Tomorrow is the federal holiday honoring Juneteenth, the celebration of the announcement in Texas on June 19th, 1865, that enslaved Americans were free.
Laura, I agree with you. Reading this, I thought of my ancestors, newly arrived in Ohio from Europe in 1857, and the changes they saw take place. So incredible to see the wisdom and gumption of Congress, especially as compared to Congress today.
The comparison is probably more like night versus day…high noon vs. midnight—depending upon one’s location on planet earth at the time. Sadly, it was back then they might have been more in the sunshine or sunlight of day as opposed to present day—or so it might seem?
Think about it: what were our causes, our failures that allowed us to elect such a truly flawed, narcissistic individual and now a felon to the “most powerful position” or role on planet earth? So in which time period were they/we riding or driving blind?
I agree, the cruelty of criminals embedded in business and government per the "iron triangles" Heather described earlier is being felt around the world. As someone else noted here, best to call it a regime not an administration. I like that suggestion as "administration" makes it sound like a normal sane government which it is not.
I agree, twump has created a following of heartless people that make it a good thing to hate certain people. People who are not white, not straight, women are his targets. Sound familiar? Sound like what Hitler did? You got it. The more twump does it the more "normalized" it becomes. Plus his lies are so continuous that he and his news sources twist the truth and his followers are not even hearing what he really does.
Jim, I'm going to go with greed as the main cause. It all boils down to that; I think that the hatred of the "other" is a close second, so maybe tribalism is at it's root cause.
Well said Michele. Yet even hatred is another fear based emotion / narrative / bias. Fear that the greed motive can't be sufficiently fulfilled if people can't be 'property' who only exist as 'capital property' in furtherance of the greed motives; profit and liability / responsibility avoidance. I own and live just such a narrative, for the past 8 years.
The first thing my college econ Professor wrote on the black board for memorization was a line by RW Emerson: " “Want is a growing giant whom the coat of Have was never large enough to cover.” That could rightfully be modified accurately to read, "Greed is a growing giant for whom the coat of 'have' is never large enough to cover." And it's a truth, as applicable today as when Emerson first wrote it and before; Hence slaves, castes, etc.
The Prophet Muhammad’s last sermon ended with a quotation from the Quran (verse 49:13) in which God addresses the whole of humanity. “Oh humankind, we have created you all from a single male and a single woman, and formed you into tribes and nations so that you may get to know one another.”
My translation: Tribalism is not a root cause of a problem. Instead, a tribe that includes some people and excludes others is the root cause of hatred of the "other" and greed just to name two of more symptoms than you can shake a stick at. The way to act on that cause is to acknowledge that we are all subjects of a tribe that needs to exclude the idea that it's okay to exclude some people.
For the record, that idea is the founding principle of all the world's great religions.
To my mind as well. For example, Islam split into warring tribes soon after Muhammad's death, and Moses couldn't go for a walk without the people God chose choosing themselves over God, but I know lots of people who identify as scientists who seem to think practicing science involves disregarding -- and not adhering to -- its first principle (science involves subjecting one's assumptions to rigorous skepticism).
Curing the disease begins with observing, describing, and treating its symptoms, but it won't be cured until enough people acknowledge its "us versus them" root cause.
Ally, we have the founding principles of religions and the ideals of the Constitution, but flawed humans are in charge of the institutions of religion and government. Some people will always find a way to use these ideals and principles to their own purposes and talk, but do not walk. Greed is one of the main drivers of the failures of both religion and government. They fall into the hands of people like death star or Joel Olsteen (sp?) for two modern examples.
Enough of the population has never really accepted any progress for anyone other than the ruling white class. That meant that the election of Obama made them very resentful. And then there has been the progress for other than heterosexuals, Native Americans, and women to control their lives and bodies. Juneteenth as a Federal holiday is just another poke in the eye. This is the population that whines that there is no white history month, etc. And as an aside, that rat loves to toy with people, maybe I will and maybe I won't.
I believe that the rat thinks he is in a movie, no clue to the true gravity of the situation. He always sees his (imagined) handsome self on a screen of some kind.
I totally agree. Without empathy for anyone, twump just pictures himself as the lead actor in the Presidency Reality Show. And since he bases all his actions on transactions, as Mary Trump has told us, all his actions are determined by what he personally stands to gain
It's worthy of consideration that many among our youth overwhelmingly voted for Obama - and as a hopeful change agent for much. As they see it, he failed utterly. What they may *have failed to have also noticed is that he was saddled, especially his second term by an intransigent, interference bound congress.
i understand about Obama. I think he was also burdened with being the first black president. He tended to be cautious. People make the mistake that in our system, progress can occur just like that when it takes years and hard work. What we are seeing now is how much easier it is to destroy what has taken years to accomplish. Now we may have reached the point of not being able to restore what is gone.
It's important to mention that one of our country's biggest problems related to our elections and the resulting actions of those entrusted with office responsibility to govern is that our nation's largest voting block consists of the legally-registered voters who find it easy to not fulfill their civic duty of voting -- if not once every two years -- at least do so once every 4 years!
Of course we do. We have been in the minority before. I see Congress people fighting for what is right every day--Raskin, Crockett, Frost, Lin, Schumer, AOC, Sanders, and many others. I invite people to watch some of the congressional hearings. The Democrats are raising their voices like never before.
Never surrender in advance. There are more of us than them. And we will win.
Barbara, thank you for reminding people of this. I see my own senators, Wyden and Merkley speaking out. Senator Padilla is certainly speaking out. Our Rep is busy talking with and visiting her constituents as well as posting her positions despite the fact that the trolls and bots roll in. And bravo to Senator Smith speaking directly to Senator Lee about his putrid remarks on the assassinations in Minnesota. Rs will surely suffer if we have anything close to fair elections in 2026. We have jerks here in Oregon trying to destroy vote by mail and the far right Judicial Watch putting its oar in including wanting voter info.
I agree, not a functioning one anyway. twump extorts them all. The GOP should band together against him, but they are chicken since he threatens them with their jobs and their lives. twump should be brought to the courts for his Extortion!
Abolition of slavery in the law was, perhaps, the easy part. Abolishing white supremacy will require a generation or two. Why Reconstruction and the Great Society failed: distractions and too compact a time horizon of eight and five years, respectively.💔
The old voices still ring, and they still ring. Hegseth testified that changing military bases back to those of Confederate Generals was important to men who trained or been stationed owing to their attachment of brotherhood to a Fort Bragg or a Fort Lee. 🤢
Those soldiers' attachment is to the men and women they lived with at the facility and the memories of drills, etc. It seems hard to believe that anyone who is not a racist would have an attachment to a mere name . . . and one of a traitor to boot. 🖕
Hegseth is anything but an authority. He’s a mouthpiece for tfg in order to keep the job he’s unqualified for. I saw two clips of him “testifying” (=lying in MAGAland) this week. The two were Elissa Slotkin and Elizabeth Warren. His sneering arrogance, coupled with sarcasm and screaming disrespect for these women, made me so angry I had to move on to something else. What a pig. Just like his boss.
Hegseth is a miserable human being who seems to thrive off of making others miserable. As someone pointed out, erasing Harvey Milk's name from a U.S. navy ship, Hegseth has failed to erase history in this case; we are all talking about Harvey Milk.
Ned, I note that lots of posts are now appearing about women, blacks, immigrations, Native Americans in an attempt to keep these things before people. I would also like to give a shout out to our local classical radio station, all classical in Portland. They are committed to community, inclusiveness, diversity, kindness, and joy. They just finished a fundraiser, longer than usual, because of the House vote....may those who voted for that burn in hell. A lot of those donating made clear that they were aware of that. You can stream all classical anywhere.
Hegseth does that by the fifth, and another fifth, and a quart, more fifths, more quarts. Interspersed with following his orange pig face mob boss in raping, groping, ogling, fondling, grabbing, and smirking, bragging about same.
I had so much trouble watching that. At one point, I felt she was losing her senatorial demeanor while at the same time realizing how important this subject is to her.
Hegseth is worse than a pig. Pigs are nice. He's a greasy self-grandizing over an esteemed poor excuse for a man. His disregard for women, people of color, or anyone in his way is disgusting. There is nothing worse than untreated alcoholism, and he has it in spades. He needs to be fired!
DO watch the short YouTube clip of the formidable Tammy Duckworth reaming Hegseth out. Tammy has integrity and guts, and makes it clear that Hegseth is a worm, at best.
The renaming of the military bases back to Confederates honors traitors. It is an insult to every truly patriotic American.
I think it will take more than a generation or two to suppress and remove the "white supremacy" in our society. It is built into the DNA of millions of people who claim to be Americans. They aren't of course. They are Confederate Traitors. It will take a powerful righteous movement and more, tougher laws.
Teaching equality will need to be enshrined in every school curriculum. Discrimination and bigotry will need to be prosecuted and punished. Churches will need to teach what Jesus taught (he ought to know, he was black).
Until every public figure condemns bigotry and racial discrimination, until every news outlet displays outrage at every incident, until all bigoted politicians are blackballed and blacklisted and shamed in they communities so harshly that they feel as if they need to change their identity and flee the country.
Discrimination needs to be viewed as and treated as we treat assault and theft. Because that's what it is. Theft of rights, theft of dignity, theft of justice. Assault on personhood.
Until we take white supremacy seriously as a total society, people of color will be in danger. A whole lot of this and younger generations who have been programmed will need to "find the truth" or die - before we will be free of this superstition and hate.
DEI should be federal law. Teaching it should be required at every level of school. Non stop. Full stop. Every employer regardless of size or nature should be required to teach DEI and PRACTICE it. Churches that don't preach and teach it should have their tax exempt status removed - retroactively.
I am flying the Flag on this Federal Holiday. I look at it and feel compassion and admiration for anyone who is of color - they live a life that we whiteys just can't feel or fathom. And this year on June 19th, 2025!!! I look at it and I feel shame. In 2025 we are still fighting a Civil War over the same stuff. Enough.
Bill, you wrote, "Teaching equality will need to be enshrined in every school curriculum."
This is one of the eventualities Republican white supremacists fear, which is why they have been systematically embezzling public education funding and redirecting it to private schools that are shielded from meeting public education requirements.
And they could care less that the dollars they take away from public to private education, will ruin the public schools. They have rammed this through the all gop house and senate, and governorship. Too few, here in Ohio too, are failing to connect the dots.
BUMMER. I think healthy competition of educational approaches may aid us. But not at the expense of a poor child's ability to learn what (s)he needs to be a good citizen.
My own journey in confronting racism and, if not extirpating it, curbing the behavior and judgements passed on people of color has been slow and painful. It started with my father's sense of civility, though he had his prejudice, and my mother's fierce egalitarianism in her everyday behavior.
It required my failure in, and rejection by, the larger business culture. Above are my thoughts on this thorny question of race. For some reason, my prejudices toward indigenous people and hispanics, also people of color, has never been as deeply rooted as that toward Blacks.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Even more, thank you for being honest, first with yourself, and then with those who make up your circle of family and friends; finally, with the rest of us. You evidence the courage it takes to confront our own demons and distortions. Would that more of us might do the same. Maturing a democratic republic of the diversity and complexity that is America was never viewed by our Founding Fathers as easy, and they were surely right. Current events provide all the evidence one might need. As painful as the myriad injustices are toward all those who are "different" or not of the privileged class, or in a category we view with disdain or disrespect, we have the option to reflect, learn, and self-correct. That isn't easy, either. Just attempting it is a bridge too far for many folks.
At least, you have shown us that it can be done. I applaud your dedication and am inspired by your accomplishment.
Your contribution to this thread, like many that have shown up, illustrates why Heather's insightful history lessons are such a priceless resource for those who believe in the Idea of America and wish to contribute somehow to Our Great American Experiment. You have made my day.
Agreed 111%. A.I., obviously I am blushing with gratitude at your compliment. Much of that courage, if it is courage, came over time as an acquired taste.
Ned, I appreciate your willingness to change. I know that it's difficult to overcome things from one's past. I wish more people had the courage to do the work.
I was a supporter (still am) of BLM. Reading your piece here, with the thought you put into it to understand the movement, as well as explain the history that led to it, gave me a new perspective on why it is so important.
I hadn't put that kind of thought into supporting it at the time. I just thought I understood "we've had enough of police killing us," without connecting everything else that led to it.
And my thanks to you. Mike -- as I said to Ally -- for you taking the time to read through a long, likely tedious, essay. Says a lot that is complimentary of you than my thinking ever could.
Ned, I wonder in these conversation if the taint of the founders of the BLM movement's accumulation of personal wealth has caused confusion in some of the public's mind. How do we separate the ideal from the grift?
Agreed, yet the problem remains. Greed and grift are especially harmful faults for any advocacy effort. The founders have tainted the name, perhaps a different name for the effort is in order.
Exploiting labor and resources without any restraint in pursuit of profit is the basis of unregulated capitalism. I think capitalism is tied up with white supremacy. I think we cannot stop white supremacy unless we stop unregulated capitalism. Right now people measure their worthwhileness by the total of their bank account and other assets
Agreed. I like a model that provides social basics of education, healthcare, child care, elder care, infrastructure and information integrity. And other countries have shown us how to do that along side a vibrant creative but carefully regulated free enterprise system of "capitalism". We just refuse to learn from the success of others.
If I were a Marxist, I would say that racism is a myth created by capitalists to keep white and brown proletarians fighting amongst themselves rather than challenging my privilege. Yet, I am far from a Marxist and believe that capitalism has elevated billions of people from poverty to the middle class . . . if it is regulated and contained.
Regulated is the thing I think. Unregulated moves toward privatization—I think there needs to be brakes for certain life essentials such as housing, education, essential foods, water, utilities including internet, etc. Those could be regulated for the public good and protected from privatization. I am not sure how that can work with capitalism but I bet someone could figure out how the two things can exist together. Because yes, trading moves goods and capital to market but somehow unregulated sucks the wealth out and leaves too many behind. Not sure how this would work. Needs to be examined I think.
Well it seems to work pretty well in a lot of Europe. In fact among the E.U. countries, Hungary's authoritarianism has impoverished a fine people with a rich history and culture. That exception proves the proverbial rule.
Once upon a time in your America, many things besides the U.S. mail was regulated; Utilities, airlines, trucking (inter state commerce) among them. Private property was seized under eminent domain for the public common good to install telegraph line, then electrical lines and grids, telephone services. The mad rush to privatize those services in my lifetime and recollection began with our own Jimmy Carter, sold as he was on the 'miracles' of private industry and the magic invisible hand of capitalism to automatically if not magically make all things product, pricing, and availability universally affordable to all Americans. That sweet soul is rolling in his grave, as certainly as is Lincoln.
What came to happen in practice is that there were necessary products and services that private industry could not make nor deliver affordably or profitably 'enough' to be bothered. Government filled those needs without profit. Of course now the capitalists are lobbying for those services including services of our collective government that we agreed and swore to live within, to be sold out for profit; Along with our National assets including federal lands with the assets there upon, and more to come.
Exactly Mary; You echo points I've made here over and over again. The OiD is a tool; It's the coalition of 'deplorables' who support him that is the greater danger; Those above him, the Heritage Foundation, Koch Industries, Leonard Leo, The Federalist Society, and all their corporate donors. Find them, rob them of income, and watch the OiD fail faster.
"I think capitalism is tied up with white supremacy..."
How so? Socialism, Communism and Marxism are White European constructs, while "capitalism" has evolved in every know society at some point world wide since humans learned to first barter.
B.L.U.F. (bottom-line, up-front): your implicit assumption that capitalism is innate to human beings or culture may not stack up.😳
Socialism, Communism, Progressivism, the Welfare State, and Marxism grew as countervailing forces against unfettered, unregulated capitalism. Adam Smith was white and mercantilist colonialism was a white invention. Getting an eight hour work day still entailed more labor than expected by medieval land-lords before the capitalist work ethic set in.🤔
The fine book, 'The Dawn of Everything' adduces evidence that other parts of the world often had far more egalitarian cultures, even those with hierarchies. The book delves into an interesting mid-twentieth century Peninsulare (i.e., a Latin American of pure Iberian blood; well-born into a well-to-do family benefitting from capitalism). 🫨
Abducted as a little girl, this woman grew up with an Amazonian tribe for twenty-four years. In her thirties, she left the supposedly fierce people to re-join her upper-class, modern life with the blessing of the tribe's people. Later she returned to that indigenous culture; she felt more at ease with its communalist equalitarianism.🤝🏻
Apparently, this lady was far from unique with other white children brought up by first-nation societies preferring them to the white, often British, culture. One feature among many of these supposedly primitive societies made sure that power-driven personalities or hierarchies were contained to compress inequality of wealth.💡
Ned, that capitalism is found in other than White societies is not an implicit assumption, it's a fact. Bartering and trading for profit goes farther back than the ancients. There were capitalist exchanges in Asia, Africa and South America millenia before White intervention. That's not an assumption. Adam Smith didn't invent capitalism, Smith was an economist who explained capitalism, much as Darwin didn't invent Evolution but explained it via Natural Selection. Much of Smith's contribution was debunking the idea that wealth was a divine intervention. He also promoted the idea that a good employer does well by practicing concern for the employee, a progressive ideal. I agree that unfettered and unregulated capitalism is a bad idea, but it has never been so in the US. Indeed the US Constitution provides for the regulation of trade for profit. For what it's worth lumping the welfare state in with state control of the means of production and distribution of wealth is a stretch. The Nordic Model is practiced in the capitalist nations of Scandinavia.
As far as colonialism being a White invention I suggest a reading of the histories of China, Japan, and Arabia amongst others. There were plenty of non-White colonial powers. It's was part of human social evolution not exclusive of White supremacy. You can argue Europe was best at it for many reasons. Jared Diamond does a good job explaining why Europe exceeded others in his book, Guns, Germs and Steel.
Yes, like the German’s did about Nazism after WWII- abolish Confederate statues, and continue to teach about the horrors of the holocaust that their citizens perpetrated on the Jews.
The difference was that Germany was occupied by great powers determined to enforce that erasure. Yet, Germany's breath-taking example -- as well as that of Japan's -- of transcending a dark period to graduate into a great-power democracy.
The problem with bigots, as I see it, is that they see life as a zero sum game. They do not understand that being inclusive makes life better for everyone. Maybe if we start teaching that in Kindergarten we might make some progress. I don't know how you get bigots to understand the path to making life better, to get them to care about others, to realize that nothing is taken from them if they allow others to succeed.
If you do figure them out, including half of my extended, please let me know. Then I will not be so bizzy alienating others. The public service advertisements on littering and smoking when I was little sure influenced me. Imagine the impact education might have in socializing little ones into a more communal society.
Bill, thank you for this post even as the current regime does its best to do the opposite. Btw, I am reading Elaine Pagel's recent (2025) book on Jesus called Miracles and Wonders which is a fascinating look at what she calls the historical mystery of Jesus.
Thank you for your comment. Elaine Pagels' book 'Beyond Belief' always comes to mind, or at least pops to the top ten, when someone asks the impossible question about favorite books. I look forward to finding and reading her new book!
A book that documents the attitudes of White Supremacy that allowed people to own slaves and to resent any interference with this, as well as driving native people's off their land is Freedom's Dominion by historian Jefferson Cowie. In that book he documents the concept of freedom that is free for me but not for thee, this concept is alive and well today. We see the Oligarchs embracing it, the Christian Nationalists embracing it, and in general, the people who have a hold of our government.
Reminds me of 'Animal Farm' by George Orwell and some pigs being more equal than others. One question my fellow conservatives never seem to ask: in the end, ¿whose resources are these?
I used to think it would take a generation or two, but assumed we would keep at the harder part of sustaining and building on the progress made.
Now, seeing the determined opposition and apparently well financed anti-fact checkers' claims of all sorts of conspiracies, matched with super evasive, well practiced lie spouting appointees and spokespeople, I see the forces trying to reverse all that progress.
To me it is like we took all the strategic ground, but are failing to really secure it for the long term, populated with fair, local self-governing people, honest agents of an ever improving democracy.
How far will they go? Take Tina Peters, the County Clerk of Mesa County, Colorado. She was convicted of on several counts (including 4 felonies), related to unauthorized access to voting machines as described at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tina_Peters_(politician)
What are the potential consequences of that security breach alone, to me just an early example of the far worse breaches of the first few months of this administration. Let's see a meaningful bi-partisan investigation of just how far it seems they want to go on rigging vote counts. A good start seems to be at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk1A-tLIaXY
In December 1979, l finally put the plug in the jug college since my honor was in tatters and so I could graduate. I have never missed that escapism for forty-five years and change . . . until now. That does not mean I will indulge but it is an indicator of the level of despair I sometimes feel in those darker moments. I am watching your vid. now, Jim; thank you.
EDIT: I have watched the vid. Eye-opening. I had felt that Trump did not win because of those who voted for him but thanks to those who did not show up to vote for Vice President Harris. My concern, not very strong, was that part of the no-show had to do with suppression of voting rights. These two women make a persuasive case that a far darker possibility be investigated.
You are naming what nags at many of us. The results were too weird. There is actually a country in New York that does not show oven one vote for Harris. Musk has made quite clear assertions about giving trump the win and I don't think it is just about money. In addition, voter suppression and gerrymandering are playing ever increasing roles in elections.
Dark if true, obviously. That is one thing that got me about this vid. The colossal stupidity of tampering with a county in New York, a state Trump would never win. If the Rockland County suit pans out, then there is momentum is states where tampering might really have counted BIG TIME.
What eats at me is how we could have such an incredibly strong movement with the Harris/Walz ticket and then the results. The election results continue to be the pink elephant in the room. The Republicans have literally bullied anyone from bringing the results up. I've been voting, campaigning and protesting since 1968. This election results bother me like crazy.
Ned, I tend to agree; far too many questions have not been answered. I'd love to know what those voting eligible people that did not vote would list as their cause. I believe that it is a multitude of factors, from apathy (my vote doesn't matter), to obstacles (no ability to get off work to vote, lack of access to polling places, being removed from voter rolls, lack of disability access), to the stark inability to vote for a woman, much less a woman of color.
That may be true. But I do not think that aversion to a female leader was the reason for Vice President Harris's loss. Voter suppression and manipulated voting are more like the dark forces (if there are any).
There really does seem to be a few too many that are reluctant to vote for a woman, or person of color, no matter how smart, well qualified, and truly dedicated to treating all citizens equally, the candidates are.
Though always aware of the prejudicial handicaps, we voted for Obama and Hillary as the better choices, and never voted for anyone just because they were Black, or a Woman (Sarah Palin would never get my vote, for example).
I remember when that applied to Catholics (or even those accused of being Catholic like Charles Fremont in 1856).
Ally, nice analytical summary; in my heart of hearts, the last two factors were not determinants. At least I hope we have come that far. People said in 2016 that Secretary / Senator Clinton lost in part because she was a woman. I believe she lost because she came across as feeling entitled to the 0val 0fiice (as had then Senator Kerry in 2004 and then Governor Romney in 2012, at least for their respective nominations).
The last election may be water under the bridge, but that just means we need to really take every measure possible to make sure the next one is better verified. Every possible forensic audit of the last one should be done with neutral teams to see where there were vulnerabilities, and extra precautions taken from now on.
Real trustworthy results should only come after sufficient time is check the results on up and down ballot races, using the same type of samples hand counted then recounted by machines that are secured 24/7 after trusted builds before and after elections.
The rub for me is that 2026 may be too late. Yes, I am all for strict verification, perhaps even hand-counted ballots. Yet this dash toward dictatorship requires something to stop it in the next couple of months. Unless, of course, Trump does not flout the courts -- a remote likelihood.
Two things to bear in mind: Judeo/Christianity is male oriented and, the Constitution embeds oligarchs with the electoral college and the 4/5 population count for slaves
Ooops Ned, AI defines a generation as about 20-30 years—hence, one or two generations by that measure won’t work. Now, if we look at it probably a bit more realistically as 80 to 100 years, I still think that one to two generations is still an insufficient time projection…just my opinion as an almost 80-year, former USAR’vist of 7 years with about 5 years of 2-weekers at Fort Benning [Columbus, GA] a/k/a Fort Moore and two years at Fort Bliss [El Paso, TX].
This, right here, is what I love about LFAA. Great "conversations" on topics that are important. Good dialogue and discourse.
One thing I have not seen mentioned is the impact of generational trauma, mostly seen in abusive families, many BIPOC families, and I'm sure other areas that are not coming to mind at the moment. Generational trauma (i.e. slavery, forced relocation to reservations, and long histories of familial abuse) changes peoples' DNA.
WOWerful thought, there, Ally. Thank you. These discourses educate me (when I right-size the ego). One thing I have noticed is that so many of these tech broes and people swirling around Trump were bullied or bullies. As if a who ruling clique has failed to transcend a continuüm of the victim and the victimizer. Your thoughts, Ally -- as well as those of others -- are always important to me thank you.
Honestly, I am basing two generations off of the Book of the Exodus. Moses marched the ancient Hebrews through the desert for forty years to expunge the culture of servitude and certain lentils toward one of autonomy and risk.
Yesterday (Wed., 06/18/25) Hegseth said at a hearing that one should believe what they read in the Bible — or something to that effect — and then Sen. T Cruz, in an argument [or dynamic discussion] okay, debate, with Tucker Carlson that he learned from Sunday School and the teachings of the Bible that one should bless the nation of Israel — a physical place that didn’t exist until the late 1940’s — long after the Bible had been written. Okay, the Bible’s reference had to do with their former land in Egypt and probably the idea or their way of life as a people…their culture. Seems Cruz was thinking more of the current physical location of Israel.
I watched about a third of that hearing. I have to quit doing that; my ageing sixty-eight year old mind really can not take much more of this muck. I heard the Bible reference. Said a lot more about Hegseth than the Bible.
Truly, I love Israël and admire what her citizens have built; but she has gone too far with genocide in Gaza and, now, a war with Iran.
My gut says that Netanyahu thinks right now is his country's last chance to defeat Iran decisively and 'break' Palestinean resistance. Of course, either objective is unlikely to be realized.
Trump loves authoritarian bullies, so he can not get enough of Netanyahu. Netanyahu will be remembered as Hamas's most effective recruiter; if he is not careful, Israël will be lost.
Do not think about it as just Israel anymore than you think of the mess and the harshness that we’re in and exhibiting around the world as the USA. Netanyahu and trump’s relationship dates back to the 1980’s and they’re both quite similar to one another: big ego’s, narcissistic personalities, both trying to avoid punishment for their misdeeds and trying to stay out of jail! It’s tragic — horrendously tragic what’s happening to the Palestinians!
Let me add that desperate people do — not just things that are desperate, but also things that maybe dangerous, evil, harmful and wrong!
"Truly, I love Israël and admire what her citizens have built; but she has gone too far with genocide in Gaza and, now, a war with Iran." WHO built Israel, and who is supporting her in Gaza and Iran?
The Great Society did not fail. It helped hundreds of thousands if not millions. The roots of urban poverty have never been adequately addressed and I’m not the race to do it. It has to be from within and in essence it’s called family planning.
The 'Great Society' failed because LBJ took all the money meant to implement it and wasted it on his futile efforts in southeast Asia. Had it not been for the warmongering by Macnamara and others and LBJ's massive ego, which drove US involvement in the conflict, the Great Society might have had a chance.
As it was, the money dried up and was used to fund a war that no one wanted other than the military-industrial complex that Ike warned us all about.
Then there was the Chennault Affair where LBJ attempted to have peace talks before 1968 elections. These were thwarted by Nixon. After that opportunity was gone and Nixon elected, Nixon continued the war with more American and Vietnamese deaths.
LBJ withdrew from the race after he lost in March, when he lost in New Hampshire. Thieu (following Anna Chennault's influence) refused to join talks in October 1968.
LBJ began spending the funds allocated to the Great Society on Vietnam in 1964.
President Johnson won the N.H. primarily but by so narrow a margin over Senator McCarthy that he was vulnerable. Senator Kennedy then entered the race.
President Johnson then threw in the towel. The tragedy, at least as I see it, is that President Johnson wanted the Great Society but fell prey to wishful thinking.
McNamara and others didn't drive that insanity, Marla.
Stats did. Stats totally divorced from human stories. Numbers, statistics, units, more numbers, and easily quantifiable quantities ruled all. How many yards of concertina wire. How many tons of bombs. How much napalm. Agent Orange. Body bags. How much money paid to Saigon cadres. More increments in body bags.
All this insanity was prior to the Powell memo (1971) which institutionalized the genteel and bureaucratic corruptions to routine SOP in U.S. schools, board rooms, standardized testers, social and legacy media billionaires, and replicable Clarences of the Clarence court.
But McNamara lived and lied by those stats and cost-benefit analyses, which were really cost-utility analyses. They were not exercises of values but a tyranny of data and products of main-frame computers coming of age in the 1960s that unfettered data-dinks across the land.
The ghastly war in Viêt Nam was one big, bloody distraxion; it killed the financing. The assassinations of Senator Kennedy and Reverend Doctor King killed the idealism. Nevertheless, I am not sure that the Great Society was financially sustainable; there were larger economic forces at play as competitive economies (re-)emerged together with a sluggish response, at best, by many industry leaders in the U.S.
The culture did not change. That takes a generation or two, say thirty-plus years of enforced legal and behavioral change for the culture of the Great Society or qualitative utility -- i.e., as many people fulfilling their properly ordained stature in the eyes of G-D -- to supersede the current consumerism inherent in general utility.
IT DID SUCCEED to a great extent. It's been the victim of a disinformation campaign since inception.
Time doesn't permt a statute by statute analysis, but society has benefitted far beyond any economic cost...and from a fiscal standpoint, it was Keynesian theory in action. The government receives multiple returns from investments in areas like education and commerce.
When I was discharged from the Army in January, 1968, most of the country was still segregated and soon the entire country was physically threatened.
Objections to, say, DEI come from a small vocal and powerful minority.
We're only in the 10th generation at least since all that, yet here we are, still fighting this same old shit, still amazed that we have to keep fighting this same old shit, still wondering when this same old shit will finally die for good.
Abolishing white supremacy will take forever. White supremacy has been apart of this country since before it was a country. European colonialists were sure they were superior to the”godless savages,” the indigenous peoples. They were no more savage than the Europeans. The Europeans had better weapons and were just as savage.
Hegseth, like his boss, peddles BS by the box car load. His explanation why the names of Army bases needed to be restored to Confederate generals is as senseless as he is.
Ned ... indeed, abolition of slavery in the law was the easy part. But every advance in our lived culture was first preceded by a change in the law.
Example: When there were no U.S. laws regulating the sale and smoking of tobacco, it was once "cool" in American culture. All the "beautiful people" smoked. Then, despite the tobacco industry's concealment and obfuscation of the health risks, legislation began to prohibit the sale of tobacco to minors, thereby cutting off the addiction recruitment of children. Then more legislation made smoking extremely inconvenient, albeit not illegal. Today, smoking is culturally "uncool." Most smokers are senior citizens who got addicted when they were young and tobacco wasn't regulated. When they die, cigarette smoking will be a thing of the past.
However, after that ringing endorsement of legislating cultural change, I have no hope for legislating white supremacy out of existence. As I have opined before, the U.S. was founded by white supremacists, including several slave owners, who believed neither people of color nor women had the "smarts" to vote properly. Effectively, white supremacy is programmed into our national DNA.
Abraham Lincoln made his proclamation and constitutional amendments were ratified, but legislation full of weasel language created loopholes that enabled continued discrimination, including maintenance of the Electoral College.
Another force against eliminating white supremacy is the vestigial belief among evangelicals that people of color are inferior because God said so(See: Curse of Ham). Religious beliefs are the most unshakable.
The idea that white supremacy could be stamped out in a couple generations, no matter how you measure a generation, is wildly optimistic. To quote cartoonist Bob Mankoff, "No, Thursday's out. How about never – is never good for you?"
It's also a reminder that your original Constitution was not quite the paragon of written constitutions that some Americans believe it to be. Those Reconstruction Amendments were pretty significant changes. The fact that the fourteenth amendment has generated some of the most controversial case law (Borwn vs Board of Education, Loving vs Virginia, Roe vs Wade, Obergefell vs Hodges, Students for Fair Admissions vs Harvard) shows just how far you still have to go; and the election of that clown Trump for a second time shows just how unlikely it seems now that you're ever going to get there.
We never will get to the promised land, if we expect to rally around specific issues. 😢 We need to rally around a general aspiration that we can do better, in part because we have done better at times. ✌🏼That faith in democratic governance and trust of the larger community keeps republicanism alive. 🤞🏼I suspect that the Founding Fathers would quite agree with you: 🤝🏻 that the Constitution is not static and should change informed by ever higher aspirations for an enlightened, just, and equal society. 💡😇⚖️
Almost all American presidents in modern times have talked in aspirational terms about the virtues of your democracy, apart from Trump who only offers empty boasts about his own achievements and ambitions and denigration of his predecessors. Most of them (at least after Ford) have recognised diversity, apart from Trump, as the American Presidency Project notes.
I remember him saying he kept a copy of Nixon's pardon on him at all times, but failed to correct Nixon when he took it as a full pardon.
It always seemed to me that pardons can be too generous, if they allow future misconduct (kind of like some Catholic friends that claimed confessions made them forgiven, as they bragged about doing the same or worse after confession). At least some pardons for Confederates required not taking up arms against the government in the future.
He also kept a copy or a quote from a Supreme Court decision that accepting a pardon admits to wrong-doing. President Ford basically sacrificed the election -- though the fall of Saigon did not help -- when he pardoned President Nixon.
I agree, The Declaration of Independence is the beacon for me, the Constitution is more like the first iteration of laws to try to codify essential laws to meet the principals expressed in the Declaration.
Just imagine how the old world shook when that Declaration sailed across Europe; it eventually inspired France's gift of the Statue of Liberty, which, of course, Trump has soiled.
Russell, I saw that. I also remember that in the recent past, when asked about the Declaration of Independence, he said (paraphrased) that it was a "document of love" which is utter nonsense.
Yes, "love and unity". That was obviously the last straw for ABC's Terry Moran who got sacked a few days later for castigating Trump and Stephen Miller as 'world-class haters'.
But those who still want Black and Brown people, and women too, "in their place" are relentless in their oppression. They have never stopped in 150+ years and will probably never stop in their hatred of everyone who is not white, male and heterosexual. I'm so f'n tired of this BS...
The 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments were passed without the southern Democrats, the rich planter class. The label doesn’t matter. Those descendants of the southern Democrats are now Republicans, but their behavior is the same. Those amendments were intended to help poor people of color, but they really helped everyone. The rich thought they were entitled to be rich; they still do.
Also to remember, despite all the obfuscations, there are a good number who would reverse those 'good changes.' Changes made constitutionally, as the preamble promises / orders; Again, contrary to the wishes that it were not so.
Texas is my native state, my ancestors having fought in the Texas war liberating it from Mexico (1835-1836), my great-great Uncle, William Depriest Sutherland, dying at the Alamo on March 6, 1836. I am now living in Tom Green County, Texas, named after a Confederate general. It's not easy being a Texan. We've had Lyndon Johnson, Liz Sutherland Carpenter, Ralph Yarborough, Ann Richards, Miriam Ferguson and Lloyd Bentsen. But then, we have John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, August Pfluger and Gov. Greg Abbott. We are now in the dark days of Texas politics. MAGA is simply the 21st century version of the KKK.
For the Common Good of all citizens. While blacks contributed, the key driving group has been whites starting with Lincoln. I say this as a historical fact, not a racial meaning.
Thank you for sharing the importance of Juneteenth.
Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly.
Use/share this spreadsheet as a resource to call/email/write members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Reach out to those in your own state, as well as those in others. Use your voice and make some “good trouble” ❤️🩹🤍💙
The current administration would wipe this off the books, if they could. Shaking my head. Thank you for the history lesson. To family and friends celebrating, a great Juneteenth to all.
July 4th is an important milestone for so many of us, so I can easily imagine the appreciation of Juneteenth when the Declaration of Independence became so much more real to all with General Order 3.
I’ve met Dr Opal Lee and heard her speak on a few occasions. She is a national treasure! I wanted to thank her for all she had accomplished. Instead she thanked me for being a teacher in these difficult educational times. And told me she’s my grandmother now. Her childhood home was burned down. So on the same lot, they built her a new home! She’s not in good health but I hope she makes it to this year’s Juneteenth celebration! It’s a big deal here in her hometown!
Simply fabulous, Denise, that you had such luck in speaking to Miss Opal and that she adopted you! That must’ve made you feel so loved and appreciated. Look one person did and a strong woman, no less.
It was during the time when book banning was escalating. Miss Lee just wanted to know if we were banning books in my district. We hadn’t yet but did not long after. She really wants every child to get a good education!
Denise, what a lovely memory for you! Until about a week ago, I was unaware that referring to someone as "grandma" was a mark of respect and appreciation (although I have several former students who call me "mom"). I helped a family with a rambunctious baby take a picture of themselves and when they thanked me they called me "grandma," which did amuse me (I am old enough to be a grandmother, certainly) as I had never been called that before. I didn't know if this was a term specific to this particular family or region so it's good to know it has been universalized. May we all become "grandmothers" and/or "grandchildren" to people in the world.
That is wonderful, Linda. I cherish the title of "Auntie"; I have a handful of nieces and nephews, and the tuba studio at the university call me "Tuba Auntie." ("Hey, Ally, I just bought a couch on Craigs List; can you drive me and my roomie over to pick it up. You don't have to carry, just you and your pickup." I loaned my truck to another student's family when they had to help her move and she had a lot of furniture.
Her call to action is be a committee of one and make good trouble! My friend worked the voting polls with her and my friend said she was humbled by her words. She really is inspirational!
Yes, celebrate Black culture. All diversity, equality, and inclusion.
It's our history. Heather's got that correct. Though Dems lack any human examples of that -- from life or from our humanities -- to fight back against the criminal in the White House's vile madness.
I’ve just finished Natsuo Kirino’s “Grotesque.” But it doesn’t help, or, not much.
It’s her 2007 novel about what happens to persons from a series of elite schools in Japan – from the beginning of elementary school through high school, and an elite university topping off that.
Trouble is, the narrators of this novel keep shifting, taking turns resuming their story – and none can be trusted (except maybe one retired teacher).
Similar to the MAGA world which inflicts the U.S. (and the world) now?
None in MAGA can tell the truth. The tens of millions voting for their rancid lies can tell no truth, either, given how they keep burrowing in the Fox vitriol and cultism, then dip further into the social media silos whose billionaire owners keep poisoning by algorithms for utmost hatreds and paranoia.
Dems can’t help – too many having gone to schools where too many learned only to ace testing, leaving them mostly with vocabularies of slogans, cliché, and other please-the-group inanities.
Bruce Springsteen? Yes, he’s got it. The U.S. deindustrialized. Off-shored the jobs. Grew the wealth gap, which only keeps getting worse, worse.
In my city of Aurora, CO, (which is not overrun with gangs because we have a good police dept), the Republican mayor just declared that the City will observe Juneteenth and I think the full city will celebrate the day.
Lived in the Aurora Tower Triangle area back in the 80's while teaching at the Space Systems Command and Control School and later working at a Buckley ANGB, Space Command unit.
Some parts of our school on Lowery AFB were in Aurora (where the 1st, temporary, Air Force Academy was located before the Colorado Springs campus was finished), and some in Denver so it made for some interesting tax issues IIRC related to where you (and other family members) worked most of the day.
Then don't say you're not overwhelmed with gangs when twice now the police have caught at least six gang members taking over an apartment building that's pretty significant don't you think especially for the residents
I'm sure your police force is doing a great job, but it doesn't eliminate the fact that you have a gang problem
Hey Robert, you gotta be kidding me. They just had another incident of a gang from Venezuela trend Aragua taking over apartment building in Aurora or don’t you get the news there? The police chief named them call them a cancer that needs to be cut out.
Yes, there's a threat of the gangs but it is taken very seriously and proactively by the police and the city is by no means overrun. It is a very localized problem. Overall crime is down year over year, pretty much throughout the metro area. I feel comfortable going out doing my daily business during the daytime. I would rather live in Aurora than Denver.
By the way, did you happen to see the video out yesterday with six gang members with guns trying to get into an apartment at that same building as it did a year ago you're probably right about the police taking it seriously but I wouldn't call that proactivity
Hopefully, it'll something will be in the news in the next few days that they've arrested some people which would be great thanks for sending that message Robert
And I'm not sure about the difference because I don't know the area. I think Denver is a beautiful city obviously a little too far left from my thought as long as you feel safe where you are that's the best thing to have your freedom and your safety.
Yeah, what about all the other cultures that were obliterated around the world that now live in America like the Christians and the Jews and the indigent Indians and the first immigrants the Irishman and the Brits that gave this country independence ?
What about them? Equal justice, not special justice once again
If you meant 'indigenous Indians' Rick, then there's seems to be a major gap in your knowledge of your own country's history because they were forced off their ancestral lands by those first white immigrants you so cherish, the same white immigrants who so eagerly embraced slavery.
At least you recognise that your country's success is based on immigration. Why then is it so hard for you see how disgusting it is for the government you support to be turning its back on immigrants who continue to contribute to your country's wealth and treating them all as criminals? A government, I might add, led by a criminally convicted buffoon who is the scion of an illegal German immigrant.
Didn’t you know Rick was born in Russia. Ask him he’ll tell you. Rick is an Ayn Rand type. But I’ll say that I’m not a believer in the current concept of DEI because it does practice exclusion not inclusion and equality. Humans get these notions and hardwire themselves as we have with this. DEI is one reason we have an ugly far right backlash but worst; a mental case with a mafia-like desire. I’m sorry to disappoint but DEI separates society instead of bringing together. It does not practice equality for all. Ivan recite numerous examples.
You've fallen for the far right propaganda and that's disappointing. The World Economic Forum produced a report in 2019 on the business case for DEI and it's a strong one. What do you offer to counter this: some anecdotes of your own which I hazard might be found on any far right websites discussing the issue. Your country is marching backwards on this issue and you will all suffer as a result and you'll have no one to blame but yourselves.
I don’t care if it’s found anywhere. I have my own thoughts and I don’t let others dictate what I’m supposed to believe. So cease with the same calling or you too will sound stupid. And further, if we don’t moderate some of these misperceptions of equality by calling them diversity, we will never win. I am in favor of EQUALITY for all. Diversity does not practice this. Simple Dimple.
Agreed: "Equality for all"! But easy to say. Hard to implement.
"Diversity" doesn't "practice" anything. It's just a recognition that we have a variety of people from a variety of backgrounds who should all be living together equally and peacefully - with the same opportunities.
DEI training reveals the nasty truths inbred, embedded prejudices that most people (even those well intentioned) have. The truth hurts. Sorry. We feel the pain, we learn, we grow, we see the world from the "other's" point of view.
The problem with DEI is that it isn't fully embraced by everyone. If there is a negative reaction to people being diverse and there is opposition to equity and some folks don't want have an inclusive society...whose fault is that? The person of color who doesn't get hired, or can't buy a home or who is much more likely to be arrested or killed at a traffic stop?
As for the backlash on DEI? That's just bigotry with another name. Eliminating DEI is obeying in advance. It is cowardice in the face of injustice.
IMO, DEI is the vehicle for "EQUALITY for all." DEI is an extension of Lincoln's emancipation - that people are still struggling with centuries later.
Black Americans represent 39% of the prison population, despite accounting for only 14% of the total population. Black American adults are 5.9 times as likely to be incarcerated than whites and Hispanics are 3.1 times as likely. As of 2001, one of every three black boys born in that year could expect to go to prison in his lifetime, as could one of every six Latinos—compared to one of every seventeen white boys.
Trayvon Martin was shot to death at only 17 years old because he looked “suspicious.” His killer, George Zimmerman, was not convicted, based on the grotesque Stand Your Ground law, which provides people the right to use deadly force if they feel threatened.
In a 2023 survey conducted by Pew Research Center, 38% of white Americans think that “Our country has made the changes needed to give blacks equal rights with whites” (in contrast with 8% of African Americas). Think about where you stand on this before you accuse others of sounding stupid.
These are institutional problems, at federal, state and local level and they are just one example of the discrimination that Black Americans face in your society.
F DEI and the horse it rode in on. It’s for socialist countries like England. It’s ..WAIT FOR IT. G. O. N. E.
Merit is here….not to mention, none of your business.
This is the USA where we write our own rules.
Now….feel free for either one of you fools to name me a country/region IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND that was NOT invaded by another OUTSIDER, AND either killed or enslaved it’s conquered. INDIGENT POPULATION?
Btw. After the un f-effing real life truth that saw HCR sit down with the human waste of the actual person that through their own inaction and failure of the JCPOA…IS THE reason and cause of the nuclear conflict we have today with Iran.
There were several UNBELIEVABLE things that occurred today, like the VII,Ty plea of a person scamming USAID to the tune of at least 550 MILLLION DOLLARS, ( limit to possibly 800 million) having to do with illegal immigration…. Lmfao
A few other calamities that also plague the liberals came out today that have made me decide that ANYONE that supports this fraud, deceit, and divisiveness is no longer worth my time…so …to great accolades and applause I will be abandoning this platform here and watch you from the stands , destroy yourselves in you own wrongsided esoteric, deluded thinking, in my opinion.
And for God’s sake stop living in the past, and through meaningless links….reality is on the streets every day…go see it, touch it, enjoy it…as you have your freedom as you see, to protest.
I will be bidding you fond adieu shortly.
But plz, don’t change a thing you are doing…it’s your badge of honor…and you are killing your own agenda with it.
Just realize, that without any extreme external, un anticipated circumstances, Donald Trump will be your duly elected president , not your king, for the next 42 months or so……
For your own sakes, since you don’t seem to learn easily, from what I’ve witnessed, since nothing has yet changed, except for a closed border, it’s all in your minds until it becomes law or approved policy… thereby affecting your daily lives….you are wasting your time worrying….alas it’s your prerogative if you;d like to be miserable, for any of your “imagined” reasons…not good for your health, not good for America…in my opinion.
Go out, visit a park, go to a baseball game, take your kids/grandkids to the local swimming pool, see a movie….go out to dinner…nothing has changed….so enjoy your lives…it’s the only ones we have. try Bobbie mcferrin ……instead
And thank goodness Donald Trump was not born on July 4th. Lololol.
Rick Sender, you are so stupid that I convinced you to buy my book, “Donald’s Vanity Tantrums.” I was hoping some of the material would have modified your calcified brain. It didn’t. Please return my book, lol.
Today was horrible for the beliefs here., and the left. Almost put me in shock seeing hcr sitting with the person who is the reason that we are at war today….sickening via his actions and the transparently failed JCPOA
That’s why I’m being as I am today….disbelief….once again BACKING THE WRONG PONY……USAID FRAUD…EXPOSED via Walter barnés guilty plea from what I understand. …and other “blasphemes” so to speak form the left…against public sentiment. Those libs that STILL want to allow Iran to have a bomb…. 80% of American from both sides of the aisle…against and your leadership like Schumer still talking about other issues,,,,,today THIS is the only issue. And the lunatic? candidate in Ny;s mayoral race promising socialism., free stuff…such as and authoritarian control , like govt grocery stores, and free /subsidized baby care, and rent freezes which even in Cali do not work… and with AOC dancing on his “float”…
commercials from a radical left wing group, distorting Ice reality….senator Padilla crying like a baby …Hochul 50 million taxpayer dollars paying for an illegals defense fund …vs helping the poor and drugged homeless CITIZENS on the streets there ..sorry it defies credulity….
CNN hitting its lowest ratings of the year and it being sold off…
Last year THIS MONTH’ 62000 illegals allowed to enter this country. This year ZERO…..or perhaps a few unknown….bombarded by this news and more today…..
But like I’ve said here bill….i have the utmost respect for your balance and your right to speak your mind. As I have to speak mine
How about celebrating all cultures wouldn’t that be more inclusive? Yikes, you people defy logic. Bruce Springsteen is a political lunatic. … in my opinion he should be in a padded cell with Oberman and De Niro. he has no credibility across the country except the liberal precincts
Juneteenth is a hugely important day. Yet, I must add that this date drives home as much as any date in American history the truth that "You cannot legislate morality". America may have been founded as a nation of laws, but throughout its history there have been people who have said (essentially) "To Hell with the law. I'll do what I want... including being racist... if I want to be". What the laws that established the United States and all those enacted since have missed is that - ultimately - what's going to get us to that "more perfect union" is a spiritual transformation... not more laws. At the heart of what ails "the American experiment" is a darkness born of fear... fear which is turned into anger by those who do NOT have the interests of the nation at heart. They only have their own interests at heart. How to address this "darkness of the heart"... this "mental illness" that has us allow ourselves to be taught to hate (since no one is born hating another person)... is the question of our age... the MUST ANSWER question for those of us who want democracy to survive. The church - as currently constituted - is not the solution... although I could imagine an effort by Pope Leo to excommunicate all those who misuse the Bible in the cause of teaching people to hate instead of love. But I don't think that scenario is in the cards. But what I do know is that the human spirit is where the future lies... not more laws. We need laws (getting rid of Gerrymandering would be nice), but new laws will not solve the crisis of the spirit... of the heart ... of the mind... we face today.
Basically, morality is there to act as a guide for what you do when no one is looking. The 10 Commandments say don't kill, steal, covet, or engage in idolatry. The kakistocracy currently in power seems to have either lost their morality completely or adopted one from some nether recess of the human condition, based mainly on greed, fear, and hubris. This is something we should always be watchful for in ourselves, too. Thanks for the post David!
Steve, you can legislate conduct, and sometimes that can be based on what could be termed "morality"; I tend to agree that you cannot legislate someone into being a good person, however it is easier to have someone be a good person when they abide by the laws. You have to teach morality, and demonstrate morality, and encourage morality. You can legislate the conduct that is deemed "moral", but unless someone has the appropriate modeling, it will not be universally followed.
Thanks for commenting. The simple test of whether my perspective is valid or not is the result we see before us every day. Laws have not prevented Trump from becoming president a second time. Laws have not prevented Zuckerberg and Musk from controlling much of the social media that we live in nearly every day of our lives… nor did they prevent Rupert Murdoch from creating Fox News, which has been poisoning the American mind for decades now. Laws have not prevented money interests from corrupting the supreme court, the ultimate arbiter of our laws. Relying on laws and ignoring the need for a spiritual transformation is the biggest cultural failing I know of. Fred Rogers spent his entire life attempting to rebalance that equation. I invite you to watch his impassioned acceptance speech before the Television Academy Hall of Fame to see why emphasizing values over laws matters…
The level of corruption in 2025 beggars the imagination, and Heather's historical essays seem to only make it more significant that we are in the throes of an outright fight for the preservation of the Republic and the democracy that was fought for so long ago. It's a stark reminder that it is as bad now as it was in 1864.
I had the good fortune to work for a DOE lab run by Stanford University in the early 2000's. The black employees had a strong organizational presence and held a Juneteenth celebration every year that everyone was invited to attend. I went with my black coworker who was originally from Texas. There were movies celebrating famous black inventors, a jazz band, and great food. I really looked forward to it each year. I don't know if they still have it because I retired some time ago, but it would be a shame if they had to give it up because it is a federally connected workplace.
Thank you Patricia Wismer. You apparently are referring to "SLAC" the National Accelerator Laboratory on the west side of a Bay Area freeway in the hills above Stanford University in California.
I was once a "peninsula" resident in CA Bay Area with my 1st job out college at SRI. I believe Stanford University has a contract with the DOE to run SLAC probably the USG's "Office of Science".
Federal contracts like any contract are enforceable in a court of law unless specific contract terms are against public policy among other terms.
Zero in on the contract's Choice-of-Law and your question & many others can be answered.
"Stanford Linear Accelerator Center"; I worked in catering on the Stanford campus for a couple years and routinely delivered out there. It was where the Board of Trustees held their annual meeting that we catered.
At least two of us ArtPeaceMakers in Wellfleet, MA will be walking 2.5 miles, in solidarity with 2.5 mile Juneteenth walks originated —and still practiced!—by Opal Lee, “Grandmother of Juneteenth” (whose own 1400 mile walk to Washington, DC, at the age of 89, was instrumental in President Biden’s declaration of Juneteenth as a national holiday). Ms Lee instituted these 2.5 mile walks to symbolize the two and a half years it took for Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation to finally liberate enslaved Texans.••• ALTHOUGH thanks to Wellfleet postmaster Josclyn Prudeaux, we decked our post office to celebrate the new holiday (and commemorative stamps) a few years back, the Post Office was of course closed on the day itself. Though many join the annual celebrations in Provincetown, June 19, 2025 will mark Wellfleet’s first public Juneteenth party: At 10 am today us walkers aim to leave the Congregational Church on Main Street and wind a circuitous 2.5 mile path thru town, down to the harbor —and back to the church grove, in time for picnic, popcorn, kids’ art, music and storytelling— including a reading of one of the copies of Opal Lee’s book she signed in Selma, Alabama this year. Miss Lee was there for the 60th anniversary of the 1965 March for Voting Rights. May all the steps we take remind us of where we’ve come from and how far we have to go (including to congressional offices across the US) towards Liberty and Justice for all.
Alas, Opal Lee, recently released from the hospital, won’t be leading her hometown Juneteenth walk today. All the more reason, for those of us who can, to honor Juneteenth and Opal Lee with our own footsteps.
Now that sounds like a true parade about and for America, rather than a bizarre display of tank fetishism arranged to satisfy the vanity of an insecure, small-dicked tater-tot.
My brother’s freedom is my freedom. If my brother’s freedom is diminished, my freedom is as well.
The holocaust of American enslavement of Africans, along with the genocide of indigenous peoples, made a cruel mockery of the sentiments expressed in our founding and guiding documents; the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Our history records the fits and starts, victories and setbacks, in the progress toward eliminating the hypocrisy, to make real the noble sentiments and philosophy in the foundation of our civilization.
We thought the battle was won. We fell asleep. The forces at work to diminish all our freedoms snuck up on us and now has our democracy by the throat.
But we will not be put back on to the plantation and the company town. We are all awake now, and will stay woke for as long as it takes.
Professor Richardson -- Many thanks for today's history lesson on the origins of the Juneteenth holiday. The short video was especially helpful. It's ironic that these celebrations originated in Texas, but we now have a better understanding of the events that occurred there after the Civil War that led to the Fourteenth Amendment.
Thank you as always Heather, for the History lesson and the video. Your Letter constantly reminds us of the importance of education. Yet another VERY SIGNIFIGANT freedom we are at great risk of losing!
Thank you Professor. I think this an important lesson for all of us. Sadly, I think black people and other minorities are still fighting for those rights. Schools weren’t officially desegregated until 1954 and it wasn’t until the 1960’s when the late greats like Martin Luther King, jr. and John Lewis marched and fought for their rights that things BEGAN to move forward. This uphill battle that we believed had been won has been thrown into total chaos and jeopardy by the small, petty, and vile white boys that are trying to drive us backwards by forgetting our history and demonizing everyone who doesn’t look and think like them. Today is a day for celebration for all of us who value equality for all.
In Hartford, Connecticut, Juneteenth has been celebrated since at least 1987 when the Amistad Center for Arts and Culture (which is part of the Wadsworth Anthanium) began its celebration. I’m happy to have attended that first event. I recall a remark I made to a friend that evening as I looked around the room and said, “I’m the only white guy here.” We just celebrated it on June 7.
"In the Jim Crow years, Juneteenth celebrations declined." Does that mean we are in the Jim Crow years again, since our celebrations seem to be declining...? Instead of cutting back celebrations for fear of -- what? -- we should be making SURE that they happen, perhaps in places where there is a bit more protection (theaters), perhaps with more citizen watchers on hand. This isn't DEI -- this is really the celebration of our renewed nation post Civil War, and could rightly be called our birthday. We will be spending millions of dollars to celebrate July 4 (especially in 2025) when our independence was declared. Why not spend some money to commemorate when our whole country came back together again? Yes, imperfectly, and yes, we took two steps forward and one (or two) back, but it is a holiday that deserves way more understanding and attention!
It's important to be reminded that our country has made changes for the good. Thanks, Heather.
Laura, I agree with you. Reading this, I thought of my ancestors, newly arrived in Ohio from Europe in 1857, and the changes they saw take place. So incredible to see the wisdom and gumption of Congress, especially as compared to Congress today.
The comparison is probably more like night versus day…high noon vs. midnight—depending upon one’s location on planet earth at the time. Sadly, it was back then they might have been more in the sunshine or sunlight of day as opposed to present day—or so it might seem?
Think about it: what were our causes, our failures that allowed us to elect such a truly flawed, narcissistic individual and now a felon to the “most powerful position” or role on planet earth? So in which time period were they/we riding or driving blind?
There is a rash of cruelty across the globe right now -- and very much in this administration.
I agree, the cruelty of criminals embedded in business and government per the "iron triangles" Heather described earlier is being felt around the world. As someone else noted here, best to call it a regime not an administration. I like that suggestion as "administration" makes it sound like a normal sane government which it is not.
Yes, especially in western democracies, coincidentally practicing capitalism as a model.
I think of it as the build up to a lemming event.
I agree, twump has created a following of heartless people that make it a good thing to hate certain people. People who are not white, not straight, women are his targets. Sound familiar? Sound like what Hitler did? You got it. The more twump does it the more "normalized" it becomes. Plus his lies are so continuous that he and his news sources twist the truth and his followers are not even hearing what he really does.
Jim, I'm going to go with greed as the main cause. It all boils down to that; I think that the hatred of the "other" is a close second, so maybe tribalism is at it's root cause.
Ally, I think it is greed at the top using the hatred of the "other" to stir the pot.
Well said Michele. Yet even hatred is another fear based emotion / narrative / bias. Fear that the greed motive can't be sufficiently fulfilled if people can't be 'property' who only exist as 'capital property' in furtherance of the greed motives; profit and liability / responsibility avoidance. I own and live just such a narrative, for the past 8 years.
The first thing my college econ Professor wrote on the black board for memorization was a line by RW Emerson: " “Want is a growing giant whom the coat of Have was never large enough to cover.” That could rightfully be modified accurately to read, "Greed is a growing giant for whom the coat of 'have' is never large enough to cover." And it's a truth, as applicable today as when Emerson first wrote it and before; Hence slaves, castes, etc.
"going forward, white people and Black people would be equal."
Geez, what a concept....
Ally, do not forget about greed, jealousy and ignorance…and if you combine them with hatred it becomes stupidity and/or idiocy!!!
The Prophet Muhammad’s last sermon ended with a quotation from the Quran (verse 49:13) in which God addresses the whole of humanity. “Oh humankind, we have created you all from a single male and a single woman, and formed you into tribes and nations so that you may get to know one another.”
My translation: Tribalism is not a root cause of a problem. Instead, a tribe that includes some people and excludes others is the root cause of hatred of the "other" and greed just to name two of more symptoms than you can shake a stick at. The way to act on that cause is to acknowledge that we are all subjects of a tribe that needs to exclude the idea that it's okay to exclude some people.
For the record, that idea is the founding principle of all the world's great religions.
The religions aren't very good at living up to those founding principles, to my mind.
To my mind as well. For example, Islam split into warring tribes soon after Muhammad's death, and Moses couldn't go for a walk without the people God chose choosing themselves over God, but I know lots of people who identify as scientists who seem to think practicing science involves disregarding -- and not adhering to -- its first principle (science involves subjecting one's assumptions to rigorous skepticism).
Curing the disease begins with observing, describing, and treating its symptoms, but it won't be cured until enough people acknowledge its "us versus them" root cause.
Ally, we have the founding principles of religions and the ideals of the Constitution, but flawed humans are in charge of the institutions of religion and government. Some people will always find a way to use these ideals and principles to their own purposes and talk, but do not walk. Greed is one of the main drivers of the failures of both religion and government. They fall into the hands of people like death star or Joel Olsteen (sp?) for two modern examples.
I’m with you, Ally. With money comes power, which makes possible the control of the “other.”
Enough of the population has never really accepted any progress for anyone other than the ruling white class. That meant that the election of Obama made them very resentful. And then there has been the progress for other than heterosexuals, Native Americans, and women to control their lives and bodies. Juneteenth as a Federal holiday is just another poke in the eye. This is the population that whines that there is no white history month, etc. And as an aside, that rat loves to toy with people, maybe I will and maybe I won't.
I believe that the rat thinks he is in a movie, no clue to the true gravity of the situation. He always sees his (imagined) handsome self on a screen of some kind.
He certainly likes to be the star and keep the attention on him and everyone dangling.
I totally agree. Without empathy for anyone, twump just pictures himself as the lead actor in the Presidency Reality Show. And since he bases all his actions on transactions, as Mary Trump has told us, all his actions are determined by what he personally stands to gain
It's worthy of consideration that many among our youth overwhelmingly voted for Obama - and as a hopeful change agent for much. As they see it, he failed utterly. What they may *have failed to have also noticed is that he was saddled, especially his second term by an intransigent, interference bound congress.
i understand about Obama. I think he was also burdened with being the first black president. He tended to be cautious. People make the mistake that in our system, progress can occur just like that when it takes years and hard work. What we are seeing now is how much easier it is to destroy what has taken years to accomplish. Now we may have reached the point of not being able to restore what is gone.
It's important to mention that one of our country's biggest problems related to our elections and the resulting actions of those entrusted with office responsibility to govern is that our nation's largest voting block consists of the legally-registered voters who find it easy to not fulfill their civic duty of voting -- if not once every two years -- at least do so once every 4 years!
We have a Jim Crow GOP whether people want to acknowledge it or not.
We have no Congress today.
Of course we do. We have been in the minority before. I see Congress people fighting for what is right every day--Raskin, Crockett, Frost, Lin, Schumer, AOC, Sanders, and many others. I invite people to watch some of the congressional hearings. The Democrats are raising their voices like never before.
Never surrender in advance. There are more of us than them. And we will win.
Barbara, thank you for reminding people of this. I see my own senators, Wyden and Merkley speaking out. Senator Padilla is certainly speaking out. Our Rep is busy talking with and visiting her constituents as well as posting her positions despite the fact that the trolls and bots roll in. And bravo to Senator Smith speaking directly to Senator Lee about his putrid remarks on the assassinations in Minnesota. Rs will surely suffer if we have anything close to fair elections in 2026. We have jerks here in Oregon trying to destroy vote by mail and the far right Judicial Watch putting its oar in including wanting voter info.
Yes, those are loud and strong voices, but as a body Congress is impotent as their inaction is allowing trump to run bonkers in the china shop....
Rs are the problem and it would only take a dozen or so of them to stand up and say, I am Spartacus.
Thank you Barb.
I agree, not a functioning one anyway. twump extorts them all. The GOP should band together against him, but they are chicken since he threatens them with their jobs and their lives. twump should be brought to the courts for his Extortion!
Abolition of slavery in the law was, perhaps, the easy part. Abolishing white supremacy will require a generation or two. Why Reconstruction and the Great Society failed: distractions and too compact a time horizon of eight and five years, respectively.💔
The old voices still ring, and they still ring. Hegseth testified that changing military bases back to those of Confederate Generals was important to men who trained or been stationed owing to their attachment of brotherhood to a Fort Bragg or a Fort Lee. 🤢
Those soldiers' attachment is to the men and women they lived with at the facility and the memories of drills, etc. It seems hard to believe that anyone who is not a racist would have an attachment to a mere name . . . and one of a traitor to boot. 🖕
Hegseth is anything but an authority. He’s a mouthpiece for tfg in order to keep the job he’s unqualified for. I saw two clips of him “testifying” (=lying in MAGAland) this week. The two were Elissa Slotkin and Elizabeth Warren. His sneering arrogance, coupled with sarcasm and screaming disrespect for these women, made me so angry I had to move on to something else. What a pig. Just like his boss.
Hegseth is a miserable human being who seems to thrive off of making others miserable. As someone pointed out, erasing Harvey Milk's name from a U.S. navy ship, Hegseth has failed to erase history in this case; we are all talking about Harvey Milk.
Ned, I note that lots of posts are now appearing about women, blacks, immigrations, Native Americans in an attempt to keep these things before people. I would also like to give a shout out to our local classical radio station, all classical in Portland. They are committed to community, inclusiveness, diversity, kindness, and joy. They just finished a fundraiser, longer than usual, because of the House vote....may those who voted for that burn in hell. A lot of those donating made clear that they were aware of that. You can stream all classical anywhere.
Hooray for Portland! Hooray for that classical music station! Hooray for N.P.R.!
Erasing history, Ned?
Hegseth does that by the fifth, and another fifth, and a quart, more fifths, more quarts. Interspersed with following his orange pig face mob boss in raping, groping, ogling, fondling, grabbing, and smirking, bragging about same.
Ned, It's easy to erase history when you don't know it.
That is a great point. Willful ignorance as intellectual erasure. Interesting . . . and troubling . . . and all too common, Heather.
Senator Slotkin masterfully made Hegseth look a fool of his own volition.
https://youtu.be/G8bs6I_SVBI?si=PeyfqG1iN-9Gbaql
Salud, ML.
🗽
Had the brat singing soprano within minutes.
Yes. And his nervous stupid laugh was perfect harmony.
Salud, Ned.
🗽
I had so much trouble watching that. At one point, I felt she was losing her senatorial demeanor while at the same time realizing how important this subject is to her.
Hegseth is worse than a pig. Pigs are nice. He's a greasy self-grandizing over an esteemed poor excuse for a man. His disregard for women, people of color, or anyone in his way is disgusting. There is nothing worse than untreated alcoholism, and he has it in spades. He needs to be fired!
Yes, let's not insult pigs.
Hahahaha hiccup.
DO watch the short YouTube clip of the formidable Tammy Duckworth reaming Hegseth out. Tammy has integrity and guts, and makes it clear that Hegseth is a worm, at best.
Hegseth is a loser. But the really bad people are the senators who approved his nomination and voted for him.
They abdicated their responsibilities.
tfg is now tpg
good point.
He couldn't or wouldn't answer a simple yes or no to questions intentionally posed that way.
Ned, yes.
The renaming of the military bases back to Confederates honors traitors. It is an insult to every truly patriotic American.
I think it will take more than a generation or two to suppress and remove the "white supremacy" in our society. It is built into the DNA of millions of people who claim to be Americans. They aren't of course. They are Confederate Traitors. It will take a powerful righteous movement and more, tougher laws.
Teaching equality will need to be enshrined in every school curriculum. Discrimination and bigotry will need to be prosecuted and punished. Churches will need to teach what Jesus taught (he ought to know, he was black).
Until every public figure condemns bigotry and racial discrimination, until every news outlet displays outrage at every incident, until all bigoted politicians are blackballed and blacklisted and shamed in they communities so harshly that they feel as if they need to change their identity and flee the country.
Discrimination needs to be viewed as and treated as we treat assault and theft. Because that's what it is. Theft of rights, theft of dignity, theft of justice. Assault on personhood.
Until we take white supremacy seriously as a total society, people of color will be in danger. A whole lot of this and younger generations who have been programmed will need to "find the truth" or die - before we will be free of this superstition and hate.
DEI should be federal law. Teaching it should be required at every level of school. Non stop. Full stop. Every employer regardless of size or nature should be required to teach DEI and PRACTICE it. Churches that don't preach and teach it should have their tax exempt status removed - retroactively.
I am flying the Flag on this Federal Holiday. I look at it and feel compassion and admiration for anyone who is of color - they live a life that we whiteys just can't feel or fathom. And this year on June 19th, 2025!!! I look at it and I feel shame. In 2025 we are still fighting a Civil War over the same stuff. Enough.
Bill, you wrote, "Teaching equality will need to be enshrined in every school curriculum."
This is one of the eventualities Republican white supremacists fear, which is why they have been systematically embezzling public education funding and redirecting it to private schools that are shielded from meeting public education requirements.
And they could care less that the dollars they take away from public to private education, will ruin the public schools. They have rammed this through the all gop house and senate, and governorship. Too few, here in Ohio too, are failing to connect the dots.
BUMMER. I think healthy competition of educational approaches may aid us. But not at the expense of a poor child's ability to learn what (s)he needs to be a good citizen.
My own journey in confronting racism and, if not extirpating it, curbing the behavior and judgements passed on people of color has been slow and painful. It started with my father's sense of civility, though he had his prejudice, and my mother's fierce egalitarianism in her everyday behavior.
https://nedmcdletters.blogspot.com/2020/07/a-view-of-black-lives-matter-by-ageing.html
It required my failure in, and rejection by, the larger business culture. Above are my thoughts on this thorny question of race. For some reason, my prejudices toward indigenous people and hispanics, also people of color, has never been as deeply rooted as that toward Blacks.
Ned,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Even more, thank you for being honest, first with yourself, and then with those who make up your circle of family and friends; finally, with the rest of us. You evidence the courage it takes to confront our own demons and distortions. Would that more of us might do the same. Maturing a democratic republic of the diversity and complexity that is America was never viewed by our Founding Fathers as easy, and they were surely right. Current events provide all the evidence one might need. As painful as the myriad injustices are toward all those who are "different" or not of the privileged class, or in a category we view with disdain or disrespect, we have the option to reflect, learn, and self-correct. That isn't easy, either. Just attempting it is a bridge too far for many folks.
At least, you have shown us that it can be done. I applaud your dedication and am inspired by your accomplishment.
Your contribution to this thread, like many that have shown up, illustrates why Heather's insightful history lessons are such a priceless resource for those who believe in the Idea of America and wish to contribute somehow to Our Great American Experiment. You have made my day.
Agreed 111%. A.I., obviously I am blushing with gratitude at your compliment. Much of that courage, if it is courage, came over time as an acquired taste.
Ned, I appreciate your willingness to change. I know that it's difficult to overcome things from one's past. I wish more people had the courage to do the work.
I was a supporter (still am) of BLM. Reading your piece here, with the thought you put into it to understand the movement, as well as explain the history that led to it, gave me a new perspective on why it is so important.
I hadn't put that kind of thought into supporting it at the time. I just thought I understood "we've had enough of police killing us," without connecting everything else that led to it.
Thank you for sharing, Ned.
And my thanks to you. Mike -- as I said to Ally -- for you taking the time to read through a long, likely tedious, essay. Says a lot that is complimentary of you than my thinking ever could.
Thanks for the link, Ned. Lots of thorny things to wrestle with there.
Thank you for your graciously taking the time to read my forever-tome, Ally. I appreciate your kindness very much.
Ned, I wonder in these conversation if the taint of the founders of the BLM movement's accumulation of personal wealth has caused confusion in some of the public's mind. How do we separate the ideal from the grift?
https://www.thefp.com/p/blm-grift-patrisse-cullors-george-floyd-six-million-dollar-mansion?hide_intro_popup=true
https://unherd.com/newsroom/blm-was-a-magnet-for-grifters/?us
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/04/black-lives-matter-malibu-mansion.html
https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/04/04/home-purchase-by-black-lives-matter-foundation-scrutinized/
Any human movement or institution will reflect human faults. The fault, if applicable, lies with the founder, not with Black Lives Matter movement.
Agreed, yet the problem remains. Greed and grift are especially harmful faults for any advocacy effort. The founders have tainted the name, perhaps a different name for the effort is in order.
Exploiting labor and resources without any restraint in pursuit of profit is the basis of unregulated capitalism. I think capitalism is tied up with white supremacy. I think we cannot stop white supremacy unless we stop unregulated capitalism. Right now people measure their worthwhileness by the total of their bank account and other assets
Agreed. I like a model that provides social basics of education, healthcare, child care, elder care, infrastructure and information integrity. And other countries have shown us how to do that along side a vibrant creative but carefully regulated free enterprise system of "capitalism". We just refuse to learn from the success of others.
Aren't we exceptional? /s
Or, to quote SNL's "Church Lady"...."Isn't that special"
Who is causing all this trouble in the world? Could it be...........SATAN?
Only if you're at the top of the heap Bill. I am not. In fact I'm likely the most insecure and vulnerable among us, no fault of my own.
If I were a Marxist, I would say that racism is a myth created by capitalists to keep white and brown proletarians fighting amongst themselves rather than challenging my privilege. Yet, I am far from a Marxist and believe that capitalism has elevated billions of people from poverty to the middle class . . . if it is regulated and contained.
Regulated is the thing I think. Unregulated moves toward privatization—I think there needs to be brakes for certain life essentials such as housing, education, essential foods, water, utilities including internet, etc. Those could be regulated for the public good and protected from privatization. I am not sure how that can work with capitalism but I bet someone could figure out how the two things can exist together. Because yes, trading moves goods and capital to market but somehow unregulated sucks the wealth out and leaves too many behind. Not sure how this would work. Needs to be examined I think.
Well it seems to work pretty well in a lot of Europe. In fact among the E.U. countries, Hungary's authoritarianism has impoverished a fine people with a rich history and culture. That exception proves the proverbial rule.
Once upon a time in your America, many things besides the U.S. mail was regulated; Utilities, airlines, trucking (inter state commerce) among them. Private property was seized under eminent domain for the public common good to install telegraph line, then electrical lines and grids, telephone services. The mad rush to privatize those services in my lifetime and recollection began with our own Jimmy Carter, sold as he was on the 'miracles' of private industry and the magic invisible hand of capitalism to automatically if not magically make all things product, pricing, and availability universally affordable to all Americans. That sweet soul is rolling in his grave, as certainly as is Lincoln.
What came to happen in practice is that there were necessary products and services that private industry could not make nor deliver affordably or profitably 'enough' to be bothered. Government filled those needs without profit. Of course now the capitalists are lobbying for those services including services of our collective government that we agreed and swore to live within, to be sold out for profit; Along with our National assets including federal lands with the assets there upon, and more to come.
Now that's more like it Ned.
Thank you, Dan! Great to hear from you, me lad! 🤝🏻✍️🙏🏾💡✌🏼
Exactly Mary; You echo points I've made here over and over again. The OiD is a tool; It's the coalition of 'deplorables' who support him that is the greater danger; Those above him, the Heritage Foundation, Koch Industries, Leonard Leo, The Federalist Society, and all their corporate donors. Find them, rob them of income, and watch the OiD fail faster.
"I think capitalism is tied up with white supremacy..."
How so? Socialism, Communism and Marxism are White European constructs, while "capitalism" has evolved in every know society at some point world wide since humans learned to first barter.
What is the connection?
B.L.U.F. (bottom-line, up-front): your implicit assumption that capitalism is innate to human beings or culture may not stack up.😳
Socialism, Communism, Progressivism, the Welfare State, and Marxism grew as countervailing forces against unfettered, unregulated capitalism. Adam Smith was white and mercantilist colonialism was a white invention. Getting an eight hour work day still entailed more labor than expected by medieval land-lords before the capitalist work ethic set in.🤔
The fine book, 'The Dawn of Everything' adduces evidence that other parts of the world often had far more egalitarian cultures, even those with hierarchies. The book delves into an interesting mid-twentieth century Peninsulare (i.e., a Latin American of pure Iberian blood; well-born into a well-to-do family benefitting from capitalism). 🫨
Abducted as a little girl, this woman grew up with an Amazonian tribe for twenty-four years. In her thirties, she left the supposedly fierce people to re-join her upper-class, modern life with the blessing of the tribe's people. Later she returned to that indigenous culture; she felt more at ease with its communalist equalitarianism.🤝🏻
Apparently, this lady was far from unique with other white children brought up by first-nation societies preferring them to the white, often British, culture. One feature among many of these supposedly primitive societies made sure that power-driven personalities or hierarchies were contained to compress inequality of wealth.💡
Ned, that capitalism is found in other than White societies is not an implicit assumption, it's a fact. Bartering and trading for profit goes farther back than the ancients. There were capitalist exchanges in Asia, Africa and South America millenia before White intervention. That's not an assumption. Adam Smith didn't invent capitalism, Smith was an economist who explained capitalism, much as Darwin didn't invent Evolution but explained it via Natural Selection. Much of Smith's contribution was debunking the idea that wealth was a divine intervention. He also promoted the idea that a good employer does well by practicing concern for the employee, a progressive ideal. I agree that unfettered and unregulated capitalism is a bad idea, but it has never been so in the US. Indeed the US Constitution provides for the regulation of trade for profit. For what it's worth lumping the welfare state in with state control of the means of production and distribution of wealth is a stretch. The Nordic Model is practiced in the capitalist nations of Scandinavia.
As far as colonialism being a White invention I suggest a reading of the histories of China, Japan, and Arabia amongst others. There were plenty of non-White colonial powers. It's was part of human social evolution not exclusive of White supremacy. You can argue Europe was best at it for many reasons. Jared Diamond does a good job explaining why Europe exceeded others in his book, Guns, Germs and Steel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel
Yes, like the German’s did about Nazism after WWII- abolish Confederate statues, and continue to teach about the horrors of the holocaust that their citizens perpetrated on the Jews.
The difference was that Germany was occupied by great powers determined to enforce that erasure. Yet, Germany's breath-taking example -- as well as that of Japan's -- of transcending a dark period to graduate into a great-power democracy.
A powerful commentary!
Yes, Bill's thoughts surely are; I second that commotion!
The problem with bigots, as I see it, is that they see life as a zero sum game. They do not understand that being inclusive makes life better for everyone. Maybe if we start teaching that in Kindergarten we might make some progress. I don't know how you get bigots to understand the path to making life better, to get them to care about others, to realize that nothing is taken from them if they allow others to succeed.
Great description of thoughts vaguely swirling around in my head. Thank you for consolidating those diverse thoughts.
You are welcome, Ned. I've been spending a lot of time lately trying to figure out the MAGA people.
If you do figure them out, including half of my extended, please let me know. Then I will not be so bizzy alienating others. The public service advertisements on littering and smoking when I was little sure influenced me. Imagine the impact education might have in socializing little ones into a more communal society.
Bill, thank you for this post even as the current regime does its best to do the opposite. Btw, I am reading Elaine Pagel's recent (2025) book on Jesus called Miracles and Wonders which is a fascinating look at what she calls the historical mystery of Jesus.
Thank you for your comment. Elaine Pagels' book 'Beyond Belief' always comes to mind, or at least pops to the top ten, when someone asks the impossible question about favorite books. I look forward to finding and reading her new book!
I am enjoying it and almost done. We have several of her other books which I have not read...so can look forward to that.
Oy-vey. So many books, so little time.
Isn't that the truth. Piles of books all over the place.
And my sloth doth not help, either. 😉
Also, you have inspired me and
I will fly our flag today, too. Thanks for the idea.
A book that documents the attitudes of White Supremacy that allowed people to own slaves and to resent any interference with this, as well as driving native people's off their land is Freedom's Dominion by historian Jefferson Cowie. In that book he documents the concept of freedom that is free for me but not for thee, this concept is alive and well today. We see the Oligarchs embracing it, the Christian Nationalists embracing it, and in general, the people who have a hold of our government.
Reminds me of 'Animal Farm' by George Orwell and some pigs being more equal than others. One question my fellow conservatives never seem to ask: in the end, ¿whose resources are these?
I used to think it would take a generation or two, but assumed we would keep at the harder part of sustaining and building on the progress made.
Now, seeing the determined opposition and apparently well financed anti-fact checkers' claims of all sorts of conspiracies, matched with super evasive, well practiced lie spouting appointees and spokespeople, I see the forces trying to reverse all that progress.
To me it is like we took all the strategic ground, but are failing to really secure it for the long term, populated with fair, local self-governing people, honest agents of an ever improving democracy.
How far will they go? Take Tina Peters, the County Clerk of Mesa County, Colorado. She was convicted of on several counts (including 4 felonies), related to unauthorized access to voting machines as described at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tina_Peters_(politician)
What are the potential consequences of that security breach alone, to me just an early example of the far worse breaches of the first few months of this administration. Let's see a meaningful bi-partisan investigation of just how far it seems they want to go on rigging vote counts. A good start seems to be at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk1A-tLIaXY
In December 1979, l finally put the plug in the jug college since my honor was in tatters and so I could graduate. I have never missed that escapism for forty-five years and change . . . until now. That does not mean I will indulge but it is an indicator of the level of despair I sometimes feel in those darker moments. I am watching your vid. now, Jim; thank you.
EDIT: I have watched the vid. Eye-opening. I had felt that Trump did not win because of those who voted for him but thanks to those who did not show up to vote for Vice President Harris. My concern, not very strong, was that part of the no-show had to do with suppression of voting rights. These two women make a persuasive case that a far darker possibility be investigated.
You are naming what nags at many of us. The results were too weird. There is actually a country in New York that does not show oven one vote for Harris. Musk has made quite clear assertions about giving trump the win and I don't think it is just about money. In addition, voter suppression and gerrymandering are playing ever increasing roles in elections.
Dark if true, obviously. That is one thing that got me about this vid. The colossal stupidity of tampering with a county in New York, a state Trump would never win. If the Rockland County suit pans out, then there is momentum is states where tampering might really have counted BIG TIME.
What eats at me is how we could have such an incredibly strong movement with the Harris/Walz ticket and then the results. The election results continue to be the pink elephant in the room. The Republicans have literally bullied anyone from bringing the results up. I've been voting, campaigning and protesting since 1968. This election results bother me like crazy.
Ned, I tend to agree; far too many questions have not been answered. I'd love to know what those voting eligible people that did not vote would list as their cause. I believe that it is a multitude of factors, from apathy (my vote doesn't matter), to obstacles (no ability to get off work to vote, lack of access to polling places, being removed from voter rolls, lack of disability access), to the stark inability to vote for a woman, much less a woman of color.
Ally, my 84 year old sister told me "I know you think differently, but I just don't think a WOMAN can be president."
That may be true. But I do not think that aversion to a female leader was the reason for Vice President Harris's loss. Voter suppression and manipulated voting are more like the dark forces (if there are any).
There really does seem to be a few too many that are reluctant to vote for a woman, or person of color, no matter how smart, well qualified, and truly dedicated to treating all citizens equally, the candidates are.
Though always aware of the prejudicial handicaps, we voted for Obama and Hillary as the better choices, and never voted for anyone just because they were Black, or a Woman (Sarah Palin would never get my vote, for example).
I remember when that applied to Catholics (or even those accused of being Catholic like Charles Fremont in 1856).
Can't "like" this. I know there are a ton of folks with similar opinions.
Ally, nice analytical summary; in my heart of hearts, the last two factors were not determinants. At least I hope we have come that far. People said in 2016 that Secretary / Senator Clinton lost in part because she was a woman. I believe she lost because she came across as feeling entitled to the 0val 0fiice (as had then Senator Kerry in 2004 and then Governor Romney in 2012, at least for their respective nominations).
Ned, I disagree with you, but that's OK. Clinton had also been the target of RepubliKKKan propaganda since 1988 if not before.
Hilary is a dominionist; regularly attended/attends the Prayer Breakfast
The last election may be water under the bridge, but that just means we need to really take every measure possible to make sure the next one is better verified. Every possible forensic audit of the last one should be done with neutral teams to see where there were vulnerabilities, and extra precautions taken from now on.
Real trustworthy results should only come after sufficient time is check the results on up and down ballot races, using the same type of samples hand counted then recounted by machines that are secured 24/7 after trusted builds before and after elections.
The rub for me is that 2026 may be too late. Yes, I am all for strict verification, perhaps even hand-counted ballots. Yet this dash toward dictatorship requires something to stop it in the next couple of months. Unless, of course, Trump does not flout the courts -- a remote likelihood.
Two things to bear in mind: Judeo/Christianity is male oriented and, the Constitution embeds oligarchs with the electoral college and the 4/5 population count for slaves
Ooops Ned, AI defines a generation as about 20-30 years—hence, one or two generations by that measure won’t work. Now, if we look at it probably a bit more realistically as 80 to 100 years, I still think that one to two generations is still an insufficient time projection…just my opinion as an almost 80-year, former USAR’vist of 7 years with about 5 years of 2-weekers at Fort Benning [Columbus, GA] a/k/a Fort Moore and two years at Fort Bliss [El Paso, TX].
This, right here, is what I love about LFAA. Great "conversations" on topics that are important. Good dialogue and discourse.
One thing I have not seen mentioned is the impact of generational trauma, mostly seen in abusive families, many BIPOC families, and I'm sure other areas that are not coming to mind at the moment. Generational trauma (i.e. slavery, forced relocation to reservations, and long histories of familial abuse) changes peoples' DNA.
WOWerful thought, there, Ally. Thank you. These discourses educate me (when I right-size the ego). One thing I have noticed is that so many of these tech broes and people swirling around Trump were bullied or bullies. As if a who ruling clique has failed to transcend a continuüm of the victim and the victimizer. Your thoughts, Ally -- as well as those of others -- are always important to me thank you.
Thank you, Ned, for your kind words.
Honestly, I am basing two generations off of the Book of the Exodus. Moses marched the ancient Hebrews through the desert for forty years to expunge the culture of servitude and certain lentils toward one of autonomy and risk.
Yesterday (Wed., 06/18/25) Hegseth said at a hearing that one should believe what they read in the Bible — or something to that effect — and then Sen. T Cruz, in an argument [or dynamic discussion] okay, debate, with Tucker Carlson that he learned from Sunday School and the teachings of the Bible that one should bless the nation of Israel — a physical place that didn’t exist until the late 1940’s — long after the Bible had been written. Okay, the Bible’s reference had to do with their former land in Egypt and probably the idea or their way of life as a people…their culture. Seems Cruz was thinking more of the current physical location of Israel.
I watched about a third of that hearing. I have to quit doing that; my ageing sixty-eight year old mind really can not take much more of this muck. I heard the Bible reference. Said a lot more about Hegseth than the Bible.
Truly, I love Israël and admire what her citizens have built; but she has gone too far with genocide in Gaza and, now, a war with Iran.
https://nedmcdletters.blogspot.com/2023/10/letter-180-post-107-in-israel-and-time.html
My gut says that Netanyahu thinks right now is his country's last chance to defeat Iran decisively and 'break' Palestinean resistance. Of course, either objective is unlikely to be realized.
Trump loves authoritarian bullies, so he can not get enough of Netanyahu. Netanyahu will be remembered as Hamas's most effective recruiter; if he is not careful, Israël will be lost.
Do not think about it as just Israel anymore than you think of the mess and the harshness that we’re in and exhibiting around the world as the USA. Netanyahu and trump’s relationship dates back to the 1980’s and they’re both quite similar to one another: big ego’s, narcissistic personalities, both trying to avoid punishment for their misdeeds and trying to stay out of jail! It’s tragic — horrendously tragic what’s happening to the Palestinians!
Let me add that desperate people do — not just things that are desperate, but also things that maybe dangerous, evil, harmful and wrong!
"Truly, I love Israël and admire what her citizens have built; but she has gone too far with genocide in Gaza and, now, a war with Iran." WHO built Israel, and who is supporting her in Gaza and Iran?
The Great Society did not fail. It helped hundreds of thousands if not millions. The roots of urban poverty have never been adequately addressed and I’m not the race to do it. It has to be from within and in essence it’s called family planning.
The 'Great Society' failed because LBJ took all the money meant to implement it and wasted it on his futile efforts in southeast Asia. Had it not been for the warmongering by Macnamara and others and LBJ's massive ego, which drove US involvement in the conflict, the Great Society might have had a chance.
As it was, the money dried up and was used to fund a war that no one wanted other than the military-industrial complex that Ike warned us all about.
Then there was the Chennault Affair where LBJ attempted to have peace talks before 1968 elections. These were thwarted by Nixon. After that opportunity was gone and Nixon elected, Nixon continued the war with more American and Vietnamese deaths.
https://www.lbjlibrary.org/media-kit/chennault-affair
LBJ withdrew from the race after he lost in March, when he lost in New Hampshire. Thieu (following Anna Chennault's influence) refused to join talks in October 1968.
LBJ began spending the funds allocated to the Great Society on Vietnam in 1964.
President Johnson won the N.H. primarily but by so narrow a margin over Senator McCarthy that he was vulnerable. Senator Kennedy then entered the race.
President Johnson then threw in the towel. The tragedy, at least as I see it, is that President Johnson wanted the Great Society but fell prey to wishful thinking.
McNamara and others didn't drive that insanity, Marla.
Stats did. Stats totally divorced from human stories. Numbers, statistics, units, more numbers, and easily quantifiable quantities ruled all. How many yards of concertina wire. How many tons of bombs. How much napalm. Agent Orange. Body bags. How much money paid to Saigon cadres. More increments in body bags.
All this insanity was prior to the Powell memo (1971) which institutionalized the genteel and bureaucratic corruptions to routine SOP in U.S. schools, board rooms, standardized testers, social and legacy media billionaires, and replicable Clarences of the Clarence court.
But McNamara lived and lied by those stats and cost-benefit analyses, which were really cost-utility analyses. They were not exercises of values but a tyranny of data and products of main-frame computers coming of age in the 1960s that unfettered data-dinks across the land.
The ghastly war in Viêt Nam was one big, bloody distraxion; it killed the financing. The assassinations of Senator Kennedy and Reverend Doctor King killed the idealism. Nevertheless, I am not sure that the Great Society was financially sustainable; there were larger economic forces at play as competitive economies (re-)emerged together with a sluggish response, at best, by many industry leaders in the U.S.
The Great Society did not succeed because it did not last; the culture did not change.
You didn’t read.
The culture did not change. That takes a generation or two, say thirty-plus years of enforced legal and behavioral change for the culture of the Great Society or qualitative utility -- i.e., as many people fulfilling their properly ordained stature in the eyes of G-D -- to supersede the current consumerism inherent in general utility.
IT DID SUCCEED to a great extent. It's been the victim of a disinformation campaign since inception.
Time doesn't permt a statute by statute analysis, but society has benefitted far beyond any economic cost...and from a fiscal standpoint, it was Keynesian theory in action. The government receives multiple returns from investments in areas like education and commerce.
When I was discharged from the Army in January, 1968, most of the country was still segregated and soon the entire country was physically threatened.
Objections to, say, DEI come from a small vocal and powerful minority.
A generation or two?
We're only in the 10th generation at least since all that, yet here we are, still fighting this same old shit, still amazed that we have to keep fighting this same old shit, still wondering when this same old shit will finally die for good.
This is where the dignity of the ongoing struggle becomes important for its muted nobility (i.e., Albert Camus in Sisyphus).
Abolishing white supremacy will take forever. White supremacy has been apart of this country since before it was a country. European colonialists were sure they were superior to the”godless savages,” the indigenous peoples. They were no more savage than the Europeans. The Europeans had better weapons and were just as savage.
It's a never ending task, as the seeds like weeds keep coming back if you don't constantly discourage the growth of careless hatred.
Ally from Oregon made an interesting point worth considering seriously: ¿do these prejudices become embedded in, and reinforced by DNA?
Hegseth, like his boss, peddles BS by the box car load. His explanation why the names of Army bases needed to be restored to Confederate generals is as senseless as he is.
Could not agree more.
Ned ... indeed, abolition of slavery in the law was the easy part. But every advance in our lived culture was first preceded by a change in the law.
Example: When there were no U.S. laws regulating the sale and smoking of tobacco, it was once "cool" in American culture. All the "beautiful people" smoked. Then, despite the tobacco industry's concealment and obfuscation of the health risks, legislation began to prohibit the sale of tobacco to minors, thereby cutting off the addiction recruitment of children. Then more legislation made smoking extremely inconvenient, albeit not illegal. Today, smoking is culturally "uncool." Most smokers are senior citizens who got addicted when they were young and tobacco wasn't regulated. When they die, cigarette smoking will be a thing of the past.
However, after that ringing endorsement of legislating cultural change, I have no hope for legislating white supremacy out of existence. As I have opined before, the U.S. was founded by white supremacists, including several slave owners, who believed neither people of color nor women had the "smarts" to vote properly. Effectively, white supremacy is programmed into our national DNA.
Abraham Lincoln made his proclamation and constitutional amendments were ratified, but legislation full of weasel language created loopholes that enabled continued discrimination, including maintenance of the Electoral College.
Another force against eliminating white supremacy is the vestigial belief among evangelicals that people of color are inferior because God said so(See: Curse of Ham). Religious beliefs are the most unshakable.
Moreover, whatever legal progress we may have made over the past 150 years is being systematically undone by the current crop of corrupt Suprettes. See https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/23-1039_c0n2.pdf for example.
The idea that white supremacy could be stamped out in a couple generations, no matter how you measure a generation, is wildly optimistic. To quote cartoonist Bob Mankoff, "No, Thursday's out. How about never – is never good for you?"
Yes, two generations may be too optimistic. The example I draw from involved a homogeneous people with one big cultural shift to realize.
It's also a reminder that your original Constitution was not quite the paragon of written constitutions that some Americans believe it to be. Those Reconstruction Amendments were pretty significant changes. The fact that the fourteenth amendment has generated some of the most controversial case law (Borwn vs Board of Education, Loving vs Virginia, Roe vs Wade, Obergefell vs Hodges, Students for Fair Admissions vs Harvard) shows just how far you still have to go; and the election of that clown Trump for a second time shows just how unlikely it seems now that you're ever going to get there.
We never will get to the promised land, if we expect to rally around specific issues. 😢 We need to rally around a general aspiration that we can do better, in part because we have done better at times. ✌🏼That faith in democratic governance and trust of the larger community keeps republicanism alive. 🤞🏼I suspect that the Founding Fathers would quite agree with you: 🤝🏻 that the Constitution is not static and should change informed by ever higher aspirations for an enlightened, just, and equal society. 💡😇⚖️
Almost all American presidents in modern times have talked in aspirational terms about the virtues of your democracy, apart from Trump who only offers empty boasts about his own achievements and ambitions and denigration of his predecessors. Most of them (at least after Ford) have recognised diversity, apart from Trump, as the American Presidency Project notes.
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/analyses/presidents-recognize-diversity-acts-inclusion
President Ford was the best President of my life-time. He recognized diversity.
https://www.c-span.org/clip/joint-session-of-congress/user-clip-gerald-ford-on-the-united-states-2minvid/4679796
I remember him saying he kept a copy of Nixon's pardon on him at all times, but failed to correct Nixon when he took it as a full pardon.
It always seemed to me that pardons can be too generous, if they allow future misconduct (kind of like some Catholic friends that claimed confessions made them forgiven, as they bragged about doing the same or worse after confession). At least some pardons for Confederates required not taking up arms against the government in the future.
He also kept a copy or a quote from a Supreme Court decision that accepting a pardon admits to wrong-doing. President Ford basically sacrificed the election -- though the fall of Saigon did not help -- when he pardoned President Nixon.
https://www.c-span.org/clip/washington-journal/user-clip-interesting-historical-tid-bit-66secvid/4834551
In fairness to President Ford, he made at least three assumptions that may have not worked out.
1st, there would never be another President Nixon or worse.
2nd, that contesting President Nixon's interpretation of the pardon would only prolong the long national nightmare.
3rd, that later miscreants would NOT view the pardon as a get-out-of-jail-free card.
I agree, The Declaration of Independence is the beacon for me, the Constitution is more like the first iteration of laws to try to codify essential laws to meet the principals expressed in the Declaration.
Just imagine how the old world shook when that Declaration sailed across Europe; it eventually inspired France's gift of the Statue of Liberty, which, of course, Trump has soiled.
Trump thinks the Declaration of Independence arose from the American Civil War. You are in so much trouble!
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/RmQAlOmPKHQ
Russell, I saw that. I also remember that in the recent past, when asked about the Declaration of Independence, he said (paraphrased) that it was a "document of love" which is utter nonsense.
Yes, "love and unity". That was obviously the last straw for ABC's Terry Moran who got sacked a few days later for castigating Trump and Stephen Miller as 'world-class haters'.
But those who still want Black and Brown people, and women too, "in their place" are relentless in their oppression. They have never stopped in 150+ years and will probably never stop in their hatred of everyone who is not white, male and heterosexual. I'm so f'n tired of this BS...
Sometimes I believe it is fear fermented into hatred.
Fear of what? That white men are really not all they are cracked up to be? Yes I can see that.
Fear of losing out, just as the good Dr Richardson has written many times.
I'm tired of this BS, too! We are all human beings...
The 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments were passed without the southern Democrats, the rich planter class. The label doesn’t matter. Those descendants of the southern Democrats are now Republicans, but their behavior is the same. Those amendments were intended to help poor people of color, but they really helped everyone. The rich thought they were entitled to be rich; they still do.
Also to remember, despite all the obfuscations, there are a good number who would reverse those 'good changes.' Changes made constitutionally, as the preamble promises / orders; Again, contrary to the wishes that it were not so.
Texas is my native state, my ancestors having fought in the Texas war liberating it from Mexico (1835-1836), my great-great Uncle, William Depriest Sutherland, dying at the Alamo on March 6, 1836. I am now living in Tom Green County, Texas, named after a Confederate general. It's not easy being a Texan. We've had Lyndon Johnson, Liz Sutherland Carpenter, Ralph Yarborough, Ann Richards, Miriam Ferguson and Lloyd Bentsen. But then, we have John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, August Pfluger and Gov. Greg Abbott. We are now in the dark days of Texas politics. MAGA is simply the 21st century version of the KKK.
For the Common Good of all citizens. While blacks contributed, the key driving group has been whites starting with Lincoln. I say this as a historical fact, not a racial meaning.
Thank you for sharing the importance of Juneteenth.
Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly.
Use/share this spreadsheet as a resource to call/email/write members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Reach out to those in your own state, as well as those in others. Use your voice and make some “good trouble” ❤️🩹🤍💙
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13lYafj0P-6owAJcH-5_xcpcRvMUZI7rkBPW-Ma9e7hw/edit?usp=drivesdk
This is a great document. Thanks, Megan!
You’re welcome! Thanks for speaking up right now!
The current administration would wipe this off the books, if they could. Shaking my head. Thank you for the history lesson. To family and friends celebrating, a great Juneteenth to all.
July 4th is an important milestone for so many of us, so I can easily imagine the appreciation of Juneteenth when the Declaration of Independence became so much more real to all with General Order 3.
I’ve met Dr Opal Lee and heard her speak on a few occasions. She is a national treasure! I wanted to thank her for all she had accomplished. Instead she thanked me for being a teacher in these difficult educational times. And told me she’s my grandmother now. Her childhood home was burned down. So on the same lot, they built her a new home! She’s not in good health but I hope she makes it to this year’s Juneteenth celebration! It’s a big deal here in her hometown!
Simply fabulous, Denise, that you had such luck in speaking to Miss Opal and that she adopted you! That must’ve made you feel so loved and appreciated. Look one person did and a strong woman, no less.
It was during the time when book banning was escalating. Miss Lee just wanted to know if we were banning books in my district. We hadn’t yet but did not long after. She really wants every child to get a good education!
She is a good and decent person and only wants the best for our most vulnerable, our children. You too!
Denise, what a lovely memory for you! Until about a week ago, I was unaware that referring to someone as "grandma" was a mark of respect and appreciation (although I have several former students who call me "mom"). I helped a family with a rambunctious baby take a picture of themselves and when they thanked me they called me "grandma," which did amuse me (I am old enough to be a grandmother, certainly) as I had never been called that before. I didn't know if this was a term specific to this particular family or region so it's good to know it has been universalized. May we all become "grandmothers" and/or "grandchildren" to people in the world.
That is wonderful, Linda. I cherish the title of "Auntie"; I have a handful of nieces and nephews, and the tuba studio at the university call me "Tuba Auntie." ("Hey, Ally, I just bought a couch on Craigs List; can you drive me and my roomie over to pick it up. You don't have to carry, just you and your pickup." I loaned my truck to another student's family when they had to help her move and she had a lot of furniture.
Auntie forever!
Awwww…you’re such a good woman, Ally! Tuba and all!
Thanks for sharing this, Denise….💖
Her call to action is be a committee of one and make good trouble! My friend worked the voting polls with her and my friend said she was humbled by her words. She really is inspirational!
Her “light” certainly does shine on us all…it’s a gift!
How wonderful! We took our flag down on January 20 this year. I am going to get a new one and fly it from today until July 4.
Yes, celebrate Black culture. All diversity, equality, and inclusion.
It's our history. Heather's got that correct. Though Dems lack any human examples of that -- from life or from our humanities -- to fight back against the criminal in the White House's vile madness.
I’ve just finished Natsuo Kirino’s “Grotesque.” But it doesn’t help, or, not much.
It’s her 2007 novel about what happens to persons from a series of elite schools in Japan – from the beginning of elementary school through high school, and an elite university topping off that.
Trouble is, the narrators of this novel keep shifting, taking turns resuming their story – and none can be trusted (except maybe one retired teacher).
Similar to the MAGA world which inflicts the U.S. (and the world) now?
None in MAGA can tell the truth. The tens of millions voting for their rancid lies can tell no truth, either, given how they keep burrowing in the Fox vitriol and cultism, then dip further into the social media silos whose billionaire owners keep poisoning by algorithms for utmost hatreds and paranoia.
Dems can’t help – too many having gone to schools where too many learned only to ace testing, leaving them mostly with vocabularies of slogans, cliché, and other please-the-group inanities.
Bruce Springsteen? Yes, he’s got it. The U.S. deindustrialized. Off-shored the jobs. Grew the wealth gap, which only keeps getting worse, worse.
The Biden Administration pushed back some. Repubs are pushing for a plutocrat's plutopia.
In my city of Aurora, CO, (which is not overrun with gangs because we have a good police dept), the Republican mayor just declared that the City will observe Juneteenth and I think the full city will celebrate the day.
That’s wonderful!!👏🏼👏🏼
Lived in the Aurora Tower Triangle area back in the 80's while teaching at the Space Systems Command and Control School and later working at a Buckley ANGB, Space Command unit.
Some parts of our school on Lowery AFB were in Aurora (where the 1st, temporary, Air Force Academy was located before the Colorado Springs campus was finished), and some in Denver so it made for some interesting tax issues IIRC related to where you (and other family members) worked most of the day.
Then don't say you're not overwhelmed with gangs when twice now the police have caught at least six gang members taking over an apartment building that's pretty significant don't you think especially for the residents
I'm sure your police force is doing a great job, but it doesn't eliminate the fact that you have a gang problem
Hey Robert, you gotta be kidding me. They just had another incident of a gang from Venezuela trend Aragua taking over apartment building in Aurora or don’t you get the news there? The police chief named them call them a cancer that needs to be cut out.
Yes, there's a threat of the gangs but it is taken very seriously and proactively by the police and the city is by no means overrun. It is a very localized problem. Overall crime is down year over year, pretty much throughout the metro area. I feel comfortable going out doing my daily business during the daytime. I would rather live in Aurora than Denver.
By the way, did you happen to see the video out yesterday with six gang members with guns trying to get into an apartment at that same building as it did a year ago you're probably right about the police taking it seriously but I wouldn't call that proactivity
Hopefully, it'll something will be in the news in the next few days that they've arrested some people which would be great thanks for sending that message Robert
And I'm not sure about the difference because I don't know the area. I think Denver is a beautiful city obviously a little too far left from my thought as long as you feel safe where you are that's the best thing to have your freedom and your safety.
Ah, the estimable Mr. Graham with another nice turn of phrase: "plutopia". I like it.
Yeah, what about all the other cultures that were obliterated around the world that now live in America like the Christians and the Jews and the indigent Indians and the first immigrants the Irishman and the Brits that gave this country independence ?
What about them? Equal justice, not special justice once again
If you meant 'indigenous Indians' Rick, then there's seems to be a major gap in your knowledge of your own country's history because they were forced off their ancestral lands by those first white immigrants you so cherish, the same white immigrants who so eagerly embraced slavery.
At least you recognise that your country's success is based on immigration. Why then is it so hard for you see how disgusting it is for the government you support to be turning its back on immigrants who continue to contribute to your country's wealth and treating them all as criminals? A government, I might add, led by a criminally convicted buffoon who is the scion of an illegal German immigrant.
Didn’t you know Rick was born in Russia. Ask him he’ll tell you. Rick is an Ayn Rand type. But I’ll say that I’m not a believer in the current concept of DEI because it does practice exclusion not inclusion and equality. Humans get these notions and hardwire themselves as we have with this. DEI is one reason we have an ugly far right backlash but worst; a mental case with a mafia-like desire. I’m sorry to disappoint but DEI separates society instead of bringing together. It does not practice equality for all. Ivan recite numerous examples.
You've fallen for the far right propaganda and that's disappointing. The World Economic Forum produced a report in 2019 on the business case for DEI and it's a strong one. What do you offer to counter this: some anecdotes of your own which I hazard might be found on any far right websites discussing the issue. Your country is marching backwards on this issue and you will all suffer as a result and you'll have no one to blame but yourselves.
https://www.weforum.org/stories/2019/04/business-case-for-diversity-in-the-workplace/
I don’t care if it’s found anywhere. I have my own thoughts and I don’t let others dictate what I’m supposed to believe. So cease with the same calling or you too will sound stupid. And further, if we don’t moderate some of these misperceptions of equality by calling them diversity, we will never win. I am in favor of EQUALITY for all. Diversity does not practice this. Simple Dimple.
Bill,
Agreed: "Equality for all"! But easy to say. Hard to implement.
"Diversity" doesn't "practice" anything. It's just a recognition that we have a variety of people from a variety of backgrounds who should all be living together equally and peacefully - with the same opportunities.
DEI training reveals the nasty truths inbred, embedded prejudices that most people (even those well intentioned) have. The truth hurts. Sorry. We feel the pain, we learn, we grow, we see the world from the "other's" point of view.
The problem with DEI is that it isn't fully embraced by everyone. If there is a negative reaction to people being diverse and there is opposition to equity and some folks don't want have an inclusive society...whose fault is that? The person of color who doesn't get hired, or can't buy a home or who is much more likely to be arrested or killed at a traffic stop?
As for the backlash on DEI? That's just bigotry with another name. Eliminating DEI is obeying in advance. It is cowardice in the face of injustice.
IMO, DEI is the vehicle for "EQUALITY for all." DEI is an extension of Lincoln's emancipation - that people are still struggling with centuries later.
Black Americans represent 39% of the prison population, despite accounting for only 14% of the total population. Black American adults are 5.9 times as likely to be incarcerated than whites and Hispanics are 3.1 times as likely. As of 2001, one of every three black boys born in that year could expect to go to prison in his lifetime, as could one of every six Latinos—compared to one of every seventeen white boys.
Trayvon Martin was shot to death at only 17 years old because he looked “suspicious.” His killer, George Zimmerman, was not convicted, based on the grotesque Stand Your Ground law, which provides people the right to use deadly force if they feel threatened.
In a 2023 survey conducted by Pew Research Center, 38% of white Americans think that “Our country has made the changes needed to give blacks equal rights with whites” (in contrast with 8% of African Americas). Think about where you stand on this before you accuse others of sounding stupid.
These are institutional problems, at federal, state and local level and they are just one example of the discrimination that Black Americans face in your society.
https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/09/systemic-racism-pervades-us-police-and-justice-systems-un-mechanism-racial
F DEI and the horse it rode in on. It’s for socialist countries like England. It’s ..WAIT FOR IT. G. O. N. E.
Merit is here….not to mention, none of your business.
This is the USA where we write our own rules.
Now….feel free for either one of you fools to name me a country/region IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND that was NOT invaded by another OUTSIDER, AND either killed or enslaved it’s conquered. INDIGENT POPULATION?
Btw. After the un f-effing real life truth that saw HCR sit down with the human waste of the actual person that through their own inaction and failure of the JCPOA…IS THE reason and cause of the nuclear conflict we have today with Iran.
There were several UNBELIEVABLE things that occurred today, like the VII,Ty plea of a person scamming USAID to the tune of at least 550 MILLLION DOLLARS, ( limit to possibly 800 million) having to do with illegal immigration…. Lmfao
A few other calamities that also plague the liberals came out today that have made me decide that ANYONE that supports this fraud, deceit, and divisiveness is no longer worth my time…so …to great accolades and applause I will be abandoning this platform here and watch you from the stands , destroy yourselves in you own wrongsided esoteric, deluded thinking, in my opinion.
And for God’s sake stop living in the past, and through meaningless links….reality is on the streets every day…go see it, touch it, enjoy it…as you have your freedom as you see, to protest.
I will be bidding you fond adieu shortly.
But plz, don’t change a thing you are doing…it’s your badge of honor…and you are killing your own agenda with it.
Just realize, that without any extreme external, un anticipated circumstances, Donald Trump will be your duly elected president , not your king, for the next 42 months or so……
For your own sakes, since you don’t seem to learn easily, from what I’ve witnessed, since nothing has yet changed, except for a closed border, it’s all in your minds until it becomes law or approved policy… thereby affecting your daily lives….you are wasting your time worrying….alas it’s your prerogative if you;d like to be miserable, for any of your “imagined” reasons…not good for your health, not good for America…in my opinion.
Go out, visit a park, go to a baseball game, take your kids/grandkids to the local swimming pool, see a movie….go out to dinner…nothing has changed….so enjoy your lives…it’s the only ones we have. try Bobbie mcferrin ……instead
And thank goodness Donald Trump was not born on July 4th. Lololol.
Rick Sender, you are so stupid that I convinced you to buy my book, “Donald’s Vanity Tantrums.” I was hoping some of the material would have modified your calcified brain. It didn’t. Please return my book, lol.
Of course, you've got a new version of DEI and that must be how you've elected a fucking idiot as your president.
Dasvidaniya!
William Barnes I believe guilty plea
Hey Rick, try being nice for a change.
Today was horrible for the beliefs here., and the left. Almost put me in shock seeing hcr sitting with the person who is the reason that we are at war today….sickening via his actions and the transparently failed JCPOA
That’s why I’m being as I am today….disbelief….once again BACKING THE WRONG PONY……USAID FRAUD…EXPOSED via Walter barnés guilty plea from what I understand. …and other “blasphemes” so to speak form the left…against public sentiment. Those libs that STILL want to allow Iran to have a bomb…. 80% of American from both sides of the aisle…against and your leadership like Schumer still talking about other issues,,,,,today THIS is the only issue. And the lunatic? candidate in Ny;s mayoral race promising socialism., free stuff…such as and authoritarian control , like govt grocery stores, and free /subsidized baby care, and rent freezes which even in Cali do not work… and with AOC dancing on his “float”…
commercials from a radical left wing group, distorting Ice reality….senator Padilla crying like a baby …Hochul 50 million taxpayer dollars paying for an illegals defense fund …vs helping the poor and drugged homeless CITIZENS on the streets there ..sorry it defies credulity….
CNN hitting its lowest ratings of the year and it being sold off…
Last year THIS MONTH’ 62000 illegals allowed to enter this country. This year ZERO…..or perhaps a few unknown….bombarded by this news and more today…..
But like I’ve said here bill….i have the utmost respect for your balance and your right to speak your mind. As I have to speak mine
You are just a stupid nincompoop.
How about celebrating all cultures wouldn’t that be more inclusive? Yikes, you people defy logic. Bruce Springsteen is a political lunatic. … in my opinion he should be in a padded cell with Oberman and De Niro. he has no credibility across the country except the liberal precincts
And you know what we will do with you. It’s clockwork orange tine for you, Ricky.
Best account I've ever read. Appreciate you beyond words 🤗🥰❤️❤️❤️♾️
Juneteenth is a hugely important day. Yet, I must add that this date drives home as much as any date in American history the truth that "You cannot legislate morality". America may have been founded as a nation of laws, but throughout its history there have been people who have said (essentially) "To Hell with the law. I'll do what I want... including being racist... if I want to be". What the laws that established the United States and all those enacted since have missed is that - ultimately - what's going to get us to that "more perfect union" is a spiritual transformation... not more laws. At the heart of what ails "the American experiment" is a darkness born of fear... fear which is turned into anger by those who do NOT have the interests of the nation at heart. They only have their own interests at heart. How to address this "darkness of the heart"... this "mental illness" that has us allow ourselves to be taught to hate (since no one is born hating another person)... is the question of our age... the MUST ANSWER question for those of us who want democracy to survive. The church - as currently constituted - is not the solution... although I could imagine an effort by Pope Leo to excommunicate all those who misuse the Bible in the cause of teaching people to hate instead of love. But I don't think that scenario is in the cards. But what I do know is that the human spirit is where the future lies... not more laws. We need laws (getting rid of Gerrymandering would be nice), but new laws will not solve the crisis of the spirit... of the heart ... of the mind... we face today.
I have to disagree. You can legislate morality. That’s what laws are - enforced morality. You can’t rob liquor stores.
You can’t engage in fraud.
You can’t steal cars.
You can’t drive through red lights.
Sometimes people break the law and are not punished. But at least we try. Many times those laws do work. That’s a good thing.
Basically, morality is there to act as a guide for what you do when no one is looking. The 10 Commandments say don't kill, steal, covet, or engage in idolatry. The kakistocracy currently in power seems to have either lost their morality completely or adopted one from some nether recess of the human condition, based mainly on greed, fear, and hubris. This is something we should always be watchful for in ourselves, too. Thanks for the post David!
I think you’re right about the current MAGA powers. I’ve heard people say that Trump is a sociopath. More and more I’m inclined to believe it.
And what can be said about ICE agents? How can a person with a conscience do the things they do? How can an American do those things?
What about the Christo Fascists? Doing evil while hiding behind God’s name. They’re not Christian - that’s for sure. They’re fakes.
Attempting to force a ten year old victim of rape and incest to give birth. Matt 23 - Christ condemns evil fakers.
Thanks for mentioning morals.
Thanks for your comment, David. We will have to agree to disagree.
Steve, you can legislate conduct, and sometimes that can be based on what could be termed "morality"; I tend to agree that you cannot legislate someone into being a good person, however it is easier to have someone be a good person when they abide by the laws. You have to teach morality, and demonstrate morality, and encourage morality. You can legislate the conduct that is deemed "moral", but unless someone has the appropriate modeling, it will not be universally followed.
Thanks for commenting. The simple test of whether my perspective is valid or not is the result we see before us every day. Laws have not prevented Trump from becoming president a second time. Laws have not prevented Zuckerberg and Musk from controlling much of the social media that we live in nearly every day of our lives… nor did they prevent Rupert Murdoch from creating Fox News, which has been poisoning the American mind for decades now. Laws have not prevented money interests from corrupting the supreme court, the ultimate arbiter of our laws. Relying on laws and ignoring the need for a spiritual transformation is the biggest cultural failing I know of. Fred Rogers spent his entire life attempting to rebalance that equation. I invite you to watch his impassioned acceptance speech before the Television Academy Hall of Fame to see why emphasizing values over laws matters…
https://youtu.be/TcNxY4TudXo?si=z0efEO_iDpRm4NHa
I love that video!! I also remember "When you're in trouble, look for the helpers."
Thank you for watching Fred Rogers get that award. It’s the most powerful award acceptance speech I’ve ever heard!
The level of corruption in 2025 beggars the imagination, and Heather's historical essays seem to only make it more significant that we are in the throes of an outright fight for the preservation of the Republic and the democracy that was fought for so long ago. It's a stark reminder that it is as bad now as it was in 1864.
I had the good fortune to work for a DOE lab run by Stanford University in the early 2000's. The black employees had a strong organizational presence and held a Juneteenth celebration every year that everyone was invited to attend. I went with my black coworker who was originally from Texas. There were movies celebrating famous black inventors, a jazz band, and great food. I really looked forward to it each year. I don't know if they still have it because I retired some time ago, but it would be a shame if they had to give it up because it is a federally connected workplace.
Thank you Patricia Wismer. You apparently are referring to "SLAC" the National Accelerator Laboratory on the west side of a Bay Area freeway in the hills above Stanford University in California.
I was once a "peninsula" resident in CA Bay Area with my 1st job out college at SRI. I believe Stanford University has a contract with the DOE to run SLAC probably the USG's "Office of Science".
Federal contracts like any contract are enforceable in a court of law unless specific contract terms are against public policy among other terms.
Zero in on the contract's Choice-of-Law and your question & many others can be answered.
"Stanford Linear Accelerator Center"; I worked in catering on the Stanford campus for a couple years and routinely delivered out there. It was where the Board of Trustees held their annual meeting that we catered.
'Board of Trustees' Sheriff ... 🎶 Don't get me started ... I'll tell ya everything I Know 🎶
🤣🤣🤣
Sheriff, I like to make 'em laugh in the back row :---)
It usually doesn't take much. I have "Making Mischief in the Back Row" on a couple of my folders. We're easily led astray.
At least two of us ArtPeaceMakers in Wellfleet, MA will be walking 2.5 miles, in solidarity with 2.5 mile Juneteenth walks originated —and still practiced!—by Opal Lee, “Grandmother of Juneteenth” (whose own 1400 mile walk to Washington, DC, at the age of 89, was instrumental in President Biden’s declaration of Juneteenth as a national holiday). Ms Lee instituted these 2.5 mile walks to symbolize the two and a half years it took for Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation to finally liberate enslaved Texans.••• ALTHOUGH thanks to Wellfleet postmaster Josclyn Prudeaux, we decked our post office to celebrate the new holiday (and commemorative stamps) a few years back, the Post Office was of course closed on the day itself. Though many join the annual celebrations in Provincetown, June 19, 2025 will mark Wellfleet’s first public Juneteenth party: At 10 am today us walkers aim to leave the Congregational Church on Main Street and wind a circuitous 2.5 mile path thru town, down to the harbor —and back to the church grove, in time for picnic, popcorn, kids’ art, music and storytelling— including a reading of one of the copies of Opal Lee’s book she signed in Selma, Alabama this year. Miss Lee was there for the 60th anniversary of the 1965 March for Voting Rights. May all the steps we take remind us of where we’ve come from and how far we have to go (including to congressional offices across the US) towards Liberty and Justice for all.
Alas, Opal Lee, recently released from the hospital, won’t be leading her hometown Juneteenth walk today. All the more reason, for those of us who can, to honor Juneteenth and Opal Lee with our own footsteps.
💌
Now that sounds like a true parade about and for America, rather than a bizarre display of tank fetishism arranged to satisfy the vanity of an insecure, small-dicked tater-tot.
My brother’s freedom is my freedom. If my brother’s freedom is diminished, my freedom is as well.
The holocaust of American enslavement of Africans, along with the genocide of indigenous peoples, made a cruel mockery of the sentiments expressed in our founding and guiding documents; the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Our history records the fits and starts, victories and setbacks, in the progress toward eliminating the hypocrisy, to make real the noble sentiments and philosophy in the foundation of our civilization.
We thought the battle was won. We fell asleep. The forces at work to diminish all our freedoms snuck up on us and now has our democracy by the throat.
But we will not be put back on to the plantation and the company town. We are all awake now, and will stay woke for as long as it takes.
Juneteenth celebrates freedom for all of us.
Thank you Ralph!
Well said, sir. Thank you.
Professor Richardson -- Many thanks for today's history lesson on the origins of the Juneteenth holiday. The short video was especially helpful. It's ironic that these celebrations originated in Texas, but we now have a better understanding of the events that occurred there after the Civil War that led to the Fourteenth Amendment.
Thank you, Heather. Love the videos.
Thank you as always Heather, for the History lesson and the video. Your Letter constantly reminds us of the importance of education. Yet another VERY SIGNIFIGANT freedom we are at great risk of losing!
Hey, would you like to see the other side of the truth too or just one side of the truth?
You certainly give us both sides of the bilge you read on internet.
Thank you Professor. I think this an important lesson for all of us. Sadly, I think black people and other minorities are still fighting for those rights. Schools weren’t officially desegregated until 1954 and it wasn’t until the 1960’s when the late greats like Martin Luther King, jr. and John Lewis marched and fought for their rights that things BEGAN to move forward. This uphill battle that we believed had been won has been thrown into total chaos and jeopardy by the small, petty, and vile white boys that are trying to drive us backwards by forgetting our history and demonizing everyone who doesn’t look and think like them. Today is a day for celebration for all of us who value equality for all.
In Hartford, Connecticut, Juneteenth has been celebrated since at least 1987 when the Amistad Center for Arts and Culture (which is part of the Wadsworth Anthanium) began its celebration. I’m happy to have attended that first event. I recall a remark I made to a friend that evening as I looked around the room and said, “I’m the only white guy here.” We just celebrated it on June 7.
"In the Jim Crow years, Juneteenth celebrations declined." Does that mean we are in the Jim Crow years again, since our celebrations seem to be declining...? Instead of cutting back celebrations for fear of -- what? -- we should be making SURE that they happen, perhaps in places where there is a bit more protection (theaters), perhaps with more citizen watchers on hand. This isn't DEI -- this is really the celebration of our renewed nation post Civil War, and could rightly be called our birthday. We will be spending millions of dollars to celebrate July 4 (especially in 2025) when our independence was declared. Why not spend some money to commemorate when our whole country came back together again? Yes, imperfectly, and yes, we took two steps forward and one (or two) back, but it is a holiday that deserves way more understanding and attention!
One Juneteenth tradition is (even tho we have to work along the way) to celebrate today — and all the way thru July 4.