Friday, January 20, 2017

The Inauguration.

In 1788, the First African Baptist Church of Savannah, Georgia is organized under Andrew Bryan. There was the manumission of slaves from 1790 to 1810. Following the Revolution, numerous slaveholders in the Upper South freed slaves; the percentage of free black human beings rises from less than one to 10 percent. By 1810, 75 percent of all black people in Delaware are free, and 7.2 percent of black people in Virginia are free. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 was passed in February 12, 1793. This unjust law allowed slave-owners to kidnap escaping slaves in America. It was signed into law by President George Washington. This meant that not only escaped slaves were in risked of being oppressed, but we know that freed black people were kidnapped (in the North and in other places of America) and brought into slavery too. One example was freed black man Solomon Northup was tricked into going into Washington D.C. Slavery was legal in D.C. during the 19th century. Later, he was drugged, kidnapped, and sold into slavery. He was in bondage for 12 years in Louisiana. One of the very few to regain freedom under such circumstances, he later sued the slave traders involved in Washington, DC. Its law prohibited Northrup from testifying against the white men because he was black, and he lost the case. The New York Times published an article on this trial on January 20, 1853.

Northup published his memoir, Twelve Years a Slave (1853), a slave narrative of plantation life on the Red River in Louisiana, and a description of the slave trade in Washington, DC. The memoir was adapted as a feature-film in 2013 by Steve McQueen, winning three Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The film starred the brilliant Sister Lupita Nyong'o and Brother Chiwetel Ejiofor.  On March 14, 1794 was a very historical date. That was when Eli Whitney was granted a patent on the cotton gin. This invention would influence the Industrial Revolution and changed the economy of the Antebellum South. Eli Whitney was born in Massachusetts in 1765. He had an engineering career. The cotton gin caused the cultivation and procession of short staple cotton to be profitable in the uplands and interior areas of the Deep South. As the cotton was cultivated more quickly by this invention, it increased the need of evil slave-owners to kidnap enslaved labor and made cotton a chief commodity crop in the South. Also, the slave-owners wanted to meet the labor demand by kidnapping (in a forced migration) one million people (of black slaves) from the Upper South and coast to the area in the antebellum period of the Deep South. The cotton gin in essence expanded slavery and expanded the suffering of black people in America. In July 1794, there were two independent black churches open in Philadelphia:  the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, with Absalom Jones, and the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, with Richard Allen, the latter the first church of what would become in 1816 the first independent black denomination in the United States.

Governor Paul LePage of Maine is another person of lax character. This isn't the first time that he has disrespected people. He called people of color "the enemy." He wished that he would shoot a non-threatening, innocent reporter in a duel. Therefore, he is an overt white supremacist racist. This lying piece of work (there are other words that accurately describe LePage. We know those words) claimed that Lincoln freed the slaves. The truth is that slavery ended by the long, continuous efforts of black people, abolitionists, those who created anti-slavery revolts , and other people who made slavery illegal in American soil. One man never ended slavery, but it was a collective effort among people globally to end it legally in America. Slavery still exists in many places of the world too. He issued the Republican canard. Back then, the Republican Party had many members who were progressives. Lincoln and other progressive, Radical Republicans used federal government funds to develop the Transcontinental Railroad, build up Homesteads, and to fund Reconstruction era schools for black Americans (which involved big government policies that far right Republicans today abhor). The 13th Amendment was passed after Lincoln was assassinated in December of 1865 since states had to ratify it. Also, many Republicans were part of the disgraceful Great Compromise which maintained Jim Crow in many states while Union military occupation of the South ended back in 1877. That is the history that LePage omits.

Also, in 1965, the Voting Rights Act was passed. Later, many segregationist Democrats left the Democrats to be Republicans. From that time onward, Democrats became more progressive while Republicans became more reactionary. From 1965, the Republicans did overtly promote the Southern Strategy, voter ID laws, the war on Drugs, the Iraq War, Reaganomics, and other reactionary policies that LePage omits since he wants to promote a distortion of history instead of true history. People already know about the imperfections of the Democrats, but John Lewis wasn't talking about Republicans vs. Democrats. He was exposing Trump as being a xenophobe and being a disrespectful male. John Lewis shed blood for the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Act to be passed. LePage never sacrificed a great deal for black people. Trump has made it his duty to disrespect people (even a disabled journalist), and to use vulgarity while his supporters arrogantly excuse his misogyny, racism, and vulgarity. His comments about John Lewis is condescending. We are black people and we will never sit in some place. We will stand up and fight for what is right. The far right has shown hatred and violence from the hate crimes in America to the far right's gutting of the Voting Rights Act. LePage's views can go straight into hell and we will believe in black liberation forever. In essence, we don't need to worship either major party. We embrace our own political independence while opposing the massively far right agenda of Trump (his allies like Sessions and Tillerson represent his reactionary agenda too).

The inauguration of Donald Trump is an event that will change the world. This is a date that will live in infamy. Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States outlines a new era. It is an ignominious event. More than $100 million has been spent on this day. An estimated 28,000 representatives of the US security apparatus—from the US Secret Service, Transportation Security Administration (TSA), FBI, US Park Police, US Capitol Police, Coast Guard and municipal police—are coordinating operations in order to control and monitor onlookers, according to Jef Johnson (who is the outgoing Secretary of Homeland Security). The total cost of this police mobilization is estimated at $100 million. American capitalism has been found with contradictions and harm to the people of the world. For decades, we have experience economic and social decay in many areas of America. Donald Trump is the representation of the corruption, ruthlessness, parasitism, and fascistic mindset of the capitalist oligarchs (with links to the CFR, the CNP, corporate foundations, etc.) who economically and political control most of mainstream American society. There is no question (as evident on Trump’s cabinet picks) is an administration of the rich, by the rich, for the rich. In his cabinet, it include billionaires, retired generals, and ultra-right ideologues. The mostly GOP Congress are overt in their intention to privatize social programs, promote huge tax cuts for the super-rich, and execute a massive military buildup. Trump promotes’ “America First” chauvinism. With the accession of Trump, the ruling class anticipates the revival of a mythic American past—a land where the capitalist oligarchy is free to exploit the population and pollute the environment to its heart’s content; where the working class is deprived of any significant social rights, including the right to public education, medical care and retirement security; where police can maim and kill with no questions asked; where corporations can underpay workers, fire them at will and even use child labor; and where the basest prejudices are cynically encouraged and essential democratic rights are trampled upon. That is why massive struggle done by the working class and the poor should exist. We are in a class struggle. We reject military imperialism, oppression, and other evils. There are protests of Trump today and tomorrow as well. They are making their voices heard. We want freedom for all globally.

By Timothy


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