History & Comment for July 2, 2025

A look at historical and current events on this day, comment and humor so dry it would make a camel thirsty. 

Transcript

This is History and Comment for Wednesday the 2nd of July 2025.  After today we are closer to 2050 than we are to the year 2000.    

There was a meme that commented on how in the 70’s a student could attend an in state college and work a summer job at minimum wage and pay their way through.   That is not the case today.    The same concept applies to health care.    In both cases the Government has started paying a portion and instead of providing relief the colleges and medical institutions have raised their rates.    Now without Government few can afford these services.     Folks again, Government involvement is not your friend.  

We might explore this concept further on Friday.  The simple fact is Government is granting power to a select few.   Invariably, human folibles and weakness will become part of the mix.  That, we might as well call what it is, corruption.   

In 1613, almost a decade before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth,   English settlers in the grand region of Virginia set out on an expedition against Acadia.  Acadia was a French settlement East and North of present day Maine.      The Virginia Company was trying to establish the colony at Jamestown.  The French settlement supposedly violated the Virginia Claim.   

The affair is a bit ludicrious when you consider how sparse the population was on the East Coast in the 17th Century and how far apart the two settlements were.  I do not like to use the word greed but it might be applicable in this case. At the very least it is childish in the sense that i don’t want you to have it.  The concept is often demonstrated in my dogs and their toys.  And dogs are perpetual 3-year-olds.

Thomas Savery of Devonshire, England patents what might be considered the first steam engine in 1698.  The device had no moving parts except for a series of valves.  It was a first attempt to harness the physics of steam  and the expansion and contraction of heat.   The Savery Engine was a step forward but grossly inefficient.   Engineers were beginning to grasp some of the concepts but not the entire body.   Machining techniques were also not up to the challenge either.  

Savery’s engine used steam pressure to push water and as a secondary chamber cooled it created a vacuum.   The cycling back to the pressure side pushed the water out.    French inventor Denis Papin made some improvements,   Then Thomas Newcome was the first to use a piston and a more efficient method of cooling.   James Watt also made significant improvement in the mid 18th century.  While each successive version was an improvement none were using steam to provide the power stroke. But the vacuum created when steam cools. Part of this was the technology could not support the higher pressures needed.  The other major point that apparently no one thought of was using two cylinders opposing each other and just venting the steam until Watt did on later engines.   It had been known since the time of Christ that steam under pressure could move objects.  

Today could be considered the actual Independence Day. The Continental Congress adopts the Lee Resolution agreeing to sever ties with Great Britain.    The formal Declaration would be adopted two days later.   The process had taken several weeks just to debate if and how the Colonies should seek independence.   Like most pollical decisions there was a wide range of thoughts and opinions.    We do not talk about it much today but there was still a sizeable portion of the colonial population that wanted to stay loyal to England or at the least avoid an open war.   Most notable was John Dickison of Pennsylvania, who had been vocal in his opposition and was purposely absent on July 2nd and 4th. 

Thirty-five Slaves are hanged in South Carolina for organizing a rebellion in 1822.  There are a couple of points to note the signers of the Declaration of Independence knew full well that if they lost the war their lives and fortunes would be forfeit.    In fact most paid a very high price for their political positions.     Hopefully the slaves understood the concept that failed rebels do not fair well.    

The second point that is often lost in modern America is while our slave dependence was agressous, it was not the largest or most sever at  the time or across history.  Roman society was entirely supported by slaves.   And only a fraction of those captured and exported out of Africia landed in North America.  

One thing that America does as a society is put our mistakes and faults on public display for open debate.    In no case has America been the lone bad player on the world stage. In fact the opposite is most often the case.   During our entire time as a nation we debated the issue of slavery and were on the vanguard to abolish it.    Beyond our immediate local we have not been imperialistic.    Contrast that to the European countries.  There are those that would deride our Judeao-Christian mindset, yet when there is a need around the world to help people or relieve oppression, It is American Blood and dollars that come to the rescue.  

Congress passes the Sherman Antitrust act in 1890.   The Act prohibits anti-competitive agreements and conduct that creates a monopoly is a market.   

Inventor Guglielmo Marconi receives a patent for wireless communications or radio in 1897.    Radio was the third major step in global communications. The telegraph was a combination of electrical signals and a code to send information. The telephone allowed voice communications.  The limiting factor was both systems required a set of wires.   The first radio set were more like a telegraph in that they could send a burst of energy as morse code.    And the distances were limited.  Marconi’s system at the time was good for a couple of miles of range.  It will be a few years and improved technology before speech will be successfully transmitted. 

Airships were the rage in the early 20th century.  They were a rigid frame with a large volume of ligther than air gas.   A blimp does not have a rigid frame but soft gas envelope.   Airships were massively large craft and were successful in regular trans atlantic service between Europe and North America along with South  America.   The design concept demonstrated is 1900  when Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin makes the first flight.  

Contact is lost with aviator Amelia Earhart and her navigator in 1937.   Where or why Earhart and her craft were lost has yet to be determined. 

The first Walmart Store opens in Rogers, Arkansas 63 years ago. 

South Vietnam is annexed by North Vietnam in 1976.   You can thank the American Democrats for this. 

The Mukilteo School District in Washington voted to remove To Kill a Mockingbird from the required reading list for ninth graders. The decision was made after months of discussion with teachers, parents, and students, and was based on concerns about the book's portrayal of racism.   Mukilteo is a town about half an hour north of Seattle.   

I have a couple of thoughts.  It is the responsibility of each school district to debate such subjects on the local level.     But social issues are never comfortable and a high schooler should be able to read material and discuss it in a meaningful way.    We are not talking sexual subjects in elementary school here.   

The absurdity I see here is a school district that wants to protect 9th graders and at the same time other school districts want to foist sexual material on elementary students.    I see a doubt standard here.   Can knowledge about racism be emotional harmful on the same level as too early sexual knowledge?   

I will again default to my interest in off-roading riding, I could also mention my friends whose teens ride rodeo or we could inject any contact sport.     There was an article reprinted from the 1970’s that debated letting a small tike ride a pint sized motorcycle.    When is it age appropriate.     There have been a couple of tragic accidents involving teenage riders of above average skill, still things ended badly. 

These discussions should be at a personal family level.   There is not a single size fits all and certainly outside of the realm of government.   

If Mukilteo wants to edit their reading list, that is their right.    Welcome to America.   But it is also our right to question that decision.    Or choose otherwise.   

My thoughts are, across most of society with the exception of sexual topics we have become too over protective.   Focusing on the what ifs and possible bad outcomes and missing the adventure.   Which is never safe, but creates a much more rounded adult than sitting of a stain pillow.   In some ways we can fault too much connectivity. 

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