01/17 is Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Mon, 01/17/2022 - 5:00am

~~ MLK Memorial

On this day in history:

1524 – Giovanni da Verrazzano set sail from Madeira to find a sea route to the Pacific Ocean.

1562 – France granted religious toleration to the Huguenots in the Edict of Saint-Germain

1595 – During the French Wars of Religion, Henry IV of France declared war on Spain.

1648 – England's Long Parliament passed the "Vote of No Addresses", breaking off negotiations with King Charles I

1773 – Captain James Cook led the first expedition to sail south of the Antarctic Circle

1873 – A group of Modoc warriors defeated the United States Army in the First Battle of the Stronghold

1893 – Lorrin A. Thurston, along with the Citizens' Committee of Public Safety, led the Overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii and the government of Queen Lili?uokalani.

1899 – The United States took possession of Wake Island in the Pacific Ocean

1903 – El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico became part of the USNFS

1904 – Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard had its premiere performance

1917 – The US paid Denmark $25 million for the Virgin Islands

1920 – Alcohol Prohibition began in the US as the Volstead Act went into effect

1944 – World War II: Allied forces launch the first of four criminal assaults on Monte Cassino

1946 – The UN Security Council held its first session.

1950 – UN Security Council Resolution 79 relating to arms control was adopted.

1961 – President Eisenhower delivered a televised farewell address to the nation in which he warned against the accumulation of power by the "military–industrial complex"

1961 – Patrice Lumumba was murdered in circumstances suggesting the support and complicity of the governments of Belgium and the US

1966 – A B-52 bomber collided with a KC-135 Stratotanker over Spain, killing seven airmen, and dropping three 70-kiloton nuclear bombs near the town of Palomares and another one into the sea.

1969 – Black Panther Party members Bunchy Carter and John Huggins were killed during a meeting in Campbell Hall on the campus of UCLA.

1977 – Gary Gilmore was executed by firing squad, the first execution in 10 years

1991 – Gulf War: Operation Desert Storm began

1992 – Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa apologized for Japan forcing Korean women into sexual slavery during World War II.

1998 – Matt Drudge broke the story of the Bill Clinton–Monica Lewinsky affair

Born this day in:

Pray to God. She will help you.

~~ Alva Belmont

1501 – Leonhart Fuchs, physician and botanist
1574 – Robert Fludd, physician, astrologer, and mathematician
1593 – William Backhouse, alchemist and astrologer
1600 – Pedro Calderón de la Barca, playwright and poet
1761 – Sir James Hall, 4th Baronet, geologist and geophysicist
1853 – Alva Belmont, suffragist
1881 – Antoni Lomnicki, mathematician and academic
1883 – Compton Mackenzie, author, poet, and playwright
1899 – Al Capone, liquor distributor
1899 – Robert Maynard Hutchins, philosopher and academic
1899 – Nevil Shute, engineer and author
1905 – Peggy Gilbert, saxophonist and bandleader
1914 – William Stafford, poet and author
1927 – Eartha Kitt, actress and singer
1937 – Alain Badiou, philosopher and academic
1943 – Chris Montez, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1949 – Anita Borg, computer scientist and academic
1949 – Mick Taylor, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1953 – Jeff Berlin, bass player and educator
1955 – Steve Earle, singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, author and actor
1956 – Paul Young, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1959 – Susanna Hoffs, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actress
1960 – John Crawford, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1963 – Kai Hansen, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1967 – Richard Hawley, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1971 – Kid Rock, singer, songwriter, producer, and actor
1978 – Ricky Wilson, singer and songwriter
1980 – Zooey Deschanel, singer, songwriter, and actress
1982 – Amanda Wilkinson, singer
1985 – Simone Simons, singer, songwriter
1993 – Frankie Cocozza, singer

Died this day in:

Genetically, I'm pure Greek. Psychologically, environmentally, culturally, by choice, I'm a member of the black community.

~~ Johnny Otis

1705 – John Ray, botanist and historian
1863 – Horace Vernet, painter
1884 – Hermann Schlegel, ornithologist and herpetologist
1927 – Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA
1933 – Louis Comfort Tiffany, stained glass artist
1970 – Billy Stewart, rhythm and blues singer and pianist
1996 – Sylvia Lawler, geneticist
1997 – Clyde Tombaugh, astronomer and academic, discovered Pluto
2000 – Philip Jones, trumpet player and educator
2010 – Erich Segal, author and screenwriter
2011 – Don Kirshner, songwriter and producer
2012 – Johnny Otis, singer, songwriter, band leader, musician, and producer

Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:
Martin Luther King Jr. Day
National Bootleggers Day
National Day of Service

Music goes here, iirc, well, With apologies

Eartha Kitt

Chris Montez

Mick Taylor

Steve Earle

Paul Young

Susanna Hoffs

Doug Kershaw

Johnny Otis

If George Washington had coined the term 'By Any Means Necessary', it would be recorded in American history books as indelibly as Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. It is okay for whites to declare they would do anything to be free of oppression, but Blacks do not have that same option. Blacks are permitted to wring their hands and bemoan their fate, but don't start talking about doing something drastic to get the man's foot off your neck. Whites can exult about 'bombs bursting in air', but if a Black man or woman so much as suggests kickin' some ass to get free, the right wing bristles, and the liberals are pained.

~~ Johnny Otis

Please Note: Please do not post any Covid-19 related commentary in the comments. Thank you. There is a separate OT, aka The Dose, where all such material is welcome. Thanks again.

Ok, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. So what's on your mind?

Tags:

Open Thread

MLK Day

arms control

Ike's farewell

Vote

Comments

Submitted by Lookout on Mon, 01/17/2022 - 7:56am

MLK and bootleggers?

Well, I'm familiar with both.

The speech at Riverside church is among my favorites...

And as I ponder the madness of Vietnam and search within myself for ways to understand and respond in compassion, my mind goes constantly to the people of that peninsula. I speak now not of the soldiers of each side, not of the ideologies of the Liberation Front, not of the junta in Saigon, but simply of the people who have been living under the curse of war for almost three continuous decades now. I think of them, too, because it is clear to me that there will be no meaningful solution there until some attempt is made to know them and hear their broken cries.

They must see Americans as strange liberators. The Vietnamese people proclaimed their own independence in 1954—in 1945 rather—after a combined French and Japanese occupation and before the communist revolution in China. They were led by Ho Chi Minh. Even though they quoted the American Declaration of Independence in their own document of freedom, we refused to recognize them. Instead, we decided to support France in its reconquest of her former colony. Our government felt then that the Vietnamese people were not ready for independence, and we again fell victim to the deadly Western arrogance that has poisoned the international atmosphere for so long. With that tragic decision we rejected a revolutionary government seeking self-determination and a government that had been established not by China—for whom the Vietnamese have no great love—but by clearly indigenous forces that included some communists. For the peasants this new government meant real land reform, one of the most important needs in their lives.

We lost a powerful voice of peace and unity...
https://philfairbanks.com/2022/01/17/fbi-fingerprints-on-martin-luther-k...

...in 1999, a mixed-race jury came to a unanimous verdict. Martin Luther King Jr. they ruled, was assassinated in a conspiracy involving the U.S. government. King’s widow, Coretta Scott King made it clear how she felt, saying “there is abundant evidence of a major, high-level conspiracy in the assassination of my husband.” The jury found that the mafia and various local, state, and federal government agencies were involvement. They also found involvement of organized crime, local, state and federal government “were deeply involved in the assassination…. Mr. Ray was set up to take the blame.”

Thanks for the OT. Hope everyone has a nice day!

—

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

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Mon, 01/17/2022 - 9:59am

Good morning, LO. Outside of WWII and possibly

WWI, when we did help liberate some folks, I doubt our victims of our endless wars have ever seen us as liberators. We uniformly fight to prevent their liberation.

Similarly, we, nor any of the other colonist/imperialist states have really never truly believed that some people weren't ready for self-government. That has never been a question or issue, it is an excuse and justification, whether it be the British Mandate of Palestine or the US in the Philippines, or Cuba, or Vietnam. It is all about power and control, over the people, the resources, the country, its economy, its foreign policy and the like.

That's why, contrary to our putative and purely rhetorical concern for Democracy, which we don't willingly support here or anywhere else, we always prefer and support autocrats and dictators. They have an inherent understganding of power and control and are more easily themselves controlled. FDR allegedly said of Somoza "He may be a son of a bitch, but he's OUR son of a bitch". The phrase has also been attributed to other US presidents, Secretaries of State and the like about others such as Trujillo, Franco, Marcos, et. al. Whomever said it first, it has probably been repeated many, many times about some of the far, far too many brutal dictators we have installed, propped up, and/or supported. They are a known quantity.

Democracies and Republics can't be guaranteed to stay bought or cowed and will go and elect somebody whose economic or foreign policy we dislike or somebody who has yet to upset us but whom we cannot control and order about like a servant or slave and who must therefore be removed. Regime change is the latest euphemism for our old criminal habits, whether it be sending in the Marines, or Kermit Roosevelt and the nascent CIA, or arming and funding the Contras or our transparent color revolutions, whether they be funded direct by Uncle Shithead or by one of the wealthy oligarchs who run the place like George Soros.

And, apropos the rest, those who unduly upset the apple cart and who are a threat to opur ability to do these things, at home and abroad, will meet a tragic end should they stay where we can reach them. This is our one guarantee. You will know that you are really having an impact on things when the assassins find you, that is the one truth that is self-evident here.

be well and have a good one

—

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 --

Submitted by Lookout on Mon, 01/17/2022 - 10:39am

Excellent analysis...

@enhydra lutris

system fails_0.jpg

WWI, when we did help liberate some folks, I doubt our victims of our endless wars have ever seen us as liberators. We uniformly fight to prevent their liberation. Similarly, we, nor any of the other colonist/imperialist states have really never truly believed that some people weren't ready for self-government. That has never been a question or issue, it is an excuse and justification, whether it be the British Mandate of Palestine or the US in the Philippines, or Cuba, or Vietnam. It is all about power and control, over the people, the resources, the country, its economy, its foreign policy and the like. That's why, contrary to our putative and purely rhetorical concern for Democracy, which we don't willingly support here or anywhere else, we always prefer and support autocrats and dictators. They have an inherent understganding of power and control and are more easily themselves controlled. FDR allegedly said of Somoza "He may be a son of a bitch, but he's OUR son of a bitch". The phrase has also been attributed to other US presidents, Secretaries of State and the like about others such as Trujillo, Franco, Marcos, et. al. Whomever said it first, it has probably been repeated many, many times about some of the far, far too many brutal dictators we have installed, propped up, and/or supported. They are a known quantity. Democracies and Republics can't be guaranteed to stay bought or cowed and will go and elect somebody whose economic or foreign policy we dislike or somebody who has yet to upset us but whom we cannot control and order about like a servant or slave and who must therefore be removed. Regime change is the latest euphemism for our old criminal habits, whether it be sending in the Marines, or Kermit Roosevelt and the nascent CIA, or arming and funding the Contras or our transparent color revolutions, whether they be funded direct by Uncle Shithead or by one of the wealthy oligarchs who run the place like George Soros. And, apropos the rest, those who unduly upset the apple cart and who are a threat to opur ability to do these things, at home and abroad, will meet a tragic end should they stay where we can reach them. This is our one guarantee. You will know that you are really having an impact on things when the assassins find you, that is the one truth that is self-evident here. be well and have a good one

—

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

Submitted by NYCVG on Mon, 01/17/2022 - 2:08pm

On a DC Wall today

—

NYCVG

Submitted by Lookout on Mon, 01/17/2022 - 2:25pm

pretty effective art there...

@NYCVG

...and must admit to being sympathetic to the ideas expressed.

—

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

Submitted by zed2 on Mon, 01/17/2022 - 3:17pm

Information collection

Let one hundred flowers bloom redux

Submitted by QMS on Mon, 01/17/2022 - 3:43pm

Good exemplar of the focus on truth and justice

which was Dr. King's message. It is too far into the spikes that rule the clandestine authorities for it to be allowed in debate at this point. Pretty sure the agency responsible for JFK, RFK, MLK, others .. assassinations
are still being funded thru the black ops that stirred this shit up from the beginning. See aye hey?

Anyway, his message still rings true. Which makes the message more important than the diablos
assigned to obscure the focus that's needed to fight back. We know what is truth. In no small way
Dr. King helped to create this vision.

Now is the time to resist control by those without moral minds.

—

question everything

Submitted by janis b on Mon, 01/17/2022 - 8:49pm

Thank's el

That’s a pretty grave quote from Johnny Otis. The black and blues. It fits today's memorial of MLK.

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Mon, 01/17/2022 - 9:38pm

Good evening Janis. Yeah, Johnny was hip

@janis b

in a lot of way and hip to many things as well. Glad it worked with the column.

be well and have a good one

—

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 --