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, January 16, 1924. Blockade breaking.

Oh, oh, history was repeating itself.

Raúl Pateras Pescara kept his model 2F helicopter aloft in the air for 8 minutes and 13.8 seconds at Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris. That was a helicopter record.

Gonzalo Córdova was elected President of Ecuador with over 93% of the vote.

María Cristina Estela Marcela Jurado García, better known as Katy Jurado, famous for High Noon, was born in Guadalajara.  I don't care for High Noon much, but I do like her performance in it.

Jurado was married twice, once to Víctor Velázquez and then to Ernest Borgnine, and had a number of affairs with notables ranging from Marlon Brando to Louis L'amour.  She died in 2002 at age 78.

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.

Saturday July 5, 1941. The Ecuadorian-Peruvian War commences.

Border disputes between Ecuador and Peru erupted into full scale war.  Who started full scale combat is disputed, but the war generally went Peru's way during the month long fighting.

Ecuador was very outmatched in the fighting and has always maintained that it was invaded by Peru, which Peru has always denied.  At any rate, Peru's military was much more advanced than Ecuador's and this showed in the short war.

In 1942 Ecuador declared war on Japan, but not Germany, in order to improve its international position and in order to receive American military material support, which it did receive.  Peru declared war on the Axis powers in 1945.

The countries would fight two more border wars in the 20th Century.

This war was the first South American war to feature paratroopers, which Peru used in the war.

The Battle of Damour commenced in Lebanon. Damour was the French seat of government in Lebanon and is located to the south of Beirut.  The battle was fought principally by Australians on the British side.

On the same day, Auchinleck assumed his duties as the British Commander in Chief in the Middle East.

Auchinleck would be initially successful but would prove to be one of several British commanders in the Middle East who was unable to bring about a British victory.  He achieved early success against the Africa Korps after being assigned as CoC in the Middle East, but then suffered setbacks that Churchill felt merited a replacement.

Auchinleck had a major role in preparing the British Empire in that he modernized the Indian Army between the wars.  During that time, he met and married American Jessie Stewart who was regarded as a great beauty. She was 16 years his junior.

Jessie would in turn have an odd role in the British command during the war in that she commenced an affair with Auchinleck's friend, RAF commander Sir Richard Peirse.  The affair caused Peirce to be regarded as neglecting his duties and caused him to be recalled to the UK, with Mrs. Auchinleck going with him.  Peirse would be accordingly retired during the war, his career ending in a type of disgrace during the war itself.  Auchinleck never recovered from the divorce and carried Jesse's photograph in his wallet for the rest of his life,   That he genuinely adored Jesse is clear, and that the divorce also changed him is clear, but there remains a scholarly debate on whether Auchinleck himself my have had homosexual inclinations.  His biographer maintains that these rumors are false, but another writer asserts the opposite, citing "moral aversion" for Montgomery's inability to get along with him.

And as detailed here, German U-boats began patrolling in the Arctic.

Today in World War II History—July 5, 1941

Christmas, 1919.

And so Christmas, one year out from the end of the Armistice, arrived.

Much of the news had returned to the routine, although one big new event for much of the country, Prohibition, was making the holiday season a bit different this year, which most newspapers were celebrating.

Otherwise, in the US, the season had returned much to normal, and was very recognizable to us today.

Which included the day for foreign residents living in the U.S.

Christmas morning, Ecuadorian legation, 1919.

The Red Cross remained at work in the distressed regions of the world, including in Siberia, where an effort was made to being Christmas joy to Russian orphans.  You have to wonder how the future for these children played out and if they recalled this Christmas in 1919.

Synchronicity

Just about  three or four days ago my son and I were joking about Julian Assange.

More specifically, we were finding it amusing that he was probably a really annoying house guest for the Ecuadorian Embassy in the UK.

Turns out he really was. Basically, he was a spoiled child and a titanic a*****e.

A couple of additional observations.

He was wanted in Sweden for a charge of rape, but the accusations against him in the US would only subject him to five years in the pen, assuming he got the full sentence.  The charge in Sweden has expired due to some oddball interview deadline that Swedish law has, but after spending seven years in the Equadorian Embassy, which is not large, he's exposed to five in the US.

You have to wonder about the wisdom of his decision there.

Secondly, Pamela Anderson. . . you know, the girl from Bay Watch (which I've never seen) and the early years of Home Improvement, is Assange's girl friend.

Anderson is a pathetic case in her own right.  She went to being cute, with minimal talents, to being plastic and in my view creepy. Assange is also creepy.

Well one more item of weirdness to be featured in the papers, in the Age of Weirdness.