Kremlin said its war
going according to plan
no Putin plan b
According to the today’s front page of the New York Times:
The Kremlin said its war in Ukraine was “going according to plan” and signaled no intention of backing down. The statement came in a description of President Vladimir Putin’s phone call with President Emmanuel Macron of France.
And …
It Is Very Clear Putin Has No Plan B.
at four a m Kyiv
was bombed, in the spring, the time
when kings go to war
There was a time when school kids learned the verses,
Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
In Russia, I am told, school kids learned the verses,
Dvadtstat’ vtorogo iyunya, rovno v chetyre utra,
Kiev bombili, nam govorili, chto nachalas’ vojna
Which is translated,
On June 22, exactly at four in the morning,
Kiev was bombed, we were told that the war had begun
It is from a Russian song about the start of World War 2, when the Germans attacked Russia on June 22, 1941.
This morning, I picked up my Bible to start my day and my reading took up at the book of 1 Chronicles, Chapter 20.
“In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, Joab led out the armed forces. He laid waste the land of the Ammonites and went to Rabbah and besieged it, but David remained in Jerusalem. Joab attacked Rabbah and left it in ruins.”
I guess the world grows older, but the world never grows up.
I am reminded of the lines of Robert Conway, played by Ronald Colman in the movie, ‘Lost Horizons’ when Conway talks about how he would run Foreign affairs:
You see, the trick is to see who can out-talk the other. Everybody wants something for nothing, and if you can’t get it with smooth talk, you send an army in. I’m going to fool them. I’m not going to have an army. I’m going to disband mine. I’m going to sink my battleships – I’m going to destroy every piece of warcraft.
Then when the enemy approaches we’ll say, “Come in, gentlemen – what can we do for you?” So then the poor enemy soldiers will stop and think. And what will they think? They’ll think to themselves – Something’s wrong here. We’ve been duped. This is not according to form. These people seem to be quite friendly, and why should we shoot them?” Then they’ll lay down their arms. You see how simple the whole thing is?
Centuries of tradition kicked right in the pants — and I’ll be slapped straight into the nearest insane asylum.
Is it any wonder that Frank Capra movies were labeled, Capra Corn?
I grew up enamored of war and the study of battles and the romance of it all.
I am reminded of the scene in the book, Gone with the Wind.
A scene not in the movie.
It takes place at the opening barbecue at the Wilkes Mansion, Twelve Oaks.
Talk of war breaks out and in the movie the only one who speaks out against the war is Rhett Butler.
But in the book, Margaret Mitchell wrote this:
Under the arbor, the deaf old gentleman from Fayetteville punched India.
“What’s it all about? What are they saying?”
“War!” shouted India, cupping her hand to his ear. “They want to fight the Yankees!”
“War, is it?” he cried, fumbling about him for his cane and heaving himself out of his chair with more energy than he had shown in years. “I’ll tell ‘um about war. I’ve been there.” It was not often that Mr. McRae had the opportunity to talk about war, the way his women folks shushed him.
He stumped rapidly to the group, waving his cane and shouting and, because he could not hear the voices about him, he soon had undisputed possession of the field.
“You fire-eating young bucks, listen to me. You don’t want to fight. I fought and I know. Went out in the Seminole War and was a big enough fool to go to the Mexican War, too. You all don’t know what war is. You think it’s riding a pretty horse and having the girls throw flowers at you and coming home a hero. Well, it ain’t. No, sir! It’s going hungry, and getting the measles and pneumonia from sleeping in the wet. And if it ain’t measles and pneumonia, it’s your bowels. Yes sir, what war does to a man’s bowels–dysentery and things like that–“
The ladies were pink with blushes. Mr. McRae was a reminder of a cruder era, like Grandma Fontaine and her embarrassingly loud belches, an era everyone would like to forget.
“Run get your grandpa,” hissed one of the old gentleman’s daughters to a young girl standing near by. “I declare,” she whispered to the fluttering matrons about her, “he gets worse every day.
Maybe I’ll just go back to bed and crawl under the blankets.
start game toss the ball
be honest and no whining
the gaga pit rules
There is a school, Red Cedar Elementary, nearby and when we go for a walk, we walk past the school and sometimes, cut through the playground behind the school.
In a field next to the playground is the Red Cedar GAGA Pit.
Lucky for us there is a sign next to the pit or we would not have known what it was.
The rules of the GAGA pit are also listed on the sign.
The pit is used to play a version of dodge ball but the ball has to be bounced before it hits you so a line drive dodge ball throws doesn’t count.
Interesting to note that thinking about the bounce, the GAGA Pit versus Dodge Ball argument is much like the Cricket versus Baseball argument where in Cricket the ball has to bounce before it is batted.
I love rule 9.
Rule 9 states: BE HONEST & NO WHINING IF YOU GET OUT.
There are those who might say that more is expected of the grade school kids at Red Cedar Elementary School than is expected of the so called ‘grown-ups’ in the Government.
There are those who might say that.
But not me.
I want to avoid controversy.
But if the shoe fits …
And I will say that the image of putting everyone on Congress into the GAGA PIT really appeals to me.
Talk about must see TV.
And I will also say that Rule 9 could be abbreviated to just BE HONEST & NO WHINING and I would be happy.
There are those times where important learning takes place at school but not in the classroom.
Lot of life can be learned in the GAGAPIT.
The GAGAPIT Rules rule.
The GAGA PIT rules.
saying yes to the
paradoxes democracy
hopes of government
Salutations on the aniiversary of your birth, Mr. Lincoln.
In remembrance I offer Carl Sandburg’s 1936 poem, Lincoln?
He was a mystery in smoke and flags
Saying yes to the smoke, yes to the flags,
Yes to the paradoxes of democracy,
Yes to the hopes of government
Of the people by the people for the people,
No to debauchery of the public mind,
No to personal malice nursed and fed,
Yes to the Constitution when a help,
No to the Constitution when a hindrance
Yes to man as a struggler amid illusions,
Each man fated to answer for himself:
Which of the faiths and illusions of mankind
Must I choose for my own sustaining light
To bring me beyond the present wilderness?
Lincoln? Was he a poet?
And did he write verses?
“I have not willingly planted a thorn
in any man’s bosom.”
I shall do nothing through malice: what
I deal with is too vast for malice.”
Death was in the air.
So was birth.
red scary moment
all yesterdays lighted fools
way to dusty death
McCarthyism been on my mind of late.
Groundless accusations, unjust charges along with statements having no basis in truth.
Can’t imagine why I was thinking about that era.
A thought came to me that brought me up sharp.
One of those moments when you stop and look over the edge of the cliff.
I had said to myself, what if Joe McCarthy had social media.
What if the Red Scare had facebook.
It is bizarre for me to remember that the Congress of the United States authorized and created an investigative committee named HUAC.
If you don’t remember it stood for House Un-American Activities Committee.
It is even odder when I remember that it was formed in 1938, 12 years before Joe McCarthy came along.
House Un-American Activities Committee.
Un-American.
And this in the era when all the news was in Newspapers.
And when Tail-Gunner Joe came along in 1950 with his list of 300, 786, 938 or was it 1,100 names (Joe couldn’t keep track either) of ‘known communists in the State Department’, HUAC was all set and waiting for him.
Had twitter and facebook been around during the Red Scare maybe this country would have come to an end.
But cooler heads, in the end, prevailed.
I say that because I can get feeling that way now.
I say that because the feelings in play across the nation look to be in place for along time and I cannot imagine where the cooler heads will come from, let alone, prevail.
But I think of other things.
I remember that Mr. Hitler came to power in 1932 and proclaimed a new Germany that would last 1,000 years.
In his novel on the era, The Winds of War, Herman Wouk has his hero, Pug Henry, watching the German army in action and thinking that the 1,000 Reich looked like a good bet to make it.
Then I remember the 1936 Olympics.
The Berlin Olympics.
The Olympics that came up with the Olympic Torch and Olympic Flame.
I remember watching a documentary on the track star Jesse Owens, who won 4 gold medals at the Berlin Olympics.
Mr. Owens got his shot at the 4th medal as part of the 400 Meter Men’s Relay team because the USA Olympic team quietly removed another member who was Jewish but I digress.
There was some controversy that Mr. Hitler did not shake hands with Mr. Owens or congratulate him on his medals.
At the end of the documentary, Mr. Owens stood at the entrance of the Olympic Stadium that stands to this day in the suburbs of Berlin.
As I remember it, Mr. Owen’s talked about Mr. Hitler and said something along the lines of, well, I am here now and he is not.
That 1,000 years of Hitler’s country lasted about 13.
In no way do I mean to say that the current political climate is reminiscent of Hitler’s Germany.
In no way can the current political farce of masks and vaccines and garden parties compare in any way to Hitler’s Germany.
Hitler’s Germany did not last.
Cooler heads did prevail.
In the USA, people realized that the House Un-American Activities Committee was Un American.
Maybe they even realized that the term Un American was as dumb as it sounded.
Cooler heads did prevail.
I guess I don’t need to be too worried today.
Tomorrow?
Who said it better than Big Bill?
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death.
(Macbeth, Act V, Scene V)
No Haiku For You 