Tulsa race riot

The Tulsa race riot (May 31st to June 1st 1921) in the US killed 75 to 150 people, burned down 35 city blocks, and left thousands homeless. With the help of the police, planes and the National Guard, hundreds to thousands of White men rioted in Greenwood, aka Black Wall Street, a Black neighbourhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

It all started with a White woman: Sarah Page accused “Diamond Dick” Rowland, a Black man, of attempted rape.

Fearing a lynching, Black men from Greenwood arrived at the courthouse armed with guns to protect Rowland. Many had fought in the First World War. A White mob was already there. The police tried to talk the Black men into leaving when a fight broke out and a gun went off, leaving one person dead. Then all hell broke loose.

The police handed out guns and badges to hundreds of White men. Other Whites broke into hardware stores and took guns.

The governor sent the National Guard to Greenwood to disarm Blacks and take them prisoner, supposedly for their own protection. They sent some 5,000 Blacks to the convention centre, ball park and fairgrounds. But they did not disarm any Whites!

At five in the morning a whistle blew and a plane flew overhead. Some say it dropped a bomb, others say it was looking for Black snipers, pointing them out to Whites. For the next six hours there was constant gunfire as Whites invaded Greenwood, robbing and burning it down. Some Whites would not shoot on unarmed Blacks, but others did. Parts of Greenwood were like a battlefield. But in other parts Whites pulled pianos and Victrolas out of houses and were singing and dancing in the streets.

Greenwood had had its own hospital, hotels, shops, two newspapers and two cinemas. But when the riot was over, it looked like it had been hit by a war.

Over the next few days the 5,000 Black prisoners were given a green tag and let go if their employer came for them. The rest were put to work for little pay cleaning up Greenwood. Blacks without green tags were arrested.

Months later Sarah Page dropped her case against Diamond Dick Rowland. He left town and was never heard from again.

A grand jury looked into the riot. As a White newspaper, the Tulsa World, reported:

“Grand Jury Blames Negroes for Inciting Race Rioting; Whites Clearly Exonerated”

Many blamed “black agitators”, like W.E.B. Du Bois or Black newspapers, who pushed the dangerous idea that Blacks and Whites should have equal rights, as promised by the US Constitution.

Rebuilding: Most insurance policies had a riot exclusion clause and would not pay. The city blamed the riot on Greenwood and would not pay. And the courts bent over backwards to protect the city and insurance companies – except in one case: when the city tried to rezone Greenwood for industry.

In 2001 the mayor held a “celebration of conscience”, made an official apology and gave each survivor the city could find a medal – but no reparations.

-Abagond, 2017.

Source: mainly “Reconstructing the Dreamland” (2002) by Alfred L. Brophy; Al Jazeera (2014).

See also:

• grand jury
• Du Bois
• Victrola
• Rosewood
• MOVE bombing
• The 1920 Duluth lynching
• Red Summer
• Mystic Massacre
• Japanese American internment
• Detroit riot in 1967
• reparations
  • UN report on Black American reparations
  • Ta-Nehisi Coates: The Case for Reparations

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In memoriam: Trayvon Martin

Five years ago tonight. Seems so long ago…

Requiescat in pace.

See also:

• Trayvon Martin

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Fulani jihads

Fulani jihad states in West Africa, circa 1830.

The Fulani jihads (fl. 1725-1862) were holy wars fought mainly by the Fulbe or Fulani people of West Africa to spread Islam. It is why Guinea, Senegal, Mali and northern Nigeria are now heavily Muslim. The jihads did not bring Islam to West Africa, but their conquests and schools did spread it to the masses.

They ruled five main caliphates (I use the Wikipedia spellings in this post):

• Futa Toro (Senegal)
• Futa Jallon (Guinea)
• Kaarta (Senegal, Mali)
• Masina (Mali)
• Sokoto (Nigeria)

They reached their height in the early 1800s, later to be taken over by the French and British during the Scramble for Africa (1876-1914).

The Fulani belt in West Africa.

The Fulani were cattle herders from Senegal. By 1600 they had spread across the grasslands south of the Sahara all the way to northern Nigeria and Lake Chad. Not in a genocidal wave, like Anglo Americans, but as immigrants into other lands. That meant they were often outnumbered and taken advantage of, like being made slaves – a fact that would later help drive the jihads.

Islam: Some of the Fulani took to trade and learned of Islam. Islam had been in West Africa for hundreds of years, but by 1700 it was mainly the religion of merchants. Their Islam was highly syncretic or “impure”, keeping many older African beliefs and customs.

Seku Amadou

Rise of scholars: To help support and spread Islam, the Fulani founded schools in Futa Jallon. That led to the rise of scholars and missionaries and the founding of yet other schools across the Fulani belt.

The most famous scholars were holy men with huge followings who became the leaders of jihads:

• Usman dan Fodio (1754-1817) – took over the Hausa city-states, founding Sokoto
• Seku Amadou (c. 1776-1845) – founder of Masina, taking over the old imperial cities of Jenne and Timbuktu of the long-gone Songhay Empire (1468-1591).
• al-Hajj Umar Tall (c. 1797–1864) – of Futa Toro, took over Kaarta and Masina.

They taught:

• jihad – Muslims had a duty to overthrow rulers who were not Muslim or who practised an impure form of Islam.
• sharia – society should be remade according to Muslim law.

They in turn drew on the ideas of two earlier scholars:

• Muhammad al-Maghili (c. 1440 – c. 1505) – a Berber who helped to convert Fulani rulers. He divided the world into the house of Islam and the house of war. He shaped their idea of jihad (see above).
• Mukhtar al-Kunti (1729-1811) – of Timbuktu. His writings became the last word on religion – bringing war on Timbuktu twice!

Appeal: the Fulani jihad message had great appeal for:

• Muslims – who saw it as the will of Allah.
• Fulanis – who suffered under the French, Bambara, Hausa and Tuaregs.
• slaves – who were promised freedom.

Even non-Muslims and non-Fulanis, sick of unjust rulers or heavy taxes, were drawn to the cause.

jihad re-enactment.

Horses: What made all of this more than pie in the sky is that the Fulani had the best cavalry in West Africa.

Guns: What brought all of this to a crashing end is that the French and British could make more and better guns than the Fulani.

– Abagond, 2017.

See also:

• Meanwhile…
  • Transatlantic slave trade
  • Wahhabism
• Fulanis
  • Book of Negroes – the hero is a Fulani woman from this time
• Islam
  • jihad
• Songhay Empire – West Africa in the 1500s
  • Timbuktu
• Scramble for Africa
• Anglo Americans
  • genocide
• Nigeria
  • Boko Haram

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Dorothy Counts

Dorothy Counts (1942- ) was the first Black person to go Harding High School in Charlotte, North Carolina in the southern US. That was on September 4th 1957. Pictures of her first day made the news worldwide, calling James Baldwin back from Paris:

“I could simply no longer sit around Paris discussing the Algerian and the black American problem. Everybody was paying their dues, and it was time I went home and paid mine.”

On that morning she put on a blue dress her grandmother had made her, prayed and remembered her father’s words:

“Hold your head up high. You’re not less than anyone else.”

Streets near the school were blocked. She had to walk the last two blocks. Whites were spitting on her, calling her names, throwing sticks and stones and milk cartons, telling her to go back to Africa. She was not afraid. She did not get angry. She just kept walking. By the time she got to the front door, spit was dripping off the bottom of her dress.

Once in school it got no better. People pushed her, jeered at her, threw things at her when she was not looking. Teachers acted like she was not there, even when she raised her hand, even when boys were spitting in her food.

 

Two White girls befriended her – but then unfriended her when they started getting harassed too.

On the fourth day someone hit her in the back of the head with a sharp object. Now they were trying to actually hurt her. When she got to the car to go home she saw the back window smashed – with her brother inside. Now she was afraid.

Counts:

“I did not feel I was being protected in any way within the confines of the school because there were adults there and they did nothing.”

Neither the school nor the police were willing to protect her. Unlike Ruby Bridges there were no US Marshals. Unlike the Little Rock Nine, there was no army protection. So her father sent her north to live with relatives to go to an already integrated high school near Philadelphia.

The experience made her not bitter but better, determined “to make sure that bad things don’t happen to other children.” She went to university and became a preschool teacher and social worker. She still lives near the high school.

Two Whites asked for her forgiveness in later years. She told them she had forgiven them long ago.

Desegregation: The county schools would go on to fight school desegregation all the way to the Supreme Court, which forced it on them in 1971 in Swann v Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education. But then in 1999 the courts overturned it.

By 2010 Counts was saying of her granddaughter’s high school:

“At the beginning of the school year, they would go for weeks without books, for weeks without enough chairs for everyone in the classroom. When I heard about that I thought, Lord, this brings back memories.”

Now in her 70s, she is still fighting for desegregation, frustrated but determined.

Dorothy Counts-Scoggins at 70.

– Abagond, 2017

See also:

• Elizabeth Eckford – of the Little Rock Nine walked to school on the very same day. The governor’s soldiers blocked her, but later the president’s soldiers would protect her.
• That Norman Rockwell painting – of Ruby Bridges
• school resegregation
  • Antonin Scalia
  • segregation academies
• James Baldwin
• Charlotte, North Carolina
  • Keith Lamont Scott
  • Bree Newsome
  • Jonathan Ferrell
  • When Jimi Hendrix opened for The Monkees
  • Henry Louis Wallace

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Trump’s false statements: month one

Statements made by US President Trump during his first month in office that PolitiFact has rated as False, Mostly False or Pants on Fire:

January 20th 2017:

“We’ve made other countries rich while the wealth … of our country has dissipated over the horizon.”

Mostly False: Not by the typical measures.

January 22nd:

“The media … sort of made it sound like I had a feud with the intelligence community.”

False: Unprecedented tough words.

January 23rd:

“In our nation’s capital, killings have risen by 50 percent.”

Mostly False: Most recent data shows a decline.

January 26th:

“Here in Philadelphia murder has been steady — I mean — just terribly increasing.”

False: They were the third-lowest last year since 1990.

January 26th:

Says ICE and border patrol officers “unanimously endorsed me for president.”

Mostly False: Support from unions, but not from all members.

January 29th:

“If you were a Muslim, you could come in, if you were a Christian, it was impossible.”

False: Christian refugees have entered US.

January 30th:

“My policy is similar to what President Obama did in 2011 when he banned visas for refugees from Iraq for six months.”

Mostly False: Obama was more specific and narrower.

February 6th:

Says “109 people out of hundreds of thousands of travelers” were affected by the immigration executive order.

False: More like 60,000+.

February 6th:

Terrorism and terrorist attacks in the United States and Europe have “gotten to a point where it’s not even being reported.”

Pants on Fire: An abundance of coverage.

February 7th:

“Smart! ‘Kuwait issues its own Trump-esque visa ban for five Muslim-majority countries.’ “

Mostly False: Kuwait move was old news, at best.

February 7th:

“I have already saved more than $700 million when I got involved in the negotiation on the F-35.”

Mostly False: Savings already in the works.

February 8th:

“The murder rate in our country is the highest it’s been in 47 years.”

False: This is wrong.

February 9th:

Says CNN’s Chris Cuomo “never asked” Sen. Richard Blumenthal about Blumenthal’s misstatements on his own service in Vietnam.

False: Cuomo did ask about it.

February 12th:

“While on FAKE NEWS @CNN, Bernie Sanders was cut off for using the term fake news to describe the network. They said technical difficulties!”

False: Sanders was mocking Trump.

February 16th:

The media has “a lower approval rate than Congress.”

Mostly False: Congress wins a race to the bottom.

February 19th:

“Look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this? Sweden. They took in large numbers. They’re having problems like they never thought possible.”

False: Bowling Green massacre, part two.

And this does not even count the stuff said on his behalf by his spokesman Sean “Alternative Facts” Spicer or adviser Kellyanne “Bowling Green Massacre” Conway.

Nor does it count Trump’s Mind-Bender of the Month (February 16th):

“The leaks are absolutely real, but the news is fake.”

Republican Bubble: According to an Emerson College poll that came out on Feburary 7th, 91% of registered Republican voters think the Trump Administration is truthful, while 88% think the press is untruthful.

Tom the Dancing Bug 1326 trump mysteries – leak is real news is fake. Click to enlarge.

– Abagond, 2017.

Source: PolitiFact, Emerson College, YouTube.

See also:

• fake news
• alternative facts
• Bowling Green Massacre
• Republican Bubble
• Trump’s truthfulness during the debates:
  • Clinton-Trump Debate I
  • Clinton-Trump Debate II
  • Clinton-Trump Debate III

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How to remove a US president

There are six main ways to remove a US president, short of overthrowing the government, here listed from the most frequently successful to the least:

Method #1: Term limit

• Time required: up to ten years
• Examples: Obama (2017), Bush (2009), Clinton (2001), Reagan (1989), Eisenhower (1961), etc.
• Remarks: Thanks to George Washington, the first president, the custom was to step down after eight years in office. Only Franklin Roosevelt was president longer (12 years). In 1951 the 22nd Amendment to the constitution set the limit to two and a half four-year terms (10 years).

Method #2: Voting the president out of office.

• Time required: up to four years
• Examples: Bush (1992), Carter (1980), Ford (1976), Hoover (1932), etc.
• Remarks: The chief means provided by the constitution, though it is way easier to win an election as president than as a challenger (see term limits). The election for president takes place every four years, the next one in 2020. There are no recall elections for president.

Method #3: Assassination

• Time required: a few seconds (but would take days to months to prepare)
• Examples: Kennedy (1963), McKinley (1901), Garfield (1881), Lincoln (1865).
• Remarks: To date this has been done by shooting the president. The US is awash in guns, but the president is heavily guarded, increasingly so with each attempt and more so now because of the fear of terrorism since 9/11.

Method #4: Getting the president to step down

• Time required: months to years (because of some sort of scandal)
• Examples: Nixon (1974), Johnson (1968), etc.
• Remarks: In 1968 Johnson decided not to run for a re-election, the Vietnam War having made him deeply disliked. In 1974 Nixon resigned after leaders of his own party in Congress persuaded him to step down – though by then there was clear proof that he was behind the cover-up of the Watergate break-in, a crime, enough to carry out:

Method #5: Impeachment and trial

• Time required: months
• Examples: Bill Clinton (1998) and Andrew Johnson (1868) were both impeached but neither were convicted
• Remarks: Article II, Section 4 of the constitution:
  

  “The President … shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

  It takes a majority of the House of Representatives to impeach and then two-thirds of the Senate to convict after trying him for the crime. Generally speaking, about a third of the president’s own party would have to agree to convict.

Method #6: 25th Amendment

• Time required:  days, maybe weeks
• Examples: none so far
• Remarks: If the president is judged unable to carry out his duties, like if he goes mad, he can be removed by the vice president and a majority vote of the cabinet (the president’s top advisers). If the president disagrees, a two-thirds vote in both the House and the Senate are needed to confirm it. Downside: Would only work in clear-cut cases, particularly since the cabinet is generally packed with loyalists.

For those keeping track at home:

• House: 55% Republican
• Senate: 52% Republican

The 2018 mid-term elections are unlikely to change it that much: the House is deeply gerrymandered to favour Republicans while in the Senate 25 Democrats and Independents will be up for re-election compared to only 9 Republicans.

Source: LA Times

– Abagond, 2017.

See also:

• president
• gerrymandering
• 12 US presidential elections
• When President McKinley was assassinated
• 9/11
• Death of Outrage

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Isaac Hayes: Theme From Shaft

Remarks:

This went to #1 on the US pop chart in 1971, to #2 on the R&B chart and #4 in Britain. An extremely well known song in the US, probably better known than either Isaac Hayes or the film it came from, “Shaft” (1971). Hayes wanted the song to get across that John Shaft was “a relentless character always on the prowl, always on the move.”

Instruments are by the Bar-Kays, who used to back Otis Redding. Backing vocals by Dawn (Stax session singers Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson), who backed Tony Orlando.

The video is from the beginning of the film. It shows Times Square in New York in January 1971. At the 4:00 minute mark you can see Naomi Sims on the cover of Essence, a magazine which director Gordon Parks had a hand in founding.

See also:

• songs, the 1970s
• Isaac Hayes
  • Isaac Hayes: Don’t Let Go (1979)
  • Isaac Hayes: Walk On By (1969)
• Tony Orlando & Dawn: Knock Three Times (1971)
• Irene Cara: Fame – shows Times Square in 1982
• Times Square through time

Lyrics:

Who’s the black private dick
That’s a sex machine to all the chicks?
(Shaft!)
You’re damn right
Who is the man
That would risk his neck for his brother man?
(Shaft!)
Can ya dig it?
Who’s the cat that won’t cop out
When there’s danger all about
(Shaft!)
Right on
You see this cat Shaft is a bad mother
(Shut your mouth)
But I’m talkin’ about Shaft
(Then we can dig it)
He’s a complicated man
But no one understands him but his woman
(John Shaft)

Source: Songfacts.

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Do Brown lives matter?

Do Brown lives matter? By Brown, with a capital B, I mean non-Black POC (people of colour) in the US, anyone who is neither Black nor White: Latinos, Asians, Natives, Muslims, Others, etc. And, the way things are going, maybe Jews too.

Note: Strictly speaking Latinos and Muslims are not races, but in the US in the 2010s they are close enough, certainly close enough for the purposes of this post. “Muslim”, by the way, includes Sikhs, and any Arab person, since most Islamophobes do not know the difference.

It should go without saying that Brown lives matter. But over and over again, whenever I do a post on Brown lives, some commenter, sooner or later, is going to inform me that said Brown people do not like Black people, meaning that I should not waste my breath on them.

But Brown lives do matter:

1. Because all lives matter. While it is understandable that Blacks will be mainly concerned about Blacks, Asians about Asians, Whites about Whites, and so on, that concern should never be so narrow and limited as to shut out concern for others. Pro-Black should not mean anti-Brown. After all, if it is wrong to be against Black people because of their skin colour, it is wrong to be against anyone else because of their skin colour.
2. Because racism against any strengthens racism against all. It is all part of the same mindset – White supremacy. Although racism takes different forms against different races, racism tends to weaken or strengthen as a whole. At least in the US. The Chinese Exclusion Act, for example, was passed at the same time as Jim Crow laws. Likewise, the Immigration Act of 1965 was passed during the Civil Rights Era.

Part of why I do posts on Brown people is because White people are not as good at hiding their anti-Brown racism, particularly their Islamophobia. It gives me a better understanding of their much better-hidden anti-Black racism.

Divide and rule: In the US people of colour either hang together or they will hang separately. So long as Whites are able to divide people of colour against each other, Whites will rule, no matter how small their numbers.

I used to think 2042 would be some kind of turning point, the year Whites become less than half the US. I no longer believe that. The rise of Donald Trump makes clear that a good number of Brown people (and some Blacks too) will vote for an open racist.

Counter-frames: I need to do a proper post on Brown Trump voters (and Black ones too), but it seems that many Asians and Latinos are too new to the country to fully understand what is going on. They have weak counter-frames, as sociologist Joe Feagin would say. They trust Whites too much and believe in the fool’s gold of becoming honorary Whites. They have not lived through enough US history to learn the hard way.

– Abagond, 2017.

See also:

• The three pillars of US racism – my main way of thinking about it
• Oppression Olympics – see the thread below for an example (I am saying that even before I post this!)
• counter-frames
• Islamophobia
• people of colour
• Che Guevara
• The nadir of US race relations
  • Jim Crow
  • Chinese Exclusion Act
• The Trump Era
• two-race model
• Black Liberals

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Trump and rising anti-Semitism, part I

On Wednesday February 15th 2017, President Trump was asked about rising anti-Semitism in the US:

QUESTION: Mr. President, since your election campaign and even after your victory, we’ve seen a sharp rise in anti-Semitic incidents across the United States. And I wonder what you say to those among the Jewish community in the States and in Israel and maybe around the world, who believe and feel that your administration is playing with xenophobia and maybe racist tones?

TRUMP: Well, I just want to say that we are, you know, very honoured by the victory that we had: 306 Electoral College votes. We were not supposed to crack 220. You know that, right? There was no way to 221 but then they said there’s no way to 270. And there’s tremendous enthusiasm out there. I will say that we are going to have peace in this country. We are going to stop crime in this country. We are going to do everything within our power to stop long simmering racism and every other thing that’s going on. Because a lot of bad things have been taking place over a long period of time. I think one of the reasons I won the election is because we have a very, very divided nation. Very divided and hopefully, I’ll be able to do something about that. And I – you know, something that was very important to me.

As far as people, Jewish people — so many friends, a daughter who happens to be here right now. A son-in-law, and three beautiful grandchildren. I think that you’re going to see a lot of different United States of America over the next three, four, or eight years. I think a lot of good things are happening and you’re going to see a lot of love. You’re going to see a lot of love. Okay? Thank you.

The next day he was again asked what he is going to do about rising anti-Semitism: one report says there has been 48 bomb threats against Jewish centres over the past couple weeks.

TRUMP: So here’s the story, folks. Number one, I am the least anti-Semitic person that you’ve ever seen in your entire life. Number two, racism, the least racist person. In fact, we did very well relative to other people running as a Republican – [the reporter starts talking] quiet, quiet, quiet.

See, he lied about – he was gonna get up and ask a very straight, simple question, so you know, welcome to the world of the media. But let me just tell you something, that I hate the charge, I find it repulsive.

I hate even the question because people that know me and you heard the prime minister [of Israel], you heard Bentanyahu [Benjamin Netanyahu] yesterday, did you hear him, Bibi? He said, “I’ve known Donald Trump for a long time” and then he said, “Forget it.”

So you should take that instead of having to get up and ask a very insulting question like that.

– Abagond, 2017.

See also:

• anti-Black analogues:
  • “Some of my best friends are Black”
  • White fragility
  • “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people”
• Jews
• The Trump Era
  • Donald Trump
  • “It’s not about racism”
  • Trump’s Muslim ban
  • Steve Bannon
  • alt-right
  • David Duke – whom Trump was slow to condemn

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deportation raid

A deportation raid is where the government comes to your house or place of work to arrest you, jail you and possibly deport you, sending you out of the country. In the US they are carried out by agents of Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), part of Homeland Security.

In a typical raid, there is a knock at the door at four or five in the morning. They say it is the “police”. You open the door and then comes what some describe as:

“the most horrifying moment of their life. Nowhere to run to, no one to scream to for help.”

The ICE agents come into your home. Your children are crying and screaming. ICE is asking you questions, often in bad Spanish. They arrest whoever they feel like – citizen or not (they will sort it out later). They put you in handcuffs in front of your children and take you away.

Alexandra Suh, director of the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance (KIWA) in Los Angeles:

“It’s hard to overstate how disruptive this is, how wrenching this can be – people picked up in a raid might be the only source of income for a whole family, dressed their kids for school in the morning, cooks for their family, they might be a person supporting an elder parent or young baby. To imagine that person would be ripped away – imagine how it could affect everyone around them is extremely serious.”

Note that no sanctuary city can stop ICE from coming to your door.

You do have rights, even if undocumented:

1. You do not have to open the door unless they show a warrant signed by a judge (through a window, under the door).
2. You have the right to remain silent.

Once you open the door, they can come in. They will not bang down your door like the Gestapo – unless they think you are armed.

You should urge everyone in your house to remain silent, to record or write down what is going on. Badge numbers are important. Ask for a lawyer and do not say or sign anything till you do! 

Click to enlarge.

Have a plan of what to do if taken, especially in regard to your children.

After you are taken ICE sorts out who you are with the help of their fingerprint computer – which makes a false match 1.6% of the time. If you were not in their computer before, you are now.

If they decide to deport you, they send you to a deportation centre, part of the prison-industrial complex. You should get a hearing, but due process is not their strong point, even under Obama. If you lose, they put you in chains on an unmarked plane.

President Obama deported 2.5 million, a record, thanks in part to Clinton’s laws, Bush’s counter-terrorism computers and broken-windows policing.

President Trump wants to triple the number of ICE agents. From what he has signed so far, it seems he intends to deport maybe 9 million.

Note: That Trump deports only dangerous criminals is a lie!

– Abagond, 2017.

Sources: mainly Al Jazeera (2017), USA Today (2017), unitedwedream.org.

See also:

• Unitedwedream.org: Know your rights! (in Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, English)
• The nadir of US race relations
• racial profiling
• broken-windows policing
• US relocation of people of colour:
  • Cherokee Trail of Tears
  • Japanese American Internment – approved by Donald Trump, never overturned by the Supreme Court.
  • Mass incarceration of Black men
• Obama retrospective
• Donald Trump
  • Steve Bannon
  • Jeff Sessions
  • John Kelly
  • Trump’s Muslim ban
  • alternative facts
  • The diseased host model of US society
• sanctuary city

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Breitbart news diet

Winston Smith at the end of George Orwell’s “1984” when he comes to accept the lies of Big Brother.

Last week, from February 5th to 11th 2017, I got nearly all my news from Breitbart News, a right-wing US news outlet read by President Trump and once led by his top adviser, Steve Bannon. I was hoping for some insight into the Brain of Trump, but it is way too whitewashed for that.

My blood pressure went down not up, if anything. Breibart does not take part in what it calls the liberal “hysteria” over Trump. They have full confidence in him. They pass over his lies and mistakes, along with the ethical issues concerning his top people. His racism, Islamophobia and xenophobia are merest common sense, what most “regular Americans” believe, as proved by his (electoral college) victory and (cherry-picked) poll numbers.

Sure, Breitbart makes Muslims, Mexicans, Blacks and left-wing protesters seem dangerous and out-of-control, but I dismissed that as third-rate fear-mongering. They were upset about Trump’s Muslim ban getting struck down by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, but I was glad.

All in all it was a relatively peaceful week (pictured above).

But then when I watched “Saturday Night Live” I was not getting the references. For example, I did not know why they had Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway stalking CNN reporter Jake Tapper. I did not know she had been banned from CNN for 48 hours.

Other stuff I did not know:

• Trump said he received no calls opposing the Dakota Access Pipeline – not pointing out that he had turned off the public comment line.
• There were #NoDAPL protests nationwide.
• Trump signed a Blue Lives Matter order.
• Kellyanne Conway did not simply “misspeak” about the Bowling Green Massacre, but was pushing the untrue story to support the Muslim ban.
• Trump’s Muslim ban was struck down for lack of evidence.
• Trump left off Dylann Roof and other White nationalists from his list of terrorist attacks.
• The list was misspelled.
• The many ethical issues with his cabinet picks, like Scott Pruitt’s emails.

These are things I would have known as a matter of course.

Some of the White Liberal criticism of the Trump Administration did bleed through when they bashed liberals. For example, I knew Nancy Pelosi called Steve Bannon a White supremacist because they wrote an article about the Zionist Organization of America defending him.

It is like hearing 60% of a conversation.

Worst of all, even what they did report was sometimes misleading or untrue. For example:

• They claimed that Black Lives Matter called for the killing of White people – but without actually backing it up.
• They went along with Trump’s “alternative facts” about crowd size at the inauguration.
• They made it seem like the US Army Corps of Engineers had completed its environmental review of the Dakota Access Pipeline – when in fact they had cancelled it!

The last two were contradicted by the very newswire stories they carry from AP, UPI and AFP (the best part of the website).

Breitbart News is not a serious attempt at understanding the world – or even of getting the facts right.

Breitbart staff meeting.

– Abagond, 2017.

See also:

• Breitbart News
  • breitbart.com – the website itself
  • Programming note #31
  • Black people according to Breitbart News
• Steve Bannon
  • Donald Trump
• fake news
• alternative facts
• RationalWiki media guide
• #NoDAPL
• Trump’s Muslim ban
• Dylann Roof
• White Liberals
• Islamophobia
• electoral college
• Orwell’s 1984

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84 Lumber Super Bowl ad

Last week I limited my news diet to just Breitbart News, so I am only finding out about this ad now. They did show this ad from 84 Lumber during the Super Bowl, but refused to show the ending. The ad is shown in full above.

See also:

• Programming note #31
• Breitbart News
• Donald Trump

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Whitney Houston: Run To You

Remarks:

When this came out in 1993 it just seemed like a so-so Whitney Houston song to me. I was not alone: it only went to #31 on the US R&B chart, which is low for someone with over 20 top-ten hits. But, like with “Yes We Can“, it became a different song with her passing, powerfully sad.

She died five years ago today.

Requiescat in pace.

See also:

• songs, the 1990s
• Whitney Houston
• My favourite Whitney Houston songs

Lyrics:

I know that when you look at me
There’s so much that you just don’t see
But if you would only take the time
I know in my heart you’d find
A girl who’s scared sometimes
Who isn’t always strong
Can’t you see the hurt in me?
I feel so all aloneI wanna run to you (oooh)
I wanna run to you (oooh)
Won’t you hold me in your arms
And keep me safe from harm
I wanna run to you (oooh)
But if I come to you (oooh)
Tell me, will you stay or will you run awayEach day, each day I play the role
Of someone always in control
But at night I come home and turn the key
There’s nobody there, no one cares for me
What’s the sense of trying hard to find your dreams
Without someone to share it with
Tell me what does it mean?[chorus]I need you here
I need you here to wipe away my tears
To kiss away my fears
If you only knew how much…[chorus]

Source: A-Z Lyrics.

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Doomsday Clock

It is two and a half minutes to midnight.

The Doomsday Clock (1947- ) marks how close the world is to self-destruction in the judgement of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, with input from 15 Nobel Prize laureates. It uses:

“the imagery of apocalypse (midnight) and the contemporary idiom of nuclear explosion (countdown to zero) to convey threats to humanity and the planet.”

In 2017 it now stands at two and a half minutes to midnight, the worst it has been since the 1950s.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was founded by scientists who created the first atom bomb. The founding editor was concerned not just with an atomic end of days but more generally with the “Pandora’s box of modern science”.

They set the clock according to not just the in/action of political leaders but stuff like the number and kind of nuclear weapons in use, how much carbon dioxide is in the air, the acidity of the oceans and how fast the sea level is rising.

The clock through the years, showing some of the highlights:

1947: It is 7 minutes to midnight when the clock first appears.

1949: 3 minutes: The Soviet Union gets the bomb.

1953: 2 minutes: US tests the first hydrogen bomb.

1963: 12 minutes: Partial Test Ban treaty, signed in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

1974: 9 minutes: India gets the bomb.

1981: 4 minutes: Soviets invade Afghanistan.

1984: 3 minutes: arms control talks are just for show.

1988: 6 minutes: Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

1990: 10 minutes: Fall of the Berlin Wall.

1991: 17 minutes: START treaty.

1998: 9 minutes: India and Pakistan test nuclear weapons.

2007: 5 minutes: Climate change, North Korea gets the bomb, Iran is close.

A chart showing all the changes:

Click to enlarge.

Of 2017: A week after Trump became US president, they moved the clock a half minute closer to midnight:

“events surrounding the US presidential campaign – including cyber offensives and deception campaigns apparently directed by the Russian government and aimed at disrupting the US election – have brought American democracy and Russian intentions into question and thereby made the world more dangerous than was the case a year ago.”

Of Trump:

“He has shown a troubling propensity to discount or outright reject expert advice related to international security, including the conclusions of intelligence experts. And his nominees to head the Energy Department and the Environmental Protection Agency dispute the basics of climate science.”

North Korea is also a concern.

The way forward is to cut nuclear arms and carbon emissions, which in turn will decrease global warming and the likelihood of nuclear war. In 2016, carbon emissions were flat, while the number of nuclear weapons increased.

A good first step for the US:

“the Trump administration needs to make a clear, unequivocal statement that it accepts climate change, caused by human activity, as a scientific reality. No problem can be solved, unless its existence is recognized.”

What ordinary citizens can do:

1. Learn about climate change and nuclear weapons.
2. Share what they learn.
3. Inform government representatives of their concerns.

The Bulletin:

“Facts are indeed stubborn things, and they must be taken into account if the future of humanity is to be preserved, long term.”

– Abagond, 2017.

Update (January 26th 2018): The clock has moved forward 30 seconds to two minutes before midnight, the worst it has been since 1953. BBC.

See also:

• Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
  • website – see where the clock is now
  • The 2017 Doomsday Clock statement (PDF)
• atom bomb
• climate change
• fake news
  • Republican Bubble
• Clock of the Long Now
• Muzak – somehow I am reminded of Muzak.

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Times Square through time

Times Square in New York City through the years, from stardust to stardust:

-5,000,000,000: The atoms that will make up Time Square are part of a dust cloud between the stars, blasted there by the death of a star. The dust is forming into the Sun and the planets.

-1,000,000,000: Times Square is near South Africa as part of the supercontinent of Rodinia. There are no plants or animals – just blue-green algae covering the oceans far away.

-500,000,000: At the bottom of the sea. Will remain there till the Appalachian mountains start to rise up out of the ocean in about 50 million years.

-250,000,000: In the tropics. Crosses north of the equator. Near north-west Africa as part of the supercontinent of Pangea.

-1,800,000: Ice ages begin.

-1,000,000: Between ice ages, fairly warm, but dangerous: there are hyenas (Chasmaporthetes), dire wolves (Canis dirus) and sabre-toothed cats (Smilodon fatalis, pictured). There are also birds, squirrels, deer, wolves and black bears.

-20,0000: under the giant glacier that gives us Staten Island, Long Island and much of the present landscape.

-8,000: The ice is gone. No earthworms yet – they are still crawling north from Virginia. And no people either: they are still walking east from Asia. Mastodons (Mammut americanum, pictured) are dying out.

-7,000: The first people.

1000: An old growth forest with wolves, coyotes, mountain lions (Puma concolor) and passenger pigeons (Ectopistes migratorius, pictured). Deer too, but not as many as you would think. By now the Delaware (aka Lenape) have arrived.

The Delaware in the 1700s. They were driven out of the Times Square area by the Dutch in the 1640s.

1609: There is now an Indian trail. It will become Broadway. You might see bald eagles, passenger pigeons, ducks, hawks, ravens, robins, crows, mice, voles, turtles, frogs, maple trees, chestnut trees and black cherries. You might see the Delaware hunting, but it is unlikely any of them live there. Main language: Munsee.

1776: It is now a farm, belonging to John Morin Scott, an Anglo American who raises horses and fights under George Washington.

1803: John Jacob Astor buys Scott’s farm and makes a fortune as New York City spreads north and land values go up.

1836: When the Times Square area was still mainly just farms. The curved road is Broadway. The streets are numbered at left..

1872: Centre of the city’s horse carriage industry.

1898 – 42nd Street and Broadway. Notice the horses.

1898: A place of electric lights, theatres, cafes and restaurants.

1904 – the Times building goes up. Notice the trams.

1904: The New York Times builds its headquarters at 42nd and Broadway. Times Square gets its name, its first electrified sign and its first New Year’s Eve celebration.

1907: The New Year’s Eve ball drops for the first time.

October 1919 – notice the cars. The crowd is watching a live scoreboard of the World Series – radios are not yet common.

1949

December 31st 1999. Notice the New Year’s Eve ball above the building. And how it is no longer a particularly tall building.

2005

September 2016, Google Street View.

January 1st 2017

2017: Now.

1,000,000: Glaciers have ground the Time Square we know to dust. All that is left is a buried layer of shredded plastic, the remains of Coke bottles, shopping bags, etc.

250,000,000: Times Square is once again in the middle of a supercontinent near South Africa, but this time it is high in a mountain range.

1,000,000,000: The Sun has grown so hot that the oceans have boiled away. The sky is no longer blue: it is always covered in cloud. The Earth is like Venus.

5,000,000,000: The atoms that made up Time Square are part of a dust cloud between the stars, blasted there by the Sun when it became so big it destroyed the Earth.

– Abagond, 2017.

Sources: Mainly Google Images (2017); “What If?” (2014) by Randall Munroe; Mannahatta Project; PaleoMap Project; Smithsonian; BuzzFeed.

Update (July 5th 2021): Here is a video of Times Square by the Time Travel Artist, going from 2019 to 1898 and back again:

See also:

• When things began
• Fatboy Slim: Right Here, Right Now
• Human evolution: the last 4 billion years
• The Delaware
  • Munsee
• Anglo Americans
• New York City
  • How daily life has changed in the last 30 years – New York from 1984 to 2014
  • New York English
  • New York Times
    • The world according to the New York Times
• The Ford – upon which New York taxis were based till about 2008.
• Nathaniel Wyeth – inventor of the plastic Coke bottle
• 1949 according to this blog

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