Trans Rights ARE Important Issues Worth Fighting For

Peace & Justice History for 3/25

March 25, 1965
Their numbers having swelled to 25,000, the Selma-to-Montgomery marchers arrived at the Alabama state capitol. “Yes, we are on the move and no wave of racism can stop us. (Yes, sir) We are on the move now. The burning of our churches will not deter us. (Yes, sir) The bombing of our homes will not dissuade us. (Yes, sir) We are on the move now. (Yes, sir) The beating and killing of our clergymen and young people will not divert us. We are on the move now.”
Read all of Rev. King’s speech

Martin Luther King Jr. and wife Coretta lead march into Montgomery, Alabama.

March 25, 1965
Viola Gregg Liuzzo, a housewife and mother from Detroit, driving marchers back to Selma from Montgomery, was shot and killed by Klansmen in a passing car. She had driven down to Alabama to join the march after seeing on television the Bloody Sunday attacks at Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge earlier in the month. It was later learned that riding with the Klansmen was an FBI informant.
read more about Viola Liuzzo

Anthony & Viola Liuzzo
March 25, 1969
The newly wed John Lennon and Yoko Ono-Lennon began their seven-day “bed-in for peace” against the Vietnam War at the Amsterdam Hilton in New York City.
 
read more about their bed-ins for peace
bed-in photo album  
“Yoko and I are quite willing to be the world’s clowns, if by so doing it will do some good.”

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/images/peacehistorymarch.htm#march25

A Birthday Post

Today is Elton John’s birthday! I have celebrated every year since 1973 (when I found out his birthday is 3/25,) so if you’re also a fan, join me in a celebratory post. If you don’t care for Elton’s music, maybe you still are thankful he’s a good human out there doing good things for people. Or, of course, you could just skip the post, and no worries. Anyway, it’s Elton John’s birthday, and he’s 78 today! 🎊 🎂 🎂

Much of what is here will come from his own page, About Elton John. Fair’s fair; there was quite a bit of is-he-or-isn’t-he in “Tiger Beat” and the other teen celeb/music magazines, and who knows what the old people were saying about him as if they knew anything. (wink) Anyway, I’m taking info from his own pages these days, now that I’m an old people and realize I know much less than I did when I was a young tween-teen.

So, music will be scattered throughout, but I’m cutting directly to the humanitarian work Elton John both funds and participates with. We likely recall the song collaboration to benefit ill people during the nightmare early years of AIDS. From his page, here is what he has done and continues, over the years:

The Elton John AIDS Foundation: our mission is to end the AIDS epidemic.

People can live a full and healthy life with HIV, yet 15 million people today are not accessing the life-saving HIV treatment they need because they are already restricted in their own society: gay men, young people, those who inject drugs or sell sex, and transgender women. Most new HIV infections are in these marginalised groups. They face abandonment, discrimination and violence. This just isn’t good enough. Tragically, it stops them from getting the effective, life-saving services that already exist and so prolongs the AIDS epidemic. The Elton John AIDS Foundation harnesses local expertise across four continents to challenge discrimination, prevent infections and provide treatment for these groups, as well as mobilising governments to end AIDS. We will not stop until the AIDS epidemic is over.

As a leader in the global AIDS community, the Elton John AIDS Foundation is committed to helping overcome the stigma, discrimination and neglect that keeps us from ending AIDS.

In 1992, Elton established the Elton John AIDS Foundation after losing many friends and loved ones to the AIDS epidemic. Today, after years of fundraising, advocacy, and funding innovative grants, the Foundation is the 6th largest independent AIDS funder globally. Elton has travelled from South Africa, Ukraine, Armenia, across the US and to many other countries as well as speaking at many International AIDS conferences to use his platform and influence to push, persuade and demand change and care for people at risk or living with HIV and is committed to not leave anyone behind in the AIDS epidemic. Elton has been acknowledged for his philanthropic and music contributions with a knighthood from HM Queen Elizabeth II and most recently, Elton received the Legion d’Honneur from President Macron, the Companion of Honour in the UK.

Follow the Elton John AIDS Foundation on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. To learn more visit eltonjohnaidsfoundation.org or to give a gift, please donate here.

You can see more about his charitable work here.

So, the MUSIC! There is a great timeline, again on his own page, and what fun it is to follow along there. But in case someone doesn’t want to click, here are a few videos of some music.

Elton writes the music to “Your Song”.

On October 27 1969, Elton “didn’t do anything” apart from writing the song that would change his life and career forever.

Your Song was released a year later, on 1970’s album Elton John, and has been described as “near-perfect”. It is certified platinum in the USA, has been streamed over 100 million times on Spotify and is considered by Rolling Stone as one of the Greatest Songs of All Time. (Hear it again up above in this post. Or get out your album/cassette, or dare I say, 8-track!)

Some other work Elton has done includes:

Musical Theatre

Elton has composed songs, in collaboration with lyricists Sir Tim Rice, Lee Hall, and Bernie Taupin, for:

★ The Lion King (1998) – Six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and named the highest-grossing stage show or film release in the world.

★ Elton John & Tim Rice’s Aida (2000) – Tony Award for Best Original Score; Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album.

★ Billy Elliot the Musical (2005) – Olivier Award for Best Musical; 10 Tony Awards, including Best Musical.

★ Lestat (2006)

And then, though I personally have little interest in sports, Elton John does:

Sports

Music may be Elton John’s first passion, but another abiding interest runs it a close second: sport.

In some ways, it’s an unsurprising second love, as the parallels are numerous. A devotion to high-level performance, the adrenaline rush of playing in front of big crowds — and the ever-present knowledge that you’re only as good as your last performance. To rise to — and stay — at the top in both disciplines also requires similar qualities: stamina, endless practice and an unstinting professional approach. Oh yes, and a rich seam of natural talent. (snip)

So, the post is getting long, I’ll cut it short for some party music. It is a day we can celebrate in small ways all day, and music does soothe the savage beast, etc. I’m so thankful we’ve had Elton John all these years to provide entertainment, refuge, and respite from daily life. Happy Birthday, Sir Elton John!

And to slow it down a bit,

If you want to, add some info, experience, or your own favorites in the comments, and enjoy your day today!

This is One Heckuva Post,

with lots to read and to think about. Also an interesting video and transcript of an interview with Nate Vance. Have a nice beverage, and take in a longer read/watch.

Bwahahahaha-Open Windows!

A Trump portrait by Ann Telnaes

Not happy with his official one in the Colorado state capitol Read on Substack

It’s one thing to be unhappy with how other people see your appearance, it’s another to publicly whine and obsess over it.

This is not an important issue in the many horrible actions of the first two months of the Trump administration but only to reinforce his narcissism and what he spends his time on as president. One a much more important subject, I have a graphic essay in the works about how Trump attacked the free press in his first administration to what he’s doing now.

The portrait Trump is angry about.

One Trump likes.

My offering as a replacement.

(snip)

Canadian Woman One Of Many Chained & Held By U.S. Border Security To Meet ‘Quotas’

Really is this what we want to be known to our closes allies as?  Or … Hugs

So seriously this woman was a business person who came back to the US on her visa, but ICE used that to snatcher her.  As the host of the channel says ICE is using anyone on a green card which means is here legally to snatch to drive their numbers up.   Seems ICE is looking for terrorist at the US airports …for valid visa holders or green card holders to then snatch and deport.  Again to say we got this many this weekly terrorists … ??

Canadian Jasmine Mooney was detained by ICE for almost two weeks over simple paperwork, now she’s sharing her story. This while Canadian NDP MP Charlie Angus is advising Canadians to not visit the U.S.

Some same Seder

Sam and Emma in the fun half.  Normally there is only two ways to watch the fun half.  You can be a member which they admit that some people can not afford which they have a way to get free membership if you need it.  Or you can catch the first half while it is playing live and in the description box will be a link to the free fun half.  If you click on that you can watch the entire thing.  If you save it like I do for later you can go back and watch it at any time because if you don’t the link will disappear so you can’t see it.  They make the second half private.  Hugs

10,558 views Premiered 6 hours ago FUN HALF

Livestreamed on March 21, 2025:

00:00 – FUN HALF

00:22 – AOC/Bernie team-up

08:20 – “TAX THE RICH!”

14:17 – Trump’s war on libraries and museums

29:01 – Jesse Watters is Fox’s straw man

42:55 – DOGE lovin’ Republicans getting booed everywhere

Ep 250321

Watch the Majority Report live Monday–Friday at 12 p.m. EST on YouTube OR listen via daily podcast at http://www.Majority.FM …OR become a member at JoinTheMajorityReport.com: https://fans.fm/majority/join

 

What my mornings / days have been like lately.

What a day.   I have been training my self to get up at 5 am.  My body and bowels now wake me at anytime between 4:15 am to 4:30 am.  Ok I can live with the waking up, but not with how the bowels like to do it.  Warning for poop talk ahead.   See since my primary care doctor figured out why I was having diarrhea and worked with my other doctors to change my medications, my poop went from diarrhea to being rocks that could be used as paving blocks.  When they move through the lower system they let themselves be known.  

 Ron had been letting himself sleep in later and later until he got to after 9 am before he would wake up.  I told him we couldn’t have that.  So I asked him to pick a reasonable time to get up, he picked 6:30 am.  But after a few weeks of that and coming to bed earlier, he now wakes up when I get up to start my day.  He also now gets up with me.  Sometimes he goes back to bed after he has his three cups of coffee and sometimes not.   Today he stayed up and went out shopping for a bit of stuff at a bit past 9 am.  But … big but.  

Our getting things taken care of around here has been a bit haphazard.  Sundays are a news day for me.  This morning Ron wanted me to make a scrambled eggs and ham breakfast as he likes the way I do eggs the best.  I normally add to the meal either fried the potatoes we did not eat from the night before or shredded hash browns along with a few sausages, separate from the eggs but as sides.  But today we did not have anything but 6 bread slices, eggs, and the thick ham slices from what we sliced yesterday.   So why does Ron want me to cook the eggs.  Two reasons, eggs can turn very quickly when cooking no matter how you are cooking them other than boiling them.  Fried eggs, scrambled eggs, it doesn’t matter.   Ron is incapable of paying the eggs that much attention so they come out bad for him.  So how do I make my scrambled eggs different.  

First I have a system for breaking the eggshell that makes sure no shell bits get into the eggs.  You have to do it when the eggs are very cold.  Then take the sharp side of a knife and carefully hit the lower side of the egg at about midline.  That causes the egg to makes its own clean break.  Next in the bowl add water.  Here is the normal thing.  Milk adds something I forget since I don’t use it, water adds fluffy.  So most cooking shows say add a teaspoon or such … screw that.  I add about a huge dash.  I never measure it, like I never measure anything I add to stuff I cook (except bread.  That needs to be exact to make sure the bread forms correctly), I put the bowl under the faucet and give it a “shot”  or today I put the water into a cup measuring cup and between the two bowls I added about a 1/4 cup of water.  

Why don’t I worry about the amount of water?   Because after stirring it up in the bowls, I put the sauce pot on the stove with a large tab of real butter.  Ron used to ask why a sauce pot as he uses a flat pan.  Because the smaller pot can let me get the temperature up to a point there the water comes out on top and boils off and lets you fold and refold the eggs until the moisture boils away, then you can fold / chop the scrambled eggs up into ever smaller bits of good dry but not desiccated plate of scrambled eggs.   They still have enough moisture to let you mix ketchup or hot sauce into them. 

Thinking I was done, I started making posts.  But Ron had to go out and get stuff.  Crap.  But that was where all the other stuff of the last few days came to bite me in the butt.  On Sunday I don’t do much but watch news, and I guess on Saturday we had not done dishes, so we had two and a half days of dishes this morning … to be washed.  Ron wanted me to do that before he got home.  Damn it … OK Ron I will.  It took me until well after noon to wash / dry the dishes.   Again I thought I had blogging time.  But no.

I had barely sat down when Ron came home with the groceries.  Actually there were few groceries but He had spent most of that three or four hours he had been gone in Home Depot getting parts for the plumbing project he needed.  Ok now I could return to blogging right … Nope.  Ron decided that it was time to have the roast he put in the crock pot this morning at about 6 AM.  OK, help Ron make supper.  Yes we eat early.  About between 2 and 3 PM.  Why because after 4 pm I can’t eat, or have no interest to eat.  Help him with the corn, and potatoes which we decided to bake.  45 minutes later was lunch.  The meal was great. 

Then came clean up and putting away the food.  It is now well after 3 pm, nearly 4 pm.  So Ron decided he needed a nap.  Would I like to nap with him?  Yes of course.  We never even got to the cuddle part as he went out right a way after putting on his C-Pap mask.  I laid there trying to rest.  At 5 pm my phone alarm for me to take my evening pills and set up my morning ones went off.  Ron decided he had to get up as he was too sore to cuddle, I got up and made my pills.  Now at 5:30 pm I am in my office finishing this post up.  This is why it is hard for me to post and much harder to make a video.  I did a load of laundry and still have one in the dryer that Ron forgot.  I don’t have the energy to fold them or putting them away today.   I am done.  Just now one of our cats demanded wet food.   I have not even managed a shower today, how can I find time to set up everything in my system, record, and then edit a video.  Sadly most days I would go with Ron when he goes out shopping, today he fooled me which is why I kept texting him asking if he was OK.  He had a small list of 10 items, and yet was gone over three hours.  If he had told me he was going to go prowl Home Depot I would have insisted on going along.  Not that he doesn’t know what he wants but he gets confused over if he got enough part a or enough part b, and maybe instead he needs part d or f and so he ends up getting far more parts than he needs. Then he says it is OK because they come in handy … some time.  When I am with him he can bounce it off me and I can say well you got 5 of this and 6 of that, what is the goal. 

Anyway I am going to proofread this.  I want to stress that I do not regret spending my time doing housework or helping Ron.  I do regret not getting to much of what I want to do with the blog.  But I am reassured that even if I do not post some day or days, Ali and Randy will.  Sadly that day may be coming sooner than I would like.   I always figured that it would be my health that made it hard for me to keep up with the blog, now it is both my health and Ron’s.  I have to tell you all, some days I only want to turn my 55-inch 4K TV to viewing position and just watch movies.  But I can’t retreat like that.  I hope you won’t either.   Hugs.  

Trump envoy blasted over ‘insane’ pro-Putin comments in Tucker Carlson interview

Check out this article from USA TODAY:

Trump envoy blasted over ‘insane’ pro-Putin comments in Tucker Carlson interview

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/03/24/seth-moulton-witkoff-trump-putin-interview/82635715007/

Best Wishes and Hugs,
Scottie

HUFFPOST: There’s 1 Way To Combat Trump’s Immigration Crackdown — And It’s Getting More Popular

There’s 1 Way To Combat Trump’s Immigration Crackdown — And It’s Getting More Popular
There’s no greater evidence that “know-your-rights” training is working than from what Trump officials themselves have said.

Read in HuffPost: https://apple.news/ArrG-BUXwSXawqmWO1oZAyQ

Shared from Apple News

Best Wishes and Hugs,Scottie