Fateful Times

Avatar photoby

According to Bing:

On about this date, in late August in 1619, the first enslaved Africans are brought to the colony of Jamestown. Stolen from a Portuguese slave ship by English pirates, the 20 to 30 men and women will be sold to colonists for supplies. Their forced arrival will mark the beginning of slavery in what will become America and a tragic start to African American history.

💬 Add your voice: Comment on today’s post
Share

32 thoughts on “Fateful Times”

  3. something different for maher last night

    B.J. Novak Shuts Down Bill Maher’s ‘Cancel Culture’ Nonsense (msn.com)

    On Friday night, Bill Maher welcomed an unlikely guest to Real Time: B.J. Novak, the Office writer/co-star, bestselling author, and filmmaker.
    […]
    Maher kicked things off by asking Novak about “the cognitive dissonance of, I don’t agree with you politically, but I like you personally…how can we do that on a national level en masse?”
    “In my opinion, it’s about emotion more than argument, and I think it’s about stopping ourselves from picking at the scab of everything that we disagree on,” Novak calmly explained. “Twitter is a drug for that, and when we’re separate behind screens, we pick the scab, we bite the canker sore of the things we disagree on. And I think if we all try to do that less, and focus on things like comedy, or sports, or art, or whatever, or sitting down over dinner, I think that is a start.”
    The audience gave Novak a round of applause, which made Maher awkwardly smirk.
    Then, Maher waded into so-called “cancel culture,” which in this case encompassed the notion that Twitter-happy audience members are somehow censoring Hollywood productions and not vice versa.
    “Lately we’ve been talking a lot about on this show—we’re gonna talk about it tonight—the freedom in the arts,” offered Maher, before continuing: “You know, you’ve written some episodes of… The Office which they don’t show now. I see Jamie Foxx’s new movie was shelved—I guess he made it a few years ago, but they’re not gonna ever show it. They make less comedies. I mean, you found a way to make a comedy about something, but I’m sure you have to be very careful about a lot of different things. They’re making less because it’s so not worth it to even try. Where are you on that?”
    Novak wasn’t so convinced of Maher’s theory. “I think there’s a difference between the gatekeepers and the audience—and I think you see this firsthand as a stand-up. The audiences, I think, are pretty down for everything,” he said. “They’re pretty smart people, and can be trusted a lot more than the gatekeepers sometimes worry. The gatekeepers are worried about the chatter in their own spheres, but I think audiences can be trusted to be pretty smart.”
    “But it’s not in the hands of the audience,” shot back Maher.
    “That’s what I’m saying,” replied Novak. “I’m saying, I don’t think the problem is that the audiences are too sensitive. I think the problem is that people are worried that other people are too sensitive.”
    Maher was speechless.
    [continues]

  4. My education regarding slavery was quite incomplete.   The history of the US went like this: Jamestown, Mayflower, Louisiana Purchase, slavery and Civil War.

    The only context for slavery was the Civil War; it was not brought up until the states were at war with each other.  

    When “Roots” aired, it wasn’t discussed in school.  Instead, we were asked about our lineage; genealogy became a big thing.   It’s something many African Americans are unable to do after a few generations.  “Finding Your Roots” has been an education in how early and how late the slave trade went on in this country and in the Caribbean.

    Now, with the “anti-woke” movement preventing educators from discussing many issues, there is a new generation who will also have an incomplete education.

  5. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/18/federal-judge-temporarily-blocks-desantis-stop-woke-law-00052768

    DuhSantis had a bad week.

    “A federal judge on Thursday blocked Florida from enforcing a key aspect of the state’s new law restricting what Gov. Ron DeSantis calls “woke” workplace trainings about race.”

    “….Judge Mark Walker slammed Florida’s “Stop-WOKE” Act, criticizing its policies as “bordering on unintelligible” as he granted a temporary injunction on the grounds the law violates the First Amendment.”

    “If Florida truly believes we live in a post-racial society, then let it make its case,” Walker wrote.

    “But it cannot win the argument by muzzling its opponents. Because, without justification, the (bill) attacks ideas, not conduct, (the businesses) are substantially likely to succeed on the merits of this lawsuit.”

    Well, no Duh.

  7. Same here for the most part Ms. Dallas. My first recollection of any discussion of slavery was when I saw GWTW as a kid at the Roebuck Drive In, and I was too young to understand it as slavery at all. The “academic” discussion was in Alabama history in about 8th grade – in the context of, yes, the civil war. I don’t think I really understood it until college – the first time I ever attended school with black students and made friends with black people and had professors who actually discussed the slavery in the south and how extensive it was.

  8. I came to a full understanding of it with a jolt when i peeked into the third filling station bathroom (1 Men, 2 Women, 3 Colored) and saw how absolutely filthy it was with cockroaches running free all over.  It was revolting.  I realized that that was the room my black 2nd mother and her children, my friends, would have to use. It just wasn’t right.

  9. the statement from thread topic quote “Their forced arrival will mark the beginning of slavery in what will become America…”  is not completely accurate.  According to wiki:

    Spain displayed an early abolitionist stance towards indigenous people although Native American slavery continued to be practiced, particularly until the New Laws of 1543. The Spanish empire, however was involved in the enslavement of people of African origin. Although the Spanish often depended on others to obtain enslaved Africans and transport them across the Atlantic, the Spanish Empire was a major recipient of enslaved Africans, with around 22% of the Africans delivered to American shores ending up in the Spanish Empire.
    The Spanish restricted and outright forbade the enslavement of Native Americans from the early years of the Spanish Empire with the Laws of Burgos of 1512 and the New Laws of 1542. The latter led to the abolition of the Encomienda, private grants of groups of Native Americans to individual Spaniards as well as to Native American nobility. The implementation of the New Laws and liberation of tens of thousands of Native Americas led to a number of rebellions and conspiracies by “Encomenderos” (Encomienda holders) which had to be put down by the Spanish crown. Asian people in colonial Mexico had the same status as Native Americans and thus were forbidden to be enslaved by law. 
    Spain had a precedent for slavery as an institution since it had existed in Spain itself since the times of the Roman Empire. Slavery also existed among Native Americans of both Meso-America and South America. [continues]

  10. and it wasn’t that long ago that married women in america no matter their color or ethnicity were considered the property of their husband…  or at least their freedom to do such things as open credit accounts on their own without husband’s express approval until the ’60s.

  11. off topic, but a bit of news of possible Faux news apostasy last week as reported by businessinsider

    Fox News Host Wonders Whether Trump Tried Selling Top-Secret Information (businessinsider.com)

    A Fox News host on Sunday wondered aloud whether former President Donald Trump might have attempted to sell the classified documents he kept at Mar-a-Lago to Russia or Saudi Arabia. 
    Speaking during a live broadcast on Fox News Sunday, Eric Shawn raised one possibility about what Trump could have done with the classified documents the FBI found during its search of Trump’s Florida residence. 
    “And more questions are being raised this morning. Did former President Trump try to sell or share the highly classified material to the Russians or to the Saudis or others?” Shawn asked.
    “Or were the documents innocently mishandled and stored because he thought he had a legal right to have them?” he added. 
    Shawn then referenced reports from Russian state media that the materials might have been leaked to parties in Russia before segueing into an interview with the intelligence analyst Rebekah Koffler. 
    [continues]

    linked tweet in the story

  14. Sturgeone

    Roughly the passage of Civil Rights legislation caused the major changes when the parties totally flipped between right and left. Until then, both parties had left and right wings.  

    Democrats had a liberal wing and a Dixiecrat wing.  The Dixiecrats fled the Democratic party and the liberal Republicans (i.e. Eisenhower wing) moved to the Democratic side of the ledger.

     

  17. The American Taliban got the Guidestones, eh?  it had been a target of theirs for a while, their dumb house rep adopted the issue because she’s an idiot

  19. Bink

    The Stones are being stored to keep them from being destroyed, but I’m still curious about their history and commentary on the messages. 

    I’ve always thought getting back to 4 billion was potentially doable.  It took beginning of time to 1804 to get to 1 billion and only two centuries to get to the current untenable state we are in.  The message calling for 500,000 seems to be contemplating some sort of nuclear winter horror to get it down to only 500 K.

    The inscription read:

    Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
    Guide reproduction wisely – improving fitness and diversity.
    Unite humanity with a living new language.
    Rule passion – faith – tradition – and all things with tempered reason.
    Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
    Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
    Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
    Balance personal rights with social duties.
    Prize truth – beauty – love – seeking harmony with the infinite.
    Be not a cancer on the Earth – Leave room for nature – Leave room for nature.

  20. Those stones are just the product of some hillbilly with too much money and a crane.

    “Prize beauty” is something a stupid person says

  21. Bink

    Yes it is all sorts of hippy dippy, age of Aquarius complete with the sun shining in.  That doesn’t mean contemplating the possibility of human beings wiping themselves almost out of existence shouldn’t have the aftermath considered.

     

  22. We could totally write a better guidestone than that.
     
    Here, my entry is “Reject hokum in all its dastardly forms”

  23. bink, who gets to define what “hokum” is for the future folk and who are the chosen ones that will distinguish what is and is not “dastardly”

  24. US supreme court backs Black voters challenging Georgia election rules | Georgia | The Guardian

    Black voters challenging Georgia’s method of electing members to the state’s public service commission scored a preliminary US supreme court order in their favor late Friday.

    The decision came after conflicting rulings from lower courts earlier this month, offering up a rare example of the supreme court’s 6-3 conservative majority’s siding with voters over state officials.

  27. “It’s all up to what the individual believes.”   
    –Brian’s summation of life during one drunken night in the 70’s wherein a group of doofuses began to wax philosophical.   It was somehow very funny at the time.,

  30. The old land lines are replaced with voice over IP now.  It is almost time to fight Verizon again to go internet only.  Each time I do, they come up with internet/phone/cable cheaper.  I wonder what this year brings?  Yhere are areas where the land line satill works, call it rural.

  31. https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/20/us/louisiana-delay-flood-funding-city-abortion-stance/index.html

    “…New Orleans City Council passed a resolution July 7 certifying the city leaders’ support of abortion access and reproductive health care by asking police, sheriff’s deputies and prosecutors not to dedicate city funds to collect information about abortions.”

    “Louisiana state officials delay flood funding to New Orleans a second time over city officials’ stance on abortion.”

    So, Republicans want citizens to drown?

Comments are closed.

Join the Trail Mix

Get an alert when Craig goes live, and the link when our Open Thread heats up.