History for December 18

History for December 18 - On-This-Day.com
Saki (Hector Hugh Munro) 1870, Ty Cobb 1886 - Baseball player, Willy Brandt 1913


Keith Richards 1943 - Musician (Rolling Stones), Steven Spielberg 1947 Movie producer-director, Brad Pitt 1963 Actor


1865 - U.S. Secretary of State William Seward issued a statement verifying the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The amendment abolished slavery with the declaration: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."


1898 - A new automobile speed record was set at 39 mph (63 kph).


1912 - The discovery of the Piltdown Man in East Sussex was announced. It was proved to be a hoax in 1953.


1916 - During World War I, after 10 months of fighting the French defeated the Germans in the Battle of Verdun.


1940 - Adolf Hitler signed a secret directive ordering preparations for a Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. Operation "Barbarossa" was launched in June 1941.


1950 - NATO foreign ministers approved plans to defend Western Europe, including the use of nuclear weapons, if necessary.


1956 - "To Tell the Truth" debuted on CBS-TV.


1998 - The U.S. House of Representatives began the debate on the four articles of impeachment concerning U.S. President Bill Clinton. It was only the second time in U.S. history that process had begun.

'Kill Yourself': Celebrities Losing It Over Net Neutrality Repeal | Daily Wire

'Kill Yourself': Celebrities Losing It Over Net Neutrality Repeal | Daily Wire:

"Due to the repeal of "net neutrality," Hollywood celebrities have taken a break from slapping each other's rear ends to herald that the internet is doomed."

The way we were-----Bobbie Gentry - Ode To Billie Joe

Boob-tube-----Liberace's TV-Show: The Mother's Day Special (1956)

Must read!-----Midnight at the Democracy Dies in Darkness Café

Midnight at the Democracy Dies in Darkness Café: 
"The Democracy Dies in Darkness Café is located conveniently near the Capitol, the Hill and the FBI headquarters. 
It’s open all night and I stopped in for a late-night coffee with my friend, a fiction novelist who was depressed. 
“I spent a year writing about a coup attempt against an outsider who by strategic brilliance defeated the handpicked candidate of a cabal of establishment powerhouses. 

• It involved the highest officials of the FBI and Department of Justice. 
• They manipulated a FISA Court into letting them electronically surveil the candidate and all who worked with him, unmasked their names, leaked what they found, and they still couldn’t beat him. 
• Then they engineered the recusal of the attorney general, got his deputy to appoint their bestest pal to be special counsel. 
• Given free rein, he hired fierce partisans of the defeated candidate, used the ill-gotten information against her opponents to prosecute three people with minimal connection to the campaign -- one for a dubious process crime dependent on the notes of an FBI agent who had earlier orchestrated lies about Benghazi, covered up for the misuse of classified information by the losing candidate, and oversaw the investigation into the president.”

“Sounds great,” I said, so why are you depressed?”
“Every publisher I sent it to rejected it as being too implausible to sell to readers.”"...
Read it all and be warned!

IT'S AN INDUSTRY: Thanks to Lisa Bloom We Now Know Trump Accusers are Paid $750,000 by Dem Donors to Say Trump Abused Them

IT'S AN INDUSTRY: Thanks to Lisa Bloom We Now Know Trump Accusers are Paid $750,000 by Dem Donors to Say Trump Abused Them:
"It’s an industry.
Thanks to Lisa Bloom, spawn of Gloria Allred, we now know that Trump accusers are paid $750,000 by top Democrat donors to accuse the billionaire president of sexual abuse.
With Democrats it’s all about power by any means necessary.
Democrats paraded out three Trump accusers this week.
Someone needs to check their bank accounts..."

CA Dems Proposing Spending $1 Billion Giving Health Care To Illegal Immigrants | Daily Wire

CA Dems Proposing Spending $1 Billion Giving Health Care To Illegal Immigrants | Daily Wire:

"Democrats, who have a monopoly of power in California politics, are proposing to spend $1 billion a year to provide health care to illegal immigrants living in the state. Medi-Cal, which is the state’s Medicaid program, would eliminate legal residency requirements.

The proposal was offered as part of a $4.3 billion proposal from San Francisco Democrat Assemblyman Phil Ting, the head of the Assembly budget committee. According to NBC Bay Area, 7% of people residing in California lack health coverage, many of them illegal immigrants."

My take on net neutrality - Do you agree? | Komando.com

My take on net neutrality - Do you agree? | Komando.com
"As you are no doubt aware, the FCC voted 3-2 on Thursday, to repeal the 2 1/2-year-old Net Neutrality rules.
I’ll admit that the coined phrase, “Net Neutrality” certainly sounded good.
The words invoked images of a perfect world. 
You know, where there's a fair and free market and open internet. 
Where there's a neutral level playing field so that anyone anywhere could cook up an idea and run with it and no one could put up any barriers to get in their way.

• The Washington name game

Like most legislation coming out of Washington, the name didn't really reflect what the law would have done.
Here’s a case in point:
Ask yourself, “Where was the internet 25 years ago in 1992?”
For the most part, it did not exist!
OK, then ask yourself how in the world did it become the all-pervasive, everywhere at once, information, education, communications, entertainment, shopping and commerce giant that it is today?
Was it because of early so-called Net Neutrality? 
Well, of course not.
In fact, most agree that the internet is what it is precisely because the government did NOT interfere.
It did not regulate, oversee, act as traffic cop or playground teacher.
For the government, it was strictly, HANDS OFF.
And we created the freest and fair marketplace in history, allowing consumers to choose the winners and losers in a competitive marketplace..."
Read on!!

Why your homeowners insurance keeps rising-----After California's most destructive fire season, a debate over where to rebuild homes - LA Times

After California's most destructive fire season, a debate over where to rebuild homes - LA Times
"After a destructive wildfire swept from Calabasas to Malibu in 1993, the head of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy stood on a mountaintop on live TV and made a radical proposal.
He called for a “three-strikes” rule to limit the number of times recovery funds could be spent to help rebuild a home destroyed by wildfire.
Today, Joseph T. Edmiston is still wincing from the blowback.
But he hasn’t backed down..."
Read it all!

Lunch video-----George Carlin: How To Speak English

Noon-toon

State Dept Let Clinton Take Files | The Daily Caller

State Dept Let Clinton Take Files | The Daily Caller:

"The Obama State Department allowed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her top aide Huma Abedin to remove call logs, scheduling documents and files described as “Muslim Engagement” from government premises by labeling the records “private,” Judicial Watch has learned.

Judicial Watch obtained records about the document removals in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for all forms authorizing the removal of “personal papers and non-record materials,” "

Interesting thoughts-----Rethinking the Burning Question of Cremation | Intellectual Takeout

Rethinking the Burning Question of Cremation | Intellectual Takeout:

"It has been pointed out that death is now the taboo which sex once was. 

While having become numb to the latter, to the former we have become utterly prudish. 

The increasingly widespread practice of cremating the dead is good evidence in favour of this thesis. 

Our acceptance of cremation reveals that we no longer value the dead, nor view death an impetus to living well, or even understand what is a human being. 

Much more is lost to the furnaces of crematoria than we might at first suppose.

...And, yet, these facts alone do not decide the matter. 

Something needs to be said of the impoverishment that cremation engenders: it obscures and even destroys memory, history and community. 
Though many are content to pretend the dead are irrelevant, that the world is theirs to refashion and control, and that the discomfort that death evokes justifies its exclusion from consciousness, we all do well to remember that we are connected in time and space to those who have come before us..."

Read on.

Jews Flee Paris Suburbs over Rising Tide of Islamist Anti-Semitism

Jews Flee Paris Suburbs over Rising Tide of Islamist Anti-Semitism
"French-Jewish families are being forced from their homes in Paris suburbs as Europe continues to be convulsed by levels of anti-Semitism not seen since the end of the Second World War.

The Paris commuter newspaper 20 Minutes documents an “internal exodus” during 2017 of Jews from the Seine-Saint-Denis department, saying it is emblematic of broader concerns that French Jews, like their brothers and sisters across Europe, are finding it increasingly difficult to reconcile their faith with the changing demographics of the continent.

The paper reports that Jews are leaving their homes on the northeastern fringe of Paris to escape the open hostility that French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe on Sunday condemned as “well-rooted.” 
...The sensation of “not feeling welcome” is nothing new to French Jews. In 2015, journalist Zvika Klein recorded the reaction to his taking to the streets of Paris wearing a traditional kippa. See the result for yourself below:

Read on!

#1 This day 1969---Peter, Paul and Mary - Leaving On A Jet Plane (25th Anniversary Concert)

The Greek Experiment: Can an Economy Be Wiped Out by Taxation? | International Liberty

The Greek Experiment: Can an Economy Be Wiped Out by Taxation? | International Liberty
"Greece has confirmed that a nation can spend itself into a fiscal crisis.

And the Greek experience also has confirmed that bailouts exacerbate a fiscal crisis by enabling more bad policy, while also rewarding spendthrift politicians and reckless lenders (as I predictedwhen Greece’s finances first began to unravel).

So now let’s look at a third question: Can a country tax itself to death? 
Greek politicians are doing their best to see if this is possible, with a seemingly endless parade of tax increases (so many that even the tax-loving folksat the IMF have balked).

At the very least, they’ve pushed the private sector into hospice care.

Let’s peruse a couple of recent stories from Ekathimerini, an English-language Greek news outlet. 

We’ll start with a rather grim look at a very punitive tax regime that is aggressively grabbing money from taxpayers with arrears..."

Read on and be warned!

You ought to know!

Legalizing 'Dreamers' would cost $26 billion: CBO - Washington Times

Legalizing 'Dreamers' would cost $26 billion: CBO - Washington Times:

"Legalizing 2 million illegal immigrant “Dreamers” would cost the government $25.9 billion over the next decade, as those now-legal people would claim more tax, education and other benefits they haven’t been able to get before, the Congressional Budget Office said Friday.

The CBO also said newly legalized Dreamers would sponsor 80,000 more immigrants to enter the country as part of “chain migration.”"

Mary takes action when sheep steals baby Jesus in best Christmas pageant ever! | Fox News

Mary takes action when sheep steals baby Jesus in best Christmas pageant ever! | Fox News
"A preschool donnybrook broke out during the annual Christmas pageant at the First Baptist Church in White Pine, Tennessee. 

Teegan Benson, playing the part of a two-year old sheep, went off script and decided to snatch the Little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay.

...Mrs. Benson posted video of the merry melee on her Facebook page:

"My little sheep took the baby Jesus, breaking all the rules leaving poor little Mary no choice but to take action! 

Momma to the rescue tried her best to protect her baby at all costs..."

Read on!

AM Fruitcake