Volume 267 | No. 17

Mon, May 8

1979—Salvadoran police maintain order in a cathedral; 23 KIA, 70 WIA. 1970—With flags at half mast for Kent State kids shot by National Guardsmen, students protesting in NYC at Wall and Broad streets are attacked by 200 “hardhats” organized by AFL-CIO leader Peter Brennan. Nixon will make him Sec. of Labor. 1970—At the University of New Mexico, 11 people protesting the Vietnam War are bayoneted by National Guardsmen. 1967—For refusing to be inducted, Muhammed Ali is indicted. 1963—In Hue, Ngo Dinh Diem’s goons kill nine Buddhists for flying their flag, then blame the ’Cong. 1958—In Lima, Richard Nixon is stoned and spat on by Peruvians. …

Read more

Sun, May 7

1999—A U.S. B-2 drops five “smart” bombs on the Chinese embassy in Belgrade: three dead, 27 wounded. 1998—Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan successfully quash an effort to regulate credit default swaps. 1992—Reporters reveal Ross Perot’s “concern” over U.S. POWs was mostly about Richard Nixon’s presidency. 1985—New York City throws a ticker tape parade for 25,000 Vietnam veterans. Better late than never. 1970—Marine Sgt. Robert Phleger, 1st Force Recon, is killed in the night by a tiger in Quang Nam Province. 1955—Black voting activist Rev. George W. Lee is gunned down in Midnight, Miss. No charges are ever filed. 1954—The Viet …

Read more

“The Rebel Girl” Receives a N.H. Historical Highway Marker

[Note: To our bug-eyed surprise, the following message appeared in our email inbox on Tuesday, May 2nd. – The Ed.] The N.H. Division of Historical Resources is pleased to announce that a New Hampshire Historical Highway Marker honoring Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, a well-known labor, women’s rights and civil liberties activist, has been installed at the corner of Court and Montgomery Streets in downtown Concord, near the site of her birthplace. The marker reads: “ELIZABETH GURLEY FLYNN “‘The Rebel Girl’ “Born in Concord in 1890, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was a nationally known labor leader, civil libertarian and feminist organizer. She joined the Industrial Workers of the …

Read more

Mission: Impossible

by W.D. Ehrhart What follows is a list of mass shootings with firearms in the United States of America since the massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado on April 20th, 1999 that resulted in 13 dead and 24 wounded.  Each one of these killings has resulted in at least three dead.  Most have involved many more dead, along with many others wounded.  The worst incident resulted in 58 dead and 546 wounded. Littleton, Colo., April 20, 1999 Atlanta, Ga., July 29, 1999 Fort Worth, Texas, September 15, 1999 Honolulu, Hawaii, November 2, 1999 Tampa, Fla., December 30, 1999 Wakefield, Mass., December 26, 2000 Melrose …

Read more

The Deadbeat Caucus

Paraphrasing a recent lede in the New York Times, Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen said on Monday that come the first of June, the last loose quarter underneath the cushions of the federal couch will likely have been found and spent. That metaphor is idiotic, but it’s only a slight twist on the absurd “kitchen table/household budget” trope with which the public is constantly bludgeoned. Shorthand such as this can be quite useful if your goal not to inform, but to switch off your target audience’s gray matter. Being contrarians, we thought we’d try something completely different: describing the present moment as clearly as we …

Read more

Good Riddance, Tucker

It had been so long since there had been any good news that it came as quite a shock: Fox News had fired Tucker Carlson. There is a limit to what one might reasonably expect from the firing of a single demagogue. The Former Guy was evicted from the Oval Office more than 27 months ago. Bill O’Reilly, Carlson’s own predecessor, has been gone for six years. Yet here we are, still on the brink of a dozen different catastrophes. But what the hell—it’s a start. Let us be grateful for what we’ve been given. Maybe, if we’re lucky, he’ll fade forever from public view. …

Read more