On July 1, 1863, Confederate and Union troops
descended on the grassy hills of Gettysburg Pennsylvania, thrusting the sleepy
town of 2,400 into the Civil War. Union Major General George Meade’s Army of
the Potomac faced off against Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of
Northern Virginia. The three-day Battle of Gettysburg ended the Confederate
invasion of the North and resulted in staggering losses:
United States – 93,921 participants; 3,155
killed, 14,531 wounded, 5,369 captured/missing.
Confederate States – 71,699 participants;
4,708 killed, 12,693 wounded, 5,830 captured/missing.
Each year 1.2 million visitors journey to the
Gettysburg National Military Park. This week, about 200,000 are expected to
attend the town and park’s commemoration of the battle’s 150th
anniversary (July 1 – 3, 1863).
Gettysburg National Military Park spans 5,989
acres of woodlands, farmlands, craggy ridges and sloping valleys, with more
than 1,300 monuments erected by the battle’s veterans and state governments.
The fighting began the morning of July 1, 1863 at McPherson Ridge, continued on
July 2 at Little Round Top, and ended July 3 with Pickett’s Charge. After the
defeat, Confederate troops retreated to Virginia, ending Robert E. Lee’s
campaign into Pennsylvania.
3,500 Union soldiers lay buried at Soldiers’
National Cemetery, 1,632 in unmarked graves. The cemetery was dedicated on
November 19, 1863, and following a Massachusetts politician’s two-hour oration,
President Lincoln took two minutes to deliver ‘a few appropriate remarks” – the
Gettysburg Address.
CANADA DAY – July 1 is also
the national day of Canada (Fete du
Canada), celebrating the anniversary of the July 1, 1867 enactment of the
British North America Act, which united three colonies into a single country
called Canada within the British Empire. The colonies were Nova Scotia, New
Brunswick, and the Province of Canada (Ontario and Quebec).
So to all my old Canadian friends from
Vancouver Island to Cape Bretton Island Nova Scotia have a few Molson Exports
for me today!
19 FIREFIGHTERS DIE IN ARIZONA - The
Arizona Republic's Craig Harris and Michelle Ye Hee Lee: "Nineteen
firefighters, including 18 from the elite Granite Mountain Hotshots of
Prescott, died Sunday fighting an out-of-control wildfire in Yarnell, a tiny
Yavapai County town roughly 80 miles northwest of Phoenix. About half of the
town's 500 homes were feared destroyed by the blaze, which began early Friday
evening, and by Sunday the fire had spread to more than 2,000 acres. ... It was
the worst wildland firefighting tragedy in U.S. history since 25 were killed in
the Griffith Park Fire in Los Angeles in 1933 . ... At least 250 firefighters
were battling the fire ... and the force was expected to increase to 400 today
... Erratic winds, dry fuel and monsoon-like weather created conditions for the
fire to spread quickly."
BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK – Birthday
wishes and thoughts this week to: Larry David (66), Olivia de Havilland (97),
Julie Nixon Eisenhower (65), Edie Falco (50), Huey Lewis (63), David McCullough
(80), Nancy Reagan (92), Geraldo Rivera (70), Robbie Robertson (70), Ringo
Starr (73), United States of America (237), Bill Withers (75).
THE SWAMI’S WEEK TOP PICKS – (CFL) BC
Lions 42 Toronto Argonauts 35 (7/4); (MLB) Toronto Blue Jays 6 Detroit Tigers 3
(7/1); (Grade I Stakes) Game On Dude to win the Hollywood Gold Cup (7/6). Season to Date (10-7).
SPORTS BLINK - Chicago Tribune cover,
"RETURN OFTHE CUP ... HAWKEYTOWN ... Patrick Sharp celebrates the Hawks'
Stanley Cup victory over the Bruins." ... "Blackhawks' 2nd Stanley
Cup in 4 years comes in a flash," by Chris Kuc in Boston: "The Hawks'
magical 2013 season concluded with ... the franchise's fifth title and second
in the last four years after a 3-2 victory over the Bruins on Monday night at
TD Garden. As with the 2010 championship, the end came in stunning fashion in
Game 6 on enemy ice. Trailing by a goal with less than 90 seconds remaining in
the third period, the Hawks got scores from Bryan Bickell and Dave Bolland 17
seconds apart to stun the Bruins and the crowd of 17,565."
MOST CHAIN RESTAURANTS IN US – 1. Subway 25,549, 2. McDonald’s 14,157, 3. Pizza Hut 7,756, 4.
Burger King 7,183.
RISING DEMOCRAT STAR - Is [Rep.]
Tulsi Gabbard [D-Hawaii] the Next Democratic Party Star? : Along with fiery
Iraq War veteran Representative Tammy Duckworth, New York's Representative
Grace Meng, and Wisconsin's openly gay Senator Tammy Baldwin-not to mention
Chelsea Clinton waiting somewhere in the wings-she's in a vanguard of women
leaders positioning themselves to succeed such long-running institutions as
Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, and Dianne Feinstein. But even by the standards
of her peers, Gabbard stands out, and not only because she's the youngest woman
in Congress. She also comes across as an embodiment of the Obama era, with its
shattering of political stereotypes and explosion of cultural diversity. ...
She's the first person born in American Samoa
to be elected to Congress; the Congress's first elected Hindu (she took her
oath of office on the Bhagavad Gita); and along with Duckworth, one of its
first two female combat veterans. She also happens to be a lifelong vegetarian,
a student of martial arts (she has spent years doing Brazilian capoeira), and
an avid surfer who tells me, 'Every time I get home for a district work week, I
make sure I get out on the water a couple of times for an early-morning
session. It recharges the batteries.'"
CHINA PUSHES DEEP INTO U.S. REAL ESTATE - "First, it was the Japanese. Moneymen from Tokyo blew
into the United States to buy famous pieces of the American landscape ... Now,
about a quarter-century later, another set of deep-pocketed foreign buyers is
pushing ever deeper into United States real estate: the Chinese. Undaunted by
Japan's real estate misadventures in the 1980s ... Chinese investors are
fanning out in the United States. What began with a few isolated purchases two
years ago has become a hunt for trophy properties and billion-dollar deals. ...
Some caution that China could quickly retreat, as Japan did, if its economy
worsens. ... And yet in recent weeks, several big deals in New York City have
set real estate circles abuzz. Zhang Xin, a Chinese business magnate and chief
executive of the largest commercial real estate developer in Beijing, joined
forces with the Safra family of Brazil to buy a large piece of the General
Motors Building in Midtown.
"Dalian Wanda Group, a big Chinese
developer, said it intended to build a luxury hotel in Manhattan. ... The deals
go beyond shimmering glass-and-steel towers: Chinese and Hong Kong investors
have also become the second-largest foreign buyers of United States homes,
after the Canadians. ... For the moment, the Chinese government is encouraging
the investments and even helping to finance them. The state-owned Bank of China
has become the largest foreign lender in commercial real estate deals in the
United States, replacing big European banks."
SCOTUS - The DOMA decision is
momentous, broad, and moving, sending to a just oblivion one of the most
bigoted laws in the country's history, one that Bill Clinton never should have
signed in the first place. President Obama's legal decision to halt the Justice
Department's defense of DOMA will prove an important historical marker for him
and the country. The narrow Prop 8 decision was largely viewed as inevitable,
but the resumption of same-sex marriage in California, the biggest state, will
have a snowball effect elsewhere, politically and with time legally ...
But let us not forget that were it not for the
expected swing vote of Anthony Kennedy, the court's conservative contingent
would have upheld DOMA. I had thought Roberts might be movable, too, if only
because he seems to care about being on the right side of history (e.g., his
Obamacare decision), but I was wrong. The Roberts Court continues doing
everything it can to permit the abridgment of the rights of minorities even as
it strengthens the rights of corporations. It turns out that John Roberts's
famous laissez-faire mantra about racial animus also sums up his views about
homophobia: 'The way to end discrimination on the basis of race is to stop
discriminating on the basis of race.' This will be his epitaph, and not in a
good way."
The Supreme Court met the moment Wednesday.
With public attitudes shifting dramatically in favor of same-sex marriage, the
justices used a pair of rulings to give additional momentum to one of the most
rapid changes in social policy in the nation's history. Sometimes the court
makes history outright, as it did when it outlawed segregated schools in 1954
or legalized abortion in 1973. Other times, it moves more deliberately,
facilitating changes already underway. That was the case on Wednesday. The
justices carefully provided a historic push to the same-sex-marriage movement,
even as they decided to leave the political wrangling over the issue to the
states and politicians.... The throngs outside the Supreme Court were dominated
by supporters of same-sex marriage, and their jubilation showed that they
regarded Wednesday as a momentous day in the movement for marriage equality.
...
The shift in public opinion is neither fully
realized nor held consistently nationwide, or among all demographic groups.
Same-sex marriage continues to divide Americans on the basis of ideology,
political party, age and region, which is why legal and political battles will
continue after Wednesday's rulings. The justices seemed aware of that as well.
... In one sense, the politics of same-sex marriage already had reached a
tipping point. Less than a decade ago, Republicans considered the issue a
valuable political weapon with which to rally conservatives and put Democrats
on the defensive. Today, although a majority of Republicans continue to oppose
same-sex marriage, Republican leaders and candidates are on the defensive.
Their positions may not have changed but many of them are silent on the issue,
particularly in the context of political campaigns. Thirty years ago, the
culture wars split the Democratic coalition and left the party on the defensive
in national elections. Whether it was abortion, affirmative action, drugs, gay
rights or the broader debate over traditional values, Democrats were divided,
Republicans united. Today it is the opposite. President Obama and the Democrats
use the issue of same-sex marriage - or gun control or climate change - to try
to broaden and deepen their coalition, particularly among younger voters. ...
Same-sex marriage is not legal in more than
three dozen states. Many of those states have written the bans into their
constitutions. It could take years to change those provisions if the battles
are engaged one by one, state by state. Only the Supreme Court could
short-circuit that process.For now, the justices are not willing to do so. ...
But history is moving against Republicans on this, and a high court led by
Chief Justice John Roberts - a court that conservatives have looked to for
support - did little Wednesday to offer aid or comfort."
GOLD TANKS AGAIN - Gold futures
tumbled below $1,200 an ounce, extending a slump to a 34-month low, as U.S.
economic data topped estimates by analysts, eroding the metal's appeal as a
store of value. In May, consumer spending rebounded and pending home sales
jumped to the highest since 2006, while jobless claims fell last week ...
Assets in the SPDR Gold Trust, the world's biggest exchange-traded product
backed by the metal, have slumped 28 percent this year to the lowest since
February 2009 amid an equity rally and muted inflation.
FDR MUSEUM GETS $35 MILLION FACELIFT- "Roosevelt's Legacy, Burning Brightly: The Franklin D.
Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum unveils a new permanent exhibition in
Hyde Park, N.Y., today. It's the first major overhaul since FDR himself
dedicated it in 1941. From the review: "You emerge from this 12,000-square-foot
exhibition (designed by Gallagher & Associates) in a state of justified
amazement, not necessarily because new facts have been revealed, or because of
new interactive video tables and screens with digital 'flipbooks,' but because
the exhibition, whose curator is Herman R. Eberhardt, so steadily recounts the
history."
"The most intriguing displays are
actually scanned documents on video screens that present the controversies and
debates during the Roosevelt years : Did the New Deal really end the Depression,
or did the coming of the war? Why didn't Roosevelt support federal
anti-lynching legislation? (He did not want to lose Southern Democratic
support.) What were his attitudes toward race? What was behind the executive
order that interned Japanese-Americans along the West Coast? Did Roosevelt do
what was possible to help Jews fleeing Hitler's executioners? (At one point
Alaska was considered as a refuge.) And did he give away Eastern Europe to
Stalin at Yalta? This approach has been used at other presidential libraries
with some success [Truman and Bush 43] ... But the old permanent exhibition
here paid little attention to debate, and even this one could have gone
further."
MARKET WEEK - U.S. investors
start fresh today, following the best first half of a year since 1998 for the
S&P 500 and since 1999 for the Dow, but also coming off the first losing
month of the year for the major averages. The new month begins with a short
week, with just a half day of trading Wednesday and a closure on Thursday for
the July 4 holiday.
DRIVING THE WEEK – President Barack Obama continues his African tour today with
stops in Tanzania, including a joint news conference with President Jakaya
Mrisho Kikwete, a roundtable with CEOs from the U.S. and across Africa and an
address to a business group ... ISM manufacturing today at 10 a.m. EDT expected
to dip to 50.5 from 50.7, still expantionary but barely ... Construction
spending at 10 a.m. today expected to grow a soft 0.6 percent ... Factory
orders at 10 a.m. Tuesday expected to rise 2.0 percent ...
Auto sales Tuesday afternoon expected to grow
to 15.3M from 15.23M ... ADP private employment at 8:15 a.m. EDT excepted to
show a gain of 160K but may come in significantly weaker ... ISM
non-manufacturing at 10 a.m. Wednesday expected to rise to 54.2 from 53.7 ...
June jobs report at 8:30 a.m. on Friday expected to show a gain of 175K, a
decline in unemployment from 7.6 percent to 7.5 percent and an increase in earnings
of 0.2 percent.
QUOTE OF THE MONTH – “Lost time is
never found again.” Benjamin Franklin
JULY RINK RATS POLL – How many original
colonies in America? (1) 11 (2) 12 (3) 13 (4) 14
Next week: American education, a summer time
perspective and July in the garden.
Until Next Monday, Happy Independence Week!
Claremont, CA
July 1, 2013
#IV-11, 168
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