Oh, What A Circus! Oh, What A Show!

For a change of pace, I had an old friend visit from out of town last weekend. He's been in Minneapolis before, but his last foray to Saint Paul happened to coincide with my dad's death. Because he had been close to the folks, he and the junior son stayed with mom so she could live stream the funeral at the family plot in New York while I headed east to the rest of the family. Needless to say, my friend didn't get to do much fun stuff the last time. 

The Quadriga

This time, however, we managed to do some really interesting things, probably the most fun of which was taking a tour of the recently renovated Minnesota State Capitol. It is seriously beautiful. Designed by Cass Gilbert, the same guy who did the U.S. Capitol, it was built in 1905 and even then, was a building of significance. We even climbed a whole lotta stairs to get up close and personal with The Quadriga. Talk about awe inspiring!  

There were two paintings hanging in the governor's office since day one, and they have now been removed to a separate gallery...for very good reason. Both were exceptionally offensive to a large segment of our population...the ones who were here first. 

The first painting, by Stephen A. Volk, is called Father Hennepin Discovering The Falls of St. Anthony (1905.) It looks harmless enough, but is it? The Native Americans are at his feet while he renames something that is part of their world. He no more discovered the falls than he had flown there with winged sandals. Not only that, he and his traveling companions had been captured by a Bdewakantunwan war party and taken to their community where they were detained for a few years. Father Hennepin's account of his time in Minnesota is now largely viewed as rather fictional. 

On the other hand, The Treaty of Traverse des Sioux  is much more sinister. The painting by Francis David Millet was inspired by sketches made at the event by Frank Blackwell Mayer. The short version? The Native American representatives were given a treaty to sign in which 35 million acres of land at 12 cents an acre were exchanged for $3,750,000. They signed reluctantly, signed the second copy of the treaty, then were handed a third copy, but were not told this version was from the traders in the region, and that the monies promised to them were handed over the the traders as reparations for "past debt." They got nothing. 

Like so much questionable art, a decision had to be made. Instead of hiding the paintings in the basement, a gallery was created to display them alongside explanations of why they were removed from the governor's office, along with statements and comments from not only the Indigenous community, but from the descendants of the original settlers who purchased that land for farms. The commentary is not all sweetness and light; not everyone was happy with the decision to move the paintings. 

Too bad.

Minnesota is slowly coming to grips with the injustices of the past. It's a process and one most of the state embraces. That acceptance does not undo the wrongs or change history, it just means we own the behavior and We, the State of Minnesota, must be diligent in efforts to improve the relations between the state and the Indigenous population and to prevent other hardships from happening. 

And we have to keep restoring original place names... Like Bde Maka Ska. 

On a happy side note...we had dinner at OWAMNI by the Sioux Chef, the Native American restaurant in Minneapolis.  I am delighted to report that tonight, they won the James Beard Award for best restaurant in the US. Definitely worth going when you're in town. It was an incredible and very delicious experience.

Getting names changed back is no easy feat. Just like renaming Ziggy and the kids' high school Two Rivers instead of Henry Sibley, a man who was well known to be not nice. I wrote about the name change a while ago, Who Will Speak For The Voiceless? 

Those pictures were part of A Big Lie; the lie that the Indigenous Population was evil, needed to be saved, and their culture wiped out in order for the white settlers to live. People believed for years that Father Hennepin was revered by the "natives," that he "discovered" stuff, and that he was a nice guy. 

We, the People, bought into lots of BIG Lies...like Black people are shiftless and stupid, that Jews own all the banks, that the Irish are all drunks. Somewhere in this so-called melting pot, there are people who still believe this bull-hockey. They used to be called the Ku Klux Klan, now we call them other things, like Proud Boys, Patriot Front, and, quite frankly, Trump supporters. 

The televised hearings about the January 6th Insurrection are pretty much bad theater. There's a lot of grandstanding and self-aggrandizement going down. There are too many GOP congressclowns saying this is worthless because there aren't enough Republican voices in the room, but hell, they CHOSE not to be there. And Liz Cheney is also scaring the shit outta those dickless wonders. When former White House senior staffers are testifying that Feckless Leader was detached from reality, that they all told him he lost the election and there was no mass wave of voter fraud, one can only hope some of those real Republicans will begin to reconsider their positions on what really happened after the presidential election. Instead of listening to sound bites, read the testimony transcript for June 13, 2022. It's worth the time. 

Former Attorney General Bill Barr's testimony was terrifying. He relayed the number of times he told Feckless Leader his accusations were bullshit. But Barr wraps it all up and ties it with a pretty ribbon in when he talks about his meeting with Feckless Leader on December 14th, 2020. [The highlight is mine.]

When I walked in, sat down, he went off on a monologue saying that there was now definitive evidence involving fraud through the Dominion machines and a report had been prepared by a very reputable cybersecurity firm, which he identified as Allied Security Operations Group. And he held up the report and he had — and then he asked that a copy of it be made for me. And while a copy was being made, he said, you know this is absolute proof that the Dominion machines were rigged.

 

The report means that I am going to have a second term. And then he gave me a copy of the report. And as he talked more and more about it, I sat there flipping through the poor report and looking through it. And to be frank, it looked very amateurish to me, didn't have the credentials of the people involved, but I didn't see any real qualifications.

 

And the statements were made very conclusory like this — these machines were designed to, you know, engage in fraud or something to that effect, but I didn't see any supporting information for it.

 

And I was somewhat demoralized because I thought, boy, if he really believes this stuff he has, you know, lost contact with — with it — he's become detached from reality if he really believes this stuff.

Barr resigned later that same day, December 14th, 2020.

Why the hell he couldn't have quit or come clean sooner is beyond me. He's cagey, and I do think he's trying to save his sorry butt right now, but I also think he's guilty as hell when it comes to aiding and abetting the perpetration of a fraud on We, the People. At the very least, his participation is sedition. 

In other news of the plausibly deniable, a bi-partisan committee has put together new gun legislation:

1. Red Flag laws
2. Mental health and telehealth investment
3. Closing the boyfriend loophole
4. Enhanced review process for under-21 buyers
5. Clarification of Federally Licensed Firearm Dealer
6. School security resources

There are things in it that are needed, but three major requirements have been removed. Missing from bill are

1. Expanded background checks
2. Ban on assault weapons
3. Higher minimum age of purchase

The missing three items are the ones that have the best chance at stopping mass murder. But they're excluded because some people love their guns more than their kids. 

I have little to no faith that any gun measure will be passed in the senate. 

Patience, grasshoppers; with any luck at all, the generations are rising and will flood the voting booths. Either that, or I hear there's this bridge for sale in Brooklyn. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Do you mean to tell me.......

Yes, Wednesday is Tell-A-Bad-Joke Day. 

13 years.

z"l

The Great Replacement Theory Is Already Here

Three mass shootings over the weekend.

Friday night, downtown Milwaukee was terrorized with three shootings. From The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Milwaukee's downtown entertainment district, a space to celebrate and come together as a city, was rocked by gun violence Friday night after three shootings left at least 21 people wounded — including 17 shot in one incident.

Peyton Gendron

On Saturday, Peyton Gendron, 18, of Conklin, NY had already been on the radar as a danger. He'd already been investigated because of threats he made to his school. From the Washington Post:

New York State Police spokesman Beau Duffy said that on June 8, 2021, investigators “responded to Susquehanna High School in Conklin, N.Y., to investigate a report that a 17-year-old student had made a threatening statement.” The student was taken into custody under a provision of the state’s mental health law “and transported to the hospital for a mental health evaluation,” the spokesman said.

 

“The information we have is he was there for a day and a half, was evaluated and then released at that point,” Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said. Gendron was not charged.

Almost exactly a year later, wearing tactical gear and body armor while live-streaming the event, the same kid took an assault weapon into a supermarket and killed 10 shoppers. Wasn't enough he posted a manifesto online that focused on racist and anti-semitic beliefs. On the Great Replacement Theory. 

Excuse me for asking, but where are the parents?

18-years old and already a mass murderer. Remarkable. 

Or is it? Not really. Should I name the other kids on that list?

Meanwhile on Sunday, at a church in Laguna Beach, California, a man walks into a luncheon reception and begins shooting, killing one, injuring 5. From the Associated Press:

A man opened fire during a lunch reception at a Southern California church on Sunday, killing one person and wounding five senior citizens before being stopped and hog-tied by parishioners in what a sheriff’s official called an act of “exceptional heroism and bravery.”

And on my television in relatively blue state MInnesota, there are ads for guys running for Congress with big red TRUMP SUPPORTER banners on their ads, claiming they will defend my second amendment rights, will stop all abortions because they are pro life, and will defeat anything this administration wants to do. 

Wanna know what I wanna know? 

How pro-life are these guys when kids can get their hands on automatic weapons to shoot up schools and these guys fight against common sense gun laws? 

How pro-life are these guys when, if access to all health care is made unaffordable and scarce, they refuse to fund programs for low income families? Or want to end Medicare and Social Security?

And how pro-life are they when they vote against repair and maintenance of our basic infrastructure of roads, power-grid, and renewable energy?

I think they are just plain full o'shit. 

Pro-life is when guns are not available to all on the open market regardless of criminal or mental health history. Pro-life would be if 20 kindergartners from Sandy Hook be in high school this year.

Pro-life is when low income families have full access to health care for the entire family, including women in their reproductive years. 

Pro-life is when we don't have to worry about interstate highway bridges falling into the Mississippi River. 

These guys are not only anti-life, they are anti-American and are working for the demise of this country as we know it. 

There is nothing in their proposals, bills, or positions that even remotely promotes the good and welfare of we the people. They wish to repeal, remove, and block all legislation designed for the wellbeing of Americans.

• You want to ban all limitations on gun shows and sales? Sure. How are you going to prevent kids and criminals from getting increasingly powerful automatic weapons to commit mass shootings?
• You want to ban all abortions, no exceptions? What will you do when your wife or daughter has an ectopic pregnancy, loses a baby in utero, or has a blighted ovum that can attach but cannot attain viable life outside the womb? 
• You want to repeal the affordable care act, Medicare, and Social Security? Sure. Show us what you are replacing it with that will allow all Americans equal access to the best healthcare possible. Remind me: who's gonna stay home to take care of grandma when she has no income, no health care, and no hope of living independently?

Just a random thought: is this nation run by the funeral director lobby or what? They stand to gain the most. Then again, they weren't real good at handling 1,000,000 corpses from the pandemic, were they?

MAGA Candidates: tell America what you are actually planning to do, not what you want to remove. Show all of us how wonderful your plans and programs are. Provide us with the details for the good and welfare of this country. Be positive! Be upfront! Share your plans! Give us links to what you're putting in place for America.

I thought so. 

Let me put this another way: if Congress goes red with active MAGA legislators who are planning to stop anything the administration wants to do no matter what it is, count on another four years of Feckless Former Leader as Toddler-in-Chief. Count on SCOTUS to reverse decisions on civil rights for all segments of society. The safety nets removed will not be replaced; discontent will grow, anger will become palpable, and guess what? They will need someone to blame, and it won't be their elected MAGA officials.

Oh, wait. That's already in place. It's called The Great Replacement Theory.

Haven't heard of that one? Let me give you the short version: this is a plan (sinister plot) to diminish the influence of white people in the United States through immigration and replacement of white voters with blacks and people of color. This vast replacement of white voters is fueled and funded by Jews, the most prominent of whom if (of course) George Soros.

You don't believe that's true for a New York minute, do you? Well, evidence indicated 1 in 3 US voters subscribes to at least part of that theory. Remember Charlottesville back in 2017? They were chanting:

“You will not replace us! Jews will not replace us!”

Folks like Tucker Carlson espouse Replacement Theory, but downplay the antisemitic part. Replacement Theory is a recurrent theme on this show, often stating how the Democrats plan to influence elections through forced immigration. Back in 2021, Vanity Fair quoted him in an article:

"Now, I know that the left and all the little gatekeepers on Twitter become literally hysterical if you use the term ‘replacement,’ if you suggest that the Democratic Party is trying to replace the current electorate, the voters now casting ballots, with new people—more obedient voters from the third world,” the host said. “But they become hysterical because that’s what’s happening, actually. Let’s just say it: That’s true.” At another point he claimed the U.S. government is showing “preference to people who have shown absolute contempt for our customs, our laws, our system itself—and they’re being treated better than American citizens.”

He is not alone. Last month, PBS Newshour pointed out that House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, a Congressclown from Upstate New York, ran an ad last year stating 

.."radical Democrats” were planning a “permanent election insurrection” by granting amnesty to undocumented immigrants who would create a permanent liberal majority in Washington.

And she is not alone in her beliefs, either. Scott Perry (R. PA) is right there with her, along with Rep Steven King (R. IA), Matt Gaetz (R. FL) and even Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance just to name a few. The list is long. Replacement is perceived as a real threat and its adherents are out there, growing in number.

[Fellow MOT, lemme give you a warning here: if you don't have Plan B in place, you need to start doing more than just thinking about it.]

If you think the rise in antisemitic attacks in the US is an aberration, guess again. If you think your neighbor is gonna speak up to defend you, guess again. They will just draw the living room curtains like they did in Germany. 

The biggest difference between this brewing demise of the United States and the rise of Nazi Germany is that mass media is telling us exactly what is happening. What isn't different is our ability to poo-poo and ignore the warning signs. Come the revolution, we will be caught in the middle....the right will call us enemies of the state because lots of us lean blue, using every anti-semitic trope they can find that calls us greedy, usurers, and controllers of banks and media, while the left will call us out for supporting Israel, apartheid, and genocide. They will find a way to paint us international terrorists because We, one of the irrefutable Indigenous Peoples of the Levant, dare to believe we have a right to live in our homeland in peace and security.

Those things are nothing but brush to fan the fire. From both sides. 

And when they run out of Jews to blame, they will go to another minority. But this time, it will end in civil war and the United States as we now know it will fall. 

Whatever.

I've pretty much given up the idea that the republic will survive. We will be but an odd footnote in history, an experiment that failed. 

See, Americans like to talk about thoughts and prayers, but after so many mass shootings of children, shoppers, concert goers, and people in their own homes, We, the People have yet to get sensible gun laws on the books. Now, the few sensible civil rights laws are about to be removed from the books. Expect no outcry. There will be little more than the occasional whine or whimper.  

In the future, if this planet survives humankind's refusal to acknowledge the impact of human disregard for the health of the earth, Americans will be known as the laziest people who ever existed. Worse than the Romans before us, we had it all: the technology, the knowledge, the wealth, but  abused it all. We were too fat to save it. 

We, the People who actually cared about justice for all, will be replaced. It's not an if. It's a when.

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Make sure your passports are up-to-date.

And if you think I'm off base, then tell me. 

You still have time to tell me to 

shut up or keep going.

The poll closes in mid July.