William Calley

William Calley died in April.   

During the Vietnam War, Calley led his army platoon into the village of My Lai, where the Americans raped and killed 504 civilians. 

Calley was tried for war crimes, convicted and sentenced to life in prison, but President Nixon, a weird creep, let him off. 

Calley went on to lead a normal life, unlike the 504 he'd murdered. He eventually apologized for the massacre.  He was probably sincere.     

ters) - William Calley, who during the Vietnam War led his U.S. Army platoon into the Vietnamese hamlet of My Lai and carried out one of the worst war crimes in American military history, has died, according to media reports. He was 80.

The Washington Post on Monday first reported Calley's death, which happened in April, according to a death certificate the newspaper cited. The New York Times, citing Social Security Administration death records, also reported Calley's death.

Neither paper reported a cause of death. Calls to numbers listed for Calley's son, William L. Calley III, were not returned.

American soldiers killed 504 people on March 16, 1968, in Son My, a collection of hamlets between the central Vietnamese coast and a ridge of misty mountains, in an incident known in the West as the My Lai Massacre. The killings shocked the U.S. and galvanized the anti-war movement.

Fecundity

I'm somewhat confused by J. D. Vance's proposal that humans who do not give birth should pay higher taxes. It might be his way of helping out a girl who becomes pregnant after being raped. Vance would lower her taxes. But men like me (I have never given birth) would end up paying extra. I'm not sure that I can support that. 

The GOAT of Popular Music

Maybe the most successful popular song ever, recorded more than 1,400 times in the last hundred years, is "Stardust" by Hoagy Carmichael. 

I knew a woman Carmichael once tried to pick up in a bar in 1937. 

Someone else added lyrics to Carmichael's melody, lyrics focused on which of the options below?

1. The singer's mother

2. Dreams

3. A death in World War One

4. A different song

5. A lost love

   

The Attack Is Coming

JD Vance has launched the early MAGA attack on Kamala Harris. Republicans have begun to denounce her as a weak, uppity woman of color, a mix of Asian and Black. 

Granted, that will invigorate the MAGA base, but it may alienate others, including some voters who prefer racism to be unspoken. 

 

Comma-law

Some Democrats complained this morning that Republicans deliberately mispronounce the first name of Kamala Harris. Probably true. Republicans deliberately miscall the name of the Democratic Party and so on. It's a dipshit's form of virtue signaling. 

But the Democrats went on to mispronounce "Kamala" themselves. 

It's been hard for me to keep the name straight, but I finally noticed that "Kamala" sounds like the name of a punctuation mark, the comma. 

Harris

To politicians expert at counting votes (Pelosi). Biden's stepping down today must have seemed inevitable. Elevating Harris was also inevitable--not elevating her would have cost the Democrats about a third of their votes. 

Biden's faltering voice and walk meant that he could not campaign and win. Not complicated. He was disabled. And that was concealed from us for months, maybe years. 

Remind Me

Remind me, is Trump for or against earmarks?

Biden?

 The current political question is "Can Biden beat Trump? What are the odds?" My sense is that, if you are an optimist, the odds are 50-50.

That is not good enough, given that the we are betting on the survival of western civilization.

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Deep Stupidity

Vending machines selling ammunition have been installed in grocery stores in Alabama and Oklahoma.

Stupid does more harm than evil. 

Whispering

At no point in my life have I wanted Joe Biden to run for President. Why would I? I did vote for Biden once (when he ran against the Orange Turd).

If you look at what Biden was like five years ago, well, in those days he had air in his lungs. He wasn't whispering. His stride was a yard long. 

Now the Democrats face the electorate with a weak smile, hoping to be liked. Their opponent is a felon, a rapist, a lunatic, but somehow the faltering Democrats have become the issue. They blame this on the news.

If you don't like the news,  make bigger news. 

And nominate candidates most voters will like at first sight.  Remember JFK and Obama? That's the ticket. 

Almost 90

I am so old that I remember back when we were all subject to the same laws. 

Them vs. Them

Some wars are us against them. Others are them against them. 

In most wars both sides lose.