Letter to Ray

2024-08-21 · Ho Chanh Nghia

Originally published on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/letter-ray-khanh-pham-vultc/

Letter to Ray

Hi Ray,

Where do I move to next, to rebuild a base as Hannibal rebuilt his?

Having read your peace on the 4 pillars of foreign policy, I have a similar homework that has been brewing at a young age.  Perhaps world conquest is not yet on the horizon, but I thought I might as well start with the end in mind.

Currently, I have come into a fortuitous position.  VA had granted me 100%  service-connected disability (delusional persecution, which is not listed in the DSM V, but seemingly valid anyway), which put me on a different playing field than a broken man with no income.

While being a heretic that I am, what other people think seems to be of little relevance.  Yet, what you think seems to be of great relevancy regardless of what subjects we’re on.  As you recall, The Pride of Carthage was an interesting and worthy narrative.  As to why you gave me that book of all books, I never really understood or cared too much.  It was a good book :)

The US best practice of plan, executing, evaluating, and refreshing seems like a great strategy.  Yet it usually ends up fighting a war with the lesson learned 10 years ago.  Much like all the defeats Roman generals faced when fighting Hannibal Barca.  Even then, it is poorly executed at best.  I am certain it is not the failure of the process, but it is simply not possible to produce great men with mediocre teachers (mediocre teachers in which institutions like to collate and disseminate their interpretation of great minds with the purpose and intent of producing great minds).

On the Texas Hold’em, I have been experimenting with decision-making, and it appears that I caught something useful that Hannibal was good at, denying the other player the initiative.  He decides when, where, and how to engage.  I can only imagine how many failures I would face if I train someone to master this art of decision-making in poker, and yet it is undeniably appealing to have an opportunity to demonstrate its success to greater scales and to be able to groom the next generation as Hamilcar groomed Hannibal.

The world has changed, Rome has ceased to be Rome.  There is no more need for Hannibal.

We now have Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, George Soros, the Koch Brothers, the Walton family, Rockefeller, and Rothschild, just to name a few within a small border.  Who is Rome and who is Hannibal is now an impossible task.  Strategies, tactics, and alliances are not as definable as the eyes and ears can tell.

Becoming a public official seems like a good start to help address the big issue, but if we can recall the lesson from history; Hannibal is useless without Carthage’s support.  I cannot prove, but feel a certain level of certainty that Hannibal was going to take down Rome if his family was behind him.  Much like the story of Julius Caesar and Rome.  These generals seem invincible and infallible in offense and defense, except for their own family.  My story is not too different from those two.  The domestic violence case was and remains a detrimental impact on all my efforts to care for my two children; then arrest warrant in Florida made it even more detrimental by making Florida an increased lethal risk.

With such disadvantages and threats looming on the horizon, I opted for a larger distance between myself and the overwhelming threat.  Back home to roost at my parent’s house in El Monte California.  Now I am looking at moving to a location where my money offers something more than gas money and snack money.  The real estate landscape in California is that most employees do not earn enough with their hourly wage to pay rent, not to mention own their first rental.

Within the current landscape, I have looked at Lancaster, California as the ideal area for me to rebuild something (my sister asked why not Hawaii).  If not an army, at least a home, and later a few rentals.  In regards to the 4 P of foreign policy, I am developing my own foreign policy.

Avoid threats that can destroy me, and conquer threats that are of lesser power.  In this way, I achieve the basic goal of the power requirement.  Build power, and be successful in self-defense/preservation of sovereign independence and territory.  “The Strong do what they have the power to do, and the weak accept what they must”.  Small towns are great as I can comprehend this strategy, yet how small? 😊  I looked at California City, and it seemed like something I would do.  The founder had long since abandoned, and the current management was unable to do anything of relevant impact for the purpose of growth.  Venture for America promotes talented young people to go to where the chaos is to help build communities, like Detroit.  I think Detroit is off my short list, just because I am guilty of loving myself too much.  I wonder if Lancaster, a 160,000 population, with a growth rate of 35%(2000-2010) and 6% growth rate from 2010-2017 (149,709 to 160,500).  The duplex in the area are completely bought up.  The single-family units are either bought or pending contracts.  I am looking to move in with a 250k loan.  I can get a basic 3bed 2 bath VA home, and then turn to rental in 3 years.  Or I can go for a 1-5 acre basic 3b2bath home and build an army from there.  Do to others what the USAF did to me essentially.  Salary, training, job, safety….  Yet, what’s an army of Pham going to do 2 hours outside of Los Angeles?  Blackwater already demonstrated a great business plan, but I probably do not have the same ability as Erik Prince to pull that off.  So, I did consider an army of Vietnamese nail technicians, trained and ready to deploy worldwide, and implemented what I learned from the USAF who appears to remain the most expeditious in the world.  With my size and simple organizational structure, I should be faster and more efficient in my operation and deployment.  I can’t see myself intervening and overthrowing other nail salon leadership, but I can probably set up better health care and training for the employees and their families.

I even thought of building a temple if I had 1-2 acres of land.  The tax break and option to have donations go to land payment is not a bad route.  An army of monks would supplement my education quite well.  I can store all my books along with their spiritual texts, in this way, they will keep the library clean without me having to invest in a paid librarian.

That’s the potential for my power grab.  I haven’t decided if I want to go for the big lot a little outside of town for building armies, or a small lot for the solid rental investment.  Mainly because I have never done anything, why would I think I can do anything now?  Caution and Dream.  At times one must fall for the other to rise.  Here I am at the fork in the road, cannot choose a road because I want to travel both.

In regard to peace, I do see the necessity of power as a conduit of peace.  “for what that is what power is supposed to safeguard and protect”.  As a child, I understood injustice and was keen on observing what is just.  As the UN is the international Institution for peace in the US, the US municipal and constitution is the international institution to me as a sovereign individual and others.  We act in support of one another.  We reduce the chance of war among each other.  Although our formal bodies do not exist, we still keep an invisible chord between us across national borders.  We still work toward increasing the possibility of achieving common interests for the national system to be one of order.  This is not something that goes for all other men, I am selective in who I will entertain peace with.  As you know, I am qualified in discerning who contributes to peace and who destroys peace.

While the current apparatus does serve some services to the people, it is arguably an organism with terminal cancer.  Untreated it will die on its own.  Treated with existing therapies, it dies differently.  To treat it as if it does not have cancer would be unwise in my opinion.  Quarantine and eradication is probably what is called for.  I read that Hitler was fairly conscientious when he cleaned up the factories and cities.  Then he went over the deep end when he tried to clean up the human gene pool.  I wonder about myself in this regard.  Not if I can do it or not, but if I will see it in the same light.

Withing debating others’ involvement, there is the current monetary system that has me worried.  USD is a big fat lie, and it continues to be an effective one tomorrow.  But how many tomorrows are we talking about?  How can I protect myself from its fall, with that knowledge I seek to convert my fake money into something like land and human capital.  As we know China and India were 3rd world countries, but their population have enabled them to skyrocket in their global positioning.  While I can probably physiologically produce many children, it seems an obsolete a strategy.  Adoption is still on my list, but I need more usable labor and more immediate as my position is not that rich.

I tried marrying a smart woman to help me build a new empire, but she screwed me over for her own purpose.  Perhaps I will give up on marrying someone for their skills and intelligence hihi.  As a matter of fact, the Church recommends that if I do not succeed in the first marriage I should just give up on the whole idea.  So, my new solution is to hire a personal assistant.  I noticed that all great leader has a good secretary or assistant who looks over every small detail.

Having multiplied my population by 2, I would then try to provide a source of shelter, education, and revenue for others who will come.  Give me your tired, your poor.

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows worldwide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that the twin cities frame.

“Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

A new and even greater destiny may await.  A new Khanh on the horizon could be born.  What greater reason to be for a dead man, than to live for all those who need help to keep on living?  If the United States, will not take its principles, perhaps it could refund the Statue of Liberty back to France.  For my purpose, I think I am leaning toward a new religion.  A “House of Reason”, but I would have to be a founder of a religion, which is too much for my taste.  What’s currently available are a dozen monks and nuns that need lodging, and a college to obtain their PhD in anything.  Land is imperative for most of these efforts if one is to proceed without great financial backing.  For with a safe territory, basic needs, and human labor; all ideals can be achieved with time.

Building a culture of collective purposes, such as the collective pursuit of prosperity is easier done when the giver gives with no strings.  Naturally, as one who puts other interests before his own, this should be a simple act.  The challenge will remain in the technical areas that can obtain low-cost imports (what better resources than Vietnamese domestic labor), growing markets for exports (my idea of labor export is a long shot, but what else are there), profitable foreign investments (something to be proven), international opportunities (I already have networks in Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, and buddies in every continent, I should be able to find them).

My relationship with other large economies has been unfruitful.  As my relationship with you demonstrates, the economic interdependencies are not easily developed.  It is difficult but not all that impossible.  At the very least, I know I can be that large economic nation to the tired, and the poor.  At least with me, they do not face harsh terms as found with the International Monetary Fund, and in this way, they will be able to become larger economies.  Eventually, my tiredness and my poor will become large economies with the appropriate protection and feeding.  The protection and feeding by the US military is likely the best in the world, I just need to replicate what was done to me, to the next group.  With a completely free market approach, open entry, and open exit, my kind will grow faster than the alternative system with seemingly infinite hindrances.  Unlikely I will ever meet anyone who has read all the US codes and regulations.  The Federal Acquisitions Regulation alone surpasses most readers’ attention span.

Principles are fairly simple and consistent with our founding fathers.  Most of these basics are self-evidenced truths.

So, do you think I can do better in a big log cabin remote from town, or stay in civilization?