“No culture has yet solved the dilemma each has faced with the growth of a conscious mind: how to live a moral and compassionate existence when one is fully aware of the blood, the horror inherent in all life, when one finds darkness not only in one’s own culture but within oneself. If there is a stage at which an individual life becomes truly adult, it must be when one grasps the irony in its unfolding and accepts responsibility for a life lived in the midst of such paradox. One must live in the middle of contradiction because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse. There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of a leaning into the light.” —Barry Lopez, ‘Arctic Dreams’
1.
Diébédo Francis Kéré designs very interesting and unique buildings. Because of his innovative work it was announced this month that he is the recipient of architecture’s top award, the Pritzker Architecture Prize. According to NPR, The first Black winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize had already received numerous accolades in his field, including the Aga Khan Award and the Thomas Jefferson medal, but Kéré was as surprised as anyone else to be selected for the field's most famous prize.
Kéré says his architectural practice was inspired by his own experience attending school with around 100 other children in a region (Burkina Faso, Africa)where temperatures regularly exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit. "You will sit and it's very hot inside, and there was no light, while outside, the sunlight was abundant and in my head, I think, the idea one day grew [that] as an adult, I should make it better. I was thinking about space, about room, about how I can feel better."
Committee chair, Tom Pritzker, said "Francis Kéré is pioneering architecture — sustainable to the earth and its inhabitants — in lands of extreme scarcity. He is equally architect and servant, improving upon the lives and experiences of countless citizens in a region of the world that is at times forgotten. Through buildings that demonstrate beauty, modesty, boldness and invention, and by the integrity of his architecture and geste, Kéré gracefully upholds the mission of this Prize."
2.
In Arizona political news, one crazy-ass white nationalist woman drops her bid to run against another crazy-ass white nationalist woman in the Republican primary for the Arizona Senate. I wrote a piece on Wendy Rogers March 4th where I quoted her as blathering she “will not apologize for being white. Hit me all you want. I will personally destroy the career of any Republican who partakes in the gaslighting of me simply because of the color of my skin or opinion about a war I don’t want to send our kids to die in.”
According to the Arizona Mirror, Rogers, a Flagstaff Republican who has made herself into a national figure by falsely claiming the 2020 election was rigged against former President Donald Trump, announced on Thursday that she raised nearly $2.5 million last year. The majority of Rogers’ contributions are under $100 and from out of state.
Arizona Sen. Kelly Townsend is also a piece of work. She’s known as a “Big Lie” election denier, a Trump fluffer, anti-vaxxer, thinks QAnon has all the answers, and has promoted drastic new restrictions on voting during her tenure in the Arizona Legislature. It’s unclear whether she will be running again for office in 2022.
And speaking of the BIG LIE, Heather Cox Richardson reported that Today’s other big news came from The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell: the report alleging that Trump lost the 2020 election because of Dominion Voting Systems—a report that Trump used to justify his attempt to overturn the election, including a plan to assume emergency powers—was not written by a volunteer lawyer after the election, as previously understood. In fact, it was written by a senior White House aide, Joanna Miller, who worked for key Trump advisor Peter Navarro. Navarro incorporated the Miller report into one of his own, which he and aides had begun to write two weeks before the election even happened.
That is, it was the White House itself that invented the “report” that the election was stolen, even before the election took place, and then used that report to justify the Big Lie that 19 state legislatures have relied on to restrict voting.
For a bit of sanity, check out Kris Mayes, who is running for the Democratic nomination in the 2022 Attorney General election. Kris, a Republican until 2019, came to her senses and just this week she filed a brief in the AZ Supreme Court opposing the GOP’s lawsuit to outlaw early and mail-in voting. We both vote by mail…it’s easy and secure. Fucking Republicans. Click here for a link to put Kris on the ballot for November! Did I say Fuck Republicans yet?
3.
And I guess the “People’s Convoy,” Trumpers who drive around in pickups, SUVs, other larger vehicles, are still annoying folks in DC this last week. Republican Jim Jordan, while meeting with convoy organizer Brian Brase, said “God bless you,” which, in Jim’s case, might’ve been a reference to Trump. They also met with the fun-loving Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.).
And Kansas Senator Roger Marshall was so excited that he gave truckers a tour of the Capital last week, even though the building remains mostly closed to the public.
I’m all for civil disobedience, protests, saying what you mean, etc…but their main issue has been protesting government-mandated Covid restrictions, explaining that their freedoms have been hindered by the government telling us what we can do with our very own bodies. The irony here is, of course, these are the same people who vote for the Republicans that want to take abortion rights back to the 1950s, coat hangers and all. You know, freedom.
4.
In case you might’ve had a shred of doubt, according to research in the Washington Post the 14 states with the highest death rates due to the pandemic were all run by Republican governors. This included Florida (at about 153 deaths per 100,000 residents), Ohio (142 deaths per 100,000), Arizona (138) and Georgia (134). Contrast that with the deep-blue District of Columbia (only 27 deaths per 100,000) and California (58 per 100,000).
Using data from Johns Hopkins, health-care analyst Charles Gaba, whose data on covid-19 and voting patterns has been widely cited, also said The worst was West Virginia (about 204 deaths per 100,000), followed closely by Oklahoma, Tennessee, Wyoming and the aforementioned Florida. He goes on to report that Since May, people in the most pro-Trump tenth of U.S. counties had a death rate more than three times as high as those in the most anti-Trump tenth. The number of overall cases, however, was only 1.3 times as high, indicating that vaccines were preventing death.
I pass on this information to let you know: JUST. VOTE. BLUE. This has been a public service announcement…we now return to your regularly scheduled programming.
5.
You’ve all heard about Marina Ovsyannikova, an editor at Russia’s state-run Channel One television station, who burst onto the set of the live nightly news broadcast with a sign reading “Don’t believe the propaganda. They’re lying to you here.” It was signed in English: “Russians against war”.
Check out the pre-recorded video statement she made: "What is happening in Ukraine is a crime. And Russia is the aggressor here. And responsibility for this aggression rests on the conscience of a single man: Vladimir Putin. My father is Ukrainian. My mother is Russian. And they’ve never been enemies. And this necklace I’m wearing is a symbol of that fact that Russia must immediately end this fratricidal war. And our fraternal peoples will still be able to make peace. Unfortunately, I’ve spent many of the last few years working for Channel One, doing Kremlin propaganda, and I’m deeply ashamed of this. Ashamed that I allowed lies to come from the TV screen. Ashamed that I allowed the zombification of Russian people. We were silent in 2014 when all this had just started. We just silently watched this anti-human regime at work. And now the whole world has turned its back on us. And the next 10 generations won’t wash away the stain of this fratricidal war. We Russians are thinking and intelligent people. It’s in our power alone to stop all this madness. Go protest. Don’t be afraid of anything. They can’t lock us all away."
What’s remarkable is that she seemingly got off with a small fine, not for the TV interruption but for the video statement above. According to the Guardian, she was detained Monday but She finally reappeared on Tuesday evening in a Moscow courtroom. In a photograph alongside a lawyer, she appeared unharmed and was wearing the same outfit and necklace in the colors of the Ukrainian and Russian flags as a day earlier.
On the consumer front, according to Yale’s Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Some 400 U.S. and other multinational firms have pulled out of Russia, either permanently or temporarily. Sonnenfeld, explaining the ideas behind sanctions, says “They are funding the Russian war machine. The whole idea is to freeze up civil society, to get people out on the streets and outraged.”
And Heather Cox Richardson wrote, Koch Industries, the second-largest privately owned business in America, is staying put. Political groups affiliated with right-wing billionaire CEO Charles Koch oppose broad sanctions and have suggested the U.S. should remain neutral in the crisis.
The Washington Post also reported that Koch is among corporations such as Cargill, LG Electronics and Subway that have decided to stay in Russia. Many of those companies have issued statements expressing concern over the conflict, but Koch is one of the few that have opted both to stay and openly condemn the Russian government.
Koch Industries, based in Wichita, is the second-largest privately held company in the United States and has broad operations, including in energy, chemicals and electronic technologies. It is run and partly owned by Charles Koch, known for the millions he donated to conservative causes with his brother David Koch, who died in 2019.
If you are curious as to which products Koch Industries manufactures, click here.
And now…