The Random Musings and Writings of Brandon

Author Arthur Koestler - born in Budapest, schooled in Vienna - was a communist in the 1930s (even visiting the Soviet Union) who became disillusioned of the Communist Party in 1938. Arthur was captured and imprisoned in Francisco Franco's Fascist Spain in 1938 - being sentenced to death. He was saved from that ultimate fate by Great Britain - moving to Paris (where he presumably wrote the majority of the book I am about to discuss). Arrested again by Fascist forces in France during World War Two due to his political views, he was again released and went to Great Britain. The Book - Darkness at Noon - was released by Macmillan in May of 1941. (The biography above was cribbed from my copy of the tome published sometime in or after 1989).  Koestler himself states in the prologue of the book the following: The characters of this book are fictitious. The historical circumstances which determined their actions are real. The life of the man N.S. Rubashov is the synthesis of the lives of ...

This post was supposed to be written on February 14th. St. Valentine's Day. A Day associated with love and hearts and chocolates. Also, a day which is among the many in my life that is blemished by circumstances.  In 2023, while I was at work, my wife started texting me... with increasing frequency. She was feeling unwell and felt she needed to go to the hospital. She soon called emergency services to bring her to the hospital while I got a hold of my boss so that I could enable my extraction from work. Later that day, we were informed that Dawn had ovarian cancer. Of course, it would be ludicrous of me to feel this day is forever tainted due to this one tragic event. After all, with that type of attitude, nearly every day would just be a sad and empty chasm of remorse - for on most days, something bad has happened in your life at some point. Yet, obviously, certain circumstances do stand out for obvious and evident reason. However, while my plan was to write and publish this missi...

It has been a while since I last wrote... largely because I really didn't want to talk about politics. But, given the state of the world... given everything that is happening in the world and certainly in the United States, given the state of the Epstein files (from lies being uncovered from Howard Lutnick to foreign politicians stepping down to the potential downfall of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (who is NOT even in the Epstein files)... given the state of the complete overreach of the Department of Homeland Security and the complete lack of complying with the law... given the unraveling of the rationale for the search warrant for the election files in Fulton County Georgia (which was proffered by the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of MISSOURI)... And yet, I still don't want to talk about these political situations. Instead, let's talk about the Super Bowl's musical acts and that of TPUSA's "All American Half-Time Show." But...