Notes from around the Human Experience…
BRILLIANT OL’ CHAP: We have come to the conclusion that either President Donald Trump will serve out his term or he will not serve out his term. Right now I ‘d say it’s 50/50, the lowest odds since the closing days of the Nixon Administration.
Any More Brilliant Observations? Key will be the 2018 midterm elections. If the GOP retains control of even one house of Congress, Trump will likely complete his term. Even if there’s video coverage of Trump making book with Putin on the results of last year’s presidential election, it would be difficult to get a GOP House to impeach Trump and/or a GOP Senate to convict him.
Mr Trump, U-Haul On Line Two: However, if the Democrats win control of both the House and Senate, the Trumps should start packing. If investigations into Trump’s dealings with the FBI and the Russians show so much as a parking ticket, he will impeached by the House and tried and convicted by the Senate. As partisan and fractured as our government is right now anything less would be a disappointment.
Our Crystal Ball Is A Bit Foggy: Good luck predicting which scenario will happen, however, because who the hell knows what the American electorate is going to do nowadays? I mean, we elected Donald Trump president, anything is possible now, especially since Trump has surprised us every step of the way.
Ladies And Gentlemen Of The Jury: Honestly, who would have thought Trump would have made it to the primaries? You would have thought the media would’ve properly vetted Trump and chased him off before Republicans actually started voting, but Trump meant viewers and clicks and the media was not about to shoo him off.
Then you would have thought the GOP could’ve mustered up someone halfway decent who could have denied him the nomination. They couldn’t. Nor could the Democrats offer up a candidate who could have denied Trump the White House.
Did We Call It Or What: At least his Administration hasn’t surprised us. We said before the election that Trump was an embarrassment as a candidate and he would be an embarrassment as president and we were right.
TEN HUT! What would become the United States Army is founded on this date in 1775, as the Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, authorizes the formation of the Continental Army. George Washington is appointed Commander-in-Chief.
History may not regard Washington as the greatest tactician that ever lived, but the importance of the executive and inspirational leadership of the Continental Army is difficult to underestimate. The Continental Army was hampered from the start with poor logistics, lousy training, low morale, not to mention short enlistments and a variety of other factors, and Washington was able to overcome them to defeat the British.
The Continental Army would largely disband after the Revolution, though the few frontier posts that remained would form the United States Army authorized by Congress under the Articles of Confederation in 1784.
More Hot Second Continental Congress Action: The Second Continental Congress authorizes the Stars and Stripes as the official flag of the United States on this date in 1777. The resolution calls for a flag with 13 stars on a blue field and 13 alternating red and white stripes. Congress being Congress, it neglected to specify the type of stars or their arrangement on the blue field, or whether the stripes alternated red and white or white and red.
Later, two more stars and stripes would be added when Kentucky and Vermont joined the Union, though when other states joined the Union the number stars was increased, while the number of stripes reverted to 13.
Great Moments In Tolerance: Pope Paul VI discontinues the Catholic Church’s Index of Prohibited Books on this date in 1966. Though the Catholics had been banning books since at least the 9th century, the first official List of Prohibited Books didn’t appear until 1559, about 120 years after Gutenberg invented movable type. The list had last been updated in 1948.
The Catholics of the era weren’t the only intolerant ones. In 1557 England’s Queen Mary chartered the Stationers’ Company, dictating who could print what in her country, while the French crown also controlled who could print what.
More From The 1966 Desk: What was then the longest game in professional baseball history is played on this date in 1966 when Miami Marlins defeat the St. Petersburg Cardinals 4-3 in 29 innings in a Florida State League contest. The game was tied 2-2 after nine innings and each team got a run in the eleventh inning, with Miami getting the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly in the top of the 29th.
Dry, Technical Matter: Though the longest game record was broken by a 33-inning International League game played over two days in 1981, this game remains the longest uninterrupted game in professional baseball history.
FunFact: The longest game in major league history was 26 innings, a 1-1 tie between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Boston Braves in 1920.
Thought For The Day: But men must know that in this theatre of man’s life it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers on. – Francis Bacon
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: Voyager 1 is the farthest spacecraft from Earth, about 12.8 billion miles away. It overtook Pioneer 10 for that distinction in 1998 and left the Solar System and entered interstellar space in 2012.
Today’s Stumper: Outside of the current 50-star, 13-star flag, which has flown for 56 years, which specific US flag design flew the longest before being altered? – Answer next time!
