Rodney's Rambling's

  Chapter 10. The Military, War, and Terrorism Source: U.S. Navy/Flickr ( Iran war could cost US taxpayer $1 trillion, says Harvard academic ) The United States is among dozens of sovereign states that were directly shaped or created by war.  Since 1775, the United States has been involved in over 200 military conflicts, five of which were officially declared wars, and many more were military interventions that shaped our history and defined us globally.  Even before we became a nation, and for 300 years total, we were involved in hundreds of wars with the Indigenous tribes.  From 1775 to 2026, the United States has been at war for approximately 93% of its existence.  This means that for 229 of the 249 years we have existed, we have been involved in military engagements.  This translates to just 20 years of peace, and military conflicts happening approximately every 20 years.  Only one period, from 1891 to 1897, can we identify the longest time of peac...

Exclusive Inclusion and diversions from Diversity  rodney d. coates* President Trump, in spite of legal opinion, politically astute advice, and reality, continues to target Muslims and other immigrants from specific countries. Ironically, the election of Donald Trump has caused many to rethink what we mean by diversity and inclusion. Suddenly, diversity experts in corporate America, according to a recent Forbes article, are trying to incorporate white men into corporate spaces. It seems that they, not blacks or women, Hispanics or Muslims, gays or transsexuals are being excluded, it is white males. We are coming to understand, thanks to our President, that poverty too must be included in our standard definition. This is a very good step forward. But we must get past the binary, single dimensions of identity, and what we mean by diversity.      There are those who insist that they value diversity, yet demand that all conform to their definition of what that divers...