Yesterday, I learned that Ruby Johnson, a Denver granmother of color, just my age, was awarded $3.76 million, by a jury, in damages after a SWAT team invaded her home in error while she was in the shower. Now if only we can get some compensation for the woman of color in Houston who was evicted from the home she has owned and lived in for fifty years. But I’ll take whatever good news I can get. Also yesterday, at the SOTU, Joe took a page from Harry Truman’s book – He didn’t give ’em hell. He just told the truth and they thought it was hell.
I know we are all frustrated with the mainstream media. And particularly with the New York Times, which has been around for so long, and has declined so badly in such a comparatively short time, that it’s depressing. And it’s scary. Even if we are not ourselves deceived by the slants, others are and many of those who are have guns and short tempers. The Times was on the mind of two writers this week – Lucian Truscott at Salon, and Robert Hubbell on Substack.
Joyce Vance may also be a chicken farmer and a knitter in her spare time, but above all, she is a fine and experienced trial lawyer and a legal analyst. Here are her thoughts on motions and such which are happening prior to the criminal trial in Manhattan.
Yesterday, the Beau video I have posted for today actually got a “Wow!” out loud from me (right about in the middle.) The Israeli government may be negligent and pidheaded, but the Israeli Armed forces (the IDF) – well, sometimes I wish our military were as smart and as outspoken as the Israeli one is being now.
This is from the New York Times (without the paywall). You know we always put a lot of effort into GOTV efforts, because when we vote we win – we are the majority. Republicans know that no amount of GOTV will give them wins, so they are putting effort into disqualifying legitimate voters .
I’m not sure what to make of this. It’s so crazy it’s funny – but it seems inappropriate to laugh at something so likely to cause so many deaths. (I wonder what Beau will have to say, if anything.)
Yesterday, I got another grocery order. I loaded up on fresh fruit and also got some fresh vegetables, one of which is intended to be in ingredient in a new crockpot recipe – so I’ll cut this short and go back to working on it. But P.S. – this is the T-shirt.)
As usual, Mary Trump has a lot to say. This time it’s about the cognitive issues of her uncle. She starts by quoting one of his former White House advisers on what she (the adviser) has seen since 2016. But then, Mary also goes back many years ago – as far back as when Donald got chosen and Fred disinherited. This makes his current state appear even more disastrous.
Axios sent out a news flash that Nikki Haley won the Republican primary in Vermont. Only that one, but it means Trump** cannot clain a sweep. Betcha Biden can. (And I find it hard to believe Bernie’s Vermont preferring Trump** over just about anyone, so it makes sense.)
Yesterday, I went through the mail that Trinette brought in on Sunday – there was less than usual total for the week, but more than usual I needed to deal with. A medical bill follow up for a bill I just turned ove to the HRA on Saturday evening. Another medical bill which a neighbor kindly put in my mailbox since there was a typo in the address. An envelope from Virgil which contained no letter, just a Xerox of a flyer for a convention (fact – since I’m not cleared to drive yet to see him, it’s unlikely I would want to go to a convention, even if I were interested :-)) And a renewal notice from PBS (including “Passport”). Yes, it’s time. And seeing as I also got an email telling me “Dead Man Walking” will be aired on and/or after March 19.
If you have ever pondered about why so many Republicans vote against their own interests – and, even harder to track, what that habit does to them – well, this post addresses that, and provides you with two further links, one to a podcast by John Fugelsang and the other to the book written by the author John is interviewing in the podcast. Hey, we know they are stupid. Sometimes we even think painfully stupid. But this points out they are actually heartbreakingly stupid.
Apparently the Trump** team did not make these deepfakes (I really shouldn’t call them that as they are not that professional – just the product of a crazy loner), but the Trump** team doesn’t appear to have disclaimed tham either.
Heather Cox Richardson picked March 2, the anniversary of US Steel (founded 1901), to write about that and about the policy changes made by Teddy Roosevelt. She writes late, so I did not get it until the 3rd, and today is the 4th, so it’s 2 days late. But it really should never be forgotten.
Tennessee Brando made a video for Meidas Touch about what it’s like to be an addict, active and recovering. He made it in connection with Hunter Biden’s testimony. But I wish everyone could see it. I’m sharing the link to the DU article because you can always get from there to YouTube comments if you like, but you can’t go the other way.
So sorry I’m late. I had it ready bot forgot to post. Yesterday, the radio opera was Verdi’s “Ernani,” an early work, in a historic broadcast from 1962. For at least the last three years, the Met has been setting aside one broadcast for a historic performance, and they ask listeners to vote for whhich of ten or a dozen they would like to hear. I didn’t vote for “Ernani,” but I’m not surprised it won, because Leontyne Price. And the three male stars are equally prestigious to anyone who was listening to opera in the sixties. However, I voted for “Der Freischutz,” simply because one never hears it these days. But “Ernani” is almost as rare, and probably more interesting. One of the roles, the baritone, represents someone who actually lived and made history, though whether he was ever in love with Wlvira, or even whether she existed is doubtful. But Charles, Holo Roman Emperor, the fifth of that name, did exist, and was elected to that post by an “Electoral College” – a standing one, comprising princes (heads of state) of the countries within the empire. Charles, and Ernani (the tenor, an outlaw, as much due to politics as to poverty), and da Silva (the bass, a Spanish nobleman, and Elvira’s guardian) are all three in love with Elvira, who loves only Ernani. The character who strikes me as different from other characters in this opera, and indeed from most characters in opera is da Silva, who seems to think he’s Rodney Dangerfield, but unlike Dangerfield he means it seriously. I see no signs of him actually being persecuted – he just doesn’t always get his way (and who does?) But that victim mentality – almost a complex – may at least partially explain why he is so malicious. A play by Victor Hugo was the inspiraton for the opera.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince-elector
Phillis Wheatley was America’s first black woman poet. This article picks her up at the auction at which she was sold upon arrival – which was pretty consequential – and goes from there, as does the book, with vatious little-known information. IMO she deserves to better known, and not just her name.
This is a segment from The Young Turks featuring a doctor discussing Trump**’s inability to produce the correct word for the context. No, it won’t convince any of his cultists. But what interested me was his use of the term “brain damage.” Virgil has brain damage with far less symptoms than Trump**) and he and I both know how he got it – he got it from a traumatic brain injury (TBI). TBIs are often closed head injuries, as Virgil’s was but not always, but in any case it’s unlikely that one would experience one and have no idea that something had happened. How else could one damage one’s brain? Drugs would be one. Some condition which involved anoxia could. Could some or all of these symptoms go back to his bout of CoViD-19, for which he was hospitalized? I’m no doctor, but I would say absolutely. There is increasing evidence that even mild CoViD-19 can cause damage to the brain.
I learned that another state – Illinois – is now onn the bandwagon of keeping Trump off the ballot. Good luck to all of us.
Heather Cox Richardson is reminded in our time of the times of the “Know Nothing” Party in the 1850s. And with good reason. The actual party name was “the Native American Party,” and later just “the American Party.” Just as misidentified as today’s “Patriots.”
(I have multiple sources for all of this – Wikipedia is the main one but Performance Today deserves mention.) Today being the second day of Women’s History month, and on the heels of Black History month, it seems to me a good day to bring up Florence Beatrice Price, an American woman of color who was a composer in the 20th Century. She was told many times she was “not a good fit” by publishers – but the Chicago Symphony played her works and they were met with appreciation. Wanamaker’s there (the first retail department store in the U.S.) would hold annual composition contests for local composers, and she was a consistent winner, in one year winning first, second, and third place. But all her manuscripts were kept in the home she used as a summer residence, and when she died, it was abandoned. It was not until 2009 that someone interested in purchasing the home discovered them, and fortunately, was musical enough to know what they had. The works included four symphonies, two violin concertos, a piano concerto, other orchestral works, songs, choral works, chamber music, arangements of spirituals, and probably more piano solos than anything else. According to Performance Today, she is not the most performed female composer in America. And that happened in the 15 years between 2009 and now. I am so glad that I have lived to hear at least some of it. I am listening to one on the radio as I type – her Symphony #3. And it is beautiful.
Yesterday, I got an email from VoteVets (not unusual). This one – I can’t give you a link to the content, only to donate, but I can quote this: “There’s a reason it was Senator Tammy Duckworth who introduced the bill to protect IVF in the Senate. It’s because Senator Duckworth has used it herself. After she was wounded in combat, IVF helped her become a mother. Many Veterans who were wounded in combat use IVF to have children. It’s their only option. Attacks on IVF — like the ones coming from the Republican appointed Supreme Court in Alabama — are attacks on wounded Veterans.”
This is a good news story though what’s in it is mostly not new. Shakespeare wrote, “Some are born great, others achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.” But I think that great people are often shaped by the people around them – that and a willingness to learn, from anyone and everyone, things which go into their becoming great.
some fresh vegetables, one of which is intended to be in ingredient in a new crockpot recipe – so I’ll cut this short and go back to working on it. But P.S. – this is the T-shirt.)
