Support for Defense Spending Cuts

I came across the following map today as I perused through international and sporting news (interestingly found this link while reading about announcer pairings for upcoming bowl games in an SI article).  Should anyone be surprised that New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, Portland, OR, San Francisco and Los Angeles have the greatest number of people who desire cuts to military spending? I did find it interesting that Maine and Vermont as states were almost completely red (red indicates support for cutting spending in this map), but then again it is really cold in both of those states and they are really near Canada (which I am sure has something to do with everything screwy in this world--a shout out to SS in Ottawa, thanks for sharing with me the level of Canadian support for operations in Afghanistan over the years, makes me rethink a few things about Canadians).  Other pockets supporting cutting military spending center on Boston and Madison, WI (no surprises in either of these cases) and just north and west of Denver (which is surprising but maybe not man, cause we got more important things to do here, like find some munchies man).

(see the map above in greater detail at: http://www.isidewith.com/map/75v/support-for-military-spending)

For my two cents, DoD spending does need to be curtailed.  I do not, however, have a great plan for how to make these cuts without creating economic issues that would negate the positives of cutting the DoD budget.  The question is a tough one but one we need to struggle with as a population.

Waiting to Riot

I will never understand the concept of destroying the property of other people in my own community because of what happened in other communities, the nearest of which is over 2,000 miles away.  So, as I read the reports of looting and destruction in Berkeley, CA where the participants claim they are protesting events in Ferguson, MO and New York, NY, I will remain flummoxed.  I will also not buy any silly argument that if I were not a white male I would better understand the problem--sorry but I have reasons for angst and anger also, maybe not based on racial grouping, but reasons nonetheless, and I have devoted a large portion of my life to understanding political violence based on group dynamics.

For my two cents, if people are looking for an excuse to riot, they will find an excuse to riot.  So, the deeper question is not about what happened in Ferguson or in New York, but why are people waiting for an excuse to riot in Berkeley, CA?  When the demonstrators are even fighting with other demonstrators, supposedly there to demonstrate for the same reason, how are we supposed to view the event other than as people looking for an excuse to riot?  What is happening to the people in Berkeley and the surrounding communities to make young men and women want to riot?  Is what happened in Ferguson and New York what is happening in Berkeley?  Did someone get killed for breaking the law in Berkeley or did someone locally get killed because someone else locally did not like the friends, color, group affiliations they held?  Can I just go back to sleep today and wake up to realize all of these things are a really bad dream and not reality?  

Respect for Barkley

It pains me to say this, mainly because Charles Barkley went to the farm school on the east side of the state, but I feel my respect for Charles Barkley growing after reading this article.  The possibility of rationality warms my heart and my brain.   The media has a vested interest in making everything sensational/tragic/cliff-hanging (you get the point), as they work for competing syndicates each trying to capture listener/readership/viewership shares.  Losing a life was awful for whatever reason, but the media reporting on the losing of a life is often the difference between a rational consideration of why and how the loss of life happened and a knee-jerk reaction.

For my two cents while questions may arise about over zealousness of police officers that we should take seriously, the benefit of the doubt belongs to the police officer.  Very rarely do officers engage in deadly force.  Very rarely do officers actually use physical force of any type.  Officers are trained, better than the average person, how to use force, how to limit the use of force, and how to be situationally aware.  Why are we so willing to overlook that the loss of life in Ferguson began with an officer recognizing a subject of interest in a burglary?  Why are we so willing to castigate the officer who was attacked by a man 80 pounds heavier and several inches larger for use of force?  Because what we heard, read, saw all pointed to an egregious use of force against and unarmed man with his hands up just because of the color of his skin.  Well, now what do we know?

We know now that a grand jury heard testimony, viewed autopsy evidence and other physical evidence that does not support what we heard, read, and saw.  We know now that in the face of evidence contrary to their news service generate opinion, a minority of the population is willing to burn, loot, pillage, and riot.  I am sickened by the whole affair and done considering this mess.  And, I will still give law enforcement the benefit of my doubts.

Feeling Inspired Today

Feeling inspired today as I started reading literature on convergence and panel unit root models.  Gonna use some of this stuff in a paper soon to be presented.  So, here is some music that inspires me as I work on data modeling issues.

Can the LRA Rebound?

Read an article from the AP the other day on Joseph Kony and the LRA selling ivory and minerals to obtain weapons and other supplies.  Kony's 200-300 troops must be the best armed troops in the world or at least the best fed, best housed, something of the sort.  If you are selling ivory and gold at black market prices, you are making bankroll.

Oh wait, Kony's forces are pretty much bottled up in eastern Centeral African Repbulic and the Kafia Kingi district of Sudan.  The only reason the LRA continues to exist at this point, for my two cents, is that the criminal regime of Omar al-Bashir allows the LRA to hide in Kafia Kingi and will not allow Ugandan, CAR, and U.S. forces to cross into the district in the hunt for Kony and the LRA.  My other guess is that the LRA is not that well heeled at the moment because Kony is probably paying al-Bashir for the Sudanese hospitality thus the need to traffic in ivory and gold on the black market.

So, will LRA rebound?  Probably not, instead they will continue to exist in a precarious state until al-Bashir grows tired or finally caves to international pressure.  Either way, Kony and al-Bashir remain fugitives from international justice.  They are thick as thieves as the saying goes, or in this case murdering scum.

Thinking China

Today it is fairly easy to think about and read about events in Asia.  The president is in the Asia-Pacific and the news and entertainment folks follows where he goes.   I call them entertainment because I have a hard time considering Fox News, CNN, HNN, MSNBC, etc. to be news media these days.

This morning I took to ForeignPolicy.com to peruse blogs and reports regarding issues in Asia.  I found three things that I believe need to be briefly commented on in my own blog.  One, Michael Pillsbury makes a well built argument that China and the U.S. are preparing for war.  I wrote my master's thesis on Chinese foreign policy in 1998 and used pieces of that work for conference presentations and to inform a book chapter on Chinese-Philippines relations that I co-authored in 1999.  At that time I was convinced and remain somewhat convinced that China's intent was to have the capability to engage in military actions with any military force in the world (including the U.S. military) by the year 2015.  Chinese purchases of submarines, upgrades to their surface fleet, purchases and development of military aircraft, testing of ASAT capabilities, purchase of an aircraft carrier and development of naval air operations, development of apparent stealth technology aircraft, all point to a military attempting to rival the best in the world.

Two, North Korea has developed cheap, low technology, but efficient UAV capability.  I am not sure if efficient is really a good word here since a few of these UAVs have crashed in South Korea.  But, those crashes are how we know North Korea has developed this capability.  So we do not know if any of these border crossing UAV missions have been successful.  But we do know the capability exists and this knowledge is important and something to cause some degree of apprehension.

Three, David Francis and others are correct about the Obama-Xi handshake deal on climate change will be difficult for either side to really achieve.  Do we really believe that Obama by use of the EPA can really force inducstry, particularly the energy generating industry, to reduce greenhouse emissions by 26-28 percent by 2025?  And honestly, do you really think that this non-binding on U.S. citizens agreement (it is not a U.S. Senate ratified treaty), will be followed through by the next administration.  Great job of grandstanding Obama, ressurect that world image that won you the Nobel Peace Prize for doing nothing.nothing.  And what kind of deal is it that says, ok we'll cut our emissions by 26-28% by 2025 and you promise to do something by 2030.  For my two cents, not a very strong move at all.

Rohingya Flight

I have blogged about the issue of Muslims in Myanmar a few times.  I am continuing to seek out information on this topic and to consider the ethnopolitical issues associated with being non-Buddhist in Myanmar.  In the 1980s through roughly 2010 the situation surrounding Karen population was well documented.  Why is it the case that the situation surrounding the Rohingya population is not as well documented?

I have been told by some that the question is one of religion, that the Karen population is Christian and the Rohingya population is Muslim.  Most of the Karen population is still a combination of Buddhist and animist, though a particularly large pocket of Karen Christians exists in the Irrawady delta region.  So, if the mostly Buddhist population of Myanmar were to take up arms against the Karen, they would be attacking many fellow believers.  The facts show that the government and military attacked the Karen population but the actions against the Karen population did not have a great deal of popular support in Myanmar.  However, religion does appear to be a more mitigating factor in regard to support in the population for attacks on Rohingya.  In dealing with the Rohingya the attacks have been made by the rank and file Buddhists of the population of Myanmar and the government is complicit in that the government does not disuade the populace of making these attacks.

Now, nearly two years after widespread violence against the Rohingya broke out, nearly 100,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar by boat.  Most of those fleeing have gone to Bangladesh, where over 85% of the population is Muslim.  Nearly 150,000 more Rohingya are living in camps still in Myanmar as internally displaced persons, but without any support from the international community as access to the Rohingya is routinely denied by the government of Myanmar.

For my two cents, I don't care if you are Muslim, Animist, Buddhist, Christian, yellow, red, purple with green polkadots, or whatever, you should not be the target of communal violence for existing as a minority population anywhere in the contemporary world.  Governments that support communal violence should be held in contempt and pressured to change their behaviors, not courted as trading partners and political allies--democratic engagement and enlargement may be admirable goals, but does democratic society accept government condoned communal violence as a norm of accepted behavior?