@adam @anon_opin

Night mode is the best way to get the verbal parts of a show to sound better. It dampens the loud explosions and the music. The idea for it really is about not disturbing the sleeping family members in the house.

It's the only way to watch some things.

For all of us who are about to experience our own electric bills this summer, we can appreciate this #Faulkner like telling of one man's wattage usage. I actually love this with all of my heart. #Humor #Prose

https://youtu.be/EeZjqEYxkZk?feature=shared

By now you've probably seen this unedited footage of Trump's birthday parade with the mostly empty bleachers so quiet that all you can hear is the squeaking of the tank.

And as funny as this is, I want to call your attention to another aspect of this that seems to have not been reported on so widely - and that is how utterly joyless MAGA people and gatherings are.

I live in Seattle, where the No Kings protest was basically a non-stop party in Cal Anderson Park all day long. There were musicians, dancers, performers, my god people put on fully acted PLAYS about Lady Liberty beating the shit out of "King" Donald. People were laughing and singing and chanting. There were jokes told, some people were handing out free snacks and bottled water. It was a party! No, strike that, it was a HANGOUT. It was like hanging out with 50,000 of your best friends.

Now, watch the clip I posted again. Look at the people in the stands. Really LOOK. Zoom in if you have to. They're TIRED. They're wet, they're exhausted, some of them are angry. Most of them are just standing there immobile, miserably filming the one tank driving past them on their mobile phone as some droning voice gives them instructions about how to spend money at Coinbase from offscreen. There's no music. There's no laughter. There's no JOY.

This is Trump's America. A joyless, artless tiresome wet blanket filled with the squeaking of tank treads and the cold sound of boots on asphalt.

We could have had joy. But we got this instead.

#BellaCiao
#NoKings
#Atlanta

Chumbawumba -Bella Ciao
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSpqj3V0s2E

https://www.reddit.com/r/goodnews/comments/1lc43ky/owned_by_the_brass_section_well_done_watch_the_end/

Italian anti-fascist hymn called Bella Ciao. Here is the English Translation. Viva America! 🇺🇸

[Verse 1]
One morning I awakened
Oh Goodbye beautiful, Goodbye beautiful, Goodbye beautiful! Bye! Bye!
One morning I awakened
And I found the invader

[Verse 2]
Oh partisan carry me away
Oh Goodbye beautiful, Goodbye beautiful, Goodbye beautiful! Bye! Bye!
Oh partisan carry me away
Because I feel death approaching

[Verse 3]
And if I die as a partisan
(And if I die on the mountain)
Oh Goodbye beautiful, Goodbye beautiful, Goodbye beautiful! Bye! Bye!
And if I die as a partisan
(And if I die on the mountain)
Then you must bury me

[Verse 4]
Bury me up in the mountain
(And you have to bury me)
Oh Goodbye beautiful, Goodbye beautiful, Goodbye beautiful! Bye! Bye!
Bury me up in the mountain
(And you have to bury me)
Under the shade of a beautiful flower

Give your dad or someone special what they really want today - boozy milkshakes and the free time to indulge in their weird hobbies, like building unstable catapults that launch balls of swords.

TIL about the Frog and Toad books—and today, I read them all in one breath. What a sweet, gentle world. I wish Arnold Lobel had written dozens more stories about these two wonderful amphibians.

#books #bookstodon #book

#RedScare #history

"Fascism wasn’t always a bad word in the U.S.

In the 1940s and 1950s, one of the charges levied by the House Un-American Activities Committee was 'premature antifascism.' Largely directed at people who had opposed the Nazis and Franco during the 1930s, before the U.S. had entered World War II, the label was used to smear activists as Communist radicals — even though their opposition to fascism had eventually aligned with U.S. policies. Those charged had been dangerously ahead of the curve.

A new exhibit at the New York Historical — *Blacklisted: An American Story* — explores the Red Scare era of American history through posters, newspaper clippings, political pamphlets and video clips from the time. While Joseph McCarthy eventually lent his name to the defamatory smears that characterized the period, the exhibition shows the persecution of anyone with the taint of radicalism began far before his election to the Senate in 1947; the House Committee on Un-American Activities was established in 1938 to weed out subversive activities and communist ties among government officials and private citizens alike."

https://forward.com/culture/727987/hollywood-ten-blacklist-red-scare-new-york-historical/

#NoKings #LA #PussyRiot

"Pussy Riot showed solidarity on No Kings' Day, participating in the march in Los Angeles on Saturday. They joined the demonstration while displaying a red banner that read, 'It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Russia.'

The march in downtown Los Angeles drew about 20,000 people, and was one of 2,000 locations that held 'No Kings' Day protests against the president, who has deployed the National Guard and the Marines to L.A. over protests opposing his administration’s aggressive raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The protests were held on the same day Trump threw an expensive military parade on his 79th birthday in Washington, D.C.

Pussy Riot co-founder Nadya Tolokonnikova’s 'Police State' installation at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA was postponed Sunday, when the National Guard was deployed. 'Due to evolving conditions in downtown Los Angeles and the proximity of The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA to ongoing demonstrations and military activity near the Los Angeles Federal Detention Facility, the museum has made the decision to adjust its operating hours and event schedule out of concern for the safety of staff and visitors,' MOCA said on its website. The 10-day exhibit was originally set to conclude tomorrow, with a panel and performance of Siberia. The rescheduled dates have not yet been released.

In a statement regarding Pussy Riot’s participation in the 'No Kings' march, Tolokonnikova reflected on Russia and the current state of the world in relation to her exhibit. 'It’s not quite a penal colony here, but a halfway house,' she said. 'Once again, when I write a statement or a song, a demon on my left shoulder is whispering: ‘How much is too much? Will this get you jailed or not quite yet??’ The answer is – idfk. When the law is being used not to protect freedoms, put to punish – selectively and voluntarily – those who speak out, no lawyer can tell you what’s safe, and what’s not. As my Russian lawyer used to say, 'Nadya, stop asking me what’s safe – if you want to be safe, leave Russia.'

Tolokonnikova said that she refused to leave her home country, until she realized 'If I stayed, I’d spend the rest of my life behind bars.' She added that Russian President Vladimir Putin promised 'safety and stability' and instead is 'waging the bloodiest war in modern Europe.'

'It’s beginning to feel a lot like Russia…. Everywhere you go,' she continued.

My job as an artist is to interpret those feelings. I felt that tingle for a bit now, that is why I did the POLICE STATE exhibit,' she said. 'The walls are closing, the camera systems are getting AI upgrades, you have to censor what you say or unidentified masked men will show up at your home, at your work, at your church. One day, leaving the museum, I stepped into an actual police state – rows of police assaulting peaceful protesters.'

'I guess you could say it’s my first artistic collaboration with the United States Military,' she concluded. 'Now we are on the street protesting alongside people who believe immigrants make America great.'"

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/pussy-riot-no-kings-march-los-angeles-1235365059/

We didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us…
#Native #Indigenous

@oldladyplays

And, I´m glad they sent that message. Active Duty soldiers are underpaid, they have to deal with TRICARE and poor or even toxic base housing for families. Not to mention that there isn´t ever enough family base housing to go around. That $34 million wasn´t spent on that.

So marching out of step and not saluting is sending a message. A lot of those soldiers either looked tired, or pissed off.

Another convenient thing about the hypothesis that it was intentional bad marching is that once it gets to be more than a couple people, it's very hard to single out which specific people are the ones out of step since everyone guides off of others.

@ReverendMoose @futurebird @oldladyplays

@oldladyplays

To do a parade you need a director with skills that have as much to do with dance and musical theatre as with the military. It's a SHOW and it requires practice and planning that just probably didn't happen.

US military might has not been about such displays for a very long time. Really our government wants us to forget about the big expensive murderous army and navy we have.

Trump doesn't get this? And the kind of talent he needed to pull this off wasn't there.

Just saw video of Trumpy's Big Birthday Blowout.

I was completely stunned to see the soldiers marching. Because they weren't marching. They were out for a stroll. No one was walking in step, half of them didn't even do a basic eyes left move when they passed the review stand. That's one of the most simple drill evolutions there is, you literally just *turn your head* and keep marching.

I know, I'm not US military, but drill is drill. It's been the way it is for about 300 years, since the evolution of firearms as a major weapon of war, for old reasons that don't really matter, having to do with the accuracy of those early firearms. It's retained for its ability to build cohesion, discipline, and quick instinctive response to orders.

And drill has a look to it. This was not that.

For me, that was a signal: "We don't want to be here either. We're not with him. We're here because we're good troops, and we do what we're ordered when it's a legal order. But he can't make us respect him."

Just to interpret what you can see for yourselves on the video. A good half of those troops are *not* on Trump's side.

Any vets out there want to chime in?

We may make the squeaking our ringtone

Happy Father’s Day!

If your dad was not great I feel for you. I hate mine, basically because he was a womanizer and all that includes.

Ladies, I understand the love/hate you have for us. Guys like my dad are professional manipulators. Always grooming, always on the make.

I love my kids though, and I try to make life as good as I can FOR THEM. My wife is pretty happy with me.

Giving is often the best way to heal.

#NoKings #NoAuthority #Abingdon #Virginia #Appalachia #Protest #FuckThePolice #Fuck12 #ACAB #AbolishThePolice #Abolition

@Rhodium103

I love playing with the all mighty algorithms that pigeon holes us plebs into marketing categories.

I will research unusual stuff that I don't need. I do love foreign film and will watch tons of it and then switch to watching the latest kids movies. I participate in surveys and with the little bit of truth I pile on a little myth.

The targeted advertising that I do see thinks of me as a jet setting decision maker in medical manufacturing who suffers eczema.

All these tech companies gathering more information on you than God, ostensibly in the name of serving you more targeted adverts. Yet I don't recall an ad for anything I'd actually want to buy...

"Peacefull Solitude"
By Scott Loring Davis, Fine Art Photography https://pixels.com/profiles/scottloringdavis

A solitary loon floated gracefully on the still, dark water, showcasing its striking black and white plumage. The bird's red eye. . SEE FULL STORY https://pixels.com/featured/peacefull-solitude-scott-loring-davis.html

#Loon #CommonLoon #Maine #LakeArrowhead #art #fineart #photography #printsforsale #Giftideas #nature #naturephotography #wildlife #wildlifephotography #arte #wallart #buyintoart #ScottLoringDavis #ScottoringDavisFineArtPhotography