Category Archives: Music et al

December 15 Music et al

December 15 Music et al

The First Family

December 15 Music et al

December 15, 1962 – March 8, 1963: Vaughn Meader’s comedy album, The First Family Billboard #1 album.

On it, Meader and others parodied the President John F Kennedy and the rest of the extended first family. Released in November 1962 (two years after JFK’s election), the album sold at a rate more than one million copies per week for the first 6 1/2  weeks. By January it had sold more than 7 million copies. The two main writers were Bob Booker and Earle Doud. In fact, the actual name of the album is: “Bob Booker & Earle Doud Present The First Family.”  Before release, there were some who felt that such comedy was degrading to the Presidency, but its sales hushed those detractors.

The album won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1963. In March 1963 a second album, The First Family Volume Two, had a combination of spoken-word comedy and songs. It peaked at #4 on the album chart in June 1963.

December 15 Music et al

Immediately upon Kennedy’s assassination, Cadence Records pulled both albums from stores and destroyed all unsold copies. Not until 1999 did the albums appear again.

December 15 Music et al

Beatles ’65

December 15 Music et al

On December 15, 1964,  Capital released The Beatles Beatles ’65. In two weeks it became the 9th biggest selling album of 1964.

It was the fifth album Capital issued, the Beatles’ seventh American album overall. Like many early Beatle albums, Beatles ’65  was not a UK release, but a collection of songs many of which had already appeared on UK releases.

For Beatles ’65 the songs were mainly from the UK Beatles For Sale, but also the UK Hard Day’s Night. The tracks were:

Side 1

  1. No Reply*
  2. I’m a Loser*
  3. Baby’s In Black*
  4. Rock and Roll Music
  5. I’ll Follow the Sun*
  6. Mr Moonlight
Side 2

  1. Honey Don’t
  2. I’ll Be Back*
  3. She’s a Woman*
  4. I Feel Fine*
  5. Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby

*written by Lennon/McCartney

Beatle success always influenced the music industry even including album titles. During 1965 the following artists released their own ’65 album:

  • Frank Sinatra, Sinatra ’65
  • Duke Ellington, Ellington ’65
  • Sergio Mendes, Brasil ’65
December 15 Music et al

Plastic Ono Band

December 15 Music et al

On December 15, 1969 John Lennon gave what turned out to be his last live performance in England. His Plastic Ono Band played at the UNICEF “Peace for Christmas” charity concert at the Lyceum Ballroom in London.

Surprised by the announcement that UNICEF had scheduled him, but wanted to take advantage of the publicity to promote his War Is Over campaign, Lennon quickly invited those who had participated in September’s Toronto Rock and Roll Revival: Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann, and Alan White, and Billy Preston.

On December 15, however, Clapton arrived with almost all of Delaney & Bonnie’s touring band, which at the time included George Harrison. Because of Harrison’s participation, it was the first time since the Beatles last show on August 29, 1966 that Lennon and Harrison performed in a concert together.

The full line-up, playing before a huge “War is over” backdrop, was: Lennon, Harrison, Clapton and Delaney Bramlett, Ono, Bonnie Bramlett,  Alan White, im Gordon, Billy Preston,  Klaus Voormann, Bobby Keys, and Jim Price. Lennon later referred to it as the Plastic Ono Supergroup.

Don’t Worry Kyoko

The band played two songs. For the first Lennon said, “We’d like to do a number. This song’s about pain” and then played “Cold Turkey.” The second song was “Don’t Worry Kyoko” which lasted nearly 40 minutes. Geoff  Emerick recorded the songs and he had to switch tape reels twice. Drummers Alan White and Jimmy Gordon eventually sped up their drumming to the point that the band simply had to run out of steam. Many in the audience had already walked out. Those who remained were, according to Lennon, “in a trance.”

The songs remained unreleased until the 2005 reissue of Lennon’s Some Time in New York City. “Don’t Worry Kyoko” was severely trimmed.  (Songfact article)

The concert also featured the Young Rascals, Desmond Dekker and the Aces, and Blue Mink and Black Velvet. Emperor Rosko was the disc jockey between performances.

The next day, John and Yoko flew to Toronto to begin the next stage of their peace campaign.

December 15 Music et al

December 15 Peace Love Art Activism

December 15 Peace Love Art Activism

BILL OF RIGHTS

December 15, 1791: Virginia became the last state to ratify the Bill of Rights, making the first ten amendments to the Constitution law and completing the revolutionary reforms begun by the Declaration of Independence. Anti-Federalist critics of the document, who were afraid that a too-strong federal government would become just another sort of the monarchical regime from which they had recently been freed, believed that the Constitution gave too much power to the federal government by outlining its rights but failing to delineate the rights of the individuals living under it.

  1. First Amendment – Freedom of speech, press, religion, peaceable assembly, and to petition the government
  2. Second Amendment – Right for the people to keep and bear arms, as well as to maintain a militia
  3. Third Amendment – Protection from quartering of troops
  4. Fourth Amendment – Protection from unreasonable search and seizure
  5. Fifth Amendment – Due process, double jeopardy, self-incrimination, private property
  6. Sixth Amendment – Trial by jury and other rights of the accused
  7. Seventh Amendment – Civil trial by jury
  8. Eighth Amendment – Prohibition of excessive bail, as well as cruel and unusual punishment
  9. Ninth Amendment – Protection of rights not specifically enumerated in the Bill of Rights.
  10. Tenth Amendment – Powers of states and people.
Fourth Amendment

December 15 Peace Love Activism

December 15, 2014: in Heien v. North Carolina the U.S. Supreme Court sided with the police in a case arising from an officer’s “mistake of law.” At issue was a 2009 traffic stop for a single busted brake light that led to the discovery of illegal drugs inside the vehicle. According to state law at the time, however, motor vehicles were required only to have “a stop lamp,” meaning that the officer did not have a lawful reason for the initial traffic stop because it was not a crime to drive around with a single busted brake light. Did that stop therefore violate the 4th Amendment’s guarantee against unreasonable search and seizure? Writing today for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts held that it did not. “Because the officer’s mistake about the brake-light law was reasonable,” Roberts declared, “the stop in this case was lawful under the Fourth Amendment.” (see March 30, 2015)

FREE SPEECH

December 15, 2017: the Trump administration prohibited officials at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agency (CDC) from using a list of seven words or phrases — including “fetus” and “transgender” — in any official documents being prepared for 2018’s budget.

Policy analysts at the Centers were told of the list of forbidden words at a meeting with senior CDC officials who oversee the budget. According to an analyst the forbidden words were “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.”

In some instances, the analysts were given alternative phrases. Instead of “science-based” or ­“evidence-based,” the suggested phrase is “CDC bases its recommendations on science in consideration with community standards and wishes,” the person said. In other cases, no replacement words were immediately offered. [WP article] (see Dec 21)

December 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

December 15 Peace Love Activism

December 15, 1890: Sioux Indian Chief Sitting Bull and 11 other tribe members were killed in Grand River, S.D., during a clash with Indian police. (see Dec 29)

December 15 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

December 15 Peace Love Art Activism

December 15, 1894:  Judge Woods sentenced labor leader and socialist Eugene V. Debs to six months imprisonment for his leadership of the Pullman railroad strike.  (see February 4, 1896)

US Labor History & Feminism

December 15 Peace Love Art Activism

December 15, 1921: the Kansas National Guard was called out to subdue from 2,000 to 6,000 protesting women who were going from mine to mine attacking non-striking miners in the Pittsburg coal fields. The women made headlines across the state and the nation: they were christened the “Amazon Army” by the New York Times. (F, see February 27, 1922; Labor, see Dec 19)

December 15 Peace Love Art Activism

December 15, 1967: the Age Discrimination in Employment Act supplemented the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which in Title VII prohibited employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin — but did not cover age. The age discrimination act was one of the many major legislative achievements of President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society.

The law: “(b) It is therefore the purpose of this chapter to promote employment of older persons based on their ability rather than age; to prohibit arbitrary age discrimination in employment; to help employers and workers find ways of meeting problems arising from the impact of age on employment.”

Vietnam & US Labor History

December 15, 1967: meeting in its biennial convention, the AFL-CIO declared “unstinting support” for “measures the Administration might deem necessary to halt Communist aggression and secure a just and lasting peace” in Vietnam. (Vietnam, see January 3, 1968; Labor, see March 17, 1968)

December 15 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Tom Waller lynched

December 15, 1897: a group of 30 white men approached a group of black men, including an acquaintance of Charles Lewis (see Dec 10), and coerced him into saying that a man named Tom Waller had also been involved in the crime. Though another man in the group insisted this was not true, the unsubstantiated allegation was enough to seal Mr. Waller’s fate.

Soon after he was taken into custody, a growing mob of 400 people seized Waller from law enforcement and conducted a “sham trial”; newspapers reported that several men “held court under a tree,” where Waller was interrogated as a rope was placed around his neck. Some men reportedly suggested that the “trial” be delayed a week because the “evidence” was so scant, but the rest of mob rejected that idea and instead insisted that Waller be lynched that night.

Newspapers later explained that the mob preferred to lynch Mr. Waller immediately because waiting “meant standing guard all night in the cold, and most of those present did not relish this at all.”

As the hundreds of white men in the mob grew “hungry,” press accounts described, “a wagon load of provisions” including fish and lobster was brought forward and everyone “indulged in a hearty supper” before continuing their deadly plan.

The mob ultimately hanged Tom Waller on the night of December 15th, on the same hill where Mr. Lewis had been lynched five days earlier, and left his body hanging until 10am the next morning. (next BH, see February 22, 1898;  see 19th century for expanded lynching chronology)

 Albany Movement

December 15 Peace Love Activism

December 15, 1961: going against some of his Southern Christian Leadership Conference advisers, King accepted an invitation to Albany, Georgia and spoke at a rally in support of activists that had be arrested the previous day. (see Albany for expanded chronology)

BLACK & SHOT

December 15, 2015: Chicago Mayor Emanuel announced the creation of the Task Force on Police Accountability, which would study the processes, oversight and training at CPD, and make recommendations.  (B & S and L. McDonald, see Dec 16)

December 15 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

December 15 Peace Love Art Activism

December 15, 1950: a Senate report titled Employment of Homosexuals and Other Sex Perverts in Government is distributed to members of Congress after the federal government had covertly investigated employees’ sexual orientation at the beginning of the Cold War. The report states since homosexuality is a mental illness, homosexuals “constitute security risks” to the nation because “those who engage in overt acts of perversion lack the emotional stability of normal persons.” Over the previous few years, more than 4,380 gay men and women had been discharged from the military and around 500 fired from their jobs with the government. The purging will become known as the “lavender scare.”(see March 25, 1952)

Redefinition

December 15 Peace Love Art Activism

December 15, 1973: in a major breakthrough for lesbian and gay rights, the American Psychiatric Association removed the designation of homosexuality as a mental illness. The designation had been a major stigma on same-sex relations. The American Psychological Association, a different professional group, removed its designation of homosexuality as unhealthy in 1975. (NYT article) (see January 1974)

Washington, D.C.

December 15, 2009: the Washington, D.C. City Council voted to legalize same-sex marriage. [CNN article] (see Dec 18)

December 15 Peace Love Art Activism

December 15 Music et al

December 15 – March 8, 1963 – Vaughn Meader’s comedy album, The First Family Billboard #1 album.

December 15, 1964, The Beatles: Beatles ’65 released. In two weeks it became the 9th biggest selling album of 1964. (see Dec 18)

John’s last live performance

December 15, 1969: John Lennon gave his last live performance in England. It was a UNICEF benefit in London. (see Dec 16)

December 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Space Race

December 15 Peace Love Activism

December 15 – 16, 1965: Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford fly Gemini 6 within a few feet of Borman and Lovell in Gemini 7, for the first true rendezvous in space. (NYT article) (see February 3, 1966)

December 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

December 15, 1969: Nixon administration releasedA Matter of Simple Justice, a report on women’s rights. The 77-page report declared that the federal government “should be as seriously concerned about sex discrimination as with race discrimination.” To that end, it called on the Nixon administration to convene a national conference on women’s rights and for Congress to develop legislation to eliminate all existing forms of sex discrimination. (see February 1, 1970)

First Secret Service females

December 15

December 15, 1971: the Secret Service appointed its first five female special agents. [The Hill article]

Phyllis Schlafly Blasts ERA

In 1972  Phyllis Schlafly published What’s Wrong with ‘Equal Rights’ for Women,” launching the campaign opposing ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. Arguing that the ERA would force women into the military, jeopardize benefits under Social Security, and weaken existing legal protections under divorce and marriage laws, Schlafly played a large part in bringing the movement toward ratification of the amendment to a halt. (text) (see Jan 1)

Anita Hill

December 15, 2017:  announced that Anita Hill would head the Commission on Sexual Harassment and Advancing Equality in the Workplace. The Commission was composed of and funded by some of the most powerful names in Hollywood and was created to tackle widespread sexual abuse and harassment in the media and entertainment industries.

Kathleen Kennedy, the president of Lucasfilm; Maria Eitel, the co-chair of the Nike Foundation; the powerhouse attorney Nina Shaw; and Freada Kapor Klein, the venture capitalist who helped pioneer surveys on sexual harassment decades ago spearheaded the Commission whose mission was “tackle the broad culture of abuse and power disparity.” (see March 15, 2018)

Women’s Health

December 15, 2017: Judge Wendy Beetlestone of the Federal District Court in Philadelphia blocked Trump administration rules that made it easier for employers to deny insurance coverage of contraceptives for women.

Beetlestone issued a preliminary injunction, saying the rules contradicted the text of the Affordable Care Act by allowing many employers to opt out of providing contraceptive coverage if they had religious or moral objections.

In the lawsuit, filed by the State of Pennsylvania, the judge said the rules would cause irreparable harm because tens of thousands of women would lose contraceptive coverage. [NYT article] (see Dec 18)

December 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

December 15 Peace Love Activism

December 15, 1969: Nixon announced that 50,000 additional U.S. troops would be pulled out of South Vietnam by April 15, 1970. (see Dec 16)

December 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Environment

MV Argo Merchant

December 15 Peace Love Activism

December 15, 1976: the oil tanker MV Argo Merchant caused one of the worst marine oil spills in history when it runs aground near Nantucket, Massachusetts. (NYT article) (see May 11, 1977)

Paris Accord

December 15, 2018: diplomats from nearly 200 countries reached a deal to keep the Paris climate agreement alive by adopting a detailed set of rules to implement the pact.

The deal, struck after an all-night bargaining session, would ultimately require every country in the world to follow a uniform set of standards for measuring their planet-warming emissions and tracking their climate policies. And it called on countries to step up their plans to cut emissions ahead of another round of talks in 2020.

It also called on richer countries to be clearer about the aid they intend to offer to help poorer nations install more clean energy or build resilience against natural disasters. And it builds a process in which countries that are struggling to meet their emissions goals can get help in getting back on track. (see January 10, 2019)

NYC Gas Ban

December 15, 2021: New York City’s City Council approved a bill banning gas hookups in new buildings. The bill will ban gas-powered stoves, space heaters and water boilers in all new buildings, a move that would significantly affect real estate development and construction in the nation’s largest city and could influence how cities around the world seek to reduce the burning of fossil fuels, which drives climate change.

The  bill effectively required all-electric heating and cooking and the ban would take effect in December 2023 for buildings under seven stories; for taller buildings, developers negotiated a delay until 2027.

Mayor Bill de Blasio had called for the ban two years ago, and wold sign the bill “enthusiastically,” said Ben Furnas, the director of climate and sustainability for the mayor’s office.

“It’s a historic step forward in our efforts to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels,” Mr. Furnas said. “If we can do it here, we can do it anywhere.” [NYT article] (next EI, see )

December 15 Peace Love Art Activism

The Cold War

People’s Republic of China

December 15 Peace Love Activism

December 15, 1978: President Jimmy Carter stated that as of January 1, 1979, the United States would formally recognize the communist People’s Republic of China (PRC) and sever relations with Taiwan. (see June 18, 1979)

Dissolution of the USSR

December 15, 1989: a popular uprising began in Romania. [RFE article] (see USSR for expanded chronology)

December 15 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

December 15, 1981: a suicide car bomb killed 61 people at the Iraqi embassy in Beirut, Lebanon; Iraq’s ambassador to Lebanon was among the casualties. (see April 18, 1983)

December 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Irish Troubles

December 15, 1993:  the Downing Street Declaration, issued jointly by UK and the Republic of Ireland, affirmed the UK would transfer Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland only if a majority of Northern Ireland’s people approved. (see Troubles for expanded chronology)

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

December 15, 1998: in a blow to White House hopes, 11 moderate House Republicans announced they would vote to impeach the president. (see CI for expanded chronology)

December 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Iraq War II

December 15, 2009:  millions of Iraqis turned out to choose a parliament in a mostly peaceful election. [Aljazeera article] (see February 2, 2006)

December 15 Peace Love Art Activism

December 14 Peace Love Art Activism

December 14 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear and Chemical Weapons

United Nations

December 14, 1946: the United Nations adopted a disarmament resolution prohibiting the A-Bomb.(see October 1947)

Bomber distance record

December 14 Peace Love Activism

December 14, 1960: a U.S. Boeing B-52 bomber set a 10,000-mile non-stop record without refueling. (see January 2, 1961)

December 14 Peace Love Art Activism

McCarthyism

December 14, 1947: major Hollywood producers announced that they would not employ (that is, “blacklist”) writers, directors and actors who were Communist Party members or who had been found in contempt of Congress for not answering questions about their political beliefs and associations. the ACLU criticized the decision. In a letter to the Motion Pictures Producers Association on this day the ACLU declared that there was no evidence that “American films have been influenced in any way by Communists or subversive employees.” (see Dec 30; list, see January 9, 1948)

December 14 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

17 Falsely Arrested

December 14, 1948: local police found two 12-year-old white girls alone in the area of University Park, Maryland. The girls told police officers that they had been “attacked” by a Black man “with a big knife” who had tried to tear their clothes off. This barebones accusation sent 60 Maryland state and D.C. police to the University Park area, where officers wrongly arrested and detained 17 Black men for questioning.

Hours later, the girls confessed that they fabricated the entire story. Soon after the hoax was revealed, police announced that no charges would be filed against the two white girls, despite their serious false report resulting in the wrongful arrest of 17 innocent Black men—and creating the potential for much worse. The police also issued no apology for the way their overreach and unlawful detainment had targeted these Black men without any evidence. [EJI article] (next BH, see Dec 18)

Church Burning

December 14, 1962: the Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., which served as headquarters for the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, was bombed a third time for continuing to play an active role in the civil rights movement. Following the bombing. Birmingham police told The Birmingham News the bombing was likely the work of thrill-seekers and was not racially motivated as “the church has not been active in the integration movement for at least two years.”

The first bombing had come on Christmas 1956. In 2005, it was declared a historic landmark. (BH, see January 14, 1963; CB, see September 15, 1963)

Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States

December 14 Peace Love Activism

1) Heart of Atlanta Motel v US: the Supreme Court held that Congress could use the power granted to it by the Constitution’s Commerce Clause to force private businesses to abide by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Katzenbach v. McClung

2) Katzenbach v McClung: in a 9 – 0 ruling, the Supreme Court held that Congress acted within its power under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution in forbidding racial discrimination in restaurants as this was a burden to interstate commerce. (see Dec 18)

Laquan McDonald

December 14, 2018:  NBC News reported that  Judge Vincent Gaughan refused to grant a new trial to Jason Van Dyke, the former Chicago police officer convicted of murdering teenager Laquan McDonald.

Dyke wore a jail-issued jumpsuit and Department of Corrections windbreaker in court as his lawyers asked Gaughan to set aside a jury’s guilty verdicts for second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery, which is one for every bullet fired.

Gaughan denied requests for both a new trial and for the verdicts to be thrown out. (B & S, see January 7, 2019)

December 14 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

December 14, 1961: President’s Commission on the Status of Women established by Executive Order 10980. Eleanor Roosevelt headed the Commission, whose work resulted in the Equal Pay Act of 1963 [enacted on June 10, 1963]. (see February 19, 1963)

December 14 Peace Love Art Activism

December 14 Music et al

Bob Dylan

December 14, 1962: Columbia Records released Bob Dylan’s first single: Mixed Up Confusion. It flopped. (see “In January 1963″)

I Heard It Through the Grapevine

December 14, 1968 – January 21, 1969 – “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” by Marvin Gaye #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. (see Motown Grapevines for more)

December 14 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism/Native Americans

December 14, 1985: Wilma P Mankiller sworn in as tribal chief of the Cherokee nation. She was the first woman to hold this post.(Feminism, see March 9, 1986; NA, see February 25, 1987)

December 14 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Colorado

December 14, 1993: Colorado Judge Jeffrey Bayless struck down as unconstitutional the state’s voter-approved ban on gay rights laws. Bayless rejected the argument and ruled that it violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. “If one wished to promote family values,” he wrote, “action would be taken that is pro-family rather than anti some other group.” [NYT article] (see Dec 21)

December 14

December 14, 2006: Civil unions become legal in New Jersey. [CNN article] March 2, 2007)

Alabama blocked

December 14, 2015: the U.S. Supreme Court blocked an Alabama judicial ruling that refused to recognize a gay woman’s parental rights over three children she adopted with her lesbian partner and raised from birth. In an unsigned order, the court said the case would be put on hold while the woman, named in court papers as V.L., files a formal appeal of the September ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court.

Lawyers for the woman say the Alabama ruling “effectively stripped V.L. of parental rights over the children she had raised since they were born.” The National Center for Lesbian Rights, which represents V.L., said she will now have visitation rights, having not seen the children since April. [WP article] (LGBTQ, see January 6, 2016; Alabama, see March 7, 2016)

December 14 Peace Love Art Activism

Dissolution of Yugoslavia

December 14, 1995: the Dayton Agreement signed in Paris; established a general framework for ending the Bosnian War between Bosnia and Herzegovina. (see Dec 20)

December 14 Peace Love Art Activism

Iraq War II

December 14, 2008: Muntadhar al-Zeidi, an Iraqi journalist, threw his shoes at President George W. Bush during a news conference in Baghdad; Bush was not hit. (IW II,see March 9, 2009: al-Zeidi, see March 12, 2009)

December 14 Peace Love Art Activism
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
Military accommodation

December 14, 2015: the US Army announced that the previous week it had, for the first time in decades, temporarily granted a religious accommodation for a beard to an active-duty combat soldier — Captain Simratpal Singh.   (see  April 5, 2016)

December 14 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

December 14, 2016: the Obama administration issued a final rule barring states from withholding federal family-planning funds from Planned Parenthood affiliates and other health clinics that provide abortions. (NYT article) (see January 27, 2017)

December 14 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

December 14, 2017: the National Labor Relations Board overturned a key Obama-era precedent that had given workers significant leverage in challenging companies like fast-food and hotel chains over labor practices.

The ruling changed the standard for holding a company responsible for labor law violations that occur at another company, like a contractor or franchisee, with which it has a relationship.

The doctrine also governed whether such a corporation would have to bargain with workers at a franchise if they unionized, or whether only the owners of the franchise would have to do so.

The board’s 3-to-2 vote, along party lines, restored the pre-2015 standard, which deemed a fast-food corporation a joint employer only if it exercised direct and immediate control over workers at the franchise, and in a way that was not limited. [NYT article] (see February 22, 2018)

December 14 Peace Love Art Activism

Affordable Care Act

December 14, 2018:  the NY Times reported that federal Judge Reed O’Connor of the Federal District Court in Fort Worth struck down the entire Affordable Care Act on the grounds that its mandate requiring people to buy health insurance was unconstitutional and the rest of the law cannot stand without it.

The ruling was over a lawsuit filed in 2018 by a group of Republican governors and state attorneys general. A group of intervening states led by Democrats promised to appeal the decision, which would most likely not have any immediate effect. But it will almost certainly make its way to the Supreme Court, threatening the survival of the landmark health law and, with it, health coverage for millions of Americans, protections for people with pre-existing conditions and much more.

In his ruling, O’Connor said that the individual mandate requiring people to have health insurance “can no longer be sustained as an exercise of Congress’s tax power.” (see March 25, 2019)

December 14 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

December 14, 2021:  a temperature of 38°C (100.4°F) in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk on 20 June 2020 has been recognized as a new Arctic temperature record by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

The temperature, more befitting the Mediterranean than the Arctic, was measured at a meteorological observing station during an exceptional and prolonged Siberian heatwave. Average temperatures over Arctic Siberia reached as high as 10 °C (50oF) above normal for much of 2020 summer, fuelling devastating fires, driving massive sea ice loss and playing a major role in 2020 being one of the three warmest years on record.

“This new Arctic record is one of a series of observations reported to the WMO Archive of Weather and Climate Extremes that sound the alarm bells about our changing climate. In 2020, there was also a new temperature record (18.3°C) for the Antarctic continent,” said WMO Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas. [WMO article] (next EI, see February 28, 2022)

Space

Touching the Sun

December 14, 2021:  Leah Crane of the  New Scientist reported that scientists announced that NASA’s Parker Solar Probe became the first spacecraft to “touch” the sun this past April when it reached the sun’s upper atmosphere, known as the corona.

“Parker Solar Probe ‘touching the sun’ is a monumental moment for solar science and a truly remarkable feat,” Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said in a press release. “Not only does this milestone provide us with deeper insights into our Sun’s evolution and it’s impacts on our solar system, but everything we learn about our own star also teaches us more about stars in the rest of the universe.”

Scientists announced the feat at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union and published their findings in the journal Physical Review Letters.  [Smithsonian article] (next Space, see October 11, 2022)

December 14 Peace Love Art Activism