Sunday, June 13, 2021
Saturday, June 12, 2021
Monday, June 7, 2021
COVID Update 6-7-2021
COVID 19 update 33,636,322 total cases, 596,967 deaths. New cases 397,900.00. deaths 2,779. WE 5-15, Apple News, if you want to call it news, got all excited that new cases had dropped below 30K per week. Appears they jumped the gun again. They were correct for one week, but the preceding and following rates were 42K We 5-8 and 45k from last week. The good news is mortalities had a dramatic drop of 6,684.00 per week. This is the third lowest death toll since We 4-19-2020.
Worldwide more good news for the US. We have dropped to 7th in percentage of mortalities versus population. Ranking, Bosnia .2840%, Italy .2099%, Brazil .2256%, Peru .2045%, England .1918%, Mexico .1827%, US .1809%, Spain .1716%, France .1676% and Sweden .1410%. India had the highest new cases reported at 20.787. They are third in moralites behind the US and Brazil. Six state, NY, NY CT, CA, MA, WA account for 25.25% of cases and 29% of moratlities. TX and FL respectively 16% and 15%. NY, NY account of 11% of cases to population. I’m still asking the question no one in the media is, why did it hit New York State so hard? 52, 852 deaths to CA 63,423. NY has 1/3 of the population to CA. Yet Andrew Cuomo had the gall to pat himself on the back for the fine job he did. Try again.
Of the bid four CA, TX, FL and NY, CA reported a 3% increase while the other three reported 1% increase in new cases.
Mortalites per state is interesting. Since We 5-15-2012 it’s been a rollercoaster that would have any statistician scratching their head. NY is the perfect example. These are the deaths the reported WE 8-15 52,366, WE 5-55 42,558, WE 5-19 45,558 and WE 6-6 52,852. Other states with similarities inconsistencies Ill, MD, NB, SC, AR and AK. We went from 592 deaths per day WE 5-15 to 3,636 We 6-6. Tell me again who’s in charge? CDC, John Hopkins or Count Dracula? All seem to be reliable sources.
Sunday, June 6, 2021
Target Berlin
The Fourth Reich’s second attempt at overthrowing the United States has
ended in utter failure. The remnants of the Pentagon still smolder as
President Taylor purged the government of those found unloyal. The
majority of those involved in the coup are either dead, in prison or
vanished. He has the daunting task of rebuilding a shattered government
and expose the person or persons responsible for the heinous acts of
terrorism.
Judith and Larry retired to North Carolina so she can
heal from her wounds. Muki and Abdul are using the time to relax and
check out the local tourist sites.
Deep inside the Salzburg
Mountains, a weapon more destructive than an atomic or hydrogen bomb is
about to go online—Thor. It’s soul intention, righting the wrongs of
World War Two. The man behind the weapon is convinced his father had the
right idea and now he will see to it that the mistakes of the past will
be corrected.
He moved a finger across the targets: Houston, London, Moscow and the UN.
Strap yourselves in for another wild ride in the Gateway series
Get your copy today!.Target Berlin
D-Day June 6 1944 Remember it well
D-Day 1944
Today, marks the 77th anniversary of the Normandy invasion. Not before or since has the United States and her allies taken on such a massive, complex, military enterprise. 156k soldiers. 193k naval personnel. Planning for the invasion began in May of 43. By July, the back-bone of the crack German Panzer divisions was broken at Kursk, by the Russians. Yet with that victory and Stalingrad, Stalin continued to blame Churchill and Roosevelt for dragging their feet and that his country was still taking the brunt of the war. It didn’t matter that North Africa, Sicily and half of Italy were now in our hands. Eisenhower was still leery of an invasion. The Atlantic Wall, Fortress Europa, was still a daunting task. He knew of the failed Dieppe raid in 42. If the allies failed with this invasion it would take years to regroup and try again. Failure was not an option.
The planning and training took off in earnest. New weapons were designed, “Hobart’s Funnies,” concrete floating docks, Mulberries” were built. Miles of continuous steel transmissions lines were fabricated to carry fuel across the channel, tens of thousands of feet of nylon were cranked out, food stocks and ammunition bulged from warehouses. The island of England became the largest military training base in the world. And all the while, secrecy was maintained while a phantom army was built around George Patton.
During a training exercise, German E-boats intercepted the force inflicting over 900 casualties. Luckily, they were not able to understand what they had stumbled upon even though OKH, OKW and Rommel knew an invasion was imminent.
Tensions mounted as D-day approached. Troops were stuck on ships for weeks waiting. The 8th Air Force and RAF continued to apply pressure from the air. They destroyed communication centers, railyards and bridges. They targeted airfields to reduce the effectiveness of the Luftwaffe. The navies continually swept the English Channel, North, Irish and Celtic Seas, the Bay of Biscay and the North Atlantic to make sure no German subs or surface ships dared venture out. But still there was trepidation with the venture. A gale stirred up in the English Channel. Soldiers became sea-sick. Paratroopers, glider pilots and their tugs, were called up then stood own. The tension and anxiousness were palatable. When would they go? Would they go? What was the hold up? The weight of the invasion and fate of Europe rested on one man’s shoulders, Dwight David Eisenhower. He would go down as one of the greatest generals to ever wear a uniform or the biggest military fiasco in the annuls of commanders.
He could wait no longer. A twenty-four break was in the forecast. He gave the order to go and could do nothing but wait to see if he made the right decision.
Airbases across England erupted with a thunderous roar as planes of all shapes and sizes warmed up then took to the skies. Hundreds of naval vessels, loaded with every implement of war began the arduous journey across the English Channel hoping the air forces had been successful in neutralizing enemy fortifications and strongholds. Airborne troops huddled in their transports, as their planes flew into the murky dark skies hoping the pilots knew where they were going and would hit the correct landing, drop-off points. No one spoke as they were lost in their own thoughts of mortality. Some prayed, some cried, some threw-up for want of the unknown.
The silence was broken by piercing lights and the sounds of shells exploding in the air. Pilots took evasive action to avoid the flak. Twenty-millimeter shells ripped through the thin-skinned planes, killing and wounding men. Planes exploded and plummeted to the ground carrying their precious cargo. Some zones were hit, many weren’t.
Battleships pounded inland installations at Sword, Gold, Juno, Omaha and Utah. This gave the men, who were moving to the shores, hope and then the ramps went down. The landings went according to plan except, Bloody Omaha. The fortifications Eisenhower feared and Rommel reinforced were still in full operation. Even direct hits from 1000lb bombs and 16” shells couldn’t knock them out. The first wave was almost decimated. General Bradly almost gave the order to evacuate the beaches but the lone heroism of a few brave men was able to open up a draw that allowed our troops to get behind the fixed positions and eliminate the defenders.
The cost in men was high in those first heady days of the invasion. The world sat on edge waiting to hear the invasion had been successful. If it was, the Germans would now be caught in a three-way vice they couldn’t escape or hope to defeat: Russia in the east, Americans/ British/Canadians/French in Italy and now France. The die was cast but Germany wasn’t throwing in the towel, at least not yet.
It was a massive undertaking that united a world at war. Defeat was not an option. The men and women who did the fighting and dying knew the risks they were taking but also knew the consequences of failure. It wasn’t an option.
So here we are on the 77th anniversary and what are we greeted with? The desecration of Memorials across our nation, that honor the men and women who fought and died for the freedoms we all love and enjoy. What they did not fight for was unrestrained anarchy and the destruction of a society they fought to uphold. They fought and died so Malcom X and Martin Luther King Jr were able to peacefully assemble and march to expose social injustice and racism. They did not march to instill violence and hatred for they knew it would only lead to more violence, and the message they needed to get out would be ignored and nothing would change.
To the protestors today, during your peaceful gatherings, take a knee, call for a moment of silence and remember those that died on the beaches, in the skies and the dark cold seas, whose sacrifice allow you to let your voices be heard.
Friday, June 4, 2021
America's Resolve
America’s Resolve
Today, we celebrate the victory of the United States Navy over the forces of the Imperial Japanese Navy. It was a stunning victory for US forces and would change the course of the war in the pacific leading to ultimate victory for the allied forces. But there is one aspect of the victory the history books and scholars overlook at times, the resolve of Americans.
This is not something you can see, weigh or measure. It can’t be taught in the schools or universities. The military doesn’t have it in their training doctrines because it is an unquantifiable quality. It is something we are born with and is carried in our DNA.
The IJN effectively destroyed our fleet at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. While they were for the most part, WW1 battleships that were destroyed, they were still considered the backbone of the navy for there were many who still held on to the belief that battleships were the queens of the seas and they alone would win any naval battle. For the forward thinking, Midway would finally convince the hold-outs how wrong they were.
The IJN Navy dwarfed the US navy in carriers at the beginning of 1942. They had twelve while the US could only muster eight with inexperienced crews. Remember, the Japs had been fighting and training for six years prior to attacking Pearl. We would lose Lexington at Coral Sea, Yorktown at Midway, and Hornet off of Guadalcanal. The Japanese would lose four at Midway reducing the numbers respectively. The count is now 8 to 5. Both sides would suffer horrendous losses of pilots and planes. Midway became the Pearl Harbor for Japan. But unlike the US, Japan and their military leaders dithered away their advantage in questioning how this could have happened. Yamamoto knew Japan couldn’t win a protracted war with the US because of our untapped industrial might. He also recognized we were a very proud people; he just didn’t know how proud. This, was a major miscalculation! Hitler made the same mistake when he declared war on the United States in support of his ally. This would be one of his major un-doings for his Thousand Year Reich.
Yes, when we got into the fight, our forces were not prepared for war. The tactics of WW1, Spanish American War and even the Civil War were now outmoded and dated. This was a new military with new tactics and weapons many were not familiar with. The men were trained as best they could be but they wouldn’t know if what they’d be trained for would actually translate onto the battlefield. Midway showed that.
No torpedo plane pilot would enter a battle without fighter escort. They knew they were slow and ponderous and took nerves of steel to line up with a ship and drop a torpedo without protection, but they did. Imagine watching all of your buddy’s planes exploding in a fireball or crashing into the water without delivering their payload. Despite the carnage surrounding them, they pressed on knowing they must defeat the enemy at all costs. You see this in both movies about Midway. The dive-bomber pilots were no different. They arrived over the Japanese fleet without escort and pressed home their attacks with excellent results.
It was a fantastic victory and showed the world, that the Japanese could be beaten at their own game. But what it really showed was the resolve of America as a whole. Our men and women didn’t look at the tally sheets of what the Japanese still had in their arsenal. They didn’t care. They knew one thing, Japan, Italy and Germany must be defeated at all costs. It wasn’t an option. It didn’t matter that these countries had trained and fought for years. It didn’t matter how many victories they had wracked up over the previous years. It didn’t matter how much land they swallowed up and added to their empires. What mattered is that it must stop and stop now!
Yes, we could out produce our enemies on a scale the world had never seen, but it would take brave men and women to man these machines and implement and incorporate them in the coming battles. Ours was not a professional military as were our opponents. While our country is steeped in military campaigns and history, it wasn’t the preferred career of the day. Farming, agriculture and raising livestock was the way most made their living and survived. While education was important, milking the cows, feeding the chickens, planting and harvesting crops were the priority. Those in the cities sought work in the factories of Ford, Chrysler, Dodge, GM, US Steel, Textile mills or the oilfields of Rockefeller, Gilcrease, Phillips and Warren. While education was important, survival was paramount!
It was this generation that survived the droughts, the dust bowl, the depression the factories and the farms that would take up the call to arms to defend the last major bastion of democracy that was not only capable of taking on its foes, but knowing, before they ever enlisted, that they would and could defeat any enemy that threatened their way of life and those of like minded countries, no matter the cost. They knew it wouldn’t be easy, but nothing worthwhile is.
In the current Midway movie, Nagumo is watching a crippled B-26 heading for the bridge of Akagi. If it strikes it, the carrier would more than likely be put out of action for an indefinite amount of time if not sunk. When an officer asked him if the plane was trying to ram the ship, he stated, “The Americans aren’t that brave.” He couldn’t have been more wrong! He, like most of our enemies, never took into account the most important attribute they would have to battle, American Resolve!
It can’t be measured, weighed or quantified. It can’t be taught in a book. It is what separates our country from any other when it comes to fighting. We don’t look at the odds against, we look at the evil that threatens our way of life. We aren’t worried about what we don’t have, we make use of what is available. We don’t dwell on how desperate a situation appears to be, only how to adapt, overcome and defeat it. That is American Resolve! Without the bravery of our forces, and the instilled American Resolve each and everyone carried with them that fateful day, seventy-nine years ago the results could have been very different.
So, as you go about your daily tasks and errands today, take a moment to remember, reflect and honor those who went up against unimaginable odds, sacrificing everything they possessed in hopes they could stem the tide and ensure that the United States would not only be victorious on this day, but would let our enemies, present and future know, that if you test American Resolve, be willingly to pay a very high price.
Copyright@2021 LDDJ Enterprises Publishing