The best posts of the week of August 11, 2024.
Saturday, August 17, 2024
Woke v. Weird? The race we should have had (and still could save for Republican cowardice and populist subversion).
.jpg)
.jpg)
By The logo may be obtained from Socialist International., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5214135
I don't really think J. D. Vance is weird.
I think Trump is pretty weird. I'm concerned that he has accelerating dementia. His press conference the other day was jammed packed with gibberish. A rational GOP, which doesn't exist, would at this point show him the door. Rather than a rational GOP, however, we have the Populist masses and a collection of forces with agendas, such as the National Conservatives, Christian Nationalist, etc. Some adore his meandering gibberish as they are unthinking or actually quit thinking about what's going on years ago. Some tolerate it as they know that when he's in office they can basically shove him aside and run the bus. Some, I strongly suspect, figure that if elected, which they were planning on, age and the 25th Amendment or a pine box will take him out the back door of the White House and put them in the leather upholstered executive chair.
I think J. D. Vance was in that last category. By supporting Donald Trump, I suspect, he and people in his obit, were figuring that that Trump would play the same role that the Ghost plays in Hamlet. . . departed and out of power.
If that's what Vance was figuring, that's not weird. It's probably correct in terms of the expiration of Trump's mortal coil or his cerebrum. The latter would be, of course, slightly more problematic than the former, but in a pinch, would likely work just as well, save for some disruptions from the Maga Militia crowd.Anyhow, Trump is getting weird, but neither Harris or Vance are weird. What they are is poles apart in existential views, and they both really have one.
Harris is a politician of the political left, which has gone increasingly leftward since the mid 20th Century. Indeed, it's final descent into the far left is what sparked, in part, the populist counter reaction. It's adopted lifestyle politics with lifestyle's that were regarded as "weird" until fairly recently, and frankly many still are.
At the same time, the full bore assault on culture that commenced in the 1960s was hugely successful, normalizing behaviors regarded as immoral at the time, but which now are not. That's why, in no small part, people are proclaiming J. D. Vance as "weird". As I noted here earlier, Vance isn't of the populist line of thought, he's an actual conservative, but a National Conservative of the Rusty Reno, Patrick Dineen, Kevin Roberts, type. Vance expresses cultural views that have in varying degrees been under attack since the 1960s, but which have remained all along in some sectors of the culture and are attempting to stage a comeback, or even more, gain entry and acceptance for the first time.
That race, if it were on the surface, would be a really interesting existential one.
Chances are high that the country isn't really comfortable with it. Certainly the unwashed populists who see nothing inconsistent about proclaiming themselves Christian while admiring the Hailey Welch or Sydney Sweeny wouldn't really be all that comfortable with the views of Roberts and Vance. But for that matter, a lot of suburban moms or the now lauded/condemned "cat ladies" are probably not all that comfortable with the views of Sanders and Harris.
That contrast would serve a purpose in and of itself.
The race, however, we actually have is a national embarrassment due to the figure leading the GOP.
Um. . .
Odd scene. German armor general discussing the battle in Kursk Oblast. . . where the Germans had quite the fight 80 years ago.
Thursday, August 17, 1944. And on this day too, 30 years later, the Red Army entered East Prussia.
The Red Army crossed the River Scheshule and raised the Soviet flag on German soil. Sgt. Alexander Belov took the honors. He survived the war and died in 1960.
Interestingly, the Red Army entered East Prussia on the same day that the Imperial Russian Army had during World War One.
German forces in Lithuania launched counterattacks along their entire line.
.jpg)
Statue of St. Joan d'Arc in Orleans, August 17, 1944.
The Canadian Army took Falaise. The city was in ruins. A gap of a few miles exists thereafter between the British lines and the American ones.
The US Third Army took Saint-Malo.
In Southern France, almost no resistance to Allied advances is offered and the US captured St. Raphael, St. Tropez, Frejus, Le Luq and St. Maxime.
Third Infantry Division troops advancing on August 17, 1944, in southern France. Troops are wearing the new M1943 combat boots.
Hitler dismissed Field Marshal Kluge as commander of Army Group B and replaced him with Model.
The Battle of Biak, which had been going on since May 27, ended in an Allied victory. American forces advanced near Aitape. The length of these battles gives testament to how hard the Japanese were fighting.
Last edition:
Wednesday, August 16, 1944. Closing the Falaise Pocket.
Roads to the Great War: Weapons of War: Germany's Maschinengewehr 08
Roads to the Great War: Weapons of War: Germany's Maschinengewehr 08: MG 08 in Action Maschinengewehr 08 (MG08)—The MG08 was a heavy machine gun used by the German Empire during World War I. It was developed f...
August 17, 1774. Militia Muster.
The first known muster of Tennessee Militiamen took place when Capt. Evan Shelby and 49 militiamen, formed a volunteer company to fight with Virginia militia in Lord Dunmore’s War.
The company was called the Fincastle Company.
Last edition:
Tuesday, August 16, 1774. No to the British judiciary.
Labels: 1770s, 1774, American Revolution, Colonial North America, Connecticut, Court, Courthouses, Massachetts
Friday, August 16, 2024
World War 2 Ice Cream of the US NAVY
Ice cream was traditionally a big deal in the U.S. Navy, in no small part as it was a Navy Prohibition era substitute for alcohol. It became a huge cultural thing in the Navy. US ships were equipped with ice cream makers, which a baffled Royal Navy had omitted when they ordered U.S. designs.
Anyhow, a World War Two themed item here.
Also, there's no excuse for nuts in or on ice cream.
Wednesday, August 16, 1944. Closing the Falaise Pocket.
American armor rolls into the town of Dreux, France, as the Americans continue their rapid advance for Paris. The smoke of battle hangs low and the road is strewn with wrecked German armor. 16 August, 1944.
US forces entered Chartres. US forces also advanced towards Argentan and Alençon, in pursuit of the German forces fleeing the Falaise pocket. Falaise itself was liberated by the Canadians. Montgomery attempted to close the Falaise pocket with an attack from Trun, which Bradley believes to be too late. Polish troops in the British 1st Corps crossed over the Dives.
Pfc. Ciro B. Iadavaio, Brooklyn, N.Y., and T/4 Ira W. Myer, Louisville, Kentucky, of the crew of the hospital ship "Marigold" getting their first printed news of the invasion on the southern coast of France as nurses from the 93rd Evacuation Hospital load aboard to be taken to the new invasion front. 16 August, 1944. Naples, Italy.
The French 2nd Corps landed in southern France.
Walter Model replaced Günther von Kluge as Oberbefehlshaber West.
The Wehrmacht launched Operation Doppelkopf as a counteroffensive in the East.
The Red Army reached Ossow outside of Moscow, but had to withdraw under a German counterattack.
The Battle of Studzianki ended in a victory for Polish and Soviet forces.
The Battle of Guilin–Liuzhou ( 桂柳會戰) commenced between the Imperial Japanese Army and the Nationalist Chinese.
The US froze Argentine gold assets in the US due to failure to cooperate against the Axis.
Cheyenne experienced record railroad traffic due to war transportation of troops. (Wyoming State Historical Society calendar).
Last edition:
August 15, 1944. Operation Dragoon. The added invasion of France
Saturday, August 16, 1924. Killers.
European powers agreed to adopt the Dawes Plan, save for ratification of their parliaments.
The body of Italian opposition leader Giacomo Matteotti was found in a shallow ditch about 14 miles outside of Rome.
Boris Savinkov, Russian terrorist with the paramilitary wing of the outlawed Socialist Revolutionary Party, was arrested in Minsk by the Soviet secret police agency OGPU, because your opponents murdered is a murderer, while your own is a hero, apparently.
He was an anti communist and an admirer of Mussolini.
The Saturday magazines were out.
Judge had a pretty serious cover:
Last edition:
Thursday, August 14, 1924. Coolidge accepts.
Roads to the Great War: Why 1914 but Not Before? — RIP Franz Ferdinand
Roads to the Great War: Why 1914 but Not Before? — RIP Franz Ferdinand: The July Crisis of 1914 Simplified A Selection from "Why 1914 but Not Before? A Comparative Study of the July Crisis and Its Precursors...
Tuesday, August 16, 1774. No to the British judiciary.
Hundreds of residents of Massachusetts and Connecticut occupied the Great Barrington courthouse to prevent British appointed judges from sitting in the first organized resistance to British judicial rule in Colonial North America.
Last edition:
Sunday, August 14, 1774. Lewis and Tories.
Dr. Marx?
You're all going to be thrown into a communist system. You will be thrown into a system where everybody gets health care . . .
Donald Trump.
So the Red Horde was actually fighting for universal health care?
In fairness, that was just apparently a snippet of what he said. In the same speech he accused Harris of "badness" to an unnamed ally. But, in terms of speech, well this is, um, weird.
Thursday, August 15, 2024
Thursday August 15, 1974. An attempted South Korean assassination.
South Korean, Japanese born, North Korean sympathizer, Mun Se-gwang attempted to assassinate South Korea's President Park Chung Hee but instead killed Yuk Young-soo, age 48, Park's wife.
In the ensewin gun battle Jang Bong-hwa, a member of a high school choir performing at the event, was killed.
After the shooting and Mun's arrest, President Park resumed his address, which hardly seems appropriate.
Park composed the following poem in her honor:
Like a Long Magnolia Blossom Bending to the Wind
Under heavy silence
Of a house in mourning
Only the cry of cicadas
Maam, maam, maam
Seem to long for you who is now gone
Under the August sun
The Indian Lilacs turn crimson
As if trying to heal the wounds of the mind
My wife has departed alone
Only I am left
Like a lone magnolia blossom bending to the wind
Where can I appeal
The sadness of a broken heart
Last edition:
Wednesday, August 14, 1974. Second Turkish invasion of Cyprus.
August 15, 1944. Operation Dragoon. The added invasion of France
A second, nearly forgotten invasion of France, this time in the south, commenced.
Operation Dragoon.
Ordinally planned on concert with Operation Overlord, a shortage of landing craft caused it to be postponed to August. In just four weeks the Allies would clear southern France of the Germans.
Troops of the 15th Inf. Regt., 3rd Div., take cover in the sand as they await orders to advance inland. 15 August, 1944. 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division.
SC 411764 - Infantrymen of B Company, 120th Infantry, 30th Division, cut through a field alongside a road to avoid crossing in the open and giving German snipers a target. 15 August, 1944.
A paratrooper thanks the French fighters who saved his life. Pvt. Winifred D. Eason, of Atlanta, Ga., Company B, 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion, landed 34 hours before H-Hour, D-Day, Aug. 15, 1944, for the invasion of southern France. On the left is the man who saved him, Monsieur Marc Rainaut, leader of the French forces of the Interior of St. Tropez. In the center is Mademoiselle Nicole Celebenovitch, who secured a .45 (seen in her belt) and led the paratroopers to a group of hidden Germans. Rainaut received the Silver Star for his work on D-Day.
It is at this point, frankly, that the Germans should have rationally concluded they had lost the war.
The Battle of Port Cros took place in which the U.S. Navy and the Kriegsmarine engaged in a rare surface engagement in connection with Operation Dragoon in which Axis ships operating out of Port Cros engaged the U.S. Navy. Later in the day, a mixed regiment of United States Army and Canadian Army infantry, the 1st Special Service Force, dropped onto Port Cros and captured the five forts there after a day-long battle with their German garrisons.
Audie Murphy received the Distinguished Service Cross for action taken on 15 August 1944.
"U.S. Army nurses, newly arrived, line the rail of their vessel as it pulls into port of Greenock, Scotland, in European Theater of Operations. They wait to disembark as the gangplank is lowered to the dock.", 08/15/1944"
The U-741 was sunk off of Le Havre by the USS Somers.
Last edition:
Monday, August 14, 1944. Closing Gaps
Wednesday, August 14, 2024
Wednesday, August 14, 1974. Second Turkish invasion of Cyprus.
Turkey invaded Cyprus again, taking 37% of the country, establishing a republic recognized only by it, and dividing the capital Nicosia.
Greece withdrew from NATO"s military command structure as a result of the invasion. The Greek Cypriot paramilitary group EOKAB took Tochni and by the end of the day had murdered numerous people.
The Greek culture on Cyprus goes back to antiquity, although the island was never ruled by Greece. The Turkish presence to 1571 when the Ottomans took the island and began to partially settle it. The troubles of the 1970s, which have lasted to this day, were started by the Greek nationalist military junta, giving another example of the disastrous effects of Greek overreach in regard to Turkey.
The East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front (EAAJAF) attempted to assassinate the Emperor Hirohito with a railroad bomb, but was the plot was discovered and disrupted. The terrorist group was Japanese, in spite of its name, but was in reaction to the Japanese history of aggression, as well as having a far left ideology.
Last edition
Friday, August 9, 1974. President Nixon Resigns.
Monday, August 14, 1944. Closing Gaps
Partisan in Florence, August 14, 1944
On this day in 1944, Operation Tractable was commenced by Canadian and Polish troops in Normandy with the goal of closing the Falaise Gap, which it did. Casualties were outsized, as they often are during offensives, with the Canadian forces, the largest Allied contingent by far, taking over twice the number of casualties as the Germans.
Canadian artillery advancing.
On the same day, the Red Army completed operations in Operation Osovets, having taken all of their objectives in a week's operation in the final stage of Operation Bagration.
Also on this day, the Ft. Lawton riot occurred at Ft. Lawton, Washington. The riot was a conflict between Italian Prisoners of War and African American soldiers who had been celebrating their imminent departure overseas. The riot started as an exchange of words between some drunk soldiers with liberty and Italian prisoners, which escalated into a fight. Military Policemen restored order with no arrests, but the following day an Italian POW was found lynched. No American participants in the riot could really be identified, but nonetheless 43 of them were charged in connection with the incident and 28 convicted in the largest US trial of servicemen during World War Two.
Last edition:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)