Good morning, it’s Wednesday, June 28, 2017. Five years ago today, a divided U.S. Supreme Court addressed the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The law, called Obamacare even before it took effect, had been signed on March 23, 2010. From the start, there were problems with the sweeping new statute. For starters, the Department of Health […]

June 28 is the 179th day of the year (180th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 186 days remaining until the end of the year. In common years it is always in ISO week 26. This date is the only date each year where both the month and day are different perfect numbers, June 6 being the […]

Over the years, we have watched with a certain amount of amusement and concern at the chameleon like ability of elected public officials to move to and fro from party to party without actually having to except the basic platform of the party they are moving to. Since most political party’s are not so much into swearing oaths and more […]

June 27 is the 178th day of the year (179th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 187 days remaining until the end of the year. Holidays Armed Forces Day, formerly Veterans’ Day (United Kingdom) Canadian Multiculturalism Day (Canada) Christian Feast Day: Crescens, one of the Seventy Disciples Cyril of Alexandria (Coptic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Communion […]

June 26 is the 177th day of the year (178th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 188 days remaining until the end of the year.  Holidays Army and Navy Day (Azerbaijan) Christian Feast Day: Anthelm of Belley David the Dendrite Hermogius Isabel Florence Hapgood (Episcopal Church) Jeremiah (Lutheran) John and Paul José María Robles Hurtado (one of […]

June 25 is the 176th day of the year (177th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 189 days remaining until the end of the year. Holidays Arbor Day (Philippines) Christian feast day: Eurosia Philipp Melanchthon (Lutheran) Presentation of the Augsburg Confession (Lutheran) Prosper of Aquitaine Prosper of Reggio William of Montevergine June 25 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Independence […]

June 24 is the 175th day of the year (176th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 190 days remaining until the end of the year. Holidays Army Day or Battle of Carabobo Day (Venezuela) Bannockburn Day (Scotland) Christian Feast Day: María Guadalupe García Zavala Nativity of St. John the Baptist June 24 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Day of […]

Good morning, it’s Friday, June 23, 2017. Forty-five years ago today, Richard M. Nixon made a momentous mistake in judgment, with fateful ramifications for his legacy. It occurred in a late morning Oval Office meeting with White House chief of staff H.R. Haldeman. In their conversation, Haldeman tells the president that Attorney General John Mitchell has concocted a plan for […]

June 23 is the 174th day of the year (175th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 191 days remaining until the end of the year. Holidays Christian feast day: Æthelthryth Marie of Oignies June 23 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Father’s Day (Nicaragua, Poland) Grand Duke’s Official Birthday (Luxembourg) International Widows Day (international) National Day of Remembrance for Victims […]

As I have mentioned a time or two – I fought hard against NAFTA and lost, Rush Limbaugh and Newty GetRich fought hard to get it passed – as did many other **conservative** GOP members back then. I happened across this roll call vote in my archives while looking for another item and thought – it is TIME to repost […]

June 22 is the 173rd day of the year (174th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 192 days remaining until the end of the year On this day the Summer solstice may occur in the Northern Hemisphere, and the Winter solstice may occur in the Southern Hemisphere. Holidays Anti-Fascist Struggle Day (Croatia) Christian Feast Day: Aaron of […]

June 21 is the 172nd day of the year (173rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 193 days remaining until the end of the year. This day usually marks the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and the winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere, which is the day of the year with the most hours of daylight […]

Good morning, it’s Tuesday, June 20, 2017. On this date in 1863, West Virginia became the 35th state in the Union, though “Union” was a loaded word then — and very much in doubt. West Virginia had broken away from Virginia at the onset of the Civil War because its people did not want to secede from the U.S. for […]

The 1864 re-election of Lincoln “was closer than either the popular or electoral votes” indicated, and without the soldier vote in six crucial States, Lincoln would have lost to George B. McClellan.  The slim margins of Republican victory in most States “were probably due largely to the presence of soldiers as guards and as voters at the polls,” and had […]

June 20 is the 171st day of the year (172nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 194 days remaining until the end of the year. In the Northern Hemisphere, the Summer solstice sometimes occurs on this date, while the Winter solstice occurs in the Southern Hemisphere. Holidays Christian feast day: Adalbert of Magdeburg Florentina John of Matera Blessed […]

June 19 is the 170th day of the year (171st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 195 days remaining until the end of the year. Holidays Christian feast day: Gervasius and Protasius (Catholic Church) Juliana Falconieri Romuald Zosimus Sadhu Sundar Singh (Anglican) June 19 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Day of the Independent Hungary (Hungary) Feast of Forest (Palawan) […]

June 18 is the 169th day of the year (170th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 196 days remaining until the end of the year. Holidays Autistic Pride Day (International) Christian Feast Day: Bernard Mizeki (Anglican and Episcopal Church) Elizabeth of Schönau Gregorio Barbarigo Leontius, Hypatius and Theodulus Marina the Monk (Maronite Church, Coptic Orthodox Church of […]

A coup in Guatemala, launched on 18 June 1954, deposed the democratically elected President Jacobo Árbenz (pictured in mural). The result of a covert operation of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), it ended the Guatemalan Revolution of 1944–54, a period of representative democracy and liberal reform. The U.S. government was motivated by a Cold War predisposition to assume Árbenz […]

June 17 is the 168th day of the year (169th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 197 days remaining until the end of the year. Holidays Bunker Hill Day (Suffolk County, Massachusetts) Christian feast day: Albert Chmielowski Botolph (England and Scandinavia) Gondulphus of Berry Hervé Hypatius of Bithynia (Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic Churches) Rainerius Samuel and […]

Good morning, it’s Friday, June 16, 2017. One hundred and fifty-nine years ago today, a former one-term congressman from Illinois delivered one of the most momentous political orations in American history. “A house divided against itself cannot stand,” Abraham Lincoln told an audience of Illinois Republicans at the state capitol in Springfield, Illinois. “I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, […]