I saw Ray Charles perform at the first Artscape in Baltimore (1982)

Baltimore’s first Artscape festival was held in June 1982. Usually, concerts have been held outside but the Ray Charles concert was inside the Fifth Regiment Armory. It’s been a long time since then but I think it was indoors because it was raining.

Charles was great but his show seemed like it was out of a time capsule. He had a big band and the Rayletts. Charles, whose style was innovative in the 1950s and 1960s now seemed like he was performing in an old format.

Crime is down

Republicans lie and say it’s up

Homicide is down 30% year-to-date in DC this year. Violent crime down 35%.Is this news to you? Probably, because most media focuses on stoking fear about crime through anecdote, rather than actual data

Judd Legum (@juddlegum.bsky.social) 2024-12-17T16:53:40.230Z

With only two weeks left in the year, Philly is on track to have its lowest number of homicides in a DECADE, and its third-best year since 2007.Down 37% since last year, down FIFTY PERCENT since 2022.The entire Covid spike, absolutely wiped out.And the coverage? Basically crickets.

John Pfaff (@johnpfaff.bsky.social) 2024-12-17T16:12:13.801Z

Trump’s campaign was hacked – should the stolen documents be published?

This is a tough call. The media was wrong to publish the Hillary Clinton documents in 2016 and would be wrong to publish these. Still, it would be a terrible double standard if they didn’t print them – they would help Trump both in 2016 and 2024. I vote for publishing them now out of fairness and not in any future similar situations. That was proposed in one of the tweets below.

Trump’s latest unauthorized use of music

He has done this on many occasions. The Hollywood Reporter article cites past examples.

The media helps Trump

Cowards.

They don’t do nearly enough to counter his lies. They minimize his bigotry and incoherence,

Articles on the sad fights over the estates of Frank Zappa and Robbie Robertson

They were both great musicians. These are extremely sad stories.

Trump hasn’t paid bills in Montana

The 2024 election will be a fiasco

Trump and his cult will not accept a loss in 2024 just like in 2020. They will do more to wreck the results by installing election officials, changing laws, and not certifying results not favorable to Trump. Look at Georgia for example.