The Blaisdell Blog

On October 21, Donald Trump signed yet another executive order.  The order, named “Schedule F” (for so many reasons, none of which I can or need delineate here) gives Trump the right to fire federal employees he deems disloyal. Schedule F also strips hundreds of thousands of federal workers of their due process rights and protections.  It also does away with merit-based hiring.   Essentially, Trump is trying to revert to the spoils system that was in place until a decade after the Civil War.        These machinations fly in the face of one of my favorites Presidents, Chester A. Arthur.  Arthur is also one of the most mediocre occupants of the Oval Office. But Arthur promoted and signed the Pendleton Civil Service Act on January 16, 1883.  In that moment, he created the Civil Service System and assured merit-based employment in the federal government.  The Pendleton Act originally covered only 10% of all federal employees, but almost every President since Arthur has expanded the act so

  Nine thousand years ago a man died along the Columbia River.   About 40 years old, he stood 5 feet 7 inches tall and his 160 pounds were all lean, compact strength.   He was no stranger to injury.   In his life, he had skull injuries, 5 broken ribs and a spear point lodged in his pelvic bones.   In each case, he recovered, which means he had someone to care for him.   At the time of his death, cause unknown, he was buried with dignity.                He is called Kennewick Man.   He came to North America long before the peoples currently called Native Americans arrived.   DNA evidence proves he is not related to them.   If there is a real, “first” American, it is this man, most closely related to two far flung groups: Polynesians and the Ainu of Japan.   If you are a Native American, and think you have an historic right of ownership to North America, look over your shoulder.   Kennewick man not only predates you, but he did not even come via the Berengia land bridge.   He is part

  Mary Mallon was a fine, buxom, Irish lass.   She was born in Ireland in 1869 and immigrated to New York in 1884.    She worked at menial jobs typical of 19 th century immigrants, until 1906 when she was hired as a cook. Her new employer was Charles Henry Warren, a wealthy New York Banker.   He had a summer home on Oyster Bay and Mary Mallon joined him and his family at this cool, airy spot at the northern tip of Long Island.   Within a week of her arrival, 6 of the 11 people in the home had typhoid fever.                 Typhoid is caused by a bacillus that lives in the abdominal lymph nodes and spleen.   There it lives, multiplies and sheds itself into the intestines.   Feces, contaminated with the bacillus, enter the drinking water and food supply, infecting others.   These infections expand like yeast in bread.   One person infects two, which becomes four, eight, sixteen, thirty-two, sixty-four, 128, 256, 512, 1042…  The fact that poor hygiene and lack of hand washing is also