@enhydra lutris
for the expansion on the Pied Piper theme.

The rats, er, bankers, have proven to be a resilient subset of humans. Perhaps it's the usury that causes them to flourish. One may overturn their tables, only to have them return in perpetuity.

Ah, Clint Eastwood's Pale Rider. You've touched upon one of my favorite movies and your description of the "preacher" as the pale horseman is apropos to this discussion.

The Outlaw Josey Wales is my favorite though. "Buzzards gotta eat, same as worms." don't ya' know.

your own fears (or their ill effects) as successfully as the Pied Piper banished Hamlin's rats. The Pied Piper himself was to be feared because he led the town's kids astray away to who knows where. Of course that didn't happen in a vacuum. He first fulfilled his contract with the city and rid the place of its rats and then they stiffed him of his fee.
There are many places one can go with that allegory, many places to ride that horse as it were.

We are, all of us, getting continuously stiffed by currency devaluation via "inflation" and the enshittification of the goods and services we obtain for our hard earned coin. And it is quite possible, and seriously to be feared that they will enslave us all by mandating CBDCs. Sadly, nobody has rid us of our rats and nobody is at all likely to do so. Anybody claiming an intent to do so is almost certainly just another snake-oil salesperson. Is (s)he the sixth horseman, or the true identity of the first, one wonders.

Digression: Death, it seems rides a pale horse, so be it. Cinema presented us with a wonderful take on that in the form of Clint Eastwood's "Pale Rider". Ignoring the specifics of those who got killed, one unmistakable fact is that the Pale Rider and 4th horseman is a preacher. Uh, Huh.

be well and have a good one

@snoopydawg
of how King Henry and the English defeated the French at the battle of Agincourt.

The Key Factor: Mud

Once the English archers were in place, the comparatively thin line of English knights kneeled awkwardly in their armor to make the sign of the cross before advancing on foot over the waterlogged field behind the archers to a point within 300 yards of the French. The sight of the smaller English army boldly advancing so excited the mounted French knights on each flank that they largely abandoned discipline to break into a ragged attack, shouting, “Montjoie! Saint Denis!” As they spurred their horses onward, the soggy ground beneath them was churned into clinging mud, which slowed the charge immediately. Nonetheless, cheers rose from the other French nobles standing behind them as they caught the excitement and moved forward as well.

As might have been anticipated, horses quickly began to slip in the mud. As this happened, the French attackers converging from both flanks were thrown into confusion by devastating volleys from the English archers, dispatched in four clouds of arrows. Although the French knights’ armor deflected many of the arrows, their less-well-clad horses were not so fortunate—they stumbled or dropped in their tracks. Some knights were pitched to the ground. Riderless mounts bolted about, colliding with advancing French foot soldiers. By now, horses and men on the field were ankle-deep in mud. The French artillery, intimidated by the first flight of arrows, had pulled back rather than face more steel-tipped projectiles.

Less than a hundred of the mounted French knights ever reached the spike-barricade placed by the English archers. The rest lay mired in the churned-up mud—dead, wounded, or stumbling about in a daze. French cavalry commander Guillaume de Saveuse was one of the dead, killed by a mallet blow or stab wound through his armor-joint after his horse impaled itself on one of the spikes. Without pause, the second line of French began to advance on foot, moving ponderously through the mud in face of flights of arrows. Although it continued to be a cool day, the knights began to sweat in their 60 pounds of armor from the exertion of trudging through the mud. As they proceeded, many could not avoid stiff-legging their way over the dead and wounded, causing any number to suffocate in the mud.

The footing grew worse as the centers of both armies locked together in hand-to-hand combat. Slowly the reinforced French attack drove the English center back, and the battle lost its form in the confined area between the woods. By one account, Henry “fought not as a king but as a knight, leading the way when possible, giving and receiving cruel blows.” The English middle rallied as the right flank engaged, but the obese York was trampled under foot. He either suffocated or suffered a heart attack, since his armor-clad body was found afterward without a wound. The Earl of Oxford was killed also, but Henry called upon Robert Howard, one of the ship captains and a friend of his youth, to take the earl’s place. Howard rose to the occasion as the English archers dropped their longbows to wade into the fray, wielding their axes and short swords.

By now, the French knights were so crammed together they could barely swing their own weapons, and when they were knocked down they found it impossible to get up from the mud in their heavy armor. The more nimble English archers made many French knights lame by slashing their short axes against the backs of their adversaries’ knees. Those sprawling on the ground were helpless to protect themselves from the archers, who mercilessly thrust their daggers through the slits of visors or into the mail covering armpits or groins. The Duke of Alenon, finding himself cut off and surrounded, shouted his surrender to King Henry, who was a few yards away coming to his brother Gloucester’s aid. Before the king could intercede, however, Alenon was slashed and beaten to death by swarming English archers. The Duke of Brabant, younger brother of the Duke of Burgundy, borrowed a lesser nobleman’s armor and galloped into the fray only to be unhorsed and quickly dispatched by archers who did not recognize his worth because his borrowed armor did not mark him as a man of distinction.

In the first two hours of the three-hour battle, the French suffered a staggering 5,000 killed in a bloodbath that included three dukes, five counts, and 90 barons. By this stage, more English knights and archers were gathering up prisoners than continuing to fight. (A French noble would fetch enough in ransom to make a poor man comparatively comfortable for life.) Meanwhile, the knights in the third French line watched the disastrous scene. In a cruel mix-up, Henry ordered the French prisoners killed when he heard that a newly arrived enemy force (actually bands of local peasants) was attacking his lightly guarded rear. The order was only fitfully obeyed by the English nobles, who found it morally repugnant to kill their French counterparts after they had surrendered, and Henry had to deputize a force of 200 low-born archers to carry out the brutal and unnecessary slaughter. When it became evident that the uncommitted third French line, daunted by the fate of the first two lines, was withdrawing from the battlefield, Henry rescinded his order, but by then dozens of duly surrendered French nobles had met a most ignoble fate in the bloodstained mud at Agincourt.

.

“Steadfast Defender 2024” this year, simulating an attack on Russia

In total, 90 thousand soldiers from 31 countries, 80 aircraft and helicopters, 50 ships, and 166 tanks were to take part in the NATO exercises.

However, the forces that looked formidable on paper turned out to be a sham in reality. For example, as part of the "Brilliant Jump" exercises, 600 vehicles were supposed to be moved from Britain to Poland. In the end, only 100 were sent from the islands. Less than half made it to Poland. And so it is with everything.

New NATO members Sweden and Finland were able to send only five Leopard tanks to the joint exercises. And it looked very funny: the tanks drove up to the supposed battle site on asphalt, and when they tried to leave it for soft earth, they immediately got stuck. So they practiced on asphalt.

Even funnier was the deployment of US and British Marines in the snows of Russia (the role of the latter was played by the snows of Norway). Two companies of Americans, British, and the Norwegians attached to them had to simply live for two weeks in tents in the winter forest. It turned out that the soldiers simply didn't know how to melt snow on a fire to get water. And on the third day, 54 people got frostbite on their penises (really, this is not a joke).

This happened because of poor quality equipment. The tents had holes and cracks, and the heaters broke down on the second day. The US and British Marines were unable to dig in or keep warm in the winter forest. On the third day, the exercises ended - the Marines defeated the conventional "Russia" and returned to their warm quarters.

It gets even worse….

Meanwhile Russia has been fighting and learning about modern warfare and has been training and rotating their troops in Ukraine for 3 years. They have defeated the biggest army in Europe and broken down the intense defenses that Ukraine built up for over 8 years. Then they defeated the 2nd army and the 3rd and now has the Ukraine army running away. Plus Russia has a lot of new weapons that NATO has no defense against.

But seriously what were those guys doing with their penises that they got frostbite?

And just how much did it cost to send 100 jeeps from Britain to Poland let alone the 600 that were meant to be sent? And who got the money?

@Socialprogressive
my generation learned the hard way. Protesters were beaten, jailed and even killed.

I'm surprised a lot of my generation has forgotten those lessons and are now calling for those very same things to happen to the current generation. I guess that's a testament to the veracity of fear.

at using fear to manipulate the masses. They've been doing it since the dawn of civilization. Same as it ever was.

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
Step out of line, the man come and take you away