Diverse Subjects.

  

 

This 4th part of the series of the history of the United States Presidents is from Grover Cleveland to Woodrow Wilson. This era of American history saw the end of the 19th century to the start of the 20th century. There was the massive contradiction back then. The contradiction was that during that time, many people had embraced the myth that America was in the midst of Utopian change. Yet, the Gilded Age, racial oppression, and other forms of discrimination including xenophobia were widespread plus vicious. Back then, Chinese people wouldn't go into America. There were tons of black American victims of pogroms filled with terrorism and murder of innocent black people. The destruction of Black Wall Street was done by terrorists who were jealous of a strong, prosperous black community. We saw a huge amount of corporate power so great, that stories were shown of child labor, economic exploitation, and death caused by a lack of regulation of basic industries. Also, it is important to celebrate the heroic leaders who fought back against injustices during that time like: Robert La Follette, Sojourner Truth, W.E.B. DuBois, Ida B. Wells, etc. It was a time when imperialism was promoted by the American government. As we know, imperialism is evil and wrong, because no nation has the right to dominate the economic, social, and political policies of another nation by force. Imperialism is all about a lust for power, and racists have used imperialism to promote the myth of white supremacy. The reality is that people have every right to defeat the system of racism and replace it with a system of justice. The end of this era dealt with the Presidency of Woodrow Wilson who saw WWI and its aftermath. 

 

 

 

To understand the evolution of voting rights in the United States of America, you have to look at history chronologically like always. Long ago, the Americas was originally inhabited by Native Americans. They didn't speak English, and they existed in diverse cultures including creeds. After the Last major Ice Age, they traveled from Siberia into the Americas over 10,000 years ago. Later, European explorers came into the Americas. Some traded, and others committed war crimes and other evils against Native American human beings like Christopher Columbus and Cortes. Black African people were kidnapped and sent to the Americas too. The 2 great crimes of American history are the genocide of the Native Americans and the enslavement of African human beings. Back in the 1600's and 1700's, voting rights was very limited. Most people voting were only a select group of human beings. By 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed by colonists during the midst of the American Revolutionary War. Back in that year, only mostly white male landowners (who owned land, mostly Protestant, and over 21 years old) could vote. Also, there was no federal voting rights standards in American society. States decided who can or couldn't vote. Voting mostly were in the hands of white male landowners. By the time George Washington was President in 1789, only 6% of the population could vote. Things would continue to be this bad for long decades. In 1790, the Naturalization Law was passed. It stated overtly that only "free white" immigrants can become naturalized citizens. 

 

As time existed in the 19th century, the growth of the anti-slavery or abolitionist movement including the women's rights movement existed. These revolutionary movements not only wanted the right to vote but total equality without exceptions. Many people used the Underground Railroad to save lives, diverse people were in both movements, and they later had numerous victories. In 1848, there was the women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York. Frederick Douglass, who was a former slave and newspaper editor, attended the event. He gave a speech supporting universal voting rights. His speech helped to convince the convention to adopt a resolution calling for voting rights for women. In 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe ended the Mexican American War. It gave U.S. citizenship to Mexican people living in territories conquered by the U.S. Yet, English language requirements and violent intimidation limit Mexican access to voting rights. North Carolina was the last state to remove property ownership as a requirement to vote in 1856 (allowing voting to exist only for all white men). Just before President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, he wanted voting rights for some black people. This stirred up John Wilkes Booth to murder the late President in April 1865. 

 

By 1866, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony (who are First Wave feminists) formed an organization for white people and black people to fight for the goal of universal voting rights. This organization later divided and regroup over disagreements to gain the vote for women and African Americans. This is not unusual as many white feminists would be stone cold anti-black racists. In 1868, the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution was passed. Citizenship is defined and granted to former slaves. Voters were defined as male. So, voting rights were given to all black men. The Amendment forbid states from denying any rights of citizenship. Yet, voting regulation is still left in the hands of the states. So, many states use grandfather clauses and Jim Crow methods like literacy tests to restrict black people the right to vote. In 1870, the 15th Amendment was passed. It states that the right to vote can't be denied by the federal or state governments based on race. Yet, states started to use measures like voting taxes and continued literacy tests to restrict African Americans the right to vote. Violence and other intimidation tactics are used by racist institutions constantly. In 1872, Susan B. Anthony was arrested and sent to trial in Rochester, New York. The reason was that she tried to vote in the Presidential election. During this time, Sojourner Truth (who was a black former slave and fighter for equality and justice) appealed at a polling booth in Grand Rapids, Michigan demanding a ballot. Yet, she was turned away. In 1876, indigenous people can't vote via the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court falsely classified Native Americans as not citizens defined by the 14th Amendment. The racist 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act banned people of Chinese ancestry from naturalizing to be U.S. citizens. The 1887 Dawes Act was passed, and it give Native Americans the right of citizenship with the catch to give up their tribal affiliations.  In 1890, the state of Wyoming admitted to statehood, and it's the first state to legislate voting for women in its constitution. The Indian Naturalization Act of 1890 granted citizenship to Native Americans whose applications are approved (similar to the process of immigration naturalization).

 

During the 20th century, the fight for voting rights intensified. In 1919, Native Americans, who served in the U.S. military during World War I, are granted citizenship. The suffrage included people of every color. They constantly fought for women voting rights all of the time. With their efforts and other people's activism, women were given the right to vote in both state and federal elections via the 19th Amendment (in 1920). In 1922, the Supreme Court made the racist decision that people of Japanese heritage are ineligible to become naturalized citizens. In the next year, the Supreme Court found that Asian Indians are also not eligible to naturalize. In 1924, the Indian Citizenship Act grant citizenship to Native Americans, but many states made laws and policies to stop Native Americans from voting. In 1925, Congress bans Filipinos from U.S. citizenship unless they serve 3 years in the Navy.  This time saw massive anti-black riots harming and murdering black Americans from Red Summer, etc. In 1926, a group of African American women were beaten by election officials when they tried to register to vote in Birmingham, Alabama. By 1947, Miguel Trujillo (a Native American and a former Marine) sued New Mexico. He wanted to vote. He won the case. This caused New Mexico and Arizona to be required to give the vote to all Native Americans. The 1952 McCarran-Walter Act grant all people of Asian ancestry the right to become citizens. In 1961, the 23rd Amendment is passed. This gave citizens of Washington, D.C. the right to vote for U.S. President. To this day, Washington, D.C. doesn't have voting representation in Congress (its district's residents are heavily black Americans). 

 

 

1964 was the turning point in American history. This was the time when the Civil Rights Act was passed by Congress. It was one of the greatest forms of progressive legislation in American history. For decades, the American Civil Rights Movement grew massively. Its leaders from Ella Baker, Septima Clark, Dr. King, and Medgar Evers worked all of the time to promote freedom for black people including the rest of the human race. This movement was part of the overall black freedom struggle too. After Red Summer, WWII, the death of Emmett Till, and other events, grassroots black people organized into organizations, religious groups, political groups, and other institutions to attack plus defeat the system of Jim Crow apartheid. Jim Crow is wrong because it is based on oppressing people, it restricts the right of free association, it violates democratic rights on every level, and it establishes a racist system whose goal is to make a white racist aristocracy minority to dominate the majority of the people (via division, bigotry, hatred, and economic exploitation). Jim Crow apartheid is the opposite of legitimate black self-determination and human independence. By the early 1960's, demonstrations occurred nationwide. Diverse factions of the black freedom movement spread from the NAACP, SCLC, SNCC, CORE, Malcolm X's OAAU, etc. Each had differences on many points, but they were unified in the same goal of freedom and justice for black people. 

 

To understand the Civil Rights Act of 1964, you have to learn about the time when it was passed. After WWII and the New Deal, government increased its role in promoting commerce even more than after the U.S. Civil War. The problem with the 1957 Civil Rights Act was that it didn't go strong enough to promote a just society. By this time, Brown V. Board of Education ruled public segregation as unconstitutional. Racist Southern Democrats used massive resistance to promote segregation. The 1957 Civil Rights act formed the United States Commission on Civil Rights and the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. By 1960, black voting had increased by only 3%, and Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1960, which eliminated certain loopholes left by the 1957 Act. After the sit-ins, after the Birmingham protests in 1963, and after the 1963 March on Washington, black people weren't free. This was the time during the Presidency of John F. Kennedy. President Kennedy has to be pushed to support more progressive civil rights federal legislation, but he was light years better than Eisenhower on the issue of Civil Rights. President John F. Kennedy proposed a real, strong Civil Rights bill on his famous speech on June 11, 1963, to advocate for equality and justice for African Americans. This came after the Birmingham campaign. Racial tensions were high. A possibility of another civil war did exist in the 1960's. So, President Kennedy advocated a bill to eliminate segregation in all aspects of society. Martin Luther King Jr. watched the address with Walter E. Fauntroy in Atlanta. When it was over, he jumped up and declared, "Walter, can you believe that white man not only stepped up to the plate, he hit it over the fence!" He then sent a telegram to the White House: "I have just listened to your speech to the nation. It was one of the most eloquent[,] profound, and unequivocal pleas for justice and freedom of all men ever made by any President. You spoke passionately for moral issues involved in the integration struggle." Proposing legislation and passing it are 2 different things. It took a long time for the Civil Rights Act to be made law in 1964. Did JFK make that speech to curb tensions? Yes. Was JFK perfect? No. Do I feel that JFK was sincere in his speech? Yes. 

 

Now, the journey begins. On June 11, 1963, President Kennedy met with Republican leaders to discuss the legislation before his television before his TV address to the nation that evening.  Two days later, Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen and Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield both voiced support for the president's bill, except for provisions guaranteeing equal access to places of public accommodations. This led to several Republican Representatives drafting a compromise bill to be considered. On June 19, the president sent his bill to Congress as it was originally written, saying legislative action was "imperative." First, the bill had to go to the House of Representatives. The bill was strengthened. It added provisions to ban racial discrimination in employment, providing greater protection to black voters, eliminating segregation in all publicly owned facilities (not just schools), and strengthening the anti-segregation clauses regarding public facilities such as lunch counters. They also added authorization for the Attorney General to file lawsuits to protect individuals against the deprivation of any rights secured by the Constitution or U.S. law. In essence, this was the controversial "Title III" that had been removed from the 1957 Act and 1960 Act. Civil rights organizations pressed hard for this provision because it could be used to protect peaceful protesters and black voters from police brutality and suppression of free speech rights.

 

By October 1963, President Kennedy called the congressional leaders to the White House to get the votes to make the House pass the bill. The bill was reported out of the Judiciary Committee in November 1963 and referred to the Rules Committee. Segregationist from Virginia Howard W. Smith wanted to keep the bill bottled up indefinitely. After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Baines Johnson was President. Johnson had huge legislative experience, and he was firm with Congressional leaders to get legislation passed. He supported the bill, and he used the bully pulpit to get things moving. In his first address to a joint session of Congress on November 27, 1963, Johnson told the legislators, "No memorial oration or eulogy could more eloquently honor President Kennedy's memory than the earliest possible passage of the civil rights bill for which he fought so long." After the return of Congress from its winter recess, however, it was apparent that public opinion in the North favored the bill and that the petition would acquire the necessary signatures. To avert the humiliation of a successful discharge petition, Chairman Smith relented and allowed the bill to pass through the Rules Committee. 50 signatures required the bill to go through. Labor groups and civil rights groups were in a coalition (in the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights) fought for the Civil Rights Act. The principal lobbyists for the Leadership Conference were civil rights lawyer Joseph L. Rauh Jr. and Clarence Mitchell Jr. of the NAACP.

 

 

Now, the Senate must pass it.  Normally, the bill would have been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which was chaired by James O. Eastland, a Democrat from Mississippi, whose firm opposition made it seem impossible that the bill would reach the Senate floor. Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield took a novel approach to prevent the bill from being kept in limbo by the Judiciary Committee: initially waiving a second reading immediately after the first reading, which would have sent it to the Judiciary Committee, he took the unprecedented step of giving the bill a second reading on February 26, 1964, thereby bypassing the Judiciary Committee, and sending it to the Senate floor for debate immediately. When the bill came before the full Senate for debate on March 30, 1964, the "Southern Bloc" of 18 southern Democratic Senators and lone Republican John Tower of Texas, led by Richard Russell, launched a filibuster to prevent its passage. Russell proclaimed, "We will resist to the bitter end any measure or any movement which would tend to bring about social equality and intermingling and amalgamation of the races in our [Southern] states." Strong opposition to the bill also came from Senator Strom Thurmond, who was still a Democrat at the time: "This so-called Civil Rights Proposals [sic], which the President has sent to Capitol Hill for enactment into law, are unconstitutional, unnecessary, unwise and extend beyond the realm of reason. This is the worst civil-rights package ever presented to the Congress and is reminiscent of the Reconstruction proposals and actions of the radical Republican Congress." Obviously, Thurmond failed to realize that Reconstruction laws helped to increase the rights of black people. 

After the filibuster had gone on for 54 days, Senators Mansfield, Hubert Humphrey, Mike Mansfield, Everett Dirksen, and Thomas Kuchel introduced a substitute bill that they hoped would overcome it by combining a sufficient number of Republicans as well as core liberal Democrats. The compromise bill was weaker than the House version as to the government's power in regulating the conduct of private businesses, but not weak enough to make the House reconsider it. Senator Robert Byrd ended his filibuster in opposition to the bill on the morning of June 10, 1964, after 14 hours and 13 minutes. Up to then, the measure had occupied the Senate for 60 working days, including six Saturdays. The day before, Democratic Whip Hubert Humphrey, the bill's manager, concluded that he had the 67 votes required at that time to end the debate and the filibuster. With six wavering senators providing a four-vote victory margin, the final tally stood at 71 to 29. Never before in its entire history had the Senate been able to muster enough votes to defeat a filibuster on a civil rights bill, and only once in the 37 years since 1927 had it agreed to cloture for any measure. The most dramatic moment during the cloture vote was when Senator Clair Engle was wheeled into the chamber. He had terminal brain cancer. He couldn't speak. He pointed to his left eye showing his affirmative "Aye" vote when his name was called. He died 7 weeks later. On June 19, the compromise bill passed the Senate by a vote of 73–27, quickly passed through the conference committee, which adopted the Senate version of the bill, then was passed by both houses of Congress and signed into law by President Johnson on July 2, 1964. The Congress passed the Equal Pay Act of 1963 to fight sex discrimination. The prohibition on sex discrimination was added to the Civil Rights Act by Howard W. Smith, a powerful Virginia Democrat who chaired the House Rules Committee and who strongly opposed the legislation. Smith's amendment was passed by a teller vote of 168 to 133. Historians debate Smith's motivation, whether it was a cynical attempt to defeat the bill by someone opposed to civil rights both for blacks and women, or an attempt to support their rights by broadening the bill to include women.  Historians speculate that Smith was trying to embarrass northern Democrats who opposed civil rights for women because the clause was opposed by labor unions. Representative Carl Elliott of Alabama later claimed "Smith didn't give a d___ about women's rights", as "he was trying to knock off votes either then or down the line because there was always a hard core of men who didn't favor women's rights." Smith asserted that he was not joking and he sincerely supported the amendment. President Lyndon Baines Johnson celebrated the 1964 Civil Rights Act as a huge achievement. Dr. King was there along with others during the signing of the bill into law officially. President Kennedy and President Johnson knew that this legitimate law would cause Democrats to lose the South for generations. They supported the bill anyway. The 1964 Civil Rights Act was a monumental part of American history. It inspired by ending of the poll tax in the 24th Amendment. Racists resisted the law even in 1968 in Orangeburg, South Caroline that led to the Orangeburg Massacre. The law has 11 titles showing protections of human rights and eliminating discrimination on the basis of color and sex since LBJ signed the law on July 2, 1964. In essence the 1964 Civil Rights Act is a landmark of civil rights legislation that  outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, and later sexual orientation and gender identity (as ruled by a later June 2020 Supreme Court decision). It prohibits unequal application of voter registration requirements, racial segregation in schools and public accommodations, and employment discrimination. Later, the 1965 Voting Rights Act would exist via protests, sacrifice, and courage. 

 

 

 

 

There is no question that New Age, occult teaching have a huge influence in the four corners of the Earth. The irony is that the New Age movement is not new. From ancient times, many ancient people believed in its principles found in polytheistic religions, witchcraft, Druid culture, and other pagan civilizations. Also, the New Age Movement is not monolithic. There are different parts to it. Yet, it is clear that it is opposition to mainstream, organized religion. Many of their followers call themselves as embracing "spirituality." The counterculture of the 1960's in Western society accelerated its popularity among many people. It teachings include the praise of the power of the individual (involving cultivating the power of Self like self actualization), some embrace the divinity of human beings (some don't), pantheism, the embrace of spirit beings, the love of channeling and occult practices, the act of using alternative medicine, some reject a dualistic concept of good and evil, and the massive embrace of astrology (like the Age of Aquarius concept). The irony is that many Native Americans accuse New Age teachings as miasproprating their ceremonies in a form of cultural impeiralism. The New Age Movement has been criticized by the right as trying to form an Utopian world state, and some in the left as refusing to be engaged with political change (in embracing too much individualism). 

 

One of the easiest ways to show how the New Age movement has influenced modern day society is to look at Hollywood and the rest of the entertainment industry. The teachings of the New Age is very similar to Gnosticism. What is Gnosticism?  Gnosticism teaches the deception that all of the physical world is evil. Obviously, trees, water, and the mountains are part of the physical world. These entitles aren't evil. In fact, these entities help to sustain the lives of humans, plants, and all animals in general. Gnosticism teaches that the God, who created the physical world, was evil. Gnostics praise Sophia. The Gnostics inverted the story of Genesis. Gnosticism teach that the physical world is  like a Matrix, and humans have spark of divinity in them (this lie of humans being divine by nature is promoted by Satan as found in the Bible). The Gospel of Judas was created by Gnostics. The Gnostics were mystics who believed that they had certain knowledge (or gnosis). The Gnostics believe that the serpent of the Garden of Eden was a good guy which is ludicrous. 

 

 

It is no secret that many in the old school Hollywood world follow either occult rituals or New Age teachings. For example, very few people know that Peter Sellers, the actor, who starred in The Pink Panther, Dr. Strangelove, and Being There, was a known followers of UFOs, astrology, and extrasensory perception. The occultist Sellers believed that he was a medium in his acting field: "I act as a medium, if you like, and let the character come out through me…I think that there is something psychic about my acting to a certain extent, yes." He claimed to have summoned the spirit world. I heard of Mae West before. Mae West was doing things long before Madonna was doing controversial actions. West was open about sex and being a follower of the occult. She did seances, followed gurus, and worked with pyschics. According to the book of "Becoming Mae West" by Emily Leider, Mae West wanted to contact the spirit of Amelia Earhart. 

 

What does this have to do with Hollywood and the entertainment industry in general? Well, these same New Age and occult themes have been promoted in films, TV shows, and other parts of the industry for over 100 years now. The leaders of the corporations, the largest banks on Earth, and the political power structure in many cases embrace occultism and the New Age teachings. This is not new. Corruption in the powers that be has been exposed by Elijah Wood, Corey Feldman, and other people found in the industry for decades now. Many high level celebrities are related to European Royals like Hillary Duff being the 18th cousin of Queen Elizabeth (via Alexander Spotswood), Joseph Fiennes being the 8th cousin of Charles, Prince of Wales, Brooke Shields is that 18th cousin of Queen Elizabeth once removed via Henry II of France, and Johnny Depp is the 20th cousin of Queen Elizabeth via Edward III. 

Anger, adultery, occultism, racial hatred, sexism, and other evils are readily promoted by many movies and TV shows (while the leaders of the industry claiming "tolerance," but they refuse to radically change the system to cause revolutionary change in the world). In fact, we have shows that glorify serial killers and other evils folks under the guise of "fantasy." For example, the popular Game of Thrones television series features incest as a regular part of the show. An anti-Christ mentality is found in certain aspects of the industry when many people in that world make no bones about their disdain and hatred against Christians who contend for their faith in God. Many movies today play on themes relating to King Arthur, a savior like figure, Gnostic teachings, and an embrace of a hatred of moral values. Pluto V readily has films about Beast 666 and other horror films that take a sympathetic look at Satanism and the occult. It is no secret that many symbolism, predictive programming, and occult imagery are found in many films, TV shows, and music videos. We know about the CIA works readily with Hollywood on film projects. Even before Marvel films, Marvel comics promoted an anti-Christ theme with the comic "The son of Satan." One of the best examples to see the occult side of the industry is found in Stanley's Kubrick's Eye Wide Shut film. This film was created in 1999, and it was ahead of its time. It showed occult themes parties filled with sexual rituals (that occur in real life), a mask party (that existed in the 1970's Rothschild funded masked party in real life), abuse (that is real), and elitists with massive power in the world (which is very true too). 

 

The 2022 Winter Olympics taking place in Beijing China has always been part of the Olympic tradition. It will last from February 4 to 20, 2022. This event is not without controversy. It has much more political controversy than the previous 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. The vast majority of the people in China want justice and freedom. Yet, a small minority of many political leaders in China have executed the policies of: massive Internet censorship, suppression of the rights of the people of Hong Kong, oppression against Uighur Muslims in Western China, heavy restrictions of religious freedom among Christians, and an authoritarian one child policy (resulting in population issues in China). These realities are real, and they can't be denied. The motto of this year's Olympics is Together for a Shared Future. There will be 109 events in many sports. President Xi Jinping is the political leader of China. All venues will be run on renewable energy. Sports like speed skating, ice hockey, curling, and snowboarding will be found in the Winter Olympics. The unity of people in athletics is certainly inspiring. 

 

 

The Book of Revelation is one of the most important books of the Bible. It is the last book of the New Testament created by the Apostle John. John, by this time in the 90's or 100 A.D., was at Patmos. He experienced persecution as Christians were victims of oppression by the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was at its peak in the Middle East back then with armies, cities, a road network, and other infrastructure like aquaducts. Yet, the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ spread rapidly in the world. By the end of the 1st century, the gospel was spreading from India to Great Britain. The Roman Empire wanted to end the religious movement with murder, harassment, slander, and allowing lions to eat believers. Yet, their plans failed. The Book of Revelation also have many similarities to the Book of Daniel in terms of the symbolism of animals and the trumpets. The Book of Revelation, in a sense, helps to open alive the Book of Daniel. The Book of Revelation starts from the time of Christ's birth, death, and resurrection to the very end of time. From the messages sent to the 7 churches in Asia Minor (Turkey) to the vials and trumpets, the verses in the Book of Revelation is riveting literature. According to Biblical scholars, the end of the book details what is going to happen after Daniels' 70th week. This is from Revelation Chapter 20 onward like Satan being bound for a 1,000 years, a new heaven and a new Earth, the new Jerusalem being established, and the closing blessing. There are always parallels between the OT and NT, because the OT and NT flow with akin themes and theological information. 

By Timothy