You Are Here

One aspect of WWII that is often overlooked, is how, before one Allied soldier put a toe on the European continent, men would squeeze themselves into heavy insulated flying suits, clamber into the tight spaces of two- and four-engine bombers, loaded with tons of high explosive, and fly unescorted over enemy-held territory, to drop that ordinance on factories, bridge, railroad yards, ball bearing plants, oil refineries, etc. They would travel at altitudes above 28,000 feet, in cold so bitter, taking off a glove would mean almost instant frostbite. They would do this, knowing full well that the Germans knew they were coming, and would fly through walls of flak bursts and waves of German fighters, being killed wholesale or wounded grievously, to accomplish the mission. Then would return home in those same planes, sometimes badly shot up... then would do it again. And again. And again.

The most interesting part is, most of those men didn't sign up for this. They were drafted, conscripted into a fight that most of them were not gung-ho to sign up for, Pearl Harbor be damned. That had families and homes and jobs, and they were pulled from their comfortable lives, to be shot through the air and into the teeth of cannon fire, to try and cripple the enemy's war machine. Their accomplishments do not have the shine of Patton's drive across France; the Eighth Air Force was not high on anyone's publicity charts, because the losses were so fearsome. Flying high altitude bombing raids over France, Germany, and Italy, and later, Japan, during the war was not glamorous, and these men paid dearly. If not physically, then mentally. They did their jobs. They paid the price. And we were able to remain a free country.

This preamble is by way of saying that, right now, we face a war, and a foe, as menacing and destructive as they faced, but the worst part is they're here, in our country. They have taken over our government, they have begun instituting policies reminiscent of mid-1930s Germany, and the rhetoric they use is straight out of any White Christian Fascist tract you care to name. After sixty years, the Republican Party has what it wants: domination of Federal government and the means to wreck it utterly. The glee that they have tucked into it with is unrepentant and savage.

I would like to believe that there will be ways to derail this freight train of malevolence, but I can't say for certain. The ground for this rampage was well paved beforehand, mainly through the generation of apathy on the hearts of tens of millions of Americans, who couldn't rise from their recliners to vote for honest and decent government and condemned their vulnerable neighbors to pain and suffering at the hands of barbaric louts.

The only way, however, I see for us to send this nightmare train off the tracks is for everyone of good conscience to get involved and get organized. Barring that, I don't know how we mass the force capable of repelling these invaders in the sanctum of our democracy. We're here, now, and this isn't going to change of its own accord. We cannot wait for aid from abroad, we cannot expect help from within, we can only rely on ourselves.

We're going to have slip into our flying suits, now. We're going have to fly into the face of raging winds, bitter cold, and determined opposition, in order to turn back the tide. It is going to take every one of us. And right now, among you, are people, like those men in WWII, not keen to fight the war, but called upon to do it anyway, knowing the chance of survival is small. There's nothing for it. We either stand as one or fall as many. The engines are turning. What will it be?

The Day America Changed

I posted to Spoutible on January 20th, 2025, shortly after noon, that the American experiment was over and that the nation that had stood for over 200 years was no more.

I think a bit of explanation is in order, because I see people going on and acting as if the act of fighting back or resisting can be wholly accomplished through the means we have always had at our disposal. I'm afraid it's not that simple anymore.

By outward appearances, the Federal government is the same. The same buildings, the same logos, the same mission statements. To look at it, at a glance, is to see nothing different. It's the same way with a large oak that has been in your yard for decades, shading you and projecting durability, is still standing day by day, apparently unchanging, until the storm comes, knocks it down, and realize how hollowed out it had become over time, subject to parasites and rot.

Currently, this is how our Federal government is: the appearance of strength, shot through with rot.

A criminal sits in the Oval Office. He is surrounded by other criminals and "Yes!" men who covet the power and money that they could never gather on their own, leeches attached to malevolent coattails. Already, their path is clear: destroy everything that stands as a symbol of our collective society, liquify it, and pour it into their personal coffers, doing so as they use its assembled power to meet out vengeance and injustice upon those who have "wronged" them or refuse to bow before them.

So, you may wish to sit and think that the nation we have lived in our whole lives still exists, but it does not. It has been subverted. It is being carved up. Every dollar you have put toward the maintenance of freedom and liberty will wind up in the pockets of crooks, liars, and thieves with titles and suits.

If this makes you angry, even irrationally, good. Anger is the first step to burning away the complacency that will keep you from taking the steps that need to be taken to wrest control of the nation back from the criminals. It will not be easy. The end result will not look like freedom and democracy, because, in order to get them back, we are going to have to write them off in their current form. We cannot trust that the systems, the departments, and the bureaucratic machinery of our government will be restorable to working order.

We're going to have to say goodbye to the democracy we know. It will be time to build a new one, one that cannot be so easily subverted or manipulated. To do so, it can't look like the current one. We've seen how easily sixty years of slow Republican corruption destroyed it. Our democracy will have to be rebuilt with all threats in mind, slow and quick. It will have to be built so that every voice is heard. It will have to be built from scratch, on the bedrock of the idea that all Americans are created equal from their first breath, and it can be no other way.

So, take your time, but do not tarry. The forces ravaging our country are hard at work. We will have to be prepared to meet them when the moment comes. It will look a lot more like Lexington and Concord than D-Day. We have to be prepared for moments that will pale in comparison to anything we've known since The Civil War. It seems harsh to say it, but it's true nonetheless. America has changed, and now we must also.