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Last time we spoke about the battle of Luodian. Following a significant counter-offensive, the initial optimism waned as casualties escalated and morale plummeted. The strategically vital town of Luodian became a pivotal battleground, with the Chinese determined to defend it at all costs. Despite heroic efforts, including a daring nighttime assault, the overwhelming Japanese forces employed superior tactics and artillery, steadily gaining ground.  As September progressed, Japanese reinforcements flooded the frontline, exacerbating the already dire situation for the Chinese defenders. By late September, the fierce struggle to control Luodian culminated in a forced retreat by the Chinese forces, marking a significant turning point in the fight for Shanghai. Though they withdrew, the Chinese army earned newfound respect, having showcased their tenacity against a formidable adversary. The battle became a testament to their resilience amid overwhelming odds, setting the stage for the tumultuous conflict that lay ahead in their fight for sovereignty.   #160 The Battle of Shanghai Part 5: Fighting along the Wusong Creek Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. The tides of warfare had shifted in Shanghai. In late September, the Japanese high command dispatched three divisions to the Shanghai area, starting with the 101st Division landing on September 22. This was followed by the 9th and 13th Divisions, bolstering Japan's military presence to five divisions in the city, despite the Chinese forces numbering over 25 divisions. However, the true dynamics of the confrontation revealed a complex picture: while the Chinese boasted numerical superiority, the Japanese divisions, each comprising around 15,000 soldiers, were supported by nearly 90,000 troops when including marines and infantry. China's units, often as small as 5,000 men, made their effective deployment difficult. The Japanese forces also leveraged their advantages in materials, aircraft, and naval artillery, which could effectively target critical positions along the Chinese front. With these reinforcements in place, Japanese commanders, including Matsui, devised a bold strategy: to execute a powerful thrust across Wusong Creek and advance toward Suzhou Creek. The goal was to encircle and annihilate the main Chinese force in a maneuver they had envisioned since their arrival in China.  Ogishima Shizuo, a reservist of the 101st division had just been through his first night at the front. Within his trench, soldiers leapt up from their slumber to a hail of bullets. Ogishima looked over the edge of the trench. It was still dark, making it hard to discern what was happening, but he thought he saw a flash of a helmet in a foxhole near the creek's edge. It wasn't a Japanese helmet. Suddenly, it hit him that the gunfire wasn't a mistake. “It's the enemy! The enemy!” he yelled. Others began to shout as well. “The enemy! They're behind us! Turn around!” Under the cloak of darkness, a Chinese unit had managed to bypass the Japanese lines and launch an attack from the rear. The sound of aggressive gunfire erupted, and a Japanese heavy machine gun joined in the fray. However, most of the bullets were fired haphazardly into the night. A force of 50 Chinese were firing on them. Japanese officers ordered the men to storm their positions, seeing infantrymen leap over their trench into the barrage. The Japanese and Chinese fired at each other and tossed grenades when close enough. The Japanese jumped into the Chinese foxholes and stabbed at them with bayonets. Ogishima thrust his bayonet into the belly of a Chinese soldiers, marking his first kill. He felt no emotion. Within minutes the little battle was over, every Chinese soldier lay dead, it was a suicide mission. Ogishima saw countless comrades dead around him, it was a scene of carnage. It was the morning of October 7, the 101st Division had crossed Wusong Creek from the north in the early hours of October 6, specifically, only half of the division had made it across. The other half remained on the far side, unable to get their boats past the 300 feet of water protected by unseen Chinese machine guns and mortar crews that would open fire at the slightest hint of movement on the northern bank. Dozens of corpses floated in the murky water, serving as grim evidence of the carnage from the previous 24 hours. Ogishima, alongside tens of thousands of Japanese soldiers were entering the most brutal part of the Shanghai campaign. Matsui's vision of a quick and decisive end to the Shanghai campaign, would not come to be. Matsui detailed his plans in an order issued on September 29. The attack was to be conducted from west to east by the 9th, 3rd, and 101st Infantry Divisions. The 11th Infantry Division was assigned to follow the 9th Division, securing the right flank against potential Chinese counterattacks from the west. The 13th Infantry Division would serve as the reserve. The objective was to capture Dachang, an ancient town encircled by a medieval-style wall, and then advance as quickly as possible to breach the Chinese lines north of Suzhou Creek. Matsui had arranged an unusually high concentration of troops; the three divisions were aligned along a front that spanned only three miles. This meant that each division had less than half the front length that the Japanese field manual typically recommended. The decision to compress the divisions into such a narrow front was partly to compensate for the artillery shortcomings that were still hindering the Japanese offensive. The Japanese attackers confronted a formidable and well-prepared enemy. After extensive discussions, the Chinese commanders ultimately recognized that they had no choice but to shorten their front line. Defending Liuhang, a town situated along the route from Luodian to Dachang, had proven too costly, offering no prospect of victory. Chen Cheng, the commander of the Chinese left wing, had often visited Liuhang and understood how dire the situation was. He repeatedly urged that the unwinnable battle be abandoned and that valuable troops be withdrawn to stronger positions. However, his pleas initially went unheeded. Chiang Kai-shek was primarily driven by the belief that war was about securing territory, and he insisted on maintaining control over Liuhang at all costs. Meanwhile the Chinese positions north of Wusong Creek had been breached in numerous places during late September and this caused Chiang Kai-Shek to finally relent. A fighting retreat began on the night of October 1st and would be completed by dawn of the 3rd. The new defensive line extended just over a mile west of the road from Luodian to Dachang, providing the Chinese defenders with excellent opportunities to harass the advancing Japanese Army with flanking fire for several miles as they moved south. At Wusong Creek, the Chinese line curved eastward and followed the southern bank for several miles. The creek provided a significant advantage to the Chinese defenders; despite its name, it would be more accurate to describe it as a river. It reached widths of up to 300 feet in some areas, and in several spots, the southern bank formed a steep six-foot wall. Anyone attempting to scale this barrier under intense mortar fire would be met at the top by rows of barbed wire and heavy machine gun fire. For a full mile south of the creek, the Chinese had spent weeks constructing a dense network of defenses, transforming farm buildings into formidable fortifications linked by deep trenches. They had learned valuable lessons from their German mentors, many veterans of the battles of Somme and Verdun, and they applied these lessons effectively. The Japanese took Liuhang on the 3rd and were met with counterattacks, but these were easily repelled. More confident, Matsui issued new orders on the 4th for the 3rd, 9th and 101 divisions to cross the Wusong Creek and advance a mile south. Beginning on the 5th, the 3 divisions crossed and carved out a narrow bridgehead under heavy resistance. The Chinese were frantic now, as after the Wusong Creek, the last remaining natural obstacle was the Suzhou Creek. Two miles west of the key road from Luodian to Dachang,  battalion commander Yan Yinggao of the 78th Division's 467th Regiment awaited the anticipated Japanese assault. The regiment had fortified three villages near a creek, reinforced with sandbags, barbed wire, and cleared fields of fire, along with deep trenches for troop movement. The 1st Battalion occupied the westernmost village, the 3rd Battalion held the other two, while the 2nd Battalion remained in reserve. The initial Japanese attack began with a heavy artillery bombardment. Despite facing significant casualties, their infantry was forced to withdraw from all three villages. They returned later in the afternoon with an even fiercer artillery assault. The 1st Battalion suffered devastating losses, including its commander, leading to the loss of the village to the Japanese. Yan Yinggao, observing from the rear, dispatched a reinforcement company, but it was quickly annihilated within ten minutes. Simultaneously the Chinese 3rd battalion at Tangbeizhai were nearly encircled. Yan received orders for his regiment to advance over to relieve them, but as they did a Japanese column of 60 soldiers approached from the opposite direction. A battle ensued over the smoking rubbled of the bombed out village. The few survivors of the 3rd battalion made a last stand, allowing the 2nd battle to fight their way in to take up their position. It was a small and temporary victory. Units arriving to the Shanghai theater were being tossed right into the front lines, such as the Tax Police Division. Despite its name they were a fully equipped military formation and quite well training consisting of 6 regiments, roughly 25,000 armed men. Their officers had previously served under the young marshal, Zhang Xueliang. They were rushed to Tangqiaozhan, lying on the road from Luodian to Dachang, bridged by the Wusong Creek. The bridge was crucial to the entire operation, as holding it would enhance the Chinese's chances of delaying the Japanese advance. The Tax Police, stationed at the northern end of the bridge, became surrounded on three sides. Intense fighting ensued, occasionally escalating to hand-to-hand combat. By the second day after their arrival, casualties had escalated significantly, forcing the Tax Police units to retreat south across the bridge, which ultimately fell to the advancing Japanese forces. A crisis atmosphere surrounded the meeting of the 3rd War Zone staff, chaired by Chiang Kai-shek, in Suzhou on October 11. Everyone agreed the previous efforts to halt the Japanese advance south across Wusong Creek had utterly failed. Each engagement resulted in Chinese troops being repelled without regaining significant territory. Chen Cheng proposed an attack in his sector, specifically targeting the area around Luodian. However, most felt that such an operation would not effectively influence the Japanese advance at Wusong Creek and ultimately dismissed the suggestion. Bai Chongxi, whom at this point held an informal advisory role, called for simultaneous attacks along both banks of Wusong Creek, thrusting into the right flank of the advancing Japanese. This would require an enormous amount of troops if there was to be any chance of success. Bai Chongxi was pushing to take 4 divisions from Guangxi, already in transit to Shanghai for the task. Chiang Kai-Shek liked the idea of a single decisive blow and agreed to Bai's idea. The German advisors were not so keen on this one. In fact the Germans were getting depressed over a concerning issue. It seemed the Chinese staff simply talked too much, taking far too long to produce very few decisions. There were a lot of reasons for this, a lot of these figures held to many positions. For example Gu Zhuong, Chiang Kai-Sheks deputy in Suzhou, was a chief of staff and also held two advisory roles. Then there were these informal generals, such as Bai Chongxi. A man such as Bai had no formal command here, yet he was providing views on operational issues. To the Germans who held clear military hierarchies as the bible, it looked obviously chaotic. There was notable hope though. The Germans acknowledged the Chinese were improving their artillery situation. For the first time since the battle for Shanghai began, 6 artillery battalions were moved into positions in the vicinity of Nanxiang, under the unified command of the headmaster of the Tangshan artillery school near Nanjing. From there they could coordinate barrages in the area south of the Wusong Creek.  Sun Liren got off at Nanxiang railway station on October 7th. At 36 he was leading one of China's best units, the 4th regiment of the Tax Police. Within confusion he was assigned to the 88th division, who were fighting the heaviest battles in the campaign. By noon of the next day, nearly all of Sun Liren's regiment were cannibalized, sent as reinforcements to the 88ths front lines. Afterwards all the was left was Sun and a group of 20 orderlies and clerks. At 2pm he got a call from th division, they needed more reinforcements at the front or else a small bridge north of Zhabei would be taken, collapsing their lines. Sun replied he had no troops left only to be told “its an order. If you disobey, you'll be courtmartialed”.  Without any choice, Sun hastily organized dozens of soldiers and marched them to the bridge. As they arrived, his men saw Chinese troops withdrawing away from the bridge. He asked one man what was going on “the officers have all left, we also don't want to die”. To this Sun said he was an officer and would stay and fight with them. The Japanese in pursuit were shocked to see the Chinese turn around attack them. In general the Japanese were surprised by the sudden resilience of the Chinese around the Wusong Creek. Many assaults were being beaten back. In the Zhabei district, much more urbanized, foreigners were watching in awe. A war correspondent wrote “Every street was a defense line and every house a pocket fort. Thousands of holes had been knocked through walls, linking the labyrinth of lanes into a vast system of defense in depth. Every intersection had been made into a miniature fortress of steel and concrete. Even the stubs of bomb-battered walls had been slotted at ground level for machine guns and rifles. No wonder the Japanese Army was months behind its boasts”.  East of the Huangpu River at Pudong, Sun Shengzhi commanded an artillery regiment whom began launching a barrage across the river upon the Gongda airfield, that had been allowing the Japanese air forces to support their infantry. Meanwhile Chinese soldiers rolled a battery of 8 bofor guns 300 yards from the riverbank and at dawn began firing upon aircraft taking off. They reported 4 downed Japanese aircraft and 7 damaged. By mid-October the 88th division took advantage of a lull in the fighting and prepared a ambitious attack aimed at cutting off the Sichuan North road, which the Japanese were using to as a supply line from the docks to units north of the city. The German advisors developed this attack using Stosstruppen tactics taken from WW1. For stosstruppen, the main means of weakening the enemy line was via infiltration, rather than a massive frontal attack. The attack was unleashed on the 18th after a bombardment by artillery and mortars as lightly armed Chinese stormed down the streets near the North railway station and took the Japanese there by complete surprise. They quickly occupied a segment of the Sichuan North Road cutting the Japanese supply chain for many days. Back on the 13th, Kuse Hisao led a company of the Japanese 9th division to perform an attack on Chenjiahang, located due north of Wusong Creek. It was a strategic and heavily fortified stronghold that obstructed the southward advance. As Kuse's men reached its vicinity they stopped to rest with orders to begin the assault at 1pm. The Japanese artillery kicked off the fight and was soon met with much larger Chinese artillery. This was an unpleasant surprise for the Japanese, whom to this point had always had superiority in artillery. Regardless the assault went ahead seeing wave upon wave of attackers fighting through cotton fields and bullets. Kuse's men were forced to crawl through the field. Kuse crawled his way to a small creek to discover with horror it was full of Japanese and Chinese corpses at various stages of decomposition.  The assault on Chenjiahang bogged down quickly. Kuse and his men spent a night amongst the rotting dead. The following day orders arrived for two neighbouring units to renew the assault as Kuse's fell back into the reserve. That day's attempt fared no better, simply piling more bodies upon the field and waterways. The next day Kuse watched Japanese flamethrower units enter the fray as they led an attack over a creek. Men jumped into waist deep water, waded across to fight up slopes through mazes of Chinese trenches. Then to all of their surprise they stormed and unoccupied Chenjiahang without firing a shot. Kuse and his men suddenly saw a grenade come flying at them. Kuse was injured and taken out by comrades to the rear. Chenjiahang and been bitterly fought over for weeks. Alongside Yanghang it was considered two key points necessary for the Japanese to be able to advance against Dachang further south.  Meanwhile Sichuanese troops were being pulled back for the fresh 4 Guangxi divisions to come in. They wore lighter brown uniforms with British styled tin hat helmets. One of their divisions, the 173rd was sent straight to Chenjiahang, arriving before dawn of the 16th. While the handover of positions was taking place, the Japanese launched an intense aerial and artillery bombardment causing significant casualties before the 173rd could even deploy. Later that day, one of their regiments engaged the Japanese and were slaughtered on the spot. Two-thirds of their men became casualties. The battle raged for four days as the 3 other Guangxi divisions moved to the front. There was no break on either side, as one Guanxi officer recalled, “I had heard the expression ‘storm o f steel' before, but never really understood what it meant. Now I do.” By mid October, Matsui's optimism about his southern push was waning. Heavy rain over the past week had slowed his men down considerably. Supplies were taking much longer to reach the front. Intelligence indicated the senior Chinese commanders had moved from Suzhou to Nanxiang, with some in Shanghai proper. To Matsui this meant they were nowhere near close to abandoning Shanghai. Matsui wrote in his diary “It's obvious that earlier views that the Chinese front was shaken had been premature. Now is definitely not the time to rashly push the offensive.” During this rainy time, both sides received some rest as a no-mans land formed. Winter uniforms were arriving for the Japanese 3rd and 11th divisions, causing some encouragement. The 3rd division had already taken 6000 casualties, but received 6500 reinforcements. Matsui estimated their combat strength to only by one-sixth of its original level.  On the 19th Matsui received reports that soldiers from Guangxi were arriving in Shanghai and deploying around Wusong Creek. To relieve some pressure the IJN sent a mock invasion force up the Yangtze to perform a 3 day diversion mission. 8 destroyers and 20 transport vessels anchored 10 miles upriver from Chuanshakou. They bombarded the area to make it seem like a amphibious invasion was imminent. Meanwhile both nations were fighting a propaganda war. On October 14th, China filed a complaint at the League of Nations accusing Japan of using poison gas in Shanghai. To this the Japanese accused them of using gas, specifically mentioning at the battle for Chenjiahang. Early in the campaign they accused the Chinese of using sneezing gas, a chemical adopted during WW1. To this accusation, Shanghai's mayor Yu Hongjun stated to reporters ‘The Japanese sneeze because they've got cold feet.” Back to our friend Ogishima with the 101st. His unit crossed the Wusong Creek early on. Afterwards the fighting became confused as the Chinese and Japanese started across 150 yards of no man's land. Every now and then the Japanese would leap out of trenches and charge into Chinese lines, but the attacks all ended the same. Rows of the dead cut down by machine guns. It was just like the western front of WW1. The incessant rain kept the trenches drenched like knee-deep bogs. Officers who had read about the western front routinely had their men line up for health checks. Anyone trying to fake a disease risked being branded a deserter, and deserters were shot. As Ogishima recalled “The soldiers in the frondine only have one thought on their minds. They want to escape to the rear. Everyone envies those who, with light injuries, are evacuated. The ones who unexpectedly get a ticket back in this way find it hard to conceal their joy. As for those left in the frontline, they have no idea if their death warrant has already been signed, and how much longer they have to live.” Nohara Teishin with the 9th division experienced pure hell fighting entrenched Chinese firing through holes in walls of abandoned farm buildings. Japanese officers urged their men to charge over open fields. Out of 200 men he fought with, 10 were able to fight after the battle. As Nohara recalled “All my friends died there. You can't begin to describe the wretchedness and misery of war.” Watanabe Wushichi, an officer in the 9th division was given orders to secure water supplies for the front line troops. A task that seemed simple enough given the sheer amount of creeks and ponds in the area. However they were all filled with corpses now. For many troops dying of thirst, it became so unbearable when anyone came across an unpolluted well, they would crown around it like zombies turning into a mud pool. Officers were forced to post guards at all discovered water sources. Watanabe was shocked by the Chinese fierceness in battle. At one point he was attacked pillboxes and upon inspecting the captured ones he was horrified to see how many Chinese bodies lay inside still clutching their rifles.  International outcry mounted over the invasion. On October 5th, president Franklin Roosevelt made a speech in Chicago calling for concrete steps to be taken against Japan. “It would seem to be unfortunately true that the epidemic of world lawlessness is spreading. When an epidemic of physical disease starts to spread the community approves and joins in a quarantine of the patients in order to protect the community against the spread of the disease.” Meanwhile Chiang Kai-Shek pushed the international community to sanction Japan and deprive her of oil, iron, steal, all materials needed for waging her illegal war. The League of Nations proved completely inept. On October 21st, Japanese foreign minister Hirota Koki approached the German ambassador in Tokyo, Herbert von Dirksen, asking if China was willing to negotiate. Germany declared she was willing to act as mediator, and to this Japan sent demands. Japan sought for Chinese concessions in north China and a demilitarized zone around Shanghai. Germany's ambassador to Nanjing, Oskar Trautmann conveyed this to Chiang Kai-Shek. Instead of replying Chiang asked the German what he thought. Trautmann said he considered the demands a basis for further talks and gave the example of what happened to his nation at the negotiating table during WW1. To this Chiang scoffed and made it clear he intended to restore the situation to its pre-hostile state before any talks.  Back at the front, Bai Chongxi planned his counterattack into the right flank of the Japanese. The attack was set for the 21st. The Guangxi troops at Chenjiahang were extricated and sent to assembly points. Matsui wrote in his diary on the 23rd “The enemy will launch a counterattack along the entire front tonight. It seems the planned attack is mainly targeted at the area south of Wusong Creek. It will give us an opportunity to catch the enemy outside of his prepared defenses, and kill him there. At 7pm the Chinese artillery began, an hour later troops were advancing east. The left wing of the Chinese attack, led by the 176th Guangxi Division north of Wusong Creek, initially advanced swiftly. However, it soon encountered significant obstacles, including numerous creeks and canals that disrupted progress. Concerned about supply trains lagging behind, the vanguard decided to relinquish much of the ground it had gained as dawn approached, hoping to reclaim it later that night. Meanwhile, the 174th Guangxi Division's assault south of Wusong Creek also struggled. It met unexpectedly strong resistance and had difficulty crossing the canals due to insufficient bridge-building materials. Fearing artillery and air attacks before dawn, this division retreated to its starting line, abandoning the hard-won territory from the previous night. Both divisions then dug in, preparing to withstand a counterattack during the daylight hours, when the Japanese forces could fully leverage their air superiority. As anticipated, the counterattack occurred after sunrise on October 22. In the 176th Division's sector, Japanese forces surrounded an entire battalion by noon, resulting in its complete destruction, including the battalion commander. The main success for the day came from a Guangxi unit that, despite facing an attack from Japanese infantry supported by five tanks, managed to hold its ground. Initially on the verge of collapse, they organized a rapid defense that repelled the Japanese assault. One tank was destroyed, two became stuck in a canal, and two others retreated, highlighting the challenges of tank warfare in the riverine terrain around Shanghai. An after-action report from the Guangxi troops read  “The Japanese enemy's army and air force employed every kind of weapon, from artillery to tanks and poison gas,” it said. “It hit the Chinese front like a hurricane, and resulted in the most horrific losses yet for the army group since it entered the battle.” As the sun rose on the 23rd, Japanese airplanes took to the skies. At 9:00 a.m., they targeted the already battered 174th Guangxi Division south of Wusong Creek. A Guangxi general who survived the assault recounted the devastation: “The troops were either blown to pieces or buried in their dugouts. The 174th disintegrated into a state of chaos.” Other units suffered similarly catastrophic losses. By the end of October 23, the Chinese operation had incurred heavy casualties, including two brigade commanders, six regimental commanders, and around 2,000 soldiers, with three out of every five troops in the first wave either killed or injured. Consequently, the assault had to be called off. Bai Chongxi's counterattack was a complete disaster. Many Guangxi veterans would hold grudges for years for what was seen as a senseless and hopeless battle.  Meanwhile in Zhabei Zhang Boting, the 27th year old chief of staff of the 88th division came to the headquarters of General Gu Zhutong, urging him to move to a safer location, only to be told “Chiang Kai-shek wants your division to stay in Zhabei and fight. Every company, every platoon, every squad is to defend key buildings in the city area, and villages in the suburbs. You must fight for every inch of land and make the enemy pay a high price. You should launch guerrilla warfare, to win time and gain sympathy among our friends abroad.” The command had more to do with diplomacy than any battlefield strategy. The Nine-Powers Conference was set for Brussels the following week and it was important China kept a spectacle going on in Shanghai for the foreigners. If the war advanced into lesser known hamlets in the countryside there would be no talk amongst the great powers. To this explanation Zhang Boting replied “Outside o f the streets of Zhabei, the suburbs consist o f flat land with little opportunity for cover. It's not suitable for guerrilla warfare. The idea o f defending small key points is also difficult. The 88th Division has so far had reinforcements and replacements six times, and the original core of officers and soldiers now make up only 20 to 30 percent. It's like a cup o f tea. If you keep adding water, it becomes thinner and thinner. Some of the new soldiers we receive have never been in a battle, or never even fired a shot. At the moment we rely on the backbone o f old soldiers to train them while fighting. As long as the command system is in place and we can use the old hands to provide leadership, we'll be able to maintain the division as a fighting force. But if we divide up the unit, the coherence will be lost. Letting every unit fight its own fight will just add to the trouble.” Zhang Boting then rushed east to the 88th divisional HQ inside the Sihang Warehouse laying just across from the International settlement. Here a final stand would be made and whose participants would be known as the 800 heroes, but that's a story for a later podcast.  Zhang Boting had returned to his HQ on October 26th, by then the Shanghai situation had deteriorated dramatically. The stalemate around Wusong Creek had suddenly collapsed. The IJA 9th division broke the Guangxi forces and now Matsui planned for a major drive south against Dachang. Before he even had time to meet with his colleagues the 3rd and 9th divisions reached Zoumatang Creek, which ran west to east two miles south of Wusong Creek. In preparation for the continued advance, the Japanese began dropping leaflets over the Chinese positions. Each one offered the soldiers who laid down their arms 5 Chinese yuan each, roughly half a US dollar each at the time. This did not meet much results, as the Chinese knew the Japanese rarely took prisoners. Instead the Guangxi troops continued to retreat after a brutal week of combat. Most of them were moving to prepared positions north and south of the Suzhou Creek, the last remaining natural obstacle to stop the Japanese conquest of Shanghai. In the early hours of the 25th the Japanese gradually realized the Chinese were withdrawing. The Japanese unleashed hundreds of aircraft and employed creeping barrages with their artillery. This may have been the first instance they employed such WW1 tactics during the campaign. The barrage was kept 700 yards in front of the advancing Japanese forces, giving the Chinese ample time to emerge from cover and re-man positions they had abandoned under artillery fire. Despite a general withdrawal, the Chinese also mounted a strong defense around Dachang.  Two strategic bridges across Zoumatang Creek, located west of Dachang, were defended by one division each. The 33rd Division, a recent arrival in Shanghai, was tasked with securing the westernmost bridge, Old Man Bridge, while the 18th Division, also newly arrived, was stationed near Little Stone Bridge, closer to Dachang. However, neither division was capable of stopping the advancing Japanese forces. On October 25, a Japanese column, led by more than 20 tanks, overwhelmed the 33rd Division's defenses and captured Old Man Bridge. As the Chinese division attempted a fighting retreat toward Dachang, it suffered severe casualties due to superior Japanese firepower. By mid-afternoon, only one in ten of its officers and soldiers remained fit for combat, and even the division commander had been wounded. The Japanese force then advanced to Little Stone Bridge, and after intense fighting with the 18th Division that lasted until sunset, they captured the bridge as well. Meanwhile, the 18th Division fell back into Dachang, where their commander, Zhu Yaohua, received a blunt order from Gu Zhutong to hold Dachang at all costs, warning that disobedience would lead to court-martial. Concerned that losing Little Stone Bridge might already jeopardize his position, Zhu Yaohua quickly organized a nighttime counterattack to reclaim it. However, the Japanese had anticipated this move and fortified their defenses near the bridge, leading to a disastrous failure for the Chinese. On October 26, the Japanese unleashed all available resources in an all-out assault on Dachang. The town had been nearly reduced to rubble, with only the ancient wall remaining as evidence of its former population. Up to 400 airplanes, including heavy bombers, targeted Chinese troops in and around Dachang, causing significant casualties among both soldiers and pack animals. A Western correspondent watching from afar described it as the “fiercest battle ever waged in Asia up to that time. A tempest of steel unleashed by Japanese planes, which flew leisurely overhead while observation balloons guided them to their targets. The curtain of fire never lifted for a moment from the Chinese trenches”. Following the aerial assault, more than 40 Japanese tanks emerged west of Dachang. The Chinese forces found themselves defenseless against this formidable armored column, as they had already relocated their artillery to safer positions behind the front lines. Left to fend for themselves, the Chinese infantry was quickly overwhelmed by the advancing wall of enemy tanks. The defending divisions, including Zhu Yaohua's 18th Division, stood no chance against such material superiority and were swiftly crushed. After a brief skirmish, the victorious Japanese forces marched in to claim Dachang, which had become a sea of flames. Matsui observed the scene with deep satisfaction as the Rising Sun banner flew over the smoldering ruins of the town. “After a month of bitter fighting, today we have finally seen the pay-off,”. In stark contrast, Zhu Yaohua faced immediate criticism from his superiors and peers, many of whom believed he could have done more to resist the Japanese onslaught. The weight of this humiliation became unbearable for him. Just two days after his defeat at Dachang, he shot himself in the chest ending his life. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. In late September, the Battle of Shanghai intensified as Japanese forces surged with reinforcements, pressing against Chinese defenses in Luodian. Amidst chaos, Japanese soldiers like Ogishima fought bravely in the trenches, witnessing unimaginable carnage. As October began, the battle's brutality escalated, with waves of attacks resulting in devastating casualties on both sides. However, the Chinese forces showcased remarkable resilience, adapting their strategies and fortifying defenses, marking a significant chapter in their struggle for sovereignty against overwhelming odds.  

Kirsten Dirksen, An Unexpected Career as a YouTube Home & Lifestyle Content Creator Show Notes: Kirsten Dirksen majored in economics and math, but found creative writing to be her passion. She decided to become a magazine writer and interned at the NBC affiliate in San Francisco, where she worked for free for about nine months. Working at NBC and Moving a Women's Network After her internship, she went to work with the NBC elite, which was the old chronicle enterprise. Kirsten became the music person, interviewing bands and creating unique stories for interviews. She eventually moved to New York City to work for Oxygen, a women's network. She then worked freelance in New York City and for other networks, including MTV, where she did music-themed stories. She worked freelance for a while, and the Sundance Channel took her to Spain to do an interview with Javier Bardem. She later met her husband in Barcelona. Reality T.V. and Early YouTube Videos Throughout her career, Kirsten has been passionate about storytelling and experimenting with different topics. She started working with an old Oxygen producer in Spain to film weddings for a reality show called The Knot. They traveled to various locations, and Kirsten edited the shows which took around five weeks to complete. However, when her husband started a website about environmental sustainability, together they made videos and put them on YouTube. The first viral video was about a  micro apartment in New York. The video was picked up and shared on La Republica's homepage. This led to the story being picked up by Good Morning, America. We the Tiny House People and 20 Million Views After videos going viral in 2009, Kirsten and her husband continued posting YouTube videos. Since then she has done about five or six documentaries, with one being a taste-style documentary about the tiny house movement. The other two are family-based, chronicling the tiny house movement and the summer of family love. She has also done documentaries on homelessness, focusing on the experiences of homeless people in California. Kirsten's videos have gained popularity, with her first one being called We the Tiny House People, chronicling the tiny house movement. The second one, Our Summer of Family Love,  was a road trip across the Pacific Northwest and West for the summer. Her other documentaries have focused on homelessness, focusing on solutions and solutions for those living in small homes. Her videos have gained attention and have been viewed over 20 million times on YouTube. She has also been a guest on the show The Tiny House People,  where she shares her experiences with tiny house movements and the challenges faced by homeless people. From Documentarian to Author Kirsten  began in a formal documentary unit in San Francisco and has since focused on documentaries and tours of tiny homes. Her book, Life-Changing Homes, is titled after these homes, which she believes sum up the stories they tell. The books are categorized into 10 chapters, each with a theme that focuses on simplicity, slowness, impermanence, elevation, restoration, underground survival, resurrection, and future. The book covers a variety of houses, from simple to large, and features thought-provoking chapter headings that cover two or three different houses that fit that theme. Each chapter covers about two or three different houses that fit that theme, and Kirsten interviews the owner. The focus is not on a specific category or type of house, but rather on the story itself. Kirsten's work has been praised for its stunning photos and focus on eco-friendly designs, making it an attractive resource for those interested in living in tiny homes. The book is expected to be a valuable resource for those interested in exploring these unique and sustainable living options. The People Who Live in Non-Traditional Dwellings Kirsten discusses the experiences of interviewing people in non-traditional dwellings, such as those in Ontario and California. She highlights the importance of considering what one truly needs out of a home and what skills they have. Some examples include a widow who built a dome home in Ontario, where she had a refrigerator that pops up like a gadget in Willy Wonka's factory. Another example is a chiropractor who bought land near the border of Oregon and started building a tree house and an earth ship along the way. He has a community of people living there. She also mentions the chief architect for Apple who has a small, open home in Sonoma County. He lived on the land first, but then went camping to find the best place to live. He bought two prefabs and kept everything small, with only the bathroom having a bit of a door. His wife and kids enjoyed the openness and connection to the surroundings. Kirsten emphasizes that it's not just about affordability, but also about making the most sense of the space. Sometimes too big houses can be worse than not having the views or being in touch with the surroundings. This is why she came back to the idea of living in a small, open space. The Importance of Simplicity  The conversation turns to Thoreau and his way of thinking about time in nature, simplicity, and well-being. Kirsten discusses the importance of simplicity in her life and how it can impact her content creation. She also mentions a couple who live in the woods called the innermost house, which they call a place to reflect and experiment in simplicity. She talks about the connection between simplicity and high thinking, as seen in a woman who lived in a tiny house in her backyard in Santa Rosa, California back at a time when it was rebellious to live in a tiny, mobile home. Kirsten mentions how the woman found too many possessions cluttered her mind.  Viral Videos and Duds Kirsten shares her experiences with videos that go viral and which ones are more of a dud. One example is a story with a young architect living in a 12th-century mansion in Spain. Another example is a video with Special Operations, a flying car from an off-grid home, which has had 700,000 views in a week. The title of the video is "Special Operations," which is about a special operations vet who lives on land at the top of a mountain and works as a rescue mission and firefighters. Kirsten shares her experience of becoming a content creator and how it has changed her outlook on life and making a living. It wasn't something she planned; however, it has given her a lot of freedom and afforded her an income that allows her to make a living. Plain Living and High Thinking The conversation turns to the process of making a video, including filming, editing, and producing the perfect thumbnail. Kirsten and her husband usually spend two to three hours at a house or location.  The couple also film themselves during their stay, going on runs and shooting in the morning. Kirsten shares stories from many of the productions and the diverse and interesting people she has met along the way. She talks about what motivates and inspires these people to think and live differently. Influential Harvard Professors and Courses Kirsten discusses her experience with Verlyn Klinkenborg whose direction inspired her work back then and today.  Timestamps: 02:22 Internship at NBC and Early Career in Television  06:26: Transition to Freelancing and YouTube  11:03: Growth of YouTube Channel and Documentary Work  11:14: Discovering Unique Homes and Themes for Documentaries  11:36: Impact of Unique Living Spaces on Individuals  30:59: Challenges and Surprises in Content Creation  42:58: Balancing Work and Personal Life  43:09: Influence of Harvard Professors and Writing  Links: Book: https://www.abramsbooks.com/product/life-changing-homes_9781419771897/ Press page: https://faircompanies.com/media-kit/ Channel https://youtube.com/kirstendirksen Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kirsten.dirksen/ YouTube: Summer of (Family) Love https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Iti4JU5ObU We the Tiny House People https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDcVrVA4bSQ Trapped in paradise: how we got the homeless situation (part 1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5XIljwl5hI     Featured Non-profit: The featured non-profit of this episode of The 92 Report is recommended by Eleanor Stafford who reports: “Hi. I'm Eleanor Stafford, class of 1992. The featured nonprofit of this episode of The 92 report is Literacy Volunteers of Massachusetts. LVM is a statewide organization that trains volunteers to provide free, confidential and individualized tutoring to adults in basic literacy and or ESL. I have been the lead basic literacy volunteer trainer for about 20 years now, and have managed the Boston affiliate for the past two years. You can learn more about LVM's work at lvm.org and now here is Will Bachmann for this week's episode.” To learn more about their work, visit: www.lvm.org.

05/15/25: Fargo Fire Chief Steve Dirksen decided to move up his retirement. Originally planning to retire July 4, he now says his last day will be tomorrow, May 16th. He joins Joel Heitkamp at the KFGO studio to talk about his time in Fargo and as the Chief, and shares some stories from along the way. (Joel Heitkamp is a talk show host on the Mighty 790 KFGO in Fargo-Moorhead. His award-winning program, “News & Views,” can be heard weekdays from 8 – 11 a.m. Follow Joel on X/Twitter @JoelKFGO.)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sportvereine möchten nachhaltig handeln, doch oft stehen sie vor der Herausforderung, wie sie ökologische Massnahmen mit begrenzten Ressourcen und im laufenden Vereinsalltag umsetzen können. Die gute Nachricht: Schon kleine Veränderungen können eine grosse Wirkung haben – sowohl für die Umwelt als auch für den Verein. In dieser Podcast-Folge beleuchten wir, wie Sportvereine ihren ökologischen Fussabdruck reduzieren können.Hier geht's zum ergänzenden Infodossier auf unserer Website.

Zach Dirksen (Fool's Gold Variety Hour) joins us to talk about 2023's overlooked Jason Statham movie Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre.  It's a weird movie that nobody noticed, but it's super fun, even if you want it to just generally be better. We also talk about Daredevil and Blank Check more than you might expect. Or exactly as much as you'd expect, given how things usually go around here.

I'd LOVE to hear from you! Now you can send a TEXT MESSAGE! Be sure to leave your contact EMAIL so I can return your message!In this episode of the "My DPC Story Podcast," we hear from Dr. Rachael Dirksen, founder of Remedy Internal Medicine, as she shares about her transition to Direct Primary Care (DPC). Dr. Dirksen shares her compelling journey from a rural upbringing in Charlotte, Iowa, through her medical training and career challenges, ultimately leading her to the DPC model for its patient-centric approach. Highlights include her experiences with AmeriCorps VISTA, the struggle with a $50,000 non-compete, and the value she found in building long-term patient relationships, something that helped keep her going during her fight to get out of her non-compete. Dr. Dirksen discusses the financial feasibility and transparency of DPC compared to traditional fee-for-service practices, and how her DPC practice supports a broad patient demographic, particularly older adults who appreciate the personalized care. The episode underscores the growing appeal and viability of the DPC model, advocating for physicians to seek happier, more fulfilling careers outside insurance-driven constraints. For more insights, subscribe, leave reviews, and explore exclusive content on Patreon. Stay updated on DPC news and resources through dpcnews.com.This episode is brought to you by DrChrono, powered by EverHealth—the #1 mobile, all-in-one EHR solution. Visit drchrono.com/freetrial and discover how easy it can be! Meet DECENT! What the DPC Community has been waiting for - the company building health plans AROUND Direct Primary Care. Learn more about Decent by visiting Decent.com/DPC FREE 1 month trial - HEIDI HEALTH PRO: As Individualized As Your DPC.Support the showBe A My DPC Story PATREON MEMBER! SPONSOR THE PODMy DPC Story VOICEMAIL! DPC SWAG!FACEBOOK * INSTAGRAM * LinkedIn * TWITTER * TIKTOK * YouTube

What if the key to success in the shed industry lies in community, commitment, and a little bit of AI magic? Join us for an engaging conversation with Brian Cope from Patriot Portable Buildings, as we uncover his fascinating journey from building sheds in Graves County, Kentucky, to becoming a leading dealer of portable buildings and carports. Brian's rich experiences with renowned companies like Dirksen and Graceland Portable Buildings offer a unique perspective on the evolution of the shed industry, enriched by personal stories and professional insights.Discover the powerful role of community in the face of adversity, through a touching narrative of resilience following a devastating tornado. From lending a generator to leading a significant fundraising effort, we explore how acts of kindness can spark broader relief efforts and demonstrate the strength of community bonds. Alongside these stories, we discuss the importance of authenticity, passion, and teamwork in achieving success, and how work ethics shaped by agricultural roots and large families underpin the shed industry.As we explore the future of the shed business, we touch on marketing strategies, the role of AI in shaping industry standards, and the influence of brand loyalty and customer trust. Brian sheds light on the significance of commitment in dealership and the power of reviews and referrals, alongside the contributions of key industry figures in expanding from sheds to trailers. This episode is packed with insights for anyone interested in the shed industry or entrepreneurship, and offers a heartfelt appreciation for the teamwork and support that fuel professional achievements.For more information or to know more about the Shed Geek Podcast visit us at our website.Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube at the handle @shedgeekpodcast.To be a guest on the Shed Geek Podcast visit our website and fill out the "Contact Us" form.To suggest show topics or ask questions you want answered email us at info@shedgeek.com.This episodes Sponsors:Studio Sponsor: Union Grove LumberMy ShedShed HubDigital Shed BuilderiFABCAL

In der elften Folge von Informatik für die moderne Hausfrau spreche ich mit Alexandra Dirksen über Verschlüsselung und sichere Datenübertragung. Alexandra erklärt euch, was ein Schlüsselaustausch ist und wie der dafür sorgt, dass niemand die Nachrichten mitlesen kann, die wir mit verschiedenen Messenger-Apps verschicken. Außerdem sprechen wir über HTTPS (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure, bekannt aus Links wie https://informatik-hausfrau.de) und darüber, was die sogenannten Zertifikate damit zu tun haben. Alexandra gibt euch zudem Einblicke in ihre Forschung, in der sie Indizien dafür sucht, dass bestimmte autoritäre Staaten diese Sicherheitsmechanismen umgehen und auf diese Weise die Kommunikation ihrer Bürger*innen überwachen oder sogar beeinflussen. Wir sprechen außerdem über Alexandras eher ungewöhnlichen Karriereweg, der sie von einer Ausbildung bis hin zum Promotionsstudium führte, und über ihre ebenso ungewöhnliche Freizeitgestaltung als Mitglied verschiedener Metal-Bands. In diesem Zusammenhang machen wir uns auch Gedanken dazu, was der MINT-Bereich und der (Black) Metal gemeinsam haben. Informationen zu Alexandra Dirksen sowie Kontaktmöglichkeiten findet ihr auf ihrer Webseite: https://www.tu-braunschweig.de/ias/staff/alexandra-dirksen Zum Instagram-Account der Band Rană, in der Alexandra spielt, geht es hier: https://www.instagram.com/ranahordes Musik von Rană könnt ihr u.a. hier streamen: https://open.spotify.com/intl-de/artist/4QTaa847bLVRFskaVOO3IR Den Instagram-Account einer anderen, noch recht jungen Band, in der Alexandra spielt, findet ihr hier: https://www.instagram.com/jaeh_zorn Zur Podcast-Episode von "Über Stock, Stein und Startups", in der ich zu Gast war, gelangt ihr über diesen Link: https://ideenwald-oekosystem.de/informieren/podcast/ Hinweis 1: Es besteht die Möglichkeit, in Informatik für die moderne Hausfrau Werbung zu schalten. Bei Interesse kontaktiert mich bitte unter mail@informatik-hausfrau.de. Hinweis 2: Diese Folge ist aus gesundheitlichen Gründen ausnahmsweise mittwochs erschienen. Der Erscheinungstermin hat jedoch keine Auswirkungen auf die kommenden Folgen - diese erscheinen wie gewohnt dienstags. Alle Informationen zum Podcast findet ihr auf der zugehörigen Webseite https://www.informatik-hausfrau.de. Zur Kontaktaufnahme schreibt mir gerne eine Mail an mail@informatik-hausfrau.de oder meldet euch über Social Media. Auf Twitter, Instagram und Bluesky ist der Podcast unter dem Handle @informatikfrau (bzw. @informatikfrau.bsky.social) zu finden.  Wenn euch dieser Podcast gefällt, abonniert ihn doch bitte und hinterlasst eine positive Bewertung, um ihm zu mehr Sichtbarkeit zu verhelfen.  Falls ihr die Produktion des Podcasts finanziell unterstützen möchtet, habt ihr die Möglichkeit, dies über die Plattform Steady zu tun. Weitere Informationen dazu sind hier zu finden: https://steadyhq.com/de/informatikfrau Falls ihr mir auf anderem Wege etwas 'in den Hut werfen' möchtet, ist dies (auch ohne Registrierung) über die Plattform Ko-fi möglich: https://ko-fi.com/leaschoenberger Dieser Podcast wird gefördert durch das Kulturbüro der Stadt Dortmund.

The show continues from Green on Dirksen for the Giant Labor Day Overstock Tent Sale as Mike Quimby stops by after Mark Selvaggio of morning sponsor Selvaggio Steel. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Green on Dirksen's Giant Labor Day Overstock Tent Sale is underway as Mike Quimby visits with the guys.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Was die „Deutsche Malerei“ zwischen 1874 und 1924 ist, lässt sich gar nicht so genau beantworten und hängt von der herrschenden Kanonisierung ab. Daher ist es spannend, sich vergangene Bewertungen anzuschauen. Wie gut, dass im Jahre 1924 in München eine Ausstellung mit dem Titel „Die Deutsche Malerei in den letzten 50 Jahren“ gezeigt wurde, von der das Hamburger Fremdenblatt vom 21. August 1924 berichtete. Für das Blatt hatte der Kunsthistoriker Victor Dirksen diese Zusammenstellung besucht die dortige Auswahl reflektiert. Dirksen hatte in Berlin studiert und fand 1919 Anstellung als Assistent und wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter der Hamburger Kunsthalle. Und eigentlich erfahren wir dann doch mehr über die Vorlieben des Kunstkritikers, als über den Kanon des Museums, da dieser weite Teile der Moderne in seinem Bericht ausklammert. Rosa Leu liest für uns diesen 100 Jahre alten Rückblick.

Pella Christian Grade School Principal Ben Dirksen previews the upcoming academic year.

In this Human Capital Lab podcast episode, we sit down with Ana Dirksen, Chief Growth Officer and co-founder of Better Work Media Group (BMG). Ana discusses BMG's legacy programs, new ventures, and the transformation of talent development post-pandemic. She highlights their renowned CLO Symposium, new virtual CXO practitioner membership, and upcoming initiatives like the CXO Academy. Ana emphasizes BMG's focus on senior-level L&D leaders, their specialized content, and the importance of networking and community among talent professionals. She also invites practitioners to engage with BMG's offerings through newsletters, events, and their Learning and Talent Insights article series. 00:36 Introducing Ana Dirksen from Better Work Media Group 01:03 Ana Dirksen's Professional Journey 02:42 Better Work Media Group: Legacy and New Ventures 05:39 Networking and Community Building at BMG 11:30 Virtual and In-Person Events at BMG 16:03 Opportunities for Practitioners at BMG 22:06 Future Plans and Innovations at BMG 24:35 Closing Remarks and Contact Information Thank you for joining us on the Human Capital Lab podcast journey. We hope you found inspiration and valuable insights from today's discussions. Be sure to share this episode with your colleagues and friends, and stay tuned for our exciting new season. Remember, continuous learning is the key to unlocking the long-term potential of human capital. Connect with the Guests: Ana Dirksen;LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anadirksen/ Website: https://www.betterworkmedia.com Other Resources: https://events.chieftalentofficer.co/2024-chief-talent-officer-summit https://www.chieflearningofficer.com/ Connect with Human Capital Lab; Host: Rich Douglas LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rich-douglas-92b71b52/ Human Captial Lab Links Website: https://humancapitallab.org/ Interested in Being a Guest? https://humancapitallab.org/podcast/ This is a Growth Network Podcasts production.

The U.S. Senate is so sharply polarized along partisan and ideological lines today that it's easy to believe it was always this way. But in the turbulent 1960s, even as battles over civil rights and the war in Vietnam dominated American politics, bipartisanship often prevailed. One key reason: two remarkable leaders who remain giants of the Senate--Republican leader Everett Dirksen of Illinois and Democratic leader Mike Mansfield of Montana, the longest-serving majority leader in Senate history, so revered for his integrity, fairness, and modesty that the late Washington Post reporter David Broder called him "the greatest American I ever met." The political and personal relationship of these party leaders, extraordinary by today's standards, is the lens through which Marc C. Johnson examines in Mansfield and Dirksen: Bipartisan Giants of the Senate (U Oklahoma Press, 2023). Working together, with the Democrat often ceding public leadership to his Republican counterpart, Mansfield and Dirksen passed landmark civil rights and voting rights legislation, created Medicare, and helped bring about a foundational nuclear arms limitation treaty. The two leaders could not have been more different in personality and style: Mansfield, a laconic, soft-spoken, almost shy college history professor, and Dirksen, an aspiring actor known for his flamboyance and sense of humor, dubbed the "Wizard of Ooze" by reporters. Drawing on extensive Senate archives, Johnson explores the congressional careers of these iconic leaders, their intimate relationships with Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, and their own close professional friendship based on respect, candor, and mutual affection. A study of politics but also an analysis of different approaches to leadership, this is a portrait of a U.S. Senate that no longer exists--one in which two leaders, while exercising partisan political responsibilities, could still come together to pass groundbreaking legislation--and a reminder of what is possible. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

The U.S. Senate is so sharply polarized along partisan and ideological lines today that it's easy to believe it was always this way. But in the turbulent 1960s, even as battles over civil rights and the war in Vietnam dominated American politics, bipartisanship often prevailed. One key reason: two remarkable leaders who remain giants of the Senate--Republican leader Everett Dirksen of Illinois and Democratic leader Mike Mansfield of Montana, the longest-serving majority leader in Senate history, so revered for his integrity, fairness, and modesty that the late Washington Post reporter David Broder called him "the greatest American I ever met." The political and personal relationship of these party leaders, extraordinary by today's standards, is the lens through which Marc C. Johnson examines in Mansfield and Dirksen: Bipartisan Giants of the Senate (U Oklahoma Press, 2023). Working together, with the Democrat often ceding public leadership to his Republican counterpart, Mansfield and Dirksen passed landmark civil rights and voting rights legislation, created Medicare, and helped bring about a foundational nuclear arms limitation treaty. The two leaders could not have been more different in personality and style: Mansfield, a laconic, soft-spoken, almost shy college history professor, and Dirksen, an aspiring actor known for his flamboyance and sense of humor, dubbed the "Wizard of Ooze" by reporters. Drawing on extensive Senate archives, Johnson explores the congressional careers of these iconic leaders, their intimate relationships with Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, and their own close professional friendship based on respect, candor, and mutual affection. A study of politics but also an analysis of different approaches to leadership, this is a portrait of a U.S. Senate that no longer exists--one in which two leaders, while exercising partisan political responsibilities, could still come together to pass groundbreaking legislation--and a reminder of what is possible. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

The U.S. Senate is so sharply polarized along partisan and ideological lines today that it's easy to believe it was always this way. But in the turbulent 1960s, even as battles over civil rights and the war in Vietnam dominated American politics, bipartisanship often prevailed. One key reason: two remarkable leaders who remain giants of the Senate--Republican leader Everett Dirksen of Illinois and Democratic leader Mike Mansfield of Montana, the longest-serving majority leader in Senate history, so revered for his integrity, fairness, and modesty that the late Washington Post reporter David Broder called him "the greatest American I ever met." The political and personal relationship of these party leaders, extraordinary by today's standards, is the lens through which Marc C. Johnson examines in Mansfield and Dirksen: Bipartisan Giants of the Senate (U Oklahoma Press, 2023). Working together, with the Democrat often ceding public leadership to his Republican counterpart, Mansfield and Dirksen passed landmark civil rights and voting rights legislation, created Medicare, and helped bring about a foundational nuclear arms limitation treaty. The two leaders could not have been more different in personality and style: Mansfield, a laconic, soft-spoken, almost shy college history professor, and Dirksen, an aspiring actor known for his flamboyance and sense of humor, dubbed the "Wizard of Ooze" by reporters. Drawing on extensive Senate archives, Johnson explores the congressional careers of these iconic leaders, their intimate relationships with Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, and their own close professional friendship based on respect, candor, and mutual affection. A study of politics but also an analysis of different approaches to leadership, this is a portrait of a U.S. Senate that no longer exists--one in which two leaders, while exercising partisan political responsibilities, could still come together to pass groundbreaking legislation--and a reminder of what is possible. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/political-science

The U.S. Senate is so sharply polarized along partisan and ideological lines today that it's easy to believe it was always this way. But in the turbulent 1960s, even as battles over civil rights and the war in Vietnam dominated American politics, bipartisanship often prevailed. One key reason: two remarkable leaders who remain giants of the Senate--Republican leader Everett Dirksen of Illinois and Democratic leader Mike Mansfield of Montana, the longest-serving majority leader in Senate history, so revered for his integrity, fairness, and modesty that the late Washington Post reporter David Broder called him "the greatest American I ever met." The political and personal relationship of these party leaders, extraordinary by today's standards, is the lens through which Marc C. Johnson examines in Mansfield and Dirksen: Bipartisan Giants of the Senate (U Oklahoma Press, 2023). Working together, with the Democrat often ceding public leadership to his Republican counterpart, Mansfield and Dirksen passed landmark civil rights and voting rights legislation, created Medicare, and helped bring about a foundational nuclear arms limitation treaty. The two leaders could not have been more different in personality and style: Mansfield, a laconic, soft-spoken, almost shy college history professor, and Dirksen, an aspiring actor known for his flamboyance and sense of humor, dubbed the "Wizard of Ooze" by reporters. Drawing on extensive Senate archives, Johnson explores the congressional careers of these iconic leaders, their intimate relationships with Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, and their own close professional friendship based on respect, candor, and mutual affection. A study of politics but also an analysis of different approaches to leadership, this is a portrait of a U.S. Senate that no longer exists--one in which two leaders, while exercising partisan political responsibilities, could still come together to pass groundbreaking legislation--and a reminder of what is possible. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biography

The U.S. Senate is so sharply polarized along partisan and ideological lines today that it's easy to believe it was always this way. But in the turbulent 1960s, even as battles over civil rights and the war in Vietnam dominated American politics, bipartisanship often prevailed. One key reason: two remarkable leaders who remain giants of the Senate--Republican leader Everett Dirksen of Illinois and Democratic leader Mike Mansfield of Montana, the longest-serving majority leader in Senate history, so revered for his integrity, fairness, and modesty that the late Washington Post reporter David Broder called him "the greatest American I ever met." The political and personal relationship of these party leaders, extraordinary by today's standards, is the lens through which Marc C. Johnson examines in Mansfield and Dirksen: Bipartisan Giants of the Senate (U Oklahoma Press, 2023). Working together, with the Democrat often ceding public leadership to his Republican counterpart, Mansfield and Dirksen passed landmark civil rights and voting rights legislation, created Medicare, and helped bring about a foundational nuclear arms limitation treaty. The two leaders could not have been more different in personality and style: Mansfield, a laconic, soft-spoken, almost shy college history professor, and Dirksen, an aspiring actor known for his flamboyance and sense of humor, dubbed the "Wizard of Ooze" by reporters. Drawing on extensive Senate archives, Johnson explores the congressional careers of these iconic leaders, their intimate relationships with Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, and their own close professional friendship based on respect, candor, and mutual affection. A study of politics but also an analysis of different approaches to leadership, this is a portrait of a U.S. Senate that no longer exists--one in which two leaders, while exercising partisan political responsibilities, could still come together to pass groundbreaking legislation--and a reminder of what is possible. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

The U.S. Senate is so sharply polarized along partisan and ideological lines today that it's easy to believe it was always this way. But in the turbulent 1960s, even as battles over civil rights and the war in Vietnam dominated American politics, bipartisanship often prevailed. One key reason: two remarkable leaders who remain giants of the Senate--Republican leader Everett Dirksen of Illinois and Democratic leader Mike Mansfield of Montana, the longest-serving majority leader in Senate history, so revered for his integrity, fairness, and modesty that the late Washington Post reporter David Broder called him "the greatest American I ever met." The political and personal relationship of these party leaders, extraordinary by today's standards, is the lens through which Marc C. Johnson examines in Mansfield and Dirksen: Bipartisan Giants of the Senate (U Oklahoma Press, 2023). Working together, with the Democrat often ceding public leadership to his Republican counterpart, Mansfield and Dirksen passed landmark civil rights and voting rights legislation, created Medicare, and helped bring about a foundational nuclear arms limitation treaty. The two leaders could not have been more different in personality and style: Mansfield, a laconic, soft-spoken, almost shy college history professor, and Dirksen, an aspiring actor known for his flamboyance and sense of humor, dubbed the "Wizard of Ooze" by reporters. Drawing on extensive Senate archives, Johnson explores the congressional careers of these iconic leaders, their intimate relationships with Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, and their own close professional friendship based on respect, candor, and mutual affection. A study of politics but also an analysis of different approaches to leadership, this is a portrait of a U.S. Senate that no longer exists--one in which two leaders, while exercising partisan political responsibilities, could still come together to pass groundbreaking legislation--and a reminder of what is possible. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this weeks episode, Rich and Mike sit down with Kentucky-based tattooer Lauren Dirksen to talk about Laurens journey in tattooing, red flags and green flags within finding an apprenticeship, what it means to work in a shop that is conducive to growth and care for an artist, and so much more. Tune in to hangout for the newest episode of Pull The Line.

Hi everybody and welcome to today's episode of Attendance Bias. I am your host, Brian Weinstein. I am ecstatic to introduce today's episode, as it features both a knowledgeable guest who is well known within certain circles of the Phish community, and a thorough, wide-ranging discussion about three of the greatest improvisational rock concerts ever played: Phil and Friends at the Warfield Theater in San Francisco on April 15, 16, and 17, 1999.While not a Phish show, or even a Grateful Dead show, this run of concerts was a milestone for both bands. Not only was it the first time that members of the two major jambands shared a stage, it's notable that songs from both Phish and the Grateful Dead were played over the three nights. I've been listening to these shows since soon after they were played and they haven't aged a day. When Charlie Dirksen of Phish.net and The Mockingbird Foundation volunteered to discuss them and tell about what it was like to actually be there, I couldn't wait to hear about it. These shows have lived in my head for over 20 years, so to hear a first-person account of what they were like made for one of my favorite conversations I've ever had for this podcast.This episode easily could have been three hours long–every time a song was mentioned, it took a lot of willpower on my end not to insert yet another music clip. But there was so much to discuss before we even get to the music. Let's join Charlie to chat about his responsibilities at Phish.net, Steve Kimock's guitar wizardy, and where John Molo fits into everything, as we break down Phil and Friends from April 15, 16, and 17 at the Warfield Theater, in San Francisco, CA.

In dieser Episode diskutieren Dr. Till Weishaupt und Christoph Dirksen die Anpassungsfähigkeit von Pflanzen an Hitze, die steigende Nachfrage nach klimaresilienten Pflanzen, zukunftsfähige Sortimente und deren Pflege sowie die Langzeitplanung bei Baumschulen.

An interview with Marc C. Johnson, author of Mansfield and Dirksen: Bipartisan Giants of the Senate. The book highlights two Senate leaders whose commitment to bipartisanship lead to the passage of groundbreaking legislation, even in tumultuous times.

Majority Leader Mike Mansfield and Minority Leader Everett Dirksen, with opposing parties, leadership styles, and personalities, were two of the most impactful figures in America in the 1960s. During a period of political turmoil--global superpowers on the brink of nuclear war, the assassinations of JFK, RFK, and MLK Jr., war, and racial strife--two men from different parties shepherded monumental legislation (the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the Great Society, etc.) through the Senate with bipartisan consensus. How did they pull it off?   In this episode, we talk with author and historian Marc Johnson about these two men, their leadership styles, their relationship with each other (and with Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson), and their accomplishments. Importantly, though, we talk about whether or not it's possible in today's political environment to do what they did the way they did it. We talk about the lessons that political leaders, including those in Oregon politics, can learn from these two men--and how specifically their approach might have been fundamentally different than most politicians' today.    If you enjoy The Oregon Bridge podcast, you will love this book ("Mansfield and Dirksen: Bipartisan Giants of the Senate"). For young people who have only ever known a dysfunctional Congress, it's a beautiful portrait of two fascinating leaders who guided the US Senate during turbulent times. For everyone, it's a reminder of what's possible when exceptional leaders use political power to solve big problems.

07/17/23: Joel Heitkamp and Tyler Axness are joined in the KFGO studio by the Fargo Fire Chief, Steve Dirksen, to have a conversation about the shooting in Fargo last Friday.  Officer Jake Wallin, 23, was killed. Officers Andrew Dotas and Tyler Hawes were critically injured by the gunfire. Fargo Police said they are both currently in critical, but stable condition at a local healthcare facility. The incident happened shortly before 3 p.m. on Friday and within minutes dozens of officers and several ambulances arrived at the scene. Local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies also assisted. A total of five people were hit by gunfire – three officers, a bystander, and the shooter. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

05/31/23: Joel Heitkamp and Jack Michaels are joined by the Fargo Fire Chief, Steve Dirksen, to talk about everything from firework safety to their new recruits. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Philip is one of the co-founders of the Pursuit Conference with a vision of uniting young adults in their pursuit of Jesus.  https://www.thepursuitmn.com

What is the Role of Music in Haitian Culture? Ethnomusicologist Dr. Rebecca Dirksen provides some answers. Don't forget to check out her book to get a fuller treatment of what she disccusses briefly here in Konesans: "After the Dance, the Drums Are Heavy. Carnival, Politics, and Musical Engagement in Haiti." --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/negmawonpodcast/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/negmawonpodcast/support

In this episode you will get to see how the sausage is made. We feature several phone calls between two of the nation's consummate legislators, Lyndon Johnson, 36th President of the United States (A Democrat) and Representative Gerald Ford, the House Republican Leader. You will get to see some serious wheeling and dealing on the grandest of stages. While LBJ had had a long and personally friendly relationship with Republican Senate Leader Senator Everett Dirksen, his relationship with Gerald Ford had been testy at times. Johnson famously had once said "That Gerald Ford had played too many football games without a helmet".  But fate had put them together, during a very tumultuous, and important moment in American History. and just like with Dirksen, Johnson needed Ford's help. In this episode you will hear Johnson ask for it and occasionally apply a lot of that famous mixture of charm and personality to the  Republican House Leader.So sit back and enjoy the ride as we listen in on Gerald Ford as he works with Lyndon Johnson. TAG: Talking About Guns“Talking About Guns” (TAG) is a podcast created to demystify a typically loaded and...Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcastsThanks for listening!!

This Pacific Northwest powerhouse has been pro for 25 years, changing lane's and recreating his focus for relevancy through a heavy presence in the media with influential video parts, cover's in the top mags, contest win's, making moves from air time to slashing and touring, creating the Dirksen Derby not to mention doing big things off the hill though product testing and design but most impressively taking part in climate advocacy work through Protect our Winters. This week we talk what make's a good turn, boot drag, Mt. Bachelor, Morrow Snowboards, Longevity, video effects on culture, a master class discussion on board tech, how to ride really fast and so much more! You can count on one hand the list of pro riders who have stayed relevant and held the status and pay check of an a-grade pro for 25 plus years. Today we are blessed to have one of them sitting in the booth with us and you know we plan on grilling him on the secrets oh how he not only pulled this off over the years but did it in such a way that he would have an effect on a full span of generations through multiple disciplines of the sport in such a way you might think the Josh Dirksen you saw over 20 years ago tossing 900's off jumps and launching casual 16' high one-foot airs on quarter pipes might be a different Josh Dirksen then the one who is in the movie “Deeper” touring on a split board with Jeremy Jones to never been shredded peaks. Join us on this episode of The Bomb hole as we sit down with this Oregonian often referred to as the King Of Mt. Bachelor and do a deep dive into the psyche of this veteran level pro, Josh Dirksen.Special ThanksTen Barrel Pub BeerThe Patreon Members, We would not do this without you!!- https://www.patreon.com/thebombhole Stance | https://www.stance.com Volcom- https://www.volcom.com Mammoth Mountain- https://www.mammothmountain.com DB- https://us.dbjourney.com InstagramJosh Dirksen's instagram @joshdirksen https://www.instagram.com/joshdirksen/?hl=en @thebombhole: https://www.instagram.com/thebombhole/ @Grendiesel : https://www.instagram.com/grendiesel/@E_stone : https://www.instagram.com/e_stone/ Budz Print Shop- www.e-stonephoto.com https://307o96449135872.3dcartstores.com For all things Bomb Hole, go to : https://thebombhole.com/BOMB HOLE STORE: https://thebombhole.com/collections/allWatch the episode on YouTube- https://youtu.be/n4n4TVOz6IEJoin The Bomb Squad on our Patreon page! Props to all of our Patreon members for the support. We could not make these episodes happen without your help! Patreon members get the chance to ask guests questions and find out who we will be interviewing before anyone else. They also receive Bomb Hole merch and a custom Bomb Squad sticker!!! Find out more at https://www.patreon.com/thebombholeShow Notes-Toe/Heel Drag | https://www.snowboardingforum.com/threads/toe-heel-drag.265630/ Thrashin | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiFW3CeFuxQ Juicy Fruit | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRb8O9b2Gf4 Micro Dose Dirksen | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBSNmXTp3Oo Lame Snowboard Movie | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_PrB0glNEs My Own Two Feet | https://vimeo.com/122582209 Destroyer | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqLLQNJSExU Brainstorm | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaJBQM5PyjA Fleeting Time | https://www.redbull.com/us-en/films/fleeting-time Aesmo Boards | https://www.aesmo.at AfterLame | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_unsKYiIoI Dirksen Deeper | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53ASw4oDXsw Dirksen Derby | https://dirksenderby.com P.O.W. | https://protectourwinters.org Thanks For Watching!

How deep have we actually drilled into the Earth? Turns out, not very far, just 12,262 metres (40,230 ft) or about 0.3% of the way to the center of the Earth. We talk about the challenges of this feat and about potty training cows. Kola Superdeep Borehole (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kola_Superdeep_Borehole) Fun Paper Friday Cows are a source of many environmental concerns, but what if we could potty train them? Science News Article (https://www.sciencenews.org/article/cow-cattle-pee-potty-training-bathroom-pollution-ammonia) Dirksen, Neele, et al. "Learned control of urinary reflexes in cattle to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions." Current Biology 31.17 (2021): R1033-R1034. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982221009660) Contact us: Show Support us on Patreon! (https://www.patreon.com/dontpanicgeo) www.dontpanicgeocast.com (http://www.dontpanicgeocast.com) SWUNG Slack (https://softwareunderground.org) @dontpanicgeo (https://twitter.com/dontpanicgeo) show@dontpanicgeocast.com John Leeman - www.johnrleeman.com (http://www.johnrleeman.com) - @geo_leeman (https://twitter.com/geo_leeman) Shannon Dulin - @ShannonDulin (https://twitter.com/ShannonDulin)

We've finally arrived in Las Vegas for the kickoff of Fall ‘97. Drew Hitz and Charlie Dirsken join us to recap the tour opener, 11/13/97. Please consider subscribing to Osiris Premium on Memberful, or to Osiris Premium on Apple Podcasts. Thanks for your support. Thanks to our partners at Green Future Wealth—they can help with all of your financial planning needs. And thank you to our sponsors at Smartwool, Passion House, and CashorTrade. Undermine is brought to you by Osiris Media. Executive Producers are Tom Marshall, RJ Bee, Brian Brinkman, Matt Dwyer, and Benjy Eisen. Produced and edited by Brian Brinkman and Eric Limarenko. Mixed and Mastered by Matt Dwyer. Production assistance from Christina Collins and Nick Cejas. Original Music by Amar Sastry. Art by Mark Dowd. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In arguing for the urgency of moving from anthropocentrism toward ecocentrism, Aaron S. Allen distinguishes between environmental crises and ecological change; argues against the “balance of nature” paradigm; differentiates between strong and weak forms of sustainability; and describes the role that expressive culture and the environmental liberal arts can play in driving awareness and activism. (Encore presentation.) McDowell, Borland, Dirksen, and Tuohy, eds., Performing Environmentalisms: Expressive Culture and Ecological Change University of Illinois Press, 2021 Allen and Dawe, eds., Current Directions in Ecomusicology: Music, Culture, Nature Routledge, 2016 The post Toward Ecocentrism appeared first on KPFA.

Today we are looking at a pivotal show in Phish's history, 8/13/93 from the Murat Theater in Indianapolis. This show features the legendary version of "Bathtub Gin" which is seen as a turning point in the band's ability to jam outside of the structure of their compositions. Charlie Dirksen and Brian Feller, two longtime fans and board members of The Mockingbird Foundation, join us to talk about the magical month of August 1993. Thanks to our partners at Green Future Wealth—they can help with all of your financial planning needs.Undermine is brought to you by Osiris Media. Executive Producers are Tom Marshall, RJ Bee, Brian Brinkman, Matt Dwyer, and Benjy Eisen. Produced and edited by Brian Brinkman and Eric Limarenko. Mixed and Mastered by Matt Dwyer. Production assistance from Christina Collins and Nick Cejas. Original Music by Amar Sastry. Art by Mark Dowd. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

M: 1, W: 2: Both cross country teams win their meet in Lincoln, Nebraska over the weekend! The women's team is on a roll & the men's team is there as well finally getting over the hump!

PolicyWTF: Revdi Fertiliser CultureThis section looks at egregious public policies. Policies that make you go: WTF, Did that really happen? - Pranay KotasthaneIn the past, we have discussed many government plans of the “One Nation, One X” kind. Still, I must confess. Of all things that can substitute the letter X, “fertiliser” was beyond my thinking horizon. Limited thinking wasn’t a problem for the government, which has:“decided to implement One Nation One Fertiliser by introducing single brand name and the logo under fertiliser subsidy scheme namely Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janurvarak Pariyojana (PMBJP).”While you decipher what this order means, a short detour about the abbreviation PMBJP is in order. Its usage suggests something profound — the government is finally running out of acronyms! I claim so because there’s an existing scheme with the same abbreviation in the very same ministry — the older Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP), run by the Department of Pharmaceuticals since 2008. Perhaps the reason for repeating this abbreviation is apparent — it comprises both the ruling party and the party leader. To make matters more confusing, this scheme has been hailed as “the call of #NewIndia which will take our nation to greater heights” by a politician whose name also abbreviates to BJP.The new PMBJP seems utterly bizarre at first. Why would the government want all companies—government-run or private—to sell their products under a single brand name of ‘Bharat’? Why would a government order go to such lengths to specify that “Two-thirds of the area on the top half of a fertiliser bag will be used for the official branding and logo of the PMBJP while a fertiliser firm can use the rest one-third area for its own logo and branding as well as printing other information relating to the product”?If you dig deeper, the bizarreness gets replaced by a sense of rejection. The diktat to dissolve the value of all fertiliser brands only takes the veneer off the sham called a market for fertilisers. Here’s how.The fertiliser sector is insanely regulated even by Indian standards. It all began with good intentions. One of the components of the Green Revolution was to subsidise agricultural inputs. And so, a fertiliser subsidy was introduced. The government fixed the retail price of urea fertiliser considerably below the market price to encourage its usage. This difference between the market and administered prices was called “fertiliser subsidy”. The government paid off the difference to fertiliser companies with taxpayers’ money. Simultaneously, the government started running fertiliser plants to increase supply. Combined with the Minimum Support Price (MSP) mechanism guaranteeing procurement of certain grains, these measures worked to the extent that Punjab, Haryana, and a handful of other states were able to increase grain production rapidly. The fears of India’s dangerous “population bomb” subsided. But as you might anticipate, interfering with prices had unintended consequences. An overuse of subsidised fertilisers led to a decline in soil quality. An artificially low price also led to the diversion of urea for non-agricultural uses. Urea is a versatile material used in textiles, paint, explosives, and medicinal sectors. Naturally, people purchased cheap fertilisers from retail shops and diverted them to these industries. The government then introduced the Fertiliser (Movement Control) Order, 1973. Fertiliser couldn’t be sold across states within India without the ministry's permission. Instead, state-level fertiliser requirements were aggregated at the union ministry level, and each state had its quota “allocated” from in-state and select out-of-state fertiliser manufacturing facilities. And, of course, there were the usual export restrictions until recently. Essentially, there’s no such thing as a market for fertilisers. Just as MSP effectively turned farmers into government employees, the fertiliser subsidy turned manufacturers into satellite government agencies meant for supplying fertilisers. Meanwhile, the fertiliser subsidy bill kept rising. It is now the union government’s second-largest explicit subsidy, behind only food. For reference, India spent more on fertiliser subsidy last year than it did on defence capital expenditure. This year, higher international prices due to the Ukraine war mean that the government’s fertiliser subsidy bill will shoot up further. And so, the government decided: if we’re going to pay Rs 2 lakh crore to our fertiliser contractors (companies) annually, why not claim the full credit for it? And that’s how we got the One Nation, One Fertiliser scheme. While the name might seem bizarre, it is just the high point of continued government interference in this sector.We can anticipate the unintended consequences. Fertiliser companies—now unable to differentiate their products—will be further disincentivised from improving or innovating. With the PMBJP branding at the front and centre of every fertiliser bag, the endowment effect of the subsidy will grow stronger. It’s now explicit that the government supplies fertilisers to farmers, not companies. Which government will now take the risk of being seen as anti-farmer by reducing this subsidy bill?A better alternative would’ve been to eliminate all complex controls over the fertiliser sector and increase the amount provided as income support to farmers under the PM-KISAN scheme instead. A subsidy to fertiliser manufacturers made sense in the 1960s due to food shortage. It continued to make some sense until there was no way to identify farmers. But now, with an income support scheme already identifying farmers via Aadhaar, it is unconscionable to direct taxpayer money for another subsidy programme. We are stuck in a low-level equilibrium that just keeps getting worse.Global Policy Watch #1: Karza Maaf KaroGlobal issues and their implications for India— RSJThe wonderful thing about bad ideas is how so many politicians find them good. Good ideas must go through the steeplechase of policy proposals, committees and reports. Then they run the marathon to solicit bipartisan political support and public acceptance. And, if they are lucky, they make the finish line alive. No such test of endurance for bad ideas. They fly past these hurdles flipping the bird to them. Time and place don’t matter. Bad ideas are welcome. Everything, everywhere, all at once. The immediate cause for that short ode to bad ideas is the announcement by the Biden administration this week of a student loan forgiveness programme. If you missed the news, here’s a summary from New York Times:“President Biden announced a plan on Wednesday to wipe out significant amounts of student loan debt for tens of millions of Americans, saying he would cancel $10,000 in debt for those earning less than $125,000 per year and $20,000 for those who had received Pell grants for low-income families.Students who received Pell grants will be eligible for $20,000 in debt forgiveness on their loans. About 60 percent of borrowers have received Pell grants, and the majority come from families making less than $30,000 a year. The Education Department estimates that 27 million borrowers will qualify for up to $20,000 in relief.Millions of other borrowers will be eligible for $10,000 in debt relief, as long as they earn less than $125,000 a year or are in households earning less than $250,000.”Good IntentionsWhat will this cost the exchequer? There is a wonderful report on this by the Penn Wharton Budget Model team at the University of Pennsylvania. It has a detailed analysis of the impact of the announcement. I will leave you with the summary:“President Biden’s new student loan forgiveness plan includes three major components. We estimate that debt cancellation alone will cost up to $519 billion, with about 75% of the benefit accruing to households making $88,000 or less. Loan forbearance will cost another $16 billion. The new income-driven repayment (IDR) program would cost another $70 billion, increasing the total plan cost to $605 billion under strict “static” assumptions. However, depending on future IDR program details to be released and potential behavioral (i.e., “non-static”) changes, total plan costs could exceed $1 trillion.”All right. $605 billion under static assumptions and $1 trillion based on future behaviour changes. I will bet this will easily go north of that number because such announcements change the credit culture of a society. We, Indians, know it. So, apart from the $1.9 trillion that Biden announced early last year as part of the COVID-19 relief and build back better package, we have another trillion of stimulus being given back to largely the top two quintiles of the US households. A trillion here, a trillion there, and pretty soon we are talking about real money, to misquote that famous quip by Senator Dirksen. Of course, there are these pious reasons for this policy from the White House press release:“Since 1980, the total cost of both four-year public and four-year private college has nearly tripled, even after accounting for inflation. Federal support has not kept up: Pell Grants once covered nearly 80 percent of the cost of a four-year public college degree for students from working families, but now only cover a third. According to a Department of Education analysis, the typical undergraduate student with loans now graduates with nearly $25,000 in debt.The skyrocketing cumulative federal student loan debt—$1.6 trillion and rising for more than 45 million borrowers—is a significant burden on America’s middle class. Middle-class borrowers struggle with high monthly payments and ballooning balances that make it harder for them to build wealth, like buying homes, putting away money for retirement, and starting small businesses.For the most vulnerable borrowers, the effects of debt are even more crushing. Nearly one-third of borrowers have debt but no degree…”A college education is a passport to higher income and better life in the US. It is the single most significant determinant of social mobility. Two data points from this Pew report puts this in context. First, in 2021, full-time workers ages 22 to 27 who held a bachelor’s degree, but no further education, made a median annual wage of $52,000, compared with $30,000 for full-time workers of the same age with a high school diploma and no degree. Second, households headed by a first-generation college graduate – that is, someone who has completed at least a bachelor’s degree but does not have a parent with a college degree – had a median annual income of $99,600 in 2019, compared with $135,800 for households headed by those with at least one parent who graduated from college. The median wealth of households headed by first-generation college graduates ($152,000) also trailed that of households headed by someone with a parent who graduated from college ($244,500).A college education helps you earn more. And if you have two generations of college education in your family, you’re made. This should be a sufficient incentive for people to take the risk of a college loan and graduate because it does make a difference. Also, the so-called debt burden as a percentage of income is disproportionately high among people who take student loans but don’t graduate. About 40 per cent of students who take loans never graduate. They find it difficult to shrug off the burden throughout their lives. Unintended Consequences When you look at the data together, you should reach the following conclusions:A college education is an expensive affair in the US. The universities have gotten richer over the years, with their trust funds rivalling many private fund houses. The universities seem to have kept the supply limited. The demand has kept soaring, and the somewhat easy availability of credit has meant college fees have grown faster than inflation. The nature of regulations and a stranglehold on accreditation by universities have meant no meaningful disruption in the college education space. A few attempts were made during the pandemic with digital courses, unbundling of the university stack and income share agreement models of funding college education, but they seem to have lost steam once the world got back to normalcy. The universities can continue to retain their oligopoly and set their own prices without real fear of disruption.Then there is a question of alignment of incentives between the borrower and the lender. A college education is the most critical factor for higher income in US society. For the average student, the risk of taking a loan is worth it. Also, taking a loan and not completing college has terrible consequences. This is not some kind of design flaw that’s increasing inequity. It is how it should be. Lastly, the US university system is the best in the world for a reason. It is difficult to get in. You pay a premium for the degree, that money allows the universities to hire and retain faculty who then tend to be of high quality, and it funds research that pushes the boundary of human knowledge. The debt forgiveness program of the Biden administration doesn’t solve the fundamental issue of high college fees. Neither does it strengthen the alignment of incentives between the lender and borrower. In fact, an announcement like this will possibly spur more college applications in future in anticipation of future relief packages like this. That will raise the demand for college seats and increase tuition fees further. Worse, as many have already pointed out, such relief packages have a moral hazard built in. We have written about this in the context of farm loan waivers in India. There are two problems here. When you waive the loans, what do you tell those repaying their debts regularly at great costs to themselves? That they were stupid to do so? Secondly, you have set a precedent for future packages like this. Once that mindset sets in, more borrowers will be taking loans and defaulting because they know the government will bail them out. Mihir Sharma has drawn exactly this parallel with the Indian case in his Bloomberg column this week. He writes:“But the consequence of loan waivers, as they are called in India, have not been at all positive for farmers. Economists have noted that the waivers have encouraged farmers to take on more credit than is justified by their productivity, saddling them with more debt. This cycle of forgiveness and indebtedness reduces the overall flow of agricultural credit, while privileging the minority of borrowers willing and able to game the system. Over the years, multiple cycles of debt forgiveness have not improved household savings, investment or credit flow.…In other words, once you announce a loan waiver program, the incentives of borrowers and politicians change to make both future defaults and future forgiveness more likely. In the US, it’s entirely likely that future administrations will succumb to demands to extend bailouts to those with private loans, for example, or to raise the cap to something more like $50,000 per person.”The other problem is inflation. The consequences of mindless packages since the beginning of the pandemic are there for all to see. The US inflation is at a 40-year high. This relief package will put more money in the hands of the middle class that is already using its excess savings built up during the pandemic to drive up prices. The Fed has been pushing up interest rates to tame inflation. There’s a serious possibility of a recession and debt defaults among the most vulnerable borrowers because of rising rates. More importantly, if the market starts believing that the government doesn’t care about inflation, then high inflation expectations will lead to a real increase in prices. Inflation is expectation driven. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy. That’s why the Fed is careful about its words and why analysts spend so much time parsing its statement. Who in their right mind would want to do this now and set such expectations?The inflation point is particularly important to the rest of the world and to India. Otherwise, who cares what student loan policies are pursued by the Biden administration? Unfortunately, US inflation, interest rates and growth matter to us, as we have already seen in the past few quarters. This bonfire of good economic thinking will singe us. But the persistence and universality of bad ideas cannot be easily fought. There are always short-term reasons to contend with and, of course, elections to be won. Biden’s move is to shore up his popularity among the youth and possibly give Democrats a fighting chance in the mid-terms. These don’t turn out well. But who cares about the future? India Policy Watch: The Elements of Revdi CultureInsights on burning policy issues in India— Pranay KotasthaneThe PM’s revdi culture remark castigating state governments for distributing freebies has been widely debated over the last month. Everyone and their uncles have dipped their toes in the discourse stream. Those on the left have tried hard to prove that freebies are, in fact, desirable social sector spending. Those aligned with the government have highlighted the fiscal imprudence of state governments handing out laptops, TVs, and mixer grinders before elections. My only advice is to read more public finance specialists on this issue and fewer political scientists. What classifies as a subsidy or freebie? Which level of government is guilty of doling out freebies indiscriminately? The discipline of public finance has a lot to offer on such questions. The landmark paper on subsidies in India is by M Govinda Rao and Sudipto Mundle in 1991, in which they devised a subsidy classification. They neatly define a subsidy as:the difference between the cost of delivering various publicly provided goods or services and the recoveries arising from such deliveries.Based on this broad definition, we can classify subsidies along two axes: the nature of the good or service subsidised (merit vs non-merit) and whether they are recognised as subsidies in government accounts (implicit vs explicit). The chart below is my representation of subsidies at the intersection of these two axes.Of the four categories of subsidies, we can now define freebies as non-merit goods which are explicitly or implicitly subsidised by the government. The bone of contention here is the “meritorious” nature of goods. The above paper takes a liberal approach and classifies any good with positive benefits to people beyond the recipient as a merit good.This classification now allows us to understand freebies' volume and nature better. The 1991 paper found that Indian governments were collectively spending almost 15 per cent of GDP on subsidies. Continuing this line of inquiry, Mundle and Sikdar find that the total volume of subsidies had fallen to 10 per cent of GDP by 2015-16. The union government only accounted for 30 per cent of this subsidy bill. State governments accounted for the remaining ~7 per cent of GDP spent on subsidies. Crucially, states subsidised both merit and non-merit goods/services. Since social services like health and education are the primary domain of states according to the constitution, they end up spending ~3 per cent of GDP on such merit goods. The remaining 4 per cent of GDP was spent on non-merit goods. So, the PM’s statement is not incorrect. Both state and union governments have to set their house in order, but on freebies, the state governments have a lot more work to do. The punchline from Sudipto Mundle’s article in Indian Express is vital gyaan for anyone working in Indian public policy:.. four “merit” subsidies account for only a third of total subsidies. Thus, two-thirds of total subsidies, about 6 per cent of GDP, are unwarranted freebies which should be eliminated. .. if central and state governments could step beyond their business as usual budgets and take bold measures to phase out these unwarranted freebies, along with much of the tax exemptions and concessions, which amount to about 5 per cent of GDP, that would free up huge fiscal space. This would enable a massive reduction in the combined fiscal deficit of the Centre and the states, while at the same time stepping up required expenditure on education, health and infrastructure. The myth of restricted fiscal space simply reflects the missing appetite for deep fiscal reforms which could radically change the structure of central and state government finances.”Thanks for reading Anticipating the Unintended! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.Global Policy Watch #2: Falling In Love With “Your” PoliticianGlobal issues and their implications for India— RSJTaking the cue from the loan forgiveness piece, the question often asked is why do politicians behave the way they do when it is evident that the long-term consequences of their actions will be bad? Like I mentioned a few weeks back, I have been reading an anthology of essays by Bryan Caplan titled - “How Evil Are Politicians?: Essays on Demagoguery”. Caplan introduces the notion of power-hunger in one of the essays and how rational politicians continue to raise it and then try their best to satiate it. Caplan writes:“In Public Choice, also known as “economics of politics,” we usually assume that politicians are motivated not by greed, but by power-hunger.  Of course, we rarely utter the word “power-hunger.”  Instead, we call it “vote maximization,” just as we call greed “profit maximization.”  But when Public Choice pictures politicians, it pictures humans filled with lust for power.Is this a reasonable picture of politicians’ psyches?  Absolutely.  That politicians crave power is as undeniable as that businesspeople crave profits.”Then he argues that democracy and its check and balances might blunt this naked pursuit of power, but that is never enough. He writes:“Under democracy, politicians are less candid about their motives; they need us to like them, and power-hunger is not likeable.  But given its ubiquity throughout most of political history, can we really believe that the motive of power-hunger is no longer paramount? Once you thank the stars you aren’t ruled by Louis XIV or Lenin, a grim truth remains: democracy gives power-hungry politicians far worse incentives than the market gives greedy businesspeople.  Above all, voters – unlike consumers – have no incentive to be rational, spurring power-hungry politicians to preach and practice endless demagoguery.  It’s gotten worse lately, but it’s always been terrible.  Democracy hasn’t turned politicians into decent human beings; it’s only gilded their age-old power lust with altruistic hypocrisy.”So, what’s the solution? Eternal vigilance. And not to be enamoured by any politician and their promises of making your nation great again or reclaiming your deserved vishwaguru status. That’s easier said than done in these days of tribal loyalties and mass disinformation. Bad policies have a lot going for them. HomeWorkReading and listening recommendations on public policy matters[Post] Pakistan is facing a terrible flood event. And the political debate there is not very different from the one we have whenever there's a drought or flood in India. The linked post discusses how causal stories are deployed for telling disparate political stories about such events. [Article] Ritesh Rautela and Anurodh Giri have a good take on India’s fertiliser subsidy program for nextbillion. [1, 2] The two-part article on Subsidies, merit goods, and fiscal space is well worth a read. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit publicpolicy.substack.com

*Manoumba Records label granted permission to include excerpt of "Dèpi tanbou frape" track by Boulo Valcourt I love foundational work like this! A richly ethnographic and compelling read, After the Dance, the Drums Are Heavy is a study of carnival, politics, and the musical engagement of ordinary citizens and celebrity musicians in contemporary Haiti. The book explores how the self-declared president of konpa Sweet Micky (Michel Martelly) rose to the nation's highest office while methodically crafting a political product inherently entangled with his musical product. It offers a deep historical perspective on the characteristics of carnivalesque verbal play and the performative skillset of the artist (Sweet Micky) who dominated carnival for more than decade-including vulgarities and polemics. Yet there has been profound resistance to this brand of politics led by many other high-profile artists, including Matyas and Jòj, Brothers Posse, Boukman Eksperyans, and RAM. These groups have each released popular carnival songs that have contributed to the public's discussions on what civic participation and citizenship in Haiti can and should be. Drawing on more than a decade and a half of ethnographic research, Rebecca Dirksen presents an in-depth consideration of politically and socially engaged music and what these expressions mean for the Haitian population in the face of challenging political and economic circumstances. After the Dance, the Drums Are Heavy centers the voices of Haitian musicians and regular citizens by extensively sharing interviews and detailed analyses of musical performance in the context of contemporary events well beyond the musical realm. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/negmawonpodcast/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/negmawonpodcast/support

When Eric Dirksen received his first electric car in December—a new Tesla Model Y—he didn't know gas prices would spike a few months after. But with fuel costing about $4.20 per gallon on average this week, he's happy with the decision. “Very fortunate at the timing,” he says. Dirksen spent $62 on charging in the last month, roughly the same amount as 15 gallons of gas.

The Scripture Memory Podcast is excited to have our first guest! Dana Dirksen is the founder of Songs for Saplings, a ministry dedicated to developing Scripture memory songs. It is an ancient tradition to use songs to remember truths about God. We have a precedent with Moses and the Israelites singing truths about God to lock them into their memory (Deut. 31:19-22). What does that practice look like in the 21st century? Tune in to learn how to integrate music and make Scripture memory the most enjoyable part of your day!Are you interested in obtaining music from "Songs for Saplings"? Their content is available on all streaming platforms or you can go to music.songsforsaplings.com. Produced by Tyler Rutherford

If you're trying to build a tiny house on a budget, starting with a pre-existing shed can be one of the cheapest ways to do it. Adrian and Katherine Alvarez purchased a $20,000 16x50 Dirksen shed for $10,000 and spent very little to turn it into a home for their family of 3. Shed conversions are their own special animal and the Alvarezes share some great tips and what they wish they knew before they started.Full show notes and images at thetinyhouse.net/210In This Episode:How to find a cheaper shedSite preparation: what they did and what they would do differentlyA little determination and creativity can get you farThings that could add time to your buildCould this money-saving trick work for you?This Week's Sponsor: Tiny House DecisionsTiny House Decisions is the guide that I wish I had when I was building my tiny house. And it comes in three different packages to help you on your unique tiny house journey. If you're struggling to figure out the systems for your tiny house, how you're going to heat it, how you're going to plumb it, what you're going to build it out, then tiny house decisions will take you through the process systematically and help you come up with a design that works for you. Right now I'm offering 20% off any package of Tiny House Decisions for podcast listeners. Head over to https://www.thetinyhouse.net/thd and use the coupon code tiny at checkout!

We talk about life, growing up, and basketball.

We discuss society, funny stories, and wild rants.

I lost this episode, but now I've found it. I don't remember what we discussed. Enjoy!

Did you know that your physical (and digital) "stuff" has psychological weight? We're taking our power back from our stuff, eliminating overwhelm, and cutting through the extremism that shows up in minimalist culture with Shawna Dirksen, Founder of Practically Minimal.BIO:Shawna is the non-stop-shopper-turned-persistent-declutter-er behind Practically Minimal.After too many years of over-buying and battling with overstuffed closets, Shawna began to wonder if less may actually be more. She started exploring minimalism about six years ago and hasn't looked back.Today through her blog, Virtual Decluttering Parties and clutter-clearing programs, Shawna offers guidance, accountability and support to those who could use a little more ease in their everyday lives.MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:Website: https://practicallyminimal.com/IG: https://www.instagram.com/practicallyminimal/FB: https://www.facebook.com/practicallyminimalCONNECT WITH MEInstagram | Clubhouse | Facebook: @juliwengerhttps://www.juliwenger.com/

This week on The Leap Lifestyle Podcast, I'm chatting with Kari Dirksen, CEO of Feathered Arrow Events. Kari and I talk through SO MANY reasons you need a wedding website. From sharing the basic information like the who, what where of your wedding, to being really extra and going so far as to include a style guide for your guest's attire. Kari and I both agree that a wedding website is the place to include all the random nuggets of information that will, in the end, create a seamless guest experience so that you're guests remember your wedding as the best one they've ever been to! #weddinggoalsTo help you create the wedding website of your dreams, Kari shares the must haves for a wedding website, some fun extras that make your website unique to the two of you, Pro Tips such as including a wedding FAQ, and in addition to using your website to gather RSVP's for the big day, go ahead and utilize it to collect additional information such as guest count for shuttles and song requests for the DJ. And yes, it's going to take some time to create your wedding website, but with beautiful templates available from Minted, Zola, The Knot and many more, you'll be up and running in no time.You can find Kari via her instagram handle @featheredarrowevents and on the web at www.featheredarrowevents.com.If you'd like fresh weekly content on all things wedding, visit us on the web at The Leap Lifestyle, and on instagram our handle is @theleaplifestyle.As always, thanks for listening!