Combined Joint Planning, News, and Movie Review

Another Monday, another week at the salt mines. We're expanding the 3rd Nuke Novel's opening at the Greenbrier, probably with a side character talking about preparations being made for President Rockefeller's inauguration. Also, what happens to our Australian aircraft carrier after it arrives in Calcutta? It unloads the grain and...? Also, we'll be making fixes to World War 1990: The Weser. 

The girls have their spring break this week. We won't be going anywhere as Passover begins on Friday. Time to break out the Charleton Heston costume. We'll probably take in a Somerset Patriots game though, which will be nice. If you don't, reader(s), we strongly suggest going to minor league baseball games. These are cheap, family fun. Safe too. We feel totally comfortable letting the Stroocklettes walk the ballpark on their own. 

We see President Macron and Marime LePen will go to the runoff presidential election in France. Macron is a centrist while LePen is a rightist populist with a lot of lefty economic beliefs. Interestingly, the French left got destroyed. Is France becoming like Israel, a nation with a center, right, and righter, and a rump left? We're not one to read the French electorate, but suspect Macron will win. People this blog follow, respect and trust think this is a good thing. Probably. But a Le Pen win would piss off all the right people.

Hmmm...looking just now we see we published our last news article with the Ruskis on 21 February. Ah, we miss that gig. Damn you Putin. Damn you! Given that Inforos/Infobrics is Russian state media, we just insulted the boss, didn't we? That article talks about predictions we made earlier in the year. We got the Super Bowl wrong. Man, we got a lot of things wrong. We predicted peace in Europe, ha!

What Will's Watching, Apocalypse Now Redux. This blog doesn't need to tell reader(s) the classic, brilliant, and brutal movie about the human condition is on Netflix. You've all seen it. It's been three or four years since we've watched ANR. This time we're enthralled with the film's execution and beauty. This horrifying war movie is absolutely stunning to look at. If you haven't watched Redux, do so. The added scenes make the river journey even longer and stranger, if you can believe it. We're on our second viewing in a week. Everyone think's Kilgore's best line is, 'I love the smell of napalm in the morning.' But it's actually, 'Someday this war's gonna end.' Add your favorite quotes in the comments. One more, 'If that's how Kilgore fought the war, I began to wonder what they really had against Kurtz.'

Les Jews, set a Bons

Vive le France:

The lower house of France’s parliament on Tuesday approved a draft resolution that calls hate of Israel a form of anti-Semitism, drawing praise from Jerusalem and Jewish groups. The 577 members of the National Assembly voted on the draft, which also calls on the government to join other European nations in adopting the definition of anti-Semitism of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

Meanwhile the exodus (see what I did there?) of Jews from France, amounting to 6 to 7,000 a year, continues apace. Most go to Israel, some to Quebec, which has a large Jewish population and you know, speaks French.*

This resolution is a swan song for French Jewry. Given the size and political strength of France's Muslim population, we're not sure the resolution will eventually be adopted.

The wise Juden, er Jew, will get out now.

*Though born in NYC, Charles Krauthammer was raised in Montreal. Vive le Krauthammer!

France Week: Bastille Day

We don't mean to bash France or the French on Bastille Day, but we've always thought it ironic that the storming of the Bastille and the eventual overthrow of King Louis led to a decade of internal turmoil ending with a self appointed emperor.

This is not the American idea of Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite.

The French revolution was not the last revolution, merely the first of many, 1832, 1871...they damn near had a military coup in the 1950s over the Algerian mess.

You can't say that about the American Revolution.

Napoleon was a great man of course, and unique in that he didn't care about one's background, only his competency. Napoleon was very competent. So we're not a monarchist or anything.

Besides, the Napoleonic Wars are totally cool.

Vive le Burkini! Vive le Piscine Francais! Vive le Difference!

France is gonna France:

Hundreds of French nudists are threatening to "bare all" against burkini-clad bathers in an unlikely showdown at public baths in Grenoble as an ongoing row over the body-covering garment has resurfaced in the heatwave.

The city in southeastern France - which is sweltering in temperatures of over 40 degrees Celsius - obliges women to wear one-piece swimming costumes close to the body in swimming pools while men must wear Speedo-style trunks rather than shorts, for hygiene and security reasons.

Security reasons.

You can always tell when a European man is at an American beach. 

Always.

The burkini ban prompted an act of civil disobedience on the part of burkini wearers, who showed up at the pool en-mass.

French secularists responded the only way they know how, and escalated the situation by counter-protesting naked.

This blog really has no problem with the burkini. Do what you gotta do, man. There's no safety or 'security issue. Speaking as a former pool lifeguard, someone wearing one of those things is no more difficult to rescue than an 18 stone Liverpudlian in a speedo.

[Liverpudlian is it? Why you cheeky Yank - Ed]

Of course if Muslims insist that French mademoiselles have to wear a Burkini or demad segregated swimming hours, well, then, we have a plan.

Le Pen, Le France, Le Merde

As France has been targeted for terror in the last few years our stance on that nation has softened a bit. Up until recently we were in the 'cheese eating surrender monkey' school of thought. After Charlie Hebdo, The Bacalan, Nice, and on and on we can't quite muster the contempt we once had for those wine drinking pussies.

The frogs even came out looking pretty good in To Defend the Earth. Just wait till you see what they're up to in World War 1990: The Final Storm.

Please let it be known that we've felt nothing but for contempt for France since they refused to allow our bombers to overfly their territory when we smacked the Libyans in '86. We'll let the Prime Minister speak for us:

They still are.

Macron has a decent lead against Le Pen, high 50s vs low 40s. We don't know enough about French political dynamics to try to break down the race, though we doubt Macron will win by such a margin.

We think this Macron fellow will be next president of France. Macron and Le Pen are debating today. In 2007 the Royale-Sarkozy debate changed the course of the race, maybe Le Pen will be able to do so as well.

We'll see.

We'd like to address one point about France and old grudges.

Back in 2003 France elected to support Saddam Hussein, hoping among other things to avoid the scourge of Islamic terror.  How'd that work out?

Pershing and the AEF arrive in France

The Neocon Strikes Back

The great lie of the Iraq Campaign was that it stokes terror, created terrorists, made enemies, and radicalized your every day Muslim.

Really, you think Saddam didn't have WMD? Do you also think the Moon Landing was faked?

I suggest that if seeing news one doesn't like is enough to turn your average Muslim into a suicide bomber, then well, that religion has a huge problem.

Of course, your sophisticated and classy continental nations stayed out of Iraq, and the Islamic War in general. France, Belgium, Germany haven't had much to do or say.

In the last 15 years Spain's been attacked, Britain, Australia, Canada, India, the US of course.

For a while smug continentals could claim that since they stayed our of le American's adventure, they weren't antagonizing the Muslim world.

Well, last night Isis completed the trifecta with a terrorist attack in Munich. This follows the horrific blood-letting in France this year and last, Nice, Paris, Charlie Hebdo...I dunno, it all merges together after a while. These nations were broadly unsympathetic to the United States, stayed out of Iraq and barely contributed anything to Afghanistan.

Still their streets are soaked in blood.

Hell of a lot of good it did them, eh?

I'd like to leave France, Belgium the Krauts with this motivational speech: