This livestream has been going on since about 7:00 AM Saturday morning on America's Semiquincentennial or 250th Birthday. I publish this post on the 4th of July aka Independence Day.
As I post the livestream Mr. Beat had arrived on the 1900s. He's going decade by decade.
Check it out here at your leisure [VIDEO]
Happy 4th to you all!
Mr. Beat teams up with Jared from The Daily Bell Ringer for an engaging deep dive into Abraham Lincoln’s life and legacy. It’s fitting that this video was filmed in Springfield, Illinois, because Illinois is often known as the Land of Lincoln. After moving there with his family in 1830 at age 21, Lincoln settled in New Salem, then Springfield. He worked various jobs, taught himself law, served in the state legislature, practiced law, and launched his national political career from the state—making it central to his path to the presidency.
Watch the full video here [VIDEO]
In conclusion, Lincoln is considered one of America’s greatest presidents for preserving the Union, issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, and ending slavery—demonstrating adaptability, moral growth, and extraordinary leadership in the nation’s darkest hours despite personal struggles and controversies. Jared (Daily Bell Ringer) emphasizes that Lincoln’s actions strengthened American democracy by showing that a government "of the people, by the people, for the people" could endure and expand freedom.
Thoughts?
I haven't been to the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry since I was in grammar school. Oh the Griffin being former Chicago resident Ken Griffin, billionaire financier who gave a gift to this museum hence his name being attached to it.
I don't recall ever seeing this train, nor the WW2 German U-Boat though I may recall the airliner hanging from the ceiling. I do recall the model trainset which I have shared here that portrays the route of Amtrak's Empire Builder. Always thought that was cool.
This is one thing I want to see at that Museum when I go back in the near future, the Pioneer Zephyr was a great design for it's time. It served a non-stop route from Chicago to Denver making the trip in 13 hours.
Russel Sharp Train video's shows us the exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry. [VIDEO]
[VIDEO] This was sort discussed in a previous video shared here on this blog by Spectacles. The common thread is basically the unrest and the inequalities of wealth.
Do you agree or disagree with the assertions of Mr. Beat & Spectacles?
I found this video on Sunday, and before that I saw the collab with Mr. Beat. Well both videos are actually collabs, however, the Mr. Beat video will be shared here at a later time.
Wow, I haven't posted here since November 2025. It's not January 2025.
I wanted to share this video from Mr. Beat talking about the potentially 7 party systems. We're living in the 7th party system which started with the 2016 race and the election of Donald Trump.
The six other party systems or political eras are established based on the issues of the day and the shifting positions of the major parties. And even then the actually parties sometimes haven't always been consistent.
Check it out [VIDEO]
I saw a YouTube short with Mr. Beat where he shows himself returning to his old high school to open his own time capsule dating to his senior year. And it was amazing to see the look on his face, when he found the time capsule and all the things him and his classmates put into it.
Then I got to thinking what would I have put in my own time capsule. Well my own senior year of high school had long passed so I can only speculate. Assuming no other classmates were involved with this, I'm sure I'd leave in it stuff that I was most interested in.
Mostly popular culture I was into such as music, TV, movies, etc. Perhaps a written note (ideally printed from a computer certainly written by hand too). Perhaps a floppy disk as Mr. Beat left one in his time capsule - what would be on it would be a good question and who knew diskettes were on the way out a decade later. That would be the start but I don't want it to be as unwieldy as the one opened in Seward, Nebraska as you see depicted in Mr. Beat's video below. [VIDEO]
The President of the United States - one Donald J. Trump - had been talking about this at least since he became President last year. And just last week he made good on it with an executive order. However, to make this more official it still takes an act of Congress for him to officially change the official name of the Department of Defense.
I've screen-capped the Defense/War Department Website and Instragam just to let you know what I've found on those sites.
Thomas Jefferson was one of America's Founding Fathers and our 3rd P.O.T.U.S. As you see in this recent Mr. Beat video he was a man of contradictions. Let's start with his apparent opposition to slavery and yet he held slaves.
What's mentioned here is his relationship with one of his slaves Sally Hemmings - with whom he had many children. Because he was her owner this fact should be very shocking and as Mr. Beat points out we don't fully know if this "relationship" was consensual.
At his death, he still didn't free Ms. Sally, his daughter had to free her - well emancipate her.
Still, his many ideas aside from that main contradiction provide the philosophical basis for the American Republic. And one thing noted in this video was in 1800 he chose to wear his regular clothes to his inauguration. He was the first President to attempt to connect with the common man in America. Even though the first president to be elected by the common man was another controversial President Andrew Jackson.
Check out Mr. Beat's video. [VIDEO]
Also it should be noted that Mr. Beat filmed this video at Jefferson's country estate, Monticello. It's now a museum which is available for tours outside of Charlottesville, Virginia.
This video below was posted to the White House YouTube channel this morning. I see there are similar videos also produced by this outfit known as Prager U and focused often on American history. We're seeing a brand new day under the 47th POTUS Donald Trump.
As you might see in the header on YouTube - America is back. The renewed focus on Making America Great Again and just think in 2026 it will have been 250 years since the Declaration of Independence - essentially the birth of the United States of America.
I never heard of Robert Treat Paine. In this video he talks through his portrait about his role in prosecuting the British soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre. The person who defended those British soldiers was our 2nd POTUS John Adams. Just as Adams he too signed the aforementioned Declaration of Independence.
My next question becomes I wonder who's curating content for The White House on YouTube. Often when I see content here it's often the President speaking to the press or some public appearance such was events for the 4th of July. So I found this brief video discussing history very interesting.
Check out Robert Treat Paine [VIDEO]
What the YouTube channel Useful Charts does is interesting. They not only look at his family tree, but they look at his "episcopal" lineage also. They look at his connection to other prominent Catholic cardinals, bishops or even other popes.
In the news it has come out that Pope Leo's lineage may include ancestors of African descent. As they discuss here his lineage includes Louisiana Creole who are often mixed race. He is of Italian descent on both sides of his family, and Popes have typically been of Italian descent.
Bear in mind when I say this, Pope John Paul II & Pope Benedict XVI were not of Italian descent. They were Polish and German respectively. Pope Francis was of Italian descent, however, he was born in the Latin American country of Argentina.
Also, another important this about the former Cardinal Louis Prevost is that he is the first U.S.A (or American if you prefer) born Pope in history. His immediate predecessor of course Pope Francis was born in Argentina so he was the first non-European born pontiff.
Pope Leo is also known as a Chicago-boy and a White Sox fan and there are photos of him at a World Series game in 2005 - which the White Sox swept the Houston Astros to win it all. He was said to have lived in the Roseland neighborhood though his childhood was spent in suburban Dolton, Illinois.
His childhood parish is located on the City Limits between Dolton and Chicago known as St. Mary of the Assumption. Both his childhood home and this church could become historic landmarks and that would be cool.
Anyway, here's the Useful Charts video if you want to look at his family and episcopal connections [VIDEO]
Allow me to start by saying the video you're about to see is only about the history of the Roman Catholic Church. I'm in no way equipped to even think I can discuss Catholicism in a theological way. That's really not the point of this post.
With this said earlier this month a new Pope of the Catholic Church was installed in Leo XIV. Not only is the Pope the visible head of the 2000+ year old church he's also a head of state - the microstate of Vatican City which is only 109 acres. It's an enclave of the Italian capital city of Rome.
And just bear in mind why is it the Roman Catholic Church because it's history started with the Roman Empire and guess where is the capital city of the Roman Empire - Rome. Either way we see that the Catholic Church and the Pope had significant influence throughout Europe. The Pope was said to be able to crown Emperors & Kings in addition to being involved with diplomatic disputes.
Let's also add that the Pope used to own more significant territory than Vatican City - which was established as an independent state thanks to the Lateran Treaty of 1929. The so-called Papal States was about the size of West Virginia and then in 1870 Italy eventually annexed the Papal States.
Up until 1929, the Pope considered himself a prisoner in the small area we now call Vatican City as a result of the loss of the Papal States.
The video below by GeoBro discusses how the Vatican lost 99% of it's land (the Papal States). I gave you the gist, the territory gave the Pope a lot of influence. Of course as we know thanks to the number of Catholics in the world the Pope still has a lot of influence [VIDEO]
George Ryan served as the Governor of Illinois from 1999 to 2003. There was a Republican dynasty from 1977 to 2003 which included Governors Jim Thompson, Jim Edgar, and finally Ryan. That dynasty ended upon the election of Democrat Rod Blagojevich as IL Governor.
George Ryan I recall was the last effective governor Illinois had. There was significant infrastructure investment during his term and one infrastructure project involved the rehab of the Douglas branch of the CTA L (back then it was part of the CTA Blue Line, today it's the Pink Line). His infrastructure program was called Illinois First.
He's primarily known for commuting all death sentences in the state after at first placing a moratorium on death sentences. He had been demonized for this by death penalty advocates and they cite his political problems as a result of what was going on during his tenure as IL Secretary of State.
You might remember license for bribes you can read more about it here. This scandal led to his downfall (that is is one term as Governor) and ultimately his status as a convicted felon. Sentenced to six and a half years in federal prison in 2006, he was released from federal custody in 2013.
His wife preceded him in death and Gov. Ryan showed little regret in his decisions regarding the death penalty. However, many still view his moves on that issue as more politically motivated.
For the record, while I do consider myself right of center (or conservative) I'm against the death penalty. I'm in favor of justice, and hard for me to justify the death penalty when it's not always applied in the most just way. And certainly that some people may not be guilty of the crime for which they will be put to death. Also I don't find the application of the death penalty very humane.
I would say regardless of what motivated his decisions on this issue, I think he did the right thing in hindsight. Almost a decade after Gov. Ryan had left the Illinois Governorship, the state abolished the death penalty. And a later Republican Governor - the ineffective Bruce Rauner - had proposed reinstating the death penalty and that failed.
To make a comparison while I may not like the progressive politics of J.B. Pritzker, I would give him credit for being an effective IL Governor. What both men have in common is that they both are interested in governing more than anything. That's what this great state needs.
Gov. Ryan died on May 2, 2025, he was 91.
I'm sorry to say I was slow to share with you news of the death of Gov. Jim Thompson who died in 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic. He was Illinois' longest serving governor from 1977 to 1991.
Also we have Gov. Thompson's immediate successor, Jim Edgar who is currently fighting cancer. Having seen someone I was very close to deal with this, I feel for Edgar. He was another one who was truly an effective IL Governor serving from 1991 to 1999. I hope he defeats that dreadful disease.
[VIDEO] Wait until you get to at least the last three cities. And some cities such as St. Louis and Detroit had experienced some form of population decline.
Many cities had some form of geographic advantage. Such as Chicago which historically had a geographic advantage, a hub for transportation, being on the Great Lakes, and being on a river which is connected to other important rivers.
People may emphasize here in this state that Chicago is losing population, however, Mr. Beat state's that that the Windy City is always reinventing itself.
Chicago is a great city, but which of these 25 cities would you choose to live?
Drum roll please…🥁 After receiving 385,000 votes, we have a DECISIVE winner in the state flag redesign contest! The Illinois Flag Commission will now report the results to the General Assembly who will vote on whether to adopt a new flag or keep the current one. pic.twitter.com/CS3RMesLH6
— Secretary Alexi Giannoulias (@ILSecOfState) March 6, 2025
You can see how many votes was cast for each flag here. Only wo of my favored designs in the ten submitted for a new state flag came in the top five votes. That includes the one that had a blue and red stripe on each side of the state seal coming in at #4.
Though I should note feedback on these chosen designs weren't very good. These results will be submitted to the general assembly and who knows the state legislature may still decide to come up with a design for a new state flag.
Though I would still say we could keep the current state flag for the governor. A few states have standards for a state's governor. An Illinois governor has no standard.
[VIDEO] How did every president spend their retirement?
A few of them didn't get retirements as eight had died while in office. Someone like a James K. Polk has died a short time after leaving office - President Polk had the shortest retirement of any president.
Many had devoted their time to writing and speaking. And especially now many former Presidents stay active in someway. Being President is like a very special fraternity - well only men so far have been President - the current President has his predecssor Presidents to lean on.
Regardless after working such a stressful job for four years or longer, a President has earned their retirement once they leave office. Another fact noted the earlier Presidents lost money once they serve. The only recent reported example has been Donald Trump who is said to be a billionaire.
Either aren't you curious how every President has spent their retirement. Check out this recent vid by Mr. Beat.
[VIDEO] One thing I do recall he never mentioned is that he left out that J.D. Vance is the first millennial to be elected to the Vice Presidency. For the record I consider myself a xillennial my birthdate straddles the line between millennial and Gen. X.
I'm sure there are other things I don't recall but if you have some time you have about two hours to watch this live stream from President's Day 2025. Perhaps there are some things not mentioned here that didn't get mentioned as far as the 2024 race.
You can watch Mr. Beat's 2024 Presidential Election video here.
[VIDEO] Here it is!
Mr. Beat's official 2024 election video. That race proved to be such a wild race. Who knew that President Donald Trump would make his return to the Oval Office after what happened in the aftermath of the 2020 Presidential race?
One thing that caught my eye in this video is a return to the spoils system. Basically insuring that those within the government are loyalists to your administration. What has been discussed within the populist right has been how the professional bureaucrats of the federal gov't helped undermind administrations they don't like.
America has already had a spoils system and at some point in the past our gov't were often staffed by a permanent bureacracy. And another argument made is that these bureacrats make some decisions over our lives and they're not elected.
With discussions of buyouts and more recently outright firings and even head of "D.O.G.E." Elon Musk declaring in a tweet that the Dept. of Education no longer exists. I'd say as they attempt to make gov't more efficient it seems more and more likely what Trump's priority is, perhaps he doesn't want a professional bureacracy. Perhaps more Presidents should staff the executive branch the way they see fit.
Now I'm sorry for not paying attention to what Trump was talking about during the campaign. And the fact that someone was attempting to kill him during that campaign. It helped to tip the odds in his favor. The use of weaponized "lawfare" was terrible and probably showed that someone was veyr concerned about him. Everything they tried to do seemed designed to keep him from running for President again and they may know full well after 2020 he had unfinished business. I wonder if they had just left him alone would he have just gone away on his own.
Meanwhile you had a President who was showing he couldn't handle the rigors of the job and while it's noted that his Vice President and her running mate breathed new life into the Democratic Party, it became clear to me that the Harris/Walz ticket was going to have their clock cleaned. Yeah Trump didn't perform well in his debate against Kamala Harris, however, it became clear that she wasn't the one either.
I'm curious what many of you think of the 47th President so far?
ALSO, feel free to watch what set up the 2024 race. Mr. Beat's video about the 2020 race.
[VIDEO] Well it's not often we show a video with regards to the history of this state. They did note Illinois' population decline, the election of Barack Obama as President, and the scandal involving former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
I hope you learn something new from this video.
[VIDEO] From yesterday's inauguration immediately after President Trump was sworn in at the 47th POTUS.
He sets the tone for the next four years of his presidency. He mentioned how he expect the Federal Gov't will be a meritocracy. He also mentions that gender is either a man or a woman 🤯. He also discusses taking control of the border between the U.S. and Mexico.
And of course after this he signs a series of executive orders with regards to some of these issues. He's ordering federal employees back into the office, several executive orders with regards to immigration and taking control of the southern U.S./Mexico border, also with regards to energy opening up Alaska for energy production.
Aside from the more pomp and circumstances aspects of January 20, 2025 he already had a relatively busy day.
Any thought on his inauguration speech?