The best posts of January 21, 2024.
Sunday, January 28, 2024
Saturday, January 27, 2024
Thursday, January 27, 1944. Siege of Leningrad declared over.
On this day, the Soviets announced the end of the Siege of Leningrad.
Tenuous ground communication with the city had happened prior, but now the relief was solid, and the two year, four months, and five day siege was broken.
The battle was one of the most horrific in human history.
The 34th Infantry Division captured Monte Maiola and Caira.
The Marines expanded the Cape Gloucester beachhead on New Britain.
US defensive position on Bougainville, January 27, 1944.
The governments of Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States protested Japan's treatment of POW's setting the ground for war crime prosecution.
Anglican Peter Jasper Akinola was born in Nigeria. He would rise to the position of Anglican Primate for Nigeria, and while he was a Low Church Anglican, he was staunch in his opposition to Anglican accommodations to homosexuality. He is retired.
Sunday, January 27, 1924. Lenin's funeral.
Entertainer Mary Bay driving a miniature car, Janaury 27, 1924.
The murderous Communist state held a state funeral for the chief gangster, Vladimir Lenin. Temperatures were brutally cold.
Action was pledged on the Teapot Dome scandal
The murderous Communist state held a state funeral for the chief gangster, Vladimir Lenin. Temperatures were brutally cold.
Representatives of Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes signed the Treaty of Rome, providing that Fiume would be annexed to Italy and Susak to what would become Yugoslavia.
Fiume today is in Croatia, as is the island of Susak.
Friday, January 26, 2024
Unyielding
Maasai man, Kenya.
It was John Pondoro Taylor who noted that when he lived in Africa, there remained members of one of the indigenous tribes to the region, I forget which one, who would come into Nairobi and walk through, carrying spears as they always had, ignoring its existence.
It had been their land before, and they were refusing to acknowledge the change.
Admirable?
Stubborn?
Delusional?
All three?
I note this as earlier we noted that one of our resolutions was to be Honest, and another to be Authentic.
Those can come across as unyielding. Or stubborn. Or wacko.
And sometimes they really are.
But sometimes they are not, and are perceived as being so.
This gets back to a topic that we discussed recently, more than once actually, in regard to Fiducia Supplicans and also in regard to our lengthy post on the unfortunate change in domestic law over time. We noted there that some Catholic spouses who have opposed divorce and annulment refuse to acknowledge them. In the latter case, those people are truly poorly received with Priests reacting in horror to that thought.
I admire them.
That's because I'm skeptical that people don't lie to obtain annulments. All the posts you see concerning the process are adamant that this doesn't occur, and that lairs are weeded out. My problem is that if you've done a year or more of actual litigation work, that gets pretty difficult to fully accept.
This isn't really about that, but I'd go on to note that the opposite of being honest and authentic is that by and large most Christians fully accept divorce, even though Christ did not, and most Protestant denominations don't bat an eye about remarrying people, even multiple times.
That's dishonest, if some thought is given to it.
But then, here's the problem. How do you come across as honest and authentic without being a weirdo or a jerk?
Well, sometimes you cannot. But a lot of it is demeanor.
I wouldn't, for instance, suggest running up and telling somebody you know to be divorced and remarried that they're living in adultery. Indeed, that might assume a lot. For instance, their first marriage may truly be invalid, and in their denomination, annulment might not exist at all. You really don't know.
By the same token, I wouldn't run up to a divorced/annulled and remarried Catholic, or a divorced and remarried Orthodox Christian, and say "hey, you are committing a fraud".
But, if asked to go to a second marriage, or third, or sixth, I would be inclined to say, "I'm sorry, I want you happy, but I believe that you can't be married more than once and I can't testify by my appearance that I think otherwise. . . I hope you understand, and I'll pray for you both."
Most of the time, an approach like that generally works. Most people don't take offense, for example, to the LDS barring non-Mormon's to temple weddings. They shouldn't take offense if they do. And most people don't take offense to Jews and Muslims not eating or serving pork, or Catholics not eating meat on Lenten Fridays, and the like. People get curious about it, and may say some things in jest, but usually they're just disarming some surprise and disease by a serious belief.
There are exceptions, of course.
Extreme examples abound. Instances of soldiers refusing to carry out immoral orders, or things of that nature. One German officer by the last name of Homig, for instance, told his commanding officer that he could not carry out an order to execute civilians as he was a lawyer, a Catholic, and an Army officer. He went so far as to call in his subordinates and men together to inform them of his order.
Bold.
Most of us aren't asked to do that.
But we might be asked to do uncomfortable things of a lesser nature, and some won't be well recieved.
Wednesday, January 26, 1944. Gatchina
Machine gun position, Borgen Bay, New Britain. January 26, 1944.
The Red Army captured Krasnogvardeisk. The Germans set fire to Gatchina Palace and vandalizing much of the town's park on the way out.
Two days later, its pre-1923 name of Gatchina would was restored.
The US II Corps established a bridgehead over the Rapido. The Free French Corps captured Colle Belvedere and advanced toward Monte Abate.
From Sarah Sundin's blog:
Today in World War II History—January 26, 1944: British landing ship LST-422 is damaged by a mine off Anzio; of 700 aboard, 454 US soldiers & 29 British sailors are killed.
Argentina severed diplomatic relations with the Axis powers.
A.T.F. 9 Ordnance Section. 26 January, 1944. Kiska.
US Communist figure Angela Davis was born in Birmingham, Alabama.
She remains a radical leftist and is a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz currently.
The moment the fatal wounds were afflicted.
How did we end up with two ancient, disliked men being advanced by their parties?
Well, we ended up here as the Democrats quit believing in democracy, favoring rule by the courts, until the courts decided they believed in democracy, and because both parties lied to their rank and file, working class, constituents for a period of fifty years.
We've dealt with this before.
However, it can nearly be determined with precision.
The date of the wounds were:
- January 22, 1973
That's the date the United States Supreme Court issued the Roe v. Wade decision, replacing its judgment for that of state legislatures. As the dissent noted:
I find nothing in the language or history of the Constitution to support the Court's judgment. The Court simply fashions and announces a new constitutional right for pregnant women and, with scarcely any reason or authority for its action, invests that right with sufficient substance to override most existing state abortion statutes. The upshot is that the people and the legislatures of the 50 States are constitutionally disentitled to weigh the relative importance of the continued existence and development of the fetus, on the one hand, against a spectrum of possible impacts on the woman, on the other hand. As an exercise of raw judicial power, the Court perhaps has authority to do what it does today; but, in my view, its judgment is an improvident and extravagant exercise of the power of judicial review that the Constitution extends to this Court.
And Democrats concluded they didn't really need to persuade voters anymore, the Courts would impose a new liberal regime on the besotted and benighted public without their participation.
And:
- July 17, 1980.
Seven years in which we went from two functioning political parties and put them on the path to being pure machines, breaking what they claimed to serve.
The Next Trump Administration, Part 1.
Trump's promises:
Trump on his actions upon becoming President.
Like Mein Kampf, this should be taken seriously.
Thursday, January 25, 2024
My father's side.
Lex Anteinternet: I had always thought my grandfather on my mother's...: but it turns out, he died in 1958. He was, therefore, about 67 years of age. Still not ancient by current standards, but not 58 years of age...
Carrying this forward, or over, or whatever it would be just a bit, my father's father died on October 9, 1949. He was 47. I'd been told by one of my aunts that it was on her birthday, but it was the day after her birthday when he died. Close enough to burn in an indelible mark, I'm sure.
That aunt was born in 1931, which would have made her 17 or 18 at the time of his death.
His youngest son, my father's brother, was born in 1936, which would have made him 12 or 13, which is a bit older than I recalled. It's still pretty young, however. My father was born in 1929, which would have made him 19 or 20, older than I recalled, but it makes sense in context. In both these instances, I think it's the younger age, 12 and 19, that would be correct. My father would have just completed junior college, as they called it at the time. His oldest sister, born in 1926 (the same year my mother was born) had been married three years and was living in Nebraska. She was the only married sibling, naturally enough, at the time.
My married aunt would come back to Casper when her husband graduated from dental school. He'd grown up at least partially in Nebraska, but had strong Casper family connections, but I'm not sure how that had come about.
My other aunt would go on to the University of Wyoming, something unusual for the time. She didn't graduate. I never thought much of that, but as the family story developed following her death the rest of us ultimately learned of a trauma that would have been about the time of her senior year there, so her failure to graduate, surprising for an extremely intelligent women, make sense.
My father's mother died in 1973, she was 71 at the time. That'd definitely older than I recalled (I had thought it was 65). Somewhat unusually, both she and my father's father were born in the same year, 1901, making them about a decade younger than my mother's parents. They married in 1923, when then both would have been 21 or 22. It's interesting that the oldest of their children wasn't born until 1926, which at that time was a little bit of a delay.
I would have been ten when she died. I can definitely recall it, and having been up at the hospital while she was ill.
Related thread:
I had always thought my grandfather on my mother's side died at age 58. . .
Today is St. Dwynwen's Day.
The ruins of the church built by St. Dwynwen.
She was a Welsh nun of the early Church, having died in about the year 460.
She is the patron saint of lovers, having lived as a hermit on Ynys Llanddwyn off the west coast of Anglesey, where she built a church. Becoming a hermit was common amongst the extremely devout of the early Church, although it's more common associated with North Africa. She apparently had been very sought after by a young suitor whom she could not marry, and in her isolation prayed that God look after all true lovers.
Her day is widely celebrated in Wales.
In Memoriam. Melanie Safka, 1947-2024
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She performed at Woodstock, still so young that her mother went with her.
What Have They Done to My Song Ma is one I recall from my childhood for some reason, dimly recalling that my mother liked it.
Tuesday, January 25, 1944. Shaggy Ridge.
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The Australian Army captured Shaggy Ridge in New Guinea.
From Sarah Sundin's blog:
Today in World War II History—January 25, 1944: Soviets surround 60,000 German troops in Korsun-Cherkassy pocket in Ukraine. US II Corps successfully crosses the Rapido River north of Cassino in Italy.
The USS Ponape sank the destroyer Suzukaze
Parts of the world experienced an eclipse.
Friday, January 25, 1924. The First Winter Olympics.
The 1924 Winter Olympics opened in Chamonix. It was the first winter games.
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While Lenin's foul body remains in a specialized mausoleum for worship by the secular, the city regained its rightful name in June 1991, when it appeared that Russia might escape the treachery of its recent past.
Mexican rebels took Morelia.
Czechoslovakia and France signed a mutual defense treaty.
Blog Mirror: After New Hampshire
One of the blogs linked in on our sidebar is City Father, the blog of a Catholic Priest in New York. It's always worth reading.
He's made some comments on the recent GOP primary results which are similar to those I've been making, but his most recent one is much more blunt. A sample:
No one should really have been surprised by this. If the moneyed, zombie Reaganite elite that used to run the party - the rich who undoubtedly believe the country is theirs to rule by right - still believed the party was theirs and that their un-rich, taken-for-granted constituents whom they have for decades brought off with culture-war sloganeering were still in their pockets, then they were likely the only ones who still believed one of their own could be imposed upon their increasingly left-behind and increasingly angry-about-it constituents.
I wouldn't put it quite that way, but he's spot on about the "taken for granted constituents". Indeed, for years I've been saying this about both parties, and while not noted in his post, many of the MAGA Republicans are actually disaffected Southern Democrats and Rust Belt Democrats brought into the GOP over a forty-year period, starting with Reagan's Southern Strategy.
Reagan was treated for years as if he was some sort of a saint. He came to define conservatism. Whatever he was, however, he unleashed the "Tea Party" forces that became the MAGA ones, and they are now the GOP. The old GOP isn't coming back. No new conservative party has yet emerged (one will). The Democratic Party, for its part, has ossified into the left wing, 1970s, version of itself and can't get out of it. Hubris has allowed this all to be vested into two, ancient, men. Donald Trump, as he increasingly evidences the onset of dementia, is going to win the general election. Reagan, and the Democrats having become the Supreme Court fan club, up until recently, post 1973, are to blame for that.
Wednesday, January 24, 2024
Choosing to lose.
Al Smith, the 1928 Democratic candidate for President. He was honest, and Catholic, which made him unelectable.
Kamala Harris says when she talks to parents on the campaign trail, one of their top concerns is that their daughters won't have access to abortion in college
Charlie Spiering, summarizing a recent Kamal Harris interview.
I come from a sufficiently well-educated family such that my grandmother, Agnes, on my mother's side, had attended and graduated from university.
If you consider that she was born in 1891, that's quite the feat.
Now, I'll admit that my father was the first one to attend university on his side of the family, but his father, and his grandfather, and his great-grandfather, had all been successful businessmen at a time at which you didn't need a college education to be one, or even a high school education for that matter. My father's father, who I never met, was universally regarded by those who knew him as extremely smart.
Indeed, I once was stopped on the sidewalk by an elderly lawyer who knew my father and his father, who asked about the family. My son must have been in high school at the time, and the odd question "is he extremely smart. . . " like all of the members of the family.
I often, frankly, feel that I'm on the bottom end of the family intelligence pool compared to my own father and my kids.
No real college parents anywhere have, as one of their top concerns, that their daughters won't be able to commit infanticide, unless they've drunk so deeply of the left wing Kool-Aid they're perusing brochures from The Young Pioneers.
Democratic campaigns for the Oval Office, or Democratic campaigns in general, are not smart.
They're about as dumb as can be.
From 1914 until 1980 the Democrats were masters at coalition building. The party kept hardhat workers, urban Irish Catholics, Hispanics, and the entire South together, which was frankly quite a feat. It supported unions and working class families, and generally was pretty pro farmer. It had a left wing, but it also had a conservative one as well. Starting in 1968, when it embraced American battlefield defeat to a degree, and then in 1973, when it took the bloody abortionist hand, it took a turn toward the left, and as it did that, it dumped democracy like a hot rock in favor of an imagined Platonic body of robed elders who would tell the people what to do, and they'd like it.
Absolutely everything about the current Democratic message is wrong, including some things that shouldn't be regarded as wrong, but which are in the current political atmosphere. One thing that's definitely wrong is the concept that infanticide is a winning ticket. It isn't. The Democrats have read single issue matters on ballots here incorrectly. Maybe in that'st the only thing on a ballot, you get the voters only concerned about that to come out. Otherwise, people aren't going to vote that way.
Moreover, if Harris is really being told this by the parents of college women, it's because she's talking to the most liberal parents imaginable, and they're going to say crap like that no matter what. Moreover, the college educated are largely voting for Biden already. Biden/Harris need to get votes that they don't already have. The college educated have largely already left the GOP.
What's left of the electorate that is in the GOP is made up of the working class, small business owners (some college educated), and residents of rural regions (including quite a few well-educated ones in those areas). They don't believe "diversity is strength", they aren't interested in tolerating non "Judeo-Christian" religions, or gender mutilation, and they feel that their lives and livelihoods are threatened by out of control illegal immigration. They love their regions, but they're largely incapable of believing in climate change in spite of the evidence. They quit listening to scientist and social scientist of all types because they were lied to about some things, and therefore don't believe any of it. They listen to Evangelical pastors who tell them what they want to hear, and who make their massive departures from Christian doctrine irrelevant by not mentioning them (ever hear any of them criticize Trump for living in an adulterous relationship, which by conventional Christianity he is? Or of an Evangelical Church refusing to marry two people who have been married before?)
When I first started practicing law, a firm partner, a true Christian gentleman, told me about litigation that "this isn't a nice game". It isn't. Politics is even less so, and you have to be smart about it.
There's 0 reason that the Biden/Harris ticket needs to mention abortion at all. Where that's been an issue, they had no role in it. And they're driving Democrats away right now who are Catholic, which includes the Hispanic voters they imagine they'll be gaining. And their absolute incompetence on the border is in fact a good reason to vote against them. A competent ticket would shut up on abortion and would make a very serious effort on the border.
Obama, it might be noted, had a very controlled border. And while he was President before Dobbs, he didn't say much about abortion either.
He won twice.
Pointing out that more IRS agents punishes the wealthy, not the middle class, would help too. Pointing out that Trump has been a personally immoral man, might as well. Pointing out that he was the one who surrendered to the Taliban would as well.
And parking Harris somewhere would be a good idea, if not dumping her entirely.
And that's where you have to say thing that re uncomfortable.
Al Smith was the Democratic nominee for President in 1928. He would have won, but he was Catholic. Yes, that meant a lot of the electorate was bigoted, but it also meant that the Democrats weren't smart in running him.
They would be now, but Smith wouldn't be a Democrat any longer. He'd likely be an independent. He wasn't willing to compromise on his Catholicism, like Joe Biden has, and he wasn't a liar of any kind either.
Kamala Harris is like Al Smith in one fashion. She reminds bigoted voters who they hate. She's a lawyer (regular people hate lawyers), she's the child of two immigrants (MAGA people don't like immigrants), one of whom was Indian and the other Jamaican, making her a "person of color" (a lot of MAGA people really don't like people of color, let alone immigrant people of color), she's married to an entertainment lawyer (oh, oh) who is Jewish (again, MAGA people like Israel, but Jews. . . ) and the children of the couple are from his first marriage, meaning she has low parent street cred.
Are any of those items a reason not to vote for Harris? Absolutely not. Her policies are a reason not to vote for Harris. But will some MAGA people vote for Trump for these reasons? You bet they will, and in a race this close, in a handful of states that matter, that's a problem.
I don't know who would be a better VP candidate. Amy Klobuchar strikes me as one who would be better in every fashion. If you could find an American Christian Levantine politician (and there definitely are some) they'd be absolutely perfect, particularly if the choice was a woman. But what I am saying is that in a race with democracy itself on the ticket, choosing to go with a candidate this old for President, and a VP who is so disliked, is just dumb. And emphasizing the aspects of your campaign that the populist right hates, even if they do so wrongly on some of them, and the nervous middle aren't comfortable with, isn't very smart either. Having the disliked person, even if the dislike is immoral, who people fear might end up President isn't very smart, either.
This isn't a nice game. Sometimes choices have to be made in the candidates and the strategy that aren't very palatable. A lot of Republicans will do what Cynthia Lummis admitted to doing in 2016 as to Trump, and "hold her nose and vote". The Democrats should hold their noses and make some smart choices.
But they will not.
I had always thought my grandfather on my mother's side died at age 58. . .
but it turns out, he died in 1958.
He was, therefore, about 67 years of age.
Still not ancient by current standards, but not 58 years of age, either.
That was, FWIW, the same year my parents married.
His wife, my grandmother, died at age 89, however, which is a little younger than I remembered. It was in 1979, which is later than I remember, which means that my recollection didn't make mathematical sense, either. I was in high school at the time, but I don't recall it that way.
That also means that she lived long enough to see one of her children die, which I knew, and two of them fall into severe illness accompanied by mental decline, which must have been hard in the extreme to endure.
Monday, January 24, 1944. Red Advances, Luftwaffe attacks at Anzio, Rendering skunk fat.
Red Army troops on T-26 light tank in Korsun-Shevchenkovski region.By RIA Novosti archive, image #606710 / I. Ozerskij / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15579411. The use of "tank riders" by the Red Army, anticpating the use of later Armored Personell Carriers, or perhaps recalling that of mounted infantry or cavalry, the latter of which was still widely used by the Soviets, was common during the war.
The Battle of Korsun–Cherkassy commenced as part of the Soviet Dnieper–Carpathian offensive in Ukraine.
Near Leningrad the Red Army captured Pushkin and Pashovsk.
The British hospital ship was sunk off Anzio. 96 of the 229 aboard died.
The USS Plunkett (DD-431) was also hit.
53 of her sailors would die in the attack, but she'd be back in action by May.
The Anzio beachhead expanded slowly. The Free French Corps attacked Monte Santa Croce on the Gustav Line. The U.S. 2nd Corps continued attacking over the Rapido.
In Cheyenne, a War Salvage lecture was given on the topic of "How to get fat from skunk without smell". Attribution: Wyoming State History Society Calendar.
I don't think I'd try that.
Some apparently do, however.
The question is why?
Klaus Sperber, know by his stage name Klaus Nomi, and remembered principally for his operatic performance of his pop song Total Eclipse of the Sun, was born in Immenstadt, Bavaria. He was one of the first well known personalities to die of AIDS, passing away in 1983 at age 39.
Of interest, perhaps, as Sperber was German, German pop music producer Franz Reuther, known by his stage name of Frank Farian died yesterday at age 82. He had been responsible for Boney M and Milli Vanilli. His father had been killed in World War Two prior to his birth.
Thursday, January 24, 1924. Different reactions to the use of power.
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Oilman Edward L. Doheny testified that he had loaned Senator Albert B. Fall $100,000, when Fall was Secretary of the Interior under Harding, breaking open the Teapot Dome Scandal.
New Mexico Senator Albert B. Fall.
Fall's political career would soon come to an end, and he'd serve a year in prison.
Doheny would be indicted, but acquitted.
Khiva fell to the Red Army.
Sister Marie of the Poor, the former Grand Duchess Marie-Adélaïde of Luxembourg, died of ill health and influenza at age 29. She had been the last royal of that country to wield real power, which caused her to abdicate after World War One due to her decision to try to steer the country clear of active resistance to the Germans. Following that, having never married, she had become a nun.
Saturday, January 24, 1874. The Pratulin Massacre.
On this day in 1874 the Pratulin Massacre occurred in which the Imperial Russian Army shot down thirteen Greek Catholic (Ruthenian) congregants who had gathered to protest the forced assignment of a Russian Orthodox Priest to their parish.
The city today is in Poland, on the border with Belarus.
Ruthenians are members of an Eastern Rite Church which was first separated from the West at the time of the Great Schism, but which came back into communion with Rome in 1646. Contrary to what might be supposed, particularly today, after time and distance passed from the 1054 schism and its renewed 1492 schism various Eastern Rite bodies that were in the Orthodox communion did start to come back in, with it indeed being the case that several Russian Orthodox Bishops came back in. In Imperial Russia, however, this was violently opposed, including in the case of at least one of the bishops. In the instance of Pratulin, this was one of several such instances as Russian Orthodox clerics were assigned to Ruthenian parishes against their will.
Wyoming Catholic Cowboys - raw and real: Hat Shaping
Wyoming Catholic Cowboys - raw and real: Hat Shaping: I'm more of a straw hat guy, but for six months out of a year, Wyoming cowboys are in felt hats. Felt hats take a bit more care. Because...
The Cheney Maxim and MTG.
Trump is the one that gave shock and awe to the whole world when he walked across the DMZ line, hand extended, shaking hands with Kim Jong Un, ending Little Rocket Man’s reign
Marjorie Taylor Greene
Kim Jong Un is still the Communist monarch of the Stalinist theme park, North Korea.
He's a bigger problem now, then he was then.
He still has nuclear weapons.
Trump's shacking hands with him probably did nothing more than cause Kim Jong Un to run back to the latrine and wash his hand thoroughly.
What on earth is wrong with Greene's district that they return this person to Congress?
Tuesday, January 23, 2024
You don't have to accept a "two party" system.
Our government wasn't set up to have a "two party" system. Indeed, the founders warned against "factions". They hoped people would vote for candidates they supported, not parties that shoved big piles of crap out on the electorate.
Be that as it may, Duverger's Law holds that countries using first-past-the-post voting systems will always have two party politics. While he declared that in 1997, it's obvious and hardly a shocking revelation, although recent some have declared that it's become a uniquely American thing.
Well, observations of the Canadian system show it's operating north of the border too.
The thing about it is that recently not only has that advanced the absolutely moronic concept that "there are two kinds of people", but it's really caused politics to evolve to the extreme. The GOP has gone completely populist and believes that large sections of the citizenry are class enemies. The Democrats have done the same. There's more of a hope that the Democrats will come back to a wider centrist party than there is that the GOP will do the same, but right now the choices are two really extreme ones, at least on a national level, and frankly increasingly on a local level.
We don't have to do this.
Part of the reason we do is that when third parties emerge, folks like Robert Reich run around yelling you can't vote for them, as that's a vote for the other big party. Bullshit. A vote for a third party is a vote for a third party. And as we've recently discussed, occasionally a party dies, as the GOP has done, and it's always replaced when that happens with a new, third, party.
"You have to vote for the Whigs! If you don't, that's a vote for the Democrats".
There are third parties, and I suspect there's a good chance of a new, conservative, party appearing within the next couple of months.
I hope one does.
Because, right now, it's hard to see how a person of good conscience could vote for either of the likely "main party" Presidential candidates.
Prior Related Threads:
Watching the Democrats choosing to lose the 2024 election.
This is a major blunder:
Lex Anteinternet: The 2024 Election, Part XII. The March To Moscow: January 23, 2024The Democrats, being the party that doesn't lose elections, but throws them away, are doing that right now by putting Vice President Harris on a "Reproductive Freedom", i.e. Infanticide, Tour.
Everything about this strategy is wrong.
First of all, the Democrats do not need to campaign as the party of infanticide, everyone knows they have blood on their hands and wish to continue odd making them wet. Those supporting infanticide have nowhere else to go, and are going to vote Democratic no matter what.
Secondly, the numerous center right voters who would normally vote Republican but who are rational about Donald Trump and what he stands for have been working their way around to vote for Biden/Harris, but being reminded of this, particularly if they are devout or at least adherent Catholics/Orthodox/Muslims will drive them away as it'll make the election about abortion and they can't go there. This section of the electorate is big enough to determine the election.
Finally, Kamala Harris is one of the most dis-likeable candidates imaginable. Joe Biden won the election in spite of her lat time, not because of her. Nobody needs to be reminded that if in the high likelihood Joe Biden dies or becomes disabled in his second term, she becomes the far left successor President.
So, it was at this point, the Democrats lost the 2024 election. The question is, who will win it?
In the 2020 election, there was a raging debate in the Catholic blogosphere about whether a person could morally vote for Joe Biden. Some Catholic pundits said you could, because Donald Trump was otherwise such a danger to the nation. Others said you could not, and you had to vote for Trump no matter how much you despised him, as the Democrats detest life to such an extent.
The one thing that the Democrats did not do, however, is to put infanticide front and center in the election.
They are now.
A good devout highly educated Catholic friend of mine is lamenting that Trump will win, as now, he stated "I'll have to vote for him".
And I myself am a good example. I won't vote for Trump, but I won't vote for Biden either. There were times I could contemplate voting for Biden, but now that a center of the campaign is opting for murder, I truly can't.
Why did the Democrats do this?
The reason is that Democrats like to lose elections.
Well, they don't, but they make stupid decisions, and their decisions, strategically, are even dumber than those of the Republicans.
As radical as the GOP MAGA populists are, and they are, they do tap into some legitimate concerns. Democrats, however, have ceded their position to the radical left wing where it does them no good whatsoever.
This is a good example.
In Wyoming, the Democrats have introduced a pro infanticide bill into the budget session. It'll go nowhere, they know that, why do it?
To make a showing of how far left delusional they are. This keeps numerous well-educated, professional and thoughtful Catholics and Mormons from voting for them.
Good move Democrats.
Likewise, nationally, this will cost the Democrats votes, for no reason whatsoever. Where were pro death Democrats going to go? Into the GOP?
Likewise, having Kamala Harris front anything is absurd. I don't know hat audience she sells in, but it's a very narrow one. Otherwise, her presence on the campaign trail suggests that 1) Biden is too feeble to get out there, and 2) she's going to take over when he passes. Neither of those are a very attractive thought for voters.
Related Thread:
Witnessing a decline in mental status. Donald Trump on the campaign trail.
These aren't gaffs:
Lex Anteinternet: The 2024 Election, Part XII. The March To Moscow: January 20, 2024
Donald Trump pretty clearly confused Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi in a New Hampshire campaign rally, claiming that Haley was in charge of all the "troops", meaning that she could have called on National Guardsmen to protect the capitol.
Haley wasn't in office at the time.
Haley in turn called on his mental fitness.
More people should be. Trump doesn't act like somebody who okay mentally. He's old, and in the footage of the rally, he does not look well.
January 21, 2024
Trump, on the same day he confused Haley for Pelosi, made reference to having run against President Obama, which he never did.
These are major mental lapses, and now they're coming in quick succession.
The Obama one, we'd note, has occured before. Trump has, openly, mentioned having run against Barack Obama. His first race was against Hillary Clinton, which is the only reason that he was elected, and with a minority of the vote.
Trump lies constantly, but these aren't lies. This is misfiring in his brain, and it's happening frequently. And these aren't the only instances.
Republican voters who are going for Trump, the nearly 50% of the GOP that isn't really traditionally Republican but something else, are going to simply turn a blind eye towards this. Democrats won't, but that doesn't really matter, except perhaps to the extent they emphasize it, which they in fact should.
Right now, assuming that Trump doesn't experience a complete mental collapse before November, which I'd give a 40% chance, and assuming that Trump's health holds out until November, which I'd give a 40% chance, he's going to be elected the next President because of the Democrats wholly inept performance in this election, including their absolute refusal to address many of the legitimate concerns that they've allowed to fester into right wing conspiracies, such as 1) how many immigrants can we really take in; 2) why does everyone have to have a "good job" in a cubicle, 3) why are we ignoring real biology and pretending it's a lifestyle choice. The election at this point is basically over.
That would in turn mean we're about to elect a man into office who is clearly sliding into dementia. Republicans in his inner circle better figure out right now how far they'll let him lose his mind before they declare him unfit for office.
And we better hope his VP choice is made to be somebody rational and not a syncophant.
Wednesday, January 23, 1924. Red Dead Relocation.
Mexican rebels decided to forego a blockade, but they took Saltillo and Monterrey.
Lenin's body was transported to the House of Unions. Architect Alexey Shchusev was given the task of constructing a tomb for Lenin within three days. He would accomplish the task, with the structure being obviously temporary.
Shchusev was originally a church architect, so his rise in the new Communist establishment is not admirable in any sense. They should tear the crap he's responsible for after 1917 down, including the ice box that Lenin is kept in.
The US and UK entered into a treaty allowing the US to search British ships suspected of rum running.
Convention between the United States of America and Great Britain, Signed at Washington, January 23, 192437
The President of the United States of America;
And His Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas, Emperor of India;
Being desirous of avoiding any difficulties which might arise between them in connection with the laws in force in the United States on the subject of alcoholic beverages;
Have decided to conclude a Convention for that purpose;
And have appointed as their Plenipotentiaries:
The President of the United States of America:
Charles Evans Hughes, Secretary of State of the United States;
His Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas, Emperor of India:
The Right Honorable Sir Auckland Campbell Geddes, G. C. M. G., K. C. B., His Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United States of America;
Who, having communicated their full powers found in good and due form, have agreed as follows:
Article I
The High Contracting Parties declare that it is their firm intention to uphold the principle that 3 marine miles extending from the coastline outwards and measured from low-water mark constitute the proper limits of territorial waters.
Article II
(1) His Britannic Majesty agrees that he will raise no objection to the boarding of private vessels under the British flag outside the limits of territorial waters by the authorities of the United States, [Page 159]its territories or possessions in order that enquiries may be addressed to those on board and an examination be made of the ship’s papers for the purpose of ascertaining whether the vessel or those on board are endeavoring to import or have imported alcoholic beverages into the United States, its territories or possessions in violation of the laws there in force. When such enquiries and examination show a reasonable ground for suspicion, a search of the vessel may be instituted.
(2) If there is reasonable cause for belief that the vessel has committed or is committing or attempting to commit an offense against the laws of the United States, its territories or possessions prohibiting the importation of alcoholic beverages, the vessel may be seized and taken into a port of the United States, its territories or possessions for adjudication in accordance with such laws.
(3) The rights conferred by this article shall not be exercised at a greater distance from the coast of the United States its territories or possessions than can be traversed in one hour by the vessel suspected of endeavoring to commit the offense. In cases, however, in which the liquor is intended to be conveyed to the United States its territories or possessions by a vessel other than the one boarded and searched, it shall be the speed of such other vessel and not the speed of the vessel boarded, which shall determine the distance from the coast at which the right under this article can be exercised.
Article III
No penalty or forfeiture under the laws of the United States shall be applicable or attach to alcoholic liquors or to vessels or persons by reason of the carriage of such liquors, when such liquors are listed as sea stores or cargo destined for a port foreign to the United States, its territories or possessions on board British vessels voyaging to or from ports of the United States, or its territories or possessions or passing through the territorial waters thereof, and such carriage shall be as now provided by law with respect to the transit of such liquors through the Panama Canal, provided that such liquors shall be kept under seal continuously while the vessel on which they are carried remains within said territorial waters and that no part of such liquors shall at any time or place be unladen within the United States, its territories or possessions.
Article IV
Any claim by a British vessel for compensation on the grounds that it has suffered loss or injury through the improper or unreasonable exercise of the rights conferred by Article II of this Treaty or [Page 160]on the ground that it has not been given the benefit of Article III shall be referred for the joint consideration of two persons, one of whom shall be nominated by each of the High Contracting Parties.
Effect shall be given to the recommendations contained in any such joint report. If no joint report can be agreed upon, the claim shall be referred to the Claims Commission established under the provisions of the Agreement for the Settlement of Outstanding Pecuniary Claims signed at Washington the 18th August, 1910, but the claim shall not, before submission to the tribunal, require to be included in a schedule of claims confirmed in the manner therein provided.
Article V
This Treaty shall be subject to ratification and shall remain in force for a period of one year from the date of the exchange of ratifications.
Three months before the expiration of the said period of one year, either of the High Contracting Parties may give notice, of its desire to propose modifications in the terms of the Treaty.
If such modifications have not been agreed upon before the expiration of the term of one year mentioned above, the Treaty shall lapse.
If no notice is given on either side of the desire to propose modifications, the Treaty shall remain in force for another year, and so on automatically, but subject always in respect of each such period of a year to the right on either side to propose as provided above three months before its expiration modifications in the Treaty, and to the provision that if such modifications are not agreed upon before the close of the period of one year, the Treaty shall lapse.
Article VI
In the event that either of the High Contracting Parties shall be prevented either by judicial decision or legislative action from giving full effect to the provisions of the present Treaty the said Treaty shall automatically lapse, and, on such lapse or whenever this Treaty shall cease to be in force, each High Contracting Party shall enjoy all the rights which it would have possessed had this Treaty not been concluded.
The present Convention shall be duly ratified by the President of the United States of America, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof, and by His Britannic Majesty; and the ratifications shall be exchanged at Washington as soon as possible.
In Witness Whereof, the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the present Convention in duplicate and have thereunto affixed their seals.
Done at the city of Washington this twenty-third day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and twenty-four.
Charles Evans Hughes
A. C. Geddes
Heritage of the Dessert was released. The film featured some technicolor footage.
Sunday, January 23, 1944. Halting at Anzio.
British infantrymen meeting U.S. Army Rangers outside of Anzio. In the early hours of the operation there was little resistance and things were very fluid. Both Rangers in the foreground are carrying M1 Garands and wearing the "Jacket, Combat, Winter", which is erroneously associated with tanker s today. At least the Ranger on the right is wearing a pair of winter trousers as well. The soldier on the right has a large "H' on his helmet cover, which is an identifying mark I'm not familiar with. The soldier on the left appears to have the same mark. Both British solders are wearing leather jerkins.
36,000 Allied troops had already disembarked by the prior midnight, 13 had been killed, and 200 German prisoners of war taken, including a drunk German officer and orderly who had driven his staff car into an Allied landing craft. There'd be 50,000 troops on the ground by the end of the day.
Allied troops, under Lucas' command, took up forming defensive positions in anticipation of a counterattack, a decision that was soon controversial, and frankly, a mistake. This is interesting for a variety of reasons, one of which is that Lucas was originally a cavalry officer, with cavalry being the only branch in the U.S. Army that was dedicated to battlefield mobility and had a doctrine of always moving forward.That view as not shared by the other branches. Having said that, Lucas had transferred out of the cavalry after World War One.
The German forces did debate what to do. Kesselring, in command in Italy, believed the Gustav Line could be held along with the beachhead at Anzio. Von Vietinghoff favored withdrawing from the Gustav Line. The German High Command, meanwhile, allocated reserved from France, northern Italy and the Balkans to the effort.
By the week's end, the Allies would be facing 8 German divisions at Anzio.
The HMS Janus as sunk off shores by a Fritz X.
The Australian Army took Maukiryo in New Guinea.
The Detroit Red Wings beat the New York Rangers 15 to 0, which apparently remains a hockey record.
Pistol Packin' Mama was number one on the country charts.
23-year-old New Zealand er Linda Malden working on a windmill while managing her parent's farm. No men were left to do what was traditionally a male role, due to wartime manpower demands. Public domain, State Library of New South Wales.
Monday, January 22, 2024
Blog Mirror: Study suggests warfare was responsible for the boom-bust cycles of Neolithic societies
Study suggests warfare was responsible for the boom-bust cycles of Neolithic societies
(Shout out to Stephen Bodio's blog for posting this item).
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