8/7 Open Thread: A Day Between

Jerry Garcia was born on August 1 and died on August 9, and that period, those nine days, are widely known to deadheads as The Days Between. This is such a day, and, really, what else could it be?

It's Particularly Preposterous Packaging Day and I could easily rip out a rant on that subject, but it seems that I do that enough as it is already and it's maybe time for a break from that.

It's National Lighthouse Day, rife with potential as a metaphor, the need to shine lights on things, to bring light, to raise beacons, turn on one's love light, and, generally, all things Fiat Lux but I can still do that anyway, but today, as I write this, I'm not particularly in a rabble rousing mood.

It's National Sea Serpent Day as well as Beach Party Day and those two go so well together that it would be unseemly to separate them and exalt one over the other.

Hence, a day between. A brief almost Monday style ramble through history plus whatever comes to mind, but first, on to page 7985(B)2(c)(iii) in your hymnals:

1789, oh yeah!

On August 7, 1789, the U.S. War Department (DoD) was created. It was the second agency of the new fledgling US government created, the Department of Foreign Affairs (state Department) having preceded it in July. Why so late in the day? It wasn't, forget 1776, the US was pretty much born in 1789. 1789 is worthy of some study if only for that reason. The first Presidential elections were held. The first elections for the House and for the Senate were held. Departments of State, War and Treasury were created. The First US Congress met as the legislature and adopted the US Constitution and declared it to be in force. With that, the bicameral US Congress replaced the previous unicameral Congress created by the Articles of Confederation, which were now no longer in effect. The real biggie, IMHO is The Judiciary Act of 1789. It created the lesser courts and granted and divvied up their respective jurisdictions. It also granted the US Supreme Court the power to issue writs of mandamus as part of its original jurisdiction, thereby setting the stage for John Marshall's decision in Marbury v Madison which worked to give the Supreme Court the power of Judicial Review. If there is really one year you should get a handle on and appreciate the scope of, it is 1789. (All hell broke loose in France, too) ;)

On August 7, 1794, President George Washington invoked the Militia Acts of 1792 to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion.

On August 7, 1909, Alice Huyler Ramsey and three friends become the first women to complete a transcontinental auto trip. IT took them 59 days to make it from New York, NY to San Francisco, California. She drove a Maxwell and used Triple A maps, but navigated mostly by power poles. Her friends couldn't drive, and seemingly left all the other automotive chores to her as well, she changed flat tires, cleaned spark plugs and fixed a busted accelerator pedal.

On August 7, 1955, the predecessor to Sony, sold its first transistor radios in Japan. When you think back upon it, this was a world changing event, soon we'd have baseball games, news and music anywhere and everywhere, any time and all the time. And look when it began, 1955. I mean Bill Haley had himself a hit with See You Later Alligator in '55, really.

On August 7, 1964, the U.S. Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. This essentially gave LBJ permission to wage war without any formal declaration of war and on false pretences. This was not the first time we went to war based on a lie and certainly not the last. LBJ proceeded to escalate the hell out of the conflict. The ship of state sailing off to war as a carrier task force, and nobody remembered "Remember the Maine"

On August 7, 1978, Jimmy Carter declared a Federal Emergency at the Love canal. Symbolically polluting Love because long running dumping of toxic waste waa permitted because no stink was raised about it because, perhaps, nobody loved the earth enough, or perhaps all were blind.

And after all of that, if you're still here, I think it is a good time to go visit 1958 and the legendary Johnny Otis Show just for the fun of it.

Image is Further

Its an Open Thread, folks, so talk it up

cross posted from caucus99percent