The cost of gasoline

Posted on July 7, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Mike C.

Posted in Economics | 1 Comment

Art in the sand

Posted on July 6, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Gordon G.

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The rise of reactionaries in the wake of the 1918 flu pandemic

Posted on July 5, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Emergent movements, including a resurgence of the KKK, led to more anti-immigration policy, eugenics laws, religious fundamentalism and conservative leadership.

by Knute Berger (thanks to Pam P for sending)

Three people in white robes talking to a man in a suit

Three unidentified Washington Klan members, covered in robes and hoods, are interviewed by Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter Robert Berman, likely at a Klan initiation or pubic rally in 1923. (Courtesy of MOHAI, PI21477)ADVERTISEMENT

The end of the 1918 influenza pandemic in the early 1920s ushered in a rough, reactionary period in America. People were frustrated by war, inflation, and pandemic restrictions. Pent-up resentments with a rapidly changing society let loose as flu masks flew off and quarantines ended.

The Jazz Age was flourishing, thanks in part to new Prohibition laws. In Seattle, the so-called Jackson Street nightclub and speakeasy scene took off, spreading from Pioneer Square to the Central District and eventually birthing more than a generation of great music and musicians. But while the races exuberantly mixed in the after-midnight hours at clubs like the Black and Tan, nationally — and locally — reactionary racial politics took hold. By day, the segregating redlines in the city were steadfast and racist covenants spread.

Politically, the white middle class yearned for “normalcy,” which brought a sequence of conservative Republican presidents, including Calvin Coolidge, Warren G. Harding and Herbert Hoover, all of whom carried Washington state. But “normalcy” for many people meant a return to aggressive white supremacy. In some cases, Washington led the way.

The Ku Klux Klan revived in the ’20s. Once mostly limited to the South, it found new enthusiasts in the white middle class of the far West and Midwest. The KKK took over towns and state houses, including for a time Oregon’s. Anti-Black, anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic and anti-modernity, the Klan became a powerful force that paraded openly in the streets and rallied tens of thousands of people to witness late-night cross-burnings in places like Issaquah, Yakima and Renton. Some events attracted 30,000 or more people.

Seattle author Timothy Egan has written a book about the 1920s Klan revival, A Fever in the Heartland, due out next spring. Some five million Americans joined the 1920s KKK. In 1924, the Democratic delegations from Washington, Oregon and Idaho together unanimously opposed a plank in the party’s platform that would repudiate Klan violence.

New anti-immigration laws targeting Asians were passed to keep America white. The Northwest had been founded on race-based policies that impacted who could settle here and who could homestead. In 1921, the Washington Legislature passed the first law since statehood aimed at cracking down on Japanese immigrants by revoking their right to lease or rent land. A Washington Congressman, Albert Johnson, shepherded a bill through Congress, the Immigration Act of 1924, that essentially halted all Asian immigration. Johnson called it a “bulwark against alien blood.” These kinds of bills had strong support from both the KKK and the general public.

The year of the immigration act also saw the election of a conservative Republican governor in Washington, Roland Hartley, an Everett politician and timberman who broke with the progressive wing of the GOP. Historian Dave M. Buerge has written, “The 1924 campaign was a particularly grotesque one in Washington politics, with the Ku Klux Klan fomenting hatred against blacks, foreigners, Jews, and Catholics. Government intervention in private life during the war had fostered a backlash.”

Hartley capitalized. He was anti-labor, anti-tax and anti-government when he couldn’t control it with his autocratic ways. He slashed funding for the state highway department and for public schools, and he almost drove the University of Washington into the ground by cutting its budgets and seizing control of its board of regents. He bullied and name-called his enemies, though I’m not sure anyone today would be insulted by being called a “pusillanimous blatherskite.” 

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God Bless America

Posted on July 4, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Rosemary W.

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July 4th by Heather Cox Richardson

Posted on July 4, 2022 by Jim deMaine

And on July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, declaring: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

For all the fact that the congressmen got around the sticky little problem of Black and Indigenous slavery by defining “men” as “white men,” and for all that it never crossed their minds that women might also have rights, the Declaration of Independence was an astonishingly radical document. In a world that had been dominated by a small class of rich men for so long that most people simply accepted that they should be forever tied to their status at birth, a group of upstart legislators on the edges of a continent declared that no man was born better than any other.

America was founded on the radical idea that all men are created equal.

What the founders declared self-evident was not so clear eighty-seven years later, when southern white men went to war to reshape America into a nation in which African Americans, Indigenous Americans, Chinese, and Irish were locked into a lower status than whites. In that era, equality had become a “proposition,” rather than “self-evident.”

“Four score and seven years ago,” Abraham Lincoln reminded Americans, “our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” In 1863, Lincoln explained, the Civil War was “testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.”

It did, of course. The Confederate rebellion failed. The United States endured, and Americans began to expand the idea that all men are created equal to include Black men, men of color, and eventually to include women.

But just as in the 1850s, we are now, once again, facing a rebellion against our founding principle, as a few people seek to reshape America into a nation in which certain people are better than others.

The men who signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 pledged their “Lives, [their] Fortunes and [their] sacred Honor” to defend the idea of human equality. Ever since then, Americans have sacrificed their own fortunes, honor, and even their lives, for that principle. Lincoln reminded Civil War Americans of those sacrifices when he urged the people of his era to “take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Words to live by in 2022.

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July 4th – a day of celebration and remembrance

Posted on July 4, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Pam P.

celebrations pulse   It’s America’s 246th birthday, a midpoint of summer and a chance for communities to celebrate together

Everyone knows the Fourth of July marks the day in 1776 when the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence. And while that is true, it took a few days for all the members of the Continental Congress to sign, and a few years for the colonies to be truly independent.

How John Adams set the mood on July 2, 1776

The traditional Independence Day celebrations can be traced to none other than John Adams, a Founding Father who would later become the nation’s second president. In a note to his beloved wife, Abigail, he wrote: I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival…It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other, from this Time forward forever more. More than two centuries later, we’re still celebrating!

A celebration of community

Adams was right, of course since July 4th is arguably the biggest day of the year for communities to gather. There are parades, there are bonfires. And there are festivals that might include a hot dog eating contest. Then, after 9 p.m., friends, neighbors, and family all gather to watch fireworks.

If you think about it, besides the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Day each year, July 4th is the only other time when most of our country is united in doing the same thing – collectively looking up to the sky at the majesty of fireworks.

Regardless of where and how you enjoy the holiday, you never get too old to celebrate.
celebrations pulse   July 4th is about honoring America’s freedom

While fireworks fill the sky from coast-to-coast, at the heart of the Fourth of July is recognizing the gift of democracy that our country has. Through the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and World Wars I and II, America has stood tall, come together, and remained the United States of America. It’s what separates us from the rest of the world.

Perhaps no battle for freedom was more important and successful than the Allied landing on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day on June 6, 1944. Jim recently heard from a friend who shared a story about one of D-day’s most prominent, but little-known patriots. Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr. the son of President “Teddy” Roosevelt, was the oldest man to hit the beach on the D-day invasion. He was also the highest-ranking person to directly participate in the beach landing invasion.

Roosevelt knew the importance of the mission, he knew much of the invasion force were new, untried soldiers who had never seen combat. His requests to join his men were repeatedly denied, but he persisted, even when his superiors told him he faced near certain death.

The landing of the troops was successful, and General Roosevelt was there to see it all; however, six days later, Roosevelt died of a heart attack. He is buried in France. He has been called “the toughest man on the longest day.”   celebrations pulse   The midpoint of summer

July 4th comes on the heels of the longest day of the year, which is June 21, when the sun reaches its highest and most northerly point. After that day, daylight begins to become shorter.

The holiday of July 4th is sandwiched between the unofficial start of summer, Memorial Day, and the unofficial end of summer, Labor Day, so you can surmise that July 4th is the unofficial middle of summer.   celebrations pulse   So, at this mid-point, as we celebrate our shared history, let’s think about, for a moment, how we all come together as communities for this one singular day. The last few years, including this year, have been difficult for all of us, yet we persist in being the United State of America. Let’s celebrate our Union, and all that it has given us for the last 246 years.

Happy Fourth of July!
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Canada’s Fourth of July

Posted on July 3, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Pam P.

Ed note: This critique by Michael Moore rings true, but Canada is far from perfect. They have a history of discriminating against native populations and forcing children to be educated away from their families in often brutal conditions. There are divisions and discrimination between the English and French speaking Canadians. All that said, it is a much more progressive country with a sense of “we’re all in this together.” Have we lost our way in the USA?

Michael Moore

Yesterday, July 1, was Canada’s 4th of July. Yes, we Americans explain things through our lens, the only lens that matters, we rule the world, we’re #1, so yes, we call it your 4th of July. You Canadians call it “Canada Day”.  Whatever. It’s the day you celebrate YOUR independence from the British. But you didn’t do it our way — violent Revolution! — you had to do it your way, no killing, no death, no tossing and wasting good tea. You simply waited them out until they were sick of the cold and they just left. 80 years after our revolution. 

But when our Continental Congress in 1777 wrote the precursor to our Constitution — “The Articles of Confederation“ — they didn’t want to leave you, Canada, out of the new country! So they included a clause that said Canada could leave the Brits behind whenever they wanted and automatically become the 14th State of the United States of America. Thank you very much. You’re welcome! 

Here it is, Article XI, as written by our Founding Fathers:

ARTICLE XI. Canada acceding to this confederation, and joining in the measures of the United States, shall be admitted into, and entitled to all the advantages of this union. But no other colony shall be admitted into the same, unless such admission be agreed to by nine states.

Canada chose not to accept our generous offer. 

I wonder if maybe now they’d like to reconsider? How many Canadians yesterday on Canada Day spent time at their BBQs wishing they could strip their female citizens of their reproductive rights! And strip their environmental ministry of its authority to stop carbon polluters! 

Oh Canada, how on May 14th of this year you must have looked longingly across the Niagara River at Buffalo while Black people were slaughtered by one of our thousands of white supremacists with legally-purchased guns! You know your Stanley Cup now sits just miles from Columbine High School! 

How weak you must feel having to depend on your government which pays for every single one of your doctor and hospital bills — and you, never having to suffer the pain of bankruptcy due to medical bills, because you refuse to play by the rules of the free market system which decrees there can be no health care without a profit motive! Without the shareholders getting rich through the widespread denial of medical care! All this freeloading — no wonder you’re soft! We’ll never forget that you wouldn’t join us in invading Iraq! 

How can you live like this?! Pre-voter registering every one of your citizens on the day of their birth so that they get their voter card 18 years later to the very day?! How the hell can you suppress the vote that way! Why do you resent the way Democracy works! 

And now your prime minister tells every American woman that if they are unable to get an abortion in the U.S. they are welcome to come to Canada and get one for free! At least 20% of America considers this an act of war!  

To our Canadian neighbors — I’m sure most Americans would still love to have you as part of our Great nation. As we get ready to honor our 4th of July, what a neat celebration it would be to have you with us! We’ll teach you how to shoot, how to gerrymander, and we can help you clean up your constitution (Section 28 of the current Canadian Constitution’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms: “Notwithstanding anything in this Charter, the rights and freedoms referred to in it are guaranteed equally to male and female persons.”)

Think about it!

Posted in Government | Comments Off on Canada’s Fourth of July

The missing support at Graystone’s NE corner

Posted on July 1, 2022 by William Calvin

A curious omission.

July 1 photo from NE 26th floor of Skyline.
If this architect’s presentation is still current, it looks like the support’s omission may be to maintain the view from a restaurant.

Any other guesses?

Posted in In the Neighborhood, Uncategorized | Comments Off on The missing support at Graystone’s NE corner

The coolest art museums around the world

Posted on July 1, 2022 by Jim deMaine
Niterói Contemporary Art Museum — Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Thanks to Ann M.

Please click here to view these amazing creations.

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If the hat fits …..

Posted on July 1, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Mary Jane F.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on If the hat fits …..

More riveting than a TV drama

Posted on July 1, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Pam P.

Posted in Government | Comments Off on More riveting than a TV drama

Repeating wedding vows

Posted on June 30, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Neal J.

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Cartoons for the intellectual

Posted on June 29, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Sybil-Ann

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A bit of pun-ishment

Posted on June 29, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Gordon G

Mahatma Gandhi, as you now, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet.  He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath.  This made him a super callused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.

And finally, there was the person who sent ten different puns to friends, with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh.  Unfortunately, no pun in ten did.

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Thanks for the help

Posted on June 28, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Sybil-Ann

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Women Declare Themselves Corporations to Force Supreme Court to Grant Them Rights as People

Posted on June 27, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Pam P.

By Andy Borowitz June 27, 2022

Women protesting the Supreme Court decision.

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Millions of American women and girls have declared themselves corporations in order to force the United States Supreme Court to grant them rights as people, legal observers have reported.

Attorneys across the nation indicated that they have been swamped by requests from clients seeking to incorporate as soon as possible.

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If Clarence Thomas were consistent, he’d oppose Loving v. Virginia

Posted on June 27, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Pam P.

Ed note: My wife and I were married in Pennsylvania in 1964. This would have been illegal in Virginia at that time. The Loving v. Virginia case of went to the Supreme Court in 1967, giving citizens the right to an interracial marriage. There’s an excellent movie about this on Netflix simply titled Loving. This article below discusses this constitutional right and others that may be challenged in the future.

By Jesse J. Holland, MSNBC Opinion Columnist

In a concurring opinion to Friday’s Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote, “In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell.” The rulings Thomas referred to guarantee the right to contraception, same-sex relationships and same-sex marriages.

Justice Clarence Thomas, a Black man, is married to Ginni Thomas, who’s white.

But those substantive due process precedents also include Loving v. Virginia, the Supreme Court’s 1967 decision that says that laws banning interracial marriage violate the equal protection and due process clauses of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. And Justice Clarence Thomas, a Black man, is married to Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, who is white.

Unlike Thomas, the other justices, both conservative and liberal, contended with what Friday’s decision could mean for cases that include Loving, and seven mentioned Loving by name.

But the only African American on the Supreme Court, and the only Supreme Court justice in an interracial marriage, doesn’t mention Loving at all. Though Thomas argues that all those other precedents should be reconsidered, he implies by his silence that the one that affects him personally is sacrosanct.https://midgard.pressekompass.net/compasses/msnbc_opinion/the-current-supreme-court-reaches-its-op?embed=embed&paywall=anonymous&curl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.msnbc.com%2Fopinion%2Fmsnbc-opinion%2Fclarence-thomas-s-roe-v-wade-opinion-leaves-us-questions-n1296586&bifrost=true

He doesn’t acknowledge that his decision and the decision of his conservative colleagues could theoretically give his own state of Virginia, which had to be forced by a Supreme Court ruling to permit interracial marriages, another shot at banning them.

I’m not the only one who believes Loving seems intentionally left out.

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The new Alito-Cavanaugh-Barrett Line

Posted on June 26, 2022 by Jim deMaine
Posted in Government, History, Justice, Law | Comments Off on The new Alito-Cavanaugh-Barrett Line

What’s in the heart?

Posted on June 25, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Mary Jane F.

Posted in Government | Comments Off on What’s in the heart?

Essay on the future – read forward and in reverse

Posted on June 24, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Yvonne P.

Posted in Essays | Comments Off on Essay on the future – read forward and in reverse

Vito’s Go Fund Me

Posted on June 24, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Frank C.

The fire in the Madison Apartments did not directly damage Vito’s, but 20,000 gallons of water came down into the restaurant from the upper floors.  A Go fund Me project has been launched to help Vito’s staff during the forthcoming weeks of closure.  The details are given here:

Vito’s Staff Relief Fund, organized by Stephanie Loose
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Help to “Stuff the Truck” on Sunday

Posted on June 24, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Mary R.

Posted in Advocacy, In the Neighborhood | Comments Off on Help to “Stuff the Truck” on Sunday

Neurogenetics talk this afternoon at 3:30 PM in the OT

Posted on June 23, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Woody Guthrie died from Huntingdon’s Chorea in 1967. Although he passed away in his 50’s he was a prolific song writer–the most famous being “This Land is Your Land.” His mother died of Huntingdon’s when he was 14. His first two daughters died of Huntingdon’s.

So what’s going on here?

To find out please come this afternoon at 3:30 PM to hear neurogenetics Associate Professor of Neurology from the UW talk about genetically inherited neurologic disorders.

Posted in Health | Comments Off on Neurogenetics talk this afternoon at 3:30 PM in the OT

Skyline sunset on June 21st

Posted on June 22, 2022 by Jim deMaine

37 Degrees North of True West, 9:10 PM

Thanks to Mike C.

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Getting our attention

Posted on June 21, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Mary Jane F

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Getting our attention