King Donald's War, Part 10. "If any question why we died, Tell them, because our fathers lied." Donald Trump, the killer edition.

July 21, 2026.

If any question why we died, 

Tell them, because our fathers lied.

Kipling. 

Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, age 19, killed in Jordan. 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan also died.  Both were assigned to Air Defense Artillery units.

Just 19 years old. She died, not so that Iran would not have a nuclear weapon, not for liberal democracy in Iran, but because a demented old narcassist duped by a prime minister of a desperately minoritarian regime in the Middle East could spill her blood for its purposes.*

Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth, and every American supporting this war has blood on their hands.

And not just hers.

Isabella Gonzales.  A life cut short, and a life taken on behalf a regime that would likely send her to Mexico on the basis that she has a Spanish last name, if it could, for a war that most Americans don't want, and which is being fought for Israel.

I'm not, as I've noted before, in favor of women in combat.  Pvt. Gonzales left a few social media type posts of herself, in uniform, acting very cute, and very feminine.  She did not deserve this.  It sounds brutal to say this, but this is a man's role.

But more than that, this is a role that should be filled, if it had to be, by those who brought it about.  Why are the Trumps not in action? 

Why have they never been?

A person who did.

1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, 2nd Battalion, 55th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command, 25 years of age.

The classic look of a lieutenant.  Too bad he died for utterly nothing.  He deserved better.

A third serviceman was killed but has yet to be identified.  It taking this long probably says something about the nature of his wartime death, a war that we're waging and which we're waging illegally, with no declaration of war.

Not one prominent MAGA, we'd note, has stepped up to the plate.  Barron, Eric, Donald Trump Jr.,.Ivanka Trump and Tiffany Trump.  Won't you?  You can join Pete Hegseth in our new colonial escapade, and;

Take up the White Man’s burden—
Send forth the best ye breed—
Go send your sons to exile
To serve your captives’ need*

Nah, that's not going to happen.

Most days now, it won't even be the main headline.  Troops will go on killing and dying, and for what?  A goal never clearly expressed, and which cannot be obtained without massive loss of life.

July 22, 2026

The third soldier:

Sgt. Angel S. Rampersad, age 28.

And killed elsewhere in Iraq.

Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton, age 30.

I suppose their faces look like America as it is. . . but not really the America that people like some in the Trump seem to want it to look like.

CST  headline:

Well, like they say, freedom isn't free, and apparently giving up your freedoms for a demented narcissist isn't either.

The Houthis are threatening to close the Red Sea.

July 24, 2026

From the CST:

Waist deep in the big muddy.

July 26, 2026

The Houthis hit oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia yesterday.

News reports hold that the administration has put on hold an escalation of the war due to a shortage of air defense munitions.  Savvy analysts, including yours truly, have been warning about that occurring for months, and not it's here.

So, in keeping with that, a prediction.

This is also likely a moment that Putin and Xi have been waiting for as well.  Our weapons stockpile has been built up over years, and now we've wasted it on a war fought for Israel and Trump's vanity.  Both Putin and Xi know that the next President, assuming at Trump 2028 coup to be unsuccessful, and assuming that we don't have another President before 2028, is much less likely to be a complete patsy and geopolitical dimwit.  

For Russia, that means Russia needs to fight on in hopes it can win before the next administration comes on.  For Xi, that means the time to invade Taiwan is. . . now.

July 27, 2026

We're really back to, if not surpassing, the Vietnam War era administration fibbing levels.

Pentagon reveals hundreds of new Iran war casualties

More than 600 troops have been wounded in the Iran war, officials disclosed Saturday, almost 200 more than previously known.

July 29, 2026

Trump openly showed frustration with Netanyahu who was in town for Lindsey Graham's funeral as Bibi announced ahead of time that he wanted to share Israeli intelligence on Pickaxe Mountain. 

That intelligence would reportedly show that the Iranians are reconstituting their nuclear program there and have no plans to give it up, which is obvious.  That frustrates Donny, however, who was basically suckered into the war by Bibi and now can't find a way out.  Bibi is trying to keep him focused and involved.

Iran launched a series of missile strikes on US targets yesterday.  The missiles were reportedly alls hot down, but they cause the US to burn through it's depleting anti missile supply.

July 30, 2026

Well worth reading.  We're not only losing, recent actions have made us even weaker than we were before.

Midweek Update #21: Iran Is Toying With The USA

Plus: Iranian Strategy; How Does This End?

We really have a evered amateurs at war problem going on.  Hegseth apparently just feels that bombing wins wars, which has never worked.  Trumps managed to go from having a horror of war into being nearly bloodthirsty, at least in his rhetoric.  We're depleting weapons like crazy when we're already broke.

The war not only will have a losing result, but this is going to have a severely bad end for the country.

July 31, 2026

The U.S. resumed strikes on Iran yesterday.  A drone strike on gas vessels in Egypt’s Mediterranean port of Damietta occurred which is fairly clearly linked to the war, but the details have yet to be developed.

As an aside, I've already noted that the recent dead are half female and 3/4s minorities.  It's also the case that one, Sgt. Angel S. Rampersad, was  lesbian in a same gender union.

I'm noting that as the dead do not line up with Pete Hegseth's and MAGAs world view of who are Americans, yet they're the ones dying.

Iran has conducted a cyber attack on the Minnesota public water systems.

Cont:

The dipshit in the Oval Office blamed Minnesota for the Iranian attack on that state's public water systems.

He really doesn't care about you folks.

August 1, 2026

The illegitimate Trump Administration is meeting at Camp David today to discuss the illegal war it started.

August 3, 2026

Trump called off attacks and promised not to resume if a deal could be reached quickly.

It's won't be.

Iran and Oman are apparently in separate discussions on the Strait of Hormuz.

August 4, 2026

Trump claimed yesterday that talks were "underway".  Iran denied that any were going on.

In fact, last night, Iran has launched a drone attack on a U.S. military base in Kuwait. and Iran struck a cargo vessel off the coast of Oman, all after King Donny  claimed the U.S. and Iran have resumed negotiations.

Nobody knows for sure what the story is here, but we all know that Trump is an outrageous liar.

Trump is showing signs of getting increasingly frustrated with the war and clearly doesn't have any idea what to do.  Iran knows that and has zero incentive in working with him on anything.  More likely than not this is going to drag on for many more months.

The critical breaking point may prove to be a military one.  The US cannot sustain the war and it's now very clear that's the case.  Every single day of active fighting in the Middle East brings war with China, now inevitable in my view, closer.

"Amateurs talk tactics, professionals study logistics" is the phrase that come to mind.  Trump isn't a student of either.  Neither is Hegseth, by observation . Trump listened to armature hawks like Hegseth whose war philosophy seemed boil down to "make big boom, kill people, opponents surrender" which would demonstrate that he wasn't much of a student of history.

The U.S. Army has used up most of its stockpile of highly accurate long-range missiles in the war.

August 6, 2026

Apparently Hegseth and Trump got into a raging argument about the war at Camp David.

August 8, 2026

Iran has announced that the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until the United States meets certain conditions, including lifting the U.S. naval blockade and sanctions, withdrawing U.S. forces from around Iran, paying war reparations, releasing frozen Iranian assets, and ending attacks on Iran’s allies and threats against the country.

Yup, they're dictating terms to the U.S.

Footnotes:

*“The White Man’s Burden" by Kipling, quote in part. 

I don't admire the sentiments in this poem at all.  It's racist.  But it expresses the type of WASP colonialism, sans the Protestantism which at least moderated it a bit, of the colonial 19th Century, that the US is now experiencing under Donald Trump.

Related threads:

Wars and Rumors of War, 2026. Part 8. Donald Trump, China's (and Russia's) greatest ally edition.

Last edition:

King Donald's War, Part 9. The paper tiger edition.

Labels: 2020s, 2025 Israel v. Iran War, 2026, Barbary Pirates, Donald Trump, Gaza, Iran, Israel, King Donald's War, Rudyard Kipling, Straits of Hormuz, Stupidity, The Second Trump Administration, United States

 

The Congressional Oath Does Not Include “Until Death Do Us Part”

Acta deos numquam mortalia fallunt, et De mortuis nihil nisi bonum, et Regula Ernii Pyle. The reaction to the Death of Lindsey Graham.

If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed.......and we will deserve it.

Lindsey Graham, 2016.

I hadn't intended to post more on Lindsey Graham after my note on, well not Graham, but his dying at age 71.  

Not too surprisingly, however, he was a topic of all three new shows this weekend.  Meet The Press had yet another interview with Donald Trump (they've had a pile of them yesterday), on Graham.  Trump claims to have spoken to him just before his death and of course, Graham was for the Stopping Americans from Voting Act that Trump hopes will pass and save his bacon this fall.

The other interviews were more interesting.  I thought one of them gave a really good insight into Graham's evolution from a Trump opponent into a Trump supporter, that being pure politics.  He was, the person claimed, simply play politics, basically, and by cosying up to Trump was able to influence him and get what he wanted overall.

That might be right, and is the only good explanation I've ever seen for it. The question is, at what point have you gone too far.  Frankly, I think Graham went too far.

Lucien Truscott obviously feels that and has one of the most blunt applications of the Ernie Pyle Rule I've ever seen by a well known writer.*

The hole in the Senate named Lindsey Graham

Truscott outright states that Graham was a homosexual and betrayed his like attracted.

That brings up my first observation.

I don't know if Graham was a closeted homosexual or not, but if he was, it didn't seem to impact his votes at all.  That's part of what Truscott is complaining about, but on the Twitter, the epicenter of nastiness, I've seen.

Here's the thing, however.  A lot of the speculation on Graham's sexuality comes from his never marrying.  He was asked about it over his lifetime and his response was that he never found the right girl, or the right girl was lucky enough never to have found him.

Anyhow, as an observation, which of course is part of what this blog does in a evolution of time fashion, merely being a single adult doesn't mean a person is a homosexual.  One of my law school colleagues never married, for example, and I've known him since he was a pre teen.  He's definately not same sex attracted.  An older friend of mine is the same way.  He's now in his 70s and has never married.  He's not a homosexual, he just has a very unique personality that's operated against marriage.

If you'd asked me when I was in my late 20s, I would probably have said it wasn't going to happen.  At that age I'd lost a pretty serious girlfriend and broken up with a girl was sort of serious about me, but not the other way around.  Had things kept going the way they seemed to be going, and I thought at that point they definitely would be, I'd have reached the age of declining prospects pretty quickly and likely have been a single guy my whole life.  I wouldn't have liked that, but it happens.

Still, most men do marry, or at least if they aren't married, you can find pretty serious love interests they've had.  I've noted that above in regard to myself.  Its not as if I hadn't dated at all in my 20s.  It's odd for somebody to have no friends of the opposite sex who they're interested in that way, but it does happen.  

The opposite also happens, I'd note.  One of my high school friends was undoubtedly a homosexual, but he did marry a girl.  They divorced and he died quite young.  If you read his obituary it doesn't say of what, but I suspect I know.

Anyhow, I don't care if Graham was a homosexual at all and as it wasn't an open part of his life, and he didn't make it some sort of big political deal, I don't know why it matters.

On a finale note, the current Wyoming election season features one man who is an open homosexual but doesn't work that into his campaign.  One of his opponents is like Graham, there's no known female friends at all that have ever popped up, which raises questions if you are campaigning on the far edge of the far right.  And, fwiw, Wyoming has had one very good state office holder in the past who was a homosexual, while it never came out, and there's questions about a well known political figure as well.

The rest of Truscott's article, I'd note, is really blunt.  And Graham may deserve the application of Pyle's rule.

Public Interest wasn't much kinder:

Lindsey Graham and the rot of modern conservatism

From Gingrich to Trump, Graham was a fixture as the GOP became increasingly malignant.

Their article stated:

Lindsey Graham died a coward. His three-decade career in national politics should be remembered for more than his shameless, pusillanimous capitulations — but not, unfortunately, for some noble pursuit or purpose he used his chameleon-like political skills to secure. He should instead be remembered for using his power to bow and scrape, to change his political colors, largely if not solely in service to himself.

I guess that reminds of, in a way, of the maxim Acta deos numquam mortalia fallunt. There comes a time when reform is too late.  Medieval texts used to worry a great deal about the powerful dying with their sins unconfessed.  Well, many regular people do.  There's a lesson there.

Anne Applebaum wrote in The Atlantic:

But then, like many other Republicans—and, more important, like many other people who have lived under political occupation or experienced radical regime change—he made the decision to abandon his previous ideals, to bury the patriotism that was once so important to him, and to become, instead, a loud, opportunistic collaborator. Graham went out of his way to telegraph his closeness to the president. He played golf with Trump, made excuses for him on television, and supported him as he slowly destroyed the alliances that Graham had defended all his life, even as he undermined the institutions of democracy at home. In 2021, Graham refused to vote to convict Trump, even after he assaulted the Capitol and tried to reverse the results of the election.

Another commentator noted all of the post death accolades by members of the press who knew Graham.  He was a frequent press guest, having appeared for example on Meet the Press some sixty times.

Here's what Lindsey Graham should be remembered for--not corporate media's whitewashing

The whitewashing of Graham is awful!

That item started off with Shakespeare, “The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.”

Adam Kinzinger was much kinder, which in turn has resulted in Kinzinger being attacked on Twitter.

Some Brief Thoughts On The Passing Of Lindsey Graham.

Ann Telnaes ran a series of her political cartoons.

Sen. Lindsey Graham dead

A shameless political opportunist and one of Trump's chief enablers has died

In short, the "legacy media" was kind to Graham and his legacy. The print and pundit media, not so much.

In my view, he probably didn't deserve much respect.  The thing he should be remembered that he did best was rising to the occasion of his father's death (his mother had died less than a year prior) and raising his 13 year old sister.

On that, I noted here the other day that his father was 69 years old when he died.  My comments on age got some shocked rebukes in other quarters.  "71 isn't old".

Yes it is. 

Just looking at the social history aspect of this for a second, Graham was apparently 21 when his father died.  That would have meant that his father 48 years old when Graham was born, old to be a father.

Florence James "F.J." Graham was married to Millie Waters.  She was 52 when she died in 1977.  Graham's sister was only 13 when he died, meaning that their father was 56 when she was born, very old to become a father.  Their mother was was approximately 33 when Lindsey was born, and approximately 41 when she was.  41 is quite old to have a child for a women.  I don't know when they married, but there was an age gap of about ten years there, which isn't that uncommon.  More uncommon is that they apparently married sort of late with the mother in her very early 30s, or they had a hard time having children.

Some Twitter Twits have absolutely freaked out about his dying, attributing it to a conspiracy.  Complete nonsense.

By the way, Sam Neal died yesterday at 79, 8 years older than Graham.  James Van Der Beek at 48.  Catherine O'Hara at 71.

Trump, in an interview, said several times "I thought he would live forever".  He claims to have told Graham that several times, but with Trump, you can never tell if that's true.  That probably says more about Trump than Graham.

Graham came up during the Reagan era.  Reagan remains the huge hero to conservatives, but more and more he doesn't deserve to be.  It was Reagan who caused the sweep of old Dixiecrats into the GOP which has lead to its ultimate destruction.  I can't say that Graham was a Dixiecrat, but I will note that he was endorsed early on by Strom Thurmond, who most definitely was.

Graham had been a major supporter of the US effort in Afghanistan and  he was a big supporter of Ukraine.  I agree with him on both of those things . Ironically, given how close Graham was to Trump, it was Afghanistan that really started the riff between Liz  Cheney and Trump which lead to Harriet Hageman.

After January 6, Graham appeared to briefly find his moral ground.  For a few weeks there it looked as if Trump might be impeached.  Graham lead a speech from the floor that absolutely condemned what happened and implicitly condemned Trump.  Like most of the GOP, however, he went back to Trump boot licking.  That will be his legacy.

Well, legacies matter I suppose to the living, and for a reason. For the dead, they're beyond that.

May the perpetual light shine upon him.

Footnotes:

*Ernie Pyle, the famous World War Two reporter, once reported on troops reaction to having to pack a dead lieutenant they didn't like out of the Italian hills on a mule  A Sergeant stated "Son of a bitch alive, son of a bitch dead".

Related thread:

The death of Lindsey Graham. A timely American reminder.

Labels: Baby Boom Generation, Death, Middle Age, Old Age

The death of Lindsey Graham. A timely American reminder.

 

There will be, no doubt, a lot of mention today of the death of Lindsey Graham.  It'll feature, in some fashion, on all the news programs.  

I've commented a little on Graham in the election thread.  He was standing for reelection. That's all beyond him now.

What I'm commenting on instead is the "surprise" by his death.  Here's the most American, and stupidest, one:

I’m sorry, but Lindsey Graham dying out of the blue like this doesn’t make any sense at all. 

We have him on camera yesterday looking perfectly healthy. 

None of this is making any sense…

Sorry junior, somebody dying suddenly at age 71 makes all the sense in the world.

And frankly, Graham was more than looking his age in recent months.

It only doesn't make sense to modern Americans. Graham's own father was 69 when he died of a heart attack, which is likely what Graham died of as well.  

All human beings die, and after about 30, all males are on borrowed time, females after about 45.  After that, if death comes, maybe people are surprised, but they ought not to be.

My own father died at age 62, and his father at age 47.    My father's mother was 65 when she died.  I was a child at the time, but I can recall it.

The point here isn't to just point out the obvious, but to add something else.  American culture has moved in the Baby Boom Era from knowing that death can arrive at any point, and will arrive ultimately, to sort of believing it just can't happen.  Graham was 71 years old and running for a position which would have ended for him at age 78.  At 71, that position should go to a younger person.  People have to yield at some point.  Moreover, by putting positions of responsibility in the hands of people who are that old, society is just gambling with death.

Indeed, some morning in the news few days to years, we're going to wake up to the news that Donald Trump is dead.  Maybe he'll live through his term, but there's utterly no guaranty of that.  Right now he's taking a physical every six months, which is probably due to his declining mental status, but that shows it right there.

In earlier times countries would occasionally come under the reign of the the very young, but it was rare.  Almost always a regent was put in place to govern until they were old enough to do so.  There are rare exceptions.  Ismail I became Shah of Perisal at just 13 years old in 1501 and actually governed..  King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem  dismissed his regency and took personal control of his kingdom at age 15. I'd frankly rather have a 15 year old in charge than an 80 year old.  Society would say that's nuts, and indeed having a 15 year old in charge is nuts.  Having an 80 year old in charge is nuts too.

I'll deal with it in another post, but as for myself, at 63, I've recently started sending out the signals that I'm headed towards a career landing.  I'm 17 months out, no more.  It's funny how that's received.  Some are nervous, and some just don't believe it, including two older partners of mine, one in his 70s . It's not possible to retire at that age (I'll be five months shy of age 65).  But for that matter, there's no guaranty at all I'll be living by that time.  I may spend the next 17 months of my life paying for the fear of my long suffering wife that I can't retire, right now.

That's a bit different, however, from the hubris of "I'll be living" and "I'll be fit".

And so the general lesson.  We don't allow for old airline pilots as they may get suddenly ill, and kill everyone on the plane

The same is true for the elderly in charge of anything.

There's a time people should stop.  And people imaging that any male death over 50 is shocking or unusual are merely trying to comfort themselves.

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 129th Edition. An unfortunate observation of our times.

Lex Anteinternet: CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 128th Edition. Attem...: The 127th edition of this was teed up to go before last night's White House Correspondence Dinner, or this would be that edition.  Havin...

I tend to over empathetic.

That might be an easy thing to claim, but it's true.  I'm often tortured in litigation by how little Plaintiff's lawyers care about their clients.  Indeed, I think it's a hallmark of being a Plaintiff's lawyer, which I'm not, to not really give a rat's ass about them.  Most of them are callous to it.  I'm also tortured, however, by the extent to which litigation is regarded as a mere business transaction while it wrecks the lives an livelihoods of real people.

I'm bothered by the personal plights of people I don't know.  In movies with sad situations I'll find myself tearing up.  The killing of the Iranian schoolgirls in the current war bothers me so much that I couldn't tell my wife about it without starting to tear up and saying "think about their poor parents".  I can hardly stand to think about it now and it fills me with rage that we killed them, even if it was a targeting accident.  We have excuses, but we have no sympathy.

I note all of this as I'm bothered today by the extent to which the horrible human being and his acolytes in the White House have actually made me so fatigued that I'm having a hard time caring about what occurred at the Press Dinner.

Intellectually, I know it was awful.  I don't support killing people.  I'm opposed to abortion.  I'm opposed to the death penalty.  I'm opposed to wars save in the case of absolute need, a part of which his self defense.  I'm realistic enough to know that people can take the lives of others in self defense, but murder of a person is never justified.

But day after day of Trump's assault on human dignity has worn me down so much that I'm not empathetic about yesterdays events.  I know that they were wrong, but it's just an intellectual acknowledgement of it.

Sooner or later, most likely sooner given his advanced age, Donald Trump is going to pass on and go to his reward.  He's publicly wondered if he's damned.  As a Catholic, I hold to the belief that we should hope and pray for his salvation and that we do not know who is amongst the damned.  Hans Von Baltazar posed the question if we might dare to hope that all men are saved, and while we might dare to hope it, I very much doubt that is the case.  Still, we have no idea who is amongst the damned and who is amongst the saved, but just by objective Christian criteria, there's not a single member of Trump's administration that I hear about often whom I would not regard as having their souls in jeopardy.

I hate fact that Trump is so vile that he's made it so that I'm having a hard time being empathetic about a horrible event.  If Trump was to choke on a Big Mac today I'd say a prayer for his salvation, but it wouldn't be one of those things were I consciously morn a death, as I usually do.  I'm not wishing for his death, but I'm so burnt out about all things Trump I'd say a prayer for the dead and then probably move on to other things.

Trump has made many things that way.  He's done such violence to our society and its norms that its reached the state where it's almost impossible to care about them. At this point, if the next President had to tear out the Reflecting Pool, I wouldn't care.

When Trump is gone the nation is going to have a monumental time repairing itself.  I guess we have the example of the post Civil War era, in which the country manage to come back together in spite of actually fighting itself.  How it managed that isn't really clear.  It seems like it just decided it would.

Here's to hoping that the Better Angels of Our Mercy might return.

Last edition:

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 128th Edition. Attempted assassination at a pointless event.

Labels: 2020s, 2025 White House Vandalization, 2026, Conspiracy Theories, Donald Trump, Men, Military, News, Secret Service, The Press, The roles of men and women, Weapons, Women, Zeitgeist

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 127th Edition. The Dipshit Edition. The Wyoming Freedom Caucus decides the a General officer of the U.S. Army is too "woke" to be the President of UW.

Labels: 2020s, 2026, Army, Education, Ignorance, Stupidity, United States Military Academy, University of Wyoming, Woke, Wyoming Freedom Caucus, Zeitgeist

Wednesday, March 31, 1976. Karen Ann Quinlan.

The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that Karen Ann Quinlan, suffering from irreversible brain damage, could be disconnected from the ventilator that had been keeping her alive since April 15, 1975. She had been found unresponsive after she consumed Valium along with alcohol while on a crash diet and lapsed into a coma. A Catholic, her parents had appealed to Catholic moral theology arguing that extraordinary means not be required to preserve her life.

She'd live for an additional nine years.

She had been trying to lose weight to fit into a bikini.

This is one of those events I can personally recall.  It was a major news story at the time.

The UN Security Council found South Africa liable for an act of aggression against Angola, a fairly dubious Security Council conviction given that what South Africa really did is intervene in a civil war that other powers were likewise involved in.

The slam dunk was restored as a legal college basketball feature.

Last edition:

Wednesday, March 24, 1976. Passing of Field Marshal Montgomery.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, Argentina, Australia, Bernard Law Montgomery, British Army, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, United Kingdom, World War Two

Movies In History: Der Tiger

I watched this 2025 German movie a couple of months ago and hadn't gotten around to posting a review of it.  With the launching of a Donald Trump war against Iran, it feels a bit odd to do so now.

This review contains spoilers.

Der Tiger, released in the US as The Tank, is about, on the surface, an improbable mission given to the crew of a German Tiger tank that has just seemingly survived the detonation of a bridge to go deep into Soviet territory and rescue a behind the lines German commander who was apparently on some secret mission commanding a body of men likewise behind the lines.  Their former CO, they learn that he did not die, as claimed, at Stalingrad.  Because of the nature of the film, it's been compared, unfairly as in my view, with Apocalypse Now or Heart of Darkness, upon which its based, but the theme is completely different.

Going into it, on the surface the premise is absurd.  A tank would make a very poor means of rescuing anyone, let along a Tiger I was was very prone to mechanical breakdown. They're far from stealthy. And the Eastern Front, like the Western Front, was a dense combat environment.  It wouldn't work.

And that's not actually what the film is about.

In reviews of this film, a lot of reviewers are simply baffled by it. The excellent Fighting On Film podcast was one.  But, from a certain prospective, the film makes perfect sense.

That sense is a Catholic one.

I don't know if the director is Catholic, but if he isn't, he's heavily invested in Catholic views.  The clues are there throughout the entire film, from beginning to end.  The tank and its crewmen (with one exception) aren't on a mission to rescue their former commander, whom they do meet at a bunker, but rather they're on a trip, literally, to Hell.

During the trip we learn of the reason why.

Everything is there.  Odd grim reminders.  One wounded tank crewman is is taken out of the stricken tank to go into "the light".  A Mass, in Latin, is on the radio, which the Nazi era German radio would never have broadcast.  The entry into the bunker is guarded by metaphorical angels, although they superficially do not seem to be so.  The fires of Hell are at the end.

All in all, frankly, this film, which is nearly 100% metaphorical, is very well done, but a person needs to be aware of the imagery and background, which I suspect a German audience, where the two significant Christian religions are Catholicism and Lutheranism, which is based on it, may be more than most American ones, in order to grasp it.

In material details, this movie is pretty good, although it seems odd to even discuss the topic in this film. The depictions of German and Soviet armor are excellent, and the uniform details well done.  The tank crew, as mentioned, is of the SS, and they wear SS tank crew uniforms.

Playing stupid games on health care and winning stupid prizes on abortion.

 

Exactly what backers of Art 1  § 38 should have known would occur. Lampoon posted under fair use exception as I couldn't think of a more applicable illustration.

Wyoming Constitution Art. 1, § 38. Right of health care access

(a) Each competent adult shall have the right to make his or her own health care decisions. The parent, guardian or legal representative of any other natural person shall have the right to make health care decisions for that person.

(b) Any person may pay, and a health care provider may accept, direct payment for health care without imposition of penalties or fines for doing so.

(c) The legislature may determine reasonable and necessary restrictions on the rights granted under this section to protect the health and general welfare of the people or to accomplish the other purposes set forth in the Wyoming Constitution.

(d) The state of Wyoming shall act to preserve these rights from undue governmental infringement.

Jonathan Lange: The Supreme Court Owes Us An Explanation

Hmm, depends a bit on how he voted on the dumbass Art. 1, § 38..

'Lange has a point, as much as I hate to admit it. But the party that really owes the state an explanation is the paranoid sots who backed the Constitutional amendment set out above from 2024, and those who voted for it, about a right to make your own medical decisions, which you already had, as they feared AHCA meant death panels.

That was freakin' absurd.

Lange, did you vote for it?

This was really predictable. That set it up.  It was obvious.

Nobody is more opposed to abortion, which I regard as infanticide, than me.  Indeed, my views in this general area are probably far more "conservative" than most peoples.  

And to extend it, I'm not in favor of the death penalty either.

And, no, I don't think abortion is health care by a long measure, but if this hadn't been passed, the question would never have come up.

But to set this in the constitution of the state, what the crap did you think would happen?  It puts the court in the place of making an existential decision.

A really easy one to make, in my view, but if you take my view, on natural rights, a lot of right wingers wouldn't be very comfortable, very soon.

Saying Goodbye to Gracie Not ‘just a cat.’

 

Saying Goodbye to Gracie

Not ‘just a cat.’

Friday, December 21, 1945. Patton dies.

George S. Patton died at age 60, the result of injuries sustained in an automobile accident several days earlier.

The general's daughter woke up in the United States and saw him standing, in full uniform, at the foot of her bed, where he smiled.  His daughter Beatrice received a phone call in which he asked "Little Bee, are you alright?'”  An attempt to confirm the call in the morning ended up in the information that no oversees call had been placed.

Such incidents are not uncommon. A fairly large number of people experience post death visitations of people they knew, with it most commonly being the case that they happen very soon after the person's death.  Indeed, in ancient times, Jews believed that the spirits of the dead were not aware of their deaths for a three day period, and the Irish custom of a wake stems from a desire to stay awake with the recently departed to help them know that they had died.

Patton was one of the most controversial American generals of the Second World War.  A member of the cavalry branch, he's famously recalled as an armor general. Almost all of the really effective armor generals in the U.S. Army from the Second World War were cavalrymen.  While now hugely admired, during the war the two slapping incidents he was involved in nearly cost him his career.

Patton, although he died due to an accident, fits into a fairly large collection of senior military officers that died right after the war.

The Battle of Shaobo in China ended in a Communist victory.  It was another one of the battles in which Chiang Kai Shek pitted Chinese collaborationist units that had rejoined the Nationalist against the Communists.

From the same newspaper as above:

Casper received news that the Texas Refinery was going to expand.

It's now closed.

Ethiopian Airlines was founded.

Last edition:

Thursday, December 20, 1945. Tires.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Automobiles, Rationing, Transportation, United Nations

Monday ,November 22, 1875. The death of Vice President Henry Wilson.

Ardent opponent of slavery and career politician Vice President Henry Wilson died in office at age 63.

GENERAL ORDERS, NO. 97

WAR DEPARTMENT,

ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE

I. The following order announces the decease of Henry Wilson, Vice-President of the United States:

EXECUTIVE MANSION,

Washington, November 22, 1875.

It is with profound sorrow that the President has to announce to the people of the United States the death of the Vice-President, Henry Wilson, who died in the Capitol of the nation this morning.

The eminent station of the deceased, his high character, his long career in the service of his State and of the Union, his devotion to the cause of freedom, and the ability which he brought to the discharge of every duty stand conspicuous and are indelibly impressed on the hearts and affections of the American people.

In testimony of respect for this distinguished citizen and faithful public servant the various Departments of the Government will be closed on the day of the funeral, and the Executive Mansion and all the Executive Departments in Washington will be draped with badges of mourning for thirty days.

The Secretaries of War and of the Navy will issue orders that appropriate military and naval honors be rendered to the memory of one whose virtues and services will long be borne in recollection by a grateful nation.

U. S. GRANT

By the President:

HAMILTON FISH,

Secretary of State.

II. On the day next succeeding the receipt of this order at each military post the troops will be paraded at 10 o'clock a. m. and this order read to them.

The national flag will be displayed at half-staff.

At dawn of day thirteen guns will be fired. Commencing at 12 o'clock noon seventeen minute guns will be fired, and at the close of the day the national salute of thirty-seven guns.

The usual badge of mourning will be worn by officers of the Army and the colors of the several regiments will be put in mourning for the period of three months.

By order of the Secretary of War:

E. D. TOWNSEND, Adjutant-General.

He had been born Jeremiah Jones Colbath and born to extremely impoverished circumstances, growing up partially as an indentured servant to a farmer in his region.  At age 21 he changed his name, although the reasons really aren't known.  He became a shoemaker, and then entered politics as a Whig.  He was one of the organizers of the Free Soil Party in 1852 and became a U.S. Senator in 1855.  He served in the Union Army during the Civil War and exited the war back into politics as an advocate of the rights  of freed slaves.

With his death, under the law at the, the office of Vice Presidency fell vacant until the next General Election, that of 1877.

On the same day:

Executive Order—Expansion of Ute Indian Reservation Territory

November 22, 1875

EXECUTIVE MANSION, November 22, 1875.

It is hereby ordered that the tract of country in the Territory of Colorado lying within the following-described boundaries, viz: Commencing at the northeast corner of the present Ute Indian Reservation, as defined in the treaty of March 2, 1868 (Stats, at Large, vol. 15, p. 619); thence running north on the 107th degree of longitude to the first standard parallel north; thence west on said first standard parallel to the boundary line between Colorado and Utah; thence south with said boundary to the northwest corner of the Ute Indian Reservation; thence east with the north boundary of the said reservation to the place of beginning, be, and the same hereby is, withdrawn from sale and set apart for the use of the several tribes of Ute Indians, as an addition to the present reservation in said Territory.

U. S. GRANT.

Last edition:

Saturday, November 20, 1875. Winking at collision in the Black Hills and the Las Cuevas War.

Labels: 1870s, 1875, 1877, Army, Black Hills, boats and ships, Crime, Great Sioux War, Las Cuevas War, Mexico, Philip Sheridan, Sioux, South Dakota, Texas, Texas Rangers, William Tecumseh Sherman, Wyoming