Miscellaneous political debris

It was not enough, that news of Trump's lawyer, and Al Gore's former lawyer were bottom of the barrel scrapers.

No, Quincy Jones had to add his two cents to the compost heap.


"There’s nothing ... there’s no upside [to dating a woman my age],” Jones stated.
(Quincy Jones is 84 years old.)


“You gotta be kidding. I got me some technology out there ... keep fat and old away from here. Buzzes if they’re too old. But you’d be surprised. ... These women, the young ones, are aggressive now. Oh my God, they’re fearless, man. All over the world.”


https://thegrapevine.theroot.com/quincy-jones-is-probably-shooting-dust-but-doesnt-want-1822544941

gotsnowgotslush said:

It was not enough, that news of Trump's lawyer, and Al Gore's former lawyer were bottom of the barrel scrapers.

No, Quincy Jones had to add his two cents to the compost heap.

Click to expand...

I missed that lawyer stuff. Not in my Google News headlines. Should I bother searching? As for QJ, I suppose he could claim senility.

Note: My initial lawyer search revealed this: State Of The Union Drinking Game: Extreme Lawyer Edition. Sounds like terminal fun.

I watched the film footage of President Obama welcoming Tonald Drump/Drumpf to the White House. The most important structure of order and sanity that we have, is the law. Democrats followed the law.

If Tonald Drump/Drumpf broke the law, President Obama left it to the legal system, to attend to broken laws.



Holman Jenkins Jr. argues that the only ethics in politics and governing is triumphing over your partisan enemies.


Did Trump’s campaign cooperate with a Russian intelligence attack on his opponent? Have Trump or his allies lied about their contacts or obstructed the inquiry? None of that matters. Indeed, it would not seem to matter to Jenkins if Trump succeeds in his oft-stated goal of making federal law enforcement personally loyal to him, and directing it exclusively to investigate his enemies while protecting himself and his allies. He does not even bother to mention any caveats to this principle, such as that it would be going too far to cover up crimes or prosecute your opponents on trumped-up charges.


Trump’s only duty is to fight for his existence, and his party’s only duty is to defend him to the maximal extent of its partisan self-interest.


Holman Jenkins Jr. has blurted out his belief that Republicans are entitled to do literally anything it takes.


http://nymag.com/daily/intelligence...trump-can-do-anything-and-ill-support-it.html



How Right’s Totally Trumpified


The Great FBI-Hillary Conspiracy has become an article of faith for conservatives

JANUARY 29, 2018


As I keep saying, despite the insistence of bothsider intellectuals, conservatism is now nothing but Trumpism. A clear sign of this is the brethren’s wholesale adoption of the conspiracy theories Trumpists roll out to defend him as special counsel Robert Mueller’s footsteps get nearer.


Secret Deep State Society meme attached to balloon full of hot air

Snopes memorialized this all-but-dead meme with “Do FBI Agents Have an Anti-Trump ‘Secret Society’?” But who cares what they think — nowadays conservatives claim the famously impartial Snopes is just more Fake News, probably because it is famously impartial; if it were real news, as they see it, it would be dispensed by rage queens with bulging neck veins, or nootropic pitchmen, or Sean Hannity, and would always make Trump look good and persecuted. So don’t expect this embarrassment to teach them anything. Next week, someone from the “Deep State” will be heard saying Trump’s a pain in the ass, and conservatives will claim it’s a plot to get doctors (who are totally in the tank for Hillary) to authorize Trump’s removal as a hemorrhoid.

https://www.villagevoice.com/2018/01/29/secret-society-tzimmes-shows-how-rights-totally-trumpified/

The Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act of 1985 and the Gramm-Rudman Act of 1987. The measures, sponsored with Senators Phil Gramm of Texas and Ernest F. Hollings of South Carolina, threatened automatic spending cuts if Congress and the president did not meet benchmarks on the road to a balanced budget.

But while the laws helped hold down deficits, Republicans balked at raising taxes and Democrats resisted limits on social programs, and the measures were ultimately amended and repealed before they could force huge spending cuts.

I never met a Democrat who didn't want to tax and spend or a Republican who didn't want to borrow and spend.

Boston went through an extensive learning process, in addressing crowd control. Now, everything is monitored closely, and the coordination is built in.


What happened at the Philly Super Bowl celebration, was not new.

https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-p...uper-bowl-riots-expose-racist-double-standard

" Imagine if white people weren’t taking the lead in such public indecency, do you really think we would only be seeing a small number of arrests? We cannot ignore the clear distinction in what we’re allowed to “celebrate” versus what we aren’t. Black athletes securing Super Bowl victories for predominately white owned teams is a “celebration” that “all” are allowed to partake in. Black people using their free speech rights to talk about injustice is being treated as a cardinal sin against society. Our humanity is constantly being stripped before our very eyes and we are being awarded for our complicity."

https://www.bet.com/news/national/2...mp.html?cid=twitter&__twitter_impression=true



Ernest Owens
@MrErnestOwens
·
7h
If #Eagles fans can take to the streets to destroy public property while police stand carelessly around...

#BlackLivesMatter activists deserve the right to peacefully protest in the streets for something more significant that a damn #SuperBowl win.



Ernest Owens
@MrErnestOwens
·
7h
“Officers hung back and let the public jubilation play out, stepping in only to avert the most unruly behavior and to prevent the beer-fueled masses from injuring themselves.”

Gee, I wonder why. #SuperBowl




Ernest Owens
@MrErnestOwens
·
14h
UPDATE: After four hours of public destruction, the SWAT finally assess the situation.

Imagine if that crowd was a little darker


Ernest Owens
@MrErnestOwens
·
15h
Black people getting tear-gassed on the front lines for justice, but white men get blatant passes to destroy property because #Philly won the damn #SuperBowl

America has always celebrated violent White masculinity while condemning civil Black free speech.

We are seeing it now.

In this video, Danny Glover, Anna Deavere Smith and a chorus of other artists recite “To Kneel” by Kathy Engel in support of the 2018 NFL protest, the right to dissent, and against racist police violence:



The black men who make wages

from the brutal banging of the skull,

pounding of the knees, arms

reaching like branches in the long

arc of a pass, now kneel.

The muscles of their souls,

the soles of their cleats, stretch

of thighs speak. Fans and refs yell,

commentators jabber and behold:

one knee, hand to ground,

they kneel, the weight

of their built-up bodies

pulled earthward as if called

by those from before

to kneel now, refusing to salute

this country’s killing field.

Those with the heart to be the lonely

first; their knees sing. Jobs at stake,

they kneel for the inheritors. For the future

dignity of bodies to choose to stand

or touch down. And the joining, too—

some, then flocks, arms threaded,

waving flags of jersey-ed bodies,

an anthem, for the uncountable—

to be counted. And to those

who drop to the knee

only in the recesses of a locked

back room or those who switch and bait

in the light, amid the throngs—or those

who hide behind their whiteness—

who will be there to kneel for you

when such a time comes, as it will

come? What will you say when

your children or your grandchildren,

their friends or lovers ask

what parts of your bodies

touched the ground

in the moment of loyalty,

or the moment of betrayal?

What would I say?

on youtube


Who Will Kneel for You: Artists Speak Out (NFL Super Bowl)

SHOCKING REVEAL: Trump is an Aussie!

Monaco (ABS) -- Researchers at the Monte Carlo Forensic Institute applied advanced scanning technology to the original birth certificate of United States President Donald J. Trump and discovered that it had been altered. The place of birth, "Queensland, AUS", was at some point changed to "Queens, NY, USA". Mr Trump was apparently brought to the United States at an early age but is now too old for DACA 'Dreamer' protection. The White House has not yet commented.

The Orange entity that sometimes sits in the Oval office chair, dragged President Obama for making use of a teleprompter.


(President Obama did twice the work, read what was needed, was diplomatic and respected, internationally. Anyone could understand that teleprompters are time savers.)

The Orange entity arrives, and forces his speech on everyone-

Despite having a teleprompter in front of his eyes, he managed to produce a flub in the speech.

"Who sacrifice every day for the furniture, and future of their children.”

(Has he stopped telling the story about furniture shopping and attempted rape ?)

From what I was able to observe, there are demands being made, to respect the high office of president, from Emperor Carrot Head.

Emperor Carrot Head respects nothing.

Queen Elizabeth II has been driven to dissent of her own minister's intentions and actions. (Very constrained and conservative dissent.) There is a point, when a level of indecency is reached.

The presence, and committing of indecency by a holder of high office, is why the Democratic branch has (silently) demonstrated dissent.

"Dissent is not treason."

Thank you, Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) for bringing intelligence and reason to the conversation.




“To announce that there must be no criticism of the president or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."

- Theodore Roosevelt

Why would people that support the rights of all Americans, applaud a speech that is morally bankrupt ? Applaud the entity that is morally bankrupt ?

The leaders of other countries observe form, and follow protocol. State matters are delicate and dangerous. Despite the fact that Emperor Carrot Head tramples, mutilates, and destroys. Other leaders have accepted the role of the adults in the room. An elderly adult toddler throwing tantrums in the public sphere, is nothing new.


Emperor Carrot Head is doing nothing, to dispel America's image as a young and immature nation.

Hmmm- Russia's Putin also talks out of both sides of his mouth...

Free speech, dissent, and-

why Oliver Wendell Holmes changed his mind about the first amendment.

https://www.theatlantic.com/nationa...-powerful-dissent-in-american-history/278503/


Details of the case

https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/250/616

Report: Russians prank-called Adam Schiff, offered nude photos of Trump


Feb. 7, 2018


Audio of Russian radio comedians prank-calling Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff shows the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee asking for details about the naked photos of President Donald Trump being offered.


The audio from last year was posted by the U.K. outlet Daily Mail. The audio's existence was first reported by the Atlantic.

(If you think that my posts are much too long, the wade into Putin's activities, operatives, victims, beneficiaries, is exhaustive, and exhausting.)

"Vovan" and "Lexus," pretend to be Andriy Parubiy, speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament.


https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/01/putins-game/546548/

from the Palm Beach Post-


Thee two comedians told the California Democrat the photos came after Trump supposedly had an affair with Russian model Olga Buzova.


a spokesperson for Schiff said the California Democrat had a feeling the call was bogus.

"Obviously, it was bogus — which became even more evident during the call — but as with any investigation that is global in scale, we have to chase any number of leads, many of which turn out to be duds," the spokesperson said

This independent bureau returned money to consumers, when mega-corporations committed fraud.

Mick Mulvaney left congress, now he is letting his patrons go free, when they get caught with their paws in consumer's wallets.

950% interest is not too high, for Mick Mulvaney. He let that Great White shark go.


How Mick Mulvaney Is Changing The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

February 12, 2018

President Trump's appointee running the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is making radical changes to make the agency less aggressive in its mission. An internal memo obtained by NPR says the CFPB will unveil a new strategic plan on Monday. The moves are frustrating staffers at the bureau.

https://www.npr.org/2018/02/12/5851...ging-the-consumer-financial-protection-bureau

since its creating in 2010 following the financial crisis, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been both ambitious and divisive. Democrats and activists groups say it's a crucial fighter against the power of Wall Street. Republicans say the CFPB is unaccountable and even unconstitutional. This week's standoff over the bureau's interim directors is the most visible case of a battle that has been brewing for years.

https://www.npr.org/2017/11/28/5670...inancial-protection-bureau-came-into-creation

Mother Jones has the outline, in detail, of why sanctions on Russian should be activated.

Link

https://www.motherjones.com/politic...ls-for-interfering-with-us-political-process/

I had not thought of what applied to our Constitution of United States of America

Verfassung - constitution


Substantive

condition die Verfassung kein Pl.
constitution [POL.] die Verfassung Pl.: die Verfassungen
constitution [PSYCH.] die Verfassung kein Pl.
fettle - condition, form die Verfassung kein Pl.
form die Verfassung kein Pl.
Basic Law [POL.][JURA] die Verfassung Pl.: die Verfassungen
Constitution [POL.][JURA] die Verfassung Pl.: die Verfassungen
shape [SPORT] die Verfassung kein Pl.
charter of a borough [JURA] Verfassung einer Stadt
morale - mass noun geistig-seelische Verfassung
constitution körperliche Verfassung
constitution seelische Verfassung
the human condition

die menschliche Verfassung Pl.: die Verfassungen - Condition humaine
episcopacy [REL.] bischöfliche Verfassung

Verben
to be at one's best in bester Verfassung sein
to be in fine fettle sichAkk. in guter Verfassung befinden
to be in bad case veraltet in schlechter Verfassung sein

Adjektive / Adverbien
in bad shape in schlechter Verfassung
in good condition in guter Verfassung
in good shape in guter Verfassung
in a deplorable condition in kläglicher Verfassung
in a bad way in einer schlimmen Verfassung

Beispiele
He's in bad shape. Er ist in schlechter Verfassung.
in an interesting condition in interessanter

Verfassung.

Could this possibly be true ?

WTF ?


Florida mayors can be fined $5,000 if they enact stricter local rules on gun control

February 20, 2018

Florida bans cities and counties from imposing their own gun-control rules. Seven years ago, the Republican-controlled Legislature even created a $5,000 fine it can impose on mayors like Stoddard if they ever try to enforce stricter regulations on firearms.


The state law also raises the possibility of unending legal expenses for mayors and city administrators. It bars cities and counties from spending tax dollars defending employees and elected representatives in the litigation.

“We can’t do a damn thing at the city or county level, or we will be punished,” said Sally Heyman, a former state lawmaker now one of six Democrats on the 13-member County Commission in Miami-Dade. “I’ve been there with the deaf ears in Tallahassee.”



http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article200997094.html

Tallahassee lawmakers have created a long list of regulations and laws they've ordered off-limits for cities and counties -- from accident clean-ups to Uber. But only gun control carries a package of sanctions that put local officials in personal financial jeopardy. Critics say it also makes Florida the toughest state in the nation when it comes to policing city and county rules on firearms.

The extraordinary sanctions capture the special level of tension between Tallahassee and some local governments when it comes to gun control. Florida has banned local gun rules since the 1980s, but advocates added fines and other penalties after city and county governments kept trying to get ahead of Tallahassee on firearm restrictions, said Sean Caranna, volunteer director of Florida Carry, a nonprofit that advocates for the rights of gun owners.

Along with the $5,000 fine, enacting local gun-control rules can end career.


The 2011 law allows Florida's governor to remove an elected official for violating the ban on most local firearms rules. Ignoring the state statute also "shall be cause for termination of employment" for city and county administrators who enforce local firearms rule that contradict Florida statutes.

"If in their pursuit of happiness, someone attempts to infringe upon that, they should be afforded the right to protect themselves," said Brad Drake, a Republican from Marianna who was a co-sponsor of the bill. "That decision has to be made somewhere."


So, having a AK rifle us not about safety, but about the pursuit of happiness ?

gotsnowgotslush said:

So, having a AK rifle us not about safety, but about the pursuit of happiness ?

Click to expand...

One may notice the male masturbatory characteristics of firing projectile weapons. Yes, shooting is jerking-off like Superman, whose steel semen would shred Lois Lane. Wanking in public is punished. Why not shooting? Exposing your genitals in public is punished, most places. Why not weapons exposure, too? Keep-em buttoned up!

The Case For Impeaching Clarence Thomas

It’s time to reexamine the evidence that Clarence Thomas lied to get onto the Supreme Court — and to talk seriously about impeachment.

Click to expand...

And will Gorsuch be next? Hey, flash idea! We hear much empty talk of impeaching Tromp. Ain't gonna happen. But if Dums take Congress, impeaching and removing SCOTUS assholes who lied for Senate approval could happen, and to greater effect. A re-lit Congress might also probe justices' ethics breaches by not recusing themselves for personal involvement in cases. Time to start dismantling the Gup tyranny machine.

Massacre as mass hate rape?

Penetration wounds from bullets.

Pissing on someone, after they have been beaten and raped, is a common hate crime.

A man cannot spray bullets with a piss stream, but each squirmy sperm is a "bullet" searching for a target. Mass murder an expression of sexual frustration ? Rage, resulting from cock- blocking ?

/end gsgs comment


https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/02/commercialized-trumpified-cpac-is-adrift

Conservative Political Action Conference

CPAC 2018


With American conservatism currently a one-man show, no wonder the right’s most important conference is not drawing the way it did in the Obama years.


FEBRUARY 20, 2018



This year, however, there was something conspicuously different, and Trumpified, about the lineup. As of Tuesday, the lineup boasted 59 big-name speakers, with the normal crew of think-tank wonks filling out the rest of the agenda— a puzzling drop from the 166-plus speakers the conference advertised last year. Some bold-faced names stood out among them: Donald Trump, obviously, who owes his political career in part to American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp, who runs CPAC. (Schlapp’s wife, Mercedes (Mercy to her friends), now works in a newly created position in Trump’s administration.) There was James Damore, the anti-diversity crusader who was fired from Google, and Pamela Geller, the anti-Islam activist who likes to warn about “creeping Sharia”; Trump skeptic Ben Shapiro and failed Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson. But whereas CPAC had, in the past, been a Tea Party-inflected coalition of activists, most of the lineup is now explicitly pro-Trump: Sean Hannity, Ted Cruz, Laura Ingraham, leading panels such as “How Trump Is Taking Down Lawless Government Agencies,” “Trumponomics vs. Obamanomics,” and “#TrumpedUp: Unmasking the Deep State.“


Still, there seems to be a sense that this year’s CPAC is more toxic than in years past. While the vast majority of lawmakers have voted in lockstep with the president, many continue to express reservations in private about his politics and temperament. Last year, 20 congressmen and senators showed up at CPAC; this year, there are five, including Freedom Caucus Chair Mark Meadows and House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes. The abstaining members “don’t want to be around Trump supporters,” Rick Wilson, a prominent never-Trumper, explained, “because [with] Trump supporters, their first question is: Why didn’t you vote exactly this way? Why didn’t you praise the president? . . . And it is a strange kind of feeling for these folks. Most of them are hostages to Trump.”

Conservatives are much more excited to fight when they’re out of power,” said Brian Darling, a former Rand Paul staffer who had attended CPAC since the 80s, and still planned to attend this year. ”It’s much easier to be fighting the Obama administration, rallying around the idea of fighting against the expansion of power, than supporting the administration and Congress.”

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/02/commercialized-trumpified-cpac-is-adrift


hmmmm

America, held hostage by Donald Trump.

How many days, until someone pays the ransom ?

OPINION

by PennLive Editorial Board penned@pennlive.com
February 21, 2018

Someone is going to win.

But it probably won't be Pennsylvania voters, who have spent the last two weeks watching their elected leaders behave like a pack of overheated civet cats, the partisan rhetoric escalating seemingly in time with this week's unseasonably hot weather.


In Pa's increasingly congressional map is now headed to the U.S. Supreme Court

Speaking to reporters Tuesday at the state Capitol, U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., upped the partisan ante, hammering the state high court for engaging in an "unconstitutional power grab," even as he corrosively urged lawmakers to seriously consider a state House member's call to impeach the five Democratic justices who voted to throw out a congressional map in place since 2011.

Yes, the drawing of congressional maps is an inherently partisan process, and it's nearly impossible to cleave the politics from it.

But in their ongoing war of words, Republicans and Democrats - and their surrogates - are at risk of reinforcing the cynicism of an already cynical public that too often believes they're mere afterthoughts in high-stakes political games.

http://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2018/02/in_pas_increasingly_nasty_redi.html#incart_river_index

Yes, it was another Emperor Carrot Head scam.

*sigh*

https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-p...ly-exposes-trumps-tax-cut-scam-its-been-start



A union representing 2,700 housekeepers and other low-wage workers at Disneyland Resort filed a federal unfair labor practice complaint Tuesday against the entertainment giant for holding a promised $1,000 bonus “hostage” during contract negotiations.

The National Labor Relations charge by Unite Here Local 11 came the day after a written ultimatum from the Walt Disney Co. conditioning its bonus on the union’s ratification of the company’s latest contract offer.

The one-time bonus for 125,000 Disney workers was announced with fanfare in January, with the company attributing it to the corporate tax cut law, signed by President Donald Trump in December.

https://www.ocregister.com/2018/02/...l-workers-until-they-agree-to-contract-offer/

The White House cleared the release of the Schiff Memo on Saturday, and now you can read it yourself:

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/02/the-democratic-memo-has-been-released-read-it-here/

The Democratic countermemo released Saturday argues that the Nunes memo is filled with incomplete information.

The Democratic response memo released today should put to rest any concerns that the American people might have as to the conduct of the FBI, the Justice Department and the [intelligence court]," Schiff said in a statement. "Our extensive review of the initial FISA application and three subsequent renewals failed to uncover any evidence of illegal, unethical, or unprofessional behavior by law enforcement and instead revealed that both the FBI and DOJ made extensive showings to justify all four requests."

The counterintelligence investigation into Carter Page, the memo continues, was not initiated by reporting from former British spy Christopher Steele, but instead started seven weeks earlier. The information that law enforcement officials did use from Steele was "narrow" and concerned Page's suspected July 2016 meetings in Moscow with Russian officials


Further, the memo notes that Page was no longer affiliated with the Trump campaign when federal officials first applied for a surveillance warrant against him.

https://www.npr.org/2018/02/24/5885...ee-democrats-released-as-nunes-addresses-cpac

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4387026-Unclassified-Schiff-Memo.html

"Reading both memos, though, makes clear that there was nothing to the initial Republican attack against the Justice Department to begin with."

https://slate.com/news-and-politics...ted-yet-effective-rebuttal-to-nunes-memo.html


Heavily redacted but sufficient...

https://www.salon.com/2018/02/24/th...mmittee-releases-schiff-memo-with-redactions/


The Conservative Political Action Conference today awarded its “Defender of Freedom” award to Devin Nunes who chairs the House Intelligence Committee. More to the point, Nunes has abandoned any pretense of overseeing the executive branch, and has thrown himself fully into the task of attacking and smearing any law enforcement function that threatens to touch the Trump administration. Nunes is Trump’s leading goon in Congress. By the standards of the conservative movement, this renders him a champion of freedom, defined as protecting Trump from any accountability before the law.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligence...fake-and-the-russia-scandal-is-very-real.html

All of the pages, of the Democrats rebuttal memo to Nunes horsepoop memo, copied out, clearly and plainly-

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligence...ease-declassified-rebuttal-to-nunes-memo.html

• The rebuttal claims that the FISA court-approved surveillance of Page allowed the FBI “to collect valuable intelligence” which Democrats say amounted to “important investigative information and leads.” The memo also says that the intelligence contradicted Page’s testimony before the House Intelligence Committee. (Page 5)

• Per an eagle-eyed Twitter user who caught what appears to be a redaction error on Page 3 of the rebuttal, the memo may also reveal that by the time the Steele dossier made it to the FBI, the agency already had at least four (and possibly five) sub-inquiries into individuals linked to the Trump campaign, including Page.

• The rebuttal additionally claims that the Justice Department did not misuse news coverage in its court filings, as alleged by the Nunes memo with regard to a Yahoo News article that was based on information leaked by Steele. Rather than the article being used to corroborate the Steele dossier, as Republicans claimed, it was actually used, along with another article that the GOP memo didn’t cite, to “inform the Court of Page’s public denial” of his meetings in Moscow that year. (Page 7)

Liberty & Slavery: The Paradox of America's Founding Fathers

Travel with us back in time to better understand the men responsible for America’s greatest victories—
and most heinous sins.

Watch as “Liberty & Slavery” explores the paradox of America’s Founding Fathers
being champions of liberty — and yet simultaneously champions of slavery.


America's founding fathers were men yearning for a nation of individual liberty and unprecedented independence. Liberty and Slavery features stunning imagery and interviews with scholars that explore the paradox of America's Founding Fathers being champions of liberty - and yet simultaneously champions of slavery.

http://www.wgbh.org/schedule/index.cfm

Indeed the phrase "all men are created equal" is the most powerful ideal that comes out of the American Revolution. But, at the time of the writing of this phrase, the origins of America were already seeded with a cruel paradox because many of the liberty-loving Southern Founding Fathers were also slave owners — including Thomas Jefferson, George Washington James Madison and Patrick Henry

https://www.wgbh.org/programs/Liberty--Slavery-The-Paradox-of-Americas-Founding-Fathers-3587

Revolutionary America was a place of extraordinary paradox. America's Founding Fathers were men yearning for a nation of individual liberty and unprecedented independence. Thomas Jefferson expressed this desire for freedom from England in the Declaration of Independence in 1776 by writing: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." But, the origins of America were already overflowing with a deep-seated and cruel paradox. On one hand our Founding Fathers were rallying the colonists to liberty, while on the other hand they were active participants in the barbaric institution of chattel slavery.

Indeed, our Founding Fathers were simultaneously promoting both liberty....and slavery. This paradox of American history leaves us many important questions to consider. The biggest of these questions is: what exactly did the Founders mean when they wrote "All Men are Created Equal"? Did the Founders really believe that "ALL Men are Created Equal", or did they only mean white males? Or, was this famous phrase really meant by the Founders to include blacks, women and Native Americans as well? If so, is it possible that the Founders were brilliant visionaries that set up a mechanism by which American slavery could -once and for all- be abolished by future generations? After all, Thomas Jefferson had claimed in his original draft of the Declaration of Independence that the American colonists were unfairly dragged into institutionalized slavery as handed down from King George III?

Many of our Founders reportedly would not free their slaves for fear of the ensuing race riots. Or, is it that America's Founders were racist plantation owners, blinded by greed, that were addicted to chattel slavery in order to grow their plantations? Were they simply men of contradiction that willing chose to be on the wrong side of history in pursuit of money? It is also worth considering that if our Founding Fathers had pushed for the abolition of slavery in the 1780's, almost assuredly the U.S. Constitution would never have been ratified. Of course, this would have resulted in the 13 original colonies never becoming the United States of America. "Liberty and Slavery" explores these difficult questions, all while examining the unlikely paradox of America's liberty loving, slave-owning Founding Fathers.

Watch as our documentary investigates the complex characters of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Samuel Adams, among others. Discover the plantation slaves' world of Jefferson's Monticello and Washington's Mount Vernon. Listen and learn as "Liberty and Slavery" sits down for in-depth conversations with historians, theologians, and award-winning professors, all to explore Revolutionary America's most glorious victories, and indeed our most heinous sins.

—A. Troy Thomas

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4504758/

Birchtown Journal

Journal; For Nova Scotia Blacks, Veil Is Ripped From Past
By JAMES BROOKE
Published: October 08, 1999


http://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/08/w...a-scotia-blacks-veil-is-ripped-from-past.html

Journal; For Nova Scotia Blacks, Veil Is Ripped From Past


As a mechanic with the Canadian Air Force, Everett S. Cromwell traveled the world. But as a black man born in Nova Scotia, the wind-blown Atlantic province typically associated with Gaelic cod fishermen, he recalled, ''I never had a clue where we actually came from.''

The mystery lifted when investigators from a new provincial black history project showed him the ''Book of Negroes'' -- a list of African-Americans who had escaped slavery to fight with the British during the American Revolution. On the list, prepared because George Washington demanded British compensation for lost slaves, he said, ''We discovered that Cromwells, our ancestors, disembarked here.''
This tiny village, where Mr. Cromwell now routinely strolls along a quiet cove, was once the largest settlement of free blacks outside of Africa. A boomtown in the late 18th century, it was named after Samuel Birch, a British general. He issued ''Birch Certificates,'' the prized traveling papers that allowed black men and women to escape New York City to freedom in Nova Scotia.

Internet Archive

After two centuries of neglect bordering on denial, Nova Scotia now is unearthing its black history

Here in Birchtown, archeologists have dug into the cellar hole of Stephen Blucke, a colonel in the ''Black Brigade,'' a British unit that waged guerrilla war against rebels in New Jersey. Digging 200 yards from Mr. Cromwell's house last year, they found a trove of 16,000 artifacts, including Revolutionary era military buttons, a shoe buckle and a bayonet.


Book of Negroes, which the Nova Scotia Museum hopes to post on the Internet, is a rare and valuable document for black history. It was produced 80 years before Emancipation and lists 2,700 surnames of escaped slaves, as well as first names, ages, appearances, previous owners and places of residence. Although the British compiled the lists and rebel inspectors boarded each ship to verify passenger manifests, the British never paid the compensation demanded by the man who became the first American President.

For people of African origin, about 5 percent of Canada's population, uncovering the saga of the black loyalists has proved to be both uplifting and dispiriting. Those who went over to British lines in the late 1770's were not monarchists, but freedom-seekers, their descendants say.

''When they fought the Americans for the British, as far as they were concerned, they were fighting for their freedom,'' said Mr. Cromwell, 77, who fought alongside American units in Europe in World War II.

http://archive.is/Wlh20

Birchtown, Nova Scotia
Location
Birchtown is located about 7 km northwest of Shelburne, in southwest Nova Scotia. It is nestled in the beautiful Birchtown bay on the shores of Shelburne harbour, the third largest natural harbour in the world.



History
Birchtown was settled by people of African ancestry who were loyal to the British during the American Revolution. The Black Loyalists were promised freedom and land in exchange for their loyalty. After the war ended, Britian settled the loyalists in the colonies, mostly Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

Founded in 1783, Birchtown was named in honour of Brigadier General Samuel Birch who was responsible for signing the majority of Certificates of Freedom held by Black Loyalists. At the time, Birchtown was the largest free settlement of Africans in North America and became a place of refuge for people of African descent escaping enslavement and difficult living conditions.

In 1784, the first recorded race riot in North America took place in Shelburne when white soldiers returning to the area found it hard to find employment and took up arms, forcing many people of African ancestry to flee to Birchtown for safety.

Due to adverse conditions, many Black Loyalists left Birchtown in 1792 to settle in Sierra Leone, Africa. Surnames of many who remained can be found in historical records, including Bailey, Bayard, Bruce, Crawford, Cromwell, Farmer, Hartley, Herbert and Hill.

http://blackloyalist.com/?page_id=10

The Black Loyalist Heritage Society
The Society originated in 1989 when a handful of descendants of the first settlers came together to discuss the history and genealogy of the Black Loyalists in Shelburne. Initially called the Shelburne County Cultural Awareness Society, the group was concerned that the local community was unaware of the contributions made by their ancestors. They began collecting family data and other historical information to raise awareness of Birchtown’s significance. The Society’s members are committed to discovering, interpreting, safeguarding and promoting the history of the Black Loyalists and their descendants in North America.

The Black Loyalist Heritage Society has witnessed many honours among its members. In the year 2000, the Black Cultural Society of Nova Scotia recognized the athletic achievements of member and former Olympian, Marjorie Turner-Bailey. Founding member and past-president, Elizabeth Cromwell, has been recognized locally and nationally for her extraordinary efforts in spearheading many of the major achievements of the Black Loyalist Heritage Society. Another member, Ken Brown, introduced the first provincially accredited Black History course at Shelburne Regional High School in 1995.

The Society is currently working towards the construction of an Interpretive Centre in Birchtown.

https://ansa.novascotia.ca/birchtown


Black Loyalist

A Black Loyalist was an inhabitant of British America of African descent who joined British colonial forces during the American Revolutionary War. Many had been enslaved and decided to join the British in return for promises of freedom. Some 3,000 Black Loyalists were evacuated from New York to Nova Scotia; they were individually listed in the Book of Negroes as the British gave them certificates of freedom and arranged for transport.

Black people, the NRA and gun control share a complicated history, from the drafting of the Second Amendment and the establishment of the slave patrols, to the organization’s past opposition to arming Black people, to present-day support for stand your ground laws.

Black people own guns and are the victims of gun and white vigilante violence, and while they have used guns for self-defense, neither the laws nor the NRA have had Black people, their rights and their lives in mind.

American gun culture is rooted in settler colonialism, the taking of Native American land and the enslavement of African people as memorialized in the Second Amendment, according to author Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s account in “Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment.” The militias institutionalized the violence against Black and indigenous peoples. As professor Carl T. Bogus of the Roger Williams University School of Law argues, the slave patrols — the plantation police force in which most Southern white men were obligated to serve — protected white society against Black insurrection. This, in a region where Blacks outnumbered whites and servile insurrections, were a reality. The Second Amendment assured the slaveholding states that Congress would not disarm their slave patrols, thereby protecting the slavery police state.


Dr. GS Potter, founder of the Strategic Institute of Intersectional Policy — which designs and implements strategies to counter the political obstacles faced by the most brutally targeted communities in the United States — told Atlanta Black Star. She said the Second Amendment served to consolidate white power and arm white men to protect them from the federal government and Black people. Dr. Potter added that Black men were specifically barred from gun ownership, with additional restrictions through the Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws, which allowed the former slave patrols to disarm Black Civil War veterans.

http://atlantablackstar.com/2018/03/02/nra-gun-control-black-people-complicated-history/

That just proves the "Good Ol' Days" weren't so fucking good.