Posse Incitatus

The Brazenness of the Left

In the past few years, we have been bombarded with the brazen, outrageous lies, political chicanery and actions of the progressive left.

The Russian collusion hoax followed by the impeachment charade, the Democrats' asinine claim that voter fraud exists only in Republicans' imaginations, plus flagrantly idiotic claims (e.g., riots are "peaceful protests" and right-wing militia nuts are the true urban anarchists), as well as shameful character assassination (e.g., Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings). These are vicious people, and they play for keeps.

Now, just days before the presidential election, Big Tech has joined the legacy media in practicing censorship while also sweeping things under the rug. We've known for decades that intolerance of other viewpoints is a staple of universities, as conservatives frequently are disinvited from speaking at commencements and other occasions, or shouted down should they attempt to speak. It's been apparent for a long time that the left doesn't tolerate dissent -- and this goes for individuals as well as institutions.

Try having a civil conversation with a leftist about issues on which you disagree. Usually, it's tough to do so, because condescension, name calling and the inevitable rolling of eyeballs take place. These people are immersed in imagery, emotion, idealism and feelings. Facts, history and rational thinking to them are like cold water poured on a person who's sound asleep underneath a warm blanket.

Several years ago, I remarked in one of my Posse postings that the tactics of leftist journalists had changed since way back in my younger days. It used to be they would slant stories with loaded language, and quote unbalanced sources presenting mostly one side of the story. Still, they were at least acknowledging there was another side to the story, even if they treated it dismissively.

But eventually, it got to the point where the press would totally ignore stories that didn't fit their narrative, while at the same time blowing minor things out of proportion and also reporting as fact unsubstantiated B.S. attributed to the ubiquitous "anonymous sources." Anyone with half a brain knows that the anonymous sources are either partisan hacks with an ax to grind, or (more likely) nonexistent -- a cover for fabricated bullshit.

Increasingly, major social media platforms including Twitter and Facebook, have become more strident in censoring conservatives and  conservative news stories. For the past few days, the platforms were prohibiting tweets and posts linking to a New York Post story alleging Hunter Biden and his father were on the take with Chinese and Russian politicians. Twitter locked the accounts of the New York Post and several White House staff members including Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany.

For years, Twitter and Instagram have employed a practice known as "shadow banning" in which the platform blocks a user's content without the user even being aware that his tweet or post is not getting out to a wide audience. Twitter has also been accused of taking away followers from popular accounts.

Republican senators are considering ways to rein in the platforms, including possibly repealing Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which shields social-media platforms from liability for user content. Many conservatives believe the Big Tech firms have hidden behind Section 230 as they censor conservative viewpoints.

And wouldn't you know, the Biden campaign, Democrats and even some in the media are claiming the New York Post story, which included sordid video of Hunter Biden using drugs and engaging in a sex act, is all a Russian disinformation campaign. Pathetic, but entirely predictable, as their obsession with RUSSIA!!! continues.

A little over a century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt (aka the "Trustbuster") dealt with oligarchs such as John D. Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan. Standard Oil, plus the railroad industry and Wall Street financiers clashed with Roosevelt. Today, the oligarchs are in Silicon Valley. The danger they pose is not so much financial, but totalitarian in nature.

If, Heaven forbid, Joe Biden wins the presidency, and the Democrats take control of the Senate, the massive progressive makeover will have been completed. Conservative talk radio will be shut down because it's supposedly "hate speech," and Big Tech will join newspapers and TV News as the propaganda arm of the Democrat Party.

Once Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia become states and four more Democrat senators are added, it's katy-bar-the-door. Open up the floodgates to third world immigrants (millions of whom will vote for Democrats in future elections); abolish the Electoral College (thereby disenfranchising over 100 million people); pack the U.S. Supreme Court with leftist justices so that SCOTUS serves as a rubber stamp for any and all legislation passed by a progressive Congress; and then get to work on shredding the U.S. Constitution.

The First Amendment will be first to go, because totalitarians do not tolerate dissent and generally are scornful and contemptuous toward religion. Then comes the Second Amendment. Heavy annual fees will be levied on owners of firearms (how does $500 per gun sound?), and the IRS will cow people into submission. I don't think these folks are stupid enough to attempt actual door-to-door confiscation, but one never knows.

These next few weeks and months are the hinges upon which the future of western civilization swings. If I sound alarmist, or you think I'm a kooky nut job, you haven't been paying attention.

Did Obama send the FBI after college basketball coaches because they broke his bracket?

The title of this post is only a little tongue in cheek.  The fact remains that while the FBI was studiously ignoring please from concerned citizens to stop a known lunatic from shooting up his school, they were continuing to focus on a much greater threat to the United States:

NCAA basketball.

Thanks to the tireless work of our diligent law enforcement experts, the NCAA was able to determine that Louisville was - get this - an NBA factory that paid to get its players.  The FBI provided the crucial missing evidence to get Louisville's 2013 banner taken away and the scandal also cost corner-cutting coach Rick Pitino his job.

All that for only 17 dead teenagers!  Quite the bargain.

Do I exaggerate?

I don't think so.  Investigative resources are finite.  The task of the leadership is therefore to prioritize among the competing claims for those resources.

For some strange reason, the FBI decided that the cozy relationship between athletic apparel makers, NBA talent scouts and big-time coaches comprised a criminal conspiracy to deprive the American people of good brackets come March.

One of those Americans was then-president Barack Obama.  He wasn't much interested in things like fleet readiness or the Chinese hacking into the Office of Personnel Management's files, but he was obsessed with March Madness.  Did one of the coaches under investigation break his brackets?

If we know one thing about Barack Obama it is that his pettiness knows no bounds.  We also know that FBI Director Jim Comey would do whatever was asked of him to curry favor with his boss.  The Secretary of State is auctioning off uranium for Russian donations to her foundation?  No problem.

Classified documents on an unsecure, unauthorized private server?  We'll fix that!  Comey's ethics were entirely situational.

I'm sure one might argue that some of the bigger basketball payments ran afoul of tax law, but that's where the IRS is supposed to come in.

Of course they were too busy harassing conservatives and stonewalling the resulting investigation, so they simply had no people to spare.

To put it another way - if he was willing to break the law to send the IRS to attack his opponents, why wouldn't he use the FBI to target teams he didn't like? 

And if the price was a few more dead bodies, why that would just make the case for gun control, wouldn't it?  I mean, it's not like his Justice Dept. covered selling guns to Mexican drug cartels, right?

 

Barbarians Fill the Vacuum

It has been clear for years that President Barack Obama has disdain for American exceptionalism, detests seeing our nation take a leadership role on the world stage, and has a child-like faith in the vaunted "international community" as the be-all and end-all for resolving conflict.

His administration, replete with superficial, simple-minded hacks, thinks it can influence a foreign power with silly Twitter hashtag campaigns. In his ivory-tower-addled mind, the president thought that simply withdrawing all of our troops from Iraq would mean our problems are solved; the war is over. He and his cult followers are for the most part completely ignorant of military history and not aware of how troops often must stick around for decades (e.g., Japan, Germany, Korea) to stabilize a nation and society years after a major war ends. (Or in the case of the Roman empire, troops occupied faraway lands for centuries to keep the subjects in their place.)

While it is true Iraq's corrupt and feckless government under Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki wanted American troops gone, a little more persistence and determination by the president in 2011 would have brought about a status of forces agreement and a longer-term commitment to stabilize the country. This would have been politically troublesome, especially with the 2012 election just around the corner. But when it comes down to a choice between principle and political expedience, the O-man will choose the latter all day, every day. It is disingenuous for the administration to act as if al-Maliki held all of the cards and we had no leverage, no choice but to succumb mildly to his demands three years ago and clear out.

We decided to cut and run, leaving a vaccum of leadership, an absence of security and a golden opportunity for Muslim extremists to claim more land and unite part or all of Iraq with the Sunni-dominated regions of Syria that are fighting against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), is the cancer that is wreaking havoc on northern Iraq.

Iraq is imploding, as ISIS perpetrates unspeakable acts of barbarism on its victims (beheadings, mass executions of Iraqi soldiers and roadside graves throughout northern Iraq). ISIS has also taken control of, or is threatening, several oil refineries. There's even the possibility of Iran sending in troops to fight against ISIS and protect Shia mosques. As the chaos unfolds, Obama lovers are bristling at the criticism coming their way.

The administration announced it is sending several hundred military advisors and trainers to Iraq, and is considering air strikes against ISIS. It is also seeking someone to replace al-Maliki’s failed government. Good luck with that.

It would be unwise for the United States to get deeply embroiled in a no-win situation in Iraq, just as it would have been to intervene in Syria. What we are seeing is simply an explosion of the centuries-old enmities between Sunni and Shia Muslims. One side isn’t better than the other, nor will either side care to help advance American interests. Even the Saudis, to whom we have sucked up for decades, have stabbed us in the back repeatedly with their support of madrasas and Wahabbism, an extremist form of Sunni Islam. In fact, having a hard-core Sunni- and al-Qaeda-backed government as an adjacent foil to Iran’s Shia theocracy may not be so bad after all.

One thing’s for sure: The Middle East is to the Obama administration’s competence level what an equation in string theory would be to a kindergartner. Not just out of their league; out of their galaxy.

Of all the stupid things this arrogant and petulant administration says and does, one of the most annoying is whining that opponents are "playing politics" or politicizing an issue. Whether it's Benghazi, the IRS, NSA spying, the failures of the VA health system or our possible involvement in the Syrian conflict, Obama's swarm of shallow, lightweight flacks and toadies always cry foul and go crying to their press lackies. And the toadies in the press are all too happy to carry the O-man’s water and defer to vacuous pie-in-the-sky concepts like the U.N. and the “international community.”

Methinks tens of millions of Americans are SICK AND TIRED of this bullcrap. Newsflash: If you're a politician, people are going to play politics! It's as absurd as an NFL running back complaining because defensive linebackers were rough when they tackled him. The bozos in the administration haven't a clue how pathetic they look.

Barack Hussein Obama will remain president for 2 1/2 more years, but for all intents and purposes, his legacy of gasbag braggadocio and abysmal failure ("all hat and no cattle," as Texans would say), is sealed. Virtually everything he touches turns to shit. The antithesis of the Midas Touch.

Iraq is damning testimony of that.

Remembering Greatness

These are difficult days in the United States for tens of millions of Americans. I am among the multitudes who are struggling, yet I still recognize how blessed I am to live in this great nation.

The freedom we enjoy, the liberties we too often take for granted, were achieved at a heavy cost in terms of blood and treasure. If I could wish one thing for our young people, it would be that they be aware and appreciative of how fortunate they are NOT to live under tyranny. May they fully realize our liberty and way of life is the exception, not the rule, in the course of human events (to use Jefferson's words). We are far more fortunate than most people who have ever walked the earth in terms of our standard of living and key freedoms -- of speech, religion, press and assembly, not to mention many other precious rights such as the right to bear arms.

Today we remember the greatness of those who gave their lives for that freedom. The greatness of their character, maturity, determination and sacrifice. We remember the suffering and dying, certainly. But we also recall with deep gratitude what these honorable citizens gave up for our sake: Family, security, safety, the warmth and comforts of home.

On Memorial Day 2014, untold numbers of Americans face daunting prospects in an awful job market and stagnant economy. Foreclosures, bankruptcies, crushing debt and despair are all too common. People who never would have dreamed of applying for food stamps or housing assistance are doing so. Many others lean on family members and relatives for help, hoping mightily that the idiots in Washington, D.C., will one day get a clue and do something useful before it's too late.

But the core elements of America -- liberty and individual autonomy, and all of the fruitful endeavors that result -- remain intact. Our institutions and government are often corrupt and dysfunctional, but the foundation has not been shaken. For that we can thank the hundreds of thousands of members of our armed forces who have served selflessly since the founding of our nation.

On this Memorial Day, as ever, we remember greatness, as exemplified by service and sacrifice.

 

 

 

Long Overdue Updates...

Like millions of other humanoids, I'm a procrastinator.

It took me a couple weeks to comment on Secretary of State John Kerry's April 25 statement about Israel and the Michigan State 2014 spring football game, played April 26. Additionally, I commented on the O'Bummer Administration's moronic Twitter campaign regarding Ukraine about four days after it happened.

Suffice it to say I've got things going on in my life --  in my marriage, my household duties, and in my professional life. Posse Incitatus is basically a hobby -- unpaid, generally unheralded, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Well, anyway, I've been plugging in a few items the past few days and decided to update some issues on which I've commented in the past. New developments have occurred, and this inconsistent blogger has been remiss in not bringing them to light. So here goes...

CHARGES IN MURDERS OF SUBURBAN DETROIT TEENS - In the summer of 2012 I penned a Posse blog describing the heinous murder of two Westland, Mich., teens in inner city Detroit. Two men were recently charged with murdering Jacob Kudla, 18, and Jourdan Bobbish, 17. One of the dirtbags, 23-year-old Felando Hunter, is already in prison for the murder of 62-year-old Vietnam War vet and Purple Heart recipient John Villneff about two weeks after the teens were killed. Villneff was trying to protect his granddaughter, who ran next door when Hunter and Fredrick Young (along with other thugs) were invading her home. She feared they were trying to kill her for filming the home invasion on a cell phone. Villneff lived with his sons, and his daughter and grandchildren lived next door. He put himself between the girl and the bad guys, and paid for it with a bullet in his heart. TheVillneffs' small bungalows are located in a dangerous west side Detroit neighborhood between the Southfield Freeway and Greenfield Road on the west and east, and Plymouth and Joy roads to the north and south. Like too many Detroit zones, this is a no-man's land of blight, drugs, crime and unsavory characters. It's sad that children have to grow up in such neighborhoods, but a cruel fact of life.

SPEAKING OF DETROIT...

On numerous occasions I have commented on the City of Detroit's travails, but I have made it clear I do not think the Motor City is a lost cause, despite the daunting odds it faces. 

A couple examples come to mind of entities that seemed at death's door but are now prospering. In 1970, ecologists declared that the polluted and toxic Lake Erie was dead. It seemed hopeless that the lake could be revived. But today it is thriving and supports multi-million dollar sportfishing and recreational industries while also serving as a key waterway for commercial shipping.

Example No. 2: New York City came within a whisker of filing for bankruptcy in 1975. Crime was rampant in the Big Apple. Central Park was a haven for muggers and drug dealers; Times Square was a tawdry marketplace for sleazy, drug-addicted prostitutes, flamboyant pimps and seedy peep shows. City officials had used deferred payments, IOU's, bonds and other types of accounting legerdemain to spend the city into oblivion. Eventually the chickens came home to roost.

But 40 years ago, President Gerald Ford didn't suffer irresponsibility gladly. Unlike the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Ford did not believe in bailing out corrupt losers. Who could forget the New York Daily News headline: "Ford to City: 'Drop Dead'"?

Long story short: After better years under Mayor Ed Koch in the 1980s and a relapse under Mayor David Dinkens in the 1990s, New York became financially and fiscally robust under mayors Rudolph Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg in the 21st century. 

The great news for Detroit comes in several pieces: First, the city's residents finally overcame their Eric Holder-like obsession with skin color and elected the first white mayor in 40 years. But the fact that Mike Duggan is white is not what's wonderful. It's the fact that he represented a much more responsible and sober choice to lead the city out of its doldrums than did his black opponent, former police chief Benny Napoleon, who simply would have continued the same old corrupt policies. Duggan is actually competent, is naming qualified people to fill key posts in his administration, and will hold people accountable. Granted, there will still be some patronage, nepotism and cronyism, as is inevitable with urban politics. But it appears the free-wheeling, rotten-to-the-core cesspool days of Kwame Kilpatrick have faded away in the rear-view mirror.

Secondly, Detroit sees a light at the end of the dark fiscal tunnel. Under the auspices of Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, the cty filed for bankruptcy last summer, just a few months after Snyder's appointed emergency financial manager, Kevyn Orr, began the arduous process of sorting out its tangled finances.

Snyder and the Michigan Legislature are doing their part to help with a Detroit bailout plan. Legislators are debating a 10-bill package that would, among other things, provide $195 million to Detroit's two retiree pension funds and protect the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) collection from creditors.  Private foundations have committed a matching amount and the DIA will kick in $100 million. As part of the deal, the city would be required to ditch its exorbitant defined benefit pension programs and offer 401k plans to employees.

One more bit of good news for Motown: JP Morgan Chase has just announced it is pumping $100 million into the city to help with blight removal, housing renovations, job training, entrepreneurial startup money, a planned streetcar rail line, and other initiatives. Michigan State University alum and Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert, who is buying up downtown Detroit skyscrapers and renovating/repurposing them, is involved in this effort.

 VA SCANDAL EXPLODES -- The Veterans Administration has long had a poor track record for caring for veterans in a compassionate and effective manner. While these problems preceded President Obama, his incompetent "leadership" has allowed them to worsen, and he only began to show his concern when he realized it was hurting him politically. Obama's appointee to head the VA, Eric Shinseki, obviously is in over his head and probably isn't long for the job as dozens of veterans' deaths have been blamed on delays and botched healthcare provided by VA hospitals across the nation. You know it's serious when even a fellow Democrat -- and a black one at that!-- lambastes the president on the House floor, as Georgia lawmaker David Scott did today. Ditto for a harsh expose by USA Today, normally sympathetic toward the administration. Shinseki was just another hack appointee being paid back for his opposition to the Iraq War and alliance with leftist Democrats. With bright, competent servants like this, who needs boobs?

OSAMA BIN LADEN IS DEAD, AND GM IS....DYSFUNCTIONAL -- Remember the pithy Obama cheerleaders' cry: "Osama bin Laden is dead and GM is alive!" Well, like 99 percent of the issues this administration deals with, the reality is far more complicated, nettlesome and nuanced than the dumbed-down slogans and talking points written by the Obama fanboys, a pathetic collection of toadies, ass-kissers and uber-egotists. (These hacks HAVE TO find a way to communicate with the sheep who voted for the O-man, you see.) Anyhoo, General Motors did get a bailout from Uncle Sam, much to the benefit of the UAW while investors got the shaft. But the bureaucratic bunglings of this monstrous corporation are being exposed in embarrassing fashion. "The General," as Detroiters sometimes call it, has now announced 29 recalls this year involving an incredible 12.8 million vehicles worldwide . Most notable are those involving faulty ignition switches thought to be responsible for 13 deaths and many injuries. Somehow it seems fitting that a maladroit administration, author of fiascos like Obamacare and Solyndra, would bail out a bungling corporate colossus. These two deserve each other!

 

And now a word from our (ex)sponsors

Being firm proponents of capitalism, we at the Posse are always willing to help people make some money, especially if we share in the profit.

So last year, we got a request to add a link to an online university in one of our archived posts.  It seemed innocuous, so we did, because they paid us.

Here's the post.

See if you can figure where the link used to be. 

I say "used to be," since they've now asked us to strip it out because Google or someone is on their trick.  I know what you are thinking, but have no fear:  the check cleared long ago.

Anyhow, I offer this not only in the spirit of total disclosure to our readers but also to note that online traffic is a dodgy thing.

Michigan will win the @#$! national championship

I've been busy with other writing projects for the past few weeks, but a respect for our readers compels me to place this marker:  U-M will win it all in hoops. 

Why?

Because it has been that kind of year.

Sympathy for the Fraud Five

The advent of warm weather has kept me far away from the computer – there is simply too much to do at the ranch.

However, I cannot let an article as perfect as this go by without comment:

Jalen Rose not 'bitter' over Michigan president's stance toward basketball era

What makes this article so beautiful is Rose’s utter lack of self-awareness.  He seems blissfully ignorant of the shame his actions and those of his teammates brought upon the University of Michigan, or why the university president may not want to celebrate his dubious “achievements.”

Rose was of course part of the “Fab Five,” a group of corrupt freshman basketball players who made it to the NCAA finals before losing at the last second to Duke.

Thus they failed to win either a conference or national title, but are still venerated in Ann Arbor because they wore baggy shorts.

The comments on the article are full of the usual sturm und drang, but once again I note that no one has fully addressed the real problem of the Fraud Five – that we do not know how far their corruption extended.

U-M “booster” and criminal mastermind Ed Martin died before the investigation was complete and many of his secrets died with him.  Martin was able to lavish money on the athletes thanks to the profits from his gambling operation and it is this element that Skunk Bear faithful never want to address.

You see, since Martin depended on profits from his gambling to pay the players, it would be a simple thing for one of them to shave a point here or there, or even offer a tip that a “sure thing” was not as sure as it looked.  One could even make money on the over-under or fail to make the spread on a blowout.  In short, there are lots of ways to “fix” a game short of throwing it.

I have no specific information, but it seems inconceivable to me that at some point one or more of these players did not try to compensate their benefactor by shaving a few points or otherwise boosting his haul from a bet.

Needless to say, none of the athletes would ever admit to this even now, as the damage to their reputation would be catastrophic.  Pete Rose remains banned from baseball for gambling and were it to emerge that any of the games of that era were even slightly influenced, a similar ban would likely be put in place, barring the Fraud Five not only from their alma mater, but also professional basketball as well.

The problem is that once one bears the taint of wrongdoing, no one is sure where it ends.

Jalen Rose has little credibility – and his teammates wisely are leaving the issue dormant.

Still, there is a case to be made for U-M restoring its squalid banners to the rafters of Crisler Arena.  After all, the Skunk Bears continue to tout themselves as the “winningest football program ever,” despite the fact that several of their early teams consisted entirely of non-student hirelings.

 A win is a win, and one could argue that the Wolverines would at least be consistent.

The Carrier Classic was brought to you by the Obama re-election campaign

Well, tough break for the Spartans.  They looked good for a while there, but the kids in the Powder Blue Argyll jerseys were too much.  After watching North Carolina take control I ceded control of the television and busied myself with gun cleaning.

Overall, it was a cool event and the pause for evening colors was great.

I was, however, a bit put-off by Presidet Obama showing up and basically taking things over.  What is it with this guy?

I'm trying to think of a recent president that would have walked down to center court and done a mini-election plug like that.  Even Bill Clinton would have been content to wave from the stands and acknowledge the crowd.

You see, it wasn't about him.

Yet our Narcissist-in-Chief acts like everything is better once he touches it.  When he started on the "that's why I've signed into law..." I couldn't believe it.  Absolutely no class.

As for the rest of the presentation, it was great.  And of course because he was the president, no one could tell him not to talk on a Navy ship.  Pure, unadulterated abuse of power to hijack an unrelated event - an event that had nothing at all to do with him.

To some folks, this is nitpicking, which is fine.  But it would be nice for those of us who are getting burned out on politics to be able to watch a freaking college basketball game without the president popping into tell us how great he is.

Enough already.

Veterans Day 2011

As always, the Posse offers deep thanks to our military veterans for their service.  Perhaps I was just inattentive, but it seems to me that more businesses are offering discounts and promotions for veterans than ever before.  This is a good thing.

Our nation is not only divided between the producers and consumers (or "makers" and "takers" but also between those who serve and those who do not - and will not.

I never liked all the flowery rhetoric about the World War II generation being the "Greatest Generation."  First off, every generation faces is challenges.  To say that this one or that one had more strikes me as the height of arrogant self-importance. That this label came from the Baby Boomer made it even more obnoxious.

When I think about important generations, I think about the parents of the "Greatest," the people born between 1890 and 1910.  They weathered slumps, two wars and ignited the greatest period of technological advancement in human history.  The leaps forward in medicine, communication, transportation - and even warfare - far exeeded anything before or since.

When war came, they went.  When the economy collapsed, they muddled through.  The World War II generation provided the footsoldiers for victory, but the architects came from this age group.

As everyone should know, today marks the anniversary of the culiminating moment of that earlier generation - the end of the World War I.  Back then they called it the Great War, the World War, the War to End All Wars.  It gets little attention here in the United States, but it lies like a chasm across human history, a break with what went before every bit as significant as the fall of the Roman Empire or the Norman Conquest of England.

That calamity saw the collapse of the old ways - religion, tradition, family - and the rise of new beliefs, like Communism, National Socialism, moral relativism.  We are now, almost a century later, still trying to pick up the pieces of that conflict.  The constant crisis in the Middle East, the uncertain rise of China, Russia's turmoil, Africa's uneasy borders and the strife in the Balkans are all the legacy of that perfect storm and imperfect peace.

Where do veterans come into this?

In 1917, for the first time since the Civil War, the United States implemented conscription.  The fear was that were would be draft riots, as their had been in 1863.  It did not happen.  Instead, millions of young men registered and, when called, reported for duty.  Almost from scratch this country went from a miniscule peacetime army to millions of Doughboys ready to go "Over There" and fight in France.

It took time to call up, train, equip and ship them there.  More than a year after the declaration of war, the US Army was still pulling itself together.  In the meantime, the desperate Germans launched the Kaiserschlacht - one last desperate gamble to win the war before our troops arrived in force.  It failed,

The Allied counterstroke was terrible, and starting in July 1918, it proceeded without stop.  Unlike previous offensives, this was no localized affair, but a series of hammer-blows all across the Western Front.  There was no pause, not respite, and as American divisions became ready they were marched to the front and hurled into the inferno.

The American portion of the offensive has gone down in history as the Meuse-Argonne campaign.

To call it a bloodbath is to cheapen the term.  In the space of six weeks, roughly 120,000 American troops were hit with 25,000 of them killed.  In six weeks.

The American commander, "Black Jack" Pershing, used tactics as subtle as a tire iron to the head, but it worked. By early November, the German army was reeling. The Armistice took effect 93 years ago today, at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

Since then, World War I has faded from memory.  Its veterans are all dead, and those who remember them are mostly gone.  Yellowed pictures, dusty uniforms, spiked helmets - these are all we recall.  Even the Red Baron has been distorted and commercialized.

The point here is that a generation was called and went.  In 1941, 1950 they also went.  Some disagreed in the 1960s, but enough went to give us a victory - that we pissed away.  After that, it fell to the volunteers, and they have performed admirably.  The prestige of American arms has never been greater -and the reputation of American politicians has never been lower.

Looking at the "Occupy" protesters, one cannot help but contrast their self-indulgent tantrums with the quiet sacrifices of the veterans.  Let there be no mistake, military people are no saints (f they were, the JAGs would be unemployed).  They expect to be paid and complain about everything (a time-honored tradition).

But they do their duty.  They join to be part of something bigger than themselves and they yearn for the opportunity to prove that they are just as tough as those who went before.

The Occupiers want none of that.  They want free wi-fi, guaranteed income and a life of unearned leisure.  A half-hour of PT would leave them begging for death.

This Veterans Day, think about that contrast and what it says about those who choose to serve despite every reason not to.  MSU's basketball game today on the USS Carl Vinson is a great example.  I admire coach Tom Izzo, but his remarks about how sports pale in comparison to the military life are heartful and utterly appropriate.

Enjoy the game, and thank a veteran.