07/12 is Paper Bag Day

Today is day 193 of the Gregorian Calendar year, Pungenday, Confusion 47, 3187 YOLD (discordian) And let us not forget 13.0.8.12.5 mlc (the Mayan Long Count) *****

Paper Bag Day is, I suppose, a celebration of the invention & existence of the paper bag. It appears to have come into existence in 2019, perhaps in response to the growing efforts to do away with single use plastic bags. Possibly sponsored by the pulp or paper or paper bag industry in the hopes that more such bags would wind up being single use than would be reused. Perish the thought that folks should turn back the clock to the days of woven baskets, string bags and/or cloth bags; this is the disposable culture and we'll just go with paper if we can't have plastic, right? Cynicism aside, paper bags have many uses besides as cat traps and head coverings and have been around at least since Francis Wolle got a patent of the first paper bag machine in 1852. It was, however, a woman (of course) named Margaret E. Knight who designed the square, flat bottomed bag, and the machine that would fold and paste them in 1870. All the same able to be re-used, re-purposed and recycled or not, their production is more than a little problematic and environmentally toxic, so I'll stick with cloth or bags like the chico bag that are woven from recycled plastic bottles. Called the Bisbee Deportation, a classic example of fascist domestic tyrrany occurred in Bisbee Az on this date in 1917. None less than FDR told us that fascism was ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. In this case, it was owned by a notoriously horrible company named Phelps-Dodge. At its behest, the sheriff of Cochise County , Az, one Harry C. Wheeler, deputized some 2,000 people and then used those fascist storm troopers to kidnap about 1,300 striking mine workers and their supporters at gunpoint based on lists prepared by said Phelps-Doge, the government's owner, and "deport" (exile) them to New Mexico in cattle cars against their will. At the end of their 16 mile desert train ride with no food and almost no water they were ordered to never return to Bisbee, and that was that. The felonious lackey of a sheriff then seized the telegraph and telephone lines to keep word of this outrageous activity from getting out. Nobody was ever fined, jailed, penalized or punished in any way for this outrageously criminal act because "business is business", ya know, and mining has always been above the law and the norms of civilized behavior. Besides, some say there were rumors that some of those miners were Wobblies anyway. Phelps-Dodge grew and prospered as might be expected from its obviously All American(TM) ethics, ethos and business practices, and was eventually absorbed by Freeport-McMoRan, about which the less said the better. Meanwhile, Bisbee grew into a thriving metropolis of some 5,600 or so people where tourists can tour the old copper mine or visit the the mining and historical museum in the old Phelps-Dodge general office building (a historical landmark, for what it is worth). The town also at some point shed its openly fascist form of government and became more or less as democratic as the average US city or town. I was going to say "let us not forget the poor miners", but everybody pretty much did. The miners got the shaft and after a poorly documented period of suffering, starvation and similar hardships pretty much just disappeared from history. Presumably some of them had names and some probably eventually found work somewhere and maybe even married and raised families, but they're just "the Deportees". On this day in history:

1493 – Hartmann Schedel's Nuremberg Chronicle, one of the best-documented early printed books, was published. 1562 – Acting Bishop of Yucatán, Fray Diego de Landa, burned the idols and sacred books of the Maya because, of course he would. 1776 – Captain James Cook began his third and final voyage. 1789 – Radical journalist Camille Desmoulins gave a speech which resulted in the storming of the Bastille two days later. 1790 – The Civil Constitution of the Clergy was passed in France causing the immediate subordination of the church to the civil government. 1917 – Deputized fascist vigilantes kidnapped and "deported" nearly 1,300 striking miners and others from Bisbee, Arizona at the behest of Phelps Dodge 1920 – The Soviet–Lithuanian Peace Treaty was signed, whereby Soviet Russia recognized Lithuania's independence. 1943 – German and Soviet armored forces fought the Battle of Prokhorovka, leaving Russia with the initiative on the eastern front for the rest of the war. 1948 – Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion ordered the expulsion of Palestinians from the towns of Lod and Ramla. 1961 – The Khadakwasla and Panshet dams failed, killing at least two thousand people in Pune India. 1962 – The Rolling Stones performed for the first time at London's Marquee Club. 1967 – Riots began in Newark, New Jersey, triggered in part by cops beating a black cabbie. . 1971 – The Australian Aboriginal Flag was flown for the first time. 1973 – A fire destroyed the entire sixth floor of the National Personnel Records Center of the United States. 1975 – São Tomé and Príncipe declared independence from Portugal. 1979 – Kiribati became independent from the United Kingdom. 2007 – U.S. Army Apache helicopters made airstrikes in Baghdad where civilians were killed . Footage from the cockpit was later leaked to the Internet, eventually leading to the persecution and imprisonment of Julian Assange for exposing US War Crimes.

Born this day in:

It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.

~~ Henry David Thoreau 1468 – Juan del Encina, poet, playwright, and composer 1675 – Evaristo Felice Dall'Abaco, violinist and composer 1817 – Henry David Thoreau, essayist, poet, and philosopher 1824 – Eugène Boudin, French painter 1828 – Nikolay Chernyshevsky, Russian philosopher and critic 1849 – William Osler, physician and author 1863 – Albert Calmette, physician, bacteriologist, and immunologist 1879 – Margherita Piazzola Beloch, mathematician 1884 – Amedeo Modigliani, painter and sculptor 1895 – Buckminster Fuller, architect inventor, and engineer 1895 – Oscar Hammerstein II, director, producer, and songwriter 1899 – E.D. Nixon, civil rights leader 1904 – Pablo Neruda, poet and diplomat 1909 – Herbert Zim, naturalist, author, and educator 1913 – Willis Lamb, physicist and academic 1917 – Andrew Wyeth, artist 1918 – Doris Grumbach, novelist, memoirist, biographer, literary critic, and essayist 1918 – Rusty Dedrick, swing and bebop jazz trumpeter 1920 – Paul Gonsalves, saxophonist 1923 – James E. Gunn, science fiction author 1927 – Conte Candoli, trumpet player 1928 – Elias James Corey, chemist and academic, 1933 – Victor Poor, engineer, developed the Datapoint 2200 1933 – Donald E. Westlake, author and screenwriter 1934 – Van Cliburn, pianist and composer 1942 – Swamp Dogg, American R&B singer-songwriter and musician 1942 – Steve Young, country singer, songwriter, and guitarist 1943 – Christine McVie, singer, songwriter and keyboard player 1944 – Simon Blackburn, philosopher and academic 1945 – Butch Hancock, singer, songwriter, and musician 1947 – Wilko Johnson, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actor 1948 – Walter Egan, singer, songwriter, and guitarist 1949 – Simon Fox, drummer 1950 – Eric Carr, drummer and songwriter 1952 – Voja Antonic, computer scientist and journalist, designed the Galaksija computer 1952 – Philip Taylor Kramer, bass player 1954 – Eric Adams, singer, songwriter 1955 – Jimmy LaFave, singer, songwriter, and guitarist 1956 – Sandi Patty, singer and pianist 1962 – Luc De Vos, singer, songwriter, and guitarist 1965 – Robin Wilson, singer and guitarist 1966 – Taiji, bass player and songwriter 1967 – Mac McCaughan, singer and guitarist 1967 – John Petrucci, singer, songwriter, and guitarist 1969 – Jesse Pintado, guitarist 1974 – Sharon den Adel, singer and songwriter 1976 – Tracie Spencer, singer, songwriter, and actress 1981 – Adrienne Camp, singer, songwriter 1984 – Gareth Gates, singer, songwriter

Died this day in:

“The truth of Zen is the truth of life, and life means to live, to move, to act, not merely to reflect.”

-- D.T. Suzuki

The fight against racism and fascism is completely bound up with the fight to overthrow capitalism, the system that breeds both.

~~ Olive Morris 1584 – Steven Borough, navigator and explorer 1664 – Stefano della Bella, illustrator and engraver 1742 – Evaristo Felice Dall'Abaco, violinist and composer 1773 – Johann Joachim Quantz, German flute player and composer 1850 – Robert Stevenson, engineer 1892 – Alexander Cartwright, firefighter, invented baseball 1917 – Hugo Simberg, symbolist painter and graphic artist 1926 – Gertrude Bell, archaeologist and spy 1934 – Ole Evinrude, inventor and businessman, invented the outboard motor 1935 – Alfred Dreyfus, French colonel 1947 – Jimmie Lunceford, saxophonist and bandleader 1962 – Roger Wolfe Kahn, composer and bandleader 1966 – D. T. Suzuki, philosopher and author 1979 – Olive Morris, civil rights activist 1979 – Minnie Riperton, singer, songwriter 1983 – Chris Wood, saxophonist 1998 – Jimmy Driftwood, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and banjo player 1998 – Arkady Ostashev, Soviet/Russian scientist and engineer 2003 – Benny Carter, trumpet player, saxophonist, and composer 2007 – Robert Burås, singer, songwriter, and guitarist 2010 – Paulo Moura, clarinetist and saxophonist 2013 – Amar Bose, electrical and sound engineer, founded the Bose Corporation 2014 – Nestor Basterretxea, painter and sculptor

Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such: Independence Day (São Tomé and Príncipe from Portugal & Kiribati from the UK) The second day of Naadam (Mongolia) National Simplicity Day (They made patterns, right?) National Pecan Pie Day National Eat Your Jell-O Day Paper Bag Day (has been around since 2019, celebrating the disposable society)

Music goes here, iirc, well, With apologies ;-)

Bisbee Deportation

YouTube Video

The Rolling Stones

YouTube Video

Evaristo Felice Dall'Abaco

YouTube Video

Paul Gonsalves

YouTube Video

Conte Condoli

YouTube Video

Van Cliburn