Posted on 08/09/2017 10:41:35 AM PDT by Kaslin
The movie “Apocalypse Now” came out in August 1979, it was Francis Ford Coppola’s film on the Vietnam War centered on the mission of Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) to assassinate a US Army Colonel gone rogue, played by Marlon Brando. I was beginning my freshman year of college at the University of Tennessee, and as a student enrolled in ROTC, I went to see the movie. Of course, it took me three viewings to really come to grips with the film and understand it. However, everyone remembers the memorable character, and lines, of Robert Duvall who played an eccentric Air Calvary Squadron Commander who said, “Charlie don’t surf” and “I love the smell of napalm in the morning, it smells like victory”. And yes, that scene with the air cavalry attack against the Viet Cong village coming in over the water while Richard Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries was unforgettable.
But there is a different scene, vignette, from that movie that is the subject of this missive. It was when Captain Willard and his Navy riverine boat escort him to the frontlines on the river, the last American outpost at night. It was there Captain Willard was supposed to link up with an Army officer for an intelligence update. Willard walks into the fighting position and asks a black Soldier manning an M60 machine gun the question, “Who’s in charge here?”, to which the Soldier responds, “ain’t you?”
Imagine if you were to walk into Washington, D.C. right now and ask the same rhetorical question, “Who’s in charge here”? It is the month of August and the US House of Representatives, the US Senate, and the president are all on vacation…or as they refer to it, recess. When I was a kid at Our Lady of Lourdes School in Atlanta, recess was a reward. If you had finished your work and were good in class, then you were able to take a recess after lunch. You could not be denied lunch, but doggone Sister Judith had a policy that teachers could deny recess. You did not get playtime unless you had met the requirements, a lesson that needs to be taught in Washington, D.C.
For those of you who do not know, here is the history of August recess. Washington is literally built on a swamp, no joke. The month of August is notorious for being the most unbearable with searing heat and high humidity, with little flowing breeze. Back in the day when there was not any air conditioning, Congress would recess for the month of August. However, recess also meant that these citizen legislators went back to their normal occupations, since it was never the intent of our Founding Fathers to have “career politicians”, but true representatives, servant leaders. Now, recess has come to mean something completely different, and we do have career politicians.
We are told how important it is for these legislators to be in their districts for the entire month of August. The need to meet with their constituents, I would love to see the town hall meeting schedule for every member of the House and Senate for this month. But, ask yourself, is this recess a reward, a time to decompress from a hard and productive legislative session, or just a taxpayer funded 30 day plus vacation? Only someone suffering from massive delusion would believe the former. That is what frustrated me in my term as a U.S. congressman coming from a career in the military. We did not leave until the job, the mission, was done, and we met the expected standard, if not surpassed it.
I learned in my time in uniform that leadership is the ability of one to take a diverse group of individuals and focus them towards the accomplishment of a singular goal. And so I ask again, “who’s in charge?”
There is no reform of our healthcare system, which we must all admit is collapsing. There is no tax reform plan that will ensure the incredible economic growth we have seen in the past six months will be sustained. We do not have a budget. Show me an everyday citizen and business owner that has the luxury of abdicating the responsibility of having a budget.
Over the past seven to eight years we have had a Republican party that asked to be put in charge. And mind you, I do not ever want the progressive socialists of the Democratic Party to hold the leadership position in the House, Senate, or White House. The left in America fails to grasp a simple maxim, “a free people are not equal, and an equal people are not free”.
What concerns me is that the GOP has achieved that which they asked to attain, via the hard work and efforts of the American people who supported them. Yet, where are they, who’s in charge? Yes, I acknowledge the economic success, growth, we have seen, but we need those two major legislative policy agenda items that were promised by the GOP to their support base. Amazingly, the GOP has members who have betrayed their commitment, promise. Now we learn that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will seek a bipartisan measure to ensure the insurance companies receive a “bailout” in order to reduce the pain of a rate increase. This is nothing more than the implementation of the Obamacare risk corridor, part of that we were told would be repealed.
This means that the GOP failed, and they went home, so the resolution is to just continue with the status quo, business as usual. We were told that the Senate would not recess in August unless they got their work done. Maybe we need to resurrect Sister Judith and her policy when I was in elementary school. There was no doubt in any of our minds who was in charge, it was Sister Judith.
Do I want to see a Chuck Schumer leading the Senate, Nancy Pelosi as House Speaker again, or worse, Maxine Waters, of course not? What I want to see is someone accepting the mantle of leadership and being in charge, fulfilling the commitment made to the American people, and willing to work to that end. I freely admit, if I were still in Congress I would be embarrassed. I also admit that what I am witnessing inspires me to consider a return, the American people deserve better.
Who’s in charge…right now it ain’t the liberty loving American people.
The wild part about that scene at the bridge in Apocalypse Now was that you are seeing it through the eyes of Lance, who was tripping on acid at the time.
The Texas Tribune: Most Texans in Congress not planning in-person town halls over recess
Most members of the Texas congressional delegation will not hold in-person town halls in their districts during the weeklong recess that started Monday, according to a Texas Tribune search of lawmakers' websites and social media.[snip]
Although town halls used to be held regularly by members of Congress across the country, the practice has dwindled since 2009, when constituents angry with President Barack Obama’s proposed health care overhaul protested Democratic town halls. More than seven years later, similar raucous town halls have greeted some Republican members of Congress who have recently held them.
[snip]
This lack of town halls has led to the creation of “empty chair” events across the country, where constituents hold events to express their concerns to their representatives — whether they decide to show up or not. More than 200 people showed up on Sunday to address a cardboard cutout of U.S. Rep. Roger Williams, R-Austin, according to the Austin-American Statesman.
Felicia Miyakawa of Round Rock scheduled a similar town hall meeting for Wednesday after her representative, Carter, failed to schedule his own, according to the Statesman. Carter's office told her that he would not be available to attend.
-PJ
Must be a devout Christian to serve in this squadron.
I never did understand that movie. I do wonder what drugs our “leaders” are on.
When I was at the Advanced course we had a Cav officer who gave us a number of lectures. He started his first with “Calgary is a city in Canada, Calvary is the hill where Christ died, the Cavalry rides over the hill with bugles blowing...”
As I understand it, the movie was a modern remake of Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” with Vietnam Nam as a location and political theme. Both are meant to showcase the ethical, moral, intellectual, and whatever you got in the dynamic tension between civilization and primitive “wilderness”. Where ever you find men, regardless of their background or culture you find similar stresses which are responded to in different yet not dissimilar ways. These dissimilarities provide the “clash of culture” in each case and the solution is always to “become the enemy to understand him” and the motivation to murder is always dehumanizations of the other. Not spectacularly insightful in the modern era but 100 years ago such observations apparently were considered brilliant.
A couple of things to consider here.
In 2009 Obama took office with a huge majority in congress, not with just a handful of seats like Trump did.
Rush wont tell us this but in 2016 elect the GOP LOST seats (they had) in both houses, not gained more.
GWB did get some big things done with barely a majority in his first term. But he did it by running up deficits.
When you can increase spending, cut taxes and start multiple ground wars at the same time its much easier to get things passed.
GWB didn't repeal any entitlements, in fact he added a new one (more deficits ). That's way easier to get passed.
For those who believed campaign promises, maybe this is a well needed lesson.
McConnell does this and I am out. No more GOP for me.
I don’t think that I ever seen the movie. As a matter of fact the title turned me off, that I had no desire to see it.
“I Dropped It!”
“Far Out Man...”
Porklips Now
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ciu-ZxxnVI
Yeh! Got it!
*****
Semper Fidelis (WTF is a Fi?)
Dick G: AMERICAN! (NOT AINO!)
aka: Gunny G
RED: Retired, Extreme, Deplorable!
*********************
Re
When I was at the Advanced course we had a Cav officer who gave us a number of lectures. He started his first with “Calgary is a city in Canada, Calvary is the hill where Christ died, the Cavalry rides over the hill with bugles blowing...”
It was because in the 2006 midterm elections the republican voters; and that included many freepers wanted to teach the GOP a lesson and so they sat the election out, which gave the majority of both houses to the rats and we know how that turned out. I have never forgiven them for that, and I will not forgive them if they do that again, especially since the rats only purpose is to impeach President Trump and remove him from Office
not sure about then but now the naval officer corps is pretty much on viagra
Re Apoco Now - I took a co-worker out to the movie and she took me home first time that happened to me on the job it was the 70s
Trump with Democrat congress would not be pretty and those here who assume (or claim) that he would just veto everything they send him would be quite unpleasantly surprised.
when GWB got a Dem congress look at the bills he signed.
Obamacare needs to spin, crash, and burn on its own. It is important not to get conservative fingerprints on such a loser. You can't make a silk purse out of such a sow's ear, so Congress and the President should just let it fail.
As for taxes, it would probably be a great thing to have a tax cut. But who in his right mind would make that a priority given that the nation continues to suffer deficits, has twenty trillion dollars in debt, and will have to make painful adjustments to Social Security and Medicare no matter what they do.
Government is not the answer to our nation's problems. For the most part, it is the problem. I suggest that Congress limit its sessions to a single month out of each year.
My most memorable part of that scene?
“Go get The Roach, N****ah!
You need a flare?” No... he’s close, man... *real* close.
*BLOOP*
**BOOM**
Mother****er..”
Think “The Roach Approach” might help in dealing with some DC problems?
Parkinson’s law is the adage that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”. Good enough for government work, manana dude.
The critters are busy pressing flesh and faking sincerity back home, trying to make sure they still have jobs next go-around.
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