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S.S. America: “SOS”

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According to the Admiral, there’s a reason competent captains insist on always keeping their vessels ship-shape. It’s not some petit bourgeois urge to impress passengers. Nor is it necessarily the reflection of an inner authoritarian need to control the crew’s every waking moment. It’s just a fundamental safety principle, put into practice. Because sooner or later, no matter where you are or what you’re doing, something is inevitably going to go wrong. If your systems are all in order, then you fix the problem and move on. If one system is jury-rigged when another goes haywire, you will soon be fully occupied just trying to …

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Sun, Aug 14

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2019—The New York Times publishes “The 1619 Project,” arguing chattel slavery was central to the nation’s creation. Conservatives freak out. 1966—“As long as the United States and our brave allies are in the field,” says LBJ, “[a Communist takeover of South Vietnam] is impossible.” 1945—President Truman announces Japan has surrendered. Enlisted sailors in San Francisco celebrate their reprieve with three nights of looting, vandalism, rape, and murder. 1936—In Owensboro, Ky., at 5:30 a.m, 15,000 watch as Rainey Bethea becomes the last person publicly hanged in America. Arthur Hash, the assigned executioner, is so drunk a deputy sheriff has to pull the lever. 1935—FDR signs the …

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Sat, Aug 13

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2002—“I promise you I will listen to what has been said here,” says George W.[MD] Bush at the President’s Economic Forum in Waco, Texas, “even though I wasn’t here.” 1971—Criminal Attorney General John Mitchell announces that there will be no grand jury investigation of the May 4th shootings at Kent State. 1966—“In two or three years, or even before” says Premier of South Vietnam Nguyen Cao Ky, “the Communists will accept defeat.” 1957—Daisy and Bill Myers, who are Black, get a “warm welcome” to Levittown, Pa.—burning cross and all. 1955—Lamar Smith, a Black WWI vet and voting activist, is shot dead at 10:00 a.m. on …

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Fri, Aug 12

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2004—N.J. Gov. Jim McGreevy resigns after admitting he’s been sleeping with a man who is not his wife. 1985—A 747 with 524 on board, enroute to Osaka, crashes after the tail falls off. Many survive but, due to delays, only four are rescued alive. 1977—CBS reports that the state won’t replace a washed-out bridge in Vulcan, W. Va., so the town has asked the U.S.S.R. for foreign aid. 1958—Art Kane takes the photo known as “A Great Day in Harlem:” 57 jazz greats on a brownstone stoop. 1955—Ike raises the minimum wage from 75 cents to $1 per hour. 1953—Russia tests an H-bomb. Yup, it …

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Thurs, Aug 11

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2017—A “good person” rallying for White Supremacy in Charlottesville, Va. commits vehicular homicide. 2009—President Obama speaks inside Portsmouth, N.H. High School. Outside a Libertarian packs a 9-mm pistol and totes a sign calling for the “blood of patriots and tyrants.” 1972—The last grunts in ’Nam, 3rd Battatlion, 21st Infantry, board that Freedom Bird for CONUS. 1966—The first Coast Guardsmen (2) are killed in Vietnam when B-57s and F-4s attack the cutter Point Welcome. 1965—A white L.A. cop pulls over a Black driver in Watts. Five days of riots cost 34 lives, mostly Black, and $200 million in damage. 1942—Ten years after her scandalous Ecstacy nude …

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