04/13 Open Thread - Thomas Jefferson Day
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~~ Declaration of Independence
Thomas Jefferson, one of the "Founding Fathers" of the USA, was born on April 13, 1743. He was the principle author of the US Declaration of Independence. He also wrote the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom a forerunner of the religion portion of the First Amendment. His accomplishments and achievements were many, but instead of attempting to list them I have decided to simply post some of what I consider to be his most notable quotations other than the preamble to the Declaration of Independence:
It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness.
It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself
Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government.
If the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body to which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour?
Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto
The most successful war seldom pays for its losses.
Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct.
In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty.
A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
On this day in history:
1175 – Saladin routed his Muslim opponents, the Zengids, in the battle of the Horns of Hama, consolidating his control over Syria except for Aleppo.
1204 – Constantinople fell to the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade, temporarily ending the Byzantine Empire much to the chagrin of the Pope.
1612 – Samurai Miyamoto Musashi defeated Sasaki Kojirō in a duel at Funajima island.
1613 – Samuel Argall, having captured Pocahontas in Passapatanzy, Virginia, set off with her to Jamestown with the intention of exchanging her for English prisoners held by her father.
1742 – George Frideric Handel's oratorio Messiah had its world premiere
1829 – The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 gave Roman Catholics in the UK the right to vote and to sit in Parliament. The Papacy did not reciprocate with respect to UK Prots.
1849 – Lajos Kossuth presented the Hungarian Declaration of Independence in a closed session of the National Assembly.
1861 – US forces surrendered Fort Sumter to Confederate forces.
1865 – Raleigh, North Carolina was occupied by US forces
1870 – The New York City Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded.
1873 – More than 60 to 150 black men were murdered in Colfax, Louisiana, by a mob of former Confederate soldiers and Klansmen
1901–present
1919 – British Indian Army troops led by Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer killed approximately 379–1,000 unarmed demonstrators in Amritsar, India; and injured about 1,500 more.
1941 – A pact of neutrality between the USSR and Japan was signed.
1943 – The discovery of mass graves of Polish prisoners of war killed by Soviet forces in the Katyń Forest Massacre was announced
1945 – German troops killed more than 1,000 political and military prisoners in Gardelegen, Germany.
1945 – Soviet and Bulgarian forces captured Vienna.
1953 – CIA director Allen Dulles launched the mind-control program Project MKUltra. Contrary to US & CIA propaganda, the CIA was never a remotely benign organization
1960 – The US launched Transit 1-B, the world's first satellite navigation system.
1964 – Sidney Poitier became the first Black man to win the Best Actor award
1970 – At 10:08 PM EST an oxygen tank aboard the Apollo 13 Service Module exploded, putting the crew in great danger and causing major damage to the Apollo command and service module
1972 – The Universal Postal Union decided to recognize the People's Republic of China as the only legitimate Chinese representative
1975 – An attack by the Phalangist militia on a bus killed 26 Palestinian and Lebanese supporters of the PFLP, marking the start of the 15-year Lebanese Civil War.
Some people who were born on this day:
"What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence"
~~ Christopher Hitchens
1570 – Guy Fawkes, mass murderer wannabe in the service of theocracy
1743 – Thomas Jefferson, lawyer and politician; drafted US Declaration of Independence
1828 – Josephine Butler, feminist and social reformer
1850 – Arthur Matthew Weld Downing, astronomer
1854 – Lucy Craft Laney, founder of the Haines Normal and Industrial School, Augusta, Georgia
1866 – Butch Cassidy, businessman
1889 – Herbert Yardley, cryptologist, poker player, and author
1892 – Robert Watson-Watt, engineer, invented Radar
1894 – May Brodney, labour activist
1906 – Samuel Beckett, novelist, poet, and playwright
1906 – Bud Freeman, saxophonist, composer, and bandleader
1919 – Madalyn Murray O'Hair, activist, founded American Atheists, won Murray v. Curlett
1931 – Jon Stone, composer, producer, and screenwriter
1937 – Col Joye, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1940 – Vladimir Cosma, composer, conductor, and violinist
1942 – Bill Conti, composer and conductor
1946 – Al Green, singer, songwriter, producer, and pastor
1947 – Mike Chapman, songwriter and producer
1949 – Christopher Hitchens, essayist, literary critic, and journalist, articulated Hitchens' Razor
1951 – Peabo Bryson, singer
1951 – Max Weinberg, musician and bandleader
1952 – Sam Bush, mandolinist
1955 – Steve Camp, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1967 – Olga Tañón, singer and songwriter
1972 – Aaron Lewis, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1975 – Lou Bega, singer
1982 – Nellie McKay, singer, songwriter, musician, and actress
1982 – Ty Dolla Sign, singer, songwriter, and musician
1987 – John-Allison Weiss, singer and songwriter
Some people who died on this day:
“The job of a citizen is to keep his mouth open.
~~ Gunter Grass
1612 – Sasaki Kojirō, Japanese samurai
1826 – Franz Danzi, cellist, composer, and conductor
1941 – Annie Jump Cannon, astronomer and academic
1944 – Cécile Chaminade, pianist and composer
1959 – Eduard van Beinum, pianist, violinist, and conductor
1969 – Alfred Karindi, pianist and composer
1984 – Ralph Kirkpatrick, harpsichordist and musicologist
1993 – Wallace Stegner, novelist, short story writer, and essayist
2005 – Johnnie Johnson, pianist and songwriter
2006 – Muriel Spark, novelist, poet, and critic
2008 – John Archibald Wheeler, physicist and academic
2013 – Stephen Dodgson, composer and educator
2015 – Günter Grass, novelist, poet, playwright, and illustrator
2022 – Gloria Parker, musician and bandleader
2025 – Mario Vargas Llosa, novelist and writer
Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:
Thomas Jefferson Day
National Peach Cobbler Day
Today's Tunes
MKUltra
Bud Freeman
Vladimir Cosma
Al Green
Mike Chapman
Peabo Bryson
Max Weinberg
Sam Bush
Olga Tanon
Nellie McKay
Franz Danzi
Cecile Chaminade
Ralph Kilpatricjk
Johnnie Johnson
Stephen Dodgson
Gloria Parker
Johnnie Johnson & The Kentucky Headhunters - That'll Work (Album)
Ok, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. What's on your mind?
Cross posted from http://caucus99percent.com
open thread, Thomas Jefferson, MKUltra, Al Green, Chrstopher Hitchens, Peabo Bryson, Johnnie Johnson
Comments
"Conquest is not in our principles."
.
"It is inconsistent with our government."
Oh, were it so! We would not be in the present pickle,
AKA state of affairs.
The preamble to the 'declaration' was brilliant.
"...whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends,
it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it."
Thanks for the OT!
Zionism is a social disease
Good morning, Cap'n Q. Thanks for reading. If only it were so
indeed, and yes to the preamble.
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 --
Good morning...
Jefferson, like most of us, was a man of contradiction, especially when it came to race.
None the less he's one of my favorite presidents, in part because of his agricultural contributions.
We visited Monticello a few years ago, and it is well worth the visit if your in the area. Monroe and Madison's home is also nearby. Three for one visit.
thanks for the music and OT!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Good mornng Lookout. I've heard a lot about Monticello,
but doubt that I'll ever get there. Thanks for reading.
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 --
Morning EL!
Looking forward to listening to your musical selections.
When I think of the Virginia colonial elites, I'm reminded of two books I read several years back. The first is White Trash by Nancy Isenberg in which she describes among other things the means by which US landed elites augmented their estates by exploiting poor white freeholders by lending them money and then foreclosing on their land. The book as a whole goes on to describe the long history of class warfare in the US and the role it plays in US politics.
The second book (can't remember the title) described George Washington's campaigns against native Americans and how up and coming officers and their men were compensated with the land holdings Washington took by conquest and then surveyed as bounty for the officers who followed him, and the commoners who followed those officers. This was their reward to compensate them for their military efforts. The size of the real estate awarded was determined by rank and Washington's estimation of their officer's contribution to the cause. In turn, the lowest ranking troops received the most undesirable parcels. This system was very similar to that of Oliver Cromwell and the landed elites and their soldiers who followed him in various military campaigns.
Opportunistic leaders in the French Republics saw military conquest and imperialism as a means to allow young, talented and restless men without prospects in terms of wealth or politics the means by which to secure a future, if they survived. It served to relieve the class warfare dilemma that plagued France since the French Revolution. Sometimes these were declassee former offspring of nobility or the offspring of petite bourgeoise who somehow had secured the benefit of literacy. Their only alternative was the clergy. The poor really had no other outlets practically speaking but to serve as foot soldiers for the basic necessities of life. It was that, starvation or revolution.
己所不欲，勿施于人。
Good morning Soryang. Thanks for all of the additional
information on the Colonial VA elites and their behaviors, and on the French Republics as well
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 --
Anecdotal insight by Larry Johnson
Really liked Larry's take on "strategic planning" inside administrations, garnered from his personal experience. It's in this video starting at about the 16 min mark to 20 min.
己所不欲，勿施于人。
Thanks for the video, Soryang. n/t
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 --
Anybody have a theory why
.
The US delegation included Levitt with the two RE agents
as our negotiating team in Islamabad? Joe the plumber may
have been a better choice. Sheesh, idiocracy R US.
Zionism is a social disease
Theory:
Because that’s who Israel wants. As the British ambassador who sat in on the February negotiations said, they acted as if they were Israeli agents. Somebody on MOA suggested we need a Declaration of Independence from Israel.
Anya
That's a good idea
Although the odds against are somewhat steep.
We tend to be in a deficit of independent thinkers
in congress. Sold-out to the Zion lobby. Marching
orders and all that jazz. Lockstep, no dissent allowed.
Zionism is a social disease
Good afternoon, el!
I agree with Lookout...Monticello and other presidential homes nearby are remarkable. The Robert E. Lee plantation home is also a mind-blowing place.
Well, I am closing the office for the day, declaring my independence from work until court tomorrow morning!
Thanks for the OT, friend!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
My pleasure, and thanks for dropping by -
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 --