One of my favourites from 1776 as well. The other being Hey, Momma look sharp. 1776 is very good. I also think what Dickerson says about people -- that most people want the possibility of being rich rather than facing the reality of being poor apt. There are reasons why lotteries make so much money...
Here
The Observer did a big exposé on the Salt Path, the sleeper hit of a memoir which has recently been made into a film with Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs. Basically, the woman who wrote it told a number of lies, including about her husband's illness and their financial state. It is sad that Penguin didn't do its due diligence before publishing. I suspect a film/tv series will now be made about the fraud. https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/the-real-salt-path-how-the-couple-behind-a-bestseller-left-a-trail-of-debt-and-deceit
The BBC let me know that they are still processing my complaint about Glastonbury. Palestinian Action has been proscribed and the attempt to prevent the proscription failed in the courts, including in the Court of Appeal which heard an emergency appeal.
The hard left party which Sultana supposedly formed with Corbyn has provided much amusement as Corbyn denied he had done anything such thing,
The Telegraph has done a very good (and long ) article about the Left's infatuation with political Islam This is a gift article because it is very instructive. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/e7784e36fc6379ca
Informative telegraph article. Thank you. Such a sickening refrain of the marriage between Islamism and the far left. Talk about getting in bed with the devil. I mean wokeism is stupid and toxic and has damaged our societies, but Islamism is deliberately and cleverly murderous. It's like a bunch of silly sheep deciding to befriend a nest of vipers.....actually even sheep are smarter than that! So glad the Palestine Action proscription has held. I have had enough of trying to find reasonable ground with the idiots and am getting my replies ready for the next pro-palestine mouthpiece to cross my path.
I am so pleased you found it interesting. Islamism really is a death cult. It is very different to other forms of Islam. The largest number of its victims have been Muslim.
There are some people on the hard left who simply want the destruction of the West and that is their whole raison d'etre. Anything which damages the West is fine by their creed. However most prefer to live in the West with its freedom and lifestyle choices...
The article about the White Widow also makes for instructive reading. The UK were stupid to let her go when they had her in custody.
...leaps to the top of the league tables for Understatement if the Year; possibly of the Decade! I'm sympathetic to the difficulty of self-analysis but why is such a deeply illogical position recognized by so few?
"Anything that damages the West is fine by their creed. However most prefer to live in the West with its freedom and lifestyle choices." This quote packs a punch.
This makes absolutely no sense, and "one begets the other." It is an Islamistic attempt for a coup d'état to destroy Western culture, Judeo-Christian values, and man's inalienable rights. I'd say, "nip this in the bud", but it's too late for that expression. The bud is already blooming. Destroy the entire garden.
Let us hope that Israel has already done much of the 'dirty work' with its 12 Day war, and the on going dismantling of Hezbollah and Hamas. The Telegraph reported today at Hamas official said that something like 95% of the leadership has gone.
I thought the 5 sheikhs emirates proposal in the WSJ was interesting. https://archive.ph/6FjaX in case you haven't seen it. If Israel is prepared to do this, then suddenly the 'Palestinian' cause brigade will have to find a new cause.
There are some people on the hard left (and the hard right for that matter) who will not be satisfied until they bring everything down. I honestly don't why they are that way, particularly as many only have ever lived in the West.
I love this solution! It is a very local one, based on historical tribal loyalties (and it exploits hatred of ‘Palestinian’ organizations and leaders who have only brought problems to locals). And it very clearly divides ‘Palestinians’ into those who are prepared to live with the existence of Israel and those who are not. Making it far easier to identify terrorists.
Thank you Michelle. I no longer read the WSJ. The article was "positively" interesting. I'm surprised the WSJ gave President Trump that amount of credit, where credit is indeed due. I understand why Prime Minister Netanyahu is proceeding with caution. I would love to finally see peace in the Middle East during my lifetime.
Wow. This gives me more hope for a peaceful solution than I have felt in a long time. Thank you, I will pass it on. I think Trump's action against Iran combined with the Israeli followup, showed the Arab world that now is the time to make a polar shift.
Politics makes strange bedfellows but Homos for Hamas is beyond absurd. Michel Houellebecq has a couple novels that address the issue head on. He may be my favorite contemporary novelist
You would imagine that publishers would do a better job investigating these memoirs. There have been so many exposed as frauds. Perhaps they make more from the controversy?
I'm surprised they are still looking for one of the 7/7 planners.
No I think there is a lot of credulity in publishing towards these sorts of stories. I suspect the commissioning editor desperately wanted to believe it to be true.
The White Widow is an interesting one isn't she? I suspect some of it was misogyny a bit like they discounted Agent Sonya re Fuchs.
That seems to be a common problem, not only in publishing but also in journalism and, unfortunately, since time immemorial, in human nature.
We are very quick to believe things that we WISH were true. As we've seen in recent years, some are determined to believe things are true, despite clear evidence to the contrary, simply because they want so badly for those things to be true.
Apparently the memoir was marketed as 'unflinchingly honest'. I understand the writer was due to give a tutorial at some writing retreat this week and now will not be doing so. Surprise, surprise.
"It is the 20th anniversary of the 7/7 London bombings."
We were in Cornwall, about to head off to Bath, then Cambridge to visit a cousin there, and thence to London, when we heard the news.
London? London! When we finally got there, days later, streets near our hotel were closed, and having dropped the rental car at the airport, we took a cab that couldn't get to where it needed to go.
As soon as we could, we ventured forth and followed crowds to the Mall. There, we saw by the dozens elderly veterans in wheelchairs being pushed by young relatives, everyone young and old elbow to elbow, uncountable. WWII airplanes and then jets flew overhead.
Nothing but determined cohesiveness. A remarkable sight. I think I loved London more at that moment than I ever did before.
We did our usual walking about in the days after and took in the Victoria & Albert et al. We weren't afraid because, hey. We had September 11, and it wasn't as bad as the Blitz.
We should remind all of those on the left that in 1979 they helped usher in the theocratic regime, who then turned around and murdered them a few years later in the din of the war between Iran and Iraq.
Good luck, Michelle. Seems Brits are not free to stump at Hyde Park as they could when your laws were an inspiration to us. Maybe the love of freedom will resurface.
I read your King's statement on the 7/7 bombings and am sickened. "tragic event" ummm, no I think it was a planned terrorist bombing carried out by home-grown Brits, not some act of nature or unpredictable occurrence. And as far as 'working together to build a society where people of all faiths and backgrounds can live together with mutual respect and understanding', I have it on good authority - the terrorists themselves! - that they have no interest in living together with Christians and native British. I am not a monarchist because one of his grandfathers would have happily hung one of my grandfathers (the one who ferried Washington's cannon's across the Delaware on Christmas eve!) but did admire QEII. Charles III has never put a foot right and continues to live in his fantasy New World Order, and while charming and whimsical decades ago, it is now dangerous.
ICA “not a monarchist” is an understatement. My favorite thing about the French is they killed their royalty. “All people treated equally” is our national creed.
And yet the French ended up in an even worse situation than before after they killed their royalty. Same thing happened when they killed Charles I in Britain.
We didn't have to kill any royalty to found this country. I think that made a tremendous difference. Once you cross the line of murdering people just because of their birth status, things fall apart quickly.
The Observer story on the Walker/Winn duo is really great. A couple of grifters if ever there were grifters. Clearly Sally Walker is a con artist and her hubby is the ventriloquist's dummy!
I just read it as well! 100% grifters - I hope this story spreads like wildfire. Has Oprah or Reece optioned it for their book club? I would tune in for the James-Frey-esque grilling. It's the only time I've ever thought Oprah did anything worthwhile.
The story has legs. The movie has not opened in the US yet (apparently). The charity which had the couple as 'ambassadors' have dropped them. They are consulting lawyers. But I suspect the Observer had lawyers all over the story before they published it. https://archive.ph/3wK4i
They have now been dropped by a charity which supports people with neurological conditions like the one 'Moth' claimed to have suffered from. This story is going to run for awhile. Apparently they are consulting lawyers but the Observer would not have published if they did not have proof which could stand up in court.
The actor playing the young soldier who sang Hey, Mama, Look Sharp later landed the lead in the ‘so bad it was good’ film, “The First Movie Musical,” which effectively ended his acting career.
Always interesting to see what happens to people. Hey Momma, Look Sharp was certainly a show stopper.
William Daniels who played Adams went to play the lead in some long running tv series about a hospital. And the actor who played Jefferson played the coach in some tv series about basketball. Going off memory.
Quite rousing. Vigorously shook me out out of my groggy morning fog! I couldn't help but fast forward in my mind to Adams and Jefferson's later difficulties with the Jihadists.......
John Adams is my favorite Founding Father. His 1,000 and Abigail’s 2,000 letters transport one to the background of building the Declaration of Independence. I continue to be amazed that our country was founded and continues to live despite very dangerous events.
I really enjoyed the book Friends Divided by Gordon Wood. It covered the correspondence between Adams and Jefferson in their later years. They didn’t agree with each other all the time but they respected each other. We need more of that in these times.
Events can be addressed -- and have been! Still to be determined: Whether loss of morality and religion -- as in "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people..." -- is survivable.
Thank God for such men as John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, James Madison, Nathaniel Greene, Thomas Jefferson and so many more unnamed individuals who had the courage to found and fight for a new country based on the idea that all men are created equal and have an inherent right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
With very few exceptions, everywhere had kings 249 years ago. It's really hard to imagine what a leap the Declaration and more so the Constitution were. These things had literally never been done before. So to answer 249-year-ago Mr Adams, "Very few, if any."
I have a vague memory of that musical but my mental bandwidth is overwhelmed with Texas flood stories. A guy I know from high school died. Many friends lost loved ones and homes. My college girlfriend attended Camp Mystic for three summers and we’ve been texting. It’s almost a rite of passage for a certain kind of Texas girl. Texas Monthly has a spot on article about it from 2011 that quotes one of my ex students who is a counselor. Fortunately my land was unaffected but we have 50% chance of rain today so it’s not quite over. The water rose 25 feet in 45 minutes. Nothing and no one could have done anything. Mother Nature wins again. Have a nice week.
Except that most victims saw nothing coming. Others had a few minutes notice. They went to bed on a dry July 03 with weather saying rain possible. Maybe 3 inches, but uncertain where it would fall. Switched to flood warnings some time around midnight. Many were awakened by water washing over their beds.
That weather was ultimately the remnants of Barry that made its way from the Pacific into the Gulf and then eventually to inland Texas. Texas knows what that kind of weather can do and a stalled out system can be hard to predict. I don't know why more action wasn't taken and that it all happened in the middle of the night makes it all that much worse. Even being warned, it's hard to imagine what that kind of devastating weather can do. I know from experience. So very sad.
Thanks J but I didn’t know the guy well. My high school was one where “everyone knew everyone” and his family owned a popular burger joint as well as ranch land. And I hadn’t heard from my “first love” ex in a while so that is a small upside in a grim situation.
Sorry for your loss and the difficulties. I can’t imagine how your community is feeling after this tragedy. Everyone has to pull together and lean on each other.
But I have to ask a question, I’ve already been accosted by the NYT rage machine about the cause for this. As you would expect, the media is spinning this narrative as being caused by the cuts Trump put in place during DOGE. Some locals near the river are on record, or this was a deep fake, not getting an alert on their phones. Can you share some local insights as the media sphere on this one is polluted with noise on both sides. TIA.
The NWS brought on MORE people for predicting. this event - 5 not the usual two. And the best thing people can do is have one of those radios that give warnings. Many don’t
Hi Brian- my main info comes from a college group with whom I have an almost daily text chain. One of their frat brothers clung to a tree for hours and his wife is missing, I’ve been told an NWS alert went out at 1am but the flash flood began at 4am with 20 plus inches of rain in 45 minutes. However there is NO actual local alert system on the Guadalupe River despite it being a flood prone area, whatever ad hoc systems locals used in the past couldn’t handle the rapidity and intensity of the rain.
Thanks for the update, PoetKen. My wife and I lived outside of Dallas for a year when I was on a project back in the ‘80s. We went through one cycle of spring floods. It was eye-opening. The water quickly establishes its primacy over man’s efforts to control it. I was shuttling weekly between Dallas and Houston and seeing the flood waters from the air is one of my most vivid memories of our stay.
Haha! Nothing so exciting. My firm was designing an accounting system for oil and gas extraction royalties. Lots of wells pumping lots of petroleum through lots of pipes into lots of storage tanks all owned by even more individuals, partnerships, and companies, and all of them expecting a check! After a year of flying back and forth every week it became clear something had to change or we’d never get pregnant, so I found a more reasonable job. 😊
Ken i am very curious how much attention the vile comments from the Houston political woman ( regarding the white Christian girls who died) or the female doctor who said the trump voters got what they deserved and said bless their hearts. These are evil people. Period.
Hi CS it’s in our news feed and no true Texan would say such callous remarks. There’s a political and economic element as the campers tend to come from the upper middle class professionals or landed gentry types.
My question of the weekend was why on earth nobody in Texas, especially Texas, thought the camping young girls deserved the rules of "fire watch," which they apply for their soldiers?
There had been a flash flood warning given hours before, so it would seem logical—especially considering that the camp had suffered a similar flooding incident back in the 80s—that some of the counselors should have remained awake and on watch. We may yet find out that they did, when all the circumstances are discovered.
The biggest problem is that the water rose 26 feet in 45 minutes. That would have given very little time to evacuate, even if a watchman realized quickly that the water was coming up VERY fast and that there was no way to know how high it would go. Waking everyone up would take time, and organizing an evacuation would take time. Apparently even the highest parts of the camp were flooded. I’m not sure that, even in the best conceivable scenario, there would not have been lives lost.
You're right, Celia. It could have all still gone bad. What I want to hear, and maybe will, that children's summer camps everywhere are required to have "fire watch." You'd think somewhere, with all the reporting, if they had "fire watch," it would be mentioned, effective or not.
I think in most cases, unless some danger is anticipated, it would be impractical to have adults who stay awake all night.
Considering that they are still trying to locate all the people who were at the camp, I’m not surprised that they have not gotten a full picture of what happened yet. Nor, I think, would local people be eager to place blame in a situation that was so sudden and so dire. Indeed, the only people who have a right to try to place any blame are the parents of the deceased girls.
Mr Karg I certainly wasn’t offended by your comments as I know you meant well. Knowing what I do about Camp Mystic (not sure you saw but my college girlfriend of six years attended 3 years as a child), it’s a 100 year old tradition that emphasizes teaching girls the kind of “Texas skills” you can imagine. Its sterling reputation and the multigenerational nature of many attendees probably lulled the mostly prosperous urban families who send kids there into a false sense of security. If their mothers went, then they went, how could their own daughters not be safe there? Mr Eastland the owner literally drowned trying to save some campers. It’s also pretty rugged and inaccessible terrain “The Hill Country”. As Celia and others noted, this once in a century event overwhelmed the standard coping mechanisms (though we do seem to be hearing about “once in a century” weather events with alarming frequency). While it may not be anthropogenic clearly the climate IS changing (and always has) so as more moisture saturates the atmosphere, it has to fall somewhere.
My mother, born (in 1911) and raised in the Hill Country, shared many terrifying tales of sudden storms and wild weather. It seemed to me, as a child, that she must have spent half her own childhood on a roof or in a storm shelter.
When we decided to leave California, we never even considered Texas because of my mother’s graphic memories.
I will never forget how Robert Caro began the first volume of his LBJ biography. He described the average day of a Hill Country housewife before electrification. It was brutal.
I agree, Celia. Flood waters moving that fast (5 feet every 10 minutes) would inundate the camp buildings very quickly, carrying debris that would act as battering rams. It surely resulted in chaos and panic with little chance to organize an escape. And to where? When the rushing water was a foot deep it would be difficult for an athletic adult to navigate in the dark. It’s so sad.
From what I understand, even the highest tent sites were flooded. Trying to get children uphill in the dark is a challenge all its own. When you get to the top of the hill and the water is STILL coming up, what do you do then?
Never heard of it. Googled it. Apparently applies to buildings with sprinkler systems when the system is down for a period of time. I don’t know what you mean by Texas’ soldiers. I fail to see any application whatsoever of your obscure reference to our tragedy.
Next time you become indignant at someone’s failures, please take a beat before slinging this kind of thing. You may not be as smart as you think you are. You may not be as humble as you need to be.
We have made mistakes. They will be addressed. My opinion is that there is not much room for this right now.
I understand. My opening comment wasn't specific enough. I wasn't looking for blame. In all the reporting, I just wanted to see some mention of precaution taken, whether it worked or not. I think of Texas as a rather military friendly State, and I met so many from there, during my military service. In the military, we never went to sleep without somebody on watch. And, maybe they did have somebody on watch, and the precaution failed. I raised a daughter who attended camp, and I really relate to the seemingly helplessness of at all. I'm sorry my clumsy comment offended.
I attended Girl Scout camp as a pre-teen. I don't think we ever had adults who stayed awake and on guard. There was no reason to. We had an adult in each tent who was responsible for the girls in that tent.
I understood your comment, Michael. I heard your voice, I felt your emotion. I also hear emotion in the person who replied to you. We, who respect life, are often filled with emotion when confronted by tragedies such as this, and when we say what we feel, it often can be misconstrued. I’m glad to see your apology, it reinforces what I already know about you: you’re a good person.
Horrible people are celebrating the death and destruction in Texas, posting comments in social media ridiculing Texans, telling them they deserved this, that God is punishing them for being conservative, for voting MAGA while others are saying that MAGA Christians are being shown that there is no God and that they are stupid fools for their faith. Their hatred is what we really should recognize, their performance is the price of ideological capture. It’s how Jews were murdered in the Nazi Genocide, and how millions were murdered by Communists in Soviet Russia, China, Cuba, Cambodia, and many other places where a rigid, orthodox ideology was imposed by authoritarians. We have to recognize what’s happening here and in the West, and oppose it where we see it, unmask it, and condemn it as unacceptable.
JA those folks can ridicule us all they want but I doubt most of them could survive what is still the often raw and unforgiving Texas landscape. Fierce self reliance was and remains essential in rural Texas in ways that make Emerson and Thoreau at Walden pampered fops by comparison.
Good question. Michael Shellenberger published an excellent article, which basically notes that the obsession with the "climate change" agenda and its spending on ridiculous things that don't solve anything, has taken away resources that should have been used instead on developing more climate resilience, such as flood evacuation routes, dams, etc. Let's hope that the climate cult will end soon and that more investment will be made in climate resilience, going forward. That said, deaths due to weather-related disasters do continue to decline on the whole. Here's the article: https://www.public.news/p/climate-journalists-are-in-the-grip
I call climate resilience “adaptation.” I’ve done a lot of reading on the topic and Michael Shellenberger’s book as well. I agree that too much emphasis on carbon reduction is made at the cost of ignoring adaptation. Like, why build a building on a coast when it gets hits by hurricanes every so often ? Stuff like that. Thanks for sharing this link. I will watch it later.
Or why buy a $12 million oceanfront home on Martha's Vineyard when you've been yammering on about the rising oceans you promised to lower during your 2008 presidential campaign?
That's another of the (many) things that have convinced me that the Warmists are not serious people. From the very beginning of this, there's always been the possibility that Climate Change is unstoppable (as it always has been, in Earth's history), regardless of what we puny humans attempt to do about it. The complete lack of interest in making adaptations to a changing climate is horrifyingly irresponsible, if the Warmists actually believe what they say.
I like that song, and vaguely remember the musical when it came out.
It’s remarkable to me that a Broadway musical celebrating America’s founding in such a patriotic way could’ve been made in 1969 and have a run of 1,217 performances, then be reprised on film.
Remember 1969? The country was deeply divided over Vietnam, so much so that LBJ had essentially abdicated, and the Democratic convention in Chicago had been a chaotic mess leading up to Nixon’s election in late 1968. MLK, Jr and RFK had been assassinated. The cops were pigs, the media had turned against the war, sit-ins were occurring on campuses, bleeding heart liberals were ascendant in Congress (Allard Lowenstein, George McGovern) and commentary, militants like the Black Panthers made common cause with wealthy white liberals like Lenny Bernstein (Tom Wolfe’s “Radical Chic” came out in 1970), and illegal drugs had become mainstream.
And yet, that stage production, followed a few later by the movie, were released and were well-attended. The traditional, patriotic spirit was mostly latent, but very much alive.
The original musical won Tony awards and has been revived multiple times on Broadway. Interestingly, the latest revival, in 2022, had a cast that was entirely female, trans, and “non-binary.” Go figure.
The play does offer some sops to the Left. The song “Hey, Hey, Mama, Look Sharp” and the surrounding dialogue draws bleak attention to the fact that young men die in wars. And “Cool Considerate Men” was such a condemnation of Conservatives that it was removed from the film before it was released (although the tale of Nixon requesting that seems to be spurious, since it was not screened at the White House before release).
I remember it well. “Radical Chic” to this day resonates strongly and is dead-on as a description of the left’s inability to think clearly and their infatuation with virtue signaling.
Good morning but too jetlagged to respond intelligently. Didn't get home until almost 2 am. Reading Rick Atkinson's great history of the middle years of the Revolution. I highly recommend it. It's a long slog but wonderfully written. Helped to pass the hours on the long flight back. Btw I can highly recommend Austrian Airlines. Really professional bunch.
I'm reading that book now, too, and enjoying it. I do get a little weary of his use of arcane words. I don't mind needing to look up and learn new words once in while, hopefully I'll retain some of them. I spent my early years through mid-teens right around where the Battle of Monmouth happened and wish I had learned more about it back then, so I could have appreciated the landscape of the battle while I was in it.
Thank you, I’ve seen reports of this on X. I am waiting for my friends in Israel to comment. Should be interesting. Makes good sense. It’s so bizarre to me in the West to learn about local tribes and leaders of such tribes having such power. We eliminated tribes when we adopted the national state back at the Treaty of Westphalia.
John Adams defended British soldiers who fired at protestors at the Boston Massacre.
Admas was with Franklin in France at the same time. Franklin learned French in the bedrooms of Paris while Adams learned French by reading elegiac poetry. I think that says alot about Adams.
My favorite song : From Molasses to Rum to Slaves( the character singing was Rutledge I believe). The words capture so much of the proceedings and difficulties. And one can argue as did Rutledge hypocrisy
That song was my most vivid memory of the movie after I saw it for the first time back in high school. It's interesting that Rutledge--as per the lyrics of the song--has zero illusions about the horrors of the slave trade, while at least some of his listeners have clearly had plenty of illusions. The song is only cut off when someone can't take it anymore: "For the love of God, Mr. Rutledge!"
I am not a historian but I absolutely love history and especially listening to great historians. Last week either Poet Ken or Lanny ( i think - if wrong my apologies) mentioned HW ( Bill) Brands. Brands is my favorite American history author/professor. I met him two or so decades ago in san Antonio at a tax conference ( I was a speaker and he was our guest speaker at our speakers dinner). He had just written Age of Gold ( about the gold rush and how it changed America and the world). He was mesmerizing bringing it all to.life. He handed out autographed copies to all. FYI the discussion of the transcontinetal railroad alone is worth the read
Subsequently I read other brand books and watched his television series on the men who made America. If you haven't seen it ( or read the book that was the basis for the show) both are worth your while
I am.now going to buy one or two of his newer books as I expect they will be fabulous like all the others. Thank you Ken or Lanny for the post.
One of my favourites from 1776 as well. The other being Hey, Momma look sharp. 1776 is very good. I also think what Dickerson says about people -- that most people want the possibility of being rich rather than facing the reality of being poor apt. There are reasons why lotteries make so much money...
Here
The Observer did a big exposé on the Salt Path, the sleeper hit of a memoir which has recently been made into a film with Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs. Basically, the woman who wrote it told a number of lies, including about her husband's illness and their financial state. It is sad that Penguin didn't do its due diligence before publishing. I suspect a film/tv series will now be made about the fraud. https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/the-real-salt-path-how-the-couple-behind-a-bestseller-left-a-trail-of-debt-and-deceit
It is the 20th anniversary of the 7/7 London bombings. They are still searching for the so-called White Widow who was involved in the planning. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/07/white-widow-july-7-bombings-at-large/ or https://archive.ph/Jxm7X
The BBC let me know that they are still processing my complaint about Glastonbury. Palestinian Action has been proscribed and the attempt to prevent the proscription failed in the courts, including in the Court of Appeal which heard an emergency appeal.
The hard left party which Sultana supposedly formed with Corbyn has provided much amusement as Corbyn denied he had done anything such thing,
The Telegraph has done a very good (and long ) article about the Left's infatuation with political Islam This is a gift article because it is very instructive. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/e7784e36fc6379ca
Informative telegraph article. Thank you. Such a sickening refrain of the marriage between Islamism and the far left. Talk about getting in bed with the devil. I mean wokeism is stupid and toxic and has damaged our societies, but Islamism is deliberately and cleverly murderous. It's like a bunch of silly sheep deciding to befriend a nest of vipers.....actually even sheep are smarter than that! So glad the Palestine Action proscription has held. I have had enough of trying to find reasonable ground with the idiots and am getting my replies ready for the next pro-palestine mouthpiece to cross my path.
I am so pleased you found it interesting. Islamism really is a death cult. It is very different to other forms of Islam. The largest number of its victims have been Muslim.
There are some people on the hard left who simply want the destruction of the West and that is their whole raison d'etre. Anything which damages the West is fine by their creed. However most prefer to live in the West with its freedom and lifestyle choices...
The article about the White Widow also makes for instructive reading. The UK were stupid to let her go when they had her in custody.
"most prefer to live in the West"
...leaps to the top of the league tables for Understatement if the Year; possibly of the Decade! I'm sympathetic to the difficulty of self-analysis but why is such a deeply illogical position recognized by so few?
One of my elders used to answer such questions with a single statement-----Human Beings are notoriously inconsistent ..........
"Anything that damages the West is fine by their creed. However most prefer to live in the West with its freedom and lifestyle choices." This quote packs a punch.
This makes absolutely no sense, and "one begets the other." It is an Islamistic attempt for a coup d'état to destroy Western culture, Judeo-Christian values, and man's inalienable rights. I'd say, "nip this in the bud", but it's too late for that expression. The bud is already blooming. Destroy the entire garden.
Let us hope that Israel has already done much of the 'dirty work' with its 12 Day war, and the on going dismantling of Hezbollah and Hamas. The Telegraph reported today at Hamas official said that something like 95% of the leadership has gone.
I thought the 5 sheikhs emirates proposal in the WSJ was interesting. https://archive.ph/6FjaX in case you haven't seen it. If Israel is prepared to do this, then suddenly the 'Palestinian' cause brigade will have to find a new cause.
There are some people on the hard left (and the hard right for that matter) who will not be satisfied until they bring everything down. I honestly don't why they are that way, particularly as many only have ever lived in the West.
I love this solution! It is a very local one, based on historical tribal loyalties (and it exploits hatred of ‘Palestinian’ organizations and leaders who have only brought problems to locals). And it very clearly divides ‘Palestinians’ into those who are prepared to live with the existence of Israel and those who are not. Making it far easier to identify terrorists.
I thought it was innovative and certainly worth exploring. Fingers crossed. Palestine remains very tribal. The clans still do control quite a bit.
Thank you Michelle. I no longer read the WSJ. The article was "positively" interesting. I'm surprised the WSJ gave President Trump that amount of credit, where credit is indeed due. I understand why Prime Minister Netanyahu is proceeding with caution. I would love to finally see peace in the Middle East during my lifetime.
Wow. This gives me more hope for a peaceful solution than I have felt in a long time. Thank you, I will pass it on. I think Trump's action against Iran combined with the Israeli followup, showed the Arab world that now is the time to make a polar shift.
Politics makes strange bedfellows but Homos for Hamas is beyond absurd. Michel Houellebecq has a couple novels that address the issue head on. He may be my favorite contemporary novelist
I can’t wait to read this retort.
Please do share when you strike.
Will do.
You would imagine that publishers would do a better job investigating these memoirs. There have been so many exposed as frauds. Perhaps they make more from the controversy?
I'm surprised they are still looking for one of the 7/7 planners.
No I think there is a lot of credulity in publishing towards these sorts of stories. I suspect the commissioning editor desperately wanted to believe it to be true.
The White Widow is an interesting one isn't she? I suspect some of it was misogyny a bit like they discounted Agent Sonya re Fuchs.
You mispeled, "Good story, it'll sell," I fear.
"desperately wanted to believe it to be true"
That seems to be a common problem, not only in publishing but also in journalism and, unfortunately, since time immemorial, in human nature.
We are very quick to believe things that we WISH were true. As we've seen in recent years, some are determined to believe things are true, despite clear evidence to the contrary, simply because they want so badly for those things to be true.
It really is.
Magical thinking can cause huge difficulties.
Incredible. There have been so many high profile scams and liars in publishing these memoirs.
It is kind of insane that their hate preacher just gets a slap on the wrist. I mean, this guy....so much rotten fruit from that tree...
Apparently the memoir was marketed as 'unflinchingly honest'. I understand the writer was due to give a tutorial at some writing retreat this week and now will not be doing so. Surprise, surprise.
Lol!
You have to wonder why Raynor Winn/Sally Walker didn't just write the book as a novel. I guess she thought she could get away with it.
"It is the 20th anniversary of the 7/7 London bombings."
We were in Cornwall, about to head off to Bath, then Cambridge to visit a cousin there, and thence to London, when we heard the news.
London? London! When we finally got there, days later, streets near our hotel were closed, and having dropped the rental car at the airport, we took a cab that couldn't get to where it needed to go.
As soon as we could, we ventured forth and followed crowds to the Mall. There, we saw by the dozens elderly veterans in wheelchairs being pushed by young relatives, everyone young and old elbow to elbow, uncountable. WWII airplanes and then jets flew overhead.
Nothing but determined cohesiveness. A remarkable sight. I think I loved London more at that moment than I ever did before.
We did our usual walking about in the days after and took in the Victoria & Albert et al. We weren't afraid because, hey. We had September 11, and it wasn't as bad as the Blitz.
Poor London, riven now as it is.
We should remind all of those on the left that in 1979 they helped usher in the theocratic regime, who then turned around and murdered them a few years later in the din of the war between Iran and Iraq.
Those on the Left don’t want to be reminded of that! Of course, they SHOULD be, since it is very pertinent to their current embrace of Islamists.
Absolutely !
Good luck, Michelle. Seems Brits are not free to stump at Hyde Park as they could when your laws were an inspiration to us. Maybe the love of freedom will resurface.
I read your King's statement on the 7/7 bombings and am sickened. "tragic event" ummm, no I think it was a planned terrorist bombing carried out by home-grown Brits, not some act of nature or unpredictable occurrence. And as far as 'working together to build a society where people of all faiths and backgrounds can live together with mutual respect and understanding', I have it on good authority - the terrorists themselves! - that they have no interest in living together with Christians and native British. I am not a monarchist because one of his grandfathers would have happily hung one of my grandfathers (the one who ferried Washington's cannon's across the Delaware on Christmas eve!) but did admire QEII. Charles III has never put a foot right and continues to live in his fantasy New World Order, and while charming and whimsical decades ago, it is now dangerous.
ICA “not a monarchist” is an understatement. My favorite thing about the French is they killed their royalty. “All people treated equally” is our national creed.
And yet the French ended up in an even worse situation than before after they killed their royalty. Same thing happened when they killed Charles I in Britain.
We didn't have to kill any royalty to found this country. I think that made a tremendous difference. Once you cross the line of murdering people just because of their birth status, things fall apart quickly.
Treated equally after the slaughter and until the next one. Good luck.
The Observer story on the Walker/Winn duo is really great. A couple of grifters if ever there were grifters. Clearly Sally Walker is a con artist and her hubby is the ventriloquist's dummy!
I just read it as well! 100% grifters - I hope this story spreads like wildfire. Has Oprah or Reece optioned it for their book club? I would tune in for the James-Frey-esque grilling. It's the only time I've ever thought Oprah did anything worthwhile.
The story has legs. The movie has not opened in the US yet (apparently). The charity which had the couple as 'ambassadors' have dropped them. They are consulting lawyers. But I suspect the Observer had lawyers all over the story before they published it. https://archive.ph/3wK4i
They have now been dropped by a charity which supports people with neurological conditions like the one 'Moth' claimed to have suffered from. This story is going to run for awhile. Apparently they are consulting lawyers but the Observer would not have published if they did not have proof which could stand up in court.
https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/salt-path-raynor-winn-embezzlement-vsf8c7wt6 or https://archive.ph/3wK4i
The actor playing the young soldier who sang Hey, Mama, Look Sharp later landed the lead in the ‘so bad it was good’ film, “The First Movie Musical,” which effectively ended his acting career.
You’d never think it was the same guy.
Always interesting to see what happens to people. Hey Momma, Look Sharp was certainly a show stopper.
William Daniels who played Adams went to play the lead in some long running tv series about a hospital. And the actor who played Jefferson played the coach in some tv series about basketball. Going off memory.
Quite rousing. Vigorously shook me out out of my groggy morning fog! I couldn't help but fast forward in my mind to Adams and Jefferson's later difficulties with the Jihadists.......
John Adams is my favorite Founding Father. His 1,000 and Abigail’s 2,000 letters transport one to the background of building the Declaration of Independence. I continue to be amazed that our country was founded and continues to live despite very dangerous events.
America has been amazingly resilient for sure!
I really enjoyed the book Friends Divided by Gordon Wood. It covered the correspondence between Adams and Jefferson in their later years. They didn’t agree with each other all the time but they respected each other. We need more of that in these times.
Yes, they agreed to disagree. Thank you gor the recommendation.
It's even more impressive when you read about the election campaign of 1800. Oh, it got nasty.
Events can be addressed -- and have been! Still to be determined: Whether loss of morality and religion -- as in "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people..." -- is survivable.
Yes, they agreed to disagree. Thank you for the recommendation.
Yes after years of contentious political differences. It’s a hopeful story for today.
And he has been debated by so many because of the alien and sedition acts. Funny how things don't change all that much.
As Mark Twain said “history rhymes”.
Debased.
Thank God for such men as John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, James Madison, Nathaniel Greene, Thomas Jefferson and so many more unnamed individuals who had the courage to found and fight for a new country based on the idea that all men are created equal and have an inherent right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
For God's sake, John, sit down
With very few exceptions, everywhere had kings 249 years ago. It's really hard to imagine what a leap the Declaration and more so the Constitution were. These things had literally never been done before. So to answer 249-year-ago Mr Adams, "Very few, if any."
👍👍
I have a vague memory of that musical but my mental bandwidth is overwhelmed with Texas flood stories. A guy I know from high school died. Many friends lost loved ones and homes. My college girlfriend attended Camp Mystic for three summers and we’ve been texting. It’s almost a rite of passage for a certain kind of Texas girl. Texas Monthly has a spot on article about it from 2011 that quotes one of my ex students who is a counselor. Fortunately my land was unaffected but we have 50% chance of rain today so it’s not quite over. The water rose 25 feet in 45 minutes. Nothing and no one could have done anything. Mother Nature wins again. Have a nice week.
Much like NC and Helene, you can see it coming but can't really comprehend the devastation that awaits. Sorry to hear about your friend.
Except that most victims saw nothing coming. Others had a few minutes notice. They went to bed on a dry July 03 with weather saying rain possible. Maybe 3 inches, but uncertain where it would fall. Switched to flood warnings some time around midnight. Many were awakened by water washing over their beds.
That weather was ultimately the remnants of Barry that made its way from the Pacific into the Gulf and then eventually to inland Texas. Texas knows what that kind of weather can do and a stalled out system can be hard to predict. I don't know why more action wasn't taken and that it all happened in the middle of the night makes it all that much worse. Even being warned, it's hard to imagine what that kind of devastating weather can do. I know from experience. So very sad.
I am very sorry for your loss.
Thanks J but I didn’t know the guy well. My high school was one where “everyone knew everyone” and his family owned a popular burger joint as well as ranch land. And I hadn’t heard from my “first love” ex in a while so that is a small upside in a grim situation.
Sorry for your loss and the difficulties. I can’t imagine how your community is feeling after this tragedy. Everyone has to pull together and lean on each other.
But I have to ask a question, I’ve already been accosted by the NYT rage machine about the cause for this. As you would expect, the media is spinning this narrative as being caused by the cuts Trump put in place during DOGE. Some locals near the river are on record, or this was a deep fake, not getting an alert on their phones. Can you share some local insights as the media sphere on this one is polluted with noise on both sides. TIA.
TwiX is full of Leftists dancing (figuratively) on the graves of children and/or blaming Trump, even though any cuts have yet to take effect.
The NWS brought on MORE people for predicting. this event - 5 not the usual two. And the best thing people can do is have one of those radios that give warnings. Many don’t
NWS ?
National weather service
Thank you.
Test
Hi Brian- my main info comes from a college group with whom I have an almost daily text chain. One of their frat brothers clung to a tree for hours and his wife is missing, I’ve been told an NWS alert went out at 1am but the flash flood began at 4am with 20 plus inches of rain in 45 minutes. However there is NO actual local alert system on the Guadalupe River despite it being a flood prone area, whatever ad hoc systems locals used in the past couldn’t handle the rapidity and intensity of the rain.
Thank you and know that folks outside of Texas are praying for those in harms way.
Everyone’s thoughts and prayers are appreciated. I’m still getting texts so I’ll update any new data tomorrow.
Thanks for the update, PoetKen. My wife and I lived outside of Dallas for a year when I was on a project back in the ‘80s. We went through one cycle of spring floods. It was eye-opening. The water quickly establishes its primacy over man’s efforts to control it. I was shuttling weekly between Dallas and Houston and seeing the flood waters from the air is one of my most vivid memories of our stay.
Not to be nosy... but was it a Barnett Shale Project?
Haha! Nothing so exciting. My firm was designing an accounting system for oil and gas extraction royalties. Lots of wells pumping lots of petroleum through lots of pipes into lots of storage tanks all owned by even more individuals, partnerships, and companies, and all of them expecting a check! After a year of flying back and forth every week it became clear something had to change or we’d never get pregnant, so I found a more reasonable job. 😊
Ken i am very curious how much attention the vile comments from the Houston political woman ( regarding the white Christian girls who died) or the female doctor who said the trump voters got what they deserved and said bless their hearts. These are evil people. Period.
Hi CS it’s in our news feed and no true Texan would say such callous remarks. There’s a political and economic element as the campers tend to come from the upper middle class professionals or landed gentry types.
My question of the weekend was why on earth nobody in Texas, especially Texas, thought the camping young girls deserved the rules of "fire watch," which they apply for their soldiers?
There had been a flash flood warning given hours before, so it would seem logical—especially considering that the camp had suffered a similar flooding incident back in the 80s—that some of the counselors should have remained awake and on watch. We may yet find out that they did, when all the circumstances are discovered.
The biggest problem is that the water rose 26 feet in 45 minutes. That would have given very little time to evacuate, even if a watchman realized quickly that the water was coming up VERY fast and that there was no way to know how high it would go. Waking everyone up would take time, and organizing an evacuation would take time. Apparently even the highest parts of the camp were flooded. I’m not sure that, even in the best conceivable scenario, there would not have been lives lost.
You're right, Celia. It could have all still gone bad. What I want to hear, and maybe will, that children's summer camps everywhere are required to have "fire watch." You'd think somewhere, with all the reporting, if they had "fire watch," it would be mentioned, effective or not.
I think in most cases, unless some danger is anticipated, it would be impractical to have adults who stay awake all night.
Considering that they are still trying to locate all the people who were at the camp, I’m not surprised that they have not gotten a full picture of what happened yet. Nor, I think, would local people be eager to place blame in a situation that was so sudden and so dire. Indeed, the only people who have a right to try to place any blame are the parents of the deceased girls.
Mr Karg I certainly wasn’t offended by your comments as I know you meant well. Knowing what I do about Camp Mystic (not sure you saw but my college girlfriend of six years attended 3 years as a child), it’s a 100 year old tradition that emphasizes teaching girls the kind of “Texas skills” you can imagine. Its sterling reputation and the multigenerational nature of many attendees probably lulled the mostly prosperous urban families who send kids there into a false sense of security. If their mothers went, then they went, how could their own daughters not be safe there? Mr Eastland the owner literally drowned trying to save some campers. It’s also pretty rugged and inaccessible terrain “The Hill Country”. As Celia and others noted, this once in a century event overwhelmed the standard coping mechanisms (though we do seem to be hearing about “once in a century” weather events with alarming frequency). While it may not be anthropogenic clearly the climate IS changing (and always has) so as more moisture saturates the atmosphere, it has to fall somewhere.
My mother, born (in 1911) and raised in the Hill Country, shared many terrifying tales of sudden storms and wild weather. It seemed to me, as a child, that she must have spent half her own childhood on a roof or in a storm shelter.
When we decided to leave California, we never even considered Texas because of my mother’s graphic memories.
I will never forget how Robert Caro began the first volume of his LBJ biography. He described the average day of a Hill Country housewife before electrification. It was brutal.
I agree, Celia. Flood waters moving that fast (5 feet every 10 minutes) would inundate the camp buildings very quickly, carrying debris that would act as battering rams. It surely resulted in chaos and panic with little chance to organize an escape. And to where? When the rushing water was a foot deep it would be difficult for an athletic adult to navigate in the dark. It’s so sad.
From what I understand, even the highest tent sites were flooded. Trying to get children uphill in the dark is a challenge all its own. When you get to the top of the hill and the water is STILL coming up, what do you do then?
Never heard of it. Googled it. Apparently applies to buildings with sprinkler systems when the system is down for a period of time. I don’t know what you mean by Texas’ soldiers. I fail to see any application whatsoever of your obscure reference to our tragedy.
Next time you become indignant at someone’s failures, please take a beat before slinging this kind of thing. You may not be as smart as you think you are. You may not be as humble as you need to be.
We have made mistakes. They will be addressed. My opinion is that there is not much room for this right now.
I understand. My opening comment wasn't specific enough. I wasn't looking for blame. In all the reporting, I just wanted to see some mention of precaution taken, whether it worked or not. I think of Texas as a rather military friendly State, and I met so many from there, during my military service. In the military, we never went to sleep without somebody on watch. And, maybe they did have somebody on watch, and the precaution failed. I raised a daughter who attended camp, and I really relate to the seemingly helplessness of at all. I'm sorry my clumsy comment offended.
I attended Girl Scout camp as a pre-teen. I don't think we ever had adults who stayed awake and on guard. There was no reason to. We had an adult in each tent who was responsible for the girls in that tent.
I understood your comment, Michael. I heard your voice, I felt your emotion. I also hear emotion in the person who replied to you. We, who respect life, are often filled with emotion when confronted by tragedies such as this, and when we say what we feel, it often can be misconstrued. I’m glad to see your apology, it reinforces what I already know about you: you’re a good person.
Horrible people are celebrating the death and destruction in Texas, posting comments in social media ridiculing Texans, telling them they deserved this, that God is punishing them for being conservative, for voting MAGA while others are saying that MAGA Christians are being shown that there is no God and that they are stupid fools for their faith. Their hatred is what we really should recognize, their performance is the price of ideological capture. It’s how Jews were murdered in the Nazi Genocide, and how millions were murdered by Communists in Soviet Russia, China, Cuba, Cambodia, and many other places where a rigid, orthodox ideology was imposed by authoritarians. We have to recognize what’s happening here and in the West, and oppose it where we see it, unmask it, and condemn it as unacceptable.
JA those folks can ridicule us all they want but I doubt most of them could survive what is still the often raw and unforgiving Texas landscape. Fierce self reliance was and remains essential in rural Texas in ways that make Emerson and Thoreau at Walden pampered fops by comparison.
Good question. Michael Shellenberger published an excellent article, which basically notes that the obsession with the "climate change" agenda and its spending on ridiculous things that don't solve anything, has taken away resources that should have been used instead on developing more climate resilience, such as flood evacuation routes, dams, etc. Let's hope that the climate cult will end soon and that more investment will be made in climate resilience, going forward. That said, deaths due to weather-related disasters do continue to decline on the whole. Here's the article: https://www.public.news/p/climate-journalists-are-in-the-grip
I call climate resilience “adaptation.” I’ve done a lot of reading on the topic and Michael Shellenberger’s book as well. I agree that too much emphasis on carbon reduction is made at the cost of ignoring adaptation. Like, why build a building on a coast when it gets hits by hurricanes every so often ? Stuff like that. Thanks for sharing this link. I will watch it later.
Or why buy a $12 million oceanfront home on Martha's Vineyard when you've been yammering on about the rising oceans you promised to lower during your 2008 presidential campaign?
🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯
That's another of the (many) things that have convinced me that the Warmists are not serious people. From the very beginning of this, there's always been the possibility that Climate Change is unstoppable (as it always has been, in Earth's history), regardless of what we puny humans attempt to do about it. The complete lack of interest in making adaptations to a changing climate is horrifyingly irresponsible, if the Warmists actually believe what they say.
I like that song, and vaguely remember the musical when it came out.
It’s remarkable to me that a Broadway musical celebrating America’s founding in such a patriotic way could’ve been made in 1969 and have a run of 1,217 performances, then be reprised on film.
Remember 1969? The country was deeply divided over Vietnam, so much so that LBJ had essentially abdicated, and the Democratic convention in Chicago had been a chaotic mess leading up to Nixon’s election in late 1968. MLK, Jr and RFK had been assassinated. The cops were pigs, the media had turned against the war, sit-ins were occurring on campuses, bleeding heart liberals were ascendant in Congress (Allard Lowenstein, George McGovern) and commentary, militants like the Black Panthers made common cause with wealthy white liberals like Lenny Bernstein (Tom Wolfe’s “Radical Chic” came out in 1970), and illegal drugs had become mainstream.
And yet, that stage production, followed a few later by the movie, were released and were well-attended. The traditional, patriotic spirit was mostly latent, but very much alive.
The original musical won Tony awards and has been revived multiple times on Broadway. Interestingly, the latest revival, in 2022, had a cast that was entirely female, trans, and “non-binary.” Go figure.
The play does offer some sops to the Left. The song “Hey, Hey, Mama, Look Sharp” and the surrounding dialogue draws bleak attention to the fact that young men die in wars. And “Cool Considerate Men” was such a condemnation of Conservatives that it was removed from the film before it was released (although the tale of Nixon requesting that seems to be spurious, since it was not screened at the White House before release).
“Cool Considerate Men” should not have been cut. It was included in the last DVD issue and is an important part of the whole.
I remember it well. “Radical Chic” to this day resonates strongly and is dead-on as a description of the left’s inability to think clearly and their infatuation with virtue signaling.
You should see it again: it holds up remarkably well. Informative and entertaining, with remarkable, invested performances from the entire cast.
Good morning but too jetlagged to respond intelligently. Didn't get home until almost 2 am. Reading Rick Atkinson's great history of the middle years of the Revolution. I highly recommend it. It's a long slog but wonderfully written. Helped to pass the hours on the long flight back. Btw I can highly recommend Austrian Airlines. Really professional bunch.
Welcome home!
I'm reading that book now, too, and enjoying it. I do get a little weary of his use of arcane words. I don't mind needing to look up and learn new words once in while, hopefully I'll retain some of them. I spent my early years through mid-teens right around where the Battle of Monmouth happened and wish I had learned more about it back then, so I could have appreciated the landscape of the battle while I was in it.
I'd be remiss if I didn't pass this along. I've been reading and listening to Betz a lot lately:
https://www.hungarianconservative.com/articles/interview/hungary_-stupid-wars_west-russia-ukraine_peace_david-betz_interview/
Does anybody see what I see ?
That’s a very frustrating place to be for sure.
Thankfully he stayed the course and a compromise was made.
Like all compromises, this one was masterful.
Lincoln settled the one major point that was excluded from the Declaration of Independence during the Civil War 85 years later.
What comes to mind for me is the compromise that the Jews made in 1948 by agreeing to the small state that was offered to them.
The future would then resolve some of this compromise.
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/new-palestinian-offer-peace-israel-hebron-sheikh-emirate-36dd39c3?mod=hp_opin_pos_1
This is good news Indeed if it’s comes to pass.
Thank you, I’ve seen reports of this on X. I am waiting for my friends in Israel to comment. Should be interesting. Makes good sense. It’s so bizarre to me in the West to learn about local tribes and leaders of such tribes having such power. We eliminated tribes when we adopted the national state back at the Treaty of Westphalia.
John Adams defended British soldiers who fired at protestors at the Boston Massacre.
Admas was with Franklin in France at the same time. Franklin learned French in the bedrooms of Paris while Adams learned French by reading elegiac poetry. I think that says alot about Adams.
My favorite song : From Molasses to Rum to Slaves( the character singing was Rutledge I believe). The words capture so much of the proceedings and difficulties. And one can argue as did Rutledge hypocrisy
That song was my most vivid memory of the movie after I saw it for the first time back in high school. It's interesting that Rutledge--as per the lyrics of the song--has zero illusions about the horrors of the slave trade, while at least some of his listeners have clearly had plenty of illusions. The song is only cut off when someone can't take it anymore: "For the love of God, Mr. Rutledge!"
Yes. You memory is superb
My son played Rutledge in a school play so I am perhaps more focused than most. 😀
I am not a historian but I absolutely love history and especially listening to great historians. Last week either Poet Ken or Lanny ( i think - if wrong my apologies) mentioned HW ( Bill) Brands. Brands is my favorite American history author/professor. I met him two or so decades ago in san Antonio at a tax conference ( I was a speaker and he was our guest speaker at our speakers dinner). He had just written Age of Gold ( about the gold rush and how it changed America and the world). He was mesmerizing bringing it all to.life. He handed out autographed copies to all. FYI the discussion of the transcontinetal railroad alone is worth the read
Subsequently I read other brand books and watched his television series on the men who made America. If you haven't seen it ( or read the book that was the basis for the show) both are worth your while
I am.now going to buy one or two of his newer books as I expect they will be fabulous like all the others. Thank you Ken or Lanny for the post.
Prime day sale $0.99
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - written in 1776!
https://a.co/d/fzGnd8V
It’s going to take a while to get through.