Tuesday, February 28, 2023
Monday, February 27, 2023
Diverse Topics.
The book of Ezekiel has some of the most vivid imagery found in all of the books of the Bible. By 931 B.C., there was the division of Israel from Judah. The 12 tribes existed in Israel for centuries after the Exodus. The 10 Northern tribes existed with their capital in Samaria, and Judah (or the 2 Southern tribes) had its capital in Jerusalem. 2 Kings 17:5, 6 showed the event of how the Northern Kingdom was defeated by the Assyrians by 722 B.C. The 10 tribes were not lost as they existed long after the Great Exile and were mentioned by the apostle Paul in the New Testament as found in Acts 26:7 and Revelations 21:12. The prophet Ezekiel lived during the time of the 3 sieges of Jerusalem by Babylon. In Ezekiel 1, Ezekiel gives his prophecy while in exile in Chebar. Ezekiel was 30 years old, which is the age he would have been eligible for the priesthood (as found in Numbers 4:3). The story starts on the fifth of the month in the fifth year of King Jehoiachin's exile or ca. 593 B.C. The reason was that Jehoiachin was taken from Jerusalem to Babylon in 597 B.C., so the fifth year would be 593 B.C. Ezekiel's ministry was overtly prophetic. As the book of Ezekiel exists, the judgments shift from Judah to the judgments against the nations harming Israel and the Jewish people in general.
By Ezekiel 2, God gives Ezekiel his calling and instruction. In Ezekiel 3, Ezekiel eats the scroll which has a lot of prophetic significance. The siege of Jerusalem was predicted by Ezekiel in Ezekiel 4 and 5. Ezekiel's vision of the end of time is found in Ezekiel 6 and 7. His First Temple vision was found in Ezekiel 8 to 19. In Ezekiel 8:1, he talks about the vision of temple abominations. In Judaism, the Temple is sacred, and worshipers must be righteous and serious went entering a house of worship. That's customary for a diversity of religions too.
By Ezekiel 20, he writes how he sees God refuse the Elders. Ezekiel criticizes Jerusalem in Ezekiel 21 and 22. He prophesies against two sisters in Ezekiel 23. The siege of Jerusalem starts as found in Ezekiel 24. Ezekiel 25 talks about God's vengeance on Ammon and Edom. Ezekiel pronounced judgment on Tyre in Ezekiel 26-28. Then, Ezekiel prophesies against Egypt in Ezekiel 29-32. Ezekiel is called the Watchman in Ezekiel 33. Jerusalem's fall is found in Ezekiel 33. Ezekiel talked about Jerusalem's fall in Ezekiel 33:21. Ezekiel foresees reproof and restoration in Ezekiel 34-36. The resurrection of the dry bones is found in Ezekiel 37. The dry bones are a symbol of the Jewish people coming together to see their nation return fully in the future. Ezekiel sees a future battle in Ezekiel 38. Later, Ezekiel saw God's judgment on Gog by Ezekiel 39. The Ezekiel Second Temple vision is found in Ezekiel 40-48. Ezekiel also saw another Jerusalem, a city with the glorious name of Jehaovah shammah (the Lord is Here) as found in Ezekiel 48:35.
Rock Music went towards many evolutions in the 1970's. The rock music of the late 1970's was completely different than the rock of the early 1970's. The Beatles broke up after the release of their last 1970 album of Let it Be. All four members of the Beatles would go on to have a successful solo careers. The Isle of Wight festival was held in the UK with an audience of over 600,000 people. The festival had Jimi Hendrix, The Who, The Doors, Chicago, Joni Mitchell, Donovan, Jethro Tull, Free, Taste, Ten Years After, and Miles Davis in August of 1970. Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and other people passed away. Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Trouble Water was their last album and sold over 25 million copies. Rock groups like Shocking Blue, Black Sabbath, and others released albums. Crosby, Still, Nash, and Young was a supergroup of rock artists that had many songs like Our House, Teach Your Children, and a cover of Joni Mitchell's song of "Woodstock." Santana had the song of Evil Ways. Spirit in the Sky was a gospel and western movie-inspired song by California singer/songwriter Norman Greenbaum. It told more than 2 million copies. American Woman was a song made by The Guess Who. The Motown rock group of Rare Earth did a cover of the Temptations' hit of Get Ready in 1970. Paul McCartney made an album of McCartney where he played all of the instruments of the album. Maybe I'm Amazed was one of his singles on the album. Music from Mountain, Deep Purple, Grand Funk Railroad, The Stooges, Three Dog Night, and Bread existed. Chicago's album of 25 or 6 to 4 was a prominent album. Neil Diamond had the song of Cracklin' Rosie. The Kinks, and Sugarloaf made music. James Taylor had the song of Fire and Rain which was one of his greatest songs. The Patridge Family was on TV by November of 1970 which is about a family band. The Grateful Dead, John Lennon, etc. made music. George Harrison's My Sweet Lord was released in December 1970. Harrison was probably the Beatle with the best solo album. The song wasn't about Jesus Christ. It was about Krishna and the religion of Hinduism. For most of his life, Harrison followed Hinduism until his passing. Jim Morrison passed away in 1971. George Harrison in 1971 had an album called All Things Must Pass. In 1971, George Harrison organized the concert for Bangladesh in New York City. It raised money to help suffering people of Bangladesh.
The first UK Glastonbury Festival was held in 1971. Your Song was made by Elton John, and it was popular in 1971. Lonely Days was made by the Bee Gees, a group from Australia who lived in the UK. The Bee Gees would be supported by pop, rock, and R&B audiences. The Utah-based group of The Osmonds had their song of One Bad Apple. Janis Joplin, after her death, many people promoted the song Me and Bobby McGee being highly influential. Gordon Lightfoot and Jethro Tull made music. Proud Mary was the song made by Ike and Tina Turner. Proud Mary was their rearranged version of Creedence Clearwater Revival. Bloodrock, The Doors, and Rolling Stones (who had the song of Brown Sugar) made music. Jesus Christ Superstar was like the Kirk Franklin's Stomp of the 1970's generation. Jesus Christ Superstar was a rock religious album that talked about the Gospel and Jesus Christ. It was a Broadway play and a movie too. It was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Time Rice. It was controversial back then and became more accepted by the public as time went on. The legendary writer Carole made the album of It's Too Late. Ringo Starr of the Beatles made the single of It Don't Come Easy. Carly Simon, James Taylor, T. Rex, John Denver, Bob Dylan, Five Man Electrical Band, John Prine, and the Who made music too. Duane Allman died in 1971 in a motorcycle accident. The song of Imagine was released by John Lennon in late 1971. Led Zeppelin had their album of Lep Zeppelin IV with their symbolic-filled song of Stairway to Heaven with many esoteric meanings. David Bowie and Alice Cooper had their albums out too. Glitter rock grew by 1972. The first New Years Rockin' Eve is televised on NBC and hosted by Dick Clar. Neil Young had the song of Heart of Gold. Starman from David Bowie's album of Ziggy Stardust promoted the glitter rock movement in 1972. Cat Stevens, Rocket Man from Elton John, Looking Glass, Argent, Chuck Berry, and Elvis Presley (with his song of Burning Love being a cover) was massively prominent during that time. Lou Reed, Helen Reddy's I Am Woman, and Neil Diamond had music standing the test of time. In 1973, Lep Zepplin played to 56,800 people at Tampa Stadium breaking the Beatles Shea Stadium for the largest record during that time. The Summer Jam at Watkings Glen, NYC has 600,000 seeing The Band, The Allman Brothers, and The Grateful Dead. Carly Simon had the song of You're So Vain. It was the number-one single in the country by January 1973. Elvis Presley had a concert in Honolulu, Hawaii in January of 1973. NBC's Midnight Special had concerts from rock, pop, soul, and R&B acts. The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd modernized their music. Bob Marley and the Wailers, Alice Cooper, Roberta Flack, Doobie Brothers, and George Harrison (with Give Me Love) had influential music in 1973. Paul McCarthy, Cher, The Rolling Stones, Ringo Star, Eddie Kendricks' Keep on Truckin', and Todd Rundgren made music. By 1974, there are many experimental bands and artists like Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, Kiss, Queen, Frank Kaappa, Maria Mulduar, and other artists had their albums. Eric Clapton had the number-one album by the summer of 1974. The Three Degrees were popular too. By 1975, The Average White Band, the Ohio Player, Van McCocy, the Bee Gees, and Linda Ronstadt had many hits. Bruce Springsteen was on the covers of Time and Newsweek magazines. Bruce Springsteen was a different type of rock star. He wanted his working-class roots from New Jersey to be expressed without excessive materialism and flash. He wanted old-school, topical, and down to Earth music to be expressed to the people. John Lennon and Elton John performed on stage in January 1975 too. Bob Dylan loved to show his music too. By the late 1970's, disco dominated the charts. The Rolling Stones had great influence. Aerosmith had Dream On which is a famous rock ballad. AC/DC had their first international album of High Voltage. They were from Australia. Hall and Oates, and Wings made music. Blondie had their debut album in December 1976. It was punk influenced from the New York City's CBGB's club scene. Punk was full of rebellion. It was anti-establishment, controversial, and in your face.
Studio 54 was opened in New York City in 1977. Leo Sayer, David Bowie, and other music flourished. American Bandstand celebrated its 25th anniversary in February 1977. Iggy pop, the punk band of the Clash from London, and ABBA were popular. The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, UFO, and Kenny Rogers had hits. Elvis Presley passed away on August 16, 1977. Crystal Gayle, and other people made hits too. By 1978, Saturday Night Fever was popular. Blue Bayour from Linda Ronstadt was famous. Queen had its hit of We are the Champions. Kate Bush, Billy Joel, VanHalen, Yvonne Elliman, and other artists had their music shown. Boney M from the Caribbean had their single of Rivers of Babylon. Meatloaf had hits along with A Taste of Honey. Chic made Le Freak too. In 1979, disco dominated the charts. Also, music from Blondie, Rod Stwart, Electric Light Orchestra, Kenny Rogers, and Kiss shown songs. The Sony Walkman was created by 1979. The Blues Brothers with Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi made the cover of Dam and Dave's Soul Man. Joe Jackson, Elvis Costello made music. Fire from The Pointer Sisters was popular. It was a cover of Bruce Springsteen's song of Fire. By February 1979, YMCA was released by The Village People to confront stereotypes and show expression. Sid Vicious died in February 1979 over a heroin overdose. Lotta Love was shown by Nicolette Larson. Heart of Glass from Blondie were some of their most influential songs. Journey, Suzi Quatro, The Cure with its debut album, and Sister Sledge's We Are Family defined 70s music. Cheap Trick, The B-52s, and other groups shown their songs. By this time, music was different from the early 70's. By 1979, the new wave music explosion started. Synthesizers started to group. The Knack and Lep Zeppelin released albums. Gary Numan, Charlie Daniels, the Slits, and the Police made their music. The Police had Sting filled with the New wave movement back in October 1979. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Pink Floyd, and Prince's I Wanna Be Your Lover broke barriers. Styx, and the Clash explored many styles. The 1970's ended and the 1980's would start with new music rising like hip hop, the unjust bashing of disco, the development of BET and MTV, and new superstars going into the next level like Michael Jackson, Prince, Madonna, Janet Jackson, and other human beings.
Funk had roots in the 1960's, but funk music was modernized during the 1970's. It was created by black Americans in the mid-1960's being a cousin of soul music. Funk has a rhythmic, danceable new style filled with melody and chord progressions. It has a strong, rhythmic groove of a bassline by an electric bassist and a drum part by a percussionist, often at a slower tempo than other popular music. Funk heavily uses instruments in its performances. Funk uses the same richly-colored extended chords found in bebop jazz, such as minor chords with added sevenths and elevenths, or dominant seventh chords with altered ninths and thirteenths. The Godfather of funk music was James Brown. He made a signature groove that emphasized the downbeat—with a heavy emphasis on the first beat of every measure ("The One"), and the application of swung 16th notes and syncopation on all basslines, drum patterns, and guitar riffs—and rock and psychedelia-influenced musicians Sly and the Family Stone and Jimi Hendrix, fostering improvisation in funk. Other musical groups, including Kool and the Gang, Earth, Wind & Fire, Chic, B.T. Express, Loose Ends, Shalamar, The S.O.S. Band, Slave, The Whispers, Cameo, and the Bar-Kays began to adopt and develop Brown's innovations during the 1970s and adding R&B essences to the genre from the early 1970s, while others like Parliament-Funkadelic and Ohio Players followed Hendrix's path. Funk has evolved over the years and decades too. There is avant-funk, boogie (a hybrid of electronic music and funk), funk metal, G-funk (that is a mixture of hip hop and funk), timba (a form of funky Cuban dance music), and funk jam. Funk influenced the development of Washington D.C.'s go-go music. Funk samples and breakbeats are heavily used in hip-hop and electronic dance music. Funk in African American communities also related to the hard work and effort musicians made to create an outstanding performance. In early jam sessions, musicians would encourage one another to "get down" by telling one another, "Now, put some stank on it!". At least as early as 1907, jazz songs carried titles such as Funky. The first example is an unrecorded number by Buddy Bolden. As late as the 1950s and early 1960s, when "funk" and "funky" were used increasingly in the context of jazz music, the terms still were considered indelicate and inappropriate for use in polite company. According to one source, New Orleans-born drummer Earl Palmer "was the first to use the word 'funky' to explain to other musicians that their music should be made more syncopated and danceable." The style later evolved into a rather hard-driving, insistent rhythm, implying a more carnal quality. This early form of music set the pattern for later musicians. The music was identified as slow, sexy, loose, riff-oriented and danceable.
Funk music is heavily related to dance music. This is similar to soul music. There is a strong rhythmic style in funk. Funk's other cousin is disco. Yet, funk has a central dance beat that's slower and more syncopated than disco. Funk music uses the sequences of eighth notes. A great deal of funk is rhythmically based on a two-celled onbeat/offbeat structure, which originated in sub-Saharan African music traditions. New Orleans appropriated the bifurcated structure from the Afro-Cuban mambo and conga in the late 1940s, and made it its own. New Orleans funk, as it was called, gained international acclaim largely because James Brown's rhythm section used it to great effect. There is no funk music without the bass, groove, and guitar riffs at times. Basslines are common in funk. That is why there is funky bassline and percussive slapping, and other effects in funk music. This funk music has been shown by Bernard Edward, Robert Bell, Mark Adams, Johnny Flippin, and Bootsy Collins including Rocco Prestia (from Tower of Power). Funk artists include James Jamerson and Larry Graham from Sly and the Family Stone. Funk uses drums like the I'll Take You There sounds shown by The Staple Singers. Electric guitars are integral parts of funk. A range of keyboard instruments are used in funk. The acoustic piano is used in funk, including in "September" by Earth Wind & Fire and "Will It Go Round in Circles" by Billy Preston. The electric piano is used on songs such as Herbie Hancock's "Chameleon" (a Fender Rhodes) and "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" by Joe Zawinul (a Wurlitzer). The clavinet is used for its percussive tone, and it can be heard in songs such as Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" and "Higher Ground" and Bill Withers' "Use Me". The Hammond B-3 organ is used in funk, in songs done by The Meters and "Love the One You're With" (with Aretha Franklin singing and Billy Preston on keyboards). Bernie Worrell's range of keyboards from his recordings with Parliament Funkadelic demonstrates the wide range of keyboards used in funk. Funk can talk about spirituality, black life, love, romance, social issues, dance, having fun in general, and other topics.
The Funkadelic song "One Nation Under A Groove" (1978) is about the challenges that Blacks overcame during the 1960s civil rights movement, and it includes an exhortation for Blacks in the 1970s to capitalize on the new "social and political opportunities" that had become available in the 1970s. The Isley Brothers' song "Fight the Power" (1975) has a political message. Parliament's song "Chocolate City" (1975) metaphorically refers to Washington D.C. and other US cities that have a mainly Black population, and it draws attention to the potential power that Black voters wield and suggests that a Black President be considered in the future. The political themes of funk songs and the aiming of the messages to a Black audience echoed the new image of black people that was created in Blaxploitation films, which depicted "African American men and women standing their ground and fighting for what was right." Both funk and Blaxploitation films addressed issues faced by Blacks and told stories from a Black perspective. Another link between 1970s funk and Blaxploitation films is that many of these films used funk soundtracks (e.g., Curtis Mayfield for Superfly; James Brown and Fred Wesley for Black Caesar and War for Youngblood).
James Brown credited Little Richard's 1950s R&B road band, The Upsetters from New Orleans, as "the first to put the funk into the rhythm" of rock and roll. Following his temporary exit from secular music to become an evangelist in 1957, some of Little Richard's band members joined Brown and the Famous Flames, beginning a long string of hits for them in 1958. By the mid-1960s, James Brown had developed his signature groove that emphasized the downbeat—with heavy emphasis on the first beat of every measure to etch his distinctive sound, rather than the backbeat that typified African American music. This one-three beat launched the shift in Brown's signature music style, starting with his 1964 hit single, "Out of Sight" and his 1965 hits, "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" and "I Got You (I Feel Good)". By the late 1960's and early 1970's, Funky Broadway was a song with funk influences along with songs from West Coast, Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band. Oakland's Tower of Power group was created in 1968. We know about how in 1970, Sly & the Family Stone's "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" reached #1 on the charts, as did "Family Affair" in 1971. Notably, these afforded the group and the genre crossover success and greater recognition, yet such success escaped comparatively talented and moderately popular funk band peers. The Meters defined funk in New Orleans. Even the Isley Brothers had the song of It's Your Thing with funk influences. Jimi Hendrix and The Temptations started to use funky songs. There were tons of women in funk music too like Mother's Finest. It was a group made up of Joyce Kennedy and Glenn Murdock back then. There are a lot of women involved in funk music like Chaka Khan, Labelle, Brides of Funkenstein, Klymaxx, Mother's Finest, Lyn Collins, Betty Davis, and Teena Marie. As cultural critic Cheryl Keyes explains in her essay "She Was Too Black for Rock and Too Hard for Soul: (Re)discovering the Musical Career of Betty Mabry Davis," most of the scholarship around funk has focused on the cultural work of men. She states that "Betty Davis is an artist whose name has gone unheralded as a pioneer in the annals of funk and rock. Most writing on these musical genres has traditionally placed male artists like Jimi Hendrix, George Clinton (of Parliament-Funkadelic), and bassist Larry Graham as trendsetters in the shaping of a rock music sensibility."
In The Feminist Funk Power of Betty Davis and Renée Stout, Nikki A. Greene notes that Davis' provocative and controversial style helped her rise to popularity in the 1970s as she focused on sexually motivated, self-empowered subject matter. Furthermore, this affected the young artist's ability to draw large audiences and commercial success. Greene also notes that Davis was never made an official spokesperson or champion for the civil rights and feminist movements of the time, although more recently[when?] her work has become a symbol of sexual liberation for women of color. Davis' song "If I'm In Luck I Just Might Get Picked Up", on her self-titled debut album, sparked controversy and was banned by the Detroit NAACP. Maureen Mahan, a musicologist and anthropologist, examines Davis' impact on the music industry and the American public in her article "They Say She's Different: Race, Gender, Genre, and the Liberated Black Femininity of Betty Davis."
Laina Dawes, the author of What Are You Doing Here: A Black Woman's Life and Liberation in Heavy Metal, believes respectability politics is the reason artists like Davis do not get the same recognition as their men counterparts: "I blame what I call respectability politics as part of the reason the funk-rock some of the women from the '70s aren't better known. Despite the importance of their music and presence, many of the funk-rock females represented the aggressive behavior and sexuality that many people were not comfortable with." Janelle Monae (born in 1985) helped to start a new generation of women funk artists filled with themes of Afro-futuristic concepts, women's rights, identity, and just plain expression of creativity. Her mentor was Prince. She was inspired by many funk artists like Funkadelic, Betty Davis, and others like Lauryn Hill. In fact, Janelle Monae's 2013 album of The Electric Lady was influenced by Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland. Jimi Hendrix was inspired by funk artists Devon Wilson and Betty Davis.
The 1970s were the era of the highest mainstream visibility for funk music. In addition to Parliament Funkadelic, artists like Sly and the Family Stone, Rufus & Chaka Khan, Bootsy's Rubber Band, the Isley Brothers, Ohio Players, Con Funk Shun, Kool and the Gang, the Bar-Kays, Commodores, Roy Ayers, Curtis Mayfield, and Stevie Wonder, among others, were successful in getting radio play. Disco music owed a great deal to funk. Many early disco songs and performers came directly from funk-oriented backgrounds. Some disco music hits, such as all of Barry White's hits, "Kung Fu Fighting" by Biddu and Carl Douglas, Donna Summer's "Love To Love You Baby", Diana Ross' "Love Hangover", KC and the Sunshine Band's "I'm Your Boogie Man", "I'm Every Woman" by Chaka Khan (also known as the Queen of Funk), and Chic's "Le Freak" conspicuously include riffs and rhythms derived from funk. In 1976, Rose Royce scored a number-one hit with a purely dance-funk record, "Car Wash". Even with the arrival of disco, funk became increasingly popular well into the early 1980s. Jazz funk was developed by many artists like Miles Davis with his On the Corner album of 1972. Funk will continue to grow in the 1980's to the presence with innovative artists like Prince, Living Colour, Brand New Heavies, Brooklyn Funk Essentials, Me'shell Ndegeocello, etc.
The Contemporary pop music of the 1970's was diverse and prominent in society. The Bee Gees scored the most number hits or 9 songs and had the longest cumulative run atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart (in 27 weeks) during the 1970's. Rod Stewart and Elton John did rock and pop songs throughout the 1970's and beyond. Back in the early 1970's, sentimental songs dominated the pop world like The Jackson Five's I Want You Back and The Beatles Let It Be. ABC from The Jackson 5 dominated everywhere. We know about the Venus song from Shocking Blue and Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head done by B.J. Thomas. Diana Ross's solo career took off by this time too. Carly Simon with You're so Vain was about a song about romance. Bad Bad Leroy Brown was a song by Jim Croce. Top of the World was a song by The Carpenters who were known for showing soft rock ballads. Al Wilson's Show and Tell was one of his most vocally powerful records in 1974. By the mid 1970's, disco dominated music along with other genres with songs like Shining Star by Earth, Wind, and Fire, etc. David Bowe did experimental music with the song Fame. He was from the United Kingdom and was serious about the display of music, about symbolism in his music, and he married the famous model and activist Iman. The end of the 1970s saw contemporary music seeing the rise of new solo artists like Michael Jackson, Prince, etc. By 1977, Barbara Streisand had the song of Love Theme From a Star is Born (Evergreen). Pop icons like ABBA and others were on the scene. Johnny Mathis, Denice Williams, Olivia Newton-John, Robert Homles, M, Herb Alpert, and other people had tons of music shown. Donna Summer was a pop icon, a disco icon, and a musical icon in genre. By the end of 1979, the Commodores had the single of Still. The Commodores did R&B music, soul, and pop music.
By Timothy
Sunday, February 26, 2023
Friday, February 24, 2023
Late February News in 2023.
This time is one year after the war in Ukraine. This brutal war continues. It all started with Putin's military forces invaded Ukraine preemptively and without justification at all in February of 2022. Since this, Ukraine has been fighting for its life and for democracy. Zelenskyy asks for more aid to Ukraine. Right now, China wants to have a 12-point peace plan to end the conflict. Russian forces have attacked civilian infrastructure like apartments, schools, and other locations. These acts constitute war crimes. Millions of Ukrainian people have been displaced to places globally. The common lie promoted by far-right extremists is that Putin is some superhero. The reality is that Vladimir Putin is a tyrant, a liar, and a person who passed laws suppressing the freedom of press, the freedom of speech, religious liberty rights, and other basic fundamental human freedoms. The lie promoted by some pseudo left people is that NATO is completely at fault for the invasion. The reality is that NATO isn't perfect and made many mistakes for decades, but ultimately Putin invaded Ukraine unjustly. President Joe Biden wants billions of dollars to be sent to Ukraine in the form of missiles, drones, and other supplies. Secretary of State Blinken supports Ukraine. Many people have accused China of planning to send material in the form of military aid to Russia. We desire the war to end as soon as possible. The issue is that Putin refuses to acknowledge Ukraine's sovereignty as a nation. The U.S. $2.5 billion military aid package is very important.
Tucker Carlson is pushing the narrative to minimize the terrorism found in the January 6th insurrection. It was an insurrection and harmed human lives. The GOP via Kevin McCarthy send footage to Kevin McCarthy. The insurrection was violent, and it was seditious. Tucker Carlson made a racist remark that the terrorists involved in January 6th didn't look like "terrorists" but "tourists." He is trying to imply that terrorists look like certain people. Tucker is using coded language, and we know what he means. Kevin McCarthy once condemned the January 6th insurrection, and now he is allying with the propagandist Tucker Carlson. FOX News is not a legitimate, fair and balanced news channel. It is a biased channel that is basically GOP and Trump TV. Carlson once called McCarthy a Democratic puppet which is false, but McCarthy is groveling at the feet at far-right GOP extremists including Tucker Carlson.
This week, Neo-Nazis protested outside a NYC theater. In the past 10 years, far right acts of violence have increased in America. This reality is shown by the January 6th attack, the murder of black people in Buffalo by a racist, the murder of Jewish people in the Los Angeles area, and other people motivated by hate and bigotry. Hatred of any sort of any human being by virtue of background is wrong, because that action is antithetical to the Golden Rule. We can agree to disagree on many issues as free-thinking human beings. Yet, there is nothing moral or free thinking about racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, and any form of bigotry against human beings. At the end of the day, we have to treat people like we want to be treated period. All human beings being created equal doesn't have exceptions or asterisks next to it. That precept means every human is born equal and are entitled to fundamental human rights.
Wednesday, February 22, 2023
Family Tree Information, etc.
There is an interesting video on Youtube made by my distant paternal cousin Tarik Paul Johnson about the Upshur family. We are descendants of my 3rd great grandfather Johnson Brickhouse (who was born in 1826). Many of my paternal relatives are in the Upshur family. Tarik Johnson made a YouTube video on November 19, 2014, to mention a lot of information on his family history. He found out that Alfred P. Upshur was a black Union Civil War hero (who was in the military in 1861 and was discharged in 1866). His son was Ruben Benjamin Upshur, who was a successful businessman. Ruben Benjamin Upshur married my 1st cousin named Nola Burton Upshur (1877-1961). Nola Burton Upshur's parents are James Burton (1848-1931) and my 2nd great grandaunt Ann Eliza Brickhouse (1857-1921). Ann's sister was my 2nd great grandmother Esther Brickhouse Bailey (1865-1955). So, Nola Burton Upshur and Ruben Benjamin Upshur (1876-1966) had 14 children. Ruben owned businesses, and there was the large Upshur family house in Northampton County, Virginia or at the Eastern Shore. Ruben and Nola Upshur had farms, owned apples, had a horse (called Castoff), and had chickens (as proven in Tarik Johnson's video). Tarik Johnson's mother is Barbara Hatten (b. 1949). Barbara Hatten's parents are James Leon Hatten (1928-2007) and Helen Tolbert (b. 1926). James and Helen married on May 1, 1948 at New York City. James Leon Hatten's parents were Stanford Hatten (b. 1908) and Marie Upshur (b. 1906). The Upshur family migrated via the Great Migration from the Eastern Shore of Virginia to NYC and other places of the North. Marie Upshur's parents were Ruben Benjamin Upshur and Nola Burton Upshur. Dr. Evangeline Upshur Freeman and other people are my distant paternal cousins. My cousin James Velvet Upshur owned a store and pool hall in the Eastern Shore back in the 1960's. Many daughters of Ruben and Nola Upshur were Ollief Upshur, Baylise Upshur, and Erskie Upshur. This research from Tarik Johnson certainly is incredible. Tarik Johnson's aunt is Gail Frances Hatten (b. 1964. She is Barbara Hatten's sister). Therefore, DNA evidence and genealogical proof document my family being related to the Brickhouse family and the Upshur family.
Genealogy research continues in my life. Today, I found out more information about my distant relatives. In Ancestry.com, I found out that my 4th paternal cousin is a person named Andrea Jane Brickhouse (who was born on July 17, 1979 at Douglas, Nebraska). We share the same ancestors of Johnson Brickhouse (b. 1826) and Julia Perkins. Andrea has a sister named Leah Slobhann Brickhouse (b. 1976. Leah lives in Stavanger, Norway). Their parents are Charles Ruben Brickhouse (1951-2004) and Melanie Dee Sundsboe Hughes (b. 1956). Charles Ruben Brickhouse was my 3rd cousin who was a military veteran from the U.S. Navy. His parents were Charles Garrison Brickhouse (1922-1983) and Helen Burton Upshur (1923-2006). My 2nd cousin Helen Burton Upshur's parents were Ruben Benjamin Upshur (b. 1876) and Nollar Burton Upshur (1877-1961). My 1st cousin Nollar Burton Upshur's parents were James Burton (1848-1931) and Ann Eliza Brickhouse (1857-1921). They lived in Northampton County, Virginia at the Eastern Shore (where my paternal relatives do come from along with from Halifax County, North Carolina).
My 2nd great grandaunt Ann Eliza Brickhouse's parents are Black American Civil War Union veteran Johnson Brickhouse and Julia Perkins (b. 1835). Ann Eliza Brickhouse's sister is my 2nd great grandmother Esther Brickhouse Bailey (1862-1955). Julia Perkins's parents are my 4th great grandparents of George Perkins I (b. 1815) and Esther Perkins (b. 1816). Andrae Jenae Brickhouse today is married to Darryle Robert Brown, and they have one child together.
The New York Times reported that multiple indictments are recommended in the Georgia Trump probe. Trump may be the first President of the United States being indicted of a felony of trying to steal a federal election. One Georgia grand jury leader said that they recommended indictments in the Trump probe. Majorie Taylor Greene calling for secession based on red and blue states is not shocking. Greene is known for making extremist, bigoted, and racist statements for years. She believes in the lie that every progressive is trying to ruin America, but she forgets that Trump and his allies attempted to destroy democracy forever in their actions. There is the issue of Don Lemon and Nikki Haley. Don Lemon was wrong for making a sexist remark about Nikki Haley. Lemon is on thin ice on CNN because of his remarks. Lemon was wrong. Also, Nikki Haley made the ageist remark that candidates of a certain age must be tested in order to run for office. I'm not surprised. Haley is known for being a flip flopper. Haley is wrong for her ageist remarks too.
By Timothy
Monday, February 20, 2023
Life and History.
The history of Iraq goes back a long way. Between 65,000 B.C. and 35,000 B.C., northern Iraq was home to a Neanderthal culture, archaeological remains of which have been found at Shanidar Cave. The same region is also the location of a number of pre-Neolithic cemeteries, dating from approximately 11,000 B.C. From ca. 10,000 B.C., Iraq was part of the large Fertile Crescent region. This region stretched from Asia Minor and to the Levant. The Fertile Crescent has the Neolithic culture known as Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA), where agriculture and cattle breeding appeared for the first time in the world. In Iraq, this period has been excavated at sites like M'lefaat and Nemrik 9. The following Neolithic period, PPNB, is represented by rectangular houses. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gypsum and burnt lime (Vaisselle blanche). Finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidence of early trade relations. There was more human advancement found in Jarmo (in ca. 7100 B.C.). There were cities belong to the Halaf culture and Tell al-Ubaid culture. Research called the era of the "Cradle of Civilization" of modern Iraq's early known civilization after the Old Stone Age being the Sumerian civilization. It arose in the fertile Tigris-Euphrates River valley of southern Iraq in the Chalcolithic (Ubaid period). By the late 4th millennium B.C., there was the world's first writing modern system. Recorded history was born. The Sumerians were also the first to harness the wheel and create city states, and whose writings record the first evidence of mathematics, astronomy, astrology, written law, medicine and organized religion. The language of the Sumerians is a language isolate, which was non-Semitic. The major city states of the early Sumerian period were Eridu, Bad-tibira, Larsa, Sippar, Shuruppak, Uruk, Kish, Ur, Nippur, Lagash, Girsu, Umma, Hamazi, Adab, Mari, Isin, Kutha, Der and Akshak.
The cities to the north like Ashur, Arbela (modern Erbil) and Arrapha (modern Kirkuk) were also extant in what was to be called Assyria from the 25th century BC; however, at this early stage, they were Sumerian ruled administrative centers. The Bronze Age empires grew in ancient Iraq too. In the 26th century BC, Eannatum of Lagash created what was perhaps the first empire in history, though this was short-lived. Later, Lugal-Zage-Si, the priest-king of Umma, overthrew the primacy of the Lagash dynasty in the area, then conquered Uruk, making it his capital, and claimed an empire extending from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean. It was during this period that the Epic of Gilgamesh originated from, which includes the tale of The Great Flood. From the 29th century BC, Akkadian Semitic names began to appear on king lists and administrative documents of various city states. It remains unknown as to the origin of Akkad, where it was precisely situated and how it rose to prominence. Its people spoke Akkadian, an East Semitic language. Between the 29th and 24th centuries BC, a number of kingdoms and city states within Iraq began to have Akkadian speaking dynasties; including Assyria, Ekallatum, Isin and Larsa. However, the Sumerians remained generally dominant until the rise of the Akkadian Empire (2335–2124 BC), based in the city of Akkad in central Iraq. Sargon of Akkad, originally a Rabshakeh to a Sumerian king, founded the empire, he conquered all of the city states of southern and central Iraq, and subjugated the kings of Assyria, thus uniting the Sumerians and Akkadians in one state. Sargon expanded his empire to rule over Gutium, Elam in modern day Iran, and other places. He conquered the Amorites and Eblaites of the Levant. The empire of Akkad ended by the 22nd century B.C. likely. There were no kingdoms until the Third Dynasty of Ur. After the collapse of the Akkadian Empire in the late 22nd century BC, the Gutians occupied the south for a few decades, while Assyria reasserted its independence in the north. Most of southern Mesopotamia was again united under one ruler during the Ur III period, most notably during the rule of the prolific king Shulgi. His accomplishments include the completion of construction of the Great Ziggurat of Ur, begun by his father Ur-Nammu.
In 1792 BC, an Amorite ruler named Hammurabi came to power in this state, and immediately set about building Babylon from a minor town into a major city, declaring himself its king. Hammurabi (who was a Semitic person) conquered the whole of southern and central Iraq, as well as Elam to the east and Mari to the west, then engaged in a protracted war with the Assyrian king Ishme-Dagan for domination of the region, creating the short-lived Babylonian Empire. He eventually prevailed over the successor of Ishme-Dagan and subjected Assyria and its Anatolian colonies. The Hammurabi code was a legal governmental system that inspires future legal laws to this day thousands of years later. By the middle of the eighteenth-century BC, the Sumerians had lost their cultural identity and ceased to exist as a distinct people. Genetic and cultural analysis indicates that the Marsh people of southern Iraq are probably their most direct modern descendants. Southern Iraq became Babylonia. The northern part of Iraq became Assyria. Many people ruled Iraq like the Akkadians and the Kassites. The Middle Asyrian Empire ruled from 1365 B.C. to 1020 B.C. Beginning with the campaigns of Ashur-uballit I, Assyria destroyed the rival Hurrian-Mitanni Empire, annexed huge swathes of the Hittite Empire for itself, annexed northern Babylonia from the Kassites, forced the Egyptian Empire from the region, and defeated the Elamites, Phrygians, Canaanites, Phoenicians, Cilicians, Gutians, Dilmunites and Arameans. At its height, the Middle Assyrian Empire stretched from The Caucasus to Dilmun (modern Bahrain), and from the Mediterranean coasts of Phoenicia to the Zagros Mountains of Iran. In 1235 BC, Tukulti-Ninurta I of Assyria took the throne of Babylon. By the end of the Bronze Age, Babylonia was ruled by Assyria and Elam in chaos. The Chaldeans moved into Babylonian too. The Chaldeans were West Semitic migrants from the southeastern corner of the region.
The Neo Assyrian Empire ruled Iraq from 935 to 605 B.C. The Neo-Assyrian Empire is considered by researchers to be the first major world empire in history. It had the strongest military in the world during its peak. It ruled all of Mesopotamia, Levant, Egypt, parts of Anatolia, parts of Arabia, parts of Iran, and Armenia. Its rulers were Adad-Nirari II, Ashurnasirpal, Shalmaneser III, Semiramis, Tiglath-pileser III, Sargon II, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal. It spread as far as parts of Nubia too. The Arabic people and the Chaldeans are first mentioned in written history (circa 850 BC) in the annals of Shalmaneser III. They ruled Israel for a time too. Judaism grew during this period. Civil wars and other issues ending the Assyrian Empire. The Babylonians, Chaldeans, Medes, Persians, Parthians, Scythians and Cimmerians, were able to attack Assyria, finally bringing its empire down by 605 BC. The Neo-Babylonian Empire ruled Iraq. Nebuchadnezzar II was its greatest king. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon existed as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Cyrus the Great of Persia defeated the Neo-Babylonian Empire at the Battle of Opis and Mesopotamia. The Achaemenid Empire ruled for a time until Alexander the Great ruled the region in the Hellenistic Empire. The Parthians and the Romans conquered Iraq too. Christianity spread in Iraq early on, especially the Church of the East with Syriac literature. By 224, the Sassanids of Persia under Ardashir I destroyed the Parthian Empire and conquered the region in 224 AD. During the 240s and 250's AD, the Sassanids gradually conquered the independent states, culminating with Assur in 256 AD. The region was thus a province of the Sassanid Empire for over four centuries and became the frontier and battle ground between the Sassanid Empire and Byzantine Empire, with both empires weakening each other, paving the way for the Arabic-Muslim conquest of the Mesopotamia in the mid-7th century.
Muslim people of Arabic descent defeated Persian forces in Iraq by 634 A.D. There was a force of some 5,000 Muslims under Abū `Ubayd ath-Thaqafī, which was routed by the Persians. This was followed by Khalid ibn al-Walid's successful campaign which saw all of Iraq come under Arabic rule within a year, with the exception of the Persian Empire's capital, Ctesiphon. Around 636, a larger Arabic Muslim force under Sa`d ibn Abī Waqqās defeated the main Persian army at the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah and moved on to capture the Persian capital of Ctesiphon. By the end of 638, the Muslims had conquered all of the Western Sassanid provinces (including modern Iraq), and the last Sassanid Emperor, Yazdegerd III, had fled to central and then northern Persia, where he was killed in 651. Muslim dynasties ruled Iraq. In 1257, Hulagu Khan amassed an unusually large army, a significant portion of the Mongol Empire's forces, for the purpose of conquering Baghdad. When they arrived at the Islamic capital, Hulagu Khan demanded its surrender, but the last Abbasid Caliph Al-Musta'sim refused. This angered Hulagu, and, consistent with Mongol strategy of discouraging resistance, he besieged Baghdad, sacked the city and massacred many of the inhabitants. Estimates of the number of dead range from 200,000 to a million. The Mongols destroyed the Abbasid Caliphate and Baghdad's House of Wisdom, which contained countless precious and historical documents. The city has never regained its previous pre-eminence as a major center of culture and influence. Some historians believe that the Mongol invasion destroyed much of the irrigation infrastructure that had sustained Mesopotamia for millennia. Other historians point to soil salination as the culprit in the decline in agriculture. The Black Death disease killed many in Iraq. The Ottoman Empire ruled Iraq after Tamerlane (a person of Mongol descent) conquered Baghdad. They ruled for centuries until WWI.
During World War I, the Ottomans sided with Germany and the Central Powers. In the Mesopotamian campaign against the Central Powers, British forces invaded the country and initially suffered a major defeat at the hands of the Turkish army during the Siege of Kut (1915–1916). However, subsequent to this the British began to gain the upper hand and were further aided by the support of local Arabic people and Assyrians. In 1916, the British and French made a plan for the post-war division of Western Asia under the Sykes-Picot Agreement. British forces regrouped and captured Baghdad in 1917 and defeated the Ottomans. An armistice was signed in 1918. The British lost 92,000 soldiers in the Mesopotamian campaign. Ottoman losses are unknown, but the British captured a total of 45,000 prisoners of war. By the end of 1918, the British had deployed 410,000 men in the area, of which 112,000 were combat troops.
During the Ottoman Empire until the partition of the Ottoman Empire in the 20th century, Iraq was made up of three provinces, called vilayets in the Ottoman language: Mosul Vilayet, Baghdad Vilayet, and Basra Vilayet. These three provinces were joined into one Kingdom by the British after the region became a League of Nations mandate, administered under British control, with the name "State of Iraq." A fourth province (Zor Sanjak), which Iraqi nationalists considered part of Upper Mesopotamia was ultimately added to Syria. In line with their "Sharifian Solution" policy, the British established the Hashemite king on August 23, 1921, Faisal I of Iraq, who had been forced out of Syria by the French, as their client ruler. The official English name of the country simultaneously changed from Mesopotamia to the endonymic Iraq. Likewise, British authorities selected Sunni Arabic elites from the region for appointments to government and ministry offices. Faced with spiraling costs and influenced by the public protestations of the war hero T. E. Lawrence in The Times, Britain replaced Arnold Wilson in October 1920 with a new Civil Commissioner, Sir Percy Cox. Cox managed to quell a rebellion yet was also responsible for implementing the fateful policy of close co-operation with Iraq's Sunni minority. The institution of slavery was abolished in the 1920s. Britain allowed the Kingdom of Iraq to have independence in 1932. King Faisal allowed British forces to have its military bases in Iraq. Many rulers existed in Iraq. By April 1, 1941, Rashid Ali al-Gaylani and members of the Golden Square staged a coup d'état and overthrew the government of 'Abd al-Ilah. During the subsequent Anglo-Iraqi War, the United Kingdom (which still maintained air bases in Iraq) invaded Iraq for fear that the Rashid Ali government might cut oil supplies to Western nations because of his links to the Axis powers. The war started on 2 May, and the British, together with loyal Assyrian Levies, defeated the forces of Al-Gaylani, forcing an armistice on May 31. Qasim led a coup against Iraq by 1958. He wanted anti-imperial and anti-monarchical policies to exist. Numerous people were killed in the coup, including King Faysal II, Prince Abd al-Ilah, and Nuri al-Sa'id. Qasim ruled Iraq until the February 1963 coup. The Ba'ath Party view Ahmed Hassan Al-Bakr ruled Iraq.
Later, the Ba'ath party movement gradually came under the control of Saddam Hussein, who acceded to the presidency and control of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), then Iraq's supreme executive body, in July 1979. In 1979, the Iranian Revolution took place. Following months of cross-border raids between the two countries, Saddam declared war on Iran in September 1980, initiating the Iran–Iraq War (or First Persian Gulf War). Taking advantage of the post-revolution chaos in Iran, Iraq captured some territories in southwest of Iran, but Iran recaptured all of the lost territories within two years, and for the next six years Iran was on the offensive. The war, which ended in stalemate in 1988, had cost the lives of between half a million and 1.5 million people.
In 1981, Israeli aircraft bombed an Iraqi nuclear material testing reactor at Osirak and was widely criticized at the United Nations. During the eight-year war with Iran, Saddam Hussein extensively used chemical weapons against Iranians. In the final stages of the Iran–Iraq War, the Ba'athist Iraqi regime led the Al-Anfal Campaign, a genocidal campaign that targeted Iraqi Kurds, and led to the killing of 50,000–100,000 civilians.
The Persian Gulf War of the 1990's had a long history. It occurred when I was in elementary school. Iraq didn't have the ability to pay Kuwait more than 14 billion dollars (in U.S. dollars) that it had borrowed to finance the Iran-Iraq War. Kuwait had a surge in petroleum production levels which kept revenues down. Iraq interpreted Kuwait's refusal to decrease its oil production as an act of aggression. Throughout much of the 1980's, Kuwait's oil production was above its mandatory OPEC quota, which kept the oil prices down. Therefore, in August 1990, Iraq invaded and annexed Kuwait. This led to a military intervention by the United States led forces in the First Gulf War. The coalition forces proceeded with a bombing campaign targeting military targets. Then, the coalition Western forces launched a 100-hour-long ground assault against Iraqi forces in Southern Iraq and those occupying Kuwait. Iraq's armed forces were devastated during the war. Shortly after it ended in 1991, Kurdish Iraqis led several uprisings against Saddam Hussein's regime, but these were successfully repressed using the Iraqi security forces and chemical weapons. It is estimated that as many as 100,000 people, including many civilians were killed. During the uprisings the US, UK, France and Turkey, claiming authority under UNSCR 688, established the Iraqi no-fly zones to protect Kurdish population from attacks by the Saddam regime's fixed-wing aircraft (but not helicopters).
Iraq was ordered to destroy its chemical and biological weapons and the UN attempted to compel Saddam's government to disarm and agree to a ceasefire by imposing additional sanctions on the country in addition to the initial sanctions imposed following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. The Iraqi Government's failure to disarm and agree to a ceasefire resulted in sanctions which remained in place until 2003. The effects of the sanctions on the civilian population of Iraq have been disputed. Whereas it was widely believed that the sanctions caused a major rise in child mortality, recent research has shown that commonly cited data were fabricated by the Iraqi government and that "there was no major rise in child mortality in Iraq after 1990 and during the period of the sanctions." An oil for food program was established in 1996 to ease the effects of sanctions.
Following the September 11 attacks, the George W. Bush administration began planning the overthrow of Saddam's government and in October 2002, the US Congress passed the Joint Resolution to Authorize the Use of United States Armed Forces Against Iraq. In November 2002, the UN Security Council passed UNSCR 1441 and in March 2003 the United States and its allies invaded Iraq.
Our heroes from the past and the present always fought back. One of the most disrespectful sayings in the world is how some say that "this isn't our grandfather's movement" and "we aren't our ancestors." Those phrases disrespect the legacy of our people who fought for justice. There are tons of heroes that we should honor, and many of them are unsung human beings. David Walker was an anti-slavery activist. He was an abolitionist too. His father was enslaved, and his mother was free. He lived in Boston, Massachusetts a lot. He called for black unity against slavery in his work of "An Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World." He was born in Wilmington, North Carolina. He used political and religious principles to fight for black justice in the world. His son, Edward G. Walker, was an attorney. By 1866, Edward G. Walker was one of the first two black men elected to the Massachusetts State Legislature. David Walker loved his wife, Eliza Butler. John Brown helped to get the volume of Henry Highland Garnet printed.
Fannie Lou Hamer is one of the most unsung civil rights leaders of all time. Not only was she was born in the Deep South of Mississippi. She inspired courage among our people to stand up against Jim Crow apartheid tyranny. Jim Crow was tyranny as it restricts where people can live, eat, be educated at, and even go showing at. Some believe in the myth that Jim Crow segregation is equivalent to black independence. That is not true. Black independence is about black people having self-determination to live where we want, set up our own institutions that we control, and having total justice in eliminating racial oppression once and for all. Jim Crow apartheid is about tyranny set up to restrict the fundamental human rights of black Americans in America via the law. That is why civil rights activists fought to eliminate unjust laws. Fannie Lou Hamer worked with Freedom Summer, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and she was the co-founder of the National Women's Political Caucus (to help recruit, train, and support women of every color to seek governmental office). Fannie Lou Hamer helped to register black voters and formed programs like the Freedom Farm cooperative to grow agriculture power. She used church hymns to inspire people to fight for justice. She confronted the Democratic Party establishment over restricting seats in 1964. Hamer opposed the Vietnam War in public too. Fannie Lou Hamer fought for housing rights for people as well.
Hallie Quinn Brown was a trailblazing teacher, writer, and women's activist. She was one of the founders of the Colored Women's League of Washington, D.C. By 1894 the organization merged with the National Association of Colored Women. She was born on March 10, 1850, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is the daughter of former slaves who migrated to Ontario, Canada. She wanted to do public speaking, and she graduated from Wilberforce College in 1873. Later, she taught schools for free black Americans in Mississippi. She moved into Columbia, South Carolina to be an instructor in the city's public school. She educated at Allen University. She taught in Dayton, Ohio public schools too. She supported the rights of black people constantly. She lived to be almost 100 years old as she passed away on September 16, 1949.
Madison Washington was an American enslaved man who led a slave rebellion in America on November 7, 1841. He was on board the brig of Creole. It was transporting 134 other slaves from Virginia for sale in New Orleans, as part of the coastwide slave trade. Washington led 18 of his fellow slaves into rebellion. John R. Hewell was killed. The members of Washington's team ruled the ship. They sailed to Nassau, a British colony back then. The United Kingdom already banned slavery in 1833 in the British Empire. Despite the protests from the American government, the British declared the slaves to be free persons under their law and refused American demands for their return. Washington and his team were on trial and were found innocent of munity. They were freed by April 1842. As 128 slaves gained freedom resulting from this revolt, it is considered the most successful in United States history. Authors like Lydia Maria Child, William Wells Brown, Frederick Douglas, and Henry Highland Garnet wrote about Madison Washington's contribution to the black freedom struggle.
By Timothy
Saturday, February 18, 2023
Friday, February 17, 2023
Historic Events.
There is the historic partial release of the Georgia grand jury report on Trump and the 2020 election (in late February of 2023). Trump went to Georgia in trying to steal the Georgia election results with Meadows. That is why now, Meadows is being subpoenaed by the Special Counsel. Now, the DOJ with Jack Smith is catching up to Meadows, Trump, Guiliani, and other people in support of the election lie. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ordered the limited release of this report. So far, no individuals are listed by name in the document. The portions are just nine pages. The special grand jury concluded unanimously that there was no widespread voter fraud in Georgia. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said that if anyone is guilty, then that person will be charged. The special grand jury recommended that Attorney Fani Willis consider indicting some witnesses for perjury. Obviously, their names aren't mentioned for now (as the current investigation is ongoing). 75 witnesses were involved in the Georgia election fraud probe. Charges can come soon possibly.
Wednesday, February 15, 2023
Mid February 2023 News.
Nikki Haley announced publicly that she will run for President again in 2024. She has the qualifications. She is over 35, she was the former Governor of South Carolina (so she has executive experience), she has worked in many political jobs, etc. Now, the journey begins. The Presidential race of 2024 is here now. She is a Republican conservative, so she believes in fiscal responsibility, securing the border, and American exceptionalism. Obviously, I am an economic progressive. Haley was a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under Trump. Haley has a situation where she has both praised and criticized Donald Trump. Donald Trump obviously is an evil, corrupt person who almost ruined American democracy forever by his actions. Haley said that she wants a new generation of Republicans to move on from the Trump era, but Haley has a strong battle ahead of her. MAGA extremists will lie about her. DeSantis may run for President, and Trump is running for President now. I don't agree with Nikki Haley on many issues, but she has the right to run for President if she desires to.
Involving politics, we realize that we have a living wage problem. We have an issue where not enough people have hazard pay, childcare, sick leave, and health care benefits. We have the breaking news of a literal mushroom cloud of toxic chemicals denoted in Ohio. We have dangerous chemicals in Ohio. The train derailment caused an environmental crisis in Ohio. For years, far-right extremists have weakened safety rules in America. East Palestine, Ohio has residents suffering turmoil. Some people are sick there via smoke. The 50-car derailment has released a toxic cloud. Hundreds of people were forced to evacuate after the toxic train derailment. This environmental disaster can potentially cause health problems for decades. The EPA is investigating soil and water contamination after the Ohio train derailment released toxins. We have to modernize our infrastructure. Yet, most importantly, we have to promote the protection of human lives and the environment in general. We don't need Trump-era deregulation, but we need safety protocols to be strengthened.
The recent Super Bowl had a lot of historical significance in 2023. It took place during Black History Month. That is why the great singer and actress Sheryl Lee Ralph sang the Black National Anthem before the Super Bowl commenced. Also, the Super Bowl featured two black quarterbacks which is the first time that has occurred in history. Eagles assistant coach Autumn Lockwood is the first black woman to coach in a Super Bowl. Two of the Kelce brothers played against each other too. I don't understand why Mike Pence wants to fight the special counsel subpoena. Trump obviously worked with others in trying to defraud American democracy by trying to overthrow a legal 2020 election. Also, Trump's allies being terrorists at the insurrection wanted to hand Mike Pence. A subpoena is no admission of guilt. A subpoena is a legal requirement of a witness or any person of interest to answer important questions as it relates to a serious criminal case. The federal government is making its case.
Days ago was the Birthday of Brother Randy Moss, and he is now 46 years old. When I was growing up back in the 1990's, we knew that he was one of the greatest wide receivers in football history. While Jerry Rice was the greatest NFL wide receiver in history, Randy Moss was the most talented wide receiver in NFL history. He was born in the working-class location of Rand, West Virginia. He attended DuPont High School. He excelled in football, basketball, and track. He was on the school's debate team too. Later, Randy Moss led the DuPont Panthers to back-to-back state championships in 1992 and in 1993. Moss won the Harrison H. Kennedy Award. Randy Moss played at Marshall University when he was in college. He had 200+ yard receiving games. By 1998, he came into the NFL for the Minnesota Vikings. Immediately, the Vikings was a Super Bowl-contending team. He also played for the Oakland Raiders, the New England Patriots, and the Tennessee Titans. After football, Randy Moss has done charities, coached kids in football, and analyzed sports for a living. By 2019, Moss was named to the National Football League 100th Anniversary All-Time Team. He is in the Naismith Football Hall of Fame too. Randy Moss is a Christian, he loves his five children, and he loves his wife, who is Lydia Moss. Lydia Moss is another heroic woman. I wish Brother Randy Moss more blessings.
Trugoy the Five from De La Soul passed away at the age of 54 years old. De La Soul is a legendary group from Long Island with songs that detail the lives of hip hop experts. From talking about social issues to abstract thoughts, De La Soul never disappointed its fans. His whole name was David Jude Jolicoeur. He was a Brooklyn, NYC native. The other members of the group are Pos and Pase. They formed De La Soul when they attended high school together in Amityville, New York state. Their most recent album was the 2016 album of "And the Anonymous Nobody." De La Soul was scheduled to perform in the United Kingdom starting on April 8, 2023. David Jolicoeur was a man who wanted the love of hip-hop and musical expression to inspire minds in the whole world.
Rest in Power Brother David Jude Jolicoeur.
By Timothy
Monday, February 13, 2023
More Cultural Information.
The history of Brazil has a long history. The first people of Brazil were Native Americans. Some of the earliest human remains found in the Americas, Luzia Woman, were found in the area of Pedro Leopoldo, Minas Gerais and provide evidence of human habitation going back at least 11,000 years. The earliest pottery ever found in the Western Hemisphere was excavated in the Amazon basin of Brazil and radiocarbon dated to 8,000 years ago (6000 BC). The pottery was found near Santarém and provides evidence that the tropical forest region supported a complex prehistoric culture. The Marajoara culture flourished on Marajó in the Amazon delta from AD 400 to 1400, developing sophisticated pottery, social stratification, large populations, mound building, and complex social formations such as chiefdoms. By the time of the Portuguese arrival, the territory of current day Brazil had an estimated indigenous population of 7 million people. They were mostly semi-nomadic human beings. They did hunting, fishing, gathering, and migrant agriculture. The Native American people of Brazil were made of large indigenous ethnic groups like the Tupis, Guaranis, Ges, and Arawaks. The Tupí people were subdivided into the Tupiniquins and Tupinambás, and there were also many subdivisions of the other groups. Before the arrival of the Europeans, the boundaries between these groups and their subgroups were marked by wars that arose from differences in culture, language and moral beliefs. These wars also involved large-scale military actions on land and water.
Following the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas, the land now called Brazil was claimed for the Portuguese Empire on April 22, 1500, with the arrival of the Portuguese fleet commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral. The Portuguese encountered indigenous peoples divided into several ethnic societies, most of whom spoke the languages of the Tupi–Guaraní family and fought among themselves. Though the first settlement was founded in 1532, colonization effectively began in 1534, when King John III of Portugal divided the territory into the fifteen private and autonomous Captaincy Colonies of Brazil. The colonies struggled, so the Portuguese King restructured them into the Governorate General of Brazil in the city of Salvador. It was the capital of a single and centralized Portuguese colony in South America. During the first two centuries of colonization, indigenous and European groups had war, formed alliances, etc. in order to gain advantages against each other. Nearly five million enslaved Africans were imported to Brazil during the Atlantic slave trade, more than any other country. Cane sugar was Brazil's most important export by the mid 1500's. Many African slaves came from Angola and Mozambique. By the end of the 17th century, sugarcane exports began to decline and the discovery of gold by Bandeirantes in the 1690s would become the new backbone of the colony's economy, fostering a Brazilian Gold Rush which attracted thousands of new settlers to Brazil from Portugal and all Portuguese colonies around the world. This increased level of immigration in turn caused some conflicts between newcomers and old settlers. Portugal wanted to control other areas. They fought the French and the Dutch over South American lands. Portugal fought slave rebellions from the Quilombo of the Palmeres and the movements for independence or autonomy. By the early 1800's, Brazil was a Kingdom. The Brazilians and Portuguese fought. Prince Pedro was declared the first Emperor of Brazil, with the royal title of Dom Pedro I, resulting in the founding of the Empire of Brazil by October 1822. The Brazilian War of Independence existed, and Portugal recognized Brazilian independence by August 29, 1825. Pedro II was the Emperor of Brazil from 1831 to 1889. Slavery was abolished by 1888. The military dominated Brazil for years. By the 20th century, Brazil has debates among conservative and more liberal factions. Joao Goulart was deposed in April 1964 by a coup. A military dictatorship ruled in Brazil.
Rousseff was impeached by the Brazilian Congress in 2016, halfway into her second term, and replaced by her Vice-president Michel Temer, who assumed full presidential powers after Rousseff's impeachment was accepted on August 31. Large street protests for and against her took place during the impeachment process. The charges against her were fueled by political and economic crises along with evidence of involvement with politicians (from all the primary political parties) in several bribery and tax evasion schemes. In 2017, the Supreme Court requested the investigation of 71 Brazilian lawmakers and nine ministers of President Michel Temer's cabinet who were allegedly linked to the Petrobras corruption scandal. President Temer himself was also accused of corruption. According to a 2018 poll, 62% of the population said that corruption was Brazil's biggest problem. In a 2022 evaluation of whether government officials in the legislative branch use public office for personal gain, Brazil held the penultimate position (139 out of 140 countries).
In the fiercely disputed 2018 elections, the controversial conservative candidate Jair Bolsonaro of the Social Liberal Party (PSL) was elected president, winning in the second round Fernando Haddad, of the Workers Party (PT), with the support of 55.13% of the valid votes. In the early 2020s, Brazil became one of the hardest hit countries during the COVID-19 pandemic, receiving the second-highest death toll worldwide after the United States. Experts have largely blamed the situation on the leadership of President Bolsonaro, who throughout the pandemic has repeatedly downplayed the threat of COVID-19 and dissuaded states and cities from enforcing quarantine measures, prioritizing the nation's economy. Now, Lula da Silva is the new President of Brazil in 2023.
By the 1970's, soulful music and disco were prominent in America. Motown artist Edwin Starr had the song War which is an anti-war protest song. By the 1970's, political songs were still very powerfully shown by many artists. Diana Ross in 1970 had her first number single as a solo artist with the remake of A'int No Mountain High Enough (which was recorded by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell). From the year of 1970 and onward, The Jackson Five had hit after hit. I'll Be There was their famous song taht was their fourth U.S. Number one single in a row. In the UK by December 1970, Smokey Robinson re-released his 1967 song of The Tears of a Clown. Dawn had the 1971 song of Knock Three Times. King Floyd's Groove was very popular. Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong wrote the song of Just My Imagination (which was shown by 1971). That song was one of the best songs of The Temptations. By April of 1971, Marvin Gaye released What's Going on, which would be one of his best albums. The album called about life, racism, ecology, war, and other important issues in urban communities. What's Going On is a socially conscious anthem to this day. Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose has the song of Treat Her Like a Lady. Jean Knight had the single of Mr. Big Stuff. A'int No Sunshine from Bill Withers was a song about romance and reflections. Isaac Hayes' theme from Shaft won an award. By 1972, Al Green had the classic song of Let's Stay Together. Many people know of the Dramatics having the single of In The Rain. Roberta Flack increased her career with the song of The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (which came from a 1957 folk song of the same name). By 1972, the anthem of love called Oh Girl from The Chi-Lites shook up the world. The group was from Chicago. The soul and gospel group The Staple Singles had the single called I'll Take You There. Bill Withers had the classic song of Lean on Me. The August 1972 Wattstax concert at Los Angeles Coliseum was to remember the 1965 Watts rebellion and a celebration of black culture. It was a sold-out concert and was made into a double album and film. It has The Staple Singers, Albert King, and other people. Luther Ingram had the song o If Loving You is Wong, I Don't Want to be Right in August of 1972. Michael Jackson had the solo hit of Ben. The O'Jays had Back Stabbers song. Leon Huff and Kenny Gamble from Philadelphia worked with many artists making hits too.
The 1970's had legendary artists like Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, Curtis Mayfield, the Temptations (with Papa Was a Roling Stone), Billy Paul, The Stylistics, The Dramatics, etc. Stevie Wonder's Superstition song from the 1970's was about Wonder having creative control. By 1973, Talking Book was already a classic, and Stevie Wonder would make some of the best music in history throughout the 1970's. Stevie Wonder would use keyboards and synthesizers that would influence the sounds of the 1980's with Zapp, etc. Killing Me Softly With Song from Roberta Flack was her number 1 single with powerful lyrics and sounds. To Catch A Fire was an album done by Bob Marley and the Wailers which helped to expand reggae music internationally. By the time of 1973, we see groups and artists like War, Billy Preston, Marvin Gaye (with his song of Let's Get It On), The Isley Brothers (with the song of Who's That Lady), Glady Knights and the Pips (with the song of Midnight Train to Georgia), Eddie Kendricks' Keep on Truckin', etc. Also, by this time disco became modernized. Roots from disco came from the 1960's from soul/R&B music and other influences like from other producers. Dancing songs like Dancing Machine from the Jackson Five (from April 1974) existed too. The Stylistics had the song of You Make Me Feel Brand New, and the song of Hollywood Swinging. Tell Me Something Good was made by Rufus by 1974. The Three Degrees had their hit of Sound of Philadelphia. The Three Degrees made music since the early 1960's. Carl Douglas's Kung Fu Fighting in November 1974 caused an explosion of disco culture. Carl Douglas is from Kingston, Jamaica.
Love Rollercoaster was released by Ohio Players in 1975. Lady Marmalade was a song made by Labelle filled with innuendo in French. By this time, disco and funk exploded with artists like Earth, Wind, and Fire with Shining Star. Many people in KC and the Sunshine Band didn't like to be called a disco group. They wanted to be known in R&B, but Get Down Tonight had disco sounds. The original Fight the Power was released by Isley Brothers in 1975. Songs from War, Dian Ross, Hot Chocolate, and Donna Summer existed. In 1976, Donna Summer was called the Queen of Disco. Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte inspired many new sounds found in disco music too. Boogie Fever was released by The Sylvers. The Manhattans' Kiss and Say Goodbye, George Benson, Bee Gees, KC and the Sunshine Band, Lou Rawls, The Spinners' The Rubberband Man, and other artists shined. Stevie Wonder released the Songs in the Key of Life by December 1976. It was another classic with hits like I Wish and Sir Duke. Rose Royce with Car Wash was another classic song. Music from Thelma Houston (with Don't Leave Me This Way), Marvin Gaye's Got to Give It Up, and Donna Summer's I Feel Love defined a lot of how music is shown today. The Emotions' Best of My Love is a huge song. The Emotions are from Chicago. The song was co-written and produced by fellow Chicagoan and Earth, Wind, and Fire founder Maurice White. Brothers Johnson, Heatwave, Commodores, and the music from the movie Saturday Night Fever made disco more powerful. By 1978, The Bees Grees had Night Fever and Stayin' Alive. The O'Jays in 178 had the classic song of Used to Be My Girl. Donna Summer had MacArthur Park. Le Freak from Chic was decades ahead of its time. It was released in December 1978. Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards along with people were part of the supergroup of Chic. By 1979, R&B and disco were changing. YMCA was shown by The Village People in February 1979. I will Survive was shown by singer Gloria Gaynor. Disco singer Amii Stewart's Knock on Wood was shown in 1979. Shake Your Groove Thing was shown by Peaches and Herb. Ring My Bell was released by Anita Ward. Rapper's Delight from Sugarhill Gang was shown by September 1979. Michael Jackson released Off the Wall in 1979. It was very much influential in music as it was probably his best soulful album. Don't Stop 'Till You Get Enough was a classic. Quincy Jones worked with Michael Jackson in the album. Donna Summer worked with Barbara Streisand on the song No More Tears. Prince had the song of I Wanna Be Your Lover. Disco had a backlash from music snobbish people and outright racists. The haters of disco viewed disco as a distraction. Yet, disco was expressed by many people, and many real messages are found in disco like I will Survive by Gloria Gaynor. Also, racism (including anti-LBGTQ+ sentiments) was definitely a motivation for much of the hate of disco too. In Chicago, racists and extremists blew up disco and R&B records in a stadium (as part of the hate disco movement). This caused disco to be heavily suppressed in the 1980's except in rare situations. Yet, contemporary R&B, disco, and soul music persist to this day in 2023.
By Timothy
Sunday, February 12, 2023
Friday, February 10, 2023
End of the Week Updates.
There are new details about the Senior FBI official accused of working for a Russian oligarch that he was investigating. If this is true, then that person did treason. Charles McGonigal is charged with lying to the FBI on official paperwork and taking money to work for Deripaska. Deripaska is joined by Vladimir Putin according to sources. The Senate Intelligence Community says that Oleg Deripaska does interest policies to promote Putin's agenda in America. Robert Meuller did his investigation that proved ties between some members of the Trump administration and many Russian pro-Putin leaders. McGonigal's ex-girlfriend said that he brought a second iPhone to use almost exclusively for Whatsapp. McGonigal was a high-level FBI member. Many red flags are involved with this person's actions. Corruption is found in many places of society. We have to wait and see how deep the rabbit hole goes.
There is a huge contrast between Biden's State of the Union speech and the GOP response shown by Sarah Huckabee Sanders. While Sarah Huckabee Sanders spewed fear-mongering and hate, President Biden spoke about making solutions to dealing with our economy, healthcare, environment, and other facets of our society. While some in the GOP refuse to support gun control legislation, Biden wants a ban on assault weapons. The economy isn't perfect, but we are in better shape economically than in 2020. For example, there are 517,000 jobs being created in January 2023. The unemployment rate is 3.4 percent being the lowest since 1969. Biden saw the creation of 12.1 million jobs in 2 years. There are new 880,000 manufacturing jobs. Real wages are rising. Inflation is down 6 months in a row, and gas prices have been decreasing since last year. These are facts. The high-tech revival from the Chips Act will help tons of Americans too.
I always research new information on my family tree. In my Ancestry.com DNA matches, I found a paternal distant relative whose username was "gburton19." I didn't know who this human being is for months. Now, I do. He is my paternal third cousin Guiseppi T. Burton who was born in April of 1957. We share the same ancestor of Johnson Brickhouse (b. 1826) or my 3rd great-grandfather. His parents were Benjamin Brickhouse II (1791-1878) and Eliza Collins (b. 1805). Johnson Brickhouse married Julia Perkins (b. 1835). Their children are Virginia Brickhouse (b. 1855), Ann Eliza Brickhouse (1857-1921), John Lee Brickhouse (b. 1858), Esther Brickhouse Bailey (1862-1955), Martha Brickhouse (b. 1867), and Maggie Brickhouse (b. 1871). My 2nd great grandaunt Ann Eliza Brickhouse married James Kelly first (he was born in 1848). Her 2nd husband was James Burton (1848-1931). James Burton and Ann Eliza Brickhouse had many children, and one of their children was Henry Burton (b. 1884). Harry Burton married Cordie Ayers (b. 1888) as his first wife, and later he married Essie Rogers (1890-1950) as his 2nd wife. Harry Burton and Essie Rogers had the following children of: Henry Burton Jr. (b. 1916), Langstone Burton (b. 1916), Clifton Burton (b. 1919), Frezel Burton (1920-1996), Tyson Burton (1922-1999), Welton Burton (b. 1924), Louise Burton (1924-2013), and Ernest Burton (1927-1999). My 2nd cousin Frezel Burton married Ruth Little May Hargrow at first. Later, he married Dorothy H. Horsley (1927-2015) in June 1955 in West Cape May, New Jersey. Frezel and Dorothy Burton's children are Frezel H. Burton Jr. (b. 1956), Giuseppi T. Burton (b. 1957), James F. Burton Sr. (b. 1959), Lynette Elcille Burton (b. 1968), Henry T. Burton, and Tina Burton Bowser. My 3rd cousin Frezel H. Burton Jr. married Lisa A. Sullivan on July 22, 1989, in Cape May, New Jersey. Their children are Frezel H. Burton III (b. 1987) and Jazzmen Burton (their daughter who was born in 1989).
By Timothy
Wednesday, February 08, 2023
The 2023 State of the Union.
The 2023 State of the Union address from President Joe Biden had everything that you wanted. Biden gave an emotional speech filled with humor at times, seriously outlining his views, and a promoting his political agenda. It was a call to invest in American businesses, wanting to compete with China without conflict, and he wants to preserve Social Security and Medicare. Many Republicans like Greene heckled Biden, and Greene called Biden a liar. Biden responded by debating Trump Republicans on how some GOP leaders have explicitly proposed cutting Social Security and Medicare. Biden addressed many social and foreign policy issues from the Chinese balloon being destroyed of the Atlantic Ocean to the issue of immigration. He has made it clear that the work isn't finished yet like desiring to reduce the price of insulin shots and eliminate lead from pipes in America. He believed in causing large wealthy corporations to pay their fair share of taxation. Biden also wants to work with Republicans in a bipartisan fashion to solve problems. That is easier said than done. President Biden also explicitly wants an assault weapons ban which happened in 1994, and he wants legislation federally to address police brutality. Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy listened and agreed with him on some issues and disagreed with him on many issues. Biden spoke about the middle class and how he supports capitalism (which has notorious imperfections as history and other facts teach us). It is important to point out that the poor, the working class, and the middle class contribute the heaviest to the stability of the American economy.
Biden's speech was filled with energy, and many Republicans disagreed with Biden with energy (some of it inappropriate in my view. GOP Rep. Bob Good said that he was one of the hecklers on Tuesday night. Good called Biden a liar after Biden told the truth that some Republicans wanted to cut Social Security and Medicare. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was rude in the House of Congress like usual). The economy now is much stronger now than during the Trump years. Yet, we have a long way to go as inflation is high, rent is high, and millions of Americans are struggling. Many of us are blessed with a lot of savings, resources, etc. Yet, we have massive homelessness, economic inequality, and other economic issues that must be addressed by a radical redistribution of economic and political power. Biden acknowledged the family of Tyre Nichols, who was a victim of police terrorism. Biden's family never had the talk like many black and brown families in America to talk about in dealing with police interactions. Republican Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (the daughter of Mike Huckabee. She is a pro-Trump ally who bans the term of Latinx in state documents) gave the Republican response by promoting the same far-right extremism (she condemns "woke" views, but she doesn't condemn bigotry against marginalized communities in her speech) that doesn't work to alleviate the issues. She said that Democrats want big government, but ironically big government contributed to the development of unions, environmental protections, civil rights legislation, voting rights legislation, and other blessings that some take for granted. We don't want the government to be draconian to control every aspect of human life. Yet, the government has the right to promote the general welfare and provide human beings the basic freedoms and rights to enrich society (as a whole). The Biden administration is not perfect, but the Biden administration has passed some of the most progressive legislation in American history from helping the poor, fighting for gun safety, building our national infrastructure, and growing our economy in general (we have record-low unemployment and massive job growth since 2021). Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine was exposed in the speech. The government is made up of the people, and the people have the right to advance equality, a strong social safety net, justice for all, and human liberty.