The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month--Veterans' Day

As we were driving back from the lake today, I apologized to my husband for telling him a story I've told many times. When I finished he said he'd never heard it. Here it is from my blog, November 11, 2009:

"I didn't hear about WWI memories [from my parents] until sometime in the early 1990s. I had interviewed my father for an oral history to include in a family recipe collection for a reunion of the descendants of his parents who had died in 1983. I had interviewed my mother about her parents' personal library for two articles I wrote. Both recalled in their 80s the first Armistice Day (now called Veterans' Day) even though they were 5 and 6 years old. I imagine they listened in on adult conversations and caught the fear and dread that gripped their communities. My mother's father who was 44 was registered for the draft. And although I haven't seen the record, I would assume my father's father, who was a much younger man (25), did too.

There were no radios or television, and newspapers would have been too slow. So the plan was to ring bells when word came to the nearest town that the armistice had been signed. The church bells would be rung; then each farmer would begin to ring the bells they used on the farm; then the next farmer a few miles further away would hear and begin ringing his bells. Both my parents had exactly the same memory of that first Armistice Day--hearing bells tolling throughout the countryside from all sides. The war was over."

Corporate Socialism by Michael Rechtenwald

“For anyone wondering about corporate socialism and what I mean by it, it's very simple: State socialism is socialist only "on the ground." There's nothing "socialist" about the state itself within socialism. Those who run the state don't live according to socialist principles. They are the ruling elite. They control the means of production. They live like oligarchs, because they are essentially oligarchs.

The same goes for "corporate socialism." There's nothing "socialist" about the corporationists  who run the corporate socialist system. They are the ruling elite. They don't live according to socialist principles. They are oligarchs.

In both cases, socialism is promoted to and for the masses. Both are two-tiered systems: oligarchy on top, "socialism" on the ground. Both are monopolistic.

There is nothing pure in this world.

The difference between corporate and state socialism is just who is in control of the resources and the means of production--the state actors in one case, the corporatists in the other.

The difference between corporate socialism and mere cronyism is that under corporate socialism the corporate socialists promote socialism on the ground--in order to satiate the masses, eliminate competition, and pretend to be noble.”

And who financed the Russian revolution?  A different viewpoint. https://youtu.be/PaFklTLNy8c  Professor Antony Sutton

Veterans' Day

Today is the 89th anniversary of the end of World War I--the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. I've told this before, but on that first armistice day the signal in the rural areas of Illinois was the bells ringing. My parents were both little children living on farms in adjacent counties (Lee and Ogle) in Illinois. Both had exactly the same memory--as each farmer heard the bell, he'd start ringing his bell, then the next farm would pick it up, and thus the whole countryside learned the war was officially over. Now it is a memorial for veterans of all wars (Memorial Day in May is for those who died in or as a result of battle).


Google, which often dresses up for other occasions, finally acknowledged it--the helmets are definitely WWI vintage.


When I was in Illinois over the 4th, we found our father's name at the new veterans' memorial in Forreston. We talked about all the surnames we recognized, even from the Civil War era (we're really not that old, but knew the family names).

The U.S. Army in WWI, 1917-1918
Army Art of WWI

My other blogs about this day
Veterans' Day 2006
Uncle Clare
Happy Birthday Marines
Armistice Day, 1918
List of US military conflicts