Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

11/11/1918, British Grand Fleet flagship HMS Queen Elizabeth celebrated Armistice Day by signaling to "Splice the mainbrace. Negative 6th B.S." The order meant that all sailors could have a drink except the Americans of the 6th Battle Squadron because U.S. Navy ships were dry. Damn! But wait, there's more...




JFK at Arlington Cemetery for Veterans Day, 11/11/63 with 11 days to live:



The reason we celebrate Veterans Day on Nov. 11 is because during WWI, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, an armistice went into effect and all fighting between the allied nations and Germany ceased.


Larger size


On this Veterans Day in 1981, the first Trident submarine was commissioned at Electric Boat, a Division of General Dynamics Corporation in Groton, Connecticut. At age 42, USS Ohio (SSBN-726/SSGN-726) is the longest-serving submarine in US Navy history and still very active today. She was converted to a guided missile submarine (22 tubes, each with 7 Tomahawk cruise missiles) and was re-designated SSGN-726 in 2006. Capable of launching 154 cruise missiles in 6 minutes for Mutual Assured Destruction.




USS Spiegel Grove wreck


Every year at exactly 11:11am Mountain Standard Time on Veterans Day, the sun shines exactly through the 5 ovals at Anthem Veterans Memorial in Arizona, lighting up the United States Great Seal on the ground. The award-winning monument was dedicated in 2011 and is surrounded by 2200 red paving stones engraved with the names of veterans. The red stones, the white pillars and the blue Arizona sky represent the colors in the flag of the United States. GPS: 33.863314, -112.136722






Gee, I just can't imagine why...

A majority of American adults would not be willing to serve in the military were the U.S. to enter into a major war, recent polling has found, while public confidence in the armed forces appears to be waning.

The figures come as all branches of the armed forces have in recent years struggled to meet their recruitment targets, suggesting a growing apathy towards a career of military service. In 2023, the Army and Air Force fell short of their respective goals by around 10,000 recruits, while the Navy was under by 6,000. Since 1987, the number of active-duty personnel has fallen by 39 percent.

Experts say that such shortfalls are worrisome in an increasingly volatile global picture with American leadership unsure when it will next have to bring its full military force to bear.

"We have strike groups, aircraft carriers with a Marine Expeditionary Unit outside Israel now," Justin Henderson, a former transport operator for the U.S. Marines turned military recruiter, told Newsweek. "We're funding two wars, but we're actually boots on the ground, drones above Gaza. So we're already involved in there—and we're not sure what's happening in Taiwan. So this is a very tumultuous time for us, because we don't know what's going to happen."

"How much it matters depends on what kind of people you're talking about and which bit you're not getting," Tom Shugart, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and a former Navy attack submarine commander, told Newsweek.

.....

The military is also facing a high level of unfitness to serve among the general population: as of 2020, it assessed that 77 percent of those aged 17-24 were unqualified due to medical reasons, drug use or criminal records.

But there are signs that the military is adapting to Generation Z. Henderson spoke of a gaming truck designed by the Air Force so young adults could simulate flying drones. "The military is now trying to speak their language," he said.

Full 'complicated' article: NewsWeek

Israel and Taiwan is not America. It’s impossible for them to admit what the problem is, so they will keep spinning their wheels. And even if they do figure it out the trust is long broken, so any attempts to reconcile will be seen as cynicism.



Maurice's grandson is Antony Blinken, current secretary of state.

Operation ANYFACE

Maurice Blinken, 86; Early Backer of Israel

Atlantic Council

Is Hamas Rebranding with New Manifesto?


No one does a press tour like Ridley Scott. LMAO!

When the trailer came out, the TV historian Dan Snow posted a TikTok breakdown of its inaccuracies. (At the Battle of the Pyramids, “Napoleon didn’t shoot at the pyramids”; Marie-Antoinette “famously had very cropped hair for the execution, and, hey, Napoleon wasn’t there.”)

Scott’s response: “Get a life.”

Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon” Complex

How we can use Hollywood movies to chart the transformation of warfare over 250 years: Military historian Dan Snow MBE reviews the evolution of warfare over the course of 250 years depicted in historical movies. Part One: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQtJY9M_zQI