Sunday, July 4, 1976. The Bicentennial., additional Labels.

Two examples of exactly what's wrong with this country.

1.  Standards decayed to the irrelevant level.

I think Nixon's historical legacy is enjoying a bit of a renaissance, and deservedly so. 

If Watergate happened tomorrow, it would be like a 12 hours news story. The idea that it took down a presidency is crazy.

 J. D. Vance.

Vance is probably correct.  Watergate wouldn't have taken down Nixon today.

Watergate was inexcusable.  Nixon should not have been pardoned.  He should have been tried, convicted, and served jail time. That failure, combined with the failure to push traitorous Southerners after the Civil War, have helped give us Donald Trump.

What Nixon did give  us was Jimmy Carter.  Ford couldn't survive his association with Nixon and inflation.  Carter was not a good President, but he was a decent man.  That meant a lot.

And, and James Donald Bowman, James David Hamel, James David Vance, JD Vance should remember this.  While Carter as a one term President, the then youthful Democratic Party swept into power in that election and reset the country's middle meter to the left.  It remained there for decades.  Right now Republicans are pointing towards New York and saying "look, the Democrats are commies!" Well, the swing to the left and the right wing histrionics about it were exactly what occurred in the 1973 time frame, brought about by the corruption of Nixon, the Vietnam War, and economic distress.

A failed war.  A failed economy.  And corruption.  

Sound familiar Republicans?

2.  They actually feel Trump is a prophet

There's a reason why Donald Trump is still here. God's will is that his work is not done. By the way, our president knows that.

House majority whip Tom Emmer.

Hitler survived 42 known assassination attempts.

Nobody knows the mind of God.  As I earlier noted here, Donald may be our Attila, whom early Medieval Christians regarded as the "Scourge of God", Flagellum Dei.  Medieval Christians, whom Protestants latter slandered as being ignorant, were clear eyed enough to attribute Attila with being allowed to proceed in destruction as a punishment for their sins.  If Trump's luck with surviving assassination attempts has been due to the divine, given that he's a completely unGodly man, that possibility should be at least considered.

But beyond that, and this is truly scary, the far right Evangelical branch of American Protestantism is actually treading upon what essentially amounts to a new fringe religion, something that is well within the country's historical culture.  The 19th Century was full of them, with a collection of religions that proclaimed themselves founded on the teachings of Christ but lead by a new latter day prophet whose message departed from the Christian gospel.  In the 20th Century we've seen a few more.

A new book by journalist of the New York Times holds that those in Trump's cabinet believe that he's endowed with nearly an otherworldly foresight and is always right in spite of all the evidence that he's demented and was never very smart.  Like Communists in the mid 20th Century, they'll excuse any failure as temporary or a simple misunderstanding.  Molotov even excused Stalin's imprisoning his won wife.  Hardcore Communist, we might note, have a similar mindset to radical false religious prophets, and their adherents do as well.

Normally the further these movements go, and the longer they last, the more disastrous the fall.  

The upcoming show.

 Next week, when the House votes, we’ll find out how many “bad, or very stupid” Republicans serve there. Predictions are that it will pass, despite Johnson’s opposition. Should the bill pass the Senate, which is not assured, it would put Trump in the position of having to veto it to block the files’ release. Given that he campaigned promising to unlock the vault on all things Epstein, it will be fun to watch MAGA react. Trump has seemed like Teflon until now, but this scandal is sticking.

Joan Walsh, The Nation.

That indeed will be fun.

What's in these files?

Or, more accurately, who?  

I have my theories, but I"m going to hold  them to myself.  I'll make one prediction, however.  A President desperate enough to try to keep these from the public, is desperate enough to have them scrubbed.  Remember the missing minutes from the Nixon tapes?

A 2025 Independence Day reflection.

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.

Tuesday, January 14, 1975. Un-American.

The House Un-American Activities Committee was disbanded by the U.S. House of Representatives.

It's roots went back to 1918 and it had investigated a wide range of Communist activities in the US dating back to that time.  Often missed, quite a few figures that the committee investigated unsuccessfully prior to World War Two would be again after the war.  Many of those whom it suspected of Communist activity would, in fact, prove to have done just that, in spite of the reputation of the committee being tarnished during the McCarthy Era.

It's demise after the Watergate and the Vietnam War was inevitable, but it had a much better track record than is popularly recalled.

Henry Kissinger announced that the Soviet Union was rescinding its agreement to a trade deal with the United States following enactment of the Jackson–Vanik amendment to the Trade Act of 1974.

The Convention on Registration of Launched Objects into Outer Space was signed in New York.  It requires the signatories to inform the United Nations of things that are launched into space.

U.S. Vice-President Rockefeller was appointed to head a committee to investigate domestic espionage by the Central Intelligence Agency.

Last edition:

Saturday, January 11, 1975. Storms. Things can, and do, get worse.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, actors and actresses, Afghanistan, Donald Trump, Great Storm of 1975, Islam, Leopards won't eat my face, Taliban, The Law of Unintended Consequences, The War in Afghanistan, Weather, Women

Wednesday, January 1, 1975. Cutting off Phnom Penh.

The Khemr Rouge cut off supply lines to Phnom Penh.

John N. Mitchell, H. R. Haldeman, and John Ehrlichman were found guilty on charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury in the cover-up of the Watergate scandal. 

Robert Mardian was found guilty on one count of conspiracy.

Queen Elizabeth II conferred knighthood on Charlie Chaplin, P. G. Wodehouse, Roger Bannister, and Gary Sobers.

I would have passed on Chaplin.

Last edition:

Tuesday, December 31, 1974. Americans get to own gold again.

Labels: 1930s, 1933, 1970s, 1974, baseball, Currency, Economics, France, Great Depression, inflation, law, Sports, television, The Great Inflation

Blog Mirror: September 8, 1974: President Ford Pardons Former President

September 8, 1974: President Ford Pardons Former President Nixon

If Nixon had faced prosecution, and had been convicted, and had served time -- even if it was just "house arrest," being confined to his house in San Clemente, California, with only occasional visits from family, and no one else, for a few years -- the message would have been sent to every President, and every would-be President, thereafter: Do not do things like this, because you will get caught, and you will be punished.

Ford's pardon of Nixon sent the opposite message: As President, you are above the law. Or, as Nixon told David Frost in his 1977 interview, "Well, when the President does it, that means it is not illegal."

Absolutely correct.

The pardon of Richard Nixon set us up for Donald Trump.

Last edition:

Saturday. September 7, 1974. Independence for Mozambique.

Labels: 1970s, 1974, Communism, Mozambique, Portugal, Portuguese Mozambique, Socialism, Zambia

Monday, August 19, 1974. Gerald Ford on the cover of Time and Newsweek.

Time captioned its cover "The Healing Begins.

Last edition:

Friday, August 16, 1974. Gerald Ford hosted King Hussein of Jordan in his first state dinner.

Labels: 1970s, 1974, Diplomacy, Gerald Ford, Jordan, Monarchy

Friday, August 9, 1974. President Nixon Resigns.

Lex Anteinternet: Today In Wyoming's History: August 9, 1974. Presi...: 

Today In Wyoming's History: August 9, 1974. President Nixon resigns and the 60s end.

Today In Wyoming's History: August 9: 1974    Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as the 38th president of the United States following the resignation of Richard M. Nixon.  Ford has a connection with Wyoming in that his father was part of a family that had shipping and commercial interest in Wyoming and Nebraska.  Ford was born on Omaha Nebraska as Leslie Lynch King, and his parents divorced almost immediately after his birth.

Nixon departing the White House on August 9, 1974.

Just the other day I posted an entry here titled Growing Up in the 1960s.  In that I defined the 60s as ending on this date (which I was a day off on, for some reason), when I stated:

So I was in school in the last three years of the decadal 1960s, but in reality I was in school for most of the 1960s, as the 1960s really ran from our commitment of ground forces to Vietnam until Nixon's resignation on August 8, 1974

For whatever reason, that we were near the 45th anniversary of that date, didn't occur to me at the time (the original linked in post here was obviously from five years ago, now we're at the 50th).

Under the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling on Presidential Immunity, I frankly think Nixon could have stayed in office.  Of course, the Court at that time wouldn't have reached that horrific result.

Last edition:

Monday, August 5, 1974. Inescapable conclusions.

Labels: 1970s, 1974, Cartoons, Crime, Richard Nixon, Watergate

August 8, 1974. Nixon announces his resignation.

Good evening.

This is the 37th time I have spoken to you from this office, where so many decisions have been made that shaped the history of this Nation. Each time I have done so to discuss with you some matter that I believe affected the national interest.

In all the decisions I have made in my public life, I have always tried to do what was best for the Nation. Throughout the long and difficult period of Watergate, I have felt it was my duty to persevere, to make every possible effort to complete the term of office to which you elected me.

In the past few days, however, it has become evident to me that I no longer have a strong enough political base in the Congress to justify continuing that effort. As long as there was such a base, I felt strongly that it was necessary to see the constitutional process through to its conclusion, that to do otherwise would be unfaithful to the spirit of that deliberately difficult process and a dangerously destabilizing precedent for the future.

But with the disappearance of that base, I now believe that the constitutional purpose has been served, and there is no longer a need for the process to be prolonged.

I would have preferred to carry through to the finish whatever the personal agony it would have involved, and my family unanimously urged me to do so. But the interest of the Nation must always come before any personal considerations.

From the discussions I have had with Congressional and other leaders, I have concluded that because of the Watergate matter I might not have the support of the Congress that I would consider necessary to back the very difficult decisions and carry out the duties of this office in the way the interests of the Nation would require.

I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body. But as President, I must put the interest of America first. America needs a full-time President and a full-time Congress, particularly at this time with problems we face at home and abroad.

To continue to fight through the months ahead for my personal vindication would almost totally absorb the time and attention of both the President and the Congress in a period when our entire focus should be on the great issues of peace abroad and prosperity without inflation at home.

Therefore, I shall resign the Presidency effective at noon tomorrow. Vice President Ford will be sworn in as President at that hour in this office.

As I recall the high hopes for America with which we began this second term, I feel a great sadness that I will not be here in this office working on your behalf to achieve those hopes in the next 21/2 years. But in turning over direction of the Government to Vice President Ford, I know, as I told the Nation when I nominated him for that office 10 months ago, that the leadership of America will be in good hands.

In passing this office to the Vice President, I also do so with the profound sense of the weight of responsibility that will fall on his shoulders tomorrow and, therefore, of the understanding, the patience, the cooperation he will need from all Americans.

As he assumes that responsibility, he will deserve the help and the support of all of us. As we look to the future, the first essential is to begin healing the wounds of this Nation, to put the bitterness and divisions of the recent past behind us, and to rediscover those shared ideals that lie at the heart of our strength and unity as a great and as a free people.

By taking this action, I hope that I will have hastened the start of that process of healing which is so desperately needed in America.

I regret deeply any injuries that may have been done in the course of the events that led to this decision. I would say only that if some of my Judgments were wrong, and some were wrong, they were made in what I believed at the time to be the best interest of the Nation.

To those who have stood with me during these past difficult months, to my family, my friends, to many others who joined in supporting my cause because they believed it was right, I will be eternally grateful for your support.

And to those who have not felt able to give me your support, let me say I leave with no bitterness toward those who have opposed me, because all of us, in the final analysis, have been concerned with the good of the country, however our judgments might differ.

So, let us all now join together in affirming that common commitment and in helping our new President succeed for the benefit of all Americans.

I shall leave this office with regret at not completing my term, but with gratitude for the privilege of serving as your President for the past 51/2 years. These years have been a momentous time in the history of our Nation and the world. They have been a time of achievement in which we can all be proud, achievements that represent the shared efforts of the Administration, the Congress, and the people.

But the challenges ahead are equally great, and they, too, will require the support and the efforts of the Congress and the people working in cooperation with the new Administration.

We have ended America's longest war, but in the work of securing a lasting peace in the world, the goals ahead are even more far-reaching and more difficult. We must complete a structure of peace so that it will be said of this generation, our generation of Americans, by the people of all nations, not only that we ended one war but that we prevented future wars.

We have unlocked the doors that for a quarter of a century stood between the United States and the People's Republic of China.

We must now ensure that the one quarter of the world's people who live in the People's Republic of China will be and remain not our enemies but our friends.

In the Middle East, 100 million people in the Arab countries, many of whom have considered us their enemy for nearly 20 years, now look on us as their friends. We must continue to build on that friendship so that peace can settle at last over the Middle East and so that the cradle of civilization will not become its grave.

Together with the Soviet Union we have made the crucial breakthroughs that have begun the process of limiting nuclear arms. But we must set as our goal not just limiting but reducing and finally destroying these terrible weapons so that they cannot destroy civilization and so that the threat of nuclear war will no longer hang over the world and the people.

We have opened the new relation with the Soviet Union. We must continue to develop and expand that new relationship so that the two strongest nations of the world will live together in cooperation rather than confrontation.

Around the world, in Asia, in Africa, in Latin America, in the Middle East, there are millions of people who live in terrible poverty, even starvation. We must keep as our goal turning away from production for war and expanding production for peace so that people everywhere on this earth can at last look forward in their children's time, if not in our own time, to having the necessities for a decent life.

Here in America, we are fortunate that most of our people have not only the blessings of liberty but also the means to live full and good and, by the world's standards, even abundant lives. We must press on, however, toward a goal of not only more and better jobs but of full opportunity for every American and of what we are striving so hard right now to achieve, prosperity without inflation.

For more than a quarter of a century in public life I have shared in the turbulent history of this era. I have fought for what I believed in. I have tried to the best of my ability to discharge those duties and meet those responsibilities that were entrusted to me.

Sometimes I have succeeded and sometimes I have failed, but always I have taken heart from what Theodore Roosevelt once said about the man in the arena, "whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again because there is not effort without error and shortcoming, but who does actually strive to do the deed, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumphs of high achievements and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly."

I pledge to you tonight that as long as I have a breath of life in my body, I shall continue in that spirit. I shall continue to work for the great causes to which I have been dedicated throughout my years as a Congressman, a Senator, a Vice President, and President, the cause of peace not just for America but among all nations, prosperity, justice, and opportunity for all of our people.

There is one cause above all to which I have been devoted and to which I shall always be devoted for as long as I live.

When I first took the oath of office as President 51/2 years ago, I made this sacred commitment, to "consecrate my office, my energies, and all the wisdom I can summon to the cause of peace among nations."

I have done my very best in all the days since to be true to that pledge. As a result of these efforts, I am confident that the world is a safer place today, not only for the people of America but for the people of all nations, and that all of our children have a better chance than before of living in peace rather than dying in war.

This, more than anything, is what I hoped to achieve when I sought the Presidency. This, more than anything, is what I hope will be my legacy to you, to our country, as I leave the Presidency.

To have served in this office is to have felt a very personal sense of kinship with each and every American. In leaving it, I do so with this prayer: May God's grace be with you in all the days ahead.

It's interesting that this comes just as President Biden has announced that he's not confident that there shall be a peaceful transfer of power this year, due to the presence of Donald Trump, who will not do what Nixon did for the good of the country.

A Japanese/American climbing team found seven out of eight of the deceased members of an all female Soviet mountain climbing team that had perished on Lenin Peak.

The peak is now on the Kyrgyzstan–Tajikistan border and is the highest peak in both countries. There have been proposals to rename it rather than have its name attach to the vile, as it currently does.

Last edition:

Monday, August 5, 1974. Inescapable conclusions.

Labels: 1970s, 1974, Cartoons, Crime, Richard Nixon, Watergate

Monday, August 5, 1974. Inescapable conclusions.

The White House released transcripts of subpoenaed tape recordings.  The tapes demonstrated that President Nixon and his chief of staff H.R. Haldeman had discussed a plan in June 1972 to use the CIA to thwart the FBI’s Watergate investigation.   They also showed that Nixon had ordered the FBI to halt investigation of the Watergate matter.

Nixon then issued a statement acknowledging guilt, and that matters would go to the Senate for an impeachment trial.  Congressional supporters of Nixon began to rapidly change their view.

The first Tank McNamara comic strip was printed.

Last edition:

Friday, August 2, 1974. Dean to prison.

Labels: 1970s, 1974, Tanzania, Uganda, Watergate

Friday, August 2, 1974. Dean to prison.

Former legal counsel to President Nixon, James Dean, was sentenced to a minimum of one year in prison and a maximum of four years for his role in the cover-up of the Watergate scandal.  

Ugandan President Idi Amin called off an invasion of Tanzania one day after having ordered the mobilization of Uganda's armed forces.

Last edition.

Tuesday, July 30, 1974. Cypriot peace, Articles of impeachment.

Labels: 1970, 1970s, 1974, Cambodia, Cyprus, Diplomacy, Greece, Henry Kissinger, Music, Oklahoma (Tulsa), Rhodesia, Richard Nixon, Rock Music, The Blues, Tulsa Oklahoma, Turkey, United Kingdom, Vietnam War, Watergate

Tuesday, July 30, 1974. Cypriot peace, Articles of impeachment.

Greece, Turkey, and the United Kingdom signed a peace agreement calling a halt to fighting in Cyprus.  The agreement was mediated by Henry Kissinger.

The U.S. House Judiciary Committee adjourned its proceedings for impeachment.  It had passed three articles of impeachment. 

A proposed fourth, asserting, illegal use of power in the 1970 invasion of Cambodia, was rejected.

An election was held in Rhodesia, which had a population of 300,000 whites and 5,700,000 blacks. Voting was segregated. The result was whites took 76% of the seats.

ZZ Top played at the Tulsa State Fairgrounds.

Last edition.

Monday, July 29, 1974. Philadelphia Eleven and Alpha Group.

Labels: 1970s, 1974, Folk Music, KGB, Music, Protestant, religion, trends, USSR, Women

Saturday, July 27, 1974. Articles of Impeachment.

The bipartisan House Judiciary Committee voted 27-11 to adopt the first of three articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon, obstruction of justice.

Richard M. Nixon, using the powers of his high office, engaged personally and through his subordinates and agents, in a course of conduct or plan designed to delay, impede, and obstruct the investigation.

Back when Congress actually acted responsibly, although 11 of the 17 Republicans did vote no.

The Rhodesian Army began Operation Overload, the relocation of 49,690 black civilians within the Chiweshe Tribal Trust Land to "protected villages" away from  the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA).

Portugal's military government announced that it was granting independence to Angola, Cape Verde, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe and Portuguese Guinea.

Last prior:

Wednesday, July 24, 1974. United States v. Nixon.

Labels: 1970s, 1974, 2020s, 2024, Crime, Cyprus, Greece, Richard Nixon, Texas, Turkish invasion of Cyprus, Watergate

Wednesday, July 24, 1974. United States v. Nixon.

The United States Supreme Court decided in United States v Nixon that the President could not withhold evidence based on the defense of national security, thereby ordering Nixon to turn over his tape recordings.

I wonder what the current court would do?

The Greek military junta resigned in favor of former Premier Konstantinos Karamanlis who immediately granted amnesty to political prisoners.

The Huntsville Prison siege began in Huntsville, Texas.

Last edition:

Sunday, July 21, 1974. Turkish invasion of Cyprus, Israeli no, Turkish misidentification.

Labels: 1970s, 1974, Arabs, boats and ships, Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Greek Army, Israel, Petroleum, Turkey, Turkish Air Force, Turkish Army, Turkish invasion of Cyprus, Turkish Navy

Thursday, May 9, 1974. Probable cause.

The House Judiciary Committee opened hearings on whether there was probable cause for a vote of the full House on impeaching Richard Nixon.   The first 20 minutes, the open session, was televised.

The committee had 21 Democrats on it and 17 Republicans, back when there were real Republicans.

A 6.5 magnitude earthquake killed 30 people near Tokyo.

Last prior edition:

Monday, April 29, 1974. Transcribing tapes.

1970s, 1974, American Terrorist Organizations, Richard Nixon, Watergate

Monday, April 29, 1974. Transcribing tapes.

The President I used to think was the benchmark for corruption, Richard Nixon, held a nationally televised speech in which he indicated that he had arranged to have his staff transcribe some of the White House tapes, and would do that rather than release them.

Patty Hearst as a member of the SLA made the covers of Time and Newsweek.

Last prior edition:

Saturday, April 27, 1974. Aeroflot disater, War of Attrition winds down.

1970s, 1974, Aircraft, Arab Israeli Conflict, Disaster, Israel, Syria, USSR, War of Attrition, Yom Kippur War