A better way to honor Memorial Day

/

Meuse-Argonne offensive

This was originally published on the WSJ Opinion Page, although I found it on the author’s website. It’s somewhat ironic that the same Democrats cheering on illegals and crack addicts today choose to ignore the American dead of WW 1; after all, it was their hero, our first Progressive president Woodrow Wilson, who needlessly dragged us into the conflict and sent millions of American boys to join the Europeans in their slaughter.

Letters From a Doughboy

—Matthew Hennessey

Joe Murphy was fit, unmarried and days away from his 26th birthday when the U.S. declared war on Germany on April 17, 1917. He enlisted in a patriotic fervor alongside dozens of his friends and neighbors. They became doughboys.

The War Department sent Joe to train at Camp Dix, about 70 miles south of his hometown, Morristown, N.J. It may have been the farthest from home he’d ever been. On Jan. 17, 1918, he wrote a letter to his younger sister Clara—my grandmother—in which he professed to be “feeling great” about what he was about to do. He and the other Morristown boys shipped out to Europe with Battery D, 308th Field Artillery, 78th Division in late May.

Joe landed on the Atlantic coast of France that summer. His unit traveled east, likely by rail. By early October they’d arrived at the front, near the village of Grandpré, about 40 miles northeast of the ancient city of Reims. There they joined an assembled Allied force of two million preparing to assault Germany’s heavily fortified Hindenburg line. Everyone expected it would be the final push of the long, brutal war to end wars.

Joe wrote to Clara again, this time in pencil on flimsy paper provided by the YMCA.

ON ACTIVE SERVICE WITH THE AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE

Oct. 15, 1918

Dear Clara,

I received your letter and card the other day, also one from Mary, Marie, and Ella. We have had it pretty tough for the last six weeks but it looks now as though it is near over, and maybe I won’t be glad, and I imagine I am not alone either. I had a letter from John dated Sept. 12, he was then at a rest camp after two trips to the trenches, he must of been back in again and, so I am in hopes he had luck with him for the doughboys sure missed it. They caught us in a road one night and got twenty eight of our horses, and three of the fellows, poor Oldman was one of them, and it was a funny part of it was he had been talking to me just before, but left to go to the head of the column when the unit was hit, and I saw him and Charlie Miller, Stanley J— and S— Hall, and heard that Dom Meskal was killed, but that was all, and I am glad to hear none of the other fellows from home was hurt. I was talking to McIntosh yesterday, he said he had a card from you. Well the papers all have nothing but peace talks in them, and everybody here is betting we won’t fire another shot, so you had better get the potato masher ready for X-mas dinner for you know what it takes to mow down Pikes Peak. I haven’t had my clothes off me in six weeks, so you can imagine what the bath tub will say when it sees me. We are in a busy section now, after hiking for about ten days, but are in reserve, and I hope will not have to go into action again. I would like very much like to send you that hat you speak about, but we only have one so I don’t think it can be done. My pack now consists of two blankets and my comfort kit . . . but I imagine if you had to hike about fifteen or twenty miles a day with it on your back you would say it was plenty big enough. Well tell everybody I am feeling great, but when the big news comes I will feel much better. Tell John Hanley the old Germans are no good, but they sure are running now, they go out in trams and auto trucks, anything that will get them away the quickest.

Joe

The fighting in the Argonne forest and along the Meuse River was intense and relentless. French and American forces pounded the German fortifications for weeks, making slow progress. The campaign remains the deadliest in U.S. military history. More than 26,000 U.S. soldiers died and over 100,000 were wounded, all while advancing no more than 10 miles.

It’s possible the following telegram reached the family before Joe’s letter reached Clara:

MR JOHN T MURPHY

96 WESTERN AVE

MORRISTOWN N.J.

DEEPLY REGRET TO INFORM YOU THAT PRIVATE JOSEPH MURPHY FIELD ARTILLERY IS OFFICIALLY REPORTED AS KILLED IN ACTION OCTOBER TWENTIETH

HARRIS

THE ADJUTANT GENERAL

340 PM

The family was devastated. The following summer, another letter arrived from overseas:

Vierzy France

June 5 1919

Mr. John T. Murphy

Western Ave

Morristown

Dear Mr. Murphy,

According to army regulations friends are not allowed to write and let their people know of men killed in action until they are notified by the War Department. We all send our sincere sympathy and Joe was given a good burial. Father McConnell our chaplain took charge and had the grave dug and was there for the services. Bill Holton and I were among the pallbearers also Bill Meslar. Joe was buried in a town called Lancon Oct 21 opposite the church there. The boys had a cross made and Joe’s name put on it and put on the grave. All of Joe’s friends send sincere sympathy and miss his company very much.

Respectfully yours,

Wm F. Looney

Wm T. Holton

Wm G. Meslar

Edw F. Mulhall

Joe’s body was repatriated in September 1921. He was given a full Catholic funeral at the Church of the Assumption in Morristown. Fr. McConnell presided and those same four friends served once again as pallbearers. It was the church where Joe had been baptized into the faith in 1891. It was where his sister, Clara, would be married in 1925. It was where my father was baptized in 1935, and I was baptized in 1973.

I obviously never met my great-uncle Joe. I never even met my grandmother, Clara, who died before my parents were married. But I know she never got over the loss of her big brother. She carried that pain. The second worst day of her life came in 1944, when a telegram arrived announcing the death of her young nephew Buddy Doyle at Hochfelden in Alsace, France. So many American sisters, mothers, brothers and fathers have carried that pain.

Every Memorial Day I offer up my sincere gratitude in my own quiet way to all the doughboys, GIs, grunts, sailors, squids and flyboys I never met. Guys like Joe Murphy, Buddy Doyle, Dom Meskal and poor Oldman, who laid down their lives in far-away places so that we might enjoy peace and freedom here at home. It’s impossible to feel worthy of the sacrifice.

They hate America — America should hate them back

/

Illegal aliens, dead crackhead criminals, and, of course, an attack on Trump; the Democrats celebrate Memorial Day.

NJ Gov. Mikie Sherrill slammed for Memorial Day ‘stunt’ at Newark ICE facility as tense protests rage

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s attempt to gain access to a Newark immigrant detention center is being slammed as a “political stunt” as a standoff between federal agents and anti-ICE protesters took hold outside the facility.

Tensions rose both in and outside Delaney Hall over the weekend, as a hunger and labor strike among inmates carried on for a fourth day.

“Governor Sherrill’s visit to Delaney Hall is nothing more than a political stunt on Memorial Day when visitation is currently suspended due to riots outside the facility,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

AND:

This response to the Democrats’ post sums it up neatly:

Ah, to be Greenwich born and bred — and spoiled

/

The filling is genuine sperm whip, madam, drawn from only the finest of champion, vegetarian bulls

Peak Taylor Lorenz: Hoping the 'Communist Mayor' Fixes the Cashew Cream Cheese Gap

Taylor Lorenz has to be the most pampered and least self-aware human being in all the land.

Today's complaint? New York bagel shops don't have the kind of cream cheese Taylor likes and she thinks Zohran Mamdani should force them to carry it. 

Go jump in a lake

/

Now here’s an appropriate topic for a kitchen table discussion

Trans track athlete AB Hernandez dominates competition at California girls masters meet

A transgender track athlete again took the top spot in several events at a California master’s meet on Saturday, leading officials to award a second gold medal to the runner-up.

Jurupa Valley High School senior AB Hernandez scored first place in the girl’s high jump, long jump and triple jump at Saturday’s California Interscholastic Federation’s (CIF) Southern Section Track and Field Masters meet at Moorpark High School in Ventura County.

Girl’s high jump competition:

  • Hernandez: 5, feet, 8”

  • Second place: 5 feet, 6 inches.

Long jump

Hernandez: 20 feet, 4.75 inches

2nd place: 19 feet, 1.75 inches.

Triple jump

  • Hernandez: 41 feet, 7.25 inches,

  • 2nd place: 39 feet, 4 inches

Probably not around my kitchen table, if I had a kitchen table. But your household may differ

/

“A ‘kitchen table’ subject refers to political, economic, or social issues that directly affect the average person's daily life and budget. It usually describes topics families frequently discuss around the table, such as food costs, healthcare, taxes, and jobs.”

MSNOW Senior Washington Correspondent Thinks Abortion and Trans Kids Are ‘Kitchen Table Issues’

Eugene Daniels, formerly of Politico, is the senior Washington correspondent for MSNOW, the network formerly known as MSNBC. Daniels was also the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association at one point.

During a segment on the DNC’s 2024 autopsy this week, Daniels was asked what approach Democrats should take going forward and suggested that it is possible to embrace identity politics and talk about ‘kitchen table’ issues, like abortion and trans kids.

“When you talk about whether or not people can have access to healthy abortions—safe abortions, that is a kitchen table issue, right? Whether or not a trans kid can get the services they need, that is a kitchen table issue for families. So, it’s about crafting the message in a way that actually gets to the point that Chuck [Schumer? Are “reporters” supposed to be on a first-name basis with the subjects they’re covering?] and a lot of other folks say, which is people look at the money leaving their pockets, they look at the party in power, they want some change, and they’re willing to flirt with candidates and with parties they haven’t been before.”

I would say, dear, that it's the other way around: your parents would be better off without YOU

/

Ghoulish Luigi Mangione superfan exposed as daughter of senior healthcare exec at CVS Health

One of the ghoulish Luigi Mangione fangirl “journalists” [“ Brian Thompson’s kids “are better off without him”] is herself the relative of a health care insurance executive, The Post has learned.

Lena Weissbrot, a member of the twisted trio hopelessly devoted to the accused assassin of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, is the daughter of Reina Natero, who oversees prescription drug insurance coverage rules at CVS Health, according to a review of public records and Natero’s online resume.

Natero, 57, a trained pharmacist, has worked for big pharma for more than two decades, according to her LinkedIn profile.  

[She is currently] the lead director of medical affairs for the Formulary Clinical Analysis team at CVS Health, where she’s worked since October 2021.

She formerly held director roles at insurance companies Centene, WellCare and Providence, and kicked off her career making drugs for Bayer Healthcare, per her LinkedIn profile. 

Weissbrot herself obtained a coveted Fullbright-MTV fellowship in 2015 after she graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Florida State University, where tuition costs $6,500, when the family lived in the Sunshine State.

The grant sent her to study “South African artists identifying as feminists who use Hip-hop music as a form of activism” at Rhodes University in South Africa ….*

“This has become an archetype at this point, when activists become defined as the ‘anti’ of what their parents were,” Stu Smith, an investigative analyst with conservative think tank The Manhattan Institute, told The Post. “There’s no self-awareness.”

Weissbrot, a game developer, rapper and maker of erotic art who goes by Fellatia G, made a splash Monday when she and two other fan girls got City Hall-approved press passes to cover a pretrial hearing for Mangione.

…. The Post discovered a music video she wrote and starred in posted on Vimeo in June.

“The CEO’s a parasite and now they getting shot up,” she mocked as guns and guillotines flashed on the screen. 

“While I’m looking cuter, you be looking deader, the kind of hit that makes you wish for universal healthcare,” the bikini-clad self-proclaimed rapper shamelessly sang in her disturbing “Toolie Toolie” video.

She rallied Mangione “copycats” to “put billionaires in body bags” during the 1:40-minute clip where she wore a green beret with an “L” on it – and which included a disclaimer that she doesn’t “promote, condone or endorse violence.”

*In the unlikely event you ever feel even a twinge of sympathy for college graduates saddled with huge, oppressive student loan debt, remember that many of those scholars incurred that debt while partying and “studying” topics like “South African artists identifying as feminists who use Hip-hop music as a form of activism”

Stupid is as Stupid Does

/

I saw this quote in Week in Pictures, so I looked it up to see whether Cohen really said it. He really did.

Speaking of the outgoing (in both senses — he’s been redistricted out of Congress) Cohen, Thursday he filed a meaningless motion to impeach Justice Roberts. Matt Margolis gives details, but the meat’s in his conclusion:

This Is What the Democrats’ Push to Impeach Chief Justice Roberts Is Really About

….. Here’s the thing: This impeachment resolution has zero chance of passing. So why bother?

Because this was never about impeachment or removing Roberts.

Democrats are laying the groundwork to pack the court the next time they hold power, and they need a narrative to justify it. Every impeachment article, every ethics accusation, every outraged floor speech is a brick in that foundation. Trust me, I used to be an architect. The left is merely trying to delegitimize the court so that, when the moment comes, the public is already primed to accept packing the court.