Saturday Overnight Open Thread – 9/05/2020
[Buck Throckmorton]

*****

GOD BLESS POLAND

100 Years Ago Poland Saved The West From Communism

By the later months of 1919, the Soviets had pushed westward into Eastern Europe, exploiting the retreat of the Germans in World War I to overpower local independence movements and proclaim Soviet “republics” in nations like Latvia and Belarus.

The Poles counterattacked and pushed the communists back east. Lenin’s troops ultimately had to abandon the idea of occupying all of western Europe and settle for pushing the Poles back out of Soviet-occupied Ukraine.

The Soviets sued for peace and miserably abandoned their dreams of overpowering Europe. Lenin deeply lamented the loss. We remember the battle as the Miracle of Vistula, for the river that flows through Warsaw. The Miracle on the Vistula is a reminder of the West’s enduring debt to an underdog nation too often betrayed by the great powers. But it also teaches a universal lesson: namely, that there is glory in standing up to overwhelming odds and in sacrificing oneself for a greater cause.

Poland is once again standing virtually alone against Russia to the east and the emerging caliphate in Western Europe.

RATHER SHAMELESS

COUNTER-COUNTERCULTURE MUSIC

2020 is feeling a lot like 1968, and normal patriotic Americans are getting fed up with the left’s violent hatred of this country. Just like in 1968. As heartland Americans grew sick of the counterculture five decades ago, some big “counter-counterculture” music topped the country charts in 1969, and of course none bigger than Merle Haggard.

“Okie From Muskogee”

“The Fightin’ Side Of Me” (Merle Haggard)

Bobby Bare had a big hit with “God Bless America Again”

A few years later when Vietnam gave way to Watergate, Johnny Cash spoke for much of America with his huge hit, Ragged Old Flag.

If today’s “country” musicians would get off of their tailgates and put their moonshine down for a moment, they might find a huge market for modern patriotic counter-counterculture songs.

NORTH PLATTE CANTEEN

Where The Heartland Opened Its Heart In WWII

The North Platte Canteen was a lunch counter at the Union Pacific Railroad station where volunteers—almost all women—provided food, cigarettes and magazines to soldiers. One of approximately 120 community-based canteens in the United States during World War II, North Platte was by far the largest. From Christmas of 1941 through April 1, 1946, volunteers greeted and fed about 6 million service members. By comparison, the second largest canteen, in Lima, Ohio, served 2.5 million soldiers.

A 1944 newspaper account quantified a single day's donations from the Nebraska towns of Merna and Anselmo. Caravanning 70 miles in 22 cars and three pick-up trucks, volunteers brought to North Platte: 53 birthday cakes, 127 fried chickens, 58 dozen cookies, 32 dozen cupcakes, 73 pounds of coffee, 163 dozen eggs, 68 dozen doughnuts, 41 quarts of pickles, three crates of oranges, nine pounds of ham, 160 loaves of bread, 40 popcorn balls, 50 pounds of sandwich meat, four cartons of cigarettes, four decks of cards and $600 in cash. Cash donations paid for items like juice and milk, delivered directly to the canteen by refrigerated truck. The quantity of food donated and the miles traveled were especially remarkable in a time of rationing.

In 2018 North Platte did it again for some surprised troops passing through Nebraska.

In mid-June of 2018, Amanda Connick, the group tour specialist for the North Platte / Lincoln County Visitors Bureau received a call from Cline Tours. The motorcoach charter company would be transporting 700 troops from training in Wyoming back to their base in Arkansas and they needed a lunch stop that could feed them all and get them back on the buses in an hour.

Just the words “700 service men and women passing through” sparked an idea. Yes, a restaurant could be found to provide for this need, but this is North Platte, and North Platte doesn’t just let troops come through without recognition for their sacrifice. Why not take this opportunity to do something special?

Business organizations, churches, service clubs and individuals were all enlisted to help. In just three days following confirmation of the event, everything was in place. A location was secured, school children made signs, bags of goodies to send with the troops were prepared, and volunteers were scheduled. And the food… of course the food!

The astonishment of the young men and women as they stepped off the buses, the cheers from the townspeople, the warmth and hospitality that greeted them, the smiles, tears, laughter, hugs and handshakes, the good food they shared, all were as it had been more than 70 years ago. In two days hundreds of volunteers greeted 700 service men and women. Much like the quick 10-minute stop in the 1940’s, these soldiers had a short time in North Platte. One, two or three buses would stop, and the troops would stream into the Canteen Revival, spend an hour and then they would be on their way.

AWFUL NICKNAMES

What were some of the funny nicknames you or one of your friends were branded with? I believe it’s a universal behavior among teens and young adults to affectionately reward their friends’ stupid behavior with embarrassing nicknames. The challenge comes years later when they are respectably married and you have to remember NOT to use their nickname so as to spare them the embarrassment of explaining it to their spouse.

Even better, what are some of the most cringe-worthy nicknames you and a mate have called each other?

“Schmoopie”

CONGRATULATIONS FROM YOGI BERRA TO JOHNNY BENCH

When Johnny Bench broke Yogi Berra’s record for career homers by a catcher, Yogi Berra sent him a telegram reading “Congratulations on breaking my home run record last night. I always thought the record would stand until it was broken."

Did any of you ever receive a telegram? I guess it was the only electronic paper communication prior to faxes, but even in the 1970s I never heard of anyone getting a telegram.

MOTIVATION
(h/t – despair.com)

BALLOT BOX STUFFING

Do any of you remember going to a Major League baseball game and stuffing the ballot box with as many punch-card All Star Game ballots as you could fill out during nine innings? (While your dad kept saying, “You’re missing the game!”) This is apparently now the model for real elections. Millions of ballots will be scattered about by the US Postal Service, and whoever can gather up the most and fill them out wins the election.

REPEAL THE HOLLYWOOD TAX CUTS

There's an old joke about a boy who complains to his mother that his little sister keeps pulling his hair. "Oh," responds the mother, "she doesn't know that it hurts.” A few minutes later, the mother hears the girl scream and runs into the other room. "She knows now," the boy explains.

Democrats are now desperate to reverse Trump’s middle-class tax cuts because it had the effect of being a tax hike on rich liberals who reside in high-tax states controlled by Democrats. Restricting the deductibility of state and local taxes caused federal taxes to go up in those liberal bastions that are always clamoring for higher taxes. They asked for it. They got it.

Instapundit (Professor Glenn Reynolds) proposed exactly that in his now-classic column from 2012 titled “Repeal The Hollywood Tax Cuts”. It made the point that at times it is necessary to give people what they are demanding – good and hard.

…if Democrats demand truly serious tax increases, Republicans could propose capping the mortgage interest deduction so that houses worth more than $250,000 are ineligible. (You say that hits blue states harder? Darn!) Ending the deductibility of state property and income taxes -- which would also hit residents of high-tax blue states harder -- might also be worth it. These measures would be unpopular with a lot of voters, but they'd mostly be Democratic voters.

Done. Thank you Donald Trump. And Professor Reynolds. But there is more work to do. Let’s give Hollywood the tax hike its celebrities are demanding. We should probably go straight to confiscatory tax rates on actors, and maybe professional athletes too. They can be our test case on how well high taxes work.

The…proposal would be to restore the 20 percent excise tax on motion picture theater gross revenues that existed between the end of World War II and its repeal in the mid-1950s. The campaign to end the excise tax had studio executives and movie stars talking like Art Laffer, as they noted that high taxes reduced business income, hurt investment and cost jobs. The movie excise tax was imposed in response to the high deficits after World War Two. Deficits are high again, and there's already historical precedent.

BUCK THOUGHTS

Beware the “empathetic” executive, as he will torment his subordinates to engage in all his favorite activities and behaviors, smugly believing he is compelled by “empathy.”

RING AROUND THE COLLAR

In the hyper-PC commercials for laundry detergent airing nowadays, women do not do laundry – only men do that chore. Maybe it’s time to go full circle and have a career woman complaining to her house-husband about “ring around the collar.”

THROCKMORTON’S FIRST LAW OF LIVE MUSIC: IF THERE’S AN UPRIGHT BASS IN THE BAND, IT’S PROBABLY GOING TO BE GOOD

Nancy Griffith’s voice was described by Tom Russell as possessing ”a wild, fragile, beauty.” Her folk-country stylings influenced a great many singers and songwriters in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Here are couple of great songs:

“Once In A Very Blue Moon”

“Daddy Said”

Tonight’s overnight thread has been brought to you by Warning Signs.

Thanks again to the horde for letting me play host. Please feel free to offer any helpful feedback, insults, or tips at buck.throckmorton@gmail.com

posted by Open Blogger at 09:31 PM

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