Politics – Page 20 – Willem's Planet

January 10, 2015August 22, 2017

Friday/ la plume est plus forte que l’epee

That’s French for ‘the pen is mightier than the sword’ .. a phrase first mentioned in 1839 in a play called Cardinal Richelieu by playwright Edward Bulwer-Lytton. The phrase became commonplace soon after that, and today its translations are used in many languages (my information obtained from bbc.com).

IMG_3420 sm — ‘You are armed!’ says the gunman, on this front page from a Dutch newspaper that refers to the terrible events in Paris this week.

November 5, 2012August 22, 2017

Monday/ even US Presidential Election campaigns end

.. which we are very thankful for. Stop the madness! Here is a set of pictures which I have to post today! – because who knows for sure what will happen tomorrow? But time will soon tell.

IMG_3651 sm — Do not watch the elections alone, says this print ad – go to this Election Night Party (this one is for Democrats, judging by the paper it was published in). Someone is bound to cry in his (or her) beer when the night is done, though. E.v.e.r.y.o.n.e. c.a.n.n.o.t. win!

IMG_3622 sm — It really does not seem that the President will lose the state of Washington ..

IMG_3625 sm — .. or that Referendum 74 will be voted down. (So gay people will win the popular vote for marry equality in Washington State).

IMG_3627 sm — .. and that Washington State will legalize the possession of small quantities of POT.

2008-0150 — Here is the Obama campaign urging me to vote early (which I have, apparently as has 210 other Willems in the United States). Is that cool, or is that scary that they know that?

2008-0154 — Polls and numbers from Monday’s Wall Street Journal, showing how evenly divided the popular vote is.

2008-0151 — And numbers from some key counties inside the swing states, this is Arapahoe County in Colorado.

2008-0153 — And Hamilton County in Ohio.

IMG_3636 sm — And here is comedian Jon Stewart poking fun at the obsession of that the candidates and pollsters have with Ohio’s voters.

September 7, 2010September 6, 2021

Monday/ Labor Day

The first Labor Day Parade in Union Square, New York, 1882. [From Wikipedia]

Labor Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the first Monday in September. It is celebrated as the unofficial end of summer, and the start of the NFL football season. Some fashion-conscious people say it is gauche* to wear white after Labor Day!

*lacking social grace, sensitivity, or acuteness : )

Here’s more history behind it from Wikipedia : The first Labor Day in the United States was observed on September 5, 1882 in New York City, by the Central Labor Union of New York, the nation’s first integrated major trade union. It became a federal holiday in 1894, when, following the deaths of a number of workers at the hands of the U.S. military and U.S. Marshals during the Pullman Strike, President Grover Cleveland put reconciliation with the labor movement as a top political priority. Fearing further conflict, legislation making Labor Day a national holiday was rushed through Congress unanimously and signed into law a mere six days after the end of the strike.

The September date originally chosen by the Central Labor Union (CLU) of New York – and at that time observed by many of the nation’s trade unions for several years – was selected rather than the more widespread May 1 International Workers’ Day because Cleveland was concerned that observance of the latter would stir up negative emotions linked to the Haymarket Affair, for which it had been observed to commemorate.