"Three American infantrymen eat K Rations on Thanksgiving day in a dugout somewhere in France.
They will be relieved later and will have Thanksgiving dinner in the evening with their unit. The soldiers are left to right: Sgt. Albert E. Burns, 1308 E. Gilbert Street, Muncie, Ind., Pfc. John K. Smith, Munderstar Route, Brookville PA., and Pvt. Robert H. Seymour, Newark, N.Y. Near Faulquemont, France. 23 November, 1944.80th Infantry Division."
French forces liberated Strasbourg.
US troops liberated the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp in France. 20,000 people had died there while it was open.
The Canadian cabinet made 16,000 Canadian conscripts, previously not liable for overseas deployment, available for the same.
Soviet troops took Cop, Czechoslovakia and Tokay, Hungary.
The Royal Navy disbanded the British Eastern Fleet. Escort carriers and older ships were formed into the British East Indies Fleet with modern ships detached for service in the British Pacific Fleet.
"A newly captured crossroad carries east and west bound traffic as Lt. Gen. George S. Patton's Third Army smashes towards the Rhine. 23 November, 1944. Photographer: Sawyer."
The British prevailed at the Battle of Belmont, in the Boer War.
The victorious British commander, Lord Methuen wrote to his wife, "I detest war, people congratulate me; the men seem to look on me like a father, but I detest war the more I see of it.'
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
Matthew, Chapter 24.
There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter.
Ernest Hemingway.
August 7, 2024
Russo Ukrainian War
Ukrainian troops have advanced into Russia's Kursk Oblast and are in their second day of operations there.
August 8, 2024
Middle Eastern War
Rockets from northern Gaza have lead to an Israeli advisory in the area that residents should leave.
An arrest of ISIL terrorist who were plotting a strike in a European Taylor Swift concert lead to cancellation of events.
Russia has declared a Federal level emergency due to the incursion near Kursk. Ukrainian advances have been fairly extensive.
August 10, 2024
Russo Ukrainian War
Ukrainian advances have resulted in evacuation orders being issued and the formation of some local anti government partisan units seeming to have formed.
August 15, 2024
Russo Ukrainian War
The Ukrainians have taken the Russian town of Sudzha in the Kursk Oblast.
cont:
And now the Ukrainians are in Belgorod Oblast, south of Kursk Oblast, and directly north of Kharkov.
Resistance was strengthening in opposition to the offensive in Kursk, so they've side stepped it.
August 16, 2024
Russo Ukrainian War
Russia jailed dual US/Russian citizen ballerina Ksenia Khavana for a $52.00 donation to a charity aiding Ukraine.
Indian has asked its citizens who live near the conflicts zones to relocated:
In view of the recent security incidents in Bryansk, Belgorod and Kursk regions, Indian nationals are advised to take necessary precautions and relocate outside these regions. Any Indian national or student requiring assistance may contact the embassy.
Russian forces are attempting to encircle Ukrainian forces southeast of Pokrovsk in Donetsk Oblast. While Ukrainian forces are on the offensive in Russia, Russian forces remain on the offensive in Ukraine.
August 17, 2024
Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States finalized a trade agreement removing export barriers on defense goods and technology between them.
August 22, 2024
Russo Ukrainian War
Russian mercenary leader Georgy Zakrevsky has called for Putin to be removed.
August 25, 2024
ISIL v Everyone
ISIL claimed responsibility for a knife attack in Solingen, Germany, that killed three people and wounded eight others at a claiming the murder targeted Christians and did this to avenge Muslims and Palestinians everywhere, as if doing that in Germany would make a lick of sense whatsoever.
Middle Eastern War
Israel has been conducting air strikes in Gaza
It conducted massive ones in southern Lebanon, to which Hezbollah responded with rockets.
I suspect that Israel is hitting targets heavily in advance of an anticipated cease fire.
cont:
Actually, the strike in Lebanon was a preemptive strike.
August 28, 2024
Russo Ukrainian War
Ukraine reports that Russia has lost over 600,000 men in its war with the country, of which over 180,000 were killed.
By way of a contrast, 58,220 Americans were killed in the Vietnam War.
The Russians have been advancing rapidly near Pokrovsk and are generally sustaining offensive operations in Ukraine.
September 4, 2024
China v. Taiwan
In a recent interview, the president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) suggested that the People's Republic of China, rather than bothering Taiwan, ought to cast its eyes on land that it lost to Russia in the 1850s and 1860s.
If it is for the sake of territorial integrity, why doesn’t it take back the lands occupied by Russia that were signed over in the Treaty of Aigun? Russia is now at its weakest, right? You can ask Russia (for the land back) but you don’t. So it’s obvious they don’t want to invade Taiwan for territorial reasons.
Here's the territory he referenced:
That's a lot of territory.
From the way it was said, I think the remark was meant to be flippant, rather than serious, but it does raise a real question which is, with Russia so weak, will China look north?
September 5, 2024
Russo Ukrainian War
Belarus scrambled fighters to shoot down Russian drones that invaded its airspace.
September 9, 2024
Russo Ukrainian War
Russian drones have entered Latvian and Romanian airspace within the past few days.
September 10, 2024
China v. India
Chinese special forces penetrated into India for up to 30 miles and stayed there for several days. China and India's border is disputed.
September 11, 2024
Russo Ukrainian War
Apparently getting a big positive reaction in Poland:
Why don't you tell the 800,000 Polish Americans right here in Pennsylvania how quickly you would give up for the sake of favor, and what you think is a friendship with a dictator who would eat you for lunch?
Kamala Harris to Donald Trump in last night's debate. Trump claimed he'd end the war, if elected, as President Elect, which a person would have to be an absolute idiot to believe.
September 16, 2024
Russo Ukrainian War
Poland's foreign minister suggested ending social benefits for Ukrainian men living in Europe, which the Ukrainian government agreed with. The goal would be to boost pressure on military aged men to return to the country and be available for military service.
September 17, 2024
Middle Eastern War
Pagers carried by Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon exploded at about the same time Tuesday afternoon injuring over 2,700 and killing eight.
Yikes.
September 18, 2024
Russo Ukrainian War
A "massive" Ukrainian drone strike on Russian munitions' and fuel depots in Toropets, Tver, Russia has set things ablaze and resulted in a partial evacuation of the region.
For reference, this area is northwest of Moscow.
September 19, 2024
Middle Eastern War
And yesterday it occured again with two way radios.
September 20, 2024
Middle Eastern War
Israel launched major airstrikes in Lebanon directed at Hezbollah.
The strikes against Hezbollah actually have received street level support in Arab countries, with Northern Syrian troops even passing out candy in celebration of the event in northern Syria.
Russo Ukrainian War
Putin rejected a request to mobilize made by senior Russian military leaders. Knowing why Putin does what is hard to fathom, but speculation runs from a fear what it would do to the economy, to a fear what the public reaction would be.
On the latter, Ukraine is rapidly starting to resemble the US participation in the Vietnam War in some ways, and its notable that the US called up very few reservists in that conflict.
It became unpopular anyway, of course.
September 22, 2024
Middle Eastern War
Hezbollah retaliated with a massive rocket attack into Israel. Israel responded with hundreds of airstrikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.
Israel closed down the Al Jazeera bureau in Gaza.
September 25, 2024
Middle Eastern War
Israel is calling up reservists and deploying them in the north in anticipation of a ground invasion of Lebanon.
September 29, 2024.
Middle Eastern War
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike.
October 1, 2024.
Middle Eastern War
Israel has commenced raids within Lebanon.
cont:
Iran struck Israel with missiles in retaliation.
October 6, 2024.
Middle Eastern War
Israel had expanded its missile campaign in Lebanon, hitting Hezbollah targets near Beirut and a Hamas target in northern Lebanon.
It's also reengaged in ground operations in Gaza.
October 8, 2024
Russo Ukrainian War
The Ukrainians launched a major strike on a Russian petroleum facility on Crimea.
Somebody has launched a major cyber attack on Russian state media yesterday.
October 21, 2024.
Middle Eastern War
Israel has started targeting Hezbollah's financial wing, al-Qard al-Hassan, which operates as a cash based bank, in strikes in Lebanon.
The US condcuted airstrikes on ISIL targets in Syria this week.
November 4, 2024
Russia v. The West
Western security officials say they believe that two incendiary devices, shipped via DHL, were part of a covert Russian operation that ultimately aimed to start fires aboard cargo or passenger aircraft flying to the U.S. and Canada, as Moscow steps up a sabotage campaign against Washington and its allies.
The devices ignited at DHL logistics hubs in July, one in Leipzig, Germany, and another in Birmingham, England. The explosions set off a multinational race to find the culprits.
Wall Street Journal.
November 9, 2024
Iran v. the West.
Iranian agents were plotting to kill Donald Trump, but the plot was foiled by the FBI. The plot was supposed to be put together quickly, and then if that could not be achieved, revived after the election, which they rationally expected him to lose.
November 18, 2024
Russo Ukrainian War.
The U.S. has approved use of the Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMs for Ukrainian strikes inside of Russia. This comes in response to Russian mustering of thousands of North Korean troops.
November 20, 2024
Russia and China v. The West
The Danish Navy boarded the Chinese-flagged bulk carrier Yi Peng 3, captained by a Russian, after it was suspected of damaging two undersea telecom cables in the Baltic Sea..
November 21, 2024
Russo Ukrainian War
Reports this morning hold that Russia hit Dnipro with an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). If correct, its the first such use of an ICBM in history and would be an unconscionable escalation of the conflict.
November 23, 2024
Russo Ukrainian War
The missile turns out to be a new intermediate range experimental Russian missile.
A North Korean general has been wounded in a Ukrainian missile attack near Kursk.
Florence Harding, the widow of Warren G. Harding, died at age 64. She did not outlive her husband by long, as he had died in 1923 at age 57. The couple had no children, but as is now known, Warren Harding had a daughter by his mistress Nan Brittan.
Navy aviator Dixie Kiefer became the first pilot to take an airplane off from a warship at night.
Kiefer was noted for being very banged up due to accidents and what not, but was still in the Navy at the time of his death in 1945, which ironically was in an airplane crash.
The US issued a statement demanding reparations from Nicaragua for the execution of two American mercenaries, Leonard Groce and Lee Roy Cannon, that had occurred several days earlier. The transport ship USS Buffalo was ordered to proceed towards Nicaragua.
Politics, as they say, makes for strange bedfellows.
New Senate Whip John Barrasso with President Elect Donald Trump and President John F. Kennedy with his nephew Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Politics is, we also know, the art of compromise, but to what extent is a politician to blame for compromising with the truth?
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been chosen by Donald Trump to be the new head of Health and Human Services.
He is, frankly, a nutter on health topics, who shouldn't be allowed anywhere near such a post.
John Barrasso is, by training, an orthopedic surgeon.
I've long suspected, well I'm pretty much certain, that Dr. Barrasso doesn't actually believe even half of what he's saying..He's doing it to 1) keep his Senatorial seat; and 2) advance himself in the Senate, even though at his age he could easily retire and be done with it.
Without getting too deep into it, I also believe that once you start compromising on fundamental things, you keep doing it, including with the truth. You don't start off deep into it, but you end up there.
Dr. Barrasso was known, at one time, as "Wyoming's Doctor" and had spots on local television with health minutes, and hosted the Labor Day Marathon. He continued to do this after he became Senator, a spot he was appointed to by the legislature to fill a vacancy before he was elected.
I've met him, as a physician, but can't claim to know him. I've been with him on commercial aircraft numerous times. I've always left him alone, as I figure that while traveling, people don't like to be bothered. I don't. Not everyone was like that, however, and I'd see people who recognized him treat him sort of like fans treated Elvis Presley.
Dr. Barrasso is originally from Pennsylvania. With a solid Italian American parentage, and an early Catholic education, I'd guess, but don't know, that he was a Catholic up until some point. He list himself as a Presbyterian now, and has been divorced, and later remarried. He's in his early 70s. Early on, his positions were clearly moderate Republican, but starting at least as early as 2016 they began to rapidly head towards Trumpism. He had a right wing challenger in the GOP primary last go around, and while I think the chances of him every losing were small, he went hardcore to the right.
Now he's the whip. Trump is going to expect him to whip up support for Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, holds some of the nuttiest ideas on healthcare, and particularly vaccines, imaginable. He shouldn't be anywhere near the Department of Health and Human Services.
Will Barrasso choke those down and support them.
Again, people don't get to supporting anything overnight. Some do rapidly, some over decades.
RFK, Jr. has no business in this office.
Kennedys
Before moving on, hasn't the country had enough of the Kennedys?
I certainly have.
The over tattooed and expropriation.
Trump's nominee for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, is taking a lot of flak. Some of it is for things he's said or believes
Some of it for his tattoos, which are interpreted to mean things which they might not.
One of those tattoos is of a Jerusalem Cross.
The Jerusalem cross consists of a large cross potent surrounded by four smaller Greek crosses representing the spread of the gospel to the four corners of the earth. It was used as the emblem and coat of arms of the Kingdom of Jerusalem after 1099.
Hegeth is a member of a church which is part of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches. Therefore, he's appropriating a Catholic symbol, while he's not a Catholic. Indeed, he's not even close, as he's on his third spouse, something no adherent Catholic would have done.
He also has a tattoo on a bicep that states Deus vult, "God wills", a phrase that dates back to the First Crusade, but which has been appropriated by many groups over the years. And it doesn't stop there.
“Israel, Christianity and my faith are things I care deeply about,” he's stated.
Perhaps he should learn more about the faith espoused by the symbols that he's had inked on himself. Indeed, quite frankly, the men who cried Deus vult in the 11th Century and those who fought to defend the Kingdom of Jerusalem would have regarded him as a heretic.
Anyhow, one thing that I've worried about since the rise of Christian Nationalist is that Catholics are the ones who are going to take a beating in the end, even though its really a Protestant movement. I can already see it starting to happen. Former Senator Adam Kinzinger, who comments heavily on Blue Sky and Twitter, had a post noting that "the Crusades weren't Christian". Oh yes they were, the thing they weren't is the edited version that English Protestants came up with to attempt to tar and feather the Church. Others have been running around claiming that the Jerusalem Cross, which Catholics use a lot, is a Nazi symbol, which it isn't, or a camouflaged swastika, which it isn't.
The United States remains a Protestant nation, including in the way it reacts to symbols and in its misunderstanding of history.
All this serves, I'd note, to bury a deeper item that should be of actual concern, which is the American Evangelical view towards Israel. This is not universal, by any means, but there's a branch of American Evangelicalism which sees itself as having a direct role in bringing about the Second Coming through its interaction with Israel. According to somebody who knew him and commented on it recently (therefore at least making it somewhat suspect) former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who has been nominated by Trump to be Ambassador to Israel, and who is a Baptist minister, has those views.
Really, people with the apparent views of Huckabee and Kinzinger really have no business in the offices they've been nominated to serve in.
Hairless wonders.
This is sort of an odd aside, but the huge increase in male tattoos, including chest tattoos, has caused me to wonder, has there been a reduction in male chest hair in recent years?
Chest hair is a secondary male characteristic which is caused by a variety of genetic factors. One of those is a high testosterone level, and for that reason, hairy chests have gone, at any one time, from being regarded as "brutish" to sexy. Because of the conditions of the Second World War, Americans were acclimated for a time to seeing men shirtless, which was unusual, and for a good several decades after the war, hairy chested men, or just flat out hairy men in general, were in vogue. Indeed I can recall seeing some 1960s vintage war movie with Fabian in it which was ridiculously hairy.
This is clearly really out now, but it still raises the question, what's going on. Personally, I couldn't have a giant chest tattoo like Hegseth for the same reason that Tom Selleck couldn't. I doubt that I really could have a tattoo anywhere safe for the the generally non visible part of my arms either.
It's interesting to note that there has been a substantial reduction in detected testosterone levels in the US since the 1980s.**
Maybe RFK, Jr. can look into that.
Creeps
It's a real irony that the man so many Christian Evangelicals saw as the Christian candidate has such a horrible personal tract record at least in the sexual ethics category, but perhaps that fact should cause us to be less than surprised that he nominated Matt Gaetz to be Attorney General of the United States.
There seem to be no doubt that Gaetz dabbled down in this category to a 17 year old. Yes, he wasn't prosecuted, but he may have had a credible defense based on scienter. According to at least one report, once he learned she was 17, he abstained from her favors until she was 18.
The thing here, however, is that this conduct is completely immoral. Not only is it sex outside of marriage, which Christianity, but Gaetz is a creep who is fishing in the bottom of the well. Frankly, this deserves further investigation as most 17 year olds or 18 year olds would have had no interest in Gaetz, so something should be done to figure out why they did and what's behind that.
This guy has no significant legal experience and shouldn't be anywhere near the AG's office.
Scenes from the American dumpster fire.
Strange bedfellows indeed.
At this point, however, if Matt Gaetz invited Mike Johnson over to the Playboy Grotto, if it still existed, I'd expect him to go.
Something about this photo just shows how trashy American culture has become.
Trashy.
I think there is sort of a faction in the Republican Party that has a strange kind of... sort of homoerotic fascination for Putin.
Boris Johnson recently stated this.
The fascination for Putin (who has a hairless chest, I'd note) is pretty weird.
Trad Rant
The recent election seems to have bubbled some stuff up from the bottom of the cultural dutch oven, and not just stuff like the weird things noted in the two above entries. Some of this is interesting to ponder, including pondering whether its a serious trend or something else.
One of them is the emergence of secular (and religious) trad women, holding a romantic, it seems, view of the not so distant path.
Here's an example. Interesting trad rant starting at 21:00.
I don't want to go to far in criticizing this, really, as it has a real appeal, as does a lot of sort of agrarian conservatism and Chesteronian distributism I see creeping into the culture, sort of sideways. These people are sincere, and there's a real appeal to it. Shoot, I'd live an agrarian life if people around me would allow it, or so I tell myself.
Others tell themselves that too, and also mock themselves, as for example, here:
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