LATEST POD: OUR LEADERS ARE UNWORTHY OF OUR HEROES.

Sorry for the lateness - I’m down with a spring flu.

You probably know this by now but pretty much anything that has to do with heroism makes me weepy these days and I cried my heart out watching the D-Day proceedings. I loved that Prince William recognized Canada’s boys in his lovely remarks. Worth a watch.

My first memories of war are Vietnam — a huge betrayal of trust and a PTSD factory for young men — many of whom had to be drafted in order to fight this misbegotten exercise. Some fled to Canada, British Columbia mostly. Others came back from their tours radicalized by what they witnessed in the rice paddies and villes in that faraway land. In the end, after staggering losses, the dominoes of communism didn’t fall all the way to Malibu Beach as had been predicted by the hawks who kept the conflict going for 10 thousand days.

The human costs of the long conflict were harsh for all involved. Not until 1995 did Vietnam release its official estimate of war dead: as many as 2 million civilians on both sides and some 1.1 million North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters. The U.S. military has estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died in the war. In 1982 the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C., inscribed with the names of 57,939 members of U.S. armed forces who had died or were missing as a result of the war. Over the following years, additions to the list have brought the total past 58,200. (At least 100 names on the memorial are those of servicemen who were actually Canadian citizens.) Among other countries that fought for South Vietnam on a smaller scale, South Korea suffered more than 4,000 dead, Thailand about 350, Australia more than 500, and New Zealand some three dozen.

There was heroism in the fighting, in the enduring and in the pushback many of the soldiers embraced when they returned, like my former boss, Marine Captain Bobby Muller who’d been paralyzed by a sniper. The presence of hospital ships off the coast meant that men survived horrific injuries they wouldn’t have in any previous conflict. I think of Max Cleland who lost three limbs but won a long career in the senate — while living alone, never marrying. I understand it took him 90 minutes to put on his suit in the morning.

I highly recommend for a binge watch the best Vietnam War series ever made - by Canadian writer/producers at the peak of their talent. The Ten Thousand Day War is mind-blowingly good. I worked on a project with one the writers whom I drove mad quoting great lines from the script delivered by Richard Basehart (Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea). Here it is on YouTube.

Back to D-Day. As I said on the podcast this week, watching Biden, Trudeau and Macron - as corrupt, selfish and cowardly as they come - representing us, the truly grateful citizens — made me sick. Where are the admirable, courageous leaders worthy of celebrating those brave young men? Who are today’s heroes? The people who took a stand for the country in the face of tyranny — that’s who. The Canadians who protested in the streets against the very men who last week strutted and preened for the world’s cameras, decrying the tyranny of the Nazis while they themselves have invoked their own version during C-19. Sidenote: Tamara and Chris are out raising money for the vaccine injured - as I’ve said, they are the real deal.

The interview this week is with Regina Watteel about her book, Fisman’s Fraud. It is a fascinating look at what she terms hate science — published studies that didn’t cleave to data and somehow miraculously backed up the government vaccine mandate schemes. She takes apart a disastrously bad effort that proclaimed danger toward the vaccinated from the unvaxxed masses. It’s a great listen.

I’m working on a short profile of Bobby Kennedy Junior — his talents and also a whole lot of personal baggage that will surely be unpacked by Democrats closer to election time. I had a lovely encounter with a very close relative of his — and will spill the beans soon.

Stay critical.

#truthovertribe.