Don Martin de Leon to the provincial delegation of San Fernando de Bexar for an Empresario Grant in Texas to settle forty-one Mexican families "of good moral character" and to found the town of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Jesús Victoria. The Mexican settlement was unusual, as most of the period grants were to colonizing Americans.
De Leon was supportive of the Texas revolution against Mexico, but disdainful of the American colonists in Texas. As a major person of Spanish heritage, his life became difficult after Texas independence, and he ended up taking his family and livestock to Louisiana.
Mike Johnson, who supported Trump's bogus claim to have won the election, has been elected Speaker of the House of Representatives
Other than that he's a Republican from Louisiana, and some kind of lawyer (he claims to be the mysterious category of "Constitutional Lawyer", whatever that is, about all I know about him is that he's very conservative, and an evangelical Christian (of the young earth variety).
A "Constitutional Lawyer" (whatever that is) ought to know that the claims Trump won the election were devoid of legal merit. A couple of other lawyers involved in such claims have recently plead guilty to crimes associated with that. Presumably Johnson is immune from such charges, but the fact that he supported sedition under cover of law is distressing.
Harriet Hageman posted his agenda for Congress a couple of days ago.
October 26, 2023
More is becoming known about Johnson.
He's a hardcore conservative, very much of the Republican right. Any issue that you can think of, on which he's expressed an opinion, is uniformly extremely conservative.
That doesn't mean he's a populist per se, but he did work on a brief that sought to support one of President Trump's Squirrel Ball efforts to overturn the last election. That puts him squarely in league with the those who attempted to use the courts to support sedition, quite a few of whom in the main of that are now pleading guilty to crimes.
He's been an opponent to aid to Ukraine.
He's a serious Evangelical Protestant (which being from Louisiana, he might not have been) who believes in the young earth theory.
He's a denier of man made climate change.
What this will ultimately mean isn't known, but at least it's reasonable to suppose that at this point the GOP in the House is being lead, and is, far right and Protestant Christian Nationalist in view.
Gaetz really won in this, as did Trump. Gaetz took McCarthy down, and now the very hard right has installed one of their own. It's really remarkable, to say the least.
October 28, 2023
The House of Representatives is going to pass a bill which funds aid to Israel alone, omitting Ukraine, and which funds the $14B by slashing the same amount from the entity that finds money for the government, the IRS.
That latter part is just plain stupid.
And so the dysfunction shall return. This will go nowhere.
The irrational hatred of the IRS in populist circles is flat out bizarre. It's almost as if they're encouraging people to cheat on their taxes and preventing that from being discovered, or the rich completely control them. Neither are true, so what it seems to amount to is the whole scale adoption of a really stupid set of beliefs about taxation.
Under new Republican leadership, we are voting late at night on … stupid stuff. We are about to vote on:
-Reducing salary of EPA Administrator to $1
-Reducing salary of Director of Bureau of Land Management to $1
-Reducing salary of Secretary of the Interior to $1
I just had to explain to my Republican colleague from Georgia that Robert E. Lee was not a founding father. It’s been a very long day on the House floor.
November 8, 2023
November 8, 2023
Hamas v. Israel War
U.S. Rep Rashida Tlaib was censured for her "river to the sea" comment. Tlaib is of Palestinian extraction and has a vocal critic of Israel.
U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman claimed n a television interview that Palestinian protests in the US were due to Palestinian infiltration of the U.S. government.
November 14, 2023
Eight Republicans voted with Democrats against a resolution to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over the border crisis. The vote was 209 to 201, showing how extreme the GOP is, but also that the far right lacks complete control over the Republican members.
November 15, 2023
The House passed a stop gap spending resolution yesterday to avoid a government shutdown, but the GOP was forced to rely upon Democratic votes in order to pass it. That should be normal, of course, but with the current Republican makeup it is not.
Johnson is proving not to be a slave to his far right, which in turn will either result in his being removed liked McCarthy or perhaps start off a return to more normal behavior.
November 16, 2023
The Senate also passed the spending bill.
December 1, 2023
George Santos has been expelled from Congress.
December 2, 2023
Following up on this, the expulsion of Santos is real progress as by doing in the GOP is potentially cutting into its three vote margin in the House, and did it anyway. It shows, at long last, that there are some standards which cannot be breached.
December 6, 2023
Getting a jump on behaving like a Soviet court in the early USSR, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and a subcommittee chairman on the House Administration Committee announced Tuesday that they would be investigating any "cooperation" between Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis and the former House Jan. 6 committee.
Because, after all, it would be awful if the Dear Leader's behavior were to have come fully to light, as that would demonstrate independence of thought and loyalty to the truth. We can't have that.
Cont:
Kevin McCarthy, who was complicit in Trump's recovery from his brief fall from Republican grace, and who rode Trump's favor into a brief Speakership, shall resign from Congress at the end of this month. In so doing, he stated: “I have decided to depart the House at the end of this year to serve America in new ways". This will reduce the GOP majority in the House down to a single seat, at least temporarily.
December 14, 2023
The House is going to have a totally pointless impeachment inquiry regarding Joe Biden based on his son Hunter's conduct and baseless allegations that Hunter's business dealings involve his father.
Some assert that this is revenge dictated by "one day dictator" hopeful Donald Trump, whose own children certainly were active under his name during his presidency. Trading on a famous parent's name certainly isn't illegal, and is frankly nearly inevitable. Congressional Medal of Honor Winner Theodore Roosevelt Jr certainly didn't become well known independently. Of course, the baseless allegations here are that Biden was somehow involved in Hunter Biden's activities.
Whether Donald Trump ordered this or not, the level of delusion in the GOP side of the House of Representatives is sufficient to have likely brought this about independently. Ironically, it's now come to light that the individual who will head this sorry affair, James Comer, has a complicated set of financial arrangements not unlike that of Hunter Biden, although he's not being accused of illegal activities.
At any rate, there are not enough votes right now to impeach Biden, and this is yet another example of the House of Representatives, under GOP control, doing something political that will do nothing whatsoever other than to distract.
All the Republicans voted for the measure, all the Democrats voted against it.
The long ago days under Kevin McCarthy already look better.
Representative Mike Johnson wants to cut funds to the IRS to balance out an appropriation to Israel. It's a bit disturbing in a number of ways, in the case of Johnson in particular. We'll go into that someplace else.
But as to cutting the IRS, well, that makes no sense to any semi sentient person who is awake and not on medication . . .unless you are part of the group of people who feels that the IRS is theft itself or that the Federal Government needs to be starved.
Well, here's a better idea for the populist dream. Cut Federal Funds to states.
Now, Louisiana is one of the states that's most dependent upon those funds. But so be it. Cutting funds lets Louisiana be Louisiana, hurricanes and all. After all, there's no reason that people in New Jersey should have to pay for Louisiana's being in a hurricane belt. They didn't put it there, now, did they? And back in the good ole' days, before all the Federal interference, Louisiana had to get by on its own. Sure, it was desperately poor (and frankly, it still has a lot of that), but people didn't have to see that due to the lack of highways.
Wyoming is also in the top ten on Federal largess, by the way. But hopefully the hard right can end that, and we'll be able to do away with highways also.
Diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Mexico were restored.
They had ended during the long Mexican Revolution, during which, for a long period of time, it was unclear who would govern Mexico, and the US found many of the options distasteful.
The Italian Navy shelled the Greek island of Corfu and then landed over 5,000 troops on the islands. Civilians were injured and killed in the bombardment. Following the landing, the Greek administration was arrested, but the small Greek garrison did not surrender and instead retreated to the interior of the island.
Mussolini declared that the island had always been Venetian.
An Anti KKK riot broke out in New Castle, Delaware.
Most of us know the song, House of the Rising Sun. Probably most people who think of it, when they do, think of the version by Eric Burdon and the Animals.
It's a great song.
Anything ever seem a little off about it, however?
The song is about a house of prostitution, which most people familiar with the song are aware of. As Burdon sings it, the lyrics are:
There is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy
And God, I know I'm one
My mother was a tailor
She sewed my new blue jeans
My father was a gamblin' man
Down in New Orleans
Now the only thing a gambler needs
Is a suitcase and a trunk
And the only time he's satisfied
Is when he's all drunk
Oh mother, tell your children
Not to do what I have done
Spend your lives in sin and misery
In the House of the Rising Sun
Well, I got one foot on the platform
The other foot on the train
I'm goin' back to New Orleans
To wear that ball and chain
Well, there is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy
And God, I know I'm one
Now, it is a great song. And I like this version of it, which was released in 1964.
The interesting thing, however, is that song from a male point of view, which it is, it's sort of way ahead of its time. Not that it isn't relevant, it's just a point of view that I can't think of any other song from the mid to late 20th Century expressing that view. Basically, the protagonist is confessing that he's a sex addict and addicted to frequenting the prostitutes of The House Of The Rising Sun.
The song wasn't written by Eric Burdon, or any of his band. They were covering a song, which many are unaware of, that had already had a successful recording run when sung by Woodie Guthrie and Hudey Ledbetter (Leadbelly). Indeed, I thought Leadbelly had written the wrong, but I was in error on that.
The Guthrie version, from 1941, has the following lyrics:
There is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy
And God I know I'm one
My mother was a tailor
She sewed my new bluejeans
My father was a gamblin' man
Down in New Orleans
Now the only thing a gambler needs
Is a suitcase and trunk
And the only time he's satisfied
Is when he's on a drunk
Oh mother tell your children
Not to do what I have done
Spend your lives in sin and misery
In the House Of The Rising Sun
Well, I got one foot on the platform
The other foot on the train
I'm goin' back to New Orleans
To wear that ball and chain
Well, there is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy
And God I know I'm one
Identical. What about Leadbelly? Well, he recorded it twice, first in 1944, which had these lyrics:
There is a house in New Orleans
You call the Rising Sun
It's been the ruin of many a poor soul
And me, oh God, I'm one
If I'd listened to what mama said
I'd be at home today
Being so young and foolish, poor girl
I let a gambler lead me astray
My mother she's a tailor
Sews those new blue jeans
My sweetheart, he's a drunkard, Lord God
He drinks down in New Orleans
He fills his glasses to the brim
Passes them around
The only pleasure that he gets out of life
Is a hoboin' from town to town
The only thing a drunkard needs
Is a suitcase and a trunk
The only time that he's half satisfied
Is when he's on a drunk
Go and tell my baby sister
Never do like I have done
Shun that house down in New Orleans
That they call that Rising Sun.
It's one foot on the platform,
One foot on the train.
I'm going back down to New Orleans
To wear my ball and my chain
My life is almost over
My race is almost run
Going back down to New Orleans
To that house of the Rising Sun
Oh, now wait a moment, that's a lot different. In this version, which is earlier, the protagonist, while sung through Leadbelly's male voice, is a girl entrapped in prostitution. Frankly, the song makes a lot more sense all the way around.
Leadbelly's 1947 version of The House of the Rising Sun.
In the second recording, which is the one people normally here, Leadbelly had followed Guthrie's lead, and the protagonist was male.
The first one presents a really grim warning. The girl who is the subject of the song has obviously left the house, and now is returning? Why? Well, contrary to the way prostitution is portrayed in film, her reputation would have been completely ruined and by this point that probably would have been her only option to try to make enough money to stay alive. Not only that, she's noting that she's expecting an early death.
More on that in a moment.
Leadbelly, it should be noted, didn't get around to recording until very near the end of his life. He died in 1949, and was first recorded in 1933. He was born in 1888 and was preforming professionally by 1903. Indeed, at first he preformed in Shreveport audiences in St. Paul's Bottoms, its red-light district, with his career interrupted by stints in jail, which are referenced in some of his most famous songs. He was in fact discovered, and truly was a great musical talent, by Alan Lomax while serving a prison stint.
Leadbelly preformed so early that some have speculated to what degree he was an indeterminable influence on the blues. He definitely was, but he also was unique in that he played a twelve-string guitar, very unusual for bluesmen, and his songs were always in the blues format but in sometimes in a near blues, ten bar, format. Indeed, some of those were converted to eight bar blues formats by later recording artists, probably basically by accident.
Anyhow, Leadbelly's songs often had a really old origin. This seems to be one. And the fact that the first version he recorded was sung from a female point of view is telling. Taht's probably how he learned it.
How early is that version?
Well, the song first makes its appearance by reference in 1905. By that time, it was being sung by miners in Appalachia, which means that one of the references doesn't quite fit unless the song had really travelled in the South. I.e., a song about somebody in New Orleans is out of regional context. The first printed version of the lyrics appear in 1925, with this:
There is a house in New Orleans,
it's called the Rising Sun
It's been the ruin of many poor girl
Great God, and I for one.
Just like Leadbelly had it.
The first recorded version came in 1933, later than I would have supposed, but still pretty early in the recording industry. It was by Applachain artist Clarence "Tom" Ashley and Gwen Foster. Ashley claimed to have learned it from his grandfather, which pushes the song back to the mid 19th Century. Ashley's version has a male protagonist:
There is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
Where many poor boys to destruction has gone
And me, oh God, are one.
Note, this one has a blunter warning than any others with a male protagonist. The male vocalist hasn't gone to "ruin", but to "destruction".
Hmmmm. . . . so was it a male or female song?
My guess is that it was originally a female one, but because of its compelling popularity, it's been switched back and forth from its near onset.
So, was there a House of the Rising Sun that induced poor girls into lives, and probably shortened ones, of prostitution?
Nobody really knows for sure, but applying Yeoman's Eighth Law of History, as we should, would suggest it's likely. That law, as you'll recall, stated the following:
While that eight law mostly referred to old myths, it applies to more recent ones as well, as the basic principle is the same. The song clearly came out of Louisiana, and it traveled the South pretty extensively while persistently retaining its references to a House of the Rising Sun. There likely was such a place in Louisiana, or at the chances that there was are pretty good.
Indeed, a whole series of theories hold that it was on Conti Street in the French Quarter or on Ursulines Street or on St. Louis Street. In 2016 however, the New Orleans Times Picayune ran an article about an advertisement they'd found in which a hotelier was advertising the Mechanics Hotel, just outside of town, and with obviously pretty good rooming accommodations, which was noted to have formerly been "the old establishment of the Rising Sun".
Hmmm. . . .
The owners of the Mechanics Hotel wanted his potential guests to note that the hotel had a variety of rooms and offered a variety of services and accommodations, none of which included prostitution. The prior role of the Rising Sun wasn't mentioned, just that the Mechanics Hotel was where it formerly was, or rather that it was being rebranded. Perhaps it was also being repurposed. If so, that advertisement would have served two purposes, one being "don't stay away if you would have avoided the old Rising Sun", and the second being "don't come around if you are expecting the old services of the Rising Sun".
That advertisement, by the way, ran in 1828, which would mean that the song would have to have dated back to at least that approximate time.
So, what's the moral of the song? It clearly has one.
The basic warning is against living a life of depravity, that's clear enough. More than that, it was a direct warning about living a life of sexual depravity. Further, it warns the audience that the vocalist can't get out of it, now that the protagonist is in it, even though it would see, that the protagonist has tried. In the male variant sung by Guthrie, and in the female variant sung by Leadbelly, the protagonist informs the audience that the subject is at a railroad station with one foot on the platform, and one on the train, and is going back to New Orleans "to wear that ball and train". That tells us that the male protagonist is going back to New Orleans where he intends, seemingly against his will, to resume visiting the House of the Rising Sun. In the female protagonist version, she's going back to be a prostitute.
The female version is even grimmer. In that version, not only does the lyrics indicate that the subject is a slave to the situation, she's a different sort. Her slavery, in essence, is implied to be economic. Her reputation is ruined and she can't do anything else at this point. Moreover, she knows that she's going to die young, either at the hands of one of her clients, or more likely through disease.
Which takes us to this. That in fact was then and is now the thing that kills prostitutes early. It's odd how in Western movies like Lonesome Dove or Open Range this is ignored. Prostitutes were nearly guaranteed to get a venereal disease at the time, and it was probably going to kill them. Regular clients were likely to get a "social disease" as well, and the number of men who came down with one even where they were not regular customers, but who had made a visit a few, or perhaps even one, times were likely to as well.
Indeed, it wasn't really until after World War Two that it was the case that VD could really be effectively treated. . Nearly all of the treatments before then were ineffective to varying degrees. But that's not the last of it. Girls who fell into prostitution didn't simply think it an economic option, but were often victims of what was termed "white slavery". Kidnapped and drugged, or kept against their will in some fashion, sometimes by force, sometimes by addition. This is also still the case.
It's worth noting, in addition, that modern pornography has its origin in prostitution and indeed the word stems from it. "Graphy" indicates depiction, and pornea is Greek for of or pertaining to prostitutes. Very early pornography, going back to the first really easy to use cameras, came from photographing prostitutes to expand on their marketability. I.e., the working girls were basically captives of their procurer, and those people expanded their profits, not the girls profits, by photographing and selling their images, which had the added impact of being a species of advertising. This aspect of pornography was very heavy in the industry up until the mid 20th Century, when some of the subjects limited themselves to selling their own images in some fashion, but it's apparently returned in spades since the Internet, with many, apparently, of the images around now being once again of young girls trapped most likely by drug addiction.
The whole thing is pretty bad, suffice it to say.
Okay, we went down sort of a rabbit hole here, and for an odd reason. The trip to House of the Rising Sun started off as it refers to the mother of the subject sewing his blue jeans. We'll explain that in the other thread, but we would note that the song has one final aspect. It's a warning about the decay of a family.
From last week, the Court held that you cannot sue for Miranda rights violations in Vega v. Tekoh.
This has no criminal law implications.
In Kennedy v. Bremmerton School District, the Court ruled that a coach praying on the football field after games was not a violation of the Establishment Clause.
