Thursday, April 3, 2025

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist. 80th Edition. The Tetas, Milk (but not from a cow), Coffee and Whiskey edition.

Okay, I don't know if this blog is "family friendly".  After all, it covers all sorts of topics including some that are pretty adult, if we take the word "adult" to mean what it is supposed to mean, rather than x-rated.  Normally it's fairly serious.

This Zeitgeist addition might not be.

But it is a bit off color.  So, off color warning.

As I think I posted awhile back, the Texas Rangers made a goof on this years special baseball hat edition, in which the first letter of the team's city is appears over the logo, so that the hat spelled out "TETAS", or, in Spanish "tits".

Oops.

They quickly clawed it out, but not before some quick fans ordered them. So, this year, at Texas Rangers games, some bold, probably all men (my wife actually stated to me that she wished she'd ordered one) Rangers fans will go to the game wearing "TITS" hats.

Now, I get some feeds on the first page that comes up when I log on that are food related.  This is probably as I'll look up wild game recopies.  Anyhow, yesterday, there was a story that came up on the front page of Google or Bing or whatever that somebody had introduced breast milk ice-cream.  That was so weird that I hit on the news to be confronted with an ice-cream tub depicting a cartoon lactating breast dropping milk and, yes, it's human  milk ice-cream.

That's really weird.

I'm not even quite sure how that would be legal.  Milk is normally inspected by the USDA if its sold in stores, save for "raw milk" that some people like as they apparently want to risk deadly infections.  Added to that, given that I have a somewhat agricultural mind, my immediate thought was "how do you get a sufficient number of lactating women to . . . " at which point you need to quit thinking about such t hings.  Still, being familiar with production agriculture, you need a lot of cows . . . and then again, you need to stop thinking about it.

Maybe this is what Trump meant by making America great again.  2025 in the weird Trumpverse is the year of the boob or something.

Or the year of tariffs.

On food:

Trump’s Reciprocal Trade Act spells bad news for coffee 

Coffee was already getting pretty expensive.

Trump, of course, doesn't drink coffee.

Trump is apparently a huge Diet Coke fan.  He has a real affinity for junk food, particularly Big Macs.  He apparently also likes steaks, but according to one of his cooks, extremely well done, which is an infamnia.

Scotland is apparently pretty concerned on the 10% tariff dumped on the UK as it might impact whiskey consumption.

Scotch is, in my view (I don't like Scotch) expensive anyway.  I'm more concerned about Irish whiskey, which will be hit with a 20% tariff by the Mango Mussolini's misguided economic policy.

Last edition:

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist. 79th Edition. The Move along, nothing to see here addition.

M59 APC. National Museum of Military Vehicles.


This is a M59 Armored Personnel Carrier.  They had a brief production life, 1954 to 1960, and were replaced by the long serving M113.  They replaced the also fully tracked M75, which saw use in the Korean War. The M59 saw some use in the Vietnam War.

Last edition:

Amphibious vehicles of World War Two. National Museum of Military History.

Thursday, April 3, 1975. Operation Babylift.

President Ford ordered the evacuation of Americans from Phnom Penh.

Operation Babylift began as a U.S. effort to bring South Vietnamese orphans to the United States.  Widely lauded today (it would be unlikely to take place, frankly, under the current administration), there was some criticism at the time on the assertion that not all the children were actually orphans, and that it was a cultural based decision given that young people were being taken out of their native land to avoid communism.

Gen. Weyand met with President Thiệu in Saigon and promised more American aid to South Vietnam, but declined Thiệu's request for a renewal of American bombing of North Vietnamese forces.  As they both well knew, without U.S. air support there was no hope for the ARVN.

South Vietnamese Prime Minister Trần Thiện Khiêm resigned.  He would take up exile in France and then the United States, converting to Catholicism there.  He died in 2021.

Israel and South Africa signed SECMENT, a secret mutual defense agreement.

Bobby Fischer refused to play a chess match against Anatoly Karpov, and thereby ceded the title of chess champion.

Actress Mary Ure, most famous for her role in Where Eagles Dare, and the wife of Robert Shaw, died of an overdose of alcohol and barbiturates at age 42.

Last edition:

Wednesday, April 2, 1975. Driving on Saigon.

Amphibious vehicles of World War Two. National Museum of Military History.

GMC DUKW, the most common wheeled US amphibious vehicle of World War Two.



A LVT.
 

Last edition:

Various World War Two Artillery pieces. National Museum of Military Vehicles.

Tuesday, April 3, 1945. The Germans began the evacuation of Buchenwald.

The Germans began the evacuation of Buchenwald.

Soviet forces take Wiener Neustadt

Elements of the US 40th Division landed on Masbate to assist Filipino guerillas.

"Pfc. Thomas Powell, North Platte, Nebr., 5th Cav., guards the main street of San Pablo, Luzon, P.I, with his machine gun, and covers himself completely with his poncho in the tropical rain. 3 April, 1945.  Photographer: T/4 Wendinger.  Photo Source: U.S. National Archives. Digitized by Signal Corps Archive."

Kamikazes were active off of Okinawa.

"Men of an antitank company keep on the alert for enemy action atop a hill in Okinawa.
Left to right, Pfc. George Harrington, Brooklyn N.Y., Cpl Joe Irvin, Elgin, Ill., and Pfc Leland Beleme, Merced, Cal. 3 April 1945."

Last edition:

Combat Arms Standards.

 


Related Threads:

Women and combat


Killing people and breaking things. . . and women in the service.

Yes, it's bad behavior. Immoral, and criminal. But at what point is it nature?


Wednesday, April 2, 2025

Trump Says Global Trade Is Unfair. Does He Have a Point? President Trump says that countries have been ripping off the United States for decades. There is some truth to that argument — but also a lot of hypocrisy.

 

Trump Says Global Trade Is Unfair. Does He Have a Point?

President Trump says that countries have been ripping off the United States for decades. There is some truth to that argument — but also a lot of hypocrisy.

We are a fascist state when we have ICE agents not in uniforms and hiding their faces behind masks. That is right. We have a law enforcement agency that is running around more like the Gestapo of Nazi Germany than what we are supposed to have and what is valued in America.

That is right. We have a law enforcement agency that is running around more like the Gestapo of Nazi Germany than what we are supposed to have and what is valued in America. . . .

Wednesday, April 2, 1975. Driving on Saigon.

NVA Gen. Dung ordered his troops to focus on Saigon.

Văn Tiến Dũng in 1954.

Last edition:

Monday, April 2, 1945. Easy advances on Okinawa.

Operation Roast ended in a British victory in Italy.

The British 2nd Army took Munster.

The Red Army launched the Vienna Offensive.  They also took Magykanizsa and Kremnica.

The US 10th Army made easy advances on Okinawa.

U.S. artillerymen, Okinawa, April 2, 1945.

Part of the US 163d Regiment landed on Tawitawi, in the Sulu Archipelago.

The U-321 was sunk by a Vickers Wellington of No. 304 Polish Bomber Squadron southwest of Ireland.

Last edition:

Sunday, April 1, 1945. Operation Iceberg.

Thursday, April 2, 1925. Oklahoma.

 


Oklahoma adopted its current flag.

The prior flag:


France and Turkey agreed on the autonomy of Alexandretta, which is today party of Syria.

The Police Forces Amalgamation Act 1925 went into effect in the Republic of Ireland consolidating the Garda Síochána and the Dublin Metropolitan Police into a single national police force.

Last edition:

Monday, April 2, 1725. Birth of Giacomo Girolamo Casanova

Better known simply by his last name, Casanova remains famous for his sexual exploits and libertine lifestyle.

He was born in the Republic of Venice and died in 1798 in Bohemia, then part of the Holy Roman Empire. Late in life he wrote his memoirs, which is why he is remembered today.   A lawyer by training, he was mostly a seducer in society and a gambler, and was working as a librarian at the time of his death.  Given his behavior, he is thought to have fathered several children, including a child by one of his own illegitimate daughters.

Interestingly, his final words were "I have lived as a philosopher and I die as a Christian", perhaps showing a late in life conversion back to Catholicism.

I wasn't going to post this anniversary at all, but decided to do so as Casanova was illustrative of the lack of morals in European high society of his day.  He serves as an illustration of how gross and disgusting behavior in the age of Musk, Trump, Weinstein, Hefner, Cosby and Epstein isn't something wholly new to our own age.

Last edition:

Easter Sunday, April 1, 1725. Bach's Easter Oratorio.

US approves $64M sale of M4A1 carbine rifles to Ecuador

 US approves $64M sale of M4A1 carbine rifles to Ecuador

The question would be, however, with the US moving away from the 5.56 and the AR platform, why would any country want M4s now?

Roads to the Great War: "I Didn't Get Over": A World War I Short Story by...

Roads to the Great War: "I Didn't Get Over": A World War I Short Story by...: F. Scott Fitzgerald as an Officer Candidate Introduction from the National World War One Museum:   Born in September 1896, Francis Scott Key...

Tuesday, April 1, 2025

Want to Play a Game? Global Trade War Is the New Washington Pastime. Two dozen trade experts gathered recently to simulate how a global trade war would play out. The results were surprisingly optimistic.

Wargaming is a hobby of mine, although I don't have anyone to play it with.

Anyhow:

Two dozen trade experts gathered recently to simulate how a global trade war would play out. The results were surprisingly optimistic.

Tuesday, April 1, 1975. Hurried departures.

The ongoing collapse in South Vietnam was increasingly spreading to neighboring Cambodia, where Neak Leung fell to Khmer Rouge after fierce Cambodian resistance. cutting off a supply route to Phnom Penh from South Vietnam.

Cambodian President Lon Nol went into exile, being succeeded by Saukaum Khoy.  He'd spend the rest of his life in Hawaii.

Qui Nhơn in South Vietnam fell to the NVA giving the communists control of half of South Vietnam's landmass.

South Vietnamese Gen.hú departed Nha Trang secretly by helicopter after having previously refused requests from his men to retreat from the city. The American Consul General in Nha Trang, Moncrieff Spear, ordered the evacuation of American personnel from the city, leaving behind about 100 of the consulate's Vietnamese employees and one of the five Marine Security Guards, Sergeant Michael A. McCormick by accident.

McCormick was later able to leave Nha Trang on a CIA  Air America helicopter.

The bicentennial "Freedom Train" began its tour of the United States starting with a display in Wilmington, Delaware.


Last edition:

Sunday, April 1, 1945. Operation Iceberg.


US troops, ultimately to include members of the Marine Corps and the U.S. Army, landed on Okinawa in Operation Iceberg.  The initial landing of 50,000 men saw little resistance.

The Red Army took Sopron, Hungaria.

The Battle of Kassel began between the U.S. Army's 80th Division and German defenders.

British commandos began Operation Roast in an effort to push the Germans across the Po and out of Italy.


Hitler moved his headquarters to the Führerbunker..

The hospital ship Awa Maru was sunk in a case of mistaken identity by the USS Queenfish leading to the loss of 2003 of its 2004 passengers and crew.

And this wild communications item was introduced.

Visie-Talkie, 1945

Last edition:

Saturday, March 31, 1945. Liberated.

Easter Sunday, April 1, 1725. Bach's Easter Oratorio.

Bach’s Easter Oratorio, the companion piece to his Passions was first performed in an Easter service in Leipzig, April 1, 1725.  The composer conducted.

Last edition:

Monday, March 26, 1725. Monday of Holy Week for 1725.