The death of Charlie Kirk, and a few things about violence in general, and rights in general.

 First and foremost : I want to offer my sincere condolences to Charlie Kirk's family and friends. 

Charlie Kirk was, in his public persona at least, a vile, unpleasant man. 

On the one hand, Charlie Kirk was a man very worthy of whatever scorn and derision he would have gotten from me, had we ever met. But he had the right to be what he was. The penalty for being a jerk is not summary execution. While I offer my condolences to his family and friends, I do not grieve for hiss loss. To say I did would make me a hypocrite. What I do grieve for is the horrific damage being done to our democratic republic. The Tangerine Tyrant and his crew of crooks and liars have much to answer for and the tally grows every day. Of the many tasks we must keep in mind, one of the most important ones is to never forget those who have betrayed what this country is supposed to stand for. Equality under the law, freedom within the limits of public safety, a level playing field where everyone can improve their lot in life by hard work, smart work, or just dumb luck. I have a few more things I'd add to those things, but they're the basics. 

Finally, in closing, I want to repeat : I offer my sincere condolences to the family and friends of Charlie Kirk. 

That is all.  

 A little reminder from days gone by: 

Back in 2018 I wrote this on my facebook wall: 

   " I am relatively certain that it will come out that a fistful of Russian intelligence operators came to the USA in order to facilitate the election of the current occupant of the White House. They acted in collusion with Candidate 1's campaign, and obtained and used data generated by contractors employed by Candidate 1 to push the election in Candidate 1's direction. It will be revealed that Candidate 1 received material aid from these foreign agents, and that Candidate 1 was aware of these machinations and approved of them. Finally, it will be hinted at, if not actually brought out, that Candidate 1 was recruited to be an agent of influence by the Russian government. (Note: this is not based on sources. it is strictly and only my opinion based on my personal perception and synthesis of known events and projected possible outcomes. I am not a psychic, and I do not believe such things exist. I am however, well up in the news, and in the practices of Intelligence agencies, including ours and theirs. "

 

Given  all that has transpired in the ensuing four years, how would you rate my prognostications ? I think I'm doing pretty well, all things considered. But considering the nature of the material missing from two of what are now being called the Mar-a-Lago documents, I would really rather have been wrong. 

 

Next we turn to Jared's money woes: One of the things a skilled intelligence operator will do is look for people with access (not necessarily power, but access.) who are having money troubles. The deeper and more private a financial hole the subject is in the better. This is ever so much better than trolling for gays or sexual deviants because people with money woes are much more common. They may be gamblers, speculators in the stock market (another form of gambling.) or maybe they just live too far above their means. Jared was in a deep financial hole. Now Jared has 2 billion to speculate with courtesy of the Saudis. I think it's a pretty easy set of dots to connect, don't you ?  

O- -- - - - - - - - - o

 A closing remark : On the volume of scandals.  Not long ago Fox News pundit Sean Hannity read off, in an angry voice, all the scandals that plagued the Former Guy's regime. He went on for about two minutes, listing all of them. Apparently it never occurred to Hannity that what he was doing is reading the bill of indictments against his hero. You could dismiss some of the investigations as being all sizzle and no steak, but you still have to admit that where there is smoke there is fire, and the former regime did issue forth a whole lot of smoke. These missing Classified documents may indeed be the flames we have been seeing signs of all along. I can only hope the damage control party can get to it in time. TFG blew a hole in the bottom of the ship of state, and men like Hannity helped him light the fuse. 

The Irony of the Young Okoberists from Pskov.

 In 1987 Tom Clancy published 

his techno-thriller masterwork "Red Storm Rising." (which he co-authored with Larry Bond). 

        Clancy wrote what was then, in 1987, a chilling scenario in which the Russians, as prime mover in the Warsaw Pact, suffer a drastic casualty in it's oil production facilities due to poor planning and a group of Muslim fanatics. This causes the fictional Russian leader to decide that the only way to get out of the jam is to seize the Persian Gulf oil states. (with the possible exception of Iran.) If the Soviet controls the Arabian Peninsula not only is their immediate oil need satisfied, but their control would place a stranglehold on US and other economies. And so, the decision is taken. Warsaw Pact will launch a "defensive" battle against NATO, and split West Germany and Austria off, thus fracturing the alliance. 

        No doubt most of you are wondering by now why I'm spoiling a good read and what Clancy's fictional scenario has to do with the current very real war in Ukraine. I'm getting to that, but bear with me as I  construct a scenario: Putin wants to wreck that portion of Ukraine not under his control so as to put an end to their threats of taking back the portions of the Donbas that his operatives have encouraged to separate from the main Ukraine country. It goes without saying that he also wants to keep them out of the Crimea he so badly wanted to re-integrate into Russia. Ukraine with it's leadership in prison (in Russia) and leaders installed by Putin would not be able or willing to drive Russians out of those territories. So now we come to the attempt at provocation. Putin has for years been manipulating events in Crimea and Donbas so that when the time came all three areas would break off from Ukraine and either request Russian "protection" or outright cede themselves to Russia to run by fiat. (both ends would be sufficient for Putin.) So, he cooks up this fiction about De-Nazifying Ukraine and protecting Ethnic Russians in the Donbas and Crimea. It is of course complete fabrication. The Ethnic Russians in Eastern Ukraine would have been content to remain there had not the mysterious "little green men" been there to "help" them separate from the rest of the country, in exactly the same way that "little green men" and "volunteers" helped Crimea secede from the nation. Well now let's turn to the Tom Clancy fiction again. 

        Why it is surprisingly similar. . . Why it should be familiar :

My Statement Regarding Our Exit From Afghanistan.

 We, the United States of America, are currently in the progress of leaving Afghanistan after some two decades of being the country's police force and army. 

We initially went in there in 2001 after the origin of the 9/11 terrorist attacks was traced back to Al Qaeda, and the origin of the attackers was traced to Al Qaeda bases in Afghanistan. In this cause we were right to go in. Let that be known. We were attacked, and we responded, as a nation must so respond. 

It is now some twenty years later, and the USA is now removing itself from Afghanistan. As I knew we would do. We've cut and run, as we did before in Vietnam. People whom we promised to stand by have and are as we speak being left to the not-so tender mercies of the Taliban. My Statement : This is a black day for America. But I don't blame Joe Biden. The mechanics that led up to this day were born by "W" Bush, carried on by Barack Obama (who did try to fix things, but it really wasn't going to happen.) and the last knives were driven in by TFG. He set things up so this would happen on Biden's watch. He hosted the Taliban leaders here at Camp David, and basically gave them everything they asked for. The people at the top of the Afghani government were (and are) crooks and liars who own the lion's share of the blame for this. Had they been honest, and dealt fairly with their troops, and seen to it they got paid, supplied and occasional leave to see their families, perhaps then the ASG wouldn't have collapsed under the Taliban attacks. I also want to mention the Taliban, and the situation there in the region. The Taliban were never, ever going to deal honestly with the USA. They are religious zealots with a power addiction who need to be lording it over someone else, and nothing short of a total control of the country was ever going to satisfy them. There is no bargaining with people who believe that it is okay to break their word when that word is given to a nonbeliever or infidel. We should have expected this, and taken steps to protect those whom we need to help leave the country. Now, dozens of them have died, and thousands are in immediate peril of their lives. We are not doing enough to help them. We will wear the blood stains of this for a long time, and we should. My final comment: We MUST never make war unless we are willing to go the full distance, fight to the last, kill the enemy until he surrenders unconditionally or we wipe them off the face of the earth. No safe spaces. No havens. Even if it means pissing off the Russians, Chinese or whoever. IF WE DO NOT HAVE THE STONES FOR IT WE SHOULD NOT BE DOING IT. No half measures. No more wars of containment. No more Police Actions. We're either ALL IN or we STAY HOME.

The Ghost of January 6th 2021

 Some dates to remember: November 3 2020. Election Day. a Red-Letter Day if ever there was. It began early, with voting in person being mostly stronger than anticipated, but with a lot of mail-in ballots. In Arizona, if you are registered to vote and made a request for it, you got a mail-in ballot automatically. You fill your ballot out, marking the candidates and issues you want with a black or blue pen. Felt tips are permitted. It's thick paper and won't bleed through. Live in-person voting carried on all day, but slowly. Around 10 pm  Eastern time, it looked to be very close, at least in the Electoral College. (in the national popular vote, it wasn't even close, with Biden eventually pulling a 7 million vote lead. ) By midnight, Trump started declaring himself the winner in states he clearly hadn't won. By 2 AM it was clear that, if Arizona and Georgia did not go for Trump, that he would not in fact be re-elected.

Some notes about the Epidemic and our response to it.

Okay gang. quick note: Back in 2015, there was a disease scare. (Zika Virus) At that time, I tried hard to warn people that we are woefully unprepared for a large scale outbreak. My words went largely unheeded. Mostly because I have the "Reach" of a man whispering down a well at midnight. In other words, none. Not my fault -- I'm not popular. I'm not wealthy, I'm not a famous person. But I felt I had to make the effort, and so I did. Well, 5 years on, we had changed little (although Obama made a start ) and now we desperately need to change, and due to the ineptitude of our national leadership, we are not. But this isn't about the President. I've ranted quite a lot about the President, not just because he is politically opposite to me. But now it's time to talk about the elephant in the room, and I do not mean the political party.  What I am referring to here is this: We largely owe this shit-poor response to the desire long-inculcated in a large segment of our population to see "The Administrative State" dismantled. To increase chaos. Most recently you've seen this in the character of one Steve Bannon.

St Patrick's Day special.

 

Today was St Patrick's Day. A day on which my fellow Americans make up silly names for themselves and put on a green shirt and get blotto. We won't talk about how this country perpetuates negative Irish stereotypes. The Fightin' Irishman, "A couple of stout Irish girls to do the heavy work around the house." and Trooper Thorn Sean Thornton. We have heavier lifting to do. Heavier lifting like "The Kung-Flu" and the fact that Asian-Americans get treated like punching bags and nobody tries to stop it. So go on and poke fun at me and my ancestors, drink beer with green food color in it. Just stop shooting Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Mmmk ?

The Good Ole Days, more dream than real.

 (Cross posted from my Facebook account) 

Do you long for the Good Old Days ? 

        Feeling Nostalgic for the "good old days" of the 50s and early 60s? Yeah, that's probably because our higher taxes and stronger union protections made it possible for you to get a good paying job right out of high school and be able to support a family on it. But then you tossed all that in the garbage by voting for a string of men who cut taxes on the richest Americans and then told you it was your fault you weren't making enough money. Of course, you got tired of hearing it was your fault for not making enough money, so then they started telling you it was "The Illegals" who were taking your jobs. And the Foreigners. They tried to train you to hate those people, and many of you did. When all the while, it was you who voted for Reagan, GHW Bush, W Bush and now Trump, who sold you down the river. You bought into the conservative mumbo-jumbo , the hate-mongering and fear-mongering, and now you're seeing your progeny get hammered by the tool you thought would make YOUR life better. Well, has it ? Your children, the so-called Millenials, have an average of 37000 in student loan debt -- debt they accrued because successive waves of conservatives have all but wiped out grants, and seen to it that college tuition has skyrocketed. Your children, those self-same Millenials everyone loves to complain about, are stuck in jobs with few benefits and all too often are "full time availability with part time hours" or trick hours where they work 39 hours a week so their employer doesn't have to pay their insurance or retirement benefits. Oh sure, they might get a 401k . . . for company stock, which could collapse at any moment. Further, said millenials have had their retirement age pushed from 62 to 65 to 67 and it'll be 69 or 70 soon. Oh, but their social security will be means-tested so that the conservatives can call it "Welfare" and then cut it. But don't worry, YOUR Medicaid won't be cut. and YOUR SSRI won't be cut. But what about the rest of us ?

It was not Ronald Reagan, GHW Bush or GW Bush, it wasn't the 230-odd republican/Tea-Party/Libertarian-Conservatives in the House of Representatives or the 52 in the Senate who killed The American Dream, it was you who voted for all those men. You bought into their line of bullshit, and now you have to own it. The good news is, you do not have to let things lie. You don't have to stay in the bed you made, you can get up and re-make it. But you won't get there by voting for more of the same. You won't get there by putting more conservatives in office. You will only continue to revoke the generations of social progress that led up to your being able to have the jobs you had, and that your children and grandchildren need.

The Great Divide

 

 The political divide did not happen overnight, was not created by Donald Trump, and will not be made to go away by Joe Biden.

Newt Gingrich created the divide with his late night speeches in the well of the House, where he had a no cost cable TV presence. He spun the fable that there must be no compromises. That it would be his way or no way. Not many people saw him, but the right group of people did. Young, politically active republicans. They took Gingrich's message to heart, and went to war. No holds barred, stop at nothing to gain power. The first power grabs were not in the Federal legislature alone, but in state houses, governorship and other state-level offices. Thus the first of the big lies were told. "I'm against fraud, waste, and abuse! I'm a fiscal conservative! you can trust me with your money." Except they were not simple fiscal conservatives. They were die hard right wing christian conservatives, who wanted power not for what they could do for the people, but for what they could do TO the people. They Gerrymandered as much of the political map as they could. Then again in 2000. and again in 2010. The left were stupidly complacent. They had controlled the Congress off and on but more on than off since the 1970s, and saw no reason why things should change. The Supreme Court was carefully stage-managed. The lower courts were allowed to start to run empty. In fact, during Obama's time they were intentionally kept empty by McConnell. Now there are some 50 or so seats in the House which are, and will be for some time to come, absolutely safe GOP seats, and they are filled with Ideologues who, like Gingrich, insist it be their way or no way. At least the GOP are out of the Majority in the House, for now. But it's another census year, and Despite strenuous efforts by former President Obama, the political landscape won't change much.  Then comes 1987, and Reagan-appointee Dennis R Patrick's decision as FCC Chairman to undo the Fairness Doctrine. The Fairness Doctrine was an FCC rule that demanded that broadcasters, both radio and television, who use a federal license, include in their programming a certain number of hours of coverage of public affairs and of controversial issues, and that said coverage be, in the FCCs view fair, unbiased and represent both sides of an issue. This rule was in place from 1944 until it was removed. But the thing is, the Reagan argument was that rules are unnecessary in a civilized society, where the free market will see to it that the battle of ideas carries to those who wish to watch. The problem with that idea is that people will, if given the choice, avoid ideas that don't flow with our own. We self-select for information that agrees with us. Information no longer is non-partisan. Presentation of news is politically driven. People become so familiar with the news that suits their biases that things that run contrary to them are seen as alien,or other. Those who cleave to other ideas are seen as Alien. Politics goes from being the marketplace of Ideas and becomes the Battleground of Ideas. But then comes someone like Trump, who has no connection to truth. He comes and lies to us, and those whose biases are more ideologically of the same polarity as the Trump lies decide they will believe the lie, even if somewhere in their mind they know it's not true. Trump has become like a cult leader, stringing lies together, getting people hooked on the lie. This is why they chant at Trump rallies. It's a form of group affirmation. They need to know they are not the only one who buys the lie. And so it goes. The political divide has gotten wider to the point it's causing families to disintegrate. It's breaking up friendships and causing fights. Please that it not cause worse violence. I'm not a big fan of Joe Biden, but by damn we need someone to pull us back from the brink.

The Time is Coming, are you ready ?

 The time is coming, are you ready ?

Okay so. . . it's roughly 47 days until the elections. On election day, the American people will go to the polls to fill out, or have already mailed in, their ballots. The results may not be apparent for some days after the election. Here in Arizona, we have free mail in balloting, anyone who is a registered voter can request with no excuse a ballot. Once completed, the ballot is then sealed in an envelope and the back of the envelope is signed by the voter. These signatures are checked against recorded signatures at the Arizona secretary of state office. Those which pass are automatically counted by electronic device, and ballots are kept in case of a recount. (BTW, Arizona still uses paper ballots. All states should, IMO) So, Arizona's rough totals will be known either on election night or shortly thereafter. Of course, the totals will change as more ballots are counted, but this is a smaller number and probably will not be enough to change the top of the ballot result. Whatever happens, I wish Biden to win. This is not because I wish ill on his opponent, the incumbent, although I despise him. This year, I backed Elizabeth Warren. I like her, she's intelligent, warm, personable and has a big binder full of plans all ready to be enacted the moment she is sworn in. But, it was not to be. Joe Biden swept the series, hitting the cycle and winding up on third. Well, okay. So now I back Joe Biden. Not because I love Joe, but because he is the opponent of the party of doom. Unwittingly or not, Joe is Antifa. Knowingly or not, Joe is a white rose. He opposes the Fascist. We need to eschew Fascism and everything it stands for. We must, in this most crucial election of my lifetime, defeat the fascist would-be tyrant.

Ich bein "Weiße Rose"

Down with the Fascists!

 

It should be noted that I am an ex-Republican, Former Conservative, who has seen at long last the moral bankruptcy of the Conservative position.  

But no matter who you think should be President, go out and vote this Tuesday, November 3, 2020.

If you are not registered, you can do this easily and in most if not all states, online. 

 

https://www.usa.gov/register-to-vote

To find out how to register in your state, follow the links at the site above.

Or if you are in Arizona, you can go here : https://servicearizona.com/VoterRegistration/register?execution=e1s1

 

 

Unhappy New Year.

Unhappy New Year.

what a crummy way to start the new year. In recent times, unless you live under a rock, you know that Iranian-proxy militia-men rocketed an American installation in Iraq, killing an American "Contractor". (odd how nobody says what he was contracting to do, but as Contractor has become a synonym for mercenary, I think it's safe to say we know what kind of man he was. )
The United States retaliated by pulling off a Tom Clancy level scheme to assassinate Iranian Major General and commander of the Quds force wing of the Iranian Republican Guards corps Suliemanei.
Iran in turn replied to this by launching some number of IRBMs loaded with conventional warheads at American installations in Iraq. No Americans were killed in the rocketing. We can thank our luck and our advanced warning systems for that.
And now, The Ball is back in Trump's court. He has as of this AM said that we do not want war, and we're  stepping back from the brink. Trump actually said the Iranians were standing down. but then, I don't trust two words out of Trump's mouth. If The Dear Leader Trump tells you it's raining out, better go look out a window. Some of my thoughts on this matter below the jump.

Some new thoughts about thanksgiving, and immigrants

 Pilgrims, Indigenous people, and progress.

The people who lived here before the Europeans began arriving were not necessarily happy hunter-gatherers content to live in peace and harmony with their neighbors. There were wars. Borders were fluid things, only established by such things as landmarks and the courses of rivers. A hunting party might easily stray into another tribe's land and possibly be attacked. this did happen, and it did oftentimes lead to battles. Europeans who came here were not necessarily welcomed. The Roanoke colony was wiped out to the last. Women and children may have been taken and adopted into families. Then comes the Plymouth colony. They're better situated than the Roanoke. and maybe they're just luckier. Maybe god shined a light on them. Whatever. The Wampanoeg took pity on them, and helped them. They showed them how to live off the land in the new world. Perhaps they shouldn't have. If they had been like some Americans are today, they might have just killed them all and taken their fire-locks, swords and armor. But they didn't. Although not Christians, they felt the impulse to charity and helped those colonists. (I have distant family tree relations who were among those colonists, btw. ) They helped them, and next fall when the colonists were still there they gave food and shelter to a Wampanoeg hunting party who had dropped by to check on them. I sincerely doubt it was any kind of grand feast as is depicted in some history books, but they gathered together and shared food and drink. We should be thankful we were allowed to stay here. We should be thankful and remember our own behavior will be judged by history. We need to remember our own impulse to charity, and welcome newcomers. They can come here legally. It should be relatively easy to do so. It should also be relatively hard to stay here illegally. But the penalty should be administrative, as it has been in times previous to this. We're wasting time, money resources and reputation by throwing people in cages inside what used to be big-box stores.We need a long, hard look at ourselves. So be thankful. But also remember your impulse to help others. There is more than enough room for all here. More Jobs are created every day, and immigrants will be needed to fill them. There just aren't enough of us right now. Be Generous. Be American. and remember that moment 400 years ago wherein a group of hunters of the Wampanoeg people were hosted in friendship by a handful of grateful Europeans. 

My Thanks.

Why the delay in Impeaching and Removing Trump ? I'll try to explain.

 Donald Trump has, in these last weeks, committed at least two Impeachable offenses, yet he is still in office. Why is this? 

I'll try to explain.

         First, consider the Republicans in the Senate who are Afraid of Trump's "base,"A group of angry white conservatives whom Trump keeps angry by feeding them big lies disguised as slabs of red meat. Many GOP congressmen are afraid of what will happen to their re-election chances if Trump turns against them and directs that someone "primary" them. (being Primaried from the right has been a GOP leadership scare tactic since before McConnell was in the Senate) They do not want to risk losing their cushy jobs. Next, consider the possibility of a Republican caucus in the Senate who believe it's worth keeping Trump so long as they're getting the conservative judges they want. Many Republicans in the Senate are what I call "Movement Conservatives" -- they believe wholeheartedly in the hard right idea of a government which only runs the military and grants cash to corporations. No other functions should exist. Finally, we come to  GOP leadership that includes McConnell, whose state got a promise of a 100 million dollar aluminum factory in Kentucky out of Oleg Deripaska's Rusal. Make no mistakes, the Russians have studied long and hard how to wage next-generation warfare (1) and they are currently winning. Their mission was to knock the USA down, and they're succeeding. They have found a political party in the USA who will stop at nothing to remain in power, and they're using them all they can and more. As I've said elsewhere, Trump is working hard to destroy the US government from within. As I said elsewhere, the Russians first tried this in Ukraine in 2012-14. THe Ukrainians got up on their hind legs and threw out the Putinistas. I'm worried we haven't got the spine for it. The 2020 elections will be the final test. We'll either pass and oust Trump and the Republicans or we'll fail and go down the drain as a Democratic Republic.

Sound the Trump ets, Tell Joshua to bring his horn.

Okay, so I had to do this post sooner or later. This has been bugging me like a pesky fly that won't leave off. Donald "I'm a raving loon" Trump's wall is a waste of money, time and effort. We all know this, don't we ? Don't we ? You do realize that walls are a 4th century solution that are easily breached, overcome, tunneled under, knocked down or simply gone around. Yes, I know, various nations have tried walls : Rome with Hadrian's Wall, China with the Great Wall, France with the Maginot Line, and now Trump with Trump's Folly.

On this day, 75 years ago.

75 Years ago today, men got down into landing craft, and sailed into history. 

     June 6, 1944. The Second World War is coming to a crisis point. If the Allies, led by Eisenhower (interestingly, his surname is German for  ice cutter -- someone who cuts blocks of ice for use in early refrigeration. ) succeeded in landing in France, the Germans would now be faced with a war on three fronts. The South, where the Allies were driving slowly up the spine of Italy after the Italian capitulation. The Russians were pushing inexorably Westward, with the aim of taking up as much of Europe as they could before the hated Nazi enemy were destroyed. The Britsh, French and Americans all wanted to drive to Berlin, and as General Patton would later quip, "personally shoot that paper-hanging son of a bitch!" For France, it was a true existential crisis. Vichy France was a joke -- the prostrate Vichy were little besides errand-boys for the Nazis, and they knew it. For Britain, it meant an end to the Blitz, an end to privation, a chance to be able to live their lives without blackouts, rationing and constantly looking over their shoulder for (more imagined than real) fifth columnists. For the United States, it meant an incredible expense in Blood and Treasure but also a task to be taken up, not because of continued national existence, but because rule by dictators like Hitler and Tojo was wrong. Perhaps many of them didn't quite understand the finer points of the issue, but to them, liberty meant much, and liberty was always worth fighting for. Not so much in these times, but back then, people seemed to understand the difference. So, those men got down into the boats, or strapped on their parachutes and got in the planes, or loaded up into the gliders, and they prepared to carry the fight to the enemy. Casualties were expected to be high. Some of the planning staff estimated a minimum of 20% losses. Some wanted to wait and go with more men. But Eisenhower was sure that the more they waited, the more the enemy would be prepared to throw the troops back into the sea. The invasion was delayed, and then the weather closed in. Storms -- the early beginning of the Channel summer storms -- made them put off the invasion for a month. It was a matter of needing a confluence of tides, weather and lunar phase. They wanted darkness to cover the first hour or so of the invasion, proper tides and weather good enough that the waves wouldn't swamp the landing craft. Finally, weather predictions aligned with everything else for the three day period June 5th thru June 8th, closing in by the 9th. (a westerly gale of immense proportions would cause havoc, but not until after the initial invasion had been decided. ) Eisenhower stepped out of his quarters, stepped to the staff planning table and queried his staff . Some hesitated, but in the end, all agreed, the invasion was on. Eisenhower, it is said, kept two pieces of paper in his breast pockets. One, his speech that the invasion had gone off successfully, and the other, a speech in which he took full responsibility for the disastrous failure. In the days before the invasion began, Ike made his now-legendary "Great Crusade" speech to the troops.
 Eisenhower's Great Crusade speech. 
The men got on the ships, most of them already seasick.  A moderate gale blew in from the south, making the soldiers even sicker. The final "go" order didn't come until late on the 5th. Then, in the pre-dawn hours of the 6th, the first wave went in.

It was the largest Armada ever assembled

They were all afraid. Every man-Jack of them. But they climbed down into those boats anyway. They got down in the boats and went in.
The fighting was vicious. The men on Omaha beach had it the worst. They may not have gotten off the beach were it not for the work of destroyers who sailed in some instances within 800 yards of the Beach, at risk of grounding themselves, to engage the German positions with direct fire from their guns. No matter if it was Omaha or Juneau, the day was no walk in the park. I could go on, regaling you with tales of bravery and sacrifice, but I'm going to close this year's D-Day memorial post by saying this : War is never pretty. It's terrifying, ugly, bloody and brutal. So let's try to limit how many wars we have. Let's honor those men who bravely went in on June 6 '44. Let's honor them by staying out of wars of convenience, like Mr "W" Bush's Invasion of Iraq. Let's try using diplomacy to maneuver clear of various causa belli.  Try settling not the problems, but the issues which become problems if not addressed. With thanks to those who engaged in the Great Crusade.

     Most Sincerely,
DLC.

Donnie says it's okay.

Yes, Donnie says it's okay. Not only is it okay, it's Great!

Did you miss it ?  The courts are being packed with hardline "movement" conservatives.
Largely this is possible because the DNC dropped the ball. They should have been watching the local races from 1996 onward. This is the fruition of a long term hard right plan.

In Case You Missed It :

You thought that hardline conservatives were dead ? You thought "Oh yeah, with the Orange Dufus in office they're so going to lose!" Well, I hope yesterday showed you just how wrong you were. 

So, if you were watching the news or reading the papers yesterday, you saw the big salvo the hard right have been saving up to hit you with just when you thought The Orange Duce' was on the ropes. Turns out you were wrong. He was just a distraction, while the real damage was being done belowdecks, out of your sight. This has been coming for decades, and few people saw it. I've tried to issue some form of warning before in these pages, but even I didn't see the worst of it coming.

Of Anger, and the Useful Idiot.

I cannot state in simple words the level of anger I am living with at the way Trump (and more importantly his handlers) are being permitted to ruin this country. Already our reputation -- never that spectacular to begin with -- has been further sullied. Our economy, which should be running on rails built by men of vision like Obama, is teetering near the edge of a precipice, ready to fall at the first good hard shove. Why do you think Trump is throwing monkey wrenches into the works at every chance ? Because he's been coached to do so. Trump himself isn't smart enough to know a Tariff from a Mastiff. But he's capable of learning his lines, and of saying them. Why else do you think that every time he says something off the cuff, hours later it's walked back by Miller or Sanders or Mnuchin. It's because he's gone off script and has to be corrected. Trump couldn't give two shits about the USA-Mexico border. He cares about those Rosneft dollars he was promised if he's a good boy and doesn't get impeached before the end of his first term. Trump is nothing more than a Useful Idiot. A stooge, in the worst sense of the word. Oh, he used to be a middling-quality grifter, but then he met his betters in the mid-90s. (some say the mid-80s, but I digress). He's happy as pigs in mud to roll along with whatever *they* want just so long as he gets his payoff when it's over. I can only hope that there is a God out there who cares about justice. I'm running out of life-time and I really want to see the country that I love put back on the right course. Where we can go back to being the Shining City on a Hill. Where the Modern Colossus can lift her lamp in pride. Where the jolly red white and blue can be paraded again by people who have good reason to be proud of it. Oh the ignominious ending I can see. Where our nation breaks apart into balkanized states at the direction of China and Russia. Where we, once a great nation of high-minded souls become nothing more than laborers for the people with the most gold. Why aren't there hundreds of thousands in the streets even now?  I know why. because they, like me, lack the means to do so. Or perhaps they, like me, suffer from "Old White Man" diseases, like diabetes and it's backup men peripheral neuropathy, depression, kidney disease and vision loss.  or heart failure. or lungs sick from too many cigarettes. All I can do is look on in anger, like the farmer whose corn is being set upon by 100 crows he cannot run off and cannot kill. I, and my country. The land I was born into, and the nation I was so proud of in 1969 when we walked on the moon. In 1965 when we passed the voting rights act. When we held up ideals of equality under the law for all. what have we become ? I feel despair as well. Like Victor Frankenstien's servants, all I can do is watch in horror as the master's creation runs amok. I did only act as a humble, loyal servant, and now everything is in ruins because I didn't do better. I didn't know better. We're coming to ruin, the ship of state nearly on the rocks, all because some greedy custard-head sold the sails to Levi Strauss, and the Anchors to General Motors. I'm trying to not let it make me bitter.

I don't usually post stuff on videos but this is worthwhile

Okay, so I almost never post videos here.

But this is important. Recently Jennifer Lawrence posted this video. Yeah, I know, we all think of her as some vacuous blonde who makes the odd movie now and then. Well, stop that, it's silly!
We should know by now that it's not the name that counts, it's the quality of the ideas that matter. I'm not a man who fawns over movie and TV stars. If I saw Ms. Lawrence in a store I would nod and say Howdy, like I do with everyone, but I wouldn't go beyond that. However, on this issue I feel it necessary to post her video. The video pretty much explains what it is and what the issue is, but if you look back in time on this blog you will see it's one I have posted about before. With that, over to Ms Lawrence and Mr Silver.

This issue is important. We need to fix our elections system. There are already videos by various "Conservative" groups attacking this. I say conservative in quotes because in many ways this campaign is in fact a conservative issue. They wish to conserve the American voting system the way the founding fathers intended. That these vidiots do not realize this speaks to the shallowness of their nature. Look, I'm not a big "J-Law" fan. If asked at this moment I'm not sure I could even name one of her movies. This issue rises above my personal motion picture preferences. This issue is about limiting the influence big money has on our political affairs and shifting political access and thus political power downward, back to the people those individuals in DC are supposed to represent.

A special political message.

Excuse the rant, but : 

We've all been nominating this and that for the "Real" national emergency. I'm gonna barge in now and remind everyone what the *Real* For-Reals Actual forget that other stuff for now bolded double-underlined National Emergency is. The one we cannot ignore much longer if we want to have a Democracy any longer. The crisis is much bigger than the doddering old coward and crook occupying the White House without the permission of 2/3 of the country. The Emergency is this : We have allowed ourselves to put our Democracy up for sale to the highest bidder due to the Citizens United decision, and we have sold it out cheap, for a few measly Russian billions paid to a fistful of mendacious, larcenous, rapacious, power hungry damned fools who want to destroy the American Government because they didn't like the outcome of the Civil War. A few stupid, petty men who have neither the heart to help their fellow men nor the soul to hold to the American ideals. A fistful of men too interested in their own petty bullshit political fights to retain any fealty to the ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. These men (and they are indeed nearly all men, with few women and no persons of color ) want control over all people so that they can deliver the greatest amounts of misery to the poor while shoving money into the pockets of the wealthiest, but even that is of only secondary importance. The greatest emergency by far is the need to take back our FORM of government, wherein money is not speech, wherein secrecy is not permitted, and all must act in the open. No more secret PACs! No More unlimited campaign donations. The purpose of secret money groups is not free speech, but secret bribery. We must demand an immediate move to amend the constitution to ban such uses of money. If not that, then a renewal of McCain-Feingold, constructed so as to withstand supreme court scrutiny. WE HAVE TO GET THE BIG MONEY MEN OUT OF OUR POLITICS ! No one should be able to BUY an election!

Rant Over.

Teal Deer

Teal Deer version : Stop talking about this and that for a moment and realize those are secondary at best. If we allow ourselves to further descend into an Oligarchy none of that stuff will ever get done.