This week I watched 30 Seconds Over Tokyo (1943) and I was reminded of a very important reality.
The same people who cry “genocide” over the A-Bomb never seem to remember that in the aftermath of the Doolittle raid which did very little actual damage, the Japanese decided to teach Chinese civilians a rather nasty lesson. (via Encyclopedia Britannica):
In early June 1942 the Japanese launched an offensive into Chekiang and Kiangsi (Jiangxi), and the brutality directed at the civilian population drew comparisons to the Nanjing Massacre. Trinkets and souvenirs left by grateful Americans—parachutes, cigarettes, pieces of military kit—doomed entire villages, as the Japanese would judge all the residents as having been complicit. Japanese bombers devastated Chuchow, and Kiangsi’s provincial capital of Nancheng (Nanchang) was razed, its population annihilated. It was estimated that some 250,000 civilians were killed during the three-month reprisal campaign.
250,000 civilians killed and whole villages slaughtered. That’s pretty bad but it didn’t stop there:
As the Japanese army prepared to withdraw from Chekiang and Kiangsi, members of its infamous germ warfare program, Unit 731, moved in. They seeded the area with dysentery, typhoid, and cholera, and disease ravaged those who had survived the initial Japanese attacks.
Yes you read that right, chemical warfare left to take care of any civilians who were spared the tender mercies of the Japanese army.
Somehow this just doesn’t seem to spark the outrage among the self righteous.
But there is one more thing that needs to be remembered, not only by the self righteous left who have forgotten the slaughter in china but by the Chinese who haven’t.
The only reason why the Japanese today are not the same people who did these things is because there have been American soldiers by the tens of thousands sitting on that Island for over 75 years.
China should ask itself what would happen if the US decided that 75 or 80 years are enough and that it’s time for Japan to defend Japan and leave.
Well I can’t say that the Japanese culture would return to the bad old days but I can tell you this. As one of the most if not THE most technologically advanced countries in the world Japan could have the bomb if they wanted it in a week and in six months they could have a whole lot more.
With what happened in all those cities still in living memory I’m sure China would just be tickled pink to think about a rearmed Japan just sitting there and believe me Japan would be rearmed fast because they know China hasn’t forgotten and despite 3/4 of a century passing since what happened they’d love the chance to return the favor.
Oh an anyone who thinks that Japan or Germany for that matter might not harken back to the days of yore once American troops are gone take a look at just how fast things have changed here in the us only three years.
“Most times you can’t hear ’em talk, other times you can All the same old clichés, is it woman, is it man? And you always seem outnumbered, so you don’t dare make a stand.” Bob Seger, “Turn the Page.”
Those lyrics, from legendary Michigan rocker Bob Seger, may turn out to be prescient, because the Michigan House of Representatives, which has a Democrat majority, passed a bill in June that, among other things, will impose a hefty fine or imprisonment, if a person maliciously refuses to use another person’s preferred pronoun.
The bill, HB 4474, expands on a Michigan law that covers religion, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation.
Newsweek noted that Dylan Mulvaney, a man who claims to be woman, said in a video a while back about people like me who misgender him, “I feel like that should be illegal, I don’t know. That’s just bad journalism.”
No, it’s not. Mulaney, an internet influencer who has done to Bud Light what Eric Idle’s S. Frog character did to Monty Python’s fictional Conquistador Coffee, is wrong, as he is on so many things, What I wrote in the previous paragraph is good journalism because it’s the truth. Sorry, wokesters, but men who “transition” into women do not have ovaries, do not have menstrual periods, and do not undergo menopause. Women who do the opposite do not have testicles, a prostate gland, or Y chromosomes. I could go on, but I don’t have to.
Some people need to simply follow the science.
Except, maybe soon in Michigan, if its Senate passes HB 4474 and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, signs it into law, following the science and speaking out about it might get someone like me fined or worse.
In her Senate confirmation hearing, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson could not–or in my opinion, would not–define what a woman is. But according to HealthyChildren.org, at around age two, toddlers know the difference between the two genders. Again, follow the science.
The headline of this blog post is colored red. How do I know? Because when I was at the age when I figured out what males and females are, my mother probably said something along these lines to me, “That color is red.” And that information was confirmed to me when I attended kindergarten.
Some things are that simple.
Well, it should be that simple. Transgendered people complain about being bullied. Well, bullying is wrong. I suppose Mulvaney considers it bullying when internet trolls visit his Instagram page and comments, “You’re a man.” Oh, a word for you trolls. Don’t you have anything better to do? Surely there is trash on a roadside near your home that needs to be collected.
On the flip side, in regard to gender, we are at a stage in America when someone says, “Dylan Mulvaney is a man” in mixed company–especially at work–it has to be spoken in whispered tones, sotto voce as the French say.
Being labeled a transphobe–phobe, by the way means irrational fear–can get many people in trouble on the job. Or maybe soon in Michigan, getting fined or being imprisoned. And it’s not an irrational fear to lose out on a promotion or getting fired for being deemed a transphobe.
I call that bullying.
As regular readers know, my wife was born in the Soviet Union, in Latvia. At school a number of decades ago, repeatedly, her teachers told her that Latvia, along with Estonia and Lithuania, voluntarily joined the USSR in 1940. Of course, that was a lie. Her parents knew it–and so did every adult in the Baltic States at that time. Yes, that includes the teachers. But my wife didn’t discover what really happened in 1940, beginning with learning of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, until she reached adulthood.
During my wife’s childhood, adults in the Soviet Union were afraid of the repercussions of telling the truth. So my wife’s parents never discussed the USSR seizing the Baltic States with her until Mikhael Gorbachev was the Soviet leader.
In the New York Sun,Dean Karayanis, reminded me that Soviet citizens faced prison if they were caught spilling coffee on a picture of Joseph Stalin. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the author of the Gulag Archipelago, spent eight years in the Gulags for criticizing Stalin in private letters, even though he took the precaution of using a codename for the dictator.
American society isn’t at that more frightening point yet. But Michigan just took a baby step in that direction.
Or maybe we are there. Remember that Seger song? “And you always seem outnumbered, so you don’t dare make a stand.” Well, I’m making one. Is anyone else with me?
Fortunately, the new Michigan “pronouns” bill will almost certainly be challenged in court on First Amendment grounds.
Which is another reason why I’m grateful for the 6-3 conservative majority on the US Supreme Court.
Blogger with a Soviet-made Volga sedan in Sece, Latvia. Behind the car is a newly-built tractor barn.
By John Ruberry
Late last month I traveled to Latvia, where Mrs. Marathon Pundit was born and raised, for the first time in 25 years. I had also visited with her in 1994.
I expected a different Latvia, and indeed that was the case.
First, a little history. A series of nations ruled Latvia, the last being czarist Russia, until 1918. The Bolsheviks recognized Latvian independence in 1920.
But along with neighboring Estonia and Lithuania, while most of the world was focused on Nazi Germany’s aggression in western Europe, Latvia was forcibly annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940. The Nazis attacked the USSR a year later, but the Soviets recaptured the Baltic States later in the war.
Three months before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Evil Empire recognized the independence of the Baltic States.
When Latvia regained its independence, the population as just 52 percent Latvian. Russians, many of them brought to Latvia to replace Latvians deported to Siberia in the 1940s, made up about a third of the population in the last days of the Latvian SSR. Many of them quickly left after independence, but Russians still make about one-quarter of the population of Latvia. Riga, Latvia’s capital and largest city, has a Russian population of about 35 percent. Russians are a clear majority in Daugavpils, Latvia’s second city.
The Latvia I saw in the 1990s was poor, my guess is, without the abject poverty, economically speaking it was on the level of Mexico.
But in 2004, the Baltic States joined the European Union, also that year they became members of NATO.
Since then, it’s been full steam ahead for Latvia, notwithstanding the 2008-09 recession.
What I saw in Latvia in June was a prosperous European nation. Gone are the gray–literally, they were gray–retail stores. They have been replaced by colorful and brightly lit retail outlets. Many of these stores, as well as hotels, utilize English-language names. Instruction in English began in Latvian schools after independence was achieved. All Latvians under 35 speak pretty good English.
I’m a runner, and I was one of the few when I hit the roads for a workout. Now there are many running, or if you prefer, cycling trails.
During my first visits I saw many Russian-made cars on the Latvian streets and highways. My wife and I traveled hundreds of miles during my nine days there–she will be in Latvia for another week—and I saw just two Russian-made cars, both Ladas. I’m pictured with an old Volga above. That make was discontinued in 2010. Volkswagen, Audi, and BMW are the most popular cars in Latvia.
Mrs. Marathon Pundit and I spent a lot of time in rural communities. She grew up on a collective farm in Sece, which is pretty much at the center of Latvia. They grew an assortment of crops, mostly potatoes, beets, and cucumbers, and while driving thru Latvia in the 1990s, the look of the land betrayed that odd lot cultivation. While Latvia doesn’t look like Iowa–there are few cornfields and about half of Latvia is forested–it’s becoming a nation of mega-farms. Wheat, canola, oats, are the major crops. And potato growing is hanging on.
My wife attended her high school reunion in Sece, she was one of three in attendance from her graduating class of seventeen. One our hosts was another, and the third, almost certainly the wealthiest man in Sece, has been buying, one by one, parcels of land that were part of those old collective farms that were divided up after independence, in Sece, from people to old to tend to the soil, or who have no interest to do so.
The prosperous farmer is the owner of that Volga in the photograph.
The graduating class sizes of my wife’s old school is now roughly 10 students per year. Rural Latvia, just like rural America, is shrinking.
Only rubble remains of the farmhouse where my wife grew up. Thousands of Latvians can attest to the same situation.
Scattered throughout Latvia are the ugly white-brick buildings, poorly built, that are long-abandoned. “That used to the community creamery in Sece,” Mrs. Marathon Pundit said to me. “That used to be the tractor motor pool, the tractors parked next to them haven’t moved in years.” She could have said the same to me every dozen miles or so when we drove past similar structures. Nearly every one of these collective farm buildings have been long abandoned. They are miniature Pompeiis that were never buried, sad monuments to the failure of communism, an economic and political system that never should have been implemented. Sadly, after over a century of proven failure, there are still people falling for Marxist nonsense.
In the cities and the small towns, khrushchevka apartment buildings, known in the West as “commieblock” structures, are still omnipresent. Most of them utilize those same unpleasant white bricks.
And in the cities, especially Riga, you’ll find many abandoned buildings that were Soviet-era factories.
Yes, I know, we have abandoned buildings in our American cities. But Riga has many new buildings–beautiful ones. I’m particularly fond of the National Library of Latvia.
Yes, but what about Donald Trump?
Okay, that was an abrupt transition, but most Latvians don’t like him. With the war in Ukraine showing no sign of ending, and when I was in Latvia when the apparent Wagner Group attempted coup occurred, his name, and that of Vladimir Putin, was brought up many times.
Oh, Joe Biden is viewed in Lativa as an ineffective old man.
But wait, what about Trump?
To a person, Latvians are pissed off about Trump’s compliments of Putin. For instance, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, he called Putin’s move “genius” and “savvy.” I explained that Trump is running to regain the White House, and the former president, dating back to his career as a real estate mogul, is the consummate negotiator, Trump, in my opinion, could be simply playing mind games with Putin. He used a similar strategy with Kim Jong Un. Trump’s flattery is analogous, I tried to reason, to entering a store and being complimented on the shirt I am wearing by a flirtatious saleswoman. Suddenly, my guard is dropped. True, Putin is likely made of tougher stuff than I am. I think.
Only the Latvians I spoke to weren’t buying my explanation. Don’t forget, Russia borders Latvia on the east, and Putin’s puppet state of Belarus is on Latvia’s southeast. In spite of their nation’s membership in NATO, it’s understandable that Latvians are quite nervous about Russia. Dual invasions from Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave and from Belarus into Lithuania could quickly isolate all three Baltic nations.
Latvia faces challenges, a declining population is the biggest one. While life is better now in Latvia, it’s even better in Scandinavia and Germany. European Union membership presents a dilemma for Latvia.
It would be superfluous in me to point out to your Lordship that this is war
US Minister Charles Francis Adams to British Foreign Minister Lord John Russell on the construction of Confederate Ships in England 1863
This story leaped out at me:
💥 It is reported that there were 2 explosions in the Kremlin that night.
Russian media writes: « Tonight, the Kyiv regime attempted to strike with UAVs on the Kremlin presidential residence.
The Kremlin called these actions a planned terrorist act, an attempt on the life of… pic.twitter.com/QHcurfyd6X
— ✙ Albina Fella ✙ 🇺🇦🇬🇧🇫🇷🇩🇪🇵🇱🇺🇸🇨🇦🇦🇺 (@albafella1) May 3, 2023
The Kremlin is saying this was a drone strike to hit Putin and are apparently yelling “Terrorism”. If this was a drone strike by the Ukraine there are plenty of important implications that should scare the hell out of everyone:
While 200 years ago this might have been considered bad form when two countries are at war it is a legitimate target so the cry of “terrorism” is BS.
If the Kremlin in general and Putin in particular are legitimate targets of war then by definition if the Russians launch drones vs the Ukrainian parliament in general and Volodymyr Zelenskyy in particular those would also be considered legitimate attacks on legitimate targets of war.
Given that both Europe and the US are supplying Ukraine with arms any of those shipments would become legitimate targets of Drone or any other type of strikes by Russia as soon as they enter the war zone, that is Ukraine.
This suggests that any US or European pol who enters Ukraine does so at their own risk and may in fact be considered legitimate targets of a drone strike by Russia if they are from a country supplying arms to Ukraine.
What is to stop Russia from “outsourcing” such attacks by commissioning individuals to conduct such attacks in the name of Russia basically “privateering”.
And if that doesn’t scare you let’s take the next logical step:
What is to stop Russia from declaring a “blockade” of Ukraine and thus making shipments of war materials legitimate targets of war?
If a ship is transporting arms to the Ukraine, what is to stop Russia from claiming the contents of that ship contraband of war and either seizing it on the high seas or sinking it as a legitimate target of war?
What is to stop Russia from either directly or using the “Privateering” example to target
arms shipments to Ukraine
infastructure used to transport arms shipments to Ukraine
leaders or parliaments of nations that vote to provide arms shipments to Ukraine
Nobody seems to be considering these possibilities all of which have the potential to not just drag us into war with Russia but to begin World War 3.
And for those fools who have not bothered to study history let’s remind everyone of what was going on for months before Japan Bombed Pearl Harbor.
All of this is not only very possible but becomes more so by the day and if it does come then no amount of clever remarks or tut tuts by folks on Twitter are going to stop it.
Given that our nation is bleeding recruits faster than Bud Light is bleeding customers the only logical and sensible move is for us to do all we can to stop this war and broker a peace because the longer it goes on the more likely those who are making a buck off the fighting will end up dragging us into a shooting war that we are not equipped nor motivated to win and against a nuclear power no less and believe me this administration and those who are getting their 10% will continue to move in that direction as long as they see cash coming their way without worrying about the cost.
