Good Wednesday morning, 7-days-to-go-before-Christmas-Day, and welcome to the DailyKos Good News RoundUp of Good News. Once a month the Keepers of the Flame let me play with matches and light up the 3rd Wednesday of the Month. I invite all of you into the Breakfast Brunch. You should arrange for coffee, tea, mocha-cocoa (as prepared by you, by someone important to you, or brought to you in your favorite away-from-home spot, or even passed out to you via the Drive-thru Window.) Likewise, proceed with assembling, even cooking, Day Starting Foods into a …… meal, whether from the griddle, the fry pan, the oven, the microwave, the toaster or from the Cupboard of Cereals.
The Breakfast Brunch also opens on to the Fa-La-La-La-La Lounge, hung with Advent colors of blue and silver, swagged with swags of green-needled persuasion, be-bowed with ribbons of red, and spangled with candles. Find yourself a wingback, a recliner, a rocker or a sofa, land your edibles and drinkables at a side table and pull out your Screen of Pixels. Since you are reading this you already know the Wi-Fi is whispering through the ether to light up your screen. (Also available on request: Natural Light Light Boxes for those, like me, who are facing the hardest days of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder)….the Winter Solstice is slated for 3 am on the 21st when here on the 45th parallel through the Twin Cities the total daylight touches bottom at 8 hours & 47 minutes.)
For those of you astrologically inclined the 21st also marks the annual move into Capricorn. Going even farther out (millions of miles OUT) it is noted that in these days Pluto passes out of Capricorn into the constellation of Aquarius for the coming 15 (Earth) years. My sweetie SageHagRN showed me one astrological take that says this move throws injustice and inequality into sharp relief. Starting January 20th the Peach Pit of Trumpery promises to make these clear to everyone.
To me this seems to mesh neatly with another take on the current and coming days. Those (like me) who follow Generational Theory have posited that the current generational alignment of aged Boomers/Midlife GenX/Rising Millenials/Young GenZ corresponds to an alignment of Generational Types that recurs about every 80 years or so: The Fourth Turning (as described by William Strauss and Neil Howe) a 20 year segment they named “The Crisis”. (Our current starting point for these 20 years looks like the 2008 Banking mess and bail out; adding 20 brings us to 2028, so about 4 more/less years of this…...grinding.)
Looking back on the last such generational alignment in the 1930s and 1940s domestically there were hard times (Depression) and desperation for millions…..and also a raft of new initiatives getting a turn to shine (since “the way things have been” were blamed for the Crash in the first place.) So electrical lines were extended (by law) into the countryside and to farmsteads from the towns and cities (the REA—Rural Electrification Administration; teams of installers (government hired and paid) went farm to farm, wiring up houses that were getting the new power source for the first time) and phone lines followed. A federal minimum wage was enacted (25 cents/hour; today this would be $5.75/hr.), along with a 40 hour workweek and with time-and-a-half for overtime. Old age public pensions were invented (Social Security) so that in January, 1940 Vermont legal secretary, just-retired Ida May Fuller, age 65, received the first ever monthly check…..for $22.54; today, $507.94. (BTW, Ida kept collecting until she died…..in 1975, at age 100.)
So…..the living of these coming 4 years look to be an exercize in the Chinese character that means both “crisis” and “opportunity.” I know I am NOT going to like large parts of it, and there will be days I won’t want to get out of bed. Yet there certainly could be silver linings and green shoots and those are worth looking for, nurturing and celebrating. Then too…...there are all of you, here at the Good News Round Up, for encouragement, consolation, support. I am grateful for each of you in this community.
Good News in Society & Politics
So what are we up against these days? Well there is a quote attributed to (although actual evidence leans against this)
Winston Churchill: “Americans can be relied upon to do the Right Thing…...after they have tried everything else.”
Part of the “Everything Else” includes all those “nominees” for various Cabinet and Executive Branch posts. (BTW, someone calculated that the Biden Cabinet members came from jobs that, combined, paid them about $178 million/ year. The list of Mango Menace Cabinet members are stepping away from a combined $344 Billion-with-a-B in order to suck their thumbs as Assistant Secretary of Agriculture.)
The coming House of Representatives. The GQPers have pretty well picked the chairmen of each of the 18 House Committees (Judiciary, Armed Services, Oversight, etc.) And yes, chairMEN is the right term: all 18 of them are admitted to House Men’s Rooms to use a standing urinal, and only 1 of them (Brian Mast-FL, who is of Latino heritage) is NOT blazing white. So, Mike Johnson’s team has pulled the mask off of MAGA and revealed they are really MAWA: Make America White Again---and just for the boys, no girls allowed.
It didn’t used to be like this. The GQP used to be Republicans, used to have a certain spectrum of opinions, positions and views. One of these was the iconic Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine. A few days ago (noting her birthday in the History Corner) I put up excerpts from a speech she delivered on the floor of the Senate in 1950, “A Declaration of Conscience”.
In those days there was the Republican Senator of Fringe from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy. He KNEW, in the marrow of his bones (so he didn’t need, you know, actual FACTS or evidence, he just “knew”….did his own research….) that there were Communists and other unAmericans working in the US government. (After the 1952, McCarthy “uncovered” that even the new President, Dwight Eisenhower, was “soft on Communism” and, if not an actual “Red”, at least a bad shade of “pink”.)
Congresswoman, Senator Smith
Senator Smith wasn’t having any of it.
>>Freedom of speech is not what it used to be in America. It has been so abused by some that it is not exercised by others.
>>The American people are sick and tired of seeing innocent people smeared and guilty people whitewashed.
>>Today (1950) our country is being psychologically divided by the confusion and the suspicions that are bred in the United States Senate to spread like cancerous tentacles of "know nothing, suspect everything" attitudes.
>>It is high time that we stopped thinking politically as Republicans and Democrats about elections and started thinking patriotically as Americans about national security based on individual freedom. It is high time that we all stopped being tools and victims of totalitarian techniques – techniques that, if continued here unchecked, will surely end what we have come to cherish as the American way of life.
Is there single current GQP member of Congress who could actually give this speech? A sign of how bad things are in that party.
>>>>>>>>But still, even these days there are other currents at work producing Good News. For instance, the Federal Minimum wage as been jammed at $7.25/hr. since 2008. This has been so unrealistic that the states have been going around this. $15/hour seems to be an increasingly typical target. Now California is an expensive state, so even 15 is too thin. Well they raised the state minimum to $20/ hour…..even at places for fast food workers and teenage summer jobs. The Corporate types warned of catastrophe, crashing profits, falling sales, soaring prices and cats and dogs living together. Well THIS HEARTENING STORY has the real scoop, with a side of fries. As usual, the 1% were…..LYING!
>>>>>» Now if you’ve been staying in touch, one of the more disturbing and infuriating social developments over the last decades has been the steady merging of RW politics with certain strains of fundamentalist Christianity (especially in damned near every outfit that has a “broadcast” across a state line. Billy Bob’s Fender Shop and Temple of Grossly Overpaid Clergy applies to every one of these fakers…..and I have the clergy credentials to call them out.)
But part of the convergence is understandable. The white supremacists are scared to death of the increasing diversity in the country (and the world for that matter): racially, by heritage, religion, social assumptions. They are also feeling like they are being increasingly outnumbered (that Charlottesville chant of “not being replaced.”)
The same dynamic seems to be at work among the RW fundagelicals. THIS IMPORTANT DIARY reported an in-depth survey showing an accelerating decline in attendance/membership in these hard-right (usually lily-white) “independent churches” (that by sheer coincidence “independently” happen to take the same stance on all sorts of scriptural and political views.) The sense of being outnumbered and surrounded seems to be driving both groupings.
*** And, to follow up on this nugget just above, I thank niftywriter for putting up a link to THIS EXCELLENT STORY just yesterday outlining what people of Faith (of all sorts of persuasions) are up against with the “White Christian” RW, and, more importantly, what to do and how to resist. Thank you, Nifty!
Of course, society and politics have always had various developments, both positive and negative, and December 18ths of old have seen these as well, some good, some goofy, some just odd.
Robert Moses….able, hard-nosed, controversial, a doer,
both good and bad
1888 New Haven, Connecticut Birth of Robert Moses, power broker. From a well-to-do family (his father owned a department store) he was able to attend Yale, Oxford and Columbia. In the 1920s caught the eye of newly elected New York Governor Lehman and began a long career in creating highways and parks in New York (both city and state) and influential across the country. Responsible for the Tri-Borough Bridge, Jones Beach, the New York “Thruway” set of highways, and New York city bridges and tunnels, along with both the 1939 and 1964 New York World’s Fairs. Criticized for encouraging the car culture and suburbia at the expense of mass transit (and at times, with racial bias; he was often hired after World War II by cities around the country to plan freeways and urban renewal projects) but also admired for his energy at getting things built on time and on budget without defects and without corruption.
1917 St. Petersburg, Russia The new Soviet government of Lenin, with right hand man Josef Stalin, issues a decree recognizing Finland’s newly-declared independence. (They were in no position to protest or change the situation. 11 months from now, in November, 1918, the Soviets, now re-armed and re-organized and with Germany surrendered, decide to UN-declare Finland’s independence with a full scale invasion----and the Baltic states too.)
1934 Washington DC The US Treasury department has the Bureau of Engraving print some new bills, Gold Certificates worth $100,000 each, bearing the charming visage of the late President Woodrow Wilson. It is the largest note ever issued by the United States and was only printed between December 18, 1934 and January 9, 1935 and used only for transactions between Federal Reserve Banks. (What a different
Woodrow Wilson’s greatest moment (?)
era, when the largest financial transactions known were measured in 6 figures!) The Treasury also issued a few more bills this day of different denominations: Salmon P. Chase, Lincoln’s U.S. Treasury Secretary on the $10,000 bill, President James Madison on the $5,000 bill and President Grover Cleveland on the $1,000 bill. All of these other bills ceased being printed in 1946.
1971 Washington, DC President Nixon signed into law the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. This law ceded 44 million acres to Alaskan native tribes (10% of Alaska’s land mass.) Particularly, the Alutiiq people, where they had lived for the last 7000 years, were granted hunting and fishing rights in the prime bear habitat of the state.
First Lady of Note
Back in March this year I put up a couple profiles of a couple of American First Ladies and asked if anyone wanted more. The answer was yes, so since then on my monthly stint I’ve added one or two more, some obscure, many forgotten, and a few with her own profile. Now, since Woodrow Wilson has just made the History Corner for an obscure reason on a piece of currency no one here has likely seen in real life, you should also know he was not a bachelor President.
Ellen Louise Axson (Wilson)
Born May 15, 1860 Savannah
Ellen’s mother Janie Hoyt graduated a Female Academy, then turned around to teach there for 2 years…..first known mother of a First Lady being professionally employed before marriage. An excellent student herself, she inculcated a love of reading in all 4 of her children (like Ellen, the firstborn.) Father Edward, a Presbyterian Pastor, had 2 churches before the Civil War, then served as a chaplain in a Georgia regiment for 2 years. After the Civil War settled the family in Rome, Georgia. After his wife died (Ellen age 21) Edward became depressed and erratic, so much so that about 2 years later (soon after Ellen’s wedding) he was committed to a state asylum for the insane. Committed suicide there a few years later.
Ellen Axson Wilson
Ellen had 2 younger brothers and 1 younger sister. She was educated up through a high school level at a young woman’s academy. Excelled at English literature, French and composition, and with the help of a teacher basically taught herself trigonometry. A recognized art teacher at the academy ignited a passion for art in Ellen she carried for life. When she was a senior (age 18) this art teacher, Mr. Fairchild, submitted one of her freehand drawings to a Paris Exhibition which won a bronze prize.
After the death of her mother various relatives helped raise Ellen’s brothers and sister, so she could pursue art while taking a leaf from her mother and supporting herself as a teacher. She was at a church service in Atlanta led by her father not long after her mother died and met a young, newly minted attorney from Virginia who was visiting, Woodrow Wilson. He began writing her love letters, and she answered back in kind. He proposed and she accepted, but then he dropped his law work to return to graduate school (Johns Hopkins) for two years (and eventually a PhD, a first among American Presidents.) During this engagement Ellen went on her own (stunning for the age!) to New York City and spent those same 2 years as a member of the Art Students League, honing her talent, living in a boarding house with other art students.
During this stretch Woodrow published his first book (on American government) and that piqued Ellen’s interest in politics. When he admitted he was pining to go into politics and asked her view, she replied she would be willing to support him. He said he felt very guilty about pulling her away from her painting, and she replied she could always go back to it if things didn’t work out in politics.
The Wilsons married in 1885 (Ellen, age 25) in Georgia, with two pastors present: her grandfather (an ordained Presbyterian minister) and his father (likewise ordained by the Presbyterians.) Woodrow was now teaching at Bryn Mawr College so they began married life together in Pennsylvania. Wilson was working on his second book between classes and courses and Ellen put her love of reading to work and happily helped him as a researcher. After a stint in Connecticut, Wilson joined the political science faculty at Princeton, so they moved there.
Ellen went (by herself) to the 1893 Columbian World’s Fair in Chicago, in particular taking in the Women’s Building. This had been designed by a woman architect and displayed numerous works of art, all done by women. When she got back to Princeton she drew up first plans and elevations for the Wilson’s own house. These were refined by a professional architect and the house was built in 1896, home for Woodrow, Ellen and 3 daughters. When Woodrow went to the UK that same summer on a study tour, Ellen resumed painting and taking instruction from noted American artists (usually of the Impressionist school.)
In 1902 Wilson became president of Princeton University, a post that came with a mansion. This was rather rundown, so Ellen oversaw its rehabilitation and restoration. She executed a new landscaping design and opened the place to various notables of the day in their dining room: JP Morgan, Mark Twain, and Booker T. Washington as examples. She also enjoyed painting various scenes around campus (see below.)
Having taken up the brush again Ellen could not put it down. Summers regularly saw her and their daughters travel to Old Lyme, Connecticut (something of an art colony for American Impressionists) and two trips to a similar colony in New Hampshire. By this time Woodrow had run for and won the governorship of New Jersey, so in 1911 Ellen submitted one of her paintings to a gallery anonymously, (so it could be viewed on its merits and not because of her celebrity) where it was well received. When she revealed her identity to the gallery director he not only encouraged her work but used his connections on her behalf. In 1913 she had a 1 woman show of 50 of her canvases, with excellent success (it didn’t hurt attendance one bit at this point that Woodrow had just won the Presidency——only the 2nd Democrat since Lincoln, and mostly because of a Republican split between Taft and Theodore Roosevelt). The show opened in the interregnum (!) between election and Inauguration (in those days, still March 4.)
In the White House Ellen served as Woodrow’s most relied-upon advisor. She carefully nurtured her public image and absorbed a fair bit of the political waves of the time directed at the President. As a Southerner, Wilson issued orders to the Executive branch imposing “Jim Crow” separation in many offices and dismissing a number of black workers. Ellen had sharp words about this to him, and not always in private, to the point that the Washington local black newspaper, the Bee, highlighted her in its pages as a (Southern) friend, sharply different from her husband. On the rising question of the women’s vote, Ellen was publicly neutral and backed this up by hosting White House events for women both opposed and in favor of suffrage.
The stresses of the Presidency wore on Woodrow, and Ellen did what she could to support him, yet even second hand, the stresses were even harder on her constitution. In 1914 she suffered a bad fall in the White House, nearly requiring hospitalization. During treatment she was discovered to have a form of kidney cancer that was untreatable, and she died in the White House in August, 1914. (Only the 3rd First Lady to do so, after Letitia Tyler (1842) and Caroline Harrison (1892).) She was buried in Rome, Georgia alongside her parents.
“Prospect Gate” (Princeton University, President’s Mansion) -— By Ellen Wilson, ca. 1910
You can click through ON THIS LINK to see a nice collection of Ellen Wilson’s works (that start after the first 2 in the set, which are OF Ellen Wilson by other artists.)
Good News in Science & Engineering
Yes, there IS Good News AGAIN from Science and Engineering. If we are going to get out of this Climate Change Bind we’re going to need to lean heavily on these very brainy, white-lab-coated types of people and support them as much as we can. Part of the Good News is they keep coming up with…..NEW STUFF.
>>>>>>>>>For instance, THIS INTRIGUING STORY from New South Wales, Down Under reports a laboratory breakthrough in battery storage. (As we move off fossil fuels to a far more electrified planet, storing a charge is becoming a Big Thing. We’ve all heard of (and probably use) lithium-ion batteries. There have been reports of iron-ion batteries (so, if this works out, owner of junkyards everywhere will finally find a market for that trunk lid from a ‘67 Chevy Nova; the steel will supply iron) and other materials being developed and tested.
This Australian story tells of the development of a hydrogen-ion battery. Now I’m no scientist but even I know if you run an electric charge through water you get hydrogen…..and we have lots of water. So…...another addition to the arsenal?
>>>>>» Closer to home, my home state of Ohio is having a moment. In Cleveland, at Case Western Reserve University, yet another researcher/engineer REPORTS HERE that a zinc-sulphur battery is showing signs of real promise.
>>>>>» OK, OK, promise is one thing. Working things out in the laboratory is vital, but what about applying all this in Real Life? You know, manufacturing the new gizmos and selling/installing them? This is happening too, here, there and everywhere. You’ve heard of the Panasonic Company of Japan? They make all sorts of appliances and equipment and they build these things all around the world. One of their plants (building microwave ovens among other things) is in Cardiff, Wales. IN THIS PRESS RELEASE they are doing some bragging, that their Cardiff Plant is using a raft of solar panels on the roof and hydrogen fuel cells inside with some heavy duty batteries to be completely self-generating its own energy. And you can see from a photo included that the place is Texas-sized B-I-G, and it all works….in real life. YAY….. and keep going!
Now historically, December 18ths have had some notable scientific and engineering moments as well, two of them astronomical and a third with the pedal to the metal.
Now it will fit on a postcard, when those are invented
1839 New York City Bright lights in the big city were not an issue in these days and if you stayed up late enough, the city lamplighters would have made their rounds and snuffed out the streetlamps. In the darkness “daguerre-ist” John Draper has set up a light-tight box with lenses, like Monsieur Daguerre designed, a 90 pound camera, and this night points it at the sky and takes the first celestial photograph, of the moon. The beginning of astrophotography.
---—
----—
A finer shot, 10 years later
1849 Cambridge, Massachusetts William Bond is an early professional astronomer. In the early 1840s he reached an agreement with Harvard University: he would donate all his equipment to the university, and he would become their instructor in astronomy. Bond led a drive that raised $30,000 that let Harvard build a planetarium on campus and purchase a 15-inch diameter German telescope. On this day, Bond follows up on Draper’s effort in New York from 10 years before. Together with photographer John Whipple, Bond also photographs the moon, and figures out a way to connect camera (still about 90 pounds) to the lens of the telescope. Astronomers beat a path to Bond’s door to see the details in the photo and study this type of astrophotography via telescope.
1929 Montlhery, France Like Cher sang, “The cars keep going faster all the time……” And its not just the hotshot, hot rodding types (at least guys like that.) On this day in town there is a road race. 29-year-old Helene Delangle become the fastest woman driver in the world, averaging 120.5 mph. She and her car that day passed into legend as “The Bugatti Queen.” (Passed away in 1984…..)
Helene Delangle having fun
outrunning the boys…..
Good News in Arts, Music and Literature
Some of the things that make us human, that help us become human and stay human, are the arts. Let there be music: to dance to, march to, to sing along with, be moved by.
There are stories, spoken and repeated for centuries, and centuries later, written down, that inspire, surprise, console, amuse.
And starting in certain caves here and there, there have been people who have that eye, that imagination, that talent in the fingers that create pictures, statues, designs, carvings that are profound, dazzling, charming, that move us inside beyond and behind the power of words. This morning I don’t have any current contributions, but on December 18ths of years ago, there have been moments:
1719 Boston, MA Thomas Fleet, a printer, marries Elizabeth Goose (or perhaps Ver-goose; Elizabeth’s relatives spoke forms of Dutch). Elizabeth is one of 10 children, and the Fleets soon produce 6 of their own. Elizabeth’s mother moves in to be nurse and nanny alongside her daughter. Mother (Ver)goose is said to have endlessly sung to the children snatches of verses she knew to soothe them or entertain them. On the other hand, she could not carry a tune but compensated with volume, which got on son-in-law Thomas’ nerves. Finally, perhaps to quiet her, he spent some time writing down the words to the various ditties, sets them in type and publishes "Mother Goose's Melodies For Children." This is the legend, but no copies are known to exist, even though the Fleets, their 6 children, and the mother-in-law are known to have been real people.
From the 1890s, and Parker Brothers was on it with this board game
1860 New York City Birth of Edward Alexander MacDowell, composer. He was from a modest family in New York and learned to play the piano from his mother and two successive boarders that lived with the family. As the family’s prospects improved his mother was able to take him to Paris at age 17 and he won a scholarship for international students to the Conservatory. Graduated with high marks and began a career as a pianist. Lived several years in Germany and married a German woman. Composed several original pieces for piano before the couple returned to the US and settled in Boston. Published several of his works and in 1896 (age 36) was named the first professor of music in the history of Columbia University. Was on faculty for 8 years, then began a rapid physical decline and died at age 47. Several orchestral works but best remembered for his many piano works, chiefly “Woodland Sketches”, “Sea Pieces,” and “New England Idylis.”
Starts about 0:45 seconds in…..
1892 St. Petersburg, Russia World premiere of Peter Tchaikovsky’s ballet, the “Nutcracker Suite”. (Now the world’s most performed ballet.)
1963 Across Italy Premiere of the first in a series, “The Pink Panther.” (Opened in the US in March of 1964.) David Niven was the main draw and was given top billing. Inspector Clouseau was originally to be a supporting role, and played by Peter Ustinov. When he backed out due to a contract dispute, producer Blake Edwards, in Rome one weekend scouting locations, happened to meet Peter Sellers in person for the first time, and after 24 hours, offered him the role. As filming went on there were several re-takes as Sellers’ comic talent began to glow and he basically stole the movie and the role. (The movie was nominated for some Oscars. David Niven would do a walk-on at the awards venue but asked the “Pink Panther” theme (Henry Mancini) NOT accompany him, “since its not really my film.”) We have been laughing ever since. (Clouseau at a hotel front desk, with the clerk checking him in. A dog wanders across the lobby and rubs up against Clouseau’s leg. “Does your dog bite?” Clerk: “No.” Clouseau reaches down to pat him and gets nipped. He jerks his hand away while protesting, “I though you said your dog did not bite.” Clerk: “That is not my dog.”)
Cheers!
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May all your News be Good, comforting and inspiring.
Shalom.
