Showing posts with label Civil War. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Civil War. Show all posts

Friday, November 3, 2017

Trump Chief of Staff John Kelly on the hot seat

Kelly says, 'OK Sarah, let's get it right'
Apparently John Kelly missed the class on war history at the U. of Massachusetts. Kelly blamed the Civil War on “the lack of an ability to compromise, which historians deemed “dangerous” to “kind of depressing.” Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), the sole black Senate Republican said, “There was no compromise to make – only a choice between continuing slavery and ending it." Kelly later espouses the Jim Crow version of the causes of the Civil War. And it didn't end there when Sarah Sanders tried to confirm it claiming certification from left, right, North and South. Kelly is also charged with lying in an Oct. 19, speech about Rep. Frederica Wilson of Fla. re. what Trump said to widow of an American soldier. Has there ever been a White House this screwed up?

John Kelly comment “dangerous” to “kind of depressing”...

The Civil War was about ending slavery...

John Kelly just can't get it right...

John Kelly lies just like his boss, Donald Trump...

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Donald Trump in throes of imploding


Typical Trump supporters
Two more interviews by the lord and master of incoherence and Donald Trump nailed it again. Host John Dickerson on "Face the Nation" asked Trump if he stood by his unfounded accusations about Barack Obama's surveillance of Trump Tower during the 2016 election. Here was Trump's reply...
"I don't stand by anything. I just-- you can take it the way you want. I think our side's been proven very strongly. And everybody's talking about it. And frankly it should be discussed. I think that is a very big surveillance of our citizens. I think it's a very big topic. And it's a topic that should be number one. And we should find out what the hell is going on."
And then there was Salena Zito's interview in the Washington Examiner prompting this comment from Trump that Andrew Jackson was really angry about what was happening 1with the Civil War, that DT thinks shouldn't have happened. Here's Chris Cillizza's retort on CNN...
"Andrew Jackson died in 1845. It seems unlikely that he was "really angry that he saw what was happening in regard to the Civil War" since the war didn't start until 1861."
Cillizza finishes his piece with two observations that show a President who does not know what he is doing, and what is worse, thinks what he is doing is good and the right thing.

1. He did zero preparation for these interviews.

2. He makes up his own reality.

Number one is very bad based on the office he holds but number two reeks of disaster in the future should a major issue arise needing judgment and diplomacy. Unfortunately, that is probably when this maniac would implode.

Monday, May 25, 2015

What is the History of Memorial Day?


We've been told enough recently the distinction between Memorial Day and Veterans Day, the former representing our war dead and the latter all veterans who have served. But where did this celebration come from and how did it mature through the years to what it is today? It was originally called Decoration Day, referring to the practice of decorating Civil War soldiers' tombs with bouquets of lilacs and other fresh flowers. And then in 1866, it had its first village-wide observance in Waterloo, N.Y. led by Gen. John Murray and Henry Wells, using flags at half-staff, evergreens and black fabric to signify mourning. But it was on May 26, 1966, that President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a Presidential Proclamation honoring Waterloo as the Birthplace of Memorial Day. Many Southern states still pay homage to the Civil War and the Confederate dead on their own specified days. And then following World War One, the day was expanded to honor those killed in all wars, not just the Civil War. Remember, the National Moment of Remembrance is 3 PM local time wherever you are.

Thanks to the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle.


Monday, May 28, 2012

Memorial Day origination loosely connected to Civil War vets who founded NRA

The Civil War had ended and the country was looking for a way to honor the dead.  There were several false starts but the end result was today’s Memorial Day holiday.  It was primarily guns, mostly rifles that were used to kill the other side in the War Between the States.  Soldiers were recruited to fight, some with little or no real instructions on how to use their weapons.  It was a war that was put together rather hastily.

But it was a couple of Civil War veterans from New York that were concerned about the state of marksmanship in the military and who decided to do something about it.  It was 1871 when the National Rifle Assn. (NRA) was founded by Union veterans Col. William C. Church and Gen. George Wingate.  The purpose was to promote and encourage rifle shooting.  The organization’s first president was Civil War Gen. Ambrose Burnside, also a Senator and governor of Rhode Island. 

By the way, this comes right from an NRA site. 

Their goal was to establish a rifle range that improved marksmanship, and a site was built on Long Island, NY in 1873.  But the promotion of marksmanship met opposition from some New Yorkers—probably a Michael Bloomberg ancestor—which forced the range to move to New Jersey.  They got the youth involved and this is still a cornerstone of the NRA.  We are talking about gun education here, something clearly absent with most state gun regulations today.

So where is all this going?  The site, Common Gun Sense, posted an article last week on the celebration of Memorial Day and where we are today when it comes to guns.  It talks about the “stunning” number of lives lost to gunfire in our communities.   “Every year, 100,000 Americans are shot. Of these, about 30,000 die from their injuries. This includes homicides, suicides and accidental shootings.”  And much of this can be attributed to the NRA and the gun lobby.

In the years since inception, the NRA, headed by CEO and Exec. Vice President Wayne LaPierre, has managed to turn a worthwhile movement, originally designed to promote gun education, into a bunch of power-hungry thugs whose main thrust is to put guns in the hands of every person in the U.S. and make sure they can carry them anywhere they want.  Oh, and their political appetite for power has now exceeded guns and is into other causes like immigration, etc.


NRA with blood on its guns

Memorial Day is now a celebration for all those who have served their country in war.  The time has come to establish a memorial for those who have fallen at the hands of gun freaks like George Zimmerman, now charged for the killing of Trayvon Martin.  We need a day that articulates the gun violence that is increasing in this country in a way that will illustrate to a public that has been brain-washed by the NRA that guns do kill people. 

It is interesting that the NRA initially supported the Gun Control Act of 1968 and even helped draft portions of the bill that was introduced by Senator Thomas J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut.  Then it later turned to its true nature and opposed the law.  Wayne LaPierre has served as the NRA head since 1991 and during his reign has produced the loosest gun laws ever enacted in the U.S., perhaps the world, which have resulted in a rapid increase in gun deaths.

I started documenting monthly shootings in the U.S. and resulting deaths in March; something you gun worshippers cannot argue with, and the results are frightening.  In March there were 38 shooting and 40 deaths.  Then April surged to 69 shootings and 66 deaths.  But the lunatic LaPierre raves on about the 2nd Amendment and how it protects gun owners.  Well, it is time to examine the “how” and consider completely revamping its meaning.  And now!

Donald Trump Says He Will Be Indicted On Tuesday

  THAT'S TODAY... Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has brought the case to this point, now looking at a possible indictment. Trum...