WAR GAMES
“War is nothing more than a catalogue of mistakes and misfortunes.” –Winston Churchill
** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * **
It’s funny– well, not literally funny — how one thing can lead unexpectedly to another. I’m half-way through another biography….but, unlike the others I’ve been reading recently, this one has led to the sort of post I didn’t anticipate writing when I began reading it.
Its title is THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MOON (A BIOGRAPHY OF DAVID NIVEN) by Sheridan Morley. NIVEN (1910-83), as you may know, was an American actor who was born/raised in England and came to the U.S. in 1932. When WW II broke out in Europe, he returned to England to serve in the military. In 1941 he wrote a letter to a fellow British-born actor friend back in Hollywood, part of which I quote here from the book:
Thank God we have now got a real government and in Churchill a real leader at last, but there is going to be a little scalp-hunting when the smoke has cleared off the battlefields. I am unimportant, but besides cousins and relations, I have now lost practically all my old friends, and all in the past few weeks….they need never have been sacrificed if the people then at the top had been doing their jobs as well as they said they were doing them [emphasis mine].
Sound familiar? Today, with the corona virus, we have a different kind of world war, but the same (and even more lame) kind of sophistry, gas-baggery, and incompetence resulting in unnecessary casualties:
And so I ask you: How on earth does the most morally corrupt President in U.S. history not belong behind bars or in a mental institution rather than in the White House? How is it, after 3 1/2 years of reigning the swamp, that roughly 40% of the American people either cannot, or will not, see through this pathetic con man of a President — a President who thinks he is not only above the law, but thinks he IS the law, who tries to subvert the law to his own ends? Are his supporters deaf, dumb and blind….or simply incapable/too much in denial to look behind the curtain and see that the mighty Oz is the very hoax he labels all that exposes him?
Come November 3, we must turn from the dark side to the other side of the moon, or America will have surrendered all claim to being the “beacon of hope” for the world.
The Observation Post 
Rivergirl 8:51 am on July 6, 2020 Permalink |
I have no answers. His appeal to the right, and their unwavering support of him is mystifying.
LikeLiked by 4 people
equipsblog 9:00 am on July 6, 2020 Permalink |
Amen. I agree with what Rivergril said.
LikeLiked by 4 people
BACK ROADS AND OTHER STORIES 10:12 am on July 6, 2020 Permalink |
It’s mind boggling how this can go on for so long. I hope November will bring change!
LikeLiked by 3 people
Yeah, Another Blogger 11:51 am on July 6, 2020 Permalink |
Hi. Many times on your blog I’ve slammed Trump. I once said this, and it remains true: Trump is an enemy of democracy. Ditto for anybody who supports him.
Neil Scheinin
LikeLiked by 3 people
mistermuse 5:18 pm on July 6, 2020 Permalink |
It is to the Senate Republicans’ shame that it took this pandemic — and thousands of lives — to bring Trump down (assuming he is defeated Nov. 3). If they had voted to impeach him when they had the chance, Pence would probably have become President and, as a former governor, would likely have been more inclined to listen to the states pleas for federal help. Or not.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah, Another Blogger 6:06 pm on July 6, 2020 Permalink
Here’s the thing: Trump is evil. This was obvious to me way before he took office. If he wins in November, he will do far more damage in his second term than he already has.
LikeLiked by 1 person
mistermuse 10:53 pm on July 6, 2020 Permalink
I agree. It was obvious when he was just one of many Republicans running for the nomination that he was evil. More recently, it has become obvious that he is a mental case: a bad man and a mad man rolled into one. God (or fate) help us.
LikeLiked by 1 person
pendantry 12:15 pm on July 6, 2020 Permalink |
One thing I find mighty peculiar is that every post about Trump that I read on WordPress has much the same to say about this obnoxious, egotistical, narcissistic windbag, yet he clearly has many supporters. I guess that there are very few, if any, of his followers on this platform… but that would seem odd.
LikeLiked by 1 person
mistermuse 5:53 pm on July 6, 2020 Permalink |
Maybe Trump’s followers have too limited a vocabulary for WordPress. They’re more accustomed to the grade school bombast of Trump on Twitter.
LikeLiked by 1 person
pendantry 5:59 pm on July 6, 2020 Permalink
… I nearly said something like that (but more acerbic)… but restrained myself.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Paulie 1:25 pm on July 6, 2020 Permalink |
Trump certainly BELONGS behind bars but the system failed. I guess that the framers never saw it coming; a Senate that would, in a brazen act of partisan politics, essentially abdicate it’s responsibility when it came to an impeachment trial. As for the 25th amendment, the reverend Mike Pence would no more move to declare Trump incapable than he would covet his neighbor’s wife.
As it stands now, the system is too cumbersome and too dependent on politics and will never, ever be changed. I would be shocked to see a new amendment during my lifetime but there has to be some mechanism introduced that can address the crisis of an incompetent president.
As for the 40%, I’ve stopped trying to figure it out. In 2017 I read three books to try and gain some understanding as to why people voted for Trump and I suppose that I did gain some small insight. Why Trump still has any support beyond 10% (because we’ll never rid ourselves of the tinfoil hat faction) is completely beyond me. I guess I’ll never know because I’ve cut ties with anyone who supports Trump. That’s with the exception of some cousins and I simply don’t discuss it with them.
In any other occupation, Trump would be fired for failing to do his job and/or creating a hostile work environment.
Right now we are limping towards January and god knows what Trump will do between November and January as a lame brain (er duck) president.
LikeLiked by 3 people
mistermuse 6:03 pm on July 6, 2020 Permalink |
I see that Trump’s approval rating is now down to 37% in one poll (Gallup, if I recall correctly). Some of that 40% is apparently starting to erode, but I’m not counting my trends before they’re matched (by other polls)..
LikeLike
Rosaliene Bacchus 3:59 pm on July 6, 2020 Permalink |
As I see it, our minds are very malleable, making us easy prey for those who seek to manipulate and control our beliefs and behavior. We are all susceptible. We are all under mind control of some form or the other, for example, think of our consumption habits. Our 45th president has successfully managed to capture and hold a particular mindset among us.
LikeLiked by 1 person
mistermuse 6:43 pm on July 6, 2020 Permalink |
I think that is true in one sense, Rosaliene, but only to the point (for many of us) where minds become made up and set in concrete for the rest of our lives (like Trump). Meaningful malleability requires an openness to (and weighing of) challenges to what we have been indoctrinated or conditioned to believe….which, I suppose, is just a fancy way of describing GROWTH or MATURITY. All I know is I’m not the same person I was in my 20s and 30s — but that’s another story for another day.
LikeLiked by 1 person
obbverse 4:33 pm on July 6, 2020 Permalink |
His followers are deaf dumb and blind. Even worse, wilfully pig-headedly so.
LikeLiked by 2 people
mistermuse 5:31 pm on July 6, 2020 Permalink |
I like your your word “pig-headedly” — between that and “gas-baggery” in my post, we may be starting a whole new lexicon-ery.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Elizabeth 5:11 pm on July 6, 2020 Permalink |
Gov. Cuomo today appropriately called him out for enabling the pandemic. That sadly is too true.
LikeLiked by 1 person
mistermuse 5:35 pm on July 6, 2020 Permalink |
Gov. Cuomo is almost as good at ‘telling it like it is’ as Trump is at telling it like it isn’t.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Elizabeth 5:36 pm on July 6, 2020 Permalink
He just flat out said “Trump lies.” Very refreshing compared to the toadies around Trump.
LikeLiked by 2 people
calmkate 6:53 pm on July 6, 2020 Permalink |
If British incompetency lost a few of Nivens family … we wont try to count the number of Aussies they slaughtered! Landing them in the wrong place eg Gallipoli, etc … we were sent in first sheep to the slaughter …
He says what they want to hear and fear renders them deaf dumb and blind …
LikeLiked by 3 people
mistermuse 11:29 pm on July 6, 2020 Permalink |
When I was growing up, American (and I assume British) history books were written as if our political and military leaders were almost uniformly great and noble figures and our countries acted in good faith in almost all cases. Hopefully we’ve learned our lesson and Trump will go down in history as the worst of the worst.
LikeLiked by 1 person
calmkate 3:41 am on July 7, 2020 Permalink
lol all our history books need rewriting, massive correction … let’s see how your election goes …
LikeLiked by 1 person
masercot 12:43 pm on July 7, 2020 Permalink |
Niven wrote a book called “The Moon’s a Balloon”. What is it with him and the Moon and Balloons?
LikeLiked by 1 person
mistermuse 7:03 pm on July 7, 2020 Permalink |
Niven’s 1971 memoir THE MOON’S A BALLOON was originally to be titled THREE SIDES OF A SQUARE, but was changed due to a title conflict….and the biography THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MOON was written after Niven’s death. The only other “moon” connection with Niven I’m aware of is his role in the 1953 film THE MOON IS BLUE, which was considered so risqué at the time that it was refused the seal of approval by the Motion Picture Production Code. I haven’t finished reading the biography, so perhaps there is more ‘moonshine still’ to be uncovered.
LikeLiked by 1 person
mlrover 6:30 am on July 9, 2020 Permalink |
Haven’t heard about the “Moon” book but read Niven’s Bring on the Empty Horses years ago. I respected him for going home to fight for his country, unlike John Wayne, who wriggled out of the war and later showed his disloyalty to his colleagues by promoting McCarthy. It’s one of those ironic instances when a coward and a gasbag was made into an American hero. A friend of mine made a movie with him and had his heart broken when he discovered the “true” Wayne.
On another note, I LOVE gasbaggery!
LikeLiked by 1 person
mistermuse 8:51 am on July 9, 2020 Permalink |
One of the reasons I like biographies and autobiographies is that that they often reveal another side of famous contemporaries the writer knew. Of course, it’s prudent to be aware that opinions of others are only as good as the character and judgment of the writer (who, for example, would believe anything Trump says, good or bad, about anyone?).
I appreciate that you love “gasbaggery.” That helps me feel better about the dreadful “moonshine still” that I pun-ished masercot with in my reply to his comment. 😉
LikeLike
FOTOROTO 1:10 pm on October 19, 2020 Permalink |
“It is most important to attract neutral shipping to our shores, in the hopes especially of embroiling the United States with Germany.”
— Winston Churchill
LikeLiked by 1 person
mistermuse 9:31 pm on October 19, 2020 Permalink |
Churchill was fighting for the very survival of his country. If that be a sin, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.” –Jesus Christ
LikeLike
FOTOROTO 9:45 pm on October 19, 2020 Permalink
Defence is more than justified, but attacks are considered war crimes. Don’t you think it’s time to accept that he was a war criminal and racist?
“The Aryan stock is bound to triumph.”
— Winston Churchill
LikeLiked by 1 person
mistermuse 10:34 pm on October 19, 2020 Permalink
I accept that I’m not a Churchill scholar or expert. Having never heard that quote before, it would seem, on the face of it, that he was indeed a racist (though perhaps no more so than most of our ancestors, which does not excuse him). As for being a war criminal, I don’t know your basis for that charge, but if you’re putting him in Hitler’s class (which I’m not saying you are), I’d wonder where you’re coming from (ideologically).
In any case, I’m American, not English, and we have our own history to contend with.
LikeLike