Two-Book Review: Eugene B. (“Sledgehammer”) Sledge’s Extraordinary Autobiographies

After watching the HBO miniseries, “The Pacific” from 2010 several times, I was overcome by the hate, mud, isolation, and earth-shaking gun and artillery fire, the effect it had on one’s nerves and, the worst part, the ground war that often went hand-to-hand. Bitter combat to the death at close, closer, and then very personal, single combat.

I came away too with an indestructible love and awe for the First Marines in the Pacific theater of World War Two. I know that actors played the parts of these men who loved their country too much to let anything else come first. In the wake of tragedy during the savage attacks on Pearl Harbor and the Philippines, men couldn’t enlist fast enough. They were filled with what Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was reported (it was never confirmed that he said it, but he certainly had to think it) to have said after realizing that no U.S. Navy aircraft carriers had been in port: “I fear that we have awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with terrible resolve.”

Whether he said it or not makes no matter because that is exactly what the Empire of Japan had done.

Before the spring of 1942 came, the military and industrial behemoth that was the United States was gearing up to free Europe from the Blitzing Nazi Germany and Italy and to send every Japanese ship to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Watching and reading the real news articles newsreels of those days almost a century ago is one thing. I first saw the silent 16mm footage of the attack on Pearl Harbor in junior high school, shown by my (still) favorite teacher ever. He made no mistake about it: history was not nice to watch. Later in the year, he showed raw footage of American soldiers liberating a concentration camp as well as Soviet film from Auschwitz. History wasn’t a nice, clean subject.

The Pacific is a great piece of history itself, showing us the personal home lives of Marines heading to war after the Christmas of 1941. For so many men, it was their last Christmas with their families.

Eugene B. Sledge wanted to go but couldn’t. His father, a doctor of internal medicine, had detected a heart murmur. Gene wrote a book years later. Its title: With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa, released in 1981. He would later give his readers (and himself) closure by writing a short sequel, China Marine, at the request of his wife, Jeanne. After watching the miniseries and reading the book, I, too, needed a cooling down and closure.

Far from my intention here is to diminish any of our brave military in peace and at war. Any war.

But the miniseries, a companion to the hit Band of Brothers, hit me especially hard. In fact, the two can no more be measured against each other than the European and Pacific wars can be. They’re different in too many ways. But where I had been emotionally touched in Brothers, I cried my way through most of Pacific. Both series had episodes that were difficult to watch, but nothing in Brothers, except for Episode 9, which was an ambush to many viewers, made me continue to run the waterworks like Pacific did. It’s already been noted by critics as being more packed with blood and bodies than Brothers, but this is necessary as the island fighting was often so close. At distance, artillery was used, and bodies were tossed, in pieces, long distances. Mortars, machine guns, and grenades could make men into something you’d see in one of Stephen King’s nightmares. He has enough of those to go around, doesn’t he?

But Sledgehammer writes in a graphic but controlled way. The first things that many Marines saw when taking an island were the first American KIA sitting up with their own penises in their mouths.

The savagery of the Japanese hit the gentle Sledge hard, so much so that his hatred of them is virtually instantaneous. That hatred only grows as the fighting on Peleliu goes on. He describes going without water, as the supplies aren’t quick in getting to them from the Navy.

He admiringly describes “Gunny” Elmo Haney, a man obsessed with bayoneting the enemy, and who scrubbed his genitals with a utility (hard bristle) brush. He was, Sledgehammer wrote, issued by God to the Marines, never having been humanly conceived. That’s not hyperbole when one marine describes another. Haney fought, reportedly but not officially, in World War I. He did fight in the so-called Banana Wars, and in World War Two, when he was among the oldest serving members of the First Marines Division. He finally broke on Peleliu, but nothing like in the series. He told Sledgehammer, “That was terrible.” He retired and went home. Peleliu was really that horrible.

Sledgehammer wrote about losing his captain Haldane. The two had shared talk about their families and the C.O. was patient with Eugene, seeing the new recruit changing into something less human and wishing it weren’t so. He gave Sledgehammer some advice, but he never left the island alive. The author sees changes in the eyes and on the faces of his fellow mortar squad members and imagines that he probably has that same look. He describes the battles well, with heavily researched facts and his own perspective, trying to be crisp and straightforward, and that makes this book all the more heartbreaking. Because, at times, he does let his feelings out. His narration mentions few names, using “buddies” instead, and yet does mention Snafu several times. He even quotes the New Orleans native by spelling words as Snafu pronounced them. That’s good writing.

In the end, the airfield on Peleliu wasn’t even used by General Douglas McArthur. That’s like spitting in the faces of the survivors and on the graves of those who made the ultimate sacrifice. And Marines never forget. Not something like that, they don’t.

On Okinawa, the series showed Eugene come very close to losing his soul, or indeed losing it. But then, he reclaimed it by refusing to shoot a wounded native woman. She was gunshot and wanted him to pull the trigger, but he instead held her head in his arms gently until she passed.

That… did not happen. Sledge was so far gone that he couldn’t. He turned to leave her, and someone else shot her.

At this point, it’s necessary for me to point out that it is highly improbable that this or any other women on Okinawa were Japanese.

They were possibly native to that island but more likely were “comfort women” that had been taken by force from occupied territories like Vietnam, Australia, the Netherlands (!), China, and, mostly, Korea. What the term means is “sex slaves” to be used by the fighting men of the Empire. But they were not merely sex slaves. They were horribly mistreated and tortured, and they took beatings regularly. According to Wikipedia and in-depth articles I’ve read, these women were often killed, and many committed suicide. The Japanese were never sorry for this sad and evil thing that they did. They never included the women in their reparations, and after that article I read, they were forced, by the growing knowledge of that obscure part of the war, to apologize. To save face.

According to everything I have learned about the Japanese, there was never an intention of making apologies for sex trafficking and sexual war crimes. In fact, Eastern attitudes about sexuality have never failed to disgust me. For a society like the Japanese to regard honor above life itself, they seem quite dishonorable to me. During fighting on Okinawa and other locations, women were shoved out ahead of soldiers, as diversions, shields, and booby traps (explosives were concealed under their robes). I’ll note here that while this is indeed a war crime, I don’t know if this type of offense was ever addressed in the post-war trials (there were similar atrocities in the Korean and Vietnam wars).

Even today, and I have seen the proof with my own eyes, there’s underground pornography from Japan that’s left me with trauma. I don’t know how people can do such things (you want to know about evil? I’ve seen it. I know there is a real devil).

Some things in the series didn’t happen or happened differently or with people not shown on film. That’s okay. I still think Sledgehammer would have been pleased with it. He went home in the sequel book China Marine, in which he describes the winter of 1945 to part of 1946 in China. It was cold, the barracks were unheated, and the chow was terrible. He stood a guard post when, several times, he encountered dogs left behind by the Japanese infantry. Specially bred and trained attack dogs, vicious to begin with, now roaming free, cold, hungry, and twice as dangerous. Sledge doesn’t want to shoot the first one he sees in a frightening face-off. The dog eventually left, but he did report it, and the hunt to kill the dogs was on.

And I believe that’s what saved Eugene: he had a love for animals and nature. He would go on to earn a PhD. in Biology and was a college professor for years.

Of the train ride home, touching as it was, I don’t know who was at the table with him in the L&M dining car. He does not record it that way. But he does note that leaving such close and dependable friends was very difficult for him.

Without further assistance from me, I can still recommend both books for great reading. World War Two was full of men and women fighting courageously for the right thing, justice, and the greater good it brought. And now I have learned about more of them. It gave me hope. There’s a lot of evil here on this earth. But there are always good people to help set things right. That’s really heartening. Especially these days, as monsters masquerade as patriots and come as ravenous wolves in the form of sheep.

If you worry about men like Donald Trump taking this country to the grave, then at least we have the miniseries like The Pacific and books like those of Eugene Sledge to remind us how things used to be. He should have returned with medals. He was never wounded, so he never got a Purple Heart, but he was brave and helped his mates and weathered and survived things that would surely have killed a man like me. He, Snafu, and everyone they served with should have been decorated numerous times. They received nothing for their sacrifices of blood, sweat, terror, and trauma. Instead, they got nightmares and extra work.

It’s a Tom Hanks kind of touch that, in the last minutes of the series, Eugene lies back in a meadow and holds a daisy up to the sun. For just an instant, it looks very like the Rising Sun flag of the now vanquished Empire of Japan. Maybe it’s him weighing the cost of keeping his hatred or letting it go. He was finally beginning to accept his wounds of the soul. Those wounds never leave us; we just learn to live with them.

Remember these men. Do this, and their pain wasn’t in vain.

The Pacific: Better Than Band of Brothers?

The miniseries you never knew was there. Based on memoirs.

Three men. One, a courageous man whose actions in battle still echo across time.

One, who never should have even wanted to go to a war, but did anyway, and almost paid for it with his soul.

And another, whose bravery should have become legend like the first man, who yet survived to return home. And then daring to become something far better than his dreams, the imaginings of a lonely man, covered in mud and filth, writing letters he never meant to send to a woman he barely knew. And was now a world away.

The characters are real: Robert Leckie, Eugene B. Sledge, John Basilone.

During the Second World War, the story of the United States Marines gets overlooked in these days of short attention spans and lack of meaningful education in these United States.

History teachers have to stick with increasingly bare outlines lacking much text within. To get anything more, one must rely on websites or, more preferably, books collecting dust at a local library.

The usual case with the United States is a shameful one. All veterans of war and veterans in general are looked at with uncaring eyes, treated with a heart-rending lack of respect or the slightest bit of gratitude. They are our heroes, the men and women who served us in war and in peace, earning little pay, getting little in return, sometimes not even V.A. benefits. It is very dishonorable, the treatment they get.

One might think it was not always like this. But whatever you read or hear about any war you randomly pick, yes, it was always like this.

An argument can be made that returning veterans of the Vietnam War got the treatment they deserved, but as bad as that was, thanks to politicians and the media, perhaps it’s not as isolated as the observer sees it. Truth is, the Vietnam vet was every bit as brave and as faithful as any other man or woman who served in war times. The 1960s weren’t kind to service veterans, and I’m truly ashamed of that. But it has happened to veterans after every war. It always will. World War Two was no different.

The Pacific, executive-produced by Hanks and Spielberg, who did Band of Brothers, is the first of two companion series for the landmark 2001 series. The next just aired on Apple TV and was centered on the war fought in the skies over Europe. Since I haven’t the means to access the series, I’ll skip it. Besides, the critics didn’t like as much, and that’s fine with me.

In the first episode, we see the men, two going off to war, one saying goodbye to his best friend but unable to go because of a heart murmur. In episode two, we see Pfc. Bob Leckie and Gny Sgt. John Basilone on Guadalcanal, in the fight for an airfield, taking on a ceaseless charge of Japanese infantry. Basilone mans a .30 Browning machine gun, the early model with a water-cooled barrel. The jackets on these outdated weapons became searingly hot, and in more than one case, the Japanese managed to hit these water chambers and cause the barrels to overheat. But even with the water jacket intact, the weapon was an amazing piece of equipment. It could be fired constantly, and a 3-man crew feeding the ammo contained on cloth belts and assisting in calling shots and clearing jams were highly effective.

Henderson Field was of strategic importance to both sides, and the Marines were not about to give it up. To get to the field, the Japanese infantry had to cross water, which caused them to slow down and bottleneck to just such a degree that these machine guns tore them apart: on the night of 21 August 1942, the First Marines held a position on the bank. One three-man crew consisted of assistant gunner Albert Schmid. At one point, the gunner was killed by the surging Japanese, and Schmid took his position. He fired continually even after the water jacket was hit, and his gun’s barrel glowed like steel under a cutting torch. Knowing that meant utilizing short instead of long bursts of fire, and despite being wounded by a grenade, and being blinded as well, Schmid stayed at the gun, reloading and firing it by himself at first, then with assistance. What he did that night was and is legendary, worthy of a Homerian epic. He made Herakles look like a boy.

When the attacks ceased, two hundred enemy lay dead in front of him. Only one survivor escaped without a wound; the rest of the survivors suffered various injuries. It’s on the record that the Japanese commander killed himself for his dishonor.

John Basilone, another member of First Marines, had to move his machine gun, and with the heat of the barrel, he received 3rd degree burns on his hands and arms, because he had to cradle the barrel. He was credited with 83 confirmed kills, but he didn’t stop there. He shot several enemies while running, an extraordinary feat. He also ran for ammo and even dodged hostile fire to pull down a pile of bodies consisting of enemy KIA. It was his time to be a hero, an inspiration to his comrades, a hero who would go down in history as a Medal of Honor recipient. Col. Chesty Puller awarded the medal, which comes from the Commander in Chief, the US President, not Congress. There is not, nor has there ever been, any such thing as “the congressional medal of honor”. It is the Medal of Honor, period.

In Episode three, we see the troops, weary and filthy, docking in Melbourne to a wharf lined with cheering people, streamers, and pomp. Leckie begins a romance only to be dumped because she gets attached and is sure she will be heartbroken when he never comes back. But Leckie, despite a drinking binge and being broken in rank, recovers and continues to write letters to Vera, the girl who lived across the street while they both grew up.

Eugene Sledge finally enters training after his father, a doctor, tells him that the murmur is gone. But his father treated returning WWI veterans, and he tells his son that it wasn’t the physical wounds he treated that haunts him to this day. It was that look in their eyes, he says with a soft southern drawl, “…what I saw was that their souls had been lost. I couldn’t bear to look at you and see no spark in your eyes. That would break my heart.”

Stop. Because I really have to say, I wish I’d had a father like him.

In the 5th episode, Eugene gets a typical rude reception by veterans when he joins them. One of them, known as Snafu, plays a prank, a fairly mean yet mild one, on the new arrivals, but in the next episode, he starts to coach the new guys, although harshly. Sledge sees him prying gold off the teeth of a dead Japanese soldier, casually explaining that gold is thirty dollars an ounce. Taken aback, Pfc Eugene Sledge says nothing. In the next episode, Leckie returns to action after a hospital stay for enuresis, or, a problem with urinary incontinence. He’s hit by shrapnel while assaulting an enemy airfield on Peleliu, another in the island hopping campaign that never made sense to me. Its point was to save casualties by skipping over islands that could be bypassed without giving up strategic targets that mattered more. In gaining air superiority, islands with airfields were necessary targets. We concentrated on those. Had anyone in high command known what Peleliu would coast, they would have skipped that hellish place, too. It was here that “Gunny,” a WWI veteran, who was part of the Old Guard and an inspiration to the men, finally broke. He later told Sledge, “Ain’t never seen nothing like that. That was horrible. I’m ready to hang it up after that.” This scene is from Eugene’s book, and it isn’t shown. But we do see the thousand-yard stare, the trembling, the loss of humanity he has suffered. And, as I’ve seen that look with my own eyes, I can tell that it’s both heartbreaking and terrifying to see.

While charging against withering fire across the airfield, Snafu falls, disoriented and unable to get up. Eugene grabs him, and they make it to cover. It’s the beginning of a bond that will be mutually beneficial. As the unfeeling Snafu is an inspiration to Eugene afterward to lose his own humanity, Snafu will eventually pull himself back to humanity by being around Sledge. While on a route march, Snafu asks Eugene if he’s got a smoke. He gets one and says, “Thanks, Sledgehammer.” His new nickname.

Episode 8 sees John Basilone return to duty. He’s tired of Jane Grey and room service. He gets permission to train recruits and, meanwhile, falls in love with and marries Lena. He ships out to lead his men on Iwo but is killed the first day.

Next is Okinawa. A taste of what an invasion of Japan would be like?

Not even close. But it is a terrible ordeal. I’m not going any further than to say that this episode (9) is where Eugene gives up his humanity and even attacks a Japanese POW. He’s threatened with court-martial but seethes. It is only at the end when he’s faced with a cruel choice that he manages to make a very moving decision and emerges reunited with his soul. Of course, Snafu has a part in it, seeing Sledgehammer becoming like himself and intervening.

I found episode 10 to be a very moving conclusion to the series. Unlike Band of Brothers, we get to see some good, some sad, and utterly heartbreaking outcomes as they all return home.

We don’t get to see Snafu being met at the train station; he vanishes into the crowd with his dufflebag. We see Lena Basilone visit John’s parents, giving his father John’s Medal of Honor. Then Bob Leckie, who seems to adjust quickly, asks Vera for a date. He tells her about the letters he wrote, but she tells him that she never got them. He tells her he didn’t mail them because he didn’t think he would make it. She asks if she can read them now, and he says they didn’t survive the weather, but she presses him. “What were they like?”

“Best stuff I ever wrote,” he says, and it’s magic. They’re falling in love.

Eugene does not fare as well. His father hears him mumbling his nightmares out loud at night, and in a very poignant scene, he takes a seat outside of the door. He silently weeps for his boy.

He tries to take Gene dove hunting, but Eugene just can’t even nanage carrying the rifle. A few paces behind his father, he breaks down, dropping the rifle and falling to his knees, sobbing. “I’m sorry, I can’t,” he says. His father bends and puts his arms around him and softly says, “You don’t have to apologize to me,”

Eugene can’t work. He’s hurt, and he knows it. He does try to apply for college. This is what happened:

Although it’s said that the series lost money, it has a cult status today thanks to reaction videos. It maintains its historic accuracy and is often much more moving than any other depiction of the war in other motion pictures I’ve seen. Currently still available on HBO/Max, this is something everyone should see.

Is it really on any par with Band of Brothers?

I leave the answer to you. But it’s worthy of a look. Whether you’re a first-time watcher or not doesn’t matter. Go ahead and watch it again.

As for myself? I love both of these series, but I have a bit of bias toward The Pacific. It’s darker than Band, with a grotesqueness that made me laugh, cry, and everything in between. The weapons, vehicles, uniforms, everything is here. I believe that there’s no need to compare Band with Pacific, but this series has the home front depicted, and to me, that’s a plus. You get where these guys are coming from.

An honorable mention goes out to William Sadler for his portrayal of Chesty Puller, a hero and still one of the most decorated Marines in history. The actors did an amazing job of convincing me that I was witnessing actual history.

Note: This is what I’ve been doing lately, watching TV and reading, just trying to keep my mind busy. I haven’t anything new to report about my health, so there’s no reason to bring it up except that whatever happens, it’s fine. I’ll be okay. As always, thanks for stopping in, and may God bless.

Wars and Rumors of Wars: an essay

Welcome.

If you’re like me, then sometimes you forget about things when they seem to vanish from the media. And maybe, like I do, you limit your exposure to the “news” anyway, trying not to find myself waist deep in the big muddy. I know that’s too deep for me. Step once more, and I can find myself way over my head with my ruck, my M-16, and steel pot, weighing me down and making sure I stay there.

So, like me, did you think ransomware had magically vanished?

The Guardian is reporting that in a speech at Vanderbilt University, FBI Chief Christopher Wray stated that a group of hackers associated with the Chinese government had been using botnets to overpower critical United States infrastructure and have compromised key systems. These include municipal water systems, power, and more.

This is nothing short of terrifying to me, but at the same time, it’s not at all shocking.

I’ve warned in writing since 2008 that China bore scrutiny, and in international politics, that’s a significant warning. Few seemed to notice. Now, here we are: systems compromised to the point that our infrastructure is a victim of what amounts to ransomeware. The thing being “ransomed?” Taiwan. They don’t want us interfering in their long-time determination to take Taiwan as their own.

What’s really happening: China has finally come right out and declared war on the United States. This war needs no bombs, no ICBMs, no aircraft, no navy, and zero infantry. This is well-planned and ready for execution, and the Chinese government claims no affiliation with Volt Typhoon, the hacking campaign. The government has deniability but doesn’t care if nobody believes that the hackers are operating on their own. That’s just words, but in underhanded politics and war, the words matter. How many humanitarian groups do you think will align themselves with the Chinese government to “prevent hostilities?” Oh, they’ll figure it out when all of New York City has all of its power turned off, and nobody in Los Angeles can draw tap water, and DC has every access to the internet gobbled up. And worse. Everyone’s forgotten about Flint, Michigan, so conveniently because the media reported that at that time, even worse water quality was on tap in multiple cities in various states. That story went away, too, and nobody cares. Or remembers. Watching Fox News is proof that people want to believe lies. Or spoon-fed like babies fresh off the teat. That they want to be brainwashed and not have to think for themselves.

I’m wary of all press releases no matter their source, but unfortunately, this one I have to believe. I knew a long time ago that China had been planning something dreadful. When Xi was “elected” dictator, I knew trouble wasn’t far off. Unlike other wars, this one is capitalizing on our lax trade restrictions with China. They make more microchips than we do. And the country making the most chips? Taiwan.

Taiwan is the leader

South Korea runs second

China is third

The United States is fourth in microchip production.

You thought we had the top position, didn’t you?

So did I. The subject doesn’t come up in many headlines. It’s not our fault. Blame a government so divided that legislation and enforcement are impossible.

When Trump was president, all we ever heard was how great he was and how unfair the “fake news media” was.

He wasn’t wrong, but he surely did twist it.

His administration marked a strange turning point in news reporting. Most “news” channels don’t even report the news. They have chained together shows hosted by opinion peddlers who try to, and usually do, influence the way we interpret the news. Based on our beliefs and emotions, we end up divided. We can’t even agree on the fact that breakfast cereals are basically poison. And that’s without dudes on the production line urinating in your Corn Flakes . Think that’s old, do ya, think it happened only one time? That fool took a video of himself doing it. Imagine how many do it without the visual creds. And I’m sorry I researched this one. Google did that thing where it shows possible ways your query could finish up, based on previous searches by millions of users. One possibility was “how does a man pee,” and I don’t know about you, but the fact that anyone searched this is scary.

But getting back to it, China is our biggest threat ever. The apps, like Tick Tock, are things I urge you to get rid of and never look back. The data, all of it, is downloaded to the owner in China, which, by the way, also infiltrated our servers. Don’t be deceived; if a Chinese company has your info, then the Chinese government has it. The least that happens is that they see the absolute worst of us and know we’re a nation of idiots; they have the proof. But millions of computers get compromised by this and other means. That 2,000 dollar gaming PC you own isn’t really owned by you but is part of a botnet their government is using right now, going to dedicated targets in over twenty pipelines. You can be owned and never know it. Games, even if they’re single-player games, still have to be played online. That’s a perfect storm. Once compromised, it’s nothing more than a bot. Not only can it be used that way, but also to get your personal information. Transactions, search history, habits, and those ridiculously awful videos you post showing your new jailhouse tattoo between your breasts right before you twerk, because twerking. An enemy that first does all the intelligence collecting is the mightiest of all, one to be feared. And we let them do it.

Capitalizing on teens and young adults who are reckless and have no shame, they’re in for keeps. We can’t stop the coming attacks. This is a war we will surely lose without immediate and drastic intervention by our government.

The problem is that people will scream that their rights are being violated and cause a real mess. When the Patriot Act was put in place, few people realized that it was for the good of us all. We still have no idea how many terrorist attacks were prevented because of the act; that information is a part of our national security. For safety, we had to give some things up. After the Twin Towers fell, we agreed to it. Now, people shout about its evil nature. Now, we’re in this place of susceptibility to a tech war. It may not be one fought with bombs, but people will die. Imagine power in hospitals being cut off. Life support for premature newborn babies won’t work. A shooting victim can’t be saved by surgery. The freezers in the morgue stop. Vaccines and blood will go bad. No lights. The backup generator runs out of fuel because gas pumps are without power. Trucks can’t deliver oxygen. In 24 hours, every hospital in any large city is forced to send bodies to the basement where the stench only gets worse.

Traffic lights remain inoperable. Traffic accidents and backups get worse. Then they run low on battery power or fuel. The city shuts down.

One may think, come on, let China just have Taiwan, but do you really think that it would end there? If you do, you’re wrong. Give in to terrorists, let them know that you can be broken, and you guarantee that worse will follow.

Meanwhile…

The war in Gaza has not let up no matter how many civilians are killed; the war between Israel and Iran is being downplayed, which is concerning, and our response is tepid. President Biden condemned the Iranian attack on Israel, but it seems certain that this will embolden Israel to continue its war against Gaza. There can be no winners in these conflicts, which can easily escalate into World War Three.

Ukraine is weakened, and the Russians are gaining ground. If Ukraine continues to get no relief and supplies, then Russia will win within just months.

It’s not looking good.

The words of Jesus come back to me: There will be wars and rumors of wars...

Now is a good time to kneel and pray.

And get rid of Chinese apps.

Remember, you didn’t care. You were warned. We all were. But you and everyone else wanted your fifteen minutes of fame. Nothing could stand in your way; you had to show off your butt implants, piercings, or try to impress that girl in trig class by doing something that should have killed you but didn’t, and you wanted to make her laugh. News flash, it didn’t work. She didn’t laugh, she cringed, and now she’s so aloof that she might as well be in Australia. And you can’t get there from here. Oh, sure, the girls giggle by their lockers when you walk by, but it’s not in appreciation. Nope. You screwed up. So you immediately delete the video but it’s too late, and hundreds of people you don’t even know have downloaded copies. It’s like that topless selfie that Wendy Anderson sent to her boyfriend two years ago. He shared it with his best bud, who pushed “send all” and it can’t be deleted. It might even be on a porn site or two, and Ms. Anderson found out the hard way that whatever is done, is done. Forever.

The Anderson family had to move away after that. But in no town was Wendy safe. Someone found it. She had filled out, but there was no doubting that it was her in that picture. Old men propositioned her and she tried to complain. She found the photo on a porn site. Her parents successfully sued. But they found out that money can’t erase anything on the internet. Their daughter is in therapy and even occasionally hospitalized for suicidal thoughts. She’s on medication for life because PTSD of that level of severity doesn’t just go away. Like that one photograph, it is forever. How many lives have been ruined in this way?

You can look, but you can never know because of confidentiality laws. Teen suicide is a huge problem, and this type of thing adds to it. On Tick Tock, kids do the dumbest things I’ve ever seen. Engaging in drama is the least of it. I thought I was stupid growing up (I was; nobody is immune), but spur of the moment or impulsive acts on video are the very height of recklessness. How many times have you seen a report on a celebrity posting hateful things on X (Twitter) that they say is now deleted? Too late, dude. Half the country took screenshots and shared them with the other half of the country. Now, you can apologize until your fingers fall off, but who will believe you?

That is, unless your name is Taylor Swift, then everyone will believe it’s a deepfake. But you, nobody will forget. And words cut deep. They are every bit as destructive as mortars. Maybe worse. We’ll know when China makes the overtures in their tech war. Imagine how easily they can put deep hatred using social media between man and wife, best friends, or two countries.

REVENGE STORIES

One thing I had randomly pop onto my YouTube feed was what’s known as a revenge story.

I’m not sure whether the authors are all one woman-hating man or otherwise, but the stories are all narrated by AI voices.

They all involve a husband who gets the suspicion that his wife is cheating on him. Sometimes, the man has long suffered from the signs he’s sure are what he thinks they are. Sometimes, the husband is actually tipped off by a friend, a co-worker, or a family member. Sometimes, he finds blatantly careless clues. But every story has the common theme, and it goes like this: the husband converts their joint account into his own, sends them to “offshore” accounts, puts the house up for sale, gets the best divorce lawyer in town, a private detective gathers evidence, he secures sole custody of the kids or finds out they’re not his, and gets alimony and child support from the now-destitute wife, whose lover leaves her all alone. Sometimes the husband immediately stays in a hotel or apartment, sometimes he moves to the guest room, leaving her desperate to ease her suspicions that he knows and have “closeness” (sex) with him to show her undying fidelity and love. When it fails, she’s scared until the moment she’s served with divorce papers. Then, she tumbles into depression and begins to lose weight.

Some of these stories come from reddit and inspire dozens of copycat videos. The point is that men who read this rubbish tend to become paranoid, and that gains him a division between him and his wife, who gets tired of him sneaking around and trying to catch her. Marriage over.

Without trust, we cannot have meaningful relationships. It’s that simple.

Granted, marriage isn’t easy. And the wrong couple won’t last. And spouses do cheat on their partner. It happens. And it always has, but in this porn-filled, social media-dependant world, it seems more and more prevalent to me. Our society is full of people encouraging others to “experience life” and then watch their advice lead to ruin. Now, with all of this going on and texting or messaging letting people easily be tempted and then plan acts of fornication and adultery, don’t you think that a cyber-enemy can use all that? Of course they will. The reddit stories are one way. Ruin the family unit, one at a time, and you weaken the whole. Deepfakes are big in porn, and celebrities like Blake Lively are big on the list. I remember reading that the invincible Taylor Swift had some of her Deepfakes removed, but for every single one she found out about, there are infinitely more.

Imagine seeing your wife in one. Finally, we have to question what is real and what is not. Conspiracy theories abound as to our reality not being real at all, but a version of a “Matrix-like” simulation. They even link the Mandela Effect with “glitches in the Matrix.” Okay, now we’re really losing it.

But the time is coming when China and perhaps other countries will wage war with all of this. Personal information, images, rumors, and more. It will be the opening shots fired in true war, softening our resolve and even our cognitive thinking before emptying Wall Street, shutting down military defense, and leaving us unable to do anything about it. Get your minds out of the gutter, out of conspiracy theories about matrices (not having to do with advanced mathematics but conspiracies) and goofy YouTube videos. Wake up. Pray that God will grant you the awareness of what’s really happening.

The war that I believe I see looming will be worse than anything we have ever seen. Jesus said it would be like the days of Noah. People will be eating, drinking, and marrying or giving in marriage. They won’t care. While millions starve to death, including wee babies, the rich and powerful are turning away. This is the path to war. This is a time of social and economic upheaval, the like of which this world has never seen. Are you ready? Really ready? Because as far back as Joel, there’s a prophecy about the moon turning red:

“The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.”

Interestingly, rust has been discovered on the moon. It’s spreading. On a body with no atmosphere, I don’t think I can explain it. Feel free to follow this fascinating phenomenon at your convenience. Who would ever guess that rust would form on the moon, visible and verified? It may not mean much. I don’t pretend to know. But what if it does?

Isiah chapter one:

The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: “Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.” Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged. Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. …

“The whole head is sick.”

That’s for certain. Porn, internet intrigue, slander, drug abuse, alcohol and tobacco… we’re all sick. But we are convinced that we are right. Festivals and rituals praising Satan are sickening to me. There’s nudity and sexual sin, paraded for all to see. Witches claim religious rights and attract many to their evil cult. We’re sick, alright, and the prophecy may have been about the Jews,but all of humanity is stricken. All truth is decried as lies, all manner of evil permitted. Human traffickers operate with no fear. And the United States is a prime target, already soft, already weakened by false preaching, or apostasy, turning people away from God instead of toward him. When will we learn?

Probably not until it is too late. The prophet Daniel wrote that near the end, people will go to and fro, seeking knowledge, and knowledge will increase. Well, you don’t need a library anymore; you have the internet. Search any subject. It’s there. Want to know the order of battle for Midway? You got it. A close recipe for KFC? Done.

The times of the last days are coming but not yet. Besides, nobody knows that. When Jesus told his Apostles that there would be wars and rumors of wars, and earthquakes in various places, he added that of the hour of the end, he himself didn’t know, but only God did. That means we’re to live the best we can and not obsess over it. But though I don’t obsess, I also see the storm clouds in the distance. Look at what we’ve done to ourselves. Soon, those towering clouds will get closer, and violent lightning will be seen. That’s as close as I ever want to get.

Cyber-warfare is here. And from here, it only gets worse. Now is the time to feel regret for those selfies and stupid Tick Tock videos. Repent of all you’ve done by first seeing how wrong you’ve been. Regret those things, hate them for what they can do to your soul after your body is finished, when God will have his own say. Fear God, who can send you to eternal anguish and pain. Only then can you truly help others.

Only then can your mind be made well again.

Goodnight, and God bless.

Happy New Year, World!

In New Zealand, it is already past 09:00 on 1 January 2024. For me, it’s 2023 for another 9 hours. My wish for you is either late or early. It may be a small world, but it’s not that small.

Signs of caution in Germany, mainly in Berlin, as extra police are getting ready. Their new year is less than 3 hours away.

The Israel-Gaza war has been causing unrest far and wide. Of the war in Ukraine, the world sees and hears but no longer cares.

I’m sorry for this; I could not be sadder about the waste, the dishonorable killing of civilians, and the horror of PTSD every survivor will have to live with every day.

In 6 countries, with Brazil being the most adversely affected, the crisis of the Amazonian drought has reached an explosive state.

The trees are dying, of course, and when they go, sometimes in a very short time (days instead of months), they can’t be replaced. Thick primary growth is vanishing. The upper river can’t be navigated. The bed lay dry, grounded fish dead within. And that is an extreme danger.

Dry riverbed status on the Amazon means that huge amounts of CO² can be released into the atmosphere; the water is what keeps it contained in the top layers of mud and rock. Also, a threat for CO² release is the trees. It’s not a matter of the dead trees no longer producing O². It’s that trees take in CO² and will release their supply when they die. It’s global warming, but this year with a twist.

And it’s all down to a strong El Niño year, which this year is being called “unprecedented.”

That’s because weak trade winds have allowed high temperature water in the Pacific to drift east and hold station. At the same time, equally disruptive warm water in the Atlantic moved further north, allowing colder water below the equatorial region. That colder water doesn’t help produce rainfall. It can cause air humidity to be too dry over the rainforest and river. So, of course, wildfires have burned and will again. It is a catastrophe for the entire world.

My heart is with you all, whether you’re at war, in famine, drought, and wherever accute suffering is ongoing. I pray that the New Year will be better, that recovery, to every degree possible will happen. And that you survive 2024 to meet me here again on New Year’s Eve 2024.

Possible New Year’s Resolutions for the People of the United States

1. For pity’s sake, please stop using the word “literally” in every sentence. You’re being ridiculous.

2. If you don’t want to be called “Karen,” don’t give anyone a reason to. Let’s make this expression go away.

3. Respect LEOs. Mouthing off to police is going to get you into trouble. Don’t get physical and don’t drive under the influence. All drunks are dicks.

4. Please don’t drive under the influence! People ruin or end lives that way. If you’re arrested after taking field sobriety exercises, comply with a breathalyzer test and take your medicine like an adult when your case comes to the court.

5. Don’t carry firearms. Don’t leave firearms outside of a locked gun cabinet with a trigger lock set.

6. Be more careful. Be mindful of others, give them space, and be courteous. The best way there is to avoid trouble is not to take risks with people and animals you are not familiar with.

7. Remember that it’s okay to be an asshole at times, but never a dick.

8. Take care of yourself.

And finally, my thanks and a shout out to all of you who visited me this year, from the United States and Canada, Brazil, to the United Kingdom, especially Ireland, and then to India, Taiwan, Vietnam, Finland, Germany, and Russia and China. I hope that you will visit again wherever you are. Have a safe and prosperous 2024!

Hold Your Fire, You DICKS!

Israel fired back at Palestinians in Gaza and killed about 2,300 people. But that’s not the whole story.

As a part of the safety for Israel following the horrifying attack by Hamas, which was backed by Iran and Iraq, probably among others, Israel closed its borders and shut off supplies to Gaza.

I understand this, because weapons and terrorists could easily cross into Israel amid the chaos following the attack. It makes sense: you’ve been attacked. Now you have to defend and shoot back. It’s how wars are fought.

And make no mistake: this is an active shooting war, with Netanyahu denying on Monday that any ceasefire had been declared.

However, people in Palestine are suffering and thousands more will die without aid and supplies. Denying medical aid and supplies like fuel for power, food, medical aid and doctors from going to help those in peril or casualties is part of an ongoing shooting war.

It is, in this case, a display of terrorism and dishonorable actions.

There’s one hospital in Gaza City, one in perhaps all of Gaza as far as I know, and as their auxiliary generators run out of fuel, infants on respirators, such as what preemies often need, will die.

Does that avenge the kids and infants taken or killed outright by Hamas terrorists?

It may seem so, but no, it does not. More people dying in this war because of religion and skewed principles makes absolutely no sense. You can see; read the reports. Not from Fox or OANN, Newsmax or any other source. Read the analysis of a scholar, statesman or reliable and objective source.

When I first heard about the Hamas attacks, I too reacted emotionally. I hate terrorism in every form. It’s never anything warranted, but always barbarians who engage in it, targeting, almost exclusively, “soft” targets: civilians, public buildings, infrastructure and hospitals or emergency medical services. There is little on this earth more disturbing, disgusting or dishonorable than attacking civilians, children and hospitals. That is as evil as humans ever get.

And whereas this is an emotional time for every country in the Middle East and the entirety of the Levant and beyond, and people everywhere want blood, it isn’t the time for that.

I fear, though, that not much can stop the war from spreading. It may be soon, too. A conversation between Turkish president Erdoğan and Iranian officials resulted in a warning not to let things escalate. I’m ashamed of both countries for their respective recent crimes against humanity, mainly against women in Iran, but this exchange is promising. They really screwed up, backing Hamas in the planning and arming of guerillas for the despicable attack on Israel.

But will it be good enough?

Glass half-empty. I can’t see it any other way. This mess could, along with the war in Ukraine, be the beginning of World War Three. A lot of things need to fall into place first, but this shows how easily that could actually happen. We don’t need this. No one needs this.

I shared the outrage last week. I was all for retaliation. But looking back, I see how wrong I was. A rocket strike was understood to be the tactically sound response; letting civilians and babies die of starvation or life support failure is a whole different thing.

Gaza is not getting medical aid, food or fuel. Its sole power plant has been shut down. Now we’re in a humanitarian crisis that is unforgivable. There’s nothing righteous about it. Nothing honorable. It’s just evil.

US President Biden has opposed an invasion of Gaza by Israel. He’s not wrong. Doing so would cause a major war that would spread throughout the entire region. Pulling every variable apart and assessing them would take someone with expertise, and I do not have that. My statement that I support Israel is no longer applicable. I stand for peace, careful consideration of the consequences and for the sanctity of life. Neither ISIL, ISIS, Hezbollah nor Hamas represent all people in their respective areas of influence and operations. Killing thousands will take the lives of innocents and make different groups, like Hamas and Hezbollah, unite against Israel.

This is despite the basic difference between the two. Hezbollah claims the Shia beliefs of Islam, Hamas the Sunni beliefs. Yet Iran absolutely played a role in arming and helping Hamas in infiltrating Israel. You don’t underestimate either of them now; as allies with Israel, we could be next. Our intelligence is good, but so is Israel’s, and they missed what was about to happen. Last week’s attack has been said to be Israel’s 9-11. But it could have been far worse. The United States is no different. We’ve been infiltrated by Chinese operatives, Russians, radical religious extremists and who knows what else.

It is time for cool thinking, peace talks and an end to lax national security. For all of us.

Who Guards the Guards?

There’s a Facebook and YouTube guy. Skeeter-something. Probably used the first part because an ex-wife told everyone he’s got a skeeter-peter. That’s 70s slang for “tiny dick”.

I saw this video. On Facebook.

A Facebook video.

Skeeter-peter was working with a group who sets up pedophiles. Now, I have zero problems with anyone willing to catch predators, you understand?

Those animals are the dregs of humanity. I truly think, believe even, that they should all be executed.

I’ve studied shit like this for years, trying to figure out why what happened to me happened. Why it happens to anyone.

And I still have no idea why it happens.

All I know is that there’s something wrong with the scumbags that do it and that the world would be a better place without them.

But then again, this “sting” they did in Walmart was disgusting.

First, it’s vigilantism. I don’t approve of vigilante operations. They could be sued for what they do. Second, they engaged in a form of entrapment which some judges would use to disqualify any charges against the fuckwad in question. Oh, they had transcripts, and the bastard thought he was talking to a 14-year-old. He said sick shit like “can I fuck you without a condom” and worse. Absolutely a fucking piece of shit. At that point the file should have been submitted to local police. But they sent an operative into Walmart to make contact. Then more operatives entered the store with cameras. Skeeter-peter wouldn’t shut the fuck up, giving a running dialog that, judging by the comments, really turned people off.

I’m not going to say much more, except that the police did arrest the cockroach. The group got banned from Walmart, which is hilarious.

But they made jokes the whole time. Jokes!

Look. There’s nothing funny about child sexual abuse. These guys make survivors like me cringe. Your intentions to do something good can be lost in talk like that. It’s in bad taste, it’s bad form and it’s sick.

I’d like to be able to say I’m glad the cockroach was arrested, but the involvement of civilians risks them getting any kind of felony conviction. And predators learn from shit like this fiasco. Next time, he will be more careful and probably claim the victim he goes after.

He was incredibly stupid doing this, but he will not be so stupid in the future. And what happens if his victims won’t testify and don’t do a rape kit, and there’s nothing anyone can do?

You want to help police find predators, fine. I’m with you, but don’t do this. Because you’ll fuck it up. And I’d prefer you not get involved at all if it’s just a bunch of attention-seeking Skeeter-peter assholes who talk all the way through a 20 minute video. All you’ve accomplished is to get the guy detained and that’s not enough.

Who guards the “guards” like Skeeter-peter? They can gather all the intel and evidence they want, but actually confronting someone, no. You can’t do that. Work with the police and let them work. They can take it from there. Besides, how can you be sure that the confrontation doesn’t end up with you getting a bullet in your gut? Cornered predators are desperate and unpredictable. It’s a dangerous situation. If you’re not law enforcement, you’re taking chances with your life and anyone around you. Desperate men never stop at one shot and their hands shake. A customer 3 aisles away, maybe a kid with his or her mom, could die because of you. You can’t plan professionally and that’s dangerous. You talk the whole time and you sure aren’t aware of others. You put innocent lives at risk for your personal glory. And I’m sure you have Patreon members. Your motives, Skeeter-peter, don’t impress me. Your procedure scares me. You’re just a bunch of showboaters and hot dogs.

I have no respect for any of you. And as opposed to vigilantes as I am, I really wish you’d have just shut the fuck up and clipped the cockroach. Because you’ve created a true monster out of this predator. He will hurt kids next time.

You know, most police officers are competent. Dedicated. Some bad ones have surely gotten attention. The force does not miss them. But let them do their jobs. If you don’t, you are the goddamn bad guys. If you see something, say something. That’s how it works, Skeeter-peter.

To show how little the human race thinks of its children, then the Hamas attack of Yom Kippur proved it. I thought the attack was just rockets. It was so, so much worse. Tonight I found out. Hamas had planned this for two years. They had infiltrated Israel. They purposely targeted children. They tortured and killed them. It was an act and declaration of war and war is exactly what they’re going to get. Nobody will be able to stop Israel from the vengeance that’s coming.

Killing civilians, putting children in dog cages and torturing them to death? Crimes against humanity, war crimes and as evil as men can possibly get. And now it’s done. Hell comes next. Israel will never let this go. World War Three has probably begun.

I am done here. Pray for peace.

Movie Review: “Ghosts of War” (English, 2020)

First off, this very dark and graphic movie isn’t for everyone. Most critics hate it and won’t recommend it. And although it is a release of the Lockdown, not many got to see it then because of limited access. As subscription prices rise to rival the cost of cable, free streaming is a myth standing in front of the growing cost of internet service.

Assuming that you have internet access, then, I suppose you already subscribe to at least one streaming service. Through the magic of the web, once online you can see a load of free movies and TV shows with ads that aren’t unbearable in the commercial break length.

So what to watch, with horrible weather and too many reasons to just chill inside?

Take your pick. Search any film title and the results show where you can see it. Some are on specific subscription services like Disney Plus or Hulu. Not worth the cost, since you’re already paying for Wi-Fi.

I’ve been getting Fios emails warning me that my service will increase in cost in January. They ignore the fact that they’re not the only game in town and should stay competitive, but then again, when does a corporation ever care about its customers?

Tubi is my go-to app for free movies and TV, but I still love the Amazon Prime benefit of tons of movies for cheap, without censorship or ad breaks.

That being said, the heat of summer and the bouts of rain here keep me indoors a lot. Discovering Ghosts of War was one rare treasure that I found compelling and intense. On Tubi now, it’s worth seeing by anyone who likes science fiction, horror and war in one movie.

That’s not to say that it’s particularly frightening; my first viewing had me pausing to take considerable breaks for smokes. It’s ugly stuff, as any movie about war should be. I’m not pushing an anti-war conviction here; all wars have always been nothing but humanity at its very worst, full of carnage, disease, war crimes, and the always present deaths of civilians, crudely called “collateral damage”. I’m saying that in my view, war is terrifying, leaving damaged or dead people everywhere it goes, like a plague. It is stupid, but not merely so; it is the very height of the stupidity of the human race.

I have never been in a major theatre of combat, but I’ve had a brief taste and it can’t be described. The closest thing on screen was the Omaha Beach portion of Saving Private Ryan.

When grenades and mortar shells hit nearby, the loss of hearing except for ringing in the ears and general shock and disorientation Captain Miller experiences are real. You’re terrified by bullets zinging past you, but that state is, and must be, overcome by the adrenaline it produces. It is unforgettable. Years later, decades later, the haunting memory of it gets worse, not better.

Our movie begins in the French countryside in 1944. Five soldiers from the 82nd Airborne are camped at night. The squad leader awakes and sees someone in the trees lighting a cigarette and watching them. He clenches his eyes shut, as a child does when trying to banish something out of a nightmare. When he opens his eyes again, the mysterious man is gone.

The next morning, they continue toward their assigned destination, a chateau 30 miles away by foot. On hearing a German jeep coming, they mine the road and watch as the vehicle hits it. This is our real introduction to the squad: they shoot the survivors, all but one of which would die anyway. Butchie, the big guy, wants to fistfight a major who’s in remarkably good shape considering what just happened. It’s unlikely. Also, the jeep was completely blown apart, but is now lying upside down and basically in one piece. You think it’s a goof, a cheap plot device by the director.

But it’s not. This is how they’re experiencing it. Butchie starts out strong in the fistfight, but the Nazi major quickly begins to beat him. That’s until the squad leader shoots the major in the head with his pistol.

Here’s the cast of the squad:

Chris, the squad leader: Brenton Thwaits

Alan Richson as Butchie, the big, tough guy

Theo Rossi as Kirk

Skylar Astin as Eugene, the brains in the outfit

Kyle Gallner as Tappert, squad sniper, who chews up every scene he’s in. Without him, this movie wouldn’t be worth watching.

Not to be overlooked is the dynamic between the squad members. There’s mistrust, apprehension and a tension that is visible from the beginning, but which becomes palpable later.

On reaching the chateau to relieve the current squad on watch, they find that the relieved members are dodging questions, antsy and far too anxious to leave: our first clue that something isn’t right here.

Searching the house, they find clues of a disturbing nature, and experience doors slamming shut, noises from the fireplace that sound like voices and then Morse code, and a dead animal dropping from the chimney. Eventually, even the level-headed, dedicated Chris admits that the chateau is haunted. Butchie wants to leave, but Chris refuses, saying that abandoning their post is sure to end in their court-martial.

But things get worse. Eugene finds the journal of a Nazi soldier, which describes what the Germans did to the Helwig family, the owners before the Reich moved in and made the beautiful chateau a headquarters. It’s ugly, merciless stuff, enough to horrify anyone. Having discovered that the Helwigs had sheltered Jews, the family’s executions are appropriately gross and barbaric; Nazis executed almost everyone suspected of harboring Jews.

This theme could trigger Holocaust survivors or their descendants, or anyone with a soul. But that’s not the end.

Through the course of the movie, I spotted what I thought were major mistakes. One was the 90 degree angled flashlight. But I looked it up and found that different models were in fact issued, but not widely, to G.I.s in WW2. The earliest had black caps at either end, but later the entire thing was OD green. No problem there.

The use of Thompson machine guns by everyone but the sniper is as incorrect as you can get. Squad leaders (like Captain Miller in Saving Private Ryan) would bear a Tommy, while the others would have carried the M-1 Garand, a rifle so superior to everything the Axis had that General George Patton called it the best weapon of the war and credited it with the Allies’ victory. All of these men carry Tommies, and sidearm, a mistake.

But, I do not consider this or any other inconsistencies to be mistakes.

For one, the squad wears the patches of both airborne and infantry. This is accounted for in the end.

Tappert overhears the others talking about him and later tells Eugene the story behind the cat’s cradle. This makes him both sympathetic and the worst mental casualty of them all. His face is worn by extreme fatigue and yet he tells the story of how he didn’t sleep for 5 days after Strasbourg.

“What I did to those Hitler youth was a fucking nightmare,” he says, but describes the scene as seeing it as an out-of-body experience. “I wanted to kill the eggs before they hatched,” he says. He describes decapitation of one boy who then sits up and makes a cat’s cradle with string. Eugene had told the others, “it wasn’t the first move”, which is inexplicable. Tappert gives that wan smile, tears coming from his eyes, and says in a southern accent, “…and what am I gonna do? I mean, I just cut his head off, am I gonna be rude? So I played cat’s cradle with him and then he just layed back down. It was like a fever dream. I forgot that happened until you reminded me.”

He already told Eugene that his mother liked scary movies. He names two: Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy and I was a Teenage Werewolf, both of which were not released until a decade after the end of the war. Some are quick to jump on this, calling it a glaring mistake. I believe it’s not a mistake at all but is explained in the end.

The chateau ends up getting attacked by Nazis, but the squad fends them off, but Butchie jumps on a grenade and won’t live much longer.

He comes awake through the morphine shots and screams, “This isn’t real” several times, then saying, “it was us!”. Then he tells them to “Remember”, and dies.

I’ve checked everything I saw and questioned in the movie and came away with very little that couldn’t be explained by the end.

In closing, I’ve met many war veterans in my life. Almost to a man they displayed behavior that can only be explained by trauma and tremendous guilt. And which is worse? Or are they always together and come in a bundle like insurance? I’ve known men who bore guilt but never admitted it. I learned how to spot it and adjust my discussions accordingly. The more I learned about my own condition, the less I understood it. PTSD costs millions in lost time at work and accidents from dissociation. War and abuse have more power to wreck lives than modern medicine has to fix the damage.

Here, we see a shocking end that makes a wild payoff, but leaves questions. I found no evidence of the curse used, and the men could not have “all said it at one time or another,” as a doctor claims. Chris had a tube for ventilation or feeding, Tappert has no lower jaw, and Butchie died. The questions linger. But that’s effective, as are the jump scares, phantom images and floors creaking. Critics call this a movie full of clichés. I don’t. I recommend it and score it 9 out of ten.

Death From Above: The New World Order

Sometime in the mid-1960s I went with my parents to a Washington D.C. airport. My father occasionally flew for business, usually on Allegheny Airlines, but that’s all I can remember.

Except one clear memory of a Greyhound bus sign. My father even bought me a miniature bus from the gift shop. These were the busses that they called something-liners, with an upper windscreen tinted green. Yes, I’m old.

What nobody knew at the time: in 1965 biological and chemical agents were used in those two locations by the U.S. military to “test” how biochemical weapons would spread if “used in aerial or ground-based attacks”.

Did it work? Did it happen at all?

It is fact.

And it didn’t happen only once.

The most infamous among these “tests” was perhaps Operation Sea Spray which seemed to have not just involved the United States, but also the United Kingdom. Elements of naval and air groups actually dispersed a bacterium of the yersenia genus, and if that name seems familiar to you, let’s add a name after it: yersenia pestis. Heard of it now? Of course I had to look it up to see why it was ringing a bell. It’s the bacterium respsible for the disease Bubonic plague in humans. There was another agent involved as well. From 20 September to 27 September 1950, in the San Francisco Bay area, these agents were released. Scientists from the US and UK both studied dispersal rates and distances, and there is no reason to believe that they hoped or believed that no one would get sick.

The suspected casualties checked into Stanford Hospital in early October, eleven total, and one died. The infections were linked to common UT infections which can happen when catheters are used, and all were “reported” to have had recent surgeries, leaving them open to post-op infections. What’s more, that bacteria is crawling all over hospital walls, and the government was never found responsible, because of this, for the man’s death.

Well, what about him? He’s just one guy, right? And his family didn’t sue until decades later. No proof. Too bad.

But there’s more. Minnesota was hit by chemicals, carcinogenic chemicals. New York City was hit an innumerable amount of times including light bulbs they dropped in the subway. Loaded light bulbs. It spread pretty far, estimated as miles. That could place in any of one or even two buroughs. It was Bacillus Subtilis Niger, an extremely hard to kill, spore producer. Current uses include testing disinfectant efficiency. It is not known whether there were casualties, but who can say by this point whether the books were cooked. But seriously, dropping light bulbs onto the tracks? That is rather covert, and damn sleazy.

Why fear other countries using biological and chemical agents against us when our own government does it?

They were tests.

But for what? Because hospitals were monitored. The dispersal was always tracked.

Given my loathing for conspiracy theories, why am I bringing this up? Seems silly that I would jump from Sherwood Schwartz TV conspiracy theories (Gilligan’s Island, The Brady Bunch) to this, right?

But I did warn you that more was coming. And this is where it all leads: the granddaddy of all conspiracy theories: depopulation, plagues, the Illuminati and the New World Order.

I have scoffed in the past about the chemtrail story. Only to look back and find, there’s some real history there. And if that’s true, I have no reason to be convinced that it is not an ongoing method of research. No matter what the government denies, do I have any way of telling whether they are being truthful?

Not exactly, no.

Now, do I trust the government?

Mostly, I do.

But I have serious doubts about serious things.

Several video game analyses follow this article. I hope that you will carefully consider what they have to offer. I have played both games mentioned and truly, they slammed me in the gut. You never see the end coming in any well-written show, film or game. But in the case of Deus Ex:The Conspiracy and Metal Gear Solid 2: The Sons of Liberty, the conclusions were bleak, disturbing and left me feeling hopelessly depressed. And that is not my expectation when gaming.

Well, not back in 2000 and 2001. Maybe now I’m a bit more of an edge-of-my-seat gamer, but only because of those two games.

They outline a future in which secret societies and artificial intelligence rob people of freedom in the name of civilization and rule humanity. That’s way too much for one sentence, and I apologize for that. The premises are that AI deems humanity incapable of avoiding self-destruction and seizes control of key military and government facilities. In each game, the AI explains to the protagonist why it is doing this. One AI is belligerent, antagonistic and insulting while the other is more sneaky, but the end results are the same: no one seems able to stop them.

Of the three possible endings in Deus Ex, one has the main character destroy the AI, causing a dark age where the world is deprived of power to the grids, communications and everything we know and count on. Canonically all three endings are partly correct, which doesn’t make me feel any better.

The Illuminati, Majestic 12, and others are used to great effect as antagonistic elements, but the main point I want to get across is that the AI in both games want to stop the flow of misinformation to the people. Fake news, slander on social media, chaos, vengeful killings over words and ideas. It must stop, and the AI is the only way.

A new world order.

Currently the world population cannot be fed or given adequate health care given limited supplies, corporate greed, government tribalism, and, of course, failed crops due to global warming and freak weather. Inflation is impossible to distinguish from price gouging, with glaring examples of some products doubling in price in one or two weeks.

Fake news makes the whole thing worse, and the blame is always leveled at the wrong people, or, if not, those people face no consequences. How many times was a truth discovered but we were not informed?

There is no way to answer that. That, by the way, makes me mistrustful of government. And for the most part, I trust our democracy when it works, when good people do good things. I don’t like conspiracy theories or the hysteria they cause. They’re chaos.

However, I can’t help wondering: given our history, what pieces of truth might lie within some of them.

The Tuskegee infections were real. A conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy was almost certainly real. The secret bombings of Cambodia did happen. Even the ridiculous plot by the CIA to make Fidel Castro’s beard fall out was real.

What I encourage you to do, as always, is, to the extent that you are able, is to think for yourself. The truth is out there, but you are the final arbiter, and once you have found something sound, reliable, stand up for what’s right.

Because one person–you–can make a big difference. On which side of history will you stand?

Putin, Mad Man and War Criminal

I’ve said recently while talking to a friend that Vladimir Putin was mad. She disagreed. I held my ground and still do. His actions bear all the necessary prerequisites for a man whose feet may be on the ground but whose head is orbiting some planet in another universe. He’s really out there.

We who knew, said he would attack. We knew he would come in from three compass directions. We knew Belarus was part of the staging territory.

Without a high school diploma, no tactical training or education, I knew that planes, artillery and missiles would mark most of the opening attacks. That was the easy part.

I knew Ukraine would wage war on Russia and that Putin underestimated Zalensky’s and his people’s resolve. Citizens are taking up arms.

Perhaps two days before the attacks began, Putin lied to everyone in Russia, claiming he had no intention of invading Ukraine. Naturally, when he did order hostilities to begin, Russians protested. And, of course, many were arrested. Most will never be heard from again. Whoever it was on Fox News who asked why we weren’t on Russia’s side (Hannity or another loopy bastard, I’m not sure) is a fucked-up asshole. This is why we aren’t on their side. Civilian housing has taken heavy damage and the loss of life is adding up. People are now refugees, whereas a week ago they had ample warning to bug out.

As one ABC reporter put it: a week ago people were on their balconies drinking coffee and using their laptops.

I posted a piece not long ago that was titled “Get Out Now.”

I removed it along with lots of other posts. Nobody was reading. And this past year (when I was still monitoring my stats) I saw some occasional hits from Romania, one or two from Ukraine, and that’s as close as I could get. I don’t know which posts they read. I wish I could have gotten across what was coming. Why would anyone believe that military forces would mass on a border, remain in place for so long, and never attack?

It was so fucking plain to see. And I’m not blowing my own horn here; I knew because I stayed informed. Extraneous details were my deductions based on military capabilities, geography, a bit of history and the guess that Putin could not remain steady. He has proven that.

I also suggested that it wouldn’t stop at Ukraine, that once the country had been reduced enough, it would be a staging ground for further invasion into Poland, Romania, hell, every country his greedy mind decided to conquer. I even said that, if sustained and without NATO actually engaging Russia, Finland wasn’t safe. And, by then, it’s a sure bet that western forces would be engaged, and that means World War Three. It would, sometime after, go nuclear.

But it may not come to that. Because Putin has already threatened nuclear war if the United States throws down.

Right now, be very grateful that Joe Biden beat Donald Trump. Trump has called Putin’s irrational attack “genius,” or something along those lines, praising his character too, which made me queasy.

Trump was caught with classified information at Mar-a-Lago, and no way in hell was any of it not shared. He says “Putin saw weakness” in the US, and took advantage of it. He did not admit, however, that he caused a lot of polarized politics, that he had conspired with Zelensky to get dirty shit about Biden, or anything else he did to fuck this country up. Trump is at least a small part of enabling and stroking Putin. We don’t get to know what would be happening now had Trump never become president, and it’s a fool’s endeavor to try and pick apart every single thing he did wrong. Yet, it remains even more foolish to try to get people to see Trump or Putin as the evil, demented sons of bitches they truly are.

This has all the ingredients added by madmen in power and leaders who demanded a neutral or in-the-shadows status. Doesn’t anyone here remember what Hitler did?

I don’t want you to abandon hope and faith, but I do ask that you insist on being properly informed. The news that Russian forces were leaving for home was a strategic falsehood, one just clever enough to fool reporters, because they wanted it to be true.

It never fooled the White House. But who pays attention to warnings when there’s a blast of sunshine the public bends over to take up their arses?

Folks, this is grim stuff. If someone in the Russian government doesn’t stop Putin (doubtful since top officials are said to be terrified of him) then this business will not end well.

It’s On

I never wanted to write this but I knew I would have to. Let’s face it. We all knew. The White House, Ukrainian President Zelensky, Ukraine’s interior ministry and Reuters all report that an invasion by Russian forces has begun. Artillery or missile fire has been reported near Kyiv and unspecified airports and military bases. For running coverage go to BBC News online.

The world is at a crossroads. Tonight we pray for all in the line of fire and call for Russia to cease fire and withdraw.

Don’t know about you but my stomach is in knots.

God help the people of Ukraine.