What do you think of Pope Leoโ€™s comments on gay marriage?

Personal note.ย  I am doing better.ย  I am eating two meals a day most days.ย  Not much for supper but something most nights.ย  I am still fatigued / tired but I am not spending so many hours in bed.ย  I am still going to bed early and staying in bed 12 to 14 hours.ย  I go to in the morning and in the afternoon but that is partly due to the intense pain in my right butt and leg along with my back not just being too tired to stay up.ย  I will try to get enough caught up enough to do a video.ย  ย Ron has caught on and is paying a lot of attention to me.ย  He is worried.ย  He is doing everything he can around the house including doing the dishes when I am in bed so I find them done the next morning.ย  But as I tell him this will take time.ย  I did not get so ill overnight; I won’t get back to full strength quickly either.ย  Hugsย 

Health update for Scottie

I almost went to bed at 3 pm, as I had not gone to bed or slept today.ย  Ron begged me to please try to stay awake as he was at his sister’s and insisted when he got home he would make supper.ย ย 

I struggled to stay awake and fell asleep many times at my desk until Ron got home.ย  I helped him prepare supper while falling asleep.ย  He did offer that if I couldn’t stay awake, he needed me to try to eat a quick sandwich.ย  But I was able to help help by peeling the potatoes.ย ย 

Ron made the four pork chops we bought today with shake and bake that I love, and he made brown gravy to go with the potatoes.ย  And he made corn.ย  I was so excited that I took one pork chop and a huge amount of potatoes and gravy.ย  ย A big mistake but I was looking to what I most enjoy.ย ย 

I cut up and ate about a total of about five pieces of the pork which was grand.ย  But I wolfed into the potatos.ย  I ate most of them but soon ran out of steam.ย  I only had a couple of small spoons full of corn. Then I sat there trying to make myself eat more.ย ย 

Ron walked by my office and noticed I was struggling and asked me how I was doing.ย  I explained to him how happy I was for the meal and how good it tasted … but I was already full.ย  He looked at what I ate and was thrilled.ย  I was like why, I took too much and did not finish it all.ย  A sin in my childhood that could get you beaten.ย ย 

He picked up my stuff as I helped and told me “Scottie you ate and ate a lot for you at this time of night”.ย  “I was very afraid you would just go to bed with out eating like you have done for weeks”.ย  He was very happy I ate.ย  But I am so tired I have to go to bed.ย  He is taking care of everything because when I tried to help I almost fell down.ย  I wanted to do comments today and to tell the story of Ron’s catheterization, but instead I got two days of the cartoons / memes roundup done.ย  So if I fail tomorrow at least they will be there for everyone.ย  Again much thanks to Ali who has been so wonderful not only with her posting, comment answering but also in sending me encouraging emails.ย  I would have closed the blog if not for her efforts.ย  ย Hugs

On bad apologetics about homosexuality & the Bible

This is a very well researched and scholarly man.ย  He knows far more than the dogma of the bible he knows how to read the Hebrew and the nuances of the time.ย Hugs

 

A Sunday Read

They all survived Jeffrey Epstein. They have something to tell you

Saturday marks one year since Virginia Giuffreโ€™s death โ€“ and other survivors are making a public reckoning possible

Fabiola Cineas

Saturday will mark one year since the death of Virginia Giuffre, one of the first women to surrender her anonymity, detail her experiences and publicly call for criminal charges against convicted child sex offenderย Jeffrey Epstein. For other Epstein survivors such as Liz Stein and Jess Michaels, Giuffreโ€™s public reckoning made it possible to finally name what had happened to them.

โ€œI saw myself in Virginia, in [Epstein survivor] Maria Farmer, in all of them,โ€ said Danielle Bensky, who was pulled into Epsteinโ€™s orbit when she was 17. โ€œAnd I thought: if they can be victimized, anyone can be. I was not alone. I finally understood that we were not going to be silent any more.

More than a dozen Epstein survivors will gather in Washington DC this weekend for a memorial vigil in Giuffreโ€™s honor. But they will also be marking something larger: the emergence of a survivorsโ€™ movement Giuffre helped make possible โ€“ and that is only gaining momentum.

Epstein survivors have held press conferences and met with congressional lawmakers; in November, the Epstein Files Transparency Act passed, and the release of more than 3.5m pages of documents followed. However, in the more than two months since the justice department released its latest batch of files โ€“ more than 2m documents have yet to be released โ€“ prosecutors have not brought any new charges, despite federal lawmakers on both sides of the aisle continuing to demand accountability.

As for Ghislaine Maxwell โ€“ the only person convicted in connection with Epsteinโ€™s network โ€“ she was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022 and has exhausted her appeals. Rather than facing harsher scrutiny, however, Maxwell was controversially transferred from a low-security prison in Florida to a minimum-security federal camp in Texas in August.

While the lack of action has left survivors with little faith that the full scope of Epsteinโ€™s network will ever face justice, they donโ€™t intend to back down.

Stein, Bensky, Lisa Phillips and Michaels discuss, in their own words, what made them come forward, the power of survivors banding together and where they want the movement to go.

  • โ€˜If I could go back, I would tell someoneโ€™
  • Liz Stein, human trafficking specialist and survivor advocate
  1. When I met Epstein and Maxwell, I was a senior in college. I had aspirations of going to law school. People had a lot of expectations for what my life would look like. But my life turned out the exact opposite.ย For decades, I buried what happened to me. I thought these were friends I had met in New York โ€“ that is how they made the relationship feel. So the narrative in my mind was that I had these unspeakable, horrific experiences with people I thought cared about me. I never wanted to think about it. I never wanted to talk about it. I just lived with it.I wasnโ€™t ready for his face to appear on television the day he was arrested. And what followed confused me further, because the coverage focused on the girls in Florida โ€“ and I had these preconceived notions about what trafficking was and who it happened to. I wasnโ€™t underage. I never went to the island. So I thought: thatโ€™s different, thatโ€™s separate. But I educated myself. I immersed myself in the national anti-trafficking movement, consuming every webinar and publication I could find. And when I did that, I thought: this is exactly what happened to me. And I was just enraged and saddened to know it wasnโ€™t just me โ€“ that it was potentially hundreds of other young women.When I delivered myย victim impact statementย after Maxwellโ€™s sentencing [for sex trafficking], I nearly shouted. I talked about my emotional health, my physical health, how this derailed my life. I wanted to project my voice so that no one in that courtroom could ignore what I was saying. And it was important to me to look at her directly while I spoke. I didnโ€™t want her to see me cry. I didnโ€™t want to give her that satisfaction.That moment changed something. I couldnโ€™t imagine having this visibility and not fighting for justice. If I could go back, I would tell someone. And if they didnโ€™t listen, I would tell someone else, and I would just keep telling until someone listened.What I want people to understand is that speaking out publicly is not a requirement. For those who arenโ€™t ready, know that there are women standing in their truth on your behalf. And for those who are afraid, if you tell someone and they donโ€™t listen, tell someone else. Just keep telling until someone listens. Even if it falls on deaf ears, you will still be proud of yourself for being willing to stand in your uncomfortable truth.
  2. โ€˜What changed everything was meeting other survivorsโ€™
  3. Danielle Bensky, choreographer, performer and survivor advocate

(snip-MORE [because of course we know there is])

Gov. Tate Reeves Proclaims April 2026 as Confederate Heritage Month in Mississippi

I don’t know if all republicans are racist bigots but they certainly do tolerate them in their midst.ย  Pride month, pride flags, and black history month, MLK, and other non-white persons of note are too political, divisive, and too morally offensive to be displayed or talked about.ย  ย No month to celebrate the oppressed minorities yet one to celebrate the oppressors?ย  No pride flags on government buildings or school classrooms but confederate battle flags are OK to be displayed everywhere.ย  Some how the people calling for the end of DEI as racist along with those saying the pride symbols and history months are divisive and too political, think displays of people wanting to own / deny rights to a group based on skin color are not divisive or political.ย  Hugs


Gov. Tate Reeves Proclaims April 2026 as Confederate Heritage Month in Mississippi

Ashton Pittman

Two men in casual clothes carry large confederate flags on poles over their shoulders across a green lawn
Two Confederate flag bearers walk across the lawn of the Mississippi State Capitol in Jackson, Miss., on Monday, July 6, 2015. A group of about 50 people participated in the rally sponsored by the Magnolia State Heritage Campaign as they opposed efforts to remove Mississippiโ€™s 1894 Confederate-themed state flag. Five years later, in 2020, Gov. Tate Reeves would sign a bill retiring the old state flag, even as he continued declaring Confederate Heritage Month annually. AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis

Nearly six years after signing the bill that removed the Confederate symbol from Mississippiโ€™s state flag, Gov. Tate Reeves declared April 2026 as Confederate Heritage Month, continuing a tradition that began 33 years ago.

Though the governor does not publish the Confederate Heritage Month proclamations on any official government websites, the Mississippi Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans posted a copy of the latest proclamation on its Facebook page. The proclamation shows that the governor signed it on April 17.

Confederate Heritage Month Proclamation
Tap or click the preview image to read Mississippi Gov. Tate Reevesโ€™ April 17, 2026, Confederate Heritage Month proclamation. Courtesy Mississippi Division Sons of Confederate Veterans

As in past years, Reevesโ€™ proclamation does not mention the central role of slavery and white supremacy in the Confederacyโ€™s birth, instead speaking only vaguely about how April โ€œis the month when, in 1861, the American Civil War began between the Confederate and Union armies, reportedly the deadliest war ever fought on American soil.โ€

โ€œWHEREAS, as we honor all who lost their lives in this war, it is important for all Americans to reflect upon our nationโ€™s past, to gain insight from our mistakes and successes, and to come to a full understanding that the lessons learned yesterday and today will carry us through tomorrow if we carefully and earnestly strive to understand and appreciate our heritage and our opportunities which lie before us,โ€ says the governorโ€™s proclamation. โ€œNOW, THEREFORE, I, Tate Reeves, as Governor of the State of Mississippi, do hereby proclaim the month of April 2026 as CONFEDERATE HERITAGE MONTH in the State of Mississippi.โ€

Kevin M. Levin, a Boston-based historian whose work has focused heavily on the Civil War-era,ย wrote on his Substack, Civil War Memory, on April 18 that Reeves issued the document โ€œwith the quiet, almost regularity of a bureaucratic obligation.โ€

โ€œThere is no mention of what the Confederacy stood for, no celebration of Southern martial valor, no invocation of statesโ€™ rights, andโ€”most conspicuouslyโ€”no mention of slavery, even though it was theย explicit cause Mississippi namedย when it seceded from the Union in 1861,โ€ Levin wrote. โ€œWhat the proclamation most resembles is a permission slip signed reluctantly, just legible enough to satisfy the requester and vague enough to require no defense.โ€

Slavery Defined the Confederacy

The Sons of Confederate Veterans is a neo-Confederate organization that espouses โ€œLost Causeโ€ ideology, which promotes a revisionist version of the Civil War that whitewashes the Confederacyโ€™s white supremacist history andย downplays the role of slavery in the Civil War. SCV owns and operates Beauvoir, the museum and historic home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, located in Biloxi, Mississippi; the organizationย annually receives $100,000ย from the State of Mississippi for development and maintenance.

Confederate History and Heritage Month Proclamation
The Mississippi Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans issued this Confederate History and Heritage Month proclamation on April 1, 2026. Courtesy Mississippi Division of Sons of Confederate Veterans

The Mississippi Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans issued its own 2026 โ€œConfederate History and Heritage Monthโ€ proclamation on April 1, saying that โ€œstates of the South, including Mississippi, did legally declare their independence from the United States in 1861, and โ€ฆ these states did form a Confederation to protect and defend themselves from an invading army.โ€

What the SCV proclamation left out was the defining issue that led Mississippi and other Southern states to secede from the Unionโ€”the โ€œcauseโ€ the Confederacy fought for.

โ€œOur position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slaveryโ€”the greatest material interest of the world,โ€ย Mississippiโ€™s 1861 Declaration of Secessionย declared. โ€œIts labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth.โ€

The 2026 SCV proclamation, signed by Mississippi Division Commander Forrest S. Daws, says that the people of the Confederacy spent โ€œfour long years fighting and sacrificing for their independenceโ€ as part of โ€œtheir commitment to defend the rights secured under the United States Constitution.โ€

But the historical record shows that that, too, is a revisionist view of history.ย 

 

In hisย 1861 Cornerstone Speechย announcing the Confederate Constitution, Confederate Vice President Alexander Hamilton Stephens said that it made โ€œgreat improvements upon the old constitution.โ€

โ€œThe new constitution has put at rest, forever, all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution African slavery as it exists amongst us the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution,โ€ Stephens said. โ€œ(Thomas) Jefferson in his forecast, had anticipated this, as the โ€˜rock upon which the old Union would split.โ€™ He was right. What was conjecture with him, is now a realized fact. But whether he fully comprehended the great truth upon which that rock stood and stands, may be doubted.

โ€œThe prevailing ideas entertained by him and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old constitution, were that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally, and politically. It was an evil they knew not well how to deal with, but the general opinion of the men of that day was that, somehow or other in the order of Providence, the institution would be evanescent and pass away.โ€

โ€œThis idea, though not incorporated in the constitution, was the prevailing idea at that time. โ€ฆ Those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong,โ€ Stephens continued. โ€œThey rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error. It was a sandy foundation, and the government built upon it fell when the โ€˜storm came and the wind blew.โ€™ Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.โ€

In the decades after the Civil War ended, Confederate veterans, such asย Mississippi State Universityโ€™s inaugural president, Stephen D. Lee, and groups like SCV and the United Daughters of the Confederacy began the work of remaking history in a way that shone a more favorable light on the Southโ€”muddying the waters over the cause of the war and falsely describing it as a โ€œwar of northern aggression.โ€

After the Civil War and the failure of Reconstruction, Mississippiโ€™s white leaders worked to enshrine white supremacy in state law,ย adopting a Jim Crow state constitution in 1890ย (including a racist felony voter-disenfranchisement provision that remains in state law andย continues to disproportionately disenfranchise Black voters).

White-supremacist leaders in Mississippi renewed efforts to enshrine Confederate heritage in the 1950s and 1960s in reaction to the rise of the Civil Rights Movement.

Mississippiโ€™sย Confederate-themed 1894 state flagย flew over state buildings until 2020, whenย state lawmakers voted to retire and replace itย following decades ofย efforts from Black Mississippiansย and in the wake ofย young Black Mississippians leading protestsย after the murder of George Floyd.

Despite his campaign pledge to supporters of the old Confederate-themed flag not to use his power to change the flag, Gov. Reeves signed the bill retiring it, calling it โ€œa law to turn a page in Mississippi today.โ€

โ€œIt is fashionable in some quarters to say our ancestors were all evil. I reject that notion. I also reject the elitist worldview that these United States are anything but the greatest nation in the history of mankind. I reject the mobs tearing down statues of our historyโ€”north and south, Union and Confederate, founding fathers and veterans,โ€ the governor said in 2020,ย criticizing Black Lives Matter protestersย from across the country even as he signed the bill with several Mississippi civil rights icons behind him. โ€œI reject the chaos and lawlessness, and I am proud it has not happened in our state.โ€

โ€˜An Ideology Reduced to a Form Letterโ€™

The Mississippi Division of the Sons of Confederate Veteransโ€™ 2026 Confederate Heritage proclamation notes that โ€œin 1993 Mississippi Governor Kirk Fordice, understanding the importance of remembering and preserving all history, did declare the first Confederate History Month.โ€

After Kirk Fordice became Mississippiโ€™s first Republican governor in a century whileย courting the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizensย andย criticizing efforts to atone for the stateโ€™s racist past, he issued the inaugural Confederate Heritage Month proclamation at the request of the Sons of Confederate Veterans in 1993.

Since then, one Democratic governor and three Republican governors have followed Fordiceโ€™s lead.

Starting in 2016, Donna Ladd, then the editor of the Jackson Free Press and now the executive editor of the Mississippi Free Press, first reported on then-Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryantโ€™s Confederate Heritage Month proclamations. Despite issuing Confederate Heritage Month proclamations annually for his first seven years in office between 2011 and 2018, former Gov. Phil Bryant did not issue one in 2019, his last year in office; heย opted instead for a โ€œMonth of Unityโ€ proclamationย on behalf of a Christian religious organization.

The Mississippi Free Press has since reported on each of Reevesโ€™ annual proclamations, including inย 2020,ย 2021,ย 2022,ย 2023,ย 2024ย andย 2025.

Reevesโ€™ ties to the Sons of Confederate Veterans stretch back long before his time as governor. In 2013,ย he spoke to the SCVโ€™s national gathering in Vicksburg, Mississippi, in front of a massive Confederate battle flag and in a room decorated with smaller Confederate flags and cotton plants. After then-Lt. Gov. Reeves congratulated the organization for โ€œkeeping history for our youth,โ€ speakers defended the Confederate โ€œcauseโ€ and compared โ€œYankeesโ€ to German โ€œNazisโ€ in World War II.

Long before entering politics, Reeves was part of a Millsaps College fraternity known for lionizing Confederate General Robert E. Lee and forย Confederate-themed parties where members wore blackface. When it became an issue in his 2019 campaign for governor, though, he said he never participated in blackface during his time in the fraternity.

Reevesโ€™ Democratic opponent at the time,ย then-Attorney General Jim Hood, was also in a fraternity at the University of Mississippi, where members wore blackface; he similarly denied ever participating.

Reeves defended issuing the proclamations in 2021.

โ€œFor the last 30 years, five Mississippi governorsโ€”Republicans and Democrats alikeโ€”have signed a proclamation recognizing the statutory state holiday and identifying April as Confederate Heritage Month,โ€ the governorโ€™s officeย said in a statement to WAPTย at the time. โ€œGov. Reeves also signed the proclamation because he believes we can all learn from our history.โ€

The governorโ€™s annual proclamation routinely notes that state law designates the last Monday in April asย Confederate Memorial Day. However, state law does not require governors to issue Confederate Heritage Month proclamations.

The language in Reevesโ€™ Confederate Heritage Month proclamations uses much of the same language as the one that former Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, who served from 2000 to 2004,ย issued in April 2000.

In 2023, Musgrove told the Mississippi Free Press that Confederate Heritage Month is โ€œsomething that should not continue in todayโ€™s world.โ€

โ€œI cannot say why the practice started, but it was one that should never have been started,โ€ the former governor said. โ€œIt was one that I should not have signed, and it should have ended a long time ago.โ€

Former Republican Gov. Haley Barbour also signed Confederate Heritage Month proclamations every year between 2004 and 2016.

Inย his Substack post, Kevin M. Levin wrote that the earlier proclamations that began with Fordice โ€œwere issued with more ideological confidenceโ€ and as โ€œinstruments of the Lost Cause.โ€ Now, instead, the historian wrote, they appear on Sons of Confederate Veterans Facebook groupsโ€”a sign of the Lost Causeโ€™s โ€œcrumbling infrastructureโ€ and that it is now โ€œan ideology reduced to a form letter.โ€

โ€œA celebration conducted in secret, or at least in silence, is not really a celebration. It is a favor done for a diminishing constituency that the issuer would prefer the broader public not notice,โ€ he wrote.

Levin called it โ€œthe political logic of a cause in retreat.โ€

โ€œThe Lost Cause did not die in a single moment, not with the removal of Confederate statues afterย Charleston in 2015, not with Mississippiโ€™s replacement of its Confederate-emblem state flag in 2020, and not with any particular court ruling or protest march. It has died the slower death of a story that fewer and fewer people believe, or are willing to say publicly that they believe,โ€ the Boston historian continued. โ€œWhat remains is a three-paragraph proclamation, quietly signed, quietly announced in a Facebook group, saying as little as possible about a cause its issuer is no longer willing to name.โ€

For more on the Sons of Confederate Veterans, โ€œredemptionโ€ schemes, and the censorship campaign to romanticize and sanitize the Confederacy in southern and U.S. textbooks, read thisย in-depth piece about inaugural Mississippi State University President Stephen D. Leeโ€™s successful effortsย to rewrite the Confederate narrative.

Disclosure: Former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove has donated to the Mississippi Free Press. This does not affect our coverage.

 

Some Art From Jenny Lawson

Accidental art therapy

(not tiny monster penises)

Jenny Lawson (thebloggess)

Hello, friend!

This week I revisited the Lynda Barry Making Comics book because I was on book tour and a tiny sketch book was easy to bring along on plane rides. The exercises were out of my comfort zone but sometimes I think that can be a good thing. This exercise was called โ€œClose your eyes and draw a mermaid.โ€

Another was to choose a character and sketch their entire life cycle. I choseย Beyoncรฉ the Giant Metal Chicken,ย obviously:

I did a self-portraitโ€ฆsort of:

And drew with both hands at the same time, which is much harder than it sounds: (snip-MORE; go see!)

Neil deGrasse Tyson’s 5-Minute Takedown of Right Wing Hosts’ IDIOCY

Tyson makes great points how the privacy issues dealing with trans people and also the sports issues.ย  He suggests ways to handle each of these situations.ย  He explains it is better to solve the issues instead of forcing everyone to live as was done in the past.ย  Hugs

SCOTUS to hear religious freedom case about Roman Catholic preschools refusing LGBTQ+ families

I had my allergy shots this morning.ย  Ron and Diane have gone to see if they can find the casino in the next county over.ย  I am trying to stay awake.ย  I want to see if I can reply to a few comments before going back to bed.ย  Fof those that don’t know I am not eating.ย  I have one meal in the morning and spend most of my time in bed these days.ย  My blood tests showed my red and white blood cells were all messed up.ย  Animia?ย  Cancer?ย  Depression?ย  My body breaks down under stress, and I have been stressed since November of last year.ย  It is a lot less right now with Ron home but he still has little time for stuff at home because of the need to spend so much time with his sister.ย  Plus he is having health issues as well.ย  The real issue is I am tired.ย  Just so tired I am unable to think, eat, or even engage with Ron.ย  I find I am easily irritated, and when he reached out to touch me in bed I snaped at him for it.ย  I have not reacted that way in a long time.ย  I like his touch.ย  ย I have lost between 8 to 10 pounds because I am not eating.ย  I keep this up and I could get from my normal 170 t the goal of 150 pounds I want. ๐Ÿ˜€๐Ÿ˜ƒ๐Ÿ˜‰๐Ÿ˜Ž.ย  Ron is concerned and says if we don’t see improvement next week I have to contact my primary care doctor.ย  It all seems like too much work, I just want to go back to bed.ย  The pain is less there.ย  My right leg becomes so painful after five minutes of use I can’t really walk and I have to do the dishes with a rolling very high adjustable stool.ย ย 

Anyway the video below is a great example of why real Christians are not bigots.ย  I wish I felt up to posting more videos, it is all I seem able to do right now, just watch videos.ย  ย Be well, and enjoy the Rev. explain why bigotry is a really bad thing for the Christian church.ย  Hugs

Today Is Arbor Day, 2026!

Trees are as close to immortality as the rest of us ever come.”

โ€• Karen Joy Fowler

“You know me, I think there ought to be a big old tree right there. And let’s give him a friend. Everybody needs a friend.”

โ€• Bob Ross

https://onetreeplanted.org/blogs/stories/inspirational-quotes-about-trees

Arbor Day Dates Across America

National Arbor Day is always celebrated on the last Friday in April, but many states observe Arbor Day on different dates throughout the year based on best tree planting times in their area. (snip-see the chart on the page)


Home
ย ยปย Holidays & Eventsย ยปย Minor Holidays Arbor Day 2026: What and When is Arbor Day?

Arbor Day 2026: What and When is Arbor Day?

What Is Arbor Day?

Arbor Day is a national holiday thatย recognizes the importance of trees. The most common way people celebrate Arbor Day is to get together in groups to plant trees. (snip)

How Did Arbor Day Start?

The day was the brainchild of Julius Sterling Morton, a Nebraskan journalist who later became the U.S. Agriculture Secretary under President Grover Cleveland. Morton was an enthusiastic promoter of tree planting, had long championed the idea of a day dedicated to planting trees.

When Was The First Arbor Day?

Arbor Day was first celebrated in Nebraska on April 10, 1874, following a proclamation by Gov. Robert W. Furnas. In less than a decade, the idea for the holiday caught on in other sates until, by 1882, its observance had become a national event. Nebraska made Arbor Day a legal holiday in 1885, moving it to April 22, Mortonโ€™s birthday. An estimated one million trees were planted during the first Arbor Day.

Many other countries around the world set aside one day each year to celebrate trees, though not all of them take place on the same day as Arbor Day. One of the oldest isย Tu Bishvat, a minor Jewish holiday that usually falls in late January or early February. In ancient times, the people of Israel used this day to plant trees and celebrate their gifts by eating dried fruit and nuts, including figs, dates, raisins, carob, and almonds. (snip)


Most US Voters Support Trans Rights, Even Republicans

This video explains what everyone on the real left already knew instead of forgetting the transย  / woke culture wars and moving right, the center left keeps demanding which is simply code speak for leaning right.ย  While all the same democratic strategists since the Bill Clinton days demand candidates move to the right to “triangulate” to capture republican voters these polls show what we already knew.ย  The culture wars are losing for the republicans.ย  After republicans spent nearly 3 million dollars in ads against trans people the polls showed almost no one felt those adverts influenced their vote.ย  Even as red states rail against higher education, acceptance, and tolerance of people who are different it is losing them votes.ย  Some thing the Christian nationalists who are in the height of their influence now in political circles don’t understand is that people who grew up with LGBTQ+ classmates, friends, and even dated some do not find them the evil that these hate religions preach they are.ย ย 

*** Personal note.ย  ย I explained to Ali in an email that I am not functioning.ย  For what ever reason wheither it be anemia or something worse I am desperately tired from the time I manage to get up.ย  I often get up only to a few hours later go back to bed for four or more hours.ย  I have started taking vitamin B-12 and a woman’s one-a-day vitamin.ย  That with more red meat which was recommended to me in the past every time I go into anemia.ย  ย How ever I get up, I have coffee and stuff with Ron then I need to go back to bed for normally 4 hours, get up and do dishes while watching The Majority Report.ย  How ever some days like yesterday I did not even get that far, going to back to bed by 2 pm only to have Ron wake me and beg me to eat.

I have done better today only going back to bed for 3 hours later in the morning.ย  I wanted to go to bed two hours ago, but Ron was all upset he couldn’t sleep due to the neighbors having new skirting put around their home outside our bedroom.ย  So I got him in his recliner and moved his CPAP out to his chair.ย  Still he was not tracking.ย  Good news as I was falling asleep at my desk he woke up and is fixing supper.ย  At this point I am so tired I don’t really care whether I eat or not.ย ย 

I tried to reply to comments, but I couldn’t.ย  I even started to move old saved open tabs out by making a new cartoon / memes post but I simply couldn’t do it.ย  Right now the best I can do to function is make doctors appointments and watch videos that don’t take too much thought to understand.ย  That means most political videos are outside my ability.ย  I am sorry but right now I am functioning at the level of a confused grandpa.ย  Sorry.ย  I hope to get better soon.ย  Ron says if I don’t clear up by next week we will demand the primary care see me and deal with it. I’m not sure if I want that as my last visit he was insisting I thinkย  about getting a colonoscopy.ย  ย Anyway.ย  This is a good video and one I watched several hours ago when I was much sharper than I feel now.ย  ย ***ย  Hugs