Monday Open Thread: 05/13 is what you make it

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Monday May 13, 2024 · 6:06 AM PDT

2024/05/13 · 06:06

University Avenue, Berkeley, Overcrossing Statue

GO BEARS! Doing great things since at least 1960. Governor Ronald Reagan famously stated that Cal student activists all majored in "sex, drugs, and treason". Problem is, he said it as if it were a bad thing.

Today is National Women's Check-Up Day, which I find to be completely baffling. The US government and governing class doesn't give a crap about the health of the populace; that's why, in this day and age, we still do not have any kind of healthcare system. Beyond that, there have been a ton of decisions and legislative actions intended to subvert and pervert such limited access to injury and illness care as women previously enjoyed for the past 50 to 60 years. They are being singled out to be given less, not more, so-called health care.

We do, of course, have numbers of independent, for profit, injury and illness treatment providers which team up with insurance companies to ~~deny~~ provide injury and illness treatment to those who can afford it. A 2010 corporate welfare law requiring all persons to obtain injury and illness treatment insurance and mandating such to be the sole permitted means of financing injury and illness treatment, however, required the insurance companies to provide their victims with one free "check-up" annually. Though this did, to some extent, make it look as if the law was intended to benefit the populace as a whole, it also means that the treatment provider-insurance company combine reaped no net profit from such check-ups unless the providers found some grounds to prescribe something and thereby cut pharma in on the deal.

Given that uber-patriarchal cultures hold their female chattels to be mere breeders during certain portions of their lives, there might be some perceived benefit to trying to maintain their baseline health during the appropriate portion of their lives. This does seem to be a bit misguided however, insofar as automation, ai, offshoring, and the increasing use of proxies instead of US "boots on the ground" seemingly would mean that an ever growing populace would come to consist more and more of those that the WEF and other self-appointed elites consider to be "useless eaters". As I said, I just don't get it.

On 5/13/1958 then Vice President Nixon's motorcade and car were attacked by a mob in Caracas, Venezuela. Nixon's "goodwill tour" occurred shortly after Venezuela's exceedingly repressive dictator, Marcos Perez Jiminez had been deposed. Like most right wing dictators, Jiminez was dearly loved by the US government which had awarded him the Legion of Merit and granted him asylum after his overthrow. The US, as a general rule, is a devoted supporter of any and all right wing dictators because of our deep commitment to democracy.

It is also the birthday, in 1221, of Alexander Nevsky, Prince of Novgorod; a major figure in the history of the Rus. He defeated invading Swedish forces at the Battle of the Neva, hence Nevsky, and The Teutonic Knights of the Livonian Order at the Battle of the Ice (Lake Peipus)

On this day in history:

1612 – The famous duel between Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojiro on the shores of Ganryū Island. Musashi (Read his Book of 5 Rings) won.**

1830 – Ecuador gained its independence from Gran Colombia.

1846 – The US declared war on Mexico.

1861 – John Tebbutt discovered the Great Comet of 1861

1888 - The Empire of Brazil abolished slevery

1909 – The first Giro d'Italia started

1912 - The Royal Flying Corps was established, cue Groucho

1917 – Three children spotted Our Lady of Fátima in Fátima, which is why she isn't, like, our Lady of Milwaukee, or something

1952 – The upper house of the Indian Parliament held its first session

1958 - The Algiers Putsch

1958 - Nixon's car and motorcade were attacked in Caracas

1960 – Hundreds of UC Berkeley students gathered to protest HCUA hearings in S.F. and were dispersed with fire hoses and force. This was one of the reasons I chose to go to Cal

1985 – Cops bombed MOVE headquarters in Philly killing 6 adults & 5 kids and destroying the homes of 250 people.

1995 – Alison Hargreaves became the first woman to conquer Everest without oxygen or the help of sherpas.

** The films known as "The Samurai Trilogy" by Hiroshi Inagaki are about the life of Miyamoto Musashi. Volume III starring Toshiro Mifune as Musashi Miyamoto and Kōji Tsuruta as Kojirō Sasaki is about the duel on Ganryū Island.

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Some people who were born on this day:

The listener - and obviously he's the one all of us musicians are trying to reach - doesn't have to be able to 'analyze'. He doesn't necessarily have to know how it's put together. But if we can reach him emotionally, he becomes part of the music. He adds his responses to the continuum of experience that keeps alive what a musician does. I mean, the music is out there, becoming part of so many different kinds of consciousness in ways the musicians can't possibly conceive. Reaching is what counts, not the listener's ability to analyze."

~~ Gil Evans

1221 – Alexander Nevsky, Prince of Novgorod, Grand Prince of Kiev, Grand Prince of Vladimir, savior of the Rus

1713 – Alexis Clairaut, mathematician, astronomer, and geophysicist

1883 – Georgios Papanikolaou, pathologist, invented the pap smear

1907 – Daphne du Maurier, novelist and playwright

1911 – Maxine Sullivan, singer and actress

1912 – Gil Evans, pianist, composer, arranger, and bandleader

1914 – Antonia Ferrín Moreiras, mathematician, academic, and astronomer

1927 – Fred Hellerman, folk singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer

1937 – Roger Zelazny, author and poet

1941 – Joe Brown, singer and musician

1941 – Ritchie Valens, singer, songwriter, and guitarist

1943 – Mary Wells, singer and songwriter

1944 – Carolyn Franklin, R&B singer-songwriter

1945 – Magic Dick, harmonica, trumpet, and saxophone player

1945 – Lou Marini, sxophonist and composer

1950 – Danny Kirwan, singer, songwriter, and guitarist

1950 – Stevie Wonder, singer and songwriter; harmonica, organ, and piano player

1954 – Johnny Logan, singer-songwriter and guitarist

1969 – Buckethead, guitarist and songwriter

1969 – Eric Lewis, pianist

1976 – Ana Popovic, singer, songwriter and guitarist

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Some people who died on this day:

To be right is the most terrific personal state that nobody is interested in.

~~ Franz Kline

1612 – Sasaki Kojirō, master swordsman (see above)

1832 – Georges Cuvier, zoologist and academic

1884 – Cyrus McCormick, developed the mechanical reaper

1885 – Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle, physician, pathologist, and anatomist

1916 – Sholem Aleichem, Yiddish author and playwright

1945 – Tubby Hall, drummer

1946 – Zara DuPont, suffragist

1962 – Franz Kline, painter and academic

1975 – Bob Wills, singer, songwriter, musician, and actor

1977 – Mickey Spillane, businessman

1988 – Chet Baker, singer and trumpet player

2012 – Donald "Duck" Dunn, bass player, songwriter, and producer

2019 – Doris Day, singer and actress

2019 – Unita Blackwell, civil rights activist and politician

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Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:

National Women's Check-Up Day

National Apple Pie Day

World Cocktail Day

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Today's Tunes

San Francisco HCUA Hearings