50 Week, the Last Day

After yesterday's Thursday Downer post about turning 50, a few friends asked after us. Here's the deal, as the unelected White House usurper would say, many if not most creative types have depressive personalities. As we said, time and distance grow greater creating an existential feeling we can't quite explain. Reminder, the furniture of our grandparents and great-great grandparents is in this house.  

We had our first full day as a 50-year-old and so far, we can report that 50 feels the same as 49. 

We don't actually have a beach on Lake Buel, and our part of the shoreline is mucky, so for a change we took the girls up to Lake Garfield which has a very nice public beach. We came back, did some yard work, talked to a tree guy, and then took Youngest Daughter for a walk in the woods. On the way back a neighbor stopped and said, 'We saw a bear right here yesterday.' Good thing we traipsed through the woods making a lot of noise. 

The sky is overcast and the weather ap warns of rain. This will be an inside day, which means a trip to the hardware store. We need man-things.

We are almost done with our study of the War Between the States in the West. Almost. The Confederate general officer corps was a caricature of Southern mores. Obsessed with honor, place and pride. Many corps and army commanders simply ignored orders from poor Braxton Bragg. Try doing that with Pershing, Ike or Schwarzkopf. Most spent their free time attending those stupid balls one sees in movies and chasing belles. 

Davis was at best a mediocre commander in chief. Bragg is probably the least-worst of the generals to command the Army of Tennessee. Johnstone was...working for the Feds? Why else retreat and retreat and retreat? Say what you want about Hood, but at least he fought, though it was too late by the time he took charge. Leonidas Polk was a clown and the cannon shell that killed the good bishop did the CSA a favor. We can't help but admire Forrest's tactical wizardly and aggressiveness. We like this Cleburne fellow.

In Ukraine we see a massive missile campaign against Odessa and a growing Russian ground offensive. Even establishment media admits The Counteroffensive (said in Critical Drinker voice) isn't going as planned.  We suppose the Ukes and the Neocons envisioned a Blitzkrieg to the shores of the Black Sea. A grand offensive to win the war in one fatal blow. We're reminded of 19th and 20th century Decisive Battle syndrome brought on by Waterloo. This is a theme we've explored in the WW1990 series. 

Guess what, even tanks are stopped by mines, trenches and artillery fires. Why do you think Guderian and Schwarzkopf went around and not at enemy defenses? The Maginot Line is in fact the most successful line of fixed fortifications in history. The Germans didn't even try attacking it. And it's almost as if the Russians know something about massed artillery and rocket fires. I dunno. I'm not a fellow at a Neocon think tank. [But you would like to be-Ed] That'd be fun, ego stroking, and lucrative.

We haven't commented on RFK Jr. and his little Jewish problem. We'll echo sentiments published elsewhere that had occurred to us before RFK Jr's little Covid/Juden statement. His daddy was a carpetbagger, his uncle a murderer, his grandfather a crook. Let's not get into the various cousins. In short, Breaking, must credit Will Stroock: The Kennedys are horrible people. Lock 'em all up where they can't hurt anybody.