3/17/21 More Tragedy for Asian Americans

The man says he's addicted to sex. He wanted to eliminate temptation. For that, eight people are dead. Six were Asian-American women.

It wasn't the "Wuhan Flu," then, that made 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long use a long rifle to gun down ethnically Asian women working in massage parlors. It was a case of their being attractive to a sex addict. At least this time, no one is blaming the victims.

It's ironic that this marquee case of crime against Asian-Americans is not a clear-cut example of the recent wave of white-on-Asian crimes of retaliation. It's clear that simple-minded thugs are blaming all of east Asia for the COVID19 virus. You know, the virus that's so “overblown” by liberals, and so contemptible in the eyes of the former President because it threatened to make him appear weak.

It's painful to see the random, impulsive fist strikes and stabbings inflicted on unassuming Asian-Americans, attacks that show all the discretion of a drunk windmilling at an adversary that only he can see. In reality, Asian-Americans ARE adversaries that only certain white supremacists can see. To the rest of us, they're just people walking around.

We've had clear-cut bad guys and good guys in the news these past four years. So it remains: Long is not blaming Asians for COVID19, but his fetish is as fundamentally racist as could be.

"I have been speaking about the brutality against Asian-Americans, and it's troubling," Biden said from the Oval Office. "I'll have more to say when the investigation is completed."

Kamala Harris said, "I do want to say to our Asian-American community that we stand with you and understand how this has frightened and shocked and outraged all people."

We've been seeing white supremacists blame Asian Americans for COVID19 and attack them in retaliation. Are Long's murders the same kind of violence?

Do you think there's any hope that this incident will lead to tighter gun regulation? Is there any way to protect Asian Americans in particular from this sudden wave of violence?

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/17/atlanta-mayor-massage-parlor-shooting-476691?fbclid=IwAR2d6rRxuGwsFxLmlO-y6fqq20KRkVGLkqtV2N9RKKSZtmvHxNogkheqEC8

3/16/21 Vindication for a Vindman

Life wasn't easy for Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman, a modern-day boy scout, after he testified in Trump's first impeachment hearing that the President pressured Ukraine to dig up dirt on then-candidate Joe Biden. (Vindman had been one of several officials listening in on Trump's call to Ukraine's president.) After “a campaign of bullying, intimidation, and retaliation," as he put it, Alex Vindman retired from the military last July.

It wasn't easy for his twin brother Yevgeny ("Eugene"), either. Yevgeny reported ethics violations by former National Security advisor Robert O'Brien for using his staff for personal errands and demeaningly sexist behavior among female NSC employees. Both Vindman brothers worked at the National Security Agency. Already angry with Alex, the NSC Trumpists got even with Yevgeny, who was also a Lieutenant Colonel. It was easy: He got bad job evaluations from his supervisors, Trump appointees John Eisenberg and Michael Ellis, from the White House Counsel's office. The evaluations stopped dead any hope he had of upward progress in his career.

Here's what Eisenberg said of Yevgeny the previous year: Vindman was “a top 1% military attorney and officer ... [who] can do any job in the legal field under unusual and constant pressure and scrutiny. Select now for SSC [Senior Service College] and promote immediately to COL. Absolutely unlimited potential!” Let's just say that a bad evaluation was unexpected.

Yevgeny was the senior ethics official at the National Security Council and its deputy legal adviser from July 2018 to February 2020. He stayed in the military. Trump fired both brothers from the NSC. They were escorted out of the White House and sent back to the Pentagon.

Last August, Yevgeny filed a complaint of retaliation with the Pentagon inspector. It began, "This is one of the clearest and highest-profile cases of whistleblower reprisal in American history."

Michel Russell, a major general and assistant deputy chief of staff, investigated and found that the evaluations were "not objective." The Army later deleted those evaluations. They never went to the promotions board as official records.

Now, Vindman is set to be promoted to full colonel, according to Politico.

It's about time, no? Wouldn't it be wonderful if Alexander Vindman was vindicated too?
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/15/yevgeny-vindman-promotion-post-trump-476038?fbclid=IwAR1EcemyE5R0YRl7PnGUZNHbUMYMyu9tGjT4SEEe7hFt9ehhkZvx0CqNgXE

3/18/21 Is Andrew Cuomo a Flawed Hero? Or Anti-Hero?

Watching Andrew Cuomo fight for his political life is looking ever more like watching a man fight the air while he sinks in quicksand.

Cuomo has slid a long way from his high flying days as Governor COVID19 Warrior Hero.

If only he'd included nursing home deaths in his COVID casualty count!

If only he'd kept his hands to himself instead of placing them on attractive young women! If only his "mentoring" didn't involve asking them intrusive questions about their sex lives!

If only he hadn't skipped over Rockland County when he set up mass vaccination sites! Was it really animus between him and the county executive?

Cuomo's a mixed bag. We knew he was a bully and a political survivor well before he became governor.

Now, he's also looking more like a tragedy, because the longer he says he won't resign, the more likely it is that he'll have to.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/andrew-cuomo-rockland-county-vaccination-site_n_60523983c5b605256ec02c52?fbclid=IwAR2aF6mq44fIjyCUCrEv5UmmrJsTG6-bne_oWQQwfyacgnrcZ1aOPElhKss

3/17/21 Bowman-Cleaver Bill Would Help Extend Broadband to Public Housing

Only days ago, House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) and Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) reintroduced a bill that would put more than $90 billion toward expanding broadband infrastructure into areas that need it.

Yesterday, Reps Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) and Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) introduced a bill that would help democratize the web even more: It would require the Treasury, USDA, and HUD to rework the utilities "allowance" now granted to the residents of public and subsidized housing so that it includes broadband. Says Bowman, "We must rethink broadband as a basic utility alongside gas, electric, and water.”

This is certainly so, although implementation last year, before the pandemic started, would have been a lot better. Remote schooling has been difficult if not impossible for impoverished families, even families that had a computer already. Most kids have lost a year's worth of schooling.

But let's not be too optimistic. A report on the nation's public housing, published this week in the Houston Chronicle, shows that public-housing residents in Kansas, Florida, and Texas are still fighting, and failing, to get slow-moving management to conduct basic repairs, such as fixing air conditioners and ceilings, and mold remediation (we'll post a link). As recent media articles have noted, new HUD chief Martha Fudge has her work cut out for her.

At least this bill will help, not hurt, as HUD tackles housing troubles across the country.
https://thehill.com/policy/technology/543545-bowman-cleaver-introduce-legislation-to-expand-affordable-broadband-access-to?fbclid=IwAR2oygbU2mbO0pT28RQ-Dk2ArV8CrWKHOMb8wvN8vfZmYt69kf6fjxdGLDQ

Public housing:  https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/investigations/article/Living-Hell-how-government-failed-galveston-homes-16003685.php?fbclid=IwAR3DdLLsY5qmoSu8Jti9687vUvbjqMyk7dFpTOqnUIHQdLY_69xVw5jqs3E

3/16/21 Vindication for a Vindman

Life wasn't easy for Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman, a modern-day boy scout, after he testified in Trump's first impeachment hearing that the President pressured Ukraine to dig up dirt on then-candidate Joe Biden. (Vindman had been one of several officials listening in on Trump's call to Ukraine's president.) After “a campaign of bullying, intimidation, and retaliation," as he put it, Alex Vindman retired from the military last July.

It wasn't easy for his twin brother Yevgeny ("Eugene"), either. Yevgeny reported ethics violations by former National Security advisor Robert O'Brien for using his staff for personal errands and demeaningly sexist behavior among female NSC employees. Both Vindman brothers worked at the National Security Agency. Already angry with Alex, the NSC Trumpists got even with Yevgeny, who was also a Lieutenant Colonel. It was easy: He got bad job evaluations from his supervisors, Trump appointees John Eisenberg and Michael Ellis, from the White House Counsel's office. The evaluations stopped dead any hope he had of upward progress in his career.

Here's what Eisenberg said of Yevgeny the previous year: Vindman was “a top 1% military attorney and officer ... [who] can do any job in the legal field under unusual and constant pressure and scrutiny. Select now for SSC [Senior Service College] and promote immediately to COL. Absolutely unlimited potential!” Let's just say that a bad evaluation was unexpected.

Yevgeny was the senior ethics official at the National Security Council and its deputy legal adviser from July 2018 to February 2020. He stayed in the military. Trump fired both brothers from the NSC. They were escorted out of the White House and sent back to the Pentagon.

Last August, Yevgeny filed a complaint of retaliation with the Pentagon inspector. It began, "This is one of the clearest and highest-profile cases of whistleblower reprisal in American history."

Michel Russell, a major general and assistant deputy chief of staff, investigated and found that the evaluations were "not objective." The Army later deleted those evaluations. They never went to the promotions board as official records.

Now, Vindman is set to be promoted to full colonel, according to Politico.com.

It's about time, no? Wouldn't it be wonderful if Alexander Vindman were offered a boffo post?
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/15/yevgeny-vindman-promotion-post-trump-476038?fbclid=IwAR23N8hlDzDbDPsY5tUjdrgxt0ASrTEC6mLCKffx7S05qcGBz0NaPTpbiF4

3/15/21 The First Lady of Wildflowers Kept a Kick-Ass Diary

 Lady Bird Johnson is best remembered for her crusade for wildflowers, and for her initiative to seed highway medians all over the country with them. Why wildflowers? "Just joy," she once said, "and joy is a component of life, or should be."

Less well known is that Lady Bird kept an audio diary of the Johnsons' years in the White House, starting with the day that LBJ rose to the Presidency. Her diary says, "Mrs. Kennedy's dress was stained with blood. One leg was almost entirely covered with it. And her right glove was caked – that immaculate woman – it was caked with blood, her husband's blood."

After listening to all 123 hours of the recorded diary, Julia Sweig wrote "Lady Bird Johnson: Hiding in Plain Sight," a book that is available as an audiobook for all of us who want to hear Lady Bird's native Texas twang. She was born in Karnack. To get there, go eastward from Dallas to Shreveport, Louisiana, and stop about 80% of the way.

The musical name "Lady Bird," coined by a nanny, stood in for the real name "Claudia."

In 1964 President Johnson wasn't sure whether to run the following November. He asked Lady Bird to write out the pros and cons. She responded with a seven page, hand-written memo. "On balance, you should run and you'll win ... And then in February or March of 1968, you can announce that you will not run again." That's what happened.

And here we all thought that LBJ was just worn out by the war and the protestors. We stand corrected.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lady-bird-johnson-first-lady-and-diarist/?fbclid=IwAR23N8hlDzDbDPsY5tUjdrgxt0ASrTEC6mLCKffx7S05qcGBz0NaPTpbiF4

3/15/21 Racist Graffiti Leads to Local Support for an Ethnic South Asian Restauranteur

Remember the conservatives who chastised Cindy McCain for speaking well of Joe Biden? In Texas, once you're outside bright-blue Houston and Austin, you can throw a rock in any direction and you will find a cousin of those folks -- if you hit anyone at all, of course. Rural is rural.

The owner of San Antonio's Noodle Tree restaurant, Mike Nguyen, caught the eye of that critical, partisan-Republican group when, last Wednesday, he criticized Governor Abbott's decision to do away with public COVID19 restrictions.

“Greg Abbott doesn’t have the Texas people’s interests in play,” Nguyen told CNN in an interview. “He only cares about himself at this point.” He continued, "Dropping the mask mandate will not help the economy, will not help us open. And a lot of us feel he's putting…us in danger.” 

Being South Asian and owning a noodle shop was enough to make him Chinese in his vandals' eyes. “Go back 2 China,”  "Kung Flu," “No masks,” and other such witticisms, scrawled in red spray paint, covered the windows and outdoor benches of his restaurant when he came to work on Sunday.

Still, the day's diners had to wait only an additional hour for their meals while Nguyen and his friends -- joined by increasing numbers of well-wishing strangers -- worked to wash off the spray paint.

Nguyen told a local news station that he's used to the racism. He  says he's actually half Vietnamese and half French.

"If they don’t want to wear a mask that’s okay,” he said, in a kind of verbal shrug. "They can dine outside or order to go.”

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/543165-texas-restaurant-covered-in-racist-graffiti-after-owner-speaks?rl=1&fbclid=IwAR135aWpp-XlVBbVlnPvyqYuDoR_n0vkZYXUhfahfTH-bM2Z_CxwbEuZ3DA

https://www.kens5.com/article/news/local/noodle-tree-restaurant-vandalized-overnight-with-racist-