During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.~ George Orwell
Note from ~@~
My less than five year old main computer died this week,
which contained all the important stuff; including email.
**Continue to send email to my old e-address. I will hook
up a retrieval machine later today and be able to respond.
The "State of Israel" does NOT represent World Jewry !!!
Peaceful Hasidic Rabbis with signs: Judaism Condemn's Zionist Atrocities in Gaza
Photo: Bill Perry, VVAW/VFP/IVAW, Baltimore MD, January 10, 2009 via Phoenix
What Is a Narcissistic Collapse?|Psychology Today
Blondie_Vs._The_Doors_-_Rapture_Riders via joao reininho
Beck ~ Where it’s at *Stage graphics via Drew Tyndell
Esurance ~ Election Insurance via Rene Delgado
Reality is not external. Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. Not in the individual mind, which can make mistakes, and in any case soon perishes: only in the mind of the Party, which is collective and immortal. Whatever the Party holds to be the truth, is truth. It is impossible to see reality except by looking through the eyes of the Party.~ George Orwell
Nothing else matters, Metallica ar. Karianne Brouwer violin, Maaike Schoenmaker cello
BUT WHAT ABOUT AN...
Independent
Candidate?
NONE of the ABOVE == should be a valid choice on voter ballots!
Alerts ~ Missed, departed, folks
In Loving Memory of Our
Very Dear & Close Friend
Chetana Judith Karel-Michaan
March 28, 1948 ~ September 18, 2021
Notes from ~@~
Here is an old email to Judith about one of my best and most favorite memories from the past:
Hanging Out With Anaïs Nin
Dearest One,
If you recall, I was very fond of Anaïs Nin and during the early '70s you arranged, with your friend Flo Kennedy, for tickets and passes to see Anaïs at the Palace of Fine Arts, in San Francisco.
After the show we went backstage and Anaïs was sitting at her makeup table with her legs crossed.
I could not help noticing how beautiful she and her legs were, for a 70+ year old woman.
Mentioning Flo, you introduced us to her. We chatted for a while, were having a great time, and I could not resist saying, "I hope this does not offend you Ms. Nin, but you have incredibly beautiful legs."
She turned her chair towards us, smiled, gently slid her dress up about 12 inches above her knee, exposing more of her legs, and said, "Why thank you, ... and call me Anaïs."
Anaïs then asked what month and day I was born. When I told her, her face lit up with an extraordinary smile, but she did not say anything.
Near the end of the evening, we were standing in front of her holding hands, thanked her for her time, and said goodbye.
She stood up, hugged both of us at the same time, patted me on the butt, smiled and said, "You two remind me very much of my dear friends June and Henry [Miller]." which was one of the best compliments I have ever received!
Had I remembered Henry's birthday was on the 26th of December, I would have suggested the three of us go out for a drink. ;-)
I love great memories and you, ~@~
Into the Mystic, Van Morrison via Scott Wright
Belated Kudos & Much Praise
Belated Praise & Kudos Jessica!
On your two (2) Emmy Nominations, three (3)
Artios Nominations, and one (1) Artios Award.
Belated Praise & Kudos Royal!
On your animation, community theater, voice acting,
animation voice acting, and television performances.
The People's Avenger
On Being Prepared... DIY Mini Guillotine by mtairymd + Comment on: Living Heads
A guillotine is an apparatus designed for effectively carrying out executions by beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person is secured with a pillory at the bottom of the frame, holding the position of the neck directly below the blade. The blade is then released, swiftly and forcefully decapitating the victim with a single, clean pass; the head falls into a basket or other receptacle below.
The guillotine is best known for its use in France, particularly during the French Revolution, where the revolution's supporters celebrated it as the people's avenger...
Πday March 14
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi_Day
Sprung ~ Remembering my riding partners Mike Wilhelm & Jim Trout
In Memory of Our Dear Friend
Mike Wilhelm
March 18, 1942 ~ May 14, 2019
Sprung Podcast Selections
Mike Wilhelm & Sprung (Curtis)
Mike Wilhelm Recorded Live at Linton's
Information Page: http://mike-wilhelm.com
MP3: Big Boss Man - Click To Listen
MP3: Got My Mojo Workin' - Click To Listen
MP3: House Of Blue Lights - Click To Listen
MP3: New Old Pawnshop Blues - Click To Listen
MP3: The Thrill Is Gone - Click To Listen
MP3: See See Rider - Click To Listen
MP3: Key To The Highway - Click To Listen
MP3: Down The Road A Piece - Click To Listen
MP3: Ramblin' - Click To Listen
MP3: Worn Out Suits - Click To Listen
MP3: Long Gone Stranger Blues --Click To Listen
Mike Wilhelm - Born in Los Angeles in 1942, Mike Wilhelm learned blues guitar in his teens from legendary Tennessee bluesman Brownie McGhee and Texas songster Mance Lipscomb. A U. S. Navy veteran, he is perhaps best known as one of the founding members of San Francisco's first psychedelic rock group, the Charlatans (1964-69). He led his own hard rock group, Loose Gravel, from 1969 until 1976 when he joined cult heroes and power pop originators the Flamin' Groovies, playing with them until 1982.
Early Tavern
Racing - Mike Wilhelm on Matchless
Also, remembering Jim Trout , who rode with us , Photo: C. Spangler
Permmalink for this page:
http://www.flyingsnail.com/Sprung/sprungmusic.html
Podcast source:
Mount Konocti, Lake County, CA, Mike Wilhelm on XS Yamaha & Sprung's FXSTS
Alerts ~ Remembering Mike Wilhelm ~ Charlatans, Flamin' Groovies, Loose Gravel, ...
Mike Wilhelm
first psychedelic
rock guitarist,
dies at 77, on May 14, 2019
He played with the Charlatans, Loose Gravel and Flamin' Groovies
by Aidin Vaziri May 16, 2019 Updated: May 16, 2019, 8:29 pm ~ Source
The Charlatans ~ Golden Gate Park Conservatory, San Francisco ~ Photo: Erik Jacobsen
Mike Wilhelm, the co-founder and lead guitar player of the pioneering San Francisco psychedelic rock outfit the Charlatans, who also played with the bands the Flamin’ Groovies and Loose Gravel, died on Tuesday, May 14 at a hospital in San Francisco. He was 77.
The cause was complications from cancer, said his wife, Ana Maria Wilhelm.
The Charlatans never released an album during their Summer of Love heyday, but the group’s impact was huge on the nascent San Francisco scene. Dressed in vintage Edwardian finery, the five-man band developed its rowdy amalgamation of blues, rock and Western swing over the summer of 1965 during a residency at the Red Dog Saloon in Virginia City, a small Sierra Nevada town.
Photo: Tim Kao, The Chronicle
Returning to San Francisco, the Charlatans – which also included founder George Hunter, bassist Richie Olsen, pianist Mike Ferguson and drummer Dan Hicks — were the main attraction at “A Tribute to Dr. Strange,” the LSD-infused dance party at the Longshoreman’s Hall in 1965 that ignited the psychedelic-rock era. Mint condition posters from that show, widely considered the first of their kind, go for more than $18,000 on the resale market.
“They were superstars,” said Ana Maria Wilhelm. “People wanted to dress like them. They wanted to look like them. They wanted to play like them.”
On a national level, the Charlatans were soon eclipsed by acts like the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service and Jefferson Airplane (the latter was also on the lineup at the Longshoreman’s Hall show). Yet Wilhelm’s distinctive Americana playing style heavily influenced musicians like Jerry Garcia and John Cipollina, and later, acts like the Byrds and Eagles.
“He had a unique finger-picking style,” said author Joel Selvin, former Chronicle Senior Pop Music Critic. “He was the most highly-evolved musician at that time. The Charlatans covered everything from blues to old-timey country, and Wilhelm handled it all.”
Garcia told Haight-Ashbury scene photographer Herb Greene that Wilhelm was his favorite guitarist.
“He was a master at taking any guitar — no matter how funky — and turning it into a symphonic wonder,” said Dan Healy, longtime Grateful Dead sound man.
[Video at Source]
Following his run with the Charlatans from 1965 to 1968, Wilhelm performed with the rock trio Loose Gravel in the early ’70s, a favorite of the Hells Angels. He is best remembered from that time for his cameo in the 1972 documentary “The Last Days of the Fillmore,” when he showed up unannounced at Bill Graham’s office trying to persuade the famously testy rock impresario to book his new band at the famed venue.
When Graham declines and marches him outside, Wilhelm gives him the finger and explodes, “Well, f— you and thanks for the memories!”
Ana Maria Wilhelm said they remained friends despite the heated encounter caught on film. “Mike never held a grudge,” she said.
Later in the decade, Wilhelm became the lead guitarist of the Flamin’ Groovies, one of the forerunners to the San Francisco punk scene, performing on the albums “Flamin’ Groovies Now,” released in 1978, and “Jumpin’ in the Night,” in 1979. The band was a regular attraction at the San Francisco clubs On Broadway and Mabuhay Gardens.
He also released several solo albums, including 1985’s “Mean ol’ Frisco” and 1993’s “Wood & Wire.”
“He had no roadmap for what he became,” said George Michalski, a friend who played piano for everyone from Barbra Streisand and the Allman Brothers, before serving as music director on the television series “Nash Bridges.” “He was an acid cowboy and a mod rocker. He was funny and acerbic. But most of all, he was original.”
Guitarist Mike Wilhelm at a recent practice Wednesday June 10, 2015. The Charlatans,
a hugely influential psychedelic band of the 1960s, is getting back together for some
performances in Virginia City, Nevada. ~ Photo: Brant Ward, The Chronicle
[Article photo at Source]
Michael Ray Wilhelm was born on March 18, 1942, in Los Angeles. His father Peter Raymond Wilhelm was a professional dancer, and his mother Dorothy Currier worked at the Beverly Hills Medical Clinic. Even though he grew up in a house steeped with classical music, he discovered the blues through his older sister Katherine and a weekly television variety show produced by bandleader Johnny Otis.
As a teenager, Wilhelm met one of his guitar heroes, the Tennessee blues musician Walter “Brownie” McGhee, who offered him free lessons.
In 1960, Wilhelm graduated from Canoga Park High School, where Hunter was a classmate, and joined the Naval Air Reserves, a year later, working as an airplane mechanic. Following his two-year stint in the armed forces, which took him to Vietnam and Japan, he hitchhiked to San Francisco in 1963 at age 19, and settled in Berkeley before moving to San Francisco’s Fillmore District.
He ran into Hunter after performing at an open-mic night at the Blue Unicorn on Hayes Street.
“The rest is history,” Ana Maria Wilhelm said.
[Video at Source]
Even though Wilhelm effectively retired from touring in 1993, due to ongoing lung problems and recurring pneumonia, he did take part in a reunion of the Charlatans in 1996 to celebrate the release of an odds-and-ends compilation album, “The Amazing Charlatans,” and a documentary film, “Rockin’ at the Red Dog,” by Mary Works, whose father, Don Works, was a bartender at the saloon.
By then the band had become so obscure that a young British group had already adopted and released several albums under the Charlatans name, known here as the Charlatans U.K.
Wilhelm’s fans rallied to buy him a portable oxygen unit, it didn’t help with live performances. He moved up to Lake County and focused on writing songs and producing albums for other artists. He also started a Monday blues night at the Blue Wing Saloon.
In 2005, Wilhelm was involved in another reunion of the Charlatans for a performance at a memorial concert for Family Dog founder Chet Helms in Golden Gate Park; then again, two years later, for a free concert commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love in San Francisco.
In 2015, the group played it final shows where it all began in Virginia City, just before Hicks died in 2016.
Wilhelm is survived by his wife, Ana Maria; and sister Katherine Wilhelm.
Aidin Vaziri is The San Francisco Chronicle’s pop music critic. Email: avaziri@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MusicSF
Mike Wilhelm recording at Richard Wahlberg Studio ... Photograph: Ana Maria Wilhelm
Mike Wilhelm Interview ~ December 2001 via Jesse Block ~ https://vimeo.com/130632329
http://mike-wilhelm.com ~ Mike's Wikipedia Page ~ Photo: Richard Hoyt
Photo: Chris W. Nelson, San Christos, Photography
Lake County News: Mike Wilhelm, famed blues and rock guitarist, dies at 77
KMPX Strike March 18, 1968; the Day ~@~ met James Stark
[Larger Image] ~ arrows and insert pointed at ~@~The birth of freeform rock radio ~ From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KFRC-FM#The_birth_of_freeform_rock_radio
KMPX San Francisco Radio Workers Strike 1968
https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/kmpx-san-francisco-radio-workers-strike-1968
Daylight Saving Time, March 10th
Are Politicians Incapable of
Doing the simplest of Jobs ?
After years of 'The People' trying to establish permanent Daylight Saving Time... during March 2022, the U.S. Senate finally passed Daylight Saving Time legislation that would take effect on March 2023!
As of March 2024 there is still no permanent Daylight Saving Time and politicians continue to ignore: Is Daylight Saving Time Dangerous?
If THEY insist on changing time, why not do it on a Friday at 1600 hours a.k.a. four o'clock PM ??
Or... is Daylight Saving Time a Corporate Political Scam and Doctrine of Child Oppression for Profit created by EFF'n lobbyists and held in place by lying politicians for big money?
Proof Daylight Saving Time Is Dumb, Dangerous, and Costly ~ The case against changing the clocks keeps getting stronger via Ben Steverman, March 10, 2017, 3:00 AM PST.
Daylight Saving Time Politics!
Time to Eliminate Daylight Saving Time & Establish a Corporate Death Penalty?
Time Has Come Today, the Chambers Brothers via graumach s.
5 Ways Life Would Be Better If
IT Were Always Daylight Saving Time
https://www.ecowatch.com/daylight-saving-time-benefits-2630831152.html
The Conversation, March 06, 2019 @ 01:42 PM, EST
by Steve Calandrillo
In my research on daylight saving time, I have found that Americans don't like it when Congress messes with their clocks.
In an effort to avoid the biannual clock switch in spring and fall, some well-intended critics of DST have made the mistake of suggesting that the abolition of DST – and a return to permanent standard time – would benefit society. In other words, the U.S. would never "spring forward" or "fall back."
They are wrong. DST saves lives and energy and prevents crime. Not surprisingly, then, politicians in Washington, California and Florida are now proposing to move to DST year-round.
Congress should seize on this momentum to move the entire country to year-round DST. In other words, turn all clocks forward permanently. If it did so, I see five ways that Americans' lives would immediately improve.
[video at link] https://www.ecowatch.com/daylight-saving-time-benefits-2630831152.html
1. Lives would be saved.
Simply put, darkness kills – and darkness in the evening is far deadlier than darkness in the morning.
The evening rush hour is twice as fatal as the morning for various reasons: Far more people are on the road, more alcohol is in drivers' bloodstreams, people are hurrying to get home and more children are enjoying outdoor, unsupervised play. Fatal vehicle-on-pedestrian crashes increase threefold when the sun goes down.
DST brings an extra hour of sunlight into the evening to mitigate those risks. Standard time has precisely the opposite impact, by moving sunlight into the morning.
A meta-study by Rutgers researchers demonstrated that 343 lives per year could be saved by moving to year-round DST. The opposite effect would occur if the U.S. imposed year-round standard time.
2. Crime would decrease.
Darkness is also a friend of crime. Moving sunlight into the evening hours has a far greater impact on the prevention of crime than it does in the morning. This is especially true for crimes by juveniles, which peak in the after-school and early evening hours.
Criminals strongly prefer to do their work in the darkness of evening and night. Crime rates are lower by 30 percent in the morning to afternoon hours, even when those morning hours occur before sunrise, when it's still dark.
A 2013 British study found that improved lighting in the evening hours could reduce the crime rate by up to 20 percent.
3. Energy would be saved.
Many people don't know that the original justification for the creation of DST was to save energy, initially during World War I and II and then later during the 1973 OPEC oil crisis. When the sun is out later in the evening, peak energy loads are reduced.
Virtually everyone in our society is awake and using energy in the early evening hours when the sun sets. But a considerable portion of the population is still asleep at sunrise, resulting in significantly less demand for energy then.
Having more sun in the evening requires not just less electricity to provide lighting, but reduces the amount of oil and gas required to heat homes and businesses when people need that energy most. Under standard time, the sun rises earlier, reducing morning energy consumption, but only half of Americans are awake to be able to use the sun.
This rationale motivated some in California to recommend permanent DST a decade ago, when the state experienced recurrent electricity shortages and rolling brown-outs. Officials at the California Energy Commission estimated that 3.4 percent of California's winter energy usage could be saved by moving to year-round DST.
Similarly, DST resulted in 150,000 barrels of oil saved by the U.S. in 1973, which helped combat the effect of OPEC's oil embargo.
4. Avoiding clock switches improves sleep.
Critics of DST are correct about one thing: The biannual clock switch is bad for health and welfare.
It wreaks havoc with people's sleep cycles. Heart attacks increase 24 percent in the week after the U.S. "springs forward" in March. There's even an uptick during the week in November when the clocks "fall back."
If that's not bad enough, a study from 2000 shows that the major financial market indexes NYSE, AMEX and NASDAQ average negative returns on the Monday trading day following both clock switches, presumably because of disrupted sleep cycles.
5. Recreation and commerce flourish in the sun.
Finally, recreation and commerce flourish in daylight and are hampered by evening darkness.
Americans are less willing to go out and shop in the dark, and it's not very easy to catch a baseball in darkness either. These activities are far more prevalent in the early evening than they are in the early morning hours, so sunlight is not nearly as helpful then.
Not surprisingly, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as well as most outdoor recreational interests favors extended DST.
Research shows that sunlight is far more important to Americans' health, efficiency and safety in the early evening than it is in the early morning. That's not to say there aren't downsides to DST – notably, an extra hour of morning darkness. But I believe the advantages of extended DST far outweigh those of standard time. It is past time that the U.S. sets the clocks forward forever, and never has to switch them again.
Let Us Begin... Ees Da Sa Sussaway!
Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because
they don't want their illusions destroyed. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
Throughout America's adventure in free government, our basic purposes have been to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among people and among nations. To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious people. Any failure traceable to arrogance, or our lack of comprehension or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us grievous hurt both at home and abroad.~ Dwight D. Eisenhower; last Honorable, Decent, Republican President!
Undone Lullaby, by dj schmolli via Dave
For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence--on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations. ~ President John F. Kennedy, Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, April 27, 1961, assassinated, November 22, 1963
A Night at the Garden, 1939 via Marshall Curry
Note: MAGA Brown Shirts were slaughtered by their paranoid,
Malignant Narcissistic leader during Night of the Long Knives.
The Republican Party is now clearly an authoritarian party. It embraces, condones, accepts and promotes political violence, and does not accept electoral defeat. Their glorification of January 6 proves that they're okay with a violent seizure of power. If they can't win elections fairly, they'd rather end democracy. ~ Steven Levitsky, Professor of Political Science, Harvard University
5FDP vs. Billy Idol ~ Rebel Yell Over It,[NOT WORK SAFE], DJ Schmolli via SrvTech
Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. ~ Declaration of Independence
Doom and Gloom via Rossana Podestá Massa
Supremely Tainted Court supports known terrorists?
Wolf Totem (Official Music Video) by The HU via Mr. Tsenguun, suggested by Sprung
Are Insurrectionists Living in
a Federalist GOP partisan Supreme Court Paradise?
AMERIQANON GOTHIC by R.J. Matson @ Cagle Cartoons
Terrorist & Insurrectionist
share a similar definition?
terrorist, noun & adjective [attributive]: person who uses unlawful violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.
insurrectionist, noun & adjective [attributive]: person who commits violent uprising and armed insurrection against an authority or government.
If you are an insurrectionist,
you are a terrorist?
"If you harbor terrorists insurrectionists, you are terrorists. If you train or arm a terrorist an insurrectionist, you are a terrorist. If you feed a terrorist an insurrectionist or fund a terrorist an insurrectionist, you're a terrorist, and you will be held accountable by the United States and our friends." ~ GOP, Republican: George W. Bush, WMD Liar ~ NY Times 11/22/2001
I can't see why Leftists
call us Terrorists?
Whataboutism Hypocrisy, meme of Chris Britt cartoon @ creators.com
via Tom Wellborn ~ original cartoon here via The Ghost of Elizabeth Shue
Will terrorist Ginni Thomas Get Away With
Jan 6 Insurrection, Sedition, & Terrorism?
Probably?
Ask the most corrupt Supreme Court in history if
they were bribed with a "NO term limits" promise?
Partisan Supreme Court Picks Up Where the Jan. 6 Mob Left Off @ The Daily Beast
Corruption is Legal in America via Doku Mentor ~ https://vimeo.com/135398031
I don’t think most Americans realize how close we are to losing everything we most value about our system of government.
It is not just that the leader of one of our two political parties has declared that if reelected he will assume the powers of a dictator. It is not just that he and his followers actively support enemies of the United States. It is not just that he and members of his party in the U.S. Congress seek to strip away more fundamental rights from American women and men, or that they have already demonstrated they are willing to tolerate egregious abuses of presidential power, or that they will abet efforts to steal election results with which they disagree.
It is all these things. But as we saw again this week, while opponents of fundamental American values control the House of Representatives, have a significant voice in the U.S. Senate, and aspire to reclaim the White House, the branch of government that has been most corrupted by the American right remains the United States Supreme Court.
The Court—through its decision to hear the ludicrous, anti-Constitutional arguments of Donald Trump’s lawyers that his actions to steal a presidential election were protected by so-called “presidential immunity”—reminded us that throughout this century the right wing on the court has done grave damage to our country and the judicial system whose oversight has been entrusted to them.
Cases like Citizens United (granting the rich more influence in elections), Shelby County (undermining voting rights), Heller (expanding gun rights), Bruen (striking down sensible gun controls), Dobbs (overturning Roe v. Wade), and Students for Fair Admissions (gutting affirmative action) are just a few of the notable examples of their service to their benefactors and their political agenda.
The Court’s decision to hear the Trump immunity case was outrageous, legally indefensible, and handled procedurally in a way that made it clear they were no longer acting as a court, but rather as the judicial arm of the Republican Party.
They took a case they should not have accepted, agreeing to hear arguments that were already rejected in an expertly argued appeals court decision. Just as damagingly, they did so in a way that—regardless of their final ruling—would mean American voters would likely not hear a verdict prior to November’s election.
It is a dark irony. They have chosen to hear the Department of Justice’s case against Donald Trump for election interference in a way that is itself election interference.
But such contradictions are the norm for this court’s right-wing majority. They condemn judicial activism while serving as its leading practitioners. They call themselves “textualists” and yet have demonstrated a complete disregard for the actual words of the Constitution, the meaning of those words, or the reasons they were chosen. They describe their philosophy as “originalism” not because it cleaves to the original intent of the framers, but because their willingness to twist the law to suit their ideology requires a kind of free-wheeling creative originality.
Time and again, the Supreme Court has been at the vanguard of the right-wing’s movement to reverse social progress, while also increasing the wealth and power of the movement’s patrons. And, repeatedly, the Court has been brazen in its willingness to play politics, the letter of the law, legal tradition and any semblance of legal logic or ethics be damned
If this week’s decision resonated with any moment in this court’s recent history it is with the Bush v. Gore decision in 2000. In that case, the Republican-appointed majority on the Court weighed in to reject the demands of Florida voters to have all their votes counted. The Court’s decision effectively cast the five deciding votes in that year’s presidential election on behalf of George W. Bush.
Only one justice from that Court still serves today. Tellingly, it is Clarence Thomas, arguably the most corrupt Supreme Court justice in history, famed recipient of the eye-watering largesse of right-wing billionaires and husband to a woman who was an active participant in the coup attempt at the center of this week’s case.
Did Thomas recuse himself? Of course not. Because if there is one principle to which this Court’s majority—and the political movement of which it is a part—it’s that the impunity of its leaders is valued above all else.
Why conclude that the decision to hear the immunity case was purely political? Several reasons. First, the argument advanced by Trump and his lawyers that a president is above the law is, in the well-chosen words of Yale history professor Timothy Snyder “a proposition that, if affirmed, would destroy the moral, legal, and political foundations of the court itself.”
Further, the arguments made by Trump’s lawyers were expertly dissected and discarded by a bipartisan panel of three judges on the D.C. Circuit of Appeals. Their decision was so thoroughly grounded in law and precedent that frankly, only a Supreme Court with no regard for law or precedent would determine they had to consider any additional aspect of the matter.
In fact, the Trump immunity claims are so laughable that few expect even this Supreme Court to uphold them. Which may be why, in lieu of helping Trump with a decision, they decided to throw him the one lifeline upon which he most depended, a delay that would push a verdict in the trial to the other side of election day.
Forcing delay was a conscious choice. They did not have to. Special Counsel Jack Smith asked them to rule on the issue as far back as December. They could have ruled on it then, or in an instant following the D.C. Circuit decision by simply not agreeing to hear the case and thereby accepting the D.C. Circuit’s findings.
Or, had they wanted to hear the case but not wanted to push the trial’s likely verdict until after the election, they could have accepted it immediately after the D.C. decision came down on Feb. 6 of this year. Instead, they waited three weeks to announce they would hear the case the week of April 22.
With a decision unlikely until May or, more probably, late June, and with the judge presiding over the election interference case promising roughly three months of additional prep time for lawyers before the case begins, that could well push the start date for the trial until September or October.
The trial itself is expected to take three months, which means the earliest likely date for a verdict would be December or January. And that is assuming no more delays.
Could they have moved faster? Of course. The Court accepted the case of Bush v. Gore on Dec. 9, 2000. It heard arguments on Dec. 11. It issued a decision on the next day.
The Court made a choice that they knew would have political consequences. They knew those consequences would redound to the benefit of Donald Trump. And with eyes wide open they provided him with those benefits.
They thereby increased the likelihood that Trump, who appointed three of the justices on the court, would win in November—and then end all the cases against him for his abuses of power
In other words, Clarence Thomas and his right-wing colleagues have picked up where the mob his wife helped support left off on Jan. 6.
Should Trump win—and should he follow through on his plans to further weaken democracy in the U.S. and strip away core freedoms of Americans—this week’s indefensible decision will be cited by historians as a time when a corrupt court openly played politics, the American people lost and our enemies won.
Partisan Supreme Court to democracy: Drop dead
Z-Team productions - In The Air Tonight (performing live on IMVU) via ItzZane IMVU
With a single rash, partisan act, the high court has tainted the Bush presidency, besmirched its own reputation and soiled our nation's proudest legacy.
By Gary Kamiya, Salon's executive editor
Dec. 14, 2000 | Tuesday, Dec. 12, is a day that will live in American infamy long after the tainted election of George W. Bush has faded from memory.With their rash, divisive decision to dispense with the risky and inconvenient workings of democracy and simply award the presidency to their fellow Republican, five right-wing justices dragged the Supreme Court down to perhaps its most ignominious point since the Dred Scott decision.
The court was the last American civic institution to have preserved an aura of impartiality, to be regarded as above the gutter of partisanship and self-interest. The reality, of course, is that no court, no judge, no human being, is completely free of those entanglements. Yet the court has generally acted wisely in avoiding judgments that would inevitably and utterly besmirch it. With one reckless and partisan ruling, it squandered its most precious possession: its reputation. It may take years, even decades, to repair the damage done by the Scalia-Rehnquist court's decision to cancel the election and crown the winner.
It's hard not to conclude, now that this whole sorry saga is over, that the fix was in from the beginning. Not the crude, "vast right-wing conspiracy" fix of Hillary Clinton's imagination, but a de facto fix. Why shouldn't one think the game was rigged, when five Republican-appointed justices -- one of whose son works for the law firm of the lawyer representing Bush, another of whose wife is recruiting staff for the Bush administration and two of whom have made clear their desire to retire under a Republican administration -- trashed their entire judicial philosophy to ram through, with only the most cramped of legal justifications, a last-second victory for a Republican who lost the national popular vote and, when the votes in Florida are actually counted, is likely to have lost the Florida one as well?
Perfect justice does not exist. But this was judicial folly, politically explosive and judicially threadbare. This was the court stepping in and awarding victory to one side before the game was over. Even those of us who don't often agree with the court's conservative majority expected better.
As Justice Stevens wrote in his savage dissent, "The position by the majority of this court can only lend credence to the most cynical appraisal of the work of judges throughout the land ... Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year's election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the nation's confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law."
As soon as the ruling was handed down, a nearly hysterical chorus of TV commentators, many of them cynical bear-baiters who wouldn't believe oaths sworn by their own mothers, suddenly pulled long faces and began urging the American people to accept the court's verdict, defer to its wisdom, venerate its grandeur, unite around Bush and generally go quietly back indoors to await further instructions. Television is never more nauseating than when it slips imperceptibly into its role as quasi-official national nanny, instructing the unruly masses in correct civic comportment. But if the dissenting justices can pour bile on the majority's opinions -- Stevens explicitly accuses his conservative brethren of impugning the integrity of their judicial colleagues -- why is it so frightening for the people to do the same thing? The American people's allegiance to democracy should be greater than our fealty to a court that has just spat in its face. In any case, we survived His Fraudulency I, the unduly elected Rutherford B. Hayes, and we will survive His Fraudulency II.
What the court ruled, when you get down to it, was that democracy shouldn't be allowed to get in the way of bureaucracy. One man, one vote? Overrated. Every vote counts? Too much trouble. None of those democratic pieties, the court in its infinite wisdom ruled, are as important as strict adherence to niggling rules and timetables -- rules and timetables that the court itself had the power to set aside.
If a court received evidence that a condemned prisoner was actually innocent, but that evidence arrived five minutes after some subclerk's filing deadline, you would not expect it to simply blithely proceed with the execution on the grounds that proper paperwork had not been done. But that, in effect, is precisely what the Supreme Court did. And what it killed was not only any possibility that this election will ever be regarded as fair or final but the principle that every vote must be counted.
Of course, the Florida recount was flawed. The justices had legitimate reason to be troubled by irregularities in the recount process. The differing standards about what constituted a legal vote, left open by the vague Florida statutory language about the "intent of the voter" and the "clear intent of the voter," opened a Pandora's box -- start recounting without a clear standard and you're in an endless wilderness of enigmatic chads.
But the court's position that those irregularities -- which are comparable to the irregularities that plague every election in every state in the country -- violated equal protection rights and therefore are a matter for federal intervention, is indefensible. It's indefensible on grounds of judicial consistency, considering the court's long history of deference to the states in establishing and interpreting local law. But the real reason it's indefensible is factual.
If the recount violated equal protection rights, then the entire Florida election -- not to mention the national one -- did, too. As Gore attorney David Boies pointed out in oral arguments before the court (although he might as well have been talking to five potted plants -- those minds were closed), the different standards used in counting punch-card ballots have considerably less impact on which votes end up counting (the heart of the equal protection claim) than the different voting machines that are used. Optical scan devices, found in richer, whiter, pro-Bush counties, generate many fewer errors than punch-card devices, which are found in poorer, blacker, pro-Gore ones. Yet the U.S. Supreme Court did not suddenly drop its long-standing aversion to meddling in state affairs and rush into Florida to rectify this grave inequality. That apparently only happens when a fellow Republican needs rescuing.
In any case, even assuming that the differing standards used to evaluate punch-card ballots constitute grounds for federal intervention, there was a clear and fair solution, as suggested by Justice Souter in his dissent: Impose a statewide standard, to be overseen by a judge, and see if the recount could be completed by Dec. 18, the date set for the meeting of electors.
What harm would there be in attempting to carry out this remedy? The court made much of Dec. 12, the "safe harbor" deadline after which the frail craft carrying Florida's precious electors would be buffeted by unknown seas -- smashed by Hurricane DeLay, drenched by Tsunami Lott. But as all the dissenters pointed out, nothing in the Constitution requires states to send electors by that date. A safe harbor means exactly that: a safe harbor. Why not expose the electoral dinghy to those seas? What was the court so worried about? Could it be that, like the man to whom they served up the election, their real fear was that Bush might not win? How else to explain their refusal to pursue the option that many observers thought they would -- an evenhanded solution that would have guaranteed victory to neither man, honored the sacred principle that every vote counts, restored the luster to the court and prevented their legacy from being tarnished forever?
Instead of starting with the principle that the sacred duty of any court intervening in an election is to get the votes counted, and doing everything in their power to make that happen in as fair a way as possible, the five GOP justices simply declared that it couldn't be done because recounts weren't perfect and -- gosh, look at my watch! -- time had expired.
This argument is the epitome of probity, if you take your judicial philosophy from Kafka. The majority said the recount couldn't be done in time -- then smashed the clock with a hammer. They had the colossal gall to write, "A desire for speed is not a general excuse for ignoring equal protection guarantees" -- when they were the ones who halted the recount and imposed artificial deadlines that made that "desire for speed" necessary. As Justice Ginsburg said in her dissent, "The court's conclusion that a constitutionally adequate recount is impractical is a prophecy the court's own judgment will not allow to be tested. Such an untested prophecy should not decide the presidency of the United States."
It is difficult to avoid the degrading conclusion -- degrading, because it implies a substantial lack of judicial competence and integrity on the part of the court's majority -- that from the start the court's right-wing majority, like the Bush camp to which it has so many ties, secretly regarded the very idea of a recount as suspect, inferior, secondary, an ignoble and unacceptable tainting of the God-given, majestic, sacrosanct first-count results (which just happened to show Bush in a razor-thin lead). The single most frightening image of the entire surreal episode may have been James Baker's icy, contemptuous rage as he denounced Gore's request for a recount -- his scowling face almost a caricature of the left's cartoon image of the authoritarian, white-haired, vengeful, win-at-all-costs, God-is-on-our-side right-winger. The Supreme Court ruling had footnotes instead of rage, but it seems to have operated on the same assumptions.
Justice Scalia confirmed this with his bizarre defense of his order to stop the recount, in which he gratuitously said, "The counting of votes that are of questionable legality does in my view threaten irreparable harm to petitioner, and to the country, by casting a cloud upon what he claims to be the legitimacy of his election." It was prudent of Justice Scalia to include the words "what he claims to be," but does anyone really doubt that Scalia, like those Bush supporters who kept angrily braying that Bush had "won," believed that the Texas governor should by rights have already moved into the White House, and Gore's attempts to find out what the vote actually was were damn near treasonous?
This we-already-won mind-set explains why the court signally failed to look at the election as a whole, and craft a remedy that tacitly acknowledged the errors both sides made -- a ruling that would have been as politically wise as the one it issued was divisive and rash.
Courts are not explicitly political institutions, but when dealing with an issue as momentous as the election of a president, it would seem wise for the court to assess the entire context in which a given legal challenge takes place. The Florida election was an equal-opportunity debacle: Both sides acted wrongly and bear some responsibility for the mess. But no one objective could conceivably look at it and claim that the Democrats had overreached so badly that they deserved to be terminated by judicial fiat.
Florida's governor was George W. Bush's brother. Its secretary of state, who never ruled against him, was a high-ranking official in his campaign who hired a private voter-roll cleansing company with Republican ties that disqualified hundreds of legitimate Democratic voters. The Florida GOP illegally completed Republican ballot applications in Martin and Seminole counties while denying Gore campaign workers the same opportunity to correct Democratic ballot applications. It took every opportunity to disqualify improper ballots for Gore, while demonizing Gore for doing the same thing to military overseas ballots. Determined to ensure a Bush victory at all cost, the GOP-controlled Legislature voted to push a slate of Bush electors through -- regardless of what recounts might show. And, of course, the GOP dragged its feet at every turn, resisting recounts and trying to run out the clock.
The Democrats, for their part, lost the moral high ground by failing to call for a statewide manual recount from the beginning. They squandered more capital threatening to sue over a ballot designed by a Democrat. They ignored the obvious injustice of changing the definition of what vote should count in the middle of the process: Palm Beach's recount, in which the standard kept changing, was a travesty. And, like their Republican counterparts, they played hardball with every ballot they could get their hands on.
In light of this situation, a ruling that handed victory to one side and not the other was the last thing, from a political as well as an ethical perspective, the court should have been looking for. And fortunately for the court, a decision to remand back to the Florida Supreme Court would not by any means have ensured a Gore victory -- Bush was actually gaining votes by some accounts -- making it the right thing to do both legally and politically. Yet the court, in thrall to the idea that Bush had already won and, one suspects, secretly accepting the Rush Limbaugh crowd's canard that the hand recounts were not just subject to different standards but to malevolent Democratic manipulation and chad chomping, did not even try. It stopped the counting. It stopped the election. It stopped democracy.
Justice Ginsberg, in her dissent, summed up the case with quiet eloquence. "Ideally, perfection would be the appropriate standard for judging the recount. But we live in an imperfect world, one in which thousands of votes have not been counted. I cannot grant that the recount adopted by the Florida court, flawed as it is, would yield a result less fair or precise than the certification that preceded recount."
Thousands of votes have not been counted. Think about that, whatever your political persuasion is, from time to time during the next four years. Imagine them, gathering dust in a filing cabinet somewhere, each one of them expressing the choice of a person who, when he went to the polling place that Tuesday in November, had every expectation that the United States would do its very best to ensure that whether he was rich or poor, black or white, he would be heard.
The people have not been heard. They will not be heard. And each of those uncounted ballots is a cry of reproach against the act of judicial arrogance that has now forever silenced them.
Manipulation Accomplished ...[(btw) Find the WMD yet?]
Are Politicians destroying Democracy? ~ How's your memory?
Did you honestly think
we'd
forget about this?
Nobody Remembers
Election Meddling?
Due to iffy Politicians NOBODY will
ever know how it could have been
without Debbie & her DNC cheaters?
Ride the Fence, [NOT WORK SAFE], The Coup, via Rip & Roy
05/15/1969 Politicians authorize
Murder of Peaceful Students!
Bloody
Thursday
Orders issued by GOP Politicians: Ronald W. Reagan & Richard M. Nixon.
05/04/1970 Politicians authorize
Murder of Peaceful Students!
Kent State Truth Tribunal
Seeking Truth & Justice at Kent State ~ The Day that Changed America
As of March 3, 2024, Nobody has been
arrested for this evil atrocitY, and
current Politicians no longer care?
Ohio ~ Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young ~ via Mr. Gibbons
On May 4, 1970 the Ohio National Guard opened fire on unarmed students protesting America´s invasion of Cambodia. Four students were killed and nine were wounded. The incident triggered national outrage in a country already divided over the Vietnam War. In the days that followed more than four million students rose up in dissent across 900 campuses, generating the only nationwide student protest in U.S. history.
The Kent State shootings have never been thoroughly examined and no person or group has been held accountable for wrongdoing. Forty years later, family members of those killed have initiated the Kent State Truth Tribunal to preserve and honor the stories of those whose lives have been touched by this tragedy. Taking inspiration from British Prime Minister David Cameron´s apology for the Bloody Sunday killings on June 15, 2010, the KSTT seeks official acknowledgment of the 1970 Kent State shootings. ~ http://www.truthtribunal.org/
05/14/1970 Politicians authorize
Murder of Peaceful Students!
Jackson State
Students Killed at
Jackson State University
Long Live the Spirit of Kent and Jackson State ~ May 4th Coalition
ASIFA-SF, Karl Cohen ~ Association International du Film d'Animation, SF Newsletter
ASIFA-SF March 2024 Newsletter [PDF]
Boptime ~ w/Even Steven Leech ~ Saturday Mornings
Boptime begins at 6am (EDT) on Saturday March 30th with oldies back to back to back. At 7am (EDT) we bring you some of the compositions by American composer Henry Mancini. Larry Williams joins us at The Club Baby Grand for some rare Betty Roché, a little Clifford Brown, and some great jazz selections. We’ll begin the 9am (EDT) hour with some Teddy & the Continentals and continue with some great R&B sides. ~ Steve
BOPTIME: Saturday, 6 AM Eastern, 3 AM Pacific time
Go To: http://www.wvud.org/?page_id=24
Click on a listening link below the WVUD logo:
Boptime available locally in Delaware on:
WVUD-FM 91.3
Shoutcast = [Search: WVUD] || TuneIn
Boptime ~ w/Even Steven Leech ~ Saturday Mornings
Boptime begins at 6am (EDT) on Saturday March 23rd with oldies back to back to back. At 7am (EDT) we bring you some of the symphonic work of jazz pianist and composer James P. Johnson. At 8am (EDT) Larry Williams joins us on Clifford’s Corner as we spin those vintage jazz and R&B sides that you most likely won’t hear anywhere else. ~ Steve
BOPTIME: Saturday, 6 AM Eastern, 3 AM Pacific time
Go To: http://www.wvud.org/?page_id=24
Click on a listening link below the WVUD logo:
Boptime available locally in Delaware on:
WVUD-FM 91.3
Shoutcast = [Search: WVUD] || TuneIn
Boptime ~ w/Even Steven Leech ~ Saturday Mornings
Boptime begins at 6am (EDT) on Saturday March 23rd with oldies back to back to back. ~ Steve
BOPTIME: Saturday, 6 AM Eastern, 3 AM Pacific time
Go To: http://www.wvud.org/?page_id=24
Click on a listening link below the WVUD logo:
Boptime available locally in Delaware on:
WVUD-FM 91.3
Shoutcast = [Search: WVUD] || TuneIn
Boptime ~ w/Even Steven Leech ~ Saturday Mornings
Boptime begins at 6am (EDT) on Saturday March 16th with oldies back to back to back. At 7am (EDT) we bring you a special edition of The Club Baby Grand filled with compositions from Clifford Brown and Lem Winchester. At 8am (EDT) on Rockabilly Ridge it’s hootenanny time when Michael Ace plays some Texas Swing selections. At 9am (EDT) we bop back to this day in 1953 when we had a new President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Republican who won on the promise he’d end the Korean War.~ Steve
BOPTIME: Saturday, 6 AM Eastern, 3 AM Pacific time
Go To: http://www.wvud.org/?page_id=24
Click on a listening link below the WVUD logo:
Boptime available locally in Delaware on:
WVUD-FM 91.3
Shoutcast = [Search: WVUD] || TuneIn
Boptime ~ w/Even Steven Leech ~ Saturday Mornings
Boptime begins at 6am (EDT) on Saturday March 9th with oldies back to back to back. At 7am (EDT) we bring you a special edition of The Club Baby Grand filled with compositions from Clifford Brown and Lem Winchester. At 8am (EDT) on Rockabilly Ridge Michael Ace spins tunes about that classic tale of boy gets girl . . . boy gets girl back. At 9am (EDT) we bop back to this day in 1954, when door gunner Joe McCarthy was building a bridge too far in his effort to root out every Red from the government. We’ll have the #1 tunes and lotsa R&B from this day in ’54. ~ Steve
BOPTIME: Saturday, 6 AM Eastern, 3 AM Pacific time
Go To: http://www.wvud.org/?page_id=24
Click on a listening link below the WVUD logo:
Boptime available locally in Delaware on:
WVUD-FM 91.3
Shoutcast = [Search: WVUD] || TuneIn
Neckerworld ~ A Computer Vision Game
Neckerworld ~ A Computer Vision Game, by hankster/Dr. Hank Magnuski
Overview
Neckerworld is a computer vision game designed to teach students about human and computer vision systems, object detection and identification, visual field construction, autonomous movement and strategy.
All players and resources in the game are cubes. The cube players are guided solely through autonomous computer vision programs. No human manual control or input is permitted during gameplay.
To successfully play the game requires a competent program to do object detection and identification, playing field knowledge representation and strategic decision making.
Background
The Necker Cube Illusion (first published as a rhomboid in 1832 by Swiss crystallographer Louis Albert Necker) is a well known example of a perceptual illusion where the orientation of the cube is unstable and easily flips between two states. Serious study and research into why we perceive multiple states leads to a set of questions about the very nature of our vision. [continue: http://neckerworld.com]
Notes from ~@~
Freedom of expression and freedom of speech aren't really important unless they're heard...It's hard for me to stay silent when I keep hearing that peace is only attainable through war. And there's nothing more scary than watching ignorance in action. So I dedicated this Emmy to all the people who feel compelled to speak out and not afraid to speak to power and won't shut up and refuse to be silenced. Tom Smothers
Carlin Step, DJ Steve Porter & Eli Wilkie via Roland Kardeby
The Great Bell Chant (The End of Suffering) via R Smittenaar
One Day, Matisyahu
Unsung Hero via Rattakarn Srithavatchai "Garn"
The Sacred Clowns ~ Heyókȟa
The Heyókȟa symbolize and portray many aspects of the sacred, the Wakȟáŋ. Their satire presents important questions by fooling around. They ask difficult questions, and say things others are too afraid to say. By reading between the lines, the audience is able to think about things not usually thought about, or to look at things in a different way.
Principally, the Heyókȟa functions both as a mirror and a teacher, using extreme behaviors to mirror others, thereby forcing them to examine their own doubts, fears, hatreds, and weaknesses. Heyókȟas also have the power to heal emotional pain; such power comes from the experience of shame--they sing of shameful events in their lives, beg for food, and live as clowns. They provoke laughter in distressing situations of despair and provoke fear and chaos when people feel complacent and overly secure, to keep them from taking themselves too seriously or believing they are more powerful than they are.
In addition, sacred clowns serve an important role in shaping tribal codes. Heyókȟa's don't seem to care about taboos, rules, regulations, social norms, or boundaries. Paradoxically, however, it is by violating these norms and taboos that they help to define the accepted boundaries, rules, and societal guidelines for ethical and moral behavior. This is because they are the only ones who can ask "Why?" about sensitive topics and employ satire to question the specialists and carriers of sacred knowledge or those in positions of power and authority. In doing so, they demonstrate concretely the theories of balance and imbalance. Their role is to penetrate deception, turn over rocks, and create a deeper awareness.
Develop Your Mind, Not Sacred Sites
Only after the last tree has been cut down, Only after the last river has been poisoned,Only after the last fish has been caught, Only then will you find money cannot be eaten. ~ Cree Prophecy
Nobody for President ~ NONE of the ABOVE should be a choice on voter ballots!
Curtis Spangler & Wavy Gravy, Nobody for President, 197610.12 ~ Photo: James Stark
Nobody bakes apple pie better than Mom, is eternal, perfect, has all the answers, ended war, will love you forever, brought peace to our time, fixed global warming, fed the hungry & destitute, knows, cares, shives a git about you, loves you when you're down & out, and if elected will not lie to, or steal from, 'the people'; ...begging a question, What's NOTA's entry fee ...more lies that lead to mass murder or human sacrifice, when Nobody says why not try love again?
American Dream, George Carlin via Ishtar [Not Work Safe] Alternative source with text
NOBODY should have that much power!
Divide & Conquer 2024 Poster, John Flores @ John Flores Graphics
At The Biden Trump 2024 Starting Line
by R.J. Matson, CQ Roll Call, Cagle Cartoons
NONE of the ABOVE should be a valid choice on voter ballots!
Message via Mike Pinder
Oh, I hope that I see you again I never even caught your name As you looked through my window pane ~ So I'm writing this message today I'm thinking that you'll have a way Of hearing the notes in my tune ~ Where are you going? Where have you been? I can imagine other worlds you have seen ~ Beautiful faces and music so serene ~ So I do hope I see you again My universal citizen You went as quickly as you came ~ You know the power Your love is right You have good reason To stay out of sight ~~ But break our illusions and help us Be the light. Mike Pinder
Why I Think This World Should End, Prince EA via Prince EA
Without love in the dream, it will never come true. ~ Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter
And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make. ~ John Lennon
The man whispered, "God, speak to me" and a meadowlark sang. But the man did not hear. So the man yelled "God, speak to me" and the thunder rolled across the sky. But the man did not listen. The man looked around and said, "God let me see you" and a star shined brightly. But the man did not notice. And the man shouted, "God show me a miracle" and a life was born. But the man did not know. So the man cried out in despair, "Touch me God, and let me know you are there" Whereupon God reached down and touched the man, But the man brushed the butterfly away and walked on.
Don't miss out on a blessing because
it isn't packaged the way you expect!
DuckDuckGo ~ The search engine that doesn't track you
Some search sites have been banned from scanning local content since 2012.
Please use DuckDuckGo.com or Bing.com for search.
{ ͡ʘ ͜ʖ ͡ʘ} Did politicians lie about Daylight Saving Time? { ͡ʘ ͜ʖ ͡ʘ}