My family, the Hanauers, started in Germany selling feathers and pillows. They got chased out of Germany by Hitler and ended up in Seattle owning another pillow company. Three
generations later, I benefited from that. Then I got as lucky as a person could possibly get in the Internet age by having a buddy in Seattle named Bezos. I look at the average Joe on the street, and I say, “There but for the grace of Jeff go I.” Even the best of us, in the worst of circumstances, are barefoot, standing by a dirt road, selling fruit. We should never forget that, or forget that the United States of America and its middle class made us, rather than the other way around.
Or we could sit back, do nothing, enjoy our yachts. And wait for the pitchforks.
I suspect we're past that point now. We've elected a plutocrat who promised to be sort of what Franklin Roosevelt actually was, "a traitor to his class".
He won't be.
I suspect the rage will amplify.
So, what am I talking about?
I've never had any problems with my health insurance. People complain about their health insurance a lot, however.
I'm noting that here as the public reaction to the assassination of Brian Thompson, CEO of United Healthcare, has been shocking. I've seen people I know and respect actually rejoice at his killing, and that reaction has been extremely widespread. I even saw somebody who is associated sort of with the insurance industry rejoice at the murder. Moreover, one of the most right wing people I know, who voted for Trump twice, made a positive comment about the killing.
Let that sink in. Far right, voted for Trump twice, and expressing some sympathy with the killer.
We find ourselves, at the same time that populists elected a childish billionaire who started nominating his billionaire buddies to government positions, in a situation in which a large section of the American population, including no doubt many of the people who voted the overaged rich child into office, pretty much cheering a terroristic assassination of a health insurance company CEO.
That it was an assassination, there can be no doubt. Expended shell casings were labeled "delay", "defend" and "depose", showing both a familiarity with civil litigation and the book Delay Deny Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don't Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It.
What's that tell us?
Well it tells us in part that the social fabric in this country is a lot more ripped than we even began to imagine.
And it also tells us people attempting to read the populist weather vein might be reading it wrong. The rage might not be as fully right wing as imagined, as now we have Americans cheering the killing of an industry figure, something that Trump/Musk and his cronies love. That's its populist, however, there can be no doubt.
I can't recall things like this happening in the US, the targeted assassination of industry figures, since the 1920s, when it was a feature of real radicalism. We're entering a very bad space.
It suggest, however, that in spite of what Trump/Musk imagine, the country might actually be ready for some real economic reform as it received in the 1930s. Assassination is not tolerable, but it would appear some aspects of corporate capitalism may not be so much any longer either.
Indeed, the same right wing fellow I mentioned above proposed that all health insurance companies should be forced to be 100% policy holder owned, a highly distributist suggestion.
It is, I'd note, worth noting that plenty of current Trump backers from the far right are noting that the killer, Luigi Mangione, is from a well to do family. He is. This is supposed to tell us that this was a deluded left winger.
Deluded, no doubt. Left winter, maybe. But it's also worth noting that before Trump was the populist darling, Bernie Sanders was. Tulsi Gabbard, one time Democrat and now Trump nominee for security chief, was a Sanders supporter before she supported Trump.
Joseph Goebbels was a Communist before he was a Nazi.
Goebbels in 1916.
Lenin was from a middle class family, whose parents were monarchists. He was a lawyer, hardly a proletarian occupation.
The point of this? Well, just because Mangione was from a well to do family, who no doubt supported none of this, doesn't mean that he became a populist assassin as he was radicalized by the left. He personally may have been. We don't know. He may be just a nut.
But the widespread cheering for him, and it is widespread, shows that Hanauer may very well be very right.
"Husband and wife serving in uniform meet for the first time on the continent--Lt. Jane I. Sunderbruch, Army Nurse Corps, assigned to an evacuation hospital, and her husband, Lt. Richard K. Sunderbruch, Davenport, Iowa. Signal Corps photographic officer. He was wounded in the Battle of Aachen, has since returned to duty. 6 November, 1944." They survived the war. He died in 1992, she in 2006. They are buried together in Scott County, Iowa.
Walter Edward Guinness, 1st Baron Moyne, DSO & Bar, TD, PCk, British minister of state in the Middle East was assassinated by the Jewish terrorist group Lehi in Cairo.
The struggle over post war Palestine had begun.
Well, maybe begun again. British rule in Palestine had never been particularly easy.
The German garrison at Middleburg in the Netherlands surrendered to the Canadian Army.
The French government repealed Vichy anti Semitic laws, but implementation would prove to be difficult to implement in terms of restoring their possessions and occupations.
Penicillin began production in large scale in Liverpool.
The terroristic White League attacked and killed African American farmer Thomas Floyd in the first of a series of attacks on Republican Party members and freedmen in Louisiana. Ultimately several deaths occured, but nobody was brought to trial in spite of the arrest of 25 people.
The attacks were part of an overall effort to drive Republicans out of the state.
While it would anger some people for it to be noted, the Republican Party at the time was the liberal party in favor of expansive democracy, whereas the Democratic Party was the opposite. Just as Louisiana's Democrats of the time regarded the Republicans as unspeakable enemies, the opposite is true today. Likewise, as the Democratic Party was the party of the white South in 1874, the Republican Party is the same now.
European powers agreed to adopt the Dawes Plan, save for ratification of their parliaments.
The body of Italian opposition leader Giacomo Matteotti was found in a shallow ditch about 14 miles outside of Rome.
Boris Savinkov, Russian terrorist with the paramilitary wing of the outlawed Socialist Revolutionary Party, was arrested in Minsk by the Soviet secret police agency OGPU, because your opponents murdered is a murderer, while your own is a hero, apparently.
He was an anti communist and an admirer of Mussolini.
Turkey invaded Cyprus again, taking 37% of the country, establishing a republic recognized only by it, and dividing the capital Nicosia.
Greece withdrew from NATO"s military command structure as a result of the invasion. The Greek Cypriot paramilitary group EOKAB took Tochni and by the end of the day had murdered numerous people.
The Greek culture on Cyprus goes back to antiquity, although the island was never ruled by Greece. The Turkish presence to 1571 when the Ottomans took the island and began to partially settle it. The troubles of the 1970s, which have lasted to this day, were started by the Greek nationalist military junta, giving another example of the disastrous effects of Greek overreach in regard to Turkey.
The East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front (EAAJAF) attempted to assassinate the Emperor Hirohito with a railroad bomb, but was the plot was discovered and disrupted. The terrorist group was Japanese, in spite of its name, but was in reaction to the Japanese history of aggression, as well as having a far left ideology.
Portugal's new government promised independence to Angola, Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea on the condition that ceasefires could be agreed upon in the ongoing wars and if democratic voting would be guaranteed on the form of post-colonial government.
Portugal had been one of Europe's first modern colonial powers, with an empire dating back to 1415.
Bill Clinton won the Democratic Party runoff for the Congressional nomination for the party in Arkansas. Then employed as a law professor, he'd lose in the fall.
William Cann, police chief of Union City, California, was assassinated at a public gathering by former members of the Brown Berets, a Chicano group, in retaliation for a police killing of a Hispanic man.
It was Memorial Day for 1974. Two days earlier President Nixon had issued this proclamation:
By the President of the United States Of America
A Proclamation
The defense of freedom and the search for peace cannot be separated. Together, they are an essential part of the American ideal. During the past two hundred years, our Nation has endured sacrifice in battle for the sake of this ideal. Americans died valiantly at Saratoga, King's Mountain, and Yorktown because they would not buy peace at the price of liberty. Americans died at Shiloh, Antietam, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg because a peace that cost the division of the Nation and the enslavement of a people could not be accepted.
We have occasion to show special gratitude this Memorial Day to those who fell in the cause of freedom in the longest and perhaps the most difficult war in our history. Because of their efforts, and the efforts of all our fighting forces, we can celebrate a year in which no American serviceman has fallen in the defense of his country.
During the past year, we have made progress toward the creation of a stable world order based on respect for the dignity and the larger interests of all nations. We have made this progress in part because America has pursued its tasks from a base of strength—not only military and economic strength, but strength of conviction and strength of purpose. We have been steadied in our resolve by the example of patience, self-sacrifice, and courage of our servicemen and women during the difficult years now past.
To our valiant dead we can pay no greater tribute than to emulate their dedication to a world free from the threat of force and the rule of fear. To them we dedicate our prayers for a new generation of peace and a new spirit of community among all the peoples of the world.
Now, Therefore, I, Richard M. Nixon, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate Memorial Day, Monday, May 27, 1974, as a day of prayer for permanent peace, and I designate the hour beginning in each locality at eleven o'clock in the morning of that day as a time to unite in prayer.
I urge the press, radio, television, and all other information media to cooperate in this observance.
I direct that the flag of the United States be flown at half-staff all day on Memorial Day on all buildings, grounds, and naval vessels of the Federal Government throughout the United States and all areas under its jurisdiction and control.
I also call upon the Governors of the fifty States, the Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and appropriate officials of all local units of government to direct that the flag be flown at half-staff on all public buildings during that entire day, and I request the people of the United States to display the flag at half-staff from their homes for the same period.
In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-fifth day of May, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred ninety-eighth.
RICHARD NIXON
A bomb went off in the car of lawyer Reyes Martinez at Chautauqua Park killing Martinez, his girlfriend Uma Jaakola and her friend Neva Romero were all killed in the blast.
Two days later, another car bomb went off in the parking lot of a Burger King which was closed for the evening, killing Florencio Granado, Heriberto Teran and Francisco Dougherty. Antonio Alcantar Jr., who was standing outside lost his leg.
No suspects have ever been arrested. The victims are known as the "Los Seis de Boulder", or "The Boulder Six". All involved, save for Reyes Martinez, were Hispanic activists protesting the conditions at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The FBI concluded that the bombs were made by the victims themselves and accidentally triggered, a thesis their supporters reject.
Monuments have been placed to them at the University of Colorado in Boulder.
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing was inaugurated as President of France.
I had just turned eleven. I have no personal recollection of any of these events.
The Palestinian terrorists in Rome ordered a Lufthansa plane to fly to Kuwait, where the remaining hostages were freed. A year later, Kuwait turned them over to the PLO, which promised to put them on trial. Their fate is unknown.
Palestinian terrorists killed 32 people at the Leonardo da Vinci Airport near Rome by seizing a terminal and then throwing grenades in the open doors of a Boeing 707.
Because killing innocent people is a mature and rational way to get what you want . . .
Canada and Denmark signed a treating delineating their territorial waters.
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
Well, Part X wasn't up for long before the next edition was necessary.
Ugh.
If any question why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied.
Kipling.
And so, the byproducts of the Great War continue to visit us, specter like. A war in Ukraine between a Slavic chauvinist empire, and one in the Middle East, sorting out the rubble of the Mandate.
So let us begin.
October 15, 2023
Hamas v. Israel.
Hamas infiltration attempts are continuing, but have dropped off on the West Bank.
Iran is warning the war could go regional, which it will not.
An Israeli ground offensive is imminent.
The US asked American citizens in Gaza (why on earth would anyone with American citizenship stay in Gaza?) to move closer to the Egyptian Rafah border crossing, which would likely suggest the U.S. has worked out some sort of deal with Egypt regarding Americans being displaced in the Gaza Strip (why on earth would anyone with American citizenship stay in Gaza?).
A bomb threat was levied against the Louvre yesterday, which is suspected to be related to this conflict in some fashion.
Russo Ukrainian War
Russian attacks on Avdiivka are continuing, but Ukrainian lines are holding. Apparently the offensive was anticipated.
October 16, 2023
Hamas v. Israel
From Twitter, and linked directly to what was put up there. Weapons displayed by the IDF that were used in the recent Hamas raid.
The really surprising one here is the ancient submachine gun. Apparently it is a Lanchester, which I've never even heard of. It looks like a German MP28 as it is in fact a version of it. They were actually produced, to my surprise, in large numbers during World War Two.
The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Cardinal Pizzaballa stated in an interview that he was willing to exchange himself as a hostage for the kidnapped children.
October 17, 2023
Hamas v Israel
Four Iranian nationals have been detained at the Del Rio crossing between the US and Mexico since October 1, with two Iranian nationals regarded as terrorist threats.
The Church of Saint Porphyrius, built in 1150 through 1160, a Greek Orthodox Church, is now housing Palestinian refugees of all religions.
2,000 U.S. troops are being readied to deploy to the region in support roles to Israel.
The Diocese of Cheyenne is asking Catholics in the Diocese to pray for Peace in the Holy Land, and has issued this prayer.
Pray for Peace in the Holy Land
Lord God, merciful and strong,
who crush wars and cast down the proud,
who extend mercy and tenderness to all,
we pray to you for the Holy Land, for the people of Israel and Palestine
who are under the grip of unprecedented violence,
for the victims, especially the children and their families.
Be pleased to grant healing for the wounded, the release of hostages,
protection for the innocent, and eternal peace to the dead.
To all those affected by war, grant healing, consolation, and the grace to forgive.
Almighty God,
guide the minds of world leaders to act with wisdom, prudence, and justice,
and to promote the common good.
Lord of Justice, help us to commit ourselves to building a fraternal world
so that these peoples and all those suffering similar conditions of
conflict, instability, and violence may walk together as sisters and brothers.
Help us to be peacemakers by practicing justice, dialogue, and reconciliation.
O God of Peace, who are peace itself,
grant that those in conflict may forget evil and so be healed.
Help those who have experienced violence to forgive their enemies,
as Christ taught us and after his example on the cross.
We pray that the whole of humanity may be reconciled as one family,
without violence, without absurd wars, and with a fraternal spirit,
and live united in peace and concord.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ Your Son, who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.
cont:
Russo Ukrainian War
Ukraine struck Russian airbases deep within Russian occupied Ukraine with ATACMS missiles acquired from the United States
October 18, 2023
Hamas v Israel.
President Biden is in Israel.
Democrat Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib's accused Israel of bombing a Christian's hospital in the Gaza stating "Israel just bombed the Baptist Hospital killing 500 Palestinians (doctors, children, patients) just like that," in a tweet.
Israel replied within an hour that Islamic Jihad was responsible for the strike with an errant missile.
China v Taiwan and everyone else
The U.S. has accused China of increasingly dangerous actions with its fighter aircraft.
Russo Ukrainian War
Ukraine made small gains around Bakhmut and Russians tiny gains around Avdiivka.
The US completed deliveries of M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine.
October 29, 2023
Russo Ukrainian War
Ukraine raided across the Dnipro near Kherson.
Iran v. United States
October 20, 2023
Hamas v. Israel, Iran v. The West
DOD assets in the Red Sea, Iraq and Syria responded to missile and drone attacks over the past two days, as U.S. service members look to deter groups from using the Israel-Hamas war as an opportunity to launch conflict that could engulf the region, Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said today.
Department of Defense.
Effectively, Iran, often acting through its militias, is in a low grade war with the United States right now.
October 23, 2023
Hamas v. Israel, Iran v. The West
The weekend news shows were absolutely frighting on this topic, this weekend. A bill is being introduced in Congress to authorize the use of force under the War Powers Act, for instance.
October 24, 2023
Russo Ukrainian War.
The Chinese ship Newnew Polar Bear has entered the Port of Arkhangelsk with a missing anchor. Finnish investigators suspect it lost the anchor by dragging it into the Balticconnector gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia. It will take six months to repair.
cont:
Congo
The Allied Democratic Forces killed people in the city of Oicha in North Kivu province on Monday. The group has ties to the Islamic State.
The Administration reports that Russia has executed its own soldiers for refusing to carry out orders.
Hamas v. Israel
Israel killed the deputy head of Hamas’s intelligence directorate, Shadi Barud, in a strike in the Gaza today.
Iranian backed forces have targeted US sites in Israel and Iraq.
October 27, 2023
Iran v US
The US struck two Iranian backed militia sites in Syria in an air raid earlier today.
Hamas v. Israel
Israel has raided into Gaza.
October 28, 2023
Russo Ukrainian War
Slovakia's right wing populist government is ceasing aid to Ukraine.
Ireland has called for increased European support for Ukraine.
October 29, 2023
Hamas v. Israel
The IDF has entered Gaza.
November 1, 2023
North Korea
North Korea is closing a large number of embassies, apparently due to financial concerns.
Hamas v. Israel
From Yemen's Houthi militia:
Our armed forces launched a large batch of ballistic missiles and a large number of drones at various targets of the Israeli enemy
The Yemeni Armed Forces confirm that this operation is the third operation in support of our oppressed brothers in Palestine and confirm that we will continue to carry out more qualitative strikes with missiles and drones until the Israeli aggression stops.
Egypt’s Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly stated, in response to reports that millions of Palestinians could cross into Egypt, that Egypt was “prepared to sacrifice millions of lives to ensure that no one encroaches upon our territory”.
November 2, 2023
Hamas v. Israel
President Biden has called for a pause in the war to aid in removing refugees. It's unlikely to occur.
Nigeria
Thirty-seven have been killed in a Boko Haram terrorist attack.
Russo Ukrainian War
Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief General Valerii Zaluzhnyi stated in an essay in The Economist yesterday that the has taken on a positional nature. His article is entitled. "Modern Positional Warfare and How to Win It".
It's odd for a commander to write such an op ed during a time of war, but that the war has become static is pretty obvious. This needs to be overcome if Ukraine is to achieve victory. If it does not, Western nations will ultimately lose interest in funding the Ukrainian effort.
November 4, 2023
China v. Everyone
Japan and the Philippines are moving towards a troop cooperation agreement.
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken engaged in a round of regional shuttle diplomacy yesterday.
The IDF has split the Gaza Strip in two.
November 7, 2023
Sudan
Jihadi militias have murdered over 800 Massalit tribe members in Darfur, Sudan over the past few days. Like their oppressors, the Massalit are Muslims, but they are generally somewhat relaxed in their observance and retain some pre conversion practices in spite of having long been Muslims. Over recent decades they have become more orthodox in their observance.
I frankly don't know what this conflict is about.
November 8, 2023
Hamas v. Israel War
U.S. Rep Rashida Tlaib was censured for her "river to the sea" comment. Tlaib is of Palestinian extraction and has a vocal critic of Israel.
U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman claimed n a television interview that Palestinian protests in the US were due to Palestinian infiltration of the U.S. government.
Russo Ukrainian War
Ukrainian's seem to have crossed the Dnipro in some force and to have ferried armored vehicles across the river.
November 9, 2023
Myanmar
Myanmar has lost control of much of its border with China due to attacks by three ethnic rebel armies in Shan State.
Iran v the West
The U.S. has attacked an Iranian backed militia's weapon storage facility in Syria via the air.
November 10, 2023
Hamas v. Israel
Israel agreed to pause its offensive actions periodically for humanitarian reasons but not to provide for a ceasefire or ceasefires.
Headline in the British newspaper The Telegraph:
‘Queers for Palestine’ must have a death wish
Truly.
The Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and Gaza, have one of the world's worst records for intolerance of this topic in the world. Homosexual Palestinians fairly frequently flee to Israel.
Russo Ukrainian War
Russian forces have nearly encircled Avdiivka.
November 12, 2023
Hamas v. Israel
Israel has rejected calls for a cease fire and has indicated that it will retain security control of Gaza fater the war.
Russo Ukrainian War
Russian offensive activities in recent days have been resulting in huge casualties to their army.
November 16, 2023
Iran v. the West
The U.S. navy shot down a drone launched from Yemen aimed at a ship yesterday.
November 18, 2023
Russo Ukrainian War
Ukrainian forces have established bridgeheads on the east bank of the Dnipro and are pushing Russian forces back beyond artillery range of the west bank.
November 20, 2023
Hamas v. Israel
Houthi rebels have taken a cargo ship in a helicopter raid on the same. They have asserted this is legitimate as the ship had Israeli connections.
November 22, 2023
Hamas v. Israel
Israel has agreed to a four-day cease fire for humanitarian reasons. Hostages are to be released during that time period.
Iranian backed militias launched missiles at a US base in Iraq, causing the US to retaliate with an airstrike.
November 23, 2023
India v. Sikh separatists.
The US has announced that it foiled a plot on the life of a Sikh seperatist living in the US. A successful attempt on the life of a Sikh figure in Canada has lead to tension between those two countries. India denies being involved.
November 25, 2023
Hamas v. Israel
A prisoner exchange (Palestinian prisoners for Israeli and multinational hostages) took place yesterday as scheduled. Twenty four hostages were releaed, including 13 Israelis, 10 Thai citizens, and one Filipino citizen.
,_by_Thomas_Nast.jpg)
