Make It A PUNK Sandwich!
<Ramen Noodle Nation:
https://ramennoodlenation.blogspot.com/2018/06/punk-rock-art-photo-punk-sandwich.html
any fishing boats, trying to sneak up on me..."
Pete Hegseth contemplates future war crimes
on D-Day's 82nd anniversary
(France 24/Facebook)
The dust has barely settled from "Defense Secretary" Pete Hegseth's speech at an American military cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France, with the usual disastrous results. Officially, he'd been invited as a US government representative to help mark the anniversary of the Normandy beach landings on June 6, 1944, which marked the first direct blow against Adolf Hitler, and the 1,000-year Reich he so assiduously envisioned. Though Hitler and his sycophants clung fiercely to dreams of "wonder weapons" that would turn around their flagging fortunes, the people that they'd ruled for so long already knew the reality -- the game was up.
Normally, these ceremonies serve as a solemn reminder of the enormous human cost required to pry Hitler's iron grip off continental Europe. For the major players involved, that first day alone resulted in 6,601 US casualties, including 2,501 deaths; 2,700 British casualties, including roughly a thousand deaths; and between 4,000 to 9,000 German troops killed, wounded, or missing.
These figures are separate, and distinct, from the broader battles that raged in and around Normandy, from June 6, through August 1944. Allied forces suffered an estimated 226,000 casualties, including over 73,000 killed, while German losses wound up considerably higher, with 200,000 to 400,000 troops. The fighting also claimed the lives of 14,000 to 20,000 French civilians.
It takes figures like these to appreciate the statistical reality that marked the final phase of World War II, whose last year proved to be its deadliest. But none of these things seemed to interest Hegseth -- whom we'll address, henceforth, by our preferred nickname, "Ham Sandwich" -- who seemed bent on scoring points for his equally unhinged boss, and the xenophobic hobby horse they rode in on:
“Beaches in Spain, Italy, Greece and Bulgaria, boats and men arrive. When will European capitals do something about that invasion, or is it too late? I pray not, and I believe not."
That "Secretary" Ham Sandwich uses a code word ("invasion") referenced in speeches by the likes of Trump, Texas's whack job Governor, Greg Abbott -- and bygone fellow travelers from other eras, like Enoch Powell, or former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (who opted for the phrase, "rather swamped") -- is hardly accidental. To fellow believers, it signals, "We get you"; to opponents, it threatens, "Wait and see what plans we have for you."
That being said, it's hard to see the linkage between immigration-related issues, and World War II, unless you're a Nazi fan, and see the outcome as unfair to the Third Reich. Then again, given the white power sheen attributed to the tattoos plastered liberally across Ham Sandwich's body, it only seems to fair to ask -- who invited him?
Because, honestly, allowing an unhinged character of this sort -- one variously accused of alcohol indulgence, stealing funds from veterans' organizations, and sexual harassment, all before Trump's Republican enablers in Congress gave him the job -- is like praying that your drunken uncle won't moon your guests at the wedding ceremony, and finish with his favorite party piece of dropping his pants, as he treats everyone to a sodden rendition of "The Macarena." (You can read the reviews for yourself below.)
Surely, France could have shut its doors to Ham Sandwich, and said, "Until you behave like an actual, honest-to-goodness human, we find it best that you stay on the beach -- not our beach, on Normandy. Your beach." After all, what did anyone gain from the whole belligerent display, one that also featured tone-deaf, leaden pot shots of this sort:
"Each nation pulled its weight; each nation bled. America will lead — and we must — but capable allies must be right there with us, shoulder to shoulder, in the breach, when it matters."
Coming from a government representative whose leader openly mulls purchasing (Greenland), invading (Cuba, Mexico) or bullying his neighbors (Canada), making a statement of the above sort really takes a great deal of chutzpah, doesn't it? Especially when we ponder that Trump bought his way out of Vietnam, thanks to a friendly doctor who certified him as medically unfit to serve -- even Ham Sandwich, for all his considerable shortcomings, retired from US Army in 2021, following an 18-year career that saw him deployed to Iraq, and Afghanistan.
Still, it's hard to fathom why the Europeans allowed themselves -- once again -- to be used as a punching bag for the Trump regime's pugilistic windmilling, all of it in service to imposing its mindless will on everyone else, democracy be damned; or, failing that goal, relentlessly airing its grievances and pursuing all manner of enemies under every bush and stem, real or imagined.
The reality of that situation makes a mockery of local leaders' pleas to set political differences aside, in the name of a historical gravitas ("It is not that we particularly like the man, but this is first and foremost a commemoration for the veterans") that Ham Sandwich seemed hellbent on undermining through his so-called speech, such as it was. We don't allow the crank at the park to go off on visitors, so why should Ham Sandwich enjoy the same privileges, simply because his name carries a title in front of it?
Or, perhaps, take a different approach. Let him show up, let him do his thing, and run the results on TV -- preferably, with a laugh track inserted at the appropriate moments. Then, at least, we could leave viewers to make up their own minds about whether it's appropriate to allow similar spectacles to take hold in the future. (Or, we can contemplate a third alternative, similar to how current publishers treat Hitler's literary "masterpiece," Mein Kampf -- run the offending material, but with an extended opposing commentary, to ensure appropriate context.)
But either way, the more we normalize Ham Sandwich, and those like him, the more trouble we invite in the future. Imagine an even more militarist-minded official arriving at some future D-Day comemmoration, complete with a swastika plastered across his face, wearing an Iron Cross necklace in place of the usual tie, and SS-issue, knee-high jackpots, leaving those assembled to murmur among themselves: "Hey, remember when that Yank showed up to bitch us all out? At least didn't look like that. Those were the good old days, eh?"
Conversely, the sooner we stop normalizing the likes of Ham Sandwich, and the petty behavior he displays of an angry teenage boy, still stuck in the act-out stage -- the sooner we can get out from under the shadow of the Trump era, and start the resulting De-Trumpification, just as Europe had to undergo Denazification, to ensure its re-entry back into the family of nations.
Even so, for all the aggrievement on display, Ham Sandwich's anti-European tirade contained one kernel of truth:
"We forgot that freedom is not free. We forgot that peace is not wished into being. It is bought with purpose, with honor and with strength. The men who landed on these beaches knew this; the question we ask ourselves is, do we?"
Perhaps Ham Sandwich and his cohorts may get to ponder the meaning of that phrase, in full, if -- and when -- the tide finally turns on this madness, and he ends up tried for war crimes of the sort committed against those Caribbean fishing boats, perhaps.
But it's also a fair question that we should never stop asking ourselves, especially as we begin contemplating just what, exactly, should a post-Trump era should look like. Because the men who did pull their weight -- those who died on the beaches, who gave their lives in the struggle against Nazism, instead of spending all their spare time on the I'm-such-a-tough-guy cosplay so beloved among the far right -- expect nothing less. Let us hope that we're up to the task. --The Reckoner
Links To Go (Just Watch The Ghosts
Of Normandy, Turning In Their Graves):
AOL.com: French Villagers Say
"Non Merci" To Hegseth...:
https://www.aol.com/articles/french-villagers-non-merci-hegseth-015302000.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAALNEXeWzlamEiKZTYrjY8nCgLR1ypLXjb8rxszyfardXX5rp6pxoU2pUcrL4PDFGFVxGSf-FasvKC0KZlfsTwhSCt74ZXsmAHdVlEkuckUZ88WnlKUyFxze6mQl-h4Xhr8uIYIeKyEtG9A0woG25Yf2apcTdAyxkDrUI7r5Mkn_X
Steve Ahlquist Substack: "Secretary Of War" Hegseth
Receives Chilly Welcome In Quonset:
https://steveahlquist.substack.com/p/secretary-of-war-hegseth-recieves
(Not about D-Day, but chock full of great photos that sum up the man!)
The Guardian: Pete Hegseth's D-Day Speech
On Immigration Condemned As "Grotesque Stupidity":
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/07/pete-hegseth-d-day-speech-immigration-grotesque-stupidity
"We're looking for a better world, but what do we see?
Just hatred, poverty, aggression, misery.
So much money spent on war,
When three-quarters of the world is so helplessly poor.
"Major General Despair sits at his desk,
Planning a new mode of attack,
He's quite unconcerned about chance or risk,
The Major General's a hard nut to crack."
<Crass, "Major General Despair,"
Christ: The Album (1982)>
<"Pentagon Pete: The View From Here"/The Reckoner>
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