Tuesday, June 17, 2025

The Madness of King Donald. The 25th Amendment Watch List, Second Edition.

Trump at a college commencement on May 1, 2015.  Probably a copyrighted photograph, but posted here under fair use to show Trump's bizarre character.
Barry R McCaffrey@mccaffreyr3 19h

Trump to rename Veterans Day as ‘Victory Day for World War I’ - POLITICO — This is nuts.
He's clearly nuts.  But not just nuts, he's stupid, and mean.
There's an entire selection of recent news interviews recently where King Donny is rambling and incoherent, but here's another example of his oddity.  Trump is going to rename Victory In Europe Day to “Victory in World War II Day” even though it VE Day really was only a victory in Europe.

The war raged on against Japan after VE Day.

And for a complete collection of ramblings, etc.:


The man is demented.

Of course, added to this pathetic scene, Trump posted a photo of himself dressed like the Pope last week.  


This brought immediate condemnation, but it also broke "oh, it's just a joke".  First of all, for a dignified office, sophomoric jokes should be out of the question.  The man occupying the position that is routinely cited, probably inaccurately now, as the most powerful in the world, should not be acting like a 7th grader.  But he does so all the time.

Assuming it is a joke.  Quite a few things that Trump does that are not taken seriously turn out to actually be his real views.

I dare say that this sort of conduct by any other President in the past would have resulted in the invocation of the 25th Amendment by now.  It's not here, as those backing Trump need him for their agenda.  National Conservatism and Project 2025 depend on him.  His loyal base apparently has no problem with his antics, and those running the show depend on those people.  That probably explains why J. D. Vance is not President yet, as nobody can be sure of who, if anyone, supports him.

This will get worse.

May 5, 2025

Two gems this morning.

A tariff on foreign movies, and this:


Alcatraz is a National Park now. When it was open it was plagued with battling the elements.

May 5, 2025
Keith Olbermann@KeithOlbermann7h
Something that is underscored every time an actual world leader goes to the White House: Donald Trump is wildly and increasingly insane.

May 8, 2025

Reporter:  We are seeing the ports here in the US—the traffic has really slowed and thousands of dock workers and truck drivers are worried about their jobs”.

Trump: “That’s good, it means we lose less money”.

May 15, 2025

This is the guy running my administration. His name is Stephen Miller... We need a building like this back home.

Trump in Abu Dubai

We have costs are way down. Groceries. We have a term grocery. It’s an old term, but it means basically what you’re buying, food. It’s a pretty accurate term but it's an old fashioned sound.

Trump again.

March 16, 2025

Oh yeah. . . thats a comment by a "stable genius". . . 

May 19, 2025

Really losing it.

May 26, 2025

May 26, 2025

Russo Ukrainian War

Trump posted the following yesterday:

I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY! He is needlessly killing a lot of people, and I’m not just talking about soldiers. Missiles and drones are being shot into Cities in Ukraine, for no reason whatsoever. I’ve always said that he wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that’s proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia! Likewise, President Zelenskyy is doing his Country no favors by talking the way he does. Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop. This is a War that would never have started if I were President. This is Zelenskyy’s, Putin’s, and Biden’s War, not “Trump’s,” I am only helping to put out the big and ugly fires, that have been started through Gross Incompetence and Hatred.

More and more it's impossible not simply regard Trump as stupid.

June 4, 2025

Truly, this author nails the current situation:
The media has indulged in a lot of conveniently after-the-fact handwringing over Biden’s age and how Democrats dealt with it. The reality is that Biden was old but governed normally. Trump governs erratically because he’s unglued. That’s the true cover-up, one the media is enabling when they seem more concerned with the mental condition of a former president than the escalating madness of the current one.
Stephen Robinson, Public Notice.

June 5, 2025
You know, Ukraine had the most beautiful turrets. They call them turrets. The little towers. Beautiful towers. The most beautiful in the world. They're all now laying on their side.
Donald Trump.

cont:
Eggs have come down 400 percent. Everybody has eggs now. They have eggs for breakfast again.

Donald Trump. 

June 17, 2025


"We"?

"Sky trackers"?

"Stuff"?

Related threads:


Last tragic edition:

Map shows iconic Wyoming landscapes could be developed under GOP budget, land sale plan

Map shows iconic Wyoming landscapes could be developed under GOP budget, land sale plan

I'll say it again, anyone voting for this will never get my vote for anything in the future.  If everyone in my state's Congressional representation votes for it, I'll never vote for any Republican for anything again.

Sunday, June 17, 1945. Taking Kuishi Ridge.

The last Japanese defensive line was broken on Kuishi Ridge, Okinawa.  The US 7th Division completed the capture of Hills 153 and 115.

"Tec Sgt. Hiroshi Mukaye, Los Angeles, Cal., Japanese Interpreter for the 32nd Infantry Regiment, and S/Sgt. Ralph M. Saito, Ewa, Hawaii, interpreter for the 24th Corps, question this Japanese sailor brought in by the 32nd Infantry Regiment. 17 June. 1945. 32nd Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. Photo Source: U.S. National Archives. Digitized by Signal Corps Archive."  This photograph is remarkable in that S.Sgt  Santo has his rank drawn onto his fatigue cap in the same approximate size that later black subdued rank insignia would have it.  He also has his rank printed on the lapels of his fatigue shirt, which would anticipate the practice of the 1960s, although not in that location.

The 37th Infantry Division captured Naguilian on Luzon.  

Last edition:

Wednesday, June 17, 1925. The Geneva Protocol.

The Geneva Protocol, officially the "Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare", was signed in Switzerland by representatives of Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, the Netherlands, Russia, Turkey, the United Kingdom United States Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Denmark, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Ethiopia, Greece, British India, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Nicaragua, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Siam, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Arguably US use of CS gas in Vietnam violated the treaty.  The USSR violated it with lethal gas in Afghanistan.

The first National Spelling Bee was held in Washington, D.C. 

The competition was won by 11-year-old Frank Neuhauser of Kentucky, who became a patent lawyer in his adulthood.

A sad Flapper Fanny went to print.


Last edition:

Monday, June 15, 1925. Flying out.

June 17, 1775. The Battle of Bunker Hill.

 


The British took Bunker HIll in Massachusetts in the first really notable largescale battle of the American Revolution.

While they prevailed, they took twice the casualties of the defending American forces.

250 Years Ago Today: The Bloodiest Day of the Revolutionary War

Related threads:

Saturday, April 4, 1925. Recalling Lexington and Concord.

Last edition:

Thursday, March 30, 1775. King George III gave Royal Assent to the New England Restraining Act, which provided. . .

Monday, June 16, 2025

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist, 92nd Edition. Immigration. How did we get into this mess?

Our Nation’s ICE Officers have shown incredible strength, determination, and courage as they facilitate a very important mission, the largest Mass Deportation Operation of Illegal Aliens in History. Every day, the Brave Men and Women of ICE are subjected to violence, harassment, and even threats from Radical Democrat Politicians, but nothing will stop us from executing our mission, and fulfilling our Mandate to the American People. ICE Officers are herewith ordered, by notice of this TRUTH, to do all in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History.

In order to achieve this, we must expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America’s largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside. These, and other such Cities, are the core of the Democrat Power Center, where they use Illegal Aliens to expand their Voter Base, cheat in Elections, and grow the Welfare State, robbing good paying Jobs and Benefits from Hardworking American Citizens. These Radical Left Democrats are sick of mind, hate our Country, and actually want to destroy our Inner Cities — And they are doing a good job of it! There is something wrong with them. That is why they believe in Open Borders, Transgender for Everybody, and Men playing in Women’s Sports — And that is why I want ICE, Border Patrol, and our Great and Patriotic Law Enforcement Officers, to FOCUS on our crime ridden and deadly Inner Cities, and those places where Sanctuary Cities play such a big role. You don’t hear about Sanctuary Cities in our Heartland!

I want our Brave ICE Officers to know that REAL Americans are cheering you on every day. The American People want our Cities, Schools, and Communities to be SAFE and FREE from Illegal Alien Crime, Conflict, and Chaos. That’s why I have directed my entire Administration to put every resource possible behind this effort, and reverse the tide of Mass Destruction Migration that has turned once Idyllic Towns into scenes of Third World Dystopia. Our Federal Government will continue to be focused on the REMIGRATION of Aliens to the places from where they came, and preventing the admission of ANYONE who undermines the domestic tranquility of the United States.

To ICE, FBI, DEA, ATF, the Patriots at Pentagon and the State Department, you have my unwavering support. Now go, GET THE JOB DONE! DJT

Trump on "Truth Social". 

Over the last few days soldiers of the California National Guard have been backing up ICE in immigration raids in Los Angeles.  The Marine Corps is as well.  The Marines, we now are told, have actually performed an arrest.  There are somewhere between 11.0 million to 18.6 million illegal immigrants, mostly, but not exclusively, from Central America in the country.  During his run for a second term, Donald Trump basically promised to deport them all, but he's really not been much more successful than President Obama was on the same topic.

Of that number, probably about 1.6 million came in during the Biden Administration, not all of them as Republicans seemingly like to suggest.

Lots of reasons are given for this situation, most of which are devoid of historical analysis, and therefore, inaccurate.  We'll take a more indepth view here.

As noted, most illegal immigrants into the US are from Central America. At one time, "illegal alien" almost always tended to mean an illegal entrant who was Mexican, but that never really reflected the entire situation.  As late as the 1980s, the second largest group of illegal entrant into the US were Irish, something almost uniformly ignored.  Indeed, illegal aliens in the US come from all over the globe.  Nonetheless, the big problem is a Central American one.

When you conquer a foreign people and arbitrarily draw a map of convenience for yourself on what you are keeping, you create a problem.

That may sound like a non sequitur, but we need to start there.  

The United States fought Mexico from 1845 to 1848, wi th most of the last part of that period being an occupation of the country.  The Mexican War is more complicated than its generally considered to be, and I'll not go into the origins of the war.  Suffice it to say, however, that a result of the war, the principal result in fact, was that the US acquired 55% of Mexico.

Now, that 55% is a bit deceptive in that the US did not acquire 55% of the Mexican population.  In 1848, when the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed by Mexican representatives chosen by hte US to sign it, the overwhelming majority of Mexicans lived south of the Rio Grande.  There were, however, Spanish speaking populations north of the river, with most of them living in Texas, which Mexico had not regarded as properly lost, New Mexico, and California.  Mexican populations, however, stretched all the way up into Spanish speaking settlements in Colorado as well.  

Depending upon where they lived, many of those Hispanic populations were distinct with distinct histories, which also set them apart from the population of Mexico, although that population is more diverse then imagined.  The closer you got to the Rio Grande, however, the more "Mexican", the population was.

The border was extremely fluid, although real, and would be for decades thereafter.  People crossed back and forth over it fairly readily for various reasons.  To the extent there was control of the border, on the US side it was by the US Army, and on the Mexican side, the Mexican Army, both of which occasionally crossed the border in pursuit of Native Americans.

It was the Mexican Revolution that really began to change things.

Mexican refugees crossing into the United States in 1915.

The Mexican Revolution saw an increased rate of border crossing as various groups of displaced people picked up and fled into the US.  The US was a haven for combatant leaders and politicians from all sides of the war itself, which remained the case for decades.  Villa famously attacked Columbus, New Mexico, in 1916, but he also had taken refuge in the US prior to that.

The Revolution caused the US to really patrol the border in earnest for the first time, with the National Guard serving on the border up until early 1917, while the U.S. Army crossed the border in pursuit of Villa.  In the popular imagination the war ended in 1920 when Obregón sworn in as President after having rebelled against Carranza, but that simply isn't true.  Villa was assassinated in 1923 and Plutarco Elías Calles came into power as a radical anti Catholic in 1924, which resulted in heavy repression of CAtholicism even though over 80% of the population was Catholic. This sparked the actual last major rebellion against the government in the form of the Cristero War, which lasted until 1929.

As with earlier phases of the Revolution, the Cristero War caused refugee populations to migrate to the US.  Indeed, the Cristero's weren't even the first religious refugees of the war, as Mormon populations had in some instances migrated out of Mexico earlier.  As that had an ethnic component to it, the Mormons were mostly Americans culturally or in fact, we should note that migrant Japanese populations in Mexico were in some instances evacuated by the U.S. Army during the Punitive Expedition.

There were concerns about the large number of migrants even then, with it interestingly being the case that some of the existing Hispanic populations were amongst those concerned, which has tended to be the case more recently as well.  Colorado passed the first law in the US banning marijuana as Hispanics native to the state associated it with Mexican refugees, with whom they did not wish to be confused or associated.

These various events caused the Border Patrol to be created in 1924. By that time, the really hot period of the Mexican Revolution was over, and the Cristero War had not yet begun, so the early Border Patrol entered the story at a time that is quite different from the present.

Indeed, while the  Cristero War saw an influx of migrants, its end came with the arrival of the Great Depression, during which illegal immigration was not a major problem.

But that brings us to why this Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist is being published first here, rather than on Lex Anteinternet where  they normally are.

Let's take a look at pre World War Two agriculture. . . and economics. . . and marriage.  Well, let's take a look at the US before World War Two.

It's easy to say, "it's was a different country", but it wasn't.  It was much different, however.

Ironically, lots of rank and file Trump supporters look back to that era, or the one that came immediately after it in the 1950s, as a Golden Age they'd wish to return to.  And to some extent, now without good reason. . . although they themselves would largely choose to keep the moral laxity of the post 1960s, as long as it applied to men and women.  What they seemingly want, sort of, is the economy of the 1950s with the personal morality of the high Playboy era.  Or maybe they want the 60s themselves, but without the drugs and Vietnam, but with good paying industrial jobs, no fault divorce, and Fran Gerard.1

The pre World War Two world, indeed, the pre 1980 world, was much less corporate than it is now.  While there were chain stores of one kind or another, Piggly Wiggly, Safeway, Woolworths, etc. much of retail was very local.

From Safeway's website.

Agriculture in much of the country was of the classic "family farm" type. Ranching definitely was.  Outside of the South, remote owners of farms and ranches was extremely unusual.  The South stood out as an exception due to historical reasons, as there was a tremendous amount of sharecropping in that region, but the owners of the land were still local.  Hobby agriculture was a thing, but it wasn't a major thing.

Economics were almost much thinner.  The middle class was much poorer than it is today and large portions of it lived very near the poverty line. The reverse is true today.  Much of the middle class slips into the upper class periodically, and drops back out of it, without realizing it. They don't consider themselves "rich", but they periodically, statistically, are.  

Indeed, while its disturbing to many, including frankly distributist, the modern American economy has had the effect of making Americans as a whole extremely wealthy.  Americans like to note that the average wage hasn't rising in years, but because average prices have effectively dropped, in comparison to inflation, their spending power has continually grown.

Not that everything has been perfect, by any means.  As often noted, it's impossible for families, for the most part, to get by on a single income, which cuts against what I just stated.  

Popular traditionalist meme with some truth to it, but it requires more thought than this.  Also, this pertains more to the 50s and 60s, than it does to eras before it.

Considering that, however, we need to start off with noting that what people imagine as "traditional" really means the 1950s, in this sense, with the "1950s" really being the years from about 1955 to 1965, that is from the end of the Korean War to the beginning of largescale troop deployments in Vietnam.  The "American Graffiti" era, in other words, which is set in the early 1960s, ot the 1950s as sometimes imagined.  The economy really was exceptional then for a wide variety of reasons.  Europe and Asia's economies had been flattened by the Second World War.  China's economy, which was not a major player in the world in any event, was removed from the international scene by its fall to Communism.  The US was really on the only major industrial power in the world that didn't suffer two decades of economic recovery due to the war.  Technological advances of the 30s and 40s came inot the American market on a largescale due to the end of the Great Depression.  American education advanced enormously due to the GI Bill.

Before 1940, however, families got by on one income due to home economics, to a large degree.  That is, people lived in smaller houses, they had one car, they didn't go on extended vacations, they didn't buy "home entertainment centers", and so on.  We've dealt with it extensively, but unmarried women and men living in the communities they grew up in, lived with their parents.  It was unusual for an unmarried man to own a home.  Men and women basically went from their families home and economic care right into marriage, as a rule.

If they got married.

We haven't dealt with that much either.  By and large, most people in American society got married.  But there were entire classes of people that did not.  One we've dealt with before is Catholic Priests.  As we've noted, the Priesthood, and religious orders, were two ways in which Catholic men and women could have what amounted to a middle class existence without getting married.2 

Other professions of that era had the same feature, however.  Enlisted soldiers in the services were largely unmarried.  They were not paid well, particularly in the lower grades, although that was somewhat made up for by the government providing housing, food and clothing.  If they were married, it was usually only after they'd climbed in rank, which in the pre World War Two Army took an extremely long time.  Junior officers were rarely married either, although more senior ones normally were.

And agricultural workers, those who worked for wages, were often unmarried.  Working cowboys almost never were.  Their jobs just didn't pay enough for them to marry.

Cowhands are a particularly interesting example.  The end of the open range meant that ranches became more established and were normally family outfits.  But the sons of those who were not to inherit the ranch, as well as some men who were just attracted to an outdoor life, provided a pool of men who became cowboys working for wages. There was more of a need for cowboys at the time than there is now, as machinery had not made inroads into agriculture like it has since.  There are lot of things a person could point to in the case of farming, which became much more mechanized in the 1950s, but this is also true of ranching, which had not yet seen the introduction of the 4x4 truck.  Cowhands were expected to provide their own equipment, but the ranch provided everything else for them.3 Even on farms, there were lifelong farm workers who were just that, unmarried men who spent their lives working on a farm they did not own.

That's where things circle back into the story of immigrants and agriculture.

Prior to World War Two, temporary agricultural labor was usually local.  Farms tended to be small in comparison to the giant ones that exist now, and the labor was often made up of the extended families of the farmers.  There was temporary labor, including Hispanic labor from Mexico near the border, but its need didn't exist to the extent it later did.  As noted, people lived closer to poverty, which meant that they endured those conditions more readily, by necessity.  The world was simply smaller too.  People didn't consider it odd to send teenagers, or even children, into the fields during the summer months.

World War Two removed thousands of those people from their pre war lives, including their prewar economic existences.  Men who had been sent all around the country, and overseas, didn't tend to return to agricultural work involving remaining single, and they didn't have to either, given the post war economy. Women who had worked in fields prior to the war worked in factories during it, and had grown used to a new life. They had no interest in returning to the pre war lifestyle either, and they also didn't have to.

Somebody had to do the work.

During the war, Mexican labor was brought in to do it under the Bracero program.  And to some degree, the situation it created, has been with us ever since.  Yeoman's Fourth Law of History at work.

So now what?

Well, in order to really reduce the number of immigrant farm workers, legal and illegal, at work in American fields, you'd need to create a situation in which Americans would do the work. That won't happen in the current farm economy, however.

After the Second World War the US went to a "cheap food" policy, and we've had it ever since.  We note this as one thing you could do is pay Americans the necessary rate to work in the fields, but that would be grossly in excess of what immigrant laborers are now getting paid.  That raises all kinds of moral issues, but one practical issue is that if we are going to address this, just like the topic of imported foreign products, the time to do it was decades ago, not now.  Indeed, in the case of immigrant farm labor, the time to address it would ideally have been 1945.

In other words, it'd cause a huge spike in food prices.

Another thing you could do would be to try to address industrialization of agriculture.  When farms were smaller and there was less of a need  for extra labor.  That could be done by making the remote corporate ownership of farms illegal, although that would frankly not address all of the problem by any means.

Any way it is looked at, it would mean that Americans would pay more at the grocery store, and the question there is whether or not they're willing to do it for a major societal shift.  Hardcore National Conservatives are banking on Americans being able to be forced into this.  

Trump?

Richard Ortiz is a migrant worker in Nipomo, California where famous photographer Dorothea Lange took a photograph of the Migrant Mother, Florence Owens Thompson in the 1930s


Florence Owens Thompson.   The mother of ten children, her first husband was the son of a farmer with whom she became a migrant farm worker.  Her second, if he was a second, would have been a common law arrangement.  She also occupied a wide variety of other occupations through the 1940s.  In 1952 she marred a hospital administrator and her life obtained stability.  Essentially, her life demonstrates exactly what we've set out above.

I somehow doubt it.  But who knows.


Suffice it to say, in much of this, basic morality seems to have gone right out the window.

Footnotes

1.  This is not how National Conservatives see things, however, which is one of the ironies of the Trump movement.  National Conservatives have a definite Benedict Option worldview and the libertine nature of the post 1960s American culture doesn't fit into that at all.  Immigrants frankly don't much either.

2.  I'm not suggesting that people's callings were not real.  Indeed, because of economic conditions, and society norms, particularly regarding the conduct of young women and men, callings were easier to hear.  I would note, however, that the economic realities of the era probably at least influenced the thinking of some people.

3. Good descriptions of this can be found in Louise Turk's book Sheep! and Doug Crowe's book A Growing Season, all of which discuss this in the context of cowboys.  A good description of it in a novel can be found in Horseman, Pass By, by McMurtry.

Last edition:

Subsidiarity Economics 2025. The Times more or less locally, Part 7 and Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist, 91st Edition. Reality is hard.


"We were the last eleven"

Saturday, June 16, 1945. Oppenheimer writes a letter. Bell Bottom Trousers hits the charts. Belgians debate the return of a king. Sugar for canning.

See below.

Oppenheimer and his committee wrote a letter:



Mount Yuza was captured on Okinawa.

"Soldiers of the 32nd Regt., 7th Inf. Div., advancing to Hill 115 against moderate resistance. 16 June, 1945. 32nd Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division."  Okinawa. Note the infantryman reloading his M1 Garand and the two BARs in the photograph.  Both of the BARs have had their bipods removed.  One of the automatic rifleman is holding his BAR sideways.

"A flame throwing tank of 96th Division burns out Japs hiding in holes along sunken road on bitterly contested “big apple” ridge, Okinawa. 16 June, 1945."

This was also noted by Sarah Sundin, who also noted an interesting musical item:
Today in World War II History—June 16, 1940 & 1945: 80 Years Ago—June 16, 1945: US Tenth Army takes Yuza-Dake Hill on Okinawa. “Bell Bottom Trousers” becomes final military-themed song to hit US charts in WWII.

Lots of versions of this song were recorded in 1945, and all in close proximity. The one above is the one that hit the charts on this date.

Here's another version, same year. 

 

The song was actually originally a bawdy sailors song, and it had been rewritten by Moe Jaffe for a modern audience in a form that' was recordable.  His lyrics went:

Once there was a little girl who lived next to me
And she loved a sailor boy, he was only three
Now he's on a battleship in his sailor suit
Just a great big sailor, but she thinks he's very cute

(With his bell bottom trousers, coat of navy blue)
(She loves her sailor and he loves her too)

When her sailor boy's away on the ocean blue
Soldier boys all flirt with her, but to him she's true
Though they smile and tip their caps, and they wink their eyes
She just smiles and shakes her head, then she softly sighs

(Oh, bell bottom trousers, coat of navy blue)
(She loves her sailor and he loves her too)

Then her sailor went to sea to see what he could see
She saw that he ate spinach, now he's big as he can be
When he's home they stroll along, they don't give a hoot
She won't let go of his hand, even to salute

If her sailor she can't find on the bounding main
She is hopeful he will soon come home safe again
So they can get married and raise a family
Dress up all their kiddies in sailor's dungarees

(Oh, bell bottom trousers, coat of navy blue)
(She loves her sailor and he loves her too)

The song was hugely popular (I can recall my mother singing it), and was recorded five times in 1945.  Interestingly, the last recording, in February 1945,  by Louis Prima recalled the more bawdy earlier version.

When I was a lady's maid down in Drury Lane

My mistress, she was good to me; my master was the same

Along came a sailor, happy as could be

And he was the cause of all my misery


With his bell bottom trousers, coat of navy blue

(She loved her sailor and he loved her too)


He asked me for a candle to light him up to bed

He asked me for a kerchief to tie around his head

And I, like a silly girl, thinking it no harm

 

Lay down beside him, just to keep him warm

With his bell bottom trousers, coat of navy blue

(She loved her sailor and he loved her too)

(Trumpet Solo)

Early in the mornin', before the break of day

A sawbuck note he left for me before he went away

And he wrote a message that if I have a son

Let him be a sailor if he wants to have some fun


With his bell bottom trousers, coat of navy blue

(She loved her sailor and he loved her too)

(Saxophone Solo)

LOUIS:

If it is a daughter, bounce her on your knee

And if it is a boy, send the begger out to sea

Singin' bell bottom trousers, coat of navy blue

Oh, he'll climb the riggin', like the sailors used to do

LILYANN:

If my sailor I can't find on the bounding main

I am hopeful he will soon come home safe again

So we can get married, and raise a family

Dress up all our kiddies in sailor's dungarees

The original song was Rosemary Lane, and English song from the early 1800s.  It went:
When I was in service in Rosemary Lane
I won the goodwill of my master and did I
Till a sailor came there one night to lay
And that was the beginning of my misery 
He called for a candle to light him to bed
And likewise a silk handkerchief to tie up his head
To tie up his head as sailors will do
And he said my pretty Polly will you come too 
Now this maid being young and foolish she thought it no harm
For to lie into bed to keep herself warm
And what was done there I will never disclose
But I wish that short night had been seven long years 
Next morning this sailor so early arose
And into my apron three guineas did throw
Saying take this I will give and more I will do
If you'll be my Polly wherever I go 
Now if it's a boy he will fight for the king
And if it's a girl she will wear a gold ring
She will wear a gold ring and a dress all aflame
And remember my service in Rosemary Lane 
When I was in service in Rosemary Lane
I won the goodwill of my master and did I
Till a sailor came there one night to lay
And that was the beginning of my misery

The 10th Mountain Division adopted the song during the war for their own fighting song, and produced these lyrics:

I was a barmaid in a mountain inn;

There I learned the wages and miseries of sin;

Along came a skier fresh from off the slopes;

He’s the one that ruined me and shattered all my hopes.

Singing:


[Chorus:]

Ninety pounds of rucksack

A pound of grub or two

He’ll schuss the mountain,

Like his daddy used to do.


He asked me for a candle to light his way to bed;

He asked me for a kerchief to tie around his head;

And I a foolish maiden, thinking it no harm;

Jumped into the skier’s bed to keep the skier warm..

Singing:


[Chorus]


Early in the morning before the break of day,

He handed me a five note and these words did say,

“Take this my darling for the damage I have done.

You may have a daughter, you may have a son.

Now if you have a daughter, bounce her on your knee;

But if you have a son, send the young man out to ski.”

Singing:


[Chorus]


The moral of this story, as you can plainly see,

Is never trust a skier an inch above your knee.

For I trusted one and now look at me;

I’ve got a bastard in the Mountain Infantry.

Singing:

The USS Twiggs was sunk by a kamikaze attack.

Poster from this date.  The impressive thing is how much territory the Japanese were still holding, and tenaciously.

Belgian Premier Achille van Acker and his cabinet resign in protest against the contemplated return of King Leopold III from Germany, where he'd been taken by the Germans at the end of the war.

Today In Wyoming's History: June 161945  Sugar once again allowed, on a restricted basis, for home canning in the US.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

Belgian Premier Achille van Acker and his cabinet resign in protest against the contemplated return of King Leopold III from Germany, where he'd been taken by the Germans at the end of the war.

Former Hungarian Prime Minister Béla Imrédy was arrested by American troops.

Col. Gen. Nikolai Erastovich Berzarin, commander of the troops in Berlin, died in a motorcycle accident.  He was 41.

Denounced radical Communist Greek guerilla leader Aris Velouchiotis  committed suicide rather than surrender.  He was 39.

Polynesian won the Preakness.

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