Today -100: December 21, 1914: Of firing squads and baby killers

Russia is plans to teach Russian to elementary school teachers in Galicia.

Headline of the Day -100:  “Firing Squads Busy.”  Mexico, where former supporters of Huerta have been shot in large numbers since Villa and Zapata forces took over the capital.

Headline & Epithet of the Day -100: “‘BABY KILLERS,’ CRIES CHURCHILL TO RAIDERS; Says the Name Will Stick to the German Navy While Sailors Sail the Seas.”

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Today -100: December 20, 1914: That’s a lot of pudding

An article cribbed from an unnamed London newspaper about songs sung by British soldiers says they’re all sick of “Tipperary” already.  And it quotes this one, which I would have guessed came later in the war:



In New York, the lighting of the Tree of Light in Madison Square Park (still a tradition today, begun in 1912).  There will be songs, but foreign national anthems are banned this year.

Haiti’s National Bank has put all of its gold and silver coins on a US warship (or the US just pulled off a less-than-subtle heist)(more like the latter than the former, I believe).

Austria claims to have cleared Russian troops out of Western Galicia.

Sen. James Vardaman (D-Miss.), who is not fond of the negro race, plans to try to get the 15th Amendment repealed.

Occupied Lille is starving. The Germans blame the British blockade.

Headline of the Day -100:  “Prussia Appeals to Poles. Uses Their Language Officially for the First Time in Many Years.”  In the military mobilization proclamation.  What’s the Polish word for “swell”?

Hopefully they printed the proclamation in big print, because they German Army is also taking a lot more men who wear glasses than they used to.

Italy is trying to suppress anti-Austrian demonstrations tomorrow on the anniversary of the 1882 execution of Overdank, a deserter from the Austrian army who tried attempting to assassinate Emperor Franz Josef.  Overdank was from Trieste, which Italians think should be Italian rather than Austrian, so he’s been a martyr ever since.

Headline of the Day -100:  “Empress of India Sold.”  A ship, not an actual royal person.  Bought from the Canadian-Pacific Railway by the Gaekwar (prince) of Baroda for use as a hospital ship for Indian troops.

The Wisconsin Boxing Commission will not issue permits for matches with black boxers.

A court ruling establishes uniform speed limits in California (except in charter cities) of 30 mph in the country, 20 in built-up districts, and 15 in business districts, doing away with speed traps.

A Christmas Pudding Fund has ensured that everyone in the British military will have plum pudding for Christmas dinner.  That’s half a million puddings.

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Today -100: December 19, 1914: Of sultans, lynchings and the usual verdict, spoils, and grungy Wobblies and Seattle coffee shops

The British have appointed Prince Hussein Kemal the Sultan of Egypt.  That sounds weird: sultan... appointed.  One might be forgiven for thinking the real power is the British (Acting) High Commissioner, the appropriately named Milne Cheetham.  Britain promises that after the war Egyptians will be allowed to participate in their own governance “in such measure as the degree of enlightenment of public opinion may permit.”  Which was more or less the Obama policy when it backed Sisi’s coup.  France, which since the 1880s has been hostile to such a move by the British, agrees to it now, while Britain confirms its rights to Morocco.

A negro, Will Jones, is lynched in Alabama, near Port Deposit, for supposedly trying to assault a (unstated but presumably) white girl.  The LAT headline says “Coroner Returns Usual Verdict,” which is death “at the hands of unknown parties.”

Pres. Wilson and Senate Democrats are in a fight over the appointments system.  A couple of days ago, the Senate unanimously rejected his choice for federal district attorney in New York because he was opposed by Sen. O’Gorman.  The Senate is fighting for the “principle” that appointments must be supported by the Democratic senator(s) from that state.  Wilson is fighting back with a whole bunch of appointments opposed by Democratic senators.  He’s also been using recess appointments.  The Senate is fighting back, rejecting an appointment for postmaster of Kansas City.

Mayor Hiram Gill of Seattle orders police to rid the city of Wobblies following mob attacks on a coffee house and a market.  Gills says, “as long as I am mayor of this city, it can be understood that Seattle is through fooling with a lot of anarchists, thugs, firebugs and worse who masquerade as the unemployed and fall in a faint when a bath or an hour’s work is mentioned.  And I don’t want any of the ruling Miss Nancy Goody-Goody outfit coming down here to tell me to be kind to my brother man.  In the first place the I.W.W.’s are not my brothers, and in the second place I’m through monkeying with them.”

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Today -100: December 18, 1914: Of protectorates, imperial swearing, cows, and lions

Britain declares Egypt a protectorate, ending the very nominal suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire.

Votes for Women (London) complains that the number of places from which women are excluded under wartime regulations is growing daily, including public houses during certain hours, the streets of Cardiff (but only for “certain women”), and St. Paul’s Cathedral after 9 p.m.

Germany and France are exchanging interned civilians.

After being told of the losses in Serbia, Austrian Emperor Franz Josef is said to have “swore like a trooper.”

In a lawsuit case of breach of promise of marriage in which the man broke off his engagement when the woman, after consulting a physician and a fortune-teller, told him that she probably wouldn’t have children, NY Supreme Court Justice Benton told the jury that eugenics demands they rule against her, because “Civilization itself demands not only that children be born, but that they may be born to a proper heritage mentally and physically.”  The jury agreed.

Herbert Hoover asks for donations of canned milk to Belgium, all of the country’s cows having been seized by the Germans.

The British military censors plan to close their office for a day and a half for Christmas, so there will be no war news whatsoever.

The official British report on yesterday’s German bombardment of coastal towns says that 108 people were killed.  Hartlepool’s gas works were destroyed.

Headline of the Day -100:  “Five Lions Loose in Theatre Throng.”  They escape after performing their “man-eating lion” act at the Eighty-Sixth Street Theatre, while the quartet was playing, because of course you follow lions with a quartet (barbershop quartet, I think).  One, named Alice, Alice the lion, was cornered by police on the fourth floor of a tenement and shot dead.  The others never left the theater – it’s cold outside in New York in December – and were herded back into their cage.

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Cutting loose the shackles of the past

Obama spoke today about Cuba policy.

OUTDATED: “we will end an outdated approach that, for decades, has failed to advance our interests”. What date was it when this approach actually did work? Outdated seems to be the word Obama uses when he wants to change a policy without admitting it was stupid.

“year after year, an ideological and economic barrier hardened between our two countries”. Funny how that happened all about itself.

“this policy has been rooted in the best of intentions”. Killing Castro, subjugating the Cuban people to the will of American politicians and corporations, you know, the best of intentions.

“no other nation joins us in imposing these sanctions, and it has had little effect beyond providing the Cuban government with a rationale for restrictions on its people.” Oh, and worsening the living conditions of millions of Cubans for decades, you know, “little effect.”

“While I have been prepared to take additional steps for some time, a major obstacle stood in our way –- the wrongful imprisonment, in Cuba, of a U.S. citizen and USAID sub-contractor Alan Gross for five years.” Because one white American guy is more important than... oh, that’s just too silly. Along with the “wrongful imprisonment” thing and the “USAID sub-contractor” thing.

Then he pretended that Gross was released “on humanitarian grounds,” because Gross was important enough to keep the US’s Cuba policy in limbo for 6 years, but not important enough that we’ll admit to having bargained with Cuba for his release. Our release of 3 Cubans was, purely coincidentally, in exchange for a super-secret US super-spy no one’s ever heard of (and still haven’t, since no name of this alleged super-spy has been released). “This man, whose sacrifice has been known to only a few...” Or, you know, none. “Having recovered these two men who sacrificed for our country...” Wait, I thought you said Gross wasn’t a spy?

“Going forward, the United States will reestablish an embassy in Havana, and high-ranking officials will visit Cuba.” Except Congress will never fund an embassy, much less confirm an ambassador.

“But I believe that we can do more to support the Cuban people and promote our values through engagement.” How about not trying to promote “our values” (a phrase he uses three times) at all? Maybe Cuba’s seen enough of our values over the last 116 years and maybe Cubans don’t need to be taught values by us.

“After all, these 50 years have shown that isolation has not worked. It’s time for a new approach.” Or 5 years, really. Also, it’s not really isolation if we’re the only country not interacting with Cuba. But look at that word “worked.” He’s not saying that the goal of changing Cuba’s government for it is wrong, just that we need to find a “new approach” to accomplishing it.

“I’ve instructed Secretary Kerry to review Cuba’s designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism.” Not that such designations aren’t entirely objective, of course.

“With the changes I’m announcing today, it will be easier for Americans to travel to Cuba, and Americans will be able to use American credit and debit cards on the island. Nobody represents America’s values better than the American people”. Except for MasterCard.

US companies will be allowed to sell them the Internet now. Everyone send any extra cat videos you have lying around to Cuba.

Talking about the Summit of the Americas: “Let us leave behind the legacy of both colonization and communism, the tyranny of drug cartels, dictators and sham elections.” You’ll notice he doesn’t mention anything bad the US has done except direct colonization (unless by sham elections he meant Bush in 2000).

“Countless thousands of Cubans have come to Miami -- on planes and makeshift rafts; some with little but the shirt on their back and hope in their hearts.” And with hope on their back and a shirt in their hearts, but they never lived very long.

“Today, America chooses to cut loose the shackles of the past so as to reach for a better future”. And I’m sure the Cuban people will be profoundly grateful that you’re cutting those shackles that we put on them in the first place.

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Today -100: December 17, 1914: We fully expect the German ships to come again, until they come once too often

German ships fire on the English seaside town of Whitby. Some houses are hit and one man killed. Dracula was uninjured. Hartlepool and Scarborough are similarly bombarded, with more deaths. The London Times notes that attacks on unfortified towns are illegal under international law, but Germany has “jettisoned alike all the principles of international law and all the dictates of society.” Further, “The raid had no genuine military or naval significance, and its objects could only be to relieve the prevalent depression in Germany and create panics in these islands. The second object has entirely failed. The raid was received with complete calmness. We fully expect the German ships to come again, until they come once too often.”

The LAT reports that Albania – or at least tribes in northern Albania, since it’s not like Albania has a real central government – declare war on Serbia.

Serbia’s King Peter triumphantly returns to Belgrade.

Gen. Tasker Bliss threatens the Mexican sides fighting each other across the border from Naco, Arizona that he will use “extreme measures” if any more bullets cross the border. (Tomorrow he will deny that he issued the ultimatum.)

The US Senate is debating the literacy requirement clause in the proposed immigration bill, and specifically discussing how to exempt Jews fleeing persecution from it. One suggestion is to exempt anyone fleeing from a country whose laws explicitly discriminate against their religion.

Well? Will there?

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In case you did not know this already, Americans kind of suck

Separate Pew and CBS polls released yesterday showed that a majority of Americans interviewed believe waterboarding and “aggressive interrogation tactics” (the term used by the CBS poll) are justified. The CBS poll also tells us that 69% believe that waterboarding is a form of torture. Unfortunately, through some combination of poor questionnaire design (waterboarding and “aggressive interrogation” should not have been lumped together like that) and poor reporting of the polls, we don’t know how many people both 1) believe waterboarding is torture, and 2) believe it is justified. Even Dick Cheney won’t say in so many words that he believes torture – a word he barely admits exists in the English language – is justified, but many ordinary Americans... did I mention that we kind of suck?

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Today -100: December 16, 1914: On all sound and sensible lines

Turkey returns the British consul they removed from the Italian consulate in Yemen and apologized (to Italy).

Henry Stimson, who was Taft’s secretary of war and would hold the job again during World War II, says the US is militarily “a great, helpless, unprepared nation.” He wants more ammunition and a bigger navy.

Pres. Wilson writes to the University Commission on Southern Race Questions that “I know myself as a Southern man how sincerely the heart of the South desires the good of the negro and the advancement of his race on all sound and sensible lines... It is a matter of common understanding.”

Michigan Gov. Ferris paroles a prisoner sentenced to life in 1904 for stealing a couple of hams.

Pancho Villa’s men are said to have executed 100 to 150 people in Mexico City.

Pancho Villa drinks alcohol for the first time in his life, with Zapata. Mescal, which the NYT informs its gringo readers is not a beginner’s drink.

Turkey orders every Palestinian to support the war effort by supplying one sack and one tin can.

Women car salesmen. Whatever was the world coming to?

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Today -100: December 15, 1914: Let our hearts beat to God, our fists beat the enemy

Serbia takes Belgrade back from the Austrians, who now hold only a tiny amount of Serbian territory.

Headline of the Day -100: “Ducks Used as Decoys Trap 17,000 Serbs.” Serb spies in Mitrovica manipulated the number of ducks on the River Save (I’m not sure how) to signal the numbers and movements of Austrian troops, until the Austrians figured out the system and used it against them.

A Berlin newspaper asks people how Germans at home should keep Christmas this year. Berlin Police Chief von Jagow: “Let our hearts beat to God, our fists beat the enemy.” Ho ho ho.

The French army asks the families of soldiers not to send so many Christmas packages to the front.

The provincial council of Iceland (still a colony of Denmark) has resigned after refusing to agree to a new constitution which would give the Danish State Council the right to discuss Icelandic affairs.

The US again demands that Mexicans stop shooting at each other where the bullets might cross the border. Naco, Arizona has been getting a little bit shot up lately. Both sides say it’s the other side whose bullets are going astray.

Some humorist put up a sign in a cemetery in Croatia: “Fifth levy of conscripts. Arise ye dead! The Emperor Franz Josef has need of you!”

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Today -100: December 14, 1914: Of stamps, raids, and tabernacles

The French Post Office announces that stamps to certain parts of Alsace will now cost only ten centimes. In other words, France has re-annexed part of the Lost Provinces. Or the post office has.

There are reports that Turkey is hanging some Armenians in the streets.

Fog of War (Rumors, Propaganda and Just Plain Bullshit) of the Day -100: Supposedly, Turkish naval crews have mutinied against their German officers, who were behaving like, well, German officers.

The Turks stormed the Italian consulate in Hodeidha (in Yemen, then part of the Ottoman Empire) to grab British Consul G.A. Richardson. The Italians are not best pleased and neither, I assume, is Mr. Richardson.

Collier’s Weekly sends an investigator to Atlanta to look into the Leo Frank case. He reports what everyone else has: Frank is innocent, unfair trial, etc.

Frank Cannon, the first US senator from Utah in the 1890s and now an anti-Mormon activist, comes to New York City to warn against Mormon plans to build a tabernacle in the city and send in 2,500 missionaries. Now that they can’t proselytize in Europe, out-of-work missionaries figure New York City is the next best thing.

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Today -100: December 13, 1914: Of conciliation, coups, Germans in boxes, lynchings, and suffrage movies

Pres. Wilson’s Colorado Conciliation Commission sees no reason to travel to, you know, Colorado.

Carranza declares that he now holds all executive, judicial, legislative and military powers.

Deposed Mexican dictator Victoriano Huerta, now in exile in Spain, writes the NYT to deny that he is supporting Pancho Villa. “I can never have dealings with Carranza, the four-flusher; Zapata, the highwayman, nor with Villa, the jailbird.”

Headline of the Day -100: “Find German Officer Hidden In a Big Box.” A German spy (?) escapes from internment in Britain and puts himself on a steam ferry to Rotterdam. In a big box. Labeled “non-poisonous safety matches.”

The number of lynchings in the US may be on the decline, but not as much, I think, as reporting of lynchings in the NYT. The AP reports an epidemic in Caddo Parish (Shreveport, Louisiana), 8 in the last year, 5 in the last 10 days. Of the 8, 7 were charged with murdering white men, one with raping a white woman. The latest, Charles Watkins Lewis, was burned at the stake.

Women in London have switched from knitting warm clothing for the troops to something much more practical: rolling cigarettes for them.

The Sunday NYT book review section takes note of a quickie biography of Kaiser Wilhelm II by Asa Don Dickinson (author of “Wild Flowers Worth Knowing”) which declares the monarch “not a bad fellow.”

And the arts section takes note of what it calls the first women’s suffrage propaganda movie, “Your Girl and Mine: A Woman Suffrage Play.” It tells the story of a woman who faces various forms of legal discrimination in states without women’s suffrage before moving to a more enlightened state. Looks like the film hasn’t survived.

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Today -100: December 12, 1914: Which phrase sounds dirtier: large collection of Whistlers, or queer hysterical hip?

Russia rejects the pope’s proposal for a Christmas truce.

Richard Canfield, the “Prince of Gamblers,” dies at 59, after a fall on the subway steps. Canfield, whose ancestors came over on the Mayflower, owned and ran a series of increasingly upscale gambling parlors, culminating in a luxurious one next to Delmonico’s Restaurant, until the authorities cracked down a few years ago. He was an art collector and a friend of the painter James McNeil Whistler, whose portrait of him (entitled “His Reverence”) is below. He recently sold his large collection of Whistlers for $300,000.

And this is Everett Shinn’s 1912 “The Canfield Gambling House.”

The general manager and another employee of the Dominion Chain Company are arrested by the Canadian military on secret charges, which seem to be that the latter sang a German song at a banquet.

Britain says that the sinking of those German ships at the Falklands assures the peace of the Pacific Ocean.

Headline of the Day -100 (LA Times): “Woman’s Queer Hysterical Hip.” The hip in question belongs to a Mrs. Elizabeth F. Murphy Roos, now suing the Central Fireproof Building Company, in whose elevator she supposedly fell. A doctor testifying for the building says Roos, a serial lawsuit-bringer, is faking disability by dislocating her own hip. She agrees to be examined while unconscious under sedation, and is, but there is still disagreement among the doctors. She is awarded $1,500.

Queer hysterical hip would be a great name for a band.

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Today -100: December 11, 1914: Of truces, unkind press, copper, and polygamists

Germany agrees to the pope’s request for a Christmas peace – provided every other nation also agrees.

Joseph Smith III, son of the founder of the Mormons and himself the Prophet-President since 1860 of the non-Brigham-Young, non-Utah, non-polygamist faction of the church, dies at 82.  He will be succeeded by his son Frederick.

Headline of the Day -100:  “French Press Unkind to the Kaiser.”

Though the Colorado coal miners have ended their strike, mineowners are refusing to hire them back.  So Gov. Ammons is begging Wilson to keep federal troops in Colorado, since the miners might be a touch miffed.

The Germans are stripping Belgium of copper.  There are people in my town like that.

Hoboken police are looking for a man who calls himself Karl von Wagner (also Paul Steiner, Otto Burger, Carl Schallenberg, etc) who has been marrying and abandoning German-American women and stealing their money.  Over 50 of them.  That’s polygamy practiced with German efficiency.

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Sitemeter

If anyone cares, I’ve removed the Sitemeter code from this site. I’d assumed that if it was causing problems with the blog for anyone, you’d have complained, but then one of my posts last month had a title referring to “North Korans” for nearly a week, which is the sort of thing you people used to pounce on like hungry jackals. Still, I’m seeing more and more reports about Sitemeter turning evil, so it was time to shitcan it.

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Today -100: December 10, 1914: Of fires, poles, and falklands

Thomas Edison’s factory and labs burn down. The fire started with an explosion in the film finishing building.  Edison blames the West Orange Water Company for lacking sufficient water pressure.  His workers (and wife) rescue what they can, including patent documents.

Rep. C. B. Smith (D-NY), former chairman of the House foreign affairs committee, wants to annex the North Pole.

The American Red Cross decides to limit its work in Europe to caring for sick and wounded soldiers.  Suck it, civilians.

An Allied airplane (whose country of origin is for some reason not mentioned) bombs a German pontoon bridge in Belgium, then mocks the German soldiers shooting at it by flying loop-the-loops.

The British Navy sinks four German cruisers and damages two others trying to raid a coaling station on the Falkland Islands. These were most of the few German ships which were on the high seas at the start of the war.  2,200 sailors German die, including Admiral Maximilian von Spee and two of his sons, both lieutenants.  Admiral “Blinker” Hall, head of British Naval Intelligence, later claimed to have sent Spee a fake order by wireless, using broken/salvaged German naval codes, to mount the raid, which is probably not true, though the codes were used three months later to locate and sink the Dresden, a light cruiser which escaped the Battle of the Falklands.

The British do enjoy sinking shit off the Falklands.

Leo Frank is sentenced to be hanged on January 22.

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Today -100: December 9, 1914: A war with which we have nothing to do

In his State of the Union Address, Woodrow Wilson is defensive about the condition of the US’s military defenses (he’s been fighting off attempts in Congress to investigate that).  “It is said in some quarters that we are not prepared for war. What is meant by being prepared? Is it meant that we are not ready upon brief notice to put a nation in the field, a nation of men trained to arms? Of course we are not ready to do that; and we shall never be in time of peace so long as we retain our present political principles and institutions. ... We are at peace with all the world. ... We are, indeed, a true friend to all the nations of the world, because we threaten none, covet the possessions of none, desire the overthrow of none.”  Indeed, he says, increasing military spending more than the tiny amount it has been increased, creating a standing army “would mean merely that we had lost our self-possession, that we had been thrown off our balance by a war with which we have nothing to do, whose causes can not touch us, whose very existence affords us opportunities of friendship and disinterested service which should make us ashamed of any thought of hostility or fearful preparation for trouble.”

He’s less concerned about the military than by the deficiency of commercial ships, because he’s positively licking his lips at the thought of American companies taking over the trade with Latin America and elsewhere that European companies can’t currently handle.  He wants the government to step in and buy ships, which he compares to the government subsidy of the Transcontinental Railroad.

He also promises businesses that he’s done with adding new regulations on them: “Our program of legislation with regard to the regulation of business is now virtually complete. It has been put forth, as we intended, as a whole, and leaves no conjecture as to what is to follow. The road at last lies clear and firm before business. It is a road which it can travel without fear or embarrassment. It is the road to ungrudged, unclouded success. In it every honest man, every man who believes that the public interest is part of his own interest, may walk with perfect confidence.”

---

The United Mine Workers end the strike in Colorado after 14 months.  Quitters.

Pres. Wilson orders an inquiry into whether James Sullivan, his ambassador to the Dominican Republic, used his influence to get Dominican government contracts for his family and friends.

Headline of the Day -100:  “Osborne Sets Up Convict Republic.”  Sing Sing Warden Thomas Mott Osborne will allow an inmate “court” to deal with infractions (on the theory that it is unrealistic to ask prisoners to fink to the guards).

Fog Smoke of War (Rumors, Propaganda and Just Plain Bullshit) of the Day -100: The Daily Mail (London) accused the Germans of burning down the French village of Domremy, the birthplace of Joan of Arc, showing their disregard for sacred blah blah blah.  Actually, it was a different Domremy.

Albert A. Michelson, the first American to win a Nobel Prize in the sciences, in 1907, says he’s invented a new type of super-strong steel, which will make possible taller skyscrapers and indestructible forts, which would end all wars.  Super Steel™ is not mentioned in Michelson’s Wikipedia page.

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In other words, he was a comforter

George Bush was interviewed by Candy Crowley on CNN about his book on his father. Hey, did you know his father was ALSO president? What’re the odds?

IN OTHER WORDS: “Well, I think I’m introducing him to our country in a way no one’s ever known him. In other words, he’s an extraordinary person, not only because of his accomplishments but because of his character.”

PLEASE, YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW HOW A PRETZEL WORKS: “And secondly I understand how history works; it takes a long time for people to get to know him, get to know somebody and then analyze their decisions. But I wanted to be one of the first people out in the evaluation of George H.W. Bush.” Most of the rest of us actually evaluated him when he was president, but George was pretty drunk those entire four years.

MEANS NEVER HAVING TO SAY YOU’RE SORRY. “And it’s a love story. I mean, there’s - I love him.”

IN OTHER WORDS: He denies having daddy issues: “Yeah, stiff competition is overstated. In other words if you love somebody as much as I love my dad, and my brothers loved my dad, my sister, there’s no need to compete.”

He says he didn’t discuss presidential stuff with his father: “And I think part of it has to do with how he raised us, and that is I love you no matter what you do.” Or he just gave up on you ever getting anything right a long time ago.

IN OTHER WORDS: “But I hope when people read this, and I hope they do, is that they understand that when he reached across and grabbed my arm after the speech on September the 14 in the National Cathedral, I mean, incredibly emotional moment for me, it was in many ways symbolic of what he’d meant for me as president. In other words, he was a comforter. A lot.” No, he just seemed like a comforter because he was feather-brained.

DOESN’T KNOW A LOT OF ADJECTIVES, DOES HE? “and so he was confident I had a good team and that I would make decisions based upon good judgments of a lot of good advisers.”

IN OTHER WORDS: Still won’t admit being wrong about Putin’s soul. “Well, I think he’s become more zero-sum type thinker. In other words... it’s almost as if he says that if the - if the West wins, I lose. And if I win, the West loses. As opposed to what can we do together to enhance our respective positions?”

He explains how to defeat ISIS: “Well, first thing is there has to be a goal, and the president has laid out what I think is a good goal, and that is to degrade and defeat ISIS.” Why, that’s so crazy it might just work!

IN OTHER WORDS: On Jeb: “So when you’re weighing the presidency, you think, ‘Do I fear success?’ In other words, can I handle it if I win?” But he has “no clue where his head is now” and hasn’t talked with Jeb about 2016. Jeb hasn’t called to ask for advice, George hasn’t called to ask if he’s running. Tell us again all about how close your family is, George.

He also has “no clue” about whether Hillary will run for president in the conservatory with a candle stick.

Similarly, “The [Eric Garner grand jury] verdict was hard to understand”. Also, door knobs.

“But it’s sad that race continues to play such a, you know, kind of emotional, divisive part of life. I remember back in when I was a kid, in the ‘70s...” George was born in 1946. “...and there was race riots with cities being burned. And I just think we’ve improved. I had dinner with Condi the other night and we talked about this subject, and, yes, she just said you got understand that there are a lot of, you know, black folks around that are just incredibly more and more distrusting of law enforcement.” And then I forgot she wasn’t the maid and told her to clear the plates.

The Eric Garner video is “very disturbing to me. And, yes. I mean it just - it calls into question what needs to be done to heal...” Er, nothing, he’s dead. The cop choked him to death.

“...to get the country united again.” And there you go: the poster boy for unearned white privilege thinks there was a golden age of race relations, if we could only figure out how to return to it.

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Today -100: December 8, 1914: Of iron crosses, neutrality, and truces

Now that the unwritten ban on Jews in the German military has been lifted, several have been promoted to be officers and 710 have received the Iron Cross, to which some have responded, “Dude, we’re Jews and you’re giving us a cross?”  (I believe the German for “dude” is “mein duden”).

The US Supreme Court denies Leo Frank’s writ of error.

Charles M. Schwab of Bethlehem Steel and Shipbuilding has given in to Pres. Wilson’s request that he not make submarines for Britain, which Wilson seems to think would violate his neutrality policy.  Evidently the government had no legal way to stop Schwab had he ignored it.

Germany claims to have captured Lodz.

The pope wants a truce in the Great War over Christmas.

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Today -100: December 7, 1914: Of horses, mules, olympics, and Jewish bravery

One of Mexico’s competing presidents, Eulalio Gutiérrez, moves into the presidential palace in Mexico City.  He doesn’t make a speech, but does send someone out to say that his soldiers have not come to steal horses and automobiles, but to work for the welfare of the nation.  It’s probably not a great sign if you have to say that, but he is backed by bandits Villa and Zapata, so the horse-thief/president line might be a little bit blurrier than elsewhere.

Britain is buying pretty much all of Georgia’s mules.

The European war may put a crimp in the 1916 Olympics.  The 1916 Berlin Olympics.

Bankers and stock brokers in Chicago want to change their time zone from Central to Eastern, because it would be convenient for them to sync up with the NY Stock Exchange, but the railroads disagree.  There will be discussions.

The German governor of occupied Antwerp bans the distribution of any pictures of Belgian ruins.

Headline of the Day -100:  “The Jew’s Bravery Established in War.”

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Today -100: December 6, 1914: It still has that new revolution smell

Headline of, Oh, Pretty Much Once a Week -100:  “New Revolution Begins in Mexico.”  Led by a couple of Huerta’s generals, Emilio Campo and José Inés Salazar.  Salazar escaped a couple of weeks ago from jail in Albuquerque, where he was held on a perjury charge, which I think must relate to his acquittal by a federal jury in May on a charge of smuggling 100,000 rounds of ammunition into Mexico.  After this current revolutionary movement fails, Salazar will once again flee into the US, and a year from now will be acquitted again.  Somehow he’ll wind up joining Pancho Villa’s forces, even though he had been in charge of fighting Villa under Huerta.  He’ll be killed in battle in 1917.

The departure of the Lusitania from New York harbor is delayed while the new “war tax” on tickets is collected from passengers.  This amounts to $3 for steerage passengers on their $37.50 ticket.

According to official reports, “Nothing of importance happened in the Carpathians yesterday.”

Vice President Marshall says no one cares that he’s taking paid lecturing gigs.

Belgium is reported, falsely I assume, to have hidden some of its art treasures, including a Rubens, from the Germans at the bottom of the River Scheldt.

Theodore Roosevelt has an op-ed in the NYT entitled “Our Responsibility in Mexico” (this link is more readable than the NYT’s; it’s his 1916 book Fear God and Take Your Own Part [!]; today’s article starts on p.230 at the words “THE SOUND OF LAUGHTER AND OF PLAYING  CHILDREN HAS BEEN STILLED IN MEXICO.”)  TR accuses Wilson of doing both too much in Mexico (refusing to recognize Huerta’s coup regime in the first place, then landing troops at Vera Cruz) and too little (not... actually I’m not sure what he thinks Wilson should have done, but he accuses him of having “hit soft” and withdrawn before accomplishing anything).  I believe this type of criticism is called the Full John McCain.  He says that Wilson’s putting the American finger on the scale in favor of Carranza/Villa has “produce[d] much evil and no good and [made] us responsible for the actions of a peculiarly lawless, ignorant and blood-thirsty faction” and cites the many acts of violence and the harassment of the Catholic Church.

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