FM123
FM123's JournalMy son took me to see Black Violin tonight. WOW.
They are just SO talented, just took my breath away. And we are so proud that they are local guys from Fort Lauderdale. If you ever get a chance to see them when they tour, do it.
I couldn't video anything on my phone tonight (drats) but here are some of their songs on youtube:
&ab_channel=BlackViolin
After spending 43 years in prison for a triple murder he says he didn't commit, a MO man is finally
Free
(CNN) After spending 43 years behind bars for a crime he said he didn't commit, a Missouri man's conviction has been set aside, according to a news release from Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker.
Senior Judge James Welsh filed his ruling Tuesday morning to set aside the conviction of 62-year-old Kevin Strickland, who served 43 years at Western Missouri Correctional Center in Cameron, Missouri, after he was convicted of one count of capital murder and two counts of second-degree murder in a triple homicide. He received a 50-year life sentence without the possibility for parole for a crime he maintained he wasn't involved in.
Strickland, from a wheelchair, spoke shortly after he was released from jail Tuesday afternoon and said he's thankful for his attorneys and everyone who listened to him over the years while he maintained his innocence.
All criminal counts against Strickland were dismissed. His release makes his confinement the longest wrongful imprisonment in Missouri history and one of the longest in the nation, according to The National Registry of Exonerations.
Read More:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/23/us/kevin-strickland-triple-murder-wrongful-conviction-freed-trnd/index.html
This library lets you borrow people instead of books. It just may help bridge our bitter divisions
(CNN) On a rainy spring morning in Muncie, Indiana, a White, middle-aged, conservative woman met a transgender woman for a date. It did not start well. The transgender woman was waiting at a table when the other woman showed up. She stood up and extended her hand. The other woman refused to take it. "I want you to know I'm a conservative Christian," she said, still standing. "I'm a liberal Christian," the transgender woman replied. "Let's talk."
Their rendezvous was supposed to last about 30 minutes. But the conversation was so engrossing for both that it lasted an hour. It ended with the conservative woman rising from her seat to give the other woman a hug. "Thank you," she said. "This has been wonderful."
This improbable meeting came courtesy of the Human Library, a nonprofit learning platform that allows people to borrow people instead of books. But not just any people. Every "human book" from this library represents a group that faces prejudice or stigmas because of their lifestyle, ethnicity, beliefs, or disability. A human book can be an alcoholic, for example, or a Muslim, or a homeless person, or someone who was sexually abused. The Human Library stages in-person and online events where "difficult questions are expected, appreciated, and answered." Organizers says they're trying to encourage people to "unjudge" a book by its cover.
snip
The Human Library was created 21 years ago by Ronni Abergel, a Danish human rights activist and journalist who became interested in non-violence activism after a friend he describes as a "troubled youth" survived a stabbing in Copenhagen. He wondered if a human library could bring people together like a traditional one. Only in this one, stigmatized or unconventional people would be treated like books -- readers could loan them out, ask them questions, learn something they didn't know and challenge their perceptions.
Read More:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/14/health/human-library-blake-cec/index.html
Woman Sees Her Dog Outside And Brings Her In -- Then Realizes She's Already Inside
(The Dodo via MSN) Tia Belton was arriving home from work one day and was excited to get inside to see her dog, Reese. As she pulled up to her apartment, she noticed something shocking — Reese all alone outside, sniffing around a dumpster. Belton was immediately livid and had no idea how Reese had managed to get out of the apartment.
“I was distressed — my Reese never wanders off and doesn’t particularly enjoy running outside,” Belton told The Dodo. “Our apartment complex dumpster is not near my apartment at all. She normally just lays in the sun, so for her to be sniffing around the dumpster was too much for me.”
Belton called for Reese, and she came running over to the car immediately. She jumped in and Belton parked and then carried Reese up to the apartment. She was still feeling a little annoyed at Reese — when she opened the door and saw Reese already inside waiting for her.
(Read More. And see the cute doggo pics)
https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/pets-animals/woman-sees-her-dog-outside-and-brings-her-in-%e2%80%94-then-realizes-shes-already-inside/ar-AAPx9FX?li=BBnb7Kz
Florida is averaging fewer than 3,000 COVID cases per day
*finally some good news.....(Local10News) FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Over the past week, Florida has averaged 2,999 new COVID-19 infections per day. It’s the fewest since the first seven days of July, according to CDC data, and illustrates how far the state has come since the delta variant-fueled summer surge.
At its peak, in the middle of August, the state was averaging more than 21,000 new cases per day. By mid-September, the 7-day averages were around 11,000.
The CDC says Florida has now posted 11 consecutive days with fewer than 4,000 new infections.
The United States has averaged 86,181 new cases over the past seven days, meaning Florida is accounting for about 3.5%. Back in the summer, Florida was accounting for about 20% of the nation’s infections at times.
Read More: https://www.local10.com/news/florida/2021/10/14/florida-is-averaging-fewer-than-3000-covid-cases-per-day/
MAGA Gun Church That Worships With AR-15s Has Bought a Giant Mountain Property in Tennessee
* Rachel Maddow touched on this the other night.....(Vice) The MAGA-loving religious sect that worships with AR-15s has purchased a 130-acre property on a mountain in eastern Tennessee to serve as a “training center” and holy ground for its devoted, gun-toting followers, VICE News has learned.
The latest property acquisition is more evidence that Pastor Hyung Jin “Sean” Moon, a fervent conspiracy theorist and son of an accused cult leader, is determined to expand his reach into the American Heartland.
snip
Sean and Justin Moon, plus other senior church officials, were also at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, and posted videos of themselves emerging from clouds of tear gas. Sean has also courted fringe MAGA-world figures; this weekend, the annual Rod of Iron Freedom Fest at the Kahr Arms headquarters in Greeley will include speakers such as former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, ex–NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch, far-right Proud Boy ally Joey Gibson, and GOP congressional candidate Teddy Daniels.
snip
Meanwhile, the younger Moon is attempting to build support on the GOP fringes. He’s been a big proponent of the lie that Trump was the real winner of the 2020 election. Moon and other church officials use their regular broadcasts, streamed via Rumble, to sound off about antifa, vaccine mandates, the Biden administration, Critical Race Theory, or gun laws.
Read More: https://www.vice.com/en/article/4avkdw/rod-of-iron-ministries-purchases-property-in-tennessee
We Finally Know How 43 Students on a Bus Vanished Into Thin Air
(Daily Beast) Transcripts of newly released text messages between a crime boss and a deputy police chief have finally lifted the lid on the mystery of 43 students who went missing one night in southwestern Mexico. The messages indicate that the cops and the cartel worked together to capture, torture, and murder at least 38 of the 43 student teachers who went missing in September of 2014.
The students had made the deadly mistake of commandeering several buses in order to drive to Mexico City for a protest. It now seems clear that those buses were part of a drug-running operation that would carry a huge cargo of heroin across the U.S. border—and the students had accidentally stolen the load.
snip
“The story of the massacre of the students in Ayotzinapa is like a Hollywood movie, but the events are real. They involve collusion between the police, army, organized crime, and a massive coverup by the Mexican government.”
The students were all enrolled at the Rural Teachers College in the nearby town of Ayotzinapa, and so they became known as the Ayotzinapa 43. The College is considered a bastion of leftist activism and on the night of the disappearance more than 100 students had been making their way to the nation’s capital. There they planned to take part in demonstrations to mark the anniversary of the 1968 student massacre at Tlatelolco. Most of the student teachers were in their early twenties, but the youngest—Jose Angel Navarrete, known as Pepe to his friends—was just 18 years old.
Read More:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/we-finally-know-how-43-ayotzinapa-students-on-a-bus-vanished-into-thin-air?source=articles&via=rss
Pro-Trump Rally Expecting 10,000 Attendees Sees Only a Few Hundred Show Up
Bwahaha
(Newsweek) Organizers of a Kentucky rally in support of former President Donald Trump featuring several prominent allies and conspiracy theorists expected some 10,000 people to show up this weekend. Instead, less than 300 were in attendance when local journalists attempted to cover the proceedings.
The "We the People Reunion" was held at the Muhlenberg County Agriculture & Convention Center Fairgrounds in Powderly, Kentucky, on Friday and Saturday. MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, retired General Michael Flynn, attorney Lin Wood and others were among the featured speakers, according to the event and ticket page online.
Local channel WFIE 14 News sent a team to shoot video at the event on Friday but was later asked to leave, according to a report broadcast by the NBC News affiliate. The news channel reported that promoters had expected a crowd of about 10,000 people but less than 300 were in attendance from what their journalists saw. Event organizers reportedly refused to speak to WFIE about the rally.
Read More: https://www.newsweek.com/pro-trump-rally-expecting-10000-attendees-sees-only-few-hundred-show-1628299
Like Washington and Jefferson, he championed liberty. Unlike the founders, he freed his slaves
(CNN) It was 230 years ago Sunday that Robert Carter III, the patriarch of one of the wealthiest families in Virginia, quietly walked into a Northumberland County courthouse and delivered an airtight legal document announcing his intention to free, or manumit, more than 500 slaves.
He titled it the "deed of gift." It was, by far, experts say, the largest liberation of Black people before the Emancipation Proclamation more than seven decades later.
On September 5, 1791, when Carter delivered his deed, slavery was an institution, a key engine of the new country's economy. But many slaveholders -- including founding fathers George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, who knew Carter -- had begun to voice doubts. That was the extent of their umbrage.
snip
"I think the story of Robert Carter III is incredibly important," she said, "and not just to glorify another rich, White man, but to show how personal convictions can be stronger than the status quo, that doing the right thing is often hard but important and that people matter -- that people are more important than the work that they perform."
(Read more) https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/05/us/robert-carter-iii-deed-of-gift-slavery-anniversary/index.html
Laurence Tribe: If Garland doesn't prosecute Trump, the rule of law is "out the window"
*Long article, but here is a snip....(Salon) As wrote in my Boston Globe op-ed, what I'm saying to Merrick Garland is: Wake up! You've got to do something to hold this man accountable. Now somebody could say, well, what about the presumption of innocence? How do you know he's guilty? All I can say in response is that we've heard with our own ears, and Donald Trump has never denied, that he said to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, "Just find me 11,780 votes." To me that is compelling proof that Trump was essentially trying to erase his legitimate loss by creating votes that were not his. That is stealing the election.
Moreover, it's an attempted coup when Trump twists the arm of his acting attorney general and tells him, "Just say that the presidential election was corrupt, and I'll take care of the rest with my friends in Congress." On its face, that is proof of corrupt intent beyond reasonable doubt. It is also proof of a plan to take over the country without legitimately winning. That's a crime.
So the question is: Why is it taking so long? One possible answer is that it's not easy to get a conviction of a president. What appears compelling to a layperson is going to be difficult in practice. It will also be difficult to put down the riots that the very announcement of an indictment may bring. There may be a great deal of worry about fomenting civil war to no good end, because we will not succeed in holding the president accountable.
In the end, all I can do is make the counter-argument that if you're worried about the consequences of going ahead with this evidence against Trump and perhaps not convicting him, then you had better start worrying about the consequences of not going ahead with this evidence — and telling presidents in the future, including this president, who undoubtedly is going to try to seize power again one way or another, that they can get away with this. If that is the message, then the rule of law has basically been thrown out the window.
Read More: https://www.salon.com/2021/08/30/laurence-tribe-if-garland-doesnt-prosecute-trump-the-rule-of-law-is-out-the-window/
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