The Bible Salesman

 

 

It's Easter and as usual, those who wish to lead this nation and the world have offered their wisdom and inspiration to those who they wish to gain their support and confidence. This from Newsweek:

"HAPPY EASTER TO ALL, INCLUDING CROOKED AND CORRUPT PROSECUTORS AND JUDGES THAT ARE DOING EVERYTHING POSSIBLE TO INTERFERE WITH THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 2024, AND PUT ME IN PRISON, INCLUDING THOSE MANY PEOPLE THAT I COMPLETELY & TOTALLY DESPISE BECAUSE THEY WANT TO DESTROY AMERICA, A NOW FAILING NATION," he wrote.

The former POTUS went on to call out his prosecutors by name, mentioning Department of Justice (DOJ) special counsel Jack Smith, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. He blasted each prosecutor and slammed Biden, describing the president as "CROOKED." The former president concluded the post by again wishing: "HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!"

In contrast, Biden posted Sunday: “Jill and I send our warmest wishes to Christians around the world celebrating Easter Sunday. Easter reminds us of the power of hope and the promise of Christ’s Resurrection.”

Biden’s message ended: “From our family to yours, happy Easter and may God bless you.”

If you read the Bible, you may be familiar with these verses:

Proverbs 12:19 “Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts only a moment.” 

 

Proverbs 12:22 “The Lord detests lying lips, but He delights in men who are truthful.” 

 

Proverbs 19:9 “A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who pours out lies will perish.”

 

Despite the former POTUS seemingly being able to shoot someone on 5th Avenue and go unpunished, Polls show that he may be in trouble if he is convicted of a felony:

 

The poll, from Bloomberg and Morning Consult, found that 53 percent of voters in key swing states would refuse to vote for Trump if he were convicted of a criminal offense. A slightly higher share, 55 percent, say they would reach that conclusion if he were sentenced to prison.

If those figures are accurate, they could easily decide the election, given how close Trump’s two elections in 2016 and 2020 have been.

But wait a minute, there are convictions. His fake university, his charity, his real estate company, and he himself have all been judged for illegal behavior. Here's a reminder:

Feb 6, 2018

A federal court approved a $25 million settlement on Tuesday with students who said they were duped by Donald Trump and his now-defunct Trump University, which promised to teach them the "secrets of success" in the real estate industry.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco finalized the settlement after it was first approved by a judge last March following an appeal by Sherri Simpson, a Florida woman who said she spent roughly $19,000 on Trump University workshops. 

 

Dec 10, 2019

President Trump has paid $2 million to eight charities as part of a settlement in which the president admitted he misused funds raised by the Donald J. Trump Foundation to promote his presidential bid and pay off business debts, the New York State attorney general said on Tuesday.

The foundation’s giving patterns and management came under scrutiny during Mr. Trump’s run for office, and last year the New York attorney general filed a lawsuit accusing the president and his family of using the foundation as an extension of their businesses and the campaign.

The payments were part of a settlement announced last month that capped a drawn-out legal battle. In the end, the president admitted in court documents that he had used the foundation to settle legal obligations of his businesses and even to purchase a portrait of himself.

May 9th, 2023

When E. Jean Carroll and Donald Trump went to trial last spring over her sexual assault allegations, a nine-person civil jury found that Trump sexually abused her but that she failed to prove he raped her.

The former president made hay of that distinction when he sued Carroll in June, alleging Carroll defamed him by saying she was raped in a media interview after the verdict.

The counterattack was quickly shot down.

Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled in August that the jury verdict showed Carroll's rape allegation was "substantially true" and dismissed the counterclaim.

February 8th, 2024 

A federal judge formally ordered Donald Trump to pay $83.3 million to E. Jean Carroll, endorsing the jury’s verdict from the defamation trial last month.  This will be the second judgment Carroll has won against Trump. Last year a jury awarded her $5 million in damages after finding Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation for denying Carroll’s rape allegation, saying she wasn’t his type, and suggesting she made up the story to sell copies of a book.

Feb 16th, 2024

A New York judge on Friday handed Donald J. Trump a crushing defeat in his civil fraud case, finding the former president liable for conspiring to manipulate his net worth and ordering him to pay a penalty of nearly $355 million plus interest that could wipe out his entire stockpile of cash. In his appeal, the bond was reduced to 175 million and an extra week was granted. 

April 15th, 2024

NEW YORK (AP) — The first of Donald Trump’s four criminal trials will begin April 15, a Manhattan judge ruled Monday after tearing into the former president’s lawyers for what he said were unfounded claims that the hush-money case had been tainted by prosecutorial misconduct.

Judge Juan M. Merchan scoffed at the defense’s calls to delay the case longer or throw it out entirely because of a last-minute document dump that had bumped the first-ever trial of a former president from its scheduled Monday start. Trump vowed to appeal the ruling.

Jury selection will begin in 2 weeks.

So there have been convictions and there will be more.

I've been reading a book called Strongmen by Ruth Ben-Ghiat.  In Strongmen, she lays bare the blueprint these leaders have followed over the past 100 years, and empowers us to recognize, resist, and prevent their disastrous rule in the future.

For ours is the age of authoritarian rulers: self-proclaimed saviors of the nation who evade accountability while robbing their people of truth, treasure, and the protections of democracy. They promise law and order, then legitimize lawbreaking by financial, sexual, and other predators.

They use masculinity as a symbol of strength and a political weapon. Taking what you want, and getting away with it, becomes proof of male authority. They use propaganda, corruption, and violence to stay in power.

They also use religion.  

Mussolini granted the Catholic Church statehood 

for their support of his evil fascist regime. 

And they sell Bibles.

With their lying lips.

 

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Respectism

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Respect is the Hub has been writing about Respectism in this blog for 18 years.  And many of his posts are among the most popular.  Here is his compilation of his works and of this key constituent for human success:

 

We All Live in 3 Miles of Breathable Air (Nine Essays)

 

Our Present Circumstances

https://earthfamilyalpha.blogspot.com/2007/11/branding-halo.html

https://earthfamilyalpha.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-econuclear-brink.html?m=1

https://earthfamilyalpha.blogspot.com/2021/09/

 

Tools of Respect

https://earthfamilyalpha.blogspot.com/2008/11/respectism-and-ak-47.html?m=1

https://earthfamilyalpha.blogspot.com/2011/12/respecticon-seeing-brand-of-respect-is.html?m=1

https://earthfamilyalpha.blogspot.com/2012/07/using-respecticon-to-build-respectful.html?m=1

 

 Creating the Mutually Respectful Society: 5 Hypotheses

https://earthfamilyalpha.blogspot.com/2011/06/respectism-and-endeavour-for-respectul.html

https://earthfamilyalpha.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-big-picture-on-saving-our-tiny-home_25.html

https://earthfamilyalpha.blogspot.com/2021/01/respectism-and-kinder-community.html

 

Epilogue and Prologue: Seeing Respect 

https://earthfamilyalpha.blogspot.com/2006/03/respect-others-self-place_19.html

 

What a perfect post for LEAP DAY

 

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Mary Elaine McMaster

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mary Elaine McMaster 1936-2023

 

 

 

 

 

 

A week before Christmas Eve, my partner and her six brothers and sisters lost their mother to the other side. Mary Carlson Sprute McMaster passed in the early morning hours of Sunday, December 17th.  It was a beautiful passing that I described here.

Mary or Mamo as she was called by those who loved her was quite a formidable force.  Having been a nurse for most of her working life, and a supervisory charge nurse for much of that, Mary knew how to manage her patients, and a lot of other things: her money, her personal affairs, her husbands, her kids, and their kids. As for "mother in laws", she was my favorite, and I've had a few.

Mamo was a huge sports fan.  Back when the Spurs were worth watching, she would text me and remind to watch the game.  One night, she had lost her internet connection, so I put an IPAD in front of our TV and she watched the game on facetime with us from 75 miles away.  She yelled and behaved as if she was in AT&T stadium in San Antonio.  She loved the Boise State Broncos and went to many of their games as she lived in Boise in summer and fall, and returned to San Antonio in winter and spring.

Mary traveled and made the most of her almost 88 years until the very end.  From Broadway plays to grandchildren playing in the Nutcracker, she was there.  She loved Esther's Follies here in Austin and we had a ticket for her for that Friday after that fateful Thanksgiving day when she finally fell quiet on that holiday morning.

When we made our trip to Idaho to see the totality eclipse there on the Payette River, she simply said "WOW" when the day went dark.  And she wowed and wowed until the dark once again became day.

Here is the obituary written by her first child Dana, (and my partner) along with input from her siblings:

Mary Elaine Carlson Sprute McMaster, 87, of San Antonio, Texas, completed her journey peacefully on December 17, 2023 surrounded by her loving family. She was born in Osburn, Idaho, June 8, 1936 to Russell and Laura Pearce Carlson. Mary was a beloved mother, grandmother, great grandmother, sister, and aunt and was loved and respected for her kindness, wisdom, humor, enthusiasm and a sense of adventure she embraced in all aspects of her life. She was lovingly called Mamo by her children and grandchildren, a nickname she embraced with gusto and a vanity plate on her Mini Cooper.

Mary was a graduate of Wallace High School, Wallace, Idaho and St. Patrick's School of Nursing in Missoula, Montana. She dedicated her life to caring for others as a nurse, always bringing comfort and compassion to those in need.  Mary worked for many years as a general surgery head nurse at St. Alphonsus Hospital in Boise, Idaho and mentored many young nursing graduates early in their career.  She was respected as a teacher and mentor who never asked anyone to do something she was not willing to do herself and had lifelong friendships form from these relationships.  Mary retired from the Methodist Hospital in San Antonio, Texas in 1999 after serving many years as a nursing house supervisor.  

Mary's love of dancing brought joy to her throughout her life.   She met her first true love (and soon to be husband) while on holiday break from nursing school when a handsome redhead in a camel coat walked into the local establishment, brushed snow out of his hair and stepped into her life.    

Gerald “Jerry” Sprute and Mary married in 1957 and spent many years dazzling friends and family with their playful, skilled dancing style.  Their passion for dance was contagious and they inspired others to join them on the dance floor.  Dancing has always been an important part of her life which she shared with her first husband and their seven children.   Throughout her life, one beloved family activity included going out to dance together for any celebration or to just sing and dance at home in the kitchen, living room or wherever we were inspired.   Jerry passed away after a short illness in 2000.  

Mary met John Browning McMaster, Jr. while ballroom dancing in San Antonio, Texas; John was a kind and gentle man who she married in 1994.  Their mutual love of dancing was shared through many years together dancing for pleasure and included participating in many dance competitions throughout the U.S.   John preceded her in death in 2012. 

Mary was an avid sports fan and loved to cheer on her children in their endeavors in baseball, skiing, football, gymnastics and wrestling.   Favorite memories of Mom as a fan include her pounding the mat with her fist as she cheered on her son during a wrestling tournament or beating another child to the end-zone when he was running in a touchdown.  She loved cheering on the Boise State University Broncos and was also a devoted San Antonio Spurs fan.  Mary will be deeply missed by her family and friends and her memory will forever be cherished by all who had the privilege of knowing and loving her.

Mary is survived by her loving children Dana Sprute, Gerald Gregory Sprute, Stephen Thomas Sprute, Christopher Jon Sprute, Jeffrey Carlson Sprute, Michael George Sprute, and Andrea Sprute Dickerson, brother John “Jackie” Barton, sixteen grandchildren, a great grandson and a large extended family, including many adoring nieces and nephews.   She was preceded in death by her daughter, Stana Sprute, husband, John Browning McMaster, Jr., former husband, Gerald Joseph Sprute, parents, Russell Carlson and Laura Barton, her sisters Edna Thornton and Peggy McGee, and her brother Russell "Buddy" Carlson.

A Celebration of Life gathering is planned for family and friends for August 2024 in northern Idaho.  In lieu of flowers, the family kindly requests that donations be made to the National Emphysema Foundation or the American Lung Association; contributions made in her honor will make a meaningful impact for those living with lung disease.

May Mary Elaine McMaster's soul rest in eternal peace, and may her memory be a blessing to all who knew her.  

She is forever in our hearts.

Mary in deed passed that morning with courage and heart.

And she leaves a legacy of the same.

She will be missed.

But she will mostly be long remembered.

Safe Crossing Mary.

 

 

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The Valley of the Sun

 

We  didn't spend the New Year this year in the mountains of Catorce, or in DF, or in Vegas, or on Times Square, or in London or Paris. This year we were in the Valley of the Sun. And it was delightful.  The weather was just about perfect and our accommodations were the best.  For some reason, my little family decided months ago not to get too far away this year and instead bring in the New Year with my cousin and his family of three boys, two wives, and 2 grandchildren in his large sprawling old adobe home in the center of Phoenix.

We stayed in his large guest house below his personal office. And it was a fortunate thing that we didn't make big plans this year, for there was a powerful event just over the horizon.

Beginning on Thanksgiving Day, where we were planning for 14 family members, the dark shadow of uncertainty fell on us all as my partner's  87 year old mother had a medical emergency in the back bedroom. 

As usual, the Fire Department beat EMS to our tree covered home on Austin's Shoal Creek.  In fact, two firetrucks, two EMS vehicles, and two police vehicles arrived.  And remarkably, they managed to get a pulse, get her breathing though intubation, and rush her to the emergency room just 2 miles away. I stayed at home while my partner and her brother followed the ambulance.

Within a few hours, we received news that she was alive, stabilized, and in intensive care. That evening we had a somber but loving thanksgiving dinner almost as if nothing had changed.  Over the days that followed, Mamo was able to come off the respirator, and begin to recover from the event on Thanksgiving Day.  For almost three weeks, she had good days and bad days and often spoke with clarity on the good days.  But she was needing more and more help breathing from the non invasive respirator.

By the 15th of December, it was decided to move her to Christopher House. There she spent her  last days with all of her 7 children and their partners, 5 of her grand children, and Uncle Herb from Seattle. He was the younger brother of Jerry, her beloved first husband. Always a sports fan, Mary watched her Boise State Broncos play UCLA as she enjoyed her last supper with those she loved.  They sang songs and Uncle Herb sang the Lord's Prayer. Mary even managed to sing for a moment.

Early on the 17th, she breathed her last breath with her oldest daughter, her third son, and his daughter right there with her.  It was a passing of love and beauty.

With Mary's passing, we tried to get Christmas going.  We strung the house lights, and we got our Christmas tree up.  But the lights would not work and it was too late to buy more.  We finished the tree with the only box of lights we could find from our local CVS.  But the tree wasn't just dim, it was somber.

And that was as it should be.

We spent Christmas with good friends at the Four Seasons.  Cousin Lisa flew in from Seattle. We got the new rug installed in the Breezeway. We lit the fireplaces on both sides of our inside/outside house living space.  It was good weather, but it was somber.

Two days after Christmas day, we made our way to the Valley of the Sun.

There we played pickle ball on the flashy Phoenix Country Club courts. We played croquet on my cousins super flat yard with golf course quality grass. But for culture, I had insisted that we go up the mountain to see Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West.

The excursion was well worth the time invested.  Wright's desert laboratory is now a world heritage site. It had been 30 years since I had visited it in my forties.  During that time, I was building my City of the Future model called Argonon and I was reviewing the city plans of many of our great architects.

But I didn't really get Taliesin West, even though I had used his low ceilings running into a fireplace design in a recent renovation and I was pleased with the result. This time, Taliesin was different.  It's modern design at almost 100 years old is striking. And remember, this was his winter home, in Summer he returned to Taliesin in Wisconsin.

Looking from the South West corner of the site, you can see the double 345 KVA lines the power company put right in front of his magnificent view. It was these lines that prompted the 90 year old Wright to tell the city council that if they did this, he would move from Phoenix.  His partner Olgivanna followed up telling them they were not about to move.

When Frank passed in 1959, he had just seen his last creation come to life.  The Guggenheim Museum had just opened.

But the passing of Frank Lloyd Wright and of Mary McMaster is not the story.

The story is the legacy they left us.

As we all live in the Valley of the Sun.

 

 

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The Hero's Journey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A longtime friend of mine posted a piece that touched me recently.  It's a different view of the Hero. In narratology and comparative mythology, the hero's journey, or the monomyth, is the common template of stories that involve a hero who goes on an adventure, is victorious in a decisive crisis, and comes home changed or transformed.

Earlier figures had proposed similar concepts, including psychoanalyst Otto Rank and amateur anthropologist Lord Raglan.^[1] Eventually, hero myth pattern studies were popularized by Joseph Campbell, who was influenced by Carl Jung's analytical psychology. Campbell used the monomyth to analyze and compare religions. In his famous book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), he describes the narrative pattern as follows:

A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.

Possibly because I think of myself as a hero, and because of a recent event in which two colleagues managed to conduct a coup d etat on a project that I founded, funded, and managed for six years, these words reached out like they might not have before.

"People constantly throw around the term 'Hero’s Journey' without having any idea what it really means. Everyone from CEOs to wellness-influencers thinks the Hero’s Journey means facing your fears, slaying a dragon, and gaining 25k followers on Instagram. 

 

But that’s not the real hero’s journey.

 

In the real hero’s journey, the dragon slays YOU. 

 

Much to your surprise, you couldn’t make that marriage work. Much to your surprise, you turned forty with no kids, no house, and no prospects. Much to your surprise, the world didn’t want the gifts you proudly offered it.

 

If you are foolish, this is where you will abort the journey and start another, and another, abusing your heart over and over for the brief illusion of winning. 

 

But if you are wise, you will let yourself be shattered, and return to the village, humbled, but with a newfound sense that you don’t have to identify with the part of you that needs to win, needs to be recognized, needs to know. 

 

This is where your transcendent life begins.

 

So embrace humility in everything. Life isn’t out to get you, nor are your struggles your fault. 

 

Every defeat is just an angel, tugging at your sleeve, telling you that you don’t have to keep banging your head against the wall. 

 

Leave that striver there, trapped in his lonely ambitions. Just walk away, and life in its vastness will embrace you. "   - Paul Weinfield

 

The friend who posted this was closely involved in our days at Armadillo and Space City Video.  So thank you Paula Helene and wow, you would have so loved our most recent Hero with a Thousand Faces adventure to Vegas to see U2 at the Sphere

 

 

 . 

 

 

 The Sphere is exactly what it is cracked up to be.

 

It is an entirely new form of entertainment venue.

 

I'm waiting for a politician to get a hold of it.

 

And it can't be the orange menace. 

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All Saints' Day

Edward and Katherine Martinez

 

Here in Austin, we celebrate Halloween or "All Hallows Eve" unlike a lot of communities. Here, many homeowners dress their homes as if it's Christmas.  Down on Sixth street, where many of the bars are, tens of thousands dress up and walk up and down the closed street festooned in some really great costumes.  Oddly, few are actually scary, but many are definitely creative.  My favorite this year came from our neighbors up the street whose eldest young boy came to our door as a bright orange safety cone.

But the day after Halloween is pretty much ignored most places.  Yet, it has always been my favorite of the two. It's called All Saints' Day.

According to Wikipedia,

The Christian celebration of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day stems from a belief that there is a powerful spiritual bond between those in heaven (the "Church triumphant"), the living (the "Church militant"), and the "Church penitent" which includes the faithful departed. In Catholic theology, the day commemorates all those who have attained the beatific vision in Heaven. 

In Methodist theology, All Saints Day revolves around "giving God solemn thanks for the lives and deaths of his saints", including those who are "famous or obscure".^[22] As such, individuals throughout the Church Universal are honoured, such as Paul the Apostle, Augustine of Hippo and other saints, varying according to the hagiographic traditions of the Church in question. 

In some traditions, the day is also used to celebrate individuals who have personally led one to faith in Jesus, such as one's grandmother or friend.

Protestants generally commemorate all Christians, living and deceased, on All Saints' Day; if they observe All Saints Day at all, they use it to remember all Christians both past and present. In the United Methodist Church, All Saints' Day is celebrated on the first Sunday in November. It is held not only to remember Saints but also members of the local church congregation who have died. In some congregations, a candle is lit by the Acolyte as each person's name is called out by the clergy. Prayers and responsive readings may accompany the event. Often, the names of those who have died in the past year are affixed to a memorial plaque.

My Aunt Phoebe was born on All Saints' Day.  She is my father's younger sister.  Born in 1933, she turns 90 on this All Saints' Day. That means she was a young girl when Jack H Osborne went off to World War II to become an aviator for the Navy in the Pacific in 1942. When he came back alive and victorious with two Navy decorations, young Phoebe was understandably proud of her older brother who had seen so much carnage.  And she always loved my Dad with a wonderful spirit, helping him manage the rest of his life in health and finances.  ( My parents divorced in the early sixties and he never remarried).

Phoebe is a talented pianist.  Often when I was young, she would play Clair de Lune (by Debussy) for her father.  "Moonlight" was his favorite. It is the third movement of Suite bergamasque.  The popularity of "Clair de lune" has made it one of Claude Debussy's most famous works for piano, as well as one of the most famous musical pieces of all time.  I agree with Polk, my grandfather. 

In the last 20 years, Phoebe managed to cobble together the Osborne Farm in Gray County, close to Pampa, from her 2 older brothers and her older sister.  It was here that my grandfather had a huge double circus tent sale  on March 13th, 1936 and another one in September of 1938. His Hereford Bull, Jr. Prince Domino , was a sire of Prince Domino and Jr. won first place in the Denver Stock Show.

Phoebe has a son John, and two daughters, Elizabeth and Katherine. And Phoebe has lots of grandchildren and great grand children. She is the last remaining aunt or uncle I have.

And just last week, Katherine lost her husband Edward.  

This is from Katherine's obit.

Edward Carlton Martinez was born September 25, 1954, to the late Blas and Charlotte Martinez in Geneva, NY.  Being from a military family, he traveled extensively.

He grew up diving off cliffs of Palma de Mallorca as a young boy, ice fishing with his father in Minnesota and hunting in the woods of western New York as a teenager. He was a lifelong hunter and angler and enjoyed opening dove season in the Texas Panhandle, deer season in the Texas Hill Country and salmon fishing in Alaska. His love of the outdoors and respect for animals ran deep. 

Professionally,  Lt Colonel Martinez was a microbiologist with over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical, biologic and life science industries where he developed regulatory strategies for therapeutics and medical devices working closely with domestic and foreign regulatory agencies. 

In addition, Edward  served his country proudly working as a Medical Observer Controller / Trainer with responsibilities to train military chemical and medical units throughout the continental United States to respond to Weapons of Mass Destruction, terrorist attacks, and to prepare the United States Army response to natural disasters inside the continental United States.  

Edward was a Gentleman’s Gentleman with a streak of Roughrider. He was an avid listener and man of few words but whose words were powerful. Everyone who knew Edward witnessed his thoughtfulness, generosity, respectful nature, and well-timed sense of humor. He always had a kind word for everyone he met. 

We lovingly say so-long to our gentle giant."

Katherine also has her PhD  in Microbiology, so I guess they understood each other. 

The service is Monday, Nov 6th at Saint Marks in San Antonio. 

And I expect to see Aunt Phoebe and some of my cousins.

We all came from the Texas Panhandle 

and now we live all over the earth, 

in Seattle, LA, DC, Phoenix, Singapore, Round Mountain, and Helotes.

And I shouldn't forget our home in Real de Catorce, MX.

The Texas Panhandle is a good place to grow up,

and, as the most conservative district in the US Congress,

an even better place to be from.

Rest in Peace All.

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The Wonder of this World

 

As we were landing in Las Vegas this month on our way to Boise, Idaho to see my partners Mom and to spend a week on Lake Payette, I looked down to get my first view of The Sphere.  It was the biggest dome I had ever seen and it looked like the construction was finally finished.

By the time we returned, what will soon be known by us all as the next Wonder of the World, had opened. And the first show was U2.

This from Wikipedia:

The sphere-shaped project was designed by Populous,^[13] and its interior would include the world's largest LED screen.^[10] MSG initially estimated the project cost at $1.2 billion.^[10] In February 2020, the company said the cost had increased to $1.66 billion as a result of design changes consisting of guest enhancements.^[14] The cost continued to increase, eventually surpassing $2 billion due to the 2021–2023 global supply chain crisis and the 2021–2022 inflation surge. With a final expected cost of $2.3 billion,^[20] it is the most expensive entertainment venue in Las Vegas history, beating out the $1.9 billion Allegiant Stadium.

The Sphere opened on September 29, 2023, with Irish rock band U2 beginning a 25-show residency called U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere.

The dome's roof required 3,000 tons of steel.^[42] The roof started to take shape in March 2021, as crews began the installation of 32 trusses, each one weighing 100 tons.^[ Truss instalation reached the midway point in May 2021, and the crane had to be moved to the southern side of the property to install the remainder. 

The dome was topped off on June 18, 2021,^[45] and work was already underway on an external exosphere which would be built around the dome.^[46] The exosphere will be made of LED light panels which will be visible from several miles away. It will be 30 percent taller than the dome.

Upon completion of the roof's steel frame, 6,000 cubic yards (4,600 m³) of concrete were then pumped onto the roof. This formed a layer measuring 10 inches (250 mm) in thickness, and weighing approximately 10,000 tons.^[49] The roof was finished in October 2021. Crews then turned their focus to a 730-ton steel interior frame which will support the LED screens and audio system.

A second topping out, for the exosphere, took place on May 24, 2022. This was followed by installation of the interior and exterior LED screens.^[53] The latter was illuminated for the first time on July 4, 2023, during Independence Day celebrations.

The Sphere is 366 feet (112 m) high and 516 feet (157 m) wide at its broadest point.^[25] It is the largest spherical building in the world at 875,000 sq ft (81,300 m²).

The NYT's review on the opening seemed a little overwhelmed as everyone else including the band seemed to be:  "And so there was Bono on Friday night, onstage, tantalizingly close, freakishly accessible and, in some moments, perhaps just a tad lost. His band, U2, was inaugurating Sphere, a hyperstimulating new performance venue in which the whole exterior is a screen, and essentially the whole interior as well." 

When I was a young man in my twenties, I owned an advertising agency that among other venues and clients, promoted the Armadillo World Headquarters. It was a great way to grow up.  Armadillo is famous in Austin and in Texas.  It was there that we introduced Willy Nelson to everyone, not just the Hillbillies.  It was there that we recorded Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen. It was there that we formated a new radio format called "progressive country" where the rednecks and the hippies learned to get along for a while. It was there that we spawned the first PBS music show, later to become the longest running show on PBS called Austin City Limits.

My love of music and the performance arts morphed into my love for humanity resulting in a career of developing large scale renewable energy projects so that Austin and Texas now have more renewable energy today than pretty much anybody. And, I have spoken about the Texas experience in North and South America and in Europe, showing that we can affordably meet the needs of an advanced society without drowning ourselves in carbon dioxide and the rising seas that accompany it.

And it is a wonder of this world that the nations are so challenged to overcome the greatest failure of the free Market ever, and effectively fight climate change, and bring about the policies that can save us all.

And it would take a lot to get me interested in a performance venue in Las Vegas given the crises we face in our Climate and in the health of our Body Politic.

But a sphere is not just a metaphor, it is where we all live.  

And we are going to see U2 in 

the Sphere. 

 

 

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The Performance Artist

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The young upstart, Vivek Ramaswamy scored well in the Faux News R Debate for Vice President several weeks ago.  And he let go of some real doozies. My favorite was when he said that Climate Change is a hoax.  He also claims to be a scientist.  Frump has already said he would make a good Veep. Here is his truth that is so electrifying to the Rs that he is now in third place.

1. God is real. 2. There are two genders. 3. Human flourishing requires fossil fuels. 4. Reverse racism is racism. 5. An open border is no border. 6. Parents determine the education of their children. 7. The nuclear family is the greatest form of governance known to mankind. 8. Capitalism lifts people up from poverty. 9. There are three branches of the U.S. government, not four. 10. The U.S. Constitution is the strongest guarantor of freedoms in history.

Unlike Frump,  Mr. Ramaswamy apparently has made his own money in the bio-tech field and is a billionaire (950 million):

While campaigning for the presidency, Ramaswamy called himself a "scientist" and said, "I developed a number of medicines."^[35] His undergraduate degree is in biology, but he was never a scientist; his role in the biotechnology industry was that of a financier and entrepreneur.^[35]

In January 2021, Ramaswamy stepped down as CEO of Roivant Sciences and assumed the role of executive chairman.^[46][47] In 2021, after he resigned as CEO, Roivant was listed on the Nasdaq via a reverse merger with Montes Archimedes Acquisition Corp, a special purpose acquisition vehicle.^[48] In February 2023, Ramaswamy stepped down as chair of Roivant to focus on his presidential campaign.

Ramaswamy remains the sixth-largest shareholder of Roivant, retaining a 7.17% stake.

Roivant has never been profitable.

Lots of folks don't like him.  Carl Rove called him “a performance artist” who appeals to the “dark parts of the American psyche,” in the WSJ. 

Even the Washington Examiner sees through him:

"Vivek Ramaswamy is running a publicity campaign, not a winning campaign. He is running to be a mainstay in right-wing media, and he thinks that doing so means regularly contradicting himself as he shamelessly panders to right-wing audiences he thinks will eat it up. 

He is running as a caricature of what he thinks Republicans want in a candidate, his own very recent history be damned. He is a charlatan, and a snake-oil salesman"

He is also highly educated.  This from Wikepedia:

Ramaswamy attended public schools through eighth grade.^[5][21] He then attended Cincinnati's St. Xavier High School, a Catholic school affiliated with the Jesuit order, graduating valedictorian in 2003.^[5][23]

In 2007, Ramaswamy graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, in biology, and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.^[24] At Harvard, he gained a reputation as a brash and confident libertarian.^[25] He was a member of the Harvard Political Union,^[3] becoming its president.^[5] He told The Harvard Crimson that he considered himself a contrarian who loved to debate.^[3] While in college, he performed Eminem covers and libertarian-themed rap music under the stage name and alter ego Da Vek.

Eminem publicly asked him to stop it.

Now back to his 10 Truths.

1. God is real.  

OK, you can't prove it but OK

2. There are two genders. 

In 2004, a researcher named Marie-Anne Felix published a paper outlining a free-living nematode called SB347 that produced not one, not two, but three sexes: males, females, and hermaphrodites. Avocado trees have both female and male flowers on the same plant. This means they can wake up with their female flower opened, go to sleep, and wake up as males the next day

3. Human flourishing requires fossil fuels. 

NO, human flourishing requires affordable clean energy and your assertion is a hoax..

4. Reverse racism is racism. 

YES, and reverse parking is parking.

5. An open border is no border. 

YES, and that is a good thing.

6. Parents determine the education of their children.

Not my parents.

7. The nuclear family is the greatest form of governance known to mankind. 

Don't you just mean family?

8. Capitalism lifts people up from poverty. 

It's certainly true in your family's case.

9. There are three branches of the U.S. government, not four.  

Nobody said there are four.  Maybe you are hanging around the golf course too much.

10. The U.S. Constitution is the strongest guarantor of freedoms in history. 

YES, so follow it and don't try to change it by saying that citizens under the age of 25 shouldn't be able vote.

Somehow I like the idea of a Frump Ramaswami ticket.

Rama in Hindu is gender neutral meaning pleasing, beautiful, and charming.

Swami in Hindu means someone who is one with himself.

We all know what Frump means. 

Try saying it 10 times without laughing.

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