Friday, May 28, 2021

So, you don't think we live in a fascist state II?

THE HEART OF FASCISM IS RACISM. 

THE HEART OF RACISM IS THE BELIEF THAT DNA IS DESTINY. 

THE HEART OF THE NEW LEFT IS THAT DNA IS DESTINY.

GET IT?

I've written numerous times here about what is called Critical Race Theory and the BLM/Antifa movement. Actually, for the last few years what used to be my blog about history, science, philosophy, etc., is mostly now dedicated to fighting the fascism that we are facing, something most people either don't know about, as their media sources are all about protecting it. Some know, but refuse to see or concern themselves with it.  I don't really blame them for burying their head in the sands, because it's scary when huge institutions with power over you like government, the media, education and big business buy into it.  

The first mention of the actual words in this blog about CRT weren't until September, 2020 soon after it was reported that Trump was putting a stop to its teaching in the federal government (now reversed by Biden). CRT is basically black supremacy fascism sweeping the blue states like a plague. Fascist is just my chosen word and you could use others. It is undoubtedly Marxist and racist. It has been successful in NYC, Seattle, California and other areas for a few years. Journalist Christopher Rufo, who I recently learned about from a friend has a database (I have not found that database online - I don't know if he shares it or if you have to pay a premium for it). I won't even try to cover all he has on this topic (it be my longest post ever) but here are his articles. Read and literally weep for our country. Articles (christopherrufo.com). But because I think his recording of this history is so important I am going to just print one set of facts from a recent article entitled "Critical Race Theory in Education" (but go to his website):

  • Seattle Public Schools tells teachers that the education system is guilty of “spirit murder” against black children and that white teachers must “bankrupt [their] privilege in acknowledgement of [their] thieved inheritance.” 
  • San Diego Public Schools accuses white teachers of being colonizers on stolen Native American land and tells them “you are racist” and “you are upholding racist ideas, structures, and policies.” They recommend that the teachers undergo “antiracist therapy.” 
  • A Cupertino, California, elementary school forces third-graders to deconstruct their racial and sexual identities, then rank themselves according to their “power and privilege.” They separate the eight-year-old children into oppressors and oppressed. Link
  • A middle school in Springfield, Missouri, forces teachers to locate themselves on an “oppression matrix,” claiming that white heterosexual Protestant males are inherently oppressors and must atone for their “covert white supremacy.” 
  • A Philadelphia elementary school forces fifth-graders to celebrate “Black communism” and simulate a Black Power rally to “free Angela Davis” from prison. At this school, 87 percent of students will fail to achieve basic literacy by graduation. 
  • Buffalo Public Schools teaches students that “all white people” perpetuate systemic racism and forces kindergarteners to watch a video of dead black children warning them about “racist police and state-sanctioned violence” who might kill them at any time. 
  • The Arizona Department of Education created an “equity” toolkit claiming that babies show the first signs of racism at three months old and that white children become full racists—”strongly biased in favor of whiteness”—by age five. 
  • The California Department of Education passed an “ethnic studies” curriculum that calls for the “decolonization” of American society and has students chant to the Aztec god of human sacrifice. The solution, according to one author, is “countergenocide.” 
  • North Carolina’s largest school district launches a campaign against “whiteness in educational spaces”—and encourages teachers to subvert families and push the ideology of “antiracism” directly onto students without parental consent. 
  • Santa Clara County Office of Education denounces the United States as a “parasitic system” based on the “invasion” of “white male settlers” and encourages teachers to “cash in on kids’ inherent empathy” in order to recruit them into political activism.

Even Rufo can only just touch upon what is happening in this country. These are not just people with opinions. These are governments in action. Not just governments. He recently reported on the bizzare events at one of the government's largest defense contractors, Lockheed Martin, where poor schmucks in leadership guilty of whiteness, were forced to attend a Zoom meeting where (from the NYPost article on it):

"The participants from Lockheed Martin engaged in activities over Zoom that included a “free association” exercise in which the term 'white men' was equated to 'old,' 'racist,' 'privileged,; 'anti-women,' 'angry,' 'Aryan Nation' and 'KKK' . . . . ."

That session reportedly led to conclusions that white men 'don’t care about diversity,' 'have a classical perspective on history and colonialism,' and 'don’t want to give away our power.'

In another exercise, referred to as 'hearts and minds' training, the Lockheed executives were given 156 various “privilege statements” to read and discuss . . . .   

The statements reportedly included, 'My culture teaches me to minimize the perspectives and powers of people of other races,' 'I can commit acts of terrorism, violence or crime and not have it attributed to my race,' 'My earning potential is 15-33% higher than a woman’s' and 'My reproductive organs are not seen as the property of other men, the government, and/or even strangers because of my gender.'"

Perhaps the two most disturbing recent news stories about racism in America are as follows:  

1. Lt Col. Matthew Lohmeier, a ten year veteran of the air force and then a commander of 11th Space Warning Squadron in Colorado, was relieved from his post because of, allegedly, a question of his ability to lead. Why? Well, obviously, because it turns out he is a communist. Right? Wrong? You would think that would be a disqualification in our military, but I doubt it is now. But, in reality world, he self-published a book about Marxism's invasion into our military. 

I understand that he was just removed from his command and hasn't been demoted. But, that's bad enough. When criticizing Marxism becomes grounds to be thrown out of a command, we have a serious problem.

2. The American Medical Association has ended meritocracy. Imagine. The AMA, which has tremendous power and control over medicine in America, has decided, it has had enough of merit. Now, it's all about diversity. 

Here's from their new policy statement:

"Land and Labor Acknowledgement: We acknowledge that we are all living off the taken ancestral lands of Indigenous peoples for thousands of years. We acknowledge the extraction of brilliance, energy and life for labor forced upon people of African descent for more than 400 years. We celebrate the resilience and strength that all Indigenous people and descendants of Africa have shown in this country and worldwide. We carry our ancestors in us, and we are continually called to be better as we lead this work."

What? Who acknowledges? Us? My family were serfs in Russia and the like until early in the 20th century. Yours? Betting they weren't slave owners. Owe the AMA leaders and policy maker's are "us." I have a feeling there family weren't KKK leaders either.

But, leave that aside. Maybe the policy makers were all rabid fascists who until last week kept pictures of Adolf Hitler smiling at them on their PCs. Here's my favorite part (i.e., the worst part) of the statement:

"The resulting differences in outcomes among historically marginalized and minoritized populations have been explained away through the myth of meritocracy."

So, you think they are saying that Barack Obama wasn't elected to be president twice because of merit? I doubt they mean that because that wouldn't feed the narrative. Anyway, great to hear that now the AMA is dedicated to the end of meritocracy in our medical system. Good God. Good f'g God (perhaps I need to rethink my self-imposed ban on cursing on this blogpost. Some things just call for swear words).

I am not going to go into depth here, but I hope that my dear readers recognize that the "myth of meritocracy" mantra is one of the attacks on capitalism made by the left and socialists. And if you don't understand that BLM is all about socialism, you don't read their websites or books like How to be an Anti-Racist." 

You still don't think we live in a fascist country? Keep reading.

5/4/21     A New Jersey town, Hopewell Township, fired (by a unanimous vote) Officer Sara Erwin and demoted/suspended Sgt. Mandy Gray because of a June 2020 post that went up during the George Floyd riots.  Each had over 20 years time in on the job, but, apparently, but fascists don't permit seniority to get in the way of a good firing. Here's the horrible stuff Erwin wrote that got them fired:

“Last night as I left for work I had my two kids crying for me not to go to work. I don’t think I’ve ever felt the way I did last night. And then I watched people I know and others I care about going into harms way. I love my police family like my own. So when you share posts and things on Facebook I’d really appreciate if you’d THINK before doing so. I’ve seen so many black lives matter hashtags in these posts. Just to let you know — they are terrorists. They hate me. They hate my uniform. They don’t care if I die.”

Was she wrong? I don't think so. For years the BLM movement has been successfully selling a almost completely false narrative, especially demonizing police.  Sometimes they chant "death to cops" at rallies and they have tried to burn down precinct houses with the cops inside.  I bet she could have said anything negative she wanted about the Proud Boys or anyone named Trump without consequence.

*

James Boasberg, the presiding judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, last November issued a report just declassified by the Director of National Intelligence showing that the FBI “has been seriously and systematically abusing its warrantless electronic surveillance authority.”  ​

The FBI?!?!  I'm shocked. Shocked, that there is abusive behavior going on at the FBI. In reality, this is hardly news. The FBI has a long history of doing this and the directors and congress usually just shrug at it. What has been done about their behavior over attempting to destroy Trump (I'm not going through that all here, but, if you don't know, you really are watching the wrong news shows)? Nothing really, not systemically. A token arrest and conviction of one agent, some firings during the Trump administration, but buoyed up by media and even the Biden administration (who hired, e.g., Peter Strzock's wife. Strzok himself is teaching at Georgetown). 

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5/3/21    I've spent a lot of time recently discussing the Chauvin case as an example of how the justice process is being destroyed by BLM and its supporters. This report is fairly new though. A juror on the Chauvin case was exposed as having worn a BLM, anti-police t-shirt during a rally in Washington, D.C. He wasn't exactly asked those questions during his questioning, and he did say he was very positive about BLM, but neutral about Blue Lives Matter. He could have volunteered this. Ask yourself, if you think its no big deal, what if they had acquitted and you learned he had worn an "George Floyd deserved it" tee-shirt?

*

5/1/21   A teacher berates student for calling police "heroes" in a Zoom class at Cypress College. She said she wouldn't call the police because she feels more endangered by them. Frankly, I don't even believe her. I bet she has 911 on speed dial. The young student was incredibly brave to hold his ground against her and remained calm. Happy ending maybe? She, an adjunct, who responded to this student as if she was arguing with a frenemy on facebook rather than as a calm college professor discussing a subject, took a leave of absence from the class for the rest of the semester.

But, are there happy endings anymore? The faculty union at the Cypress blamed the administration for not defending the professor, who was increasingly nasty to a young student in a SPEECH CLASS - NOT EVEN A POLITICAL CLASS, while he tried to argue that police were generally speaking, heroes. His poise was remarkable for a kid his age.

Worse, the union for the community colleges in the district said the school failed to be ANTI-RACIST. Can you imagine if she had pulled this with a kid arguing that all cops were racist monsters. She'd probably be stoned. Really, what hope do these kids today have?

Because the zoom video went viral, there were allegedly threats made (they don't say who made them?) and they had to cancel classes. Because if they don't say precisely who the threats were made to, I presume they were not right-wing threats (does it mean you are right-wing if you appreciate cops?) but the usual BLM/Antifa threats with which we all should be familiar absent the media black out.

*  

The Biden administration is seeking to end single family home zoning in America. Call it the American Dream or what have you, but my hope my good friends who voted for Biden are paying attention. Betsy McCaughey former Lt. Governor of NY writes (5/19/21, Biden's War on Single-Family Homeowners) :

That $213 billion is nearly twice the spending on roads and bridges. It will change towns everywhere and torpedo the American dream of a house with a patch of lawn.

Biden’s plan should be called “hypocrisy housing.” Its backers are hypocrites. Biden himself owns a four-acre lakefront home in upscale Greenville, Delaware, where there is absolutely no public housing, affordable housing, or rentals that accept housing vouchers. And don’t expect any to be built next door to the Bidens.

Biden has always had a passion for stately homes and swanky addresses, even buying a 10,000 square foot mansion that once belonged to the DuPont family. Not exactly the image of “Middle-Class Joe.”

Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband own a $5 million gated home on a street of expensive single-family homes in Brentwood, California. That reeks of privilege.

President Barack Obama launched his Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing program in 2015 to ensure that every neighborhood includes housing for low-income buyers and renters and public transportation.

Yet, for their own family, the Obamas bought an $11.75 million Martha’s Vineyard mansion on 29 waterfront acres. Martha’s Vineyard is critically short of affordable housing, according to a public report, but that didn’t stop them.

These politicians love single-family zoning and exclusivity for themselves, but not for the rest of us. The poster person for this hypocrisy is avowed Marxist Patrisse Khan-Cullors, the Black Lives Matter activist who purchased a home in exclusive Topanga Canyon, part of Los Angeles.

It's been pointed out for a long time, nothing energizes cronyism and elitism like Marxism and Fascism. The Commissars and Nazi Party officials didn't share in their people's sufferings for their idealistic causes. These people will not either. It was only reported that Khan-Cullors is stepping down from leadership of BLM. I guess she figures it will help her keep the houses. I'm sure Hollywood will embrace her.

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I'm guessing you aren't aware of this. On his very first day in office, in his run of executive orders that dwarfs any other modern day presidents, Biden ordered federal agencies to reinterpret Title VII of the '64 Civil Rights Act based on the Supreme Court (I know, which you think leans conservative) decision in Bostock v. Clayton County. All prohibitions on sexual discrimination must include gender identity and sexual orientation (I read the decision by Justice Gorsuch, cherry-picking nonsense as pointed out in dissent by Justice Alito - the idea that any text written in '64 even considered the following is virtually insane). According to HUD now, that bars from federal funds (in other words, schools, among many other things) segregation by sex of bathrooms, showers or living quarters based on gender. You read correctly. 

A lawsuit by a religious school, College of the Ozarks, requesting a stay, was rejected (May 19th) by an Obama appointed trial court judge who said it wasn't judiciable (meaning, the court's can't decide something like this - don't worry, it makes no sense). Frankly, this is an assault on our entire culture which distinguishes men and women in domestic situations. Not in college any more. 

Personally, I don't think it is just outrageous to force religious institutions to do this. They shouldn't force any colleges to make the kids share bathrooms, showers and dorms. You could argue, this is just crazy, but not fascism. It is when they are forcing people to share living bathrooms with the opposite sex. At least in our culture.

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A friend sent me a link today which has to go into the file of WHY ARE JEWS STILL DEMOCRATS? Ami Horowitz (obviously Jewish) a conservative film maker, stopped college students in Portland (which, obviously, given that the "Antifa candidate" got 43% of the mayoral vote, is going fascist faster than the rest of us) and pretending to be raising money for Hamas, got students to donate to it making statements like:

“We just want to get rid of Israel — it’s for the Palestinians,” “We’re looking to destroy Israel,” “We don’t want just Gaza, we want to have all of Israel,” “We want to fund operations against Israel and the type of attacks we’re talking about are cafes and schools, and, you know, soft targets,” “Hospitals, shopping malls and schools and places of worship. This is the kind of stuff we’re talking about.” 

You don't believe it. Here's a link. Ami Horowitz on Twitter: "Think the woke are not antisemitic? Think again. Watch me raise money for Hamas to kill Jews from students in Portland! https://t.co/osIVUKNk80" / Twitter

Thanks in part to support like from the pro-terrorist "Squad" in congress anti-Semitic violence in America (and elsewhere) is surging.  What does team Biden think? Here's recent advice from Aaron Keyak, the Jewish Engagement Director at Biden for President:  

“if you fear for your life or physical safety take off your kippah (head covering) and hide your magen david (star of David).” 

Can you imagine if  he was a Trump campaign leader? Or if it was said about Muslims? Mr. Keyak would be toast.

Still don't think we are living in a fascist country? Why? Because no one has beaten you up personally? Because they aren't destroying your neighborhood? 

BUT, WHAT ABOUT THE VIOLENCE? ISN'T THAT PART OF FASCISM?

Of course it is. Fascists are violent. The 500-600 violent BLM rallies in 2020 alone (counted by a think tank), each of course being constituted by many acts of violence, alone tells us that. The media has had a general blackout on what has happened in Portland the last year (actually, much longer, but it spiked after the Floyd affair) where not only does Antifa, with a lot of support, try to burn police to death and the like, but thanks to the anti-police sentiment and rhetoric from so many on the left, murder rates have skyrocketed since then. In fact, it is beyond out of control if you live in an urban area. Here are just some cities (percent more murders in 2020 than in 2019):  

Seattle - 74.1%  New Orleans -67.1  Atlanta - 72.6 (Fulton County)  Chicago - 55.5  Boston - 54.1

Portland - 51.5  Houston - 42.7  NYC - 39.2  San Francisco - 32.4  LA - 30.4 

The statistics are from Jeff Asher, a crime analyst, of select states. Asher reports that "Murder up 36.7% in 57 agencies with data through at least September (though most have data through November). Murder up in 51 of 57, 37 of 58 agencies reporting murder up more than 30%."

I'm sure I've said here before, the BLM movement and the Ferguson effect in its wake has killed minorities off in a far faster rate than the KKK did in their whole history (using NAACP statistics). If any group doesn't care about black lives, it is BLM.

You want to believe it's because of the pandemic, go ahead. That's the narrative from the media. There may be some truth to it, but I seriously doubt a lot. Isn't this what happens when police stop policing, known as the Ferguson effect? There's real evidence of that. In fact, a 2020 study from Harvard (as is often said - hardly a liberal bastion) showed that in five cities where a shooting went viral and there was an investigation into the police, the violent crime rate dramatically increased.   

As in previous posts, I can write all day about this stuff and not scratch the surface. You either recognize what is happening or you don't and probably won't until it affects you or your loved ones personally.. I'm trying in my tiny way to make up for the fact that the media is generally on the side of the fascists. When we see people like Kyle Rittenhouse prosecuted for murder when the video and other evidence seems clear he was defending his life, but the shooting of Ashli Babbett goes without prosecution or the shooter even being named, when we see NYS and City take political prisoners like Paul Manafort (NYS has tried to find charges against Trump people since 2017. The charges against Manafort were dismissed by a court, and the appeal went against the State too - now, as we know, NYC is trying to find away to prosecute Trump), when we see . . . . 

Okay, I'll stop. It is depressing. I am happy to say that this past week for the first time since May, 2020, I've seen a little evidence that at least red states are starting to wake up and are fighting back. Let's see if the federal government will try and crush their efforts.

And for those who want to think this is a white supremacy site - can't stop you, but, in reality, not at all. Sometimes in videos of a BLM violent confrontation, you can't find black people in it. This is as much about young white idiots, socialism and capitalism, as it is about blacks. And I'm convinced as well that the movement to ignore education and to eschew merit will ultimately harm blacks even more. Their leadership is among the worst aspects of our society. No less so than the KKK with whom I'd compare them. I'm still a believer, perhaps an overly hopeful one, that absent peer pressure, most blacks would reject what is going on in their name. I'll stick with MLK Jr.'s dream. I hope others do too.


Tuesday, May 04, 2021

Even if he was guilty, how could the Chauvin trial possibly be fair?

"The First step in a fascist movement is the combination under an energetic leader of a number of men who possess more than the average share of leisure, brutality, and stupidity. The next step is to fascinate fools and muzzle the intelligent, by emotional excitement on the one hand and terrorism on the other."

            Bertrand Russell, Freedom and Government (1940)

I've already posted on my thoughts about the summations in the Chauvin case and touched upon some other matters concerning the case, particularly its relationship to the growing fascism in our country. I'm not going to repeat everything I already wrote (pause for applause from the studio audience). Mostly, I've reflected that the defense counsel just wasn't up to the job and missed a lot of stuff. And, I know I've touched on the fact that this could not be a fair trial - and I am going to go over that, because first, more has come out about the trial and second, I think this has to be emphasized. 

You already know if you read some of this blog the last couple of years, not just the last post which was directly about it, that I believe we are already living in a country that has become fascist. It may not be the fascism of Hitler or Mussolini, or the terror of the French Revolution or Stalin, but it is always different. And, as I pointed out in the last two posts, this Chauvin case is a pretty good example of how it is working here. 

Consider this in determining whether this could be a fair trial or not:

  • Chauvin was arrested in 4 days of the event, with scarce time for all the investigation the expert witnesses would testify to as to Chauvin's use of force to restrain Floyd. As I pointed out in the last post, they took 3 1/2 months to determine, against all evidence I can see in the video of Ashli Babbitt's slaying, that the officer killing her was justified (it's a lie, of course; for goodness sakes, they are prosecuting Kyle Rittenhouse in Wisconsin just for saving his own life - here's an officer who is not in anymore danger than officers surrounding Ashli and her friends with guns).

  • Immediately after his death, Minneapolis was subject to a reign of terror lasting days including 150 fires, 1300 vandalizations and resulting in 2 deaths. 

  • For 10 months after the death of Floyd, there have been riots and protests across America before the trial. That included attempts to intimidate politicians and the police union leader.

  • Right before the trial the protests started up again. During the jury selection, it was pointed out that the jurors realized they were in an armed camp so that they could feel safe.

  • Right during jury selection it was announced by Minneapolis that they had settled with Floyd's family for $27,000,000, a number that was remarkably high for any similar case, let alone death case considering that Floyd didn't earn a lot of money (that is the main consideration in these cases), that he had a long criminal record, was a chronic drug user and had a bad heart. It was an astonishing, unrealistic amount. Of course, I can't read minds and say that the powers that be were trying to influence the jury, but it couldn't but help have that effect. If I had to guess, more than influence the jury, the municipality was trying to appease the rioters that could tear apart their city again. It was an appeasement that had as much chance of working if there wasn't a conviction as giving Hitler Czechoslovakia did to stop WWII.

  • The National Guard in Minneapolis was called out as protesters gathered in Minneapolis in record numbers since WWII.

  • Two national guardsmen were injured when shot in a drive by.

  • Maxine Waters made her famous statement in a neighboring city that they needed a conviction or they would have to fight harder (More fires? Deaths?)

All that happened prior to the jury being sequestered. They were not told they could not use computers. The judge thought about granting a motion to stay and move the trial just because of the revelation about the civil case being settled and said that Maxine Waters' statement about the case might get it overturned on appeal (then why didn't he do it).

Although I personally thought Chauvin was guilty of manslaughter II (not murder II or III), he was and we all are entitled to his having a fair trial. Arguably, in light just of the announcement of the civil case settlement, or in light just of Maxine Water's Goebbel's like speech, or in light just of the riots, or just the need for the national guard and the security measures the jury had to live under, and the promise of so much more violence and destruction, if the jury did not do as demanded and convict, was enough to get this case thrown out. It wasn't. Personally, I do not think the judge's on the appellate courts of Minnesota will have the courage to do so on appeal. I hope I'm wrong. Not because punishment would not be just, but because BLM and the fascist movement can't get away with frightening jurors into not fairly and impartially weighing the evidence before they make a determination.

And, it looks like, they did not do it fairly. As the first juror to reveal himself has stated, 11 of the 12 did not even want to go over the evidence in light of the charges. They only did so because the other juror demanded it.

And, we now know that at least one juror seems to have lied or at least been deceptive about his participation in George Floyd protests. When asked on the form if he had been to any George Floyd rallies in Minnesota, he said "no" and otherwise did he or those close to him participate in protests about police use of force or police brutality (the picture that came out was of him in D.C. wearing a tee-shirt saying "Get your knee off our necks" on one side and "BLM" on the other). 

The fact that they found Chauvin guilty of Murder III as well, where it doesn't even make sense in this case, makes me think that the jury acted irrationally.

If you tell yourself, well, I hear what you are saying, but it was okay, ask yourself this -

What if the person being tried was a black cop who had killed a member of the KKK.

Now, imagine, after that happens and before the jury deliberates:

Thousands of members of the KKK rioted through the city, burning buildings, looting stores, destroying homes and assaulting cops, threatening members of the government, rioting throughout the country. Then consider if during jury selection the city settled with the Klan member's family for an unheard of sum of money, that the National Guard had to be called out for the trial in unheard of numbers since WWII and that the KKK was shooting at them. And then imagine some Republican you can't tolerate because you think they are evil - say Donald Trump - makes a speech which incites further violence just before the jury goes into deliberations? And then the jury very quickly finds the defendant guilty?

Or imagine if you find out that one of the jurors who had worn a "white supremacy" tee-shirt at a rally had answered a jury questionnaire at least indicating he hadn't?

Do you think you might find justice hadn't been done then?

I believe you would. You can believe you wouldn't. Until you do face up to what happened in this trial and what we are doing to ourselves in this country, the fascism will continue.

About Me

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I started this blog in September, 2006. Mostly, it is where I can talk about things that interest me, which I otherwise don't get to do all that much, about some remarkable people who should not be forgotten, philosophy and theories (like Don Foster's on who wrote A Visit From St. Nicholas and my own on whether Santa is mostly derived from a Norse god) and analysis of issues that concern me. Often it is about books. I try to quote accurately and to say when I am paraphrasing (more and more). Sometimes I blow the first name of even very famous people, often entertainers. I'm much better at history, but once in a while I see I have written something I later learned was not true. Sometimes I fix them, sometimes not. My worst mistake was writing that Beethoven went blind, when he actually went deaf. Feel free to point out an error. I either leave in the mistake, or, if I clean it up, the comment pointing it out. From time to time I do clean up grammar in old posts as, over time I have become more conventional in my grammar, and I very often write these when I am falling asleep and just make dumb mistakes. It be nice to have an editor, but . . . .