The List 7376
To All
Good Friday Morning December 5, 2025 . It is going to be clear all day The temps are supposed to hit 69 around 1. The next week will be clear for the most part. The temps will climb to 82 by Tuesday and then temps in the mid 70s for the next week.
Have a great weekend and it is 20 days until Christmas.
Testing went well last night with some very good sparring and board breaking with both hand and foot techniques. Got a couple shots in the hands from a few of those. They are fun to watch.
.Regards
skip
.HAGD
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This day in Naval and Marine Corps History (thanks to NHHC)
Here is a link to the NHHC website: https://www.history.navy.mil/. Go here to see the director's corner for all 94 H-Grams.
December 5
1813—During the War of 1812, the frigate Congress captures the British brig Atlantic in the North Atlantic. Also on this date USS President captures schooner Comet off New York.
1862—During the Civil War, boats from the gunboat Mahaska and the converted tug General Putnam capture and destroy "several fine Confederate boats," a schooner and two sloops in branches of Severn River, MD, and bring back schooners Seven Brothers and Galena.
1941—USS Lexington (CV 2) sails with Task Force 12 to ferry Marine aircraft to Midway, leaving no carriers at Pearl Harbor. Previously, on Nov. 28, USS Enterprise (CV 6) sails from Pearl Harbor for Wake Island to ferry Marine aircraft to island.
1943—USS Narwhal (SS 167) embarks nine evacuees at Alubijid, Mascalar Bay and then sinks Japanese cargo ship Himeno Maru off Camiguin Island.
1944—USS Hake (SS 256) evacuates downed aviators and turns over all supplies that can be spared to Filippino guerilla forces ashore at Libertad, Panay, Philippines.
1945: Aircraft squadron disappears in the Bermuda Triangle
See more below
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Today in World History
December 5
1484 Pope Innocent VIII issues a bill deploring the spread of witchcraft and heresy in Germany.
1776 Phi Beta Kappa is organized as the first American college Greek letter-fraternity, at William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Va.
1791 Composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart dies in Vienna.
1861 In the U.S. Congress, petitions and bills calling for the abolition of slavery are introduced.
1862 Union General Ulysses S. Grant's cavalry receives a setback in an engagement on the Mississippi Central Railroad at Coffeeville, Mississippi.
1864 Confederate General John Bell Hood sends Nathan Bedford Forrest's cavalry and a division of infantry toward Murfreesboro, Tenn.
1904 The Japanese destroy a Russian fleet at Port Arthur in Korea.
1909 George Taylor makes the first manned glider flight in Australia in a glider that he designed himself.
1912 Italy, Austria and Germany renew the Triple Alliance for six years.
1916 David Lloyd George replaces Herbert Asquith as the British prime minister.
1921 The British empire reaches an accord with the Irish revolutionary group the Sinn Fein; Ireland is to become a free state.
1933 The 21st Amendment ends Prohibition in the United States, which had begun 13 years earlier.
1934 Italian and Ethiopian troops clash at the Ualual on disputed the Somali-Ethiopian border.
1936 The New Constitution in the Soviet Union promises universal suffrage, but the Communist Party remains the only legal political party.
1937 The Lindberghs arrive in New York on a holiday visit after a two-year voluntary exile.
1945 Four TBM Avenger bombers disappear approximately 100 miles off the coast of Florida.
1950 Pyongyang in Korea falls to the invading Chinese army.
1953 Italy and Yugoslavia agree to pull troops out of the disputed Trieste border.
1955 A bus boycott begins under the leadership of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., in Montgomery, Alabama.
1966 Comedian and political activist Dick Gregory heads for Hanoi, North Vietnam, despite federal warnings against it.
1978 The Soviet Union signs a 20-year friendship pact with Afghanistan.
1983 Military Junta dissolves in Argentina.
2006 Commodore Frank Bainimarama overthrows the government in Fiji.
2007 A gunman armed with a semi-automatic rifle kills 8 people at Westroads Mall, Omaha, Neb., before taking his own life.
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Thanks to the Bear. We will always have the url for you to search items in Rolling Thunder
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER …
. rollingthunderremembered.com .
Thanks to Micro
From Vietnam Air Losses site for ..December 5
5-Dec: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=2411
MOAA - Wall of Faces Now Includes Photos of All Service members Killed in the Vietnam War
The site works, find anyone you knew in "search" feature.
https://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/ )
By: Kipp Hanley
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Thanks to the Smithsonian
When 170 Wild Monkeys Escaped From a 'Jungle Camp' and Terrorized New York
Hugely famous in his day, if barely remembered now, Frank Buck was a best-selling author and movie star, renowned for capturing wild animals all over the world and shipping them back to the United States by the boatload. There, the creatures took up residence in zoos, circuses, Buck's own attractions and sometimes even people's homes.
Buck chronicled his expeditions in 1930s films like Bring 'Em Back Alive, Wild Cargo, and Fang and Claw—purported documentaries that featured the pith-helmeted, somewhat pudgy, middle-aged hunter and collector as their dashing hero. Buck's derring-do, such as wrestling an escaped python back into its crate, thrilled audiences, though critics questioned whether some scenes were staged. Reporters covered Buck's every arrival and departure, children joined clubs named after him, and Abbott and Costello featured him in their 1949 comedy Africa Screams.
When Buck died of lung cancer in 1950, at the age of 66, his New York Times obituary noted that by his own estimate, he'd "captured more than 100,000 birds of every variety, more than 50 elephants, scores of pythons, 65 tigers and also hundreds of other wild animals."
Among Buck's specialties was the rhesus macaque, a relatively small simian native to Asia. He scooped them up in such quantities that he once listed his bulk sale price as 100 monkeys for $850 to $1,000.
While apparently fond of the little animals, Buck also noted that monkeys could be a handful. "No other living creature is so completely imbued with mischievousness, no other so triumphantly relishes man's discomfort or can be so maddeningly impish," he wrote in a 1939 book. Monkeys, he added, are "the personifications of perpetual motion, whose every little movement has a troublemaking intention behind it."
Although they had to compete with other Buck marvels, such as the "biggest orangutan in the world," the "two biggest pythons in captivity" and a pair of "giant dragon lizards," the macaques became a crowd favorite at the 1933-1934 Chicago World's Fair. Some 500 of them cavorted at Frank Buck's Jungle Camp on a humanmade structure called Monkey Mountain. Buck even promised to give away one free, "live pet monkey" every week. When the fair closed, Buck moved his menagerie to Massapequa, New York, a hamlet on Long Island, where he opened a new Jungle Camp for local tourists with a Monkey Mountain of its own.
And there the trouble began.
All was peaceful until August 21, 1935, when as many as 175 rhesus monkeys escaped from their mountain, supposedly after a worker left a wooden plank over the moat that normally kept them in. (A similarly bold breakout made headlines last month, when 43 rhesus macaques escaped from a research facility in South Carolina.) Over the next several days, the animals terrorized motorists, stopped commuter trains, climbed flagpoles and raided local fruit stands. Their leader was said to be a particularly wily simian named Capone.
Newspapers across the U.S. covered the latest developments on a daily basis, often on page 1. "The papers had no war scares or kidnappings for their front pages at the time," Buck later reflected, "so the truants were real news, and the boys kept hot on their trail."
The day after the escape, the New York Daily News reported that "monkeys were everywhere—chattering, scampering, leaping from tree to tree. They swarmed down on 100 laborers, working on the right-of-way of the Long Island Rail Road, and the latter, with wild yells of fright, dropped their picks and shovels and fled." When a train came by, the monkeys, under Capone's leadership, blocked the track for five minutes, until resourceful crew members started tossing them bananas. Four days into the great escape, the Associated Press reported on a motorist who had swerved to avoid a roadblock of at least 35 monkeys, driving his car into a ditch and killing one of the creatures.
Meanwhile, volunteers with the Massapequa Fire Department had to erect a 65-foot ladder to bring monkeys down from flagpoles, according to the New York Times. Another pair of monkeys climbed a high-tension transmission tower near the town of Hicksville, resulting in a 30-minute power outage and fatal consequences for the two culprits.
The Jungle Camp offered $10 rewards (over $200 today) to anyone who could catch and return a monkey, and many locals took Buck's team up on the offer. In fact, some people were so motivated by the bounty that they reportedly turned in their own monkeys (a more common house pet in those days than these). Some would-be trappers started to leave saucers of whiskey in the nearby woods, hoping that drunk monkeys would be easier to capture—and, supposedly, the ploy worked.
Day after day, papers tallied up how many monkeys had been captured and how many remained on the lam. At one point, the list of remaining escapees was down to five: Capone plus four female companions. The female macaques were soon caught in traps baited with bananas and sweet potatoes, but Capone (who had a $50 bounty on his head) couldn't be fooled. On September 9, nearly three weeks after the zoo break, the AP reported that he was still at large. After that, the trail—or at least interest on the part of the press—appears to have gone cold.
Whatever inconvenience it meant for Massapequa, its fire department and its human citizenry, the well-publicized monkey business proved to be lucrative for Buck. As one local paper reported on August 29, "Last Sunday, over 10,000 persons who have read about the goings-on at the Jungle Camp overran the place in their curiosity to see the zoo and hope of catching a glimpse of one of the hairy fugitives."
But some newspapers, including the show business daily Variety, suspected it was all a publicity stunt from the get-go. In its initial report, Variety joked that the monkeys "either eloped or were turned loose by the press agent."
Buck himself had some experience in that area. "Early in his career," says Elizabeth Hanson, author of Animal Attractions: Nature on Display in American Zoos, "he had a stint booking vaudeville acts for a hotel, and in 1915, he worked as a publicity agent for the amusement zone at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco."
Perhaps coincidentally, in separate episodes a year before the 1935 breakout, at least two of Buck's monkeys escaped from their enclosure at the Chicago World's Fair, garnering both newspaper coverage and a lawsuit from a pottery company whose exhibit was smashed up by one of the creatures. Later, at the 1939-1940 New York World's Fair, a six-monkey escape made the newspapers, too.
One syndicated columnist wrote that he didn't know if the mayhem in Massapequa was a stunt or not, but "if it was, I salute the [press agent] who pulled it. Not only did it make headlines everywhere, but it coincided nicely with the reappearance of Buck himself … after a year's absence in the jungles."
Indeed, Buck was conveniently out of town at the time of the escape. Arriving in San Francisco from Asia about a week later, he told reporters he'd be rushing back to New York to take personal charge of the recapture effort. But he needn't have worried about losing a monkey or two. The cargo from this latest trip, he noted, included "another fine collection of monkeys from all over southern Asia—15 varieties."
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Thanks to Brett
What Will Finally End the Russia-Ukraine War?
Victor Davis Hanson
December 03, 2025
Victor Davis Hanson @VDHanson
Victor Davis Hanson, a senior contributor for The Daily Signal, is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and host of "The Victor Davis Hanson Show." His website, The Blade of Perseus, features columns, lectures, and exclusive content for subscribers.
Editor's note: This is a lightly edited transcript of today's video from Daily Signal Senior Contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see more of his videos.
Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for The Daily Signal. Ukraine is in the news again. There's been some peace proposals submitted by U.S. President Donald Trump to the international community, apparently. A lot of hysteria, a lot of controversy, whether they were too lax, too strong, too punitive, not punitive enough vis-a-vis Russia.
But I thought it would be wise just to review some basic questions, maybe offer a few answers, how we got in this mess in the first place.
So, why did Russian President Vladimir Putin invade? Why did he invade Ukraine? Well, he invaded Ukraine because of two reasons. One, there was no deterrence. He had invaded Ossetia in 2008 during the weakened lame-duck Bush administration and Georgia. In 2014, he felt that President Barack Obama, especially after the hot mic exchange in Seoul, South Korea, in 2012, wouldn't do anything. And he was right. So, he took Crimea and he took the Donbas.
And then in 2022, on Feb. 24, he invaded again. Why? Because there was still that lack of deterrence. President Joe Biden said his reaction would depend on whether it was a major or minor invasion. He'd been very weak on hacking. He said, if you're gonna hack, do not hack particular humanitarian sites. So, Putin, again, correctly thought that the United States and the West in general would not attack.
Next question: Why does he keep fighting?
This has been going on for four years. We don't know what the dead, wounded, and missing—that is, the total casualties—are. It could be over 1.5 million. Russia may have lost a million dead and wounded alone.
So, why is he doing this? He's doing this because he feels that there is a magical DMZ line somewhere where the battlefront is today that he has to get beyond. Because if he doesn't—and every dictator doesn't have sole power, he has to report to certain constituencies, public opinion. But in Putin's case, the Russian military and the Russian oligarchic class.
And if he says to them, "I lost 1.2, 1.3 million Russians, wounded or dead. I destroyed the reputation of the Russian military, and I crashed the Russian economy. And all I got was 60 or 70 miles westward of where we were before Feb. 24, 2022," that's not enough. So, he's trying to push westward.
Most of the peace negotiations and the outlines are clear. We all know what they are. Putin can tell the Russians, his constituencies, "I institutionalized my theft of Crimea and Donbas. I moved westward somewhat. I ensured that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Ukrainians would not be in NATO."
And Zelenskyy is going to say, "I'm a hero. He wanted the whole country. He only got 10% more than he did when he invaded in 2022. We stopped him, and we're gonna be in the EU. We may not be in NATO, but we stopped him, and he suffered four times the amount of casualties that we did."
So, they each think they can win.
And what is the dispute left about?
Ukraine's not gonna be in NATO. Putin knows that. All it is, where is the DMZ? Does Putin get to push areas westward that Ukraine, Ukrainians are currently in and fighting successfully and he can't dislodge, or not? So, that's what the dispute is over, and the security guarantees.
If Ukraine is not in NATO, how can it defend the next invasion from Russia? Well, it's the greatest military in Europe right now. It's battle-hardened. It's got a huge army. It's well supplied. Will that continue? Will the EU or NATO continue to arm it? Will the United States back them up in extremis?
That's all. That's the only two issues: security guarantees and where we draw the DMZ line.
Why does NATO or the West not supply Ukraine to win the war? "I mean, give them Tomahawk missiles," we're told. "Give them F-16s. Russia's on the ropes." And the reason is that Putin engages in nuclear blusters.
He has 6,000 nuclear weapons. So, from time to time, a Russian oligarch, a Russian media host, Putin's inner circle say, "We're gonna use a nuclear weapon if you do this or that." And we recoil. No Tomahawks are willing to use a nuclear weapon. Ninety-eight percent of that is bluff. Two percent may not be a nuclear poker. You can't take those odds.
So, that is one reason why we have restricted. The other is the MAGA brand.
I mean, there's a base of Donald Trump's support that says, "We don't want forever wars. Don't get involved. We don't want advisers. We don't want anything. We've given $170 billion. That's enough."
There's realists who say, "We have to think of the geostrategic consequences. We want to play Russia off against China. We don't want them to join. We want to go back to history, Henry Kissinger's paradigm. No better friend are we to Russia than we are to China and vice versa."
There're a lot of people in the United States that may be pro-Putin. They feel, "Wow, you know, he's Christian, he's fighting for the West, no DEI, no trans. He's no more corrupt than Zelenskyy is."
So, I don't know if that is—there is a more sizable constituency, which says that the borders always change over there. This was all part of the Soviet Union. Ukraine was created in 1939, when Josef Stalin ganged up against the West with Adolf Hitler and got what is now Western Ukraine, which used to be, for a thousand years, Christian, Polish-speaking Poland. And it was ethnically cleansed during World War II, and the Soviets never gave it up, and the postwar agreements gave Poland parts of Pomerania and East Prussia in compensation.
As far as the Donbas area, that was an anti-Soviet jurisdictional matter. We'll let Ukraine be semi-autonomous on this border, so they don't have a national liberationist front or something. Crimea—it's been Russian since 1783.
So, a lot of Americans say, "We don't want countries coming in here and discussing our changing borders with Mexico. So, we don't want to get involved at all." I think that's why NATO hasn't used its full powers to defeat Russia, which it could vis-a-vis this proxy.
Why do we support Ukraine? A lot of people say we should support Russia. Well, Ukraine was invaded. Russia wasn't invaded. Russia was the aggressor. We like to support the underdog and Europe. Ukraine is quasi-European. It's corrupt, but it's quasi-European and quasi-Western. Putin is not. Ukraine, if it wins the war, it doesn't want any more territory. If Putin wins the war, he wants to continue going.
And Ukraine also is a very capable ally. We don't have any friends in the world that are militarily competent—maybe Israel, maybe Ukraine—outside of some NATO country. So, when we see a country that's defending itself and fighting heroically against enormous odds, like Israel, we tend to feel we should continue to support it.
Another question, isn't this amoral, feeding Verdun, feeding Stalingrad? There's, you know, are we gonna go all the way to 2 million? The only politician who says it is is Donald Trump. He's complained that it's amoral. He's talked about it in human terms. It is.
So, one side has to win and one side has to lose to stop the carnage, if you can't have a peace. So, what will stop the war? The war will stop if Putin, if we pull out or NATO pulls support from Ukraine, Putin will bury Ukraine and take it all, or it'll take a large swath. That would end the war.
Or, if we continue to give aid to Ukraine and Putin, at some magical point, feels he can't win, and he's removed from office or his autocratic successor feels that they can't win, they might have a negotiation.
Or, as I said at the beginning, if Putin feels that he gets a little bit more westward than the current battle line, and they agree on the other terms, which we reviewed, then he'll probably say, "For now, I got a lot for Russia and we're beyond where the fighting is now. We're westward of that."
All in all, it's a mess, and it's a reminder that when you lose deterrence, wars follow. If you want peace, the Romans said, prepare for war.
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Brett Dula <brett@dulausaf.com>
Geopolitical Futures - Daily Memo: Ukraine's European Backers Get Weak in the Knees
Italy hit the brakes on buying U.S. weapons for Kyiv, while the Finnish and Swedish leaders downplayed security guarantees.
By: Geopolitical Futures
Paying for it. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said it would be "premature" for Rome to participate in NATO's program to buy U.S. weapons for Ukraine while peace negotiations are underway. In the event of a deal, Kyiv would need security guarantees instead of weapons, he said. Facing funding shortages and resistance within the ruling coalition, Italy's government has been tempering its support for Ukraine. Meanwhile, Australia and New Zealand became the first non-NATO countries to pledge contributions to the U.S. weapons plan, the so-called Prioritized Ukraine Requirement List initiative. Australia committed 50 million Australian dollars ($33 million) to PURL on top of AU$45 million in other military aid, while New Zealand pledged 15 million New Zealand dollars ($9 million) to the program.
Guarantees versus measures. Finland is not ready to offer Ukraine security guarantees but would participate in "security measures," Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said. Speaking alongside his Swedish counterpart, Ulf Kristersson, the Finnish leader said he had not seen "any details or concrete proposals" for such guarantees, which he said only the U.S. and major European countries could credibly provide. Kristersson reiterated the importance of U.S. involvement and said the best security guarantee is a strong Ukrainian military supported by Europe.
Submarine lease. Russian President Vladimir Putin is on a two-day official visit to India, where he will meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Droupadi Murmu. Meanwhile, Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov is in India for a meeting on bilateral military and military-technical cooperation. The visits coincide with reports that India will lease a nuclear-powered submarine from Russia for approximately $2 billion, with delivery expected within two years.
China-France talks. China will provide $100 million in humanitarian aid for Gaza, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced during a joint press conference in Beijing with French President Emmanuel Macron. The French leader urged Xi to use China's "decisive" influence to bring an end to the Russia-Ukraine war. They also discussed economic and trade frictions, with Xi offering cooperation on green energy, digital economy, biopharmaceuticals and artificial intelligence, and welcoming French investment and trade.
Hopeful. Israel hopes to reach peace accords with more Islamic countries, including some outside the Middle East, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview. He also restated his intention to visit New York City despite threats from Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to arrest him if he visits. Separately, Washington's permanent representative to the United Nations, David Waltz, said the U.S. is engaged in "very good conversations" with Azerbaijan, Indonesia and others about contributing troops to an international stabilization force for Gaza.
Water crisis. Iran is negotiating with neighboring countries to purchase water amid a severe drought, Energy Minister Abbas Aliabadi said.
U.S.-Libya talks. Commander of the Libyan National Army Khalifa Haftar met in Benghazi with the head of U.S. Africa Command, Gen. Dagvin Anderson, and the U.S. charge d'affaires in Libya, Jeremy Berndt. They discussed security and defense cooperation, specifically against terrorism, human trafficking and illegal migration, as well as developing joint military programs and expanding economic and trade cooperation.
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Thanks to 1440
Good morning. It's Friday, Dec. 5, and we're covering snags in the Amazon-Postal Service partnership, a climate explanation for the Black Death plague, and much more.
Jan. 6 Pipe Bomber
Federal agents yesterday arrested Brian Cole Jr., a 30-year-old Virginia resident, on charges related to the use of an explosive device. He is suspected of planting two pipe bombs outside the Republican and Democratic National Committee headquarters the night before the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the US Capitol.
The arrest marks a breakthrough in a nearly five-year probe that puzzled investigators and fueled conspiracy theories. The bombs—viable devices about a foot long and filled with gunpowder and metal—were placed between 7:30 and 8:30 pm on Jan. 5. They never detonated and were discovered roughly 15 hours later, as the Capitol riot unfolded, diverting some law enforcement resources.
Officials say the investigation involved reviewing tens of thousands of video files, over a thousand interviews, hundreds of tips, cell tower data, and subpoenas to tech companies. Investigators also traced purchases of bomb components and flagged the suspect's distinctive Nike Air Max Speed Turf shoes. A motive has not yet been released.
Amazon Eyes Deliveries
Amazon is considering launching a competitor to the US Postal Service, according to the Washington Post, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The revelation comes as negotiations between the two reportedly stagnated over their multibillion-dollar partnership, set to expire Oct. 1, 2026.
Amazon has an extensive logistics network, delivering over 9 billion same- or next-day items last year and 6.3 billion parcels total, second only to the Postal Service's 6.9 billion. However, the company often relies on the Postal Service—and private carriers UPS and FedEx—for the so-called "last mile," getting products to customers' doorsteps (see more, w/video). The USPS is the only delivery service reaching nearly 167 million US addresses, including post office boxes.
The two entered a partnership in 2013, bringing the USPS a cash influx: $6B this year, accounting for 7.5% of the Postal Service's total revenue. President Donald Trump's effort to privatize the USPS is reportedly a sticking point in the negotiations.
Black Death Eruption
Volcanic activity in the mid-14th century may have sparked a climate shock, paving the way for Europe's Black Death pandemic, according to new clues preserved in tree rings.
Scientists have widely accepted that the bacterium behind the bubonic plague originated from Central Asian wild rodents. But why the plague reached and spread so quickly through Europe—where it killed millions of people in the late 1340s and early 1350s, with mortality rates approaching 60% in some regions—has been less clear. Now, an analysis of tree rings has revealed that the summers before the pandemic were atypically cold, and historical records describe unusual cloudiness and dark lunar eclipses. Taken together, the evidence suggests ash and gases from an unidentified eruption—or eruptions—blocked sunlight, cooling temperatures, and triggering crop failures. Italian city-states likely traded across the Black Sea to avert famine, unwittingly bringing plague-carrying fleas home.
Researchers say the discovery underscores how climate change and globalization can increase the risk of zoonotic diseases.
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Thanks to This Day in History
Aircraft squadron disappears in the Bermuda Triangle
At 2:10 p.m. on December 5, 1945, five U.S. Navy Avenger torpedo-bombers comprising Flight 19 take off from the Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station in Florida on a routine three-hour training mission. After having completed their objective, Flight 19 was scheduled to take them due east for an additional 67 miles, then turn north for 73 miles, and back to the air station after that, totaling a distance of 120 miles. They never returned.
Two hours after the flight began, the leader of the squadron, who had been flying in the area for more than six months, reported that his compass and backup compass had failed and that his position was unknown. The other planes experienced similar instrument malfunctions. Radio facilities on land were contacted to find the location of the lost squadron, but none were successful. After two more hours of confused messages from the fliers, a distorted radio transmission from the squadron leader was heard at 6:20 p.m., apparently calling for his men to prepare to ditch their aircraft simultaneously because of lack of fuel.
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57 Million Americans REJECT Hollywood Programming
Hollywood Sign on a green hillside, sunny day.
HOLLYWOOD PROGRAMMING REJECTED
Over 57 million Americans chose authentic football tradition over woke entertainment alternatives, making the Thanksgiving Cowboys-Chiefs showdown the most-watched NFL regular-season game in history.
Story Highlights
Cowboys defeat Chiefs 31-28 in most-watched NFL regular-season game ever with 57.2 million viewers
Viewership jumped 47% from last year's Thanksgiving game, peaking at over 61 million during the final moments
CBS Sports achieves best NFL ratings since 1998, proving Americans crave traditional entertainment
Paramount+ sets streaming records while traditional broadcast dominates over fragmented digital platforms
Record-Breaking Thanksgiving Performance Proves Traditional Values Win
The Dallas Cowboys' 31-28 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs on Thanksgiving Day, November 27, 2025, delivered an unprecedented 57.230 million viewers on CBS, establishing the most-watched NFL regular-season game in television history.
This massive audience represents a 47% increase over last year's comparable Thanksgiving matchup between the Giants and Cowboys, which attracted 38.839 million viewers. The historic viewership demolished the previous record by 36%, surpassing the 42.059 million viewers who watched Giants-Cowboys on November 24, 2022.
America Chooses Football Over Hollywood's Failed Programming
Viewership peaked at 61.357 million during the game's thrilling conclusion from 7:45-8:00 PM ET, demonstrating Americans' hunger for genuine competition over manufactured entertainment.
David Berson, President and CEO of CBS Sports, celebrated the achievement, stating the combination of "NFL, Thanksgiving, Chiefs, Cowboys" created "a perfect recipe for a record audience."
This massive viewership surge reflects a clear rejection of the entertainment industry's woke programming that has driven audiences away from traditional media outlets in recent years.
CBS Dominates While Competitors Struggle With Fragmented Audiences
The game's success extends beyond a single broadcast, with CBS Sports achieving its best NFL viewership since the network regained NFL rights in 1998. Season-to-date, "NFL ON CBS" averages 22.120 million viewers, representing a 9% increase over the previous year.
Paramount+ simultaneously registered its most-streamed NFL regular-season game ever, proving that quality content drives both traditional and digital viewership when networks focus on sports rather than political messaging.
Traditional Entertainment Triumphs Over Streaming Chaos
This record-breaking performance demonstrates the power of shared cultural experiences that unite families during holidays, contrasting sharply with fragmented streaming services pushing divisive content.
While Hollywood continues losing audiences through woke messaging and political activism, CBS Sports delivered exactly what Americans wanted: high-quality football featuring America's most popular teams on the nation's most cherished holiday.
The Cowboys-Chiefs matchup proved that traditional values and genuine entertainment consistently outperform manufactured controversy and political virtue signaling that has plagued other media outlets.
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This Day in U S Military History
Decemberr5
1861 – Gatling gun was patented.
1904 – Japanese destroyed Russian fleet at Port Arthur in Korea.
1929 – Marine Captain A. N. Parker was the first person to fly over unexplored Antarctica.
1932 – German physicist Albert Einstein was granted a visa, making it possible for him to travel to the United States. In 2003 Thomas Levenson authored "Einstein in Berlin."
1933 – Prohibition was repealed–much to the delight of thirsty revelers–when Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The nationwide prohibition of the manufacture, sale or transportation of alcoholic beverages was established in January 1919 with passage of the 18th Amendment. Prohibition's supporters gradually became disenchanted with it as the illegal manufacture and sale of liquor fostered a wave of criminal activity. By 1932, the Democratic Party's platform called for the repeal of Prohibition. In February 1933, Congress adopted a resolution proposing the 21st Amendment to repeal the 18th and with Utah's vote in December, Prohibition ended. Three-quarters of the states approved the repeal of the 18th amendment and FDR proclaimed the end of Prohibition
.1936 – Armenian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR, Georgian SSR, Kazakh SSR & Kirghiz SSR became constituent republics of Soviet Union.
1941 – USS Lexington, one of the two largest aircraft carriers employed by the United States during World War II, makes its way across the Pacific in order to carry a squadron of dive bombers to defend Midway Island from an anticipated Japanese attack. Negotiations between the United States and Japan had been ongoing for months. Japan wanted an end to U.S. economic sanctions. The Americans wanted Japan out of China and Southeast Asia and Japan to repudiate the Tripartite "Axis" Pact with Germany and Italy before those sanctions could be lifted. Neither side was budging. President Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull were anticipating a Japanese strike as retaliation-they just didn't know where. The Philippines, Wake Island, Midway Island-all were possibilities. American intelligence reports had sighted the Japanese fleet movement out from Formosa (Taiwan), apparently headed for Indochina. The U.S. State Department demanded from Japanese envoys explanations for the fleet movement across the South China Sea. The envoys claimed ignorance. Army intelligence reassured the president that, despite fears, Japan was most likely headed for Thailand-not the United States. The Lexington never made it to Midway Island; when it learned that the Japanese fleet had, in fact, attacked Pearl Harbor, it turned back-never encountering a Japanese warship en route or employing a single aircraft in its defense. By the time it reached Hawaii, it was December 13.
1945 – At 2:10 p.m., five U.S. Navy Avenger torpedo-bombers comprising Flight 19 take off from the Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station in Florida on a routine three-hour training mission. Flight 19 was scheduled to take them due east for 120 miles, north for 73 miles, and then back over a final 120-mile leg that would return them to the naval base. They never returned. Two hours after the flight began, the leader of the squadron, who had been flying in the area for more than six months, reported that his compass and back-up compass had failed and that his position was unknown. The other planes experienced similar instrument malfunctions. Radio facilities on land were contacted to find the location of the lost squadron, but none were successful. After two more hours of confused messages from the fliers, a distorted radio transmission from the squadron leader was heard at 6:20 p.m., apparently calling for his men to prepare to ditch their aircraft simultaneously because of lack of fuel. By this time, several land radar stations finally determined that Flight 19 was somewhere north of the Bahamas and east of the Florida coast, and at 7:27 p.m. a search and rescue Mariner aircraft took off with a 13-man crew. Three minutes later, the Mariner aircraft radioed to its home base that its mission was underway. The Mariner was never heard from again. Later, there was a report from a tanker cruising off the coast of Florida of a visible explosion seen at 7:50 p.m. The disappearance of the 14 men of Flight 19 and the 13 men of the Mariner led to one of the largest air and seas searches to that date, and hundreds of ships and aircraft combed thousands of square miles of the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and remote locations within the interior of Florida. No trace of the bodies or aircraft were ever found. Although naval officials maintained that the remains of the six aircraft and 27 men were not found because stormy weather destroyed the evidence, the story of the "Lost Squadron" helped cement the legend of the Bermuda Triangle, an area of the Atlantic Ocean where ships and aircraft are said to disappear without a trace. The Bermuda Triangle is said to stretch from the southern U.S. coast across to Bermuda and down to the Atlantic coast of Cuba and Santo Domingo.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
MAGEE, WILLIAM
Rank and organization: Drummer, Company C, 33d New Jersey Infantry. Place and date: At Murfreesboro, Tenn., 5 December 1864. Entered service at:——. Birth: Newark, N.J. Date of issue: 7 February 1866. Citation: In a charge, was among the first to reach a battery of the enemy and, with one or two others, mounted the artillery horses and took two guns into the Union lines.
WALLING, WILLIAM H.
Rank and organization: Captain, Company C, 142d New York Infantry. Place and date: At Fort Fisher, N.C., 25 December 1864. Entered service at:——. Birth: Hartford, N.Y. Date of issue: 28 March 1892. Citation: During the bombardment of the fort by the fleet, captured and brought the flag of the fort, the flagstaff having been shot down.
WELD, SETH L.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company L, 8th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At La Paz, Leyte, Philippine Islands, 5 December 1906. Entered service at: Altamont, Tenn. Birth: Sandy Hook, Md. Date of issue: 20 October 1908. Citation: With his right arm cut open with a bolo, went to the assistance of a wounded constabulary officer and a fellow soldier who were surrounded by about 40 Pulajanes, and, using his disabled rifle as a club, beat back the assailants and rescued his party.
*McWHORTER, WILLIAM A.
Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Army, Company M, 126th Infantry, 32d Infantry Division. Place and date: Leyte, Philippine Islands, 5 December 1944. Entered service at: Liberty, S.C. Birth: Liberty, S.C. G.O. No.: 82, 27 September 1945. Citation: He displayed gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while engaged in operations against the enemy. Pfc. McWhorter, a machine gunner, was emplaced in a defensive position with 1 assistant when the enemy launched a heavy attack. Manning the gun and opening fire, he killed several members of an advancing demolition squad, when 1 of the enemy succeeded in throwing a fused demolition charge in the entrenchment. Without hesitation and with complete disregard for his own safety, Pfc. McWhorter picked up the improvised grenade and deliberately held it close to his body, bending over and turning away from his companion. The charge exploded, killing him instantly, but leaving his assistant unharmed. Pfc. McWhorter's outstanding heroism and supreme sacrifice in shielding a comrade reflect the highest traditions of the military service.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for December 5, 2020 FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
5 December
1907: Wilbur Wright offered the Army's Board of Ordnance and Fortification an airplane that could carry two people for $25,000. The board asked the Signal Corps to submit its specifications for an airplane. (12)
1911: Bell aileron patent issued to the Aerial Experiment Association (Alexander Graham Bell and others). Glenn Curtiss later bought this patent. (24)
1929: Cmdr Richard E. Byrd made a 400-mile aerial mapping flight along the coast of Antarctica. (24)
1943: Ninth Air Force pilots from the 354th Fighter Group flew P-51s into combat for the first time. They escorted Eighth Air Force bombers 490 miles to targets in northern Germany. The presence of escort fighters reduced bomber losses significantly. (21)
1944: Eighth Air Force B-17s and B-24s, escorted by P-51s, P-47s, and P-38s from Eighth and Ninth Air Force, hammered German targets in Kassel, Mainz, Giessen, Soest, and Bebra. (4)
1949: The USAF diverted $50 million from other projects to build a radar screen in Alaska and certain US areas after detecting a Soviet Atomic explosion in August 1949. (16) (24)
1950: McChord AFB, Wash., received the first two Douglas C-124 Globemaster II aircraft. The Globemaster soon became the mainstay of the strategic airlift fleet. (18) KOREAN WAR. Far East Air Forces Combat Cargo Command evacuated 3,925 patients from Korea in 131 flights, with most of these flying from a frozen airstrip at Hagaru-ri. This effort was the most aeromedical airlift in one day during the Korean War. Greek C-47s joined the Combat Cargo Command airlift to supply UN troops surrounded in northeastern Korea. Additionally, the USAF suspended attacks on the Yalu River bridges, because enemy forces were crossing the frozen river on the ice. (21) (26) (28)
1958: At Cape Canaveral, Fla., a Goose research missile completed the program's last test flight. (6)
1960: The Snark missile research and development effort ended when Cape Canaveral, Fla., launched the eleventh test missile. (6) A ship carrying F-102 Delta Daggers for the Hawaii Air National Guard arrived in Pearl Harbor. The delivery was part of an USAF conversion program from F-86 aircraft. (17)
1961: Cmdr George W. Ellis (US Navy) flew an F4H Phantom II at a speed of 1,400 MPH at a sustained altitude of 66,443.8 feet. (24)
1962: The USAF ended the Atlas flight test program with an "F" model launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on a 5,000-mile flight. Since 11 June 1957, 108 of 151 missiles launches were successful. (16) (24)
1963: Maj Robert A. Rushworth flew the X-15A-1 to Mach 6.06 over Edwards AFB, Calif. (3)
1970: The 954th Military Airlift Group (AF Reserves) from Hill AFB, Utah, assisted in a domestic action program to provide 40,000 pounds of food and clothing to Navajo Indians on reservations spanning the corners of four states. (16)
1974: Sikorsky Aircraft delivered the last HH-53 Super Jolly Green Giant helicopter to the USAF. (18)
1978: The Defense Systems Acquisition Review Council II recommended full-scale development of the M-X (Peacekeeper) missile in vertical multiple protective shelter basing. The council also wanted an airmobile basing mode for the missile investigated. (6)
1987: Following Typhoon Nina, six C-130 Hercules aircraft belonging to the 374th Tactical Airlift Wing flew 34 tons of relief supplies to the island of Luzon, Philippines. (16)
1994, The START I Treaty went into force, bringing about reductions in nuclear-capable bombers and missiles. The treaty barred its signatories from deploying more than 6,000 nuclear warheads and a total of 1,600 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and bombers. START negotiated the largest and most complex arms control treaty in history, and its final implementation in late 2001 resulted in the removal of about 80% of all strategic nuclear weapons then in existence. Proposed by US President Ronald Reagan, it was renamed START I after negotiations began on START II. The treaty expired on 5 December 2009.
2001: The USAF awarded a $1.1 billion contract to Lockheed Martin to develop and demonstrate a Reliability Enhancement and Reengining Program for the C-5. The program included hydraulic upgrades, structural improvements to ensure the life of the C-5 to 2040, and environmental control system improvements related to the C-5's Avionics Modernization Program. In the program, four C-5Bs would be equipped with the higher-thrust General Electric CF6 engines used on Boeing's 747 and 767 as well as the Airbus A300. (22) Operation NOBLE EAGLE. The 125th Fighter Wing (Florida Air National Guard) sent its F-15s to patrol the skies over the Kennedy Space Center for the Space Shuttle Endeavour launch. It was the first shuttle launch since the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S. (32)
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