When I worked with law enforcement, there were eight or ten years when many of the recruits were former military personnel, most of whom had served as military police or infantry in the Middle East. These were excellent recruiting classes with high graduation rates and the result was many good cops.
Towards the end of my career, the wars slowed down and the number of veterans joining the police force dropped off. As a result, qualified recruits were harder to come by. (This was before the defund the police movement. I expect recruiting is even more difficult now.) Not only did local agencies we have to pay bonuses and recruit people from out-of-state, the quality of recruits dropped and the percentage who graduated from the academy sunk to about 50 percent, with more failing to make the grade during their first six months in the field with their training officer.
I remember one case where a kid dropped out in the first hour because one of the training officers yelled at him. Apparently, he had never been yelled at before. (One can only assume he never played football or another sport with a coach.)
When I look at who Trump is picking for important positions in his administration, I am pleased to see many of them have military backgrounds, including former special forces personnel. Yeah, I know these aren’t police jobs, but I believe military experience will serve them as well in this kind of public service as it did when former soldiers hit the streets as part of the thin blue line. In my experience, most former military personnel, especially those who signed up immediately following 9/11, are good, patriotic people. We could use more folks like that in the government.
Impressive Choices
I am impressed by some of Trump’s early picks for cabinet and other leadership positions in the administration. I am also impressed by how he maintains control of the news flow by announcing one or two per day. This keeps his progress top-of-mind, and it gives the outgoing administration little opportunity to seize the initiative.
By announcing new heads of critical agencies like the EPA, Trump is firing a shot across the bow of the agency and its leadership. In one 24-hour period, I saw news coverage stating:
- More than 600 people working for the National Institutes of Health will be fired on day one.
- FBI Director Christopher Ray is planning to resign before Trump can fire him. Many DOJ employees feel the same way.
- That Trump expects generals who had anything to do with the botched Afghanistan withdrawal to resign before Inauguration Day.
- Deportation of illegal immigrants will start immediately, and Trump has appointed a hardliner as his “border czar.”
Not only does this news reassure voters that Trump is addressing many of the issues they felt were important, it causes reactions like that of Director Wray. When people know they are not wanted, those with a little self-respect will resign rather than forcing someone to drag them from the room, kicking and screaming. Likewise, some people in the country illegally are likely to leave on their own terms, and everyone who “self-deports” is one less the government has to deport.
It’s a basic psychological ploy: tell people what the consequences will be if they don’t take a certain action and a portion will take that action rather than face the consequences. Start applying the consequence to some who did not act, and others who did not act will hurry to do so before they suffer similar consequences.
Whiners and Crybabies
One thing I learned dealing with emergency and crisis response is one of the first things you have to do is accept the reality of the scenario you face. When you pull up on the scene and you see scattered bodies, you can’t stop to mourn or be sick; you have to do your job. You have to accept reality and deal with what is, not what you wish it was, not what it has been until now, but whatever reality faces you at that moment.
About 52 percent of the voting public is happy with the new reality, but of the remaining 48 percent, a minority seem to want to wail and gnash their teeth rather than accept the new reality. They lash out at others, including their own allies, tilting with windmills and pointing fingers rather than accepting that they were part of the problem. We see this in the mainstream media and in the random posts on TikTok and X of people wallowing in the loss, pounding on their steering wheels, and throwing fits.
When an NFL player tears up after losing the Superbowl, I can understand because they played in the game and it meant something to them. I don’t understand why a TV anchor, talking head, or late night host tears up because someone else lost an election. You are a bystander, not a participant. Get over it. Accept reality. Move on.
I can say with confidence that the whiners and crybabies are unlikely to includes those who saw combat. In fact, Tim Walz’s best moment of the campaign might have been his concession speech. Unlike many, he handled losing the election like an adult. (While he never saw combat, he had extensive military experience.)
Wokeness is a Weakness
The extreme over-reactions by panicked people are an outgrowth of the soft unrealistic world in which kids are coddled and allowed to have tantrums instead of firm discipline. The result is there are too many, especially in younger generations, who have never lost, never been told they were wrong, never suffered the consequences for their actions. Here is a news flash for them: at some point, stomping your feet no longer makes things magically go your way.
I can only think this crybaby behavior is a consequence of having youth sports where they don’t keep score so no one loses and everyone gets a participation trophy. Anyone who has played sports where someone wins and someone else loses knows that after a loss you get back up, dust yourself off, shake the other guy’s or gal’s hand, say “good game,” and then go back to the drawing board to refine your game because you want to do what the coach says and “get them next time.”
The crybabies one social media are the people who will be among the early dead in a national disaster. When you and I will dig out, find water, help our neighbors, or do something else useful, these losers will sit in a pile of empty Dorito bags and complains that no one is rescuing them. Their lack of ability to accept reality and perform in a crisis will cause their death. They will be seen as an easy victim who may have more Doritos and someone will beat them or shoot them for the fun of it.
Flexible and Adaptable
Preppers need to be flexible, adaptable, and able to the respond to the unexpected as the situation changes. If you are a prepper who voted for Harris, it’s time to put that behind you and move on. Focus on prepping, not politics.
In a survival situation, you should cry and mourn the way things were only when the situation has stabilized and you are safe and warm. To do so during a crisis is an inappropriate response that will help no one. If someone on your team displays that kind of inappropriate response to a life-threatening situation, which therefore threatens the group, I say fall back on the old standard: slap them, tell them to snap out of it, and give them a task on which to focus.
That’s what the smart Democrats need to do to the crybabies, but I question whether there are any adults left in the room to do so.
