History Guy

Our grandparents knew titanic warfare, genocide, economic dislocation, smashed cities & hideous disease. They clung to the ideals of liberal democracy as if their lives depended on it

These people have known only peace, prosperity, safety and it has blown their minds. They hunger for dislocation.

Today in 1916 Vaux fortress fell to the Germans outside Verdun.
I don’t think I've never studied a grimmer battle. Men fought in pitch darkness in 5 foot tunnels. Dead & wounded trampled underfoot. Flame throwers incinerated enemies & operators alike. Water ran out. Nearly 3000 Germans were killed.

Brexit=Enfeeblement
A notable feature of MAGA/Brexiter (forms of) nationalism is how hopelessly they confuse structuralised, diplomatic, economic, institutional ISOLATION with national prosperity-enhancement and empowerment.
Why belligerents blockade foes in war must be mystifying to such a mindset.

The assigned role of the Trump-Musk putschists in the endeavour looks to be to assign blame for (the unceasing continuation of) Russia's war of Ukraine-destruction on Ukraine itself – for offending Russia, financially victimising and being ungrateful to the US, and not wanting peace enough (somehow)

Opinion | Trump Is Hiding Something on Ukraine When you don’t call things by their real name, there is usually a reason.

Tom Friedman on point here, though he understated the case. Either Trump is the worse negotiator in all the universes of truth and fiction, or he is beginning an alliance with Russia with a joint attempt to subjugate Ukraine (and then much else).
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/04/o...

It's not just Donald Trump though. It really is the entirety of the MAGA movement: One of ever-greater (online-fuelled) radicalisation, scapegoating and enemy-seeking sado-populist destruction – all in the name of the new MAGA volksgemeinschaft, and in unthinking fealty to the MAGA-leader.

Russia’s leaders have said nothing about peace. They have made a list of demands on the US, the fulfillment of which allows them to broaden the war against Ukraine. And the US simply fulfills all of these Russian demands without question. That is only a peace process in the Orwellian sense.

The simplistic MAGA anti-Ukraine axis wilfully ignores a basic concept: deterrence profile. It's vital for any SUSTAINED truce as Ukrainian security depends on deterring Russian attack. No leader of Ukraine can indulge such shortsighted ignorance on national security but Trumpists in US are happy to

The US has proved to be a MUCH softer and weaker target for the Kremlin than Ukraine.

It was ALWAYS an extraordinarily daft, parochial, and grossly irresponsible indulgence – full of make-believe and truck-loads of ignorance. Many may have struggled (or been reluctant) to see it for what self-immolating foolishness it truly was – but to call the project daft is to put it very mildly.

Five Failures in the Oval Office (video) America hurt itself badly today.

Here I react to the shameful encounter between American leaders and media and the Ukrainian president. No doubt there were more, but I saw five failures on our side: of hospitality, decency, democracy, strategy, and independence. Please watch and share.
snyder.substack.com/p/five-failu...

There is no movie for this.

All through my life American culture has conjured up images of its own demise.

But no Dr Strangelove, Fatal Impact, Manchurian Candidate et al imagined a portion of the US electorate gleefully welcoming oblivion in the arms of its enemy.

There is no movie for this

YouTube video by Robert Hranitzky Introducing Adobe Photoshop 1.0 in 2025 - Photoshop 35th Anniversary

Introduced 35 years ago this week...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tEs...

If Trump wants to see elections in Ukraine, all he has to do is use the power he keeps talking about to get the Russian invaders off Ukrainian soil. Then martial law in Ukraine ends, and elections will follow.

It's all an obvious pretence.

To try and boost the chances of far-right, blood-and-soil nationalist nihilism/fascism (of the MAGA variety) – getting more power, at the expense of democracy, prosperity and security in developed, parliamentary polities – as desired by Elon Musk and the Kremlin.

Stunning (John Alton) chiaroscuro cinematography in Big Combo.

I love T-Men (1947) personally. Although Border Incident (1949) (concerning a black market in cross-border migrants working in Californian agriculture) might feel more contemporary/topical in some ways. (Both Mann/Alton collaborations)

Yes – got past the Hays Code censorship.

Although, at the time, the (mid-level) censor might be just too embarrassed (or worried about wider questions) to reveal he understood what certain scenes implied to say anything and get them censored. Eddie Muller has spoken about this sort of thing before.

The St. Louis Bank Robbery (1959) ⭐ 5.8 | Crime, Drama, Thriller 1h 29m | Not Rated

There's also The St. Louis Bank Robbery (1959) – if a Steve McQueen connection might be of interest...

www.imdb.com/title/tt0052...

GREAT selection. (And I'm guessing you mean Asphalt Jungle.)

I love The Killing in particular. Great heist noir, innovatively done.

I think The Killers (1946), Criss Cross (1949) and Armored Car Robbery (1950) are all well worth (re-)visiting if you enjoy this kind of flick...

They don't seek functional, pluralist, parliamentary democracies.

They want more dysfunctional, autocratic Magastans – that mirror their own hyper-ignorance and simple-minded urges to scapegoat, rage, self-deceive and self-destroy.

Something that will help them feel a bit less lonely and insecure.

YouTube video by BBC Newsnight Viewpoint: What can Plato teach us about Donald Trump? - BBC Newsnight

A reminder.

Democracy-to-demagoguery-to-tyranny.

A warning from Plato (as related by BBC, 2017):
youtu.be/cnzo9qXLFUo?...

The Magastan People's Republic

Of course it’s a coup Miss the obvious, lose your republic

Of course it’s a coup. Miss the obvious, lose your republic.
open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p...

Truly deranged. But unsurprising. The man has not so much dropped down a conspiracist rabbit hole as a gigantic, planet-sized rabbit warren of (internet-focused) conspiracist engorgement.

Referring to a "need" for (his) "strange ideas" is the closest this article comes to (self-)enlightenment.

It's a turbo-charged Johnson-Cummings story on fast-forward, transplanted on to a MAGA US...

Whatever your circumstances, company or surroundings – be they happy, sad or all things mixed and in between – very best festive wishes to you all today.

V. F. Eberle (Lieutenant Colonel, Royal Engineers; 48th Division) on Xmas 1916: Primitive as they were, our Christmas-Day celebrations brought many appreciative comments in the letters sent home. For a short period the foulness and desolation that surrounded us were forgotten.

Lieutenant Colonel V. F. Eberle (RE) on a Western Front Christmas, near Bazentin, 1916:

"For a short period the foulness and desolation that surrounded us were forgotten."

'With a Royal Engineers Field Company in France and Italy', Pen & Sword, 2020
#Christmas
#WW1

Ukrainian cultural diplomacy is when a global star performs a world-famous hit accompanied by a Ukrainian military bandura player.

Sting sings with bandura player Taras Stolyar "Shape of My Heart"

culturalforces.military / Instagram

A good thread highlighting just a few of the ways REALITY (that of cross-border commerce) itself is what "betrays" Brexit (i.e. undermines the absurd claims made for the structuralised degradation of one's OWN trading environment), and why UK politics STILL goes round in unicorn-seeking circles...

The core "betrayal" of Brexit is (and will continue to be) reality itself. Which so wholly contradicts the absurd claims made for pursuing (and now sustaining) such a project of delusion.

It's structuralised degradation, and the elevation of baseless fantasies and lies, for nothing positive at all.