Open Thread - Thurs 03 Oct 2024 - Bringing Mulligan Home

Submitted by Sima on Thu, 10/03/2024 - 5:00am

Bringing Mulligan Home:

I gotta admit, I haven't had it in me to watch the recent debate and all the other crude, although, as always, I am enjoying reading Caucus99% blogs. So, here's a bit about a good book...

A few weeks ago I read a book that really hit me. It's called Bringing Mulligan Home: The Other Side of the Good War> by Dale Maharidge. It's about a man, a marine, who served in the Pacific during WWII. Like many who served, he spoke little at all about the war, and like many who served he was messed up by his experiences in the war. After his death (his name was Steve Maharidge) his son, Dale, decided to try to find out what his father's experiences had been, and why his father was like he was (angry, loving, mean, quiet, screaming, soft...) and who was in the picture his father had hung on the wall in his basement work area. Mulligan, it turns out, was in that picture.

Herman Mulligan and Dale Maharidge. Mulligan is a bit taller than Maharidge, with his hand on Maharidge's shoulder. From these two articles (and audio interviews) on www.wbur.org 'A Son Faces his Father's WWII Ghosts' and 'A Son Uncovers his Father's WWII History'.

Mulligan never came home, but was killed on Okinawa and buried there. The book contains the war experiences of over two dozen Marines in Love Company; men who knew Maharidge and Mulligan. And those experiences make it clear that no war is 'good', ever - not for the men who fought it, not for the civilians caught in the middle.

The book is hard in a way, but important, to read. If you have a chance and are in the frame of mind to be able to tackle some truth about the WWII battle on Okinawa (I have to admit I was not able to do so, even a few years ago, but I can now) give it a read or give the audio version a listen and you can also listen to 'The Dead Drink First', a continuation of Bringing Mulligan Home in an audible documentary.

Thanks for reading this post. Here's the open thread - remember, everything is interesting if you dive deep enough, so tell us about where you're diving!

Tags: 
Open Thread
#WWII
#mulligan
#maharidge
#marines
#okinawa
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Submitted by Sima on Thu, 10/03/2024 - 2:15am
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Hope all is going well. I lost the plot last week, and forgot it to check in and respond! Not gonna happen this week! Let us know what's up, how you doing and whatcha doing!

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If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Submitted by QMS on Thu, 10/03/2024 - 8:37am
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.
.
War is hell. Driven by power hungry psychopaths.
Having a war economy is inhumane.

Defense Contractors Are Bilking the American People
Congress should curb war profiteering with a new Truman Committee.

-- Bernie Sanders

~

We apparently have unlimited amounts of money for nuclear weapons, fighter planes, bombs, and tanks. But somehow we can’t summon the resources to provide health care for all, child care, affordable housing, and other basic needs.

~

Yes Bernie, we can see the global suffering caused by US wars of choice. But why is it
you vote for all of these bloated military budgets?

~

thanks for the OT Sima

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question everything

Submitted by Sima on Thu, 10/03/2024 - 9:42pm
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@QMS
Bernie is right about that. Why the heck does he vote for the budgets though? Sounds like bloviating to me.

I really, really do not want to spend 'our' money on the war machine, but that's all that happens, all the time. So damned depressing.

Thanks for stopping by!

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5 users have voted.
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If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Thu, 10/03/2024 - 10:42am
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aka Captain Jack, for leading what was a totally justified rebellion against colonizer/settler rogues and militias and the US for breaking treaties and persecuting his people.

On the upside Ginsberg's "Howl and other poems" was ruled Not Obscene on this date in 1957. What was obscene was that it was ever charged with being obscene and that our obscene obscenity laws existed an, in fact, still do.

War too is obscene and I think I'll skip the book. My dad's unit was wiped out at Anzio, he was one of the less than 1% that survived. The unit was disbanded and the survivors were sent to other units as replacements A close family friend survived the war in the Pacific as a Marine. They did make it home, but ...

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Submitted by Sima on Thu, 10/03/2024 - 9:50pm
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@enhydra lutris
So I looked him up. Damn, damn. I should have known. Now, another rabbit hole to study and learn about!

I agree about the obscenity law. And about war being obscene. I don't blame you for skipping the book. Your father was at Anzio? Damn again, and many, many heartfelt wishes that the rest of his life was wonderful. I kinda doubt it. 'Making it home' for your close family friend (the Marine) probably wasn't what most of us would expect upon returning home, either.

Hope you have a great weekend!

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6 users have voted.
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If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Fri, 10/04/2024 - 10:23am
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@Sima

first the Spaniards, then the Mexicans who supplanted them and then the gringo invaders from the est. It isn't remotely a pretty story.

be well and have a good one

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4 users have voted.
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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Submitted by snoopydawg on Thu, 10/03/2024 - 11:48am
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This feature length investigation by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit exposes Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip through the medium of photos and videos posted online by Israeli soldiers themselves during the year long conflict.
The I-Unit has built up a database of thousands of videos, photos and social media posts. Where possible it has identified the posters and those who appear.
The material reveals a range of illegal activities, from wanton destruction and looting to the demolition of entire neighbourhoods and murder.
The film also tells the story of the war through the eyes of Palestinian journalists, human rights workers and ordinary residents of the Gaza Strip. And it exposes the complicity of Western governments – in particular the use of RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus as a base for British surveillance flights over Gaza.
“The west cannot hide, they cannot claim ignorance. Nobody can say they didn’t know,” says Palestinian writer, Susan Abulhawa.This is “the first livestream genocide in history … If people are ignorant they are wilfully ignorant,” she says

I don’t have the stomach to watch inhumane act and especially those being done by people whose grandparents went through the same trauma. Hell I can’t even read articles on Gaza atrocities because my heart can’t handle it. But others might be inclined to look.

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Submitted by QMS on Thu, 10/03/2024 - 12:15pm
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@snoopydawg
.
.
like you, am very well aware of the pogrom manifested by
the zionistas and western complicity in the atrocities
do not have the heart to view the death and destruction
being aware of it is almost too much as it is

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question everything

Submitted by snoopydawg on Thu, 10/03/2024 - 12:46pm
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@QMS

I think this sums up the dividing line.

All the cruelty livestreamed onto our electronic devices has undone the old political order. There are no more liberal Zionists, lowkey Zionists, cultural Zionists, soft Zionists, progressive Zionists, apathetic Zionists, ambivalent Zionists, non-Zionists, or post-Zionists. Now only two categories matter: Zionist and anti-Zionist.

I might go so far as to argue that not identifying as anti-Zionist is itself a form of Zionism, which I suppose is another way of saying that ignorance of or indifference to Gaza is unacceptable.

Unacceptable indeed and I can not understand how anyone can turn a blind eye to the carnage in Gaza and still consider themselves human. Americans cried like little babies when 9-11 happened, but they still refuse to acknowledge what America had been doing in countless countries and to millions of people before the Day. And they still refuse to see what we’re doing after it.

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Submitted by Cassiodorus on Thu, 10/03/2024 - 12:54pm
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@snoopydawg Thank you.

I would also like to know the extent to which US Special Forces are currently involved in the ground actions in Gaza and in Lebanon. I'm sure the shadow government consensus is that full spectrum dominance hasn't been working because the body count hasn't been high enough.

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The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Thu, 10/03/2024 - 1:37pm
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@Cassiodorus

There have been rumors that American spy planes were above Lebanon when Israel dropped 85 bombs on Beirut and it’s been helping Israel with intelligence over Gaza.

Plus many dual citizens went from America to fight for Israel.

I’ve been seeing warnings about gas prices increasing if Iran blocks the straits, but Biden is telling Netanyahu that he is okay with Israel bombing oil fields and nuclear sites. Bomb the oil fields and what the fck happens to gas prices?

Another thing about the film is that it can be used as evidence if Israel is ever punished for genocide and crimes against humanity. Make it so!

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Submitted by Sima on Thu, 10/03/2024 - 9:58pm
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@Cassiodorus
I would like to know that too, all the places. I bet there are many areas around the world where we are 'stirring up' things while we 'help'. Gag.

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If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Submitted by on the cusp on Thu, 10/03/2024 - 6:49pm

@snoopydawg Thanks, chica.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Submitted by Sima on Thu, 10/03/2024 - 9:54pm
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@snoopydawg
Probably in bits and pieces, if I can. I might not be able to. I also have lost my stomach to watch inhumane acts. But witnessing has to happen. I wish TPTB would lose their stomachs and stop welcoming inhumane acts!

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5 users have voted.
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If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Submitted by snoopydawg on Thu, 10/03/2024 - 12:40pm
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.

Too much to expert the good points…but:

Your Crisis of Faith is not My Concern (There’s a Genocide Going on)

Because we always knew that the Zionist entity didn’t finish the job in 1948. We understand the Zionist mentality. That’s one of our biggest problems. Understanding that mentality means acknowledging a kind of logic beyond the emotional capacity of functional human beings, a logic that invariably leads to our own demise. Knowing Zionism, as we’ve been made to do, is an incessant suicide mission. They were always going to try to finish the job, with or without an October 7. They were finishing the job all along. Every Palestinian life, every Palestinian expression of being, was an unfinished mission. Palestinians were being exterminated as a matter of course, like infrastructure updates or budget approvals. There is no other option available to those who hold onto the idea of Israel. We knew it.
….

“Free speech” is only valid until the ruling class feels threatened. When people protest the Zionist ethostate, egghead technocrats happily drop the pretense. Put up a tent and, bam, the police show up. Head to the voting booth and, look out, yet another psychopath. Say the wrong thing and, poof, here comes a passel of irate deans and vice presidents. We have learned through decades of desecrated civil liberties to prioritize Palestine’s liberation because the system that promises us rights also produces genocide (while failing to uphold the rights). We can no longer respect the conventions that have so dramatically failed us. Palestine comes first and last, no matter how crude we have to be about it. Yes, it’s a good thing.

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Submitted by Sima on Thu, 10/03/2024 - 10:02pm
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@snoopydawg really speaks the truth:

I might go so far as to argue that not identifying as anti-Zionist is itself a form of Zionism, which I suppose is another way of saying that ignorance of or indifference to Gaza is unacceptable.

It's come to that, hasn't it? I am anti-Zionist, I guess I better own it.

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5 users have voted.
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If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Submitted by humphrey on Thu, 10/03/2024 - 2:47pm

Also too.

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Submitted by humphrey on Thu, 10/03/2024 - 2:55pm

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Submitted by QMS on Thu, 10/03/2024 - 4:23pm
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@humphrey
.
.
ya caint get theya from heya
if the 'gulf states' are serious
Turkey is a ?

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Submitted by on the cusp on Thu, 10/03/2024 - 6:32pm

I never shirk from learning history, distant, recent, no matter how horrifying, no matter how heart wrenching. If I can view autopsy photos, I can read this book. I did visit several concentration camps. i did visit places where genocides took place.
It happened. I will always bear witness.
My Dad suffered from a form of PTSD from age 25 until he died at age 92. The flashbacks were of what he did to what most WWII vets regarded as honorable German soldiers. And, of course, to their fallen brothers in arms. That was foremost in his psyche, not his own horrific injuries sustained on D-Day.
History has a much better chance of repeating itself if we don't know the cause of first events. It is often the case we do something destructive for a second time because we have never learned what really brought about the first time, or even the complete results.
Lots to think about, and I will read the book, chica.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Submitted by Sima on Thu, 10/03/2024 - 10:40pm
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@on the cusp
Sound a lot like the memories of Dale's father, at least in broad terms.

I know the Nazis were bad, I know WWII was a 'good' war. But, war is never good. I so sorry that so many of our relatives had to suffer through it, but then, didn't everyone who wasn't super high up do so? I kinda wish our current 'leaders' had to fight in a war as well...

Have a good weekend, mi amiga!

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If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Submitted by on the cusp on Thu, 10/03/2024 - 11:06pm

@Sima before the weekend games begin.
If you look at war tactics, sometimes it is the non-agreed movement. Then, the ambush at the pass by Sparta vs. Persians. RARE. Mostly, "civilized nations" fighting only high noon in great weather, agreed upon by the generals. Even that war method lasted until the Revolutionary War, but then...but then...the US said screw that, let's go all out Native. Let's hide behind trees and bushes and snipe.
That had never BEEN DONE in war between supposedly civilized nations.
Ironically, we won against the white man, then committed a genocide against those dark skinned natives that gave us the idea war in a new, different, support war tactic.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981