https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1296047094579388417
The Lincoln Project @ProjectLincoln

We celebrated after WWII. We mourned after 9/11 until we could laugh again.

We will not allow the weakest president in our nation’s history to crush this spirit.

We will defeat this enemy, too — and smile while doing it.

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7:31 AM · Aug 19, 2020

https://twitter.com/JoyAnnReid/status/1296036693158637569
Joy Reid @JoyAnnReid

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I can’t recall seeing any Republican Senators wail on Russia for pushing spies into an American presidential campaign and putting bounties on U.S. troops the way now BOTH Florida Senators — @marcorubio and @ScottforFlorida are fighting Steve Schmidt.

Steve Schmidt @SteveSchmidtSES

Senator, I don’t hate anyone. I do have a seething contempt for you and your colleagues who have been silent enablers of the profound damage Trump has done to this country. You have been faithless to your oaths as Trump has desecrated the Presidency and sundered the American https://twitter.com/ScottforFlorida/status/1295792731294498816

6:50 AM · Aug 19, 2020

https://twitter.com/DrBiden/status/1295694942141067269

Dr. Jill Biden @DrBiden

Teaching is not what I do. It's who I am.

I'll be giving my convention speech tonight from my former classroom.

Brandywine High School. Room 232.







8:12 AM · Aug 18, 2020

https://twitter.com/QuickTake/status/1295669878754545664
Bloomberg QuickTake @QuickTake

BREAKING: A UN-backed court says it has no evidence that Syria and the Hezbollah leadership were directly involved in the assassination of ex-Lebanese PM Rafiq Hariri in 2005

6:32 AM · Aug 18, 2020

https://twitter.com/CarterLibrary/status/1295662039919140864
Jimmy Carter Library @CarterLibrary

#HappyBirthdayRosalynnCarter! The former First Lady and enduring fighter for women's/human rights is 93! She's the star of our virtual exhibit on #ERA: https://tinyurl.com/y53h69jl #Archives19thAt100 @RCICaregiving #MrsCarterBirthday Pics @CarterCenter, family papers, NAID 174465









6:01 AM · Aug 18, 2020

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hardest_Day



The Hardest Day is a Second World War air battle fought on 18 August 1940 during the Battle of Britain between the German Luftwaffe and British Royal Air Force (RAF). On that day, the Luftwaffe made an all-out effort to destroy RAF Fighter Command. The air battles that took place on that day were amongst the largest aerial engagements in history to that time. Both sides suffered heavy losses. In the air, the British shot down twice as many Luftwaffe aircraft as they lost. However, many RAF aircraft were destroyed on the ground, equalising the total losses of both sides. Further large and costly aerial battles took place after 18 August, but both sides lost more aircraft combined on this day than at any other point during the campaign, including 15 September, the Battle of Britain Day, generally considered the climax of the fighting. For this reason, 18 August 1940 became known as "the Hardest Day" in Britain.

By June 1940, the Allies had been defeated in Western Europe and Scandinavia. After Britain rejected peace overtures, Adolf Hitler issued Directive No. 16, ordering the invasion of the United Kingdom. The invasion of the United Kingdom was codenamed Operation Sea Lion (Unternehmen Seelöwe). However, before this could be carried out, air supremacy or air superiority was required to prevent the RAF from attacking the invasion fleet or providing protection for any attempt by the Royal Navy's Home Fleet to intercept a landing by sea. Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe's commander-in-chief, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, and the Oberkommando der Luftwaffe (High Command of the Air Force) to prepare for this task.


Air observer

The primary target was RAF Fighter Command. In July 1940, the Luftwaffe began military operations to destroy the RAF. Throughout July and early August, the Germans targeted convoys in the English Channel and occasionally RAF airfields. On 13 August, a major German effort, known as Adlertag (Eagle Day), was made against RAF airfields, but failed. The failure did not deter the Germans from persisting with air raids against the RAF or its infrastructure. Five days later came the Hardest Day.

<snip>

Outcome


British Radar coverage over Britain and Northern France. The system was resilient.

German target selection was sound on The Hardest Day. There were four means open to the Luftwaffe for destroying Fighter Command; bombing airfields; destroying the command, control system and radar stations; and attacking aircraft factories producing fighter aircraft.

Luftflotte 2 was well used in this way. Operations against Kenley, Biggin Hill, North Weald and Hornchurch had the potential to destroy 11 Group's major sector stations and impair its defences. It would also draw the defending fighters into battle. The attempt to attack Kenley, however, failed and 9 Staffel KG 76 paid a high price. The weather prevented any chance of the raids on Hornchurch and North Weald being successful. On the other hand, Luftflotte 3 had poor intelligence, and its raids on the radar stations were ineffective. Radar elimination would enable the Luftwaffe to destroy the command and control system of Fighter Command, but despite the severe damage done to the Poling station, the existence of other stations nearby gave the system plenty of cover. The airfields the Air Fleet attacked at Ford, Gosport and Thorney Island had nothing to do with the main battle as they belonged to Coastal Command and the FAA. Sperrle and his command remained unaware of their errors in intelligence.

The tactical handling of Luftflotte 3 was not good either. The escorting fighters of StG 77 were stretched too far across a 30-mile front. By chance half of the defending fighters went into action against one of the attacking Ju 87 groups with disastrous results for the group concerned. The German fighters, which outnumbered the RAF units by 2:1, were unable to protect the Stuka units. Had the targets been closer together, the concentration of fighters would have allowed the Germans to destroy more RAF fighters in the air, while protecting their charges.

Considering the weight of attack against airfields, hardly any fighters were destroyed on the ground. Figures indicated just two Spitfires and six Hurricanes were lost in this manner. The main reason for this was the high state of readiness of RAF units during daylight. The command depended on radar and the Observer Corps warning them in advance, giving them plenty of time to get airborne. The successful strafing attack by Bf 109s of JG 52 on Manston depended on a combination of circumstances and chance which did not occur often during the battle.

The attacks on airfields, on this day and throughout the battle, did not cause any real danger to RAF Fighter Command. Biggin Hill was never out of service during the Battle of Britain, and Kenley was out of action for only two hours on 18 August. German medium bombers, usually sent in waves of 50, could carry between 60 and 85 tons of bombs. But this was not enough to destroy an airfield. If the airfield's hangars and buildings were destroyed, work on aircraft could be done in the open in summer periods. Should the craters become too troublesome, RAF units could move to another field, not necessarily an airfield, and operate fighters on it, provided it was 700 yards long and 100 yards wide to allow for operations. The vulnerable operations buildings on some airfields were hidden underground. One flaw was the vulnerability of operations rooms. At Kenley and Biggin the sector operations buildings were above ground, but they were difficult to hit even had the Luftwaffe known their location. Vital communications (telephone cables) were buried underground, making them vulnerable only to an accidental direct hit.

Attacking and destroying the radar chain was also difficult. The stations were indeed vulnerable to dive bombers and low flying aircraft, however the British had mobile units which could be moved around to cover any gaps. Rapid repair services were also quick. Rarely were radar stations out of action for more than a few days.

A last option was to attack fighter factories, which was not attempted on 18 August. Only the Spitfire factory at Southampton and the Hawker factory in Surrey were within range of escorted bombers. Without the Bf 109s, the bombers would suffer heavy casualties attempting to attack factories further north in daylight. Still, the attacks on the southern factories would require large concentrations of bombers and fighters which would be powerful enough to destroy them without sustaining heavy losses.

Overall, each side suffered more losses on this date than on any other day during the Battle of Britain. In terms of the outcome, the battle does not appear to have been strategically favourable to either side. The loss rates were in the British favour, but both air forces had sustained a level of attrition they could not support for long. Historian Alfred Price:

The laurels for the day’s action went to the defenders. The aim of the Luftwaffe was to wear down the Fighter Command without suffering excessive losses in the process, and in this it had failed. It cost the attackers five aircrew killed, wounded, or taken prisoner, for each British pilot casualty. In terms of aircraft, it had cost the Luftwaffe five bombers and fighters for every three Spitfires and Hurricanes destroyed in the air or on the ground. If the battle continued at this rate the Luftwaffe would wreck Fighter Command, but it would come close to wrecking itself in the process.


Junkers Ju 87 Stuka about to crash. Unteroffizer August Dann and Unteroffizer Erich Kohl were killed.

</snip>

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution


Alice Paul and other suffragists sewing stars on suffrage flag for each state as Nineteenth Amendment is ratified.

The Nineteenth Amendment (Amendment XIX) to the United States Constitution prohibits the states and the federal government from denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States on the basis of sex. Initially introduced to Congress in 1878, several attempts to pass a women's suffrage amendment failed until 1919, when suffragists pressed President Woodrow Wilson to call a special congressional session. On May 21, 1919, the proposed amendment passed the House of Representatives, followed by the Senate on June 4, 1919; it was then submitted to the states for ratification. On August 18, 1920, Tennessee was the last of the necessary 36 states to secure ratification. The Nineteenth Amendment was officially adopted on August 26, 1920: the culmination of a decades-long movement for women's suffrage at both state and national levels.

While women had the right to vote in several of the colonies in what would become the United States, by 1807 women had been denied even limited suffrage. By the mid-nineteenth century, organizations supporting women's rights became more active. In 1848, the Seneca Falls convention adopted the Declaration of Sentiments, which called for equality between the sexes and included a resolution urging women to secure the vote. Pro-suffrage organizations used variety of tactics, including legal arguments that relied on existing amendments. After those arguments were struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, suffrage organizations, along with activists like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, called for a new constitutional amendment that would guarantee women the right to vote.

By the late nineteenth century, new states and territories, particularly in the West, began to grant women the right to vote. In 1878, a suffrage proposal that would eventually become the Nineteenth Amendment was introduced to Congress, but it was rejected in 1887. By the 1890s, suffrage organizations focused on a national amendment while still working at the state and local levels. Lucy Burns and Alice Paul emerged as important leaders whose work helped move the Nineteenth Amendment forward, although they pursued very different strategies.

Entry of the United States into World War I helped to shift public perception of women's suffrage. The National American Woman Suffrage Association, led by Carrie Chapman Catt, supported the war effort, making the case that women should be rewarded with enfranchisement for their patriotic wartime service. The National Woman's Party staged marches, demonstrations, and hunger strikes while pointing out the contradictions of fighting abroad for democracy while limiting it at home by denying women the right to vote. The work of both organizations swayed public opinion, prompting President Wilson to announce his support of the suffrage amendment in 1918.

The Nineteenth Amendment enfranchised 26 million American women in time for the 1920 U.S. presidential election, but the powerful women's voting bloc that many politicians feared failed to fully materialize. As well, the Nineteenth Amendment failed to fully enfranchise African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, and Native American women.

Text

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

</snip>

https://twitter.com/KellyO/status/1295488188576825344
Kelly O'Donnell @KellyO

The president makes another startling assertion that seeks to undermine democracy. He says “the only way we’re gonna lose this election is if the election is rigged.” Watch.

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6:30 PM · Aug 17, 2020

https://twitter.com/joekennedy/status/1295468325120675851
Joe Kennedy III @joekennedy

I never got to meet my grandfather. I know him through my father’s pride. My aunts’ and uncles’ stories. My grandmother’s mischievous memories. And I know him through his words.

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5:11 PM · Aug 17, 2020