Open Thread WE 1 FEB 23 ~ John Brown
Welcome. Just finished a novel by James McBride The Good Lord Bird which
loosely follows the life and times of John Brown during his anti-slavery escapades.
Told thru a young slave's voice beginning in the Kansas Territory around 1855, the
religious zealot made the elimination of slavery his life work.
Leading up to the Harpers Ferry Insurrection in Virginia, the story told of his battles,
his sons who fought with him, characters like Harriet Tubman and Fredrick Douglass.
His raid at a federal armory is referred to historians as the spark which eventually led to
the US civil war. An interesting read peppered with Brown's idiosyncratic ways.
Forced labor is still an issue in this country. Wage slaves and prisoner rights, as
examples.
Open Thread so bring forward any topics you have.
Comments
Good morning fellow C99'ers
A tidbit from merry 'ol England. Big strike. Yeah!
British workers unite in largest strike action in a generation
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/2/1/britain-braces-for-biggest-day-o...
question everything
Good morning
Thanks for the book review and UK strike news. I went looking for more strike news but found this instead. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/01/31/nkju-j31.html
The above article is about the flooding in NZ. I've been thinking about Janis and hope she is doing OK. It's quite the flood and this article makes it sound as if the authorities in NZ are as disinclined to take action to assist the citizenry as are the authorities in the US. A tennis game is more important.
Other strike news here about France; https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/02/01/aflg-f01.html
I watched a BBC video of the protest in Paris where the protest was summarized as an opportunity for the French people to "let off steam" as if the objections of the hoi polloi were just a momentary tantrum. The BBC talking head did note that Macron is "hated" by the people.
Kamala explains rocket science
Why some democrats aren’t that excited about her.
"it doesn't help that she's not that adept as a communicator."
Ya think? But seriously who writes her speeches or does she refuse a speech writer because she can come up with words better than anyone else?
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Which Doug and Bob?
This one?
US Space Team's
Up Goer 5 comes instantly to mind, WRT the esteemed Ms. Harris: the description of the Saturn V using only the ten hundred (that's a thousand, to us) most commonly used words in the English language.
https://xkcd.com/1133/ Click the link to see the details- it is well worth it.
At the very bottom:
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Good morning QMS. Another one gone, long gone.
Thanks for the Tom Watson. February, with the extraneous R from Library, heh. Year is going fast, I'm tempted to wish for it to continue to do so. Today's good news is that one can make excellent sourdough pancakes substituting 1T powdered milk mixed with 1T H2O for 1T actual milk. (some of us use damn little milk except for baking and mashed potatoes, and often don't have it around.)
Slavery is, I suspect, an extreme form of capitalism. "Let's barter, you will be allowed to survive and I will not inflict pain and injury on you, and in exchange you will do everything I tell you to."
Ah 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 --
WOW!!! Jimmy tells it like it is and takes no prisoners.
Worth viewing twice to get all the details.
Thanks for dropping by all
A short synopsis -
- slavery- not funny
- striking and protests: some unhappy campers in Euro land
- floods in NZ - good luck Janis
- word salad a la Harris - weird
- Upper Goer for the technically challenged - funny
- Dore unloads in the MIC - whew, don't stroke out man
- and magic pancakes! Milk goes sour around here too.
Thanks all!
question everything
It appears that Stoltenberg has lost touch with reality and is
living in a fantasy world.
War is peace and black is white.
that type of thinking scares me
NATO is so busy poking the bear, they have gone around the bend.
If the circus act of NATO/US/UK/EU had honored treaties, this crap
would not be happening. Saying it proves NATO importance is bunk.
What I am trying to get at: if there was no NATO, there would not be
the provocations of war. NATO is not protecting Europe, they are
bankrupting the countries. They are protecting the empire dreams
of world domination.
[video:https://youtu.be/0FHEeG_uq5Y]
question everything
So sorry to be so late to the party, Q
The new thing going around is a "stomach flu". My assistant's 2 elementary school kids have it. A lawyer in town brought over a divorce decree for me to sign because all 3 of the secretaries in his office were home with the stomach flu.
How I have managed to avoid it, having not only been around my secretary, but her kids as well, is beyond me.
It appears to be running rampant in schools.
If we go into emergency lockdown, there must be toilet paper provided by the DOD.
I do not appreciate Brown's God reason for opposing slavery, but I agree with his end goal: free the slaves.
Slaves today come in all colors, shapes, and sizes.
We need a John Brown.
Thanks so much for the OT, my friend!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
I don't approve of John Brown's *methods*
Terror and murder generally do not bring about the desired ends. (They certainly didn't in his case!)
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
It actually to a civil war
to end slavery.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
John Brown quotations
He was a bit radical for his time
I absolutely agree with his sentiments. Some of the ways he went about making his points
were on the cruel side. God driven madness. He had several backers from New England to
help with his cause. The abolitionists were at odds from the slavers. And his purchasing
of weapons to fight the slavers by raiding farms is a bit of a strong medicine to swallow.
His rag-tag band of followers all seemed to have different reasons for going along with
his crusade. In the end, most died for his vision. It is a good Polaroid snapshot of the
cultural tensions just before the civil war.
Thanks for sharing.
question everything