Notable events, 24 May 1844: First demo of Morse’s telegraph. 1935: MLB first night game in Cincinnati, Reds beat Phillies, 2-1. 1937: SCOTUS ruled Social Security Act was OK. 1961: Freedom riders charged in Jackson, MS, for entering an all-White areas. 1976: U.K. & France began trans-Atlantic Concorde service.
25 May 1787: Constitutional Convention began in Philadelphia. 1961: President JFK issued challenge of landing a man on the moon. 1964: SCOTUS ordered Prince Edward County (VA) to reopen its public schools. 2008: NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander landed and confirmed presence of ice. 2012: SpaceX capsule docked with ISS.
Reading, Non-fiction. A Nasty Little War: The Western Intervention Into The Russian Civil War. Anna Reid, Basic Books, 2023. This little known — and ultimately unsuccessful — dustup saw 180,000 troops from 16 different nations (including the U.S.) send troops into far flung outer regions of Russia in an effort to over turn the emerging Russian communist government. The initial impetus was the power vacuum caused by the emerging communist government’s premature surrender to Germany in WW I. The allies’ response quickly morphed into this larger counter-revolutionary effort.
The initial U.S. involvement began with the landing of the 339th Army regiment (mostly from Michigan) in the far northern port of Archangel, adjacent to Finland. Sadly, too, these landings occurred amidst the initial stages of the coming Spanish Flu contagion.
The some chapter titles indicate the peculiarity of this conflict. “Charlie Chaplin’s Coup,” “The Hush-hush Brigade,” “Egg loaded with dynamite,” “Our poor little unarmed soldiers,” “Honorary Cossacks,” “Russia is a quicksand,” “Do we not trade with cannibals?”
In the end, the resolve of the Bolsheviks, the vastness of the country, the plethora of competing groups/parties, the lack of ironclad resolve amongst the Allies, and demands for ending WW I. All played a part in ending this ill-fated endeavor.
More Non-fiction. The Loves of Theodore Roosevelt: The Women Who Created A President. Edward F. O’Keefe, Simon & Schuster, New York, 2024. TR is most often seen as a product of both a well off heritage and, for the somewhat informed, a man’s man. There is what is more commonly known: the sickly childhood overcome, the grief-driver, solitary sojourn to the Dakota Badlands, the Rough Riders, San Juan Hill, the ascendancy to the presidency by assassination, the Panama Canal, the failed third-party presidential campaign (still a model for today). And, as the book details, so much more.
The Unstoppables. If you subscribe, this NYT series is worth following. The 22 May 2024 story is about Ali McGraw, of “Love Story” fame, another prominent American who found solace in the high desert oasis of Santa Fe, NM.
David Brooks. “We Haven’t Hit Peak Populism Yet.” NYT, 23 May 2024. American exceptionalism? Brooks is far from sure. “We used to have long debates about American exceptionalism, about whether this country was an outlier among nations, and I always thought the bulk of the evidence suggested that it was. But these days our political attitudes are pretty ordinary. America, far from standing out as the champion of democracy, as a nation that welcomes immigrants, as a perpetually youthful nation energized by its faith in the American dream, is now caught in the same sour, populist mood as pretty much everywhere else…. The trends also suggest that we could be in one of those magnetic years in world history. There are certain moments in history, like 1848 and 1989, when events in different countries seem to build on one another, when you get sweeping cascades that bring similar changes to different nations, when the global consciousness seems to shift.”
Middle East. The International Court ordered Israel to halt its military action in Rafah.
CO and Metro Denver. (1) Denver’s Little Saigon is a food enclave struggling with deteriorating infrastructure. (2) The recent horrendous conditions in a private mortuary (multiple unburied/uncremated bodies) lad the CO legislature to craft/pass 3 regulatory bill with Gov. Polis just signed.
Water news. The Diné (Navajo) have signed off on a proposal for the use of water from the Colorado River. The tribe has one of the largest claims to the waters.
Nov 2024. The list grows and in-fighting builds in the race to be DJT’s VP nominee. The selectee will supposedly have the
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