On this day in 1942 a court in New York ruled that pinball machines were games of chance, not skill, and therefore banned them.
There had been somewhat of a public campaign against the games in New York for some time. Associated, to a certain degree, with youthful idleness and vice, there was evidence that gaming in New York was controlled by the Mafia, which brought some urgency to the effort by authorities.
I've never really liked pinball machines myself, so its a bit of a mystery to me why they were ever popular, but they were hugely popular at one time, enjoying a big swing of interest in the 1970s, just before video games arrived and basically wiped them out.
Rommel, pushed across North Africa, counterattacks:
The counterattack, which would reverse much of the gains of Operation Crusader, was a surprise to the British forces and emblematic of the seesaw nature of the fighting in North Africa.
War photographer Robert Capa with a 16mm movie camera, something we don't associate him with. 8mm film was literally 16mm cut in half for economy.
Mass murder of over 2,731 Jews at Liepāja Lativa was commenced by Einsatzgruppen, assisted by Lativan militia. It would run for two days.
The event was filmed by Kriegsmarine Sergeant Reinhard Wiener with his privately owned 8mm film camera.
Twenty-three communist party members were also murdered.
Amateur photography was a huge deal with Germans, and had been since cameras had become portable. But movie film was another deal. Sgt Wiener's film is accordingly unique. There is film of German authorities murdering Jews, but his was extensive and showed their full humiliation and abuse before being murdered.
The location itself was being used by the German Navy and many German Army soldiers were there. The mood was festive by the Germans.
Things like this make it plain that by the early stages of Operation Barbarossa Germans knew what was going on and, while the recent meeting of German high officials emphasized their desire to complete the destruction of European Judaism, the program of mass extermination was fully in swing. It was, moreover, already quite efficient. And the attitude taken by the Germans was the plain acceptance of it. Authorities made no effort to stop it from being filmed here, and in other locations. As film had to be processed commercially at home, it also meant that this was being done and was not being restrained.
So, in an event like this, regular German soldiers and sailors witnessed it, some filmed it, and some took their stories back home with them. Others effectively published it by having what they recorded in film processed.
Things like this also make it plain that in much of Eastern Europe at least some percentage of the local population was willing to participate in Germany atrocities aimed at the Jews.
The Red Army retook Klin.
The following, from Today In World War Two History:
The American Federal of Labor adopted a policy of abstaining strikes in war industries for the duration of the war.
Universities started to go to three year courses of study for Bachelor degrees by full year courses of study. This must have kicked in during the Spring, as the Christmas break was commencing.
The Soviet government returned to Moscow. Stalin had never left.
The British allowed 600 Japanese nationals to leave Singapore on a ship chartered by the Japanese government.
The Japanese attempted to land a reconnaissance party across the Lye Mun Channel at Hong Kong but were completely repulsed. Japanese artillery strikes commenced.
Showing that yesterday's Coast Guard depth charge run wasn't as absurd as it might have sounded, a Japanese submarine shelled Kahului, Maui. Another shelled Johnston Island, striking fuel at a seaplane base there.
The decision was made to hold this year's Rose Bowl at Durham, North Carolina.
All four American radio networks broadcast We Hold These Truths.
The radio program was in celebration of the anniversary of the Bill of Rights and had been planned prior to December 7. An inquiry to the government on whether it should go forward brougth a reply that Franklin Roosevelt thought the program more important than ever.
Admiral Kimmel's illustration appeared on the cover of Time. He'd already been relieved of his command in the Pacific. Newsweek had a cover photo of a battleship noting that the "U.S. fleet's guns blaze", which wasn't true at the time.
A "Junior Miss" appeared on the cover of Life, which had obviously been laid out prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor.
A photographer took photos of the Bronx's well known Cardinal Hayes High School on this day in 1941.
The well known school is the alma mater of quite a few notable people.
An Inter-Allied Council met at St. James Palace and agreed unanimously on the policies expressed in the Atlantic Charter. As noted previously, those principles were:
The Parties to this Treaty reaffirm their faith in the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and their desire to live in peace with all peoples and all governments. They are determined to safeguard the freedom, common heritage and civilisation of their peoples, founded on the principles of democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law. They seek to promote stability and well-being in the North Atlantic area. They are resolved to unite their efforts for collective defence and for the preservation of peace and security. They therefore agree to this North Atlantic Treaty :
Article 1
The Parties undertake, as set forth in the Charter of the United Nations, to settle any international dispute in which they may be involved by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security and justice are not endangered, and to refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force in any manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations.
Article 2
The Parties will contribute toward the further development of peaceful and friendly international relations by strengthening their free institutions, by bringing about a better understanding of the principles upon which these institutions are founded, and by promoting conditions of stability and well-being. They will seek to eliminate conflict in their international economic policies and will encourage economic collaboration between any or all of them.
Article 3
In order more effectively to achieve the objectives of this Treaty, the Parties, separately and jointly, by means of continuous and effective self-help and mutual aid, will maintain and develop their individual and collective capacity to resist armed attack.
Article 4
The Parties will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened.
Article 5
The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognised by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area. Any such armed attack and all measures taken as a result thereof shall immediately be reported to the Security Council. Such measures shall be terminated when the Security Council has taken the measures necessary to restore and maintain international peace and security .
Article 6 (1)
For the purpose of Article 5, an armed attack on one or more of the Parties is deemed to include an armed attack:
on the territory of any of the Parties in Europe or North America, on the Algerian Departments of France (2), on the territory of or on the Islands under the jurisdiction of any of the Parties in the North Atlantic area north of the Tropic of Cancer;
on the forces, vessels, or aircraft of any of the Parties, when in or over these territories or any other area in Europe in which occupation forces of any of the Parties were stationed on the date when the Treaty entered into force or the Mediterranean Sea or the North Atlantic area north of the Tropic of Cancer.
Article 7
This Treaty does not affect, and shall not be interpreted as affecting in any way the rights and obligations under the Charter of the Parties which are members of the United Nations, or the primary responsibility of the Security Council for the maintenance of international peace and security.
Article 8
Each Party declares that none of the international engagements now in force between it and any other of the Parties or any third State is in conflict with the provisions of this Treaty, and undertakes not to enter into any international engagement in conflict with this Treaty.
Article 9
The Parties hereby establish a Council, on which each of them shall be represented, to consider matters concerning the implementation of this Treaty. The Council shall be so organised as to be able to meet promptly at any time. The Council shall set up such subsidiary bodies as may be necessary; in particular it shall establish immediately a defence committee which shall recommend measures for the implementation of Articles 3 and 5.
Article 10
The Parties may, by unanimous agreement, invite any other European State in a position to further the principles of this Treaty and to contribute to the security of the North Atlantic area to accede to this Treaty. Any State so invited may become a Party to the Treaty by depositing its instrument of accession with the Government of the United States of America. The Government of the United States of America will inform each of the Parties of the deposit of each such instrument of accession.
Article 11
This Treaty shall be ratified and its provisions carried out by the Parties in accordance with their respective constitutional processes. The instruments of ratification shall be deposited as soon as possible with the Government of the United States of America, which will notify all the other signatories of each deposit. The Treaty shall enter into force between the States which have ratified it as soon as the ratifications of the majority of the signatories, including the ratifications of Belgium, Canada, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States, have been deposited and shall come into effect with respect to other States on the date of the deposit of their ratifications. (3)
Article 12
After the Treaty has been in force for ten years, or at any time thereafter, the Parties shall, if any of them so requests, consult together for the purpose of reviewing the Treaty, having regard for the factors then affecting peace and security in the North Atlantic area, including the development of universal as well as regional arrangements under the Charter of the United Nations for the maintenance of international peace and security.
Article 13
After the Treaty has been in force for twenty years, any Party may cease to be a Party one year after its notice of denunciation has been given to the Government of the United States of America, which will inform the Governments of the other Parties of the deposit of each notice of denunciation.
Article 14
This Treaty, of which the English and French texts are equally authentic, shall be deposited in the archives of the Government of the United States of America. Duly certified copies will be transmitted by that Government to the Governments of other signatories.
In Yugoslavia partisans seized Užice and made it the capital of a short-lived republic.
The American First Committee denied it was anti-Semitic and joined Jews to join its ranks, something that recent statements by Charles Lindbergh made rather unlikely to occur.
Gottfried Feder a German economist and early member of the Nazi Party, who had been instrumental in brining Hitler into the party due to a speech Hitler had heard him deliver, died at age 58.
On this day in 1921, the Army Air Corp began bombing experiments on the USS Alabama, BB-8, a decommissioned Illinois Class, pre dreadnought battleship.
USS Alabama.
The tests used a variety of scenarios before direct bombing of the ship which would ultimately cause her to sink. The sinking itself was used by Billy Mitchell as evidence that aircraft could sink large ships, but in reality, as pointed out by the Navy, the Alabama's example was less than convincing. The ship was an old one, was undefended, and took two days to sink even after the fatal hits were made.
The Attica Prison Riot was put down on this day, on day four of the siege.
It's an event I can recall from my childhood.
About half, somewhat over 1,000, of the prisoners rioted over conditions at the prison. They held it for four days, before the grounds were retaken by force. The scene looked like a civil war battleground.
32 inmates, and 11 guards, died in the event.
It was one more thing that made the 1970s, well, crappy.
On the same day, a possible coup in Communist China fell apart and one of the proponents, Marshal Lin Biao, died in an airplane crash seeking to flee as a result.
Lin had been in the Chinese Communist Party dating back to the 1930s, and he was second in line for Chinese leadership at the time. Due to the era in which he died, and the circumstances, a great deal of mystery remains on what occurred. According to the PRC he was at the top of a plot to replace Mao, which acted to assassinate him but failed. Lin then fled. Sources outside of China have doubted the story however, and all that remains clear is that he died in the airplane's crash.
Draft of Project 571
The plot itself may have in fact existed, although It's hard to tell, but rather than being a product of Lin Biao, it might have been the product of his son Lin Liguo, a member of the Chinese Air Force. Indeed, the noted attempts to effect a coup were conducted principally by members of the Chinese Air Force, not the Army, which would have been an odd choice for a high ranking army official. And the plans were below the quality of that which would have been expected by Lin Biao, who was a highly respected and experienced ground commander. Lin Liguo died in the same airplane crash, which would support that overall the Lin family was connected with a plot and when it failed sought to flee to the Soviet Union.
The event resulted in the predictable purge of the Chinese military.
On this day in 1941 French forces in Lebanon and Syria officially ended hostilities with the British Commonwealth in what is known as the Armistice of Saint Jean d'Acre.
It was Bastille Day.
The day was marked in British Palestine at a hospital for Free French troops.
That day had been transformed into a sort of memorial day by the Vichy regime. It remained on France's official calendar of holidays, but was altered from a celebration of the initiation of the French Revolution to one commemorating France's war dead. This was part of an overall Vichy struggle with republican symbols and holidays that saw efforts to recast many such things, where they were not discarded.
Hitler, if he took note of the day at all, obviously didn't celebrate it. Rather, he was still pondering the imminent defeat of the Soviet Union, revised his directive of the previous day with a part "A", which read:
The Führer and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces
Führer Headquarters, 14th July 1941. 13 draft copies
On the basis of my intentions for the future prosecution of the war, as stated in Directive 32, I issue the following general instructions concerning personnel and equipment :
1. General:
Our military mastery of the European continent after the overthrow of Russia will make it possible considerably to reduce the strength of the Army. Within the limits of this reduced Army, the relative strength of the armoured forces will be greatly increased.
The manning and equipment of the Navy will be limited to what is essential for the direct prosecution of the war against England and, should the occasion arise, against America.
The main effort of equipment will be devoted to the Air Force, which will be greatly strengthened.
2. Manpower:
The future strength of the Army will be laid down by me, after receiving proposals from Commander-in-Chief Army.
The Replacement Army will be reduced to conform with the diminished strength of the Army.
The Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces will decide, in accordance with my directives, on the employment of the manpower which will become available for the Armed Forces as a whole and for the armaments industry.
The Class of 1922 will be called up at the latest possible date, and will be distributed by the High Command of the Armed Forces in accordance with the future tasks of the various branches of the Armed Forces.
3. Arms and Equipment:
(a) The Armed Forces as a whole. The arming and equipment of troops will be reduced to the requirements of the situation in the field, without reference to existing establishment scales.
All formations not intended for actual combat (security, guard, construction, and similar units) will be armed basically with captured weapons and second line equipment.
All requests for 'general Armed Forces equipment' will be immediately reduced or rejected in relation to available supplies, need, and wear and tear. Continued manufacture of such weapons as can be proved to be necessary will be decided in agreement with the Minister for Armaments and Munitions.
Plant (buildings and machine tools) already in use will not be expanded unless it can be shown that existing equipment cannot be put to full use by the introduction of shift working.
Work on all such permanent buildings for industry and the Armed Forces as are intended for use in peace-time, rather than for the immediate prosecution of the war and for the production of arms, will be halted. Construction directly necessary for the conduct of the war and for armaments will remain subject to the regulations of the General Plenipotentiary for Building. Buildings erected by civilian contractors will be limited by him to such as are most essential to the war effort.
Contracts of all kinds which do not comply with these principles will be immediately withdrawn.
The manpower, raw materials, and plant released by these measures will be made available for the main tasks of equipment and placed, as soon as possible, at the disposal of the Minister of Armaments and Munitions for use elsewhere.
(b) Army: The extension of arms and equipment and the production of new weapons, munitions, and equipment will be related, with immediate effect, to the smaller forces which are contemplated for the future. Where orders have been placed for more than six months ahead all contracts beyond that period will be cancelled. Current deliveries will only continue if their immediate cancellation would be uneconomic.
The following are exceptions to these limitations:
The tank programme for the motorised forces (which are to be considerably reinforced) including the provision of special weapons and tanks of the heaviest type.
The new programme for heavy anti-tank guns, including their tractors and ammunition.
The programme for additional equipment for expeditionary forces, which will include four further armoured divisions for employment in the tropics, drawn from the overall strength of the armoured forces.
Preparations for the manufacture of equipment unrelated to these programmes will be halted.
The Army's programme for anti-aircraft guns is to be co-ordinated with that of the Air Force, and represents a single unified scheme from the manufacturing point of view. All available plant will be fully employed in order to achieve the delivery targets which I have laid down.
(c) Navy: The Navy will continue its submarine programme. Construction will be limited to what is directly connected with this programme. Expansion of the armaments programme over and above this is to be stopped.
(d) Air Force:
The overall armaments program will concentrate on carrying out the expanded 'Air Armaments program' which I have approved. Its realization up to the spring of 1942 is of decisive importance for the whole war effort. For this purpose all available manpower from the Armed Forces and industry will be employed. The allocation of aluminum to the Air Force will be increased as far as possible.
The speed of the programme, and the extent to which it can be fulfilled, will be linked to the increased production of light metals and mineral oil.
4. The programme for powder and explosives will concentrate upon the requirements of the Air Force (bombs and anti-aircraft ammunition) at the expense of the requirements of the Army. Buildings will be restricted to the barest essentials and confined to the simplest type of construction.
Production of explosives will be limited to the existing basis.
5. It is particularly important to ensure supplies of raw materials and mineral oil. Coal production and the extension of the light metal, artificial rubber, substitute materials, and liquid fuel industries will be supported by the Armed Forces in every way, particularly by the release of miners and specialist workers. The construction of the necessary plans for the extended air armaments industry will be developed simultaneously.
6. The allocation of manpower, raw materials, and plant will be made in accordance with these principles.
7. The Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces will issue the necessary orders for the Armed Forces, and the Minister for Armaments and Munitions for his sector, in mutual agreement.
signed: ADOLF HITLER
These directives are interesting not only in that he thought he'd won the war, by this time, against the Soviet Union, but that in he thought it would still require some prosecution against the British, and perhaps the United States, about which he didn't seem overly concerned. That war, in his mind, was going to be primarily an air and naval war, and his decisions to start shrinking the German army as soon as possible reflected that.
In New York some kids were still acting normal.
Vladeck Houses, Madison St., New York City. This was a housing project.
Laura Bromwell, a stunt pilot, became the first woman in that occupation to be killed in an areal demonstration. The engine of her airplane stopped during a stunt over Mitchel Field, Long Island.
Czechoslovakia and Romania signed a treaty aimed at Hungary, which they feared may seek to redraw its borders at their expensive.
The Great Solar Storm, which impacted most notably New York state in the US, also impacted the Rocky Mountain Region, as of course it would, being a global event.
It didn't keep, however, Curtiss Flying Field from opening in Garden City, New York, even though flying during a solar storm in something made out of, basically, paper and wood seems like a bad idea.
Behave Yourself won the Kentucky Derby on this day in 1921. The horse was an upset winner.
Foaled in 1918, the horse went on to a career as a stud, sort of, with the owner restricting the horses breeding as he thought its legs had poor confirmation He was ultimately donated to the U.S. Army's remount program which sent him out to Wyoming. He was considered a poor racehorse and ironically beat the favorite that was owned by the same individual as he was, which resulted in that owners losing money on the race as he'd put money on that favorite, the vaguely racist named Black Servant.
I'm glad Behave Yourself won.
The horse died in 1937 and is buried in Cheyenne. He was 19 years old at the time.
Mrs. Harding, General Peshing, and Mrs. Benedict Crowell attended the New York City Police Parade with a troop of Girl Scouts.
President Harding was photographed with Jack and Bob Kneipp, who turned out dressed as period cowboys.
The P47 provides a good example of the extraordinary rapid development of aircraft in this period. At the time, the P40 was the USAAC's most significant fighter. The P47 was different from it in every fashion, including its massive size which accommodated a massive engine.
On the same day, Igor Sikorsky set a new record for helicopter flight endurance, which still wasn't long.
Hope is either an acquired taste or one of those acts that's best set in the context of their original times. I can recall seeing televised performances from the Vietnam War, and they're just not funny.
A pro Nazi coup by Iraqi officers who were seeking full, rather than the then partial, independence from the UK took place. The plotters were in contact with the Germans and had calculated that World War Two could bring this about. Instead, it brought about a direct British intervention that made short work of the coup.
German HE 111 with Iraq and German markings. Axis powers supplying aircraft to the Iraqi insurrectionist were reflagged in Iraqi colors.
The Germans and Italians did attempt to aid the insurrectionist by supplying aircraft. Vichy France allowed the use of its airfields in Syria, which would bring about the British intervention in Syria terminating their rule.
The plotters, termed the "Golden Circle" had formed in the 1930s and had been working towards this goal since that time. Supported by the German ambassador in Iraq, their goal was to overthrow the British supported monarchy, end British influence in the country, and form a fascist state.
While the coup was a catastrophic failure for those participating in it, it's worth noting that in some ways it echoes to this day. Fascism was proving to be popular in Middle Eastern quarters and it would reemerge as the Baath Party, a pan Arab fascist movement which still rules Syria and which did rule Iraq under Saddam Hussein.
More on that, and the ongoing British advance in the desert, can be read about here:
The Germans, it should be noted, would find their air intervention in Iraq ineffective and Vichy's decision to allow the Germans and Italians to use their airfields would end, forever, French rule in Syria. Syrian airfields were already under attack by the UK at the time, so France's decision was not as bold as it might seem, given the circumstances. Nonetheless France was entering the quasi belligerent stage.
British Commonwealth forces took the capitol of Eritrea on this day.
The Germans did seem to be reversing Axis fortunes in North Africa, however.
Workers at Ford Motors went on strike.
New York hit 60F for the first time that year, the fifth latest such date since records started to be kept, at that time, and now the seventh.
There's been a lot of debate about where the GOP is headed, post Trump, and it appears we don't know, as the post Trump era has not arrived. By all signs, he remains firmly in control of his party.
The former President delivered a speech at CPAC. It was really long.
Trump predictably insisted that he won the election, but in terms of the popular vote he's lost every election. Indeed, it'd be well worth remembering for conservatives that he lost the popular vote in 2016. That year he entered his Administration with the House and the Senate in GOP hands. He lost the House in 2018, and while the House made gains in 2020, the Republicans didn't take it back and directly lost the Senate due to his actions.
Given all of this, the GOP appears set to ride the Trump horse into 2022. We'll see how that works, but this week's past Senate vote on the COVID 19 relief bill suggests that the Democratic era of cooperation with the GOP, more hoped for among moderate Democrats than real, may have more or less come to an end. This may give the GOP a chance to really assert its conservative and populist issues, but the overall problem right now is that a party with Trump at the head, even though he's firmly in control inside the GOP, appears weaker and weaker nationally. If the GOP doesn't pick up seats in 2022, it'll be due to Trump. Right now, conservative columnists that stuck with him, and the columnists are normally the sounding boards for political ideas, are almost completely without credit, leaving only those who opposed him, who are now outside the GOP folds, with any credit at all, but no audiences.
On audiences, for much of Trump's presidency I'd hear from his supports, "he speaks just like us". This struck me as a couple of times I started, and then abandoned threads on the bizarre nature of New York political speech. Trump is a New Yorker. So is Mario Cuomo. It's odd to think that they're from the same state as Franklin Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt and Nelson Rockefeller. It's almost as if at some point all New York politicians determined that they had to watch Goodfellas for speech cues.
Mario Cuomo is in big trouble right now, of course, as well.
Cuomo is in the class of New York politicians that the New York based press loved, but outside of New York, he was really hard to take. Of course, in the American fashion, the same forces that adored him have now turned on him like a pack of wolves.
I haven't followed his decline but it all has to do with "inappropriateness" and women. I don't know if he's guilty or not, and I'm not going to investigate the whole thing as its not worth my time to do so, but its interesting how he went from hero to goat overnight.
Prince Harry, wuss
Prince Harry. . . oh wait, King Edward VIII, and earlier royal wuss.
This will be inappropriate Prince Harry and his wife Meaghan are in the news once again as they were interviewed by Oprah.
I can't stand Oprah in the first place as she's too emblematic of false pop culture. It'd figure that she'd interview the royal whiners.
I figure that every family has its problems, and the British Royals are no different. Maybe their existentially set up for this due to a long history of narrowed genetic lines and a whacky institutional role that leaves them with less and less of a role very year. Their last period of real relevance was during World War Two and now its really hard to figure out what they do, and why they need to do it, if they do.
Be that as it may, Prince Harry had some merit until he married Meaghan, but now he just seems to be a full time drama queen. Enough already.
Getting the Amy Coney Barrett treatment?
Representative Haaland, who got yelled at by Sen. Barrasso.
Senator John Barrasso was front and center in the news concerning Deb Haaland's confirmation as Secretary of the Interior, and not in a good way. Various Native American spokesmen felt that she'd received the Amy Coney Barrett treatment, so to speak, in being singled out due to her ethnicity for abusive treatment. Sen. Barrasso interrupted her at one point and yelled "I'm talking about the law", which was apparently a reaction to what he thought were efforts to dodge questions he posed.
This wasn't as bad, however, as the statement by Louisiana Senator Joe Kennedy who called her a "neo socialist, left of Lenin, whack job".
Haaland is the first Native American nominated to the post. In reaction to her getting rough treatment Native Americans in Montana purchased a billboard advertisement supporting her. Senator Barrasso really can't stop her appointment and probably ought to back off a bit unless he's absolutely certain that the GOP is taking back Congress in 2022, which he can't be certain of.
Rebranding a Jeep Brand?
A Jeep before they were called that. The short lived Bantam 1/4 ton Army truck, the very first, and extremely tiny, Jeep.
The Cherokee nation wants Jeep to quit calling the Jeep Cherokee the "Cherokee" and it will probably do so.
There are and were a lot of automobiles named after Indian tribes and it was meant as an honorific, not an insult. Jeep probably has no choice but to do this, but the fact of the matter is that it's better to be remembered as a Jeep name than forgotten, which is what is generally the case for Indian tribes. I can't say having your name on the side of an automobile leads to a lot of deep thought about your culture, but it might lead to at least some.
The term "cancel culture" is big in the zeitgeist right now, and this does indeed seem to be a legitimate example of it. At least it isn't a "woke" example, like the flap over UW's "The world needs more Cowboys" campaign of a couple of years ago.
Banning the pumps.
Gas station obviously built in the day before they were a topic of controversy.
Petulma California banned the construction of new gasoline stations in an effort to address climate change.
I don't know that this does anything It sounds more like a city zoning matter ("we think gasoline stations are ugly") than a legitimate ecological effort. It's not like people won't be able to buy gas. Indeed, present owners of gas stations in Petulma are probably jumping for joy. . . as are lawyers who will soon be suing arguing that this is an unfair and unconstitutional restraint of trade.
But those why might be engaging in a little Schadenfreude right now would be well advised not to. I'm constantly hearing that electric vehicles "won't work here" as if cars are built for Wyoming, or that "Americans love to travel too much . . . " Auto makers are now making it plain that in 2030. . . and that's just nine years, the day of the petroleum fired vehicles is going to rapidly end. In that way, Petulma may be on to something, but not in the right fashion, as charging stations are going to be going up all over California, not gasoline stations.
Navy requiring sailors to re take their enlistment oaths
One of the things the recent insurrection brought to light is that there are a disturbing number of servicemen who have have brought radical politics into the military.
This has actually been known for sometime and was a pretty big story in military backchannels the past few years, but the general public seems to have been unaware of it. Now its getting some daylight and the services are openly taking steps to do something about it.
You can trace a lot of this back to at least 1973, and maybe a full history of it would have to go back to 1940. Traditionally, the US has had next to no standing military at all, with the Navy being the exception. Indeed, American culture prior to World War Two had a strong anti military sentiment to it. Career soldiers were usually looked down upon by civilians, including the officers. You'd not guess it now, but the Frontier Army was completely disdained by most Americans, including those who lived in the West, except times of real conflict. Cowboys, for example, had no use for soldiers at all.
This view carried on right up to 1940. Dwight Eisenhower's father in law, John Doud, tried to get him to leave the military at the time of his marriage to Mamie, as he regarded it, like most executives did, as a dead end career for the lazy.
I'm not endorsing that view, but I'm noting that it was a fact. Indeed, it was so much a fact that heroes of some big wars, prior to World War Two, had spent part of their careers out of uniform prior to them, even if they were professional soldiers. U.S. Grant and William Sherman provide such examples.
By and large, the nation relied upon the state militias, later the National Guard, for national defense if a bit war broke out. The two big World Wars of the 20th Century changed that view and we went into the Cold War with a large military made up of conscripts. When that became unpopular due to the Vietnam War, we went all volunteer once again.
There's a lot of merit to an all volunteer force. . . if its small, but we've never really achieved that. The current size of the U.S. Army is 475,000, which is actually a very large force. The Navy and the Air Force each have about 330,000 personnel. The Marines number 182,000. In contrast, for example, the Marine Corps in 1939 amounted to just about 20,000 personnel.
The population of the country is bigger, the pay for servicemen is better, and its much harder to get in than it used to be, of course. But the country has also gone into a period of real hero worship regarding servicemen which is unwarranted. People act as if every soldier is a saint and thank everyone whoever was in, including myself, "for your service".
It's not the case, of course, that the military is a reservoir of the far, far right, like the Reichsheer was or something. But there are a lot of things going on with the modern military that really need to be addressed. This is one of them. Social experimentation is another one. It may be that the military is recruiting some of the wrong people, for the wrong reasons, and creating the wrong situation.
Before this seems too extreme, one of the insurrectionist who is most commented on right now is the dopey women who was an Army veteran. There are so many things wrong with this that it requires another thread. Less noticed is that one of the figures was a female Army captain, serving out a period in which she's anticipated to be released, who has a psyops assignment. That's really bad.
Dopey Virginia
So Virginia jumped on the dope bus and also legalized marijuana.
Are we not suffering from enough mental checking out already?
This trend is obviously going to keep on keeping on right up until lawyers file suit for health problems associated with weed, which will be coming. At that time, some Schadenfreude will be pretty justified.
Boy Scouts file bankruptcy plan
It would pay the survivors of abuse $6,000 each. The Scouts are selling some of their art collection to fund this.
We've discussed the Scouts here recently, but there seems to be so much institutionally wrong with the organization right now that a person can really wonder what of it will survive. Much of what happened to it can't be discussed in the current political climate as no matter what a person says, it's going to be taken the wrong way. Given that, the organization keeps headed off in a direction which appears to be the wrong way itself.
More voting restrictions bills.
Voting, the way that Victor David Hanson imagines it happed up until November 2020.
Most recently in Georgia.
These are suddenly a hot topic in GOP circles even though there's no evidence of any voting fraud. To a certain extent there's at least a little bit of a resentful backchannel feeling that making it easy to vote mostly makes it easy for Democrats to vote, a feeling not wholly without merit in the past. Republicans, for whatever reason, tended to go to the polls. The more numerous Democrats did not.
The irony is, however, that as the Republican Party has aged, it now tends to be the party that doesn't show up in person. These efforts therefore probably hurt the Republicans more than they help them.
Trumps take the vaccine. . .
but say nothing about it, back in January.
There's a really anti vax sentiment in certain sections of the GOP. President Trump questioned the vaccines early on while also boosting dubious or even dangerous COVID 19 treatments. He himself received the best of care when he was infected and there's reason to believe that he would have died if he hadn't received them. He urged people to get vaccinated later, in complete fairness, but he didn't get them publicly. The reason probably has to do with not wanting to offend part of his base.
There are no medical or scientific based reasons not to be vaccinated. The lingering suspicion on the vaccines is wholly unwarranted. This goes back to an unfortunate, and lethal, movement that got started some years ago based on non science and boosted by people who didn't know what they were talking about. Now its hard to overcome.
The only legitimate reasons not to take the vaccine are medical and moral. There are those who would need to avoid the vaccines for medical reasons, although they'll be few in number. Some people hold religious objections to all vaccinations, and while I find that poorly grounded in sound theology, those who hold those views hold them and that must be respected. Often those same people eschew medial treatments of all kind.
Early on there were some Catholic Bishops who objected to the vaccines based on their stem cell lines, given the connection with abortion, but that was rapidly put down as an objection by the Vatican. Now there are some who are objecting to the Johnson & Johnson line for the same reason. That has yet to be fully resolved but that vaccine has just come out and, if a person has that objection, they can get one of the other ones.
People have generally been pretty good sports about this, but at some point people who are refusing on grounds lacking a solid base are going to be faced with the question of whether they pose an unfair risk to everyone else and society in general. That may sound heavy handed, but having lived through earlier really strong public vaccination efforts, no matter what a person might think about it now, there will likely be little sympathy as more and more people are vaccinated. I suspect that back when I was a kid plenty of children were vaccinated at school without any real involvement by their parents, and parents in the era would have disdained any parent who didn't have their kids line up for shots. People had lived through horrible diseases and they'd had enough. The Army didn't ask your permission to vaccinate back in the day either, as the ironically kinder and gentler Army of today does, which leads to this. . .
You may have freedom on conscience but businesses have the freedom of the marketplace
You used to see the "No shirt, no shoes, no service" signs up at restaurants all the time. Soon you are going to be asked for your proof of vaccination to get on an airplane, or a ride at Disneyland. Freedom of conscience on this issue will mean that you have the freedom to stay home and watch television.
I've frankly been amazed that more employers haven't required vaccinations. Universities require vaccinations for a host of diseases and they will on this one as well. Public schools are going to soon, almost certainly. Which brings me to this. . .
HPV? Oh, that's okay, as it involves sex.
It really says something about how messed up American society is right now that lots of people who won't get vaccinated for a disease that you pick up simply by being around somebody else who has it, and who even believe that the vaccination is part of some big plot, but they don't think twice about lining their teenage daughters up for the HPV vaccine.
HPV is a sexually transmitted disease, so yo have to be having sex to get it. If you subscribe to what was once conventional morality, prior to the days of Playboy, Friends and The Big Bang Theory, your chances of getting it would be next to nil. Now, of course, thanks to Hugh Hefner, Playboy and Cosmopolitan's charge against morality and ultimately biology, the disease is out there and lot of people basically forced into destructive sex are exposed to it.
I've only known one person who has refused to have a child vaccinated for it and I don't have an objection myself to anyone receiving it. I find it interesting, however, that people wills hove a kid as young as 9 to get a vaccination for disease that's perfectly possible to avoid based on the assumption that they can't control themselves from engaging in an act which at least takes some effort of the will, mentally, to engage in, as well as an exchange of bodily fluids in a sexual act, but they'll not get vaccinated for something you can get just walking down the street.
What's that Tat mean?
A Wyoming legislator has been explaining his tattoo. It turns out to be a "Three Percenter" tattoo.
He's a Libertarian and says that he had no idea of the meaning of the tattoo, which I wouldn't have known either. Apparently it has "1776" and the Roman numeral "III" and is supposed to mean that only 3% of Americans at the time of the Revolution supported it.
In actuality, 1/3d, that would be 33% of the Americans at the time supported the Revolution, 33% opposed it, and the remainder waited to see which way it went or had no strong opinion. Unusual for revolutions, prominent figures in commerce strongly supported it. Frankly, if only 3% had supported it, that would be nothing to celebrate as that would mean that it was a completely illegitimate revolution. Even the fact that only 33% supported it is more than a little problematic in that regard, frankly.
I'll be frank that I'm not a fan of tattoos at all. It's not like I'm going to argue for banning them or something, but the more people that get them, the less they mean. And I suspect that this phenomenon of people not knowing what a tattoo means is probably incredibly common. People put Chinese or Japanese characters on their body being told they mean one thing, and not gasping at all how the writing in those languages work. I suspect that more than one message of that type is a joke by somebody who does speak those languages. People tattoo phrases and symbols from religions as well not knowing that those symbols carry a lot more meaning, and indeed obligation, than a person might suppose.
Tattoos have now become a massively common part of our society. It's curious. As we have come to stand for less and less, people obviously reach out to try to grasp something. But people don't grasp onto those things that really have meaning, as then you have to comport your life accordingly.
The Senate Committee on the Election, January 5, 1921
The Senate Committee on the Election met on this day in 1921.
If they could see the Senate now, I wonder what they'd think? It wouldn't be kind, I'm sure.
Workers maintaining White House tennis courts, January 5, 1921.
Workmen were out in D.C. maintaining the tennis courts. At that time, the utility vehicle remained horse drawn.
Vehicles were very much making their inroads, of course.
Times Square, 1921.
New York City imposed traffic regulations that included one way traffic for a portion of the day around Times Square. It was revolutionary at the time.
In Washington D. C. the fire chief's vehicle collided with another, resulting in serious injuries to the chief.
Headlines in the paper warned that the Soviet Union was menacing Europe and a new general European war looked almost certain to break out.
The body of Monk Eastman, notorious criminal, receives a guard of honor from the New Yor, National Guard.
On this day in 1920, the remains of New York criminal, and heroic World War One veteran, Monk Eastman received a guard of honor on his way to his funeral
Eastman was a well known New York thug in an age filled with Empire State thugs. He was 44 or 45 at the time of his death, making him an old soldier at the time of his enlistment. He served heroically in the Great War and received a pardon from the Governor of New York before resorting to his prior life of crime. He was gunned down by a criminal confederate after an argument about bootlegging proceeds, with the gunman claiming he feared for his life.
He was a bad man in an age filled with really bad men, and a good soldier.
The USS John D. Ford was commissioned.
The Clemson Class destroyer would serve through World War Two, but was sold for scrap prior to the Korean War.
An unknown Vietnamese Communist, Nguyn Ai Quoc, would address the French Communist Party on this day.
He would later be known as Ho Chi Minh and was one of a collection of nationalist, by not all means Communist, figures who would oppose the Japanese occupation and then the French return following World War Two. A central figure in the Vietnamese Communist Party in the 40s and 50s he'd help shove aside the non Communist nationalist and thereby set his nation up for rivers of blood that would follow the French expulsion.
He deserves to remembered in unending infamy today, less bloody than Moa or Stalin, but still a figure representing a collection of real bastards.
On this day in 1920, coincidentally, Yugoslavia outlawed the Communist Party. Outlawing a stupid idea rarely works, and instead causes it to fester, and following World War Two it would reemerge, although in a less virulent form than in the USSR, or for that matter Vietnam.
