The long, hot summer.

I remember it. the interval between June 17 1972 and August 9 1974 -- in between the time of the Watergate break-in and Nixon's resignation from office. The whole thing started over a relatively minor break-in at the Watergate, and spun out into conspiracies to silence people, fired Justice Department officials, congressional committees, and finally, the President who originated the phrase "It's not illegal if the President does it" resigned from office hours ahead of being impeached.
Now, 45 years later, we have another President who is working under a cloud of suspicion and derision. Suspicion because he and his campaign staff have, by all appearances, colluded with a hostile foreign power in using illegal means to gain information with which to alter the outcome of the election, and possibly even with Russian attempts to hack election boards nationwide. Further, The President has openly denied even the possibility of hacking or election tampering. Further, the President has fired the Director of the FBI in order to stonewall or stall the investigation that might show his people up as corrupt criminals. There are other, less notable things, but it is slowly becoming clear that there is a serious issue at hand here, one that might very well end the Trump presidency in an impeachment and removal from office.

The Great Crusade.

73 years ago today, American, British, Canadian and Free French forces waded ashore in Normandy, beginning what overall Commander General Dwight David Eisenhower called "The Great Crusade". 

The operation had been called off before. Weather was closing in, and summer storms were coming. Eisenhower had to make a dangerous decision. I have little doubt he didn't sleep the night before making the decision. Finally, he stepped into his briefing room and told the assembled officers: "We Go. "
The men got back on the ships they'd been on before and waited. Most were seasick. Many violently so. Yet, when the time came, they got down into those Higgins boats and set off for shore. Many of them would later say they went not because of the Great Crusade against the Nazis, or because they were ordered to, but because their buddies were going. But make no mistake, whatever reason made them go, every last damn one of them were brave men. As someone else once said -- the brave man is the fellow who is scared, knows it, yet bites back his fear and goes anyway. He is brave for maybe a few more minutes than the other guy. On one beach in particular, American soldiers got down into the boats and went. They went into the most vicious, concentrated barrage of rifle, machine-gun, artillery, and mortar fire ever. The Germans knew all about Higgins boats. They knew that you waited until the ramp dropped and then fired a burst of MG-42 fire into the opening. They knew that most of the men so treated did not live to reach the shore. The men in the boats knew all that too. And knowing it, they went anyway.
So, today, June 6th 2017, I write my little memorial to those brave men. All of the ones who waded ashore that grim morning deserve our thanks.

Memorial Day.

Memorial Day:

He's gone where the woodbine twineth. He's been called to higher service. He's paid the ultimate price. Given the ultimate sacrifice. Stopped a packet. Bought one. Bought a Farm. Mustered to Fiddler's Green. Sleeping with the angels. "Another Marine reporting in. They say they let 'em in, for they've already served their time in Hell. "
Euphamisms for killed in action. Died because there was a war on, and men (and increasingly women) must die in battle. This day used to be a day for somber reflection and for visiting the graves of your fallen family and friends, and for cleaning them up and polishing the brass. Now, it's mostly just Barbeques, Beer and Auto Racing. There's nothing wrong with those things, so long as we all remember those whose gruesome, horrible death made it possible. So tip one back for the boys of the Argonne, Tarawa, Mosul, Swat valley and other less familiar places. Take a moment to remember the guys who're On Eternal Patrol. Don't just remember why they went, and why they died, but How they died. Because it is only by remembering the horrors of war that we impell ourselves to limit the times we make war. Yes, war is sometimes necessary. But by the blood of those who won't ever be coming back, please only make war when you have to.

Okay. enough preaching. Go back to your sports and beer. You earned it.

The Passing of a Strategic Thinker.

I did not personally know Zbigniew Brzezinski, but I witnessed his work. 

 

 Brzezinski's name will always be tied in my mind with Henry Kissinger, who remains a public figure. In the early and mid seventies, those two names were on everyone's lips, like Damon and Pythias. I did not and do not agree with Kissinger's "Realpolitik" idea of dealing with whoever we needed to deal with in order to achieve some supposedly desirable end. However, this is not about my disagreements with Kissinger.This is about the man who was President Carter's national security advisor, and who along the way managed to have an illustrious academic career. Personally, I disagreed with many of Brzezinski's ideas, but he was a man of intellect and learning, who had grown up as a young boy seeing the rise of the Nazis. Brzezinski was a man of reason in a time where men of reason were rare. I offer my condolences to his family and friends.

Trump's warmongering.

No rational man likes war. But Trump isn't rational. 

Yesterday, April 7 2017, President Donald J Trump went around congress and ordered an act of war against the de Jure government of Syria. Trump ordered some 59 cruise missiles to be fired at an airbase in Syria, the airbase from which the deadly gas attack was allegedly launched.
The damage and casualties are not yet known, and the reaction from the factions in the region is anybody's guess now. However, the effects on the Syrian military are minimal. They will be deprived of a number of aircraft for a while, but Syria has oil revenue and can easily replace the aircraft. Have no doubt, Putin will be only too glad to sell Assad any number of fighters, perhaps with some concessions from Assad into the bargain, but the aircraft will be replaced. The only thing this deal will have done is make some Russians richer and give Putin more leverage with Assad and his military Cadre. Assad will have learned little, and will in time continue to destroy his own people, because that's all he knows.

I don't get it . . .

I don't understand this: Canada, our friends to the north. Britain, our cousins across the pond, Germany, our once-enemy now ally, Norway, the first nation to officially recognize the United States as a Nation. All these nations have adopted The Evil Socialism that is single-payer health care, but we have not declared war on them or declared them part of the AXIS OF EVIL. So, if this chunk of Socialism is So EVIL, then why haven't we ? Why haven't we used our economic leverage to get these countries to drop these unsound, unsane, Un-American practices ? Why are there no economic sanctions on Britain ? Where's the campaign to Divest from Canadian companies ?
Anybody ?

Bueller ?
 

Where next, Baby-Boomers ?

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.