Happy May Day all ye workers!

The people's flag is deepest red
It shrouded oft our martyred dead
And ere their limbs grew stiff and cold
Their hearts' blood dyed to every fold

 

Then raise the scarlet standard high
Beneath its folds we'll live and die
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer
We'll keep the red flag flying here

 

It waved above our infant might
When all ahead seemed dark as night
It witnessed many a deed and vow
We must not change its colour now

 

Then raise the scarlet standard high
Beneath its folds we'll live and die
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer
We'll keep the red flag flying here

 

It well recalls the triumphs past
It gives the hope of peace at last
The banner bright, the symbol plain
Of human right and human gain

 

Then raise the scarlet standard high
Beneath its folds we'll live and die
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer
We'll keep the red flag flying here

 

It suits today the meek and base
Whose minds are fixed on pelf and place
To cringe beneath the rich man's frown
And haul that sacred emblem down

 

Then raise the scarlet standard high
Beneath its folds we'll live and die
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer
We'll keep the red flag flying here

 

With heads uncovered swear we all
To bare it onward till we fall
Come dungeons dark or gallows grim
This song shall be our parting hymn

 

Then raise the scarlet standard high
Beneath its folds we'll live and die
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer
We'll keep the red flag flying here

 

Words: Jim Connell Music: "The White Cockade"

Harry S Truman

"Scare words"

Socialism is a scare word they have hurled at every advance the people have made in the last 20 years.
Socialism is what they called public power.
Socialism is what they called social security.
Socialism is what they called farm price supports.
Socialism is what they called bank deposit insurance.
Socialism is what they called the growth of free and independent labor organizations.
Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people.
When the Republican candidate inscribes the slogan “Down With Socialism” on the banner of his “great crusade,” that is really not what he means at all.

What he really means is, “Down with Progress" ... That is what he means.

                                                                               -H.S T. 10/10/1952
                                                                                                            (emphases mine)

                                                ****************
                                                                  
                                                                                         VSR

Berlin had one

And the President wants one just like it...

Built by the army.

 

                                                  So how did that work out for them?


                                      A 15th century solution for a 21st century problem?


                                            Couldn't he find a better use for $5 Billion?

                                                      *************************

                                                                                                           -VSR.

de Gaulle

Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.

                                                                                                                                 -Charles de Gaulle.

Ignorance

"Emmanuel Macron suggests building its own army to protect Europe against the U.S., China and Russia. But it was Germany in World Wars One & Two - How did that work out for France? They were starting to learn German in Paris before the U.S. came along. Pay for NATO or not!"

-Donald J. Trump.

Patriotism

"...You know, they have a word. It sort of became old-fashioned. It's called a nationalist. And I say, really, we're not supposed to use that word. You know what I am? I'm a nationalist, OK? I'm a nationalist.

"Nationalist. Nothing -- use that word. Use that word."

 -Donald J. Trump.
                     

“Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism. Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism. By saying our interests come first, who cares about the others, we erase what a nation holds dearest, what gives it life, what makes it great and what is essential: its moral values.”

-Emmanuel Macron.

Remember Remember and VOTE!

   Today is Guy Fawkes day, a commemoration of the foiled plot to blow up the English Parliament. In some places in the U.K. and elsewhere there will be fireworks, bonfires, and burning in effigy of Guy Fawkes.

One older tradition was for gangs of children begging for "a penny for the Guy." My own way of remembrance -which must cause my neighbours' amusement or wonder- is to fly the Union Jack. If the weather holds, i may even have a small bonfire in the back yard... no effigy, though.

Fawkes and his co-conspirators sought to overthrow the government by destroying its symbolic seat (and hopefully many of its members in the bargain.) They were betrayed and discovered and horribly executed for their troubles.

                                                           
                                                                *******************
                                                                
Tomorrow is Election Day in the U.S. This is the Mid-term election wherein we voters will select our congressional delegates, some senators and governors, as well as many statewide offices and judicial seats. The Mid-terms are viewed as a referendum on the successes or failures of the President and the executive branch of government. Despite the importance of the Mid-terms, voter turnout is usually embarrassingly low, meaning that an even smaller than usual minority of voters will decide the direction of the government for the majority of citizens.

So far, indications are that this year will see a turnout that will rival or even exceed that of the average Presidential election.

The President had been touring the country ostensibly in support of his party's candidates. He has been shamelessly ginning up the fear of immigrants and other "undesirables", the opposing party, et cetera, et cetera, and outright lying to his supporters in an effort to frighten them to the polls. He has been making this election all about himself, and his party has been shamelessly supporting him in its cynical efforts to retain power and advance its agenda to solidify that power.

i wish to remind him, his party, and frankly ALL who seek elected office that they are there to SERVE, not RULE. i sincerely hope that tomorrow's vote will be a short, sharp shock to them that will remind them that they serve at the pleasure of the citizens of this country, not the reverse.

i do not advocate the methods of the Gunpowder Plotters in their attempt to change their government. Fortunately, so far the few who would use similar ways of doing so here today are a fringe minority.

Tomorrow, we citizens will be deciding the direction we wish our government will take: either to continue on its current path, or to turn away from the policies and practices of fear-mongering, xenophobia, isolationism, and one-party rule.

Those who would make these changes do not need gunpowder. They need only to get up on their hind feet and go to the polls tomorrow and be counted.

Remember remember that those in elected office are not in "power" but in service; SERVICE to US, the citizens of the United States, not corporations, not to wealthy donors or other lobbies, and certainly they need reminding that We are not in service to those who would believe they are "in power."

                                                        **************************    

                                                              End of rant. Peace. Out.

                                                                                                                                                       -VSR.

Meanwhile in Helsinki...

i usually prefer to not vent about politics in this forum, but after listening to today's news conference with Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin, i am suffering from an acute case of nausea. i'll just say this:

If either of these "gentlemen" were to tell me that the sky was blue, i'd go look out the window.

Our president is an international embarrassment. Mr. Putin has played him like a violin.

War

(Apologies to Lynn Johnson for appropriating her work)

                                                                *****
i grew up watching "Victory at Sea," The World at War," and many other WWII documentaries. 40's & 50's era war movies were regular fare on  afternoon, after school TV programming. War was all around us in a nation that had been almost untouched compared to the carnage that was experienced in Europe and the Pacific, and images of the dead and dying were edited to the minimum in the films.  We had toy rifles and grenades and some of us had uniforms and military gear from the surplus stores or our fathers' attics. We built models of warplanes and warships. We staged battles. War was cool to us, and our war veteran fathers and survivor parents and grand parents said almost nothing to us about it -unlike Mike's mom. Soon, many of my contemporaries and our elder siblings were sent off to a real shooting war in Asia, and the survivors returned profoundly changed and shaken by the experience, having learnt the hard lesson that General Sherman was understating things when he said, "War is Hell."

Вели́кая Октя́брьская социалисти́ческая револю́ция

                                    ******

Petrograd, 7 November (25 October, Julian,) 1917...

The proclamation

                                                                            *****

 

Kerensky & provisional government deposed...

The American Embassy, Petrograd.  Kerensky's refuge.

                                                                  *****   
 The New Bosses:

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                           *****
The Masterminds:

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, aka Lenin.

Lev Davidovich Bronstein, aka Leon Trotsky.

                                                                           *****

Eventually:

"Workers of the World Unite!"

Enshrined in a Holy Trinity

Красная звезда

                                    
                                                           **********************


                        To so many of the war-weary Russian people,
                      it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Are you sick of this yet?

                                   i am sick to tears of hearing about "shock and horror."

                                   i am sick of hearing the phrase "thoughts and prayers."

                                   i am sick of hearing "Now isn't the time..."

From:Yahoo News, AP

                                                                      
                                           How about you?

A Penny for the Guy?

                                                         The Fifth of November                                                     
                                                          
                                                     Remember, remember the fifth of November 
                                               Gunpowder, treason and plot 
                                                I see no reason why gunpowder treason 
                                                Should ever be forgot 

                                                Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, 'twas his intent 
                                                To blow up the King and the Parliament 
                                                Three score barrels of powder below 
                                                Poor old England to overthrow 
                                                By God's providence he was catched 
                                                With a dark lantern and burning match 
                                                Holloa boys, holloa boys 
                                                God save the King! 
                                                Hip hip hooray! 
                                                Hip hip hooray! 

                                                A penny loaf to feed ol' Pope 
                                                A farthing cheese to choke him 
                                                A pint of beer to rinse it down 
                                                A faggot of sticks to burn him 
                                                Burn him in a tub of tar 
                                                Burn him like a blazing star 
                                                Burn his body from his head 
                                                Then we'll say ol' Pope is dead. 
                                                Hip hip hooray! 
                                                Hip hip hooray!

The Conspirators

The Capture

The gruesome fate: Hanged, Drawn, and Quartered.

 

The Commemoration

 

Penny for the Guy?

                                                 *************************************

                                                                    ****

                                        (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes_Night)

Memorial Day

i went down to my town's Memorial Day ceremonies and parade today. i attended the service held at the cemetery where lie buried many veterans of wars from the Civil War through the current conflicts in which our nation is engaged. i listened to the eulogies, Taps, and the rifle squad's salute.

i stood still and removed my cap as the colour guards from the local vets' organisations, police, and fire department marched past.

The local high school's marching band played the national anthem and a medley of the various armed services' marches and hymns.

Several local scouts' packs, Cubs to Eagles, trotted along in the parade, as well as a contingent of an automobile collectors' club, and representatives of a landscaping company whose truck was armed with a loud PA blaring a song declaring "I'm proud to be an American."

A gaggle of supporters of the two major political parties participated as well.

After the parade, all gathered at the war memorial in the village's main park, where the high school band played the Star Spangled Banner once more, the Pledge of Allegiance was recited, and speakers held forth.

All told, a typical Memorial Day in the USA.

My fervent wish, as close to a prayer as i can manage, is that someday, someday there can be a time when we will truly honour those who served and died in our nation's wars by making damn good and sure that we do not add to their numbers.

As i stood and watched the the parade, one song kept going through my head:

 

                                                             *********************

Theodore Roosevelt

The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else.

 -Theodore Roosevelt, 26th US President (1858-1919)