Accordions…As Far as the Eye Can See

Accordions…As Far as the Eye Can See

Last week was the Leavenworth (WA) International Accordion Celebration.  Leavenworth is known as “Washington’s Bavarian Village”, and most of its buildings are dressed up in Bavarian Village style.  LIAC consists of four days of accordion competition, performances by local and international groups and individuals, an accordion parade through town, and all sorts of impromptu and organized jam sessions for accordion players and other musicians. In the vestibule of the main concert venue, the “Festhalle:”, accordion dealers set up their tables full of various accordions for sale.  The entire weekend is full of accordions, as far as the eye can see.  Check it out.

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This is a new fountain, in front of the Festhalle.  The shepherd has been given an accordion, so he won’t feel out of place during the Celebration.

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Here are some of the instruments (can you spot the “ringer”?) on offer in the Festhalle lobby.

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Here are the accordionists lining up for the parade through town.

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And, THE PARADE!  Yes, they are marching and playing at the same time.

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Destination for the parade is the Gazebo in the middle of downtown.  They all march there, and play a few songs for the cheering crowds of spectators.  You can see that they range in age from little kids to mature adults.  A wonderful time was had by all.

So, Democrats…Let’s Talk Money in Politics, Shall We?

So, Democrats…Let’s Talk Money in Politics, Shall We?

Democrats just love talking night and day about getting the big money out of politics.  They constantly rail about elections being “bought” by “special interest groups” and rich donors (they love to demonize the Koch brothers and Wall Street).  Their cure for the big money in politics is often “public financing”, meaning government support of political candidates (don’t they care that some of their money might be used to finance campaigns by those filthy Republicans?).

This week, there was a well-publicized and analyzed special election in the state of Georgia, to replace Republican Tom Price who left to join the Trump Administration.  The Democrat candidate was a first-time youngster, who didn’t even live in the district he claimed to want to represent.  His opponent was a well-regarded, experienced local candidate, with lots of name recognition.

The Democrats figured that this was a good chance to confirm that everyone hates Trump, and are most anxious to replace Republicans with Democrats so they can take over the House in the 2018 midterm elections.  In pursuit of that goal, prominent Democrat celebrities held fund-raisers and made commercials in support of Jon Ossoff.  The party raised over 23 million dollars for their candidate.  Now, that sounds like Big Money to me!  The Democrats out-spent the Republicans three to one in this election.  Here is the result.  How about those long faces on the CNN “reporters” on Tuesday night?

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They don’t look very happy, do they?  TWENTY-THREE MILLION DOLLARS spent, 90% of it from outside the state of Georgia!  And they still lost.  In fact, there have been a total of five special elections recently to replace officials who joined the Trump Administration, and not one Democrat won.  Congratulations to Karen Handel, new Representative from the 6th District of Georgia.

The sound that could be heard from many conservative households this week?   BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Photo Challenge……Transient

If a huge thundercloud isn’t transient, nothing is.  We outran this one in Iowa in the summer of 2010, on our way to Hillsdale College in Michigan.  It nearly caught us when we stopped for lunch, but we  got to our destination before the storm broke.

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Outrunning thunderstorm in Iowa

I took this picture through the front windshield of the car while it was driving down the highway.  Honestly, it felt like we were being pursued by the Devil.  Maybe we were.

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Photo Challenge – Order – All Lined Up

See the differently-colored punts, all lined up on the banks of the River Cam, in Cambridge, England.  They are just waiting for some people to come along and rent them for a lazy trip down the slow-flowing river.  Perfect for a summer afternoon.

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Punts on the Cam, rentals from Trinity College

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The Trump/Sessions Department of Justice just did “Justice”!

The Trump/Sessions Department of Justice just did “Justice”!

The DOJ has communicated to Congress that it is ending the Obama-era corporate shakedown regime, where it forced corporations who paid huge settlements to resolve conflicts relating to the financial crisis, to pay (liberal) third-party organizations as part of those settlements. Billions of dollars were siphoned off to various Obama special-interest groups, in violation of the Constitution.

Well, those days are over. Congress is working on legislation to outlaw that sort of executive-branch misbehavior. Jeff Sessions, in one of his very best actions to date, has ended the Obama slush-funds.

Sessions said the money should, instead, go to the Treasury Department or victims.

“When the federal government settles a case against a corporate wrongdoer, any settlement funds should go first to the victims and then to the American people—not to bankroll third-party special interest groups or the political friends of whoever is in power,” Sessions said in a statement.

In my opinion, those third-party groups should have to refund every penny to the US Treasury. Yeah, I know it’s a pipe dream, but it should be considered anyway.

Remember some of the Obama-era Department of (In)Justice activities?  Like when Eric Holder refused to prosecute the New Black Panther members who were outside polling places intimidating voters?  Like Operation Fast and Furious which bought guns for drug cartels to infiltrate back into the US?  Like numerous “consent decrees” entered into under duress by many big-city (Democratic-run all) police departments, essentially admitting that their policing was racially biased?  Like the bullying and imprisonment of an innocent filmmaker to cover up Hillary Clinton’s misdeeds in Benghazi?  Like the hounding and destruction of “Joe the Plumber”, when he called out Obama?

Those Days Are Over.

[Cross-posted on Ricochet.com.  Post promoted to the Main Feed today, so it is accessible to everyone.  You might be interested in the Rico members’ comments]

It’s weird the things you remember from days gone by…Tricks of Memory

Today is June 6.  6/6.  It is the 73rd Anniversary of D-Day, that momentous day in 1944 when the Allies invaded France to re-take Europe from Hitler’s evil forces.  But that’s not what I remember.

In June of 1966, I was a junior in high school in Seattle.  I was taking a ceramics class, with a bunch of really “artsy” students.  I have a very vivid memory of writing on the blackboard, “Today is 6/6/66”.  It got a laugh from the class, but it was a distraction for the teacher, so it only lasted a few minutes.  But I remember that day, even 50 years later.  And I also remember another student, a boy, who wore a pink shirt to school that day.  I remember thinking “pink is for girls”!  But I did like that shirt, and today most guys have at least one pink shirt in their closet.  I don’t, since I hate pink!

I have received the notice of my class’s 50-year high school reunion.  I went to the fortieth, and it was fun.  I got re-acquainted with a girl who I was friends with back then, and we discovered that now we have even more in common now than we did then (I became a Conservative), and we have seen each other fairly often, and plan to go to the reunion together, with our husbands.

Memory…  It ties you to the past, and to old friends.

Friend..ly Photo Challenge

My friend likes to sit on my lap, whenever I’m sitting down.  She leaps very quietly onto the chair or bed I happen to be using, and purrs loudly to get my attention.  My lap is always warm when Kikyo the Aristo-Cat is on my lap.

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Kikyo, keeping me warm while I read

She also likes to snuggle up to her glass “friend”, which is on our high plant shelf.  It takes a long leap across the gap from the banister on the stairs, to the top of the coat closet, for her to get there in the first place, which is quite remarkable.  I’ll bet she doesn’t even know that the glass vase is supposed to be a cat!

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And then, she sprawls out in the most undignified posture I’ve ever seen!

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