The Priceless Gift....continued.

 As we watch the political show unfold towards the November election, it's clear to me that this will not be just another election. In fact, it will be the most pivotal and critical presidential election in modern times, rivaling any that has ever taken place. The reason for this, of course, is because there has never in our history been a mentally aberrant and dangerous candidate on the level of Donald J. Trump.  He's not merely exceptional; he's potentially the man who could destroy American democracy.  And, that is NOT hyperbole.  In recent days he has become increasingly specific about what he intends to do when he is back in the White House, and the list is beyond...way beyond....merely alarming.  It's downright horrifying.

For a deeper understanding of what I am referring to, treat yourself to reading about Project 2025, a plan that has been hatched by largely Steve Bannon and Stephen Millar, two individuals who make my skin crawl as they spew their oh so creepy visions for our future.  Bannon looks like somebody dragged out of an Irish pub at closing time and Miller, no kidding, is uncannily evocative of a man Germans referred to during WWII as 'the Evil Dwarf":  Joseph Goebbles, the Nazi propaganda minister, and the man who, along with Adolf Hitler, codified the rules for succeeding with The Big Lie...rules seemingly followed rather precisely by Orange Jesus as he has insisted, and still insists, that the 2020 election was stolen. He's like some fun house automaton that keeps popping out of a dark corner to repeat his lie, convinced that if you say a lie enough times it magically becomes true. It's horrifying how many Americans have already fallen for this.  I have puzzled over how it's possible for any person with a functional brain to accept this lie...despite the mountains of evidence and over 60 court cases that prove otherwise beyond any doubt.

So, let's be clear: the men, and women, who went out across the globe to fight WWII were fighting for the survival of FREEDOM.  They knew this intellectually when they put on their uniforms, and went through training.  But, for many I have known, it didn't really become crystal clear how stark and critical the battle was until it also became evident how astonishingly evil the Axis powers were.  For many GIs in the European theater of operations this came home with heart-rending clarity when the first concentration camps were discovered.  Sure people had heard about them, well, sort of, but seeing the piles of bodies and the starving shadows of human beings who had barely survived really drove it home.  Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander in Europe, insisted that as many people as possible and especially the officers in his headquarters go and visit camps.  Ike visited a camp called Ordruf and I believe he was affected deeply by that day for the rest of his life. Many GIs who experienced a concentration camp visit, said something afterward like: "Now I know what we've been fighting for."

                                        

Eisenhower at Ohrdruf

The loss of freedom is not something most Americans have grown up thinking, imagining was even possible. If the Idiot has his way and does somehow ooze back into power, he's going to replace most of the entire government with unqualified sycophants whose only qualifications for running the government will be their un-flinching loyalty to his monstrous ego.  They will do exactly as he instructs and the result will be an America that those of us who have been here for many decades will not even recognize.  Right below is a link to a site that does a reasonably good job of explaining the chilling reality of what these people plan to inflict on the rest of us.

https://globalextremism.org/project-2025-the-far-right-playbook-for-american-authoritarianism/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw7-SvBhB6EiwAwYdCAVVF-9bNvIEuP5quA_17FFCdGQC6tWJMqW6JBSW0NEEpURouu6_ClRoCgqAQAvD_BwE 

If this link doesn't work for you, just go to:  www.globalextremism.org  

Most younger Americans, based on what I have seen in the last few decades, are quite unaware of how much their lives would change for the worse if something like the Idiot's plans came to full fruition. My profound hope is that we don't have to go through the hell that my parents' generation did before we realize that Trump and his minions NEED TO BE STOPPED.

And, because we 'libs' are not much inclined to resort to solving our problems with violence, that means we need to rely on getting out the vote. It will not be enough to just go and vote yourself.  We need to convince those around us how critical it is in this moment, how much it will determine what life is like for our kids and grand-kids. 

The Priceless Gift they died for....

There is a series of nine episodes on Apple TV called "Masters of the Air".  It tells the story of the Eighth Air Force bombing campaign in Europe during WWII.  It's not at all academic, but it is based on factual events and experience.  If you are not aware of what the bomber crews endured, it's my humble opinion that you should be.  The Eighth Air Force had the highest casualty rate of any American military unit in the war.  A flyer had to complete twenty-five mission, (later raised to 35) before they could rotate home. But the missions themselves were a nightmare and the odds of finishing 25 were daunting. 

Early in the campaign, starting in mid '43, the leadership assumed that a B-17, or a B-24 formation could fly across occupied territory and Germany itself and fight off the Luftwaffe fighters....because these four-engined bombers literally bristled with .50 cal. heavy machineguns.  There were 13 on each plane and the strategy was to fly in closely arranged formations, referred to as, "the combat box".  The leadership horribly underestimated what the combination  of German flak (anti-aircraft cannons on the ground) and the fighters of the Luftwaffe was capable of doing.  The Brits had already recognized that flying into this lethal combination created a level of bomber losses that was unsustainable.  But the American leadership thought they knew better and that the heavily armed formations could fight all the way to a target and back.  

The lessons learned during this period were painful.  The Brits switched to bombing at night, still a dire undertaking, but better than attempting it in daylight. The American leaders were wrong, and the losses sustained made that painfully clear.  One famous raid on Regensburg and Schweinfurt sustained about 10% losses, i.e. 60 bombers and their 600 crewmen.  No military can take such punishment indefinitely, and the answer was clear: the bomber formations needed fighter escorts.  But, the fighters available at that point were the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, a great beast of a fighter with 8 .50 caliber machine guns in the wings.  And, the 'Jug', as it was affectionately referred to did not have the range to go all the way to targets deep in Germany.  They modified it to carry 'drop tanks', but it was still inadequate. It was not until the P-51 Mustang arrived in late '43 that the bombers had an escort with the range, armament and flying characteristics, that could take on the Luftwaffe's Bf-109s, and FW 190s, all the way to the target and back. It's no exaggeration to say that the Mustang was a total game-changer.

Masters of the Air was made under the direction of Tom Hanks and Stephen Spielberg and they made every effort to not give in to any temptation to dramatize, feeling, of course, that viewers in the present day need to see what these men endured.  And, what they arrived at is a very accurate portrayal of what it was like to spend several hours over Nazi Germany in 1943-44.  By 1945 the Mighty Eighth had the ability to send huge formations, ultimately up to 2500 bombers, fully escorted and capable of devastating any city sad enough to be under them.  The fighters, once having accomplished protecting the bombers were turned loose to get down to low levels and strafe targets of opportunity.  Not a truck or a train escaped their attention. These mega-raids were called off before the Allied victory on May 8th because as one general said (I believe it might have been Ira Eaker),..."We're just bouncing the rubble."

                                                    

It may look heavenly....but it was living Hell

So, there is now another documentary that is focused on interviews of members of the "Bloody 100th" bomb  group. Many of these men were interviewed years ago and have now passed, but I could not watch and listen without a deepened sense of the fact that they got out of their cots in the pre-dawn, went to a briefing and then climbed into a bomber and went to face the Luftwaffe flak and fighters....again and again. The odds of actually completing the requisite 25 missions were low.  But, they knew this and did what was asked of them anyway.  \

One of these incredibly brave men was Harry Crosby, and, amazingly (to me at least) I met him three times at his home in Lovell Maine. He was one of those interviewed, but passed in July 2010. Harry was the lead navigator of the 'Bloody 100th" bomb group, flew 32 missions and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, multiple Bronze Stars, the Croix de Guerre, and a fist-full of other medals, and you would never in a million years guess that the white-haired, cheerful and kind man sitting across from you was a war hero of this stature.

This is likely enough for this installment, but the next one will be about what these astonishingly brave men bequeathed to us....and why we need to honor it by doing absolutely everything in our power to prevent a wannabe fascist dictator from stealing the freedom that so many fought and died for.  That would be tragic beyond any measure.

My money is on dementia...

 Any American who is not sleepwalking through this world must know by now that we are on the precipice of a very dangerous cliff.  If we fail to engage or simply fall back on apathy for any number of reasons--all of them hard to justify on any level--we will wake up in November and find that we have a wannabe dictator for a president.  But, at that point, he'll no longer be simply an aspiring despot; he'll be starkly FUCKING REAL. And, this time, he'll be very different than he was during his first term.  If we thought he did some real damage to the country then--there is a long laundry list, topped by Jan6--we'll be horrified by what he can do in his second term, especially if SCOTUS arms him with any meaningful immunity.  And, they're dangerous too.....

Donald J. Trump has made little effort to conceal what his plans are if he regains the oval office.  He will go after all of the many people whom he feels attacked him, especially those in the media who have been pointing to him and trying to warn us that he's not merely mentally ill, but he's increasingly demented and losing control of much of his life.  HE IS DANGEROUS.....very much so, and anybody who doesn't see that is just playing with fire. 

I have previously mentioned a story-- both a novel, and then a movie--that dates from the early seventies. "In the Garden of the Finzi-Continis" is the story of a Jewish family who live in northern Italy in the early thirties.  They meet on Sundays at the family's villa in the garden and the story is what they talk about.  With one exception, none of them is able to conceive of what is coming.  They just cannot imagine that Hitler...and Mussolini, of course...are as utterly evil and potentially vicious as they eventually prove to be. They are about to be swept away by the tidal wave of fascism that is coming their way....and, they just are unable to accept that it is. 

Aside: In 2004, when a tsunami hit Banda Ache it swept away tens of thousands of people, Only the animals, especially the elephants, realized it was coming.  And, those elephants ignored their handlers, (mahouts), and fled to higher ground.  Over 61000 people just in Banda Ache, and as many as 220,000 in the greater area affected by it, died that day.  I have seen the videos of its approach, and it's as if most of the people simply cannot or refuse to see it as it mounds up offshore. 

If we act as if nothing is seriously wrong at this moment in our history, as a nation and as a planet....we will effectively be among those on the beach as the great wave bears down on us.

The State of the Union address last night was a relief for my wife and me.  It proved beyond any doubt that Joe Biden is not senile or incapable of doing the job he wants to finish.  He may be in his early 80s, but he is still fully present and highly capable...far more so than the rapidly declining Orange Idiot.  

More and more experts, the most respected members of the political punditry and the psychiatric communities are stepping forward to offer their opinions that Trump is not just slightly impaired but that he's mid-stream in a downward spiral into full-blown dementia. Many of these experts have mentioned that they would remain silent  under normal circumstances, and they have been chastised by the American Psychiatric Association for speaking about the condition of someone they don't know as a patient.  But, all of them have said the situation we face is too dangerous and dire to remain silent.

At this point, every rally speech the Idiot gives is being examined to see how many times he exhibits symptoms of this onrushing dementia.  It seems to be accelerating and is already mid-process.  The specific mistakes he makes are the telltale signs of brain damage and not just mild damage either.

So, here we are and this diseased and dangerous man wants nothing more than to be in charge of, hell, everything. His speeches are increasingly full of not at all subtle references to killing people.  He wants to execute drug dealers, and maybe addicts as well.  Perhaps he's taking a page out of Philippine dictator Duterte's handbook.  

His most recent speeches have been long meandering rants about how dark, and about to be much darker, America's future is.  He paints dire pictures of everything falling apart and society collapsing in a Twilight of the Gods type funeral pyre.  And, he reminds his fawning audience constantly that he is the ONLY ONE who can fix it all.  This is not just idle speculation; it's a mirror reflection of what is in his rapidly devolving brain.  He leans on the podium and speaks in this sleazy, lazy style--spinning lie upon lie--that anybody but true MAGAs would find disturbing....and alarming....as he rants on. Much of what he says is difficult to understand because he's also losing the ability to form words and thoughts.

He is visibly and undeniably acutely impaired.

And, if we, as individuals who see what is happening don't do everything we can think of to antidote his steady stream of poison..............then we will deserve what we get.  

But, the elephants will be long gone.