Notes from around the Human Experience…
EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT: One of the funny things about Tuesday’s special US House of Representatives election in Georgia was how it was being hailed as a referendum on Donald Trump’s presidency.
Donald Trump’s Presidency…Sigh…: Don’t kid yourself. It wasn’t.
A Republican won in a heavily Republican district. Big wow, as we used to say when we were kids. Republican Karen Handel will replace Republican Tom Price, who resigned to serve as Republican Donald Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services. The GOP has done a fairly good job of circling the wagons during the fiasco that has been – and will likely continue to be – the Trump Administration and it was not reasonable to expect a GOP district to do anything other than elect one of the tribe.
Gaylon For Congress…Vote Early, Vote Often: We’ve said this before, especially while running for the United States Senate and the United States House:
Republican or Democrat, it doesn’t matter, neither will make substantive difference in how we are governed. One is six, the other is a half-dozen. They are both the same.
The Bottom Line: As long as we keep electing the status quo, nothing in this country will change. Had Georgia’s 6th Congressional District elected the Democrat, nothing would be changing. Washington will continue as it has, at least until you and me – we the people – start demanding something different.
GREAT MOMENTS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE RATIFYING THE CONSTITUTION: New Hampshire becomes the ninth state to ratify the new Constitution on this date in 1788. With that, the required two-thirds of the 13 United States had ratified the Constitution, putting it into effect. It had been approved by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia and sent to the several states the previous September.
Oh Yeah: Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution, on December 7, 1787.
Dry, Technical Matter: The first United States presidential election would begin in December, 1788 and George Washington would be inaugurated on April 30, 1789. In between, the first United States Congress convened on April 1.
Take That, You American Bastards: A mainland American military installation is attacked for the only time during World War II on this date in 1942 when a Japanese submarine surfaces off the coast of Oregon and attacks Fort Stevens. The Japanese submarine I -25 sent 17 shells towards the fort, located at the mouth of the Columbia River.
Sunday’s Ballgame Is Cancelled: Fortunately, they weren’t much of a shot. The shelling did no damage to the fort itself, but the backstop at the post’s baseball field was destroyed.
FunFact: The I -25 had been commissioned in 1941 and besides making a pest of itself off the American west coast, it had participated in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It was ultimately sunk by a US Navy destroyer in the south Pacific in September, 1943.
I Guess We Can’t All Just Get Along: Two whites, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, and one black, James Chaney, are murdered in Mississippi by the Klu Klux Klan (KKK) on this date in 1964.
That’ll Show Them: The three had come to the attention of the KKK by having the nerve to try and get blacks to register to vote.
The incident started in the afternoon when the three were pulled over on Mississippi Highway 19 by Neshoba County Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price. Price arrested the three, ostensibly on suspicion of arson. They were released after paying a $20 fine for a traffic violation, then followed by Price as they drove out of town. Before they reached the county line Price pulled them over again, then ordered them into his car. Price drove them to a deserted area, where he turned them over to two carloads of fellow KKK members, who beat and killed Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner. Acting on a tip, authorities found their bodies a few weeks later.
Wow, This Is A Surprise: Mississippi declined to bring murder charges against anybody. The federal government did charge Price and 17 others with conspiracy to commit murder, which resulted in the conviction of Price and seven others. Price would serve four-and-a-half years of a six-year term.
Oh Yeah: The trial also resulted in no verdicts against three people, including Edgar Ray Killen. In 2005 Killen was tried in state court on three counts of murder and was convicted of three counts of manslaughter. He was sentenced to three consecutive 20 year terms. He is eligible for parole in 2027, when he will be 102-years old.
I Love You Jody…Do You Love Me? John Hinckley, Jr, who shot President Ronald Reagan and others in March, 1981, is found not guilty of the crime by reason of insanity on this date in 1982. He would be remanded to a psychiatric hospital for treatment and evaluation.
Hinckley was authorized periodic visits home in 2005 and was released from treatment last year. He currently lives, with some restrictions, with his mother in Williamsburg, Virginia.
What The Hell’s Going On Here: We here at The Daily Dose are pretty much on board with declaring anyone who has a fixation with Jodie Foster and who shoots the president of the United States is basically crackers. But he committed the crime he was charged with and a finding of not guilty, no matter the context, does not make sense. Not guilty means you didn’t commit the crime you were charged with and Hinckley committed the crimes he was charged with. There’s no doubt.
Thank You John Jay: So instead of finding him not guilty by reason of insanity, how we about we find him guilty by reason of insanity?
Thought For The Day: Who can ask more of a man/Than giving all within his span/Giving all, it seems to me/Is not so far from victory – George Moriarty, The Road Ahead of the Road Behind
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: Abraham Lincoln was born in Hodgenville, Kentucky.
Today’s Stumper: Before the Constitution, what was the governing document of the United States? – Answer next time!
