Over 5 million people in America alone have protested against the policies of Donald Trump in the No Kings protest rallies on June 14, 2025. The No Kings protests have existed nationwide from Los Angeles to New York City. These protests oppose the excessive, illegal actions of ICE and the unjust policies from the Trump administration. It is no secret that the Trump administration in its 2nd terms have done things even worse than his first term. While Republican House member Michael Johnson wanted the Governor of California to be tarred and feathered, peaceful No Kings protesters have desired an end to Trump using the National Guard illegally in Los Angeles. While Trump desires innocent people to be arrested, the protesters desire no authoritarianism in American society. While Homeland Security head Noem desire to liberate Los Angeles from socialists (which is offensive and red baiting rhetoric as the people of Los Angeles legally voted for their mayor Karen Bass and Governor Gavin Newsom), the No Kings protesters desire a peaceful solution to end injustices in America. Dissent is not showing hatred of America. Dismantling the democracy of America is the complete, unyielding definition of expressing hatred of America. Diversity is part of our strength and having a multicultural American society has been a blessing for a long time. Also, it is important to oppose anti-black racism. Many white racists and other racist non-black people of color should not be supported because of their anti-black racism. I just saw the police in Los Angeles using flash bangs on peaceful protesters almost hurting a MSNBC journalist in television. The police have used tear gas and pepper gas on peaceful protesters. These acts against protesters are immoral. This is America. The Trump regime hates dissent. There are more than 2,000 protests all across America and the world. No President should act like a King.
Today has been a day of melancholy events. Days ago, a murderer killed Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman, the top Democrat in the Minnesota House, and her husband. Experts say that the murder was politically motivation. Also, Minnesota Sate Senator John Hoffman and his wife were also shot by the same individual. Governor Tim Walz was emotional in describing the events at a press conference, because he knew these human beings. Hoffman and his wife are alive and they have undergone surgery. The murderer is a coward named Vance Beotlter, a 57 year old person who works for a security company. He had a hit hit of almost 70 names. The names were other lawmakers and abortion providers. There is a manhunt now has ended with Beotler being captured and arrested. Border patrol in Canada has been told to look out for him. There is no excuse for political violence. There is no excuse for murder. Political polarization has increased filled with hatred of those who disagree. We can agree to disagree without hate filled rhetoric and without murder. Political violence is antithetical to the components of a progressive, free society. Therefore, we should promote peaceful dissent at every step of the way.
The conflict between Israel and Iran continues. This is a new era of Middle Eastern history. This is beyond just airstrikes. This is a war between Israel and Iran. Israel tries to justify their preemptive airstrikes to claim that Iran has develop nuclear power to the point to create nuclear weapons to attack Israel. Yet, we heard this from the Iraq War. Now, we know that Iraq never had extensive weapons of mass destruction. Preemptive strikes by definition are unjust in modern civilization, because you are not attacked first excluding any form of self-defense. Iran and Israel have experienced bombings causing innocent civilians to die among both sides. This war against Iran has been blatantly supported by the far-right reactionary Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu. I knew of him back in the 1990s when I was in middle school. He was far right back then. Israel attacked air defenses, nuclear facilities, and key military personnel and command centers. This comes after the disaster in Gaza where tons of Palestinians have been killed and wounded. Many Israeli locations have been bombed too by Iranian forces. Reports said that even Trump refused to support Israeli trying to kill the Iranian leader. Netanyahu is completely unhinged. Netanyahu wants regime change in Iran as Iran has tons of oil and mineral resources. People of goodwill in Israel and Iran know the truth and desire an end to this madness.
There has been a breakthrough in aging and memory loss research. Researcher Brain Medicine Dr. Sophia Shi found out that the glycocalyx discovery can open up new therapeutic ways to handle Alzheimer's disease and neurodegeneration. Glycocalyx is the protective sugar coating on brain blood vessels. It is made up of sugar molecules coating the blood brain barrier endothelial cells. Her research has been published in Nature. Her research found out that this protective layer deteriorates massively with age. This can lead into blood barrier dysfunction and neuroinflammation, key drivers of cognitive decline and neurodegenerative diseases. When Dr. Shi restored these critical sugar molecules in aged mice, there were massive improvements in both barrier integrity and cognitive functions in those mice. This is the first time when scientists have successfully reversed age related blood brain barrier dysfunction via glycocalyx restoration. This is historic as decades from now, we can possibly treat or even cure dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Dr. Shi has worked with Nobel laureate Carolyn Bertozzi and renowned neurobiologist Tony Wyss-Coray at Stanford. She has worked in glycobiology and neuroscience for numerous years.
First, it is important to acknowledge Africa as the origin of the African Diaspora. Africa is the Motherland of black people and of the human race. Africa has the most genetic diversity among the human race on Earth. Also, Africa has beaches, modern technological locations, activists, and numerous cultures. There are Bantu speaking people, the Nilotic people, Arabic people, Berbers, Chadic people, the San people, and other ethnic groups with their own religions, cuisine, music, and other aspects of their own cultural identities. North America has been filled with tons of people among the black African Diaspora. As Malcolm X has said, black people live globally. I am an African American. Our ancestors were brought into America as slaves from mostly West and Central Africa. According to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the first African populations came to North America in the 16th century via Mexico and the Caribbean to the Spanish colonies of Florida, Texas and other parts of the South. Out of the 12 million people from Africa who were shipped to the Americas during the transatlantic slave trade, 645,000 were shipped to the British colonies on the North American mainland and the United States. In 2000, African Americans comprised 12.1 percent of the total population in the United States, constituting the largest racial minority group back then. Today, we have over 14 percent of the American popular being the second largest racial minority group in 2025. The African-American population is concentrated in the southern states and urban areas. From the 1500s, African Americans fought for freedom in America. We set up cultures from Florida to Virginia. There were numerous slave revolts when our ancestors fought for liberation from slavery. We fought in every American war since 1776, and we were contributors to the Union victory of the American Civil War. It ended in 1865. From Reconstruction, migrations, and to cultural excellence (with people like Harriet Tubman, John Lewis, Allyson Felix, Diana Ross, Ella Baker, Fannie Lou Hamer, Duke Ellington, Arrested Development, Gloria Richardson, Benjamin Banneker, and other heroes), we, who are black Americans, have shown heroism with our resiliency.
The African Diaspora in North America spread into the Caribbean, Mexico, Canada, and other locations. This spread of culture caused North America to have massive diversity from African Americans using the Civil Rights Movement to inspire people of all background, the Afro-Canadians standing up for justice, the Afro-Caribbeans using their gifts to benefit humanity, and Afro-Mexicans asserting their human identity (following in the footsteps of their black ancestors). The highest percentage of people of African descent in the States are Mississippi and Louisiana, which are major epicenters of the black freedom struggle. Many Afro-Canadians are descendants of Black Loyalists during the Revolutionary War, escapes using the Underground Railroad, and recent Afro-Caribbeans (from Deborah Cox, Tamia, etc.). We have black people in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba (as tons of Afro-Latinos live in the world), Jamaica, Trinidad, and other places in the Caribbean.
South America has tons of black people. We know about the Afro-Brazilians. The Afro-Brazilians are fighting against police brutality, racism, sexism, colorism, and other injustices that we black people in the States are fighting. Black people in South America include politicians, scholars, athletes, musicians, and other people like Pele, Anderson Silva, Rebeca Andrade, Paula Lima, the track and field legend Marileidy Paulino. There are many black people in Colombia fighting for human rights in this country.
Black people in Europe have made tons of cultural diversity. Afro-British people have rose up to have great prominence in world society. Scholars have found Afro-British people spanning thousands of years. According to the Augustan History, North African Roman emperor Septimius Severus visited Hadrian's Wall in 210 A.D., where he was said to have been mocked by an Ethiopian soldier holding a garland of cypress-boughs. A girl buried at Updown, near Eastry in Kent in the early 7th century was found to have 33% of her DNA of West African type, most closely resembling Esan or Yoruba groups. In 2013, a skeleton was discovered in Fairford, Gloucestershire, which forensic anthropology revealed to be that of a Sub-Saharan African woman. Her remains have been dated between the years 896 and 1025. Local historians believe she was likely either a slave or a bonded servant. There were black people in the court of James IV of Scotland like Ellen More and other people. There have been social activists, actors, actresses, lawyers, religious clergy, and teachers living in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and other places. There are about 8 to 10 million black people in France and up to 1 million Afro-Germans. Many black people live in Romania and Portugal too. Russia has black people too.
In Asia, there are about 100,000 Afro-Turkish people. Many of them are from Niger, Sudan, Kenya, etc. There are the black Siddi people living in India and Pakistan. Many of them live in Sri Lanka too. There are black people in Israel and Palestine including Iraq. Many people don't know about the experiences of these human beings, but we won't sugarcoat a thing. Black people of African descent live all over the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, ad other places of the Middle East and Northern Africa. For example, Omar Hawsawi is a black Saudi soccer player at the 2018 World Cup. Black people have worked in Antarctica. There are people of black sub-Saharan African descent living in Australia and the rest of Oceania too. There are those who consider Aboriginal people and other Oceanic people as part of the African Diaspora. What is the truth? The truth is those people are indigenous to those lands and are melanated people of color. Yet, they are not direct descents of sub-Saharan African people because they lived in those lands for thousands of years with different haplogroups than people of sub-Saharan black African people. Yet, there is always wrong with people having alliance with these human beings in standing up for justice for all.
There has been a breakthrough in aging and memory loss research. Researcher Brain Medicine Dr. Sophia Shi found out that the glycocalyx discovery can open up new therapeutic ways to handle Alzheimer's disease and neurodegeneration. Glycocalyx is the protective sugar coating on brain blood vessels. It is made up of sugar molecules coating the blood brain barrier endothelial cells. Her research has been published in Nature. Her research found out that this protective layer deteriorates massively with age. This can lead into blood barrier dysfunction and neuroinflammation, key drivers of cognitive decline and neurodegenerative diseases. When Dr. Shi restored these critical sugar molecules in aged mice, there were massive improvements in both barrier integrity and cognitive functions in those mice. This is the first time when scientists have successfully reversed age related blood brain barrier dysfunction via glycocalyx restoration. This is historic as decades from now, we can possibly treat or even cure dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Dr. Shi has worked with Nobel laureate Carolyn Bertozzi and renowned neurobiologist Tony Wyss-Coray at Stanford. She has worked in glycobiology and neuroscience. for years.
I found out that Margaret Louise Baines (1951-2024) was my 4th cousin. She was a wife, mother, sister, grandmother, great grandmother, and aunt. Seh passed away on December 30, 2024, at VCU Medical Center in Richmond, Virginia. She was born in Northampton County, Virginia to the late Cleveland Baines Sr. and Rosa Bailey Baines. She converted to Christianity at a young age at New Allen Memorial AME Church. She had her education in the Northampton County School system. She studied at Kee business College earning an Associate of Science degree in Secretarial Science. In 2008, Margaret retired from P&O Nedlloyd/Maersk Line in Portsmouth, Virginia as an Export Documentation Supervisor.
In 1956, Margaret met the love of her life, Frederick L Sample. They loved each other since elementary school and date all through high school. They were married on August 24, 1969. They loved thier children of Sabrina Sample and Frederick Jr. Margaret Sample loved to show humor and had positivity plus kindness. She loved to fish, garden, and spend time with her grandchildren. Her late siblings are her brother, Milton Baines, Sr., sister Christine Reed, sister Thelma Carter, sister Gladys Smaw and brother, Cleveland Baines, Jr. Now, her living relatives are her daughter; Sabrina Sample Manning (Laurence), son; Frederick L. Sample, Jr. (Sandra); 7 grandchildren, Ravyn Sample, Chancellor Manning, Taiwana Holley, Briana Sample, Tanwan Marshall, Jr., Taylor Manning, Frederick L. Sample, III, and 3 great-grandchildren; Deion Bryant, Dakota Marshall, Frederick L. Sample, IV, and on the way, Malayah D. Sample ; 2 brothers, Robert Baines and Paul D. Baines. She has 1 goddaughter, Donyette Smith Rodgers (Michael); 2 God-grandchildren, Avery Rodgers and Ashton Rodgers, and a host of nieces, nephews and friends.
Margaret Louise Baines's parents were Cleveland W. Baines (1910-1989) and Rosa Mae Bailey (1916-2008). My 3rd cousin Rosa Mae Bailey were Noah Bailey (1900-1964) and Helen Bailey (b. 1894). My 2nd cousin Noah Bailey's parents were Mary Susan Brickhouse (1873-1945) and Cobb Bailey (b. 1864). My 1st cousin Mary Susan Brickhouse's parents are Benjamin Brickhouse IIII (b. 1844) and Mary Perkins (b. 1844). The parents of my 3rd great-grandaunt Mary Perkins were my 4th great grandparents George Perkins (b. 1815) and Esther Perkins (b. 1816). Also, the granddaughter of Margaret Louise Baines Sample, Briana Sample, is my 5th cousin whose genetic match has been recently confirmed by Ancestry.com. So, I am related to many people of the Sample family whose ancestors came from the Eastern Shore of Virginia.
By Timothy
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