Afro-Latino Festival in Silver Spring is a melting pot of joy (msn.com)
Monday, July 31, 2023
A New Generation.
We live in unique times nearing the Fall of 2023. We have the most political polarization in America in a long time. The Trumpism movement that has caused historical revisionism in Florida schools, who refused to allow black representation in the state of Alabama, and who supports a fascist racist like Donald Trump are far-right Republicans. Trumpism won't go away even if Trump loses the 2024 election. That is why education is important to stand up for human rights. The many people in Trump rallies should feel shame for allying with a person who hated democratic values. Many people in the MAGA crowd try to justify their bigotry by saying that they are against woke people. The word woke has been perverted, and its actual meaning is to just believe that every human born on this Earth is created equal and deserves dignity, respect, and justice without exception. Many people exploit topics like Critical Race Theory and other issues in order to not allow a real discussion on the economy, on climate change, on investments in rebuilding communities, on health care, and on other important issues. While Bidenomics has a way to go, the economy now is a whole lot stronger than during the Trump years. Now, we have 13.2 million jobs added during the Biden term, we have lower than 4 percent unemployment rate, inflation has declined since last year, and GDP has increased. Even the stock market has increased, and the Federal Reserve no longer expects a recession this year. The economy is strong, but we have some work to do to make it better, especially in the midst of economic inequality and poverty in urban plus rural areas of the United States of America. We have a high cost of housing and food in America, and consumer debt is nearing record-high levels. We have labor workers legitimately striking in Hollywood and auto workers having issues. Interest rates can be higher for a longer time, and the record heat can damage the economy in farms and prices. Student loan payments return in the Fall, and many kids and adults struggle to pay down their student loan debt. Therefore, we have to be about our business to promote progressive economic policies that will save human lives.
1996 saw hip-hop tragedies, dance crazes, R&B classics, rock comebacks, and pop anthems. In January of 1996, the Buffalo, New York alternative rock band Goo Goo Dolls find their first chart success after switching to a more pop sound with the single "Name" #5 US. The song is from the band's fifth album on Metal Blade Records. With the success of "Name" the album goes US Double Platinum. Around this time, the surviving members of The Beatles - George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and Paul McCartney add vocals and instrumentation to a John Lennon home demo and release the single "Free As A Bird". Produced by ELO and Traveling Wilbury member Jeff Lynne, the song hits #2 UK and #6 US. Groups like Babylon Zoo and Deep Blue Something (with their song Breakfast at Tiffany's) had unique music. One 1990's anthem was Joan Osborne's One of Us. She was from Louisville, Kentucky. Missing had the song Everything But The Girl. The dance group La Bouche had the song of Be My Lover. I remember that song as a child. The lead singers of the group are Lane McCray and the late legend Melanie Thorton. The song is from their Platinum debut album Sweet Dreams. The title track also reaches #13 US, #3 US Hot Dance Club Tracks. One of the most emotional songs from R&B singer Mary J. Blige came out called "Non Gon' Cry." from the Waiting to Exhale soundtrack. The soundtrack was number one in the USA with Whitney Houston, TLC, Brandy, Patti Labelle, Toni Braxton, and other legends. That single was one of the best songs in Mary J. Blige's career. The debut album from New York City group Fun Lovin' Criminals entitled Come Find Yourself hits #7 in the UK, but only #144 US. The single "Scooby Snacks", featuring audio snips from Quentin Tarantino films, reaches #22 UK and #14 US Alternative. The album goes Platinum in the UK. By February 1996, after some success in Canada with two dance pop album's, Alanis Morissette moved to a more rock-oriented sound for her third album Jagged Little Pill. Released in June 1995, the album spends 12 weeks at US #1 driven by three US Top Ten singles. The album sells over 33 million copies worldwide, one of the best-selling ever.
One of the best songs from Brandy was Sittin' Up in My Room from March 1996. That song was also part of the Waiting to Exhale soundtrack. I remember that song too. Gin Blossom and The Cranberries released music by this time. Charlottesville, Virginia's Dave Matthews Band find their greatest career success with their second studio album Crash #2 US and 7X Platinum US. With a following built on touring, the album features some of their best known songs including "Crash Into Me", "Too Much" and "So Much To Say." Firestarter was the song from the band The Prodigy. Los Angeles band Rage Against The Machine debuted at #1 US with their second album Evil Empire #4 UK. The album's lead single "Bulls On Parade" hits #8 UK, #11 US Alternative. The album, named after President Ronald Reagan's term for the Soviet Union, goes Triple Platinum. This was in April of 1996. Rock artists like The Wallflowers and Ani DiFranco released albums. By June 1996, the South Orange, New Jersey hip hop trio The Fugees hit #1 UK with their cover of Roberta Flack's 1973 hit "Killing Me Softly." The track is from the group's second album The Score which hits #1 US and #2 UK, going on to sell 18 million copies worldwide. It would be the group's final album. The Score from The Fugees was one of the greatest albums in hip-hop and music history. Los Angeles band Metallica move away from their thrash metal roots on their sixth album Load #1 US and UK. The shift to a more conventional hard rock sound alienates many fans and the album sells ten million fewer copies than their previous album, but still goes 5X Platinum in the US. KISS made their Alive Worldwide tour starting in Tiger Stadium in Detroit. By June 1996, Jay Z released his debut album called Reasonable Doubt. Jay Z worked with Kane and Jaz O before he made his album years prior to 1996, but this was the time when it started for Jay Z on a different level. He is from Brooklyn, New York City. The album goes platinum in America. Cleveland, Ohio singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman has her first US Top Ten hit since her 1988 debut with "Give Me One Reason" #3 US. It would be the most best-selling song of her career. Structured as a traditional 12-bar blues song, it is included in Chapman's 1995 album New Beginning, which reaches #4 US and goes 5X Platinum. Nada Surf and Primitive Radio Gods made music too. The all-women pop group from the UK named Spice Girls released their debut single "Wannabe." The song is an immediate #1 hit in the UK, where it is followed by two more chart-toppers in 1996 including "2 Become 1." In a departure from his debut album, the hip-hop artist Nas moves to a mainstream sound with elaborate production for his second album It Was Written. The album charts at #1 US and goes Double Platinum. The album includes the #1 US Rap hit single "Street Dreams" #22 US Top 100. It would be Nas' most successful release. Nas released the album on July 2, 1996.
By July 1996, New York City Fiona Apple released her debut album called Tidal. It became triple platinum in America. Sublime had the song of What I Got in America. By August of 1996, Tupac Shakur's double A-Side single "How Do You Want It / California Love" hits #1 US, #6 UK. The song is from his 5X Platinum album All Eyez On Me #1 US, #32 UK. On September 2 Pac died in Las Vegas from wounds suffered in a drive-by shooting six days earlier. Tupac's passing happened when I just started the 8th grade of middle school. I remember that time very well. With all of the research in our time, we pretty much who murdered Tupac Shakur and why. The FBI and the intelligence community monitored Tupac because of his links to black revolutionaries like Afeni Shakur. The Southside Crips murdered Tupac Shakur in a jealous rage after one of their members (i.e. Orlando Anderson) was beaten by Tupac and Death Row members in Las Vegas. By August 1996, the Spanish dance-pop duo Los Del Rio have a worldwide hit with the English language remix of their song "Macarena" #1 US, #2 UK. The song and it's video sparked an international dance craze. By 1997 the single had sales of 11 million and today is considered the biggest one-hit wonder of all time. Burlington, Vermont jam band Phish hold their first festival - The Clifford Ball for two days in Plattsburgh, New York attracting 70,000 fans. The performance is recorded on video and later released as a DVD. The band has since held a total of ten festivals in various locations. Manchester band Oasis, at the height of their popularity, hold a two-night concert at Knebworth, England with 125,000 fans attending each night. Both shows sold out in minutes, with 2.5 million people requesting tickets. The shows are the largest outdoor concert ever held in the UK.
The famous dance group of Quad City DJ's, a Jacksonville, Florida group, hit #3 US with the dance track "C'mon N' Ride It (The Train)." The track is based on a sample from Barry White's 1974 film theme for Together Brothers. Both the song and the group's debut album Get On Up And Dance, sell over a million copies. Jamiroquai, a funk and acid jazz group from London, release their third album Travelling Without Moving #2 UK and charted for the first time in the US at #24. The album produces three UK Top Ten hits and three US Dance Top Ten hits including "Virtual Insanity". The album sells 8 million copies. This was in August 1996. The Swedish band The Cardigans has music. Donna Lewis from Wales had the hit I Love You Always Forever and the band Kula Shaker had their music. By October 1996, the Orlando, Florida alternative rock band Matchbox 20 release their debut album Yourself Or Someone Like You and find major success, reaching #5 US. Five singles are released from the album including "3AM" which hits #1 US Alternative. The album goes 12X Platinum in the US. The controversial artist Marilyn Manson had his 2nd album Antichrist Superstar by October 1996. In November 1996, the end of the new jack swing era comes with a band with 2 hits of No Diggity from Blackstreet and Pony from Maryland R&B singer Ginuwine. West coast rapper Snoop Dogg has his second #1 album in a row with the release of The Doggfather #15 UK. The single "Snoop's Upside Ya Head" samples the Gap Band and hits #12 UK and #5 US Rap. The album goes US Double Platinum. This was in November of 1996. By December of 1996, No Doubt released their album of Tragic Kingdom. Tragic Kingdom hits #1 US. Sales are driven by the success of the singles "Just A Girl" #3 UK, #23 US and the album's third single "Don't Speak" which reaches #1 UK, #2 US Alternative. The album sells 16 million copies worldwide.
November 22, 1963, was a monumental part of American history and world history. It was the day when the assassination of President John F. Kennedy took place in broad daylight (during the early afternoon) in Dallas, Texas. President Kennedy was President in the midst of domestic and foreign policy tensions in America. It was after World War II with the massive economic boom in certain parts of America while millions of other Americans suffered poverty, racial oppression, xenophobia, and sexism. That time witness massive decolonization movements in Africa, Asia, and Latin America while a segment of reactionary forces in the military and the intelligence community desired Western imperialist policies to be globally manifested. When President Kennedy came alone, Kennedy actively resisted the military-industrial complex's most extreme policies. For example, President John F. Kennedy supported a socialist party in Italy, he supported the independence of Algeria and Guinea, he refused to invade Loas, he refused to send permanent military troops to Vietnam (desiring to get rid of all U.S. troops from Vietnam by the end of 1965), signed onto affirmative action, promoted federal civil rights legislation, had plans to start the War on Poverty with expenditure programs, told the world in a speech that he is a liberal, and threatened to crush the CIA into a thousand pieces. Now, President Kennedy had his imperfections of adultery, not loving massive demonstrations to fight for racial justice, and using herbicides in Vietnam. Yet, he became more progressive as time existed during his Presidency. President John F. Kennedy had idealism which inspired millions of Americans to this day. After his unjust death, the nation mourned. The Warren Commission had so many inconsistencies and omissions that the vast majority of Americans believe that the JFK assassination was a product of a conspiracy. New documents being released show Oswald's CIA ties, and we have to be clear to research information to know more of the truth as possible. The ideal of Camelot was a dream. It was not real (as the Kennedy family was among the American financially wealthy class), but the reality of President F. Kennedy's eloquence, heroism in the Cuban Missile Crisis, and resistance to the extreme policies of the far-right elements in the American government (including resisting some of the aims of the Mafia and right-wing Cuban exiles) are very real. In our generation, we desire racial justice, social justice, and real change. Ever since 1963, the far right has increased their vicious goal to not only ruin the New Deal and the Great Society. They (along with reactionary financial oligarchy) desire to ruin progressive benefits to society in general. We have the right to resist that and follow the principle that the Golden Rule must be applied justly in our everyday life.
Lieutenant Colonel Charity Adams Early was born in the South at Kittrel, North Carolina on December 5, 1918. Later, she grew up in Columbia, South Carolina. She was inspired by her parents to earn a great education. She was a high achiever. Her father, a college graduate, was an African Methodist Episcopal minister. Her mother was a schoolteacher. Adams was the oldest of four children. She graduated from Booker T. Washington High School as valedictorian and from Wilberforce University in Ohio in 1938, majoring in math and physics. After graduation, she returned to Columbia where she taught mathematics at the local high school while studying part-time for a M.A. degree in psychology at the Ohio State University, receiving her master's degree in 1946. Adams enlisted in the United States Army's Women's Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) in July 1942. She was the first African American woman to be an officer in the WAAC. During that time, the U.S. Army was very much segregated. That means that she was placed in a company with fellow African American women officers and stationed at Fort Des Moines. In 1943, she was assigned to be the training supervisor at base headquarters. By early 1944, Adams was reassigned to the Training Center control officer in charge of improving job training and efficiency. She had other jobs like surveying officer (finding lost property) and summary court officer (handling women's minor offenses). In December 1944, Adams led the only company of black WACs ever to serve overseas. They were stationed in Birmingham, England. The women began to socialize with the citizens and broke through prejudices. Adams was put in charge of a postal directory service unit. Another part of her job included raising the morale of women. Adams achieved this by creating beauty parlors for women to relax and socialize in.
In March 1945, she was appointed the commanding officer of the first battalion of African American women, the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion. They were stationed first in Birmingham. Three months later, they were moved to Rouen, France, then to Paris. They were responsible for the delivery of mail to over seven million soldiers during World War II. By the end of the war, Lieutenant Colonel Adams was the highest-ranking African American woman in the military. She was asked about her groundbreaking achievement, Adams responded by saying, "I just wanted to do my job." She decided to leave the service in 1946 when she was called to serve at the Pentagon. Growing up in the South, Adams experienced the hardships of segregation. When she entered the Army, she still faced discrimination but was not afraid to speak up and fight for desegregation in the Army. One of the first battles Adams fought for equality was when the Army proposed segregating the training regimen. When she was told she would head one of the segregated regiments, she refused. The Army subsequently decided against creating separate regiments. On another occasion, when a general stated, "I'm going to send a white first lieutenant down here to show you how to run this unit", then-Major Adams responded, "Over my dead body, sir." The general threatened to court-martial her for disobeying orders. She then began to file charges against him for using "language stressing racial segregation" and ignoring a directive from Allied headquarters. They both dropped the matter, and the general later came to respect Adams. When the Red Cross tried to donate equipment for a new segregated recreation center, Adams refused it because her unit had been sharing the recreation center with white units. She wanted her battalion to socialize with people of all colors to establish a comradeship between enlisted personnel and officers to ease the tensions of racism.
After her service in the Army. Adams earned a master's degree in psychology from Ohio State University. She then worked at the Veterans Administration in Cleveland, Ohio, but soon left to teach at the Miller Academy of Fine Arts. She moved to Nashville, Tennessee, and was the director of student personnel at Tennessee A&I College. She then moved to Georgia and became the director of student personnel and assistant professor of education at Georgia State College. She later served on the Board of Trustees at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio. Dayton Public Schools also named one of their schools the "Charity Adams Earley Girls Academy" in her honor.
While Trump faces a trial, you have some House Republicans being so extreme that they want to push to impeach President Biden which is ludicrous. Trump wants any Republican who is against a Biden impeachment to be primaried as he said on July 29, 2023, at Erie, Pennsylvania. Trump is a disgrace as Biden has never agitated a mob to try to overthrow the 2020 election, and Biden has never desired to end birthright citizenship. Now, we have the Ukrainian counterattack advancing toward Melitopol, Mariupol, and Bakhmut. The Trump supporter Navarro talks of civil war blaming Democrats which is not the case. Even the African nations are criticizing Putin because the Russian Black Sea grain blockade is causing starvation in many places of the world. Chinese leader Xi wants to not work with other nations in desiring to massive cut carbon emissions. Even interests from Wall Street have to grudgingly acknowledge that the Bidenomics is not the end of the world. There is a new generation of people calling themselves "Independent" and "free thinkers" of every color who claim to reject the views of either so-called extreme. From my experience and research, these people are radical centrists and far-right people who desire the status quo under the guise of claiming to be "independent." They say that we must talk to the other side, but some things are non-negotiable. The reality is that Republicans and Democrats aren't perfect, but these 2 parties aren't identical. One party explicitly wants historical revisionism, voter suppression laws, and stopping black representation politically in the state of Alabama. The other party doesn't support these aims. The Supreme Court has been compromised by reactionary interests too. Chief Justice Roberts refused to testify in a hearing on Supreme Court ethics. Thomas and Alito accepted luxury vacations from GOP megadonors. Gorsuch sold property to the CEO of a law firm that argues cases before the Supreme Court.
There is more information that I found out about Lucy Williams (the descendant of Nancy Woodson) and her descendants. She was my late 1st cousin. My distant cousin Larry Darden had an obituary of Lucy Williams from back in 1964 that described her life and legacy. The eulogy of her funeral was done by the Rev. R. L. Steele. The obituary confirmed that Lucy Williams was born in November 1875 at Southampton County, Virginia whose parents were John Henry Williams and Mary Williams. The document showed that Lucy Williams married Ridley Worrell, and the couple had 8 children. She passed away on May 8, 1964, at the home of her son and daughter-in-law Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Worrell at 5:15 pm. Lucy Williams was a kind mother and a dedicated Christian. Lucy Williams and Ridley Worrell's children are Mrs. Gladys Worrell Boone, foster daughter, Mrs. Lynie Green, Rev. James Henry Worrell (1899-1982), Hattie Worrell (1903-1942), Lewis Worrell (1908-1984), Tommie Worrell (1905-1987), Pearl Worrell (1898-1925), Gladys Lillie Worrell (1915-1985), Mary Etta Worrell (1910-1955), and Frank Worrell (b. 1912). Lucy Williams in 1964 had 20 grandchildren and 37 great-grandchildren. Lucy Williams's son was Rev. James Henry Worrell (1899-1982). His second wife was Sadie Lee Myrick (b. 1900), and their daughter was Sarah Lee Worrell Graves (1930-2019). Sarah Lee Worrell Graves married Ozzie Harvey (1920-2011) on June 5, 1958, in Richmond, Virginia. Their children are Pamela Odett Harvey (b. 1963), Christeen J. Harvey (b. 1970), Kevin Harvey, Rudine Harvey Jenkins, Otis Harvey, Adolphus Graves, and Darrell Harvey. Rev. James Henry Worrell married Josephine Artis (1900-1933). Their children are Susanna Edna Worell (1920-2006), James Worrell Jr. (1921-2015), Roman Worrell (b. 1924), Vernon Randolph Worrell (1925-2015), Bessie Mae Worrell (b. 1927), and Josephine Lutheran Worrell (b. 1933). James Harrell Worrell Jr. married Leah Cynthia Morris and had the child of Gary Worrell (b. 1953) or my 4th cousin. Gary Worrell married Sharon Lee Spratley (b. 1956) on March 21, 1976, at Hampton, Virginia. Their child is Jaime Deshawn Worrell (b. 1978), and she married Ralph Bernad Cypress Junior on May 7, 2010, at Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Lucy Williams and Ridley Worrell's son of Louis Worrell married Lillian Johnson (b. 1911) and had the children of Herbert H. Worrell (B. 1925), Harwood H. Worrell (b. 1928), Charles Edward Worrell (1929-1995), Paige Elizabeth Worrell (1930-2014), Thomas Worrell (b. 1935) and Arthur Lee Worrell (1937-2014). Arthur Lee Worrell married Dorothy Mae Worrell (1939-2020) on April 16, 1956. Their children are Robin R. Worrell Combs (b. 1956), Donna Ushekia Worrell Hall (b. 1958), Arthur Ricardo Worrell (b. 1960), and Ronnie Louis Worrell Sr. (b. 1966). My 4th cousin Donna Ushekia Worrell Hall works in the Post Office and lives in Washington, D.C. She is married to Sherwood Mauricio Hall (b. 1956) and their children are Bridgette Sherre Clark Bridges (b. 1976) and Paulette Usheka Hall (b. 1985). Bridgette Bridges married Donnell Bridges.
I want to mention this new tactic of the New Age movement. Because so many people know the value of humanity, DNA, and the different forces of the Universe, most people know that the Universe wasn't designed by nothingness. It was established after the Big Bang with massive creative power. So, the New Age people increasingly are promoting the Anunnaki myth. This theory is that human beings were created by an advanced alien species called the Anunnaki (who came from a distant planet or star system) with using hominids species via genetic engineering to form modern-day Homo Sapiens Sapiens in ca. 200,000 years ago. The reality is very similar to the New Age view that relates to Gnosticism though. New Agers readily teach that humans must have a spiritual evolution to reach the "Christ Consciousness" in being beyond the Matrix of various dimensions. The reality is that the Anunnaki are a group of fictional deities of ancient Sumeria, Akkad, Assyria, and Babylon. In the earliest Sumerian writings about them, which come from the Post-Akkadian period, the Anunnaki are deities in the pantheon, descendants of An and Ki, the god of the heavens and the goddess of earth, and their primary function was to decree the fates of humanity. They should not be confused with the Apkallu. The ancient astronaut theory with the Anunnaki was modernized by the author Erich von Daniken with his 1968 book of Chariots of the Gods?
Many scientists and historians have rejected his ideas, claiming that the book's conclusions were based on faulty, pseudoscientific evidence, some of which was later demonstrated to be fraudulent or fabricated, and under illogical premises. Much of the views of this theory have been promoted by ancient Sumerian texts and information from literature relating to Thoth and other pagan stories. An internationally bestselling book by Clifford Wilson, Crash Go the Chariots, was published in 1972. Ronald Story's 1976 book rebutting von Däniken's ideas was titled The Space Gods Revealed. Another negative criticism of von Däniken's book came from archeologist Kenneth Feder in his book Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries in 2018. Referring to von Däniken's support of the ancient astronauts hypothesis, Feder explains how his evidence is used and presented in a misleading manner in order to convince the reader that extraterrestrial life was involved in the development of ancient civilizations. von Daniken has been accused of stealing ideas from the French author Robert Charroux. Many scientists and historians have rejected his ideas, claiming that the book's conclusions were based on faulty, pseudoscientific evidence, some of which was later demonstrated to be fraudulent or fabricated, and under illogical premises.
The truth is that the Universe, humanity, the Earth, and animal species, in general, have great creative power made up of atoms, various energies, etc. We are part of the Universe, and we are made with the same elements and atoms from the Universe originally. DNA has great mathematical precision with advanced molecules and chemical relations. Yet, there is no conclusive evidence that aliens or the Anunnaki created modern humans using hominids as a genetic experiment to be mining slaves to the Anunnaki. Many people who believe in the Anunnaki creation of human beings want to deny the existence of God or view God as a power source from the beginning of time. God is more than an Energy Source or a frequency (as many New Agers subscribe to). God is the origin of the Universe being the Creator. Human beings have great intelligence to build the Great Pyramids, Stonehenge, and other structures without alien intervention. We are a very intelligent people with a great prefrontal cortex and other neurons that can inspire creativity, imagination, and invention. We should investigate the Mysteries of Life without apology. Yet, we live in a time where slick deceptions must be opposed, and righteousness ought to be endorsed.
By Timothy
Saturday, July 29, 2023
Friday, July 28, 2023
Breaking News.
The breaking news is that there is a new defendant that allegedly deleted surveillance video which is a crime. Donald Trump is charged with a new count in a superseding Mar-a-Lago indictment. The count is that Trump is being charged with one additional count of willful retention of national defense information and two additional obstruction counts, related to alleged attempts to delete surveillance video footage at his Mar-a-Lago resort in the summer of 2020. This is certainly unprecedented and outlines the magnitude of the corruption of Donald Trump. This alone proves that Donald Trump is among the top 3 corrupt Presidents in American history. Trump's denials are just typical.
Now, Trump lawyers have met with the Special counsel as possible indictment can come about soon. The grand jury met in federal court at Washington, D.C. according to an official with the court. Trump claims that his team had a productive meeting with the Justice Department, and that he won't get an indictment. Grand jury proceedings are secret. Time will tell if Trump gets indicted or not. What is true is that Trump is being heavily investigated by the federal government over his role in agitating the crow in causing the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol building. Law enforcement has met at the courthouse ahead of a possible Trump indictment. Special Counsel Jack Smith is a person who is serious about his actions in leading the investigation of Trump, and he has taken his time to use documents filled with details.
Ice Cube driving Tucker Carlson around in South Central Los Angeles is disappointing, not shocking. There is a generation of many people who claim to be "independent" but are as reactionary as Tucker Carlson or Bill O'Reilly. While many Republicans want to erase and rewrite history, Ice Cube wants to suck up to the white replacement theory advocate Tucker Carlson (when the white replacement theory is a lie). Tucker Carlson was caught on text messages and other resources using slurs against Iraqi people, glorifying the tyrant Putin, and making race-baiting comments for years on FOX News. I remember when Tucker was on Crossfire, and now he is a MAGA extremist. Ice Cube's Platinum Plan omits many policies that help the environment or the health of black Americans. Many of these so-called "independents" fail to realize that Republicans and Democrats aren't perfect but both parties aren't identical. One party has gone out of its way to ban books that expose racism, promote decisions in the Supreme Court that harm human rights, and gone out to advance voter suppression laws. That party is the Republican Party. The Ice Cube of the 1990's would never cozy up with a known xenophobe and racist like Tucker Carlson. Tupac Shakur would never ally with Tucker too. It's very ironic and sad at the same time.
Some news about the UFO hearing in the House has existed. Whether one believes in UFOs or not, most people in America to believe that all government records relating to UFOs should be released to the public. Transparency is always key in developing a strong society. You can't hide records and claim to be truthful about this subject. In the House hearing about UFOs, Congress leaders interviewed three retired military veterans. They talked about these devices as having advanced technology, not being drones. David Gorsch, a former Air Force intelligence officer accused the government of covering up its research into unidentified sightings and he reported this information to the intelligence community inspector general. In April, Sean Kirkpatrick, the director of the Pentagon's All domain Anomaly Resolution Office told Congress that there was no evidence of extraterrestrial life, and his office found no evidence of objects that defy the known laws of physics. Many Republicans and Democrats believe that UAPs are threats to the national security of America.
I found out more information about my late maternal 1st cousin Ida Peeples Eppes (1916-2000). She was born on October 4, 1916, at Boykins, Virginia. She married Robert Eppes (b. 1911) on October 12, 1933, in Virginia. Ida Peeples Eppes's parents were Ray Peeples (1879-1929) and Mary Anne Boyd (1887-1951). Ray Peeples's parents were Charles Peeples (1855-1922) and Fannie Fronianna Susanna Virginia Brown (1857-1946). Fannie Brown's parents were Thirsty Ann Brown and Bill Rawles. Charles Peeples's mother was Annie Peeples. I am a descendant of Charles and Fannie Peeples's son Joseph Henry Peeples. Also, Ida Peeples Eppes had a child with Jesse Lee Manor (b. 1909) named Helena Manor (1948-2007). There is a 1950 United States Federal Census document showing Helena Manor as 2 years old. The document said that Helena was born in Connecticut, and she lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania too. Also, it showed her as being the niece of Lucy Peeples Brown which means that Lucy Peeples Brown is the sister of Ida Peeples Eppes Manor. My 1st cousin Lucy M. Peeples married Walter Emory Brown (1906-1962) on August 16, 1939, at Mecklenburg, Virginia. Their child is Queen Esther Brown (b. 1942). Helena Manor and Nathaniel Wilson (1949-2013) had the child of Tito V. Manor (b. 1964). My 3rd cousin Tito V. Manor and Shareen L. Jordan (b. 1981) had the following children of Jahmir Jordan (b. 2003), Ashton Jordan (b. 2004), Tabitha Manor, and Nino Jordan (who are my 3rd cousins).
By Timothy
Wednesday, July 26, 2023
New Political Realities.
President Biden designated a national monument honoring Emmett Till and his mother (whose name is Mamie Elizabeth Till-Mobley). These monuments will be in Chicago and Mississippi. Emmett Till was an innocent child who was unjustly murdered by racist terrorists in Mississippi. Her heroic mother wanted his casket to be shown to the public, because she wanted the world to witness what cowardly murderers did to her son. Emmett Till was from Chicago and visited relatives in Mississippi. Vice President Kamala Harris gave passionate words about how some reactionaries desire to even suppress black history in Florida (and in other places of America) and how the Florida curriculum promoted the lie that slavery caused skill benefits for black people (when black people in Africa were scholars and great workers long before the Maafa existed. For some in FOX to defend this racist view is typical of FOX News). President Biden gave his words to acknowledge the pain of the Till family and express inspiration to fight back against racism and all other forms of bigotry plaguing the world. Regardless of what a liar like MAGA extremists say, we will not back down. We will show real black history, and we desire justice for all without delay.
The Washington Post reported that Mark Meadows joked about Trump's claims of a stolen election in a text exchange. Meadows gave testimony to the grand jury involving the January 6th insurrection. The question is whether Meadows wants to leave Trump and work with the prosecutors or not. The prosecutors right now obtained an extensive collection of Meadows's text messages and emails. The Department of Justice is still investigating Trump and others on multiple issues. He or Trump faces 2 possible more indictments by the DOJ and the Georgia State attorney Fani Willis. At the end of the day, you have extremists in the world who want to dismantle democracy and the rule of law. Former NYPD Commissioner Kerik has handed over documents to Special Counsel Jack Smith. Therefore, Trump should experience accountability, because he tried to end a legal 2020 election plus other acts that violate the concept of justice. Now, we know that the disgraced Rudy Giuliani conceded that he made false claims about innocent Georgia election workers.
The Israeli Parliament debated on the issue of judicial oversight. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the most far right Israeli leader in Israeli history, so that is why tons of Israeli protesters in Tel Aviv don't want the judicial overhaul to exist as threatening democratic norms. Netanyahu wants to preserve his power as long as he can, as his power is limited. He wants to strip the Israeli Supreme Court of some abilities to block governmental actions. Today, the Parliaments did strip certain powers of the Israeli Supreme Court. During the 21st century, in our world, we have the fight of authoritarianism vs. democracy. Worldwide, we have to look closely at these events, because we don't want any leader to have too much authoritarian, centralized control. Democracy is very fragile, and you have to fight for it in order to keep it. That is the precise lesson of history. Netanyahu claims that his reform proposal will establish more balance among the courts, lawmakers, and the government. Opponents believe that the plain is a coup that could turn Israel into a dictatorship by ending checks on governmental actions.
The Special Counsel's office has interviewed the ex-DOJ official about the circumstances of the January 6th, 2021 insurrection. The ex-DOJ official is Richard Donoghue. Donoghue said that Trump made up false statements about the 2020 election, and he constantly had to correct him. Richard Donoghue has extensive legal experience in the city of New York City. Donoghue also wanted people to follow what Bill Barr's orders would entail. The FBI investigated the false allegations of voter fraud. Donoghue said that he resisted pressure from Trump to help overturn the 2020 election. Donoghue was in the White House with firsthand knowledge about the end of the Trump White House. It seems like many officials linked to the Trump administration are testifying to save themselves from legal indictments. Jack Smith continues to lead the federal investigation, and Trump may face at least 2 future indictments by Jack Smith and attorney Fanni Willis of Georgia.
The DOJ is suing the state of Texas over Governor Abbot putting buoys in the water on the U.S./Mexican border. The DOJ accused the buoys at the border as inhumane which is accurate. These buoys have harmed many human beings. We know about how these buoys could potentially violate of the treaties between America and Mexico. The buoys impede the flow of water and can cause environmental damage. Therefore, Governor Abbot is saying that he will fight an appeal to the Supreme Court which shows his political grandstanding. Abbot has no legal right to have the buoy barrier and razor wire fencing without explicit written permission from the federal government. Therefore, extremists don't want a real solution to immigration issues. They want xenophobia and scapegoating to be the order of the day. Migrants never invented Jim Crow, the prison industrial complex, the War on Drugs, or the existence of the system of racism in the modern age. The reality is that the real contributors to the situation ultimately are select corporate power who exploit human beings in America and overseas for the sake of profit instead of compassion. The solution to this situation is comprehensive immigration solutions that deals with all parts of immigration (and working with other nations to improve socio-political conditions in other countries that can lower the largest mass migration of persons worldwide since the end of the Second World War).
By Timothy
Tuesday, July 25, 2023
Monday, July 24, 2023
Cultural Facts at the end of July 2023.
By 1995, new songs dominated the scene of music. By January 1995, the song of I'm The Only One came out by Melissa Etheridge. She is from Leavenworth, Kansas. This was part of her fourth album Yes, I Am. We have musicians like Rednex, Hootie and the Blowfish showing Hold My Hand, and PJ Harvey having the album of To Bring You My Love. Hootie and the is from the city of Columbia, South Carolina. Their debut album was Cracked Rearview Mirror which was the best-selling album of 1995 selling over 21 million copies. By February 1995, Madonna scored her eleventh #1 single in the US with "Take A Bow." The song is the second single from her sixth studio album Bedtime Stories #3 US, #2 UK. The album's lead single "Secret" reached #3 US, #5 UK. The album goes Triple Platinum in the US and sells eight million copies worldwide. When the show Moesha came out in 1995, the singer Brandy was already a household name in America plus beyond. By March 1995, the California singer, songwriter and actress Brandy scored the second of three US Top Ten hits with the single "Baby" #4 US. The song is from her self titled debut album which also features the singles "I Wanna Be Down" #6 US and "Brokenhearted" #9 US. The album goes Double Platinum in the US. From this moment on, Brandy with Moesha and other music would be one of the greats of R&B music (along with her other counterparts of Monica and Aaliyah). During the same time, the Stockbridge, Georgia rock band Collective Soul find continued commercial success with their self-titled second album, which goes Triple Platinum in the US. The album contains two US Modern Rock Top Ten hits "December" #2 and "The World I Know" #6. Elastica made their self-titled debut album by March of 1995 too. One tragedy was the March 1995 death of the Texas singer Selena. She already had her fourth US Latin #1 single in a row with "Fotos y Recuerdos" a reworking of The Pretenders' "Back On The Chain Gang." In March Yolanda Saldivar, the manager of the Selena fan club and fashion boutiques, shoots Selena to death following a business dispute. Selena was a Latina American superstar who inspired future artists like Jennifer Lopez and Shakira. Wu-Tang Clan member Ol' Dirty Bastard releases his debut solo album Return To The 36 Chambers and hits #7 US, #2 US R&B/Hip-Hop. The album generates two US Rap Hot Singles including "Shimmy Shimmy Ya" and "Brooklyn Zoo". The album went US Platinum.
One of the most popular R&B and dance songs of all time would come out called This is How We Do It by April of 1995 done by LA singer, songwriter Montell Jordan. The song was number one in America and number 11 in the UK. The single was from Def Jam Records. The song is the title track from Jordan's debut album which charts at #12 US and goes Platinum. The album's second single "Somethin' 4 The Honeyz" hits #21 US. The fourth album from UK alternative band The Boo Radleys hits #1 UK but fails to chart in the US. The album generates the UK #1 single "Wake Up Boo!" along with the #25 UK single "It's Lulu." This would be the band's commercial peak, though they would release two more albums. White Zombie made music too. On April 1995, the California hip hop artist Tupac Shakur has a #1 album Me Against The World and a US Top Ten single with "Dear Mama" #9 US, #1 US Rap, all while serving time in prison for a crime that he said that he is innocent of to his dying day. A video is made without the imprisoned Tupac, instead featuring his mother Afeni, the subject of the song. Tupac Shakur would go on to new heights and become the most influential hip hop artist of all time. The alternative bands of Everclear and Blesid Union of Souls made many songs and albums. The former lead singer and guitarist for UK band The Jam, Paul Weller, hits #1 UK with his third solo album Stanley Road. The album produces four UK Top 20 singles including "The Changingman" #7 UK and "You Do Something To Me" #9 UK. The album goes 4X UK Platinum. Canadian singer songwriter Bryan Adams has his fourth US #1 single with "Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman." The song is included on the soundtrack album for the Johnny Depp film Don Juan DeMarco. The song receives an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song.
By June of 1995, there is the song that represent a R&B and hip hop prominent collaboration. The song is "I'll Be There For You/You're All I Need To Get By" is a remix of Method Man's track "All I Need" mixed with the Motown song "You're All I Need To Get By" (done by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell). The song, with choruses and backing vocals by Mary J. Blige, hits #3 US, #1 US R&B. Around the same time, the American brother/sister superstars Michael and Janet Jackson team up for the single "Scream" which charts at #5 US, #3 UK. The song is written and produced by the Jacksons with the team of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. The video for the song costs $7 Million and is one of the most expensive ever produced. The song Scream is about Michael Jackson being supported by Janet Jackson over many allegations and controversies. It's about a younger sister and an older brother playing, being angry, and showing their talents to the world (in the midst of the media's obsession with them). The second album from Icelandic singer songwriter Bjork is one of her most successful, reaching #2 UK, #32 US and going Platinum in both countries. The album spawns three UK Top Ten singles including "Army Of Me" #10, "Hyperballad" #8 and "It's Oh So Quiet" #4. The Chemical Brothers, an electronic music duo from Manchester, England, release their debut album Exit Planet Dust which breaks into the UK Top Ten at #9. The duo of Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons had previously been known as the Dust Brothers. The album goes Platinum in the UK. In July 1995, the Notorious B.I.G. was at the crown top of East Coast hip hop. Brooklyn, New York rapper Biggie Smalls a.k.a. The Notorious B.I.G. hits #2 US, #34 UK with the remix single "One More Chance/Stay With Me." Produced by Sean Puffy Combs, the song features additional vocals from Faith Evans and Mary J. Blige, it sells over a million copies. The remix music video had tons of hip hop and R&B icons from Heavy D to Aaliyah. Elliot Smith and Supergrass released music. By August 1995, the former drummer for Nirvana, Dave Grohl, wrote the songs, plays all the instruments and sings all vocals for the self titled debut album for the Foo Fighters which charts at #23 US, #3 UK on it's way to going to US Platinum. After recording the album, Grohl recruits band members to tour. By August 1995, TLC released the song of Waterfalls. I remember that song vividly as I watched it a lot on Splash TV back in 1995. The song is about promoting the lesson that dangerous choices can lead into death literally, and people should be careful to create the positive choices in life. Atlanta, Georgia R&B, hip hop group TLC hit #1 in the US with the single "Waterfalls" #6 UK. It is the second #1 single from their album CrazySexyCool which sells 21 million copies worldwide. In July the band declares bankruptcy in a bid to renegotiate their recording constract. Yet, TLC will bounce back, make more music, and be the premier new jack swing hip hop/R&B group that inspired the world with their messages.
By August 1995, the UK singer songwriter Seal goes to #1 US, #4 UK with the single "Kiss From A Rose" after the song is featured in the Batman Forever movie. Seal wrote the song eight years earlier, but reworked it with producer Trevor Horn for his second album. The album goes 2X Platinum in the UK and 4X Platinum in the US. A group called Garbage made their album. Dundalk, Ireland pop/folk family band The Corrs release their debut album Forgiven, Not Forgotten and climb to #2 UK. The album is produced by Canadian producer and musician David Foster and released on Atlantic Records. The album goes on to sell over three million copies worldwide. Cleveland, Ohio hip hop group Bone Thugs-n-Harmony hit #1 US with their second album E. 1999 Eternal. The album goes 9X Platinum in the US and contains the single "Tha Crossroads" which sells over two million copies and hits #1 US in 1996. Shaggy had Boombastic in August of 1995 too as part of reggae music. Shaggy continues to make music to this day. Grateful Dead lead guitarist and founder Jerry Garcia dies of a heart attack after a long struggle with drug addiction. The Grateful Dead formed in 1965 in California's San Francisco Bay area performing a mix of folk, country and psychedelic rock and pioneering the "jam band" ethos. On September 7, 1964, influential West Coast hip hop artist Eric Lynn Wright (Eazy-E) passed away from the AIDS-induced pneumonia. He was 30 years. He was a member of N.W.A. and had his own solo career too. He was a producer who help to promote Bone, Black Eyed Peas, and other artists. He wanted to work hard on his companies, build technological devices, and made a final note to his fans, made amends to Ice Cube, and married his girlfriend. By September 1995, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum opened in Cleveland, Ohio. It was designed by architect I.M. Pei. The RRHOF Foundation was established in 1983 and several cities were considered for the hall's permanent home, but Cleveland civic boosters raised $65 million. By this time, after hitting #3 US in 1994 with his single "Fantastic Voyage", California rapper Coolio teams up with R&B singer L.V. for the single "Gangsta's Paradise" which hits #1 in both the US and UK. The song was created for the film Dangerous Minds and is on the soundtrack album. Smashing Pumpkins, Alice in Chains, Pulp, Oasis, and Take That made many songs and albums. American singer Whitney Houston has her eleventh US #1 single with "Exhale (Shoop Shoop)" #11 UK. The song is from the film Waiting To Exhale in which Houston plays the lead role. Produced by Kenneth Babyface Edmonds the soundtrack also features Toni Braxton, Brandy, TLC and Mary J. Blige among others This was in November 1995. By December of 1995, veteran hip hop artist L Cool J teamed with Philadelphia R&B vocal group Boyz ll Men on the single "Hey Lover" which charts at #3 US, #17 UK. The song is from Cool J's sixth album Mr. Smith which goes Double Platinum in the US. During this time in December 1995, Boyz ll Men also collaborate with Mariah Carey on her eleventh US #1 single "One Sweet Day" #6 UK. The song is included on Carey's fifth album Fantasy, whose title track had hit #1 US in October. The album goes 8X Platinum in the US and sells over 20 million copies worldwide. One Swet Day was one of the greatst songs of all time not just in the 1990's.
Living in America, it is important to understand the culture of cities. Today, most Americans live in cities, and Austin, Texas is a very important city of the American landscape. Austin is found in Texas, which is a state with a large amount of culture. Austin being the capital city of Texas making its very vital in the political strength of Texas found in Travis County. It's the 10th most populous city in America and the fourth most populous city in Texas. It is also the second most populous state capital city in America. Since 2010, its population has grown very fast. Austin is found northeast of San Antonio, south of Dallas, north west of Houston far east of El Paso. Now, Austin, Texas has almost 1 million human beings. Many residents to the Main Building at the University of Texas, the Laguna Gloria, Paramount Theater, the Texas State Capitol Building, and other locations. We know of the Austin City Limits concerts hosting artists and being nicknamed "The live Music Capital of the World." Austin is home to many rivers, lakes, and waterways along with college students, musicians, high tech workers, and blue collar workers. The headquarters or regional offices of 3M, Oracle, Tesla, Texas Instruments, Whole Foods Markets, and other corporations exist in the vicinity of Austin, Texas. In 2021, Austin became home to the Austin FC, the first (and currently only) major professional sports team in the city. Therefore, it is important to know wisdom and appreciate our lives.
Civil rights history has been found prominently in Austin, Texas. Many black people were slaves and free during the 19th century. The Texas Revolution was created to maintain the Republic of Texas's slavery policies against the Mexican ban on slavery. The private Historically Black University of Huston-Tillotson University (HT) was created in 1875 as the first higher learning educational location in Austin, Texas. The university is affiliated with the United Methodist Church, the United Church of Christ, and the United Negro College Fund. Huston–Tillotson University awards bachelor's degrees in business, education, the humanities, natural sciences, social sciences, science, and technology and a master's degree in educational leadership. The university also offers alternative teacher certification and academic programs for undergraduates interested in pursuing post-graduate degrees in law and medicine. Since 2022, Melva K. Williams serves as president of Huston–Tillotson University. She was preceded by Archibald W. Vanderpuye, an interim president. After the American Civil War and Reconstruction, black people in Austin fought for voting rights and human rights in general. Also, Latino Americans in Austin fought for human rights too. In 1940, Arthur De Witty becomes the first African American to be appointed to a Travis County Grand jury. In May 1946, Heman Marion Sweatt files a lawsuit against The University of Texas at Austin president Theophilus Painter and other school officials for denying him admittance into The University of Texas School of Law because he is African American. Representatives of the Campus Guild at The University of Texas at Austin congratulated Hazel Scott, a nationally known African American pianist, for refusing to perform before a segregated audience at Gregory Gym in 1948. After four and one half years of legal battles, Heman Marion Sweatt registered at The University of Texas at Austin in 1950. By 1951, Austin City Council abolishes racial segregation in the Main Library and the Carver Branch Library in December. August Novel Swain (1927-2006) becomes first African American to receive a master’s degree from the School of Social Work at The University of Texas at Austin in 1953.
Harry Akins, owner of the Night Hawk Restaurant, is “instrumental in the desegregation of most of Austin’s major restaurants.” In 1953, Mrs. Myrtle Washington is arrested for refusing to move to the rear of the bus when asked by an Austin Transit Company bus driver. The Austin Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) represented Mrs. Washington who is charged with violating the 1945 Jim Crow law requiring Blacks to sit at the rear of the bus. The Austin Chapter of the NAACP wants the abolition of segregation of Austin public schools in 1954. In 1955, in a unanimous decision, The University of Texas Board of Regents voted to admit African American undergraduate students starting in the fall semester, 1956. Racists fight back against this policy, but their actions fail. Arthur De Witty, public relations officer for the Austin Chapter of the NAACP in Austin, secures an attorney to aid in the case of Mrs. Howellen Taylor who has been charged with “violating the state Jim Crow Law” by refusing a driver’s request to move to the back of the bus. Austin schools start to integrate by 1956. University of Texas student Barbara Smith Conrad was removed from the opera of Dido and Arenas, because she is black in 1957. Bishop John E. Hines of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas calls for racial integration and equality in local congregations and in Episcopalian schools and camps. When fourteen-year-old Sandra Kay Hall is admitted into Allan Junior High, she became the first African American in Austin to attend a white junior high school. By the 1960's, students pick area colleges and businesses on Congress Avenue to end Jim Crow apartheid. Many black and white students at the University of Texas have demonstrations against the segregated Texas Theater on the Main Campus by 1960. By 1963, The Austin Chamber of Commerce adopted a resolution recommending the “immediate and complete integration of all public facilities.” In 1964, Mrs. Cora Eiland Hicks, who in 1953 became the first African American to hold a position higher than a clerk at The University of Texas, is appointed to the University faculty as a teaching assistant in the English Department. Racism persists with the racist Cowboy Minstrel Show. Then, it was finally banned of its blackface perforance by 1965. In April 1968, Wilhelmina Fitzgerald Delco is elected to the Austin ISD Board of Trustees, becoming the first African American in Austin to be elected to such a position. After Dr. King's unjust assassination in 1968, many students hold a campus memorial service and a march to the Texas Captiaol building. There was a service sponsored by the Austin Council of Churches at Municipal Auditorium (filled with people of many colors and backgrounds).
In 1969, John Warfield created the Department of Black History and Afro-American Studies. By the 1970's, debates on desegregation continue and the federal government brought a suit against the Austin ISD for alleged failure to comply with desegregation guidelines. By 1971, the Tri-Ethnic Community Council is formed in January to work for equal educational opportunity for all Austin students. Anti-busing movements grows by the 1970's and 1980's. From voting rights protests, anti-police brutality rallies, pro-immigration rallies, and other protests in the 21st century, Austin has always been a homebase on social activist activity.
The assassination of President John F. Kennedy existed in stages. By November 22, 1963, Air Force One arrivated at Dallas Love Field at 11:40 am. President Kennedy and the First Lady boarded a 1961 Lincoln Continental convertible limousine to travel to a luncheon at the Dallas Market Center. Other occupants of this vehicle—the second in the motorcade—were Secret Service Agent Bill Greer, who drove; Special Agent Roy Kellerman in the front passenger seat; and Governor Connally and his wife Nellie, who sat just forward of the Kennedys. Four Dallas police motorcycle officers accompanied the Kennedy limousine. Vice President Johnson, his wife Lady Bird, and Senator Yarborough rode in another convertible. The motorcade's meandering 10-mile route through Dallas was designed to give Kennedy maximum exposure to crowds by passing through a suburban section of Dallas, and Main Street in Downtown Dallas, before turning right on Houston Street. After another block, the motorcade was to turn left onto Elm Street, pass through Dealey Plaza, and travel a short segment of the Stemmons Freeway to the Trade Mart.
The planned route had been reported in newspapers several days in advance. Despite concerns about hostile protestors—Kennedy's UN Ambassador Adlai Stevenson had been spat on in Dallas in 1961—Kennedy was greeted warmly by enthusiastic crowds. President John F. Kennedy's limousine entered Dealey Plaza at 12:30 pm. CST. Nellie Connally turned and commented to Kennedy, who was sitting behind her, "Mr. President, they can't make you believe now that there are not some in Dallas who love and appreciate you, can they?" Kennedy's reply – "No, they sure can't" – were his last words. From Houston Street, the limousine made the planned left turn onto Elm, passing the Texas School Book Depository. As it continued down Elm Street, multiple shots were fired: about 80% of the witnesses recalled hearing three shots. The Warren Commission concluded that three shots were fired and noted that most witnesses recalled that the second and third shots were bunched together. Shortly after Kennedy began waving, some witnesses heard the first gunshot, but few in the crowd or motorcade reacted, many interpreting the sound as a firecracker or backfire.
Within one second of each other, Governor Connally and Mrs. Kennedy turned abruptly from their left to their right. Connally—an experienced hunter—immediately recognized the sound as that of a rifle and turned his head and torso rightward, noting nothing unusual behind him. He testified that he could not see Kennedy, so he started to turn forward again (turning from his right to his left), and that when his head was facing about 20 degrees left of center, he was struck in his upper right back by a shot he did not hear, then shouted, "My God. They're going to kill us all!"
According to the Warren Commission and the HSCA, Kennedy was waving to the crowds on his right when a shot entered his upper back and exited his throat just beneath his larynx. He raised his elbows and clenched his fists in front of his face and neck, then leaned forward and leftward. Mrs. Kennedy, facing him, put her arms around him. Although a serious wound, it likely would have been survivable.
According to the Warren Commission's single bullet theory—derided as the "magic bullet theory" by the Warren Commission's critics—Governor Connally was injured by the same bullet that exited Kennedy's neck. The bullet created an oval-shaped entry wound, hit and destroyed several inches of Connally's right fifth rib, and exited his chest just below his right nipple, creating a sucking chest wound. That same bullet then entered his arm just above his right wrist and shattered his right radius bone. The bullet exited just below the wrist at the inner side of his right palm and finally lodged in his left thigh. As the limousine passed the grassy knoll, Kennedy was hit again: a fatal shot to the head. The Warren Commission made no conclusion as to whether this was the second or third bullet fired. The two investigative committees concluded that the second shot to hit Kennedy entered the rear of his head. It then passed in fragments through his skull, creating a large, "roughly ovular" hole on the rear, right side of the head, and spraying blood and fragments. His brain and blood spatter landed as far as the following Secret Service car and the motorcycle officers
Secret Service Agent Clint Hill was riding on the running board of the car immediately behind Kennedy's limousine. Hill testified to the Warren Commission that he heard one shot, jumped onto the street, and ran forward to board the limousine and protect Kennedy. Hill stated that he heard the fatal headshot as he reached the Lincoln, "approximately five seconds" after the first shot that he heard. After the headshot, Mrs. Kennedy began climbing onto the limousine's trunk, but she later had no recollection of doing so. Hill believed she may have been reaching for a piece of Kennedy's skull. He jumped onto the limousine's bumper, and he clung to the car as it exited Dealey Plaza and sped to Parkland Memorial Hospital. After Mrs. Kennedy crawled back into her seat, both Governor and Mrs. Connally heard her repeatedly saying: "They have killed my husband. I have his brains in my hand." Bystander James Tague received a minor wound to the cheek—either from bullet or concrete curb fragments—while standing by the triple underpass. Nine months later, the FBI removed the curb, and spectrographic analysis revealed metallic residue consistent with the lead core in Oswald's ammunition. Tague testified before the Warren Commission and initially stated that he was wounded by either the second or third shot of the three shots that he remembered hearing. When the commission counsel pressed him to be more specific, Tague testified that he was wounded by the second shot.
As the motorcade left Dealey Plaza, some witnesses sought cover, and others joined police officers to run up the grassy knoll in search of a shooter. No shooter was found behind the knoll's picket fence. Among the 178 witnesses who testified to the Warren Commission, 78 were unsure of the shots' origin, 49 believed they came from the Depository, and 21 thought they came from the grassy knoll. The Warren Commission said that no witness ever reported seeing anyone—with or without a gun—immediately behind the knoll's picket fence at the time of the shooting. Critics disagree with that assumption.
Lee Bowers was in a two-story railroad switch tower 120 yards behind the grassy knoll's picket fence; he was watching the motorcade and had an unobstructed view of the only route by which any shooter could flee the grassy knoll; he saw no one leaving the scene. Bowers testified to the Warren Commission that "one or two" men were between him and the fence during the assassination: one was a familiar parking lot attendant and the other wore a uniform like a county courthouse custodian. He testified seeing "some commotion" on the grassy knoll at the time of the assassination: "something out of the ordinary, a sort of milling around, but something occurred in this particular spot which was out of the ordinary, which attracted my eye for some reason which I could not identify." Witness Howard Brennan said a man from the school book despository having a rifle.
When searching the sixth floor of the Depository, two deputies found an Italian Carcano M91/38 bolt-action rifle. Oswald had purchased the used rifle the previous March under the alias "A. Hidell" and had it delivered to his Dallas P.O. box. The FBI found Oswald's partial palm print on the barrel, and fibers on the rifle were consistent with those of Oswald's shirt. A bullet found on Governor Connally's hospital gurney and two fragments found in the limousine were ballistically matched to the Carcano.
Oswald left the Depository and traveled by bus to his boarding house, where he retrieved a jacket and revolver. At 1:12 p.m., police officer J. D. Tippit spotted Oswald walking in the residential neighborhood of Oak Cliff and called him to his patrol car. After an exchange of words, Tippit exited his vehicle; Oswald then shot Tippit three times in the chest. As Tippit lay on the ground, Oswald fired a final shot into Tippit's right temple. Oswald then calmly walked away before running as witnesses emerged. The Dallas police found Lee Harvey Oswald at 1:36 pm. He was at the Texas Theater without paying a movie. The film War is Hell was playing. Dallas policemen arrested Oswald after a brief struggle, and Oswald drew his empty gun. He denied shooting anyone and claimed that he was a patsy because he had lived in the Soviet Union. At 12:38 p.m., Kennedy arrived in the emergency room of Parkland Memorial Hospital. Although Kennedy was still breathing after the shooting, his personal physician, George Burkley, immediately saw that survival was impossible. After Parkland surgeons performed futile cardiac massage, Kennedy was pronounced dead at 1:00 p.m., 30 minutes after the shooting. CBS host Walter Cronkite broke the news on live television.
The following strange stuff happened too. The Secret Service was concerned about the possibility of a larger plot and urged Johnson to leave Dallas and return to the White House. However, Johnson refused to do so without any proof of Kennedy's death. Johnson returned to Air Force One around 1:30 p.m., and shortly thereafter, he received telephone calls from advisors McGeorge Bundy and Walter Jenkins advising him to depart for Washington, D.C. immediately. He replied that he would not leave Dallas without Jacqueline Kennedy and that she would not leave without Kennedy's body. According to Esquire, Johnson did "not want to be remembered as an abandoner of beautiful widows." At the time of Kennedy's assassination, the murder of a president was not under federal jurisdiction. Accordingly, Dallas County medical examiner Earl Rose insisted that Texas law required him to perform an autopsy. A heated exchange between Kennedy's aides and Dallas officials nearly erupted into a fistfight before the Texans yielded and allowed Kennedy's body to be transported to Air Force One. At 2:38 p.m., with Jacqueline Kennedy at his side, Johnson was administered the oath of office by federal judge Sarah Tilghman Hughes aboard Air Force One shortly before departing for Washington with Kennedy's coffin. President Kennedy's autopsy was performed at Bethesda Naval Hospital on the night of November 22. Jacqueline Kennedy had selected a naval hospital as the postmortem site as President Kennedy had been a naval officer during World War II. Scholars who believe that the assassination was a conspiracy or not, heavily believed that the autopsy was too rushed and messed up. It was a heavily botched autospy. The HSCA forensic pathology panel concluded that the autopsy had "extensive failings", including failure to take sufficient photographs, failure to determine the exact exit or entry point of the head bullet, not dissecting the back and neck, and neglecting to determine the angles of gunshot injuries relative to body axis. The panel further concluded that the two doctors were not qualified to have conducted a forensic autopsy. Panel member Milton Helpern—Chief Medical Examiner for New York City—said that selecting Humes (who had only taken a single course on forensic pathology) to lead the autopsy was "like sending a seven-year-old boy who has taken three lessons on the violin over to the New York Philharmonic and expecting him to perform a Tchaikovsky symphony."
You always find new information on family trees. I found out that Aisha Camille Bennett is my paternal 4th cousin as she is related to the Tillery family. She was born on August 31, 1972, and she has lived in New Jersey. She married Harry Hayes on August 23, 2003 at Willingboro Township, Burlington, New Jersey. Aisha Bennett and Harry Hayes's children are Jaidon Hayes and Cameron Hayes (my 4th cousins). Her parents are Calvin L. Bennett (b. 1971) and my 3rd cousin Bessie Teresa Ayres (b. 1954). Calvin L. Bennett married Bessie Teresa Ayres in June 1971 in Trenton, New Jersey. Aisha Camille Bennett's sister is Charmel Bennett Bloodshaw. Bessie Teresa Ayres's parents are Elton Douglas Garland Ayres (1930-1983) and Vivian Garfield Beech (b. 1931). Vivian Garfield Beech's parents are Cora Lee Tillery (1895-1955) and Walker Dumas Beech Jr. (1885-1966). Cora Lee Tillery's parents are Sallie Gary (b. 1869) and my 2nd great granduncle Walter Tillery (1868-1927). Walter Tillery's parents are my 3rd great grandparents Isam Tillery (b. 1835) and Martha Jane Randolf (b. 1847).
There is more information I found about my late maternal cousin Catherine Lee Peeples (1933-2006). Both of us are descendants of Fannie Peeples and Charles Peeples. Catherine Lee Peeples was born on November 20, 1933, at Pocomoke, Maryland. Pocomoke is located in the Eastern Shore of Maryland where cities like Cambridge, Eaton, and other places are found at. I been to the Eastern shore of Maryland in real life too. Catherine Lee Peeples's parents were William Rouser Peeples Sr. (1898-1952) and Goldie Elizabeth Taylor (1902-1985). Catherine Lee Peeples married Aaron P. Nottingham Jr. (1932-1989). The Nottingham African American family heavily lives in the Eastern Shore of Virginia at Northampton County. The couple had the following children: Deborah Lee Nottingham (b. 1953), Patricia Ann Nottingham (b. 1960), William Aaron Nottingham (b. 1961), Cynthia Nottingham (b. 1964), and Kimberly Michone Notthingham (b. 1968). Kimberly Michone Nottingham and Troy Lamont Jackson had the child of Taneckia Jackson (b. 1985). My 2nd cousin Deborah Lee Nottingham married Aurthur Wayne Onley (1953-2009) on March 16, 1974 at Northampton County, Virginia. Their children are my 3rd cousins whose names are Wayne Tiaz Onley (b. 1976. He married Kimberly Candace Burnett) and Dimitra Onley.
My late maternal 4th cousin Mabel Lee Artis (1945-2021) is a descendant of my 6th great grandparents of Burwell Williams and Winifred Woodson-Bozeman (b. 1791). To start, Mabel Lee Artis was born on April 26, 1945 at Nansemond, Virginia (or Suffolk, Virginia today). She married Thomas Lee Roberts (b. 1944) on December 31, 1987 at Suffolk, Virginia. She and James Edward Speller had the child of Rosemary Artis (b. 1960). She and Norman Skinner had the child of Phebe Annette Artis (b. 1963). Her other children are Melvin McKinley Artis Jr. (b. 1964), Norman McCoy Artis (b. 1967), and Ruby Artis. Mabe Lee Artis's parents were Harry Columbus Artis Sr. (1925-2003) and Gladys Earline Ash (1925-2004). Harry Columbus Artis Sr. and Glayds Earline Ash had the following children: Mabel Lee Artis (1945-2021), Alton Artis (1948-1987), Harry Artis (b. 1950), Susie Mae Artis (1951-1967), and Jessie Lee Artis (1954-1992). Harry Columbus Artis Sr.'s parents are Harry Washington Artis (1876-1958) and Mary Alice Brown (1877-1953). Henry Washington Artis's parents are Jimmie Artis (b. 1853) and Margaret Wiggins (b. 1847). Margaret Wiggins's parents are Sally Williams-Woods Wiggins (b. 1825) and Robert Wiggins. Sally Williams-Woodson Wiggins's parents are Burwell Williams and Winifred Woodson-Bozeman.
During this early stage of the 2024, many realities are abundant. We have the most important election of our lifetimes coming up in 2024. The GOP candidates are very clear on what they desire. They desire the destruction of the progressive blessings that many of us take for granted. Some of these blessings have been gone via many Supreme Court decision from eliminating affirmative action in colleges to suppressing certain human rights. Mike Pence, Ron DeSantis, Tim Scott, Chris Christie, Larry Elder, Nikki Haley, and other Republican candidates desire Biden to have a one term Presidency. Pence and Haley are very hypocritical to claim to want a better America, but they minimize the corruption and criminal behavior of Donald Trump. DeSantis even denies that the January 6th insurrection attack on the U.S. Capitol was an insurrection. Chris Christie and Will Hurd are the only Republican Presidential candidates so far who have publicly criticized the policies of Donald Trump as reckless and corrupt. For DeSantis wanting to end birthright citizenship and supporting a Florida educational curriculum mentioning that slavery had some personal benefit to people shows his anti-democratic, racist mentality. As for the Democratic side, President Biden, Robert Kennedy Jr. (who promotes disinformation and loves free market capitalism), and Marianne Williamson are running for President. We have third Party candidates like Cornel West of the Green Party, Taylor Marshall, and other human beings. Third Parties have the right to exist, but it seems that one of the major parties will have the Presidency. Long term, we should have multiple parties having great influence not just a duopoly, but the threat of fascism remains in our society. So, making sure that a Republican won't have the Presidency in 2024 is very important. Either we have rights for all people or not. In other words, in 2024, the election will between fascism vs. democracy. I'm not being hyperbolic. I'm being real. Therefore, a Biden/Harris re-election is so much better than a fascist MAGA leader of Donald Trump or a Republican in the White House in 2024.
By Timothy
Saturday, July 22, 2023
Friday, July 21, 2023
Black History being attacked by Florida's DeSantis.
Robert Kennedy Jr. and Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett had a discussion about censorship, COVID-19, and other issues. The House Representatives praised RFK Jr. not because they agree with a love of democracy for all. They wanted to exploit RFK Jr. to express hatred of progressive views and desire a one term Presidency of Biden. Robert Kennedy Jr. denied that he wanted to believe that the pandemic vaccine was used to spare the lives of Jewish people, but other sources claim that he has done so (including a tape). Robert Kennedy Jr. had to apologized for comparing the Holocaust to vaccine mandates before. RFK Jr. is wrong to compare the vaccines in dealing with COVID-19 with the Tuskegee Experiment. The Tuskegee Experiment was about innocent black Americans receiving disease without treatment, but the pandemic vaccine was sent to people in trying to save lives. That is the difference. Robert Kennedy Jr. had reactionary views on immigration and claims that there is a vaccine/autism link which has no conclusive evidence. Robert Kennedy Jr. had spewed skepticism about some vaccinations for years. I don't agree with government authoritarian censorship on the Net, but we should oppose disinformation and lies spewed on the Internet though. Robert Kennedy Jr. has been funded of his Presidential campaign heavily by Republicans, and he has been pictured by extremists like Steve Bannon. The irony of Elon Musk is that he claims to be a free speech absolutist, but he censors certain words that he doesn't agree with.
The Florida Board of Education is at again with their historical revisionism. They recently approved a new black history standards that lies about black history ironically. It doesn't show all of black history. Many education and civil rights activists have criticized the new plan. DeSantis criticized a AP African American Studies source and doesn't want any mention of social justice in textbooks. The new standards in Florida teach the lie that slaves developed "skills which in some instances could be applied for their personal benefit." Slavery was not about skills applied for personal benefit. Slavery was evil and tyrannical that caused rape, abuse, and families ruined. This nonsense is like saying that the Jewish victims of the Holocaust learned about beneficial skills at the concentration camps. The plan also requires instruction of acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans in reference to the 1920 Ocoee massacre against black people. This lie is about promoting moral equivalency and denial of the viciousness of anti-black oppression of black people in America. Recently, a publisher in Florida eliminated references of Rosa Parks being black, because of the DeSantis law. This is reprehensible. STOP W.O.K.E. Act is about hatred and not fairness. Don't underestimate DeSantis. He is just as vicious as Trump.
The D.C. grand jury interviewed Trump aide William Russell. This relates to the information about the January 6th terrorist insurrection at Washington, D.C. The Trump target from the DOJ cited 3 federal laws. Trump reposted a threatening video after the DOJ target letter. Trump shows his extremism once again. Trump already said that he wants more authoritarian policies if he is re-elected. Trump is overt about making the executive branch a nearly fascist branch of government. That is why people should oppose Trump overtly. He is known racist, sexist, and xenophobe.
Recently, the Biden campaign released a campaign aid using the words of Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene to support the Joe Biden re-election campaign. Greene said that Biden has pursued the largest public investment in social infrastructure and environmental programs. Greene acts like this is a bad thing, but we need infrastructure and a better environment in order for us to live our best lives on this Earth. At a conservative conference, Marjorie Taylor Greene lied and called FDR and LBJ socialists. The reality is that FDR and LBJ weren't socialists. Both Presidents did promote policies that increased the role of the federal government in saving people's lives. FDR wasn't perfect, but he was 100 percent right to promote Social Security, defeat the Axis Powers in World War II, and advance economic progressive policies that saved millions of lives from poverty. LBJ wasn't perfect, but he was 100 percent right to promote the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act, the Gun Control Act, the Housing Rights Act, environmental regulations, and investments in public education. The Great Society cut poverty in America in half. Greene is a MAGA extremist who claim to be a spiritual person, but she has cursed out a woman in Congress, lied about Democrats collectively being allied to pedophiles, and other outlandish statements. It is important to vote fascism out of office in 2024.
Andrew E. Kramer of the New York Times is wrong in WWII history. Kramer once wrote that the WWII began in Ukraine in 1939 with the Soviet invasion in Ukraine. The truth is that WWII started with the Nazis invasion of Poland. There were Neo-Nazi nationalists in Ukrainians killing many Jewish people back during WWII too. Then, the NY Times changed the statement and said World II "reached what is now Ukraine in 1939 with a Soviet invasion into territory then controlled by Poland in western Ukraine." The Soviet Union never started WWII. In fact, the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union and tried to conquer the area of Russia, etc. Stalin once had a deal with Hitler which was opposed by Trotsky. Later, Hitler broke the treaty and invaded the Soviet Union. Kramer is wrong to mention that the Hitler Stalin non-aggression pact just broke down. The reality is that Hitler opposed it and invaded the Soviet Union via Operation Barbarossa. Hitler never respected the humanity of Slavic people at all. 27 million Soviet citizens were murdered by the Nazis, 900,000 Ukrainian Jewish people were murdered by the Nazis (and the Ukrainian fascists. Today, the Azov Battalion should not be glorified). The Red Army in WWII contributed heavily to the Allied victory during WWII. The Putin invasion against Ukraine was evil and unjust (Putin is a tyrant and a far-right nationalist extremist), but this war should end by not making Ukraine a puppet Western state. Ukraine has every right to self-defense to defend their lives basically. The war should end making Ukraine independent from Putin's invasion and from Western imperialism.
By Timothy
Thursday, July 20, 2023
Wednesday, July 19, 2023
Our Political World.
The breaking news is that the Special Counsel Jack Smith has sent Donald Trump a target letter. That means that it is most likely that Trump may face indictment over the 2020 terrorist attack in the U.S. Capitol. Many people have been interviewed by the Department of Justice. The Special Counsel is researching about the Trump promotion of the lie that the election of 2020 was stolen. Kevin McCarthy continues to lie and believe that the target letter is about a political witch-hunt. The reality is that Trump tried his best to illegally steal the 2020 election, and he agitated a crowd in trying to overthrow the peaceful transition of power on January 6, 2021. The federal prosecutors involved in the target letter want to make their actions clear. This is a sign that the investigation is approaching the end. Trump has already been indicted twice before, being the first former President in American history being charged with a felony. Judge Aileen Cannon listened to both sides and most decide when the classified documents trial must take place. The Judge told prosecutors that a December 2023 date may be too rushed. The Special counsel has interviewed people from many battleground states, as Trump tried to steal the election in many sophisticated ways.
The No Labels hosted their deceptive meeting in New Hampshire. They want third party Presidential bids. Joe Lieberman lied and said that the Democratic must promote a more moderate platform when real social change was never headed by moderates but by revolutionaries and progressives from Malcolm X to Ella Baker. Biden himself is a moderate on many issues, but that isn't good enough for No Labels. They want the whole country to embrace centrism which is ludicrous as people have the right to believe in what we want. We have seen this game before. No Labels have ballot access in four states so far. No Labels always complain, but they ignore the threat of Trumpism against our democracy. So, No Labels is funded by many corporate interests who desire the status quo and aid Big Pharma and Big Oil interests. That is why Joe Manchin has allied with No Labels. Some in No Labels equate Joe Biden as extreme as Donald Trump which is silly. Trump tried to overthrow the government involving the 2020 election. No Labels is filled with cowards by hiding who funds them. No Labels mentions nothing on climate change or policies on how to deal with it. They believe in total deregulation. So, we are not deceived at No Labels's propaganda. I'm disappointed that civil rights leader Benjamin Chavis is part of No Labels. Chavis knows better.
The heat done causing record temperatures is found in the Deep South, the West, and in other places of the world (like in Southern Europe as far north as places in France). There are some researchers who want to use a lighter paint in trying to cool down the Earth. The problem is that some believe you need to cover at least 1 percent of the Earth's surface with the paint to make an impact. Jeremy Munday, a professor electrical and computer engineering at the University of California, Davis, he believes that this amount will allow the amount of light being bounced back into space and would reduce the amount of heat being absorbed by the planet enough to stabilize temperatures.
Herzog visited Biden today. Netanyahu has the most right-wing government in Israeli history. That is why Israelis are protesting in Tel Aviv over Netanyahu's plan to seek to disrupt the judiciary system in Israel. There is a strong public opposition to Netanyahu's policies in Israel indeed. Itamar Ben Gvir admired Meir Kahane (who was a racist towards Arabic people). The reality is that occupation is anti-democratic. In the West Bank, Palestinians must have a military approval to travel to and fro. Far right extremists want total expulsion of Palestinians from the West Bank. The Israeli government wants more control and settlements in the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip is totally occupied. This has been going on for decades, and America funds this reality militarily. There is no long-term benefit for Israel and Palestine to have permanent occupation and injustice against Palestinians. The only solution is for Israelis and Palestinians to have total equality and justice irrespective of their color including the ending of the system of occupation.
The strike continues among 76,000 writers and actors in America. The common misconceptions is that all of the writers and actors are making a considerable amount of money. That isn't the case at all. They represent member of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA). The strike is about fighting for just compensation as a product of hard work. Many working-class movements are getting stronger. The American entertainment industry are among the largest U.S. exports. Film culture is very international. Many actors in Canadian desire justice too. In the United Kingdom, cast members of Christopher Nolan's biographical film of Oppenheimer have walked out of the film's premiere in London. U.S. production companies have executives making 20-30 million dollars per year which is a lot of money, but regular working writers and actors in many cases struggle to make ends meet. The growth of AI is concerning as AI can replace movies at will if the technology evolves rapidly in the next 10 years. When a studio executive said in Deadline anonymously that the entertainment companies want to drag the strike out for months until union members lost their homes and apartments, strikers were even angrier at such a cruel comment. At the end of the day, the strike is a historic reminder that large corporations and Wall Street interests should never have carte blanche via fiat to mistreat any worker. Workers of any background deserve equity and full economic rights comprehensively.
By Timothy
Monday, July 17, 2023
The Universe.
When any human being knows about the vastness of the Universe, that person would be humbled and show more respect to it. The Universe is made up of all space and time including its contents. All of the planets, stars, galaxes, nebulae, and every form of matter and energy is part of the Universe. Most scientists believe in the Big Bang theory as the origin of the Universe. The theory states that space and time emerged from ca. 14 billion years ago, and the Universe has expanded ever since the Big Bang. We don't know the spatial size of the entire Universe. It could be infinite, but the observable universe is about 93 billion light years in its diameter at the present time. Thousands of years ago, many thought that the Earth was the center of the Universe. Now, we know that the Sun is at the center of the Solar System (as explained by the observations from Nicolaus Copernicus and other researchers). We know about the laws of planetary motion and the law of universal gravitation from Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, and other scholars. What is a light year? A light year is a unit of length used by astronomers to find distances of entities in the Universe. As defined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a light-year is the distance that light travels in a vacuum in one Julian year (365.25 days). Because it includes the word "year", the term is sometimes misinterpreted as a unit of time. So, a light year is how far light can travel in one year. One light year is nearly 6 trillion miles. The Universe has many physical laws. In the University, there is many forms of energy like electromagnetic radiation, etc.
So, how do you get from the Earth to the edge of the observable Universe. First, you have the Earth. The Earth is part of a series of planets, asteroids, moons, and other bodies found in space called the Solar System. The Solar System is part of the Radcliffe wave. The Radcliffe wave is the nearest coherent gaseous structure in the Milky Way, dotted with a related high concentration of interconnected stellar nurseries. It stretches about 8,800 light years. This structure runs with the trajectory of the Milky Way arms and lies at its closest (the Taurus Molecular Cloud) at around 400 light-years and at its farthest about 5,000 light-years (the Cygnus X star complex) from the Sun, always within the Local Arm (Orion Arm) itself, spanning about 40% of its length and on average 20% of its width. Its discovery was announced in January 2020 and its proximity surprised astronomers. The Radcliffe wave is part of the Orion Arm. The Orion Arm is a minor spiral arm of the Milky Way Galaxy that is 3,500 light-years (1,100 parsecs) across and approximately 10,000 light-years (3,100 parsecs) in length, containing the Solar System, including Earth. It is also referred to by its full name, the Orion–Cygnus Arm (not to be confused with the outer end of the Norma Arm the Cygnus Arm), as well as Local Arm, Orion Bridge, and formerly, the Local Spur and Orion Spur. Then, the Orion Arm (filled with the Earth, the Sun, and the rest of the Solar system) is part of the Milky Way galaxy. The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes the Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye. The Milky Way encompasses tons of stars too. The diameter of the Milky Way is about 100,000 light years. From Earth, the Milky Way appears as a band because its disk-shaped structure is viewed from within. Galileo Galilei first resolved the band of light into individual stars with his telescope in 1610. The Milky Way is one out of many galaxies in the Universe. The Milky Way has several satellite galaxies and is part of the Local Group of galaxies, which form part of the Virgo Supercluster, which is itself a component of the Laniakea Supercluster. The Milky Way has at least 100–400 billion stars (like Alpha Centauri A, Pleiades, Sirius, Tau Ceti, Proxima Centauri, etc.) and at least that number of planets. The Solar System is located at a radius of about 27,000 light-years (8.3 kpc) from the Galactic Center, on the inner edge of the Orion Arm, one of the spiral-shaped concentrations of gas and dust. The stars in the innermost 10,000 light-years form a bulge and one or more bars that radiate from the bulge. The Galactic Center is an intense radio source known as Sagittarius A*, a supermassive black hole of 4.100 (± 0.034) million solar masses. Stars and gases at a wide range of distances from the Galactic Center orbit at approximately 220 kilometers per second (136 miles per second).
The Milky Way is part of the Local Group. The Local Group is the galaxy group that includes the Milky Way. It has a total diameter of roughly 3 megaparsecs (10 million light-years; 9×1019 kilometers), and a total mass of the order of 2×1012 solar masses (4×1042 kg). It consists of two collections of galaxies in a "dumbbell" shape; the Milky Way and its satellites form one lobe, and the Andromeda Galaxy and its satellites constitute the other. The two collections are separated by about 800 kiloparsecs (3×106 ly; 2×1019 km) and are moving toward one another with a velocity of 123 km/s. The group itself is a part of the larger Virgo Supercluster, which may be a part of the Laniakea Supercluster. Beyond the Local Group is the Virgo Supercluster (Virgo SC) made up of galaxies. At least 100 galaxy groups and clusters are located within its diameter of 33 megaparsecs (110 million light-years). The Virgo SC is one of about 10 million superclusters in the observable universe and is in the Pisces–Cetus Supercluster Complex, a galaxy filament. Beyond the Virgo Supercluster is the greater supercluster entitled called Laniakea.
The Laniakea Supercluster (/ˌlæni.əˈkeɪ.ə/; Hawaiian for "open skies" or "immense heaven") is the galaxy supercluster that is home to the Milky Way and approximately 100,000 other nearby galaxies. It was defined in September 2014, when a group of astronomers including R. Brent Tully of the University of Hawaiʻi, Hélène Courtois of the University of Lyon, Yehuda Hoffman of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Daniel Pomarède of CEA Université Paris-Saclay published a new way of defining superclusters according to the relative velocities of galaxies. Beyonce the Laniakea Supercluster, you have the observable universe limit (filled with superclusters all over the Universe) being 93 billion light years (or 28 billion parsecs) in diameter. Therefore, the Universe is so vast that our minds are not fully comprehending everything in the Universe.
The 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the worst tragedies in human history. Jealousy and racial hatred caused Dr. King's death. Yet, his legacy lives on in our time 55 years later. Dr. King changed from 1955 when he worked in the Montgomery Bus Boycott movement. He became more revolutionary by 1968 by opposing the Vietnam War, promoting a radical redistribution of economic and political power, supporting the rights of workers, opposing imperialism, and supporting supporters of human justice. Like all of us human beings, we are made up of flesh and blood. We are not perfect, and Dr. King wasn't perfect. Yet, even Dr. King would inspire us to be better people despite our imperfections. Constantly, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke eloquent, inspirational speeches to men, women, and children to speak up against injustice, to hold dear to the concept of integrity, and to follow the Golden Rule fully in advancing the cause of civil rights and human equality. By 1968, the federal government was constantly illegally harassing Dr. King and his allies worldwide via COINTELPRO and other secret programs. Dr. King by 1968 was hated by a large percentage of the American public who opposed his opposition to the Vietnam War and his advocacy of the progressive Poor People's Campaign. Many young people falsely believed that his views on nonviolence were outdated. In retrospect, Dr. King's views were much more progressive and revolutionary than his critics. For example, Dr. King was much more progressive and heroic than many who claimed to be in favor of Black Power. For example, Dr. King spoke up in favor of black self-determination, he called for a Marshall Plan to rebuild the Middle East, he supported African independence in Ghana and in Nigeria, and he criticized capitalism in word plus in his speeches (in favor of democratic socialism). Therefore, Dr. King was courageous and idealistic in his life story. His wife, Coretta Scott King took on the torch along with his relatives plus friends to believe in the Dream. The Dream is not some fictional plan. The Dream is a real, authentic goal meant for all inhabitants of the Universe. The point of life is to love, build constructively, and helping others. We are born to fulfill that mission, and be a light of freedom for future, subsequent generations.
1994 was a turning point in music. In early 1994, I was in the 5th grade, and in late 1994, I was in the 6th grade at my first year of middle school. In January 1994, the Maryland singer Tori Amos had the 2nd album called Under the Pink with singles like Pretty Good Years. She said that she can see music in colors. Green Day had their debut album, and they were from the Berkeley, California punk scene. Their singles include Longview and When I Come Around. Their album sold over 20 million copies worldwide. The EP of Jar of Flys was shown by Alice in Chains (a Seattle grunge band). Groups like Meat Puppets and The Cranberries released music. New York City hip hop group Salt-N-Pepa team with R&B vocal group En Vogue for the single "Whatta Man" #3 US, #1 US Rap, #7 UK. The track is from Salt-N-Pepa's fourth album Very Necessary #4 US which goes 5X Platinum. The song is a cover of the 1968 song "What A Man" recorded by Linda Lyndell for Stax/Volt. This was in February of 1994. Satl-N-Pepa is a groundbreaking hip hop all women's group since 1985 who helped to break down barriers for other women MCs in the modern generation. Salt-N-Pepa and the group Sequence are the hip hop women groups have set up a great foundation in music. After achieving fame with French language songs, Quebec singer Celine Dion switches to English in 1990 and has her first US #1 hit with the single "The Power Of Love" #4 UK. The song is from Dion's third English language album The Colour Of My Love #1 UK, #4 US. The album goes Platinum in the US and UK. Celine Dion is known for making powerful ballads and go into other genres too. Stockton, California alternative, indie rock band Pavement release their second album Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain and reach the US Top 200 Albums for the first time at #121 and #15 UK. Cleveland, Ohio industrial, alternative band Nine Inch Nails release their second album The Downward Spiral and chart at #2 US, #9 UK. By March of 1994, the Division Bell, #1 US and UK, is the fourteenth studio album from UK progressive rock band Pink Floyd. It was the second album recorded without founding member Roger Waters. The album, which sells over seven million copies, is followed by a world tour and an extended ten-year hiatus. By March 1994, there was the song of The Sign from the Gothenburg, Sweden group of Ace of Base. I heard of that song and the group in 1994. The Sign was a number one hit in America and number 2 in the UK. The song is the title track from the band's US #1 debut album. The album had previously been released in Europe as Happy Nation. The album would sell over 21 million copies worldwide. Superunknown, the fourth album from Seattle grunge pioneers Soundgarden, enters the US Top 200 Albums at #1 and hits #4 UK. The single "Black Hole Sun" receives steady MTV play and hits #2 US Alternative and #12 UK. The album goes 5X Platinum in the US. ON April 8, 1994, Kurt Cobain died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in his Seattle home. The singer songwriter had struggled with depression, heroin addiction and chronic health problems for several years. Cobain was 27 years old at the time of his suicide. The death of Kurt Cobain represented an end of an era, as he was the spokesperson for the grunge musical and cultural revolution. R Kelly (the convicted pedophile) had his first solo hit in America with a song. The song is included on Kelly's second album 12 Play which goes 6X Platinum. The album's second single "Your Body's Callin'" hits #13 US, #2 US R&B. I don't agree with what R Kelly did. This is just for historical reference.
Blur and Live had music and album. By April of 1994, Winnipeg, Manitoba alternative band Crash Test Dummies hit it big with their single "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" which reaches #4 US, #2 UK. The song is from the band's second album God Shuffled His Feet which charts at #9 US and #2 UK and goes Double Platinum in the US. Recorded as a one-off hip hop/sampling experiment by Los Angeles folk artist Beck, the song "Loser" is released by independent label Bong Load. The song spreads from local college radio to commercial radio and MTV, eventually reaching #10 US, #15 UK and leading to a major label deal with DGC. Scottish pop group Wet Wet Wet spend fifteen weeks at #1 in the UK with their cover of The Troggs 1967 hit "Love Is All Around". The single hits #1 in fourteen countries, but only reaches #41 in the US. Recorded for the film Four Weddings And A Funeral, the song is the band's third UK #1. By May of 1994, After changing his name to an unpronounceable symbol, the artist formerly know as Prince scores his first UK #1 hit with the single "The Most Beautiful Girl In The World" #3 US. The song is from his seventeenth album The Gold Experience #6 US, #4 UK. During this time, Prince wanted control over his masters which helped other artists in the future to control their musical publishing, masters, and other forms of revenues. California R&B group All-4-One hit US #1 for eleven weeks with their single "I Swear" #2 UK. The song is a cover of the 1993 #1US Country hit for John Michael Mongomery. It is the second single from All-4-One's self titled debut album which reaches #7 US and goes 4X Platinum. With production from The Cars Rick Ocasek, Los Angeles band Weezer release their self-titled debut album. The videos for the singles "Undone - The Sweater Song" and "Buddy Holly" both get heavy MTV and alternative radio exposure pushing album sales to 3X Platinum in the US. Madonna had the song of I'll Remember. By July 1994, Long Beach, California rapper Warren G scores a hit with his debut single "Regulate", a collaboration with Nate Dogg, #2 US, #1 US Rap, #5 UK. The track is included on his debut album Regulate...G Funk Era which reaches #2 US and goes Triple Platinum. G funk took over hip hop for many years. Groups like NOFX and The Prodigy shown punk music and electronic music. On August 1994, Woodstock '94 is held to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the original 1969 festival. Performers from the original festival such as Santana and Country Joe McDonald play along with current artists Metallica, NIN, Blind Melon, Green Day and others. The event is marred by rain and mud and has been nicknamed "mudstock." Anaheim, California native Jeff Buckley releases his debut album Grace. It would be Buckley's only album, as he drowned in 1997. Ten years later his cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" would be released as a single and reach #2 UK. Buckley is the son of 60's singer songwriter Tim Buckley. Oasis had their debut album in 1994 too. Lisa Loeb had her song of Stay (I Missed You).
In August of 1994, Chicago, Illinois native Shawntae Harris is noticed at a rap competition sponsored by MTV's Yo! MTV Raps and is signed by Jermaine Dupri's So So Def label. Performing as Da Brat her debut single "Funkdafied" hits #6 US and #1 US Rap. The album of the same name hits #11 US and goes Platinum. Da Brat is known for her rapid-fire lyrical delivery. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania worldbeat band Rusted Root release their major label debut album When I Woke and chart at #51 US. The song "Send Me On My Way" is released as a single and reaches #72 US. The track "Ecstasy" is also popular. The album goes to US Platinum. Blues Traveler is a Princeton, New Jersey blues rock jam band with their album of Four. By September 1994, the Brooklyn, New York City rapper The Notorious B.I.G. releases his debut album Ready To Die on Bad Boy Records #15 US. The album features the singles "Big Poppa" #6 US, #1 US Rap and "Juicy" #27 US, #3 US Rap. The album goes 6X Platinum in the US and elevates B.I.G. to the top of East Coast hip hop. After the album, The Notorious B.I.G. was the top leader of hip hop in the East Coast indeed. By this time, Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G. were great friends and hanged out across America. Veruca Salt released music, and alternative rock band R.E.M. released their album Monster in September 1994. The album was a more harder rock sound. The album debuts at #1 US and #1 UK and goes 4X Platinum in the US. Lead single "What's The Frequency, Kenneth?" hits #21 US, #1 US Alternative and #9 UK. Midwestern singer Sheryl Crow had her hit of All I Wanna Do. She was once a backup singer with Michael Jackson. Charlottesville, Virginia group The Dave Matthews Band release their debut album Under The Table And Dreaming which charts at #11 US and eventually sells six million copies. The album's lead single "What Would You Say" (#11 US Alternative) features John Popper on harmonica.
By September 1994, Boyz II Men made another comeback with their hit I'll Make Love to You celebrating a love to woman. The song is the lead single from the group's third album which charts at #1 US, #17 UK and goes 12X Platinum in the US. The second single "On Bended Knee" also hits US #1. Queensryche and Pearl Jam released albums too. When Can I See You was a sentimental song by Babyface. Babyface is one of the best songwriters and producers of all time. The song is from his third album For The Cool In You #16 US, which goes Triple Platinum on his own record label LaFace. By December 1994, Veteran Jamaican reggae artist Ina Kamoze scores a #1 US single with "Here Comes The Hotstepper" #4 UK. The song includes multiple samples including a vocal line from the 1965 Cannibal & The Headhunters hit "Land Of A Thousand Dances." London, England band Bush release their grunge inspired debut album Sixteen Stone which hits #4 US, but only #42 at home. The album generates five US Alternative Top Five singles including "Glycerine" and "Comedown" both #1 US Alternative. The album goes 6X Platinum in the US.
One of the newest groups in the political world is the No Labels movement. This movement is made up of centrists who desire to possibly bring up a third-party candidate. They claim that they are opposed to the far left and the far right. The problem with the moderates in No Labels (and moderates in general) is that they desire no revolutionary change, but they do focus on a status quo reality. Also, the problem is that with climate change, racism, and other evils in the globe, a centrist policy won't make real solutions to these complex problems. Also, many people have exposed that some corporate executives in the No Labels crew have financed Republican and Democratic candidates. No Labels might decide to form a "unity" ticket that could cause Trump to win the 2024 by getting rid of votes from Biden. Another problem with No Labels is that the groups refuse to list their donors or anyone funding their movement. Mother Jones found out that many funders are past and present chief executive of corporations from Arby Partners to Fortress Investment Group. This is no unusual as large companies desire a neoliberal system where no waves are promoted in change. Many of the donors gave millions of dollars to Republican causes and GOP candidates too. One funder is Michael Smith, who is a billionaire founder of natural gas company Freeport LNG. He aided the Mitch McConnell campaign. No Labels believes in the myth that centrism and token bipartisanship is the way to go. William Galston resigned from the group. Nancy Jacobson has been the board president since the founding of the organization and in 2023 began serving as CEO as well. In December 2020, No Labels announced Maryland Governor Larry Hogan (R), as a national co-chair (prominent spokesperson) to serve alongside the No Labels founding co-chair Joe Lieberman. In January 2023, Benjamin Chavis joined Hogan as national co-chair. I'm shocked that Chavis is part of No Labels as Chavis is a well-known civil rights activist. Based on 14 interviews with former employees in December 2022, Politico described a "toxic" culture within No Labels. The article cited a "cutthroat culture, one where staffers are routinely fired or pushed out, have little trust in management, and believe the workplace environment can be difficult for minority and female colleagues." In response to the criticism, several senior officials for the group described to Politico the complaints as coming from, "aggrieved ex-workers" who could not "adapt" to a demanding office culture. No Labels is a contradiction by claiming to be not affiliated with any political philosophy but social change throughout history relies on adherence to political views. For example, Dr. King, Malcolm X, Harriet Tubman, and other heroes subscribed to certain political and economic views that weren't encompassing of centrism. At the end of the day, each of these people used mobilization to resist the capitalist elite in militant terms.
I don't know what happened to Robert Kennedy Jr., but he has made outlandish statements recently in his Presidential campaign. Recently, news reports said he aired a COVID lie that the pandemic virus will not harm Chinese and Ashkenazi Jewish people because the virus is an ethnic virus. Sources believe that RFK Jr. said the virus is a bioweapon targeting Caucasians and black people. This ludicrous view promotes anti-Semitism, Sinophobia, and a lack of sound judgment. RFK Jr. recently denied saying such statements (he denied saying that the virus was targeted to spare Jewish people). He also said that there is a vaccine and autism connection, which is not scientifically proven. He was an environmental lawyer and is the nephew of President John F. Kennedy and the son of New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy. In the two months since announcing his campaign, Kennedy has registered between 12 and 20 percent support among Democratic primary voters. Robert Kennedy Jr. mixed a populist rhetoric mixed with reactionary rhetoric and "free market absolutism." Former Ohio Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich is the chair of the Kennedy campaign. He desires a populist "left/right" alliance to take on the "corporate kleptocracy." RFK Jr. erroneously compared mandatory vaccines to the Holocaust. Later, he apologized for those remarks. Robert Kennedy Jr. is pictured with fascists and far right extremists like Michael Flynn and Roger Stone including Charlene Bollinger back on July 18, 2021. In a June 23 article, Rolling Stone revealed that one of Kennedy’s super PACs,“Heal the Divide,” listed as its treasurer a Jason D. Boles of RTA Strategy.
RTA Strategy has been the go-to firm for several recent Republican campaigns, including that of Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, failed Senate candidate Herschel Walker and the overt racist Illinois Representative Mary “victory for white life” Miller. Rolling Stone reported that Kennedy’s support from the far right went beyond “one MAGAfied superPAC. ... His bid is awash in support from Donald Trump’s allies in MAGA world, conservative media, and some of the Republican donor elite.” Robert Kennedy Jr. said that in private the fascist Steve Bannon urged him to run for President for months. RFK Jr. talked with Donald Trump in 2017 about vaccines too. Kennedy made clear to Musk and his right-wing audience that a Kennedy administration would be no threat to his unearned wealth or to his billionaire friends. “I am a free-market absolutist,” Kennedy said, adding, “I believe in markets. I believe in free market capitalism.” So, Robert Kennedy Jr. is a far right extremist (running in the Democratic Party) as free market capitalism has been a detriment to social progress for centuries as history documents. RFK Jr. hypocritically believes in free markets across borders involving business transactions, but he wants to seal the border involving immigration. He promotes the racist Israeli restrictions of African migrants in Israel. Robert Kennedy Jr.'s campaign is not anti-establishment or progressive. He is a reactionary person which is in contradiction to the anti-imperialist legacy of tons of heroes in our history.
After the assassination of President John Kennedy, the Warren Commission existed. Before exposing the weaknesses of the Warren Commission, it is important to describe its origin and composition first. The Warren Commision was created by President Lyndon Baines Johnson via Executive Order 11130 on November 29, 1963. The Commission's purpose was to investigate the assassination of JFK. The U.S. Congress passed Senate Joint Resolution 137 authorizing the Presidential appointed Commission to report on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, mandating the attendance and testimony of witnesses and the production of evidence. Its 888-page final report was presented to President Johnson on September 24, 1964, and made public three days later. The Warren Commision concluded that President Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald alone, and Jack Ruby acted alone when he killed Oswald 2 days later. The Chairman of the Warren Commision was Chief Justice Earl Warren. According to published transcripts of Johnson's presidential phone conversations, some major officials were opposed to forming such a commission and several commission members took part only reluctantly. One of their chief reservations was that a commission would ultimately create more controversy than consensus. President Lyndon Baines Johnson didn't want an independent Congressional investigation of the assassination at first. At the same time, Nicholas Katzenbach has been named as providing advice after the assassination of John F. Kennedy that led to the creation of the Warren Commission. On November 25 he sent a memo to Johnson's White House aide Bill Moyers recommending the formation of a Presidential Commission to investigate the assassination. To combat speculation of a conspiracy, Katzenbach said that the results of the FBI's investigation should be made public. He wrote, in part: "The public must be satisfied that Oswald was the assassin; that he did not have confederates who are still at large."
The other members of the commission were chosen from among the representatives of the Republican and Democratic parties, in both chambers (Senate and House of Representatives) added diplomat John J. McCloy, former president of the World Bank and former CIA director, Allen Dulles, sacked by John F Kennedy in November 1961, following the resounding failure of the Bay Pigs Invasion in April 1961. Allen Dulles should not have been chosen on the Warren Commission, because he had a hostility toward President Kennedy's foreign policy actions. The Warren Commission met formally for the first time on December 5, 1963, on the second floor of the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C. The Commission conducted its business primarily in closed sessions, but these were not secret sessions. Earl Warren, Richard Russell Jr., John Sherman Cooper, Hale Boggs, Gerald Ford, Allen Dulles, and John J. McCloy. The Warren Commision denied that shots were fired form the Triple Underpass, they say that three shots were fired, they couldn't find a motivate for Oswald's actions, and they believe that Connally was shot by Oswald. So, the Warren Commission was the establishment's official view of the Kennedy assassination.
This conclusion was controversial as many people don't agree with the Warren Commission's views at all. The findings prompted the Secret Service to make numerous modifications to its security procedures.
The Commission made other recommendations to the Congress to adopt new legislation that would make the murder of the President (or Vice-President) a federal crime, which was not the case in 1963. All sides of this debate agree that CIA Director McCone was "complicit" in a Central Intelligence Agency "benign cover-up" by withholding information from the Warren Commission, according to a report by the CIA Chief Historian David Robarge released to the public in 2014. According to this report, CIA officers had been instructed to give only "passive, reactive, and selective" assistance to the commission, to keep the commission focused on "what the Agency believed at the time was the 'best truth' — that Lee Harvey Oswald, for as yet undetermined motives, had acted alone in killing John Kennedy." The CIA may have also covered up evidence of being in communication with Oswald before 1963, according to the 2014 report findings.
Also withheld were earlier CIA plots, involving CIA links with the Mafia, to assassinate Cuban president Fidel Castro, which might have been considered to provide a motive to assassinate Kennedy. The report concluded, "In the long term, the decision of John McCone and Agency leaders in 1964 not to disclose information about CIA's anti-Castro schemes might have done more to undermine the credibility of the Commission than anything else that happened while it was conducting its investigation."
The Warren Commission was not perfect. It has many omissions. Many independent investigators, journalists, historians, jurists, academics including Thomas Buchanan, Sylvan Fox, Harold Feldman, Richard E. Sprague, Mark Lane Rush to Judgment, Edward Jay Epstein Inquest, Harold Weisberg's Whitewash, Sylvia Meagher's Accessories After the Fact or Josiah Thompson's Six Seconds in Dallas, will issue opinions opposing the conclusions of the Warren commission based on the same elements collected by its works. English historian Hugh Trevor-Roper, who read the report, despite the lack of an index, wrote: "The Warren report will have to be judged, not by its soothing success, but by the value of its argument. . I must admit that from the first reading of the report, it seemed impossible to me to join in this general cry of triumph. I had the impression that the text had serious flaws. Moreover, when probing the weak parts, they appeared even weaker than at first sight."
The Warren Commission argued that direct witnesses to the shooting, who immediately rushed en masse to the grassy knoll after the shots were fired, were fleeing the area of the shooting. In reality, the people present, including a dozen members of the security forces, in particular Sheriff Decker's team, who had given the order to invest the area, all testified that they were running to the search for one or more shooters posted on the grassy Knoll. It also did not interview John Fitzgerald Kennedy's personal doctor, Doctor Georges Burkley who was nevertheless present during the shooting in the convoy of official vehicles then at Parkland Hospital, on board Air Force One, then at Naval Bethesda Hospital during the autopsy. He signed the death certificate and also took delivery of the brain of John Fitzgerald Kennedy which is declared lost in the National Archives. Concerning the conclusions of the Warren commission about the three shootings, the practitioner had declared in 1967: "I would not like to be quoted on this subject."
The ballistic reports conducted by the F.B.I and the autopsy reports were not the subject of any counter-investigation, which made the commission directly dependent on the work of the latter. The Warren Commission, by decision of Earl Warren, refused to hire its own independent investigators. However, it had its own investigative capacity thanks to direct access to the emergency presidential budget funds granted by President Lyndon Johnson when it was created, to conduct its own investigations. Thus, the Warren commission was not informed by the F.B.I of the discovery the day after the attack, on November 23, 1963, by a medical student, William Harper, of a piece of occiput located at the rear left in relation to at the position of the presidential limo during the fatal shot to the head. He had it examined by the professor and medical examiner, Doctor Cairns who measured it and photographed this piece before informing the F.B.I, on November 25, 1963. The latter received instructions not to make any publicity on this subject. It was the Attorney General, Robert F Kennedy, who, informed by a letter from Dr. Cairns transmitted to the Warren Commission, allowed the latter to question the practitioner.
As early as the 1970s, official members of the Warren Commission questioned its work, in particular Hale Boggs who criticized the influence of J. Edgar Hoover, the historic director of the F.B.I from 1924 to 1972, who had centralized all of the information from the F.B.I agents before synthesizing it and transmitting it to the Warren Commission. He campaigned for a reopening of the file considering that the director of the F.B.I had lied to the Warren commission. He disappeared in an unsolved plane crash in October 1972.
Commission member Richard Russell told the Washington Post in 1970 that Kennedy had been the victim of a conspiracy criticizing the commission's no-conspiracy finding and saying "we weren't told the truth about Oswald." John Sherman Cooper also considered the ballistic findings to be "unconvincing". Russell also particularly rejected Arlen Specter's "single bullet" theory, and he asked Earl Warren to indicate his disagreement in a footnote, which the chairman of the commission refused.
Four other U.S. government or senate investigations have been conducted about the Warren Commission's conclusion or its material in different circumstances.
The Commission Church analyzed in 1976 the work of the CIA and FBI which had communicated the different elements to the Warren Commission Members.
The three others concluded with the initial conclusions that two shots struck JFK from the rear : the 1968 panel set by Attorney General Ramsey Clark, the 1975 Rockefeller Commission, and the 1978-79 House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA), which reexamined the evidence with the help of the largest forensics panel and bringing new materials to the public.
The HSCA involved Congressional hearings and ultimately concluded that Oswald assassinated Kennedy, probably as the result of a conspiracy. The HSCA concluded that Oswald fired shots number one, two, and four, and that an unknown assassin fired shot number three (but missed) from near the corner of a picket fence that was above and to President Kennedy's right front on the Dealey Plaza grassy knoll. However, this conclusion has also been criticized, especially for its reliance upon disputed acoustic evidence. The HSCA Final Report in 1979 did agree with the Warren Report's conclusion in 1964 that two bullets caused all of President Kennedy's and Governor Connally's injuries, and that both bullets were fired by Oswald from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository.
The HSCA determined that the gradual change in policy of the John Fitzgerald Kennedy administration toward Cuba, first with the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961, then more sustainably with the missile crisis of October 1962, in order to appease relations with the Cuban regime on a lasting basis and to open up new prospects, contributed to directing, if not slightly, within the many groups of paramilitary operations the most radical fringe of anti-Castro Cubans, American intelligence agents and Mafia criminals who continued their operations to overthrow the regime of Fidel Castro despite requests for formal arrests from the White House.
On January 20, 2019, a request made by 60 personalities to officially reopen the investigations into the assassinations of Malcolm X, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King and John Kennedy was formulated by the Truth and Reconciliation Committee, of which Robert Blakey is a member (investigator in head of the HSCA), the children of Robert Kennedy, filmmaker and director Oliver Stone, Daniel Ellsberg (the whistleblower on the Pentagon Papers in 1971), or even Doctor Robert McClelland (deceased in September 10, 2019), one of the surgeons at the Parkland Dallas Memorial Hospital who intervened on JFK on November 22, 1963.
The state funeral of President John F. Kennedy, or the 35th President of the United States of America, took place in Washington, D.C. This happened during the three days after the assassination. Kennedy's body was brought back to Washington after his assassination. After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, President Kennedy's body was flown back to Washington, D.C. and taken to Bethesda Naval Hospital for the autopsy. During that time, military authorities started to make arrangements for a state funeral. Army Major Philip C. Wehle (the commanding general of the Military District of Washington or the MDW) and retired Army Colonel Paul C. Miller (chief of ceremonies and special events at the MDW) planned the funeral. The military leaders went to the White House and worked with the President's brother-in-law Sargent Shriver (also director of the Peace Corp) including Ralph Dungan, an aide to the President. One day after the assassination, LBJ issued Presidential Proclamation 3561, declaring Monday to be a National Day of Mourning.
Early on November 23, six military pallbearers carried the flag-draped coffin into the East Room of the White House, where he lay in repose for 24 hours. Then, his flag-draped coffin was carried on a horse-drawn caisson to the Capitol to lie in state. Throughout the day and night, hundreds of thousands lined up to view the guarded casket, with a quarter million passing through the rotunda during the 18 hours of lying in state. Kennedy's funeral service was held on November 25, at St. Matthew's Cathedral. The Requiem Mass was led by Cardinal Richard Cushing. About 1,200 guests, including representatives from over 90 countries, attended. After the service, Kennedy was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
I found out a lot of information about the Beech family (who are related to my paternal relatives). Russell Walker Beech (b. 1960) is my 3rd cousin, and his parents are Darrel Morgan Beech (1926-1991) and Charlotte Ann Stokes (b. 1925). Darrel Morgan Beech was a Navy veteran who married Jessie Curtiss Berlena Bailey (b. 1929) on October 2, 1947, at Northampton County, Virginia. Later, he married Charlotte Ann Stokes on April 26, 1958, at Richmond, Virginia. third wife was Loretta Elizabeth Johnson Beech (1932-2007). Darrell Morgan Beech's parents are Walker Dumas Beech Jr. (1885-1966) and Cora Lee Tillery (1896-1955). 1st cousin Cora Lee Tillery married Walker Dumas Beech Jr. on September 21, 1911 at Northampton County, Virginia. Their children are Dumas Beach Jr. (1914-1921), Rose D. Beech (1916-1939), Melvin Thomas Beech (1917-1968), Earl Dale Beech (1919-1991), Lois Carolyn Beech (1923-2020), Darrel Morgan Beech Sr. (1926-1991), Carrie Webster Beech (b. 1930), Philbert Dutel Beech (b. 1930), Vivian Garfield Beech (b. 1931), and Barbara Ann Beech (1934-1998). My 2nd cousin Earl Dale Beech married Francenia May Bundy (1918-2016) on September 28, 1941 at Essex, Virginia. Their children are Rose B. Graham (b. 1943), Francenia Beech-Martin (b. 1949), Leslie Tillery Beech-Morris (b. 1951), and Valerie B. Siler. Earl Dale Beech was also a Monfort Point Marine 51st Defense Battalion too. Cora Lee Tillery's parents are Walter Tillery (1868-1927 and Sallie Gary (b. 1869). My 2nd great-granduncle Walter Tillery's parents are my 3rd great grandparents who are Isam Tillery (b. 1835) and Martha Jane Randolf (b. 1847) as they lived in Halifax County, North Carolina. My 4th cousins of Devin Jovan McCants (his first wife was Melissa Tabon, and his 2nd wife is Carla Nikole Riche since 2016), and Tira McCants are children of my 3rd cousin Paulette C. Ayers (b. 1952. She was married to the late William Banks Carter, who lived from 1950 to 2014). Paulette C. Ayers's parents are Paul Lawrence Ayers Sr. (1933-1990) and Barbara Ann Beech (1934-1998). Barbara Ann Beech is a descendant of Isam Tillery and Martha Jane Randolf. Many of the Ayers family lives in Trenton, New Jersey, Cape Charles, Virginia, and all over America.
My 4th cousins of Paul Ayers (b. 1974)., Devion Ayers (b. 1975), and A'yanna Ayers are siblings. Their parents are Paul Lawrence Ayers Jr. (b. 1955) and the late Denise Yvette Hall-Jones (1958-2015). My 3rd cousin Paul Lawrence married Denise Yvette Hall-Jones on October 1974 at Trenton, New Jersey, and his second wife is Lorraine Covington (b. 1967. He married her on January 23, 2001 at Trenton, New Jersey too). His parents were Paul Lawrence Ayers Sr. (1933-1990) and Barbara Ann Beech (1934-1998). Barbara Ann Beech's parents are Walker Dumas Beech Jr. (1885-1966) and Cora Lee Tillery (1895-1955). Cora Lee Tillery's parents are Walter Tillery (1868-1927) and Sallie Gary (b. 1869). Walter Tillery's parents are my 3rd great grandparents of Isam Tillery (b. 1835) and Martha Jane Randolf (b. 1847). Devion Dermont Ayers Sr. married Janine Tricia Butler on December 12,2012 at Eastampton Township, Burlington, New Jersey. Their children are Kaeli Ayers (b. 2015), Kameron Ayers, and Devion Ayers Jr.
By Timothy
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