JULY 11 — 1767 Happy Birthday John Quincy Adams;ELECTIONS: How Cleveland became the only president to serve non-consecutive terms in 1884; 2013 Snowden boows the whistle on U.S. satellite in Australia
JULY 11
Happy birthday Old Man Eloquent.
.#6, John Quincy Adams, was born to John and Abigail Adams in Braintree in 1767.Upon graduating from Harvard, became a lawyer and was appointed Minister to about a half dozen countries including Prussia, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia and England.
1884 –Cleveland nominated at the Democratic National Convention.
The presidential election of 1884 was controversial, close, and dirty. No Democrat had won since before the Civil War, but incumbent president Chester Arthur was not looking good in the polls and his health was declining as age was catching u8p to him.
He ascended to the presidency when James Garfield was assassinated, and this time around Chet would not win his party’s nomination. Instead the Republicans chose former Speaker of the House James Blaine from Maine. This would be his fourth attempt to run for president, and a faction of the Republican Party known as the Mug umps didn’t care for Blaine’s shady past. The mudslinging began.
New York Governor Grover Uncle Jumbo Cleveland, or Big Steve as he was nicknamed, had a bit of controversy as well regarding a woman named Maria with whom he had a child. During the presidential campaign Big Steve would admit to the affair with Maria, but although he was paying child support the whole time, he never admitted the boy was his. “Ma, ma, where’s my Pa?” the Republicans chanted.
Blaine was dealing with his own corruption charges, which I get into detail on my January 31st ep, basically among other charges was funneling government funds for personal gain. The Pendleton Act had recently been a major issue during the midterm elections, and was designed to keep corruption out of Washington. Blaine Blaine James G. Blaine, the continental liar from the state of Maine.
Fate would be decided on November 4, as usual. Robert Todd Lincoln, son of Abraham also briefly ran but bowed out, leaving the selection to John Joan. For Blaine’s vice president. In other alternate realities this whole story gets tangled up. There’s one where John Fremont from California wins the nomination but loses the election, Robert Todd wins, a lot of them where Chet Arthur’s ignored his health issues and, since he was a New Yorker and his supporters looked past the fact that his civil reform record wasn’t up to par, would be Cleveland. Two years later Arthur’s health would take him down and his VP was another stalwart from New York, deeply affecting economic politics in the west.
But in this section of the multiverse, Blaine from Maine didn’t stand a chance against Cleveland in New York, but otherwise came very close in the popular vote. The Democrats won for the first time since 1856, Big Steve getting 219 electoral compared to Blaine’s 182 and squeaking by in the popular 4.87 million to 4.85. A difference of 23,005 to be exact.
The Prohibition Party, which wanted to ban alcohol, the Greenback party, which came from the anti-gold standard from the Civil War, and the anti-Monopoly parties, which really hated that game from Parker Brothers we all hate to this day, all, got less than 2% of the vote. Four years later Cleveland would lose to Benjamin Harrison.
1804 – Aaron Burrn beats Hamilton in a duel, and its’a bout time these two had it out.
…According to americanlibrary.gov, On the morning of July 11, 1804, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr raised their dueling pistols and took aim. Hamilton, the former secretary of the treasury, and Vice President Burr were longstanding political rivals and personal enemies.
Hamilton was the chief writer for the Federalist Papers, which called for a strong central government. Burr on the other hand was vice President to Thomas Jefferson of the Republican party. Hamilton thwarted Burr’s plans for renomination of Vice President as well as Governorship of New York. Burr then borrowed Hamilton’s Stingray and didn’t gas it up when he was done, then raided Hamilton’s beer fridge.
Okay, just making sure you’re paying attention. Burr might have been the president instead of vice president, had it not been for Hamilton’s interference. When Burr’s term as vice president was almost over, he ran for governor of New York. Hamilton, once again, prevented Burr from winning by opposing his candidacy.
Burr retaliated by challenging Hamilton to a duel. The two men rowed across the Hudson River and walked to the heights of Weehawken, New Jersey. Why did these boys meet in the proverbial high school parking lot to fight it out?
Because dueling in New York was illegal, interestingly enough, a law that Hamilton helped to pass. If you were caught dueling in New York, you lost the right the vote and serve public office. I know, not quite the same as getting detention for a week or possibly suspended or expelled from school, but it was a law that no one really took seriously anyway since a man’s honor was more important. Anyway!
Hamilton’s will was already in place. He had just lost his son to a duel two years prior to this. The men walked ten full paces from each other with their Widgeon pistols cocked and loaded, and when asked if they were ready they answered in the affirmative as per the rules.
Hamilton and Burr fired their pistols. Some people said that Hamilton purposely missed Burr. Burr’s shot, however, was literally dead on, and fatally wounded Hamilton. The next day Hamilton died of his wounds. Aaron Burr escaped unharmed. Hard to believe, but settling differences with a duel had been the custom in those days. Burr was indicted for murder, but the charges were later dropped.
Fortunately, politicians today use debates and the press to settle their differences. Dueling and other violence have never been an intelligent way to solve a problem. In a duel, the loser lost more than just an argument; he lost his life.
2013 Snowden blows the whistle on Pine Gap, a US Satellite systems in Australia, is controlled by the CIA, NSA and NRO, or the National Reconnaissance Office, serves as the NSA’s global collection of every wide range of signals , including according to nautilus.org, early warning missile launches, targeting of nuclear weapons, supplying arms control verification and much much more.
The CIA controls 38 satellites that serve as ground control stations for geosynchronous signals intelligence which it develops, since 103999 it relays U.S. missile launch detection and early warning satellites to U.S. and Australian headquarters, and since the early 2000s, intercepting functions. The TV show on Netflix is based on this concept, with Australian and American actors. I’ve never seen it, but maybe someday.
1877 – Happy anniversary Alexander graham Bell and Mabel Hubbard. They got married at the Hubbard estate in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Mabel, like Alexander’s mother, was deaf. That’s why he made the telephone.
1992 – Presidential candidate Ross Perot, giving a speech at NAACP, calls a black audience, “you people”.