Isa Leshko’s portraits of ageing animals are a tribute to creatures too often dismissed as mere livestock – and a poignant reminder of our own mortality

When I began this project, my galleries weren’t sure people would want to buy the prints, because the pictures were too sad,” says the American photographer Isa Leshko. “So I put a film about the work online. Immediately I was flooded by emails with stories about ageing parents or pets, and when I showed the pictures at some exhibitions, visitors would come up to me in tears. I wasn’t prepared for that at all,” she says, “but I think it’s difficult to talk about the people and animals that we love growing old and dying, and the portraits give people a licence to express grief for someone.”

Leshko’s photographs, collected in her book Allowed To Grow Old: Portraits of Elderly Animals from Farm Sanctuaries, are of old and often rather weather-beaten farm animals. You need a bit of a nudge before you see what’s unusual about them – ie they are old, whereas most farm animals are dispatched to the abattoir in their youth (and in many cases in their infancy).

The subjects have mostly been rescued from slaughterhouses or farms after the authorities have intervened in cases of cruelty, and taken to live on one of the animal sanctuaries scattered across the US. A few, like the 28-year-old Appaloosa horse Buddy, have been donated when owners became unable to care for them – in Buddy’s case, painful iritis meant he had to have his eyes removed, and he needed expert care to help him get used to his blindness.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/feb/10/isa-leshko-farm-animals-photographs-allowed-to-grow-old?CMP=twt_gu

DURHAM, N.C. (WNCN) - Is it taking a stand or disrespecting the flag? That's the question some are asking after a Durham 10-year-old took a knee during the Pledge of Allegiance at Monday night's city council meeting.

Video of the meeting shows Liam Holmes drop down. The city council had invited Cub Scout Pack 451 to lead the pledge. Liam said he is a Cub Scout.

"What I did was took a knee against racial discrimination, which is basically when people are mean to other people of different colors," said Liam Holmes.

...

"No one saw it except the people that were watching. And the mayor noticed and he thanked me," Liam said.

"Thank you, councilman, and thank you, scouts. To the scout that expressed his conscience by kneeling, we will say we endorse and appreciate all expressions of conscience in Durham City Council," Mayor Steve Schewel said.

...

CBS 17 asked Liam what he'd say to people who didn't approve of what he did.

"Well, those people just don't listen," Liam said.

https://www.cbs17.com/news/local-news/durham-county-news/durham-10-year-old-kneels-during-pledge-of-allegiance/1758163903

More I think about it, the stranger this is. Pardons are typically handled by the DAG, and don’t go to the AG or his office at all. Really no reason he should be aware of pardon documents in the normal course.

A U.S. Army regiment held its annual ball last night at the Trump Hotel DC— so soldiers were potentially sending money up the chain of command. And pics of them in dress uniform in front of the hotel's logo made it to social media.

Commander-in-chief’s hotel hosted The Old Guard’s fourth battalion’s ball

The Army’s 3rd U.S. infantry regiment’s fourth battalion held its annual ball last night at commander-in-chief Donald Trump’s D.C. hotel.

“There were no government funds spent, no appropriated funds spent on this,” said Maj. Stephen Von Jett, director of communications for the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment. “It was funded through ticket sales and fundraisers that some of the soldiers did internally, down at the company level.”

The 356 tickets that were sold to the event cost $80 each and came with a free beer voucher, per the event’s invite. Soldiers attending ranged from battalion commander LTC Jeffery Burroughs though the most junior members, Von Jett said. President Trump, of course, still owns the hotel and can profit from it—meaning money from soldiers in the U.S. Army could have gone right to the top of the military’s chain of command.

https://zacheverson.substack.com/p/old-guard-parties-commander-in-chief

On July 27, 2017, Johnny Wheatcroft was a passenger in a silver Ford Taurus when a pair of Glendale, Arizona,
police officers pulled in front them in a Motel 6 parking lot.

The stop was for an alleged turn signal violation.

Minutes later, Wheatcroft was handcuffed lying face down on the hot asphalt on a 108-degree day. He'd already been tased 10 times, with one officer kneeling on his back as another, Officer Matt Schneider, kicked him in the groin and pulled down his athletic shorts to tase him a final time in his testicles, according to a federal lawsuit and body camera footage obtained by Scripps sister station KNXV-TV.

The scene was witnessed by his 11- and 6-year-old sons.

“I have never seen anything like this before... This is just beyond the pale. It’s outrageous conduct.”

Multiple independent law enforcement experts, who agreed to review the incident, said the officers’ conduct was unlawful, potentially criminal, and one of the most cruel and troubling cases of police misconduct they’ve ever seen.

https://www.kshb.com/news/national/abuse-of-force-body-camera-video-shows-man-tased-11-times-by-officers-in-arizona

A retired actor found what he thought was an ideal place to live in Greenwich Village in 1955, for $90 a month. He never left.



It was 1955 when Albert S. Bennett moved into the building on Morton Street.

“I came around the corner and saw all these trees and the Morton Street Pier. There was a Norwegian American liner docked there,” Mr. Bennett said. “The apartment was this tiny space downstairs. It was absolutely perfect.”

Sixty-three years and six landlords later, he still thinks so.

Over the decades, many things have changed, of course: His rent, which was $90 a month when he moved in, is now nearly $900; the Morton Street Pier and Norwegian America line no longer exist; and he has lived on the second floor since the early 1960s.

But his affection for his building, an 1854 townhouse, has never waned. And in the 1980s, after he inherited some money from the estate of his mother, he offered to pay significantly more than the $200 a month the landlord was charging for his rent-controlled apartment.

“Hardly anyone had taken any automatic rent increases, and I felt bad paying so little,” said Mr. Bennett, now 93. “I had this beautiful apartment. She was a good landlord and never asked for automatic increases. And I liked the house so much. So I made a generous offer.”

Does he regret it?

“Oh yes! I’ve said many times that was the worst decision of my life,” Mr. Bennett said. “I got what looked like a huge amount of money to me in 1984, but it turned out it wasn’t.”



https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/04/realestate/the-perfect-rent-controlled-apartment.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

I LOVE @NatashaBertrand. She is the Hermione Granger of the Trump era news media. As JK Rowling put it “The brightest witch of her age.” #WhereIsHerPulitzerAt?

This pretty much sums it up 🤣 had such a great time on @RealTimers tonight!

President Donald Trump’s businesses received nearly $3.8 million from political committees during the two-year 2018 campaign cycle, according to the latest disclosure reports. The top political customers: Trump’s re-election campaign and the Republican Party.

Trump’s campaign committee spent more than a million dollars at Trump businesses during the midterm elections, including renting space at the Trump Tower in New York City, according to disclosures filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Throughout 2017 and 2018, Trump hotels in Chicago, Las Vegas, and Washington and golf clubs in Virginia, Los Angeles, Miami and Bedminster, N.J., cashed in as well, as venues for events by political groups large and small. Candidates and political operatives also billed hotel stays to Trump’s network of luxury resorts.



https://about.bgov.com/news/trump-businesses-get-a-boost-from-republican-party-patronage/