Is anyone else reminded of the Simpson's?

Now they'll say all these stories are terrible. Well, these stories have, you know, you heard my story in the boat with the shark, right? I got killed on that. They thought I was rambling. I'm not rambling. We can't get the boat to float. The battery is so heavy. So then I start talking about asking questions. You know, I have an, I had an uncle who was a great professor at MIT for many years, long, I think the longest tenure ever. Very smart, had three different degrees and you know, so I have an aptitude for things. You know, there is such a thing as an aptitude. I said, well, what would happen if this boat is so heavy and started to sink and you're on the top of the boat. Do you get electrocuted or not? In other words, the boat is going down and you're on the top, will the electric currents flow through the water and wipe you out? And let's say there's a shark about 10 yards over there. Would I have to immediately abandon or could I ride the electric down and he said, sir, nobody's ever asked us that question. But sir, I don't know. I said, well, I want to know because I guarantee you one thing, I don't care what happens. I'm staying with the electric, I'm not getting over with it. So I tell that story. And the fake news they go, he told this crazy story with electric. It's actually not crazy. It's sort of a smart story, right? Sort of like, you know, it's like the snake, it's a smart when you, you figure what you're leaving in, right? You're bringing it in the, you know, the snake, right? The snake and the snake. I tell that and they do the same thing

 Donald Trump at the Faith and Freedom Conference.

 

Grampa : We can't bust heads like we used to. But we have our ways. One trick is to tell stories that don't go anywhere. Like the time I caught the ferry to Shelbyville? I needed a new heel for m'shoe. So I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. "Gimme five bees for a quarter," you'd say. Now where were we? Oh, yeah. The important thing was that I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn't have any white onions, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones...

The Simpsons.

Seriously, asking about Trump's cognitive state is a legitimate thing to do.

Friday, June 23, 1944. Bagration increases.

As part of Operation Bagration, the Soviets commenced the Bobruysk Offensive, Mogilev Offensive and Vitebsk–Orsha Offensive in Belarus.

It's worth remembering that the Soviet attack was done Soviet style, with a massive artillery barrage coming before anything else, and then the massive movement of men, which in this case involved over 1,250,000 soldiers.  Not all of the offensive actions part of the overall offensive started on day one, or two.

The Polish Home Army 5th Wilno Brigade murdered over 20 Lithuanian civilians in Dubingiai in retaliation for the Glinciszki (Glitiškės) massacre of Polish civilians on June 20th by the Nazi-subordinated 258th Lithuanian Police Battalion.

American WACs in France, June 23, 1944.  All three women are wearing M1943 field jackets, which were just coming into service at that time and which are not seen all that often at this point.

The Germans abandoned their first line of defense in Cherbourg.  The British took St. Honorina. Montgomery arrived in France.

The HMS Scylia was irreparably damaged by a mine in the English Channel.

A  Ju 52 aircraft carrying German generals Eduard Dietl, Thomas-Emil von Wickede, Karl Eglseer, and  Franz Rossi crashed in the vicinity of Rettenegg, Styria, killing them, and three others.

A monument remains on the location.

Dietl is associated with war crimes, and likely would have been tried had he lived through the war.

Hard fighting continued on Saipan.

Marines moving supplies to the front, Saipan, June 23, 1944.

On Bougainville, Sefanaia Sukanaivalu, a Fijian solder, gave his life attempting to rescue his comrades.

The KING has been graciously pleased to approve the posthumous award of the VICTORIA CROSS to:—

No. 4469 Corporal Sefanaia Sukanaivalu, Fiji Military Forces.

On 23rd June 1944, at Mawaraka, Bougainville, in the Solomon Islands, Corporal Sefanaia Sukanaivalu crawled forward to rescue some men who had been wounded when their platoon was ambushed and some of the leading elements had become casualties.

After two wounded men had been successfully recovered this N.C.O., who was in command of the rear section, volunteered to go on farther alone to try and rescue another one, in spite of machine gun and mortar fire, but on the way back he himself was seriously wounded in the groin and thighs and fell to the ground, unable to move any farther.

Several attempts were then made to rescue Corporal Sukanaivalu but without success owing to heavy fire being encountered on each occasion and further casualties caused.

This gallant N.C.O. then called to his men not to try to get to him as he was in a very exposed position, but they replied that they would never leave him to fall alive into the hands of the enemy.

Realising that his men would not withdraw as long as they could see that he was still alive and knowing that they were themselves all in danger of being killed or captured as long as they remained where they were, Corporal Sukanaivalu, well aware of the consequences, raised himself up in front of the Japanese machine gun and was riddled with bullets.

This brave Fiji soldier, after rescuing two wounded men with the greatest heroism and being gravely wounded himself, deliberately sacrificed his own life because he knew that it was the only way in which the remainder of his platoon could be induced to retire from a situation in which they must have been annihilated had they not withdrawn.

Last prior edition:

Thursday, June 22, 1944. The GI Bill signed into law.

Labels: Battle of Imphal, Battle of Kohima, Cherbourg France, Continuation War, GI Bill, It was because of World War Two, Operation Ichi-Go, Operation Overlord, Red Army, The Battle of Tienhaara, World War Two

Monday, June 23, 1924. First dawn to dusk transcontinental flight.

Protype of the excellent Curtiss P-1.   The P-1 was the first of a series of "hawk" biplane fighter aircraft manufactured by Curtiss that would serve right up until the eve of World War Two.

1st Lt. Russell Maughan made the first dawn-to-dusk transcontinental flight across the United States.

Landing at Crissy Field in San Francisco one minute before technical sundown, he had started the day off at Mitchel Field, Long Island and had flown his Curtiss P-1 across the country with stops in Dayton, Ohio; St. Joseph, Missouri; North Platte, Nebraska; Cheyenne, Wyoming and the Bonneville Salt Flats at Salduro

Maughan was a significant early military aviation pioneer who has appeared on this site before.

Last prior edition:

Wednesday, June 18, 1924. The Cummins Incident.

Labels: 1920s, 1924, Denmark, Diplomacy, Mexico, United Kingdom, USSR

The Day Of Rest

Experience shows that the day of rest is essential to mankind; that it is demanded by civilization as well as by Christianity.

President Roosevelt in a note to Jacob Riis,

In Scotland, for the first time since the Reformation, the majority relgion is . . .

Catholicism.

We noted last week that the Reformation is passing away.  This is pretty good evidence of that.  The Church of Scotland, Presbyterianism, had been founded by severe Calvinists, some of them breakaway clerics of the Catholic Church during the traumatic period.  Calvin's theological views were not only unique to him alone, but difficult to swallow, and have accordingly been much muted over time.  Be that as it may, at this point, among those Christians declaring a denomination, Scots have and are returning to the pre "Reformation" church.

Blog Mirror: 1924 Eveready Flashlights

 

1924 Eveready Flashlights

Blog Mirror: About A Truck

 

About A Truck

Muslim enslavement.

A new study suggests that Muslims enslaved 1,000,000 or more European Christians in North Africa between 1530 and 1780. 

This is a larger number than previously estimated.

Men and boys, it is known, were generally sold into backbreaking work.  Young women were sold into sex slavery.

Best Posts of the Week of June 16, 2024.

The best posts of the week of June 16, 2024.

Wednesday, June 16, 1909. Tax Sanity.

June 16, 1924. The end of the Lone Scouts.

Friday, June 16, 1944. Executions.

The Bishop of Rome.

Exceptionally American?

Elephant Bells.

June 19, 1944. The Battle of the Philippine Sea, day one. The Marianas Turkey Shoot.

Hindsight is 20/20. . .

Subsidiarity Economics 2024. The times more or less locally, Part 3. The Decarbonizing the West and Electronic eartags Edition.

"And I'm gonna tell you workers, 'fore you cash in your checks They say 'America First,' but they mean 'America Next!' "

i nolunt

Thursday, June 22, 1944. The GI Bill signed into law.

Thursday, June 22, 1944. The GI Bill signed into law.

President Roosevelt signing the GI Bill.

Franklin Roosevelt signed the Serviceman's Readjustment Act, popularly called the G. I. Bill, into law.

People are fond of claiming that this event or that event, particularly associated with wars, changed the course of history, but in the case of the US, this event really did.   The act provided a massive set of benefits, including educational benefits, for returning servicemen.  In force, in its original form, until 1956, the GI Bill caused the boom in post-war university education which brought entire demographics into universities for the very first time, and made college education common.  It helped cause the massive boom into the entry into the white collar world by many demographics, and also created the semi Federally funded upper education system we now have.

The direct, and indirect, causes of the GI Bill would be a massive subject.  Everything from the post-war economic boom that continued into the 1960s, to today's educational system, to the end of European American ethnic ghettos, can be traced to it.  It was not only transformative, but the unintended consequences roll on to the present day.  It was one of the most successful liberal government programs of all time.

Some other looks at this major act:

June 22, 1944: President Franklin D. Roosevelt Signs the G.I. Bill

Today in World War II History—June 22, 1944

Noted in yesterday's entry, when the event commenced, the Luftwaffe staged a massive two-hour raid on the field at Poltava.  The Soviet anti-aircraft defense response was huge, but totally ineffective.  The Soviets refused to allow U.S. fighters to take off during the raid.  Numerous aircraft were destroyed on the ground, and the stored munitions and aviation fuel were destroyed.

By Pauli Myllymäki / Suomen Armeija - http://sa-kuva.fi/neo2?tem=webneo_image_download&lang=FIN&id=7aa7d225602342102e0ce9d1f822470d&archive=&name=155142Image record page in Finna: sa-kuva.sa-kuva-143177, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36745916

The Finns prevailed against the Red Army in the Battle of Tienhaara on the Karelian Isthmus.

On the same day, however, the massive ground offensive in Operation Bagration began.  It started off three years to the day from Operation Barbarossa.

A massive assault, Bagration would bring the Red Army into Germany itself, although only barely in the form of entering East Prussia's border.  The Red Army would advance to the gates of Warsaw, however.  The offensive effectively wiped out all of Germany's Operation Barbarossa gains and returned Germany to the territorial position it was in, in the east, on June 21, 1941.  The Baltic States found themselves, at the end of it, about 60% occupied by the Soviets.

It would prove to be one of the most remarkable offensives of the war.  Still, almost as remarkable, was the German resistance which kept the offensive from simply overrunning the Wehrmacht and ending the war.

The British prevailed at Kohima.

The Battle of Hengyang (衡陽保衛戰) a siege defense of the city by the Nationalist Chinese Army, began.  It would turn into an epic battle.

Fighting continued on Biak.

Pvt. Andy Hamilton, Vincentown, New Jersey; Pvt. Chester Klovas, Chicago, Ill.; Pfc. Harry Reynolds, Loogoote, Ind.; gun crew of the .50 caliber machine gun is credited with half of 109 Japanese slain on Biak Island on 22 June 1944.

Fighting continued in Saipan as well.

The I-185 was sunk near Saipan by American destroyers.

Weather improved over the English Channel and repairs on artificial ports commenced.  Howver, the the port of Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer was so badly damaged, it was abandoned.

Fighting at Cherbourg continued, as did the fighting near Caen.

Twenty seven year old German fighter ace Maj. Josef Wurmheller, with 102 kills to his name, was killed himself when his FW-190 collided with his wingman, Feldwebel Kurt Franzke, during aerial combat with USAAF Republic P-47 Thunderbolt and RCAF Spitfires near Alençon.

Unlike some high ranking German fighter aces, Wurmheller's victories were mostly in the west, with a large number of Spitfires included.

Navy working uniform, June 22, 1944.

 Specialist (R)2c Jeanne Henry, attached to the Office of Naval Officer Procurement, in New York City. Shown: Overcoat (front). This optional item as uniform is worn as an alternative to the raincoat in cold seasons. The white muffler also is optional. Released June 22, 1944.

The Appalachian Tornado Outbreak began and would carry into the following day.  Over 100 people were killed.

Last prior edition:

Wednesday, June 21, 1944. Operation Bagration commences with artillery.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Battle of Imphal, France, German Luftwaffe, Italy, Operation Bagration, Operation Forager, Operation Frantic, Operation Overlord, Red Army, Royal Navy, Saipan, U.S. Air Force, Weather, World War Two

Wednesday, June 22, 1774. The Quebec Act gains royal assent.

The Quebec Act, regarding by the thirteen British colonies to the south of Quebec as one of the Intolerable Acts, gained royal assent.

A rational and tolerant piece of legislation, it provided for greater accommodation of Catholicism and French law in Quebec and set its borders to include virtually all the trans-Appalachian West down to the Ohio River.

Last prior edition:

Friday, May 27, 1774. Heading towards revolution.

Labels: 1770s, 1774, Boston Tea Party, British Army, California (Los Angeles), Colonial North America, homosexuality, Los Angeles California, Mexico, Royal Navy, Spanish Colonization, Spanish Empire, Virginia

i nolunt

Radical refusal to consent.

More specifically, radical refusal to consent to the spirit of the times.  It's part of what I admire in them, but it didn't strike me until recently.

John Pondoro Taylor, in his memoirs, recalled having seen Maasai walking through Nairobi as if it simply wasn't there, as they had always done, dressed in their traditional fashion, and carrying spears.  On their way from one place to another, refusing to consent that the development of the city meant anything in real terms.

I was recently waiting in the Church for the confession line to form.  One of the Mantilla Girls walked in.  I've seen this one once or twice before, but not at this Church.  She not only wears the mantilla, and is very pretty, but she carries herself with pride.

They don't all do that.  Some of the younger women who wear chapel veils do so very naturally.  Some sort of timidly, or uncomfortably.  With at least one, and I could be massively off the mark, it's almost sort of an affectation.  But here, you see something quite different.

Or so it seems.

I don't know her.  I could be wrong.  But it's clear she isn't timid and it's not an affectation.  

It is, it seems to me, a radical rejection of the modern secular world in favor of existential nature.

For those who believe in the modern world, in modernism, or the spirit of the times, or who are hostile to religion, that may seem like a shocking statement.  But the essence of our modern lives (or post-modern, if you insist) is a radical rejection of nature, most particularly our own natures.  Wearing a chapel veil indicates that the person deeply believes in a set of beliefs that are enormously grounded in nature.  The wearer is a woman, in radical alignment with biology in every sense, and accepting everything that means, including what the modern world, left and right, detest.  I nolunt.  She's accepting of the derision, and ironically, or in actuality not ironically, probably vastly happier than those who have accommodated modernity.

Moreover, those who think they're reaching out for a radical inclusion of the natural, who don't take the same approach, never can quite reach authenticity.  There can always be a slight feeling that something isn't authentic, and there isn't.  Reserving an element of modernity defeats it.

Related Thread:

We like everything to be all natural. . . . except for us.

Labels: Agrarianism, Agriculture, An hoc pertinet ad naturam?, Commentary, Daily Living, Food, Friday Farming, Medicine, Men, nature, The roles of men and women, transgenderism, trends, Women

Blog Mirror: 5 for Fathers

 

5 for Fathers

Going Feral: Bear

Going Feral: Bear: 

Bear

"Bear" is one of the oldest words in the Proto Indo European language group.  It's one of the hand full of words that comes down to us through the ages.

There's a reason for that.

Bears are dangerous.

Here's a recent headline:

Woman mauled by bear after her dog chased cub up a tree

Attack was in a Vermont condo complex near Stratton Mountain. Bears were also dining on pumpkins in the area.

Most of these articles go on to explain that black bear attacks, which is what the bear in question was, are "rare".

And they are.

Grizzly bear attacks, FWIW, are not.  We have a few in the state every year.  There's been at least three this year.

But attack a black bear will, and while rare, they do occur.

Another summer cancelled.

It's been absolutely freezing here. So much so that I regret taking the side windows and doors off my Jeep, which I'm now not driving, as it's too cold.

Last summer started off that way too.

You can't make this stuff up.

From a news report, reposted on Twitter:

ICYMI: Rep. Friske was arrested by Lansing police Thursday morning for officially undisclosed charges, though a source familiar with the situation said the lawmaker's arrest stemmed from allegations that he sexually assaulted an exotic dancer and then chased her with a firearm.

Wednesday, June 21, 1944. Operation Bagration commences with artillery.

The Red Army commenced Operation Bagration with massive artillery and bombing raids.

Tailed first by a ME109, and then by a dispatched HE111, the Luftwaffe learned that the U.S. Army Air Force was using the Ukrainian airfield at Poltava.  German aircraft shadowed the B-17s headed to Poltava, Ukraine, following a raid.  The Luftwaffe then struck the base at night, destroying 15 P-51 fighters and more than 40 B-17s.  Soviet air defenses were ineffective, and P-51s were not allowed by the Soviets to take off during the raid.

Sarah Sundin's blog has a great photograph taken during this air raid:

Today in World War II History—June 21, 1944

The HMS Fury struck a mine off of Sword Beach and was wrecked.

Meanwhile, the Channel storm continued and was effecting British operations on land.

French refugees pass destroyed German self-propelled gun.

The Battle of Val-de-Saire started on the Cotentin Peninsula.  US troops enter Cherbourg following a massive bombardment.  Intense fighting occurs in Cherbourg and the German commander, Lt. Gen. Von Schlieben ordered the port and navy assets destroyed.  The US attacks towards Saint-Lô in the face of a German order to hold at all costs.

Mail call.  Note how heavily these soldiers are dressed.

Destroyed German artillery, June 21, 1944.

The British 8th Army reached the German Trasimene Line in Italy.

The US 2nd Marine Division captured Mount Tipo Pole and then started fighting for Mount Tapotchau on Saipan.  The 4th Marine Division progressed east on the Kagman Peninsula.

Marines in ox cart, Saipan, June 21, 1944.

The British broke the Siege of Imphal in Burma.

The Royal Navy raided the Andaman islands in an aircraft carrier raid.

Oliver Lyttelton addressed his remarks in front of the American Chamber of Commerce before the House of Commons, stating:

I was trying, in a parenthesis, to make clear the gratitude which this country feels for the help given to us in the war against Germany, before Japan attacked the United States, the words I used, however, when read textually, and apart from the whole tenor of my speech, seemed to mean that the help given us against Germany provoked Japan to attack. This is manifestly untrue. I want to make it quite clear that I do not complain of being misreported, and any misunderstanding is entirely my own fault. I ask the House to believe, however, that the fault was one of expression and not of intention. I hope this apology will undo any harm that the original words may have caused here or in the United States.

Last prior edition:

Tuesday, June 20, 1944. End of the Battle of the Philippine Sea.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Battle of the Philippine Sea, boats and ships, Disaster, Finland, France, Imperial Japanese Navy, Lithuania, New Britain, Operation Overlord, Outer space, Rocketry, United Kingdom, World War Two

Wednesday, June 21, 1899. Treaty No. 8.

 

The Crown and various First Nations of the Lesser Slave Lake area signed a treaty regarding 320,000 sq miles of territory in Western Canada.

Last prior edition

Saturday, June 17, 1899. It's flooding down in Texas*

Labels: 1890s, 1899, Brazos River, Music, Rhythm & Blues, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Texas, Weather

Blog Mirror: Tom Lubnau: Wyoming's Future -- Diversification Or Destitution?

 

Tom Lubnau: Wyoming's Future -- Diversification Or Destitution?

Friday Farming: Ranch Wife Types

 

Ranch Wife Types

"And I'm gonna tell you workers, 'fore you cash in your checks They say 'America First,' but they mean 'America Next!' "

I've been seeing some political signs around town that say "America First!"

Americans are, I'm afraid, notoriously dense about history, which doesn't keep Americans from citing it.  Just recently, for example, as I already noted here, the state's populist's caucus cited Operation Overlord as a great example of American virtue and heroism, apparently dim to the fact that Operation Overlord was made necessary by the US sitting out the post 1917 to 1941 world stage's drama and that the heroism was made necessary by the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor, not the US waking up one day to the dangers of fascism.  Indeed, recently populist have been itching to repeat the betrayal of Czechoslovakia, in the form of Ukraine, so we can finally bring World War III about, although they are dim to the fact that's what they're doing.

Part of that late 1920s and 1930s drama that it seems people have forgotten (in addition to massive tariffs being a horrific idea, and that taxing upper income levels at the 50% rate actually doesn't hurt the economy at all) was the rise of the America First idea, which was that the US could just sit around and ignore the world, safely.  It turned out, of course, that ships going down daily in the Atlantic, numerous people being murdered due to their religion, and the Japanese fleet proved that concept wrong in a bloody fashion, but populists are imagining it again.  This time its pretty likely, I'd estimate in the 75% range, that the Chinese navy and ballistic missile force will prove that idea wrong again.

Anyhow, when I read "America First!" on political signs, having a sense of history, I can't help but recall this Woody Guthrie song:

While I suppose it's not directly applicable to the current times, I love the last line of the song:

And I'm gonna tell you workers, 'fore you cash in your checks

They say "America First, " but they mean "America Next!"

In Washington, Washington

Tuesday, June 20, 1944. End of the Battle of the Philippine Sea.

The Imperial Japanese aircraft carrier Hiyō sunk after fuel vapors ignited from previous damage caused by USS Belleau Wood's aircraft. 

Japanese losses stood at three aircraft carriers, two oilers and about 600 aircraft.

1st Lt. Donald E. Mittelstaedt of Missoula, Montana, is officer in charge of a combat assignment photo unit, of the 161st Signal Photo Co., on New Britain.

British Minister of Production Oliver Lyttelton created a controversy in his address to the American Chamber of Commerce in London when he went off script and stated:

Japan was provoked into attacking the Americans at Pearl Harbor. It is a travesty on history to ever say that America was forced into the war. Everyone knows where American sympathies were. It is incorrect to say that America was ever truly neutral even before America came into the war on an all-out fighting basis.

Secretary of State Cordell Hull immediately condemned the speech.

The weather remained bad in the English

Pvt. William L. Hatcher, of Scranton, SC, amuses a little French orphan by letting him wear his garrison cap. 20 June, 1944.

Channel, creating havoc for Allied shipping.

American lines slowly advanced, with the Germans seemingly withdrawing to join the Cherbourg defensive lines.  The 7th American Corps entered the city.  US forces found a partially constructed V-2 launching site near Sottevast.

A V-2 rocket, in a test flight, entered outer space and then returned, being the first man made object to enter space.

The Pope addressed the British 8th Army.

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS PIUS XII

TO MEMBERS OF THE EIGHTH BRITISH ARMY

Tuesday, 20 June 1944

It is a real joy for Us to welcome you all here within the very home of the common Father of Christendom. God has willed that We should be the Vicar of Christ on earth at a period of human history, when the world is filled as never before with weeping and suffering and distress unmeasured; and you know very well how Our paternal heart has at times been almost overwhelmed by the sorrows of Our children. You are of those children, and We have prayed for you. Your presence naturally recalls to Our mind the very pleasant days We once had the privilege of passing in the great capital of the British Empire; but it also summons up other memories, memories of those heroes of the Faith, St. Edward and St. Thomas a Becket, St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More, who shed a supreme and unfading glory on your country. To their protection We commend you all. You know only too well the dangers and uncertainties of life in war. One thing make certain: keep always and everywhere close to God. This grace We beg for you through the intercession of those loyal, saintly sons of Mother Church and of your loved England, while with Our heart's affection We bless you and all your dear ones at home.

The Red Army captured Vilpuri.

The Lithuanian Security Police murdered 37 mostly Polish residents of Glitiškės.

TWA Flight 277 en route from Newfoundland to Washington, D.C. crashed in Maine, killing all seven on board.

Last prior edition:

June 19, 1944. The Battle of the Philippine Sea, day one. The Marianas Turkey Shoot.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Aircraft, Battle of the Philippine Sea, boats and ships, Imperial Japanese Navy, Operation Bagration, Operation Forager, Operation Overlord, Philippines, Saipan, Soviet Partisans, U.S. Navy