SMHSMHSMH. “I woke up this morning and I got myself a [rude awakening].” George Floyd Part II. WTF! I wrote in August 2020 about George Floyd and my familiarity with the site of the civil unrest in Minneapolis: https://www.eastportlandblog.com/2020/08/24/bola-wrap-non-lethal-police-tool-for-use-in-mental-health-crisis-interventions-by-mark-erickson/ This morning greeted me with the murder of Daunte Wright, another unarmed Black Male being murdered …
2020 needs to go to a corner and think about what it did this past year. What ill would next befall the land? Well, on December 37th, which was the first day of Epiphany where we pray for a shining light to guide us through the darkness, a rabid, repulsive, and revolting mob of insurgents …
Seattle firebrand songwriter Rawb Middleton wrote this awesome protest song last year and shares this lyric video with you today to amplify his message. Please listen. Here’s how I described it a year ago: “But the wildest, awesomest and most subversive tune is a red hot and perfect send up of southern call and response …
Twenty-four days ago my Dad died after a grueling three-year stay in a nursing home that he called his “jail cell.” Dad succumbed to a rare, progressive and irreversible neurological disease of unknown origin that is not hereditary. I wrote his obituary, and wanted to include Dad’s humble origins, which is why I wrote “born in a …
It’s astounding…time is fleeting…and the 2020 election is nearly here. Earlier in this unthinkable year, everyone’s favorite rock band Tenacious D – comprised of Jack Black and Kyle Gass – announced they would be touring throughout the fall in Swing States across the country to help encourage a massive voter turnout in this year’s election. Called “The Purple Nurple Tour – Twisting Hard …
My wife and I left Illinois for the first time in 2020 to take a much needed break. Earlier this year we canceled trips to Utah (to see several national parks) and to Barcelona. Last week we drove into Michigan to visit the Sleeping Bear dunes and Mackinac Island in lieu of Barcelona to celebrate …
In 2019, Iceland’s Hatari (meaning “hater” in the native tongue) qualified for the Eurovision music contest, which was created in 1956 in the aftermath of WWII. Tel Aviv, Israel, hosted the event that year, a year that also included the non-violent Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement to support Palestinians trapped in the Israeli apartheid state. …
John Lomacang Delivers the Best Sermon Since the Sermon on the Mount. It is titled, “Shaken.” https://www.amazingfacts.org/
Colin Kaepernick on police use of force against people of color "As police officers continue to terrorize black and brown communities, abusing their power and then hiding behind their blue wall of silence and the laws that allow them to kill us with virtual impunity…"Powerful words from Colin Kaepernick.#BlackLivesMatter #RightsNow Posted by Amnesty International USA …
For the most part, life while sheltering in place hasn’t been that much different since my last entry three weeks ago. Same routine of working from home, exercising in the evenings, grocery shopping on the weekends in a mask while using a precious bottle of sanitizer in my car in between stops. My supply comes …
A handful of words often tell you everything you need to know. When asked, who is Kate Tempest? She gives a brief, albeit telling answer. “Kate Tempest is the words,” she responds. You haven’t ever seen, heard or experienced anyone quite like her. Tempest uncovers the missing link between the Golden Ages of literature and hip-hop. The …
I can’t stop thinking about how I saw Jamaicans struggle with choosing data on their phones over food. I kept thinking that eventually that day would come for the average American. I have seen the homeless with laptops and smartphones. I have a homeless friend that depends on social media as an escape from his …
This is a nightmare. I better come out of this thing like Robert f☆cking Johnson. Not the dead version. Well at least Woody Guthrie. Not the one Bob Dylan sang to in a hospital bed. There a few possible outcomes and endless variations. At a certain point as touring and venues either collapse or stay …
You know what bugs me every single day and says to me that nobody is really at the wheel? The dog sh☆t lie that musicians are non essential. Not essential to what? Art is what keeps people alive. It’s essentially suicide prevention. People don’t want to admit it, and some people don’t know it, but …
For Biden to win in November he needs to deliver what he said Bernie could not. The former Vice President must do this after killing Bernie’s campaign like Wellington and the Coalition that brought down Napoleon: No… more like Lyndon B Johnson signing overdue Civil Rights legislation after JFK was killed by the interests of …
Not much different to report from my corner of the world this week. Grocery stores are tightening their social distancing policies, almost by the day, with some items returning to the shelves and others disappearing. Authorities seem increasingly to be acknowledging publicly that the situation is going to last much longer than was previously hoped, …
Trump plays checkers. All he does is jump back and forth over people and then he says, “King me”. He’s not sophisticated. He just makes a huge commotion, and while he steals what ever used to be headlines, his accomplices steal more sh☆t while nobody’s looking. Stop acting like it’s more complicated than that. When …
If destroying the dominance of the American dollar was your game, Donald Trump is your name. In less than four years he not only undid what Obama rightly did, he is taking it back. Way back. Way past Eisenhower. He’s going back to Hoover. The American dollar is now backed by Trump Steaks and sweat …
I have seen a few of my stock market worshipping friends post about how much money there is to be made of this disaster as markets “inevitably” rally as this virus “fades” and things go back to “normal”. But what they don’t understand about disaster capitalism is that history is undefeated and there is a …
I never met Dr. Wouter Nolet. The 90 minute drive into the African bush, to visit Masanga Hospital, was not pleasant. My colleague, a plastic surgeon from Ireland, had arranged for the four of us to make the journey in the back of a small ambulance, as the Land Rover, owned by the Holy Spirit …
Just finished my first week of working from home, and I can report a few developments from my tiny corner of the world. First of all, as you can see from my pictures, my pets are not at all perturbed by this recent course of events. There is something to be said of the bliss …
Bob Dylan’s first new song in 8 years is about the JFK Assassination and it’s’ cultural aftermath. If anyone should know how to recreate a diaphanous poetry-slam vibe of art, politics and loss beginning at 12:30 pm on November 22, 1963 and continuing to the present, it’s Bob Dylan. He does so with pastoral delicacy …
Let’s pick a day for Grandparents Day and found it on the fact that many of us stood up for the idea of not killing Grandpa and Grandma. …and some of we’re all for it, on the outside chance it might improve our 401k situation and there was some inheritance involved. Lets pick a day …
The following communique landed near Davin Michael Stedman during our modern equivalent of a V2 blackout of London, the Coronavirus Quarantine of 2020. These words are reposted here with permission: Hey Davin, did you know that I grew up with German Rocket engineers in Huntsville, Alabama? As a kid I used to play monkey bars …
When you see the National Guard ask yourself why we had not been using that energy to solve the greatest National Security challenges of our time, 1) Education 2) Healthcare Imagine where we could be if we were a physically and mentally stronger nation. That’s not even dealing with infrastructure and how much harder it …
Those of you who read my post on visiting Shanghai last month might have noted my expressed hope that the coronavirus, which had sent my daughter stateside when her English school closed, would not follow us home. Though both of us, currently living in my home in Redding, CA, are healthy and hope to stay …
What time are we getting quarantined here in Washington? You name it, you win the first the first jar of BBQ Sauce The Staxx Brothers produce. It’s going to be delicious. And it’s about to get way more weird. People came in the shop and I asked people how they felt. They for the most …
A fitting end to the reign of Trump is that the Stock Market decides that it cannot fully recover with Trump as Fuhrer. It’s just limp till November. Like trying to pick a lock with wet cracker. America just laying their fish eyed like Melania, dreaming of Barack. Or at least a youthful Patrick Stewart. …
Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang sent out this message today: Hello, I hope that you and yours are doing great at home. I am writing this from home with my two boys; their schools sent them home because of COVID-19. Evelyn and I are able to accommodate our boys being home from school. Many families …