[ExI] Electoral College

[William Flynn Wallace]

I had a student ask for some help from me once.  She was going to her
boyfriend's house over the weekend, and would meet his parents. She was
petrified.

I listened to all sort of problems that could occur - she was going to make
a fool of herself in dozens of ways, and so on.

Finally I said "What you are doing is playing the What If game.  Yes, all
sorts of things might happen, and what it they did?  Well it would be bad,
yes.  But you can imagine many things that could go wrong, and you might go
there anxious that they will happen and the consequences if they do.  And
it's endless.  Completely endless."

You are going to worry yourself needlessly until the visit is over.

So she went back to her dorm and, as she later told me, wrote What If on
her mirror, notebook, wall, door.  She decided that she did not want to
play that game anymore as she was driving herself nuts.

bill w

On Thu, Aug 23, 2018 at 2:54 PM David Lubkin <lubkin at unreasonable.com>
wrote:

> I wrote:
>
> >They are all smart, ethical, honorable people who put their butt on
> >the line and take their oaths of office very seriously.
>
> John Clark replied:
>
> >Most are but some are not, General Flynn was not honorable and
> >General Kelly is not honorable, and those are exactly the sort of
> >military men that Trump seeks out and promotes in his administration.
>
> Flag officers (O-7 and above, i.e., the grades of general or admiral)
> are implicitly political beasts. They are usually all more
> politicians than soldiers.
>
> The ranks that matter for freedom are the field-grade officers, O-4
> to O-6. In the USA, USAF, and USMC, that's major, lieutenant colonel,
> and colonel. In the USN and Coast Guard, that's lieutenant-commander,
> commander, and captain.
>
> They're called field-grade because they are the ones who are actually
> leading in battle, with rare exceptions. The ones who shed the blood.
> You can also recognize them by reading their fruit salad. The
> politician in uniform is festooned with I-was-there ribbons. The
> actual warriors have the ribbons for valor. They tend to be
> troublemakers who aren't politic enough to make BG.
>
> More than the ranks above or below, their fealty to the country and
> the Constitution is our safeguard.
>
> Them, and the senior NCOs, who actually make things happen at an
> ossifer's behest.
>
>
> -- David.
>
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