the things you read

[Junk Yard Dog]

[wolfstein]

Maybe he was a politician running for office

[Junk Yard Dog]

They do tend to be a level stupider than even Bubba.

[audadvnc]

The French have had their ups and downs, most of the downs due to piss poor leadership, not the bravery of the French soldier. During the Great War they took an uncommonly brutal punishing, most of a generation of young men killed.

That's right, thanks for the reminder. One overlooked factor for the German capitulation in 1918 was the Spanish flu epidemic rendering huge numbers of servicemen unable to fight. For some reason the German army was hit harder than their foes by the flu. Interestingly, one of the reasons the Armistice and subsequent Treaty of Versailles went so badly for Germany was that US President Wilson (who was attempting to moderate the French delegation's lust for punishment) contracted the flu during negotiations, and France dominated the proceedings.

[Junk Yard Dog]

Yes, it nearly killed Wilson, and probably contributed to his later health issues. It was our flu, not the Spanish, but they get they got it names after them due to the huge loss of life in Spain. It started here, in Kansas I believe, on a military base, went over with our troops, decimated Europe and then cam back here again after the war and traumatized this country, mass graves, towns walling themselves off, shit out of the black death of the middle ages. To this day the social memory of that epidemic exists, passed from generation to generation even if we don't exactly know why the thought of epidemic frightens the shit out of us. I remember the storys from my great Grandfathers time, whole familys stacked in boxes on the street, going to work in the morning and coming home dead, the empty spaces in the classrooms that got more and more common every day, until parents pulled their remaining kids out of school altogether. Mass graves in town parks, people digging graves for family members themselves as nobody remained to do it for them. For all the walling off they did the US postal service remained on duty, house to house delivering the mail, and death right along with it.

[racerguy00]

There is an old farm plot near here with a little family cemetery. People volunteer to keep it as cleaned up as possible. IIRC there are 5 or 6 family members that died within a week of each other from the flu buried there.

[Junk Yard Dog]

It was a terrible time , the flu burned itself out in late 1919 or early 1920.