ESPN Documentary:Jordan Rides the Bus: 30 for 30

I have often wondered why Michael Jordan gave up a year of play basketball for baseball.  He really wasn’t that good at baseball, because it was something he had not been doing every day.  After a year of playing ball, riding the bus, he was getting better.  He played right field, and played in the Autumn League.  This was a league for the best of double AA.   He really started to come into his stride.  He stole bases, fielded ok.  And brought his batting average up to 250.  It is possible for Michael Jordan to have made the majors in a couple more years if he continued to improve.  However a threatened baseball strike loomed large, and Jordan likely would have been in the middle.  He decided to return to basketball instead. 

An interesting point of Jordan’s baseball career centers around the murder of his father.  His father was murdered in a botched robbery.  Jordan’s father always wanted Michael to play baseball, and so he did.

Article Review: Finding Their Navajo Way

There is a very good article in the Utah State magazine Spring 2017 written by John DeVilbiss about a couple who lived the Indian Placement life.  This program provided an education to Native American children by placing them in the homes of church members where opportunities may be better than on the reservation.  For a period of time, the church sponsored this program and many people started their education this way.  In this case, the couple Teresa and Curtis Frazier left the reservation, living with their placement families.  As a result they struggle with their native language.  It also put them between two worlds, which can be a hard place to be.  However they have both been able to find a balance, and now work in providing educational opportunities to others.  However, those others do not have to leave their homes, as they work in Blanding, Utah for the Utah State extension.
Curtis mentions that he felt the church accomplished their goal of providing opportunities that were not available.  The children were well-fed and clothed.  Many thrived better in this type of environment, than at the Indian boarding schools available.  However the program created a separation between the children and their families with sometimes negative consequences.  In this case there was a positive result.  In their case they are able to love both families.

Blunders of WWII: Hitler's Luftwaffe

At the beginning of the war, the Luftwaffe was the most modern air force in  the world.  They had investing many resources, and because of the Treaty of Versailles, all of the planes were newly built and modern, rather than old relics.  However, they failed their country on several occasions.  The fist major failure was their inability to annihilate the British and Allies at Dunkirk.  Much of the expeditionary force was able to make it back to England.  During the Battle of Britain, again the Luftwaffe failed to control the Royal Air Force, and consequently the invasion of England could not take place.  The industrial machine of Germany was not on a war footing.  Consequently resources were often scarce, and shared with other branches of the military.  Even within the Luftwaffe there was competition for resources.  ground troops, including parachute and anti aircraft guns too at least ten percent of the resources.  Consequently there were never enough resources.  This was especially felt in Russia.  After the invasion of Russia, the German resources were spread more and more thinly.  And when the Russians pushed the Germans back, the Russian industrial complex was out of reach of German bombers.  A great lack of the Luftwaffe was a good long-range bomber as the relied on dive bombing.  This lack crippled them in the end.  Experienced air pilots also became more scarce.  German pilots flew sortie after sortie until they were shot down.  Replacements lacked resources for training.  Consequently, as the war continued, the German pilots had less experience and training.  This became even more acute after an Allied bomber attack on German fuel supplies.  There was not fuel to spare for training.
The one think which could have evened the field for the Luftwaffe was the development of the jet.  The Germans had developed jet planes, which could fly 100 mph faster than any planes on the allied side.  However, Hitler wanted these planes to be fighter bombers, which delayed production, and so they had hardly no effect on the war.

Great Blunders of WWII: The Pilot Who Bombed London

The first bombing of London was a mistake, but it would trigger policy on both sides which would result in the loss of millions of civilians.  At the beginning of the war, the mass bombing of cities was a great fear, and both sides avoided it, although they prepared for it.  The built air raid shelters, issued gas masks and prepared defenses.  The initial policies held that aircraft would only bomb military targets.
However the Nazis did bomb Warsaw, after the Poles declared that they would defend the city to the last.  The city was surrendered after all utilities were destroyed.  The British bombers, after finding their planes were more readily shot down during the day, began bombing at night.  Navigation issues lead to bombs missing military sites and causing civilian casualties.
Another Nazi attack against a city was that of Rotterdam in Holland.  This bombing took place after the surrender was too slow.
However, full scale bombing on both sides did not take place until after an accidental bombing in London.  Both sides had escalated bombing against targets closer and closer to population centers.
Early in August of 1940 that Luftwaffe was commanded to go after the British RAF.  This would take German planes over population centers.  Hitler ordered there there should be no terror bombing.  This was a period of intense air battles.  Germans had strength in numbers, while the British were closer to home and able to stay over the battle area longer.  The German's changed tactics by having bombers attack at night.  They were hoping to stretch the British air defenses.  However, the germans had problems with night navigation.  Some of the planes became confused.  At least one dropped its bombs anyway, hitting civilians in London.  Nine civilians were killed.
The British retaliated, and then things escalated from there.  Berlin was an immediate target for the RAF.  Before the end of the war there were fire bombings of major population centers.

Was Daniel Boone a Traitor? from Unsolved Mysteries

Unsolved Mysteries of American History by Paul Aron, Barnes and Nobler Books, New York,1997.

This refers to an incident surrounding Boonesborough, Kentucky.  This was a fort founded by Daniel Boone.  However at the height of the Revolutionary War, Daniel Boone surrendered the fort to Native Americans.  It first happened he was taken prisoner.  He then negotiated a sort of peace if Boone turned over the men looking for salt who were with him.  He did so, and in captivity was adopted by a Chief Blackfish of the Shawnee.   Then with the British and the Shawnee he arranged for turning over Fort Boonesborough.  This he did.  If you were to look at this you would think Boone was a traitor; however he had his own explanation.  A peace party met outside the fort.  The Shawnee laid siege.  However this did not last long and they gave up.  He contended his actions were for the benefit of the people.  The Shawnee outnumbered them and they would have been killed without his intervention.   He had gained time for them to prepare their defense.  He was brought to trial for treason; but the jury found in favor of Daniel Boone.  What has become known since is that the wife of Daniel Boone was a Tory.  Daniel Boone for sure was torn between loyalties.  After the war there was no British influence, but Daniel Boone was no longer welcome in the town he founded. 

Documentary Review: I Am Jane Doe

This movie brings to my awareness a problem we have had here in the United States; that of sex trafficking of young girls.  This trafficking has been made easier by internet laws, the Federal Communications Decency Act of 1996.  This law allows for third parties to publish information on a host, and the host is not liable for the content, even if they know that laws are often broken.  The courts have been unwilling to resolve the problem, and congress has been very slow to change the law.  In the case of Backpage.com, it appears that the hosting website would coach those advertising to place their ads in such a way as to evade the law, and be harder to trace.  The most common place for marketing of young girls in on this site.  However, the site has taken down their adult services site where most of this traffic took place.  I looked at the site briefly.  It appears this traffic has moved to the massage category and that the promotion of sex with pimped girl (enslaved girls) is going on.  The very first ad is for "New Young Girls."  There is language in these ads which those familiar with the scene know, which points them to what they want.  Some of this behavior illegal. and is exploiting our children.
This documentary presents the cases of several young woman, some abducted, some brought into prostitution when they ran away.  Most are controlled with drugs.  All were advertised on this website, and made it so the young women could be raped multiple times every day.  There is a story on the internet of a young woman in Chicago who did not survive.  She was the victim of murder by a sex client.  We must stand with our children, and demand that any trafficking of sex over the internet be stopped.
I watched this on instant Netflix.

Flyover Nation: You Can’t Run a Country You’ve Never Been To by Dana Loesch, Sentinel, New York, 2016.

This is a few from a Conservative woman from Missouri (She was very liberal when young but slowly converted to conservatism after giving birth to a son).  Many of the topics are those which worry people from the heartland of the country.  Things for which the heartland traditionally takes heat form elitists, as they are thought to be uneducated.  Some of these include: abortion, Black Lives Matter vs Lives Matter, gun control, having a network of family to support you, media bias, and just the attitude of many politicians towards the heartland of the country.  I enjoyed this read, and she expressed many things in a good way.  

Documentary Review: Amanda Knox

This is a documentary with the main character of a murder investigation participating as narrator.  However the film includes the evidence against her, as well as the reason she won upon appeal.  This deal with a murder in Italy.  It was assumed Amanda and her boyfriend murdered Amanda's room mate Meredith Kercher as part of some kind of sex games.  Meredith was from England.  Twice she and her boy friend were convicted, and twice it was overturned upon appeal.  A third person was convicted.  His prints were all over the room.  They talked of some DNA evidence, but this was eventually thrown out.  This is a very good review.  Amanda uses the F' word too much.  And in the end, if she wanted to maintain her anonymity she would not have made this documentary.  Of course as a look at the credits, she s not listed as director or producer.  She was interviewed several times on camera.  I most like this movie as I can listen to the Italian, and read the subtitles.  I am surprised how much I can follow along.

Documentary Review: Great Blunders of WWII: Hitlers's Declaration of War on the United States

Adolf Hitler was persuaded by Japan to declare war on the United States after Pearl Harbor.  However there was no reason to have done so according to treaty.  The Germans has pledged to defend Japan if Japan were attacked.  That was not the case here.  However Hitler was quick to declare war against the United States.  Perhaps Hitler was hoping Japan would tie the Soviets down in the West.  This did not happen.  By doing so, United States entered the war in Europe.  Winston Churchill had been negotiating for this for some time, as England could not win the war on her own.  Hitler  with his declaration resolved this problem for Churchill.  The United States put is industrial might, as well as armed forces to defeating Germany and Japan.

Documentary Review: 30 30 Fernando Nation

This ESPN documentary tells the story of Fernando Valenzuela, Mexican man who had a dream of pitching in major league baseball; and was actually doing so at the age of 18 when he was rookie of the year and the Cy Young Award winner.  He rode his screw ball to pitch in the World Series in the third game, which game they won, and went on to become champions.  This movie is presented over the backdrop of the construction of Dodger Stadium in Chavez Canyon, which was the home of many Mexican Americans.  They were evicted to make way for the stadium.  In 1981,  the Dodgers made amends with the Latino community with Fernando being part of the team, and the opening day starter.  Fernando had other career high lights, including a no-hitter in 1990; but nothing was like that first year.  His career record was 173-153 with and ERA of 3.54 and his career spanned 17 years.  His first ten years were with the Dodgers, and then several teams after this including the Jalisco Charros in Mexico.  He retired in 1997  but still plays independent ball or Mexican ball at times.