On the anniversary of Putin’s ill-advised invasion there have been many accolades paying tribute to the resolve and bravery of Ukraine and its people. Out of the many options commemorating this sad day I wanted to be as inclusive as possible. I decided by sharing the many wonderful lightings in Ukraine’s colors of landmarks around the world would be a good format.
But the problem that ensued was where to draw the line. That’s why I’m late getting this posted: It was hard to stop downloading them – and I’m still leaving many out.
Some of the GIFs are of a landmark or landmarks in a single region, while others are of varied locations. I’ll try to very briefly identify them below the GIFs, so look for an easily recognizable one as a marker to determine the order.
Empire State Building
Eiffel Tower
Memphis Bridge, Copenhagen Castle, Denver City Hall, Stenbock House (Estonia), French Embassy and Ludwigsburg Palace (Germany)
Colosseum
Los Angeles: 2nd Street Tunnel and City Hall
(SIDEBAR: The 2nd Street Tunnel has played a pivotal role in many movies: Blade Runner, Flashdance, Terminator, Rocky IV, Lethal Weapon 2, etc.)
Helsinki Town Hall, Kyiv Opera House, Parliament Building – Lisbon, Lviv Opera House – Ukraine, Cibeles Fountain – Madrid, Flinders Street – Melbourne, Metropolitan Opera House – NYC
San Francisco City Hall
UK Sites: St. George Hall – Liverpool, 10 Downing Street, The Eye – London, Trafalgar Square – London, St. Albans Cathedral
Niagara Falls, Oslo City Hall, Peace Tower – Ottawa, Sarajevo City Hall (Bosnia), Parliament Building – Madrid, Sydney Opera House, Toulouse City Hall (France)
Chicago: Chicago City Hall, the Rest Are of Chicago’s Merchandise Mart, Featuring “Art on the Mart”
Washington, DC: Immaculate Conception Cathedral, Kennedy Center and National Cathedral
Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”
James O’Keefe has been forced out of “Project Veritas,” the duplicitous propaganda organization which he founded 13 years ago. I wish I could call this good news, but I can’t. Project Veritas is 100% on board with all the work he has done for it – it just disapproves of his stealing from them to purchase luxuries. And he claims that his work is not done and that he will start a new organization – and we all know he is the poster child for disingenuosity.
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Project Veritas fired James O’Keefe over fear of losing its nonprofit status – 5 questions answered
James O’Keefe, the founder of Project Veritas, says he has been fired. He is no longer leading the conservative nonprofit organization, which is known for its use of hidden cameras and false identities to try to catch members of the media and progressive leaders saying embarrassing things and to expose their supposed liberal biases.
To learn more about the accusations against O’Keefe and what the legal consequences might be for the tax-exempt organization, The Conversation asked nonprofit law scholar Samuel Brunson five questions to explain the situation and the issues it raises.
Who is accused of what, exactly?
The board of directors of Project Veritas has accused O’Keefe of “financial misfeasance.” Its allegations of financial improprieties by the man who until recently served as the group’s chairman include that he spent money donated to the organization on various luxuries for himself, such as charter flights and theater tickets.
If the accusations prove valid, it is possible that this misuse of Project Veritas funds could imperil the group’s tax exemption. A tax-exempt organization cannot use its money to benefit certain individuals, especially insiders such as its leaders and major donors. It can pay its employees, but the staff and its leaders cannot receive unreasonable compensation or any other type of benefit that looks like the tax-exempt organization is sharing its profits with them.
While it sounds odd that a nonprofit would have profits, it is not. The rule for nonprofit and tax-exempt organizations is not that they cannot make profits; it is that, unlike for-profit entities, they cannot distribute their profits to shareholders.
2. Why would it be a big deal if Project Veritas were to lose its tax-exempt status?
Tax-exempt status provides at least three benefits to Project Veritas.
First, these groups don’t need to pay taxes on most of their revenue.
Second, and likely more importantly, it means that donations to Project Veritas are tax deductible for many wealthy supporters. Through what’s known as the charitable deduction, donors can essentially get a subsidy from the federal government for their donations.
But, in fact, tax exemption does not represent any type of government approval. That’s because the government cannot deny tax-exempt status on the basis of ideological disagreement.
O’Keefe also indicated in the video, which he said was being recorded on Feb. 20, 2023, that he may intend to launch a new organization. “I’m not done,” he said. “The mission will perhaps take on a new name.”
4. In a situation like this, are the authorities likely to look into the accusations?
The Internal Revenue Service could investigate the allegations if it wanted to do so. Although the agency is underfunded and understaffed, it sometimes uses high-profile and highly publicized instances of noncompliance to discourage other people and groups from violating tax laws.
That said, based on the publicly available facts, I can’t yet tell whether Project Veritas has violated the rules governing tax-exempt status. While O’Keefe may have misused the group’s funds, it looks like he did it without the board’s knowledge or approval.
The Tax Court, a federal court that adjudicates tax disputes, has explained that a charity does not lose its exemption just because an officer of the charity has “skimmed or embezzled or otherwise stolen from the charity.” Unless there is some evidence that Project Veritas deliberately allowed O’Keefe to use its resources for personal consumption, I suspect the IRS will not pursue this.
5. How can such a demonstrably partisan group have nonprofit status?
Project Veritas claims exemption as an educational organization. According to U.S. Treasury Department regulations, an organization that advocates for a particular viewpoint can be educational for exemption purposes, even though it “advocates a particular position or viewpoint,” as long as it fully presents the facts in a way that allows listeners to make an informed conclusion.
Does Project Veritas meet what the IRS calls the “full and fair exposition” test? If so, and as long as it complies with the other requirements for tax-exempt status, it qualifies as exempt – notwithstanding its ideological leanings.
============================================================== Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, since you no longer pick people up and carry them off to Hades, I don’t really know what exactly you can do about this. I would love to see Poject Veritas investigated under the “full and fair exposition” test, but, although the infrastructure act gives them funds to hire mote people, I’m pretty sure they haven’t seen and won’t see a penny of it before nest yesr, and when they do it will not be all at once.
So-called pro-lifers and their gilded male bovine solid bodily waste ejecta. They may be sincere in their defense of embryos and fetuses, but evidently they think life begins at conception and ends at birth. Actions speak far more loudly than words.
“Don’t abort your baby because he/she may grow up to find a cure for some dread malady.” Nice try. Where is your concern for children who have already been born? Where is your protection for them?
The middle-school boy who came out as gay and then was ruthlessly and continuously bullied by his peers until he took his own life could have grown up to find a cure for some dread malady.
The girl who was so badly mutilated in a school shooting that her body had to be identified using DNA could have grown up to find a cure for some dread malady.
The kid who froze to death after a heartless governor did nothing to improve his state’s infrastructure could have grown up the find a cure for some dread malady.
The diabetic teenager who died because her family couldn’t afford her insulin could have grown up to find a cure for some dread malady.
The compulsory birth crowd shriek that we must protect every embryo and fetus because you never know which one will become the next Lincoln or Mozart or Einstein. Nice try – you also never know which one will become the next Charles Manson, or Ted Bundy, or Jeffrey Dahmer, or John Wayne Gacy. Or, for that matter, the next Hitler, or Stalin, or Idi Amin, or Pol Pot. Or the next Donald Trump. Howling that an aborted fetus could have become a President is an excellent example of reductio ad absurdum.
How come “pro-lifers” never seem to be around when activists stage protests against gun violence, war, poverty, environmental destruction, or corporate greed? To those of you who wave signs that say “Abortion kills children,” I say, “Guns kill children. Poverty kills children. Hunger kills children. War kills children. Lack of affordable health care kills children. Abuse and neglect kill children. Pollution kills children. Homelessness kills children. Indifference kills children.”
If you “pro-lifers” really give a rat’s behind about babies, how come you support politicians who suck up to the firearms industry and its powerful stooge the NRA? How come you support politicians who cater to defense contractors? How come you support politicians who oppose raising the minimum wage to a living wage? How come you support politicians who oppose taking measures to deal with the inevitable effects of climate change? How come you support politicians who want to eliminate Social Security and Medicaid? How come you approve of yanking immigrant children out of their mothers’ arms and locking them in cages like stray animals? How come you heed garbage about the COVID-19 pandemic and refuse to wear masks or get vaccinated?
Meanwhile, the people whom you brand “commie baby killers” are the ones volunteering at food banks, distributing socks and hygiene supplies to the homeless, writing and signing petitions calling for better wages and environmental protections, raising hell for affordable child care and housing and healthcare, pestering our elected officials for sensible gun laws, demanding that our government wean us off dirty fossil fuels, and supporting immigrants, the LGBTQ community, and other groups frequently subjected to persecution.
Maybe some of you forced-birth activists support one or more of those causes. I realize that I shouldn’t tar you all with the same brush, but your numbers appear to be lacking when it comes to supporting the post-born. How often do you actually turn up – once or twice a year? And are you really doing enough volunteering to help all the people you will impose on the world?
Besides, the compulsory birth crowd support life in prison, and in some cases the death penalty, for doctors who perform abortions and women who have them. Know who else supported such harsh penalties for abortions? The patron saint of the “pro-life” movement – Adolf Hitler. Yes, that personification of evil was the greatest “right-to-life” activist in history. In the nightmare that was Nazi Germany, abortion was totally outlawed. Doctors found guilty of doing abortions were sentenced to death, while women who had abortions were sentenced to 10 years of hard labor, which was pretty much tantamount to a death sentence there and then.
Some have even offered to adopt babies. OK, sweetie, what if the baby is born with severe birth defects? What if the baby needs a lot of special, expensive care just to stay alive? Unless you have really deep pockets and/or good health insurance, you’ll be living in a trailer and subsisting on beans and rice while Junior works at a nearby burger joint.
If you really were concerned about “family values,” you’d want the minimum wage to be a living wage. You’d want childcare to be affordable – right now it costs as much as college. Nowhere in this country is the current federal minimum wage enough to keep up with rent, let alone utilities and other expenses. Stop demanding that women have babies when they can barely keep their own mouths fed.
You say that sex has consequences, that abortion is dodging responsibility. How quickly you forget the children you profess to be protecting! You want the woman to be saddled with caring for a baby, but you never think for one moment about that kid’s life. You fill your fliers and ads with pictures of cute babies – which are white 99% of the time, and healthy and well-fed 100% of the time. But you never think about what happens AFTER birth. You never think about whether all those children you “rescue” will be fed, or clothed, or housed, or educated. You never think about whether they will have access to affordable health care, or higher education – provided they live that long. And you certainly don’t care whether they are reasonably safe in school, or anywhere else.
And what about the men? It takes two to tango, after all. A man’s contribution to a baby is basically wham, bam, thank you ma’am. Many a lass has been lured into some Lothario’s bed by the ancient lie “If you get pregnant, I’ll marry you and help support the kid.” That’s right down there with “His bark is worse than his bite” and “The check is in the mail.” Men get all the rights, women get all the responsibility. You impose all of the consequence on the one who gets the “baby bump” while the male gets away scot-free. Face it – the anti-abortion movement is all about controlling womb-bearers.
Yesterday, the radio opera was “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” by Dmitri Shostakovich. It was based on a novella of roughly the same name, as unfair as that name is to the protagonist, who is essentially reacting to being abused, not only by her husbamd, but by her father-in-law, and then by an employee of the family business with whom she has an affair which essentially begins with a rape. No, murder is never justified, but it really is not hard to have empathy for her. There is a revised version from 1962, which the composer felt was different enough to rename it “Katerina Izmailova,” but it’s the original version (and the original title) which is usually heard today. The opera is one of many of his works which got him into deep doodoo with Stalin (he used to keep a fully packed suitcase by his front door so that if the secret police came in the middle of the might he’d have some possessions to take with him.) As always, I’ll comment when I get back from seeing Virgil.
Cartoon
Short Takes –
Crooks & Liars – Why Hasn’t Russia Destroyed Even One US HIMARS System In Ukraine?
Quote – The HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) has been credited with changing the trajectory of the war. Though Ukraine only has about 20 of these systems sent from the United States, Russia seems to have no counter. And many have wondered why Russia has not managed to destroy a single one of them Click through for article and video. I don’t know much about Czech history or culture. I would not have expected this. But, upon reflection, it fits very well with the little I do know. (And it’s most amusing.)
A Jim Crow–Era Murder. A Family Secret. Decades Later, What Does Justice Look Like?
Quote – It’s like “legal archaeology,” Burnham says. The students read old newspapers, travel to Southern towns to obtain court transcripts, and speak with surviving families. “It’s really not enough to say, ‘Those were horrible days,’ and let them pass,” Burnham told the Northeastern Law magazine in 2010. “The details matter. These stories are important, and to the extent these people are still around, their stories deserve to be told.” Click through for story. I don’t really have words. I’m thankful for this project – but then I look at the complete erasure of reality DeSatan is perpetrating in Florida. I hope these stories do not disappear like the family photographs mentioned.
Yesterday, It warmed up above freezing and the snow is mostly gone from where it needs to be gone. Today (and tomorrow) should be warmer. I did listen to the concert “For Ukraine: A Concert of Rememberance and Hope.” It began with a video message from Olena Zelenska (Debra Lou Harder read out the English subtitles.) I was choked up before the first note (which was the first note of the Unkrainian National Anthem, BTW.) If you saw “Amadeus,” you’ll remember several chunks from the Mozart Requiem, and of course everyone recognizes Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. They are actually less familiar to the performers than to the audience – opera orchestras don’t generally play sumphonies, and opera choruses seldom sing Requiems, though top rank vocal soloists do, at least on occasion. The “Prayer for Ukraine” was part of the first Met concert for Ukraine. Yes, this is alot of music analysis. But as someone cited from Heine, (it may have been the Ukrainian ambassador to the UN, or one of the two Ukrainian soloists), “When words leave off, music begins.” They posted the program on line (part of it – they cut out the advertising.) And – speaking of Ukraine and music …
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Short Takes –
The Daily Beast – Broadway Star Ben Platt Condemns ‘Evil’ Neo-Nazis After ‘Parade’ Protest
Quote – The show, a Broadway transfer from the Encores! concert series, is based on the true story of a Jewish factory superintendent, Leo Frank, who was falsely convicted of killing 13-year-old employee Mary Phagan in 1913, and who was kidnapped from prison and lynched two years later…. [A] masked activist from the National Socialist Movement, a neo-Nazi hate group, tried to leaflet theater-goers outside the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre so they could “find out the truth” about the ADL (Anti-Defamation League), as well as Parade. “You’re paying 300 bucks to go fucking worship a pedophile, you might as well know what you’re talking about,” the masked person said. Click through for article. This is bad enough – but the same people who staged this outrage have also designated today as a “National Day of Hate.” At least in many large cities, it’s being reported that law enforcement is providing extra protectio to synagogues.
Letters From An American – February 19, 2023
Quote – Today is the anniversary of the day in 1942, during World War II, that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 enabling military authorities to designate military areas from which “any or all persons may be excluded.” That order also permitted the secretary of war to provide transportation, food, and shelter “to accomplish the purpose of this order.” … On March 2, 1942, General John DeWitt put Executive Order 9066 into effect. He signed Public Proclamation No. 1, dividing the country into military zones and, “as a matter of military necessity,” excluding from certain of those zones “[a]ny Japanese, German, or Italian alien, or any person of Japanese Ancestry.” Click through for Letter. There is Nick Anderson the basketball player, and there is Nick Anderson the cartoonist, but the Nick Anderson to whom Heather refers is neither of them. He is a young reporter for the Washington Post. I can’t provide a gift link – my cousin is all out of them for this month. Here’s the paywalled link. But hHeather does a gret job and you may not need or want it.
