Events happening today
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03 July 2026
This event began 07/03/2021 and repeats every year forever
Alligado 07/03/2021
IN Honor of Sharknado, what about Alligado?
Yesterday, July 3rd, in 1843, an alligator was reported to have dropped from the sky after a storm picked it up. What about a prequel to Sharknado, Alligado!!!
What say you?
ARTICLE
CHARLESTON, SC – According to the National Weather Service Charleston office, on July 2, 1843, there were reports of an alligator falling from the sky during a thunderstorm in downtown Charleston.
A search for the event, turned up an old newspaper clipping from the Time-Picayune in New Orleans. The Time-Picayune republished an article which originally appeared in “The Charleston Mercury” a local paper founded by U.S. Representative Henry L. Pinckney.
The article described a strong thunderstorm that developed on a very hot July Sunday. St. Paul’s Church was reportedly struck by lightning but not harmed. No one was reported dead following the storm, but an alligator appeared at the corner of Wentworth and Anson street in downtown Charleston after the storm had cleared. And while no one saw the alligator actually fall from the sky, the writer states that “and as he couldn’t have got there any other way, it was decided unanimously that he rained down.” That and the look of wonder and bewilderment on the alligator’s face led to idea that he had come from the sky.
The working theory is the gator could have been picked up by a waterspout the formed over a near by river or creek and was dropped on Anson Street as the spout dissipated. But since no one saw the gator fall from the sky, it could also be he just got lost in the blinding rain.
https://www.wbtw.com/news/alligator-rains-down-from-the-sky-according-to-1843-charleston-report/#:~:text=CHARLESTON%2C%20SC%20%E2%80%93%20According%20to%20the%20National%20Weather,newspaper%20clipping%20from%20the%20Time-Picayune%20in%20New%20Orleans.
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https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=1564&type=status
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03 July 2026
This event began 07/03/2021 and repeats every year forever
The Black Screenwriter Cometh 07/03/2021
In my experience, less than ten percent of the black writers I have talked to throughout my lifetime have read or written a screenplay. The question is why?
I do not know exactly, I can not give a roadmap but I have ideas.
I will go back... when I was a kid, multiple times my parents took me to see plays. August Wilson, Black theaters around harlem. They never took me to see a white play, defined as a play written by a white person. Sequentially, I saw black art not merely from one perspective. This parallels my constant rant on black fantasy, which sums up to , I was raised with black fantasy so I didn't see King Arthur or Beowulf or disney princesses or saturday morning cartoons as places that needed black fantasy cause I had it in the books in my home.
I have the century cycle as part of my book collection. Why did I mention that? Many black people who say they love august wilson don't have his stageplays. August Wilson wrote the plays, in the same way Shakespeare wrote his and yes as a kid I thought of August wilson whenever we read shakespeare in class. My parents have two trains running and some others as singles, which i read during those early years. I have twilight zone scripts, which are,for me, invaluable in seeing technique for writing scripts/screenplays.
Now my personal life means nothing to answer the initial question.
I restate, why do less than ten percent of the black writers I talked to throughout my life, offline or online, not have read or written a screenplay?
I know black writers offline who won awards for their work, made revenue from their work. I have made connections with black writers online who have varying levels of financial return or awards to their quality.
I myself prefer writing poetry more than anything else.
But, I have written screenplays, read them.
Why have so few of my peers?
While I ranted/provided background composing this I see two points that are undeniable.
1.Screenplays are not finished products and black people in the arts in the USA, don't like that. Ownership is a big cultural idea in the black community in the USA. It stems from centuries of enslavement and nearly to centuries of abuse after enslavement. when an artwork is not finished, it is not owned. And no screenplay is ever finished, it is merely the template, no matter how elegant, for the video recorded interpretation by humans, what is commonly called acting.
2.Screenplays structure is a thin lattice over anything goes sections. Meaning, outside some basics, the monolog or multilogs , the definition of scenes are open in their definition for screenplays. Education for black people in the USA after the war between the states, ending around ten years, was wholly funded by whites and mostly trade or skill based in definition. Why ? Cause white religious organizations funded the schools and wanted the bible to be the sole literary device for the black community. On the other side , in the same time period you had the reading schools were all age groups were allowed to learn to read. But, these schools were not interested in forming or creating a alphabet or literature for black people's various dialects of english. These schools were purposed to teach english as accepted by the white churches that funded most of them, who desired the british english. Remember, during that time most white people were still in a literary love affair with britain. Sequentially in the USA, the black communities first educated group, comprehend most black people did not go to school of any kind, had a very rigid sense of literature or writing. This was not , let the gullah/geehce/creole/delta communities create a literature to be the foundation for the future. This was, learn queen's english, read the bible. Rigidity was deeply set in how literature was learned in the black community. Tuskeegee or Howard are probably the most well known black colleges and the former was a trade school and the latter a seminary. NEither was a place where black literature or literature in itself was open to philosophical debate. Thus in modernity, the legacies of those educational cultures exist in the black community. When you hear a black say, as I have, that their parents didn't want them to be musicians or artists, or their parents wanted them to have a better work ethic. That philosophy to learning comes from the trade school, the religious school. Which is the founding place for all black fraternitieis or sororities. What does this have to do with the structure of a screenplay. LEarning for black people in the past 160 years, circa, is constrained. With poetry, whose forms all have rules, or prose, that has accepted structures, it is easy for the black educated populace to adhere to those rules. But, with a screenplay, you are not in error if you don't do it like another, and that simple truth, is uncomfortable for many black writers, who like to be right. If you are going to play the game, you have to know its rules and abide by them, but what happens when the rules are open for interpretation. Can you imagine, can you accept that?
from
Richard Murray
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03 July 2026
This event began 07/03/2025 and repeats every year forever
Sudowoodo at the library for charity
Reading a relaxing book on Rock Types on his custom BentWood Rocking Chair, designed by Hddeviant inspired by Thonet, while a bonsom sleep on his lap and two other Bonsam happily listen on the floor. Two Bonsam are reading their own book, about fire and ice type interactions.
On the shelves, is a golden book on pokemon, a complete history of Team Rocket, Oracion jazz variations, a vase with meowth's koban coin and a energy from a time flower, a book on the ALola Islands, and a princess key encyclopedia with Couriway princess key on the spine.
The coloring page and fully colored
https://www.deviantart.com/hddeviant/art/Sudowoodo-at-the-Library-submit-to-charity-1214090375
My Pokemon for charity
https://www.deviantart.com/hddeviant/gallery?q=sudowoodo
EMBED CODE
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03 July 2026
This event began 07/03/2025 and repeats every year forever
Here is a summary, full video reading, link to the complete text as a pdf, text block
FULL VIDEO READING
FULL PDF TEXT 940 pages, get a cup of coffee
https://www.budget.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/the_one_big_beautiful_bill_act.pdf
if the government deletes you can find it on my public storage
https://1drv.ms/b/c/ea9004809c2729bb/EbZDmeqlfntGiGn1E02IYZEBOO1r6iFbHDCHZ9IBK91SuA?e=EfDQLO
Full Text as a video, you can stop and start or scroll back and forth
SUMMARY- biased from the Associated Press
What's in Trump's big bill that passed Congress and will soon become law Story by KEVIN FREKING and LISA MASCARO WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans muscled President Donald Trump's tax and spending cut bill through the House on Thursday, the final step necessary to get the bill to his desk by the GOP's self-imposed deadline of July 4th. At nearly 900 pages, the legislation is a sprawling collection of tax breaks, spending cuts and other Republican priorities, including new money for national defense and deportations. Democrats united against the legislation, but were powerless to stop it as long as Republicans stayed united. The Senate passed the bill, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tiebreaking vote. The House passed an earlier iteration of the bill in May with just one vote to spare. It passed the final version 218-214. Here's the latest on what's in the bill and when some of its provisions go into effect. Republicans say the bill is crucial because there would be a massive tax increase after December when tax breaks from Trump's first term expire. The legislation contains about $4.5 trillion in tax cuts. The existing tax rates and brackets would become permanent under the bill, solidifying the tax cuts approved in Trump's first term. It temporarily would add new tax deductions on tip, overtime and auto loans. There's also a $6,000 deduction for older adults who earn no more than $75,000 a year, a nod to his pledge to end taxes on Social Security benefits. It would boost the $2,000 child tax credit to $2,200. Millions of families at lower income levels would not get the full credit. A cap on state and local deductions, called SALT, would quadruple to $40,000 for five years. It's a provision important to New York and other high tax states, though the House wanted it to last for 10 years. There are scores of business-related tax cuts, including allowing businesses to immediately write off 100% of the cost of equipment and research. Proponents say this will boost economic growth. The wealthiest households would see a $12,000 increase from the legislation, and the bill would cost the poorest people $1,600 a year, mainly due to reductions in Medicaid and food aid, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office analysis of the House's version. The bill would provide some $350 billion for Trump's border and national security agenda, including for the U.S.-Mexico border wall and for 100,000 migrant detention facility beds, as he aims to fulfill his promise of the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history. Money would go for hiring 10,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, with $10,000 signing bonuses and a surge of Border Patrol officers, as well. The goal is to deport some 1 million people per year. To help pay for it, immigrants would face various new fees, including when seeking asylum protections. For the Pentagon, the bill would provide billions for ship building, munitions systems, and quality of life measures for servicemen and women, as well as $25 billion for the development of the Golden Dome missile defense system. The Defense Department would have $1 billion for border security. To help partly offset the lost tax revenue and new spending, Republicans aim to cut back on Medicaid and food assistance for people below the poverty line. Republicans argue they are trying to rightsize the safety net programs for the population they were initially designed to serve, mainly pregnant women, the disabled and children, and root out what they describe as waste, fraud and abuse. The package includes new 80-hour-a-month work requirements for many adults receiving Medicaid and food stamps, including older people up to age 65. Parents of children 14 and older would have to meet the program’s work requirements. There's also a proposed new $35 co-payment that can be charged to patients using Medicaid services. More than 71 million people rely on Medicaid, which expanded under Obama's Affordable Care Act, and 40 million use the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Most already work, according to analysts. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 11.8 million more Americans would become uninsured by 2034 if the bill became law and 3 million more would not qualify for food stamps, also known as SNAP benefits. Republicans are looking to have states pick up some of the cost for SNAP benefits. Currently, the federal government funds all benefit costs. Under the bill, states beginning in 2028 will be required to contribute a set percentage of those costs if their payment error rate exceeds 6%. Payment errors include both underpayments and overpayments. But the Senate bill temporarily delays the start date of that cost-sharing for states with the highest SNAP error rates. Alaska has the highest error rate in the nation at nearly 25%, according to Department of Agriculture data. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, had fought for the exception. She was a decisive vote in getting the bill through the Senate. Republicans are proposing to dramatically roll back tax breaks designed to boost clean energy projects fueled by renewable sources such as energy and wind. The tax breaks were a central component of President Joe Biden's 2022 landmark bill focused on addressing climate change and lowering health care costs. Democratic Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden went so far as to call the GOP provisions a “death sentence for America’s wind and solar industries and an inevitable hike in utility bills.” A tax break for people who buy new or used electric vehicles would expire on Sept. 30 of this year, instead of at the end of 2032 under current law. Meanwhile, a tax credit for the production of critical materials will be expanded to include metallurgical coal used in steelmaking. A number of extra provisions reflect other GOP priorities. The bill creates a new children's savings program, called Trump Accounts, with a potential $1,000 deposit from the Treasury. The Senate provided $40 million to establish Trump’s long-sought “National Garden of American Heroes.” There's a new excise tax on university endowments and a new tax on remittances, or transfers of money that people in the U.S. send abroad. The tax is equal to 1% of the transfer. A $200 tax on gun silencers and short-barreled rifles and shotguns was eliminated. One provision bars for one year Medicaid payments to family planning providers that provide abortions, namely Planned Parenthood. Another section expands the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, a hard-fought provision from GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, for those impacted by nuclear development and testing. Billions would go for the Artemis moon mission and for the exploration of Mars, while $88 million is earmarked for a pandemic response accountability committee. Additionally, a provision would increase the nation's debt limit, by $5 trillion, to allow continued borrowing to pay already accrued bills. The Senate overwhelmingly revolted against a proposal meant to deter states from regulating artificial intelligence. Republican governors across the country asked for the moratorium to be removed and the Senate voted to do so with a resounding 99-1 vote. A provision was thrown in at the final hours that will provide $10 billion annually to rural hospitals for five years, or $50 billion in total. The Senate bill had originally provided $25 billion for the program, but that number was upped to win over holdout GOP senators and a coalition of House Republicans warning that reduced Medicaid provider taxes would hurt rural hospitals. The amended bill also stripped out a new tax on wind and solar projects that use a certain percentage of components from China. Altogether, the Congressional Budget Office projects that the bill would increase federal deficits over the next 10 years by nearly $3.3 trillion from 2025 to 2034. Or not, depending on how one does the math. Senate Republicans are proposing a unique strategy of not counting the existing tax breaks as a new cost because those breaks are already “current policy.” Republican senators say the Senate Budget Committee chairman has the authority to set the baseline for the preferred approach. Under the alternative Senate GOP view, the bill would reduce deficits by almost half a trillion dollars over the coming decade, the CBO said. Democrats say this is “magic math” that obscures the true costs of the tax breaks. Some nonpartisan groups worried about the country's fiscal trajectory are siding with Democrats in that regard. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget says Senate Republicans were employing an “accounting gimmick that would make Enron executives blush.”
URL
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/whats-in-trumps-big-bill-that-passed-congress-and-will-soon-become-law/ar-AA1HVdHv?ocid=BingNewsSerp
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03 July 2026 06 July 2026
This event began 07/03/2025 and repeats every year forever
Aphelion is between July 3rd and July 6th in 2020 it was on July 4th 11:04pm in 2020, the Aphelion for earth is when the earth is farthest from the sun, in its eliptical orbit. If you consider the Perihelion the beginning of a year, then the Aphelion is the trust midyear point. Every planet around the sun has an aphelion. Earth's moon like all other moons has a similar action, called an apogee to a planet, where a moon is farthest from the planet it rotates around, by having an elliptical orbit.
Story 1 https://aalbc.com/tc/blogs/entry/261-aphelion-day-art-or-text-craft-parade-good-news-blog/?do=findComment&comment=923
Story 2 https://aalbc.com/tc/blogs/entry/261-aphelion-day-art-or-text-craft-parade-good-news-blog/?do=findComment&comment=924
STORY 1
It is afternoon, a day on earth, a black woman sit in solace; Kalima look toward her photo of a prior penumbral eclipse, made in a roadtrip across the usa.
She continue to ignore the yells from her sanguine downstairs; they are ready to go to the July 4th Fireworks parade.
“COME ON!!!… I know you can hear me K! We are now in phase three and I want us to enjoy being outside, none of us have been out in months! PLEASE!”
Kalima lay back on her bed and put on a video online.
She can hear shuffling feet leaving the front door of the brownstone while she watch. She whisper: “see you soon” and continue to watch.
At the end of the video she sit at her writing desk and take out paper and pencil and ruler; she compose a poem using looped cursive penpersonship on clear paper using the ruler she crafted as a guidetool.
A male red winged blackbird sitting on a tree branch outside watch Kalima and see the following on the page, Kalima finished.
I know I’m free, while in an unfree place
To live in a free place… I must rally
Against Time’s steady pace, mortality
What certainty? The best finishing place
Choices I see? Bliss be the unfree place
Bliss out the unfree place, which choice is me?
History state no case… I must rally
Blind gamblin’ me, both length may eat my race
A bird yell free! I wingless… stall my race
Wait in the unfree place, one day for me
I see Time with it’s pace, safe while I see
I will rally, to live in a free place
The small uncaged passerine fly away, singing. Kalima look to the window and go to her bed, and lay thinking, and sleeping.
…
A gentle nudge and a wet kiss on the cheek, wake Kalima up, from a figure unknown of body while familiar in voice.
“Come on K, we are all back now, we want to tell you about our trip, especially little Bee”
“Oh, hey Ma”
Kalima plus her mother embrace.
“Here is some chocolate bars, colored like the flag, I know! but Mister Mohammed made them and I know you support Black business”
Kalima took a whiff of the chocolate, and smiled with yummies.
Her mother pass her a photo of the clan, taken by uncle george.
And, Kalima’s mother pass Kalima another of a firework by uncle george.
Kalima’s mother continue: “Fun…We will meet you downstairs and you can tell us about tonights eclipse ok”
“It’s late, little Bee will want to stay up, so we need to get the hammock out for him”
“ok”: Kalima’s mother leave, and Kalima look to the moon.
Kalima place her chocolate in her minifridge and open her door to the sound of laughter and joy. She smile in the night, for another day.
…
Thank you for reading, if you want to read more of my work read below
Bookbub
https://www.bookbub.com/profile/richard-murray-16885e64-6c28-459e-bf5f-45c7d458ce49
AALBC
https://aalbc.com/tc/blogs/blog/29-richard-murray-hearth/
Poetry or More Audiobook
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/search?query=Poetry%20or%20More&fcsearchfield=Series&seriesId=06baba96-5af5-5d24-9b8a-f06360287dc9
Visasiki Audiobook
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/search?query=Visasiki%20Series&fcsearchfield=Series&seriesId=965aea81-4e13-53fe-8bc8-22fcb6d28a39
Short Story Collection
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/search?query=Richard%20Murray%20Short%20Story%20Collection&fcsearchfield=Series&seriesId=014c67c4-d29d-584e-ada0-62c0fa015714
STORY 2
"It is really hot today": say a woman, chocolate skin sweating under an early June sun, her hand attach to another; she continue: "you need water raspberry pie"
"No mommy": say a little girl, same kind of skin, sweet or moisture, her frizzes capping her head.
The two keep walking on a simple dirt road, green trees adorning either side.
"Momma, Grandpa once said Tinkerbell was American"
"Of course, what did he say exactly": the mother giggle.
The little girl smile and imitate her grandfather's gestures: "An American Tinkerbell is like a woman, like Tinkerbell with a red white and blue bikini on, don't mind seeing that all out Raspberry... yeah, Tinkerbell on the beach"
The mother shake her head gently and say: "Your grandfather, called everything, like a woman, France, Joy, The spirit of America"
"How did he describe the spirit of America Mommy": the daughter giggle.
The mother smile and imitate her father's gestures: "The Spirit of America is like a woman, like a woman with a luscious afro with decorative hairpins like stars floating around her hair, she sits on a bed of fifty stars connected to the cosmos, and has a cape, like superman, but grander with the red and white stripes, feet bare and dangling like godiva chocolate statues waiting to be eaten...yeah, stylin spirit of America"
The mother continue: "I know he was referring to your great gran, she had the best afros"
"I love GG": say a stoic little girl.
"I love her too baby": equal in solemnity, say her mother.
The two walk and finally reach the house. Suddenly a man appear from behind a bush.
"You too need a glass of lemonade, try this homemade blend"
The little girl look toward her mother who release her arm, and she lunge for the lemonade and start to drink. The man patiently wait while he get a kiss on the cheek from the mother who take her glass of lemonade.
The little girl finish and the man inquire: "well..."
"It's a little tangy, not perfect Uncle": and the little girl smile. Her uncle throw down his hat in disgust and she continue: "You will get there uncle, we believe in you, you will make the perfect lemonade one day"
"Ahh... thanks Raspy, come on and help me with the cooking for the party later"
And the uncle and niece go to the back of the house, while the mother head to the far side. She soon notice her father's old car sitting in shiny glory, being taken care of by her brother Nicodemus.
The mother sit in the car and remember when she showed her parents, her first paid commission, the spirt of america. They made a cake for her and celebrated. She remember her father said: "I knew I was right, I may have not gotten the description incorrect, it seems the spirit of america is like lady liberty in her teenage years, no crown or lamp, hair flying, wearing wonder woman's clothes, wonder woman wouldn't mind and she needs the vibranium, can't imagine the skin getting cracked and she being chosen to stand before new york city, but, she is still, like a woman... yeah, the badass spirit of america"
The mother hyper ventilate and start to cry. She think to the day after when her father no longer said anything was like a woman. Between the heat side her sadness she fall asleep.
...
"Mommy!... mommy... MOMMY!": speak a little girl to her mother.
"hey my sweet Raspberry": the mother gently waken.
"Daddy say you need to eat... and here": the little girl kiss her mother.
"Ohh... thank you, give him this for me... and I want you to have fun with the firecrackers, with all your cousins and everybody, ok": the mother after taken the plate, hug her daughter tightly.
"Ok mommy, I love you"
"I love you"
"Don't be sad mommy": the little girl say walking away.
"I am not my little light in the sky, just remembering... go on now"
The mother eat a little food and place the plate on the dashboard, and lay back in the seat, back to sleep.
"Nzinga...why aren't you eating Nzinga": a gentle voice speak to the mother. Nzinga open her eyes and is in amazement.
"Pa..."
"Hey , surprised huh, do you know some people where I now live visit loving ones during the aphelion"
Nzinga is still in shock looking at her father.
He continue: "... you know, when the earth is farthest from the sun, but it seems to only work when one is missed a lot... and I am not even like a woman"
Nzinga lunge and embrace her father in the driver's seat.
"I miss you papa"
The spirit embrace his daughter and say: “ I know Nzinga, but no need, I am here just for a short while for a chance to get you not to miss me so much"
"How long?!": energetically state the daughter.
"Maybe only an hour"
"What will we do?"
"Drive around of course": Nzinga's father clip the seatbelt, and she smile, and he continue: "this is my car, that is a pretty special moon there". Nzinga look to the moon as her father stare at it.
Nzinga's father say while she look to the moon: "It will be nice having the penumbral eclipse escort us for our short time"
Nzinga become stoic: "why won't you come back..."
"I am having too much fun with your mother"
Nzinga burst a laugh.
Nzinga's father continue: "oh and she told me to give Raspy a message, she loves telling her stories in her dreams"
Nzinga's father start the car, and Nzinga look back.
He say: "Don't worry, let the magic happen"
"Death has not seemed to stop your sense of wit papa"
"Well, my little light, let me tell you something, ok, Death, is like a woman..."
...
Hope you enjoyed reading
If you like more of my stories check out my Short story collection series
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/search?query=Richard%20Murray%20Short%20Story%20Collection&fcsearchfield=Series&seriesId=014c67c4-d29d-584e-ada0-62c0fa015714
And I am on Bookbub
https://www.bookbub.com/authors/richard-murray-16885e64-6c28-459e-bf5f-45c7d458ce49
My blog
https://aalbc.com/tc/blogs/blog/29-richard-murray-hearth/
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