Monday, July 1, 2019

WATCH: John Chapman’s Fight, First-Ever Medal of Honor Action Recorded

Via Knuckle Draggin' My Life Away


In what is being called the first recorded action of a Medal of Honor recipient, author Dan Schilling narrates the relentless, fighting hero: John Chapman.

Air Force Technical Sgt. John A. Chapman proved himself in battle like few others. Posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for actions in Afghanistan in 2002, a new book by Dan Schilling, entitled “Alone at Dawn,” chronicles Chapman’s heroic exploits that fateful day.

Undermining Jefferson Davis’ Sable Arm

Image result for Grant’s Secret Service: The Intelligence War from Belmont to Appomattox, William B. Fei

 In early 1863 General Joseph Hooker, then-commander of the Army of the Potomac, created the Bureau of Military Intelligence (BMI) which was under the guidance of deputy provost marshal Col. George H. Sharpe. Much of his information came from Union League and paid informants within unoccupied areas who reported Southern military movements.

Unfortunately for General Grant’s men in 1864 Virginia, their commander “stubbornly adhered to the notion that the Confederates teetered on the brink of collapse,” a belief fostered by regular misinformation delivered by Sharpe’s agents. One historian’s observation of Grant’s generalship during the Virginia Campaign concluded that the Union general-in-chief “relied on chance and improvisation to an extraordinary degree,” which sacrificed the lives of many blue-clad soldiers.

Had the Confederacy fielded black troops in early 1865 as in Col. Sharpe’s scenario below, they might well have forced a stalemate in Virginia and North Carolina.
www.Circa1865.org   The Great American Political Divide

Undermining Jefferson Davis’ Sable Arm

“Perhaps the most interesting concern for the BMI that winter [of 1864-1865] was the Confederacy’s decision to arm blacks to fight for Southern independence. Davis had advocated the recruitment of blacks for service in the Confederate armies since November 1864, and the following March the Confederate Congress, after much argument, authorized the use of these men in combat roles.

Three days after the House passed the bill, Sharpe wrote a fascinating analysis on how black Confederates, which he estimated would total as many as two hundred thousand, might be employed by the enemy and what the North could do to undermine this potential advantage.

If Lee placed fifty thousand black troops in the Richmond-Petersburg lines, Sharpe reasoned, he could defend these key points while freeing a “movable column” of white troops to “throw upon any threatened point, or for unexpected and diverting attacks.”

Black troops deployed similarly at Danville, Gordonsville, and Lynchburg might be decisive. “[W]ill not negro troops . . . be able to hold these points,” he asked, “and will not the white forces still under the control of the Confederacy be substantially free for supporting and aggressive movements?”

This troubling scenario led Sharpe to consider ways of ending this experiment “before, by habit, discipline and experience with arms, they shall have grown to that aptitude of a soldier which will bring them to obey orders under any circumstances.” In any event, he wished to avoid testing his hypothesis.

Sharpe proposed a covert operation using blacks from Union ranks to slip into Richmond and sow discontent among the new recruits and foment mass desertion. This plan could work, he concluded, because “Negroes are an eminently secret people; they have a system of understanding amounting to almost freemasonry among them; they will trust each other when they will not trust white men.” Though the Confederacy’s bold experiment never really developed, the BMI carefully monitored these efforts until the war’s end.”

(Grant’s Secret Service: The Intelligence War from Belmont to Appomattox, William B. Feis, University of Nebraska Press, 2002, excerpts pp. 260-261)

Total War on the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia

Winchester VA Confederate Monument

On June 27, 1863, near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania--just days before the momentous Battle of Gettysburg, Confederate General Robert E. Lee issued a general order to the Army of Northern Virginia, praising them for their honorable conduct thus far in their march into Union territory, but cautioning them on their continuing responsibility to respect all private property and the lives of all noncombatants.
“The commanding general considers no greater disgrace could befall the army, and through it our whole people, than the perpetration of the barbarous outrages upon the unarmed and defenseless and the wanton destruction of private property, that have marked the course of the enemy in our own country…It must be remembered that we make war only upon armed men, and that we cannot take vengeance for the wrongs our people have suffered…without offending against Him to whom vengeance belongeth, without whose favor and support our efforts must all prove in vain.”

School Girls in Áo Dàis

Via Dương Hồng Ánh Nguyệt


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Ted Cruz Calls for FBI to ‘Investigate and Bring Legal Action’ Against Portland Mayor

 In this Jan. 17, 2017 photo, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler speaks during a press conference in Portland, Ore. Wheeler is condemning the actions of some protesters after a May Day march took a violent turn in Portland Monday, May 1, 2017. (AP Photo/Don Ryan)

What happened to @MrAndyNgo is horrible and inexcusable. The @tedwheeler should be resign for what he has done to . I feel bad for the @PortlandPolice having their hands tied. The socialists with are dangerous and un-American.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz has called on both the FBI and the Department of Justice to investigate Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler.

“To law enforcement: find & prosecute these violent felons,” Cruz tweeted after the violent left-wing Antifa attacks on Saturday. “To federal law enforcement,” he wrote. “Investigate & bring legal action against a Mayor who has, for political reasons, ordered his police officers to let citizens be attacked by domestic terrorists.”

More @ Breitbart

Salvadoran Pres. Issues Game-Changing Announcement on Border Death of Father, Daughter That Media Blamed on Trump

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"It Is Our Fault."

In perhaps the most shocking announcement from a Latin-American leader in recent memory, El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, admitted Sunday that his country is at fault for the deaths of its citizens attempting to enter the U.S. illegally.

The announcement received little attention at first, but a newly released video of the Bukele actually issuing the statement has prompted more interest.

More @ WJ

Trump Deregulation Will Boost Household Income by $3,100, Report Finds


The Trump administration deregulation efforts will raise incomes by about $3,100 per household over the next five to 10 years, and sharply reduce prices for consumers, according to a report released Friday by the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

“The deregulatory efforts of the Trump administration have also removed mandates from employers, especially smaller businesses, and have removed burdens that would have eliminated many small bank lenders from the marketplace,” Casey Mulligan, the chief economist for the Council of Economic Advisers, told reporters Friday. “These deregulatory actions are raising real incomes by increasing competition, productivity, and wages.”

Mortality of Soviet Prisoners of War in German Captivity during World War II

Via Reborn

 Related image
Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941 is widely interpreted by historians as an unprovoked act of aggression by Germany. Adolf Hitler is typically described as an untrustworthy liar who broke the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact he had signed with the Soviet Union. Historians usually depict Josef Stalin as an unprepared victim of Hitler’s aggression who was foolish to have trusted Hitler.[1] Many historians think the Soviet Union was lucky to have survived Germany’s attack.

This standard version of history does not incorporate information from the Soviet archives, which shows that the Soviet Union had amassed the largest and best equipped army in history. The Soviet Union was on the verge of launching a massive military offensive against all of Europe. Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union was a desperate preemptive attack that prevented the Soviet Union from conquering all of Europe. Germany was totally unprepared for a prolonged war against an opponent as powerful as the Soviet Union.          

White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham Hurt In 'All Out Brawl' With North Korean Guards

 

She's only been on the job a few days but already Stephanie Grisham has been in the thick of it as White House press secretary.
 
As President Donald Trump met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un in the de-militarized zone between North and South Korea early Sunday, Grisham suffered bumps and bruises in an "all out brawl" with Kim Jong Un's guards, according to Fox News.

July 1st, 1863


Clickable

Good morning Brock

Being July 1st some of us are imagining the heat, smells, sights, and sounds that might have enveloped the men of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia on July 1st, 1863.

Try as I might, and it is with considerable effort time and again over these many years, I cannot put myself completely in the place of those men:  Those times with those persuasions and influences cannot be recreated in the mind of a modern man.  But we can try, can't we?  Not as a theater piece and not as some curiosity or quirk, but as an exercise to add perspective to our present place in human behavior, for those things that drove men in 1863 affect the men of today, like it or not.  And from them we can learn something about our motivations, preferences, and choices.

Best to you and yours.

--Dan

Boycott by Whites of South African Restaurant Reflects Growing Sense of Grievance

Via Billy


For many white children growing up in apartheid South Africa, the Spur Steak Ranches restaurant chain was a home away from home, offering kid-friendly meals and play areas with an American Wild West theme.

For their parents, the chain’s outposts served as the social center in many rural towns and in suburbs like Strand, a once-popular beach resort about 30 miles from Cape Town.

“A lot of people thought of Spur as their living room,” said Johan Pienaar, a brand consultant.