The Daily Dose/March 20, 2019
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
Today is the 165th birthday of the Republican Party, founded in 1854 in Ripon, Wisconsin by citizens opposed to the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
The purpose of a major political party is to get members elected to Congress and as president of the United States and the GOP does a pretty good job of that. There have been 19 Republican presidents since Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860 and the GOP has won 24 of the past 40 presidential elections.
I don’t think anyone associated with the party then would recognize or approve of the GOP today because Republicans have not produced a decent elected president since Dwight Eisenhower left office in 1961. Nixon was a crook. Ford was not elected, of course, and did well under circumstances the Son of Man would have found challenging. Reagan had his strengths but he was the most managed president ever, setting a precedent that plagues the presidency to this day. George Bush was a decent man who could not get re-elected. George W. Bush lied to get us into war. Their latest president, Donald Trump, was elected despite not having neither judgment, tact or a long-term vision for our country. His only real talent, displayed every hour on the hour, is drawing attention to himself and, as we predicted, his presidency is every bit as embarrassing as was his candidacy for the White House.
The GOP should just go away. We are starting to see some Republican resistance to some of his nonsense, but not wholesale rebellion yet. Too bad, because the GOP could use a wholesale rebellion. Both the party and our country would benefit from one.
The Diary of a Nobody: Sparrow is grateful for a slow night at the hotel because he is dead tired, while The Wife gets the first yard work of the year in. Today’s Diary.
The Wife reported that she is so ready for spring she actually did some yard work today, in the small patch of garden on the other side of the carport…She said she did some weeding which I thought funny because I would think all the weeds died over the winter, but what do I know.
Click here to read The Diary of a Nobody. $5.99 includes all entries, past, present, and future.
Criminals, Courtesans, and Constables: Friends, my latest novel Criminals, Courtesans, and Constables is now available for $3.99, a price that goes up to $5.99 on the official release date of April 1.
Would you like to read excerpts and a sample chapter? Of course you would. Click here to do just that.
On This Date
In 1852 – Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe is published. A novel about the evils and immorality of slavery, portions had originally appeared in The National Era, an abolitionist newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It was the biggest selling book of the 19th-century not named the Bible and is sometimes credited, or blamed, for hastening the start of the American Civil War.
In 1948 – Michigan defeats Dartmouth 8-4 in Colorado Springs to win the first NCAA ice hockey championship. That first tournament also featured Boston College and Colorado College. Michigan would go on to win six of the first nine titles and have still won the most, nine, the last in 1998. Today the NCAA holds hockey championships in Divisions I and III, and the Division I tournament now consists of 16 teams.
In 1982 – Joan Jett and the Blackhearts are at #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 for the first of seven weeks with I Love Rock and Roll. The song also went to #1 in Canada, Sweden, Australia, Holland, New Zealand and South Africa and was Billboard’s third biggest song for 1982. It was their first hit song, and though the band would have six further Top 40 hits, I Love Rock and Roll remains their only #1 song.
Quotebook
I was by no means a scholar, simply an interested reader with nothing to do but live and learn.
Louis L’Amour
Education of a Wandering Man
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
The English House of Commons first met as an independent body in 1341. It received its name because members represented communes and not because its members are commoners.
Today’s Stumper
The Trivia feature will return? – Answer next time!
Let’s be friends. Follow me on Facebook.
