A Bob's Life: Monday Musings

Monday, July 8, 2024

Monday Musings - July 8, 2024

1. It is the 2nd Monday of July. Wow, time flies! There are three Mondays remaining in the month and only 25 Mondays remaining in the year.

Les Deux Raies
Henri Matisse
Norton Museum of Art
West Palm Beach, FL

2. One piece of art which intrigued me at the Norton this week was Matisse's Les Deux Races (The Two Rays). I had not been exposed to the work before and found it to be very much to my liking. There are a couple other works that I will be sharing in the coming days. There was one somewhat controversial work, Huck and Jim by Charles Ray, that I found intriguing, but will not share my image.

3. The show, Expedition Unknown has an episode titled Traitor's Treasure about the infamous Doan Gang of Bucks County, PA. The Doan Gang were some of the worst outlaws of the Revolutionary War period. They were Loyalists who supported the Monarchy. I am not proud of that. I am related to, but not directly through the Doan Gang.

4. Russia is continuing to violate the Laws of Armed Conflict most recently by attaching a children's hospital. These violations must not be allowed to continue and the U.S. and the West must provide better and more capable conflict changing weapons to defeat Putin and is aggression once and for all.

5. Immigration conundrum. During Trump’s term in office from January 2017 to January 2021, deportations by U.S. immigration and border authorities fell lower than most years of his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama, who some advocates for immigrants dubbed the “deporter-in-chief.”

Biden had even fewer deportations than Trump during his first two years in office. But, faced with much higher numbers of migrants arriving at the border, he greatly increased deportations – including those of families – in federal fiscal year 2023 and the first five months of the 2024 fiscal year, outpacing Trump. (Reuters)

6. Today in History. On July 8, 1951, Paris, the capital city of France, celebrates turning 2,000 years old. In fact, a few more candles would’ve technically been required on the birthday cake, as the City of Lights was most likely founded around 250 B.C.

The history of Paris can be traced back to a Gallic tribe known as the Parisii, who sometime around 250 B.C. settled an island (known today as Ile de la Cite) in the Seine River, which runs through present-day Paris. By 52 B.C., Julius Caesar and the Romans had taken over the area, which eventually became Christianized and known as Lutetia, Latin for “midwater dwelling.” The settlement later spread to both the left and right banks of the Seine and the name Lutetia was replaced with “Paris.” In 987 A.D., Paris became the capital of France. As the city grew, the Left Bank earned a reputation as the intellectual district while the Right Bank became known for business.