On June 5, 1944, the day before the D-Day operation in which the Allied forces in World War II invaded German-occupied western Europe, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave his 29th Fireside Chat.
Any relationship between what FDR said and the facts about the "fall" of Rome were coincidence, as are the "facts" in any war while it's on.
The fact was that by "liberating" Rome, we extended the war in Italy a year. But General Moron Mark Clark's ego wouldn't let him avoid it. So while the original plan was for Lucian Truscott's Sixth Army to push out of the Anzio beachhead and smash the German Fourteenth Army then head southeast to join up with the British Eighth Army south of Rome and "bag" the German Tenth Army that was in retreat from the Rapido following the breakthrough at Monte Cassino (after three bloody tries before), thus ending the German Wehrmacht in Italy, Clark ordered Truscott to move north and "take" Rome (which was an open city, no Germans there). While Clark was having his victory parade in Rome, the Tenth Army marched around Rome to the east, while the Fourteenth Army retreated up the west side of Italy. They were chased by the Allied armies until they got to the Appenines, where they moved into the already-prepared Gothic Line in July and held out till the end of April 1945. And all of that could have been avoided if Mark Clark hadn't been an egomaniac who was so crazy he asked Eisenhower to delay D-Day two weeks so the liberation of Rome could be "properly celebrated." (Eisenhower's reply was never made public, but those who saw it said he departed from his usual "diplomatic language")
General Truscott was so upset by it that when he spoke at the opening of the American cemetery at Nettuno at the end of the war, he turned away from the crowd and spoke to the graveyard, and apologized to anyone there who had died because he hadn't told Mark Clark to go to hell when he got the order to "liberate" Rome.
Yeah, I wrote a book about all this, "The Bridgebusters: the True Story of the Catch-22 Bomb Wing". Fucking generals are mostly morons; the good ones are the minority.
Thank you, Allen, for checking in and giving us your latest update. I hope Tanya feels better soon. May your travels be safe. Keeping you and Tanya, Zelensky, Kyiv, and Ukraine in our thoughts and prayers. Sending healing energy and prayers for protection your way. 💛💙
If can, drink some hot tea or a toddy, Tanya. Please rest and throw off the cold. Allen, so glad you are safe. Thank you for responding to TC. His books are amazing, right?!
Allen, good to hear from you. I'm glad you are holding tight until Tanya is well enough to travel. That last trek, about 50 miles will feel ever so long, but there is light. Safe travels, friend.
It is morning here in NYC. How are you and Tanya? Our eyes and hearts are on Ukraine. We are eager to hear from you with the realization that your challenges now are difficult and consuming. Please know that your welfare and Tanya's is uppermost in our minds. ❤️🌿❤️🌻❤️
We are sitting in a Polish town waiting to get off the train and go through immigration. 13 hours since we went to the Lviv station..we sat on the train since 230 pm. It is now 2330.
So happy to hear from you and Tanya, Allen! I can only hope and pray that you will get through immigration with no problems and will be given a place to rest your heads and bodies until the long trip to Barcelona.
What a great relief though that you are in Poland and out of harm's way for now. Thinking of you both and sending you strength for the last leg of your journey. Blessings and comfort are sent your way as well. Be at peace, you brave souls!!!💕💕💕💕🇺🇦🌻🇺🇦🌻🇺🇦🌻🇺🇦
Allen, …I cannot address the misery you are going through with words. My body and mind respond with friendship. With words, I can write that hearing from you has lifted my heart. This toll on you and Tanya is another form of sickness. It is best for me to restrict my mind during this communication to you and Tanya leaving the monster out of it. We have light snow here; it is gray as gray gets, cool and damp. Knowing that you are okay is most important. Thank you for checking in. People of the forum look for news of you. I am going to paste your message and post it. Wishing that kindness, comfort and rest wrap around you both. With support, Fern ❤️🌿❤️🌻❤️
Thank you for word from Tanya. I pasted your comment and posted it writing that subscribers could find you on 3/10's forum. It is late, so there may be just a few going to the forum now. I will alert a few. HELLO to TANYA. We are enormously happy that you are both free. Sleep well when you finally get to a bed.❤️🌿❤️🌻❤️
It is SO good to hear from you. I know you are monitoring the situation there. News here today indicates Russia is heading your way. Be safe. Take care. Be well.
Allen - Thank you so much for checking in. I hope that Tanya is feeling better today, so that you can continue your journey. I imagine that the 50-60 miles to the border will be a perilous journey. Praying for your safe arrival in Poland.❤️🙏🏻🌻
You and Tanya are in my thoughts. I hope Tanya recovers quickly and that you'll soon be on your way to Poland. We can only imagine your dilemma, and, across the miles, hope that you'll both soon be in a safe place.
Allen, I was glad to hear a bit from you. Will Tanya see the doctor? It would be great to know how you are doing, too. Please drop by again, when you can. With support, Fern
Allen, Latest news about military moves from Washington Post. Please keep it touch when you can.
Updated today at 9:18 a.m. EST
MUKACHEVO, Ukraine — The Russian military widened its campaign in Ukraine on Friday with airstrikes on new targets in the country’s west, Ukrainian officials said, while satellite imagery indicated that a Russian convoy massed outside Kyiv is maneuvering in possible preparation for a new push against the capital.
Ukrainian authorities said Russian forces carried out airstrikes overnight Thursday in Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk, in western Ukraine, and that Dnipro, in central Ukraine, was also attacked for the first time. While Russian ground forces have made limited advances in several regions, they could soon be bolstered by foreign fighters after President Vladimir Putin directed Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Friday to “help move [volunteers] to the war zone.” Shoigu said Russia has received more than 16,000 applications from volunteers, mostly in the Middle East.
So glad to see you are still with us reading HCR's letters. That is a blessing. I am sorry that Tanya is not feeling well. I hope that she hasn't contacted Covid. I will continue to pray for you and yours safety and that Tanya gets to feeling better soon and can travel. Also, that you don't become ill as well. Additional prayers that this will end sooner rather than later so that you can return to your friends, Lucky and furry friends. I cry tears for you and your country. This is such nonsense at the hands of this horrible madman. I wish my country could do more without causing WWIII that we have talked about all my 78 years!
Grateful to hear from you, Allen, and thankful that you are in Lyiv. Please continue to keep us updated and know how many of us hold for you and Tanya in our hearts.
Allen...I read all of the daily comments and learn! But today, I comment, because like everyone else here, I am so relieved to “hear” your voice. Best wishes for Tanya..and Lucky
Allen, I am so relieved to see your comment. I don't post much but worry excessively. My hope and prayers are with you, Tanya, Lucky, the kitties, your friends, the Ukrainian people, and humanity❤
Thanks for this. I read another book about Ike that supports this explanation of the taking of Rome. Egos at the general level need to be checked. McArthur? Monty? Westmoreland?
Also, I am lucky to exist. My Dad was at Cassino. He met my Mom in a hospital. Wounded lieutenant meets nurse = me.
Don't get me going on MacArthur. As one reviewer of my Pacific War books put it, "the author is no fan of the general." I really go after him for his BS in Korea in "The Frozen Chosen." The most over-rated General in American history.
Best coincidence ever! My husband just said this to me mere minutes ago about “The Frozen Chosen”. Our entire family still making our way thru Jack Weatherford’s books thanks to a recommendation from you. ❤️❤️❤️ So appreciated!!!
My father held no respect for him. Born in 1907, raised in Norfolk VA, my father was a WWII USCG/US Navy veteran. He was deeply offended by the City of Norfolk's decision to make the former City Hall - a massive, classic building that resembles the U.S. Capitol and stands at the head of the main downtown street, City Hall Avenue - into a mausoleum and memorial for that man.
MacArthur was much worse than just over-rated. After US troops pushed North Korea back inside its border in a few months, MacArthur wasted millions of lives perpetuating several years of brutality and ended up where he was when he started his rampage. Truman should have known better. He might have been given bad advice by one of those Dulles SoBs and/or Acheson.
What happened between June 25, 1950, when the war broke out, and late September 1950, when the UN forces arrived back at the 38th parallel, as McCarthyism. Back in the US, no American politician could survive being called "soft on communism," and "roll back" was the name of the game. I'll toot my own horn here and say that "The Frozen Chosen" is not just about the Chosin Reservoir campaign, but the first year of the war, to when "peace' negotiations broke out, with Chosin thus seen in context. There's also a healthy dose of "how did Korea get like this?" As one reviewer said, "It goes from foxhole to White House oval office and back again."
Catch-22 has been my favorite book since I read it right after 8th grade in 1967. I was fascinated reading in your book about the unit Joe Heller was in. Thanks for writing your book.
My father-in-law, who served under Clark in Italy, including the failed crossing of the Rapido, the breakout from Anzio and on into Rome with the 36th Division, had absolutely nothing good to say about him.
TCI recall that ass hole Mark Clark, against his staff’s vigorous opposition, had a. Texas division (36th) march through a Nazi minefield with appalling losses. Also, there was a general with ‘the slows’ at the Anzio beach head who permitted the Germans to bring in two divisions while he dithered on the beach. This was one of the few times that a commanding general was summarily dismissed during a military operation. Some of these incidents were included in a U.S.Army historical book titled Command Decisions (?)
I wrote this at 4 in this morning from memory. I have since looked at COMMAND DECISIONS. As a WW II buff, I consider this one of the most extraordinary books on WW II. Prepared by the Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army in 1959, it assessed 20 military situations, written by some historians who later had distinguished careers, that were both professional and critical. It savages Mark Clark and skewers General Lucas at Anzio.
What I remembered most vividly, from reading the book 60 years ago, was its documentation on how “The Decision to Evacuate the Japanese from the PACIFIC COAST (1942)” was based on false information by Major General Allen Gullion and others and a brief to the Supreme Court that ignored data which would have informed the Court that there was no factual basis for the internment of over 100,000 Americans of Japanese descent. Horrifying then and now.
Michael Only in 2018 did the Supreme Court (as an after thought) overturn the 1944 Korumatsu v. United States decision that the internment of (Japanese) Americans was constitutional. Inexplicable that it took 74 years to overturn such an abominable decision.
I find it extraordinary that, with this unconscionable interment of (Japanese) American citizens, Americans of Japanese descent volunteered to serve in a Nisei regiment that, I believe, was the most decorated fighting group in the European campaign.
Yeah, high command in the Mediterranean Theater wasn't much good till Truscott was put in command of Fifth Army in December 1944. The guys I interviewed for Bridgebusters said it was like a shot of fresh air shot through the entire theater.
TC Like General Patton replacing an inept general after our Kasserine Pass military disaster in North Africa. Patton was certainly not politically correct, and his ego cost unnecessary soldiers lives in Sicily, but he saved our butts at Bastogne and was, despite his personal downsides, perhaps our best fighting general in WW II.
My father didn’t talk about the war much, but he served in Italy as a British captain. I do remember that he always made fun of Mark Clark and use the same biological term referring to him and in a sort of British pronunciation joke always referred to him as Merk Clerk.
Tony Actually, British General Alexander was Mark Clark’s commanding officer, whose strategy and specific orders Clark tended to ignore.
I had a British uncle who served under. General Montgomery in Egypt. He was captured on reconnaissance with the 7th Hussars at El Alemain. Some how he escaped from prison camp and made his way close to Allied lines in Italy before being recaptured. Under British military regulations, he was frozen at his major grade while a prisoner.
By contrast, I had an American cousin who was exec officer on a sub sunk soon after Pearl Harbor. He was one of four in the crew to escape and be captured by the Japanese. We knew nothing of his fate for two years, until notification from the Red Cross. Under US Navy rules he was promoted while a prisoner and completed his naval career as a captain.
Alexander was not much better than Clark, he kept his position because he was Churchill's favorite general. The Med suffered from lack of top leadership, since they all saw "the big one" being Northwest Europe.
No, TC, you're wrong about Alexander. Alex was probably the best of them all. From his early days in WWI as a company commander in the Irish Guards, he was always smart, brave, selfless, dedicated to the cause. He led men "over the top" in WWI 34 times and survived; That's a person of Destiny. He fought at the Somme and at Passchendaele. Wounded on 2 separate occasions, he healed and soon after went back into combat. No military leader in the Allied cause was more respected in the European and Mediterranean theaters. After WWI, he continued in command in other British wars of the time, including India.
True, that he was Churchill's favorite general. That was probably because he had proved himself so many times in combat leadership. When things got tough, they brought in Alexander. During the evacuation of Dunkirk, Alexander was chosen to manage the evacuation of British Army getting off the beach. He kept things cool and orderly as the evacuation was accomplished. He was brought in again in Burma to save the British army as the Japanese closed in.
After Burma, Alex was back in London in mid-1942 when Ike had been appointed to command U.S. forces in the coming Med. and European war. Ike met and had lunch with him at that point. Ike's secretary, Lt. Cmdr. Harry Butcher reported that when Alex had left after lunch, Ike said, "That's the man who should be in charge, not me" When Ike was given command of the Allied invasion of North Africa, Alex was given command of all land forces there, and that made Ike very happy. At the Casablanca Conference in January 1943, Ike told Gen. Marshall, FDR, and Churchill that he would gladly serve UNDER Alexander. But the U.S. was becoming the dominant Allied force then and Ike was given the figurehead position of commander.
General Omar Bradley, who served under Patton in North Africa and was then Patton's boss in Northwest Europe, and who also became the first U.S. chairman of the joint chiefs of staff after WWII, said that Alexander was responsible for training the U.S. Army in North Africa. After the disaster of the American soldiers running away at Kassarine Pass, no British commanders wanted to be aligned with U.S. ground forces there. Ike finally talked Alexander into training the American soldiers to be combat fit. Alex started by getting the Americans into small skirmishes, then larger and larger as they gained confidence in their fighting abilities.
After Cassino/Monte Cassino, Alex designed the plan you mentioned about containing German 10th and 14th Armies and then discussed it with Gen. Truscott and the other relevant commanders. Of course, we know that Mark Clark disregarded his orders, did his own thing and headed for Rome. (I believe it was one of the British soldiers who came up with the term "Markus Clarkus".) Alex technically could have had Clark relieved, but the U.S. was calling the shots in the war at that point, and I imagine Alex was counselled not to do so.
A few years after WWII ended, General of the Army Omar Bradley gave some reflections on the management of the war. He said, "World War II produced two great military leaders--Field Marshall Erwin Rommel and Field Marshall Sir Harold Alexander." I believe Bradley was right on the money.
As an aside, I have a great pen and ink sketch by a combat artist of General Truscott and his Executive Officer in the field.
He was all of those things, but he wouldn't take action about Clark or the other non-perfmormers. A good training officer, as noted, and that's important because you can't win without a well-trained army. As noted from WW1 an excellent company officer. But up in the stratosphere he was perhaps "too nice a guy" when he needed to kick ass and take names. He did look better after Clark replaced him, but that was Clark. He should have put Truscott or someone like him in charge of 5th Army after the Rome fiasco.
Yes, Keith, that was General Lucas at Anzio. I think he froze. He made a statement like "I just couldn't send those boys out to their deaths." Lucas was sent back to the U.S. as something of a training officer.
My father was one of those staff officers who advised Mark Clark not to make that move across the Rapido. In later years, he told me in a very emphatic way, "I told him not to do that! But, he was the commanding general, so what can you do?" The 36th (Texas) division took a very high number of casualties. The Texans never forgot that; through steady pressure, they had Clark brought up for a Congressional Hearing, but Congress found Clark not guilty. Gen. Clark was a good trainer of troops in the states, but a combat command is very different from that. Those West Pointers are a tight club. Clark and Ike were cadets and friends at WP at the same time but in different classes. Clark also played a substantial part [through his recommendation to General Marshall] in getting Ike the big job of directing U.S. [later Anglo-American] operations in North Africa. So, I guess Ike returned the favor and gave Clark command of 5th Army.
We see that array of Russian Commanders who have learned to use modern technologies to pulverize cities and kill civilians but have no ability to fight a war.
Two weeks ago I saw the stalled 40 mile convoy as a sign of ridiculous absence of planning and execution. The out dated MRE’s verified the impending deadly chaos.
Building resentment by bombing schools and hospitals guarrrantees an endless partisan war after Russia pulverizes the nation.
Perhaps the worse long term miscalculation by Putin was trusting his generals.
Sounds like Eisenhower was one of the good ones. Though a lifelong Dem, I have always respected Eisenhower. I remember as a child, watching the Big Brother show on TV (It was a Boston area children's show), we drank a glass of milk as a Toast to the President of the United States. There was a portrait of Ike on screen.
Yeah, it was pushing patriotism, but his smiling face always made me feel safe, and in the early 50's, things weren't too bad for working class people. If you were white.
Cheryl I voted for Eisenhower in 1956 and have been associated with Eisenhower Fellowships since 1953. I met President Eisenhower with a group of Eisenhower Fellows in the fall of 1960. I consider him an excellent WW II general who had to deal with such egoists as Churchill and DeGaulle while trying to win a war. As president, he kept us out of war and was a moderate/conservative on domestic matters. There have been scads written about Ike. For me, the best personal insights are in Susan Eisenhower’s recent HOW IKE LED.
Though Ike was not a civil rights enthusiast, he did dispatch the 101 Airborne division to Little Rock in 1957 to enforce school desegration. Ike said that this was his toughest decision as president, since he had ordered the 101st to parachute/land in Europe on D Day. No one is perfect, but, on balance, Ike was a decent man.
Ike ranked quite low on early C-Span polls of historians/political scientists. He has risen sharply in recent decades, but not as much as Truman.
Eisenhower was a good general, and a better president than many (including my father) thought at the time. I once caddied for his party (the Secret Service foursome bringing up the rear), and afterwards he gave each of the caddies a crisp new $5 bill, a fortune in 1958 to a 14-year old. I still hate golf.
Hahaha! I never thought much of golf either. To me, it looks like an excuse for a bunch of rich people to walk (or ride) around on a nice lawn, pretending to do something. Lol
I was 11 in 1958, but, yeah, $5 was a fortune in those days!
Nice to learn he was generous!
I always loved his warning about the military-industrial complex. Coming from a general, it really was a strong, though unheeded, warning.
My late brother-in-law thought Mark Clark the idiot that you portray. I know Patton had his flaws but I love his comment that “Fixed fortifications are a monument to the stupidity of man.”
50 years ago, I was enrolled in a pilot program at my public hs to push students, esp females into (at the time equivalent of) a STEM program. My history education lacked. I then entered IIT and didn't learn any more history. This column and my recent reading has become my history lessons. I would be interested in knowing who you (or others on this forum) consider the good ones, and also any other books besides yours that you would suggest. Thank you.
HCR has mentioned some in her video chats. the newest book I plan to read is "An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States" To understand what all the fuss is about, "The 1619 Project" is good.
There are many good books to read on history and also economics. One I have found helpful is Crankshaw's "The Fall of the House of Habsburg." A change in the old European order and a turning point in world history. It will take you to the start of WWI. You will read about all of those smaller European countries that have reappeared with the descend of the Soviet Union.
Books on the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans are worthy reads also.
Guns or butter philosophy? Paul Kennedy's "The Rise and Fall of The Great Powers." 500 years of economic history.
Others may differ with my choices. I had many hours on planes and sitting in overseas hotel rooms. So, I read rather than drink.
Bill For me the classic book on American banking is Ron Chernow’s The House of Morgan. It describes in exquisite detail how investment banking evolved in the US, with a leg up in London. How Morgan saved TR’s butt in 1907. As far as US not knowing that armaments were on the Lusitania, they were bought and placed there by Morgan as an agent of the US. {I was called in to reorganize major portions of JPMorgan in 1983, at which time I considered it the most professional bank probably in the world. This has changed greatly with JPMChase.
For a running commentary on economics/finance Paul Krugman of the NYT has, for me, an excellent letter. Also, The Economist has some excellent opinion pieces on finance/economics.
For basic economics and much more I recommend Tim Taylor now at McAlaster. He has been editor of a major economics journal for eons. His Great Courses lectures are marvelous, including his update on Heibroner’s classic on key economists.
Thank you for your recommendation. Now I will have to get it and read.
My Masters is in Economics. Supposed to go to University of Chicago from Loyola University. Family came first at the time. Third child on the way and I needed to be home. I settled into Supply Chain and the associated Logistics.
Where I write, we have a number of economists who contribute. Krugman is admired amongst them. One upon a blue moon, he comes by and some have been found in his column. Tim Taylor is good. I wander by his site once and a while too.
1491 and 1493 by Charles Mann. Truman by David McCullough. I haven't listened to it yet but HCR has a series on YouTube on the history of the Republican party.
As someone who has actually written a couple of those, allow me to say that the closest any war movie can get to the truth is some level of emotional truth. The actual physical truth, other than having the actors be part of an organization that runs like the military organization portrayed, is close to impossible.
On that scale, here are some worth watching (in no particular order of 1-5, etc):
"The Bridges at Toko-ri" is maybe the best; several naval aviators told me when asked that their experience in Korea was "just like that." A story of a guy who doesn't want to be there, is afraid of what he's doing, and does it anyway. (Interestingly enough, the two guys William Holden's character and Mickey Rooney's character were based on by Michener actually got captured and survived as POWs.)
Followed by "Twelve O'Clock High" (the director's cut). Written by two veterans of the European air war. The National War College still shows this as an example of leadership in wartime.
"The Big Parade" the first "serious" war movie (1927). Written by a combat veteran of the battle of Belleau Wood, the story of that battle (with the battle happening in Griffith Park). A very good telling of "the costs of war."
"All Quiet on the Western Front" - the 1970s TV movie starring Richard Thomas is much better than the original, stays close to the novel, and has the novel's truly devastating ending.
"Attack!" - very controversial when it came out in the 50s, since the "enemy" is the commanding officer, a coward. Both Lee Marvin and Eddie Albert, who star in it, told me in interviews that they did it because as combat veterans "it was the first screenplay I had read that was close to my experience as a serving officer," as Eddie Albert put it. Ignore the cardboard tanks; it was "made on a budget."
"Full Metal Jacket" - the best of the Vietnam movies; written by a veteran. The only difference between the portrayal of boot camp and my experience was nobody murdered the drill instructor. A friend who was a veteran of the Battle of Hue had a hard time watching the recreation.
"Battleground" - they actually lowered the temperatures inside the sound stage so people were as cold as the originals were in Bastogne. I was told everyone had a cold from going from the set back out to summer in Culver City every day.
"Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" - very close to Ted Lawson's book; the real story of the Doolittle Raid. Jimmy Doolittle liked Spencer Tracy's portrayal.
"Das Boot" (director's cut - get the subtitled release): about as real as submarine warfare gets. The depth-charging sequence will scare you.
And, finally, "Band of Brothers," the HBO series. Probably the ten best war movies ever made.
I know Oliver Stone and I knew the guy who he based the main character on. He came home and became an anti-war GI, then was later the national president of Veterans For Peace. He died 10 years ago from "the effects of the war" is as good a diagnosis as any.
Thank you all. After I retired, I got very involved in reading about Lincoln and the Civil War. I will add these books to my reading list. And btw, since we are talking about reading, might I offer a reading suggestion? I was....hmmm.....not sure of the word to use for how I felt when I read this book: dismayed? angry? The title is "Shall We Wake the President? Two Centuries of Disaster Management" by Tevi Troy. I read this right at the start of the pandemic.
Moseley On Lincoln and the Civil War there are scads of excellent books. James McPherson’s -winning BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM is still my basic go-to-book, while Doris Kearns Goodwin and others are excellent, as is David Donald’s classic biography of Lincoln.
I enjoyed The Silk Roads:A New History of the World by Peter Frankopan. He looks at ancient history heading g east instead of the European centric view. He's good up to the end of World War II. I needed maps to follow.
On another tangent, somewhat akin to your own digression from from HCR’s point, I am re minded of the letters home from my uncle S/sgt Ralph Kuhn. He campaigned through North Africa but died in Italy. His letters were written in a somewhat journalistic style as he was principally a paymaster and personal affairs logistics person, yet logistics personnel underwent German shelling and they were killed as well as those on the front. My point is that in his letters he expressed a continual desire to capture Rome. His buddy Walter Fature, from Spokane Wa. also wrote home to Dolores, his wife of a need to get out of North Africa and take Rome. This insane desire to capture the capital of Italy ran through threads of correspondence communicating a welling desire in the ranks to spank the despots of Europe. This can be seen in a parallel desire to get to Berlin and in a stretch to save Kyev today. I agree with you whole heartily that the Rome trip was superfluous in terms of military strategy. Yes you are correct and have illuminated a point of history. It is my personal conviction that the taking of Rome when they took it gave the men and the world a rousing hurrah and an attaboy they sorely deserved. As a former member of an Army generals entourage in war time combat I found that a little beer now and then gave us all morale. Certainly the grunts thought so.
You're right about that, but the job of a good general is to keep the big picture in mind. Clark would be remembered today as a great general if he had just stuck to the plan, which would have resulted in the surrender of the German armies in Italy, saving all the casualties - military and civilian - that were lost in the ensuing year, and giving everyone a big boost for taking all of Italy. All he had to do was stick to the plan that had been developed. But he was an idiot who thought he was a genius. He screwed up in Korea, too, since all they did to him in Italy was fire him by kicking him upstairs to replace Alexander as theater commander.
Why do so many Americans embrace the fascist/oligarchs that now control the republican party? Do they not understand that they are actually supporting the corporations and billionaires who pay those in office, and they will be the next to lose their liberties (vote) and rights (guns), and freedoms (speech)?
It's hard to understand. There are the stewed grievances but there are also the people like Bill Barr who, while he doesn't like Trump, would never vote for a Dem if that was the only choice. I have people like this in my family. Privilege is a part of it, I think, so much white male privilege that they don't know what's going on in a way, and are so convinced that Dems will ruin this country more than a fascist sociopath. The hatred of Obama was more than race, I believe, because I hear it for Biden too. But never hear exactly what was/is "so bad" about either of them. They each got handed a country in tatters and certainly made/making it better. This schism is something like being in a different reality. So hard to understand.
It might appear to be the same hatred on the faces of the mob that faced those on school busses trying to desegregate the southern schools, those walking up the school steps while being spat on, those in classroom never called on. Is there a name for that hatred?
Pretty clear to me. People tend to believe what they are being fed when it's coming from a trusted source. Faux News has become their "trusted" source. And it's omnipotent presence keeps it that way. Makes me want enquire what your source of 'income' is.., and compare it to them. I like your comments, Kim. I sit with you.
Speaking of Fox, the judge has allowed a suit against Fox, by Smartmatic and Dominion voting systems, to go forward. Fox will likely settle, rather than allowing testimony and emails to come out. Story at Press Run.
You ask "why": my guess is that Americans are subjected to a school curriculum chosen by corporate flunkies who have no intention of teaching ethics, civics or the ability to think analitically . I don't know how teachers cope!
My father gave me “Teaching As A Subversive Activity” when I graduated in 1969. It guided me. I had to make my own social studies curriculum for my fourth and fifth graders even until 2012 when I retired. Read “Lies My Teacher Told Me.”
I think this so often. When I tutored in 2002, a studen'ts textbook still had Russia is The Union of Soviet Socialists Republic. In this day textbooks need to be replaced with dialogue supported with facts.
It appears that some hear only truncated news, and really don't have a clue. Some American news is so whitewashed, just like Kremlin news. I spoke with a friend who had no idea that chump had made fun of a journalist or praised putin for invading Ukraine. She said chump wouldn't do that. When I suggested that she google it, she said that news is distorted. I told her it's on video, nothing to distort. Some Americans don't know what's really going on and don't seek out alternative because they're been told that all other news is fake, and gullibly believe it. They believe their authorities, and never learned to question authority.
I think Tucker Carlson should be checked out to see if he's on Russia's payroll.
Not just Carlson is on Russia's payroll, NC's version of Marjorie Taylor Greene, Madison Cawthorn, must be as well. He's labeled Zelensky a "thug" and sounds like a Russian operative. He's since tried to backtrack a little, but his allegiances seem clear. What a piece of...um..."work".
Today.. the capability exists to "alter" anything. What is 'difficult' to alter is a real-time paper print-out (but it can be time delayed) taken from the printer by a entrusted person (entrusted by whom?) and placed in a 'safe' to be opened only by 3 entrusted (..? ) persons. All under the whims of the HMFICC. This is a simple explanation of "a means of distortion", but there exists many others. This not conspiracy-theory crap. Let's recall the phone call between the President of the Ukraine and our president. Have you or I ever seen the 'actual' transcript of that call. I'm referring to the word-for-word "print-out" of every single word! Maybe we should ask the HMFICC..and not his atty gen'l (POS).
There is a man, a man of outstanding honor, an American Hero Patriot who risked EVERYTHING but his honor to tell America about "That-Phone-Conversation"
Colonel Alexander Vindman!
His book is: "Here Right Matters"
Also
I thought you might be interested in the following repeat of my previous comment found elsewhere in this newsletter:
Biden's advisors must change their perception about Putin/Ukrainian war according to Colonel Alexander Vindman...
A most enlightening criticism of the current efforts being implemented in dealing with the War. Colonel Vindman emphasizes issues of timing and missed opportunities that would have had positive consequential outcomes but are no longer available because of misconceptions about advisors; hope focused efforts of "Returning-To-Normal" and the political survival distractions of the up-coming Mid-Term elections.
SEE:
Alexander Vindman: The U.S. Is at Great Risk of Ending Up in This War | Amanpour and Company
I also think that in their grievances they do not care to react to lies. Trump is their oligarch and he is better than any other oligarch so they will stick with him.
Reagan’s basic creed, why Bannon said goal of chump was destruction of the administrative state. Well, one reason, plus, he’s a cretin like none other, except maybe Putin
C'mon Lynn, these are everyday Christians.., and NO, Biden didn't win. Now go away. Lynn, you kinda implied they are dumb... and I suppose you're gonna blame Faux Noose? Hope so. I do. It's what they are told by Faux. And the party of repubDUB's are ready to defend it..., they're 'united' WE better have our ducks together for Biden/2024.
Except they don't mind the government expanding to block legal abortions, or harass trans children, or prevent people from voting. Now Desantis has his very own special police force to harass voters.
The short answer - yes. They traded privacy for security; they traded morality for dogma; and they traded entrepreneurial spirit with loyalty to oligarchs, (because their only investment into capitalism rests in their IRAs); and they traded truth for propaganda.
In short, quoting Pink Floyd, we all traded “a walk-on part in a war for a leading role in a cage.”
I don’t get it. He’s so ill-informed and stupid, so how? I don’t disagree with you, I just can’t fathom that he’s capable of that. There must be someone pulling the strings. Is it Putin? Is trump merely a vessel?
I can't remember the scholar but I heard a talk about people who grow up in authoritarian households (patriarchy) and authoritarian churches are very likely to respond positively to leaders like T***p.
The irony is that the people who cry the loudest about freedom don't realize that they are in essence supporting the destruction of freedom. (Granted, some of them are hell-bent on creating a nation where there is freedom for them but not others.) Also, HCR points out the inefficiency and corruption of authoritarian regimes. Trumpists don't recognize the glaring fact that Dear Leader's administration was not just corrupt but extraordinarily inept at delivering basic services.
We have a serious problem with widespread, reinforced right wing propaganda in this country. Seems we haven't figured out how to respect the First Amendment freedom of speech without letting damaging propaganda run wild.
Absolutely. It's an enormous issue. Our right wing media has repeated lies so many times, it has become the truth. It parallels exactly what is happening in Russia with their state-controlled media.
I read the link. I have never experienced terror or fears regarding death. It's part of life. It happens. Maybe thats why I find religions fascinating but false.
I believe it was FDR who said, about Nicaraguan dictator, Somoza, "He might be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch." So partly, I'd say, it's self-interest. The other part, I believe, is that Americans seem to be in love with showy violence--our heroes are cowboys and gangsters; some of our great writers fall in love with the murderers and rapists they write about.
I lived in an area of Michigan where, I was told, there was a "strong Native American culture." The culture in question, in Michigan as most everywhere in this country, is a terrible parody of itself. I was nearly overcome with the horribleness of popular "pow-wows"--attended mostly by white people--where we could see "Indian" costumes, watch dances, eat "authentic" Indian food, and buy jewelry. I cannot imagine being a citizen of a dead world and putting on a performance for the people whose ancestors destroyed that world. As a woman in this white world, my only possible point of reference would be the many humiliations of "performing" for the men who have abused me.
I see it differently, perhaps because the current Anishinaabe First Nations (Canadian) and Tribes (U.S.) are authentic and have succeeded. As the Odawa/Chippewa Culturalist here in northwest Michigan explained to me, they were able to "raise the red pipe, buried by the white man centuries ago." (And he had the red pipe to prove it!). What may have seemed cheesy and cheap to you (and to me when I was young growing up here) was a concerted effort to reclaim The People's customs, heritage, beliefs and skills. It worked. My husband (Mississauga First Nation) was President of the Michigan Indian Confederation for a year in the 70's, where I saw first hand the poverty, and the pride. This is no longer a dead world or culture. Come visit again!
MaryPat, you have truly made my day. If I have heard more beautiful words than "raise the red pipe, buried by the white man" I don't recall them. I don't travel anymore, but your comment here allows me to feel my feet on the ground out there. I had a sweat lodge (big enough for only four) on my ten acres, five llamas who always followed us across the yard to the lodge, and two hawks who circled when the sweats were in the daytime. Very good memories that you bring back for this old woman. Thank you
Exactly, That's exactly what I meant, Jane. It was a delicately worded question, which the person at the receiving end would either understand entirely; or choose to respond as you have. Or simply keep me guessing as to why a person would choose a name that sounds every bit like Jailee, a person in Jail. Did I mention I enjoyed her comments? Well, I find them very astute.
Once again, an example of how a scholar and public intellectual like Heather can use history to illuminate the present. With Lincoln and Roosevelt, the USA was on the right side of history. I believe that this is the case with Biden as well. Putin's weaknesses - and the weaknesses of authoritarianism- are becoming more visible every day. Threatening Russians with a 15 year sentence if they dare call what's happening in Ukraine a war is not a sign of strength- it is a sign of desperation.
Do not be distracted by the resistance of the Ukrainian people to Russian totalitarianism as a sign that the autocratic minority in the U.S. have rethought, and changed, their drive toward political control. Though they are a practical minority, they have succeeded in rigging the electoral processes in a sufficient number of states to guarantee control of the government for years into the future. They have an active plan for upsetting any presidential election results that they find adverse to them. It is a mistake to believe that the sudden awakening of many parts of the world to the importance of liberal democracy is a harbinger of improvement in conditions in the U.S. We are headed to a period of extremist autocracy in this country and it is, in my view, now too late to escape it.
My optimism is waning and I’m feeling naive to have hope for a Blue win this November. And yet, without hope and optimism comes crushing depression. This is what they want us to feel. This is how the bright light of democracy dies. Every flicker of hope being snuffed out of us with each new state law letting us know our vote won’t matter. Time for me to dust off my rose colored glasses and get out of this funk I’m in today.
Somewhere I read that the count of unverified voters in Texas for the recent election was only 800 and something. However, there was not a huge turnout and most of these invalid voters were Republicans.
Taking an optimiseral point of view, I feel it is possible to pull our Ford 150 out of the ditch.
Thanks to Typing Class, I must've typed this a thousand times. Here ya go: It's time for all good men to come to the aid of their country. Score: A+ (62wpm). It's only thing I learned in hi-school (how to type!). And, Now is that time. It is indeed, an opportunity to excell, like none other in our history. I have never seen a better time for "leaders" to stand tall with President Biden. But, they must be very conscious to avoid being shuffled off the stage.
Slight correction: Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country. Verified and found this: "NOW IS THE TIME FOR ALL GOOD MEN TO COME TO THE AID OF THEIR COUNTRY BEFORE THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPS OVER THE LAZY LITTLE PUPPY DOG"
But let us not forget, that America has behaved in a "Putinesque" manner many times in the past - and has to be incredibly adroit in avoiding the charges of hypocrisy. These exploits (pushed by the Chicago School Of Economics - under Milton Friedman)- resulted in the imposition of Pinochet in Chile, and equal horrors in Indonesia, Venezuela etc, to support neoliberalism. Maybe things have changed - we can only hope. (Read Shock Doctrine - Naomi Klein).
The book 'Bitter Fruit' by Stephen Kinzer is another example of American "economic fascism". It seems this is what happens when a leader or part of a government is allowed to operate with no oversight.
Hi Fern! Even good, decent people, left too long to their own devices, can become at best complacent - interested more in their own comfort than in the work at hand, turn into petty thieves (I was a whistle blower in the late 1980s, a truly horrible experience), or at worst actually harm the people/institutions they were charged to serve, not through malice, mostly due to sheer inertia (if you've ever had a 'weird' problem at a typical DMV office you may have experience this). The trick seems to be oversight with support, not oversight with fear. I've really only worked with one person in my entire career(s) that I could say truly had no conscience. She self-destructed after about 3 years.
Yeah, I was a (very small scale) whistleblower in the 1980s too. Lucky for me, there was a union at my back when management attacked me for pointing out missing money.
…and this is one of those times when anxiety is very high and people are susceptible. I started reading a frightening piece which was recommended by a few on the forum. It is by Seth Abramson(Proof). I looked him up -- inconclusive. If you're interested, I'll link it without a recommendation. Just not sure how solid it is.
How are you? Along with many of us, I am afraid that Ukraine is being sacrificed and think Putin has to be stopped. Any thoughts you care to share?
Hello again friend! I am okay - struggling with being newly retired (semi-retired, anyway) - still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. Thanks for asking. Sure, I'll take a look at what he has to say. He used to be a law professor at UNH (Univ. of New Hampshire) and was active in Democratic politics here, supporting Bernie Sanders in 2016. He's also a poet. I've even heard him on the local public radio station once or twice. His warnings (2018) about Trump's business involvement in Russia were largely discounted at the time, but ring truer today.
I hope you are wrong about Ukraine. Putin has given the world's liberal democracies a tremendous gift with this invasion, but only if this opportunity is not squandered to support the fossil fuel industry at the expense of the Ukrainian People.
There are good people in government, but death star and his minions showed us how fragile that can be. Various R governed states continue to show us how ugly things can be. I did hear the all politicians are corrupt again last weekend and I took exception to it. We must work to elect the ones who are not although I agree with Norman's post below as to the problems we face.
A fascinating read, Heather. Thank you so much for the critical historic elements.
Putin's blatant lies remind me of those of the GOP and tfg, should they regain power -- which, in turn, recall the words of Simone Weil:
"Whether the mask is labeled fascism, democracy, or dictatorship of the proletariat, our great adversary remains the apparatus—the bureaucracy, the police, the military. Not the one facing us across the frontier of the battle lines, which is not so much our enemy as our brothers' enemy, but the one that calls itself our protector and makes us its slaves. No matter what the circumstances, the worst betrayal will always be to subordinate ourselves to this apparatus and to trample underfoot, in its service, all human values in ourselves and in others."
PREDICTION: Within a month the Republicans and their ‘American patriot’ entourage will be more vocal on the price of gas than on Putin and the dastardly catastrophe that he has inflicted on Ukraine and on countless Ukrainian citizens.
Such distinguished ‘patriots’ as Cruz, DeSantis, and Graham, no longer bromancing with Putin, will excoriate President Biden for this ‘this totally unacceptable gas situation,’ while wrapping themselves in the American flag.
What’s happened to Trump’s bromance with ‘genius’ Putin? Does he still take Putin’s word over the assessment of the US intelligence community?
You are 100% right, the republican “inner circle” will, with Rupert’s evil megaphone, continue their assault on anything democratic. The old crone at the assisted living where I live wore her “Biden is a parasite” shirt yesterday. The cult lives and hates.
I hope that chump still admires his “Putie,” so that the cult can see what his puppet master is capable of.
Agree. So let's just pull a clandestine night-mission., capture the bastards alive.. both of them, feed em one Big Mac and a large coke per day. Make sure it's a least 1 day old (ie, Cold ::)). Take them down to Angola.., nice and warm.
There is a tweet from Citizens for Ethics which is a video in which tRump is asked his opinion on how the Ukrainian war will end. tRump goes on for about 35 seconds about windmills and how they are rusting and a blight on the landscapes. It's a "tilting at windmills"moment that I'm sure he doesn't mean. Pathetic. (Sorry, I don't know how to share a twitter link..)
Pam Trying to analysis what Trump is ‘thinking’ is like having a conversation with my demented 19-year-old cat. Since he doesn’t read, clearly he is not making an oblique reference to Don Quixote. Actually, if he would be given a blank map of Europe and be offered a President Biden pardon for all of his sedition/treason if he could identify Ukraine, he would flunk.
I've been admiring all the MSM foreign correspondents, such as Nic Robertson in Moscow and so many more still in Ukraine, putting their lives at peril to bear witness for us to this horrific war perpetrated by Putin.
I don’t “twitter” so unfortunately never heard of these two people. MSM should consider including them—they are brilliant. Thank you Ellie for sharing this.
I saw Dr. St. Julian-Varnon on Zerlina's broadcast; I didn't know she was Tweeting, too. I'm following. She's brilliant. She's also a wonderful human being whose head is screwed on totally straight.
Kathy, Thank you for sharing. Comparison to Nazis is what many observers and critics are saying. “This year, while I have been in Moscow covering the buildup and outbreak of war in neighboring Ukraine, it became painfully clear to me that, just as the Nazis did in Germany during the 1930s and 40s, Putin has had laws made to his order.”
"....it became painfully clear to me that, just as the Nazis did in Germany during the 1930s and 40s, Putin has had laws made to his order.” And we're seeing that happening at the state level both in perverting voting processes and censoring language and reading.
And I am still worried that the whole world will be sucked in, just as it was after Hitler's invasion of Sudentenland. I think a swift attack on any Russian military equipment that entered Ukraine might have ended this quickly. A swift response to Hitler may have prevented WWII.
Sometimes i think “the rub” comes from the fact that “a swift response” almost requires a fascistic mindset — which is what Putin was referring to in his interview with the “Financial Times”. Wonder how to get past this — after all, it’s the premise of martial law.
Russia will have a hard time doing anything with the Airbus and Boeing air fleets. Russia has no commercial aviation industry, and all the Russian-language repair and technical bulletins and manuals are online only. No downlink to Russia from Boeing and Airbus means aircraft will soon be out of safety compliance. It's questionable if pilots will even be able to start their engines.
You think? Yes Diana, the parts are out there. The support from Boeing and Airbus....wellll we shall see. Thes two giants see 'safety' as a primary mission. It's bad juju for people to die in one of their airplanes. Faux Noose would have a ball with that.
I read that the plan to nationalize (read: steal) the leased fleet of planes, then cannibalize spare parts, presumably until none of them will fly safely anymore.
Thank you, Professor! This stands out! “In 1944, FDR pointed out that democratic government was messy but it freed its people to work and think and fight in ways that authoritarian governments could not.” The war in Ukraine is about Democracy and freedom, both ideals Putin denies his own people and is trying to destroy in Ukraine, yet they remain with the Ukrainians who are valiantly holding on to their democracy even as the war, loss and destruction are raging. Hoping other Democracies, NATO, can provide enough assistance to save and help rebuild Ukraine. The price the Ukrainian people are paying in loss of life and land is heartbreaking. What will remain when the fighting finally ends is a big question.
" -, Chinese president Xi Jinping believes that autocracies are “the wave of the future—democracy can’t function in an ever complex world.”" Isn't that just the point: Autocrats are always tempted to take shortcuts in complexity, rather than seeing and acting on the complexity. From Alexander the great and on; cutting the knot was not a solution. - "In the long run, it is not possible to grow by making someone else smaller (Bert Hellinger)."
I was born in 1948 in a hospital where my mom worked two blocks from my home. I remember it well. But I was unaware of how desperate people of color in the South were for doctors and health care. Perhaps health care in the USA wasn't much better in the decade before WWII than in Italy. In fact, when I googled health care in the USA, I found: 1932:
"The United States Public Health Service begins the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, which withholds medical treatment for syphilis from black American males. The experiment finally ends in 1972." If this is an example of the situation in the USA, how could FDR criticise Italy?
Add to that the forced sterilization of people deemed unfit to bear children, based on nothing more than the white, elite notion of who is worthy and who is not.
I’m so very grateful that Biden and his administration are functioning today as FDR did close to 80 years ago. That Putin is hellbent on destroying Ukraine’s culture is horrifying. He - and his corrupted cronies - must be stopped, arrested, prosecuted and imprisoned.
“Russians following Stalinist playbook in occupied Ukraine: arrest intellectuals, artists, curators, leaders. Decapitate society. They did it in 1933, they will do it in 2022. History repeats itself.”
“Andrei Kurkov
@AKurkov
· Mar 10
first house searches and first arrests of Crimean-Tatars in the occupied territories adjacent to Crimea. The first to be arrested is Leila Ibragimova, director of Melitopol History museum.”
MSNBC's Ali Velshi, is reporting from a live camera at a frigid train station in Budapest where some arriving Ukranian Refugees are traveling on to Spain and other safe countries. For some Ukranians interviewed, it is a Round Trip -- secure Family vunerable members then back to Ukraine to help fight for what one very young woman called "humanity in crisis".
Ali and crew are doing an excellent job of making this travesty all too real. After that young woman spoke, I wondered if I could be anywhere as strong as she, could I take in refugees?
“in spite of the tinsel at the top…their economic condition had grown steadily worse. Our troops have found starvation, malnutrition, disease, a deteriorating education and lowered public health—all by-products of the Fascist misrule.” What Americans need to stop denying is that this is what other countries find here now…starvation, malnutrition, a deteriorating education and lowered public health… Who’s got a Marshal Plan for us? How can we rise up to save our democracy? A million people dead from a virus, countless more with long-term health issues…and systems are already positioned to deny care. Teachers burning out. Children are homeless. We’re suffering from fascism here too.
Any relationship between what FDR said and the facts about the "fall" of Rome were coincidence, as are the "facts" in any war while it's on.
The fact was that by "liberating" Rome, we extended the war in Italy a year. But General Moron Mark Clark's ego wouldn't let him avoid it. So while the original plan was for Lucian Truscott's Sixth Army to push out of the Anzio beachhead and smash the German Fourteenth Army then head southeast to join up with the British Eighth Army south of Rome and "bag" the German Tenth Army that was in retreat from the Rapido following the breakthrough at Monte Cassino (after three bloody tries before), thus ending the German Wehrmacht in Italy, Clark ordered Truscott to move north and "take" Rome (which was an open city, no Germans there). While Clark was having his victory parade in Rome, the Tenth Army marched around Rome to the east, while the Fourteenth Army retreated up the west side of Italy. They were chased by the Allied armies until they got to the Appenines, where they moved into the already-prepared Gothic Line in July and held out till the end of April 1945. And all of that could have been avoided if Mark Clark hadn't been an egomaniac who was so crazy he asked Eisenhower to delay D-Day two weeks so the liberation of Rome could be "properly celebrated." (Eisenhower's reply was never made public, but those who saw it said he departed from his usual "diplomatic language")
General Truscott was so upset by it that when he spoke at the opening of the American cemetery at Nettuno at the end of the war, he turned away from the crowd and spoke to the graveyard, and apologized to anyone there who had died because he hadn't told Mark Clark to go to hell when he got the order to "liberate" Rome.
Yeah, I wrote a book about all this, "The Bridgebusters: the True Story of the Catch-22 Bomb Wing". Fucking generals are mostly morons; the good ones are the minority.
Good book. Read it last December but haven't written a review on Goodreads yet.
Allen! We've been worrying how you, Tanya, and Lucky are doing! Please post an update for us.
Sending best wishes for your safety in terrible trying times.
We are in Lviv. Tanya is sick with a bad cold and we will stay until she is well enough to travel.
Sending warm, healing energy and prayers for safe passage, Allen and Tanya. Thank you for keeping in touch.
Allen, it’s such a relief to hear from you again. I will send good energy to you and Tanya for safe passage and good health.
Delighted to hear from you, Allen -- not so delighted that Tanya is unwell. Sending soothing and healing thoughts her way.
Thank you, Allen, for checking in and giving us your latest update. I hope Tanya feels better soon. May your travels be safe. Keeping you and Tanya, Zelensky, Kyiv, and Ukraine in our thoughts and prayers. Sending healing energy and prayers for protection your way. 💛💙
Yes. We’re all sending love and prayers and more prayers.
If can, drink some hot tea or a toddy, Tanya. Please rest and throw off the cold. Allen, so glad you are safe. Thank you for responding to TC. His books are amazing, right?!
Everyone here is with you, step by step.
Salud! United! 💜☮️
And Allen, whatever resources you need, there are ways to get them to you. Do not hesitate to ask. Do you have people in Barcelona?
Been there four times and do have a contact
Allen, good to hear from you. I'm glad you are holding tight until Tanya is well enough to travel. That last trek, about 50 miles will feel ever so long, but there is light. Safe travels, friend.
As always I am glad to know that you are safe and have a chance to let Tanya get better. Sending healing reiki energy and thinking of you.
Allen- always feel better when we hear from you and that you are well- hope you and Tanya can travel again soon.
Thanks for checking in. ❤️
It is morning here in NYC. How are you and Tanya? Our eyes and hearts are on Ukraine. We are eager to hear from you with the realization that your challenges now are difficult and consuming. Please know that your welfare and Tanya's is uppermost in our minds. ❤️🌿❤️🌻❤️
We are sitting in a Polish town waiting to get off the train and go through immigration. 13 hours since we went to the Lviv station..we sat on the train since 230 pm. It is now 2330.
So happy to hear from you and Tanya, Allen! I can only hope and pray that you will get through immigration with no problems and will be given a place to rest your heads and bodies until the long trip to Barcelona.
What a great relief though that you are in Poland and out of harm's way for now. Thinking of you both and sending you strength for the last leg of your journey. Blessings and comfort are sent your way as well. Be at peace, you brave souls!!!💕💕💕💕🇺🇦🌻🇺🇦🌻🇺🇦🌻🇺🇦
Allen, …I cannot address the misery you are going through with words. My body and mind respond with friendship. With words, I can write that hearing from you has lifted my heart. This toll on you and Tanya is another form of sickness. It is best for me to restrict my mind during this communication to you and Tanya leaving the monster out of it. We have light snow here; it is gray as gray gets, cool and damp. Knowing that you are okay is most important. Thank you for checking in. People of the forum look for news of you. I am going to paste your message and post it. Wishing that kindness, comfort and rest wrap around you both. With support, Fern ❤️🌿❤️🌻❤️
Tanya said it was a hard day but it was free.
Allen, We hope that you and Tanya are making your way. Please check in when you can. Your friends on the forum wishing you safety and good care.
Thank you for word from Tanya. I pasted your comment and posted it writing that subscribers could find you on 3/10's forum. It is late, so there may be just a few going to the forum now. I will alert a few. HELLO to TANYA. We are enormously happy that you are both free. Sleep well when you finally get to a bed.❤️🌿❤️🌻❤️
Hello, Allen and Tanya!! Wishing you calm, rest, and wellness!
It is SO good to hear from you. I know you are monitoring the situation there. News here today indicates Russia is heading your way. Be safe. Take care. Be well.
Do you have a destination?
Polish border first then Barcelona if possible
Good travels! (Considering the circumstances.)
Ah, Barcelona would be wonderful! Recover, then safe travel.
❤️🌿❤️🌻❤️
Allen - Thank you so much for checking in. I hope that Tanya is feeling better today, so that you can continue your journey. I imagine that the 50-60 miles to the border will be a perilous journey. Praying for your safe arrival in Poland.❤️🙏🏻🌻
From the news it doesn't look safe anywhere in Ukraine! I hope there is a safe zone in the city.
Good to hear. May you and yours stay safe.
You and Tanya are in my thoughts. I hope Tanya recovers quickly and that you'll soon be on your way to Poland. We can only imagine your dilemma, and, across the miles, hope that you'll both soon be in a safe place.
Home, Lucky and cats are looked after by friends.
Allen, I was glad to hear a bit from you. Will Tanya see the doctor? It would be great to know how you are doing, too. Please drop by again, when you can. With support, Fern
Regular cold meds are working.
Allen, Latest news about military moves from Washington Post. Please keep it touch when you can.
Updated today at 9:18 a.m. EST
MUKACHEVO, Ukraine — The Russian military widened its campaign in Ukraine on Friday with airstrikes on new targets in the country’s west, Ukrainian officials said, while satellite imagery indicated that a Russian convoy massed outside Kyiv is maneuvering in possible preparation for a new push against the capital.
Ukrainian authorities said Russian forces carried out airstrikes overnight Thursday in Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk, in western Ukraine, and that Dnipro, in central Ukraine, was also attacked for the first time. While Russian ground forces have made limited advances in several regions, they could soon be bolstered by foreign fighters after President Vladimir Putin directed Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Friday to “help move [volunteers] to the war zone.” Shoigu said Russia has received more than 16,000 applications from volunteers, mostly in the Middle East.
Good news, Allen. A big smile for you and thumbs up. Thank you for communicating.
Hi Allen. Please speak to us.
So glad to see you are still with us reading HCR's letters. That is a blessing. I am sorry that Tanya is not feeling well. I hope that she hasn't contacted Covid. I will continue to pray for you and yours safety and that Tanya gets to feeling better soon and can travel. Also, that you don't become ill as well. Additional prayers that this will end sooner rather than later so that you can return to your friends, Lucky and furry friends. I cry tears for you and your country. This is such nonsense at the hands of this horrible madman. I wish my country could do more without causing WWIII that we have talked about all my 78 years!
Grateful to hear from you, Allen, and thankful that you are in Lyiv. Please continue to keep us updated and know how many of us hold for you and Tanya in our hearts.
Allen...I read all of the daily comments and learn! But today, I comment, because like everyone else here, I am so relieved to “hear” your voice. Best wishes for Tanya..and Lucky
Hello Allen! I'm so glad to see you see you here! Best wishes to Tanya for a speedy recovery. Keeping you both in my heart.🌻🌷
Allen! So relieved to hear your voice. Please let us know how you and Tanya are doing. Wrapping our arms around you both.
Allen, I am so relieved to see your comment. I don't post much but worry excessively. My hope and prayers are with you, Tanya, Lucky, the kitties, your friends, the Ukrainian people, and humanity❤
So glad to hear from you. Sorry that Tanya is unwell. Praying for you both, and all of Ukraine.
So wonderful to hear from you Allen! Hugs to Tanya, I hope she recovers quickly. Holding you all in my prayers.
Hi Allen!
Allen and Tanya, Your welfare and spirits are foremost on our minds and in our hearts. ❤️🌿❤️🌻❤️
Allen, This feels like a miracle. Speak, please
So good to hear. Hope you can travel again soon look forward to message you are safe.
That name Lucian Truscott was sounding familiar. Substack fellow Lucian Truscott IV is the grandson of Gen. Truscott.
https://luciantruscott.substack.com/
TC, your WW 2 history stories are amazing!
Yes, Ellie. I love historians. Most fascinating storytellers.
Ellie, Allen responded to my post. If you're around, he's right above. I'm waiting for his words.
General Truscott's biography is interesting to read. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucian_Truscott
Thanks for this. I read another book about Ike that supports this explanation of the taking of Rome. Egos at the general level need to be checked. McArthur? Monty? Westmoreland?
Also, I am lucky to exist. My Dad was at Cassino. He met my Mom in a hospital. Wounded lieutenant meets nurse = me.
Don't get me going on MacArthur. As one reviewer of my Pacific War books put it, "the author is no fan of the general." I really go after him for his BS in Korea in "The Frozen Chosen." The most over-rated General in American history.
Best coincidence ever! My husband just said this to me mere minutes ago about “The Frozen Chosen”. Our entire family still making our way thru Jack Weatherford’s books thanks to a recommendation from you. ❤️❤️❤️ So appreciated!!!
Thank you!
My father held no respect for him. Born in 1907, raised in Norfolk VA, my father was a WWII USCG/US Navy veteran. He was deeply offended by the City of Norfolk's decision to make the former City Hall - a massive, classic building that resembles the U.S. Capitol and stands at the head of the main downtown street, City Hall Avenue - into a mausoleum and memorial for that man.
Definitely over-rated.
MacArthur was much worse than just over-rated. After US troops pushed North Korea back inside its border in a few months, MacArthur wasted millions of lives perpetuating several years of brutality and ended up where he was when he started his rampage. Truman should have known better. He might have been given bad advice by one of those Dulles SoBs and/or Acheson.
What happened between June 25, 1950, when the war broke out, and late September 1950, when the UN forces arrived back at the 38th parallel, as McCarthyism. Back in the US, no American politician could survive being called "soft on communism," and "roll back" was the name of the game. I'll toot my own horn here and say that "The Frozen Chosen" is not just about the Chosin Reservoir campaign, but the first year of the war, to when "peace' negotiations broke out, with Chosin thus seen in context. There's also a healthy dose of "how did Korea get like this?" As one reviewer said, "It goes from foxhole to White House oval office and back again."
Yeah. The highly touted American people are a bunch of fucking rubes, and proud of it to boot.
Catch-22 has been my favorite book since I read it right after 8th grade in 1967. I was fascinated reading in your book about the unit Joe Heller was in. Thanks for writing your book.
Thanks TC. I’d no idea - this wasn’t ever taught in any of my history classes - grade school, high school or college.
Fascinating. The flaws of human character have consequences when elevated to positions of leadership. What an ego.
Power often attracts the wrong people, to everyone else's detriment.
My father-in-law, who served under Clark in Italy, including the failed crossing of the Rapido, the breakout from Anzio and on into Rome with the 36th Division, had absolutely nothing good to say about him.
TCI recall that ass hole Mark Clark, against his staff’s vigorous opposition, had a. Texas division (36th) march through a Nazi minefield with appalling losses. Also, there was a general with ‘the slows’ at the Anzio beach head who permitted the Germans to bring in two divisions while he dithered on the beach. This was one of the few times that a commanding general was summarily dismissed during a military operation. Some of these incidents were included in a U.S.Army historical book titled Command Decisions (?)
I wrote this at 4 in this morning from memory. I have since looked at COMMAND DECISIONS. As a WW II buff, I consider this one of the most extraordinary books on WW II. Prepared by the Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army in 1959, it assessed 20 military situations, written by some historians who later had distinguished careers, that were both professional and critical. It savages Mark Clark and skewers General Lucas at Anzio.
What I remembered most vividly, from reading the book 60 years ago, was its documentation on how “The Decision to Evacuate the Japanese from the PACIFIC COAST (1942)” was based on false information by Major General Allen Gullion and others and a brief to the Supreme Court that ignored data which would have informed the Court that there was no factual basis for the internment of over 100,000 Americans of Japanese descent. Horrifying then and now.
A shameful event still alive in memories and family histories here on the West Coast.
Michael Only in 2018 did the Supreme Court (as an after thought) overturn the 1944 Korumatsu v. United States decision that the internment of (Japanese) Americans was constitutional. Inexplicable that it took 74 years to overturn such an abominable decision.
I pass by Manzanar a couple times a year and always stop to pay my respects to the people imprisoned there during the war.
I find it extraordinary that, with this unconscionable interment of (Japanese) American citizens, Americans of Japanese descent volunteered to serve in a Nisei regiment that, I believe, was the most decorated fighting group in the European campaign.
Took the tour there along with my grandson's class field trip. So very depressing and sad.
Been there. Very sobering.
Yeah, high command in the Mediterranean Theater wasn't much good till Truscott was put in command of Fifth Army in December 1944. The guys I interviewed for Bridgebusters said it was like a shot of fresh air shot through the entire theater.
TC Like General Patton replacing an inept general after our Kasserine Pass military disaster in North Africa. Patton was certainly not politically correct, and his ego cost unnecessary soldiers lives in Sicily, but he saved our butts at Bastogne and was, despite his personal downsides, perhaps our best fighting general in WW II.
My father didn’t talk about the war much, but he served in Italy as a British captain. I do remember that he always made fun of Mark Clark and use the same biological term referring to him and in a sort of British pronunciation joke always referred to him as Merk Clerk.
Tony Actually, British General Alexander was Mark Clark’s commanding officer, whose strategy and specific orders Clark tended to ignore.
I had a British uncle who served under. General Montgomery in Egypt. He was captured on reconnaissance with the 7th Hussars at El Alemain. Some how he escaped from prison camp and made his way close to Allied lines in Italy before being recaptured. Under British military regulations, he was frozen at his major grade while a prisoner.
By contrast, I had an American cousin who was exec officer on a sub sunk soon after Pearl Harbor. He was one of four in the crew to escape and be captured by the Japanese. We knew nothing of his fate for two years, until notification from the Red Cross. Under US Navy rules he was promoted while a prisoner and completed his naval career as a captain.
Alexander was not much better than Clark, he kept his position because he was Churchill's favorite general. The Med suffered from lack of top leadership, since they all saw "the big one" being Northwest Europe.
No, TC, you're wrong about Alexander. Alex was probably the best of them all. From his early days in WWI as a company commander in the Irish Guards, he was always smart, brave, selfless, dedicated to the cause. He led men "over the top" in WWI 34 times and survived; That's a person of Destiny. He fought at the Somme and at Passchendaele. Wounded on 2 separate occasions, he healed and soon after went back into combat. No military leader in the Allied cause was more respected in the European and Mediterranean theaters. After WWI, he continued in command in other British wars of the time, including India.
True, that he was Churchill's favorite general. That was probably because he had proved himself so many times in combat leadership. When things got tough, they brought in Alexander. During the evacuation of Dunkirk, Alexander was chosen to manage the evacuation of British Army getting off the beach. He kept things cool and orderly as the evacuation was accomplished. He was brought in again in Burma to save the British army as the Japanese closed in.
After Burma, Alex was back in London in mid-1942 when Ike had been appointed to command U.S. forces in the coming Med. and European war. Ike met and had lunch with him at that point. Ike's secretary, Lt. Cmdr. Harry Butcher reported that when Alex had left after lunch, Ike said, "That's the man who should be in charge, not me" When Ike was given command of the Allied invasion of North Africa, Alex was given command of all land forces there, and that made Ike very happy. At the Casablanca Conference in January 1943, Ike told Gen. Marshall, FDR, and Churchill that he would gladly serve UNDER Alexander. But the U.S. was becoming the dominant Allied force then and Ike was given the figurehead position of commander.
General Omar Bradley, who served under Patton in North Africa and was then Patton's boss in Northwest Europe, and who also became the first U.S. chairman of the joint chiefs of staff after WWII, said that Alexander was responsible for training the U.S. Army in North Africa. After the disaster of the American soldiers running away at Kassarine Pass, no British commanders wanted to be aligned with U.S. ground forces there. Ike finally talked Alexander into training the American soldiers to be combat fit. Alex started by getting the Americans into small skirmishes, then larger and larger as they gained confidence in their fighting abilities.
After Cassino/Monte Cassino, Alex designed the plan you mentioned about containing German 10th and 14th Armies and then discussed it with Gen. Truscott and the other relevant commanders. Of course, we know that Mark Clark disregarded his orders, did his own thing and headed for Rome. (I believe it was one of the British soldiers who came up with the term "Markus Clarkus".) Alex technically could have had Clark relieved, but the U.S. was calling the shots in the war at that point, and I imagine Alex was counselled not to do so.
A few years after WWII ended, General of the Army Omar Bradley gave some reflections on the management of the war. He said, "World War II produced two great military leaders--Field Marshall Erwin Rommel and Field Marshall Sir Harold Alexander." I believe Bradley was right on the money.
As an aside, I have a great pen and ink sketch by a combat artist of General Truscott and his Executive Officer in the field.
He was all of those things, but he wouldn't take action about Clark or the other non-perfmormers. A good training officer, as noted, and that's important because you can't win without a well-trained army. As noted from WW1 an excellent company officer. But up in the stratosphere he was perhaps "too nice a guy" when he needed to kick ass and take names. He did look better after Clark replaced him, but that was Clark. He should have put Truscott or someone like him in charge of 5th Army after the Rome fiasco.
Yes, Keith, that was General Lucas at Anzio. I think he froze. He made a statement like "I just couldn't send those boys out to their deaths." Lucas was sent back to the U.S. as something of a training officer.
My father was one of those staff officers who advised Mark Clark not to make that move across the Rapido. In later years, he told me in a very emphatic way, "I told him not to do that! But, he was the commanding general, so what can you do?" The 36th (Texas) division took a very high number of casualties. The Texans never forgot that; through steady pressure, they had Clark brought up for a Congressional Hearing, but Congress found Clark not guilty. Gen. Clark was a good trainer of troops in the states, but a combat command is very different from that. Those West Pointers are a tight club. Clark and Ike were cadets and friends at WP at the same time but in different classes. Clark also played a substantial part [through his recommendation to General Marshall] in getting Ike the big job of directing U.S. [later Anglo-American] operations in North Africa. So, I guess Ike returned the favor and gave Clark command of 5th Army.
Thanks for the reminder of “tinsel at the top.”
We see that array of Russian Commanders who have learned to use modern technologies to pulverize cities and kill civilians but have no ability to fight a war.
Two weeks ago I saw the stalled 40 mile convoy as a sign of ridiculous absence of planning and execution. The out dated MRE’s verified the impending deadly chaos.
Building resentment by bombing schools and hospitals guarrrantees an endless partisan war after Russia pulverizes the nation.
Perhaps the worse long term miscalculation by Putin was trusting his generals.
Sounds like Eisenhower was one of the good ones. Though a lifelong Dem, I have always respected Eisenhower. I remember as a child, watching the Big Brother show on TV (It was a Boston area children's show), we drank a glass of milk as a Toast to the President of the United States. There was a portrait of Ike on screen.
Yeah, it was pushing patriotism, but his smiling face always made me feel safe, and in the early 50's, things weren't too bad for working class people. If you were white.
Cheryl I voted for Eisenhower in 1956 and have been associated with Eisenhower Fellowships since 1953. I met President Eisenhower with a group of Eisenhower Fellows in the fall of 1960. I consider him an excellent WW II general who had to deal with such egoists as Churchill and DeGaulle while trying to win a war. As president, he kept us out of war and was a moderate/conservative on domestic matters. There have been scads written about Ike. For me, the best personal insights are in Susan Eisenhower’s recent HOW IKE LED.
Though Ike was not a civil rights enthusiast, he did dispatch the 101 Airborne division to Little Rock in 1957 to enforce school desegration. Ike said that this was his toughest decision as president, since he had ordered the 101st to parachute/land in Europe on D Day. No one is perfect, but, on balance, Ike was a decent man.
Ike ranked quite low on early C-Span polls of historians/political scientists. He has risen sharply in recent decades, but not as much as Truman.
Eisenhower was a good general, and a better president than many (including my father) thought at the time. I once caddied for his party (the Secret Service foursome bringing up the rear), and afterwards he gave each of the caddies a crisp new $5 bill, a fortune in 1958 to a 14-year old. I still hate golf.
Hahaha! I never thought much of golf either. To me, it looks like an excuse for a bunch of rich people to walk (or ride) around on a nice lawn, pretending to do something. Lol
I was 11 in 1958, but, yeah, $5 was a fortune in those days!
Nice to learn he was generous!
I always loved his warning about the military-industrial complex. Coming from a general, it really was a strong, though unheeded, warning.
Actually. That is a big “if”
Enormous.
My late brother-in-law thought Mark Clark the idiot that you portray. I know Patton had his flaws but I love his comment that “Fixed fortifications are a monument to the stupidity of man.”
50 years ago, I was enrolled in a pilot program at my public hs to push students, esp females into (at the time equivalent of) a STEM program. My history education lacked. I then entered IIT and didn't learn any more history. This column and my recent reading has become my history lessons. I would be interested in knowing who you (or others on this forum) consider the good ones, and also any other books besides yours that you would suggest. Thank you.
I recommend reading all of Heather's books. Her expertise of the Republican party is illuminated in her fascinating books--acutely relevant today!
HCR has mentioned some in her video chats. the newest book I plan to read is "An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States" To understand what all the fuss is about, "The 1619 Project" is good.
Indigenous is a huge eye opener
Miselle:
There are many good books to read on history and also economics. One I have found helpful is Crankshaw's "The Fall of the House of Habsburg." A change in the old European order and a turning point in world history. It will take you to the start of WWI. You will read about all of those smaller European countries that have reappeared with the descend of the Soviet Union.
Books on the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans are worthy reads also.
Guns or butter philosophy? Paul Kennedy's "The Rise and Fall of The Great Powers." 500 years of economic history.
Others may differ with my choices. I had many hours on planes and sitting in overseas hotel rooms. So, I read rather than drink.
Bill For me the classic book on American banking is Ron Chernow’s The House of Morgan. It describes in exquisite detail how investment banking evolved in the US, with a leg up in London. How Morgan saved TR’s butt in 1907. As far as US not knowing that armaments were on the Lusitania, they were bought and placed there by Morgan as an agent of the US. {I was called in to reorganize major portions of JPMorgan in 1983, at which time I considered it the most professional bank probably in the world. This has changed greatly with JPMChase.
For a running commentary on economics/finance Paul Krugman of the NYT has, for me, an excellent letter. Also, The Economist has some excellent opinion pieces on finance/economics.
For basic economics and much more I recommend Tim Taylor now at McAlaster. He has been editor of a major economics journal for eons. His Great Courses lectures are marvelous, including his update on Heibroner’s classic on key economists.
Keith:
Thank you for your recommendation. Now I will have to get it and read.
My Masters is in Economics. Supposed to go to University of Chicago from Loyola University. Family came first at the time. Third child on the way and I needed to be home. I settled into Supply Chain and the associated Logistics.
Where I write, we have a number of economists who contribute. Krugman is admired amongst them. One upon a blue moon, he comes by and some have been found in his column. Tim Taylor is good. I wander by his site once and a while too.
All good ones.
For the Pacific War, Ian Toll's trilogy is very good. Also any book ever written by Sir Max Hastings.
Thanks too!
1491 and 1493 by Charles Mann. Truman by David McCullough. I haven't listened to it yet but HCR has a series on YouTube on the history of the Republican party.
War movies are a way to get started. My husband, a '65 VN draftee, loved to watch war movies (& pick them apart).
As someone who has actually written a couple of those, allow me to say that the closest any war movie can get to the truth is some level of emotional truth. The actual physical truth, other than having the actors be part of an organization that runs like the military organization portrayed, is close to impossible.
On that scale, here are some worth watching (in no particular order of 1-5, etc):
"The Bridges at Toko-ri" is maybe the best; several naval aviators told me when asked that their experience in Korea was "just like that." A story of a guy who doesn't want to be there, is afraid of what he's doing, and does it anyway. (Interestingly enough, the two guys William Holden's character and Mickey Rooney's character were based on by Michener actually got captured and survived as POWs.)
Followed by "Twelve O'Clock High" (the director's cut). Written by two veterans of the European air war. The National War College still shows this as an example of leadership in wartime.
"The Big Parade" the first "serious" war movie (1927). Written by a combat veteran of the battle of Belleau Wood, the story of that battle (with the battle happening in Griffith Park). A very good telling of "the costs of war."
"All Quiet on the Western Front" - the 1970s TV movie starring Richard Thomas is much better than the original, stays close to the novel, and has the novel's truly devastating ending.
"Attack!" - very controversial when it came out in the 50s, since the "enemy" is the commanding officer, a coward. Both Lee Marvin and Eddie Albert, who star in it, told me in interviews that they did it because as combat veterans "it was the first screenplay I had read that was close to my experience as a serving officer," as Eddie Albert put it. Ignore the cardboard tanks; it was "made on a budget."
"Full Metal Jacket" - the best of the Vietnam movies; written by a veteran. The only difference between the portrayal of boot camp and my experience was nobody murdered the drill instructor. A friend who was a veteran of the Battle of Hue had a hard time watching the recreation.
"Battleground" - they actually lowered the temperatures inside the sound stage so people were as cold as the originals were in Bastogne. I was told everyone had a cold from going from the set back out to summer in Culver City every day.
"Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" - very close to Ted Lawson's book; the real story of the Doolittle Raid. Jimmy Doolittle liked Spencer Tracy's portrayal.
"Das Boot" (director's cut - get the subtitled release): about as real as submarine warfare gets. The depth-charging sequence will scare you.
And, finally, "Band of Brothers," the HBO series. Probably the ten best war movies ever made.
Some more:
Best Vietnam movie: "Full Metal Jacket" - a friend who was a veteran of the Battle of Hue had a hard time watching the recreation.
And the ten best war movies ever made: "Band of Brothers," the HBO series.
My spouse had a hard time with Platoon and the sobbing in the packed theater wasn't coming from the maybe 2 women in the audience.
One of his big battles was Soui Tre in 1967 (FSB Gold).
He would have agreed about Band of Brothers.
I know Oliver Stone and I knew the guy who he based the main character on. He came home and became an anti-war GI, then was later the national president of Veterans For Peace. He died 10 years ago from "the effects of the war" is as good a diagnosis as any.
Thank you all. After I retired, I got very involved in reading about Lincoln and the Civil War. I will add these books to my reading list. And btw, since we are talking about reading, might I offer a reading suggestion? I was....hmmm.....not sure of the word to use for how I felt when I read this book: dismayed? angry? The title is "Shall We Wake the President? Two Centuries of Disaster Management" by Tevi Troy. I read this right at the start of the pandemic.
Moseley On Lincoln and the Civil War there are scads of excellent books. James McPherson’s -winning BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM is still my basic go-to-book, while Doris Kearns Goodwin and others are excellent, as is David Donald’s classic biography of Lincoln.
I enjoyed The Silk Roads:A New History of the World by Peter Frankopan. He looks at ancient history heading g east instead of the European centric view. He's good up to the end of World War II. I needed maps to follow.
On another tangent, somewhat akin to your own digression from from HCR’s point, I am re minded of the letters home from my uncle S/sgt Ralph Kuhn. He campaigned through North Africa but died in Italy. His letters were written in a somewhat journalistic style as he was principally a paymaster and personal affairs logistics person, yet logistics personnel underwent German shelling and they were killed as well as those on the front. My point is that in his letters he expressed a continual desire to capture Rome. His buddy Walter Fature, from Spokane Wa. also wrote home to Dolores, his wife of a need to get out of North Africa and take Rome. This insane desire to capture the capital of Italy ran through threads of correspondence communicating a welling desire in the ranks to spank the despots of Europe. This can be seen in a parallel desire to get to Berlin and in a stretch to save Kyev today. I agree with you whole heartily that the Rome trip was superfluous in terms of military strategy. Yes you are correct and have illuminated a point of history. It is my personal conviction that the taking of Rome when they took it gave the men and the world a rousing hurrah and an attaboy they sorely deserved. As a former member of an Army generals entourage in war time combat I found that a little beer now and then gave us all morale. Certainly the grunts thought so.
You're right about that, but the job of a good general is to keep the big picture in mind. Clark would be remembered today as a great general if he had just stuck to the plan, which would have resulted in the surrender of the German armies in Italy, saving all the casualties - military and civilian - that were lost in the ensuing year, and giving everyone a big boost for taking all of Italy. All he had to do was stick to the plan that had been developed. But he was an idiot who thought he was a genius. He screwed up in Korea, too, since all they did to him in Italy was fire him by kicking him upstairs to replace Alexander as theater commander.
Yeh..Viet Nam 68..that's as much as I wish to talk about it. Rock on TC!
Just ordered your book!
Thank you!
Thank you again, appreciate your suggestions. I just ordered your book as well.
Thank you! All readers deeply appreciated and loved.
Thanks for this.
Why do so many Americans embrace the fascist/oligarchs that now control the republican party? Do they not understand that they are actually supporting the corporations and billionaires who pay those in office, and they will be the next to lose their liberties (vote) and rights (guns), and freedoms (speech)?
It's hard to understand. There are the stewed grievances but there are also the people like Bill Barr who, while he doesn't like Trump, would never vote for a Dem if that was the only choice. I have people like this in my family. Privilege is a part of it, I think, so much white male privilege that they don't know what's going on in a way, and are so convinced that Dems will ruin this country more than a fascist sociopath. The hatred of Obama was more than race, I believe, because I hear it for Biden too. But never hear exactly what was/is "so bad" about either of them. They each got handed a country in tatters and certainly made/making it better. This schism is something like being in a different reality. So hard to understand.
It might appear to be the same hatred on the faces of the mob that faced those on school busses trying to desegregate the southern schools, those walking up the school steps while being spat on, those in classroom never called on. Is there a name for that hatred?
Hmmm. If I think about it long enough….
Well, I wasn’t carefully taught, so I do know the answer, which they will deny to the very end.
Pretty clear to me. People tend to believe what they are being fed when it's coming from a trusted source. Faux News has become their "trusted" source. And it's omnipotent presence keeps it that way. Makes me want enquire what your source of 'income' is.., and compare it to them. I like your comments, Kim. I sit with you.
Speaking of Fox, the judge has allowed a suit against Fox, by Smartmatic and Dominion voting systems, to go forward. Fox will likely settle, rather than allowing testimony and emails to come out. Story at Press Run.
I hope the plaintiffs will decline to settle in order to ensure that testimony & emails will become public.
Yes!
It’s Shakespearian. As if they deeply envy and hate and distrust kindness and a generous heart. A deep contempt for goodness.
You ask "why": my guess is that Americans are subjected to a school curriculum chosen by corporate flunkies who have no intention of teaching ethics, civics or the ability to think analitically . I don't know how teachers cope!
My father gave me “Teaching As A Subversive Activity” when I graduated in 1969. It guided me. I had to make my own social studies curriculum for my fourth and fifth graders even until 2012 when I retired. Read “Lies My Teacher Told Me.”
Thanks for this recommendation. Just ordered from ThriftBooks
How lucky your students were!
Yes! That book is still around here somewhere.
I think this so often. When I tutored in 2002, a studen'ts textbook still had Russia is The Union of Soviet Socialists Republic. In this day textbooks need to be replaced with dialogue supported with facts.
In the 70s Values Clarification was a big deal in education. No one knew how to determine what values to teach to what community.
It appears that some hear only truncated news, and really don't have a clue. Some American news is so whitewashed, just like Kremlin news. I spoke with a friend who had no idea that chump had made fun of a journalist or praised putin for invading Ukraine. She said chump wouldn't do that. When I suggested that she google it, she said that news is distorted. I told her it's on video, nothing to distort. Some Americans don't know what's really going on and don't seek out alternative because they're been told that all other news is fake, and gullibly believe it. They believe their authorities, and never learned to question authority.
I think Tucker Carlson should be checked out to see if he's on Russia's payroll.
Putin boasted that he could buy any Western politician or media figure. He proved it with Trump. I'm certain he owns Carlson and many others. Remember how the NRA laundered rubles? Republicans were on the receiving end. https://www.npr.org/2019/09/27/764879242/nra-was-foreign-asset-to-russia-ahead-of-2016-new-senate-report-reveals
Not just Carlson is on Russia's payroll, NC's version of Marjorie Taylor Greene, Madison Cawthorn, must be as well. He's labeled Zelensky a "thug" and sounds like a Russian operative. He's since tried to backtrack a little, but his allegiances seem clear. What a piece of...um..."work".
https://www.wral.com/us-rep-madison-cawthorn-calls-zelensky-thug/20180199/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiossneakpeek&stream=top
A Yogi Berra type pundit said, "You can see a lot if you just start looking."
No matter who is paying him, Tucker is working for Putin.
I love Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman's new moniker for him "Tuckyo Rose"!
Yes. They refuse to see the truth before their eyes no matter the facts.
Today.. the capability exists to "alter" anything. What is 'difficult' to alter is a real-time paper print-out (but it can be time delayed) taken from the printer by a entrusted person (entrusted by whom?) and placed in a 'safe' to be opened only by 3 entrusted (..? ) persons. All under the whims of the HMFICC. This is a simple explanation of "a means of distortion", but there exists many others. This not conspiracy-theory crap. Let's recall the phone call between the President of the Ukraine and our president. Have you or I ever seen the 'actual' transcript of that call. I'm referring to the word-for-word "print-out" of every single word! Maybe we should ask the HMFICC..and not his atty gen'l (POS).
There is a man, a man of outstanding honor, an American Hero Patriot who risked EVERYTHING but his honor to tell America about "That-Phone-Conversation"
Colonel Alexander Vindman!
His book is: "Here Right Matters"
Also
I thought you might be interested in the following repeat of my previous comment found elsewhere in this newsletter:
Biden's advisors must change their perception about Putin/Ukrainian war according to Colonel Alexander Vindman...
A most enlightening criticism of the current efforts being implemented in dealing with the War. Colonel Vindman emphasizes issues of timing and missed opportunities that would have had positive consequential outcomes but are no longer available because of misconceptions about advisors; hope focused efforts of "Returning-To-Normal" and the political survival distractions of the up-coming Mid-Term elections.
SEE:
Alexander Vindman: The U.S. Is at Great Risk of Ending Up in This War | Amanpour and Company
March 10, 2022 you tube video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySQX9HLnYwU
AND SEE
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/01/opinion/alexander-vindman-ukraine-russia-war.html?showTranscript=1
Of course Tucker is.
I also think that in their grievances they do not care to react to lies. Trump is their oligarch and he is better than any other oligarch so they will stick with him.
Too many people vote Republican because they hate paying taxes and they hate the government, all government.
Government by oligarchs is still government, only with no oversight or limits.
Exactly! Bumper sticker worthy.
Yes, bumper sticker worthy.
Reagan’s basic creed, why Bannon said goal of chump was destruction of the administrative state. Well, one reason, plus, he’s a cretin like none other, except maybe Putin
Yet, they love Obama care and rental assistance. Hypocrisy is too big a word to pronounce, much less understand.
C'mon Lynn, these are everyday Christians.., and NO, Biden didn't win. Now go away. Lynn, you kinda implied they are dumb... and I suppose you're gonna blame Faux Noose? Hope so. I do. It's what they are told by Faux. And the party of repubDUB's are ready to defend it..., they're 'united' WE better have our ducks together for Biden/2024.
Except they don't mind the government expanding to block legal abortions, or harass trans children, or prevent people from voting. Now Desantis has his very own special police force to harass voters.
Good grief... you left off 'Libtards'..we're liked like a tipped over litterbox.
The short answer - yes. They traded privacy for security; they traded morality for dogma; and they traded entrepreneurial spirit with loyalty to oligarchs, (because their only investment into capitalism rests in their IRAs); and they traded truth for propaganda.
In short, quoting Pink Floyd, we all traded “a walk-on part in a war for a leading role in a cage.”
Whoa, PinkFloyd, nice touch, JaneDough.
They are drunk on a “cocktail of carefully stewed grievances.” Works in any country. (Thanks Kathy Clark for posting Nic Robertson’s column today https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/11/europe/leaving-russia-analysis-robertson-intl-cmd/index.html)
“marching the nation on a cocktail of carefully stewed grievances..."
Thanks for passing this phrase on to us. It describes exactly the formula that our own fascists have employed so effectively in America.
And another from Robertson's essay: "oligarchs newly minted as gamekeepers turned poachers"
Trump is America's Putin.
I don’t get it. He’s so ill-informed and stupid, so how? I don’t disagree with you, I just can’t fathom that he’s capable of that. There must be someone pulling the strings. Is it Putin? Is trump merely a vessel?
This is the question I have had in mind since Trump took office.
Trump is a wannabe America's Putin! I believe he was purchased by Putin! Money talks!
As the great Ain't Vic alway used to say " Money doesn't talk. It screams."
Hahaa.. that's because their mind (by Faux) has been made up and they don't want to be confused by "the facts" as represented by some Libtard.
Great line. Great column.
They embrace autocrats because they are hardwired for authoritarianism. About 27% of any given population is hardwired to embrace it.
I can't remember the scholar but I heard a talk about people who grow up in authoritarian households (patriarchy) and authoritarian churches are very likely to respond positively to leaders like T***p.
The irony is that the people who cry the loudest about freedom don't realize that they are in essence supporting the destruction of freedom. (Granted, some of them are hell-bent on creating a nation where there is freedom for them but not others.) Also, HCR points out the inefficiency and corruption of authoritarian regimes. Trumpists don't recognize the glaring fact that Dear Leader's administration was not just corrupt but extraordinarily inept at delivering basic services.
We have a serious problem with widespread, reinforced right wing propaganda in this country. Seems we haven't figured out how to respect the First Amendment freedom of speech without letting damaging propaganda run wild.
Absolutely. It's an enormous issue. Our right wing media has repeated lies so many times, it has become the truth. It parallels exactly what is happening in Russia with their state-controlled media.
Partly because much of our right wing media is funded by the experts in misinformation, the Russians?
When people are scared, particularly of mortality -- and mortality signals, particularly, are all around us -- they cling more to authoritarians. Look up "terror management theory" and read the book "The Worm at the Core." Here is a review: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jul/31/the-worm-at-the-core-on-the-role-of-death-in-life-solomon-greenberg-pyszczynski-review
I read the link. I have never experienced terror or fears regarding death. It's part of life. It happens. Maybe thats why I find religions fascinating but false.
Will do. Thank you. Yes. Fear is what rules so many. That's what religions tap into.
And, on a more immediate level, that's what authoritarians tap into. They have, or seem to have, figured out how to control those things we fear.
“Unlike the baboon who gluts himself only on food, man nourishes himself mostly on self-esteem.” Thanks for this insightful book, Bronwyn...!
Full disclosure: I helped them write it.
Cooool!!!
Exactly.
They want what the Republicans say they will give them: Their White, Christian, Entitled-Privilege unquestioned back, by any means necessary.
That’s why they love trump even though some acknowledge he’s a blowhard.
Their wants are very explicit:
1) White control of the voting process.
2) Women under men’s thumb and control,
3) No money from their pockets going to black or POC.
4) Education that never questions their supremacy or their beloved myths.
And truly they are showing us “By Any Means Necessary.”
I believe it was FDR who said, about Nicaraguan dictator, Somoza, "He might be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch." So partly, I'd say, it's self-interest. The other part, I believe, is that Americans seem to be in love with showy violence--our heroes are cowboys and gangsters; some of our great writers fall in love with the murderers and rapists they write about.
Eeeuuuww. We are a sicko country at base.
Yep. Those cowboy heroes were out there wiping out the entire cultures of every single Native American tribe.
I lived in an area of Michigan where, I was told, there was a "strong Native American culture." The culture in question, in Michigan as most everywhere in this country, is a terrible parody of itself. I was nearly overcome with the horribleness of popular "pow-wows"--attended mostly by white people--where we could see "Indian" costumes, watch dances, eat "authentic" Indian food, and buy jewelry. I cannot imagine being a citizen of a dead world and putting on a performance for the people whose ancestors destroyed that world. As a woman in this white world, my only possible point of reference would be the many humiliations of "performing" for the men who have abused me.
I see it differently, perhaps because the current Anishinaabe First Nations (Canadian) and Tribes (U.S.) are authentic and have succeeded. As the Odawa/Chippewa Culturalist here in northwest Michigan explained to me, they were able to "raise the red pipe, buried by the white man centuries ago." (And he had the red pipe to prove it!). What may have seemed cheesy and cheap to you (and to me when I was young growing up here) was a concerted effort to reclaim The People's customs, heritage, beliefs and skills. It worked. My husband (Mississauga First Nation) was President of the Michigan Indian Confederation for a year in the 70's, where I saw first hand the poverty, and the pride. This is no longer a dead world or culture. Come visit again!
MaryPat, you have truly made my day. If I have heard more beautiful words than "raise the red pipe, buried by the white man" I don't recall them. I don't travel anymore, but your comment here allows me to feel my feet on the ground out there. I had a sweat lodge (big enough for only four) on my ten acres, five llamas who always followed us across the yard to the lodge, and two hawks who circled when the sweats were in the daytime. Very good memories that you bring back for this old woman. Thank you
😔
What?? Me worry...? Colour me Mad :)) Where are you housed, Walker? Nice photo, plus I like your comments.
It’s - where do you live. Asking someone where they are housed implies that someone else put them there.
Exactly, That's exactly what I meant, Jane. It was a delicately worded question, which the person at the receiving end would either understand entirely; or choose to respond as you have. Or simply keep me guessing as to why a person would choose a name that sounds every bit like Jailee, a person in Jail. Did I mention I enjoyed her comments? Well, I find them very astute.
Once again, an example of how a scholar and public intellectual like Heather can use history to illuminate the present. With Lincoln and Roosevelt, the USA was on the right side of history. I believe that this is the case with Biden as well. Putin's weaknesses - and the weaknesses of authoritarianism- are becoming more visible every day. Threatening Russians with a 15 year sentence if they dare call what's happening in Ukraine a war is not a sign of strength- it is a sign of desperation.
Do not be distracted by the resistance of the Ukrainian people to Russian totalitarianism as a sign that the autocratic minority in the U.S. have rethought, and changed, their drive toward political control. Though they are a practical minority, they have succeeded in rigging the electoral processes in a sufficient number of states to guarantee control of the government for years into the future. They have an active plan for upsetting any presidential election results that they find adverse to them. It is a mistake to believe that the sudden awakening of many parts of the world to the importance of liberal democracy is a harbinger of improvement in conditions in the U.S. We are headed to a period of extremist autocracy in this country and it is, in my view, now too late to escape it.
My optimism is waning and I’m feeling naive to have hope for a Blue win this November. And yet, without hope and optimism comes crushing depression. This is what they want us to feel. This is how the bright light of democracy dies. Every flicker of hope being snuffed out of us with each new state law letting us know our vote won’t matter. Time for me to dust off my rose colored glasses and get out of this funk I’m in today.
Somewhere I read that the count of unverified voters in Texas for the recent election was only 800 and something. However, there was not a huge turnout and most of these invalid voters were Republicans.
I fear you are right, as I have seen the evil spreading for decades
Taking an optimiseral point of view, I feel it is possible to pull our Ford 150 out of the ditch.
Thanks to Typing Class, I must've typed this a thousand times. Here ya go: It's time for all good men to come to the aid of their country. Score: A+ (62wpm). It's only thing I learned in hi-school (how to type!). And, Now is that time. It is indeed, an opportunity to excell, like none other in our history. I have never seen a better time for "leaders" to stand tall with President Biden. But, they must be very conscious to avoid being shuffled off the stage.
Slight correction: Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country. Verified and found this: "NOW IS THE TIME FOR ALL GOOD MEN TO COME TO THE AID OF THEIR COUNTRY BEFORE THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPS OVER THE LAZY LITTLE PUPPY DOG"
But let us not forget, that America has behaved in a "Putinesque" manner many times in the past - and has to be incredibly adroit in avoiding the charges of hypocrisy. These exploits (pushed by the Chicago School Of Economics - under Milton Friedman)- resulted in the imposition of Pinochet in Chile, and equal horrors in Indonesia, Venezuela etc, to support neoliberalism. Maybe things have changed - we can only hope. (Read Shock Doctrine - Naomi Klein).
The book 'Bitter Fruit' by Stephen Kinzer is another example of American "economic fascism". It seems this is what happens when a leader or part of a government is allowed to operate with no oversight.
and no conscience.
Hi Fern! Even good, decent people, left too long to their own devices, can become at best complacent - interested more in their own comfort than in the work at hand, turn into petty thieves (I was a whistle blower in the late 1980s, a truly horrible experience), or at worst actually harm the people/institutions they were charged to serve, not through malice, mostly due to sheer inertia (if you've ever had a 'weird' problem at a typical DMV office you may have experience this). The trick seems to be oversight with support, not oversight with fear. I've really only worked with one person in my entire career(s) that I could say truly had no conscience. She self-destructed after about 3 years.
Yeah, I was a (very small scale) whistleblower in the 1980s too. Lucky for me, there was a union at my back when management attacked me for pointing out missing money.
…and this is one of those times when anxiety is very high and people are susceptible. I started reading a frightening piece which was recommended by a few on the forum. It is by Seth Abramson(Proof). I looked him up -- inconclusive. If you're interested, I'll link it without a recommendation. Just not sure how solid it is.
How are you? Along with many of us, I am afraid that Ukraine is being sacrificed and think Putin has to be stopped. Any thoughts you care to share?
Hello again friend! I am okay - struggling with being newly retired (semi-retired, anyway) - still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. Thanks for asking. Sure, I'll take a look at what he has to say. He used to be a law professor at UNH (Univ. of New Hampshire) and was active in Democratic politics here, supporting Bernie Sanders in 2016. He's also a poet. I've even heard him on the local public radio station once or twice. His warnings (2018) about Trump's business involvement in Russia were largely discounted at the time, but ring truer today.
I hope you are wrong about Ukraine. Putin has given the world's liberal democracies a tremendous gift with this invasion, but only if this opportunity is not squandered to support the fossil fuel industry at the expense of the Ukrainian People.
I'm a hawk for the first time that I can remember. Yes, I learned what you related about Abramson. Link below.
https://sethabramson.substack.com/p/the-ten-hardest-truths-about-the/comments
I remember too much…
I always believed there were people in government with good judgement that would overrule bad. Amazing to clearly see the past for the first time.
There are good people in government, but death star and his minions showed us how fragile that can be. Various R governed states continue to show us how ugly things can be. I did hear the all politicians are corrupt again last weekend and I took exception to it. We must work to elect the ones who are not although I agree with Norman's post below as to the problems we face.
Shock Doctrine - good book.
A fascinating read, Heather. Thank you so much for the critical historic elements.
Putin's blatant lies remind me of those of the GOP and tfg, should they regain power -- which, in turn, recall the words of Simone Weil:
"Whether the mask is labeled fascism, democracy, or dictatorship of the proletariat, our great adversary remains the apparatus—the bureaucracy, the police, the military. Not the one facing us across the frontier of the battle lines, which is not so much our enemy as our brothers' enemy, but the one that calls itself our protector and makes us its slaves. No matter what the circumstances, the worst betrayal will always be to subordinate ourselves to this apparatus and to trample underfoot, in its service, all human values in ourselves and in others."
Wow. That's powerful stuff.
UKRAINE, GAS, & ‘AMERICAN PATRIOTS’
PREDICTION: Within a month the Republicans and their ‘American patriot’ entourage will be more vocal on the price of gas than on Putin and the dastardly catastrophe that he has inflicted on Ukraine and on countless Ukrainian citizens.
Such distinguished ‘patriots’ as Cruz, DeSantis, and Graham, no longer bromancing with Putin, will excoriate President Biden for this ‘this totally unacceptable gas situation,’ while wrapping themselves in the American flag.
What’s happened to Trump’s bromance with ‘genius’ Putin? Does he still take Putin’s word over the assessment of the US intelligence community?
You are 100% right, the republican “inner circle” will, with Rupert’s evil megaphone, continue their assault on anything democratic. The old crone at the assisted living where I live wore her “Biden is a parasite” shirt yesterday. The cult lives and hates.
I hope that chump still admires his “Putie,” so that the cult can see what his puppet master is capable of.
Parasite: another attempt by a human to dehumanize another, utterly disgusting and sad.
I have dream visions of TFG and Putin sharing a prison cell together. What a bromance that would be!
Agree. So let's just pull a clandestine night-mission., capture the bastards alive.. both of them, feed em one Big Mac and a large coke per day. Make sure it's a least 1 day old (ie, Cold ::)). Take them down to Angola.., nice and warm.
Make sure the coke is warm and lacks ice. Stir a bit first to remove the bubbles, making it both warm and flat.
There is a tweet from Citizens for Ethics which is a video in which tRump is asked his opinion on how the Ukrainian war will end. tRump goes on for about 35 seconds about windmills and how they are rusting and a blight on the landscapes. It's a "tilting at windmills"moment that I'm sure he doesn't mean. Pathetic. (Sorry, I don't know how to share a twitter link..)
Pam Trying to analysis what Trump is ‘thinking’ is like having a conversation with my demented 19-year-old cat. Since he doesn’t read, clearly he is not making an oblique reference to Don Quixote. Actually, if he would be given a blank map of Europe and be offered a President Biden pardon for all of his sedition/treason if he could identify Ukraine, he would flunk.
Good one, Keith. And, he'd use a black sharpie to circle his answer!
"(Sorry, I don't know how to share a twitter link..)"
Simply Right-click on the video and click on "Copy Video Address." Or click on the "Share" button.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1501901723123826689
Thanks, Ron.
McCarth already doing it.. See Rubin today..
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/09/biden-gas-prices-republicans-ukraine/
After over three decades of covering Russia, I leave in despair
https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/11/europe/leaving-russia-analysis-robertson-intl-cmd/index.html
I've been admiring all the MSM foreign correspondents, such as Nic Robertson in Moscow and so many more still in Ukraine, putting their lives at peril to bear witness for us to this horrific war perpetrated by Putin.
Here's my favorite, Terrell Jermaine Starr from Detroit, with an indirect shout out from Dan Rather:
https://twitter.com/terrelljstarr/status/1502188744597667841?s=20&t=z5Aqz8HzCGQONRm0PZMsaA
and my other fave, Dr. Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon:
https://twitter.com/ksvarnon
I don’t “twitter” so unfortunately never heard of these two people. MSM should consider including them—they are brilliant. Thank you Ellie for sharing this.
That's where I've seen them--on MSNBC and/or CNN. Terrell indicated he was often not paid for his video reports.
I saw Dr. St. Julian-Varnon on Zerlina's broadcast; I didn't know she was Tweeting, too. I'm following. She's brilliant. She's also a wonderful human being whose head is screwed on totally straight.
Kathy, Thank you for sharing. Comparison to Nazis is what many observers and critics are saying. “This year, while I have been in Moscow covering the buildup and outbreak of war in neighboring Ukraine, it became painfully clear to me that, just as the Nazis did in Germany during the 1930s and 40s, Putin has had laws made to his order.”
NOTHING that Hitler did was illegal, boggles the mind
"....it became painfully clear to me that, just as the Nazis did in Germany during the 1930s and 40s, Putin has had laws made to his order.” And we're seeing that happening at the state level both in perverting voting processes and censoring language and reading.
Better to leave than to be detained - or worse.
"...this is his [Putin's] war, not Russia's." Thank you, Kathy. Horrid.
And I am still worried that the whole world will be sucked in, just as it was after Hitler's invasion of Sudentenland. I think a swift attack on any Russian military equipment that entered Ukraine might have ended this quickly. A swift response to Hitler may have prevented WWII.
Sometimes i think “the rub” comes from the fact that “a swift response” almost requires a fascistic mindset — which is what Putin was referring to in his interview with the “Financial Times”. Wonder how to get past this — after all, it’s the premise of martial law.
Thank you Kathy for this link—Robertson is a star ⭐️
Thank you for posting this link, Kathy.
Russia will have a hard time doing anything with the Airbus and Boeing air fleets. Russia has no commercial aviation industry, and all the Russian-language repair and technical bulletins and manuals are online only. No downlink to Russia from Boeing and Airbus means aircraft will soon be out of safety compliance. It's questionable if pilots will even be able to start their engines.
Hopefully they won't get their Boeing and Airbus parts and service from another country.
Where there’s a will there is usually a way. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-08/owners-outfoxed-as-russia-absconds-with-10-billion-of-jets
You think? Yes Diana, the parts are out there. The support from Boeing and Airbus....wellll we shall see. Thes two giants see 'safety' as a primary mission. It's bad juju for people to die in one of their airplanes. Faux Noose would have a ball with that.
I read that the plan to nationalize (read: steal) the leased fleet of planes, then cannibalize spare parts, presumably until none of them will fly safely anymore.
Hope you are right!
I recall when FDR, on January 6, 1941, proposed four fundamental freedoms that people “everywhere in the world” ought to enjoy:
1) Freedom of speech
2) Freedom of worship
3) Freedom from want
4) Freedom from fear
I believe that President Biden heartily affirmed these Four Freedoms in his immediate and unflagging riposte to Putin’s calumny in Ukraine.
Thank you, Professor! This stands out! “In 1944, FDR pointed out that democratic government was messy but it freed its people to work and think and fight in ways that authoritarian governments could not.” The war in Ukraine is about Democracy and freedom, both ideals Putin denies his own people and is trying to destroy in Ukraine, yet they remain with the Ukrainians who are valiantly holding on to their democracy even as the war, loss and destruction are raging. Hoping other Democracies, NATO, can provide enough assistance to save and help rebuild Ukraine. The price the Ukrainian people are paying in loss of life and land is heartbreaking. What will remain when the fighting finally ends is a big question.
" -, Chinese president Xi Jinping believes that autocracies are “the wave of the future—democracy can’t function in an ever complex world.”" Isn't that just the point: Autocrats are always tempted to take shortcuts in complexity, rather than seeing and acting on the complexity. From Alexander the great and on; cutting the knot was not a solution. - "In the long run, it is not possible to grow by making someone else smaller (Bert Hellinger)."
Amen to both of those observations!
I was born in 1948 in a hospital where my mom worked two blocks from my home. I remember it well. But I was unaware of how desperate people of color in the South were for doctors and health care. Perhaps health care in the USA wasn't much better in the decade before WWII than in Italy. In fact, when I googled health care in the USA, I found: 1932:
"The United States Public Health Service begins the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, which withholds medical treatment for syphilis from black American males. The experiment finally ends in 1972." If this is an example of the situation in the USA, how could FDR criticise Italy?
That and the internment of Japanese Americans was horrible. I agree.
Add to that the forced sterilization of people deemed unfit to bear children, based on nothing more than the white, elite notion of who is worthy and who is not.
Thank you Heather -
I’m so very grateful that Biden and his administration are functioning today as FDR did close to 80 years ago. That Putin is hellbent on destroying Ukraine’s culture is horrifying. He - and his corrupted cronies - must be stopped, arrested, prosecuted and imprisoned.
“Russians following Stalinist playbook in occupied Ukraine: arrest intellectuals, artists, curators, leaders. Decapitate society. They did it in 1933, they will do it in 2022. History repeats itself.”
“Andrei Kurkov
@AKurkov
· Mar 10
first house searches and first arrests of Crimean-Tatars in the occupied territories adjacent to Crimea. The first to be arrested is Leila Ibragimova, director of Melitopol History museum.”
"must be stopped, arrested, prosecuted and imprisoned" We can't even manage our own corruption.
MSNBC's Ali Velshi, is reporting from a live camera at a frigid train station in Budapest where some arriving Ukranian Refugees are traveling on to Spain and other safe countries. For some Ukranians interviewed, it is a Round Trip -- secure Family vunerable members then back to Ukraine to help fight for what one very young woman called "humanity in crisis".
Ali and crew are doing an excellent job of making this travesty all too real. After that young woman spoke, I wondered if I could be anywhere as strong as she, could I take in refugees?
Spot on. Many Polish families are doing just that ... taking mother & children into their homes. Poles fully understand.
It was, is heartbreaking to watch.
“in spite of the tinsel at the top…their economic condition had grown steadily worse. Our troops have found starvation, malnutrition, disease, a deteriorating education and lowered public health—all by-products of the Fascist misrule.” What Americans need to stop denying is that this is what other countries find here now…starvation, malnutrition, a deteriorating education and lowered public health… Who’s got a Marshal Plan for us? How can we rise up to save our democracy? A million people dead from a virus, countless more with long-term health issues…and systems are already positioned to deny care. Teachers burning out. Children are homeless. We’re suffering from fascism here too.