Things That Leave you Gobsmacked (In A Good Way)

[Fu Manchu]

The VR SS ute I saw today.
Light grey. Nice wheels. Looked really good. Looked better than when they knew. Of course they never came in light grey, but they should have.

 

[Dayvo]

Yesterday I received a package from my cousin in Scotland. It had various photos of my mum as a child growing in a town called Peterhead. My aunty who is now 95 wrote this .
It was the second most bombed place after London during the second world war as it is was the biggest fishing port in Europe and the navy had set up base there.
Mum and her sister were walking home from school one day when a German fighter had somehow managed to sneak past the radar and was firing down the street that they were walking down . They were screaming and running for their lives when neighbours grabbed them off the street.
The old house that the had moved out of two weeks earlier was bombed and the new family that had moved in were all killed so I guess I'm lucky to be here. They also put on a concert to raise money for the families that were made homeless during the war.
We don't realise how hard life was back then.

 

[Skylarking]

I'm lucky to be here

Lucky indeed Sadly so many weren’t as lucky

We don't realise how hard life was back then.

We/Many don’t realise that “the only thing necessary for evil to triumph in the world is that good men do nothing“…

In the context of pre WW2, I think many/most would say that the world would have been much better without Hitler ever having gained power.

So in todays context, the lack of good men doing nothing kinda explains the rise of Trump

I’m gobsmacked in a bad way that this evil man wasn’t found guilty when impeached and thus kept away from a position of power. Instead it’s a slow burn of the rule of law with the future of democracy on the precipice of failure

Seems Mr Grift, Mr Art Of The Steal if you will, just keeps on corrupting the US rule of law and compromising the separation of powers that many democracies around the world placed on a high pedestal

PS: I think I’ll go on a long drive in my MSE then such stuff along with mental images of Greta being dragged off by the plods will make me feel gobsmacked in a good way again

 

[Immortality]

I remember my Oma telling us stories from the war. Well, I remember one story she told from the war.

....and history is doomed to repeat itself.

The thing is, if you forget about WW2 for a moment, Hitler was a great leader, he took a country on it's knees and built it back up after the great war and the great depression. Germany was on a great trajectory economically. If only Hitler hadn't started WW2.....but he did.

From Hyperinflation to Full Employment: Nazi Germany’s Economic Miracle Explained

Before the Nazis took control of the Reichstag in 1933, around 6 million Germans were unemployed; the German economy was in total collapse, Germany...

www.historyhit.com

(I'm sure someone is going to miss-quote me on this one).

And yet again, even after 2 world wars Germany is again the power house economy in Europe.

My missus is winging her way over to Aussie so I'm going on a road trip, all up I should do about a 1000km over the weekend. Going to try out SH43 (The Forgotten highway). Never been that way.

 

[Fu Manchu]

My Oma and Opa hid allied pilots in their attic. My Opa was a senior member of the Dutch underground.

He hid in the river for 3 days from the SS. He nearly died.

My Oma told a story of how she came round into their street one day. My Aunty in the pram. She looked down to their house and saw a heap of SS out the front. She had to stay calm and start fussing with my Aunty in the pram, making it look inconspicuously normal for her to then turn around and walk the other way. It turned out it was my Opa who had scored a heap of SS uniforms. They had been wearing them in the open and she got so angry at him for being too confident and hanging around the house.

I would have had another uncle had the SS not hit my Oma in the stomach with the rifle but.

It has been said my Opa was on first name terms with Eisenhower. He spoke of that to my uncle.

Also when we went to the UK we stayed at a farm near Midsomer SE of Bristol. It had very clear damage to buildings that had been repaired.

My wife’s English Grandmother was telling us how they would watch the dog fights over their farm. Her mum would get them inside and they’d sneak out again. She said how bullet casings would fall from the sky.

 

[Skylarking]

The thing is, if you forget about WW2 for a moment, Hitler was a great leader, he took a country on it's knees and built it back up after the great war and the great depression. Germany was on a great trajectory economically. If only Hitler hadn't started WW2.....but he did.

Great leader /= good person or good policies as some leaders can be evil at heart and lead all down the wrong path.

Making unemployment illegal and punishable by jail while removing citizenship from "non Germans" so they don't quality for payments seems rather negative and racist. Meanwhile banning imports, building massive infrastructure and bringing in National Service all at a time when the country was broke and reparations were probably still due for their WW1 actions seems too much like a false status can be created. IOU's and "quantitative easing" were the go to methods of fudging their books which may make things seem great though it's anything but great as ponzi schemes are. Eventually these types of ponzi schemes come crashing down... unless you start another war with t hope of winning

Even back then, the world was intertwined so it was very much a spending ponzi scheme where others would ultimately pay. And rather than money, in this case the payment was in blood

So it's hardly an ideal model to look up to yet that seems like Trumps playbook

Hopefully history wont repeat

 

[hademall]

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago I was going to Tassie. Well, Friday before last with two weeks to go, I thought I would wind up the roof on the camper van to do the usual checks and make sure everything was hunky dory.
I'm winding up the roof when suddenly something went doyng, and the roof came back down!
World of pain right there. Towed it to the local caravan repair shop on the Tuesday after Easter to be told the winch had broken. Frantically rang around only to find I couldn't get one for 4 to 8 weeks.
By this time it's Thursday just gone, nine days out from when we are supposed to go to Tassie. Getting desperate now, as we could potentially lose 25% of the $2,550 we've paid if we cancel then and there, or 50% if cancelled with less than seven days before our departure date.
I didn't want to cancel our long-overdue holiday. So I did the only thing I could, and asked someone who works as a teacher where I work if I could borrow her camper van. She said yes

Well, you don't get if you don't ask

 

[losh1971]

Bring warm clothing. Now Easter has passed the temps are rapidly dropping. Today on my trip west I saw some decent frost in the paddocks. Wasn't game to push the bike in case of ice on the roads. Ended up having cars overtake me, but I stayed upright there and back so that's always a good thing.

 

[NORTI]

Got an update today on my family member that was in a bad accident a couple months ago resulting in coma and many injuries including massive head trauma. From unresponsive and critical icu to talking and standing(with help) it’s a bloody miracle. It’s still a long road ahead but keeping getting way better news from her than expected given how bad her injuries are/were. Absolutely made my day to get this update.

 

[Fu Manchu]

Bring warm clothing. Now Easter has passed the temps are rapidly dropping. Today on my trip west I saw some decent frost in the paddocks. Wasn't game to push the bike in case of ice on the roads. Ended up having cars overtake me, but I stayed upright there and back so that's always a good thing.

It got to 36° at ours a few days ago.