Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

October 8, 1918: World War I: Corporal Alvin C. York kills 28 German soldiers and captures 132 for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor.


York was drafted during World War I; he initially claimed conscientious objector status on the grounds that his religious denomination forbade violence. Persuaded that his religion was not incompatible with military service, York joined the 82nd Division as an infantry private and went to France in 1918.

A 1941 film about his World War I exploits, Sergeant York, was that year's highest-grossing film; Gary Cooper won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of York, and the film was credited with enhancing American morale as the U.S. mobilized for action in World War II. In his later years, York was confined to bed by health problems. He died in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1964 and was buried at Wolf River Cemetery in his hometown of Pall Mall, Tennessee.


October 8, 1982: The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats opened on Broadway in New York City. It is based on the 1939 poetry collection Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot. The musical tells the story of a tribe of cats called the Jellicles and the night they make the "Jellicle choice" by deciding which cat will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and come back to a new life. As of 2024, Cats remains the fifth-longest-running Broadway show and the eighth-longest-running West End show.





There was a 50% chance Russia would use nukes on Ukraine... From the new Bob Woodward book...
Amazing book timing.




The United States must recalibrate its nuclear-deterrence posture.

Strategic Shifts Require Reshaping the U.S. Nuclear Arsenal


But wait, there's more... the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has published the FY2025 Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan.
I won't bore you with the details as its 240 page PDF but a peek inside the 'plan' shows that the new B61-12 guided thermonuclear bomb is now official & technically certified also on the F-15E, F-16, F-35, and Germany's Luftwaffe Tornado fighter jet (NATO aircraft). Wait, wut? Germans?? That just doesn't give me good vibes. Last year the B61-12 was only certified on the B-2 bombers. The German Tornado will soon be replaced with (apparently) the military world's favorite jet, the Lockheed Martin F-35.


Going to assume the DOE boys had an editorial oversight on their 'plan' as they have the B61-12 only listed as a strategic bomb. It is a low-to-intermediate yield strategic and TACTICAL nuclear weapon featuring a two-stage radiation implosion design. It has a variable yield ("dial-a-yield" military jargon) design with an estimated yield of 0.3 to 340 kilotons in its various modifications. The nukes are built at the Pantex plant in Texas, about 10 miles NE of Amarillo...so if one day you see a huge mushroom cloud over Texas, don't worry about it.

No official word if the B61-12 has gone to Europe yet, but possibly to a base or two?




This is exactly how you're supposed to watch Twin Peaks.




Hurricane Milton, or John Milton's "Paradise Lost" and Gustave Dore's depictions of the war in Heaven.



Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse. A second edition followed in 1674, arranged into twelve books (in the manner of Virgil's Aeneid) with minor revisions throughout. It is considered to be Milton's masterpiece, and it helped solidify his reputation as one of the greatest English poets of all time. The poem concerns the biblical story of the fall of man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden.



"What separates the winners from the losers is how a person reacts to each new twist of fate."
— Donald J. Trump


Rudeneja in the air but Moor-Gallop in the forecast as we suspire on exorbitant foreign aid spending, post-haste as suddenly we all scream boodyankers! as the storm is upon us.

Drenched
Rudeneja strides in with poise and with style,
A moor-gallop tumbles across a sun streaked sky.
Boodyankers!—I've left my raincoat on a bench,
Suspiring, damn weather boys, "I'm going to get drenched."