Ian Kummer

I'm a former US Marine fire support specialist, and also worked for about 10 years as a public affairs specialist in the US Army National Guard and Reserves. For that reason I will mostly opine about the "information operations" aspect of current events. Please see my "about" page for more information. If you would like to reach out, you can email me at ian.michael@readingjunkie.com

Thank God for the Republican Party

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The vote to raise the US debt ceiling has passed the house. From Zero Hedge:

As we noted earlier, the bill – which as discussed here does not cut real Federal spending even in year one despite widespread propaganda that In exchange for Republican votes for the suspension, Democrats agreed to cap federal spending for the next two years – would set the course for federal spending for the next two years and suspend the debt ceiling until Jan. 1, 2025 — postponing another clash over borrowing until after the presidential election. By then total US debt will be $35 trillion and well on its way to unsustainability.

Does “All Quiet on the Western Front” Predict Germany’s Grim Future in World War III?

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Why is All Quiet on the Western Front parroted as a great anti-war message when it didn’t even work on its original audience? It didn’t work on the second, third, or fourth audiences either. What do you call a person who tries the same thing over and over again expecting a different result?

My guess is that All Quiet on the Western Front isn’t really about the futility of war, regardless of how the author tried for that to be the message. Unfortunately, in the real world, an artist’s intended message doesn’t matter. All that matters is what the audience interprets the message to be. The interpreted lesson, the real lesson, of All Quiet on the Western Front is not that war is bad. It is losing a war that is bad.

“Sisu” is boring, morally repulsive propaganda

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sisu movie review

Today I reluctantly watched this movie so I could write a review, and I completely regret it. Sisu is, and I’m not exaggerating, one of the worst movies I have ever seen in my life. And no, I don’t think it is a coincidence that we saw a suspiciously well-funded theatrical release of a Finnish war movie right around the same time as they joined NATO.