This slams a post by Robert Reich, who as readers here know I have sort of a love/hate reading relationship with.
Reich's an old liberal in an era in which it seems the ancient hands of the Baby Boom Generation just won't let go of the levers of government, even though they started operating those levers when they were mechanical rather than electronic. Given that, like all people do, they tend to have an understanding of problems based on the world of their youth, rather than reality,
Witness:
Franklin Roosevelt addressed the coal strike in a Fireside Chat, stating:
The American people have accomplished a miracle.
In the present coal crisis, conciliation and mediation were tried unsuccessfully.
These two items make up more than a third of the total budget of the worker's family.
The Japanese conducted a major air raid on Darwin, Australia. It was the 54th Japanese air raid on Australia and provided ineffective in real terms, but greatly disturbed the Australian public. The attacking force consisted of 25 bombers and 27 fighter escorts. The Royal Australian Air Force engaged the attackers after the raid, and lost fourteen Spitfires. The Japanese lost six to ten aircraft.
U.S. Army Air Service pilots Lt. John A. Macready and Lt. Oakley G. Kelly commenced the first nonstop North American transcontinental flight on this day in 1923. Their flight in a Fokker T-2 took them from Roosevelt Field, Long Island to Rockwell Field, San Diego in 27 hours with much of the nighttime flight through storms in uncertain territory.
McCready, who had joined the Army in 1917, held a string of early aviation records but left the service in 1926 and became the head of the Aviation department of Shell Oil. He reentered the Air Force in 1942 and held several combat commands, leaving again in 1948. He died in 1969 at age 91, an accomplishment in and of itself given that he was an early record-breaking aviator.
He is the only three time recipient of the Mackay Trophy.
Oalkey G. Kelley had a long flying career as well. He also retired in 1948, passing away at age 74 in 1966. Both men retired to California, although McCready was from there.
That's what the most recent entry by Robert Reich is:
Reich is an intelligent man, and a highly left wing one. Like a lot of intelligent pundits, right and left, he's mastered the art of connecting the disconnected.
The two major political parties do this all the time, which is part of the reason American politics are dysfunctional. One proposition is stated, and then a chain of them are linked in, in order to support a thesis that is, well, hogwash.
A lot of issues in the world just flat out stand on their own, or nearly so. Abortion is one example. Reich, who perversely, given his Jewish heritage, is pretty much for infanticide in the womb without restraint, makes the BS link that "if you are pro-life, you must be pro gun control".
In truth, a lot of pro-life people probably are pro gun control. But the two are not really linked. And if they were, Robert Reich would be manning the picket lines against abortion at abortion clinics, as infanticide factories are euphemistically called. Indeed, as the arguments for abortion are pretty much the same as the arguments for the Holocaust were, i.e., "they aren't real people", "they're a burden on real people", and therefore the two really are linked, he should be in any event.
In this article, he notes the conservative opposition to teenage gender mutilation and then links that into gun control, etc. It's patently absurd. There's no connection whatsoever.
There are connections, however, with a host of other "liberal" laws that are not under attack and should inform an intelligent audience, or perhaps Mr. Reich.
You can't get tattoos legally as a minor.
You can't buy firearms, in spite of what Mr. Reich seems to be suggesting, as a minor.
Child labor laws do exist, in spite of what Mr. Reich is suggesting, and at a Federal level.
You can't legally bind a minor to a contract, and therefore minor's can't contract.
In more and more states, minors aren't allowed to marry, which is something the left supports.
The left, however, is bizarrely fascinated by sex, and including sex in the most odd ways imaginable. In 2023, with so many problems facing the nation, a rational legal effort to prevent minors from being mutilated in the name of a passing and likely bogus set of theories is a good effort.
Remember eugenics?
It was a big deal prior to World War Two.
Do you remember it Robert? You probably ought to consider that at one time it was the up and coming "scientific" "medical" theory, and so those of low IQ or who were impaired were chemically neutered, people were lobotomized, and ultimately, millions of Europeans gassed.
Transgenderism will pass as well, and just as the left has manged to forget its prior associations with things inconvenient, such as how nifty the early Soviet Union was, they'll wash their hands of this.
Probably, trial lawyers will do the washing.
But those backing it will just go back to their comfortable lives and linking in one improbable with another.
Nixon canned White House Counsel John Dean and requested the resignations of H.R. Halderman, his Chief of Staff, John Ehrlichman, is domestic affairs advisor, and Richard Kleindienst, his Attorney General. All due tothe Watergate Scandal.
Things were clearly not going well.
May 1:
The British Trade Union Congress called a day long, Labour Day, work stoppage which was honored by 1,600,000 workers in order to protest the government's anti inflation policies.
Japan repaid $175,000,000 in food assistance aid funds which were extended during the post World War Two occupation of the country. The payment was made in one lump sum at the request of the US, which needed the money due to its growing concern over the imbalance in deficit payments.
Sweden's Prime Minister and Foreign Minister accused President Nixon of violating the Paris Peace Accords and of bombing refugees in Cambodia in May Day speeches.
480,000 coal mining members of the United Mine Workers went on strike. President Roosevelt ordered them to return to work by 10:00 a.m. They didn't.
An executive order followed, authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to take possession of the mines, if necessary.
More on the strike here:
In case you wondered, 55,156 people are employed in the American coal mining industry today.
On the same day, Ford Motor Company fired 141 employees because of labor disputes. Most of those fired were African Americans.
800 British troops, mostly Colonial forces, went down with the British troopship Erinpura which was sunk north of Benghazi by German aircraft.
Count Fleet won the Kentucky Derby.
Good news tends not to make the headlines, by and large. Indeed, it's worth noting that one of the things that's so newsworthy about the Russo Ukrainian War is that it's a big conventional war. Those tend just not to happen anymore.
This isn't going to be cheerful, as it's in the contest of the purpose of this site, which is really focused on the first couple of decades of the 20th Century. We're looking at good, long term, trends here that have hit the news somehow, recently.
May 1, 2023
Adult smoking hit an all-time low. About 1 in 9 American adults are smokers.
The degree to which average Americans smoked in the 20th Century, after World War One, is stunning. Women didn't start to really take it up until the 1920s, but by the 30s, everyone was smoking in earnest.
Teenage (high school) sexual activity is way down, with 30% reporting having had sex, down from over 50% a few decades back.
Teen pregnancy is also way down. It's often not appreciated the degree to which this was common in the past.
