It should be illegal for any state to "count" ballots the way California does. It seems as crooked as a 3 dollar bill.
Texas and Florida get their ballots counted by midnight on Election Day. What is California's excuse?
164 years ago today, thousands of Memphis civilians packed the riverbanks to watch their Confederate navy get annihilated in 90 minutes.
June 6, 1862. The Confederate River Defense Fleet had one mission: hold the Mississippi River and keep Memphis out of Union hands. They had rams, they had guns, and they had home crowd advantage. Thousands of citizens gathered on the bluffs above the river, fully expecting a Confederate victory.
What they witnessed instead became one of the most embarrassing naval defeats in American history.
As the Union fleet bore down, Confederate ram Queen of the West charged first, slamming into CSS Colonel Lovell. Then two Confederate ships, General Price and General Beauregard, attempted to crush a single Union vessel, USS Monarch, from both sides simultaneously.
Monarch's captain saw it coming. He calmly steered out of the way.
General Price and General Beauregard slammed into each other at full speed and sank.
The rest of the Confederate fleet was destroyed or captured within the hour. Around 100 rebels killed or wounded. Another 150 taken prisoner.
The Union? One casualty. Colonel Charles Ellet Jr., nicked by a stray pistol ball in the knee. He died from it 15 days later.
By noon, Memphis surrendered. The crowd that had gathered to cheer went home in silence as the Union flag rose over their city.
It was also the last naval battle in American history where ramming was the primary tactic, and the last time civilians were ever permitted to command warships in combat.
90 minutes. A city lost. A fleet destroyed by itself.
Anybody catch those B-52s flying through that dense fog over the city?
Interestingly, there's only one on radar... And it's flight path is really weird...
@Ace_chicago@heyFATabbot@BillWest5
On June 6, 1944, a 56-year-old general with a secret walked onto Utah Beach under fire, armed with a cane and a pistol.
The secret: his heart was failing. He had hidden it from the army doctors so they wouldn't pull him from the mission.
His name was Theodore Roosevelt Jr. Son of the President. He had begged three separate times to lead the first wave ashore at Normandy before his commanders finally said yes.
When his landing craft drifted 2,000 yards off course, every instinct said redirect the following waves to the correct zone. Instead, Roosevelt walked the beach himself, alone, under artillery fire, cane in hand, reading the terrain.
His verdict: "We'll start the war from right here."
He then stood on that beach and personally greeted every regiment that landed after him, pointing them inland, cracking jokes under shellfire, steadying 18-year-olds who had never seen combat. He did this for hours.
Years later, Omar Bradley was asked to name the single most heroic act he had ever witnessed in combat.
His answer, without hesitation: "Ted Roosevelt on Utah Beach."
Roosevelt's son, Captain Quentin Roosevelt II, also landed at Normandy that same morning. He was named after his uncle, Quentin Roosevelt, who had been shot down as a fighter pilot over France in World War I.
Three generations. Three wars. One family.
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. died in his sleep 36 days later. Heart attack. The thing he had been hiding finally won. He never learned he had been awarded the Medal of Honor.
He was buried at the Normandy American Cemetery.
In 1955, his family had his brother Quentin, killed in WWI, exhumed from where he fell in France and reinterred right beside him. Quentin is the only World War I soldier buried there.
Two brothers. Two world wars. The same French soil.
Their father had once said: "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."
Both of his sons did exactly that.
Read my Saturday column for @RestoringWest: a free society cannot survive when justice is sacrificed on the altar of ideology—and our children will bear the cost.
Please stop with the “we’d rather let them go then bailout billionaires” nonsense. Indiana has a dramatically lower tax rate - at all levels - than does Illinois. Is there someone out there who honestly believes Illinois looks out for its taxpayers more than Indiana does?
The tax break sought by the Bears in Illinois would not be so obscene if our general tax burden itself wasn’t so obscene. Our tax burden - coupled with a completely dysfunctional and anti business state government to work with - drives many businesses out of Illinois. The Bears are just the latest and most jarring to see leave.
Today is the 134th anniversary of the beginning of the CTA Elevated Trains. On this day in 1892, the first "L" train ran from Pershing & State to Congress & Wabash. Chicago is the only city with elevated trains in its downtown area. #history#chicago