How did you celebrate Ronald Reagan Day?

February 6, 2020 10:53 PM

California Governor Gavin Newson issued a proclamation declaring February 6, 2020 Ronald Reagan Day.

Before he was president, he was a charming Hollywood actor and former SAG president, who ran for governor of California in 1966 as an outsider to bring law and order to a state seemingly in turmoil. Voters were tired of two-term incumbent Edmund G. "Pat" Brown, and Reagan was appealed to many.

The short film Autumn and Cardboard, narrated by Lee Marvin, documents the campaign between Reagan and Brown.

What is Reagan's legacy as governor of California? Is it the California Air Resources Board or CEQA? Or Regan's dismantling of the mental health system and erosion of higher education? (One of the first things Reagan did in 1967 was fire UC President Clark Kerr. He also fought for tuition hikes for four year colleges and universities.)

One way to commemorate the day is to read one of the two critiques of Reagan's record as governor by his predecessor. In 1970, Pat Brown wrote Reagan and Reality to warn people off electing Reagan to a second term. (It didn't work.) In 1976, Brown updated the book with Reagan, the Political Chameleon to warn voters from electing Reagan president of the United States, stating, "Ronald Reagan's election to the Presidency would be a national disaster." (Read if you like California history and salty political critiques.)

posted by kendrak (74 comments total)

Dang it, Gav, centrism isn’t going to get you to the White House in this political climate!
posted by Going To Maine at 10:56 PM on February 6, 2020 [13 favorites]

Speaking of legacy, I find it ironic that a Governor who supported (supports) civil rights of same-sex couples, and the LGBT community, gives recognition to a man who, by at least one account, did nothing while 90k AIDS sufferers died on his watch. But then I remember that decent politicians like Newsom have to represent all Americans, even the ones who would be happy to see me and my kind dead.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 10:58 PM on February 6, 2020 [19 favorites]

I celebrated it by remembering what his real and shameful legacy is - not the retconned, literally whitewashed version being pushed by the Republican party. They can kiss my ass, I was fucking there to witness it, and it made me the cynical grump I am today. Fuck him and the scumbags he rode into power on.
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:06 PM on February 6, 2020 [69 favorites]

Yeah... That Newsom issued this proclamation a day after posthumously pardoning Bayard Rustin adds to the deep disappointment.

Some say Newsom had to issue a proclamation, but I don't understand why not just commemorate Rustin? Or somebody else more fitting than a divisive figure.

If it had to be Reagan, it didn't have to be so gentle. I joked that if Jerry Brown wrote it, it would be damning with faint or nonexistent praise.
posted by kendrak at 11:12 PM on February 6, 2020 [3 favorites]

He wrote it as an anti-Trump jab, right? I don’t think it’s about Reagan.
posted by mr_roboto at 11:22 PM on February 6, 2020

Well at least the man who began the collapse of the middle class is honored while 10% of it remains.
posted by Freedomboy at 11:23 PM on February 6, 2020 [12 favorites]

Really, in the state that's supposed to be showing others the way?
posted by blue shadows at 11:33 PM on February 6, 2020 [2 favorites]

I mean, my biggest problem with Newson’s proclamation is that it buys into the weird American idea that the Cold War ended.
posted by mr_roboto at 11:39 PM on February 6, 2020 [16 favorites]

I object to you suggesting that Ronald Reagan Day is something I would celebrate AT ALL.
posted by hippybear at 11:42 PM on February 6, 2020 [19 favorites]

the weird American idea that the Cold War ended.

I'm pretty sure, as long as Putin lives, it will continue. In various ways. That may or may not be discovered or acknowledged or (these days) cooperated with. Living in "interesting times" has never been so "interesting".
posted by hippybear at 11:44 PM on February 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

I mean, my biggest problem with Newson’s proclamation is that it buys into the weird American idea that the Cold War ended.

It kinda did, until the chickens came home to roost. We gave them the fucked up hypercapitalist wet dream that hadn't yet been won back at home. After that experience, I can see the attraction so many had for what Putin was selling, even if it was plainly obvious from outside that what he would deliver was a merging of government, business, and organized crime into as slightly different kind of hypercapitalist hellhole.
posted by wierdo at 11:53 PM on February 6, 2020 [5 favorites]

I printed a copy of the Laffer curve and pissed on it.
posted by Omon Ra at 11:55 PM on February 6, 2020 [32 favorites]

How did you celebrate Ronald Reagan Day?

The same thing I do every time I think of Reagan: I recall this ad from COLORS magazine's AIDS issue that talked about all the people who died while Reagan did nothing.
posted by dobbs at 12:00 AM on February 7, 2020 [16 favorites]

On Ronald Raygun day, I celebrated the fact that he is dead. And mourned the fact that he ever lived, fully cognizant that had he not been born, there would have been another bastard from the GOP who was every bit as bad or worse governing in his place.
posted by ivanthenotsoterrible at 12:43 AM on February 7, 2020 [25 favorites]

I unknowingly celebrated it by getting an IUD--entirely paid for through socialized medicine. (I was also, incidentally, wearing pink underwear.)
posted by peakes at 1:32 AM on February 7, 2020 [30 favorites]

I remembered that Insane Anglo Warlord is an anagram of his name.
posted by GenjiandProust at 1:34 AM on February 7, 2020 [36 favorites]

I thought about how he usurped The Old Ranger as the host of "Death Valley Days" and how I still have no idea what a "20-mule-team borax" signifies.
posted by Chitownfats at 2:28 AM on February 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

I watched this clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR5BfQ4rEqQ
posted by Obscure Reference at 4:04 AM on February 7, 2020

I had a migraine and slept for five hours during what would have been the second half of my workday. At the time I wasn't aware I was celebrating anything, but it seems appropriate.
posted by Foosnark at 5:15 AM on February 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

I celebrated Feb. 6 as my wife's birthday. So, Ronny and Gavin can stuff it.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:20 AM on February 7, 2020 [2 favorites]

I'm sending all my positive birthday vibes to Bob Marley. Maybe if I heap enough on Marley, some will trickle down to Reagan.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:22 AM on February 7, 2020 [7 favorites]

If I could, I'd celebrate RR birthday by pissing on his grave. And nancy's too. Why? For his response to the
AIDS crisis. They treated it as a joke. I was there. I lived it.
posted by james33 at 5:30 AM on February 7, 2020 [12 favorites]

i celebrated by taking an enormous shit, or—as i call it—reaching across the aisle
posted by entropicamericana at 5:52 AM on February 7, 2020 [16 favorites]

I'm trying to think of a snarky comment to make about ways Reagan sucked, but there are just too many. And they aren't actually funny.
posted by kevinbelt at 5:59 AM on February 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

Not knowing it was Ronald Reagan Day, I celebrated in blissful ignorance.
posted by kozad at 6:01 AM on February 7, 2020 [4 favorites]

I spent it thinking about how gleefully fascist the GOP and their base have become, in part thanks to the extremist rhetoric adopted under Reagan. Ultimately the moderate conservatives deserve the lions share of the blame--sick and detestable people who belong in the hell they pretend to believe in.
posted by fleacircus at 6:38 AM on February 7, 2020 [2 favorites]

way to put reagan day in black history month *sigh*
posted by zsh2v1 at 6:50 AM on February 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

way to put reagan day in black history month

I'll shit all over Reagan for all manner of things. But it's hardly his fault what month his birthday falls in.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:55 AM on February 7, 2020 [4 favorites]

As someone who was a newly grown ass adult during the AIDS crisis… I'll consider my use of the bidet in his honor.

Rot in Hell.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 7:03 AM on February 7, 2020 [6 favorites]

I mean, my biggest problem with Newson’s proclamation is that it buys into the weird American idea that the Cold War ended.

Remember how we all got that "Peace Dividend", that now the Cold War was over we didn't have to spend money on a huge military anymore, and all that money got redirected to hospitals and schools? That was awesome.
posted by Capt. Renault at 7:04 AM on February 7, 2020 [11 favorites]

Back when Regan died, they was a concerted effort by the California GOP to get stuff named after him, include things on UC campuses. The response of UC leadership was ,WTF mate?
posted by CostcoCultist at 7:06 AM on February 7, 2020 [3 favorites]

I RTFA to see if there was some catch, or curve or stance or something to justify this post, but no. It's just.. about Reagan. The world is a better place now that he can't make any more changes to it. Unfortunately his stupid, hate-fueled policies are still ravaging this country and hurting millions of people. He was a moron who got a lot of power and fucked a lot of shit up. He was a racist, a homophobe, a classist, a sexist. He brought no good to this country. I guess if we have to be reminded of him, consider donating to your local LGBT center or health center that provides HIV community health services.
posted by FirstMateKate at 7:06 AM on February 7, 2020 [10 favorites]

I still have no idea what a "20-mule-team borax" signifies.

It’s a reference to the twenty mules they would hitch to trains used to move stuff around at the borax mines outside Mojave, north of Los Angeles.

Which, after reading the wiki, only happened for 6 years back in the 19th century as they switched to actual locomotives. Oh well, guess when you come up with a good marketing angle, you get committed to to for all time.
posted by sideshow at 7:08 AM on February 7, 2020 [6 favorites]

How did you celebrate Ronald Reagan Day?

I celebrated by barely making it to payday again, thanks to forty years of middle class wage stagnation, attributable to the weakening of private sector unions, starting with Ronnie's mass firing of air controllers. This pay period, I made it to payday with exactly $0.32 in my bank account, and I have one of the 'good' jobs. Thanks, Ronnie!
posted by Capt. Renault at 7:09 AM on February 7, 2020 [25 favorites]

The Sunday after Reagan died my dad stood up in church and said, for the only time that I've heard in my life, that he believed in hell. That God was not only a God of love and mercy but also a God of judgment. And there are few people who make me want to believe that too as much as Reagan.

The bipartisan rehabilitation of Grandpa Caligula, the butcher of Nicaragua, in my lifetime is a terrible crime of forgetting, and a dispiriting warning to anyone who thinks that "history" will "judge" his spiritual successor. I can't believe this. Forget you, Gavin Newson.
posted by sy at 7:12 AM on February 7, 2020 [16 favorites]

Back when Regan died, they was a concerted effort by the California GOP to get stuff named after him, include things on UC campuses. The response of UC leadership was ,WTF mate?

Have you ever been to the UCLA Reagan Medical Center?
posted by kendrak at 7:12 AM on February 7, 2020

My father used to say he really wanted to meet Reagan so he could say, "I didn't like your movies, either." Sadly, he never got to do this.
posted by jzb at 7:15 AM on February 7, 2020 [5 favorites]

I stand corrected on the UCLA comment., however I would actively avoid that hospital in a non-life threatening situation.

The students and faculty on my campus resisted and we did get successfully stop what they wanted to name after Reagan.

There of course the Reagan Freeway and a Reagan state office building in Downtown LA. I think someone should pay for some signs to designate La Skid Row after Ronald Reagan
posted by CostcoCultist at 7:30 AM on February 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

Know why I rank Reagan above even Thomas Midgley on my list of Worst Humans of the 20th Century?

Because Midgley didn't realize the impact of what he was doing.
posted by delfin at 7:31 AM on February 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

I was eight when AIDS started to hit the news. I came out six years later, to a community devastated by it. I’ll celebrate with queer activism, since I’m too far away to piss on his grave.

I’ll also play the Dead Kennedys.
posted by bile and syntax at 7:48 AM on February 7, 2020 [8 favorites]

I mean, my biggest problem with Newson’s proclamation is that it buys into the weird American idea that the Cold War ended.

I mean, surely it did. Otherwise how could half of the American political establishment be OK with an American President in the pocket of the Russian President? Perhaps the weird American idea isn't so much that Cold War ended, but that we won.
posted by Lame_username at 7:54 AM on February 7, 2020 [4 favorites]

I find all the grave-pissing and disrespect in this thread to be ...


entirely appropriate. I grew up in the 60s, which -- while by no means perfect -- was a time when things were actually getting better, largely due to government efforts. Reagan and his Republican friends put a stop to all that, and since then, the Rs have been diligently working to make things as shitty for Americans as they possibly can. I've been watching them do it for 40 years (and watching the Dems largely not bother to try and stop the trend), and becoming ever more cynical and pissed off. Rot in Hell, indeed.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 7:58 AM on February 7, 2020 [23 favorites]

→ i celebrated by taking an enormous shit …

To really embody the Reaganite spirit, you have to take an enormous shit on a public institution.
posted by scruss at 8:06 AM on February 7, 2020 [3 favorites]

I celebrated someone else's birthday instead - Rick Astley.
posted by ZeusHumms at 8:16 AM on February 7, 2020 [5 favorites]

kozad: "Not knowing it was Ronald Reagan Day, I celebrated in blissful ignorance."

That was ... fitting.
posted by chavenet at 8:19 AM on February 7, 2020 [6 favorites]

To really embody the Reaganite spirit, you have to take an enormous shit on a public institution.
How about on the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center?
(That the largest government building in DC is named for him is almost as ironic as naming DCA for him)
posted by MtDewd at 8:20 AM on February 7, 2020

I used to fly a lot for my old job, and thought about what a slap in the face naming DCA for him was to every unionized air travel industry worker every time I went through that shitty airport.

Also, DCA sucks. Such bad design.
posted by bile and syntax at 8:40 AM on February 7, 2020 [8 favorites]

But it's only been a few months after he was exposed to the public on tape being too openly racist for Nixon, hasn't it?
posted by Selena777 at 8:40 AM on February 7, 2020 [3 favorites]

I still have no idea what a "20-mule-team borax" signifies.

It’s a reference to the twenty mules they would hitch to trains used to move stuff around at the borax mines outside Mojave, north of Los Angeles.

Well, you learn something new every day! I always just assumed it meant that it was supposed to be as strong as a team of twenty mules. Like, if you called something "20-horsepower."

If I'd known about the observance I'd have burned a miniature effigy. I can't even stand to watch any of his old movies; it's bad for my blood pressure. Evil clowns, him and Nancy both.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:01 AM on February 7, 2020 [4 favorites]

I was going to sanction treason and violation of both the constitution and U.S. law, but I was beaten to that by two days. So I guess I'll just dedicate my next urination to him, although the phosphorus in that might do some actual good.

Also, don't forget he sold out SAG when he was the president of the union.
posted by Hactar at 9:24 AM on February 7, 2020 [5 favorites]

Rick Astley's birthday would be a much more wholesome thing to celebrate IMHO.
Ma Ardship worked on UC Berkeley campus back in the sixties. She wasn't there the day they gassed the protestors, but a pregnant colleague was. The woman asked her doctor what possible side effects the gas might have on the fetus and was basically told, "dunno, guess we'll find out." So fuck Mr. Pro Life for putting that baby's life on the line.
Anyway, here's Mojo Nixon.
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 9:24 AM on February 7, 2020 [7 favorites]

DEAD! REAGAN! PARTY!
posted by rmd1023 at 11:35 AM on February 7, 2020 [2 favorites]

That is a... well-crafted proclamation. More on the man who broke the spine of this country:

-- Meet Executive Order 12333: The Reagan rule that lets the NSA spy on Americans (WaPo, July 18, 2014) / The ‘Primary Source’ Of NSA’s Spying Power Is A 33-Year-Old Executive Order By Ronald Reagan (ThinkProgress, Sept. 30, 2014)

-- Instituted the global gag rule, the "United States government policy that blocks U.S. federal funding for non-governmental organizations that provide abortion counseling or referrals, advocate to decriminalize abortion, or expand abortion services. [...] Since that time [1984], the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has enforced the policy during all subsequent Republican Administrations and has rescinded the policy at the direction of all Democratic Administrations. [...] Research shows that by reducing funding for family planning organizations which use abortion as one of many methods of family planning, the Mexico City policy has had the inadvertent impact of increasing unintended pregnancies and abortions." (Mexico City Policy entry, Wikipedia)

-- Removed Jimmy "Put On a Sweater" Carter's solar panels from the White House roof, while gutting "the research and development budgets for renewable energy at the then-fledgling U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) and eliminated tax breaks for the deployment of wind turbines and solar technologies—recommitting the nation to reliance on cheap but polluting fossil fuels, often from foreign suppliers."(Scientific American, August 6, 2010)

[Full disclosure: I did eat some jellybeans yesterday, but not to celebrate Reagan. I've never done, and will never do, anything as a celebration of Reagan.]
posted by Iris Gambol at 11:59 AM on February 7, 2020 [6 favorites]

This makes me want to puke. Smarter people than me have summarized more eloquently the white wash this man has received, but for the kids born after the 1980s, please make sure you and your friends are educated about the depth of this man's depravity, which started when he was a rapist before World War II and ended with his dementia-addled brain holding his finger on the nuclear button. The deaths of millions of people, mostly people of color and gay people, rest squarely on his ugly face.

This proclamation would literally prevent me from ever voting for Newsom for anything if lived in California again.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 1:00 PM on February 7, 2020 [5 favorites]

Reagan's greatest crime was a simple one: he was the pointman for implementing the messages of the conservative think tanks of the 60s and 70s.

He was the advocate for the message that government programs, and government in and of itself, were bad things. That the best office-holder was one who chose not to use the power of the office for the public good. That someone visibly unsuited to the role was not only a possible choice but the _best_ choice in conservative eyes. (A template that Dubya and Trump followed to the letter, having watched vaguely more serious Republican candidates fail.)

He was a shameless authoritarian, from the blood on his hands as Governor of California to his racial pandering to his marriage to the religious right to his clear disdain for anyone who thought differently. He oversaw massive deregulation and deprotection of our environment, our industries and our economy, kickstarting a massive surge in the plundering of America and transfer of its wealth and assets to fewer and fewer people.

None of the above should sound unusual to people who have watched America over the last fifty years. But the key crime, once again, is this: he normalized all of the above in the public eye. He provided the facade behind which America was looted, the alternative conservative media machine was expanded and the Newt Gingriches of the world licked their chops eagerly, a spiral which America is still eagerly sliding down.

He set the expectation for conservatives that followed him: they should not demand competence and ethics, but rather image and obedience. Not common sense and compromise, but intransigence and pandering and dehumanization of the Other. Not Country, but Party.

And all the world is worse off for it.
posted by delfin at 1:13 PM on February 7, 2020 [17 favorites]

Fucker's still dead. That's worth celebrating, surely?
posted by Grangousier at 1:15 PM on February 7, 2020 [6 favorites]

Coincidentally, I had a dream the other night that Reagan had defected to Russia. Even while I was asleep that it seemed surprising that he was apparently still alive.

I don’t know why my subconscious was harking back in the 80s, I certainly haven’t been thinking about Reagan much recently.
posted by Bloxworth Snout at 1:37 PM on February 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

To paraphrase Saint Ronnie, you know, a memorial is a memorial, how many more do you need? We need a common sense limit on hagiographies.

Candidate (not yet governor) Ronald Reagan, while speaking before the Western Wood Products Association in San Francisco on 12 March 1966, said the following:

I think, too, that we’ve got to recognize that where the preservation of a natural resource like the redwoods is concerned, that there is a common sense limit. I mean, if you’ve looked at a hundred thousand acres or so of trees — you know, a tree is a tree, how many more do you need to look at?

Source: Snopes.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:08 PM on February 7, 2020 [2 favorites]

Grangousier: Fucker's still dead. That's worth celebrating, surely?

Born: February 6, 1911. Died: June 5, 2004 (previously).

I'll pretend that World Environment Day is also to celebrate his passing.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:12 PM on February 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

I didn't know about the proclamation until today when I saw this thread. I don't have the millions of words to spew my intense disgust about that man and his actions; may you all have big fat healthy bowel movements to commemorate his achievements. (not to shit on, y'know, a good shit. it's just the least vitriolic thing I can think of the express my feelings)
posted by winesong at 2:39 PM on February 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

a) buy lots of warheads
b) murder El Salvadoran priests
posted by j_curiouser at 5:59 PM on February 7, 2020 [2 favorites]

To paraphrase Saint Ronnie, you know, a memorial is a memorial, how many more do you need?

Ronald Reagan Memorial Redwood Grove
posted by to wound the autumnal city at 8:33 PM on February 7, 2020 [2 favorites]

Eh, if you think rebirth might be a possibility, our dog Ronnie was born not long after Reagan died, so Ronnie's still around, just more safely embodied this time (though he's getting a bit frail now).
posted by anadem at 10:11 PM on February 7, 2020

Ronnie was already a bit frail by the time of his election to President.
posted by hippybear at 10:22 PM on February 7, 2020

Our neighborhood celebrated by banding together and giving our money to our richest neighbors because then they might spend a little bit of it on us.

But then they moved away and we're broke. Darn.
posted by -1 at 11:41 PM on February 7, 2020 [3 favorites]

I spent a few minutes reflecting on his amazing life, and being grateful that he was our President. And I'm glad that Newsom issued the proclamation honoring him.
posted by davidmsc at 8:15 AM on February 8, 2020 [1 favorite]

Stockholm Syndrome emoji.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 11:10 AM on February 8, 2020

or maybe just a hamburger emoji.
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:10 AM on February 8, 2020

People love to jump to the horrors if Reagan's presidency because more people lived through them and they're closer in memory, but his legacy on California is just as terrible. His two terms as governor served as a blueprint for what the US would be like under him, and if you read either of Pat Brown's books about Reagan you would see how obvious that was. Hindsight and history somehow makes it worse.
posted by kendrak at 12:19 PM on February 8, 2020 [2 favorites]

The initial framing of this is shit.

Newsom has to issue a proclamation per Senate Bill 944 (introduced and co-sponsored by Republicans--natch--but passed without opposition in the Senate (32-0-7) and Assembly (66-0-14) and signed by Schwarzenegger--although Gov Davis seems to have started the trend that Arnie continued until it became law).

And for reference, Gov Brown's first proc is, IMO, worse than Newsom's linked proc. (excerpted, emp added):

As California’s governor, he worked with members of the Legislature from across the political spectrum to advance this State’s fiscal future, thereby elevating collaboration above ideology whenever the common good was at stake.

As President of the United States, his enduring legacy is likewise defined by his eschewal of political dogmatism when confronted with the practical needs of the Nation. To that end, he took bold steps to reduce the threat of nuclear war and worked with members of Congress from both parties to enact pragmatic fiscal reforms.

posted by MikeKD at 7:54 PM on February 8, 2020 [1 favorite]

I was born in 1984. Can someone recomend a good book or longread about reagans bullshit? I've picked up basics, but it's a bit of a blindspot because it was too recent for any history classes i had in school, but i was not a deep thinking being while it was going on.
posted by WeekendJen at 2:20 AM on February 13, 2020

Here's a review of Thomas Piketty’s book, Capital in the 21st Century. Excerpt:

Currently, Piketty says, capital is largely immune to a progressive tax and estates are much more lightly taxed than income. In fact, under constant political pressure from the elites, the estate tax has been stigmatized as the “death tax” and the top marginal tax rates on income have declined from over 80 percent to about 35 percent in the U.S. (p. 507)

Piketty writes that this reversal clearly owes to the coming to power in the United States of Ronald Reagan (and in Great Britain of Margaret Thatcher). Under Reagan, the top rate actually declined below 30 percent. This slashing of the tax rates does much to explain the increase in wealth to the top 10 percent from 1980 onward.

Reagan started the slide into the mess we have now.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:44 AM on February 13, 2020

The one redeeming thing Reagan did was acquiesce to the perceived need to raise taxes slightly after discovering that bone-cutting tax decreases don't in fact increase government revenue. Unfortunately, that period of his Presidency was memory-holed rather quickly and did nothing to stop the storm of lies from the emerging right wing hate radio windbags being repeated enough to be accepted as reality.
posted by wierdo at 4:40 AM on February 13, 2020

Can someone recomend a good book or longread about reagans bullshit?

Paul Slansky's 'The Clothes Have No Emperor' was the 'The List' of its day, but also it's funny. Haynes Johnson's 'Sleepwalking Through History' is a more traditional narrative history, but unabashedly critical. If you, like me, are specifically interested in Reagan's relationship with the media, 'On Bended Knee: The Press and the Reagan Presidency' is a good one.
posted by box at 5:14 AM on February 13, 2020