It is August and things have slowed to crawl. Perhaps you have not been able to get away. Lack of planning. Agreeing in February to set that murder case for August? Whatever the reason you, unlike us, are stuck in Miami. Maybe this will help.
Summer Reading:
1) The Admirals, by Walter Borneman. There were four admirals awarded an unprecedented fifth star during WWII. Who were they? The sad part of this is that even we gave your run-of-the-mill DeSantis drone robe wearer, a few clues, we doubt 98% of them could identify the men and their roles. For the record, the admirals receiving a fifth star Admiral of the Fleet, were Nimitz. Halsey, King, and Leahy. Name the one that commanded a battle group in WWII. "Umm...this is not what I thought this would be, I thought we would talking about original intent of the framers."
You're right, it was a trick question. While Halsey was most known for holding the line in 1941 when all that stood between Japan and California was the Enterprise, Lexington, and Saratoga, who were all at sea during the attack, and later commanding the fleet at the controversial Battle of Leyte Gulf, Nimitz had a sea command in the North Atlantic before the Pearl Harbor attack required Roosevelt to replace Admiral....? Anyon? Bueller? Anyone? Admiral Husband Kimmel who was in charge when Pearl was attacked.
The least well known, and most influential of the group was William Leahy, who had recently retired before the war started. Roosevelt recalled him to active duty and put Leahy in charge of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Leahy became a close confident of FDR and was rarely not at his side during all of WWII. He wielded tremendous influence over the conduct of the war.
2) The Black Swan Mystery, by Tetsuya Ayukawa. Written and published in Japan in 1960, this is a post-war "film-noir" type of simple yet expertly written murder mystery that satisfies on a beach day. It's been re-released and available on Amazon.
So what else is going on?
There's some controversy over Sydney Sweeney and also the firing of the head of the Bureau of Labor statistics after she posted revised employment numbers last week showing the economy had actually lost nearly 260,000 jobs in May and June. We are not sure if the two controversies are related. What exactly is Ms. Sweeney doing wrong? (And for that matter, who is she?) Of more note is the remarkable move of firing an expert for reporting the truth.
"Mr. President, a category five hurricane is bearing down on Florida and we expect catastrophic damage."
"Who said that?"
"Well, uhh, the chief meteorologist of the National Weather Service."
"They're fired. That's Biden-Obama propaganda."
There are all sorts of applications for the novel idea of ignoring reality.
"Hey honey how was your checkup?"
"Bad. The doctor said I gained twenty pounds and needed to start on mounjaro."
"Oh, well, you have looked a little heavy. And you haven't been working out as much."
"Nah. I'm just going to switch doctors. It is so much easier. Want Five-Guys for dinner?"
And on and on it could go, until the economy collapses, the environment collapses, the guy eating another burger and fries collapses while walking up a broken escalator at the REGJB.
Enjoy Your Summer.
