Saturday, July 31, 2021
Thursday July 31, 1941. Goering, Heydrich, and the final solution.
Herman Goering ordered Reinhard Heydrich to make final preparations to solve the "Jewish question".
It's sometimes claimed that the Germans never put anything regarding the Holocaust in writing, which is incorrect. This is one such example and the order was later used in Goering's post-war trial. Goering didn't contest its authenticity, but claimed it had been mistranslated and that it addressed a "possible solution" rather than a "final solution", hardly much of a defense.
In reality, there exists plenty of documentary evidence about the German slaughter of the Jews.
Soviet wartime poster, the caption reads something like "Red Army soldier, all hope is on you."
The Germans were still advancing, of course, but they were beginning to encounter stiff Soviet resistance and were not advancing as rapidly as they had been. It should have been clear that the war in the East was not simply a repeat of prior German advances. Nonetheless, the Germans had fully lauched into a campaign of ethnic slaughter were seemed to presuppose a victory they hadn't secured.
On the same day Sweden, which had wrung its hands over an earlier request it agreed to, refused permission to Germany to allow a second German infantry division to cross Swedish territory by rail. In the same region, the Finns completed the reconquest of the Karelian Isthmus and began the process, although not yet implementing it, of going into defensive lines. The Finns refused a request to attack Leningrad and, moreover, they had already endured a refusal by 2,000 Finnish troops to cross beyond the 1939 border. While they'd gotten past that, the Finns were in the process of wrapping up their offensive operations as they retook their pre Winter War borders.
The Germans restructured their forces in North Africa, reflecting the expansion of their operations. Rommel was put in charge of the newly created Panzer Armee Afrika and Ludwig Cruwell given command of the Afrika Korps.
Sunday, July 31, 1921. A day at the beach.
A photo of a trophy being awarded, for something, at Bathing Beach near Washington D. C.
The recipient of the prize, Ella Morganston. Proving, perhaps, that fame is fleeting, I have no idea what the trophy was for or why she won it.
A pie eating contest, limited to women apparently, on the same day and at the same location.
And canoes at a nearby location.Blog Mirror: History of Anti-vaccination Movements
An interesting look at a contemporary issue from an historical prospective.
Note, this blog post was from 2018, before COVID 19 was a thing.
History of Anti-vaccination Movements
Friday, July 30, 2021
Wednesday July 30, 1941. Making up and futile raids.
Execution of the agreement between the Polish government in exile and the USSR, with Winston Churchill in attendance.
On this day in 1941 the Polish government in exile and the Soviet Union entered into a treaty abrogating the results of the Soviet Union's participation with Nazi Germany in the September 1939 invasion of Poland and making them allies. The agreement also provided that the USSR would cause a Polish military unit to be formed in its territory.
Polish-Soviet Union Agreements : July 30, 1941
Moscow, July 30, 1941
1. The Government of the U.S.S.R. recognizes the Soviet-German treaties of 1939 as to territorial changes in Poland as having lost their validity. The Polish Government declares Poland is not bound by any agreement with any third power which is directed against the U.S.S.R.
2. Diplomatic relations will be restored between the two governments upon the signing of this agreement, and an immediate exchange of Ambassadors will be arranged.
3. The two governments mutually agree to render one to another aid and support of all kinds in the present war against Hitlerite Germany.
4. The Government of the U.S.S.R. expresses its consent to the formation on territory of the U.S.S.R. of a Polish Army under a commander appointed by the Polish Government in agreement with the Soviet Government, the Polish Army on territory of the U.S.S.R. being subordinated in an operational sense to the Supreme Command of the U.S.S.R., in which the Polish Army will be represented. All details as to command, organization and employment of this force will be settled in a subsequent agreement.
5. This agreement will come into force immediately upon signature and without ratification. The present agreement is drawn up in two copies, in the Russian and Polish languages. Both texts have equal force.
The Soviet Government grants amnesty to all Polish citizens now detained on Soviet territory either as prisoners of war or on other sufficient grounds, as from the resumption of diplomatic relations.
The Soviets did indeed allow for the formation of Polish military units under this agreement, although in 1942 they were evacuated to the west through Iran. They were fairly sizable in number, with over 70,000 men at the time. Following evacuation, they came under overall British control and were part of the Polish forces armed and equipped by the United Kingdom.
Following that, additional Polish formation were created under the leadership of Polish communists. These forces were outside the control of the Polish government in exile.
On the same day, the Royal Navy launched a Quixotic raid on the European far north, hitting Kirkenes in Norway and Petsamo in Finland by air.
The raid was not a success and frankly fit into the category of odd British efforts of a show the flag nature that were not always well thought out. The leader of the two carrier raid doubted the concept himself and his doubts proved correct. Conducted in the high Arctic summer, the long day precluded surprise and the overall results have been termed a "disaster".
The German 6th Army commenced an assault on Kiev.
Hitler issued his Directive No. 34 on the fact of increased Soviet resistance to the invasion of the Soviet Union. Just days prior he was planning for the whole thing to wrap up.
Thursday, July 29, 2021
Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist Part 17. Dry Flying, Rewilding, Old Age, Waffles, Bras Don't Cause Cancer, NRA Invite, Hippies, Miscarriage of justice?, Denovian DNA
Recollections
I started typing this the day after I typed the last one of these. Therefore, I started typing this one on my father's birthday. He would have been 91 now. He died at 62. It's taken me more than a month to type this out, which shows how long some of these "new threads", aren't.
When I started to type this out, there was something significant I was going to relate to that, but I don't remember now what it was, as odd as that may seem. I will say that in some ways having his birthday so close in time to my own makes my own sad by definition. You never really get over some losses.
He died on April 2. That's pretty close to my birthday as it is, and my mother's birthday is later in April. So all of this is really a recollection of irredeemable loss. I recall one of my cousins noting regarding one of my aunts that our grandfather died on her birthday and after that, that's what she always noted about the day. I can see how that would be.
United Airlines and Southwest Cut the Booze.
Apparently what some airline passengers have as the mental image of a flight attendant.
Would you like a big steaming bowl of walrus blubber?"
Maybe there's still international flights. . . .
Tilting
Wyoming Gun Owners, that group with which Anthony Bouchard is so prominently associated, has filed suit against the Attorney General seeking to prohibit the organization from once again having to disclose its donors under campaign laws. It's a preemptive move that's going to fail.
It's odd to think of reporting their donor rolls under the law being such a big deal to them. When parties seek to hide such information, there's always reason to pause and ask why.
Bouchard, by the way, has been much less in the news recently. Cheney has been more than Bouchard. I suspect Bouchard's sun is setting pretty quickly. He hasn't been completely silent, but he hasn't been heard of the way that he was being at one time.
At the same time, regarding Bouchard, this extraordinarily weird news broke out:
June 24, 2021
It turns out that the individual who sponsored the America First debate mentioned above is a resident of Florida.
And, in an odd turn of events, both Liz Cheney and Anthony Bouchard have criticized the individual, K. W. Miller, who acted as the forum moderator. The spat with Cheney is an obvious one, but with Bouchard less so. None the less, an entity supporting Miller has attacked Bouchard and accused him of being in league with "George Soros affiliated" leftwing groups and have accused "Bouchard sycophants" of trying to disrupt the debate.
Miller has endorsed Chuck Gray.
Whatever the merits or demerits of Bouchard, it seems fairly clear that he and George Sorors are unlikely to share any connections.
Bouchard has been pretty quiet recently, or alternatively he just hasn't said anything interesting enough for the press to really bother with. All glory is fleeting, perhaps even the antithesis of glory.
One place I have seen his name, recently, is in regard to the ramped up campaign of Chuck Gray. Gray is really vying for the hard right populist votes and has put out some campaign material taking swings at that market. One even shows him wearing boxing gloves.
Anyhow, some of the diehard Bouchard supporters will mention their favorite when Gray stuff appears on social media. They're still for Bouchard, even though his political sun appears to be rapidly setting, forever.
One interesting post of that type claimed that Gray was born in California but raised, more or less, in South Dakota. I don't know the story of his upbringing myself, although I know that he's not from Wyoming. Lots of candidates aren't from Wyoming, of course, and the state has a very high import population all the time. Gray, however, should probably rethink his wardrobe as he's almost never seen without a sports coat on, which pretty much tags you as not being from here.
Gray, as we noted in another thread, was invited to meet with Trump, as was Smith. Trump harbors a massive grudge against Liz Cheney and is going to back some Wyoming contender agaisnt her. It'll be interesting really to see if that makes any difference in the campaign. I suspect it won't.
Rewilding
A Tasmanian devil was born in the wild, on the Australian mainland, for the first time in 3,000 years.
Right away the instinct will be to say that "oh, humans wiped them out", but that wasn't the case. It was dogs. More particularly dingoes.
Well, in a way that was humans, to be fair. Dingoes were introduced by people to Australia about 8,000 years ago. They're gone feral since that time, as dogs will do.
Anyhow, rewilding is becoming a pretty significant global trend. Some Alpine regions of Europe are undergoing this process on their own. And now there's serious thought to sponsoring rewilding in Scotland. This reflects a series of things, of which a decreasing human population is one.
It'll be interesting to see if any of this is accompanied by re-agrarianizing, if you will. That is, will a return of wild places bring about a return of wilder living? I hope so.
On the Tasmanian devils, they're wiping out the penguin population where they've now been introduced. An application of the Law of Unintended Consequences. Oops.
Upper limit
A recent study suggest the absolute limit on a human's life falls between ages 120 and 150.
That interestingly squares with what the Old Testament relates about the upper age limit for human beings, and that written at a time when quite a few people probably didn't make it to old age in general, although more certainly did than is generally imagined. So there's no news here, but rather a confirmation of it.
None of which will stop Americans in particular from adopting unnatural dietary practices and the like in the belief that they not only can live forever, but be 20 years old forever.
Twitter Terminations
Speaking of age. . .
Famed third wave feminist author Naomi Wolf has been banned from Twitter for writing full out anti Covid vaccine wackiness.
Wolf holds a PhD, which begs the question of how an educated person could spread such goofiness as she was doing, particularly one who has been respected for her writings, if often highly criticized as well. It was odd enough that I looked her up for her age, which is 58. In other words, I was wondering if she was slipping into dementia. That's why I actually know her age.
That makes her a bit younger than I thought she was, so its unlikely, although at age 58 some people do start showing a mental slide or even slip into full blown dementia. Wolf clearly hasn't gone completely senile or something akin to it, but her comments are so strange that a person has to really stop to pause and ask what on earth is going on with her.
Wolf has always been controversial, but she's also raised a lot of points that deserved being raised and at least a lot of her earlier writing deserved, and still deserve, consideration. With this, she's pretty much tainted herself so much that her earlier work will probably largely head to the dumpster.
Trump's Trousers
Speaking of the ravages of age, what's up with Trump's trousers?
That a question being bandied about on Twitter, and elsewhere in the Internet, the morning I'm writing this entry.
Nothing, according to Snopes.
It was such a surprising item that when it came up, we followed up on it just a bit. And Trump's trousers did have a really weird appearance to them. Some people claimed they were on backwards, and some were claiming that he had wet himself.
All in all, what probably really is the case is that men's wool suit pants really wrinkle badly. At least moderns ones do. They heavier they are, the less likely they are to do that.
Which gets to the decline in men's ware, which also gets back to the decline in men wearing suits.
I need to pick up a couple of new suits, I'd note.
I'd also note, but only because some other journal noted it, that Trump wears enormous suit trousers. It's actually a really dramatic change from his earlier years. Indeed, when he was younger Trump nearly always wore a suit, but they really fit and looked good as a good suit should. Now they look like tents and the trousers are approaching M.C. Hammer volume. That's odd too.
Of course, it's really hard to stay in shape as you get older, and Trump is old. He's old and not in very good shape by appearances. All this, in some odd way, goes to the topic of why on earth does this country continue to vest power in people who are now very much past their prime?
Nowhere else to go?
The topic of Trump continues to come up continually.
There's some pundit consideration that it may be the case that Trump keeps coming up as the punditry keeps bringing him up. That is, people may have in fact moved on more than might be suspected. There's certainly a hardcore of Trumpites that won't let him go, and they're in control of the party apparatus in some places to be sure, including Wyoming. This has created some consideration on the Democratic side on whether or not to let the Republicans let go of Trump, as odd as that may seem.
Under Donald Trump the Republicans lost suburbanites and votes from independents. Being lashed to Trump is going to make that worse in 2022 and the Democrats know that. However, as as retiring Libertarian Congressman on This Week noted, the Democrats aren't doing all that great in terms of party membership either. The lurch left in in 2020 actually caused a large increase in Hispanics, Asians and African Americans voting the GOP and Trump himself.
We've noted this trend for years. The routine assumption by the Democrats that they own ethnic minorities is simply wrong. Hispanics have shown this trend, basically following the Italian American and Irish American trend line, for a long time. Indeed, they're highly analogous to both as they're now at the point that Italian Americans were in the 1950s and Irish Americans in the 1940s, in being both an immigrant community and a community that has a long presence, and hence native born, demographic as well.
Like those two other demographics, Hispanics are either members of the Catholic Church or, even when not, culturally Catholic. They're status in that regard was wounded by the Mexican Revolution, to the extent that they descend from Mexico, but it hasn't disappeared by any means. Given this, in spite of articles by such people who like to use the word "Latinex", and the like, they are no more represented by them than Irish Americans were by the Berrigan brothers.
And this means that as a population they have highly conservative social views which the Democratic Party is running away from and against now. As their economic situation has stabilized that has started to reflect itself in their votes.
This is also the case for Asian Americans. Asian Americans have been a cause recently for Democrats, who have adopted the Pacific Island and Asian moniker to lump a vast number of cultures that have no more in common with each other than Ukrainians have with Moroccans. So far, they don't seem to have taken offense, but the lumping is unfair. People of Chinese extraction do not share the same culture or history, for example, that Samoans do.
And that should be instructive for a variety of reasons, one being that some of these groups are highly conservative.
Indeed, two demographics within that group were represented in the 2020 Presidential race in the Democratic Party and that should be instructive. Tulsi Gabbard was one and Andrew Yang the other. While they are both Democrats, they are such eccentric Democrats that their race is instructive. Gabbard is of Samoan extraction, represented Hawaii in Congress, and is a Hindi. She's also so conservative that she'd normally be mistaken for a Republican on most things. Being from Hawaii, she pretty much has to run as a Democrat however.
Yang is wildly eclectic but was basically running from the future. Maybe he's a Democrat, as he registered to be, and he certainly isn't a Republican, but all the current left wing issues that most Democrats are really focused on right now are pretty much behind him.
African Americans, we've previously noted, are much more conservative socially than the Democrats are generally and have felt ignored. Their votes last election tended to show that, and as noted at the time, African Americans are joining independents rather than register as Democrats.
All this gets back to Trump. A double failure isn't a road map to success. It's the conservative message that works for Republicans, not being tied to a man whose seems to be more focused on himself than anything else.
Wolf ignorance.
President Biden was recently on a radio show where he spouted off about his grandchildren, who apparently call him "pops", asking him about why "they're killing all the wolves".
Wolves are apex predators, i.e. at the top of the food chain. That means they compete with us, and as canines they aren't exactly doodles. That's why they're killed by human beings.
I'm not, I'd note, in favor of exterminating them. But they should and do need to be hunted in recovered populations. That this isn't obvious makes it how obvious it is that we've strayed from nature.
Ellie Kemper and the Cancel Culture
Ellie Kemper is an actress I've never heard of who felt compelled to apologize for participating in a debutante ball I've never heard of.
There's a lot of constant news anymore about the "cancel culture". When this first came up hit was heavily vested in the far right, but it's started to stray out of it into the general culture as a topic, and even into minority cultures. Some prominent African Americans have criticized it recently.
As a topic, the words are loaded, but there is something too this. While a lot of the reaction deploying the word is reactionary, it's also the case now that our culture is in a bizarre episode in which its constantly feeling compelled to apologize for everything.
An overall aspect of this, is this. You can't really apologize that much for the sins of your forefathers and have it mean anything, and whatever horrible thing they may have done, at the end of the day, everyone else's forefather's did it too. I know that people hate this idea, but there isn't a person alive today who isn't descended from the oppressed, the raped, the enslaved and the disadvantaged. Likewise, every person today is descendant from murderers, rapists, and slavers. Everyone.
It's a really nice and comforting thought to believe that you are universally descended from the virtuous, but nobody is. Moreover, if you think you are, the only thing you can really do to honor your ancestors is to live a very virtuous life yourself. Most modern Westerners do not.
Kemper's particularly transgression was to participate, at age 19, in the Veiled Profit Ball, some sort of Southern debutante thing of the type that continues to surprise me simply because it existed. The event has a racist history in that it was started by former Confederate officers in St. Louis, Missouri and has really only opened up to overcome that recently.
Okay, but does that make Kemper a racist? Let's not be stupid, of course it doesn't.
Bothered by Stefanik
It's not that I'm bothered because I'm a giant Liz Cheney fan. I only really warmed up to Cheney in 2020 as she began to break away, more and more, from the official Trump line, showing her independence. My appreciation for her, however, really only developed after January 6, 2021, when she became one of the very rare Congressional Republicans willing to stand up against the coup attempt.
Stefanik, on the other hand, is somebody I didn't know about until she signed on to advance lies.
Maybe its that which causes me to wonder about the pregnant Stafanik. At 58 years of age I'll admit, I'm old and that perhaps entitles me to some Neanderthal views. But there's something weird about the Stefanik perpetuating a dangerous lie and about to become mother.
That kid, by the way, will either grow up and forever hold that against his or her mother, or will grow up and fall right into extremism. There's hardly any other potential result. She ought to think of that.
You're in the Navy Now
The U.S. Navy has informed Naval Academy football player Cameron Kinely that he will report for duty as a naval officer, not as a Tampa Bay Buccaneer, after he graduates.
College sports have reached the societal stupid level, in the case of major sports, as we all know. Now that the U.S. Supreme Court had declared that the money vault is about to be opened, it'll get stupider. I don't blame the athletes for this, but the student part of that is much underemphasized. Good for the Navy to enforce their priorities. West Point recently didn't when it decided its age hold honor code doesn't really need to be fully enforced.
How do these guys get elected?
LOUIE GOHMERT: And I understand from what's been testified to, the Forest Service and the BLM, you want very much to work on the issue of climate change. I was informed by the immediate past director of NASA that they have found that the moon's orbit is changing slightly. And so is the Earth's orbit around the sun. We know there's been significant solar flare activity.
And so, is there anything that the National Forest Service or BLM can do to change the course of the moon's orbit or the Earth's orbit around the sun? Obviously, that would have profound effects on our climate.
JENNIFER EBERLIEN: I would have to follow up with you on that one, Mr. Gohmert.
LOUIE GOHMERT: Yeah, well, if you figure out a way that you in the Forrest Service can make that change, I'd like to know.
What the crud?
North Korea's monarchical dictator called the food situation of his country tense.
Wow, it must be bad if they're admitting in that fashion.
Open the boarder. The problem will go away.
Just what we needed. The race to the inebriated.
Connecticut joined the dopy march into added American stupidity, legalizing weed. As Americans don't have enough in the way of legal intoxicants already.
Fifteen hours in a Waffle House
Some sports writer speant fifteen hours in a Waffle House eating waffles.
That's a lot of waffles.
Bras don't cause cancer
So read a headline I happend to run across.
Well, first of all, thank goodness.
Secondly, did somebody actualy think they did? Was this some sort of funded research project?
Monica Lewinsky, again.
Apparently an HBO intern sent out some sort of embarrassing email to some subscribers rearding Monica Lewinsky.
Why is this even a topic?
Be careful what you say
Former teenage disaffected star, now young woman hottie star, Billie Eilish is in the hot seat for apparently mounting an "anti Asian slur" when she was 13 or 14.
That's not that long ago in the context of Eilish's life, but forever ago in real terms given that she's now an adult, and then she wasn't.
Well, I'm pretty sureu Eilish isn't a racist and never has been. Perhaps a person shouldn't be held accountable for everything they say, at least in their tender years, and perhaps in their dotage.
D'oh!
This is where we disagree. I did some homework on the AR 15 after leaving the Republican Party and learned the history of the weapon. Did you know it was originally meant for war? There are plenty of guns that are good for defense, hunting, that does not require a weapon of war.
Gosh, the AR15 was originally built for war? Next thing you'll hear is the Jeep was too. What on earth will they discovery next?
Sucker record
I've caught quite a few big suckers over the years. Many more when I was a kid and we fished the lakes, which I don't do much anymore.
Some I cut up for bait. Others I just left there on the bank.
I've honestly never thought of submitting one for the record. . . or that they even kept records for them.
NRA Invite
Governor Gordon has invited the National Rifle Association to relocate to Wyoming.
It's not going to happen, but what the heck?
I get that its good politics, but that's about it. They're not going to want to, and do we really want to make ourselves into an urban hub, which is what a large organization such as that requires.
The NRA, of course, has been in the news recently in a way that it doesn't want to be. Pursued by the Attorney General of New York, it decided to relocate to Texas and take bankruptcy. It's bankruptcy was dismissed when the Court found that it didn't meet the definition of being bankrupt, but by attempting to take this route, it tarnished its reputation, something that's been suffering anyhow.
The NRA suffers from being an example of what occurs when leadership never changes. The current leadership of the organization has been in control for seemingly forever. It's been effective, but occupying positions for life ultimatley always creates problems. An overhaul at the organization is overdue, but moving to Wyoming doesn't make sense as part of that.
Darned Hippies.
The Daily NK, an online publication in Seoul with sources in North Korea, reported that three teenagers had been sent to a re-education camp for cutting their hair like K-pop idols and hemming their trousers above their ankles. The BBC cannot verify this account.
“FINALLY!!!! A terrible wrong is being righted- a miscarriage of justice is corrected!”
What Phylicia Rashad stated upon Bill Cosby being released.
This is really hard to grasp, and she walked it back, but it shows that in spite of everything Cosby's reputation isn't as completely tarnished, in all quarters as a person might think.
On this, I heard a woman comment with sympathy for Cosby, which surprised me even more than Rashad's comments. The feeling she expressed was that his victims had placed themselves in a situation in which this could occur. I'm not commenting on that, other than to note I heard it.
7%
That's the percentage of of our DNA that is different from Neanderthals and Denisovians.
There seems to be ongoing surprise about this, but I'm not. Indeed, I don't think that Neaderthals are really a different species, but a subspecies, of Homo Sapiens. I know a lot less about Denisovians, but evolution is line, not a series of sharp steps.
I'm actually surprised, however, that its only 7%.
Banning Early Nuptuals
New York became the sixth state to ban "child" marriages, raising its age of consent to 18 yeras of age.
I don't endorse anyone getting married under 18 years of age, or at 18 years of age for that matter. It's just interesting to note how we generally regard that age range.
In the 70s, when the Vietnam War was one, we started depressing ages of majority. Since that time, however, as a practical matter, we've increased it.
Marriages at this age, contrary to common belief, have never been common in the Christian era, so the degree to which this is a real problem can be debated. It's also interesting to note that to the extent very young marriages are common, there's cultural aspects to it that generally aren't, or haven't, been raised.
Teusday July 29, 1941. The Dutch Oil Embargo
On this day, the Dutch Government In Exile joined the United States and the United Kingdom and froze Japanese assets.
The impact of this on Japan was real, but not as great as sometimes suggested, nor was the "pressure" put on the Dutch as great as suggested. The Netherlands were already at war with Germany and already an Allied power which was fully invested in a German defeat. Aligning with the UK and the US was a foregone conclusion.
Japan actually had received 80% of it oil from the United States prior to the US embargo. While the early focus of Japanese efforts would in fact be the Dutch East Indies, due to its oil supplies, that goal was to obtain a replacement source for oil, not to restore an existing primary source. Of course, the Dutch embargo meant that Japan could not simply switch to the Dutch East Indies as a source.
Having said that, the Japanese were having success with occupied administrations, which was evidenced by their entering into a mutual defense treaty with Japan for the defense of Indochina, which was a practical matter already occupied by Japan.
It should be noted that this entire story has become somewhat distorted in recent years, with it commonly being claimed the embargoes "forced" Japan into war. This isn't really directly correct, although it may be if given only a very short term analysis.
The cause of the embargoes was Japan's intervention in Indochina. US reaction to that, followed by the UK's and the Netherlands, was due to those nations being left with no other action at that time. The US had already exhausted its diplomatic efforts in regard to Japan in protest of its actions in China.
The Japanese war in China itself was the reason for Japanese intervention in Indochina. The Japanese may have been confused at the time of their intervention on what the US reaction would be, as early US signals concerning that were muddled, but the US had to react or had to acquiesce to the action. Acquiescence would have also acquiesced, effectively, to the French Indochinese colony passing to Japan and to the Japanese aggression in China.
On the Japanese in China, the US had consistently opposed that imperial effort. It was really that action that led to the US countering of Japan economically.
Dutch cartoon from 1916 depicting Indonesia as its crown jewel.
It's sometimes been noted that Japan was simply acting like any other colonial power, but frankly this wasn't really true. By the 1920s, when Japan really started becoming active in China, the colonial era was passing and China was a neighbor. Without meaning to defend colonialism in any fashion, the era of colonizing immediate neighbors was long over and what little excuse remained for it was always focused on underdeveloped, if a person cares to look at it that way, regions of the globe. In truth, the condition of the average Chinese citizen wasn't hugely different from the average Japanese citizen, and Japanese aggression was based to a very large degree on a combination of greed and racism.
By 1941 Japan had placed itself in a hopeless spiral towards war. It couldn't leave Indochina and save face, and the US, which did not have a real colonial history, could not allow the aggression in Asia to go unnoticed.
The Dutch decision isn't without its long term ironies. The Dutch were in fact cruel administrators in Indonesia and came to be hated. They moreover fostered the development of a Chinese administrative class that came to the islands as immigrants and whom were favored by the Dutch over the native Indonesians. Their record was so bad that the British did not allow the Dutch to return to power in Indonesia, and actually turned the post-war government over to politicians who had been Japanese collaborators. So somewhat ironically the ultimate Dutch invasion of Indonesia might be the one location where its propaganda for expansion accidentally came true. More ironic yet, Indonesian oil never did become a significant oil replacement source for Japan, given the difficulties of actually importing it in wartime conditions.
Friday July 29, 1921. A dark and momentous day.
On this day in 1921 an obscure Austrian born veteran of World War One, who had been employed by the Reichsheer to inform on an obscure upstart German political party, was voted its head in an election with a foreordained result. In doing so, Adolph Hitler replaced Anton Drexler as the leader of the German Workers Party, with only one person voting no.
The election in the then tiny party came about due to an interparty feud in which Hitler, who had become the party's primary spokesman, had resigned on July 11. Given that Hitler had become the most notable public figure of the party, even early on, a deal was reached in which he would become its leader, with the title führer, and Drexler was cease to be more than a figure in the party. That deal resulted in Hitler's accession to dictatorship status on this day in 1921.
The evolution of events was remarkable. Drexler had been a primary figure in the party from its onset and was the partial originator of its original anti-Semitic platform. Hitler was an early member, but not one of the earliest members. Effectively, Hilter had co-opted the leadership of what would soon be renamed the National Socialist German Workers Party, the Nazi party.
There was no reason to believe that the Nazis would go anywhere in 1921. They were only one of a plethora of radical German parties with mushy ideas. Even the virulent anti-Semitism wasn't unique to the Nazi Party, but common in extreme right wing German parties of the time. The only really unique thing about the party was Hitler himself, who would prove to be a charismatic leader.
The title "Socialist" wasn't unique to them by any means either, but the change in name, which would come about soon, and due to Hitler, has led to decades of debate on how socialist the Nazi Party was. Early on, it was fairly socialist, but this changed during the party's early years to where it adopted autarky as an economic platform. The fact that capitalist were generally not shy about the Nazi Party demonstrates that by the early 1930s it was not regarded as a socialist party by German industrialist and business figures.
Drexler dropped out of the party after the Beer Hall Putsch, which he had no role in, and only rejoined it in 1933 after it had come into power. He died at age 57 in 1942 due to alcoholism. He was not unique in being a very early member of the party who was sidelined after Hitler took over. Nobody in the movement was admirable, but if Drexler had resisted Hitler's taking over the party, and if its members had supported him, the Nazis in the form they were soon to become would never have come into being, and Hitler would have faded from history.
The Council On Foreign Relations, a think tank, was formed on this day in 1921. The organization ponders the international relations and policy of the United States.
Pandemic Part 6.
May 13, 2021.
The best possible news, in a really existential sense:
The fully vaccinated may quit wearing masks indoors and outdoors according to the CDC.
May 25, 2021
A Year in a Pandemic: COVID-19 in Wyoming
May 27, 2021
In surprising news, the Biden Administration is now opening up the investigation on the source of SARS-CoV-2.
Claims that the source was a Chinese lab have been there all along, but they've tended to be concentrated in certain demographics that hosted a variety of other extreme claims about the disease and were largely discounted early on. Now, however, the Administration is joining other governments from around the world to demand greater Chinese accountability on what occurred and there's some renewed scientific suspicion that the disease source may in fact have been a Chinese laboratory. That suspicion was heightened this past week with it was revealed that workers at the lab sought medical attention in November 2019, well before the first reported outbreaks of the disease.
The Administration actually used Anthony Fauci to first break this story prior to the CDC doing son. That was an interesting approach, and it's likely because Fauci is widely respected. It then went more public with it shortly thereafter. By taking this approach it's fueling the conspiracy theory fire, which it has to know, and so it no doubt has to be careful.
A few things about this.
The Administration isn't saying it is from a Chinese lab. It's saying it doesn't know the source, and this is a potential one. That's a change in position, but it isn't an endorsement of that view. The disease, the government is stating, may have a natural origin, we just don't know what the origin is.
If it does come from a Chinese government lab, the next question is why on earth would they be doing that? The only logical conclusion is that they were working on a weaponized variant of the SARS virus, but if so its an atypical biological weapon, so that isn't really very clear. No other logical explanation is immediately available, which also doesn't mean that there isn't one.
If they were working on a weaponized SARS virus, as noted, it'd be a weird weapon. Most work on biological weapons is on diseases like Anthrax. The reason is that the thought is that you can infect an enemy group extremely rapidly, and they die very quickly, and then the area is safe to go into. You don't want anything that's even somewhat slow spreading as your own troops will get it and the entire thing will last for months. Ideally, you want your enemies dead in a few hours and the spread over even quicker than that.
That's for the typical battlefield application, however. If you are looking at a different type of weapon, a more economic or impairing one, the considerations may be different. I.e., if you want to cripple a nations economy, or simple cripple a nation, including its fighting men, a slower rolling disease would be better. In that scenario, you get the infection rolling just a little before you go to war. Just long enough to get an epidemic rolling, then you strike.
That such a disease can impair an economy was proven by this pandemic, to be sure. This wasn't during wartime, however, and that's significant as the next nearest example, the 1917 Influenza, didn't shut down anyone's war economy. It may have played a role, however, in frustrating the 1917 German spring offensive, and it definitely took the Australian army in Europe out of the war for its last final months.
That you could do this is pretty clear. The U.S. Navy had a huge problem with SARS-CoV-2. And the US economy was really impacted, although frankly not as much as thought, and largely due to the obviously peacetime efforts to contain the disease, the latter factor which wouldn't exist in time of war.
That China is preparing for war with the United States isn't a secret, it's well known. That doesn't mean it will occur, although there are plenty of defense analysist that believe it's a certainty. The reason is that the US is all that stands between China forcibly reincorporating Taiwan, which is a declared Chinese goal. The US, moreover, also interferes with Chinese nearby marine aspirations, including ones that involve the Philippines, Japan and Vietnam. And the US operates against Chinese interests around the globe. China sees itself as a great power, but in the late 19th Century, early 20th Century mold, and is behaving accordingly. It has a definite near time goal of incorporating Taiwan into itself, and hasn't ruled out military force to do it. Indeed, it figures its necessary. And it figures it needs to be done soon, lest Taiwan outright declare its independence while it can still be assured of US assistance should things go badly wrong.
In that scenario, a biological agent spread through unfortunate and unknowing human hosts would be an effective means of messing with an enemy. It wouldn't defeat them, but it would distract them. And if you can even impair one aircraft carrier sufficiently, that may be a battle winning strategy in and of itself.
Was the lab working on this? Who the heck knows. They may very well not have been, and odds are they were not. We just don't know. And they may have been trying to synthesize the disease in order to be able to better know it, and hence be better situated to combat all SARS variants in the future. Communist China is simply so secretive, you can't really tell what's going on, and that's the problem.
May 29, 2021
Two Denver County Sheriff's deputies, one of whom worked in their jail, died of COVID-19 within ten days of each other.
One of the two was a die hard opponent of vaccinations, and it seems likely neither were vaccinated. As noted, one frequently made comments in opposition to the vaccine.
June 4, 2021
Over 600,000 Americans have officially died of SARS-CoV-2 at this point.
The US is donating 25,000,000 vaccines to the US lead COVAX program that seeks to vaccinate internationally.
June 28, 2021
A new variant of the disease that surfaced first in India is rapidly advancing globally and will soon be the dominant variant.
Sydney Australia is on hard lockdown.
July 7, 2021
The Delta variant of the disease is causing heightened concern across the country and has put the disease back in the local headlines.
The good news is that the vaccinations are effective against it, and they now are known to last much longer than at first supposed. The bad is that the new variant transmits easier, a typical evolution event for a virus, but atypically it also is deadlier. With increased summer mobility, officials in low vaccination rate states are concerned. Additionally, as part of this, low vaccination rate Wyoming has the highest death rate per capita due to COVID-19 than any state in the country.
The Delta variant has been causing havoc globally and appears set to in the United States. South Korea, which had handled its initial outbreak very efficiently, is now experiencing a new surge.
July 12, 2021
Israel has approved a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine, and Pfizer is working on approval of a third dose in the U.S.
In new that probably ought to get more circulation, given human nature, it's now been shown that erectile dysfunction is associated with having had Covid. Not only that, having had the disease impacts the production of sex hormones in males and females, leaving some women with symptoms of menopause and some men with much reduced testosterone.
There's been a huge amount of resistance to the vaccine in some quarters, with some people simply refusing to consider it. We now know that up to 1/3d of those who come down with the disease are left with psychological or neurological problems, and we now also know that it contains the risk of effectively making somebody more or less biologically neutered. A person has to wonder if getting the news out would impact vaccination rates.
July 20, 2021
Casper's Banner Medical Center (the hospital) will be making vaccination for COVID 19 a condition of employment starting in October.
July 22, 2021
The staff of the local hospital issued a distressed message that hospitalizations are reaching early pandemic infection rates once again, and urged people to get vaccinated. Officials in Cheyenne issued statement that on the eve of Frontier Days they were concerned about the same thing. The new infections are concentrated in the Delta variant.
July 24, 2021
The Delta variant is now the dominant variant in the state. Infections are the highest they've been since January, when the pandemic plateaued in the U.S. The majority of those infected have not been vaccinated.
Republicans in Congress have been attempting to boost vaccination rates, but it appears the effort is having little impact. Indeed, a statement by Mitch McConnell, if Facebook is any guide, simply resulted in the usual counters to vaccination which would suggest at this point people have stopped listening to the debate.
Assuming that the lack of vaccination does not cause a vaccine resistant strain to develop in the unvaccinated population, which is a real risk, this will ultimately have a peculiar demographic effect. Hospitalization rates and death rates are rising, but its among a distinct demographic. Some have poked a bit of fun at this, claiming its "Darwin at work", but there is an element of self selection at work that actually is, at this point, killing those who were convinced early on that the vaccines were a bad idea due to what really were politically motivated strains of thought.
July 29, 2021
The CDC has issued a mask rcommendation for vaccinated individuals who go into places with high transmission rates.
Prior threads:
Worried.
Pandemic, Part 5
Pandemic, Part 4
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