Notes from around the Human Experience…

I  DO SOLEMNLY SWEAR…OR NOT: Between FBI and Russia investigations, and the general, day in, day out tumult that has been, and will continue to be, the Donald Trump Administration, it is a bit more than idle curiosity that leads us to wonder if Trump will finish out his term.

FunFact: There are three ways a president can leave office before his term ends.

Leading Off: The most common way is by dying. Eight presidents, about 18 percent, have died in office.

Dry, Technical Matter: Four presidents William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Warren Harding and Franklin Roosevelt died of natural causes. Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley and John F Kennedy were shot to death.

It is very difficult to kill a president nowadays, though it would probably be somewhat easier if the assassin disregarded his own survival. Trump is 72 and appears to be in good health, so it is not reasonable to expect him to die in office, which no one really wants anyway.

I Am Not A Crook…Well, Yes I  Am: The second is by resigning. This has happened once, of course, when Richard Nixon resigned in 1974.

Even if investigations into Trump’s conduct vis-a-vis the FBI and the Russians show Trump’s conduct was anywhere from negligent to criminal, you can bet Trump will go down swinging. Nixon showed presidents can hold out for a very long time. Twenty-six months elapsed between the Watergate break-in and Nixon’s resignation, and Nixon only resigned when the family dog smacked him around and told him it was clear he would be impeached by the House of Representatives.

Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! A president of the United States can also be removed from office following impeachment by the House of Representatives and conviction at a trial held by the Senate and presided over by the Chief Justice.

Get Out Your History Books: Three times the House Judiciary Committee has passed articles of impeachment against the president of the United States: against Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton.

Johnson and Clinton ended up being impeached by the entire House of Representatives. Johnson for violating the unconstitutional Tenure of Office Act while Clinton was caught being Bill Clinton. Both were tried and acquitted by the United States Senate.

The makeup of Congress is important. Johnson faced a Congress controlled by a group known as the Radical Republicans that were so hell bent on punishing the South after the Civil War they probably would have impeached and tried the Son of Man. Clinton was facing a GOP majority in both houses of Congress.

Trump, of course, has GOP majorities in both the House and Senate. The evidence required for a GOP House to impeach Trump would have to be Nixon-esque and – Washington being Washington – GOP Congressmen and Senators would have to find it in their own self-interest to impeach and convict Trump before anything would happen.

The Bottom Line: Taking everything into consideration – the complete fiasco Trump is presiding over and the 20/20 hindsight from the Nixon imbroglio – it is not completely unreasonable to conclude Trump might well not complete his term. It’s not completely certain, of course, but boy, it is tough not give it serious consideration.

GOING…GOING…GONE X 4: Rocky Colavito of the Cleveland Indians becomes the eighth major league player to hit four home runs in one game on this date in 1959.

Playing in Baltimore, Colavito walked in the first before homering in the third, fifth, sixth and ninth innings. They were is 15-18th home runs of the season, and Colavito would finish 1959 leading the American League with 42 home runs.

The Post Game Show Is Brought To You By Old Style Beer: The Indians beat the Orioles 11-8.

Back To The Future: This feat was last accomplished, for the 17th time, by Scooter Gennett of Cincinnati this past Tuesday.  

Mom, I’m Famous Again: James Earl Ray, convicted assassin of Martin Luther King, Jr, escapes from a Tennessee prison on this date in 1977. Ray was apprehended two days later.

This was not Ray’s first escape from prison. He had escaped from a Missouri prison in 1967 by hiding in a truck and was on the lamb when he shot King in Memphis on April 4, 1968.

Please Pass The Dry, Technical Matter: Ray’s escape earned him a spot on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list for the second time, making him one of only six people to make the list twice.

Thought For The Day: The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool. –  Richard P. Feynman (1918-1988) Nobel Laureate, Physics 1965.

Answer To The Last Trivia Question: The first person executed in the United States after Luis Monje in 1967 was Gary Gilmore, executed by the Utah in 1977.

Today’s Stumper: What month has seen the most major league players hit four home runs in one game? – Answer next time!

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Notes from around the Human Experience…

UH, THIS ISN’T EXACTLY BREAKING NEWS: President Donald Trump this week withdrew the United States from the Paris Climate Accords. This was hardly the Upset of the Year, because Trump had been threatening to do this since the primaries.

USA! USA! Afterwards, we were treated to the usual partisans saying the usual partisan things since we’re incapable of civilized discourse in this country, not that America has ever set the pace in this category because from town criers to the Internet American discourse has been one long march of partisan yapping.

Extra, Extra, Read All About It: One aspect of the Paris Accords you heard very little about was how the Accords was never presented to the United States Senate for ratification. President Obama declared the treaty a “voluntary agreement” and implemented it unilaterally, which he was not empowered to do.

Friends, you can call a treaty a voluntary agreement from here to Reno, but it is still an agreement between the United States government and other governments, so it is a treaty and subject to Senate ratification.

Dry, Technical Matter: Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution is very clear on the matter, stating, in part:

He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur;

Trump pulled America out of an agreement it had never ratified – at least in accordance with the Constitution – so we were never obliged to abide by any part of it. Literally, Trump’s action had the same effect of pulling America out of the Warsaw Pact.

WE’RE BEGINNING TO SPOT THE TREND: Another black man was released from prison this week after spending decades behind bars. Desmond Ricks, now 51, was   released from prison in Michigan last Friday after his 1992 second-degree murder conviction was thrown out.

Fly In The Ointment: The problem was the bullets pulled from the victim did not match the gun prosecutors offered as evidence.

Regular readers of this crap will recall last week we wrote about Cleve Heidelberg, another black man, who was released from prison in Illinois after 47 years of confinement after his conviction was vacated!!!

More USA! USA! Why this does not cause us all to collectively go stand in the corner and hang our heads in shame remains beyond me. Does anybody really disagree with the statement that in a nation conceived in liberty this should never happen?

The Bottom Line: Presidents not bothering the US Senate with a treaty he went and implemented on his own, people, mostly black, spending decades in prison for crimes they didn’t commit, you and me, we the people are putting up with it, just like we’ve put up with all the other examples of lousy government we’ve received since Kennedy was assassinated.

GO IN PEACE, SERVE ME: Queen Elizabeth II is crowned Queen of England and other assorted places on this date in 1953. She had ascended to the throne in April 1952, after the death of her father George VI and she still reigns, hale and hearty at 91, the longest reigning monarch in British history.

Great Moments In The Gas Chamber: Luis Monje, a convicted murderer, is executed in Colorado’s gas chamber on this date in 1967. It was the last execution in America before the Supreme Court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional in 1972.

More Great Moments In Colorado: Timothy McVeigh is convicted on 15 counts of murder and conspiracy in the Oklahoma City bombing in Denver on this date in 1997. He would be executed four years later.

Whoops, My Bad: Armando Galarraga of the Detroit Tigers becomes the first major league player to lose a perfect game because of a blown call by an umpire on what would have been the 27th out on this date in 2010.

Pitching for the history books against Cleveland’s Jason Donald, Galarraga gets Donald to bounce to the first baseman, whose toss to Galarraga is in plenty of time for the out and a place in this history, but first base umpire Jim Joyce calls Donald safe anyway and all Galarraga has to show for the great night of his life is a one-hit shutout. 

Looking Back: It was a situation both men ended up handling with a very high level of class.

Quotebook: Carpentier did it again!, a second time, and this was the blow perfected by a lifetime of training…it rocked Dempsey to his heels, but it broke Carpentier’s hand. His best was not enough. – Heywood Braun

Answer To The Last Trivia Question: The only major league player who faced a future Hall of Fame pitcher in a game where he hit four home runs is Gil Hodges, who hit one home run off Warren Spahn of the Boston Braves on July 31, 1950.

Today’s Stumper: Who was the first person executed in the United States after Monje’s execution in 1967? – Answer next time!

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CAPSULE MEMORIAL DAY CEREMONY REVIEW: American Legion/VFW Ceremony, Steamboat Springs Cemetery, Steamboat Springs, Colorado: There are few things more deserving of a veteran’s time than honoring those who died in service to our country and our Memorial Day ceremony is something we take a great deal of pride in.

Even though we are a small post in a small town, we have no trouble filling out a rifle squad, flag detail, honor guard and a changing of the guard ceremony, among other things, and delivering a respectful and moving performance.

Dry, Technical Matter: American Legion membership is reserved for men and women who served our country for at least one day on active duty in time of war, regardless of where. For example, our Legion membership is from our service during the Lebanon/Grenada conflicts, even though we got no closer to either war zone than boot camp and A school.

VFW membership is reserved for veterans who have a campaign ribbon to show for their service. Since campaign ribbons were not issued for service, no matter how meritorious, at a certain San Diego strip joint known as the Body Shop, we are not entitled to VFW membership.

Back On Message: Though certain elements are held every year, like the rifle salute and the changing of the guard ceremony, we try to do something new every year. It could be an anniversary of the beginning or end of a war – always popular because of the sheer number of wars America has fought over the years – or, perhaps, a memorial service or something else we thought up.

A Warm, Personal Remembrance: Last year we presented American flags to the widows, or in some cases children, of local veterans who had died the previous year.  We did this with a very high level of precision – to include a former Marine in his dress blues standing behind each recipient to ensure we didn’t screw anything up – and we can remember thinking that was about the most useful thing we’ll do this year and that, boy, this might be tough to top.

We did well this year, having a riderless horse, complete with boots facing backwards, presented with a reading about the history and significance of the riderless horse.

The horse, named Kermit, was in fine form, taking being paraded and displayed in front a couple of hundred people fairly well. He didn’t bolt, though he did require his handler to walk him in circles. He also didn’t crap while we were reverently remembering our war dead, either, which was nice of him.

MASH 4077: Two people , a bit more than our yearly average of .75, passed out during the ceremony. One was a boy scout standing post behind some older veterans who were seated for the ceremony, and another a member of our flag detail. He came back strong, though, and marched off with his detail at the end of the ceremony. 

Final Rating: A+. Modesty is reserved for those who have nothing to be modest about and, like other years, our Memorial Day ceremony was done very well. And even if we all can’t march in step anymore, we carried it off with a precision that would probably make the Commandant of the Marine Corps smile, if not achieve and maintain a state of arousal. 

WE THE PEOPLE: The Peasant’s Revolt begins in England on this date in 1381. The revolt was led by Tyler Wat who, not coincidentally, was beginning the last fortnight of his life. Wat, upset at the instituting of a poll tax, marched a group of rebels from Canterbury to London.

While the revolt did spread and the protesters did achieve some success, the revolt was suppressed in mid-June and its leaders, including Wat, executed.

Step Lively There, Guv’ner: Fearing further revolts, however, officials treaded very gingerly for a while, and they declined to pass further poll taxes.

Going, Going, Gone x 4: Bob Lowe of the Boston Beaneaters, later known as the Braves, becomes the first major league player to hit four home runs in one game on this date 1894.

Oh Yeah: The Beaneaters defeated the Cincinnati Reds 20-11 in the second game of doubleheader. Lowe had gone 0-6 in the opener. 

The Post Game Show Is Brought To You By Old Style Beer: Lowe’s feet has yet to be surpassed, though it has been equaled on 15 other occasions, most recently by Josh Hamilton of Texas in 2012.

Oh Yeah II: Lowe’s four home runs represented six percent of his career home run output, and his 71 career home runs remain the lowest of those who have hit four home runs in a game.

3…2…1…BLASTOFF: Mariner 9 lifts of from Cape Canaveral, Florida on this date in 1971. In November it would become the first spacecraft to orbit another planet, beating a couple of evil Soviet probes by a month or so.

Thought For The Day: Each people is, I believe, inclined to believe it is the purpose of history, that all that has happened is leading to now, to this world, to this country. Few see ourselves as fleeting phantoms on a much wider screen, or that our great cities may someday be dug from the ruins… – Louis L’Amour, Education of a Wandering Man

Answer To The Last Trivia Question: England’s King Henry VIII had six wives.

Today’s Stumper: Who was the only batter to face a future Hall of Fame pitcher in the game in which he hit four home runs.  – Answer next time!

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HUT, HUT HIKE: The NFL farted around with its overtime procedures recently, changing the length of an overtime period from 15 minutes to ten minutes.

FYI: The change is cosmetic. In reality, the NFL did nothing because NFL games can still end in a tie. In fact, the likelihood of a tie game has probably increased, since overtime periods are now shorter, giving teams less time to score.

Some people with more time on their hands than us estimated that as many as three NFL games each season could now end in a tie. The NFL disputes this, saying a shorter overtime period will result in more aggressive play calling, which will result in fewer tie games. Since it is good not to believe anything the NFL says, we’re trusting our instincts and and saying this change will lead to more tie games.

Dry, Technical Matter: For a long time overtime in the NFL was sudden death: the first team to score won. Sometimes it still is, but sometimes it isn’t. If Team A scores a touchdown on the first possession of the overtime, or if the defense musters a safety on the first possession, the game is over. If neither team scores on the first possession, the game becomes sudden death again.

Do You Wonder Why You Don’t Get Invited To More Parties?: However, if Team A scores a field goal, on the first possession, Team B gets the chance to possess the football. If Team B also scores a field goal, the game becomes sudden death again. If Team B scores a touchdown, though, they win.

Yay! Problem Solved!: We appreciate the argument that overtime is hard on the players, however it is silly that NFL games can still end in a tie. If the NFL does not want to resort to a field goal kicking contest, here is a way to determine a winner that generally will not take a lot of time.

Team A starts with the ball at the 50-yard line and the two teams play under normal rules, except there isn’t a clock or field goals. If Team A scores a touchdown, Team B gets the ball on the 50-yard line. If they score a touchdown and the game is tied, play continues. If one team leads after each scored a touchdown, the game is over.

If Team A doesn’t score, however, Team B gets the ball where Team A’s drive ended. If they advance past the 50-yard line, they are awarded what we are calling a scrimmage point and win the game. If Team B does not advance past the 50-yard line, Team A is awarded the scrimmage point and wins the game.

The Bottom Line: This would likely result in less wear and tear on players and it would ensure that every NFL game had a winner!

Oh, What The Hell: The Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, declares Henry VIII’s marriage to Anne Boleyn to be valid on this date in 1533. The two had married secretly earlier in the month.

It was a busy week for the Archbishop, who plainly knew which side his bread was buttered on. A few days earlier he had annulled Henry’s marriage to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, who had declined to produce a male heir. after Pope Clement VII got his shorts in a knot and refused to do so.

Fly In The Ointment: Later, Henry would tire of Anne and have her executed in 1536.

Great Moments In Screwing The Indians: President Andrew Jackson signs the Indian Removal Act on this date in 1830. The law authorized the government to negotiate with Indians for their territory, in exchange for land in beautiful Oklahoma.

Some tribes, like the Choctaws in Mississippi, signed treaties with the government while others, like the Seminoles in Florida, leading to war and forcible relocations.

Maybe The Neighbors Could Take Some Of Them: The Dionne quintuplets are born near Callander, Ontario on this date in 1934. They were the first quintuplets in history to have all five babies survive infancy.

The girls were born two months early and while individual weights weren’t recorded, they weighed a combined 13 pounds, six ounces and initially were kept in wicker baskets.

Oh Yeah: Two of the quintuplets, now 83, are still alive.

Up, Up And Away: West German pilot Mathias Rust, then 18, lands a private plane on Moscow’s Red Square on this date in 1987. Rust had taken off from Helsinki earlier that day and told fight controllers he was flying to Stockholm before immediately heading east and turning off his communications equipment.

Originally Rust planned to land inside the Kremlin but decided, probably wisely, that this would give the evil Russians the opportunity to kill him – or worse – and deny anything had happened.

Rust was arrested, convicted of hooliganism, disregarding aviation laws and breaching the Soviet border and was sentenced to four years in prison, though he was released the following year as a goodwill gesture.

Thought For The Day: Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. – Winston Churchill

Answer To The Last Trivia Question: The Chrysler Building replaced 40 Wall Street as the world’s tallest building.

Today’s Stumper: How many wives did Henry VIII have? – Answer next time!

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YEAH, YEAH, WHATEVER: One of the things the past couple of decades has desensitized us Americans to – besides war, of course – is the release from prison of those who have served time, sometimes very long stretches of time, for crimes it was later shown they didn’t actually commit.

Running The Numbers: We were shocked at the first few releases of people who had served 20 years for crimes they didn’t commit. Twenty years! That’s a long time.

Now, 20 years of being wrongly imprisoned barely gets you noticed because the number of years served by the innocent before being released kept inching up to 25, 26, 27 years and the past few years introduced us to black males who had served over 30 years for something they didn’t do.

The New Heavyweight Champion Of The World: Like Bob Beamon obliterating the long jump world record by 21 inches at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, Cleve Heidelberg of Illinois has obliterated all previous marks. Heidelberg’s 1970 murder conviction was vacated last month, and he was released on bond earlier this week after 47 years in prison.

47 years!

Now, it is important to note Heidelberg was not exonerated, he was granted a new trial and is out on bond while prosecutors decide whether to try him again or not.

They may not. It has never been particularly difficult to get an all-white jury to convict a black man of killing a white policeman and it might have been even easier in 1970. Not only that, someone confessed to the crime in 1971, about the time Heidelberg was sentenced, which was the basis of his conviction being vacated.

Don’t Even Start: We are mindful that now no one stands convicted of the murder of Peoria County Sheriff’s Sgt. Raymond Espinoza. We don’t like that anymore than you do.

Heidelberg is 75 now, the best years of his life gone. He does seem to have his faculties, in addition to heart disease, though perhaps he can do something useful with the rest of his time on this planet.

The Department of the Innocent: Why our government doesn’t have an entire cabinet department dedicated to freeing the innocent is beyond us. More and more, innocent people are released from prison, enough people to show this isn’t a fluke: America’s judicial system makes a habit of sending people to prison for crimes they did not commit. This should cause every American to go and hang their head in shame.

Gaylon For Congress…Vote Early, Vote Often: This is not an issue that is on most American’s radar, however. We mentioned it during our 2014 campaign for the United States Senate and it was one of our four focal points when we ran for the US House of Representatives last year, but it drew little interest frankly. 

The Bottom Line: It should draw a lot of interest and be on everyone’s radar. Convicting the innocent has no place in a nation conceived in liberty.

ON THIS DATE: The Chrysler Building in New York City, opens on this date in 1930. At 1,046 feet is the tallest man-made structure in the world, a title it will hold until the Empire State Building opens the following year.

Dry, Technical Matter: The Chrysler Building is now the 89th tallest building in the world.

Great Moments In Connecting San Francisco And Marin County: The Golden Gate Bridge opens to pedestrians on this date in 1937. It would open to vehicles the following day.

The bonds financing the bridge were paid off in 1971. The total was $79 million, $35 million in principal and $39 million in interest. The entire amount was paid from bridge tolls.

FunFact: Thought the Golden Gate Bridge appears red, it is actually a shade of international orange, roughly the same color as most life preservers.

How About A Bloody Torpedo Off The Port Bow, Governor?: The German battleship Bismarck is sunk by British warships about 350 miles off the coast of France on this date in 1941.

Two days earlier Bismarck had been damaged and had flooded during the Battle of the Denmark Strait and she was headed to France, which Germany occupied for repairs.

LOL: The British had actually lost contact with Bismarck and only found her when her captain broke radio silence to communicate with German headquarters.

Good Show, Mateys: Bismarck and her crew could take a hit. There were airstrikes from torpedo bombers and shelling from battleships before Bismarck finally went down. The final blow was from a torpedo from HMS Rodney.

Long Live The Master Race: Out of a crew of 2,200, only 114 survived.

Insert Your Own Lead Line Here! Michael Fortier, an accomplice in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, is sentenced to 12 years in prison on this date in 1998. Fortier had helped Timothy McVeigh scout out the Oklahoma City federal building and in exchange for snitching on McVeigh and Terry Nichols, Fortier was given a reduced sentence and immunity from prosecution for his wife, who had laminated the fake driver’s license McVeigh used to rent the truck used during the attack.

FunFact: Fortier was released from prison in 2006 and is now in the federal witness protection program, so he might well be your neighbor. McVeigh was executed in 2001, while Nichols is serving multiple life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Thought For The Day: People are more disposed to suffer than right themselves by resistance. – John Locke

Answer To The Last Trivia Question: There was not a trivia question last time!

Today’s Stumper: What building did the Chrysler Building replace as the tallest building in the world? Answer next time!

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CAN’T WE JUST CUT AND PASTE THE LAST MASS KILLING COLUMN?: It’s hardly even news anymore, the random killing of large numbers of our fellow humans. All we need to do is fill in the blanks: where and the number dead.

For The Record: This time the blanks are Manchester, England and 22. For now. It could rise.

Extra! Extra! Read All About It: Mass killings used to be news, rarities that caused us to take pause and take notice. Now, of course, that isn’t the case. Sure, we’ll issue thoughts and prayers, we’ll stand with Manchester, we’ll make colorful ribbons, but they will merely serve as templates for the next mass tragedy. We will no longer take pause because tragedy’s litany simply is not stopping.

Sigh: With the exception of our World Wars, our planet might be as violent as it’s ever been. Sure, mass killings like this have always happened because there will always be people hell bent on causing mayhem, but the frequency of them now is unprecedented.

History’s Question: Why? Why are mass killings now happening regularly instead of rarely?

U-S-A! U-S-A! The blame for most of our planet’s violence can be laid squarely at the feet of the United States.

Gaylon For Congress (Or Senate)…Vote Early, Vote Often: We said this every hour on the hour during our 2014 United States Senate campaign and last year’s US House campaign:

We have a violent world because we have a violent United States government.

Yeah, Yeah, Whatever: We also have a violent country for this reason, but that is a topic for the next Mass Shooting in America column.

Back On Message: From refusing to give other nations the dignity of conducting their affairs without the benefit of US interference, to fighting wars not declared by Congress, America is responsible for an awful lot of the violence in this world. America has been at war continuously since 1989 and a violent America has produced a violent world.

Write This Down: Had we been at peace every day since 1989 we would have a world considerably less violent. 9/11 would not have happened and ISIS would not exist and, perhaps, concert goers in Manchester would be looking back at a fun concert instead of deadly tragedy.

TESTING ONE, TWO, THREE: The first telegraph line is tested successfully on this date 1844 when Samuel Morse, sending from the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the US Capitol, sends the message “What hath God wrought” to his assistant Alfred Vail, who was in Baltimore.

FunFact: Morse would received a patent for the telegraph in 1847.

Dry, Technical Matter: Before turning his attentions to the telegraph, Morse was an accomplished portrait painter, and he was led to finding a faster way of transmitting information when he received word of the sudden illness and death of his wife by letter, after the fact and too late to do anything about it.

It’s About Time: The Brooklyn Bridge, after only 14 years of construction, opens on this date in 1883. 1,800 vehicles and over 150,000 people would cross the only land connection between Manhattan and Brooklyn that first day.

Let There Be Night Baseball: The first night game in major league baseball is played at Crosley Field in Cincinnati on this date in 1935. Night baseball had been played, with an pronounced increase in attendance, in the minor leagues for several years. In fact, Cincinnati general manager Larry McPhail had had success with it when he was with Columbus in the International league.

Despite this, baseball owners have never been known for their foresight, and it was great reluctance that McPhail had been given permission to play one night game against each National League team before the 1935 season began.

The Post Game Show Is Brought To You By Old Style Beer: The Reds beat Philadelphia that night 2-1.

Thought For The Day: They do what they are meant to do, and endure what they must endure, and they come to an end when it is tie – and no sooner  – Gore Vidal, Creation

Answer To The Last Trivia Question: Pope Gregory XI was the last pope from France.

Today’s Stumper: The Trivia feature will return.

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