Entries from American history

  • August 2023
  • Image by fancycrave1 from Pixabay

    This Week's Quote

    The United States was founded by the brightest people in the country - and we haven't seen them since.

    Gore Vidal

    Source:  BBC

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    Image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay

    This Week's Quote

    This is a remarkable day in American history. No matter your politics, we should mourn the indictment of a former President of the United States for his attempts to overturn a free and fair election. But you should rejoice that the rule of law is being upheld.

    Jonathan Capehart

    Source: Twitter

  • November 2022
  • Image by Pexels from Pixabay 

    Trivia Answer

    Offhand, I can think of only one person who'll benefit from Donald Trump's announcement that he's running for president again.

    Grover Cleveland.

    Every reporter in America will be obliged to mention that Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th U.S. president, the only chief executive to leave the White House and come back again four years later for a second term, as Trump aims to do.

    Thanks to the Donald's ambition, anger and narcissism, Grover will be having a moment. Not bad for a guy who's been dead 114 years.

  • August 2022
  • Ye Olde Arc of History

    Cartoon by Benjamin Slyngstad

  • April 2022
  • Image:  Wikipedia

    Making History

    On Thursday the U.S. Senate confirmed Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. It was a historic day, as she became the first Black woman elevated to the highest court in the land.

    It was historic for another reason, too. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, because he wasn't wearing a tie, had to cast his "no" vote against Jackson from the Senate cloakroom.

    It's official. Lindsey Graham was really in the closet.

  • February 2022
  • Image:  Facebook

    Presidents Day 2022

    It's the day we Americans, conventionally, honor presidents past and present.

    Okay. I'm willing to celebrate William Henry Harrison, even though he served only 31 days before dying, and James Buchanan, despite the fact that he helped bring on the Civil War.

    But I can't get myself to honor that recent president who set fire to American institutions in the service of his own ego.

    It would feel like honoring Mrs. O'Leary's cow.

  • October 2021
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    Photo:  Facebook

    Loaded Day

    It's Oct. 11, so that means it's National Coming Out Day.

    I'm a lesbian. You're shocked.

    Today also happens to be Columbus Day. President Joe Biden issued the customary presidential proclamation honoring Christopher Columbus, along with Italian Americans, but Biden also issued the first-ever presidential proclamation marking today as Indigenous Peoples' Day.

    It seems to me this is a lot of social and political pressure to put on one day. I hope we can come together as a united nation tomorrow to celebrate that most important of events, National Gumbo Day.

  • June 2021
  • Photo: Facebook

    Pride in the Past

    This is so cool.

    The White House has partnered with the Smithsonian for a Pride-month exhibit. The White House's Ground Floor Corridor, lit up in rainbow colors for the first time, presents LGBTQ+ history, like Stonewall, the AIDS epidemic, Harvey Milk and Marsha P. Johnson.

    The exhibit also goes farther back in time, and fittingly for the location, tells of Rose Cleveland, who served as White House hostess for her brother, President Grover Cleveland, until he married in 1886.

    "For almost 30 years, Rose Cleveland maintained a romantic relationship with Evangeline Marrs Simpson Whipple. The women lived together in Italy from 1910, until Rose’s death from the Spanish flu in 1918," notes the exhibit. "Rose and Evangeline are buried side by side in Italy and their love letters, housed in the Whipple Collection in the Minnesota Historical Society, were published in 2019." 

    I don't know whether there's any mention in the exhibit of President James Buchanan. Historians suspect he was gay, but I've not been hot to claim him, since historians also often label him as the worst president ever. I might be more inclined to embrace Buchanan now, though. Despite the fact that he set the stage for the Civil War, I do believe, after the last four years, the title of America's Lamest Chief Executive no longer belongs to him.

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