Thursday, April 25, 2024

Tuesday, April 25, 1944. The Blood for Goods deal extended, Air disaster at Montreal, the death of George Herriman.

Joel Brand in 1961, age 55.

The Nazis offered Hungarian rescue worker Joel Brand an offer which has been termed the "Blood for Goods" deal.  It was an offer to free 1,000,000 Hungarian Jews, releasing them to an Allied country, save for Palestine (oddly) for goods.  The offer was extended through Adolf Eichmann to Brand, who was a pre-war Hungarian Zionist.

Brand carried the message to the Allies, making his way through Turkey to Egypt, where he was arrested by the British.  The British did not take the offer seriously and believed it was a trick. The US was cautious about the offer but less hostile to it.  British opposition to exploring it ended the matter, and the British press leaked it and termed it blackmail by the fall.

At this point in the war, members of the SS were not completely loyal to Hitler and there is some reason to believe that this was a camouflaged effort to open up communications with the Western Allies in order to advance a separate peace, a delusional prospect of that is what they were thinking.

Brand moved to Israel after the war and was haunted the rest of his life by the failure of the proposal.  He died visiting Germany in 1964, at age 58.

A Royal Air Force variant of the B-24, a Liberator B Mark VI crashed into the Griffintown neighborhood of Montreal after taking off from Dorval Airport. The crew and ten civilians were killed.


My mother lived in the St. Lambert district of Montreal at the time.  St. Lambert is directly across the river from Griffentown.  I'd never heard of this incident, but then, there are many such thing that my parents never mentioned to me on matters like this, and I suppose that's to be expected.  Casper suffered numerous air disasters during World War Two.

My mother, then 19 years of age, would have been working in the city at this time, so was likely on the Griffentown side of the river when the accident occured.

The first combat helicopter evacuation completed in the CBI:

21–25 April 1944

The Luftwaffe raided shipping at Portsmouth and Plymouth-Devonport in a nighttime raid.  The same night, the HMS Black Prince and three Canadian destroyers engaged German warships in the English Channel, sinking the T-29 and damaging the T-24 and T-27.

The T-39 series of German ships were torpedo "boats", but due to their size they were more in the nature of corvettes.

Allied forces landed at Humboldt Bay, New Guinea.

The British government announced that it had a £2.76 billion deficit, £89 million smaller than anticipated.

Service Club mural, Ft. Bliss, Texas.  April 25, 1944.

The United Negro College Fund was established.

George Herriman, the creator of Krazy Kat, died at age 63.

Herriman was creole and born in New Orleans, although he speant much of his adult life in Los Angeles.  The Creole are their own distinct ethnicity, with some noting that means by default that they are of "mixed race", something that a lot of non Louisianians don't realize as they confuse creole with Cajun, the two not being the same.  Under the bizarre rules of American culture, Herriman would have been regarded as "black" in some regions of the United States, although legally, and equally bizarrely, he could at the time choose to self identify as white or black, neither of which really describes his ethnic heritage.  He self identified as white, which makes sense, as to do otherwise would have hindered his career.

Herriman was a shy and gentlemanly man.  A Catholic, he married his childhood sweetheart and had two children, as well as a lot of pets, of which he wsa very fond.

Last prior edition:

Monday, April 24, 1944. Violating Swiss Airspace.

Friday, April 25, 1924. Denver Colorado receives 24" of snow, Jilted "Girl" lawyer turns killer.

16th Street, 1924.

Belgium accepted the Dawes Plan.

Of the two, at the time, Casper newspapers, the Herald leaned on sensational headlines, but there was plenty to be sensationalist about.


The "Girl Lawyer" was Wanda Stopa, who must have been both brilliant and unstable.  The story reminds us of the Biblical warning that "the wages of sin is death", quite literally in this instance.  Stopa
startred down the path that lead to her own death through adultery.

Last prior edition:


Wednesday, April 24, 2024

Monday, April 24, 1944. Violating Swiss Airspace.

L-R: Lt. Col. Earl Hormell, aide to Gen. Devers, and Lt. Gen. Jacob L. Devers, Deputy Supreme Commander, Me. Theater, pose with Ghurka troops as the general visits the front that the Ghurka was fighting on. Orsogna Sector, Italy, April 24, 1944.  Lt. Gen. Devers is wearing a non-regulation set of pull on "engineer's boots".  Devers was an artilleryman who was an early advocated of mechanization and who had participated in the development of the Army's armored forces, including the design of the M4 Sherman and the M26 Pershing.  Upon his retirement in 1949 at age 62, he became a cattle farmer.

The Finisterre Range Campaign in New Guinea concluded in an Allied victory.  US forces reached Lake Sentani near Hollandia. Australian forces took Madang.

The RAF violated Swiss airspace in order to evade Munich's air warning system.  Earlier in the day, the U.S. Army Air Force had raided the heavily defended city, losing 55 aircraft, 14 of which crashed into Switzerland.

Italy started fielding a "Co Belligerent Air Force" in support of the Allies over the Adriatic.

The Special Boat Service raided Santorini in the Aegean.

A British blockade of mutinous Greek troops in Egypt ceased.

Double Indemnity was released in Brazil, a few months ahead of the American release.


Why Brazil?  I have no idea.

Funeral for German POW Richard Jasker, Camp Robinson Nebraska. 24 April, 1944.

Last prior edition:

Sunday, April 23, 1944. Hollandia taken, MacArthur lands, John C. Squire's posthumous MoH, Greek troubles, Pyrgoi Massacre, Tragic accident, Missing mobster.

Thursday, April 24, 1924. Protecting the Icons.

Russian Orthodox faithful prevented the police from confiscating icons from St. Andrew's Cathedral in St. Petersburg.

Communist authorities subsequently turned the church over to the Soviet-sponsored Renovationist Church that promoted a pro-Communist Orthodox body which originally been a post Russian Revolution reform movement with in the Russian Orthodox Church, but which was taken over by the Communist infiltration.  It received Communist backing at first, but was ultimately repressed, just as the Russian Orthodox Church was.  It never received the support of the Russian faithful, and it passed away after World War Two.  Almost all of its priests returned to the Orthodox Church after Stalin stopped the strict oppression of it during World War Two.

Last prior edition:

Wednesday, April 23, 1924. Debutants drill team

Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Turning the Tide in Ukraine (maybe) or at least helping them a bunch. What else the US can do. Part Two.

 

Gen. Clair Chennault.

Clair Chennault entered the U.S. Army during World War One, and resigned in 1937, going from there to China as a mercenary pilot for the Nationalist in their war against Japan.  Following a mission on behalf of the Chinese to the US in 1939, the US funded and equipped the American Volunteer Group of pilots, the legendary P-40 flying "Flying Tigers". They weren't in the US military, at least not at that time. They were, quite frankly, mercenaries, but specialized ones.

A bit different, as they were officially in the Royal Air Force, the British fielded three fighter squadrons made up of US volunteers.  "Eagle Squadrons"


There was a well-worn precedent for that.  During World War One, while Woodrow Wilson was promising to keep us out of war, the French fielded Escadrille N. 124, the  Escadrille de La Fayette.  It's pilots were Americans.


They weren't the only unit in the Great War like that.  Perhaps the most famous one was the Czech Legion, made up of Czech and Slovak volunteers who fought at first on the Eastern Front, and then fought their way across Siberia to Vladivostok so they could be taken to France, after the Russian Revolution broke out, to rejoin the Allied effort.

During the Mexican War, the Republic of Mexico fielded a unit of volunteer, mostly Irish and Irish American, artillerymen, known as the San Patricio's.  While Mexico lost the war, their performance was excellent.

The point?

Ukraine is taking in foreign volunteers for the Ukrainian Legion.  However, much more here could be done along the same lines as the AVG.  The AVG, basically, took in American military pilots used to American military gear, with that gear purchased for Nationalist China through an arrangement with the US.

This could be done in the war in Ukraine on a ground combat basis.

The US military was traditionally quite small before World War Two.  From 1947 through 1990, however, it was very large due to the Cold War, and it's not been inconsequential in size since that time.  The youngest of the Cold War warriors are now 52 years old, not young.  But maybe not as old, in modern terms, as it might seem.  At any rate, there are thousands of Americans in their 30s, 40s, and 50s who have served in the U.S. military.

Those men trained to fight the Soviet Union.  And they used, in many cases, late Cold War and early post Cold War US equipment.

This isn't unique to the U.S.  Germany only ended universal conscription of men n 2011.  France in 1996.  Thousands of men have served in the various NATO armies, using NATO standard equipment.

Why not create an American Volunteer Group and a European Volunteer Group and allow Ukraine to equip them with NATO standard weapons?  There's more than enough old NATO equipment, surely, to equip two divisions in this fashion.

Would they be elite?  Well, probably not, but they wouldn't be bad.  Some have actually trained to fight the very war that's being fought right now.

And then there's pilots and aircraft.

Lots of men trained to fly high test American fighters are now flying commercial jet liners.  Ukraine has asked for F-16s.  Why not give them the F-16s with volunteer pilots?

And, we might at this point, why not include A-10s?

Comparison and Contrast, was Lex Anteinternet: Earth Day, 2024. Native to this place.

We ran this yesterday:
Lex Anteinternet: Earth Day, 2024. Native to this place.: We have become a more juvenile culture. We have become a childish "me, me, me" culture with fifteen-second attention spans. The gl...

On the same day, various Federal office holders and their lieutenants were engaged in Earth Day related activities.  For example:

Biden-Harris Administration Invests in Clean Energy and Domestic Biofuels to Strengthen American Farms and Small Businesses as Part of Investing in America Agenda

 

Projects Funded by President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act Will Lower Energy Costs and Expand Access to Cleaner Fueling Options

 

ERIE, Pa., April 23, 2024 – Today, in honor of Earth Day 2024, Agriculture Deputy Secretary Xochitl Torres Small announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is funding more than 700 clean energy projects to lower energy bills, expand access to domestic biofuels and create jobs and new market opportunities for U.S. farmers, ranchers and agricultural producers. Many of the projects are funded by President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, the nation’s largest-ever investment in combating the climate crisis.

The projects advance President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to grow the nation’s economy from the middle out and bottom up. They will create jobs and spur economic growth in rural communities by increasing competition in agricultural markets, lowering costs and build more clean energy projects.

“The Biden-Harris Administration and USDA are committed to expanding access to modern clean energy systems and fueling options that strengthen the nation’s energy independence while creating good-paying jobs and saving people money,” Deputy Secretary Torres Small said. “As we celebrate Earth Day this year, we are excited to partner with hundreds more family farms and small businesses to address the impacts of climate change, grow the economy and keep rural communities throughout the country strong and resilient.”

In all, USDA is providing $238 million in funding through the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) and the Higher Blends Infrastructure Incentive Program (HBIIP).

Rural Clean Energy Production

Torres Small announced more than $194 million in loans and grants through REAP to support projects in 35 states and Puerto Rico.

The REAP program helps agricultural producers and rural small business owners expand their use of wind, solar, geothermal and small hydropower energy and make energy efficiency improvements. These innovations help them increase their income, grow their businesses, address climate change and lower energy costs for American families.

The REAP program is part of the President’s Justice40 Initiative, which aims to ensure 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal climate, clean energy and other investment areas flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.

These investments will cut energy costs for family farms and other businesses, increasing their resiliency and allowing them to invest back into their communities by creating new jobs and other opportunities. For example:

·     In Pennsylvania, Cellar ‘54 LLC will use a $49,000 grant to buy and install a 48-kilowatt solar photovoltaic system for its winery in the Lake Erie wine region in the borough of North East. This project is expected to save the business approximately $4,500 annually and will generate more than 32,000 kilowatt hours per year.

·     In New Jersey, Oishii Mega Farm NJ LLC will use a $15 million loan to convert a vacant building in Phillipsburg into an energy efficient production facility to grow Omakase and Koyo strawberries. The facility will include a high-tech indoor vertical farming operation and facilities to harvest, package, ship and distribute produce. The project will create 45 new jobs and reduce operating costs by $150,000 annually by being able to grow strawberries in a more efficient and controlled environment.

·     In Tennessee, Yarbro Farms will use a $536,000 grant to install a 301.92-kilowatt ground-mounted solar array on its row crop farm in the city of Martin. The project is expected to save the family farm more than $32,000 annually. It will also save 406,900 kilowatt hours of energy per year, enough to power 34 homes.

USDA is making the REAP awards in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming and Puerto Rico.

Since the start of the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA has invested more than $2 billion through REAP to support renewable energy and energy efficiency improvements that will help rural business owners lower energy costs, generate new income, and strengthen their resiliency of operations.

USDA continues to accept REAP applications and will hold funding competitions quarterly through Sept. 30, 2024. The funding includes a dedicated portion for underutilized renewable energy technologies. For additional information, contact a local energy coordinator.

Cleaner and More Affordable Fueling Options

USDA is also awarding more than $43 million in grants through HBIIP to business owners to increase the availability of domestic biofuels in 15 states and give Americans cleaner, more affordable fuel options.

HBIIP provides grants to fueling station and distribution facility owners, including marine, rail, and home heating oil facilities, to help expand access to domestic biofuels, a clean and affordable source of energy. These investments help business owners install and upgrade infrastructure such as fuel pumps, dispensers and storage tanks. For example:

·     In Pennsylvania, Clyde S. Walton Inc. will use a grant of more than $810,000 to install a 30,000-gallon biodiesel storage tank and loading equipment at its home heating oil distribution facility in Lansdale. This project is expected to increase the amount of biodiesel sold by more than 5 million gallons per year.

·     In Kansas, Blue River Valley LLC will use a $3 million grant to rebuild a pair of 2-million-gallon ethanol storage tanks and other equipment at a fuel distribution facility in Potwin. This project is expected to increase the amount of ethanol sold by more than 238 million gallons per year.

·     In Minnesota, Twin Cities Auto Repair & Gas LTD will use a $402,000 grant to install four E15 dispensers and two ethanol storage tanks at a fueling station in Burnsville. This project is expected to increase the amount of ethanol sold by 996,000 gallons per year.

USDA is making the HBIIP awards in California, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas and Wisconsin.

Since the start of the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA has invested approximately $135 million to increase access to biofuels at fueling stations. In June 2023, USDA made $450 million available in Inflation Reduction Act funding through the HBIIP to expand the use and availability of higher-blend biofuels.

USDA continues to accept applications for funding to expand access to domestic biofuels. These grants will support the infrastructure needed to reduce out-of-pocket costs for transportation fueling and distribution facilities to install and upgrade biofuel-related infrastructure such as pumps, dispensers and storage tanks. Applications are being accepted quarterly through Sept. 30, 2024.

USDA Rural Development provides loans and grants to help expand economic opportunities, create jobs and improve the quality of life for millions of Americans in rural areas. This assistance supports infrastructure improvements; business development; housing; community facilities such as schools, public safety and health care; and high-speed internet access in rural, tribal and high-poverty areas. Visit the Rural Data Gateway to learn how and where these investments are impacting rural America. To subscribe to USDA Rural Development updates, visit the GovDelivery Subscriber page.

USDA touches the lives of all Americans each day in so many positive ways. Under the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA is transforming America’s food system with a greater focus on more resilient local and regional food production, fairer markets for all producers, ensuring access to safe, healthy and nutritious food in all communities, building new markets and streams of income for farmers and producers using climate-smart food and forestry practices, making historic investments in infrastructure and clean energy capabilities in rural America, and committing to equity across the Department by removing systemic barriers and building a workforce more representative of America. To learn more, visit www.usda.gov.

Senators Lummis and Barrasso, in contrast, were going after a SEC regulation requiring climate disclosure information of businesses by introducing a Congressional Review Act joint resolution of disapproval.

Sunday, April 23, 1944. Hollandia taken, MacArthur lands, John C. Squire's posthumous MoH, Greek troubles, Pyrgoi Massacre, Tragic accident, Missing mobster.

 Gen. MacArthur, Colonel Lloyd Lehbras, his aides, and other high officers, landing on the beach at Aitape, New Guinea, 23 April, 1944.

Hollandia fell to US forces and Tadji airfield is taken.  However, resistance was met inland at Sabron and the beachheads were experiencing congestion.

F4U crashing on the USS Guadalcanal, April 23, 1944.

The Amagiri was sunk in the Makassar Strait by a mine.

Mussolini agreed to continue permitting Italian troops to be trained in Germany. The best of them were to be used to form a new National Republican Army.

In Italy, U.S. Army PFC John C. Squires lost his life in an action which resulted in his receiving a posthumous Medal of Honor.

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of life above and beyond the call of duty. At the start of his company's attack on strongly held enemy positions in and around Spaccasassi Creek, near Padiglione, Italy, on the night of 23-April 24, 1944, Pfc. Squires, platoon messenger, participating in his first offensive action, braved intense artillery, mortar, and antitank gun fire in order to investigate the effects of an antitank mine explosion on the leading platoon. Despite shells which burst close to him, Pfc. Squires made his way 50 yards forward to the advance element, noted the situation, reconnoitered a new route of advance and informed his platoon leader of the casualties sustained and the alternate route. Acting without orders, he rounded up stragglers, organized a group of lost men into a squad and led them forward. When the platoon reached Spaccasassi Creek and established an outpost, Pfc. Squires, knowing that almost all of the noncommissioned officers were casualties, placed 8 men in position of his own volition, disregarding enemy machinegun, machine-pistol, and grenade fire which covered the creek draw. When his platoon had been reduced to 14 men, he brought up reinforcements twice. On each trip he went through barbed wire and across an enemy minefield, under intense artillery and mortar fire. Three times in the early morning the outpost was counterattacked. Each time Pfc. Squires ignored withering enemy automatic fire and grenades which struck all around him, and fired hundreds of rounds of rifle, Browning automatic rifle, and captured German Spandau machinegun ammunition at the enemy, inflicting numerous casualties and materially aiding in repulsing the attacks. Following these fights, he moved 50 yards to the south end of the outpost and engaged 21 German soldiers in individual machinegun duels at point-blank range, forcing all 21 enemy to surrender and capturing 13 more Spandau guns. Learning the function of this weapon by questioning a German officer prisoner, he placed the captured guns in position and instructed other members of his platoon in their operation. The next night when the Germans attacked the outpost again he killed 3 and wounded more Germans with captured potato-masher grenades and fire from his Spandau gun. Pfc. Squires was killed in a subsequent action.

Finnish modified Soviet Il-4 bomber, April 23, 1944.

A communist mutiny on five Greek warships (it's always the sailors) was put down by loyal Greek forces.

Also in Greece, the Pyrgoi Massacre took place in which the SS killed 563 men, women and children, with the aid of local Greek accomplices.


Marion Harris, the first white singer to widely sing and record blues, died in a hotel fire caused by her falling asleep with a lit cigarette. She was 48 years old.

Canadian bootlegger Rocco Perri went for a walk in Hamilton Ontario to clear his head and disappeared.  It's widely believed he was fitted with cement shoes and drowned, but there are those who assert he lived into the 1950s in the U.S.

Last prior edition:

Saturday, April 22, 1944. American landings at Hollandia and Aitape.

Wednesday, April 23, 1924. Debutants drill team


Debutants drill team, April 23, 1914.

Last prior edition:


Monday, April 22, 2024

Passover, 2024.


Passover for this year starts with sundown, tonight, and runs to the evening of April 30.

Orthodox Easter for this year is yet to come.

Earth Day, 2024. Native to this place.

We have become a more juvenile culture. We have become a childish "me, me, me" culture with fifteen-second attention spans. The global village that television was supposed to bring is less a village than a playground...

Little attempt is made to pass on our cultural inheritance, and our moral and religious traditions are neglected except in the shallow "family values" arguments.
Wes Jackson, Becoming Native to This Place


Today is Earth Day, 2024.

In "Red State", which now means more than it used to as the Reds in the Red States are supporting the Russian effort to conquer Ukraine, and hence are aligned with what the old Reds would have wanted, it's not going to mean all that much.  I don't expect there to be much in the way of civil observances.

I saw a quote by somebody whose comments I wouldn't normally consider, that being Noam Chomsky, in which he asserted that a certain class of people who are perceived (not necessarily accurately) as something beyond evil, as they're putting all of humanity in jeopardy for a "few dollars" when they already have far more than they need.  That is almost certainly unfair.  Rather, like so much else in human nature, mobilizing people to act contrary to their habits is just very hard.  And some people will resist any concept that those habits are harmful in any fashion.

Perhaps, therefore, a bitter argument is on what people love.  People will sacrifice for that, and here such sacrifices as may be needed on various issues are likely temporary ones.

Of course, a lot of that gets back to education, and in this highly polarized time in which we live, which is in part because we're hearing that changes are coming, and we don't like them, and we've been joined by people here locally recently who have a concept of the local formed by too many hours in front of the television and too few in reality.  We'll have to tackle that.  That'll be tough, right now, but a lot of that just involves speaking the truth.

While it has that beating a horse aspect to it, another thing we can't help but noting, and have before, is that an incredible amount of resistance to things that would help overall society are opposed by those who are lashed to their employments in nearly irrevocable ways.  In this fashion, the society that's actually the one most likely to be able to preserver on changed in some fashions are localist and distributist ones.   Chomsky may think that what he is noting is somehow uniquely tied to certain large industries, but in reality the entire corporate capitalist one, which of course he is no fan of, as well as socialist ones, which he is, are driven by concepts of absolute scale and growth.  That's a systematic culture that's very hard to overcome and on a local scale, when people are confronted with it, they'll rarely acknowledge that their opposition is based on something that's overall contrary to what they otherwise espouse.  We see that locally right now, where there are many residents opposed to a local gravel pit, who otherwise no doubt make their livings from the extractive industries.

But I'd note that this hasn't always been the case here.  It was much less so before the influx of outsiders who stayed after the most recent booms.  And that too gives us some hope, as the people who are of here and from here, like people of and from anywhere they're actually from, will in fact act for the place.

Related threads:

Today










Lex Anteinternet: The Uniform Bar Exam, early tell of the tape. And now the late one.

Lex Anteinternet: The Uniform Bar Exam, early tell of the tape.: One of the threads most hit upon here is the one on the Uniform Bar Exam .  As folks who stop in here will recall, Wyoming's adoption of...

It is, quite frankly, a freakin' disaster. 

We've had this now for years, and the quality of new lawyers had declined noticeably.

And recently, the list of bar admittees featured something interesting.  The vast majority of new admittees aren't located in Wyoming.  And they don't want to.  They only want to take Wyoming work, and the work of other states, remotely, while not really appreciating the state they're practicing in.

It'd be supremely easy to fix.  Just add a Wyoming component, like we used to have.

But we're not going to do that.

Related threads:

Labor and the conglomeration of everything.