Here are the best photos from my trip to South Carolina. The best ones will be toward the end. First off, some images of me.
This week's Friday Link we revisit Jelle's Marble League, about the only sport today that doesn't make me pull my hair out!
In case you don't remember, last year, when the Corona Virus was at full speed, all the sports leagues shut down out of safety. This left many people who lived for sports desperate for any competition. What I found, and posted last year in a Friday Link, was Jelle's Marble League, which not only fulfilled the empty void of sports, it actually was better than most sports leagues in many different ways.
What really makes this sports league great is Greg Woods, the sensational play by play guy they have who adds the perfect amount of excitement to these competitions.
With the Olympics ending three weeks ago, the Twins sucking, the Vikings looking like they will suck and the likelihood most Minnesota sports teams will be horrible all year round, enjoy the sports league which actually makes you like competition again.
Four of this years events for you. Catch the rest up on YouTube!
There is a game promo at the beginning of the first three events posted here.
Let's go to the Fair...well maybe not in person this year.
After the Minnesota State Fair decided to only encourage face mask wearing, and to not mandate it, and decided not to have a vaccine mandate for all fair goers, many people changed their mind and said "maybe we'll pass on attending this year's Minnesota State Fair," which begins next Thursday in Falcon Heights, just north of St. Paul. Not only is the Fair a mess of people in a non pandemic year, but you already know plenty of people will take the State Fair's stance as 'validation' there's nothing to worry about, heading to the fairgrounds with zero regard for anyone but themselves.
I guarantee many sick people, both knowingly and unknowingly, will attend the Fair. My guess is you'll see the super spreader event begin before the end of the Fair on Labor Day.
Sigh...
I'm not going. I might make a weekday morning run on a rainy day to get certain favorite foods and bring them back home, but 30 minutes tops, and only when the place is relatively empty. And that is a BIG if.
For this weeks link, a few Fair videos for you. Starting off with a KARE 11 bit on the history of the Fair.
Are you ready for it? Seriously, you'd better brace yourself for the Republicans of Minnesota and this country to give you whiplash with the argument they'll be trying to make all next year during the mid term election cycle.
Republicans in 2022 - "Where did you EVER get the idea we were against vaccines, masks and common sense pandemic safety measures?"
I don't know...in Minnesota, a few weeks after the Republican Senate majority Leader and the House minority leader demanded the state reopen on the Minnesota Capitol steps as we began to see the worst spike in COVID cases, Sen. Majority Leader Paul Gazelka decided to have a celebration party after the MNGOP held the MN Senate, a celebration which did not follow pandemic safety protocol (they seem to have purposely dismissed safety procedures) did not include mask wearing and did not include social distancing, and did indeed turn into a CoronaVirus super spreader event, likely killing one of their own Senators. And THEN they returned to work in the MN Senate and NEVER TOLD THE DEMOCRATS IN THE CHAMBER THEY WERE WORKING WITH A BUNCH OF SICK PEOPLE!!!
Thank God the GOP is not in charge of this state.
Since June, I've noticed most Republicans have started to try to soften their rhetoric in regards to vaccines and Corona Virus safety measures. Most of them now are openly saying they encourage people to get the vaccine, and follow safety protocols. But they falsely try to paint this as a 'personal choice' issue, generally followed by their own contradicting advice, dismissing their safety language. This is clearly paving the road so they can try to scream away their real behavior in 2022 when people point out their complete message, something many Republicans eagerly will want the voters to forget.
NEVER FORGET, even if a Republican was talking common sense about getting vaccinated and following safety protocols, they usually followed it up with one of the following five messages which INTENTIONALLY undermined their message:
1) "Sure you can wear a mask and socially distant, but unlike THOSE sacred wussies cowering in fear in their basements, I'm not afraid of the world!" They have said this for the last year. Only recently have some Republicans dropped the language. Still there are many who continue to push this fake "we're not scared" mantra.
2) "They want you to wear masks but our kids can't breathe!" If your kid can't breath though a simple mask, you probably want to get them checked out at the hospital, as preexisting breathing conditions are a major contributor to sever COVID cases. They're only using the 'what about ht children' tone to scare people into agreeing with them.
3) It's REALLY hollow to say you are for vaccines and masks now when for a year and a half the Republicans of this country have been screaming "Reopen Everything!" In many states they have reopened, and the Delta Variant of the Corona Virus is predictably spiraling out of control. After you give the villagers the plague, it's an empty gesture to then say the dying masses "make sure to wash you hands!"
4) The amount of Republican politicians who will try to argue 'I was for vaccines and masks' by insisting an individual can make a personal choice about both, but then go out of their way to prevent cities, counties, schools and public institutions for instituting mask and vaccine policies. It takes a real horrible person to go out of their way to make sure people are less safe. The entities who want to install these mask and vaccine requirements are people who will be held accountable by their local jurisdictions/voters, but because Republicans know the local voters will go along with them, they try to stop them from doing what they think is best. IT's very similar to outstate Republicans trying to stop the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul from installing a higher minimum wage (How dare they!). It's terrifying how many people Republicans have likely killed with their policies during this pandemic.
5) "FREEDOM!!!" The pageantry and theatrics Republicans embrace to undermine their own message on COVID safety usually culminates with some sort argument they are super patriotic, not willing to sacrifice their freedoms for anyone. A minor inconvenience for the safety and benefit of all, INCLUDING YOURSELF, is not a violation of your freedoms. And Patriotism means caring for your fellow countryman and woman, NOT engaging in selfish behavior where you demand the world give you what you want. That's just pathetic, and anti Christian too!
The real wild card in 2022 is the Minnesota media. Many of them will allow the Republicans to completly rewrite their legacy and act as if they've always been for vaccines and masks. If I'm the Minnesota DFL, I'm finding EVERY Republican house members/statewide race candidates comments about both vaccines and masks and preparing targeted ads which will blanket the state. If they want try to rewrite their legacy on COVID 19 as anything but dangerous and deadly, then they should have their own words thrown back in their faces.
For the Friday Link this week I want to revisit a group of men who were my heroes, the First Minnesota at Gettysburg.
I've often stated the Minnesotans who died that day saved the Union, and they did! It cost them most of their unit, but for five minutes of pure hell and glory they held back a FAR larger Confederate force (for five minutes!!!) and saved the field for the Union. They knew exactly what they were headed for, and they never even flinched.
This clip is actually from the position on the field where the First Minnesota made their great sacrifice. I tear up every time I think about what those Minnesotans did.
A brief history lesson. In late January of 1933, Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany, but his Nazi Party did not have the majority of the seats in the Reichstag (the German Legislature) at the time. Hitler called for a new parliamentary election, which was scheduled for early March of 1933. Hitler's goal was to get a full majority in the Reichstag and abolish Democracy through legal channels. The election strategy was to target the Communist Party seats which would then give Hitler the ability to do whatever he wanted in regards to Legislation, even dissolving Democracy.
Then the Reichstag was burned to the ground.
The fire happened the evening of February 27th. There's a fairly consistent consensus that Marinus Van der Lubbe, a communist extremist, acted alone in the arson, but even immediately after the fire, critics in England and the United States (remember when every decent person in this country used to HATE the Nazis?) became skeptical of the incredible luck Hitler and the Nazi's had with such an attack. The day after the fire, the Reichstag Fire Decree was signed, basically removing most Germans civil liberties. Where the March election still didn't give Hitler the 2/3rd's majority he needed for the Enabling Act, the one piece of legislation which gave Hitler all power in Germany, between the continued post fire extreme fear mongering of Communists, and with many member of the Social Democratic Party (the only party who could actually stop Hitler) being arrested to prevent them from showing up for the vote, the Enabling Act passed and...well, we know the rest.
There are a few strong pieces of evidence that the fire was an inside job by the Nazis. A history teacher I had in Germany for a college class on the subject mentioned the election prior to the fire was not looking like it would go the Nazi's way, and there was a real chance the Communists would pick up seats, costing Hitler his majority. There was also sworn testimony, certified in 1955, from a former SA unit member who said he was tasked with getting Van der Lubbe to the Reichstag, AND the building was already on fire when they arrived. And in 1943, Herman Göring was openly bragging about setting the fires himself.
The goal for Hitler and the Nazi's was to take over Germany by getting control of the Legislature and shutting it down. They tried to win on normal election methods, but when that failed, they used the attack on the Legislature to install Hitler as Dictator. Goodbye German democracy.
Over the last four years, I've written about the concern people have had about a self centered, mentally compromised, ego maniac who is clearly only on this planet for self gratification becoming President of the United States. When Trump won in 2016, buoyed by a Republican Party where "owning the Liberals" was the only thing that matter, something Trump played like a fiddle, I (in stunned disbelief) really started to ask how flexible the US Government system really was and if it could survive a President who wanted to install himself as leader for life.
After reviewing the timeline of events from Trump and the White House between the Election Day 2020 and 1/6, after the litany of books being released on the subject over the last few weeks, to the shocking reveal by the Department of Justice that Trump seems to have tried to order them to delegitimize the election adding "...just say the election was corrupt, leave the rest to me and R Congressmen," it's time we call what happened what it really was.
Donald Trump and his Republican Allies in his Administration, as well as certain Republicans in Congress, tried to overthrow a legitimate election and (in turn) overthrow Democracy itself.
Let me repeat that:
Donald Trump and his Allies in his Administration, as well as certain Republicans in Congress, certain political activists, and various right wing/pro-fascism/racist organizations tried to overthrow the legitimate election of 2020, and (in turn) overthrow Democracy itself.
Make no mistake, this would have been the end of the American experiment as we know it. You can't do what they clearly were trying to do and then ever expect to walk the country back into Democracy. Once you cheat on such an obscene level to win, when it looks like you're about to lose again, you'll shrug your shoulders and take the cheating path every time.
We came closer than I ever imagined to watching the USA fall. If Vice President Pence would've caved on his responsibility, this would've been a huge mess. Instead he followed the Constitution and ended up running for his life as Trump turned the mob against him. For God's sake Trump’s mob was screaming to "Hang Mike Pence!"
If not for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, not exactly the most liberal group, who held the line by telling Trump point blank we will not deploy US troops against our own Citizens. It sounds as if our military leaders had made a pact to be the last stop against the fall of American Democracy, but the White House was undeniably testing the barrier.
And it should be noted just enough Republicans, the ones whose names would've been the ultimate decision makers in certain states, the ones who would've been the defendants called into court to explain their treasonous decisions if they went along with Trump, found enough courage to say "No, I am not going to be part of this."
If not for those three groups of people, goodbye America.
This is why everyone who was complacent with this travesty is now desperately trying to rewrite what happened as harmless fun. It wasn't. It was an attempted overthrow of Democracy, thankfully attempted by the dumbest people in the country.
I was in the US Army. If I was on a guard post, and a person was trying to crawl through a smashed in window to get at a member of my chain of command [2 Points: 1) Speaker Pelosi is the 3rd most powerful person in American Democracy, hence she is actually in the Chain of Command, and 2) Ashli Babbitt was not trying to deliver a well worded list of demands to the Speaker. She was a terrorist; a traitor to the country looking to attack and likely physically harm the Speaker.] I would've dropped her, without even thinking about it.
The reality is Trump and his supporters are a small minority of this country. We need to hold them accountable and make sure we turn everyone involved in the attack on our country on 1/6 into the villains they truly are.
For the Friday Link this week, I want to look back on a movie from long ago, Gold Diggers of 1933.
I was reminded of this film when I visited with the MST3K and RiffTrax host Bill Corbett earlier this week on my radio show. He was talking about how much he has enjoyed looking back at the classic movies over the last year and this is definitely one of them. The scope of this Hollywood musical is amazing.
When I started watching this film, I had no idea how great it was, nor how many great songs came from the film.
I did find the the tribute to the WWI soldiers at the end to be quite wonderful, and sobering. Not the ending I was expecting from this film.
Here are a few clips for you to enjoy. I do highly recommend the whole film. Let's start with a Ginger Rogers classic.
