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June 17, 2023 12:00 AM UTC

Juneteenth Weekend Open Thread

  • 44 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

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44 thoughts on “Juneteenth Weekend Open Thread”

  1. The Road to Racial Justice Runs Through Tulsa

    Tragically for Black America, and our whole country, the wreckage and ruins of Greenwood are a symbol of how the end of the Civil War was followed by generations of legalized and systemic oppression and theft, north and south: of Black labor, Black homes, Black farms, Black businesses, Black wealth, Black freedom and, too often, Black lives. As a result, the typical Black family today has one-tenth the wealth of typical White families — a statistic that is nothing short of a national disgrace.
     

    2. You can bet the farms that our cadre of right white christian nationalist patriots already have their own bigly anti-woke plans for celebrating this Juneteenth — with all manner of screechings, howlings, foot stampings, as well as their usual lunatic twitter fantasies.

      (Wonder who will be the first GOPscum to unveil evidence that slavery never even happened and that everything has been nothing but a revisionist / fake news / liberal socialist conspiracy / false flag operation to make white christians, MAGA Americans, and the Chosen Orange Stain look bad?)

    3. Don't forget other locations beyond Tulsa.  Infamous one in North Carolina:

      On Nov. 10, 1898, white supremacists murdered African Americans in Wilmington, North Carolina and deposed the elected Reconstruction era government in a coup d’etat.

      Local, less violent erasure in Colorado:  Dearfield.

      “There were 25 black communities in Colorado that we've been able to trace,” Junne said. “Now, some of them were just areas in cities where Black people have to live. Others were farming communities that were located around the state. But as far as a Black agricultural community with buildings, this is one of the only ones.”

      Driving into Dearfield today, the most obvious remaining landmark is the one most closely connected to its founder.

      [Dearfield was a victim of "The brutal drought of the 1930s, coupled with the Great Depression and low prices for agricultural products "]

       

      1. How a Kansas town became one of the nation’s first majority-Black farming communities

        The wave of migration across the U.S. in the mid-1800's included people looking to live in open spaces, with land to grow crops and the opportunity to have a better life. After the Civil War, that included freed slaves and their families.

        Less well-known is the smaller wave of newcomers for whom the journey meant something more. It really represents African American experience in the West, leaving war-torn, volatile Jim Crow South, and coming to experience real freedom.
         

      1. When Christianity spread into the Roman Empire it went through a terrible reframing. The Roman emperor Constantine forced bishops to come up with creedal statements that had little or nothing to do with the original teachings of Jesus. For many, the Christian religion was reduced to supernatural claims and cultic moralisms. For many, Christianity was reframed from a religion of empathy to one of mind control. 

        If the new imperial Christians were superstitious and ignorant about this world, it was okay because they became experts on the world to come. If they couldn’t be good neighbors to the poor and outcast, it was okay because they were good neighbors to their new and improved Jesus who was no longer concerned with the poor and outcast.

        I believe there is confusion in calling the Christianity of Constantine and that of Jesus by the same name. I’m not saying we should argue about who gets the label, but it is important to remember that, if some Christians want to force their dogma into the public square- it is the Christianity of Constantine, not Jesus. 

        If some Christians are more concerned with maintaining their culture's norms than including their culture's scapegoats- it is the Christianity of Constantine, not Jesus. 

        If some Christians are more concerned about the the success of the American economy than with liberating workers enslaved in sweatshops all over the globe- it is the Christianity of Constantine, not Jesus. 

        And, if the cross is a symbol of Christian exceptionalism instead of a call to suffer on behalf of the oppressed- it is the Christianity of Constantine, not Jesus.

          1. Not entirely.

            There were others along the way who kicked in their two cents to make Christianity what it is today: Torquemada, the Tudors, Pope Pius XII, Jim and Tammy Faye Baker, the Fallwell family and the Pool Boy.

            1. Around 1869-70, I believe it was Pope Pius IX who created the notion that a fertilized egg is a human person.

              Suggested read: “Absolute Monarchs, a History of the Papacy,” by John Julius Norwich.

              And let’s not forget the less than fully honorable, Colorado’s own, James Dobson.

  2. So, it’s now rained poured here at my home everyday now since May 7.  (By my count today should be day 41.)  I’ve been looking at different summer project construction plans.  

    Anyone know if Home Depot or Lowes or anyone still sells tape measures with cubit graduations? Gopher wood?

    1. If I were you, I’d make my first project some pens so I could start rounding up all the critters you’ll need to take with you. Remember 2 each. 

    2. yeah…same here…but I saw a Brit commenter saying that "40 days and 40 nights of rain" was considered a decent British summer…I don't think I would argue that one…

  3. “Sale” of 130 human beings formerly enslaved by Thomas Jefferson, Monticello, 1827 — “believed to be the most valuable for their number ever offered at one time”:
     

    1. I wonder if anyone's told him that shit like this is admissible at the disbarment hearing. For a guy the wingnuts tout as a godlike legal genius, I have yet to seem much of anything that bespeaks even marginal competence.

  5. Recommended reading- 

    On Juneteenth, by Annette Gordon Reed.

    This book by noted Black (and Texas-born) historian showed a pathway for me as white (and Texas-born) person of same generation to reconcile childhood memories and historic record of past wrongs, with moving forward into our shared future. 

    Also recommended – The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin. 

  6. Here's a question for Negev ( not about guns, for once):

    How are the libraries, school districts, and social service agencies in Teller County reacting to the news that property tax revenues will be permanently leveled by the county commissioners?

    Like, do libraries have to ban certain books or schools teach history a certain way in order to please the conservative commissioners? Does the fire department have to prioritize certain addresses or districts in order to "qualify" for county property tax funds?

     

    1. Negev only comes out after a single mass shooting.

      While the aggregate number of dead over the weekend nationwide may appear to be high and unacceptable to you or me, they do not warrant an appearance and a comment from Negev unless they were done all in one incident.

  7. Practically empty? It was a slightly-higher attendance than average, even with the protesters blocking the main entrance.  

    Lying, a traditional Republican value.  Are you going to believe your lying eyes?  Score one for the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence – their fans > Little Marco or Meatball Ron. 
     

    1. Some might argue that the Catholic church is itself a hate group.  But who am I to argue with a twit from Florida complaining about a baseball game on the other side of the nation. 

  9. No politics, just admiration.

     

     

    1. There's a variety of articles about James Harrison:

      James Christopher Harrison OAM (born 27 December 1936), also known as the Man with the Golden Arm, is a blood plasma donor[1] from Australia whose plasma contains antibodies against RhD which are used in making a treatment for Rhesus disease. One of the founding donors of New South Wales' (NSW) Rh Program he regularly donated until, on 11 May 2018, he made his 1,173rd donation[2][3] – his last, as Australian policy prohibits blood donations from those past age 81.[4]

      Here in Colorado, my Vitalant appointment reminder is a bit less alarming than it sometimes is, now down to: "It's vital you keep your appointment to help support the critical need for donations right now."  If you are able to spare a bit of plasma, platelets, or whole blood, it's an easy check to see if you can donate and then set an appointment.

  10. Third Party Spoilers. Josh Marshall at TPM.

    I’ve been writing recently about the corrupt monstrosity that is the “No Labels” third party effort and the way the insider sheets in DC persist in labeling this an action on behalf of centrists. It is in fact a lifestyle front group run by the husband and wife team of Mark Penn and Nancy Jacobson, some of the most retrograde players from the dark side of American politics. The effort is funded by a who’s who of right-wing Republicans. But I want to step back from this story to note a feature of the 2024 presidential election that is already coming into view.

    The 2016 and 2020 presidential elections were both quite close. Numerous factors distinguish one from the other and set the stage for the very different results. But one of the biggest factors was the role of third party candidates which made it possible for Trump to slip in by pulling both major party candidates down below 50%.

    Donald Trump’s vote percentage was very similar in both elections. Joe Biden’s percentage was significantly higher than Hillary Clinton’s. There are numerous factors that explain the different results. It is likely impossible to figure out which was the most important and how much difference each accounted for. Certainly we won’t settle that question here. But it was a key difference.

    Step back and you’ll see that a key driver of the result in 2024 will be how much Donald Trump and the right generally will be able to replicate that crowded field. No Labels is part of that. It is literally funded by the top Republican donors in the country and run by a couple of reprobates half motivated by pique over being expelled from the Democratic party and half by the intrinsic corruption they displayed while they were part of it.

    Then there’s the primary campaign of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. It’s amazing how open this one is. His top backers are Steve Bannon, Mike Flynn, Roger Stone. He’s a creation of the world of MAGA.

  11. The call is coming from inside the house…

    “[Donald Trump] is a consummate narcissist and he constantly engages in reckless conduct that puts his political followers at risk and the conservative and Republican agenda at risk.

    “He will always put his own interests and gratifying his own ego ahead of everything else, including the country’s interests….

    “He’s like a 9-year-old — a defiant 9-year-old kid who’s always pushing the glass toward the edge of the table, defying his parents to stop him from doing it. It’s a means of self-assertion and exerting his dominance over other people. 

    “And he’s a very petty individual who will always put his interests ahead of the country’s, “his personal gratification of his ego.” 

    “But our country can’t be a therapy session for a troubled man like this.”

    — William Barr, Donald Trump’s Attorney General

    1. Barr has no particular expertise to diagnose the psychology of Trump.

      He COULD have used his legal skills and followed his duty as an officer of the court to limit law breaking by Trump and his minions, but didn’t.

      1. I wonder if Barr has a diagnosis for the [amoral? spineless? sycophantic?] people like Barr who ignore what they see and wholeheartedly enable all kinds of crap that they later claim not to have supported?  Nah.

        “Republican” means never having to say you’re sorry.

    2. Back when PAB nominated Barr to be AG, Barr sat for an interview. The interviewer asked whether Barr was concerned about his professional reputation taking damage if/when PAB called upon him to do some crazy shit. Barr responded that he's had a long, successful career in law and that reputation was not all that big a deal at that stage of his life/career.

      Now he's showing all the signs of being on a redemption tour. Which, fuck that. Too late, Billy Boy.

  13. Having returned from a location in a deep red, hate everything that is not covered in Confederate battle flags, with an American flag, Gadsden flag, sfb flags (many of those), and a lot of messages of hate to Obama, I just get tickled by the little issue of a “bad word, bad word, bad word, more bad words” holiday for those “whole lotta bad words”.  Yup, the holiday to p off a lot of white folk.
     
    Truth is I think this is a wonderful holiday that a large percentage of Americans should enjoy and the rest of us learn about and share the happiness.
     
    Oh, yeah, what about a holiday for White people? Tell me one, just one. I said Columbus day.  The reaction was not one of happiness for old lost on the globe guy.

    1. Washington's Birthday / Presidents' Day originally honored a White guy, and now is 45/46ths pure celebration of White guys. 

      Not certain of the proportion, but Thanksgiving Day continues to feature White folk who weren't well prepared for Winter.  And then, it didn't really solidify as a holiday until Northern Whites pushed it along:

      Thanksgiving Day did not become an official holiday until Northerners dominated the federal government. While sectional tensions prevailed in the mid-19th century, the editor of the popular magazine Godey’s Lady’s Book, Sarah Josepha Hale, campaigned for a national Thanksgiving Day to promote unity. She finally won the support of President Abraham Lincoln. On October 3, 1863, during the Civil War, Lincoln proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving to be celebrated on Thursday, November 26.

    2. [Similar to the answer we give children when they imagine themselves so incredibly smart by asking:  “Mothers Day, Fathers Day, when do we ever get kids day???”]:

      “Isn’t every day still KKK Day somewhere down here?”

      It isn’t really that difficult. If you can’t enjoy the thought of others celebrating and enjoying freedoms here in America, I guess you probably must enjoy the thought of their bondage . . .

       

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