October's gone, already. . .
October, frankly, wasn't a great one this year. Turmoil in Congress and war in the Middle East.
Friday, October 29, 1943. Fatal joke.
Painted Bricks: The Virginian, Medince Bow, Wyoming.
Saturday, November 4, 2023
Sunday, November 4, 1973. Driverless Sunday.
By Fotograaf Onbekend / Anefo - http://proxy.handle.net/10648/ac3c2404-d0b4-102d-bcf8-003048976d84, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67727372
The Dutch ban on Sunday driving due to the fuel emergency went into effect.
Thursday, November 4, 1943. Island hopping.
A seaplane tender in Aleutian waters trains a 40mm battery on an unidentified aircraft, November 4, 1943.
The U.S. War Department concluded that attacking Japan from mainland China was impracticable. Therefore, the island strategy was solidly recommended.
An uprising broke out at the Szebnie concentration camp in Poland following the execution of over 1,000 of its prisoners. The SS rapidly suppressed it and the inmates are shipped to Auschwitz.
The Red Army broke out of its Dniepr bridgeheads.
A newly arrived Japanese Imperial Navy task force consisting of ten cruisers and ten destroyers is spotted by the U.S. Navy near Rabaul resulting in Task Force 38 preparing to strike it from the air.
The Allies achieve full lateral communications through Isernia in Italy.
From Sarah Sundin's blog:
Today in World War II History—November 4, 1943: Plutonium processing plant opens at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, for atomic bomb development as the X-10 graphite reactor reaches criticality.
A prediction.
I give the current Speaker of the House no more than 90 days.
During that time, he'll seek to be ideologically pure, as he defines it.
His inability to compromise will bring him down.
And with that descent, his political career.
The next speaker will be a pragmatist.
And that will be the beginning of the end of far right ideological control.
Friday, November 3, 2023
Wednesday, November 3, 1943. Aktion Erntefest
Over 18,000 Jewish prisoners were shot on this day at the Majdanke concentration camp in Poland in Aktion Erntefest, named after the traditional German harvest festival. Music associated with the festival and dance music was played over loudspeakers to drown out the sounds of the massacre.
An additional 6,000 were murdered at Trawniki concentration camp.
Over 42,000 Jews would be murdered over a course of several days.
Hitler issued Führer Directive Number 51. It stated:
Führer Headquarters3 November 1943 Top Secret The Führer OKW/WFSt/Op.No. 662656/43 g.K. Chefs
For the last two and one-half years the bitter and costly struggleagainst Bolshevism has made the utmost demands upon the bulk of ourmilitary resources and energies. This commitment was in keeping with the seriousness of the danger, and the over-all situation. The situation has since changed. The threat from the East remains, but an even greater danger looms in the West: the Anglo-American landing! In the East, the vastness of the space will, as a last resort, permit a loss of territory even on a major scale, without suffering a mortal blow to Germany’s chance for survival.
Not so in the West! If the enemy here succeeds in penetrating our defenses on a wide front, consequences of staggering proportions will follow within a short time. All signs point to an offensive against theWestern Front of Europe no later than spring, and perhaps earlier.
For that reason, I can no longer justify the further weakening of the West in favor of other theaters of war. I have therefore decided to strengthen the defenses in the West, particularly at places from which we shall launch our long-range war against England. For those are the very points at which the enemy must and will attack; there-unless all indications are misleading-will be fought the decisive invasion battle.
Holding attacks and diversions on other fronts are to be expected. Not even the possibility of a large-scale offensive against Denmark may beexcluded. It would pose greater nautical problems and could be less effectively supported from the air, but would nevertheless produce thegreatest political and strategic impact if it were to succeed.
During the opening phase of the battle, the entire striking power of the enemy will of necessity be directed against our forces manning the coast. Only an all-out effort in the construction of fortifications, an unsurpassed effort that will enlist all available manpower and physical resources of Germany and the occupied areas, will be able to strengthenour defenses along the coasts within the short time that still appears to be left to us.
Stationary weapons (heavy AT guns, immobile tanks to be dug-in, coast artillery, shore-defense guns, mines, etc.) arriving in Denmark and the occupied West within the near future will be heavily concentrated in points of main defensive effort at the most vulnerable coastal sectors.At the same time, we must take the calculated risk that for the present we may be unable to improve our defenses in less threatened sectors.
Should the enemy nevertheless force a landing by concentrating his armed might, he must be hit by the full fury of our counterattack. For this mission ample and speedy reinforcements of men and materiel, as well as intensive training must transform available larger units into first-rate,fully mobile general reserves suitable for offensive operations. The counterattack of these units will prevent the enlargement of the beachhead, and throw the enemy back into the sea.
In addition, well-planned emergency measures, prepared down to the last detail, must enable us instantly to throw against the invader every fit man and machine from coastal sectors not under attack and from the homefront.
The anticipated strong attacks by air and sea must be relentlessly countered by Air Force and Navy with all their available resources. I therefore order the following:
A) Army:
1.) The Chief of the Army General Staff and the Inspector General of Panzer Troops will submit to me as soon as possible a schedule covering arms, tanks, assault guns, motor vehicles, and ammunition to be allocated to the Western Front and Denmark within the next three months. That schedule will conform to the new situation. The following considerationswill be basic:
a) Sufficient mobility for all panzer and panzer grenadier divisions in the West, and equipment of each of those units by December 1943 with 93Mark IV tanks or assault guns, as well as large numbers of antitankweapons.
Accelerated reorganization of the 20 Luftwaffe Field Divisions into an effective mobile reserve force by the end of 1943. This reorganization isto include the issue of assault guns.
Accelerated issue of all authorized weapons to the SS Panzer Grenadier Division Hitler Jugend, the 21st Panzer Division, and the infantry andreserve divisions stationed in Jutland.
b) Additional shipments of Mark IV tanks, assault guns, and heavy AT guns to the reserve panzer divisions stationed in the West and in Denmark, as well as to the Assault Gun Training Battalion in Denmark.
c) In November and December, monthly allotments of 100 heavy AT guns models 40 and 43 (half of these to be mobile) in addition to thoserequired for newly activated units in the West and in Denmark.
d) Allotment of large numbers of weapons (including about 1,000 machineguns) for augmenting the armament of those static divisions that arecommitted for coastal defense in the West and in Denmark, and forstandardizing the equipment of elements that are to be withdrawn fromsectors not under attack.
e) Ample supply of close-combat AT weapons to units in vulnerablesectors.
f) Improvement of artillery and AT defenses in units stationed in Denmark, as well as those committed for coastal protection in theoccupied West. Strengthening of GHQ artillery.
2.) The units and elements stationed in the West or in Denmark, as well as panzer, assault gun, and AT units to be activated in the West, must not be transferred to other fronts without my permission. The Chief ofthe Army General Staff, or the Inspector General of Panzer Troops will submit to me a report through the Armed Forces Operations Staff as soon as the issue of equipment to the panzer and assault gun battalions, as well as to the AT battalions and companies, has been completed.
3.) Beyond similar measures taken in the past, the Commander in Chief West will establish time tables for, and conduct maneuvers and command post exercises on, the procedure for bringing up units from sectors not under attack. These units will be made capable of performing offensive missions, however limited. In that connection I demand that sectors not threatened by the enemy be ruthlessly stripped of all forces except small guard detachments. For sectors from which reserves are withdrawn,security and guard detachments must be set aside from security and alarmunits. Labor forces drawn largely from the native population must likewise be organized in those sectors, in order to keep open whateverroads might be destroyed by the enemy air force.
4.) The Commander of German Troops in Denmark will take measures in thearea under his control in compliance with paragraph 3 above.
5.) Pursuant to separate orders, the Chief of Army Equipment andCommander of the Replacement Army will form Kampfgruppen in regimental strength, security battalions, and engineer construction battalions fromtraining cadres, trainees, schools, and instruction and convalescentunits in the Zone of the Interior. These troops must be ready forshipment on 48 hours’ notice.
Furthermore, other available personnel are to be organized into battalions of replacements and equipped with the available weapons, sothat the anticipated heavy losses can quickly be replaced.
B) Luftwaffe:
The offensive and defensive effectiveness of Luftwaffe units in the Westand in Denmark will be increased to meet the changed situation. To that end, preparations will be made for the release of units suited for commitment in the anti-invasion effort, that is, all flying units and mobile Flak artillery that can be spared from the air defenses of thehome front, and from schools and training units in the Zone of the Interior. All those units are to be earmarked for the West and possibly Denmark.
The Luftwaffe ground organization in southern Norway, Denmark, northwestern Germany, and the West will be expanded and supplied in a waythat will-by the most far-reaching decentralization of own forces-denytargets to the enemy bombers, and split the enemy’s offensive effort incase of large-scale operations. Particularly important in that connection will be our fighter forces. Possibilities for their commitment must be increased by the establishment of numerous advance landing fields. Special emphasis is to be placed on good camouflage. I expect also that the Luftwaffe will unstintingly furnish all available forces, bystripping them from less threatened areas.
C) Navy:
The Navy will prepare the strongest possible forces suitable for attacking the enemy landing fleets. Coastal defense installations in the process of construction will be completed with the utmost speed. The emplacing of additional coastal batteries and the possibility of layingfurther flanking mine fields should be investigated.
All school, training, and other shore-based personnel fit for groundcombat must be prepared for commitment so that, without undue delay, they can at least be employed as security forces within the zone of the enemylanding operations.
While preparing the reinforcement of the defenses in the West, the Navy must keep in mind that it might be called upon to repulse simultaneous enemy landings in Norway and Denmark. In that connection, I attach particular importance to the assembly of numerous U-boats in the northern area. A temporary weakening of U-boat forces in the Atlantic must be risked.
D) SS:
The Reichsfuehrer-SS will determine what Waffen-SS and police forces he can release for combat, security, and guard duty. He is to prepare to organize effective combat and security forces from training, replacement,and convalescent units, as well as schools and other home-front establishments.
E) The commanders in chief of the services, the Reichsfuehrer-ss, the Chief of the Army General Staff, the Commander in Chief West, the Chief of Army Equipment and Commander of the Replacement Army, the Inspector General of Panzer Troops, as well as the Commander of German Troops in Denmark will report to me by 15 November all measures taken or planned.
I expect that all agencies will make a supreme effort toward utilizing every moment of the remaining time in preparing for the decisive battlein the West.
All authorities will guard against wasting time and energy in useless jurisdictional squabbles, and will direct all their efforts towardstrengthening our defensive and offensive power.
Adolf Hitler
The emphasis on Denmark, which would have made for a difficult invasion, is interesting.
The diversionary Raid on Choiseul (Operation Blissful) came to an end.
Today in World War II History—November 3, 1943: Battleship USS Oklahoma, sunk at Pearl Harbor, is refloated, but it will be scrapped due to damage. US Eighth Air Force sends 566 bombers to Wilhelmshaven.
Sarah Sundin.
She also notes that Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes signed an interim agreement with coal miners allowing for the resumption of coal mining.
Saturday, November 3, 1923. Aviation arrest.
Harold Kullberg, former Royal Air Force captian, arrested aircraft pilot Howard Calvert and passenger Frank O'Neill for performing stunt flying over a city, the same being Akron Ohio. It was the first arrest for violation of air traffic rules in the United States. Kullberg had noted the violations while in the air himself.
Kullberg had scored 19 aerial victories in World War One with the Royal Air Force, his efforts to join the U.S. Army as a flyer having been rejected to his being too short. He died at age 27 in 1924, he died while instructing a student pilot.
Swedish Crown Prince Gustav Adolf married Louise Mountbatten at St. James Palace.
German President Friedrich Ebert refused the request of General Hans von Seeckt for dictatorial powers in law enforcement in Bavaria, which was interesting in the context of the Bavarian government more or less having the same.
Football season was of course on.
The "East v. Central" high school game, somewhere on this day:
Going Feral: Blog Mirror: Eric Movar from the Tribune: Rock Springs plan proposal brings commonsense conservation to the Red Desert
Going Feral: Blog Mirror: Eric Movar from the Tribune: Rock Sp...:
Blog Mirror: Eric Movar from the Tribune: Rock Springs plan proposal brings commonsense conservation to the Red Desert
Much more in the article.
The author, Eric Movar, is a Western Watersheds Project’s Executive Director and frankly, I'm not a big fan of the Western Watershed Project, which I think tends to be anti agriculture. Here, however, I think they're right on the mark.
But do they have to memorize the Prime Directive?*
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Space Force Spc. 4 Mark Casner and Space Force Sgt. Jessica Hall take the oath of enlistment during an outdoor ceremony at Fort Carson, Colo., Oct. 24, 2023. Air Force Airman 1st Class Cody Friend.
And why are they wearing camouflage?
Footnotes:
*From Star Trek, and violated in darn near every episode, the supposed Starfleet General Order No. 1 which provides that Starfleet isn't supposed to interfere with the normal development of any society right up to the point of losing personnel and vessels to keep it, although oddly almost every other episode features Cpt. Kirk and crew messing with some galactic populace.
Thursday, November 2, 2023
Churches of the West: November Plenary Indulgences. All Souls Day.
Churches of the West: November Plenary Indulgences. All Souls Day.:
November Plenary Indulgences. All Souls Day.
Note, I'm not a theologian. I tried to figue this out, and I think I have it right, but I might not. This is copied from a Church in Ireland.
1. Plenary Indulgence of 2 November
From 12 noon on 1 November until midnight on 2 November one plenary indulgence (applicable only to the Holy Souls) may be gained by visiting a church or oratory and recite the Our Father and the Creed there.
Conditions for gaining a plenary indulgence:
Go to Confession (in the week preceding or the week following 1 November)
Receive Holy Communion (1 Holy Communion for each indulgence)
Pray for the Pope’s intentions (one Our Father, and Hail Mary or any other prayer of one’s choice)
One should have the desire to be detached from every attraction to sin, even the slightest
2. 1 — 8 November
The faithful who visit a cemetery and pray for the dead, may gain a plenary indulgence (applicable only to the Holy Souls) once per day from 1 to 8 November.
The above conditions regarding Confession, Holy Communion and prayer for the Pope’s intentions apply also for this.
3. What is an Indulgence?
“An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints” (Paul VI, Apostolic Constitution, Indulgentiarum doctrina, Norm 1).
“An indulgence is partial or plenary according as it removes either part or all of the temporal punishment due to sin” (Indulgentiarum doctrina, Norm 2; Cf. Norm 3). The faithful can gain Indulgences for themselves or apply them to the dead (Code of Canon Law, can. 994).
From Catechism of the Catholic Church, no 1471
Tuesday, November 2, 1943. The Battle of Empress Augusta Bay.
The Battle of Empress Augusta Bay occured as the Imperial Japanese Navy responded to the invasion of Bougainville, which had in fact caught the Japanese off guard, by sending in a naval task force. U.S. Navy Task Force 39 was on sight.
_during_Battle_of_Empress_Augusta_Bay_1943.jpg)
The U.S. Navy had radar, the Japanese did not. This overcame the Japanese nighttime advantage, which was based on training, resulting in a complete Japanese defeat. The U.S. pursuit ended with first light and with it naval action in the Philippines. The Japanese Navy would not significantly reappear.
The US sustained nineteen killed, one cruiser damaged, and two destroyers damaged. The Japanese lost one light cruiser, one destroyer sunk, and one heavy cruiser was damaged, one light cruiser was damaged, two destroyers heavily damaged, twenty-five aircraft shot down and somewhere between 200 and 650 killed.
The heavy cruiser Haguro in Simpson Bay, Rabaul. She had been damaged at Empress Augusta Bay the previous night. November 2, 1943.
The Allies began bombing Rabaul in what was termed Bloody Tuesday. The 71st Bomb Squadron, 38th Bomb Group, 5th United States Army Air Force attacked Japanese shipping, inflicting heavy losses but sustaining them as well. It also resulted in a posthumous Medal of Honor being awarded to Maj. Raymond Wilkins. His citation reads:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action with the enemy near Rabaul, New Britain, on 2 November 1943. Leading his squadron in an attack on shipping in Simpson Harbor, during which intense antiaircraft fire was expected, Maj. Wilkins briefed his squadron so that his airplane would be in the position of greatest risk. His squadron was the last of 3 in the group to enter the target area. Smoke from bombs dropped by preceding aircraft necessitated a last-second revision of tactics on his part, which still enabled his squadron to strike vital shipping targets, but forced it to approach through concentrated fire, and increased the danger of Maj. Wilkins' left flank position. His airplane was hit almost immediately, the right wing damaged, and control rendered extremely difficult. Although he could have withdrawn, he held fast and led his squadron into the attack. He strafed a group of small harbor vessels, and then, at low level, attacked an enemy destroyer. His 1,000 pound bomb struck squarely amidships, causing the vessel to explode. Although antiaircraft fire from this vessel had seriously damaged his left vertical stabilizer, he refused to deviate from the course. From below-masthead height he attacked a transport of some 9,000 tons, scoring a hit which engulfed the ship in flames. Bombs expended, he began to withdraw his squadron. A heavy cruiser barred the path. Unhesitatingly, to neutralize the cruiser's guns and attract its fire, he went in for a strafing run. His damaged stabilizer was completely shot off. To avoid swerving into his wing planes he had to turn so as to expose the belly and full wing surfaces of his plane to the enemy fire; it caught and crumpled his left wing. Now past control, the bomber crashed into the sea. In the fierce engagement Maj. Wilkins destroyed 2 enemy vessels, and his heroic self-sacrifice made possible the safe withdrawal of the remaining planes of his squadron.
Wilkins had originally intended to be a physician, but had joined the Army in 1936 after two years of pharmacy studies. He served in the Army Air Corps from that point on, becoming a pilot in 1941.
The U.S. Fifth Army reached the Garigliano River in Italy.
The U-340 had to be scuttled after engaging a British warship off of Morocco.]
The US Comptroller issued the following finding:
B-37793, NOVEMBER 2, 1943, 23 COMP. GEN. 329
TRAVELING EXPENSES - FARES - ROUND-TRIP TICKETS WHERE IT IS SHOWN THAT DUE TO EMERGENCY WAR CONDITIONS AN OFFICIAL TRAVELER WAS UNABLE TO OBTAIN ADVANCE RESERVATIONS ON TRAINS AND WAS REQUIRED TO SECURE ONE-WAY TICKETS FOR EACH STEP OF THE JOURNEY, IT MAY BE CONCLUDED THAT THE SECURING OF A ROUND-TRIP TICKET WAS NOT "PRACTICABLE" WITHIN THE MEANING OF PARAGRAPH 16 OF THE STANDARDIZED GOVERNMENT TRAVEL REGULATIONS, REQUIRING TRAVELERS TO SECURE ROUND-TRIP TICKETS WHENEVER PRACTICABLE AND ECONOMICAL.
COMPTROLLER GENERAL WARREN TO C. P. KNAPP, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, NOVEMBER 2, 1943:
REFERENCE IS MADE TO YOUR LETTER OF OCTOBER 16, 1943, AS FOLLOWS:
THE ATTACHED VOUCHER FOR $98.15, IN FAVOR OF H. M. HUFFMAN, PRINCIPAL PHYSICAL CHEMIST OF THE BUREAU OF MINES EXPERIMENT STATION, BARTLESVILLE, OKLAHOMA, HAS BEEN PRESENTED TO THIS OFFICE FOR ADMINISTRATIVE EXAMINATION AND CERTIFICATION.
MR. HUFFMAN TRAVELED FROM BARTLESVILLE, OKLAHOMA, TO CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, DETROIT, MICHIGAN, WASHINGTON, D.C., PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, AND RETURN TO BARTLESVILLE, OKLAHOMA, ISSUING GOVERNMENT TRANSPORTATION REQUESTS FOR ONE-WAY TICKETS FOR THE VARIOUS STEPS OF THE JOURNEY INSTEAD OF PURCHASING ROUND-TRIP TICKETS, WHENEVER PRACTICABLE AND ECONOMICAL, AS REQUIRED BY PARAGRAPH 16 OF THE STANDARDIZED GOVERNMENT TRAVEL REGULATIONS. HE FURNISHES THE FOLLOWING JUSTIFICATION FOR THE PURCHASE OF ONE-WAY TICKETS FOR THE VARIOUS STEPS OF THE JOURNEY:
" DUE TO THE FACT THAT I WAS UNABLE TO OBTAIN ADVANCE RESERVATIONS, THE LOCAL TICKET AGENT ADVISED THE PURCHASE OF ONE-WAY TICKETS. AT EACH STEP IN THE TRAVEL IT WAS NECESSARY TO TAKE WHATEVER RESERVATIONS THAT COULD BE OBTAINED FOR THE NEXT STEP OF THE JOURNEY. SINCE IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE TO TELL WHICH RAILROAD THE JOURNEY WOULD BE MADE ON, IT SEEMED ADVISABLE TO MAKE THE TRIP ON ONE-WAY TICKETS.'
A RULING IS REQUESTED AS TO WHETHER ADMINISTRATIVE APPROVAL AND CERTIFICATION MAY BE MADE OF THE VOUCHER IN THE AMOUNT CLAIMED.
WHILE YOU DID NOT SIGN YOUR LETTER IN THE CAPACITY OF AUTHORIZED CERTIFYING OFFICER, IT IS UNDERSTOOD THAT YOU OFFICIALLY OCCUPY SUCH STATUS; HENCE, YOUR LETTER WILL BE REGARDED AS A REQUEST MADE IN THAT CAPACITY FOR DECISION PURSUANT TO THE PROVISIONS OF SECTION 3 OF THE ACT OF DECEMBER 29, 1941, 55 STAT. 876, WHICH GRANT TO CERTIFYING OFFICERS "THE RIGHT TO APPLY FOR AND OBTAIN A DECISION BY THE COMPTROLLER GENERAL ON ANY QUESTION OF LAW INVOLVED IN A PAYMENT ON ANY VOUCHERS PRESENTED TO THEM FOR CERTIFICATION.'
PARAGRAPH 16 OF THE GOVERNMENT TRAVEL REGULATIONS PROVIDES:
THROUGH TICKETS, EXCURSIONS, TICKETS, REDUCED RATE ROUND-TRIP OR PARTY TICKETS SHOULD BE SECURED WHENEVER PRACTICABLE AND ECONOMICAL.
IN VIEW OF THE EXPLANATION FURNISHED BY THE TRAVELER REGARDING THE DIFFICULTY OF MAKING ADVANCE RESERVATIONS ON TRAINS--- A CONDITION WHICH IS A MATTER OF COMMON KNOWLEDGE AT THIS TIME, ARISING FROM THE EMERGENCY WAR CONDITIONS--- IT MAY BE CONCLUDED THAT IT WAS NOT "PRACTICABLE" WITHIN THE PURVIEW OF THE REGULATIONS, SUPRA, TO HAVE OBTAINED ROUND-TRIP TICKETS IN RESPECT OF THE INVOLVED TRAVEL. ACCORDINGLY, SO FAR AS THE QUESTION RELATES TO THE MATTER OF THE PURCHASE OF ONE-WAY TICKETS FOR THE LOWEST FIRST-CLASS ACCOMMODATIONS INSTEAD OF ROUND-TRIP TICKETS, THE VOUCHER, IF OTHERWISE CORRECT AND PROPER, MAY BE CERTIFIED FOR PAYMENT.
New Yorkers went to the polls, where the following items were on their ballot:
Proposed Amendment No. 1 Admin of Government. Establishes a department of commerce in the state government
It was approved
Proposed Amendment No. 2 Taxes Authorizes the legislature to establish a fund or funds for tax revenue stabilization
It was also approved
Proposed Amendment No. 3 Redistricting Relates to the creation of assembly districts in counties that have been apportioned a greater number of assemblyman then there are towns
It was defeated
Proposed Amendment No. 4 Direct Democracy Changes residence requirements for voting purposes
It was approved.
Proposed Amendment No. 5 Direct Democracy Relates to residence requirements for election to the state assembly or senate in the first election after redistricting
It was approved
Proposed Amendment No. 6 Judiciary Relates to the jurisdiction of the court of appeals and the regulation of appeals by that court
It was approved.
The following recordings were made on this day on the Decca label, all from the movie Girl Crazy.
But not for me. Judy Garland
Treat me rough Judy Garland ; Mickey Rooney
I got rhythm Judy Garland
Hollywood, for promotional purposes, spent a fair amount of time trying to promote the concept that Garland and Rooney were a couple, which they weren't.
A really rough looking Gen. Clair Chennault appeared on the cover of Look.
Friday, November 2, 1923. A person of interest.
Actress Margaret Gibson was arrested on charges of running a blackmail and extortion ring. The charges would later be dropped, She would keep working in the film industry until 1929.
During her career she performed under the names Patricia Palmer, Patsy Palmer, Margie Gibson, Marguerite Gibson, Ella Margaret Lewis, Ella Margaret Arce, Pat Lewis and perhaps others. She started running into legal trouble in 1917, when she was arrested for vagrancy with allegations of opium dealing. She was acquitted, but her career did thereafter decline.
On this day in 1923 she was arrested on federal felony charges. As things developed, George W. Lasher told authorities he had paid Gibson $1155 to avoid prosecution for a reputed violation of the Mann Act. Charges were, however, later dropped.
She married in 1935 to oil executive Elbert Lewis. They lived overseas, and the marriage was successful. In 1940, at age 45, she returned to the United States without her husband for surgery. World War Two intervened, and they would not be reunited as her husband was killed when the Japanese bombed Socony-Vacuum's oil facility at Penang, Malaysia on March 15, 1942.
She returned to Hollywood in 1964, and at that time, converted to Catholicism. Only shortly thereafter, she became gravely ill, called for a priest, and confessed to neighbors the February 1, 1922, murder of Hollywood film director William Desmond Taylor. The murder of Taylor remains officially unsolved, and while there were a handful of suspects, Gibson was never one of them. In spite of her deathbed confession and her being distraught at the time, there are still those who doubt she committed the crime.
Gibson with Taylor in a still from the 1914 film "The Riders of Petersham".
Given her conversion to Catholicism, and the sudden deathbed conversion, my guess is that she was the killer. Suspicion on this is tied to her earlier efforts at extortion, and a flurry of that which occured following the Fatty Arbuckle episode.
U.S. Navy Lieutenant Harlold J. Brow set a new flight airspeed record of 250 mph, making him the first person to fly faster than 400 kph. His plane was a Curtis racer.
The three Socialist members of Gustav Stresemann's cabinet resigned in protest over the governments refusal to curtail the dictatorial government in Bavaria.
Oklahoma's Governor Walton wasn't prepared to give up.
Ceremonies were held at Arlington National Cemetery for twenty-three U.S. Navy sailors and Marines from the USS Pittsburgh who died of influenza in 1918 and were returned to the United States from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
And it was a busy day on the Panama Canal, like most days.
Panama Canal - West Lirio slide 11/2/23.
Are there lessons from today's entry? Almost surely. Redemption after a long journey to one who ultimately pursued, but also life cut short.
A headline you don't expect to see.
This was at one time very common:
Last operating prison ship plans to close in New York
I didn't realize it happened at all anymore, and it sounds like it was intended to be a temporary measure here.
A modest funding proposal.
Representative Mike Johnson wants to cut funds to the IRS to balance out an appropriation to Israel. It's a bit disturbing in a number of ways, in the case of Johnson in particular. We'll go into that someplace else.
But as to cutting the IRS, well, that makes no sense to any semi sentient person who is awake and not on medication . . .unless you are part of the group of people who feels that the IRS is theft itself or that the Federal Government needs to be starved.
Well, here's a better idea for the populist dream. Cut Federal Funds to states.
Now, Louisiana is one of the states that's most dependent upon those funds. But so be it. Cutting funds lets Louisiana be Louisiana, hurricanes and all. After all, there's no reason that people in New Jersey should have to pay for Louisiana's being in a hurricane belt. They didn't put it there, now, did they? And back in the good ole' days, before all the Federal interference, Louisiana had to get by on its own. Sure, it was desperately poor (and frankly, it still has a lot of that), but people didn't have to see that due to the lack of highways.
Wyoming is also in the top ten on Federal largess, by the way. But hopefully the hard right can end that, and we'll be able to do away with highways also.
Hearing what you want to hear, without actually listening and Coffee and Donuts isn't assessing the view of the Parish. Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist, 50th edition, the Synod Edition.
Steve Millies
The theme I see in a lot of clerical #Catholic comment on the #synod is—'Who are all these laypeople and why do they think they get a voice in *my* church?'
Oh, bull. I haven't been hearing that at all.
Quite the contrary, in facdt.
Apparently, I'd note, I’m not the only one either:
Fr. Joseph Krupp@Joeinblack
So weird. I follow almost 800 priests, and not one of them has said anything remotely like that.
Mostly, we worry about how to deal with the increasingly large piles of demands on us.
We worry because everyone is an expert on our job, but most are only willing to help if they…
Show more
In six decades now of attending Mass, I can't think of a single instance in which I've personally heard a priest openly criticize a Bishop or the Pope, although I'm sure they didn't always agree with them. They simply obeyed and did their duties. This would include not only the Pope Francis era, but the real "spirit of Vatican II" disruption of the 70s.
All of the criticism of Bishops and Popes I've heard have come from the laity, and it tended as a rule to object to reforms. Even the mantillas I am now seeing for the first time in sizable numbers being worn by young women are a form of protest in a way. The point is that a lot of "the voice of the laity is being ignored" doesn't come from the class under age 40, really, whose, but from the Western middle-aged and old.
Mr. Millies is, I'd note, a Professor of Public theology who was born in 1972. That makes him nine years younger than me, or 51 years of age. He's not a Baby Boomer, the generation that's most frequently picked on here, but he's not a kid either.
The young church might not really be the voice that people 50 years old and up really want to hear, as it might look like a voice that actually is more from the lost past that the dying post Boomer present.
On assessing the voice of the parish, moreover, every parish I've ever been to worked desperately to do that, usually unsuccessfully, in trying to get the rank and file of the parish to express their voice and to come to thins other than Mass. As I've noted, this has been, in my experience, uniformly unsuccessful.
Which takes us to this.
Also on Twitter, one Canadian Catholic commentator, D.W. Lafferty replied to another person's credulity regarding assessing the views at the parish level in an interesting fashion. That post noted:
Apparently, "synodality" is just a euphemism for "a discussion group in the church basement." Huh. twitter.com/rightscholar/s…
Lafferty replied:
That's where it can start, for sure. It's the simplest thing in the world to have people in a parish get together to talk and listen. Might cost a few bucks for coffee and donuts. If we can't pull that off, what are we even doing?
And, similarly:
How much does it cost to have a discussion group in the church basement? Or to have a volunteer take notes and produce a synthesis? Cost is not the problem. Lack of interest and motivation on the part of many pastors is the problem.
And here we meet the academic in academia, rather than the regular person in the pews.
I've served on a parish council. I didn't ask to run for the position, but received anonymous nominations three times. I rejected the first two, as I’m not a joiner, and I'm busy. Finally, the third time, I felt compelled and served for several years.
I've also been on a professional board. Same thing. I didn't volunteer, I was asked to serve.
And I once served in a professional role that was, well professional, the same way. Asked to serve.
The point?
Well, I’m an introvert. I have opinions on everything, but only very rarely will I cause myself to attend something. I will, but it's rare. Most of the time I've had public roles in anything, I was volunteered, and at least some of the time, I declined.
When the Synod got up and rolling, I didn't attend the parish meetings, and looking at the various parish reports on the number of people who attended, attendance was generally low. I regret that now, but I know that beyond a shadow of a doubt I would have been the odd man out at the meeting. . . if not necessarily in the pews.
A brief diversion.
My old parish had breakfasts after the early Sunday Mass every week. They had excellent sweet rolls. We would occasionally eat there, but more often than not I'd pick up a tray of sweet rolls and take them home. Why?
Well, that says a lot about my personality. It often surprises people who know me professionally if I mention that I'm introverted, but I am. I feel massively uncomfortable sitting with people I don't know or barely know in a setting I'm not anticipating. It's one thing to sit with a group of lawyers, or clients, etc. Quite another to be sitting there after Mass.
Additionally, while I work most days in the white collar legal world, I'm very much a rural Irishman at heart. Mentally, I've never acclimated to being able to not look out on a golf course and not think that it would look good with sheep on it. People don't treat me that way as a rule, however. On off hours, I'll sit and ponder how hard it would be to put a 4bt Cummins in a 1953 NAPCO truck, or that I wish I was hunting. On Sundays, I don't ponder the Rule Against Perpetuates.
Like a lot of Wyomingites, I work six days out of seven, if not seven out of seven.
The point?
I'm not likely to sit down in a basement to discuss anything with anyone, and having coffee and donuts available doesn't sweeten the deal whatsoever. In my entire life, I've never gone to a basement to have coffee and donuts. I've never been to the Knights of Columbus pancake breakfast either.
And again, I'm not alone. I know lots of people just like me. They're loyal Catholics in the pews, to be sure.
And it just isn't Wyoming natives wondering how the state's politics have been disrupted by out-of-state imports who are mad at the world. You aren't going to get the Mexican father who comes every week dressed in his Chihuahua formal clothes along with his wife and three kids to go to a meeting dominated by a bunch of super friendly handshaking Anglos. Nor are you going to get the 23-year-old mantilla wearing girl. Nor are young to get the Rad Trad that vaguely suspects that everyone else is in some sort of Novus Ordo conspiracy. No, you aren't.
But you really need to. Indeed, in an average parish, there's probably a lot more of those people, combined, than whom every will be drawn to the basement for "fellowship".
You'll have to conscript them.
You can do it, however.
It'd actually require a near demand from the pastor along the lines of "thank you for coming to the 8:00 Mass. .. the 10:00 has been cancelled this week as we are all meeting. . . I'm not dismissing the Mass until we all talk so if you leave now, your Sunday Obligation is not fulfilled. Welcome to a Synod meeting."
And you would actually have to bring up the uncomfortable topics yourself, as people uncomfortably shifted in their seats?
Wednesday, November 1, 2023
Something I hadn't thought of.
From a Twitter post (from last year, actually).
The trick-or-treating ritual is one of the few times a year when many Americans go out of their way to interact with their neighbors, and for no other reason than tradition and the fun of it.
We all need that kind of community, and in a very important sense it’s good politics.
Monday, November 1, 1943. Landings on Bougainville.
14,000 U.S. Marines of the 3d Marine Division landed on Bougainville in the Solomons in the oddly named Operation Goodtime as well as the smaller Operation Cherryblossom.
The major operation would ultimately involve 144,000 US troops of the Marine Corps and the Army and 30,000 Australian troops. Japanese defenses were initially overrun, the defending force consisting of only 200 men, but the island had 40,000 Japanese troops on it. Operations would not cease until the end of the war, as the Japanese forces remained fighting up until that time.
Bougainville is a very large island that the Germans colonized starting in 1899. It passed to Australian by way of a League of Nations mandate following World War One.
Internees at the Tule Lake Segregation Center surrounded the administration building during a visit by War Location Director Dillon S. Myer.
Between 5,000 to 10,000 internees surrounded the building upon learning of Myer's unannounced visit until he consented to see a negotiating committee regarding grievances they held.
The USS Borie and the German submarine U-405 fought in the North Atlantic, with the result that both ships had to be scuttled.
President Roosevelt orders the Solid Fuels Administration to take over the operation of the nation's coal mines.
He also addressed Congress on the nation's food program.
The Moscow Conference issued its declaration on atrocities.
Moscow Declaration on Atrocities
by President Roosevelt, Mr. Winston Churchill and Marshal Stalin, issued on
November 1, 1943
The United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union have received from many quarters evidence of atrocities, massacres and cold-blooded mass executions which are being perpetrated by the Hitlerite forces in many of the countries they have overrun and from which they are now being steadily expelled. The brutalities of Hitlerite domination are no new thing and all people or territories in their grip have suffered from the worst form of Government by terror. What is new is that many of these territories are now being redeemed by the advancing armies of the liberating Powers and that, in their desperation, the recoiling Hitlerite Huns are redoubling their ruthless cruelties. This is now evidenced with particular clearness by the monstrous crimes of the Hitlerites on the territory of the Soviet Union which is being liberated from the Hitlerites and on French and Italian territory.
Accordingly the aforesaid three Allied Powers, speaking in the interests of the 32 United Nations, hereby solemnly declare and give full warning of their declaration as follows: At the time of the granting of any armistice to any Government which may be set up in Germany, those German officers and men and members of the Nazi party who have been responsible for or have taken a consenting part in the above atrocities, massacres and executions will be sent back to the countries in which their abominable deeds were done in order that they may be judged and punished according to the laws of these liberated countries and of the Free Governments which will be erected therein. Lists will be compiled in all possible detail from all these countries having regard especially to the invaded parts of the Soviet Union, to Poland and Czechoslovakia, to Yugoslavia and Greece including Crete and other islands, to Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France and Italy.
Thus, Germans who take part in wholesale shootings of Italian officers or in the execution of French, Dutch, Belgian or Norwegian hostages or of Cretan peasants, or who have shared in the slaughters inflicted on the people of Poland or in the territories of the Soviet Union which are now being swept clear of the enemy, will know that they will be brought back to the scene of their crimes and judged on the spot by the peoples whom they have outraged. Let those who have hitherto not imbued their hands with innocent blood beware lest they join the ranks of the guilty, for most assuredly the three Allied Powers will pursue them to the uttermost ends of the earth and will deliver them to the accusers in order that justice may be done.
The above declaration is without prejudice to the case of the major criminals whose offences have no particular geographical location and who will be punished by a joint decision of the Governments of the
Allies.
Thursday, November 1, 1923. Walton arraigned, Krupp signs, Baltic treaties, Finnair founded, George Washington Cornerstone laid, the wages of sin.
Oklahoma was impeaching its anti Klan Governor.
Gustav Krupp signed an agreement with the French which established operating conditions for his mines in the Ruhr. He was released from prison fourteen days later.
Estonia and Latvia signed a mutual defense treaty.
Finnair was founded as "Aero Osakeyhtiö". It had one airplane at the time, a Junkers F.13 seaplane.
The George Washington Memorial cornerstone was laid.
Recently retired, at age 29, Irish mob gangster Bill Lovett was murdered in his sleep at an abandoned store in Brooklyn. Lovett was a well-educated man who loved animals, and a distinguished World War One veteran, but a dedicated alcoholic who could be very temperamental when drunk. He'd been in the Irish mob before and again after World War One, but had recently given up crime and drinking after marrying. He fell off the wagon on October 31 while downtown for a job interview, and went to sleep in the store with a compatriot. He was apparently murdered by other Irish mobsters.
Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist. 49th Edition. The speaking truth to the unwilling edition.
De l'audace, encore de l'audace, et toujours de l'audace
Georges Jacques Danton (often mistakenly attributed to Frederick the Great due to misattribution in the movie Patton).
Governor Gordon had the audacity to speak the truth. More specifically, he stated:
It is clear that we have a warming climate. It is clear that carbon dioxide is a major contributor to that challenge. There is an urgency to addressing this issue.
Wyoming is the first that has said that we will be carbon negative.
Gasp!
Well, of course the populist GOP in the state leaped on this.
Gordon is well-educated. Where you get your money doesn't determine scientific truths. Loving the state doesn't mean ignoring dangers to it so that we can exploit it until we die, leaving our children with a less livable planet and one that was different from the natural world we love.
Nor, might I add, does having to believe in a set of facts contrary to science and nature amount to a requirement for being a conservative, and it should not be a requirement to be a real Republican. Likewise, working in the current economy, in any occupation, does not amount to a requirement that you have to believe in its purity or that things should not change if they need to.
Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever. Commerce between master and slave is despotism. Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free.
Thomas Jefferson, slaveholder.
Last Prior Edition:
Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist. 48th Edition. Freaking out over the Polish election.
Space National Guard? Let the lunacy continue.
For the third year in a row, the draft version of the National Defense Authorization Act includes a provision for creating a Space National Guard.
This is, quite frankly, really stupid.
It's stupid in part because the legacy armed forces branch from the Trump Administration is stupid.
The Space Force should be eliminated entirely, and its mission folded back into the Air Force, which was doing just fine with it.
Shoot, if I were the President (which of course I am not), I'd eliminate the Space Force and transfer officers who volunteered to serve in it to Diego Garcia after reducing them in grade one rank.
Back to the absurd Space National Guard idea.
The Space Force's recruiting page says this is its mission:
The U.S. Space Force protects our country and the freedom to operate in space, keeping it secure, stable and accessible for military space power and new waves of innovation.
Eh?
Well it does what the Air Force was doing in regard to space before this dipshittery got advanced.
What would your local Space Force Guard unit do?
Well, probably most states would never have one. It's not like the Army National Guard where you have real weapons and train to kill people and break things, or the Air Guard which has aircraft. You'd sit in an Armory, probably the Army Guard armory, where the real soldiers would make fun of you, and train.
Yippee.
In some places that are close to Langley, Virginia you'd probably fill in on a real job on the weekend drills. Not that the Space Force would need you to, but at least that would give it a reason to exist.
It shouldn't exist, as the Space Force shouldn't exist.
Reporting malpractice
Print press reporters, including both those online and on newsprint, the two being increasingly duplicated these days when newsprint remains, should be sentenced to a junior high kiddies paper for life if they quote a document, and don't put in a link to it.
You ignorant twit. If we read your article, we can read the document and then could make up our own minds about it. . . oh. . . wait. . .
Lex Anteinternet: Some more Hamas Israeli War observations
Lex Anteinternet: Some more Hamas Israeli War observations: 1. What is "proportionality" in a war with an opponent that's genocidal? So what, exactly, is proportional to people who will ...
As a followup, it's interesting to note that victorious powers of the Second World War are still, nearly 80 years after it ended, occasionally prosecuting people who were young in the early 1940s who had some role with the death camps. We don't worry about putting these people, now in their high 90s or even over 100, on trial even though it arguably serves no purpose whatsoever now.
Proportional?
Well, perhaps, given the monstrosity of the crime.
Which leads us back to this, what is proportional to an entity that has committed horrors just as equally vile as that which the Nazis did in the 40s, and which would commit more?
Targeting civilians certainly isn't it, but how do you handle an enemy that hides among civilians, and has encouraged them to stay?
And yet again, what do you do if that population actually supports murder to a large degree, and right now, other than the insistence that they do not, there's not very good evidence that they don't. They're still civilians, but how do you address that?
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