Monday, January 9, 2017

History: The Year is 1927

I've uploaded year 1927 to the TSP Wiki...

http://tspwiki.com/index.php?title=1927

Here are some one liners...


Germany's "Black Friday" -- Fear over financial collapse causes financial collapse.

Let's Hear from the Imbeciles... Our Supreme Court -- A couple of really good quotes from our esteemed Supreme Court clowns and details about how many citizens Virginia sterilized.

Fly Me to the Moon... or Paris -- I talk about Charles Lindbergh, and the Spirit of St. Louis, and Charles Levine and his fall from grace.

Notable Births -- Pope Benedict the 16th, Robert Bork, Cesar Chavez, Robert Ludlum, Peter Falk, and Pat Paulsen.

In Other News -- Airplanes "dust" crops, the "Iron Lung" is developed and Stuart Chase gets some tips from Stalin.





Germany's "Black Friday"

Germany's hyper inflation is finally under control. Unemployment is at reasonable levels and national production is good, but recently the stock market has experienced a boom, so the German national bank has demanded that short-term loans be reduced because too many leveraged stock purchases are dangerous to the economy. "Leveraging" means that people use loans to take advantage of bargains in stocks or to cover a margin call if a stock price falls. While leveraging makes the stock market run more smoothly, it is like a game of musical chairs. Everything goes great until the music stops. But if fewer people are playing this game, then it is less likely to hurt the overall economy. This seems reasonable, but when you can no longer take out a short-term loan to pay off your margin, you must sell off your other stocks quickly, usually at bargain prices. That causes other stocks to collapse, and other margins to be called. And so it goes. Germany's version of the "Federal Reserve" has zigged when it should have zagged. By next year a depression will hit and the Nazis will increase in power in response. [1]
My Take by Alex Shrugged
FYI, the guy running the Germany economy at the time became Adolf Hitler's financial advisor. I'm not suggesting a conspiracy, but the head banker was an ideologue. Regarding the hyperinflation of Germany, the Treaty of Versailles after World War 1 caused most of the problem by demanding reparations from Germany in hard currency, generally gold. After the War, hard currency was hard to come by except in the USA. Germany tried to buy gold using German marks, but what was the value of the mark based upon? German production in war-torn Germany was zip. Hyperinflation ensued, so the German people fled from paper money to commodities. In a sense, it was a barter economy, but more like micro economies within neighborhoods. Germany stabilized its economy once it had stable production and imposed strict rules regarding its currency. It was because of these ups-and-downs in the economy that people became interested in socialism and the Nazis (which were national socialists and eugenicists). [2]

Let's Hear from the Imbeciles... Our Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has ruled 8-to-1 that it is constitutional to sterilize its citizens for the good of the nation. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. writes the majority opinion. He is a "Boston Brahmin" which means he is the elite of the elites. There is an old Boston joke that says, "The Lowells talk only to Cabots, And the Cabots talk only to God." Holmes is descended from "Cabots" and while he enjoys a reputation as a fair-minded liberal, he is a confirmed eugenicist. He thunders from the bench his famous quote on eugenics, "Three generations of imbeciles are enough!" He is referring to Carrie Buck, her mother, and Carrie's baby. Exactly how science determined that a 6-month-old baby was an imbecile is a mystery, but science says so, so it must be true. And Carrie's defense lawyer is part of this charade. So it is remarkable that Holmes says with a straight face that, "There can be no doubt that so far as procedure is concerned the rights of the patient are most carefully considered." It is done. Carrie Buck will give birth no more. [3]
My Take by Alex Shrugged
75 years later, Virginia finally apologized for forcibly sterilizing 7,450 "unfit" people between 1927 and 1979. The only state to sterilize more was California. The rights of the innocent were ignored for the greater good of the master race even after Hitler's atrocities were revealed. Not long ago, the Fabian society's Virginia Ironside advocated killing handicapped babies in their cribs. Planned Parenthood began as a means to reduce the black population. Now it is chopping up aborted babies for body parts, and science. You see, science is pure, true and good. You don't question science. People complain about religious leaders being too certain they know what is good for you, but you have never met anyone more certain than a scientist. Frankly, scientists must be this way, so don't be too harsh on them, but when they want to impose their will on me for the greater good, that's when I get nervous. [4]

Fly Me to the Moon... or Paris

We are talking about the X-Prize for the first trans-Atlantic flight from New York to Paris. Money-wise it is $25,000 in negotiable bonds which is close to three-quarters of a million dollars in 2015. Charles Lindbergh has made the flight from San Diego to St. Louis in 14 hours, but he wants the big prize! He is risking his life in a real sense. Just a few weeks ago, two flyers were lost making the attempt. Charles Levine would have been first but he aborted his attempt after a court battle with the pilot. (Levine is the financial backer, but we'll hear more about him later.) A French aviator backed by Sikorsky should have already made it, but in their enthusiasm, the flight crew overloaded the massive tri-plane with gifts and trinkets, so it crashed on take-off. That leaves Charles who flies the US mail from point A to point B. On this Friday morning he takes off from Roosevelt Field piloting the single-engine Spirit of St. Louis, an experimental design based on the Ryan M-2 mailplane. He leaves behind his parachute and radio to save weight, but takes an inflatable raft. A little over 33 hours later, he lands in Paris to a hero's welcome. He will also receive the Medal of Honor as a US Army Air Corp reservist. [5] [6]
My Take by Alex Shrugged
And what about Mr. Levine? He was quite the promoter, and as he prepared the second flight across the Atlantic, he promised a special surprise. As the pilot waved to the crowd, suddenly Charles Levine stepped out and boarded the plane. He was going along too! His wife screamed, and off he went as the first passenger on a trans-Atlantic flight. And as you might guess from his last name, he was Jewish. The Jewish community rejoiced. Fame and fortune came his way, but it seemed to go to his head. Bad business investments, the Great Depression and too many people telling him how great he was, eventually destroyed his marriage. He turned to smuggling, spent a couple of years in prison, and died at the age of 94. There is a lesson in there somewhere... like... listen to your wife next time? [7] [8] [9] [10]

Notable Births

  • Pope Benedict the 16th (Living): Joseph Ratzinger is not yet Pope, but he will be. [11]
  • Robert Bork: His Supreme Court nomination will be rejected so viciously that "Borked" will become a verb. [12]
  • Cesar Chavez: Co-founder of United Farm Workers union. "Sí, se puede!" (My father loved this guy. Me? Less so.) [13]
  • And in entertainment...
  • -- Robert Ludlum: Author of the Jason Bourne trilogy. [14]
  • -- Peter Falk: "Grandpa" in The Princess Bride and the bumbling Detective Columbo. [15]
  • -- Pat Paulsen: Comedian running for President with the slogan: "Just a common, ordinary, simple savior of America's destiny." [16]
**Note: (Living) means they were alive when I checked on 2017-Jan-9.

In Other News

  • Airplanes are first used to "dust" crops. Insecticide is sprayed on the forests of Canada. [17]
  • The "Iron Lung" is developed. It will save the lives of polio victims in respiratory failure. It will also be the reason Darth Vader breathes like that. [18] [17] [19]
  • Stuart Chase meets Stalin. So what? Chase will be the designer of FDR's "New Deal" to save America from godless socialism by using socialism-lite: Fewer dead people, More power for politicians. [20] [21] [22]

This Year in Wikipedia

Year 1927, Wikipedia.

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