BITS AND PIECES #16: DERELICTION OF DUTY AND OTHER NONSENSE

Hello my fellow Robservationites! Today I am bringing you the 16th Edition of my “Bits and Pieces.” For all of you who are familiar with this column, you know there comes a time when there is so much going on that I just want to touch base with several stories instead of focusing on just one topic. So, here we go. But first, this is my 158th Robservation. Anyone who knows me realizes that I write a lot about German ace Hans-Joachim Marseille. He shot down 158 airplanes. What does that mean? Well, that tidbit of information along with about 5 dollars will buy you a Grande White Chocolate Mocha at Starbucks. I digress.

1. Getting Old: On Facebook the other day, I posted a couple of thoughts about getting old. I said I was not referring to the creaking of bones and joints but rather, seeing airplanes I once flew being retired and sent to the desert boneyard at Davis-Monthan AFB. Earlier this month, the USAF retired its first AWACS, sending it to an inglorious end to be cannibalized and perhaps turned into 1 billion razor blades.

Back in 2015, NATO sent its first of three AWACS to the boneyard. This aircraft, tail #449 was the AWACS in which I flew my first (1987) and my last (1993) NATO flight. I went online just last night and found several photos of this airplane looking like Marvis Frazier did after one round with Mike Tyson. The cockpit was stripped bare of anything recognizable of the plane I flew almost a lifetime ago. It was sad. What is perhaps even more disappointing is that after writing no less than three letters to the USAF museum at Wright-Patterson, they told me that at the moment, there are no plans to bring an AWACS to the museum and put on display. Can you say, “Unfathomable?” This airplane and thousands of crewmembers from over a dozen nations have flown the AWACS in times of peace and several wars for over 40 years and there seems to be no interest in preserving at least one at the museum of the United States Air Force. I think it is time for me to get some of my old AWACS brothers and sisters to start writing some letters. More to come later.

2. Chinese Balloon – Again: Two months ago, I spent my entire Robservation writing about the Chinese spy balloon. And you guessed it. Since then, a lot more information has come to light. One of the biggest, although not surprising revelations, is that many of our country’s leaders cannot get out of the way of their stupendous lies. At first, we were told that nobody noticed it until it was over the CONUS and of course we found out we knew the moment it crossed into Alaskan airspace. Then we were told that it was too dangerous to shoot down and then someone announced that it was too cold over Alaska to shoot it down. Ask me about ISA temperatures one day. Then we were told that it was just a weather balloon that moved about at the whims of winds at altitude. Now we have been told, what most suspected anyway, that this balloon was able to move itself and did figure 8 patterns over several classified military sites. Then of course we were told that it was not able to collect nor transmit data back to China. Do you remember Frau Farbissina from the Austin Powers movies. “Lies! All lies!”

In an NBC news article, I read where some officials said, “China could have gathered much more intelligence from sensitive sites if not for the administration’s efforts to move around potential targets and obscure the balloon’s ability to pick up their electronic signals by stopping them from broadcasting or emitting signals.” Wow! We are to admire the heroic efforts of the administration? You expect us, after all the lies, to believe no data was sent back to China. But they do qualify their statement by saying the Chinese could have gathered “much more” intelligence data. What in the heck does that really mean? Much more? Lies or at a minimum, a severe deflection of the truth.

In my not-so-humble opinion, this crosses over from stupidity to clear dereliction of duty. This falls on the shoulders of one man: The commander and chief. I know I sound like a broken record but I cannot comprehend what the man was thinking other than the ice cream he was going to get that night. We all saw a clear enemy threat and the man did NOTHING to stop it. “Hey, Rob. They moved stuff around.” Really? Why in the @#$%^&^%$# did they not shoot the %%#^%$ing thing down before it finished its spy mission? Weakness? Fear? Compromised? You name it. A good definition of dereliction of duty is, “failure through negligence or obstinacy to perform one’s legal or moral duty to a reasonable expectation. In other words, it means willful or negligent failure to perform assigned duties or performing them in a culpably inefficient manner.” Yeah, this pretty much sums it up. “But, Rob. Don’t you think that is kind of harsh?” He and his administration allowed a Chinese spy balloon to linger over our country for a week. You tell me. Time for some baby aspirin.

3. Drag Queen Reading Hour: For those of you on Facebook, I am going to let the link below speak for itself. We have all heard about this insane phenomenon in many of our schools where they allow drag queens to come in and read to children. In the clip below, a “man” is sitting in front of a bunch of children, they look to be around 5 so likely in kindergarten. He holds up a book and asks these kids how the drag queen does, “Shimmy, shimmy, shimmy.” Then “he” moves “his” shoulders provocatively and asks if any of the children know how to “shimmy.” One little boy stands up and shimmies his shoulders. Disgusting. Okay, why is this allowed? Well, we all know. There is a hard push for this agenda they are advancing.

I saw this wonderful meme the other day. It said, “Ask not why children shouldn’t see drag queens; ask why drag queens crave an audience of children.” Wise up America. This stuff is real.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/190409340007795 ?fs=e&s=m

4. Chinese Buying Land: I would love to have someone tell me why we are still allowing China to purchase land inside the U.S. Do people not see the problem here? And why are they so interested in purchasing land close to some of military installations? I am sure we all know the answer to this question. But here is the kicker, when I was doing a little bit of research, I found that of all the foreign countries that have purchased land inside the U.S., China ranks only 18th. Wha-what??? In terms of acreage, here are some numbers for you. 109 countries own agricultural land inside the U.S. Check out these numbers: Canada, 12,845,000 acres; the Netherlands, 4,875,000; Italy, 2,703,000; U.K., 2,538,000; Germany, 2,269,000. And the list goes on.

Of course, the question you guys know is coming. Why do we allow any foreign countries to own agricultural land within our borders? I am sure there may be a good reason for it. Okay, I am not sure about that but someone may be able to give a good reason as to why. In some way, I can perhaps understand an Allied country but a potential and likely enemy? No! This has obviously been going on for a while so I am not pinning this solely on the current administration but from where I am sitting, this practice needs to stop. You can possibly lease it and work it but own it? Not in my universe.

5. UN Backs Normalizing Sexual Relations with Minors: Yup. Here it is. Read the following article. http://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/un-backed-legal-recommendations-normalize-sex-minors-critics-say. Our children and children of the world for that matter are under attack. Child predators, sexual slavery, child prostitution, you name it. To most of us, that is about as sick and abhorrent as you can get. For many in the world, it is what they want to become the norm. Just like I wrote several years ago that some found the term “pedophile” offensive and they want to change the term to “minor attracted persons.” Shut up! War is upon us whether we like it or not. Winston Churchill said to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain after he acquiesced to Adolf Hitler’s demands, “You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war.” What are willing to fight for?

Get me outta here, Percy!