JERUSALEM (USA Today) — In late spring of 1974, Washington newspapers were crammed with headlines about Watergate and impeachment. But President Nixon was 6,500 miles away in Saudi Arabia, in the middle of an ambitious 10-day, seven-stop foreign trip.
“He [Trump] may receive a sympathetic hearing from his friends in Riyadh and Jerusalem. But like Nixon, he will have to return home to face the music.” — Roham Alvandi, author of Nixon, Kissinger and the Shah: The United States and Iran in the Cold War.
Years ago I would write about Memorial Day, the poppies we all got while driving to the cemeteries, standing in front of graves of people I never knew. Now I spend the day angry at the fools we have elected, I never voted for them but I stand that they were my presidents, who put so many in so many battles resulting in thousands of dead. Dead too young.
Today I seethe in anger over a president who should never have been allowed to run. That a senile old man be allowed to take the oath of office points to a horrible failure of our grand experiment. With his false presidency in shambles and his family looking more and more run by the Kremlin, I can only hope he is moved out of the White House soon.
Right now we are watching a rabid rat in a maze, angry and lost. That is not how America can survive.
Published on May 23, 2017
Memorial Day weekend is coming up and it unofficially kicks off the summer season. But how did the holiday, known for the beach, barbecues, and parties, become a national holiday?
National moment of remembrance
The National Moment of Remembrance, established by Congress, asks Americans, wherever they are at 3 p.m., local time, on Memorial Day, to pause in an act of national unity for a duration of one minute. The time 3 p.m. was chosen because it is the time when most Americans are enjoying their freedoms on the national holiday. The Moment does not replace traditional Memorial Day events; rather, it is an act of national unity in which all Americans, alone or with family and friends, honor those who died in service to the United States.
[wiki]
September 16, 1918, Buena Ventura (ID-1335), torpedoed by a German submarine, Seaman James Bennett, my great-uncle.
Holy Bone Spurs! Our commander-in-thief dodges the draft and avoiding stds was like the Vietnam War. I thought his tiny hands qualified as a deferment!
JK Rowling is the most right so far……he is a tiny tiny tiny little man…..
(…with alzheimer’s)
Vets from the War on Women, the entire repug party and their leader thinks there are landmines in vajayjays! Women are so screwed and I guess that is the idea.
My sincerest gratitude for those service members who died trying to preserve our country and the freedoms it offers us.
My favorite poem apropos of the day:
In Flanders Fields
by John McCrae, May 1915
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
our real prez, putin, also ditched the military for a spying education —
Even before he finished school, Vladimir Putin wanted to work in intelligence. He went to a public reception office of the KGB Directorate to find out how to become an intelligence officer. There, he was told that first, he would have to either serve in the army or complete college, preferably with a degree in law.
“And from that moment, I began preparing myself to enter the law department at Leningrad State University,” Mr Putin notes.
the above from putie’s bio
Well, at 0710 I arose, made myself presentable, put on a military-style ball cap then went outside with our neatly folded 48-star GI burial flag. I went to the flag pole, carefully undid the halyard from its hitch on the side of the pole then slowly lowered our 4×6 50-star flag, still fresh from its perch having assumed it from its predecessor only a month or so earlier.
I carefully connected the much larger 48-star flag to the halyard then briskly raised it to just below the truck at the top of the pole. Then, I slowly lowered it to the half-staff position where it will stay until noon. At that time, I will raise it to full staff where it will reside for the remainder of the day at which time its younger sib will take its place.
As I stood outside saluting Old Glory in its morning sunlight, I wondered how that much loved symbol found its way to eBay.
Casualties in the Civil War. At least 618,000 Americans died in the Civil War, and some experts say the toll reached 700,000. The number that is most often quoted is 620,000. At any rate, these casualties exceed the nation’s loss in all its other wars, from the Revolution through Vietnam.
Published on Jun 1, 2012
From the documentary “Civil War Songs and Stories”
Copyright Nashville Public Television, 2011
Song is “When This Cruel War is Over” (1863)
Pogo, most of us want to read only the first two stanzas not wanting to face the implied curse of the final lines.
here’s the link to the entire 58 minute documentary of Tennessee Civil War 150 – Songs and Stories
from which that “weeping sad and lonely” above came.
Flatus, that is true. The third verse is the challenge to those who the dead died for, isn’t it? And it would be arrogant to suggest we’ve met that challenge.
Rummy was on The Today Show this morning. Glomming on to the patriots he sent to to be maimed & killed. ~Way to go, NBC.~
Nobody from my family lives in my hometown anymore; there aren’t many of us left. However, those who served in The Civil War & WWII will be remembered with flags on their graves. When we took flowers out to the cemetery on Memorial Day, it was comforting to see those little flags had already been placed on the graves of DeWitt, Benjamin, Phillip, and, William, along with so many others in town.
Flatus – very good. My Grandfathers burial flag was accidentally given away, I am sure many such flags have been sent out that way. I used to do the Memorial Day flag ceremony at my house the same. Now, without a flag pole I salute the Colors and think of family and friends who served.
we need a caption contest for above photo from bbc story “France’s Macron holding ‘tough’ talks with Putin near Paris”given the white-knuckle squeeze macron gave drumpf.
The National Moment of Remembrance, established by Congress, asks Americans, wherever they are at 3 p.m., local time, on Memorial Day, to pause in an act ofnational unity for a duration of one minute.
Just got back from a ceremony at the local American Legion where my father-in-law was honored. He was in the Navy at the end of WW2. We will be leaving shortly for the veterans cemetery where my father lays. He was an Army medic during the Korean War.
A salute to all our fallen men and women.
“I do think there ought to be a review of his security clearance to find out whether he was truthful, whether he was candid,” the lawmaker said on ABC’s “This Week.”
Schiff added that without such a review, “there’s no way he can maintain that kind of a clearance.”
it might behoove someone to also look into the review process….. seems a lot of drumpf’s peeps left a lot blank on their classified clearance forms and had to come back later to amend or fill in the blanks (but not until after media reports on same). who let these incomplete forms pass muster? were wrong instructions given and by who?
It has been my habit to, whenever I come across a Civil War cemetery, stop and meander the rows of graves reading each gravestone. It doesn’t make a difference on which side the soldier fought, I mourn for them.
https://youtu.be/TABgA56LpTo
A march befitting the day. Enjoy!
Pat, polygraph examinations are often used to clear-up ambiguities in a background investigation. Sounds like time to call in the experts.
Strip kushner of his security clearance, stat. Strip him, prince, and flynn of their passports.
A little piece of history I tend to forget on Memorial Day is that we need to remember all who lost their lives fighting for our country. In my case I have a few ancestors who contributed to the Revolutionary War, one 5th great-uncle was killed fighting the British. I still have to do more research into the particulars, but he was among the 4,435 killed during those years. He is the only one I know of so far. Many others served in various ways, I just need to dig into the histories more.
Put-ey looks like Macron’s hand might be full of dog pooh. Macron has it under control. He’s more of a man than Vlad or Donny.
xrep – I agree. They are un-American. Why is the MSM helping to float this false narrative that there is nothing out of the ordinary about what Kuchner allegedly did?
just a thought relative to remembering the fallen and considering that respect is paid to both the union and confederate brothers, where does this leave us this day with regard to those who fell in the battle of little big horn? in that battle the Lakota, northern Cheyenne and Arapaho also fought for this country, their country as well as the country claimed by those of the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army country who also fought and fell.
bid, yep, I agree. you might like reading this from wapo
Putin visits France for talks; Macron does not give an inch
VERSAILLES, France — Flexing his diplomatic muscles, French President Emmanuel Macron said he had “extremely frank, direct” talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, pushing for cooperation on Syria and against the Islamic State group but also launching an extraordinary attack on two state-funded Russian media outlets he accused of spreading “lying propaganda.”
I am liking Macron more and more. Not only did the young and strong control the old and senile in a hand to hand shake, he (from what I could learn on twitter) also stated that Putin was dumping horse apples in his propaganda program.
Vive, Macron !
When is the last time France had a real president? I can’t think of one during my lifetime
jace, thanks for the souza, here’s back to ya
https://youtu.be/zudFEvTj9H0
1. CNN, MSNBC, NPR, and PBS are treating the jkushner story as unique and troubling. Dunno about ABCDisney or CBS. I figure that fakes news hasn’t uncovered the story yet – still too busy wringing the last apostrophes out of a 2013 Clinton email.
2. What if, in 1940 FDR’s son-in-law tried to cloak himself against the Secret Service, Treasury, FBI, and DoJ, in order to establish a personal communication channel to the emperor of Japan and prime minister tojo ?
I hate this day. So many died. So many futures gone. So mush promise.
flatus, Charles de Gaulle roulerait dans sa tombe
I wish there were a fiery hell in which rumsfeld could burn for eternity starting in 2003.
Le Grand Charles fait Churchill et Roosevelt folle.
Well, I’ve just returned inside from switching the flags around then folding the large one properly and stowing it until the 4th of July. XR, for me the mechanical ceremony I go thru each year helps keeps things in perspective. When I finished I poured a proper brandy, sat down at the kitchen table to find that we are in a severe weather watch right now. Glad to have Glory inside where she is safe. And now a toast to Col Stacks, we shared gin at Kontum.
Be safe.
always
Flatus, better to be under a severe weather watch you have to go inside to learn of…than to rush inside because what you saw while watching outside.
Indeed
😉
Pizza’s done in zero-two. How many plates do I need?
Plates for pizza? My, you are civilized.
Can’t say the same for TX lawmakers.
A Texas Lawmaker Said He’d Shoot A Colleague Who Threatened Him During An Immigration Protest – BuzzFeed News
https://apple.news/AlqVRTnX6THyHfJJvrMsauw
Memorial Day was meant to help heal the wounds of the rift in the nation. In our family we did it the easy way: Get married. The gentlemen above were at a reunion for those who served in the Civil War and in the second row third from the left is my Great Grandfather, Adam Pifer attending 64th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Civil War Reunion. Known as Yates Sharpshooters
Down below is the other Great Grandfather from the War Between The States.
The inside look at JARED — Trump’s obsession with Russia scandal grows — FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: JOSH GREEN’S BANNON book out July 18 — Caygle and Lorenzo wed in Ala. — MUST-READ RICH RUBIN on tax reform – POLITICO
https://apple.news/AJTLXtIOXQCukUGUPrsEYFA
“The most serious point of contention between the president and his son-in-law … was a video clip this month of Mr. Kushner’s sister Nicole Meyer pitching potential investors in Beijing on a Kushner Companies condominium project in Jersey City. At one point, Ms. Meyer — who remains close to Mr. Kushner — dangled the availability of EB-5 visas to the United States as an enticement for Chinese financiers willing to spend $500,000 or more. For Mr. Trump, Ms. Meyer’s performance violated two major rules: Politically, it undercut his immigration crackdown, and in a personal sense, it smacked of profiteering off Mr. Trump — one of the sins that warrants expulsion from his orbit. ”
This gentleman is Reuben Rose McKeehan my other Great Grandfather who served in the 1st Regiment, Tennessee Cavalry (Carter’s) (Confederate)
CBS confirms moonie newshound’s story : White House IDs 3 Leakers
I’m hoping they are jkushner, bannon, and pence.