Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

sailorsam - I'll get back to you on X-Files episode titles.

*****

Baby steps for the rising Military Industrial Complex...




Kenesaw Mountain Landis (1866-1944) was an American jurist who served as a United States federal judge from 1905 to 1922 and the first commissioner of baseball from 1920 until his death. He is remembered for his resolution of the Black Sox Scandal, in which he expelled eight members of the Chicago White Sox from organized baseball for conspiring to lose the 1919 World Series and repeatedly refused their reinstatement requests. His iron rule over baseball in the near quarter-century of his commissionership is generally credited with restoring public confidence in the game....until...

July 31, 1938: MLB Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis suspends New York Yankees left outfielder Jake Powell for ten days after he said on Chicago radio he kept in shape by "cracking" African Americans over the head with his nightstick. He was later ordered by the Yankees to walk through Harlem as an act of apology, accompanied by noted Black aviator Hubert Julian.


In November 1948, Powell was arrested in Washington, D.C. for passing bad checks. He drew a revolver while at a police station and committed suicide. The game was over.


July 31, 1948: The Navy ordered her to be sunk as a target by Naval gunfire 65 miles southwest of Pearl Harbor by the battleship Iowa and two other ships. Much to everyone's surprise they could not sink battleship USS Nevada (BB-36), so she was given a coup de grâce with an aerial torpedo hit amidships. Down she went.

R.I.P. her final moments:




July 31, 1961: Golden Age Is Doubtful
"The 20-year plan made public declared that by 1970 the Soviet Union would outdistance the US in per capita production & by 1980 would give the Soviet people the highest standard of living in the world - everyone will live in easy circumstances."




July 31, 1970: at six bells in the forenoon watch, the Royal Navy issued the last daily rations of rum, ending a 230-year old tradition. Sailors mourned "Black Tot Day" by holding mock funerals and wearing black arm bands.

Black Tot Day was the last day on which the British Royal Navy issued sailors with a daily rum ration known as the daily tot. The Royal Australian Navy stopped the practice in 1921 with the Canadian & New Zealander Royal Navies following in 1972 and 1990.




July 31, 1975: 18-year-old John Butkovich, a Croatian immigrant to the United States, goes missing near Chicago. He was last seen going to his corpulent employer, Chicago civic leader John Wayne Gacy, to complain about unpaid wages for contract work. That was the last time he ever complained.




July 31, 1990: we are told the United States assembled its last completely new thermonuclear warhead, a 455-kiloton W88 for the Trident II D5 SLBM at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas. Since then, several thousand existing nuclear warheads and bombs have been significantly refurbished at Pantex.


U.S. Nuclear Weapons Production and Naval Nuclear Propulsion Complex


Indiana Jones to the rescue...



July 31, 2000: Actor Harrison Ford, who is also a hobby pilot, stages a daring and unexpected rescue of two stranded hikers on the Idaho/Wyoming border. Ford landed his Bell 407 helicopter on Table Mountain and loaded Sarah George, 20, and Megan Freeman, 22, inside after they called for help when they fell ill with altitude sickness and dehydration. He then flew them to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Sarah vomited on Ford during the flight, but both girls are safe. According to Teton County Sheriff Bob Zimmer, Ford’s volunteer efforts saved the county $1,000 an hour, the amount it would have cost to hire a private pilot.

Table Mountain is 11,111 feet (3,387 m) located on the boundary of the Jedediah Smith Wilderness and Grand Teton National Park, with the hiking trail originating from the Idaho side, specifically near the Driggs, Idaho/Alta, Wyoming border. Table Mountain has a rare species of frog aptly named the Table Mountain Ghost Frog as it can only be found in this area.

The following year Ford located and rescued 13-year-old Cody Clawson, who had become separated from his Boy Scout troop and was lost near Yellowstone. Cody, using his scouting skills, had reflected sunlight off his belt buckle, which Ford spotted from his helicopter. MrBallen tells this story.

Ford has downplayed his role in these rescues, emphasizing that the true heroes are the search and rescue teams. However, those he has rescued remember his actions with gratitude and awe. He has also stated that he stopped his rescue missions after one incident that led to unwanted media attention. Ford has survived both helicopter & plane crashes.


July 31, 2000: Presidential nominee George W. Bush and the Republican Party release a statement in response to reporters’ questions about “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”: “we affirm that homosexuality is incompatible with military service.”

Outside the 2000 Republican Convention in Philadelphia, thousands of LGBT activists protest. Over 300 are arrested. The convention is such an event that the RNC had partnered with toy company Mattel to create 2000 Republican Convention Barbie dolls.




The previous day (July 30) Presidential candidate George W. Bush speaks at a campaign rally in Cincinnati, Ohio. "Get that Barefoot Feeling"!



Mountain Dew's "Get That Barefoot Feeling" marketing campaign came out in 1968. It didn't work out as hoped.


Seriously, a lump of coal? Amazing how they went from the inverse of last Administration to this, in less than one year. Not enough nuke plants to power all the AI super data centers so guess it's everything & anything to feed the beast.


The DOE is using pop culture flair echoing a Wendy Williams (media influencer; former NYC shock jock) - quote to celebrate coal as a vital energy source, aligning with their goal of energy dominance.


The Dead Flag Blues by Godspeed You! Black Emperor (1997)

The car's on fire and there's no driver at the wheel
And the sewers are all muddied with a thousand lonely suicides
And a dark wind blows
The government is corrupt
And we're on so many drugs
With the radio on and the curtains drawn
We're trapped in the belly of this horrible machine
And the machine is bleeding to death

The sun has fallen down
And the billboards are all leering
And the flags are all dead at the top of their poles

It went like this:

The buildings tumbled in on themselves
Mothers clutching babies picked through the rubble
And pulled out their hair

The skyline was beautiful on fire
All twisted metal stretching upwards
Everything washed in a thin orange haze

I said: "kiss me, you're beautiful -
These are truly the last days"
You grabbed my hand and we fell into it
Like a daydream or a fever

We woke up one morning and fell a little further down -

For sure it's the valley of death
I open up my wallet
And it's full of blood...