Open thread 9/5/22
This guy has quite a story:
He became a well-regarded professor of literature at Princeton after the war. He also wrote this memoir. Oh, and in the video he’s 98 years old.
The New Neo
A blog about political change, among other things
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/05/chile-votes-overwhelmingly-to-reject-new-progressive-constitution
Gabriel Boric handed his ass by the Chilean public.
Your vid popped up in my YouTube feed a day or two ago. His family went from Stalin’s Russia to Hitler’s Germany. Then France but it fell, so to Spain.
Spoiler: the banana boat with 15 cabins which took over 1000 refugees to the US was sunk by a U boat on the return trip.
A charmed life …
Interesting that the endless yammering about Brittany Griner has stopped, almost as if by some mysterious decree. Are they keeping the negotiations out of public view to use her release as an Oct surprise to fire up the lefties? Or have determined that, outside the Twitterverse, nobody give a fig about her? Or even that, if anyone deserves to rot in a Russian prison, it would be someone like her, and the more they flog her cause, the worse the D polling gets?
polkovnik (colonel) bout, will be released, so he can get back in the game, this time he will look twice, when a representative for the farc comes begging,
Chile remembers Allende?
a special master will be appointed in this travismockasham
“German-born Jew on Interrogating Nazi Prisoners of War”
The average German soldier wasn’t a Nazi. It’s like calling American soldiers Democrat soldiers because a Democrat was president. I used to live in Germany in the early 1980s and I found it amusing that all the old German soldiers I met served on the Eastern front and none had been fighting Americans.
well wehrmacht probably weren’t, they were rank and file soldiers,
but SS probably were, remember the whole controversy over biltberg,
Upping the ante sharply, steeply, deeply, madly…again: (and again and again…)
‘…MSNBC Declares All Republicans “Evil” And A “Threat To Democracy”; Pundit Says “We Are At War” ‘—
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/watch-msnbc-declares-all-republicans-evil-and-threat-democracy-pundit-says-we-are-war
Goebbels-like Media collusion with “Biden” continues big time.
(Not that it ever stopped….)
– – – – – – – – – –
…as it looks like(!) “Biden” has changed “his” mind (such as it is) YET AGAIN.
‘Biden Doubles Down: Tweets “MAGA Proposals Are A Threat To The Very Soul Of This Country”‘—
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/biden-doubles-down-tweets-maga-proposals-are-threat-very-soul-country
Mega-Manipulation 101…turning the entire country into Room 101…
File under: “He who controls the media cycle controls…”
When I saw this, at first I thought of Alvin Kernan, who was Dean of the Graduate school at Princeton and who has written extensively about his life as a sailor in WWII. He has the best book on the Battle of Midway. He was there and was aboard the Hornet when she was sunk in 1943.
Of course, if ALL REPUBLICANS ARE EVIL, then how could any moral, ethical and/or sane person be able to justify elections?
Short version: How could any DECENT American POSSIBLY ALLOW a Republican to run?
File under: Ah, Sweet Perfection! (AKA Game, Set, Match!)
P.S. Rumors are swirling that Pfizer and Moderna are working to perfect mDNA vaccinations (complete with boosters) against the increasingly rampant and wildly contagious GOP virus. The implication is that only those with proof of vaccination (i.e., anti-GOP vaccine passports) will be allowed to vote….
The myth of the clean Wehrmacht and the dirty SS. The Wehrmacht was willing and able to effeciently exterminate enemies of the Reich in the East and the West. But after the Reich was kaput the other monster (Uncle Joe and the USSR) was still oot and aboot so the myth was needed.
Very very interesting and human. Near the end, Brombert talks of offering a cigarette to some of the ordinary soldiers, and it helping to get them to talk. I think sharing cigarettes is about 3/4 of sharing some food, which is often very bonding.
I think of Steinbeck’s Mice & Men commie union organizer who would ask for the loan of a cigarette, because it was so effective at putting two men on the same level.
Early in the talk, he notes that he saw Nazis & Communists, both groups German, in street fights. Heavily not talked about is the 30s Ukraine Holodomor, showing clearly how terrible the commies are, and how the weak liberals were utterly unable to stop the commies – only Hitler or someone strong could do so.
Now I’m thinking about how uttler, er, utterly unable current liberals are in stopping the PC Woke semi-commie semi-fascist totalitarians. Then, how such weakness in liberal democracy breeds trust/ desperate hope in some better (lesser evil?) strongman, like Trump.
Bill Barr is an anti-Trumper who thinks Trump is better than progressive Dems – yet still terrible.
Allahpundit leaves HotAir to join other NeverTrumpers at The Dispatch.
https://hotair.com/allahpundit/2022/09/02/farewell-to-hot-air-n494121
Like Jonah Goldberg, author of “Liberal Fascism”, which describes the Dems so well – yet he hates Trump.
Trump is NOT Hitler, but IS willing to fight – like Viktor Brombert. Unlike Brombert, Trump will brag about every blow, while “true heroes” don’t brag.
Freedom needs those willing to fight for freedom, even fight for the lesser of two evils until something good, really worth fighting, is available.
And “Biden” continues to fiddle furiously…it looks increasingly as though..
…”the centre cannot hold”…
(No doubt that’s why “he” is fiddling so maniacally…)—
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/oil-surges-after-report-opec-could-cut-oil-production-100k-soon-today
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/europe-implodes-its-leaders-plan-radical-intervention-including-price-setting-suspending
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/futures-flat-europe-sinks-oil-and-gas-soar-russia-opec-doubleheader
https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/european-natgas-prices-soar-moscow-tightens-screw-supplies-nord-stream
Confederate soldiers have become the American version of Nazi. It’s stupid and contrary to the truth, but liberals haven’t tried any truth in over 3 decades. Very, very few confederates owned slaves. Those soldiers didn’t charge the cannons (knowing that decimation would be a low casualty toll that day) because they were willing to die so some rich guys might be able to keep slaves.
Of course, even Lincoln specifically said the war wasn’t an effort to end slavery.
Propagandists love slandering motives of opponents. Today’s Democrats do nothing else. The assault on anyone and anything confederate is a twofer — riles up the aggrieved victimhood of a key base and slanders the opponent’s base of red states.
Except that somehow the Democrat Party has evaded the “Confederate” label, when they were in fact, the Confederate Party.
I found it interesting that during the BLM riots, the people who wanted to protect both Confederate and Union statues were generally Republicans and that the BLM side expressed dislike not only for the Confederate memorials, but the current American Union Flag.
Central heating, air conditioning, indoor plumbing, electric lights, many varieties of foods in all seasons, personal transportation, and so much more are made possible by energy. Energy primarily from fossil fuels. Due to Biden’s green energy policies, OPEC is in charge again. Due to their willingness to deal with a mad dictator, Europe faces a winter without adequate fuel. Reality is biting the foolish leaders of the West in the behind.
@jon baker
The two facts aren’t at all unrelated, of course. Destroy the physical memories of history and you’re most of the way to rewriting it. Add in their politics of destruction and it’s only a matter of time before somebody finds it expedient to use this history to attack the Democrats from the left.
The number of people who assume the first Republican president must have been a Democrat because he freed the slaves* is disheartening.
* The Emancipation Proclamation only freed slaves of the rebellion, which is another way of saying he freed slaves only where he had no practical power. Sure, it helped assure passage of the eventual 13th Amendment, but Lincoln was dead by then.
Stan:
The Civil War was about many things. Saving the Union was paramount, but ending slavery was way way up there as a motive as well. See this and also see this. Also, letters from the front during the war make it clear that much of the rank and file also understood it to be a war with one of its main goals freeing the slaves.
om:
About the Wehrmacht – there was most definitely an element that was “clean,” or at least relatively clean. See this and also this.
Im sure there were bad wehrmact maybe even good ss but the preponderance was otherwise
https://meaninginhistory.substack.com/p/big-special-master-appointed-re-mal
For example the mossack in that panamian firm was ss
Fathet of
https://archive.ph/20160416134051/http://www.wsj.com/article_email/co-founder-of-mossack-fonseca-defends-law-firm-1460004583-lMyQjAxMTE2MTAzNzIwMjc2Wj
neo:
The exception does not make the rule. Glad there were some exceptions though.
Thanks for posting this interview. I hope I have his savvy when I reach 98.
I just viewed the famous film “Architecture of Doom” again, after many years. Always good to occasionally re-view things like this to remind oneself of how good we have it, and how truly awful it can get before the action starts.
The Nazi Philosophy of Beauty: The Architecture of Doom
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_KmZsA5Pfs
And a timely reminder:
“Brain study shows fentanyl kills by stopping breathing”—
https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2022/08/31/brain-study-fentanyl-kills/5741661956596/
IOW, don’t swallow your stash of fentanyl in the event you get stopped, for whatever reason, by the police (or for any other reason…).
…as the utter madness and total responsibility continues:
“What you need to know about the new omicron booster shots”—
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/omicron-booster-shot-vaccine-covid-coronavirus-pfizer-moderna
H/T Instapundit.
neo:
A short YouTube video about the clean and dirty Wehrmarcht:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=t1IVENFSRi0
In the late summer of 1944 the Wehrmacht proved to be very ruthless and efficient in destruction of towns and villages (and inhabitants) thought to have helped the French Resistance (aka bandits or partisans
). Skills and methods learned on the eastern front.
om:
I believe you are missing my point, which is that the Wehrmacht contained an active resistance within its ranks. I am not trying to say the Wehrmacht was “clean.”
Aggie:
I just watched that documentary for the first time the other day. It’s long but well worth watching. I knew the Nazis were dedicated to certain cultural and even artistic principles and philosophies, but that film places such things front row and center in the Nazis’ nefarious plans.
neo:
Sorry for missing the point.
Happy Labor Day!
How (some) Ukrainian pensioners get their kicks….
“Ukrainian pensioner downs $85 million Russian jet with rifle;
“Elderly Ukrainian man shoots down million dollar Russian Su-34 jet and is awarded medal for heroism.”—
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/359319
Compare and contrast with:
“F-15 vs. AR-15? Bet on the Guys With the Guns”—
https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2022/09/05/f15-vs-ar15-bet-on-the-guys-with-the-guns-n2612609
Another very interesting video. Thank you Neo.
A good recent book on this topic is “Sons and Soldiers, The Untold Story of the Jews Who Escaped the Nazis and Returned With the U. S. Army to Fight Hitler” by Bruce B. Henderson, 2017. The author describes some great scenes where captured German officers brought in for questioning, who arrogantly assumed they could easily bamboozle the stupid and uncultured Americans, reacted with shock when they realized they were confronted by a figure out of their darkest nightmares: a Jew. In an American uniform. With a gun. And who spoke perfect German.
I hope some military person or pilot will tell me whether it’s actually possible that a Ukrainian brought down a Russian jet with a rifle.
Reminded me of an anthropology professor I had. He was black, but had a talent for languages, so ended up at headquarters. Come the Battle of the Bulge, everyone at headquarters grabs a rifle and heads out, but the commanding officer tells him to stay behind because he is too valuable to lose. I think that incident changed his life.
an Su 34’s top speed is almost 1400 mph, and it’s top altitude, is 5000 meters, so I’m a little skeptical,
Fog of war.
In the Viet Nam war many US jets were downed by ground fire, “golden BBs” they were called.
Could have been a fienting spell. Or not.
miguel As Yeager said of the Foxbat’s altitude and speed, “You can’t hurt anybody up there.”
So if the 34 is doing something other than demo-ing the manufacturer’s brochure to a potential sale, he might be vulnerable to ground fire.
When there are turbine blades going a bazillion rpm, it doesn’t take much of a hit for them to tear themselves up. Like a couple of sea gulls. See “Sully”.
William B. Allen critiques Brandon’s vomitus
https://youtu.be/MYP-aAC-xrM
Impressive!
h/t powerlineblog.com
Downing an aircraft with small arms fire. It happened in Vietnam, but very infrequently and was mostly small FAC airplanes like the Cessna O-1 Bird Dog that were hit. The VC would hang out in the jungle around the airbases. The aircraft were vulnerable when at low altitude during takeoff and landing. Most pilots made steep approaches and take offs to minimize the danger.
My first landing at Than Son Nhut near Sagon was at night. It looked like many lighters being lit on the ground during approach. I asked the tower what the lights were. “Oh, that’s just Charlie welcoming you to Vietnam,” was the reply. It was a tad scary, but they missed. 🙂
The ARVN soldiers tried to sweep the perimeters regularly, but individual snipers could sneak in under darkness of night.
It was mostly a waste of ammo by Charlie. We found some bullet holes occasionally, but it takes great luck to place a rifle bullet in just the right place to down a military aircraft. If a Ukrainian did it, all I can say is WOW – a once-in-a-lifetime shot!
Victor Brombert was/is one of the big names in French literary studies.
One of my professors was, like Brombert, one of the “Ritchie Boys,” refugees who joined the US Army and interrogated German prisoners of war. Another one of my professors had been a German prisoner of war. I wonder how they got along.
Barry Meislin is quite right to draw our attention to energy issues in Europe courtesy of ZeroHedge links.
However, I would enjoy a bit more exposition.
Brombert reminds me some of J.D. Salinger.
Salinger was a young American Jew, raised Jewish. After the World War II began, he volunteered for the Army, was rejected, but after Pearl Harbor Salinger was reclassified and joined the Army for training. He landed at Utah Beach on D-Day.
Salinger fought for 299 days … through the hedgerows, the Battle of the Bulge, the Battle of Hurtgen Forest, to the liberation of Paris and the liberation of a Dauchau sub-camp. Of the last he said, “You never really get the smell of burning flesh out of your nose entirely”
After V-E Day Salinger had a nervous breakdown and recuperated at a hospital. His well-known story, “For Esme — With Love and Squalor,” was based on that period.
As a member of the Counter-Intellingence Corps Salinger spent several months interrogating Germans for denazification — ferreting out ex-Nazis, collaborators and black-marketeers.
As a writer Salinger never stopped writing, even during the war and its aftermath. He carried several chapters of “The Catcher in the Rye” with him into Europe and worked on that novel and other stories whenever he had spare time.
Salinger became generally famous for “The Catcher in the Rye,” based on his novel of young adult innocence betrayed. But it was the grim, adult, post-WW II short stories which earned his reputation in the “New Yorker.”
I understand why conservatives tend to decry Salinger, but I don’t think they quite understand how complex the man was, as well as being a brilliant writer.
the first link comes from this site,
https://www.energyintel.com/00000182-f9c0-d92d-a5b7-f9fcc5710000
that experience does put salinger’s perspective in greater relief, william butterworth, the late web griffin, also was in the cic, but later in the war,
Oops
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11183015/One-two-suspects-Canadian-stabbing-dead.html
Thanks for the link, Neo. He’s still alive–amazing.
I grew up in a university town in New England and knew a number of German- or Austrian-Jewish professors who had similar experiences in the U.S. Army or the British Army during the war. One of them founded the design program at UMass:
http://scua.library.umass.edu/friedmann-arnold/
Another was a longtime professor in the political science department:
https://polsci.umass.edu/news/remembering-gerard-braunthal
They were family friends. Great guys with great stories. All gone now.
Huxley: thanks for bringing up Salinger’s U.S. Army Counterintelligence Corps connection. Salinger picked up German and French while learning the family business in Europe before the war, hence his assignment to the CIC. As the Brits say, he had a nasty war. I believe he did another stint at the VA hospital in White River Junction, Vermont but may be misremembering.
Other CIC alumni:
J. Glenn Gray, author of “The Warriors: Reflections on Men in Battle”. Gray earned a PhD in Philosophy from Columbia in 1941. He was drafted almost immediately after graduating and was assigned to the CIC because of his knowledge of German. He was a professor of philosophy at Colorado College for many years. Wikipedia entry:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Glenn_Gray
George Bailey, the Chicago-born author of “Germans: The Biography of an Obsession” and a journalist (or perhaps “journalist”) in Europe during the Cold War. I knew Bailey slightly in Munich in the 1980s. I assumed he was a spook or at least an asset. His book describes his wartime experiences in some detail. Since the CIC detachments followed immediately behind the frontline combat units (as Brombert said), they saw the worst of the carnage. Bailey’s Wikipedia entry:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Bailey_(journalist)