Fake News and Gingerbread Bunkers

It is comical to hear about the supposed concern over fake news.  I read that there is a proposal to spend millions so that some extraordinarily wise public custodians can discern what news is fake and block our access to it (this probably sounds familiar to people from former communist countries and China).

So in the interest of combating fake news, and considering it's December 7th, I will make a small contribution to this effort by briefly discussing FDR and Pearl Harbor.

FDR: Purported to be a great president but was really an enemy of the Constitution and freedom.

FDR considered Joseph Stalin, one of history's most brutal dictators, an ally, and fondly called him "Uncle Joe."

An accurate understanding of history is necessary because so much of what is promulgated today is justified by what has previously supposedly transpired.  A great example are economic policies like "cash for clunkers" or farming subsidies that are justified by distorting the real effects of similar policies during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Pearl Harbor, like the "Civil War," is another huge propaganda ladened topic I was force fed while in public school.  Years ago I met an 88 year old man who left the Navy in 1944 after leaning of some of what follows.  His story caused me to investigate what was left out of my history books:

1. FDR wanted to involve the US in WWII despite claiming the contrary.  FDR goaded Japan into attacking Pearl Harbor (via oil and steel embargoes, freezing financial assets, aiding the Chinese and even sailing destroyers between the Japanese isles) so that what we now know materialized into a horrific tragedy would cause Americans to support military involvement in foreign countries.

2. FDR's administration knew of Japan's plans to attack Pearl Harbor, it had access to decrypted intercepts of Japanese diplomatic and military radio communications.

3. FDR was so strongly convinced of the impending attack that instead of preparing to stop the Japanese fleet, he arranged to have only WWI ships docked at Pearl Harbor to limit the losses to vintage ships.  A "vacate sea" order was also issued to clear Japan's path on its way to Hawaii.  (What an amazing disregard for the lives of others, and for the sorrow so many families would have to endure.)

Much more can be read about how FDR facilitated the attack here.

Now on to revisit an old custom of this blog to move on to a totally unrelated topic: Gingerbread Bunkers.

One of my girls recently employed a concept that never crossed my mind when I built gingerbread houses as a kid.  During a recent Christmas social with friends to build houses, instead of doing the conventional "make it look like a house as much as possible," she... essentially built a bunker and stuffed it with candy:

Squeeks and the gingerbread bunker with Otto the dog providing over-watch; ready to alert her to threats to the treasure inside.

A brilliant idea, especially if one desired to smuggle a bunch of candy out of such an event.