Bidens honor Pearl Harbor's fallen in visit to WWII Memorial

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By AAMER MADHANI

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden on Tuesday marked the 80th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor with a somber visit to the World War II Memorial in the nation’s capital.

The Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor and other locations in Hawaii killed 2,403 service members and civilians and was a defining moment that led to U.S. entry into World War II.

Joe Biden touched a wreath and saluted. The wreath contained a wild sunflower, the state flower of Kansas, in honor of former Sen. Bob Dole, a war veteran who was a driving force in getting the memorial built on the National Mall and who died Sunday at age 98.

The first lady laid a bouquet of flowers at the base of the memorial below the New Jersey pillar and softly touched a wall, where she and the president spent a moment. The bouquet was in honor of her father, Donald Jacobs, who served as a U.S. Navy signalman in the war, the White House said.



President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden visit the National World War II Memorial to mark the 80th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-jill-biden-europe-attack-on-pearl-harbor-generations-78657316ef8f05e79974be45ca2e9288

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. There are some demonstrations going on right down the street, near the Capitol. NT

[question everything]

4. Why?

[mahatmakanejeeves]

9. Haven't the slightest. NT

[Botany]

2. Class is written all over them.

"Joe Biden touched a wreath and saluted. The wreath contained a wild sunflower, the state flower of Kansas, in honor of former Sen. Bob Dole, a war veteran who was a driving force in getting the memorial built on the National Mall and who died Sunday at age 98.

The first lady laid a bouquet of flowers at the base of the memorial below the New Jersey pillar and softly touched a wall, where she and the president spent a moment. The bouquet was in honor of her father, Donald Jacobs, who served as a U.S. Navy signalman in the war, the White House said."

[BumRushDaShow]

3. I got chance to visit that Memorial in the fall of 2018

It's pretty cool how it is set up and takes up a fairly large diameter, with "state pillars" and a fountain in the center. My dad was a WW2 vet and at some point, they got desperate and he was eventually drafted out of college at age 19 in 1943. My mom used to occasionally mention how they all heard about "the bombing" on the radio on this date (she was 11 at the time). There was obviously no "24/7 CNN coverage", let alone any consumer television at all back then. Radio and the movies were king.

That generation's world literally "changed" overnight, and more so as the war progressed, once the rationing began. She did always say that the "war machine" manufacturing helped to take the country out of the Depression.

[kwolf68]

5. She was kinda right

The government started spending money, putting people to work to make needs for the army. These were by and large regular American companies that ramped up to produce these things, not just military industrial complex hustlers.

The other thing is because of rationing people couldn't piss away their income. SAVING money actually made American people freer and the market more vital. Today, it's a race to engross every person with debt, bankruptcy and despair. Despite we spend more on military than something like the next 10 countries combined. The model no longer works for some reason.

[BumRushDaShow]

6. Well that was a time WAY before we started "off-shoring" our goods and services

I.e., we made clothes and shoes and appliances and of course grew much of our own crops to the point where fruits and veggies were truly "seasonal". I.e., you didn't have "fresh" tomatoes/peppers or citrus (like oranges) year-round. The oranges were something she would always talk about being a "treat" in winter at Christmas (that is when the earliest of the fruit were usually harvested but once that was done that was it).

I know one of my aunt's (father's sister) and her friends got jobs down at the Philly Naval yard. I never got chance to hear the story, so am not sure if they ended being "Rosie the Riveters" but the young women of the time had to fill in for all the men who were shipped off. Of course when the '50s came around, the whole thing reversed where women were "too delicate" to do any of that.

[Deminpenn]

8. My parents told me they didn't

even know where Pearl Harbor was. A few month later, my dad was on his way to the Army. He said when he entered there was basically nothing but a few old, career soldiers who didn't have a lot of knowledge to impart to the new recruits.

The ramp up in military production was truly amazing.

[kskiska]

7. TFG made a trip to Pearl Harbor

but didn't have a clue as to what happened there. Chief of Staff Kelly had to fill him in. TFG said he knew that "something happened there" but didn't know what it was.