On Eternal Patrol: U.S.S. Grunion

FRI 31 JUL 1942
Pacific

Submarine Grunion (SS-216) torpedoes Japanese transport Kashima Maru off Kiska, Aleutians, but is sunk by gunfire from her quarry, 10 miles north of Segula Island.

[The Wiki/rest of the story. Different Japanese ship? Torpedo trouble?]

PBYs attempt to bomb Japanese bases in Tulagi-Gavutu area is aborted because of bad weather.

Atlantic
German submarine U-751 lays mines off Charleston, South Carolina.

Meanwhile, At The Federalist

Eleven hrs. ago in said digital rag, some fucking moron named David Marcus:

Why Anthony Scaramucci Is The Man Trump And America Need

It’s better that we know what the president genuinely thinks, not what his comms team thinks is the best message.

Honesty Is The Best Policy

“Not for nothing,” is an old Italian expression in New York, one Scaramucci has yet to use but which describes his style. It’s an expression meant to gently tell someone he is doing something wrong. “Not for nothing, when you come here wear a tie”—that kind of thing. Scaramucci is the “not for nothing” communications director. Hey, did I say Steve Bannon tries to suck his own c-ck [sic]? Yeah. Did I call Priebus a paranoid schizophrenic? Sure. As one colleague of mine recently put it, the Mooch is Trump’s id.

And hey, why not? What value is there in trained professionals trying to turn Trump’s outer borough vulgarities into beltway sweet talk? Aren’t we better off with a spokesman who not only speaks but revels in Trump’s triumphant trash talk regardless of its tenuous relationship with the truth? Isn’t the job of the White House communications team to tell us what the president wants and believes? The Mooch gives us that in spades.

Most political commentators have their heads in their hands, asking how it came to this. How did this over-energetic guy become the voice of the White House? Well, look at the big desk in the Oval Office. Who do you think should be speaking for him? Why would we want levelheaded professionals pretending he isn’t saying what he says? Who does that serve?

President Donald Trump is who he is. He’s a tough as nails New Yorker who enjoys competition. No well-intentioned compromisers from Wisconsin, be they Paul Ryan or Priebus, can change that. President Trump needs a voice that speaks his language. Scaramucci is fluent. Trump will never be a Republican in any sense we used to think of. Can he change what Republican means? Maybe. And making Anthony Scaramucci his mouthpiece lets us all know the stakes.

AH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

Closing Some Tabs

Here's a good one:

The biggest problem with the reductive politics of cultural signifiers is that the signifiers are always in flux. For instance, in his quiz, Charles Murray asked, “Have you or your spouse ever bought a pickup truck?” Fifty years ago, ownership of a pickup truck may have indicated a hardscrabble lifestyle far removed from the metropolitan “bubble” — farmers, ranchers, loggers, and so on. This is no longer true. Despite an enormous decline in agricultural jobs (there was a 14 percent decrease in farm jobs alone from 2001 to 2013), the Ford F-150 (the base model of which starts at $27,000) has become the most popular vehicle in America, especially among those with an annual income of more than $200,000. Anyone with roots in the suburbs can testify that many a cul-de-sac is now lined with beefed-up Rams and Silverados used solely to commute to air-conditioned office jobs. What out-of-touch columnists consider bona-fide symbols of working-class authenticity are often just the hallmarks of well-off white suburbanites with bad taste.

Though the typist doesn't know when to stop w/ the both-sider-ism:

This kind of misguided prejudice is also apparent in liberal circles. A few months ago, Keith Olbermann, the unofficial head of the #Resistance, criticized Trump for hosting Sarah Palin, Ted Nugent, and Kid Rock at the White House, whom he called “trailer park trash.”

Classism aside, Olbermann fell into the same trap as Brooks, Murray, and others — he saw white people with bad fashion sense and assumed they must dwell at the bottom of the social hierarchy. Obviously, all three of Trump’s guests are now multimillionaires, but even pre-fame they were far removed from poverty. Sarah Palin’s hometown of Wasilla, Alaska is a suburb of Anchorage; her father was a science teacher and she enrolled in a four-year college immediately after high school. Ted Nugent was raised in the Chicago suburbs; Kid Rock the Detroit suburbs, where he grew up in a home that was recently put on the market for $1.3 million. Palin, Nugent, and Rock are exactly who the statistics show propelled Trump to victory — the comfortable white middle class.

Uh, calling out three phonies pretending to be trailer trash all the way to the bank is not really the same thing as Murray's idiocy & ignorance. "Trailer trash" is more a state of mind (or lack of a mind) than a "class" anyway. It's also very possible that, whatever their backgrounds, devolution may have occurred w/ the three mentioned. Which is probably what happened w/ this buffoon, who brought a thug from his security detail w/ him, 'cause he's a loud-mouthed chickenshit. (Was he afraid Mme. Christie would eat his nachos if he left them at his seat?)

At #Cubs #Brewers game. #ChrisChristie was getting razzed by fans, so he got in the face of one of them. 5:30 on @WISN12News pic.twitter.com/sx8euMgFy2

— Ben Hutchison (@BennyHutch) July 30, 2017

More Petty (Or Petticoat) Picking On Huckabee Sanders

Yes, we are concerned w/ shallow surface aspects. (We were under the impression Trump had a fit because Sean Spicer once wore a light colored suit & had put on some lbs.; if anyone in this world is shallow & superficial, it's Trump. We're just following his lead.) And it may well be that Huckabee Sanders' ensemble is supposed to look as if her slip is sagging. (It is a very even sag.) Not a good look for anyone over about ten, either way. And if not, it does seem incredibly disrespectful of the Executive Mansion.

Newly appointed White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders smiles as Anthony Scaramucci, incoming
White House communications director departs the daily press briefing at the White House on Friday, July 21st, 2017.
Andrew Harnik/AP

For added schadenfreude, read the item where we found the shot, predicting Scaramucci's quick demise three days ago. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

A Song For Scaramucci By the Spaniels

Time to go, sweetheart.

Psychopathia Sexualis

Recent phobic projection from REAL MEN.

Wayne Allen Root:

“Brilliant Donald Trump cements his support among every conservative, every Christian, every evangelical Christian and every straight white male in America,” Root crowed. “We are back! America is back! Thank God for Donald Trump. Thank God for common sense.”

“We’ve had it with this transgender issue,” he continued. “Do whatever you want in your bedroom, but you can’t go in the military, you cannot serve alongside the men and women who are fighting to save America [who] don’t want to be on the battlefront or in the fox holes with a he/she.” “You don’t get to fight in the military,” Root proclaimed. “Where does the U.S. Constitution say you have a right to not know if you have a penis or a vagina and sit in a fox hole and shoot people? ‘Cause you don’t have what it takes to sit in a fox hole and shoot people and the other men who do, don’t want to sit in a fox hole with you; they’re scared of you. They’re not scared of murdering communists, they’re not scared of crazy, murdering, set-you-on-fire Muslims, they’re scared of you who don’t know if you have a penis or a vagina! That’s who scares most straight men! Sorry to tell you. They don’t want to be near you. It’s like a freaking Nightmare on Elm Street if they see a bunch of transgenders walking towards them who don’t know if they are a man or a woman.”

“Those days are done,” Root celebrated. “Real men are in charge of the United States of America again, not the sissies called liberal men. Those days are over. The military is for real men ’cause your children’s lives are on the line.”

That's why they call it a "phobia". The snowflakes are scared.

Alex Jones:

On June 23, he accused “the left” of starting civil war and offered to personally execute convicted traitors because, he said, “I’m not going to sit here and just call for stuff without actually being part of it.” In the same broadcast he said, “I don’t need some coming-of-age deal to kill a bunch of liberals,” but “we have to start getting ready for insurrection and civil war because they’re really pushing it.”

On June 15, he warned “you kick off Civil War 2, baby, you’ll think Lexington and Concord was a cakewalk.” The day before, he implicated himself and his listeners: “You’re trying to start a civil war with people. You’re taking our kindness for weakness. Do you understand the American people will kill all of you? You understand? We are killing machines, you fools.… But I can shoot bull’s-eye at 400 yards, dumbass. I mean, they have no idea who they’re messing with."

In a May 13 broadcast, he warned that "leftists want a war," so “cry havoc and let loose the dogs of war.”

Jones has also called for extrajudicially arresting former FBI DIrector James Comey and Hillary Clinton and has encouraged Trump to use the military against dissenters. "I'd support the president right now moving against these people physically,” he said in a June 13 broadcast. “I mean, let's be honest. We're in a war. I would support the president making a military move on them right now."

This is not the first time Jones has attracted attention by advocating violence against federal officials. In April, he let loose with a rant on California Democrat Adam Schiff, the ranking minority member of the House Intelligence Committee looking into Trump’s Russian connections. The profanity laced transcript was also homophobic and included an explicit threat of bodily harm.

“I’m not against gay people. OK. I love them, they’re great folks. But Schiff looks like the archetypal cocksucker with those little deer-in-the-headlight eyes and all his stuff,” Jones said. “And there’s something about this fairy, hopping around, bossing everybody around, trying to intimidate people like me and you, I want to tell Congressman Schiff and all the rest of them, ‘Hey, listen, asshole, quit saying Roger and I’—and I’ve never used cussing in 22 years, but the gloves are off—‘listen, you son of a bitch, what the fuck’s your problem? You want to sit here and say that I’m a goddamn, fucking Russian. You get in my face with that, I’ll beat your goddamn ass, you son of a bitch. You piece of shit. You fucking goddamn fucker. Listen, fuckhead, you have fucking crossed a line. Get that through your goddamn fucking head. Stop pushing your shit. You’re the people that have fucked this country over and gangraped the shit out of it and lost an election. So stop shooting your mouth off claiming I’m the enemy. You got that you goddamn son of a bitch? Fill your hand.’ I’m sorry, but I’m done. You start calling me a foreign agent, those are fucking fighting words. Excuse me.”

Tim Johnson, a Media Matters for America Research Fellow, who tracks Jones says that the civil war theme is a new one, and probably related to the fact that Barack Obama is no longer president, offering a clear, single enemy. “He needs something new, and so it’s that criticism of Trump equals civil war,” Johnson said.

An attorney with expertise in federal law told Newsweek at the time that Jones’s threats at Schiff appeared to break a federal law, U.S. Code Title 18, Section 115, which makes it illegal to threaten to assault a U.S. official and provides a penalty of up to six years in prison.

After Newsweek published that legal analysis, Jones publicly pulled back, and posted a video attempting to clarify his remarks as “clearly tongue-in-cheek and basically art performance.”

Federal officials are not known to have contacted him or looked into the matter.

Big manly talk about beating the homos suddenly becomes sissy "performance art". Dollars to dough-nuts if you saw Jones in the supermarket & said "Boo!" to him he'd drown in a puddle of his own piss.

Rooty Tooty Fresh 'N Fruity® again, now telling us how real testosterone-saturated MEN talk:

Root, who just last month repeatedly voiced his disgust that Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand had cursed during a speech, couldn’t stop praising Scaramucci’s vulgarity or his amazing manliness.

“It looks like we’re getting the trannies out of the military and we’re getting the real men in the White House,” Root crowed as he bragged that he, like Scaramucci, grew up in New York and therefore knows how to fight and has no problem knocking people’s teeth out.

“Real men with testosterone, that’s what needs to run America,” he said. “He’s my kind of guy, he’s a real man with testosterone … We finally got people in office with personality instead of a bunch of country club losers and the whole world is freaking out that Trump is going to block transgenders from being in the military and that you’ve got guys like Trump and Scaramucci with our locker room conversation. You know what? This is the real world! Wake up. This is how you become successful. I’ve made millions of dollars in the business world and everyone I’ve dealt with talks like this.”

“In private, this is how guys talk,” Root continued, “and unfortunately, we have a society that doesn’t want men to be men anymore. You want men to be women! I’m sorry, men aren’t supposed to be women, men aren’t supposed to be gay, men aren’t supposed to be transgender, men are men! And you gotta let us be. We like football, we like wrestling, we like MMA, we like boxing, we like beautiful women in bikinis and we say it out loud and if you don’t like it, we don’t really give a damn. That’s what guys are like and Anthony Scaramucci and Donald Trump and Wayne Root are men and you know what? Tough.”

What ever will MR. MAN say now that his little friend Ant'ny The Mooch is already history? (Or that the actual military, not the one of Rooty's manly & not at all homo-erotic, no sir, fantasies pretty much laughed off Trump's "tranny ban"?)

Yes, He Probably Is This Effing Stupid

Or ignorant. Or both.

Donald Trump baffled many reporters this week when he told the New York Times that it was possible to buy health insurance for only $12 a year.

“You are basically saying from the moment the insurance, you’re 21 years old, you start working and you’re paying $12 a year for insurance, and by the time you’re 70, you get a nice plan,” the president said.

The Washington Post’s Philip Bump theorized that Trump mistook the way health insurance works with the way that life insurance works, although he still wasn’t certain where Trump got the “$12 a year” portion of his claim*.

Now Christopher Long, a Kentucky-based data scientist, thinks he’s found the answer.

In a tweet that quickly went viral on Saturday, Long theorized that Trump thinks you can get $12 health insurance because he saw a commercial for baby life insurance that regularly airs on Fox News.

“Why does Trump think health insurance costs $12/year? Because Gerber advertises life insurance for babies on Fox News for about that price,” Long wrote. “That’s right, Trump’s understanding of health insurance is so non-existent that he doesn’t even know it’s not the same as life insurance. Human life means so little to Trump he can’t even be bothered to spend seconds to understand critical things on the crudest, simplest level.”

The Gerber baby life insurance commercial promotes life insurance that costs $1 a week, which would work out to $52 per year. Additionally, the plan offers children $10,000 in insurance protection, which doubles to $20,000 when the child turns 18.

What’s more, the ad tells parents that the plan “builds cash value over time that you can borrow from later,” which may have been what Trump was talking about when he said that “by the time you’re 70, you get a nice plan.”

Sad, innit? Pathetic, even.

[Raw Story]

---

*Obvious to this reporter: Trump doesn't know the difference between a week & a month, let alone the difference between health insurance & term life insurance.

W.A.V.E.S. Ahoy!

THU 30 JUL 1942
Women's Naval Reserve (WAVES) (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) is established (see 2 August).

Pacific
Submarine Grenadier (SS-210) torpedoes Japanese tanker San Clemente Maru off Truk, 07°02'N, 151°15'E.

Gulf of Mexico
German submarine U-166 attacks convoy TAW 7 about 25 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, and sinks U.S. passenger ship Robert E. Lee, 28°40'N, 88°30'W. Submarine chasers PC-566 and SC-519, and civilian tug Underwriter rescue survivors; none of the six-man Armed Guard are lost (see 1 August).

Atlantic
U.S. freighter Cranford is sunk by German submarine U-155 about 250 miles east-southeast of Barbados, 12°17'N, 55°11'W. U-155 treats two injured American sailors and then provides the survivors with navigational information, matches, a line, and water. Running short of provisions, U-155 can spare none. Cranford's surviving complement (including 6 of 8 Armed Guard sailors) are eventually picked up later the same day by Spanish tanker Castillo Alemenara.

Last Round-Up (For A Few Wks.)

Mighty slim pickins. Is it too hot to type, web-loggers?

Speaking of last round-ups, I hope linking to Green Eagle on Weds. wasn't the straw that broke his web-logging back. Although I completely understand the feeling. As I've been saying for yrs. & yrs. & yrs. & yrs.: "WHY FUCKING BOTHER?"

50 Yrs. Ago Today (In History)

U.S.S. Forrestal fire. No, it wasn't John McCain's fault. However ...

McCain began as a sub-par flier who was at times careless and reckless; during the early to mid-1960s, two of his flight missions crashed and on a third mission the aircraft he was piloting "collided" with power lines, but he received no major injuries.

Slightly different version:

McCain's thrill-seeking carried over into his day job. Flying over the south of Spain one day, he decided to deviate from his flight plan. Rocketing along mere feet above the ground, his plane sliced through a power line. His self-described "daredevil clowning" plunged much of the area into a blackout.

The Doors hit #1 on the Hot 100. Some thought they stank.

By the beginning of 1967, The Doors were well-established members of the Los Angeles music scene. As the house band at the Whiskey a Go Go on the Sunset Strip, they had built a large local following and strong industry buzz, and out on the road, they were fast becoming known as a band that might typically receive third billing, but could blow better-known groups like The Young Rascals and The Grateful Dead off the stage. It would have been poetic if their popular breakthrough had come via their now-classic debut single, “Break On Through,” but that record failed to make the national sales charts despite the efforts of Jim Morrison and his bandmates to fuel the song’s popularity by repeatedly calling in requests for it to local L.A. radio stations. It was the follow-up release from their debut album, The Doors, which would become their first bona fide smash. “Light My Fire,” which earned the top spot in the Billboard Hot 100 on this day in 1967, transformed The Doors from cult favorites of the rock cognoscenti into international pop stars and avatars of the 60s counterculture.

As “Light My Fire” climbed the charts in June and early July, The Doors were out on the East Coast, still plugging away as an opening act (e.g., for Simon and Garfunkel in Forest Hills, Queens) and as sometime-headliners (e.g., in a Greenwich, Connecticut, high-school auditorium). When the group topped the charts in late July, Jim Morrison celebrated by buying his now-famous skintight black-leather suit and beginning to hobnob with the likes of the iconic model/muse Nico at drug-fueled parties held by Andy Warhol.

Attempting to keep Morrison grounded were not only his fellow Doors Robby Krieger, Ray Manzarek and John Densmore as well as the professional manager they had hired in part to “babysit” him, but also his longtime girlfriend Pamela Courson, who is quoted in Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman’s Doors biography No One Here Gets Out Alive (1980) as greeting the sight of Jim Morrison preening in front of a mirror at home before a show in the summer of 1967 with, “Oh Jim, are you going to wear the same leather pants again? You never change your clothes. You’re beginning to smell, did you know that?”

In the end, of course, Morrison’s heavy drinking and drug use would lead to increasingly erratic behavior over the next four years and eventually take his life in July 1971. During that period, The Doors would follow up “Light My Fire” with a string of era-defining albums and songs, including “People Are Strange,” “Love Me Two Times” and “The End” in 1967; “Hello, I Love You” and “Touch Me” in 1968; and “L.A. Woman” and “Riders on the Storm” in 1971.

Here's more crap if you give a shit. I sure as hell don't care enough to bother clicking, looking & linking.

[History]

Transparency Issues

WED 29 JUL 1942
Pacific
PBYs (VP 23) bomb Japanese bases in Tulagi-Gavutu area.

Survivors (47 in number, two merchant seamen having died during the 32-day ordeal in the 25-foot lifeboat) from U.S. freighter Potlatch, torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-153 on 27 June, reach Great Inagua Island, the Bahamas group; their search for water will take them thence to Little Inagua, and thence to Aklins Island. Ultimately picked up by steamship Vergermere, they reach Nassau on 1 August.

[Guessing (assuming, even) that second paragraph should be under the "Atlantic" heading. And the sinking of the Potlatch wasn't in the 27 JUN report.]

Heading Toward The Corral

Our penultimate round-up at C&L. Enjoy it while it lasts.

One Way To "Drain The Swamp" (Or Evaporate It)

North Korea Just Tested a Missile That Could Likely Reach Washington DC With a Nuclear Weapon

Even with early data, North Korea’s July 28 missile launch answers questions about the capability of its ICBMS.

Certainly seems as if the Democratic Peoples could hit Los Angeles (Or how 'bout San Diego? Would not be missed.) so bring it the fucking hell on. I'm beyond tired of existence in this world of shit & pain.

Recently In Right-Wing Hypocrisy For Jeebus

How soon they forget. This from Mr. "Goat Fucking Child Molester". Does the "H." in Jesus H. Christ stand for Hypocritical?

— M. Bouffant (@MBouffant) July 29, 2017

Local Tornado Action: Smokin'!

Tornado of smoke from the Gorman Fire, most open flame put out, holding at about 75 acres. @FOXLA pic.twitter.com/cypqUKk8zy

— Kevin Takumi (@KevinTakumi) July 29, 2017

"A regular picturesque
Postcardy mountain
Residing between lovely
Rosamond and Gorman"

The Quick & The Dead

TUE 28 JUL 1942
Atlantic
Unarmed U.S. fishing trawler Ebb is shelled and sunk by German submarine U-754 45 miles east of Cape Sable, Nova Scotia, 43°18'N, 63°50'W; five of the 17-man crew are killed, seven are wounded. British destroyer HMS Witherington rescues the 12 survivors.

British merchantman Winchester Castle rescues the 40 survivors of U.S. freighter Honolulan, sunk by German submarine U-582 on 22 July.

Arctic
U.S. freighter Winston Salem, the last straggler from convoy PQ 17, arrives at the port of Molotovsk. PQ 17 has lost 24 ships in the course of its ordeal.

Six Down, Uno To Go

Here's No. 5. ("Six down" because numero six, for tomorrow, is already in the can.)

Let's Worry About The Rapists In The Military Before Getting Pissy About The Transgendered

Jarhead in action:

A 28-year-old Marine Corps recruiter was arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl he coached on the Marina High School track team, Huntington Beach police reported Thursday.

Gonzalo Castro of San Clemente was booked Wednesday, according to Huntington Beach police Officer Angela Bennett.

The teen recently contacted police, alleging Castro had sexually assaulted her at the end of the school year, Bennett said.

The girl said she met Castro during the most recent track season when he was a volunteer coach and alleged she was assaulted during an “off-campus training run,” the officer said.

Castro is a sergeant based out of the Marine Corps’ Costa Mesa recruiting office, Bennett said. He has done recruiting for the Marines at both Marina High and Ocean View High School, Bennett said.

Castro posted bail after his arrest, she said, pending the possible filing of charges by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

–City News Service

Killing babies on the other side of the world, then raping our children when they get home. How is the U.S. military any better than Trump's latest boogey-men, MS-13?

Kiska Clusterfuck

MON 27 JUL 1942
General
Army-Navy Petroleum Board is established.

Pacific
TF 8 approaches Kiska to bombard Japanese positions but limited surface visibility results in the operation being postponed. During the retirement, however, high speed minesweeper Lamberton (DMS-2) accidentally rams high speed minesweeper Chandler (DMS-9). While investigating that collision, destroyer Monaghan (DD-354) and high speed minesweeper Lamberton (DMS-12) collide; both of those ships suffer damage as well.

Light cruiser Boise (CL-47) departs Pearl Harbor to proceed, via Midway, toward the Japanese home islands to emit enough radio traffic to create the impression of an approaching American task force, as well as to locate and destroy small patrol vessels operating off Honshu.

USAAF B-26s damage Japanese transport Kotoku Maru off Buna, New Guinea (see 8 August).

Submarine Spearfish (SS-190) damages Japanese submarine depot ship Rio de Janeiro Maru 95 miles east of Cam Ranh Bay, French Indochina, 11°28'N, 110°52'E.

Dutch submarine O-23 damages Japanese coaster No.2 Shofuku Maru south of Penang, Malaya, 05°07'N, 98°50'E.

Atlantic
U.S. freighter Stella Lykes is torpedoed and shelled by German submarine U-582 off the west coast of Africa at 06°46'N, 24°55'W, and abandoned with no casualties. U-582 takes two POWs, provides the Americans with cigarettes and medical supplies, and then scuttles her quarry with demolition charges before departing (see 6 August).

Gulf of Mexico
German submarine U-166 completes mining the waters off the Mississippi River Passes.

Today's Extracurricular Effort

Ratcheer.

New Hope For The Wretched

It's Happened Before, It'll Happen Again:

On this day in 1974, the House Judiciary Committee recommends that America’s 37th president, Richard M. Nixon, be impeached and removed from office. The impeachment proceedings resulted from a series of political scandals involving the Nixon administration that came to be collectively known as Watergate.

[History]

Sensing That Another "Benghazi!1!!1" Is About To Happen

How will Trump excuse it when the next consular office/C.I.A. station is attacked & burned to the ground w/ loss of (U.S. Gov't. employee) life? Will he call for Sec. of State Tillerson to be "locked up"?

Josh Rogin / Washington Post:

State Department head of diplomatic security resigns  —  The head of the State Department's diplomatic security bureau has resigned and will leave his post on Thursday, leaving the two top positions vacant for the foreseeable future in the bureau in charge of embassy security around the world.

RELATED:

 CBS News:
State Department feels the pain of vacancies

Discussion:

Conor Finnegan / ABC News:   Top diplomatic security official leaving State Dept. while dozens of other positions remain vacant

Also note: Typist Rogin of the WaPo up there might want to look up a little something called syntax & learn more about it. Sheesh.

Shirtless 70-Yr. Old Force Of Nature Will Not Stop The Rock!

Der Ig at local "fest", via laist. Click for stills of crepey skin. Maybe he should call Jane Seymour & get a case of Crepe Erase®.

Just One Rescue

SUN 26 JUL 1942
Pacific
Destroyer Worden (DD-352) and oiler Platte (AO-24) rescue survivors of Dutch motorship Tjinegara, which had been sunk by Japanese submarine I-169 about 75 miles southeast of Nouméa, New Caledonia, 23°10'S, 165°00'E, on 25 July.

Hey, just a ding-dong minute here! The Tjinegara wasn't mentioned in yesterday's report. COULD THE GOVERNMENT HAVE BEEN LYING TO US?

Shadow Gummint At 70

Cold War

1947

Truman signs the National Security Act

The National Security Act had three main parts. First, it streamlined and unified the nation’s military establishment by bringing together the Navy Department and War Department under a new Department of Defense. This department would facilitate control and utilization of the nation’s growing military. Second, the act established the National Security Council (NSC). Based in the White House, the NSC was supposed to serve as a coordinating agency, sifting through the increasing flow of diplomatic and intelligence information in order to provide the president with brief but detailed reports. Finally, the act set up the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The CIA replaced the Central Intelligence Group, which had been established in 1946 to coordinate the intelligence-gathering activities of the various military branches and the Department of State. The CIA, however, was to be much more–it was a separate agency, designed not only to gather intelligence but also to carry out covert operations in foreign nations.

The National Security Act formally took effect in September 1947. Since that time, the Department of Defense, NSC, and CIA have grown steadily in terms of size, budgets, and power. The Department of Defense, housed in the Pentagon, controls a budget that many Third World nations would envy. The NSC rapidly became not simply an information organizing agency, but one that was active in the formation of foreign policy. The CIA also grew in power over the course of the Cold War, becoming involved in numerous covert operations. Most notable of these was the failed Bay of Pigs operation of 1961, in which Cuban refugees, trained and armed by the CIA, were unleashed against the communist regime of Fidel Castro. The mission was a disaster, with most of the attackers either killed or captured in a short time.

Gawd damn America!

Hump Day

It Must Be A Camel (1969)

Today's C&L aggregation submission.

Politics: Show Bidnis For The Not-Actually Disfigured

The Hill makes a People-like list of the 50 least ugly of Washington, D.C.'s swamp creatures. Shallow, superficial, concerned only w/ surfaces & totally w/o substance. (Like most Americans. Completely empty.) Which fucking century/millennium are we in again, that we're making "hot-or-not" lists?

Although we must credit the lame hacks for finding pictures taken of Trump's Mail Order Bride Mark II at a time when enough of the Botox had worn off that Mel was able to move some facial muscles to form something other than that squinting, affect-less glower in which her face seems stuck most of the time.

Valley Moron Wayne Gets His, Finally

Wayne from ENCINO, noted here over a yr. ago, has at last been rendered some justice, 'though not enough punishment in this reporter's opinion. He's an armed loon; put him behind bars until he's no longer a threat to anyone. Whatever happened to zero-tolerance & full sentences? No more plea bargains for punks, damnit!!

Hoping History Repeats Soon

25th Amendment, anyone?

On this day in 1943, Benito Mussolini, fascist dictator of Italy, is voted out of power by his own Grand Council and arrested upon leaving a meeting with King Vittorio Emanuele, who tells Il Duce that the war is lost. Mussolini responded to it all with an uncharacteristic meekness.

During the evening of July 24 and the early hours of the 25th, the Grand Council of the fascist government met to discuss the immediate future of Italy. While all in attendance were jittery about countermanding their leader, Mussolini was sick, tired, and overwhelmed by the military reverses suffered by the Italian military. He seemed to be looking for a way out of power. One of the more reasonable within the Council, Dino Grandi, argued that the dictatorship had brought Italy to the brink of military disaster, elevated incompetents to levels of power, and alienated large portions of the population. He proposed a vote to transfer some of the leader’s power to the king. The motion was passed, with Mussolini barely reacting. While some extremists balked, and would later try to convince Mussolini to have those who voted with Grandi arrested, Il Duce was simply paralyzed, unable to choose any course of action.

Shortly after the Grand Council vote, Mussolini, groggy and unshaven, kept his routine 20-minute meeting with the king, during which he normally updated Victor Emanuele on the current state of affairs. This morning, the king informed Mussolini that General Pietro Badoglio would assume the powers of prime minister and that the war was all but lost for the Italians. Mussolini offered no objection. Upon leaving the meeting, he was arrested by the police, who had been secretly planning a pretext to remove the leader for quite some time. They now had the Council vote of “no confidence” as their formal rationale. Assured of his personal safety, Mussolini acquiesced to this too, as he had to everything else leading up to this pitiful denouement. When news of Mussolini’s arrest was made public, relief seemed to be the prevailing mood. There was no attempt by fellow fascists to rescue him from the penal settlement on the island of Ponza to which he was committed. The only remaining question was whether Italy would continue to fight alongside its German allies or surrender to the Allies.

Betcha Trump'll be the same way when they come for him: Groggy, unshaven, barely reacting, uncharacteristically meek, sick, tired, overwhelmed, paralyzed, & w/o support from his fellow fascists. String him up in a gas station!!

Saturday Off

No war today, come back tomorrow.

Still Stupid After All These Yrs.

Those glasses don't fool anybody for even a miniute, dimbulb.

Cleve R. Wootson Jr / Washington Post: 
Rick Perry thought he was talking to a world leader about pig manure. It was a prank call.

Discussion:

Elizabeth Preza / Raw Story:   LISTEN: Rick Perry targeted by Russian pranksters in call about using pig manure as biofuel

Justin Baragona / Mediaite:   Oops! Rick Perry Falls For Russian Pranksters, Gives Them 22-Minute Phony Interview

Hannah Gold / Jezebel:   Rick Perry Earnestly Discussed Pig Shit With a Couple of Russian Pranksters

Did Stupid's handlers tell him he had to take the call, because they were Russians?

"Cut 'em out, ride 'em in, Ride 'em in, let 'em out, Cut 'em out, ride 'em in Rawhide!"

Today's (yesterday's, really) effort in rounding up dogies may be found here. Yee-haw!!

Narwhal Trifecta

FRI 24 JUL 1942
Pacific
Submarine Narwhal (SS-167) sinks Japanese guardboat No.83 Shinsei Maru, Utasutsu Bay, Hokkaido, 44°53'N, 147°09'E, and merchant cargo ships Nissho Maru off Etorofu, 45°09'N, 147°31'E, and Kofuji Maru off Oito, 45°14'N, 147°31'E.

Arctic
Survivors of U.S. freighter Carlton (sunk by U-88 on 5 July) reach North Cape, Norway, where they become POWs. During the ordeal in the lifeboat, one man dies shortly before they make landfall.

America's Foremost Neurological Music Combo Sings The Songs Of John McCain

"There's a hole, there's a hole in my head!"Angry Samoans - Inside My BrainInspired by Snarki, child of Loki, at LG&M:

McCain would have to have a hole in his head to ignore medical advice and rush back to the Senate for the vote.

Fortunately for McConnell, he does.

M.B. Round-Up (Not Monsanto's Poisonous "ROUNDUP") 'Though It Could Be Poisonous

Click yourselves there, & then click on everything there once you're there. (I need the work.)

Prior bitching (three items down) aside, the one thing that does get to me about rounding 'em up is that I've already done the Tues. round-up (deadlines) & am half-laboring under the impression that today, right here, right now, is Tuesday. An especial drag when the quick passage of time until my gummint monies arrive is the only sincere concern or interest I can afford.

Bad Luck Former Master

THU 23 JUL 1942
Atlantic
Unarmed U.S. freighter Onondaga, bound for Havana, Cuba, is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-129 five miles north of Cayo Guillermo, 22°40'N, 78°40'W. Nineteen of the 33-man crew die in the attack, as does the sole passenger, the former master of U.S. freighter Thomas McKean (sunk by German submarine U-505 on 29 June). Cuban fishing boat Laventina rescues the 14 survivors.

There's A Riot Going On!

It was 50 yrs. ago today ...

The 1967 Detroit Riots were among the most violent and destructive riots in U.S. history. By the time the bloodshed, burning and looting ended after five days, 43 people were dead, 342 injured, nearly 1,400 buildings had been burned and some 7,000 National Guard and U.S. Army troops had been called into service.

N.P.R. talks to former Sen. Fred Harris, last surviving member of the Kerner Commission L.B.J. established to ... to ... uh, well, not really to get at any truth, anyway.

HARRIS: Well, the president got bad information. Somebody from inside the commission leaked a copy of the report in advance. And a member of the Congress who was his real close friend read it, called the president and said to him, this report is just going to ruin you. It encourages and condones riots, and it doesn't have a good word to say about anything you've done on civil rights and against poverty. That was all wrong, but the president believed it. And so he canceled the formal meeting we'd set up to deliver the report and he rejected it.

SIEGEL: He disowned the report of the very commission that he had established is what you're saying.

Just fuck Lyndon ("I'd look like a pin-dick if I pulled outta 'Nam") Johnson, y'know?

Another Wk. Of Typing* Ahead

Doing "Mike's Blog Round-Up" (Who was this mysterious Mike, anyway?) chez CROOKS AND LIARS this Mon., that is, tomorrow, 24 July through Sun. 30 July.

(Sweet Blood Of Jesus, everything is an imposition innit, including the autonomous brain functions that keep this reporter breathing. Stop already. I'm tired.)

So if you're the kind of early '00s person who still uses a web-log, rather than spewing on a more contemporary platform like Facespace, Tweeter, CrapChat, InstaShit or whatever, good for you & watch out; I may send you viral. (Not actually. No one reads this or anything worthwhile these days. We're merely voices in the wilderness.)

Really shouldn't complain, as this is as legit an excuse as any (NOT THAT I FUCKING NEED ONE! "I don't owe you fuckers anything & all I've got to say is ...") not to bother typing anything beyond historical extracts around this dump. (That, &/or not being able to pay all of the cable telebision/iNternet bill. See 23 June through 2 July this yr. Good thing I scheduled the 1942 crap. Note to self: Better get started on August '42 before it's too late.)

Reality check: Thanks again to tengrain, for suggesting me, & to Blue Gal, for going along.

---

*FULL DISCLOSURE: It's really just advanced hunting & pecking.

Contempt For The Audience

Johnny Hart, "the most widely read Christian of our time," has been dead for over seven yrs. Not that you'd know it, as his name is still splashed on two strips that run to this day. We hope this act of contempt & sloth made under his name has him spinning in his grave.

From 22 July 2017, B.C.:

Same date, The Wizard of Id:

Jesus, you stupid hack motherfuckers, if you're out of fucking ideas just get out of the business already!

More Ugly History

A California event of which I had not previously known. The filthy hypocrisy of this nation of fucking sheep & its bullshit legal system never ceases to amaze me, even after 101 yrs.

General Interest

1916

The Preparedness Day bombing

In San Francisco, a bomb at a Preparedness Day parade on Market Street kills 10 people and wounds 40. The bomb was hidden in a suitcase. The parade was organized by the city’s Chamber of Commerce in support of America’s possible entrance into World War I. San Francisco was suffering through severe labor strife at the time, and many suspected that anti-war labor radicals were responsible for the terrorist attack.

Labor leader Tom Mooney, his wife Rena, his assistant Warren K. Billings, and two others were soon charged by District Attorney Charles Fickert with the bombing. The case attracted international interest because all evidence, with the exception of a handful of questionable witness accounts, seemed to point unquestionably to their innocence. Even after confessions of perjured testimony were made in the courtroom, the trial continued, and in 1917 Mooney and Billings were convicted of first-degree murder, with Billings sentenced to life imprisonment and Mooney sentenced to hang. The other three defendants were acquitted. Responding to international outrage at the conviction, President Woodrow Wilson set up a “mediation commission” to investigate the case, and no clear evidence of their guilt was found. In 1918, Mooney’s sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.

During the next two decades, many groups and individuals petitioned California to grant the two men a new trial. By 1939, when evidence of perjury and false testimony at the trial had become overwhelming, newly elected Governor Culbert Olson pardoned Mooney and commuted Billing’s sentence to time served. Billings was not officially pardoned until 1961.

And One Stowaway

WED 22 JUL 1942
Pacific
USAAF planes (B-17s, B-25s and B-26s are utilized in the attacks) attack Japanese shipping off Buna, New Guinea, damaging destroyer Uzuki and sinking army cargo ship Ayatosan Maru, 08°50'S, 148°50'E.

U.S. freighter William Dawes is torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-24 off the coast of Australia at 36°47'S, 150°16'E; four of the 15-man Armed Guard, and one (of five) Army passengers are killed in the attack, but there are no casualties among the 40 merchant seamen who make up the ship's complement. Survivors row toward the coast, where fishing boats tow them the remainder of the way. The burning William Dawes sinks the next day.

Atlantic
Unarmed U.S. freighter Honolulan is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-582 off the west coast of Africa at 08°41'N, 22°12'W. U-582 provides the Americans with cigarettes and question them briefly before departing. There are no casualties among the 39-man crew and one stowaway (see 28 July).

Norwegian freighter Triton rescues survivors from U.S. freighter William F. Humphrey, sunk by German auxiliary cruiser Michel (Schiffe 28) in the South Atlantic on 16 July.

Arctic
German submarine rescues last survivors from lifeboat from U.S. freighter Honomu, sunk on 5 July 1942. Nine of the 19 men in the lifeboat have perished of exposure during their ordeal.

D (For Dillinger) Day

History blows again & again:

Crime

1923

Dillinger joins the Navy in an attempt to avoid prosecution

John Herbert Dillinger joins the Navy in order to avoid charges of auto theft in Indiana, marking the beginning of America’s most notorious criminal’s downfall. Years later, Dillinger’s reputation was forged in a single 12-month period, during which he robbed more banks than Jesse James did in 15 years and became the most wanted fugitive in the nation.

Dillinger didn’t last in the Navy very long. Within months he had gone AWOL several times–the last time in December 1923. Making his way back to Indiana, he was arrested for armed robbery the following summer. Dillinger pled guilty, thinking that he would receive a light sentence, but instead got 10 to 20 years. His first words to the warden at the prison were, “I won’t cause you any trouble except to escape.” A man of his word, Dillinger had attempted to escape three times by the end of the year.

Between escape attempts, Dillinger became friendly with some of the more professional thieves in the prison. After he was finally paroled in May 1933, Dillinger hooked up with his new friends and began robbing banks throughout the Midwest. He also began planning to break his friends out of prison. In September, he smuggled guns to Harry Pierpont, who led a 10-man break from the Michigan City prison.

General Interest

1934

Dillinger gunned down

Outside Chicago’s Biograph Theatre, notorious criminal John Dillinger–America’s “Public Enemy No. 1″–is killed in a hail of bullets fired by federal agents. In a fiery bank-robbing career that lasted just over a year, Dillinger and his associates robbed 11 banks for more than $300,000, broke jail and narrowly escaped capture multiple times, and killed seven police officers and three federal agents.

John Dillinger was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1903. A juvenile delinquent, he was arrested in 1924 after a botched mugging. He pleaded guilty, hoping for clemency, but was sentenced to 10 to 20 years at Pendleton Reformatory. While in prison, he made several failed escapes and was adopted by a group of professional bank robbers led by Harry Pierpont, who taught him the ways of their trade. When his friends were transferred to Indiana’s tough Michigan City Prison, he requested to be transferred there too.

In May 1933, Dillinger was paroled, and he met up with accomplices of Pierpont. Dillinger’s plan was to raise enough funds to finance a prison break by Pierpont and the others, who then would take him on as a member of their elite robbery gang. In four months, Dillinger and his gang robbed four Indiana and Ohio banks, two grocery stores, and a drug store for a total of more than $40,000. He gained notoriety as a sharply dressed and athletic gunman who at one bank leapt over the high teller railing into the vault.

As B/4,
M.B.

War On ChristiansHypocrites

Seven months ago:

Ole Miss is still waiting on the results of an NCAA investigation into the program. And according to one recruit, head coach Hugh Freeze implied the NCAA is going after the program because of his outspoken religious beliefs.

[...]

At the Under Armour All-America Game this week, 4-star CB Chevin Calloway* was asked about what Ole Miss is saying to recruits about the investigation.

“Well, Coach Freeze told me when you’re that big and out there with faith in Christ, he’s like, ‘What do you expect? Jesus got nailed to the cross,’” Calloway said, according to SB Nation’s Morgan Moriarty. “So, he was just telling me sometimes things like that happen, but that’s never going to change how he’s going to treat his players and take care of them.”

The Rebels were under investigation because of possible recruiting violations before last season. The NCAA ramped up its investigation earlier this year after former Ole Miss LT Laremy Tunsil said he took money from coaches during his time in Oxford.

Freeze has often spoken publicly about his Christian faith. He frequently tweets out bible verses and speaks about his beliefs.

Well of course. Couldn't possibly be about the violations he committed (& apparently tried to blame on his predecessor). First refuge of a scoundrel: Hiding behind Jesus's skirtsrobe. (Call it what you will, the Son of Gawd's not wearing pants like a man.) The N.C.A.A. are really after him for being an obnoxious loudmouth about his bullshit beliefs.

Then he's caught living up to those Ten Commandments like the big-time two-faced Christian he is:

Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze resigns amid discovery of call to escort service

Freeze resigned from Ole Miss in light of a
'pattern of personal misconduct'

Stiil waiting for the Big Fucking Killer In The Sky to do something, anything, about his pathetic worshippers in this world of shit & pain using him as a cover &/or excuse. (Or just to do one damned thing to make this world even slightly less shitty & painful. Allegedly his creation, doesn't he care? Where is he? Why have you forsaken us, fairy tale?)

---

*Hope Ole Miss provides enough education to its football slaves that chump-ass Calloway will understand the concept of affinity fraud. Or was Freeze paying him, so he didn't want to ruin a good thing?

Plan B

TUE 21 JUL 1942
Pacific
Japanese forces occupy Buna, New Guinea, having been frustrated in their attempt to capture Port Moresby by sea (first at Lae-Salamaua and then at the Battle of the Coral Sea) in the first step of an overland campaign to take the same objective.

U.S. freighter Coast Farmer is sunk by Japanese submarine I-11 in the South Pacific at 35°23'S, 151°00'E. RAAF crash boat rescues the 40 survivors (who include the 7-man Armed Guard).

Gulf of Mexico
U.S. freighter William Cullen Bryant, in convoy TAW 4J, is torpedoed by German submarine U-84 in the Straits of Florida, 24°08'N, 82°23'W; all hands (40-man crew, 12-man Armed Guard, and 2 USN signalmen) abandon ship but later reboard the freighter; salvage vessel Willett (ARS-12) and civilian tug Moran tow William Cullen Bryant to Key West, Florida. She subsequently returns to service.

Failure to Disclose

Who's "failing" now?

Which of them there Ten Judeo-Xian Commandments covers lying again? Anxiously awaiting The Big Judeo-Xian-Mooslimb Fairy In The Sky smiting some of these lying sacks w/ a bolt of divine lightning. Holding my breath, even.

Fashion Notes From All Over

Advice to the wall-eyed:

Photo: Alex Wong / Getty Images

Poorly-applied & cheap false eyelashes do not conceal your defects.*

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who has been named White House press secretary, and incoming White House
communications director Anthony Scaramucci pass each other by the podium during the press briefing in the
Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, Friday, July 21, 2017.
(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Plus which: Doesn't the not at all shallow & certainly not concerned only w/ surfaces Trump want "good-looking" people representing his sorrily demented ass? And what's w/ the string of pearls? Is it still 1941 in the Trumplight Zone?

---

*If that's a glass eye, pardon the hell out of us. If it's just Huckabee genes, sucks to be you, Sarah!

Scaramucci!

Our previous note of & take on Trump's latest turkey, Tony-the-Wop. He was such a sack of obsequious crap then we couldn't help but give him our coveted Asshole Of The Day award. And now he's kissed enough Trump-ass to get an important position in an administration that is circling the toilet after a mere six months. Watch what inspired us at (3:27):

Pretty Much Nothing

MON 20 JUL 1942
General
Admiral William D. Leahy reports to President Roosevelt as Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy.

Pacific
Naval Operating Base and Naval Air Facility, Dutch Harbor, Alaska, are established.

Atlantic
German submarine U-66 mines the waters off Castries, St. Lucia.

No Jury Would Convict Me (Not That I Fucking Care Any More)

My very existence is being threatened by murderous scum.

Mulvaney has conceded that his stance on entitlement programs diverges from Trump’s purported views. During his confirmation hearings, Mulvaney defended his support for raising the eligibility age for Social Security to 70 years old and said he continues to back means-testing for Medicare. While the president’s budget this year didn’t cut Medicare or Social Security’s core retirement benefits, it did include cuts to Social Security’s supplemental-income and disability programs.

Politics are over, Mulvaney, you sack of Nazi crap; it's bullets, bombs & poison gas from here on. I'll take so many murdering scum Republicans w/ me it won't even be funny.

Doenitz Reassigns U-Boats

SUN 19 JUL 1942
Atlantic
Carrier Ranger (CV-4) in TF 22 ferries 72 USAAF P-40s (earmarked for ultimate delivery to Burma) to Accra off the Gold Coast of Africa.

With the successful operation of convoys off the East Coast of the United States, Admiral Doenitz orders the last U-boats deployed there (U-89, U-132, U-402, U-458 and U-754) reassigned to other hunting grounds.

Unarmed U.S. tug Keshena is sunk by mine east of Okracoke Island, North Carolina, 35°00'N, 75°45'E, while engaged in salvage work on torpedoed and mined Panamanian-flag tanker J.A. Mowinkel. Two men perish in the explosion, but the surviving crew (14 men and 1 woman) is rescued by a launch and taken to the Coast Guard station at Okracoke.

Another Homophobic Snowflake

Lobbyist files nuisance lawsuit.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Washington by Chris Sevier, who describes himself in the lawsuit as a “former Judge Advocate General, combat Veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, DC lobbyist, overseas missionary, whistleblower and recording artist.”

[...]

The suit “respectfully asks” that a judge force the four lawmakers to “remove the Gay Pride Rainbow Colored Flag on display.”

[...]

In his complaint, Sevier said that he feels unwelcome in public areas of federal buildings where rainbow flags are displayed and is unable to approach the defendants to perform his lobbying duties.

According to news reports, Sevier has filed suit in Utah and other states demanding the right to marry his laptop computer, in light of the same- sex marriage ruling.

Who's the "Safe Place Sissy" here?

Captured Loser Has The Big "C"

30 yrs. late:

Washington Post: 
Sen. John McCain diagnosed with brain cancer10 minutes ago

Discussion:

Catherine Garcia / The Week:   Sen. John McCain diagnosed with brain tumor

Before you say one fucking word about what a big fucking hero disturbed warmongerer John McCain was, read the fucking truth*:

It was a dangerous mission — taking the planes into the teeth of North Vietnam's fiercest anti-aircraft defenses. As the planes entered Hanoi airspace, they were instantly enveloped in dark clouds of flak and surface-to-air missiles. Still cocky from the previous day's kills, McCain took the biggest gamble of his life. As he dived in on the target in his A-4, his surface-to-air missile warning system sounded: A SAM had a lock on him. "I knew I should roll out and fly evasive maneuvers," McCain writes. "The A-4 is a small, fast" aircraft that "can outmaneuver a tracking SAM."

But no, so he lost yet another aircraft, & was captured. Then he started squealing to the North Vietnamese. Plenty of other dirt on what a privileged sack of shit this spoiled brat was in the article. (Which has a few paragraphs out of sequence. Good fucking job, Rolling Stone. There is no competence remaining anywhere in this world, is there?)

I suppose he'll just stay in the fucking Senate & continue voting for fascism until his brain starts dripping out his ears, like all the other Republican Senators.

And, lest we forget, another reason to condemn him to hell: Sarah fucking Palin:

McCain and Palin on stage at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn. (AP)

How many crimes aginst his country & comrades did he actually end up committing?

---

*A truth so obvious even a lump like Donald Trump was able to perceive it.

Local Action We Remember

Ah, Metro News-Metro News, from 40 yrs. ago. Basically News of the Weird on the telly, it was pretty funny at the time. For all we know, it might be as amusing today.

Bill Smith, the retired news veteran at KTTV Channel 11 and KTLA Channel 5, died last week at age 74. His colleague Sam Rubin remembered Smith in the KTLA Morning News clip above. Sam name-checks "Metro News-Metro News," the irreverent news show that Channel 11 aired after "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" in the 1970s. Smith was co-anchor with Chuck Ashman. He also had been news director and Dick Whittington's producer at KGIL radio, on the air with Wink Martindale at KABC radio, and at KNXT and the Sunland-Tujunga Record-Ledger. Here's a Deadline obit and the family's obit.

Can We Extend This Interesting Policy To Fox News Viewers?

Katherine Lam / Fox News:
North Korea firing squad carries out public executions in school yards, report says

Discussion:

Kate Scanlon / TheBlaze:   Report: North Korea carries out public executions for watching South Korean media

Ryan Pickrell / The Daily Caller:   North Korean Police Beat People To Death To Avoid Wasting Bullets In Brutal Public Executions