America celebrates Veterans Day on November 11. We remember D-Day on June 6, 1944. But do we remember what happened six years later, on June 25, 1950? Largely unnoticed and forgotten, that date stands in infamy. Like any other summer day, June 25 comes and goes. But as long as some veterans live, they will never forget. They will remember the Forgotten War. What follows gives a tribute to the men who fought in Korea.

Five days before the end of WWII the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), as an “ally” of the United States, entered the war against Japan. Korea had suffered under the Japanese Empire since 1910. With the liberation of Korea, the expansionist USSR saw an opportunity to gain a foothold in the Far East. Following contentious negotiations in 1945, Korea was split between North and South with the USSR occupying the North. The 38th parallel became an artificial boundary.

On June 25, 1950, eight infantry divisions from the North Korean People’s Army (NKPA), trained and equipped by the USSR, invaded South Korea in a bid for reunification. Within three days the NKPA captured Seoul, the capitol of South Korea, and destroyed the army of the Republic of Korea (ROK). Five weeks later the NKPA had pushed south through the length of the Korean peninsula. By August 1, the United Nation Forces (United States primarily) occupied a tiny enclave at the southeastern tip of Korea including the port city of Pusan.

In a brilliant but risky strategic offensive, General Douglas MacArthur, on September 15, landed forces at the western port of Inchon. He attacked northeast toward Seoul threatening to isolate the entire NKPA in the south separating them from their base of operations in the north. Much of the NKPA was able, however, to escape north along the mountainous east coast.

MacArthur’s forces quickly recaptured Seoul, then pressed north to take the North Korean capital of Pyongyang. By November 1950 MacArthur crossed the Chungcheong River within striking distance of the Yalu River. The Yalu River serves as the boundary between North Korea and China.

Then the tide changed. On November 25, 1950, two days before Thanksgiving, the Communist Chinese attacked across the Yalu River. China, feeling threatened by the presence of US/UN forces on its boarder, prompted the Chinese response. They attacked with four armies almost enveloping the US Eighth Army. The result was devastating. The US Army’s 2nd Infantry Division was forced into a bloody gauntlet rendering it almost combat ineffective.

On the same day, farther east, the Chinese launched two more armies against the 1st Marine Division and elements of the US Army’s 7th Infantry Division cutting the American supply line and route of withdrawal. The 1,400-man Army-Marine force had to fight its way southwestward to the seacoast for evacuation.

By late December, the US Eighth Army had organized a coast-to-coast defense just below the 38th parallel with five corps online and one corps in reserve. On January 3, 1951, under considerable Chinese pressure, the US Eighth Army was forced once more to withdraw south of Seoul and the Han River. In March, the US Eighth Army recaptured Seoul from the Chinese and again set up a line just below the 38th parallel. From July 1951 until July 1953 the war became static as negotiations began, bogged down, then started again over dozens of times.

One of the hallmarks of the Korean War was the savagery and brutality the Communists inflicted on the US/UN prisoners of war (POWs). Several massacres were committed by the North Korean and Chinese Communists including the massacres at Sunchon Tunnel, Hill 303, Hill 312, Taejon, and Kaesong, among others. Prisoners were wantonly machine-gunned and bayoneted to death. To those who try to cite an equivalency on the part of the US military, let it be known that such savagery and brutality was never part of American culture, heritage, doctrine, training, or national policy. Americans are not warmongers.

The Korean War was never declared and has never officially ended. An armistice (agreement to cease fire, but not formally end hostilities) was negotiated, but no treaty was signed.

By the end of 1953, the casualty count stood as follows: the US suffered 54,200 dead of which 37,400 were combat related along with 103,000 wounded. Over 7,000 Americans are still unaccounted for. The ROK Army suffered an estimated 673,000 killed. Estimated 1.5 to 3 million Korean civilians died accounting for roughly 10% of the pre-war population. Estimated North Korean and Chinese Communist combined loses stand between 1.8 and 3.8 million with no correct count available.

Except by the men who fought on the legendary hills -- Pork Chop, Bloody, Heartbreak, Baldy and many more -- the Korean War has been largely forgotten or was never known in the first place.

Forgotten, too, is just how poorly prepared the US military was following the post-WWII demobilization. A classic account of American unpreparedness preceding the Korean War may be found in T. R. Fehrenbach’s book “This Kind of War”. Those who call for a gutting of America’s military in a dangerous world would do well to reflect on our Korean experience.

“And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.” -- Matthew 24:6.

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at bnt0019@gmail.com.

In light of recent events in France and elsewhere, however, something else comes to mind: Do people get the riots they deserve, too? Maybe—sometimes.

Now, I’ll preface my remarks by saying that I really do hope France channels its inner Napoleon and rights the ship. And were I in charge there, I assure you the rioting miscreants would meet their Waterloo in short order. (If the Duke of Wellington can do it, so can the Duke of Westchester. I do proffer my services, too, but I require the same deal the Roman Republic offered during crises: A man would be appointed dictator for a specified time to restore normality, endowed with extraordinary powers and largely free from the usual legal constraints—wink.) But a thought occurred to me the other day.

Just two years ago France became the world’s first nation to explicitly guarantee a “right to abortion” in its constitution. Approximately 85 percent of Frenchmen supported the amendment, President Emmanuel Macron characterized the move as “French pride,” and the Eiffel Tower “was lit up in celebration, with the message: ‘My Body My Choice,’” wrote the BBC at the time.

Note here, though, what France’s constitution does not guarantee: freedom of speech — at least, not really. The document does claim it’s protected, but then adds the caveat, “except to answer for the abuse of this freedom in cases determined by law.” Translation:

You’re free to say anything—that the government allows you to say.

So you can, and people are (see Brigitte Bardot et al.), punished for Hate Speech™ in France. So watch your mouth. But if you want to kill an unborn baby, well, Brie Brother is there with bells on (though not church bells; those have been replaced with the adhan.)

And, no, this isn’t “just” about prenatal infanticide. That’s actually a symptom of a deeper problem: lack of virtue. Another symptom of it is the riots themselves.

Philosopher G.K. Chesterton once noted (I’m paraphrasing) that the problem nowadays is that Christian values are floating around detached from one another. Consequently, we have scientists who care only about Truth, but have no pity; and humanitarians who care only about pity, but have no Truth. Today we’re heavy on the (pseudo)humanitarians, the woke capons and clucking-Karen hens who are tough with babies in the womb but melt before foreign invaders in the streets.

But they’re short on “Christian values” (virtues, really) because they’re short on Christianity, and this is because they shorted it more than two centuries ago.

If your knowledge of the French Revolution (1789) transcends what they teach in government school, you know that it was when “leftism,” in name, was born. Those French revolutionaries were left-wing nuts who, like the Cambodian Khmer Rouge, aimed to restart history. They instituted a new calendar, beginning in 1792, that had 10-day weeks omitting the Lord’s Day. The explicit goal was to eliminate Christianity and, well, congrats,  Gallic garçons, you’ve largely succeeded.

And now, since man’s faith-nature abhors a vacuum, you’re getting Islam—good and hard.

I mentioned virtues (good moral habits), and I would remind you that Kindness, Love and Charity are among them. But so are Faith, Wisdom, Diligence and, most importantly here, Courage. The modern West, however, is the land where “Can’t lives on Won’t Street.” It is the inheritor of the greatest civilization to grace God’s green Earth, and what did it do with this bequeathment? It squandered it!

With eyes increasingly blinded by sin and metaphorically fattened via excess, it traded Truth for tastes, principles for preferences and virtues for “values” that too often were vices. It forgot the Gods of the Copybook Headings and began worshiping multiculturalism, diversity and tabula rasa fantasies. Its people willingly though unknowingly became Eloi and then invited in millions of Morlock foreigners, deluding themselves with assimilation dogma. Oh, it’s not just failure to consider that not everyone is assimilable. They also never asked: What that is attractive would the aliens assimilate into?

Our “Pride” parade mentality and reality?

“Transitioning” children to opposite-sex simulacrums and initiating them into perversion?

The “If it feels good, do it” credo?

Moderns’ mushy-headed moral relativism, which really just boils down to moral nihilism?

A people so weak and woke (but I repeat myself) that they won’t even stand up for their formative faith, history and culture?

“Men”—and I use the term loosely—so pusillanimous that they’re dominated by their own women and won’t protect them from alien tribes’ predation?

Women so lacking in character that they dress like hookers and act like hellions?

“Adults” so childish they need “safe spaces” and comfort animals and can’t even discipline their own kids?

Our culture of death (as opposed to the Morlocks’ more masculine cult of death)?

Will the Morlocks say, “Oh, sahib, can I be part of your enlightened, ethereal brotherhood?”?

Heck, the Amish and Hasidim don’t assimilate into that; I don’t, either. Why would rough foreign men with their absolutism (the wrong kind) and merciless cults? 

The irony here is that the clock is ticking on this civilizational orgy of idiotic iniquity. When Muslim Democrats took over Hamtramck, Michigan’s political offices a few years back—thus creating the first U.S. locality with an Islamic mayor and all-Islamic city council—one of their moves was to ban the “Pride” flag’s display on public property. The old-line, ousted-from-power Democrats were incredulous and beside themselves. “We did everything we could to make your transition here easier,” one of the officials said mournfully, “and this is how you repay us, by stabbing us in the back?”

Well, when you live in an inverted faux reality between your ears for years, actual reality is quite the kick in the teeth.

But when the Morlocks achieved enough power, gone would be those abortion “rights,” that sexual liberty license, and those multiculturalist and diversity fantasies. Wokeness would be put to sleep—permanently.

Something else the post-Christian West doesn’t grasp is that, with Christianity’s “What you do to the least of these …” injunction, its adherents will have compassion for the weak and offer them protection. The Morlocks, no matter their place of origin, hold the weak in utter contempt. To them weakness is a sin that invites domination.

If it’s not already obvious, I’m not just picking on poor self-flagellating France. News is that Britain’s left-wing Labour Party—which had imported massive numbers of third worlders into the U.K. to “rub the Right’s nose in diversity and render their arguments out of date”—has surged to its largest polling lead since 2024.

In a shocking upset, Brazil just re-elected (or did it?) once-criminally-convicted socialist president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

And here in the U.S., people may via midterm voting again empower our rapacious, megalomaniacal, economically illiterate and morally depraved homegrown aliens, the Democrats. After Biden administration depredations, this would be like the Titanic having backed up to hit the iceberg again.

But, “What, me worry?” say distracted Westerners. For sure, they all are busy. They have places to go, people to have sex with, and babies to kill.

Contact Selwyn Duke, follow him on X, Truth Social, MeWe, Gettr, Tumblr, Instagram or Substack or log on to SelwynDuke.com.

So today Tommy Robinson and the rest of the world heard the verdict on his “harrassment” charge.  For those who have not followed the story of England’s patriot leader and journalist, Tommy (a.k.a. Stephen Yaxley-Lennon)) trying to snatch a few precious moments with his children at a resort.  He cannot even take in a soccer game in England - he has been banned from many venues and it wouldn’t really matter because his strong stand for English girls who have been victimized by Pakistani grooming and rape gangs - the only voice they have had in their own country - has made him a target of these evil-doers and their insane supporters.  His kids are not safe with him in his homeland.  So when the Daily Mail ferreted out where he and his family were trying to have a holiday, they put pictures on Page One, doxxing these innocent kids - who are not in any way, shape or form, public figures.  Now they are not safe.  Obviously this ended the holiday visit.  This angered Tommy.  He picked up his phone and left a message for the editor, Edward Verity.  He said that this story had destroyed his children’s holiday, that he wanted to discuss it with him and that he should call him.   He said he did not believe in doing this to innocent family members but if the Daily Mail thought it was okay, he, too, had addresses, photos, etc.,  and what was “good for the goose is good for the gander”, although he did not want to do this and he made it clear that he was not threatening any form of violence..  Instead of backing off, or apologizing, or even discussing this issue, the Daily Mail brought criminal charges of “harrassment” against Robinson.  

Now one would think that this is like an arsonist bringing charges against someone driving down the street with a cigarette lighter in his possession.  The guy with the lighter is not threatening anyone, but he DOES have a lighter.  Suddenly this arsonist is hot and bothered and brings charges of harassment.  One would think this would be an open-and-shut case and case dismissed.  But instead, it was a seven-day jury trial.  The cost to Tommy was enormous.  His legal fees were in excess of $200,000.  Fortunately for him, American free speech patriots Elon Musk paid this cost.  He was aware that the process is the punishment; whether Tommy was found “guilty” or not, he would suffer.  Well, today we got the verdict.  “GUILTY!”  It flies in the face of all logic.  

There are a couple of ways this could go.  Either it will incite those who are fed up with the tyranny of their government and courts to take some kind of action to put a stop to their oppression, or they will simply do what they usually do - nothing - which will at least, one hopes, would, at long last, educate Tommy to the uselessness of trying to defend that nation.  Time will tell, but fairly soon.  Suffice it to say that this verdict is an outrage and should smoke some of England’s mugwumps out so we know where they really stand.  Given Nigel Farage’s shameless one-sided attacks on Tommy, it really doesn’t matter so much what he says at this point.  The only party which gives any hope to the native peoples of Britain is Restore Britain, led by Rupert Lowe.  It will be interesting to watch the fallout.  If there is none, that, too, will be interesting.

oo0oo

Suddenly Barack Obama has come out from under the mothballs to go to bat for Ilhan Omar.   There could be several compelling reasons therefor.  Following three terms post his administration, on the surface it might seem less relevant.  We have seen a lot more of his . . . wife . . . than we have of him.  For me he is mostly remembered for his disastrous “Cash for Clunkers” pogrom, where he destroyed billions of dollars-worth of sound used cars, parts and all, so as to jack up the cost of a car, an idea that cost the lower income levels far more than it did those who buy new cars routinely.  It also made it harder to keep an older car running because of parts being unavailable or scarce.  But that aside, why is he suddenly emerging from the dustbin over Omar?  I could suggest a couple of reasons - first and most obviously, they are fellow travellers.  They both desire that “fundamental change” from our Constitutional and patriotic heritage, transitioning us into some sort of socialist wallow, such as so much of Europe has become.  But just possibly, could it be, maybe . . . he is just a little sensitive about the aggressive investigations going on with regard to aliens and/or false citizenship.  His own case might come under scrutiny.  At the time it became a concern to some, it was too politically incorrect.  Discussion of it was taboo.  Those who raised questions or suggested investigation were booed off the stage and their careers wrecked.  Times have changed.  There is finally an appetite for truth-seeking.  This could be interesting at some point in the future.  It seems likely that should anything be amiss, Tom Homan would not hesitate to press for that equality we all seek.  In any case we must not let Obama or any other deter us from getting the truth and demanding accountability.

oo0oo

With all of the other dramatic events since the last election, many might have forgotten one of Trump’s plans which some of us feel was the most important one of all - dismantling the Department of Education.  This has been a conservative goal for almost as long as it has been in existence - since about 1979, Carter’s last blow for socialism.  We never needed a Department of Education, of course.  Education had always been a local responsibility with some state funding and oversight.  When it was handled this way our results were vastly better than since this department was created.  

There are a number of problems we have seen arising coincidental, at least, with this.  Love of country used to be instilled in schoolchildren on a daily basis.  The old-time school room had pictures on the walls of American heroes from our past - the Pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock, Washington Crossing the Delaware, the Signing of the Declaration of Independence.  Our Declaration of Independence inspired awe and its signers were our storied heroes.  The American flag was on display in the corner of every classroom.  Our history lessons were not apologies for success but factual.  We learned that slavery was a black mark on our history but that we defeated it.  We learned that “Manifest Destiny” also meant the dilemma of two colliding cultures and a Trail of Tears.  We learned that sometimes we have  failed in finding perfect solutions.  In a way, it set us up to accept the doctrine of Public Domain, which is an on-going trail of tears on an individual basis.  

We learned to love America and we learned at least something of our history and thus our culture - we learned that the Melting Pot meant that people who came to share in the wealth and freedom of America were expected to learn the official language - which was English, at least back then.  Most importantly, we learned to READ.  

Now, looking at the destruction of Europe at the hands of foreign invaders invited in by those who hated their own countries working in tandem with a couple of generations of European youth who were taught to hate their home countries, we can see the damage this kind of “education” can cause.  For when a generation has no regard for its nation’s culture or heritage - its history, its monuments - then that nation is doomed.  A nation is founded on these things.  

Lenin’s plan was to undermine the cultures of nations he wished to conquer (all of them, basically).  It is easy to overthrow a government and take over a nation that has lost connection with its past.  Lenin knew this.  And he wanted a world-wide Communist empire.  It is ironic in a way, that at the moment the misguided British government - including both the Conservatives and Labour - are yammering about military conscription and the need for young British boys to die to defend Britain from Russia.  Russia is the least of their problems.  The problems they have on their doorstep are those they invited in, escorted to five-star hotels, provided with council housing, free food and government benefits of all kinds.  It would be difficult to imagine that Britain is worth invading, to any other established nation.  On the other hand, Palestine has invaded.  And it isn’t even real.  And Palestine has managed, with the help of funding from numerous organizations, to enlist the support of ignorant students.  

Our western culture is being undermined through our schools.  The very first step is to end the Department of Education.  Trump campaigned on this.  He had better follow through.  Just pay off the federal bureaucrats and cancel them and then put states on notice that there is no more sugar daddy agency to fund their fancies.  Tell districts to halt plans for school buildings they cannot afford, get to work repairing the old ones, cancel expensive and foolish programs of all kinds, focus on the teaching of the basics.  Go to one room school houses if that is what it takes.  Our educational standards have been in sharp decline since 1979.  That is 47 years of failure.  And they were not great before that.  This is an existential issue.  If we don’t rectify this mess we will see the same destruction here that we see today in France.

oo0oo

Question. Why celebrate evil, death, and debauchery?

Many parents harbor misgivings about exposing their children to the horrific and macabre. Some rightly fear for the safety of their children. To celebrate or not to celebrate?

Considering today's DEI and “woke joke” environment, Halloween demands fair hearing. In perspective, Halloween stretches back more than fifteen hundred years, but few people associate Halloween with the observance of the ancient Christian church.

As early as 300 AD the Christian church officially honored certain men and women on All Saints Day for their conspicuous holiness. By the end of the fourth century the church honored all Christian martyrs. Although there was no specific date found for the celebration, tradition holds that the date was set in May. The Eastern Church still celebrates All Saints Day on the first Sunday after Pentecost.

By the eighth century the church in Rome designated November 1 as All Saints Day. On this day the church recognized all departed Christians who were not otherwise assigned a special day in the church year. Church leaders set the celebration to coincide with pagan rites, in this case with Druid practices of the conquered Celts.

All Saints Day (later including All Saints Eve) never celebrated evil, darkness, and the macabre. All Hallows Eve (later corrupted to All Hallow E'ne or Halloween) honored the memory of departed loved ones and others in Christ. This is the exact opposite of the contemporary secular portrayal of groaning, moaning evil spirits looking to harm the living.

A late issue of The Saturday Evening Post depicted contemporary Halloween art of recent decades. The Halloween pictures by Norman Rockwell and others brought back memories of my own childhood and the fun and excitement we kids shared on the block.

What I saw in Rockwell's pictures was a far cry from the horrific Devil's Night in Detroit or the criminal wilding experienced in other communities. Just because a few twisted people use Halloween as an excuse for hellraising does not mean the Christian population must abandon the celebration. What I saw in Rockwell's portrayal of Halloween was wholesome fun and revelry.

Evil exists. We must never regard evil superficially. To dismiss evil as mere silly folklore would be unwise, even dangerous. Against this backdrop of darkness, the victory of Jesus Christ over death shines even more brightly.

Imagination, mystery, enchantment, and fairy tales play a role in the lives of both kids as well as adults. As young people mature, they must learn to deal with the reality of death and loss and evil. They must learn to recognize the good and the wholesomeness in life. Properly administered, stories, play-acting, and dress-up help kids resolve fears as they mature.

J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings," C. S. Lewis' "Narnia" series, "Grimm's Fairy Tales," and more recently J. K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series are examples of fairy tales that provoke a child's imagination to reconcile good over evil. Moreover, these same tales give adults a perspective on which to interact with kids.

Adults can guide young people through their learning experience as gently as possible. Carved pumpkins, parties, costumes, masks, music, treats, stories, poems, even trick-or-treating all contribute to the enchantment of the evening. Kids should not be denied these childhood occasions.

In his book "The Screwtape Letters" C. S. Lewis cites Martin Luther pointing out that the quickest way to deal with the Devil is to mock and ridicule him. Because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ the Devil is a defeated foe. We should act like it.

The celebration of All Saints Eve has progressed from the pagan to the Christian to the secular. Even so, this is no reason for Christians to abandon the holiday. By extension, "Therefore do not let anyone condemn you in matters of...observing festivals...." (Col. 2:16).

It would be easy to reclaim Halloween in the context in which it was originally celebrated.

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at bnt0019@gmail.com.

Are you as sick and tired of hearing the defeat of the French Republic as “student protests over education” as I am?  Even people on the right who know better are construing this insurrection as a bunch of frustrated high school kids “demonstrating”.

This situation did not, it appears, “evolve, or “escalate” or “deteriorate”.  It was obviously planned and ready to go - and the goal was not to bring attention to the need to repair some school buildings.  It was planned and designed to bring down and edn French - and by extension - Western civilization.  That’s right.  The target here was our civilization and our culture.

Refugees - real ones - seek asylum in order to 1) survive; 2) make better lives for themselves and give their children a future; 3) enjoy religious freedom.  A refugee does not invade an e stablished nation and proceed to trash it to achieve these ends.  Such behavior negates the aims of a real refugee, of course.

And where “students” protest the poor condition of their schools they don’t burn the newest and most expensive ones to the ground.  The would have no interest in deviating public funds from repairs and maintenance to replacing the town hall that they razed.  Looking of shops would not further their cause.

No, this had nothing to do with schools or students.   Beyond being used as a pretext and as the useful idiots they are.  How, for instance, does a protest about HVAC in schools suddenly sprout Palestinian flags and the Hammer and Sickle  It doesn’t.  These actions are as clear as a billboard - a communist takeover . . . or an Islamist takeover.  Because these two main entities are using each other to further their own ambitions.  In 1917, an innocent group of workers assembled to air grievances and protest conditions in Moscow.  In the blink of an eye, Russia was plunged into a brief and bloody civil war.  When the smoke cleared and the dust settled, what rose from the rubble was the cheerless Soviet reality.  It took nearly a century to collapse from the weight of its own economic failure in 1989.  In 1979 a group of hard-eyed Islaruction by mic fundamentalists thugs used students to help force the misery of their Shi’a regime on the nation.  That has lasted for half a century so far.  They have spent most of their resources on spreading terror throughout the world.  The outcome of the current conflict remains to be seen.

You can take it to the bank that this is not a bunch of ragged, starving students.  It is, in fact, a well-funded international takeover of France today, Europe tomorrow and America the day after that.  Palestine has nothing to do with air conditioning.  Communism won’t fix a leaking roof.

Ask yourself a question.  Be honest.  Would you be alarmed if these flags wer Nazi flags?  And yet the Nazis have not posed a real threat since 1945.  By contrast, Islam and communsm have killed more people and caused more destruction, by far, than the Nazis managed.

It is long past time that we, in the West, all recognized the existential threat our tolerance of these rioters actually presents.  We are already in a very vulnerable position.  The way of life we have grown up in and which has characterized America could be shattered before our eyes in real time.  Think about the American life you grew up in - civility, orderly elections, orderly parades, occasional protests, all handled with civility and lawfully, the right to publish your letter to the editor in the local newspaper that no longer exists.  A respect for property, for other people, for the law.  Not perfect but close.  We saw in the summer of 2020 an attack on all of this - including no-go zones in major cities, abuse of public and private property, looting, arson.  None of it had a legitimate point.  It was  based on an uninformed and slanted view of the unintended death of a black criminal, George Floyd.  This case would merit an article of its own, but the result of this felon’s death from a combination of physical restraint by police and a huge overdose of illicit drugs was used to promote riots which were in themselves totally senseless (in Portland, Oregon, it took the form of melting down an iconic,  beautiful bronze statue of an elk), causing destruction and hardship which most profoundly affected poorer, minority neighborhoods.  These riots were a preview of what might come.  And let us all hope that the way they were handled was NOT a preview of how they will be handled when the riots return.  There is no doubt that the riots we saw in 2020 were underwritten by a combination of foreign, international agents and far-left organizations within the U.S., such as Black Lives Matter.  If we think of these as organic, local, legitimate “protests” against a real problem we will be missing a very important warning.  In the view of many, then-President Trump should have taken a stronger position, especially when people’s constitutional rights were violated by these rioters.  We can watch the contrast between France’s Emmanuel Macron and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and see which approach is more effective in protecting the citizens - hiding out in Qattar and making empty, weak speeches, or calling out the military to stop an attack on the nation from within.

Of course much of this lawlessness is part and parcel of the cultures from which our recent immigrants (both legal and illegal) derive.  We should expect that when millions are imported, whether as cheap labor for some - or easy votes for others, that one of the dividends will be lawlessness and ultimately civil war, between the American-born citizens of all colors and persuasions and the migrants who carry machetes and plan terrorist attacks or simply shoplift or organize fraud rings, and in time, should the latter prevail, then civil war such as that to which they are accustomed in their native lands in Africa and the Near East will transform into war among themselves.  There is no reason whatsoever - no legitimate reason - to accept these people.  Somalians would be better left in their own country.  If they have merit they might improve and save their own nation.  They need not bring Somalia to America.  If there is a humanitarian need somewhere and we have recovered our budget enough to warrant our intervention, it should be in the form of providing food, water, tents, etc., in situ, not in America. And this should be the responsibility of charitable organizations, not our taxpayers.   (The one exception we should allow is Boers from South Africa.  The reasons for this are:  1) they are currently victims of a program of genocide; 2) they are, for the most part, Christian and share much of our culture; and 3) they have proven themselves an asset to South Africa as farmers and developers of industry and are highly likely to prosper here and provide benefits for America.)  We need to watch the carnage and destruction in Europe, once the center of our culture, with a view to this being a prelude to the destruction and waste of America in the very near future.  This movement to overthrow the West - which is what it is - will gain momentum.  It will not recede.  Its survival depends on its rapid movement into the bastion of freedom - America.  And it won’t be that long in coming.  

We see it first in our major cities, but there is no small town in America that does not have a central point for potential unrest.  There are sleeper cells throughout our own nation.  When the time comes we will see the damage they can do.  Will America survive?  Only if we deport foreign criminals and illegal aliens and guard our borders.  We need to stop NGOs from ferrying people into our country.  We need to dismantle our H1-A and H1-B programs and our student exchange programs.  There is nothing in student exchange programs for Americans at this point.  The idea was to share knowledge of one another and cultures, but what can we gain in an exchange with China?  And now there is no point in any kind of exchange with Europe.  We now have the internet.  Communication is not dependent upon exchange programs.  Every one of these weakens, not strengthens, America.  

It has been said that during the Dark Ages after the fall of the Roman Empire, it was the backwater of distant Ireland where Western culture survived, in the scribes and monks.  They preserved much of the knowledge of Rome, Greece and other ancient civilizations and defended their work from Viking raids.  They are our link to the ancient world.  Perhaps this will now be the role of America.  We might be the last holdout for our civilization.  We have seen what these youths, together with the Islamists and communists who are playing them will do with any culture they come into contact with - they will completely destroy it.  They will enslave the native peoples and dominate the world until their incompetence brings them down in a century or two.  Until then we can live as the third world countries from which they came.  WE can do the assimilating.  

We don’t have to.  Instead we can defend our own way of life, our own Constitution, our own heritage.  We don’t need one more immigrant.  Henceforth, immigration should go on a case-by-case basis, depending on the value to AMERICA that each one represents, with no charity involved, no “need” of the applicant being considered.  And we must elect leaders who will take this seriously.  We are not the asylum of the world.  We are not the caretakers of the incompetent nations of Africa or anywhere else.  It is our first responsibility to preserve America and our Constitution, our civil society.  In an airline during an emergency, the crew put on their oxygen masks first before trying to help passengers because, obviously, if they pass out they won’t be helping anyone.  It is the same with geopolitics.  We must save America and rather be an example than a caretaker.  Other nations could, if they wished and had the will, follow the lead of America in their own lands.  They could reject violence and terror and rather establish a civilized society of their own.  Leave the “best and brightest” there to do it.  And don’t import the rest into America.  

We have an election coming up very soon.  Don’t sit it out.  Don’t vote in ignorance.  Don’t think for one minute that our elections are there to help other nations or foreign people.  That was the mistake France made.  Socialism doesn’t work.  Offering incentives to foreigners to flood our shores doesn’t work.  Spending taxpayers’ money on this doesn’t work.  Tolerating corruption doesn’t work.  We need to return to a saner set of policies.  So far, we’ve done this through our elections.  Make them work again and protect our American interests.  It is the only honest and legitimate way to make anything better anywhere.

            “Hi, hon. Did you pick up the mail?” my wife asks.

            “Yup,” I respond nonchalantly.

            “Well, anything good?” she asks probing my casual demeanor as I sort through the stack of stuff.

            “Bills and junk -- and maybe a calendar.”

A calendar. Imagine that. Another one. That makes four and counting.

I finished perusing the mail and passed it to my helpmate. The junk we toss, the bills we keep, and the calendar -- well, the calendar goes into the desk for later consideration. Does a home need more than one calendar? Looking at our collection you would think so.

From mid-autumn through year’s end, we accumulate calendars. Organizations in which we are members typically send a gift calendar as a memento to greet the new year. Or possibly they are seeking one last handout before year’s end.

Other groups wish to give thanks for our continued financial support. At year’s end people choose to make charitable tax donations to nonprofit organizations rather than give their money to Uncle Sam. Because of our contributions we end up with calendars. Add these to the ones given away by the businesses where we shop and the stack continues to build.

I am familiar with the work of some organizations that help injured vets wounded in combat. Due to my own military history and my interest in military things, I am on the mailing list of groups that cater to active and retired military personnel as well as other veterans. I am a proud recipient of their mailings.

Those of us who follow the Gregorian calendar (all of us do) find nothing special about counting days. Calendars with space large enough for daily scheduling notes are preferable. But the theme of the calendar becomes special. For example, I received two different calendars for the same year from the same organization. It seems redundant but it happens. Paralyzed Veterans of America did this two-calendar mailing once with each calendar carrying a different theme. For pet enthusiasts they publish a 16-month calendar devoted to pictures of cats and dogs. Cute. Their second calendar carried classic paintings by Norman Rockwell. Very nice.

The Disabled American Veterans calendar inevitably offers patriotic themes such as scenes from American landmarks using a variety of photos. Other defense-related organizations offer calendars showing various aspects of service men and women on the job.

My favorite calendars show scenes which tug at the heart of anyone who has served overseas separated from family during the Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays. Pictures typically show a somber soldier in combat gear sitting on a sandbag outside his tent on Christmas Eve. Over the entrance drapes a single naked string of lights in a bit of makeshift decoration. He reads a card from home. Another calendar shows cheerful soldiers inside their tent laughing, swapping gifts, and sharing goodies sent from home.

Service men and women would rather be home for the holidays. But when stuck in a forsaken country on the far side of the earth they can always make do if they know that the people at home support them. I know. Been there, done that.

I look through the calendars again. Forget the pittance I have given to help the organizations that help the vets. Vets have given up much more to protect us. In return for my pittance, they say “thanks” with a calendar. The least I can do is say “thanks” for them on Thanksgiving Day.

In a quiet way the tradition of collecting calendars advances through the holiday season marking the beginning of the end of another year. This annual tradition concludes in January or February when I offer the stash of calendars to our grandkids.

One more thing – and a wry bit of humor. Every year I give my wife a traditional Christmas gift. Yes indeed! You guessed it. A calendar! Each year she expects her calendar featuring cats and kittens and she relishes that calendar all year long.

------

And a reminder. Do not forget to vote November 3^rd – or sooner. Take a registered voter with you!

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at bnt0019@gmail.com.

A different autumn arrives eventually – the autumn of our lives. We inhabit time beyond our zenith, settling into quiet and placid moments of reflection. We occupy that realm reminiscing on past decades -- the good, the bad, and the mediocre. Photo albums, diaries, and chats with adult children resurrect long forgotten memories. But a more tender and truthful recall arises with the written word. Letters collected over the years preserve memories and emotions in a way no other medium can. In the case of my wife and me, dozens of letters, maybe hundreds of letters, resurrect long forgotten details of our past. Not only do letters record events, but they also give insight into the shared feelings, thoughts, and attitudes of writer and recipient.

We sorted through and organized boxes of letters, my wife doing most of the work. (I may have told this story before.) Letters from parents, letters to parents, letters pre-dating our friendship, letters between us when we first met, letters after marriage, letters between us when separated due to overseas assignments – on and on forming a lengthy history.

It seemed best to organize the letters by date. That would automatically categorize them by era. Categories generally included pre-high school and high school years, Yellowstone Park where we met working one summer, our pre-marriage years, Korea, Viet Nam, Germany, and later years.

For me, the earliest correspondence included letters my father wrote on my behalf involving a youthful indiscretion at age 11. I almost put out the eye of another boy when shooting at each other with slingshots. The letters built my father’s legal defense should we need it. Thankfully, we didn’t.

In my wife’s case, she and her folks saved letters written between them during her high school years. Her folks lived on a ranch in North Dakota where winters precluded daily travel between home and school. Solution? She stayed with her aunt and uncle in Austin, Texas where she attended high school and returned home by bus for the summers. Following graduation she gained seasonal employment in Yellowstone Park.

This era included a trove of letters starting in 1960 telling her parents of her work and adventures hiking and fishing during time off in Yellowstone. As an active farm kid, she was out and about in the forests and mountains of the Park while the city girls stayed back and goofed around the bunkhouse. It was her second summer in the Park when a new employee struck her fancy. That would be me in 1961. Not only do we have her correspondence with her parents, but we saved most of the letters she and I exchanged through our on-again off-again relationship. That era culminated in 1964 when we tied the knot in marriage.

Next came the era of separations with all related correspondence. After college we chose life as a professional Army household. Following Infantry Office Basic School and Ranger School separation followed at once with a 13-month assignment to the Korean Demilitarized Zone. We have almost all our letters from my Korean tour. One year back in the US incurred another separation. I was off to Vietnam to command an Infantry rifle company with the 101^st Airborne Division. We preserved as many of our letters as possible. But it was impractical to carry in my rucksack the numerous letters she wrote. However, she did preserve the ones I wrote to her.

The final three volumes have letters my wife wrote to her parents from 1973 to 1993. They include recollections of holiday memories, our kids up through teen years, travels through various military schools and assignments, and the culmination of our military experience together.

Re-reading and then collecting letters into volumes gives a true sense of our mortality. Better still, they apprehend the reveries of our hearts.

Outside of the immediate family, the fifteen volumes of letters would be of little interest except maybe to a voyeur. We could believe that someday our grandkids or their kids might kindle an interest in the family’s history. In that case, the organized volumes of letters would prove invaluable.

On the other hand, if the volumes of letters are of interest to no one and no one cares, then they will fall like autumn leaves eventually to be disposed of. If that be so, then the record of our lives well-lived will be scattered on the wind as dust. As Scripture says when we have passed, “…for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (Genesis 3:19). And with our passing will go the story of our lives on earth. Even so, we have assurance we will live on in another Realm with Someone who does care.

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at bnt0019@gmail.com.

Because it apparently does, and I should know — the Jakarta regime just targeted my content.

I log on to my computer Monday morning and, as usual, check my email. Lo and behold, there’s a message from X’s legal department (twitter-legal@x.com). They’re notifying me that they’d received a complaint that some of my content violated “the law(s) of Indonesia.” They state that the complaint was filed by Kementerian Komunikasi dan Digital RI.

So I look that up and learn it’s Indonesia’s national Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs — “RI” means Republik Indonesia. I then say to myself, “OK, what did I post about Indonesia or its officials?” Some countries do, after all, have laws against criticizing their leaders.

I couldn’t think of anything and, in fact, it turns out that my “transgression” was something completely different. X provided a link to the targeted content (below).

Now, why would Indonesia’s communications ministry care about that?

The post I was responding to (below) concerned campaign-finance allegations against British politician Nigel Farage, head of nationalist political party Reform UK. Reform is strongly interested in curtailing Third World immigration; hence my comment above.

https://twitter.com/mehdirhasan/status/2095630465151406543

So I’m still not seeing the Indonesian angle. Someone close to me theorized that perhaps Britain has a large Indonesian population. But, no; I researched it and learned that the nationality’s UK numbers are negligible.

Well, then, what gives? Is Indonesia planning on sending hordes Britain’s way? Is there a Muslim connection? After all, great controversy surrounds Islamic influence in the UK, and Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim population (ahead of Pakistan and India).

Are many Third World countries simply bent on perpetuating the Great Replacement?

Does Indonesia just consider my statement a hateful sentiment? (In reality, my comment is relatively anodyne insofar as such subject matter goes.)

Or is it merely that someone at the communications ministry stumbled upon my post and was having a bad hair day?

Regardless, this illustrates how globalist, immigrationist forces — which would slap an iron muzzle on anyone daring to speak Truth — are on the march worldwide. Note that virtually the entire planet has “hate speech” laws or some restrictions on substantive expression. These United States, with their First Amendment protections, are quite unique — and perhaps endangered.

Anyway, I guess I won’t be taking any Indonesian vacations anytime soon. I might learn upon arrival that the government had some free accommodations planned for me that I didn’t bank on.

In closing, though, tell me: Do you have any theories regarding why Indonesia would want to suppress voices opposing the Great Replacement? It’s most curious, indeed.

Contact Selwyn Duke, follow him on X, Truth Social, MeWe, Gettr, Tumblr, Instagram or Substack or log on to SelwynDuke.com.