So I added all the disks to my Netflix Queue. Then I decided to refresh the series in my mind by watching season 6 over again. I've just finished watching the first three episodes and they are bad. Black out camera man gives us pure solid black scenes with maybe just a single faint white face showing out of blackness. Rest of the actor, costumes, sets, completely invisible, lost in the darkness. No character every addresses any other character by name, leaving us audience wondering who they all are. They start to magic John Snow back to life in episode 1 and it isn't til episode 3 that they get the job done.
Let us hope season 7 is better.
Sunday, June 10, 2018
Friday, June 8, 2018
D-Day. Sixth of June
It was really before my time. I was only one year old back in June of 1944. D-Day was the first time the Anglo American forces were strong enough to fight the main German army on the German's home turf. Previous combat in North Africa and Italy were against small detachments like Rommel's Africa Corps, or bloody but small scale combat against limited German forces, fighting a defensive battle in very defensible Italian terrain.
Humongous forces were poured into D-Day. The operation looked all kinds of dangerous. Eisenhower, supreme commander, the man with the best view of the situation, found it so dicey that he prepared a press release, to be issued in case the landing was defeated. Had he needed to use it, the setback to Anglo American arms would have been staggering. 1942 and 1943, two whole years of war production and training, went into marshaling the D-Day forces. Had the Germans won, much of this vast investment in infantry, tanks, artillery, warships, and warplanes would have been lost. It would have taken at least another year, probably two, to build up to launching a second invasion. Give Hitler another year or two and there is no telling what might have happened. The Germans might have perfected nuclear weapons. The V-weapon program would have had another year or two to rain destruction upon London. Time to bring a radical new U-boat, the type 21, into operation. Lots of things could have given Hitler victory.
Anglo American victory was possible by defeating the U-boats in the Atlantic in 1943. We could not have moved our troops, let alone the vast quantity of supplies needed to support our forces, and keep England fed and producing, had the U-boats kept sinking ships at the rate they had in 1942. Second, USAAF and the RAF had pretty much blown the Luftwaffe out of the air by 1944. This guaranteed that the Germans couldn't sink the D-Day armada in mid channel, or render close air support to advancing Panzer divisions. Finally, the Germans did not know where the Anglo American invasion would come. The entire coast of France, including the Riviera, and the low countries, was possible. The Germans had to spread their troops up and down the European coastline, whereas the Anglo Americans could concentrate all their forces on the invasion beaches, giving a solid superiority in numbers at the crucial spot.
As it was, it was a tough fight. A lot of bravery, and sacrifice carried the day, just barely. And, once ashore, the Anglo American armies could beat the German army in a standup fight.
Humongous forces were poured into D-Day. The operation looked all kinds of dangerous. Eisenhower, supreme commander, the man with the best view of the situation, found it so dicey that he prepared a press release, to be issued in case the landing was defeated. Had he needed to use it, the setback to Anglo American arms would have been staggering. 1942 and 1943, two whole years of war production and training, went into marshaling the D-Day forces. Had the Germans won, much of this vast investment in infantry, tanks, artillery, warships, and warplanes would have been lost. It would have taken at least another year, probably two, to build up to launching a second invasion. Give Hitler another year or two and there is no telling what might have happened. The Germans might have perfected nuclear weapons. The V-weapon program would have had another year or two to rain destruction upon London. Time to bring a radical new U-boat, the type 21, into operation. Lots of things could have given Hitler victory.
Anglo American victory was possible by defeating the U-boats in the Atlantic in 1943. We could not have moved our troops, let alone the vast quantity of supplies needed to support our forces, and keep England fed and producing, had the U-boats kept sinking ships at the rate they had in 1942. Second, USAAF and the RAF had pretty much blown the Luftwaffe out of the air by 1944. This guaranteed that the Germans couldn't sink the D-Day armada in mid channel, or render close air support to advancing Panzer divisions. Finally, the Germans did not know where the Anglo American invasion would come. The entire coast of France, including the Riviera, and the low countries, was possible. The Germans had to spread their troops up and down the European coastline, whereas the Anglo Americans could concentrate all their forces on the invasion beaches, giving a solid superiority in numbers at the crucial spot.
As it was, it was a tough fight. A lot of bravery, and sacrifice carried the day, just barely. And, once ashore, the Anglo American armies could beat the German army in a standup fight.
Thursday, June 7, 2018
So who should we believe?
We have President Trump, saying that the entire Mueller investigation is phony. We have the MSM claiming that President Trump is saying mean things about them, and about Mueller. The MSM claim that Mueller will show that Trump did something illegal and bad during the campaign back in 2016.
So far Mueller hasn't shown any evidence of anything much. You would think that by now he would have something, if there was anything there to find. He has frightened a few Trump people into confessing to minor sins that don't have much to do with the campaign or the Russians.
President Trump has indeed laid into the MSM with an ax. On the other hand, who can blame him? The media hates Trump and has been doing their damndest to discredit him and his administration. The media are never going let up, they want Trump's scalp just so they can enter the Woodward and Burnstein Hall of Fame. Trump's best strategy is to discredit them, and he has been fairly effective in doing so.
So for the time being, I am going to believe that Trump got elected fairly and squarely, and the Russians had little or nothing to do about it. Should Mueller come forward with some solid evidence, a creditable witness say, or some real documents (the paper kind with signatures) I could change my mind.
So far Mueller hasn't shown any evidence of anything much. You would think that by now he would have something, if there was anything there to find. He has frightened a few Trump people into confessing to minor sins that don't have much to do with the campaign or the Russians.
President Trump has indeed laid into the MSM with an ax. On the other hand, who can blame him? The media hates Trump and has been doing their damndest to discredit him and his administration. The media are never going let up, they want Trump's scalp just so they can enter the Woodward and Burnstein Hall of Fame. Trump's best strategy is to discredit them, and he has been fairly effective in doing so.
So for the time being, I am going to believe that Trump got elected fairly and squarely, and the Russians had little or nothing to do about it. Should Mueller come forward with some solid evidence, a creditable witness say, or some real documents (the paper kind with signatures) I could change my mind.
Wednesday, June 6, 2018
If the Democrats win Congress this fall
They will immediately start to impeach President Trump. All they need is a simple majority in the House to impeach. They need a 2/3rds majority in the Senate to convict, which they probably won't have. So about a year will go by with only impeachment proceedings, testimony, votes, and procedural maneuvering. The newsies will eat it up and cover nothing else. In short, the federal government will be paralyzed for a year or more. Nothing else will get done in DC. In the bitter end, the Democrats won't have the Senate votes to convict, and so the whole exercise will be in vain.
So, unless you are a deep dyed yellow dog Democrat, you ought to vote Republican this fall, just to permit the federal government to operate at all. Votes for Democrats are votes to stop all government activity.
Despite what you may think of Trump, you gotta admit that GNP growth is up from Obama's miserable 1.5% to nearly 3%. Unemployment is way down, 3.8%. Stock market is up. Wages are up. Taxes are down. These are all good things.
So, unless you are a deep dyed yellow dog Democrat, you ought to vote Republican this fall, just to permit the federal government to operate at all. Votes for Democrats are votes to stop all government activity.
Despite what you may think of Trump, you gotta admit that GNP growth is up from Obama's miserable 1.5% to nearly 3%. Unemployment is way down, 3.8%. Stock market is up. Wages are up. Taxes are down. These are all good things.
Tuesday, June 5, 2018
Baking a cake for a Gay wedding
This case has been stumbling along for 6 years now. Generating billable hours for lawyers. Got all the way to the Supremes yesterday to little good. The Supremes did hold that the Colorado people had been mean to the baker, and displayed hostility to religion, and the baker should be let off oin this one case. For all this legal mickey motion, sucking up 6 years and countless legal bills, no new broad principle of law came out of it. We can expect more years of profitable lawyering, at tax payer expense, on this issue.
What I would like to see is a law that says caterers, contractors, the self employed, people rendering custom services, cakes, photographs, music, hair care, flowers, don't have to serve customers they don't want to serve. They are different from retailers, restaurants, hotels, motels, gas stations, railroads, airlines, and bus companies, who are rightly obligated to serve everyone who walks in their door. These people are rendering custom services which makes them into supporters of the customer served. The baker felt that by baking a custom cake for a gay couple, he was supporting gay marriage. Which is understandable on the bakers part.
What I would like to see is a law that says caterers, contractors, the self employed, people rendering custom services, cakes, photographs, music, hair care, flowers, don't have to serve customers they don't want to serve. They are different from retailers, restaurants, hotels, motels, gas stations, railroads, airlines, and bus companies, who are rightly obligated to serve everyone who walks in their door. These people are rendering custom services which makes them into supporters of the customer served. The baker felt that by baking a custom cake for a gay couple, he was supporting gay marriage. Which is understandable on the bakers part.
Monday, June 4, 2018
Victory At Sea
Shortly after World War II, NBC television created the Victory at Sea documentary, and aired it in the very early 1950's. I can remember watching episodes of it from a 14 inch portable TV on rabbit ears. NBC got Richard Rogers, of the famous Rogers and Hammerstein Broadway show business, to do the musical score. Back in the day you could buy LP records of just the score. The documentary makers picked the best of thousands of feet of news reel film, added Roger's score and some narration. They made better than 30 episodes.
I ran across a DVD set of the whole series in the $5 a DVD bin at Wallymart. Been playing it on evenings when I lack a new Netflix to watch. It's all black and white of course. Color film and just been invented but was so slow ( insensitive to light) that everybody shot the faster black and white film. And even the black and white film wasn't all that good. Lot of shots have the sunlit topsides of things over exposed (burned out white) and the shadows pure black. A fair amount of the footage is enemy footage captured during or after the war.
If you have children or grandchildren Victory at Sea is a good thing to show them. It moves right along, all the footage is genuine WWII footage, and there is plenty of action to keep a kid's interest. From what I hear, schools have pretty much giving up teaching history. WWII is the formative event of the 20th century. Watching this show, even just a few episodes of it will give the children an idea of the vastness of the war. Although this show emphasizes the Navy side of the war, it gives a fair showing to the land side of the conflict.
I ran across a DVD set of the whole series in the $5 a DVD bin at Wallymart. Been playing it on evenings when I lack a new Netflix to watch. It's all black and white of course. Color film and just been invented but was so slow ( insensitive to light) that everybody shot the faster black and white film. And even the black and white film wasn't all that good. Lot of shots have the sunlit topsides of things over exposed (burned out white) and the shadows pure black. A fair amount of the footage is enemy footage captured during or after the war.
If you have children or grandchildren Victory at Sea is a good thing to show them. It moves right along, all the footage is genuine WWII footage, and there is plenty of action to keep a kid's interest. From what I hear, schools have pretty much giving up teaching history. WWII is the formative event of the 20th century. Watching this show, even just a few episodes of it will give the children an idea of the vastness of the war. Although this show emphasizes the Navy side of the war, it gives a fair showing to the land side of the conflict.
Sunday, June 3, 2018
Irreversible. Wonder how that works? Really.
That's one of the American demands upon the NORKs. We want denuclearization that is irreversible. Just just how do we prevent the NORKs from deciding to scrap whatever deal they make and start up their nuclear program again? Even if we insist on daily no knock inspection of their nuclear sites, they can just create new secret sites, keep 'em secret, and go merrily on enriching uranium, making plutonium, and building bombs.
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