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Dennis Donovan

Dennis Donovan's Journal
Dennis Donovan's Journal
January 29, 2018

Investigative Journalist Robert Parry dead at 68

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/01/29/in-memoriam-robert-parry.html

I can't copy/paste from the link above, but he passed Saturday night.


January 21, 2018

50 years ago today; 1968 Thule Air Base B-52 crash - "Broken Arrow"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Thule_Air_Base_B-52_crash



On 21 January 1968, an aircraft accident (sometimes known as the Thule affair or Thule accident (/ˈtuːli/); Danish: Thuleulykken) involving a United States Air Force (USAF) B-52 bomber occurred near Thule Air Base in the Danish territory of Greenland. The aircraft was carrying four hydrogen bombs on a Cold War "Chrome Dome" alert mission over Baffin Bay when a cabin fire forced the crew to abandon the aircraft before they could carry out an emergency landing at Thule Air Base. Six crew members ejected safely, but one who did not have an ejection seat was killed while trying to bail out. The bomber crashed onto sea ice in North Star Bay, Greenland, causing the conventional explosives aboard to detonate and the nuclear payload to rupture and disperse, which resulted in radioactive contamination.

The United States and Denmark launched an intensive clean-up and recovery operation, but the secondary stage of one of the nuclear weapons could not be accounted for after the operation completed. USAF Strategic Air Command "Chrome Dome" operations were discontinued immediately after the accident, which highlighted the safety and political risks of the missions. Safety procedures were reviewed and more stable explosives were developed for use in nuclear weapons.

In 1995, a political scandal resulted in Denmark after a report revealed the government had given tacit permission for nuclear weapons to be located in Greenland, in contravention of Denmark's 1957 nuclear-free zone policy. Workers involved in the clean-up program have been campaigning for compensation for radiation-related illnesses they experienced in the years after the accident.

</snip>


January 21, 2018

110 yrs ago today; NYC passes Sullivan Ordinance making it illegal for women to smoke in public

...but it was vetoed by Mayor McClellan 2 weeks later.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sullivan_Ordinance



The Sullivan Ordinance was a municipal law passed on January 21, 1908, in New York City by the board of aldermen, barring the management of a public place from allowing women to smoke within their venue. The ordinance did not bar women from smoking in general nor did the ordinance bar women from smoking in public, only public places. Right after the ordinance was enacted, on January 22, Katie Mulcahey, the only person cited for breaking this ordinance, was fined $5 for smoking in public and arrested for refusing to pay the fine; however, the ordinance itself did not mention fines nor does it ban women from smoking in public. She was released the next day. The mayor at the time, George B. McClellan Jr., vetoed the ordinance two weeks later.


Yesterday's marches prove (to use a tagline from an old Virginia Slims ad) you've come a long way, baby.
January 21, 2018

White House budget director: 'Kind of cool' to be in charge of government shutdown

http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/20/politics/mick-mulvaney-government-shutdown-kind-of-cool/index.html

CNN)As the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Mick Mulvaney has been tasked with negotiating a deal with congressional leaders to fund the government and end the shutdown that began on Friday midnight.

If Congress doesn't reach a deal, come Monday, thousands of federal employees will be placed on furlough.

Before the shutdown went into effect Friday, Mulvaney described his role in charge as "kind of cool."

"Obviously, I'm heavily involved in this, Sean, is that the Office of Management and Budget is charged with, you know, sort of implementing running a shutdown," Mulvaney said on conservative commentator Sean Hannity's radio show Friday before the shutdown went into effect.

He added, "In fact, I found out for the first time last night that the person who technically shuts the government down is me, which is kind of cool.

</snip>


January 20, 2018

Oscar winner Dorothy Malone, mom on Peyton Place, has died

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/jan/20/oscar-winner-dorothy-malone-mom-on-peyton-place-has-died



Actress Dorothy Malone, who won hearts of 1960s television viewers as the long-suffering mother in the nighttime soap Peyton Place, died on Friday in her hometown of Dallas at age 93.

Malone died in an assisted living center from natural causes days before her 94th birthday, said her daughter, Mimi Vanderstraaten.

After 11 years of mostly roles as loving sweethearts and wives, the brunette actress decided she needed to gamble on her career instead of playing it safe. She fired her agent, hired a publicist, dyed her hair blonde and sought a new image.

“I came up with a conviction that most of the winners in this business became stars overnight by playing shady dames with sex appeal,” she recalled in 1967. She welcomed the offer for Written on the Wind, in which she played an alcoholic nymphomaniac who tries to steal Rock Hudson from his wife, Lauren Bacall.

“And I’ve been unfaithful or drunk or oversexed almost ever since on the screen, of course,” she added.

</snip>

Rest in peace, Ms Malone. She starred (with Robert Stack) in one of my favorite movies, The Last Voyage.



January 15, 2018

Zombie by The Cranberries. Video by me - circa 2006



Rest in peace, Dolores and thank you.

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