Day: February 18, 2022

Closing Thought–18Feb22

As elections loom large on the horizon we are getting out typical political ads…..some aging white guy with preacher hair and his dutiful wife and 2/3 children in tow telling us all about the future of our state….(most of which is all lies)…..

Then there is a candidate that breaks the rules of polite BS……this one is in Louisiana…..

A Louisiana candidate for the US Senate is making waves with his ads, which show him smoking marijuana and burning the Confederate flag. Baton Rouge community activist Gary Chambers Jr.—who had a viral moment in 2020 when he called out a school board member for online shopping during a discussion about the renaming of a school named after Gen. Robert E. Lee—is running for the seat held by first-term Republican Sen. John Kennedy, per the AP. In an ad released Wednesday, he’s shown hanging a Confederate flag on a clothesline, dousing it in gasoline, and setting it on fire.

“We must burn what remains of the Confederacy down,” Chambers says, condemning a system that’s “producing measurable inequity” for Black people. He adds that gerrymandered election districts are “a byproduct of the Confederacy.” The ad came a day after Chambers rallied at the Louisiana Capitol in support of the creation of a second majority-Black congressional district, which the Senate rejected, per the Daily Advertiser. As a third of the state population is Black, supporters argue two of the state’s six districts should have Black majorities, per the AP. In an earlier ad, viewed 6.6 million times on Twitter, Chambers smoked a marijuana blunt from a wingback chair in a field while dressed in a suit.

The ad was recorded in New Orleans, where there are no longer penalties for possession of small amounts of pot. Marijuana use in Louisiana could lead to jail time, though Chambers says that should change. In the ad, he decried the money wasted on enforcing marijuana laws, adding that arrests disproportionally affect Black people. “Most of the people police are arresting aren’t dealers, but rather people with small amounts of pot. Just like me,” he said. Chambers and fellow Democrat Luke Mixon face an uphill battle in trying to unseat Kennedy. The Republican has almost $10 million in campaign cash, compared to about $170 for Chambers. The latter spent about $400,000 last year in a House race in which he finished strong but lost.

Of course this guy will not win….but at least he is not a cookie cutter image of the guy he is trying to replace.

But watch the ad for yourself….it is unusual and for me memorable…..

If he was running in Mississippi I would vote for him…..but sadly all I can do is watch from afar.

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“lego ergo scribo”

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Our First Insurrection

Everyone of us citizens has an opinion on the breaching of the Capitol building on the 06 January…..some see it as the legal challenge to the Constitution and others see it as a failed coup attempt by nationalists…..who is wrong or right?

Well that will depend on who you chat with…..but the challenge happened and now it gives me a chance to inject a bit of history.

Was the failed coup attempt of 06 January the first challenge to the government?

Actually o6 January was not the first challenge to the authority of the government….the year is 1786, the place is Massachusetts….

The insurrection was lead by one Daniel Shays after the disorganization in the beginning Shays eventually became the leader of the insurrection.

What was it all about….why were the farmers so damn angry…….

In the aftermath of the American Revolution the new United States faced many challenges and difficulties. Of all the difficulties, Shays’ Rebellion was perhaps the most important.

The Articles of Confederation was the first form of organized federal government the United States employed following independence. The Articles made the federal government extremely weak and left most power to the states.

Nothing highlighted this weakness better than the outbreak of Shays’ Rebellion and the powerlessness of the federal government to respond and react.

Shays’ Rebellion was an organized rebellion of western Massachusetts farmers and countrymen against the state of Massachusetts in 1786-1787. These farmers rebelled against the unjust collection of excessive taxes and seizure of property when taxes went uncollected.

Many of the rebels were disgruntled former Continental army soldiers who went unpaid during the revolution. These poor farmers were now being forced to give up their lands when they could not pay the high taxes imposed on them by the state governments.

After peaceful attempts to come to a resolution were ignored by state leaders primarily from the eastern coastal area, the protesters took more forceful means to protect their interests. Courthouses and state buildings were surrounded and government officials prevented from following through with evictions and arrests.

The federal government was aware of the rebellion and the possibility of an attempt to take weapons from the federal armory in Springfield, MA. It soon found itself powerless to take any action given that it could not raise an army of its own nor levy taxes.

Why Is Shays’ Rebellion Important?

My thought is that this ‘rebellion’ was one reason the 2nd amendment was put into the Bill of Rights…..but that is a whole different conversation.

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Class Dismissed!

I Read, I Write, You KNow

“lego ergo scribo”