#OTD in 1915, Maj Smedley Butler received his second Medal of Honor for his heroic actions leading his Marines at the Battle of Fort Riviere, Haiti. He is one of only two Marines to have twice received our nation’s highest decoration for battlefield valor.
An impressive feat but Butler was more interesting than that. An idiosyncratic and outspoken personality, he was nearly court martialed after accusing Mussolini of a hit-and-run. His politics trended leftward following his retirement. It was Butler who blew the whistle on the Business Plot against FDR and coined the phrase "war is a racket." Speaking to a socialist magazine he said:
I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents."
I'm sure the Marine Corp. would have mentioned all of this if not for twitter's character limit.
FYI, there's a new biography of Butler due out early next year.
Wow, The US Marines were willing to railroad ,one of their own, for fuckin Mussolini!?
Holy shit Humanity.
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BlackDragon480Bluster KerfuffleMaster of Windy ImportRegistered Userregular
if you have an Audible account, check out the Great Courses lecture series called “Greece and Rome: An Integrated History of the Ancient Mediterranean” by Robert Garland. It’s a great survey course and will teach you a lot of introductory level stuff with a few deep dives as well.
I haven't checked Audible's Great Courses catalog much, but if they have it, the History of Ancient Rome series by Garrett Fagan (who I had the opportunity to chat with a couple of times when I traveled to conferences as an aide to my main prof at UMKC when I was finishing my BA. Sadly he died a few years ago from pancreatic cancer) is fantastic as a more focused follow up that also gets into the nitty-gritty of historiography and critiquing of pseudoarcheology. He does have a slight stammer in his speech, but a fantastic sense of humor and is almost never boring or overly dry.
Just checked, they have his whole tri-fecta from Great Courses.
History of Ancient Rome covers the kicking out of the kings, the rise of the republic, and up to Constantine. Emperors of Rome is like it says, with some minor background on the government of the late republic then it goes from the Gracchi Brothers through to 476. Great Battles of the Ancient World is the weakest of the bunch, as he's covering stuff outside his primary focus and less overall facility with some of the material, but still interesting and ends on a high note with a very nice covering of Caesar's lightning campaign against Pompey after crossing the Rubicon.
BlackDragon480 on
No matter where you go...there you are. ~ Buckaroo Banzai
#OTD in 1915, Maj Smedley Butler received his second Medal of Honor for his heroic actions leading his Marines at the Battle of Fort Riviere, Haiti. He is one of only two Marines to have twice received our nation’s highest decoration for battlefield valor.
An impressive feat but Butler was more interesting than that. An idiosyncratic and outspoken personality, he was nearly court martialed after accusing Mussolini of a hit-and-run. His politics trended leftward following his retirement. It was Butler who blew the whistle on the Business Plot against FDR and coined the phrase "war is a racket." Speaking to a socialist magazine he said:
I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents."
I'm sure the Marine Corp. would have mentioned all of this if not for twitter's character limit.
FYI, there's a new biography of Butler due out early next year.
Wow, The US Marines were willing to railroad ,one of their own, for fuckin Mussolini!?
#OTD in 1915, Maj Smedley Butler received his second Medal of Honor for his heroic actions leading his Marines at the Battle of Fort Riviere, Haiti. He is one of only two Marines to have twice received our nation’s highest decoration for battlefield valor.
An impressive feat but Butler was more interesting than that. An idiosyncratic and outspoken personality, he was nearly court martialed after accusing Mussolini of a hit-and-run. His politics trended leftward following his retirement. It was Butler who blew the whistle on the Business Plot against FDR and coined the phrase "war is a racket." Speaking to a socialist magazine he said:
I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents."
I'm sure the Marine Corp. would have mentioned all of this if not for twitter's character limit.
FYI, there's a new biography of Butler due out early next year.
Wow, The US Marines were willing to railroad ,one of their own, for fuckin Mussolini!?
Holy shit Humanity.
Harding through Hoover was one of the lowlights in our history when it came to the ethics of American policy, both foreign and domestic. Congress and a decent chunk of the electorate really didn't like the way Wilson handled WWI and the Versailles peace process and many Republicans in congress (especially in the Senate) felt he was constantly condescending and talked down/lectured them, helping prompt the hard isolationist swing in public opinion and policy during the 20's.
This is the timeframe that had the National Origins act putting extremely skewed quotas on immigration (based on population ratios of country or origin levels from freaking 1890), tacit allowance of eugenics and unethical experimentation in sanitariums and scientific institutions (Tuskeegee, etc...), and lots of other heinous shit.
By '31 Italy was a nation on the rise in Europe and was (for time being) handling the beginnings of the Great Depression better than the US. Japan had invaded China and was set to manufacture the "incident" that would have the Kwangtun army establish Manchukwo. The Hoover administration was basically looking to try and weather the economic and diplomatic shitstorm that was enveloping the world by staying as low key as possible and they wouldn't hesitate to throw anyone under the bus. Chamberlain was far from the only one to show undue deference to the fascist during the "low, dishonest decade".
No matter where you go...there you are. ~ Buckaroo Banzai
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MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
I don't really do podcasts or audibles, as I have a hard time listening to audio only speaking.
Thankyou for the suggestions, but I will not be taking any of them re speaking only sources. My apologies.
I bought SPQR on the way to work this morning and it should arrive within a week.
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
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BlackDragon480Bluster KerfuffleMaster of Windy ImportRegistered Userregular
I don't really do podcasts or audibles, as I have a hard time listening to audio only speaking.
Thankyou for the suggestions, but I will not be taking any of them re speaking only sources. My apologies.
I bought SPQR on the way to work this morning and it should arrive within a week.
I have DVD/video copies of the 2 Rome lecture series I mentioned (I've been buying and checking out the Teaching Company's audio and video series from the public library for years) and they have plenty of visual aides and Dr. Fagan isn't the type to just stand at the lecturn and simply read everything from notes.
Not as much flair/pizazz as a History Channel or PBS program, but far from static. I'd be happy to send one of them to you for just the cost of shipping. PM me if you'd be interested.
BlackDragon480 on
No matter where you go...there you are. ~ Buckaroo Banzai
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MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
Nah it's ok. I'll just read this book and see where I want to go from there. Thanks tho!
Also I'm in Australia so those DVDs will be going on a longer trip than you probably were expecting.
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
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BlackDragon480Bluster KerfuffleMaster of Windy ImportRegistered Userregular
Nah it's ok. I'll just read this book and see where I want to go from there. Thanks tho!
Also I'm in Australia so those DVDs will be going on a longer trip than you probably were expecting.
Ohhh...yea, I've had a couple of region 2 blu-rays I've ordered in the past year with the delivery time was measured in months due to the shipping chain clusterfuck and customs taking longer to clear everything cause of COVID protocols.
May you enjoy SPQR then.
No matter where you go...there you are. ~ Buckaroo Banzai
Pretty interesting little bit of American history. The pumpkin pie and Thanksgiving as an anti-slavery symbol.
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
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MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
I got book.
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
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BlackDragon480Bluster KerfuffleMaster of Windy ImportRegistered Userregular
May your journey be blessed by Juipter Optimus Maximus.
No matter where you go...there you are. ~ Buckaroo Banzai
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BlackDragon480Bluster KerfuffleMaster of Windy ImportRegistered Userregular
Whilst we await Morninglord's thoughts on the Roman Empire, let's change gears a bit. I posted a couple of little screeds in the SE Jobs thread I'm sure this audience can appreciate. It will be a bit long:
Being a wannabe historian with a focus on Tudor/Stuart Britain, let's have fun with pre-modern, Galenic/humour based medical science by looking at the final few days of Chuck II of England.
On Feb 2. 1685 the Merry Monarch awoke after a restless night, caused by pain from an ulcer/open sore on his leg (he was known to have gout, cause the man drank like a fish and loved fatty foods, though he wasn't near Henry VIII huge. He also had more than 10 mistresses simultaneously, how he found the time, stamina, and staved off whiskey dick is anyone's guess) and prepared to have his morning shave. During his shave he screamed loudly and then experienced an apoplectic/convulsive fit, his complexion became sallow, and he lost the ability to speak. Whether it was a stroke or uremia from the gout is again unknown, but within 2 hours of symptom onset he had his entire Cadre of doctors and natural philosopers from the Royal Academy making a house call to the royal bedchamber.
He was being shaved a little after 7am and by the time noon rolled around the following had all been administered to him:
- was bled for nearly a pint from the right wrist
- cupped him (a process where heated glass cups/wine goblets were applied to exposed skin while they were heated, to try and draw bad humours out through the pores)
--given several different emetics/purgatives to the point he probably vomited up his toenails
- not to ignore the opposite end, he was given at least one enema
- had multiple mustard and caustic plasters applied to various areas of skin
- bled off another half pint or so
- given a compound of bitter powder and various herbs with anti histamine and anti inflammatory properties. A liquid 17th century aspirin and ibuprofen cocktail, basically
- after all that they finally let him just rest the remainder of the day
Day 2, Tuesday February 3, 1685
-soon after waking he had another seizure, so he was prescribed and given no less than 4 separate herbal tonics to be administered every 6 hours, some with actual medical value, most without
- about noon they drained another 10-12 oz of blood and more skin blistering plasters. After said plasters it was just two more doses of all 4 tonics the rest of the day.
Day 3, Wednesday February 4th, 1685
- he got a slight reprieve from his doctors and had a fairly pleasant day till late in the afternoon when it was another horseshit herb cocktail and even though he didn't have any convulsions that day they gave him a solution made from pulverized human skull dust, which was thought to help eplilepsy/seizures.
Day 4, Thursday February 5th 1685
-news reachd Whitehall that a fever of indeterminate origin had broken out in London and Westminster, so the crackpots went into full prevention mode and doused him with enough willow/Peruvian bark to make a year's supply of low dose aspirin and some more tonics, and even higher doses of skull powder tea, that Charles could barely keep down.
Day 5, Friday February 6th 1685
-this thankfully wound up being his final day on this earth. After the week from hell, he knew his body was simply and utterly fucked. But he always had a sense of humor and he apologized to his doctors for taking such a long time to die and politely asked his brother James (soon to be James II of England by the end of the day) to make sure that his favorite mistress (stage actress Nell Gwen) would have a pension and not starve since she wasn't high born and then he asked to be moved closer to the window to see/feel the sunrise one last time.
It was determined that what passed for science then did more to kill him than any infection or disease affecting him and if not for his doctors he had a strong enough constitution to probably not succumb to his final illness.
Fun little extra credit piece for the class. While all British monarchs after Henry VIII (even Liz II right now) have been the Supreme Governor/Head of the Anglican branch of Protestantism, Chuck II surprised his entire court the morning he died. While fleeing Scotland after his father Charles I was executed by Cromwell and the rump parliament in 1649 Charles II hid in the top of an oak tree for over a day and was found and smuggled to the coast by a Catholic priest. His brother James (soon to be James II) was a hard-core Catholic (primary reason he was ousted by the Glorious Revolution of 1688) and snuck the same priest, one John Huddleston, up a back stairway to the king's chamber at Whitehall and before losing consciousness the last time, Chuck confessed, was annointed with oil, and took a final communion in the Roman Catholic faith (he'd denied multiple attempts by an Anglican bishop to make him confess and take the eucharist before he died).
And speaking of Nell Gwen:
There are a plethora of anecdotes about Nelly, some with contemporary corroboration, many without.
One of the verified ones was a time she was traveling through Oxford in a private carriage, when an impromptu mob began to surround the coach and her small escort. The mob was of an anti-Catholic mind and they had been told that the carriage was transporting the Duchess of Portsmouth, one of Charles' Catholic mistresses.
Thinking fast on her feet, Nell decided to press her luck and stuck her head out the window (being a stage actress (one of England's first major female stars, as women on stage were only first allowed under James I in the 1610's) for years to this point, her face was known having been featured on many a flier for theaters in London) and declared to the couple dozen people baying for blood: "Good people, you are mistaken! I am a protestant whore!"
No matter where you go...there you are. ~ Buckaroo Banzai
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MayabirdPecking at the keyboardRegistered Userregular
Cross-posted from SE++ history thread
You see some ancient statue or coin or bust or whatever and someone is rocking a crazy -do. How did they do that?
Janet Stephens: professional hairdresser by day, history nerd by night. Archaeologists (rarely hairdressers) thought lots of women were wearing wigs. Stephens however, knew hair, and was able to figure out how a lot of these styles were likely created, which sometimes included hair being sewn with a needle and thread (as in the previous video). Ridiculous and elaborate? Sure, but these were the richest of the rich and most powerful of the powerful we're talking about here; the ostentatious decadent elaborateness was the point.
Shames "and his men of Easy Company entered Hitler's Eagle's Nest where" Shames "managed to acquire a few bottles of cognac, a label indicating they were 'for the Fuhrer's use only,' said the obituary. "Later, he would use the cognac to toast his oldest son's Bar Mitzvah,"
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MayabirdPecking at the keyboardRegistered Userregular
edited December 2021
IN the crypto thread, I talked about the Albanian civil war. If you don't follow the insanity that is crypto and don't want to get involved, that's good, because here's a podcast episode that details what happened when a set of pyramid schemes took over a country. If you don't have an hour and a half to listen, here's a short version:
Albania had just a few years ago been shocked into a market economy after the collapse of the Soviet Union and specifically Hoxhaism, it's own very special hyper-isolationist system. The population was very naive about such things as "banks" and "investments" as they had spent much of their time previously building 170,000+ concrete bunkers.
These things are all over the place, because there are over 170,000 in a very small country.
At any rate, these people who don't know any better are suddenly sold this bill of goods that a market economy will make them as prosperous as Americans, even as all their factories shut down because they couldn't compete with outside goods. Enter: a whole bunch of scumbags, many of whom were literally the Mafia. They set up obvious pyramid schemes, promising increasingly grandiose guaranteed rates of return on people's "investments." 10%, 50%, 100%, 800%, sky was the limit. People put their money in, and then the numbers just kept getting bigger, so they'd talk everybody else into doing this. After all, this was perfectly legal, since the political system had never dealt with any of it. It's not illegal and it seems to work, so that must mean it's fine, right? Number printer apparently went brrr, and it went on for years, so even early skeptics got suckered in too.
The schemes went on for seven years, and eventually two thirds of the entire national population were "invested" in these pyramid schemes, and half the nominal GDP was locked up in them. At this point, having run out of suckers (the way all pyramid/Ponzi/etc schemes end), the whole thing was starting to come apart, so the mobsters etc. in charge cut and ran with all the money. All the half the GDP of the country. The entire nation of Albania was instantly made destitute. The government essentially collapsed, and though what occurred next is called a civil war, it's more like total lawlessness. Thousands dead, a refugee crisis, and the effects of the Albanian civil war ended up help set off the even worse conflict in Kosovo a year later.
I wrote about it in the cryptocurrency thread originally since it's there's a frightening analogy to what's happening now. No value is being created. Numbers are apparently going up, so more and more people are getting sucked in, including the country of El Salvador. It will eventually, though it might take years, come down. The longer it takes, and the more people that get drawn in, the worse it will be.
The modern image of Lincoln is of a solemn, serious, even dour man, but sometimes I get an image of an eccentric, almost rockstar personality. Like apparently he was really good at wrestling. A tall, fit, handsome Lincoln would be on magazine covers and stuff nowadays, I figure.
The modern image of Lincoln is of a solemn, serious, even dour man, but sometimes I get an image of an eccentric, almost rockstar personality. Like apparently he was really good at wrestling. A tall, fit, handsome Lincoln would be on magazine covers and stuff nowadays, I figure.
You can say many things about Lincoln, but handsome is not one of them.
P.S: At best he's "A slightly uglier Bill Nye"
Fiendishrabbit on
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
The modern image of Lincoln is of a solemn, serious, even dour man, but sometimes I get an image of an eccentric, almost rockstar personality. Like apparently he was really good at wrestling. A tall, fit, handsome Lincoln would be on magazine covers and stuff nowadays, I figure.
You can say many things about Lincoln, but handsome is not one of them.
He also apparently had a higher pitched, nasally voice (as opposed to modern pop culture, which almost always makes him a baritone.) He possessed a notably biting wit, which is also often missing from modern depictions (focused as they generally are on the civil war)
So, ‘slightly uglier bill nye’ isn’t that far off
Eat it You Nasty Pig. on
it was the smallest on the list but
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
He also apparently had a higher pitched, nasally voice (as opposed to modern pop culture, which almost always makes him a baritone.) He possessed a notably biting wit, which is also often missing from modern depictions (focused as they generally are on the civil war)
So, ‘slightly uglier bill nye’ isn’t that far off
"NOW YOU FUCKED UP! NOW YOU FUCKED UP! NOW YOU FUCKED UP! ...YOU HAVE FUCKED UP NOW!"
He also apparently had a higher pitched, nasally voice (as opposed to modern pop culture, which almost always makes him a baritone.) He possessed a notably biting wit, which is also often missing from modern depictions (focused as they generally are on the civil war)
So, ‘slightly uglier bill nye’ isn’t that far off
"NOW YOU FUCKED UP! NOW YOU FUCKED UP! NOW YOU FUCKED UP! ...YOU HAVE FUCKED UP NOW!"
Closer to the mark than you may even have intended; what we would now call shoot wrestling was popular in Lincoln’s era, both as athletic competition and as popular entertainment and he was by all accounts a tough wrestler.
Then as now trash talk was a prominent part of the event, and he was good at that too:
Defeated only once in approximately 300 matches, Lincoln reportedly talked a little smack in the ring. According to Carl Sandburg’s biography of Lincoln, Honest Abe once challenged an entire crowd of onlookers after dispatching an opponent: “I’m the big buck of this lick. If any of you want to try it, come on and whet your horns.”
There were no takers.
it was the smallest on the list but
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
Persepolis Reimagined. Getty Villa Museum has made a computermodel of the government palace at Persepolis, along with images/descriptions of some notable archeological finds.
Note: Not mobile-friendly.
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
He kinda glossed over Napoleon's attempt to re-establish a Caribbean Empire starting with retaking Saint-Domingue, now Haiti. Louisiana was going to be part of that. May be a tangent but implying Napoleon did nothing wasn't true.
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Kane Red RobeMaster of MagicArcanusRegistered Userregular
He kinda glossed over Napoleon's attempt to re-establish a Caribbean Empire starting with retaking Saint-Domingue, now Haiti. Louisiana was going to be part of that. May be a tangent but implying Napoleon did nothing wasn't true.
Yeah he lost thousands of men to tropical diseases trying to reconquer a republic of former slaves; worse than nothing 😬
It’s really crazy how the economics of the time worked, where when someone is prioritizing “a few islands in the Caribbean” vs “Quebec and all of the midwest west of the Mississippi” the former is considered the must-win/must-keep.
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MonwynApathy's a tragedy, and boredom is a crime.A little bit of everything, all of the time.Registered Userregular
It’s really crazy how the economics of the time worked, where when someone is prioritizing “a few islands in the Caribbean” vs “Quebec and all of the midwest west of the Mississippi” the former is considered the must-win/must-keep.
It wasn't even strictly economic - from the Caribbean you could base naval forces that could control access to the rest of Americas. It doesn't matter if you don't have the maple groves (or whatever) if you can just steal the refined good in transport.
They hadn't invented the iron-hulled sailing ship or railroad, so grainexports overall or cross atlantic shipping of low-cost bulk goods was not as attractive as it would be 50+ years later.
From that viewpoint the exports of things like coffee, cocoa and sugar were a lot more attractive as their prices justified the shipping costs and allowed for a more intensive exploitation.
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
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Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
Yeah, much better at the time to have a place with resources you could walk to from a boat than a massive, impenetrable, largely-unmapped wilderness that would've contained tribes of uncertain disposition and no way to actually extract the vast resources. They didn't have five hundred years to wait around for villages and towns to gradually develop a transportation network, so they sold the stuff off.
Plus, Napoleon probably figured he could just take it all back later when he was Emperor.
Yeah, much better at the time to have a place with resources you could walk to from a boat than a massive, impenetrable, largely-unmapped wilderness that would've contained tribes of uncertain disposition and no way to actually extract the vast resources. They didn't have five hundred years to wait around for villages and towns to gradually develop a transportation network, so they sold the stuff off.
Plus, Napoleon probably figured he could just take it all back later when he was Emperor.
There was definitely a few attempts, mostly of the diplomatic variety, until King Charles X graciously granted their independence (and removed the fleet of warships he'd sent to bring this offer and/or blockade the island) in exchange for 150 Million Francs which basically handicapped the Haitian economy ever since.
Napoleon on Elba will end up saying his efforts to hold on to Haiti were the biggest mistake of his rule. He says he underestimated the rebellion because of their skin color, when he should have just rewarded and made deals to firm a new partnership with the rebellions leadership, the same way he did in several European countries.
But his experience in Haiti also served to convince him that most colonies couldn't be held in the long term, which led to stuff like the Louisiana Purchase. He knew the US wanted to move west, and he didn't have the military to hold a bunch of sparsely populated land, and it wasn't worth the expense even if he did. So he sold it, which not only settled tensions with the US, but invested the US in recognizing Napoleon's legitimacy as Emperor. Britain meanwhile was insisting he had no right to sell sovereign French land, both because they considered him illegitimate and also cuz they wanted a slice of that pie for themselves if they ever beat him. So it splits American interests away from British interests, and by 1812 it turns into America's at war with France's enemy.
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
A group of shipwreck hunters has found the USS Samuel B. Roberts, sunk in the Battle off Samar in 1944, 22,621 feet below the surface of the Philippine Sea. It's the deepest shipwreck ever discovered.
It was a destroyer escort weighing barely 1300 tons. Everything about the battle and the ships role in it are incredible. In the span of an hour and twenty minutes it sank or helped sink two heavy cruisers, ships ten times its size, and was only finally taken out of action when it came under fire simultaneously from another heavy cruiser and three battleships including the Yamato, the largest battleship ever constructed.
Around 07:40, Lieutenant Commander Robert W. Copeland maneuvered his small ship to evade the charging Heermann; watching that destroyer approach the enemy, Copeland realized his own ship's heading and location put it in a textbook position to launch a torpedo attack at the leading heavy cruiser. Over his ship's 1MC public-address circuit, he told his crew "This will be a fight against overwhelming odds from which survival cannot be expected. We will do what damage we can." Without orders and indeed against orders, he set course at full speed to follow Heermann in to attack the cruisers.
Not wanting to draw attention to his small ship, Copeland repeatedly denied his gun captain permission to open fire with the 5-inch (127 mm) guns; even though targets were clearly visible and in range, he intended to launch torpedoes at 2.5 nmi (2.8 mi; 4.6 km).
By 08:10, Roberts was nearing the carrier formation. Through the smoke and rain, the heavy cruiser Chikuma appeared, firing broadsides at the carriers. Copeland changed course to attack and told his gun captain, "Mr Burton, you may open fire."
Early in the battle, when it had become apparent that Roberts would have to defend the escort carriers against a surface attack, chief engineer Lt. "Lucky" Trowbridge bypassed all the engine's safety mechanisms, enabling Roberts to go as fast as 28 kn (32 mph; 52 km/h). Roberts did not share Chikuma's problem of slow rate of fire. For the next 35 minutes, from as close as 2.6 nmi (3.0 mi; 4.8 km), her guns would fire almost her entire supply of 5-inch (127 mm) ammunition on board—over 600 rounds. In this seemingly unequal contest, Chikuma was raked along its entire length. However, unknown to the crew of Roberts, shortly after Roberts engaged Chikuma, Heermann also aimed her guns at the cruiser, putting her in a deadly crossfire. Chikuma's superstructure was ripped by salvo after salvo of armor-piercing shells, high-explosive shells, anti-aircraft shells, and even star shells that created chemical fires even in metal plates. The bridge of Chikuma was devastated, fires could be seen along her superstructure, and her number three gun mount was no longer in action.
Gunner's Mate Paul H. Carr was in charge of the aft 5-inch (127 mm) gun mount, which had fired nearly all of its 325 stored rounds in 35 minutes before a breech explosion caused by the gun's barrel overheating. Carr was found dying at his station, begging for help loading the last round he was holding into the breech. He was awarded a Silver Star, and the guided-missile frigate USS Carr (FFG-52) was later named for him. The guided-missile frigates Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58) and Copeland (FFG-25) were named for the ship and its captain.
Soon, the Japanese fleet's multicolored salvos were bracketing Roberts, indicating that she was under fire from Yamato, Nagato, and Haruna. In a desperate bid to avoid approaching shells, Copeland ordered full back, causing the salvo to miss. Now, however, his small ship was an easy target, and at 08:51, cruiser shells found their mark, damaging one of her boilers. At 17 kn (20 mph; 31 km/h), Roberts began to suffer hits regularly. Credit is given to Kongō for striking the final decisive blows at 09:00, which knocked out her remaining engine. Dead in the water and sinking, Roberts's part in the battle was over.
120 of the 210 member crew managed to survive, with the last survivor passing away in March of this year.
Center Force versus Taffy 3 is probably one of the most one sided navel fights I can think of that ends with victory for the underdog. Incredible bravery from the US destroyer and destroyer escort crews.
Posts
Wow, The US Marines were willing to railroad ,one of their own, for fuckin Mussolini!?
Holy shit Humanity.
Just checked, they have his whole tri-fecta from Great Courses.
History of Ancient Rome covers the kicking out of the kings, the rise of the republic, and up to Constantine. Emperors of Rome is like it says, with some minor background on the government of the late republic then it goes from the Gracchi Brothers through to 476. Great Battles of the Ancient World is the weakest of the bunch, as he's covering stuff outside his primary focus and less overall facility with some of the material, but still interesting and ends on a high note with a very nice covering of Caesar's lightning campaign against Pompey after crossing the Rubicon.
~ Buckaroo Banzai
Huh, NYT actually has an article on it saved.
https://www.nytimes.com/1931/01/30/archives/united-states-apologizes-to-mussolini-general-butler-to-be.html
Harding through Hoover was one of the lowlights in our history when it came to the ethics of American policy, both foreign and domestic. Congress and a decent chunk of the electorate really didn't like the way Wilson handled WWI and the Versailles peace process and many Republicans in congress (especially in the Senate) felt he was constantly condescending and talked down/lectured them, helping prompt the hard isolationist swing in public opinion and policy during the 20's.
This is the timeframe that had the National Origins act putting extremely skewed quotas on immigration (based on population ratios of country or origin levels from freaking 1890), tacit allowance of eugenics and unethical experimentation in sanitariums and scientific institutions (Tuskeegee, etc...), and lots of other heinous shit.
By '31 Italy was a nation on the rise in Europe and was (for time being) handling the beginnings of the Great Depression better than the US. Japan had invaded China and was set to manufacture the "incident" that would have the Kwangtun army establish Manchukwo. The Hoover administration was basically looking to try and weather the economic and diplomatic shitstorm that was enveloping the world by staying as low key as possible and they wouldn't hesitate to throw anyone under the bus. Chamberlain was far from the only one to show undue deference to the fascist during the "low, dishonest decade".
~ Buckaroo Banzai
Thankyou for the suggestions, but I will not be taking any of them re speaking only sources. My apologies.
I bought SPQR on the way to work this morning and it should arrive within a week.
I have DVD/video copies of the 2 Rome lecture series I mentioned (I've been buying and checking out the Teaching Company's audio and video series from the public library for years) and they have plenty of visual aides and Dr. Fagan isn't the type to just stand at the lecturn and simply read everything from notes.
Not as much flair/pizazz as a History Channel or PBS program, but far from static. I'd be happy to send one of them to you for just the cost of shipping. PM me if you'd be interested.
~ Buckaroo Banzai
Also I'm in Australia so those DVDs will be going on a longer trip than you probably were expecting.
Ohhh...yea, I've had a couple of region 2 blu-rays I've ordered in the past year with the delivery time was measured in months due to the shipping chain clusterfuck and customs taking longer to clear everything cause of COVID protocols.
May you enjoy SPQR then.
~ Buckaroo Banzai
Pretty interesting little bit of American history. The pumpkin pie and Thanksgiving as an anti-slavery symbol.
May your journey be blessed by Juipter Optimus Maximus.
~ Buckaroo Banzai
Being a wannabe historian with a focus on Tudor/Stuart Britain, let's have fun with pre-modern, Galenic/humour based medical science by looking at the final few days of Chuck II of England.
On Feb 2. 1685 the Merry Monarch awoke after a restless night, caused by pain from an ulcer/open sore on his leg (he was known to have gout, cause the man drank like a fish and loved fatty foods, though he wasn't near Henry VIII huge. He also had more than 10 mistresses simultaneously, how he found the time, stamina, and staved off whiskey dick is anyone's guess) and prepared to have his morning shave. During his shave he screamed loudly and then experienced an apoplectic/convulsive fit, his complexion became sallow, and he lost the ability to speak. Whether it was a stroke or uremia from the gout is again unknown, but within 2 hours of symptom onset he had his entire Cadre of doctors and natural philosopers from the Royal Academy making a house call to the royal bedchamber.
He was being shaved a little after 7am and by the time noon rolled around the following had all been administered to him:
- was bled for nearly a pint from the right wrist
- cupped him (a process where heated glass cups/wine goblets were applied to exposed skin while they were heated, to try and draw bad humours out through the pores)
--given several different emetics/purgatives to the point he probably vomited up his toenails
- not to ignore the opposite end, he was given at least one enema
- had multiple mustard and caustic plasters applied to various areas of skin
- bled off another half pint or so
- given a compound of bitter powder and various herbs with anti histamine and anti inflammatory properties. A liquid 17th century aspirin and ibuprofen cocktail, basically
- after all that they finally let him just rest the remainder of the day
Day 2, Tuesday February 3, 1685
-soon after waking he had another seizure, so he was prescribed and given no less than 4 separate herbal tonics to be administered every 6 hours, some with actual medical value, most without
- about noon they drained another 10-12 oz of blood and more skin blistering plasters. After said plasters it was just two more doses of all 4 tonics the rest of the day.
Day 3, Wednesday February 4th, 1685
- he got a slight reprieve from his doctors and had a fairly pleasant day till late in the afternoon when it was another horseshit herb cocktail and even though he didn't have any convulsions that day they gave him a solution made from pulverized human skull dust, which was thought to help eplilepsy/seizures.
Day 4, Thursday February 5th 1685
-news reachd Whitehall that a fever of indeterminate origin had broken out in London and Westminster, so the crackpots went into full prevention mode and doused him with enough willow/Peruvian bark to make a year's supply of low dose aspirin and some more tonics, and even higher doses of skull powder tea, that Charles could barely keep down.
Day 5, Friday February 6th 1685
-this thankfully wound up being his final day on this earth. After the week from hell, he knew his body was simply and utterly fucked. But he always had a sense of humor and he apologized to his doctors for taking such a long time to die and politely asked his brother James (soon to be James II of England by the end of the day) to make sure that his favorite mistress (stage actress Nell Gwen) would have a pension and not starve since she wasn't high born and then he asked to be moved closer to the window to see/feel the sunrise one last time.
It was determined that what passed for science then did more to kill him than any infection or disease affecting him and if not for his doctors he had a strong enough constitution to probably not succumb to his final illness.
Fun little extra credit piece for the class. While all British monarchs after Henry VIII (even Liz II right now) have been the Supreme Governor/Head of the Anglican branch of Protestantism, Chuck II surprised his entire court the morning he died. While fleeing Scotland after his father Charles I was executed by Cromwell and the rump parliament in 1649 Charles II hid in the top of an oak tree for over a day and was found and smuggled to the coast by a Catholic priest. His brother James (soon to be James II) was a hard-core Catholic (primary reason he was ousted by the Glorious Revolution of 1688) and snuck the same priest, one John Huddleston, up a back stairway to the king's chamber at Whitehall and before losing consciousness the last time, Chuck confessed, was annointed with oil, and took a final communion in the Roman Catholic faith (he'd denied multiple attempts by an Anglican bishop to make him confess and take the eucharist before he died).
And speaking of Nell Gwen:
There are a plethora of anecdotes about Nelly, some with contemporary corroboration, many without.
One of the verified ones was a time she was traveling through Oxford in a private carriage, when an impromptu mob began to surround the coach and her small escort. The mob was of an anti-Catholic mind and they had been told that the carriage was transporting the Duchess of Portsmouth, one of Charles' Catholic mistresses.
Thinking fast on her feet, Nell decided to press her luck and stuck her head out the window (being a stage actress (one of England's first major female stars, as women on stage were only first allowed under James I in the 1610's) for years to this point, her face was known having been featured on many a flier for theaters in London) and declared to the couple dozen people baying for blood: "Good people, you are mistaken! I am a protestant whore!"
~ Buckaroo Banzai
You see some ancient statue or coin or bust or whatever and someone is rocking a crazy -do. How did they do that?
Enter the hair-style archeologist.
Janet Stephens: professional hairdresser by day, history nerd by night. Archaeologists (rarely hairdressers) thought lots of women were wearing wigs. Stephens however, knew hair, and was able to figure out how a lot of these styles were likely created, which sometimes included hair being sewn with a needle and thread (as in the previous video). Ridiculous and elaborate? Sure, but these were the richest of the rich and most powerful of the powerful we're talking about here; the ostentatious decadent elaborateness was the point.
Just another element of life in history you may not have thought of before.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/04/politics/edward-shames-easy-company-world-war-ii-band-of-brothers/index.html
Albania had just a few years ago been shocked into a market economy after the collapse of the Soviet Union and specifically Hoxhaism, it's own very special hyper-isolationist system. The population was very naive about such things as "banks" and "investments" as they had spent much of their time previously building 170,000+ concrete bunkers.
These things are all over the place, because there are over 170,000 in a very small country.
At any rate, these people who don't know any better are suddenly sold this bill of goods that a market economy will make them as prosperous as Americans, even as all their factories shut down because they couldn't compete with outside goods. Enter: a whole bunch of scumbags, many of whom were literally the Mafia. They set up obvious pyramid schemes, promising increasingly grandiose guaranteed rates of return on people's "investments." 10%, 50%, 100%, 800%, sky was the limit. People put their money in, and then the numbers just kept getting bigger, so they'd talk everybody else into doing this. After all, this was perfectly legal, since the political system had never dealt with any of it. It's not illegal and it seems to work, so that must mean it's fine, right? Number printer apparently went brrr, and it went on for years, so even early skeptics got suckered in too.
The schemes went on for seven years, and eventually two thirds of the entire national population were "invested" in these pyramid schemes, and half the nominal GDP was locked up in them. At this point, having run out of suckers (the way all pyramid/Ponzi/etc schemes end), the whole thing was starting to come apart, so the mobsters etc. in charge cut and ran with all the money. All the half the GDP of the country. The entire nation of Albania was instantly made destitute. The government essentially collapsed, and though what occurred next is called a civil war, it's more like total lawlessness. Thousands dead, a refugee crisis, and the effects of the Albanian civil war ended up help set off the even worse conflict in Kosovo a year later.
I wrote about it in the cryptocurrency thread originally since it's there's a frightening analogy to what's happening now. No value is being created. Numbers are apparently going up, so more and more people are getting sucked in, including the country of El Salvador. It will eventually, though it might take years, come down. The longer it takes, and the more people that get drawn in, the worse it will be.
The modern image of Lincoln is of a solemn, serious, even dour man, but sometimes I get an image of an eccentric, almost rockstar personality. Like apparently he was really good at wrestling. A tall, fit, handsome Lincoln would be on magazine covers and stuff nowadays, I figure.
You can say many things about Lincoln, but handsome is not one of them.
P.S: At best he's "A slightly uglier Bill Nye"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
A bean pole!
?
My favorite story, well corroborated, is that another politician challenged him to a duel, and Lincoln chose the weapons. He chose broadswords.
The other guy decided not to fight after he saw Lincoln use the sword to chop a branch off a tree.
https://presidentlincoln.illinois.gov/Blog/Posts/141/Abraham-Lincoln/2021/8/Lincolns-avoided-duel/blog-post/
I’m guessing this was quite large for the time before we had the wealth to inject extra flavor into every bit of food and food-like compound
So, ‘slightly uglier bill nye’ isn’t that far off
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
If only I knew the brand of whiskey he drank for I would give a bottle to all my generals. The man (Grant) has the propensity to win battles.
"NOW YOU FUCKED UP! NOW YOU FUCKED UP! NOW YOU FUCKED UP! ...YOU HAVE FUCKED UP NOW!"
Closer to the mark than you may even have intended; what we would now call shoot wrestling was popular in Lincoln’s era, both as athletic competition and as popular entertainment and he was by all accounts a tough wrestler.
Then as now trash talk was a prominent part of the event, and he was good at that too:
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
Persepolis Reimagined. Getty Villa Museum has made a computermodel of the government palace at Persepolis, along with images/descriptions of some notable archeological finds.
Note: Not mobile-friendly.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Yeah he lost thousands of men to tropical diseases trying to reconquer a republic of former slaves; worse than nothing 😬
It wasn't even strictly economic - from the Caribbean you could base naval forces that could control access to the rest of Americas. It doesn't matter if you don't have the maple groves (or whatever) if you can just steal the refined good in transport.
From that viewpoint the exports of things like coffee, cocoa and sugar were a lot more attractive as their prices justified the shipping costs and allowed for a more intensive exploitation.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Plus, Napoleon probably figured he could just take it all back later when he was Emperor.
There was definitely a few attempts, mostly of the diplomatic variety, until King Charles X graciously granted their independence (and removed the fleet of warships he'd sent to bring this offer and/or blockade the island) in exchange for 150 Million Francs which basically handicapped the Haitian economy ever since.
But his experience in Haiti also served to convince him that most colonies couldn't be held in the long term, which led to stuff like the Louisiana Purchase. He knew the US wanted to move west, and he didn't have the military to hold a bunch of sparsely populated land, and it wasn't worth the expense even if he did. So he sold it, which not only settled tensions with the US, but invested the US in recognizing Napoleon's legitimacy as Emperor. Britain meanwhile was insisting he had no right to sell sovereign French land, both because they considered him illegitimate and also cuz they wanted a slice of that pie for themselves if they ever beat him. So it splits American interests away from British interests, and by 1812 it turns into America's at war with France's enemy.
https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/sammy-b-roberts-wreck-victor-vescovo/index.html
It was a destroyer escort weighing barely 1300 tons. Everything about the battle and the ships role in it are incredible. In the span of an hour and twenty minutes it sank or helped sink two heavy cruisers, ships ten times its size, and was only finally taken out of action when it came under fire simultaneously from another heavy cruiser and three battleships including the Yamato, the largest battleship ever constructed.
120 of the 210 member crew managed to survive, with the last survivor passing away in March of this year.