Interesting move for a nation that went to war over a tax on tea. . .

So, we're slapping a major tariff on a nation that supplies the American drink, coffee, because they won't accept military repatriation flights.

Why would they?

Colombia supplies 27% of it:

"Coffee is the fifth-largest bulk export commodity by value, accounting for about 7 percent of total global bulk agricultural exports, per Trade Data Monitor. The United States is the world’s second leading importer of coffee (both Arabica and Robusta varieties). In 2023, about 80 percent of U.S. unroasted coffee imports came from Latin America (valued at $4.8 billion), principally from Brazil (35 percent) and Colombia (27 percent)."<

https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/charts-of-note/chart-detail?chartId=110079

Don't worry. . . Elon won't suffer. . . that's the important thing. . . 

Also, making life more difficult for a legal business in  nation that has a population seeking to get out due to poverty and crime, makes them poorer and crime a better options.

Worth listening to in its entirety.

I am tired of hearing from people who cannot point out Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala on a map telling us how to mitigate the millions seeking refuge.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Wednesday, July 9, 1924. John W. Davis nominated.

John W. Davis, former Congressman of West Virginia and little known until that time, became the Democratic nominee for President.  Charles W. Bryan of Nebraska was chosen as the VP candidate.

McAdoo withdrew reluctantly and bitterly, leaving the Democrats divided.

Calvin Coolidge Jr. was laid to rest.

Columbia recognized Panama.

Last edition:

Monday, July 7, 1924. The death of Calvin Coolidge, Jr.

Labels: 1920s, 1924, Army, Calvin Coolidge, Death, Disease, Health, Personalities, Philippine Scouts, Philippines

Friday, December 14, 1923. Obregón takes the field.

Obregón, who had risen to prominence as a general, now took the field in defense of his administration.

A 5.3 magnitude earthquake killed over 300 people in Columbia and Ecuador.

Congressional pages took advantage of a Washingon D.C. snowfall.

Sunday, May 3, 1942. A gloomy Sunday poster.

Versions of the poster above seem to have been issued on a nearly constant basis, rather than one being issued at one time.  We posted a version of this just the other day, and then here's this one dated with today's date.

On the same day, the Japanese invaded Tulagi, north of Guadalcanal.  They also took Bhamo in Burma.

Left leaning Alfonso Lopez Pumarego was returned to the office of the Presidency in Columbia.

February 15, 1921. The Centennial of Teton and Sublette Counties.

Today In Wyoming's History: February 15, 1921: 

1921 Teton County formed.

1921  Sublette County formed.

To add to this a bit, Teton County was formed out of what had been part of Lincoln County.  Sublette County was formed out of parts of Lincoln County and Fremont County, the latter of which remains an enormous sized county.

Followers of Gasoline Alley were on day two of the dramatic plot line.

The monument to suffragist was dedicated in the Capital Rotunda.  Photographs of it have appeared in earlier installments of this series.  Almost immediately, however, it was moved to the basement, where it would remain until 1997 when it was restored to the Rotunda.

The New York Post ran a cartoon about Harding.

A publication called Good Morning ran a scathing cartoon associating war with a variety of extra evils.

Good Morning (a journal), February 15, 1921: " The dollar-a-year patriotic profiteers, including the fifty seven varieties of Trust presidents, with Charlie Schwab sprinkling the street. Ku Klux Klan, bodyguard for the profiteers and standard bearers of race hatred, reaction and private vengeance."

Georgian Bolsheviks asked for Soviet assistance in their efforts which resulted in the Soviets dedicating the Red Army to the subjugation of the country.

Eight train passengers were killed, and ten wounded, when the IRA attempted to ambush a train at Upton in Cork, and a resulting gun battle with a British Army unit developed.

The Columbian Air Force was founded on this day.  All of its early aircraft were extremely primitive, even by the standards of the day.

February 16, 1920. Reviews and Troubles.

General Pershing reviewing troops at Jackson Barracks, February 16, 1920.

On this day in 1920, Columbia joined the League of Nations, Armenia made a statement to the League in Paris that it was ready to enter into negotiations to secure its borders, and the US and the European powers went into a spat about Yugoslavia in which the US threatened to back out of Europe entirely.

Cardinal Patrick O'Donnell

In Ireland, where there was no peace but low grade guerrilla war, there were now 41,000 British troops serving in the country, up from 25,000 prior to the war.  Bishop Charles McHugh of Derry accused the British of "military despotism", Bishop Thomas O'Doherty of Clonfert referred to British rule as a "regime of militarism" and Bishop, later Cardinal, Patrick O'Donnell stated that an "atmosphere of war and blood coupled with resentment, and the indignities of military rule, was in some danger of endangering wrong notions in regard to human life."

The statements by the Bishops was significant in that the struggle between the Irish and the English had a strong confessional based to it.  The Bishops weighing in lent support to the common Irish people's distress that that the British were treating them as occupied people and and unfairly.

Gun Boat Diplomacy? What year is it?

Yesterday in the news it was reported that over several days President Trump kept raising the topic of removing the government of Venezuela by military force.

Crew of the USS Denver in Nicaragua, 1912.

Yikes.

Let's make no mistake. The government of Venezuela is ruining the country.  But invading it?  That's wacky.

Apparently the President raised this with his advisers by surprise and kept raising it over a period of a couple of days, each time meeting opposition to the concept.  It was just a concept, but still that's really scary. And he even apparently mentioned the concept to the chief executive of Columbia.

Yikes again.

Trump seemed impressed by the American deposing of the Manuel Noriega, the military dictator of Panama in the 1980s whom President Reagan had removed (oddly, this was a topic of conversation with my son just yesterday, July 4.)  And it was mentioned in my very recent post on the U.S. Marines and World War One.   He also referenced the American invasion of Grenada.

M113 personnel carrier in Panama during Operation Just Cause.  Twenty three US servicemen died in the invasion and about ten times that number of Panamanian servicemen.

Neither of these are analogous.  After all, Panama was ruled by a military figure who had light support in that country in general, and Panama is a creature of the United States over which we exhibited fairly extensive control for eons.  Grenada is an island (over which the British retain some technical sovereignty).  Neither of these military missions were calculated to meet with much opposition, although they did meet with some.

82nd Airborne Division M102 howitzer firing a fire mission in Grenada.  Nineteen American servicemen died in this action and about three times that number of Grenadians and Cubans.

There would definitely be opposition in Venezuela.

And invading a nation simply because it is lead by whackadoodles is not a Just War.

Hopefully this idea has passed.

Wednesday, February 24, 1909. A general European war?

Serbia brought Europe to the edge of war when it announced it opposed Austria Hungary's annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, taking the position they should be part of Greater Serbia.

Serbia would back down in March.

The United States ratified the Ship Canal Treaty with Columbia.

Saturday, May 26, 1900. Battle of Palonegro.

The Battle of Palonegro ended in a victory for the Conservative forces in Columbia's Thousand Day's War.

Last edition

Friday. May 25, 1900. The Lacey Act signed into law.

Labels: 1900, 1900s, 56th Congress, law, Wildlife, William McKinley