Cult of personality.

Sound familiar?

A cult of personality arises when a country's regime – or, more rarely, an individual – uses the techniques of mass media, propaganda, the big lie, spectacle, the arts, patriotism, and government-organized demonstrations and rallies to create an idealized, heroic, and worshipful image of a leader, often through unquestioning flattery and praise.

Rarely an individual. Unless you’re in the US and got sucked up into his gaslighting shenanigans 

Hamilton Original Broadway Cast Zoom Performance "Alexander Hamilton"

We need more great stuff like this!

What? Then they’d have to give refunds...

This scene sticks with me, especially during the pandemic.  All sports had “a plan” for dealing with covid, but most ignore it when it suits them.  We planned to shut down for 2 weeks! We planned to isolate players! We planned to cancel games! We planned to use backups as needed!

But, ya gotta win AmIRight? And refunds? That’s hilarious. 

The Ocoee Massacre

Yesterday marked the 100th anniversary of the Ocoee Massacre, which is believed to the largest scale voter suppression activity that happened in the US. 

You can read stories about it, like this one

https://theundefeated.com/features/legacy-of-bloody-election-day-lingers-in-ocoee-florida/

Or read a more newsy type report here

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/11/02/ocoee-florida-election-day-massacre/?outputType=amp

Or catch a 45 minute documentary film here:
https://www.wftv.com/news/ocoee-massacre-documentary-film/374fd241-419a-43e7-95ff-4ed007a48d50/

But, the truly remarkable thing is that it did remain essentially unknown, and not talked about, for nearly a century. 

It was not taught in florida schools. I had a vague, very fuzzy, recollection of some mob scene, directed at blacks, somewhere near Orlando. But that's it. 

And in a way, shame on me for not knowing. I lived in another little town very close to Ocoee for a year or so in the early 90s. I went into the rebuilt Ocoee a few times. But didn't know it's history. 

I was aware that in that area, miles from downtown Orlando and the theme parks, racism ran high. There weren't many blacks in the area I was living in, and there weren't many whites in the area around apopka. 

It was strange to me, but I never asked questions. I just went about my business. I guess I assumed that it was somehow a vestige of the old south. 

But now that I'm removed from it for 30 years, and we're at the 100th anniversary of the events, I have to look back on it and shake my head. 

As I said, racism ran high in the area. It bothered me a lot at the time, but I just shook it off. 

Maybe now I'm beginning to understand what it means.

Take a few moments and read about the history and see if you can start to appreciate all that happened there, and what has happened since, and why "Black Lives Matter" is something relevant today. 

Tweet of the day

If you are an every day American, who lives somewhere close to paycheck to paycheck, or maybe have a little savings, why in the world would you vote Republican?

They are not interested in you, only enriching themselves and their friends.

It's time to stop defining yourself as a member of a party and start thinking about your own future, and that of the next generation.

Sciencing at home

This is cool. Use a bar of chocolate, a microwave, and a little math to determine the speed of light. We need so much of *this*

https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a34199482/chocolate-microwave-speed-of-light-experiment/

Sports and covid intersect

Baseball had a plan that they "followed" very haphazardly. It was just a mess all season.

So last night, it's game 6 of the series. Some player for LA had previously had an inconclusive result, so they tested him yesterday morning.

The results came back positive in the 2nd inning. But they decided to leave him in the game until the 8th - when news leaked about his positive test. Gotta try and win AmIRight?

He was taken out, and was told to quarantine, which apparently meant just going into a room in the stadium, and then coming out to celebrate with the team after they won - naturally sans mask and hugging everyone.

So the sham of their protocol was on full display.

There was a thought that the mlb was probably glad it ended in 6, because having to deal with an outbreak before game 7 would have been problematic.

As a friend of mine said "it's like putting your hand on the stove over and over again just to see if it's hot"

🤦🏼‍♂️