jgo
jgo's JournalOn This Day: Filipino massacre campaign by U.S. military - Mar. 5, 1906
(edited from Wikipedia)
"
The Bud Dajo Massacre: An American War Crime in The Philippines?
If asked to name atrocities carried out by the United States military, responses would most likely focus on Wounded Knee or the My Lai Massacre. Few would have knowledge of US military presence in the Philippines during the early 20th century, and fewer still would have heard of the Bud Dajo Massacre.
Sometimes euphemistically referred to as a “Battle”, the Bud Dajo Massacre was a counter-insurgency operation perpetrated by the US Army in 1906 against Filipino Muslims - known as the Moros - who had sought refuge at Bud Dajo, a volcanic crater on the island of Jojo. Despite the appalling death toll – as high as 1,000 Moros by some estimates – the Bud Dajo Massacre does not feature prominently in histories of the US military, US imperialism, or in popular understandings of US power projected abroad.
With the outer rim secured, US forces spent the night heaving mountain guns up to the edge of Bud Dajo. At first light the blood bath began. The guns, positioned carefully to allow a sweeping arc of bullets to be rained down on Moro defences, opened fire. What exactly happened next is difficult to determine. One account suggests that the defenders retaliated, using a mixture of kalis, barung and homemade grenades improvised from black powder and seashells. Another claims that all Moros fortified in the crater perished. Without dwelling on the inconsistencies, all accounts concur that few, if any, Moros survived. The corpses piled five deep, with many of the bodies wounded multiple times. Where twenty-one Americans lost their lives, Moro casualties ran as high as 1,000. This figure includes women and children.
U.S. Army embroiled in public relations nightmare
Mark Twain also condemned the massacre. "In what way was it a battle? It has no resemblance to a battle ... We cleaned up our four days' work and made it complete by butchering these helpless people”. Such coverage fuelled public cynicism about the role of the US in both the Spanish-American War and the Philippine-American War. The protracted conflict with the Moros was not common knowledge, and many were appalled to learn of the killings.
"
https://www.historyisnowmagazine.com/blog/2023/4/16/the-bud-dajo-massacre-an-american-war-crime-in-the-philippines
(edited from article)
"
Genesis or Genocide? Leonard Wood, Theodore Roosevelt and the
White Man’s Empire in the Southern Philippines
Omar H. Dphrepaulezz1, 2016
On March 5, 1906, United States Army units under the command of Brigadier General Leonard Wood attacked a band of Filipino Muslims, Tausug Moros, who had taken refuge on Bud Dajo, a volcanic summit on Jolo Island in the Sulu archipelago of the southern Philippines. The operation culminated in the massacre of approximately 600 to 1000 men, women, and children. It fed outrage among anti-imperialists in the United States appalled at the carnage of empire building. Prior to the assault on Bud Dajo, Brigadier General Wood and his staff believed that the gathering on the summit was an opportunity to demonstrate U.S. military dominance and political authority in the region. In its aftermath Wood and his staff viewed the event as an extremely effective operation, which had met all its stated objectives.
It also exemplified an approach to dealing with the indigenous Muslim population, the Moros, which Wood had advocated since his arrival as Governor General of the southern Philippines, a territory renamed the Moro Provinces by the Philippines Commission in 1901. U.S. policy-makers had decided that the Moros were a savage people for whom “warfare was their religion and like a national sport” and who were incapable of self-rule.
Once the shooting ceased, General Wood gave the order to incinerate all the bodies in place and withdraw immediately, actions that resulted in an inaccurate count of bodies and weapons. Numerous reports by the attackers claimed that the Tausug used women and children as “shields,” claiming this tactic accounted for the great loss of life among them. The Colt Automatic Machine guns that destroyed the community Masjid
inflicted many deaths of non-combatant women, old people, and children. In addition many Tausug women willingly participated in the fight against the Americans. Instead of acknowledging the agency of the Tausug women as capable and willing to sacrifice their lives en masse, Americans participants attributed their deaths to the cowardice and barbarism of the “Moro race.” U.S. Army and Moro Constabulary forces
lost a total of twenty-one killed and seventy-three wounded. Approximately twenty-six Tausug prisoners were taken prisoner, and it was estimated that anywhere from fifty to one hundred Tausug Moros escaped down a fourth trail left unguarded.
Even though the army took control of its objective and considered the massacre at Bud Dajo a successful operation, not all Americans were so congratulatory. In particular, Secretary of War, and former Governor of the Philippines, William Howard Taft questioned the “wanton slaughter,” deaths of women and children, and subsequently requested Wood to defend the attack on Bud Dajo. Despite Taft’s objections, solidarity between key U.S. officials in charge of the war against the Moros ensured that their particular justifications for American expansion would prevail.
"
https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/58082221/Article-libre.pdf?1546110508=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3DGenesis_or_Genocide_Leonard_Wood_Theodor.pdf&Expires=1709617552&Signature=SQN1EcJzVdS5QbfMWl1r8OpcHmJ9bSeHjdzfcENYX33vLCZVGJBoxCxAXHKR6ydVw-nZBwFKwHimI3Gcexv9bQtl2SJC2-IxapgakLl0MFqwvH010NXxZ73IdGDSwaVZPnMc-uevOm1GXuKsZxv7HE-4KCxl1Qtg~MxbLRf1VdLZpnWA2SbgcuNsLfCdDUjan9DXNxgLsSjba4DlM7Lcah~NsD4enlZwNBoPDdVtOsDwpj9YQoeweIq0~NDdzFWy10eN7lwdjRO5zH5M6etUDoDGIjOOXap5OyzOdf-T12Lea6lrTo95fiBrGI6q1~IrFya-WZ0HhokzNT08WkFi8Q__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA
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On This Day: Frances Perkins, Architect of Social Security/New Deal takes office - Mar. 4, 1933
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373728
On This Day: Oil discovered in Saudi Arabia, now funding programs to use more oil - Mar. 3, 1938
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373628
On This Day: Compromise of 1877 "effectively voided" Civil War Union victory, except ... - Mar. 2, 1877
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On This Day: Governor of Egypt ambushes, massacres large number of mercenary slave class - March 1, 1811
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373475
On This Day: Columbus intimidates indigenous Jamaicans with knowledge of eclipse - Feb. 29, 1504
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373373
On This Day: Frances Perkins, Architect of Social Security/New Deal takes office - Mar. 4, 1933
(edited from article)
"
Frances Perkins: Architect of the New Deal
She designed Social Security and public works programs that helped bring millions out of poverty. Her work has been largely forgotten.
July 8, 2020
In the midst of the catastrophic crisis triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, more than 100 million Americans are accessing financial assistance and medical care. These vital services are available in part because of the efforts of a woman many have never heard of.
Frances Perkins was the first female presidential cabinet secretary and the central architect of the New Deal. She designed Social Security and public works programs that brought millions out of poverty. Her work resulted in the construction of hospitals, public schools, and related infrastructure. A social worker by training, Perkins also implemented workplace regulations that are standard to this day.
Despite these achievements, Perkins has been largely forgotten. The popular narrative of this tumultuous period has placed Franklin Delano Roosevelt at the center of the New Deal. Even now, in making a nostalgic appeal to the New Deal, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has been portrayed in the media as a potential FDR, a framing also used with President Barack Obama.
During the Great Depression, older people were the first to lose their jobs, and 30 to 50 percent sought financial support from their families. Perkins knew Roosevelt didn’t want to encourage the laziness that, rightly or wrongly, was associated with government handouts. With the Social Security Act, workers received money as an earned benefit in retirement. The legislation faced pushback from both sides of the political sphere. As Peskin said, “This was not accepted wisdom at that time. This was a novel, radical approach.”
"
https://daily.jstor.org/woman-architect-of-the-new-deal/
(edited from Wikipedia)
"
Frances Perkins
Frances Perkins (1880–1965) was an American workers-rights advocate who served as the fourth United States Secretary of Labor from [March 4,] 1933 to [June 30,] 1945, the longest serving in that position. A member of the Democratic Party, Perkins was the first woman ever to serve in a presidential cabinet. As a loyal supporter of her longtime friend, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, she helped make labor issues important in the emerging New Deal coalition. She was one of two Roosevelt cabinet members to remain in office for his entire presidency (the other being Interior Secretary Harold L. Ickes).
Perkins' most important role came in developing a policy for social security in 1935. She also helped form government policy for working with labor unions, although the union leaders distrusted her. Perkins' Labor Department helped to mediate strikes by way of the United States Conciliation Service. Perkins dealt with many labor questions during World War II, when skilled labor was vital to the economy and women were moving into jobs formerly held by men.
Cabinet career
In 1933, Roosevelt summoned Perkins to ask her to join his cabinet. Perkins presented Roosevelt with a long list of labor programs for which she would fight, from Social Security to minimum wage. "Nothing like this has ever been done in the United States before," she told Roosevelt. "You know that, don’t you?" Agreeing to back her, Roosevelt nominated Perkins as Secretary of Labor. The nomination was met with support from the National League of Women Voters and the Women's Party. The American Federation of Labor criticized the selection of Perkins because of a perceived lack of ties to labor.
As secretary, Perkins oversaw the Department of Labor. Perkins went on to hold the position for 12 years, longer than any other Secretary of Labor.
[First woman in presidential line of succession]
She also became the first woman to hold a cabinet position in the United States, thus she became the first woman to enter the presidential line of succession. The selection of a woman to the cabinet had been rumored in the four previous administrations, with Roosevelt being the first to follow through. Roosevelt had witnessed Perkins's work firsthand during their time in Albany. With few exceptions, President Roosevelt consistently supported the goals and programs of Secretary Perkins.
[New Deal]
As Secretary of Labor, Perkins played a role in the New Deal by helping to write legislation. As chair of the President's Committee on Economic Security, she was involved in all aspects of its advisory reports, including the Civilian Conservation Corps and the She-She-She Camps.[ Her most important contribution was to help design the Social Security Act of 1935.
As Secretary of Labor, Perkins created the Immigration and Naturalization Service. She sought to implement liberal immigration policies but some of her efforts experienced pushback, especially in Congress.
As Secretary of Labor in the Roosevelt Administration, Frances Perkins went to Geneva between June 11 and 18, 1938. On June 13, she gave a speech at the International Labour Organization in which she called on the organization to make its contribution to the world economic recovery, while avoiding being dragged into political problems. She also defended the participation of the United States in the ILO, which it had joined in 1934.
In 1939, she came under fire from some members of Congress for refusing to deport the communist head of the West Coast International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Harry Bridges. Ultimately, Bridges was vindicated by the Supreme Court.
With the death of President Roosevelt, Harry Truman replaced the Roosevelt cabinet, naming Lewis B. Schwellenbach as Secretary of Labor. Perkins's tenure as secretary ended on June 30, 1945, with the swearing in of Schwellenbach.
[Prior work in New York]
Prior to moving to Washington, D.C., Perkins held various positions in the New York state government. She had gained respect from the political leaders in the state. In 1919, she was added to the Industrial Commission of the State of New York by Governor Al Smith. Her nomination was met with protests from both manufacturers and labor, neither of whom felt Perkins represented their interests. Smith stood by Perkins as someone who could be a voice for women and girls in the workforce and for her work on the Wagner Factory Investigating Committee.
Although claiming the delay in Perkins's confirmation was not due to her gender, some state senators pointed to Perkins's not taking her husband's name as a sign that she was a radical. Perkins was confirmed on February 18, 1919, becoming one of the first female commissioners in New York, and began working out of New York City. The state senate-confirmed position made Perkins one of three commissioners overseeing the industrial code, and the supervisor of both the bureau of information and statistics and the bureau of mediation and arbitration.
The position also came with an $8,000 salary (equivalent to $135,000 in 2022), making Perkins the highest-paid woman in New York state government. Six months into her job, her fellow Commissioner James M. Lynch called Perkins's contributions "invaluable," and added "[f]rom the work which Miss Perkins has accomplished I am convinced that more women ought to be placed in high positions throughout the state departments."
In 1929, the newly elected New York governor, Franklin Roosevelt, appointed Perkins as the inaugural New York state industrial commissioner. As commissioner, Perkins supervised an agency with 1,800 employees.
Having earned the co-operation and the respect of various political factions, Perkins helped put New York in the forefront of progressive reform. She expanded factory investigations, reduced the workweek for women to 48 hours, and championed minimum wage and unemployment insurance laws. She worked vigorously to put an end to child labor and to provide safety for women workers.
"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Perkins
---------------------------------------------------------
On This Day: Oil discovered in Saudi Arabia, now funding programs to use more oil - Mar. 3, 1938
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373628
On This Day: Compromise of 1877 "effectively voided" Civil War Union victory, except ... - Mar. 2, 1877
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373576
On This Day: Governor of Egypt ambushes, massacres large number of mercenary slave class - March 1, 1811
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373475
On This Day: Columbus intimidates indigenous Jamaicans with knowledge of eclipse - Feb. 29, 1504
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373373
On This Day: Branch Davidians inadvertently tipped off, leading to death, standoff with ATF, FBI - Feb. 28, 1993
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373350
On This Day: Frances Perkins, Architect of Social Security/New Deal takes office - Mar. 4, 1933
(edited from article)
"
Frances Perkins: Architect of the New Deal
She designed Social Security and public works programs that helped bring millions out of poverty. Her work has been largely forgotten.
July 8, 2020
In the midst of the catastrophic crisis triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, more than 100 million Americans are accessing financial assistance and medical care. These vital services are available in part because of the efforts of a woman many have never heard of.
Frances Perkins was the first female presidential cabinet secretary and the central architect of the New Deal. She designed Social Security and public works programs that brought millions out of poverty. Her work resulted in the construction of hospitals, public schools, and related infrastructure. A social worker by training, Perkins also implemented workplace regulations that are standard to this day.
Despite these achievements, Perkins has been largely forgotten. The popular narrative of this tumultuous period has placed Franklin Delano Roosevelt at the center of the New Deal. Even now, in making a nostalgic appeal to the New Deal, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has been portrayed in the media as a potential FDR, a framing also used with President Barack Obama.
During the Great Depression, older people were the first to lose their jobs, and 30 to 50 percent sought financial support from their families. Perkins knew Roosevelt didn’t want to encourage the laziness that, rightly or wrongly, was associated with government handouts. With the Social Security Act, workers received money as an earned benefit in retirement. The legislation faced pushback from both sides of the political sphere. As Peskin said, “This was not accepted wisdom at that time. This was a novel, radical approach.”
"
https://daily.jstor.org/woman-architect-of-the-new-deal/
(edited from Wikipedia)
"
Frances Perkins
Frances Perkins (1880–1965) was an American workers-rights advocate who served as the fourth United States Secretary of Labor from [March 4,] 1933 to [June 30,] 1945, the longest serving in that position. A member of the Democratic Party, Perkins was the first woman ever to serve in a presidential cabinet. As a loyal supporter of her longtime friend, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, she helped make labor issues important in the emerging New Deal coalition. She was one of two Roosevelt cabinet members to remain in office for his entire presidency (the other being Interior Secretary Harold L. Ickes).
Perkins' most important role came in developing a policy for social security in 1935. She also helped form government policy for working with labor unions, although the union leaders distrusted her. Perkins' Labor Department helped to mediate strikes by way of the United States Conciliation Service. Perkins dealt with many labor questions during World War II, when skilled labor was vital to the economy and women were moving into jobs formerly held by men.
Cabinet career
In 1933, Roosevelt summoned Perkins to ask her to join his cabinet. Perkins presented Roosevelt with a long list of labor programs for which she would fight, from Social Security to minimum wage. "Nothing like this has ever been done in the United States before," she told Roosevelt. "You know that, don’t you?" Agreeing to back her, Roosevelt nominated Perkins as Secretary of Labor. The nomination was met with support from the National League of Women Voters and the Women's Party. The American Federation of Labor criticized the selection of Perkins because of a perceived lack of ties to labor.
As secretary, Perkins oversaw the Department of Labor. Perkins went on to hold the position for 12 years, longer than any other Secretary of Labor.
[First woman in presidential line of succession]
She also became the first woman to hold a cabinet position in the United States, thus she became the first woman to enter the presidential line of succession. The selection of a woman to the cabinet had been rumored in the four previous administrations, with Roosevelt being the first to follow through. Roosevelt had witnessed Perkins's work firsthand during their time in Albany. With few exceptions, President Roosevelt consistently supported the goals and programs of Secretary Perkins.
[New Deal]
As Secretary of Labor, Perkins played a role in the New Deal by helping to write legislation. As chair of the President's Committee on Economic Security, she was involved in all aspects of its advisory reports, including the Civilian Conservation Corps and the She-She-She Camps.[ Her most important contribution was to help design the Social Security Act of 1935.
As Secretary of Labor, Perkins created the Immigration and Naturalization Service. She sought to implement liberal immigration policies but some of her efforts experienced pushback, especially in Congress.
As Secretary of Labor in the Roosevelt Administration, Frances Perkins went to Geneva between June 11 and 18, 1938. On June 13, she gave a speech at the International Labour Organization in which she called on the organization to make its contribution to the world economic recovery, while avoiding being dragged into political problems. She also defended the participation of the United States in the ILO, which it had joined in 1934.
In 1939, she came under fire from some members of Congress for refusing to deport the communist head of the West Coast International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Harry Bridges. Ultimately, Bridges was vindicated by the Supreme Court.
With the death of President Roosevelt, Harry Truman replaced the Roosevelt cabinet, naming Lewis B. Schwellenbach as Secretary of Labor. Perkins's tenure as secretary ended on June 30, 1945, with the swearing in of Schwellenbach.
[Prior work in New York]
Prior to moving to Washington, D.C., Perkins held various positions in the New York state government. She had gained respect from the political leaders in the state. In 1919, she was added to the Industrial Commission of the State of New York by Governor Al Smith. Her nomination was met with protests from both manufacturers and labor, neither of whom felt Perkins represented their interests. Smith stood by Perkins as someone who could be a voice for women and girls in the workforce and for her work on the Wagner Factory Investigating Committee.
Although claiming the delay in Perkins's confirmation was not due to her gender, some state senators pointed to Perkins's not taking her husband's name as a sign that she was a radical. Perkins was confirmed on February 18, 1919, becoming one of the first female commissioners in New York, and began working out of New York City. The state senate-confirmed position made Perkins one of three commissioners overseeing the industrial code, and the supervisor of both the bureau of information and statistics and the bureau of mediation and arbitration.
The position also came with an $8,000 salary (equivalent to $135,000 in 2022), making Perkins the highest-paid woman in New York state government. Six months into her job, her fellow Commissioner James M. Lynch called Perkins's contributions "invaluable," and added "[f]rom the work which Miss Perkins has accomplished I am convinced that more women ought to be placed in high positions throughout the state departments."
In 1929, the newly elected New York governor, Franklin Roosevelt, appointed Perkins as the inaugural New York state industrial commissioner. As commissioner, Perkins supervised an agency with 1,800 employees.
Having earned the co-operation and the respect of various political factions, Perkins helped put New York in the forefront of progressive reform. She expanded factory investigations, reduced the workweek for women to 48 hours, and championed minimum wage and unemployment insurance laws. She worked vigorously to put an end to child labor and to provide safety for women workers.
"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Perkins
---------------------------------------------------------
On This Day: Oil discovered in Saudi Arabia, now funding programs to use more oil - Mar. 3, 1938
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373628
On This Day: Compromise of 1877 "effectively voided" Civil War Union victory, except ... - Mar. 2, 1877
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373576
On This Day: Governor of Egypt ambushes, massacres large number of mercenary slave class - March 1, 1811
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373475
On This Day: Columbus intimidates indigenous Jamaicans with knowledge of eclipse - Feb. 29, 1504
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373373
On This Day: Branch Davidians inadvertently tipped off, leading to death, standoff with ATF, FBI - Feb. 28, 1993
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373350
On This Day: Oil discovered in Saudi Arabia, now funding programs to use more oil - Mar. 3, 1938
(edited from article)
"
Despite Climate Crisis, Concacaf Signs Partnership With Saudi Aramco
Feb 19, 2024
...
The irony is that by signing the agreement, Concacaf [the regional soccer governing body for North America, Central America and the Caribbean], is helping perpetuate a problem that threatens the future of its athletes, and its competitions. North America has already been ravaged by longer, more dangerous wildfires, increased frequency and intensity of hurricanes, drought and atmospheric rivers. According to Badvertising — a think tank- backed campaign to stop adverts and sponsorships fuelling the climate emergency — the Central American “Dry Corridor” has already seen more than 1.7 million people displaced since 2020 due to unprecedented extreme weather events. Moreover, Caribbean islands exist in a state of existential peril thanks to sea level rise, warming waters and worsening storms.
Aramco has no intention of curtailing its investment in the fossil fuel industry. According to its latest annual report, the oil giant says it plans “to maintain its position as the world’s largest crude oil company by production volume.” Aramco’s objectives were made clear just before last year’s COP28 summit when reports about its oil demand sustainability program (ODSP) surfaced.
One of the ODSP’s main objectives is to increase the use of oil and gas globally. It seeks to do this by systematically driving up the use of fossil-fuel powered cars, buses and planes in developing nations. Moreover, ODSP is looking to hasten the development of supersonic air travel which uses three times more jet fuel than conventional planes, thereby increasing consumption and demand for crude oil.
Frank Huisingh, the founder and director of Fossil Free Football, commented on Saudi Arabia and Aramco’s activities in relation to sports, stating: “Saudi Aramco is state-owned and the biggest oil company in the world. The Saudi state has a decades-long track record of blocking climate action. It tries to get developing states addicted to its polluting and expensive oil and thereby hampers the transition to safe and cheap renewable energy the world so desperately needs. Sponsoring football is part of this strategy, trying to win hearts and minds by associating itself with the most popular sport in the world.”
"
https://www.forbes.com/sites/vitascarosella/2024/02/19/despite-climate-crisis-concacaf-signs-partnership-with-saudi-aramco/
(edited from Wikipedia)
"
History of the oil industry in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabian oil was first discovered by the Americans in commercial quantities at Dammam oil well No. 7 in 1938 in what is now modern day Dhahran. Dammam No. 7, the first commercial oil well in Saudi Arabia, struck oil on March 3, 1938.
Discovery of oil
SOCAL [Standard Oil of California] set up a subsidiary company, the California Arabian Standard Oil Company (CASOC) to develop the oil concession. SOCAL also joined forces with the Texas Oil Company when together they formed CALTEX in 1936 to take advantage of the latter's formidable marketing network in Africa and Asia.
When CASOC geologists surveyed the concession area, they identified a promising site and named it Dammam No. 7, after a nearby village. Over the next three years, the drillers were unsuccessful in making a commercial strike, but chief geologist Max Steineke persevered. He urged the team to drill deeper, even when Dammam No. 7 was plagued by cave-ins, stuck drill bits and other problems, before the drillers finally struck oil on 3 March 1938. This discovery would turn out to be first of many, eventually revealing the largest source of crude oil in the world. For the king, oil revenues became a crucial source of wealth since he no longer had to rely on receipts from pilgrimages to Mecca. This discovery would alter Middle Eastern political relations forever.
Yom Kippur War
The Yom Kippur War [Oct. 6-25, 1973] was a conflict between Egypt, Syria and their backers versus Israel. The conflict was the continuation of a troubling historical pattern of conflict between Israel and the Arab world. Because the United States was a supporter of Israel, the Arab countries participated in an oil boycott of Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. This boycott later included Portugal, Rhodesia, and South Africa. This was one of the major causes of the 1973 energy crisis that occurred in the United States. After the completion of the war, the price of oil increased drastically allowing Saudi Arabia to gain much wealth and power.
Oil reserves in Saudi Arabia
The proven oil reserves in Saudi Arabia are reportedly the second largest in the world, estimated in 2017 to be 268 billion barrels (43×109 m3) (Gbbl hereafter), including 2.5 Gbbl in the Saudi–Kuwaiti neutral zone. This would correspond to more than 50 years of production at current rates. In the oil industry, an oil barrel is defined as 42 US gallons. The oil reserves are predominantly found in the Eastern Province. These reserves were apparently the largest in the world until Venezuela announced they had increased their proven reserves to 297 Gbbl in January 2011. The Saudi reserves are about one-fifth of the world's total conventional oil reserves. A large fraction of these reserves comes from a small number of very large oil fields, and past production amounts to 40% of the stated reserves. Other sources state that Saudi Arabia has about 297.7 billion barrels.
Comparison to Venezuela
While Venezuela has reported "proven reserves" topping those reported by Saudi Arabia, industry analyst Robert Rapier has suggested that these numbers reflect variables driven by changes in crude oil market prices—indicating that the percentage of Venezuela's oil that qualifies as Venezuela's "proven" reserves may be driven up or down by the global market price for crude oil.
By comparison, Rapier contends, the higher-quality crude generally associated with Saudi oil fields is cost-effective to produce under most market-price conditions, and thus is more consistently, and uniformly, part of Saudi Arabia's "proven" reserves, compared to the more variable usefulness of the Venezuelan oil.
Environment of Saudi Arabia
The desert-covered Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the geographically largest country in the Middle East. Moreover, it accounts for 65% of the overall population of the GCC countries and 42% of its GDP. Saudi Arabia does not have a strong history in environmentalism. Thus, as the number of population increases and the industrial activity grows, environmental issues pose a real challenge to the country.
Lack of environmental policy can be linked to an enormous reliance on oil. Due to intense fossil fuel usage, Saudi Arabia has generated a number of environmental issues. Urbanization and high standards of living contribute to ground, water, and air pollution. Agriculture and overconsumption of natural resources cause deforestation and desertification.
Likewise, Saudi Arabia's oil industry subsidizes energy use and magnifies carbon dioxide emissions. These environmental issues cause a variety of health problems including asthma and cancer.
"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_oil_industry_in_Saudi_Arabia#
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_reserves_in_Saudi_Arabia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environment_of_Saudi_Arabia
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On This Day: Compromise of 1877 "effectively voided" Civil War Union victory, except ... - Mar. 2, 1877
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373576
On This Day: Governor of Egypt ambushes, massacres large number of mercenary slave class - March 1, 1811
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373475
On This Day: Columbus intimidates indigenous Jamaicans with knowledge of eclipse - Feb. 29, 1504
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373373
On This Day: Branch Davidians inadvertently tipped off, leading to death, standoff with ATF, FBI - Feb. 28, 1993
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373350
On This Day: Poet/Peer Byron speaks against death penalty for destroying industrial machines - Feb. 27, 1812
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373297
On This Day: Compromise of 1877 "effectively voided" Civil War Union victory, except ... - Mar. 2, 1877
(edited from article)
"
A contested presidential election in 1876 produced a devastating compromise
by Richard Kreitner
In a literally smoke-filled room at Wormley’s Hotel in Washington, party bigwigs agreed to a now-infamous compromise: Democratic submission to Hayes’s inauguration in exchange for the withdrawal of federal troops from the last Republican redoubts in the South (Louisiana and South Carolina, where they were propping up besieged governors). The deal brought to a symbolic close the 15-year effort to enforce the Constitution in the South.
The essence of the “devil’s compromise,” as some Black Americans called the deal, was a national recommitment to white supremacy, the oldest and strongest union bond of all.
The compromise of 1877 effectively voided the Union victory in the Civil War — except for the abolition of slavery, and even then, the system that replaced it often closely resembled actual bondage. Military withdrawal brought lynchings, voter suppression and segregation. Southern Blacks became ensnared in what historian Eric Foner, in his landmark history of Reconstruction, calls “a seamless web of oppression, whose interwoven economic, political, and social strands all reinforced one another.” That web, in a sense, was the Union itself.
The truly terrifying legacy of the 1876 electoral standoff isn’t only how close the crisis came to triggering a new outbreak of catastrophic violence but the solution American politicians came up with to avoid it: to avert another constitutional breakdown and resort to arms, the greatest advances for liberty and equality in human history were all but repealed. A renewal of the founding bargain — Northern silence in exchange for Southern allegiance — endured and underwrote America’s rise as a world power.
"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/09/11/election-our-past-that-blares-warning-2020/
(edited from Wikipedia)
"
1876 United States presidential election
The 1876 United States presidential election was the 23rd quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 7, 1876. Incumbent Republican president Ulysses S. Grant declined to run for a third term, so the party chose Rutherford B. Hayes, the governor of Ohio, as its nominee. The Democratic Party nominated New York governor Samuel J. Tilden as their nominee.
It was one of the most contentious presidential elections in American history. Its resolution involved negotiations between the Republicans and Democrats, resulting in the Compromise of 1877, and on March 2, 1877, the counting of electoral votes by the House and Senate occurred, confirming Hayes as president. It was the second of five U.S. presidential elections in which the winner did not win a plurality of the national popular vote. This is the first time it happened since 1824, and the only time that a candidate won an overall majority in the popular vote but did not win the presidency.
The results of the election remain among the most disputed ever. Although it is not disputed that Tilden beat Hayes in the popular vote, there were wide allegations of electoral fraud, election violence, and disfranchisement of (predominantly Republican) black voters. After a first count of votes, Tilden won 184 electoral votes to Hayes's 165 with 20 votes from Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Oregon unresolved.
To address the resulting constitutional crisis, Congress established the Electoral Commission, a majority of which were Republicans, which awarded all twenty votes (and thus the presidency) to Hayes. Some Democratic representatives filibustered the commission's decision, hoping to prevent Hayes's inauguration, but their filibuster was ultimately ended by party leader Samuel J. Randall. The question of who should have been awarded those electoral votes is the source of the continued controversy, and historians attribute Randall's decision to drop the filibuster to the informal Compromise of 1877.
To date, it remains the election that yielded the highest voter turnout of the eligible voting-age population in American history, at 82.6%. Tilden's 50.9% is the largest share of the popular vote received by a candidate who was not elected to the presidency, and his voter enthusiasm index (voter turnout percentage multiplied by vote percentage) is the highest of any presidential candidate in American history. Tilden was also the last person to win a majority of the popular vote until William McKinley in 1896. As of 2024, this marks the only presidential election in which both candidates were sitting governors.
Electoral Commission
An Electoral Commission, consisting of 15 men, was formed on January 29, 1877, to debate about the 20 electoral votes that were in dispute. The Commission consisted of five men from the House and the Senate each, plus five Supreme Court justices. Eight members were Republicans; seven were Democrats. The voter returns accepted by the Commission put Hayes' margin of victory in Oregon at 1,057 votes, Florida at 922 votes, Louisiana at 4,807 votes, and South Carolina at 889 votes; the closest popular vote margin in a decisive state in U.S. history until the presidential election of 2000. In late February, the Commission voted along party lines by a vote of 8 to 7 to award all 20 of the disputed electoral votes to Hayes, thus assuring his electoral victory by a margin of 185–184.
[Groundwork for Jim Crow era]
On March 2, an informal deal was struck to resolve the dispute: the Compromise of 1877. In return for the Democrats' acquiescence in Hayes' election (who agreed to serve only one four-year term as president and not to seek reelection as a provision of the deal), the Republicans agreed to withdraw federal troops from the South, ending Reconstruction. The Compromise effectively ceded power in the Southern states to the Democratic Redeemers, who went on to pursue their agenda of returning the South to a political economy resembling that of its pre-war condition, including the disenfranchisement of black voters and setting the groundwork for what would be known as the Jim Crow era.
"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1876_United_States_presidential_election
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_presidential_elections_in_which_the_winner_lost_the_popular_vote
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On This Day: Governor of Egypt ambushes, massacres large number of mercenary slave class - March 1, 1811
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373475
On This Day: Columbus intimidates indigenous Jamaicans with knowledge of eclipse - Feb. 29, 1504
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373373
On This Day: Branch Davidians inadvertently tipped off, leading to death, standoff with ATF, FBI - Feb. 28, 1993
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373350
On This Day: Poet/Peer Byron speaks against death penalty for destroying industrial machines - Feb. 27, 1812
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373297
On This Day: 1,400+ soldiers attempt coup by assassinating series of Japanese gov't officials - Feb. 26, 1936
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373253
On This Day: Governor of Egypt ambushes, massacres large number of mercenary slave class - March 1, 1811
(edited from Wikipedia)
"
Mamluk
Mamluk were non-Arab, ethnically diverse (mostly Turkic, Caucasian, Eastern and Southeastern European) enslaved mercenaries, slave-soldiers, and freed slaves who were assigned high-ranking military and administrative duties, serving the ruling Arab and Ottoman dynasties in the Muslim world.
The most enduring Mamluk realm was the knightly military class in medieval Egypt, which developed from the ranks of slave-soldiers. Originally the Mamluks were slaves of Turkic origins from the Eurasian Steppe, but the institution of military slavery spread. They also recruited from the Egyptians. The "Mamluk/Ghulam Phenomenon", as David Ayalon dubbed the creation of the specific warrior class, was of great political importance; for one thing, it endured for nearly 1,000 years, from the 9th to the 19th centuries.
Over time, Mamluks became a powerful military knightly class in various Muslim societies that were controlled by dynastic Arab rulers. Particularly in Egypt and Syria, but also in the Ottoman Empire, Levant, Mesopotamia, and India, mamluks held political and military power.
In some cases, they attained the rank of sultan, while in others they held regional power as emirs or beys. Most notably, Mamluk factions seized the sultanate centered on Egypt and Syria, and controlled it as the Mamluk Sultanate (1250–1517).The Mamluk Sultanate famously defeated the Ilkhanate at the Battle of Ain Jalut. They had earlier fought the western European Christian Crusaders in 1154–1169 and 1213–1221, effectively driving them out of Egypt and the Levant. In 1302 the Mamluk Sultanate formally expelled the last Crusaders from the Levant, ending the era of the Crusades.
While Mamluks were purchased as property, their status was above ordinary slaves, who were not allowed to carry weapons or perform certain tasks. In places such as Egypt, from the Ayyubid dynasty to the time of Muhammad Ali of Egypt, mamluks were considered to be "true lords" and "true warriors", with social status above the general population in Egypt and the Levant. In a sense, they were like enslaved mercenaries.
French campaign in Egypt and Syria
The French campaign in Egypt and Syria (1798–1801) was a Napoleonic campaign in the Ottoman territories of Egypt and Syria, executed by Napoleon Bonaparte. The campaign ended in defeat for Napoleon after abandoning his troops to head back to France for the looming risk of a Second Coalition.
[Part of Napoleon's campaign was the] Battle of the Pyramids, a French victory over an enemy force of about 21,000 Mamluks. (Around 40,000 Mamluk soldiers stayed away from the battle.) The French defeated the Mamluk cavalry with a giant infantry square, with cannons and supplies safely on the inside. In all 300 French and approximately 6,000 Mamluks were killed. The battle gave rise to dozens of stories and drawings.
After Napoleon
After the departure of French troops in 1801 the Mamluks continued their struggle for independence; this time against the Ottoman Empire. In 1803, Mamluk leaders Ibrahim Bey and Osman Bey al-Bardisi wrote to the Russian consul-general, asking him to mediate with the Sultan to allow them to negotiate for a cease-fire, and a return to their homeland Georgia. The Russian ambassador in Constantinople refused however to intervene, because of nationalist unrest in Georgia that might have been encouraged by a Mamluk return.
In 1805, the population of Cairo rebelled. This provided a chance for the Mamluks to seize power, but internal friction prevented them from exploiting this opportunity. In 1806, the Mamluks defeated the Turkish forces in several clashes. in June the rival parties concluded an agreement by which Muhammad Ali, (appointed as governor of Egypt on 26 March 1806), was to be removed and authority returned to the Mamluks. However, they were again unable to capitalize on this opportunity due to discord between factions. Muhammad Ali retained his authority.
Massacre of the Mamluks at the Cairo citadel in 1811
Muhammad Ali knew that he would have to deal with the Mamluks if he wanted to control Egypt. They were still the feudal owners of Egypt and their land was still the source of wealth and power. However, the economic strain of sustaining the military manpower necessary to defend the Mamluks's system from the Europeans and Turks would eventually weaken them to the point of collapse.
On 1 March 1811, Muhammad Ali invited all of the leading Mamluks to his palace to celebrate the declaration of war against the Wahhabis in Arabia.
Between 600 and 700 Mamluks paraded for this purpose in Cairo.
Muhammad Ali's forces killed almost all of these near the Al-Azab gates in a narrow road down from Mukatam Hill. This ambush came to be known as the Massacre of the Citadel. According to contemporary reports, only one Mamluk, whose name is given variously as Amim (also Amyn), or Heshjukur (a Besleney), survived when he forced his horse to leap from the walls of the citadel.
During the following week an estimated 3,000 Mamluks and their relatives were killed throughout Egypt, by Muhammad's regular troops. In the citadel of Cairo alone more than 1,000 Mamluks died.
Despite Muhammad Ali's destruction of the Mamluks in Egypt, a party of them escaped and fled south into what is now Sudan. In 1811, these Mamluks established a state at Dunqulah in the Sennar as a base for their slave trading. In 1820, the sultan of Sennar informed Muhammad Ali that he was unable to comply with a demand to expel the Mamluks. In response, the Pasha sent 4,000 troops to invade Sudan, clear it of Mamluks, and reclaim it for Egypt. The Pasha's forces received the submission of the Kashif, dispersed the Dunqulah Mamluks, conquered Kordofan, and accepted Sennar's surrender from the last Funj sultan, Badi VII.
[Importance of Mamluks in Arab history]
According to Eric Chaney and Lisa Blades, the reliance on mamluks by Muslim rulers had a profound impact on the Arab world's political development. They argue that, because European rulers had to rely on local elites for military forces, lords and bourgeois acquired the necessary bargaining power to push for representative government. Muslim rulers did not face the same pressures partly because the Mamluks allowed the Sultans to bypass local elites.
"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mamluk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_campaign_in_Egypt_and_Syria
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On This Day: Columbus intimidates indigenous Jamaicans with knowledge of eclipse - Feb. 29, 1504
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373373
On This Day: Branch Davidians inadvertently tipped off, leading to death, standoff with ATF, FBI - Feb. 28, 1993
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373350
On This Day: Poet/Peer Byron speaks against death penalty for destroying industrial machines - Feb. 27, 1812
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373297
On This Day: 1,400+ soldiers attempt coup by assassinating series of Japanese gov't officials - Feb. 26, 1936
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373253
On This Day: Lithuanian largest mass suicide in history to avoid death/slavery by Christian crusaders - Feb. 25, 1336
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373206
On This Day: Columbus intimidates indigenous Jamaicans with knowledge of eclipse - Feb. 29, 1504
(edited from Wikipedia)
"
1504 lunar eclipse
A total lunar eclipse occurred on 1 March 1504, visible on the evening of 29 February in the Americas, and later over night over Europe and Africa, and near sunrise over Asia.
During his fourth and last voyage, Christopher Columbus induced the inhabitants of Jamaica to continue provisioning him and his hungry men, successfully intimidated them by correctly predicting [the] total lunar eclipse. Some have claimed that Columbus used the Ephemeris of the German astronomer Regiomontanus, but Columbus himself attributed the prediction to the Almanach by Abraham Zacuto.
Visibility
The eclipse was visible after sunset on 29 February from most of North America, all of South America, as well as across Europe, Africa, and western Asia on the morning of 1 March.
Observations
On 30 June 1503, Christopher Columbus beached his two last caravels and was stranded in Jamaica. The indigenous people of the island welcomed Columbus and his crew and fed them, but after six months, they halted the food supply, dissatisfied with what the Spaniards could provide in trade.
Columbus had on board an almanac authored by Abraham Zacuto of astronomical tables covering the years 1475–1506. Upon consulting the book, he noticed the date and the time of an upcoming lunar eclipse. He was able to use this information to his advantage. He requested a meeting for that day with the Cacique, the leader, and told him that God was angry with the local people's treatment of Columbus and his men. Columbus said God would provide a clear sign of displeasure by making the rising full Moon appear "inflamed with wrath".
The lunar eclipse and the red Moon appeared on schedule, and the indigenous people were impressed and frightened. The son of Columbus, Ferdinand, wrote that the people:
with great howling and lamentation they came running from every direction to the ships, laden with provisions, praying the Admiral to intercede by all means with God on their behalf; that he might not visit his wrath upon them ...
[God had pardoned them]
Columbus went into his cabin, ostensibly to pray, and timed the eclipse with his hourglass. Shortly before the totality ended after 48 minutes, he told the frightened indigenous people that they were going to be forgiven. When the Moon started to reappear from the shadow of the Earth, he told them that God had pardoned them.
Longitude
Columbus was perhaps the first to put into practice an idea proposed by Hipparchus, to use a lunar eclipse to determine one's geographical longitude. A lunar eclipse is visible across half the globe, and everyone sees it begin and end at the same moment. But the times when measured in the local solar time will differ, because everyone is in a different time zone. The local time is determined by observing the rise, culmination, or setting of the Sun. Now an almanac will predict an eclipse for some place at a certain geographical longitude at a specific local time there. The same event observed elsewhere will occur at a different clocktime. The difference in time is proportional to the difference in geographical longitude, by 15 degrees per hour.
Columbus had no accurate means to determine how far he had travelled West on the globe. He observed the lunar eclipses of 15 September 1494 near Hispaniola (Dominican Republic), and that of 29 February 1504 from Jamaica. In the latter case he reported in his journal that Jamaica was 7 hours and 15 minutes from Cadiz in Spain - well on his way to China. However his site at Jamaica is actually at a longitude 4 hours 44 minutes from Cadiz. How Columbus could make such a large error of 2 and 1?2 hours remains puzzling, but D.W. Olson proposed a reconstruction.
Columbus presumably used the Calendarium from Regiomontanus. This almanac gives the time of mid-eclipse at Nuremberg, but if Columbus erroneously interpreted the listed time as that of the beginning of the partial eclipse, then his 2 and 1?2 hour error could be explained. One can imagine that such false evidence confirmed Columbus in his belief he had reached China, overlooking the fact that he had reached a continent previously unknown to Europeans.
"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_1504_lunar_eclipse
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On This Day: Branch Davidians inadvertently tipped off, leading to death, standoff with ATF, FBI - Feb. 28, 1993
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373350
On This Day: Poet/Peer Byron speaks against death penalty for destroying industrial machines - Feb. 27, 1812
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373297
On This Day: 1,400+ soldiers attempt coup by assassinating series of Japanese gov't officials - Feb. 26, 1936
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373253
On This Day: Lithuanian largest mass suicide in history to avoid death/slavery by Christian crusaders - Feb. 25, 1336
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373206
On This Day: "Single most important" decision in Supreme Court history issued - Feb. 24, 1803
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373172
On This Day: Branch Davidians inadvertently tipped off, leading to death, standoff with ATF, FBI - Feb. 28, 1993
(edited from article)
"
The Reporter That Waco Destroyed Has No Regrets
... on the morning of February 28, 1993, ... 29-year-old [TV reporter John] McLemore and KWTX cameraman Dan Mulloney followed a convoy of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives vehicles onto a 77-acre compound west of Waco known as Mount Carmel. The property was owned by the Branch Davidian church and controlled by its leader, a preacher named David Koresh. When they drove onto Mount Carmel, the two newsmen expected to see a by-the-books seizure of illegal weapons. Instead, they witnessed one of the most ferocious gun battles in the history of American law enforcement. Four federal agents and six Branch Davidians died that day, setting off a 51-day FBI-led siege that ended when a fire consumed the Branch Davidians’ multistory compound, Koresh himself, and 75 of his followers who remained inside.
McLemore narrated the action, with Mulloney occasionally pivoting his camera away from the building and training it on the young reporter. After a cease-fire between the ATF and the Branch Davidians had been brokered, McLemore stayed on the scene, and he and Mulloney volunteered their Bronco to transport three wounded agents, including one who had been critically injured and was laid across the front hood.
Over the next day, McLemore’s face appeared around the world, as reporters covering what was the beginning of the Waco siege sought him out as an eyewitness authority. On March 1, ATF director Stephen Higgins placed a call to KWTX and thanked McLemore for his bravery in helping to evacuate the wounded agents. McLemore figured this was his ticket to a big career. But on March 2, McLemore’s brief celebrity began to unravel. That night, Houston Chronicle reporter Kathy Fair—who would later serve as Rick Perry’s chief of staff under her married name, Kathy Walt—told Nightline anchor Ted Koppel that, according to her ATF sources, “reporters for, I believe, the TV station allegedly were hiding in the trees when federal agents arrived.” The sources, Fair continued, “have told me they think they were set up by at least one reporter” who had “tipped off the sect about [the raid].”
This early account would prove to be mostly untrue. No reporters were at Mount Carmel before the ATF arrived. No one was hiding in trees. And no one had deliberately tipped off the Branch Davidians. McLemore’s colleague Jim Peeler, a cameraman, had inadvertently aroused the suspicions of the Branch Davidians after getting lost on the way to Mount Carmel that morning and talking with a postman, who turned out to be Branch Davidian David Jones. But it was McLemore who caught the bulk of the early backlash. After Fair’s report and a follow-up segment on Dallas station WFAA, some viewers blamed McLemore for the catastrophic outcome of the raid. Suddenly, it wasn’t Higgins reaching out to KWTX to thank the station’s reporters, but viewers calling to demand that McLemore be fired. One, McLemore told the Dallas Observer in 1998, had said, “The blood of these ATF agents is on McLemore’s hands.”
"
https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/reporter-waco-destroyed-no-regrets/
(edited from Wikipedia)
"
Waco siege
The Waco siege, also known as the Waco massacre, was the siege by U.S. federal government and Texas state law enforcement officials of a compound belonging to the religious cult known as the Branch Davidians between February 28 and April 19, 1993. The Branch Davidians, led by David Koresh, were headquartered at Mount Carmel Center ranch in unincorporated McLennan County, Texas, 13 miles northeast of Waco. Suspecting the group of stockpiling illegal weapons, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) obtained a search warrant for the compound and arrest warrants for Koresh and several of the group's members.
The ATF had planned a sudden daylight raid of the ranch in order to serve these warrants. Any advantage of surprise was lost when a KWTX-TV reporter [note - incorrect by above article - not reporter, but cameraman] who had been tipped off about the raid asked for directions from a U.S. Postal Service mail carrier who was coincidentally Koresh's brother-in-law. Thus, the group's members were fully armed and prepared; an intense gunfight erupted, resulting in the deaths of four ATF agents and six Branch Davidians. Upon the ATF's entering of the property and failure to execute the search warrant, a siege was initiated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), during which negotiations between the parties attempted to reach a compromise.
After 51 days, on April 19, 1993, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) launched a tear gas attack in an attempt to force the Branch Davidians out of the compound's buildings. Shortly thereafter, the Mount Carmel Center became engulfed in flames. The fire and the reaction to the final attack within the group resulted in the deaths of 76 Branch Davidians, including 25 children and David Koresh. In total, the 51-day siege resulted in the deaths of four federal agents and 82 Branch Davidians, 28 of whom were children.
The events of the siege and attack, particularly the origin of the fire, are disputed by various sources. Department of Justice reports from October 1993 and July 2000 conclude that although incendiary tear gas canisters were used by the FBI, the Branch Davidians had started the fire, citing evidence from audio surveillance recordings of very specific discussions between Koresh and others about pouring more fuel on piles of hay as the fires started, and from aerial footage showing at least three simultaneous ignition points at different locations in the building complex. The FBI contends that none of their agents fired any live rounds on the day of the fire.[16] Critics contend that live rounds were indeed fired by law enforcement, and suggest that a combination of gunshots and flammable tear gas was the true cause of the fire.
[Waco siege as a cause]
The Waco siege was cited by Timothy McVeigh as the main reason for his and Terry Nichols's plan to execute the Oklahoma City bombing exactly two years later, on April 19, 1995, as well as the modern-day American militia movement and a rise in opposition to firearm regulation.
[Branch Davidians]
The Branch Davidians (also known as "The Branch " ) were a religious group that originated in 1955 from a schism in the Shepherd's Rod (Davidians) following the death of the Shepherd's Rod founder Victor Houteff. Houteff founded the Davidians based on his prophecy of an imminent apocalypse involving the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the defeat of the evil armies of Babylon.
As the original Davidian group gained members, its leadership moved the church to a hilltop several miles east of Waco, Texas, which they named Mount Carmel, after a mountain in Israel mentioned in Joshua 19:26 in the Bible's Old Testament.
A few years later, they moved again to a much larger site east of the city. In 1959, Victor's widow, Florence Houteff, announced that the expected Armageddon was about to take place, and members were told to gather at the center to await this event. Many of them built houses, others stayed in tents, trucks, or buses, and most of them sold their possessions.
Following the failure of this prophecy, control of the site (Mount Carmel Center) fell to Benjamin Roden, founder of the Branch Davidian Seventh-day Adventist Association (Branch Davidians). He promoted different doctrinal beliefs than those of Victor Houteff's original Davidian Seventh-day Adventist organization. On Roden's death, control of the Branch Davidians fell to his wife, Lois Roden. Lois considered their son, George Roden, unfit to assume the position of prophet. Instead, she groomed Vernon Wayne Howell (later known as David Koresh) to be her successor.
In 1984, a meeting led to a division of the group, with Howell leading one faction (calling themselves the Branch Davidians) and George Roden leading the competing faction. After this split, George Roden ran Howell and his followers off Mount Carmel at gunpoint. Howell and his group relocated to Palestine, Texas.
[fighting between the factions follows]
[Married couples separated]
On August 5, 1989, Howell released the "New Light" audiotape, in which he said that God told him to procreate with the women in the group to establish a "House of David" of his "special people." This involved separating married couples in the group, who had to agree that only he could have sexual relations with the wives, while the men should observe celibacy. Howell also said that God had told him to start building an "Army for God" to prepare for the end of days and a salvation for his followers.
Howell filed a petition in the California State Superior Court in Pomona on May 15, 1990, to legally change his name "for publicity and business purposes" to David Koresh. On August 28, he was granted the petition. By 1992, most of the land belonging to the group had been sold except for a core 77 acres. Most of the buildings had been removed or were being salvaged for construction materials to convert much of the main chapel and a tall water tank into apartments for the resident members of the group. Many of the members of the group had been involved with the Davidians for a few generations, and many had large families.
"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege
(edited from article)
"
Trump vows retribution at Waco rally: “I am your warrior, I am your justice”
MARCH 25, 2023
WACO — Flanked by supporters waving “witch hunt” signs, former President Donald Trump turned in a signature incendiary performance Saturday in Waco, using his first 2024 campaign rally to frame himself as a victim of politicized legal investigations and vowing to be the MAGA movement’s “retribution.”
"I am your warrior, I am your justice,” Trump said in a nearly 90-minute speech, most of it focused on perceived political enemies and slights. “For those who have been wronged and betrayed … I am your retribution."
Trump positioned himself as the sole protector of American values, painting a grim future if he is denied a second four-year term.
“I will prevent World War III, which we’re heading into,” Trump said to a crowd of thousands gathered on the tarmac of the Waco Regional Airport.
"
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/03/25/donald-trump-waco-rally-retribution-justice/
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On This Day: Poet/Peer Byron speaks against death penalty for destroying industrial machines - Feb. 27, 1812
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373297
On This Day: 1,400+ soldiers attempt coup by assassinating series of Japanese gov't officials - Feb. 26, 1936
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373253
On This Day: Lithuanian largest mass suicide in history to avoid death/slavery by Christian crusaders - Feb. 25, 1336
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373206
On This Day: "Single most important" decision in Supreme Court history issued - Feb. 24, 1803
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373172
On This Day: First major slave revolt in South America starts; grows to 3,000 - Feb. 23, 1763
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373130
On This Day: Poet/Peer Byron speaks against death penalty for destroying industrial machines - Feb. 27, 1812
(Edited from article)
"
On February 27th 1812, two week before the publication of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage brought him instant fame and considerably more wealth, Lord Byron delivered his maiden speech in the House of Lords at the age of 24. It was a stirring defence of the Luddites, the machine-breakers who smashed the textile machinery that threatened their jobs. They were an oath-based group who met at night, masked and in numbers, to break into Midlands textile factories and destroy the machines they housed.
Byron was opposing Perceval’s Frame Work Bill, which introduced the death penalty for that and related offences. His case was that the men who did this had no alternative but starvation. He said:
“nothing but absolute want could have driven a large, and once honest and industrious, body of the people, into the commission of excesses so hazardous to themselves, their families, and the community.”
Byron claimed that the machines destroyed the livelihood of the poor, simply in order to make the mill owners more rich.
"
https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/lord-byron-defended-the-luddites
(edited from Wikipedia)
"
The Destruction of Stocking Frames, etc. Act 1812 was an Act of Parliament passed by the British Government in 1812 aimed at increasing the penalties for Luddite behaviour in order to discourage it.
The Act, as passed, made the destruction of mechanised looms – stocking frames – a capital felony (and hence a crime punishable by death). Similarly raised to the level of capital felony were the associated crimes of damaging frames and entering a property with intent to damage a frame.
Although approximately 60 to 70 Luddites were hanged in the period that the statute was in force, no death sentences seem to have been justified on [the grounds of this particular piece of legislation], with judges preferring to use existing legislation. The Act was officially repealed in 1814 [and replaced with another]. By [1817], however, Luddism had largely subsided as a movement.
[Luddite]
The Luddites were members of a 19th-century movement of English textile workers which opposed the use of certain types of cost-saving machinery, and often destroyed the machines in clandestine raids. They protested against manufacturers who used machines in "a fraudulent and deceitful manner" to replace the skilled labour of workers and drive down wages by producing inferior goods.
The Luddite movement began in Nottingham, England, and spread to the North West and Yorkshire between 1811 and 1816. Mill and factory owners took to shooting protesters and eventually the movement was suppressed by legal and military force, which included execution and penal transportation of accused and convicted Luddites.
Over time, the term has been used to refer to those opposed to industrialisation, automation, computerisation, or new technologies in general.
[Worker protest]
Malcolm L. Thomas argued in his 1970 history The Luddites that machine-breaking was one of the very few tactics that workers could use to increase pressure on employers, undermine lower-paid competing workers, and create solidarity among workers. "These attacks on machines did not imply any necessary hostility to machinery as such; machinery was just a conveniently exposed target against which an attack could be made." Historian Eric Hobsbawm has called their machine wrecking "collective bargaining by riot", which had been a tactic used in Britain since the Restoration because manufactories were scattered throughout the country, and that made it impractical to hold large-scale strikes.
[Economic crisis in this period] led to widespread protest and violence, but the middle classes and upper classes strongly supported the government, which used the army to suppress all working-class unrest, especially the Luddite movement.
The Luddites met at night on the moors surrounding industrial towns to practice military-like drills and manoeuvres. They wrecked specific types of machinery that posed a threat to the particular industrial interests in each region. In the Midlands, these were the "wide" knitting frames used to make cheap and inferior lace articles. In the North West, weavers sought to eliminate the steam-powered looms threatening wages in the cotton trade. In Yorkshire, workers opposed the use of shearing frames and gig mills to finish woolen cloth.
Many Luddite groups were highly organized and pursued machine-breaking as one of several tools for achieving specific political ends. In addition to the raids, Luddites coordinated public demonstrations and the mailing of letters to local industrialists and government officials.
Government response
The British government ultimately dispatched 12,000 troops to suppress Luddite activity, which historian Eric Hobsbawm said was a larger number than the army which the Duke of Wellington led during the Peninsular War.
Legacy
In the 19th century, occupations that arose from the growth of trade and shipping in ports, also as "domestic" manufacturers, were notorious for precarious employment prospects. Underemployment was chronic during this period, and it was common practice to retain a larger workforce than was typically necessary for insurance against labour shortages in boom times.
Merchant capitalists lacked the incentive of later factory owners, whose capital was invested in buildings and plants, to maintain a steady rate of production and return on fixed capital. The combination of seasonal variations in wage rates and violent short-term fluctuations springing from harvests and war produced periodic outbreaks of violence.
"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_of_Stocking_Frames,_etc._Act_1812
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite
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On This Day: 1,400+ soldiers attempt coup by assassinating series of Japanese gov't officials - Feb. 26, 1936
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373253
On This Day: Lithuanian largest mass suicide in history to avoid death/slavery by Christian crusaders - Feb. 25, 1336
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373206
On This Day: "Single most important" decision in Supreme Court history issued - Feb. 24, 1803
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373172
On This Day: First major slave revolt in South America starts; grows to 3,000 - Feb. 23, 1763
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373130
On This Day: Great White Fleet returns home from world-wide trip to demonstrate U.S. power - Feb. 22, 1909
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016373046
On This Day: 1,400+ soldiers attempt coup by assassinating series of Japanese gov't officials - Feb. 26, 1936
(edited from Wikipedia)
"
February 26 incident
The February 26 incident was an attempted coup d'état in the Empire of Japan on 26 February 1936. It was organized by a group of young Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) officers with the goal of purging the government and military leadership of their factional rivals and ideological opponents.
Although the rebels succeeded in assassinating several leading officials (including two former prime ministers) and in occupying the government center of Tokyo, they failed to assassinate Prime Minister Keisuke Okada or secure control of the Imperial Palace.
Their supporters in the army made attempts to capitalize on their actions, but divisions within the military, combined with Imperial anger at the coup, meant they were unable to achieve a change of government. Facing overwhelming opposition as the army moved against them, the rebels surrendered on 29 February.
Unlike earlier examples of political violence by young officers, the coup attempt had severe consequences. After a series of closed trials, nineteen of the uprising's leaders were executed for mutiny and another forty were imprisoned. The radical Kōdō-ha faction lost its influence within the army, while the military, now free from infighting, increased its control over the civilian government, which had been severely weakened by the assassination of key moderate and liberal-minded leaders.
[Factions within the army]
The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) had a long history of factionalism among its high-ranking officers. By the early 1930s, officers in the high command had become split into two main informal groups: the Kōdō-ha "Imperial Way" faction, and the Tōsei-ha "Control" faction.
The Kōdō-ha emphasized the importance of Japanese culture, spiritual purity over material quality, and the need to attack the Soviet Union (Hokushin-ron), while the Tōsei-ha officers supported central economic and military planning (total war theory), technological modernization, mechanization and expansion within China.
The Kōdō-ha was dominant from 1931 to 1934, occupying most significant staff positions.
The "young officers" [seek a purge]
A number of lesser-privileged [IJA] officers formed the young, highly politicized group often referred to as the "young officers".
The young officers believed that the problems facing the nation were the result of Japan straying from the kokutai (an amorphous term often translated as "national polity", it roughly signifies the relationship between the Emperor and the state).
To them, the "privileged classes" exploited the people, leading to widespread poverty in rural areas, and deceived the Emperor, usurping his power and weakening Japan. The solution, they believed, was a "Shōwa Restoration" modeled on the Meiji Restoration of 70 years earlier. By rising up and destroying the "evil advisers around the Throne", the officers would enable the Emperor to re-establish his authority. The Emperor would then purge those who exploited the people, restoring prosperity to the nation.
Almost all of the young officers' subordinates were from poor peasant family or working class, and believed that the young officers truly understood their predicaments and spirits.
The loose-knit young officers group varied in size, but is estimated to have had roughly 100 regular members, mostly officers in the Tokyo area.
Despite its relatively small size, the Kokutai Genri-ha faction was influential, due in no small part to the threat it posed. It had sympathizers among the general staff and the Imperial Family. The faction had also managed to secure irregular funding from zaibatsu leaders who hoped to shield themselves.
Planning and manifesto
The uprising was planned in a series of meetings held between 18 and 22 February. The plan decided upon was relatively simple. The officers would assassinate the most prominent enemies of the kokutai, secure control of the administrative center of the capital and the Imperial Palace, then submit their demands (the dismissal of certain officers and the appointment of a new cabinet led by Mazaki).
They had no longer-term goals, believing that those should be left to the Emperor.
The young officers believed they had at least tacit approval for their uprising from a number of important IJA officers after making a number of informal approaches.
The young officers prepared an explanation of their intentions and grievances in a document entitled "Manifesto of the Uprising".
Now, as we are faced with great emergencies both foreign and domestic, if we do not execute the disloyal and unrighteous who threaten the kokutai, if we do not cut away the villains who obstruct the Emperor's authority, who block the Restoration, the Imperial plan for our nation will come to nothing [...] To cut away the evil ministers and military factions near the Emperor and destroy their heart: that is our duty and we will complete it.
Seven [high-ranking government official] targets were chosen for assassination for "threatening the kokutai".
The Righteous Army
From 22 February on, [...] seven leaders managed to convince eighteen other officers to join the uprising with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Non-commissioned officers (NCOs) were informed on the night of 25 February, hours before the attacks started.
The soldiers themselves, 70% of whom were less than a month out of basic training, were not told anything before the coup began, though many were (according to the officers) enthusiastic once the uprising began.
Including officers, civilians and men from other units, the total size of the Righteous Army was 1,558 men. An official count of 1,483 was given at the time.
The coup leaders adopted the name "Righteous Army" for this force and the password "Revere the Emperor, Destroy the Traitors". Allies were to display a three-sen postage stamp when approaching the army's lines.
[Attack]
The rebel troops, divided into six groups, assembled their troops and left their barracks between 03:30 and 04:00 [on Feb. 26]. The attacks on [leaders] Okada, Takahashi, Suzuki, Saito, the Ministry of War and the Tokyo Metropolitan Police headquarters occurred simultaneously at 05:00. The attack on Okada consisted of 280 men from the 1st Infantry Regiment.
The troops surrounded the Prime Minister's Residence and forced its guards to open the gates. Upon entering the compound and attempting to find the prime minister. He was taken into hiding by his brother-in-law, Colonel Denzō Matsuo. Matsuo, who was said to have resembled Okada, was then discovered and killed by the troops. Okada escaped the next day, but this fact was kept a secret.
160 men seize[d] control of the Minister of War's residence, the Ministry of War itself and the General Staff Office. Once this had been accomplished, they read their manifesto aloud.
At approximately 10:00, sixty men and traveled from the Prime Minister's Residence to the offices of the Asahi Shimbun, a prominent liberal newspaper. Charging into the building, the officers forced the newspaper employees to evacuate while yelling that the attack was "divine retribution for being an un-Japanese newspaper".
1st Lieutenant Motoaki Nakahashi of the 3rd Imperial Guard assembled 135 men and marched to Takahashi's personal residence. There he split his men in half and took one group to attack the residence while having the other stand guard outside. After the men smashed their way into the compound, confused servants led Nakahashi and Lieutenant Kanji Nakajima to Takahashi's bedroom. There, Nakahashi shot the sleeping Takahashi with his pistol while Nakajima slashed him with his sword. Takahashi died without waking.
1st Lieutenant Naoshi Sakai led 120 men from the 3rd Infantry Regiment to Saitō's private residence in Yotsuya. A group of the soldiers surrounded the policemen on guard, who surrendered. Five men, including Sakai, entered the residence and found Saitō and his wife Haruko on the second floor in their bedroom. They shot Saitō, who fell to the ground dead. His wife covered him with her body and told the soldiers, "Please kill me instead!" They pulled her off and continued to fire at Saitō.
Captain Teruzō Andō led 200 men of the 3rd Infantry Regiment to Suzuki's private residence. They surrounded and disarmed the police on guard, then a group entered the building. After Suzuki was discovered in his bedroom, he was shot twice. Andō then moved to deliver a coup de grace with his sword, when Suzuki's wife pleaded to be allowed to do it herself. Believing Suzuki to be mortally wounded, Andō agreed. He apologized to her, explaining that it was done for the sake of the nation.
As [soldiers] attempted to enter the front of the [Watanabe] residence, they were fired upon by military police stationed inside. The soldiers then forced their way in through the rear entrance, where they encountered Watanabe's wife standing outside their bedroom on the second floor. Shoving her aside, they found Watanabe using a futon for cover. Watanabe opened fire with his pistol, whereupon one of the soldiers fired a burst at him with a light machine gun. Takahashi then rushed forward and stabbed Watanabe with his sword. Watanabe's nine-year-old daughter, Kazuko, witnessed his death as she hid behind a table nearby.
Tokyo Metropolitan Police headquarters [seized]
Captain Shirō Nonaka took nearly a third of all the rebels' troops, 500 men from the 3rd Infantry Regiment, to attack the headquarters of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, located directly south of the Imperial Palace, with the goal of securing its communication equipment and preventing the dispatch of the police's Emergency Service Unit. They met no resistance and soon secured the building.
Government response and suppression of the uprising
With Saitō dead and Suzuki gravely wounded, the Emperor's chief remaining advisors were Kōichi Kido, Chief Secretary to the Lord Keeper; Kurahei Yuasa, Minister of the Imperial Household; and Vice-Grand Chamberlain Tadataka Hirohata. These officials met after learning of the attacks from Suzuki's secretary. They took a hard line, advising the Emperor that he should demand that efforts be concentrated on suppressing the uprising and that he must not accept the resignation of the current government, as doing so would "effectively be granting victory to the rebel army". It was after hearing this advice that Hirohito hardened his position.
Kawashima met with the Emperor at 09:30 after his meeting with the rebel officers at the Ministry of War. He read the officers' manifesto and demands aloud and then recommended the Emperor form a new cabinet to "clarify the kokutai, stabilize national life, and fulfill national defense." The Emperor refused and demanded that Kawashima suppress the uprising. When the remaining members of Okada's government, unaware that he was alive, attempted to resign that afternoon, Hirohito told them he would not allow it until the uprising had been suppressed.
Despite the Emperor's order to Kawashima that the uprising be suppressed, Araki proposed that a message be drafted to the rebels. This message, which came to be known as the "Minister of War's Proclamation", has become a point of controversy (it was issued in Kawashima's name because of the unofficial nature of the SMC meeting). Araki and other participants argued later that it had been intended to persuade the officers to surrender. Others interpreted it as an endorsement of the uprising.
Martial Law
Two other developments deepened the rebel officers' impression that their uprising had succeeded. Kashii, acting as commander of the Tokyo garrison, ordered a state of "wartime emergency". This had the effect of formally placing the rebel troops within the chain of command. The officers were encouraged by the act and convinced that they were on the verge of success. The second positive development was the declaration of martial law.
Despite [these] developments, the position of the Righteous Army was less secure than it seemed. Most significantly the Emperor and his court officials had taken a hard line towards the uprising. In addition, the rebels also faced important opposition within the military as well.
Reinforcements [were called in] from outside Tokyo.
By the afternoon of 27 February forty warships were stationed in Tokyo Bay and the navy's land forces had been dispatched to defend naval installations in the city.
Negotiations and stalemate
[Various negotiations ensue].
The Emperor had, by the end of 27 February, become increasingly impatient with the failure of the Army to suppress the uprising as he had ordered on the previous day. The Navy's quick response satisfied him but the Army's hesitation was inexplicable to the Emperor. He summoned Honjō throughout the day, demanding to know if the rebels had been suppressed. When Honjō spoke in defense of the officers' motives, the Emperor angrily replied "killing my ministers is tantamount to strangling me with cotton wool" and added that the rebels deserved no leniency. At one point, Hirohito became so impatient he threatened to assume personal command of the Imperial Guard and order them to attack the rebels himself.
The General Staff and Martial Law Headquarters decided to release the imperial command at 05:00 on the 28th. At 08:00 the rebel officers' nominal superior, Major Kofuji, was told to inform the officers of the imperial command and order them to return to their units.
When 10:00 passed without any word of movement by the rebel officers, they approved the use of force. However, when Hori and Kofuji came to see Kashii at 10:40, the three agreed that it was too early to enact the imperial command. It has also been suggested that a lack of preparedness on the part of government forces was another factor. Either way, the action was delayed.
Yamashita visited the Ministry of War at 12:00 and told the rebel officers that the issuance of the imperial command was merely a matter of time and that they should "take responsibility". Hori joined the group at 12:30 and confirmed Yamashita's words. Shortly after, Kurihara, speaking for the group, asked that an Imperial messenger be sent. He said that the officers would commit suicide and the NCOs would take the soldiers back to their barracks.
[Request for Imperial suicide order denied]
Yamashita, joined by Kawashima, immediately went to the Imperial Palace, where he informed Honjō of the officers' request for the Imperial Command for their suicide, perceived to be the only honourable way out for them. Honjō, thinking this was a good solution for all parties concerned, asked his majesty that the request be granted, but to his surprise, the Emperor flatly refused. His fury was such that he blurted "If they want to die, do as they wish. Do it on their own. An Imperial Command is out of question".
[Final stages]
Soon after, at 16:00, Martial Law Headquarters announced that force would be used and the rebel troops were removed from Kofuji's command at 18:00. At 23:00 orders went out to begin preparations at 05:00 on 29 February for a general attack.
By the morning of 29 February, the Righteous Army, consisting of less than 1,500, was surrounded by more than 20,000 loyal government troops and 22 tanks. The general attack was planned for 09:00. By 05:30 all civilians in the surrounding areas had been evacuated.
Realizing the hopelessness, by noon all the officers except Andō had released their soldiers. Finally, at 13:00, Andō ordered his men to leave and unsuccessfully attempted suicide by shooting himself in the head. The rest assembled at the Ministry of War. There they met Yamashita and Ishiwara, who suggested that they commit suicide. They allowed the men to keep their sidearms and left. Colonel Nobutoki Ide, a member of the General Staff and Nonaka's former commander, came to the building and called for Nonaka to come outside. Shortly afterwards, Nonaka shot himself. Isobe claimed that Nonaka was forced to commit suicide in an attempt to pressure the rest of the officers to do the same. The final rebel officer to commit suicide was Kōno, still hospitalized from the failed attack on Makino, who stabbed himself with a knife a week later. The remaining officers were arrested by military police at 18:00. They were all stripped of their rank.
[Trials]
The only significant military figure to be tried for involvement in the uprising was Mazaki, charged with collaborating with the rebel officers. Although his own testimony showed him to be guilty of the charge, he was found not guilty on 25 September 1937. This has been attributed to the influence of Fumimaro Konoe, who had become prime minister in June.
Fifteen of the officers were executed by firing squad on 15 July at a military prison in Shibuya. The execution of Muranaka and Isobe was delayed so that they could testify at Kita and Nishida's trial. Muranaka, Isobe, Kita and Nishida were executed by firing squad at the same location on 14 August 1937.
Change of government
Despite the failure of the coup, the February 26 Incident had the effect of significantly increasing the military's influence over the civilian government.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_26_incident
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