Pearl Harbor – Poor Roger's Almanac

On December 08, 1941, the day after the Japanese “sneak”¹ attack on Pearl Harbor, which heavily damaged the fleet harbored there and killed approximately 2, 400 servicemen and women, President Franklin D. Roosevelt went before Congress and asked it for a formal declaration of war, which it gave without hesitation. This has been the last time that Congress has declared war, although the US has subsequently waged major wars in Korea, Viet Nam, Afghanistan, Iraq, and currently Iran, plus numerous smaller conflicts which often barely raise a blip in the news. Guatemala, Haiti, Venezuela, Syria, Libya, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Serbia, et al. In all these, the Congress has hardly raised its collective eyebrows to question the need for war, let alone gotten off its collective ass to restrain the president and the military-industrial complex (MIC) which profits mightily from the destruction and killing.

“Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”, Roosevelt thundered and Congress immediately gave him the authority to prosecute the war, which he did until the day he died and Harry Truman took over, bringing it to an end by destroying two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, through the (alleged) use of atomic bombs, one uranium and one plutonium.²

June 08, 1967, was a date which also lives in infamy, but instead of an enemy attacking US ships and killing US servicemen, this came from the direction of America’s staunchest “friend and ally”, also known as the State of Israel. 34 sailors died and 171 were wounded, some grievously, yet, officially the incident was swept under the rug and nothing of any significance was ever done about it. President Lyndon Johnson did his best to squelch the story and his administration actually ordered other Navy ships in the area not to interfere nor make any attempt to rescue the survivors. At the first sortie of fighter jets scrambled to help, US Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara ordered them back to their aircraft carrier, and at the second, Johnson himself gave the order with this cold-hearted, treasonous comment.

“I don’t care about a few dead sailors. I will not embarrass our ally, Israel. Return to base immediately.”

Eventually, the attack was called off and, on questioning, Israel claimed that it had been a matter of mistaken identity. The official narrative was that they had thought the ship was Egyptian, even though it was a clear day and the American flag was flying in plain sight. It is widely presumed that the ship was meant to be sunk with all hands and the the Egyptians blamed for it, causing the US to enter the six-day war on the side of Israel. Talk about a false flag! It is notable that Lyndon Johnson was also complicit³ in the false-flag incident of the Tonkin Gulf off the coast of Viet Nam, embroiling the US into the quagmire of that war which resulted in the deaths of more than 58,000 American servicemen and unknown millions of Vietnamese, both military and civilian.

“Remember the USS Liberty!”

Yesterday, June 08, 2026, 59 years after the incident, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-KY., took to the floor of the House of Representatives and delivered a blistering speech which thoroughly condemned the incident, the way it was handled, and the treatment the survivors have received over the years. Many of them were in the audience with him. One of them, Philip Torney, has done an interview with Candace Owens, which can be seen here, during which the statement that, “God saved us from God’s Chosen People.”, was made. Massie, who lost a recent primary to Donald Trump’s chosen candidate whose campaign was funded to the tune of $30 million by “special interests”, namely Jewish groups and billionaires, has only a few months left in his term and it seems as though he intends to make the most of it.

“Remember the Liberty!” “Release the Epstein files!” “Massie for Precedent!”

Watch Thomas Massie at his best here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7bRtT1xjJI

The times, it is said, they are a’changing. The mood of the country toward Israel is rapidly shifting and with the impending die-off of the Baby Boomers, most of whom (probably including myself) will be dead in twenty years, many of whom are “true believers” that the Jews really are God’s chosen people, the State of Israel has, in my opinion, just about reached the end of its miserable existence. It has been a blight on world affairs for far too long and it is time for it to enter the dustbin of history, court reporters notwithstanding.

Donald Trump could learn a few things from all this. Being a headstrong boomer himself, it’s not likely that he will change his religion.

Because the US government won the war over the Japanese government, it has been able to write history according to its own viewpoint. History, as the saying goes, is written by the victors, and the official history is that the attack was completely unprovoked and even surprising and unanticipated. However, as time goes on and skeptical people keep digging in the dirt, a “conspiracy theory” has developed which postulates that Roosevelt wanted to get into the war and manipulated the Japanese via sanctions, boycotts, and blockades to lash out against the American fleet from sheer desperation. Whether this is true or not is not the focus of this article. Do your own research and make up your own mind. ↩︎
Even this is open to question. See https://unbekoming.substack.com/p/the-nuclear-deception-2026 ↩︎
Johnson was also perfectly positioned to take advantage of the situation on November 22, 1963, when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, TX. Once is an anomaly. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is a pattern. He has been consistently rated as one of the worst, if not the worst, president in US history. Joe Biden might dethrone him. We’ll have to wait and see. ↩︎

The title for this article is derived from the old song longing hopefully for the safe return of soldiers from the carnage of the American War between the States¹ (1861-1865). What is usually not mentioned nor remembered is the fervor and celebration of just a few years earlier with which Johnny marched off to war and his family and friends, both North and South, cheered him on, gave parades in his honor, showered him with adulation, flowers, and kisses. “Hurrah! Hurrah! We’ll teach those scoundrels (Yankees, Rebs) something they won’t ever forget! Go get’m, Johnny! We’re behind you all the way.”

This, as I recall, was the atmosphere in America immediately after 9/11. It seemed that everyone couldn’t wait to go out and kick some a$$ for the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001, and, to be perfectly honest, it didn’t really matter whether the actual perpetrators were brought to “justice” or not, as long as someone paid. The administration, George W. Bush presiding, took full advantage of the situation and launched two wars, Afghanistan and Iraq, which were only ended years later, without ever resolving the question of “whodunit?”. Not that it mattered too much, anyway. The American public is driven by emotion rather than common sense and Congress is repeatedly admonished to “Don’t just sit there, do something.”, with the unspoken implication that it is better to do anything, even if it is wrong, than to contemplate their actions, consider the consequences, and make good choices.

Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, the “day which will last in infamy”, was no different, except that there was no question about who had initiated the attack: Japan, the Rising Sun empire, and America lost no time in ramping up to a wartime footing in a massive spirit of revenge and retaliation, intent only on the destruction of those who dared to slap the face of Uncle Sam. Nothing was held back by the public, no sacrifice was too great, no cost was too much to bear for The Cause of total victory.

That was then, this is now.

Today, even as I write this, the tension in the Middle East is at a fever-pitch and rapidly escalating. The US may have already attacked Iran by the time you read this. Donald Trump is ramping up his threats and bullying tactics against Iran, demanding that the government undergo a regime change, that it Cease and Desist from any nuclear program, and that it immediately disarm by getting rid of its long range missiles. Basically, complete and abject surrender on Trump’s terms which, of course, the mullahs who lead Iran have rejected without any equivocation. What is Trump going to do if Iran doesn’t bow and scrape? Sign the order to attack? Or, TACO? We’ll know soon.

It seems to me (and polls regularly bear this out) that the mood of the country is against starting another war, especially one in the Middle East. People are genuinely tired of the “forever wars” and Trump capitalized on that sentiment when he was on the campaign trail, promising to end them. Political reality reigns supreme, however, as he conveniently forgot what he had promised to the voters only a short time earlier and started aggressively going after other countries, all smaller and weaker than the US. To date, in the first year of his second term, he has literally bombed ten countries, more than any of his predecessors. One of those was Iran at the end of the 12-day war with Israel last summer when he supposedly destroyed (obliterated was the word he used) Iran’s nuclear capabilities completely. I say supposedly, because, if that was the case, then why is there so much concern about Iran’s current nuclear program? Something doesn’t add up here and can be seen for what it is–a bald-faced lie.

Events like this which have occurred over the years wherein The Powers That Be have run roughshod over the interests of the common people do not build trust within society. Without that trust, institutions fail and when a society’s institutions fail, the society collapses. The ongoing Epstein scandal and the recent Covid scam have created an enormous (and growing) distrust among the populace which will not be reversed if Trump goes to war against Iran and gets the pants beaten off him. The only reason that trust and faith might be restored would be if he achieves complete and total victory immediately, without question, for the whole world to see and understand. Of course, once the victory laps, backslapping, and grandstanding were done, we’d be off to the next conquest, the next enemy which needed to be taken out as a matter of “national security”. Any guesses as to which one that would be? You get three and the first two don’t count, but I’ll give you a hint. It starts with an R, ends in A, and has six letters.

God help us!

If he is not immediately successful and Iran closes the strait of Hormuz to shipping, the price of oil will go through the roof, the financial Jenga tower known as derivatives will collapse, the Federal Reserve printing presses will be pushed to the limit resulting in hyper-inflation, and the world-wide system of fiat money will be scrapped in favor of a different one–the Great Reset, which we’ve all heard about. Probably something along this line of thinking will happen, that is, if Trump does not achieve complete and total victory with the first strike. Probably. It might happen if he does succeed. I’m only speculating.

Or, perhaps that has been the plan all along. Who knows?

In an article posted on Forum Geopolitica, Scott Ritter had this to say about the situation.

“A war on Iran will result in a disaster for all parties involved. There is no guarantee of success on the part of the United States and Israel, or failure on the part of Iran. There is a huge risk that this war will result in massive disruption of critical energy production capability in one of the most critical energy production regions in the world, triggering a massive energy security crisis that could collapse regional and global economies.

So, the key question is why Donald Trump, a man who ran on a platform of peace, willing to risk losing his political base on the eve of critical mid-term elections by betting on the successful execution of a short war with Iran that achieves the regime change outcome desired?

The simple answer is because he simply has no choice.”

Ritter goes on to explain why he thinks Trump has no choice and I can’t say that he’s wrong. The extremely high sunk costs of the military buildup almost guarantee that an action of some type will be taken, if for no other reason than to recoup some of the expense incurred. The greater reason, though, is that Trump’s ego, prestige, and reputation will take an enormous hit if he “chickens out” this time. Given the polling numbers on his sinking approval rating, it would likely lead to a loss by the Republican Party to the Democrats in November, virtually ensuring that impeachment hearings would be resurrected, this time with a fairly good chance of “throwing the rascal out”. Of course, if he does initiate the war and loses, the same scenario presents itself. In short, Trump is caught in a lose/lose situation. Heads I lose, tails you win, and there’s not much that he can do about it.

If Trump wins, he will be insufferable. If he loses, watch out. Either way, the American public will pay the price and my guess is that cheering Johnny as he marches off to war will become a highly unpopular act. As it should. Wars have a nasty habit of biting the hands which feed them.

Technically speaking, not a civil war as the Confederate States were not trying to take over the existing government, but wanted to split from it and set up a separate one. It should more properly be called a secessionist movement which was put down by force. ↩︎