Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Let's buy Florida for $5 million and make Florida great again. LOL.


Feb 22, 1819-The U.S. acquires Spanish Florida

My uncle is tentatively scheduled to visit me sometime this August. He bought a condo in Florida (somewhere on the Gulf coast) and moved there from NYC back in 2020. He's a retired (armed) high school teacher & retired accountant, lifelong democrat. Needless to say, it will be an interesting conversation. Not sure how long he'll stay.





One week in 1965. Medicare (July 30) and voting rights (August 6) signed into law.




March 16, 1968: Robert Kennedy announces bid for presidency.
The My Lai massacre. And everything yet to come.


In hindsight does life sometimes feel like a blur?


March 16, 1968: the My Lai massacre. Two years later the remarkable Esquire cover. Still an astonishing cover after all this time.


The Confessions of Lieutenant Calley (Esquire Magazine, Nov 1970)


On March 16, 1968 Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson Jr. was flying helicopter recon for an attack on an alleged Viet Cong-controlled village in Vietnam. As the attack developed, Thompson realized he was witnessing something something else:

A massacre.

He decided to act.


The Forgotten Hero of My Lai: The Hugh Thompson Story

At the age of 62, after extensive treatment for cancer, Thompson was removed from life support and died on January 6, 2006, at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Pineville, Louisiana. Colburn came from Atlanta to be at his bedside. Thompson was buried in Lafayette, Louisiana, with full military honors, including a three-volley salute and a helicopter flyover.
Obit Daily Advertiser (Lafayette, LA)


Full article: William Calley, Convicted of Mass Murder in My Lai Massacre, Dies at 80

Official Army combat photographer Ron Haeberle’s account & photos of My Lai (TIME, 2018)

The Peers inquiry of the massacre at My Lai



July 30, 1968: The first edition of the ITV children’s show, Magpie, was broadcast. It was designed to compete with the BBC’s Blue Peter by being more "groovy" and focusing more on culture. About 1,000 episodes were broadcast until it ended on June 6, 1980.






July 30, 1973: British victims of the drug, Thalidomide, were awarded £20M compensation after a 11 year legal battle. When used by pregnant women for morning sickness it caused birth defects. The total number of people affected by use during pregnancy was estimated at over 10,000.


Thalidomide was first developed as a tranquilizer by Swiss pharmaceutical company Ciba in 1953. Plenty of dark history about that company which later became Sandoz and in 1996 became pharma giant Novartis. Thalidomide was first marketed in 1957 in West Germany, where it was available over the counter. When first released, thalidomide was promoted for anxiety, trouble sleeping, "tension", and morning sickness. One of if not THE biggest anthropogenic horrifying medical disaster ever. Big pharma still sells this poison under brand names such as Contergan, Thalomid, Talidex, Talizer, Neurosedyn, Distaval and many others.


July 30, 2006: Top of the Pops, the world’s longest running pop chart show, was broadcast for the last time on BBC 2. It had aired weekly since January 1, 1964. The show consisted of performances of that week’s best-selling pop records, excluding any tracks moving down the chart.


The first show was presented by Jimmy Savile (the notorious one & only) and the first act was by Dusty Springfield with "I Only Want to Be with You".