#Erie Beer Society

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

September 1, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Sep 02, 2024

Almost one hundred and forty-two years ago, on September 5, 1882, workers in New York City celebrated the first Labor Day holiday with a parade. The parade almost didn’t happen: there was no band, and no one wanted to start marching without music. Once the Jewelers Union of Newark Two showed up with musicians, the rest of the marchers, eventually numbering between 10,000 and 20,000 men and women, fell in behind them to parade through lower Manhattan. At noon, when they reached the end of the route, the march broke up and the participants listened to speeches, drank beer, and had picnics. Other workers joined them.

Their goal was to emphasize the importance of workers in the industrializing economy and to warn politicians that they could not be ignored. 

Less than 20 years before, northern men had fought a war to defend a society based on free labor and had, they thought, put in place a government that would support the ability of all hardworking men to rise to prosperity. But for all that the war had seemed to be about defending men against the rise of an oligarchy that intended to reduce all men to a life of either enslavement or wage labor, the war and its aftermath had pushed workers’ rights backward.   

The drain of men to the battlefields and the western mines during the war resulted in a shortage of workers that kept unemployment low and wages high. Even when they weren’t, the intense nationalism of the war years tended to silence the voices of labor organizers. “It having been resolved to enlist with Uncle Sam for the war,” one organization declared when the war broke out, “this union stands adjourned until either the Union is safe, or we are whipped.” 

Another factor working against the establishment of labor unions during the war was the tendency of employers to claim that striking workers were deliberately undercutting the war effort. They turned to the government to protect production, and in industries like Pennsylvania's anthracite coal fields, government leaders sent soldiers to break budding unions and defend war production.

During the war, government contracting favored those companies that could produce big orders of the mule shoes, rifles, rain slickers, coffee, and all the other products that kept the troops supplied. The owners of the growing factories grew wealthy on government contracts, even as conditions in the busy factories deteriorated. While wages were high during the war, they were often paid in greenbacks, which were backed only by the government’s promise to pay. 

While farmers and some entrepreneurs thrived during the war, urban workers and miners had reason to believe that employers had taken advantage of the war to make money off them. After the war, they began to strike for better wages and safer conditions. In August 1866, 60,000 people met as the National Labor Union in Baltimore, Maryland, where they called for an eight-hour workday. Most of those workers calling for organization simply wanted a chance to rise to comfort, but the resolutions developed by the group’s leaders after the convention declared that workers must join unions to reform the abuses of the industrial system. 

To many of those who thought the war would create a country where hard work would mean success, the resolutions seemed to fly in the face of that harmony, echoing the southern enslavers by dividing the world into people of wealth and workers, and asking for government intervention, this time on the side of workers. Republicans began to redefine their older, broad concept of workers to mean urban unskilled or semi-skilled wage laborers specifically.

Then in 1867, a misstep by Senator Benjamin Wade of Ohio made the party step back from workers. Wade had been a cattle drover and worked on the Erie Canal before studying law and entering politics, and he was a leader among those who saw class activism as the next step in the party’s commitment to free labor. His fiery oratory lifted him to prominence, and in March 1867 the Senate chose him its president pro tempore, in effect making him the nation’s acting vice president in those days before there was a process for replacing a vice president who had stepped into the presidency.

Wade joined a number of senators on a trip to the West, and in Lawrence, Kansas, newspapers reported—possibly incorrectly—that Wade predicted a fight in America between labor and capital. “Property is not equally divided,” the reporter claimed Wade said, “and a more equal distribution of capital must be worked out.” Congress, which Wade now led, had done much for ex-slaves and must now address “the terrible distinction between the man that labors and him that does not.”

Republican newspapers were apoplectic. The New York Times claimed that Wade was a demagogue. Every hard worker could succeed in America, it wrote. “Laborers here can make themselves sharers in the property of the country,—can become capitalists themselves,—just

as nine in ten of all the capitalists in the country have done so before them,—by industry, frugality, and intelligent enterprise.” Trying to get rich by force of law would undermine society.

Congress established an eight-hour day for federal employees in June 1868, but in that year’s election, voters turned Wade, and others like him, out of office. In 1869, Republican president Ulysses S. Grant issued a proclamation saying that the eight-hour workday of "laborers, workmen, and mechanics" would not mean cuts in wages.

Then, in spring 1871, in the wake of the Franco-Prussian War, workers took over the city of Paris and established the Paris Commune. The transatlantic cable had gone into operation in 1866, and American newspapers had featured stories of the European war. Now, hungry for dramatic stories, they plastered details of the Commune on their front pages, describing it as a propertied American’s worst nightmare. They highlighted the murder of priests, the burning of the Tuileries Palace, and the bombing of buildings by crazed women who lobbed burning bottles of newfangled petroleum through cellar windows. 

The Communards were a “wild, reckless, irresponsible, murderous mobocracy” who planned to confiscate all property and transfer all money, factories, and land to associations of workmen, American newspapers wrote. In their telling, the Paris Commune brought to life the chaotic world the elite enslavers foresaw when they said it was imperative to keep workers from politics. 

Scribner’s Monthly warned in italics: “the interference of ignorant labor with politics is dangerous to society.” Famous reformer Charles Loring Brace looked at the rising numbers of industrial workers and the conditions of city life, and warned Americans, “In the judgment of one who has been familiar with our ‘dangerous classes’ for twenty years, there are just the same explosive social elements beneath the surface of New York as of Paris.”

At the same time, it was also clear that wealthy industrialists were gaining more and more control over both state and local governments. In 1872 the Credit Mobilier scandal broke. This was a complicated affair, and what had actually happened was almost certainly misrepresented, but it seemed to show congressmen taking bribes from railroad barons, and Americans were ready to believe that they were doing so. Then, in July 1877, after the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad cut wages 20 percent and strikers shut down most of the nation’s railroads, President Rutherford B. Hayes sent U.S. soldiers to the cities immobilized by the strikes. It seemed industrialists had the Army at their beck and call.

By 1882, factories and the fortunes they created had swung the government so far toward men of capital that it seemed there was more room for workingmen to demand their rights. By the 1880s, even the staunchly Republican Chicago Tribune complained about the links between business and government: “Behind every one of half of the portly and well-dressed members of the Senate can be seen the outlines of some corporation interested in getting or preventing legislation,” it wrote. The Senate, Harper’s Weekly noted, was “a club of rich men.” 

The workers marching in New York City in the first Labor Day celebration in 1882 carried banners saying: “Labor Built This Republic and Labor Shall Rule it,” “Labor Creates All Wealth,” “No Land Monopoly,” “No Money Monopoly,” “Labor Pays All Taxes,” “The Laborer Must Receive and Enjoy the Full Fruit of His Labor,” ‘Eight Hours for a Legal Day’s Work,” and “The True Remedy is Organization and the Ballot.” 

Two years later, workers helped to elect Democrat Grover Cleveland to the White House. A number of Republicans crossed over to support the reformer, afraid that, as he said, “The gulf between employers and the employed is constantly widening, and classes are rapidly forming, one comprising the very rich and powerful, while in another are found the toiling poor…. Corporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and the servants of the people, are fast becoming the people's masters.” 

In 1888, Cleveland won the popular vote by about 100,000 votes, but his Republican opponent, Benjamin Harrison, won in the Electoral College. Harrison promised that his would be “A BUSINESS MAN’S ADMINISTRATION” and said that “before the close of the present Administration business men will be thoroughly well content with it….” 

Businessmen mostly were, but the rest of the country wasn’t. In November 1892 a Democratic landslide put Cleveland back in office, along with the first Democratic Congress since before the Civil War. As soon as the results of the election became apparent, the Republicans declared that the economy would collapse. Harrison’s administration had been “beyond question the best business administration the country has ever seen,” one businessmen’s club insisted, so losing it could only be a calamity. “The Republicans will be passive spectators,” the Chicago Tribune noted. “It will not be their funeral.” People would be thrown out of work, but “[p]erhaps the working classes of the country need such a lesson….”

As investors rushed to take their money out of the U.S. stock market, the economy collapsed a few days before Cleveland took office in early March 1893. Trying to stabilize the economy by enacting the proposals capitalists wanted, Cleveland and the Democratic Congress had to abandon many of the pro-worker policies they had promised, and the Supreme Court struck down the rest (including the income tax).

They could, however, support Labor Day and its indication of workers’ political power. On June 28, 1894, Cleveland signed Congress’s bill making Labor Day a legal holiday. Each year, the first Monday in September would honor the country’s workers.  

In Chicago the chair of the House Labor Committee, Lawrence McGann (D-IL), told the crowd gathered for the first official observance: “Let us each Labor day, hold a congress and formulate propositions for the amelioration of the people. Send them to your Representatives with your earnest, intelligent indorsement [sic], and the laws will be changed.”

Happy Labor Day.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[yourreddancer]

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

September 1, 2024 (Sunday)

Almost one hundred and forty-two years ago, on September 5, 1882, workers in New York City celebrated the first Labor Day holiday with a parade. The parade almost didn’t happen: there was no band, and no one wanted to start marching without music. Once the Jewelers Union of Newark Two showed up with musicians, the rest of the marchers, eventually numbering between 10,000 and 20,000 men and women, fell in behind them to parade through lower Manhattan. At noon, when they reached the end of the route, the march broke up and the participants listened to speeches, drank beer, and had picnics. Other workers joined them.

Their goal was to emphasize the importance of workers in the industrializing economy and to warn politicians that they could not be ignored.

Less than 20 years before, northern men had fought a war to defend a society based on free labor and had, they thought, put in place a government that would support the ability of all hardworking men to rise to prosperity. But for all that the war had seemed to be about defending men against the rise of an oligarchy that intended to reduce all men to a life of either enslavement or wage labor, the war and its aftermath had pushed workers’ rights backward.

The drain of men to the battlefields and the western mines during the war resulted in a shortage of workers that kept unemployment low and wages high. Even when they weren’t, the intense nationalism of the war years tended to silence the voices of labor organizers. “It having been resolved to enlist with Uncle Sam for the war,” one organization declared when the war broke out, “this union stands adjourned until either the Union is safe, or we are whipped.”

Another factor working against the establishment of labor unions during the war was the tendency of employers to claim that striking workers were deliberately undercutting the war effort. They turned to the government to protect production, and in industries like Pennsylvania's anthracite coal fields, government leaders sent soldiers to break budding unions and defend war production.

During the war, government contracting favored those companies that could produce big orders of the mule shoes, rifles, rain slickers, coffee, and all the other products that kept the troops supplied. The owners of the growing factories grew wealthy on government contracts, even as conditions in the busy factories deteriorated. While wages were high during the war, they were often paid in greenbacks, which were backed only by the government’s promise to pay.

While farmers and some entrepreneurs thrived during the war, urban workers and miners had reason to believe that employers had taken advantage of the war to make money off them. After the war, they began to strike for better wages and safer conditions. In August 1866, 60,000 people met as the National Labor Union in Baltimore, Maryland, where they called for an eight-hour workday. Most of those workers calling for organization simply wanted a chance to rise to comfort, but the resolutions developed by the group’s leaders after the convention declared that workers must join unions to reform the abuses of the industrial system.

To many of those who thought the war would create a country where hard work would mean success, the resolutions seemed to fly in the face of that harmony, echoing the southern enslavers by dividing the world into people of wealth and workers, and asking for government intervention, this time on the side of workers. Republicans began to redefine their older, broad concept of workers to mean urban unskilled or semi-skilled wage laborers specifically.

Then in 1867, a misstep by Senator Benjamin Wade of Ohio made the party step back from workers. Wade had been a cattle drover and worked on the Erie Canal before studying law and entering politics, and he was a leader among those who saw class activism as the next step in the party’s commitment to free labor. His fiery oratory lifted him to prominence, and in March 1867 the Senate chose him its president pro tempore, in effect making him the nation’s acting vice president in those days before there was a process for replacing a vice president who had stepped into the presidency.

Wade joined a number of senators on a trip to the West, and in Lawrence, Kansas, newspapers reported—possibly incorrectly—that Wade predicted a fight in America between labor and capital. “Property is not equally divided,” the reporter claimed Wade said, “and a more equal distribution of capital must be worked out.” Congress, which Wade now led, had done much for ex-slaves and must now address “the terrible distinction between the man that labors and him that does not.”

Republican newspapers were apoplectic. The New York Times claimed that Wade was a demagogue. Every hard worker could succeed in America, it wrote. “Laborers here can make themselves sharers in the property of the country,—can become capitalists themselves,—just as nine in ten of all the capitalists in the country have done so before them,—by industry, frugality, and intelligent enterprise.” Trying to get rich by force of law would undermine society.

Congress established an eight-hour day for federal employees in June 1868, but in that year’s election, voters turned Wade, and with others like him, out of office. In 1869, Republican president Ulysses S. Grant issued a proclamation saying that the eight-hour workday of "laborers, workmen, and mechanics" would not mean cuts in wages.

Then, in spring 1871, in the wake of the Franco-Prussian War, workers took over the city of Paris and established the Paris Commune. The transatlantic cable had gone into operation in 1866, and American newspapers had featured stories of the European war. Now, hungry for dramatic stories, they plastered details of the Commune on their front pages, describing it as a propertied American’s worst nightmare. They highlighted the murder of priests, the burning of the Tuileries Palace, and the bombing of buildings by crazed women who lobbed burning bottles of newfangled petroleum through cellar windows.

The Communards were a “wild, reckless, irresponsible, murderous mobocracy” who planned to confiscate all property and transfer all money, factories, and land to associations of workmen, American newspapers wrote. In their telling, the Paris Commune brought to life the chaotic world the elite enslavers foresaw when they said it was imperative to keep workers from politics.

Scribner’s Monthly warned in italics: “the interference of ignorant labor with politics is dangerous to society.” Famous reformer Charles Loring Brace looked at the rising numbers of industrial workers and the conditions of city life, and warned Americans, “In the judgment of one who has been familiar with our ‘dangerous classes’ for twenty years, there are just the same explosive social elements beneath the surface of New York as of Paris.”

At the same time, it was also clear that wealthy industrialists were gaining more and more control over both state and local governments. In 1872 the Credit Mobilier scandal broke. This was a complicated affair, and what had actually happened was almost certainly misrepresented, but it seemed to show congressmen taking bribes from railroad barons, and Americans were ready to believe that they were doing so. Then, in July 1877, after the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad cut wages 20 percent and strikers shut down most of the nation’s railroads, President Rutherford B. Hayes sent U.S. soldiers to the cities immobilized by the strikes. It seemed industrialists had the Army at their beck and call.

By 1882, factories and the fortunes they created had swung the government so far toward men of capital that it seemed there was more room for workingmen to demand their rights. By the 1880s, even the staunchly Republican Chicago Tribune complained about the links between business and government: “Behind every one of half of the portly and well-dressed members of the Senate can be seen the outlines of some corporation interested in getting or preventing legislation,” it wrote. The Senate, Harper’s Weekly noted, was “a club of rich men.”

(SOUND FAMILIAR????)

The workers marching in New York City in the first Labor Day celebration in 1882 carried banners saying: “Labor Built This Republic and Labor Shall Rule it,” “Labor Creates All Wealth,” “No Land Monopoly,” “No Money Monopoly,” “Labor Pays All Taxes,” “The Laborer Must Receive and Enjoy the Full Fruit of His Labor,” ‘Eight Hours for a Legal Day’s Work,” and “The True Remedy is Organization and the Ballot.”

Two years later, workers helped to elect Democrat Grover Cleveland to the White House. A number of Republicans crossed over to support the reformer, afraid that, as he said, “The gulf between employers and the employed is constantly widening, and classes are rapidly forming, one comprising the very rich and powerful, while in another are found the toiling poor…. Corporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and the servants of the people, are fast becoming the people's masters.”

(AND REMAIN SO TODAY, THANKS TO THE RETHUGLIKKKONS!)

In 1888, Cleveland won the popular vote by about 100,000 votes, but his Republican opponent, Benjamin Harrison, won in the Electoral College. Harrison promised that his would be “A BUSINESS MAN’S ADMINISTRATION” and said that “before the close of the present Administration business men will be thoroughly well content with it….”

Businessmen mostly were, but the rest of the country wasn’t. In November 1892 a Democratic landslide put Cleveland back in office, along with the first Democratic Congress since before the Civil War. As soon as the results of the election became apparent, the Republicans declared that the economy would collapse. Harrison’s administration had been “beyond question the best business administration the country has ever seen,” one businessmen’s club insisted, so losing it could only be a calamity. “The Republicans will be passive spectators,” the Chicago Tribune noted. “It will not be their funeral.” People would be thrown out of work, but “[p]erhaps the working classes of the country need such a lesson….”

As investors rushed to take their money out of the U.S. stock market, the economy collapsed a few days before Cleveland took office in early March 1893. Trying to stabilize the economy by enacting the proposals capitalists wanted, Cleveland and the Democratic Congress had to abandon many of the pro-worker policies they had promised, and the Supreme Court struck down the rest (including the income tax).

They could, however, support Labor Day and its indication of workers’ political power. On June 28, 1894, Cleveland signed Congress’s bill making Labor Day a legal holiday. Each year, the first Monday in September would honor the country’s workers.

In Chicago the chair of the House Labor Committee, Lawrence McGann (D-IL), told the crowd gathered for the first official observance: “Let us each Labor day, hold a congress and formulate propositions for the amelioration of the people. Send them to your Representatives with your earnest, intelligent indorsement [sic], and the laws will be changed.”

Happy Labor Day.

[zacks-oc-house]

The Secret Menace Society

Happy birthday Eva! And a happy early birthday, Chels! @evathenovice

And I borrowed Eris @cinnella lololol :3

Of course it was Daisy to coin the name in a hushed whisper of excitement. She had a certain knack for such things. Eris nodded eagerly at their new title, a lock of silver hair bouncing excitedly out of its bun. It was only the Princess who expressed concern.

“M-menace? I don’t know if I want to be a menace to my k-kingdom..”

She busied her hands by rolling them against a ribbon on her royal gowns. The piece of ribbon was more costly to the Crown than a months pay for Daisy. Such was life in the unbalanced game between poor and rich. Could it even be considered a game if the other side stood no chance?

“Well, it just sounds badass, Eva. And quite the title juxtaposed against “Crown Princess.”

Daisy was of course proud of herself. She longed to be nothing more than a menace to the people who had groomed her into the young adult she is. She knew Eva felt the same way. And Eris too.

“We could call ourselves ‘DEE.’ An acronym of our first names?” She beamed at the two, seeing the extremely unimpressed look on Daisy’s face and the slight smile on Eva’s. “I don’t think such a name would work, dear Eris. They could figure us out if it’s our first name initials..” as the gears turned in Eris’s head, she playfully smacked her own forehead. “D’oh!”

~

And so the Secret Menace Society was formed. Eris immediately took to calling it the SMS, with Eva following suit. Only Daisy stuck with the whole name.

“…But what do we do exactly?” Eva peeped up, genuinely curious as to what Daisy had planned.

“Easy. We secretly be menaces to the people that treat us like shit. To the people we secretly hate. And how do we do it? How do we enact revenge?” Daisy flipped her blonde hair back. “I haven’t the slightest clue.”

Eris’s mouth dropped open. “How do you not know! You created this! I’m sure you have something!”

Daisy smiled. “I was lying, Eris. You have to be able to lie! I was thinking a certain pink haired boy could help us with some things..”

~

“No. Absolutely not.”

Roul sipped his tea while looking over his morning reports. Daisy was furious. “WHAT DO YOU MEAN NO!!! Roul chuckled, pulling his reading glasses off. “I was just playing, Daisy. Of course I can help.” Eris cracked up, getting an elbow to her side. “FUCK YOU, FRANÇOIS!” Roul took another sip. “You will have to get in line-“

~

The plan had been set. The Secret Menace Society plus Roul all stood in Eva’s royal chambers. “A-are you s-sure this will work??” Eva was extremely unsure of the plan. They were taking her outside the castle walls for a night out. And Roul was using his magic to disguise her. “It is my magic. I know it will work, darling.” He stood proud and chest puffed.

“Now, your disguise will be simple. That is the best way to make magic work well. You will simply be a maid like the girls.” Roul focused as the girls watched. He spoke out the spell and let it dance playfully around Eva. Their sights shifted slightly, and an almost Eva stood before them.

“See, easy. I know what I am doing.” Could Roul’s chest be any more puffed up? A typical man. Eris giggled, skipping up to Eva. “Hello, new maid! Ready to prepare a bath for Lord Umbro with me?” Daisy was impressed, walking around in a circle to investigate. “Perfect. Okay. Let’s get out of here.”

With Roul guarding the Princess’s chambers, the three maids headed down to the nearby village for a night of fun.

As they entered the tavern, Eva looking nervously around, only spotting one noble from the castle. The court singer, Cadence was at the bar with what looked like a farmer. Eris whispered into her ear, a shiver going through Eva. “See, you’re safe! Just one fab gay from the castle.” Shoulders relaxing, they grabbed a booth, a pitcher of beer immediately greeting them. Oh, it was bound to be a fun night out.

[Insert dancing montage with Cadence singing for the tavern]

Back at the castle, Eva lay on her bed, giggling. She reeked of beer, it having been spilled on her dress throughout the nights festivities. The once neat bun her hair was in now replaced by her glorious curls laying free on her pillows. “This was amazing, girls! The SMS..” Her eyes suddenly went wide, sitting up to look at Daisy and Eris. “How was this a menace to society?”

Daisy smiled, cherry lips going wide. “It never was. We just wanted to treat you to a little birthday gift. Remember what I said about lying?” She winked at Eva, who suddenly went very red. Eris bounced up from her chair, going to open the closet door to retrieve a small cake.

“It’s early, but we knew we wouldn’t have any other day to do it!”

On the other side of the door, Roul created a web of magic to soundproof the chambers so Eris and Daisy could sing her a happy birthday at the top of their lungs. He smiled to himself, it seemed he might just be an honorary member of the Secret Menace Society too.

Eva blew out the candle, head still swimming from the alcohol and fun times. “You girls are the best. Truly. My special little ‘menaces.’” She even used air quotes around the word. Daisy and Eris couldn’t have been more proud.

[misfitwashere]

September 1, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

SEP 2

Almost one hundred and forty-two years ago, on September 5, 1882, workers in New York City celebrated the first Labor Day holiday with a parade. The parade almost didn’t happen: there was no band, and no one wanted to start marching without music. Once the Jewelers Union of Newark Two showed up with musicians, the rest of the marchers, eventually numbering between 10,000 and 20,000 men and women, fell in behind them to parade through lower Manhattan. At noon, when they reached the end of the route, the march broke up and the participants listened to speeches, drank beer, and had picnics. Other workers joined them.

Their goal was to emphasize the importance of workers in the industrializing economy and to warn politicians that they could not be ignored. 

Less than 20 years before, northern men had fought a war to defend a society based on free labor and had, they thought, put in place a government that would support the ability of all hardworking men to rise to prosperity. But for all that the war had seemed to be about defending men against the rise of an oligarchy that intended to reduce all men to a life of either enslavement or wage labor, the war and its aftermath had pushed workers’ rights backward.   

The drain of men to the battlefields and the western mines during the war resulted in a shortage of workers that kept unemployment low and wages high. Even when they weren’t, the intense nationalism of the war years tended to silence the voices of labor organizers. “It having been resolved to enlist with Uncle Sam for the war,” one organization declared when the war broke out, “this union stands adjourned until either the Union is safe, or we are whipped.” 

Another factor working against the establishment of labor unions during the war was the tendency of employers to claim that striking workers were deliberately undercutting the war effort. They turned to the government to protect production, and in industries like Pennsylvania's anthracite coal fields, government leaders sent soldiers to break budding unions and defend war production.

During the war, government contracting favored those companies that could produce big orders of the mule shoes, rifles, rain slickers, coffee, and all the other products that kept the troops supplied. The owners of the growing factories grew wealthy on government contracts, even as conditions in the busy factories deteriorated. While wages were high during the war, they were often paid in greenbacks, which were backed only by the government’s promise to pay. 

While farmers and some entrepreneurs thrived during the war, urban workers and miners had reason to believe that employers had taken advantage of the war to make money off them. After the war, they began to strike for better wages and safer conditions. In August 1866, 60,000 people met as the National Labor Union in Baltimore, Maryland, where they called for an eight-hour workday. Most of those workers calling for organization simply wanted a chance to rise to comfort, but the resolutions developed by the group’s leaders after the convention declared that workers must join unions to reform the abuses of the industrial system. 

To many of those who thought the war would create a country where hard work would mean success, the resolutions seemed to fly in the face of that harmony, echoing the southern enslavers by dividing the world into people of wealth and workers, and asking for government intervention, this time on the side of workers. Republicans began to redefine their older, broad concept of workers to mean urban unskilled or semi-skilled wage laborers specifically.

Then in 1867, a misstep by Senator Benjamin Wade of Ohio made the party step back from workers. Wade had been a cattle drover and worked on the Erie Canal before studying law and entering politics, and he was a leader among those who saw class activism as the next step in the party’s commitment to free labor. His fiery oratory lifted him to prominence, and in March 1867 the Senate chose him its president pro tempore, in effect making him the nation’s acting vice president in those days before there was a process for replacing a vice president who had stepped into the presidency.

Wade joined a number of senators on a trip to the West, and in Lawrence, Kansas, newspapers reported—possibly incorrectly—that Wade predicted a fight in America between labor and capital. “Property is not equally divided,” the reporter claimed Wade said, “and a more equal distribution of capital must be worked out.” Congress, which Wade now led, had done much for ex-slaves and must now address “the terrible distinction between the man that labors and him that does not.”

Republican newspapers were apoplectic. The New York Times claimed that Wade was a demagogue. Every hard worker could succeed in America, it wrote. “Laborers here can make themselves sharers in the property of the country,—can become capitalists themselves,—just

as nine in ten of all the capitalists in the country have done so before them,—by industry, frugality, and intelligent enterprise.” Trying to get rich by force of law would undermine society.

Congress established an eight-hour day for federal employees in June 1868, but in that year’s election, voters turned Wade, and others like him, out of office. In 1869, Republican president Ulysses S. Grant issued a proclamation saying that the eight-hour workday of "laborers, workmen, and mechanics" would not mean cuts in wages.

Then, in spring 1871, in the wake of the Franco-Prussian War, workers took over the city of Paris and established the Paris Commune. The transatlantic cable had gone into operation in 1866, and American newspapers had featured stories of the European war. Now, hungry for dramatic stories, they plastered details of the Commune on their front pages, describing it as a propertied American’s worst nightmare. They highlighted the murder of priests, the burning of the Tuileries Palace, and the bombing of buildings by crazed women who lobbed burning bottles of newfangled petroleum through cellar windows. 

The Communards were a “wild, reckless, irresponsible, murderous mobocracy” who planned to confiscate all property and transfer all money, factories, and land to associations of workmen, American newspapers wrote. In their telling, the Paris Commune brought to life the chaotic world the elite enslavers foresaw when they said it was imperative to keep workers from politics. 

Scribner’s Monthly warned in italics: “the interference of ignorant labor with politics is dangerous to society.” Famous reformer Charles Loring Brace looked at the rising numbers of industrial workers and the conditions of city life, and warned Americans, “In the judgment of one who has been familiar with our ‘dangerous classes’ for twenty years, there are just the same explosive social elements beneath the surface of New York as of Paris.”

At the same time, it was also clear that wealthy industrialists were gaining more and more control over both state and local governments. In 1872 the Credit Mobilier scandal broke. This was a complicated affair, and what had actually happened was almost certainly misrepresented, but it seemed to show congressmen taking bribes from railroad barons, and Americans were ready to believe that they were doing so. Then, in July 1877, after the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad cut wages 20 percent and strikers shut down most of the nation’s railroads, President Rutherford B. Hayes sent U.S. soldiers to the cities immobilized by the strikes. It seemed industrialists had the Army at their beck and call.

By 1882, factories and the fortunes they created had swung the government so far toward men of capital that it seemed there was more room for workingmen to demand their rights. By the 1880s, even the staunchly Republican Chicago Tribune complained about the links between business and government: “Behind every one of half of the portly and well-dressed members of the Senate can be seen the outlines of some corporation interested in getting or preventing legislation,” it wrote. The Senate, Harper’s Weekly noted, was “a club of rich men.” 

The workers marching in New York City in the first Labor Day celebration in 1882 carried banners saying: “Labor Built This Republic and Labor Shall Rule it,” “Labor Creates All Wealth,” “No Land Monopoly,” “No Money Monopoly,” “Labor Pays All Taxes,” “The Laborer Must Receive and Enjoy the Full Fruit of His Labor,” ‘Eight Hours for a Legal Day’s Work,” and “The True Remedy is Organization and the Ballot.” 

Two years later, workers helped to elect Democrat Grover Cleveland to the White House. A number of Republicans crossed over to support the reformer, afraid that, as he said, “The gulf between employers and the employed is constantly widening, and classes are rapidly forming, one comprising the very rich and powerful, while in another are found the toiling poor…. Corporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and the servants of the people, are fast becoming the people's masters.” 

In 1888, Cleveland won the popular vote by about 100,000 votes, but his Republican opponent, Benjamin Harrison, won in the Electoral College. Harrison promised that his would be “A BUSINESS MAN’S ADMINISTRATION” and said that “before the close of the present Administration business men will be thoroughly well content with it….” 

Businessmen mostly were, but the rest of the country wasn’t. In November 1892 a Democratic landslide put Cleveland back in office, along with the first Democratic Congress since before the Civil War. As soon as the results of the election became apparent, the Republicans declared that the economy would collapse. Harrison’s administration had been “beyond question the best business administration the country has ever seen,” one businessmen’s club insisted, so losing it could only be a calamity. “The Republicans will be passive spectators,” the Chicago Tribune noted. “It will not be their funeral.” People would be thrown out of work, but “[p]erhaps the working classes of the country need such a lesson….”

As investors rushed to take their money out of the U.S. stock market, the economy collapsed a few days before Cleveland took office in early March 1893. Trying to stabilize the economy by enacting the proposals capitalists wanted, Cleveland and the Democratic Congress had to abandon many of the pro-worker policies they had promised, and the Supreme Court struck down the rest (including the income tax).

They could, however, support Labor Day and its indication of workers’ political power. On June 28, 1894, Cleveland signed Congress’s bill making Labor Day a legal holiday. Each year, the first Monday in September would honor the country’s workers.  

In Chicago the chair of the House Labor Committee, Lawrence McGann (D-IL), told the crowd gathered for the first official observance: “Let us each Labor day, hold a congress and formulate propositions for the amelioration of the people. Send them to your Representatives with your earnest, intelligent indorsement [sic], and the laws will be changed.”

Happy Labor Day.

—

[stark-tony]

most recent bookmarks (5/8/21)

bnha

5 Times Midoriya Taught Class 1A about Memes and 1 Time they Found a Villain that Understood Them by MaddCatter (1.2k, G, gen) After being diagnosed as quirkless, Midoriya gets into pre-guirk media and finds memes. He shares them with Class 1A. Aizawa doesn't get paid enough for this.

a glimpse of tomorrow (looking back) by achievingelysium (7.9k, T, gen, bullying)  Subject: Aldera Time Capsule Ceremony Forwarded Message— This year marks ten years for the Aldera Middle School graduating class of 20XX.To celebrate, we would like to invite pro heroes Kingpin and Deku, Aldera alumni, to participate in a public time-capsule opening. We are incredibly proud to have helped them on their journeys to becoming heroes, and would be most honored to receive them as guests and for them to speak at the ceremony. [...]"Well," Deku says, leaning over to turn the monitor towards him. His eyes flick over the contents of the email one more time. "If they haven't changed, then I guess we could return the favor."Ten years down the line, Bakugou and Midoriya are invited to a time capsule ceremony at their middle school to read letters from their past selves, and look back on their past and how it shaped their future. For anyone else, it would have been a celebration.For the two of them, it's an opportunity.A look into Bakugou and Midoriya's past—through a future neither of them imagined—as pro heroes, agency partners, and friends. (Written for NWA: Prompts for All Event.)

Watch The World Burn by Quisanne (33k, T, gen, bullying)  Shouta and Toshinori were successful in their attempt to gather evidence about the wrongdoings of Aldera Middle School. It doesn't take long, though, to realize that there are many more things out there in hero society that need fixing. Fixing as in throwing a feral Yagi Toshinori at the problem and hoping everything turns out fine, that is.

Razzmatazz by xylophones (168.5k, T, gen) Izuku has plans for everything.He plans out what to say to the cashier when ordering coffee, he plans out his homework before even opening his textbook. He has a whole ten-year plan for how he’s going to get into UA’s hero course and get his hero license fully quirkless. He plans for every wild, unlikely scenario he can think of because his anxiety gets so bad if he doesn’t go through every possible outcome, every way his life could landslide into disaster–– but Izuku never planned for this.For once, he doesn’t have a plan and he doesn’t have time to think of one. All he can see is Yagi-san’s lined, kind face looking resigned as he stares down the villain in his shop. Yagi-san, who is the closest thing to a father figure Izuku has ever had.Izuku doesn’t think. He just moves.(Or: Izuku saves the number one hero, gets a hero license way earlier than anyone wanted, realizes that maybe hero society isn’t as great as he thought it was, and everything just kind of falls apart from there.) 

almost never losing by blueh (4.6k, T, gen) It’s been five years since Izuku has last stepped foot there, but the words Aldera Middle School still bring him an unprecedented amount of dread. It’s accompanied by middle school reunion scribbled underneath which has the added bonus of making Izuku want to go hide under Iida’s desk and not come out.He puts the letter, unopened, on his desk and resolves not to think about it.“You’re just going to let them win?”… Izuku resolves to not think about it for the two seconds that Kacchan allows him not to think about it.or: Two year after graduating UA, Aldera Middle School hosts its first middle school reunion in honor of not one, but two former students graduating and becoming pros.Izuku’s not quite sure he even wants to go, until suddenly he does.

Putting Infinity into Words by redrobin1989 (8.3k, G, gen)  Soul Mates have evolved with quirks to become Soul Bonds in which one feels the entire emotional spectrum and a fact about their future relationship. Or so Izuku had heard, he'd only ever two Soul Bonds and they both caused him pain. Until All Might and Yuuei and he finally learned what it was like to have a loving, thriving Bond.

an old friend or two by neon_air (8.3k, G, gen) When Midoriya Izuku began hearing whispers in his head after gaining One for All, he didn't think much of it. When the whispering escalated to full thoughts, suggestions, and that somehow escalated to a couple of ghosts tailing him around, then he began to think much of it.Or, how Midoriya Izuku and the vestiges of One for All become one big mish-mash of a family.

New Discoveries by deafmic (826, G, erasermic) Eri has never seen a cat in her life and when coming home for the first time, is terrified of Aizawa's.

Father's Day by Fallende (2.7k, G, gen)  “T-this is for you!” His successor says. "For me?" Toshinori Yagi asks. "What's the occasion?" "No occasion!" The boy insists. It's a lie.

One Step by GEMoore990 (5.2k, T, gen) Doctors and Izuku don’t mix.Which was why it felt like the floor fell under him when Aizawa-sensei announced they would be going to the hospital for checkups.Or just because Izuku has a quirk now doesn’t mean that his body physically isn’t quirkless anymore.

possession is only one-ninth of a quirk by PachiiRiisu (9.2k, T, gen) “You’re right on the money; to be more accurate, I’m in Midoriya’s body. In truth, I’m… one of the previous holders,” The words “of One For All” are left unsaid.What.“What the fuck,” Katsuki eloquently says. He can already feel a headache forming, if it hadn’t begun already.Or: 5 times Bakugou covers for Deku’s weird quirk, and 1 time he doesn't.

hp 

Official by BeeDaily (1k, T, jily) James is caught eavesdropping in the library.

mcu

the little things by crowkag (4.2k, T, gen, kidnapping) Minutes tick away, and by the time Tony finishes the three emails Pepper had copied him into, Peter is a snoring ball in his lap. Shutting his laptop, he carefully leans forward to place it on the coffee table, drawing back with the forgotten can of root beer in his hands. Peter prefers his sodas flat when he drinks them—probably because he’s weird and has no sense of taste—so Tony pops the tab open with a soft hiss and settles it on the side table.Tipping his head back on the couch, he lowers his fingers to run absentminded tracks through Peter’s curls.He’s my weird kid, though, he thinks with a smile, already drifting into sleep himself.(or: Ten little instances of love between Tony and Peter.)

i know who his dad is (it's you) by imeanthatsprettysnazzy (3.6k, gen, spideychelle)  “Spider-Man, as in the guy that stops robberies in Queens?” Pepper asked slowly. “That kid — that little tiny baby kid — is Spider-Man?”“Yeah…” Tony stared at her, still not really understanding what the hell was happening here. “As far as I can tell. All signs point to yes, and all that. Who did you think he was?”Pepper blinked again, slower. She shook her head hurriedly. “No, I — I thought he was your kid.”“What?”“Well, what else was I meant to think?” Pepper exclaimed, looking at him like he was insane. “You’re sitting there, very clearly pretending like you’re okay, with information on a kid that was born during the middle of your crazy years!” [People think that Peter is Tony's kid.]

atla   

Three-Body Problem by JustGettingBy (6.3k, T, gen) In this world, the war ends early.Events ripple out from there.AKA The Hakoda and Zuko arranged marriage turned adoption au

[handeaux]

17 Curious Facts About Cincinnati's Miami & Erie Canal

Of Course, Daniel Drake Thought Of It

Since he was behind almost every improvement ever contemplated in pioneer Cincinnati, it should surprise no one that Daniel Drake proposed a canal system in his 1815 book, “A Picture of Cincinnati.” Drake was, as usual, ten years ahead of his time, but his proposal closely matched the route ultimately selected when the canal was laid out in 1825.

Just The Facts

The Miami & Erie Canal extended 244 miles from Cincinnati to Toledo. Construction began in 1825 and was completed in 1845, at a total cost of $8,062,680.07. Along the route, the canal crossed 19 aqueducts and employed 106 locks. The last 10 of these locks carried barges from Court Street down to the Ohio River at Cincinnati along a channel now buried under Eggleston Avenue. The peak year for traffic was 1851, after which competition from railroads increased every year. The canal was abandoned in 1913 after a catastrophic flood in Dayton destroyed essential infrastructure.

Up & Down

Along its path, the canal climbed 395 feet upward from Lake Erie to reach its highest level. Known as the Loramie Summit, this plateau extended almost 20 miles between New Bremen to Lockington, north of Piqua, Ohio. From there, the canal descended 513 feet until it reached the Ohio River. The final 100-foot drop ran from Court Street to the Ohio River in Cincinnati.

From Barges To Superhighways

Long stretches of the Miami & Erie Canal are now traversed by automobiles, especially on I-75, U.S. Route 24, and Ohio Route 25. Automobiles were often the third vehicles to follow these routes. As the canal was abandoned, boats usually gave way at first to interurban rail lines in the 1920s and 1930s. Automobiles followed only after the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 funded the construction of interstate highways.

Cincinnati’s Rhine

Without the canal, there would be no Over-the-Rhine. The first references to Cincinnati’s “Little Deutschland” neighborhood as “Over-the-Rhine” appear around the time of the Civil War. Originally a put-down, the city’s German residents came to appreciate the idea that they felt more at home once they crossed over the Canal (the “Rhine”) into familiar territory.

The “Other” Canal

The Miami & Erie Canal was not the only canal serving Cincinnati. The Cincinnati & Whitewater Canal was completed in 1843 and connected Cincinnati to Indiana’s Whitewater Canal near Harrison, Ohio. This short canal was in operation for only 20 years and was converted to a railroad right-of-way after 1862. A tunnel constructed for the Cincinnati & Whitewater canal can still be seen in Cleves.

The Lakes Abide

Some of Ohio’s largest lakes were originally created to ensure a consistent flow of water for the canal. Grand Lake St. Marys was one of these feeders and was the world's largest reservoir when built. Indian Lake, originally a collection of small lakes and wetlands, was converted into a large supply basin for the canal. Along the length of the canal, smaller basins – including LeSourdsville Lake – allowed barges to turn around, dry dock, or exchange cargo.

Holy Water

A couple of local African American churches dunked converts in the Canal. One Northside church performed its rites at a location known then as Baptist Hill. The other congregation baptized a half-mile south of the Bruckmann Brewery, beneath the western slopes of Clifton.

Liquid Gold

Canal transportation was appropriate if you didn’t need cargo in a hurry and if your cargo was unlikely to spoil. Whiskey, in other words, was nearly the perfect canal cargo, and a lot of liquor went up and down the canal. A single barge could carry 500 barrels of whiskey at 50 gallons each. At pre-Prohibition prices averaging $1 a quart retail, that’s a $100,000 boatload.

A Taste Of Venice

The City of Cincinnati celebrated its Centennial in 1888. As part of the festivities, an immense exhibition was staged at Music Hall. For this extravaganza, the 1,248-foot-long “Machinery Hall” was erected along the rear of Music Hall, over the flowing canal. The interior of the hall was decorated in a Venetian theme, accentuated by a fleet of gondolas poled along by singing gondoliers. The Italian boats returned every year into the early 1900s.

A Lock On A Name

Lockland, our suburban neighbor straddling the “Split” on I-75, has nothing to do with security devices requiring a key. A half-dozen Ohio towns contain “Lock” in their names, all reflecting their erstwhile position along the various canals connecting Lake Erie to the Ohio River. At Lockland, I-75 barrels right through the former canal locks.

Ice Is Nice

As an exposed and relatively shallow stream, the canal regularly froze each winter. In the sections near towns and cities, the annual freeze brought out skaters and even horse-drawn sleighs. The frozen canal also generated substantial supplies of commercial ice to icemen issued permits by the State of Ohio. One of the biggest storage facilities was located at LeSourdsville, north of Hamilton, capable of holding a two-year supply of that pre-refrigeration necessity.

Swimming Hole

Every boy in Cincinnati knew the “secret” sign: Two fingers held up in what later became the sign for “peace” meant it was time to go swimming. Every boy in Cincinnati also knew the warning shout, “Cheese it! The Cops!” – a signal to grab your clothes and scatter.

Beware The Naked Man

The canal had barely been excavated when Cincinnati City Council passed an ordinance in 1828 outlawing bathing in the waterway. The ordinance began: “Whereas much lewdness and obscenity daily occur from the public and lascivious manner in which men and boys expose themselves in bathing in the Miami canal in the city of Cincinnati . . . ” By the late 1800s, naked men were still in plain view along the local waterways. But nakedness was not the only crime. Even worse, these flagrantly unclothed males were naked on Sunday. Skinny-dippers created an offensive impediment to good folks crossing the Mill Creek bridge on their way to church:

Dangerous Waters

Charles Ludwig’s little book, “Playmates of the Towpath,” published in 1929 by the Cincinnati Times-Star, is filled with anecdotes about parents paddling their sons (and, rarely, daughters) for swimming in the canal. The book is equally packed with stories about swimmers being rescued or drowning. Although seemingly placid and tame, the canal claimed many lives over the years. Drownings were common, but infectious diseases from dysentery to cerebral meningitis spawned in the polluted waters as well.

And Gross, Too

Even those former boys who in their dotage fondly remembered swimming in the Miami & Erie Canal recalled the stench from industrial wastes including grease, acids, and chemical salts; rotting animal carcasses; the occasional corpse; and the contents of the innumerable chamber pots emptied into the stream from tenements along the banks. When a swimmer yelled “floater,” there was no telling what was on the way, but everyone scrambled out of the water.

The Last Boat

Cargo barges had disappeared from the canal by the early 1900s and long-distance passenger service vanished after the 1913 flood demolished some of the upstream locks. It is believed the final excursion boat on the Cincinnati section of the canal hosted a party of “Free Setters,” a society of men dedicated to beer drinking. Fittingly, the 27 July 1917 voyage started at the Gerke Brewery at the Plum Street bend and ended at Bruckmann’s near the Ludlow Viaduct.

[greatlakesfilm]

Erie Ale Works’ Co-Founder to Discuss Branding’s Role in Growing Local Craft Brewery

Erie Ale Works’ Co-Founder to Discuss Branding’s Role in Growing Local Craft Brewery

Building a brand is no easy task. Of course, it’s made easier when that brand tastes pretty good. Just ask Jeff McCullor. McCullor is the president and co-owner of Erie Ale Works, Erie’s smallest craft brewery. Together with his business partner, Steve Anthony, he has helped create the brand behind Erie Ale Works, a brand where sarcasm and beer go hand in hand. He’s done a pretty good job, too.…

[nestaarcheronwillkillme]

Empires Fall~ 1. Descension and Ascension

Livid. Furious. Disappointed. Words could not do justice to the tempest of emotions which Nesta felt. There was simply no way to describe it- that fucking rejection. She had held her head high when the blow was dealt, simply walking out of that stupidly extravagant building. Her sister didn't want her in her city. That was fine. Nesta didn't particularly want to be there anyway. Stood in her dingy hall she couldn't give a fuck about them, she needed to get out. Fast. This place was suffocating her, she couldn't breathe under all its bloody feigned happiness. Sure it was beautiful and idyllic but it was just too forced, it wasn't real. She strode through to her bedroom and packed the few clothes she had in a small pack. Nesta had very few possessions which hadn't been destroyed, by war or herself. She moved to the small kitchen and grabbed a cheap bottle of pub beer. She was a thought away from making for the door before she realized the danger she may be putting herself in. She opened a top cupboard and retrieved a basic health pack containing bandages and the like. Slipping off her current, impractical footwear she searched for some boots. She could only find Elain's gardening wellingtons and put them on anyway. Stepping out her door, she began to lock up. When the fourth lock clicked she stepped back, into the quiet alley and observed her previous residence. "Bye-bye, shit hole" and with that Nesta Archeron was gone.

…

Aching feet and leaden legs failed to stop her from admiring the variety of courts as she trudged on. They truly were beautiful.

Sure, the Night Court was perfect to many but as she trudged on she noticed the mystery in the Day Court’s light and the vulnerability of the Dawn. Her favorite though was not the elaborate showcase of the Winter nor the easiness of the Summer.

She most admired the Autumn. It always was her favorite season but the court. There was something about it that reminded her of home, of herself. It took her breath away, the way the gradients of reds and oranges were like a fire where every flame battled another to see who burned hottest. It almost made her want to live there. Until she remembered the people; Beron, Eris, Lucien. All scorched by the flame. She supposed that she already bore scars though, she would fit right in.

No. Just no, she did not need the label which came when integrating into a society. She had not turned good nor bad. She was Nesta Archeron and she would burn under no one's shadow.

As her feet became numb and bruised anew she supposed she could do with some help in pointing out where she might stay for the night though. She truly was alone. No mother. No father. No Elain or Feyre. No Cassian.

It dawned on her then, exactly what she was leaving behind. Sure, she had let go of the rules and expectations but she had also lost a potential family. She hadn’t had one of those in a long time.

Now she would have all of eternity to find one, she supposed. The realization turned her thoughts to ash once again.

That flame, that anger and pain, and suffering. That was something new. She had not felt anything for months, had been numb and aching for some emotion to let her know that she had made it. That she was alive and kicking. None had come until the fury at being cast away. They had given up on her. All of them.

They did not know- could not fathom- what she was going through, so they gave up. They had no clue as to what power still writhed beneath her skin. At what she could do if she let go of the leash.

Something snapped inside her then. She had nothing else to lose, no one to tell her what she should or shouldn’t do. There were no expectations or standards.

A tendril of her power escaped her. It appeared black, then red as blood. It had a thick, fog-like consistency as it dissipated into the air. She let out a sigh and felt herself completely let go. Her fingers curled, knuckles white, and she aimed for a tree. Death once again was unleashed, something beautiful in the way it danced around the oak’s branches before sucking the life out of it.

With this power, she realized, she was untouchable. The High Lord of the Night Court would tremble at her feet.

Bitch Queen. King Slayer. It all made her and unmade her. She was Nesta Archeron and as she smiled wickedly she forced the earth to quake beneath her.

Tag list: 

@saltydreamcollector @starlightheir @dreaming-of-bohemian-nights @firemadeofgirl @sannelovesreading @blackfyrres @my-fan-side @elle-crys @rairrai @acotar-feels @nestacherons @crimziedrawings 

I hope you all like it and I’m going to try and post every week! xX

[solsarin]

what percentage of fresh water is in the great lakes

what percentage of fresh water is in the great lakes

Hello dear friends, thank you for choosing us. In this post on the solsarin site, we will talk about “  what percentage of fresh water is in the great lakes“. Stay with us. Thank you for your choice.

Facts and Figures about the Great Lakes

The Great Lakes are, from west to east:

Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario. They are a dominant part of the physical and cultural heritage of North America.

The Great Lakes are one of the world’s largest surface freshwater ecosystems.

84% of North America’s surface fresh water

about 21% of the world’s supply of surface fresh water

Physical Features of the Great Lakes

The Great Lakes Atlas Third Edition 1995 is available from NSCEP, US EPA’s publication service

Data and Map Floor Studies of the Great Lakes from NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory

The Great Lakes Basin

The Great Lakes basin encompasses large parts of two nations, the United States and Canada.

Nearly 25% of Canadian agricultural production and 7% of American farm production

The Great Lakes basin is defined by science, engineering and politics.

Most of the basin is defined by hydrology;

watersheds that drain into the Great Lakes and their connecting channels are in the Great Lakes basin.

A combination of engineering and politics (Canadian) have resulted in the Rideau exception being included in the Great Lakes basin (the orange striped polygon on the Canadian side of the St. Lawrence River).

The boundaries on these two maps are defined by 8-digit Hydrologic Unit Codes (HUC8). These may change slightly as more detailed mapping is completed for these watersheds.

Environmental Degradation

The degradation of the Great Lakes can be traced back to the westward expansion of the North American population.

The fishery decline in late 1800s was one of the region’s earliest environmental problems.

Agricultural and forestry practices resulted in siltation, increased water temperature, and loss of habitat for native fish species.

The discharge of pollutants into the lakes accompanied the region’s population growth.

The vastness of the Great Lakes encouraged the mistaken belief that their great volumes of water could indefinitely dilute pollutants to harmless levels.

Yet impacts to the environment and human health were inevitable.

The direct discharge of domestic wastes from cities along the lakeshores led to typhoid and cholera epidemics in the early 1900s.

the United States and Canada

In 1909, the United States and Canada cooperatively negotiated the Boundary Waters Treaty.

This treaty established the International Joint Commission (IJC) which is a permanent binational body addressing,

among other important boundary issues, water quality concerns and the regulation of water levels and flows between the two countries.

The Great Lakes Water Quality Board and the Great Lakes Science Advisory Board are bodies of the IJC.

Six commissioners are the final arbitrators of the IJC: the United States and Canada appoint three each.

Great Lakes Fisheries

The Great Lakes support diverse fresh-water fisheries. Fis Sturgeon, lake trout, and whitefish were popular catches of their time. Birchbark canoes and nets made from willow bark were commonly used to harvest fish.

Commercial fishing began around 1820, and annual catches grew approximately 20 percent per year as improved fishing technologies were applied.

Commercial fishing harvests from the Great Lakes peaked between 1889 and 1899 at around 67,000 metric tons (147 million pounds).

By the late 1950s, the golden days of the Great Lakes commercial fishery were over.

Recreation

Recreation in the Great Lakes area became important beginning in the nineteenth century.

A thriving pleasure-boat industry based on newly constructed canals on the lakes brought vacationers into the region,

as did the already established railroads and highways.

The lower lakes wilderness region attracted people who were seeking health benefits and even miracle cures from mineral waters.

Niagara Falls is located on the international line between the cities of Niagara Falls, New York, and Niagara Falls, Ontario.This world-famous tourist destination, like other Great Lakes attractions, bolsters the local and regional economies of both countries.Random Posts

what percent of alcohol is in heineken beer

how to calculate percentage of water absorbed by soil

smirnoff bottle alcohol content

how to work out percentages on your calculator

how much alcohol is in smirnoff ice red white and berry

The Lakes.

The westernmost point of the Great Lakes is near Duluth, Minnesota, and the easternmost point is just north of Syracuse, New York (and connects with the St. Lawrence Seaway).

Great Lakes Watershed

Native Americans were the original inhabitants of the Great Lakes basin.

Historically, the Great Lakes played a significant role in Native American societies and approximately 120 bands of native peoples have occupied this region over the course of history.

Notable tribes inhabiting the Great Lakes region include the Chippewa, Fox, Huron, Iroquois, Ottawa, Potawatomi, and Sioux.

Diversion of Great Lakes Waters

Proposals to divert water from the Great Lakes hydrologic system have proven very controversial.

As these lakes are a shared international resource, many governments and organizations are concerned with managing and protecting the integrity of the Great Lakes waters and ecosystem.

For these groups, the bulk export of Great Lakes basin water is an increasing concern in a water-scarce world.

Existing diversions comprising sizable quantities of water involve Ontario, Canada; Chicago, Illinois; and the intrabasin transfers of the Welland Canal.

Much smaller diversions involve New York, Wisconsin, Ohio (via the City of Akron), and Michigan (via the City of Detroit).

Future of the Great Lakes

Two countries, eight states, two provinces, and numerous tribal councils and local jurisdictions share an interest in managing the waters of the Great Lakes.

Great Lakes

The

Great Lakes

(French:

Grands Lacs

), also called the

Great Lakes of North America

or the

Laurentian Great Lakes

,

[1]

are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the upper mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River.

[11]

The lakes have been a major source for transportation, migration, trade,and fishing, serving as a habitat to many aquatic species in a region with much biodiversity.Indigenous peoples

Indigenous peoples in present-day Canada include the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis,[22] the last being a mixed-blood people who originated in the mid-17th century when First Nations people married European settlers and subsequently developed their own identity.[22]

which includes the Great Lakes Megalopolis.

[12]

Confederation and expansionFollowing several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act 1867 officially proclaimed Canadian Confederation on July 1, 1867, initially with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick.

[73]

[74]

Canada assumed control of Rupert’s Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where the Métis’ grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870.resource:

wikipedia

Great Facts About the Five Great Lakes

The Great Lakes — Superior, Huron, Michigan, Ontario and Erie — make up the largest body of fresh water on Earth,

accounting for one-fifth of the freshwater surface on the planet at 6 quadrillion gallons.

The area of all the Great Lakes is 95,160 square miles (246,463 square kilometers) and span 750 miles (1,200 km) from west to east.

The lakes, called “the nation’s fourth seacoast,” are on the U.S. and Canadian border,

touching Ontario in Canada and Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York in the United States.

About the Lakes

The Great Lakes — Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario — and their connecting channels form the largest fresh surface water system on earth.

[traveltoblank]

A dog friendly day in sunny Rochester, NY

The small city of Rochester sits just below Lake Ontario in northern New York. Split by the Genesee River, Rochester has an abundance of green space and walking trails, perfect for your dog to explore. There are also a rising number of dog-friendly accommodations, restaurant patios and more making this city a great stop for you and your dog to enjoy on a warm sunny day.

Dog Friendly Parks in Rochester

Corbett’s Glen Nature Park

Corbett’s Glen Nature Park is a short and accessable hike only a short distance from downtown Rochester. Walk along the gentle Allen Creek and enjoy its two small tumbling cascades. On a warm day this is the perfect spot for your dog to enjoy some time cooling off in the water.

Trolly Bed Trail

Right next door to Lollypop Farm is the start of the Trolly Bed Trail, also known as the Rochester, Syracuse and Eastern Trail. This multi-use runs all the way from Egypt Park to the Erie Canal. It is a beautiful and relaxing walk, no matter how much of it you cover.

Turning Point Park

Take a stroll along the Genesee River at Turning Point Park. As part of the Genesee Riverway Trail, you can walk your way all the way into downtown Rochester or Lake Ontario. Make sure to head left from the parking lot for the coolest part, Turning Point’s boardwalk snaking its way across the Genesee River.

Genesee Valley Park

Go for a historical adventure through Genesee Valley Park, designed by famed landscape architect  Frederick Law Olmsted, most noted for Central Park in NYC. The park in southern Rochester dates back to 1888 and features an 18 hole golf course, canoeing and of course endless paths for your dog to enjoy.

Lollypop Farm

Lollypop Farm is much more than just the Humane Society of Greater Rochester. While we all wish we could take home every cuddly animal with us, Lollypop Farm has something to offer for every visitor. Get your furry friend a gift from the shop, see the many full time resident animals of the farm and a chance to enter the outdoor petting area.

  Letchworth State Park

For those visiting Rochester for a few days with their dog, plan a day trip to Letchworth State Park the “Grand Canyon of the East.” Just a 45 minute drive south from Rochester, this state park offers dozens of miles of hiking through lush green forest, with three major waterfalls as high as 600 feet!

Dog Friendly Accommodations near Rochester, NY

Hampton Inn Rochester/Greece

No visit to Rochester is complete without a place for you and your furry friend to sleep. The comfortable Hampton Inn Rochester/Greece just a short drive from downtown. Besides for the friendly staff, indoor pool and warm breakfast, there is plenty of green area to take Gordo on a nice long walk.

Just next door is MacGregor’s Grill & Tap Room, perfect for an evening beer or easy dinner if you do not want to head back into downtown Rochester.

from A dog friendly day in sunny Rochester, NY

[musqis]

2019 / 08 / 14 MUSQIS [The Ants (Feeding Chain Pt.2)] 新録、The Antsが各種ストリーミングサービスで聞けるようになりました。 レコーディングメンバーは ・野口英律(Hidenori Noguchi) - Drums , AcousticGuitar , LapsteelGuitar , Mellotron , FenderRhodes , Wulitzer , Synth ・Tsubatics / ElectricBass ・アライカズヒロ (Kazuhiro Arai) - ElectricGuitar , Mandollin , 12StringsGuitar ・澤本元 (Gen Sawamoto) - ElectricGuitar ・大島武宣 (Takenori Oshima) - AcousticGuitar ・武田理沙 (Risa Takeda) - KingKorg ・安藤裕子 (Yuko Ando) - SopranoSax ・桑原渉 (Wataru Kuwabara) - Trumpet , Fluegelhorn ・百瀬巡 (Jun Momose) - Violin ・石原雄治 (Yuji Ishihara) - Drums , Percussion ・伊藤絵里 (Eri Ito) - Percussion , PencilSharpener ・永田健太郎 (Kentaro Nagata) - Record , Mix , Master ・沼田雄二 (Yuji Numata) - Record ・山下大輔 (Daikuke Yamashita) - Record "Spotify"

"Apple Music"

二宮友和+MUSQIS "ライブ" DiskUnionにて取り扱い開始しました HERE 会場で手に入れられなかった方はこちらもチェックしてみてください。 SCHEDULE 2019 / 09 / 29 @亀有 リリオパーク [亀有ロック���つり 2019] 亀有ロックまつり HP 二宮友和+MUSQISとして出演 w/BLOOD OF THE FALLEN smell Take Back The Beers! Hello Hawk DANCEWITHME まったりーフッカー 和太鼓 豊屋 Slant Line（ダンス） 道上ブラスハーモニー（ブラスバンド） 亀有パフォーマンスパーク（パフォーマー） FREE LIVE!!! 2019 / 10 / 02 @三軒茶屋 Heaven's Door [World Wide Size Presents "Stairway To Heaven’s Door 2"] COMBO SETとして出演 w/World Wide Size neonrocks バイドク 変梃 FOOD:きしぱん adv￥2,300　door￥2,500 open/start　18:30/19:00 2019 / 10 / 26 @新宿 NineSpices [phone 1st mini album “離” Release Tour] COMBO SETとして出演 w/phone (足利) SEMENTOS alt of the society kanari O'tiempoman concealments 2019 / 11 / 05 @西永福 JAM [Gentleman Surfer Japan Tour & MUSQIS "The Ants"Release Party "NEUROGRYPH 36"] COMBO SETとして出演 w/Gentleman Surfer (US / Sacramento) WorstTaste illMilliliter ヨソハヨソ CHOPSTICK (US / Sacramento) x 野口英律 (Hidenori Noguchi) x 1∞take VJ: TSV OPEN18:00 / START TBA ADV¥2,000 / DOOR¥2,500 ＋ [1D別¥600] 2019 / 11 / 08 @四谷 Outbreak [Daimon Orchestra Presents] COMBO SETとして出演 TBA 2019 / 11 / 21 @吉祥��� NEPO COMBO SETとして出演 TBA 2019 / 12 / 05 @下北沢 ERA [El Sonocos Presents"EYSK"] COMBO SETとして出演 w/El Sonocos SHOKO TBA ticket : sadtreelab@gmail.com

[handeaux]

Limited to 50 Members, Cincinnati’s Free Setters Had A Big Reputation

Cincinnati has hosted some unusual organizations over the years, from the Schlaraffia Society to the Night Owl Beneficial Smokers Casino to the Dry Dredgers but, even among this menagerie, the Free Setters Union stands out. Founded as a Cumminsville social club in 1886, the Free Setters earned a national reputation for bohemian hijinks, delectable dinners, prodigious beer drinking and a decidedly unconventional interpretation of Robert’s Rules of Order.

But what, precisely, is a Free Setter? Charles Ludwig, in his 1929 book, “Playmates of the Towpath,” records this explanation:

"The late C. L. Doran launched the Free Setters in 1886, the name being a play on the men of that time who would sit around saloons waiting for the beer collector to make his weekly call and treat,” said Edward Steinborn , city editor of the Times-Star, known as “Commonwealth ” in the Free Setters—for every member has a nickname. “ 'Licorice ' Doran was president of the society until his death . One of the first meetings of the order was held at Bruckmann's Brewery. Each member had a favorite song, and the custom was established of singing this song on the death of the member.”

C.L. Doran, aka “Licorice,” was Charles L. Doran who over the years worked at just about every newspaper in Cincinnati, including a couple he founded on his own. For much of its first decade, the Free Setters Union comprised journalists and brewers, but eventually accommodated a diverse cross-section of the city including business executives, city officials, theatrical stars and sports figures.

Membership was at first limited to 25, then expanded to 50. Although so restricted a membership implied that deaths or resignations were the only pathways to a vacancy, the Free Setters would frequently “promote” a member to honorary status if he moved out of town, missed a couple of meetings, became too famous, or for any real or imagined violations of club rules.

Such violations were almost exclusively imaginary, because the Free Setters actually had no rules other than arbitrary pronouncements by the President, who, for the first 40 years, was continually re-elected, despite annual campaigns by two competing candidates. No matter who won the “election,” President Doran always disqualified the votes for some capricious reason and he continued his reign as chief executive.

The Free Setters had no dues and no scheduled meetings, but they somehow organized an annual dinner that became one of the hottest tickets in town, attracting not only the entire membership but, usually, 150 to 200 guests and honorary members. The menu never changed, consisting of T-bone steak, potatoes cooked in a boiling tub of pitch, topped off by an unlimited supply of bratwurst. Every so often, someone – or everyone – shouted the secret password “Front!” requiring all who heard it to quaff a beer. Free Setter venues were consequently known as “Frontsville.”

Each year, the club projected images of deceased members on a screen and sang the departed’s favorite song. Until 1907, the images were still photos, but that year the club hired a film company to record every member so that, when the time came, a moving picture of the late member could play while serenaded by his chums.

So much singing accompanied Free Setter assemblies that some members went professional, forming the Free Setter Quartet which earned top billing on the vaudeville stages of the day. The quartet’s lead tenor, Edward Drury, went on to a long and successful solo career.

Another show business luminary to emerge from the Free Setters was Charley Grapewin, a vaudeville comedian who made the leap to film, logging more than 100 motion picture roles, including Uncle Henry in “The Wizard of Oz.”

Although the wives of the Free Setters formed an auxiliary in 1897, mostly to qualify for a bowling league, only one woman achieved full membership in the club. That was contralto Emma Carus. In 1901, most of the membership attended her performance at Heuck’s Opera House and went backstage to express their appreciation. On learning that the Free Setters were on their way to Northside to serenade an indisposed member, Miss Carus joined them and provided a sidewalk concert that earned her full membership and the nickname “Wabash.”

In 1917, the club’s annual dinner included a historic jaunt as the final passenger vessel to navigate the Miami & Erie Canal before it was drained to become Central Parkway. Charles Ludwig recalls:

“With one brewery – Gerke 's – as the point of departure and another – Bruckmann's – as the destination, the canal boat jaunt of the Free Setters, July 27, 1917, probably the last outing ever held on the stream, was a memorable expedition to mark the passing of the canal.”

An organization so devoted to beer drinking was hit hard by Prohibition and the club declared their 1919 dinner to be the final gathering before the dry desert of soft drink overtook them. Eternal President Charles Doran told the Cincinnati Enquirer [27 December 1918]:

“I fear this will be the last great reunion of the Free Setters. You see the union was founded on good fellowship, and with the disappearance of liquid cheer from Ohio the ‘Free Setters’ may collapse.”

Still, the union soldiered on, making headlines in 1922 when they hosted Babe Ruth at that year’s beefsteak.

Founder Charles Doran died in 1928 and the club went on hiatus for a few years until a reunion was organized by Charles E. “Slatebreaker” Miller, who was elected as the club’s second president. By 1936, when Miller presided over a 50th anniversary event on the roof of the Schoenling Brewery, not a single charter member remained alive. After that celebratory event, the only mentions of the Free Setters Union appeared in the obituaries of members as they departed – unsung – into the next world.

[bellabooks]

Why Buffalo? Author Sheryl Wright on why she chose the city for “Don’t Let Go” and “Stay With Me”

By Sheryl Wright “Buffalo gals won’t you come out tonight Come out tonight Come out tonight And dance by the light of the moon”                                                             John Hartford I often tell people I was born and raised on Toronto’s Urban Indian Reserve, Regent Park, but Regent wasn’t a reserve so much as the last stop for those on the edge of homelessness. For my parents, snagging an apartment signaled their first step to freedom and removed them from the toxic environment of my father’s parents’ home just across the street. Regent Park was Canada’s first planned community and intended to house veterans returning home from the Second World War. On paper it was a perfect mix of low-rise apartments, semi-detached homes, and green space; a city planner’s dream. We weren’t the only family members to take residence there. Most of my mother’s family found themselves in residence at one point or another. My Nan, my maternal grandmother, was among them. I had a special relationship with my Nan. As a toddler, my new sister arrived during a freak thunderstorm and brought several health challenges with her, so my Nan stepped in to help my overwhelmed mother. Suddenly I got to wear overalls and go to work with my dad. He drove a truck and everyone called me “Ken’s kid” or just “the kid.” And then I would spend the weekends with Nan. We were buddies and would talk and take adventures. She seemed so old and wise in my little eyes. She worked for Warner Brothers and scheduled every movie heading for a Theater in Ontario, and spent a lot of time in reflection. Life had not been easy for her and now older than she was then, I can understand the introspection and soul-searching we do in mid-life. To be honest, I loved the quiet times with her. We’d head to Kew Beach or Merina’s on the Danforth, and while she enjoyed her one beer, she would present drawing paper and pencils and I would be set free to imagine while she chatted with passersby or enjoyed her own company. And we didn’t stick to Toronto. Sometimes her work or her wondering spirit would take us to exotic locations like Buffalo or Tampa Bay. The first time my grandmother took me to Buffalo, we walked the core, visiting some of her wartime haunts, and she introduced me to my first chicken wings in the same restaurant that had made them famous. I coveted my secret adventures with my Nan. Whether we were hopping a bus to Buffalo or taking the train to Tampa, there was always so much to discover. Back then, I had no idea why she always preferred me as her traveling companion or even why she so often would up and run. Years later, uncomfortably strapped into the Jump Seat on an overfull flight to Hong Kong, I recognized the need. I was running from a broken heart and so was she. As much as I would wish her heart had healed, I’m thankful for those escapes. I saw places I would never have bothered with and had the luxury to investigate all the things my parents couldn’t tolerate. Back then it was my dream to become and Architect, or an Astronaut, or anything that sounded like an adventure. Nan encouraged me. So while she enjoyed a cig and beer, I got to look, draw, and crawl all over cool stuff. Buffalo became and remains one of my favorite places, especially the restored downtown core. My first visit was in the late sixties, yes I’m that old. At that time, Toronto was in the midst of dissolving their overzealous Victorian laws governing everything relating to good social society. Suddenly taverns could remove the bricked-up windows that protected the innocent from accidentally viewing any debauchery. Now restaurants could serve beer and wine Sundays, and believe it or not, men and women could now enter a bar using the same entrance, or even better, a woman could now legally enter a bar without risking an automatic charge of soliciting. With the city’s legal modernization, building codes changed too. Suddenly Toronto’s architectural heritage, a mix of Georgian, Victorian, and French Mansard low rises, disappear overnight. With so few examples left for me to explore, Buffalo became my bonanza. When I sat down to write Don’t Let Go I knew it was set in Buffalo. The story of the DeNamico and Phipps families plays out over three locations in the Greater Buffalo Area. The Art Deco styled DeNamico Building is a fictional creation but takes its shape and influence from 123 Pearl Street. I fell in love with this building the first time I saw it. Back then she had been crammed onto the side of the much large Macy’s department store, and had been designed to use every inch of usable land. Like the Flatiron in New York and her baby sister in Toronto, 123 Pearl features a bow end but unlike those others, instead of forming a wedge shape, imagine a rectangle with a triangle glued to one end. Unique, and with Macy’s long torn down, she stands alone with her bow facing Lake Erie and her shoulders to an ever-changing world. Like Toronto, Buffalo has changed over the years but the welcoming spirit of Buffalonians has not. Today, Buffalo is entering its renaissance with its architectural heritage intact. Kudos to you Buffalo and well deserved. I hope I’ve done the old girls proud; meaning my Nan and the good city of Buffalo. Now that Don’t Let Go is a series, I hope you enjoy the ongoing adventure with the DiNamico-Phipps clan in, Stay With Me. Sheryl Wright is an aboriginal Faith Keeper in the Longhouse tradition, and author of several non-fiction books. A native of Toronto, she studied aviation at the American Flyers Academy in Florida, also completing an Electrical Engineering degree at Gordon University. Her flight experience includes Canadian Airlines, Ontario Express, Bearskin Airlines, and Her Majesty’s Canadian Armed Forces, in which she served as both a member and an officer. Today she lives in Whitby, Ontario with her partner, their rescued Rottweiler, and a six-toed cat. http://dlvr.it/NjYX8p

[danwetzelsports]

As this blog has long noted I travel a lot for work. I’ve flown over one million miles on Delta/Northwest and who knows how many more on airlines ranging from Southwest to an operation known as Aeroflot.

  I’ve taken domestic flights inside some edge-of-proper-society-places such as China, Russia, South Africa, Brazil and Louisiana. Other than the obvious similarities between our looks, I am not George Clooney from that movie, but I’ve seen a thing or two.

  And here is what I know: Not to defend United for dragging that guy off the plane, but generally the biggest problem when it comes to flying is not the airlines but my fellow passengers.

  I don’t know all the details and don’t care for all the details but clearly United messed up. If you need seats on a full flight you have to keep raising your bump compensation until someone takes it. That’s the way to deal with this.

  But in defense of airlines, we can walk back the rest.

  Just briefly: overbooking isn’t a bad thing. It’s a good thing. Good for the airlines who can maximize profits by accounting for the number of people who miss flights, fly stand by earlier or later or cancel at the last moment. And good for passengers because that allows flight prices to remain lower than they otherwise would and gets as many people on a plane (and thus across a day) as possible. Also, you can score some sweet credits if you volunteer.

  Airlines are terrible at lots of things. Believe me. I’ve been taken off flights. I’ve been put on flights to unnecessary connecting airports. I’ve been stranded overnight. I’ve had long set plans ruined. It’s brutal.

  Ninety-plus percent of the time however I’ve climbed in a tin can in one city/country and landed on time or earlier in another. It’s amazing. Lewis And Clark was two hundred years ago.

  The United thing was extreme. Poor work by the airline, but when three cops come and tell you to move out of your seat, you should really move out of your seat. It’s not going to end well and an airline seat is hardly the hill you want to get roughed up on. Go protest something important.

  On Wednesday April 5, Delta was dealing with heavy storms and everything was a mess in Augusta, Ga. The little airport was packed with beaten-down travelers. Luckily they called my flight we all boarded the plane. Then we sat on the tarmac for an hour before being told told we all needed to get off.

  The entire plane – every passenger – peacefully exited only to have Delta give our plane to another flight. We had to watched a couple hundred other people take our seat. They soon departed for Atlanta instead of us. Our flight never left. Cancelled for good.

  It sucked but no police were needed. Everyone listened to the flight attendant.

  I appreciated that because it’s usually an idiot passenger causing all the problems, not the stressed-out, under-paid, no-good-option flight attendant or gate agent.

  Here are my five worst people on a plane (in no particular order and I’m not even getting to the obvious ones such as belligerent drunks or barking dogs – no dogs should be allowed in the damn main cabin, by the way).

  1. Starbucks Lady

  It’s a 6:30 a.m. cross-country flight and you felt the need to get a Venti double Frappuccino or whatever that creation is? Not only are you going to spend the first hour of the flight sucking loudly through a straw, but that creation has enough caffeine and sugar to drop a horse. Look lady, no one is asking you to fly the plane. Exactly how alert do you need to be?

  You want to know how to make air travel better? Go to sleep. Flight goes faster, you don’t need to be entertained, you can ignore the other passengers and you catch up on some rest (fitful, but whatever). Don’t tell me you can’t sleep on planes between a gargle of Starbucks. You have to have a plan – turn off electronics, read a book, avoid stimulants. It isn’t hard. I feel for like 6-foot-10 guys, but you aren’t that.

  Don’t book a window seat, drink a massive coffee and then wonder why you are as fidgety as a kindergartener, unable to sleep and have to get up three times to go to the bathroom – thus bothering the rest of us.

  2. Big bag guy

  It ain’t going to fit, buddy. Maybe it’s compensating for other parts of their life. Maybe they just really think they are going to get over on the airline for that $25 baggage fee. Whatever it is, that massive roller isn’t getting into the tiny overheard compartment.

  These guys are the worst. They push and slam and bitch and moan. The people already seated below them are panicked and jostled. Some properly sized bag is inevitably getting crushed up there.

  The guy gets angrier and angrier as he tries to defy the laws of physical space. Soon he’s regaling everyone about that time the airline lost his luggage in Albuquerque – cry me a river, we’re not on your side.

  Then the poor flight attendant has to come by and tell him he needs to check it (for free) and he gets mad at them. Everyone’s stress goes up. Look, pay the fee or pack less. It’s simple. How much crap you need for this weekend in Erie?

  The baggage fee thing is horrible but they have to do it because all you fools will only pay for the cheapest flight that comes up on Expedia. Then you complain when the flight isn’t luxurious like it supposedly used to in the Mad Men days or something. It’s like someone buying a Chevy Spark and then bitching it isn’t as roomy as a Cadillac Escalade.

  3. Idiot/Patriot in the TSA line

  You know these people are there to stop us from getting blown up, right? Imperfect system but it’s the best we’ve got.

  So, can you please pay attention? September 11 was over a decade and a half ago … the freakin’ laptop has to come out of the bag. Yes, a cell phone is a metal item. And actually I am not surprised that your oversized belt buckle caused the x-ray to ping. It’s not shocking at all.

  This isn’t that hard. Follow the stupid rules. You’re slowing up the line because you are a clown.

  The only people worse are the ones who believe the TSA is infringing on their Constitutional rights with that there new-fangled body scanner or a pat down or merely existing. What, you think I’m a terrorist? Look, if you’re that into your privacy, then cool. Just find a better way to get the woods of Idaho.

Twitter follower @FakeKevinKugler added a subset to this: the person who was sent to TSA PreCheck but decides to clog everything up by stripping down anyway. You undeservedly reached the promised land and this is how you act? Pay attention.

  4. Burrito Bowl Dude

  Tight connections and long trips can mean there is limited time to get a meal at the airport. And we know you aren’t getting anything substantive in coach. So people bring food on the plane.

  Here’s a tip. Maybe on those days, you just have a protein bar. Or eat right away as you wait for everyone else to board. Not these people. They have to bring an elaborate, often sloppy meal, let it sit in a bag for an hour stinking up the place and then pull it out and try to spread out.

  There’s usually some assembly required, some salsa to pour over, some Sriracha or salad dressing. Then a knife and fork come out. You need the dexterity of Houdini to eat this thing in such a small space so rice or lettuce is inevitably flying everywhere and chicken is spilling and it’s a massive mess.

  You’re bothering me now. I don’t care if it’s good.

  5. Drink Cart Enthusiast

  They need to get rid of the drink cart on all flights under like two hours. It’s a rolling debacle. If you are so desperate for hydration or a tiny snack then buy your own.

  Yet they pull that thing out and people act like dogs that just saw their master walk in with the treat jar. You’ve never had a Diet Coke before? A package of five to six pretzels? I have had people wake me up to let me know the drink cart is here so I wouldn’t miss out.

  The drink cart blocks the aisle, slams knees and elbows and generally only gives the customers something else to bitch about because they didn’t get the whole can or found the peanuts an unsatisfying meal. You know, back in the day they used to carve up steak. Yeah, well, back in the day flights cost a thousand bucks and planes crashed all the time.

  I once had a 37-minute flight to Indianapolis delayed for 1:45 because “catering” needed to restock the drink cart. That means we could have flown to Indy, deplaned, slammed a beer at the airport bar, reboarded and returned.

BONUS: 5A Delusions of Grandeur Guy in 38B

 Many Twitter followers mentioned this one. You’re way in the back of the plane yet somehow believe once the plane arrives at its destination and pulls up to the skybridge that you’ll somehow beat the crowd and race off the plane first. I get the desperation to make a connecting flight, but it isn’t happening. Usain Bolt couldn’t charge the aisle fast enough to make it. Accept reality and wait your turn.

BONUS: 5B Boarding Group ZZ Gate Blockers

 More Twitter recommendations. They have a process to get on the plane. The Diamond Medallion and First Class people go first. Deal with it. If you find yourself in Group 7 or whatever, get the hell out of the way. Standing in front of the little ropes that lead to the ticket scanning machine when you aren’t getting on for the next 20 minutes assures only one thing, it will take even longer to get on.

This is a partial list. In summary, as much as I sometimes hate airline bureaucracy, I hate you people even more.

  And don’t lean your seat back.

[afutureworththinkingabout]

Cops, Drones & The Fundamentally Inhuman Status of Minority

[Originally Published at Eris Magazine]

So Gabriel Roberts asked me to write something about police brutality, and I told him I needed a few days to get my head in order. The problem being that, with this particular topic, the longer I wait on this, the longer I want to wait on this, until, eventually, the avoidance becomes easier than the approach by several orders of magnitude. Part of this is that I'm trying to think of something new worth saying, because I've already talked about these conditions, over at A Future Worth Thinking About. We talked about this in "On The Invisible Architecture of Bias," "Any Sufficiently Advanced Police State…," "On the Moral, Legal, and Social Implications of the Rearing and Development of Nascent Machine Intelligences," and most recently in "On the European Union's "Electronic Personhood" Proposal." In these articles, I briefly outlined the history of systemic bias within many human social structures, and the possibility and likelihood of that bias translating into our technological advancements, such as algorithmic learning systems, use of and even access to police body camera footage, and the development of so-called artificial intelligence. Long story short, the endemic nature of implicit bias in society as a whole plus the even more insular Us-Vs-Them mentality within the American prosecutorial legal system plus the fact that American policing was literally borne out of slavery on the work of groups like the KKK, equals a series of interlocking systems in which people who are not whitepassing, not male-perceived, not straight-coded, not "able-bodied" (what we can call white supremacist, ableist, heteronormative, patriarchal hegemony, but we'll just use the acronym WSAHPH, because it satisfyingly recalls that bro-ish beer advertising campaign from the late 90's and early 2000's.) stand a far higher likelihood of dying at the hands of agents of that system.

Read the Rest of Cops, Drones & The Fundamentally Inhuman Status of Minority, originally published on A Future Worth Thinking About.

[newstfionline]

Tokyo, Once a Cigarette Haven, Could Finally Kick Out the Smokers

By Motoko Rich, NY Times, Nov. 27, 2017

TOKYO--This is a compliant city. During rush hour, a horde of commuters exiting a subway platform will not dare step onto a staircase labeled “down.” Nobody jaywalks. People don’t litter. Train operators apologize when their trains are seconds late--or even early.

A manager at the gym where I work out asked me to wear rented shoes instead of a pair of sneakers I had worn outside; my son’s soccer teammates scolded a friend when he dropped a small piece of cracker on the sidewalk.

But one group occasionally breaks the rules: smokers.

Walking to the subway on my way to work, I regularly pass a group of puffers loitering in an alley, their wafting cigarettes quietly rebuking the signs marked “No Smoking.” Once in a while, patrolling officers shoo them away, but the smokers always return.

Every time I see them, I am struck by the brazen rule-breaking, given the strict codes that govern society here.

Not so long ago, smoking was as much a part of the culture as obedience. Before my family moved here last year when I took up the post of Tokyo bureau chief of The New York Times, this was a smokers’ town. In previous years when we visited, it was difficult to find nonsmoking restaurants or cafes.

But more recently, the rest of the world’s no-smoking culture has spread to Japan.

As more people have grown aware of the health hazards, the number of smokers in Japan has dropped sharply, according to data from the cigarette maker Japan Tobacco. And an increasing number of employers, restaurant owners and public facilities throughout the country have voluntarily banned cigarettes after a 2002 bill that encouraged a reduction in passive smoke.

I remember being astonished the first time we saw segregated smoking lounges at Tokyo’s Narita Airport.

Now train platforms, department stores and many restaurants are smoke free, while office workers who have yet to kick the cigarette habit are consigned to small smoking rooms or outside shelters. The Ueno Zoo even announced that it was considering a smoking ban to protect visitors coming to see a newborn panda.

A more drastic step may be in store. Early next year, Tokyo’s metropolitan assembly will vote on whether to ban smoking indoors in most public places, including restaurants, hotels, offices, department stores, airports, universities and gyms. Outside, smokers would be restricted to specially designated shelters or zones.

Sure, some may still break the rules. But in Japan, a country where individuals are reluctant to stand out, many people say that if such a smoking ban is imposed, they will have no choice but to follow it.

“I will be in trouble,” said Yuta Ishimoto, 40, who has a pack-a-day habit.

On a recent afternoon he sat sending emails from his laptop and taking drags from a cigarette in a Tsubaki Café, one of a few chains of coffee shops that allow customers to light up freely. But come the ban, he shrugged, he would follow the rules. “Shikataganai,” he said, which, roughly translated, means “It can’t be helped.”

Still, as strong as the impulse is to follow the rules, the culture of smoking is also ingrained. And smoking is big business.

A law completely banning indoor smoking is “a totalitarian idea,” said Motoki Takeda, the director of the general affairs department of the Japan Tobacco Federation, which represents 60,000 cigarette sellers nationwide. “It’s almost like bullying the smokers.”

The national health ministry has proposed a smoking ban similar to the one Tokyo is considering. But the idea is trickier on a national level.

The governing Liberal Democratic Party has long resisted antismoking policies, in part because the government owns one-third of Japan Tobacco, the cigarette maker, and taxes on cigarettes generate about 2 trillion yen, or $18 billion a year--about 3 percent of total revenues.

Many Liberal Democratic lawmakers also come from rural constituencies where tobacco farmers or mom-and-pop restaurant owners hold sway over elections.

And then there is the culture of smoking.

Some lawmakers cling to an idea of Japanese culture in which people who spend their days projecting a reserved public face can unveil their genuine selves only after hours when they congregate at pubs--known in Japan as “izakaya”--to drink, eat and smoke. That combination, they say, uniquely allows restrained personalities to relax and open up.

“The izakaya is the kind of place where you can honestly talk about your true feelings or opinions,” said Akinori Eto, the chairman of the Liberal Democrats’ tobacco committee.

The health ministry recently proposed a compromise version of its smoking ban to expand an exemption so that restaurants as large as 150 square meters, or a little over 1,600 square feet, could allow smokers.

But Tokyo is likely to stick to a stricter proposal, in part to fulfill the city’s agreement with the International Olympic Committee, which requires a smoke-free environment for the 2020 Olympics, which will be held here. The governor, Yuriko Koike, is also a strong supporter of the ban and campaigned on it during the city’s election last year.

Determined smokers figure they will spend even more time cramming into outdoor smoking shelters and parks dotted around the city. Some have switched to e-cigarettes since the proposed ordinance would not cover them.

The food service industry, worried about the potential effect on business, is heavily lobbying for a more liberal exemption for restaurants and bars.

Musashi, a Japanese robata-style barbecue restaurant tucked down an alley behind Shimbashi Station in central Tokyo, is the kind of place that would be affected by the city ban. On a recent evening, an ashtray was placed at every table setting.

Masahiro Shibatsuka, 67, an engineer who had met up with a childhood friend for drinks and a light meal of grilled squid, said the proposed Tokyo ordinance went too far. “It is violating people’s rights,” he said, waving a Hi-Lite brand cigarette and nursing an alcoholic lemon sour.

At Musashi, one of the smokers I spoke to, Eri Yamamoto, 25, said she would always find a way to feed her habit. But as she chain-smoked from a pack of Winstons and shared plates of grilled fish and pints of beer with two friends, she confessed, “I really want to quit.”