The FTC has sued monopolies, banned noncompete, and challenging pharma patents that keep Rx costs high. It is making it easier to cancel subscriptions. It has clamped down to fake reviews that mislead shoppers. This is why former Trump Secretary Steve Mnuchin wants to eliminate the FTC, because it is doing its job to stop monopolies from dominating our economic system. According to Oxfam, the world's richest one percent has more wealth than the bottom 95 percent. The Consumer Financial Bureau is used to protect us from sketchy corporations. Trump is so extreme that he suggests that Canada become America's 51st state if Canada doesn't adopt Trump's tariff policy. Corporate lobbyists dominate the cabinet's proposed picks among the authoritarian Trump team. That is very obvious.
Wednesday, December 04, 2024
Early December 2024 News.
Tuesday, December 03, 2024
Monday, December 02, 2024
Historical Information (on Early December 2024).
Fascism and tyrants spread into Germany and Japan during the WWII era too. After World War I, Germany was a democracy at first. There was the Weimar Republic that was named after the town of Weimar where the government was created. By the 1920s, high inflation, terms of the Treaty of Versailles, and other issues plagued Germany. The internal disunity in Germany caused racists and anti-Semitic to dominate Germany. By this time, Germany had a Sexual Revolution where minority groups and the liberal arts flourished too in places like Berlin. The Weimar Republic was weakened and gone by the time Hitler had power in Germany. By the early 1930s, the world saw the Great Depression. The antidemocratic parties gained power by exploiting the economic crisis in Germany. The far right, racist, and anti-Semitic National Socialist German Workers' Party (or Nazis) threatened the Republic. The Nazis were not socialists as they exterminated socialists, communists, and liberals in the Holocaust. They were opposed to workers' rights in opposing capitalist exploitation. Adolf Hitler headed the Nazis, and he was a WWI veteran fighting on the side of Germany. Hitler was born in Austria. Hitler was a failed painter and was about to go insane before the Nazis existed. Later, he joined the small Nazi Party after WWI. He ran it and wrote a book called Mein Kampf (or My Struggle) that outlined his views and agenda in full detail. Mein Kampf wanted the expulsion of Jewish people from Europe, believed that black people were inferior, and condemned Marxist plus communist though. It harshly criticized communists and Jewish people. Hitler wanted to copy Jim Crow American policies and the genocide of Native Americans to be applied in Germany. Hitler wanted world domination, and we know that Europe had a long history of anti-Semitism. As we know, Hitler was an evil monster who promoted bigotry and hatred which has no justification in the Universe. The views of Mein Kampf were embraced by eugenicists, some Western industrialists, and other people worldwide, not just in Germany. In fact, the Nazis followed the eugenics movement (which was heavily found in America and the UK). By the early 1930s, Germany had massive poverty, homelessness, mass inflation, hunger, and widespread unemployment.
So, by January 1933, the President of the Weimar Republic appointed Hitler the chancellor Germany. During the next 2 years, Hitler was the President and the chancellor. The German Reichstag burned up by February 27, 1933. Dutch construction worker Marinus van der Lubbe was blamed, and some scholars debated whether the Nazis burned the building or not. Later, the Nazis exploited the Reichstag fire to suspend civil liberties, persecute communists, and convince President Paul von Hindenburg to issue the Reichstag Fire Decree. He gained more power and ruled unchecked by the Reichstag or the German parliament.
Hitler caused the first concentration camp opened at Oranineburg outside of Berlin by March 12, 1933. Hitler passed the Enabling Act on March 23 to give Hitler dictatorial power, the Nazis boycotted Jewish owned businesses and shop on April 1, 1933, the Nazis burned books in Germany on May 10, and the Nazis opened Dachau concentration camp in June 1933. The Nazi Party declared itself as Germany's only political party. Germany left the League of Nations. There was the Nazi Night of the Long Knives when innocent Jewish people were beaten and murdered on June 30, 1934. Austrian Chancellor Dollfuss was murdered on July 25, 1934. Hitler promoted military conscription in violation of the Treaty of Versailles on March 16. German Jewish people were stripped of the rights by the Nuremberg Race Laws by September 15, 1935.
In 1935, the institutions of Weimar Republic were silenced, and Hitler spoke alone as the voice of Germany. Hitler followed totalitarianism. He created a state-controlled press, a secret police that harmed opposition, and indoctrination of the youth with racist lies. Hitler used methods of brainwashing crowds of people during his speeches. Nazi rallies cheered him. The Nazis grown the Gestapo in 1936 and Nazis occupy the Rhineland on March 7, 1936. By the late 1930s, Hitler promoted rearmament, massive public works projects, and desired to end the depression in Germany. He promoted laws and unjust laws against communists, socialists, Jewish people, liberals, and other groups of human beings.
Militarists controlled Japan too. Japan, by the 1920s, had increased democracy and peaceful change. The Japanese government reduce the power of the military, legalized trade unions, gave all men the right to vote, and made diverse political parties to exist. Then, the Great Depression harmed Japan in the 1930s. Many Japanese imperialists believed that Japan invading territories outside of Japan will help them gain more resources. Japan was headed by a constitutional monarchy headed by the emperor of Japan. Japan attacked Manchuria in 1931 to gain economic resources to fund its empire. Franklin Delanor Roosevelt was elected President of the United States on November 8, 1932.
In 1937, Japan attacked China with massive war crimes and rape. Japan controlled railroad links and gained its then capital city of Nanjing. 200,000 residents of Nanjing were murdered, and a large section of the city was burned. This aggression by Germany, Italy, and Japan was not stopped back then by democratic nations or the League of Nations. The League of Nation lost power, because America never officially joined the League of Nations, it had no standing army or navy, it had no real power to enforce its decrees. Hitler wanted to steal land in his agenda of Lebensraum or living space, so he stole the Saar region of France in 1935. In 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia. Ethiopia's emperor Haile Selassie wanted the League of Nations to intervene, but they did almost nothing (and Ethiopia fell for a time). Fascists and progressives in Spain had the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939. Spain had a democratic Republican government. Hitler and Mussolini sent the military and economic aid to help that fascist leader General Francisco Franco. America, Britian, France, and the Soviet Union were on the sidelines (excepts some Americans and other fighting for the progressives in Spain). France and Britian used appeasement or trying to compromise with aggressive, fascist nations in trying to stop the spread of Nazi Germany. Franklin Roosevelt opposed appeasement, but he didn't have Congressional support at that time (during the late 1930s) to invade Europe to stop Nazi Germany. Therefore, FDR invested via the Lend Lease program to help anti-fascist forces in Europe. Roosevelt wanted to work with an alliance of nations to stop the fascist movement in Europe. Hitler revealed his war plans during the Hossbach Conference on November 5, 1937. The Nazis mobilize their military on August 12, 1938. There was the Kristallnacht or the Knight of Broken Glass pogrom against Jewish people on November 9-10, 1938, when innocent Jewish people were assaulted and murdered. This came after 17-year-old Jewish person named Herschel Grynszpan living in Paris shot and killed a member of the Germany Embassy staff after the poor treatment his father and family suffered at the hands of the Nazis. During Kristallnacht, Jewish businesses and homes were vandalized. Mob violence happened when German police stood by when crowds of people watch Nazi storm troopers and members of the SS plus the Hitler Youth beat and murdered Jewish people. Many of them brutalized Jewish women and children. Goring, Heydrich, and Hitler forced about 25,000 Jewish men to be sent to concentration camps. SS leader Reinhard Heydrich reported 7500 businesses destroyed, 267 synagogues burned (with 177 totally destroyed), and 91 Jewish people murdered.
The Munich Pact was an appeasement by the French and the British towards Hitler. Hitler threatened Jewish people during his January 30, 1939, Reichstag speech. Hitler violated the Munich Pact by the Nazis invading Czechoslovakia. Then, France and Britain put their foots down to attack Hitler if it attacked another nation. Germany signed the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact with the Soviets on August 23, 1939. This agreement made Germany and the Soviet Union to not attack each other. Both nations wanted to conquer and divide Poland up. Hitler wanted to invade Poland next. By August 31, 1939, the British fleet mobilized. Civilian evacuations start from London.
World War II officially started when the Nazis invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, via the blitzkrieg attack (or using a sudden, massive attack with tanks, guns, airpower, and other military forces to conquer territories in a rapid fashion). The Nazis destroyed Poland's Airforce. It was too strong for Poland. England, France, Australia, and New Zealand declare war on Nazi Germany on September 3, 1939. Back then, America was neutral until the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Soviet Union invaded Poland on September 17, 1939. Then, France and Great Britain declared war against Nazi Germany. Poland fell to the Nazis by the end of September 1939. The Axis Powers were united by Nazi Germany, Italy, and Japan. The Allied Forces were France, Britain, America later on, and other nations. There was quiet first after Poland was conquered by the Nazis. Then, by the spring of 1940, Nazi Germany invaded Western Europe. Germany attacked Denmark and Norway on April 9, 1940. Both nations fell almost immediately. By May 10, 1940, the Nazis invaded the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. The Nazis wanted France next. Reinhard Heydrich was the leader of the new Reich Main Security Office (RSHA). The Soviets invaded Finland by November 30, 1939. By January 8, 1940, Britain started to ration supplies. Finland signed a peace treaty with the Soviets on March 12, 1940. The evacuation of Dunkirk started on May 26, 1940. Belgium surrender to the Nazis on May 28, 1940. This was the time when Winston Churchill was British new Prime Minister.
There is more information that I know about the Peeples family on November 30, 2024. My fourth cousin Earl Nelson Peeples (b. 1954) married Joyce Ann Boyd (b. 1953) on June 19, 1982, at Clarksville, Virginia. Their 2 children are my 5th cousins Brandon Earl Peeples Sr. (b. 1984) and Amber Kristin Peeples (b. 1988). Amber Kristin Peeples, from 2010 to 2013, studied at Business Administration at Keller Graduate School of Management. Earl Nelson Peeples, Brandon Earl Peeples, and Amber Kristin Peeples share the ancestors of Zilphy Claud and Charles Peeples (and her wife Fannie Brown). My 2nd great grandparents of Charles Peeples (1855-1922) and Fannie Froniana Susanna Virginia Brown (1857-1946) had a child and my great-granduncle named Mack Franklin Peeples (1881-1939). Mack Franklin Peeples married Daisy L. Claud (a descendant of my 5th great grandmother Zilphy Claud) on December 28, 1919, at Southampton County, Virginia. The person who performed the ceremony was W. R. Blow (shown by the Virginia U.S. Marriage Registers, 1853-1935). Mack Peeples was in the U.S. Army from 1918 to 1919 being in the 540 Engineers. One of the children of Mack Peeples and Daisy Claud was my 3rd cousin Joe Edgar Mack Peeples (1925-1972). Joe Edgar Mack Peeples married Dorothy Rose Gholston (1925-2016) on March 29, 1947, at Emporia, Virginia. One of the sons is Earl Nelson Peeples (b. 1954). So, this is how they are related to me. I am a descendant of Charles and Fannie Peeples via their son Joseph Peeples.
The end of the Revolutionary War started when the Redcoats increasingly invade the South. The British wanted to endorse the Loyalists of the farmers of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. The British promoted a traditional war, but the Patriots regularly utilized unconventional warfare which contributed to the Patriot victory. At first, the British had early victories in the South. By late 1778, the British seized Savannah, Georgia. During the strong of 1780, the British controlled Charleston, South Carolina along with 5,000 Patriot soldiers. The British defeated another Patriot Army at Camden, South Carolina. The Spanish forces helped the Americans out. Spanish leaders under Bernado de Galvez made attacks on British forts in the Guif Coast area. By 1780, the Spanish captured the British fort of Mobile, Alabama. Then, they took Pensacola in 1781 as Pensacola was the British capital of West Florida. Then, the Patriots came back to defeat the British in many places of the South. In the South, there was a civil war where Loyalists and Patriots were fighting and killing each other. Both sides plundered and killed civilians, which I don't agree with obviously. Neighbor against neighbor and family against family were commonplace in the Revolutionary War. The Patriots won a victory at Kings Mountain in South Carolina defeating a Loyalist militia. Many prisoners were executed. Many Loyalists came to the Patriot side. People in the countryside supported the Americans more. So, General Cornwallis of Britian was angry. The Continental Army of the South was led by commanders Nathanel Greene and Daniel Morgan. It was a small but powerful army. By 1781, the Continental Army gave heavy losses to Britian at Cowpens, South Carolina and Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina. Then, Cornwallis went from North Carolina to my state of Virginia. He led his troops into a trap. By late summer 1781, George Washington marched most of his troops south to trap Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia. The French fleet supported the Patriots at the Cheasapeake Bay. Cornwallis was taped by land and sea, so he surrendered his army of 8,000 people at Yorktown on October 19, 1781. The French helped the Americans at the critical time. The British people were sick of the fighting by this time and wanted peace. In early 1782, a new administration came to power in the UK to make peace. An American delegation with Benjamin Franklin negotiated a treaty with certain terms. This was the 1783 Treaty of Paris that recognized American independent and granted generous boundaries of the United States. Franklin was a great negotiator, and the French strained its relationship with America (as France wanted to run the negotiation process). The war was over. The British betrayed many of its Loyalist allies. Many Loyalists, including black Loyalists were refugees. Many slaves were made slaves again in the British West Indies. The Native Americans were abandoned by the British. Also, the Patriots made unfair treaties with Native Americans that further stole their lands at Fort Stanwix in 1784 and Hopewell in 1785. Many settlers traveled into Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Midwest. African Americans firsthand saw the contradiction of the words of the Declaration of Independence and the reality of slavery against black people. Black Americans joined both the Patriots and the Loyalists in seeking an end to slavery as soon as possible. About 5,000 African Americans joined the Patriots, and about 50,000 African Americans joined the British. Most people who benefited from the war were upper middle class and wealthy landowning white men for the most part. Slavery would gradually be banned in the North, but the South maintained slavery for decades to come. The Revolutionary War further motivated black people to fight for freedom. Women had little to no rights back then too. The views of the Revolutionary War inspired social revolutions against monarchies in Haiti, Latin America, France, and other places of the world. The Revolutionary War ended an old chapter of American history. It was bloody and imperfect, but authoritarian monarchies are antithetical to democratic freedom. So, the British Empire not ruling America was a good thing. Yet, America had to reckon with its sins of slavery against black people and the genocide of Native Americans. To this day, many Americans whitewash those sins, but we won't. We realize that there are good people and evil people in America. In order for America to reach its true destiny, it must acknowledge its history and fight to institute justice for all for real.
By the 2000s, country music sales continued to rise. In 2002, The Statler Brothers retired from music. This time saw 9/11 and the early war on terror. September 11, 2001, was when evil people used planes as weapons to kill almost 3,000 innocent human beings in New York City, Pennsylvania, and in Virginia (at the Pentagon). There was a wide sense of patriotism spreading across America. So, country music reflected the time over 20 years ago. Carrie Underwood in the 2000s was a new artist who was highly successful. She is from Checotah, Oklahoma being the first American Idol winner to record mostly country music. By the end of the decade, Underwood had 8 No. 1 songs on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart along with many awards form the Country Music Association, Academy of Country Music, and others. Country pop continued in the time as well. The Chicks, Lonestar, Martina McBride, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Keith Urban, and Rascal Flatts made more music. Big and Rich can about to express country music too. There were Jewel, Jessica Simpson, Sheryl Crow, and others who made music. By the late 2000s, a teenage Taylor Swift was the first country act to have widespread mainstream popularity since the 1980s and 1990s. Love Story and You Belong to Me were very popular. Swift was the first country artist in history to win an MTV Video Music Award in 2009. Country music embraced pop. There was a backlash. Many people in country music culture said that some artists became too pop and not country enough. There were artists like George Strait, Alan Jackson, and Brad Paisley who were more traditionally country. Also, many country artists promoted defending America during the early part of the war on terror found in Afghanistan and Iraq. Yet, it is important to note that patriotism is also about expressing dissent to make America better not to be brainwashed to view America as 100 percent perfect and immune of any legitimate critique. That true point must always be emphasized.
By the 2010s, country music grown in popularity. Many younger people by the 2010s became fans of country music. There is a segment of country that embraced hip hop sounds too. This time saw popular country acts being Taylor Swift, Zac Brown Band, Jellyrool. Miranda Lambert, Jason Aldean, The Band Perry, Keith Urban, Toby Keith, Kacey Musgraves, Luke Combs, Brett Young, Kane Brown, and tons of other people. Forever Country was composed of three country songs shown by September 2016 to honor the 50th Annual Country Music Association Awards. Also, there has been influence of hip hop on modern day country music. Many country artists started to rap on songs, wore more blue jeans, show themes of partying, ride pickup trucks, and embrace a subgenre called bro-country (promoted by Florida Georgia line, Luke Bryan, Eric Church, etc.). Old Town Road was performed by Lil Nas Z and Billy Ray Cyrus. Also, we see saw the passing away of country music artists like Glen Campbell, Randy Travis, and other people like Troy Gentry.
The time from 313 to 606 A.D. in the history of Christianity was certainly involving revolutionary changes. Constantine, the Roman Emperor, merged church and state to make Christianity protected in the Empire. The Roman Empire by this time was the start of the last renaissance of the Roman Empire. By the 400s, the Roman Empire declined. Christianity spread more rapidly in Africa, Europe, and Asia. Constantine invested in churches, gave restoration of properties to the churches, and gave bishops judicial power. Pagans saw their power decline in many respects. Jewish people lived in peace in many Christian areas in Europe (except in Visigothic Spain) until the 1200s when anti-Semitism was very widespread. Replacement theology rose up in claiming that Christianity displaced Judaism as God's chosen people. This time saw the Donatists, the New Testament having its canon modernized (via the Council of Rome in 382, in Hippo in 393, and Carthage in 397). This era saw the Eastern and Western churches growing part of over language, theology, and culture. Much of the church by this time divided itself into 5 patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Rome. By the 300s, the bishop of Rome wanted to rule all of Christianity. This claim caused the modernization of Roman Catholicism as we know it. The name of Jesus Christ was debated by Eastern and Western churches too. From the end of the Roman Empire to the early Middle Ages, Christianity spread. Many Germanic people became Arian Christians (in denying the Trinity), and others didn't. By this time, many people did follow the simplistic gospel of Jesus Christ like Vigilantius, Jovinian, Aerius of Sebaste, and Helvidius (who opposed the veneration of saints and relics, who rejected the intercession of the dead, denied the perpetual virginity of Mary, and it is wrong to prescribe fasts or abstinences by law). Therefore, the light of truth spread all over the world.
By Timothy