Closing Thought–21Jul22

I have always admired Iceland for their governmental leadership…..like they jailed the bank execs that helped cause the worldwide economic crash of 2008…..that should have been the policy in this country as well but instead we gave them a free ride to do it again.

Sorry I digress.

Iceland has erected a monument to those that have helped the nation through civil disobedience…..

A huge piece of rock sits in front of the Alþingishús parliament building, barely heeded by tourists, with a black cone of a noticeable size calmly stuck atop it, cracking it in half. It bears a plaque that contains a quote from the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, originally drafted by the Marquis de Lafayette during the French Revolution: “When the government violates the rights of the people, insurrection is for the people and for each portion of the people the most sacred of rights and the most indispensable of duties.”

Created by Spanish artist Santiego Sierra as a monument to civil disobedience, the design of this sculpture was inspired by a medieval tradition during the Inquisition, in which the condemned were forced to wear black cone-shaped hats as a sign of humiliation. Commemorating the so-called Kitchenware Revolution or the Pots and Pans Revolution, the monument caused a bit of controversy among city council members at the time of its installation.

The protests took place between 2009 and 2011 in the wake of the Icelandic financial crisis and the government’s poor handling of the situation, calling for the resignation of the right-wing Independence Party officials and for a new election. Considered the largest-scale protests in Icelandic history at the time, thousands of people gathered before the parliament and demanded changes to the old system.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-black-cone-monument-to-civil-disobedience

This is a great idea for this country…. we have monuments for individuals but there was more to our civil disobedience than one person….we should celebrate the masses that were the protests.

This country was founded by those that participated in the disobedience……and we have a long history of civil protests………

Top 5 Acts of Civil Disobedience in American History

This is a great idea from a great country…..someone needs to think like the Icelandic people.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–22Jan21

Why would an American soldier want to destroy the memorial to those that died on 9/11?

I know with everything happening around the inauguration of Biden some news falls by the wayside…..

While we were distracted by the oath of office and the antics of the Trump supporters an American soldier has planned an attack on a national monument…..the 9/11 Monument.

An American soldier discussed targets for potential terror attacks in the United States and shared instructions for killing American troops in the Middle East with someone he believed was an Islamic State supporter, federal authorities said on Tuesday.

While stationed in Germany last fall, the soldier discussed possible targets, including the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in Lower Manhattan, a criminal complaint shows.

“Choose your targets wisely,” the soldier, Cole James Bridges, an Army private from Ohio, wrote to the person he believed was a woman working with the Islamic State. But it turned out that Private Bridges was messaging with an undercover employee of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to the complaint, which was made public on Tuesday by federal prosecutors in Manhattan.

Why would any American want to destroy this monument to the dead?  Especially an American soldier that has taken the oath to protect and defend.

I have noticed that oaths do not mean a thing any more….people take them because the have to not because they want to.

This plan is disgusting and should not be condoned or explained away…..punish the planner.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Closing Thought–09Jul20

There is a lot of talk these days about taken down or replacing those monuments that are dedicated to the traitors of the Confederacy.

Ohio’s mouth Rep. Jim Jordan has stepped up to protect these monuments….

Rep. Jim Jordan in a Monday letter to United States Park Police (USPP) Acting Chief Gregory Monahan requested information about the USPP’s efforts to defend federal property and landmarks both in the nation’s capital and across the country.

The Ohio Republican also asked for information pertaining to the USPP’s June 1 activity to move protesters located near the White House.

“The Trump Administration must protect federal property, especially the landmarks and memorials that celebrate our nation’s history, from violent left-wing agitators,” he noted. 

https://justthenews.com/government/congress/rep-jordan-asks-us-park-police-about-efforts-defend-federal-landmarks

I find it interesting that a person that would not protect students under his care at Ohio State from sexual abuse (no conviction but under investigation) but is truly concerned over some statues that celebrate those people that killed soldiers from Ohio.

This is a perfect example of the ideology of the GOP and its elected toadies.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Monument News–2020

Monuments dedicated to the ‘heroes’ of the Confederacy have been coming down at a steady pace…..even some vandalism as well…..even my state is coming into the 21st century….there will be a vote on removing the state flag that displays the Rebel battle standard……….Donald the Orange has been fuming over these assaults on ‘heritage’…..and watch he sees as disrespect…….and as he always does he has opened the bottomless pit he calls a mouth…..

President Trump called people who tear down or deface monuments “terrorists” on Thursday and promised there would be “retribution.” The president addressed the subject during a socially distanced town hall event in Wisconsin with Fox’s Sean Hannity, the Hill reports. “Every night we’re going to get tougher and tougher, and at some point there is going to be retribution because there has to be,” Trump said. “These people are vandals, but they’re agitators, but they’re really, they’re terrorists in a sense.” The president, who plans to sign a “very strong executive order” protecting monuments, said there would not have been unrest, including the toppling of a statue, in Madison this week if the state had elected a Republican governor in 2018.

Trump said people who want to have monuments like statues of Confederate leaders removed should go through the proper channels. “You know, we can take things down, too,” he said, per the AP. “I can understand certain things being taken down. But they ought to go through a process, legally. And then we take it down, in some cases put ’em in museums or wherever they may go.” The president spoke to Hannity in front of around 50 supporters and took questions from the audience for 30 minutes, the first of which was the softball: “What do you think is your greatest accomplishment, in your eyes?” CNN reports that Trump didn’t provide an answer when Hannity asked him what his top priority items for a second term are.

In a true racist way Donald has shown his true colors by signing an EO on the monuments thing…..

The order, which basically authorizes the attorney general to enforce the already existing Veterans’ Memorial Preservation Act, gives the AG the ability to “prioritize” within the DOJ cases involving the damaging of monuments, with a penalty “of up to 10 years’ imprisonment.” The order also notes that states and law enforcement agencies that don’t adequately protect statues and monuments risk losing federal grants.

“Jurisdictions’ recent abandonment of their law enforcement responsibilities with respect to public monuments, memorials, and statues casts doubt on their willingness to protect other public spaces and maintain the peace within them,” the order states, per the Wall Street Journal. After the signing, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the order signified that “President Trump will never allow violence to control our streets, rewrite our history, or harm the American way of life,” per CNN. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, talked to Wolf Blitzer on CNN Friday night and lamented the president’s focus, saying he thought Trump should be concentrating on recent spikes in coronavirus cases around the country. “I wish he cared more about living Americans instead of dead Confederates,” Inslee said, per Politico.

This is a waste of time and energy….those so-called monuments have seen their day and will be coming down….I do not agree with the destruction of them for that will do nothing to to erase their history.

Like it or not, Confederate symbols have been appropriated by white supremacists and now represent the most shameful part of our past — a past of slavery, lynching, Jim Crow and segregation. Those who argue differently need only to look at the words of Alexander Stephens, vice president of the Confederacy, in which he stated that compared with the United States, “Our new Government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/letters-to-the-editor/what-to-do-with-relics-of-the-civil-war/2020/06/25/da78299c-b4aa-11ea-9a1d-d3db1cbe07ce_story.html

Give these statues a spot with disclaimers all around of who and what they are….I mean there is a museum for the Holocaust….history needs preserving even the shitty history of slavery and the Civil War.

Thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

 

Closing Thought–07Dec17

Do Americans Remember World War One?

The quick answer would be…NO!

We are in the middle of the 100 year remembrance of that war….the Great War….The War To End All Wars….and very little mention of the war is ever uttered here in the US…..a few far between documentaries on the war but for the most part few remember the war at all.

But that may change a bit.

There is is in the process a monument to commemorate the war to be complete in 2018……

There are no World War I veterans left alive in the US, but a century after the conflict that reshaped the world, ground has broken on a new monument in Washington, DC, to the 4.5 million Americans who served.

The US entered the war in 1917 – almost three years after European powers had been bludgeoning themselves to near destruction. Some 53,000 US soldiers were killed in combat, according to the defence department, while 64,000 died off the battlefield, including deaths from the influenza epidemic. Another 200,000 were wounded.

At the time, few Americans wanted to join a conflict largely thought to be pointless and irrelevant. Despite its profound impact on what became the “American Century”, World War I remains a marginal war for many in the US.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42160971

Me?  I try to keep it on the minds of my readers for I am fascinated with the war itself……how the same tactics were used over and ovber and the loss of so many lives is just staggering to me.

I am glad to see that there is someone that remembers that war and the devastating toll it took on human life…..

I must go down for the evening..,..hope all will have a good and restful night and will see everyone tomorrow on this very page…..Peace and good night…..chuq

Closing Thought–23Aug17

We humans love us some monuments.  Mostly they are to help us remember certain things.  War Memorials, Cemeteries, etc……we even have one for the veterans of the Cold war….

There is a move to establish a monument for the War on Terror….

The military campaign against international terrorism launched in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks may be far from over, but the fallen U.S. service members of the America’s Global War on Terror are already receiving a physical tribute to their sacrifice.

On Aug. 3, the Senate unanimously passed the Global War on Terrorism Memorial Act, paving the way for the establishment of the National Global War on Terrorism Memorial in Washington, D.C. The legislation now heads to the White House to receive President Donald Trump’s signature.

Source: The Global War On Terror Will Finally Get Its Own Monument In DC

DC is absolutely full of memorials….to wars….to people…..so it is the logical place to put one for the War on terrorism.

Most of the memorials are for people that are now dead or to wars that have been won or at least finished….I think it is a bit premature to build a memorial to a War that is still being fought with NO idea how it will wind up.

I am not saying I am against this memorial…just that right now may be a bit premature.

After writing this draft the president has signed into law the monument proposal…

President Donald Trump on Friday signed the Global War on Terrorism War Memorial Act, a move he documented by posting to his social media accounts a photo of the signing at Camp David while flanked by thirteen cabinet members and other staff.

The legislation clears the way for construction of a memorial to U.S. service members who have fought in the war on terror.

Time to go down for a nap…..us old farts need our naps….see you guys tomorrow with a bag full of stuff.  chuq

Closing Thought–27Apr17

Recently New Orleans starting taking down some of the Civil War monuments….I have mixed emotions….one these should not be destroyed instead move them to a location and build a theme park around them….”How Not To Fight A War”…..believe it or not it is a heritage….a heritage that I think is disgusting but one nonetheless….

I bring this up because of something that your president has done…..but it has little to do with mortar and stone monuments (for now)…….

President Trump will sign an executive order on Wednesday instructing the Department of the Interior to review the designations of national monuments by his predecessors, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.

Trump’s order reportedly will instruct Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to examine those designations to determine whether they were within the scope of a century-old law that allows presidents to set aside federal lands without congressional approval.

The executive order is mainly geared toward reviewing President Obama’s designation of Bears Ears National Monument in Utah in December, according to the Tribune. The 1.35 million acre site was preserved due to its Native American heritage, but critics say Obama’s designation was an overreach of executive power.

Trump is expected to sign a broader series of executive orders on energy and the environment this week, following an executive order that began undoing Obama’s climate change agenda.

“I am taking an historic step to lift the restrictions on American energy, to reverse government intrusion and to cancel job-killing regulations,” Trump said last month.

(thehill.com)

This is a con job…the US has enough oil outlets without destroying anything else….but what can we expect from a “businessman” for a president?

Of course this one is more to rape the national parks for the oil than about our other monuments….but will it effect those waiting to be built?  Like the WW1 monument……

The one good thing is that it is an EO and can be flushed down the toilet with the rest of the toilet paper.

A musical interlude to end the day……an excellent album of my generation….Super Session…….

Enjoy the rest of your day…I am off like a dirty shirt….back in the morrow…peace out….chuq