Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Dec 1, 1924: Philadelphia Public Safety Director Smedley Butler takes a swing at Prohibition enforcement, emptying kegs of bootleg beer into the Schuylkill River.



US Marine super-ultra badass Major general Smedley D. Butler: WAR IS A RACKET:

“I spent 33 years and four months [1898–1931] in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”

In total, maverick Major general Butler earned 16 medals including TWO Medal of Honor's for his time in service. He is currently the most decorated Marine veteran of all time. He died in 1940 at the age of 58.

During his service in Nicaragua, Butler led an assault on the city of Granada. Despite a 104-degree malaria-induced fever, his tenacious leadership and ferocity inspired his fellow Marines. There they coined the nickname “Old Gimlet Eye” and it stuck. Their exact intent in calling him this remains unclear. Prior to his days as a Prohibitionist, Butler was known to enjoy the occasional cocktail. Additionally, in malaria-prone regions, it was not uncommon for foreigners to ingest impressive quantities of gin or other beverages (paired with medicinal quinine) to help ward off disease. In letters to his wife Ethel, Butler noted that he had served for a week without food, taking in only “quinine and limeade”. Whether the drink was spiked or not we may never know, but his men undoubtedly saw the officer with a piercing glare and a green colored beverage…and so the nickname stuck!

The Drinks of the Marine Corps: Smedley Butler and the Origin of “Old Gimlet Eye”

Smedley Butler Fails To Clean Up Philadelphia

WAR IS A RACKET by Maj. Gen. Smedley D. Butler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26O-2SVcrw0


Smedley Butler Exposes America’s First Deep State Plot!




Dec 1, 1924: One for the gruesome record books... A respected manager of a mine in Haiger, Germany, kills eight people in his villa. Fritz Heinrich Angerstein stabs to death his ailing wife, then uses an ax to kill her mother, sister, maid, and 4 more office and domestic staff as they arrive over the course of the day.

Angerstein, 33, sets the vast house afire and stabs himself, as he hopes to make the massacre look like the work of an intruder. Under police questioning, he confesses. Angerstein had been embezzling from his business, although this hardly gives motive for such violence.


Angerstein’s trial will grip the German public like few other legal spectacles of the era, with no doubt about his guilt but a plaguing mystery surrounding why he did it. Rumours circulated to the effect that Angerstein was inspired by the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses, which state that by killing nine people a seal may be activated that provides great riches.

He will be given eight death sentences. On November 17, 1925, at 8 a.m., Angerstein was executed by decapitation with an axe by Royal Prussian executioner Carl Gröpler in the courtyard of the Central Prison Freiendiez in Diez an der Lahn. Hmmm, did he get one chop or eight?


December 1, 1952: New York Daily News reported that a former US soldier, George Jorgensen, was now Christine Jorgensen, the first widely known person to undergo successful gender-reassignment surgery. She said she had "always been a woman trapped in a man’s body." She became an instant celebrity, known for her directness and polished wit, and used the platform to advocate for transgender people. She died of bladder and lung cancer on May 3, 1989, at age 62. Her ashes were scattered off Dana Point, California. Interesting Wiki page on her and the Digital Transgender Archive


Uncensored (April, 1967) (PDF)


Dec 1, 1961: "The National Fallout Shelter Sign will be a familiar sight in communities all over the United States next year..." The Dept of Defense transmitted this text copy and image to news wire services.




LOL!



The land down under...


"Townsville State Government Offices [Former Public Curator's Office], erected in 1928, is significant as a good example of a building designed by the Department of Public Works in the 1920s influenced by classical revival styles."
19 Flinders Street, Townsville


Dec 1, 1974: TWA Flight 514, a Boeing 727-231, crashed "In a Place that Doesn't Exist" due to pilot error and ATC error (winter weather played a key role) on approach to Dulles International Airport, killing all 92 people aboard. Among the dead is Roscoe Cartwright, the second black man and the first black field artilleryman promoted to Brigadier General in the US Army. He had retired from active duty a few months earlier and was accompanied by his wife.

Cartwright and his wife Gloria were buried at Arlington National Cemetery. The Roscoe C. Cartwright Prince Hall Masonic Lodge #129 in Oxon Hill, Maryland is named for Cartwright. Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Colin L. Powell was a member.


The then top secret Continuity of Government super-bunker facility codename "Special Facilities Division" or The "Special Facility" known as Mount Weather (aka High Point, aka Classified Location, aka Crystal Palace.) The public never knew it existed until TWA 514 crashed into the mountain side which brought widespread and much unwanted public attention to the top-secret facility.

A mile and a half from the crash site, the facility itself was not damaged, but the crash caused a temporary disruption of the Emergency Broadcast System, the Government’s network for informing broadcast stations of nuclear attacks. The plane did, however, cut power lines around the secret center of the Army interagency communications unit near the crash site, causing the teletype machines in 25 news and telephone company offices across the country to start transmitting garbled text.

The rescue crews found it mighty strange that cars were parked in the middle of nowhere near the mountaintop, and that was how the cover was blown for Mouth Weather, which is a classified, underground shelter for a sizeable number of people near the Pennsylvania border.


Here's an excellent short documentary on TWA Flight 514:




Dec 1, 1974: Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 6231, another Boeing 727, crashes northwest of John F. Kennedy International Airport. All three crew members on board died when the aircraft struck the ground following a stall and rapid descent caused by the crew's reaction to erroneous airspeed readings caused by atmospheric icing. The icing occurred due to failure to turn on the pitot tube heating at the start of the flight.


The Northwest Airlines 727-251, registration N274US had been chartered to pick up the Baltimore Colts football team in Buffalo, NY.


Northwest Airlines Boeing 727-251 NTSB Report


Dec 1, 1989: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation was released in theaters.