • Relevant Wisdom: “It is fatal to enter a war without the will to win it.” General Douglas MacArthur.

9. Those who enlist in our military swear an oath to carry out dangerous, sometimes fatal duties. We call it “being in the service,” because it’s service to others….selfless sacrifices when the other option was often more comfort, freedom, individuality, and higher pay. Those who occupy the most senior ranks of the military must repay this selflessness with courage that is even rarer — moral courage. Civilian control of the military is indisputable, but its corollary is the ordinary principle that advice is sought, offered, and seriously considered before crucial decisions are made. My personal experience provides examples — the willful exclusion of military judgments in the build-up to the Iraq War with the attendant consequence that the invasion force was too shallow (thereby creating a vacuum which the insurgents quickly filled), and the decision to disband the Iraqi Army (the single most unifying institution in that country) after the collapse of the Baathist regime. A more recent example worth considering involves the Afghanistan withdrawal.

  • Relevant Wisdom: “There’s a great deal of talk about loyalty from the bottom to the top.  Loyalty from the top down is even more necessary and is much less prevalent.” General George S. Patton.

So what’s the problem? The problem today is one of both priorities and standards. We signal a dangerous shift in priorities (as just one example) when global warming, not preparedness to defeat aggressive global competitors, is considered the greatest problem for the Department of Defense and headquarters and rank inflation blossom out of control to the point that the support element greatly diminishes the ground combat element that wins wars. A problem of standards when every service and the Special Operations community dilute requirements based purely on merit in favor of predetermined outcomes to favor social engineering goals, and when new training requirements crowd out expectations and measurements of combat performance.

This principle is the most clearly and frequently violated in our current military environment. Although the examples are many, the most egregious sidestepping of scientific evidence occurred when the U.S. Marine Corps’ lengthy examination of the effects of integrated (coed) ground combat performance was refuted and ignored (often by those who hadn’t read it). This brings to mind the verbiage used in another context: “inconvenient truths.”

The critical tasks outlined above may omit some essentials, but these serve as a starter and perhaps as a wake-up call. We have witnessed extraordinary and sacrificial service by our Armed Forces — too good to squander by confusing our military’s purpose with those of individuals who don’t pay in blood for their errors. And too good for a foe to misjudge our intrinsic toughness. In any case, these are not Critical Military Theories; these are Critical Military Facts.

Greg Newbold is a retired Marine Corps Lieutenant General who commanded at every level from platoon to division.  His last assignment was as Director of Operations for the Joint Staff in the Pentagon. In retirement, he operated a science and technology think tank, and co-founded a private equity firm and consulting group. He has been a director on a dozen non-profit and for profit companies.

Current Events

A Tribute

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Another time for a respite, away from the sad commentaries and news of the destruction of our once great Nation. I received the below from Greg, a brother Marine and constant contributor to this blog. Thank you and God bless you Greg! What a beautiful tribute to one of our brothers who is now guarding the streets.

Enjoy and have a great weekend everybody.

Another Marine reporting

By: G. Maresca

 

Robert Jasinski, better known to his old platoon mates as Jazz, loved God, his family, the nation he so faithfully served and the eagle, globe, and anchor he proudly earned so long ago. To Jazz, the Marine Corps’ motto of Semper Fidelis – always faithful – was not just some benevolent military proverb, but a way of life.

Once we reconnected after a nearly 20-year hiatus, we would see each other by attending the annual Army/Navy game. Being the most prestigious rivalry game of college football that there is, the best and most anticipated part of the day for me was always seeing my old friend and once again breaking bread with him. For a brief few hours we got to feel like young men again, Marines, surrounded by all this pomp and tradition wrapped in this timeless venue that seemed more like a giftwrapped time machine for two aging veterans.

The last time we were together, he told me he still had that voicemail I had left years before when we reconnected.  At first, I thought he was kidding, but in retrospect it made perfect sense. In our last communication on his 60th birthday less than a month ago, he reminisced writing: “It has been a wonderful 60 years!  I think of all I’ve learned and the places I have been to. But nothing ever comes closer to being home with family. I miss my parents especially, but I know they are with me.  I dream of yesterday, of my time in the Corps.  We have had so many great examples of such good people in our lives.  I cannot forget to always reflect upon that, as I am sure you do also.”

It was poetic as it was prophetic.

I can see him arriving at the Pearly Gates commiserating with St. Peter about how another Marine was reporting-in, while giving Our Lord’s lead apostle an earful of intercessory prayer and then finally requesting mast for the well-being of his family and the nation he so dearly loved and served faithfully.

Robert Jasinski is on familiar turf once again back on point watching and waiting for the rest of us. I will miss him but take solace knowing he remains in good company until we meet again.

Godspeed, my brother, requiesce in pace.

 

Current Events

A Solid Right “Cross”

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I am going to ignore all the Biden FUPAH’S over the past few days because I choose to not report any more of that buffoons’ antics. I’m sure your internet is full, as is mine, of all his missteps. He’s simply lost in the world of euphorbia as he “thinks” he is the leader of the free world. Ha! That in itself is a joke; how can a puppet be a leader when it can’t move its own mouth?

Anyway, another good one from Greg takes priority over puppets.

By: G. Maresca

The brief video of Byron Cross speaking against a proposed transgender elementary school policy last month at a Loudoun County, Virginia school board public hearing was a shot over the leftist bow.

The proposed policy: “Staff shall allow gender-expansive or transgender students to use their chosen name and gender pronouns that reflect their gender identity without any substantiating evidence, regardless of the name and gender recorded in the student’s permanent educational record.”

Cross, a physical education teacher in the Loudoun school district stated: “It is not my intention to hurt anyone, but there are certain truths we must face when ready,” he continued. “I love all of my students, but I will never lie to them regardless of the consequences. I’m a teacher, but I serve God first, and I will not affirm that a biological boy can be a girl and vice versa because it’s against my religion, it’s lying to a child, it’s abuse to a child, and it’s sinning against our God.”

Natural law and biology are on Cross’s side. Various white paper studies say 75 to 90% of children struggling with gender dysphoria return to their natural gender by puberty. Moreover, it is the adults who support their dysphoria that are another hurdle for the child to revert back to their true gender.

What the left fails to understand is that resistance to the transgender movement is not about hate or phobia, it is about getting help for those in need. Much of this undertaking is indoctrination rather than dysphoria. America is a center-right nation, not the leftist daydreams of AOC and the squad.

Common sense, where art thou?

For speaking out as a private citizen the school district suspended Cross. It was their way of demonstrating to other teachers what will happen provided they dare question future board proposals. This is what now happens in the land of the free and the home of the brave when one courageously possesses the honesty and humility to cross the woke cancel culture.

Fear and intimidation are useful tools to silence those who disagree. Make no mistake our very freedoms lie in the balance. Such tyrannical behavior by publicly elected officials should result in their immediate recall. Anyone involved in Cross’s suspension has no place in office as they do not respect or value the 1st Amendment.

Leftist ideology cannot exist in truth because it is a lie. Throughout history, it has led to ample agony, anguish and death. Once upon a time in America, the national media worked to expose the left’s lies.

Today, they are willing participants.

 A Virginia court rightfully reinstated Cross who spoke as a private citizen making his suspension unconstitutional. The Alliance Defending Freedom, who represented Cross, saluted the decision: “Educators are just like everybody else – they have ideas and opinions that they should be free to express.”

Despite the outcome, the obvious threat to those who resist remains clear.

President Biden omitted recalling the incredible bravery exhibited on the anniversary of D-Day this past June 6th, but he didn’t forget transgenders saying: “To transgender Americans across the country — especially the young people who are so brave — I want you to know your President has your back.”

The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro juxtaposed the stark difference saying: “Bravery circa 1944: young men charging from the choppy seas of the English Channel onto the corpse-strewn beaches of Normandy, hellfire raining down upon them, to liberate a continent. Bravery circa 2021: young men identifying as women, and vice versa.”

It was encouraging to see a God-fearing man like Cross stand up for truth and common decency, while entrenched in the belly of the beast. Cross refuses to surrender public education to the left. Hope is alive and can be found among fearless Christian conservatives who speak up and take a stand.

One stands up and then the next and it builds.

Pendulums always swing back.

But just how far remains to be seen.

Irish philosopher Edmund Burke said nobody made a greater mistake than doing nothing because they could do only a little. If we all do what we can, we can restore our nation where mutual courtesy, shared decency, and common sense become common once again.

Well, there you have it folks as far as the swamp goes for the day. I’m sure there’s more, but there is always so much I just cannot force myself to fill the pages. Thank goodness, someone had common sense and reinstated him; bet that relationship is going well. I would love to be in his shoes. Ha!