The Weekly Watch

Mourning America

They call it the American Dream cause you have to be asleep to believe it.
St. George

America was grown out of genocide and built by slavery...both travesties wound tightly in our national DNA...both still evident today. Genocide continues with global corporate capture, for example, in Brazil where mining on indigenous territories brings ecological devastation, land invasions, and renewed cycles of violence. Slavery continues blatantly in our penal system, and less obviously with college debt enslaving our youth. So the idea the US is "great" is a farce, but wave the flag and celebrate the myth.

“When fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in the flag and waving a cross”

source?

“Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power”

― Benito Mussolini

good mourning.jpg

It has all been a progression to get us into the present state. Slavery morphed into share cropping and penal labor for hire. (Chris tells the story of one US prisoner.) Genocide morphed into the apartheid rez domestically and is exported by the global corporate cabal with the recent US driven coup in Bolivia to get rid of their indigenous duly elected president. Couldn't have Moreno preventing US plunder of their lithium supply. They now have their sights on AMLO in Mexico. Not to mention our complicit behavior with Israel's genocide of the Palestinians.
“If there were an an Oscar for Best Dramatic Performance by a Nation-State, Israel would win hands down every year,” Finkelstein says. “And so they will manage to turn this illegal annexation, which will enable Israel to appropriate some of the best farmland, agricultural land in the Occupied Territories, that will preclude the possibility of a Palestinian state — they’ll manage to turn it into another agonizing, gut-wrenching compromise. I could write the script.” (24 min with Aaron Mate')
https://thegrayzone.com/2020/06/23/finkelstein-israel-will-pretend-that-...

However from my view we really went off the rails when the CIA was created...a uncontrolled secret mafia branch of government. We already had the FBI infiltrating unions and socialist organizations domestically, and we expanded that approach globally with the CIA. The cry of defund the police echos in my mind, defund the CIA.

Chris Hedges suggests we have descended into a mafia state.
https://scheerpost.com/2020/06/02/the-treason-of-the-ruling-class/

This long 3+ hour documentary "JFK to 911, Everything is a Rich Man's Trick" convinced me of the evils of our covert activities...Well worth the time IMO.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utLMKiXpN4U

Max Blumenthal has been talking foreign policy in several podcasts this week. He understands well the nature of US aggression. Here's some of those conversations.

The Minneapolis cop who murdered George Floyd, setting off a protest movement, Derek Chauvin, started his career as a military police officer at the notorious Fort Benning, a base named after a Confederate general that is home to the School of the Americas (now called WHINSEC), where the US Army has trained countless Latin American dictators, death squads, torturers, assassins, and coup-plotters.

Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton speak with anti-war veteran Camilo Mejía, who was trained at Fort Benning, about the deep links between US imperialism, white supremacy, and police violence.

https://moderaterebels.com/fort-benning-school-americas-camilo-mejia/
Max does a great job describing the litany of US Latin American coups (sorry no transcript yet).

Max Blumenthal: Bolton, Trump. and Syria Sanctions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wrmbzivdUs (42 min)
https://thegrayzone.com/2020/06/25/us-qatari-intelligence-deception-prod...

Multiple US media outlets, citing anonymous intelligence officials, are claiming that Russia offered bounties to kill US soldiers in Afghanistan, and that President Trump has taken no action....
“The constant flow of Russiagate disinformation into the bloodstream of the Democratic Party and its base is moving that party constantly to the right, while pushing the US deeper into this Cold War,” Blumenthal says.

Transcript or video with Aaron Mate

Lee Camp writes about the bounty story...
https://scheerpost.com/2020/07/02/the-threat-of-peace-and-media-dupes-co...

The CIA spied on Julian and his lawyers while he was in the embassy, which should be enough to throw out the case. Yet their is no more rule of law. No better evidence than the assassination of Epstein while in custudy (and MSM continues to refer to it as suicide).
Here's Julian's dad pleading for release of his son.
https://www.facebook.com/james.ricketson.12/videos/2636432046459543

and an update on his case...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t30sK2xtxLQ (6 min)

In this video, we discuss the latest call over hearing on Monday June 29th in the Julian Assange case. The hearing was held at Westminster Magistrates Court before Judge Vanessa Baraitser. The new superseding indictment was addressed in court and a venue for the second portion of the substantive extradition hearings was announced. In light of the new indictment, organizations including Reporters Without Borders, Doctors4Assange and International Association of Democratic Lawyers issued statements in support of the WikiLeaks founder.

No one has better understanding than our soldiers of the nature of our wars. I've posted this clip a couple of times around the site, but want to include this 5 minute excerpt here in case you missed this insightful look at US empire abroad and at home...

Chris Hedges discusses the nature of patriotism with West Point graduate and US Army combat veteran, Danny Sjursen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqBSLZz7P1A

From Danny's article this week...Our messianic belief that we are the chosen nation has been disastrous for so many here and abroad.
https://scheerpost.com/2020/07/02/fourth-of-july-musings-the-curse-of-ex...

We use the US dollar to enact modern day sieges against countries which refuse to allow our corporations to abuse their people and rape their resources. We've long done this to Cuba and Iran and more recently with Venezuela and Nicaragua. However the day of the dollars supremacy may be numbered. The Fed is creating money like never before transferring most of this new money to the wealthiest among us. Yet this may be our undoing for if the dollar loses its supremacy the empire will fall. This is actually my hope as a means to avoid WWIII.

Max and Stacy say let them eat lobster as the Fed drives inflation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBHBLoOHG4M (1st 15 min)
One more excellent analysis from Max and Stacy as they call for canceling the Fed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDB9I-28BdI (1st 15 min)

It really is bigger than just US policies, it is capitalism in general. Richard Wolff has an excellent take on how COVID has revealed the flaws in the US model.

...preparing and coping with the Corona pandemic was inadequate: medical supplies were seriously deficient. It simply was not profitable for firms to produce or stockpile the supplies. Neo-liberal governments were complicit with private profit capitalists rather than compensating for their inadequacies. The lesson: many basic social needs are needed, like public health. We cannot, need not, and should not rely on capitalists to meet them. Alternatives are available.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzSYZcvuqR0 29 min

The virus has made US decline obvious..
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2020/jul/04/coronavirus-brings-america...

My question is what comes first, the collapse of the dollar or the ecosystem...

Do we have a future? What kind of future?

The Climate Tsunami is a 50 minute video essay that aims to support a realistic picture of current climate concerns.

The Climate Tsunami is fiction, it builds on the facts of climate heating to enable the planet to speak about it.
In a sometimes shocking, often touching deep dive, the planet draws on its long historical perspective to show and tell where we are with climate heating and where it might be taking us;

—how human abuse of the planet as a living body has triggered an autonomic response of climate heating;
—how humankind has a clear choice between voluntary shrinkage of its civilizations or possible catastrophic collapse

Food-for-Thought.jpg

Mr Fish calls his cartoon above food for thought. I only scratched the surface of US empire. No time to cover the media complicity, nor the corporate techniques which captured our government, nor the failure of our education system to train critical thinkers, and on and on. None the less, we do have in this nation great natural resources and places of beauty. Many people of good spirit and intentions. Examples of worker owned businesses and communities devoted to others and the environment. There are aspects of the US to celebrate. We had a lovely holiday yesterday. We grilled out and ate well. Things are odd because normally we would have shared our meal with other friends. Thirty two years ago on this weekend we hosted our house raising with over fifty friends joining to frame in our small home. Their good spirits continue to fill our home with wonderful memories and cherished friendships. So I'm trying to close with the positive thought that within a corrupt empire we can find places of peace and contentment as we are aware of the sins of our nation. I am reminded by the signs as I drive to our small town along a stretch of "the trail of tears". Our history does not define our future, but ignorance insures insures repetition. Stay awake my friends. Thanks for your insights and reporting.

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enhydra lutris's picture

Do we have a future?

Ask yourself, is it profitable? How can they benefit from us having a future?

What kind of future?

what ever will be most profitable, no?

Unless we derail this juggernaut, the answers lie within that analysis.

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Lookout's picture

@enhydra lutris

We've finally got to hot summer...but just low 90's. Often it is 100's, so could be worse.

As to our profit motive...just look at our COVID approach. Makes it pretty obvious doesn't it?

Rick lays out a nice contrast of military vs COVID health response...(8 min)
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAo_QJAsOGg]

Thanks for the visit. Have a good one!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

magiamma's picture

@Lookout
Love him. Great video.

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Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

mimi's picture

@Lookout
and many would love to see that war. Sorry to say.

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Lookout's picture

@mimi

The US has too much military infrastructure developed in Germany to threaten it to my mind...
us bases in DW.png
https://www.dw.com/en/us-military-in-germany-what-you-need-to-know/a-499...

As the dollar collapses my fear is a hot war with China to distract. Sure hope I'm wrong!

Hope all is well on your side of the pond!

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9 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

mimi's picture

@Lookout
Too close to the truth, so it needed banned by you tube?

The right-wing plot to overthrow the German government | DW Documentary

Pfft. topsy turvy ? ot Typsy turvy ? Ban the banners. FUBAR.

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Anja Geitz's picture

Talk about a picture being worth a thousand words. The star spangled birthday hat was an especially nice touch. If only I could take that picture, make it into a flag and fly it over the state capitol in D.C.

Woke up this morning with a bit of a hangover. Went to a friend’s house for a bbq and killed an entire bottle of wine myself. Oy vey! But gosh, did we have a good time. Instead of a 4th of July theme, I went to the dollar store and got multi colored leis for everyone with matching head bands. There were only six of us, not counting Stella the little French Bulldog who was getting over a tummy ache and didn’t feel much in the mood for the Hawaiian themed frivolity. All that was really missing was the fireflies and our summertime bbq in the backyard at night would’ve been complete.

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Lookout's picture

@Anja Geitz

We invited a widowed friend over, and if she had come we would have eaten on the porch. It was pretty hot yesterday, so ended up for the best it was just us hanging out in the AC after grilling. I used the smoker....the crock pot of outdoor cookery.

We had fun just enjoying all the garden and local food, and our good fortune being here and having each other. We shared a nice bottle of french wine, so still clear headed today. Enjoy your day and be careful out there!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Anja Geitz

Wish I could have been there.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

magiamma's picture

Hot here now, finally. Covid cases are going up in CA, but mostly in the south. Watching to see what happens after the forth.

Thought this was interesting from the nyt.

DNA Linked to Covid-19 Was Inherited From Neanderthals, Study Finds

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/04/health/coronavirus-neanderthals.html

A stretch of DNA linked to Covid-19 was passed down from Neanderthals 60,000 years ago, according to a new study.

Scientists don’t yet know why this particular segment increases the risk of severe illness from the coronavirus ... “This interbreeding effect that happened 60,000 years ago is still having an impact today,” said Joshua Akey, a geneticist at Princeton University who was not involved in the new study.

This piece of the genome, which spans six genes on Chromosome 3, has had a puzzling journey through human history, ... The variant is now common in Bangladesh, where 63 percent of people carry at least one copy. Across all of South Asia, almost one-third of people have inherited the segment.

Elsewhere, however, the segment is far less common. Only 8 percent of Europeans carry it, and just 4 percent have it in East Asia.

Also now experts are telling WHO that the coronavirus is definitely airborne.

Well, there you are. Still working on getting rid of a yellow jacket nest in my front yard. It’s in the ground and under a large pelargonium.

Thanks for the amazing roundup. Take good care and have a good one.

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Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

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Lookout's picture

@magiamma

https://www.walterreeves.com/insects-and-animals/yellow-jacket-control-w...
https://insteading.com/blog/how-to-get-rid-of-yellow-jackets/
we've had luck using a glass bowl over the active nest...placing it over the exit in the evening when the colony is underground. Sometimes we need to bury the edge to prevent escape, but we've had luck with the technique. Would be curious of your success or failure.

Good luck with your ground hornets!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

magiamma's picture

@Lookout
To uncover the egress. Have to move the plant each night. So when I find it I will happily try that. Thanks.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

That's why they took over Bolivia.

And here I'd been hoping Bolivia was sufficiently poor not to be desired by them.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Lookout's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

https://thegrayzone.com/2019/11/14/oas-us-coup-bolivia-evo-morales/
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Elections-in-Bolivia-A-Road-Towards-...

Why? el started the thread with the answer...follow the money...
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/11/13/after-evo-the-lithium-question-l...

Good to "see" you!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

janis b's picture

Here's something to contribute to your positive thoughts and warm memories of building your own home.

I don’t understand the opening statement in the video about architects, but the rest is a treat. What this young woman has built is wonderful.

[video:https://youtu.be/9_43jFjkv4w]

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Lookout's picture

@janis b

...https://www.livingbiginatinyhouse.com/

The show was started late in 2013 by Bryce Langston and has since grown to be one of New Zealand’s largest YouTube channels, with 2 million subscribers and well over 220 million views across the channel. Since then, Living Big in a Tiny House has gone international, with a huge following in North America and Europe.

There is a two person team behind the YouTube show’s production.

Thanks for the clip... I have not yet seen it.

another cool structures site is Kirsten Dirksen
videos about simple living, self-sufficiency, small (and tiny) homes, backyard gardens (and livestock), alternative transport, DIY, craftsmanship and philosophies of life.

https://www.youtube.com/user/kirstendirksen

Hope your winter is off to a good start. Summer has definitely arrived here, but not as servere as some years. Be well and take care!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

janis b's picture

@Lookout

Being inspired by innovative small homes is the perfect activity on this cold rainy day. I'm glad your summer is gentler this year. Winter has been a combination of milder temperatures and moderate rain, with an occasional southerly blast and days of torrential downpours. At least the dams are filling up again. I'd really rather people learn to conserve water, then to have so much rain.

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@janis b
Superb woodwork! Excellent use of space. Thoughtful design.
It would not work where I come from. That roof garden would not survive one winter. It would be considered extremely under insulated. And as someone who lived for 15 years in one of those clean minimalist spaces, what looks good all cleaned up can look like a bomb went off in 20 minutes—just add a live body.

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janis b's picture

@Jonathan Larson

for your lively and experienced comment.

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RantingRooster's picture

JFK to 911 documentary. That was very interesting. The American government, and those that control it, are a bunch of fucking NAZI's!

15056402_204865626626522_6490554658236432591_n.jpg

So, the flip side is to find a way to compromise and leverage some one percenters...

Crazy

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C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote

Lookout's picture

@RantingRooster
a few years back. It confirmed my view of the evils of the CIA.

Also loved your recommendation, the four horsemen.

Hope all is well in your world!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

RantingRooster's picture

@Lookout by a thread. I'm dealing with a 2nd generation, 3rd party debt collection agency who posted info to the credit reporting agencies, that is false, and it dropped my credit score by 75 points. The good news is, I have them by the balls, the bad is, it's going to take time (months) to resolve. And of course, I have seriously bad credit now. Below 600.

Just another insane day in my world. Crazy

You might like this vid as well.

[video:https://youtu.be/p8ERfxWouXs]

Have a great day!
Drinks

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C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote

mimi's picture

@RantingRooster @RantingRooster
I unboxed and shelved my zillions of English books, among others the above title. It was a National Bestseller. I scanned it for a minute or so and decided it must be an awful book.

Just saying ... power is not my thing I would find fascinating.

Hang in there, I am more or less out of my mind 99% of my day. So, I just look at all my books and console myself that if the internets fineally go down, I still have something to read. Must make the best out of what you have.

Good luck to you, I am not a praying woman, but these days I pray for lots of people. You are among them. Smile

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RantingRooster's picture

@mimi Thank you Mimi, I'll take what ever goodwill I can get these days, so really, I do appreciate it.

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C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote

some needed reality checks/reminders.

I do take issue with your opening, though - at least partly.

America was grown out of genocide and built by slavery...both travesties wound tightly in our national DNA...both still evident today.

Since it is only partially true and fails to consider the historical context and to acknowledge the contribution of those who came and built without any direct connection to either slavery or genocide.

Slavery was pretty much a global phenomenon and had been so for thousands of years before settlement of North America by Europeans even began. In much of what was to become the US
there was far less in the way of chattel slavery than in many areas of the world at the time.

True, slavery became institutionalized in some regions, but was nearly absent in others. There were very few slaves in New England, for example, although some families did gain wealth by participating in the slave trade. Pennsylvania was probably the first place in the Western world to firmly reject slavery - in the 1750's.

The real history of slavery should not be ignored, but there is little point in beating ourselves up over it now, or taking the ahistorical view that America was somehow uniquely evil in regard to it. And it was, after all, mainly white men who ended chattel slavery in the US. Of course it was wealthy men who then proceeded to implement "improved" models of industrial wage slavery, share cropping and the like.

It takes no more research than a trip to almost any public library or college to show the incredibly lopsided coverage of slavery in the United States or in the Western Hemisphere, as compared to the meager writings on even larger number of Africans enslaved in the Islamic countries of the Middle East and North Africa, not to mention the vast numbers of Europeans also enslaved in centuries past in the Islamic world and within Europe itself. At least a million Europeans were enslaved by North African pirates alone from 1500 to 1800, and some Europeans slaves were still being sold on the auction blocks in the Egypt, years after the Emancipation Proclamation freed blacks in the United States.

― Thomas Sowell, Black Rednecks and White Liberals

When it comes to conquest and genocide, again - a little historical context is called for.

It's now thought, as I understand it, that the native populations of much of North America were much (maybe 70-90%) reduced by imported diseases prior to serious efforts at settlement by Europeans. Although smallpox blankets were a real thing, in the main the introduction of disease was not done consciously.

That there was recurring warfare between European settlers and natives, and the former tending to prevail due to technological advantages and weight of numbers should not obscure the fact that there was endemic warfare amongst the native tribes themselves. Which made it pretty much impossible to be friendly to "the Indians" since, if you were friendly to one group, their enemies would then regard you as 'enemy by association'.

The other day there were Lakota (Sioux) protesters at Mt. Rushmore protesting the theft and defilement of what they consider their sacred Black Hills. OK, fine - the USG did renege on treaty promises to the Sioux and courts have confirmed that. But how did the Lakota come by the Black Hills themselves?

from Wikipedia:

began to dominate the prairies east of the Missouri river by the 1720s. At the same time, the Lakota branch split into two major sects, the Saône who moved to the Lake Traverse area on the South Dakota–North Dakota–Minnesota border, and the Oglála-Sičháŋǧu who occupied the James River valley. However, by about 1750 the Saône had moved to the east bank of the Missouri River, followed 10 years later by the Oglála and Brulé (Sičháŋǧu). By 1750, they had crossed the Missouri River and encountered Lewis and Clark in 1804. Initial United States contact with the Lakota during the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804–1806 was marked by a standoff. Lakota bands refused to allow the explorers to continue upstream, and the expedition prepared for battle, which never came. In 1776, the Lakota defeated the Cheyenne for the Black Hills, who had earlier taken the region from the Kiowa. The Cheyenne then moved west to the Powder River country, and the Lakota made the Black Hills their home.

As their territory expanded, so did the amount of rival groups they encountered. They secured an alliance with the Northern Cheyenne and Northern Arapaho by the 1820s as intertribal warfare on the plains increased amongst the tribes for access to the dwindling population of buffalo. The alliance fought the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara for control of the Missouri River in North Dakota. By the 1840s, their territory expanded to the Powder River country in Montana, in which they fought with the Crow. Their victories over these tribes during this time period was aided by the fact those tribes were decimated by European diseases. Most of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara were killed by smallpox and almost half the population of the Crow were killed due to smallpox, cholera and other diseases. In 1843, the southern Lakotas attacked Pawnee Chief Blue Coat's village near the Loup in Nebraska, killing many and burning half of the earth lodges, and 30 years later, the Lakota again inflicted a blow so severe on the Pawnee during the Massacre Canyon battle near Republican River. By the 1850s, the Lakota would be known as the most powerful tribe on the Plains.

and if you think that inter-tribal warfare was conducted according to sporting rules - check this account of the Massacre Canyon, well, massacre

Not at all to say that there is not a long and depressing list of dishonesty and atrocities committed by Europeans against native peoples. But it does need to be seen in the context of the times and not to be made out to be the only thing that was going on. The Quakers, the Mormons and those running the missions in California all managed to maintain amicable, non-genocidal relations with native peoples in their respective regions, for example.

On a positive note, it appears that the American Dream is not dead after all - it's right there from about 1:30

Peace, BR

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wendy davis's picture

@Blue Republic

your comment a couple days and responded. but i do challenge your take that because african-american slavery was ubiquitous, it wasn't evil.

i suppose your long passage from wiikipedia was from the one the black hills, but if t'were, you might want to check with the Talk tab to see how many times it's been edited over the past month.

npr had a surprising well done piece on the ft. laramie treaty in aug. 2011, and why the lakota have refuses to sell the sacred black hills (pa-ha sapa), as well as a lot of the relevant history.

The refusal of the money pivots on a feud that dates back to the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, signed by Sioux tribes and Gen. William T. Sherman, that guaranteed the tribes “undisturbed use and occupation” of a swath of land that included the Black Hills, a resource-rich region of western South Dakota. But in 1877, one year after Gen. George Armstrong Custer’s infamous defeat at the hands of Crazy Horse at Little Bighorn and without the consent of “three-fourths of all adult male Indians” stipulated by the treaty, the government seized the Black Hills, along with their gold, and began profiting from the protected land.
................................................................
Fast forward to 1980. The Supreme Court agreed with the Sioux: The land, long since settled, had been taken from them wrongfully, and $102 million was set aside as compensation. The trust’s value continues to grow well beyond $1 billion, but the Sioux have never collected.

One key problem: The tribes say the payment is invalid because the land was never for sale and accepting the funds would be tantamount to a sales transaction. Ross Swimmer, former special trustee for American Indians, said the trust fund remains untouched for one reason: “They didn’t want the money. They wanted the Black Hills.”

“The Sioux tribes have always maintained that that confiscation was illegal and the tribes must have some of their ancestral lands returned to them, and they’ve maintained that position since 1877,” said Mario Gonzalez, general counsel for the Oglala Sioux Tribe, who has devoted much of his career to the issue.

slave trading in new england was just bidness, not akin to keeping slaves?

How the Slave Trade Took Root in New England, new england historical society

including these gems:

English settlers had tried to enslave Indians in 1636 and 1637, capturing them after they lost the Pequot War. The Indians made lousy slaves, however, as the Puritans complained they would ‘not endure the yoke.’ So they sent the captured Indians to Bermuda, preventing them from uprising. The Puritans then exchanged the Indian prisoners for enslaved Africans.

The Massachusetts Puritans in 1641 made slavery legal. And until the 18th century, it was Massachusetts merchants who mostly supplied slaves to New England. Peter Faneuil built Faneuil Hall in Boston with money inherited from his uncle’s slave trade.

but as to mormons getting along with the first americans, you must not know the story of the mountain meadows massacre; a longish version with photos is here t the Vintage news, sept. 2016, more concise descriptions of two books narrating the hideous false flag subterfuge: this version accepted by the LDS leadership, this one likely...not so much:

Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows (2002) by Will Bagley is a history of the Mountain Meadows massacre. (wiki entry)

oh, yes; i'll leave this alone:

...and those running the missions in California all managed to maintain amicable, non-genocidal relations with native peoples in their respective regions, for example.

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And yes, not everybody owned slaves and many people built their own lives without direct benefit of slavery.

That is not denied by the opening essay or by anybody on the thread. I do think however that it is fair to say that the opening note was overly broad:
.

America was grown out of genocide and built by slavery...both travesties wound tightly in our national DNA...both still evident today.

.
"Wound tightly in our national DNA" is a metaphor that I find apt, but it can also be construed as dismissing from history all the effort made by specific Americans who eventually succeeded in ending slavery and who, like John Wayne, in Fort Apache, tried unsuccessfully to live respectfully with the "Indians."

Even taking your valid objections into account, I think that the American mythology of national self worship is full of lies and distortions. We were NOT exceptional and we did include slavery in our Constitution, LIKE most of the other countries in the world.

And, we were NOT exceptional in our policy of national expansion that obliged us to run other people off of specific tracts of land so that we could take over the territory. This was not more evil than what other powerful people were doing to weaker people all over the world -- it was equally evil.

Since everybody was doing it at the time, calling it "evil" is a bit of a stretch. And yeah, the native people on this continent were also homo sapiens, and they were not proto-hippies who let love rule their sustainable lifestyles. Nope, they were exactly as evil as the white folks who had better tools of death.

But the point was never that America was uniquely evil. It was that America is now the Top Dog Of Evil, and as such it tells the ridiculous lie of American Exceptionalism, the Beacon of Freedom to the World, The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave -- the only nation on earth that is Not Evil.

Bullshit.

This bizarre yet venerable fairy tale of American virtue is the propaganda basis for our current war against Brutal Dictators from Venezuela and Bolivia to Syria and Iran. It is also the propaganda basis for a media campaign going on right now to provoke some ill-defined retaliation against "Putin" for putting a bounty on GI scalps.

Same bullshit metaphor -- different century, different enemy -- but the same assertion of American moral superiority. You are right that we are not morally inferior -- just the asshole country with most fearsome weapons as of now.

That is what makes us exceptional.

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Anja Geitz's picture

@fire with fire

Highlights why it is important to discuss our history as it was. A neighbor of a friend of mine has a little girl who is bi-racial who asked us at our 4th of July BBQ this weekend why we are celebrating the birth of a country that said everyone was created equal when we had slaves? Frankly, if this little girls awareness of the fictional “America is Great” story is the result of the conversations like the ones we are having about it here, it gives me hope that more people will use their critical thinking skills in the face of our governments star spangled war machine propaganda and not sign up for the “noble“ duty to feed their imperialist greed with their flesh and blood.

Which is why I find comments like this curious...

The real history of slavery should not be ignored, but there is little point in beating ourselves up over it now, or taking the ahistorical view that America was somehow uniquely evil in regard to it. And it was, after all, mainly white men who ended chattel slavery in the US.

...and wonder why this poster is mis-characterizing the conversation we are having about institutional racism and it’s roots by repeatedly quoting black men to legitimize an argument he’s having solely with himself?

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

@Anja Geitz

repeatedly quoting black men

"I like to say now that the reason I'm conservative is because I used to be a liberal, and I learned a lot."

- Candace Owens

That better?

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@fire with fire

And we ignore it at our peril - and blind acceptance of the propaganda construct that says America is the best/freest/greatest and can claim the moral high ground on any matter whatsoever is definitely to ignore reality.

Then again, to ignore or dismiss those things that are positive and unique - even exceptional - about America is equally short sighted.

Currently, much of the emphasis on interpreting American history focuses on what is seen as the hypocritical disconnect between the "All men created equal" sentiments of the Declaration of Independence and the harsh reality of slavery, not to mention the disenfranchisement of women and poor and landless men. Which is reasonable.

But it shouldn't obscure the fact that explicitly founding a confederation then republic specifically on those principles was something unprecedented. Nor that in some important respects a lot of progress has been made in realizing those principles for a much broader segment of the population.

The other day, there was a demonstration in Georgia. A peaceful one. Protesting a Confederate monument. It was relatively minor news. The demonstrators were a considerable number of black men. Who were armed.

What would the chances of that occurring have been 200 or 150 or 100 years ago? None to little of it happening at all and even 50 years ago no likelihood of its being no big deal, no? So it's not like no progress has been made.

Freedom, like youth or health should never be taken for granted, but we too often do, of course, often unaware we are doing so.

For instance. When I visited Russia in the early nineties I was not (must have been an unfortunate bureaucratic oversight) comped into a five star hotel and plied with high grade Russian prostitutes. Oh, well.

What I was able to do, however, was visit Vladivostok and hang out with Russian scientists and to visit many of the surrounding areas - including sensitive border areas with China and N.Korea and even casually walk through a Russian Air Force base.

What I didn't realize till going there was that Vladivostok, until that year had been a closed city. Not only were *very* few foreigners allowed in, it was closed to Russians who did not have explicit permission to be/go there.

So, what did these scientists say that most impressed them about the US? (not something I asked them, they volunteered it) They said it was that in America you could freely go and live wherever you wanted. Huh?

I was pretty shocked - not as much as them saying it but by the realization that I had taken such a fundamentally important freedom so completely for granted. So, resolved to try to minimize doing so in the future. Maybe we should all try do the same.

Anyway, good comment, FwF (wait, did I just agree with AG?)

FWIW - Marx seemed to find America somewhat exceptional:

“Without slavery, North America, the most progressive of countries, would be transformed into a patriarchal country. Wipe out North America from the map of the world and you will have anarchy— the complete decay of modern commerce and civilization. Abolish slavery and you will have wiped America off the map of nations.” Karl Marx, “The Poverty of Philosophy,” 1847

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Lookout's picture

@Blue Republic @wendy davis @fire with fire

Perhaps my statements were strong, but the myth of American superiority is just that...a myth. I appreciate all of your thoughtful comments. Though genocide and slavery were common, it never made it the right strategy. Though I live on the "trail of tears", white folks here were yeoman farmers not slave owners. However 30 miles away were plantations and slaves along the Coosa valley. Same valley DeSoto traveled leaving a slave behind infected with small pox.

I left this comment in an essay today about our ignorance of history. Seems appropriate here too.
windemere (2)_0.jpg

Thanks for your insights.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”