The Daily Dose/July 4, 2020
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience.
Editor’s Note: a version of this item appeared three years ago today. It’s been updated for today’s column.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US: 244 years after America declared its independence from Great Britain, let’s take a look at how our Founding Fathers might regard the America they founded has turned into.
Leading Off: Let’s start with the media. Newspapers, pamphlets and town criers were important in America in 1776 – important enough that protecting them was put into the Bill of Rights a decade later – and the media is important today, though the Internet and TV have replaced pamphlets and town criers and newspapers, of course, are still hanging on mightily.
Extra, Extra Read All About It: And Messrs. Washington, Franklin and Adams wouldn’t be particularly surprised at how partisan today’s media is. Newspapers throughout history have always had a partisan bias.
Fly In The Ointment: But they would be surprised at how today’s media is derelict in their responsibilities, having long ago decided that entertaining and polarizing America was more important than informing and educating America. There are two good recent examples.
Dry, Technical Matter: One is going on right now: the current coronavirus panic the media is hell-bent on perpetuating. Deaths are going down. Yes, cases are up, but that’s because testing is up and there are more cases being reported. It announced its presence, wreaked its havoc and is now fading. The numbers don’t lie: daily deaths worldwide and in the US are going down. We’re not hearing that on the news, though. All we are hearing are the rise in cases.
USA! USA! Another example of this is the phenomenon that is President Donald Trump.
We are of the opinion Trump never wanted to be president, that he got into the race in 2015 merely because he wanted to draw some attention to himself. A real media would have realized this, properly vetted Trump and would have had him out of the race within a few days, the same as it would’ve done to any childish billionaire that had declared for the GOP nomination.
Fly In The Ointment II: Trump, however, like the coronavirus, means clicks and ratings, so he was ushered right into the GOP primaries, the November ballot and then the White House. Trump was an embarrassment as a candidate and he has been and will continue to be an embarrassment as president.
War: It’s What’s For Dinner: On the surface, the Founding Fathers would not be particularly surprised that America spends an awful lot of time at war. The Founding Fathers, after all, spent no small amount of time fighting the Indians and, of course, had to defeat Britain in the Revolution.
But those wars were on our home turf. None of the wars we are fighting now are, and the Founding Fathers would be appalled at the amount of fighting we do in foreign lands, in countries that are not direct threats to us. They would be surprised, and discouraged, to see a chief executive unilaterally authorizing military action without the consent of the Congress.
Dry, Technical Matter: They would be surprised at other things, too, both good and bad. Told what they do, Benjamin Franklin would marvel at an airplane from the outside, climb aboard, go immediately to first-class and order champagne before flirting with your wife or daughter or, as likely as not, both.
One Small Step: Thomas Jefferson would look dumbstruck at pictures taken on the surface of the moon and Mars and of Pluto and be glad the slavery he had been unwilling to do anything about is gone. All would fret over the excessive taxes and regulations our government imposes and would note that we certainly appear to be generally well-fed as a country. They would not marvel over the differences between rich and poor because as generally wealthy, landowning white males, they were accustomed to this.
Get Your Official Daily Dose Policy Right Here: What I think our Founding Fathers would really be surprised at is how easily Americans now accept what their government chooses to spoon-feed them, how we continue to tolerate a government that is a partisan, fractured and bickering mess. They would not be surprised at our racially fractured country because they allowed slavery.
The Bottom Line: They wouldn’t understand this because when they deemed British shackles intolerable they went and did something about it and they would be disappointed to see today’s Americans not only accepting substandard government but refusing to do anything about it on Election Day.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
The Diary of a Nobody: Sparrow forgets he has the day off from the VSO. Today’s Diary.
Well, hell, now what???…I have to be the only person in the history of labor who whines about a paid holiday…I mean, had I known about there could’ve been a workout…Instead, I laid on the couch some more, eventually getting up and doing some project work, which is what I would have been doing at the VSO anyway, the only difference being I didn’t have to put on real clothes.
Backstairs at the Monte Carlo: X-Ray and Sparrow both get gratuities.
Few people think to tip the friendly security officer who lets them into their room, especially when it’s the yo-yo guest who forgot their key. We do graciously accept them, however. I got a ten-spot for letting one guest into their room and X-Ray got two bottles of wine from another, although X-Ray ended up giving the bottles of wine back because we are only allowed to receive cash or gaming chips as gratuities.
Friends, our $2.99 special for both The Diary of a Nobody and Backstairs at the Monte Carlo won’t last forever, so click on the button now to get in on the laughs.
On This Date
History’s long march to today
In 1803 – The United States Military Academy, commonly known as West Point, opens in West Point, New York. Admission and academic standards were not structured back then and the first cadet graduated a few months later and Congress would not impose a more formal standards until the War of 1812. The Continental Army first occupied West Point in 1778 and it remains the Army’s oldest continuously operating post and it’s visitor’s center is the oldest museum in the United States Army. Of the 1,300 or cadets that enter as freshmen, about 1,00 will graduate.
In 1989 – Tom Browning of the Cincinnati Reds comes within three outs of becoming the first pitcher to throw two perfect games in a 2-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies. After retiring the first 24 Phillies, Dickie Thon led off the bottom of the ninth inning with a double. Thon would later score and John Franco pitched two-thirds of an inning for the save. Browning had pitched a perfect game against the Los Angeles Dodgers the year before.
In 1953 – Jim Reeves is at #1 on Billboard’s Most Played in Jukeboxes country chart – one of several predecessors to today’s country chart – for the fifth of eight consecutive weeks with Mexican Joe. It was the first chart single for Reeves, who was then moonlighting as a radio announcer when not making records, and the first of ten #1 country songs. Reeves died in a plane crash on July 31, 1964, at the age of 40. The song also peaked at #23 on Billboard’s Best Sellers in Stores chart.
Quotebook
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
Amid world beating hearts, the tumult and the shouting starts. – Grantland Rice, The Start
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
It’s not who you know, but what you know.
ExxonMobil is the company that has been a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average the longest. Then known as Standard Oil of New Jersey, it was added in October 1928.
Today’s Stumper
Cheaper than Trivia Night at the bar.
How many games did Tom Browning win in his career? – Answer next time!
