Dear KAG: 20191002 Open Thread

Thanks.
That scene from Bull Durham has a great backstory. It was the last take of the night and the director knew Robert Wuhl had been coming up with the perfect line, so he told him to go for it, and it ended up being what they used. The studio wanted to cut it because it “didn’t advance the plot.” It was kept in because test audiences consistently listed it as one of the two top scenes. Shows what the studios know.

I actually got a bunch of Andrew Jackson dollar coins just to hand out. I tell people that they are honor-bound not to spend them until they have read the Bank Veto Speech (I figure they’d likely be inclined to keep them after they’ve done so). I keep one in my wallet behind my driver’s license.
Last paragraphs of said speech (although the whole thing [ https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/july-10-1832-bank-veto ] is worth study, especially with comparison to the Federal Reserve):
“It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes. Distinctions in society will always exist under every just government. Equality of talents, of education, or of wealth can not be produced by human institutions. In the full enjoyment of the gifts of Heaven and the fruits of superior industry, economy, and virtue, every man is equally entitled to protection by law; but when the laws undertake to add to these natural and just advantages artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive privileges, to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society–the farmers, mechanics, and laborers–who have neither the time nor the means of securing like favors to themselves, have a right to complain of the injustice of their Government. There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favors alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing. In the act before me there seems to be a wide and unnecessary departure from these just principles.
Nor is our Government to be maintained or our Union preserved by invasions of the rights and powers of the several States. In thus attempting to make our General Government strong we make it weak. Its true strength consists in leaving individuals and States as much as possible to themselves–in making itself felt, not in its power, but in its beneficence; not in its control, but in its protection; not in binding the States more closely to the center, but leaving each to move unobstructed in its proper orbit.
Experience should teach us wisdom. Most of the difficulties our Government now encounters and most of the dangers which impend over our Union have sprung from an abandonment of the legitimate objects of Government by our national legislation, and the adoption of such principles as are embodied in this act. Many of our rich men have not been content with equal protection and equal benefits, but have besought us to make them richer by act of Congress. By attempting to gratify their desires we have in the results of our legislation arrayed section against section, interest against interest, and man against man, in a fearful commotion which threatens to shake the foundations of our Union. It is time to pause in our career to review our principles, and if possible revive that devoted patriotism and spirit of compromise which distinguished the sages of the Revolution and the fathers of our Union. If we can not at once, in justice to interests vested under improvident legislation, make our Government what it ought to be, we can at least take a stand against all new grants of monopolies and exclusive privileges, against any prostitution of our Government to the advancement of the few at the expense of the many, and in favor of compromise and gradual reform in our code of laws and system of political economy.
I have now done my duty to my country. If sustained by my fellow-citizens, I shall be grateful and happy; if not, I shall find in the motives which impel me ample grounds for contentment and peace. In the difficulties which surround us and the dangers which threaten our institutions there is cause for neither dismay nor alarm. For relief and deliverance let us firmly rely on that kind Providence which I am sure watches with peculiar care over the destinies of our Republic, and on the intelligence and wisdom of our countrymen. Through His abundant goodness and their patriotic devotion our liberty and Union will be preserved.”
That’s 1832, folks, less than 60 years after 1776. I was warmed and comforted when VSGPOTUSDJT moved the Jackson portrait into the Oval Office.

Try and find a Susan B Anthony. Go ahead; you’ll be surprised at how hard it is to find one.
[I’ve got five of ’em sitting on my monitor base]

WP is an assbite.

I had a Sacagawea once, but I dropped it and all the gawea’s ran away.