"We were not fighting men. We were fighting something that had decided not to die." — SS Panzergrenadier officer Werner Kortenhaus, field journal, Ardennes, December 1944. "Kortenhaus had survived Kursk. He had held lines against Soviet and British forces for three years. He was not a man who ran out of frame of reference easily. But somewhere in the frozen forests outside Bastogne, he encountered the 101st Airborne Division — and wrote those words. "This is the account of what happened when five SS divisions, armed with tanks, artillery, and numerical superiority in every category that is supposed to decide battles, attempted to break a surrounded American parachute force in the worst winter in decades. The 101st had no winter gear. Inadequate ammunition. Almost no artillery shells. A perimeter fifty kilometers around. Encirclement completed December 21, 1944. "On December 22, Generalleutnant Heinrich von Lüttwitz sent a formal surrender ultimatum. Acting commander Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe's written reply was one word: "Nuts." The SS assaults that followed were full-scale armored attacks. They broke against the American lines again and again. "What the German after-action reports describe is not American firepower or material advantage. SS-Obersturmbannführer Otto Dinse of the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich — veterans of France, Kursk, three years on the Eastern Front — filed a captured tactical assessment calling it "psychologische Immovabilität." Psychological immovability. Major Herbert Büchs wrote that the paratroopers "defended every position as though retreat had been struck from their vocabulary." SS Unterscharführer Klaus Rademacher wrote home from a field hospital: "There is something wrong with them." "Men like Sergeant Layton Black, a combat medic from Harlan County, Kentucky, who held the entrance to a field aid station against a direct SS assault with a pistol and a borrowed carbine. Or PFC Vernon Haught from Columbus, Ohio, who stayed at his machine gun when a Panzer IV came for his position, broke the assault's cohesion, and got back up after the second round threw him several meters. "This is not a story about slow-motion flags. It is a story about what it takes to make an entire division decide, each man individually, that leaving was not an option."
Wednesday, June 24, 2026
MSNOW people, California leaders, Democrats, and the bitterness of Joy Reid: how much can this nation suffer and survive?
And this from Heritage Review: . . . "That is a position Democratic leaders can accept or reject. But they cannot ignore it. Reid may no longer have a cable show, but she has a podcast, a speaking circuit, and an audience that treats her pronouncements as marching orders.
"The increasingly extreme positions staking out the Democratic Party's left flank create a familiar problem: every concession to the base makes the general election harder. Every refusal to concede risks a primary challenge or a stay-home protest vote.
"Reid has chosen her side. The rest of the Democratic Party now gets to decide whether her litmus test is a fringe demand or a preview of where the whole coalition is headed.
"When a party's loudest voices start issuing ultimatums that most of its own elected officials cannot meet, that is not a sign of strength. It is a sign that the people who claim to speak for the base have lost interest in actually winning." . . .
Former MSNBC Host Joy Reid Faces Outrage After Claiming America Is Only “Marginally Better” Than Iran on Women’s Rights
Reid hopped online to declare that this year’s festivities will not feature her or her black friends, making sure to throw in that she believes it’s a “slaveholder” celebration anyway.
Joy Reid Says The Fourth Of July Isn't For Black People . . . "This time, Joy decided to explain what Black Americans supposedly think about the Fourth of July.
According to her, Black people don’t really celebrate Independence Day. She claims that Black Americans view the holiday as nothing more than a celebration of slaveholders and oppression.
The problem is simple.
She doesn’t speak for me.
And she certainly doesn’t speak for millions of other Black Americans.
A Patriot’s Take On The American Revolution
Richard Kirk - American Thinker
". . . those complaints are miniscule compared to the insight achieved by looking at the American Revolution, as Metaxas does, through the eyes of patriots like Washington and John Adams and not through the eyes of a Marxist like Howard Zinn " . . .
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| Eric Metaxas, Amazon |
"Foremost among those distortions is the assertion that most of America’s founders were deists who rejected the idea of God’s post-creation activity in human affairs. As Metaxas clearly shows via the words of various patriots, especially John Adams and George Washington, the notion of God’s “providential” acts on behalf of the emergent nation was ubiquitous, a faith indissolubly linked to its adherence to biblical principles as articulated by ministers like George Whitefield. These “no King but Jesus” convictions spread by the ministerial “Black Robe Regiment” were often derided by British elites who denigrated colonials as, in today’s parlance, bible-bangers. A practical consequence of this gulf between British and colonial morals is illustrated by the humane treatment Americans typically provided captured troops versus the wretched fate most patriot soldiers faced who fell into British hands, an estimated 10,000 of whom died in captivity, outpacing the “less than 7,000” killed in combat.
"Metaxas further illustrates the decadence of Britain’s leadership under George III by providing detailed descriptions of gatherings in England by prominent members of the Hellfire Club who not only embraced hedonism but even mocked Christian beliefs. Later the author devotes several pages to General William Howe’s lavish farewell party in Philadelphia. By contrast, Washington is shown stressing the importance of discipline and moral conduct for himself and his troops in view of their “sacred” cause, a cause for which colonials officially beseeched God’s help by declaring days of fasting, prayer, and thanksgiving." . . .
Richard Kirk is a freelance writer and retired teacher living in Southern California. His book Moral Illiteracy: “Who’s to Say?” is also available on Kindle , as is his book Poetry with a Moral Edge.
Ghost of Alexis de Tocqueville Returns — What America Can Learn From Him
"From Tocqueville to the World Cup, outsiders keep discovering the same American superpower: turning strangers into neighbors."
"What we do know is that it has opened their world to our world, teaching both Europeans and ourselves what makes America truly exceptional: our people."
AfterMath - Home
"LUZERNE COUNTY, Pennsylvania — Over the Flag Day weekend in Pennsylvania, crowds gathered, and communities were formed in the most unlikely of places, under viaducts, along gravel-filled tracks, and at the base of some impressive Appalachian mountains, all just to watch as Union Pacific’s Big Boy No. 4014 rolled through northeastern Pennsylvania.
"The sheer presence of the locomotive drew crowds. Celebrations were formed among strangers for a couple of reasons: The locomotive is a reminder of what American workers, engineers, and laborers are capable of building. And continuing to honor that is part of the American ethos of exceptionalism.
"Also, Americans just love to be part of something bigger than themselves. Yes, we will fiercely defend our individualism. But we are also uniquely aspirational about what we can do together for the greater good. This is pretty much something that we do daily when no one is looking, but social media has placed our intuitive community gathering in the spotlight.
"The moment was just part of a phenomenon that European soccer fans have been delightfully experiencing as they travel across our country to support their country’s team in pursuit of the World Cup.
"Social media has been filled with fans such as “Freddy from Germany,” who unabashedly enjoys his discoveries of everyday American experiences, such as Waffle House, Walmart, and Buc-ee’s. He found out quite quickly that we love to form associations around everything, including people enjoying our country’s simple delights. (RELATED: The Spectacle Ep. 432: Foreign FIFA Fans Are Teaching Americans To Be Patriotic)
"Freddy’s colorful and joyful accounts are a dramatic reversal of the conventional wisdom that Europeans do not view America as an ally. A recent poll conducted by the European Council on Foreign Relations shows only 11 percent of Europeans across 15 countries view the United States as a reliable partner.
"The same has happened with Scottish football fan Shaun Hamilton. His X account has been actively posting about American hospitality, kindness, and the embraces that he and countrymen have received. His posts showing the fans of the Scottish national football team taking over Boston, with thousands of kilt-clad Scots partying in Boston Harbor, attracted attention. So did his posts of the breathtaking scenes at Gillette Stadium or the George Washington statue at Fenway Park getting the classic Scottish treatment by getting crowned with a traffic cone.
"Perhaps my favorite moment has been watching the Scottish and Haitian fans having a dance-off in kilts ahead of the first match. . . More...