02/03 Open Thread - The Day the Music Died
~~ Beech Bonanza
On February 3, 1959, a Beechcraft "Bonanza" airplane, tail number N3794N, carrying the pilot (Roger Peterson), Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. Richardson (The Big Bopper), crashed, killing everybody on board. This event was the subject of Don McLean's 1971 song "American Pie" in which he referred to it as The Day The Music Died. Since then, today's date has become widely referred to by that identifier. For much more information than most of us will ever need to know see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_the_Music_Died
On this day in 1637 the Tulip Maniabubble burst like so many bubbles before it did and so many after it would. The propensity of so-called market capitalism to repeatedly generate such bubbles which then collapse with horrible effects would be viewed as a structural defect were it not for the fact that said market capitalism is the principal religion of the US and sundry other states.
On this day in 1870, the 15th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified. It says that:
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
.
Though many sources state that this grants, creates or establishes a right to vote regardless of race, color, etc., it does not. It merely limits the restrictions which can be placed upon any pre-existing or subsequently arising right to vote. The 17th Amendment establishes a right to vote for Senators but vests it only in those allowed to vote for the most numerous branch of the State legislature. It is the 14th Amendment which deals with who such persons are deemed to be. The relevant provisions are in Section 2:
Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.
Read that several times until you get it. There is nothing prohibiting a state from disenfranchising a portion of its population, it simply states that if one does, then it will lose a proportional number of seats in the US House. This, then, cannot be the basis for the existence of an absolute right to vote and therefore the 15th Amendment cannot create one.
On this day in history:
1488 – Bartolomeu Dias of Portugal landed in Mossel Bay after rounding the Cape of Good Hope
1637 – Tulip Mania collapsed within the Dutch Republic
1690 – The colony of Massachusetts issued the first paper money in the Americas.
1870 – The 15th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified, prohibiting certain restrictions on voting by adult male citizens
1913 – The 16th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified, authorizing the Federal government to impose and collect an income tax.
1918 – The World's longest streetcar tunnel, the Twin Peaks Tunnel in San Francisco, went into service
1930 – The Communist Party of Vietnam was founded
1953 – The Batepá massacre occurred in São Tomé
1958 –The Benelux Economic Union was founded, creating a testing ground for a later European Economic Community.
1959 – Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson were killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa.
1966 – The Soviet Union's Luna 9 became the first spacecraft to make a soft landing on the Moon
1971 – Frank Serpico was shot during a drug bust in Brooklyn but survived to later testify against police corruption. So, that ended police corruption in New York, right?
1989 – A military coup overthrew Alfredo Stroessner's US supported dictatorship in Paraguay
1998 – A US military pilot caused the death of 20 people when his low-flying plane cut the cable of a cable-car near Trento, Italy.
Some people who were born on this day:
The only thing that any one wants now is to be free, to be let alone, to live their life as they can, but not to be watched, controlled and scared, no no, not.
~~ Gertrude Stein
1809 – Felix Mendelssohn, pianist, composer, and conductor
1811 – Horace Greeley, journalist and politician
1816 – Ram Singh Kuka, activist, credited with starting the Indian Non-cooperation movement
1821 – Elizabeth Blackwell, physician, social reformer, and educator
1874 – Gertrude Stein, novelist, poet, playwright,
1893 – Gaston Julia, mathematician and academic. (you may have heard of his set)
1894 – Norman Rockwell, painter and illustrator
1904 – Pretty Boy Floyd, businessman
1920 – Henry Heimlich, physician and author
1927 – Kenneth Anger, actor, director, and screenwriter
1935 – Johnny "Guitar" Watson, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1947 – Dave Davies, musician
1947 – Melanie Safka, singer and songwriter
Some people who died on this day:
Give me twenty-six soldiers of lead and I will conquer the world.
~~ Johannes Gutenberg
1468 – Johannes Gutenberg, publisher, invented the printing press
1959 – The Big Bopper
1959 - Buddy Holly
1959 - Ritchie Valens
Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:
The Day The Music Died
Today's Tunes
Johnny Guitar Watson
Dave Davies
Melanie
The Day The Music Died
JP Richardson
JP Richardson
The Big Bopper
Richie Valens
Richie Valens
Richie Valens
Richie Valens
Buddy Holly
Buddy Holly
Buddy Holly
Buddy Holly
Buddy Holly
Buddy Holly
Ok, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. What's on your mind?
Cross posted from http://caucus99percent.com
Open Thread, Johnny guitar Watson, Dave Davies, Melanie Safka, J P Richardson, Richie Valens, Buddy Holly
Comments
Good morning...
It is always sad to see musicians killed in planes and cars. Travel is required for concert touring, so there is risk. One of my buddies also says eating out of a paper bag while on the road kills musicians slowly.
Thanks for all the music and the OT!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Good morning lookout. Their loss, no matter how
is always a sad thing, somewhat compensated for by the fact that, for some at any rate, their music will live on.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Very nicely done summary of an excerpt
....from our national algorithm document (the US Constitution) that has brought the entire nation forward through time to exactly where it stands right now.
This, then, is clearly what the Founders must have intended.
If that were not true, the algorithm would have been revised along the way, as instructed.
RIP @ Big Bopper
Carry a burning candle and share the light.
.
Thanks Pluto. Many/most are shocked when I say that there
is no right to vote in this country, but there really isn't. The founding fathers, an elite, propertied class, feared giving the franchise to the masses, foreseeing a serious likelihood of leveling legislation and amendments, starting with property re-distribution. Nothing has really changed. The Senate and Supreme Court were also imposed, in part, to prevent excesses originating in the House.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Ahhh, the
venerable V35 Bonanza. It is also known as the "Fork-Tailed Doctor Killer", for the number of wealthy private pilots who have died flying the aircraft over the years.
I once arrived on the scene of a V35 crash, only moments after it had happened. I didn't see the aircraft go down, as I was looking the other way- but the wreckage had barely stopped bouncing. The V tail, which had structurally separated from the rest of the aircraft prior to impact and landed about a hundred yards away, was very apparent. Regrettably, there were no survivors.
The aircraft was and is quite high performance for its age, and can easily sucker an unwary pilot into attempting maneuvers that the airframe can't support. They are particularly susceptible to failures in the ruddervator linkages and control surfaces, which can then lead to in-flight breakup. I have a colleague who flies his 1951 V35 from his home in the middle of Kansas into work here outside Denver and back every week, and has for decades. He's a retired Marine aviator, and he treats that aircraft with kid gloves (and rightly so)....
The day the music died, indeed. Blue skies and tailwinds to all the aviators who have perished in the past couple of weeks.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Good morning UFS. Not a pilot or such, but spent
a lot of time working in various jobs at Lindbergh Field in my youth. As I recall, the bonanza was reputed to be pretty easy to fly, especially for beginners, as long as one didn't get carried away.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Apparently the tulip bubble has popped again
.
In the voodoo economics department ..
Overnight, the crypto illusion lost about
$2.3 billion in liquidation to fiat money. Poof!
https://decrypt.co/304104/ethereum-crashes-by-18-amid-2-3-billion-crypto...
And the analysts are blaming it on Trump.
question everything
On another topic,
I'm now reading that Musk's DOGE has completely demolished USAID, closing and stripping its headquarters office in DC, locking all of them out of their computer accounts, and basically telling the employees not to show up for work until further notice. Scorched earth.
This is very interesting. USAID has done some good things over the years, but in recent years it has primarily been a major CIA front for pipelining "aid" to the many groups that we use for our regime change operations.
It'll be fun to watch the intra-DC backlash from this, and to see what new ugliness arises from the ashes. It'll be even more fun when Musk turns his sights on the IRS, as well: I'll guarantee that the units that audit rich people will be the first to go...
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/musk-give-update-reform-effort-amid-que...
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
A guesstimate
.
roughly 10% of the funds go to good works.
Those are the ones we will be showered with.
The other 90% ? Not so much. Engulfing the
agency into the State Dept? More bureaucracy.
Doesn't seem very efficient if the DHS is any
example. More of the same under a different name.
question everything
Didn't Bush The Junior gut the IRS rich people auditors?
Long time now but remember reading that under Bush Jr. that the IRS groups responsible for auditing high income people funding was cut. This lead to an increase of audits for middle class earners. I always thought it interesting that tax return preparation software like Turbotax would give summary on the likelihood of an IRS audit. I doubt if rich people use these programs.
I have a vague recollection of that.
All I know is that, as an asset-free person and a member of a dual-W2 household filing married/jointly, we are in the prime audit category. We take the standard deduction and stopped itemizing anything years ago, after we lost my consulting practice and our owned home. We now have the simplest finances possible to anybody who has not yet assumed room temperature. So, of course, we must be hiding something...
I note with no particular satisfaction that my preliminary tax work for this year indicates that, for the first time in over 30 years, we might get a refund this year. That will certainly get us audited again.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.