Thursday, April 2, 2026

Friday, April 2, 1926. "Fianna Fáil"

Eamon de Valera proposed the name "Fianna Fáil" for his new political party which was scheduled to organize on May 16. "Fianna" (soldiers) and the Lia Fáil, the coronation stone for the ancient kings of Ireland, formed the basis of the name.

The hard to characterize republican party is still around.  It's political positions have shifted a great degree over the past century and indeed the ability to do so is a self acknowledged feature of the party.

Watts residents voted to become part of Los Angeles.

Calvin Coolidge declined an invitation to send American delegates to a League of Nations conference in Geneva to discuss America's reservations about joining the World Court.

Coolidge gave a press conference.

I think it would he very desirable to have some coal legislation at this session and my message perhaps goes into my opinions in detail. I judge that a good way to approach it would be to bring forward the Coal Commission report and have some hearings on it and bring out such a bill as the hearings and a consideration of the situation develop to be sound. There are two things that I should want to accomplish. One would be to enable the President to appoint a mediation board or something of that nature in case of a threatened strike or strike, and the other would be to set up some machinery for coal administration in ease it happened that there might be a scarcity of coal. I think those two things are quite fundamental. I don’t know just what other details might be necessary. But the way to find out about those things is to call in the parties that are interested and who are familiar with the situation on the side of those who are employed and on the side of the coal operators, and take their opinions; see what their arguments are. Congress itself very well represents the public, though I have no doubt that additional information in relation to public needs and requirements could be obtained from the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Commerce, its military aspects from the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy, and its labor aspects of course from the Secretary of Labor.

I don’t know whether the regulations governing the enforcement of Mexican Land laws have been received at the State Department or not. I doubt very much if they have. I think they were promulgated only three or four days ago, and it takes some three or four days, as I recall it, to get here.

I think it has already been announced that Colonel Carmi Thompson will undertake to go to the Philippines for me. It is possible he may stop at Hawaii, and perhaps at Guam, though that hasn’t been finally determined on. It seems to me that there was a somewhat sentimental propriety in sending him. He is, as you know, the National Commander of the Spanish War Veterans. It was through their activities that we came in possession of the Philippine Islands. He also is a very warm friend of General Wood. He has known him and been associated with him, and of course it goes without saying that it is entirely a friendly mission. General Wood has been stationed there for nearly five years. He has had little opportunity to come to the States and I thought it would be a somewhat graceful thing on our part if we could send someone down there to confer with him and give him such reassurance as he may need, and indicate to him personally the desire of the Government up here to support him in every way. Then I would like to have a survey – it couldn’t be quite called an investigation – of what we are doing, what progress we are making in the Islands, what progress the Filipino people are making – because that is synonomous. I want to know how education is progressing, what is being done in the way of sanitation, policing; also the financial condition of the islands as relates to their Government and the economic condition as it relates to private enterprise there, and in general to make a survey and inspection to see what we can do to better conditions there.

Press: Do you care to tell us anything about the visit to the Philippines of the Secretary of War this year?

President: Well, that has been mentioned in the press. I think it said the Secretary of War was contemplating a trip around the world in which, incidentally, he might stop at the Philippines. I don’t think I care to comment on that. I leave that for you to get first hand information from the Secretary of War. I took it to be one of those articles that some times appear, that has no real foundation. I would like to have the Secretary of War go down there some time, but of course it is difficult for the Secretary of War to get away for that length of time to go to the Philippines, and on account of the very great uncertainty of his being able to go I want to have Colonel Thompson go. His mission isn’t political in any way – merely the objects that I have mentioned.

I have been willing to consider the needs of the Spanish War veterans. Perhaps it is appropriate in this case to speak of that I think in comparison with what is being done for those who took part in other wars. I think they are entitled to some consideration. The bill carrying $18,000,000 a year, nearly $19,000,000 is a more ambitious bill than I like to see Congress taking up. The bill presented some years ago carried some $8,000,000 or $10,000,000. I should look on that with much more favor than taking on an expenditure at this time of $18,000,000 a year. I think it provides for a service pension at the age of 60 or 62. I feel that that is quite young for a person to become a service pensioner of the United States. Merely because a person went to the Spanish War and reached the age of 60 or 62 years doesn’t seem to me quite enough to put him on a pension roll. So I think that some change ought to be made in this bill to make it more acceptable. That leads me to the reports that have been coming out from the Treasury in relation to the amount of income that we are deriving under the present law. It was anticipated I suppose by the Treasury – it certainly was by me – that this first payment would be quite large. Everyone knew that a new tax law was going into effect and that it would be a material reduction over the old tax law, and there had been an accumulation of profit s in the hands of a great many people which, had they been cashed in under the law that was in force before I became President, would have been almost confiscated by the Government. Some 50% of them would have been taken in some instances under the law as it was last year. Under the law of this year 28% I think would be the maximum, and I don’t know but what it would be a little less than that. Quite naturally, those people that have been waiting to take their profits took them. That was one thing that accounted for a considerable sale of securities. Now, of course, the sale of securities during the present year don’t go into last year’s taxes, but because it was perfectly apparent before the first of January that there was to be a reduction, a great many people took their profits. That wont occur next year because those profits have been taken. Then there was the reduction of certain things that were fairly certain, like admission taxes and the tax on capital stock, which was fairly certain, almost amounting to repeal in some instances, and the shifting from capital stocks to earnings. Earnings are always uncertain. Than another item is the fact that because their taxes were not so large this year, many people that heretofore have taken the option of making their payments quarterly, I understand are paying the entire amount in this first installment. So, before we can tell what money would actually accrue under the present law, we shall have to wait and see what the year’s experience may be. It is altogether probable that the next three quarters will not be anywhere near as large as this quarter has been. I have known all the time that where was every prospect that we would come out at the end of this year, June 30, 1926, with a small surplus. The chance of coming out with a surplus June 30, 1927 is not anywhere near so favorable, and it is for that reason that I have cautioned the Congress, through newspaper conferences, to beware of putting on permanent expenditures. We can pass some kinds of legislation and if the money wasn’t available to meet the expenditure we could delay it for a year or reduce it somewhat. We could do that with aviation legislation. We can do it with any kind of a building program. When we pass laws providing for pensions, of course that becomes fixed and has to be paid whether the income is large or small. That is why I think in my message I cautioned the Congress against additional gratuities on the part of the Government.

I think it will be necessary to have some legislation relative to the World War veterans act. If this question here refers to the amendment of the bonus bill, I have a good deal of hesitation about speaking of that, because I haven’t any accurate idea of just what it does — my general idea about it is that it calls for quite a large expenditure of money which I should think would be doubtful – of doubtful necessity.

The suggestion of the delegation from Minneapolis and St. Paul about enlarging the upper Mississippi River is under consideration at the War Dept. 1 haven’t any information about the details of it.

I have a person under consideration to be Captain of the Mayflower when Captain Andrews’ term expires. I can’t speak his name at the present time. It is some one that has been stationed in the Pacific, either on the Pacific Coast or out with the Pacific Fleet. I am not quite certain which.

I think that the invitation has been received from the League about a conference with nations to consider the reservations that we have proposed to our proposal to adhere to the statute of the Court. Of course it was a most courteous thing for the League to do, to extend that invitation to us, as it was a discussion of some matter in which we have some interest ,and quite properly they would inquire whether it was a matter that we wanted to discuss. As far as I have been able to determine, I don’t see any necessity for any discussion on our part. The reservations speak for themselves. So that I don’t expect or anticipate – unless some reason appears that I don’t expect to appear on further study – that we should consider it necessary to send any representative. We are dealing, as I have indicated before, directly with the nations concerned. We are adhering to the Protocol, which is the technical name of the Statute that created the Court and which is the action of forty-eight different nations. The League has nothing to do with it and can’t do anything with it if it wanted to. The only persons that oan make any change In it are the forty-eight nations, so that it would be out attitude that we would deal wit h them, rather than to undertake to deal through any other channel.

I haven’t made any careful study of the report of the actuaries on the cost of the various retirement proposals, except to note that it is evident that the cost to the Treasury would be very high. It has seemed to me that the proposals for retirement might be modified. I indicated a moment ago that I doubted if retirement at 60 or 62, or a pension at that age, was altogether justified, and I doubt very much if it ought to be asserted that a person who has reached the age of 60 years, because he has been in the employ of the United States Government, should thereafter draw a retirement pay. And I think the amount of $1200 proposed is rather high. Now, if they would increase the age to 70, of course that would cut down by 10 years the average length of time on which annuities would be paid, and if they would decrease the amount that would be paid, that would also make a reduction. I should think that something might be worked out in that direction that would be within the reasonable means of the Government to meet.

I am glad that some one is reading the Price of Freedom. There is a reference there to the landing of the Pilgrims which says that “As they landed a sentinel of Providence, humbler, nearer to nature than themselves, welcomed them in their own tongue.” I wouldn’t want to be held to the necessity of proving that a sentinentel stood on the shore and extended a welcome as they landed from the boat at Plymouth Rock, but it was a very curious and interesting circumstance that an Indian had been taken from this country over to England and there had learned the English language, and he became associated with the Pilgrims when they landed at Plymouth and was of very great assistance to them in interpreting between them and the Indians. Now, I am not certain what that Indian’s name was. So I wont undertake to give it. But those are the circumstances and that was the situation to which I referred. I can’t quote any particular authority for it. I think any book that deals with the landing of the Pilgrims and that general situation would mention that interesting fact.

Last edition:

Saturday, March 27, 1926.

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Tuesday, April 2, 1901. News Carver meets his end.

The United Kingdom extended the military court system over Boer guerillas.

The British were turning increasingly desperate, and harsh, in their effort to put down the ongoing resistance of Boer Bitter Enders.

William Carver of the Wild Bunch was killed in Jack Owens' Bakery in Sonora, Texas, by Sheriff E. S. "Lige" Briant and his deputies while attempting to effect an arrest for suspicion of murder.

Carver was one of the individuals in the famous Fort Worth portrait from 1900 and went by the nickname "News".

Last edition:

Monday, April 1, 1901. Aguinaldo consents.


King Donald's War, Part 3. The Bunker.

 


April 1, 2026

The British are hosting talks on opening the Straits of Hormuz.

The intellectual toddler King Donny is threatening to take the US out of NATO, which he cannot legally do.

Things are going to get very bad.

The illegitimate demented octogenarian would be king will address the nation tonight.

April 2, 2026

King Donald, his popularity sinking like a rock and facing the inevitability that Congress is not going to vote to fund an additional $200B for his losing vanity project war against Iran, came on to television last night to try to explain and get support for it.

I didn't watch it. I've been to nursing homes and, while I'm ashamed to say it, they make me uncomfortable.

It was the usual pile of shit. The war will be over soon, we're going to bomb Iran into submission, they've been at war with us for 47 years, other people should do the hard job of fixing the Straits of Hormuz that we broke.


We haven't been at war for 47 years, nobody is going to take on the ground fighting opening the Straits would require, the war won't be over soon.  We didn't for Bibi.

It won't be over this time next year, but Americans, by that time, will be fighting and dying on the ground.

Oh well, Cuba will be easier, right?

Related threads:

Subsidiarity Economics 2026. The Times more or less locally, Part 3. The Wharton Way.



The Madness of King Donald. The 25th Amendment Watch List, Eleventh Edition. He's insane, and we all know it. Somebody close to him is watching it.


Ascendant Ignorance in the Age of Donald Trump. Ignoramus Watch Part 3. The Quack Edition.

Last edition:

King Donald's War, Part 2. Just a few Marines. . .

Court Watch, Part V.

 Expect a major hissy fit.


I think we can confidently assume this project is dead, and that some lesser more useful construction will take place after Trump is out of office.

The judge ruled that the plaintiff was likely to prevail as the administration likely lacks the authority they tried to exercise here.

They should refund the money and Trump should pay for this destruction himself.

April 1, 2026

Trump's executive order on mail voting is set to face legal challenges

April 2, 2026

From the CST:


Basically the judge decided the issues in the two matters weren't sufficiently identical for consolidation.

On other matters:
Lex Anteinternet: Courthouses of the West: Donald Trump attends oral...: Courthouses of the West: Donald Trump attends oral arguments in Trump v. Ba... : That's the birthright citizenship case. Trump's goi...
I posted this yesterday.

Courthouses of the West: Donald Trump attends oral arguments in Trump v. Barbara

Courthouses of the West: Donald Trump attends oral arguments in Trump v. Ba...: That's the birthright citizenship case. Trump's going to lose this case, which will be another example of the wheels coming off of h...

Donald Trump attends oral arguments in Trump v. Barbara.

That's the birthright citizenship case.

Trump's going to lose this case, which will be another example of the wheels coming off of his administration.  His presence at the Court will not impress anyone, let alone the Justices. Trump seems to have lost any sense that he's not that impressive to about 70% of Americans.

His attendance is, frankly, appalling.

Cont (April 1, 2026)

JUSTICE NEIL GORSUCH: Do you think Native Americans today are birthright citizens under your test and under your friend's test?

D. JOHN SAUER, U.S. SOLICITOR GENERAL: I think so. I mean, obviously, they've been granted citizenship by statute ...

GORSUCH: Put aside the statute. Do you think they're birthright citizens?

SAUER: No, I think the clear understanding that everybody agrees in the congressional debates is that the children of tribal Indians are not birthright citizens.

GORSUCH: I understand that's what they said. But your test is the domicile of the parents, and that would be the test you'd have us apply today, right?

SAUER: Yes, yes. So, if a tribal Indian, for example, you know, gives up allegiance to ...

GORSUCH: Are tribal members born today birthright citizens?

SAUER: I think so, on our test, if they're lawfully domiciled here. I'm not s—, I have to think that through, but that's my reaction.

GORSUCH: I'll take the yes. That's alright.

Gee Louise, this administration is really something. 

It turns out that Trump left after Justice Jackson pretty much eviscerated the solicitor, D. John Sauer, who was sent to argue this.  Sauer's career really ought to be over for such a lame argument that was so obviously legal deficient.  He's a former Missouri solicitor and, more important, one of the lawyers who was willing to represent Trump in the past.

Last edition:

Court Watch, Part IV.

Wednesday, April 1, 2026

Courthouses of the West: Donald Trump attends oral arguments in Trump v. Barbara

Courthouses of the West: Donald Trump attends oral arguments in Trump v. Ba...: That's the birthright citizenship case. Trump's going to lose this case, which will be another example of the wheels coming off of h...

Donald Trump attends oral arguments in Trump v. Barbara.

That's the birthright citizenship case.

Trump's going to lose this case, which will be another example of the wheels coming off of his administration.  His presence at the Court will not impress anyone, let alone the Justices. Trump seems to have lost any sense that he's not that impressive to about 70% of Americans.

His attendance is, frankly, appalling.

Cont (April 1, 2026)

JUSTICE NEIL GORSUCH: Do you think Native Americans today are birthright citizens under your test and under your friend's test?

D. JOHN SAUER, U.S. SOLICITOR GENERAL: I think so. I mean, obviously, they've been granted citizenship by statute ...

GORSUCH: Put aside the statute. Do you think they're birthright citizens?

SAUER: No, I think the clear understanding that everybody agrees in the congressional debates is that the children of tribal Indians are not birthright citizens.

GORSUCH: I understand that's what they said. But your test is the domicile of the parents, and that would be the test you'd have us apply today, right?

SAUER: Yes, yes. So, if a tribal Indian, for example, you know, gives up allegiance to ...

GORSUCH: Are tribal members born today birthright citizens?

SAUER: I think so, on our test, if they're lawfully domiciled here. I'm not s—, I have to think that through, but that's my reaction.

GORSUCH: I'll take the yes. That's alright.

Gee Louise, this administration is really something. 

It's April Fool's Day,. and the Big Fool intends to address the nation. The question is, will anyone listen?

I haven't decided if I will, or not.

The day couldn't be more appropriate.  A man whose made his political career, and he is a politician, of fooling a large percentage of the population hopes to fool you again, even as his mind descends into mush.  Anyone listening to him and believing him at this point is fooling themselves.

Trump is not qualified for his office.  He's a liar, and he lacks the legal, ethnical, moral and mental ability to hold his job.  He only remains in office as his cabinet is packed with sycophants, and the Republican Party made up of cowards. 

The topic will be the war.  By now Trump's grown bored of the war and his back is against the wall.  It's illegal, and Congress isn't going to vote to keep funding it.  The Iranians have shown themselves to be far tougher than Trump, a bully, and all bullies are cowardly, can imagine.  They're not beaten, and they're not cowed. They're actually winning.

Listening to Trump is nearly pointless.  His speeches are streams of lies.  He's going to lie.  Why bother?

Or should one listen?  I ask sincerely.  

Would you have listened, if you were German, to Hitler's radio addresses in 1945?

Like Trump's there weren't many by that time.

If you were to, it'd be out of morbid curiosity, or to try to discern what was coming next. Was there going to be a surrender and what would it consist of.  Or was Der Fuehrer going to take the country down into defeat with him.

And that's the same question we have with Trump.

Related threads:

Downfall. The 25th Amendment Watch List, Twelfth Edition. He's insane, we all know it, and he's in power. This will get much, much, worse.

Downfall. The 25th Amendment Watch List, Twelfth Edition. He's insane, we all know it, and he's in power. This will get much, much, worse.

Richard Nixon and Donald Trump.  One man worried his cabinet who planned around a possible mental collapse that didn't come, the other is having a mental collapse and his cabinet is doing nothing.

We later learned that in 1973 as Nixon came under increased pressure due to Watergate, his aids feared he would do something rash.  Nixon was reacting badly under the stress.  He was lashing out.  He was drinking heavily.

Of course, in the end, he resigned.

Donald Trump, who like Hitler doesn't drink, is visibly collapsing before our eyes.  He's obviously been in a state of mental decline for a decade now, and its increasing.  He was heavily impaired when elected, making any rational person wonder why he was elected to the office, other than that people the weird insurrectionist feared that Joe Biden's dementia was too advanced to allow for him to hold office again, something that history should not forgive Biden for.  Even that doesn't really explain it, as Harris was the alternative in the end, for people who play along with the two party system nightmare that actually doesn't have to exist.

A major difference between late stage Nixon and late stage Trump, other than that Nixon was not insane (a major difference) is that Nixon was surrounded by sane, if not always admirable, advisors.  Trump is surrounded by sycophants.

That's a huge difference as we now know that Nixon's advisors consulted amongst themselves about his mental state. They were worried about it.  None of them were as deeply loyal to Nixon at all costs as Trump's sycophantic advisors are to him.

Many, including me, have wondered how it is that Trump's cabinet hasn't acted to replace him.  Heather Cox Richardson, in one of her video shorts, has provided the answer.  The people surrounding Trump have nowhere else to go.

In Trump's first administration his cabinet included sane people.  Trump didn't know how to take office and in fact his natural laziness kept him from really ever fully forming a government.  That natural laziness came into effect when he was elected a second time.  He was kept from acting like a king in his first term as his advisor wouldn't let him, and he didn't like that.  In his second term he wanted people who would slavishly do what he wanted without question, and he got them almost exclusively.

If you look at the current cabinet you can see that, with perhaps two or three exceptions, it's wholly made up of people for whom Trump is their only chance. Some may be rich, but wealth is credited much more than it should be as allowing for intellectual independence.  People lavish praise on Trump not because they believe it, but because they are his willing concubines and have prostituted themselves to him.  Some of these people are outright dim.  Some have just sold their souls and know that when Trump falls, they fall with him, as Richardson has noted.

Why these people are in this position is another matter.  Some got there as they believe in Trump.  Others were placed their by forces supporting Trump, knowing that he was too lazy to actually do the work to pick competent people.  The Heritage Society, for example, saw Trump as a hollow vessel they could pour their radicalization through.

Trump's cabinet, therefore, is much like Hitler's.  Where was Goebbels going to go?  And Trump's true followers are much like members of the German SS, who fought to the bitter end.  They didn't see a future, literally, in a post war Germany where they figured they'd be killed, if not by the Allies, then by the Germans.  MAGA still shows up like the Waffen Grenadier Brigade of the SS Charlemagne, the French SS unit that went down fighting in Berlin.  They thought the alternative to that was a bullet in the back of the head.  Real Trump loyalist show up as they fear that if Trump fails, or more likely when he does, they're era is over.  And like the SS in Berlin, they fanatically hope that Der Fuehrer will pull off a miracle, which he won't, or that they'll be saved by some mysterious outside force at the last hour.

That won't happen either.

Many people have wondered how the Germans were so cowed by a leader who was sending them into a disaster.  It can't be said that Americans are.  Only 30% of Americans actually support Trump.  Probably an equal if not larger number outright hate him at this point.  If the election was held today the Republicans would loose both houses, and in November when the election is held, they will.  

But here's the dangerous thing.  Between now and November the leadership of the US is in the bunker and Der Fuehrer is insane.

I've long held that Trump would be removed in 2026 by the 25th Amendment.  I hadn't considered, however, the points Richardson raises.  He still might be but as she notes if Trump goes down, they all go down with him. They're a bunch of cowardly sycophants and they do not appear to be willing to save their country any more than Goebbels was.

Still, even in Hitler's cabinet not everyone was unquestionably loyal towards the end.  Himmler actually serious considered trying to cut a separate deal with the Allies and effectively remove Hitler via a coup.  There was even one SS member in the July 20 plot.  It remains possible, but only barely so, that the cabinet will vote to save itself.

We know that at least a few people in the cabinet likely are willing to do that.  J. D. Vance is one.  Marco Rubio another.  Both of them hope to be President and neither benefits from going down with Trump.  I've long thought they were playing out this string until they could act.  But two men alone won't get it done.  There's likely a few more, but only few. None of the ass kissers in cabinet meetings are amongst them.

Which brings us to this.  Over the next few months things are going to be extremely bad.  Trump's mental state is declining so rapidly it's difficult to gauge.  He's going to pull out of the war he joined with Israel which will be a major defeat he can't disavow.  The economy will not rapidly recover and he can't blame that on Biden.  He's lost the Hispanic vote and he  won't be able to get it back.  The Arab American vote which dimly voted for him is lost as well.  The people who are left in his cabinets who openly support him increasingly look like outright kooks.  The financial flood to his family is not being ignored and is very likely to result in post Trump criminal prosecutions, maybe of Trump himself.

And yesterday, a judge made clear that his obscene bordello on the Potomac addiction to the White House will never happen.

He's a desperate, and demented, man.

Trump, from now to November, will try to steal the November election.  He's already trying.  And he'll do every odd thing imaginable or never imagined to try to deflect attention form his failure.  There will be no limit to what he will try.  Invasions of Cuba and Greenland are possible, with Cuba almost a certainty.  Deals with Russia, or China, or whomever.  Attempts to cancel the election, or seize the polls are probable.  Ignoring the courts a near certainty.

The 25th Amendment should save us from this but might not.  Impeachment of Trump should occur, but will not, unless there's a massive post November shift in Congress.

Instead, expect things to get worse and worse.  And expect the few members of the administration who aren't willing to go down in the bunker to start resigning.  Vance can't, Trump being removed or dying in office is his only hope of being President. Rubio can, and he will, likely before November.


Last edition:

The Madness of King Donald. The 25th Amendment Watch List, Eleventh Edition. He's insane, and we all know it. Somebody close to him is watching it.

Monday, April 1, 1946. The April 1, 1946 Aleutian Islands Earthquake

The April 1, 1946 Aleutian Islands earthquake occurred which resulted in an tsunami that devastated parts of Hawaii, most notably Hilo.  Up to 173 people were killed, mostly in Hawaii.

People fleeing the tsunami in Hilo.

Warnings were given but many ignored them, thinking them an April Fools Day joke.  The event is responsible for a much improved warning system.

Bituminous coal miners went on strike in the U.S.

The U.S. Navy destroyed 24 Japanese submarines.  Seems like a terrible waste really.

The UK made Singapore a Crown Colony and separated it and its mostly Chinese ethnic population from Malaya.

What does Russia want was a question that was posed (from more than one Reddit sub).


Last edition:

Sunday, March 31, 1946. Arresting Nazis, Russia pays up, you have to wonder about Дональд, Field Marshall Gort passes.

Saturday, April 1, 1911. An ironic proposal by Díaz

 


Porfirio Díaz opened anew session of the Congress of Mexico outlining his plans for reform, including limiting presidential terms to one.

Tsinghua University opened in Beijing.


Last edition:

Friday, March 31, 1911. Viva Zapata!