Deportations from Warsaw ghetto to Treblinka begin on July 22, 1942

Deportations from Warsaw ghetto to Treblinka begin: On this day in 1942, the systematic deportation of Jews from the Warsaw ghetto begins, as thousands are rounded up daily and transported to a newly constructed concentration/extermination camp at Treblinka, in Poland.

On July 17, Heinrich Himmler, head of the Nazi SS, arrived at Auschwitz, the concentration camp in eastern Poland, in time to watch the arrival of more than 2,000 Dutch Jews and the gassing of almost 500 of them, mostly the elderly, sick and very young.

The next day, Himmler promoted the camp commandant, Rudolph Hoess, to SS major and ordered that the Warsaw ghetto (the Jewish quarter constructed by the Nazis upon the occupation of Poland, enclosed first by barbed wire and then by brick walls), be depopulated–a “total cleansing”, as he described it–and the inhabitants transported to what was to become a second extermination camp constructed at the railway village of Treblinka, 62 miles northeast of Warsaw.

Within the first seven weeks of Himmler’s order, more than 250,000 Jews were taken to Treblinka by rail and gassed to death, marking the largest single act of destruction of any population group, Jewish or non-Jewish, civilian or military, in the war.

Upon arrival at “T. II”, as this second camp at Treblinka was called, prisoners were separated by sex, stripped, and marched into what were described as “bathhouses”, but were in fact gas chambers. T. II’s first commandant was Dr. Irmfried Eberl, age 32, the man who had headed up the euthanasia program of 1940 and had much experience with the gassing of victims, especially children.

Eberl compelled several hundred Ukrainian and about 1,500 Jewish prisoners to assist him. They removed gold teeth from victims before hauling the bodies to mass graves. Eberl was relieved of his duties for “inefficiency”. It seems that he and his workers could not remove the corpses quickly enough, and panic was occurring within the railway cars of newly arrived prisoners.

By the end of the war, between 700,000 and 900,000 would die at either Treblinka I or II. Hoess was tried and sentenced to death by the Nuremberg Tribunal. He was hanged in 1947.

History Channel / Wikipedia / Encyclopedia Britannica / The Holocaust Explained.org / The Holocaust Encyclopedia USHMM.org / Smithsonian / Deportations from Warsaw ghetto to Treblinka begin on July 22, 1942 (YouTube)

This Day in History July 22

• 1298 Wars of Scottish Independence: Battle of Falkirk; King Edward I of England and his longbowmen defeat William Wallace and his Scottish schiltrons outside the town of Falkirk.

• 1456 Ottoman wars in Europe: Siege of Belgrade; John Hunyadi, Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary, defeats Mehmet II of the Ottoman Empire.

• 1499 Battle of Dornach: The Swiss decisively defeat the army of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor.

• 1587 Roanoke Colony: A second group of English settlers arrives on Roanoke Island off North Carolina to re-establish the deserted colony.

• 1598 William Shakespeare ’s play, The Merchant of Venice, is entered on the Stationers’ Register. By decree of Queen Elizabeth, the Stationers’ Register licensed printed works, giving the Crown tight control over all published material.

• 1706 Acts of Union 1707 are agreed upon by commissioners from the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland, which, when passed by each countries' Parliaments, led to the creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain.

• 1793 Alexander Mackenzie reaches the Pacific Ocean becoming the first recorded human to complete a transcontinental crossing of North America.

• 1805 Napoleonic Wars: War of the Third Coalition: Battle of Cape Finisterre: An inconclusive naval action is fought between a combined French and Spanish fleet under Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve of Spain and a British fleet under Admiral Robert Calder.

• 1805 Napoleonic Wars: Peninsular War: Battle of Salamanca: British forces led by Arthur Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington) defeat French troops near Salamanca, Spain.

• 1864 American Civil War: Battle of Atlanta: Outside Atlanta, Confederate General John Bell Hood leads an unsuccessful attack on Union troops under General William T. Sherman on Bald Hill.

• 1893 Katharine Lee Bates writes “America the Beautiful” after admiring the view from the top of Pikes Peak near Colorado Springs, Colorado.

• 1894 Paris–Rouen (motor race): The first ever motor race is held in France between the cities of Paris and Rouen.

• 1933 Wiley Post returns to Floyd Bennett Field in New York City, completing the first solo flight around the world in seven days, 18 hours and 49 minutes.

• 1937 New Deal: The United States Senate votes down President Franklin D. Roosevelt's proposal to add more justices to the Supreme Court of the United States.

• 1943 World War II: Allied invasion of Sicily: Allied forces capture Palermo.

• 1943 World War II: 22 July 1943 Athens protest: Axis occupation forces violently disperse a massive protest in Athens.

• 1944 Polish Committee of National Liberation: publishes its manifesto, starting the period of Communist rule in Poland.

• 2003 Members of 101st Airborne of the United States, aided by Special Forces, attack a compound in Iraq, killing Saddam Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay, along with Mustapha Hussein, Qusay's 14-year-old son, and a bodyguard.

• 2005 7 July 2005 London bombings - 21 July 2005 London bombings: Jean Charles de Menezes is killed by police as the hunt begins for the London Bombers responsible for the London bombings.

• 2011 2011 Norway attacks: First a bomb blast which targeted governmentuildings in central Oslo, followed by a massacre at a youth camp on the island of Utøya.

Understanding Military Terminology

Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force

(DOD) The network of regional task forces that coordinates federal law enforcement efforts to combat the national and international organizations that cultivate, process, and distribute illicit drugs.

Also called OCDETF.

Joint Publications (JP 3-07.4) Joint Counterdrug Operations

Originating Medical Treatment Facility

A medical facility that initially transfers a patient to another medical facility.

Joint Publications (JP 4-02) Health Service Support

The Old Salt’s Corner

“The Odyssey”

Book XI

Then, when we had got down to the sea shore we drew our ship into the water and got her mast and sails into her; we also put the sheep on board and took our places, weeping and in great distress of mind. Circe, that great and cunning goddess, sent us a fair wind that blew dead aft and stayed steadily with us keeping our sails all the time well filled; so we did whatever wanted doing to the ship's gear and let her go as the wind and helmsman headed her. All day long her sails were full as she held her course over the sea, but when the sun went down and darkness was over all the earth, we got into the deep waters of the river Oceanus, where lie the land and city of the Cimmerians who live enshrouded in mist and darkness which the rays of the sun never pierce neither at his rising nor as he goes down again out of the heavens, but the poor wretches live in one long melancholy night. When we got there we beached the ship, took the sheep out of her, and went along by the waters of Oceanus till we came to the place of which Circe had told us.

“Here Perimedes and Eurylochus held the victims, while I drew my sword and dug the trench a cubit each way. I made a drink-offering to all the dead, first with honey and milk, then with wine, and thirdly with water, and I sprinkled white barley meal over the whole, praying earnestly to the poor feckless ghosts, and promising them that when I got back to Ithaca I would sacrifice a barren heifer for them, the best I had, and would load the pyre with good things. I also particularly promised that Teiresias should have a black sheep to himself, the best in all my flocks. When I had prayed sufficiently to the dead, I cut the throats of the two sheep and let the blood run into the trench, whereon the ghosts came trooping up from Erebus- brides, young bachelors, old men worn out with toil, maids who had been crossed in love, and brave men who had been killed in battle, with their armour still smirched with blood; they came from every quarter and flitted round the trench with a strange kind of screaming sound that made me turn pale with fear. When I saw them coming I told the men to be quick and flay the carcasses of the two dead sheep and make burnt offerings of them, and at the same time to repeat prayers to Hades and to Proserpine; but I sat where I was with my sword drawn and would not let the poor feckless ghosts come near the blood till Teiresias should have answered my questions.”

“The first ghost 'that came was that of my comrade Elpenor, for he had not yet been laid beneath the earth. We had left his body unwaked and unburied in Circe's house, for we had had too much else to do. I was very sorry for him, and cried when I saw him: 'Elpenor,' said I, 'how did you come down here into this gloom and darkness? You have here on foot quicker than I have with my ship.' ”

“ 'Sir', he answered with a groan, 'it was all bad luck, and my own unspeakable drunkenness. I was lying asleep on the top of Circe's house, and never thought of coming down again by the great staircase but fell right off the roof and broke my neck, so my soul down to the house of Hades. And now I beseech you by all those whom you have left behind you, though they are not here, by your wife, by the father who brought you up when you were a child, and by Telemachus who is the one hope of your house, do what I shall now ask you. I know that when you leave this limbo you will again hold your ship for the Aeaean island. Do not go thence leaving me unwaked and unburied behind you, or I may bring heaven's anger upon you; but burn me with whatever armour I have, build a barrow for me on the sea shore, that may tell people in days to come what a poor unlucky fellow I was, and plant over my grave the oar I used to row with when I was yet alive and with my messmates.' And I said, 'My poor fellow, I will do all that you have asked of me.' ”

“The Odyssey” - Book XI continued ...

~ Homer

Written 800 B.C.E

Translated by Samuel Butler

“The Odyssey” - Table Of Contents

“I’m Just Sayin”

“There are some that only employ words for the purpose of disguising their thoughts.”

“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”

“The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.”

~ Voltaire

“Thought for the Day”

“There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetuated under the shield of law and in the name of justice.”

“Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.”

“Religious wars are not caused by the fact that there is more than one religion,

but by the spirit of intolerance...

the spread of which can only be regarded as the total eclipse of human reason.”

~ Montesquieu

“What I Learned”

“One enemy is too many

and a hundred friends too few.”

“Every man loves justice at another man’s expense.”

“The real measure of your wealth is how much you'd be worth if you lost all your money.”

~ Anonymous

Second Hand News: Articles from Week 30 - July 20, 2020 - July 26, 2020

Oh yeah, there’s an election: Presidential campaign overshadowed as world explodes • House Democrats ask inspectors general to investigate use of federal officers at Portland protests • Seattle councilmember 'wants to fire white officers due to their race alone' • Trump chief of staff: 'I expect indictments' from John Durham investigation

Republican indicted for voter fraud gives Democrats another chance for win • Democratic hopes fade of redrawing electoral map to their advantage • Kentucky couple slapped with ankle monitors after wife tests positive for coronavirus

'Name it after the Rev. Al Sharpton?:' Trump mocks push to rename military bases honoring Confederates • Trump says he still has good relationship with 'alarmist' Fauci • 'We're not standing with Black Lives Matter': Woman charged after defacing mural outside Trump Tower

MOST READ: 'Many cheered when he crashed': Bubba Wallace booed at NASCAR race as Confederate flags fly • Peter Strzok fires back at Lindsey Graham • Republican gallery of nightmares: 10 policies Biden and Democrats would ram through after axing filibuster • Iran sends black box from Ukrainian airliner it shot down to France

Health department says England counting anyone who died after testing positive for coronavirus as related death • Armed St. Louis homeowner in viral photos says 'rumor is' he and wife will be indicted • Mayors back reparations that could cost $6.2 quadrillion, or $151M per descendant • Trump denies Minnesota governor's request for $500M to repair damage from riots Washington Examiner

New Jersey Democrat Governor Phil Murphy: If You Don’t Like My Coronavirus Lockdown, Move • John Lewis Was The Embodiment Of The American Dream • Newly Declassified Documents Reinforce Corruption Of Steele Dossier, FISA Warrants • Poll: Less Than 30 Percent Of Americans Say Redskins Should Change Their Name

A New Report By Health Policy Experts Shows Path To Reopen Schools • Federal Officers Deployed To Curb Portland’s Violence While Some Local Leaders Refuse To Accept Help • Don’t Defund The Police; Fund And Defend Them • Sun Sentinel Endorses Disgraced Sheriff Scott Israel Who Denied Any Responsibility For Parkland Shooting Failures

MOST READ: Oprah Joins Plot To Convince Americans Their Country Is Racist • ‘I’m… At A Loss For Words:’ The Unraveling Narrative Behind The Atlantic’s Defund-The-Police ‘Shooting’ Tale • Cancel Culture Queen And Online Troll Chrissy Teigen Distraught About Being Canceled And Trolled • Why ViacomCBS Ignored Nick Cannon’s Remarks About White People’s ‘Genetic Inferiority’

The Greatest Living American Writer Resigns, Decries Slack Channel Cowards • Stop Stealing Our Children’s Youth In The Name Of Their Grandparents • Lockdowns, Protests Causing Big Spike In Child Trafficking • State Troopers Demand Exit From New York City: We ‘Now Cannot Safely Arrest A Violent Person’

Instead Of Arresting 300 People Who Broke Into Gated Community, St. Louis Confiscates Terrified Couple’s Unused Defense Rifle The Federalist

CORRUPTION CHRONICLES: Comey FBI Targeted Trump As Soon As He Entered Oval Office! Pentagon “Diversity Training”

“Investigating the Investigators:” Judicial Watch: Emails Show Frantic Exchange Between Top FBI Officials Around Time of Trump’s Inauguration

FBI Conspires Against Trump

Challenging California’s Gender Quotas

Trump Task Force to Dismantle MS-13 Takes Down Gang’s Key Leaders Judicial Watch

OUTING FAKE NEWS OMISSIONS and DISTORTIONS: The Washington Post Hate - Pukes on America - In The Weirdest Places! • CNN's W. Kamau Bell: 'The System Is Designed to Make Sure' Minorities, Poor 'Get Sick' • MSNBC's 'AM Joy' Ends In Hate: Trump Loses, Transition Will Turn Into Tyranny • Family Time with Mrs. Stephanopoulos: Watching PORN with the Kids!

ABC, NBC Use Death of John Lewis to Assail Republicans and Trump • On Univision: Noted Marxist Terrorist Supporter - ‘Trump Is an Ally to Nazis’ • New York Times Goes Hysterical Over Fed Crackdown in Portland: ‘It Feels Like Fascism’ • Liberal Media Loves Ellen DeGeneres: Will They Notice Her 'Toxic' Work Environment? News Busters

Mr. Answer Man Please Tell Us: Do Bears Really Love Honey?

Do Bears Really Love Honey?

If your experience with bears is largely limited to reading Winnie the Pooh as a kid, you might think that these fuzzy mammals will do anything to get their gigantic paws on a jar of honey. And you wouldn’t necessarily be wrong. Author A. A. Milne didn’t pull his depiction of bears as honey-craving maniacs out of thin air. But their culinary tastes go beyond the sweet stuff in the hive.

“Bears do love honey and are attracted to beehives”, Elizabeth Manning, an education specialist for the State of Alaska, wrote for Alaska Fish & Wildlife News. “But unlike in Winnie the Pooh, the bears eat more than just honey. They will also consume the bees and larvae inside the beehive, which are a good source of protein. Both brown and black bears will raid beehives.”

If you’re wondering: Wouldn’t attacking a beehive result in a lots of painful bee stings? The answer is yes. According to the North American Bear Center:

“Bears endure stings to get the prized pupae, larvae, and eggs in the brood comb of a hive. Protective adult bees sting bears’ faces and ears but have a hard time penetrating the fur on the rest of the body. After bears get the brood comb and perhaps some honey, they hurry away and shake bees out of their fur like they shake water.”

In other words: bears think the tradeoff is worth it, which has caused major problems for beekeepers all over the world. In just the first five months of 2018, bears damaged more than 370 beehives throughout Finland and parts of Estonia, forcing Finland's government to pay out $143,000 to farmers whose livelihoods had been destroyed along with their hives.

While many beekeepers incur the cost of surrounding their hives with electric fencing to keep the bears at bay, even the sting of an electric shock isn't enough to deter the most determined bears. Last year in Finland, according to the BBC, a brown bear made its way right past an electric fence to get to two beehives.

After years of being pestered by bears, Ibrahim Sedef - a beekeeper in Turkey - has adopted an “if you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em” approach to dealing with the animals. Realizing that bears might be the most discerning honey-eaters around, he decided to turn the sweet-loving carnivores into voluntary taste testers. He set up four bowls, each one containing a different treat: flower honey, chestnut honey, Anzer honey, and cherry jam (as a decoy) to see if the bears sniffed out a particular favorite. Then he set up a camera and watched as they declared Anzer honey, which is one of the world’s most expensive honeys, to be the winner.

Alaska Department of Fish and Game / Wikipedia / Encyclopedia Britannica / Bear.org / Live Science / Backpacker / Quora / Do Bears Really Love Honey? (YouTube)

NAVSPEAK aka U.S. Navy Slang

NUG: New Useless Guy. Term referred to newly reported sailors with no qualifications or experience. Usually tasked with dirty and nasty jobs often referred to as “Shit Work”.

Nugget: First tour aviator.

NUB:

1. Non-Useful Dody) A sailor who has not completed any qualifications and is therefore of no use to their division.

2. A sailor that has not yet earned their Submarine Warfare Qualification (Dolphins).

Nuclear Waste: A pejorative term for sailors who exit the Nuclear Power training program without successful completion.

Nuke (or “Nuc”) (Submarine Service, CVNs): Engineering Department crewmember responsible for turning main shaft via atom-splitting. Also refers to ordnance type that is neither confirmed nor denied, which may or may not be handled by a different Department (See “Weaponettes”, below). Also describes nerds (generally anyone who is/was a candidate for Naval Nuclear Power Training Command).

Nuke it out (or simply “nuke it”):

1. To overthink an easy task. Alternately, often used by nukes to suggest someone ought to put forth at least a little thought before giving up on a problem.

2. The act of solving a problem by applying numbers and units and various known and assumed quantities to calculate an approximate answer.

Nuke Milk: A disgusting powdered milk used when the fresh milk runs out. Said to be preserved by irradiation.

Nuke Striker: Perjorative term used by nukes to describe a coner that asks endless questions about the operations of the nuclear power plant. Strikers are sailors that enlist without a guaranteed rate (job), with the intention of floating around until they find a department where they fit in. However, one can't strike for Nuclear Field.

Numb Nuts (Derogatory) Nick Name for the USS Nimitz (CVN68).

Nut to butt: Standing in line, close quarters, body to body, each man's chest pressed to the back of the man ahead, or “nut to butt”.

Wiktionary.org

Just for you MARINE

North Carolina Lawn Dart: Expression denoting the AV-8 and the many mishaps that took place during the aircraft's development and testing.

NROTC: Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps, a college-based recruiting program for officers for the Navy and Marine Corps.

Wikipedia.org

Naval Aviation Squadron Nicknames

HSM-72 Helicopter Maritime Strike (HSM) Squadron SEVEN TWO - nicknamed the “Proud Warriors”

United States Navy Naval Air Station - Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Florida / Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron - Squadron Lineage: HSL-42 October 5, 1984 - January 2013 / HSM-72: January 2013 - present.

Where Did That Saying Come From?

“The pen is mightier than the sword:”

Meaning: Literal meaning - Trying to convince people with ideas and words is more effective than trying to force people to do what you want.

History: 'The pen is mightier than the sword' was coined by Edward Bulwer-Lytton in for his play Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy, 1839:

“True, This! -

Beneath the rule of men entirely great,

The pen is mightier than the sword. Behold

The arch-enchanters wand! - itself a nothing! -

But taking sorcery from the master-hand

To paralyse the Caesars, and to strike

The loud earth breathless! - Take away the sword -

States can be saved without it!”

Bulwer-Lytton may have coined the phrase but he was preceded by several others who expressed essentially the same idea:

George Whetstone, in Heptameron of Civil Discourses, 1582, wrote

“The dashe of a Pen, is more greevous than the counterbuse of a Launce.”

In Hamlet, 1602, Shakespeare gave Rosencrantz the line

“.. many wearing rapiers are afraid of goose-quills and dare scarce come thither.”

Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy, 1621 includes

“From this it is clear how much more cruel the pen may be than the sword.”

Thomas Jefferson sent a letter to Thomas Paine in 1796, in which he wrote:

“Go on doing with your pen what in other times was done with the sword.”

Phrases.org.uk

Science & Technology

How humpback whales sneak up on thousands of unsuspecting fish • Dancing chimpanzees may reveal how humans started to boogie • Our favorite science news stories of the decade • Top stories: Breakthrough of the Year, 6000-year-old chewing gum, and a monarch mystery solved Science AAAS

Mercury's volcanic activity - or lack of it - could help astronomers find other Earth-like worlds • Did it keep its flavour? Stone-age 'chewing-gum' yields human DNA • Surfing on quantum waves: Protein folding revisited • Meteorites lend clues to solar system's origin Phys.org / MedicalXpress / TechXplore

Bizarre News (we couldn’t make up stuff this good - real news story)

Scientists find iron 'snow' in Earth's core

Source: University of Texas at Austin

Summary: The Earth's inner core is hot, under immense pressure and 'snow'-capped, according to new research that could help scientists better understand forces that affect the entire planet. The snow is made of tiny particles of iron that fall from the molten outer core and pile on top of the inner core.

The snow is made of tiny particles of iron - much heavier than any snowflake on Earth's surface - that fall from the molten outer core and pile on top of the inner core, creating piles up to 200 miles thick that cover the inner core.

The image may sound like an alien winter wonderland. But the scientists who led the research said it is akin to how rocks form inside volcanoes.

“The Earth's metallic core works like a magma chamber that we know better of in the crust”, said Jung-Fu Lin, a professor in the Jackson School of Geosciences at The University of Texas at Austin and a co-author of the study.

Youjun Zhang, an associate professor at Sichuan University in China, led the study. The other co-authors include Jackson School graduate student Peter Nelson; and Nick Dygert, an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee who conducted the research during a postdoctoral fellowship at the Jackson School.

The Earth's core can't be sampled, so scientists study it by recording and analyzing signals from seismic waves (a type of energy wave) as they pass through the Earth.

However, aberrations between recent seismic wave data and the values that would be expected based on the current model of the Earth's core have raised questions. The waves move more slowly than expected as they passed through the base of the outer core, and they move faster than expected when moving through the eastern hemisphere of the top inner core.

The study proposes the iron snow-capped core as an explanation for these aberrations. The scientist S.I. Braginkskii proposed in the early 1960s that a slurry layer exists between the inner and outer core, but prevailing knowledge about heat and pressure conditions in the core environment quashed that theory. However, new data from experiments on core-like materials conducted by Zhang and pulled from more recent scientific literature found that crystallization was possible and that about 15% of the lowermost outer core could be made of iron-based crystals that eventually fall down the liquid outer core and settle on top of the solid inner core.

“It's sort of a bizarre thing to think about”, Dygert said. “You have crystals within the outer core snowing down onto the inner core over a distance of several hundred kilometers.”

The researchers point to the accumulated snow pack as the cause of the seismic aberrations. The slurry-like composition slows the seismic waves. The variation in snow pile size -- thinner in the eastern hemisphere and thicker in the western -- explains the change in speed.

“The inner-core boundary is not a simple and smooth surface, which may affect the thermal conduction and the convections of the core”, Zhang said.

The paper compares the snowing of iron particles with a process that happens inside magma chambers closer to the Earth's surface, which involves minerals crystalizing out of the melt and glomming together. In magma chambers, the compaction of the minerals creates what's known as “cumulate rock”. In the Earth's core, the compaction of the iron contributes to the growth of the inner core and shrinking of the outer core.

And given the core's influence over phenomena that affects the entire planet, from generating its magnetic field to radiating the heat that drives the movement of tectonic plates, understanding more about its composition and behavior could help in understanding how these larger processes work.

Bruce Buffet, a geosciences professor at the University of California, Berkley who studies planet interiors and who was not involved in the study, said that the research confronts longstanding questions about the Earth's interior and could even help reveal more about how the Earth's core came to be.

“Relating the model predictions to the anomalous observations allows us to draw inferences about the possible compositions of the liquid core and maybe connect this information to the conditions that prevailed at the time the planet was formed”, he said. “The starting condition is an important factor in Earth becoming the planet we know.”

The research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, the Jackson School of Geosciences, the National Science Foundation and the Sloan Foundation.

Science Daily (12/19/2019)

Second Hand News: Articles from Week 30 - July 20, 2020 - July 26, 2020

Federal judge's son is shot dead and her criminal defense attorney husband is critically injured after a gunman disguised as a FedEx driver ambushed their home - four days after she was assigned a case linked to Jeffrey Epstein

Mitch McConnell is set to introduce a $1 trillion coronavirus package next week that will give schools funds to reopen and extend PPP loans - but cut extra unemployment from $600 to $200 • White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows says 'it is time for people to go to jail' and insists indictment's are imminent in John Durham's probe into 'spying' on Donald Trump's campaign

Fox News' Chris Wallace mocks Trump's 'very hard' cognitive test and reveals questions the President 'aced' - But Wallace does not reveal his score on same test - as the President challenges “incompetent” Biden to take the test • The Trump Armada: Donald's supporters host massive 'TrumpStock' boat parade up the Hudson River in front of the Statue of Liberty during NYC's heatwave • Trump says he'll be 'right eventually' after predicting several times that coronavirus will just 'disappear' as he AGAIN threatens to withhold funding for schools if they don't reopen in the fall

The rise of NYC's anti-billionaire crusade: AOC throws her support behind tax on New York's richest residents that critics fear will drive them out of the state • Joe Biden says schools reopening should be based on 'science not politics', calls for $58BILLION in funds for public education • Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters stops her SUV to help a black driver she saw being detained by Los Angeles sheriffs during a traffic stop - then cops threaten to ticket her for blocking traffic

Black man holding an American flag tells protesters in Portland 'none of you guys represent Black lives' as he tries to protect the Federal Courthouse from vandals • St. Louis homeowner who pulled guns on Black Lives Matter protesters is expecting to be charged, says he has been 'slandered' in the media and praises his wife for 'defending their home'

Gun violence sweeps the U.S. again as weekend sees seven shot dead and 53 wounded in Chicago, one dead and eight injured in Washington D.C., plus one killed and 10 wounded in New York • Anti-cop demonstrators clash with pro-police rally in Denver after 'Back the Blue' organizer ignored advice to cancel event saying he would not 'give up that ground to domestic terrorists' • Protesters ransack Seattle AGAIN: 12 cops are injured as demonstrators set fire to a police precinct, loot an Amazon Go store and smash windows of downtown businesses after anti-ICE rally turned violent

Thirteen people are shot after gun fire breaks out following a fight among a crowd of 200 people on an Illinois waterfront • Chicago cop punches 18-year-old black woman in the face and knocks out her teeth at protest to topple Christopher Columbus statue • Woman is arrested for 'URINATING on the floor of a Verizon store after refusing to leave for not wearing a face mask' in California • Beaches reach capacity, coronavirus testing sites are shut down for safety and 115 million Americans are urged to stay inside Daily Mail

Turning the Tide: How a Small Band of Allied Sailors Defeated the U-boats and Won the Battle of the Atlantic.    2 of 4    3 of 4    4 of 4   

Atlantic:Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories    2 of 2   

Most Dangerous Book: Tacitus's Germania from the Roman Empire to the Third Reich    2 of 4    3 of 4    4 of 4   

The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics    2 of 4    3 of 4    4 of 4    John Batchelor (07/20/2020)