Thursday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“Worthless people live to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink to live.”

Socrates

Tuesday night one hell of a storm front came through the Gulf Coast in Northwest Florida. As incredible as it seems it was reported that there was 15” to 20” of rain that fell in 24 hours in the Pensacola area. As some of you know I go to Pensacola Beach twice a year and I have a daughter that lives near there. She lives about 6 miles east of downtown Pensacola near the town of Gulf Breeze. I called her Wednesday morning and she said her back yard was a lake but water had not yet entered the house and she did not expect it to but others on her street did have flooding and overflowing septic tanks. I am glad that she is OK but there will be a hell of a problem with flooded roads for a while. There was one fatality. A woman was caught driving down a road that flash flooded, it rolled her over and she drowned in the car.

This past Tuesday evening Clayton Lockett was scheduled for execution in Oklahoma. The method of execution was lethal injection. It seems that Oklahoma was using an untested drug and when it was administered to Clayton things did not go as planned. He was given the death penalty for shooting a teen-aged girl with a sawed off shotgun which did not kill her then he oversaw the burial of this girl while still alive. When the poison was administered to Clayton he gasped, struggled and convulsed until the execution was suspended. He died 45 minutes later of a heart attack. This, my friends, is karma.

It was reported this past Tuesday afternoon that the president of the NBA Adam Silver banned Donald Sterling for life and fined him $2.5 million.

I guess all of y'all saw that the ever present Al Sharpton had a few nasty things to say about Sterling. It is true that Americans can say pretty much anything they want but this imbecile only pipes up when there are things to say that are racially charged. Even black news reporters said that Sharpton is a “sad person”.

All of this brought to mind one of the worst displays of racial prejudice in history that few people ever heard of. In the middle of the 14^th century the bubonic plague was brought to Europe by the returning Crusaders. People were dropping like flies of this horrible disease. Nobody figured out that it was the fleas on the rats that hitchhiked in from the Middle East and Turkey. What some did assume was that God was displeased with world's sins and sent this plague as punishment. They gathered in large groups at churches to pray for God to lighten up. Large gathering like this just promoted the distribution of the Bubonic plague virus. Then there were the “flagellants”. These guys (mostly Catholic monks) believed that if they inflicted pain upon themselves it would appease God. They wandered through the countryside and used tree branches and “cat-o-nine-tails” whips to beat their backs into spaghetti. The prayers and the beatings did not help so the people decided that this plague was sent among them by the Jews and there was many murders of the Jews because of this bigotry. The bad part was these Jews were either beaten to death, stoned to death or subjected to a large variety of tortures. This did not work either...but the Jews were just as dead. Like I said, racism has no parameters.

Then back in the early 16^th century the Catholic church in Spain decided that they wanted all of the available donations and persuaded the King to evict the Jews but would allow them to stay if they became Catholic (donations, remember?). Sure enough the Jews left or pretended to be Catholic. Those that left took a hell of a lot of money with them which would have been catastrophic under normal circumstances but the Spanish were in the middle of raping the Maya and Inca in Mexico and Central America bringing literally tons of gold and silver back to Spain.

Finally, In the early 1800's the Mexican government opened up part of their lands to settlers. Most of this this huge amount of land is what is now Texas. The minimum land grant was a “league” and/or a “labor”. A league was about 600 acres with no water front (rivers) and labor did have water access as part of the grant. The only thing was that the settler had to sign a document stating that they were or would be Catholic. I ain't anti-Catholic...I am just relaying what is written in the history books.

This Date in History May 1

1863 On this date began the first day of the Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia. It was in this battle that the superior battle savvy of CSA Generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson became known to the world. The Union army in that area known as the Army of the Potomac and had been through several commanders and all had their asses handed to them by CSA General R.E. Lee. The newest one was US General Joseph “Fighting Joe” Hooker. Hooker relieved US General Ambrose Burnside after the disastrous Fredericksburg winter campaign where Burnside lost 14,000 to Lee’s 5,000. Now was the best chance the Union army ever had. The Army of the Potomac numbered 133,000 and Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia numbered 60,000. The Confederate corps under the command of CSA General James Longstreet was on detached duty to the south. Hooker’s plan was a good one. He was going to pin down the Confederates that were dug in on the flat plain of the Rappahannock River and then head upstream with a substantial number of troops, cross the river and attack Lee from the rear. Lee surmised that Hooker had this in mind and detached most of his troops and headed upstream to meet Hooker’s flanking attack leaving CSA General Jubal Early and his corps dug in on the flat plain. Lee and Hooker met just north of the Wilderness and a battle ensued. Hooker was baffled to think that Lee had correctly guessed his strategy, and even though he had Lee outnumbered more than two to one, he chose to dig in and set up a defensive perimeter. Lee jumped at this chance to take the initiative and take it he did. Lee split his army yet again and sent Stonewall Jackson and 25,000 troops around the right flank of the Union defenses and about 5:00p, rabbits, deer and other wildlife boiled out of the wood behind the Union lines followed closely by Stonewall Jackson’s cavalry and howling infantry. The Union infantry were gathered around their campfires making dinner and we caught completely by surprise and tumbled eastward in a headlong retreat. This action fragmented the Union infantry and the Confederates were able to isolate and crush them piecemeal. After a couple of days of this ass-whipping they and General Hooker were heading their young asses back to Washington in a total rout. It was in this battle and the Shenandoah Valley campaign that made “Stonewall” Jackson is a legend in the annuls of military history. Military historians call Lee’s action in this encounter as “the perfect battle”. This evening Stonewall Jackson was out scouting to find out where the Union positions ended up. He was shot by a Confederate soldier by accident. The wound cost him his left arm but it did not appear to be life threatening. They were wrong. Jackson developed pneumonia and died 10 days later. It was a terrible blow to the Confederate army.

1960 On this date in this year I was in the United States Air Force stationed at Eielson AFB, Alaska. Eielson was an intelligence gathering and cold weather testing base, meaning there was a lot of spy planes that passed through there like RB-47’s, RB-66’s, RB-58’s, and an occasional U-2. I found out later that the U-2’s were capable of flying at or above 70,000 feet and the CIA believed that the Russians had no fighters or missiles that could reach that altitude so they would send U-2’s on over flights of Russia taking precision photos along the way. On one particular night, the klaxon began blasting and SAC intelligence officers ran up in the control tower with me and we spent the night together. The story was that the Russians had something interesting going on near the Bering Straits and our military wanted photos. This particular night they chose to send out an RB-47 and a KC-135 tanker. Neither plane got off the ground because the fuel was contaminated. To this day I think it was sabotage and so did the SAC officers. Speaking of U-2’s, later on one of them departed Karachi, Pakistan and was on his way to Buda, Norway, but it might have been vice-versa but in any event Russia is in the middle of that flight path. This spy flight U-2 was shot down in Russia with CIA pilot Francis Gary Powers aboard. The CIA was not worried, the said that there was no part of the plane that was identifiable as American and the pilot was suppose to commit suicide with a cyanide tablet that was aboard the aircraft, therefore President Eisenhower said it was a weather recon aircraft that had gotten off course. Little did President Ike know that the pilot had not taken the poison but was alive and in the hands of the Russians, parachute and a large chunk of the aircraft included. Well, after this Ike had to admit it was indeed a spy flight and the relationship with the Russians hit an all time low. Powers was a prisoner for two years then he was swapped for master Russian spy Rudolph Abel. It seems that Abel had been spying for Russia on United States while on the ground and not aloft. Spying is spying.

1852 On this date Martha Jane Canary is born in Princeton, Missouri. Martha Jane became a legend in the old west by claiming to be the lover of Colonel George A. Custer and had indeed bore him a child. The history of the west and Custer in particular showed that this was a bullshit story. But she was indeed part of an expedition into the so-called sacred hills of South Dakota, better known as the Black Hills which the Cheyenne held sacred. It was there that she gained the nickname of Calamity Jane. She was probably just a laundress, but she was there. Eventually she ended up in one of the most famous towns of the old west, Deadwood South Dakota. It was there that she claimed that she was the lover of Wild Bill Hickock who was indeed a temporary resident of Deadwood but there is no evidence that she and Wild Bill ever got together. Eventually she told her tales so many times that she began to believe them herself. Jane eventually let the booze soak into her brain and she was found hiring her self out in a black brothel in a town called Horr, Montana. She was offered help but she said that she wanted to be left alone and “wanted to go to hell by her own path.” A few months later she was found dead in Terry, Wyoming. She was 51 years old.

1898 A few months before the US battleship Maine exploded in Havana harbor for reasons unknown. A naval investigation showed it was caused by a mine no matter whose it was but that was probably not the real reason. In any case, a series of events led to the United States and Spain declaring war on each other. At the same time US Commodore George Dewey was tasked by US President William McKinley with the destruction of the Spanish fleet in the Pacific. Dewey found the Spanish fleet anchored in Manila Bay in the Philippines. Dewey had all the ships in his fleet to extinguish their lights and on this night they sneaked into the harbor and deployed. At the crack of dawn Commodore Dewey issued the famous order to the commander of his flagship the USS Olympia saying “You may fire when ready, Gridley.” And Gridley indeed opened fire and 10 of the Spanish vessels were sunk in their moorings from which the Spanish navy never recovered. The Spanish-American War was over in short order after this fiasco.

Born today:

1918 TV host Jack Paar. He said “Immigration is the sincerest form of flattery.” Si senor.

1922 US writer Joseph Heller. He said “Good God, how much reverence can you have for a Supreme Being who finds it necessary to include phlegm and tooth decay as his divine system of creation?” Joe Heller wrote the famous book “Catch 22”.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Wednesday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“For the past 33 years I have been getting up in the morning and look at my self in the mirror and say 'Am I happy with what I will be doing today?' If the answer is “no” too many time I know it is time to make a change.”

Steve Jobs

Down near Atlanta a female District Attorney was sitting in her car talking to a man. Another man walked up and shot her three times and the man once. The shooter then walked into a nearby cemetery and blew his own brains out. It was the DA's estranged husband. She had filed for divorce a few months ago. She is in critical condition. Like I said, we don't know what goes on behind closed doors, do we?

The ex-clerk of court of Spartanburg County, SC has been released to a half-way house. This jackass got into a deal where he would steal drugs from the evidence room, give it to a real estate salesman who would sell it down in Florida and split the profit. This is a federal offense, y'all, because it involved interstate transactions.

Back to Donald Sterling...The owner of the Los Angeles Clippers is in his 80's, if I am not mistaken. What is very unusual to me is that he goes to see the Clipper games with his acknowledged mistress with his wife present. His wife is a blond and pretty good looking for her age and his mistress appears to be Latino and ain't so good looking but is without a doubt younger than his wife. His wife has called the Latino a gold-digger taking advantage wealthy older men. As we all know, Donald Sterling is a racist and it came to the surface recently in a moment of anger. The same thing happened with the Nevada rancher that had a set-to with the BLM. His racist words went viral soon after being spoken. I do not defend either one of them but there is no question that in spite of our alleged enlightenment, there is an undercurrent of racism throughout this land and always has been. When I say racism, that is a street of many lanes...going both ways. As I have written before, I had a good friend from northern Wisconsin that used to question me about racism against blacks in the South. We had several long involved conversations about it and he said that he did not understand it because racism against blacks did not exist in northern Wisconsin...but don't put him near any Cree Indians from Canada calling them worthless thieves and drunks. Racism is universal, y'all...it has no parameters.

This past weekend saw an outbreak of tornadoes in eastern Oklahoma and points east. There were 17 fatalities and many, many more injured not to mention the destruction of property. We here in northwestern South Carolina were not hit. The front that spawned those tornadoes missed us by about 100 miles. This past winter may be the worst that I remember for cold for long periods...and now tornadoes in the Springtime. I cannot offer a logical opinion for the cause of all of this. Could it be La Nina or maybe El Nino...perhaps global warning...Al Gore..Obamacare...Jadeveon Clowney...a raise in the price of pork at Henry's Barbecue...or a raise in the price of pork at Bucky's barbecue...or maybe the disappearance of MH-370? I don't know, but something is afoot. All of this turmoil has apparently gotten to Paul Simon and his wife Edie Brickell also. The cops in New Canaan, Connecticut were called to the Simon residence and both Paul and Edie were arrested for disturbing the peace during a domestic dispute. The were released soon after and are awaiting a court date. Paul is a 12 time Grammy winner as a songwriter and is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his days with Art Garfunkel...but everybody has a breaking point. By the way, Edie is 30 years younger than Paul.

This Date in History April 30

1945 On this date one of the most depraved beasts to ever walk the earth committed suicide. Adolph Hitler spent the last few days of his life in his underground bunker 30 feet under the German Chancellery in Berlin. He could easily hear the thunderous approach of the Russian army coming from the east and southeast. He had already instructed his staff to gather up 40 liters of gasoline to incinerate his corpse when the time came. Earlier this bastard had came out of his bunker and met with his “last line of defense” and that being untrained boys at the age of 15 and younger and old men over the age of 70. Even trained German paratroopers would be no match for the relentless Russians but this son-of-a-bitch wanted children and old men to sacrifice their lives for him with him knowing that all was lost. All the other important members of his private staff had already committed suicide by biting into a cyanide capsule. Early in the day Hitler had married his mistress Eva Braun and it was she and Hitler that were left in his private bunker when he died much to the free world’s relief. Eva had taken cyanide and Hitler had taken cyanide also but before the poison had time to work, he put a 9mm bullet in his brain also. Oh, I almost forgot. In order to test the cyanide poison, he gave a dose of it to his German shepherd named Blondi. She died also. There was no end to the depth of Hitler’s evilness. As instructed, his staff dug a small trench in the garden of the Chancellery, put Hitler’s corpse and 40 liters of gasoline into it and lit it off. Finally, the world was rid of Adolph Hitler. But there will be another; history has proven it time and again.

1803 On this date the Louisiana Purchase was officially offered to the United States which doubled its land area. President Thomas Jefferson had gotten wind that Spain was secretly going to cede its lands in America to France. Jefferson sent Robert Livingston and others to France to see if they could broker a deal to gain the port of New Orleans, as the United States had no dependable port in that area. Livingston met with the Prime Minister of France who was acting in behalf of Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon knew that he could not fight a war on two fronts against the British, in Europe and North America, and Napoleon needed money to finance the war in Europe. So when Livingston had the meeting with the Prime Minister and asked him what he wanted for New Orleans, the Prime Minister asked “What will you give me for all of it?” meaning all of the French possessions in North America, Livingston and the others were so astounded that they asked for a couple of days to come up with a figure. They really wanted time to go change their pants. The figure that Livingston came up with was $15 million. $11.5 million for the land (3 cents and acre) and $3.5 million for unpaid debts the United States owed to France. Ya’ll have to keep in mind that there was no instant communications available and Livingston had to make this unexpected decision on his own. He did good, ya’ll. The actual deal was signed on May 2 but the date on the document was May 30. What enormously talented men and women we had on our side at this point in time.

1776 One of the most fire blooded Patriots in American history, Samuel Adams, writes letter to his pastor, saying that he wished there was another battle suggesting that that would make the “Declaration of Independence” more readily accepted. Our greatest General George Washington had already run the redcoats out of Boston with the brilliant Battle of Dorchester Heights and the British had already headed to Nova Scotia with their tails between their legs. Fifteen days after Samuel Adam’s letter the British were not beaten by bloodshed but by words alone. Thomas Paine issued “Common Sense” a pamphlet that was a sequence of words that were some of the most inspiring ever written. It was these few words that inspired out forefathers decided to stay at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania rather that hold the US government to the contract that would expire on December 31, 1777 and our most experienced soldiers would go home. Instead they went to Trenton, New Jersey and kicked the shit out the Hessians (mercenaries) there. The war was by no means over and our independence was not assured, but there was light at the end of the tunnel.

1864 Earlier Union General Nathaniel Banks had tried to go from New Orleans to the intersection of the Mississippi and the Red River and then follow the Red River on into Texas. To pin the Confederates onto the river, and follow Banks on into Texas via the east bank of the Red River, US General Frederick Steele and an army of 2,500 left Little Rock headed to the river. Then Nathaniel Banks had his ass handed to him by CSA General Richard Taylor at the Battle of Mansfield, Louisiana and Banks headed back to New Orleans leaving Steele stranded and short on supplies. Not only that, after CSA General Kirby Smith found out about Steele’s condition he closed in for the kill. Smith attacked Steele near Jenkins Ferry, Arkansas finding Steele’s troops in mid stream trying to cross the rain swollen Saline River. General Smith was not able to finish the job because of muddy roads and river crossings but he was able to capture over 400 of Steele’s supply wagons before Steele reached the safety of Little Rock.

Born today:

1771 US theologian Hosea Ballou. He said “Real happiness is cheap enough, but how dearly we pay for its counterfeit.” True words, ya’ll.

1834 English naturalist Sir John Lubbock. He said “Reading, writing, arithmetic and grammar do not make an education any more than a knife, fork and spoon make a dinner.”

1933 US songwriter/singer Willie Nelson. When asked why he smokes marijuana he said “It keeps me from killing people.” Willie is a hoot.

Died today:

1879 US writer Sarah Hale. She said “I have no riches except my thoughts, yet this is enough wealth for me.” Me too.

1983 US blues legend Muddy Waters. When speaking of Mick Jagger he said “He took my music but gave me fame.”

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Tuesday 2

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

The Dalai Lama when asked what surprised him the most about humanity he answered “Man, because he sacrifices his health for money. Then he sacrifices his money to regain his health. Then he is so anxious about his future that he does not enjoy the present: The end result is that he lives in neither the present nor the future; he lives like he is never going to die then he dies never knowing he has really lived.”

                                                                  Dalai Lama

I don't know if it is the pollen or not but something is kicking my butt. I think it is a garden variety cold because I detected some kind of “drawing” in the back of my mouth about a week ago. Not only that, my blood sugar has elevated for reasons unknown. For this malady my family doctor has prescribed a drug that brings a touch of dizziness and nausea for two or three days. But, I have no real complaints...see the quote of the day above.

I saw a story about the Winder family in Selmer, Tennessee. It the man of the house was a Church of Christ minister. His wife looked just like you might suspect coming from a tiny town in south Central Tennessee and an ever smaller church. The man and the wife had issue of three daughters. He was a tall, good-looking athletic type, the wife was a very quiet mousey type. One night she got out of bed, reached for the pump shotgun in the closet and fire one round into the back of her husband who was asleep in the bed. The blast did not kill the man right away and he wallowed around on the floor until he bled out. The wife gathered up her girls into the family van and disappeared.

The next afternoon the church was holding a bible study and neither the preacher nor his wife showed up. After the service A couple of the elders went over to the Reverend's house. The doors were locked but a key was found in a tackle box in the garage. They got into the house and found the minister dead as fried chicken but the wife and kids were gone. The local sheriff put out a nationwide BOLO (be on the lookout) for the wife, kids and the van. Everybody thought it had been a kidnapping, About 600 miles away near Orange Beach, Alabama (been there), a van matching the BOLO made an illegal U turn on Ocean Boulevard and was stopped. It was indeed the minister's wife and kids. She went on trial for murder. With her and the older daughter's testimony it appears that the good minister was a wife beater in addition to having a few kinks. The wife still had a few bruises on her arms and chest and produced a couple of wigs and platform shoes that had been bought by her husband for her to wear. When asked if her husband had required her to do sex acts she was not comfortable with...she nodded her head....when asked what she just said “on top”....it took me a while to grasp that as being “kinky” but being a wife-beater is not allowed under an circumstance, wigs and shoes not withstanding. The end result was she was given 210 days minus time served for man-slaughter. There was no doubt that her testimony was from the heart. Her parents were given custody of the kids while she was in the joint. Six months after she was released she had her kids with her once again. We never know what goes on behind closed doors, do we?

This Date in History April 29

1992 A few months before the Los Angeles Police Department stopped a known felon after an extended vehicular chase. Only this time they were stopping him for a traffic violation. Rodney King led the police through a circuitous route through East LA before finally stopping. Rodney was not alone in his car, there were two others and all were yelled at by the police to get out and lay flat on their face. The other two immediately got out and hit the asphalt on their face, but not Rodney. He chose to go down on all fours and that was as far as he would go in spite a severe ass-whipping he got from 5 of LA’s finest. He never did go down and cops kept beating him with their fists and batons. Little did the cops know that the entire event was being taped by a guy across the street on the balcony of a hotel. The next day the cops, and Rodney from his hospital bed, saw themselves on the morning news. The photographer had sold the tape to the TV station. To make a long story short, the cops went on trial up in Simi Valley rather than in East LA and were acquitted. Almost as soon as the verdict was announced, riots began in Los Angeles and rioting and fires continued for four days and nights. The cops just stayed the hell out of the way. The blacks were really upset about the innocent verdict and well they should have been but burning their own town down ain’t the answer. Back when Martin Luther King was assassinated the blacks of Augusta, Georgia fell out into mid-town with torches aflame. A famous black man stood up and quieted the crowd down and he persuaded them not to burn their home town to the ground. It was the Godfather of Soul, ya’ll, it was the recently deceased James Brown.

1945 On this date the 45th division of the United States 7^th Army (US General Alexander ‘Sandy’ Patch commanding) on its march across Europe to free the different nations from the hell of the Nazis, come upon an enclosed camp in Poland. General Patch was as an efficient commander as General George Patton, the commander of the 3^rd Army, but was not as an egomaniac. The soldiers could detect the plant from afar because of the smothering stench that emanated downwind. It was Auschwitz, ya’ll. It was facility that had no other purpose that to kill Jews and Gypsies as fast and efficiently as possible. It is estimated that 3 million Jews that were literally exterminated as vermin by these Nazi beasts. When the Nazi camp commander and his staff determined that the Americans were within a day or two of liberating the camp, they went on a murder rampage hoping to eliminate all the prisoners that they could before running out of ammo and then scorched as many of the buildings with flamethrowers as they could and then they left hoping to blend in with the general population. The Americans were stunned at what they saw. There were heap and piles of emaciated copses including a nearby train with cattle cars full to capacity with the same. The Americans had no choice but to bury the corpses along with tons of quick lime to eliminate the chance of a cholera epidemic. It was the Russians that came upon the camp at Buchenwald, the worst of them all. Buchenwald had ovens, ya’ll, ovens. I will leave it to you to figure out what the ovens were for but when the Russians arrived the ovens were out of coal and had stopped working. The Russians had nothing on their minds but revenge for the Germans killing 26 million of their brethren, now upon seeing this, every Russian soldier was a razor, ya’ll, a razor. They left there and headed to Germany and were not to be denied their revenge. It turned out to be a 570 mile long bloodbath. It was nothing short of a massacre of the Germans by the Russians be it, man, woman, child, dog. cat, cattle or any other air breather, all were slaughtered. In the meantime the allies had sealed off the western side of Germany and would accept no surrender. They just saw to it that the Russians got their belly full of German blood. The Russians did not cut any slack, ya’ll, they indeed got a belly full.

1991 On this date a devastating cyclone come ashore in Bangladesh. The greatest majority of the population of Bangladesh on the Indian Ocean were poverty stricken and without nationwide communications so they were unaware of the approaching storm. The storm slammed ashore with a 20 tidal surge in the lead and 135,000 were drowned. The bad part was that there were so many dead that were not recovered, the tigers came out of the jungle and began a feast on the corpses. These tigers, as you might expect, developed a taste for human flesh and the humans became prey for the tigers no matter where they were. It took an entire generation of tigers to pass for this danger to subside.

1974 Earlier five men had broken into the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington, DC. The men were captured and the world came to find out that they all were under the employ of the Republican Party Committee to re-elect the President (CREEP). President Richard Nixon undoubtedly knew about the break-in but told his staff to “circle the wagons” and “stonewall” the investigation. Even a Special Prosecutor named Archibald Cox was selected to investigate break-in. When he began insisting that the White House turn over certain documents and audio tapes, President Nixon had him fired. Then the US Senate formed a special sub-committee to seek impeachment of the President and another special prosecutor was named and it was Circuit Court Judge and notorious hard-ass John Sirica. On this date, President Nixon offered to turn over a transcript of the taped conversations in the Oval Office during the time immediately after the break-in. Judge Sirica said that would be OK but he wanted the tapes themselves also because they were “best evidence”. Nixon refused saying that he had “executive privilege”. Sirica went to the Supreme Court and they sided with Judge Sirica and the tapes were turned over to Sirica. The tapes revealed that Nixon had ordered the FBI to discontinue investigating the Watergate break-in. This was a “smoking gun” that proved Nixon knew of the break-in. A few days later Nixon had a conversation with senate leader Barry Goldwater and he told Nixon that he had nearly no support in the Senate and if an impeachment vote came he was sure Nixon would be kicked out of office. Two days later Nixon resigned office, the first President to do so. Vice President Gerald Ford was sworn into office as President the next day. Soon ex-President Richard Nixon flew to his compound in San Clemente, California and faded from view in disgrace.

Born today:

1897 English conductor Sir Thomas Beecham. When speaking to a female cellist in his orchestra he said “Madam, you have between your legs an instrument that is capable of giving pleasure to thousands, all you have to do is scratch it.” No Comment.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow