Monday

                       Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“I have stopped trying to explain myself because people only hear what they want to perceive.”

                                         Anonymous

The end of the movie Hillary's America was an orchestra and a choir performing "America the Beautiful" an finally "The Stars Spangled Banner". There were two elderly, and I mean elderly, women that struggled to their feet and placed their hand over their heart...I was touched.

Sunday night I was watching CNN and they said Hillary had achieved a “double digit” lead over Trump...so I went to Reuters News based in London and looked at what they said about polls. They said that Trump and Hillary are about 3 percentage points apart. Who the hell are we supposed to believe, an agency with an agenda or a foreign agency that doesn't? 

A while back was dating a lady whose uncle owned a large “U-Pick-Em” farm. This farm is known as Robertson's Farm located on the south side of the road about half way between Pumpkintown, SC and Marietta, SC. She knew I was interested in history and told me she wanted to show me something. We rode out to the farm and down on the south side of the farm was a bunch of equipment and people...she said it was an archaeological dig. Her uncle had been finding a lot of pottery shards in this one spot near the intersection of a fair sized river and a feeder creek. I think the river is the upper reaches of the Saluda River. Her uncle called Wofford College and the University of South Carolina and suggested that they come and do heavy duty research on this site...and they did. The site has a very steep bluff on the south side and there is evidence of poles in the ground meaning that they built a wall on the north side. They determined that it was a major village that was abandoned in the 1500's. They could tell how old the site was by the decorative markings and the composition of the clay in the shards...that is until they started digging. They got down about 8 feet and found a stone encircled fire pit with a kitchen midden (garbage pile) nearby. They did a carbon 14 test of some of the bones and found that they were about 8,000 years old. They found many stone arrow and spear points and also found an atlatl which is a stick used to improve the velocity of a thrown spear. All of this means this is a Stone Age site. Think about that, y'all. Most scientist believe that North America was populated by natives crossing over the Bering Sea land bridge from Siberia to Alaska and then south about 13,000 years ago. Five thousand years later here they are in the foothills of South Carolina. The area has many reference to a Cherokee chief that lived in the area named Oolenoy, so I have to assume the inhabitants of that ancient site were some of the ancestors of the Cherokee. The site is very close to 35.5N and 82.52W.

               This Date in History  August 8

1942 Earlier Adolph Hitler had constructed a plan to send saboteurs into the United States to blow up bridges, refineries, dams, etc. in the hope of interfering with the well known production ability of America. On June 21 a German submarine left France with seven saboteurs aboard. A few days later the submarine surfaced off the shore of Long Island, NY during a heavy fog. The saboteurs rowed ashore in inflatable boats and were burying their explosives and other tools of war when they were discovered by a member of the United States Coast Guard walking the beach on patrol. The Germans offered the Coast Guardsman a bribe which he took. After the Germans had left the Guardsman ran back to his patrol headquarters and reported what he had seen. Two of the Germans turned themselves in because of being discovered by the Guardsman and they rolled on the other five who were living in a “safe house” in New York City. About the same time five German saboteurs were wading ashore near Saint Augustine, Florida and the two Germans rolled on them also. Within a matter of days all the German saboteurs had been rounded up. On this date, all but the two that had turned themselves in were executed as spies in an electric chair in Washington, DC.. Those two spent seven years in prison and then were deported to Germany. See, terrorism is not a new concept.

1963 On this date 15 men carry out one of the best planned and executed robberies in history. On board a secret train going from Glasgow to London was a payroll of the equivalent of $12 million. The robbers had rigged the train signals that made the train stop at a particular bridge. While stopped, the robbers disconnected all the cars except for the car holding the cash and pushed them apart. They had already cut all the telephone and telegraph wires in the area so notification to the police was delayed until the robbers were long gone. Unfortunately for the robbers, their hideout was known to the police and when they found out the cops were on the way, the robbers fled. The police found many usable fingerprints at the hideout and all but two of the robbers were captured. One of the robbers was able to make his way to Montreal, Canada and lived there for four years before being discovered and sent back to Great Britain. The last of the robbers, Ronald Biggs, made his way to Brazil and was married and had issue of two children. He was found by British officials but Brazilian authorities do not allow parents to be extradited so good old Ronnie lived a free and easy life in Brazil. Even though he claimed he never had any of the train robbery money, he never struck a lick at a snake while in Brazil. Eventually Biggs had two strokes and was in descending health. He decided to turn himself in to the British authorities so he could go back to England to get the health care there he could not get in Brazil. On May 27, 2001 Biggs entered jail in England. Nearly none of the money from the robbery was ever recovered.

1839 On this date future US General Nelson Miles is born on a farm in Massachusetts. Unlike many future US officers, Miles was not raised in a family of privilege but had to work for everything he ever had. This type of life prejudiced him against graduates of military academies, West Point especially. At the outbreak of the Civil War Miles enlisted and immediately proved himself a gifted leader and tactician. But he unashamedly would take credit for successful actions that were the results of his staff’s decisions. He had no problem with climbing over people to gain notoriety. It was not until 1868 that he gained a full command of his own and was tasked with rounding up the hostile plains Indians and moving them onto reservations. Lt. Colonel George A. Custer was under General Miles’ command when the massacre at Little Big Horn occurred. Miles finally figured out that he could get the Indians to do his bidding more with kind treatment rather than force and was very successful in the distribution of the Plains Indians. It was Miles that was responsible for the capture of the Apache Geronimo and his small band of renegades and he took full credit for it but four years later when his troops unmercifully killed 200 unarmed and half-starved Indians at Wounded Knee, he denied responsibility. He was a vain bastard. After the end of the Indian Wars, Miles was assigned a series of different jobs in Washington. He eventually retired at the rank of Lieutenant General. He died in 1925 and was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery.

Born today:

1810 Pope Leo XIII. In the later stages of his life as Pope he said “It is quite unlawful to demand, defend, or to grant unconditional freedom of thought, or speech, or writing or worship as if these were so many gifts given by nature to man.” I had to read this statement over and over again to make sure that I copied it right from the text. Pope Leo XIII has since gone on to his reward.

Quotable quotes:

Daughter of Ronald Reagan, Maureen Reagan. She said “I feel that equality will be in full effect when a woman can be elected that is as equally incompetent as the man she is running against.” That ain’t far off Maureen.

          Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow