Poppy Light Shows to Mark Remembrance on Memorial Day …

 Posted by at 5:12 pm  Politics
May 262025
 

After Canadian physician Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae saw poppies growing in a battle-scorched field in Waregem, Belgium, he was inspired to pen the poem “In Flanders Fields”.  Since then, poppies have become the traditional symbol of remembrance for our fallen soldiers.  So, on this Memorial Day I thought it fitting to revisit two light shows featuring the poppy.

The nation’s only memorial and museum dedicated “in honor of those who served in World War One in defense of liberty and our country” is Kansas City’s Liberty Memorial.  And in recent years its 217-foot-tall tower has served as a canvas for two light shows featuring the poppy.

The first was in 2018 marking the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Armistice on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month marking the “War to End All Wars”.  The light show ran for nine days and was viewed by tens of thousands.

Over 5,000 poppies illuminating both the Liberty Tower and Liberty Memorial base (part of the National World War I Museum) were created by nearly 55 million pixels and 800,000 lumens.  Every 15-minutes a special presentation is shown on the base displaying images and history about World War I.

 

 

 

 

To honor our nation’s veterans, the second light show installation was commissioned by the Liberty Museum and Memorial in conjunction with the NFL Draft that was held in Kansas City at Union Station in 2023.  It was titled “Horizons” and was designed by Kathy Pittala, a lifelong Kansas City area resident and the Graphic Designer at the Liberty National WWI Museum and Memorial.

 

 

 

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Open Thread May 26 2025

 Posted by at 5:52 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 262025
 

Yesterday, Trinette came by. I didn’t have enough trash to bother with, but she took out my recycling. I also had some stuff for the food bank where she volunteers. We chatted about a lot of stuff, including the holiday – her family has a lot of veterans – just not in the youngest generation. I would take that as a good sign, were it not for the current regime. I knew that I would find misogyny n the military, but I also knew I would find equal pay for equal work, and also equal respect from the top. The military was one of the few employers then where one could be confident of that. Sure, there were racist and misogynist individuals – but where are there not? But today I could not honestly recommend the military to anyone. I hope eventually we can reverse that. I hope your Memorial day is everything you want it to be.

I had to learn this from a VoteVets email – my search engine shows that others have covered it, but no one I get updates from. Although the New York Times is one, so y’all may have seen it. There’s a meme “every time a ‘Christian’ praises Trump**(*), an angel loses its lunch.” I wonder how many angels lost their lunch over this.

Now this from Wonkette actually caused me to say “Jesus Christ and all his disciples, what’s next?” And that was just the headline. I knew – I think we all knew – that Nancy Mace was a POS, but this is above and beyond.

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Dear Leader Exalts Himself with HUGE Banner …

 Posted by at 7:43 am  Politics
May 252025
 

This past week “Dear Leader” took the next step on the way to becoming a fascist dictator by unfurling a HUGE banner – of HIMSELF – at the Ministry of Truth USDA.

A colossal, brooding image of Donald Trump now looms over the U.S. Department of Agriculture headquarters in Washington, D.C. The banner is unmistakably authoritarian in both style and scale. It features a stone-faced Trump gazing down upon the capital like a watchful overlord.

The huge banner of a glaring Trump in front of the USDA is a literal sign the U.S. has lost its democracy

History has shown that such arrogant, pompous, narcissistic displays of self-exaltation do NOT herald a healthy, thriving democracy.  Quite the opposite.

But folks took advantage of such pretentious chutzpah to have some fun …

If that wasn’t galling enough, salt was rubbed into the wound as it was displayed alongside a banner of Pres. Lincoln.  It was Lincoln who founded the USDA in 1862 to

” … provide leadership on food, agriculture, natural resources, rural development, nutrition, and related issues based on public policy, the best available science, and effective management.”

But one Paulley Ticks took a bit of “artistic license” and saved the day with his pièce de résistance revision:

 

And he interestingly notes that the hand doing the flipping-off is his, because he could NOT find a pinky-sided image of a “giving-the-finger” photo.

https://x.com/PaulleyTicks/status/1923130550459470260

 

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Open Thread May 25 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 252025
 

Today is Kyiv Day – the (this year the 1543rd) anniversary of the founding of Kyiv. Happy Kyiv Day to all who celebrate. Here’s a link to the picture at left, and a little back story. (Also, UNITED24 is raffling off 24 sweatshirts with a Kyiv monogram – to enter, they ask a contribution of $24 by May 31. I couldn’t find it on their website, but will gladly forward the email on request.)

Yesterday, the radio opera was a new opera by John Adams (“Nixon in China,” “Doctor Atomic”) which for once is not set in modern history: “Antony and Cleopatra” – based on Shakespeare. (One thing hasn’t changed – Gerald Finley is still one of his favorite baritones.) The opera was staged in the 1930-s, more or less, and had some references to fascism. At least one review – the one I found – wasn’t crazy about it, but I found it very listenable Having learned to like Adams’s other compositions has made me comfortable with his style..

This is pretty cool. Anyone who wants to repurpose Alcatraz should read this first.

This good news from Amazon Watch is qualified – but it is good news for now. And we don’t often hear good news from Amazon Watch. (I wonder if the new Pope’s election had any influence.)

The original of this parody is from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Cinderella” made for TV and originally starring Julie Andrews (later remade with Lesley Ann Warren.) The fairy godmother sings it : “Impossible.”

Cat

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Open Thread May 24 2025

 Posted by at 6:04 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 242025
 

Yesterday, it was a news-heavy Friday – and with the MAGA habit of breaking crap on Friday afternoons and evenings, it may not even have been over when I posted. Anything I missed will have to wait until next week. I do sometimes need time for dealing with clutter. And I am sorry, but I will not cover the “crypto dinner.” It’s been covered enough.

Trust Robert Reich to take a document this big and make a cogent summary of it in terms that are easy to understand, And also to find and point out the big surprise.  (which we probably don’t need quite as much as low-information voters do, but I for one appreciate.)

I could not pick just one of these articles from The Contrarian – so I’m posting the full list. Hopefully one or more will speak to y’all.

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Open Thread May 23 2025

 Posted by at 6:04 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 232025
 

Yesterday, I got an email from Faithful America that SCOTUS deadlocked on the OK charter school case so the lower court ruling that giving the charter school government dollars in unconstitutional will stand. For now. (I’m not sure whether this is the same case where there were four recusals so they didn’t have a quorum, or whether that was a different case. Sorry, I’m finding it difficult to keep track.)

Jen Rubin of The Contrarian has been travelling in Europe, and is sharing some historical insight from there, specifically from Spain.

This from Wonkette may be relatively minor, compared to, say, the deaths that will result from gutting Medicare, Medicaid and SNAP. However it pisses me off (all racism does), and goes along with the next post.

Press Watch has what might be good news if it only went far enough. I suppose it’s a start.

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Open Thread May 22 2025

 Posted by at 6:10 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 222025
 

Yesterday, while looking for a cartoon for today (a specific one), I found trove of older cartoons and memes, many of which are not old at all. For instance, does anyone remember (I didn’t) that the Cantaloupe Caligula expressed interest in buying Greenland as early as 2019? I didn’t. But he did. Incidentally, the third asterisk in parentheses when I use the name Trump**(*) is because articles of impeachment have actually been filed. Not that they will go anywhere, but they have. I admit I jumped the gun a little and added it when they had only been drafted and not yet filed – but they did get filed, so I have no regrets. Also yesterday, the Brennan Center reported that Rikers Island ‘s penal complex has been put into receivership by a Federal judge. And one more thing: Rep Gerry Connolly (D-VA) died from esophageal cancer. I looked up Virginia law, and there will be a special election called by the Governor. The law does not specify a time frame.

I’m back to working a little ahead, which means my selections will be a little behind. I hope that isn’t too annoying. At least this from Talking Points Memo covers multiple topics (all important) so there’s a chance you may not have seen one or two.

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/stop-asking-about-a-biden-cover-up
This by Robert Reich is not really addressed to us, but to the media, and particularly to wingnut media. As such, it’s probably already doomed. It may give us some ammunition, if any of us has a platform from which to use it. Persnally, I will put on record, and would happily do so anywhere, any time, my evidence-backed opinion that a demented Joe Biden would be a better President than Trump**(*) in perfect mental health and 20 years younger.

I would not be a bit surprised if this news got buried, and in fact considering the circumstances – all the circumstances – it’s probably not all that big a story. But you gotta love Wonkette‘s headline. (I am not blind to the possibility of dangerous consequences from it, but it’s still funny.)

This is a bonus video from Talking Feds. Harry analyzes in detail the events regarding the arrest of Mayor Baraka and the charge against Congresswoman McIver in New Jersey – and what a mess* it really is. The vid is about 26 minutes because it doesn’t leave any issues out.
*When I was in the USMC, we had a racist expression for this which I won’t repeat. “SNAFU,” even “FUBB,” don’t really do it justice, though. Maybe “circle jerk”?

Belle empty ports

Dog

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Open Thread May 21 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 212025
 

Yesterday, As I was going through my emails looking for news, my radio station began to play Gustav Mahler’s “Resurrection” symphony. And it put into my mind another comparison between Jesus and the Mango Monarch. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection.” Trump**(*) said, “I am your retribution.” It might make a decent meme, but I don’t think I could stand the process of looking for the right pictures – of either of them actually – Christian art can be (not always , but you’re bound to trip over it) so saccharine I’d worry about getting diabetes.

This by Dan Froomkin is also from last week. It’s from Substack, but if you look at the URL, you will see it’s a bit different from the usual Substack URL. I don’t know whether Froomkin or Substack made that decision, but I concur with it.

Also from last week, this one from the F* News. You may know about the MRFF (Military Religious Freedom Foundation) – I did – or not, but you may not know about The Orders Project – I did not – and both are doing excellent and important work. Also, there were very few comments when I read it, but 50% of them expressed relief to learn they exist – and we all need some relief – not complacency, I don’t mean that, but we don’t need to feel like everything depends on us alone either, when in fact there are other people doing work, and in many cases work which is critical but for which we may not be suited.

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