Volume 268 | No. 22

Mon, July 15

1995—A derecho sends hurricane force winds through New York and New England, toppling thousands of trees and killing three people. 1979—President Carter delivers his infamous “malaise” speech, which does not include the word “malaise.” 1974—In Florida, on live TV, newsreader Christine Chubbuck pulls a loaded pistol from a shopping bag and shoots herself dead. 1971—Nixon says he’ll go to China. 1964—The Republican Party saddles itself with candidate Barry Goldwater. 1919—The War Department—accurately named, at least—says 337,000 Americans dodged the recent draft. 1877—John W. Garrett, President of the B & O Railroad, gives his shareholders a 10 percent dividend and his workers a 10 percent pay …

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Sun, July 14

2004—The GOP tries to ban gay marriage but can’t rise to the occasion. 2000—Five tobacco companies are ordered to pay $145 billion in damages, but they wiggle off the hook. 1989—Alabama tries twice, 19 minutes apart, to electrocute Horace F. Dunkins, who’s Black and developmentally-disabled. The first try fails because the chair is wired wrong. 1981—New Hampshire businessman Max Hugel’s stint as Deputy Director of Operations at the CIA ends after 64 days due to revelations of unseemly stock market shenanigans. 1976—Persons unknown in Traves, France celebrate Bastille Day by burning the home of Nazi war criminal Joachim Peiper—while he’s in it. 1975—Boss Clarence Kelley …

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He Has The Luck of Satan’s Child

Dear Editor: Donald Trump has the luck of a Satan’s child! The U.S. Supreme Court, that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and President Donald Trump packed with a conservative majority, lets Trump escape the law. This court of his sends the precedent-setting case back to the federal trial judge, to determine whether Trump’s actions on January 6, 2021, when his supporters attacked the Capitol, were official or unofficial. Time is on Trump’s side. Nothing will be decided before November’s election. At a Plymouth State University Sidore Lecture, history professor Bill Blum once told his audience that “history is made of surprises.” Still lots of room …

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Anyone Remember Covid?

Turns Out It’s Still HereAlso: It’s Still Bad For You The citizenry of the U.S. of A may be unable to agree on much of anything, but we do appear to have arrived at a consensus about Covid: “Thank God that’s over with. Let’s all go back to living our normal lives, as if all that pain, suffering, and death was just a bad dream.” To whatever extent they still acknowledge that Covid ever existed, right wingers tend to brush it off as just another typical overreaction by liberal weenies. For its part, the Biden administration seems to have stopped keeping track of cases a …

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A Hell of a Fortnight

It’s been a hell of a fortnight—one that deserves to live in infamy. Thursday, June 28th, presented a great opportunity: all that was needed was a clear, calm, explanation of the actual Republican agenda. That alone should have been enough to bury forever the threat of a second Trump term. Yes, there is a sector of the electorate that is eager to deep-six democracy and replace it with a fascist dictatorship—though they would, of course, obscure that unseemly truth with yards of obfuscatory patriotic blather. That group of voters will earnestly swear allegiance to a gibberish-spouting goon, though his allegiance is only to himself. For …

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