My goodness, check out these times:
Thirty minutes for rolled oats?
And I frankly don't know what the preparation methods for some of these cereals are. Cornmeal? Is that boiled cornmeal? Cracked wheat, is that boiled?
The Country Gentleman came out, as it was of course a Saturday.
Two nights ago, my wife and I, for no real reason, watched The Fugitive.
We'd seen it before. I know I saw it at the move theater when it first ran in the early 90s. Maybe the two of us saw it together then.
Anyhow, I was amazed, in watching it, to see the common wearing of neckties.
All the men were wearing them.
It doesn't seem that long ago.
Wars and Rumors of War, 2022. The Russo Ukrainian War Edition, Part Two.
March 8, cont:
The United States is going to announce today that it's banning the import of Russian oil.
And from:
Subsidiarity Economics. The times more or less locally, Party VIII. Infrastructure Money
March 7, 2022
Oil topped $130/bbl yesterday briefly due to the Russo Ukrainian War. It was at $121/bbl at the time this was posted.
Wheat prices are also up for the same reason, with there being little in the way of an American due to the drought that set in last year and which, at least right now, is continuing.
And we're off into a scary new economic regime we have not seen since, well ever really, but which is most comparable to the state of the global economy from 1939 to 1945.
The implications of this are vast. The price of West Texas crude is $123/bbl, and Brent is $128.6/bbl. That's going to go up, but at the same time, the consumption of petroleum is going down in the US overall, which will continue.
How will this all develop?
Well, stay tuned for our usual insightful analysis.
March 10, 2022
Upset over efforts to revive a deal with Iran on nuclear fuel, and feeling they have been ignored in their own regional conflicts, Saudi Arabian and United Arab Emirate representatives are not taking President Biden's calls on petroleum production.
March 12, 2022
A nuclear power plant went online in Finland yesterday.
The wave, once again, of the future.
Uber added a fuel surcharge.
March 16, 2022
Petroleum is back down below $100/bbl.
March 18, 2022
A bill has been introduced in the U.S. Senate to ban the importation of Russian uranium.
March 20, 2022
The company constructing the nuclear power plant in Wyoming has announced it will not use Russian uranium.
March 25, 2022
The United States has entered into a natural gas deal with the European Union to somewhat offset Russian imports to the EU.
And;
Today, President Joe Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a joint Task Force to reduce Europe’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels and strengthen European energy security as President Putin wages his war of choice against Ukraine.
This Task Force for Energy Security will be chaired by a representative from the White House and a representative of the President of the European Commission. It will work to ensure energy security for Ukraine and the EU in preparation for next winter and the following one while supporting the EU’s goal to end its dependence on Russian fossil fuels.
The Task Force will organize its efforts around two primary goals: (1) Diversifying liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies in alignment with climate objectives; (2) Reducing demand for natural gas.
Diversifying LNG Supplies in Alignment with Climate Objectives
Reducing Demand for Natural Gas
March 31, 2022
Canada is effectively part of the American automobile production industry, with factories in Windsor Ontario being part of the Detroit system. This means that a major part of the North American market, albeit one with a comparatively small population, is rapidly pulling away from fossil fuel powered automobiles. This will have impacts in the United States in multiple ways, including production as the North American market pulls towards electric vehicles. The move can be expected to be at least attempted to be replicated in some US states.
The US is releasing 1,000,000,000 bbls of oil from the strategic reserve to attempt to depress oil prices. Middle Eastern countries which have been asked to do so have not been sympathetic, as they are generally not sympathetic with the position of the West in the Russo-Ukrainian War.
The United States is considering using the Defense Appropriations Act to boost the mining of minerals in the US associated with electric vehicle batteries.
April 2, 2022
Upping the ante on its neighbor to the north, the State of Washington signed into a law yesterday a bill providing:
A target is established for the state that all publicly owned and privately owned passenger and light duty vehicles of model year 2030 or later that are sold, purchased, or registered in Washington state be electric vehicles.
How this would be enforced is not clear.
Fuel economy averages will be mandated to go from 28 mph to 40 mpg by 2026.
April 4, 2022
Wyoming has acquired $24,000,000 in a Federal mandate to begin putting in electric charging stations on major corridors.
The UN issued a dire climate report.
April 15, 2022
On March 29 of this year, wind generators produced more energy than coal and nuclear, combined.
The inclusion of nuclear in this is for a real statistical reason, but a bit misleading. If the US is to make its carbon targets, conversion to nuclear energy, the cleanest form of power generation, is an absolute must.
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals approved President Biden's Cost of Carbon policy pollution rule.
April 16, 2022
The Federal government is resuming oil leases, albeit in much reduced numbers and with a 6% hike in royalties, bringing the royalty rate to 18.75%. The old 12.5% rate had been in effect for a century.
April 21, 2022
The state's unemployment rate is well below 4% at the current time.
Utilities have estimated that complying with carbon capture retrofits would raise utility bills by $100/month.
April 26, 2022
Sunflower seed oil, the major cooking oil in some European countries, is now unavailable due to the war in Ukraine, that country being its source. Only olive oil is available.
May 21, 2022
Wyoming is suspending the production of custom "vanity" license plates due to an aluminum shortage.
May 28, 2022
June 3, 2022
Under a settlement reached in a Federal court, all of the Federal oil and gas leases issued between 2015 and 2020 will be reexamined for compliance with environmental provisions. There is a strong chance that they will not all go forward.
June 13, 2022
Wyoming natural gas producers, hoping to take advantage of record high natural gas prices, would like to export the same by ship, but there are no West Coast gas shipping hubs, and the West Coast doesn't want them.
This story involves a lot of interesting ironies, but I'll deal with them elsewhere.
July 6, 2022
Gasoline prices have fallen for twenty-one days in a row.
That being the case, in spite of it being well known that the price of gas follows the price of petroleum, with a lag, and that this is heavily influenced by external forces, we can suppose that politicians who tweeted on this everyday for a while, with criticism of the administration, will now do the same with praise.
Right?
I suspect not.
July 7, 2022
And they fell again yesterday, with the price of crude now reported to be "cratering".
July 11, 2022
Headline from the Trib:
July 15, 2022
Large scale layoffs are occurring at the Sinclair refinery in Sinclair. The company recently sold to a new owner.
July 27, 2022
2/3s of Americans have been reported to have adjusted their behavior in a recent poll so that they drive less.
July 28, 2022
Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin announced an agreement on a bill including $430 billion in spending on energy, electrical vehicle credits and health insurance and which is supposed to pay for itself and reduce the deficit by raising minimum taxes on large companies and more vigorous enforcement of existing tax laws. The announcement is being hailed as a Democratic breakthrough.
According to its backers the bill would reduce U.S. carbon emissions 40% by 2030.
July 30, 2022
The anticipated last shipment of coal, which will supply its last existing coal fired power plant until September when it shuts down, arrived in Hawaii.
August 5, 2022
First, even though I know that it'll make for a really long post, let me put in the White House's actual announcement on its forgiving student debt decision.
FACT SHEET: President Biden Announces Student Loan Relief for Borrowers Who Need It Most
AUGUST 24, 2022•STATEMENTS AND RELEASES
A three-part plan delivers on President Biden’s promise to cancel $10,000 of student debt for low- to middle-income borrowers
President Biden believes that a post-high school education should be a ticket to a middle-class life, but for too many, the cost of borrowing for college is a lifelong burden that deprives them of that opportunity. During the campaign, he promised to provide student debt relief. Today, the Biden Administration is following through on that promise and providing families breathing room as they prepare to start re-paying loans after the economic crisis brought on by the pandemic.
Since 1980, the total cost of both four-year public and four-year private college has nearly tripled, even after accounting for inflation. Federal support has not kept up: Pell Grants once covered nearly 80 percent of the cost of a four-year public college degree for students from working families, but now only cover a third. That has left many students from low- and middle-income families with no choice but to borrow if they want to get a degree. According to a Department of Education analysis, the typical undergraduate student with loans now graduates with nearly $25,000 in debt.
The skyrocketing cumulative federal student loan debt—$1.6 trillion and rising for more than 45 million borrowers—is a significant burden on America’s middle class. Middle-class borrowers struggle with high monthly payments and ballooning balances that make it harder for them to build wealth, like buying homes, putting away money for retirement, and starting small businesses.
For the most vulnerable borrowers, the effects of debt are even more crushing. Nearly one-third of borrowers have debt but no degree, according to an analysis by the Department of Education of a recent cohort of undergraduates. Many of these students could not complete their degree because the cost of attendance was too high. About 16% of borrowers are in default – including nearly a third of senior citizens with student debt – which can result in the government garnishing a borrower’s wages or lowering a borrower’s credit score. The student debt burden also falls disproportionately on Black borrowers. Twenty years after first enrolling in school, the typical Black borrower who started college in the 1995-96 school year still owed 95% of their original student debt.Today, President Biden is announcing a three-part plan to provide more breathing room to America’s working families as they continue to recover from the strains associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. This plan offers targeted debt relief as part of a comprehensive effort to address the burden of growing college costs and make the student loan system more manageable for working families. The President is announcing that the Department of Education will:Provide targeted debt relief to address the financial harms of the pandemic, fulfilling the President’s campaign commitment. The Department of Education will provide up to $20,000 in debt cancellation to Pell Grant recipients with loans held by the Department of Education, and up to $10,000 in debt cancellation to non-Pell Grant recipients. Borrowers are eligible for this relief if their individual income is less than $125,000 ($250,000 for married couples). No high-income individual or high-income household – in the top 5% of incomes – will benefit from this action. To ensure a smooth transition to repayment and prevent unnecessary defaults, the pause on federal student loan repayment will be extended one final time through December 31, 2022. Borrowers should expect to resume payment in January 2023.
Make the student loan system more manageable for current and future borrowers by:Cutting monthly payments in half for undergraduate loans. The Department of Education is proposing a new income-driven repayment plan that protects more low-income borrowers from making any payments and caps monthly payments for undergraduate loans at 5% of a borrower’s discretionary income—half of the rate that borrowers must pay now under most existing plans. This means that the average annual student loan payment will be lowered by more than $1,000 for both current and future borrowers.Fixing the broken Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program by proposing a rule that borrowers who have worked at a nonprofit, in the military, or in federal, state, tribal, or local government, receive appropriate credit toward loan forgiveness. These improvements will build on temporary changes the Department of Education has already made to PSLF, under which more than 175,000 public servants have already had more than $10 billion in loan forgiveness approved.
Protect future students and taxpayers by reducing the cost of college and holding schools accountable when they hike up prices. The President championed the largest increase to Pell Grants in over a decade and one of the largest one-time influxes to colleges and universities. To further reduce the cost of college, the President will continue to fight to double the maximum Pell Grant and make community college free. Meanwhile, colleges have an obligation to keep prices reasonable and ensure borrowers get value for their investments, not debt they cannot afford. This Administration has already taken key steps to strengthen accountability, including in areas where the previous Administration weakened rules. The Department of Education is announcing new efforts to ensure student borrowers get value for their college costs.Provide Targeted Debt Relief, Fulfilling the President’s Campaign CommitmentTo address the financial harms of the pandemic for low- and middle-income borrowers and avoid defaults as loan repayment restarts next year, the Department of Education will provide up to $20,000 in loan relief to borrowers with loans held by the Department of Education whose individual income is less than $125,000 ($250,000 for married couples) and who received a Pell Grant. Nearly every Pell Grant recipient came from a family that made less than $60,000 a year, and Pell Grant recipients typically experience more challenges repaying their debt than other borrowers. Borrowers who meet those income standards but did not receive a Pell Grant in college can receive up to $10,000 in loan relief.
The Pell Grant program is one of America’s most effective financial aid programs—but its value has been eroded over time. Pell Grant recipients are more than 60% of the borrower population. The Department of Education estimates that roughly 27 million borrowers will be eligible to receive up to $20,000 in relief, helping these borrowers meet their economic potential and avoid economic harm from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Current students with loans are eligible for this debt relief. Borrowers who are dependent students will be eligible for relief based on parental income, rather than their own income.
If all borrowers claim the relief they are entitled to, these actions will:
Provide relief to up to 43 million borrowers, including cancelling the full remaining balance for roughly 20 million borrowers.
Target relief dollars to low- and middle-income borrowers. The Department of Education estimates that, among borrowers who are no longer in school, nearly 90% of relief dollars will go to those earning less than $75,000 a year. No individual making more than $125,000 or household making more than $250,000 – the top 5% of incomes in the United States – will receive relief.
Help borrowers of all ages. The Department of Education estimates that, among borrowers who are eligible for relief, 21% are 25 years and under and 44% are ages 26-39. More than a third are borrowers age 40 and up, including 5% of borrowers who are senior citizens.
Advance racial equity. By targeting relief to borrowers with the highest economic need, the Administration’s actions are likely to help narrow the racial wealth gap. Black students are more likely to have to borrow for school and more likely to take out larger loans. Black borrowers are twice as likely to have received Pell Grants compared to their white peers. Other borrowers of color are also more likely than their peers to receive Pell Grants. That is why an Urban Institute study found that debt forgiveness programs targeting those who received Pell Grants while in college will advance racial equity.
The Department of Education will work quickly and efficiently to set up a simple application process for borrowers to claim relief. The application will be available no later than when the pause on federal student loan repayments terminates at the end of the year. Nearly 8 million borrowers may be eligible to receive relief automatically because their relevant income data is already available to the Department.
Thanks to the American Rescue Plan, this debt relief will not be treated as taxable income for the federal income tax purposes.
To help ensure a smooth transition back to repayment, the Department of Education is extending the student loan pause a final time through December 31, 2022. No one with federally-held loans has had to pay a single dollar in loan payments since President Biden took office.
Make the Student Loan System More Manageable for Current and Future Borrowers
Fixing Existing Loan Repayment to Lower Monthly Payments
The Administration is reforming student loan repayment plans so both current and future low- and middle-income borrowers will have smaller and more manageable monthly payments.
The Department of Education has the authority to create income-driven repayment plans, which cap what borrowers pay each month based on a percentage of their discretionary income. Most of these plans cancel a borrower’s remaining debt once they make 20 years of monthly payments. But the existing versions of these plans are too complex and too limited. As a result, millions of borrowers who might benefit from them do not sign up, and the millions who do sign up are still often left with unmanageable monthly payments.
To address these concerns and follow through on Congress’ original vision for income-driven repayment, the Department of Education is proposing a rule to do the following
For undergraduate loans, cut in half the amount that borrowers have to pay each month from 10% to 5% of discretionary income.
Raise the amount of income that is considered non-discretionary income and therefore is protected from repayment, guaranteeing that no borrower earning under 225% of the federal poverty level—about the annual equivalent of a $15 minimum wage for a single borrower—will have to make a monthly payment.
Forgive loan balances after 10 years of payments, instead of 20 years, for borrowers with original loan balances of $12,000 or less. The Department of Education estimates that this reform will allow nearly all community college borrowers to be debt-free within 10 years.
Cover the borrower’s unpaid monthly interest, so that unlike other existing income-driven repayment plans, no borrower’s loan balance will grow as long as they make their monthly payments—even when that monthly payment is $0 because their income is low
These reforms would simplify loan repayment and deliver significant savings to low- and middle-income borrowers. For example:
A typical single construction worker (making $38,000 a year) with a construction management credential would pay only $31 a month, compared to the $147 they pay now under the most recent income-driven repayment plan, for annual savings of nearly $1,400.
A typical single public school teacher with an undergraduate degree (making $44,000 a year) would pay only $56 a month on their loans, compared to the $197 they pay now under the most recent income-driven repayment plan, for annual savings of nearly $1,700.
A typical nurse (making $77,000 a year) who is married with two kids would pay only $61 a month on their undergraduate loans, compared to the $295 they pay now under the most recent income-driven repayment plan, for annual savings of more than $2,800.
For each of these borrowers, their balances would not grow as long as they are making their monthly payments, and their remaining debt would be forgiven after they make the required number of qualifying payments.
Further, the Department of Education will make it easier for borrowers who enroll in this new plan to stay enrolled. Starting in the summer of 2023, borrowers will be able to allow the Department of Education to automatically pull their income information year after year, avoiding the hassle of needing to recertify their income annually.
Ensuring Public Servants Receive Credit Toward Loan Forgiveness
Borrowers working in public service are entitled to earn credit toward debt relief under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. But because of complex eligibility restrictions, historic implementation failures, and poor counseling given to borrowers, many borrowers have not received the credit they deserve for their public service.
The Department of Education has announced time-limited changes to PSLF that provide an easier path to forgiveness of all outstanding debt for eligible federal student loan borrowers who have served at a non-profit, in the military, or in federal, state, Tribal, or local government for at least 10 years, including non-consecutively. Those who have served less than 10 years may now more easily get credit for their service to date toward eventual forgiveness. These changes allow eligible borrowers to gain additional credit toward forgiveness, even if they had been told previously that they had the wrong loan type.
The Department of Education also has proposed regulatory changes to ensure more effective implementation of the PSLF program moving forward. Specifically, the Department of Education has proposed allowing more payments to qualify for PSLF including partial, lump sum, and late payments, and allowing certain kinds of deferments and forbearances, such as those for Peace Corps and AmeriCorps service, National Guard duty, and military service, to count toward PSLF. The Department of Education also proposed to ensure the rules work better for non-tenured instructors whose colleges need to calculate their full-time employment.
To ensure borrowers are aware of the temporary changes, the White House has launched four PSLF Days of Action dedicated to borrowers in specific sectors: government employees, educators, healthcare workers and first responders, and non-profit employees. You can find out other information about the temporary changes on PSLF.gov. You must apply to PSLF before the temporary changes end on October 31, 2022.
Protecting Borrowers and Taxpayers from Steep Increases in College Cost
While providing this relief to low- and middle-income borrowers, the President is focused on keeping college costs under control. Under this Administration, students have had more money in their pockets to pay for college. The President signed the largest increase to the maximum Pell Grant in over a decade and provided nearly $40 billion to colleges and universities through the American Rescue Plan, much of which was used for emergency student financial aid, allowing students to breathe a little easier.
Additionally, the Department of Education has already taken significant steps to strengthen accountability, so that students are not left with mountains of debt with little payoff. The agency has re-established the enforcement unit in the Office of Federal Student Aid and it is holding accreditors’ feet to the fire. In fact, the Department just withdrew authorization for the accreditor that oversaw schools responsible for some of the worst for-profit scandals. The agency will also propose a rule to hold career programs accountable for leaving their graduates with mountains of debt they cannot repay, a rule the previous Administration repealed.
Building off of these efforts, the Department of Education is announcing new actions to hold accountable colleges that have contributed to the student debt crisis. These include publishing an annual watch list of the programs with the worst debt levels in the country, so that students registering for the next academic year can steer clear of programs with poor outcomes. They also include requesting institutional improvement plans from the worst actors that outline how the colleges with the most concerning debt outcomes intend to bring down debt levels.
***
More information on claiming relief will be available to borrowers in the coming weeks.
Borrowers can sign up to be notified when this information is available at StudentAid.gov/debtrelief.
This is going to be controversial.
So, let's cut to the chase.
We've posted on the American student loan system before, which exists in the happy mythical world of the 1960s, really. In that world, high school students, rather than get manual labor jobs at General Motors, are given a chance to get a bachelor's degree, as any bachelor's degree means that they can walk into any office across the United States, wearing a clean white button down shirt and black tie, with gray wool slacks, and become an executive.
And in the 50s, 60s and 70s, there was a lot of truth in that, which is why the GI Bill, which in some ways all American "loan" programs are based on, was such as success.
That world hasn't existed for a long time.
Since World War Two, Americans became highly acclimated to loans in general. Going back before the war, usually the only major loan that most people had was on their house, although surprisingly automobile loans date back all the way to the 1910s, and Ford Motors introduced financing for their cars in 1919. There were installment plans on some things as well, such as major appliances, but for real personal debt, houses were it, followed by cars. Credit cards didn't start to come into existence until the 1950s and 1960s, and had very limited, and often specialized, use.
American student loans did not exist until 1958, when they came into existence as part of the National Defense Education Act. That act was structured the way that student loan bills still should be, it provided loans only in categories of national strategic need, specifically engineering, science and education. In 1965, however, loans were broadened out with the Higher Education Act of 1965, which saw advancing higher education as a means of advancing social mobility. I.e., it was part of Johnson's Great Society.
It was in 1973, however, that the entire project took a giant leap with the Student Loan Marketing Association, Sallie Mae, which joined the group of female named Federal guaranteed loan projects which took the moral hazard out of lending for certain dicey propositions, such as home loans or educational endeavors with no real long term prospects.
Educational institutions really picked up on this, and it resulted in tuition inflation that came to grossly outstrip inflation. It also encouraged the creation of pseudo disciplines in education and the resulting massive increase in the student bodies resulted in grade inflation. This resulted, over time, in the devaluing of a college education.
No more walking out with your baccalaureate and into the boardroom.
In recent years this has led people like Bernie Sanders to suggest the solution for everything is to have the government pay for everything, as if too much isn't solving a problem, way too much surely will. The better evidence is that at this point in time we'd be better off going back to the original loan model, or ending loans entirely.
Stepping into this now is Joe Biden, who is trying to follow up on a campaign promise to address this issue by hurling money at it, which gets into the Sanders mindset. Sanders would likely just forgive them all and then pay for all higher education, because if making an education easy to get hasn't devalued it enough, then making it free surely will. . . oh, wait.
Biden's act doesn't contribute to that, but it's inflationary without a doubt. Loan forgiveness is income. Indeed, normally, loan forgiveness is taxed as income, but due to the Inflation Reduction Act this particular example at least will not be. As this is the equivalent to passing money out, there's no two ways about it.
And the propaganda about it being aimed at lower income people is just that. Providing relief to the children of couples who make up to $250,000 per year is clearly aimed at the middle class, as is the suggestion that it won't go to the "top 5%" of income earners, that being a category which is unlikely to have student loans in the first place.
So what this is, is a species of temporary subsidization of education for mostly the middle class. It'll hit lower earners too, but the middle class will be the primary beneficiaries.
For a time.
But at the same time, it'll be inflationary, which hits the middle class the most, and given the level it's at, its benefit to the target audience is of low value anyhow. So it contributes to the reduction in value of what everyone makes, contributes to the devaluing of education, provides cash to banks for making bad loans, and advances the concept that any higher level education is of economic value.
It's not the 1950s or 60s anymore. It's not even 1973. If we're going to have a government supported program, it ought to support a national purpose. This one really isn't anymore.
And I'm not suggesting that a college education has no value. Far from it. It's become, except for those born into fortunate circumstances, necessary. Rather, I'm suggesting that this be protected. As Kris Kristofferson noted, via Janis Joplin; "freedom's just another word for nothing else to lose, nothing don't cost nothing, but it's free". I don't find this to be universally true, but in this instance, as with a lot of things that are "free", they come to have low or no value over time. This has us headed one step further in that direction.
But benefits once conferred are difficult to withdraw.
The Japanese, again acting with poor intelligence, landed marines at Milne Bay in New Guinea. The battle would rage until September 7, in part because Australian aircraft destroyed Japanese landing craft and therefore the Japanese force, which was outnumbered from the onset, could not withdraw and chose to push inland. Ultimately, it would be defeated by the Austsralians in what is regarded as the first defeat for Japanese ground forces against the Western Allies of the Second World War.
Today in World War II History—August 25, 1942: RAF officer Prince George, Duke of Kent is killed in a plane crash in Scotland, the first death of a member of the Royal family in military service in 450 years
From Sarah Sundin's blog.
Prince George, like much of royalty everywhere, is not without a collection of rumors regarding personal vices. He married Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark in 1934, which interestingly featured first an Anglican ceremony at Westminster Abbey followed by a Greek Orthodox ceremony at Buckingham Palace. The couple had three children. Prior to their marriage there were strong rumors that he had engaged in affairs with at least three individuals, one woman and two men. He had an extramarital affair with a woman of nobility after his marriage.
He'd originally served in the Royal Navy, and then as a civil servant while remaining a naval reservist. He'd been aide-de-camp to King Edward VIII and then naval aide-de-camp to George VI upon Edward's resignation. He was to have been Governor General of Australia before the Second World War caused him to return to naval service, during which he took a voluntary reduction in rank so as to not disrupt service among younger pilots. He was one of fourteen passengers killed in the crash. He was 39 years old.
All three of his children are living.
The Battle of the Eastern Solomons, addressed yesterday, concluded on this day, during which B-17s obtained a rare success against a ship, sinking the Japanese destroyer Mutsuki with a fatal direct hit.
The Soviets began to evacuate the civilian population of Stalingrad.
The Cubs held off the Phillies 26-23 in Wrigley Field after being up by 19. The game remains the highest-scoring game in major-league history. Marty Callaghan of the Cubs batted three times in a single inning.
W. T. Cosgrave became Chairman of the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State, replacing Michael Collins in that role.
An earthquake occurred in the Tel Atlas region of Algeria.
Lex Anteinternet: Lex Anteinternet: The Pool Returns: Back in 2019 we ran this: Lex Anteinternet: The Pool Returns : The Pool Returns The Tribune this morning has an article that the School Boa...
And yesterday, the beautiful new NCHS swimming pool opened featuring talks by those involved, and the girls swim team.
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The Battle of the Eastern Solomons commenced between the U.S. Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy.
This day saw the sort of action that the naval war in the Pacific is recalled for. Even though the battle for the Solomons had already featured a lot of surface action, this was a carrier battle, although, like at Midway, bombers of the United States Army Air Force participated as well.
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Most of the action was on this day. The Japanese lost the light carrier Ryūjō, a destroyer and a transport. The USS Enterprise was heavily damaged, with a stricken Japanese aircraft hit her deck.
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The battle was an American victory.
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Today in World War II History—August 24, 1942: Italians successfully charge Soviets at Izbushensky, Russia.
So notes Sarah Sundin.
Unit creast of the Savoia Cavallerria
The Italian cavalry charge by the Savoia Cavallerria was dramatic in the extreme, against heavy odds, and deployed the time tested cavalry tactic of charging into an ambushing enemy. It worked, moreover, although the charging Italian elements took heavy losses. Soviet losses, however, were in fact much higher.
The unit still exist, although dismounted, today. It was saved as an Italian unit to some degree by the actions of Count Col. Pietro de Vito Piscicelli who, after the Italian surrender, found his unit in a position in which it could not surrender to the Western Allies. Instead, he took the unit into Switzerland, where they were interned. Interestingly, officers were allowed to keep their horses and sidearms while under Swiss authority until the end of the war.
Churchill arrived back in the UK after his trip to Moscow.
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Today in World War II History—August 23, 1942: 80 Years Ago—Aug. 23, 1942: Battle of Stalingrad officially begins: German Army Group B reaches the Volga River near Stalingrad.
Stalingrad is claimed to be the largest battle in history.
In addition to what is noted above, the Luftwaffe bombed the city, resulting in 40,000 civilian deaths and the reduction of much of the city to rubble. Troops of the German 16th Panzer Division almost reached the Stalingrad Tractor Factory, the USSR's largest tank producer.
Martha Hanson, age 45, was mauled by a bear at Yellowstone National Park near her tourist cabin. She would die from her injuries on the 27th.
Brazil, having endured several days of German U-boat attacks, declared war on Germany and Italy. The Germans has presumed, incorrectly, that Allied ships were taking refuge in South American territorial waters.
Brazil would contribute some ground forces to the war in Europe, but its major contribution would be in regard to providing its massive coastline in the war effort.
On this day, the German 16th Panzer Division crossed the Don, with the path to Stalingrad now open before it.
A renewed naval battle in the Savo Sound occurred between the U.S. Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy in the early morning hours, resulting in the ultimate loss of the USS Blue.
The Chinese captured Yuijiang.
In the Caribbean, an American B-18, a plane we hardly think of in the context of World War Two, sank the U-654.
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The USS Ingraham sank off of Nova Scotia after she was hit in fog by the oil tanker Chemung.
