I Believe In Truth

 

In 1939 syndicated columnist Dorothy Thompson wrote in Let The Record Speak.

“This it seems to me, is the lesson of the news in the last three years, National Socialism, or Nazism in Germany, will become the most world-disturbing event of the century, though Nazism is not, in its nature, only a German phenomenon. Nazism is a fusion of elements that are present in the minds of men and women everywhere, and it does offer one answer to political, social, and economic problems that everywhere press for solutions.” She argued, “Americans must understand there is a fundamental incompatibility between any form of order based on political and economic freedom, and the dynamic aggrandizing of Fascism, or National Socialism. Nazism is a total Revolution. “In Germany Himmler was calling Nazism “Counter-Revolutionary” in that it aimed to reverse all the change, including the American Revolution, that had happened since the European Enlightenment. Thompson agreed, describing Nazism as “a break with Reason, with Humanism, and with the Christian Ethics that are the basis of America’s Liberal Democracy.” She thought Nationalism was worse than Communism, because it denies the concept of the inviolability of the Human Being. She saw Nazism, unlike Communism, as treating all of life as an unremitting struggle of tribal groups for biological survival. “In this struggle telling lies is openly accepted as a useful means to an end, which is dealing with what Nazis believe to be naive and decadent democracies.”

As her book hit the streets, Montana’s Army National Guard, 1750 members of the 163rd Infantry Regiment, received federal orders August 27, 1940. They were told to dischare those unfit for service and to be at full strength by September 16, 1940. That day of induction, initially for one year of active duty with the 41st Infantry destined to become for five years the Jungleers in New Guinea and the Phillipine Islands, happened as the first peacetime draft became law. Federalized, drafted or voluntarily enlisted, Montanans began flowing to Military Service.

In 1940 ourstate had only 559,456 people compared with our present-day 1,000,070. Along with  a huge exodus of Montanans to coastal defense industries, 57,000 Montanans, including  567 women left for war. 1,869 of these were killed.

Jim R Ickes, age 22, of Big Horn was inducted December 4, 1941. From that date until August 1945, he wrote home over 200 letters, usually signing, “With Love to All from Jim.” Each letter was stamped with a censor’s approval, return addressed to PFC Jim R. Ickes, AT Company, 15th INF, A.P.O #3 c/o Post Master, New York, NY. All were addressed to Mr. and Mrs. C.C. Ickes, Big Horn, Montana and were later found among their effects. With his effects were found a metal box containing two German pistols, an SS Officer’s dagger, a handful of German medals, including several Iron Crosses, a photo album of his buddies and a handwritten list of the names and addresses of 83. Nine names were from Montana. On the last page of the list he wrote: “October 23 - 42- Left U.S. September 4 - 45 Left Europe”

The 15th Infantry was one of the three regiments of the 3rd Infantry Division. By Victory in Europe Day, according to the Saturday Evening Post, “Nearly 35,000 men, more than twice the original strength of the division, were dead, wounded or missing in action, across North Africa, Sicily, Southern Italy, the beach at Anzio, Rome, and across France and in Germany. The Third Infantry Division suffered more casualties than any other division in the American Army. ”The men of the division earned 31 congressional medals of honor, including that of Audie Murphy, one of World War II’s most decorated soldiers, who also served in the 15th Infantry Regiment. The Anti-Tank (AT) Company of the 15th Infantry neutralizes German and Italian armor in North Africa, repelled German counter-attacks by destroying tanks at Anzio and during the capture of Rome, and while advance up through Southern France into Germany during battles across the Voges Mountains, in the Colmar Pocket and past Nuremberg, pushing into Germany. They contributed significantly to the success of the 15th Infantry and the Third Division.

The nine names of other Montanans who made it back alive were:

Percy A Mielke, Hamilton, MT

Gene Vaught, Bozeman, MT

Eddie Novis, Anaconda, MT

Fred Deering, Laurel, MT

John S. Opheim, Wolf Point, MT

Harold Lester, Great Falls, MT

Harry Weber, Joliet, MT

Henry Maki, Belt, MT

Lloyd P. Wick, Sidney, MT

In 1946, the year I was born, 359 military cemeteries around the world contained the  remains of 286,959 American WWII war dead. The number of identifiable remains was 246,942. Of the missing sets,18,641 had been located. Of the located sets, 10,986 remains were placed in overseas military cemeteries and 7655 remains were in isolated graves. In 1947 some relatives of the war dead wanted their loved ones brought back to the United States to be reburied in local or national cemeteries. That program was discontinued in the mid-1960’s. By then, 171,000 bodies of dead Americans had been repatriated. This left 97,000 others, including 935 Montanans, near their place of death.

These 935 Montanans, still overseas, are serving as one civilian, two merchant mariners, 32 marines, 191 sailors, 282 airmen and 427 soldiers. In total they wear 4 Distinguished Service Crosses, 44 Silver Stars, 70 Bronze Stars, 3 Legion of Merit, 28 Distinguished Flying Crosses, 4 Navy Crosses, 312 Air Medals and 714 Purple Hearts.

In his letters PFC Ickes told also of 2Lt Carroll G Johnson of Sarpy Creek, who was killed in anctuon October 8, 1943, in the fighting along the Volturno River in Southern Italy. His body was among those reinterred in the National Cemetery at the Custer Battlefield. He had been engaged to Dorothy Anderson who had attended the Tullock Creek Grade School with Jim Ickes, a close friend of Dorothy’s brothers’.  She awaited the return of her fiance, who never came home, while teaching at the Big Horn School. She and Jim Ickes, who returned home after his girlfriend married someone else, were later married. Jim Ickes asked to be “buried with a he boys,” in the military section of the Billings Cemetery on Central Avenue. Dorothy chose later to be buried there with her husband.

These are facts about real courage, and real pain and sacrifice for our freedom. These facts deserve honoring. To guard against tyranny we must never abandon facts, less we abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no longer an basis upon which to make the criticism. As the book On Tyranny says, “When nothing is true, then all is spectacle.”

Michael Jackson once called Adolph Hitler the greatest entertainer in history, and now we have Donald Trump aspiring to be his apprentice. Because in elections the biggest wallet pays for the the loudest noises and most blinding lights, I am not seeking or accepting contributions, I ask for your vote, because I believe in truth and hope you will honor it as well.

Right Wing Terrorism in The United States

https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA308596.pdf 

Recommendation

Reaction To President Biden’s Decision To Step Aside

 

I know how hard it must have been for President Biden and his family. Truth is I prayed for them a lot. He did well for our country and I am grateful.

John B Driscoll, Candidate                                                       U.S. Congress Eastern Montana.

https://johnbdriscoll.blogspot.com/?m=1 https://www.facebook.com/john.driscoll.585112?mibextid=LQQJ4d.                                                                   (X) stewardmagazine

Comments to Nuclear Regulatory Commission About Wyoming Nuclear Reactor

For  purposes (paper attached) I need to know: 

1. The annual metric weight of high level waste produced by each replica of this 345 MW plant;
2. The amount of water expected to be annually drawn from the Naughton Reservoir;
3. A description of plant’sthe load-following or load-balancing characteristics; and
4. Physical space required for one to five reactors. 

John B Driscoll
Candidate Montana U.S. House District 2
30 South Davis Street
Helena, MT 59601

https://johnbdriscoll.blogspot.com/2024/06/confronting-climate-change.html?m=1

The Trump-Vance Lash-Up

Don”t Take Any Wooden Nickels

“From what I’ve seen so far the two men play their real cards close to their chests and are pragmatic about what they say to Republicans and the rest of us. I’ve dealt with that kind of political chameleon before and feel comfortable facing them again. As the Jewish survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto recently told his fellow Israeli’s before dying, ‘Never underestimate the power of a lie.’ I have no illusions, none at all, about either of these men alone, or teamed.”

John B Driscoll

Our American Revolution’s Unanimous Declaration

In Congress, July 4, 1776 The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury: For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies: For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends. We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Former President Trump’s Close-Call

I’m impressed by the speed and quality of Secret Service response, given that so many are being deployed to protect threatened officials and personalities. I’m glad former President Trump is still alive to make his best effort to counter our American Revolution. No assassin‘s actions should replace the votes of well informed thoughtful citizens. John B Driscoll Candidate Montana U.S. House District 2

Artificial Intelligence I

This morning I accepted an invitation (on my limited budget) to speak at the Montana Broadband State Convention in Whitefish, August 20-21. Though outside of my district I see the venue as an opportunity to learn more about how people and companies (fiber optic broadband) plan at this stage to deploy Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). I’m learning and the curve seems steep. There are some references here. https://www.gatesnotes.com/The-Age-of-AI-Has-Begun

Young Men And Fire

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbHwPxCGb2tMXUJWb75KNWgDNWpCKDbzv

Bannon’s Fascist Worldview

At Mauthausen Concentration Camp, where he could easily have been a Commandant, everyone was motivated to act against everyone else. It got so bad that one inmate said: “Every act of human kindness was an act of resistance.” American Journalist Dorothy Thompson wrote in 1939 (Let the Record Speak) as the world slid into global war against fascism, “This it seems to me, is the lesson of the news in the last three years, National Socialism, or Nazism in Germany, will become the most world-disturbing event of the century, though Nazism is not, in its nature, only a German phenomenon. Nazism is a fusion of elements that are present in the minds of men and women everywhere, and it does offer one answer to political, social, and economic problems that everywhere press for solutions.” She argued, “Americans must understand there is a fundamental incompatibility between any form of social order based on political and economic freedom, and the dynamic aggrandizing of Fascism, or National Socialism. Nazism is a total Revolution.” Himmler in Germany was calling Nazism “Counter-Revolutionary” in that it aimed to reverse all the changes, including the American Revolution, that happened since the European Enlightenment.” Thompson described Nazism as a break with Reason, with Humanism, and with the Christian ethics that are at the base of America’s Liberal Democracy. She saw Nationalism as similar to Communism in that they both broke with the ethic or science that elevates the search for truth into the noblest of human passions. She thought Nationalism was worse than Communism, because it denies the concept of the inviolability of the human being. She saw Nazism, unlike Communism, as treating all of life as the un remitting struggle of tribal groups for biological survival. “In this struggle telling lies is openly accepted as a useful means to an end, which is dealing with what the Nazis believe to be naive and decadent democracies.” Since Nazis subjugate and destroy the common sense that grows out of human experience, the columnist wrote, “National Socialism is the enemy of whatever is sunny, life-affirming, form-seeking, and conscious of tradition.” She wrote, “It’s too late to answer the slogans of Fascism with the slogans of Democracy. It’s too late to hope we shall preserve Democracy without, effort, intelligence, responsibility, character and great sacrifice. In the next decade there will be no free rides to freedom.; it will not be preserved by geography or by the insistent chant, that no matter where else it is raining, it is bound to be sunny here, if not today, then tomorrow.” As her book hit the streets, Montana’s National Guard, the 163rd Infantry Regiment, received federal orders and was mobilized for WWII. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/01/opinion/steve-bannon-trump.html?pvid=SYRHkrQsloHnZVlUKUXgHQIE&smid=url-share

Deep State Driscoll

After speaking to the American Legion at Glasgow, Montana, “in the middle of nowhere,” I ran out of gas 74 miles south and 36 miles east of even more isolated Jordan, Montana (population 366). The last and only other time I’ve done that was almost making it home from Spokane to Hamilton in 1967 but at 3AM having to ask a guy from Stevensville to call my Highway Patrolman father to bring me a gallon of gasoline for the last 20 miles of my Christmas trip home from college. When the black patrol car slid quietly up to me in the 4AM ground fog, my dad had his window rolled down and said, “I’ve seen better heads on wooden nickels.” Now I was stuck on the most remote possible edge of one of his old patrol beats out of Miles City, to Jordan, over to Circle and back down to Miles City. Now I had a cell phone and the CENEX gas Station in Jordan told me to call RW Repair, which I did, and fortunately Ray and Wanda lengthened their work day to drive 72 miles with 5 gallons of gas to assist me. I followed them into town and, when we settled, I was relieved the cost to me was only $154 dollars, and I was delighted. I was delighted because my father’s old Montana Highway Patrol Badge, the badge of an honest cop and therefore, like myself a proud card-carrying member of the deep state, was 154. I see him now having fun with this.