Browsing: Politics

A Brief History On October 15, 1815, Emperor of the French, Napoleon I (Bonaparte) began his second and final exile on the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic. Booted out of Europe by the victorious allied nations (aka, the Seventh Coalition) led by the English, Napoleon was sent far enough away that he would never return to upset the traditional order in Europe. Although many people have been exiled, Napoleon is famous for having twice been exiled, the first time to the Island of Elba, tantalizingly close to France. That mistake would not be repeated. Here we list…

A Brief History On October 10, 2015, we ran an article called “9 Sensational, Sorry, Stupid and Sordid Political Scandals” in which we told you about some of the worst such scandals in history. Although many countries have experienced ridiculous political scandals, including murders, thefts, and Bunga-Bunga parties, we only listed one scandal that was not from the US. Well, today we again concentrate on the sorry state of American politics and discuss the scandal driven 2016 US Presidential election. Digging Deeper Turns out due to hackers leaking information, we have learned that the Democratic National Committee conspired against Bernie…

A Brief History On October 7, 1940, the Director of the Far East Section of the Office of Naval Intelligence, Lt. Cmdr. Arthur McCollum, sent an infamous memo up his chain of command that seems to recommend the United States provoke Japan into attacking US forces, thus allowing the US an excuse to enter World War II (WWII) in spite of President Franklin Roosevelt’s promise to stay out of the war. Digging Deeper McCollum was responsible for reading and interpreting the decoded intercepts of Japanese secret radio traffic and for monitoring the political and military situation in the Far East.…

A Brief History On October 2, 1789, President George Washington sent to the States for ratification a list of Amendments to the Constitution, a list we now refer to as “The Bill of Rights.” Digging Deeper These first 10 Amendments to the US Constitution would eventually be followed by 27 more Amendments that have been ratified by the States, giving us a total of 37 such Amendments. There are an additional 6 proposed Amendments that have not been ratified by the States, of which 4 are still “open.” Amendments to the Constitution are authorized by Article 5 of the Constitution,…

A Brief History On October 1, 1957, for the first time the phrase “In God We Trust” appeared on American paper currency. Although the phrase had appeared on American coins as early as 1864, it had only become the co-motto of the United States in 1956 (the other co-motto being “E Pluribus Unum”). The first bill to bear this pronouncement was the one dollar silver certificate, a move mandated by the passage of a congressional resolution on July 30, 1956 declaring this phrase as our national motto and further legislation ordering its inclusion on currency. Digging Deeper Apparently instigated by…