America Recycles Day

While it will probably also provoke the ire of Wyoming's far political right, which will accuse the DEQ of being Communists Marxist Fascists, Democrats and Roman Catholics, today is also Recycling Day, as the DEQ notes:

DEQ Recognizes America Recycles Day Today, Nov. 15 Sorting areas for recyclables at Baggs, Wyo. Transfer Station

CHEYENNE – The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is recognizing America Recycles Day (ARD) today and celebrating the recycling-efforts of Wyoming’s citizens that play an important part in keeping our state beautiful. Find out more about the recycling efforts in Wyoming by going here. View in Español   Check out this month's Division: Air Quality Division

Today is GIS Day.

 Truly, it is.

Thursday, November 15, 1973. Lowering the speed limit.

Washington state lowered its speed limit to conserve gasoline.  Coincidentally, highway mortality drooped 11%.

Israel and Egypt exchanged POWS taken during the Yom Kippur War.

Monday, November 15, 1943. The Combat Infantry Badge.

One of the awards most respected by soldiers to be issued by the U.S. Army, the Combat Infantry Badge, was authorized.

Limited to infantrymen alone who have seen actual ground combat, the creation of the award acknowledged the particular horrors experienced by infantrymen in combat.  The World War Two awards were upgraded, which they likely should not have been as it cheapened the original awards, to Bronze Stars in the 1980s, reflecting the particular horrors of World War Two in which soldiers were not rotated home but served until severely injured, killed, or the end of the war.

It followed the authorization of the Expert Infantry Badge, which had been authorized on November 11, 1943.

Both awards remain enormously respected in the U.S. Army.

"Nomadic" Gypsies in the Soviet Union were reclassified by Germany to be in the same racial category as Jews and therefore subject to the death camps, whereas "sedentary" Romani were classified as citizens of the country they were in.

The order would ultimately extend beyond the occupied regions of the USSR and was another example of how, as Nazi Germany's fate became sealed, it became more homicidal.

Offensive actions by the U.S. Fifth Army were halted by Gen. Alexander.

Today In Wyoming's History: November 15: 1943 1943  Harmonica player Larry Adler played at the University of Wyoming.  Adler was a well known harmonica player.

Manuel L. Quezon was inaugurated as President of the Philippines, in exile. It was his third term.  In the Philippines a collaborationist government, not as disdained by the post-war Philippines as might be supposed, was in control, with the sanction of the Japanese.

The Cross Mountain, Colorado post office was closed, putting an end to the Moffat County town.

The business of progressives and conservatives.

The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of Conservatives is to prevent mistakes from being corrected. Even when the revolutionist might himself repent of his revolution, the traditionalist is already defending it as part of his tradition. Thus we have two great types -- the advanced person who rushes us into ruin, and the retrospective person who admires the ruins. He admires them especially by moonlight, not to say moonshine. Each new blunder of the progressive or prig becomes instantly a legend of immemorial antiquity for the snob. This is called the balance, or mutual check, in our Constitution.

G.K. Chesterton

November 14, 1943. Torpedoing the President.

USS William D. Porter.

The USS William D. Porter accidentally fired a torpedo at the USS Iowa, which had President Franklin D. Roosevelt on board.

The Porter was supposed to be engaging in a target practice demonstration with an inert torpedo, but fired a live one.  A disaster was averted when the ship's radioman, detecting the sound of an armed torpedo, radioed the Iowa, which was able to avoid it.  The entire crew of the ship was placed under arrest at Bermuda and Torpedoman Lawton Dawson was sentenced to fourteen years hard labor.

President Roosevelt intervened and asked that Dawson not be punished.

The Porter was sunk on June 10, 1945 when a kamikaze attacked the ship, and missed, but ended up underneath it and exploded.  All hands were saved.

The Battle of Coconut Grove ended in an Allied victory.

The Italian Social Republic's Fascist party, which controlled northern Italy, as a German puppet state,  issued the Manifesto of Verona, providing:

Preamble

In announcing its own program of action, the Republican Fascist Party salutes you, Duce, the man who can save the Fatherland, realizing the Fascio of Italian energies for the second time.

In your arduous liberation it sees the providential auspices of what will be the liberation of all Italy. In your thought, and in your more than twenty years of historical work in Italy and in the world, it today finds the certainty and the very current of inspiration for the social ascent of the Italian people, now that the monarchy can finally be swept away from Italian life, together with all those dark, reactionary, compromising forces and their allies.

Under your guidance, through sacrifice and combat, it will bring back honour to Italy, its independence and its greatness.

In its first national assembly, the Republican Fascist Party:

Lifts its thoughts to those who have sacrificed their lives for Fascism on the battlefronts, in the piazzas of the cities and villages, in the limestone pits of Istria and Dalmatia, and who should be added to the ranks of the martyrs of our Revolution, and to the phalanx of all those men who have died for Italy.

It regards continuation of the war alongside Germany and Japan until final victory, and the speedy reconstruction of our Armed Forces which will serve alongside the valorous soldiers of the Fuhrer, as goals that tower above everything else in importance and urgency.

It takes note of the decrees instituting the Extraordinary Tribunals, whereby Party members will carry out their unbending determination to administer exemplary justice; and, inspired by Mussolini's stimulus and accomplishments, it enunciates the following programmatic directives for Party actions:

As concerns internal constitutional issues, we propose:

1. That a Constituent Assembly, whose sovereign power is popularly derived, be convened in order to declare the abolition of the monarchy, solemnly condemn the last treasonous and fugitive king, proclaim the Italian Social Republic, and appoint its Head.

2. That this Constituent Assembly be made up of representatives from all syndical associations and administrative districts and also include representatives from the occupied provinces in the form of delegations of evacuees and refugees residing in liberated territories.

This Constituent Assembly must also include representatives of servicemen, war prisoners (represented by those sent back due to disabilities), Italians abroad, the judiciary, universities, and any other body or institution whose participation contributes to designating this Constituent Assembly as a synthesis of the nation's values.

3. That this republican Constituent grant to citizens, be they soldiers, workers, or taxpayers, the right to audit and criticize the public administration's actions, so long as this right is exercised in a responsible manner.

Every fifth year citizens will be called upon to nominate the Head of the Republic.

No citizen will be held beyond seven days without a warrant from the judicial authorities irrespective of whether he was arrested in the act or detained for preventive reasons. A judicial warrant will also be required to carry out searches of homes, except in cases of flagrant delicto.

The judicial branch of government will operate with complete independence while carrying out its functions.

4. That an intermediate solution be adopted in the electoral domain given Italy's prior negative experiences with elections and its partially negative experiences with too rigidly hierarchical methods of appointment. A mixed system seems the most advisable—one, for example, that would combine popular election of deputies with appointments of ministers made by the Head of the Republic and government. Within the Party, it would probably be best for elections to be held on the Fascio level, with approvals for appointments to the National Directorate being made by the Duce.

5. That the organization responsible for politically educating the people be one. The Party, an order of fighters and believers, must become an organism of absolute political purity, worthy of being the guardian of a revolutionary idea.

Party membership will not be required for any job or position.

6. That the Republic's religion be the Roman Catholic Apostolic religion. Respect is assured for other cults so long as they do not oppose the law.

7. That those belonging to the Jewish race be considered foreigners. During this war they belong to an enemy nation.

As concerns foreign policy issues, we propose:

8. That the main goal of the Republic's foreign policy be the unity, independence, and territorial integrity of the Fatherland. The territory in question comprises the maritime and alpine borders marked in nature, as well as the borders consecrated by sacrifice of blood and by history. Both boundaries are now threatened by the invading enemy and by their promises to the governments that have sought refuge in London. A second essential goal will be to achieve recognition of the fact that a population of 45 million, living in an area insufficient to sustain it, has certain indispensable needs for vital space.

This foreign policy will also strive for the creation of a "European community" made up of all those nations that accept the following fundamental principles:

a) elimination from our continent the century-long British intrigues;

b) abolition of the internal capitalist system and combat against world plutocracies;

c) valourisation of Africa's natural resources for the benefit of Europeans as well as natives, with full respect for those peoples, particularly Muslim ones, who have already shaped themselves into civilized nations, such as Egypt.

As concerns social issues, we propose:

9. That the foundation and the main goal of the Italian Social Republic be work—manual, technical, intellectual—in all its manifestations;

10. That the State guarantee private property, which is the fruit of individual labour and savings as well as an extension of the human personality. Private property, however, must not be permitted to have a disintegrative effect on the physical and moral personality of other individuals by way of the exploitation of their labour.

11. That in the domain of the national economy, the State's sphere of action encompass everything that extends beyond the individual interests or within the domain of collective interests, whether due to scale or function.

Public services and, in most cases, armament industries, must be managed by the State through parastatal agencies.

12. That in every factory (whether industrial, private, government-controlled, or state-owned) representatives of technicians and workers must collaborate closely—to the point of having direct knowledge of the factory's management—in setting fair wages and in equitably distributing profits between reserve funds, stockholder dividends, and worker profit shares.

In some factories this measure will be implemented by expanding the powers of the existing factory commissions. In others, the current management will be substituted by a managing council made up of technicians, workers, and a state representative. In others still, a parasyndical cooperative will be set up.

13. That in the domain of agricultural production, landowner's private initiative shall be curbed whenever and wherever initiative itself is lacking.

Expropriations of uncultivated lands may lead to their being parceled out among farm workers (who thereby become farmer-landowners). Similarly, badly managed businesses may be transformed into parasyndical or parastatal cooperatives, depending upon the needs of the agricultural economy.

Since current laws already provide for these sorts of measures, the Party and various syndical organizations are now hard at work on their implementation.

14. That farmers, craftsmen, professionals, and artists be fully entitled to pursue their vocations individually, for their families or other nucleus. However, they are subject to legal obligations to deliver to the masses those quantities of produce that are set forth by the law and to regulation of fees for services.

15. That home ownership be treated not just as an extension of property rights but also as a right. The Party's platform proposes the creation of a national agency for popular housing that will absorb the existing institute and greatly enhance its effectiveness. Its aim will be to make home ownership available to families of all categories of workers via the construction of new homes or the gradual repurchase of existing ones. To this end, the general principle that rent payments ought to go towards purchase of a home, once capital has been paid off in full, must be adopted.

The first duty of this agency will be to address the war's detrimental effects on housing by expropriating and distributing empty buildings and by erecting temporary structures.

16. That workers automatically become members of the syndicate regulating the category to which they belong, but that this membership must not preclude transfer to another syndicate if all requirements are met. All the trade syndicates are gathered together under the umbrella of a single confederation comprising all workers, technicians, and professionals (but excluding landlords, who are neither managers nor technicians). This umbrella organization will be named the General Confederation of Labour, Technology, and Arts.

Like other workers, employees of state-controlled industries or public services are integrated into syndicates as a function of their category.

The imposing complex of social welfare institutions created by the Fascist regime over the past twenty years remains intact. Consecrated by the 1927 Charter of Labour, its spirit will inform all future developments.

17. That the Party considers a salary adjustment for all workers an urgent necessity. This can be effected by adopting a nationwide minimum wage (with prompt regional adjustments). The need is particularly great among lower-echelon and middle-echelon workers, both in the public and private sectors. Part of the salary should be paid in foodstuffs (at official prices) so that this measure not prove ineffective or harmful for all parties concerned. This can be accomplished by means of cooperatives and factory stores, by expanding the "Provvida's" responsibilities, and by expropriating stores that have broken the law and placing them under state or cooperative management. This is the best way to contribute to the stabilization of prices and the lira's value as well as to the market's recovery. As concerns the black market, speculators must be placed under the authority of special courts and made subject to the death penalty, just like traitors and defeatists.

18. That with this preamble to the Constituent Assembly, the Party offers proof that it is not only reaching out toward the people but also is one with the people.

On the other hand, the Italian people must realize that it only has one way to defend its past, present, and future achievements: to reject the enslaving invasion of the Anglo-American plutocracies whose sole aim, confirmed by a thousand precise signs, is to make the lives of Italians more cramped and miserable.

There is only one way for us to accomplish all our social goals: to fight, to work, to triumph.

Bulgaria was bombed by the Allies for the first time when B-25s hit the railyards at Sofia.

Bulgaria was in a strange position during the war.  It was an Axis Power, but it had not declared war on the Soviet Union, perhaps judging the likelihood of a Soviet victory in the war more accurately than other German allies.  Its hesitancy did not save it from being invaded by the Red Army in September 1944 at which time it switched sides and declared war on Germany.  Following a leftist coup that resulted due to the Soviet invasion, it was a Communist country from 1946 until about 1990, at which time it became a parliamentary democracy.  The country has been undergoing a demographic collapse since the 1980s.

Wednesday, November 14, 1923. In from the cold.

German Gen. Hans von Seeckt ordered that Berlin cafés, halls and cabarets must admit the city's poor and cold in order to warm themselves, least the Government seize them to be used for that purpose.

Von Seeckt's tomb.

Von Seeckt had been an important figure in the Imperial German Army before going on to be a major figure in the Reichswehr.  He was in the German parliament from 1930 to 32 as a member of a center right party, but turned towards the hard right thereafter.  He was assigned to the German military mission in China in 1933, where he restored the failing relationship with the Nationalist Chinese.  His advice lead to the 1934 Nationalist campaign that resulted in the Communist Long March.

Germany suspended payments on its reparations.

New Zealand's laws were extended to Antarctica as Governor General John Jellicoe applied its jurisdiction to the Ross Dependency.

What the Young Want.* The Visual Testimony of the Trad Girls. The Authenticity Crisis, Part One.

Or maybe they're not.

At any one time, I have a bunch of posts in the works, some of which are on concurrent themes. This is one, basically, as it touches on a larger topic.

Something is going on.

A couple of years ago I started to see some women, by which I mean, let's say, women 40 years or older, resuming the wearing of chapel veils (mantillas).  They were clearly on the traditional end of things.

Recently, however, I'm seeing young women do this.

I shouldn't, probably, have used the term "girls" in the caption, but for whatever reason, culturally, we tend to use the term "girls" for young women well into their 20s.  Maybe somewhat beyond.  It seems to encompass women in their late teens on up to that point.

And that's what I'm referring to here.

I noticed it first the year before last, and at an early morning Mass on a Holy Day (All Saints Day, I think).  Two young women, probably very late teens or very early twenties, sat right in front of me.  One was dressed conservatively but contemporarily. She was wearing a leather skirt. . . and a chapel veil (mantilla).

Now, there was a young woman from a very trad family in the parish who dressed almost as if in a Medieval costume for young women every Mass. That's not what I'm talking about here.  This young woman was wearing a nice wool sweater, and a leather skirt, and a chapel veil.

It caught me off guard.

I'm seeing stuff like that all the time now.  Young women, often early twenties, dressed conservatively, but not in costume, who have adopted the mantilla.  Indeed, just yesterday, at the early morning Mass Sunday, the Church did the Ritual for the Elect for those who were coming into the Church.  They all have a sponsor.  One young woman coming in had, as her sponsor, another young women.  

Frankly, the sponsor was stunning.  And she was wearing a chapel veil.  Last Sunday across town there was another young woman dressed in that fashion who was eye catching as well, and the week before that there was another so dressed who was a head turner.**

I note that, as it was easy, when the only women who did this were let's say older, and otherwise dressed in a fashion that was old-fashioned, perhaps, or dour.  These young women aren't.   They're hard not to notice.

Indeed, yesterday, the young woman mentioned went from the front of the Church to the back with a very proud carriage, which is not to suggest sinful pride. Rather, she carried herself the way that people who are very self-assured, for very good reasons, do.

Something is going on.

And It's not just here.  A friend of mine in Oklahoma noticed the same thing at his local parish.  And it's crossed into other regions, or perhaps hit there first.  For example, notable Korean figure skater Yuna Kim is Catholic, and people like to snap photos of her at Mass wearing a chapel veil.

And it's interesting that this is going on at the same time that some members of the leadership of the Church, which tends to be up in years, seems to be trying to insert the liberal.  

I've often noticed that people who come up in particularly devise or stressed eras, and maybe more of us do than not, tend to form our view of the world in those times.  A lot of people in their upper 60s, 70s, and 80s assume that "what the young want" is what they wanted when they were young.  

The evidence for this is to the contrary.

There's a lot more to this.  It's interesting.

Footnotes

*It's important to note that categorizing what an entire generation, or generations, want is hazardous.  For example, at least superficially, here I'm noting a return to Catholic tradition among the same generation that is exhibiting such things as a belief that you can change your gender.

Well, a couple of things.

At any one time you can have an overall trend in a generation while individual members of it hold an opposite view.  There were, for example, more volunteers who served in Vietnam than there were conscripts, contrary to popular imagination, meaning that quite a few young men sought to serve in the war at the same time history informs us their generation had turned against it.  By the same token, you can find a few examples of Americans who were adamantly opposed to the country entering World War One or Two, and continued to hold that view after the country declared war.  Beatniks were a feature of the supposedly superconservative 1950s. 

Secondly, people are more complex than categorists and political parties may suppose, and as a result they can often hold contrary views, or views that seem to be contrary, or views contrary to the ones they themselves exhibit.  Indeed, I've heard some of the stoutest denouncements of tobacco from smokers.  They smoked, but wished they didn't. 

You get the point.

**For some reason, you're not supposed to say this. Well, noticing that a woman is attractive is not the same thing as engaging in Hefnereque behavior, and the fact that creeps have co-opted this entire aspect of communication is just evidence of how weird and pornified our culture is.

Saturday, November 13, 1943. Coconut Grove.

The Germans commenced a counterattack at Kyiv that would run for forty days.  The Red Army reached Zhytomyr which threatened the norther flank of German Army Group South.

The first XP-80 was completed.

Lulu Belle, the first XP-80.

The Kelly Johnson design would go into service in 1945, too late for the Second World War, but would see service in Korea, by which time it was already eclipsed by later designs.

The Battle of Coconut Grove commenced on Bougainville between Marine Corps elements and the Imperial Japanese Army.

On the same day, the third wave of the US invasion forced landed, which included the balance of the 37th Infantry Division and the 21st Marine Regiment.  The USS Denver was hit during the operation by a torpedo launched by a Japanese aircraft, rendering her incapable of operating under her own engines.

Gen. Mark Clark informed his superior Gen. Alexander that operations in Italy should be halted temporarily.

The Japanese I-34 was sunk by the British submarine Taurus off of the Strait of Malacca.

HMSM Taurus.

The HMS Dulverton was scuttled after being hit by a HS 293 glide bombs off of Leros.

Why specific movements on the left always end up being disregarded. Sense and Solidarity. Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist, 51st edition.

As a climate justice movement, we have to listen to the voices of those who are being oppressed and those who are fighting for freedom and for justice. Otherwise, there can be no climate justice without international solidarity.

Greta Thurnberg.

And, now Thurnberg, having sided with murder, has jumped the shark.

There's no connection whatsoever, and even less than that, with the situation in the Middle East and the climate,

But this is typical. In the 20s and 30s the American left came around to supporting Stalin in many instances. Why?  Well, um, solidarity?

And this is why, in the end, that such movements lose their steam.  Here a man joined the stage to protest the diversion of the protest.  His actions were wrong, but his point was correct.

Of course the point will be made that being concerned for the Palestinians as a people, isn't the same as support for Hamas, and at least on an intellectual level, that's true. And as much as possible that can be done should be done to ease the humanitarian crisis that has come about.

But, by the same token, we should note, the East Prussians were not the same thing as the SS.  They were displaced, permanently, in 1945 and nobody, outside the East Prussians, has shed a tear about. Hor's de combat.  

Moreover, you can't really cross over from poster child for a cause, and frankly that's what she did, to left wing general agitator all at once and in this fashion.  It discredits the movement you came from, particularly with the nonsensical effort to link the two.

But, never mind.  The American left (and of course she's not part of that) supported every left wing cause of the 20s and 30s before burying their history of doing that in the late 40s and 50s.  It didn't help them in the end, and they've never been able to really wash the blood off.  

Solidarity is one thing.  Sense is another.

Last prior edition:

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist, 50th edition, the Synod Edition.

Blog Mirror: Have they no sense of decency?

A Robert Reich item about Elise Stefanik:

Have they no sense of decency?

The descent of Stefanik has been epic.  It hardly makes sense, at least in the case of a person who has any integrity at all. Starting off as a centrist, she's turned into a Trump hack.

This effort to sanction the court and the court's clerk is shocking.

Stefanik is really playing with fire here. There's at least a halfway decent chance she'll be sanctioned for filing such a bogus challenge. And if the country survives the next election, long term she's going to have the same sort of reputation that Joe McCarthy now has, save for the fact that she'll fully deserve it and McCarthy only partially did.

Unlike McCarthy, Stefanik is a mother. What a legacy for that child will be left.

We just passed the anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch, which the poster above commemorates.  The Nazis, every year after they came to power, commemorated their failed coup attempt.

Of course, we know how this story goes. German politics were a mess in 1923, but by the early 1930s they were becoming more and more polarized and voters feared the choice was between the Communists and the Nazis. Parties in the center, like the SDP and the CDP were abandoned as voters flocked to vote against the left or the right.

The Nazis came to power, to Germany's everlasting discredit, and through Europe into murder and the world into war.

On Veterans Day Donald Trump, who never served a day in the military, posted this:

Truly, this is frightening.

Friday, November 12, 1943. The Germans land on Leros.

 The Germans invaded Leros in the Aegean's/

German paratroopers preparing to board for drop on Leros.  By Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-527-2348-21 / Bauer / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5412561

We tend not to think of the Germans engaging in offensive operations this late in the war, but they did, of which this was a successful example. After four days of fighting, they'd take the island from its British, Italian and Greek defenders.  The island had been occupied by a reduced British force as the Italians, during their Axis period, had heavy fortified the port facilities. The US had not approved of the British, i.e. Churchill, focus on the Aegean, so it had not participated with the British in the occupation of various Aegean islands, including this one.

According to some, the novel The Guns of Navarone is based contextually on the Battle of Leros, but I don't see that really.

Leros is extremely close to Turkey. So much so, that it's a bit amazing that the island wasn't transferred to the Turks in 1923.  It has a Greek population, but it became an Italian possession in 1912 following the Italo Turkish War, one of the pre World War One wars that's nearly wholly forgotten now, leading to the commonly cited falsehood that Europe had been "at peace for fifty years" prior to World War One breaking out.  It was annexed by Italy in 1923.  It became a Greek possession at the end of World War Two.

The Allies won the Battle of Treasury Island in the Solomon's.

The Japanese bombed Darwin, Australia for the last time.

Remaining Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft are withdrawn from Rabaul. The overwhelming majority had already been lost.

The Allies bombed Arezzo, Italy, for the first time.

Franklin Roosevelt left for the Tehran Conference on board the USS Iowa.

Women in Lebanon turned out in the streets in favor of their deposed government.

The U-508 was sunk in the Bay of Biscay by a US B-24.

Dauntless above the USS Washington, flying a mission in support of landings in the Gilberts.

Monday, November 12, 1923. The red flag.

The Soviet Union adopted a new flag.

The red represented the seas of blood the Communist were causing to flow in the country and the yellow hiding behind the fortress of the Red Army to avoid being overthrown. . .  well okay actually not.

The flag had always been red, that being the color of socialism every single place on Earth except for the very US, very recently, where some pinhead decided that would now be the symbol of conservatism, because his sense of history was impaired.  During the revolutionary period, the Communists had just used red flags with no symbols.  In 1922 they had adopted this hideous banner:

Starting in July, 1923, they'd strated experimengint with this:

That wasn't great, and even has sort of a Pokémon appearance to it.  They gave up on that, and went with the example above.

The red flag with the bordered hammer & sickle lasted only until April 18, 1924, when a flag closely approximating the final design was adopted:

The near final version was adopted on December 5, 1936, with the last version coming in as late as 1955.  The 36 variant and the 55 variant weren't really improvements on the 24 variant, in my view.

Interestingly, the flag of Nazi Germany was also mostly red.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right of states to ban aliens from owning or leasing agricultural land.

Sunday, November 12, 1623. Josaphat Kuntsevych, Bishop of the Ruthenian Catholic Church (Ukrainian Catholic Church, was martyred in Vitebsk, Belarus.

On this day in 1623 Josaphat Kuntsevych, Bishop of the Ruthenian Catholic Church (Ukrainian Catholic Church, was martyred in Vitebsk, Belarus, which was the part of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth.

He had been ordained in as an Eastern Catholic priest in 1609.  Living in a region in which the Orthodox Church had been strong, he faced opposition in his clerical duties but movement towards union with Rome was building in the area and as there was building assent to the Union of Brest.  In 1620 this began to be opposed when Cossacks intervened in the region.  In 1623, Josaphat, by then a Bishop, ordered the arrest of the sole remaining priest who was offering Orthodox services in Vitebsk which resulted in his murder by some Orthodox townspeople.  Some have suggested that, however, Lithuanian Protestants were secretly the instigators of the action.

His body is in Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome, and he is recognized as a martyr by the Church.

This points out a lot of interesting aspects of history that in the United States, and indeed many places, are poorly understood.  For one thing, there have been repeated efforts to reunite the East and West in Apostolic Christianity, and on several occasions they've been highly successful.  The seeming final breach between the East and West did not really come until the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and indeed at that time the East and West were largely reunited. Following the return of the schism, over the next 500+ years various churches in the East have returned to communion with Rome.  The Schism should have completely ended following the Council of Florence, in which the Eastern Bishops agreed to reunion, but resistance at the parishioner level precluded it, just as can be seen to be a factor here.  Resistance higher up, sometimes violent, has also had an impact, however, as at least in one occasion Russian Orthodox Bishops affecting a reunion were murdered.  At the present time, it seems clear that the Metropolitan of Constantinople, the senior Bishop of the Eastern Orthodox, would end the schism as to his church but for fear of parishioner and cleric level resistance.

Rodrigo de Arriaga professed vows to become a Jesuit Priest.  He was one of the leading Spanish Jesuits of his day.

Blog Mirror: "Die Hard" Is NOT a Christmas Movie!

 

"Die Hard" Is NOT a Christmas Movie!

The Romans had expeditions that went all the way into what is now Nigeria.

And across the Sarah at that.

Simply amazing.

Best Posts of the Week of November 5, 2023

The best posts of November 5, 2023.

One Year Until The General Election.

More observations on the Hamas Israeli War. A sort of primer, war aims, and campaign aims. Part I.

If we needed any further reason to abolish the electoral college. . .

Democrats don't lose elections. . .

The 118th Congress. Part II

The 2023 "Off Year" Election.

The 2024 Election, Part VIII. Speeding toward the missing bridge

The 2024 Wyoming Legislative Session. The Super Early Riser Edition (Part 1)

Wars and Rumors of War, 2023, Part XI. Our Sins coming back to haunt us edition.

aturday, November 10, 1923. The loyal dog Hachikō (ハチ公).

A few Veterans Day Comments.

A few Veterans Day Comments.

Somewhere in Korea.

I wasn't going to post on Veterans Day at all, in part because the overblown hero worship that's been attached to it for some time is really starting to bug me. But then, I've been owly recently anyhow.  

But, as predictable (every year the number of posts on this site goes up, this year no exception, which is why I’m considering not posting at all in December) I changed my mind.  A few random comments.

Were you in the Army?

My new associate asked me this the other day, as I have the photograph of my basic training platoon up on my office wall.

Funny, I'm so used to it being there, I never notice it.

Military service, regular and reserve, was routine when I was young. Not everyone had it by any means, but lots of people do.

And this was even more so for my parents.  My father was in the Air Force, his brother in the Army.  My other uncles in the World War Two Navy and Canadian Army, and post-war Navy.  The guys my father ate lunch with every day had all been in the service.

Not so much anymore.

November 7, 1983: Able Archer 83, a Close Call

An item from Uncle Mike's fine blog.

I was in the National Guard at the time. Little did we realize how close we'd come to serving in a short, sharp, and probably nuclear war.

As odd as it may sound, I actually had predicted a war between NATO and the Warsaw Pact at about this time, a predication that didn't come true, but my reasoning was sound.

Reagan became President in 1981 and as soon as his first military budgets started to take effect, things really were noticeable in the Guard.  New equipment, better field training, etc.  The Warsaw Pact took note of that and started building up to counter it.

Able Archer, like Team Spirit, and Reforger were all part of the training regime of the time.  It was no secret that the Warsaw Pact was trying to respond to it all.  In the end, that spending brought them down. They couldn't afford it.

A lesson there to a country that's spending like crazy right now and just got economically downgraded.

Anyhow, my prediction nearly came true with Able Archer, but not for the reason I thought this would happen. I thought it would happen as the Warsaw Pact, or rather the USSR, would reason that it only had so much time while it had military superiority in which to act.

This was a view, I'd note, that was reinforced by playing the military hex and counter war games based on a NATO/Warsaw Pact war.  It was pretty clear that it was really hard for NATO to win a conventional one.

Or so it seemed.

We vastly overrated the Red Army and Soviet military equipment, as the war in Ukraine has demonstrated.

Funny, at the same time I recall being assigned A Republic of Grass in college which suggested we surrender to the Soviets before a war broke out.

A note on Reagan

When Reagan was President, I wasn't sure what to make of him.  As a Guardsman, we were all grateful for the new equipment and attitude.  Carter's military had been a sad sort of thing, as exemplified, perhaps, by the failed attempt to mount a raid to free the Iranian embassy hostages.

But it seemed like we were messing around in Central America an awful lot, which I wasn't sure what to make of. In retrospect, it's clear that the Cold War was being played out there in proxy.

When Reagan was president, I was a university student.  It seems to be forgotten now, but most university students weren't big Reagan fans.  As noted, I wasn't an opponent, but I wasn't a fan.  My father was convinced that Reagan had Alzheimer's which, in fact, he did.

On Reagan and Carter, it's interesting to note that Carter was an Annapolis graduate. Reagan had more of a military career than his opponents claimed, having been a pre-war cavalry reserve officer, but his wartime role was in the branch of the military that made films. That was honorable enough, but Reagan introduced the snappy salute to servicemen which stuck after that, and which I don't like.  Presidents saluting servicemen seems really odd, particularly when we get Presidents who've never been in the military.

Anyhow, most of my conservative friends love and admire Reagan.  I still am not so sure about him.  I can see where he made course corrections at the time which were vital.  It was under Reagan, really, that the country got back on its feet after the Vietnam War.  And Reagan introduced the brief period of Buckleyite conservatism, which I like, to the government.

He also, however, started the populist smudge which is now a roaring flame by using the Southern Strategy to win, and that's having dire effects.  And frankly, I'm not impressed with the starving of the government economically that came in at that time.

On this Veterans Day, don't thank those who served, but ponder those who didn't.

This sounds harsh, but I'm not kidding.

Most veterans don't really want to be thanked for serving.  Truth be known, a lot of us served for reasons that weren't all that noble or were mixed.  Paying for university was in my mind, for example.

Having said that, in my adult years I've known a few people who avoided serving in the military when there was a time of need. Some of them have real reason of conscience and can and do defend it, on the rare occasions it comes up.

In contrast, we have people who sort of hero worship the military, or who are public figures thanking it, about whom there are real questions.

Donald Trump sent out his thanks today, but he avoided the Vietnam draft on a medical profile.  That's never been adequately answered, and in private comments he disdains those who served in the military, which fits right in with his epic level of being self impressed.  Biden had draft deferments too, I'd note.

There are real reasons for deferments, but what gets me here is the co-opting of valor, or the bestowing of it on people who don't deserve it.  People don't claim that Biden is some sort of hero. But you can find completely absurd illustrations of Trump as a military figure.  I don't really see Trump voluntarily serving in any war at any time, and had he lived during the Revolution, I sure don't see him as some sort of Continental Army officer.

So, while it's rude, for at least some thanking veterans "for their service", an appropriate response is "why didn't you serve?".

The real purpose of the day

The real purpose of this day is to remember the dead and badly wounded.  That's about it.

Lots of people serve during time of peace in one way or another. We don't deserve your thanks.  Yes, I'm sure that I'm personally responsible for keeping the Red Horde at bay, but I didn't get hurt serving.  Truth be known, I benefitted from it personally in all sorts of ways, a lot of which are deeply personal.  The service formed a lot of my psychology on certain things in a permanent way, all of which are ways in which I'm glad that it did. 

A lot goes into a person's personality, some of it more significant than others, and I do have more significant ones. The service was, however, a significant one.  Hindsight being 20/20, I wish I had not gotten out of the Guard when I did, also for a selection of personal reasons.

So I owe the service thanks. The country doesn't really owe me any. But people whose lives were permanently altered or last? Well, that's a different matter.

Random Snippets. The bitch that bore him is in heat again.

 If we could learn to look instead of gawking,

We'd see the horror in the heart of farce,

If only we could act instead of talking,

We wouldn't always end up on our arse.

This was the thing that nearly had us mastered;

Don't yet rejoice in his defeat, you men!

Although the world stood up and stopped the bastard,

The bitch that bore him is in heat again.

Bertolt Brecht, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui

Thursday, November 11, 1943. Armistace Day.

It was Armistice Day for 1943.

Japanese American Girl Scouts walking in front of barracks and carrying American flags while incarcerated at Heart Mountain concentration camp, Wyoming, 11/11/43.

The Moscow Conference came to an end.

French security forces raided the homes of President El Khoury, Prime Minister Riad Al Solh, and all but two members of the Cabinet, including future President Camille Chamoun, in reaction to the unilateral Lebanese repeal of the League of Nations' mandate over the country.

High Commissioner Helleu suspended the Lebanese constitution and appointed Émile Eddé as the new President.

The dissolution and unraveling of the French Empire had commenced.

In France, Armée Secrète Resistance fighters led by Colonel Henri Romans-Petit placed flowers at the foot of the memorial for the dead of the Great War in an act of bold defiance of the Germans.

The Red Army took Radomyshi.

Allied bombing of Rabaul ended following a final raid, with nearly every Japanese ship there disabled or destroyed.

Sarah Sundin notes something about that raid:

Today in World War II History—November 11, 1943: In Rabaul raid, US Navy Curtiss SB2C Helldiver makes its combat debut. US Eighth Air Force activates “Carpetbagger” squadrons to deliver supplies to resistance.

The film Sahara, with heroic Allies stranded in the desert, and even a sympathetic Italian character, holding off the Germans, was released.

Three Allied transport ships and a tanker are sunk east of Oran in a major Luftwaffe raid.

1943  The Commander of the Prisoner of War Camp in Douglas announced that 1,000 Italians held at the camp would be helping with the fall harvest. Given the timing of the announcement, it would have to be presumed that the harvest was well underway at the time.  As Douglas itself is not in a farming belt, it would be interesting to know where the POWs actually went, and how they were housed.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

Sunday, November 11, 1923. Armistace Day.

It was Armistice Day for 1923.  Secretary of War John Weeks, Pres. Calvin Coolidge, and Asst. Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt paid tribute at Arlington to the Unknown Solder.

German police found Adolf Hitler hiding in the attic of his friend with a country home, Ernst Hanfstaengl and arrested him.

Hanfstaengl was a member of German high society and was instrumental in polishing Hitler's early image with the elite.  He fell out of favor almost as soon as Hitler came to power, however, and worked for the Allies profiling Hitler's psychology, as an exile, during World War Two.

German Chancellor Gustav Stresemann accepted the return of Crown Prince Wilhelm.

Going Feral: Expansion of Migratory Big Game Initiative

Going Feral: Expansion of Migratory Big Game Initiative: 

Expansion of Migratory Big Game Initiative

The USDA announced that it is expanding the Migratory Big Game Initiative successfully used in Wyoming to Montana and Idaho. This allows farmers and ranchers across all three states to access money to protect big game migratory routes.

Wall, eh?

Apparently Vivek Ramaswamy suggested in the GOP debate, which I didn't watch, that we need a border wall with Canada.

Seriously?

Canada may feel it needs a border wall with the US.  Indeed, Canadians must feel that they have an upstairs apartment above a large family of meth addicts who are in a knock-out brawl while they set the place on fire right now.

Anyhow, the Great Wall didn't keep the Mongols out.  A wall the length of the American border with Canada, which would serve only those with a fevered imagination about an imaginary problem, wouldn't keep anyone out, or in, either.

It's a long border.  

No wonder the GOP is an elephant's graveyard right now.

Wednesday, November 10, 1943. Heroes and martyrs.

Catholic priests Johannes Prassek, Eduard Müller and Hermann Lange – and the Evangelical-Lutheran pastor Karl Friedrich Stellbrink were executed by Nazi Germany for treason.  Known as the Lübeck martyrs, they had not held their tongues on the Nazis, who were now becoming increasingly murderous towards internal dissent.

Soviet paratroopers dropped at Cherkasy, south of the Dniepr, and linked up with partisans, while the Red Army ferried tanks across the river.

We tend not to think much about Red Army paratroopers during the war, but in fact they made a significant number of drops.

The Red Army, supposedly a people's army, introduced two new military decorations. The Victory Order was for officers only. The Order of Glory for lower ranks.

Crash-landing of F6F-3, Number 30 of Fighting Squadron Two (VF-2), USS Enterprise, November 10, 1943.  Lt. Walter L. Chewning Jr., the catapult officer of the USS Enterprise, is seen leaping up on the burning blame to rescue the pilot, Ensign Bryon M. Johnson.  Johnson would receive hardly any injury.

Saturday, November 10, 1923. The loyal dog Hachikō (ハチ公).

Hachikō (ハチ公) an Akita, was born. The dog would return daily to wait for his deceased owner to return from work for over nine years, living to be eleven years old.

The Saturday magazines were on the stand.

Former President Woodrow Wilson condemned the U.S. isolationist policy as "cowardly and dishonorable" in a radio address.

Crown Prince Wilhelm of German returned to Germany from the Netherlands.

Ludendorff was released on parole, demonstrating one of the problems Weimar Germany had with suppressing anti-democratic uprisings. . . the tendency to let those on the right, go.

Blog Mirror: Whose life expectancy is dropping — and what this has to do with the rise of Trumpism The Roots of Trumpism (Part 9)

 

Whose life expectancy is dropping — and what this has to do with the rise of Trumpism

The Roots of Trumpism (Part 9)

Tuesday, November 9, 1943. Humanitarian Efforts.

The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration was created 

Senate Resolution 203 was introduced, calling for the Federal Government to come up with a plant to save "the surviving Jewish people of Europe from extinction."  House Resolutions 350 and 352 were passed calling for the creation of an agency to resettle those survivors to neutral nations.

Marines on Bougainville, November 1943.

The U.S. Marines prevailed in the Battle for Piva Trail.  The 3d Marine Division advanced off the beachhead at Cape Tarokina.  The U.S. Army's 37th Division began landing on the island.

Gen. Giraud and Gen. Georges resigned from the Free French Committee of National Liberation.  Giraud remained its militar commander in chief.

The U-707 was sunk near the Azores by an RAF B-17.