Dragging

Amelia

If you haven't yet heard about Amelia, you might be surprised when you see her. She's a purple-haired, choker-wearing young woman who doesn't immediately strike me as someone who would be right-wing coded. Normally, if I saw someone with purple or blue hair, I might think they were left-wing coded; young women are notably more left-wing than other people; and a choker as a necklace tends to at least shade at lifestyles that are less than conservative-aligned. Nevertheless, when you encounter this cartoon you'll find that she is stridently right-wing. 

This is apparently what soccer lovers call an 'own goal' by the UK government. 

You can play the game she stars in here, if you like. It's ridiculous propaganda that deserves the outcome they are getting. 

Oops!

One of Ours, All of Yours

A corollary to the recent talk by the Secretary: what does this slogan mean?

Some of you may be aware of accusations that the phrase had Nazi origins; others may also know that this claim was widely rejected even by the mainstream media on research and reflection. All that is taken as read, but: what was it intended to mean? 

The link above it doesn't help much: it leads to Homeland Security's "Worst of the Worst" page about criminal aliens, but it doesn't add any information or context for what is under discussion here. 

It's a potentially powerful slogan if it means something, but in order to know what or whether it does we'd need to be clued in on some important matters. Who constitutes "ours"? Americans? DHS personnel? Some other group? Is it a warning to cartels not to target Homeland Security personnel? Is it a warning to protesters not to do so? Or does it intend some entirely different meaning? 

Likewise, who constitutes "yours"? The aliens at the link don't seem to belong to any body that might be considered an organized group. Is it a threat targeting cartels? American protest groups? What is she talking about? 

I'm not leveling any accusations except regarding the complete opacity of the attempted communication. You might think that, given how quickly opponents will rush to misconstrue Trump administration communications, some thought might be given to clarity of expression. Their opponents are going to construe the Betsy Ross flag as neo-Confederate, after all; but that one is clear and easily understood. Nobody is going to take that accusation seriously. 

This, it's much harder to guess what they even meant to say. It's clearly a threat, but who is being threatened, and on whose behalf? I have no idea, only guesses about what might be intended. 

Sarabande

I really like this Pentangle group from the Lai du Cor post below.

The most famous piece called "Sarabande" in the West is probably Händel's, although Bach did one as well.

The Western baroque forms are derivative of another form, the traditional zarabanda dance.

The Jesuit priest Juan de Mariana thought it indecent, describing it in his Tratato contra los juegos públicos (Treatise Against Public Amusements, 1609) as "a dance and song so loose in its words and so ugly in its motions that it is enough to excite bad emotions in even very decent people". A character in an entremés by Cervantes alluded to the dance's notoriety by saying that hell was its "birthplace and breeding place" (in Spanish: origen y principio).It was banned in Spain in 1583 but was nevertheless still performed and frequently cited in literature of the period (for instance, by Lope de Vega).

 So in other words, a very good dance. Festive, one imagines. 

Lai du Cor

AVI found a great song by a group I'd not heard of before. In the comments I mentioned the source for the magical horn that reveals false lovers: it's a pretty neat Anglo-Norman Arthurian poem called Lai du Cor from the 12th century. There's a summary of the tale and its lessons here. 

It's not one of the better-known Arthurian stories in our time, but it was very popular in its day. 

That’s Not How It Works, Kristi

Secretary Noem says that US citizens “ should be prepared to provide proof” of our citizenship. 

First of all, we don’t even issue a “proof of citizenship” ID. The closest thing is a passport, which most Americans don’t have. If you’re in the Global Entry trusted travelers’ program, they issue an ID that mentions your citizenship too, but that’s by-the-way to the point of the program. Even fewer Americans are enrolled in that than are holders of passports. 

Your driver’s license definitely avoids mentioning your citizenship. Real ID compliance means that it’s on file somewhere, but not in a way you can carry around with you. A voter registration card should be proof of citizenship, but we all know very well that it isn’t. 

So is the idea that we should all be carrying notarized copies of our birth certificates everywhere? What is she even talking about?

Second, I’m old enough to remember when movies and television regularly featured police who demanded “your papers, please,” to people walking down the street. Sometimes these were East Germans; sometimes they were Soviets. Sometimes they were Nazis. In Casablanca, they were the police of occupied French territories collaborating with the Nazis. 

What they never were was the good guys. Even as the bad guys, they never wore masks. 

This isn’t how America works. However, how about a demonstration of American-ness in lieu of the nonexistent identification cards? I have a very clear idea of how an American would respond to such a demand. Nothing is more American than telling a government agent to stuff it and to mind their own business. Defiance of overreaching authority in the name of liberty should be sufficient evidence; if such a one isn’t an American, at least they have the right makings to be. 

UPDATE: On demands for identification in general.

Propaganda

The Chinese probably intended this to look bad. The only weak thing in the video is the Chinese singing, though. 

UPDATE: While there, I saw this clip about Greenland. (A bit of profanity, for those concerned.) An audience member claims about the prior sale of the American Virgin Islands that “there was a Trump back then too” who “used the same tactics.” That would be Woodrow Wilson. 

Wilson was incredibly powerful during his tenure, having both Congress and the Supreme Court reliably on his side. This enabled numerous real abuses like the Sedition Act and the Espionage Act. However, I understand the sale of the Virgin Islands to have been something that the Danes themselves wanted to do. They wanted to unload them because they couldn’t afford them, and they were motivated to do it quickly, before America joined the war, to protect Danish neutrality. Motivated sellers often don’t get the best price. 

Ruthless duty

Sigurd Yves Larsen, a longtime family friend from before my birth, a close friend of and professional collaborator with my father, has just died at the age of 92. He was born in Brussels in 1933. What I never knew until today is that when Germany invaded Belgium (he being then only 7 years old), his father left his wife and three young children in order to join the Resistance. For the rest of the war they had no idea if he was alive or dead. His wife set out on foot, with all three children, the youngest in a pram, to traverse the entirety of France and try to cross the border to Spain, only to be turned back. They spent the rest of the war in Belgium, then were reunited with the father in 1945. The whole family emigrated to Brazil, then soon to the United States. My father's friend became the head of the physics department at Temple University, and even after retiring, kept working on physics problems I'm told include second virial coefficients, gas thermodynamics, and few-body systems. He had been frail in recent years, but remained in reasonable health until a mercifully brief final illness in the last couple of weeks.

His family journey through France on foot was no isolated case; millions of people were on the road, facing bombs and strafing by the Germans. Per a combination of Grok and Wikipedia: the mass exodus of civilians during the German invasion of Western Europe in May-June 1940, known as "L'Exode" in French history, involved an estimated 6-10 million people fleeing southward from Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and northern France as the Wehrmacht advanced. This included nearly two million Belgians who crossed into France within days of the May 10 invasion, driven by panic and memories of World War I atrocities, creating overcrowded roads clogged with families on foot, bicycles, horse-drawn carts, and occasional vehicles—all moving amid military traffic heading in the opposite direction.

German Luftwaffe aircraft, particularly the infamous Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers, frequently targeted these refugee columns to sow terror and disrupt Allied movements. Stukas would dive steeply with wailing sirens to strafe and bomb the slow-moving crowds, causing widespread casualties and forcing people to dodge attacks while hiking among thousands. These assaults were tactical, exploiting the vulnerability of mixed civilian-military convoys to create blockages and panic.

As impressed as I am by his courage and dutifulness in joining the Resistance, it seems unimaginably harsh for him to leave his family in the circumstances, especially considering that one of his wife's grandparents was Jewish. Still, when men have to go war, they have to go to war.

Home on the Range

This story out of Wyoming reminds me that when I was a kid we had a guy who would ride his horse to the VA  (which was the only place you could get a drink, it being a private club in a dry county). The deputies all knew he was coming home drunk, but the horse knew the way and got him home reliably. He was just accepted as one of the local characters. I don’t know if he was a WWII or Korean War veteran; I was just a child, but I remember dad laughing about it with the other firefighters. 

Iran on the Brink

There have been protests for nearly two weeks, and tonight's looked especially fiery: but this is the pivotal moment. The head of the exiled Pahlavi dynasty has called upon the police and military to join the protests and protect them in return for amnesty from the revolution -- for themselves and their families, a dire note rather appropriate to Middle Eastern politics. 

If it works, it's the point of no return. I may not have to go to Iran after all. Too bad, in a way. A man can't get into Valhalla sitting home. 

I will be back in DC next week, for meetings about... things. I have a very full schedule, so blogging will be light. 

Multitudes & Swarms

One of the complains of the Declaration of Independence was that the king had set up a "multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance." 

I thought of that today when I saw the very long list of UN and other organizations and charters from which we are withdrawing, almost all of which will have been paid for principally by US taxpayer dollars.

Grand Strategy

Usually military operations distinguish between three levels of planning: in descending order, strategy (or strategic), operational, and tactical. There is great glory in being at the tactical level, as it is closest to the fire. Yet the greatest tactical brilliance is not especially likely to succeed without the support of operational planning that gives it the tools it needs; and the best-planned operations are pointless if they do not serve a strategic function. 

Above all this, and not generally included because it is not a military function, is grand strategy. It is just the next level up: the alignment of all the powers of a government in support of its strategic goals. 

I've been thinking about the raid in terms of grand strategy, and I've come to the realization that what appeared to be inexplicable decisions by the Administration actually do serve grand strategic aims. It was possible to kill Maduro instead of capturing him; it was possible to send him to Guantanamo Bay (as indeed he did pass through there). It was possible to take him to Montgomery, Alabama to face charges; instead they took him to the Southern District of New York, which has been the most actively hostile of all districts except possibly DC to Donald Trump. It was perhaps not possible to construct a plausible indictment, but the administration appears to have produced a very weak one. It's likely, because of venue and weakness of the charges, that Maduro will walk. 

But it doesn't matter, does it? He's not going back to being "President of Venezuela." The strategic goal of changing the regime, in one way or another, has been reached already. If he gets a fair hearing in court and is turned loose, he's just some guy. The grand strategic goal of proving that the American system is fair and decent is advanced by that.

The judge chosen to rule over this trial has been repeatedly willing to rule against Trump, both in and out of power. I don't mean to suggest that he is prejudiced; the rulings all look reasonable to me, at least defensible and measured. Trump, by losing in court and turning Maduro loose and unharmed, would actually win a grand strategic victory. It's not like Maduro could plausibly return to power, not with his Cuban bodyguard destroyed: they were the only things keeping him in power, his only security against a coup.

So turn him loose; let the system find that we never plausibly had the authority to do this, and that the US can't reasonably claim jurisdiction. The process is the punishment, we often say when American citizens are ruined by prosecution but found Not Guilty on examination; our strategic aims were already achieved.

That's terrible, in a way; but how does it compare to how China or Russia would deal with a dissident? 

New York is so Doomed

You probably saw the story about the lady on Mamdani’s team declaring that property rights “especially for white families” will change to become “more collective.”

You should also read her deleted messages from X.com. 

So if I own something and the government forces me to accept a “more collective ownership,” i.e. my ownership of the thing drops from 100% to 50% (or less), or from 35% to 10% (or whatever), that seems to be a matter clearly defined by the jurisprudence around the Takings Clause. It’s not that the government can’t do it, but it is that just compensation is owed. 

In her earlier remarks, you can identify the solution she intends: she wants to lower real estate values in New York City, both to discourage landlords from investing there and presumably to lower the amount that just compensation might embrace. 

It’s amazing how clear the historical evidence is about how this all works. Another thing we learn from her is that she’s motivated also by intense hatred. That of will hurt people is not a small price to pay in striving for the glorious utopia: hurting people in New York is actually a major part of the payoff for her. 

Will anyone learn this time? Sadly, the historical evidence is pretty clear about that too. 

An Unusual Message

If any of you are seeing this message this morning, that's Romanian. I think it's a product of my VPN service, but the servers I am getting it on are based in North Carolina and Tennessee. I switched to the Atlanta server and it went away, as it does when I connect without VPN. 

Weird.