77 thoughts on “Biden On Memorial Day”

  1. Democracy is more than a form of government.  It’s a way of being; it’s a way of seeing the world.  Democracy means the rule of the people — the rule of the people.  Not the rule of monarchs, not the rule of the moneyed, not the rule of the mighty — literally, the rule of the people. 
    The lives of billions, from antiquity to our own hour, have been shaped by the battle between aspirations of the many and the greed of the few.  Between people’s right to self-determination and the self-seeking of the dictator.  Between dreams of democracy and appetites for autocracy, which we’re seeing around the world. 

     

    [above from Remarks by President Biden at the 153rd National Memorial Day Observance | The White House]

  3. Tell you what I like the best —
    ‘Long about knee-deep in June,
    ‘Bout the time strawberries melts
    On the vine, — some afternoon
    Like to jes’ git out and rest,
    And not work at nothin’ else!

    […]

    Lay out there and try to see
    Jes’ how lazy you kin be! —
    Tumble round and souse yer head
    In the clover-bloom, er pull
    Yer straw hat acrost yer eyes
    And peek through it at the skies,
    Thinkin’ of old chums ‘ats dead,
    Maybe, smilin’ back at you
    In betwixt the beautiful
    Clouds o’gold and white and blue! —
    Month a man kin railly love —
    June, you know, I’m talkin’ of!

     

    [from Knee-deep in June by  james whitcomb riley]

  4. what happens when, as joe said, “a free and independent press [doesn’t] pursues the truth, founded on facts, not propaganda.”

    newsweek:

    Anthony Antonio, who is accused of entering the Capitol during the riot, wasn’t interested in politics before the 2020 election and as an impressionable young man, his attorney plans to argue in court that he was unduly influenced by Fox News.

    […]

    Attorneys have told Newsweek that the “blame Trump” defense isn’t a strong one because in a trial, defendants will be held accountable for their own actions. Joseph Hurley, Antonio’s lawyer, acknowledged to the Associated Press that misinformation is also “not a defense.”

    “But it will be brought up to say: This is why he was here. The reason he was there is because he was a dumb*** and believed what he heard on Fox News,” Hurley said.

    […]

    At one point during the riot, Antonio climbed through a window into an interior room of the Capitol, according to court documents, and picked up a piece of broken furniture before exiting through the same window.

    “We barricaded the door, broke everything, so we have something to use against ’em,” Antonio said in an interview with VDARE, supposedly referring to police officers. “While we were in there, trying to come up with a plan, I was useless, I was useless so, I left.”

    Antonio became consumed by conspiracy theories that the election was rigged when the pandemic forced him to stay home, where he would watch Fox News with his roommates for hours, according to the Associated Press. He told the FBI he went to Washington, D.C., because Trump “told him to” and claimed to not know what was going on at the Capitol, which agents took as a referral to Congress certifying President Joe Biden‘s win.

    “I kind of sound like an idiot now saying it, but my faith was in [Trump],” Antonio told the Associated Press.

  5. Yep.  The first thing I heard on NPR was fried baloney from a Texas Republican asked why the voting bill they tried to push through has different allowances/restrictions for rural, Republican counties and and larger, bluer counties.  
     

    Can Greg legally withhold pay from Dems who don’t show up for the special session that Republicans will use to restrict voting? If so, Texas Dems need a GoFundMe.

    Texas Gov. Greg Abbott vows to defund state Legislature after voting restrictions bill fails, threatening salaries

    If you have to cheat to win, you don’t deserve to hold office.

  6. Patd

    Loved the “Hoosier Poet” as a child.  “Little Orphant Annie” is more Halloween, but “The Raggedy Man” can truly spark imagination in a young reader.

    An' The Raggedy Man, he knows most rhymes
An' tells 'em, ef I be good, sometimes;
Knows 'bout Giunts, an' Griffuns, an' Elves,
An' the Squidgicum-Squees 'at swallers therselves!
An', wite by the pump in our pasture-lot,
He showed me the hole 'at the Wunks is got,
'At lives 'way deep in the ground, an' can
Turn into me, er 'Lizabuth Ann!
  Ain't he a funny old Raggedy Man?
   Raggedy! Raggedy! Raggedy Man!

  7. Well, after a weekend traveling in SW PA & NC WV my carburetor is supposedly out for delivery. Not sure whether it will be exhausted from its travels or refreshed after it rested for two days in an East Bumfuck “carrier facility”.  Whatever. 

  9. Poobah, roger that.  Yes, it’s USPS.  DeJoy has turned it into a disaster.  Odd thing, when I ordered the carb I also ordered a replacement plug – plug got here on day 2 – Amazon Prime standard delivery time.  So get this – by my rough math, the carb traveled 580 miles from the time it first hit the USPS carrier facility in Pittsburgh last Wednesday morning.  Mind you, this is an $18 order.  Now try to imagine that the free shipping didn’t cost more to the supplier than the revenue from the sale.

    And I feel your pain on the checks. We are seeing insane lack of uniformity in delivery times – From Morgantown and Buckhannon or Weston ( all between 20 and 35 miles away) to East Bumfuck, regular mail can take anywhere from 1 to 7 days from point to point. Never happened before last summer. Now tell me those sorting machines DeJoy deep sixed didn’t help with mail delivery.

  11. BiD – he probably can, but it is one of the most wrongheaded tantrums I’ve heard of since Dumbass got kicked off Twitter.  It would not prevent the legislators from receiving pay for the session that just ended – that is already funded. And I do not know that he would ever get a quorum for any legislation if the legislators were not provided their pay, meager though it is and their per diem – which is generous.  Are they going to go and attend a legislative session on their own dime?  I’m betting that few would.

  12. Sorry if this constitutes bandwidth abuse, but here’s the saga of the carburetor (Read from bottom to top):

    TUESDAY, JUNE 1
     
    6:10 AM
    Out for delivery
    Clarksburg, WV
     
    SUNDAY, MAY 30
     
    4:55 AM
    Package arrived at a carrier facility.
    Clarksburg, WV US
     
    2:00 AM
    Package has left the carrier facility.
    Charleston, WV
     
    1:41 AM
    Package has left the carrier facility.
    Charleston, WV
     
    SATURDAY, MAY 29
     
    10:25 AM
    Package arrived at a carrier facility.
    Charleston, WV
     
    5:39 AM
    Package arrived at a carrier facility.
    Pittsburgh, PA
     
    5:00 AM
    Package has left the carrier facility.
    Warrendale, PA
     
    4:44 AM
    Package has left the carrier facility.
    Warrendale, PA
     
    FRIDAY, MAY 28
     
    7:03 PM
    Package arrived at a carrier facility.
    Warrendale, PA
     
    THURSDAY, MAY 27
     
    4:40 AM
    Package arrived at a carrier facility.
    Morgantown, WV
     
    4:27 AM
    Package arrived at a carrier facility.
    Clarksburg, WV
     
    4:08 AM
    Package transferred to another carrier for delivery.
    Clarksburg, WV US
     
    3:25 AM
    Package arrived at a carrier facility.
    Clarksburg, WV US
     
    1:33 AM
    Package departed an Amazon facility
    Pittsburgh, PENNSYLVANIA US
     
    WEDNESDAY, MAY 26
     
    10:49 PM
    Package has left the carrier facility.
    Pittsburgh, PA US
     
    5:41 AM
    Package arrived at an Amazon facility
    Pittsburgh, PENNSYLVANIA US
     
    Package has shipped
     
    They left out the part where the “package” was resting comfortably in Clarksburg from Sunday at 4:55 AM until Tuesday at 6:10 AM.

  16. With all the coverage, I’ve been wondering why as a child  I knew all about Tulsa even though it was never taught in school.  I got a hint today with a man who told how his grandfather left Oklahoma after his business was destroyed and moved to Fresno.

    My mother was born in Oklahoma and her family moved to Fresno.  Unlike her family, she ran a sort of one woman United Nations.  As a waitress, she met and generally liked and associated with everyone.  Best guess, no one ever told me directly, but I probably absorbed the info in the air by osmosis.

     

  17. pogo & craig, that infernal former guy is who to blame.
    when he banned the USPS from that huge  contract arrangement they had with amazon. he thought he was getting back at Bezos but wound up really hurting the p.o.

    on top of that he had the old but experienced post master general fired to be replaced by da joy-less   

  18. Oh, and the handy-dandy USPS Informed Delivery Digest for today says I have no packages scheduled for delivery…  (I have never checked it and seen it showing a delivery scheduled although on average we have something delivered by USPS every other day or so).

  19. Jamie – growing up in Michigan in the fifties and sixties I had a very good education about the local Native American nations.  I learned almost nothing about Black history. 

  20. prior to USPS having to cancel amazon’s big deal, delivery of everything by p.o. was on time or  ahead of schedule and as for p.o. delivering amazon back then they even came on sat. afternoons & sundays in these parts.  now whatever comes thru p.o. is usually late via circular route  

  21. BB

    Spent part of childhood in Arizona and New Mexico.  Again, not actually taught in schools but actually got pretty well grounded in the tribes of the Southwest.  It is a shame that for generations, all schoolbooks were written to the Texas standards and only supplemented by teacher material add ins.

     

  22. Praise the lord and pass the potatoes – Amazon says the carb was delivered at 12:18 PM, left in my mailbox.  We’ll see tonight.

  23. Support your local post office.  With support it will return to where it was and where it needs to be.
    Your post office needs you now.

  25. Re- The USPS 
    Remember the Grover  Norquist quote about “drowning the baby ” .
    Well this step child has been  under attack  for many years in congress , like DC it’s one of their cat toys. 

    It’s like the Yankees had to manage the team , with oversight from the fans.

  26. Hobble the post office , and then complain how “Big Government” doesn’t work.  De Joy is just the head of that boil .
    We’re a long long way from the time when Americans got their baby chicks , and gladiola blubs at the post office. 
    And Tom Hanks and Meg Rayan didn’t help  when they made “You’ve Got Mail”.  The death of the Love Letter , and the birth of sending a JPG of your  “junk”  as an attachment. 

  27. Throw all the sonsa bitches OUT of the post office.  And NPR, ETV, and Radio Free Europe. 
    Out, damned spots.

  28. Trust me , the Tulsa story is now super glued to Memorial Day. 
    As for history , I was fed pure Texas bullshit . Humble Oil one of  the Standard Oil children , gave every 8th grade Texas history student a cartoon hand book of Texas history .   The Mexicans  in that book were called , “Greasers” . And they were drawn in the old American go to move , a stereotype .
    These characters were drawn sneaky , and smelly , …………. these are the guys that stole your bicycle .
    The “Other”  , and the real irony .
    They were the “Invaders” never mind  that Texas had been a part of Spain, and Mexico  for well over 100 years. 
    And the Comanches had a huge chuck of it since the got mounted  at the end of the  16th century.

  29. DeJoy’s head reminds me of my old pal Nyman Furr, the Tennessee Fiddler.  That’s him next to me in my Avatar.  Whenever somebody who mighta looked kinda like that would walk into the joint,  you could hear Nyman mutter under his breath (over the microphone), “Wouldja look at the head on THAT thing”.

  32. Sturg – Top right – edit your profile – bypass “gravatar” and pick a photo from your library as your avatar. 

  34. Not a problem, I just hadn’t noticed it before; probably the last thing the internet needs is another picture of me and Nyman…..lol

  35. Yes, Blue, bypass gravatar and go to “Upload Avatar” at bottom of page, choose any pic from your computer.

    And while you’re at it Sturg add a dadgum working email to your profile.

  39. The  Great Pueblo Revolt of 1680 drove the Spanish out of New Spain for 10 years .
     That mess led to the Spanish  losing much of their remudas. 
    At the time the Comanches  were pressing South down the Front Range of the Rockies into Apache lands.  The Comanche were using dogs to help move their clans,  and were growing in numbers. The  Apache  were smaller in numbers , and had no beasts of burden. 
    They had been here for hundreds, and hundreds of years. 
    At that time there 2 places to be in New Mexico .
    Pecos , and Taos.  Like Italy . A place  to trade . 
    Coming off the plains  were buffalo products , robes , jerked meat , flint .
    There is a huge quarry  called the Alibates on the Canadian River  North East of Amarillo.  Men have traded flint of there for over 13,000  years. 
    There is a national park there today –
    https://www.nps.gov/alfl/index.htm
     
    The New Mexican  traders  had  a lot more to swap .
    Corn, beans, squash, wool blankets , fired cooking pots . The list goes on .
    The Pecos people were open year round.  They had the very low ring of stones  ringing a field that sloped away from the pueblo.  This was where the trading took place . 
    At sunset the visitors had leave the trading ring , and Pecos pulled up it’s ladders. 
    You can still see this ring today . 
    At Taos , they held a fall faire  over several days. 
     
    In about 1715  hundreds of Comanches  rode into the Taos Faire  on horseback . 
    This had never happened before . 
    What did they have to trade ? 
    Spanish  captives  they had captured  much farther South  of Taos. 
    They ran this game on the Spanish for over 100 years. 
     
    To see that day in 1715 at Taos, that was very big day in American history. 
    These guys were wearing a lot of buffalo heads .
    It put the fear of them in everyone’s liver .
    It’s one thing when seven walk in to trade , it’s  another  when 700 show up hallowing , and wearing buffalo head dresses on horseback. 
    Spain always paid the  ransom.  Near the end of this, the Taos traders, ( who were by this  time, mixed blood ),  had to come here to Texas ,  that is why a bunch of rich Texans live in Ransom Canyon today. 
    This story would make a hell of a movie  if some child of these times would write a script. 
     
     

  41. I never liked the term “greaser”.  Even as a boy. 
    It’s really amazing  how one word can send an entire people  into fear, suspicion, and hate . 
    Words still matter , they punch the buttons of our never ending  fears. 

  42. Craig…  us Apple people are creative…
     
    CBob…  to me… the term “greaser” means a white guy from the 50s in a black leather jacket and has an ugly duck tail haircut…   ala The Fonz…

  43. Notice how the Fonzarelli lost his grease along the way?   I did some greaser for a bit but fortunately it wore off with no permanent damage.    It went from “Grease” to “Hair” just like that.    (snap of the fingers)

  46. A free week of Apple TV and it’s all the same stuff they offered last year during lockdown.  Not much incentive to buy in. 

    So, the russskeez hacked our fuel and now, for those who eat meat, their food.  Next up, the water supply.

  47. But see, southern greasers just never hit the right scene…..if a dude were to show up from Jersey or NY all the southern greasers would go hide under the bleachers or something…..there was always something a little “off” in their presentation.   

  51. https://www.texastribune.org/2021/06/01/texas-voting-bill-democrats/

    Republicans are terribly afraid of non-whites voting.  

    “…Rep. Senfronia Thompson, the longest-serving Black member of the Texas Legislature… Texas that used racist rules to keep her grandparents from the ballot box. “Fear mongering” to suppress Black voters had touched three generations of her family, including herself.“

    If you have to cheat to win, you don’t deserve to hold office.

  52. https://www.texastribune.org/2021/06/01/texas-greg-abbott-donald-trump/
    Gawd, Orange Adolf doesn’t endorse them, yet they fawn all over him.

    (You-know-who’s)”…backing of Abbott is particularly disappointing to Miller, who has portrayed himself as one of (you-know-who’s) closest allies in Texas. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who chaired both of (you-know-who’s) presidential campaigns in Texas, has already gotten (you-know-who’s) endorsement for another term in 2022.”

    “Huffines, meanwhile, issued a statement that played up his family’s support for (you-know-who) since 2016 and claimed he remains the “clear (you-know-who) candidate in the Texas governor’s race.”

  53. And I though MAGA had solved all this , Putin had pictures  of Russian whores peeing on Trump.
    And Trump folded like a pup tent.  Then we were safe Right ?
    Putin grifted Trump . 
    And now Russia  is the worlds largest  mob. 
    And Trump is his bitch.  

  55. That would seem to be about the size of it, Bob…….and now it’s Barbarians at the Gate.

    I hope Biden knows what he’s doing.

  56. Remember,  when all this vote killing  is  done a lot of red voters are going to have their toes shot off too. 
    Plus , they are pissing off a lot   voters . Young ones , with the bit in their teeth. 
    They are betting on a dead horse .  This is just one more reason  why their fucking dogma  has over run their reason. 

  58. These laws will follow the laws of war. 
    Mass Nazi  air attacks ……………..  Radar .
    Like Deep Throat said , “The simple fact is these are not very bright  people.” 
     
    And that is their  bitch .  That being an ignorant fool , should have the same weight as  the wisdom  of mankind .

  59. They are running for election boards all over the country. 
    With a whole host of new laws that weaken the system. 
    All in the Service  of old white guys. 
    The lost of white men running the country , there’s our scrape . 
     
    And they are  frozen by fear.  Bankrupt , a new idea has not entered their head in 40  years. 

  61. Hell is coming  breakfast  in Trump land. 
    This is going to be like nothing we have ever  seen. 
     
    A frog march in cuffs. 

  63. I hope Biden knows what he’s doing.

    Never mind him , this is a  country of full of young women  mad as hell,  this where  Mitch’s plan  goes to hell . 
     
    Their plan for 2022  is  a fools plan. 
     
    It’s like bringing  back the poll tax. 
     
    Their gun is empty , they are shooting blanks. 

  69. This was on the turn table the night I met “Big Momma Thornton”. 
    I was painting   the Vulcan Gas Company .  She was  off 33 hours of driving from LA to Austin.

  74. Hey Bob come watch it with that thinning the old white men herd shit. You never know where the ripples you can reach.

  75. Edited version-
    Hey Bob watch it with that thinning the old white men herd shit. You never know where the ripples can reach.

  76. BTW Bob. Thanks for the Jimmy Reed stuff. To me he broke trail for so many like Buddy Guy and Albert King who led to the 60s & 70s blues rock guitarists we still listen yo (at least I do). Great stuff.

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