#Eisenhower State Park

[beaujuniperbooks]

An Ode to Texas State Parks

In Texas state parks, Where the wildflowers bloom, And the rivers flow, Nature's beauty consumes.

From the desert plains, To the lush green hills, The echoes of time, And the peace it instills.

[redmyeyes]

Fellow Travelers Timeline

(as comprehensive as i can make it. corrections/additions welcome)

1919-20 (?) - Hawk is born

based on tennis trophy which shows year 1936, and hawk's statement that he and kenny were on the tennis team in 11th grade (16/17 years old).

also date on the paperweight (1937) that hawk says kenny picked out on their senior trip. spring or fall though? if spring (usual for a senior trip, just before graduation), it would mean hawk graduated HS in 1937, b. 1919. (thanks, @lestatscunt!)

June 6, 1930 - Tim is born, on Staten Island, NY

birthdate/place shown on army application in ep 5

Gemini, with moon in Libra

>>> With a Gemini Sun Libra Moon, emotional equilibrium is hard for you to maintain in a world of constant flux and tension. Since you are not responsible for the woes and upsets of those around you, you should not feel so duty-bound to assuage their wounds or mediate every conflict that happens to come your way.

>>> your natural diplomacy, extraordinary perception and insight can all be applied creatively in such fields as politics, social work, and the mass media.

>>> your extreme open-mindedness would probably enable you to almost any life-style. You have a universal quality about you that transcends culture, religion, ideology, or any other barrier that divides mankind.

Fall 1937 - Spring 1941 - Hawk attends "Penn", presumably the University of Pennsylvania. (assuming hawk b. 1919)

(this is very very long, the rest is under the cut)

December 7, 1941 - bombing of Pearl Harbor, US enters WWII

??? - Hawk joins the army (along with Kenny), and is sent to Europe.

January 9 – August 15, 1945 - Battle of Luzon, where Kenny dies.

September 2, 1945 - Japan surrenders, US exits WWII

February, 1949 - Hawk starts working at the State Department

Hawk says in 1x04 (Dec 1953) that he's been working at the State Dept for "four years and ten months".

"I came out of the war with four assets: degree from Penn, a hero's war record, no particular political ideology, and a passing acquaintance with three languages. Throw in a talent for prevaricating and a taste for travel and fine clothes, you have the makings of a competent, mid-level Foreign Service bureaucrat."

Fall 1948 - Spring 1952 - Tim attends Fordham University, graduating with a degree in political science and history.

1951 - Hawk starts work for the Bureau of Congressional Relations

Tim mentions Hawk's been working there for two years during their meeting on the bench.

1952 - Tim works "the New York campaign" (presumably for Eisenhower).

1952/3? - Tim interns for three months at the Star, in the mailroom.

November 4, 1952 - Election Night, Eisenhower (R) wins the presidency. Tim/Hawk first meet and are instantly smitten. (ep 1)

February 16, 1953 to March 10, 1954 - McCarthy Hearings, part 1.

The first consisted of a series of hearings conducted by McCarthy, as the subcommittee’s chairman, throughout 1953 and early 1954 in which McCarthy alleged Communist influence within the press and the federal government, including the State Department, the U.S. Army, and the Government Printing Office.

March 5, 1953 - Stalin dies.

Late March, 1953 - Hawk/Tim second meeting

After Hawk meets Tim at the park bench, he attends a hearing where Marcus says Cohn has brought David Schine on, and then later at their lunch Senator Smith says, "McCarthy is sending Cohn and his sidekick to Europe..." This article, dated April 19, says that Cohn and Schine have been in Europe for two weeks.

Hawk mentions that it's near the end of the month, police need to make their quotas.

April 27, 1953 - Executive Order 10450 signed. Hawk goes to Tim's apartment and tells him about Kenny. (ep 1)

June 6, 1953 - Tim's 23rd birthday (Hawk 'misses' it because they weren't talking for 4 weeks. belated celebration in ep 3.)

June 15, 1953 (?) - date of the newspaper Tim is reading just before he goes to visit Hawk in ep 2, where Hawk makes him write the letter to Mary. I'm choosing to believe this is a mistake on the show's part, because this would mean that Hawk has already missed Tim's birthday.

June 19, 1953 - Julius and Ethel Rosenberg's execution. Hawk comforts Lucy about this at the end of ep 2. So, likely Hawk and Tim had their big fight very shortly before Tim's birthday, and weren't talking from end of May - end of June.

End of June, 1953 - at the end of ep 2, Tim says it's been 4 months since his last confession, making his last (proper) confession the end of Feb or beginning of March. (ie, before he meets Hawk again).

End of June or beginning of July, 1953 - weekend trip to Rehoboth Beach (ep 3)

November 1953 - G. David Schine drafted into the army (ep 3)

Christmas 1953 (ep 4)

March 16 to June 17, 1954 - Army-McCarthy Hearings (part 2) (ep 5)

The second phase involved the subcommittee's investigation of McCarthy’s attacks on the U.S. Army. Known as the “Army-McCarthy hearings,” they were broadcast on national television and they contributed to McCarthy’s declining national popularity. Five months later, on December 2, 1954, the Senate censured McCarthy.

June 6, 1954 - Tim's 24th birthday

June, 1954? - Tim/Hawk break up, Hawk proposes to Lucy (ep 5)

I believe this happens at the tail-end of the Army-McCarthy hearings, so before June 17th.

Fall, 1954 - Sen. Smith's funeral

based solely on fall foliage in this screenshot:

Late Nov / Early Dec, 1954 - Tim enlists in the army

based on army application: birthdate 6/6/30, age: 24 years, 6 months

Late Nov / Early Dec, 1954 - Hawk/Tim last meeting in the tower

based on the radio program Tim is listening to, which says, "Chief Counsel Roy Cohn has resigned from the committee. And Senator McCarthy, his approval ratings plummeting, faces censure or even expulsion from the Senate."

Tim leaves for Fort Dix, for training, but is later stationed at Fort Polk, in Vernon Parish, LA. (thanks, @jesterlesbian!)

December 2, 1954 - the Senate censures McCarthy.

Summer or Fall 1956? - Tim's letter (that lucy burns) (ep 6)

Flashbacks, for context:

"Since he's giving up his apartment, Hawk insists on having a lair in the woods." // "I'm surprised that he finally agreed."

Lucy lets contractor go. // "Give me a baby."

Hawk is reading the Bristol Daily Courier, a paper located in Bristol, PA, a town in Bucks County, outside Philadelphia. I can't find any info on the one headline I can read though ("Heath Carlson breaks arws deadlock, locals proud"), so can't date this properly.

Lucy cleaning out Hawk's apartment, finds paperweight, sees Tim drop off letter.

"I went into the Army to get away from you. I thought time and distance would help. But it hasn't." If Tim sends the letter in summer 1956, it's been a year and a half since he enlisted.

Biggest question here: did lucy ask for a baby before or after she read Tim's letter??? the flashbacks don't answer this definitively.

October, 1956? - Lucy becomes pregnant with Jackson (see note under April 1957)

October 23 – November 4, 1956 - Hungarian Revolution of 1956

October 23, 1956 - April 30, 1957 - Hungarian Refugee Crisis

November 8, 1956 - Operation Safe Haven commences

President Eisenhower declared that 5,000 Hungarians would be awarded visa numbers remaining under the 1953 Refugee Relief Act

Spring 1957? - Tim sends telegram. It looks like 05-??-???? to me, which doesn't really make sense if McCarthy died on May 2nd, but it's hard to make out. or maybe telegrams used the date format dd-mm-yyyy.

April 1957? - Tim/Hawk first meeting, Lucy at least 5 (or 6? or 7?) months pregnant

You should feel your baby's first movements, called "quickening," between weeks 16 and 25 of your pregnancy. If this is your first pregnancy, you may not feel your baby move until closer to 25 weeks. 

25 weeks ~= 6 months, and it still seems novel to her, so let's say she's approx. 6 months pregnant here.

May 2, 1957 - Joe McCarthy dies.

May 6, 1957 - McCarthy's funeral. Tim's first visit to Hawk's apartment (ep 8)

June 6, 1957 - Tim turns 27.

June or July, 1957 - Jackson born (based on dates above)

1958? - Kimberly is born. (estimated bc she looks the same age or older than Jackson, so assuming she's a year younger at most.)

August, 1965 - President Johnson signs a law making it a federal crime to destroy or mutilate [draft] cards. 

October 15, 1965 -David Miller publicly burns his draft card, becoming the first person to be prosecuted under that law and a symbol of the growing movement against the war.

May 17, 1968 - the Catonsville Nine took 378 draft files from the draft board office in Catonsville, Maryland and burned them in the parking lot. (inspo for Tim & co. thanks @brokendrums!)

November 1968 - ep 6. Hawk is 48-9, Tim is 38, Jackson is 11.

based on this newspaper screenshot when Hawk is talking to Marcus on the phone about Tim

November 1968 - May 1970 (earliest) - Tim in prison. (he says in ep 7 he was in prison for a year and a half. this assumes he went to prison right away, but it could have been several months later if he was awaiting trial/sentencing.)

1970? - After prison, Tim moves to San Francisco and gets his counseling degree.

Mid-late 1970s - Tim earns his C-SWCM qualifications, requiring:

A Bachelor’s degree in social work from a graduate program accredited by the Council on Social Work Education

Documentation of at least three (3) years and 4,500 hours of paid, supervised, post-BSW professional experience in an organization or agency that provides case management services

Current state BSW-level license or an ASWB BSW-level exam passing score.

nb. because Tim already had his bachelors (from Fordham, majoring in history), I could see him entering a much-accelerated BSW program, transfering a lot of credits from his previous degree. That would give him maybe 2 more years of university, plus the required 3 years of post-BSW work = 5 years minimum before he earns that business card.

February 4, 1977 - Fleetwood Mac's album Rumours is released, including the 1970s Tim/Hawk anthem, Go Your Own Way

October, 1978 - Jackson dies

November 27, 1978 - Harvey Milk assassinated

May 20-22, 1979 - Tim on Fire Island (ep 7). Hawk is 59 or 60, Tim is 48, about to turn 49.

May 22, 1979 - Harvey Milk's (posthumous) 49th birthday (celebrated in ep 7)

1986 - ep 8

how long was Hawk in San Francisco? Timelines for the events below may be fudged in the show, bc I doubt he was there for 5 months.

March, 1986 - Roy Cohn's 60 Minutes interview, which the gang watches in ep 4.

April 15, 1986 - US bombs Libya. in the first episode you can hear reference to this on the radio, before Hawk leaves for San Francisco. (thanks @aliceinhorrorland93!)

July 27, 1986 - In California, Gov. George Deukmejian vetoes a bill that would have defined AIDS as a physical handicap calling for entitlement to protection under the state's civil rights laws.

August 2, 1986 - Roy Cohn dies (ep 8)

Late 1986? - the fundraising gala that Tim crashes, shortly after Cohn's death.

September 1986 - The State Legislature has passed another bill [in addition to the one vetoed on July 27]. Mr. Deukmejian, a Republican running for re-election, has indicated that he will probably veto the bill. (nb, this is likely the bill that Tim & co want to pressure the governor to sign).

October 11, 1987 - AIDS memorial quilt first displayed (ep 8)

--

this was a collaborative effort! many thanks to @ishipallthings for many of these details, as well as @startagainbuttercup , @alorchik, @itsalinh and others in the FT discord!

[amarriageoftrueminds]

If The Howlies were real...

I've been thinking about Steve's time during the war, and wondering if anyone has any headcanons about, eg. where he was stationed, how exactly the Howling Commando mission planning went, etc?

In the comics, Steve isn't assigned to the 107 but to the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division (aka the ‘Big Red One’.)

They were part of D-Day landings, on Omaha Beach.

In deleted scenes / clips from the Smithsonian, it’s implied that Steve was also a part of D-Day: 

(That’s General Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander.)

(These landing craft 👆 were only used at D-Day. Although it’s possible this is propaganda footage of a rehearsal.)

If the Howlies had the same set up as the 26th, then Steve and the guys would’ve been stationed in Swanage, Dorset:

(Members of ‘A’ Company 26th Infantry Regiment US Army, billeted at Craigside in the High Street opposite Purbeck House Hotel, Swanage, around 1943 – 44.)

That’s 114 miles south west of Camp Griffiss in Bushy Park, Teddington, where General Eisenhower had his SHAEF HQ, starting from January 1944

(before that his HQ was at No.20 Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, in London -- aka ‘Little America’ or ‘Eisenhower Platz’ -- a couple of miles northwest of Churchill’s War Rooms, which inspired the underground bunker HQ seen in CATFA.)

Thousands of American troops, including the 26th Infantry, started arriving in Dorset in November 1943 -- which is also when Steve arrived in England after rescuing the 107!

While in Dorset, the US troops were largely engaged in rehearsing for Operation Overlord, aka D-Day. 

One such rehearsal was the disastrous Operation Smash, on the 18th April, 1944, which was a live-ammunition practice for beach landings at Normandy. (Disastrous because six men accidentally drowned when their Valentine semi-submersible tank... sank.)

Operation Smash was staged in Studland Bay (that’s 4.5 miles north of Swanage). Present to observe were: Winston Churchill, King George VI, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, and Acting Admiral Louis Mountbatten. They did so from ‘Fort Henry,’ a 90 foot long bunker (built and named by Canadian engineers in 1943 -- so it would’ve been there by the time Steve n’ Co got there -- and it’s still there today!) overlooking the bay. 

The US troops moved on from Swanage in late April 1944, and departed England entirely (from nearby places like Weymouth, Poole Quay, Portland Harbour, etc.) on 5th June 1944. D-Day was on the 6th.

In the deleted scene from Avengers, Steve is clearly shown crossing  the Ludendorff Bridge:

...But this is impossible!

Because that bridge (at Remagen) was only captured on the 7th of March 1945:

(9th Armored Division in Remagen, Germany, recorded 9th March, 1945).

...and Steve had already crashed the Valkyrie 6 days prior!

(So unless that bridge was captured earlier, possibly because of Steve n’ Co., that footage can’t be right! 

CATFA does have a habit of putting the US Army in places they had no business being yet at that time of the war -- i.e. showing the US Army right up at the North of Italy, when in reality the Nazis still held it. 

(In fact, Mussolini’s Nazi puppet republic, the Republic of Salò, was nicknamed after a lake in Brescia... which is 200-ish miles further south than the US Army are shown in November ‘43.)

So I guess it’s possible that Steve & Co really were in Remagen, Germany, and crossing the Ludendorff Bridge before March ‘45! 

Or (perhaps more likely) we’re supposed to read is as some generic bridge in Western Europe, captured on D-Day.

.

Where exactly the Hydra factories were (and thus most Howlie missions) is not categorically stated. However, what Steve says / taking rough guesses from the map we see in Krausberg...

...it looks like the Howlies would’ve had missions in: Italy, France, (then) Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Greece. 

(The script also mentions Belgium and Russia, which are neither shown on the map nor mentioned. However, there is a shot of them creeping through snowy forests, which looks very much like the Ardennes. That might put them in Belgium as part of the Battle of the Bulge -- which in turn gives us a date that could be the ‘difficult winter’ mentioned in the Smithsonian footage.)

If the Howlies were an active team from say 14th November 1943 -- 1st March 1945 (when Steve went down in the Valkyrie) 

That’s 473 days / or 1 year, 3 months, 15 days / or 15 months, 15 days.

If they had 9 missions total during that time...

6 Hydra factories around Europe

+ 1 winter mission to save over a 1000 men (as mentioned in Smithsonian; could be Battle of the Bulge? 🤔)

+ 1 D-Day mission (possibly including amphibious landings &/or bridge captures)

+ 1 Zola-capture mission, probably somewhere in the Alps. 

+ 1 Valkyrie mission makes 10.

...That would give them 52.5 days (less than two months) to both plan, travel in and out, and execute each mission. That seems like a pretty tight turnaround, especially if each factory was different enough to warrant a new/fresh plan. 

(One difficulty never mentioned because their raids are relegated to a montage: the fact that Hydra factories appear to be staffed by slave labour. Means the Howlies can’t just bust in guns blazing! Or, at least, I don’t think Steve would stand for it. They’d have to free the workers first, and hopefully they’d be workers both physically capable and willing to join in the fight.)

In the film, they are never shown being back in the UK between these missions,  right up until the last Valkyrie mission in 1945, and dialogue seems to suggest there hasn’t been any personal contact between them and the HQ staff in between. (It does seem a bit nuts to be shipping them out and back every time, rather than just keeping them on the continent. Also nuts to be planning their most important Valkyrie mission only the day before. But anyway...) 

In order to take part in D-Day, they had to have been back to England at least once, to receive those highly classified orders and to rehearse (can’t be discussing details of D-Day over radio!) 

Also, they couldn’t have been allowed to go haring off attacking Hydra bases any old where, because it might have been inconvenient for D-Day (ie. if the Nazis increased defenses in certain places just because Captain America had been sighted there recently.)

TPTB could have used the Howlies as a diversion, sending them on dummy missions designed to make the Nazis think D-Day is going to happen somewhere else. I think Greece and Italy would be a great way to convince the Nazis that an invasion will be coming from the south, not the north! They could even have used doubles of the Howlies to throw the Nazis off the scent, as part of the Ghost Army (they did this IRL with Bernard Montgomery!) 

Maybe the SSR would be advised to keep the Howlies’ real missions as far away from Normandy as possible, earlier on, and then the reverse right before D-Day? (ie. damage Hydra’s factories that are nearest to Normandy, close to D-Day, so that they can’t supply weapons and don’t have enough time to rebuild).

Other possibilities: 

If they were not stationed in the UK between missions, and weren’t with the US Army of occupation (because it hadn’t invaded that part yet) Steve & Co. might have been living undercover in Nazi-occupied territory in the run up to missions against local Hydra bases (in, eg. France and Poland. Chance for Frenchy to get his Maquis on!) Very dangerous, very nerve-wracking, very Inglourious Basterds of them. Also potentially very dangerous for the locals, too, since there would surely be reprisals against them after any successful anti-Hydra attack. 

IRL There was a concentration camp called Terezin in Czechoslovakia, near-ish where that one Hydra base is shown. (It’s the one that the Nazis famously filmed a propaganda movie in, after cleaning it up and deporting a bunch of people to Auschwitz to seemingly reduce overcrowded living conditions, to fool the visiting Red Cross.) So Steve and the Howlies might have gone off-mission to go and liberate that; could be that was a source of slave labour for the nearby Hydra factory. (From a character POV, Terezin was known for having a big artistic culture among the inmates, and surely Steve would feel empathy for those used in propaganda, having been made to do that himself.)

Logically speaking, I would’ve expected that last Hydra base to be in Holland or Denmark -- not Greece -- to complete the ring of bases formed around Germany. 🤔 Maybe even more likely to be Denmark, since the Tesseract (which kicked off the whole Hydra supremacy thing) was discovered in Tønsberg, SE Norway.

[fatehbaz]

the very Sacred Oak Flat is in danger of becoming an open pit copper mine. turning a sacred site into a 1000-ft pit. Apache Leap, ancient petroglyphs, extremely important rituals since time began; these things are Oak Flat. the federal government is ignoring many legal protections as well, including 200 yr old treaty promising to protect the land forever, national park designation, and on the national register of historic places. this project is so, so evil. I want people to know about it. Please read, talk, care about it.

Nice, thank you. The impending destruction of Chi'chil Bildagoteel by the US government and one of the planet's most infamous mining companies.

Over the past 3 years, I’ve written here about defense of Oak Flat, also called Chi'chil Bildagoteel by Chiricahua Apache from San Carlos reservation. (A summary of the site’s importance and history. A summary of the legal challenges to the mine. A summary of Apache Stronghold and other Indigenous-led campaigns. A photo collection featuring Indigenous-led actions in February 2021.) But all of these posts predate the developments that have occurred from the beginning of 2022 until now (March 2023). And the legal case, the fate of the site, is about to be settled this very month.

Well, then, there’s Rio Tinto, the copper mining leviathan, despised across the planet, bane of Australia, so-called Rhodesia, Latin America, Papua, etc. They're the second-largest metals/mining company on the planet. For well over a century, open-pit copper mines have been infamous for the scale of their destruction and I like how you describe it: giant pits, gaping wounds. Oak Flat is destined to belong to Resolution Copper, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto. Just before widespread news of Rio Tinto’s interest in Oak Flat, Rio Tinto had earned an especially-notorious reputation for destroying Indigenous/Aboriginal sites in Australia. A summary of the news about the “atrocity” at Juukan Gorge, when in May 2020, Rio Tinto destroyed an important sacred cultural site containing Indigenous shelters over 45,000 years old, and Rio Tinto leaders apparently had foreknowledge of the area’s cultural importance. Here’s a look at what is perhaps the oldest surviving human art on the planet, some petroglyphs and shelters up to 50,000 years old, being destroyed by the truly astonishing scale and diversity of destructive mining operations in Western Australia. And here’s a look at many other ancient and modern Indigenous sacred sites being destroyed by mining in that region.

Sacred Land Film Project put together some informational graphics:

Anyway, a basic summary.

Originally, this mine was kinda known as, like, “the John McCain Land-Grab Deal” because Senator McCain sold out the state of Arizona and Indigenous people by basically promising a formal transfer of land and the creation of what would become a major mining site at Oak Flat. Mining in the Oak Flat area was technically prohibited decades earlier by an Eisenhower presidential/executive order, but in December 2014, McCain sneaked a hidden last-minute rider onto a must-pass defense spending bill.

In May 2020, Rio Tinto gets caught destroying those sites at Juukan Gorge.

So, in October 2020, Indigenous activists discovered that the supposed date of the land transfer finalization had been quietly and suddenly moved up like a full year, meaning that the site might have become a mine beginning in December 2020 or January 2021.

At this point, the Oak Flat mine was becoming known as, like, “Trump’s Rushed/Hurried Mining Deal,” since the Trump presidential administration seemed to want to quickly act on the mine before any potential presidential transfer of power might occur in January 2021, “just in case” they lost the November 2020 election.

So this is when Apache Stronghold and other Native advocates really started finally getting national recognition in headlines. They organized a Day of Action and statewide events around the Solstice in 2020, and by January 2021, they had forced the case into court.

In the January 2021 case of Apache Stronghold v. United States, an Arizona judge ruled against Native advocates, but advocates got the case heard by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. While the case was being argued, in February 2021, Apache Stronghold also participated in a newsworthy relay from Oak Flat to the courthouse in Phoenix, when Native advocates held a candlelight vigil.

But in March 2021, the US Forest Service announced that it was temporarily withdrawing its environmental impact assessments for the land transfer, putting the mine on hold.

In October 2021, the three judges on the appeals court ruled against Apache Stronghold again.

Over a year later, in November 2022, the court then announced something unusual: The court was willing to rehear the case en blanc (before a panel of all 11 judges).

And now, “Biden’s attorneys” will be arguing against Apache Stronghold and for the land transfer.

Throughout this entire process, Apache Stronghold has consistently been vocal, active, and dedicated to stopping it.

Here are some headlines from the past couple of years:

And from March 2023, this headline, one more time, for impact:

So, beginning on 21 March 2023, the case is being heard, again, for what is presumably the final time, with US government attorneys arguing that the land will belong to the mining companies by summer 2023.

[zvaigzdelasas]

[VoA is US State Media]

26 Nov 23

The US military said two ballistic missiles were fired near the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Mason after the seizure of a tanker off the coast of Yemen.

“Two ballistic missiles were fired from Houthi controlled areas in Yemen towards the general location of the USS Mason and the Central Park. The missiles landed in the Gulf of Aden approximately 10 nautical miles (18.5km) from the ships,” US Central Command said on social media platform X.

It said the USS Mason, which is part of the Dwight D Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group, was concluding its response to the Central Park distress call.

27 Nov 23

[usafphantom2]

Aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford will return from mission in defense of Israel

The largest aircraft carrier in the United States returns from the Mediterranean Sea, where it has been parked for almost three months.

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 03/01/2024 - 08:27in Military, War Zones

The U.S. Navy has determined that its largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), will return home after a nearly three-month mission to defend Israel in the Middle East.

The USS Gerald Ford has been stationed at a close distance of Israel's attack in the Mediterranean Sea since October, in an effort to prevent the country's war against Hamas from turning into a regional conflict. However, the U.S. Navy states that the ship will begin its journey back home "in the next few days" and will be replaced by the USS Bataan - an amphibious assault ship named after a battle fought in the Philippines during World War II.

The USS Gerald R. Ford is one of the largest aircraft carriers in the world and the latest and most advanced aircraft carrier in the United States. He was already in the Mediterranean - involved in naval exercises with Italy - before receiving orders to provide support to Israel's Defense Forces after the October 7 terrorist attacks perpetrated by Hamas.

“Immediately after Hamas' brutal attack on Israel, the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group was ordered to go to the eastern Mediterranean to contribute to our regional deterrence and defense posture,” the U.S. Navy said in a statement.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin extended Ford's detachment three times in the hope that his presence would dissuade Iran and groups aligned with Iran, especially Hezbollah from Lebanon, from attacking Israel.

The ship, which carried about 5,000 sailors and more than 100 warplanes in eight squadrons, is now returning to its naval base in Virginia. However, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower will remain in the Red Sea to face the recent attacks on commercial ships perpetrated by Yemen's Houthi rebels.

“The DoD (Department of Defense) will continue to leverage its posture of collective force in the region to dissuade any state or non-state actor from escalating this crisis beyond Gaza,” the Navy said.

At the end of October, a U.S. Navy warship located in the northern Red Sea shot down three cruise missiles along with a batch of drones that were launched from Yemen and appeared to target Israel, the Pentagon said.

Tags: Military Aviationaircraft carrierUSN - United States Navy/U.S. NavyWar Zones - Middle East

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Fernando Valduga

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has works published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. He uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.

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[allycat75]

Important events that actually took place on September 9th and were in no way a figment of a sad, delusional man and his advisors' imagination in order to continue a nefarious and daft lie.

1543- Mary Stuart, at 9 months old, is crowned Queen of Scots

1675- New England colonies declare war on Wampanoag Indians

1753- 1st steam engine arrives in North American colonies

1776- Congress officially renames the country as the United States of America (from the United Colonies)

1817- Alexander Twilight, probably first African American to graduate from a US college, receives BA degree at Middlebury College

1836- Ralph Waldo Emerson publishes his influential essay "Nature" in the US, outlining his beliefs in transcendentalism

1850- California becomes a state

1880- President Rutherford B. Hayes visits San Francisco

1888- Easter Island / Rapa Nui in the Pacific is annexed by Chile

1892- Edward Emerson Barnard at Lick Observatory discovers Amalthea, Jupiter's 5th moon

1904- Boston Herald again refers to NY baseball club as Yankees, when it reports "Yankees take 2," Yankee name not official till 1913

1908- Orville Wright makes 1st 1-hr airplane flight, Fort Myer, Virginia

1908- Russia annexes part of Poland

1911- 1st European post delivered by air (Hendon to Windsor, England)

1921- Guatemala, Honduras and San Salvador agree to Central American Union

1922- Turkish troops take the Greek-held Anatolian city of Smyrna during the Greco-Turkish War

1926- National Broadcasting Company created by Radio Corporation of America

1936- New York Yankees beat Cleveland Indians, 12-9 at League Park to clinch AL pennant on the earliest date in history

1939- Nazi army reaches Warsaw

1942- Compulsory work for women, children and old males in Batavia

1944- Allied forces liberate Luxembourg

1945- 1st "bug" in a computer program discovered by Grace Hopper, a moth was removed with tweezers from a relay & taped into the log

1950- 1st use of TV laugh track by "The Hank McCune Show" in the US

1951- 1st broadcast of soap opera "Love of Life" on CBS-TV

1955- Don Zimmer, hits 4,000th Dodger home run

1956- Elvis Presley appears on "The Ed Sullivan Show" for the 1st time

1957- US President Eisenhower signs 1st civil rights bill since Reconstruction

1960- Pakistan ends India's run of 6 consecutive Olympic field hockey gold medals with a 1-0 win over their sub-continent rivals at the Rome Games

1963- Alabama Governor George Wallace served a federal injunction to stop orders of state police to bar black students from enrolling in white schools

1965- LA Dodgers future Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax throws his 4th career no-hitter and first perfect game in a 1-0 win over the Chicago Cubs at Dodger Stadium

1966- The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act signed into law by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, 1st federal safety standards for vehicles and roads

1967- 1st successful Test flight of a Saturn V

1969- The Official Languages Act comes into force in Canada - making English and French the country's official languages (replaced 1988 by new Official Languages Act)

1971- Apple Records releases John Lennon's second solo studio album, "Imagine" in US; it tops the charts in US, UK, Australia, and 3 other countries

1972- West German equestrian rider Liselott Linsenhoff follows her dressage teams gold in Mexico City with the individual dressage title at her home Olympics in Munich

1975- Paul McCartney & Wings begin their "Wings Over The World" tour in Southampton, England; 65 concerts in Europe, Australia, Canada, and United States, runs through October of 1976

1978- Ayatollah Khomeini calls for an uprising in the Iranian army

1979- 31st Emmy Awards: "Taxi"; "Lou Grant"; Ron Leibman & Ruth Gordon win

1983- Radio Shack announces their color computer 2 (Coco2)

1985- President Reagan orders sanctions against South Africa, targeting apartheid

1987- Larry Bird of the Celtics begins an NBA free throw streak of 59

1987- Gary Hart admits on "Nightline" to cheating on his wife

1990- George H. W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Helsinki & urge Iraq to leave Kuwait

1990- Liberia president Samuel K Doe is captured by Mr Johnson's forces

1991- Mike Tyson indicted for rape of Desiree Washington

1993- Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization exchange letters of mutual recognition

2010- A court in the Philippines orders Imelda Marcos to repay the government almost $280,000 for funds taken from the National Food Authority by Ferdinand Marcos in 1983

2012- Armenia wins the 40th FIDE Chess Olympiad

2015- Apple unveils the iPad Pro and iPhone 6S in San Francisco

2015- Queen Elizabeth II becomes Great Britain's longest-reigning monarch at 63 years and seven months, beating the previous record set by her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria

2017- Egyptian archaeologists announce the discovery of a 3,500-year-old tomb of a goldsmith and his family in Draa Abul-Naga, Egypt

2018- CBS chief Les Moonves departs the company after six more women make allegations of sexual abuse in "The New Yorker"

2019- Poet John Milton's own copy of Shakespeare's First Folio of 1623 has survived with his annotations according to scholar Jason Scott-Warren in Philadelphia library, could be world's most important modern literary discovery

2020- San Francisco Bay area blanketed by dark orange skies and smoke due to California wildfires

2021- Tom Brady becomes first player in NFL history to start 300 regular season games as he guides Tampa Bay Buccaneers to an opening day 31-29 win at home to Dallas Cowboys

ALL of these are more important than something that never happened on this day.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

November 26, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

NOV 27, 2023

A four-year-old dual Israeli-American citizen was among the 17 more hostages released by Hamas today. Israel released 39 Palestinian prisoners, all of whom were under 19 years old. Hamas has expressed interest in extending the truce; Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has echoed that interest so long as each day brings at least ten more hostages out of captivity. Officials from the U.S., Egypt, and Qatar continue to negotiate. 

In the Washington Post today, reporters Steve Hendrix and Hazem Balousha put on the table the idea that both Netanyahu and Hamas “may be on the way out.” Such a circumstance would permit changes to the current political stalemate in the region, perhaps bringing closer the two-state solution for which officials around the world, including U.S. president Joe Biden, continue to push. 

Israelis are furious that Netanyahu failed to prevent the October 7 attack, and seventy-five percent of them want him to resign or be replaced when the crisis ends. At the same time, Hendrix and Balousha write, Palestinians are angry enough at Gaza’s leadership to be willing to criticize Hamas.

Whether Hendrix and Balousha are right or wrong, it is significant that a U.S. newspaper is looking for a change of leadership in Israel as well as in Gaza. That sentiment echoes the statement of Netanyahu’s own mouthpiece, Israel Hayom, about a month ago. Begun by U.S. casino mogul Sheldon Adelson to promote Netanyahu’s ideas, the paper in early November said that Netanyahu should “lead us to victory and then go.” 

Meanwhile, Iran-backed Houthi forces from Yemen fired two ballistic missiles at a U.S. Navy destroyer, the USS Mason, this evening, missing it by about ten nautical miles (which are slightly longer than miles on land), or eighteen and a half kilometers. Earlier in the day, the USS Mason and Japanese allies rescued a commercial vessel, the Central Park, when it came under attack by five pirates in the Gulf of Aden near Somalia. The USS Mason captured and arrested the attackers as they fled. The USS Mason is part of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group deployed to the region. Attacks on shipping in the area have increased since the October 7 attack. Last week, Yemeni Houthis seized a cargo ship linked to Israel. 

As Congress prepares to get back to work after the Thanksgiving holiday, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today released a letter addressed to his colleagues outlining the work he intends to get done before the end of the year. He emphasized that he and the Democrats want bipartisan solutions and urged his colleagues to work with Republicans to isolate the Republican extremists whose demands have repeatedly derailed funding measures.

Top of Schumer’s list is funding the government. The continuing resolution that passed just before Thanksgiving extended funding deadlines to two future dates. The first of those is January 19, and Schumer noted that lawmakers had continued to work on those bills over the Thanksgiving holiday to make sure they pass.

Next on Schumer’s list is a bill to fund military aid to Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific region as well as humanitarian assistance for Palestinian civilians and money for U.S. border security, including funding for machines to detect illegal fentanyl and for more border agents and immigration courts. President Biden requested the supplemental aid package of about $105 billion back in October, but while the aid in it is popular among lawmakers, hard-right Republicans are insisting on tying aid for Ukraine to a replacement of the administration’s border policies with their own. Some are also suggesting that helping Ukraine is too expensive.

Schumer noted that U.S. aid to Ukraine is vital to its ability to continue to push back the Russian invasion, while Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has pointed out that money appropriated for Ukraine goes to the U.S. defense industry to build new equipment as older equipment that was close to the end of its useful life goes to Ukraine. 

Foreign affairs writer Tom Nichols of The Atlantic explains that foreign aid is normally about 1% of the U.S. budget—$60 billion—and 18 months of funding for both the military and humanitarian aid in Ukraine have been about $75 billion. Israel usually gets about $3 billion; the new bill would add about $14 billion to that. (For comparison, Nichols points out that Americans last year spent about $181 billion on snacks and $115 billion on beer.) 

Schumer reminded his colleagues that backing off from aid to Ukraine would serve the interests of Russian president Vladimir Putin; backing off from our engagement with the Indo-Pacific would serve the interests of China’s president Xi Jinping. 

“The decisions we will have to make in the coming weeks on the aid package could determine the trajectory of democracy and the resilience of the transatlantic alliance for a generation,” Schumer wrote. “Giving Putin and Xi what they want would be a terrible, terrible mistake, and one that would come back to haunt us…. We cannot let partisan politics get in the way of defending democracy….”

Schumer said he would bring the measure up as soon as the week of December 4.

Schumer’s letter came the day after the annual day of remembrance of the 1932–1933 Holodomor famine in Ukraine, when the Soviet Union under leader Joseph Stalin starved 3.5 to 5 million Ukrainians, seizing their grain and farms in an attempt to erase their national identity. 

In a statement in remembrance of Holodomor yesterday, President Biden drew a parallel between the Holodomor of the 1930s and Russia’s war against Ukraine today, noting that “Ukraine’s agricultural infrastructure is once more being deliberately targeted” as Russia is “deliberately damaging fields and destroying Ukraine’s grain storage facilities and ports.” (Even so, Ukraine has managed to deliver more than 170,000 tons of grain to Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Yemen in the past year.)

“On this anniversary, we remember and honor all those, both past and present, who have endured such hardship and who continue still to fight against tyranny,” Biden said. “We also recommit ourselves to preventing suffering, protecting fundamental freedoms, and responding to human rights abuses whenever and wherever they occur. We stand united with Ukraine.”

On the Ukrainian remembrance day of Holodomor, Russia launched 75 drones at Kyiv, its largest drone strike against Ukraine since the start of its invasion in February 2022.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[mariacallous]

2024 was only a few hours old when Iran dispatched a warship, the frigate Alborz, to the Red Sea. Its arrival was yet more bad news for shipping, already facing a crisis from the Iran-backed Houthi attacks on merchant vessels. The year’s first days have seen a slew of new Houthi attacks. Executives are having to decide whether to risk going through the Red Sea and the crucial Suez Canal or to take longer and more expensive routes—without knowing what Iran is planning and how the United States and its maritime allies will respond.

The Alborz’s arrival was a response to activities by Operation Prosperity Guardian, the U.S.-led effort to crack down on Houthi piracy. On New Year’s Eve, U.S. Navy helicopters serving onboard the aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower received a distress call from the Maersk Hangzhou, a Singapore-flagged container ship traversing the Red Sea. It was traveling through the inlet because its owner, the Danish shipping line Maersk, had decided that the launch of Prosperity Guardian had made it safe enough to do so.

Indeed, the U.S. Navy had already shot down Houthi missiles fired in the direction of the Maersk Hangzhou hours before. But the Houthis were persistent: They returned again, now in four small boats, fired shots at the container ship, and attempted to board and seize it. This time, the U.S. Navy responded by sinking three of the boats; 10 militiamen were killed. Maersk diverted its ships once again.

The Danish giant was not alone. Figures from Lloyd’s List Intelligence show that between Dec. 25 and 31, a daily average of 315 vessels sailed through the Red Sea. During the same period in 2022, the figure was 385 ships per day, and last November, the daily average was 386.

Within less than a day of the U.S. Navy’s sinking of the three Houthi boats, the Alborz sailed through the Gulf of Aden and parked itself in the Red Sea. The British-made Alborz is hardly the crowning glory of Iran’s navy: It turns 55 this year. In recent months, Iran has been expanding its navy; in 2022, it was reported to have added a combat patrol boat named after Qassem Suleimani, an Iranian general killed by a U.S. drone strike in 2020, that the Iranian navy said “evades detection” and can “carry out various operations in distant waters.” The navy has also added missile boats and upgraded several ships, as well as received “a variety of locally developed and produced military hardware, like the advanced radar-evading Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis cruiser and 100 fast-attack vessels,” the Tehran Times reported on Jan. 6. Concerningly, the navy says the new warship can “sail within a 2,000 nautical mile radius without being spotted by hostile radars and surveillance systems”—and its construction, in Iran, took only 15 months.

Despite the Alborz’s age, Tehran has used it in the past to escort Iranian merchant vessels suspected of transporting arms to the Houthis. The Alborz’s arrival is laden with meaning, and shipping executives are having to decide what, exactly, that meaning is. “The arrival of the Alborz is definitely a warning, and it’s an escalatory more,” said Neil Roberts, the secretary of the maritime insurance industry’s Joint War Committee. “But it’s not clear what her task is. She’s just sitting there.” Will the Alborz once again simply escort Iranian merchant vessels bringing weapons to the Houthis? Or will it intervene if the U.S. Navy or another Western force in the Red Sea responds to Houthi attacks?

“It’s unclear what the Iranians intend in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden,” said Simon Lockwood, a shipping executive with Willis Towers Watson, the insurance broker. “Is it to disrupt the U.S. coalition navies?” Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have long been attacking merchant vessels in the Strait of Hormuz (as chronicled by me in Foreign Policy and elsewhere), but the Strait of Hormuz is Iran’s home turf, while the Red Sea is on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula. On Jan. 5, Maersk diverted all its container ships from the Red Sea to the Cape of Good Hope route. The day after, the Houthis launched two more attacks.

It is, in fact, almost impossible to predict what the Alborz’s mission in the Red Sea is and whether it’ll be joined by more Iranian naval vessels—yet shipping executives are having to do exactly that. (Iran has also had an observation ship in the Red Sea for a long time.) “Just before countries launched Prosperity Guardian, shipowners were very close to launching mass diversions from the Red Sea,” Roberts noted. “Then you had Maersk deciding to reenter [the Red Sea], and now it has diverted again. In every shipping headquarters, executives are having conversations about whether to divert. They have to decide, ‘Will we be targeted? Will we not?’ But it’s not just a matter of the Houthis deciding to target your vessel. Anyone can be hit. These missiles are not particularly accurate.” It’s exactly the arbitrary nature of the attacks that’s spooking the shipping industry. Shipping lines and crews routinely handle severe weather because such weather can be predicted and follows a certain pattern. The Houthis’ designations of “Israeli-linked” vessels don’t.

There’s, of course, also the risk of additional Iranian fire. But there’s also the risk that Houthi missiles and other attacks will increase because with the Alborz—and possibly more Iranian vessels—in the Red Sea, it becomes too dangerous for the U.S. Navy and its Prosperity Guardian partners to respond to Houthi attacks. War risk premiums in the Red Sea have already reached headline rates of between 0.45 percent and 1 percent, far higher even than those in perilous ports such as Benghazi. In early December, headline rates for the Red Sea were still around 0.07 percent, which means that a vessel with a total value of, say, $10 million, can now pay an additional war risk premium of $100,000.

But shipping executives aren’t just in the dark about the Alborz’s mission and whether it’ll be joined by other Iranian navy vessels or keep lonely watch in the Red Sea—they’re also unsure about Prosperity Guardian’s objectives. “Is it purely defensive? Is it forward-leaning [set up to preemptively attack Houthi forces]? Is it there to create an escorting corridor?” Roberts asked. “The allies don’t seem to have consensus on a strategy yet. Once the industry has more clarity on what Prosperity Guardian will do, executives can make a clearer decision.” That decision, though, also depends on whether executives believe the mission can be effective—and what further steps Iran will take in response.

On Jan. 5, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, the head of the Houthis’ Supreme Revolutionary Committee, upped the ante, told the BBC that every country in the Red Sea coalition will see its ships targeted. How exactly that’s defined is up to the Houthis.

Iran’s intentions may, of course, morph depending on the course of the Israel-Hamas conflict. Tehran may decide that simply having the Alborz and perhaps other vessels in the Red Sea will sufficiently frighten Western shipping lines and rattle the Prosperity Guardian coalition. But where there’s a frigate in contested waters, there’s the risk of a dangerous clash. What would the U.S. Navy do if the Alborz, joined perhaps by more Iranian naval vessels, did come to the aid of Houthi boats under U.S. fire? No wonder the shipping industry predicts that vessels will face militia boardings and attacks using drones, anti-ship missiles, and water-borne improvised explosive devices—this month alone.

[gunlovingpacifist]

Now I have to block you because people on the right celebrate ignorance and Mooch of blue states. Them gunz ain't gonna feed your family......

I have posed this question a few times and never get a response

.... 🤔

Here is why I am a liberal...

Why are you a Republican?

The 40-hour work week, and thus, weekends!

Overtime pay and minimum wage.

Paid Vacations.

Women’s Voting Rights

The Civil Rights Act of 1964

The right of people of all colors to use schools and facilities.

Public schools.

Public libraries

Public transportation

Public universities

Public broadcasting

Public police and fire departments

Worker’s rights

Labor safety and fairness laws

*Nixon gave us the EPA

Child-labor laws.

The right to unionize

Health care benefits

National Parks, Monuments, and Forests, “America’s Best Idea”

Interstate Highway System (Eisenhower (R) and Al Gore Sr. (D)

Safe food and drugs (via the FDA)

Social Security

NASA

The Moon Landing and other space exploration

Satellites

The Office of Congressional Ethics.

The Internet

National Weather Service

Product Labeling/Truth in Advertising Laws

Rural Electrification/Tennessee Valley Authority

Bank Deposit Insurance

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Consumer Product Safety Commission

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Rights of the disabled (via Americans With Disabilities Act)

Family and Medical Leave Act

Clean air and water (Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, the Environmental Protection Agency).

Civilian Conservation Corps

Panama Canal

Hoover Dam

The Federal Reserve

Medicare/Medicaid

The United States Military

The FBI

The CIA

Peace between Israel and Egypt

Peace between Israel and Jordan

Veterans Medical Care

Federal Housing Administration

Extending Voting Rights to 18 year olds

Freedom of Speech

Freedom of Religion/Separation of Church and State

Right to Due Process

Freedom of The Press

Right to Organize and Protest

Pell Grants and other financial aid to students

Federal Aviation Administration/Airline safety regulations

The end of slavery in the USA (The Emancipation Proclamation, The 13th Amendment)

Unemployment benefits

Smithsonian Institute

Americorps

Mandatory Food Labeling

Peace Corps

United Nations

World Health Organization

The Lincoln Tunnel

Sulfur emissions cap and trade to eliminate acid rain

Earned Income Tax Credit

The banning of lead in consumer products

National Institute of Health

Garbage pickup/clean streets

Banning of CFCs.

LGBT rights

Expanded voting access via polling places

Erie Canal

Bailout — and thus continued existence — of the American Auto Industry

Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

Established the basis for Universal Human Rights by writing the Declaration of Independence

Miranda Rights

Banning of torture

The right to a proper defense in court

An independent judiciary

The right to vote

Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act

Fair, open, and honest elections

The founding of The United States of America

The defeat of the Nazis and victory in World War II

Paramedics

Woman’s Right to Choose

The Civil Rights Movement

National Science Foundation

Vehicle Safety Standards

NATO

The income tax and power to tax in general, which have been used to pay for much of this list.

911 Emergency system

Tsunami, hurricane, tornado, and earthquake warning systems

The Freedom of Information Act

Water Treatment Centers and sewage systems

The Meat Inspection Act

The Pure Food And Drug Act

The Bretton Woods system

International Monetary Fund

SEC, which regulates Wall Street (weaked by conservatives)

National Endowment for the Arts

Campaign finance laws (weaked by conservatives)

Federal Crop Insurance

United States Housing Authority

School Lunch Act

Mental Retardation Facilities and Community Mental Health Centers Construction Act

Vaccination Assistance Act

The creation of counterinsurgency forces such as the Navy Seals and Green Berets.

Voting Rights Act, which ended poll taxes, literacy tests, and other voter qualification tests (weaked by conservatives)

The Brady Bill (5-day wait on handgun purchases for background checks)

Lobbying Disclosure Act

"Motor-Voter" Act

Civil Rights Act of 1968

Job Corps

Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965

Teacher Corps

Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966

National Trails System Act of 1968

U.S. Postal Service

Modern Civilization

BIDEN WINS:

• Inflation Reduction Act

• CHIPS & Science Act

• PACT Act for veterans

• First major gun safety legislation in decades

• Took out the leader of al Qaeda

• Historic job growth (+12.8 million)

• Historically low unemployment

• Expanded the NATO alliance

• American Rescue Plan led to fastest jobs recovery in history

• Confirmation of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson

• Rallied our allies in support of Ukraine

•Once-in-a-generation infrastructure investments

• Student loan forgiveness

• Rural broadband investment

In not a republican. I lean right on one issue. The second amendment. Why's that hard for leftists to comprehend

[richardnixonlibrary]

#Nixon50 #OTD 4/21/1973 As part of the Legacy of Parks program, Julie Nixon Eisenhower represented the President at the land transfer ceremony at the site of the former Veterans Administration hospital in Coral Gables, Florida. The hospital was built in the 1920s as the Miami-Biltmore Hotel and Country Club before being turned over to the government in 1943 for use as a United States Army hospital. In 1947, it became a VA hospital that operated until 1968. Five years later, the land was transferred to the City of Coral Gables. (Image: WHPO-E0697-03 & 23)

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 9.8 (after 1960)

1960 – In Huntsville, Alabama, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally dedicates the Marshall Space Flight Center (NASA had already activated the facility on July 1). 1962 – Last run of the famous Pines Express over the Somerset and Dorset Railway line (UK) fittingly using the last steam locomotive built by British Railways, BR Standard Class 9F 92220 Evening Star. 1966 – The landmark American science fiction television series Star Trek premieres with its first-aired episode, "The Man Trap". 1970 – Trans International Airlines Flight 863 crashes during takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, killing all 11 aboard. 1971 – In Washington, D.C., the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is inaugurated, with the opening feature being the premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Mass. 1973 – World Airways Flight 802 crashes into Mount Dutton in King Cove, Alaska, killing six people. 1974 – Watergate scandal: US President Gerald Ford signs the pardon of Richard Nixon for any crimes Nixon may have committed while in office. 1975 – Gays in the military: US Air Force Tech Sergeant Leonard Matlovich, a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War, appears in his Air Force uniform on the cover of Time magazine with the headline "I Am A Homosexual". He is given a general discharge, later upgraded to honorable. 1978 – Black Friday, a massacre by soldiers against protesters in Tehran, results in 88 deaths, it marks the beginning of the end of the monarchy in Iran. 1986 – Nicholas Daniloff, a correspondent for U.S. News & World Report, is indicted on charges of espionage by the Soviet Union. 1988 – Yellowstone National Park is closed for the first time in U.S. history due to ongoing fires. 1989 – Partnair Flight 394 dives into the North Sea, killing 55 people. The investigation showed that the tail of the plane vibrated loose in flight due to sub-standard connecting bolts that had been fraudulently sold as aircraft-grade. 1994 – USAir Flight 427, on approach to Pittsburgh International Airport, suddenly crashes in clear weather killing all 132 aboard, resulting in the most extensive aviation investigation in world history and altering manufacturing practices in the industry. 2000 – NASA launches Space Shuttle Atlantis on STS-106 to resupply the International Space Station. 2004 – NASA's uncrewed spacecraft Genesis crash-lands when its parachute fails to open. 2005 – Two Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft from EMERCOM land at a disaster aid staging area at Little Rock Air Force Base; the first time Russia has flown such a mission to North America. 2016 – NASA launches OSIRIS-REx, its first asteroid sample return mission. The probe will visit 101955 Bennu and is expected to return with samples in 2023. 2017 – Syrian civil war: The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announce the beginning of the Deir ez-Zor campaign, with the stated aim of eliminating the Islamic State (IS) from all areas north and east of the Euphrates. 2022 – Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom dies at Balmoral Castle in Scotland after reigning for 70 years. Her son Charles, Prince of Wales, ascends the throne upon her death as Charles III. 2023 – A magnitude 6.9 earthquake strikes Morocco, killing nearly 3,000 people and damaging historic sites in Marrakesh.

[ritchiepage2001newaccount]

The war over slavery began in Kansas in 1855, and was fought for six years, between independent civilian militias before government forces got involved in 1861, and began with armed poll watchers from Missouri and Texas.

Right now, the same folks who are sending Trumplicans to the Texas-Mexico border are organizing armed poll watchers in swing states.

Given all of the armed confrontations between right-wing groups and federal agents, over the last couple of decades, some would say the process has already begun.

LATEST EPISODE IN TRUMP'S 'HOLY' WAR - Thomas Matthew Crooks is registered to vote as a Republican in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, according to county voter records

Trump rally shooter Thomas Crooks identified: What we know...

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[thelastpresidentprincejosephius]

-College is DEMOCRACY

- Aph-letic

-Director & Produce isnt Amature

Fraternity: Pasific

ks104

Merv Griffin/ Dick Clarke / Paul Harvey/ Rod Serling/ Lorne Greene/

Film Companies United States of Americian

-Merchant Ivory

-Lighthouse Film Studio

-20th Century Studios

-Focus Features

-AMC

-Blue Line Cinema

-Castle Rock Entertainment

- The Samuel Goldwyn Company

-SYFY

-Haunted Summer

-James Bond: You Only Live Twice

Pizza Hut

Taco Bell

T.G.I.Friday

Wendy's

-Earth Girls are Easy: Smashing Pumpkins

-Journey to the West

-The Grandmaster

Zach Parise, Sidney Crosby

Kate Moss sister of Brandon Moss

Parker Poseiy sister of Buster Posiey

Daria sister of Jake Lang

Eric Clapton

Michael Bolton

kenny loggins married brenda k starr

William Shakespeare Isaac Bashevis Singer

and wife Lauren Bacall

Some Kind of Wonderful (2 daughters) Bridget Fonda, Lea Thompson

Sister Molley Ringwalnd & Murray Gell-Mann

Christopher Reeves, Robert Palmer, Melissa Benoist

-#1 Were

Wear

Where the Boys are

-#2)A Separate Peace

-#3)Flirt

-#4) Tower Inferno

-#5) Starship Trooper & Super Trooper

-Elvira Mistress of the Night

-Kiss of the Damned

-The Monsters

-House Party series

Mary Shelley,

Queen Margot

Percy Byshe Shelley,

A Royal Affair

Lord Byron,

Barry Lyndon

Alexandre Dumas,

Iron Mask

Voltaire

Cantorbury Ghost

Emelia Brontë married Dwight Eisenhower

family and the president after George Washington (2 Sons) Thomas Jefferson Emelia had son with Paul Andrew (Dad) Zachary Taylor (Son)

Charlotte Brontë,

Sound of Thunder

Jane Austen,

Hammer of God

George Eliot

married

Robert Frost

An Ideal Husband 43

The Browning Version

Jack London

Sea Wolves

Robert A. Heinlein

Franz Kafka Washington brother of George Washington

-Event Horizon Series

-Time and Stars

-Sabeina

-Kiki Delivery Services

-Perfect Blue

-Chinese Christmas Ghost Story

-Seven

-The House of Mirth

-Gosford Park

-Emma

-Mansfield Park

-A Room with a View

-Worlds Collide

-Kafka film

-Fight Club

-Donnie Darko

Stephen King

-Christine 

-Sleepwalker

-The Shining

-A Return to Salem's Lot

-inkheart

-Near Dark

-The Rocketeer

it wasn't Soap it IS Tara Reids family

-Mom Tara Reid of the tv show Chears,

-Dad Bob Uecker,

(4Sons)Daniel Bakula, Tom Everett, Zach Braff, Cary Elwes,

(1 Daughter)Diane Lane

Patty Duke Mother writer of Ted & Grace his mother Grace Allen

Ted Turner Four Sons

Harry Connick Jr.

2 Albums

-That Would Be Me

Chet Baker

Dizzy Gillespie

Hal Hartley

[zvaigzdelasas]

Radio of Free Asia, sometimes called Radio Free Asia, was an anti-Communist radio station created by the Korean Cultural and Freedom Foundation which broadcast from Seoul into North Korea, China, and Vietnam.[1][2][3] In a congressional hearing, General Coulter, then President of the Korean Cultural and Freedom Foundation, declared Radio of Free Asia the principal project of the foundation.[4] It operated from 1966 to early 1970s.

The Korean Cultural and Freedom Foundation (KFF) was first organized in Washington, D.C. in 1964 with the goal of "containing communism" in Asia.[1] The Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) put pressure on the KFF to support a project to broadcast anti-communist propaganda into nearby Asian communist states. The intention was to raise money for the project from the US. [5]

Radio of Free Asia (ROFA), as the radio station became known, began broadcasting from Seoul on 15 August 1966.[1][5] The first broadcast featured a taped message from Soong Mei-ling [wife of Chiang Kai-Shek].[3]

ROFA formally had an American chief but it's two directors of operations were KCIA operatives who worked under Kim Jong-Pil. The station was given free access to South Korean government facilities with broadcasts monitored by the KCIA's psychological warfare unit.[5] The US Justice Department later suggested the station was “acting under the direction of and control of the Korean Government”.[6]

Although mainly funded through private donations, it had the financial support of several elected officials before and after broadcasts began, including Senator Bob Dole and Presidents Truman and Eisenhower.[7] South Korean President Park Chung-Hee sent letters to 60,000 prominent Americans asking for contributions to the project.[6] Millions of dollars were raised for Radio of Free Asia through direct mail requests to American citizens, soliciting funds both by claiming they would finance the broadcasts and that they would aid starving children in Asia.[7]

In 1971, US government agencies, including the Justice Department, began investigating the station for alleged violation of the Foreign Agent Registration Act.[8][6] The broadcaster's status as a foreign private foundation was called into question due to the free air time provided by the South Korean government on its national network. Bo Hi Pak secured the services of former CIA Deputy Director of Intelligence Robert Amory Jr. for legal assistance to defend against these charges. At the time Amory was employed by the Thomas Corcoran law firm and was a legal counsellor to the CIA. The investigation was terminated in 1972 and soon after the station stopped broadcasting from Seoul.[6][8]

A newly disclosed Justice Department investigatior into organizations and persons connecter with the controversial Rev, Shn Myung Moon has raised the possibility that American citizens are illegally working on behalf of the South Korean Government.[...]

The Federal officials familiar with the inquiry were careful to assert that Mr. Moon himself and his Unification Church were not being investigated, because Constitutional questions of freedom of religion might be raised. Instead, the inquiry is focusing on organizations associated with the church.[...]

The Federal sources indicated that among the organizations under scrutiny were the Korean Cultural and Freedom Foundation, the Freedom Leadership Foundation, headed by Neil A. Salonen, the International Federation for Victory Over Communism, and the Little Angels of Korea, a children's singing group that tours overseas.[...]

This investigation is one element in broad inquiry that includes allegations that Park Tong Sun, a Korean businessman, and others bribed Congressmen and tried illegally to influence American policy. it also includes an investigation of whether officers of the K.C.1.A. coerced and violated the civil rights of Koreans living in America and Korean‐American citizens.

The South Korean Government, according to both Korean and American officials, has long been eager to improve the image of President Park Chung Hee and his administration. South Korea's economic development, and therefore some of its political stability, depends heavily on trade and financial help from the United States.[...]

Among the earliest missions with that objective was that of the Korean Cultural and Freedom Foundation, founded in 1964. Its head, Pak Bo Hi, joined it in early 1965, shortly after he resigned from the South Korean Arm”.[...]

Korean intelligence sources said that Mr. Pak is the K.C.1.A.'s channel to Mr. Moon, A Korean with access to K.C.I.A. reports said that “Pak Bo Hi is a very important man because he made Sun Myung Moon famous. It's all his idea.”

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Veterans and Memorials in Emporia, Kansas.

Emporia, Kansas, a small city in the heart of the Flint Hills, holds a significant place in American history, particularly concerning its dedication to veterans and the commemoration of their service. With a population just shy of 25,000, Emporia is a community that deeply values patriotism and remembrance, evidenced by its numerous memorials and its rich history of honoring those who served.

The Birthplace of Veterans Day

Emporia is notably recognized as the birthplace of Veterans Day. The origin of this national holiday is attributed to the efforts of Emporia resident Al King, a shoe store owner, and World War II veteran. King’s advocacy for a day to honor all veterans, rather than just those who served in World War I, led to the establishment of Veterans Day on November 11 each year. This change was officially recognized when President Dwight D. Eisenhower, also a Kansan, signed the Veterans Day bill into law in 1954.

Emporia's role in the creation of Veterans Day is celebrated annually with various events, including parades and ceremonies that draw visitors from across the nation. These events underscore the city’s ongoing commitment to honoring veterans from all branches of the military.

The All Veterans Memorial

One of the central points of Emporia's tribute to veterans is the All Veterans Memorial Park, located near the Lyon County Fairgrounds. This expansive park serves as a solemn and beautiful space dedicated to the memory of veterans from all wars and conflicts. The memorial includes several key features:

The Wall of Honor: This prominent structure lists the names of Lyon County residents who have served in the armed forces. The Wall of Honor ensures that the sacrifices of local veterans are not forgotten and offers a place for reflection and remembrance for families and friends.

The Flame of Freedom: Another significant monument within the park is the Flame of Freedom, a symbol of the enduring spirit and commitment of the United States military personnel. The eternal flame is a poignant reminder of the ongoing need to honor and remember the contributions of veterans.

The Purple Heart Monument: Dedicated to recipients of the Purple Heart, this monument pays special tribute to those who were wounded or killed in action. It serves as a stark reminder of the costs of war and the bravery of those who have been directly impacted by conflict.

The William Allen White Memorial

Another notable site in Emporia is the William Allen White Memorial, dedicated to the famed journalist and editor of the Emporia Gazette. Although not a veterans' memorial in the traditional sense, William Allen White’s work and writings often highlighted the importance of service and the sacrifices of soldiers. The memorial, located in Peter Pan Park, serves as a testament to White's legacy and his contributions to American thought, particularly his advocacy for democratic values and freedom, ideals closely tied to the sacrifices of veterans.

Emporia State University Veterans Tribute

Emporia State University (ESU) also plays a significant role in honoring veterans. The ESU Veterans Tribute, located on the university campus, includes a dedicated Veterans Hall of Honor. This hall recognizes and celebrates the achievements and sacrifices of ESU alumni who have served in the military. The tribute area provides a space for current students and visitors to reflect on the contributions of veterans and understand the profound impact of their service.

Annual Veterans Day Parade

The Veterans Day Parade in Emporia is one of the highlights of the year, drawing participants and spectators from across the region. The parade is a vibrant and emotional event, featuring marching bands, military vehicles, and veterans' groups. It serves as a powerful expression of community solidarity and gratitude towards those who have served. The parade often concludes with a ceremony at the All Veterans Memorial Park, where speeches, wreath-laying, and moments of silence offer further opportunities for reflection and appreciation.

The Emporia American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW)

Local organizations such as the American Legion Ball-McColm Post 5 and the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1980 play crucial roles in supporting veterans in Emporia. These organizations provide resources, camaraderie, and advocacy for veterans, ensuring their needs are met and their voices heard. They also participate actively in the planning and execution of Veterans Day events, memorial services, and other commemorations.

Conclusion

Emporia, Kansas, stands out as a community deeply committed to honoring its veterans. From the establishment of Veterans Day to the various memorials and annual events, the city provides numerous platforms for remembrance and appreciation. Emporia’s efforts highlight the importance of recognizing the sacrifices made by those who served and ensuring their legacy is remembered by future generations. Through its memorials, tributes, and community activities, Emporia exemplifies a profound respect for veterans, making it a significant landmark in the landscape of American patriotism and remembrance.