Showing posts with label 1970s. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1970s. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 26, 2026

Thursday, August 26, 1976. Ebola emerges.

The first known outbreak of  Ebola, more correctly Zaire ebolavirus, occurred in the village of Yambuku Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Mabalo Lokela, a 44-year-old teacher, was the first person to report with the disease.  He died on September 8.

The virus is believed to have diverged from its progenitors between 1960 and 1976.  It was genetically consistent, it is believed, before 1900.  Climate change or a change in human activity spurred its evolution.  It's genetic diversity has dropped off, although recombination events in apes have resulted in outbreaks in human populations since then.  It does seem to be responding to its human host as well.

Last edition

Thursday, August 19, 1976. Ford prevails over Reagan.


Wednesday, August 19, 2026

Thursday, August 19, 1976. Ford prevails over Reagan.

U.S. President Gerald Ford edged out challenger Ronald Reagan, 1,187 to 1,070 in delegate votes, on the first ballot to win the Republican National Convention in Kansas City.  He thereafter chose Sen. Bob Dole as his running mate.


The choice would prove fateful.  Ford was swimming upstream against an insurgent Carter due to the impact of Watergate, when Americans still cared about corruption, and high inflation.  Carter, of course, would prove to be a weak President, giving rise to a successful run by Reagan in 1980, who in the meantime had developed a Southern strategy that would ultimately destroy the GOP.

Last Edition:

Wednesday, August 18, 1976. Panmunjom axe murder incident (Korean: 판문점 도끼 살인 사건).

Tuesday, August 18, 2026

Wednesday, August 18, 1976. Panmunjom axe murder incident (Korean: 판문점 도끼 살인 사건).

A border incident on the Korean DMZ occured in which North Korean soldiers rushed American and South Korean troops and killed two Americans with primitive weapons.  

The tree being cut down two days later as part of Operation Paul Bunyan, a US show of force resulting from the incident.

South Africa announced a multiracial government was be created for South West Africa as it moved towards independence as Namibia.  South Africa had been holding on to the territory under the cover of a British League of Nations Mandate following World War One.

Catholic Priest the Reverend Roman Kotlarz was beaten to death by the Polish secret police.

Last edition:

Monday, August 16, 1976. Hey, ho, let's go.

Sunday, August 16, 2026

Monday, August 16, 1976. Hey, ho, let's go.


The Ramones debuted as a professional band at CBGB, a New York bar.

The bar had been open for three years at the time, and specialized in blue grass and country music.  It'd soon specialize in punk.

The NFL played a demonstration game in Tokyo, the first time the NFL had played outside the US. The temas were the St. Louis Cardinals and the San Diego Chargers.

The New Zealand Private Schools Conditional Integration Act took effect allowing private schools, mostly Catholic, to come under the regulation and tax support of the government. 

Last edition:

Monday, August 9, 1976. Selous Scouts enter Mozambique.

Saturday, August 15, 2026

The 2026 Election, 19th Edition. Primary Voting Commences Edition. Vote like your future and that of your state depends on it, because it does, part three.

Robert M. Carey, left, Robert D. Carey, right.  Robert M. Carey was a lawyer, rancher, judge, and Congressman, Senator and Governor of Wyoming who received the Democratic nomination for the office in 1910 after determining to leave the Republican Party in order to defeat its machine.  He followed Theodore Roosevelt into the Progressive Party and never returned to the GOP.  Robert D. Carey was his son was a Converse County banker and rancher who was part of the Progressive Party National Committee from 1917 to 1918 and who was elected to the position of Governor as a Republican in 1918.  He later served a single term as U.S. Senator from Wyoming.  Both men are proof who don't have to be a lockstep sycophant to be an effective politician.

Less than one week to go until the primary, which unless something bizarre happens, Trump defects to Russia taking Chuck Gray with him. . . Hageman and Degenfelder join the CPUA. . ., that will be the election for a lot of positions.

Although maybe not quite all.

As earlier noted, I've already cast my vote.  And honestly, in spite of the really disappointing overall choices at the statewide level, there were a few really good candidates.  

I voted for:

Governor:  Barlow.

Senate:  Mead

House of Representatives:  Christensen.

Secretary of State:  Short.

Superintendent of Public Instruction: Harshman

Everyone of these candidates was somebody you could really get behind.

There are others.  I'd note, more locally, Campbell for the House as well as Jarvis. And Engebretsen for the Senate.

And then there are a collection that really need to be sent packing.  Ide, Bear, Allemand, for example.  For that matter, Rasner, Gray, Friess and Hageman need to be retired from politics by the electorate.

We have, we note, only discussed the GOP candidates for the most part.  The GOP, now, is practically two parties in and of itself.  There's the Republican Party, and then there's the Calvinist Theocratic Party, the WFC.  They could not be more different.  One is a conservative party and the other a Protestant Christofascist party.  That sounds extreme, but unfortunately, it's true.

We haven't discussed the Democrats hardly at all, and for the most part, they stand no chance.  There are some exceptions.  Provenza in Albany County will go back into the legislature, for example. But there are a few others worth noting.  James Byrd, who is running for the U.S. Senate, is one.  If Mead doesn't win, Byrd may give Harriet Hageman a real run as on Wyoming issues, he's a better candidate.  I think Mead would beat him as Mead is a good candidate.  If Hageman defeates Mead, and then defeats Byrid, it will be simply because a fair number of people right now would vote for Josef Mengele if ran as a Republican.

The race for Superintendent of Education features two good Democrats, Ana Cordova and Sergio Maldonado.  Again, in a normal functioning democracy, either one would be a good contender in the general election. Probably neither stands a chance this year, but if Harshman does not win the primary, the race will at least be interesting.

August 12, 2026

A Freedom Caucus member:

Felony intimidation is not Rep. Gary Brown’s only conviction. He pleaded guilty to harassment in 2013.

And the far right in the state arguing with itself:

This whole thing is sort of inside baseball.  In terms of outright goofball positions Rasner is every bit as far right as anyone in the WFC.  Distinguishing their positions from his own is impossible, as they're the same.

Gray, however, unpacked the Freedom Caucus from his carpetbag and is one of the founding members of the populist movement in the state, which figures, as he isn't from the state, like almost all of its major members.  In endorsing Gray, they endorsed one of their own.  They couldn't have not endorsed him as that would have caused a major rift in the organization and would really have been unthinkable.

And Rasner has always been the odd man out in other ways, one being that he's an acknowledged homosexual, even if he's not noisy about it in any fashion.  He is noisy about almost everything else.

The WFC defended Gray and attacked Rasner in its response;

Reid Rasner is a failed career candidate who has brought division, dysfunction and political games to our state.  Wyoming deserves strong conservative, like Chuck Gray.

Calling Gray "strong" is really rich.  He's a whiny little weenie who likes to call people names.  And more than that, really.

Gray is noisy, but Wyomingites know almost nothing about him whatsoever.  Rasner has a much more open history, including having once run for a municipal position in Las Vegas and having been in a same sex legal union ending in divorce.  We know Gray is from Los Angeles originally, went to Wharton, and then moved to Casper to work at his daddy's radio station, where he had a vitriolic radio show.  His personal history is a complete mystery.  He's not only not known to have a love interest, he's not even known to have a like interest.

And then there's Bo Biteman.

Biteman was regarded as fully WFC in the last legislature.  WFC members, save for some of the core members, can usually disavow their membership when convenient as they keep no formal records of whose in and out.  Biteman said, according to the article;

The Freedom Caucus brings plenty of noise, I’ve ignored them when they’ve attacked me, I’ve ignored them when they’ve taken credit for work I helped lead, and I’m going to keep ignoring the distractions.

Well, suck it Bo.  You are WFC and simply pretending you aren't hasn't kept people from knowing that.  

David Giralt, whose positions seem to be about as far right as Gray's, Friess' and Rasner's, but who is more soft spoken about them, also threw rocks at the WFC, accusing them of  “very aggressive culture war tactics that, at the end of the day I think, just work against what the legislative process should be: holding true to your political ideological convictions and then working to get things done.”

What a joke.  Giralt may be a nice guy, but being a nice guy and a veteran doesn't excuse having the same set of positions as the WFC, as far as we can tell.

Friess took a page out of the national playbook, arguing that Republicans “fight the real enemy, the radical left AOC/ Mandami Socialists.”

M'eh.   

Balow, at least, was honest, endorsing their views, but noting that they're a bit nasty in pursuing them.  Her endorsement of their weltanschauung is part of the reason why we abandoned her in favor of Christensen.  Christensen, for his part, noted how ideologically driven the WFC is and how that had a detrimental impact on the 2026 Legislature.

The fact that members of the populist hard right, both going down in flaming defeat in next week's primary, are now throwing rocks at the WFC is really remarkable.  The WFC has always been downright nasty and full of hypocrisy, and they may now being getting ready to take on water.  This is a good time to get off the ship.

Overall, however, this is a really interesting development.  As campaigns begin to fail, and Biteman's, Rasner and Giralt's are failures, with Rasner's being a career ending failure, people are starting to be a more honest about things.  Frank Campman, freed of tight fitting cowboy boots that look like he got them in the children's department, and his Woody's Roundup cowboy hat, move way to the center almost immediately after he dropped out of the race.  Rasner just recently exposed Chuck Gray's campaign manager, Gabe Saint, who was terminated from his intern position with Harriet Hageman due to the Francoist websites he'd been following, which is unfortunately a story that didn't go anywhere because Rasner is such a gadfly and had his own hosts of absurd extreme reels, such as promising to prevent Sharia Law from entering the state.

So, the far right Carpetbagger Caucus Revolution is in trouble and its outliers, those who were always a bit careful about it, and those whom it wouldn't let in the door, are now attacking it.  It hasn't seen that happen before.

There were some primaries across the country yesterday.

An amusing one is Mike Lindell, the "My Pillow" guy, going down in flaming defeat.  Lindell comes across as not particularly smart, which puts him in the MAGA Not Particularly Smart Branch of that movement.  Lindell has endorsed every wack job conspiratorial theory on Trump's 2020 election defeat that Trump has put out, and even was monkeying around with Wyoming's vote that election which was for Trump.  Lindell recently left his company to run for Governor of Minnesota.


Lindell had no chance of winning the primary as only the stupid and ignorant would vote for him.  That's what happened.  He's not accepting that however, claiming, in true Trump/MAGA style that there were "irregularities".

Lisa Demuth won the race with 43.4% of the vote.  Lindell did bring in 32.5% of the vote, which some have been shocked by.  One person asked if his supporters were stupid. 

Well, probably a lot of them are.

Let's be honest about stupidity, as the country has a real stupidity problem right now.

The United States has always had a strong anti intellectual streak, which endorsed the native intelligence of the common man. Frankly, it's been one of the problems the country's always been afflicted with. But at the same time, up until now, there's never been an era in which education was despised. Right now, we're seeing a lot of that. The reason is fairly simple. The really intelligent, through technology, have made it possible for the stupid to have a voice.


Which brings us to the bell curve.


Human intelligence it not really very well understood, even today.  Perhaps in some ways we don't know that much more about it than we ever did.  Btu what we do know is that in an average population, there's a mean.  Half the people are above it, and half below it.

More than that most of the people are somewhere on the middle part of the curve.  But if you divide it into thirds, 1/3d of it is considerably above the rest in terms of intelligence, and 1/3 considerably below.  Like Larry David's skit lampoons, we let the bottom third vote.

Therefore, it'd be somewhat fair to say that Lindell's 1/3d of the Minnesota vote represents "the stupid ones", and to some extent, it actually does.  While some of low intelligence would have voted for other candidates, Trump uniquely appeals to stupid.

He also uniquely appeals to the ignorant, which is not the same.  And that's where the story of intelligence gets complicated, particularly in voting.  I have a friend, for example, whose highly intelligent, but completely disinterested in politics.  He still votes.  A lot of rural people I know are big Trump supporters, not because they're dumb, but because they listen to their neighbors and they've all collectively bought off on BS Trump conspiracy theories.  As part of that, however, I'll note, that they're mostly poorly educated.

Anyhow, take the dumb, the ignorant, and the poorly educated together, you probably have at least 33% of the population.  Technology makes the difference.  In prior eras, those people were influenced by the smarter and the well educated around them.  Now, they're influenced by themselves.

Amy Klobuchar, who have (and still would) make a good President, won the Minnesota Democratic nomination. She's going to be Minnesota's next Governor.

In the Wisconsin gubernatorial race, Democrat David Crowley narrowly beat Democratic Socialist Rep. Francesca Hong.

This was a failure in the polls, by the way, as Hong was heavily favored in polls to win.

Whether they should be or not, Democrats are probably breathing a sign if relief over that, but they probably should actually be taking stock on what's really going on.  It's being interpreted as the party base going to the radical left, but in reality Democratic Socialism is simply the smarter kid brother of MAGA. I.e., it's populism wearing the educated team jersey rather than the Kelly's bar and grill jersey.  There was always a really strong chance that MAGA's today would be rooting for Bernie Sanders tomorrow, and its starting to happen.  And frankly some of the Democratic Socialist platform, like universal healthcare, are ideas that have not only arrived, they arrived and should have been adopted 80 years ago.  In other words, as we've said before, the rise of Democratic Socialism isn't necessarily a bad thing, but both the Democrats and the GOP need to find a way to steal its popular platforms.

In a sane political system, it'd be really easy for the American Solidarity Party to enter right here, but unfortunately we lack that.

Trump backed Tom Tiffany, a Freedom Caucus member, won the GOP nomination. 

The Republicans hold the legislature in Wisconsin, the Democrats the Governor's office.  My predictions is that the Democrats retain the Governor's office and gain the Senate there.

Showing the emerging trend, in Connecticut 78 year old Democratic Rep. John Larson went down in defeat to 47 year old Luke Bronin, the former Hartford mayor and a former Navy intelligence officer.  The Democrats are booting out the boomers. 

About time.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was on This Week as the Press is treating her as the national leader of the Progressives and the Democratic Socialists.  I really think that this is wholly in error, although she was a very early member of a Democratic Socialist chapter to be elected to Congress.* There's a lot of things I disagree with Ocasio Cortez politically, including her support of abortion, but her analysis on the state o things in these elections, which came before yesterday's' primaries, was astute.  She noted that Millennials are mad, and are implicitly mad at the Baby Boomers.  They are, and they aren't the only ones.  Generations Jones and Generation X are also really angry with the Boomers, even though the Boomers seem wholly clueless about this.

Going back to Minnesota, progressive, but not Democratic Socialist, candidate Peggy Flanagan defeated a centrist Rep. Angie Craig for the Democratic Senatorial primary.  She'll now face Republican winner  Michele Tafoya, a former National Football League sideline reporter.

Flanigan is a Native American.

The seat is presently held by Democrat Tina Smith.  Flanigan is likely to win it.

cont:  

From the Governor:

OP ED by Governor Mark Gordon: Wyoming Doesn’t Need More Mud Slinging

August 12, 2026

My friend and erstwhile opponent in the 2018 Primary for Governor approached me a few days before election day and said, “Mark, I might actually beat you.” He had good reason to think that. It had been a hard campaign.

His entrance into the race had been a surprise to the entire field, but he approached it with grace, humor, and enthusiasm grounded in his faith. He earned his spurs, so to speak, by traipsing all over Wyoming with the rest of us, walking parades, answering questions at forums and debates. Campaigning is tough for anyone but this 79-year-old man, it was clear, had demonstrated he had the stuff it takes to be a strong leader.

I took his comment seriously. By then he had Chuck Norris backing him and Donald Trump Jr. Foster Friess was a fierce competitor eventually gaining President Trump’s endorsement shortly before the primary. 

Foster and I agreed to keep the race above board – and I believe we did. Sure, there were some clumsy and ineffective 3rd party shenanigans towards the end, but neither of us ever condoned them.

Foster was always a gentleman, as were Sam Galeotos and Taylor Haynes. All were among the first to offer help to a new Governor with  so much to learn from each. I am grateful because I know it isn’t easy to offer a hand after such a hard fought election . It sucks to lose and it really hurts.

This election, similar to the one two years ago, has amplified the sorts of big city, big money, nasty half-truths and flat-out lies or falsehoods that have become all too common in other states. It’s not the Wyoming I know.

Here we respect the Code of the West, and most candidates always worked to discourage that sort of campaigning. They understood it was offensive to Wyoming people, who pretty well know right from wrong. Contrast is one thing, but bearing false witness is taboo for a population that appreciates all ten of the Commandments.

Where has that sensibility gone? This election we have been abused by cynical political operatives whose stock-in-trade is to twist facts and foment suspicion with incomplete, dishonest tales and misinformation. Especially galling are out-of-state political operatives who get paid big bucks for duping voters.  I hope their vilification is misplaced in the Cowboy State.  Wyoming voters are honest and they care. 

I believe voters will see through the baloney that passes for politics elsewhere and will come to rest on those candidates who know what they are talking about, know and care about Wyomingites and know what is important to Wyoming – jobs, family, the economy, and our way of life.

Ask yourself, is this candidate talking mostly about someone else, or, as they should be, are they listening and talking about the things that will keep our core industries vital, our way of life secure, our kids safe, and our communities whole. Ask yourself if what they are saying is valuable to your community, to your family, to your grandchildren –  or is it just political blather and mud?

Ask what a candidate has actually done to make the state better and why.  Ask for details. 

I say enough with the name calling, the false information, the nasty for nasty sake. Enough with the schlock that uses Wyoming voters as fundraising bait. Let’s elect people for who they are and what they will do, not for what some mysterious, never-heard-of-them-before organization ginned up to make voters mad. Let’s elect people to represent our interests, not puppets who parrot consultants’ talking points.  

Ride for the brand!

Cont:

The number of mailers per day has now reached the absolutely insane level.

Real attack mailers are now coming, and they are quite frankly absurd. The ones directed at Barlow are at the level where the authors should be forced to memorize the Summa Theologica in the original Latin and be able to recite it back without looking, particularly the part on lying.

One that came today compared Liz Cheney to Reid Rasner.


Seriously?

That would be in favor of Reid Rasner.

Harriet Hageman's today emphasized her protecting Second Amendment rights. What flaming carp.  The 2nd Amendment hasn't been under attack now for decades.

There were three Steve Friess ones, all devoid of content, as all of his hard.  He promised to use his "Conservative" values to help President Trump.

Trump isn't a conservative, he's a fascist, with it often failing to be noted that both fascism and communism are populist movements (so is socialism).  And at this point, for those wanting to "help" Trump, these questions should seriously be asked:

  • Do you intend to help him launch more illegal wars?
  • Do you intend to pursue the illegal wars without a declaration of war, and are you willing to bear the cost of the dead on your souls?
  • Do you intend to support illegal tariffs?
  • Do you intend to help subvert the result of the election?
  • Do you intend to help Donald Trump get richer while the lower middle class gets poorer?
  • Do you intend to help wreck Christianity in the country by pretending that Trump's a Christian?
Why the crap would anyone pledge to help Trump?

Conservatives wouldn't.


Apparently nobody thinks about the heepings of bullshit that go into the real far right mailers.  But Wyoming voters are polite in not asking any politician about his background.  Right now, for instance, you don't know anything about the carpetbagger candidates save what they have chosen to tell you.

August 15, 2026

So, the money trail for Governor.

Barlow leads with over $1.6M.  raised of which 75% is individual donors, 95% of which were in Wyoming.  Degenfelder comes in at $1.2M . The biggest share of her funds were from personal and family loans, of which $25,000 is from herself, and $500,000 from her father.

Bien only raised $200,000.  95% of his donors were also from within Wyoming.

Virginian based Make Liberty Win has spent $549,000, even importing in carpetbagging young people to distribute it's flyers. They've come to the door twice.  They're backing Freedom Caucus candidates.

Yesterday brought another thick crop of flyers.

Footnotes:

*She's not the first.  The first outright Socialist to be elected to  Congress, which she is not, was  Rep. Victor L. Berger of Wisconsin, who was elected in 1923.  The first Democratic Socialist to be elected to Congress was Korean War Marine Corps veteran Ronald Vernie Dellums of California, who was elected in 1971.  He served in that position until 1998.  

It's notable that with quite a few Democratic Socialist their affiliation is rather mixed.  It's almost more akin to being a member of a Caucus, like the Freedom Caucus, than actually being a member of a party, even though it is a party. Typically, Democratic Socialist run as Democrats, just as Freedom Caucus members run as Republicans rather than as fascists or Francoist.

Last edition:

The 2026 Election, 18th Edition. Primary Voting Commences Edition. Vote like your future and that of your state depends on it, because it does, part two.Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , ,



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Thursday, August 13, 2026

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist 149th Edition. Abandoning Ship.

The first significant administration departure.

Karoline Leavitt is leaving her post as White House Press Secretary.

There's going to be a lot of speculation as to why she did this, but let's credit what she said. She's 28 years old, and just had a baby.


Her second.

Her husband is 32 years her senior.

Leavitt is a Catholic, as am I, but she's completely ignored the Catholic injunction against lying.  Lying on serious matters is a serious sin.  Personally, while I can not know her mind, I think she knows she's a liar.

I think she likely knows at this point, at age 28, that she needs to reform and repent.  Her first child was born out of wedlock with her current husband, Nicholas Riccio.  The second was born within the union.  Her affiliation with Trump has locked her into a web of lies for which she'll always be remembered.  Indeed, while this blog entry is somewhat forgiving, most pundits will not be, witness:

Karoline Leavitt Will Soon Lie Somewhere Else

From The New Republic.

I bet she knows that, and that it's time to get out while she can.  Get out, confess, and get clear.  Even at that, the burden she has of repenting from such a public life of outright lying is a heavy one.

I bet she tackles that.  A tell all book will be forthcoming. . . it'll be out before Trump leaves office at the end of this term, if old age doesn't take him to his reward, or lack of one, before that.

Well, may she find a path to peace. She needs it. 

So do her two children.

It won't be easy, overall, we might note.  Lots of people eventually confront their sins and reform, but very few have to confront the public record of it, which in the modern age lasts forever.  Leavitt is, as The New Republic notes, an outrageous liar and that will follower her the rest of her life.

Indeed, if you look at people who had really vile roles serving really vile people, and Leavitt's role has been vile and Donald Trump is a vile person, it's really hard to find anyone who overcomes it.  Albert Speer probably came as close to it as anyone, but even he, as charming as he was, never really did.  Georgy Malenkov, part of Stalin's government, completely fell after Stalin and eventually became a Russian Orthodox Lector, a sort of clerical position in the Eastern Rite churches.

The American things, of course, is to try to convert your infamy into a sort of fame, which is always sort of pathetic.  Monica Lewinsky is the prime example.

Well, as noted, my guess is that Leavitt, while home raising her children, will start working on a tell all book.  By the time its released she's  reveal, I'm guessing, how she never loved Donald Trump.

I also bet that Trump, right now, lives in fear of what that book will reveal.

Mini Mutinies.


Sailors on the USS Abraham Lincoln have been trying to jump overboard to their deaths.  

At least those are the reports, confirmed in at least one case by the spouse of a sailor who tried to do just that.  "Big T" Pete Hegseth called the reports "fake news", with the Trump administration branding anything that is actually true as fake.

The ship, launched in 1988, has experienced food shortages, moldy showers, broken toilets, dead laundry facilities, and a lack of basics necessities such as soap and toothpaste during its ninth month deployment.

It's interesting in part because such conditions, while appalling, would not have been that much out of the norm in earlier eras.  Sailors just endured it.  But then, they endured a lot of similar conditions in daily life.  People were, in fact, tougher than they are now.

But it's also interesting as it might reveal something else going on.

The lats time the US Navy had really serious shipboard problems of this type was during the late stages of the Vietnam War, when the USS Kitty Hawk and the USS Constellation endured mutinies the Navy has refused to acknowledge as mutinies. These were serious events and they came at a point in time at which US military morale was at its lowest point since the Mexican War, during which time it had such low morale in some quarters that troops had deserted to join the Mexican Army.

The problem had expressed itself first in the Army, with the Army starting to experience everything from quiet disobedience in Vietnam to some outright revolts in the US.  The Kitty Hawk incident occured in 1972 with the Constellation event happening the following year.  Nothing like that has happened since.

The Kitty Hawk had a hard Vietnam War deployment of eight months before it was ordered back into combat and the event began.  That's notable, as the Abraham Lincoln has been out nine months.

Also notable for the 1972 and 1973 events is that everyone had completely lost faith in the Vietnam War by that time, and frankly in the military itself.  Rarely noted during the revision of the history of the war, the Vietnam War had destroyed the American Army as a combat effective force.  The US was lucky that none of our adversaries attempted any sort of additional war at the time. We likely could not have successfully contested one.

Servicemen who served in peacetime Navy before the Second World War were sort of their own breed.  A lot of them were tough careerist for whom the Navy itself was their home.  Set in that era, the movie The Sand Pebbles does a good job of showing what their view was like, and of course it came from a novel by a veteran who had served in that time.  A sort of oddly nostalgic look at the same thing, but set in 1973, is Cinderella Liberty, one of two sort of cynical Navy movies released that year, the other being The Last Detail.

During World War Two sailors, most of whom were wartime volunteers, knew what they were fighting for.  In the Cold War, for the most part, they did too.  Mutinies came when that was no longer clear.

It sure isn't clear now.  American servicemen aren't serving in a just cause and all of the military actions during the Second Trump Administration have been illegal, with one, the boat destruction off of South America, constituting murder of the targets.  The current war shows ever sign of being endless and pointless, and the men know it.

Some honorable commanders have simply resigned.  Enlisted men can't do that.  Serving in an illegal war on a ship that's a craphole, they're serving an administration in which many of them are not the right kind of people, as the administration sees it.  US resources are now really stretched on top of it.  All in all, what's going on board on the USS Abraham Lincoln isn't a good sign.

Toy boats


Part of what's not very honorable is the insane playing along which amounts to marking time until Trump is out of office. The Navy is doing that with the Trump Class of big missile cruisers which King Donny wants built.  Termed "battleships", because Trump knowns nothing about this topic and apparently thinks that battleships are nifty, rather than rendered obsolete decades ago, the CBO estimates that if built they'll cost the country $275B over 30 years.

They won't be built.

They are already costing the country money however.

Like the ballroom, this will keep dragging along until Trump is retired or falls face first in a Big Mac, at which time it'll be terminated.

Monuments to failure

On costs, it's now estimated that all of Trump's D.C. projects will cost nearly 1B.

The country doesn't have this kind of money and we know it.

Had Joe Biden proposed spending 1B on D.C. renovations, Republicans would be howling around the city crying "fiscal responsibility!" and people like Gray, Ranser, and Friess would be warning about the republic being on the verge of ending.  The Wyoming Freedom Caucus would be howling.

Not one Republican is going to say a word about this.

Part of the outrageous nature of the expense is what the administration is planning on.  Building is expensive and tearing down is expensive also.

The Democrats can be planned on to have angst about the expense of tearing things down as its expensive.  They already are.  Additionally, the Democrats remain dedicated to the law, whereas the GOP does not.  The GOP knows that as well and is no doubt planning that the process of tearing crap down will be tied up by worries about the expense and legalities of it.

Well, on this one, the next President should in fact take a page out of Trump's book.  Within an  hour after the inauguration the Corps of Engineers should be ordered to remove whatever has been constructed of the ballroom with in 24 hours, tear down what ever has been built of an arch within the same time frame, and de-guild the bronze statues, even if it means their destruction, with in six hours.  By the end of the 24 hours all the gold or gold appearing nicknacks in the White House ought to be removed to the bunker and the entire thing filled with cement. The reflecting pool should be drained and the Rhino Lining torn up.

Contracts with anyone who contributed to these atrocities should be cancelled and the entities barred from future government contracts.  

Radical reconstruction.

Replacement?

People are already wondering who will replace Leavitt as Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda.  Fortunately, Wyoming offers the perfect solution.

By Tony Webster - Flickr, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=169386648

Chuck Gray.

Chuck loves Donald Trump more than Karline Leavitt ever did.  Chuck would never leave.  And he already as experience as a spoken media figure, having had a radio show on his daddy's radio station, and he is a really experienced liar.

Leavitt said some really outrageous stuff while she was spokesman, but they don't hold a candle to the sting of accusations that Chuck retouinely hurls out. Why he'd be calling people communists, Marxist, fascist, abiogenist,dogmatist,lutist, prologistableist, dramatist, in no time.

His only disadvantage would be that he's not a woman.  Most of the recent ones have been.  On the other hand, he's not married and he can't get pregnant (shoot, he's never even seen with women, or men, or mammals) so he won't be going anywhere.

And this gets him out of having to pretend that he's a Wyomingite nad having to buy all that Westerware.

Last edition:

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist 148th Edition. The Aerodrome: Substitute. The C-32A and Donald Trump.