Daily Archives: April 9, 2021

TRENTON It was Mercer Countys best-kept secret.

County Executive Brian Hughes has been involved in speeding, careless driving and other motor-vehicle incidents well before his recent traffic escapades as reported by The Trentonian.

The newspaper has already documented three traffic incidents involving the Democratic powerbroker, including one from last summer in Pennsylvania, where a state trooper found Hughes in a very confused mental state along the Pennsylvania Turnpike with his county-issued vehicle abandoned.

Now The Trentonian has obtained heavily redacted records showing Hughes had a careless driving encounter on Aug. 21, 2011, a speeding incident on May 24, 2002, and another speeding incident on May 5, 2000.

The New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission provided The Trentonian with a copy of Hughes complete history of driving incidents in the Garden State after the newspaper submitted an Open Public Records Act request seeking this information.

The county executive appears to have been involved in other traffic incidents over the last 20 years, because his drivers history report features numerous redactions of events that may have resulted in points being added to his drivers license.

The MVC redacted several entries from the report, citing privacy grounds.

The Trentonian is considering legal action to compel the MVC to release the report minus unnecessary redactions.

The heavily redacted report shows Hughes has had violation points added to his license for careless driving and speeding and that he subsequently received point reductions for annual safe driving.

The report also shows Hughes was involved in a motor-vehicle accident on Sept. 15, 2003.

As previously reported by The Trentonian, Hughes was not charged or cited in at least three high-profile traffic incidents over the last four years.

According to a police report obtained by The Trentonian, Hughes was involved in what is commonly known as a hit-and-run crash on April 19, 2017. The incident occurred in the customer parking lot of a business off Nassau Street in Princeton.

The report detailed that the suspect vehicle struck a 2012 Hyundai Elantra belonging to an employee of the Craft Cleaners and then left the scene before police arrived.

Hughes, who was a regular customer at the local dry-cleaning business, was later tracked down by the officer after a witness identified him as the driver of the black Ford Taurus that struck the back bumper of the Elantra, which was parked in the customer lot of the Craft Cleaners at 225 Nassau Street.

On Oct. 25, 2017, Hughes backed into a brick wall of the STS Tire and Auto Center on State Road in Princeton while experiencing an altered mental episode, according to another crash report obtained by the newspaper.

After Hughes crashed into the STS, Princeton Police wrote to state driving officials recommending the county executive undergo a driving test and medical exam to ensure he was fit to remain licensed in New Jersey.

Hughes had a third encounter years later with Pennsylvania State Police last summer during the COVID-19 pandemic.

That incident occurred June 1, 2020, when he told a trooper that he was involved in a road race with four others in Paris, France, after he abandoned his county-issued vehicle along the Pennsylvania Turnpike near Harrisburg, according to a police report obtained by The Trentonian.

Pennsylvania State Police has launched an internal affairs investigation to determine whether Hughes who did not undergo a field-sobriety test and was transported to the hospital received preferential treatment in that incident.

Hughes, 64, of Princeton, is the son of former governor and state Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard J. Hughes.

In recent weeks, the county executives critics pounced on his driving gaffes to suggest Hughes was unfit to lead.

Lisa Richford, the chairwoman of the Mercer County Republican Committee, called for Hughes immediate resignation last week, saying the county executive is unfit to serve because of the unlawful and dangerous driving escapades.

Hughes told the Mercer County Board of Commissioners this week that he would surrender his county-issued vehicle after one commissioner raised potential liability issues.

These instances, while bad and I will certainly agree to that, did not result in any type of major accidents or collisions, he said of his traffic incidents as reported by The Trentonian.

A slate of Republicans running for the Mercer County Board of Commissioners this year have blasted the idea that Hughes should receive a taxpayer-funded driver to safely transport him around town.

The All-Democrat County Commissioners idea of holding Hughes accountable is giving him a chauffeur, the trio of Richard Balgowan, Michael Chianese and Andrew Kotula said Thursday in a press statement, calling that an outrageous plan given the COVID-19 pandemics impact on local businesses and Hughes annual salary of $175,484, which exceeds Gov. Phil Murphys $175K annual salary.

Hughes at the commissioner board meeting Tuesday said he was fully capable of working despite a rare nerve disorder he had attributed to the incidents, among other health issues.

The county executive suffers from trigeminal neuralgia and therefore takes medication that may result in adverse reactions, including confusion, Hughes previously told The Trentonian.

Hughes once experienced cardiac arrest while walking his family dog in Princeton in 2008. He also has talked about his prior struggles with substance abuse, saying he has been sober for decades.

First elected to the county executives seat in 2003, Hughes has left open the possibility that hed run for a sixth term supported by an ELEC or New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission report he filed with the state showing the funds he has in his campaign coffers for a June 2023 Democratic primary for county executive.

Hughes did not answer his phone Thursday when The Trentonian called him seeking comment for this story. Earlier this week he said he was tired of talking to the newspaper about his baggage.

Originally posted here:

Documents: Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes has long history of speeding, careless driving - The Trentonian

Alex Ovechkins second-period power-play goal not only got the Washington Capitals back into the game (that seemed destined to be a blowout loss), but it also accomplished more history in the process.

Ovechkin took a pass from John Carlson and one-timed the puck past Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman on a five-on-three PP. It was his 20th goal of the season. The goal came off a set-play off a faceoff four seconds into the two-man advantage.

Ovi is now the eighth player in NHL history to have 16+ consecutive 20-goal seasons. According to the NHLs PR, Ovechkins also the fourth to do so from the start of his career.

Alex Ovechkin of the @Capitals is the eighth player in NHL history with 16+ consecutive 20-goal seasons and the fourth to do so from the start of his career. #NHLStats: https://t.co/WZ4oQOrKin pic.twitter.com/eKVOfv7BOx

NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) April 9, 2021

The goal was also Ovis 266th career PPG, moving him past Brett Hull into sole possession of second place on the all-time list.

Alex Ovechkin of the @Capitals scored the 266th power-play goal of his NHL career to pass Brett Hull (265) for sole possession of second place in League history.

Dave Andreychuk tops the all-time list with 274. #NHLStats: https://t.co/XNMkzM1EKq pic.twitter.com/T4LNfJqFjS

NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) April 9, 2021

Ovi now only trails PPG leader, Hockey Hall of Famer Dave Andreychuk, by eight.

Alex Ovechkin scores on the power play to cut the deficit to 3-1. It marks Ovechkin's 266th career power play goal, passing Brett Hull for the second most in NHL history. pic.twitter.com/EI1z81bWjJ

CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) April 9, 2021

The Russian machine has a ridiculous 13 goals in his last 17 games.

The goal was the 726th of his career. He is five goals away from tying Marcel Dionne (731) for fifth on the NHLs all-time goals list.

Caps are back in the game after this PP goal from @ovi8 moving him into 2nd place on the NHl all-time PP goals list! @WesJohnsonVoice pic.twitter.com/QbPgCvlDgS

Byron J. Hudtloff (@ByronHudtloff) April 9, 2021

RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Bruins

Screenshot courtesy of NBC Sports Washington

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Alex Ovechkin becomes eighth player in NHL history to have 16+ consecutive 20-goal seasons - Russian Machine Never Breaks

A few weeks ago, we talked about using OTC medications (specifically ibuprofen and acetaminophen) to provide pain relief for odontogenic pain. Since then, weve received lots of emails asking for more information, so here we are!

In this weeks episode of Medical History Mysteries, Drs. Tom Viola and Pamela Maragliano-Muniz discuss dosing, administration, factors to consider, and what the research has to say about taking acetaminophen and ibuprofen together. Hopefully well dispel some of the confusion surrounding this form of pain relief.

Watch the video at this link.

Editors note: This article first appeared inThrough the Loupesnewsletter, a publication of the Endeavor Business Media Dental Group.Read more articlesandsubscribetoThrough the Loupes.

Pamela Maragliano-Muniz, DMD,is the chief editor ofDentistryIQand editorial codirector ofThrough the Loupes.Based in Salem, Massachusetts, Dr. Maragliano-Muniz began her clinical career as a dental hygienist. She went on to attend Tufts University School of Dental Medicine, where she earned her doctorate in dental medicine. She then attended the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Dental Medicine, where she became board-certified in prosthodontics. Dr. Maragliano-Munizowns a private practice, Salem Dental Arts, and lectures on a variety of clinical topics. You may contact her atpmuniz@endeavorb2b.com.

Read more from the original source:

Medical History Mysteries: The Advil and Tylenol combination for pain: How much and how often? - DentistryIQ

In the first 100 days of every administration, theres always lots of discussion about executive orders and unilateral presidential action. President Joe Biden is no exception, and any evaluation of his first few months in office will include a conversation about his executive orders. Yet, the history of the executive order isnt a story of consistent expansion, and understanding its role in some of the biggest moments of our nation is essential to evaluating the presidency.

The Constitution does not articulate a presidential right to issue proclamations or executive orders. Indeed, they arent even mentioned. But almost from the very beginning, George Washington understood that presidential authority had to include activities that werent specifically defined in the Constitution in order to lead the nation. On June 8, 1789, President Washington issued his first directive. Congress had not yet established the new executive departments, so the secretaries of the existing Confederation departments had remained in office in acting fashion. Washington asked John Jay, acting secretary of foreign affairs, to provide a clear account of the Department at the head of which you have been, as may be sufficient to impress me with a full, precise and distinct general idea of the United States.

Over the next eight years, Washington issued seven additional proclamations or orders, such as a proclamation declaring a day of thanksgiving on Nov. 26, 1789, and the Neutrality Proclamation on April 22, 1793, declaring the United States neutral in the war between France and Great Britain. In the 21st century, we wouldnt necessarily consider letters requesting information or proclamations of thanksgiving to be executive orders, but they established an important precedent for Washingtons successors.

Executive orders have precipitated many of the most significant events in our nations history. For example, on Jan. 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln officially issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which ordered all persons held as slaves in the Confederate states shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free. On July 26, 1948, President Truman also used executive orders to expand citizenship and civil rights for Black Americans by ordering the desegregation of the military in Executive Order 9981.

While Presidents Lincoln and Truman utilized executive orders for good, Executive Order 9066 undermined citizenship rights for minorities. After Japan attacked the American naval base in Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the internment of over 120,000 Japanese Americans living in western states.

Finally, on Sept. 8, 1974, President Gerald Ford issued a full, free and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed while serving as president of the United States. While many Americans are familiar with Fords pardon, not many know that it technically counts as an executive order, officially classified as Proclamation 4311.

Although executive orders have played a central role in these key moments and many others, not all presidents have relied on this tool equally. In fact, contrary to our current political narrative, there has not been a steady increase in the reliance on executive orders. A brief statistical overview actually shows that executive orders have declined since the mid-twentieth century.

After Washington issued eight orders during his presidency, the next five presidents made little use of this presidential tool. In fact, Andrew Jackson was the first president to issue executive orders in the double digits. In the 1850s, executive orders began a steady uptick and accelerated during President Ulysses S. Grants administration, when he relied on unilateral executive action to enforce Reconstruction measures.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, executive orders peaked during Franklin D. Roosevelts unprecedented 12 years in office. Roosevelt issued 3,721 orders to tackle the Great Depression, implement New Deal programs and wage World War II. After FDR, Woodrow Wilson came in second with 1,803 orders and Theodore Roosevelt in third with 1,081 orders.

While FDR relied on executive orders more heavily than any other president, he also issued the highest number of orders per year with an average of 307. Analyzing executive orders per year can be a more interesting and helpful way to get a better sense of pace. For example, Reagan issued 381 orders and Carter issued 320, but that number is much more revealing when we consider that Reagan served for two terms, and thus issued an average of 48 orders per year, whereas Carter issued an average of 80 orders per year.

Critically, since President John F. Kennedys administration, the annual average has actually continued to decline, with two exceptions. Carter issued an unusually high number of orders per year (80) and Trumps presidency represented a significant uptick as well. He issued 220 orders total, for an average of 55 orders per year. While Trumps pace did not match Carter, it far surpassed the 35 orders per year for Obama, 36 per year for George W. Bush, 46 per year for Clinton and 42 per year for George H.W. Bush.

In his first week in office, President Joe Biden issued 22 executive orders more than any other president issued in their first week. Although many of Bidens early orders overturned his predecessors actions, and hes issued far fewer in recent weeks. We will have to wait and see whether he will overturn recent precedent by relying heavily on executive orders in order to govern, or whether he will follow his predecessors' examples and try to work with Congress to pass legislation.

Originally posted here:

The Executive Order: A History of Its Rise and Slow Decline - Governing

By Julien A. Luebbers For The Spokesman-Review

The Big Dipper is one of the most historic live music venues in Spokane: a small, locally owned-and-operated, all-ages spot with a reputation for sticking to its roots.

About seven years ago, the Dipper came under the ownership of Dawson and Dan Hoerner, who previously unexperienced with running a live music venue have guided its growth and revival since.

Live music has just been part of our lives, forever, Dawson Hoerner said. Her husband, Dan, is part of Seattle indie group Sunny Day Real Estate, and the two spent years in and out of live shows either onstage or in the pit.

But going into the Dipper, we had never run a venue before. Thats just the other side of the coin, so we had a lot to learn, Dawson Hoerner said.

People are so positive and excited in Spokane for live music venues. The two were spurred on by that reaction but understood the risk of the industry they were in.

Independent music venues are hard to make work, so they come and go, Hoerner continued. During out tenure at the Dipper, weve seen probably seven or eight comings and goings of venues.

But what separated the Dipper from the pack was its history and community roots. A lot of people come up and say I met my wife at the Big Dipper or I played my first show at the Big Dipper. Dan played one of his first shows at the Big Dipper when he was too young to drink.

With an inside understanding of why the Big Dipper was so important, the Hoerners were able to bring the best out of the venue and use their position to support the music community, which supported them in turn.

It comes down to the people, and the Hoerners approach seeks to alienate no one. We try and be totally inclusive. So, we will have jazz, and we will have heavy metal, and well have reggae and punk and indie and blues, EDM, Dawson Hoerner said.

We just really try and be open for everyone. We want all those people to feel like its a place where theyre comfortable and its a place where their kind of music is supported.

Curating a schedule with such diverse sound has its drawbacks. It means that a die-hard folk fan cant rely on the Dipper for their favorite music, but two upshots are inclusiveness and a wider audience base.

Needless to say, COVID-19 hasnt been an easy time to own a music venue, and the Big Dipper has been shuttered for more than a year.

But in spite of the adversity of the pandemic, Hoerner is immensely grateful to the community and local government for supporting the Big Dipper, financially and otherwise.

I think the citys been really cognizant of the importance of live music and live music venues in trying to create or maintain a culture, she said. And now they can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Nothing is certain, but shes starting to see show requests coming into my email.

The local musicians are just chomping at the bit, and a few of them have really generously said, Well play our first show for free and just help you guys raise some money. And thats a very heartwarming thing.

People are excited to get going again, but we fully plan on being safe about it, Hoerner said. We have to figure out how to be safe about it once we do reopen, and so were starting to figure that stuff out.

Getting the Spokane crowds back in-house will be a huge relief to the Hoerners and the bands that they host. Not to mention the audiences, for whom Dawson Hoerner has no small amount of praise.

Being from the East Coast and having lived in Seattle, she understands crowd culture and characterizes Spokanes as one of gratitude. Spokane, I think, has a phenomenal response. I think people here are so grateful.

There just isnt as much live music. A lot of clubs close, and audiences have seen that happen. So, I think people dont know how long the venue is going to be around. You know, I think people are really appreciative, for that reason, of the venue and of the bands.

She has no shortage of stories of the Big Dippers audience getting rave reviews from visiting performers, which is an honor not all cities have earned. I think that it is so lucky for us that we have that kind of audience.

But it isnt just luck; the pandemic has shown more than ever how the music community refuses to quit giving support even when everything seems at a standstill. Every aspect, from the audiences to the venues, is the result of a history of community that the Big Dipper exemplifies.

While you cant go to a show just yet at the Big Dipper, be on the lookout for show announcements in the coming months pending further reopening, Hoerner said. Until then, satisfy your need for music by visiting the Big Dipper on Facebook and YouTube.

Julien A. Luebbers can be reached at julienluebbers@gmail.com.

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Community and history are two roots of the Big Dippers success - The Spokesman-Review

The Miami Dolphins may take a player at six this year or they may trade down but how have the Dolphins done through history at six?

The Dolphins have drafted 13 players in the top 10 throughout their entire history. Those players include the early expansion draft. In 1966 the Dolphins drafted both first and second and in 1967 drafted Bob Griese and then Larry Csonka in 68. Griese was a 4th overall pick and Csonka was the number one pick in his draft.

The Dolphins have not, however, drafted any player sixth overall. A trade this year will make sure that remains the same. While we cant look at Miamis history at six, we can look at some of the players that were drafted in the bookend slots of five and seven.

In 1992 the Dolphins drafted Troy Vincent at pick seven. Vincent had a great career with Miami but left via free agency to the Eagles where his career continued to soar. He of course, works as one of the NFL executives.

Miami has only drafted one player in the 5th spot and that goes to Tua Tagovailoa who was taken last year. Here are the other players taken in the top 9 positions.

1966 Jim Grabowski 1 overall- opted to play for Green Bay

1966 Rick Norton 2 overall played until 1970

1967 Bob Griese 4 overall Hall of Fame

1968 Larry Csonka 1 overall Hall of Fame

1989 Sammy Smith 9 overall out of NFL after 4 seasons

1990 Richmond Webb 9 overall should be in the Hall of Fame

1992 Troy Vincent 7 overall

2005 Ronnie Brown 2 overall solid career

2007 Ted Ginn, Jr. 9 overall still in the NFL busted in Miami

2008 Jake Long 1 overall injuries sidelined a solid career start

2012 Ryan Tannehill 8 overall traded to Tennessee

2013 Dion Jordan 3 overall major bust

2020 Tua Tagovailoa 5 overall verdict out

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Miami Dolphins history of draft picks made in the 6th position - Phin Phanitic

The battleship celebrates its 80th birthday on Friday --the US Navy commissioned it on April 9th, 1941.

>> IT HAS BEEN >>> THERE IS A VERY BIG BIRTHDAY TOMORROW BUT THE HUGE BATTLESHIP NORTH CAROLINA TURNS 80 YEARS OLD. THE NAVY COMMISSIONED IT ON APRIL 9, 1941. >> TONIGHT WE FIND OUR TAR HEEL TRAVELER IN WILMINGTON. >> COMMISSIONED IN 1941 IN WILMINGTON SINCE 1961, THE BATTLESHIP NORTH CAROLINA ATTRACTS ABOUT A QUARTER MILLION VISITORS A YEAR. >> IT IS A SYMBOL AND IT IS A HUGE SYMBOL. 729 FEET LONG, 45,000 TONS AND IT IS A LIVING RELIC. IT IS A LIVING PIECE OF HISTORY THAT WAS THERE. IT WAS IN ALL THE MAJOR BATTLES OF WORLD WAR II IN THE PACIFIC. >> 15 MAJOR BATTLES. >> OKINAWA, IWO JIMA, SHE WAS THERE. SHE SUFFERED CASUALTIES, SHE WAS HIT BY ENEMY FIRE. >> AND IT STRUCK BY A JAPANESE TORPEDO. >> FOR MEN WERE KILLED DOWN BELOW. >> ONE WAS SEEN FLYING THROUGH THE AIR AND WAS LOST AT SEA. >> BELOW DECK. >> IT IS ALL BUSINESS. >> THE SLEEPING COMPARTMENTS. >> NOT A LOT OF PRIVACY. >> IT WAS PROBABLY 90 DEGREES BELOW SHIP WHILE IT SAILED THE SOUTH PACIFIC. >> VERY SWEATY, HARD WORK. >> THESE 10 MEN DIED IN BATTLE ABOARD THE BATTLESHIP AND THEIR NAMES ARE LISTED. >> THE OVER 10,000 N. CAROLINIANS WHO PERISHED IN WORLD WAR II. >> THE SHIPS HALL OF HONOR. >> SHE IS DESIGNED TO FIGHT AND WIN. SHE IS DESIGNED TO TAKE HITS AND KEEP FIGHTING. >> 16 INCH GUNS. >> THEY COULD HURL A SHELL THE WEIGHT OF A SMALL CAR BEING SENT 20 MILES DOWNRANGE WITH PRETTY GOOD ACCURACY. >> THE SHIP WAS HIGH-TECH FOR IT'S TIME. >> THIS SHIP SHOT DOWN 24 JAPANESE AIRPLANES THAT ARE CONFIRMED THAT SHE ACTUALLY SHOT DOWN MANY MORE THAN THAT. >> THE BATTLESHIP'S ARRIVAL IN WILMINGTON OCTOBER 1961. THE SHIP WOULD HAVE BEEN SCRAPPED IF NOT FOR THE STATES VIGOROUS EFFORTS TO SAVE IT. >> THERE WAS THE FAMOUS CAMPAIGN FOR THE SCHOOLCHILDREN TO CONTRIBUTE THEIR NICKELS, DIMES AND QUARTERS AND THOSE KIDS RAISED TO SOMETHING LIKE $375,000 WHICH IN 1960 WAS REAL MONEY. AS THEY SWUNG HER AROUND, HER STERNNESS SMACKED INTO A FLOATING RESTAURANT CALLED THE ARK. >> ANOTHER CASUALTY THOUGH THE ARK SURVIVED. >> I THINK IT IS REALLY IMPORTANT THAT THINGS LIKE THIS STILL EXIST. HISTORY SADLY MOST PEOPLE HAVE FORGOTTEN. >> THE BATTLESHIP NORTH CAROLINA IS A SIGNIFICANT REMINDER. >> THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO KNOW ABOUT THIS BATTLESHIP IS IT IS THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA'S WORLD WAR II MEMORIAL.

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Highlighting the history of the Battleship North Carolina on its 80th birthday :: WRAL.com - WRAL.com

The very existence of this film is a miracle, Raoul Peck says in Exterminate All the Brutes, a documentary he wrote, directed and narrated. Hes referring to the existence of a film that retells the history of colonialism and slavery from a nonwhite, non-Western viewpoint, though in 2021 that may seem less like a miracle than an expectation.

Whats more miraculous is that Peck found a home on mainstream American television yes, its HBO, but still for a supremely personal, impressionistic yet intellectualized, four-hour cascade of images, ruminations and historical aperus. (The busy editor was Alexandra Strauss.) That would be an impressive achievement on any subject, let alone genocide.

The title Exterminate All the Brutes, with its combination of blunt force and literary flourish (and its suggestion that history has misidentified the real brutes), is appropriate to a project that elaborates on and aestheticizes feelings of outrage, disbelief and despair. (It was taken from Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness and from a 1996 book by the historian Sven Lindqvist that is one of several scholarly sources Peck drew on.)

The film, whose four chapters premiere Wednesday and Thursday nights, is unrelenting in its critique, but its also more muted in tone than that title might suggest. Pecks slightly droning narration contributes to that effect, as does an approach thats more free-associative than truly essayistic. Theres also, unfortunately, the documentarys tendency to cycle through and circle around a relatively small set of ideas that would have had more force in a shorter film.

If Exterminate All the Brutes is never boring, its less because Peck whose James Baldwin documentary, I Am Not Your Negro, was an Oscar nominee in 2017 always gives you something new to think about than because he always gives you something new to look at.

In addition to the expected archival images from centuries of colonial depredation, the film incorporates animated historical recreations; snazzy graphics; copious clips from Hollywood depictions of non-Western populations; photos and home movies from Pecks childhood in Haiti, Africa and New York City; and fictional scenes featuring Josh Hartnett as the stolid face of white supremacy, in various times and places. (All colonialists look alike.)

Pecks story focuses on the entwined threads of the genocide of North Americas Indigenous people and the enslavement of Africans, and on the links he finds between those horrors and other genocides and oppressions, particularly the Holocaust. There are things in his account that will probably be new for many viewers, like the discussion of the Spanish priest Bartolom de las Casas and his role in the fates of both Indigenous people in the Americas and African slaves, or the way Peck restores the Haitian revolution to its rightful stature alongside the American and French revolutions.

But much of the material in Exterminate All the Brutes is familiar; it has been known all along, a circumstance that Peck acknowledges and that fuels his anger.

The educated general public has always largely known what atrocities have been committed and are being committed in the name of progress, civilization, socialism, democracy and the market, he says. The question is why they have been ignored, obfuscated and whitewashed in popular culture.

Pecks broad assertions and arguments arent likely to generate a lot of controversy, though his repeated linking of the histories of the American West and African colonialism to the Holocaust (allowing for a lot of Hitler footage) might strike some as facile or insensitive.

In his attempt to replace the traditional narratives about Indigenous and other oppressed peoples with his own storytelling, though, some strategies are less successful than others. The fictional sequences may be Pecks most direct attempt to redress history Hartnett enacts shooting a Seminole woman in the head in one scene, and in another is bathed by an African woman near a grouping of lynched corpses but their art-house staginess and solemnity serve only to distance us from what were seeing. (Its also noticeable that women are not often seen or heard from in the film, except as silent victims.)

A work that Exterminate All the Brutes calls to mind, and which seems almost certain to have been an inspiration for it in both theme and technique is Chris Markers great film essay Sans Soleil, from 1983. But Pecks documentary is more polemical and less poetic than Markers; it constantly makes connections, but it feels more didactic than complex, more academic than allusive.

(The rush of often violent or disturbing imagery sometimes calls to mind a very different film, the 1962 Italian shock-doc Mondo Cane.)

Peck sprinkles the four hours with images of and references to recent American presidents, and in the final chapter he lands full force in the present day, comparing Donald Trump and other heads of state with the white, Western overlords of the colonial era.

But throughout Exterminate All the Brutes, the specific drifts into the general and the historical into the personal without, perhaps, the effect that Peck is hoping for. He closes with a reproving phrase that echoes through the film: Its not knowledge we lack. But he declines to say what it is we lack compassion? Willpower? If there is something we possess that could have made history different, either he doesnt know or hes not telling.

See more here:

Review: Exterminate All the Brutes Rewrites a Brutal History - The New York Times

Below is a press release from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History:

On April 07, 2021, Maddie Codling presented The Horn Island Logs of Walter Anderson. as part of the History Is Lunch series.

The celebrated Ocean Springs artist Walter Anderson (1903-1965) is famous for the array of prints, pottery, drawings, and paintings he produced over the course of his life. During his last decades Anderson spent more and more time exploring, observing, and making art about a small barrier islandHorn Islandoff the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Anderson recorded his experiences in a vast collection of journals over the last fifteen years of his life. In the 1980s Redding Sugg Jr. drew from the most complete of those diaries to create the book The Horn Island Logs of Walter Inglis Anderson, which has just been republished by the University Press of Mississippi.

Walter Anderson had a complex relationship with Horn Island, said Mattie Codling, director of collections and exhibitions at the Walter Anderson Museum of Art. Ultimately the spiritual connections he found there were what kept him coming back.

Mattie Codling graduated from the University of Mississippi with a BA in art history and a BA in anthropology. She holds an MA in art history from Florida State University. Codling has worked in the museum field for a decade, and has been at the Walter Anderson Museum of Art since 2016.

The rest is here:

History Is Lunch: Mattie Codling, "The Horn Island Logs of Walter Anderson" - Delta Democrat Times

World War I, which lasted from 1914 until 1918, introduced the world to the horrors of trench warfare and lethal new technologies such as poison gas and tanks. The result was some of the most horrific carnage the world had ever seen, with more than 16 million military personnel and civilians losing their lives.

It also radically altered the map, leading to the collapse of the sprawling Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman and Russian empires that had existed for centuries, and the formation of new nations to take their place. Long after the last shot had been fired, the political turmoil and social upheaval continued, and ultimately led to another, even bigger and bloodier global conflict two decades later.

The event that sparked the conflagration was the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, in 1914. But historians say that World War I actually was the culmination of a long series of events, stretching back to the late 1800s. The path to war included plenty of miscalculations and actions that turned out to have unforeseen consequences.

No one can say precisely why it happened, explains the narration to a film at the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City. Which may be, in the end, the best explanation for why it did.

Here are eight of the events that led to the war.

Both Russia and France, which had been humiliated in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, feared the rising power of Germany, which had already formed alliances with Austria-Hungary and Italy. So the two nations decided to join forces for mutual protection as well. It was the start of what would become the Allied side, the Triple Entente, in World War I.

To my mind, it is the coming together of the Triple Entente in stagesthe Franco-Russian Alliance in 1894, the British-French Entente Cordiale of 1904, and the Anglo-Russian Entente of 1907that really solidified the system of diplomatic agreements that formed the main antagonistic blocs that went to war in 1914, Richard S. Fogarty, an associate professor of history at University at Albany, explains. The alliance system was critical to shaping the war, and even in helping bring it on: it created a set of expectations about international rivalry and competition, determining what kind of war Europeans imagined and prepared for.

This legislation, advocated by Germanys newly-appointed Secretary of the Imperial Navy, Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, dramatically expanded the size of Germanys battle fleet. It was the first of five laws dictating a buildup in which the Germans envisioned building a force that was superior to Britains Royal Navy.

Tirpitz aimed at forcing Britain into an alliance with Germany on German terms, explains Eugene Beiriger, an associate professor of history, peace, justice and conflict studies at DePaul University, and author of the 2018 book World War I: A Historical Exploration of Literature. Instead, the British responded by building even more ships, and by ending their late 1880s policy of splendid isolation to form alliances with Japan, France and Russia.

The German Naval Laws created unintended consequences, Beiriger says in an email. They ended up alienating both the government and public of Britain prior to the war.

Russias Czar Nicholas II wanted to obtain a port that gave his navy and commercial ships access to the Pacific, and he set his sites on Korea. The Japanese saw Russias rising aggressiveness as a menace, and launched a surprise attack on Nicholas fleet at Port Arthur in China. The resulting war, fought both at sea and on land in China, was won by the Japanese, and as Beiriger notes, it helped shift power the power balance in Europe.

Russias allies France and Britain, which were allied with Japan, signed their own agreement in 1904 to avoid being pulled into the war. France later convinced the Russians to enter into an alliance with the British as well, laying the groundwork for their alliance in World War I. In addition, Russia's expansion in the East had been stopped by Japan, Beiriger says. This turned Russian ambitions westward, especially in the Balkans, and influenced hardliners within the government to not back down in future crises. That Russian combativeness helped trigger World War I less than a decade later.

A train packed with soldiers leaves a railway stationduring the Bosnian annexation crisis in 1908.

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Under an 1878 treaty, Austria-Hungary was governing Bosnia and Herzegovina, even though technically they were still part of the Ottoman Empire. But after Austro-Hungarian government annexed their territory, the move backfired. The two provinces mostly Slavic population wanted to have their own country, while Slavs in nearby Serbia had the ambition of appropriating the provinces themselves.

In multi-ethnic empires, nationalistic fervor fueled resistance to distant rulers, Doran Cart, senior curator of the National World War I Museum and Memorial, says. Tension was powder-keg high in the Balkans, where Slavic people, aided by the Slavs of Russia, resisted the rule of Austria-Hungary. Additionally, the move drew Russia, which saw itself as Serbias protector, toward a gradual showdown with the Austro-Hungarian regime.

The German small cruiser SMS Berlin is shown arriving two days after gunboat Panther in order to strengthen the German position off shore Agadir, Morocco, July 1911.

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The French and Germans butted heads for several years over Morocco, where Germanys Kaiser Wilhelm II meddled in an attempt to pressure the French-British alliance. In the First Moroccan Crisis in 1905, he actually sailed to Tangiers to express his support for the sultan of Morocco against French interests. But instead of backing away from the conflict, the British rose in support of France.

In the Second Moroccan Crisis in 1911, the German foreign secretary, Alfred von Kiderlen- Wchter, sent a naval cruiser to anchor in a harbor on the Moroccan coast, in reaction to a tribal revolt that the Germans thought was being backed by France as a pretext for seizing the country. Again, the British backed the French, and eventually, Germany was forced to agree to recognize a French protectorate in Morocco. The two crises pushed the British and French closer together, and only hastened an eventual confrontation with the Germans.

The Italian government declared war on Turkey in 1911 because it had refused to permit the military occupation of Tripoli by Italy. Italian troops are seen here landing after the bombardment of Benghazi.

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The modern Italian state, which didnt begin until 1861, had been largely left out of the scramble that built Britain, France, and other powers into worldwide empires, Fogarty explains. The Italian government set its sights on Libya, a North African country that hadnt been claimed by another western European power, and decided to take it from the Ottoman Empire. The Italo-Turkish War ended with a peace treaty, but the Ottoman military left Libya and let the Italians colonize it. It was the first military conflict that featured aerial bombing, but as Fogarty notes, the real significance was that it exposed the shakiness of the Ottoman Empire and its slipping control over peripheral territories. That, in turn, was one of the factors that ultimately led to World War I, which Fogarty describes as a war of empires, some expanding or seeking to expand, some keen to hold on to what they had, others trying desperately not to lose what they had left,

Soldiers resting with their weapons off a battlefield during the Balkan Wars.

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Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Greece, which had broken away from the Ottoman Empire during the 1800s, formed an alliance called the Balkan League. The Russian-backed alliance aimed to take away even more of the Turks remaining territory in the Balkans.

In the First Balkan War in 1912, Serbia, Greece and Montenegro defeated Ottoman forces, and forced them to agree to an armistice. But the Balkan League soon disintegrated, and in the Second Balkan War, the Bulgarians fought the Greeks and Serbs over Macedonia, and the Ottoman Empire and Romania jumped into the fray against the Bulgarians as well.

Bulgaria ultimately was defeated. The Balkan Wars made the region even more unstable. In the power void left by the Ottomans, tensions grew between Serbia and Austria-Hungary. That, in turn, led Austria-Hungary and its ally, Germany, to decide that a war with the Serbs would be needed at some point to strengthen Austria-Hungarys position. Many historians consider the Balkan Wars as the true beginning of the First World War, Fogarty says.

The archduke, who was heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, went to Sarajevo to inspect the imperial troops stationed in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He and his wife Sophie were shot to death in their car by a 19-year-old Serbian revolutionary, Gavrilo Princip.

The assassination highlighted the nationalism that was pulling the Austro-Hungarian Empire apart at the seams, Fogarty explains, noting that Serbian extremists actually wanted Franz Ferdinand dead because they feared he was too moderate and would promote a power-sharing arrangement that would keep Slavic peoples in the empire.

His assassination killed the idea, whether or not it was ever realistic to begin with, and radicalized Serbian defiance and Austrian determination to solve the nationalism problem for good, at least with respect to Serbia, Fogarty says.

Instead, the tension between European powers increased, as they took different sides in the crisis. As the U.K.s Imperial War Museum notes, the killing put both Austria-Hungary and Russia, which saw itself as the Serbians protector, in a bind. Neither one of them wanted to back down and appear weak. Fearing a fight that would draw in Russia, Austria-Hungary turned for help to Germany, which promised backing if the Austro-Hungarians used force against the Serbians. German support emboldened Austria-Hungary to declare war on Serbia on July 28.

Two days later, Russias military mobilized, and the Germans saw that they too were in a bind. They didnt want to fight both Russia and its ally France on two fronts simultaneously, so it became imperative to knock the French military out of the war before Russia was ready to fight. Germany declared war on Russia on August 1, and two days later declared war against France. German forces gathered on the border of neutral Belgium, which they planned to cross in order to invade France. Belgium called for help, and on August 4, Great Britain declared war on Germany.

World War I had begun.

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8 Events that Led to World War I - History