Juneteenth, Firmly Established

I figured that I would post about Juneteenth on the actual day, even though it being a federal holiday, it can be celebrated on Monday, 6/20.  I've been posting about Juneteenth for over a decade, because I had the great good fortune of working with an East Texas gal, a history buff, who had grown up celebrating the holiday with her family.  Workplace diversity is a strength, dear readers, and having a friend group from many backgrounds just makes you smarter.

Unlike, say, Memorial Day, which seems like it should be more somber, Juneteenth being a party day is appropriate- the holiday celebrates the actualization of what Independence Day promises, the prospect of actual implementation of the Declaration of Independence's lofty prose.  I can't think of a better way to celebrate than a cookout (after reflection on the holiday's meaning)... it being a cornerstone of African-American culture.  The foods typical of American summer celebrations are rooted in African-American foodways, as historian, chef, and activist Michael Twitty has so ably documented.  

Have a happy Juneteenth, and think of it as a supplement to the Fourth of July.  Sure, racism is still a problem, and there is a vicious backlash against teaching about the true role of race in these here United States, but this is an occasion to celebrate gains that were made.  The fight can be resumed tomorrow, must be resumed tomorrow.

Learning With Lizzo

Last week, there was a bit of a pop music controversy revolving around the use of an ableist slur by all-around good girl Lizzo.  In her new release, Lizzo used the word 'spazz', which is extremely offensive in the United Kingdom, a slur against persons with cerebral palsy.  Lizzo, whose oeuvre embraces inclusion and body positivity, issued an apology to the disabled community and rereleased the song with different lyrics, with the offending term excised.  Thankfully, she was forgiven, because she's way too fine to be this stressed.

In Lizzo's defense, the word in question is is not nearly as offensive in the USA, where it is typically used to denote simple clumsiness, often in a self-deprecating fashion.  The situation is pretty much the flipside of the use of the C-word, a show-stopper in the US, but not that big of a deal in the UK, as all-too-many English web commenters will tell you.  It's to Lizzo's credit that she took the concerns of disability advocates seriously, embraced this learning experience, and made the necessary change.  Intersectionality is important, and Lizzo executed it well.

It's often said that the US and the UK are two countries divided by a common language.  I'd say that we are two countries united by Lizzo.

Another Lap Around the Sun

It's that time of year, another successful completion of a lap around the sun...  I'm of the opinion that birthdays should be multi-day affairs, and accordingly, started celebrating last night with the bar trivia crew.  Oddly enough, tonight, the very night, will be the most low-key night.  I'm writing this at work, and don't have any real plans for the night.  Tomorrow, I'll be meeting friends for dinner and a couple of seasonally appropriate gin-and-tonics (while Chick Drink Summer is ongoing, I feel it unfair to order complicated cocktails while at a busy bar).  The festivities will continue into next week, as I coordinate with some June Baby friends... one friend asked me, "What do you have in mind?"  My answer: "A return to a semblance of normality."

When my mom called me this morning, she jokingly asked if I felt any different.  I can't say I do, but it's nice to be able to feel like I have a birthday again after two years of Nothing Much Going On.

Chalk Repatriation

What a difference a year and a half makes... back in Fall 2020, I pilfered requisitioned a box of sidewalk chalk from the art supplies of the children's activity center of one of our sites so I could draw social distancing marks on the pavement outside of my principal workplace, a polling site, for the November 2020 elections.  Knowing that it would be a big day, with many voters coming to the site, I prepped the place in advance, marking out six foot intervals and opening up a side door to maintain an one-way flow of foot traffic.  Those were the fraught days, before the vaccine rollout... they were politically fraught days too.

This year, we are reintroducing events that had been canceled during the height of the pandemic, beginning with a family-friendly event which is to take place next month.  Not having a need for the box of chalk at my principal workplace, I will be repatriating the sidewalk chalk... back to its proper place in the children's activity center art supply.

The chalk served me well.  It served the public well.  I was able to draw cheerful rainbow social distance markers to enhance the safety of the local voters.  Now, it's time for our young attendees to use the chalk.  I have no doubt that it will serve them well.

It's been a strange two years, it's nice to feel that some return to normality is taking place.

The Calls for Sedition Are Coming from Inside the House

It's damning footage, the images of Georgia representative Barry Loudermilk leading a tour of individuals (who later ended up storming the Capitol) through the various Congressional office buildings and the Capitol itself: 

This video shows one of the guests on Loudermilk’s inside Jan. 5 tour ominously name-checking Pelosi, Schumer, Nadler and AOC on Jan. 6 and chortling with a fellow Trumpie about using a weaponized American flag against “somebody special.” @January6thCmte is seeking more info. https://t.co/NUlQTmMa84

— Rep. Jamie Raskin (@RepRaskin) June 15, 2022

The optics aren't so good, especially the scenes of these creeps taking photographs of security checkpoints and stairways... not exactly tourist stuff.  The video from the following day, in which one of these monsters shows off a spear improvised from a flagpole, while calling for Nancy Pelosi's scalp, only drives home the horror:

Surveillance footage shows a tour led by Loudermilk to areas in the House Office Buildings, as well as the entrances to Capitol tunnels.

Individuals on the tour photographed/recorded areas not typically of interest to tourists: hallways, staircases and security checkpoints. pic.twitter.com/Rjhf2BTdbc

— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) June 15, 2022

This certainly looks like sedition to me, and Loudermilk should be dragged off in cuffs and leg irons for his role in the insurrection... it sure looks to me as if he enabled a reconnaissance of the vicinity in advance of the attack, an attack which probably would have proved fatal for Democratic lawmakers. 

Thank goodness he was providing intelligence to people of little intelligence.

Big Bastard Buys Big Boy Camera

A couple of months ago, so right-wing nincompoop asked me, "How is Brandon working out for you?"  I responded that I was doing well, that the high gas prices (still much lower in the US than in the rest of the world) weren't affecting me that much because I drive a small car, live in a region with top-notch public transportation, and dwell in a neighborhood in which I can conduct the vast majority of my errands (and recreational activities) on foot.  I made fun of MAGAs for driving oversized pickup trucks with immaculate beds because they were invested in performative masculinity to cover their insecurities.

I have to note that I am still doing well in the Biden Economy, well enough that I was able to indulge in some crass consumerism... I actually bought a good camera, the sort of camera one buys when one wants to learn the rudiments of serious photography.  Here is a picture of the camera, a Canon EOS Rebel T7 DSLR (say that ten times fast), taken with my cell phone camera:

My primary reason for purchasing this camera is the presence this year of some really spectacular birds at my various worksites.  I figured I owed it to them, to my readers, and to myself to take better photographs of them, and the other fauna and flora onsite.  

Right now, I am learning how to use the camera as a camera, and hope to learn how to use the camera as a data storage/transfer device in the coming days.  Hopefully, I'll have some good photos by week's end.  In the meantime, one of my coworkers (the all-around Good Guy who takes care of Ginger when she's on medical leave) is very knowledgeable about photography, and told me to ask him for advice anytime.  Another coworker told me that she had a similar camera sitting in her office, and needed to practice how to use it effectively.  I joked to them both that we should form a workplace camera club.

Thank you, Brandon!

Upper Class Twit Sends Warning

There are few people on this planet worst than the UK's Prince Andrew, serial sex pest and all-around disgusting person.  I have to note that one of his exes is pretty bad as well... a certain Lady Victoria Hervey a paranoid gun nut who totes a gun around Los Angeles because she is terrified of the proles committing crimes against her.  In a particularly disgusting bit, this member of the UK nobility has a warning about proposed post-Uvalde gun control measures:

Lady Victoria said the Texas shooting was 'terrible' but claimed taking the right away  [to carry guns] 'could be disastrous'.

She controversially claimed: 'It could lead to mass genocide if the government was to go to war against its people.'

Mass genocide, eh?  Of whom?  Countless millions of Native American, Aboriginal Australian, Irish, and Bengali people couldn't be reached for comment.