Or you could just stop lying already

I like how Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald waited between the time Snowden said he could read everybody’s emails from his desk until all the outraged denials and tut-tuttings were out there before releasing the documents proving it.

Where have we seen this before?

When the Soviet Union shot down a U-2 spy plane in 1960, they similarly let the US lie about its spy plane program, even giving Eisenhower one more chance to come clean, then produced the pilot, Francis Gary Powers. It was more of a shock back then to many people that the US government lies so much.

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Today -100: July 31, 1913: Of campaign funds

NY Gov. William Sulzer is being investigated by the state senate, which has uncovered two checks to his 1912 campaign fund, amounting to $3,000, which he did not report as required by law. More will be heard of this.

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Law & Order

Israel will free long-term Palestinian prisoners as part of the deal to resume peace talks, but... “The pace of the releases will depend on progress in the talks.” If you’re using prisoners as a bargaining chip to ensure actions on the part of other people, they’re not prisoners, they’re hostages.

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Today -100: July 30, 1913: Of wrong buildings

Headline of the Day -100: “Wrong Building Put Up.” During the planning for a new hq for the Admiralty in London, the wrong blueprints got shown to the royal family, so they just had to go with it.

A conference of the ambassadors of the Great Powers agrees to establish a commission, with each of the six countries naming a member, to rule Albania for six months, at which time they will nominate a king. There will be a gendarmerie with Swedish officers.

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Intense

The BBC World Service said that John Kerry was undertaking “intense diplomatic efforts” towards Middle East peace. Because if there’s one word that comes to mind when you think of John Kerry, it’s “intense.”

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Today -100: July 29, 1913: Of shocking bloomers

Headline of the Day -100: “Bloomers Shock Chicago.” There are women who take off their bathing skirts at the public beaches and Mayor Harrison WILL NOT STAND FOR IT.

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Today -100: July 28, 1913: I walked, the sooner to be free

Lois Marshall, wife of Vice President Thomas Marshall, says that “the fashions of today ought to convince anyone that a woman is not fit to vote.” Instead, women should work to do away with the slashed skirt and the turkey trot.

British suffragist Sylvia Pankhurst describes being violently arrested by the Metropolitan Police, and her subsequent hunger, thirst and sleep strike. “By Friday to walk about the cell meant to faint many times; but, when I could summon up the strength for it I walked, the sooner to be free.” Released again on license, she leads a crowd from Trafalgar Square toward Downing Street to deliver a petition from the East End to the prime minister, but they are broken up by police. Sylvia, no less militant than her mother and sister, is increasingly turning to the poor women of the East End and towards mass protest rather than the individualistic acts of property damage in which the WSPU now specializes (although she did break a window in the police station).

The bodies from the Binghamton Clothing Company fire that could not be identified, 21 of them, are buried. They had to use a trolley to bring all the caskets to the cemetery, since there were not enough hearses in the city.

The US demands the Mexican government arrest soldiers who shot an American immigration officer in Juarez. He was there investigating an American negro white slaver, who may have bribed the soldiers to kill him. They arrested the immigration cop and when he realized they were not taking him to hq and were probably intent on murdering him, he ran away and was shot in the back, as was the custom.

The NYT editorializes in favor of recognizing the Huerta Junta in Mexico: “The character of Gen. Huerta is none of our business. It need not be considered”.

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Today -100: July 27, 1913: We have not the serf’s mind

Southern racists are gearing up to fight Pres. Wilson’s nomination of a negro, Adam Patterson, to be Register of the Treasury, one of a handful of federal posts traditionally occupied by negroes. No one has anything against Patterson personally; the objection is the one expressed in a letter to Wilson from Thomas Dixon, author of the novels that would be adapted for the screen as Birth of a Nation: “I am heartsick over the announcement that you have appointed a Negro to boss white girls as Register of the Treasury.” Wilson reassured him that he planned to make the registry division exclusively black to prevent race-mixing. (The LA Times story on this yesterday, headlined “Wilson Names a Negro,” said “The Republicans are laughing up their sleeves. They are chuckling at the latest faux pas of the administration”.)

The NYT claims to know what Henry Lane Wilson, US ambassador to Mexico, is telling his bosses: the US must either recognize Huerta or invade. He prefers the former.

The other Great Powers refuse Russia’s proposal that they jointly coerce Turkey into abandoning its military actions against Bulgaria through a joint naval demonstration and a mobilization of Russian troops.

We have a great rarity in NYT coverage of the British women’s suffrage movement: a story about something the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies did. The NUWSS was by far the largest suffrage organization, but it was non-militant: didn’t break windows, didn’t shout at politicians, didn’t get a lot of ink. Anyway, it just completed a Women’s Suffrage Pilgrimage, in which women from all over the country marched to London, holding meetings (and being attacked by hooligans) all along the route. To distinguish themselves from the militants, they were asked not to wear the WSPU’s colors (purple, green & white) and carried banners saying only “Law-Abiding Suffragists.” A deputation of pilgrims meets with Prime Minister Asquith; NUWSS president Millicent Garrett Fawcett tells him, “What has been given to native races we demand should be given to the women of our own race. We are not political serfs. We have not the serf’s mind.”



Headline of the Day -100 (LA Times): “Upper Lip Like a Girl.” That lip is the 19-year-old Prince of Wales’ stiff but girlish upper lip, which would have prevented him joining the cavalry but for an order issued by the War Office on his behalf, making it no longer mandatory for officers to have a ‘tash.

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The exception that proves the rule, or something

The US tells Russia that we won’t torture or execute Edward Snowden if they deport him, adding “But everyone else in the world? Yeah, Obama totally has the power to torture and/or kill them.”

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Today -100: July 26, 1913: No one can destroy William Sulzer except William Sulzer himself

Wisconsin passes legislation for eugenic marriages – requiring health certificates – and for the sterilization of criminals, lunatics, epileptics and the feeble-minded. What could go wrong?

Peru’s former president (1908-12) Augusto Leguia and his son are arrested after shots are fired from his house at a mob attacking it.

NY Gov. Sulzer claims that his political enemies in Tammany Hall are literally plotting to kill him, and has hired private detectives to guard him. He says that Boss Murphy told him that he had driven governors McClellan and Dix out of public life and would do the same to him. Replied Sulzer, “No one can destroy William Sulzer except William Sulzer himself.” Ain’t it the truth.

Headline of the Day -100: “Duel Over Turkey Trot.” In Germany, between an Army general and a lt. colonel after the latter rebuked the former for allowing his daughter to dance the turkey trot, which the colonel thought unsuitable. Naturally, the general challenged him to a duel to the death, during which he stabbed him in the head with a sword, as was the custom.

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The language of the information fascists at the Bradley Manning trial

Prosecutor Ashden Fein calls Manning an “information anarchist,” because he knows that combines two things the military hates: anarchists and information.

Also says Manning had a “general evil intent,” which I believe is the name of one of the bad guys in the GI Joe cartoon.

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Today -100: July 25, 1913: Of massacres, plural voting, and the Piccadilly Flat

Bulgaria is complaining to every European power which will listen that Turkey violated the Treaty of London, which ended the First Balkan War, by attacking Bulgaria. It also complains of Turkish massacres. The Turks say they only invaded because of Bulgarian massacres.

The British House of Lords votes down the bill abolishing plural voting (one person being able to vote several times, based on owning property in multiple constituencies or having university degrees).

There’s a minor scandal going on in Britain. The police raided a brothel in Piccadilly (the door was answered by a woman in a sexy nurse costume), arrested the madame, Queenie Gerald, and then made very sure that her papers naming her clients, rumored to include numerous members of Parliament, disappeared. For her silence, Gerald got a suspiciously light sentence. Suffragists will make a meal of this case for many months to come (and Labour MP Keir Hardie will publish a pamphlet). In The Suffragette of this date, Christabel Pankhurst explains that prostitution is the fault of “the Anti-Suffrage theory of life.... Anti-Suffragists see in woman, sex and nothing more.” She mentions that the Piccadilly Flat saw all sorts of practices and, um, instruments (whips, she means whips). The magistrate who oversaw this case (and barred the public from his court) will show much less leniency to suffragettes that appear before him.

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I apologize in advance

Obama gave a speech on the economy today. This is how Anthony Weiner heard it:

“Blah blah blah.”

“And we love Dick. (Applause.)”

“Blah blah blah.”

“But -- and here’s the big ‘but’”

“Blah blah blah.”

“very essence of America -- that idea that if you work hard you can make it here.”

“Blah blah blah.”

“Washington has taken its eye off the ball.”

“Blah blah blah.”

“We’ve got to stand up for women’s rights. (Applause.)”

“Blah blah blah.”

“But I will not allow gridlock, or inaction, or willful indifference to get in our way. (Applause.)”

“Blah blah blah.”

“Where I can’t act on my own and Congress isn’t cooperating, I’ll pick up the phone”

“Blah blah blah.”

“I’ll call anybody who can help -- and enlist them in our efforts.”

“Blah blah blah.”

“Lincoln was all about building stuff”

“Blah blah blah.”

Wait, what? Lincoln was all about what?

“Blah blah blah.”

“unrealistic bubbles”

“Blah blah blah.”

“if you’re willing to work hard and discipline yourself and defer gratification, you can make it, too.” (Weiner likes the making it too part, not so much the deferring gratification part).

“Blah blah blah.”

“we’ve got to be open to new ways of doing things.”

“Blah blah blah.”

“I’m laying out my ideas to give the middle class a better shot.”

“Blah blah blah.”

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Today -100: July 24, 1913: Of dog tax schisms, fires, and toy pistols

Surreal Headline of the Day -100: “DOG TAX CAUSES SCHISM.; 1,400 Hamburgers Secede from State Church to Avoid Paying It.” Hamburgers meaning residents of Hamburg, of course. Evidently there’s a proposal to support the church through a tax on dogs...?

NY Gov. William Sulzer blames yesterday -100’s factory fire in Binghamton on Tammany’s Boss Murphy, who he says is responsible for the Legislature’s failure to act on his nominees for State Labor commissioner.

A one-time Prohibition Party candidate for mayor of Minneapolis pleads guilty to a charge of horse-stealing. He blames the booze.

The Vatican’s Swiss Guards are in a state of mutiny.

Headline of the Day -100: “Toy Pistol Scares M.P.’s.” A male suffragist fires a blank (from a real pistol, not a toy one, Mr. Headline Writer) in the Strangers’ Gallery of the House of Commons.

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Today -100: July 23, 1913: Of state churches, the interests of negroes, coercing Mexico, banana protests, fires in factories, fires in prisons, barber riots, and perpetual motion

The House of Lords votes down the bill to disestablish the Anglican Church in Wales (i.e., they voted for antidisestablishmentarianism) until the issue is submitted to the judgment of the country in an election, because surely the next general election will turn on precisely this issue.

Pres. Wilson responds to a letter from Gaston Villard, chair of the NAACP, admitting that he plans to segregate government offices, “with the idea,” he writes, “that friction, or rather discontent and uneasiness which had prevailed in many departments would hereby be removed. It is as far as possible from being a movement against Negroes” but “in their interest.” So that’s okay then.

Headline of the Day -100: “Senate Talks of Coercing Mexico.” The US Senate discusses the Mexico situation, with many senators calling for military intervention, as was the custom. Purely to protect American citizens, of course. Albert Fall (R-New Mexico)’s resolution says that American citizens have the right to American protection for their lives AND PROPERTY anywhere in the world. In the House, William H. “Alfalfa Bill” Murray (D-Oklahoma) (who has to use that Alfalfa Bill thing to distinguish himself from Rep. William F. Murray of Massachusetts) introduces a resolution requiring the president to subdue Mexico militarily.

Disappointing Headline of the Day -100: “To Voice Banana Protest.” A delegation from Jamaica arrives to protest a duty being placed on bananas. See, wasn’t that disappointing? I’m sure we can all think of much more interesting banana protests.

50 mostly young female factory workers die in a fire in the Binghamton Clothing Company (later reports say 40, but as the only list of employees also burned up, the true number is not known). Although survivors blame the lack of adequate escape routes, the owners blame it on the state-mandated post-Triangle Shirtwaist Fire fire procedures: the girls were so used to fire drills that they ignored the fire alarms.

Scary Headline of the Day -100: “Men Roar in Cells as Sing Sing Burns.” Started in the prison factories. No one killed, no one escaped.

There is a barber riot in Harlem in connection with a strike called by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) Barbers’ Union. I’m not sure I’d feel safe having my hair cut by anyone calling themself a “Wobbly.”

An Italian invents a perpetual motion machine. It runs on the “caloric energy of the air,” which is totally a really thing. A later article describes the machine: “it consists essentially of a system of closed cup-shaped vessels containing a substance which vaporizes with extreme facility, and revolving, partly in air and partly in water, makes the machine work through successive vaporizations and condensations of the substance inside.”

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Today -100: July 22, 1913: Of arrests, roads, and Swiss guards

The Metropolitan Police again arrest Emmeline Pankhurst when she attempts to address a meeting. The crowd try to protect her, attacking the police with hatpins and teeth, but to no avail. Her daughter Sylvia, also out on a Cat & Mouse license, gives a speech in a hall in Bromley and escapes the police – East End women know how to put up a more robust resistance. In Birmingham, windows are broken at the Grand Hotel, where Prime Minister Asquith was addressing the Chamber of Commerce, and the fire brigade is called.

Oh, he was serious. Missouri Gov. Elliot Major issues a proclamation calling for a general suspension of business on August 20 & 21 so that every able-bodied male can engage in free road-maintenance work (women should do the catering and cheerleading).

The pope orders that his own Swiss Guard be disarmed, after repeated revolts.

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Today -100: July 21, 1913: Of reliable automobiles, bloomer girls, and protectorates

The Auto Club holds its 9th annual Reliability Tour, a 1,300-mile road trip, taking a mere seven days, to see how often they break down. The winners are the Hupmobiles, the Krit, the Metzes, and the Locomobile, which were totally real names of automobiles, which is one way in which 1913 was way cooler than 2013.

Sports News of the Day -100: “Four thousand angry fans surged on the diamond in the old Union League baseball park this afternoon when they learned that the ‘Bloomer Girls,’ who were playing against a team of young men, were not girls.”

When Honduras and El Salvador found out that the US was trying to negotiate a protectorate-type arrangement with Nicaragua, they were livid. Secretary of State Bryan hilariously failed to understand that their objection was to Yankee imperialism and to the wrecking of the possibility of a Central American Federation; he thought they just felt left out, so he tried to assuage them by offering similar arrangements to them. They told him to fuck off.

Turkish troops have retaken Adrianople, lost so humiliatingly during the First Balkan War.

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Today -100: July 20, 1913: Of censorship, poisoned hatpins, the draft, protectorates, and fake suffragettes

After a deputy of the Russian Duma attacks the government’s anti-Jewish policies, the Tsar’s Imperial Council bans the Duma discussing any subject not put before it by the government.

Seattle Mayor George Cotterill bans The Seattle Times, which he blames for yesterday’s riot. He says it garbled its report of the speech by Navy Secretary Daniels, causing the sailors to think they had permission to attack Wobblies and Socialists. However a judge issues an injunction and the paper prints as normal (he also reverses the mayor’s order to saloons not to open). Rear Admiral Alfred Reynolds refuses a request by city authorities to restrict shore leave.

Portland, Oregon ordered lesbian IWW activist Dr. Marie Equi to leave the state after she gave a free-speech speech. She didn’t, so they charge her with inciting a riot and assault with a deadly weapon, to wit a hatpin. She had threatened to stab any cop who tried to arrest her with a hatpin dipped in poison. She did scratch a cop, but evidently neglected the poison.

The French Parliament votes to expand mandatory military service from two years to three.

Secretary of State Bryan informs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee of his plans to turn Nicaragua into a protectorate, presumably to keep the neighborhood of the Panama Canal “stable.” Bryan is proposing a new draft of the treaty which the Taft administration began negotiating: Nicaragua gets a large loan and the US gets a veto over Nicaragua declaring war on anyone, or signing treaties, “That the United States should have the right to intervene at any time to preserve Nicaraguan independence, or to protect life or property,” 99-year-year leases on naval bases, and dibs on building a canal.

British Chancellor David Lloyd George and Attorney General Rufus Isaacs were enjoying the weekend as guests at a country estate, all very Downton Abbeyish. They were out playing golf when suddenly three women dressed in WSPU colors approached them. They looked around in alarm for the detective bodyguards all cabinet ministers now have to keep disorderly women away from them, but they were nowhere to be seen. One brandished a suffragette flag at Lloyd George, who cowered until he realized that the women were his and Isaacs’ wives and their hostess, playing a little practical joke. LG was not amused.

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That’s how our system works

Obama made a surprise appearance in the White House press room to talk about Trayvon Martin. On a Friday afternoon.

HE WENT TO LAW SCHOOL, YOU KNOW: “And once the jury’s spoken, that’s how our system works.” If that sentence seems like part of it is missing, that’s because he couldn’t really say, “And once the jury’s spoken, we have to respect that” or “And once the jury’s spoken, justice has been done,” or any other platitude suggesting that Florida possesses a just and fair and equal legal system. That’s how our system works, he shrugs.

AND IF MITT ROMNEY’S BILLION-DOLLAR TIME-MACHINE PROJECT EVER PAYS OFF.... “Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.”

He said that most African-American men have experienced being followed in stores, people locking their car doors when he approaches, women in elevators being nervous etc. Notably, he doesn’t indicate any race for these people scared of black men.

He explains that black people are “looking at this issue” through the prism of their experiences of racism (a word he uses just once in this speech) and their knowledge of past racial disparities. In other words, he’s explaining to white people how black people think.

UNDERSTANDABLE: “I think it’s understandable that there have been demonstrations and vigils and protests...” “Understandable” is to expressing support what “I’m sorry you were offended” is to apologies. “...and some of that stuff is just going to have to work its way through, as long as it remains nonviolent.” Sounds like he’s talking about a particularly difficult poo.

He wants “the Justice Department, governors, mayors to work with law enforcement about training at the state and local levels in order to reduce the kind of mistrust in the system that sometimes currently exists.” I’m sorry, but I find the balancing act he’s trying to perform here very amusing. He just can’t bring himself to say that the system has deserved the mistrust that “sometimes currently exists” toward it, but why else would training be required?

Similarly, he talks later about “helping young African American men feel that they’re a full part of this society” without quite saying that at the present time they aren’t, just that they feel that way.

Then he criticized the Stand Your Ground law, and asks hypothetically, “I’d just ask people to consider, if Trayvon Martin was of age and armed, could he have stood his ground on that sidewalk? And do we actually think that he would have been justified in shooting Mr. Zimmerman who had followed him in a car because he felt threatened? And if the answer to that question is at least ambiguous, then it seems to me that we might want to examine those kinds of laws.” This is just strange. Obama, a black man, is saying: but what if the scary black guy had a gun, huh? huh? didn’t think about that, did you?

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Happy Captive Nations Festapalooza 2013!

Obama issued a proclamation for Captive Nations Week 2013. So even stupid little symbolic Cold War relics like this one, which dates from 1959 when the “captive nations” were the Eastern European satellites of the Soviet Union, don’t go away. The proclamation fails to name any of the current captive nations. It does say that “too many people still labor in the darkness of tyranny and oppression,” fails to say how many is just the right number. The population of Egypt, the country which he’s still not willing to admit had a coup, is more than 80 million, if that’s any help.

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