JBOTV feature highlights of the 2018 Mid Atlantic Rockfish Shootout held at the Oyster Farm Cape in Charles VA. Up to 59+ pound rocks were caught, great event held at one of the all time best places on the Chesapeake Bay, Cape Charles, Virginia.
Op-Ed: A Christmas Truce 1914
Special Holiday Message from Chas Cornweller
This time every year it comes to this. A season of goodwill and love toward our fellow humans and a generous and giving spirit to family and those less fortunate than us. At least that is the intent. Reality, for most of us, is quite different. But, I digress. I would like to remind readers of an actual moment of Christmas that truly occurred and resounds with the spirit, if not true intent of the birth of Humanity’s Savior.
1914 – The first year of World War I. Known as the Christmas truce, this Christmas moment occurred during a lull in fighting as the leadership considered their strategies following four months of static fighting and lack of progress for either side. By this point, many battalions of men had dug into the Belgium and French countryside for shelter and defensive protection. The land between the two sides had already earned its nickname; No Man’s Land. But the war was still in its infancy, unknown to the men fighting, at this time. There was still a certain amount of esprit de corps amongst the soldiers and even a respect for the enemy. In 1914, no one could foresee the horrors that would enfold these same trenches and the number of men who would fall. That Christmas, even in War, the world remained innocent.
The Christmas truce was not a sanctioned or even a pre-conceived truce but was built out of the spontaneity of the moment. Perhaps, a carol sung from one side and joined in by the other side. No one is really sure, no one now knows how it happened. But, inevitably fraternization occurred and before the day was out, gifts of chocolate, bread, tobacco and beer were exchanged throughout the entire front lines. Even more touching, photos of girlfriends, wives and families were viewed and commented upon, marking a truly personal exchange of a reality, much different than the moment they were currently experiencing. In some quarters, within the area now known as “No Man’s Land”, soccer (football to Europeans) matches took place. I can only imagine the air filled with the whoops and cries of grown men (and a few young boys, as well) yelling into the bleached-out winter day, encouraging their teams to score a goal or recover the ball from their opponents. The smoke of exchanged cigarettes and pipe tobacco mingled in the cold air with the hot breath of living beings, coupled with back-slaps and handshakes on a game well-played. An honest moment of true brotherly comradery. A rare moment in history that lasted only one day. A day that was honored and observed for the birth of one who, in the light of all of man’s evil, was supposed to wash the sins and guilt of all the malice that resides in man’s heart; clean away. A tiny baby, who when fully grown into manhood, would stand before the Prefect of Rome, the strongest and cruelest nation on Earth at that time, and be denounced unto death. A man, whose only crime was to challenge the status quo of a hierarchy that was not only corrupt but used their positions to mis-lead and mis-direct the populace with laws that had no heart and in turn, created a repressed and shallow society. A man whose divine soul was judged on Earth but had already been bestowed a crown in his father’s kingdom in Heaven. A teacher of men, whose words and deeds pointed the way to that Kingdom and promised peace and an everlasting existence in that peace. Who, while executed on a hillside, was found walking in a garden by Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James three days afterward. This is the message of that first Christmas day. The birth of the denial of death. Christmas reminds us of that promise. It should remind us of our own mortality and of that window that is life and the short time we all have here to give back. Those soldiers understood that. They had seen their comrades fall. They knew that only fate had kept them here for the time being. And they wanted nothing more than to experience normalcy and sanity, if just for one more day. I am sure, for many of these men, on both sides…this was their last Christmas.
The following year, there were few Christmas truces. The generals and their leaders made sure of it, posting strongly worded orders forbidding fraternization with the enemy on penalty of death. By 1916, the war had turned such that neither side was amenable to any truce. The world was no longer so innocent. Men died by the millions during that war. A war that was supposed to end all wars. But, you and I know that just isn’t so. So, even today, young men await their fate and fall on the battlefield. Many, if not all, are received into the Kingdom of that One whom all sins were washed, and are asked, as they enter, “What did you do on Earth with the time, talents and treasure given to you?
Christmas Day 2018 – List of Wars Currently – Cumulative Fatalities
- Afghanistan – 31,000 (civilians and combatants)
- Iraq – 500,000 (approximate)
- Mexican Drug War – 250,000 (approximate)
- Syrian – 450,000 (approximate) – of which contain civilian deaths due to famine
- Yemeni – 13,000 (approximate – due to battle) over 50,000 due to famine
Merry Christmas everyone. I pray we find the world at peace this time next year.
History Notes this week of Dec 16
69 A.D.: Roman General
72 A.D.: Traditional date for the martyrdom of the apostle Thomas, who spent his life after the Resurrection traveling east from the Roman Empire, spending twenty years introducing Christianity to the people of India.
1192: On his way home to England after concluding the Third Crusade, Richard I Coeur de Lion, is captured and held prisoner by Leopold V of Austria, on the pretext of some sort of slight to the banner of Austria during the Crusade’s siege of Acre. Leopold demanded a literal King’s Ransom from England before he would set him free. After two years of crushing taxation & confiscations back in the Auld Sod, Richard’s kingdom successfully delivered the required 150,000 (65,000 pounds of silver (around L2bn in today’s money)), and Richard continued home to put the usurper Prince John back in his box.
1606: A band of English entrepreneurs, organized by Captain John Smith and the Virginia Company of London, set sail aboard three small ships, Susan Constant, Discovery and Godspeed, with the little flotilla under the overall command of Captain Christopher Newport of the Susan Constant.
1620: After five weeks of surveying the shoreline of Cape Cod Bay, the Pilgrims come ashore at Plymouth Rock to begin their first permanent settlement. The group split their time between the building parties ashore and recuperating aboard the Mayflower, with no fewer than 20 men kept always ashore for defensive purposes. The plan was viable, but this first winter in the New World was brutal, with exposure, scurvy and other diseases claiming nearly half of the settlers who survived the treacherous voyage to their new life.
1642: Dutch explorer Abel Tasman becomes the first European to set foot in New Zealand. Tasmania in the South Pacific is his namesake.
1791: The Virginia General Assembly ratifies the Bill of Rights, providing the ¾ majority of the Several States, thus making the first ten Amendments part of the Supreme Law of the Land.
1770: baptism, of German composer, Ludwig van Beethoven (d.1827).
1777: A year into his role as Commissioner for the United States, Benjamin Franklin successfully persuades the kingdom of France to recognize the United States of America as an independent nation. We’d like to believe that the French took the step because of the virtues and righteousness of the American’s fight for liberty, but more likely is that Franklin helped them understand that supporting the new States would be like a sharp stick in the eye of John Bull. It was an effective move, and the eventual participation of France as an active belligerent against Great Britain provided the crucial military leverage that led to the British surrender at Yorktown.
1777: After a year of partial victories and major retreats against the Regulars of the British army, General George Washington orders the Continental Army into winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
1790: Discovery of the Aztec Calendar Stone. The incredibly detailed stone was discovered during excavations while renovating the cathedral in Mexico City. Its age is ambiguous, as is its purpose, although the best guesses orient it toward a religio-calendar-epoch kind of use. Whatever the case, it is spectacular art. [Itself, is 12 feet and 24 tons]
1793: A Royal Navy raid on the French port of Toulon captures a 5th rate ship of the line named La Lutine. She is commissioned into the RN as HMS Lutine, and serves in that Service until 1799, when she’s lost during a storm in the heavily shoaled waters off the Dutch island of Texel. The ship was loaded with “considerable capital” in the form of gold, silver, and thousands of Spanish coins, about 20,000,000 Dutch Guilders (2007 value: about 81,176,969 pounds sterling). There have been half a dozen salvage attempts when new storms uncover the old wreckage, and a reported 87,000 pounds sterling was recovered in 1876. Subsequent efforts have been spotty. It’s still out there. Her bell is prominently displayed in Lloyds of London.
1828: South Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun publishes a piece titled, “South Carolina Exposition and Protest,” explicitly outlining the principle of nullification of federal law* within State borders if the State finds the law unconstitutional. The proximate fight this time was over a particularly onerous tariff that affected primarily the southern trade in cotton and tobacco, and to a certain extent the exports of New England as well. But the fight over the tariff exposed a deep sectional divide between north and south, and between strong federal power and strong State power, with nullification as the central constitutional issue. The fight would play itself out repeatedly over the course of a generation, gathering in intensity when coupled with the moral absolutism of the mid-century abolitionist movement. It is no stretch to say that underlying causes for the War Between the States found their first overt causus belli during this 1828 Nullification Crisis.
1832: Birth of Gustav Eiffel (d.1923), the great French engineer best known for his namesake tower. That 1889 structure publicly culminated an engineering career that had already made him famous for his innovative use of relatively light gauge iron in trusses and construction, including designing the trusses such that they were integral to the “look” of the structures, rather than remaining invisible as supporting elements. Eiffel’s extensive studies of wind loading on fixed structures brought him into the Statue of Liberty project, providing crucial design criteria for the interior framework supporting the copper-sheeted exterior. He also designed a family of transportable pre-fabricated bridge trusses for use in remote areas, with sizes ranging from footbridges to railroads trestles. Eiffel’s post-structural engineering career focused on aerodynamics and meteorology, for which he was awarded the Smithsonian’s Langley medal for his wind-tunnel work of the forces of lift and drag.
1862: Major General Ulysses S. Grant issues General Order No. 11, ordering the expulsion of all Jews in the Tennessee military district. Grant signs off on an egregiously discriminatory order in a fit of pique over black market trading in cotton. The order generates immediate backlash throughout the country, quickly reaching the ear of President Lincoln, who orders the Order be rescinded. Grant, suitably chastened, canceled the Order on January 17th, claiming it was written by a subordinate, and signed without close reading in the haste of combat operations. The issue arose when Grant ran for the presidency in 1868, but because of its brief life, and Grant’s towering reputation as the victor of the War Between the States, the Order became nothing more than a footnote in history.
1864: Two weeks after his stunning defeat at the Battle of Franklin, Confederate General John Bell Hood positions himself for an even more futile engagement against Nashville itself. The two-day Battle of Nashville opens this day after Hood sent two of his crucial units out from their dug-in positions onto raids designed to draw Union forces out from the robust defenses they built around Nashville over the course of the last two years. Union Major General George Thomas bides his time, and on this day sorties from his redoubts to shatter Hood’s Army of Tennessee in a multi-pronged, multi-phased hammer blow against Hood’s depleted forces, eliminating it as an effective fighting force. Hood and the remains of his army moved back to Tupelo, Mississippi, where he resigned his commission in
1864: Birth of Harvey Firestone (d.1938), founder of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company.
1872: Under the sponsorship and direction of the Royal Society, HMS Challenger sets sail from Portsmouth to begin a three year, 70,000 mile voyage of science and discovery. Unlike previous expeditions during the great age of discovery in the centuries prior, this expedition was designed around specific oceanographic scientific research that could answer questions about what lay below the depths of the lead line. The effort was staggering. Wikipedia summarized it as: “492 deep sea soundings, 133 bottom dredges, 151 open water trawls and 263 serial water temperature observations were taken. Also about 4,700 new species of marine life were discovered.” You’ve seen the name of the ship before, associated with the places or events that reach toward the ultimate: The Challenger Deep (the deepest part of the Marianas Trench) and Space Shuttle Challenger being the most publicly prominent.
1890: Death of Sitting Bull (b.1831), key leader of the Lakota Sioux coalition that destroyed the US 7th Cavalry at the 1876 Battle of Little Big Horn.
1892: Opening night for Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker suite.
1903: After repairing the damage from Wilbur Wright’s failed flight attempt, younger brother Orville climbs into the machine, fires up the engine, and with his brother running alongside stabilizing the starboard wingtip, accelerates to a point that he can lift the airplane off the ground under its own power and fly it under control for 120 feet and into history. The photograph taken by one of the Coast Guard lifeboat crew still gives me chills, with the bracing wonderment of Wilbur’s posture, and the successful struggle of the machine to claw its way into the air. The pair ended up making four flights this day, the longest being the fourth- 59 seconds of controlled flight over a distance of 852 feet.
1906: Birth of the third First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Leonoid Brezhnev (d.1982), who really looked the part. Brezhnev’s name became attached to the communist doctrine that said, essentially, that any gains in expanding the space (both political and geographic) of the communist party were permanent, and will be defended by military force. His crushing of the Prague Spring in 1968 underlined that fact.
1914: The Serbian army re-captures Belgrade from the “invading” Austro-Hungarian army.
1916: After eleven months of unrelenting artillery barrages, sniper fire, and fruitless attacks and counter-attacks across mere yards of torn up ground, the German Army makes a strategic retreat back to the heavily reinforced trenches from whence it began the Verdun offensive back in February. German General Erich von Falkenhayn claims he had achieved his objective of “bleeding the French white,” and French General Philippe Petain claims he had succeeded in preventing a German breakthrough into the interior of France: “Ils
1917: A week after the meeting between Imperial German government and the revolutionary Bolshevik government of Russia, a formal armistice is announced between the two powers. The cease-fire will eventually lead to Russia accepting the separate Treaty of Brest-Litovsk next March.
1937: Opening night for Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the world’s first full length animated feature.
1939: Premier screening of Gone With the Wind, at the Loews Grand Theater in Atlanta.
1941: A group of American Army, Marine and Navy pilots form a fighter squadron to assist Chinese resistance against the continuing Japanese onslaught of that country. The American Volunteer Group led by the irascible Colonel Claire Chennault, flies the P-40 aircraft, decorated with the famous shark’s teeth, and immediately establish a shockingly effective record of kills against the Japanese.
1945: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, acting as the head of the occupation of Japan, formally orders the abolition of Shinto as the state religion of Japan. You’ll recall that part of this declaration necessitated the Emperor publicly renouncing his status as a deity. The famous picture of MacArthur & Hirohito standing side by side was specifically orchestrated by MacArthur to demonstrate his professional contempt for the old concept of the Emperor, all the while recognizing Hirohito’s crucial symbolic role in leading the shattered nation into the American-dominated future.
1947: Opening of the Frank Capra film It’s a Wonderful Life, starring James Stewart as George Bailey.
1965: Launch of Gemini 6A with Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford. After four orbits, they perform an in-flight rendezvous with the previously-launched Gemini 7, with Frank Borman and James Lovell, proving the validity of orbital rendezvous, a technique critical for the future lunar missions of the Apollo program.
1968: Launch of U.S. astronauts Frank Borman, Bill Anders and James Lovell aboard Apollo 8, the first manned mission to leave the gravitational control of the earth. Two and a half hours and three orbits after launch, Borman re-ignites the third stage (S-IVB) of the Saturn V rocket for a flawless Trans-Lunar Injection, beginning the two and a half day voyage to the Moon.
1988: A bomb placed aboard a Pan American 747 by Libyan terrorists explodes over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 270 souls aboard.
1989: American forces launch Operation Just Cause, an invasion of Panama, to overthrow the drug kingpin and nominal dictator, Manuel Noriega, who is captured and whisked off to Florida for trial and imprisonment. Interesting operation, and I’d bet a few of you in our little group had something to do with it. One little vignette concerns the naming of the operation: the computer that usually came up with operational names came up with “Blue Spoon” this time around, but the staff officers working on it hated the name, and made a stink with the Brass to change it. After repeated frustrations, someone was finally pinned down to answer the question about why the name change; after some squirming, he blurted out “Just because…” and it stuck.
National Recording Artists “Town Mountain” To Perform at ESCC Event
Acclaimed Asheville, North Carolina band “Town Mountain” will be performing on the Eastern Shore, January 17 th from 5pm-9pm, a night before they kick off a tour run in Washington D.C. The popular bluegrass band that in recent years has expanded their popularity with folk, Americana, and alternative country audiences, will be in Melfa at Eastern Shore Community College as part of the ESCC Foundation’s “Eastern Shore Oyster Roast” to be held on campus at the Workforce Development Center’s Great Hall.
In addition to live music and Eastern Shore oysters, there will be clam chowder, shrimp, fried chicken, beer, wine, and soda available. Proceeds benefit the ESCC Foundation which supports the efforts of Shore students.
Town Mountain just released their latest album “New Freedom Blues” in late-2018 to critical and fan acclaim. It includes a collaboration with popular alternative country singer-songwriter Tyler Childers, who the band performs with frequently.
In August of this year, Rolling Stone Magazine proclaimed Town Mountain one of “10 New Country Artists You Need to Know.”
Since releasing their debut album Original Bluegrass and Roots Country in 2007, Town Mountain have made a name for themselves in bluegrass and roots circuits touring with a who’s who of like-minded artists, including Ralph Stanley and His Clinch Mountain Boys, the Del McCoury Band, Greensky Bluegrass, Yonder Mountain String Band, and many others. In addition to huge festivals and concert schedules, the band appeared at the Grand Ole Opry, performing both at the Opry House and at the famed Ryman Auditorium.
Limited tickets are $55 each/ $100 pair and available through the college during normal office hours and also online through EventBrite with links at es.vccs.edu and the ESCC Facebook page.
Sponsorships are also still available for this event.
For more information contact wlecato@es.vccs.edu or call 757-789-1797.
U.S. Coast Guard Proposing Changes to Cape Charles City Channel Aids to Navigation
The Coast Guard is proposing making the following changes to the Aids to Navigationmarking Cape Charles City Channel.
Change Cape Charles City Lighted Buoy 1CC (LLNR 21450) to Cape Charles City Light 1CC (LLNR 21450)and relocate to approximate position: 37 13 58.700N—76 02 58.010 W, with SG’s on multi-pile structure.
Discontinue Cape Charles City Lighted Buoy 2 (LLNR 21455)Establish Cape Charles City Light 3 (LLNR 21455*) in approximate position: 37 14 18.340N—76 02 23.960W,with a Quick flashing green light and SG’s on multi-pile structure.
Relocate Cape Charles City Light 4 (LL 21470) in approximate position: 37 14 56.690N—76 02 00.050WRename Cape Charles City Approach Light C (LLNR 21475) to Cape Charles City Light A (LLNR 21475) and change dayboards to NW’s.
Change Cape Charles City Buoy 5 (LLNR 21480) to Cape Charles City Light 5 (LLNR 21480) and relocate to approximate position: 37 15 22.780N—76 01 53.540W, with a flashing 4s green light and SG’s on pile.
Discontinue Cape Charles City Buoy 6 (LLNR 21485).Rename/Renumber Cape Charles City Range B Front Light 8 (LLNR 21460) to Cape Charles City Range BFront Light (LLNR 21460).
Remove TR on multi-pile structure.Change Cape Charles City Wreck Light WR7 (LLNR 21490) to Cape Charles City Warning Day beacon B with NW dayboards.Establish Cape Charles City Light 7 in approximate position: 37 15 48.009N—76 01 48.830W, with flashing 2.5s green light and SG’s on pile.
Change Cape Charles City Jetty Light (LLNR 21495) to a flashing 2.5s white light and NW dayboards.
Change Cape Charles City Light 11 (LLNR 21500) to Cape Charles City Daybeacon 9 (LLNR 21500) inapproximate position: 37 15 57.740N—76 01 37.300W with SG’s on pile.
Interested Mariners and other stakeholders are strongly encouraged to comment on the potential impacts this proposal would have on navigational safety. You may provide feedback using the U. S. Coast Guard Fifth District Waterway Data Sheet, available online at:
http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/pdf/lnms/D05%20LNM%202015%20Special%20Notice_Waterway_Proposal%20Feedback%20Form.pdf .
All comments will be carefully considered and are requested prior to February 4, 2019 to be considered in the analysis.
Please reference project 05-18-067(D).
Send comments to CGD5Waterways@uscg.mil or mailed to:
U.S. Coast Guard Fifth District Waterways Management (dpw)
431 Crawford Street, Room 100
Portsmouth, VA 23704
Attn: Albert Grimes
Gambling: Casino May Open in Norfolk
The Pamunkey Indian Tribe were among the group of tribes led by Chief Powhatan in southern Virginia, and while they may have lost their lands in the 1700s, they are set to get some back as they hope to open Virginia’s first casino just across the Bay in Norfolk.
Note: The Pamunkey Indian Tribe also claims Pocahontas among its lineage.
Pamunkey Indian Tribe spokesman Jay Smith said the tribe is exploring about 20 acres along the Elizabeth River between the Tide’s baseball stadium and an Amtrak station near Norfolk’s downtown. Negotiations are already underway with officials in Norfolk.
“After a long process to find the perfect site for our resort and casino, we believe we have found that location on the banks of the Elizabeth River in Norfolk,” Gray wrote in a letter to Alexander on Tuesday. “From day one, when we first made it known that the tribe would be considering a resort with a gaming component, we said that we would only go to a locality that welcomes us. Norfolk has done just that.”
The Pamunkey announced plans earlier this year to build a $700 million resort and casino in its ancestral region. The tribe says that area includes central Virginia near Richmond and stretches down to the Hampton Roads region, where Norfolk is located.
Gray said in a statement that “just as this area played an important role in the tribe’s past, I believe that Norfolk will play an even more important role in the Pamunkey Tribe’s future.”
The Pamunkey were among the few tribes that held onto their reservations. It still has about 1,200 acres (485 hectares) outside Richmond.
In 2015, the Pamunkey became the first tribe in Virginia to receive federal recognition from the Department of Interior. Smith said the status allows the tribe to operate casinos without approval from the state of Virginia, which currently has none.
Nearly 240 tribes operate casinos in more than half of U.S. states under the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, according to the National Indian Gaming Commission.
Smith said the games in the proposed Norfolk casino and resort would offer slots as well as the usual variety of table games, including poker and black jack.
The proposed casino and resort project still must be approved by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Smith said. Among the factors the bureau will consider is whether the tribe is indeed proposing its casino on ancestral lands.
He said the resort and casino would create thousands of jobs and have an economic impact of more than $1 billion a year.
Casinos are currently illegal under state law. But Virginia lawmakers have shown a greater willingness to discuss expanding gambling in recent years.
Open Space in Chesapeake to become Industrial Park
As the continued battle for the life and future of Northampton County continues to be played out over the update to the county’s comprehensive plan, across the bay in Chesapeake, a scenario that could be our future, is taking place right now. It pits developers against residents who want to hold on to the the last remaining vestiges of open space and farmland left in southern Chesapeake.
CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) — Thousands of acres of farmland are closer to becoming the home of a “mega-site’ that proponents debate could help bring jobs to Hampton Roads.
On Tuesday, Chesapeake City Council voted 6-3 to amend its 2035 Comprehensive Plan to change the purpose of 1,420 acres of farmland near the North Carolina state line from “agricultural/open space” to “commercial, industrial or a similar non-residential designation.”
While the move doesn’t officially rezone the property, it does allow owners of the Frank T. Williams Farms property to begin to market it for a potential Coastal Virginia Commerce Park.
Over the summer, Kevin Cosgrove, representing the Hampton Roads Chamber and Chesapeake’s Economic Development agency, proclaimed the “shovel ready” piece of property will help Chesapeake and the region to diversify its economy.
The lack of “shovel ready” properties was pointed to marquee issue when 10 On Your Side highlighted the region’s business climate struggles.
Prior to the vote on Tuesday, Cosgrove again stood in front of council again to endorse the move.
“I don’t have to explain to you the current economic development consequences in this city, you know them,” Cosgrove said. “Norfolk Southern just left … this is the best opportunity we have to get back into the economic development game.”
However many community members didn’t see it that way at all.
“This proposal is a direct attack on Southern Chesapeake,” said resident David Schleeper. He joined many concerned about increased traffic and environmental impacts on the longtime rural community.
“At the rate we are going there is not going to be anything left,” said Kimberley Hoke, with the group Stop Developing Southern Chesapeake.
Following the meeting, Mayor Rick West looked to calm fears, noting nothing is a done deal.
“This was simply a move to say we’re going to play, it doesn’t mean that we we have a game, it doesn’t mean that we have an offer, it just means that we are open for business,” West said.
Last month the Chesapeake Planning Commission unanimously endorsed the land designation change with stipulations that it won’t be used for “cargo container storage and repair, automobile auctions, salvage yards, solid waste facilities/landfills.”
The site remains farmed at the current time.
Bias against pregnant woman continues, even at Planned Parenthood
The New York Times reported this week that discrimination against pregnant women and new mothers is so pervasive that even organizations that define themselves as champions of women are struggling with the problem, and that includes Planned Parenthood, which has been accused of sidelining, ousting or otherwise handicapping pregnant employees.
In interviews and legal documents, women at Planned Parenthood and other organizations with a feminist bent described discrimination that violated federal or state laws — managers considering pregnancy in hiring decisions, for example, or denying rest breaks recommended by a doctor.
In other cases, the bias was more subtle. Many women said they were afraid to announce a pregnancy at work, sensing they would be seen as abandoning their colleagues.
Some of those employers saw accommodating expecting mothers as expensive and inconvenient. Others were unsympathetic to workers seeking special treatment.
At Avon, which calls itself “the company for women,” two employees in a cosmetics-testing lab have sued for being forced to handle toxic chemicals while pregnant. A marketing executive, Caroline Ruiz, also said she was fired four days after announcing her pregnancy.
At Mehri & Skalet, a progressive law firm suing Walmart for pregnancy discrimination, three lawyers have accused a founding partner, Cyrus Mehri, of mistreatment. Employee Heidi Burakiewicz said Mr. Mehri pressured her to return early from maternity leave. Another employee, Sandi Farrell was told to participate in a performance review during her leave, and when she asked to postpone it she was fired.
And at Planned Parenthood, the country’s leading provider of reproductive services, managers in some locations declined to hire pregnant job candidates, refused requests by expecting mothers to take breaks and in some cases pushed them out of their jobs after they gave birth, according to current and former employees in California, Texas, North Carolina and New York.
Most Planned Parenthood offices do not provide paid maternity leave, though many let new mothers take partially paid disability leave.
“I believe we must do better than we are now,” Leana Wen, the president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement. “It’s our obligation to do better, for our staff, for their families and for our patients.”
While Planned Parenthood’s clinics and regional offices brought in about $1.5 billion in fiscal year 2016 — half from private donations and half from the government, to reimburse treatment provided to Medicaid patients — conservative lawmakers routinely threaten to kill its taxpayer funding. With their finances precarious, the clinics pay modest salaries to the employees who provide health care — abortions, cancer screenings, prenatal care, disease testing — to 2.4 million mostly low-income patients every year.
The Planned Parenthood Federation of America has its headquarters in Manhattan. The clinics that serve women are run by 55 regional affiliates with their own chief executives and human resources policies. They receive some money and support from headquarters.
Tight budgets sometimes created punishing workplace conditions, employees said. A dozen lawsuits filed against Planned Parenthood clinics in federal and state courts since 2013 accused managers of denying workers rest periods, lunch breaks or overtime pay, or retaliating against them for taking medical leave.
Managers have discriminated against pregnant women and new mothers, according to interviews with the current and former Planned Parenthood employees and with organizers from the Office and Professional Employees International Union, which represents some Planned Parenthood workers.
In Miami, one current and two former employees said that women at a Planned Parenthood office were scared to tell managers they were pregnant. One of them said that, in conversations with supervisors, colleagues would often volunteer that they were not planning on having children or were gay or single.
“It was looked down upon for you to get pregnant,” said Carolina Delgado, who worked in the Miami office until 2012. “I don’t think that any supervisor had to literally say it for us to feel it.”
A former hiring manager at a Planned Parenthood in California said that when internal promotions came up, supervisors openly debated whether candidates were likely to get pregnant in the near future and preferred those who were not. They declined to hire one pregnant woman and to promote one new mother, the employee said. (Under the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act, it is illegal to consider whether a job candidate is or will become pregnant.)
The former manager said her colleagues felt they couldn’t afford to promote someone only to lose them for several weeks.
Financial pressures also explain why 49 of Planned Parenthood’s 55 regional offices — which each manage a set of local clinics — do not provide paid maternity leave. Employees in about 20 of those regions can use short-term disability to earn a portion of their salaries while on leave. The New York headquarters provides six weeks of paid parental leave.
Planned Parenthood’s policies, though, can make it hard for employees to scrape by after giving birth.
In August, Marissa Hamilton, an employee at Planned Parenthood in Colorado, gave birth to a baby boy. He was eight weeks premature, weighed less than four pounds and spent weeks in neonatal intensive care. The office doesn’t provide paid maternity leave.
Op-Ed: On the Imbecility of Government Today
Special Opinion to the Mirror by Paul Plante.
In one of those cosmic
From this new and wonderful system of Government (the Articles of Confederation), it has come to pass, that almost every national object of every kind, is at this day unprovided for; and other nations taking the advantage of its imbecility, are daily multiplying commercial restraints upon us.
end quotes
That, people, was 230 years ago, now, that those words of wisdom were spoken to the People of the State of New York by John Jay, an author of some of the Federalist Papers, and this nation’s first chief justice, about the imbecility of our national government, and those words were barely dry on the pages of the Cape Charles Mirror when to prove to us American people 230 years later that other nations are still taking advantage of the imbecility of our national government, which is of, by, and for the American people, the Washington Post was out with an article entitled “New report on Russian disinformation, prepared for the Senate, shows the operation’s scale and sweep” by Craig Timberg and Tony Romm on 17 December 2018, as follows:
A report prepared for the Senate that provides the most sweeping analysis yet of Russia’s disinformation campaign around the 2016 election found the operation used every major social media platform to deliver words, images and videos tailored to voters’ interests to help elect President Trump — and worked even harder to support him while in office.
The report, a draft of which was obtained by The Washington Post, is the first to study the millions of posts provided by major technology firms to the Senate Intelligence Committee, led by Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), its chairman, and Sen. Mark Warner (Va.), its ranking Democrat.
The bipartisan panel hasn’t said whether it endorses the findings.
It plans to release it publicly this week.
The research — by Oxford University’s Computational Propaganda Project and Graphika, a network analysis firm — offers new details of how Russians working at the Internet Research Agency, which U.S. officials have charged with criminal offenses for interfering in the 2016 campaign, sliced Americans into key interest groups for targeted messaging.
These efforts shifted over time, peaking at key political moments, such as presidential debates or party conventions, the report found.
The data sets used by the researchers were provided by Facebook, Twitter and Google and covered several years up to mid-2017, when the social media companies cracked down on the known Russian accounts.
The report, which also analyzed data separately provided to House Intelligence Committee members, contains no information on more recent political moments, such as November’s midterm elections.
“What is clear is that all of the messaging clearly sought to benefit the Republican Party — and specifically Donald Trump,” the report says.
“Trump is mentioned most in campaigns targeting conservatives and right-wing voters, where the messaging encouraged these groups to support his campaign.”
“The main groups that could challenge Trump were then provided messaging that sought to confuse, distract and ultimately discourage members from voting.”
Representatives for Burr and Warner declined to comment.
The report offers the latest evidence that Russian agents sought to help Trump win the White House.
end quotes
Now, people, ponder on that last sentence for a moment, and then think back to your high school civics class, and ask yourself this essential existential question, to wit: “Could that possibly be true?”
Does that report done by the Brits of all people, offer any evidence at all that Russian agents sought to help Trump win the White House?
Or is it just some more political hog**** being thrown at us by our imbecilic national government?
And before I answer that question, because I believe you should never ask a question you don’t already know the answer to (that is a no-brainer, by the way, for an American), the word “imbecilic” shows up several times in the Federalist Papers, and with good reason as we first see in FEDERALIST No. 9, “The Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection,” for the Independent Journal to the People of the State of New York by Alexander Hamilton circa 1787, to wit:
A distinction, more subtle than accurate, has been raised between a CONFEDERACY and a CONSOLIDATION of the States.
The essential characteristic of the first is said to be, the restriction of its authority to the members in their collective capacities, without reaching to the individuals of whom they are composed.
It is contended that the national council ought to have no concern with any object of internal administration.
An exact equality of suffrage between the members has also been insisted upon as a leading feature of a confederate government.
These positions are, in the main, arbitrary; they are supported neither by principle nor precedent.
It has indeed happened, that governments of this kind have generally operated in the manner which the distinction taken notice of, supposes to be inherent in their nature; but there have been in most of them extensive exceptions to the practice, which serve to prove, as far as example will go, that there is no absolute rule on the subject.
And it will be clearly shown in the course of this investigation that as far as the principle contended for has prevailed, it has been the cause of incurable disorder and imbecility in the government.
end quotes
Incurable disorder and imbecility in the government!
That is us today, he is talking about, people, as we can clearly see from that stunning report the Brits just did for the United States Senate, where the Brits who did the study proved pretty conclusively that the Russians aimed particular energy at left-leaning African American voters by undermining their faith in elections and spreading misleading information about how to vote.
Which raises the question all these years later of how can somebody be an American citizen and not know how to vote?
Imbecility then shows up again in FEDERALIST No. 15, “The Insufficiency of the Present Confederation to Preserve the Union,” for the Independent Journal to the People of the State of New York by Alexander Hamilton, as follows:
Is respectability in the eyes of foreign powers a safeguard against foreign encroachments?
The imbecility of our government even forbids them to treat with us.
end quotes
Today, as that report to the Senate by the Brits makes incandescently clear the imbecility of our national government has the American people being led around by the nose by the Russians in seemingly huge flocks, according to that report.
So what is up with that does anyone think?
And then we come back to imbecility in FEDERALIST No. 18, “The Insufficiency of the Present Confederation to Preserve the Union, continued,” for the Independent Journal to the People of the State of New York by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, as follows:
The Achaeans (Greeks), though weakened by internal dissensions and by the revolt of Messene, one of its members, being joined by the AEtolians and Athenians, erected the standard of opposition.
Finding themselves, though thus supported, unequal to the undertaking, they once more had recourse to the dangerous expedient of introducing the succor of foreign arms.
The Romans, to whom the invitation was made, eagerly embraced it.
Philip was conquered; Macedon subdued.
A new crisis ensued to the league.
Dissensions broke out among it members.
These the Romans fostered.
Callicrates and other popular leaders became mercenary instruments for inveigling their countrymen.
The more effectually to nourish discord and disorder the Romans had, to the astonishment of those who confided in their sincerity, already proclaimed universal liberty throughout Greece.
With the same insidious views, they now seduced the members from the league, by representing to their pride the violation it committed on their sovereignty.
By these arts this union, the last hope of Greece, the last hope of ancient liberty, was torn into pieces; and such imbecility and distraction introduced, that the arms of Rome found little difficulty in completing the ruin which their arts had commenced.
The Achaeans were cut to pieces, and Achaia loaded with chains, under which it is groaning at this hour.
end quotes
And now the Russians are doing it to us, people, so how about that?
Those who don’t know history, and that is most modern Americans today, are grist for the mill of those who do, plain and simple.
And note that the form of government those Greeks had was called Democracy!
And that in turn takes us to FEDERALIST No. 68, “The Mode of Electing the President,” from the New York Packet to the People of the State of New York by Alexander Hamilton on Friday, March 14, 1788, where we learn about our form of government, as follows:
THE mode of appointment of the Chief Magistrate of the United States is almost the only part of the system, of any consequence, which has escaped without severe censure, or which has received the slightest mark of approbation from its opponents.
end quotes
Now, here people, is where I become curious as to why our United States Senate is seeking input on how our government is supposed to function from the Brits, who would be the last to know, given that they are ruled by a queen, whose subjects they are, while some of us remember being a free people not owned or in thrall to a foreign power like Great Britain, or Russia, for that matter.
Why doesn’t our United States Senate know how the Chief Magistrate of the United States is appointed?
How can they be so ignorant?
Is it because they are put in office by people in this country who either don’t know how to vote, or have been misled by the Russians?
Getting back to Federalist No. 68, we have, to wit:
It was desirable that the sense of the people should operate in the choice of the person to whom so important a trust was to be confided.
This end will be answered by committing the right of making it, not to any preestablished body, but to men chosen by the people for the special purpose, and at the particular conjuncture.
It was equally desirable, that the immediate election should be made by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice.
end quotes
Now think about that, people, as we hear all this hype and hysteria the Brits are feeding to our imbecilic Senate which makes it sound as if the Russians are actually the ones who elected Donald Trump to office, as opposed to a body of men and women in this country most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice.
Are the Brits, and by extension, the members of our Senate who are getting their facts from the Brits, who seem to know more about what is going on over here than do the members of our Senate, telling us that minds of these men and women in this country most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice have been contaminated by the Russians to such extent that they were nothing more than Russian stooges?
Is that what the Brits and the U.S. Senate are telling us when they say this report offers the latest evidence that Russian agents sought to help Trump win the White House?
Because in America, pursuant to our mode of electing our president, the only way the Russians could have succeeded was by literally taking over the electors of the president, and where is there any proof that that happened, people?
Getting back to Federalist No. 68, we have:
A small number of persons, selected by their fellow-citizens from the general mass, will be most likely to possess the information and discernment requisite to such complicated investigations.
end quotes
Discernment requisite to such complicated investigations, people, where discernment can be taken to mean the ability to judge well.
So are we to believe that these electors were actually then stupid enough to be taken in by Russian disinformation on FACEBOOK and TWITTER?
If these electors are chosen because they possess discernment requisite to such complicated investigations as are required to elect an American president, people, do we really think they are going to be conducting their investigations on either FACEBOOK or mindless TWITTER?
And that thought about Russian interference in our affairs over here, which has been going on since at least WWII, takes us back to Federalist No. 68 as follows:
It was also peculiarly desirable to afford as little opportunity as possible to tumult and disorder.
This evil was not least to be dreaded in the election of a magistrate, who was to have so important an agency in the administration of the government as the President of the United States.
But the precautions which have been so happily concerted in the system under consideration, promise an effectual security against this mischief.
end quotes
WHOA, stop the presses here, people – the precautions which have been so happily concerted in the system under consideration for electing the president of the United States of America promise an effectual security against mischief!
So how did the Russians manage to thwart that security to affect our presidential election by tainting the electors through a campaign of disinformation?
Has our electoral system broken down so that it now no longer provides us any security from Russian control of the minds of the American people?
Getting back to Federalist No. 68:
The choice of SEVERAL, to form an intermediate body of electors, will be much less apt to convulse the community with any extraordinary or violent movements, than the choice of ONE who was himself to be the final object of the public wishes.
And as the electors, chosen in each State, are to assemble and vote in the State in which they are chosen, this detached and divided situation will expose them much less to heats and ferments, which might be communicated from them to the people, than if they were all to be convened at one time, in one place.
end quotes
So, okay, people, who are we to believe here?
What these Brits at Oxford University are telling us is that today, with FACEBOOK and mindless TWITTER in the virtual control of the Russians, there no longer is any possible way to keep our presidential electors from being exposed to heats and ferments concocted by the Russians in order to put Donald Trump in the White House.
Can that be true?
And back once again to Federalist No. 68 we go, to see the following:
Nothing was more to be desired than that every practicable obstacle should be opposed to cabal, intrigue, and corruption.
These most deadly adversaries of republican government might naturally have been expected to make their approaches from more than one quarter, but chiefly from the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils.
end quotes
AHHHHH!
Do you see that, people?
Two hundred thirty years ago, the founders of this nation already anticipated that the Russians would try to interfere in our national elections today, as the Brits are telling the United States Senate happened, and in their wisdom, they put in place every practicable obstacle they could to oppose cabal, intrigue, and corruption in our presidential elections.
So how were these obstacles surmounted by the Russians in 2016?
And the answer to that question is that they weren’t!
It is almost 2019 now, and to date, not one shred of evidence has been put forth by anyone, including our so-called “intelligence” agencies, and the Mueller investigation, that any presidential electors in this country were turned by the Russians, or influenced in any way.
Getting back to the safeguards built into our mode of electing a president in this country so as to keep foreign powers like Russia or Great Britain, for that matter, from gaining an improper ascendant in our councils, Federalist No. 68 continues as follows:
How could they better gratify this, than by raising a creature of their own to the chief magistracy of the Union?
But the convention have guarded against all danger of this sort, with the most provident and judicious attention.
They have not made the appointment of the President to depend on any preexisting bodies of men, who might be tampered with beforehand to prostitute their votes; but they have referred it in the first instance to an immediate act of the people of America, to be exerted in the choice of persons for the temporary and sole purpose of making the appointment.
And they have excluded from eligibility to this trust, all those who from situation might be suspected of too great devotion to the President in office.
No senator, representative, or other person holding a place of trust or profit under the United States, can be of the numbers of the electors.
Thus without corrupting the body of the people, the immediate agents in the election will at least enter upon the task free from any sinister bias.
Their transient existence, and their detached situation, already taken notice of, afford a satisfactory prospect of their continuing so, to the conclusion of it.
end quotes
But, people, if we are to believe these Brits about the Russians using social media to put Trump in the White House, then we are being asked to believe that these electors were not free of sinister bias when they voted to put Trump in the White House over Hillary Clinton, a pathological liar deemed too untrustworthy to be an American president and the leader of a free people.
Getting back to Federalist No. 68, and the Russians corrupting our presidential electors, we have:
The business of corruption, when it is to embrace so considerable a number of men, requires time as well as means.
Nor would it be found easy suddenly to embark them, dispersed as they would be over thirteen States, in any combinations founded upon motives, which though they could not properly be denominated corrupt, might yet be of a nature to mislead them from their duty.
end quotes
Today, of course, we have fifty states, so are we really to believe that the Rusians are so powerful in this country that they can literally reach into each sate to corrupt the electors?
Isn’t that thought verging on hysteria?
Back to Federalist No. 68, to wit:
All these advantages will happily combine in the plan devised by the convention; which is, that the people of each State shall choose a number of persons as electors, equal to the number of senators and representatives of such State in the national government, who shall assemble within the State, and vote for some fit person as President.
Their votes, thus given, are to be transmitted to the seat of the national government, and the person who may happen to have a majority of the whole number of votes will be the President.
The process of election affords a moral certainty, that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.
Talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity, may alone suffice to elevate a man to the first honors in a single State; but it will require other talents, and a different kind of merit, to establish him in the esteem and confidence of the whole Union, or of so considerable a portion of it as would be necessary to make him a successful candidate for the distinguished office of President of the United States.
It will not be too strong to say, that there will be a constant probability of seeing the station filled by characters pre-eminent for ability and virtue.
end quotes
HMMMMMMMMM!
I wonder how these Brits at Oxford University are going to get around that – it will not be too strong to say that there will be a constant probability of seeing the station filled by characters pre-eminent for ability and virtue.
If that is no longer true, then it would seem that these Brits at Oxford University owe us a duty to explain to us how it was that the Russians were able to breach all these protections and safeguards to corrupt our presidential electors in this country so that they would put Trump in office instead of Hillary.
When can we expect that critical answer to be forthcoming?
Stay tuned for further developments, and don’t touch that dial!
Dominion seeks $300M from ratepayers for coal plant upgrades
AP-Dominion Energy wants customers to pay more than $300 million, which would cover the cost of upgrading three coal-burning power plants, plus some extra money.
Dominion filed an application Friday with the State Corporation Commission to recover the cost of the projects, plus a 9.2 percent return. The upgrades bring the plants up to federal and state environmental standards.
Bills would increase by $2.15 for households using about 1,000 kilowatt-hours per month, starting in November 2019.
The three plants are Chesterfield and Clover in Virginia and the Mount Storm site in West Virginia. Dominion says the upgrades allow for cleaner disposal of coal ash.
The State Corporation Commission must approve Dominion’s plan before it can begin charging customers for the upgrades.
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