Notes from around our Human Experience…
FOUR MORE YEARS! FOUR MORE YEARS!: It is plain that we are not going to get any leadership at all from the Trump Administration. Actually, that has been obvious almost since Day 1.. All we are going to get is four years of Trump jumping from one fiasco to another. After 16 years Bush and Obama – the worst back-to-back presidential leadership this nation has been obliged to endure – America is going to spend the next four years marking time.
USA! USA!: This means four more years of making some zero progress on our country’s biggest issues, issues that if not addressed will spell the end of our nation, probably before this half-century is out. This means four more years of fighting wars not declared by Congress and four more years of high taxes and excess regulation and an economy that still doesn’t work for a lot of people.
We Are Not Being Led, We Are Being Managed, And Not Particularly Well, Either: I don’t think America has been led since Kennedy said let’s go to the moon. Lyndon Johnson could manage the US Senate and become wealthy in the process, but he got bogged down by Vietnam and in trying to have the government do too much, like try to end poverty. Richard Nixon was evil. Ford meant well, and we think History looks favorably on his pardon of Nixon, but he had no chance. The Son of Man himself would have had a tough time following Nixon.
Carter was ineffective. Reagan was brilliant at reducing his presidency to a few things that mattered, but he was the most managed president in history, setting a precedent that festers to this day. George H.W. Bush did not have the skills to parlay a war victory into a second term. Bill Clinton, well, he was the last president to govern without a budget deficit, but it was always one scandal after another with him. George W. Bush had trouble speaking coherently while lying to us in order to get us into wars we are still fighting. Obama tried to be all things to all people, and wanted government to do the same, and made us all buy health insurance when a government has no right to mandate its citizens buy anything at all.
Dry, Technical Matter: And now we have Trump. We can’t really blame him, though because he is just being himself. He was a misfit of a private citizen and an embarrassment as a candidate and none of us should be surprised he is a misfit and an embarrassment of a president. The surprise would have been if Trump had actually turned out to be a leader.
AND DOWN THE STRETCH THEY COME: Aristides, ridden by Oliver Lewis, wins the first Kentucky Derby on this date 1875, Aristides ran the mile-and-a-half in 2:37.
Well, This Should End All Racial Tension In America: The United States Supreme Court on this date in 1954 votes unanimously that separate public schools for whites and blacks are unconstitutional.
“Separate Educational Facilities Are Inherently Unequal”: History refers to the case as Brown vs. Board of Education. It stemmed from a 1951 class-action suit by parents of students in Topeka, Kansas. The parents had attempted to enroll their kids in the closest public school, but had been turned down and instead referred to the nearest segregated school. Before reaching the Supreme Court, a Kansas district court had ruled in favor of the Topeka Board of Education.
FunFact: The decision overturned Plessy vs. Ferguson, an 1896 Supreme Court decision that legalized segregated schools.
Dry, Technical Jurisprudence Matter: The Supreme Court decision stated segregated schools violated the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution which states, in part, that no state shall:
…deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Get Out Your History Books: David Wells of the New York Yankees pitches a perfect game on this date in 1998, defeating the Minnesota Twins 4-0 at Yankee Stadium. It was the 15th perfect game in major league history and the Yankees joined the Cleveland Indians as the only team to have thrown two perfect games, a record that was extended to three by the Yankees and tied by the Chicago White Sox.
The Post Game Show Is Brought To You By Old Style Beer: After the game, Wells would admit to being hung over during the game.
Thought For The Day: We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. – Albert Einstein
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: One man died on the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Sgt. Charles Floyd, probably of acute appendicitis, in August, 1804, near Sioux City, Iowa.
Today’s Stumper: When was the distance of the Kentucky Derby changed from a mile-and-a-half to a mile-and-a-quarter? – Answer next time!
