Mississippi To Get A New State Flag!

The current state flag of Mississippi, adopted in 1894, will probably lose its official status and be replaced through legislation in a matter of days, although there doesn't seem to be a consensus on what a new flag might look like. At any rate, it won't contain the infamous stars and bars that accompanied Confederate troops in the War Between the States.

Ultimately, what's all this flag mumbo-jumbo about anyway? Flags have been around for a long, long time. Originally, they were used to visually identify military units and ships, both to their own forces and, in some cases to the enemy. Later, as nation states evolved, flags were used to represent entire countries. This was militarily necessary until various forms of electrical and electronic communication were developed. Today, the only real use of flags in a military context are patches sewn on individual soldier's uniforms to identify them under the terms of international law. In any other context flags are anachronistic remnants of another age that are held dear and represent both jingoistic loyalty and a signal to others. Nobody needs a flag for anything.

Flags do provide something of a clue to what was going on in some people's minds at a certain time. For instance, let's examine the Minnesota state flag. 

  Wikiwand

The complex, generally inartistic and crappy flag was originally created in 1893. The state was flagless for 35 anonymous years until one was required for the Chicago World's Fair. Modified since, its most important features are in the very center of the banner. A mounted native American is bounding away, presumably into the sunset, and leaving his home to provide opportunity to an immigrant farmer plowing up the virgin top soil to plant turnips or spuds. Behind him are his musket, powder horn, and axe. Maybe the firearm is there in case a deer wanders by and provides the opportunity for a few meals but it's more likely that the weapon is meant to discourage or dispatch one of the former land holders quitting the country.

Flag-bearing Minnesotans, if they are even aware of the details of their banner, must, by displaying it, celebrate the conquest of the upper Mississippi Valley, the expulsion or death of most of the native population, and its absorption into an organization that allows no members to resign.    

Hunter S. Thompson Talks About The George Floyd Aftermath

The Daily Beast

     "American law enforcement procedures have never been designed to control large groups of citizens in rebellion, but to protect the social structure against specifically criminal acts, or persons. The underlying assumption has always been that the police and the citizenry form a natural alliance against evil and dangerous crooks, who should be arrested on sight and shot if they resist.

There are indications, however, that this 'natural alliance' might be going the way of the Maginot Line. More and more often the police are finding themselves in conflict with whole blocs of the citizenry, none of them criminals in the traditional sense of the word, but many as potentially dangerous--to the police--as any armed felon. This is particularly true in situations involving groups of Negroes and teen-agers. The Watts riot in Los Angeles in 1965 was a classic example of this new alignment. The whole community turned on the police with such a vengeance that the National Guard had to be called in. Yet few of the rioters were criminals--at least not until the riot began. It may be that America is developing a whole new category of essentially social criminals. . . persons who threaten the police and the traditional social structure even when they are breaking no law. . .because they view The Law with contempt and the police with distrust, and this abiding resentment can explode without warning at the slightest provocation."

Hunter S. Thompson, Hell's Angels, Ballantine Books, 1967.

Unlocked Horse Pull

Rural Wisconsinites have taken the pandemic panic with a grain of salt and have decided to get back to normality by embracing a traditional summer activity, the draft horse pulling contest. Horse enthusiasts gathered near the Mecca of the sport, Mondovi, for an afternoon of competition in a contest that predates the internal combustion engines that now propel farm machinery. For a few hours on a beautiful day the bizarre condition of the country could be ignored.

Hometown lady teamster Becky Loomis lines out her team of heavy-weight Belgians on the way to winning their class.

 
Josh Wickham's gorgeous team of perfectly-matched Belgians won the light-weight class.

 
Gentle giants wait their turn to pull the loaded stone boat the required 27'6".

The Wickham team's winning pull. 

NASCAR Bans the Confederate Flag

ESPN Senior Writer Ryan McGee has enpixelated an opinion piece on the sports network's website celebrating NASCAR's banishment of the battle flag of the Confederate states from its property. Of course, this gesture is meant to recognize the evil of slavery, abolished in the US 155 years ago, and to point out that since slavery was an integral part of southern culture, all references to that culture must be eradicated. He neglects to mention some other things.

First, slavery was not only found in the southern colonies, then states, but also in the north. In fact, the transport of enslaved humans from Africa was primarily an activity engaged in by New England-based enterprises. In the 17th century thousands of Irish slaves were also taken from their home island and sent to the New World for unpaid toil for their English colonial masters. After the American Revolution, or, as it might be called, "The Great Treason", the hallowed product of Betsy Ross flew over not just the sainted North but also the slave states. The history of the Stars and Stripes and slavery is far longer than that of the Confederate flag. During most of that period slavery was legal and practiced by many of the most respected figures of that era. Additionally, slavery was common all over the world, as it remains today in many places.

The money quote from McGee's article is this:  It means the most shameful blight on the pages of the history of the United States, and that's no small achievement.

Well, that's an opinion, and a common one at that. Dropping atomic bombs on Japanese teen-age girls walking to school is a contender. Taking over the Republic of Hawaii and making it a US possession might be another. It's actually kind of a long list. But the real top of the list is occupied by the undeniable near genocide and subsequent treatment of the native American population. 

The immediate objective of the European invaders of North America was wealth, gold, fish, fur, timber and property. The fact that these things already belonged to someone else simply meant that they had to be wrestled away by force of numbers and technological superiority. The newcomers also were able to take advantage of fatal diseases for which the native Americans had no immunity or cure. Those few that survived were killed or rounded up and incarcerated in the least hospitable areas of the continent, as official records point out. This policy, which continues to this day, is conveniently ignored by those deploring systemic racism.

It's a most interesting fact that in the aftermath of the War Between the States the victorious Union formed military units made up of newly-freed slaves known as the Buffalo Soldiers. The purpose of these warriors was to resume military duties that had been greatly reduced during the conflict. Those duties were the subjugation and extermination of the plains Indians under the leadership of Gen. Phil Sheridan, statues of whom loom over parks and traffic circles all over the country. Native Americans weren't granted citizenship by the Great White Father until 1924 and later. Once millions of them lived in the new world, now less than 1% of the US population is considered to be of native American ancestry.

On the other hand, descendants of black slaves are the second largest ethnic group in the country, making up almost 13% of the total population. A man of mixed race but considered black has been elected president of the country twice. A substantial number of his administration were also black. Two African-Americans have served on the US Supreme Court.There are currently 55 black members of the US Congress. At this time there are  four members of the US House of Representatives that have native affiliations. 

Keeping Minneapolis Police Safe

The 2nd Precinct police station in Minneapolis. Or is it Fallujah?

Murderer Avoids Long Prison Sentence in Alaska

According to this story in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, a homicidal maniac named Christopher Erin Rogers, Jr., who had been sentenced to 498 years in prison for a variety of crimes in 2010 has died in an Alaskan prison at age 41. The convicted murderer has cheated society of another 488 years of incarceration for his misdeeds.

Perhaps some legal scholar could explain why a prison sentence that's almost 6 1/2 times a normal human life makes any sense. Be that as it may, why should death terminate the punishment phase of this man's violation of the social contract? Since he's been sentenced to 498 years, shouldn't he be held in a cell for that period rather than a short ten years even if he's no longer breathing penitentiary air and eating penitentiary food? We can't be sure that the spirit of Rogers has been extinguished merely because his heart no longer beats. In the cause of justice this monster must remain behind the walls and concertina wire of the Spring Creek Correctional Center for another almost 5 centuries to pay for his sins.

frontiersman.com 

Minnesota Covid-19 Death Scenes

We observe the evidence of the human destruction of the Covid-19 virus in just a small part of the planet.

A Minneapolis funeral home on the afternoon of June 5, 2020.

Another busy Minneapolis funeral home on the same day.

Parking is at a premium at this busy Minneapolis funeral home on June 5.

The chaotic scene of the parking area adjacent to a Minneapolis mortuary on June 5.

Another Minneapolis funeral home is busy with the devastation of the Covid-19 virus.

Frantic activity in front of the once-empty warehouse purchased by the state of Minnesota for temporary storage of Covid-19 fatalities.

Natiional Guard in Action

National Guard assembly area in northeast Minneapolis. Note the concertina wire.

June 3 US Covid-19 Death Tally

Deaths Due to Covid-19 Virus: 107,648

Seating Capacity, Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor, MI: 107, 601

The total number of deaths attributed to the Covid-19  virus has finally surpassed the seating capacity of the largest stadium in the US.
 

June 2 US Covid-19 Death Count

June 2 US fatalities due to Covid-19: 106,550

Seating capacity, Beaver Stadium, University Park, PA: 106, 572

 

 

 

June 1 US Covid-19 Fatality Tally

June 1 US deaths due to Covid-19 virus: 105,773 

Seating capacity of Beaver Stadium, University Park, PA: 106,572

  June 1 Pennsylvania deaths attributed to Covid-19 virus: 5,555