The proof of Joel's above theorem is the Russian-Ukraine war! Innocent Ukrainians (& Russians too) have been massacred, horrifically injured, made homeless, forced to flee their country, & more in the 21st century's closest humanitarian crisis to the Holocaust. Putin telegraphed his plans months before crossing the Ukrainian border, just begging for a negotiated settlement (probably unintentionally). I am ASTONISHED that almost nobody remembers that the entire war could have been prevented if NATO leadership (even if US leaders refused to participate) had told Putin, "The minute the first Russian soldier crosses the Ukrainian border, hellfire will rain down on you!" But no, NATO is really an offensive, not defensive alliance, as subsequent events have proven. So, where are we now? Ukraine, "Europe's Breadbasket," is a smoking ruin. Crimea infrastructure & civilians who were not affected at all by Russian takeover in 2016, are being systematically destroyed. Even the Ukrainian & Crimean innocents who survive face a future of poverty, disease and 19th century living standards. Nice work "Western" politicians. A POX ON ALL OF YOU MILITARISTIC B%ST&RDS!
You can blame Putin for crossing the line but the USA meddled in Ukraine for decades and finally under Obama established a coup to install their Nato puppet to lead Ukraine in the 2014 uprising. State dept and CIA own this war as much as Putin.
i’ve spent 20 odd years involved with war and another half century trying to distance myself from it. you think of it every single day either running to it or away from
Wow! Concise, truthful. The lessons of history never learned. Our blood lusts for blood, cheer the home team. History inevitably moves on the casualties of war increasing. What, the American body count is probably 10 million dead in 70 years. But, it’s enriched the elite and the elite is unbelievably legion, sucking up for money. Rah, rah cheer for the home team. To paraphrase a baseball movie, “If you build it you will use it.” The casualties always increase commensurate with the technology and stupidity.
Ironically, the state seems to get healthier all the time, while the people living under the bailiwick of the same state get to see their health deteriorate. Either through wars fought abroad, or the wars the government fights against them at home.
Joel, thank you for once again, cleverly and entertainingly, oh, and historically too, proving that: you can't fix stupid! And we will see it again here in the US in a few months, if not sooner, somewhere else in this sad world.
Re the Latin quote, it comes from the Roman poet Horace, by way of re-interpretation through the WWI poet, Wilfred Owen. The latter ends with the chilling lines…
So hoping… that somewhere in the indeterminate future… that your risk to do what you are doing will be held up as a talisman…Not for personal gain… but for what humans can do for other humans in a “win/win” way that seems to have been truly lost. (big thanks to Substack and those of you that are trying to find a better way)
Respect! and the Genuine hope that this “new way to get information that is truly important, honest and valuable “…is embraced and not shunted into a prison cell by the powers that be.
PS….I have to believe that you and “Team B” are making a really nice living from your intellect and missives. And, if true, isn’t that just the embodiment of capitalism ???? ( Even if it is not…. I am still super happy to pay for your missives and your mission)
Became a member last month and got my Substack Mermaid Beach bill! Took me a few minutes to remember you told us it would be billed that way. Otherwise, been enjoying the content!
Einstein observed "He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. . ."
Most wars have been created by the banking cartel, using their political puppets as instigators. War is an absolute unnecessary murder of innocence. Those who promote it are the most evil and only those should be punished for their actions and crimes. What is coming will dwarf our past history, because we will never learn from it…shame on us 🤔
The first banks (temples used to store valuables) are dated at 2000 BC. The first humans are dated at about 300,000. years prior to that. No doubt humans made many “wars” before bankers made ‘em do it.
Eloquent, poignant reminder of our species' proclivity to kill to steal. We've been warring throughout recorded history. Latest example is Putin's theft by force of arms of parts of Georgia and now Ukraine. Sad too to realize that our warring will never stop
Glad you avoided being one of those suckers who would get the job of invading Japan. I suspect that you might have felt different about Nagasaki and Hiroshima had you been selected.
I can tell you with certainty that the villagers with whom I worked in Vietnam had learned that the ONLY thing keeping their children, women and possessions safe from thieves calling themselves "revolutionaries" was a willingness to fight to protect those things. It may be true in your world that clean living and logical thought work in such situations. It isn't that way in the one I live in...hasn't been for some time.
Japan had no navy, its forces were defeated and scattered across the Pacific without supplies. The main islands were cut off from food, cities firebombed to ash, the industrial base destroyed. Japan would have surrendered within a few months just strangling its last breath with a naval blockade.
We dropped two nuclear bombs and justified it with a lie. It’s a horrible thing and the more empathy and imagination you have the more horrible it is.
Just “Imagine” yourself with your skin melting off; in today’s crazy world, “It’s not hard to do.”
Any one that justifies war is an idiot.
We justified: Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. What difference did it make?
Propaganda is bad during peacetime; it is absolute during war I have seen pictures of kamikazes. It happened. To what extent I do not know. Those that fought WW2, Americans, were my contemporaries, relatives, my brother died in Belgium. They were 40 when I was 20, in an industrial town, and they were many. I do not remember any war stories because they never talked about it.
Even my brother, a Marine during the Korean War, stateside duty, who hated the military, became quite the warrior in his 80’s.
They dropped the bombs because, in today’s money, it cost a trillion. You build it you use it!
They also wanted to send a message to the world, to Russia. They did not care about those 150k they horribly slaughtered; they were collateral damage to bigger ambitions.
They were more sane Americans than exist today.
Maybe, Mate, you can suck your thumb when the missiles fly, of course they will not be aimed at Australia. Australia is already feathering the nesting with China, which is smart.
Didn’t Australia lose 20k men at Gallipoli? British incompetence. Churchill said it wasn’t his fault.
Well, in my humble opinion, the world would be much different without WW1. That was Churchill’s war, a war of Empire, to put Germany in its place behind Britain. Churchill was a warrior, in 1890’s. He first rode into battle, in Afghanistan, on a horse then he covered the Bore war in South Africa; the British had a hard time with the Dutch Afrikaners. Churchill was secretary of navy and beat the war drums of war incessantly.
He never anticipated that war had changed, that modern weapons made gallantry obsolete and slaughter horrible and overwhelming .
About 3 million British were killed , the best and brightest leading the charge into German guns.
We1 was a standstill, a draw of killing fields. Both sides would have probably made peace and limped home thinking, “let’s not try that again.”
But, lo and behold, the greedy bastard Americans, The Elite, threw Washington’s advice out the window and propagandized average Americans into a frenzy. The government evicted the from the simple farm life and “Sent them over there” to rousing tunes and speeches. They arrive 2 million strong and overwhelming the starving Germans.
American intervention, we had no reason, except money for the industrialists, destroyed Germany. Read “Death of Money.”
It caused Hitler and Hitler and Germans were full of hate after the illustrious Treaty of Versailles.
WW1 also destroyed Russia and brought Hitler the Stalin.
The Japanese were brutal against China. They probably would have conquered it but would have difficulty ruling. No one would know who Mao was.
There are books written about whether or not Roosevelt knew about Pearl Harbor, if the US provoked Japan on purpose by cutting out and scrap metals.
There were many crazy people involved in all this. There are many more crazy people today that seemed to have forgotten the horrors of the past.
I keep abreast of world affairs and have read much history with a discerning eye, it repeats itself because rulers attitudes don’t change they are paranoid and multiply insanity in their brains.
I am aware of the stuff but I don’t lose sleep over it.
The world is a crazy place, no matter where you are there are obstacles and you must make your own way. I pray and go, do the best I can in the circumstances and rely on the help of Christ. All this temporary shit just passes away. But I will make a difference following an eternal truth. We all die. I will live happy and die content if I can light one candle in the darkness. I want to be the snowflake that falls on warm ground and melts so that others can transform the world into wondrous beauty.
I was born a killer, it is easy to kill, hard to turn the cheek.
I see the vision of Christ’s passion and death, God, master of the universe, non violent, submitting, giving the example of nonviolence.
I think I will choose God’s ways instead of the ways of man.
“What does it profit to gain the world, yet, suffer the loss of your soul.”
It’s the basic choice, whose call will you hear and obey.
That is quite a litany. Most of it true and you put it in colorful, forceful language. There is a divide.
I think it all boils down to money; Americans need money, and some are greedy with an insatiable lust for it. Today, most realize their rice bowl is government.
But, as Bill preaches, the money is debt, printing, and inflation. There is going to be a crash, an alarming difficult crash. It will be devastating.
I cannot imagine the devastation.
We must do what we can, personally prepare, food storage, a bolt hole with land, learn hydroponics, whatever it takes to be self sufficient.
We vote. I am voting Trump, and I like JD Vance. There are many good people in America, enough to be the salt and yeast of new good decisions. I am hopeful, not because of any analysis of dots, although you must do that to survive; I am hopeful because of my faith in God.
Every generation has its darkness, tribulations. The War of Independence and The Civil war were such. What did Washington think during those times that seemed hopeless? He got upon his knees. And what tribulations poor Lincoln had.
I am going to Spotify and listen repeatedly to “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” to renew my resolve. Richard Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” has helped me through many a daunting situation.
The proof of Joel's above theorem is the Russian-Ukraine war! Innocent Ukrainians (& Russians too) have been massacred, horrifically injured, made homeless, forced to flee their country, & more in the 21st century's closest humanitarian crisis to the Holocaust. Putin telegraphed his plans months before crossing the Ukrainian border, just begging for a negotiated settlement (probably unintentionally). I am ASTONISHED that almost nobody remembers that the entire war could have been prevented if NATO leadership (even if US leaders refused to participate) had told Putin, "The minute the first Russian soldier crosses the Ukrainian border, hellfire will rain down on you!" But no, NATO is really an offensive, not defensive alliance, as subsequent events have proven. So, where are we now? Ukraine, "Europe's Breadbasket," is a smoking ruin. Crimea infrastructure & civilians who were not affected at all by Russian takeover in 2016, are being systematically destroyed. Even the Ukrainian & Crimean innocents who survive face a future of poverty, disease and 19th century living standards. Nice work "Western" politicians. A POX ON ALL OF YOU MILITARISTIC B%ST&RDS!
You can blame Putin for crossing the line but the USA meddled in Ukraine for decades and finally under Obama established a coup to install their Nato puppet to lead Ukraine in the 2014 uprising. State dept and CIA own this war as much as Putin.
US meddles everywhere!
What makes you an expert?
i’ve spent 20 odd years involved with war and another half century trying to distance myself from it. you think of it every single day either running to it or away from
it. Yes Joel. Lest we forget.
Steve Hoffman
Wow! Concise, truthful. The lessons of history never learned. Our blood lusts for blood, cheer the home team. History inevitably moves on the casualties of war increasing. What, the American body count is probably 10 million dead in 70 years. But, it’s enriched the elite and the elite is unbelievably legion, sucking up for money. Rah, rah cheer for the home team. To paraphrase a baseball movie, “If you build it you will use it.” The casualties always increase commensurate with the technology and stupidity.
Ironically, the state seems to get healthier all the time, while the people living under the bailiwick of the same state get to see their health deteriorate. Either through wars fought abroad, or the wars the government fights against them at home.
Too true, alas…
The AI in War Games got the right answer 40 years ago, without NVDIA chips - "the only way to win, is not to play".
Joel, thank you for once again, cleverly and entertainingly, oh, and historically too, proving that: you can't fix stupid! And we will see it again here in the US in a few months, if not sooner, somewhere else in this sad world.
Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori”?
Wow!!!!
If pressed… which terra firma would you designate as your sacrificial altar????
The Mind boggles….
And I truly hope that you will think this through… and gently decline all of the compelling offers from the elite
Keep Going Mate!!
B
Thanks, mate!
Re the Latin quote, it comes from the Roman poet Horace, by way of re-interpretation through the WWI poet, Wilfred Owen. The latter ends with the chilling lines…
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
See full text: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46560/dulce-et-decorum-est
Thanks for the uplifting diatribe! 😉🙈👏🫨
Truly Love You and Your Team.
So hoping… that somewhere in the indeterminate future… that your risk to do what you are doing will be held up as a talisman…Not for personal gain… but for what humans can do for other humans in a “win/win” way that seems to have been truly lost. (big thanks to Substack and those of you that are trying to find a better way)
Respect! and the Genuine hope that this “new way to get information that is truly important, honest and valuable “…is embraced and not shunted into a prison cell by the powers that be.
PS….I have to believe that you and “Team B” are making a really nice living from your intellect and missives. And, if true, isn’t that just the embodiment of capitalism ???? ( Even if it is not…. I am still super happy to pay for your missives and your mission)
Godspeed
Became a member last month and got my Substack Mermaid Beach bill! Took me a few minutes to remember you told us it would be billed that way. Otherwise, been enjoying the content!
Thanks for your presence of mind, Mr. Ware…and your support, too! There was a bit of confusion when this was set up, as explained here. Cheers!
https://joelbowman.substack.com/p/the-bowman-pub
Einstein observed "He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. . ."
You can take the boy out of Australian but you can’t take the Australian out of the Man . ‘ Thanks Mate “ Glad you are home safely.
Back home in the antipodes!
Most wars have been created by the banking cartel, using their political puppets as instigators. War is an absolute unnecessary murder of innocence. Those who promote it are the most evil and only those should be punished for their actions and crimes. What is coming will dwarf our past history, because we will never learn from it…shame on us 🤔
The first banks (temples used to store valuables) are dated at 2000 BC. The first humans are dated at about 300,000. years prior to that. No doubt humans made many “wars” before bankers made ‘em do it.
War comes from selfishness. Anytime you are angry with someone for no reason, the natural end result is war. As the acorn to the oak.
Eloquent, poignant reminder of our species' proclivity to kill to steal. We've been warring throughout recorded history. Latest example is Putin's theft by force of arms of parts of Georgia and now Ukraine. Sad too to realize that our warring will never stop
Glad you avoided being one of those suckers who would get the job of invading Japan. I suspect that you might have felt different about Nagasaki and Hiroshima had you been selected.
I can tell you with certainty that the villagers with whom I worked in Vietnam had learned that the ONLY thing keeping their children, women and possessions safe from thieves calling themselves "revolutionaries" was a willingness to fight to protect those things. It may be true in your world that clean living and logical thought work in such situations. It isn't that way in the one I live in...hasn't been for some time.
Japan had no navy, its forces were defeated and scattered across the Pacific without supplies. The main islands were cut off from food, cities firebombed to ash, the industrial base destroyed. Japan would have surrendered within a few months just strangling its last breath with a naval blockade.
We dropped two nuclear bombs and justified it with a lie. It’s a horrible thing and the more empathy and imagination you have the more horrible it is.
Just “Imagine” yourself with your skin melting off; in today’s crazy world, “It’s not hard to do.”
Any one that justifies war is an idiot.
We justified: Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. What difference did it make?
Xavier - But
Kamikaze planes with explosives diving and sacrificing into allied ships.
Many requests for surrender unheeded. High casualty estimates for a land invasion.
Pearl Harbour memories and the carnage of the Pacific against indoctrinated medieval mentality.
Japan did not surrender after the first bomb. ‘ They can’t have more than one of those’ !!!!!
I am old enough to have heard from those who saw it and experienced it.
Stop sucking your thumb mate.
Propaganda is bad during peacetime; it is absolute during war I have seen pictures of kamikazes. It happened. To what extent I do not know. Those that fought WW2, Americans, were my contemporaries, relatives, my brother died in Belgium. They were 40 when I was 20, in an industrial town, and they were many. I do not remember any war stories because they never talked about it.
Even my brother, a Marine during the Korean War, stateside duty, who hated the military, became quite the warrior in his 80’s.
They dropped the bombs because, in today’s money, it cost a trillion. You build it you use it!
They also wanted to send a message to the world, to Russia. They did not care about those 150k they horribly slaughtered; they were collateral damage to bigger ambitions.
They were more sane Americans than exist today.
Maybe, Mate, you can suck your thumb when the missiles fly, of course they will not be aimed at Australia. Australia is already feathering the nesting with China, which is smart.
Didn’t Australia lose 20k men at Gallipoli? British incompetence. Churchill said it wasn’t his fault.
Go Empire!
Well, in my humble opinion, the world would be much different without WW1. That was Churchill’s war, a war of Empire, to put Germany in its place behind Britain. Churchill was a warrior, in 1890’s. He first rode into battle, in Afghanistan, on a horse then he covered the Bore war in South Africa; the British had a hard time with the Dutch Afrikaners. Churchill was secretary of navy and beat the war drums of war incessantly.
He never anticipated that war had changed, that modern weapons made gallantry obsolete and slaughter horrible and overwhelming .
About 3 million British were killed , the best and brightest leading the charge into German guns.
We1 was a standstill, a draw of killing fields. Both sides would have probably made peace and limped home thinking, “let’s not try that again.”
But, lo and behold, the greedy bastard Americans, The Elite, threw Washington’s advice out the window and propagandized average Americans into a frenzy. The government evicted the from the simple farm life and “Sent them over there” to rousing tunes and speeches. They arrive 2 million strong and overwhelming the starving Germans.
American intervention, we had no reason, except money for the industrialists, destroyed Germany. Read “Death of Money.”
It caused Hitler and Hitler and Germans were full of hate after the illustrious Treaty of Versailles.
WW1 also destroyed Russia and brought Hitler the Stalin.
The Japanese were brutal against China. They probably would have conquered it but would have difficulty ruling. No one would know who Mao was.
There are books written about whether or not Roosevelt knew about Pearl Harbor, if the US provoked Japan on purpose by cutting out and scrap metals.
There were many crazy people involved in all this. There are many more crazy people today that seemed to have forgotten the horrors of the past.
I keep abreast of world affairs and have read much history with a discerning eye, it repeats itself because rulers attitudes don’t change they are paranoid and multiply insanity in their brains.
I am aware of the stuff but I don’t lose sleep over it.
The world is a crazy place, no matter where you are there are obstacles and you must make your own way. I pray and go, do the best I can in the circumstances and rely on the help of Christ. All this temporary shit just passes away. But I will make a difference following an eternal truth. We all die. I will live happy and die content if I can light one candle in the darkness. I want to be the snowflake that falls on warm ground and melts so that others can transform the world into wondrous beauty.
I was born a killer, it is easy to kill, hard to turn the cheek.
I see the vision of Christ’s passion and death, God, master of the universe, non violent, submitting, giving the example of nonviolence.
I think I will choose God’s ways instead of the ways of man.
“What does it profit to gain the world, yet, suffer the loss of your soul.”
It’s the basic choice, whose call will you hear and obey.
Don’t Pass Go …….,,,,,,,
That is quite a litany. Most of it true and you put it in colorful, forceful language. There is a divide.
I think it all boils down to money; Americans need money, and some are greedy with an insatiable lust for it. Today, most realize their rice bowl is government.
But, as Bill preaches, the money is debt, printing, and inflation. There is going to be a crash, an alarming difficult crash. It will be devastating.
I cannot imagine the devastation.
We must do what we can, personally prepare, food storage, a bolt hole with land, learn hydroponics, whatever it takes to be self sufficient.
We vote. I am voting Trump, and I like JD Vance. There are many good people in America, enough to be the salt and yeast of new good decisions. I am hopeful, not because of any analysis of dots, although you must do that to survive; I am hopeful because of my faith in God.
Every generation has its darkness, tribulations. The War of Independence and The Civil war were such. What did Washington think during those times that seemed hopeless? He got upon his knees. And what tribulations poor Lincoln had.
I am going to Spotify and listen repeatedly to “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” to renew my resolve. Richard Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” has helped me through many a daunting situation.
Where there is breath, there is hope.
Perhaps the one redeeming feature of nuclear weapons is the placement of the deciders at the top of the target list?
The state wins every war, not so the soldier.