Thursday, October 19, 2023
Wednesday, October 18, 2023
Random snippets. Another thing that Biden will oddly not get any credit for.
As an aside, Sinaloa has ordered its fentanyl producers to stop making it under penalty of death in order to avoid increasing U.S. law enforcement.
Thursday, October 18, 1973. Creeping embargo and I go Pogo.
The IDF recrossing the Suez Canal. The artillery pieces are M107's, a heavy US artillery piece much loved by the IDF. Amos1947, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Saudi Arabia cut its oil production by 10% and threatened to halt all of its oil shipments to the United States unless the US halt aid to Israel. The United Arab Emirates completely stopped shipments to the U.S.
The Chilean Army's Caravan of Death, led by General Sergio Arellano, arrived in Antofagasta and summarily executed 56 left wing prisoners. Military Governor of Antofagasta, General Joaquin Lagos, resigned in disgust, which actually brought to an end the Caravan.
Walt Kelly, cartoonist who started his career with Disney and the created Pogo, died of a cerebral thrombosis.
Pogo often dealt with serious themes and famously coined the phrase "we have met the enemy and he is us", a phrase truer now than ever. "I go Pogo" was a bogus election phrases making fun of Eisenhower's "I like Ike" that also was associated with the cartoon.
Monday, October 18, 1943. Jewish Romans transported to Auschwitz.
Germany transported Roman Jews to Auschwitz. Rome had one of the oldest Jewish populations in Europe.
Japan transferred four provinces of British Malaya to its ally Thailand.
Perry Mason was broadcast on the CBS Radio Network for the first time. It would run until December 20, 1955.
Thursday, October 18, 1923. Country music
Wendell Hall, popular early country music artist. October 18, 1923.
The Saxon government rejected the Müller ultimatum.
Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist. 48th Edition. Freaking out over the Polish election.
Goodness we live in strange times.
Lex Anteinternet: 2023 Elections In Other Countries.:
October 16, 2023
Left and center left parties took 248 seats in the 460-seat lower house of the Polish parliament, compared to the 200 taken by the governing Law and Justice party and 12 by a right wing partner.
The government of Poland will accordingly change in the first European defeat of the king of right wing populism/National Conservatism that most notably emerged in Hungary and recently can be imperfectly argued to have gained ground in several other European countries. It had made statements about openly following Hungary's lead. As recently as 2019 it was gaining ground.
And it might still be. Parliamentary politics are not the same as republican politics. The Law and Justice Party still was the largest vote getter, and the number of votes for it increased. Effectively, it has 212 seats to 248 seats held by various other opposition parties that cross a political spectrum. A government still has to be assembled and it will remain a major voice in the parliament.
If you read Twitter, amongst a certain group this is being portrayed as the end of the world, or more particularly Europe. Now Muslim hoards and liberal sworms will eliminate European civilization from the face of the earth.
For goodness’ sake, no matter what you think of this, this is a pretty closely run election, and the Law & Justice Party has lost the government before. To at least some degree, it seems some Poles feared it was going down Trump Lane, or more particularly Orvan Lane, towards contempt of democracy itself, and it lost for that reason.
Tuesday, October 17, 2023
Wednesday, October 17, 1973. The Arab Oil Embargo begins.
OPEC having doubled prices the day prior, Arab oil producing nations, led by Saudi Arabia, now went further and cut production overall by 5% and then placed an embargo on the United States, the Netherlands, Canada, the United Kingdom, West Germany, Japan, Rhodesia, South Africa, and Portugal. Western oil producers Venezuela nor Ecuador refused to join the embargo.
This causes us to recall part of what we recently posted here:
Friday, October 12, 1973. President Nixon commences a transfer of military equipment that leads to a Wyoming oil boom.
Congressman Gerald Ford was nominated to be Vice President by Richard Nixon.
Also on that day, President Nixon authorized Operation Nickel Grass, the airlift of weapons to Israel.
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M60 tank being loaded as part of Operation Nickel Grass
The operation revealed severe problems with the U.S. airlift capacity and would likely have not been possible without the assistance of Portugal, whose Azores facilities reduced the need for air-to-air refueling. The transfer of equipment would also leave the United States dangerously short of some sorts of military equipment, including radios, something that was compounded by the fact that the U.S. was transferring a large volume of equipment to the Republic of Vietnam at the same time.
This would directly result in the Arab Oil Embargo, which had been threatened. The embargo commenced on October 17.
U.S. oil production had peaked in 1970. Oil imports rose by 52% between 1969 and 1972, an era when fuel efficiency was disregarded. By 1972 the U.S. was importing 83% of its oil from the Middle East, but the real cost of petroleum had declined from the late 1950s.
The low cost of petroleum was a major factor in American post-war affluence from the mid 1940s through the 1960s. The embargo resulted in a major expansion of Wyoming's oil and gas industry, and in some ways fundamentally completed a shift in the state's economy that had been slowly ongoing since World War One, replacing agriculture with hydrocarbon extraction as the predominant industry.
We often hear a lot of anecdotal information about this topic today.
In this context, it's interesting to note that petroleum consumption is not much greater today in the U.S. than it was in 1973, but domestic production is the highest, by far, it's ever been. Importation of petroleum is falling, but it's also higher than it was in 1973, but exportation of petroleum is the highest it's ever been, exceeding the amount produced in 1973. If experts are balanced against imports, we're at an effective all-time low for importation. In effect, presently, all we're doing with importation is balancing sources.
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People hate this thought locally, but with renewable energy sources coming online, there's a real chance that petroleum consumption will fall for the first time since the 1970s, which would have the impact of reducing imports to irrelevancy. Any way its looked at, the U.S. is no hostage to Middle Eastern oil any more.
Price has certainly changed over time.
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Juan and Isabel Person were sworn into office as the elected president and vice president of Argentina
Judge John Sirica ruled that the Senate Watergate Committee was not entitled to have access to President Nixon's tape recordings, but that the U.S. Department of Justice special prosecutor, Archibald Cox, could subpoena them as evidence.
Motorola Corporation's engineer's filed for a patent on the DynaTAC, the first hand-held cellular telephone. It would be issued two years later and our long modern nightmare would accelerate.
The DynaTAC would not enter production until 1983.
The Mets took game four of the World Series against the A's. I surely would have watched that on the television with my father.
Sunday, October 17, 1943. The Burma Railway completed.
The German surface raider Michel was torpedoed and sunk off of Japan by the USS Tarpon. On the same day the German's lost the U-540, U-631 and U-841 in the Atlantic.
The Burma Railway, constructed with Asian slave labor and Allied POWs, was completed.
Tamils working on the bridge.
The railway may be best remembered today due to the fairly inaccurate movie, The Bridge On the River Kwai, which is nonetheless a great movie.
POW illustration of the construction of Bridge 227 across the Kwai.
A second concrete bridge replaced the original wooden bridge shortly after its construction. It was destroyed by the RAF in February 1945. Shortly after the war, most of the original railway was dismantled and only the original 81 miles remains in use.
The Third Moscow Conference begins.
It would begin to work on the post-war world.
Chicago began running its subway for the first time.
Wednesday, October 17, 1923. Germany acts against the Proletarian Hundreds.
The Reichswehr was ordered into Saxony and Thuringia and the Saxon police force federalized. It's commander, General Alfred Müller demanded that Saxon Prime Minister Eric Zeigner order his economics minister Paul Böttcher to disavow a statement that called for the arming of the communist paramilitary organization Proletarian Hundreds.
Mrs. Coolidge enjoyed some cookies with the Girl Scouts.
Reality and platitudes.
Years ago, mostly on neo-hippy cars, I'd see bumper stickers that said; "Free Tibet". The same cars would be festooned and bedecked with all sorts of liberal stickers, such as "Save the whales" and the like.
In the real world freeing Tibet would take a military effort of gigantic proportions, if not an outright nucelar war.
You can choose to deal with reality, but anyway you look at it, reality is going to deal with you.
There's a lot of unrealistic thinking going on regarding the current Hamas Israel War outside the country.
One thing that we're seeing a lot of are pleas that Israel not do anything that harms average Palestinians. More sophisticated thinkers, which most of these people are not, would argue the law of proportionality, which is that a violent armed effort against you does not invite a disproportionate response.
To put it uncomfortably for Americans, the Japanese attacking a U.S. Navy installation at Pearl Harbor does not invite murdering thousands of people through a nuclear device.
Having said that, nations, like people, have a right to self-defense, and Hamas clearly intends to murder the Jews in Israel.
They have to address that, and therefore they have to address Hamas. That means they have to go into Gaza and that action will kill civilians no matter what.
The real world.
I'm glad that I'm not the one who has to try to balance the moral scale here. Some will argue that the solution is to drive the Palestinians out of Gaza, but that would be wrong. Some would argue that the solution is to resume the administration of Gaza to preclude it from reviving as a terrorist enclave. Is that wrong?
And in terms of right and wrong, it's interesting how the appeal is largely from people in Christian societies regarding a largely Islamic society. Overall, concerns that the response will be disproportionate came from Christians, Christian influenced people, and Jews. There isn't very much Islamic concern about proportionality. Rather, it's "we've been occupied . . . " which is an accusation against an Israeli punitive action by a terrorist intervention done on their behalf, which they seem reluctant at best to disavow. On the ground, Islamic societies aren't doing anything obvious to make this better. They aren't opening their borders to Palestinians impacted by the war. Iran is threatening to "become involved" in the war which they went a long ways to helping bring about.
None of this is a reason not to be concerned, let alone to pray for peace, but it's also not a excuse to consider the grim realities of this sitaution.
Monday, October 16, 2023
Prayer for Peace in the Holy Land
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.
Tuesday, October 16, 1973. Doubling the price of oil and false peace.
OPEC doubled the price of oil from $2.18/bbl to $5.12/bbl. It didn't consult with the oil companies before doing so, and in some ways initiated in the modern, post, post World War Two, economy.
$5.12? Yes, that's what it was.
That would be $33.75 adjusted for inflation.
The UK and Iceland came to an agreement to end the Cod War.
Henry Kissinger and Lê Đức Thọ were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The North Vietnamese negotiation, however, did not accept it, stating:
However, since the signing of the Paris agreement, the United States and the Saigon administration continue in grave violation of a number of key clauses of this agreement. The Saigon administration, aided and encouraged by the United States, continues its acts of war. Peace has not yet really been established in South Vietnam. In these circumstances it is impossible for me to accept the 1973 Nobel Prize for Peace which the committee has bestowed on me. Once the Paris accord on Vietnam is respected, the arms are silenced and a real peace is established in South Vietnam, I will be able to consider accepting this prize. With my thanks to the Nobel Prize Committee please accept, madame, my sincere respects.
Saturday, October 16, 1943. Arrest of Roman Jews.
German police arrested 1,259 Jews in Rome. 252 were subsequently released. Unlike in France, the Germans did not attempt to use Italian police, as they were deemed unreliable.
News of the impending arrest had caused many others to previously take refuge with non-Jewish friends or in Catholic churches and institutions.
Approximately 1500 people from the US and 1500 people from Japan were at the start of a repatriation process as the MS Gripsholm and theTeia Maru, docked alongside of each other at the Portuguese Indian port of Mormugao.
The U-470, U-533, U-844 and U-964 were sunk.
The B-25D 'Red Wrath' of the 498th 'Falcons' Bomb Squadron, 345th 'Air Apaches' Bomb Group bombing Japanese anti-aircraft sites, Wewak & Boram, New Guinea, October 16, 1943.
Today in World War II History—October 16, 1943: After transfer from Italy, US Ninth Air Force is re-formed as a tactical force at Sunninghill, England, under Lt. Gen. Lewis Brereton . . .
From Sarah Sundin's blog, which also includes a variety of other interesting events not noted here.
Tuesday, October 16, 1923. Disney formed.
Early Disney character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.
Walt and Roy Disney signed a contract with Alice Comedies to produce cartoons and formed Disney Brothers Studios to do the work.
The patent for a dropped ceiling was issued to Eric E. Hall.
Bavaria banned Communist organizations.
Sunday, October 15, 2023
Friday, October 15, 1943. Flight 63.
American Airlines Flight 63 crashed near Centerville, Tennessee, killing all ten people on board.
The aircraft involved.
The CAB found:
Inability of the aircraft to gain or maintain altitude due to carburetor ice or propeller ice or wing ice of some combination of these icing conditions while over terrain and in weather unsuitable for an emergency landing.... Weather conditions which, had their nature been anticipated, should have precluded the dispatch of the flight in an aircraft not equipped with wing or propeller deicing equipment.
Civil Aeronautics Board, CAB File No. 4889-43
The British 8th Army took Vinchiaturo.
The British also reestablished their base at Spitzbergen.
The Japanese staged an air raid on Oro Bay, New Guinea, but sustained heavy losses.
Monday, October 15, 1923. The Declaration of Forty Six. Teapot Dome Hearings begin.
The Yankees won the World Series, beating the Giants in game six 4 to 2.
Germany issued new currency, scheduled on the prewar gold backed Mark, but backed by land and businesses which were subject to a forced mortgage.
Forty Six members of the Soviet Communist Party signed a declaration regarding their concerns about the party. It stated:
15 October 1923
Top Secret
TO THE POLITBURO OF THE CC OF THE RCP(b)
The extreme seriousness of the situation forces us (in the interests of our party, in the interests of the working class) to tell you openly that continuation of the policy of the majority of the Politburo threatens the entire party with grave misfortune. The economic and financial crisis beginning at the end of July this year, with all the political consequences flowing from it, including those within the party, has mercilessly revealed the inadequacy of the party leadership, both in the economic realm, and especially in the area of inner-party relations.
The haphazard, poorly thought through, and unsystematic decisions of the CC, which hasn't made ends meet in the economy, have led to a situation where, given the presence of undoubtedly major successes in the realm of industry, agriculture, finances and transport, - successes which were achieved by the economy of the nation spontaneously, not thanks to but in spite of the inadequate leadership, or, to be more precise, the absence of any leadership, - we are faced not only with the perspective of the halting of these successes, but with a severe crisis of the economy as a whole.
Chervonets 1922
We stand before the approaching break-down of the chervonets currency, which spontaneously turned into the basic currency before the liquidation of the budget deficit; we face a credit crisis in which the State Bank cannot, without the risk of severe shocks, finance not only industry and the trade of industrial goods, but even the purchase of grain for export; we face the cessation of the sale of industrial goods because of high prices, which can be explained, on the one hand, by the complete absence of planned, organizational leadership in industry, and on the other, by incorrect credit policy; we face the impossibility of carrying out the grain export program because of the inability to purchase grain; we face extremely low prices for food products, which are ruinous for the peasantry and which threaten massive cutbacks in agricultural production; we face the interruption of wage payments, which evokes the natural dissatisfaction of the workers; we face budget chaos, which directly creates chaos in the government apparatus; "revolutionary" means of cutbacks in drawing up the budget and new, unplanned cutbacks during its realization have gone from being temporary measures to a permanent phenomenon, which relentlessly jolts the state apparatus and, as a result of the absence of planning in the cutbacks - causes accidental and spontaneous shocks to it.
The Scissors: retail and wholesale prices of agricultural and industrial goods in the Soviet Union July 1922 to November 1923.
All these are elements of an economic, credit and financial crisis which has already begun. If we do not immediately take extensive, well thought out, planned and energetic measures, if the present lack of leadership continues, we face the possibility of unusually sharp economic shocks, inevitably bound up with domestic political complications and with the complete paralysis of our foreign activity and capability. And the latter, as everyone understands, is now more necessary than ever before; upon it depends the fate of the world revolution and the working class of all countries.
In precisely the same way, we see in the realm of inner-party relations the same incorrect leadership, paralyzing and demoralizing the party, which is particularly clearly felt during the crisis we are passing through.
We explain this not by the political incapability of the present party leaders; on the contrary, no matter how much we differ with them in evaluating the situation and in choosing the methods to change it, we think that today's leaders under any conditions couldn't help but be appointed by the party to leading posts in the workers' dictatorship. Rather we explain it by the fact that, under the guise of official unity, we actually have a one-sided selection of personnel, who can adapt to the views and sympathies of a narrow circle, and a one-sided direction of activity. As a result of the party leadership being distorted by such narrow considerations, the party has to a significant degree ceased to be that living, independent collective which is sensitive to the changes in living reality, precisely because it is connected with thousands of threads to this reality. Instead of this, we observe an ever progressing, barely disguised division of the party into a secretarial hierarchy and into "laymen", into professional party functionaries, chosen from above, and the other party masses, who take no part in social life.
This is a fact which is well known to every member of the party. Members of the party who are dissatisfied with this or that directive from the CC or even a provincial committee, or who are plagued by doubts, or who have noted "to themselves" various mistakes, things out of line or disorder of some sort, are afraid to speak about it at party gatherings; even worse, they are afraid to talk to one another unless they consider their interlocutor to be absolutely reliable, in the sense of not being "talkative"; free discussion within the party has virtually disappeared, party public opinion has been stifled. Now it is not the party, it is not the party's broad masses who nominate and choose provincial conferences and party congresses, which in turn nominate and choose provincial committees and the Central Committee of the RCP. On the contrary, it is the secretarial hierarchy, the party hierarchy which to an ever greater degree chooses the delegates to the conferences and congresses, which to an ever greater degree are becoming the executive conferences of this hierarchy. The regime which has been established within the party is absolutely intolerable; it is killing the independence of the party, replacing the party with a selected bureaucratic apparatus which functions smoothly during normal times, but which inevitably misfires during moments of crisis, and which threatens to become absolutely helpless when confronted with the serious events which lie ahead.
The situation which has developed is explained by the fact that the regime of fractional dictatorship within the party which unfolded after the Xth Congress has outlived itself. Many of us consciously chose not to resist such a regime. The about-face of 1921, followed by Lenin's illness, demanded, as far as some of us were concerned, a dictatorship within the party as a temporary measure. Other comrades from the very beginning reacted to it skeptically or opposed it. In any case, by the XIIth Party Congress this regime had become obsolete. It began to show the other side of the coin. The inner-party bonds began to weaken. The party began to wither. Extreme oppositional, even openly unhealthy, tendencies within the party began to take on an anti-party character, for there was no inner-party, comradely discussion of the most acute questions. And such a discussion could have revealed, without any difficulty, the unhealthy character of these tendencies, both to the party masses, and to the majority of their participants. As a result, we have seen the formation of illegal groupings, which draw party members away from the party, and we have witnessed the party losing contact with the working masses.
If the situation which has developed is not radically changed in the very near future, the economic crisis in Soviet Russia and the crisis of the fractional dictatorship within the party will strike heavy blows to the workers' dictatorship in Russia and to the Russian Communist Party. With such a burden on its shoulders, the dictatorship of the proletariat in Russia, and its leader, the RCP, cannot enter the field of the impending new international shocks in any other way than with the perspective of failure along the entire front of proletarian struggle. Of course, it would at first glance be easiest of all to resolve the question in the following sense: in view of the situation, there is not and there cannot be any place now for raising the questions of changing the party's course, of placing on the agenda new and complex tasks, etc., etc. But it is absolutely clear that such a point of view would be a position of officially closing one's eyes to the actual situation, since the entire danger lies in the fact that there is no genuine ideological or practical unity in the face of exceedingly complex domestic and foreign situations. In the party, the more silently and secretly the struggle is waged, the more ferocious it becomes. If we raise this question before the Central Committee, then it is precisely in order to find the swiftest and most painless resolution of the contradictions which are tearing the party apart, and to rapidly place the party on healthy foundations. We need real unity in discussions and in actions. The impending ordeals require the unanimous, fraternal, absolutely conscious, extremely energetic, and extremely unified activity of all the members of our party.
The fractional regime must be eliminated, and this must be done first of all by those who have created it; it must be replaced by a regime of comradely unity and inner-party democracy.
In order to realize all that has been outlined above, and to take the necessary measures to extricate ourselves from the economic, political and party crisis, we propose that the CC, as a first and most urgent step, call a conference of members of the CC with the most prominent and active party cadres, in order that the list of those invited include a number of comrades who have views concerning the situation which differ from the views of the majority of the CC.
E. Preobrazhensky
B. Breslav
L. Serebriakov
While not agreeing with certain points in this letter explaining the causes of the situation which has developed, and feeling that the party has come up against problems which cannot fully be resolved by the methods employed up until now, I fully endorse the final conclusion of the present letter.
A. Beloborodov 11 October 1923
I am in complete agreement with the proposals, although I differ with several points concerning motives.
A. Rosengolts
M. Alsky
In general, I share the thoughts of this appeal. The need for a direct and open approach to all our sore points is so overdue, that I fully support the proposal to call the indicated conference, in order to choose the practical ways capable of leading us out of the accumulated difficulties.
Antonov-Ovseenko
A. Venediktov
I. N. Smirnov
G. Piatakov
V. Obolensky (Osinsky)
N. Muralov
T. Sapronov
A. Goltsman
The situation in the party and the international situation are such that they demand the extraordinary concentration and unity of party forces more than ever before. While ascribing to the declaration, I view it exclusively as an attempt to create unity in the party and to prepare it for upcoming events. Naturally, at the present moment there can be no talk of inner-party struggle in any form whatsoever. It is necessary for the CC to soberly assess the situation and to adopt urgent measures to eliminate dissatisfaction within the party, as well as within the non-party masses.
12 October 1923. A. Goltsman
11 October 1923. V. Maksimovsky
L. Sosnovsky
Danishevsky
P. Mesyatsev
G. Khorechko
I do not agree with a number of assessments in the first part of the declaration; I do not agree with a number of characterizations of the inner-party situation. At the same time I am deeply convinced that the state of the party demands the adopting of radical measures, for things are not well in the party at the present time. I fully share the practical proposal.
A. Bubnov 11 October 1923
A. Voronsky
V. Smirnov
E. Bosh
I. Byk
V. Kosior
F. Lokatskov
I am in complete agreement with the evaluation of the economic situation. I consider the weakening of the political dictatorship at the present moment to be dangerous, but things must be aired out. I find a conference to be absolutely necessary.
Kaganovich
Drobnis
P. Kovalenko
A. E. Minkin
V. Yakovleva
I am in complete agreement with the practical proposals.
B. Eltsin
I sign with the same reservations as comrade Bubnov.
M. Levitin
I sign with the same reservations as Bubnov, sharing neither the form, nor the tone, which all the more convinces me to agree with the practical part of the given declaration.
I. Poliudov
O. Shmidel
V. Vaganian
I. Stukov
A. Lobanov
R. Farbman
S. Vasilchenko
Mikh. Zhakov
A. Puzakov
N. Nikolaev
Since during recent times I have been somewhat removed from the work of the party centers, I abstain from the judgements of the two leading paragraphs of the introductory part; I agree with the rest.
Averin
I am in agreement with the part outlining the economic and political situation of the country. I feel that in the part which depicts the inner-party situation, a certain exaggeration has been allowed. It is absolutely necessary to immediately take measures to preserve the unity of the party.
M. Boguslavsky
I am not fully in agreement with the first part, which speaks about the economic situation of the country; the latter is indeed very serious and demands great attention, but up until now the party has not advanced people who would have been able to lead better than those who have been leading until now. Regarding the question of the inner-party situation, I feel that there is a significant portion of truth in everything which has been said, and I consider it necessary to take emergency measures.
F. Dudnik
Most of them would end up with bullets in the back of their heads during Stalin's long reign.
Jal P. Bapasola, Rustom B. Bhumgara and Adi B. Hakim set out from Bombay with the goal of bicycling around the world, which they would achieve by March 18, 1928.
The U.S. Senate Committee on Public Lands and Surveys began hearings on California and Teapot Dome oil leases.
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Equine transport, Ireland, October 15, 1923.
Saturday, October 14, 2023
Best Posts of the Week of October 8, 2023. A week that shall live in infamy.
It has not been a good week.
Wars and Rumors of War, 2023, Part IX, Late Summer.
Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Everyone once in a while, daily readings end up being particularly personally relevant for one reason or another.
I'm finding today's to have that feature:
October 8, 2023, Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 139
Reading 1
Is 5:1-7
Let me now sing of my friend,
my friend's song concerning his vineyard.
My friend had a vineyard
on a fertile hillside;
he spaded it, cleared it of stones,
and planted the choicest vines;
within it he built a watchtower,
and hewed out a wine press.
Then he looked for the crop of grapes,
but what it yielded was wild grapes.
Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard:
What more was there to do for my vineyard
that I had not done?
Why, when I looked for the crop of grapes,
did it bring forth wild grapes?
Now, I will let you know
what I mean to do with my vineyard:
take away its hedge, give it to grazing,
break through its wall, let it be trampled!
Yes, I will make it a ruin:
it shall not be pruned or hoed,
but overgrown with thorns and briers;
I will command the clouds
not to send rain upon it.
The vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel,
and the people of Judah are his cherished plant;
he looked for judgment, but see, bloodshed!
for justice, but hark, the outcry!
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 80:9, 12, 13-14, 15-16, 19-20
R. (Is 5:7a) The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.
A vine from Egypt you transplanted;
you drove away the nations and planted it.
It put forth its foliage to the Sea,
its shoots as far as the River.
R. The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.
Why have you broken down its walls,
so that every passer-by plucks its fruit,
The boar from the forest lays it waste,
and the beasts of the field feed upon it?
R. The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.
Once again, O LORD of hosts,
look down from heaven, and see;
take care of this vine,
and protect what your right hand has planted,
the son of man whom you yourself made strong.
R. The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.
Then we will no more withdraw from you;
give us new life, and we will call upon your name.
O LORD, God of hosts, restore us;
if your face shine upon us, then we shall be saved.
R. The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.
Reading 2
Phil 4:6-9
Brothers and sisters:
Have no anxiety at all, but in everything,
by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
make your requests known to God.
Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding
will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brothers and sisters,
whatever is true, whatever is honorable,
whatever is just, whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious,
if there is any excellence
and if there is anything worthy of praise,
think about these things.
Keep on doing what you have learned and received
and heard and seen in me.
Then the God of peace will be with you.
Alleluia
Cf. Jn 15:16
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I have chosen you from the world, says the Lord,
to go and bear fruit that will remain.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Mt 21:33-43
Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people:
"Hear another parable.
There was a landowner who planted a vineyard,
put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower.
Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey.
When vintage time drew near,
he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce.
But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat,
another they killed, and a third they stoned.
Again he sent other servants, more numerous than the first ones,
but they treated them in the same way.
Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking,
'They will respect my son.'
But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another,
'This is the heir.
Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.'
They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.
What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?"
They answered him,
"He will put those wretched men to a wretched death
and lease his vineyard to other tenants
who will give him the produce at the proper times."
Jesus said to them, "Did you never read in the Scriptures:
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
by the Lord has this been done,
and it is wonderful in our eyes?
Therefore, I say to you,
the kingdom of God will be taken away from you
and given to a people that will produce its fruit."
The Palestinian Problem and its Wilsonian Solution.
Lex Anteinternet: Wars and Rumors of War, 2023, Part X, Declarations:
October 15, 2023
Hamas v. Israel
Egypt has completed a concrete barrier to block Palestinian entrants from Gaza. Their border is very small, so they will be able to enforce it.
Qatar has refused to take Palestinian refugees.
Why have I linked this in, well to demonstrate part of the problem.
Bernie "I knew Lenin when he was just a baby" Sanders has called Gaza an "open air prison".
It isn't, but if it is, the guards aren't just Israeli, they're also Egyptian, and quite frankly, the Arabs in general.
Nobody wants the Palestinians, as by this point, to put it charitably, they're acclimated to living off the dole and are inclined to violence. They're like the residents of Northern Ireland at one time, on spades.
We went into the complicated history of what is now Israel the other day, but to unfairly summarize it, the problem was created by this.
Ottoman Palestine.
Jewish immigrants legally started migrating to the region when it was an Ottoman province, and then when it was a British League of Nations Mandate. When the Jewish population became noticeable, in a region we might note that not only had an Arab population, but an Armenian population and a Greek population, the Palestinians began to worry and demanded that it stop. They turned to violence in the 1930s/
Prior to this time, it isn't as if it was an independent country and indeed, as the map above shows, is borders weren't really what they are now. Israel had been an independent kingdom in ancient times, but it had been conquered by numerous ancient empires and kingdoms during its history. Rome put an end to Israel, as we discussed the other day, until 1948. Like much of the pre World War One Arabic Middle East, it was ruled under Ottoman rule by various tribal families.
The period after the Great War was transformational due to the high levels of Jewish immigration, and World War Two made a push towards a restoration of Jewish Israel inevitable. After over a millennium of being murdered for no reason whatsoever, the Jewish people wanted a homeland of their own. And, by that time, they had the population base in Palestine to demand it.
The Palestinian Arabs simply couldn't accommodate themselves to the thought, and the non-Palestinian Arabs couldn't either. They made a bad bet. Had the Palestinians imply gone along with it, quite frankly, by now the demographic impact of their higher birth rate would mean that Israel would have a majority Palestinian population. But they didn't, and in becoming refugees they became wards of the world.
Today, inside the Palestinian Authority, they suffer high unemployment, particularly in Gaza, which is an unnatural economic unit. The Arabs, and Iran, support them, but they've largely gotten over Israel by now and they don't want the Palestinians in their country. They'd rather back them economically than let them in.
But, if there's a solution to this, they probably need to.
Following World War One, largely due to Woodrow Wilson's view of how the world should work, everything pushed towards nation states. Due to the Great War, Germany and Russia were pushed out of Poland. Finland, the Baltics States, and the various Slavic states that hadn't been independent, became independent. Ireland became independent. Colonialism started to become a dirty word.
The Ottoman Empire collapsed and Middle Eastern kingdoms, imperfectly drawn, sprang up.
And populations were somewhat moved.
After World War Two, this was very much the case again, although mostly due to the Soviet Union seeking to redraw is territory on ethnic grounds.
None of this is pleasant, but the solution to this may be here.
Israel isn't going to go away, and is not going to let itself become an Arab dominated state.
The Palestinians aren't going away either, but their territory, and they aren't getting Palestine back, isn't viable. They've never, moreover, really had any sort of independent state in the first place.
They are also a Mediterranean people, which means that they are largely a Sunni Muslim (some are Christians, but they're disappearing as a demographic as Islam is hostile to them and for that matter the Israelis aren't keen on them either) Arab coastal people.
Qatar is a coastal, Sunni Bedouin Arab nation. So is Saudi Arabia. So is Kuwait. So is Dubai.
All of these countries have a labor shortage.
A solution, and perhaps the only one, is to resettle the Palestinians in those countries. Not in one country, which will create all kinds of problems, but across them.
They will not mix in immediately, but they would in fairly short order.
Jews whose ancestors emigrated from Ukraine, Poland, etc., 75 years ago do not look back and wish romantically that they could reclaim lost occupations and lands. Frankly, in 75 years, if this was done, Palestinians wouldn't either. For that matter, in a fairly short period, they'd be fairly mixed with the local Arab population in any event, their identify less of a thing, and their futures better.
Of course, nobody is proposing this, even though many are secretly thinking about it. Simply pushing the Palestinians out of Gaza has come up as an Israeli solution before. The Egyptians fear a lot of Palestinians heading their way, and they cannot accommodate them. That Qatar would reject their entry at this point shows that a lot of Arab states have this on their minds.
And the Palestinians, clinging to a pipe dream, probably wouldn't want to do it either.
Related threads:
Hamas v. Israel. Some observations, and How did we get here?
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