I've been at this far too long. When I started this piece o'crap blog my youngest kid was 12.
My eldest granddaughter "graduates" from elementary school Friday. She will be 12 in December,
I've been posting here for an entire generation. No wonder I can't think of anything to write about.
I'm back after a quick trip to Grand Rapids to see a customer yesterday. It was a nice and productive visit.
I wish something interesting and blog worthy occurred on this trip. It rained. I doubt that piqued your interest.
It is supposed to rain some more today and all week. It is May.
The Cubs are 3-7 over the past 10 games. *@$%.
Sadly, the garbage in the past five posts is more accurate than the communist shit written by historian Howard Zinn
Here is a palate cleanser, Dolly doing Jerry Lee:
Have a great Sunday.
To recap, A Norman Bastard invaded England and claimed the throne. For the next seven centuries, France and England fought over who was king of their respective countries. Their bitter feud came to a head when a bunch of rebel colonials declared independence from Great Britain and France stepped in to help. The Americans defaulted on their loans and the result was one of the causes of the French Revolution. In the ensuing wars, French General (and later Emperor) Napoleon rampaged through Europe, humbling the militaries of every continental power (except Great Britain). After the fall of France, Germany rose to power and influence in the next decades.
In an ill-advised pissing contest, France declared war on Germany and it took the Germans about six months to utterly defeat France. The French were so humiliated and embarrassed they vowed to never forget.
The French lost the Seven Years War, so helped the Americans defeat the British in the American Revolution. The French lost the Napoleonic Wars, so were jealous of the rising German Power. They lost the Franco-Prussian War, so demanded harsher-than-harsh terms on the Germans after The Great War (WWI).
Economic conditions in Germany were so bad following WWI that the nation was in economic collapse. The currency was not worth the ink it took to print it. Unemployment was at astronomically high levels, exacerbated by a Global Depression (the Great Depression wasn't just an American thing). An articulate orator rallied the German people, exhorted them to greatness and promised a future where the Germans would rule Europe for a thousand years. People with no hope will follow anyone who promises a light at the end of the tunnel. It is a little-spoken truth that the best way to boost an economy is war, and well, those damn French (and the Jews) caused all of this economic pain so...
Germany invaded Poland on the way to France and the world exploded into war.
And that is how an ambitious bastard Norman sort of, kind of, started WWII.
177 Democrats voted AGAINST a resolution honoring fallen police officers.
They did not abstain. They did not avoid showing up for the vote. The actively voted no.
I am sickened.
If you support this vote you are uncordially invited to never visit this blog again.
Good riddance.
In summary, by the end of the 19th Century, the French so loathed the Germans for their humiliation in the Franco-Prussian War that after nine hundred years, they make a treaty of friendship with the British.
All of the European powers looked askance at the upstart Americans who are raking it in economically without the divine guidance of a king, and as a result, all those Royals have given up power to elected representatives in order to maintain their way of life -- you know, living like royalty.
There remained a bunch of crazy leftists who actually believed that insane economic theory crap spouted by Karl Marks and Frederik Engels. Far left anarchists believed they could bring on a perfect society by killing political leaders, especially kings.
Now the Austrian Empire is by this time is a frail and wasting empire run by a weak and inbred family. Disgruntled people throughout the edges of the Empire are in a mild state of revolt. One leftist knucklehead murders the Archduke of Austria and his wife. That assassination will lead to the deaths of 80-100 million people. Damn leftists.
The treaties kick in.
Austria declares war on Serbia. Russia declares war on Austria. Germany declares war on Russia. France declares war on Germany. Germany declares war on France. Great Britain declares war on Germany. Turkey wants some of those Russian Black Sea territories so they declare war on Russia. No one cares much. The Americans are like, how can we make some money out of this situation?
What followed was four years of unmitigated hell. It was war at its most evil. Modern weapons against 19th Century tactics. Poison gas, tanks, aircraft -- all new advances in warfare entered the scene. The Germans unleashed the most evil weapon of all; they sent Lenin and Trotsky to Russia. The Germans considered Vladimir Lenin so awful, so terrifying, they kept him in a sealed, locked train car until they released him inside Russian borders. That evilness accounted for millions of additional deaths in the 20th Century.
Eventually, the French reminded the Americans about their aid in back during the Revolution, and the Americans stepped in on the side of the French and English and Russians. The Germans surrendered and the French remembered how humiliated they were by the Prussians in the Franco-Prussian War. They demanded such harsh terms on the Germans that an entire generation would suffer. These harsh terms would, more than anything, lead to WWII.
By the end of the American Revolution most of Europe viewed France's King Louis like their idiot cousin at the family reunion; he was going to double dip in the nachos and "forget" to pay his share for the hamburger and hot dogs.
The fledgling Untied States was broke, the first government they formed under the Articles of Confederation was so weak it could not govern itself, and the new government it formed pretty much told the French "I know I owe you, but, I just don't have any extra cash this month".
The French King was broke, he raised taxes on everyone and borrowed money from his neighbors to make ends meet. Instead of paying off his debts, King Louis partied. Hard. The French people were taxed out and starving. They looked across the Atlantic at the Americans and said "Hey, we could do that. We don’t need no stinkin’ king.”So the French tossed out the king and instituted some radical, far-left craziness that included chopping off lots of noble heads.
European royalty looked at these events with alarm. No one was a fan of crazy Louis, but he was their crazy Louis and if beheading Kings became a thing, well that was unacceptable to the kings of every other European country. That crap needed to end, like yesterday. As other kingdoms started attacking France, a remarkable Corsican rose through the ranks and became large and in charge. This guy was a brilliant strategist and tactician. He whipped the Austrians, then the Italians, then the Austrians again. He defeated the Prussians. Then Napoleon crushed the Prussians, Russians, and Austrians yet again -- and all at once at the Battle of Austerlitz.
Eventually, after about two decades, the combined European powers defeated Napoleon and restored France back to a Kingdom. For the next fifty or sixty years France flirted with democracy and monarchy, changing governments every decade or two.
Meanwhile, the Prussians started to consolidate power in northern Germany, ultimately defeating the Austrians in a little war. Alarmed, France told the Germans they better not, and I mean it, try to bring the German-speaking areas of southern Germany into the Prussian alliance. Otto von Bismarck laughed at the French, stuck a rock on his shoulder and told the Frenchies, "I dare you to knock it off."
France declared war on Germany.
Germany defeated France in six months, one week, and two days. Pretty much five months of that war was Germany straddling France, dangling a big hocker over France's face telling France to say "Uncle." Historians call this conflict the Franco-Prussian War. I guess the Six Month One Week and Two Days War was not as catchy as the "Hundred Years War."
Germany forced France to pay an indemnity in exact proportion to the that imposed on Prussian by Napoleon. Those Euros have long memories.
