Ever wonder why the story about the war for independence seems incomplete? I mean it goes from Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill to the ratification of the Constitution. It's pretty obvious that the film is missing a lot from the {history} book.
That's because it IS incomplete! The war for independence was a GMFU! Someone should have pointed out that they got into the whole mess because of a war (French and Indian, Seven Years, La Conquête, Le Grand Dérangement, etc.). Starting another one is a BAD idea, but no...
Anyway, one of those poor broke American soldiers was my ancestor (or ancestors) who was (were) in the Pennsylvania line at Morristown. They served because some rich kid bought his way out of militia service.
And remember that according to Franklin, the main reason the Albany Plan of Union proposed in 1754 was
rejected was that “The colonial assemblies and most of the people were
narrowly provincial in outlook, mutually jealous, and suspicious of any
central taxing authority.”
And those clowns thought they could fight a war. Them and what army?
Oh, yeah, the French, the Spanish. and having the war become a world war (look it up).
People need to realise that getting unlawfully present people to do the work is not the answer to immigration. Would people on the left support slavery?
OK, I can get alone with true conservatives since I share some of their values. But the US isn't conservative, or Christian, as David Brooks points out. I agree with him when he says, "A key factor of the educated elite is not that they are pro-conservative, they are anti-left. (@5 :00)". Ths pretty much explains the differences.
One of the main reform which needs to happen before the US can truly see "democracy" (or a republic). I like to quote Julius Nyerere: "The United States is also a one-party state, but with typical American extravagance, they have two of them." On the other hand, there needs to be different parties to avoid the consolidation of power caused by the duopoly.
And the there really isn't a difference between a democracy and a republic:
Well, other than the founders had an unrealistic idea that the Roman republic was somehow stable and democracy was the equivalent of nihilism.
And The US once again proves that its gun problem effects the rest of the world.
The US should have enacted strict gun control had it been serious about the GWOT, but we know that was a joke. And we have defence distributed on top of it all.
I said I am on the outs with most of the "Gun Violence Prevention" crowd lately and David Hogg's ejection from the DNC is yet another glaring example of why. I don't know what he is hoping to do, but it won't get done through the duopoly. The Dems have a habit of talking progressive, but doing nothing significant about it.
Instead, they hope to get people that they can point to and say, "They are progressive" while the rest of the party sits in the malaise that Hogg finally pointed out.
But hoping to get a solution from the parties which are the problem is going to prove fruitless: especially if you are trying to get reform by attacking their standard operating procedure. There's a reason that the primaries are pretty much meaningless.
And what has changed in regard to your pet issue? If anything, it's much easier to buy a gun now than it was when I was your age. And fully automatic weapons are more freely available along with talk of silencers being struck off the NFA list.
Just think of the carnage if the Parkland shooter had one of those!
I could get into how the duopoly uses the "hot button" issues to avoid addressing real problems. After all, I've been pointing out how meaningless Juneteenth is. After all, what is the state of the Voting Rights Act of 1965?
Anyway, David, we have a couple of issues in common: political change in the US, in particular election reform, and Firearms Regulation/Second Amendment. I can tell you that you are being overly optimistic if you have any hope in bringing about change within the Democratic Party/Duopoly.
And while making the switch to a third party is something I did myself: you have to commit to getting new parties in the game, which the duopoly have hindered. But that's the only way for change to come about.
This may be more legend, than reality as my previous post pointed out.
The big one: Granger may not have read the proclamation.
Longstanding urban legend places a historic reading of General Order No. 3 at Ashton Villa; but no historical evidence supports this claim.[41] There is no evidence that Granger or any of his troops proclaimed
the Ordinance by reading it aloud. All indications are that copies of
the Ordinance were posted in public places, including the Negro Church
on Broadway, since renamed Reedy Chapel A.M.E. Church.
Secondly, despite the Union victory, Slaves were not freed, as this points out. And to recap this from yesterday:
Although this event commemorates the end of slavery, emancipation for the remaining enslaved population in two Union border states, Delaware and Kentucky, would not come until December 6, 1865, when the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified.[44][c][e]
The federal amendment also put a definitive end to chattel
slavery and indentured servitude in New Jersey, freeing approximately 16
elderly individuals.[f][47][48] Furthermore, thousands of black slaves were not freed until after the Reconstruction Treaties
of late 1866, when the Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and
Seminole tribes were forced to sign new treaties that required them to
free their slaves.[49][50]
The freedom of formerly enslaved people in Texas was given state law status in a series of Texas Supreme Court decisions between 1868 and 1874.
OK, the video isn't totally accurate since it doesn't get into the fact that the Emancipation Proclaimation only freed slaves in most of the Confederate Territory, not all of it. That's an important point, which is being left out of this. The video also continues the nonsense about Grainger's General Order. It only gets good when it gets to the truth of the matter: the General Order didn't do a lot for the slaves of Texas.
I would start watching at 4 minutes in.
If the point of this is to commemorate the end of slavery, then there is probably a much better date for that. But has slavery ended if prison labour can be used in a similar way?
from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States
and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this
day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:
Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St.
Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James
Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and
Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama,
Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except
the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the
counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York,
Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and
Portsmouth[)], and which excepted parts, are for the present, left
precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.
And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do
order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said
designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be
free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including
the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain
the freedom of said persons.
Ever wonder where this came from? I mean unless you were listening, this event came out of the blue. OK, I'm going to be lazy and quote Wikipedia, and not even bother to remove the footnotes, just because this whole thing isn't really worth my time.
Texas was the first state to recognize the date by enacted law, in 1980. By 2002, eight states officially recognized Juneteenth[97] and four years later 15 states recognized the holiday.[54] By 2008, just over half of the states recognized Juneteenth in some way.[98] By 2019, 47 states and the District of Columbia recognized Juneteenth,[99] although as of 2020 only Texas had adopted the holiday as a paid holiday for state employees.[100]
In June 2019, Governor of Pennsylvania Tom Wolf recognized Juneteenth as a holiday in the state.[101] In the yearlong aftermath of the murder of George Floyd that occurred on May 25, 2020, nine states designated Juneteenth a paid holiday,[102] including New York, Washington, and Virginia.[103] In 2020, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker
issued a proclamation that the day would be marked as "Juneteenth
Independence Day". This followed the filing of bills by both the House
and Senate to make Juneteenth a state holiday. Baker did not comment on
these bills specifically but promised to grant the observance of
Juneteenth greater importance.[104] On June 16, 2021, Illinois adopted a law changing its ceremonial holiday to a paid state holiday.
So, if you're like me, you didn't notice this "holiday" this year, but I have various reasons which make that an easy thing to do. I can say "Juneteenth Quoi ?" or more like "Juneteenth, quoi c'est bordel?" And most people should be doing that since the 1980s and 1990s, the holiday has been more widely celebrated
among African-American communities and has seen increasing mainstream
attention in the US. In other words, it popped into the consciousness around 120 years after the fact. And it may be more fiction than fact since.
Planters and other slaveholders from eastern states had migrated into
Texas to escape the fighting, and many brought enslaved people with
them, increasing by the thousands the enslaved population in the state
at the end of the Civil War.[9] Although most lived in rural areas, more than 1,000 resided in Galveston or Houston by 1860, with several hundred in other large towns.[37] By 1865, there were an estimated 250,000 enslaved people in Texas.[9][8]
Despite the surrender of Confederate General-in-Chief Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, the western Confederate Army of the Trans-Mississippi did not formally surrender until June 2.[9] On the morning of June 19, 1865, Union Major General Gordon Granger arrived on the island of Galveston[38]
to take command of the more than 2,000 federal troops recently landed
in the department of Texas to enforce the emancipation of its enslaved
population and oversee Reconstruction, nullifying all laws passed within Texas during the war by Confederate lawmakers.[38][39]
The order informed all Texans that, in accordance with a Proclamation
from the Executive of the United States, all enslaved people were free:
The people of Texas are informed
that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United
States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of
personal rights and rights of property between former masters and
slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that
between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain
quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed
that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they
will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.[40]
Longstanding urban legend places a historic reading of General Order No. 3 at Ashton Villa; but no historical evidence supports this claim.[41] There is no evidence that Granger or any of his troops proclaimed
the Ordinance by reading it aloud. All indications are that copies of
the Ordinance were posted in public places, including the Negro Church
on Broadway, since renamed Reedy Chapel A.M.E. Church.[42]
On June 21, 2014, the Galveston Historical Foundation and Texas Historical Commission
erected a Juneteenth plaque where the Osterman Building once stood
signifying the location of Major General Granger's Union Headquarters
believed to be where he issued his general orders.[43]
Although this event commemorates the end of slavery, emancipation for the remaining enslaved population in two Union border states, Delaware and Kentucky, would not come until December 6, 1865, when the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified.[44][c][e]
The federal amendment also put a definitive end to chattel
slavery and indentured servitude in New Jersey, freeing approximately 16
elderly individuals.[f][47][48] Furthermore, thousands of black slaves were not freed until after the Reconstruction Treaties
of late 1866, when the Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and
Seminole tribes were forced to sign new treaties that required them to
free their slaves.[49][50]
The freedom of formerly enslaved people in Texas was given state law status in a series of Texas Supreme Court decisions between 1868 and 1874.
So, this make be the biggest commemoration of a non-event that ever happened because it wasn't the actual end of slavery in Texas and the General may never have made a speech telling the slaves of a plantation in Galveston that they were free!
And for that matter, there was still slavery despite the Emancipation proclamation!
You weren't crazy if you were wondering why you had never heard of it before 2020,
And you were among a very small group of people if you DID know about this prior to this year.
While
the media tried to make this sound like something which had been around
for a long time, the reality is that the Juneteenth this was
steamrollered over us. Wired points it out in their Why Juneteenth Went Viral.Wired's piece tends toward this being something contemplative, but I do question the interest in Juneteenth, as opposed to Odunde, as being virtue signalling.
It's no coincidence that the movement to celebrate Juneteenth came during the Black Lives Matter
riots (sorry, but more than one city was trashed and these were
counterproductive as fuck. So, fuck you, I'll call them as I see them).
It's more of the meaningless virtue signalling to try and calm the
rioters.
But it was a small group of people who made this a thing as Protocol's How a Group of Creatives made Juneteenth 'spread like wildfire'. Yeah, "creatives" as in advertising types. Not just any advertising types, but ones connected to the social media industry.
I
am trying to break from the surveillance economy,. Not only do they
keep tabs on you, but they try and influence your opinion.
I cried "bullshit" about Russiagate.
I'm crying "bullshit" about the virtue signalling relating to Black Lives Matter.
Nothing significant will come from the past few months. If anything,
those events will make matters worse. I know they increased gun sales.
I am already certain that Trump will be reelected. Even if he isn't, the Democratic candidate isn't onside.
So, what was the point of it all?
I prefer substance to Bullshit, but the bullshit is piling up like the trash on the streets of Philadelphia and NYC.
{OK, Given that Juneteenth isn't really that meaningfull, this was pulled from Wikipedia and a couple of my previous post on the issue. This is a "holiday" that needs to GO AWAY because it's BS].
The US constitution makes it clear that it deals with issues of the common defence, that is the military. It also does not mention personal uses, especially selkf-defence. It's long past time when the absurdity of "gun rights" is ended.
I wanted to come up with something about the targeted assassinations in Minnesota, which is where my two co-bloggers were located. It needs to be tied into what Luigi Mangione did and why that is not acceptable, even if you agree with his message. It's interesting that the act of political violence against politicians happened in Minnesota, even if that is only coincidental. On the other hand, political violence is a very disturbing trend. I agree with this commentator that it doesn't bode well for a country.
Armed mobs are more of a recipe for repression than freedom.
Gimme a break! You need to read the constitution and TRY to understand it. But this is a good rundown. The constitution is pretty clear that it doesn't want rebellion if you really read the thing.
And I agree with much of what everybody is saying. But I think one thing I just want to point out is it looks to me like this -- there might be a not guilty by reason of insanity defense that they're going to be thinking about, because the evidence is going to be so overwhelming that he did what he did.
This is truly an open and shut case.
But, to quote H.L. Mencken:
"No one in this world, so far as I know—and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me—has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.
Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby. The mistake that is
made always runs the other way. Because the plain people are able to
speak and understand, and even, in many cases, to read and write, it is
assumed that they have ideas in their heads, and an appetite for more.
This assumption is a folly."
It never fails to amaze me the people who support Mangione.
Now that Mangione's handwritten confession, which it pretty much is, is out there, we see him talking about "normies". I've already described him as a 21st century Leopold and Loeb. A smart, rich kid who thought he could commit a the perfect crime and get away with it. Unlike Leopold and Loeb who tried to commit the perfect crime,
this guy was a total bozo. He was way too obvious and didn't cover his
tracks.
The notebook is basically Mangione talking about his preparation for the murder. I have to admit that it has me thinking about Leopold and Loeb who thought they were clever enough to get away with murder, and they spent months plotting out what they considered to be a foolproof scheme. Mangione talks about Ted Kaczynski, the unabomber. He also talks about how he failed because the "normies" thought he was a monster. But what is a "normie"? Someone who is normal? Which is another thing which makes me think of Leopold and Loeb:
Leopold was interested in psychology, particularly the concept of Übermenschen
(“supermen”) put forth by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.
Nietzsche suggested that there were certain members of society with
superior intellect who were able to rise above the laws that were meant
for ordinary people.
Soon, Leopold became convinced that he was one of these supermen and,
as such, was not bound by the laws or ethics of society. Eventually, he
convinced Loeb that he was one, too.
They thought they were immune from society's laws, and to prove that, they would commit the perfect
crime:
At the end of 1923, Leopold and Loeb started planning their “perfect
crime.” They decided murder would garner the most attention, so they
began plotting how they would get away with it. They chose a weapon,
decided how they would dispose of the body, and drafted a ransom note.
All they needed was a victim.
Mangione is looking for a victim who won't be sympathetic so he can "finally feel confident about what I will do. The details are coming
together. And I don't feel any doubt about whether it's
right/justified," He picked his victim because he worked in the insurance industry: "The target is insurance. It checks every box." Even sicker is that he decided he should instead "wack [sic] the CEO" at the conference because it doesn't "risk innocents."
He may have book smarts, but he sure as fcuk lacks knowse. There were several bystanders and his homemade gun put them in danger of being shot. He also seems unaware that terrorism isn't about the amount or extent of the victims or damage, but is very much a crime of intent. He wrote himself into a death penalty. Toss in that most jurisdictions enhance extrajudicial killing if they show intent. And His confession is more than enough proof.
He should have stuck to gaming since reality isn't his strong point.
There is a big difference between Leopold and Loeb and Luigi as he is now. Leopold commented on his and Loeb’s “perfect crime" in his autobiography:
“Looking back from the vantage point of today, I cannot
understand how my mind worked then. For I can recall no feeling then of
remorse. Remorse did not come until later, much later. It did not begin
to develop until I had been in prison for several years; it did not
reach its full flood for perhaps 10 years. Since then, for the past
quarter century, remorse has been my constant companion. It is never out
of my mind. Sometimes it overwhelms me completely, to the extent that I
cannot think of anything else.”
Also, Leopold and Loeb plead guilty, their process was a sentencing hearing. Mangione isn't willing to admit he was caught. I think his arrogance is clouding his judgement.
Anyway, these are just my observations from what I have seen of both cases. And like Leopold and Loeb, Luigi is going to go away. But I don't think he is going to escape the death penalty unless he pleads out, but his ego won't allow him to plead out.
And a jury nullifier might cause a mistrial, but that will only delay the inevitable that Luigi will never see freedom. I also wonder how many of these lovestruck people would want a homicidal stalker loose on the world?
Stop laughing at Joe Biden: Armalite actually thought about making them. So, if you are going to take people to task for saying AR in AR15 (or AR-7) is "assault rifle", then you can't attack Biden for talking about AR-14s, because Armalite did have plans...
Now I'm curious if there are some serious gun nuts out there who will want to buy a real Armalite AR-14!
Given that health care is a big topic, I think he would have had a lot more appeal. Toss in that he comes from a historically red State (Vermont). The only people he didn't appeal to were the big donors.
I've always thought "We the people" was propaganda: especially since the Constitution was pretty much drafted in secret. This is an interesting take on the document.
