Because none of this ever happened....

The History of Maine Labor, Panels 1-3 by Judy Taylor.

In the last post or two we've talked about the power of public art and the passions it arouses....and mentioned in passing the destruction of said art by political opponents.  There was one off-the-cuff mention of the Caesars and Pharaohs who effaced the names of their predecessors or vanquished rivals from public monuments.

These are the first three panels of Judy Taylor's "The History of Main Labor", an 11-panel mural that until recently hung in the Maine Dept. of Labor building.  (See the rest here).

Governor Paul Lepage ordered it removed, citing complaints from business owners that it was too "pro-union" and that it was “not in keeping with the department’s pro-business goals.”  As Gid said in a comment, perhaps they should change the name of their department. (NYT).

Because child labor, unsafe working conditions, 14-hour days, 6 days a week, being paid in company scrip to be spent in company stores charging exorbitant prices for the material and equipment workers needed for their jobs, using the Pinkertons to murder protesting laborers en masse, trumped up charges and the current reality that 25% of the nation's wealth is controlled by less than 1% of the population....never happened, it isn't real, don't look at the man behind the curtain, obey, drink tea, refuse to pay taxes and cut everything, gut the schools, privatize the fire departments, the prisons, the police.  Fuck the poor, take their homes and then harass the homeless, or better yet, kill them.  Just don't let them assemble peaceably for the purpose of protecting their interests.  Evil unions.  How dare they demand a piece of the pie they baked?  How dare they act upon the 1st Amendment?  Spoiled bitches, they make too much money already.  Our executive bonuses are so meager by comparison....

And certainly don't let them celebrate their victories or remind you of what the US is working its way back to.  Tonight we're gonna party like it's 1899.  Somebody call Xe.  They've gotten a lot of practice recently in security operations under combat conditions....and they don't answer to that silly thing called the Constitution.

Excellent.