Thursday, March 06, 2025

White Invaders Injustices to the Indigenous People

      

        In some recent online videos about the history of the American West, the content creators quoted from diaries written by soldiers who served in the U.S. Cavalry during the mid to late 1800s. During this encroachment into Native territory, the soldiers constantly use the word "hostiles" to describe the Natives they encounter. They seem mystified. 

Now, what would make those people hostile? 

        It is bad enough U.S. history books are filled with derogatory references to Natives as - Indians, redskins, injuns, heathens, savages, pagans, and barbarians. Even our Declaration of Independence refers to them as "merciless indian savages." But to be baffled by their hostility? It never seems to occur to those troopers that the Natives are hostile precisely because those troopers are invading their land, taking their food, and killing their family members. If Natives regularly pushed their way into the various forts the US military had established along what was called the frontier and were taking off with all the goods they could carry, how would the troopers react? Would they be hostile toward people who did that to them? Why were the people who already lived on that land considered the invading culture? Why were they required to give up their land just because white intruders under their self-appointed Manifest Destiny decided they owned whatever they could see or grab? In the United States, white trespassers still occupy Native lands.

        "Where did they come from?"
            For example, here is the most likely scenario that happened along the coastal area of what became Virginia on May 13, 1607, when a Powhatan native came across the first English invaders. In basic sign language, this occurred:

Native: Who are you?
Immigrant: We're here to build a settlement named after our king, called Jamestown, on this land.
Native: Why?
Immigrant: Is this your land?
Native: Yes, we hunt and fish here. Who is your, uh, king to give you this permission?
Immigrant: We're here on his orders. See, here is the signature of King James.
Native: Is he with you?
Immigrant: No. But his name is on this piece of paper, making it legal.
Native: So, you're guided only by marks on a piece of what looks like thin skin of some sort. The man who made them is not with you. There seems to be just a small group of you with no females, and many are doing nothing...
Immigrant: Most of us are sick.
Native (looking around): Unaccompanied, seems to be a minor bunch who are in poor health. To do anything else would be inhumane...so, alright, you can stay here for a while. We'll send over some food. The water in that river is no good...too salty. There is a spring not far that way with good water. The trees provide plenty of cover for protection - and for heat and cooking. We'll check up on you.
Immigrant: We can never repay you.

And they never did. As a matter of fact, they took it away from the natives.
         The same scenario played out on November 11, 1620 (per the Julian Calendar), near what became Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts. There, the circumstances were even more problematic and dire for the Pilgrims. (They had put the 'grim' in their religious identification due to their own intolerance for other viewpoints, which is why they were now seeking a new homeland.) Winds had blown them off course, so they did not get to where they were attempting to reach in the "New World." Now, it was almost winter, and they had used up most of their supplies to get to this uncharted place. The Wampanoags were the only reason the Pilgrims survived the first winter. The Pilgrims had tried to pray their food, safety, care, and well-being into existence. But, whatever they were praying to took no note of them. The Natives took pity on the strange invaders and extended to them far more "Christianity" and Christian character than the Pilgrims ever reciprocated.

        "Our king and our church said we own you people now...and your land, too!"
        Meanwhile, down in the territory being vandalized by the ever-so-compassionate conquistadors of Spain, St. Augustine had been established in 1565 as a Catholic mission. It was a foothold for the Spanish conquest of the territory. Since 1513, there had been lots of barbaric treatment of - and violent contact with - the local natives, like the Timucuans and the Calusas, to really get things off to a bad start, as the conquistadors fought their way into this new land. This would foment an even more hostile living environment that was going to be the future of interaction between the two cultures in what became Florida.
    The conquistadors had the noxious habit of enslaving any person who fell into their hands because the church ruled that they could. The people they met were heathens. They were not to be afforded God's mercy and treated as equals. They were sub-humans in the eyes of the church because they didn't worship the same god, they spoke a weird language, and they had different customs. How dare they?
     The Spaniards abused them in every way they could: they used them as targets, to ride on like animals, and forced at swordpoint to mine metals or ores out of the ground, or plant and farm crops. The Natives were not malleable at all and resisted every effort of the Spaniards to subjugate them. All that was left was to kill the indigenous men and rape their women. That would spread their "friendly-to-whites-only" diseases throughout the local population, and then they'd just wait for nature to take its course. The same callous attitude was displayed toward the indigenous by the English, French, Dutch, and Portuguese as well.
    Naturally, they couldn't have known that the diseases they carried - that they were immune to from centuries of living in Europe - these people had no defenses against. Even a simple cold was lethal to many of the indigenous. But the invaders didn't know, nor did they care. They assumed the Indigenous land was theirs for the taking, so if the inhabitants got the sniffles and died, then the white invaders could justify it by saying, "It was an act of God and was meant to be!" 
        That is what made the butchery, cruelty, and hostility so disturbing: the cold-blooded treatment of all Natives by these invaders based solely on their holy book, the Bible, which they all claimed guided them. Since these indigenous people were different in enough ways, the invaders asserted that their God's attitude was "do whatever you want to them." Such Christian compassion and charity!
        Enslavement was condoned. Barbarity was approved of. Seizing land without verifying if anyone lived there first was seen as a noble thing to do for their king and god. It spread their gospel...while spilling blood everywhere it was carried and preached. It didn't matter that the natives couldn't understand a word of what the Spaniards were babbling at them. The church leaders had told them all should hear the word of God. That meant the monks and priests with them read it out of their books - because of course God would intercede and make the natives understand Latin in their own language - so they had to stay and be quiet, then profess to grasp and accept whatever was shouted at them. When that failed over and over and over, the church ordered them slaughtered. Better no heathens at all, especially those who heard the word and rejected it. This scenario was played out everywhere these European Christian-influenced invaders set foot...the Caribbean Islands, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Africa, India, Singapore, China, Hawaii...etc. In a little over 100 years, North, Central, and South America became the testing ground for all the appalling and criminal actions these invaders could think up in dealing with a new race of people. If it was the wrong thing to do, these invaders did it.
        The Tainos couldn't understand why the Columbus crew needed so much material draped over them.
        
        When Columbus and his followers stumbled upon the Caribbean Islands and the Americas, he and the Spanish hooligans who came after him instituted a bloody legacy reputedly established much earlier by the Vikings. In those Norse legends, Leif Ericssen and Eric the Red fought men called skraelings in their encounters far to the west of their Northern European homelands. Not to be outdone, the conquistadors came up with a variety of ways to terrorize anyone they encountered that would humble whatever violence the Vikings unleashed.
The British, French, Dutch, and Portuguese enhanced that blood-thirsty reputation when they got to the New World. In many cases, they were almost giddy about their barbaric treatment whenever they came in contact with the indigenous people.
    And then, on top of all that, the hypocritical Americans insisted on calling the native people they encountered while pushing westward into their lands...savages!
       And yet some people don't think any reparations are owed to the indigenous people, to those who are descendants of the African Slave Trade, and to the descendants of the Asian 'Coolie' Trade. How in the hell can any person look at the information that is currently available - information that white people recorded without any embarrassment - and not think these abused people are due SOMETHING for all they have suffered and been subjected to at the hands of our Caucasian ancestors? To deny them that is a strikingly undiluted example of white privilege.
        The people who endured the barbarism of that white privilege deserve justice. It is long, long overdue.

Wednesday, October 04, 2023

Religious faith - points everywhere...and nowhere.

   

     Christian churches are not about the overarching message of the Protestant Bible, but rather about which interpretation of the book is correct. They all squabble with each other over the most inconsequential, ignorant, and petty things in their interpretations (Immersion vs. sprinkling, wine vs. grape juice, Saturday vs. Sunday...etc.) but they fail to address whether the bible is even worth basing an entire life-system on. (Full Disclosure: It's not.) Then, there's the matter of the Protestant Bible deriving from the Catholic Bible with its six extra books. Which one is the real "Christian" book? Does older mean truer and more reliable?

    Christianity's core is completely lacking in substance but has been protected, camouflaged, and embellished over the centuries spawning several offshoot industries and power centers all meant to conceal its main emptiness. They were designed to gloss over that emptiness and give it a veneer of authenticity, reliability, and truth. It is none of those things. It only pretends to be. 

    The Christians themselves sum it up with their vacuous "You just gotta have faith." What good does that do in proving the truth of something? If faith is all that is required, then Muslims are right about their faith. Mormons are right about theirs. Hindus are right about theirs... Who could ever be wrong if "you just gotta have faith?" 

It's time to grow up and realize gods were created by cavemen to explain thunder and lightning.

Sunday, February 27, 2022

80 years later and Russia has learned nothing

 

    We've seen these images before. Hell, the Russians have seen the horrific images before. But one gets the impression the lessons learned in Finland in 1939-1940 were forgotten by Vladimir Putin when it came to invading Ukraine, another independent nation on Russia's western border. Didn't he study ANY Soviet history? This never goes well for the Russians.

    How many more dead Russian soldiers is the world going to have to see before it breaks the heart of Mother Russia and someone there finally strikes out at the idiot that led Russia's military into another catastrophe?
    There's an old tradition where the targeted victim gets kissed by his biggest suck-up before he gets snuffed.

GLORY TO UKRAINE!

Friday, February 25, 2022

Know the Whole Story ~ 21st Century Equivalents

       


       WHEN I WAS GROWING UP ON A FARM IN OHIO WE HAD A PIECE OF EQUIPMENT WE’D FILL WITH THE COW PIES FROM THE BARN. IT REDISTRIBUTED THEM AMONG THE CROPS AS WE PULLED IT THROUGH THE FIELDS BEHIND THE TRACTOR. THE DEVICE WAS CALLED A MANURE SPREADER. 

THE DEVICES HAVE EVOLVED BUT THEY ARE STILL AROUND.

ONE 21ST CENTURY EQUIVALENT IS ELIZABETH 'LIZ' HARRINGTON, PROPAGANDA CHIEF FOR THE DEFEATED FORMER PRESIDENT. HERE ARE SOME OF HER TWITTER-RULES-EVADING REDISTRIBUTION EFFORTS ON HIS BEHALF...

    ANOTHER IS DEVIN NUNES, OPERATING AS DONALD TRUMP'S TRUTH SOCIAL 'REDISTRIBUTION' CEO.

(Nunes is the one on the left.)

     GET YOUR CROPS READY FOR FRESH LOADS OF "TRUTH" COMING SOON FROM THE BACK END OF THE ONE ON THE RIGHT... THEY WILL BE RE-PACKAGED AS THE LATEST RANTINGS FROM THE DEFEATED FORMER PRESIDENT VIA LIZ HARRINGTON AND DEVIN NUNES...BUT IT'S REALLY JUST BULL...

Tuesday, November 30, 2021

What was the Noose for? A Goose / Gander Principle

   

    Are we a nation of laws?     

    Rules and guidelines have been set down and as a society, we have agreed to abide by them for community safety and stability. When rabble-rousers succeed in inciting a riot, justice in stable societies is usually fairly swift. They round up the trouble-makers, find out who the ringleaders were, and arrest them. But in the case of January 6, those that encouraged the crowd to take the law into their own hands, so far, have avoided justice. 

    There is an old proverb that dates from at least 1670 - its true origin stretches back much further - that declares "what is good for the goose is good for the gander." It was an early example of equal application of justice. If something is just for this group for doing this thing, then it certainly applies to that group doing it as well.

    It's time these treason enthusiasts get a taste of the justice they demanded of others, because who was on the correct side of the law on January 6, 2021? 

    What did the insurrectionists assemble a gallows with a noose on it for? Was that just decoration, a mild threat, or a working model that they intended to use? 

    These insurrectionists are the 'ants'. They are the foot soldiers, not the ringleaders. That is who justice needs to seek out immediately. Those who worked up, incited, and directed the foot soldiers into attack mode, all the way up to and including Donald Trump who encouraged them to march on the Capitol and fight like hell. There should be no avoiding justice on this issue. Insurrection attempts must be dealt with in a manner that will cause great discomfort... just as it did for the rest of America that watched in horror as the rioters carried out their assault on democracy.

    Those that committed these acts should have seriously considered whether it was worth their lives. Less than a century ago - they would have faced nothing short of a firing squad or a hangman’s noose. Five hundred years before that it would have been an ax slicing through their neck. They are escaping the justice they truly and historically deserve. All they're facing today is the boredom of sitting behind metal bars for a few years, and we'll even pay for their incarceration at taxpayers' expense. Lucky us.

    The rioters demanded to HANG Mike Pence. In my view, "what was good for the goose..." 

Every person in the above picture should be subjected to the same if they believed Pence deserved it.

The Vice President was doing his Constitutional duty. 

Were the insurrectionists? 

Was Donald Trump?

    It's hard not to agree with the sentiment of Game of Thrones' Tyrion Lannister about his reaction if he were to get so much as a whiff of treason... 

Well said!

The insurrectionists and every leader should face that fate.

Thursday, November 11, 2021

The Right Person - General Mark Milley - 21st Century Defender of the United States

     

Throughout the Trump presidency, I often wondered if there would be ANYBODY who served in his administration that could eventually be praised for their service at that time. Someone who put the nation above the personality holding the title of president.

There was...and still is. General Mark A. Milley.

Donald Trump’s effort to upend the 2020 election based on his lie is being called “aiming a nuclear weapon at the United States of America’ and Jeffrey Clark, the writer of the Department of Justice letter challenging the Georgia election results should face serious decades-long consequences for promoting Trump’s lie as factual and giving it a veneer of believability. It was an act of sedition. One journalist wrote that “we can’t take this continuous historic scandal for granted just because he [Trump] says it out loud all the time. These are [beyond] Watergate-level accusations.” Trump tried to use the Department of Justice to overthrow a free and fair election for his ego, democracy be damned.

Donald Trump assaulted the country. That can’t be ignored or swept under the rug. General Milley immediately took steps to protect the rest of the nation and the world from the mob-like impulses Trump was displaying hourly. Trump was in the wrong. I stand with Gen. Milley 100%. He served the nation in a time of Peril, as Bob Woodward and Jim Acosta's book title suggests.  



Trump sycophants are claiming Gen. Milley should be removed because he went behind Trump’s back to save the country from him, and that wasn’t fair to do to Trump. They claim Milley simply assumed Trump might do something unconstitutional, and he shouldn’t have the power to make that assessment even if he was the head of the Joint Chiefs. We don’t know that Trump would have launched a war but it’s crazy to assume he would, despite what Gen. Milley and many others say. So, to protect Trump’s damaged ego, his GOP suck-ups want Milley removed...dishonorably if possible...so Trump looks better in comparison. That’s all this is, an attempt to burnish Trump’s horrible reputation and to one-up those military know-it-alls who oppose Trump.

January 6th was Trump’s revenge against America for rejecting him at the polls. It’s a sore loser on steroids.

Thanks to Trump, his fanatics demand the right to believe what they want when they want and too bad if others don’t like it. Trump has moved us into a post-truth world which makes it extremely dangerous when we can no longer count on facts, truth, and honesty regarding everyday interactions. It will only get worse as time progresses. (For example: if people no longer fully accept that a red traffic light or sign means stop, intersections will become free-for-all kill zones. Or, if they assert and use Monopoly money as genuine currency, the banking industry will grind to a halt.) 

Law professor Lawrence Tribe hits the nail on the head when he stated that if Trump is not investigated for his role in trying to overturn a free and fair election, then the rule of law means nothing. Donald Trump would be allowed to do whatever he wants and never face any consequences. So, why even have laws against that if Trump and any future president commit them only to be given a pass every time? That is what Trump is hoping for.

It must be remembered, despite what Trump and his sycophants complain about now, Gen. Milley never went rogue. Trump went rogue and Milley had to protect the nation from HIM! Milley “stayed in his lane” the entire time he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. China had expressed concerns through backchannels that Trump’s rhetoric indicated he might strike in order to retain power. That’s what prompted Milley’s call. Trump was considered “crazy” even by his own staff. Pence had to call for military help during the riot. Trump was too busy enjoying watching it on TV at the White House. 

Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa confirms Milley saved the country from Trump-induced wars. Trump tried right after he knew he’d lost the election and then again just before Christmas. In both cases, Milley had to overpower Trump in some fashion, and Trump quickly backed down (as bullies do when their fake machismo is confronted) to prevent Trump from making arbitrary initial moves that would lead to war. It was a typical Trump deflection move to "get the heat" off of him interfering in the election. 

Milley and Pelosi agreed right after January 6 that Trump should not be able to do any “commander-in-chief" stuff in his remaining two weeks in office after assaulting his own government. 

It is imperative that Trump never, ever get close to the reins of power again. The military will insist in no uncertain terms there must be no re-election of Trump. 

Even the Chinese were concerned Trump would start a war with them in order to stay in power. Sure, an out-of-focus scenario could be invented that Gen. Milley "oversaw Trump" the last two weeks of his administration (meaning they are claiming a marginal military coup was carried out) by making sure he (Milley) was included in any chain of command orders, issuances, or directives. Milley wasn’t in command, but Trump sure wasn’t left in charge of anything, not even the drinks cabinet. The US ran on auto-pilot until Biden was sworn in. Pence never knew, which is just as well. 

If General Mark Milley is charged with treason, I support his decisions that lead Trump and his supporters to make such an unjust accusation. He did it to save the US from Trump who was going far outside the Constitution, the law, and his oath of office. Milley recognized the authoritarian despot in Donald Trump and stopped him from maintaining his grip on power. Milley should be rewarded for his silent defense of the country when virtually no one else would. 


It won’t happen right away, but historically, General Mark A. Milley will be ranked with Generals Grant, Sherman, Bradley, and Eisenhower, as men who defended the nation (and the Constitution) in an almost inconceivable situation. Milley recognized the danger of Donald Trump just as Grant and Sherman recognized and defeated Gen. Robert E. Lee, and Bradley and Eisenhower combined their talents to defeat Adolf Hitler. Milley did more from his position, one of the very few Trump couldn’t challenge, than the entire GOP, former Cabinet members, and Trump’s administration. He did it with no one watching and he did not bring attention to it. He saw the danger and acted stealthily and quickly. He should be accorded the nation’s highest award for that.   

And weird as this seems, Gen. Milley will not want to be remembered as the General who saved the nation from a violent domestic terrorist. I would imagine that carries little weight to a military officer who has faced live fire from a smart and well-equipped enemy. He will see what he did as the only thing anyone in his position could do. He will claim it deserves no special attention...when it absolutely DOES merit extraordinary attention - for protecting the nation from something completely unexpected. Something no one could have planned for. General Milley was the right person in the right place at the right time. He has earned numerous Bronze Stars and Purple Hearts for the grenades he threw himself on during his tenure as Joint Chiefs...and survived them all. Unlike Generals Joe Dunford Jr.,  John Kelly, and James Mattis, he survived Trump.

        There is considerable joking about the similarities between Hitler and Trump but as one late-night comedian pointed out - it is wrong to compare the two because "Hitler never lived off of an inheritance and he actually DID write a book." If the juxtaposing of Hitler and Trump continues; for example, Gen. Milley’s concern that Trump was becoming Hitler, and John Kelly acknowledging that Trump said positive things about Hitler, my hope is that Trump ends the same way Hitler did - only without dragging the entire nation down with him. Leave him alone in an underground bunker with a loaded pistol and a cyanide capsule.  
People forget Donald Trump is not sending us his best...

        At a recent congressional hearing, Gen. Mark Milley again proved he is one of democracy's greatest unseen defenders when he challenged bigots like Matt Gaetz who attempted to call the US military “woke” because the military thinks it is important to tell the full story about the formation of America, not just the white-only stories. [Because the people that make up the military come from all parts of America, not just the white-only parts.] General Mark Milley has the right to kick Tucker Carlson in the balls after Carlson called him a ‘pig’ and stupid because Milley thinks learning is a good thing for the American military. Fox hosts always show they are fully committed to being un-American and keeping viewers ignorant. 
    But there is a black mark.
General Qasem Soleimani
       My overall opinion on Gen. Milley is tempered because, while I support him and recognize he defended the nation against Trump’s worst impulses after the 2020 summer protests, Milley was responsible for Donald Trump committing the most egregious violation ever of our UN Charter agreement by targeting Gen. Qasem Soleimani in early January 2020, an act of war against a nation with whom we were not at war. An act that also killed 6 innocent Iraqis and 4 Iranians, injured 109 US service members in the ensuing retaliation and led to the collateral deaths of 176 people aboard a Ukrainian airliner. Milley was behind urging Donald Trump to kill Soleimani - who simplistically saw it as the perfect deflection from his Impeachment hearings. When Milley could see how dangerous and lawless Trump was, it was stupid and unpardonable, even if it was just one of several options offered. It should NEVER have been included. IT WAS WRONG!
    General Milley was coup-aware. He will face continued scrutiny for why he didn’t say anything publicly regarding his concerns about the dangers posed by Trump, but he had made it clear that the military was going to remain apolitical and avoid anything that appeared to violate that oath. Milley made sure the military would NOT be available to Trump for ‘help’ with the election. Gen. Milley saved our Constitutional Republic by refusing to allow Trump to drag the U.S. into a fascist direction. He did not raise any red flags because he didn’t want to give the MAGA mob reason to think the military was now "in on the game" to oust the president...since at that point Trump was claiming the election was rigged, the Deep State was out to get him, China released the virus to hurt him and help Biden, the only way he could lose is if the election was stolen...etc. 
    General Milley understood the dumb f*ckery Donald Trump was up to. For probably the only time in his life, someone stood up to Trump and he didn't know how to take it. The GOP is upset because Milley stopped Trump's slow-moving coup. That's what THEY can't forgive.