Sure, now that nobody is listening to you ...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) today urged Republican men to go ahead and get the shot. He said there is “no good argument not to get the vaccination.”

Another take on Webb Pierce's song

By beloved Ted Hawkins:

[link:http://

There is only one story today.

[link:https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-25-2021?r=7iklp&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email&utm_source=copy|]

The story today is not about coronavirus vaccines, or border solutions, or economic recovery, because all of those things depended on the election of Joe Biden. If the Republicans get their way, no matter how popular Democrats are, they will never again get to direct the government.

Voting Gangnam Style: The Rise of Kim Crow

[link:https://www.gregpalast.com/|]

Helen grew concerned. The names she’d gathered were not being added to Georgia voter rolls. When she called Kemp‘s office, she was told there were no such registrations, the registration forms didn’t exist.

But, Helen responded, she had copies of the forms. That was a mistake. According to Brian Kemp, it’s illegal to copy a voter registration form. But, if copying forms is barred, how can you prove someone tried to register? You can’t. And that’s the whole point.

When a government acts to prevent voters from registering, that’s a federal crime. A go-to-jail crime. But in Georgia, and too many other states, it’s the victims who face arrest and prison.

Why Rep. Deb Haaland's appointment as Secretary of the Interior Department is so important

From historian par excellence, Heather Cox Richardson:

[link:https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-15-2021|]

The Biden administration seems eager to break the hold of the energy industry on the Interior Department. As soon as he took office, Biden appointed almost 50 top officials, and froze the new drilling permits issued by the Trump administration for review.

Senator John Barrasso (R-WY), the top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, told Haaland that his state collects more than a billion dollars a year in royalties and taxes from the oil, gas, and coal produced on federal lands in the state, and warned that the Biden administration is “taking a sledgehammer to Western states’ economies.”

Haaland reassured him that having “lived most of my adult life paycheck to paycheck,” she understands the economic struggles of ordinary Americans and is fully on board with the administration’s plan to build back better, “to responsibly manage our natural resources to protect them for future generations—so that we can continue to work, live, hunt, fish, and pray among them.”

“A voice like mine has never been a Cabinet secretary or at the head of the Department of Interior,” Haaland tweeted when Biden announced her nomination. “I’ll be fierce for all of us, our planet, and all of our protected land.”

Listen to Five of the World's Newest, Wildest Instruments

[link:https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/12/arts/music/classical-music-instruments.html|]

Steve Parker’s musical instruments make no sound. Instead, this trombonist repurposes brass instruments as sculptural listening devices. His inspirations are the early-20th-century military sound locaters — some called war tubas — that were used to detect approaching enemy aircraft before the invention of radar. Parker’s instruments exude a similar gangly menace, with yards of Seussian tubing ending in the flared bells of trombones and sousaphones.

Parker’s devices — some wearable, some attached to a gallery wall — become part of compositions that play with the dimensionality of sound. They also connect music with aggressive modes of listening like surveillance and espionage.

“They are picture frames — but they are more than that,” Parker said in a video interview from the American Academy in Rome, where he is currently a fellow. “They not only select and amplify certain sounds; they also resonate at certain frequencies. Because the instrument vibrates when the sound hits it, it harmonizes it in a subtle way.”

Parker says the effect on the listener is disorienting. He likes how the repurposed marching band instruments — rich in associations with warfare, protests and modern gladiator sports — can be transformed into tools for communal listening. And he enjoys the “bit of bricolage” that goes into disassembling instruments and soldering their components with copper pipes from the hardware store. In the process, he said, “I’ve become quite friendly with my plumber.”

Interestingly, all this talk about potato gender

Brings to mind good old “Spuds” McKenzie. If you had a TV or were even half-conscious in the ‘80s, you may remember the beloved canine beer mascot. But do you remember that the seemingly macho bull terrier was actually a female? Look up:
Honey Tree Evil Eye...

Letters From an American 3/9/21

[link:https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-9-2021?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email&utm_source=copy|]

Exerpt:

Bob Smietana of the Religion News Service broke the story that evangelical Beth Moore, a hugely popular leader, has left the Southern Baptist Church. A survivor of sexual assault, Moore objected to her denomination’s support for Trump in light of the Access Hollywood tapes in which he boasted of sexual assault. She has increasingly parted ways with church leaders and now has announced that she is leaving the denomination. Her departure could lead a number of women out of that church.

Actually, they WERE; only they were called "condoms."

AZ Rep Grumbles 'No Masks Were Required' To Curb HIV

State Rep. Joseph Chaplik (R-AZ) argued that if HIV didn't require face masks, COVID doesn't either.

[link:https://crooksandliars.com/2021/03/az-rep-grumbles-no-masks-were-required|]

Best anthem video hands down!

[link:http://