Today in World War II History—May 25, 1943: 80 Years Ago—May 25, 1943: At the Trident Conference, Allied Combined Chiefs decide to plan for a 1 May 1944 invasion of Europe.
So notes Sarah Sundin, who also noted race riots that occurred in Mobile, Alabama in which white workers rioted over the promotions of twelve black workers, all of whom were injured in the riots.
The Times:
Brexit is about to give us a problem with this, though. Karl Marx was right: wages won’t rise when there’s spare labour available, his “reserve army” of the unemployed. The capitalist doesn’t have to increase pay to gain more workers if there’s a squad of the starving eager to labour for a crust. But if there are no unemployed, labour must be tempted away from other employers, and one’s own workers have to be pampered so they do not leave. When capitalists compete for the labour they profit from, wages rise.
Britain’s reserve army of workers now resides in Wroclaw, Vilnius, Brno, the cities of eastern Europe. The Polish plumbers of lore did flood in and when the work dried up they ebbed away again. The net effect of Brexit will be that British wages rise as the labour force shrinks and employers have to compete for the sweat of hand and brow.
In spite of what economists like Robert Reich like to admit, and pundit Chuck Todd freely does without realizing what he's saying, is that the old "Americans won't do that job", or in this case, the British, simply isn't true. Britain's reserve army of workers was in Poland, and the U.S. all over the globe but particularly in Central America. COVID dried that supply up, and US wages rose.
Some, at least, of what we are seeing in terms of inflation, while inflationary, is actually caused by wages adjusting to their natural level. Economist always like to maintain this isn't true, but the actual experiment on it shows it is, in fact.
Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz recalled the German fleet of U-boats following the reduction by 1/3 of that force in May, 22 out of 60, due to Allied action. All together, 41 German U-boats would be lost in May.
Germany had effectively lost the Battle of the Atlantic. While the submarines would redeploy, they'd never again pose the threat they had up to May, 1943. This also meant the effective victory for the Allies against the Germans in a second front, although the fighting would go on, with the first being in North Africa.
Sarah Sundin notes the event on her blog, also noting that rationing of cheese in the US expanded to include all but cream and cottage cheese.
Josef Mengele was posted to Auschwitz.
Éamon de Valera and Frank Aiken ordered IRA volunteers to lay down their arms and return home, causing an "official" end to their rebellion against the Irish Free State.
Chief of Staff Frank Aiken's order, recalled in history as the Dump Arms Order, read:
Comrades — The arms with which we fought the enemies of our country are to be dumped. The foreign and domestic enemies of the Republic have for the moment prevailed. But our enemies have not won. Neither tortures nor firing squads, nor a slavish press can crush the desire for independence out of the hearts of those who fought for the Republic or out of the hearts of our people. Our enemies have demanded our arms. Our answer is, 'We took up arms to free our country, and we'll keep them until we see an honourable way of reaching our objective without arms'. There is a trying time ahead for the faithful soldiers of Ireland. But the willing sacrifices of our dead comrades will give us the courage to face it in the knowledge that these sacrifices have ensured the ultimate victory of our cause. Their examples and their prayers will help us to be like them, faithful to our ideals unto death.
De Valera's order stated:
Soldiers of liberty! Legion of the rear guard! The republic can no longer be sustained successfully by your arms. Further sacrifices on your part would now be in vain. The continuance of the struggle in arms is unwise in the national interest," and added, "You have saved the nation's honor and left the road open to independence. Laying aside your arms now is an act of patriotism as exalted and pure as your valor in taking them up
Ireland would come, in fact, to have very strict gun control, something that reflected Irish independence having come about through an armed Irish minority and the ongoing fear that an armed Irish element would oppose the government.
The ethos of the IRA at the time can perhaps best be summarized by the statement of Liam Lynch, a general of the IRA,, who stated:
We have declared for an Irish Republic.
We will live by no other law.
Be that as it may, the IRA's fight against the Irish Free State was a dishonorable affair, and one tinged with radicalism. Asserting a fight for liberation and democracy, it was in the end undeniably sectarian in ignoring the wishes, no matter how despised, of Ulster protestants who did not wish to leave the United Kingdom and the majority of southern Irish who were content with the Free State.
It was also naive to think that it could force British separation of Ulster through fighting the Free State.
The San Pedro Maritime Strike in San Francisco came to an end.
The French government resigned, and then unresigned, over the Senates decision not to put Communist Marcel Cachin, a member, on trial.
Amendment XIVSection 1.All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.Section 2.Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state.Section 3.No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.Section 4.The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any state shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.Section 5.The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
The argument is logical enough, and pertains to this:
The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, . . . shall not be questioned.
A cap on debt that operates to dishonor the debt, intentional or not, as long as it was authorized by law, cannot be questioned.
The stupid debt caps call it into question.
Clearly, they are unconstitutional, just as pundits, including those on the left, note. And firebrands on the right who hold otherwise are demonstrating contempt for the constitution.
So let's next consider this.
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
The same thing is at work here. Not infringing, means not infringing.
The point here isn't to argue the policy or wisdom of either provisions. Rather, you don't get to depart from the logic train once you board it. Or, in other words, if you are a guy like Robert Reich, you can't argue that you can go ahead and infringe the Second Amendment, as it doesn't mean what it says, while arguing that you must apply the 14th Amendment, as it means what it says. Nor can you be Kevin McCarthy, and argue that the Second Amendment is plain in its meaning, while turning a blind eye to the 14th Amendment.
They both mean what they say, but if you argue one, you must accept the other. If you can logically argue to depart from the text of one, you must do the same as they're both so plain.
The heaviest air raid of the war to date took place, with the RAF raiding Dortmund, breaking a record it had set as recently as May 12 in a raid on Duisburg.
The Luftwaffe raided Bournemouth, Hampshire with FW190s.
German police killed 45 Jewish children in the Kielce cemetery. They had been the survivors of their parent's prior murder and aged from 15 months to 15 years old.
France-Amérique, a pro Free French English language newspaper, started publication in New York. It's still in print.
The Comintern was dissolved in Moscow.
The Soviet Union had already betrayed the propaganda associated with the entity by being an ally of Nazi Germany until attacked by Nazi Germany. The move was interpreted as a feeler towards the Western Allies, in that the Comintern had been dedicated to supplanting any government that wasn't a communist one.
Sarah Sundin's blog reports:
Today in World War II History—May 22, 1943: USS Bogue’s TBF aircraft damage German U-boat U-569, which is scuttled by her crew, the first victory for an Allied escort carrier unassisted by surface ships.
She also noted that Luftwaffe General Adolf Galland flew the ME262 on this day and was impressed by it, as anyone would have had to have been.
Long Range Desert Group, No. 2 Commando and the No. 43 (Royal Marine) Commando raided the Yugoslavian island of Mljet. The raid was a substitute for ones early planned, and was supported by the OSS which had agents on the island.
Helen Taft, former First Lady, died at age 81.
The Distillery Bandits, who were apprehended after a gun battle, were all veterans of the U.S. Army's cavalry branch.
William Jennings's Bryan's motion that the Presbyterian General Assembly cut off financial support for any Presbyterian body teaching evolution was voted down.
The Mark dropped enormously.
The President played in a newspaper golf tournament.
There's been a lot of news on the passing of Jim Brown, the legendary running back.
Brown was a fantastic running back, and even in old clips it's impressive to watch him. A nice retrospective of his life appears here:
I'll be frank, the thing that stands out in my mind about Brown were the allegations of assault against him, and then his featuring as one of the people, like Bill Cosby, that frequented the Playboy mansion in the big party days of that depraved institution. That's hard to get around, and the stories that were related in the Secrets of Playboy are pretty much impossible for me to get around.
One thing I didn't know about Brown was that he'd been commissioned into the Army Reserve and ultimately made Captain. He enrolled in ROTC while in university and was inducted into the Army ROTC Hall of Fame (which I didn't know existed) some years ago. Perhaps that military experience is why he appeared to be a natural in uniform in The Dirty Dozen.
So what to make of Brown and his life? Well, I don't really have to make anything of it, but perhaps with such notable public figures we should. His accomplishments were very real and cannot be denied. He did act as a champion for civil rights, using his fame for that purpose. He did translate a successful football career into other successful endeavors. Like Bill Cosby, he's associated with the deprivations of the celebration of sexual exploitation brought about by the Sexual Revolution and advanced by Hugh Hefner. Perhaps that's proof of just how corrosive the tolerance of that institution and acceptance of its perversion has been.
Bulgaria yielded to German pressure and agreed to turn 25,000 Bulgarian Jewish residents of Sofia over to the Nazi's, who were busy losing World War Two but which had ramped up extermination efforts.
It actually would not occur, as Bulgarians organized massive protests to prohibit it. They Jewish Sofians were put in Bulgarian labor camps, but they were not turned over to German executioners.
Bulgaria attempted to navigate its own course in the war. It was, at this point, a declared belligerent in the war against the Western Allies, but not the Soviet Union.
Busk, Ukraine's centuries old Jewish population was exterminated by the Nazis. The towns' first synagogue had been built in 1502.
Radio Tokyo announced the "gallant death" of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. Franklin Roosevelt was subsequently asked by reporters about the event, and simply stated, "Gosh!". He had, of course, approved the assassination.
On reporters, perhaps this was at the press conference noted in the busy government schedule for that day. Here's the only text from that press conference, however.
Q. Mr. President, you have had a number of recent conferences with Dr. (T. V.) Soong. Is there anything you can tell us about that?
The President: I don’t think so. There isn’t any particular news, one way or another.
Q. I wondered if there was anything special you had up between you?
The President: No. I suppose the—the principal thing relates to getting war materials of all kinds into China.
Q. Did you say more material?
The President: War materials—and medical things—things of that kind. That is going along pretty well.
Q. Mr. President, is there anything you can tell us about the visit of Prime Minister Mackenzie King (of Canada) here?
The President: I don’t think so. He is just—just down here on the same—same thing that everybody else is here—furtherance of the war. I am seeing him again this morning.2
Q. Mr. President, back to Dr. Soong, we have noticed that he has been in here, particularly since Prime Minister Churchill arrived. Could you say if your talks with the Prime Minister concerned something about China?
The President: Oh, sure. We talked about China. It isn’t the only place we have been talking about.
Q. Mr. President, when you referred to the majority of our forces, you were speaking then of a majority of these forces which are outside the continental United States?
The President: Yes, yes.
Mr. Godwin: (aside) How about it?
Q. Mr. President, any sort of progress report you can give us on your talks with the Prime Minister (Churchill)?
The President: Well, I suppose the best way to put it is this: that, so far, most of the work has been done by the Combined Staffs. And they have been at it, and we expect to get some preliminary recommendations from the Combined Staffs—you might call them tentative recommendations—probably in tonight’s meeting. Then those will be gone over—and I might say the Combined Staffs have been getting along extremely well—and then over the weekend we will be going over them, and take up the preliminary recommendations next week and iron out any kinks that are in them and make them final.
Q. Mr. President, has any consideration been given to the political future of Italy?
Mr. Godwin: (aside) What?
The President: Unconditional surrender. I think that—
Q. (interposing) Thank you, Mr. President.
The President: (continuing)—speaks for itself.
Q. Thank you.
Q. Thank you, Mr. President.
Mr. Godwin: Italy?
The President: What?
Mr. Godwin: Italy?
The President: Italy.
Mr. Godwin: He asked about Italy?
The President: Unconditional surrender.
The original family owned Delmonico's restaurant closed. The restaurant had been in business, in more than one location, since 1827 and had become one of the most famous restaurants in New York. It was a favorite of Theodore Roosevelt.
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It was not able to survive Prohibition.
Not surprisingly, the famous name had cache and there were subsequent operations that used it, having some connection with the original, but not owned by the original family. There are plans to reopen a restaurant in the location late this year.
The restaurant is the claimed originator of a variety of famous dishes, the best known being the Delmonico's Steak. Roosevelt favored the double lamb chops.
The Labour and Socialist International, an organization of socialist and labor parties, was formed and became the largest organizational union of those entities. It ceased to exist in April, 1940.
Freshman Congressman Harriet Hageman introduced the companion bill to a doomed bill introduced in the Senate by Cynthia Lummis, which provides:
117th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 543
To prohibit the President from issuing moratoria on leasing and permitting energy and minerals on certain Federal land, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
January 28, 2021
Ms. Herrell (for herself, Mr. McCarthy, Mr. Scalise, Mr. Westerman, Mr. Gosar, Mr. Newhouse, Mr. Moore of Utah, Mr. Crawford, Mr. Young, Mr. Owens, Mr. McKinley, Mr. Sessions, Mr. Brady, Mr. Stauber, Mr. Stewart, Mr. Tiffany, Mr. LaMalfa, Mr. Curtis, Mr. Lamborn, Mr. McClintock, Mr. Roy, Mr. Smith of Nebraska, Mr. Reschenthaler, Mr. Calvert, Mrs. Bice of Oklahoma, Mr. Baird, Mr. Mooney, Mr. Rosendale, Mr. Hern, Mrs. Boebert, and Mr. Amodei) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources, and in addition to the Committee on Agriculture, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To prohibit the President from issuing moratoria on leasing and permitting energy and minerals on certain Federal land, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Protecting Our Wealth of Energy Resources Act” or the “POWER Act”.
SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON MORATORIA OF NEW ENERGY LEASES ON CERTAIN FEDERAL LAND AND ON WITHDRAWAL OF FEDERAL LAND FROM ENERGY DEVELOPMENT.
(a) Definitions.—In this section:
(1) CRITICAL MINERAL.—The term “critical mineral” means any mineral included on the list of critical minerals published in the notice of the Secretary of the Interior entitled “Final List of Critical Minerals 2018” (83 Fed. Reg. 23295 (May 18, 2018)).
(2) FEDERAL LAND.—
(A) IN GENERAL.—The term “Federal land” means—
(i) National Forest System land;
(ii) public lands (as defined in section 103 of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1702));
(iii) the outer Continental Shelf (as defined in section 2 of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 1331)); and
(iv) land managed by the Secretary of Energy.
(B) INCLUSION.—The term “Federal land” includes land described in clauses (i) through (iv) of subparagraph (A) for which the rights to the surface estate or subsurface estate are owned by a non-Federal entity.
(3) PRESIDENT.—The term “President” means the President or any designee, including—
(A) the Secretary of Agriculture;
(B) the Secretary of Energy; and
(C) the Secretary of the Interior.
(b) Prohibitions.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the President shall not carry out any action that would prohibit or substantially delay the issuance of any of the following on Federal land, unless such an action has been authorized by an Act of Congress:
(A) New oil and gas leases, drill permits, approvals, or authorizations.
(B) New coal leases, permits, approvals, or authorizations.
(C) New hard rock leases, permits, approvals, or authorizations.
(D) New critical minerals leases, permits, approvals, or authorizations.
(2) PROHIBITION ON WITHDRAWAL.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the President shall not withdraw any Federal land from forms of entry, appropriation, or disposal under the public land laws, location, entry, and patent under the mining laws, or disposition under laws pertaining to mineral and geothermal leasing or mineral materials unless the withdrawal has been authorized by an Act of Congress.
1. Can't pass the Senate
2. Would be vetoed if it actually passed both houses, when there's certainly not enough votes to override a veto.
So why do these things?
February 20, 2023
Golden moves on path to all-electric in new buildings: To meet its #climate goals, this #Colorado city of 20,000 needs to crimp #methane combustion. It could require all-electric in new buildings by January 2024
February 23, 2023
SNAP, the Federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, ends this month.
NPR is laying off 10% of its workforce.
March 3, 2023
A Gold and Copper mine will open in Laramie County in 2025.
The United States Post Office is buying 9,250 electric vans from Ford.
March 13, 2023
Silicon Valley Bank collapsed Friday after a comment by a major investment broker regarding it. The Federal Government is not going to "bail out" the bank, which has accounts by many wealthy investors.
President Biden is proceeding to authorize the Willow drilling project inside the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, despite protests over the proposed action.
March 28, 2023
Renewables produced more energy than coal last year.
Coal checked in at 20%, down from 50% in 2007, and it's declining.
This is no surprise here, we've noted the timeline of coal long ago:
A new Natrona County Advocacy Group, Fly Casper Alliance, is seeking $50,000 from the City of Casper to help secure the present Delta (Sky West) flight to Salt Lake City. The flight already receives subsidies from Natrona County, but this one time payment is hoped to help continue to secure the flight.
Related thread:
May 10, 2023
The big economic news right now, of course, is that the country is racing towards its debt limit, at which point it will default on its debts.
The whole idea of a debt limit was to put a cap on Congress' ability to borrow too much money. The problem is it didn't work out that way. Sort of like a spending limit on a credit card, it just caps off the debt, but the problem is, unlike a credit card, when you go to present it to the person you are buying something from, your credit isn't declined. You get the thing anyway, and then later just don't have the ability to pay for it.
So it works instead, like buying a house, for example, or a car, you couldn't afford.
In order to really have teeth, there'd have to be a third body, like the CBO, treasury, or something, that would just nullify bills authorizing spending over the limit. Or, rather, a court would have to declare, before things were spent, that there was a freeze on spending as Congress didn't have the statutory authority to make the spending.
A balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, frankly, would work significantly better.
It does serve to cause the spending entities to have to get together, but they don't do it honestly. Basically what we have going on is something akin to a couple at a banquet who have overspent arguing whether they should take the Bud Light off the table, while they're leaving the Dom Pérignon on. Or, rather, it's like a husband that has a job as Mini Mart clerks, but the education of PhDs, arguing about racking up bills rather than going out and getting a better paying job.
If we don't get this fixed by June 1, the country is going into a massive economic crisis.
To add to that grim situation, the negotiations are in the hands of 1) one politician who is so old that he can recall when he went to U.S. Grant's kindergarten recitals, and 2) one politician who is so beholding to Trumpist "Club For Growth" Kool-Aid drinkers that he stinks up a room before he gets there.
If you worked at a company run this way, you'd look for a new job. If you lived in a family run this way, you'd be looking for your own apartment.
This also serves, we might note, to recall the Jeffersonian warnings about democracy (and yes, we are a democracy, don't give me that "but we're a republic" crap, which is just what that line is, crap). Jefferson warned that once the country ceased to be agrarian, the government would fail, as at that point it gave rise to feeding the mob.
The history of modern democracies has so far demonstrated that fear to be wrong, but it has also taken real crises in order to address largess. The German democracy, for instance, beat up by the hyperinflation of Weimar era and the brutality of World War Two keeps a tight reign on its finances. The Japanese democracy, hit hard by the Japanese decline of the 1970s, does the same.
So far, the American democracy has shown no such tendency. Congress won't address entitlements, which it must, won't address gigantic defense spending, which it must, and won't address raising taxes, which it must.
In that context, again, it's like a couple employed as Mini Mart clerks, both with PhD's, who are standing outside their apartment yelling each at each other about whether to upgrade the stereo on the Tesla they can't afford.
May 13, 2023
Mining sector jobs grew more than any other sector of Wyoming's economy last year, by 9.1%. This in spite of dire warnings by, well, folks like me.
UW's employees will be receiving a pay raise.
Ford Motors will no longer put AM radio in its vehicles. Any of them. Many other manufacturers are pulling theirs from electric vehicles.
May 15, 2023
Trump apparently said in his Town Hall on CNN that unless the Administration agreed to major cuts, the Republicans should take the country into debt default, a totally wreckless position that would destroy the savings of his constituency.
Trump himself was responsible for major additions to the deficit.
Biden and the Republicans are set to meet again on Tuesday. Perhaps this slow motion process is part of his strategy, but its yet another example of government that is as slow as molasses.
May 16, 2023
The local paper is eliminating an edition, going to three print editions per week only and wiping out personal home delivery in favor of mail.
May 21, 2023
Nothing is being done about the debt ceiling while President Biden is at the G7. He gets back today.
If the US ends up with Trump again, this sort of behavior will be a lot of the reason why.
Footnotes:
The best posts of the week of May 14, 2023.
“I will answer the Call of Chaos and Old Night. I will ride on the Nightmare; but she shall not ride on me.” G.K. Chesterton.G. K. Chesterton.
Today in World War II History—May 20, 1943: US Tenth Fleet is established to control shore-based antisubmarine operations in the Atlantic. US War Ration Book Three is distributed by mail.
From Sarah Sundin's blog.
The United States Court for China, a US Federal and Civil court based in Shanghai, ceased operations. The extraterritorial court had been in existence since 1906 but was no longer needed, if it ever really was, following the January 11 abandonment of extraterritorial rights in the country.
Roosevelt, via courier, proposed to meet with Stalin, keeping his proposal secret from Churchill.
Wyoming Rep. John Bear writes, "It was the Speaker’s decision to create an Appropriations Committee consisting only of socially liberal legislators from big cities, and now it appears that the President of the Senate sees some benefit in a Senate Appropriations committee loyal to the Uniparty’s cause as well.
John Bear, head of the Freedom Caucus, in the Cowboy State Daily.
There is no Uniparty.
A person would be hard-pressed to find a single "socially liberal legislator", let alone one from a "big city", in the State Legislature.
I note this as this is the current drumbeat of the Freedom Caucus, and it's a fantasy. A better case could be made that the Freedom Caucus is not made up of Republicans, as it doesn't reflect traditional Wyoming Republican values. Of course, Bear isn't a Wyomingite, being a transplant.
The problem with false propaganda, however, is that people will believe it, including those spouting it.
The Army Medical Corps cleared the release of penicillin. It would be administered for the first time two days later to an unidentified soldier.
Penicillin's possibilities had been known for fifteen years, but it wasn't until 1942 when a particularly potent strain of the mold it is from was discovered in Peoria, Illinois, the critical sample of which was donated by an unknown woman who brought in a moldy antelope.
Churchill addressed Congress.
The speech is a famous one, but I cannot find a written transcript of it, which is unusual for his speeches. There are some well known exerts of it, including:
Sure I am that this day, now, we are the masters of our fate. That the task which has been set us is not above our strength. That its pangs and toils are not beyond our endurance. As long as we have faith in our cause, and an unconquerable willpower, salvation will not be denied us.
And:
All this gives the lie to the Nazi and Fascist talk that the parliamentary democracies are incapable of waging an effective war. We will punish them with further examples.
Joseph Goebbels declared Berlin to be free of Jews.
He was incorrect.
Berlin had certainly suffered an enormous decline in its Jewish population, and there had been a large effort to detain and expel (to fatal consequences) Jewish Berliners in the Spring of 1943. 8,600 Jews were expelled in the early months of hte year. However, 6,790 Mischlinge (half Jews), members of Mischehen (mixed marriages), Jewish widows and widowers of non-Jews, and Jewish citizens of neutral countries or German allies still resided in the city in the summer of the year. Over the course of the war, 55,000 Jewish Berliners would be reduced down, however, to only about 1,000 by the war's end.
The U-954 was sunk off of Greenland, taking down with it Peter Dönitz, a son of the head of the German Navy, Karl Dönitz. Of Dönitz's three children, only his daughter would survive the war, dying in 1990, outliving her father by only a decade. His son Klaus had been withdrawn from combat duties under a Nazi policy regarding the deaths of other sons of leading figures, but was killed on an E-boat after persuading friends to allow him to ride along on a raid.
Pope Pius XII wrote to Franklin Roosevelt
Your Excellency,
Almost four years have now passed since, in the name of the God the Father of ail and with the utmost earnestness at Our command, We appealed (August 24, 1939) to the responsible leaders of peoples to hold back the threatening avalanche of international strife and to settle their differences in the cairn, serene atmosphere of mutual understanding. «Nothing was to be lost by peace; everything might be lost by war». And when the awful powers of destruction broke loose and swept over a large part of Europe, though Our Apostolic Office places Us above and beyond ail participation in armed conflicts, We did not fail to do what We could to keep out of the war nations not yet involved and to mitigate as far as possible for millions of innocent men, women and children, defenceless against the circumstances in which they have to live, the sorrows and sufferings that would inevitably follow along the constantly widening swath of desolation and death cut by the machines of modern warfare.
The succeeding years unfortunately have seen heart-rending tragedies increase and multiply; yet We have not for that reason, as Our conscience bears witness, given over Our hopes and Our efforts in behalf of the afflicted members of the great human family everywhere. And as the Episcopal See of the Popes is Rome, from where through these long centuries they have ruled the flock entrusted to them by the divine Shepherd of souls, it is natural that amid all the vicissitudes of their complex and chequered history the faithful of Italy should d feel themselves bound by more than ordinary ties to this Holy See, and have learned to look to it for protection and comfort especially in hours of crisis.
In such an hour today their pleading voices reach Us carried on their steady confidence that they will not go unanswered. Fathers and mothers, old and young every day are appealing for Our help; and We, whose paternal heart beats in unison with the sufferings and sorrows of ail mankind, cannot but respond with the deepest feelings of Our soul to such insistent prayers, lest the poor and humble shall have placed their confidence in Us in vain.
And so very sincerely and confidently We address Ourselves to Your Excellency, sure that no one will recognize more clearly than the Chief Executive of the great American nation the voice of humanity that speaks in these appeals to Us, and the affection of a father that inspires Our response.
The assurance given to Us in 1941 by Your Excellency’s esteemed Ambassador Mr. Myron Taylor and spontaneously repeated by him in 1942 that «America has no hatred of the Italian people» gives Us confidence that they will be treated with consideration and understanding; and if they have had to mourn the untimely death of dear ones, they will yet in their present circumstances be spared as far as possible further pain and devastation, and their many treasured shrines of Religion and Art, – precious heritage not of one people but of ail human and Christian civilization – will be saved from irreparable ruin. This is a hope and prayer very dear to Our paternal heart, and We have thought that its realization could not be more effectively ensured than by ex- pressing it very simply to Your Excellency.
With heartfelt prayer We beg God’s blessings on Your Excellency and the people of the United States.
Lenin's USSR, which was ostensibly for the rights of small nations, executed the principal leaders of the Georgian Committee for the Independence of Georgia.
Zev won the Kentucky Derby. H was owned by Harry F. Sinclair of the Sinclair Oil Company.
Italian women marched for suffrage in Rome.
The Allies commenced bombing Pantelleria, 100 miles from Tunis and 60 miles off of Sicily.
On a clear day, Tunisia is actually visible from Pantelleria. The island, while it has had some occasional human residences since pre historic times, has been continually occupied since taken by the Carthaginians at the beginning of the 7th Century, B.C.
Pope Pius XII appealed to Franklin Roosevelt to spare Rome from bombing.
Back when I was in high school, I briefly toyed with the idea of becoming a journalist.
I was never very serious about it, it was only one of the possibilities I was considering. In junior high and my first year or so of high school, I was fairly certain that I'd pursue a career as an Army officer, but already by that time that desire was wearing off. I liked writing and still do, so it seemed like a possibility. I also liked photography, and still do, and it seemed like a career where you could combine both, although in that era press photographers were usually just that, photographers.
I took my high school's journalism class as a result and was on the school newspaper. Doing that, I shot hundreds of photographs of our high school athletes, as well as some really interesting events. I did learn how to write in the journalist's style, which involves summarizing the story in the first paragraph figuring that some people will read no more than that, summarizing it again in the last paragraph, and filling in the story in between. Good news stories still read that way, although I've noticed in recent years that is observed less and less.
During that year or so I had the occasion to tour the local paper, and the class had a senior, a young woman, who actually already worked there as a reporter.
That paper was no small affair. The paper was a regional one, as well as the city paper, and it's building just off of downtown, still there was very large. That large structure, with a massive open news floor and a big printing room, was at least the fourth locality it had occupied, outgrowing the prior three. It would outgrow that one was well and build an absolutely massive structure just outside of town.
Last year, it sold it.
Now, the paper is headquartered in what was once a bar/restaurant downtown. Much, much smaller. It doesn't have presses anymore, it prints the paper in another state. Far from having a large staff of reporters with dedicated beats, it's down to one or two writers who are always "cubs", just starting out. It doesn't print newspapers at all on two days a week, right now, but relies on an electronic edition that mimics the appearance of a newspaper on your computer.
You can't pick up and thumb through a pdf.
This past week, it announced that it was going to quit printing a Sunday edition and quit physical home delivery for the three issues per week it will still print. Those will be mailed from the printing location in another state.
It's dying.
It's not surprising really, but it is sad.
At one time, it was a real force to be reckoned with, and people frankly feared it. Everyone subscribed to it. I know one family that sued it for liable due to what they regarded as inaccurate reporting on them.
Newspapers reformed themselves after the introduction of radio. That's something that tends not to be very well known about them. Before radio, many newspapers tended to be some species of scandal rag and they were usually heavily partisan in their reporting. You can think of them, basically, the way people think of Fox News today. As radio cut into their readership, papers consolidated and adopted a new ethic that they reported objectively.
They frankly never really achieved full objectivity, as that may not be possible. But they did strive for it. The introduction of television reinforced this. Newspapers became the place where you could, hopefully, get complete objective news and, hopefully, in depth news on various topics. Even smaller newspapers had dedicated reporters per topic, larger ones very much so. The local paper had local reporters that reported per topic assignment. A big paper, like the Rocky Mountain News, had very specified reporters. The Rocky Mountain News, for instance, had a religion reporter whose beat was just that topic. A surprising number of local papers sent reporters to South Vietnam during the Vietnam War just to report on the war.
That's all long past. For quite some time, reporters have become generalists by default, and as a rule, they can't be expected to have an in-depth understanding of any one topic. For that reason, they are frequently inaccurate, even on a national level. Just today, for example, I read a national story which repeatedly referred to Communion Hosts as "wafers". That's not the right term. Reporters on crime blindly accept the "mass shooting" and "high powered rifle" lines without having any idea what they mean. Print reporters repeat in some instances, depending upon individual reporters, hearsay as fact, in part because they likely don't have the time to really investigate everything personally.
Because we now get green reporters, the obvious fact that the local paper is dying is all the sadder. At one time green reporters could at least hope to move up the ranks in their local papers, maybe becoming editors or columnists if they stayed there, or they could move on, as they often did, to larger papers. They still move on, but papers everywhere are dying. Ironically, the only papers that still do fairly well are the genuine small town papers in small towns. That's good, but that can't be a career boosting job for those who enter it.
And with the death of the paper the objectivity that they brought in, back in their golden era, which I'd place from the 1930s through 1990 or so, is dying with them. People are going to electronic news, which so far hasn't shown that same dedication, although recently some online start-ups actually do. Television news has become hopelessly shallow, fully dedicated to the "if it bleeds it leads" type of thinking, or fully partisan, telling people what they want to hear. Really good reporting, and not all of it was really good, was pretty informative, which raised the level of the national intellect. People might have hated reporters, and they often did, but they read what was being reported about Richard Nixon and Watergate or what was revealed in the Pentagon Papers and had a better understanding of it in spite of themselves. That helped result in Republicans themselves operating to bring Richard Nixon down and society at large bringing an end to the Vietnam War.
Now, in contrast, we have electronic propaganda organs on the net that feed people exactly what they want to hear, and that often is the same thing that comes out of the back end of a cow.
Not overnight, of course. This has been going on for decades, and indeed in some ways it started with the first radio broadcasts. But radio was easier to adjust to. The internet, not so much.
The death of a career, an institution, and unfortunately, also our wider understanding.
Sic transit.
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The crew of the Memphis Belle became the first complete United States Army Air Force, 8th Air Force B-17 crew to complete twenty-five missions.
This is a somewhat confusing story and is often inaccurately portrayed.
The first bomber of the 8th Air Force to complete twenty-five missions was the B-17 Hell's Angels, which achieved that on May 13.
The Memphis Belle's crew was the first complete crew. I.e., nobody who completed that mission was s replacement.
It's not that this isn't remarkable, the odds were very much against it. It's just it isn't quite what is generally portrayed.
The US and UK entered into the BRUSA Agreement providing for the exchange of cryptanalysis personal between the US and the British Commonwealth forces.
When you are keeping the original barstormers flying.
I've posted about this elsewhere, when I was really miffed about it, but Wyoming's Cynthia Lummis has introduced a bill in the Senate to raise mandatory airline pilot retirement ages up to age 67.
Lummis is 68.
Let's note the trend here. Lummis is 68. Wyoming's John Barasso is 70. Wyoming's Congressman Harriet Hageman, at age 60, could nearly be regarded as youthful.
Joe Biden is 80. Donald Trump is 77. Chuck Schumer is 72. Mitch McConnell is 81.
This is, quite frankly, absurd.
The United States is, without a doubt, a gerontocracy.
Okay, what's that have to do with airlines?
We repeatedly here there's a pilot shortage. What is obviously necessary to, in regard to the shortage, is to recruit younger pilots into the field. That requires opportunity and a decent wage.
Vesting the good paying jobs in the elderly is not the way to achieve that. Indeed, depressing the mandatory retirement age would be.
While the raids caused civilian loss of life, German civilians regarded the destruction of the hydroelectric generating dams as legitimate. German authorities accurately reported the resulting loss of civilian lives. Albert Speer wrote of the attack; "employing just a few bombers, the British came close to a success which would have been greater than anything they had achieved hitherto with a commitment of thousands of bombers. But they made a single mistake which puzzles me to this day: They divided their forces and that same night destroyed the Eder Valley dam, although it had nothing whatsoever to do with the supply of water to the Ruhr."
While enormously celebrated as a British success by the population, perhaps the reaction of Harris, who seems to have had a particularly cold view of the destruction of Germany from the air, isn't too surprising. In reality, however, the raid demonstrated a very clever deployment of British resources with a real understanding of how industrial infrastructure worked.
The raid did cause the British to switch aerial munitions, going thereafter for massive "Earthquake Bombs" which caused a seismic effect when detonated.
Eight of the British aircraft were lost in the raid.
The truth is that Ukraine is a victim of aggression, and by defending its integrity and sovereignty, it is pushing the war away from the rest of Europe. This is extremely important to us.
Giorgia Meloni.
Contrast Giorgia Meloni, right wing Italian PM, with right wing, supposedly, former President Donald Trump, who can't bring himself to say which side he supports.
Not being able to say which side you support in a thing like this is supporting the Russians.
