Manchin, key Build Back Better holdout, huddles with top Republican on energy policy (msn.com)
Tuesday, November 30, 2021
Monday, November 29, 2021
President Abraham Lincoln and other Information.
Historians consider him as among the top 3 greatest Presidents in American history. Abraham Lincoln remains one of the most important figures of world history. He saw so many changes in the United States from the American Civil War to the expansion of the role of the federal government in everyday American life. He was a Republican, but he wasn't a far-right extremist on many issues. In fact, many of his policies would be progressive. President Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States of America, and he lived from February 12, 1809 to April 15, 1865. Lincoln had many jobs like being a member of the House of Representatives, being a member of the Illinois state House of Representatives, and being a lawyer too. He was born in a log cabin on a Sinking Spring Farm near Hodgenville, Kentucky. His parents are Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks Lincoln. His ancestor was the Englishman Samuel Lincoln (who came from Hingham, Norfolk. Samuel came into Hingham, Massachusetts in 1638). His family moved into New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. His ancestors came from Virginia and came into Jefferson County, Kentucky. Abraham Lincoln's family moved into Indiana. Lincoln was born poor. Thomas worked as a farmer, cabinetmaker, and carpenter. He did own livestock, farms, and other lands. Thomas and Nancy were members of a Separate Baptist church that forbade alcohol, dancing, and slavery. His mother died on October 5, 1818, and his sister died in 1828. Her name was Sarah. This hurt Lincoln a great deal. Thomas married Sarah Bush Johnston. Abraham Lincoln loved to read, write, and cipher. Lincoln said that he didn't like the physical labor, but he loved to read.
Lincoln was heavily self-educated. Itinerant teachers taught him in Kentucky. Lincoln loved to read the King James Bible, Aesop's Fables, John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, and other literature. Lincoln was tall, athletic, and knew how to use an ax. He was a wrestler too. By 21, he was the county wrestling champion. Lincoln was known for his strength. Abraham Lincoln did chores around the home and so forth. By March 1830, many members of Lincoln's family including Abraham Lincoln himself, moved west into Illinois, another free state. They settled in Macon County. Thomas and other family members moved into a new homestead in Coles County, Illinois. Abraham Lincoln later lived in New Salem, Illinois for 6 years. He was repulsed at slavery when we saw it at a flatboat in New Orleans. He was with his friends at the time. In 1865, Lincoln was asked how he came to acquire his rhetorical skills. He answered that in the practice of law he frequently came across the word "demonstrate" but had insufficient understanding of the term. So, he left Springfield for his father's home to study until he "could give any proposition in the six books of Euclid [here, referencing Euclid's Elements] at sight."
Abraham Lincoln dated Ann Rutledge for a time. She passed away on August 25, 1835, probably of typhoid fever. Lincoln dated Mary Owens in the 1830's. Then, Lincoln met Mary Todd at Springfield, Illinois in 1839. She was the daughter of Robert Smith Todd, a wealthy lawyer and businessman in Lexington, Kentucky. Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd married on November 4, 1842 in the Springfield mansion of Mary's sister. By this time, Abraham Lincoln was a great lawyer with 5 sons. Many of his sons passed away by disease. Lincoln restricted showing information to the public about his children. Lincoln studied law and was an Illinois state legislator from 1834 to 1842. He was a political Whig in office. He promoted the building of the Illinois and Michigan Canal (including the fact that he was a Canal Commissioner). He wanted suffrage to be for all white males and had a free-soil stance opposing slavery and abolition. The reality is that suffrage is meant for all of humanity, not just for a certain group of people. He even wanted black people to go into Liberia with the colonization plan. True to his record, Lincoln professed to friends in 1861 to be "an old-line Whig, a disciple of Henry Clay." Their party favored economic modernization in banking, tariffs to fund internal improvements including railroads, and urbanization. Lincoln teamed with Joshua R. Giddings on a bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia with compensation for the owners, enforcement to capture fugitive slaves, and a popular vote on the matter. He dropped the bill when it eluded Whig support.
Abraham Lincoln opposed the Mexican-American War overtly. He supported the Wilmot Proviso, a failed proposal to ban slavery in any U.S. territory won from Mexico. Lincoln rejected President James K. Polk's political views. Lincoln wanted Polk to show proof that American soldiers died in American soil involving the Mexican forces. He supported General Zachary Taylor for the Whig nomination in the 1848 Presidential election. Abraham Lincoln worked in law continuously on transportation cases too. He appeared before the Illinois Supreme Court in 175 cases. His legal reputation gave him the nickname of "Honest Abe." Lincoln allowed Harrison to be acquitted in a case involving a murder case. Abraham Lincoln for a long time was a moderate on slavery. He opposed slavery on moral grounds, but he never supported the revolutionary abolitionist movement early on in a hardcore level. He opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act. He joined the Republican Party. He disagreed with the expansion of slavery. Lincoln instructed his backers to vote for Lyman Trumbull. Trumbull was an antislavery Democrat, and had received few votes in the earlier ballots; his supporters, also antislavery Democrats, had vowed not to support any Whig. Lincoln's decision to withdraw enabled his Whig supporters and Trumbull's antislavery Democrats to combine and defeat the mainstream Democratic candidate, Joel Aldrich Matteson.
Lincoln lived during the Dred Scott v. Standford case when Dred Scott was deprived of his human rights. Lincoln denounced the decision as a part of a conspiracy of Democrats to expand slavery in America. He argued the decision was at variance with the Declaration of Independence; he said that while the founding fathers did not believe all men equal in every respect (which was wrong on the Founders' part), they believed all men were equal "in certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Abraham Lincoln debated Douglas for the Senate. He gave his House Divided Speech. In the speech, he showed the biblical reference Mark 3:25, "A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other." In the debates, Lincoln made remarks on race that I don't agree with. Lincoln won the 1858 election. Then, many people supported Abraham Lincoln to won for President. On February 27, 1860, powerful New York Republicans invited Lincoln to give a speech at Cooper Union, in which he argued that the Founding Fathers of the United States had little use for popular sovereignty and had repeatedly sought to restrict slavery. He insisted that morality required opposition to slavery, and rejected any "groping for some middle ground between the right and the wrong." Historian David Herbert Donald described the speech as a "superb political move for an unannounced candidate, to appear in one rival's (Seward) own state at an event sponsored by the second rival's (Chase) loyalists, while not mentioning either by name during its delivery."
Abraham Lincoln won the Republican National Convention in Chicago on May 18, 1860. He was a moderate on the slavery issue and wanted internal improvements plus the tariff. Many Democrats didn't support Douglas because of his support of popular sovereignty. The race in 1960 was filled with Bell, Breckinridge, Lincoln, and Douglas. Lincoln won most of the Midwest, the Northeast, California, and Oregon. Breckinridge won mostly the South, Douglas won only Missouri, and Bell won very little. On November 6, 1860, Lincoln was elected the 16th president. He was the first Republican president and his victory was entirely due to his support in the North and West. No ballots were cast for him in 10 of the 15 Southern slave states, and he won only two of 996 counties in all the Southern states, an omen of the impending Civil War. Lincoln received 1,866,452 votes, or 39.8% of the total in a four-way race, carrying the free Northern states, as well as California and Oregon. His victory in the electoral college was decisive: Lincoln had 180 votes to 123 for his opponents.
President Abraham Lincoln was in a tough atmosphere. The South didn't like his victory. He took office in March 1861. Traitors and secessionists seceded from the Union. On December 20, 1860, South Carolina took the lead by adopting an ordinance of secession; by February 1, 1861, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas followed. Six of these states declared themselves to be a sovereign nation, the Confederate States of America, and adopted a constitution. The upper South and border states (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, and Arkansas) initially rejected the secessionist appeal. President Buchanan and President-elect Lincoln refused to recognize the Confederacy, declaring secession illegal. The Confederacy selected Jefferson Davis as its provisional president on February 9, 1861. Compromise efforts failed. Abraham Lincoln escaped assassins as early as February 23, 1861. Early on, Lincoln still didn't want slavery abolished in the South during his March 4, 1861 First inaugural address. Abraham Lincoln wanted to end conflicts, but war was inevitable. On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces fired on Union troops at Fort Sumter and began the fight. On April 15, Lincoln called on the states to send a total of 75,000 volunteer troops to recapture forts, protect Washington, and "preserve the Union", which, in his view, remained intact despite the seceding states. This call forced states to choose sides. Virginia seceded, the Confederates the designation of Richmond as the Confederate capital, despite its exposure to Union lines. North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas followed over the following two months. Secession sentiment was strong in Missouri and Maryland, but did not prevail; Kentucky remained neutral. The Fort Sumter attack rallied Americans north of the Mason-Dixon line to defend the nation. The U.S. Civil War happened. Attacks happened by mobs against Union troops in Baltimore. Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus to secure troops from Maryland to reach Washington, D.C. He expanded his war powers, imposed a blockade on Confederate ports, disbursed funds before appropriation by Congress, suspended habeas corpus, and arrested and imprisoned thousands of suspected Confederate sympathizers. Lincoln gained the support of Congress and the northern public for these actions. Lincoln also had to reinforce Union sympathies in the border slave states and keep the war from becoming an international conflict.
Radical Republicans wanted Lincoln to go further in abolishing slavery completely. On August 6, 1861, Lincoln signed the Confiscation Act that authorized judicial proceedings to confiscate and free slaves who were used to support the Confederates. The law had little practical effect, but it signaled political support for abolishing slavery. General John C. Fremont freed slaves for a time. President Lincoln used his Secretary of State William Seward to stop massive foreign military aid to the Confederacy. Edwin Stanton worked with Lincoln during the war too. Lincoln used General George McClellan and others to fight. The war by the Union was slow. By 1863, General Grant captured Vicksburg and gained control of the Mississippi River, splitting the far western rebel states. Lincoln rejected Fremont's two emancipation attempts in August 1861, as well as one by Major General David Hunter in May 1862, on the grounds that it was not within their power, and would upset loyal border states. The Emancipation Proclamation, issued on September 22, 1862, and effective January 1, 1863, affirmed the freedom of slaves in 10 states not then under Union control, with exemptions specified for areas under such control. Lincoln's comment on signing the Proclamation was: "I never, in my life, felt more certain that I was doing right, than I do in signing this paper." This increased the number of black Union soldiers, and these soldiers helped to win the war for the Union. After the battle of Gettysburg in 1863, Abraham Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg Address to focus on the sacrifice of soldiers, the concept that all men are created equal, and wanted to make sure that the " government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the Earth." Lincoln supported General Grant because of his courage and victories in the battlefield. Grant won the Battle of Shiloh and Vicksburg.
Grant commanded Meade's army. Grant fought in Virginia too. By 1864, it was a foregone conclusion that the Union was going to win the war. The Union had more soldiers, resources, and the Confederacy collapsed. Lincoln won re-election in the 1864 Presidential campaign. He even won Louisiana and Tennessee including Nevada. McClellan only won 2 states. Grant had a stalemate in many places, but Abraham Lincoln fought hard to win re-election. Andrew Johnson was Vice President. The Democratic Party was divided and without much power. His support was among 78 percent of Union soldiers. On March 4, 1865, Lincoln delivered his second inaugural address. In it, he deemed the war casualties to be God's will. Historian Mark Noll places the speech "among the small handful of semi-sacred texts by which Americans conceive their place in the world;" it is inscribed in the Lincoln Memorial. This speech was much better than his 1st Inaugural Address. Here are some of his powerful words in his 2nd Presidential Inaugural Address on March 4, 1865:
"...Fondly do we hope—fervently do we pray—that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man's 250 years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said 3,000 years ago, so still it must be said, "the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether". With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations..."
The early Reconstruction era existed in 1865 when President Abraham Lincoln was alive. Lincoln wanted immediate integration of Confederate states to the Union after the war was over. Radical Republicans wanted Confederate leaders to be punished. Lincoln was a moderate on Reconstruction, and Rep. Thaddeus Stevens was progressive on Reconstruction. Stevens, Sumner, and Sen. Benjamin Wade were Lincoln's allies still. His Amnesty Proclamation of December 8, 1863, offered pardons to those who had not held a Confederate civil office and had not mistreated Union prisoners, if they were willing to sign an oath of allegiance. Lincoln's appointments were designed to harness both moderates and Radicals. To fill Chief Justice Taney's seat on the Supreme Court, he named the Radicals' choice, Salmon P. Chase, who Lincoln believed would uphold his emancipation and paper money policies. By 1865, President Abraham Lincoln promoted a Constitutional amendment to abolish slavery completely in America. This first attempt fell short of the required two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives. Passage became part of Lincoln's reelection platform, and after his successful reelection, the second attempt in the House passed on January 31, 1865. With ratification, it became the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution on December 6, 1865. Abraham Lincoln wanted an expanded federal government to help freedmen via the Freedmen's Bureau (as he signed Senator Charles Sumner's Freedmen Bureau Bill). The law opened land for a lease of three years with the ability to purchase title for the freedmen. Lincoln announced a Reconstruction plan that involved short-term military control, pending readmission under the control of southern Unionists.
Abraham Lincoln believed in voting rights for some black people (limited black suffrage). One of the biggest errors of Abraham Lincoln was his treatment of Native American people. His grandfather Abraham died with conflict with Native Americans, but that is not an excuse for his actions towards them. He used the Indian Bureau as a source of patronage, making appointments to his loyal followers in Minnesota and Wisconsin. General John Pope wanted extinction of Native peoples in the Midwest which was evil and wrong. Abraham Lincoln focused on massive investments by the federal government. The 1862 Homestead Act made millions of acres of Western government-held land available for purchase at low cost. The 1862 Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act provided government grants for agricultural colleges in each state. The Pacific Railway Acts of 1862 and 1864 granted federal support for the construction of the United States' First Transcontinental Railroad, which was completed in 1869. The passage of the Homestead Act and the Pacific Railway Acts was enabled by the absence of Southern congressmen and senators who had opposed the measures in the 1850s. President Lincoln was wrong to veto the Wade-Davis Bill that dealt with Reconstruction. He or Lincoln promoted the National Banking Act, income taxes, The Yosemite Grant, greenbacks, and the Department of Agriculture. He made Thanksgiving a national holiday. Today, we know the real history of Thanksgiving. It is what it is.
Lincoln made five appointments to the Supreme Court. Noah Haynes Swayne was an anti-slavery lawyer who was committed to the Union. Samuel Freeman Miller supported Lincoln in the 1860 election and was an avowed abolitionist. David Davis was Lincoln's campaign manager in 1860 and had served as a judge in the Illinois court circuit where Lincoln practiced. Democrat Stephen Johnson Field, a previous California Supreme Court justice, provided geographic and political balance. Finally, Lincoln's Treasury Secretary, Salmon P. Chase, became Chief Justice. Lincoln believed Chase was an able jurist, would support Reconstruction legislation, and that his appointment united the Republican Party. Lincoln appointed 27 judges to the United States district courts but no judges to the United States circuit courts during his time in office. He saw West Virginia and Nevada be new American states.
On April 1, 1865, Grant nearly encircled Petersburg in a siege. The Confederate government evacuated Richmond and Lincoln visited the conquered capital. On April 9, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, officially ending the war. Abraham Lincoln in April 11, 1865 gave a speech where Lincoln promoted voting rights for some black Americans. This stirred up John Wilkes Booth to assassinate Lincoln. Booth worked in a conspiracy with racists and Confederate sympathizers to do the evil deed. Lincoln was at Ford's Theater to see a play. The play was Our American Cousin on April 14. Grant went to New Jersey to visit his children. At 10:15 in the evening, Booth entered the back of Lincoln's theater box, crept up from behind, and fired at the back of Lincoln's head, mortally wounding him. Lincoln's guest Major Henry Rathbone momentarily grappled with Booth, but Booth stabbed him and escaped.
After being attended by Doctor Charles Leale and two other doctors, Lincoln was taken across the street to Petersen House. After remaining in a coma for eight hours, Lincoln died at 7:22 in the morning on April 15. Stanton saluted and said, "Now he belongs to the ages." Lincoln's body was placed in a flag-wrapped coffin, which was loaded into a hearse and escorted to the White House by Union soldiers. President Johnson was sworn in the next morning.
Two weeks later, Booth, refusing to surrender, was tracked to a farm in Virginia, and was mortally shot by Sergeant Boston Corbett and died on April 26. Secretary of War Stanton had issued orders that Booth be taken alive, so Corbett was initially arrested for court martial. After a brief interview, Stanton declared him a patriot and dismissed the charge. The late President was in state at the East Room of the White House. The casket was sent to the Capitol Rotunda and sent on a train to Springfield, Illinois. American Americans and many other Americans mourned. His body is at in the Lincoln Tomb at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois. Abraham Lincoln transformed the Republican Party like Franklin Delano Roosevelt transformed the Democratic Party forever. The irony is that the Trump Republicans today are the complete opposite ideologically of President Abraham Lincoln's views and legacy. There are many different views about President Abraham Lincoln. The truth is in between the 2 extreme views of him (of him being messianic to him being a terrible President). The truth is that President Abraham Lincoln was not a perfect man, but he has grown light years in his political views from the 1850's to 1865. By 1865, he was a much better man than he was in 1861. He has grown in his political consciousness. President Abraham Lincoln lived in one of the most important ages of human history, and his legacy continues to exist in our time in the 2020's. The legacy of the U.S. Civil War is still with us.
She is a modern-day legendary artist whose vocals, albums, and influence are worldwide. She can sing and write songs. Many of her music represent anthems about love, empowerment, and a sense of freedom. She is Sister Jazmine Sullivan. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is the city of her birth. Her mother was a singer, and her father was a curator for Philadelphia's Historic Strawberry Mansion. She lived into the historic landmark. When she was a child, she sang at a children's choir. Also, she graduated from the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts in 2005. Jive Records signed her when she was 15 years old. She gave vocals for Kindred and the Family's Soul song of "I Am." Also, she worked with Missy Elliot too. By 2008, her breakthrough song was Need U Bad. Fearless was her first album. She worked with Salaam Remi, Missy Elliot, and Peter Edge on the album. Stevie Wonder has always praised Sullivan's song including the song Bust Your Windows. Lions, Tigers, and Bears was her classic song too. Ruthless was her 2nd studio album with the led single of Champion. She worked with Ryan Leslie and performed at the June 2009 Essence Music Festival too. Sullvian wrote for artists like Mary J. Blige. She loves to collaborate with artists like Bryson Tiller. By the 2020s, she released music like Tragic. By Juen 27, 2021, she was awarded the BET Award for Album of the Year. Jazmine Sullivan has an old school song with new school flavor with a contralto voice. Modern day R&B music is in great hands with human beings like Jazmine Sullivan. She is a legendary musician of our time.
The culture of the 1950's was filled with dynamic sounds and imagery. There was the jazz influence on bands. Many artists sang with an old school, classical sound like Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, Joni James, Dorsi Day, Bing Crosby, Perry Como, Kay Star, and other human beings. The 1950's didn't just include a conservative vibe. There was rebellious streak too. Many rock stars came into their own like Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Ritchie Valens, Little Richard, Elvis, and other human beings. Sam Cooke showed soul music too during the 1950's. Johnny Cash, and other people were involved in country and rock sounds as well. R&B bands like The Platters, the Drifters, the Dells, and other people were highly popular. Teen life was expressed. Increasingly, the music, the movies, and the fashion were geared to teens and young adults. Jazz is an American genre at its soul. By the 1950's, we saw artists like John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bill Evans, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Billie Holiday, and Dinah Washington shown some of the greatest sounds of all time. American folk music revived itself during the decade too with artists like The Weavers, Pete Seeger, etc. An increasingly amount of people saw televisions and movies. Movies were found in America, Europe, Japan, and in other places worldwide. Films like Edge of the City, Carmen Jones, The Boe, Shane, Ben-Hur, Seven Samurai, Porgy and Bess, Imitation of Life, The Ten Commandments, East of Eden, The Jackie Robinson Story, and The Bright Road dealt with religion, race, sex, fiction, autobiographical information, and the wide diversity of the human experience. Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Maya Angelou, Sidney Poitier, Marlon Brando, Humprey Bogart, Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, Cicely Tyson, Juanita Moore, and other people were on the screen outlining their talents. Many actors and actresses suffered massive turmoil, some lived blessed life, and some loved the art of acting. In fashion, many women wore dresses and other clothes. Men wore pants, leather jackets, and hats. Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, and Sugar Ray Robinson were legendary athletes of the 1950's too. Literature was prominent with people like Ernest Hemingway and Ralp Ellison's Invisible Man. Casino Royale was a book written by Ian Fleming (who was involved in the books about James Bond).
Involving computing systems, times have changed. We have seen computing systems over the course of thousands of years now. We saw clocks that showed the sense of the passage of planets and the Moon. Now, we have advanced smartphones. These smartphones now have Super Retina XDR Display with ProMotion, super responsive systems, a Cermaic Shield, a pro-Camera system, macro photography, night mode, cinematic mode (to form movies), A15 Bionic chips, superfast 5G, higher battery life, and other parts that make smartphones more advanced than old school personal computers. Computers and smartphones have been part of everyday life in a wide-reaching fashion. Laptops and PCs (like Asus, HP, Intel, etc.) have gone into leaps and bounds in terms of technological advancements. You have PCs now with stylus, dual screens, empowered batteries, and other systems (like Intel's new core microarchitectures) unheard of even 20 years ago. So, as STEM marches forward with computing system, we must make another crucial point. It is important to allow people, who less resources, to gain that opportunity to gain more understanding of STEM Fields too. One of the greatest proponents of this goal has been Dr. Mae Jemison. She has toured the nation of American and the world to promote the truth that minorities and women should be given access to STEM fields. This is part of our destinies as human beings, because to grow our standard of living, we have to include all people in the process of creating human liberation. We are dealing with challenging times from viruses to social, political, and economic problems. Yet, we have the power to solve these problems with the inspiration from God. In the end, we shall be victorious. It is our responsibility to work relentlessly to achieve our aim of freedom and justice for all.
Since January 20, 2021, the Biden administration has existed. Since, we have approached almost one year since his Presidency, it is right during this time that it must be evaluated fairly. So far, we have seen the duality of massive changes in society along with other abrupt developments. We have witnessed some of the most progressive laws being passed by Biden in dealing with jobs and the infrastructure of America along with the spread of the omnicon strand of the coronavirus. We have seen child poverty cut in half along with no federal legislation dealing with voting rights and police brutality accountability being enacted. The lack of voting rights and police accountability federal law have caused people to have legitimate anger at the stalemate by Congress on those issues. Moderates and far right people are in unison in not wanting a real power voting rights law that ends state voter suppression laws. So, the first year of the Biden administration is filled with a mixture of results. What is consistent is the far-right extremism shown by the GOP. Many GOP members have not only promoted violence like Trump, but some have whitewashed the terrorist events in 1/6 (when terrorists destroyed property and harmed human lives at the U.S. Capitol with racists waving anti-Semitic plus Confederate flags at the vicinity). Some GOP members have shown overtly racist, sexist, and Islamphobic comments with little criticism made by GOP members in Congress. Therefore, the Biden administration is part of a new era after the deceptive Reagan Revolution, and we have to reckon with the facts along with advancing that same goal of justice for everybody.
By Timothy
Sunday, November 28, 2021
Saturday, November 27, 2021
Friday, November 26, 2021
The end of The Week Information.
The breaking news is that all 3 defendants have been convicted of felony murder of Ahmaud Arbery. There is no excuse for the murder of Ahmaud Arbery. Vigilantes have no right to harass a black person walking around without just cause. The defense team did all that they could to dehumanize Arbery and lie about his life. Yet, the jury convicted all 3 criminals. The prosecution did a great job in gathering and showing the evidence in the courtroom. Ahmaud Arbery's mother has been a real hero in standing up for justice. She made a promise that justice will be served. I knew by intuition that the outcome of this case would be the opposite of the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict. Arbery's father also celebrated in great jubliation too. Travis McMichael was found guilty on all counts. The other 2 men were convicted on some counts and not on others. This trial took place in Brunswick, Georgia. At the end of the day, black human lives always matter. The defense lawyers use race-baiting nonsense about toenails and slandering black pastors, but the prosecution won. The long battle for black freedom continues, but I'm glad that Ahmaud Arbery's family and friends saw this verdict.
I am not shocked a GOP member Boebert's hateful remarks about Congresswoman Ihan Omar. The GOP has been filled with bigotry, hatred, and extremism for a long time. It has been a party of Donald Trump now. Most Republicans are too cowardly and afraid to confront Trump on any political level. Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado said that she was recently in a Capitol elevator with Omar when a Capitol officer camp. Boebert said that Omar doesn't have a backpack, so we should be fine (and she called Omar as part of the "jihad squad"). White racists like Boebert don't shock me when they make a Islamphobic remarks as Trump promoted the xenophobic travel ban when he was President. That travel ban is gone during the Biden administration. Ihan Omar said that she looked down when she saw her. Omar said that Boebert uses bigotry to get cloud. Ihan Omar denies that the incident, as described by Boebert, took place. Boebert's remarks are wrong, because it is an expression of the old, anti-Muslim bigotry that ignores the diverse cultures of the American people. Boebert defended Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar for tweeting a video that depicted him harming Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (from New York) and President Joe Biden. Many of these GOP hypocrites claim to be for family, morality, and justice when their actions are in opposition to those concepts.
There are the recent news of 27 migrants and asylum seekers who died in the English Channel after their ship sunk. There are about 430 people who are in risk of death in a boat in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of North Africa. There are dozens of children and minors in the boat too. The boat is in risk of being destroyed in the sea. Yet, the European Union leaders in many cases are silent. The Alarm Phone group have tried to contact European authorities in Italy and Malta. These authorities either hang up the phone or say that they don't have "expertise" in these matters. You can say what you want about us Americans, but the xenophobia in Europe is still very huge. What's hypocritical is that many European imperialists invaded countries in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, etc. without compassion spanning centuries. Yet, these same imperialists want to scapegoat migrants when they (i.e. Western imperialists) are to be blamed for the cause of why these migrants are escaping for their lives. Many European governments have overtly anti-immigrant policies. Many people are Iraq, Somalia, and Iran want freedom as migrants. Iraq, Iran, and Somalia have been victims of decades of Western imperialist aggression including the 2003 invasion of Iraq. These war policies left many people homeless and displaced. The racist Fortress Europe agenda is ever clearly promoted by some in the EU. The Daily Mail, Metro, and other European media companies show articles that actually shift blame to other people instead of showing dignity to human migrants.
For years, she has been one of the greatest track and field athletes of this generation. Now, she is a coach inspiring future generations of athletes to develop their own great legacies. She has worked hard all throughout her life prodigiously. Speed, strength, will, heart, and determination represent her career fully. She is Sister Carmelita Jeter, and it was her Birthday days ago. She is now 42 years old. She was born in Los Angeles, California. Her career consists of wide- ranging accomplishments. She played basketball when she attended Bishop Montgomery High School at Torrance, California. Later, she decided to participated in track and field. Her young brother, Eugene, joined the Sacramento Kings. She ran greatly at California State University, Dominguez Hills too (which is found at Carson, California). She earned her bachelor's degree in physical education. She had the record for most NCAA medals by a CSUDH track athlete.
Carmelita Jeter won a silver medal in the 60 m at the 2007 Indoor Track and Field Championships with a personal best of 7.17 seconds. She ran in the 100m specifically. She won gold in the 2007 Osaka World Championships in the 4 X 100m relay. She won gold at Daegu in the 100m too along with the 4 X 100m relay. Some of her great accomplishments was when she won gold in the 4 X 100 m relay at the 2012 London Olympics (which was a world record among the U.S. women relay team) and silver in the 100m in the same Olympics too. She won Bronze at the 2013 Moscow World Championships in the 100m. She ran the 4rd fastest time in women's track history in the 100m with a time of 10.64 at Shanghai, China. After her retirement in 2017, Carmelita Jeter continues to motivate athletes, live life, and motivate future legends at USC (in Southern California). She will continue to show her gifts to the world as a gorgeous black woman. I wish Sister Carmelita Jeter more blessings.
By Timothy
Thursday, November 25, 2021
Thanksgiving 2021: Part 4
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Conclusion
During this Fall 2021 season, we are not naïve. We have many challenges in the world from racial injustice, economic injustice, and the harm done by the coronavirus. The coronavirus caused 19,630 children in America to lose a primary caregiver, another 22,007 children lost a secondary caregiver like a grandparent who was living in the home. This is about over 150,000 children being left behind because of a dangerous virus. Recently, the FDA and CDC support giving children under 12 vaccinations, and over 1 million children under 12 have been given vaccinations in combating the COVID-19 virus. Also, Los Angeles has required proof of vaccination against COVID-19 to enter indoor restaurants, shopping centers, movie theaters, hair and nail salons, and other indoor venues. There has been a huge debate on vaccine mandates. There should be a balance. We want our civil liberties maintained without authoritarianism. Yet, we have a medical emergency still going on in America. So, I believe that it is reasonable to have safety measures that are meant to save human lives, especially where tons of people congregate. In that sense, you can help people move on with their own lives, as we don't want to witness the chaos found in 2020. No one wants massive closures of buildings, and the best way to stop that from happening is to have various mandates to defeat the coronavirus once and for all. You have extremists now who are threatening (with violence) parents, school teachers, and business owners who are masked or promote mandates. That is wrong.
Many of the same ones who call medical mandates tyrannical are the same ones silent on police brutality (as one sheriff of California's Riverside County defended his brief membership in the extremist, terrorist group of the Oath Keepers militia in 2014), silent on environmental issues, silent on imperialistic wars of aggression, silent on racism, silent on economic oppression, and silent on gender oppression or any other form of oppression too. Therefore, I believe in civil liberties and freedom, but I don't believe in a virus harming human lives either. Also, we have to address the pernicious housing crisis in America too. Many people are homeless, can't pay rent, or struggle to find housing. That is why new investments in developing housing via infrastructure legislation is very important to advocate. More than 300 black pastors and leaders have shown solidarity to the family of Ahmaud Arbery, who was unjustly murdered by evil people. When the defense attorney said that he didn't want any black pastors, that proves that racism is a serious problem in America. The truth is that black pastors have every right to stand up and speak up for justice in opposition to vigilante terrorism against black people.
-Wanda Cooper-Jones, who is the mother of Ahmaud Arbery
Certainly, we should continue on this journey of the black freedom movement. The breaking news is that all 3 defendants have been convicted of felony murder of Ahmaud Arbery. There is no excuse for the murder of Ahmaud Arbery. Vigilantes have no right to harass a black person walking around without just cause. The defense team did all that they could to dehumanize Arbery and lie about his life. Yet, the jury convicted all 3 criminals. The prosecution did a great job in gathering and showing the evidence in the courtroom. Ahmaud Arbery's mother has been a real hero in standing up for justice. She made a promise that justice will be served. I knew by intuition that the outcome of this case would be the opposite of the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict. Arbery's father also celebrated in great jubliation too. Travis McMichael was found guilty on all counts. The other 2 men were convicted on some counts and not on others. This trial took place in Brunswick, Georgia. At the end of the day, black human lives always matter. The defense lawyers use race-baiting nonsense about toenails and slandering black pastors, but the prosecution won. The long battle for black freedom continues, but I'm glad that Ahmaud Arbery's family and friends saw this verdict.
This is a picture of the late civil rights activist Louise Patterson.
October 2021 was the first time that I heard of Louise Patterson. She lived to be 97 as she passed way in 1999. For decades, she has been one of the most unsung black revolutionaries in history. She worked side by side with Paul Robeson, Dr. W.E.B. DuBois, her husband William L. Patterson, and other great leaders of our time. She lived her life to fight for equality and justice. She passed away in New York City on August 27, 1999. At a gala birthday party for her in New York in 1980, Frank Chapman, then the Executive Director of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression said, "She has seen the trials and tribulations of our century not as an observer but as a participant." Louise Patterson was born in 1902 in Chicago, and she was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. University of California is the location where she graduated from at Berkeley in 1923 with a degree in economics. She was one of the first African American women to have graduated there. Her husband, William L. Patterson, was the person who wrote his autobiography called "The Man Who Cried Genocide." He said that they first met Louise at an NAACP meeting in the Oakland Auditorium in 1919. They were students back then. She taught school in Arkansas and taught at the Hampton Institute in the 757 area at Virginia. She was a delegate to the World Conference Against Racism and Anti-Semitism in Paris in 1930, as was her husband.
On the left showed Langston Hughes and his close best friend writer Dorothy West. The image on the right is another picture of Dorothy West.
She moved to NYC to join the Harlem Renaissance movement. She discussed politics in a group called "The Vanguard." They talked about Marxism and theater plus dance concerts. Many participants included the progressive Langston Hughes and the libertarian Zora Neale Hurston. She was a literary secretary for both legendary writers. Louise knew the legendary black author Dorothy West, and West was part of the Harlem Renaissance too. She was a friend to Congressional leader Adam Clayton Powell and Benjamin Davis. Louise Patterson was a great organizer and orator. She fought to save the Scottsboro Nine (who were black youth who were false accused of rape in Alabama). Louise married William L. Patterson, and Paul Robeson was a guest at the wedding. She was part of defending workers' rights as the Illinois State President of the International Workers Order (IWO). She spoke out against Hitler's fascism in NYC and Chicago along with leading large street rallies. She visited the Soviet Union and Spain to defend the Spanish Republic (against the fascism of Franco). She was a leader of the Council of African Affairs with Robeson and Du Bois. Louise worked with Lena Horne too to fund-raise money for the Abraham Lincoln School (that helped black workers). Louise and her husband signed the We Charge Genocide document accusing the U.S. government of crimes against genocide against African American human beings. Robeson delivered the petition to the United Nations in New York, and William L. Patterson delivered it to the U.N. then meeting in Paris in 1951. He helped organize the 1949 Peekskill concerts for Paul Robeson attacked by fascist-like goons. She also organized Robeson's nationwide concert tour of Black communities after he was blacklisted.
In 1970, she served as chair of the New York Committee to Free Angela Davis. After Angela Davis was freed from prison, Louise continued to work with the National Alliance until her retirement. She had a daughter named Dr. Mary Louise Patterson, 2 grandchildren, and a great grandson. Louise Patterson was ahead of her time in helping human beings to stand up for liberation. Her legacy is still strong and will continue forever.
Rest in Power Sister Louise Patterson.
By Timothy
Thanksgiving 2021: Part 3
The Modern War on Drugs (After 50 Years)
The War on Drugs have existed more than 50 years. Billie Holiday was a victim of the evil War on Drugs back in the 1950's. This is about the modern day War on Drugs too that was born on June 18, 1971 by President Nixon. From the days of the Opium Wars to the modern age of 2021, the War on Drugs has been filled with controversy. One positive news is that a huge majority of Americans (from across the political spectrum) in recent years now oppose the War on Drugs. Back in the day, it was extremely taboo to talk about solutions to drug addiction that are in opposition to the War on Drugs. Now, we have a new day when new laws in various states invest in drug treatment programs, education, community development, and other progressive means to improve the confines of society. As recently as 2015, the Drug Policy Alliance has called for an end to the War on Drugs costing $51 billion annually in the States plus costing cumulative in ca. $1 trillion. The War on Drugs is interrelated to the prison industrial complex, gentrification, racism, and other unjust laws. Sentencing disparities based on race and class are real. You can't claim to be for justice and take a blind eye to the corruption found in the racist prison industrial complex. Drug addiction doesn't discriminate either. It's found among people of every color from Los Angeles, NYC, and to rural places with meth plus oxycotin addiction. Scholars and political leaders have spoken about this issue like John L. Potash, Gary Webb, Mike Ruppert, Cynthia McKinney, Maxine Waters, etc. Nothing is new under the sun. Today, we have books, the Internet, and other sources documenting the viciousness of government corruption and the destructive nature of the War on Drugs in general. That is why progressive alternatives to the War on Drugs remain a necessity.
Ancient Times
A drug is any chemical substance that caused a change in any organisms physiology or psychology when consumed. Many drugs can be ingested by inhalation, injection, smoking, being ingested, and absorption. During the ancient times, there was the use of natural extracts for medicinal purposes goes back thousands of years. Many people used trial and error in being involved with drugs. Early medicines often had as much religious and spiritual significance as they did healing importance. 50,000 years ago, there was the herbal stimulant ephedra found. Plants were the basis of the ancient medicines, and were complemented with minerals and animal substances. Often the same plants and herbs were used for similar diseases among different civilizations, even though they were discovered separately. From ca. 14,000 to 12,000 B.C, there were remnants of ancient poppy plantations in Spain, Greece, Northeast Africa, Egypt, and Mesopotamia are evidence of the widespread early use of opium. Earliest agriculture did dealt with some drugs. Some evidence shows that the first crops include psychoactive plants such as mandrake, tobacco, coffee and cannabis (in ca. 10,000 B.C.). There were opium by the Sumerians in ca. 5,000 B.C. and tobacco being cultivated and used by Native Americans in South America by 6,000 B.C. Wine and beer were produced in Egypt and Sumeria in ca. 4,000 B.C. By 1,000 B.C., Central Americans erected temples to mushrooms gods. Treatment of disease through development of new herbal remedies may have been very difficult in an environment where the false, prevailing attitude (among some spaces) is that disease is God’s punishment for sin. Practitioners of herbal remedies would often be seen as heretics. Medical progress was very weak back then in some places due to the prevailing unscientific opinion. During the Renaissance, the development of many things existed.
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The Opium Wars
The First and Second Opium Wars represented the future War on Drugs in many ways. They represented how the political establishment wanted to exploit drugs in trying to dominate markets in an imperialist fashion. Both wars were about the same British Empire who used wars, colonialism, slavery, and other abhorrent tactics in spreading their influence in the global sphere among numerous continents. The First Opium War lasted from March 18, 1839 to August 29, 1842. In that war, about 18,000 Chinese soldiers and 69 British troops died. After that war, the British Empire won trade rights, access to five treaty ports, and Hong Kong. The Second Opium War was fought from October 23, 1856, to October 18, 1860, and was also known as the Arrow War or the Second Anglo-Chinese War, (although France joined in). Approximately 2,900 Western troops were killed or wounded, while China had from 12,000 to 30,000 killed or wounded. Britain won southern Kowloon and Western powers got extraterritorial rights and trade privileges. China's Summer Palaces were looted and burned. These wars existed by a long history.
By the 1700's, European nations like Britain, the Netherlands, and France wanted to expand their Asian trade networks by linking with the powerful Qing Empire in China. China was the eastern endpoint of the Silk Road. The Silk Road helped people to trade many goods and services for centuries. The British East India Company and the Dutch East India Company (VOC) wanted to control the Silk Road trade system. China limited them to the port of Canton. They didn't want to teach them Chinese, and they wanted penalties for any European who wanted to leave Canton and enter the rest of China. European consumers wanted Chinese silks, porcelain, and tea. China didn't want any European manufactured goods. The Qing government wanted payment in cash like silver. Britain also a trade deficit with China. It didn't have domestic silver supply. So, the British East India Company dealt with opium from British India. Opium was mostly grown in Bengal. Payment in opium was illegal in China. The Qing government was concerned about many Chinese people addicted to opium. So, the British continued to smuggle opium in China causing a high number of young men in China being addicted to opium. The British smuggling was evil. So, in 1839, China's Daoguang Emperor appointed a new governor of Canton. He was Lin Zexu. He caught 13 British smugglers inside their warehouses. They surrendered. By April of 1839, Governor Lin confiscated goods like 42,000 opium pipes and 20,000 150-pound chests of opium, with a total street value of some £2 million. He ordered the chests placed into trenches, covered with lime, and then drenched in sea water to destroy the opium. Outraged, British traders immediately began to petition the British home government for help.
More tensions rose up. On July 7, 1839, there was the Kowloon incident. This was when drunk British and American sailors rioted in the village of Chien-sha-tsui in Kowloon killing a Chinese man. They vandalized the Buddhist temple. Qing officials wanted the criminals to be placed in trial. The British refused citing China's legal system. The crime was on Chinese soil and had a Chinese victim. The British claimed that the sailors were entitled to extraterritorial rights which is nonsense. The 6 sailors were tried in British court at Canton. They were convicted, but they were freed as soon as they returned to Britain. So, the Qing leaders banned any foreign merchants to trade in China unless they agree under pain of death to abide by Chinese law. Qing leaders outlawed the opium trade. They wanted people to submit to Chinese legal jurisdiction. The British Superintendent of Trade in China, Charles Elliot, responded by suspending all British trade with China and ordering British ships to withdraw. The war started with 2 British ships argued over opium smuggling. Quaker ship owners opposed it, but the British person Charles Elliot supported it. The Royal Saxon ship was fired on by the Royal Navy fleet. The Chinese ships wanted to protect Royal Saxon, but the British Navy sank many Chinese ships. The Chinese lost that war. The British seized Canton, Chusan, and other areas. The Qing government fought for peace and the Treaty of Nanking existed. China lost much of their sovereignty to the British, and China had economic problems. The Qing government was even forced to pay reparations to the British in 21 million silver dollars. The 2nd Opium War came when Qing Chinese leaders didn't want to support the unfair treaty and the unequal treaties imposed on them from France and America. The British wanted the opening of all China's ports to foreign traders, a 0% tariff rate on British imports, and the legalization of Britain's trade in opium from Burma and India into China.
The 2nd war started after the Arrow Incident. This took place on October 8, 1856. It was when the smuggling ship called The Arrow was based out of Hong Kong and registered in China. When Chinese officials boarded the ship and arrested its crew of twelve on suspicion of smuggling and piracy, the British protested that the Hong Kong-based ship was outside of China's jurisdiction. Britain demanded that China release the Chinese crew under the extraterritoriality clause of the Treaty of Nanjing. Although the Chinese authorities were well within their rights to board the Arrow, and in fact, the ship's Hong Kong registration had expired, Britain forced them to release the sailors. Even though China complied, the British then destroyed four Chinese coastal forts and sank more than 20 naval junks between October 23 and November 13. Since China was in the throes of the Taiping Rebellion at the time, it did not have much military power to spare to defend its sovereignty from this new British assault. This came after the British took down the Indian Revolt. After a French Catholic missionary was beat to death for preaching Catholicism outside of treaty points, France would join the British in the Second Opium War. The war ended with a Qing dynasty defeat. The Second Opium War finally ended on October 18, 1860, with the Chinese ratification of a revised version of the Treaty of Tianjin. In addition to the provisions listed above, the revised treaty mandated equal treatment for Chinese who converted to Christianity, the legalization of opium trading, and Britain also received parts of coastal Kowloon, on the mainland across from Hong Kong Island. The Qing dynasty ended after the war. This humiliation inspired the Boxer Rebellion of 1900.
By the end of the 19th century, drug development move rapidly. Sigmund Freud in 1884 was so extreme that he treated his depression with cocaine. He wrote that he felt euphoria after using cocaine. Also, there was a temperance movement in America back then that encouraged the banning of the usage of alcohol long before Prohibition existed. Ironically in 1885, the Report of the Royal Commission on Opium condemned opium. In 1889, the John Hopkins Hospital, in Baltimore, Maryland, is opened. One of its world-famous founders, Dr. William Stewart Halsted, was a morphine addict. He continued to use morphine in large doses throughout his phenomenally successful surgical career lasting until his death in 1922. In 1898, diacetylmorphine (heroin) was synthesized in Germany.
1900-1971
In 1900, the Senate adopted a resolution (introduced by Henry Cabot Lodge) that forbid the sale by American traders of opium and alcohol to other human beings in Hawaii, Alaska, and other countries. In 1903, the composition of Coca-Cola is changed to use caffeine instead of cocaine. Cocaine was legal in America back then. By the early 20th century, the United States of America becomes more strict in regulating drugs. By 1906, there was the first Pure Food and Drug Act becomes law; until its enactment, it was possible to buy, in stores or by mail order medicines containing morphine, cocaine, or heroin, and without their being so labeled. America bans the importation of smoking opium in 1909. Dr. Hamilton Wright was a leader of early anti-narcotics laws. Back in 1912, a physician warns: “[There is] no energy more destructive of soul, mind, and body, or more subversive of good morals than the cigarette. The fight against the cigarette is a fight for civilization.” [Sinclar, op. cit., p. 180]. This time also saw racists exploiting drug use as an excuse to scapegoat black people. One example is that the racist Dr. Edward H. Williams and Dr. Christopher Kochs believed in the lie that black people collectively were cocaine crazed attacking white women of the South. As early as 1917, the President of the American Medical Association wanted a national prohibition of the use of alcohol. The 19th Amendment is passed in 1919 and it ended by 1933. Prohibition didn't work, because it violated individual freedom, Mafia and other gangs promoted an underground trade of it, and it didn't last long term. Violent crime did drop during that period. In 1932 alone, approximately 45,000 persons received jail sentences for alcohol offenses. During the first eleven years of the Volstead Act, 17,971 persons are appointed to the Prohibition Bureau. 11,982 are terminated “without prejudice,” and 1,604 are dismissed for bribery, extortion, theft, falsification of records, conspiracy, forgery, and perjury. [Fort, op. cit. p. 69]. As early as 1920, the U.S. Department of Agriculture publishes a pamphlet urging Americans to grow cannabis (marijuana) as a profitable undertaking. The extremist Harry J. Anslinger was the first commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. Anslinger harassed Billie Holiday for years. He was paranoid about marijuana. The Marijuana Tax act was created in 1937. Since the enactment of the Harrison Act in 1914, 25,000 physicians have been arraigned on narcotics charges, and 3,000 have served penitentiary sentences. Dr. Albert Hoffman (a chemist at Sandoz Laboratories in Basle, Switzerland, synthesizes LSD. He reported on the effects of LSD after he took it.
General Chiang Kai-shek in 1941 ordered the suppression of poppy laws. In 1943, Colonel J.M. Phalen, editor of the *Military Surgeon*, declares in an editorial entitled “The Marijuana Bugaboo”: “The smoking of the leaves, flowers, and seeds of Cannibis sativa is no more harmful than the smoking of tobacco. . . . It is hoped that no witch hunt will be instituted in the military service over a problem that does not exist.” [Quoted in ibid. p. 234]. The 1956 Narcotics Control Act of 1956 gave the death penalty to people who are guilty of the sale of heroin to a person under 18 by one over 18 years old. The leaders of the U.S. government hypocritically were claiming to be for drug reform in the 1960's, but they subsidized large corporations to fund cigarettes in America plus overseas (cigarettes are poisons known for causing lung disease, heart disease, and ultimately death). The 1960's saw the Drug Revolution too. The common myth about the Drug Revolution was that it was spontaneous headed by the independent youth alone. The truth is that the establishment, the CIA, and the MI6 had a huge role in the Drug Revolution. John L. Potash's book entitled "Drugs as Weapons Against Us" document how the intelligence community harassed not only drug addicted people (who deserved treatment not mass incarceration). They also harassed and monitored musicians and activities who wanted sincere progressive, revolutionary social change. For example, Paul Robeson's son said that the intelligence community drugged Paul Robeson. We know that MK Ultra was about the CIA experiencing LSD on human beings. Many of these human beings have their lives and their minds ruined. We know that the Vietnam War increased drug addiction of heroin in American society. We know that Tim Leary was a professor who spread LSD nationwide. The problem was that many people used LSD to escape from reality instead of advancing activism to confront Jim Crow apartheid, the Vietnam War, and other evils. As drug usage in America increased, there was government overreach in harshly sentencing people who possessed drugs (and were non-violent).
The Early War on Drugs
President Richard Nixon was President in 1969. Nixon was wrong to use the FBI to crush the Black Panthers, to advance the bombing of Hanoi, and being involved in the Watergate scandal. In 1971, President Richard Nixon said that drug abuse is America's Public Enemy Number 1. This started the modern day War on Drugs. With the passage of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970, the federal government took a more active role in drug enforcement and drug abuse prevention. At first, drug treatment was available. Elvis Presley shook Nixon's hands and supported Nixon's War on Drugs. Ironically, Elvis would suffer drug addiction throughout his later years of his life. Before the 1970's, there was a consensus that drug abuse was a social disease only to be solved by treatment programs. After the 1970s, drug abuse was seen by numerous policymakers primarily as a law enforcement problem that could be addressed with aggressive criminal justice policies. The addition of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to the federal law enforcement apparatus in 1973 was a significant step in the direction of a criminal justice approach to drug enforcement. If the federal reforms of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 represented the formal declaration of the War on Drugs, the Drug Enforcement Administration became its foot soldiers. As the 1970's existed, more people went into prison, the police became more militarized, and the problem of drug abuse remained. A Nixon administration official admitted that: “You want to know what this was really all about,” Ehrlichman, who died in 1999, said, referring to Nixon’s declaration of war on drugs. “The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying. We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”
Reaganomics
Ronald Reagan was what he was. Many black folks like me knew that Reagan was a racist, a Bohemian Grove member, a honorary 33rd degree Freemason, and a reactionary extremist. During the 1970's, he said a racist remark to Richard Nixon that black Africans are uncomfortable with wearing shoes. By the time he was President in 1981, Ronald Reagan supported the War on Drugs. He not only had the Just Say No campaign (as advanced by Reagan's wife Nancy Reagan). He supported policies that disproportionately harmed the lives of black Americans. Powdered cocaine was used by mostly rich and white Americans. Crack cocaine was cheaper and used by poorer people. Congress and the Reagan administration responded with the Antidrug Act of 1986, which established a 100:1 ratio for mandatory minimums associated with cocaine. It would take 5,000 grams of powdered cocaine to land you in prison for a minimum 10 years—but only 50 grams of crack. This increased the prison industrial complex to send the poor, black people, other people of color, and other oppressed people into prison for long sentences (even for non-violent offenses). Ronald Reagan used the racist "welfare queen" trope in scapegoating black people too. Reagan's Presidency of Reaganomics allowed tons of the poor to suffer massively. This reality has been proven by Sister Harriet Washington's book called "Medical Apartheid." Adler Berriman "Barry" Seal (July 16, 1939 – February 19, 1986) was a commercial airline pilot who became a major drug smuggler for the Medellín Cartel. When Seal was convicted of smuggling charges, he became an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration and testified in several major drug trials. He was murdered in 1986 by contract killers hired by the cartel.
The 1990's
By the 1990's, the War on Drugs continued fiercely. By the late 1980's and early 1990's, a new generation of anti-War on Drugs activists developed though. One group was the Drug Policy Foundation created by Arnold Trebach and Kevin Zeese. They wanted to end the War on Drugs. Even some conservatives like William F. Buckley and Milton Friedman desired an end to drug prohibition. ACLU Executive Director Ira Glasser, Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke, Federal Judge Robert Sweet, Princeton professor Ethan Nadelmann, and other scholars, activists, policymakers, etc. wanted the same goal too. George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton were faithful followers of the War on Drugs. After Noriega was brought down and sent to prison, we lived in a new era. After Bush Sr. was out of office in early 1993, William Jefferson Clinton was President. As time has gone by, we realize more and more realize that Clinton was a centrist President despite the red baiting by far right Republicans who accuse him of being near socialist (which is false obviously). Bill Clinton worked with Republicans to pass the Crime Act of 1994. Back then, many thought that the new law would eliminate the crime rates of the early 1990's. The consequences of the law was an expansion of the prison industrial complex, the growth of the War on Drugs, and the ruin of so many lives (especially black lives and other people of color's lives). The 1994 Omnibus Crime Bill was supported by then Senator Joe Biden too. It had a provision that allowed for federal execution of drug kingpins. The 1990's saw a skyrocketing amount of human beings sent into prison for long periods of time, even those with nonviolent drug offenses. In fact, people in prison from nonviolent drug law offenses increased from 50,000 in 1980 to over 400,000 in 1997. President William Jefferson Clinton also passed the Welfare Reform Act in 1996 that cut many services for the poor and was another attack by a neoliberal moderate President on the New Deal progressive policies. It proves that Clinton wasn't the progressive superhero that some have claimed. Back in 1992, Clinton actually advocated treatment instead of incarceration during his 1992 Presidential campaign. He reverted to the drug war policies form his Republican predecessors when he got into office. Clinton rejected a U.S. Sentencing Commission recommendation to eliminate the disparity between crack and powder cocaine sentences. He rejected the end of the federal ban on funding for syringe access programs (which has been even promoted by drug czar General Barry McCaffrey and Health Secretary Donna Shalala). Ironically, a month before leaving office, Bill Clinton told words in a Rolling Stone interview that he wanted "a re-examination of our entire policy on imprisonment" of people who used drugs. He said that he marijuana use "should be decriminalized."
The 21st Century
As the 21st Century developed, we have seen a gradual change into more progressive drug policies. More of the American public since 2000 are progressive on drug issues. George W. Bush was in office by 2001. He knew that the War on Drugs wasn't working conclusively to end drug addiction. Yet, he still put in more money than previous Presidents to advance War on Drugs policies. His drug czar was John Walter. He was a zealot against marijuana. He promoted student drug testing. We know that illicit drug use was plateauing, but many people suffered overdoses. George W. Bush also advanced the escalation of the militarization of drug law enforcement groups. By the end of Bush's 2nd term in 2009, we saw about 40,000 paramilitary SWAT style raids on Americans every year (mostly for nonviolent drug law offenses or misdemeanors). Federal drug reform struggled in Congress. That is why state level reforms slowly existed to start to end the War on Drugs. The culture shifted. More political leaders as diverse as Barack Obama and Michael Bloomberg have admitted to using drugs. Most Americans now support health based approaches to deal with drug issues. In our time in 2021, the legalization of marijuana has existed in Alaska, California, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, Washington state, and the District of Columbia. In December of 2014, Uruguay was the first country on Earth to legally regulate marijuana. Canada legalized marijuana for adults in 2018.
Even my state of Virginia is the first Southern state of America to legalize marijuana. Virginia is the most progressive Southern state of the Union now. States have worked hard to combat drug addiction and the opioid crisis. Many states have passed law to increase access to the overdose antidote called naloxone. There are 911 Good Samaritan laws that promote people to get medical help in the event of an overdose. Yet, we have a long way to go, even in 2021. Every year, about 700,000 people in America are arrested for marijuana offenses. Also, almost 500,000 people are still behind bars for just a drug law violation. When Barack Obama was in office, he promoted the reduction of crack/power sentencing disparities, he ended the ban on federal funding for syringe access programs, and he ended federal interference with state medical marijuana laws. Yet, President Obama didn't go to fully caused a health based approach for the majority of his drug policy. The Trump administration obviously was much worst than Barack Obama on drug policy.
Trump wanted to build a wall in the southern border, because he believed in the xenophobic lie that undocumented immigrants were just drug smuggling criminals mostly. Trump wanted harsher sentences for drug law violations and the death penalty for people who sell drugs. He promoted the ineffective "Just Say No Campaign" message being aimed at young people. It is no secret that former Attorney General Jeff Sessoms was fiercely in favor of the War on Drugs. When the pandemic rose up, Trump made a terrible response which is one major reason why Trump lost the 2020 election. The coronavirus made more people aware of the health disparities in society and how the drug war promotes this disparities unfairly. The crisis made it more difficult for the homeless, the poor, those with drug addictions, etc. to have adequate medical treatment. The 2020 election saw massive changes involving drug policy. For example, after the 2020 elections, Oregon voted to pass Measure 110. That was the nations' first all-drug decriminalization measure. Voters in Arizona, New Jersey, Montana, and South Dakota passed measures to legalize marijuana for adult use. Medical marijuana was passed in Mississippi and South Dakota. Both red and blue states enacted policies in saving lives literally. Today, President Joe Biden is here since 2021. Biden said that it was a mistake to support legislation that increased the prison industrial complex and the War on Drugs like the 1994 Crime Law. Biden said that he wants a compassionate approach to problematic drug use. One mistake Biden has made is how he extended class wide scheduling of entanyl analouges through October 2021. It makes it easier to go after low level drug dealers. Some critics say that it will disproportionately affect communities of color. The Biden administration is right to invest 2.5 million dollars in grants to help support drug treatment options and reform criminal statues that have harmed black people (and other people color) via the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Ava Duvernay's 13th documentary is one of the greatest modern documentaries that exposes the prison industrial complex and the War on Drugs. We shall see what the future will hold.
Conclusion
It has been over 50 years since the Richard Nixon call for his War on Drugs plans. Now, we have witness the fruits of it. The fruits of it have seen massive drug trafficking, violations to human civil liberties, and the expansion of the prison industrial complex. The pandemic causing social isolation has contributed to suffering involving drug overdoses. Last year in 2020, more than 93,000 Americans have died of drug overdoses. That is the highest number ever. We see the increase usage of fentanyl which is 25 to 40 times more potent than heroin. Fentanyl now has taken the lives of more people as the illicit drug market has used it on other drugs causes mayhem to suffering human beings. This problem is a worldwide problem. We know of oxycotin in the Rust Belt. Like always, a real solution to help people to get drug treatment and medical care instead of locking people up all over the place. Corporations and governments have been complicit in drug trafficking for generations. For example, Iran Contra was about certain people in the Reagan administration (during his 2nd term) secretly facilitating the sale of arms to the Khomeini government of the Islamic Republic of Iran (which was the subject of an arms embargo). The administration used the proceeds of the arms sale to fund the Contras in Nicaragua. The Contras were involved in drug trafficking in California, and that spread the crack epidemic all across America. The Boland Amendment banned the funding of the Contra by the U.S. government. Gary Webb, Maxine Waters, Cynthia McKinney, and Michael Ruppert accused the CIA of involvement in Contra cocaine trafficking. To this day, the CIA denies these allegations. It is true that the CIA has been involved in voting rigging, supporting coups of progressive governments, and other nefarious acts (like infiltrating the media via Operation Mockingbird) for decades. The CIA is also complicit in the drug program of MK-Ultra that ruined many lives. Today, we have a long way to go, but we have made great progress in causing the majority of the American people to say clearly that this War on Drugs must end (and progressive alternatives must exist to save lives literally. That is our precise goal).
Right is on our side, and in the end, we shall be victorious.
"In the fear of the LORD is strong confidence: and his children shall have a place of refuge."
-Proverbs 14:26
The History of Gospel Music Part 4: Contemorary Gospel Music (1997-Present)
Modern gospel music has existed from 1997 to the present in 2021. For over 24 years, we have witnessed gospel music change in many ways. We live in a new time from the days of the Jubliee Singers. Gospel now is filled with tons of younger artists. Many of these gospel musicians consist of influences from hip hop and R&B music. Also, there are many older gospel legends making songs and albums too. The Stellar Awards presents the reality of the diversity of new school artists of this generation fully. In our time, Jekayln Carr has many tons of music involving gospel. Tye Tribbett is known for dancing and having massive energy with his spiritual music. We know about the Clark Sisters and going strong after decades of being in the gospel music industry. Kierra Sheard-Kelly has sung gospel music for a while. A younger singer named Jonathan McReynolds gave shown many conscious messages in his gospel songs too. At the 2021 Stellar Awards, the Clark Sisters accepted the Lifetime Achievement Awards. Tramaine Hawkins accepted the Aretha Franklin icon award during the 2021 Stellar Awards too. Aretha Franklin was a huge artist involving gospel music. Other artists who continue to inspire human beings in 2021 are: Jason Clayborn, Hezekiah Walker, Pastor Mike Jr., Yolanda Adams, CeCe Winans, Terrian, Mali Music, J.J. Hairston, Tamela Mann, Jokia, Maverick City Music, Fred Hammond, Marvin Sapp, Kirk Franklin, Anthony Brown, Nia Allen, Capria McClearn, and other human beings. The group Mary Mary have made albums, and each woman have created solo projects too during the 21st century. Also, this era has been filled with debate. One extreme group of people want gospel music to compromise their principles entirely, and the other group of extremists want a totally rigid form of music that makes no effort to guide the young. We have to promote a balance where integrity is promoted in gospel music and creativity is advanced too. Therefore, music is universal, and there is nothing wrong with diverse sounds in praising God legitimately.
The Legacy of the songs Stomp and Revolution
Stomp changed everything in gospel music and music in general. Kirk Franklin and God's Property including Cheryl James were not the first people do this style of music. Yet, they were the first people to take it into the next level. It grew into being one of the most successful gospel songs of the 1990's. It charted on Billboard's mainstream R&B airplay list. The new funk/rap gospel style has been shown by younger artists like Lecrae too. Stomp won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Music Video. Then, Revolution came about by Kirk Franklin and the Family too. The songwriters of the song Stomp were Kirk Franklin, George Clinton Jr., Garr Shider, and Walter Morrison. Many older gospel fans didn't like the song because they felt it was too much like the copying the essence of the world. Some Christians felt that Kirk compromised too much, and Kirk Franklin admitted that the criticisms over the song Stomp hurt him. Later, Kirk Franklin and the Family released the song called Revolution. It was shown in 1998. This song was part of the Grammy award (of the Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album) winning album of The Nu Nation Project (in working with God's Property, Rance Allen, Marvin Winans, John P. Kee, Isaac, and others). The album expanded his influence in gospel culture. It helped to grow many careers. The album of The Nu Nation Project had people like Crystal Lewis, Fred Hammond, and other people. The legacy of both songs is that both songs allowed an opening for more R&B influences to go into gospel music in a higher level. Like always, you have to use discernment to make sure that any music is a force for good and saving people's lives.
A New Generation of Gospel Artists Develops
In 1998 and in 1999, gospel was widespread in America plus in other places of the world. For those who loved large singing groups, there was Sounds of Blackness, Colorado Mass Choir, and O'Landa Draper and the Associates. Solos came strong like William Becton, Oleta Adams, CeCe Winans, Hezekiah Walker, Fred Hammond and Radical For Christ, and God's Property. By the year of 2000, Kirk Franklin released the album called Kirk Franklin Present 1NC (or the One Nation Crew). In 1999, Yolanda Adams released the album of Mountain High ...Valley Low. Dottie Peoples in 1999 had the album of God Can and God Will. Take 6 and Steven Curtis Chapman released albums too. The group of Trini-I-Tee 5:& released the album of Spiritual Love. The group of Trini-i-tee 5:7 was a group originally made up of Chanelle Haynes, Angel Taylor, and Terri Brown-Britton. They were based in New Orleans, Louisiana. They would soon win one Stellar Award, two Grammy nominations, and 2 BET Award nominations. By 2020, they released their complication album of Story of My Life with unreleased songs from previous albums. People have compared them to Destiny's Child vocally. They have used charities to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina via Trin-i-tee 5:7 Ambassador of Hope and Triumph Campaign. They gave back to places of Los Angeles and Houston. Adrian Anderson has sent supplies and assistance to struggling families in Sacramento, California.
By the year of 2000, we saw Marvin Sapp with the song of Give Thanks. There has been Montrell Darrett, New Direction, Commissioned, and other artists. The song of Shackles was released by Mary Mary. Mary Mary is a singing duo made up of 2 sisters. They are from Ingleside California. Their famous songs are Shackles in 2000, God in Me from 2008, Can't Give Up Now in 2000, Yesterday from 2005, Go Get It in 2012, In the Morning in 2002, Heaven in 2005, and other hits like Thank You in 2001. They represent a futuristic, new school song with R&B influences. Their names are Erica Campbell and Trecina Atkins-Campbell. Both have made solo records and songs too. Their debut album was Thankful which was released in the year of 2000. In 2005, Tamela Mann and her husband David created their own label, Tillymann Music Group, which they have released several projects through. In 2005, Tamela Mann's solo album, Gotta Keep Movin', was released. In 2007 she released her first live album, The Live Experience. Mann's songs "Father Can You hear Me" and "Take It To Jesus." In the 2000's, we saw diverse artists like Chris Tomlin, BeBe Winans, Bernard Williams, and other people. The 2010's and 2020's saw further gospel artists who desire to inspire souls and praise the Lord. Some of the new school gospel artists are human beings like Michele Williams, Anthony Brown, Jamie Grace, Tasha Cobbs, Jonathan McReynolds, Lecrae, Elevation Worshp, Anointed (made up of Steve and Da'dra Crawford), Evvie McKinney, Bri Babineaux, and other human beings.
Movies and Gospel Music
Gospel movies are part of American and world cultures. They can be non-confrontational, controversial, inspiring, and exist in other characterizations. They have many unifying themes of showing a religious message, of mentioning God, and showing the diverse personalities of human beings. From back in the day, there was the 1923 film of The Ten Commandments and the 1925 version of Ben Hur. One underrated movie of the early church was the 1951 film of Quo Vadis (in dealing with Nero and the scapegoating of early Christians for the fire at Rome). Ben Hur and the Ten Commandments of the 1950's were very famous. Ben Hur is about a man who lives under Roman occupation at Judea, and he finds purpose in his life by allying with the love of a woman (and he witnessed Jesus Christ). By the 1960's, there were tons of religious films shown like King of Kings in 1961 and The Greatest Story Ever Told in 1965. The 1970's had youthful films like Jesus Christ Superstar and other films. The 1988 film of The Last Temptation of Christ was controversial because of the obvious reason. By the 1990's, we saw more films like The Preacher's Wife and The Prince of Egypt. The Preacher's Wife starred Whitney Houston and Denzel Washington. The movie is about an angel who helps a religious couple (including a pastor) find their zeal back to show their spirituality. The 2000s saw many films like the famous films of The Gospel (with Nonya Gaye, Clifton Powell, Idris Elba, and Boris Kodjoe), etc. The 2010 film of The Preacher's Kid is an underrated gospel film classic about the daughter of a pastor going through many things plus return back home to reunite with her father. It has everything and a great message of redemption. Yes, I have seen the entire movie before too. During the 2010's, we also saw War Room in 2015, Risen in 2015, and Amazing Grace (a concert film of Aretha Franklin's gospel film). In the 2020's, more films are present like 2020's I Still Believe.
Social Activism and Gospel Music
Gospel music and social activism go hand in hand. Back during 19th century, many religious spirituals were about fighting slavery, standing up for black dignity plus black humanity, and desiring a better future for their descendants. During Reconstruction and the Civil Rights Movement, many gospel singers not only sang to promote justice. They were active in the Civil Rights Movement like Aretha Franklin and Mahalia Jackson funding efforts to eliminate Jim Crow apartheid. Bill Withers' Lean on Me were advocating for freedom. During the 1960's, songs like We Shall Not Be moved and Which Side Are You On? inspired protesters to stand up for civil rights. Betty Simmons sang A Charge to Keep, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe sang Up Above My Head, I Hear Freedom in the Air. The Staple Singers performed Freedom Highway, and they marched many miles with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Many gospel singers loved the sing the song Keep Your Eyes on the Prize, Hold On. Fannie Lou Hamer was a great singer too. She sang the song of This Little Light of Mine including the Ward Singers. We Shall Overcome was one of the many anthems of the Civil Rights movement. From 1968 to 2014, gospel artists have continued to be part of social movements for change. In 1998, Kirk Franklin presented the song of Revolution which called for changes in society to bring people together. Now in the era of fighting for voting rights again, BLM, fighting against gun violence, and standing up against police brutality, artists like Lecrae have used music to address many social problems that must be rectified. Lecrae's This is America is one of his most powerful gospel, socially conscious songs.
Gospel Music in 2021
Gospel in 2021 continues to exist. Tasha Cobbs Leonard had This is a Move. Kirk Franklin still makes music with Love Theory. JJ Hairston and Youthful Praise had their song called Miracle Worker ft. Rich Tolbert Jr. Also, Andra had a song called Love Can Save It All. TobyMac released the song of I just Need U. Todd Dulaney and Lebohang Kgapola released the song of Victory Belongs to Jesus. Ada Ehi had the video of Cheta. Casey J sang the song of If God and Nothing But the Blood. The first video tape recorder, a helical scan recorder, is invented by Norikazu Sawazak in 1953. Ntokozo Mbambo made the song of We Pray for Me, Tony Dulaney expressed his song called You're Doing It All Again, and Jekalyn Carr has music called It's Yours. Other artists of this generation include people like: Ledisi, Kierra Sheard, Travis Greene, Maranda Curtis, Jason Nelson, Kelonate Gavin, Donnie McClurkin, Tamela Mann, Marvin Sapp, Mandisa, Jonathan McReynolds, Collen Malukee, Charles Jenkins, Le'Andria Johnson, Mvini, Anita Wilson, Todd Galberth, Steffany Gretzinger, The Walls Group, Brian Courtney Wilson, etc.
"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words." (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18).
Epilogue
For thousands of years, we have seen the power of music. Out of every genre of music, gospel music remains extremely potent in inspiring change in the lives of human beings. Involving black culture, it has been anchor for so many generations to organize plans for justice, to express our love for God, and to praise the beauty of life in general. The common myth of gospel is that it's outdated or has no relevant in today's society. You can refute that lie by showing many rebuttals. The first is that human beings of every background and creed love gospel music. Second, gospel music have shown songs about many topics including issues of social justice. Third, gospel music still thrives today being expressed by human beings of every color who sincerely want souls to be transformed in service in Almighty God. They are disagreements on the composition of gospel and how gospel ought to be presented to the masses of the people. Yet, we are in unison in making the point the extremely talented gospel music is to stay permanently. Songs done by the Caravans, the Staple Singers, Kirk Franklin, Donald Malloy, Aretha Franklin, CeCe Winans, Shirley Caesar, Sinach, Albertine Walker, Fred Hammon, and Kierra Sheard make up realize that life has a purpose. We are more than just atoms and molecules moving around. We have a mind, body, and spirit that make us a thinking human being with the power to glorify God. One of the best ways to glorify God is to help our neighbors, show compassion, and standing up for justice. When we see black Haitian migrants being oppressed by xenophobes, then we express our solidarity with our Haitian Brothers and Sisters (as human rights including the right of asylum must be defended worldwide, not just in one nation). As a black American, it is the right thing to do. I can't close my comments without mentioning Mahalia Jackson. Mahalia Jackson was not only the greatest gospel singer of all time. She was the greatest singer of all time in my opinion. She represents the long history of gospel music in its ups and downs. She worked with civil rights leaders like Dr. King, and she stood up for her own human dignity constantly. She remains the icon of music.
By Timothy