Additionally, a college thesis from the University of Edenborough (PDF) deals with the specific period of time with relation to the then nascent Red Army.
[ColonelCassad] Real combat strength of the Red Army, Red Guards and Red partisans by May 28, 1918.
This is about the question of the balance of forces at the time of the speech of the Czechoslovak corps.
It is often forgotten that the Red Army was originally formed on a voluntary basis. At the same time, the process of demobilization of the old army was going on. Many red detachments were created spontaneously. Sometimes this is deliberately forgotten and they operate with cosmic numbers.
By the time the Czechoslovaks spoke out, the situation was as follows:
- the payroll strength of the Red Army on May 20, 1918 (with sick, wounded, non-combatants, etc.) - 263,000 people;
- in the semi-spontaneous Red Guard detachments, scattered throughout the country and often without communication with each other - 37,950 people (this includes the first internationalists);
- in the red partisan detachments there are approximately (well, very approximately) 54,000 people. The figure is given for July 1918 and in May it was, for obvious reasons, much different and downward;
- 25,000 people in food detachments and in prototypes of CHON.
Total: 380,730 people. The figure is given without taking into account the veil detachments on the demarcation line with the Germans.
A lot of? Even if we imagine them all as combat androids (forgetting about non-combatants, reserves, sick, wounded, in training, etc., etc.), then having spread all this number across the map, we get not very large groups on all fronts (in Full growth is taking place near Orenburg, in the South, in the North, Ukraine, and the Far East).
What did this figure represent in real life:
- we are taking away the food detachments and CHON - their business is in the rear;
- out of 355,000 fighters, 185,386 people are armed;
- out of 185,386 people are trained or have combat experience - 49,068 people;
- out of the same 185,386 people ready to go to the front (organized, reliable, not decayed, not sick or wounded, armed, trained, staffed with command staff, supplied with food and fodder, dressed and wearing shoes) - 17,039 fighters.
N.I. Shatagin. Organization and construction of the Soviet army in 1918-1920. Ed. Ministry of Defense of the USSR, M., 1954, p. 63. Provides a link to TsGAKA (RGVA), f.3, op.6, d.15, l.137-139, f.4, op.2, d.34, l.141,143.
(c) Grigory Tsidenkov
The mobilization measures that followed during the civil war surpassed the parallel efforts of the White Guards and made it possible to gain a decisive advantage in numbers by the middle and end of the war, although this was not the only factor that determined the victory of the Red Army.
[NYP] The Global Day of Jihad didn’t live up to its apocalyptic promise Friday.
But if it had, it’s doubtful that the FBI would have been much use, seeing it’s so distracted with an exaggerated domestic terrorism crisis in which conservatives are the bad guys and the Jan. 6 Capitol riot was a terrorist attack worse than 9/11.
This is the "ultra-MAGA-semi-fascist" threat Joe Biden likes to rail against and that he needs for his election campaign to divide the country further, and to justify indicting his main political rival, locking up Trump supporters, and imposing an Orwellian level of mass surveillance, censorship and ideological indoctrination on Americans.
The "Police State" being created by this president, or those pulling his strings, is the title of a chilling new documentary by conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza, which opens next week in New York and theaters across the country.
D’Souza’s contention is that America is in danger of turning into a police state, an opaque and woke version of the authoritarian regimes in China or North Korea — and a recent Rasmussen poll shows that more than two-thirds of Americans agree.
In the words of former Trump speechwriter Darren Beattie, who features in the film: "We’re becoming China plus drag queens. [It’s a] hyper-ideological version of the police state that’s animated by wokeness . . . the worst of all worlds."
[Instapundit] America’s institutions need structural reform. We need it in academia, we need it in the corporate world, and we need it in government. In all of these fields, the structures, incentives, and institutions that have grown up over time have been destructive, and need to be fundamentally transformed.
I’ll be writing about all of these things down the line, but for now let’s start with government. Though you don’t hear a lot about it on the right, the left is all bent out of shape over the prospect that a Republican administration elected in 2024 might partially deconstruct the existing protected civil service. I, on the other hand, am excited about that prospect, and only wish they’d go farther.
Prior to the adoption of the Pendleton Act in 1883, government employment operated according to the "spoils system," which meant that hiring in the executive branch was controlled by the Executive. When a new administration came in, everyone’s job was up for grabs, at least potentially. This "rotation in office" had several advantages, which were widely appreciated at the time, and propounded by presidents from Jefferson to Jackson to Lincoln.
"Jackson argued that one serving in government for too long would inevitably lose sight of the public interest and come to use office for personal gain. He also maintained that government was or could be made simple enough for men of ordinary ability and experience, so ’more is lost by the long continuance of men in office than is generally to be gained by their experience.’"[i]
Contrary to popular belief, though, the arrival of a new president didn’t mean that everyone left. Even Andrew Jackson, upon taking office, replaced only about 10% of the federal work force with his own people. Every president understood the value of continuity, and hiring new people is hard work.
But under the spoils system, the fact that the president could replace anyone mean that everyone worked for him. And that meant both that everyone was responsible to the president, and that the president was responsible for everyone in the government, and everything the government did. This is consistent with the Constitution’s vesting clause, which provides that "The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America." If the executive branch does it, it’s an executive power, and if it’s an executive power it should be controlled by the president.
Contrast this to a "professional" civil service, in which the president does neither the hiring nor the firing, except with regard to a comparatively small number of senior officials. The civil service doesn’t think of itself as working for the president, really, and will happily drag its feet when it doesn’t like the president’s priorities. And when the bureaucracy misbehaves, or fails to perform, the president can, at least to a degree, blame its recalcitrance for the trouble or lack of results that occurs.
Congress is also let off the hook, yet simultaneously weirdly empowered. Congress can blame "the bureaucracy" for bad things, even when those things result from laws that Congress has passed. Then it can turn around and "help" constituents by intervening with the bureaucracy it has rendered dysfunctional, earning gratitude that may be deserved in a narrow sense, but not in terms of the big picture.
Under a spoils system, on the other hand, nobody gets off the hook. If the bureaucracy misbehaves, the president can fire the misbehavers. If Congress is unhappy with what bureaucrats do, they can demand that the president fire them, and make an election issue out of it if they want.
So why did we wind up with a civil service? As is typical, the fantasy of a neutral, efficient, expert civil service was laid next to the reality of a messy functioning government. But, as is also typical, the fantasy in practice turned out to be considerably less appealing than as proposed.
Posted by: Grom the Reflective ||
10/16/2023 05:40 ||
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#1
As is typical, the fantasy of a neutral, efficient, expert civil service was laid next to the reality of a messy functioning government. But, as is also typical, the fantasy in practice turned out to be considerably less appealing than as proposed.
"Less appealing" unless of course you're a part of it.
#2
In 1883 the government was a lot smaller. There was no income tax to suck the productivity out of the economy to feed today's bureaucratic monster. At least back then if the government employees were incompetent or lazy or corrupt, you could at least fire their boss.
#3
there was an important civil service reform act in 1978 followed by implementation by the Reagan Admin that took over in 1981
this reform gave more emphasis on 'performance' as the criteria for awarding bonus or terminating employees
this sometimes worked but for tasks that were more political it meant that normal worker bees were given an incentive to carry out the pet projects of the political employees or the higher ranking careerists. In my opinion, the fact that the Nixon admin was pre reform accounts for the failure of Nixon's attempt to use the IRS to punish enemies. Obama's use of the IRS to punish enemies (via Lois Lerner) was however successful since worker bees had the incentive to do it.
Of course the Biden Admin has greatly aggravated the problem of politicized administration by the DOJ.
Posted by: lord garth ||
10/16/2023 8:39 Comments ||
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#4
Don't 'rethink' the civil service, just get rid of it.
[NYPost] Higher education may have finally crossed the line.
With the horrific massacre, rapes and infant murders and kidnappings Hamas proudly perpetrated in Israel, much of the American academic community, especially at elite universities, sided with . . . Hamas.
It is not playing well.
Harvard has been the most talked-about example, because, well, it’s Harvard.
Dozens of Harvard student groups released a remarkably callous statement saying Israel’s government is "entirely responsible" for Hamas’ violence.
And Harvard’s President Claudine Gay released an initial statement so ham-handed that she spent the rest of the week trying to row it back.
The Harvard students have since deleted their statement, though it still lives on the Internet, of course.
They deleted it because many major firms announced they won’t hire anyone on the list. Some have even asked for membership lists of the student organizations involved so they can make sure not to hire any students who belong.
A group called Accuracy in Media has been sending billboard trucks around Harvard Square naming the students involved, which some have called "doxing," though publicly naming the public authors of a public statement hardly seems to rise to that level.
Winston & Strawn, a top law firm where Democratic Vice President Walter Mondale was once a partner, rescinded a job offer for an NYU law student who issued a pro-Hamas proclamation.
This was followed by Harvard’s Kennedy School losing billionaire philanthropist Idan Ofer and his wife Batia from its board.
"Unfortunately, our faith in the University’s leadership has been broken and we cannot in good faith continue to support Harvard and its committees," said the couple, worth $20 billion.
You have to be a very big donor to be on Harvard’s board; to have two seats you have to be bigger still.
Billionaire alumnus Bill Ackman, a hedge-fund founder, slammed Harvard too and was joined by a number of his fellow CEOs.
The message: Harvard is no longer morally worthy of our money, and we don’t want to hire its students.
The major law firms, hedge funds and Wall Street houses have had enough of woke students.
Business Insider reports one hedge-fund founder trashes applicants as a "bad cultural fit" when he encounters résumés listing woke activities.
And it’s not just Harvard: Ackman also called out another Ivy League institution, the University of Pennsylvania.
And at the University of Michigan, a business professor smirkingly posed for photos as he tore down posters with names and photos of people Hamas took hostage, while a Cornell diversity and inclusion officer came under fire for social-media posts celebrating the Hamas attack as "resistance."
Similar events took place at the University of Virginia, Stanford, George Washington University, Swarthmore and a host of other elite schools.
Sen. Marco Rubio summed up the objections: "For decades cowardly college administrators have enabled our universities to become nests of Anti-American/Anti-Western activism. This week student groups at our most ’elite’ universities signed their names to proclamations siding with savages who murdered & mutilated babies and raped & desecrated the bodies of dead women. And across America college students" with "federal taxpayer subsidized" loans "celebrated the murder of Jews."
Famed historian Victor Davis Hanson observed: "Americans knew higher education practiced racist admission policies. It has long promoted racially segregated dorms and graduations. And de facto it has destroyed the First Amendment. But the overt support for Hamas killers by the diversity, equity, and inclusion crowd on a lot of campuses exposes to Americans the real moral and intellectual rot in higher education."
It’s almost amusing to see the shocked reaction of elite university students and administrators to the notion that people might object to their statements.
In their insular worlds, endorsing murder, rape and torture isn’t objectionable so long as the perpetrators are deemed "oppressed." It turns out others disagree.
There may be a sea change in attitudes.
We’ve long known higher education breeds a lot of silly — and sometimes dangerous — ideas.
We know its admissions policies are racist, especially against Asians.
("The left hates Asians," Elon Musk tweeted in response to a story about an Asian applicant with near-perfect scores who was rejected by all the top schools to which he applied.)
But this is too much. You not going to pay their student loans?
Posted by: Grom the Reflective ||
10/16/2023 05:28 ||
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#1
They crossed the line long ago. Now they are advertising it.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
10/16/2023 11:26 Comments ||
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#2
^ It's never bad to have enemies who self-identify.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/16/2023 11:32 Comments ||
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[Powerline] When a country is invaded by a foreign power, the only sane response is to retaliate with massive, overwhelming, disproportionate force. And when an invader commits the kinds of atrocities that we have seen over the last week, unprecedented in modern times, vengeance must be the order of the day.
War is a terrible thing. But the Gazans started this war, and war is what they are going to get. Every resulting casualty should be laid at the foot of Hamas and all Gazans who have supported and collaborated with Hamas—a large majority, by all indications.
But there is something else going on, something beyond even Israel’s need to win the war or the entirely appropriate desire to exact revenge. The Palestinians, and Gazans in particular, have the sickest culture on Earth. Little productive work is done; Gaza exists largely as the beneficiary of international welfare. Instead of goods and services, the main product of Gaza is ideology—the perverted ideology of Jew-hatred.
Of all the appalling images that have emerged from Israel and Gaza, this one may be the most chilling. A captured Israeli boy who appears to be around six or seven years old is tormented by Palestinian children: [video] That's the innocent children that every report from Gaza dwells on.
...Israel has learned through bitter experience that it does little good to decapitate Gaza’s political leadership, Hamas. As long as Gaza’s sick culture exists, new leaders will be easy to find and the society’s perverted aims will be pursued. So the ultimate objective of Israel’s current military effort should be to destroy the culture that has rendered Gaza an implacable foe.
How do you destroy a culture? For starters, you discredit it. The surviving residents of Gaza must be made to understand that their ideology of Jew-hatred has been a catastrophic failure and a comprehensive disaster that has brought them nothing but ruin. In the future, anyone who tries to resurrect the idea of Gaza as a terrorist state should be treated as a post-WWII German who argued for bringing back the Nazi Party and marching on Germany’s neighbors would have been.
More than this may ultimately be necessary, but the first task is to make Gaza pay in full for its crimes.
Posted by: Grom the Reflective ||
10/16/2023 11:54 ||
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[Bee] Those inhuman bastards!
GAZA — In a move condemned by the international community as a harsh overreaction to Hamas terrorist attacks, the Israeli government has announced it has cut off Gaza from receiving any updates on the high-profile relationship between Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce.
"This is devastating," said one Hamas terrorist. "We were prepared to go without food, water, and electricity, but for Israel to deprive us of hearing the latest news about the American celebrity couple Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce is simply vicious and inhumane."
Even as conditions in the region deteriorated with bombings and airstrikes, Hamas locations within Gaza had still been able to remain fully updated on the much-talked-about romance between the popular musician and the All-Pro tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs. "There are very few things that are truly important in this life," explained the Hamas terrorist. "Our faith, our dedication to jihad, and learning all we can about what Taylor and Travis are doing today from TMZ are all that matter."
Israeli government officials defended the use of such a brutal tactic. "After these attacks, we have been left with no choice but to do whatever is necessary," said an IDF spokesman. "There are no rules in this situation. We are prepared to withhold all information about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce as long as these Hamas terrorists refuse to offer their complete and total surrender."
At publishing time, reports began to trickle in that Hamas was willing to offer whatever concessions may be required in order to learn which restaurant Swift and Kelce dined at following last night's game.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/16/2023 07:41 ||
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In a nutshell: since Hamas charter calls for destruction of Israel, and since Hamas rules in Gaza; any aid to Gaza contravenes UN's Genocide Convention
Posted by: Grom the Reflective ||
10/16/2023 04:33 ||
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#4
Opposing ethnic cleansing is illegal, as long as it's Israel doing it.
Gotcha.
Posted by: Otto Gurly-Brown9938 ||
10/16/2023 12:34 Comments ||
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#5
^ Tiresome Anti-Juice rhetoric. Get a new meme
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/16/2023 12:51 Comments ||
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#6
Actually Israel's war is with the people of Gaza. They are the ones who elected and continue to support Hamas. See General Sherman's thoughts on the people of Atlanta.
Posted by: Tom ||
10/16/2023 13:28 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[NYP] The Global Day of Jihad didn’t live up to its apocalyptic promise Friday.
[Bee] 
