9 posts tagged with "politics"

Today I learned that Nick Galifianakis lost the 1972 Senate race to Jesse Helms.

Today I learned that Donald Trump is the second US president to serve non-consecutive terms.

Today I learned that the term silent majority originated as a euphemism for the dead₁. Petonius wrote abiit ad plures around AD 50 which translates as "he's gone to the many"₂.

Today I learned how useful the Newspapers.com website can be₁. I gotta email from our athletic director about championship banners for the gym related to tennis. Being as I'm not from Greenwood, I had no clue about the history so I forwarded it to a couple fellas I know who knew more. The feedback left some gaps, so I started scrubbing online when I ran into the ubiquitous Newspapers.com site.

Today I learned that Samuel Jones Lee was the first African-American Speaker of the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1872 to 1874 ₁. The reason the discovery resonated so much with me is that the history has some modern reverberations and is closely tied to several nearby counties. His tenure is associated with the Disputed Government of South Carolina of 1876 and one of the most contentious presidential elections in American history.

Today I learned that Reagan had the largest number of criminal charges of any presidential administration. I actually learned it last night watching a George Carlin standup₁, but I doubted it given the last administration and I had to double-check the reference this morning₂. Sure enough, ole' George was just shooting straight.

Today I learned that some people really don't believe in climate change. While playing tennis this morning we started talking about the brutal temps and it somehow fell into a discussion on climate change. The exact quote was "it's all propaganda. it's really about money". Since I'm a big advocate for leaving bullshit, politics, religion, cell phones, and whatnot off the courts, I told em I'd reply with a text message later. So here it is:

Today I learned why Nick Cave went to the king's coronation₁. Nick wrote a very compelling letter in his Red Hand Files about he we went₂ so I went trolling through some press and images from the event and thought these two juxtaposed one another somewhat appropriately.

Today I learned that there actually was an effort to continue the Iran hostage crisis until Ronald Reagan was elected₁. A couple fellas from Texas, one of who was in the shot alongside of JFK and then switched parties for Nixon, went on a middle east PR tour to broker a deal with Iran to ship weapons for retaining hostages until Reagan was elected.