Tuesday, October 1, 1946. Crime, Punishment, and World War Two.

Sentences were handed down from the major Nuremberg Trial with verdicts having been rendered the previous day.  Twelve convicted were sentenced to death, those being Hermann Göring, Martin Bormann, who was sentenced in absentia and in fact already dead, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Wilhelm Keitel, Ernst Kaltenbrunner,  Alfred Rosenberg, Hans Frank,Wilhelm Frick, Julius Streicher, Fritz Sauckel, Alfred Jodl, Arthur Seyss-Inquart

All told, 19 people were convicted. Three were found innocent, those being Hjalmar Schacht, Franz von Papen, and Hans Fritzsche.

Mensa was founded.

Kim II Sung University was founded, named in accordance with the despicable strong man trait of naming things after yourself while you are alive. . . kind of like somebody else we could name.

Violence in downtown Denver.

Last edition:

Saturday, September 28, 1946. "I believe the outlawing of the atom bomb is the outlawing of wars... I think the time has come when humanity is intelligent enough to do away with war."

Labels: 1940s, 1946, Bluegrass, Country & Western Music, Dwight Eisenhower, Greece, Monarchy, Nuclear power, Radio, War, Weapons

Subsidiarity Economics 2026. The Times more or less locally, Part 10, The Autarky Edition.

Autarky is the economic concept of producing everything a nation consumes within its own borders.  It's been tried numerous times, and inevitably leads at best to high prices and deprivation. At worst, it results in warfare.

Autarky was the official economic model of the Nazi Party after German economist Hjalmar Schacht joined the party in 1926 and after Gregor Strasser was ousted from party influence.* Nazi Germany provides a perfect example of how it doesn't work.  Germany was a major industrial power leading up to, during and after World War Two (it still is), but it could never produce enough of anything for its own economy, even in peacetime.  Moreover, it didn't have the raw materials to supply all it did produce.  It imported 20% of its food supply in the early 1930s, and by the late 1930s the Nazis had only managed to boost that to 83%.

The solution was simple.

What the Germans did have, they could just seize from neighboring countries through war, and then either kill off the native population or subjugate it.  That's exactly what it attempted to do.  It pursued that murderously in Poland and the Soviet Union, and through vassal states in the form of France, Romania and Spain.  Where that proved to be impossible. . . for the time being, it used bullying and threats, such as in regard to Sweden.

Even at that, it was never able to do it.

That seems to be to some extent what Donald Trump is advocating right now.

If we were playing hardball, all we'd do is say we're going to do no trading with Canada. If we did no trading with Canada would save $90 billion.

We could do tremendous good for ourselves by just not trading with countries..  We lose with Mexico $195 billion a year. They have nothing that we have to have, I mean. Hot tamales, tomatoes, a couple of things

Trump seems to believe that by closing the economic border with Canada and Mexico, and everyone else, unless they essentially become vassal states, the US can simply go it alone and not be harmed.  Where it's obvious that won't work, we'll force acquisition, as we have now done in Venezuela and keep threatening to do with Greenland.  

This is immoral, and stupid.

You'd think that a guy who went to Wharton would have a basic grasp of economics.  Open economic borders, truly open economic borders, make countries rich, not poor.  That doesn't mean that there's never a place for tariffs, including for protectionism, but it's generally a bad idea.  

What makes for more sense is for the United States, Mexico, and Canada, to have a seamless economy with no tariffs at all.  The US and Canada had a nearly duty free relationship prior to Trump, save for the infamous very high ones on dairy, poultry, and egg products.  Those latter tariffs were absurd, but the US also has absurd tariffs in the agricultural sector.  The US relationship with Mexico is, right now, duty free.

An absolute lack of tariffs is how it should be between the three major North American economies.  Only an an economic ignoramus would disrupt that.

And only an immoral person would advocate taking the oil of another nation that is providing it under the gun.  The US has been an oil addict for a century, but was showing signs of getting off the stuff.  Trump, with his "it's always the 1950s" mindset can't seem to get out of that.

Trump should really know better.  Wharton has a reputation as one of the best, maybe the best, business school in the country.  He owes us an explanation, which he seems to be incapable of articulating, for his idiotic economic views. Wharton, and I'm serious about this, does as well.  I know one Wharton graduate personally, and he is brilliant. But the example of Donald Trump is to weird to explain. For that matter, the example of Wyoming's Chuck Gray, who is an absolute Trump sycophant, is as well.

We need a combination of supreme moral sensitivity and economic knowledge. Economically ignorant moralism is as objectionable as morally callous economism. Ethics and economics are two equally difficult subjects, and while the former needs discerning and expert reason, the latter cannot do without humane values.

Wilhelm Röpke, A Humane Economy: The Social Framework of the Free Market

September 8, 2026

Retaliatory Canadian tariffs took place today with duties ranging from 15% to 50% across hundreds of U.S. products worth a total CA$27.6 billion, including dairy, agricultural equipment, paper, household appliances and electronics.

This will hurt Canadian consumer through increased cost to them, and American producers due to decreased demand.

Cont:

September 8, 2026

And as this wasn't enough, 5he United States is banning the import of some dairy products motorcycles and  most alcoholic beverages from Canada.

This is rank stupidity.  Peter Navarro ought to be sent to kindergarten and Wharton declared a clown college.

So, if you can, go out and buy a Can Am motorcycle and some Crown Royal.

Well, probably not.  I'm too old to start riding a motorcycle (I'd much prefer a mule) and I can't stand Crown Royal.  But if I liked Canadian whiskey, I'd go buy some for spite.

I may just for spite.

September 10, 2026

Customers Shocked As ‘Cybersecurity Incident’ Shuts Down Hilltop Bank Across Wyoming

Cont:

U.S. wholesale inflation hits 5.4% annually in August 2026.

More good news from the Trump administration.

September 11, 2026

Lame duck defeated state senator Bob Ide used the Hilltop disaster to say something monumentally stupid.

Hilltop Bank Shutdown Just Confirms Why Wyoming Needs Gold, Lawmaker Says

Bob, that's stupid.

September 15, 2026

Oil everywhere is up over $100/bbl and set to rise.

Prices at the pump are at record highs.

This appears to be set to get extremely bad.

September 16, 2026

The Fed raised interest rates, contrary to the wish of King Donald.

cont:

This guy is a Wharton graduate?

September 17, 2026

Railroad surcharges on grain have doubled over the past year.

September 18, 2026

If we buy $2 billion worth of bananas from Brazil, we’re actually losing $2 billion. So if we stop eating bananas, we actually save $2 billion.

Donald Trump

Oh for goodness sakes.  What an idiotic statement.

But one Trump appears to really believe.

First of all, a trade deficit in and of itself, unless you believe in autarky, si not a bad thing.  A rich country, which Trump is helping to end our status as, will probably have a trade deficit.  Trade deficits can be bad, but not simply because they exist, but for other reasons.

And, this is a classic example from the Wealth of Nations.

The US produces hardly any bananas.  Just some in Florida, which stay in Florida, and some in Hawaii.  

The US imports hardly any bananas from Brazil. Brazil only exports about  $21 million to $24 million anywhere.  Brazil does import $11.23 billion in fuel from the US.  And this economic analysis is moronic.

Even assuming that we bought bananas from Brazil, which we do not, if we are to eat bananas, and people like bananas, we have to buy them from a foreign source.  We given them money, we get bananas.  

That doesn't make us poor, it actually does the opposite.

Which, once again, leads to this:

WHARTON, WHAT THE FUCK IS MATTER  WITH YOU?  HOW DID THIS GUY GRADUATE WHAT IS SUPPOSED TO BE ONE OF THE BEST ECONOMIC SCHOOLS IN THE WORLD?

September 24, 2026

The Secretary of Agriculture reports that if you don't like beef prices, you can switch to chicken or pork.

That's frankly quite true, and it's a thing that producers need to worry about.  Pork was the primary meat for most Americans up until the post Civil War era.  Once people make a major shift in diet, they tend to stick with it.

September 21, 1946 advertisement from the American Meat Institute featuring a leg of lamb.

On this topic, the news relates that a top Texas BBQ joint will no longer offer beef brisket. Too expensive.  That isn't a good sign.

Also regarding meat, the USDA is recalling 167,000 lbs of uninspected beef, pork and goat meat.

On all of this, the meat prices would be easy to blame on Trump, as the Wharton School of Business seems to be economically incompetent.  This, however, is largely due to other factors, although I don't know how to explain the inspection glitch.

One thing that will impact the price of meat. . .and everything else, is the price of fuel.  Indeed, after a year that featured record cattle prices, for those who had cattle to sell, profits are now being lost to diesel fuel.

A common cry out there in the hinterlands right now is to impose an export ban on diesel fuel.  Such a ban was in place from 1975 to 2015.  It's really debated what lifting the ban would do.  Midwest GOP candidates started crying for it recently, but Wyoming's Congressional representation opposes it. That doesn't tell us much, however, as Wyoming's delegation probably wouldn't oppose a proposal to nuke the state.

Anyhow, Trump indicated support for a temporary ban, and then energy secretary Chris Wright walked it back, which is extremely interesting, particularly as farmers in the Midwest are now having real second thoughts about King Donald now that they realize he's fucking them with his policies, and not other people they didn't car about.

September 29, 2026

The Trump ban on the importation of Canadian alcohol, dairy and motorcycles, comes into effect today.

The ban is moronic.

Trump rolled back fuel efficiency standards on automobiles, as he's an ancient fool about to die and lives in the past in many ways.

And, on fuel, this item:

As Wyoming Tries Again To Build Out EV Charging Network, Trump Goes The Other Way

Wyoming has always had some progressive and farsighted people working behind the scenes while, at the same time, the troglodyte faction of the GOP, particularly strongly represented in the Wyoming Freedom Caucus From The South seek to believe it's 1861.  

Electric vehicles are coming, and diesel at $6.00 will help revive interest in them.  The comments on this, of course, are "dem new fangle aut o mobiles won't replace the horse", basically.  EVs are coming, like it or not, and when the Trump administration is in the outhourse of history where it so richly belongs, they'll significantly revive.

September 30, 2026

A flood of Chinese soda ash has Wyoming’s industry swimming in troubled waters

Billionaire Joe Ricketts Revives Plan To Build Bondurant Valley Resort

And with the following item, we'll close out this installment:

The soaring cost of diesel means a bumpy road for school buses in Colorado

Footnotes

*Strasser was permanently ousted from influence in the Night of the Long Knives.

Schacht is interesting in that he was never a Nazi himself and was involved in prewar anti Nazi plots.  He served in the German government nonetheless.

Last edition:

Subsidiarity Economics 2026. The Times more or less locally, Part 9, 25th Amendment Watch, 23d Edition. The Canadian Harvard and Oxford doctor in economics vs. the Wharton playboy. The Trade War with Canada edition.

Labels: 2026 Election, Agriculture, Cowards, Cynthia Lummis, Food, Harriet Hageman, Health, James Byrd, John Barrasso, Reid Rasner, restaurants and bars, The Second Trump Administration, Wyoming, Wyoming (Casper), Wyoming (Evanston) Canada, Education, Great Lakes, Industry, International trade, Lake Ontario, Mining, Populism, The Second Trump Administration, United States and Israel v. Iran,2020s, 2026, 25th Amendment Watch List, Canada, Distributism, Donald Trump, Economics, Mark Carney, Solidarity, Subsidiarity, The Madness of King Donald, Trump Trade Wars, United States, Wyoming, Wyoming's boom and bust economy

Friday, August 2, 1946. Vlasov executed.

Vlasov reviewing his troops.  Note the light machineguns, which are captured Russian weapons.  The solider without an insignia on his helmet is wearing a World War One vintage M16 helmet.

Andrey Vlasov, age 45, Red Army General, and then collaborationist general with the Germans, and then against the Germans again, but against the Soviets at the very end, was executed. 

Vlasov has an interesting personal history.  In his adult years he started off, like Stalin, as a student at a Russian Orthodox seminary. While there, he switched to agriculture and in 1919 joined the Red Army.  He did not join the Communist Party until 1930.  He was part of the Soviet military mission from 1938 until 1940 and was regarded as highly effective.

Early in World War Two his performance in the Red Army was sterling, but his forces were encircled and forced to surrender.  He refused to be evacuated by air to avoid becoming a POW.

As a POW, well actually a true prisoner, he met Baltic German Wilfried Strik-Strikfeldt, who was serving in the German army and attempting to foster a Russian Liberation Movement with the assistance of some of the figures who later were party of the July 20 plot.  The movement never had the full support of the Germans, and indeed, the opposite is the case to a large extent.  While it was allowed to raise troops, for the most part, they did not fight, and indeed the one significant action they engaged in was right at the end of the war against the Germans.  An attempt by the unit to surrender to the American Army in Czechoslovakia was rejected by the Americans and they fell into Soviet hands.  They were accordingly repatriated to the Soviet Union, an effort that continued on after the war into 1947.*

The Russian Liberation Army, as it was styled, was not, it should be noted, the only group of Soviet citizens or for that matter former members of the Red Army to fight with the Germans.  Sizable numbers did. But the RLA was the largest such group.

A memorial to Vlasov was erected at the Novo-Diveevo Russian Orthodox convent and cemetery in Nanuet, New York. Twice annually, on the anniversary of Vlasov's execution and on the Sunday following Orthodox Easter, a memorial service is held for Vlasov and the forces of the Russian Liberation Army there.

Cartoon by Jewish Polish American cartoonist Arthur Szyk.  Szyk was an illustrator who drew and painted amazingly detailed illustrations.

Vlasov and his men are a good example of the way in which World War Two was not necessarily viewed as a war between fascism and liberty everywhere, and indeed, in the East, it was never that.  The Germans had no intentions whatsoever of liberating Soviet citizens, which is why they never actually deployed the ROA. But many Soviet citizens saw it as a chance to overthrow the Communists, even if that was naive as to what it would actually achieve with the Germans in the lead.  The Finns of course were fighting their own war entirely. Some Frenchmen saw it as a war between the West and Communism, and volunteered, albeit in small numbers to sever in the German war effort.  Spanish fascists saw it as a war between Communism and Fascism.  

Likewise, in Asia, the war on a local level was complicated in ways that we generally don't appreciate.  The Japanese were outright barbaric against the Chinese, but the fighting was done by the Nationalist. The Communists were armed, but largely sat the war out. The Soviet Union did not support the Chinese Communists until the very end of the war.  The Nationalist, for its part, had significant military missions for the USSR and Nazi Germany until just before the war.  Some Chinese fought for the Japanese in collaborationist armies that would be destroyed, post war, when the Nationalist conscripted them in the civil war.  The post war leaders of Indonesia were outright collaborationist with the Japanese, and at least a few member of the Philippine collaborationist government would go on to have political careers in the post war republic.

Radioactive isotopes were sold for medical treatment purposes for the first time.

It was day 2 of the Battle of Athens. The discharged GI's would prevail.

Footnotes:

*The repatriation of Soviet citizens is a topic that's barely mentioned in the story of post World War Two Europe. Naturally, there was very little sympathy for them even though, to a large extent, those who sided with the Germans can be regarded as very misguided anti communists for the most part, although the liberation movement itself included some Communists.  Large-scale suicide occurred amongst those being sent back. Some made it to the United States one way or another where they were generally extremely quiet about their past.  All in all, about one third of the troops in this category managed to avoid being repatriated one way or another.  Gen. Patton largely refused to repatriate Soviet civilians and soldiers and released 5,000 ROA soldiers in 1945.

Repatriated soldiers were sent to the gulags. Senior officers, like Vlasov, were executed. Survivors of the gulags were released in 1953 upon Stalin's death.

The ROA troops who Patton held were those who had been under a German commander, Theodor Oberländer.  Oberländer.is an interesting guy in that he was a Nazi official who was an expert in the East, had a falling out with his commanders, and was released from the German Army.  He went on to be an officer in the ROA.  After the war he served in the Bundestag and became the Federal Ministry of Displaced Persons.  He died in 1998.

Wilfried Strik-Strikfeldt survived the war.  When the ROA was formed the SS tried to have him join it, but he managed to avoid that. After the war he was held in the West with prominent German war criminals.  He had been an Olympian in the 1936 Munich Olympics and prior to that had fought as an Imperial Russian officer in World War One and with the Whites in the Russian Civil War.

Last edition:

Thursday, August 1, 1946. Battle of Athens.

Labels: 1940s, 1946, Aircraft, Atomic Energy Commission, Denmark, Education, It was because of World War Two, Norway, Post War United States (and Canada), Sweden, Tennessee, Transportation

Monday, July 8, 1946. Germans ordered to go home.

The Soviet military government of Austria began deporting Germans who had moved to the country after 1938.  54,000 would be repatriated to a Germany.

The News reported about a Hughes' accident.

Last edition:

Sunday, July 7, 1946. Mother Cabrini canonized.

Labels: 1940s, 1946, Catholic, Christianity, Immigration, Italy, Jimmy Carter, Personalities, Protestant, religion, United States

Wednesday, June 26, 1946. The Nationalist Chinese Strike.

Chiang Kai-shek launched a nationwide offensive against the Red Chinese designed to take control of the entire country. A sign that things might not go well occurred when Nationalist pilot Liu Shanben defected to the Communists with a B-24 Liberator.

The Nationalist Army had the edge on paper.  It was larger and much better equipped.  It also had more combat experience, the Red Chinese having sat out much of the Second World War.  The Nationalist also had the benefit of various degrees of U.S. training, and oddly enough, German training before that.

World War Two vintage U.S. poster depicting a Nationalist soldier and his family. The soldier is accurately depicted in a Nationalist uniform, which was based on German uniforms, including the iconic German feldmutze.  He's carrying a 98 rifle, although the straight bolt handle would indicate that it is not a K98k, many of which were supplied to the Nationalist by Nazi Germany.  The rifle instead is a Mauser Standardmodell, a commercial predecessor to the K98k, or perhaps a Chinese made copy.  Of course, this is just an illustration but it's likely based on photographs.  By this point in 1946 many Chinese troops had American equipment of various types, but many infantrymen remained equipped just like this.  Indeed, Chinese soldiers were more likely to carry Mauser bolt actions than any other rifle.

Last edition:

Tuesday, June 25, 1946. The World Bank commences operations.

Labels: 1940s, 1946, Aircraft, China, China (Xuzhou), Chinese Civil War, Economics, Food, Nationalist Chinese Army, Office of Price Administration, World Bank

Death's Head

 

Imperial German Totenkopf.

This election has been a reminder about being careful about getting tattoos.

Maine Democratic Senatorial candidate Graham Platner, in addition to other skeletons (no pun intended) in his closet, has, or at least had, a large Death's Head tattoo on one of his breasts.  Not one like the one above, but one more or less like this:

Shown here:

Well, I say, had, now its this:

We're informed that's a Celtic knot and a dog.

Well, anyhow, this has caused quite a flap, as the design he had is pretty clearly the same one used by the SS during World War Two.

He says he didn't know that.  Frankly, while people are incredulous about that, he may very well not have known that.

Indeed, one of the things that's interesting about this, as an (amateur) historian is that suddenly everyone is an expert on World War Two German insignia.  I doubt that many people, anymore, were before the last couple of weeks.  Indeed, I can recall Walmart getting in trouble some years ago has had a t-shirt it was selling with some Nazi symbology on it, if I recall correctly SS ruins.

Anyhow, the Totenkopf has an interesting and weird  history.  It's been around for a very long time, and is famously associated with pirates from the 18th Century, who flew various variants of death's head flags, nicknamed the "Jolly Roger", to warn a ship they were approaching that that's what they were.  Death's head on a flag threatened death, and the hope was accordingly that the opponent would give up without a fight.  Because of the pirate association, legitimate navies coopted the symbol and you can still find it in use to some degree in navies.

The crew of the HMS Utmost showing off their Jolly Roger in February 1942.

The Prussians started using it as a military symbol under Frederick the Great, when it was introduced to hussars. That use was distinct enough that one US state militia unit, formed as hussars, was still using it with a distinctly Prussian style uniform at the start of the Civil War.  It also spread to other units in the various German states prior to German unification, and to some other European nations.  One Spanish unit, for example used it.

Field Marshall August von Mackensen in 1914 in his full dress hussars uniform.

Infante Fernando wearing the uniform of Spain's 8th Light Armoured Cavalry Regiment "Lusitania" in 1915

After German unification following the Franco Prussian War the pre unification units that used it continued to, with some German units and even individuals adopting it informally.  After the German defeat in the Great War, some Freikorps units used it and it carried on in use in German cavalry units.

After Hitler's rise to power, the SS co-opted it almost immediately at the time of their formation, but that didn't actually cause the German Army or the Luftwaffe from using it as well.  German panzer troops wore a black uniform with the Totenkopf early on, with the design aat first being identical to the SS in that regard. The SS later changed its design, which Heer panzer units never did.

German panzer soldier, wearing a 1939 black flat cap, with a feldgrau shirt, black tie and black jacket with Totenkopf lapel badge. The first version of the panzer uniform featured a very large black beret.

This actually created some confusion at the time and still does, although the confusion was more of a problem to German troops during the war.  By 1944 the Totenkopf was associated with the SS as was the color black, which actually was not worn by most Waffen SS troops.  Tanker POWs were easily mistaken for members of the SS and risked being shot out of hand to some degree.  By 44, however, black was being phased out for tankers, both in the Heer and SS, in favor of feldgrau.  They retained the Totenkopf, however.

As sort of a rough rule of thumb, every member of the SS wore a uniform with a Totenkopf device, including auxiliary units.  Armored units of the Heer wore it also, as did the one oddball Luftwaffe armored unit.  One Luftwaffe bomber unit used it as a symbol as well.  Black uniforms were worn by tankers of all branches early on, and as regular SS dress uniforms, but not as Waffen SS dress uniforms.

This doesn't get into the concentration camp system uniforms, which I don't know anything about, and which were often staffed by auxiliaries. They all wore the deaths head, however.

One Nazi organization that didn't wear the Totenkopf or a black uniform was the Gestapo.  Movies and television shows constantly show them doing that, but they didn't.  For example, an SS dress uniform is shown being worn by a Gestapo member in both Where Eagles Dare and Hogan's Heroes.  In reality, the Gestapo didn't have any uniform at all.  The depiction given in Von Ryan's Express is the correct one. They favored civilian dress clothes and trench coats, often leather ones.  They were, after all, secret police and were dressed like civilians.

Marine Corps Raiders' insignia.

One US ground unit used it too, the Marine Corps Raiders, which took it from Naval use.

By the war's end the death's head, except in naval use, was hopelessly associated with the SS, although amazingly some use continues on.  The South Korean 3rd Infantry Division, the British Army’s Royal Lancers and Brazilian Military Police use it officially.  Some Ukrainian units controversially use it which seems to be an intentional effort to associate themselves with the World War Two era Ukrainian National Army which fought both the USSR and the Germans, but the Germans rather late.

Various navies keep using it, but the Nazis didn't taint the pirate association it had on the seas.

One place it oddly saw use was in civilian groups that wanted to cultivate an edge look after the war.  All sort of Nazi paraphernalia became associated with motorcycle gangs.  And heavy metal bands affected the look as well.

Ian Fraser Kilmister, "Lemmy" of Motörhead who notoriously sported German military and German SS paraphernalia constantly, and who did know what it meant.  He claimed to have no Nazi sympathies.  His father had been a chaplain in the RAF.

The interesting thing there, I suppose, is that the predecessor to the SS was the SA.  The SA didn't use the Totenkopf, but it was comprised of thugs, so in a way the Nazi paraphernalia returned to a demographic that had first used it.

So, what of Platner? 

Darned if I know.  He says he didn't know what it meant, and I suspect a lot of Americans under 70 years of age don't know what it means.  World War Two is simply too long ago for a uniform detail to have much in the cultural memory.  Those younger people who do know what it was used for are likely students of history, members of prison gangs, or white supremacists.  History students don't get tattooed with the Totenkopf.  The other two groups likely do.  That doesn't mean that Platner was a white supremacist, however.

It does require some sort of explanation, however.

While on the topic of the tattoos, let's discuss Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense.

Pete Hegseth is festooned with tattoos.

Pete has a variety of them, which seem to be the following:

• Jerusalem Cross, a type4 of Christian cross associated with the Crusades, rightly or wrongly.
• "Deus Vult", Latin for "God wills it", a phrase claimed to be associated with the Crusaders.
• Kafir, the Arabic for infidel, but also Afrikaans slang for blacks.
• Cross & Sword, apparently referencing Matthew 10:34
• Yahweh, the Hebrew lettering for the name of God, added near his cross and sword tattoo.
• "We the People", The opening phrase of the U.S. Constitution.
• American Flag & AR-15. 
• Roman numerals (1775) & Stars: The year the U.S. Army and the Revolutionary War began.
• "Join, or Die" Snake, the Benjamin Franklin cartoon depicting a severed snake, symbolizing colonial unity during the American Revolution.
• Infantry Patch.

It's really a bit much.  Hegseth is an example of how people become addicted to getting tattoos and won't stop.

So what of it?

Well, the top two tattoos are offensive to some Catholics, myself included.  Hegseth is a member of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, he has stated., which is a collection of Evangelical Churches.  The Crusades are a Catholic thing, grossly misunderstood, and for which Catholics have taken heat from Protestants for five hundred years.  Moreover, the Crusaders would have regarded the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches as heretical.

"Kafir" is a flat out weird thing to tattoo on yourself, and for Sub-Saharan Africans its highly offensive, being the Afrikaans equivalent of the n word.  I suppose its supposed to be a taunt at Muslims.

Tattooing Yahweh on yourself is just weird, and potentially offensive to Jews, as well as others.  Leviticus 19:28 prohibits tattoos themselves, although this is not regarded by most Christians as applicable to Christians and many modern day Jews do not follow that as well.

The point here is this.  Tattooing the Totenkopf on your chest is bound to be offensive to the historically aware.  Tattooing Crusader phrases on your body is no doubt offensive to Muslims, although I'm not particularly concerned about that, but it's a cultural appropriation that is offensive to some historically aware Catholics.  Kafir, as a tattoo, is outright calculated to be offensive to Muslims, and it's highly offensive to Sub Saharan Africans.  And the Yahweh tattoo is disturbing.

I suppose the lesson is to be careful about tattoos.  Hegseth is so tatted up its frankly absurd, but he comes across as disturbed.  Platner comes across as just sort of messed up.

Of course, you don't get to vote for or against Hegseth, no matter where you live.  Your view of him has to weigh into your view of the administration.  If you live in Maine, you can weigh the tattoo in your opinion on whether to vote for him or the ancient Susan Collins.

Showing the spirit our age, I suppose, Donald Trump called Platner a pig.  Pigs have a highly hierarchal pecking order, so I suppose that's the big pig reacting to a younger one in the pen, if you accept the analogy.  

Donald might look to have a Porky tattoo. . .