Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Wisconsin, 152 years ago today.



A small brush fire grew quickly across eastern Wisconsin, eventually claiming at least 1.2 million acres and unknown number of lives, estimated 1500-2500.

The Peshtigo Fire remains the deadliest wild fire in recorded history.

It occurred the same day as the Great Chicago Fire and the Great Michigan Fires.

Some researchers have hypothesized the fires were started by upper atmosphere asteroid explosions causing Peshtigo, Chicago and Michigan fires. Notably, Randall Carlson in "Firestorm Intense 1871 Conflagration Chicago/Peshtigo":



October Draconids are coming...


The Draconid meteor shower will be active from Oct. 6 to Oct. 10, with the peak happening around Sunday (Oct. 8) or Monday (Oct. 9).



Oct 8, 1918: World War I: Corporal Alvin C. York kills 28 German soldiers and captures 132 for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor. While on a patrol fighting the Germans in occupied France, York, then a Corporal, led an attack on a German machine gun nest, killing at least 25 enemy soldiers during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in WWI. His actions made him one of the most decorated U.S. soldiers of the war.

The most astonishing part came after the firefight. York, with the aid of the remaining seven men in his group, captured 132 German soldiers. The German commanding officer was impressed and intimidated by York's marksmanship and decided to surrender his unit before the situation worsened.


Here’s how he later described the situation...

The Germans got us, and they got us right smart. They just stopped us dead in our tracks. Their machine guns were up there on the heights overlooking us and well hidden, and we couldn’t tell for certain where the terrible heavy fire was coming from … And I’m telling you they were shooting straight. Our boys just went down like the long grass before the mowing machine at home. Our attack just faded out … And there we were, lying down, about halfway across…”

In the story of every hero, there is a moment where he needs to make the difficult decision to accept the challenge before him. This is how Alvin York described that pivotal moment:

    And those machine guns were spitting fire and cutting down the undergrowth all around me something awful. And the Germans were yelling orders. You never heard such a racket in all of your life. I didn’t have time to dodge behind a tree or dive into the brush … As soon as the machine guns opened fire on me, I began to exchange shots with them. There were over thirty of them in continuous action, and all I could do was touch the Germans off just as fast as I could. I was sharp shooting … All the time I kept yelling at them to come down. I didn’t want to kill any more than I had to. But it was they or I. And I was giving them the best I had.”

Sergeant York

October 7, 1991: New York Times op-ed, then Sen. Joe Biden writing 10 days after President George H.W. Bush ordered the unilateral elimination of most US tactical nuclear weapons, urged deep cuts in strategic weapons as well, together with Russia, Britain, France, and China.


NY Times archived


Where Have All the People Gone? Starring Peter Graves aired Oct 8, 1974 on NBC.



Full movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70qxiyMhnjI


Get the war drums beating...


https://twitter.com/NikkiHaley/status/17...7502982174


(AI) Reports of ~260 bodies were found at the site of the desert rave party that was massacred in Hamas attack on Saturday morning.

The siege of the Tel el-Zataar refugee camp began in January of 1976 with an attack by Christian Lebanese militias led by the Lebanese Front as part of a wider campaign to expel Palestinians, especially those affiliated with the opposing Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from northern Beirut. After five months, the siege turned into a full-scale military assault in June and ended with the massacre in August 1976 which resulted in the death of over 2,000 civilians.

The green figure in the current work is both noble and ghoulish, representing the mixture of dignity and sorrow which characterises the Palestinian plight for freedom and making use of red and green colour palettes which Palestinians at the time were banned from using by Israeli authorities. She stands against a backdrop of typically Palestinian brick dwellings and possibly ancient ruins, Indicating the rich tapestry of civilisations that Palestine historically harboured. As a female the figure also pays tribute to the increasing role of women in Palestinian activism during the period and also highlights the particular tragedy of the massacre which saw women as the principal survivors.

Sliman Mansour

A few hours later...