Um, OK
Friday, Jun 26, 2026 - Posted by Rich Miller
* CNN…
The Trump administration’s 16-day-long Great American State Fair has begun, offering visitors to the National Mall in Washington, DC, the chance to visit pavilions showcasing every US state and territory. […]
The 16-day-long festival has been organized by Freedom250, a Trump-aligned nonprofit that has organized a plethora of 250th-anniversary events backed by the president, such as the Rededicate 250 prayer event on the National Mall in May.
* Tribune…
With Illinois among several states declining to send official representatives to an event in Washington backed by President Donald Trump to commemorate America’s 250th anniversary, a central Illinois museum says it volunteered to participate because “Illinois is as much a part of American history as any state.”
Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration said it was not sending any representatives to the “Great American State Fair” event, which starts June 25 and is sponsored by the group Freedom 250, but declined to give a reason. It’s no secret Pritzker and Trump have been ardent political enemies going back to their respective first terms in office.
But state officials said the Peoria Riverfront Museum plans to send a showcase to the 16-day event on the National Mall to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence consisting of, among other things, a pavilion that will highlight Illinois’ contributions to sports, architecture and agriculture, along with a hologram of prerecorded greetings from a number of Illinoisans from all over the state.
“We have a wall that a top graphic designer put together, a beautiful mural wall, sort of from the prairie to the cornfield, from Peoria to Chicago to various aspects of our great state,” said John D. Morris, president and CEO of the museum, which sits along the Illinois River about 130 miles southwest of Chicago. “We have corn stools that the kids will be able to sit on. We have handouts of Abraham Lincoln’s famous ambrotype image taken in Peoria. We were prideful to be able to put that forward and invited people from throughout the state to represent.”
* From the fair…
Computer, zoom in…
- Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Friday, Jun 26, 26 @ 1:56 pm:
“a Trump-aligned nonprofit”
Do me a favor…
- Archpundit - Friday, Jun 26, 26 @ 2:10 pm:
The most coastal view of Illinois ever demonstrated.
- Amalia - Friday, Jun 26, 26 @ 2:31 pm:
news flash for the promoters of this event: I had no idea this was happening. nice work.
- Streator Curmudgeon - Friday, Jun 26, 26 @ 2:33 pm:
Everybody will be fighting to have their photo taken next to that box of corn.
- AlfondoGonz - Friday, Jun 26, 26 @ 2:35 pm:
Very strange reading an article our friends in central and southern Illinois begging to be noticed by the same President whom we all know pursuant to yesterday’s edition of CapFax to be a person who would refuse or delay emergency aid to those same people simply because the state votes blue.
- BE - Friday, Jun 26, 26 @ 2:35 pm:
I would have thought a governmently sponsored and paid for event to ‘rededicate’ the US to a specific set of denominations of the Christian God would have been against the 1st Amendment.
That is..corn.
I hear Indiana also has mini golf.
- Retired and no longer in Illinois - Friday, Jun 26, 26 @ 3:30 pm:
Just to share another Illinois connection with this story. Andrew Leyden, the author of the X post, grew up in Charleston where he graduated from high school, attended EIU before graduating from U of I and Norte Dame law school. He now lives in DC and has a YouTube channel (penguin six) where he wanders around DC and shows what’s going on. He tries to stay apolitical, which isn’t easy in the world today. You’ll also see him credited for photos in news stories. He’s lived an interesting life and he’s a good guy.
- sulla - Friday, Jun 26, 26 @ 3:33 pm:
That box of corn exhibit looks like the equivalent of what happens when you’re 9 years old and wait until 10:00PM to tell your mom that you need to make a poster board for a presentation the next day.
- Leslie K - Friday, Jun 26, 26 @ 4:02 pm:
So right, sulla @3:33
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Sunday, Jun 28, 26 @ 6:11 pm:
“Give me butter cow, or give me death.”
- Patrick Henry