Tag: Historical Facts

Thomas Paine–Working Class Hero

Since it is the 250th anniversary if the US I have set about re-acquainting the American people with the original Founding Father with a series dedicated to Thomas Paine.

I am always amazed to see any Right winger use Paine as some sort of icon for their beliefs….it is humorous for if they knew anything about Paine they would realize that he stood for damn near everything they hold dear.

…

The only thing Paine liked less than monarchical rule was its enablers, anyone who relinquished their freedom willingly to an aspiring tyrant.

This is not only wrong, Paine insists, but against nature, since all of us are created equal.

But even that’s not the worst part. Those who sacrifice their own freedom on the altar of monarchy also sacrifice that of future generations. Their “unwise, unjust, unnatural compact might (perhaps) in the next succession put them under the government of a rogue or a fool.” Ouch.

“Most wise men,” Paine adds, “in their private sentiments, have ever treated hereditary right with contempt; yet it is one of those evils, which when once established is not easily removed; many submit from fear, others from superstition, and the more powerful part shares with the king the plunder of the rest.”

https://theconversation.com/in-1776-thomas-paine-made-the-best-case-for-fighting-kings-and-for-being-skeptical-266448

It was Paine that chided Americans to throw off the yoke of Britain….

“In ‘Common Sense,’ Thomas Paine defines common sense as the fundamental ability of all people to reason and discern truth, regardless of social standing or education. He argues that this innate capacity, when applied to political matters, reveals the absurdity of hereditary monarchy and the necessity of self-governance based on the consent of the governed. Paine’s ‘Common Sense’ is a call to action, urging colonists to reject British rule and embrace republicanism, a system of government where power resides in the people.”  (To discern the truth….something Americans have lost)

…

What was Paine’s specific vision for human society? Long after the successful defeat of British colonialism in “the colonies,” he wrote this passage in “Rights of Man, Part the Second”: “When it shall be said in any country in the world that my poor are happy, neither ignorance nor distress is to be found among them; my jails are empty of prisoners, my streets of beggars, the aged are not in want; the taxes are not oppressive; the rational world is my friend, because I am the friend of its happiness—when these things can be said, then may that country boast its constitution and its government.”

…

“Anyone needing to be reminded of core Enlightenment beliefs—that government can only be empowered by its citizens; that such citizens are born with certain natural rights; that none are born superior to any other; that all will be treated equally before the law; and that the state has a duty to help the neediest of its people—reading Paine offers a political and spiritual inspiration, one that has driven men and women to achieve greatness across history. Of Paine’s many reasons for daring to publish work for which he could have been hanged or guillotined in the United Colonies, the United Kingdom, or France, this legacy is his glory.”

The US resistance movement fighting the Trump regime’s effort to destroy everything Thomas Paine stood for and fought for, and more, will be stronger if we raise him up more and more over the coming months as we approach the 250th anniversary on July 4th next year of the issuing of the Declaration of Independence. There’s no question which side he would be on if he was alive today.

(znetwork.org)

This is something I wrote a couple of years ago about Thomas Paine….

Thomas Paine: America’s Founder

This is another tribute to this forgotten Founder….

Citizen of the world: a brief survey of the life and times of Thomas Paine (1737-1809) – World Socialist Web Site

I have been a fan of Paine since I was 14 when my grandfather gave me a copy of Common Sense….it was eye opening and profound….we need another Thomas Paine to bring some light to the darkness that now engulfs our nation…..we need Thomas Paine.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Tragedy Of Billie Holiday

Was listening to a local blues station because I had enough of Little Drummer Boy and all, and a song came on that was a favorite of my mother….she had several albums, 78s, of Holiday and her fantastic voice….this was one of her favorites…..

This lady had a fabulous voice it is a real shame that her life was so messed up and the American government was no help at all….

Despite her status as one of the world’s most influential jazz and blues singers, Billie Holiday passed away penniless and alone.

The artist rose to stardom in the 1930s with chart-topping hits such as “Strange Fruit,” “I’ll Be Seeing You,” and “Gloomy Sunday.”

Her distinctive and emotive vocal delivery solidified her place among the all-time greats. However, behind the scenes, Holiday’s life was fraught with difficulties.

Throughout her career and life, she endured pervasive racism. Holiday was denied entry through the front doors of venues and faced segregation in hotels and public accommodations.

In 1938, Holiday made history by touring with Artie Shaw, becoming the first Black woman to lead a white jazz band. Yet, she was forced to find her own lodging as she was prohibited from staying in the same hotels as the rest of the ensemble.

The alleged catalyst for the racism she encountered was her performance of Strange Fruit – a potent protest song against the lynching of Black Americans.

Holiday’s struggle with drug addiction throughout her career made her a target for the US government, which reportedly hatched a scheme to ruin her career.

The Federal Bureau of Narcotics, headed by the purportedly racist Harry J. Anslinger, had a particular fixation on controlling and punishing Black musicians.

https://www.the-express.com/entertainment/music/193210/music-icon-penniless-hospital-bed-government

A real shame that racism was so readily accepted…..she had more talent in her little finger than some of today’s “mega-stars’….

Not many know the whole story of Holiday only her voice and music….she deserved so much better than she ever got.

And it appears that that same destructive racism is returning….will we let it?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Make America White Again

Ever since Donny entered into politics he has been Hell bent on persecuting people of color….this time around he has taken his desires to full blown attempt to make American a white country again.

The problem with that stupid damn idea is that American has never been a solely white nation….

As Donald Trump deteriorates and his grasp on power fades, he has been lashing out furiously at female journalists and ethnic groups, most recently Somali Americans. His insults land because of their animosity and his power, not their accuracy. Likewise, his administration’s attacks on immigrants are sloppy and driven by lies. It’s strikingly clear that the target is not individuals with criminal records. It’s anyone and everyone guilty of being brown. Native Americans with tribal identification cards, US citizens, people doing crucial work from construction to nursing, military veterans, college students, people sleeping in their own beds, small children: all kinds of residents of this country are under attack.

“ICE raids are cruel, inhumane, and do nothing to serve public safety,” declares Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor-elect. Masked thugs smashing car windows and dragging parents away from their babies, terrorizing whole swathes of the population, and interfering with the ability of schools and businesses to function does the opposite. The rounds of targeted hatred by Trump and his minions – for people from Haiti during the 2024 campaign, for people from Venezuela this spring and summer, and most recently for people from Somalia – rely on defamatory lies and insults, because the facts about these groups don’t support the hate.

This terrorizing and demonizing pretends to be in service of recreating a white America that never existed. The US when white supremacists like Trump were young was whiter, but this was never a white country. In 1776, the 13 colonies that became the United States included a significant percentage of Black and Indigenous people (some southern states were a third or more Black). When the US annexed Texas in 1844 and then in 1848 took Mexico’s whole northern half, a Spanish-speaking population was already settled across parts of what’s now the south-west and California. The first African Muslim in what is now the United States came in a Spanish expedition almost a century before the Mayflower brought its fanatical Puritans to the shores of Massachusetts in 1620.

The persecution of huge numbers of brown people and even the mass deportations will not create the white country of far-right fantasy. Los Angeles, for example is an almost 50% Latino city, and despite the ICE and border patrol outrages, arrests, imprisonments and deportations, it remains so. The city’s very name is Spanish, a reminder of who was here first. All the hatred, all the persecution, seems like the panic of racists pretending they can stop the future of this country no longer being majority white through sheer cruelty.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/dec/06/trump-immigration-whiteness

As Donny tries to marginalize people of color he is doing real damage to the whole concept of what the US stands for in this crazy world.

This is a fool’s errand….but what better person to lead than a fool.?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Erosion Of Rights

We have a Constitution and then we had an add-on that we now call the Bill of Rights.

Our Bill of Rights contains many amendments that deal with just about all aspects of life as an American….but those rights are been chipped away slowly but slowly….and in recent years that chipping has become harder and more extensive….

Since 20 January 2025 the government has attacked many of of the Rights put down by the Founding Fathers….those attacked have been numbers 1,5, 6, 8, 12, 14, 15, 22, 23….and the attacks continue.

So do these attacks mean that some think the BoR was a bad idea and needs changing?

Well if they do then they are not alone….from the very beginning some of the Founders were not so keen on the BoR…..let’s look at the start of the debate on this section…..

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think about the U.S. Constitution?

For many people, the answer probably involves one of the famous individual liberties that are spelled out in the Bill of Rights, such as freedom of speech, due process, or the right to keep and bear arms. When a person argues that something is unconstitutional, what that person often means is that it violates one or more of the provisions contained in the Bill of Rights.

Yet the Constitution did not originally include the Bill of Rights when it was ratified in 1788. Why not?

“It would not only be useless, but dangerous, to enumerate a number of rights which are not intended to be given up,” declared future Supreme Court Justice James Iredell at the North Carolina Ratification Convention in 1788. That is “because it would be implying, in the strongest manner, that every right not included in the exception might be impaired by the government without usurpation.” What is more, Iredell declared, “it would be impossible to enumerate every one. Let anyone make what collection or enumeration of rights he pleases, I will immediately mention twenty or thirty more rights not contained in it.”

That was the position taken by those who came to be known as the Federalists. They thought that adding a bill of rights to the Constitution was a bad idea not because they were against individual rights, but because they despaired of what might happen to any rights that were not specifically written out.

But the Constitution’s Anti-Federalist critics were not persuaded by such concerns. “The want of a Bill of Rights to accompany this proposed system,” declared the Anti-Federalist pamphleteer who went by the pseudonym “John DeWitt,” “is a solid objection to it.” In his view, “to express those rights” which the government may not infringe was a necessary and proper safeguard against “the intrusion into society of that doctrine of tacit implication which has been the favorite theme of every tyrant from the origin of all governments to the present day.”

Thomas Jefferson, who was then stationed overseas as the American ambassador to France, shared this Anti-Federalist critique: There are “good things” about the new Constitution, Jefferson wrote from Paris in 1787, but one thing “I do not like” is “the omission of a bill of rights providing clearly and without the aid of sophisms for freedom of religion, freedom of the press, protection against standing armies, restriction against monopolies, the eternal and unremitting force of the habeas corpus laws, and trials by jury in all matters of fact triable by the laws of the land and not the law of Nations.” According to Jefferson, “a bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.”

https://reason.com/2025/08/14/was-the-bill-of-rights-a-bad-idea-some-founding-fathers-thought-so/

At what point do we allow this assault to continue?

Does anyone really care about the loss of rights?

Please let me know.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

History Revisionism

We know that Donny and his merry band of idiots have their own version of American history…..and now Donny wants to make sure that history fits his vision of events from our past.

He has ordered the Smithsonian to fall in lie with his perverted vision…..

The Trump administration informed the Smithsonian Institution on Tuesday that it will check its current and planned exhibitions’ displayed wording, websites, and social media “to assess tone, historical framing and alignment with American ideals.” A letter from the White House said the museums will have 120 days to make any changes the administration wants, the New York Times reports. The changes could include “replacing divisive or ideologically driven language with unifying, historically accurate and constructive descriptions,” the letter to Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch says.

The letter provides the first details of the administration’s plan to scrutinize the Smithsonian, per the Washington Post, to ensure adherence to Trump’s goals of removing what he called its “improper ideology” in favor of “truth and sanity.” The Smithsonian released a statement later Tuesday pledging cooperation with the administration and saying its work “is grounded in a deep commitment to scholarly excellence, rigorous research, and the accurate, factual presentation of history.”

A historian called the Trump administration plan an affront to the professionals trained to ensure historically accurate presentations, per the Wall Street Journal. “If those things are taken out of the hands of historians, the public stands to lose a great deal in having reliable and engaging content that tells a whole and complex story of the American past,” said Sarah Weicksel, executive director of the American Historical Association.

This is, as I have said making history fit into the warped ideals of Donny and the mental midgets behind him….

The Wall Street Journal reports on Tuesday that U.S. President Donald Trump’s White House is keeping an eye on the Smithsonian Museum to ensure that its exhibits on display for the United States’ 250th anniversary “align with” the president’s personal “interpretation of American history.”

According to the Journal, the administration this week sent a letter to the Smithsonian announcing it was seeking what the paper describes as a “far-reaching review” of its “museum exhibitions, materials and operations” that will include everything from “public-facing exhibition text and online content to internal curatorial processes, exhibition planning, the use of collections and artist grants.”

The goal of the review is to ensure the materials comply with an executive order Trump signed earlier this year that called for “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.”

(commondreams.org)

Truth and sanity?  Nothing in the Donny led government is about truth and sanity.

This will do more damage than good….denying history or trying to transform into some unrecognizable POS is NOT the way to instill ‘truth and sanity’ into the subject.

A white nationalist vision of American history is one that centers the role of white Americans above all others and, in fact, typically treats the history of the nation and the race as one and the same. For white nationalists, the United States is a nation created and founded by white people, and American history necessarily spurns the contributions of all other groups. The sins of slavery, segregation, and violence are excused as minor blemishes made along a path toward greatness. It was the accomplishments of America’s great white men, we are led to believe, that brought us the prosperity for which we should all be so thankful. To question them—even if they enslaved, raped, and killed for power, expansion, or wealth—would be to question America itself.

Various versions of this story exist. For decades, the most pervasive version of this mythology lived in the American South. From practically the day after the Civil War, white Southerners crafted a white nationalist morality tale—in popular culture, veterans’ organizations, and the Lost Cause ideology—of lazy Black slaves with generous white masters who in the 1860s did their best to fight off a war of “Northern Aggression” that threatened white Southern freedom. For most of the twentieth century, this story was advanced by groups like the United Daughters of the Confederacy, or UDC—activists who dedicated much of their lives to celebrating white Confederate heritage. They published textbooks, erected monuments, and led public ceremonies honoring the legacy of the Southern white men who tried to destroy the United States.

https://newrepublic.com/article/198384/trump-white-nationalist-vision-future-history

Remake history in HIS image will do nothing to save the nation from imminent destruction.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Great Wealth Inequality

That time again to look at history when debating the wealth inequality these days.

I for one do not think that this massive inequality is good for the nation or its people….but that is just me.

Let’s look to the Founders of this once great nation….

As the United States reaches its 250th year, the widening gulf between the very rich few and the rest of us has become glaringly apparent. In 2024, the richest 10% held over 67% of household wealth in the U.S., while the bottom half held just 2.4%. This wealth increasingly entitles one to power and privilege: there are numerous billionaires in key positions in the Trump Administration, and some (including the President) have used their public offices for financial gain.

The Founders would be horrified by these developments because they believed great wealth in politics would corrupt and destroy the republic. Those beliefs were shaped by a range of influences: the widely read works by Roman historians who blamed the empire’s decline on a widening gap between rich and poor; radical Protestants who called for a Godly republic with limits on property or even its redistribution in a Great Jubilee every 50 years; James Harrington’s 1656 novel Oceana, describing an island country with a constitution that gave land to all and placed explicit limits on income and wealth; Enlightenment philosophers, particularly John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government (1689), which argued “all Men by Nature are equal” and that individuals should not hoard surplus wealth; and Cato’s Letters, a series written by British “radical Whigs” in the 1720s who, angered by the infamous South Sea Bubble, called for reforms while bitterly criticizing the corrupting ties between wealth and politics.

By the mid-18th century, Anglo-Americans generally believed in the virtues of a “rough” economic equality, that a republic needed to avoid concentrated wealth and great poverty in order to maintain the public good and prevent corruption. These ideals held particular power because they reflected the experiences of most British Americans. Widespread property ownership among white settlers meant that in every province a far higher percentage of white adult men could vote than in England. Even the wealthiest Southern planters needed the political support of their poorer—yet still property-holding—neighbors.

The widespread embrace of these ideas can be glimpsed in the publication of Cato’s Letters in the BostonIndependent Advertiser in 1748. The very first selection included the warning that when a man’s wealth “become immeasurably or surprising great,” the community “ought to make strict Enquiry, how they came by them, and oblige them” to surrender part of their riches. “But, will some say, is it a Crime to be rich? Yes, certainly. At the publick expence, or to the Danger of the Publick.” The Advertiser was edited by Samuel Adams for artisans and laborers fired up by their successful resistance to impressment—the Navy’s effort to grab men for forced service—and concerned about rising poverty in the postwar depression. Sixteen years later, Adams would organize those artisans and laborers into the Sons of Liberty to resist British imperial measures.

https://time.com/7297269/founders-wealth-inequality-could-destroy/

Our Founders were a smart lot….they were well educated and could see what damage the concentration of wealth in few hands could do to this country and the people.

We should learn from their guidance….but will we?  (kinda doubtful)

And the destruction of the middle class continues….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Independence Day–2025

I hope everyone has an enjoyable and safe holiday….Happy Fourth of July!

Today we celebrate the document that proclaimed the colonies independence from mother England….but since this was the start of our Revolutionary War I want cover a hero that gets little recognition for his service…. Gilbert du Motier, better known as the Marquis de Lafayette.

When I was teaching a political history class at a local college my class of 12 had only one young lady that knew anything about the Marquis.,….I had one genus that thought he was a famous pirate.

The Marquis de La Fayette distinguished himself with his military deeds during the American War of Independence (1775-1783), earning the nickname “Hero of two worlds”. His experience in the United States stoked his love of liberty, and upon returning to France he took part in the drafting of the Declaration of the Rights of Man. He was commander of the National Guard during the Revolution, when his sympathies were split between the monarchy and the revolutionaries. He was eventually forced to flee the country.

He explained his attraction to the American cause in a letter to his wife: “The welfare of America is intimately connected with the happiness of all mankind; she will become the respectable and safe asylum of virtue, integrity, tolerance, equality, and a peaceful liberty.”

Receiving his commission as major general in the Continental Army in 1777, Lafayette first saw action in September of that year at the Battle of Brandywine where he was shot in the leg and recovered from his wound at the Moravian settlement in Bethlehem, Pa. His heroism in the battle encouraged Washington to give the young Frenchman command of a division, and Lafayette stayed with his troops at Valley Forge. After a visit to France in 1779, he returned to America in 1780 with assurances of thousands of French troops who would join the war, and helped Franco-American forces win the surrender of a large British army at Yorktown, Va., in 1781, the last major battle of the war.

Lafayette was injured in the Battle of Brandywine, but his tactical cunning and fearlessness in battle helped to save the Revolution on many occasions. In 1779, Lafayette returned to France and helped to win formal French support for the American cause. Lafayette came to Williamsburg during preparations for the Virginia Campaign of 1781. At Yorktown, Lafayette helped corner Britain’s Lord Cornwallis, whose surrender after several days of siege was a fatal blow that ensured the American victory.

After the American Revolution, Lafayette returned to France, where his popularity soared as he navigated between angry subjects and the monarchy. Lafayette drafted France’s celebrated Declaration of the Rights of the Man and of the Citizen, and advocated for religious toleration and the end of slavery. When most of Europe declared war against France in 1792, Lafayette commanded a French army in the north. But he was taken prisoner by the Austrians and remained with them for nearly five years. Lafayette and his wife, Adrienne de Noailles, had four children, including a son named Georges Washington. The general died in 1834.

More on the life and times of the Marquis….https://theconversation.com/lafayette-helped-americans-turn-the-tide-in-their-fight-for-independence-and-50-years-later-he-helped-forge-the-growing-nations-sense-of-identity-249455

A hero in two worlds…the US and France.  He deserves much more recognition than he gets in our history classes.

The world needs more people like the Marquis….if we had them this would be a better world.

“The highest reward that can be bestowed on a revolutionary veteran is to welcome him with a sight of the blessings which have issued from our struggle for independence, freedom and equal rights.”

Class dismissed

+++This will be my only offering for today….I will be grilling for family and a few friends, a tradition of mine on this day….the menu will consist of ribs and burgers, grilled corn and squash and ice cold watermelon to top off the meal.+++

If you are out and about celebrating the fourth then please take care and as always….Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Pirate And Guacamole

Welcome to ‘cinco de Mayo’.

What is life without a little whimsy?

And of course a short history lesson.

Before I start my little food history post I want to rant for a moment……we can properly pronounce enchilada, quesadilla, fajitas and so on but few can properly pronounce guacamole….it is NOT pronounced ‘gwak-camole’ but rather ‘wok-camole’….whew I feel better.

Do you know where the first English recipe for guacamole came from?

For all the perceived glamour of piracy, its practitioners lived poorly and ate worse. Skirting death, mutiny, and capture left little room for comfort or transformative culinary experience. The greatest names in piracy, wealthy by the day’s standards, ate as one today might on a poorly provisioned camping trip: dried beef, bread, and warm beer. Those of lesser fame were subject to cannibalism and scurvy. The seas were no place for an adventurous appetite.

But when one gifted pirate permitted himself a curiosity for food, he played a pioneering role in spreading ingredients and cuisines. He gave us the words “tortilla,” “soy sauce,” and “breadfruit,” while unknowingly recording the first ever recipe for guacamole. And who better to expose the Western world to the far corners of our planet’s culinary bounty than someone who by necessity made them his hiding places?

British-born William Dampier began a life of piracy in 1679 in Mexico’s Bay of Campeche. Orphaned in his late teens, Dampier set sail for the Caribbean and fell into a twentysomething job scramble. Seeing no future in logging or sugar plantations, he was sucked into the burgeoning realm of New World raiding, beginning what would be the first of his record-breaking three circumnavigations. A prolific diarist, Dampier kept a journal wrapped in a wax-sealed bamboo tube throughout his journeys. During a year-long prison sentence in Spain in 1694, Dampier would convert these notes into a novel that became a bestseller and seminal travelogue.

Parts of A New Voyage Around the World read like a 17th-century episode of No Reservations, with Dampier playing a high-stakes version of Anthony Bourdain. Aside from writing groundbreaking observations on previously un-researched subjects in meteorology, maritime navigation, and zoology, food was a constant throughout his work. He ate with the locals, observing and employing their practices not only to feed himself and his crew but to amass a body of knowledge that would expand European understanding of non-Western cuisine. In Panama, Dampier traveled with men of the Miskito tribe, hunting and eating manatee. “Their flesh is … [extraordinarily] sweet, wholesome meat,” he wrote. “The tail of a young cow is most esteemed. A calf that sucks is the most delicate meat.” His crew took to roasting filleted bellies over open flames.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-pirate-who-penned-the-first-english-language-guacamole-recipe

Now when you enjoy a cinco de Mayo bowl of guacamole and you can thank a pirate for the introduction.

Please if you are partying then do it responsibly…..

Enjoy your celebration …..Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is US Running Out Of White People?

I recently read a fascinating article about the population changes coming….this story could send shivers up the spines of all those that hate diversity…..plus my favorite subject, a little history, thrown in….

Demographers project that whites will become a minority in the U.S. around 2045, dropping below 50% of the population. Between 2010 and 2018, the number of white children fell by 2.8 million, or 7.1%. In contrast, nonwhite children grew by 6.1%.

In 2018, the last year for which data are currently available, the proportion of people in the U.S. under 18 years of age was just barely more white than nonwhite. However, children under 11 were more nonwhite than white.

In almost one-third of U.S. states, nonwhite children outnumber all white children under 18 in 14 states — including Nevada, Hawaii, Georgia and Maryland — plus the District of Columbia. The link I tried to provide to document this led to factfinder.census.gov, which is currently unreachable. Is it too much of a conspiracy theory to think it’s among the thousands of government sites Elon Musk and DOGE don’t want you to see?

Not enough white people isn’t a new problem in America. When Europeans supposedly discovered America, there were already more people of color than Europeans. In 1526, a group of enslaved Black people escaped their Spanish captors during the San Miguel de Gualdape Slave Rebellion. They mixed with Native Americans in what is now South Carolina and Georgia. In 1565, Spaniards (not exactly white) brought slaves to Saint Augustine. In 1619, a British ship landed in Jamestown with enslaved people.

Though the indigenous population took a hit from the diseases carried by Europeans, including smallpox, they easily outnumbered white people when America was founded. The Black population drastically increased, not only from the Transatlantic Slave Trade but by a systemic pattern of forced breeding to meet the demand for labor. When the international slave trade was ended in 1808, it was because a sufficient number of Black babies were being born to meet the needs. The means to the end often involved rape and forced pairings. Thomas Jefferson didn’t need to explain that to George Washington when he wrote to tell him that if each enslaved woman had a child every two years, he would see profits increase by 4% annually.

By the time America achieved independence from the British in 1776, several areas including some states like South Carolina had a majority Black population, mainly enslaved people. Before there were police forces, there were slave patrols to capture runaways and protect plantation owners from revolts. There was a fear of rebellion throughout American history, before and after slavery. Jefferson talked about having a “wolf by the ears.” Lincoln wished to deport the freed slaves to Liberia and Central America. Heexperimented with deportation on Cow Island near Haiti, which had disastrous results.

https://www.levelman.com/america-is-running-out-of-white-people/

Is news like this driving the GOP and especially Little Donny in its push to re-write history?

I think diversity is what makes this country great, well great before the magic Sharpie.

Trying to change the outcome of history is a fool’s errand…..but look who we voted into office….one of America’s biggest fools.

Thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

When Did Taxation Begin?

You guys know how much I like history and will take any opportunity to bring it to the forefront.

I apologize this was suppose to be posted on 15 April, the day we file our taxes with the IRS.

We all bitch and moan about paying taxes but the idea of imposing taxes has a very early history…..for now we believe the idea of taxation began in Mesopotamia around 3300BC and has continued until today.

Taxes are a familiar part of modern life, showing up in paychecks, receipts and annual filings. Yet even in our digital era, traces of older systems persist. When archaeologists recently uncovered a 2,000-year-old pyramid-shaped structure in the Judean Desert—believed to be a Ptolemaic tax collector’s post—they weren’t just digging up the past. They were brushing dust off a blueprint of ancient governance.

“Most governments were quite highly motivated to extract as much revenue as possible within perceived political constraints,” says Taisu Zhang, a professor of law at Yale Law School.

What remains today, such as stone inscriptions, clay tablets and bamboo records, tells a story far beyond administration. These tax relics reveal how early states governed, what they valued and how they balanced power with the burden on taxpayers. From Sumer to China, civilizations devised ingenious, and sometimes bizarre, ways to track, collect and enforce taxes, leaving behind vivid clues of how they funded their ambitions—and proved that even in the Bronze Age, nothing was certain but death and taxes.

The clay tablets of ancient Sumer represent some of the earliest examples of economic record-keeping. In the city of Uruk, scribes used reed styluses to press proto-cuneiform symbols into wet clay, documenting grain, livestock and labor owed to temples. Each mark stood for a tangible asset—a bundle of wheat, a head of cattle or a day’s work. By around 2,600 B.C., in the city of Lagash, the system had grown more sophisticated, with some tablets recording instances of tax evasion and penalties for non-payment.

The Standard of Ur, a wooden box inlaid with lapis lazuli, shell and red limestone, offers a striking visual of early resource distribution. One side shows nobles at a feast; the other, soldiers and laborers—an implicit hierarchy supported by the upward flow of goods. Though not a literal tax record, the artifact reflects a redistributive economy likely sustained by tribute or taxation.

https://www.history.com/articles/tax-artifacts

Taxation is nothing new….while it can be a burden to those that are unfortunate to be taxed while others get a free ride (thinking the US wealthy)….they are a needed revenue for any government to continue to ‘serve’ the people they represent.

It would not be such a burden if EVERYONE paid their taxes but unfortunately there are some that do not and that is okay for some.

I hope you made the deadline for the IRS.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”