The LuLac Edition #5, 751, August 29th, 2026

 

  

 

ALEXANDER HAMILTON

PATRIOT, FINANCIAL GENIUS

GONE TOO SOON

 

 

 

Alexander Hamilton was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first U.S. secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795 under the presidency of George Washington. He also founded America's first political party, the Federalist Party, in 1791.

Born out of wedlock in Charlestown on the Caribbean island of Nevis, Hamilton was orphaned as a child and taken in by a prosperous merchant. He was given a scholarship and pursued his education at King's College (now Columbia University) in New York City where, despite his young age, he was an anonymous but prolific and widely read pamphleteer and advocate for the American Revolution. He then served as an artillery officer in the American Revolutionary War, where he saw military action against the British Army in the New York and New Jersey campaign, served for four years as aide-de-camp to Continental Army commander-in-chief George Washington, and fought under Washington's command in the war's climactic battle, the Siege of Yorktown, which secured American victory in the war and with it the independence of the United States.

After the Revolutionary War, Hamilton served as a delegate from New York to the Congress of the Confederation in Philadelphia. He resigned to practice law and founded the Bank of New York. In 1786, Hamilton led the Annapolis Convention, which sought to strengthen the power of the loose confederation of independent states under the limited authorities granted the Congress by the Articles of Confederation. The following year he was a delegate to the Philadelphia Convention, which drafted the U.S. Constitution creating a more centralized federal national government. He then authored 51 of the 85 installments of The Federalist Papers, which proved persuasive in securing its ratification by the states and remains the preeminent interpretation of Constitutional intent.

 

 

As a trusted member of President Washington's first cabinet, Hamilton served as the first U.S. secretary of the treasury. He envisioned a central government led by an energetic executive, a strong national defense, and a more diversified economy with significantly expanded industry. He successfully argued that the implied powers of the U.S. Constitution provided the federal government the legal basis to create the First Bank of the United States as a fiscal agent to assume the states' war debts, a bank that was funded by a tariff on imports and a whiskey tax. Hamilton opposed American entanglement with the succession of unstable French revolutionary governments. In 1790, he persuaded the U.S. Congress to establish the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service to protect American shipping. In 1793, he advocated in support of the Jay Treaty under which the U.S. resumed friendly trade relations with the British Empire. Hamilton's views became the basis for the Federalist Party, which was opposed by the Democratic-Republican Party, led by Thomas Jefferson. Hamilton and other Federalists supported the Haitian Revolution, and Hamilton helped draft Haiti's constitution in 1801.

After resigning as the nation's secretary of the treasury in 1795, Hamilton resumed his legal and business activities and helped lead the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade. In the Quasi-War, fought at sea between 1798 and 1800, Hamilton called for mobilization against France, and President John Adams appointed him major general. The U.S. Army, however, did not see combat in the conflict. Outraged by Adams' response to the crisis, Hamilton opposed his 1800 presidential re-election. Jefferson and Aaron Burr tied for the presidency in the electoral college and, despite philosophical differences, Hamilton endorsed Jefferson over Burr, whom he found unprincipled. When Burr ran for Governor of New York in 1804, Hamilton again opposed his candidacy, arguing that he was unfit for the office. Taking offense, Burr challenged Hamilton to a pistol duel, which took place in Weehawken, New Jersey, on July 11, 1804. Hamilton was mortally wounded and immediately transported back across the Hudson River in a delirious state to the home of William Bayard Jr. in Greenwich Village, New York, for medical attention. The following day, on July 12, 1804, Hamilton succumbed to his wounds.

Scholars generally regard Hamilton as an astute and intellectually brilliant administrator, politician, and financier who was sometimes impetuous. His ideas are credited with influencing the founding principles of American finance and government. In 1997, the historian Paul Johnson wrote that Hamilton was a "genius—the only one of the Founding Fathers fully entitled to that accolade—and he had the elusive, indefinable characteristics of genius.

THE DUEL

Why would anyone of his stature participate in a duel that was sure to be met with violence.

The concept of honor was fundamental to Hamilton's vision of himself and of the nation. As evidence of the importance that honor held in Hamilton's value system, historians observe that Hamilton previously was a party to seven "affairs of honor" as a principal, and to three as an advisor or second. Such affairs of honor were often concluded prior to reaching the final stage of a duel.

Before the duel, Hamilton wrote an explanation of his decision to participate while at the same time intending to "throw away" his shot. His desire to be available for future political matters also played a factor. A week before the duel, Hamilton and Burr both attended an annual Independence Day dinner held by the Society of the Cincinnati. Separate accounts confirm that Hamilton was uncharacteristically effusive while Burr was, by contrast, uncharacteristically withdrawn. Accounts also agree that Burr became roused when Hamilton, again uncharacteristically, sang a favorite song, which recent scholarship indicates was "How Stands the Glass Around", an anthem sung by military troops about fighting and dying in war.

The duel began at dawn on July 11, 1804, along the west bank of the Hudson River on a rocky ledge in Weehawken, New Jersey. Both opponents were rowed over from Manhattan separately from different locations, since the location of the duel was not accessible from the west due to the steepness of the adjoining cliffs. Coincidentally, the duel took place relatively close to the location of the duel that had ended the life of Hamilton's eldest son, Philip Hamilton, three years earlier. Lots were cast for the choice of position and which second should start the duel. Both were won by Hamilton's second, who chose the upper edge of the ledge for Hamilton facing the city and the rising sun to the east.  After the seconds measured the paces, Hamilton, according to both William P. Van Ness and Burr, raised his pistol "as if to try the light" and had to wear his glasses to prevent his vision from being obscured. Hamilton also refused the more sensitive hairspring setting for the dueling pistols offered by Nathaniel Pendleton, and Burr was unaware of the option.

Burr shot Hamilton, delivering what proved to be a fatal wound, while Hamilton apparently "deloped", as he had indicated was his intention in his letter beforehand; and his shot went well above Burr's head, breaking a tree branch. The seconds, Pendleton and Van Ness, disagreed on which man fired first in the duel. Soon after, they measured and triangulated the shooting, but could not determine from which angle Hamilton had fired. Biographer Ron Chernow contends that, after taking deliberate aim, Burr fired second. Biographer James Earnest Cooke, however, believes that Burr took careful aim and shot first, and Hamilton fired while falling after being struck by Burr's bullet.

The shot hit Hamilton in the lower abdomen above his right hip. The ball ricocheted off Hamilton's second or third false rib, fracturing it and causing considerable damage to his internal organs, particularly his liver and diaphragm, before becoming lodged in his first or second lumbar vertebra.

The paralyzed Hamilton was immediately attended by the same surgeon who tended to Hamilton's son Philip. Hamilton was ferried to Greenwich Village and the boarding house of his friend William Bayard Jr., who was waiting on the dock. On his deathbed, Hamilton asked the Episcopal Bishop of New York, Benjamin Moore, to give him holy communion. Moore initially declined to do so on the grounds that participating in a duel was a mortal sin and that Hamilton, although undoubtedly sincere in his faith, was not a member of the Episcopalian denomination. After leaving, Moore was persuaded to return that afternoon by the urgent pleas of Hamilton's friends. After hearing Hamilton's solemn assurance that he repented his role in the duel, Moore gave him communion.

After final visits from his family, friends, and considerable suffering for at least 31 hours, Hamilton died at two o'clock the following afternoon, July 12, 1804, at Bayard's home just below present-day Gansevoort Street in Greenwich Village, New York City. The city fathers halted all business at noon two days later for Hamilton's funeral. The procession route of about two miles organized by the Society of the Cincinnati had so many participants of every class of citizen that it took hours to complete and was widely reported nationwide by newspapers. Moore conducted Hamilton's funeral service at Trinity Church at present-day 89 Broadway in Manhattan. Gouverneur Morris gave the eulogy and secretly established a fund to support his widow and children. Hamilton was buried in the church's cemetery.

 

The LuLac Edition #5, 750, August 27th, 2026

 

BREAKING NEWS!!

LAWSUIT AGAINST COUNTY ELECTION BUREAU AND COUNTY DEMOCRATIC PARTY DISMISSED!

 

Suit dismissed primarily to procedural and filing errors and flaws in the argument

County Democratic Party does NOT need to hold another reorganization meeting. Current leadership stands!

Once more the Luzerne county politics of division, selfish goals and just plain crazy has been thwarted by common sense. But the time and effort that was wasted by the impotent forces that tried this shit wasted valuable time for Democrats who are sincere in their efforts to aid the Shapiro, Cognetti and state rep races this year. 

 

SHAPIRO CALLS OUT RFK JUNIOR FOR VACCINE 

MIS-INFO

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro revealed Tuesday that he personally confronted Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over vaccine misinformation after two unvaccinated Pennsylvania residents died from measles. 

Per a statement from Shapiro, Kennedy called the governor Tuesday morning and offered to send federal personnel to Pennsylvania to help respond to the state's growing measles outbreak. Shapiro told him the commonwealth could handle it without them.

"While I appreciate his willingness to offer staff to assist us, we think we're able to manage this through the Department of Health," Shapiro said during an appearance in Lancaster.

But Shapiro said he used the conversation to deliver a much more pointed message to Kennedy about the consequences of the rhetoric coming from the Trump regime.

"I was very, very blunt with him, and I made very clear that his actions and the rhetoric that's coming from this administration are having a negative impact on communities across America, particularly right here in Pennsylvania," Shapiro said. "There's real life consequences to spreading misinformation."

The confrontation came just hours after Pennsylvania health officials announced that two unvaccinated residents of Lancaster County had died from measles. They are the first measles-associated deaths recorded in Pennsylvania in 35 years and the first reported in the United States this year.

Pennsylvania has now recorded 393 measles cases this year, with Lancaster County at the center of the outbreak. Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed 2,777 cases as of Aug. 20, already making 2026 the worst year for measles in the United States in 35 years.

Shapiro directly connected the growing public-health crisis to vaccine skepticism, which has been pushed by RFK Jr. and others in the Trump regime.

"Folks are spreading skepticism about things like the MMR vaccine without any evidence to back up their claims," Shapiro said earlier Tuesday. "Today, we see the consequences of this lack of immunization in the first measles-associated deaths that our Commonwealth has seen in 35 years."

"I was very, very blunt with him, and I made very clear that his actions and the rhetoric that's coming from this administration are having a negative impact on communities across America, particularly right here in Pennsylvania," Shapiro said. "There's real life consequences to spreading misinformation."

The MMR vaccine is highly effective at preventing measles. According to Pennsylvania health officials, two doses provide approximately 97 percent protection.Predicably

Shapiro said he told Kennedy that public officials have a responsibility to give parents reliable medical information rather than frightening them with unsupported claims.

"There's real life consequences to scaring people and not relying on actual doctors and actual medical professionals to provide unbiased information to parents so that we can make reasonable decisions for our kids," Shapiro said.

In the meantime, Calls for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s resignation are growing after two unvaccinated people died from measles in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. There have been 393 confirmed measles cases in 28 counties in Pennsylvania this year, and 2,777 total cases nationally—a 35-year high. 

These are the first measles deaths in the United States this year, and in Pennsylvania in more than three decades.

 

DOLLY PARTON

We lost a giant Tuesday when Dolly Parton died. She was a creative force that was generous and engaging. In short she was beloved. Here is one of my favorites of all time. A Christmas video that she collaborated with Kenny Rogers on in 1984.

 

WHAT’S MY DAY JOB?

When the late Bill Kelly and I had lunch a few years back, he was under the impression that LuLac was my full time job. It was not. Here’s what my role is in the city of Wilkes-Barre. 

 Newsmakers: Meet the City of Wilkes-Barre’s Health Educator- David Yonki - NewsBreak

 

CANADA

 

RETALIATES AGAINST U.S. BY RAISING STEEL DUTIES, ADDING NEW TARIFFS ON $20B OF GOODS

 TRUMP RAMPED UP HIS RHETORIC AGAINST OTTAWA ON TUESDAY MORNING, THREATENING TO RENAME LAKE ONTARIO “LAKE AMERICA.” 

The Canadian government on Tuesday retaliated against President Donald Trump’s latest wave of tariffs by raising rates on steel products and adding a swath of new duties on $20 billion worth of U.S. products exported to Canada.

The new duties of between 15%, 25% of 50% will take effect on Sept. 8, the Canadian government said.

These counter-tariffs “will focus on sectors such as steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper, and electronics, that are most impacted by U.S. tariffs,” Canada’s finance ministry said.

The announcement came after the United States hit scores of Canadian products with new 50% tariffs that went into effect early Saturday. These levies followed weeks of trade negotiations that broke down, putting the longtime allies on unfamiliar footing.

Prime Minister Mark Carney said he pulled the plug on a deal late Friday only after Washington proposed “unfair” and “uneconomic” terms at the last minute.

“We could not accept what the U.S. had offered, nor could we give what they asked,” Carney said.

American officials rebutted Carney’s account of why the talks collapsed. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Monday that he had “sought to accommodate the Canadians by ... cutting tariffs in half on steel, on aluminum, and extensively reducing them on, on autos and even on things like, like softwood lumber.”

Canada’s plan for retaliation against Washington comes as Trump and Canadian officials traded dozens of insults over the past few days.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford told a Canadian radio show Monday that Trump could “kiss my ass.”

“We’re going to go at him full steam,” said Ford, who has backed Carney’s response to Trump’s tariffs.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford called President Donald Trump the “king of bankruptcies.” Justin Tang / AP file

Trump wasted little time responding to what he called “lots of ‘bluster’ from Doug Ford.”

“Someone should get these clowns to ‘fall in line’ or, the consequences for Canada will be far WORSE!” Trump wrote on social media.

To that empty threat I say to our pig President: 

TACO

You know you will Mr. President.

 

WHO WAS ROB FORD?

President Donald Trump has escalated his war of words with Ontario Premier Doug Ford by comparing him unfavorably to his late brother and fellow politician Rob Ford.

Taking to Truth Social Monday amid the latest twist in his on-again tariff war with Canada, the president wrote: “Lots of ‘bluster’ from Doug Ford, who is the Premier of the Canadian Province of Ontario, but who is better known as the less charismatic, intelligent, and overall unimpressive brother of the late, great, Rob Ford.”

The late Rob Ford was an outspoken Toronto city councilor and then its mayor from 2010 to 2014, known for a forthright right-wing populist style that saw him routinely rail at the establishment “gravy train,” an attack echoed in Trump’s own rhetoric calling out the Washington “swamp.”

His problems came to a head when cellphone footage emerged of him smoking crack cocaine in 2013 but he refused to resign, preferring to fight his corner and only losing power when Toronto’s city council voted to transfer his powers to his deputy mayor Norm Kelly.

He subsequently took a sabbatical to seek treatment for his addictions, only to be diagnosed with an abdominal tumour in September 2014 from which he ultimately passed away in March 2016, aged just 46.

Doug Ford once said of his brother that his popularity was such he “could commit murder on the steps of City Hall and they would still vote for him,” another line borrowed by Trump, who boasted in January 2016: “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.”

Canadian journalist Jen Gerson labeled Trump “a cut-rate knock off version of Rob Ford, and he knows it. Rob walked so Trump could fly.”

Another journalist, Jeremy Berke, made the same comparison, saying Ford, like Trump, was: “Unapologetic to the press, brash, kind of an idiot, doesn’t know anything about policy, but so charismatic that they win hearts, minds, and elections.”

Doug Ford himself refused to be goaded by the president invoking his late brother but did respond robustly at a press conference in Hamilton.

“I don’t respond to a dictator like President Trump, a bully like President Trump,” he said. “I’m not gonna take any advice off a guy that’s the king of bankruptcies.”

Addressing the president directly, Ford said: “Your own people, President Trump, don’t even like you. And they’re gonna speak loud and clear in the midterms. If I was allowed to, I’d be down there door-knocking.”

 

TRUMP IGNORED WARNINGS FROM TULSI GABBARD AND US INTELLIGENCE THE IRAN WAR WOULD BACKFIRE: REPORT

President Donald Trump was reportedly briefed by then-director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard that overthrowing regime in Tehran could bring more hard-line successor in its place.

President Donald Trump was warned against attacking Iran in February by U.S. intelligence chiefs, who suggested it could backfire and usher in an even more hard-line regime, according to a report.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the then-director of national intelligence and military veteran Tulsi Gabbard was summoned to the Oval Office to discuss the issue before strikes were launched on February 28.

Trump was reportedly buoyed at the time by the success of the previous summer’s Operation Midnight Hammer attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities and the removal of Nicolas Maduro from power in Venezuela and wanted her assessment on the proposed new assault.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had reportedly pushed for military action, claimed the Islamic Republic was in a weaker condition than ever before so there was an opportunity to extinguish its nuclear ambitions once and for all.

The president was also reportedly told Iran would likely respond to airstrikes by shutting off the Strait of Hormuz to spike oil prices and by retaliating against America’s regional allies, which is exactly what happened

Military top brass is said to have cautioned Trump the proposed operation would mean casualties, dwindling munitions supplies and overstretched resources.

As has been previously reported, Vice President JD Vance also advised him against embarking on the conflict but vowed to support him if he did choose to do so.

Ultimately, according to the Journal, Trump was persuaded by the arguments put forward by his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine and Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command, who laid out detailed plans for disabling the country with Israel’s help.

 

 

NAACP WINS MAJOR PRIVACY VICTORY AS FEDERAL COURT DISMISSES DOJ DEMAND FOR VOTER DATA IN NEVADA

 

The NAACP celebrates another significant legal victory after the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada dismissed a Department of Justice lawsuit attempting to force the state to produce unredacted voter rolls information containing sensitive personal data.

Through its Order, this federal court joins others by granting the motions to dismiss and denying the federal government's motion to compel. The ruling marks another decisive rejection of the federal administration's nationwide push to secure private voter files across 30 states and Washington, D.C.

The NAACP Tri-State Conference of Idaho, Nevada, and Utah intervened in the case to protect community members from federal overreach and safeguard sensitive identifying data, including full names, dates of birth, residential addresses, driver's license numbers, and Social Security numbers.

"This ruling sends a crystal-clear message that the private, sensitive personal information of voters is not up for grabs," said Kristen Clarke, General Counsel of the NAACP. "We intervened to ensure that voters in our communities can participate in the democratic process without fear of government overreach or exposure of their personal data. We are proud to have stopped this unlawful invasion of voter privacy."

The court held that federal law does not compel state election officials to surrender unredacted statewide voter lists created by state government authorities and noted that the Justice Department failed to establish a sufficient factual basis or purpose for its demand.

The NAACP remains vigilant in litigating across the nation to safeguard voter privacy and ensure equal access to the ballot box for all marginalized communities.

 

 

PAIGE COGNETTI STATEMENT ON ROB BRESNAHAN CAMPAIGNING WITH HIS PARTY BOSS AS PRICES RISE AND WASHINGTON CORRUPTION COSTS NEPA

BRESNAHAN AND MIKE JOHNSON HAVE TEAMED UP TO GUT HEALTH CARE, JACK UP PRICES, AND ALLOW CORRUPTION TO RUN RAMPANT IN WASHINGTON WHILE NEPA PAYS THE PRICE

Scranton Mayor and candidate for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District Paige Cognetti issued the following statement in response to Rob Bresnahan today campaigning with his party boss Speaker Mike Johnson while Northeastern Pennsylvanians struggle with skyrocketing prices and devastating health care cuts because of the Washington machine:

“As a mayor and as a mom, public safety is personal to me. That’s why I’ve invested millions of dollars in local law enforcement to keep our community safe and make our police officers safer on the job. Instead of being the independent voice that NEPA deserves, Congressman Rob Bresnahan has teamed up with Washington party bosses like Mike Johnson to spread lies about our communities, and unleash skyrocketing prices and devastating health care cuts,” said Paige Cognetti. “Bresnahan swore he would be different, but has instead come to represent the Washington corruption that is costing Pennsylvania families. Regardless of who he brings into town, Bresnahan can’t change the facts about crime declining in Scranton, or paper over his record of voting to hurt our community while playing the stock market in office and looking out for his own bottom line over anyone else’s.”

Additionally, spokesperson Emma Mustion issued the following statement in response to Bresnahan and Johnson lying about Paige’s record of investing in local law enforcement to reduce violent crime:

“Rob Bresnahan is lying about Paige’s record because he knows he can’t stand on his own record. The facts are clear: FBI and state crime statistics show that violent crime is down under Paige’s leadership, and she has poured more than $5 million into local law enforcement to keep NEPA safe. While Paige works for NEPA, Bresnahan has been stock trading in Congress and enriching himself while our community pays the price. That’s the choice voters will have in this race.”

While Rob Bresnahan and his allies desperately attempt to damage control, Paige’s record is clear. She has led Scranton out of 30 years of financial distress and overseen a drop in violent crime by investing millions in local law enforcement. As Bresnahan cozies up with D.C. insiders and party bosses, Paige is earning support from Republicans, Independents, and Democrats across NEPA – including a three time Trump voter – because she isn’t part of the broken Washington machine.

Bresnahan and his party boss Mike Johnson made the largest health care cuts in history to pay for tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations. Rob Bresnahan not only voted for these devastating cuts, but he also unloaded Medicaid-provider stocks and Pennsylvania hospital bonds within days of his vote – looking out for himself while NEPA pays the price.

 

BRESNEHAN’S BAD TIMING

A week before he voted to significantly cut Medicaid, Rep. Rob Bresnahan dumped six figures’ worth of stock in a quartet of companies that manage nearly half of all Medicaid enrollees in the country, according to public disclosure documents reviewed by NBC News.

Bresnahan,who became one of the most prolific stock traders in Congress after he took office this year, offloaded up to $130,000 worth of stock in Centene, Elevance Health, UnitedHealth and CVS Health on May 15, the periodic transaction reports he filed with the House clerk in June show. Taken together, those four companies oversee roughly half of all Medicaid managed care organizations, according to the KFF, a health policy research organization.

 

LT. GOV. AUSTIN DAVIS HIGHLIGHTS SHAPIRO-DAVIS ADMINISTRATION'S SUPPORT FOR SMALL BUSINESSES ACROSS PENNSYLVANIA

Lt. Governor Austin Davis visits the University of Scranton’s new collaborative makerspace, the IDEA Center, to highlight the 2026-27 bipartisan state budgets continued investments in small and small, diverse businesses at a roundtable conversation with Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) Deputy Secretary Mandy Book, representatives from NEPA Alliance and local small business development centers (SBDCs), as well as local officials and small-business owners.

Under the Shapiro-Davis Administration, Pennsylvania has become a national leader on economic development, is the only state in the Northeast with a growing economy, and is the regions top state for business according to CNBC. The 2026-27 budget builds on this momentum by investing in long-term economic growth and ensuring communities across the Commonwealth can compete and win, including:. . $3.75 million increase in state funding for small minority-owned businesses across the Commonwealth through the Historically Disadvantaged Business Assistance (HDBA) Program.. $20 million in continued funding for main streets and small businesses through Main Street Matters to strengthen commercial corridors that are the heart of Pennsylvania’s communities.. $125 million to create the Innovate in PA 2.0 program, funded through Insurance Premium Tax Credits. This program will provide capital for promising startups, fund clinical trials for the life sciences, and enhance the Commonwealths innovation network to help these companies succeed.

"Governor Shapiro and I have been working hard to create ladders of opportunity, so that every Pennsylvanian can chart their own course - whether that means going to college or trade school or starting their own business," said Davis. "We're making Pennsylvania more competitive by cutting red tape, streamlining permitting and licensing and attracting more than $41 billion in private-sector investment. But we're not just focused on attracting big businesses here to Pennsylvania. We're also focused on supporting entrepreneurs and our homegrown small businesses, too."

Davis joined Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) Deputy Secretary Mandy Book, representatives from the Northeastern Pennsylvania (NEPA) Alliance, the Northern Tier Regional Planning and Development Commission, local small business development centers and several small-business owners for a roundtable conversation focused on state investments through the Historically Disadvantaged Business Assistance (HDBA) program.

MEDIA MATTERS

WVIA FM  

WALN

BOLD GOLD COMMUNITY FORUM

You'll hear the program Sunday at 6 on 94.3 The Talker; 6:30 on 1400 am The Mothership and 7:30 am on 105 The River.

 

THE LAURIE CADDEN SHOW

Tune in every Saturday morning at 9am for The Laurie Cadden Show on WILK FM 103.1 and AM 980 and 910. Laurie’s program has been a northeastern Pennsylvania mainstay every Saturday. Tune in to hear her insights and take on local issues as well as entertaining and informative interviews.

 

BOBBY V’S DOO WOP SUNDAY NIGHT SOCK HOP

 

BEATLE EDD’S FAB FOUR MUSIC HOUR

Tune in every week to the Home of Rock and Roll for a jam packed, unpredictable hour starting at 9am Sundays. Host Edd Raineri gives you facts and great music from the immortal Fab Four on ROCK 107.

 

THE LULAC TIME MACHINE

August 1968

INVASION OF CZECHOSLOVAKIA

 

 Student protesters passing by a burning Soviet tank in Prague Hippies' inscriptions made on a Soviet military vehicle in Prague A crowd of protesters around a Soviet tank in Prague, at Balbinova and Vinohradská streets crossing A crowd of protesters around a Soviet BTR-60 armored vehicle in Ostrava Funeral of Jan Palach A refugee camp in Vienna, Austria, near Reichsbrücke bridge Street scene in Prague. A protester in front of burning Soviet tanks A streetfight in progress, with Soviet armor and civilian transport on fire, and people running in the center A graffiti comparing Soviets to Nazis, with USSR abbreviation written using ᛋᛋ (Schutzstaffel) runic symbol, painted at Husova street, Prague.

 On 20–21 August 1968, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four fellow Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Republic of Bulgaria, and the Hungarian People's Republic. The invasion stopped Alexander Dubček's Prague Spring liberalisation reforms and strengthened the authoritarian wing of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ).

About 250,000 Warsaw Pact troops (rising afterwards to about 500,000), supported by thousands of tanks and hundreds of aircraft, participated in the overnight operation, which was code-named Operation Danube. The Socialist Republic of Romania and the People's Republic of Albania refused to participate.East German forces, except for a small number of specialists, were ordered by Moscow not to cross the Czechoslovak border just hours before the invasion, because of fears of greater resistance if German troops were involved, due to public perception of the previous German occupation three decades earlier.137 Czechoslovaks were killed and 500 seriously wounded during the occupation.

Public reaction to the invasion was widespread and divided, including within the communist world. Although the majority of the Warsaw Pact supported the invasion along with several other communist parties worldwide, Western nations, along with socialist countries such as Romania, and particularly the People's Republic of China and People's Socialist Republic of Albania condemned the attack. Many other communist parties also lost influence, denounced the USSR, split up or dissolved due to conflicting opinions. The invasion started a series of events that would ultimately pressure Brezhnev to establish a state of détente with U.S. president Richard Nixon in 1972 just months after the latter's historic visit to the PRC.

The Prague Spring (Czech: Pražské jaro, Slovak: Pražská jar) was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia that began on 5 January 1968, when reformist Alexander Dubček was elected First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ), and continued until 21 August when the Soviet Union and other members of the Warsaw Pact invaded the country to halt the reforms.

The Prague Spring reforms were a strong attempt by Dubček to grant additional rights to the citizens of Czechoslovakia in an act of partial decentralization of the economy and democratization. The freedoms granted included a loosening of restrictions on the media, speech and travel. After national discussion of dividing the country into a federation of three republics, Bohemia, Moravia–Silesia and Slovakia, Dubček oversaw the decision to split into two, the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic.

Leonid Brezhnev and the leadership of the Warsaw Pact countries were worried that the unfolding liberalizations in Czechoslovakia, including the ending of censorship and political surveillance by the secret police, would be detrimental to their interests. The first such fear was that Czechoslovakia would defect from the Eastern Bloc, injuring the Soviet Union's position in a possible Third World War with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Not only would the loss result in a lack of strategic depth for the USSR, but it would also mean that it could not tap Czechoslovakia's industrial base in the event of war. Czechoslovak leaders had no intention of leaving the Warsaw Pact, but Moscow felt it could not be certain exactly of Prague's intentions. However, the Soviet government was initially hesitant to approve an invasion, due to Czechoslovakia's continued loyalty to the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union's recent diplomatic gains with the West as détente began.

Other fears included the spread of liberalization and unrest elsewhere in Eastern Europe. The Warsaw Pact countries feared that if the Prague Spring reforms went unchecked, then those ideals might very well spread to Poland and East Germany, upsetting the status quo there as well. Within the Soviet Union, nationalism in the republics of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Ukraine was already causing problems for Moscow, and many were worried that events in Prague might exacerbate those problems.

According to documents from the Ukrainian Archives, compiled by Mark Kramer, KGB chairman Yuri Andropov and Communist Party of Ukraine leaders Petro Shelest and Nikolai Podgorny were the most vehement proponents of military intervention  The other version says that the initiative for the invasion came originally from Poland as the Polish First Secretary Władysław Gomułka and later his collaborator, East German First Secretary Walter Ulbricht, pressured Brezhnev to agree on the Warsaw Letter and on ensued military involvement. Gomułka accused Brezhnev of being blind and looking at the situation in Czechoslovakia with too much of emotion. Ulbricht, in turn, insisted upon the necessity to enact military action in Czechoslovakia while Brezhnev was still doubting. Poland's foreign policy on the issue is still unknown. The deliberation that took place in Warsaw meeting, resulted in a majority consensus rather than unanimity.[citation needed] According to Soviet politician Konstantin Katushev, "our allies were even more worried than we were by what was going on in Prague. Gomulka, Ulbricht, Bulgarian First Secretary Todor Zhivkov, even Hungarian First Secretary János Kádár, all assessed the Prague Spring very negatively." The "hardline" faction among Eastern bloc leaders was represented by Ulbricht and Gomułka. Ulbricht, worried about his own power and the stability of the East German state, disavowed the reforms vehemently early on, as evidenced in his letters by the fact that he was concerned and fearful about “the effects of the cancer" of Dubcekism in his own country.”  He continued to emphasize that Dubček's reforms were "antirevolutionary" and a mockery of the Marxist–Leninist ideology he espoused, and as a result emphatically called out for military intervention at the Warsaw Conference in July 1968.

In addition, part of Czechoslovakia bordered Austria and West Germany, which were on the other side of the Iron Curtain. This meant both that foreign agents could slip into Czechoslovakia and into any member of the Eastern bloc and that defectors could slip out to the West. The final concern emerged directly from the lack of censorship; writers whose work had been censored in the Soviet Union could simply go to Prague or Bratislava and air their grievances there, circumventing the Soviet Union's censorship and this week in Lulac land and America the number one song in LuLac land and America was ironically “People Got To Be Free” by The Rascals