Different From The Old Boss
Ha! Got you there, didn't I? Yes, it's a perversion of a line from that Who classic "Won't Get Fooled Again", although I'm not going to bring up a picture of Pete and the lads otherwise the Facebook twod mods might get their nether undergarments all of a twist.
What sparked this off will come as a separate item below. Rather, I am now well into Longenrich's "Heinrich Himmler", where our titular character is now not only Reichsfuhrer SS, but also Chief Of Police. Art!
Yes, that's HH as perceived by the AI art generator. You didn't think I was going to post a dirty great photo of him preening in front of his minions, did you?
ANYWAY during the transition from Weimar to Nazi Germany, HH had to stamp his vision of the future on all he was responsible for, and also to try and grab as much power as possible, because at this time there were turf wars between himself and Wilhelm Frick NO SNIGGERING AT THE BACK and Goering. The SS's intelligence headquarters (the SD) moved from Munich to Berlin and back to Munich. HH cleverly managed to acquire control of the political police in Prussia, which was Goering's fiefdom. He also successfully ensured the Gestapo would operate without any legal checks or balances, because absolute power doesn't tolerate any boundaries. Art!
He pushed this narrative a lot
People have described the Nazi regime as operating along the lines of 'gangster politics' - which made for some interesting AI images - but I would compare it more closely to that of a medieval court.
Righto. Of course - obviously! - this is only partially-relevant to what comes next, which is - Art!
ELECTRO-MOTIVE DIESEL!
Yes, another case study of a locomotive manufacturer, because I'm interested, and be thankful I don't go all "Jago Hazzard" and turn into a railways buff. I'm warning you.
Waaaaay back in 1922, there was a company called the "Electro-Motive Engineering Corporation", which made railcars, which were propelled by the (at the time) brand spanking new petrol-electric engine. They were off to a slow start, but by 1925 they were into full-scale production, making dozens of railcars in that year. Art!
If you're at all familiar with South Canadian business, you'll be aware that there are always bigger companies seeking to become ever-bigger by acquiring smaller successful ones. Thus General Motors, an enormous industrial combine, bought up EMEC in 1930.
They also changed the name, to "Electro-Motive Company", meaning new letterheaded paper was needed and a whole raft of new bosses. The emphasis on EM was deliberate, as other railcars needed overhead wires for power.
From this point, EMC was involved in creating new diesel engines for locomotives, further developing them into an efficient diesel-electric model. Art!
DOOMED!
This was the beginning of the end for steam locomotives in South Canada, because EMC's diesel-electric models didn't need constant topping-up with water.BLESSED!
THEN! in 1941 came another major event. No, no, no, not Pearl Harbour*. Well, yes, Pearl Harbour, but also another name change to: "Electro-Motive Division" whereupon their stationery suppliers rubbed their hands with glee.
There was also a subsidiary company based in British America, called "General Motors Diesel". O happy stationers! O unhappy employees trying to get their head around exactly whom they worked for! Art!
That's a GMD GP9, a diesel model so successful you can call it the 'Model T' of trains.
I will skip the intervening fifty or so years as it's a tale of technological engine and locomotive development that would bore all but horsepower nerds to tears. The crunch came in 2005, when "Electro-Motive Division" was sold to an investment group, who, wouldn't you know it ("Meet the new boss") RE-NAMED the business to "Electro-Motive Diesel". Cue modest burst of applause from stationers, because most comms are electronic by now, and a groan from employees who have to deal with a new tranche of bosses. Art!
But hist! for the tale does not end there. O noes. You see, in 2010, Progress Rail, a subsidiary of the mighty Caterpillar corporation, bought up EDM. Thankfully, for this Intro is already long enough, they didn't change names again, by which time there weren't any stationery businesses left to cheer. Art!
Which is close enough to where we came in. Toodles!
A Suspension Of Belief
You may not be aware, but Bloaty Gas Tout, a.k.a. Putinpot, has several looky-likeys that he sends out into the wider world as he cowers in his bunker. Which bunker? Ah, that's a tale in itself. He has umpteen of them, all decorated identically to his roost in the Kremlin, so His Enemies - who increasingly bear on his mind nowadays - have no idea which one he's lurking in so th
ANYWAY back to the body doubles. Art!
This is the one I've called 'Charlie Chipmunk Cheeks' in the past, because he stores his nuts in those cheek pouches. Or perhaps tobacco? Art!
This is the one I call "The Ghoul" because he looks three days dead. And miserable. Probably wondering how long he's got before resembling Puffy-Phaced Petroleum Pimp becomes a liability not an asset.
"The War Illustrated Edition 193 November 1944"
Here you can see that the unthinkable has happened to the Third Reich: the Teuton border has been crossed and the city of Aachen has been surrounded and besieged. At this point the punishment meted out to various villages, towns and cities across occupied Europe is now visiting the Teuton homeland; the harder they fight for a location, the less will be left of it. Art!
Aachen after Allied re-modelling
Kyle's Isles
Let's have a more bucolic and tranquil item after such horrid Hom. Sap. happenings. Therefore, one of Kyle's Interesting Islands from his "Geography King" YT channel. Art!
So, South Bass Island, in Ohio and in Lake Erie. This is one of those real islands with no land connection via bridge with the mainland, except in winter, when ice allows people to walk across to it, if the fancy takes them. Not for Conrad, thanks. Art!
The beating heart of South Bass and the only way in unless you have a light aircraft. It doesn't have any cars, either, only golf carts. The permanent residents number only 150, but their numbers are considerably boosted in spring and summer when the tourists arrive. Art!
Plenty to see and do, until winter. Then it's dormant. Unless, again, you risk the ice bridge.
"Like A Catcher's Mitt With Teeth"
I know, I know, it's cruel to mock elderly men affected by dementia, but that phrase above made me laugh out loud. To whom do I refer? Art!
At this point I think a certain someone's example of having body doubles ought to be followed, because this - <long pause> - I really don't know how to describe it. Did he put his makeup on with a kitchen spatula in the dark whilst experiencing clear-air turbulence? He keeps mocking Kamala Harris' skin colour but as someone apparently using 'Light Excrement #3' that phrase about pots living in conservatories comes right back.
Finally -
The clouds are thinning! Not gone, not yet, but they are on their way out. By nightfall they ought to be gone!
No - hang on -
* Note correct spelling
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