Tuesday, March 28, 2017

History: The Year is 1971

I've uploaded year 1971 to the TSP Wiki...

http://tspwiki.com/index.php?title=1971

As always, Alex Shrugged's opinions are his own. Other people's work are their own. I include them here for the sake of completeness and to provide a second method of access to the material for the TSP history segment.


* The Sylmar California Earthquake -- Contributed by Alex Shrugged

* The Media Reveals that the Government was in the Wrong! -- Contributed by Southpaw Ben

* The D.B. Cooper Skyjacking -- Contributed by Alex Shrugged

* Notable Births -- See below.

* This Year in Film -- See below.

* This Year in Music -- See below.

* In Other News -- See below.



========================================

The Sylmar California Earthquake

I awaken in the gloom of the early morning. Everything is moving. The bookcase is teetering, and I wonder if it is going to fall. I am half asleep, but I know I'm in the middle of an earthquake. No big deal. We get a lot of these in Southern California. It will stop in a second. OK. Maybe 5 seconds. Wait. IT'S NOT STOPPING! The phones are dead, but my father is a telephone lineman. He doesn't need a call to know that they need him at work right-the-heck now. It was a 6.7 magnitude earthquake with the epicenter in Sylmar. I am studying modern building practices, and I've seen a lot of new construction out there, but many of those "modern" buildings have collapsed or are damaged beyond repair. Bridge foundations are crushed. A wing of the Veterans Hospital has collapsed. People are dead. We haven't heard from our father for 3 days. He can't call. Even where the phone lines are intact, so many people are trying to call simultaneously that they cannot get a dial tone. We are millions together, and all alone. [1] [2]
My Take by Alex Shrugged
Lessons learned in the aftermath. 1. Most people die as they run outside. They get hit by glass or a falling brick. Get under a table or stand inside a doorway.
2. Attach bookcases to the wall... loosely. I use a chain with a removable loop.
3. Buildings need to flex. Sill-plate bolts must be loose so that the building can slide around on its foundation.
4. Big picture windows can cause a wall to fold down like a scissor jack. Make sure you leave enough room for cross-bracing in that wall.
5. Avoid making non-emergency local phone calls. Out-of-state calls work better. Arrange for an out-of-state family member or friend to relay family status calls like, "I'm OK, Aunt Sally. Tell Mom when she calls."
6. Building codes are there for a reason. The reason is usually, "We don't EVER want this to happen to us again."

The Media Reveals that the Government was in the Wrong!

Contributed by Southpaw Ben It's February 1971. You're a reporter . The aide for a leader of a task force studying the Vietnam war approaches you with as study called "United States – Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense". Upon examination, you realize this could be a journalistic gold mine, but would damage the image of the government, and possibly threaten your career. What would you do?

The aide was Daniel Ellsberg, aide to Assistant Secretary of Defense McNaughton. You're Neil Sheehan of the New York Times. The study brought to you will become known as the Pentagon Papers, and will be one of the final nails in the coffin for American public's support of the Vietnam war. The contents of the paper reveal that the Department of Defense knew the war was unwinnable, and also showed just how much previous administrations had actually known about the war, including the fact that JFK knew of the plans to overthrow Ngo Dinh Diem well prior to the November 1963 coup, and that Johnson, despite promising not to expand the Vietnam war, had plans to do just that well before the 1964 election. It also revealed the expansion of the war into Cambodia and Laos, which had never been reported upon by the media. The Nixon administration attempted to have the New York Times cease publication, and the issue eventually went to the Supreme Court, who ruled that publication was legal and could continue. Ellsburgwas charged with Espionage, but the case was dismissed when it was discovered his psychiatrist was burglarized by a secret White House team to discredit him. We will here more about this same team next year. [3][4]
My Take by Southpaw Ben
With the mainstream media as in bed with the government as much as it is today, it's hard to imagine anything like this being published, unless it was against very specific individuals already being demonized by the media, *Cough* Trump *cough*, and definitely wouldn't be published if it would have damaged the reputations of the four previous administrations as the Pentagon Papers did. Too bad, as today there seems to be so many more leaks of important information trying to happen, but has to go through "less credible" outlets, as the "proper channels" refuse to touch these important issues that could damage the governments image. As if it could really look any worse.

The D.B. Cooper Skyjacking

Contributed by Alex Shrugged
"I have a bomb here and I would like you to sit by me."
-- "D. B. Cooper" as he hijacks a 727. [5]
Is "D. B. Cooper" his real name? Hardly. That is not even the name he gives to the airlines. (It is a media fabrication, but no one knows who started it.) He calls himself Dan Cooper and he threatens to blow up the plane unless Northwest Airlines comes up with $200,000 in $20 bills and 4 parachutes. The plane lands for refueling and takes off again with the money, the parachutes and Dan Cooper. A thunderstorm rages outside as Cooper jumps out of the 727 at 10,000 feet over a forest wilderness. It will be a miracle if he survives the jump without being hit by lightening, or pass out from the altitude or hit a tree. As federal marshals comb the area they find a few dollar bills, but no D. B. Cooper. He must have been eaten by a bear... or he has just pulled off the perfect crime. He will never be caught. [6]
My Take by Alex Shrugged
But we have a fairly good idea who he was. Kenny Christiansen, now deceased, was a former Northwest Airlines employee making $512 A MONTH. He was also part of several strikes at Northwest Airlines that seriously cut into any savings he had. But after the hijacking he suddenly had a lot of money to throw around. He was also a former paratrooper, but these facts escaped the notice of the FBI. On his deathbed he whispered to his brother, Lyle, that he had a confession to make. In fact, Kenny had $186,000 in his savings account and over $20,000 in his checking. Did Kenny really do it? Probably, but we'll never know for sure. Kenny is dead, and the FBI maintains that D. B. Cooper died after jumping out of a plane at 10,000 feet.

Notable Births

  • ISIS Leader (or ISIL or whatever). Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (pronounced AH-boo BAH-car awl Bog-DAWD-dee) [7] [8]
  • Marc Andreessen: Co-creator of Mosaic, one of the first web browsers. [7] [9]
  • -- In Politics... Marco Rubio and Bobby Jindal. [7] [10]
  • -- Women in Movies... Denise Richards and Winona Ryder. [7] [15] [16]
  • -- In Comedy... Christina Applegate and Amy Poehler. [7] [17] [18]
  • -- In Music... Kid Rock, Snoop Dogg, and Tupac Shakur (died 1996, age 25, killed in a drive-by shooting, resurrected as a hologram 2012) [7] [19] [20] [21] [22]

This Year in Film

  • Fiddler on the Roof: A Jewish dairyman sings his way through the trials of life. (A Jewish "Must See".--alexshrugged) [26]
  • Dirty Harry: Clint Eastwood. "You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?" [26]
  • A Clockwork Orange: A rapist and murderer is brainwashed to make him "good". (Socialism at its worst.--alexshrugged) [26]
  • Billy Jack: A Green-Beret veteran defends hippies against corrupt police. (This is not as outlandish as it seems. The KKK was killing communists at this time. Hippies and Jews were perceived as communists.--alexshrugged) [26]

This Year in TV

  • Columbo: Peter Falk plays a bumbling homicide detective. [27]
  • The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour: Cher builds a music career. Sonny Bono builds a political career. [27]
  • All in the Family: Archie Bunker offers controversial commentary on issues of the day. (It is funny because at some level all comedy must be true.--alexshrugged) [27]
  • Cigarette commercials are now forbidden: This is part of the growing anti-smoking movement. [27] [28]

This Year in Music

  • Maggie May: Rod Stewart. [29]
  • Imagine (No Religion/No Possessions): John Lennon comments, "The Socialism I speak about... [is] nice... British Socialism." [29] [30]
  • Brown Sugar: The Rolling Stones. NOTE: The band is escaping "nice... British Socialism" because it is taxing them to death. [29] [31]

In Other News

  • Forced school bussing begins: School children must take "affirmative action" to racially integrate. IT'S THE LAW! (White-flight ensues.--alexshrugged) [32] [33] [34]
  • The Weather Underground blows up a men's room in the US Capitol building: (We are talking about Bernardine Dohrn and her husband, Bill Ayers, the rumored ghost writer for Barack Obama's autobiography.--alexshrugged) [32] [35]
  • Project Gutenberg digitizes the Declaration of Independence: Thus begins the digital archive of public domain books. (The Internet does not exist, yet, so access is limited to the students on campus.--alexshrugged) [32]

This Year in Wikipedia

Year 1971, Wikipedia.

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