A selfie is one way to show off your impeccable fashion, as well as proof that you did something or met someone cool. It’s even turned a few lucky, ordinary people with no special talent, into having a profitable career.
Selfies have been around for more than thirty years. It became popular after Paris Hilton and Britney Spears posed for a selfie.
I was surprised to learn, the first selfie was taken in 1839 on a daguerreotype camera by Robert Cornelius in Philadelphia. Cornelius was an amateur chemist and photography enthusiast. He took the image by removing the lens cap and then running into frame where he sat for a minute before covering up the lens again.
As if there isn’t enough selfie competition, lately the animal kingdom has gotten into the game. Animal selfies are not only amusing, but they might even make you a bit jealous. Some of them are indubitably photogenic.
From wild animals to domesticated pets, these creatures have perfected the art of selfies.
“When we stand together there is nothing, nothing, nothing we cannot accomplish.” Bernie Sanders
Local Artist Jonas Never Mural of Senator Bernie Sanders – Culver City, California
In my youth, I was never a fan of politics. Mostly because, I once worked for a Fortune 500 Corporation as their PAC Administrator. I experienced firsthand how major organizations dole out large sums of money to politicians they buy with their PAC funds. This job highly enlightened me to the true inner workings of politics.
My view of politicians changed dramatically, when in 1993 I saw Bernie Sanders, Independent Vermont Senator interviewed on CSPAN. I had never heard of Sanders before, but he caught my attention that day. He was the first politician I ever saw who was honest and real, which is never two words that are used simultaneously when describing a political figure.
In the past several decades Sanders has never wavered in his viewpoint against wars, helping veterans, private health care options for veterans, improving our healthcare system and attempting to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor. Funny, how half of America despises the only politician who can’t be bought and never changes his moral values and conduct.
My late husband was a disabled Vietnam veteran. As a wife/caregiver, I always followed any and all news about veterans. Back in 2013, I was watching closely a Veterans Bill that was being turned down by both Democrats and Republicans. At the time, Bernie Sanders was the chairman of the Senate Veterans Committee. Sanders was working tirelessly to get this bill passed. An important bill that would help all veterans.
Meanwhile, during the fight over the bill, national news broke that Veterans across the country were waiting months on end for appointments and the wait times were being hidden. Up to 40 veterans in Phoenix died while waiting for appointments. Hundreds never even got onto a list. And retaliation was the order of the day for those who tried to blow the whistle.
It turned out that nationwide, the VA was coping with the spike in demand by delaying appointments and treatment, manipulating schedules, falsifying records and possibly engaging in fraud. An interim report from the VA Inspector General on May 28, 2014 found it was taking an average 115 days for veterans in Phoenix to get primary care, as opposed to the 24 days shown on official records and 1,700 people seeking appointments were not on any list at all. The IG called the Phoenix problems systemic and said he had opened investigations at 42 VA health centers. On June 9, the VA reported that 57,000 veterans at its facilities were waiting more than 90 days for an appointment, and another 64,000 were not on a waiting list although they had sought care.
My husband and I were not surprised by the news reports concerning the deaths and wait times. We had experienced personally these same problems with the VA for years.
From the moment the scandal broke in April 2014, it took Congress less than four months to produce a new law, a split second by Capitol Hill standards. That it happened at all, and so fast, was a testament to the determination of Sanders and his partners to surmount the red-blue divide in American politics.
In the end, both votes were close to unanimous, a 420-5 in the House and 91-3 in the Senate. Obama signed the VA bill August 7, 2014. The new law, helped ensure that veterans have access to the care that they’ve earned.
Before this bill passed, my husband and I were stressed dealing with the VA and their lack of medical care. I would often wait hours on hold, get disconnected and worse yet, couldn’t get a needed doctor appointment for my husband. After the bill passed, I saw a dramatic improvement in the respect my husband received along with improved medical care and response times from the VA. The biggest improvement was the use of non-VA medical care my husband desperately required.
I truly believe, without Bernie Sanders determination to help veterans, the problems at VA medical facilities would have never improved and more deaths would have occurred.
Most people only know Sanders as that old crazy Independent Senator from Vermont who ran for president in 2016. But, that all changed when Bernie showed up at the 2021 Biden Inauguration dressed in casual attire wearing a heavy parka and hand-made wool mittens from a Sanders fan.
As of today, that image of Bernie bundled up has not only created countless memes and late night jokes, the senator seized on the opportunity to reprint the image on different products that he began selling on his website, Berniesanders.com the following day. The merchandise all sold out in less than 30 minutes, and Bernie has raised over $1.8 million for charities in his home state.
“Jane and I were amazed by all the creativity shown by so many people over the last week, and we’re glad we can use my internet fame to help Vermonters in need,” Sanders said in a written statement.
My son knows how much respect I have for Bernie Sanders, so this past week, he texted me a photo of a mural that a local artist created of Bernie.
I probably will never have the honor of meeting Mr. Sanders. So, being the die-hard Bernie fan that I am, I drove to Culver City and got the next best thing. A photo of this giant, magnificent fresco of my hero, Bernie Sanders bundled up.
“Keep on sowing your seed. For you never know which will grow. Perhaps it all will.” Albert Einstein
Most of my fellow Blogaholics are too young to remember one of this countries scariest early domestic terrorist and dangerous white supremacist, Charles Manson.
Manson was an American criminal and cult leader. Early in 1967, he formed what became known as the “Manson Family”, a quasi-commune based in California. His followers, not him personally, committed a series of nine murders in 1969. The motive for the murders was intended to start a race war.
Another well-known supremacist was leader, David Eden Lane. In March 1985 Lane was arrested in Winston-Salem, N.C., and charged with conspiracy and racketeering, along with 22 other members of The Order, a white supremacist terrorist organization also known as The Silent Brotherhood, or Bruders Schweigen. The charges were for The Order’s 1984 machine-gun assassination of a Jewish talk radio host in Denver, Alan Berg, and its robbery of $3.6 million from an armored car in Ukiah, Calif.
Lane was caught only after the FBI arrested Order member Tom Martinez, who became an informant as part of his plea bargain. This was the first step in the FBI takedown, known as “Operation Clean Sweep,” that landed most members of The Order in prison and effectively ended the organization’s criminal activities.
Lane was additionally accused in 1987, of violating Berg’s civil rights by helping to assassinate him, a federal charge. Lane was also charged with sedition, conspiracy and civil rights violations in what was widely known as the “Fort Smith sedition trial.” Thirteen other prominent white supremacists were also charged in a conspiracy to overthrow the government that allegedly ran between July 1983 and March 1985.
While both Manson and Lane did not pull the trigger, prosecutors said they played a large role in the planning of the murders they had committed by their followers.
White supremacy is not new to our nation. It has dominated in this country both before and after the American Civil War and continues today. Since the first white supremacist group, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) in 1865, the United States has an expansive list of the different types of racial elitist groups operating in the U.S.
Some academics argue that outcomes from the 2016 United States Presidential Election reflect ongoing challenges with white supremacy. As of 2018, there are over 600 white supremacy organizations recorded in this country.
Christopher A. Wray, the head of the FBI said on July 23, 2019 at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that the agency had made around 100 domestic terrorism arrests since October 1, 2018, and that the majority of them were connected in some way with white supremacy.
In an October 2020 assessment by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf declared that white supremacist violent extremists “have been exceptionally lethal in their abhorrent, targeted attacks in recent years.”
What we witnessed on January 6th is laden with white supremacists. Rioters wearing shirts with, “Camp Auschwitz and 6MWNE” which is a cry from racists, 6 MILLION DEAD JEWS WAS NOT ENOUGH. Hats and banners with these slogans are proof of white supremacists.
Not all Republicans and Trump supporters are white supremacist. In my point of view, all of the violent MAGA people at the capital attack are full blown white supremacists. These MAGA people stated clearly by carrying their confederate flags and confirming their white supremacy wearing proudly their merchandise with racists slogans.
Now, Republicans such as Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) were among the politicians to spread the baseless conspiracy theory as well as their leader President Trump are attempting to pin the blame on Antifa and other radical organizations. The FBI has stated emphatically that there is NO EVIDENCE Antifa was involved in the Capital Attacks.
For centuries, leaders around the world have affirmed, the swiftest way to bring down a country is to divide the country. The act of dividing potential allies and communities who could come together to rise up is one of the oldest and most effective tricks in the book. A key tool for countering such tactics is learning from the stories of how previous organizations and coalitions have avoided the pitfalls of divide and conquer.
Divide and conquer is a strategy used by the oppressors to break down the relationships and unity between subjugated (often racial) groups struggling for justice, freedom, and liberation, in order to maintain the status quo.
Often tactics used to divide and conquer is creating a narrative that blames each group for the other group’s problems. This works to foster mistrust amongst groups and to cloud the systematic inequalities of white supremacy, capitalism, and patriarchy.
Bribery is another tactic. This works to align some groups with the elite over other subjugated groups. The resources offered are never close to the original goals of the movement.
While all this violence and chaos ensues in the country, Trump continues to do what he has done since elected, which is to try to divide and conquer Americans for cynical gain. It’s all about winning, and everything else be damned. Over the past five years, he has sown the seeds of racism, xenophobia, and religious bigotry. Everybody knows it, even his most staunch supporters who showed up at his January 6th political event to provoke violence. As long as he is standing in front of his adoring followers, where he can spew his special kind of wink and nod, dog whistle, cultural political rhetoric, he is fine.
I challenge our Republican representatives to name one thing Trump has done to unite the country.
There is no denying, Trump has laid bare to all of us, who and what he embodies. Trump has yet to denounce what his MAGA people did January 6th. Trump may not have pulled the trigger that killed people during the raid on the Capital, he may not have used exact words to attack the Capital, but his support to MAGA people was loud and clear. To ensue violence and stop the confirmation of our election of our new president because in his words, it was stolen from him.
Trump has been placing a wedge between this country for over five years. A wedge that divides republicans from democrats. That divides race and religion and most importantly a wedge that attempted to divide our beliefs in our democratic society.
Ironically, Tuesday Trump held a political rally in Alamo, Texas to celebrate the “Trump Wall” he created. He bragged how successful his presidency was in building this wall.
I find it extremely telling that Trump chose his wall as his legacy. A wall to divide people. How ironic it is that days before he leaves office we have a new wall. A wall around all of our Capital buildings to protect our democracy not from foreign extremists but from homeland radicals.
Trump must be held accountable for what he has done to this country. Just like Manson and Lane, he has done damage without physically causing violence, deaths, division and threatening our democracy, but by sowing seeds.
BBC TV series, Musketeers – from left Aramis, Porthos, Athos, and D’Artagnan
As a child I was captivated by the French writer Alexandre Dumas 1844 novel, The Three Musketeers. Dumas was the Stan Lee of his time, creating the first youthful super heroes, Aramis, Porthos, Athos, and their protege D’Artagnan. The only difference is, Musketeers actually did exist and Dumas based his characters on some of the most famous of Musketeers.
Anything I could find to read or watch about the Musketeers was on my radar. Mostly because they were excellent equestrians and fencers, two of my favorite combinations, and all Musketeer entertainment had plenty of those two activities.
My late great uncle was an Olympic fencer. I never had the honor of meeting him, but I like to imagine his passion and talent for fencing was passed on to me. I was fortunate to attend a high school that offered beginning fencing, and this was my first hands-on introduction to this 14th century sport. It’s amazing how much fencing requires a great deal of mental and physical stamina, balance and fast reflexes. I took to this sport quickly, learning all the common moves and French words for them such as, Advance Lunge, Assault, Extension, Flick, Touché and the most famous En-garde.
Most are introduced to fencing through Hollywood movies. There have been numerous movies about the Musketeers dating as far back as the 1921 silent film adaptation starring Douglas Fairbanks. The first movie I remember watching about the Musketeers was on TV in the 1960s, and was the 1948 movie with Gene Kelly. It’s still one of my favorites because it not only had fencing and horses, but as an extra bonus it had Gene Kelly performing ballet type moves while fencing.
In the 1970s the studios came out with a Raquel Welch and Michael York Musketeer version, which wasn’t one of my favorites. As a little trivia note, this movie was originally proposed in the 1960s as a vehicle for The Beatles.
Disney released their Musketeer movie adaptation in 1993 starring Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland, Oliver Platt and Chris O’Donnell. This became my favorite version of all time, until now.
A few weeks back, I discovered on Amazon Prime a 2014 BBC Musketeer series. This exceptional rendition of the swashbuckling Musketeers is now one of my top go to TV series. The acting, costumes, romantic locations, storylines and cinematography is awe inspiring. If you’re looking for some great entertainment to fill your evenings, I highly recommend this series. It certainly is fulfilling my Musketeer mania.
Chronicles of a Blogaholic 