Showing posts with label Spain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spain. Show all posts

Friday, November 13, 2026

Friday, November 13, 1936. Republican murder of Nuns.

Blessed Maria Patrocinio of St. John was arrested by Spanish Republicans while praying the rosary in a private home and then executed alongside her sister, Carlota Giner (a Hermit of St. Augustine), and her former student, Blessed María del Olvido Noguera.

The French Chamber of Deputies broke into a twenty minute fight over accusations by a right wing newspaper that Interior Minister Roger Salengro was a deserter during World War One.


BBC Television weather map for this date.

Belgium asked the League of Nations to specify what help a member nation could count on if attacked.


The comedy film Go West, Young Man starring Mae West was released.

Last edition:

Thursday, November 12, 1936. The Bay Bridge Opens.

Wednesday, November 4, 2026

Wednesday, November 4, 1936. Anarchist in the government?

Spanish Nationalist took Getafe.

The anarcho-syndicalist CNT/FAI quixotically accepted four cabinet positions in the Republican government, the only time anarchists have participated in a national government, which frankly doesn't make a lot of sense.

Last edition:

Tuesday, November 3, 1936. The 1936 Election.

Saturday, November 4, 1911. Carving up Africa.

France and Germany signed a peace treaty in which Germany withdrew all claims to North Africa and Morocco was partitioned between France and Spain.  Germany took 107,270 miles of the French Congo.  Germany ceded 6.450 miles of German Cameroon to FRance. This brought to an end the Agadir Crisis.

Troops of Nanjing warlord Xu Shaozhen(徐绍祯)massacreed approximately 4,500 Manchus.

This would become increasingly common during the 1911 Revolution.

It was a Saturday.



Last edition:

Monday, November 2, 2026

Monday, November 2, 1936. BBC starts television service.

The BBC Television Service was launched. 

There were fewer than 400 televisions in the entire country at the time.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was launched.

1940 CBC symbol.


The BBC and the CBC are absolutely excellent.  Having a state owned broadcasting entity is an anathema to Americans, who seemingly large numbers of detested in the form of PBS, which is unfortunate as the balanced and intelligent presentation of these services serves as a major counterweight to having the American situation, in which people gravitate towards propaganda masquerading as new, particularly on the American right.

The Spanish Nationalist took Nationalists captured Brunete.

Last edition:

Saturday, October 31, 1936. "I welcome their hatred".

Thursday, October 29, 2026

Thursday, October 29, 1936. Battle of Seseña.

The Nationalist added to their string of victories at the Battle of Seseña where a Republican armored attack was turned back after assaulting the Nationalist stronghold.

It was the first use of tanks in the war and the assault was at first successful.  Some of the crewmen were Soviets, but as the Republicans were largely unfamiliar with tanks, which they'd only had for a few days, the assault was an overall failure in the end.

Pols Armāns of the Red Army, who commended Republican tanks at the Battle of Seseña.  He was killed by a German sniper during World War Two.

The Iraqi government was overthrown in a coup.

Last edition:

Sunday, October 25, 1936. Formation of the Axis. Martyrdom of Fr. Recaredo Centelles Abad, Ferragut Roig, María de Jesús, María Verónica, María Felicidad, Josefa de la Purificación.

Saturday, October 24, 2026

Friday, October 23, 2026

Friday, October 23, 1936. No neutrality.

The Soviet Union informed the European committee of non-intervention in Spain that Russia would no longer be bound by the neutrality agreement which it wasn't honoring anyway.

The German Condor Legion was ordered to Spain.  Elements were already there.

The Denver Zephyr made a non-stop run from Chicago to Denver in 12 hours, 12 minutes, and 27 seconds.

The Denver Zephyr in 1936.  By SMU Central University Libraries - Chicago, Burlington & Quincy R.R., Original 'Denver Zephyr' Train, No restrictions, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=45183743

Last edition:

Thursday, October 22, 1936. Worsening conflicts

Thursday, October 22, 2026

Thursday, October 22, 1936. Worsening conflicts

Spanish General José Miaja was put in charge of the Republican defence of Madrid, where things were getting overall worse in general.

Contrary to the common assumption, about 40% of Spanish Army officers remained loyal to the Spanish Republic.


And it wasn't just in Europe where things were getting worse.


The far political right wasn't just on the march in Spain. The Belgian far right wing Rexist Party announced its intention to march on Brussels in order to "sweep out the Paul van Zeeland government and its corruption" in a move inspired by Mussolini's march on Rome.  Van Zeeland declared martial law.

The News issued its awards it its photo contest.


And a cartoon shows how some common comments I'll hear from some people today were common ninety years ago.


University education was expanding, but was far from what it is now.  It's interesting to see the contempt of youth for professors expressed here.  

I don't think that's a common view, but I have heard it from the time I was in university, up to now, from time to time, probably most recently when Chuck Gray's current campaign manager just went off on how professors at the University of Wyoming were all left wing, coming from a person whose views are closer to those who were advancing on Madrid on this day in 1936.

Last edition:

Friday, October 16, 1936. Siege of Oviedo broken.

Thursday, October 15, 2026

Thursday, October 15, 1936. Battle of Sigüenza ends.

Sigüenza fell to the Nationalist after a battle that had commenced on August 7.

Jewish teachers were banned from public schools in Germany.

The news of Wallace Simpson's divorce was not reported in the United Kingdom and the the British Empire, as well as in Germany, Italy, Russia and Greece, in an example of press self censorship.

“Booneville, Owsley County, Kentucky. Pack Horse Librarian returning of the mountain side for a new supply of books to be distributed to rural and isolated sections of the county.“  October 15, 1936.

Last edition:

Wednesday, October 14, 1936. Shifting alliances.

Wednesday, October 7, 2026

Wednesday, October 7, 1936. Soviet Ultimatum over Spain.

The USSR issued an ultimatum to Portugal, Italy and Germany that unless they stopped aiding the Spanish Nationalist in the ongoing civil war, the USSR would take an active involvement.

On the same day, German armored troops arrived in Spain as trainers with their focus being on tanks and antitank guns.

José Antonio Aguirre became the 1st President of the Basque Country, an autonomous region in the Spanish Republic.  He'd muster local forces to fight on the Republican side, and accordingly went into exile for the rest of life when the Nationalist won the civil war.  He died in 1960 of a heart attack at age 56 and, as a Catholic, was given a funeral Mass.


Agrarian Party member, and Lutheran Pietist, Kyösti Kallio became Prime Minister of Finland.

The Dodgers fired Casey Stengel.

Last edition:

Tuesday, October 6, 1936. Yankees take the series.

Tuesday, October 6, 2026

Tuesday, October 6, 1936. Yankees take the series.

The New York Yankees beat the New Your Giants in game six of the World Series, thereby winning the 1936 World Series.

The anarchist Regional Defence Council of Aragon was established.  It would control the eastern half of Aragon for a year until the Spanish Republic dissolved it due to pressure from Communists.  Spain, of course, had already fallen into civil war earlier in the year following the Popular Front victory in the Spanish elections.

Friday, August 7, 2026

Saturday, August 7, 1926. Calles rejects foreign mediation.

Calles rejected foreign mediation which had been offered in hopes of resolving the crises brought about by the Calles Law.

Spain, led by the dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera, and Italy, led by dictator Benito Mussolini, signed a Treaty of Friendship.

The first British Grand Prix was held.

It was a Saturday.




Last edition:

Tuesday, August 3, 1926. Uprising in Mexico.

Tuesday, August 4, 2026

Friday, August 4, 1876,. Death of an American commander in Cuba.

Henry Mike Reeve Carroll, who went by Henry Reeve, died in combat against Spanish troops in Cuba at age 26, where he had gone from revolutionary volunteer in 1869 to the rank of general in a Cuban revolutionary army.  He was a prior child soldier in the Civil War, in which he's served as a drummer.

The Ten Years War was the cause he died in, which lasted from 1868 to 1878.  The Cuban revolutionaries would lose the war and Cuban independence would come about, instead, as a result of the later Spanish American War, which up until the current war with Iran stood as the war fought by the US on the least justifiable grounds.

The 5th Cavalry arrived at Goose Creek in Wyoming to reinforce a resting up Crook's command.

Last edition:

August 3, 1876. All were invited to attend.

Thursday, July 30, 2026

Friday, July 30, 1976. Spanish pardons.

Spanish King Juan Carlos I issued a general amnesty for most of Spain's 650 political prisoners and reinstated university professors who had been dismissed for political activities.

Bruce Jenner won the  gold medal in the men's decathlon at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.

A great athlete, and noting that it's not popular to say it, Jenner always appeared a bit odd and at least to me, even back in the 70s and 80s he came across as a homosexual.  He later took up a female persona.  He was married three times prior to that.

Last edition:

Wednesday, July 28, 1976. Earthquakes in northeastern China killed 650,000 people.

Tuesday, March 24, 2026

The Madness of King Donald. The 25th Amendment Watch List, Tenth Edition. Finger on the nuclear trigger.

 

Oh yeah, that's the look of a sane man, right?   Photo by LAURENT GILLIERON / POOL / AFP via Getty Images, posted under Fair Use Exception.

Kaitlan Collins:  "Mr. President, what would you say to sex abuse survivors of Epstein who haven’t seen justice” 

Donald Trump: “You know, I’ve never seen you smile”

Man, that's creepy.

I wonder how many teenage girls head that after they were raped at Epstein Island?

February 7, 2026

Trump claimed in an interview with the New York Post that Venezuela failed to get their AAA rockets off the ground during the U.S.'s raid as the US used a "discombobulator" on them.

Um. . .sure.

In a bit of a defense for the deranged prince, what the military probably was referring to was an electronic jamming system.  While no doubt the most recent variants are quite advanced, such systems have been around for a very long time.

Trump's incredibly racist post depicting the Obama's as apes was taken down and blamed on a staffer.

Um. . . sure.

Trump is also claiming that the US has wanted a triumphal arch for 200 years, with is complete nonsense and which is only slightly less weird than his claim that Presidents have wanted the giant outhouse he hopes to build for 100 years.

February 9, 2026


Loss of inhibitions can be a sign of dementia.

This is definitely a "get off my lawn" moment.

February 10, 2026


Trump is clearly unhinged.

A spoiled brat and a real estate developer by trade, he sees the world through a pinhole.  His mind is turning to much.  He needs to be removed.

February 20, 2026

I flew to Iraq. I was extremely brave. I said to my people, 'Am I allowed to give myself the Congressional Medal of Honor?'…Someday I'm going to try. I'm going to test the law

Donald Trump.

February 21, 2026


Greenland has universal health care.  

Greenland is presently taking care of a U.S sailor evacuated from a U.S. submarine. . . by a Danish Seahawk helicopter.

Trump is completely delusional.  He should be removed.

Greenland doesn't need this, and moreover, Greenland's universal healthcare is something Americans lack.  If anything, Denmark should send a hospital ship to us.

This is patently absurd.  Frankly, at this point, anyone supporting Trump is not doing so out of faith in him, unless they're just willfully ignorant.  So outside of that, why on Earth is anyone not demanding that he be removed?

March 4, 2026

Mad King Donny is threatening to cut off all trade with Spain.

March 16, 2026

This is the first installment of this since Trump ignored his advisers and launched a war against Iran that he thought might last a few days and bring him a big victory.

It isn't.  It's wrecking the economy and there's no end in sight.   He is, of course, having a complete fit:

With Iran, Trump has met something that truly doesn't care what he thinks about anything whatsoever.  He can't bully them, he's already attacking them.  The news isn't cheery and he can't lie his way out of it.

Given this, the stress of his complete impotence here is going to get worse and worse, and probably with that, his behavior  He's threatening not to directly take on the Press, which may finally cause the US press to grow a spine.

And things may be beginning to finally happen:

A theory very close to the one I've advanced here.

We are now in a very dangerous place in the globe. Trump is an immoral man, and he's demented.  He's also getting desperate.  At some point my guess is he'll start asking Hegseth about what nuclear weapons might do here.  And he will commit, to some degree, U.S. ground forces.

March 22, 2026

In his madness and frustration over his  massive, and frankly stupid, miscalculation over Iran's reaction to being attacked in an illegal war by the US, Donald Trump is now resorting to broadcasting his illegal intentions on social media.  If Iran does not open the Straits of Hormuz, which its not going to, he's going to order US forces to illegally strike the electrical power structure of Iran.

Trump is a monster.  The 25th Amendment  must be invoked now.

With Trump reaching new levels of barbarism and insanity, we will close with this edition.

March 24, 2026

Mark Jacob on how the press ignores the biggest Trump story

"The president of the United States is clearly mentally unfit for office."

And with this entry, which nails it, we'll go on to a new edition.

To sum it up, Donald Trump is insane.

Cont:

He looked old, and he seemed tired. His speech slurred. More than anything else, he seemed utterly unattuned to the many crises that are all piling up around his many careless decisions. He finished speaking, everybody else at the table took turns lavishing him with praise, and then it was time to head to Graceland.

We’ve made the point many times during Trump’s second term, but it bears repeating: There’s little reason to believe that any of this is an affectation. Trump is a lifelong pathological solipsist. He’s fed that solipsism by vacuum-packing himself in an information environment of buttery flattery, spending his days marinating in the most over-the-top praise both in person and online. And it hasn’t helped that, as he’s gotten older, he’s seemingly fallen prey to the same tendencies that many old people do: the strongest parts of his personality just keep getting stronger. Any day now, he seems genuinely to believe, it’s all gonna turn around. Everybody just wait and see. The golden age is mere moments away.

Last edition:

The Madness of King Donald. The 25th Amendment Watch List, Ninth Edition. Trump is insane and the end of the United States as a great nation.