The morning after, as it were, for Independence Day, and a week where King Donny went to Europe riding on Qatari 1, not a pony, and then switched planes as it lacks, well lacks.
He got ignored, resumed the war, and threatened the Iranians if they assassinate him, which they probably find horribly amusing as he's obviously scared. Murdering your opponents leaders is flat out stupid, and he probably actually has reason to worry.
As an historical week a lot occurred. The news that thirteen out of fourteen British Colonies in North America had declared themselves sovereign was a huge deal that they were getting out, even as they retreated from their invasion of the fourteenth that was having none of it. Much earlier, a judicial travesty was referenced on the Maid of Orleans. In 1876 the world of Custer's disaster at the hans of the Sioux, Cheyenne, a few Arapaho (and with some unsung Metis watching it all) was spreading.
A really notable event was the entry of the first women into service academies.
I've long been of the view that women do not belong in combat, and I still hold that view. But the misogyny and racism of the Trump Administration has really made me rethink a lot of my long held beliefs about such things. At the tender age of 13, when women were admitted, I knew it and thought it improper. I don't now.
I'm going to start with the most important threads of the week out of sink:
I like Kyla Scanlon's Vlog (even though I'd note, as an aside, she really needs to gain some weight) but her post here is one in which we Distributist often wonder why people don't take the logical next step in their analysis.
The Sesquicentennial Exposition, again in Philadelphia, was being held to celebrate the Sesquicentennial of American independence.
Casper was celebrating the Fourth.
Some displeasure was expressed about "modern girls".
Tourism was being boosted.
The Battle of the Little Big Horn was being recalled while Casper was arguing for North Platte appropriations.
The Headquarters Troop of the state's National Guard cavalry regiment was hosting a rodeo.
Twentyone Mexican prisoners at the Blue Ridge State Prison Farm, in Blue Ridge, Texas in Fort Bend County, near Houston, escaped. Thirtytwo fellow countrymen chose to remain. The break was accomplished by sawing through the building.
The Nazi Party staged its 2nd Party Congress in Weimar. The Grossdeutsche Jugendbewegung (Greater German Youth Movement) was renamed Hitler Jugend Bund der deutschen Arbeiterjugend (Hitler Youth League of German Worker Youth.
I'm quite confident that if Pete Hegseth proposed renaming the Boy Scouts the Greater Trump Loving Boy's Movement, the current GOP would demand it.
July 4, 1826 was the fiftieth anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence, of course. By that time the country had not only achieved independence, but it had also survived a second war with Britain, one which the United States provoked and which nearly caused New England to succeed from the union. And it had grown from 13 states, to 24.
The United States in 1825/26.
It's probably best remembered in the United States for being the date on which both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died. What's even more peculiar about that, however, is that while 90 year old John Adams was living in Quincy, Massachusetts and 83 year old Thomas Jefferson was in Monticello, Virginian, Adams knew when Jefferson died, and commented on it.
The two men were not very much alike temperamentally. Adams was a lawyer and a farmer who first entered the public's consciousness when he defended British troops in court following the Boston Massacre. He was truly one of those rare characters who loved the law, something made even better for him as he was a circuit riding lawyer who also loved horses. Active in farming his entire life, he was more closely matched Jefferson's yeoman ideal than Jefferson. Somewhat taciturn, he dreamed of being a soldier at the beginning of the Revolution, but his talents lay elsewhere and he never was.
His place in history is secure due to his being the second President of the United States, but by the 20th Century he was one who was very little focused on. His popularity enjoyed a resurgence, however, due to David McCullough 2001 book which is somewhat of a hagiography.
During his lifetime he had a falling out with Jefferson, who served as his Vice President, but they repaired their rift in later years.
If Adams was well known during his lifetime and the somewhat placed on the shelf, Thomas Jefferson has never been out of the public imagination. At the same time, probably no American President has had his character analyzed and reanalyzed as much.
From a Puritan background, Adams is problematic for modern American far right-wing Evangelist in that his religious views were unconventional. While a Congregationalist, he tended towards Universalist views and did not regard the Trinity as well founded. While we have argued here that the United States is a Protestant nation, figures like Adams cut against that argument. Adams was very much opposed to state established churches, for instance.
Like Adams, Jefferson was also a lawyer by training but what he really was by temperament and occupation was a planter. An absolute renaissance mind he dabbled in everything, including engineering and agronomy. One of the most influential figures of the founding generation, he served as the country's third President and was the first American President to engage in an undeclared war.
Regarded as a founding member of the Democratic Party, it was Jefferson's foresight that caused the U.S. to purchase Louisiana, converting the country from an Atlantic maritime power to a continental power. Arguably, no President is more responsible for what the US became than Jefferson, even though he did not see it becoming what it became. An Agrarian philosopher, he thought that it would take Americans 1,000 years to spread across the continent and that gave the country a 1,000 year chance at remaining a democracy.
Historians have been tortured by trying to define Jefferson's character ever since he died. He was clearly a genius but his personal life was often in grave conflict with his stated beliefs. Once hugely adored, in recent years his relationship with his sister in law and slave, Sally Hemings, has caused a great deal of debate on his personal morality.
North America with territories as claimed by the United States.
That the country had survived fifty years was somewhat amazing. The War of 1812, not well remembered in the United States, had been a US war of choice that had not been supported by New England and which the United States, in spite of what is commonly claimed, lost. The central seaboard South, which had favored the war, proved to retain a sizable population that retained strong sympathies with the United Kingdom. The US Army was twice very badly defeated by Canadian militias which gained ground in the Midwest, something also rarely noted. Only the logistical difficulties faced by the British and a high desertion rate of its troops kept the country from returning to British possession.
In a move surprising noone, the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam was dissolved and the former Republic of South Vietnam was united with the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam).
The united Communist state changed its name to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Regarding Vietnam, the News ran a story on a US raid to free POWs, but with a twist I've never seen before.
The News also reported on an example of actual judicial activism in the instance of abortion.
And the 1976 election was having some interesting twists and turns.
A coup failed in Sudan, but resulted in 800 deaths.
The National Catholic Register went to press with birthday wishes for the United States. Dorothy Day's message was "Repent", a message a valid now as it was then.
The Country Gentleman had switched over to being a monthly at this point.
The Swedish Air Force was founded with the merger of the aviation elements of the Swedish army and navy.
Safeway and Skaggs merged with the Safeway as the surviving entity. It had 995 stores.
The march of the chain grocery store was of course on. Casper had a Piggly Wiggly at this time, but it also retained a huge number of local grocery stores at this time.
Germany delivered the unwelcome news to France that Germany had dispatched the SMS Panther with troops to occupy Agadir, part of French Morocco, on the pretext that it was to protect German citizens there.
The action would bring Europe to the edge of war.
Australia introduced compulsory military service for men ages 12 to 26, although half were exempted in various ways.
The Jewish Literary Society was closed by Imperial authorities in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
It was a Saturday, and the Saturday before Independence Day.
I wasn't going to post a July 4th item this year, as I frankly feel pretty pessimistic about the state of the country. But after reading some, I thought I ought to.
Independence Day marks, of course, the day 249 years ago when the Continental Congress declared the United States to be independent of the United Kingdom, which had founded the colonies. It took over a year of pitched combat for Congress to reach that point. What's really important about it, however, is not so much that the United Colonies declared independence from the mother country, but that it did it democratically and formed a democratic republic immediately. Indeed, the country was acting as a democratic republic before it actually formed one officially.
From the very onset, the United States was a democracy. I'll occasionally hear somebody who doesn't grasp that or understand it say "we're not a democracy, we're a republic". That statements, which indeed was made by our serving Congress woman, shows a lack of understanding on what a democracy and a republic are. We most definitely are a democracy, and always have been.
The initial structure of the country that was arrived upon by the founders of the country featured a very strong congress and a phenomenally weak president. The US Constitution, it should be noted, is the country's second, not first, constitution. The first one that featured that structure was the Articles of Confederation It was John Hanson, not George Washington, who fulfilled the role of President at first.
The Articles didn't work well, but notable in them is that right from the onset the country was that, a country. Some people will also occasionally claim that at first we were thirteen countries. That's nonsense. We were, in fact, a putative country even before the Declaration of Independence, with the initial hope being that the country would be a union of fourteen, not thirteen, colonies. The reluctance of the Quebecois to throw in with the virulently protestant colonies to their sound quashed that dream, with it setting the continuing tone that Canada wants nothing to do with being in the United States of America. Nothing.
The Constitution of the US set us on an ongoing path which gives real concern to conservatives such as myself. Right from the debate on the document there was a struggle between those who wanted to retain a weak national government and strong state governments. States were, in fact, amazingly unrestrained in their powers early on. In contrast, there were those who wanted a strong federal government and weak state governments. The Federalist position, which was the more practical and realistic, ultimately won out, and it would have no matter what. Even those who opposed Federalism found that they used its powers by necessity when they were in power.
That created, however, a structure in which the country converted the President of the Congress into the President of the United States. Lacking a king, but remembering the model, the President occupied a position that vaguely recalled the monarch, in contrast to the British example in which the chief executive of the nation was and is a member of Parliament. This worked well for a very long time, but it did put the US in a situation in which there existed a real possibility of a slow transfer of power to an executive divorced of the legislature.
Indeed, expansion of executive power occurred nearly immediately. It took a big jump during the Civil War, again by necessity, and it jumped again in the 20th Century. Theodore Roosevelt expanded it as it suited his vigorous mindset. Woodrow Wilson expanded it due to the Great War. Franklin Roosevelt expanded it due to the emergency of the Great Depression and then World War Two. Following World War Two the powers already expanded were thought normal, and again the Cold War seemed to make their retention necessary. A President commited the country to a largescale war for the first time in the nation's history without a declaration of war when Truman sent forces into Korea. This repeated itself when Johnson did the same with Vietnam.
Indeed, the disaster of the Vietnam War and the legacy of the Korean War caused Congress to attempt to claw back power with the War Powers Act. The corruption of Richard Nixon resulted in Congress asserting its power as well. But by the late 1960s the Democratic Party has also accommodated itself to revision of the national organic document, the Constitution, by a Supreme Court that simply made stuff up. That accomodation started the development of the Democratic Party simply sitting on its hands and letting the courts rule to a large degree. The Court became sort of an odd co chief executive, with the most egregious example being the absurd decision of Roe v. Wade, at least up until its progeny, Obergefell v. Hodges.
Abuses in the law, with Obergefell being the final example, and a Congress that simply accommodated itself to not really doing anything gave rise to the angered muddled populist far right, and the angry intellectual National Conservatives, the latter of which realised that the former was a plow mule that it could do its work with. National Conservatives basically abandoned the concept of an expansive democracy in favor of a much more limited culturally correct one and took advantage of, and are taking advantage of, a chief executive whose mind is mush but whose ego is titanic. They see him, effectively, as a "Red Caesar".
In the meantime, Mitch McConnell's Supreme Court began to hurl back to Congress the powers that it had dumped on the courts like city people dumping kittens on farms. A Congress used to yapping but not doing anything was not prepared to exercise power once again, and very obviously still is not. Much of what the Roberts Supreme Court has done in recent years really isn't radical at all, but its suddenly getting there, making decisions which are difficult not to view as seeking to empower the chief executive.
We can't tell where this will end up, and hence the pessimism. We may very well be in an era in which, when we look back a decade more hence, we will see a revived Congress that resumed its proper role, and a diminished Presidency, that's returned to its, even if that looks like something from, perhaps, the 1960s or 1970s. Or we may seen an ineffective Congress and a nation ruled by a successor Red Ceasar who has more in common with Victor Orban than George Washington.
Perhaps we should be encouraged by the fact that the country has weathered previous existential threads to its democratic nature. The War of 1812 presented one when a large portion of the country wanted nothing to do with the declared war and thought about leaving the infant nation. The Mexican War saw something similar, and the Civil War, in which half the territory of the country attempted to leave in order to keep a large percentage of its population in chains. World War One sparked further crises when it became unclear what the President's powers were in regard to a foreign war, and following the war the country acted wholly illegally towards those on the radical left. During the Depression a right wing threat to the nation caused a putative coup to develop, the news of which was then suppressed. Deep Communist penetration of the government in the 1930s and 1940s, was covered up in the 1950s and the reputation of the Congressman exposing it forever trashed, something his lack of restraint aided in. The disaster of the Vietnam War and the following horror of Watergate caused many to feel that democracy in the US was dying.
Of course, we've never had a figure like Trump before make it into the Oval Office. The closest we've ever had to that was Jefferson Davis, in the Confederate White House, who at least was more genteel. Huey Long was much like Trump, but of course he did not replace Franklin Roosevelt.
Still, there is reason for optimism. Trump is not a popular figure. He's wrecking conservatism which conservatives will have a hard time overcoming in the remainder of my lifetime, but there are signs that his bolt is now shot, in spite of his budget bill. So much political capital was spent on that that it will bring the Democrats into power in Congress in 2026. They'll have to act like a Congress at that time. Repairing the damage will take time, but perhaps not as much time as might be feared. The populists may have done the country a favor by peeling back the lazy ineffectiveness of the pre 2016 Congress, and the National Conservatives may be doing the country a favor by restoring some of the basic elements of conservatism. They're both damaging the country enormously by being inhumane.
When the reign of the Red Ceasar ends, and I think that will be by this time next year, maybe Congress will go back to its proper role and the gutless cowards of the GOP who have allowed this to occur will be retired in disgrace. The country got over the Civil War. There's hope it can get over this.
"With the 6th Inf. Div. in the Cagayan Valley, Luzon, P.I., about 9 miles north of Bagabag along Highway 4. Scene showing a reinforcing patrol of A Co., 1st Bn. of the 63rd Regt. on road at the frontlines just prior to moving ahead. 4 July, 1945. Company A, 1st Battalion, 63rd Infantry Regiment, 6th Infantry Division. Photographer: Pfc. Murray Schneiweiss."
General Douglas MacArthur announced that the Philippines had been completely liberated while the 24th Infantry Division organized an amphibious expeditionary force to liberate Sarangani Bay, south of Davao.
Hmmm. . . .
President Truman released a short statement for the Fourth of July.
Statement by the President: The Fourth of July.
July 04, 1945
AGAIN THIS YEAR we celebrate July 4 as the anniversary of the day one hundred and sixty-nine years ago on which we declared our independence as a sovereign people.
In this year of 1945, we have pride in the combined might of this nation which has contributed signally to the defeat of the enemy in Europe. We have confidence that, under Providence, we soon may crush the enemy in the Pacific. We have humility for the guidance that has been given us of God in serving His will as a leader of freedom for the world.
This year, the men and women of our armed forces, and many civilians as well, are celebrating the anniversary of American Independence in other countries throughout the world. Citizens of these other lands will understand what we celebrate and why, for freedom is dear to the hearts of all men everywhere. In other lands, others will join us in honoring our declaration that all men are created equal and are endowed with certain inalienable rights--life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Here at home, on this July 4, 1945, let us honor our Nation's creed of liberty, and the men and women of our armed forces who are carrying this creed with them throughout the world.
Canadian troops in Aldershot rioted about the delay in returning them home to Canada.
Rumors started circulating in Berlin that Hitler was alive and well.
Then, as now, it was the 4th of July holiday, and all the usual events occured, including parades and events of all sorts.
This event happened at Takoma Park, Maryland.
In the West, numerous rodeos were held, but in Shelby, Montana, something else was tried Jack Dempsey fought Tommy Gibbons.
Shelby was a small oil town and only about 7,000 of the 20,000 spectators paid to see the fight, causing a large financial loss to the promoters. Some of the deficit, like that of the much later major event of Woodstock, would be made up by promoting a movie of the event.
A crowd of up to 200,000 attended a Ku Klux Klan rally in Kokomo, Indiana in what may have been the largest rally in its history.
The Klan was very strong in Indiana at the time.
Stunt pilot B. H. DeLay died when his plane, later thought to be sabotaged, crashed. Passenger R. I. Short also died in the event, which occured at Venice, California.. DeLay had been involved in a heated dispute over an airport, but no suspects were ever arrested for sabotage to his plane.
North and South Korea announced that they had agreed to discuss reunification. Their joint statement held:
The July 4 South-North Joint Communiqué
4 July 1972
Recently, talks were held in Pyongyang and Seoul to discuss the problems of improving SouthNorth relations and of unifying the divided country.
Lee Hu-rak, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency in Seoul, visited Pyongyang from May 2
- 5, 1972, and held talks with Kim Young-joo of the Organization and Guidance Department of
Pyongyang; Vice Premier Park Sung-chul, acting on behalf of Director Kim Young-joo visited
Seoul from May 29 - June 1, 1972, and held further talks with Director Lee Hu-rak.
With the common desire of achieving the peaceful unification of the nation as early as possible,
the two sides engaged in a frank and openhearted exchange of views during these talks, and
made great progress towards promoting mutual understanding.
In an effort to remove the misunderstandings and mistrust, and mitigate the heightened tensions
that have arisen between the South and the North as a consequence of their long period of
division and moreover, to expedite unification, the two sides reached full agreement on the
following points.
1. The two sides agreed on the following principles as a basis of achieving unification:
First, unification shall be achieved independently, without depending on foreign powers and
without foreign interference.
Second, unification shall be achieved through peaceful means, without resorting to the use of
force against each other.
Third, a great national unity as one people shall be sought first, transcending differences in ideas,
ideologies, and systems.
2. In order to ease tensions and foster an atmosphere of mutual trust between the South and the
North, the two sides have agreed not to slander or defame each other, not to undertake military
provocations whether on a large or small scale, and to take positive measures to prevent
inadvertent military incidents.
3. In order to restore severed national ties, promote mutual understanding and to expedite
independent peaceful unification, the two sides have agreed to carry out numerous exchanges in
various fields.
4. The two sides have agreed to actively cooperate in seeking the early success of the SouthNorth Red Cross talks, which are currently in progress with the fervent support of the entire
people of Korea.
5. In order to prevent the outbreak of unexpected military incidents, and to deal directly,
promptly, and accurately with problems arising between the South and the North, the two sides
have agreed to install a direct telephone line between Seoul and Pyongyang.
6. In order to implement the above items, to solve various problems existing between the South
and the North, and to settle the unification problem on the basis of the agreed principles for
unification, the two sides have agreed to establish and operate a South-North Coordinating
Committee co-chaired by Director Lee Hu-rak and Director Kim Young-joo.
7. Firmly convinced that the above items of agreement correspond with the common aspirations
of the entire Korean people, all of whom are anxious for an early unification, the two sides
hereby solemnly pledge before the entire Korean people to faithfully carry out these agreed
items.
Upholding the instructions of their respective superiors
S
Lee Hu-rak
Kim Young-joo
A similar communiqué has been issued at least one additional time.
Today, in 2022, prospects for reunification are dim, and frankly they may well be moving further, even permanently, apart. In 1973 when this statement was issued, many Korean had lived in a unified state. Now, many fewer have, and its becoming fewer every day. South Korea is a modern, capitalist, democracy, and younger South Koreans have waning interest in reuniting with the communized backwards north.
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