Seventy Years Ago In Europe: First German Buzz Bombs Hit London

Since 1936 Germany had been working on various guided bombs. The first flying prototype of a flying bomb, the forerunner of our later cruise missiles, was completed. The problem: it was radio controlled, which endangered the control aircraft. Back to the drawing board. The answer: give up some accuracy by using a regular autopilot, and simplify the propulsion by using a pulse-jet engine.

A week after the allies landed at Normandy, Germany fired the first V-1 "buzz bomb" at London.

Was it effective? Somewhat. Was it decisive? No.

Here is the story.  It certainly caused anxiety in London, as did the later V-2 ballistic missile. But it was too little, too late. And nothing could halt the Soviet juggernaut moving inexorably toward Berlin.




German fantasies of victory were fading fast.

Combat Air Patrol: June 1944 Saipan

What's going on here? USS Manila Bay, a US Navy escort carrier with a deck load of US Army P-47 fighter planes, attacked by Japanese aircraft east of Saipan on June 23, 1944. The story gets better. Here is what the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships says:

"On 7 May 1944 MANILA BAY sailed for overhaul at Pearl Harbor, where she arrived 18 May. After loading 37 Army P-47 fighters, MANILA BAY sailed 5 June for the Marianas. Steaming via Eniwetok, she reached the eastern approaches to Saipan 19 June. During the next four days she remained east of the embattled island as ships and planes of the Fast Carrier Task Force repulsed the Japanese Fleet in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, and inflicted staggering losses on the enemy, thus crippling the Imperial Japanes Navy's air strength permanently. On 23 June, MANILA BAY came under enemy air attack during refueling operations east of Saipan. Two fighter-bombers attacked her from dead ahead, dropping four bombs which exploded wide to port. Intense antiaircraft fire suppressed further attacks, and as a precautionary and rather unusual move which Admiral Spruance later characterized as "commendable initiative," MANILA BAY launched four of the Army P-47s she was ferrying to fly protective CAP until radar screens were clear of contacts. The Army fighters then flew to Saipan, their intended destination. She launched the remaining planes the next day and returned to Eniwetok, arriving 27 June. After embarking 207 wounded troops, MANILA BAY departed 1 July, touched Pearl Harbor the 8th, and reached San Diego 16 July 1944."

Seventy Years Ago: USS Houston (CL-81) In The Marianas

When last we checked on USS Houston, she was on her way with two other cruisers of her cruiser division, two battleships and seven destroyers enroute to Majuro Atoll. Since that time, the ship has been busy.

On 31 May she joined Vice Admiral Marc Mitscher's Fast Carrier Task Force to take part in the invasion of the Mariana and Palau Islands. Departing on 5 June 1944, Houston screened carrier strike units which pounded the Mariana Islands on 12–13 June and the Bonin Islands on 15–16 June.
While Admiral Richmond K. Turner's amphibious forces landed on Saipan on 15 June, the Japanese prepared to close that island for a "decisive" naval battle. The fleets approached each other on June 19 and engaged in the largest aircraft carrier battle of the war. Four large air raids attacked the American fleet, but the US fighters, with some help from anti-aircraft fire from Houston and the other screening warships, destroyed the attacking Japanese formations.

Mitscher's ships and aircraft were mostly new, the aircraft were improved, and the  pilots and crews well-trained. Mitscher had at his command 7 fleet carriers, 8 light fleet carriers, 7 battleships, 8 heavy cruisers, 13 light cruisers, 58 destroyers, 28 submarines and 956 carrier aircraft. Against this attack force, Japan dispatched 5 fleet carriers, 4 light carriers, 5 battleships, 13 heavy cruisers, 6 light cruisers, 27 destroyers, 24 submarines, 6 oilers, ~450 carrier aircraft and ~300 land-based aircraft.

The outcome: Japan lost 3 fleet carriers sunk, 2 oilers sunk, 550–645 aircraft destroyed and 6 other ships damaged. Americans called the battle "The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot", because so many Japanese aircraft were destroyed with only small American losses.  Japan's naval air power never recovered from the battle. The invasion was secured, though Japanese defenders continued to put up a strong defense.

This was  Houston's initiation into combat.

Town of Oriental Budget Coming Fiscal Year

Tomorrow evening, June 18 at 7:00 pm, the Town holds a public hearing on the budget for the coming fiscal year. Citizens who are interested in the budget should attend the hearing. They should also read the Town Manager's budget report, to which Town Dock has posted a link here.

Diane Miller's budget report is a well-written, clear explanation of the budget process and considerations. Even if you don't attend the hearing, by all means read the report. You will be rewarded by the effort.

I, for one, am pleased with our new manager. She is addressing issues that the Town Board has wrestled with for at least seven years. I am pleased at the progress she and her predecessors have made in that time.

Cox v. Oriental: Nothing New

For those following my case against the Town of Oriental, there was nothing heard today from the Court of Appeals. Next reporting date: July 1.

Seventy Years Ago:Ernie Pyle at Normandy

Ernie Pyle, the GI\s favorite war correspondent, walked upon the beach at Normandy. The incredible scene he described has never been adequately captured in the movies. Just imagine the German prisoners on the bluff overlooking the sea and contemplating their nation's doom.

Here is Pyle's account. :http://journalism.indiana.edu/resources/erniepyle/wartime-columns/the-horrible-waste-of-war/
:

Native Americans In 2014

Here is a link to a commercial that aired during last night's NBA final: http://deadspin.com/heres-the-anti-redskins-commercial-that-will-run-during-1588597037?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_facebook&utm_source=deadspin_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

Take the time to watch it.

Collectivists In The Pacific And The English Channel: June 6, 1944

The crew of USS Houston, lying at anchor at Majuro Atoll as they prepared for the next big operation against Japan, probably never thought of themselves as "collectivists" but they were. No single person aboard that ship could perform every function, operate every system, foresee every contingency, or know what to do in every situation. Not even the Captain.

The ship was due to get underway the next morning - June 6th, 1944. After all the practice at war, they would finally see the real thing.

What, pray tell, is "collectivism?" One definition: Collectivism is any philosophic, political, religious, economic, or social outlook that emphasizes the interdependence of every human. No society could exemplify the interdependence of every human more than a complex World War II warship.

The Koch brothers decry "collectivism." Those sailors celebrated it. There was no higher status than "shipmate." What none could accomplish alone, all could do together.

Half a world away, soldiers, sailors, aviators, parachutists, fighter pilots, bomber crews, transport pilots, coxswains of landing craft and combat-equipped troops were already on their way to objectives on the beaches of Normandy and inland.

None thought of themselves as heroes, because they knew the outcome did not depend on any individual effort.

The undertaking was heroic, but it was the heroism of the collective effort.

This is the worst time for the generals. Their job was to prepare, to plan, to calculate, to foresee every contingency. But now there was nothing they could change.

The game was afoot.

Memorial Day Rant By Senator Burr

Memorial Day weekend seems like a strange time for a US Senator to lash out at Veteran's organizations. Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina did just that: http://www.burr.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressOffice.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=aa65233d-d544-d911-5730-974ef9952220.

Even more interesting, the Veteran's organizations lashed back: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/27/us/veterans-groups-lash-out-at-republican-senator.html?hp&_r=0

Back in February, Senator Burr joined 40 other Republican senators in killing Senator Sanders' bill to fund more support for veterans. This video clip has an extract from Burr's speech on the floor: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/05/25/the-one-video-everyone-needs-to-remember-on-memorial-day-video/

The Republican "concern" over deficits is hogwash. They cared nothing for deficits when they sent the troops to war while cutting taxes on the wealthiest Americans. Remember Dick Cheney gloating the Reagan proved that "deficits don't matter?"

And they have consistently refused to appropriate the funds requested by the VA even as the burden of wounded veterans on the system has drastically increased.

The real Republican agenda seems to be to privatize the VA. Send our veterans off to private health care facilities. Senator Sanders got it about right:

"The real issue here, if you look at the Koch Brothers' agenda, is: look at what many of the extreme right-wing people believe. Obamacare is just the tip of the iceberg. These people want to abolish the concept of the minimum wage, they want to privatize the Veteran's Administration, they want to privatize Social Security, end Medicare as we know it, massive cuts in Medicaid, wipe out the EPA, you don't have an Environmental Protection Agency anymore, Department of Energy gone, Department of Education gone. That is the agenda. And many people don't understand that the Koch Brothers have poured hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars into the Tea Party and two other kinds of ancillary organizations to push this agenda."

—Senator Bernie Sanders, MSNBC News (October 7, 2013) (regarding the US government shutdown of 2013).

USS Houston (CL-81); May 23rd 1944 - Underway For Combat Operations

May 23rd, 1944. The training was over. Drills would never be over. Gun firing drills, damage control drills, man overboard drills, abandon ship drills, ship maneuvering drills, communication drills, all were now built into the fabric of Houston's daily life. Underway for Majuro Atoll, in company with USS Vincennes and USS Miami, the other ships of cruiser division 14, two battleships, seven destroyers and a minelayer, Houston was on her way to join Admiral Raymond Spruance's Fifth Fleet.

Half a world away, allied naval and air forces in Great Britain were preparing to invade Europe. The objective in Europe was still secret, but in two weeks the greatest armada in history was scheduled to land troops on the unprotected beaches of Normandy.

Aboard Houston the ship settled into the routine for wartime steaming. Lookouts scanned the sea for hostile forces. Surface lookouts scanned in every direction, alert for periscopes, torpedoes, hostile surface ships. Air lookouts scanned from the horizon up. The ship was in Condition III, with one third of her guns manned and ready to go into action at a moment's notice, defending the ship while the entire crew went to battle stations. Below decks in the Combat Information Center, radarmen under supervision of the CIC Watch Officer, watched their radar scopes for indications of hostile air or surface contacts. The ship had no sonar of its own to detect submarines, so CIC personnel depended on radio reports from the seven destroyers escorting the force.  Steaming under radio silence, at least for long range radio transmissions, the force coordinated their actions by signal flags and flashing light communications in Morse code.

Crews of the ship's five-inch dual-purpose guns took turns drilling on "loading machines" that simulated operation of the guns. The guns used semi-fixed ammunition, with powder in 25-lb brass casings, and separate 54-lb projectiles. Though the system used machinery to hoist the ammunition, it was loaded by hand. A well-trained crew could fire 18 rounds per minute from each gun.

The fire rooms and engine rooms had their own drills. They exercised daily on responses to engineering casualties, which might result from either normal operations or from battle damage.

There was little time for relaxation.

May, 1944, Aboard Light Cruiser Montpelier In The South Pacific

In May, 1944, USS Houston (CL-81) was at Pearl Harbor getting ready for action in the Pacific. The Cleveland Class cruiser fired its six-inch guns at targets every day and practiced damage control. The guns would take the war to the enemy, but effective control of damage might keep the ship afloat. Lieutenant Commander George Miller, the ship's Damage Control Officer, had used the ship's training and fitting out period in the Boston area to beg, borrow or steal additional timber shoring, steel plate, welding machines and other equipment beyond what he viewed as the parsimonious allowance provided by the Navy's Bureau of Ships.

Meanwhile, to the South and West of Hawaii, Seaman First Class James Fahey served in Houston's sister ship, USS Montpelier, in the area of Bouganville.

Fahey violated Navy regulations by keeping a daily diary of his experience. Fahey served on one of his ship's 40-mm antiaircraft guns, which gave him a good view of the action as Montpelier attacked a Japanese shore battery of 8-inch guns.

Here is his account of one day's action.

This was a foretaste of what would be facing Houston in a few days.

Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma Despises Retired Military Officers

“There is no one in more pursuit of publicity than a retired military officer,” Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma said about last Tuesday's climate report by a leading government-funded military research organization.

For an elected official to complain that retired military officers "pursue publicity" is a bit bizarre.

Inhofe's complaint was that the CNA Corporation Military Advisory Board found that climate change-induced drought in the Middle East and Africa is leading to conflicts over food and water and escalating longstanding regional and ethnic tensions into violent clashes. The report also found that rising sea levels are putting people and food supplies in vulnerable coastal regions like eastern India, Bangladesh and the Mekong Delta in Vietnam at risk and could lead to a new wave of refugees.

Inhofe, whose political campaigns are funded primarily by wealthy petroleum industry patrons, said of the report’s authors: “I look back wistfully at the days of the Cold War. Now you have people who are mentally imbalanced, with the ability to deploy a nuclear weapon. For anyone to say that any type of global warming is anywhere close to the threat that we have with crazy people running around with nuclear weapons, it shows how desperate they are to get the public to buy this.”

The problem for Inhofe is, that the Board does not support his view that climate change is a hoax. Inhofe knows that, because the truth has been revealed to him. We don't need no stinkin' facts!

The CNA Corporation has evolved from the Center for Naval Analysis, a group formed during World War II to develop more effective methods of countering submarines and aircraft in war at sea. The Center pioneered the application of Operations Analysis to naval warfare and achieved extraordinary results. The Center continued to apply these methods to naval problems and has accumulated nearly seventy-five years experience in the methodology. CNA's analysis is founded on data. And on facts.

Inhofe has no interest in either facts or analysis.

Rear Adm. David Titley, a co-author of the report and a meteorologist who is retired from the Navy, said political opposition would not extinguish what he called the indisputable data in the report.

“The ice doesn’t care about politics or who’s caucusing with whom, or Democrats or Republicans,” said Admiral Titley, who now directs the Center for Solutions to Weather and Climate Risk at Pennsylvania State University.

Ukrainian Elections

A week from today, Ukraine holds a fateful election. The Ukrainians I met two decades ago want only to be a normal European country. They have earned the right to try, by spilling their blood at Maidan Square.

But Democracy and freedom, which is what they want, isn't a one-time affair. Now they must earn the right by elections, by economic development, by moving away from the kind of kleptocracy that has governed them for too long. Only the Ukrainian people can do that.

Voting will take courage. Rebuilding the country will take even more courage.

Vlast' Narodam!

Trouble in Turkey

Disaster in a Turkish mine. Accident? Probably no one intentionally caused the explosion.

But in such an instance, there are really no accidents.

Safety is a consequence of planning, regulation, inspections and control. The saying: "Safety is no accident."

There is certainly more to the explosion in Turkey than an accident, and the public is pointing the finger right at Prime Minister Erdogan. Why?

It is more than the fact that more than 300 miners are dead. The opposition parties had united to present a demand that mines be more closely inspected. Two weeks ago the governing party defeated the proposed measure. At the very least, the timing is bad for the governing party. But there's more.  The minister of mines had stood at that mine 9 months ago, declaring how safe the mines were compared to other countries (and despite a horrific safety record). Turkish mines had gone through a  government-led privatization, which cut costs through low-wage job replacement and in-house equipment production (the failure of which caused the fire).

It will be interesting to see how Erdogan gets out of this one.

The lesson: the magic of the marketplace usually doesn't do much for safety. Without strong regulation and enforcement, people die.

Not only in Turkey.

Keith Crisco: 1943-2015

Keith Crisco, part-time Oriental resident and full-time gentleman, died today at his home in Asheboro.

Keith was dedicated to making North Carolina a better place for all of its citizens. He served as Commerce Secretary in Governor Perdue's administration and put his considerable talents to work to bring business to North Carolina during a severe economic crisis. He worked tirelessly improve our economy.

He worked equally hard to be elected to the US Congress.

We are all saddened by his untimely death.

This is a great loss to North Carolina.

American Fisheries: Good News and Bad News

A recent investigative report shows that many American fisheries are recovering. With a few (but important) exceptions, recent efforts at managing our fisheries have been very effective.

The problem: collecting data on particular wild fish stocks is difficult and expensive. NOAA has to prioritize the effort. As a result, we have some unknown unknowns.

The bad news: fisheries management is less effective in the rest of the world, where over eighty percent of our seafood is caught.

To find out more, read the following VOX article: http://www.vox.com/2014/5/8/5669120/how-the-us-stopped-its-fisheries-from-collapsing

A Good Day For Democrats

Yesterday was a good day for Democrats in Pamlico County and pretty much all over the state.

The turnout in Pamlico County was nearly three times that of 2010.  GOP efforts to suppress the vote haven't worked well so far.

The GOP effort to eliminate Supreme Court Justice Robin Hudson on the first ballot also didn't work. In Pamlico County, Justice Hudson won every precinct.

We have a good lineup for the November election. Democrats, Keep up the good work!

Reelect Robin Hudson To NC Supreme Court

Billionaires from Kansas and Texas are pouring money into North Carolina elections to defeat Justice Hudson.

What do they want?

What business do they have meddling in our election?

Get Out And Vote: Your Vote Counts

Don't imagine your vote doesn't matter. NC Republicans and the wealthy people they support and defend  have expended a lot of effort to discourage you from voting. The US Supreme Court has unleashed vast amounts of money just so it can counter your vote. Billionaires want to keep you from voting.

Never surrender!

Pamlico County Early Vote 2014

This morning's News and Observer published statewide early voting turnout for North Carolina. Turnout percentage was higher this year than in the mid-term election four years ago. The news was especially good for Democrats.

Pamlico County's turnout was even better. Here's the comparison:

Party                      Percentage of One-Stop Votes Cast    

                               Statewide            Pamlico County

Democratic             47.8%                  54.32%      

Republican              33.3%                  26.54%

Unaffiliated             18.8%                  18.89%


As far as numbers go, in 2010 in this county 297 voters cast early ballots. This year, 810 Pamlico County citizens cast early votes, 2.78 times as many as voted in 2010.

That's a good start. Let's keep up the enthusiasm on election day tomorrow.

Benjamin Franklin v Bundy

I've been thinking about cattleman Cliven Bundy's recent anti American rant and what it reveals about the warped views of American history it reflects.

Bundy and his Tea Party and Libertarian supporters envision America as some kind of historical anarchy. Laws are apparently tyranny in his view. And everything he has he did entirely on his own.

Benjamin Franklin, without whom we may not have ever achieved independence, had an entirely different view of property and taxes. Here is what he wrote in 1783:

16

Property

CHAPTER 16|Document 12
Benjamin Franklin to Robert Morris
25 Dec. 1783Writings 9:138 The Remissness of our People in Paying Taxes is highly blameable; the Unwillingness to pay them is still more so. I see, in some Resolutions of Town Meetings, a Remonstrance against giving Congress a Power to take, as they call it, the People's Money out of their Pockets, tho' only to pay the Interest and Principal of Debts duly contracted. They seem to mistake the Point. Money, justly due from the People, is their Creditors' Money, and no longer the Money of the People, who, if they withold it, should be compell'd to pay by some Law.
All Property, indeed, except the Savage's temporary Cabin, his Bow, his Matchcoat, and other little Acquisitions, absolutely necessary for his Subsistence, seems to me to be the Creature of public Convention. Hence the Public has the Right of Regulating Descents, and all other Conveyances of Property, and even of limiting the Quantity and the Uses of it. All the Property that is necessary to a Man, for the Conservation of the Individual and the Propagation of the Species, is his natural Right, which none can justly deprive him of: But all Property superfluous to such purposes is the Property of the Publick, who, by their Laws, have created it, and who may therefore by other Laws dispose of it, whenever the Welfare of the Publick shall demand such Disposition. He that does not like civil Society on these Terms, let him retire and live among Savages. He can have no right to the benefits of Society, who will not pay his Club towards the Support of it.

The Founders' Constitution
Volume 1, Chapter 16, Document 12
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch16s12.html
The University of Chicago Press
The Writings of Benjamin Franklin. Edited by Albert Henry Smyth. 10 vols. New York: Macmillan Co., 1905--7.
Easy to print version.

Home | Search | Contents | Indexes | Help

© 1987 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2000
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/

On Immigrants

Seventy Years Ago: Building Planes And Training At Corpus Christi

Here are some of the best photos I have seen of maintenance and repair of WWII Naval Aircraft and the people who did the work: Click on the link.

http://www.businessinsider.com/vintage-world-war-ii-photos-from-the-base-where-george-bush-senior-earned-his-wings-2012-2?op=1

April 25, 1898 - 116 Years Ago - US Declares War On Spain

Here are photos of what the US Navy looked like during the Spanish American War:

http://www.businessinsider.com/what-it-was-like-in-the-navy-116-years-ago-2014-4

Moldova

I recommend Nicholas Kristof's article about Moldova in today's New York Times. A pretty small place under a significant threat from Russia.

Moldova, like Eastern Ukraine, Crimea, and the Baltic states, has pockets of Russians moved there while they were still part of the Soviet Union. It seems Putin wants them all back.

Not unlike the pockets of German speakers scattered across Central and Eastern Europe that Germany went after in the 30's and 40's. These Russian pockets should temper their enthusiasm for absorption into Russia. The analogous German experience didn't turn out so well.

In any event, I think this all shows that the Soviet Union was less about communism and more about Russian imperialism.

Cox v Town of Oriental

Today was the day the North Carolina Court of Appeals heard my case against the Town of Oriental. This was at least the end of the beginning, if not the beginning of the end.

We won't know the outcome for weeks or perhaps months. I'm not counting any chickens yet, but I think my case is strong. Still, there are never any guarantees when a case goes before a court.

Without getting into the ins and outs of my legal argument and the Town's, I want to register a mild complaint in another direction entirely.

From the time I first brought my concerns before the mayor and the town commissioners, I had the impression that elected officials and the town's attorney dismissed my views out of hand. What could a naval officer possibly know about the law? And why would he make a big deal about whether the town was acting within its legal authority?

Those who don't go down to the sea in ships have possibly never reflected that a warship operates in a very complex legal environment. Commanding officers must not only understand Law of the Sea, but also grasp how his actions may affect the interests of the nation differently depending on where the ship is located. The legal regime may vary depending on whether the ship is in US waters, or even whether the ship is in the Mississippi river, on the Great Lakes, or in other special regimes. Is the ship in international waters? Is the ship in the territorial waters of another sovereign state?

What legal regime applies? How does the legal regime affect the captain's authority and legal responsibilities?

I first encountered these issues when I was seventeen years old and learning to be a naval officer. To be sure, I was taught navigation and seamanship. I was taught ordnance and gunnery. I was taught the operation and maintenance of ship propulsion plants. I learned radar, sonar, other electronic systems. But that wasn't all.

The very first semester of my four year course of Naval Science introduced me to "US Naval Regulations, 1948." This document spelled out the authority and responsibilities of Naval officers - the source of the authority and the limitations on that authority.

A little later on, I studied the Uniform Code of Military Justice,  the Judge Advocate General Manual, and the Manual for Courts Martial.

These weren't just theoretical studies. They were central to my profession.

In those days, more so than today, unrestricted line officers performed most of the Navy's legal functions. We administered justice through non-judicial punishment as well as through our own criminal justice system under the UCMJ. In case of mishap, suspicion of criminal activity or in other cases, we conducted our own investigations using procedures in the JAG manual.

To do all of these things in 1954 when I began learning about it, the Navy had very few legal specialists. We did not even have a JAG corps of legal officers at all until 1950. You would not find one aboard most ships. Some major commands had a JAG officer assigned. The first JAG officer I served with was on a guided missile heavy cruiser in 1971.

When I was commissioned as a naval officer and reported to my first ship, within six months I was the ship's legal officer. I was also the navigator, the personnel officer, the administrative office, and a dozen other things. When the captain convened a court-martial, I was the trial counsel. Over the years, at various times I served as trial counsel, defense counsel, member of the court and president of the court. 

I first worked really closely with Navy JAG officers in the Pentagon in 1972. We collaborated on international negotiations, on issues involving status of forces agreements with foreign powers, in negotiations on Law of the Sea matters.

By that time, I had degrees in international law and diplomacy. Many of my civilian counterparts in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and in the State Department were attorneys. I learned a lot from them. After I retired, I continued working on international issues as an engineer and policy analyst in the field of international technology cooperation.

I certainly don't know as much about courtrooms as practicing attorneys do. That's why I retained one to represent me in my appeal of the trial court's dismissal of my complaint against the town.

There are a lot of terms of art in the legal field that don't come tripping off my tongue. Though I dare say few practicing attorneys know more about Law of The Sea than I do.

The best way for professionals to relate to each other is with mutual respect. The better to learn and to join forces.

My goal all along has been to protect the public interest and the rule of law.

Ukraine's Aspirations

In today's New York Times, Nicholas Kristof visits the Ukrainian village his father grew up in. The people Kristof describes are like the Ukrainians I know. They just want to be a normal European country.

We can and should help.

Seventy Years Ago: USS Houston (CL-81) Ready For Sea

USS HOUSTON (CL-81)

Boston, MA April 15, 1944, Newly commissioned Cleveland-class light cruiser Houston, after completing shakedown cruise in the Caribbean, provisioning, training, and final outfitting, reports Ready For Sea. Her orders: get underway April 16, 1944, proceed through Panama Canal to San Diego, California. On arrival, report to Commander, US Pacific Fleet for combat duty.

Ship Characteristics:

Awarded: 1940

Keel laid: August 4, 1941

Launched: June 19, 1943

Commissioned: December 20, 1943

Decommissioned: December 15, 1947

Builder: Newport News Shipbuilding, Newport News, Va.

Propulsion system: geared turbines, 100,000 shp

Propellers: four

Length: 610.2 feet (186 meters)

Beam: 66.3 feet (20.2 meters)

Draft: 24.6 feet (7.5 meters)

Displacement: approx. 14,130 tons fully loaded

Speed: 32.5 knots

Aircraft: four

Armament: twelve 15.2cm 6-inch/47 caliber guns in four triple mounts, twelve 12.7cm 5-inch/38 caliber guns in six twin mounts, 24 40mm guns, 21 20mm guns

Crew: 70 officers and 1285 enlisted

US Navy Electrical Propulsion

Department of "History Begins When I Was Born." Yesterday's News and Observer printed an AP report about the Christening of USS Zumwalt, named for a former Chief of Naval Operations from the 1970's. Good. I am proud to have served under Admiral Zumwalt's strong and innovative leadership.

On the other hand, the AP article explained that USS Zumwalt is "the first U.S. Ship to use electric propulsion." That is not accurate. In 1912 the Navy launched a new fuel ship, USS Jupiter, powered by a prototype turbo-electric propulsion system. After serving in World War I, Jupiter was converted to become USS Langley, CV-1, the Navy's first aircraft carrier. The next two aircraft carriers, USS Lexington (CV-2) and USS Saratoga (CV-3) were also electrically powered. In the 1920's, the navy adopted diesel electric propulsion for its new S-Class submarines and continued using diesel-electric propulsion for its submarines until the switch to nuclear power. These submarines were propelled by electric motors, drawing electricity from diesel generators when on the surface and from batteries when submerged. At least six US battlehips of the era were also powered by electrical propulsion: (Tennessee, New Mexico, California, Colorado, Maryland and West Virginia,) as were three classes of destroyer escorts (Evarts, Bulkley and Cannon classes) used to protect WWII convoys.

Langley, still in service in 1942, was converted in 1936 to function as a seaplane tender. She supported Australian anti submarine air operations out of Darwin, and then was pressed into service to transport crated P-40 fighters to Tjilatjap in the Dutch East Indies. Attacked by Japanese Aichi dive bombers on February 27, 1942, she was so badly damaged she had to be scuttled and abandoned by her crew to keep the ship out of the hands of Japan. When she went down, her 30-year-old electrical propulsion plant was still working reliably.

USS Langley  Under Attack By Japanese Navy Aircraft February 27, 1942

So electrical propulsion is far from new.

Living Within Our Means?

The budget just passed by the Republican House of Representatives sheds new light on the phrase "living within our means."

"Mean" is a word with many meanings. But when referring to Republicans, one set of meanings stands out:

mean ²  (mēn)

adj. mean·er, mean·est

1.

a. Selfish in a petty way; unkind.

b. Cruel, spiteful, or malicious.

2. Ignoble; base: a mean motive.

3. Miserly; stingy.

4.

a. Low in quality or grade; inferior.

b. Low in value or amount; paltry: paid no mean amount for the new shoes.

5. Common or poor in appearance; shabby: "The rowhouses had been darkened by the rain and looked meaner and grimmer than ever" (Anne Tyler).

6. Low in social status; of humble origins.

7. Humiliated or ashamed.

8. In poor physical condition; sick or debilitated.

9. Extremely unpleasant or disagreeable: The meanest storm in years.

10. Informal Ill-tempered.

11. Slang

a. Hard to cope with; difficult or troublesome: He throws a mean fast ball.

b. Excellent; skillful: She plays a mean game of bridge.

---

[Middle English, from Old English gemǣne, common; see mei-¹ in Indo-European roots.]

Synonyms: mean², low¹, base², abject, ignoble, sordid
These adjectives mean lacking in dignity or falling short of the standards befitting humans. Mean suggests pettiness, spite, or niggardliness: "Never ascribe to an opponent motives meaner than your own" (J.M. Barrie).
Something low violates standards of morality, ethics, or propriety: low cunning; a low trick.
Base suggests a contemptible, mean-spirited, or selfish lack of human decency: "that liberal obedience, without which your army would be a base rabble" (Edmund Burke).
Abject means brought low in condition: abject submission; abject poverty.
Ignoble means lacking noble qualities, such as elevated moral character: "For my part I think it a less evil that some criminals should escape than that the government should play an ignoble part" (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.)
Sordid suggests foul, repulsive degradation: "It is through art . . . that we can shield ourselves from the sordid perils of actual existence" (Oscar Wilde).

 

A check of the Republican budget reveals that it (the budget) is mean in most of those senses.

 

It is such a mean and destructive budget that Americans should be enraged. NYT  columnist Charles M. Blow tells us today why we should be enraged. Republican insistence on measures like this is the main reason why wages for sixty percent of Americans are lower now (in real terms) than they were 40 years ago, despite vast improvements in economic productivity. 

This is not driven by economics. It is driven by the greed of a narrow sliver of American society who make nothing but deals. And prosper out of all proportion to any contribution they make to society. Many of them got their wealth the old fashioned way - they inherited it. And for the past half century they have used that wealth to acquire great political power. Which the George W. Bush Supreme Court has just increased.

The only weapon we have to fight back with is the vote. We can see how much this threatens the wealthy and powerful by what a concerted effort Republican state governments across the land have exerted to suppress the votes of the poor, people who work for a living, people of color, women and the elderly. 

We see it right here in North Carolina.

Get out and vote!

Cox v Town Of Oriental Update

Last Thursday the Town of Oriental filed a 33-page motion with the North Carolina Court of Appeals requesting permission to file an additional reply ("surreply") in addition to normal filings in an appeal, responding to my reply to the Town's brief. This is pretty much unprecedented. The Court has already scheduled the hearing in the case for April 23rd.

I don't know what action to expect the Court to take in response to the Town's motion. But I am certain that the 33-page motion (posted here) will add to the Town's legal bill.

What Is A Robber Baron?

A little etymology is in order.  Fortunately, Timothy Taylor in his blog "The Conversable Economist" saves us the trouble of poring over the archives.

He explains the origin of the term in the Middle Ages here and provides some helpful examples from Nineteenth Century oratory using the term in very descriptive ways.

Where are the orators of our day?

W.C Flagg, president of the Illinois State Farmer's Association, was such an orator in his day. He explains the results of the Robber Barons' in the field of transportation: "There-by you, the citizens of a democratic-republican country, are enabled to know how cruel, relentless, and unscrupulous a thing is arbitrary power in the hands of a few. Regulation by combination means that the railroad managers are feudal lords, and that you are their serfs."

An 1870 article in Atlantic Monthly draws a picture that seems all too familiar today:

"They make money so rapidly, so easily, and in such a splendid sensational way, that they corrupt more persons by their example than they ruin by their knaveries. As compared with common rogues, they appear like Alexander or Caesar as compared with common thieves and cutthroats. As their wealth increases, our moral indignation at their method of acquiring it diminishes, and at last they steal so much that we come to look on their fortunes as conquests rather than burglaries."

The article might have been referring to the practice of high frequency trading, where margins of time in microseconds result in vast stock trading fortunes as described this week in the New York Times. In times past, such people were also described as parasites. 

Ukraine, Nuclear Weapons And Japan

A little over a month ago, I posted a reflection on the danger of failing to live up to the international security guarantee the nuclear powers gave to Ukraine in return for Ukraine giving up its nuclear arsenal.

Today's New York Times article reporting Japanese concerns over the U.S. reaction to Russian takeover of the Crimea should, therefore, come as no surprise. The article makes it clear that failure to carry out the security guarantee to Ukraine not only complicates efforts at nuclear non-proliferation, it also complicates conventional diplomacy.

It is a bit reminiscent of the inter war diplomacy of France. After World War I, France signed a guarantee to defend the independence and territorial integrity of Czechoslovakia. But France lacked a common border with Czechoslovakia and besides that, had built a vast fixed fortress (the Maginot Line) and a military designed to operate behind that line. How were they to come to the aid of Czechoslovakia if necessary?

It created a mismatch between miltary planning and diplomatic efforts. In the end, it didn't work.

I would hope we have learned something useful in the intervening eighty years.

WHO Says America Has The Best Healthcare System?

Actually WHO doesn't say that. The World Health Organization ranks the health care systems of its members.

WHO's on first?

France.

We're number 37!

Here's the list:

World Health Organization Ranking; The World’s Health Systems

1 France 2 Italy 3 San Marino 4 Andorra 5 Malta 6 Singapore 7 Spain 8 Oman 9 Austria 10 Japan 11 Norway 12 Portugal 13 Monaco 14 Greece 15 Iceland 16 Luxembourg 17 Netherlands 18 United Kingdom 19 Ireland 20 Switzerland 21 Belgium 22 Colombia 23 Sweden 24 Cyprus 25 Germany 26 Saudi Arabia 27 United Arab Emirates 28 Israel 29 Morocco 30 Canada 31 Finland 32 Australia 33 Chile 34 Denmark 35 Dominica 36 Costa Rica 37 USA 38 Slovenia 39 Cuba 40 Brunei 41 New Zealand 42 Bahrain 43 Croatia 44 Qatar 45 Kuwait 46 Barbados 47 Thailand 48 Czech Republic 49 Malaysia 50 Poland 51 Dominican Republic 52 Tunisia 53 Jamaica 54 Venezuela 55 Albania 56 Seychelles 57 Paraguay 58 South Korea 59 Senegal 60 Philippines 61 Mexico 62 Slovakia 63 Egypt 64 Kazakhstan

65 Uruguay 66 Hungary 67 Trinidad and Tobago 68 Saint Lucia 69 Belize 70 Turkey 71 Nicaragua 72 Belarus 73 Lithuania 74 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 75 Argentina 76 Sri Lanka 77 Estonia 78 Guatemala 79 Ukraine 80 Solomon Islands 81 Algeria 82 Palau 83 Jordan 84 Mauritius 85 Grenada 86 Antigua and Barbuda 87 Libya 88 Bangladesh 89 Macedonia 90 Bosnia-Herzegovina 91 Lebanon 92 Indonesia 93 Iran 94 Bahamas 95 Panama 96 Fiji 97 Benin 98 Nauru 99 Romania 100 Saint Kitts and Nevis 101 Moldova 102 Bulgaria 103 Iraq 104 Armenia 105 Latvia 106 Yugoslavia 107 Cook Islands 108 Syria 109 Azerbaijan 110 Suriname 111 Ecuador 112 India 113 Cape Verde 114 Georgia 115 El Salvador 116 Tonga 117 Uzbekistan 118 Comoros 119 Samoa 120 Yemen 121 Niue 122 Pakistan 123 Micronesia 124 Bhutan 125 Brazil 126 Bolivia 127 Vanuatu

128 Guyana 129 Peru 130 Russia 131 Honduras 132 Burkina Faso 133 Sao Tome and Principe 134 Sudan 135 Ghana 136 Tuvalu 137 Ivory Coast 138 Haiti 139 Gabon 140 Kenya 141 Marshall Islands 142 Kiribati 143 Burundi 144 China 145 Mongolia 146 Gambia 147 Maldives 148 Papua New Guinea 149 Uganda 150 Nepal 151 Kyrgystan 152 Togo 153 Turkmenistan 154 Tajikistan 155 Zimbabwe 156 Tanzania 157 Djibouti 158 Eritrea 159 Madagascar 160 Vietnam 161 Guinea 162 Mauritania 163 Mali 164 Cameroon 165 Laos 166 Congo 167 North Korea 168 Namibia 169 Botswana 170 Niger 171 Equatorial Guinea 172 Rwanda 173 Afghanistan 174 Cambodia 175 South Africa 176 Guinea-Bissau 177 Swaziland 178 Chad 179 Somalia 180 Ethiopia 181 Angola 182 Zambia 183 Lesotho 184 Mozambique 185 Malawi 186 Liberia 187 Nigeria 188 Democratic Republic of the Congo 189 Central African Republic 190 Myanmar

Source: World Health Organization

In Memory Of John Knauth

Our friend John Knauth died last month. John was an important member of this community for many years and contributed much to our welfare. He was also a dedicated and visible member of the County Democratic Party. I am taking the liberty of quoting today's Town Dock's article:

"If you called 911 here in Oriental a few years back, chances are John Knauth would’ve come to your door, his EMT kit in hand. He was part of Oriental’s First Responders, which was a continuation of the volunteering he’d done in Connecticut. In retirement here, John also helped get the Pamlico Musical Society going. And was on the Pamlico Arts Council and active with the Pamlico Amateur Radio Society. As we write this, we’re certain we’re leaving something out.

"John and his wife Ilona Forgeng moved from Oriental to New Bern a few years ago. John died there last month and this Saturday their families and friends are gathering at the Unitarian Church in New Bern to remember him. That’s from 4-7p on April 5 at 308 Meadows Street."

We'll be there.

Elections For Sale To The Wealthiest And Most Powerful

The US Supreme Court earlier today ruled in McCutcheon v Federal Election Commission that FEC ceilings on how much money a wealthy donor can donate to political campaigns are unconstitutional. Today's ruling completes the coup by the Supreme Court of the United States begun with their ruling in Bush v Gore in 2000. It was hard in 2000 to explain to voters that the most important issue in that election was "who gets to appoint Supreme Court justices for the next four or eight years." Justice Sandra Day O'Connor understood this when she heard the networks had called Florida for Gore and immediately commented "that's terrible." Now America's elections are blatantly for sale to the highest bidder. Unless voters catch on. The vote is all we have now, and in NC the GOP is doing its best to impede the franchise.

Lincoln's statement that "government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish...." has been replaced by "government of the wealthy by the wealthy and for the wealthy." 

Get out and vote. Let the lackeys of excessive wealth in our legislatures, Congress and Governor's mansions spend more time with their families!

Cox v Town Of Oriental

Oriental's Town Attorney, Scott Davis, updated the Board on the status of my suit against the Town. In a nutshell: the Court of Appeals hearing by a three-judge panel is docketed for April 23. There will be no oral arguments. It may be a couple of months more before we hear the results.

Town Of Oriental - Town Board Meeting April 1, 2014

Good Town Board meeting tonight. Everyone got to meet the new Town Manager - Diane Miller. My assessment: we are lucky to have her.

As for the Board, they did well. Tonight was the first quasi-judicial hearing by this board.

Just a suggestion - I think it is generally a bad idea for Town Board members to sit in on Planning Board meetings, especially meetings reviewing permit applications. Best to do that business at arm's length.

The Navy Way: USS Houston, April 1 1944

As April began, USS Houston (CL-81) was preparing to be deployed to the Pacific. Over the next weeks and months I will try to explain what was involved. 'Round the clock work, training, and cramming stuff into storerooms.

Years ago I concluded that the world would be a better place, at least more effective, if it were run like the Navy. I will explain later. But at least it should be clear that the US Army and the US Navy were very different organizations.

How to explain?

I just came across this passage in a 1941 essay by the British author, George Orwell about what it means to be British:

"It is quite true that the English are hypocritical about their Empire. In the working class this hypocrisy takes the form of not knowing that the Empire exists. But their dislike of standing armies is a perfectly sound instinct. A navy employs comparatively few people, and it is an external weapon which cannot affect home politics directly. Military dictatorships exist everywhere, but there is no such thing as a naval dictatorship. What English people of nearly all classes loathe from the bottom of their hearts is the swaggering officer type, the jingle of spurs and the crash of boots. Decades before Hitler was ever heard of, the word ‘Prussian’ had much the same significance in England as ‘Nazi’ has today. So deep does this feeling go that for a hundred years past the officers of the British army, in peace time, have always worn civilian clothes when off duty."

So. Did you ever hear of a naval dictatorship?

By the way, the dislike of standing armies Orwell refers to already existed in America in 1776. Our constitution attempted three ways of limiting the size of the Army: (1) by limiting the budget for the War Department (Army) to no more than two years at a time. There is no such limit for the Navy budget; (2) by stipulating that "the people's" military will consist of "well-regulated militia." The purpose of the Second Amendment was precisely to prevent a large standing army; (3) by requiriing a declaration of war by the Congress before calling up the militia and sending it off to war.

Most of our military actions from 1776 to 1940 were carried out by the Navy/Marine Corps team. Such small wars were viewed as within the executive power of the president to pursue and did not require a declaration of war.

We abandoned that constitutional arrangement with the so-called unification of the armed forces in 1947.

Good Friday Earthquake Fifty Years Ago - Alaska

I had forgotten that today is the fiftieth anniversary of the Good Friday earthquake that devastated Anchorage, Alaska. Until NPR mentioned the anniversary.

I had been stationed at the US Naval Communication Station on Adak in the Aleutian Islands until September of 1963. Liz and I and our two boys landed at Elmendorf Air Force Base, rented a car and took a few days to explore Anchorage, Palmer and the Matanuska Valley and then drive up to Fairbanks to visit my sister and her children.

My previous connection with Alaska is that I lived in Anchorage from 1951 to 1954, graduating from Anchorage High School in 1954.

Anchorage in 1963 was much the same as it had been in 1954.

I haven't visited there since 1963, so I remember it as it was.

Not like this:

Nikogda Ne Zabudite! Kovno, Lithuania, March 27, 1944

There are so many things done during World War II that must never be forgotten, and yet we forget. Who remembers Lidice? Nanking? Kovno?

Here is the story of the action by Germans against Jewish children in Kovno.

Slave Deeds

Some of my ancestors owned slaves - from as early as the 1650's in Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and possibly Georgia, Arkansas and Texas.

I never knew how to trace those slaves, if ever I wanted to.

I just learned of a project in Buncome County, North Carolina that shows the way.

It somehow never occurred to me that if slaves were property, there must be some sort of title deed or other government record of ownership and sale. In Buncome County, the records were kept at the Register of Deeds. The county's web site explains:

"The Buncombe County Register of Deeds office has kept property records since the late 1700’s. In our records one can find a wealth of information about the history of our community. On this page, we have compiled a list of the documents that record the trade of people as slaves in Buncombe County. These people were considered “property” prior to end of the Civil War; therefore these transfers were recorded in the Register of Deeds office. The list below shows the book and page number where the deed is located in our record books as well as the seller (grantor) and buyer (grantee) of the “property.” For your convenience, you can view each original document by clicking on the book and page hyperlink.

"The Register of Deeds Office presents these records in an effort to help remember our past so we will never again repeat it."

Here is a link to Buncome County's slave deeds.

We should all be grateful to Buncome County for showing us the way to find and preserve these records and make them available.

Russia And Putin's New Order

Michael McFaul, until very recently our ambassador to Russia, has an article in today's New York Times.

He takes a look at how things came to this pass. "We did not seek this confrontation," McFaul writes. "This new era crept up on us, because we did not fully win the Cold War. Communism faded, the Soviet Union disappeared and Russian power diminished. But the collapse of the Soviet order did not lead smoothly to a transition to democracy and markets inside Russia, or Russia’s integration into the West."

I have a different take on this. Prerevolutionary Russia was always undemocratic, and the state played an enormous role in the economy. 

A century ago, as the German Empire was flexing its muscle and a Serbian nationalist under instructions from Belgrade assassinated the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, France and England allied with Tsarist Russia to oppose Germany and Austria. The US remained neutral, in part because President Wilson was uncomfortable making common cause with Autocratic Russia. Even after the Zimmerman telegram (German proposal to Mexico to enter the war against the US in return for the return of territory taken from Mexico in 1846) and German unrestricted submarine warfare and sinking of six US Flag merchant ships, the US did not declare war until after the Tsar was overthrown in March of 1917.

The collapse of the Soviet Union in December of 1991 brought with it the possibility of changes that would bring Russia into the general international system.

"Some Russians," McFaul writes,  "pushed forward on this enormous agenda of revolutionary change. And they produced results: the relatively peaceful (so far) collapse of the Soviet empire, a Russian society richer than ever before, greater protection of individual rights and episodically functioning democratic institutions."

But the transition did not go smoothly. I took part in a minor way in the transition, when I worked on projects by the United States Agency for International Development to assist in privatization. The contemplated transition was unprecedented. The truth is, no one knew how to do it and it was managed in a way that brought severe hardship to ordinary citizens.

The process also laid the foundation for well-connected government officials (the "nomenklatura") to skim great wealth from privatization. The most knowledgable and effective officials were KGB officers who had worked the international scene. They understood the workings of the west better than anyone else in the USSR.

McFaul explains that "the simultaneity of democracy’s introduction, economic depression and imperial loss generated a counterrevolutionary backlash — a yearning for the old order and a resentment of the terms of the Cold War’s end."

McFaul draws similarities between recent developments in Putin's Russia and the conflicts of the last century.

I would go further back. Since at least the time of Peter the Great, there has been a struggle within Russia between the "westernizers," who want to join the world of Europe, and the "slavophils," who see Russia as more pure and worthy. Slavophils oppose adopting the ways of the West.

There is much of that lind of emotion at work in today's Russia.

I recommend reading McFaul's article here.

Freedom Is Just A Word

“We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.”
― William Faulkner, Essays, Speeches & Public Letters

I think what Faulkner is saying here is that we don't become free by insisting on our own rights, but by granting rights to others.

The history of man is not replete with examples of such generosity of spirit.

It is easy for us to see that, though Russia holds elections, Russians are not free. Only a minority of Russians understand this.

How much more free are we?

Russia's Paranoid Schizophrenia and The Clueless West

The West's contribution to the totally unprecedented challenge of conversion of the Soviet Union to a democratic and market-based society was, in my view, spotty at best. I say this as one who was involved in projects in Russia, Ukraine and Poland and very aware of projects in Estonia, Rumania and Moldova.

I also deplored at the time the unrestrained triumphalism that proclaimed: "we're number one - nyah, nyah nyah, we won the cold war." That wasn't helpful. Especially in places like Ukraine where people, especially elderly pensioners, were suddenly plunged into poverty by policies we pushed. So-called "shock therapy," for example, was pushed by policy makers who had no idea what the previous seventy years had put into place. The idea of "privatizing" a complex industrial establishment by issuing coupons to the citizens so they could buy shares in crumbling enterprises was a disaster in the making.

One of the most disappointing viewpoints at the time was that of USAID, whose bureaucracy was certain we knew what to do because, after all, we had privatized railroads and coal mines in the UK under Thatcher, tin mines in Bolivia and such like. They were, in short, clueless.

The folks the big six accounting firms sent out to do this gargantuan task were, for the most part, recent MBA's who didn't speak any local language and who were ignorant of the context. Bright, energetic, but ignorant.

We could have done better. Germany did do better. The Germans managed the conversion of East Germany not perfectly, but well enough. One reason Estonia is doing pretty well these days is that the Germans managed that conversion. Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary had the advantage of pre-war experience in a market-based system.

Not only did the people we sent not have a background in Soviet economics, they had no background in Western Europe. They thought the American Way was the Only Way.

Let's do better next time.

I've been reading the news from Ukraine with dismay.

Didn't we win the cold war? Didn't we do away with Communism? Didn't George W. Bush look into Putin's soul and see someone we can do business with?

The truth is, our cold war conflict with the Soviet Union had little to do with Communism except in the minds of our own paranoid capitalists. In fact, in the opinion of the last Prime Minister of Russia before the October (Bolshevik) revolution, the Soviet Union didn't have a socialist or communist system at all - it was a case of State capitalism.

Anyhow, I wish the Ukrainians well. I have probably read more articles on the developing crisis than most Americans. I have collected links to a number of articles, mostly from the NY Times, but also from other sources. Please take your time and read them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/15/opinion/trudolyubov-putins-honest-brokers.html?hp&rref=opinion

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/15/opinion/mccain-a-return-to-us-realism.html?action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&region=Footer&module=MoreInSection&pgtype=article

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/business/crimea-through-a-game-theory-lens.html?ref=international

http://articles.latimes.com/2014/mar/04/opinion/la-oe-walker-ukraine-nato-expansion-20140304

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/14/opinion/getting-ukraine-wrong.html?action=click&module=Search&region=searchResults%230&version=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquery.nytimes.com%2Fsearch%2Fsitesearch%2F%3Faction%3Dclick%26region%3DMasthead%26pgtype%3DHomepage%26module%3DSearchSubmit%26contentCollection%3DHomepage%26t%3Dqry347%23%2Fukraine%2Bwest%2Bmistakes%2F

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2014/03/24/140324ta_talk_surowiecki

Cox v Town Of Oriental Now On Line

All of the documents for the case of Cox v Town of Oriental are now available on line at the NC Court of Appeals web site: http://www.ncappellatecourts.org/search-results.php?sDocketSearch=13-1222&exact=1

Any of you who are interested in the right of way dispute can now read all of the documents the Court of Appeals will consider.

No one can predict how the Court will rule, but I thinkI have by far the better argument.

Right of Way law is a bit esoteric. For the most part, it is based on Common Law - that is, law made by courts, not by legislators. Statutes can always override Common Law, but often they merely codify or clarify Common Law where there is some ambiguity.

In most cases, people's eyes glaze over when the topic of "right of way" law comes up. Even Linda Greenhouse, a  Supreme Court wonk who writes about the US Supreme Court for the New York Times, missed the significance of the US Supreme Court's ruling in its most recent case, MARVIN M. BRANDT REVOCABLE TRUST, ET AL., PETITIONERS v. UNITED STATES, decided March 10, 2014.

On the face of it, Brand was just another boring right of way case. Greenhouse couldn't figure out what the case was really about until she read Sonya Sotomayor's dissent in the 8-1 decision. The U.S. lost, by the way.

One thing becomes clear from the case: precedents matter. Chief Justice Roberts, writing for the majority, explains: “The government loses th[e] argument today, in large part because it won when it argued the opposite before this court more than 70 years ago,” he wrote.

Sotomayor's was the sole dissent. She argued that the 70 year old case shouldn’t govern the outcome of this one because it had involved subterranean rights — the right to drill for oil — rather than the simple surface rights now at issue. In Justice Sotomayor’s final paragraph, Greenhouse at last understood why the decision might matter: “The court undermines the legality of thousands of miles of former rights of way that the public now enjoys as means of transportation and recreation,” Sotomayor wrote, adding: “And lawsuits challenging the conversion of former rails to recreational trails alone may well cost American taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Rails to Trails. Established by Congress with the National Trails System Act Amendments of 1983. A procedure established in the public interest.

My case is not dissimilar. I have not argued that the Town [that is, the municipal corporation which has legal rights like any other corporation] made a bad deal. I argue that they have no statutory right to make any deal at all - that the only thing of value they had to sell or trade was their vote. And that what's at stake is public access to the water.

I'll address our arguments in more detail later, but as the Town's web site says, "it's all about the water."

I'm Getting Too Old For All-Nighters - Or Even Almost-All-Nighters

Cox v Town of Oriental is taking more energy than I had hoped. Or maybe it is that I'm not as young as I used to be - but who is?

Last Sunday I was up most of the night reviewing the plaintiff appellant's (that's me) reply brief. What should I say about "defendant-appelant's" ( the Town) brief?

There was a lot to cover. Cases to read, past records to review, logical connections to think through. It isn't easy.

Is it worth it?

I think what is at stake is, at bottom, whether we will have the rule of law, and whether that law will protect the public interest.

In my view, those are pretty high stakes.

I never intended that the case be seen as a personal dispute.

I keep thinking of that scene in Godfather where the racketeer is taken for a ride: "This isn't personal - it's business!" the killer assures his victim.

My action isn't all that drastic.

I am told that the NC Court of Appeals has the goal of issuing its rulings no more than sixty days after receiving a case. The attorney filed the reply brief yesterday.

We may know the outcome in two months. But some cases take longer.

I will let my readers know when the reply brief is posted on the Court's web site.

Have You Ever Visited Beringia?

I have never quite bought the conjecture that North America was populated by people walking along the "land bridge" from Asia and bringing their Clovis points with them.

Why could they not have come by Sea? In fact, that's the way the aborigines reached Australia 30,000 years ago.  My surmise is that the land bridge theory is written by landsmen. Seamen know that the most efficient way to get from one place to the other is by water.

Now, though, we have new tools for investigating our ancient past. We have, for example, DNA studies that have been able to trace the migration of certain populations across the globe as they came out of Africa and dispersed.

We have been able to trace particular DNA mutations from place to place. We also know, to a fair degree, how often mutations happen.

Another improving tool is that of linguistic analysis. Linguists can also track evolution of languages and language families as they spread, mutate, interact and evolve.

A powerful new marriage of DNA research and linguistics postulates that, instead of a bridge connecting Asia and North America, there was an area of shrub tundra between Alaska and Siberia where ancestors of both Native Americans and Siberian peoples lived in isolation for 15,000 years before migrating both Eastward and Westward as the sea level began to rise.

Here is a summary of the research that tends to support this view.

I still like the hypothesis that Native Americans came by sea.

Why Is Ukraine's Economy So Fouled Up?

Justin Fox in Harvard Business Review has an interesting article on Ukraine's economy. Why is it so bad? In a nutshell - rampant corruption.

New Town Manager

I like what I read about the experience and education of the new Town Manager. I look forward to meeting her.

I have just one piece of advice - but she seems sharp enough to figure it out herself. Don't have a protracted turnover. I suggest no more than two or three days. Any more than that tends to confuse staff about who they really work for.