Aboard the SMS Von Der Tann on the afternoon of May 31st, 1916 was one really good gun grew. Nobody will ever know for certain which actual gun did it, but in one of her dual 11 inch gun turrets, the crew managed to hit HMS Indefatigable right into the top of her A turret causing an near-instant detonation of Indefatigable’s magazine, blowing the ship into literal pieces – so bad that only two of her 1,019 officers and men survived. Now, we don’t know the names of the men in Von Der Tann who did the actual deed, but suppose one of them was, say, Swahili. This would, aside from surprising the rest of the gun crew, be an utterly insignificant fact. In today’s world, though, we are told we have to concentrate on the odd man out. If we don’t, then we’re “erasing history”.
This is not to denigrate the effort of our odd man – in any human event, it is all the people who participate who matter. In the major human events – good and bad – it is the collective effort of many which makes the thing happen. And if the deed is honorable and the people involved did well, then we honor them – perhaps even to raising statues in their memory. But the individuals of the mass are not historically significant. What was going on that May day in 1916 wasn’t a man or a group of men laying a gun just the right way to totally destroy an enemy whip – the event was the Battle of Jutland, the largest naval engagement of World War One.
There are a host of things to consider about the Battle of Jutland. The commanders. The ships. The training. The equipment. The positions over time. Any student of history could spend a whole life time just studying this one engagement and still be pulling nuggets of useful and/or interesting information out of it. But what no historian needs to know is if any particular person aboard any ship was gay, or non-white, or any other thing. It doesn’t matter. What matters is what people did collectively under the leadership of the two fleets engaged. It is important for us to study deeply the life of John Jellicoe – the British commander – because that can give us insights into why he might have made this decision rather than that at a crucial moment. That Class II Stoker Nigel Farmsworth aboard the HMS Defense might have been secretly bisexual is entirely irrelevant.
I bring this up because we’re now in the run-up to America 250 and we’re getting demands that we stop paying attention to trivial things like George Washington and start paying attention to this or that odd person. What black people did. What Natives did. Yadda, yadda, yadda on and on. Just can’t stand this nonsense. It isn’t important that Prince Estabrook was a black man – what is important is that he and a bunch of other men stood up to Royal tyranny at Lexington and Concord. It mattered that Estabrook was there – as much as it mattered that the rest were there. But in the deep tides of history, that he was black simply does not matter. And if we’re going to study the Revolutionary War, our first task is to fully understand Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, etc…the people who led the way…the people who took the sublime heroism of Estabrook and his fellow patriots and forged a nation with it.
It is time to take our history back – to stop this looking for the DEI entry in every historical event. It probably just insults the memories of those who were there as they would be stunned that we even care about such trivial things. My bet is that if Estabrook could talk to us right now, he’s modestly say he was just doing his part…like all those who were there would say. Because that is what they were doing…not making a point for us in 2026. The American Revolution – the creation of the United States of America – is the most important purely human event in history. It created the freest, most powerful nation to ever be – and likely ever will be. It was a distillation of human history into its finest form – the end of all argument about what a civil society is supposed to be. The creation of the standard by which all over nations are to be judged. What is the skin color or gender of any participant compared with that? Nothing at all.
This great and glorious America is worth preserving – but it can only be preserved if people remember how it came to be and why. Who moved the world. Why did we decide on this form. That is what needs to be told…not some nonsense designed merely to please someone in 2026 who hates America anyways.
Blogs For Victory 
It isn’t important that Prince Estabrook was a black man – what is important is that he and a bunch of other men stood up to Royal tyranny at Lexington and Concord. It mattered that Estabrook was there – as much as it mattered that the rest were there. But in the deep tides of history, that he was black simply does not matter.
Ironically, many blacks today would accuse him of trying to be white instead of praising him as a patriot.
Yep – a completely poisoned discourse.
Estabrook could see – to be free, you have to stand up for it, even if things aren’t perfect. That you must love a thing before you can help it. These days, because our first President wasn’t black, the radical race baiters say the whole American experiment is wrong.
For the first 200 years, America was 80%+ white Europeans, and it is them who built this country. Not Asians, not blacks, not Hispanics, and certainly not Muslims …. Hard working WHITE CHRISTIAN EUROPEANS are the ones who built this country and of whom gave everyone else their freedoms. We need to be more forceful in reminding everyone of this fact.
A friend and I have been talking over the past few days, about how much we hate AI. As in, HATE it. So this video is right on target, though from a slightly different perspective. It does explain a lot, though.
https://www.malone.news/p/sunday-strip-make-it-shtty?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email#media-1e898c05-fcf2-465f-b270-39a026db6d05
This should be hanging on a wall at the Vatican, and in Congress
Amen.
One of the most very true things ever said by mortal humans!
What killed Greece wasn’t Philip of Macedon, it was a loss of faith in the Greek polis. Philip just moved into a vacuum. By the time Demosthenes was sounding the alarm and calling on Greece to unite against Macedon, it was really too late…sunk in sloth, lacking faith in themselves, only Thebes joined the fight – and the Thebans had to be pretty much bribed to go along with it. At Chaeronea a weak and divided Greece fell and fell so thoroughly that it wouldn’t recover a truly independent political character for 2,100 years.
You get what you tolerate – and if we’re tolerating lies, theft, cowardice…that’s what we’ll get.
It’s going to be interesting to see what effect the 250th anniversary celebration has on the American population. One would hope that it kindles a new burst of optimism and patriotism.
It’ll show the Two Americas, I think – in the Red areas it will be awesome…in the Blue areas, you’re more likely to see a Palestinian or Pride flag than American.
Whites did often work side by side with black and Hispanic people, and to a much smaller extent some Chinese, but these demographics did not play a large part in the overall development of the country.
And the main thing is that it wasn’t the skin color – it was what was accomplished! Sure, a large number of Chinese worked as laborers on the Transcontinental Railroad…but so did lots of white and black people. Their skin color wasn’t relevant…the building of the railroad was the important thing.
Any noting of the skin color or ethnicity of anyone should have been a simple acknowledgement that these people all worked together and different skin colors and backgrounds were irrelevant.
FINALLY! Back in 2020 I was furious at the pass given to then-Inspector-General Atkinson as he blatantly broke rules, rewrote rules, and in general conspired in an attempted coup against President Trump. Everything about the whole Zelinksky-phone-call charade was so in-your-face wrong I could never understand how anyone could have the gall to try to pull it off.
Atkinson, who was supposed to be the guy who made sure the rules were followed, turned out to be the guy who ripped the rules to shreds, stomped on them and flushed them down the toilet. He not only trashed the rule against accepting hearsay, he changed the rule while violating another rule on how the rule could be changed.
Now, finally, he is the recipient of at least one criminal referral for his role in the whole sordid mess. While it was fun to see Liz Cheney get humiliated in a 40+ point loss in her bid to be reelected to Congress, and to see various players outed as perjurers or just plain garden variety liars, the hammer of criminal charges (which I hope will soon follow the criminal referrals) is a much more appropriate response.
Yes, this is what I voted for.
Senator Kennedy was quite clear in his disdain for Eric Swalwell, including this gem:
This is no country for creepy old men. And Congressman Swalwell, he’s about to find that out. Karma may be slow, but it’s almost always on time.
While this is mostly about the child trafficking resulting from the Biden years, there is this, a statement from Catholic Charities Social Work Supervisor Indaira Charles, which also touches on birthright citizenship and government complicity in rape:
This is a rather disorganized article, shifting from the abuses of the Biden system in releasing children and minors to unvetted “sponsors” to abuses like “the Biden administration seized children’s passports at the border and, incredibly, threw them away.
“…[T]here was a garbage can filled to the top with passports. So they were processing the kids and just throwing their documents in there” to what appears to be at least tacit approval of National Guard soldiers having sexual relations with minors, possibly with the intent of impregnating them. It also seems to be an indictment of Catholic Charities.
The scope and depth of the depravity and corruption of those years may take years to uncover, but I hope we have the will to keep digging, and prosecuting those responsible.
America 250 Must Be About America
I don’t know why it took me so long for your headline to register. It’s a sad commentary on present-day society that that even needs to be said out loud. It’s going to be a lot harder to make it to 300 than it was to 250 – IMHO.
Personal note …. The Mrs and I are leaving for a 3 week retirement cruise through the Mediterranean tomorrow and we can’t wait …. We will be visiting several ports in Spain, France, Italy, Croatia, and Montenegro. Following that, we are leaving Arizona and moving to Idaho to be closer to kids and grandkids. Retirement is a beautiful thing …. Keep up the good fight and I will check back in after the cruise.
My late wife and I went on an Alaska cruise in 2016 for our 50th anniversary, and then visited Amazona on the way home. Good time!
Awesome. My wife wants to do something for our 50th in 2 years. Please let us know about your cruise experience and what you might do the same / different.
I mentioned an article a short while ago about the possibility of Cruz being nominated to the Supreme Court if a vacancy should arise. The response seemed mostly positive. Here’s another article about DeSantis bein considered. If that doesn’t materialize I wonder what lies ahead for him and where he could best use his talents?
https://bigleaguepolitics.substack.com/p/trump-desantis-discuss-future-as?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=560996&post_id=194947911&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=15i322&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
That is the latest rumor about DeSantis – but he’ll have to deliver the House seats out of Florida, I think, to get it.
If being a SCOTUS Justice is DeSantis’s dream job, I think he would be great at it. But I still see him more as a president. Cruz has more experience in legal battles, and his slightly combative nature would be a plus on a Court that also contains Jackson and Sotomayor. and I think DeSantis has the all-around experience of both legal and executive background to be an excellent successor to Trump. I particularly like the fact that he has some military experience, not just serving under superior officers but having the life-and-death responsibility for decisions due to his role as “shot caller” for his SEAL team, making the decisions on which missions they would be assigned. I don’t see C in C as a strength of Vance, and Trump has shown us the importance of the ability to be forceful and dynamic in this role.
I like Vance, and think he is the perfect VP for Trump, but as I have said, he strikes me as more of a good wing man than the guy in the top job. He is kind of a lightweight, though a very competent and likable lightweight—and we have to remember, a conservative lightweight is 1000 times more qualified than the best the Dems have to offer.