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06/01 Open Thread - International Children's Day

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Havasupai Indian Children

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~~ Havasupi Children

On this day in 1855, William Walker and his brigands conquered Nicaragua. William Walker was an American "mercenary" who organized several private military expeditions into Latin America with the intention of establishing fiefdoms under his control. This specific type of brigandage and piracy was known as "filibustering" back then. Today, we call it regime change, or humanitarian operations. It is also almost always state sponsored today, and, in particular, US sponsored. Though the CIA does continue to play a big role in such operations, the US is more and more willing to openly use its military. It does still use mercenary surrogates like Afghan Warlords, The Taliban, al quaeda/al nusra front, Blackwater/Xe/Acadami, and random insurgents ginned up by the CIA, but is quite comfortable openly sending in the armed forces whether it be boots on the ground or shelling, bombing, drone strikes and other forms of "stand off" terrorism. At any rate, Walker managed to get control of Nicaragua for about a year (which is better that the USA did at the Bay of Pigs) but he was, all the same, deposed and eventually captured and put to death.

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On this day in history:

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1495 – John Cor, a monk, recorded the first known batch of Scotch whisky.

1779 – Benedict Arnold, was court-martialed for malfeasance.

1794 – The battle of the Glorious First of June was fought between Britain and France. Both sides won

1812 – President James Madison asked Congress to declare war on the UK.

1855 – William Walker conquered Nicaragua.

1868 – The Treaty of Bosque Redondo was signed, allowing the Navajo to return to their lands in Arizona and New Mexico.

1890 – The United States Census Bureau began using Herman Hollerith's tabulating machine to count census returns.

1929 – The 1st Conference of the Communist Parties of Latin America was held in Buenos Aires.

1961 – The Canadian Bank of Commerce and Imperial Bank of Canada merged to form the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, the largest bank merger in Canadian history. No doubt for the benefit of the little people, eh.

1964 – Kenya became a republic with Jomo Kenyatta as its first President (1964 to 1978). Britannia wept. Bwahahaha.

1974 – The Heimlich maneuver for rescuing choking victims was published in the journal Emergency Medicine. Now they need one for choke-hold victims and others who fall prey to the Blue Plague.

1979 – The first black-led government of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 90 years took power. More tears and anguish from Britannia, tsk, tsk.

1988 – The European Central Bank was founded in Brussels., no doubt also for the benefit of the little people.

1988 – The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty went into effect.

1990 – George H. W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev signed a treaty to end chemical weapon production.

2008 – A fire on the back lot of Universal Studios broke out, destroying a large irreplaceable archive of master tapes for music and film.

2009 – General Motors filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It was the fourth largest United States bankruptcy in history.

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Some people who were born on this day:

Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth,

~~ Kip Thorne

1637 – Jacques Marquette, missionary and explorer
1653 – Georg Muffat, and composer
1796 – Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot, physicist and engineer
1843 – Henry Faulds, physician and missionary, developed fingerprinting
1878 – John Masefield, author and poet
1896 – Sydney Kyte, bandleader
1907 – Frank Whittle, soldier and engineer who developed the jet engine
1921 – Nelson Riddle, composer and bandleader
1922 – Povel Ramel, singer, songwriter, and pianist
1929 – James H. Billington, academic and Thirteenth Librarian of Congress
1930 – John Lemmon, logician and philosopher
1934 – Pat Boone, singer, songwriter, and actor
1940 – Kip Thorne, physicist, astronomer, and academic
1941 – Dean Chance, baseball player and manager, the real answer to "who's on first?" *
1943 – Richard Goode, pianist
1945 – Jim McCarty, blues rock guitarist
1945 – Linda Scott, singer
1947 – Ronnie Wood, guitarist, songwriter, and producer
1950 – Charlene, singer, songwriter
1953 – Ronnie Dunn, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1959 – Alan Wilder, singer, songwriter, keyboard player, and producer
1960 – Simon Gallup, musician
1961 – Peter Machajdík, pianist and composer
1974 – Alanis Morissette, singer, songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actress
1981 – Brandi Carlile, singer, songwriter and guitarist

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These are the saddest of possible words:
"Tinker to Evers to Chance."
Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds,
Tinker and Evers and Chance.
Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble,
Making a Giant hit into a double –
Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble:
"Tinker to Evers to Chance."
Franklin Pierce Adams

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Some people who died on this day:

Democracy has to be born anew every generation, and education is its midwife.

~~ John Dewey

1639 – Melchior Franck, composer
1660 – Mary Dyer, Boston martyr, hanged by Puritans for being a Quaker
1872 – James Gordon Bennett, Sr., publisher, founded the New York Herald
1927 – Lizzie Borden, accused and acquitted of murder
1952 – John Dewey, psychologist, educational reformer, and philosopher
1966 – Papa Jack Laine, drummer and bandleader
1968 – Helen Keller, author and activist
1980 – Arthur Nielsen, businessman who founded the ACNielsen company
1988 – Herbert Feigl, philosopher from the Vienna Circle
1989 – Aurelio Lampredi, engineer, designed the Ferrari Lampredi engine
1991 – David Ruffin, singer and songwriter
1999 – Christopher Cockerell, engineer, invented the hovercraft
2000 – Tito Puente, drummer, composer, and producer
2004 – William Manchester, historian and author
2007 – Tony Thompson, singer and songwriter (Hi-Five)
2012 – Faruq Z. Bey, saxophonist and composer
2015 – Jean Ritchie, singer, songwriter, dulcimer player, and guitarist

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Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:

Children's Day (International)
Global Day of Parents (international)
World Milk Day (international)

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Today's Tunes

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Nelson Riddle

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Pat Boone

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Richard Goode

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Jim McCarty

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Linda Scott

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Ronnie Wood

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Ronnie Dunn

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Alan Wilder

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Brandi Carlile

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Tito Puente

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Faruq Z. Bey

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Jean Ritchie

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Bonus Boone

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Ronnie Redux

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Ok, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. What's on your mind?

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Cross posted from http://caucus99percent.com

Open Thread, Children's Day, William Walker, regime change, Brigandage, Ronnie Wood, Nelson Riddle, Pat Boone, Jean Ritchie, Tito Puente

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QMS's picture

.
US diplomacy writ large.
Tip of the iceberg.

54066400812_6df86f9f47_k.jpg
Niaqornat Greenland

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The photo of the Havasupi children is great.

'

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4 users have voted.

Zionism is a social disease

enhydra lutris's picture

@QMS Thanks for the picture of Greenland. Tip of the iceberg indeed

be well and have a good oner

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3 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Cassiodorus's picture

This is an opinion piece from ten days ago: India is being left to die in the heat. It appears, however, from the AccuWeather temperature readings (which might be rigged; I don't know) that the weather has substantially "cooled" for the Indians -- the thing is, however, that 1) it was only May when the heat wave happened and 2) even now the low temperatures do not appear to be all that much lower than the high temperatures. So this sort of thing might happen again in the summer months.

On a related issue, on the podcasts -- especially those which had Professor Marandi as their guest -- there were some predictions that the United Arab Emirates was going to disappear as an entity because, with the continuation of the war, the UAE would not have the energy to run its air conditioning systems and so therefore temperatures would soar out of the range of human habitability.

Happy First of June everyone. Stay cool!

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6 users have voted.

"Kamala Harris would probably have been elected president if she had less time, not more” -- Yasmin Nair

enhydra lutris's picture

@Cassiodorus
with an odd twist hammered France years back. Some rivers that cooler specific reactors got too hot to do the job, she reactors were shut down. That had such an impace on their grid that a lot of folks lost A/C and many died from it.

be well and have a good one

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2 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

usefewersyllables's picture

our KC-135 tanker fleet is once again parked wingtip-to-wingtip at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv.

What do you think could possibly go wrong there? Our "leaders" are utter imbeciles.

https://packaged-media.redd.it/km4rr71l7o4h1/pb/m2-res_854p.mp4?m=DASHPl...

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5 users have voted.

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

@usefewersyllables The tankers are en route to a humanitarian mission to supply Crimea which now had a restriction on all 95 octane to military and a 5 gallon per day of 92 octane to civilians vehicles.

Current Rationing RulesAi-95 Gasoline: Strictly reserved primarily for municipal, social, and public transport. At major networks like ATAN and TES, ordinary civilian drivers can only purchase this grade using special pre-issued corporate fuel vouchers or coupons.

Ai-92 Gasoline: Capped at a strict daily limit of 20 liters (5.2 gallons) per vehicle.Jerry Can Ban: Authorities have completely prohibited the filling of portable containers or canisters to prevent hoarding and public panic.

Expected Duration: Moscow-installed Governor Sergey Aksyonov and Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev have stated that resolving the shortages and normalizing station reserves will take at least 30 days.

Causes of the Fuel Crisis;

Highway Interdiction: Ukrainian drones have heavily disrupted the R-280 "Novorossiya" highway—the vital southern land corridor connecting mainland Russia to Crimea. Forces have targeted fuel trucks and reportedly used drones to remotely mine sections of the road.

Refinery Reductions: Ongoing strikes have forced multiple major oil refineries in central Russia to scale down or completely suspend production, knocking out up to 20% to 25% of Russia's total refining capacity.

Financial Strain: High domestic borrowing costs (with interest rates at 17%) have left independent fuel stations, which make up roughly 40% of the market, unable to afford stockpiling wholesale fuel. Nearly half of the gas stations in Crimea have been forced to close entirely.

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usefewersyllables's picture

@ban nock

no. That's not what they are there for, not at all. But thanks for the reply: I needed a laugh.

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4 users have voted.

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

enhydra lutris's picture

@usefewersyllables

do fighters in the WW II movies. Kind of like a Le Mans start, looks really cool.

be well and have a good one

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3 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --