It is an unlikely union. America’s Cincinnatus—George Washington—and America’s Michelangelo—the Italian painter Constantino Brumidi—never met. Washington was born in 1732, a third-generation Virginian. Brumidi was born in Rome in 1805 and emigrated to the United States in 1849, becoming a naturalized citizen soon after. Yet both left indelible marks on the American republic. Washington shaped the nation like no other military or political leader before or since, earning the title “America’s Indispensable Man.” Brumidi, who honed his craft painting frescoes and murals in Rome, would leave his imprint throughout the most important building in the country—the U.S. Capitol—earning his own distinction as the Capitol’s indispensable artist. America’s Indispensable Man—and the Capitol’s “Those beautiful hallways on the Senate side of the Capitol? Brumidi,” the U.S. Capitol Historical Society wrote. “The historic committee rooms and fancy reception rooms? Brumidi. The decorative band wrapping around the Rotunda with the scenes from American history? That would be Brumidi, too.” Brumidi’s crowning achievement—among many throughout the Capitol painted over a 25-year period—is the mural known as “The Apotheosis of Washington.” Painted in just 11 months after the completion of the new Capitol dome in 1864, the massive fresco is suspended 180 feet above the Rotunda floor and spans 4,664 square feet. How did an Italian immigrant earn such a commission? And why was George Washington chosen as the central figure of Brumidi’s masterpiece? To answer the first question, it helps to answer the second—and to reflect on Washington’s singular role in the founding of our nation. “Washington is the mightiest name of earth,” Abraham Lincoln declared in 1842. “To add brightness to the sun, or glory to the name of Washington, is alike impossible. Let none attempt it. In solemn awe pronounce the name, and in its naked, deathless splendor, leave it shining on.” The Man Who Walked Away From Power Those were not words of hyperbole, but of earned reverence. Washington led an upstart Continental Army to victory over the mighty British Empire—and then did something almost unimaginable: He resigned his commission. When the American artist Benjamin West informed King George III that Washington was walking away from power, the monarch famously replied, “If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.” Washington returned to Mount Vernon, choosing civilian life over a crown. Duty soon called again. In 1787, Washington was summoned to Philadelphia to preside over the Constitutional Convention. He was later unanimously elected as the nation’s first president. Among his many achievements, he signed the Northwest Ordinance of 1789 into law, barring slavery in new U.S. territories. After two terms, he again relinquished power and returned home. An Artist Finds His Calling But who was Brumidi—and how did he become the Capitol’s most important painter? “As a boy in Italy, he studied at a famous arts academy and learned how to fresco, painting on wet plaster so colors could become a permanent part of the wall,” the Capitol Historical Society notes. In Rome, Brumidi painted palaces, chapels, and the Pope’s residence at the Vatican. Forced to flee political upheaval during the Italian Revolution in 1852, Brumidi came to America. Living in New York, he traveled widely to paint private homes and churches, including a cathedral in Mexico City. On one return trip, he stopped in Washington, D.C., to visit the Capitol—a detour that changed his life. Painting a Nation The timing could not have been better. The Capitol had recently expanded to accommodate larger House and Senate chambers, leaving behind vast, empty walls. Brumidi was determined to fill them. He demonstrated his talent with a small painting in a Capitol meeting room, passed the audition, and soon became a permanent fixture—painting there for the next quarter century. So constant was his presence that few could remember a day when Brumidi was not at work in the Capitol. The scaffolding required for “The Apotheosis of Washington” became nearly as famous as the artist himself. According to the Capitol Historical Society, “Brumidi would lie down on the platform, working flat on his back as he painted on the curved surface seventeen stories above the Rotunda’s floor.” It was dangerous work, and people often gathered to watch him get pulled each day to the scaffolding’s peak. One fall nearly killed him, saved only by the quick action of a watchful security guard who was able to save him. Injured, Brumidi continued painting for another year before his death in 1880. 180 Feet in the Air The most memorable creation of Brumaldi’s career is his effort to honor our nation’s founding father. “In the central group of the fresco, Brumidi depicted George Washington rising to the heavens in glory, flanked by female figures representing Liberty and Victory/Fame,” notes Architect of the Capitol on its website. “A rainbow arches at his feet, and thirteen maidens symbolizing the original states flank the three central figures. The figures in the painting, up to 15 feet tall, were painted to be intelligible from close up as well as from 180 feet below.” What was the significance of this God-like rendition of Washington? “The fresco is less a deification of Washington than a creative recording of his achievements,” wrote Nayeli Riano. “Like any historical painting, it’s telling us a story about how we understand our nation and its identity.” Should art like Brumidi’s show such admiration for its subject? “We might easily mistake such a work as blind reverence,” Riano noted. “Indeed, this is not the case. Brumidi’s fresco demonstrates, instead, the purpose of art: to lift our spirits and grant us something—an ideal—worth striving for.” One of our great historians, the late David McCullough, agreed. “This isn’t ancestor worship, this is reality, this is the truth,” McCullough said not long before his death. “To be indifferent to people like Washington is a form of ingratitude. We ought to be down on our knees thanking God we’re a part of this country, and we ought to know about the people who made it possible.” Two Lives, One Dome That belief animated Brumidi. He honored Washington—and the nation that adopted him—not with speeches or essays, but with paint and paint brush. Washington died at Mount Vernon on Dec. 14, 1799, mourned around the world. Brumidi died nearly 80 years later in Washington, D.C., largely forgotten, with one final work left unfinished: the Capitol’s “Frieze of American History.” Thus ended the intertwined story of America’s Cincinnatus and America’s Michelangelo—forever connected in a fresco adorning the dome of the U.S. Capitol. One the American people have admired for centuries—and will be admiring for centuries to come. Originally published in Newsweek. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post A Presidents Day Story for the Ages: George Washington and the Italian Painter Who Honored Him appeared first on The Daily Signal.

When the Motul Hot Bike Tour fired back up for 2025, few builders felt it deeper than Bryan Schimke of […] The post Bryan Schimke Returns with a 1982 Harley-Davidson FXR – TPJ Style appeared first on Hot Bike Magazine.

The WARLOCKS MC STATEMENT REGARDING EPSTEIN LIST The statement comes after the motorcycle club was named in the Epstein files and covered by Insane Throttle. In the statement the Warlocks MC dispute that the member listed is no longer in the motorcycle club. Also we have a special guest- Woo, who’s thinking about getting into the Biker and motorcycle club niche. Will he make the jump? Don’t Forget to add us on your playlist over on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/artist/7BuMkurpv1EpOmRpoLOZHw WARLOCKS MC STATEMENT REGARDING EPSTEIN LIST 3 Hells Angels members from NZ barred entry  Member of Thug Riders MC punishment for admitting to organized crime charges Comancheros Operation Avon EASYRIDER MAGAZINE SPARKS OUTRAGE WITH CHOMO STORY

"I looked up to him. I was in love with him"

Denmark’s prime minister wants NATO to strike deep into Russia to start World War III in earnest. It brings a smile to Volodymyr Zelensky’s face. Will little Denmark, which has ruined its own country with an influx of disparate Western-culture haters, start World War III? They could. A war would help destroy the Western World. […] The post The American Marxists: Democrats Are “Unapologetically Marxist” appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

In 1996, when Senator Chuck Schumer called for voter ID, he thought illegal immigrants were voting for Republicans. Things changed when Democrats realized they weren’t. They now want as many illegal immigrants as possible, and they want them voting for them. The USA currently has a Democrat party that seeks to have a one-party system. […] The post Sen. Schumer Always Working to Destroy the USA appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

This article originally appeared in The New Jerusalem on Substack. * * * In the minds of most journalists, all human history can be summed up with the words, “Rome fell, then Hitler came.” A few more accomplished scholars among the chattering classes might be able to distinguish between the fall of Rome’s republic, followed by the empire, and the fall of the empire, followed by a thousand years of hideously faith-infused darkness. But basically, to journalists, all signs of political or cultural decadence — whether it’s a Republican being elected or some other Republican being elected — are omens that American Rome is about to collapse followed by the rise of American Hitler. “A Confessing Church for America’s Weimar Moment,” reads a headline in The Dispatch. “We must not let the shooting of Charlie Kirk become Trump’s Reichstag fire,” writes a genius at The Guardian. “Welcome to Weimar 2.0,” headlines a book excerpt by the catastrophist Robert D. Kaplan in Foreign Policy. And that’s not even counting the continual Hitler forecasts on cable TV. One could almost feel sorry for der old Führer, his psycho ass getting dragged out of hell every ten minutes to serve as a warning to us all. And look, yes, it’s true, the United States is in one of those periods of dissolution and transition that come upon every nation from time to time. So too was Weimar, the unstable republic that rose up in the wake of Germany’s crushing defeat in World War I. Such periods are often marked by polarized politics, destructive sexual profligacy wrongly celebrated as liberation, and art forms informed by and infused with the general cultural decay. So with America. So with Weimar. Beyond that, however, the comparison is a shallow one. For one thing, the image of Weimar among our clerisy is skewed with bias. Watch any movie set in the era — the musical Cabaret is a good one — or any television series — Babylon Berlin is my favorite — or read histories like Peter Gay’s famous Weimar Culture. You’ll get the sense that you’re learning about a time of delightful but doomed sexual and artistic creativity, with benign but hapless socialists slowly falling beneath the darkening Nazi shadow. But no. The undisciplined sex lives, the anti-freedom politics of both the left and the right, and the shocking but ultimately ephemeral cultural productions were all one thing, all part of the same process of decay. Weimar — and the world wars that preceded and followed it — marked the end of a civilization — the greatest civilization that has yet existed on planet Earth — the civilization that was Europe from around 1345 to 1914. It was this, in fact, that gave Hitler his rhetorical super power: he diagnosed the decadence correctly. He just didn’t realize he was its ultimate manifestation. Ah well. Even a mass murdering racist lunatic can’t be right all the time. Charles Chaplin movie art for the film ‘The Great Dictator’, 1940. (Photo by United Artists/Getty Images) So the United States is in a decadent state and so was Weimar, and decadence anywhere looks like decadence everywhere. History does repeat itself. But it repeats itself for a reason. It’s the same reason a person’s life tends to repeat itself. The human race, like each of its individual members, has a nature, a character. Like everything that exists, character is bounded by its defining limits. Those limits cause it to express itself in a finite number of patterns. Over time, those patterns are certain to reassert themselves in recognizable forms. The patterns of a healthy society or person will be shaped something like a rising spiral. Certain arcs of activity will recur over and over, but they will recur in increasingly wise, creative and productive ways. There will be periods of dissolution but they will be what is sometimes referred to as “chaos leading to a higher plane.” You can trace such a pattern in the plays of William Shakespeare. You can find it in the history of England between Elizabeth and the end of World War II. The history of a rotten society or person will form a descending spiral, the repeated arcs of foolishness and evil growing ever darker and more self-destructive. The life of every tyranny is like this. The life of every addict too. Then there’s the history of an ignorant or neurotic society or person. This will simply look like a circle. The subject goes round and round on a level track while uttering occasional gasps of wonder at having found themselves at a place they’ve passed a hundred times before but have a hundred times forgotten. You know people like this. Every now and then, they announce they’ve had some smack-the-forehead revelation that will change their lives forever. Then they return to the exact same ideas and behaviors they’ve had before. Perpetually primitive tribes are also like this, no matter how we want to romanticize them. In short, times of dissolution will indeed be followed by a transition. But Hitler — get ready for it — is not the only possible outcome. The time surrounding the French Revolution in Great Britain showed many of the usual signs of decadence, but the Victorian era that followed was arguably Britain’s greatest age. So with the United States in the 1920’s and 30’s. Those decadent days led to the mighty 1950’s and a new American half century. As with each individual, what follows a nation’s dissolution all depends on the essential health of the nation’s character. Where then are we? It seems obvious to me that the primary cause of our current decline is the falling away of the Baby Boomers. My age cohort has dominated the political and cultural landscape for seventy years. Now, we’re played out and heading for the exits. Our accomplishments were many. We made hypocritical virtue signaling an art, introduced self-destructive drug use to the general population, slowed the rise of black Americans by burying them under the smothering dependencies of the Great Society, and wasted all the money accumulated by every generation before us along with some money that will be accumulated by the generations to come. We also popularized the personal computer so, like, yay for us. What the United States will become when we are gone is, of course, not yet clear, but it’s a good bet it will be defined by the way we use the new forms of communication that have been and are still being generated by technology. Who or what will dominate those engines of culture is largely what all the current division, panic, bullying and violence is intended to decide. Periods like this are often resolved by the rise of a powerful personality. Will this person shape the coming Zeitgeist or merely ride its wave? Your answer will depend on whether you agree with Thomas Carlyle that “the History of the world is but the Biography of great men,” or with Tolstoy who said, “great men—so called—are but the labels that serve to give a name to an event.” Like the question of nurture or nature, this question is impossible to resolve, probably because, like the question of nature and nurture, the binary itself is an illusion. But as I say, contra the journalists, Hitler is not the only model for such era-defining personalities. George Washington and Queen Victoria are far more benign examples of the breed. Luther and Napoleon were mixed blessings. History is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get. When we scan the horizon for the coming definitive personality, it’s pretty hard to see the horizon with the gigantic Donald Trump standing in the way. So yeah, maybe he’s the guy. He has no coherent ideology so his effect may not be a lasting one. But he does bear all the marks of a Tolstoyan Godzilla. Like that monster created by nuclear blasts, Trump is the product of our generation’s eruption of materialist vulgarity. But he is also the avatar of the American everyman in our time. Like that character — much maligned by the elites who feed off his bounty — he is blunt, common sensical, creative, independent and bold. If he uses these traits to blast away such fatal nonsense as open borders, transgenderism and socialism — if he restores our simple patriotism and can-do spirit — the imprint of his nature may well be Trump’s legacy to the new age. But this is still America. Perhaps the great figure that will shape our 21st Century is not Trump or any other individual, but we, the people. In that case, Weimar, with its sexual libertinism, its artistic DaDaism and its polarized politics, actually does serve as a guide — a guide to what each and every one of us should not do. Let we, the people, then, like healthy men with healthy minds, eschew the habits of decadence. Get your sex life in order. Give up porn and feminism and other such perversions, and yolk your desires to their natural purposes: the creation of families, the solidifying of marriages and the maintenance of self-governing homes. In politics, murder your isms. Follow the facts instead. Do what works, what keeps people free, what makes free people happy, what encourages the wealthy but protects the poor. Our founding principles are still the best guides ever invented to achieving those ends. Use them. Make our leaders use them too. And in the culture, forget the overrated shock of the new. In the arts as in life, follow one rule: Make something beautiful. Whether it’s a movie or an invention, a business or a family, a community at peace or simply a life lived lovingly and well. Turn your back on every ugliness and cruelty. Head down the path of beauty and, like the prodigal son, you will see your Father running to greet you from afar. And that’s another thing — one last thing — love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind. In general, they neglected to do that in Weimar and ended up worshipping the devil instead. No matter what anyone tells you, those are the only two choices. Choose right, and I guarantee you, Hitler will stay in hell — or on cable TV, which amounts to the same thing — where he belongs. * * * This article originally appeared in The New Jerusalem on Substack. Andrew Klavan is the host of “The Andrew Klavan Show” at The Daily Wire. Klavan is the bestselling author of numerous books, including the Cameron Winter Mystery series. The fifth installment, After That, The Dark, is NOW AVAILABLE. Follow him on X: @andrewklavan. The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.