CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist 153rd Edition. The Hunt for the Golden Pheasants, Delusional monuments, Recovering the imaginary 1950s.

Ousted.

Maria Bartiromo was given the boot at Fox.

That's really remarkable.

Bartiromo managed to go from being a credible mainstream reporter to a Trump talking head after leaving going to Fox in 2014.  Her departure would indicate that we've entered the "Hunt for the Golden Pheasants" stage of the Trump regime in which there's localized uprising.  The recent resignation of the Secretary of the Army fits into that as well.

I seriously thought that by this point the 25th Amendment would have been invoked and we'd have a President J. D. Vance trying to cut his own path.  People like Hegseth would be gone.  There'd be no Iran war and the tariff experiment would be over.  What didn't count on wa the administration being made up of radical right wing Confederates and Seven Mountain adherents, as well as members of the Waffen Grenadier Brigade of the SS Charlemagne that have no place to go.  So it appears my prediction was incorrect, although there's still hope.  Having said that, those who plan on surviving the regime are beginning to make their exit, or are being tossed overboard.

Well, Bye Felicia.

Trying to sell.

Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum announced that the Trump Admin will begin a further vandalization project this upcoming week and very clearly he knows nobody wants it, and therefore is trying really, really, hard to sell it.  He took to Twitter trying to show that Presidents have so dearly wanted an arch   Witness:

Secretary Doug Burgum@SecretaryBurgum

We are pleased to announce that after a very long wait (over 125 years!), we are preparing to start, over the next two-week period, the excavation work necessary for the Great Triumphal Arch and Military Observation Deck, at Memorial Circle on Columbia Island between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. This will be one of the Great Pieces of American Architecture, honoring the history and significance of Arlington Cemetery and befitting the most powerful Capital in the World.

For over 125 years, Congress and various congressionally chartered commissions decreed that a monumental work should adorn Columbia Island. In 1902, the U.S. Senate’s “McMillan Commission” called for “a concourse suited to memorial treatment be established” on the westerly terminus of the Memorial Bridge.

In 1924, the congressional chartered Arlington Memorial Bridge Commission stated, “[Columbia Island] was always considered as a suitable site for formal park treatment, a fitting end for the Memorial Bridge, as well as an important feature in itself.” Specifically, the Commission called for “a plaza with fitting architectural adornment in a measure supplemental to the Lincoln Memorial across the river.”

Despite Congress’s intent, the site became and remains today a barren traffic circle lacking any monumental treatment and significant historic value. In fact, the passage extending from Arlington Memorial Bridge to Arlington National Cemetery was meant to serve as an Avenue of Heroes.

In the years after World War II, Ulysses S. Grant III— who was the grandson of the former president and Union general Ulysses S. Grant, executive officer of the Arlington Memorial Bridge Commission, and member of the National Capital Park and Planning Commission—decried the state of Columbia Island as a “temporary road with an informal circle.” He lamented that “the central plaza on Columbia Island had never been undertaken and seems to be absolutely essential to link together the two parts of the project, namely the main bridge itself and the entrance to Arlington Cemetery.”

Over 70 major cities/capitals around the world, from London, Paris and Rome to Madrid, Athens and New Delhi, all showcase beautiful arches. Interestingly, Washington, DC, is the only major Western capital without an arch. Now after 125 years of waiting, the most powerful capital in the world will be home of the most spectacular and beautiful arch of them all!

M'eh.

Nobody wants it except for King Donny.  The irony of building a triumphal arch while losing a war is really rich for one thing, and this is a huge monstrosity.

Maybe if they were going to put something there, they could put up a small monument (not gilded) to Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus.  He could serve as an example to these guys.

Anything one government builds, another can rip down.

The U.S. Army blows the Swastika off of the Nuremberg parade grounds.

Anyhow, at last there's a really growing movement to rip this crap, including the ballroom, down as soon as Trump is out of office.

This from Senator Ted Lieu:

Here is my prediction: the Democratic presidential candidate who promises to restore the White House to what it looked like pre-trump will win the primary and the Presidency.

I"m seeing a lot of that now.

Just ripping it down might be illegal. But then the Supreme Court has already established that  you can get away with building this crap even if it is illegal, and ripping stuff down takes a lot less time than putting it up.

On the White House, by the way, the wings were added in 1902.  With one already gone, they ought to take the other out in my opinion and just restore the building to its original architectural integrity. The wings don't look great to start with and the ballroom looks absurd.

A trip down Trump's memory lane.

An Albert Dornei illustration of how bowling was once imagined in the urban world of the 1950s.  Posted via fair use exception.

The Trump administration has announced its renovating the bowling alley in the White House as well.

The bowling alley story really brings into focus the way that the Trump administration, captured by the decaying mind of Donald Trump, is sort of a monument to an imaginary 1950s where everyone was urban, white, middle class, or maybe upper middle class.

I realize that people still bowl, but bowling reached the apex of its popularity in the 50s and 60s when automatic pin setters came in.  Golfing peaked later, in the 90s and 2000s, but the mental image of golfing in a lot of ways, in terms of its popular image, is from an earlier era.  Ballroom dancing was biggest in the mid 20th Century, basically from when the American population started to rapidly become urban and music, first jazz, and then later big band, dominated.

7up ad featuring bowling, 1963.

A popular study of the decline of American culture in some ways is titled "Bowling Alone".  A person can look at this in a lot of ways, but the cultural evolution of the country, which has been negative in many, maybe most, ways has hit all of this stuff.  One big factor, and yes here we go again, is that the demographic rabbit in the snake of the Baby Boomers changed all of this.  Bowling, as noted, is still sort of a big deal, and its charmingly portrayed in The Big Lebowski, but even when I was young most young people didn't bowl, and regarded it as, well, square.  Big halls where you had to rent shoes and dispirited older blue collar workers hung out, drank Budweiser, and smoked cigarettes lacked appeal.  If you talked to our parents generation, however, you'd see that isn't how they viewed bowling when they were young at all.

Golf had a real reputation as an upper middle class sport when I was young. The sort of sport that lawyers and doctors engaged in and talked shop.  I still sort of regard it that way, although that time has passed too, and now I think of it as a sport that is played by old lawyers and doctors.  I know that's not really fair, but there's an element of truth to it.

Ballroom dancing is something that was dead as a doornail by the time I was old enough to hit any kind of a dancefloor, by which I mean a high school gym.  The 60s had killed it.  Indeed, this was illustrated recently by a video going viral of elderly people dancing to AC/DC at a nursing home.  I've wondered if that would occur. For years, if you went to a nursing home at certain times of the day, you'd hear The Lawrence Welk Show blaring.  

I'll be that's not the case anymore.

Well, for somebody like Trump, who is old, wealthy and likes to golf, and is old, and has big structures, and is old, all this probably seems a lot like taking a trip back to the past, like watching American Graffiti. One thing about the really wealthy is that they hang on to certain social aspects of the past more than other classes, so a wealthy hotelier like Trump probably did grow up thinking ballrooms were cool, and probably still does.

Going back to the past is a pretty strong desire for the old, and particularly strong for the demented old.  I'm told that my dying grandmother on my mother's side, as her dying words, noted that my grandfather "sure can play tennis" no doubt recalling what he'd been like when they were young.  Trump's now fixated on his reputation and on building.  He's building like crazy, and building his way back to the past.

Of course, most old people can't command the entire resources of the nation to attempt to reconstruct an imaginary past.

Sic transit gloria mundi

Trump's monuments in stone will only last as long as Americans tolerate their presence.  They shouldn't tolerate them for more than one second after he's gone.  The next administration should tear them all down on the very first day of the next adminsitration.

It's necessary.

Last edition:

King Donald's War, Part 12. The "Economic D-Day" edition. CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist 152nd Edition, the irony edition.

Thursday, July 15, 1926. Aragon Ballroom and Belgian inflation.

The Aragon Ballroom opened in Chicago.

King Albert of Belgium was given six months of dictatorial powers in an effort to address inflation.

The USSR's Central Committee approved a plan to resettle 570,400 Jewish families from the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR to the Crimea.

Harold P. Sheldon, Chief U.S. Game Warden, on this date.

Last edition:

Wednesday, July 14, 1926. A new around the world record.

Labels: 1910s, 1913, 1920s, 1926, Aircraft

Saturday, October 31, 1925. Subpoena for Coolidge?

Billy Mitchell's defense was considering subpoenaing Calvin Coolidge.

It was Halloween, and the Mills Tavern was having a party, with lots of elk.

That's a real curiosity, as generally it'd be very difficult to find a restaurant in Wyoming serving elk now.  Hunters can't have their elk served in restaurants, and market hunting as well as game farming is illegal in Wyoming.  Market hunting was illegal in Wyoming at the time, and in fact by 1925, was pretty much everywhere in the U.S.

An oddity of advertising in Casper appears here, I'd note.  At the time, advertisers routinely failed to note their addresses.  Where was the Mills Tavern, other than in Mills?

It's actually a little hard to find out.

The tavern seems to have opened, or reopened, in 1924.  It was operating as a restaurant, and it had private dining rooms.  By 1930 its focus may have changed, as it issued cigarette books with illustrations of scantily clad women on the jackets, although that was quite common at the time and at least into the 1950s.  Early on, however, it emphasized nightly dancing and chicken dinners.  Apparently the bands were good enough that a band appearing in Glenrock noted that it was "from" the Mills Tavern.

The focus may have changed sometime prior to that, actually, as it was hit in a prohibition raid in 1926, although only a small amount of alcohol was found.  Given that the amount was small, not too much can be presumed.

When the tavern opened in 1924, it noted that it was in the former Mills Hotel. That provides a pretty good clue as to its location.  An old hotel building still exists in Mills, no longer used for that purpose.  That was likely the location, and would explain why it had private rooms.

The new Ajax  was out:

Ajax automobiles no longer exist, of course.  Neither does the town of Salt Creek.

Ajax was made by Nash and was offered only in 1925 and 1926.

And, well, Coolidge looked safe.

 It was a Saturday.

Last edition:

Friday, October 30, 1925. Not Guilty.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Billy Mitchell, The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell

Monday, October 30, 1944. Pvt. Ross.

The British 8th Army reached Forli.

The U.S. 3d Army took Maizières-lès-Metz.

Then Pvt. Wilburn K. Ross preformed the actions which resulted in his winning the Medal of Honor:

For The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Private Wilburn Kirby Ross, United States Army, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of life above and beyond the call of duty while serving with Company G, 2d Battalion, 30th Infantry, 3d Infantry Division, in action near St. Jacques, France. At 11:30 a.m. on 30 October 1944, after his company had lost 55 out of 88 men in an attack on an entrenched, full-strength German company of elite mountain troops, Private Ross placed his light machinegun ten yards in advance of the foremost supporting riflemen in order to absorb the initial impact of an enemy counterattack. With machinegun and small-arms fire striking the earth near him, he fired with deadly effect on the assaulting force and repelled it. Despite the hail of automatic fire and the explosion of rifle grenades within a stone’s throw of his position, he continued to man his machine gun alone, holding off six more German attacks. When the eighth assault was launched, most of his supporting riflemen were out of ammunition. They took positions in echelon behind Private Ross and crawled up, during the attack, to extract a few rounds of ammunition from his machinegun ammunition belt. Private Ross fought on virtually without assistance and, despite the fact that enemy grenadiers crawled to within four yards of his position in an effort to kill him with hand grenades, he again directed accurate and deadly fire on the hostile force and hurled it back. After expending his last rounds, Private Ross was advised to withdraw to the company command post, together with eight surviving riflemen, but, as more ammunition was expected, he declined to do so. The Germans launched their last all-out attack, converging their fire on Private Ross in a desperate attempt to destroy the machinegun which stood between them and a decisive breakthrough. As his supporting riflemen fixed bayonets for a last-ditch stand, fresh ammunition arrived and was brought to Private Ross just as the advance assault elements were about to swarm over his position. He opened murderous fire on the oncoming enemy; killed 40 and wounded ten of the attacking force; broke the assault single-handedly, and forced the Germans to withdraw. Having killed or wounded at least 58 Germans in more than five hours of continuous combat and saved the remnants of his company from destruction, Private Ross remained at his post that night and the following day for a total of 36 hours. His actions throughout this engagement were an inspiration to his comrades and maintained the high traditions of the military service.

He rejoined the Army after the war and was wounded in Korea.  He retired from the Army in 1964.

The Finnish Army took Muonio.

The Polish 1st Armored Division took Breda, Netherlands.

The Greek government banned the ELAS.

The US 24th Corps captured Abuyag in the Philippines and cleared Catmon Hill.

The U.S. Navy conducted air raids on Japanese targes in the Phillpines, with the Japanese responding with kamikaze attacks, hitting the USS Intrepid, USS Franklin and the USS Belleau Woods.   They all remained afloat.

The ballet Appalachian Spring premiered.

Last edition:

Sunday, October 29, 1944. Shelling chocolate bars.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Artillery, Auschwitz, Battle of Aachen, Budapest Offensive, Finland, Food, Heroes, Judaism, Lapland War, Norway, Petsamo–Kirkenes Offensive, Radio, The Holocaust, World War Two

Elemental activities.

Indeed, if I had power for some thirty years I would see to it that people should be allowed to follow their inbred instincts in these matters, and should hunt, drink, sing, dance, sail, and dig, and those that would not should be compelled by force. 

Hillaire Belloc

Saturday, June 29, 1974. Art and politics.

Isabel Perón was sworn in as the first female president of Argentina, replacing an ailing Juan Perón.

British and French troops landed on Tanna to end the attempted succession from the Anglo-French Condominium of the island in the New Hebrides.

President Nixon and Soviet General Secretary Brezhnev signed a ten year economic agreement in Moscow, and then flew on to Simferopal in Crimea for a trip to Brezhnev's beach home at Oreanada.

Mikhail Baryshnikov, Soviet ballet start, defected in Toronto.

Mexican Murualist Xavier Guerrero died at age 77.

Last prior edition:

Tuesday, June 11, 1974. The arrival of the end of Portuguese colonialism.

Labels: 1400s, 1415, 1970s, 1974, Angola, California, Ethnicities, Mozambique, Portugal, Portugese Guinea, Portuguese Empire, Portuguese Mozambique, Terrorism

Monday, August 23, 1943. Kharkiv changes hands for the last time.

Today in World War II History—August 23, 1943: Soviets take Kharkiv, Ukraine, the fourth and final time it changes hands during World War II, and the Germans lose the Donets Basin industrial area.

From Sarah Sundin's blog.

Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=593872

And that was a big deal in the war, we might note.

We should also note that the Red Army took massive casualties in the Battle of Kursk and its independent subparts, and in the counteroffensive following it.  While putting it oddly, an achievement of the Red Army by this point of the war was being able to sustain huge manpower and material losses and not disintegrate.  On the other hand, while the Red Army has numerous fans, it was fighting in a style that simply tolerated losses at a level that anything other than a totalitarian state could not endure, something the Germans also would do, but with the Soviets taking much larger casualties.

Konstantin Konstantinovich Rokossovsky, a Polish born senior Soviet commander, had his illustration appear on the cover of Time.  The painting, which we cannot put up here as it is copyright protected, featured the Soviet general looking forward with piercing blue eyes and the words "USSR" behind him.  He was painted seemingly thinner than he was in real life.  Rokossovsky had been arrested during the Purge but had amazing survived, and then was dragged back out of confinement when it ended and the Red Army was in need of experienced commanders, which he was, after the disaster of the Winter War.  He never blamed Stalin for his confinement, but rather the NKVD, taking a politic, if toady, approach to both the horror and his ongoing servitude to the monstrosity of the USSR.

Orphaned as a child, he'd joined the Imperial Russian Army during World War One, then went over to the Reds during the Revolution.  After the war, in 1949, he became the Polish Minister of Defense under Stalin's orders, showing the extent to which Communist Poland was a puppet. He was not popular with the Poles, which he knew, commenting;  "In Russia, they say I'm a Pole, in Poland they call me Russian".

Rokossovsky and his wife Julia had a daughter named Ariadna.  He cheated on his wife with Army doctor military doctor Galina Talanova during the war, with whom he had a second child named Nadezhda.  He was fond of hunting.

He died in 1968 of prostate cancer in Moscow at age 71.

Life magazine, in contrast, had a black and white portrait of a young couple dancing the Lindy Hop.

Uruguay transferred German sailors of the battleship Graf Spee and auxiliary ship Tacoma to an internment camp at Sarandi Del Li after they violated the conditions of their internment in Montevideo boarding houses.

The Pasadena Post reported on the cast of Poppa is All touring military bases, which included Casper born and Lander raised former Miss Wyoming Helen Mowery.

Fairly forgotten in our present age, she was born Helen Inkster to parents who parents who owned the Quality Grocery in Casper, back in an age when Casper, like most communities, had a large number of local grocery stores.  Her father worked at a local refiner as well, and died in an industrial accident there when she was five.  Her mother then moved to her parent's ranch in Fremont County, while also giving birth to her only sibling at that time, the boy being born after the father's death.  When of high school age, she was sent to Cheyenne to complete her public school education.  Her popularity was notable even at that early age.  She became Miss Wyoming in 1939 in a competition that didn't qualify for the national one, as it was essentially a rodeo queen competition, with riding part of it.

She attended the University of Wyoming for two years after graduating from high school in 1940, but became an actress after that.  Never a big screen name, she acted as late as 1961, and died in 2008 in Pasadena at age 86.

Sunday, July 18, 1943. Alexander appointed governor of Sicily.

Showing how far the invasion of Sicily already gone, British Gen. Harold Alexander was appointed the Allied Military Governor of Sicily. 

For his first act, he banned the Fascist Party.

The U.S. airship K-74 depth charged the German U-134, which returned fire with its 20mm deck guns. The K-74 was shot down.  The unsuccessful attack was the only such instance of an airship attacking a submarine during World War Two.

K class airship.

Japan's counteroffensive on New Georgia ended in failure.

MGM released Stormy Weather, showcasing a host of African American talent. The movie featured 20 musical pieces in 77 minutes.

20s Charleston Dance - "Bei mir bist Du schön" New Orleans Jazz Band

20s Charleston Dance - "Charleston" by Enoch Light

Pulp Fiction - Dance Scene . . . and the Madison Dance.

This scene, we should note, is based on the classic dance scene from the 1964 French film Band a Part, which itself is an example of The Madison Dance,

Which, those attune to the blues, will recognize from the famous Elmore James song The Madison Blues.

Well, Shake Your Money Maker.

Wednesday, May 10, 1899. Song and Dance.

 Fred Astaire was born in Omaha, Nebraska as Frederick Austerlitz

Texas State University was founded.

Last prior edition:

Sunday, May 7, 1899. Aguinaldo moves

1890s, 1899, Philippine Insurrection, Philippines