At “the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” of 1918,  guns officially fell silent across Europe and World War One came to a military end (the political finish came in 1919 with the Treaty of Versailles).

The following November 11, the winning nations commemorated the final ceasefire with the first “Armistice Day” events

Not celebrations as such, mind you: The observances were — and in some countries at least partially remain — somber remembrances (the UK now calls November 11 “Remembrance Day”) of 20 million dead in “the war to end all wars,”  driven by sentiment against ever returning to that kind of carnage.

That sentiment, unfortunately, proved insufficient to prevent World War 2 and hundreds or thousands of subsequent deadly conflicts, which is bad enough.

Worse, though, is what America did with “Armistice Day.” In 1954, Congress replaced the traditional “Armistice Day” observance with a celebratory “Veterans Day.”

Instead of mourning war, we now celebrate warriors. Parades. Air shows. Political speeches. Free meals, drinks, haircuts, etc. for veterans.  A lot of “thank you for your service” to everyone identifiable as a veteran of the US armed forces; quite a bit of mutual back-slapping among those of us who “served.”

To me, the best way to celebrate veterans would be stop making so many of us — especially, but not only, of the dead, maimed, traumatized, and homeless varieties.

Since the first Armistice Day, the US has fought a second “world war” and countless smaller wars — declared and undeclared — around the globe, at the cost of hundreds of thousands of American lives and millions of foreigners’ lives.

The US armed forces maintain a global network of military bases, remain bogged down in the Middle East after a quarter century of the “global war on terror,” and have now been at on-again, off-again open war with Iran for a year-and-a-half.

The US government constantly rattles its saber, actively seeks excuses to militarily intervene in other countries’ internal affairs and international disputes, and fuels even the wars it doesn’t actively participate in with foreign aid and arms sales.

Two-time Medal of Honor recipient Smedley Butler tallied up the cost in his book, available free online, War is a Racket: “Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations.”

None of that is worth celebrating. It’s a cost, not a benefit.

The US armed forces’ oath of enlistment binds future “veterans” to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

Even if one accepts that as a worthy goal, when’s the last time it actually turned out to be the job?

Not during my lifetime, at least that I can think of, and I turn 60 the day before “Veterans Day.” The war I fought in was premised on kicking one tyrant out of Kuwait so another tyrant could return and rule again. Constitution? Nowhere in sight.

Commemorating “Armistice Day” — and making that commemoration a call for peace and a rejection of the American war racket — makes far more sense to me than celebrating “Veterans Day.”

If we want to thank veterans “for their service,” the first step is to bring them home and stop letting politicians put them in morally bankrupt jeopardy of life and limb.

Thomas L. Knapp (X: @thomaslknapp | Bluesky: @knappster.bsky.social | Mastodon: @knappster) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

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I’m writing this column on the morning of November 3, technically “election day” in the US even though, per the Assocated Press, more than 57 million Americans voted “early” (in person or by mail) this year. Chances are you won’t read it until later this week, after the polls have closed and most of the mail ballots have purportedly been received and counted.

In almost any US election of the 20th century, the election would have mostly been considered “over” late Tuesday or early Wednesday. Perhaps a few razor-thin races might remain unresolved, with recounts in the offing.

Not that there wasn’t any grousing about it. Many still living can recall the claims in 1960 that “the graveyards of Chicago” brought in late and fraudulent votes to put John F. Kennedy over the top versus Richard Nixon for president. But that grousing was after the fact — the election was “over” and by golly those deemed winners were certain to take office.

These days, elections don’t end when the votes are cast and counted. In every close race (and many not-so-close races) of consequence, the supposed losers and their supporters move immediately to screeching “Rigged! Stolen!”

They demand recounts. They go to court seeking to have ballot boxes seized and election officials indicted.

In one case, which you may remember, they even stormed the Capitol to prevent certification of the results and, potentially, to hang the vice-president of the United States as he presided over said certification.

In another, earlier case, the losing candidate immediately went to work trying to blame Russian meddling, rather than her lackluster campaign and well-deserved negative public image, for her loss.

How did we get here? I trace it all back to a presidential election which was arguably actually “stolen.”

In 2000, it came down to 537 votes in Florida. The courts halted recounts and declared George W. Bush the winner; subsequent analyses almost uniformly concluded that Al Gore would have won the presidency if the recounts had proceeded.

Attempts to undo the courts’ rulings failed, in part because Gore, himself vice-president, congenially presided over Congress’s certification of his loss instead of going to war over the matter. But Democrats never forgave, or forgot … and we entered a new era of bipartisan “fight them until hell freezes over, then fight them on the ice.”

No matter what happens today, expect Election 2026 to drag on into the new year.

If the predicted “blue wave” materializes, Republicans will contest every close election both in the courts and, quite possibly, by declining to seat newly elected Democrats in the US House and Senate. They’ll declare any and every unfavorable result “rigged” or “fraudulent.”

If the “blue wave” crests lower than predicted, Democrats will contest every close election in the courts and declare any unfavorable result “rigged” or “fraudulent.”

Those of us who expect (and usually get) business as usual from government no matter how elections come out can only shake our heads and note “play stupid games, win stupid prizes.”

If you voted last week, or vote today, I won’t put you down for it. I voted too, because voting is one way of expressing my opinion and I like to express my opinion.

But voting is mostly just entertainment — and the Great Election Show, like Happy Days, has long since “jumped the shark.”

Thomas L. Knapp (X: @thomaslknapp | Bluesky: @knappster.bsky.social | Mastodon: @knappster) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

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It’s all over the Internet, of course. People are worried and wondering what’s up (including my sister-in-law, who called my special attention to it). From a random look at stories about it, here’s  International Business Times lede:

“The Pentagon is preparing every major U.S. military base to operate independently for at least 90 days without outside electricity, fuel, water or supplies, as part of FORTRESS, a sweeping initiative designed for a major war that could cripple power grids, disrupt supply chains and threaten critical infrastructure on American soil.”

Between actual war (on semi-pause) with Iran, potential spread to other areas of the war in Ukraine, and justified suspicion that US Donald Trump may  get more aggressive than he already has in attempting to nullify midterm congressional elections (the phrase “Insurrection Act” gets thrown around a bit), the question “why exactly NOW?” does seem rather pertinent.

It’s not just the US military. It’s not even just the US. Newsweek reports that regimes around the world are leaning into an emphasis on civilian “prepping” for unspecified disasters, urging their populations to keep canned food, batteries, and other emergency supplies on hand.

I’d like to say “don’t panic,” and that’s exactly what I will say — not because I’m convinced nothing bizarre is about to happen, but because “prepping” is always good advice anyway.

These news cycle indicators may or may not be predictive in the near term, but laying in some shelf-stable food and bottled water can’t hurt and will stand you in good stead for even the smaller “disasters” that have always been part of life (blizzards, hurricanes, etc.).

IS something big coming? I haven’t the faintest. I don’t move in circles of power where I’d pick up that kind of thing before you.

That said, we live in a time of multiple escalating crises.

You’ve already seen what even limited war with Iran has done to gas prices and is starting to do to food prices with less oil and less fertilizer precursor material moving through the Strait of Hormuz.

While the Russian armed forces have somehow managed to bog down for 4 1/2 years in their invasion of a country with a quarter of Russia’s population, the Kremlin remains eminently capable of hurting “the west” in various ways if it sees a reason to.

Most modern countries rely on complex and far-flung “grids” to keep people’s lights on and refrigerators running. Storms and minor accidents already knock out power to millions of people for days on end.

Targeted attacks at vulnerable nodes on those “grids” — or if the attackers can and do go big, the electromagnetic pulse from a nuclear detonation in the upper atmosphere — could affect far larger numbers of people, far worse and for far longer. Most power outages are inconveniences. Tens of millions, for weeks, would be deadly.

In the US in particular, Donald Trump has openly worked to develop and implement a more effective plan than the Beer Belly Putsch of January 6, 2021 for holding on to power when the voters disagree.

If push comes to shove on that front, it’s not impossible that we’ll see open fighting between the citizenry and federal law enforcement (and even military troops) in America’s urban cores over the next few months. Events of that sort usually mean power outages, telecommunications disruptions, and curfews (even if one otherwise felt safe trying to get to the grocery store).

Picking up some extra cans of soup, pods of shelf-stable milk, etc. might feel like doing not much of anything, but, again, it can’t hurt … and it might turn out to be more important than you think.

Thomas L. Knapp (X: @thomaslknapp | Bluesky: @knappster.bsky.social | Mastodon: @knappster) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

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