When Citizens Are the Victims: In Factoid #7 (6/13/2025), I noted that the German government in a desperate attempt to gain more tax dollars, was increasing the potency of the legalized cannabis they market. Why are they knowingly selling a more dangerous drug to their citizens? Because the black-market cannabis is stronger and less expensive than the legalized drug. Amazing! Because the German government cannot eliminate the black market, they simply market a more dangerous drug to the market, which is composed primarily of youthful, immature minds. In their failure to protect their citizens, their desire for tax revenue precedes any thought of social responsibility.

In another case of making the citizens the victims, France plans to have a 5% surcharge on insurance policies for all French citizens. The surcharge is proposed to pay for the damage from the 2023 riots. This begs the question: who has insurance and who are the rioters? According to Marine Le Pen, “This government has decidedly no longer any limits to its provocation and contempt for the French people. As I had already requested in 2023, during the presentation of an anti-riot plan, we must strictly apply the “rioter pays” principle. It is up to the rioters to bear the cost of repairs.”  Once again, the citizen who follows the law is expected to pay for the rioters, many of which are from migrant areas. How about a law that eliminates any welfare payments to any migrant who is caught rioting? The savings could then be used to repair the damage from the riots. (American Renaissance, 9/5/2025)

What a Revolutionary Idea: After being caught editing a major interview with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, CBS has decided to only broadcast full interviews on its program, “Face the Nation.”  CBS has been accused of removing more than 23% of the Noem interview and this follows CBS parent Paramount agreeing to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit by President Trump over the editing of a “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Kamala Harris.  Apparently, other CBS shows other than “Face the Nation” are free to “edit” interviews at least until they get sued for slating the news they report. (WSJ, 9/6-7, 2025, pp B10).

If you are a fan of Winston Churchill, you should enjoy some new books which were written by Churchill himself.  These books give an insight into the actions and challenges Churchill faced and which he used to create his image and world.  Churchill once wrote that, “A man’s life must be nailed to a cross either of Thought or Action.”  Yet his life was filled with both Thought and Action, from his adventures in Cuba, India, the Sudan all the way through his “years in the wilderness”  while supporting himself by documenting his life and thoughs and successfully marketing them to sustain his life of Action.

While at Sandhurst, Churchill was fascinated by an ancient Greek who was argumentative, who had a nagging wife and was such a nuisance  that he was forced to commit suicide. What did Socrates have that made his fame last for so long?  Since the secret was not found in the Queen’s regulations, this man of Thought read widely and asked his mother to send him a steady stream of books to him while he was in India.  In short, Churchill was always seeking, always learning so as to create the man he thought he should be. His ego was large, and no one can say his all of his ideas were brilliant or even correct, but he learned from each step and help to mold and save the world he had inherited.

It is unfortunate however, that the cost of the printed word continues to escalate nearly as quickly as college tuition.  Two of the three books reviewed retail for one hundred dollars, and this shall unfortunately limit their circulation. Given the moral and intellectual level of so many politicians who attempt to guide us today, ignore their self-serving multi-million-dollar book deals and invest in one of more of these three volumes and enjoy the wit, wisdom and adventures of a titan of history.

https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/reading-winston-churchill

Even though we are surrounded by scores of information sources, the sheer number is enough to make one go numb. Factoids will be posted periodically to bring you bits of news which may or may not catch your fancy. Most of the Factoids will be posted to bring you counter-intuitive information which may not be covered by traditional news sources; Question: why aren’t they covered? They may go against the grain of political or cultural “acceptable” thought. Or perhaps because they cannot fit into the thirty-second sound bites without raising more questions than they answer. Hopefully, you will find them of interest!

75 Seconds? Good Enough for Some

There is a huge need for organ transplants.  Thirteen people die a day waiting for organs that never come. When an organ is available, there is a small window of time for the transplant before the value of the organ is destroyed.  This small window of time has put huge pressure doctors to “harvest” an organ as every minute can count.

With this pressure, the old guidelines are under siege such as when is a person dead? What critical bodily functions must stop and for how long for the harvesting to proceed? Is it two minutes or 75 seconds? Is it when there is no brain function or is DCD (donation after circulatory death which means that, “patients have irreversibly lost all brain function and are kept on machines only to maintain their organs…. they’re dying but not yet dead.”

Hospitals can be graded on their “conversion rates”, meaning “how efficiently they transform dying humans into spare parts”.  This may lead to examples as found in Kentucky where “73 patients with “neurological signs incompatible with organ donation” who were still being prepared for harvesting.”  Another example is from Alabama where a patient was declared dead and after the first incision for harvesting, her chest began to rise and fall with “grasping respirations.”

It may seem like a noble thing to offer your organs to another, but aside from great ability to help another, it is also becoming a business.  Additional safeguards may be needed to protect the providers. (The Epoch Times, Aug 20-26, ppA18)

The German Challenge

Approximately one in four of the German population is either a first- or second-generation immigrant, yet they commit about 60% of all violent crime in Germany. Among Syrian and Afghan migrants, just under 50% have never worked since coming to Germany. At the same time, Germany has pledged to spend 5% of it’s GDP to build up it’s military as Chancellor Merz has said that the German welfare system is broken and he is calling for a 10% cut in welfare. Finally, the German economy has stalled with negative “growth”. It looks like it is about time for old Europe to realize that the easy days are gone. One has to wonder if European leaders have the nerve to make and carry out the hard measures that are necessary..

Although in recent years, more histories of the battles on the Eastern Front during World War II have been published, it is the landings in Normandy that still hold most Western Europeans and Americans attention and interest. Indeed, even the name “Eastern Front” reflects the prejudice of Western historians, for most certainly that name was never used by either the Soviets or those Europeans who fought in that area of Europe and the then Soviet Union. The lack of general knowledge can be considered amazing as the German military suffered ninety percent of its casualties in that theater of operations. It was the Soviet military and more importantly, Stalin who was willing to accept the huge losses throughout the war to insure victory.

It can be difficult to appreciate the size of the battles in the east, but a comparison does show that no battles in western Europe after the Normandy invasion comes close to the size of the final battles in the east. The invasion of Normandy and the following ten weeks ended costing the Allies about 209,000 casualties vs 276,000 German. The Battle of the Bulge in forty-one days totaled for both sides almost 200,000 men killed, wounded or missing. Market Garden was a small business with losses totaling about 25,000 (to put it in perspective, during the battle for Stalingrad, the Soviets executed about 12,000 of their own men for desertion, cowardice, etc.)  The battles covered in this book in the period of January-May 1945 resulted in a million Germans and one and a half million Soviet losses. Two and a half million men killed, wounded or missing. Many of those men were killed when their fuel and ammunition ran out and they stood practically disarmed, often little more than a militarized mob, spent after six years of battle.

In action after action, German troops fought and delayed the Soviets in desperate battles against huge odds. Often outnumbered up to ten to one, the Germans delayed their enemy so civilians could try to reach the zones the American or British occupied. Civilians fled in freezing weather and had to camp in bare fields while being attacked by Soviet war planes. The book covers dozens of actions where officers and men sacrificed themselves in often vain attempts to save their compatriots. The Soviets, urged on by Stalin and their officers, raped, burned, and crucified tens of thousands of German civilians.

Unfortunately, the average reader will not think of the Soviet civilians who fled from the Germans in 1941 and after. Nor will they fully understand the terror of living under German occupation when hundreds of thousands were rounded up for slave labor or mass executions. It was likely that a huge proportion of the Soviet soldiers showing no mercy to the fleeing Germans had family members who had lived and suffered under the German occupation and had lost members of their families. Was the revenge meted out to the Germans fair, or justified? Unfortunately, because of the how the Soviet system worked, few common Soviet soldiers left written records as was the case with the Germans.

In the end, the battles came down to desperate Germans and Soviets, driven on by a sense of duty, fear of capture, the hunt for glory from their officers and tactics which was the only option at a time when everyone wanted the war to stop.  Battles create mountains of dead, but when at the very end, one side is out of ammunition and has no opportunity to escape, and the killing continues at an industrial rate, there is nothing but murder.

It is easy to understand how, after the war, many Germans viewed themselves as victims. They were pounded from the air, night after night. Their armies were torn apart and slaughtered at a rate which towered about the four terrible years of the First World War. Their cities were destroyed, hundreds of thousands of their women raped and hundreds of thousands of their soldiers were simply wiped off the face of the Earth. Yet, their terrible experiences were the result of one simple fact; they started the war, their intended victims finished it.

Recorded history is often made up of one part truth, one part perception, one part myth. One of the great human stories of the 20^th century was The Long March, when hundreds of thousands of Communist soldiers with their leaders marched thousands of miles of often arid and empty land, pursued by Chiang Kai-shek and his army. In the end, after suffering eighty percent casualties, the Communist army found shelter far from the cities of China, cut off from an aid from the Soviet Union and facing another enemy, the Japanese army.

The march has been the subject of numerous plays, movies, books, and interviews with the majority of each adhering to the official party line which has become the touchstone of truth for decades. This book offers something new as the author, who was born in Communist China, actually travelled the actual route of the long march. Along the way, she manages to speak with individuals who were actually on the march and who participated in the battles and challenges of the march.

There is no doubt that the march was historic and required bravery and dedication. The survivors of the march when interviewed still show much of the youthful enthusiasm which helped them to survive the march. It was that enthusiasm which enabled them to meet their recruitment quotas for the army as it was that enthusiasm which kept them going in the harshest segments, such as through Tibet. Despite the idea that the Party would free the people from the grip of the warlords and big landowners, it was the Party and its army which descended on each location and demanded food from the locals. Of course, the Party “paid” for the food (in many instances) by giving an IOU, but in some areas, the demand for food stripped the land clean and left the locals without any grain for the next year’s crop.

The most inspiring chapter of the book was the one which focused on the role that women played during the march. Although they only made a small percentage of the total, they provided examples of bravery and stamina that shamed and drove the men to continue. They were instrumental in recruiting new recruits for the army, occasionally using their charms to achieve their quotas. Yet, they were valued and protected by the leaders of the march by keeping making sure that they were not to be molested. Yet, there were instances where certain leaders of the Party were allowed to take their pick of the women to “help” them with their duties. It was clear however, that the women who knew they were viewed as the weaker sex, set a high standard for themselves in the ability to march, handle weapons and persevere through the worse weeks of hunger while still providing the traditional soft touch to the wounded and dying.

The author, as she interviewed the survivors, found that their memories of certain actions did not line up with the official descriptions of certain battles and actions. Politics as usual plays a large part in the creation of history and this is especially true when a story is a key building block in a regime that discourages counter interpretations. She walks a fine line very carefully but her chapter on the “Legion of Death” shows the level of politics which existed even at that early stage of the Chinese Communist Party.

As the participants of any historical period pass on, we lose the ability to learn fine points of history and we are fortunate in this book that the author allows us to enter the mind set and memories of those who were on the march. Coupled with Mao, the Unknown Story by Jung Chang & Jon Halliday and The Private Life of Chairman Mao by Dr. Li Zhisui as well as The Party: the Secret World of China’s Rulers by Richard McGregor, we are able to peer behind the curtain that seeks to protect and shelter this totalitarian regime.

This is a recap of a twenty-five-night cruise from Bali to Tahiti onboard the Oceania cruise ship Regatta.  The South Pacific is a unique world that has developed, and which moves in a rhythm alien to most of the world.  Its cultures and histories are different and yet recognizable as there are stories and legends of people’s taking not to an empty continent, but rather to a huge ocean in search of a better life. I hope you will enjoy the commentary.

Bali: After a fifteen-hour flight from Los Angeles to Hong Kong, we had a three-hour layover and then a five-hour flight to Bali.

 One of the 7,000 or so islands that makes up the nation of Indonesia, this beautiful island is inhabited by some of the most kind and gentle people in the world. Over seventy percent of the inhabitants are employed in the hospitality industry, and they seem to have developed it into a fine art. Although the economy suffered during Covid (as the locals say, “The lights went out”, They are smiling and courteous which immediately puts one at ease, as you feel the realities of the outside world fall away from you.  I believe the secret of their lives is their faith.  Seventy-five percent of the residents are Hindu and on a single day of touring, we passed by dozens of active temples, where small offerings of fruit or flowers are laid on the entry steps. These represent thanks for each person’s favors received on that day and it is not unusual during a talk with a local to be advised that we all need to accept the good with the bad, that we need to be sure to do good so that we will receive good.  It really is charming and nice to see such a positive, active everyday bit of religion.  We hear about the very politically active Hindu of P.M. Modi, but that is not how it is practiced in Bali.

Although we only had a couple of days in Bali before our cruise, we were fortunate to hire a gentleman by the name of Manuaba with whom we spent the better part of one day plus rides to and from the port.  He is from the Brahmin class and aside from being a great driver (traffic in Bali can be quite interesting!), he showed us much more of Bali and its’ culture than expected.  If you go to Bali and would like his number, please let me know.  I believe you will be pleased.

We visited a number of interesting sites on the island, including a monkey sanctuary where the locals and visitors can be immersed in a jungle environment and where the monkeys roam freely. Although they are wild, they are used to humans and the local ground keepers make sure that the humans can enjoy the monkeys while still realizing they are wild animals. Be careful with your hats, sunglasses or water bottles are the monkeys seem to enjoy grabbing them and scurrying up the trees as the items former owners wonder what happened!  We also visited a shop making Batik which is a printing process on cloth using hot wax for the pattern.  This is an art form that is passed down from generation to generation and the patterns can be used for clothing or wall hanging as photos

Another interesting site we visited included a local coffee plantation where we were served a dozen different coffees to sample, such as Lemon Grass and Turmeric.  Of course, we were happy to purchase several flavors for enjoyment back home.  There are also woodworking shops to visit, and Batik shops, which are local fabric producers where generations of artists create wonderful shirts, skirts, and pictures which you will not find anywhere else in the world.

One thing that stands out and makes Bali so popular is the low cost of living well. The local incomes are low (a teacher makes about $300 a month!) and somehow despite the large number of tourists, prices are very reasonable. I asked Manuaba if he takes “vacations” and he said no as the economy does not allow most of the population enough to take a trip.  In fact, the cost of one of us on the cruise would be enough to support a family of four for a year.  Another example is realize what you have and be thankful.  I should have put an offering at a temple for that bit of information. Even at an excellent hotel like the Sheraton in Kuta, the prices are very reasonable, and you can have a meal with drinks for under twenty dollars. This attracts visitors from around the world but if you go, be one of the “good” visitors. This is not the case in Tahiti. Fortunately, the best visitors (as per the locals) seem to be Europeans and Americans as those two groups are courteous and respectful.

I recommend hiring a driver as the streets are crowded with motor scooters and cars and the traffic is even more crazy than Cairo! Our driver is a real pro and you will be in the best of hands!

Darwin Australia: Located on the northern shore of Australia, Darwin is a very nice city of about 240,000. As soon as we got off the ship, I felt a “On the Beach” vibe; you feel you are at the end of the world.  I believe it is due in part to the fact that although the city is built on the shores of the Pacific, you cannot go swimming in the waters, unless you want to be eaten by the local crocodiles or stung to death by the box jelly fish which native to the area.  The crocodiles were almost exterminated during the 50s-60s and were named a protected species but now the local government looks like it is going to cull the herd as the rivers and shores are simply too dangerous.  If you want to go swimming, the city has reclaimed some land and made them into protected beaches.  Another isolating factor is as you approach Darwin, on either side of the port for as far as you can see, the norther shore of Australia runs to the horizon with nothing to show any impact by humanity.

 Darwin has a very interesting history centered on two major events: the city was bombed by the Japanese over sixty times early in World War I which caused hundreds of deaths and major destruction, and cyclone Tracey destroyed 92% of all the buildings in the city.  Since then, a new city has arisen which has already withstood the challenge of another even larger cyclone.

June is an ideal month to visit as the temperatures are mild (about 65 degrees) and the humidity is low.  In fact, the locals can be seen wearing jackets during the early AM as they feel the temperature is cool.  This is because during the three wet months, they receive about a foot of rain a month and the temperatures are in the mid to high 80s, leading to a lot of humidity. Ideal weather for the crocs, but as a cabby said, “after 15 years, I am still not acclimated to the weather”. 

The next stop was to be Thursday Island but as we entered the harbor, we were advised that the visit was cancelled due to an approaching weather front.  Every island has large signs with a warning scale regarding cyclones which can suddenly appear and sweep across the islands causing massive damage.  In cities like Darwin where modern building codes have been followed, the damage is often limited to some trees knocked down, but on the smaller islands, even the smallest squall can disrupt everyday life.  It turned out that we were able to outrun the cyclone which created waves two meters higher and had strong winds.  Fortunately, there was no loss of human life.

Cairnes Australia: Cairnes is a beautiful city of about 150,000.  A clean, well-kept city, it is a popular vacation destination for Australians and the people are friendly. We enjoyed the Cairnes museum which followed the exploration and development of the city as well as the interaction with the natives.  Both the settlers and the natives were capable of violence against the other and eventually the natives were placed on reservations, the argument being that they were protected but in reality, they were placed under a controlled environment.

While the current city is beautiful, the story of how the settlers managed to wrestle with the local jungle is quite amazing.  One example is that longshore men had to carry one-hundred-fifty-pound bags of sugar on the docks.  The sugar is not like your table sugar; it is like hauling rocks and it tore at the backs of the dock workers causing cutting and bruising.  A crew had to load twenty-four tons of sugar in a single shift and with the heat and humidity, the men were always in danger of de-hydration, subject to the mosquitos and the lack of water. Pioneers, the men and women lived and created a prosperous, clean island of civilization on an island that was harsh and unforgiving.

Townsville, Australia: Another small city where at least one could swim along most of the coast.  We took a local ferry for about a hold hour to Magnetic Island which offers a bit more rustic view of local life. While all of the amenities of modern life are on the island, one feels it is just a step away from today’s world.  The houses are not as sturdy, there are many camping sites and hiking trails that you find via paths (often ill-defined) in the local jungle, and one goes from one end of the island to the other in about twenty minutes and has the same bus driver on the ride back.  Definitely a place to go if one wants to look for a very different style of life.

Cruising: due to an earthquake at Port Vila, Vanuatu, the stop at the port was cancelled.  The earthquake was so severe that the docks were destroyed, and ships could not load or unload until repairs were completed.  It is a reminder that those beautiful islands are out I the Pacific with little room for errors in everyday life.

Change of Plans: As the cruise was in the Southern Hemisphere, we were in the winter season.  This meant that there were numerous storms, some of cyclone strength in the area. One port was cancelled due to an earthquake which destroyed the port facilities.  The entire area is in the Ring of Fire, created by extinct and active volcanoes, so one has to be flexible on a cruise in the South Pacific.  In fact, we had several days of overcast weather although we missed the rain and high winds that can be quite an experience.  In the end, we had a couple of extra “sea days” which is an excellent excuse to get a bit more reading, work on that big puzzle or just enjoy the time to do little.

Handy Tip: At each stop, the cruise ship company offers various package tours which are created to fit the schedule of the ship.  They can be pricey, but they are easy to handle and you don’t have to do anything except follow the directions of each tour director.  An option is to leave the ship and talk to both the local tour companies and the taxi drivers who are waiting at the doc.  They will explain their options; you can tell them where you want to go based on the information you received from the cruise line and then haggle for a price.  If you know the tour price from the ship, you can start to work down from there.  It is a good way to save 50% or more, but many drivers only accept cash (in the local currency) so know your exchange rates. Another thing is to make sure the driver knows what time the ship leaves port as there is nothing so forlorn looking as a cruise passenger waving goodbye to the ship that they missed!

Mystery Island, Vanuatu: A small island which you can easily walk around in a couple of hours.  It has no electricity, no running water, in fact, it is as nature planned it except for an old air base from the Second World War which drove the Japanese crazy as they could not figure where the American planes which bombed them came from. The one special thing is that it has a beach; believe it or not, not all islands have beaches; instead, the foliage grows right down to the water.

Lautoka, Fiji: A true look at island life; known as the “Sugar Island”, it is the second largest city in Fiji.  It has a true rustic, almost frontier feel to it.  There is little to see in the city center aside from dozens of shops selling cell phones and sim cards but there were a couple of local tours to the surrounding hillsides.

Suva, Fiji: Suva is the largest city and is more cosmopolitan than Lautoka.  There are numbers of tours to the local forests, hiking opportunities, tours to a waterfall, etc.  These activities normally run $150-250/person.  By this time, one more forest is a bit like one more cathedral in Italy, but we managed a tour to a local beach resort where we were treated to a one-hour native dance troupe made up of college students who perform to supplement their income.  They were excellent and their dancing had delicate movements, fierce warrior dancing and a beautiful farewell song.  It was definitely the highlight of the Fiji visit.

Point of Information: Watch your itinerary as on many islands, everything is closed on Sundays. Well, not everything, as the churches are open and well attended while the rest of the day is focused on the family.  In fact, some islands call Sundays “quiet days”; the usual  traffic jams (many islands only have one road) and mopeds are suddenly gone, and you feel like you are walking through a ghost town. Plan ahead and give yourself a day of rest.

Apia and Pago Pago Samoa: Interesting in that you feel you are at the end of the world, visiting a location that is so different from your existence and experience that you would not know how to get in adapt. The main claim to fame for Apia is that it is the burial ground for Robert Lewis Stephenson who is still remembered on the island.  He was a strong advocate for the people of the area when England, the U.S. and Germany were looking for colonies.  Because he supported the local chiefs so much in their struggles, when he build his home on the island, the chiefs mobilized work crews, and they built Love Road which lead to his home.  Unfortunately he only enjoyed his house for four years before his death.

Bora Bora, French Polynesia: The beautiful white coral sands of Bora Bora are well known  and they give the surrounding waters a unique shade of light blue, almost a turquoise blue.  There is one beach on the island (again, many islands do not have beaches) and there are two over the water resorts.  Snorkeling is excellent due to the clearness and color of the water and unlike some other islands, you do not need to worry about sharks or jellyfish.  Aside from the two resorts, the main town is about two blocks in length and has several local restaurants/bars.  Bora Bora has a legendary mystique to it but after visiting it, I can say “I was there” and that is that.

Tahiti, French Polynesia: Much more built up than Bora Bora but there are really only two modern hotels on the island and the island feels more cosmopolitan. We picked the Hilton and were not disappointed. As with most of the islands (except Bali and Australia), literally everything must be imported and thus prices are high.  Champagne runs for about $150 or about twice the cost in LA and I would say that the cost of living is at least double that of LA so it can be a real sticker shock to someone from the mid-West or the South. During a discussion with a Frenchman (living in London), he found that a number of the surrounding islands’ facilities are showing their age, but then as with Bali, Covid was a disaster for the tourist industry.

General Thoughts: This was a great trip which was a real eye opener. You can try to imagine what it is like visiting or living on an island in the vastness of the Pacific, but you have to actually be there in order to fully understand how different island life vs. your world.  Everything is seen through a different prism; travel, the cost of goods, what foods are available and affordable, sense of isolation from the rest of the world, opportunities for education, employment, etc. One needs to realize that the local inhabitants are descents of brave people who challenged the open sea in a quest for a better life, or a more peaceful life or for whatever reason. I don’t know if it was bravery or desperation, but their quest was a tale for the ages. You can lose track of which island had which town or beach or waterfall, and they can run together after time, but a trip such as this may surprise you in what you discover about yourself, your history and your life.

The best part of the trip was meeting so many of the locals and interacting with them. Their openness and kindness, real smiles and strong ties to family and religion are wonderful to see.  It is easy to wish all the best for them.

Have you ever travelled anywhere in the world and discussed with a local, even if only for a minute or two, their opinion of their government? If such a conversation has taken place in what traditionally called in the past, the “free world,” I doubt if you ever heard anyone say anything positive about their government. Of course, you do not get into that type of conversation in third world countries or those countries which are ruled by authoritarians; you may get some eye rolling, but those folks know the danger of being honest.

The nearly universal dislike, distrust or plain disgust with one’s government is seen everyday and the study connected to the link below from the U.K. reflects these strong feelings. The issues which drive many of those feelings are on the whole, relatively common across much of the world; uncontrolled immigration of people who do not share the common values of the new host nation, belief in governmental inefficiency and corruption in areas such as health care, welfare, rising crime (normally tied to mass immigration), a political class which has lost touch with the electorate, etc. Finally, as we have seen in France and the U.S, individuals who threaten the status quo are subject to politically motivated investigations and even barred from participating in elections for years.

All the while, the traditional elite political class seems unable or unwilling to look at let alone implement serious policies to answer any of their publics concerns. The result is the rise of the populist right of the center and the violence of the radical left, which in turn, pulls more from the center to one side or the other out of frustration and disgust.

Thanks to faster and poorly vetted information via the internet, the old days of both sides having the luxury of time to study, analyze and believing that time will cool tempers are long gone. Love him or hate him, President Trump is echoing FDR’s efforts to offer solutions to the problems of the day. FDR believed that doing something was better than doing nothing and while his policies created problems of their own, his actions created the impression of positive action. Trump hit the floor running with a full plate of targets and policies and thus far his opponents have not found an answer that appeals to the masses. Will a European version of Trump be found and withstand the slings and arrows of the European ruling class or will the European ruling class continue with the same tired policies which have led to today’s discontent among the masses. Time will tell, but the clock is running.

https://open.substack.com/pub/morningcall/p/morning-call-shattered-trust?r=2d3pff&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

This book could have been written by two different authors; the first half written and an immature, foul mouthed childish young man who might impress a thirteen-year old boy, while the second half was written by a young man who came from a family poor background, who is seeking in the Marines a home and cause and who decides to shape up as he is thrust into an actual war situation. The man who wrote the first half is as far from the ideal American soldier that one can image while the second half author is a creditable work in progress.

The book is both boring (in the first half) and interesting (in the second) as the author slowly matures and realizes that despite typical military B.S., there is a rhyme and reason to the military way of doing things. He is proud to be a Marine and his specialty (recon and sniper) and he matures much faster as he and his unit are sent out in the first phase of Operation Desert Storm. Later in life, he matures further as he runs across former members of his unit who have not matured and who live a life filled with made up fantasies fueled by alcohol and drugs.

There is no possible way that I would want to have dinner with the author of the first half of the book, but there would be an opportunity to enjoy a meal with the second-half author as he comes from a world far removed from the American ideal. As military history  it has little to offer, but as personal development it has some merit.  I would not, however, mark this as a book worth reading a second time.

At the end of the Second World War, German Field-Marshal Albert Kesselring whose troops fought both British and American troops in Italy and Western Europe, was asked “What was the best American division faced by troops under your command on either the Italian or Western Fronts?”. Without hesitation he said, “The Marne men.”

Who were the “Marne men?”  They were the men of the U.S. Army’s 3^rd Division. They won more medals than any other infantry division in Europe and within its ranks were at least one of every U.S. medal, including the Medal of Honor; some medals were won by those two men as many as three times. Their names were Audie Murphy Maurice Britt. Both men received major wounds, and Murphy would have the more public but also more troubled private lives. Here is a list of medals won by Murphy: * Medal of Honor *2- Silver Stars * 3-Bronze Stars * Distinguished Service Cross *3-Purple Hearts. In total, the “Marne” division won more than one-fourth of all Medals of Honor won by the ground forces, an amazing accomplishment. The winning of medals helped determine when the serviceman was able to go home and at the end of the war, who could be discharged and in what order.

The book follows a number of individuals from the divisions landing in French North Africa, through the battles in Sicily and Italy, including Anzio plus the landing in the south of France through the final battles in the Colmar pocket. While Army psychologists thought that the “breaking point” of an infantryman was two-hundred days of continual combat, many of the men of the division were in continuous battles for over four-hundred days, and the survival rates was about seven percent.

Kershaw continues his excellent writing in that while he describes the overall strategic scope of the battles, focuses on the lives of the men at the most basic level. He has obviously taken great care in doing his research, in his interviews and writing to bring the men, both high and low to life. Their stories and exploits put modern day movies and stories to shame, for these were real individuals taking huge risks in order to lead their men and insure that as many of them would return home at wars end. It is a shame that young boys of today watch silly comic book heroes in movies instead of learning about real bravery as exhibited by men of their great grandfathers and grandfathers’ generations. It is hard to say anything positive about war, but to see the bravery and selflessness of the men in this book makes one realize the amazing ability of ordinary men to do extraordinary deeds.

After 9/11, a handful of specially trained U.S. servicemen went into action in a land that was little known, filled with tribal and family hatreds and rivalries, a religion that looked down on non-believers and could switch sides if bribed with enough money. Those Americans who went into action in Afghanistan, had to quickly earn the trust and respect of the native population, and operated far beyond the normal boundaries of their individual services.

Key to the success of those brave individuals was a small group of highly trained men who had the ability to call down upon the battlefield unbelievable firepower while they were not in a distant office looking at a monitor, but while they were in the very front lines of the deadliness battles.  This elite group of individuals is known as the Combat Control Teams (CCT). Their motto is “First There” and together, they have collected “in aggregate, more combat action than their special operations counterparts in the Navy and Army-making some of them the most experienced veterans in all of America’s previous wars.”  Trained to the standards of the Seals, Delta, or Special forces, they were instrumental in breaking the back of the Taliban and Al Qaeda forces equipped with modern weaponry in battles which echoed World War II.  It was through their experience, expertise, and bravery that the power of the Taliban and Al Qaeda was broken not in months, but rather in weeks. Each member of the CCT controls more destructive power than any other individual combatant in the history of the world.

The book covers the battle of Operation Anaconda as well as the background of John Chapman, the first airman to win the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War and the first member of CCT to win the Medal of Honor. His career and actions reflect the highest standards and professionalism of the little-known group of men who serve in the CCT. While the book may at times be overly technical for the novice military reader, it also reflects the skill set that is demanded in that service. Such a skill set is necessary given the huge destructive power that is placed in the hands of CCT members. Those skills are coupled with dedication and willingness to sacrifice oneself in the service of the nation and one’s fellow warriors.