Bring 'em Home... Bring Them all Home.

Growing up in the 80's surrounded by military neighbors, I learned that Ronald Reagan was a President who wanted a strong America.  He boosted the military budget, he increased our reach in Europe, and most importantly, this show of strength won the Cold War. I learned this from the older male influences in my life.  These men were the fathers of my best friends and classmates.  They were career military men.  Many were veterans of the Vietnam War, some were Korean War veterans. Reagan made the lives better for these men and their families.  Salaries increased, and the outdated Korean and Vietnam War era equipment was replaced.  And spending increased, and spending increased, and spending increased....

No missiles were fired in the triumph over the Soviets during the Cold War.  We just out spent them, and overwhelmed them with displays of advanced technology, which the Soviets could not afford.

Missile defense "had less impact on the industry than many might think," Augustine said. "Although it was a highly publicized and certainly controversial program, in the grand scheme of defense spending it wasn't that large, and much of it was spent on research and development, a relatively smaller part of the defense budget."

The people it really affected were the Soviets, he said. "They were much more convinced we could make it work than many of us were, frankly, and certainly more than much of our media."

The Soviets felt they couldn't keep up with such technology, Augustine said, and came to believe that Reagan would spend more on weapons than they could ever match -- pushing them to effectively surrender in the Cold War. 

 - Norman R. Augustine, former chairman of Lockheed Martin Corp.

My point is this, we beat the Soviets of the 80's by out spending them.  We also didn't have the World Wide Web as we know it today.  It is not as easy to use smoke and mirrors to intimidate a foreign foe, unless they themselves are still on dial-up(See: North Korea).  Everybody is tapping everybody. All the major players have nuclear weapons, The U.S.A., Russia, China, North Korea, India, Pakistan, Israel, Iran, Venezuela, Columbia, and maybe even Mexico. We are currently in a chess match with Russia, long gone is the weakened Soviet empire.  Russia is a proud country led by it's charismatic, ex-KGB agent leader, Vladimir Putin. They also have something that we don't have here in America, nationalistic pride. That nationalistic pride is what may allow Putin to push his supposed agenda to reunite the Soviet Union.

We out spent them before, and we are currently out spending them, but it can't continue like this. We can't continue to sustain the lifestyle we have become accustomed here in America while maintaining our place at the top of the hill.  With the end of the Cold War the power dynamics in the world changed.  Instead of two strong powers threatening to wipe each other off the map, the United States rose to the top of the totem pole of power.  To the victor goes the spoils right? Well, not exactly, we just ended up getting the duties of fulfilling the worlds "to-do" lists. We police the world, and it costs a lot of money to maintain that policing force.

My fear is that an escalation with Russia will lead to another world war.  A fight with Russia is a fight with North Korea, Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan or India(whoever we don't support) and many of the Central and South American nations. We haven't been a good cop over the past 14 years in the eye of the world.  We have a lot of enemies.  The Russians have been patient, and they know we are vulnerable.  We are, and to be honest we have more important problems here at home.

 I think it's time to close up our bases over-seas, and bring all of the troops home, and let the rest of the world figure it out themselves. That's all we can do, because unless we created the government, nobody is asking for our help anymore.

Additional Reading:

How Vulnerable Are U.S. Troops in the Pacific?

Why is Iran Building a Mock U.S. Aircraft Carrier?

Russia Slams Germany For Halting Arms Deal Over Crimea

If Russia Swallows Ukraine the European System is Finished

I added this(3/31/14):

Turkey was trying to make a move on Syria recently.  A few weeks ago they blocked YouTube and Twitter, and it is thought that this leaked audio is the reason.  We set the precedent in 2003, when we went into Iraq to prevent future aggression from Saddam Hussein.  Preemptive action is what is was called.  Our past is coming to haunt us.  All the other countries want their land back.  And are looking for new and inventive ways or excuses to do it.  Unfortunately any action by one of our "allies" could pull us into a war.

VIDEO: leaked-turkish-war-plans-against-syria_news

Republicans: They Can't Control What You Think, But They Can Control The Lies You Hear

Look.  I'm gonna just put it out there.  I am probably a democrat.  I've never voted for a republican in a presidential election, however, if Colin Powell had run, I would have voted for him.  Why am I telling you this.  I'm telling you this because I am most likely biased against the republican party.  I picked a side long ago when I was born into my family.  I come from a long line of democrats.  I was born a democrat just like most people are born Steelers fans, or heaven forbid, Cowboys fans.  That analogy doesn't apply to me because I was born a Baltimore Colts fan, until Robert Irse moved them out of Baltimore and my family became Washington Redskin fans the next day, but I digress.  The democrats have my vote, most of the time.  I don't agree with all of the policies of the party, but I believe they mostly try to work for the greater good as opposed to the republicans that tend to work for big business and the rich.

The biggest problem I have with the republican party and their "agenda" is the constant stream of lies.  Over the past decade and a half the republicans have learned that they don't have to be right, they just have to be repetitive.  In Mike Lux's blog post, "Modern Conservatives: Frightened Falsifying Fools," he gives two glaring examples of how, when in front of the microphone, the leaders of the ultra-conservative wing of the republican party will stick to their guns, and when pressed for the truth, will "turn tail and run away."  Lux brings into focus the stark change in today's republican strategy from the hey-days of the republican party, conservative family-values platform from 1968 to 1998.

Buzzwords dominate the republican lexicon these days.  They even have a special gift of changing the words we use to help change public opinion.  The "poor" are now the "entitled." Which is really f'ed up when you think about it.  The "poor" you feel bad for, and you are a terrible person if you don't want to help. But, the "entitled," you actually can get MAD at.  The "entitled" are taking money out of your wallet, food out of your babies mouth, and they want to kick your dog or cat.

The republican ideology consists of a few salient points.  Lie, then repeat the lie.  And when asked if they are telling a lie, lie again.  Remember what I said earlier, I may be biased.  Calling someone a liar is fighting words, I realize this.  Maybe I want a fight.  Maybe I'm being provoked into a fight.  For, I am one of the victims of these perpetual lies.  I am one of the "entitled." I received and receive government handouts.  I get a grant to go to school.  I'm enrolled in "Obama Care." I was on food stamps once.  The republicans hate people like me, and the lies they tell America about people like me are hurtful, divisive, and it's sparking a class war.  To the republicans a person on unemployment is disincentivized by getting a handout.  It makes them lazy. Their tone on the minimum wage is the same.  When I was laid off in 2010, my take home pay went from $4200 per month to $2200.  With that government assistance, did I put an addition on my house, buy a boat, or start a small business? No, I had a fire-sale on my house, I sold my motorcycle to pay off my bills, I signed up for food stamps, and I moved to Austin, TX.  I moved to Austin because the average cost of a house was $125K less than Northern Virginia at the time, and $2200 a month goes quick with a $1500 rent payment.  I was not disincentivized to work, the second time I was on unemployment in late 2012, I just tried to change my stars.  The bio-tech company I worked for laid off 85% of the company and I was on the streets again.  This time I didn't move, I enrolled in school.  So I supported myself on $900 a month along with some grants, and worked to better my situation.  The help I got during those times of unemployment was money that I paid into the system.  I earned that money.  It was not a handout.  If you call me a mooch, I'll sock you right in the kisser.

Lux's blog post is provocative to republicans.  I can understand why they would take offense to Lux's opinion.  I would go and ask them about it, but I'd just be giving their lies more air time.

Additional Reading: Some of these guys are just assholes... Click for article.

You Are All Wrong, The Internet Told Me So!

 Before the widespread use of the internet we gathered information through traditional means.  The library was a repository of reference materials, books on the subject, and archives of periodicals.  You would use the traditional means of information gather to research the past.  To monitor the present state of affairs, one would rely on a few television news programs, magazine subscriptions, and the choice of many local and national newspapers.  These sources of information were reliable, and you could confidently know who you were getting your news from.  I grew up in a household that received the daily paper, The Washington Post, and I remember the smell of the paper on a hot day.  I have memories of reading the paper until my hands turned blue from the ink.  There is something so intimate about holding the news in your hand.  I also recall the first time I experienced the loss of a favorite journalist.  I always read his editorials first, and I had come to understand some parts of the world through his words, and with his passing, I felt I had lost a teacher.  Journalism used to mean something.  Like a priest gives his life to God, journalist used to give their lives to the pursuit of the truth. Today the competition for advertising revenue has changed media.  It started with cable and satellite TV, but the nail in the coffin was the advancement of the internet in the 80's and 90's. The Internet created too much competition for the traditional media outlets, and their refusal at first to embrace the internet into their business models was their undoing.  With the expanding competition from the internet, the product was watered down, sensationalized, and delivered with less information and more fear and has made us dumber.

A simple Google search on the topic, "does the internet make us dumber?", will show you that there are many opinions on the subject. One of the most challenged theories is one presented by Nicolas Carr, with his article in the Wall Street Journal, "Does The Internet Make You Dumber?" Carr contends that the use of the internet has changed the way we use our brains.  Many of his critics forget this when they argue that the internet gives us more choices, and more content.  I can take you to the finest library in the world, but if you can't read and understand the words on the page it would be useless to you.  This is what Carr contends we are doing to ourselves as we continue to use the internet for information gathering. He cites research from neuroscientist Michael Merzenich, who believes, "our brains are being "massively remodeled" by our ever-intensifying use of the Web and related media." Research shows that power-users of the internet are more distracted, and have a decreased ability to store the information they are exposed to. 

Some will contend that this is a question of how to judge and measure intelligence. In his article in Psychology Today, "Is Technology Making Us Stupid (and Smarter)?", Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Ph.D. explains that the internet with all of it's complexities, actually makes complex problems easier to solve. Tomas says that with the use of the internet we have molded our minds to work like the smartphones and the tablets we use.  We no longer rely on our minds to store the information we seek out, but only to remember where to find it. Our brains are turning from encyclopedias to card-catalog systems(Not many of you will get that).

As a web designer and social media consultant for the past 15 years I have a more expanded knowledge of the internet that most consumers.  When building a website for a client, my services often include ways to code the website that will artificially move that website to the top of the search engines.  Every day Google changes their analytics to make their search engine more efficient, and everyday webmasters change their code to keep up.  Because of my work with website building and search engine optimization, I know that the first returned results from a search are not always there because they deserve to be.  The search engines do not rank the results of a search based on the truthfulness of the source, or the relevance to the subject you are researching.  Instead the pages that pop up first most likely have the most hits on the keyword you were searching, are linked to more websites than other sites, and have added relevant copy to their image tags.  These simple tricks can take a website from page 20 of a Google search to page 2 or 3.  Research shows that many people do not click past the 3rd page of results, so with a little bit of work you can get your website in front of someone.

While the internet opens up the world of information to use at the snap of a finger, we need to be conscious of how it it delivered to us.  The traditional ways were safe, and slow to change.  The internet allows us to read from many sources and digest many different points of view.  It is important to remember that the websites are making money on your clicks, and they may look credible because they were on the first search results page, but that could be artificial.  I believe that the internet can make us as smart or as dumb as we dream to be.

Additional Reading: (Topic:Racism and Media) http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2014/02/27/what-causes-inequality-systemic-and-individual-frames-for-racism-in-media/