Saturday, March 31, 2018
On this day in 1965,
LBJ Tells 1st Of Many Lies About His Vietnam War Plans
On this day in 1965, Democrat President Lyndon Johnson lied to the media about his recent deployment of the first 3,500 Marines sent to Vietnam, supposedly solely for defensive purposes to secure the U.S. base at DaNang. Johnson really had plans to send more troops to Vietnam and to use them offensively rather than just defensively. By the time LBJ was hounded out of office because of the war, he had sent 500,000 Americans to Vietnam. 58,000 American boys, many of whom were drafted and forced to fight in Vietnam, never came home.
[See Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, President Trump’s former National Security Advisor, "Dereliction of Duty" subtitled “Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, The Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the lies that led to Vietnam.” Gen. McMaster says Democrat President Johnson “disregarded the advice he did not want to hear in favor of a policy based on the pursuit of his own political fortunes and his beloved domestic programs." "The administration’s lies to the American public grew in magnitude as the American military effort in Vietnam escalated,” initially without the public’s knowledge or consent.]
[See Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, President Trump’s former National Security Advisor, "Dereliction of Duty" subtitled “Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, The Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the lies that led to Vietnam.” Gen. McMaster says Democrat President Johnson “disregarded the advice he did not want to hear in favor of a policy based on the pursuit of his own political fortunes and his beloved domestic programs." "The administration’s lies to the American public grew in magnitude as the American military effort in Vietnam escalated,” initially without the public’s knowledge or consent.]
Friday, March 30, 2018
Thursday, March 29, 2018
On this day in 1973,
U.S. Withdraws From Vietnam
58,000+ American Boys Killed - 40,000 Killed Ages 22 & Under
On this day in 1973, the last American troops left South Vietnam following the loss of 58,000+ American boys, most of my generation, and most of whom had been drafted and forced to go to Vietnam to fight and die.
The names on The Vietnam Memorial Wall are arranged in the order in which they were killed by date and within each date the names are alphabetized.
The first known casualty was Richard B. Fitzgibbon, of North Weymouth, Mass., listed by the U.S. Department of Defense as having been killed on June 8, 1956. His name is listed on the Wall with that of his son, Marine Corps LCpl Richard B. Fitzgibbon III, who was killed on Sept.7, 1965.
There are three sets of fathers and sons on the Wall.
39,996 on the Wall were just 22 or younger.
8,283 were just 19 years old.
The largest age group, 33,103 were 18 years old.
12 soldiers on the Wall were 17 years old
5 soldiers on the Wall were 16 years old.
One soldier, PFC Dan Bullock was 15 years old.
997 soldiers were killed on their first day in Vietnam.
1,448 soldiers were killed on their last day in Vietnam.
Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, President Trump’s former National Security Advisor, wrote a necessary read about this sad episode in American history titled "Dereliction of Duty" and subtitled “Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, The Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the lies that led to Vietnam.”
Gen. McMaster says Democrat President Johnson “disregarded the advice he did not want to hear in favor of a policy based on the pursuit of his own political fortunes and his beloved domestic programs." "The administration’s lies to the American public grew in magnitude as the American military effort in Vietnam escalated,” initially without the public’s knowledge or consent.
Johnson’s “guns and butter” policies led to rampant inflation reaching 18%, political turmoil, and social shock waves felt for a generation.
58,000+ American boys killed.
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
On this day in 1834,
Andrew Jackson Only President To Be Censured By The Swamp
Refused to provide background records after abolishing Bank of U.S. over objections of Henry Clay - Says only regret is that he did not shoot Clay
Tuesday, March 27, 2018
Grant's Almost Daily
CRYPTO CRISIS?
Hodl on loosely
Ah, crypto-currencies. Whether in a bull or bear market (sometimes we see both before lunch), they bore neither fans nor skeptics. The still-young 2018 has been rough for the nascent asset class, as the four most prominent vehicles (bitcoin, ethereum, ripple and litecoin) have declined by 42%, 39%, 40% and 74% respectively after logging spectacular gains last year.
Beyond financial losses, the pullback seems to be taking a toll. According to Bloomberg: “Online searches for ‘bitcoin’ fell 82 percent from December highs, according to Google Trends. Tweets that mention the coin peaked Dec. 7, at 155,600, and are now down to about 63,000, BitInfoCharts says. And the number of bitcoin transactions is off 60 percent from its record on Dec. 13, according to Blockchain.info” (Almost Daily Grant’s, March 16).
Crypto-ficcianados have lately contended with more than falling prices and waning public interest. Yesterday, Reuters reported: “Twitter, Inc. will start banning cryptocurrency advertising [today], joining Facebook and Google in a clampdown that seeks to avoid giving publicity to potential fraud or large investor losses.” In other words, the ubiquitous social media ads featuring author and investor James Altucher will be no more. Altucher himself voiced his approval, telling Recode: “There are many scams and illegitimate services out there.” This afternoon, Coinbase reports that Reddit (which bills itself as “the front page of the internet”) no longer accepts payment in bitcoin for its Reddit gold membership program.
Regulators, too, are taking a stricter stance. On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Securities and Exchange Commission is scrutinizing up to 100 crypto-focused hedge funds: “Examiners are keen to inspect whether fund managers have bought the type of assets they advertised to investors in disclosure documents. Regulators also worry about the risk of crypto assets being stolen because hackers often attempt to breach exchanges where crypto-currencies are kept.” On March 2, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney told the Scottish Economics Conference that “the time has come to hold the crypto-asset ecosystem to the same standards as the rest of the financial system.”
Meanwhile, efforts at wider implementation of the blockchain in the financial industry have recently suffered what appear to be major setbacks. Today, Reuters reports that three separate projects undertaken by financial institutions to incorporate the distributed ledger technology have been halted. One such example:
DTCC, known as Wall Street’s bookkeeper, recently put the brakes on a blockchain system for the clearing and settlement of repurchase, or repo, agreement transactions, said Murray Pozmanter, head of clearing agency services at the DTCC.
The project, which had successfully tested with startup Digital Asset Holdings, was shelved because banks and other potential users believed the same results could be achieved more cheaply using current technology, he said. “Basically, it became a solution in search of a problem.”
As prices fall, regulators circle and big tech heads for the hills, some investors are doubling down. Yesterday, Bloomberg reported that:
While ICO’s [initial coin offerings] were supposed to disrupt venture capital, such funding in blockchain-based companies is surging, with startups raising $434 million since December, the most ever in a three-month period, according to CoinDesk data.
“If a company goes on and gets an ICO, my equity is worth more,” Frank Meehan, partner at SparkLabs Group, said. “That’s really the game right now.”
CoinDesk calculates that ICO’s have raised north of $3 billion through February, more than half of their 2017 intake. For the sake of their limited partners, VCs best choose wisely. Bloomberg goes on to note that 46% of such offerings either failed of were unable to attain funding, while 50 of 340 ICO’s have already failed this year.
Last week, CryptoKitties (which bills itself as an ethereum-based “game centered around breedable, collectible, and oh-so-adorable creatures” who can’t be “replicated, taken away, or destroyed”) raised $12 million in seed funding led by Andreessen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures, with Mark Pincus (founder of Zynga) and Fred Ehrsam (former founder of Coinbase) lining up as investors.
Meanwhile CoinDesk reports that ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin recently penned a blog post arguing for the institution of rent fees on his network, where “users would be asked to pay to use the network based on how long they’d like their data to remain accessible on the blockchain.” Evidently, permanence is a relative concept.
In Memory of Linda Brown
of Brown v. Board of Education
Linda Brown’s parents thought her all-black school was a very good one. They were satisfied with the education Linda was receiving, but the Browns did not like Linda being denied access to a closer public school solely because of her race. As a result, the Browns filed suit against the Topeka School District because they wanted Linda and all her black school friends to be able to enjoy equal protection of the law.
The Supreme Court struck down “separate but equal” on grounds different from those asserted by the Browns. The Court held that it was unconstitutional to deprive black kids of the benefit of associating with white kids.
Really.
Racist maybe?
Here is Malcolm Gladwell’s excellent summary of the case and the racial exposure issue, raising the possibility that the most important factor for school kids is exposure to teachers, and that maybe black kids are better off being exposed to black teachers.
Gladwell excerpts a speech given by Linda Brown at the University of Michigan. Brown says the Court should have first integrated teachers rather than kids. Instead, black teachers were fired as schools were integrated.
Brown concludes by saying that black kids bore the cost of integration more than white kids.
I remember one of my UW Poli Sci professors, Herbert Jacob, enthusiastically praising the Supreme Court's reliance on sociology in striking down "separate but equal".
Maybe the Supreme Court should have stuck to the law, and the right to equal protection of the law, rather than delving into pseudo-science.
Well worth your time:
http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/13-miss-buchanans-period-of-adjustment
http://dcs.megaphone.fm/PPY7758175647.mp3?key=38a819b84b30148b8fc27070a248c4c5
http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/13-miss-buchanans-period-of-adjustment
http://dcs.megaphone.fm/PPY7758175647.mp3?key=38a819b84b30148b8fc27070a248c4c5
On this day in 1836,
Santa Ana Executes 417 Texan Revolutionaries at Goliad After The Slaughter At The Alamo
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| Colonel James Fannin, the commander of the captured Texian Army at Goliad, asked for humane treatment for himself and his Texian soldiers but his request was denied. Fannin was tortured and then shot in the head, and his men brutally murdered |
On this day in 1829,
Andrew Jackson Scandalizes D.C. Society By Appointing John Eaton Sec'y Of War
Spends first term defending decision and Eaton
Monday, March 26, 2018
Sunday, March 25, 2018
On this day in 1911: The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Kills 146 Workers
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| The Fire Was On The Top Floors With Inadequate Escape Routes |
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| 62 Workers Jumped To Their Deaths |
Don't tell the coward in Broward.
Hero French Policeman Traded Himself For Female Hostage, Was Killed By Terrorist.
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