I shan’t say Merry Christmas, for indeed it is not. Rather, I would say It’s a Merciless Christmas. Christ roamed Palestine until a few Romans, with a wooden cross and some spikes, sent him to Kingdom Come. If he were to return, he would not last a New York minute before he would be blown up to Kingdom Come again by the Romans of our time; and he  would rise with the black smoke of mans inhumanity to man  Islander..

I was listening to the last movement of the Sixth Brandenburg Concerto, aah Bach, when thoughts came to mind. The beat for instance, one, two, three, four; something about it, don’t you think?                                                     Eighteenth Century  then, current to this day. Bach is timeless of course, people will be, [I was going to say listening, but you know how you search for a better word], mesmerized as long as there are people.

Islander.

If you follow me you may remember my post on “Herbie” a few years ago, if not you can type Herbie in the search box and click the search icon.                 Herbie and I worked in an establishment that catered primarily to Jewish men. Herbie was a partner with another fellow, a Jew, in the enterprise. Herbie was not Jewish. He had suffered from polio as a child, which had shrivelled his right leg from the knee down and left him with a pronounced limp.                                                                                                                                                In college he compensated by taking up weight-lifting and wrestling. He was a big guy.When he walked he had to throw his right leg forward, which for all the world looked like the goose-step adopted by the German Army during Hitler’s time.                                                                                                                So, one day Sol, his partner, and I were in this room  with clientele who were regulars and knew Herbie and his ways, but there were a few newcomers also. Into the room stomps Herbie who, upon recognizing newbies, comes to a commanding halt, throws his right hand into the air and shouts “Heil Hitler”. All eyes were on the newcomers, who did not know whether to shit or go blind, ha ha ha!                                                                                                              Quite the guy, Herbie, yeah, quite the guy.

Islander.

“The Knights of the pen and the literary snobs of today should be made to realize that the great transformations which have taken place in this world were never conducted  by a goosequill. No. The task of the pen must always be that of presenting the theoretical concepts which motivate such changes. The force which has ever and always set in motion great historical avalanches of religious and political movements is the magic power of the spoken word.                                                                                                                                The broad masses of a population are more amenable to the appeal of rhetoric than to any other force. All great movements are popular movements. They are the volcanic eruptions of human passions and emotions, stirred into activity by the ruthless Goddess of Distress or by the torch of the spoken word cast into the midst of the people. In no case have great movements been set afoot by the syrupy effusions of aesthetic litterateurs and drawing room heroes.                                                                         The doom of a nation can be averted only by a storm of glowing passion; but only those who are passionate themselves can arouse passion in others. It is only through the capacity for passionate feeling that chosen leaders can wield the power of the word which, like hammer blows, will open the door to the hearts of the people.                                                                                                      He who is not capable of passionate feeling and speech was never chosen by Providence to be the herald of its will. Therefore a writer should stick to his ink-bottle and busy himself with theoretical questions if he has the requisite ability and knowledge. He has not been born or chosen to be a leader.                                                                                                                                              A movement which has great ends to achieve must carefully guard against the danger of losing contact with the masses of the people. Every problem encountered must be examined from this viewpoint first of all and the decision to be made must always be in harmony with this principle.”          Adolph Hitler.

Excerpted from “Mein Kampf”

With the rampant Nazi-ism being espoused by politicians and others in this country I think Hitler’s views offer us a useful perspective on the subject.

Islander.

In 1967 President Johnson, a Democrat, nominated Thurgood Marshall for the Supreme Court. He was the first black man to be so honored and a giant in the civil rights battles of his day.                                                                                  In 1991, upon Marshall’s retirement, President George H.W. Bush, a Republican, nominated an absolute Uncle Tom to take his place, ——–and thereby hangs a tale.

Islander.

 

 

 

 

Synopsis: Two flights of the torpedo squadron flew to attack the approaching Japanese fleet. One from land and one from sea. We have seen the Avengers from Midway meet their fate; now the Devastators from the Hornet would meet theirs.

“JAPANESE STRIKING FORCE                                                                                                    TORPEDO SQUADRON EIGHT                                                                                               0917

Staring into the distance, Waldron suddenly saw the wispy smoke columns dead ahead of them. The enemy ships began to take shape as dark silhouettes on the cryslalline sea.                                                                                            To Tex Gay, it looked like they almost covered the ocean. As the squadron closed in on the enemy task force, he could see three carriers in the first group, and a fourth following behind.There were battleships and cruisers and destroyers all over the place. Maybe all that guff about the skipper’s Sioux intuition had been right after all. He had gone straight to the enemy fleet like they had been on the end of a plumb line.                                                    Waldron was on the radio again. He was attempting to contact Commander Stanhope Ring to let him know that they had located the Japanese carriers. “Stanhope from Johnny One,” Gay heard him say. “Enemy sighted.”              There was no response. “Stanhope from Johnny One…answer,” he called again. “Enemy sighed.”                                                                                                          Flying behind Commander Ring in the Hornet air group, Leroy Quillen, the radioman-gunner in the dive bomber piloted by Ensign K. B. White, heard Waldron loud and clear.                                                                                                         “Stanhope from Johnny One,” he repeated once more.                                           As Waldron continued leading Torpedo Eight toward the vanguard of the enemy striking force, Tex Gay observed that one of the four Japanese carriers was in the process of landing a plane. Remembering that the original attack plan called for hitting the carriers  while their aircraft were off bombing Midway, his first reaction was, “Oh Christ, were late.”               Waldron was back again on the radio, this time talking to his men. “We will go in,” he said, sounding very calm. “We won’t turn back, we will attack. Good luck.”                                                                                                                                    The skipper put his nose down before leveling off at about five hundred feet as he headed in. The rest of the squadron followed him in perfect precision, almost like synchronized swimmers. He had told them that they might have to go in alone, and now the worst had come.                                                                  His words gave Tex confidence that they had a fighting chance to get in and drop their torpedoes, then light out for home. A moment later, the sky around them was filled with Zeroes. The enemy fighters swung around in half loops and wingovers to gain better firing positions.                                                               “Johnny One under attack,” Waldron radioed.                                                              From the bridge of the carrier Akagi, Commander Minoru Genda, Admiral Nagumo’s operations officer, watched with almost detached fascination as the fifteen torpedo planes came on. The slow-moving Devastators reminded him of a flock of waterfowl crossing a lake. To Genda, it was sheer idiocy for them to attack without fighter protection, and a total violation of the first rule of war, which was to concentrate one’s forces.                                  At last they have come, Genda thought to himself, having wondered when they would arrive ever since the American carrier force had been sighted. It puzzled him that they were coming in so low.”

Excerpted from “A DAWN LIKE THUNDER”, author, Robert J. Mrazek.           Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, Hachette Book Group.                             237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10012.

To be continued:    Islander

Burns said it best, I don’t have to repeat him, everyone gets his message.       That said, it strikes me that more and more people, around the world most likely, but particularly in America I think, are cutting threads, jmportant threads, with the past.                                                                                                             Is it because we, they, our parents or granparents or beyond, cut threads with their past to come here? Of course, but only certain threads, religious oppression, political oppression, economic oppression.                                        But some threads they kept. Again religion, because they could, their culture, freedom of expression.                                                                                            But Americans nowadays seem to live from Apple 12 to Apple 13, if that.                         Ha, ha,—ha,ha,ha!                                                                                                                  Islander.

“NORTHEAST OF MIDWAY                                                                                                          JAPANESE STRIKING FORCE                                                                                                FLAGSHIP CARRIER AKAGI                                                                                              0715”   

“Through his binoculars, Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, commanding the Japanese strike force, watched the attack of the five remaining Avengers from the bridge of his flagship, the carrier Akagi.                                                    The torpedo planes were heading straight toward the carrier Hiryu, which was steaming southeast in a line parallel to his flagship. Both carriers had begun turning to port so that their starboard batteries could bring to bear a full barrage of antiaircraft guns against the Americans. Several other warships had already opened fire.                                                                                         Seeing the black bursts of smoke, the swarm of Zeroes that had been attacking the Avengers immediately darted away to safety. Exploding antiaircraft shells began blooming black in the sky all around the torpedo planes, still they came on.                                                                                                     Commander Mitsuo Fuchida, the pilot who had led the Japanese carrier attack against Pearl Harbor and who was recovering from appendicitis, watched from the Akagi as the Americans continued to press home their attack in the face of such overwhelming firepower.                                             Excited shouts from the Akagi’s lookouts warned that behind the five torpedo planes were four more American aircraft, also coming from the south. They were the B-26 Marauders.                                                                     Suddenly, one of the Avengers burst into flames. It cartwheeled into the sea and created a great geyser of foam. Moments later, Fuchida heard a spontaneous roar of exultation erupt from the hundreds of sailors standing at their battle stations.                                                                                                                 Still, the four remaining Avengers came on through the hail of bursting shells.                                                                                                                                            Several of the Japanese Zero pilots boldly decided to brave the ongoing antiaircraft barrage, and sped in to make more passes at the remaining planes. One by one, the Americans began to fall. Through his binoculars Fuchida saw two of them launch their torpedoes before they were hit, but the planes were still so far away from the Hiryu that the ship easily changed course to avoid them.                                                                                                                 When the last Avenger became a flaming torch in the sky, another exultant roar swept across the flight decks of the two carriers, as if the Japanese sailors were enjoying a spectacle at the Coliseum in Rome.                                  They were gone. Ozzie Gaynier and Darrel Woodside. Vic Lewis and Charlie Brannon. And Lieutenant Langdon Kellogg Fieberling. He had chosen to follow his own course and had paid the ultimate price. The eternal sea closed over the small wisps of smoke that marked their final resting places.”

Excerpted from “A DAWN LIKE THUNDER”, author, Robert J.Mrazek.       Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, Hachette Book Group.                       237 Park Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017.

Evidently the four B-26 bombers were also destroyed. To be continued.  Islander.

                                                                                                       

 

“A day”, to paraphrase Roosevelt, “that will live in infamy”.                                      The death toll on December 7th, 1941, was 2,403. The death toll on September 11th, 2001, was 2,977. Yet this country’s reactions to these calamities were like day and night.                                                                                       In 1941 this country held the entire nation of Japan, men, women and children responsible for what their leaders had perpetrated, and reigned death and destruction on them for almost four years, culminating with the almost total obliteration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.                                              What was the response to 9/11, pray tell? Nay, let me tell you.                              Utter cowardice, treachery, and deceit on the part of the then administration, for they knew the truth of the event. Utter cowardice, treachery, and deceit on the part of succeeding administrations, for they knew the truth of the event. And finally, utter cowardice, treachery and deceit on the part of the current administration, for they know the truth of the event.                             To hold only one man accountable for 9/11, a citizen of a country whose rulers have always held us in contempt, and who  consider us the ultimate infidel, is absurd. He did not operate in a vacuum, that was and is clear.       Yet, to this day, the powers that be would rather invade Outer Mongolia than admit the truth.                                                                                                                                    Islander.

“He who knows not and knows not that he knows not,                                                 He is a fool–shun him;

He who knows not and knows he knows not                                                                     He is simple–teach him;

He who knows and knows not he knows,                                                                           He is asleep–wake him;

He who knows and knows he knows,                                                                                  He is wise; follow him.”

The above quotation is a test on my part to see if WordPress will publish it in the form that I have entered it, for in the recent past they have failed to do so. Today I finally complained to WebHostingHub about WordPress’s rude and crude treatment of my work in that they were totally destroying the meaning and content of the various authors and poets I quote.                     A young man by the name of Chris assured me that he would install a plug-in that would correct the situation. In a few minutes I and you will see if that is indeed the case, ha, ha!

Islander.