The Pacific: Marines of the Pacific - Eugene Sledge, Robert Leckie

HBO

"A look at the life of WWII veteran Eugene Sledge featuring interviews with Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, actor Joe Mazzello and the team behind the HBO miniseries "The Pacific."

"Interesting fact: Eugene Sledge's brother Edward was awarded the silver star for his actions in Europe. He was on Omaha beach, the Hurtgen forest and the battle of the bulge."

"'With The Old Breed' is a fantastic book. My father was in 1st Marines at Guam and Okinawa (3rd amphib). He never wanted to tell us about it. I now know why after reading Sledges' book. My dad was, and still is my hero. He embodied the true meaning of Semper Fi. I am a good man because of him.:"

The Pacific: Marines of the Pacific - Robert Leckie "One of Robert Leckie’s children - David - was my son Chase’s 8th grade teacher. Chase really valued the type of teacher “Mr. Leckie” was... kind, committed to his students, humble. I think Robert would be very proud of his son. And what kid doesn’t remember their favorite teacher? The Leckie legacy extends beyond one family... and beyond the battlefield."

Congress Advances Proposal to Make Daylight Saving Time Permanent

 Legal Insurrection  

Proponents of standard time also note that more daylight earlier in the day can help children heading to school and commuters traveling in the morning. They may have a point. I recall a motorist in our town striking a child walking to a bus stop on the Monday after the switch to daylight saving time. The driver simply did not see the child in the darkness..

eBay

"On Thursday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 48-1 to advance the Motor Vehicle Modernization Act. The Sunshine Protection Act — a measure that would make daylight saving time permanent — is included in this legislation. The bill now moves to the House floor.

"Following the vote, Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL), a primary sponsor of the Sunshine Protection Act, issued a statement that read:

My Sunshine Protection Act will bring us one step closer to ending the outdated and unpopular practice of changing our clocks twice a year. Floridians and Americans across the country are tired of the biannual time change, and the evidence is clear that permanent daylight saving time can improve public health, reduce traffic accidents, lower crime and encourage more outdoor activity.

Ending the clock change is a commonsense reform that will improve everyday life for millions of Americans.

"And President Donald Trump has thrown his full support behind this initiative. In a Thursday Truth Social post, he wrote:

Big Vote today (48-1!) in the Energy and Commerce Committee on a Bill including The Sunshine Protection Act, which will be making Daylight Saving Time Permanent! This is so important in that Hundreds of Millions of Dollars are spent every year by people, Cities, and States, being forced to change their Clocks. Many of these Clocks are located in Towers, and the cost of renting, or using, Heavy Equipment to do this twice a year is prohibitive! . . . More...

A New Wave of Domestic Terrorism Coming?

 Which came first? Radical teachers who create radical students, or leftist students influencing malleable teachers (who we assume were radicalized by leftists in teachers' colleges? TD

David Strom – HotAir 

"Democrats are rallying around Hasan Piker and Graham Platner, who both have called for violence and who have been open about being revolutionary communists (although Platner is now disputing that he remains one). Luigi Mangione is a hero." . . . 

"It's no longer in the public consciousness, but domestic terrorism was very much a thing in the United States and Europe during the 1960s and 1970s. 

"There is no one hard count, but in those two decades, about 20,000 bombings happened in the United States, with actual revolutionary groups trying to overthrow the United States government. 

"They failed, of course. But domestic terrorism was very much a thing, and a significant fraction of our cultural elite were at least somewhat supportive. That's one of the reasons the working class started moving rightward, alongside crime, cultural, and economic issues. 

"The radicalization of the left in recent years has already inspired riots and assassinations (sound familiar?), and it is quite possible that a new wave, hopefully not as widespread, of domestic terror will be unleashed. 

"Radical groups are gearing up for it already, feeling that the wind is at their back, unifying around racial issues and the Palestinian "cause.". . .  More...

David Strom is a reformed academic, which means he has a modicum of common sense. He has been a political and policy advisor as well as a speechwriter in 3 gubernatorial campaigns, several Congressional campaigns, and a US Senate campaign. He has also advised numerous state legislative candidates on policy issues. Over the past 25 years he still hasn’t figured out that Minnesota is a terrible place to be a conservative

Report: Israel Formed Secret Unit to Kill or Capture Every Oct. 7 Attacker

 Report: Israel Formed Secret Unit to Kill or Capture Every Oct. 7 Attacker

"Israel established a secret elite intelligence task force in the aftermath of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre to track down and kill or capture every terrorist involved in the attack — from senior commanders who orchestrated the assault to individual gunmen who crossed into southern Israel during the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

"According to a detailed Wall Street Journal report published Wednesday, the unit — known as NILI, a Hebrew acronym derived from a biblical verse meaning “The Eternal One of Israel Does Not Lie” — was formed by Israel’s Shin Bet internal security service and military intelligence shortly after the Hamas-led attack that killed roughly 1,200 people and saw 251 Israelis taken hostage, most of them civilians.

"Earlier reports following the massacre indicated the operation also involved Israel’s Mossad foreign intelligence agency, signaling from the outset that the campaign would likely extend beyond Gaza to Hamas operatives and leadership figures based abroad.

"The report said the task force compiled a database containing thousands of names, including Hamas Nukhba commandos — the terror group’s elite assault force that spearheaded much of the October 7 infiltration — as well as additional Palestinians identified as participating in the massacre. Israeli officials told the newspaper that targets are reportedly approved only after investigators obtain at least two independent pieces of evidence placing them at the scene of the attack or directly tying them to the assault.

"According to the report, Israeli intelligence personnel relied on a sweeping range of surveillance and intelligence tools to identify suspects, including facial recognition software run against videos uploaded by Hamas terrorists themselves, intercepted communications, cellphone location data, social media footage, and interrogations of Gazan detainees captured during the war." . . .  More...

One year ago, Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar was eliminated by the @IDF.
He was hiding in a tunnel directly beneath the emergency room of a hospital in Khan Yunis.
He didn't die on a battlefield. He died in a hole under a hospital, using the sick and wounded as his final shield.… pic.twitter.com/cbFVfBs5NE

— Embassy of Israel to the USA (@IsraelinUSA) May 14, 2026

President Trump: Please Do Not Leave the Iranian Regime in Place. . .

. . . "We Waited More Than Four Decades for You, We Will Not Get Another Break"

Gatestone Institute  

"President Trump: For the world, for humanity, for Western civilization, please do not leave this regime in place -- or a secular military one that is just as fierce. We cannot wait another 50 years for someone like you again."

Toon added by TD

"The Iranian regime is playing its game again: drag everything out to stay in power until the American public grows tired of high gasoline prices; or until the November midterm elections, when the Democrats might win; or until 2029 when President Donald J. Trump's term finally ends and he is replaced, with luck, by an invertebrate.

"Iran's regime has been using two tactics. It says: "We need time. We are, because of the strikes, fractured and our leadership divided." Or, as Vice President J.D. Vance naively noted on its behalf: it says it does not know what it wants. "The Iranians aren't themselves quite clear in what direction they want to go," Vance, with a straight face, told reporters at the White House; "they are also just a fractured country."

"That is exactly what the regime wants: that you are dumb enough to believe that. The Iranian regime knows precisely what it wants. It wants to stay in power to continue its anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism, anti-Westernism and anti-its-own-people-ism. The regime wants to revive its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles programs; restore its terrorist proxies, Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis; try to create another noose of death around Israel; threaten Europe and eventually the United States; suppress, kill and execute its own people, and continue to export its fanatic ideology and Islamist revolution.

"The supposed "moderates" will say, " Oh please wait for us. We are so fractured! We just want to win over the hardliners -- and we are ALMOST there!" This dish has been served up for years. It works.

"The second ploy is "Drag, Drag, Drag." Drag the deals. Drag the talks. Drag the feedback. Drag the confusion. Or else: Put a deal out on the table and then take it back. Then put out another deal. Then another one. Before you know it, the West will be worn down." . . .

Full article here.

Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a political scientist, Harvard-educated analyst, and board member of Harvard International Review. He has authored several books on the US foreign policy. He can be reached at dr.rafizadeh@post.harvard.edu

Reparations: Who Pays Whom?

 John Perry - American Thinker

"Reparations, its proponents insist, are payments white Americans owe black Americans for enslaving them, a practice that ended 163 years ago.  These advocates would have us believe that seven or eight generations after the fact, the limitations and inequalities of slavery still hold slavery’s descendants back and deny them their chance at the American dream.  And somebody has to pay.

"Setting aside the logic of that claim for the moment — while noting its similarity to the familiar liberal mantra: “Vote for us, and we’ll give you stuff!” — let us consider the practical question: Who exactly should pay whom?   

"Since only the wealthiest people could afford slaves, the legal and moral argument on the subject was academic, not practical, for the vast majority of citizens at the time.  That being the case, few among today’s population, even in theory, should have to pay reparations to descendants of slaves.

"According to the 1860 census, on the eve of the Civil War, under four percent of American households owned one or more slaves.  That means about ninety-six percent of the population owned none.  So the descendants of that ninety-six percent should be off the hook.  But what about people whose ancestors were members of slaveholding families yet personally opposed slavery?  On the other hand, what about people who would have liked a slave but couldn’t afford one?

"If descendants of slaveholders should foot the bill, who among us today is descended only from former slaveowners?  Odds are that after seven generations, it’s nobody.  Why should descendants of non-slaveholders be liable financially for the decisions of others?  What about those who are fifty percent descended from a slaveholder?  Forty-nine?

"The United States government as a whole isn’t liable for slavery; it fought the bloodiest war in its history in part to abolish slavery.  It doesn’t owe a dime in reparations to anybody." . . .More

John Perry is a ghostwriter and collaborator, as well as the author of more than a dozen books including Sgt. York: His Life, Legend, and Legacy (Fidelis, 2021). His latest book is The Detroiting of America: What Happened to the Motor City, Why Other Cities Followed, How Detroit is Coming Back

Must watch: Ted Cruz obliterates the lies of Mazie Hirono

 D Parker - American Thinker   

"This highlights an important point: With the midterms only a few months away, it’s vitally important to clear away the detritus of leftist lies now rather than later, while also setting forth our principles."

"The good guys are winning.  Plain old facts are obliterating the lies of the left, and the leftists don’t know what to do with themselves.

"A recent congressional hearing had Hawaii Democrat Mazie Hirono trotting out the ever tiresome litany of leftist lies on slavery, elections, and racism.  Violent leftists usually expect to get away with their big lies because that’s the way it’s been in the past.

"But something’s changed in the world, primarily because of the threats from an increasingly violent left and the looming implications of the midterm election season.  It’s become clear to the pro-freedom community that we must push back on the perennial lies of the left simply because they have become dangerous.

"Violent leftists have often tried to dehumanize their political opponents as collectivist fascists, national socialists, and KKK members.  Though these organizations originated on the far left, the left continues to call them “far right.”  Senator Hirono presents the familiar claims on slavery, elections, and racism.

"Although it’s almost painful to sit through her ramblings on the subject, it’s also amusing to watch her doing this, knowing what is going to happen next:" . . .

"The icing on the cake is that after this rhetorical beatdown of her facts, Ms. Hirono asks for a point of personal privilege.  And then, instead of actually refuting these facts, she complained that she feels personally aggrieved because she’s being “lectured.”  You can almost sense their arrogance and anger at no longer getting away with spewing lies."    More...

D Parker is an engineer, inventor, wordsmith, and student of history, a former director of communications for a civil rights organization, and a longtime contributor to conservative websites.  

The Media War on Israel

 The American Spectator  

"If the New York Times wants to be a voice for the Palestinian people or for victims of sexual violence, it has already done them a grave injustice through its untrustworthy reputation. Any facts that are unveiled, unfortunately, are drowned in a sea of objective opinions. If corrections are later published on Kristof’s latest piece, chances are most readers won’t see it."

"The New York Times’ coverage of Israel’s wars has established a new precedent in journalistic integrity: publish stories as soon as possible, let them go viral, then discreetly apologize when the stories prove to be false. 

"Take, for example, the explosion at the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City on Oct. 16, 2023. Palestinian authorities blamed the explosion on Israeli air strikes, and the Hamas-run Palestinian Ministry of Health reported 500 people dead. The following day, the New York Times posted “At least 500 people were killed by an Israeli airstrike at a Gaza hospital, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.” Other outlets followed suit. “Hundreds feared dead or injured in Israeli air strike on hospital in Gaza, Palestinian officials say,” reported the BBC.

"After a thorough investigation, the hospital explosion was confirmed to be caused by an Islamic Jihad rocket that misfired in a barrage intended for the civilian populations of southern Israel. But by the time the facts came out, the narrative had already been set. 

"But there’s more. In July 2025, the New York Times published a photo of an emaciated toddler on its front page as proof of an Israeli-facilitated famine in Gaza. As it turned out, the boy suffered from a preexisting genetic disease unrelated to the war. The Times did issue a correction, but it was published on its public relations X account, seen by less than 100,000 viewers, and not on its website or main account, followed by over 55 million users. Over the past two years, I’ve also reported on how widely circulating claims of genocide and famine in Gaza have been fabricated by biased NGOs, politicians, and media outlets as part of a campaign to slander Israel.  

"News, therefore, is not being reported; it’s being shaped and fabricated through biased narratives, and the consequences are dangerous.

"The most recent jab at Israel is Nicholas Kristof’s opinion piece published in the New York Times on May 13. Kristof unveiled alleged horrific sexual abuses committed against Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons. This followed a similar report from Faisal Ali at the Guardian a year earlier on alleged sexual abuses of Palestinian detainees. 

"Kristof’s piece was hard to read, filled with emotionally driven accounts from sexual abuse victims. It claimed that there is a pattern of widespread sexual violence against detained Palestinians by the Israeli military, intelligence agencies, Jewish settlers in the West Bank, prison guards, and specially trained rape dogs. But even in the most cringeworthy moments, I recalled reading uncomfortable pieces from the Times before, only to find out days or weeks later that the content had been recalled or debunked." . . . 

Dems React to Gabbard's Tragic News the Only Way They Know How: With an Utter Lack of Class or Humanity

 Bob Hoge – RedState

Miranda Devine called Schiff, "You snake"  STREISAND EFFECT Slang Meaning | Merriam-Webster

"California Sen. Adam Schiff (D) is one of the most insidious Democrats in Congress, and that’s saying a lot these days. He reminds me of former FBI Director James Comey, since they both ooze fake sincerity and piousness even though their hands are dirtier than a kid’s in a mud puddle.

"When news broke Friday that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was stepping away from her post because her husband had been diagnosed with a rare and serious form of bone cancer, decent people immediately felt for her and prayed for her husband’s recovery.

“'Decent” isn’t an adjective used frequently to describe the man known as “Shifty Schiff,” however, and he wasted no time before trashing Gabbard for her DNI tenure. Did he really think it was appropriate to drop a nakedly partisan job performance review just hours after she’d revealed her husband of 11 years could be in mortal danger?

"'I’ve run out of ways to describe "disgusting" when it comes to Schiff." . . .

Next came the usual thoughts and prayers. Then...

"Why didn't you stop there, Adam? Because you seemingly have a black hole where your heart is supposed to be:

While the circumstances around her departure are deserving of our sympathy, let’s be clear: Tulsi Gabbard’s only positive contribution to our nation's national security is her resignation.

She politicized intelligence. She dismantled critical agencies keeping Americans safe. She weaponized the IC to pursue baseless election fraud claims. And more.

We must ensure that her tenure — marked by a devotion to the person of the president and not to the security of the country — represents a terrible exception at DNI and not the new normal.

"Time to pull out the thesaurus: this message is disgusting, repugnant, loathsome, inhuman, heartless, detestable… There are even plenty more applicable words, but they’re not fit for publication." . . .  More...

The Streisand Effect Hits Newsom Hard After His Office Makes Huge Blunder Attacking Chevron

 STREISAND EFFECT refers to a phenomenon in which an effort to hide, censor, or remove a piece of information (such as a photo, a news story, a social media post) results in that information receiving far more attention than it ever would have on its own.

RedState  

"Wow. So think about that for a second. That's the press office of a governor of a state attacking a business in his state, because they're being truthful about the harmful nature of Democratic policies. Not just responding or being critical, but actively calling for a boycott of that business from their official account.

Gavin Newsom’s anti-oil smoke and mirrors on Chevron

"It's not a big secret that California's gas is so expensive compared to most of the rest of the country because of its taxes and regulations. 

"But Chevron drove that point home when they explained to drivers why the gas is always more in California with signs they put up at their stations.

The signs carry messages like: “Sacramento policies did this. Now, you pay more."

Others saying, “California has the highest gas taxes and fees in America.”

"Chevron spokesperson Ross Allen explained more. 

“They have a 61-cent excise tax on every gallon of gasoline. That’s the highest in the nation,” Allen said.

Allen also pointed to environmental programs like California’s cap-and-trade system and Low Carbon Fuel Standard, which he says increase costs for refiners and consumers.

"But that's apparently not something that the California Dems, particularly Gov. Gavin Newsom, want you to hear about. They don't want that blame to fall where it should — squarely on their shoulders. His Press Office X account posted this: " . . .

"Californians, if you’re hitting the road this holiday weekend, be sure to AVOID Chevron.  — Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) May 21, 2026

Drivers across California, including here in the Central Valley, may be noticing new signs posted at some Chevron gas stations pointing the finger at Sacramento for high gas prices.

FULL STORY: https://t.co/TuGBPvhb4D pic.twitter.com/2ECsdQFMSZ

— FOX26 News (@KMPHFOX26) May 22, 2026

  More...

WWII’s End in Germany: As Seen by U.S. Army Cameramen

SLICE History

“Crossing the Roer was no piece of cake. Rest was snatched in a period of minutes, not hours. Fatigue and trench food made every step of that operation tough as hell. We looked more haggard than the Nazis we captured.” (Samuel Fuller) "When American troops started their final invasion of Nazi Germany in mid-February 1945, U.S.-Army cameramen were at their side. They filmed many hours of incredible war footage on 35-mm celluloid. More than a thousand reels have been preserved in American archives; many of them have not been touched in decades. They are for World War II what we have seen so far only from the wars in Vietnam and most recently in Iraq. Embedded with the troops, the cameramen covered many stories of victory and defeat, death and liberation. Faces of despair and joy, scenes of war and peace, meticulously filmed by masters of the profession. Stories on the road from the Bulge over the Remagen Bridge to the Eagle’s Nest. 12 weeks of fighting in Germany until the ultimate collapse of the Third Reich. "Writer and director Michael Kloft has screened all the footage and selected the most striking scenes for his two-part documentary. He and his team researched the stories attached and found amazing war diaries, moving letters and eyewitness accounts that describe what happened. He will put together a chronicle of the last days of a war that cost 55 million lives and ended 60 years ago."

How the Allies Captured Nazi Germany - Rare Footage & Final Days Revealed

"In this compelling documentary, we follow George Stevens and his US Army film crew as they document the collapse of the Third Reich, the liberation of concentration camps, and the emotional meeting of American and Soviet forces at the Elbe River. Experience rare 16mm color footage of captured German aircraft, the devastation in towns like Leipzig and Wiesbaden, and the human stories of both victors and vanquished. Through diary entries, military reports, and eyewitness accounts, this video brings to life the desperation, chaos, and fleeting hopes that marked the end of Nazi rule.

"Discover the untold stories of German POWs, the harrowing conditions in makeshift camps like Remagen’s Golden Mile, and the shattered lives of children and civilians amidst ruins. Witness the liberation of camps such as Mittelbau-Dora and Buchenwald, and see how ordinary Germans confronted the horrors they once ignored. The video culminates with the symbolic link-up at Torgau, where East met West, sealing the fate of Nazi Germany and launching a new era in world politics."

A Time Of Choosing For America’s Moderates And Liberals

"These self-styled moderates and liberals can no longer afford the luxury of Trump Derangement Syndrome if they want to prevent a full-blown Marxist America."

Steve McCann   

"The current demeaning and demonizing of America’s wealthy elites and threats to confiscate their wealth and undermine their societal status will be expanded to include virtually the entire cadre of moderates and liberals who do not swear allegiance to the party."

"The 2026 mid-term and the 2028 presidential elections may well decide the fate not only of the United States but of those who self-identify as left-of-center moderates and liberals and who also make up the bulk of America’s current ruling class.

"Blinded by their Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS), far too many within this myopic but significant segment of the electorate still foolishly suppose that there remain various alternative political entities that encompass their “centrist” views, such as the Democrat and Republican parties of twenty years ago. But it isn’t true. At this point in our nation’s history, virtually all the alternatives that existed a few years ago are gone.

"Self-identified moderates and liberals will have to choose between two alternatives: either they will continue to myopically ally themselves with the American Marxist movement, as personified by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), who are unabashed disciples of Marxism, and abet them in bringing democracy in America to an end. Or they will abandon their juvenile addiction to TDS and “wokeism” and assemble a pro-democracy alliance with conservatives and the America First movement.

"There are no other choices, as there is neither the time nor the national infrastructure to create a major third-party alternative to the Democrat party, a party on the cusp of being permanently captured by the American Marxist movement.

"Over the past four decades, the majority of America’s self-identified moderates and liberals have gradually aligned with these collectivists due to a few similarities in political philosophy. However, in 2015, that arms-length relationship evolved into a full-blown open alliance solely based on an unbridled and mutual hatred of Donald Trump.

"Thanks to their inability to think independently and their acceptance of so many ludicrous concepts over the years, the old-time Democrat party moderates gullibly believed that when Trump was no longer in office or the face of a movement, the United States would be able to return to their version of “normal,” at which point the Marxist movement would again fade into the background of the American political spectrum.

"But that is not going to happen. The Democratic Socialists and their collectivist allies, whose sole reason for being is to stealthily transform the nation into a Marxist/socialist “paradise,” will not allow that fantasy scenario to play out, as they now have in hand the means that would allow a relatively small cadre of radical revolutionaries to take over the United States." . . .More