Friday Homestead Dispatch
Musty Nominal Ottoman
1.
This is an interesting story of guitarist Branko Mataja (1923-2000) who was ahead of his time in his recording techniques. According to the Guardian, Mataja released a few mostly unknown albums that American musician David Jerkovich has made his mission to re-release and spread the word.
Said Jerkovich, “What Branko did was unlike what anyone else was doing at the time. His playing has this kind of outsider, intense quality and it’s just so unique to him. And his studio technique is incredible – he bounced and overdubbed sound in a manner no one else even approached. It’s unlike anything I’d ever heard before. What Branko has done is take these ancient melodies and built something very abstract, very beautiful, out of them.”
2.
I guess the pencil I ‘took’ after leaving the University of Arizona doesn’t quite stack up to the former Yale employee who admitted she stole $40 million in electronics from the university over a nine-year period. According to NPR, At the time of her guilty pleas, she was in possession of two Mercedes-Benz vehicles, two Cadillac Escalades, a Dodge Charger and a Range Rover. I’m still driving my 2000 Toyota Corolla, thank you very much.
3.
Amazingly it’s taken over a hundred years to pass a law banning LYNCHING! Good lord.
Vox published that The bill’s passage is long overdue, but its arrival still has an important symbolic power and will give federal prosecutors another tool to prosecute some of the country’s most brutal hate crimes. In other words, the act builds on the severity of the federal hate crimes laws (https://www.justice.gov/hatecrimes/laws-and-policies) that already exist.
NPR reported that Passage of the bill marks a career-defining achievement for Illinois Democratic Rep. Bobby Rush, a sponsor of the legislation. He announced in January that he'll retire at the end of this Congress after three decades in office and a previous career as a civil rights activist.
There were three Republicans that went on record to vote ‘no’ to the bill; Republican Reps. Andrew S. Clyde (GA), Thomas Massie (KY) and Chip Roy (TX). Dey must love demselves a good, old-fashioned, hood-wearin’ hangin’.
Now, if the police forces in this country would stop killing folks. According to the Guardian, As Joe Biden pushes to ‘fund the police’, data from Mapping Police Violence shows high rates of deaths at the hands of law enforcement persist. Black people were 28% of those killed by police in 2021 despite being only 13% of the population.
4.
I wrote extensively on the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act back in January and even wrote a note to Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) stating my views of said subject whilst he was simultaneously wanting me to part with a portion of my cold, hard cash:
The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would restore the law to full strength, in part by once again requiring states with histories of voter discrimination to receive approval from the Department of Justice or a federal court before enacting voting changes. This is one of the most crucial pieces of legislation that needs to get passed, and it wouldn't hurt if it happened before 2022. I know it would increase your chances, sir. Whatever it takes, this needs to happen for democracy to continue in this country. You know as well as I that if we once again get a Republican majority in the Senate (and the House) we're screwed. So take Manchin and your colleague Sinema into the broom closet if you have to and put up a fight.
I was reminded of this today after reading Heather Cox Richardson’s enlightening post from last night. Whereas the Republicans in Florida are doing everything they can think of to keep people of ‘color’ from voting, and have been doing so since the end of the Civil War, she wrote Today, Judge Mark E. Walker of the Federal District Court in Tallahassee, Florida, struck down much of the new elections law passed by the Florida legislature after the 2020 election. This is the first time a federal court has sought to overrule the recent attempts of Republican-dominated state legislatures to rig the vote, and Walker made thorough work of it. “This case is about our sacred right to vote,” Walker wrote, “won at great cost in blood and treasure. Courts have long recognized that, because “the right to exercise the franchise in a free and unimpaired manner is preservative of other basic civil and political rights, any alleged infringement of the right of citizens to vote must be carefully and meticulously scrutinized.”
She then cautions that Florida will challenge this decision, and it may well win before the conservative Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit or the current Supreme Court. Republicans have defended their assaults on voting by citing the Constitution’s provision that “The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof;” but Walker noted that there is another clause in the Constitution that follows that semicolon. It reads: “but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations….”
The entire post is very much worth your time to read if you have any interest in a government of the people, by the people, and for the people as laid out in Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
5.
If you’re in Tucson this weekend, the 37th Annual Tucson Folk Festival is happening Saturday and Sunday, with the festival kickoff Friday night on the plaza at Hotel Congress. I’ll be playing accordion Saturday with Don Armstrong at 5pm on the Presidio Museum Stage and then drums with Kevin Pakulis on Sunday (after our regular Borderlands afternoon gig) at 6pm on the North Church Stage. Come out and say howdy!
And now…
