World War I Started 100 Years Ago

One person can change the world. Or two. Or six. Or one wrong turn. Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie in Sarajevo 100 years ago on June 28, 1914. World War I was triggered that day. One teenager, Gavrilo, fired the shots that started The War to End All Wars. One Bosnian Serb nationalist ignited The Great War. Gavrilo acted with five co-conspirators, whose goal was a unified Serbia. He fired the shots, but another man made a mistake that gave Gavrilo the unexpected chance to carry out the conspiracy. The Archduke and his party came to Sarajevo to dedicate a new hospital in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The six conspirators unsuccessfully attacked the Archduke on the ride to the hospital. The royal entourage continued to the hospital. A failure of communications occurred on the way back. The driver took the wrong turn, driving past Gavrilo. The assassin took advantage of the surprise moment of opportunity. The tragedy of World War I followed. 9.4 million soldiers and sailors died, and 21 million were wounded. 17.5% of the uniformed French died, 15% of the Germans, and 10% of the British. The Australians and New Zealanders suffered heavily at Gallipoli. Flanders Field, The Somme, Verdun, the Lusitania, the Marne, The Zimmerman Telegram, mustard gas, the Stab in the Back, the sealed train, Lawrence of Arabia. World War I with all its tragedy was but a dress rehearsal to the greater tragedy of World War II. The weapons of World War II, with the exception of the atomic bomb and radar, were tested in the first war. The Germans unveiled the U Boat and submarine warfare. Great Britain flew warplanes off an aircraft carrier. Destroyers, sonar, depth charges, and convoys responded to the submarines. Tanks appeared near the end of the war. Airplanes, aerial surveillance, bombs flew over the battlefield. The word “genocide” arose out of the Armenian Genocide. Four empires collapsed and four dynasties died. The Ottoman Empire, the “Sick Man of Europe” for 2 centuries, finally gasped its last. The House of Osman paid the price for the decision of the Young Turks to join the war on the side of the Austrians and Germans. The Russians joined the winning Allies, but collapsed in 1917. The Romanovs paid with their lives. The world paid with the November Revolution of November 2017, when a few Bolsheviks seized the Winter Palace and thrust Communism onto the world. Arabia, the Balkans, and the Black Sea never had fixed borders prior to World War I since boundaries changed with the rise and fall of conquerors. Egypt, Bulgaria, Romania, and Serbia had wrestled free from the Ottomans. Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia had become part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Out of the detritus of the Ottomans came Iraq and Syria, which did not reflect their history, religion, and ethnicities, and the whole new countries of Jordan, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia. Arbitrary boundary lines threw Christians, Orthodox, Kurds, Shia, and Sunni together in “nations” that could not survive the test of time. The Ottomans were defeated, but not the Turks under Ataturk. The Austrians succeeded in crushing Serbia, but the Hapsburgs fell. The end of the war resulted in a greater Serbia, called Yugoslavia. The inevitable collapse of Yugoslavia resulted in genocide eight decades later at Srebrenica by Serbs against Bosnians. Kaiser Wilhelm II wanted war, but the Holenzollens lost. The ensuing Weimar Republic collapsed. Hitler rose. The world, the Jews, the Gypsies, and humanity paid the price. 20 million Europeans dead in World War I, 60 million more in World War II, and tens of millions more displaced. More boundaries shifted. World War I started the collapse of the British Empire. Australia, New Zealand, and Canada saw their way to independence. Gandhi, Nehru and Ali Jinnah started India on the road to independence. The economic costs of the war, followed by the reparations imposed on Germany, led to the Great Depression and the collapse of he world’s economy. America rose to prominence in the war. Technically, a historian will say that World War I did not start on June 28, 1914. Sarajevo was not the formal start of the war. Austria did not declare war on Serbia until July 28. Russia mobilized on July 30. Germany declared war on Russia on August I and invaded neutral Belgium on August 4. England declared war on August 4. Technically, a historian will say that World War I was destined. The great powers desired a war. Germany had easily defeated France in the 1870 Franco-German War. The Kaiser wanted Germany to extend its power. Austria wanted to squash Serbia, but in light of the assassination, wanted vengeance. Russia wanted redemption after the Russo-Japanese War of 1905. Great Britain always believed in the balance of powers on the Continent. Thus, two possibilities: Sarajevo was the trigger, the catalyst, the spark of a preordained war. Garviro Princep had his 15 minutes of infamy and should be forgotten. The second approach: The tragedy of World War I need not have happened. If that’s true, then one man changed the world, causing the horrors of the Twentieth Century. May Garviro Princep rot in Hell!

The Second IRS Scandal: The Leaking of NOM's Prop 8 Donors List

Attention is focused on Congressional hearings, the mysteriously disappearing emails of Lois Lerner and other key IRS players, and the statements of the new IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, that no crime was committed: “I have the ability to say that I see no evidence of any crime.” Lost in the furor over the IRS targeting of conservatives is Tuesday's acknowledged criminal leakage by the IRS of the donors to the National Organization of Marriage NOM). NOM is the major organization behind California’s Prop 8, the referendum that amended California’s constitution to allow only heterosexual marriages in California. The highly controversial measure was passed by the voters, but invalidated by the lower courts, whose decisions were upheld by the Supreme Court on the technical grounds that NOM and other supporters of Prop 8 lacked legal standing to defend the measure in federal court once California’s Governor and Attorney General refused to defend it. That’s all legally technical. I’ve blogged before that I support same-sex marriage, so that’s not the issue in this blog. The issue is that under federal law the IRS cannot publicly disclose the names of the donors to these political organizations. The names of the donors were leaked in February 2012 to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), an leading opponent of Prop 8. HRC posted the donors list online during the 2012 Presidential campaign. The Huffington Post posted on the same day that a political action committed associated with Governor Romney contributed $10,000 to NOM. HRC’s President Joe Solmonese left the next day to become a co-chairman of President Obama’s reelection campaign. This case, as with the broader IRS scandal, is replete with coincidences, Fifth Amendment, and lack of transparency. The disclosure of the donors list is a felony. IRS Commissioner John Koskinen is a Yale Law School grad; he asserts the IRS committed no crime. The Chairman of NOM is Professor John Eastman, a conservative (more conservative than me) colleague of mine. John is a brilliant graduate of Chicago Law School, who clerked for Justice Scalia. He is a strict constructionist of the Constitution. He and Professor Tom Caso run the Constitutional Rights Clinic at the Dale E. Fowler School of Law at Chapman University. John wins some, and loses some, but he is a tenacious litigator. NOM brought suit against the IRS for the violation of its rights. Pre-trial discovery found emails from Matthew Meisel, who received the leaked donors list, that he had a “conduit” in the IRS. Matthew was the direct recipient of the leaked donors list. He then turned it over to the Human Rights Campaign. Matthew is taking the Fifth Amendment and refusing to testify. The IRS admitted Tuesday that it had violated NOM’s rights and entered in a $50,000 settlement with NOM to cover its expenses. NOM’s attorneys are now seeking their legal fees in the lawsuit.

The Hollywood Bowl Takes a Large Step for Women's Restrooms: Good to Go

We have outlawed discrimination against women in the workplace. We’ve banned sexual harassment in the workplace. Title IX mandates equality for women in college sports, promoting a boom in women’s sports. The UConn women winning the NCAA this year is at least as impressive as the UConn men. That is true equality. Hurricanes are no longer solely named for women. Coeds often outnumber male students on our campuses. Female students fill our law, medical, and business schools. Women are now commercial pilots and men flight attendants. Women are employers and men secretaries. Women are finally entering the professoriate in biology and chemistry (The old boy’s network has broken down). Women have become doctors and men nurses and physician assistants. Women are increasingly bread winners and men “Mr. Mom.” Women serve as governors, Senators, Representatives, police and fire chiefs. As the old Virginia Slims ad proclaimed: “You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby.” And yet, some vestiges of discrimination remain. The most common, affecting all women, is the restroom - the lines, seemingly interminable lines, outside the women’s restrooms, while the men quickly enter and leave the men’s restrooms at public venues. The line does not discriminate between women. All women (except perhaps the First Lady), regardless of profession, occupation, age, wealth, race, ethnicity, religion, or sexual preference, must stand in that line. Men, husbands, lovers, fathers, children, brothers, and friends, instinctively know to stay far away from the lines. Do the math. The fabled Hollywood Bowl has a seating capacity of 17, 376, 15 minute intermissions, and six women restrooms. Many women are late for the second half. That, and perhaps parking, are the only negatives about the Hollywood Bowl. The restrooms were beautifully remodeled a few years ago and are now listed on almost every list of the top ten restrooms in America. The Los Angeles Times reported Friday that the Hollywood Bowl has devised a system to speed up restroom time by 100%. It will place green and red LED bulbs by each stall in the five smaller women restrooms. The red bulb will indicate the stall is occupied. The green bulb signals good to go to the loo. The cost is about #300/stall, which the Bowl should be able to quickly recoup by additional food, beverages, and trinkets the female patrons may purchase with their free time. The system is modeled after the parking facilities at the Westfield Century City Shopping Center, where the lights direct drivers to open spots. I never knew until now that parking lots and restroom stalls possessed commonality. Now if only they could something about airlines!

The Lois Lerner Tapes and Harddrive: Take II

Lois Lerner: Take 2 Where is Deep Throat when we need him? Where are the investigative reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward when we need them? I almost forgot. The Watergate garage is being torn down. How symbolic? The missing Lois Lerner emails has taken twists characteristic of Hollywood plots. Any emails involving Lois and now six other critical IRS workers have “crashed,” or more likely been wiped clean. In Hollywood it would have been by some super-powerful, super-secret government security agency. Promising leads now reach dead ends. We know it cannot be a coincidence. Lois’ hard drive “crashed” when it became clear that the harassment of conservative organizations was “breaking.” And then we find out that the IRS “conveniently” had the hard drive recycled. Can you say “Coverup” from what the President promised to be the most transparent administration? The IRS knew in February, or so it claims, that Lois’ emails were unrecoverable. They only informed Congress last Friday, but they notified the Administration in April of the loss. President Obama on the February 2, 2014 O’Reilly Factor stated that there is “not even mass corruption. Not even a smidgeon of corruption?” What did he know? Of course, the Obama Administration is insulting our intelligence. They know it fails the sniff test. They know it, but don’t care. They know the Washington Post, New York Times, CNN, and MSNBC will not pursue it. They know they will get the usual pass from the media. If this were the Bush Administration the media would be circling like vultures, feasting on the carrion. They would be lining up for their Pulitzers. Instead, their willful blindness is letting the Obama Administration turn the IRS into a partisan arm of the Democratic Party. That is a direct threat to our democracy. The Obama Administration is operating on the premise that the Republicans cannot prove that which they cannot prove because the evidence disappeared.

Will The Washington Redskins Get Scalped?

The Washington Redskins exist in a non-politically correct environment. They are being excoriated because of the use of their name “Redskins.” Many Native Americans and others object to it. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has vowed to not go to a Redskins game. Dan Snyder, the Redskins owner, has refused to change the name and the National Football League has backed his decision. He has often been a “lone wolf.” The United States Patent and Trademark Office yesterday changed the calculus of the debate. The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board voted 2:1 to cancel the trademark registrations of the Washington Redskins on the ground that the name is disparaging to Native Americans: “(W)e decide, based on the evidence properly before us, that these registrations must be cancelled because they were disparaging to Native Americans at the respective times they were registered.” The federal statute bars the issuance of trademarks that “may disparage” individuals or groups or “bring them into contempt or ridicule.” The standard is not measured by today’s mores but by those in effect at the time of registration. Six “Redskins” trademarks are at issue. They date from 1967, 1974, 1978, and 1990. The newer dates are more suspect than the earlier ones. The first complaint against the use of the “Redskins” name came in 1992. The team won that case in 2003. A second complaint was filed in 2006 by 5 Native Americans who claimed the name disparages them. Two rights of Daniel Snyder and the Redskins are being violated. The first is Freedom of Speech. The First Amendment protects unpopular speech and speech which may be offensive to some. The disparagement clause is so broad and vague as to be open to abuse. Thus, campus speech codes fail. Second is the violation of the Fifth Amendment Property Rights. Snyder is being deprived of the value in the property rights of the Redskins based on a violation of the First Amendment. Trademarks are a form of intellectual property. Let is assume that the decision stands on appeal to the courts. It does not solve the issue of the dislike for the use of the word “redskins.” It could result in a multiplicity use of the “Redskins” name since in theory, any person, partnership, or corporate entity could use the Redskins name and logo seemingly unworried by a lawsuit by the Washington Redskins. Thus, it could result in more apparel items and souvenirs than currently marketed. On the other hand the Redskins would still retain their common law rights in the trademarks. Their litigation costs may be more expensive, but the Washington Redskins would prevail. Other similarly offensive teams would be the Atlanta Braves, Cleveland Indians, and Golden State Warriors. Both the Atlanta Braves and Florida State Seminoles feature the Tomahawk Chop. The Florida Seminole Tribe supports Florida State’s use of the name. We should be leery of using the word “scalper” at athletic events. We should stay off the scenic Massachusetts Mohawk Trail. Other suspect brand names are Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben, the Land O’Lakes girl, Cracker Jacks, the Frito Bandito, Eskimo Pie, and Speedy Gonzalez. On a related note, the Coppertone Girl with her pants down smacks of kiddie porn. The Washington Redskins will appeal. The previous case dragged on for 11 years. The trademarks are protected until final resolution.

Who Does President Obama Most Remind You Have?

President Obama has been so many things to so many people. For example,Chris Matthews said President Obama "gave him a thrill up his leg." Nancy Pelosi thinks President Obama is "brilliant." Who does the President most remind you of? Neville Chamberlain? Appeasement Dwight Eisenhower? The Golfer Bill Clinton? Hollywood Idol Ronal Reagan? Teflon Reverend Jeremiad Wright? Liberation Theology Richard Nixon? Coverup Janus? Two-faced Jimmy Carter? Iran Frank Sinatra I did it my way Alfred E. Newman? What? Me worry?

The Missing Lois Lerner Emails: Shades of Richard Nixon

Lois Lerner as Director of the Exempt Organizations Division of the IRS was the official most responsible for the unconstitutional violations of the rights of the Tea Party and other conservative organizations. The IRS intentionally sabotaged the tax exemption requests of Tea Party and other conservative organizations and leaked confidential donor information to liberal organizations. She testified before the House Oversight Committee denying any wrongdoing, and then asserted the Fifth Amendment Privilege against self-incrimination in refusing to further testify before Congress. The House requested her emails from 2009 – 2013 and other documents 13 months ago. The IRS agreed to turn them over. Yesterday afternoon, Friday afternoon, the traditional time for the White House and federal agencies to release bad news, the IRS disclosed it could not retrieve two years of Lois Lerner’s emails from 2009-2011. Lois claimed her hard drive crashed in 2011, eating her emails. What a coincidence! The IRS claims 250 IRS employees spent over 120,000 hours at a cost of $10 million over a year in attempting to retrieve the requested documents, but could not retrieve most of her email. The IRS did not use Best Buy’s Geek Squad or visit the Apple’s Genius Bar. These computer geeks work miracles with crashed drives. The IRS did not even ask the NSA for help. Even if just metadata, the NSA could provide the non-IRS email contacts of Lois Lerner. The IRS turned to itself, a singular act of ineptitude. The federal government already proved its inability to revamp the computer systems of the FBI and FAA. The VA avoided its computer system. The ObamaCare rollout is still not completely fixed. And yet the IRS thought it could retrieve the missing emails. The IRS technicians failed. Apparently the IRS technology experts failed to search the IRS servers on which the emails would be backed up daily. The agency claimed it recovered 24,000 Lois Lerner emails from the computers of 82 IRS employees who had copies on their computers. The IRS did not seek emails from the White House, Justice Department, Treasury Department, Federal elections Commission, and Democratic Senators and Representatives who requested (or demanded) the IRS take action against the Tea Party. The emails to and from the White House, not only from Lois Lerner but also from Jonathan M. Davis, the political appointee Chief of Staff to the IRS Commissioner, who visited the White House 310 times from fall 2009 to February 2013, could be most revealing. How selectively convenient! The IRS is essentially claiming that either it or Lois Lerner do not back up emails. All emails go through servers. Is the IRS admitting that the IRS servers do not automatically backup emails? Try these defenses to an IRS audit or informational letter request: 1) I don’t do backups; 2) The hard drive crashed, eating my emails and documents; 3) The dog ate my records. We know Lois Lerner sent thousands of Tea Party files to the Justice Department, presumably for possible criminal prosecutions. The media damned President Nixon for unsuccessfully attempting to sic the IRS on his political enemies. The media excoriated President Nixon for the missing 18 minutes 20 seconds of the 10,500 hours of White House tapes, including 200 hours of Watergate Tapes. President Nixon’s loyal secretary Rose Mary Woods claimed to have accidentally deleted them. These missing minutes may or may not have directly linked the President to the Watergate coverup. Two years versus 18 minutes. Watergate versus Chicago Rules. The Obama Administration knows it will not have to answer as long as the media is quiescent. The IRS Scandal continually reaches new lows.