It’s impossible to characterize the present days as anything other than a complete shit show. But in the interest of staying calm, cool, and collected, I’ve been watching a lot of WWII documentaries which seem to be abundant on Netflix recently. Believe me, I do not relish all the gunfire and bodies, but I think it is important to learn the details of how we got there and what we have done since to maintain world peace as much as possible. So I recommend that others take some time to familiarize themselves with this history so that we do not, in fact, repeat it.
On a personal note, my sister and I were chatting about our Dad who did serve as a Squadron Leader in the RAF. Neither of us heard much from him about the War, though, perhaps because we were too young or perhaps because the people who returned wanted to forget the horror as much as possible. My sister did tell me one thing I’d never heard about Daddy, which is that he served some time in India and came home with a lifelong case of intermittently erupting boils on his bum. I wish Mummy were still here to give me more details . . .
And now to the present boil erupting here. I live in the City that is proud to be home to the United States Coast Guard Academy. There are no polite words to express my horror in learning of the firing of the Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Linda Fagan, with one of the most despicable letters I have read in my almost 80 years. Now I have been fired in my time (how could I not, being the outspoken smartypants that I am), but I have never received such a downright nasty dismissal as promulgated by the puppet masters and created for signature by the one-who-cannot-read.
But even more egregious (I have learned to love that word) is that among the slew of probably illegal Executive Orders is one that I have nicknamed “The Snitch Decree.” Obviously Rudy Guliani in his former life as a prosecutor of The Mob learned very well how organized crime works. And interestingly my bedtime reading of Ed McBain is now a story about a police informant who gets killed to shut him up. But of course our Dear Leader wants us all to turn into snitches about of all things DEI initiatives. Absolutely you-know-what unbelievable!
I’m going to end on a more cheerful note. I was thrilled this morning to learn that former Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is still alive and kicking. My morning read of current Justice Jackson’s memoir has a wonderful discussion of her year of clerking for him. On pages 226 and 227 she describes how he gave her a very clear description of what it is like to live in a democracy without a king or a dictator. He believes as do I that the most important concept in a democracy is the RULE OF LAW. Now we may not all like laws that are passed at any given time (think Jim Crow laws, restricting women from voting, etc.) but the point is that Congress enacts laws as it sees fit, then the laws are enforced by the Justice Department and “law enforcement” and the Supreme Court Justices weigh in only on actual cases. And another of my newly learned terms of stare decisis is of great import. The Supremes should not be writing the laws. After having digested this earlier this morning, I used my trusty phone to google Justice Breyer because his words made so much sense to me. Now I have to get his latest book.
As I railed yesterday about the Coast Guard injustice, my own darling man told me that we must remain hopeful. He is definitely right, and in fact Justice Breyer shares my tendency to be of an upbeat nature. So now I will sally forth and attempt to stem the tide of pure unadulterated blather that continues to spew from ridiculous sources. Use our amazing technology and recommendations from experts you trust to research any topic about which you need to know more. Our Nation depends upon you—a well-informed electorate—IMHO.
RESIST ALWAYS
TTFN
Thank you, Katharine. That you can be realistic and optimistic is an inspiration to me. Resisting always!
Just my opinion. All those bodies you see watching those old WWII have something in common. All those killed are typically from some small town, but patriotic and fighting for their countries.
Out there on the battle lines one doesn’t see super rich people. One doesn’t see kings and queens like the old days—I watched the last kingdom.
In the movie “Patton” Patton confesses he loves war, God help him. Patton comes from a wealthy, well connected family. Does Patton go to war with his men and tanks? Yes he does. However, as the battles begin he stays back, at a safe distance watching his war chess game with binoculars.
So many love war stories and stories of honor and patriotism. Yet, all those dying are pawns, not even knights, Bishops or rooks.
Imagine Queen singing “We are the Pawns of the World.”
Politics is just war were the voters are pawns.