Fiddlin’ John Carson recorded “Taxes on the Farmer Feeds Them All” in the early 1930s. I first heard the song (as “Taxes on the Farmer Feeds Us All”) on Ry Cooder’s terrific 1972 album Into the Purple Valley. Cooder moves the music into the electric age while preserving the Depression Era theme about mistreatment of the farmers. While preparing this post, I also found a 1959 version by the New Lost City Ramblers which is much closer to Carson’s original. Here are all three versions.
Trump and the National Anthem
Trump’s attempt to sing the National Anthem at the College Football Championship game was strictly a political move to appeal to his base. He has ignored the players’ purpose for the protests – concerns about rational injustice. He has warped it into making it look like the players are disrespecting the military which is not true. His actions serve two purposes. It’s an appeal to the white supremacist part of his base and it enables him to ignore the real issues (which also appeals to his base).
This column describes out the long history of whites objecting to protests by African-Americans.
This column, by former NFL player Anquan Boldin, discusses the real reasons for the protests.
Future Russian interference in elections
This article describes a new report that the Trump and the Republicans are doing nothing to prevent future attacks on our elections.
The article states:
The report concludes that the US has no “coherent, comprehensive and coordinated approach to the Kremlin’s malign influence operations, either abroad or at home.”
North Carolina’s congressional map is thrown out for gerrymandering
Judges ruled today that North Carolina’s congressional map was invalid because of Republican gerrymandering. This is great news. It could have long-term implications for the future of gerrymandering. Gerrymandering has been done based on race and based on party. Both parties have done party-based gerrymandering but the Republicans have done more since they control many more state governments.
Votes in the state had been close in votes for governor and president but Republicans have 10 Congress members and Democrats only have three. Here’s what the congressional districts look like.
Their legislative districts had already been determined by the courts to be unconstitutional racial gerrymanders. They concentrated African-American voters in a few districts to reduce their presence in other districts.
Republicans in North Carolina are also trying to gerrymander state judicial districts. Sad!
B&O Railroad Museum Roundhouse
The Roundhouse was damaged by a heavy snowstorm in 2003. Here are pictures of the damage and some of the repairs.
Market Place in the 1970s
Here are photographs I took at Market Place in the late 1970s. The area has been renovated. Port Discovery is now where the Wholesale Fish Market was. 10 Market Place is the building in the picture above.
Here are pictures of 10 Market Place and 16-18 Market Place
New tax tables
The Trump administration is pushing businesses to withhold less in taxes by February. Democrats want to make sure that 2018 tax tables for the new law are accurate and don’t show artificially low rates. That would cause people to think they got a bigger tax cut than they did and they won’t know the truth until 2019 when they file their 2018 returns. I wouldn’t put it past the Trump administration to do this.
This article has a table with estimated tax deduction changes.
Sad!
Russia could meddle in the 2018 and 2020 elections, too
Trump’s refusal to fully acknowledge Russian meddling in the 2016 election leaves us vulnerable to more interference in future elections. I strongly recommend this very thorough investigation by the Washington Post. It documents Trump’s skepticism about Russian interference in the 2016 election.
We don’t know why Trump never says anything bad about Putin when he is critical of many world leaders including our allies. Trump will attack Democrats and members of his own party. Yet, he refuses to criticized Putin who has damaged our electoral process. I think Russia has something on him. I don’t believe in the pee tape. I suspect he owes them money. We need to get to the bottom of this. Sad!
Trump admitted he lied when he testified under oath
Trump’s lawyers should be nervous about having him testify, especially if it is under oath. In a libel case a decade ago, Trump admitted under oath that he had lied 30 times.
Here are questions Mueller may want to ask Trump if he testifies. Who knows if Trump will tell the truth? Sad!
Walker Evans and the Farm Security Administration (FSA)
Walker Evans was a great photographer who worked for the federal FSA during the depression. His FSA pictures, along with those by the other FSA photographers, are available from the Library of Congress as downloads or prints.
I have a copy of “Frame Houses and a Billboard, Atlanta, Georgia” from 1936 which features a movie poster for Love Before Breakfast. I had assumed for decades that the Carole Lombard’s black eye was graffiti and not part of the original poster. I was surprised when I finally saw the film and she did get a black eye in it.
More information on the picture is here. Love Before Breakfast is part of Carole Lombard: The Glamour Collection.
There are many articles and books on the FSA photographers and their work such as this. The Library of Congress collection is here.
Depression Era Photos (@USHistoryPhotos on Twitter) post pictures
Update 4/10/18: videos on Evans
update 9/18/18
I think this is an FSA photo:
