REVIEW OF H L GATES BLACKS AND JEWS ON PBS ---PART 2

     A Jewish family certainly helped Louie Armstrong when he was young, and I understood, they bought him his first instrument,  An American Army band thay played jazz in Europe during WWI made a powerful impression, and more research might go into intellectuals' reaction to the new music, and that would include Jews.

     Some would contend that jazz began in the cat houses of the NO French Quarter, with musicians playing music to amuse customers and xxx.  Ragtime was popular, but with syncopation and other alterations a new name was required.  When residing in China a decade or so ago, I was surprised to see in a supermarket at the end of a counter a string of condoms; the brand Jiz Bon.  And was reminded of one of the early origins of the term jazz, and its early surroundings.  The American Black Army Band brought the new music to Europe during WWI, to immense popularity.  Also during that war, Pres. Wilson, to protect our young service men, cracked down on the cat houses (something locals would not do), which caused musicians to depart for Kansas, Memphis, Chicago, and New York.  And it was George Gershwin, a Jew, who brought the new music to classical halls.  From humble surroundings to the Stadts Oper in Berlin (where I saw Porgy and Bess).

     A pivotal point is omitted  in Chapter 2 of Gates' series.  For years now, if someone calls you a racist, especially in print, you had better defend yourself or be prepared to lose your job and your standing in most communities.  Yet, there is no law about being a racist.  When did this begin?  In spring 1931 when August Yokinen was brought up on charges of racism.  He was janitor to a Finnish social organization located in Harlem during one of the groups dances.  Two Blacks entered the hall, the band stopped, so did the dancing, and Mr. Yokinen told the two young men to leave.  Yokinen, a member of the Communist Party, USA, was brought up on charges, and a show trial in Harlem was prepared.  Well publicized, many Black newspapers covered the story and hundreds sat in for part of the trial.  Yokinen was not expelled, but had to make up for his racism before being fully restored to membership in the CP.  Meanwhile, US immigration realized that in joining the CP, Yokinenhe  had violated his oath not to try to overthrow the US government, and was deported to eastern Europe.  It was not American law that racism was a crime, but in time the communist policy became de facto law in America.

     Shortly after, the cause celebre of the decade.  Also spring 1931 on a freight train from Chattanooga south, a fight breaks out between young folk hoboing.  Some Blacks won and threw several white boys off the moving train.  They told the sheriff, and to stress their point, - some white girls remained on the train.  Authorities stopped the train, found the girls (or young women), and 9 Blacks.  The women said they were raped, the 9 Blacks quickly put on trial, and so began the Scottsboro Cases.  THE BIGGEST AMERICAN CASE OF THE 1930S.

     The NAACP, not especially interested in low-lifes that would tarnish the organization's reputation, put up a weak defense.  8 were given the death penalty, the 14-year-old got life.  Scottsboro, home of the trials, took pride that no one had been lynched.

     Then, a new kid intervenes, the International Labor Defense, a CP front group, promised to defend the boys, with a 2-pronged approach, excellent attorneys inside the court room, AND agitation, protest, mobilization of masses outside.  The ILD got intellectuals from Europe, including Einstein, Thomas Mann, Kathe Kollwitz, to protest the verdict, marches in Harlem, telegrams from South Africa, an Amerindian chief, Mme. Sun Yet Sen to denounce the Alabama verdict.  The Scottsboro newspaper ran a story that they might have to prepare for a Communist invasion from Chattanooga (presumably a Red center).  The ILD hired a top NY attorney, a non-Communist Jew Samuel Leibowitz to defend the boys.  He was a Democrat, but the other ILD attorneys may have been affiliated with other parties, but some of the were Jewish, too.  

     What were they facing in the 1930s?  Not what you think.  The Supreme Court was so conservative then that Dem. Pres. Franklin openly sought to pack the court with Dems like himself.  And what was that?  PBS had an excellent special on the battle in Wilmington, NC in 1898.  The election had been won by a fusion ticket of Populists and Republicans, and in the South Republican  meant Black.  The Democrats decided to do there what they had been doing ever since the end of the Civil War, certainly since the Republican promise to remove Yankee troops from the South after the disputed 1876 election.  One by one "civilization" was restored by the KKK and similar groups overthrowing black run communities.  By 1898 Wilmington was the last black domino standing, but white Democrats like Josephus Daniels led a physical rebellion, overthrowing the elected government, and ensuring white supremacy and the Democratic Party's Solid South.  When Dem. Woodrow Wilson is elected Pres. in 1912, he soon appoints Josephus Daniels as his Sec. of the Navy.  In some ways Daniels is progressive, opening promotions to ill-educated but intelligent poor whites.  My oncle, who finshed schooling at 5th grade learned on the job to become an engineer on ships.  Same time, Daniels closed the door to Blacks.  Pres. Wilson openly segregates the Civil Service, and  demanding photographs of applicants, and thus not hire Blacks.  As war in Europe looms, the navy grows in importance.  Daniels says America's greatest crime was allowing Blacks to vote.  And who is Undersecretary of the Navy under Daniels.  FDR.  And when FDR becomes President, he keeps the photo requirement, and retains segregation of the Civil Service, AND THE MILITARY.

    How could anyone, much less a Red ILD save the Scottsboro boys?  Their good Jewish attorneys made better arguments up the appeals process, until the US Supreme Court ruled that in a trial with a death penalty, the defense had to have a real legal defender.  A few years later, the ILD and others got another fantastic ruling from the conservative court, Blacks have to be in the pool of possible jurors.  These were possibly the first pro-civil rights rulings by the US Supreme Court since the early days of Reconstruction, and the CP had a hand in these victories.

     The Scottsboro Case was to the 1930s what the Scopes trial, Sacco/Vanzetti, and Loeb/Leopold were to the 1920s.  And the Communists led the way.

    Happily, time is spent on Paul Robeson, probably the best known Black in the world by 1940.  In Europe he made films for African showing (half the continent was British).  He befriended some of the extras in his movies, who were attending universities in Britain.  One was Johnston Kenyatta, and he and Robeson led the Scottsboro Defence organization in Britain.  After WWII, that student became better known back in Africa as Jomo Kenyatta, and led the way to an independent nation. But anti-colonialism for Robeson in the US made him an enemy of the statte.

      I had never heard of Cafe Society and its integrated threats to the un-American activities committees.  HOWEVER, Gates misses the big point - the 1948 election.

     Harry Truman was a typical racist before being elected Pres. AND after.  Only for a short time on the changed international stage did he try to be egalitarian.

     During WWII Hitler offered to let the British continue with their empire; Hitler was aiming eastward.  Indeed, Hitler admired how small Britain had conquered India and other places.  Churchill did not trust Hitler, and thought with American, and even Soviet help, Hitler would lose.  The big 3 was to meet in Potsdam, but FDR died and it was Churchill, Truman, and Stalin.  Soon while meeting still ongoing, Churchill loses the Parliamentary elections to Labour.  Clement Atlee to be the new PM of Britain, and he wants to allow greater India to become independent.  In 1947, with millions dead in disputes of borders, India and Pakistan become independent nations.  Anti-colonialsm, a demand of the communists since the early 1920s, is a new problem to be faced by any American President.  If there are African embassys in Washington, DC, what happens when grand hotels reject their guests, or restaurants request that they go to the back door? 

     Gates discusses Cafe Society in NYC, the first integrated club where notable Blacks were closed to the CP orbit, and they would be called to testify before HUAC, the House Committee on Un-American Activities.  People who took the 5th Amendment, often lost jobs and a place in society.  HUAC helped destroy the Cafe Society and the lives of others round the nation, some of whom were indeed members of the CPUSA.

     Harold Cruse was quite critical of the many Black intellectuals who were in the orbit of the CP.   According to GoogleAI "He was famously critical of Marxism and the American Left, arguing that these ideologies failed to account for the unique "American" character of racism. He particularly targeted Jewish intellectuals in the Communist Party, claiming they had misdirected Black radical energy."  Some of the phrases he used against a Jewish Communist writer of Black history, Herbert Aptheker, made Cruse seem like Dr. Goebels.  Indeed, the issue of Black Fascism is never really mentioned on PBS.  Marcus Garvey, leader of the Universal Negro Improvement Assn. declared "we were the first fascists."  In the early 1960s, Black Muslims invidted as special guests to major BM gatherings members of the American Nazi party in their uniforms with swastika armbands.  Malcolm X spoke directly to the Nazi leader in pleasantries so the mass audience could hear.  Often whites in cartoons in Mohammad Speaks had a hooked nose. showing the evils of integration were pushed by Jews.

     One more thing, a most important one.Time to forget the Dem. propaganda of Truman as the great civil rights President.  1948 was the civil rights movement before the later more successful one.  It centered round the run for the Presidency of a former VP under FDR.  Henry Wallace was VP of the USA from Jan 1941 to Jan. 1945.  Had Franklin Roosevelt died a few months earlier, Wallace would have become Pres. of the USA.  Roosevelt, at the Dem. convention in 1944 had decided to dump Wallace in favor of Truman, and so Truman became Pres. in spring 1945 upon the death of Roosevelt.

     Truman had to learn quickly, about A bombs, the new Labour govt. in Britain, Stalin and his armies in eastern Europe, AND how he might win an election in 1948.  Happily for Truman, he had Clark Clifford, an excellent political strategist, who would recast the mild racist Truman into a civil rights leader, the first President to address the NAACP.  Anti-colonialism was becoming a reality; in 1947 both India and Pakistan became independent.  What happens when an African embassy opens in segregated Washington, DC?  1948 seemed like a shoe in for Republican Tom Dewey, who supported the first civil rights law to be enacted by a state.  Many Southern Dems disliked the trend and bolted from the Truman party to establish the Dixiecrats.  Other Dems bolted from Truman to for the Henry Wallace Progressive Party, which was endorsed by the CP and its friendly trade unions.  I contend, the Wallace campaign in the South was THE civil rights movement of that decade.  Robeson was a leader of the PP.  Dem. Sen Sen. Glen Taylor of Idaho became the VP candidate.  When he went to Birmingham to address the Southern Nego Youth Congress, Police Chief Bull Conner had him arrested for entering the Black entrance to the building.  Neither Robeson, nor Wallace, nor Sen. Glen Taylor, the singing cowboy would appear before segregated audiences.  Many of their meetings had to be in the open, and former VP Wallace was the target of rotten eggs, tomatoes, etc.  There were a few stabbings.  Unlike the later CR movement, tv was too new to have an impact on seeing racism in action.  Truman dismissed the problems as due to Wallace and his communists trying to stir up trouble.  (After he was no longer Pres., Truman said if any sit-in came to his store, he would throw them out.  He also said the Civil War was caused by busy bodies in New England, i.e., the Abolitionists were the cause of the war, not slavery).  But when W E B Du Bois endorse Wallace, not Truman, Du Bois was fired by the NAACP, an organization he helped found.  Truman later had him arrested as a foreign agent.  After Truman's victory, in Feb. 1949, in the NO French Quarter some 60 people were arrested for attending a Progressive Party social that was violating the segregation laws of the state.

     But in 1950 in Washington DC and Baltimore, led my the elderly Black leader Mary Church Terrell, but also including a 4-year old Carl Bernstein, whose mom was a leader of the PP (he would gain fame later as a reporter in the Watergate scandal), they were engaged in a new tactic called sit-downs in restaurants.  These are forgotten,  Too soon. A decade later they will help change America.

PBS - NEW PROGRAM ON BLACKS AND JEWS BY HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR.

Tonight I was watching a new program, "Black and Jewish American: An Interwoven History," First showings, February 2023, when I saw a short segment on Judah P. Benjamin.  I was shocked!  Did Henry Louis Gates, Jr., get this idea from me?  Did I put something similar on my blog a few years ago?  Or did I get the idea from him in some earlier discussion?  One thing for sure, a few days ago I raised a similar topic for my book.  I will consult with my editor, but if ok, will add a page or 2 on my blog, that you, and Henry L. Gates Jr., might enjoy  Keep tuned.  Hugh Murray

What I had written prior to watching the H L Gates Jr. tv program.  

Chpt. 1, Part 2

     We all learn from our experience, and sometimes cumulative experiences lead us to stereotypes.  Many times they are helpful; sometimes not.  Who was the first American Sec. of State of Jewish heritage?  Henry Kissinger, who was born in Bavaria, Germany and left after the Nazis came to power.  His family settled in Washington Heights in the northern tip of Manhattan.  The neighborhood had many refugees from fascist Europe, and if I recall correctly, the department store just across a small bridge to the Bronx was called a Kaufhaus, or Warenhaus, but my memory may be wrong on that.  Soon after Kissinger, Madeline Albright became the American Sec. of State; she was also of Jewish heritage.

     But there was a practicing Jew who was selected for a Presidential cabinet post, and worked his way up before Kissinger.  He became Sec. of State long before either Kissinger or Albright.  Judah P. Benjamin was the first openly Jewish in his religion to be elected to the US Senate, from Louisiana, then appointed to the Cabinet of Pres. Jefferson Davis of the CSA.  Some say he fled after the war to Britain because as Sec. of State, he may have been in charge of sabotage and assassins.  Because a conspiracy to kill Yankee leaders led to the assassination of then Pres. Lincoln, some may have held resentment toward Benjamin.  At any rate, Benjamin had a most successful career in law in Britain, law rather different from that of Louisiana, which had no English Common Law, but relied as a basis on the Napoleonic Code instead.

     During the  Civil War, officer Ulysses Grant was rising with his victories in the Wester sector.  At one point Gen. Grant was in charge of a large swath of territory, western Kentucky, Tennessee, and other lands near by.  To prevent the Confederates from selling their cotton - Britain had been their main buyer, but the Northern naval blockade prevented that trade.  Grant believed that Jewish businessmen were now trading with the Rebels from his territory. Grant then ordered all Jews in his territory, which was larger then Rhode Island, to get out within 24 hours.  We know he was not reading from a WWII German playbook.  It was perhaps the most anti-Jewish command ever issued in America.  When Lincoln heard of it, he quickly rescinded Grand's order.  But in today's classrooms, one thinks - the North was for freedom and liberal; the South for slavery and reactionary.  The North was sympathetic to minorities like Jews; the South was hostile.  But was it quite like that?

     We call the South the Bible Belt, but Massachusetts began as a very strict puritanical colony.  When the first baby was born, the elders checked the documents for when the couple married, and discovered the baby came too early - the couple must have fornicated BEFORE they were married.  So both husband and wife the first parents in the Mass. Bay colony, were whipped by its leaders.  As the colony grew, the religious leaders found it necessary to rid the area of witches (by killing them) expelling Baptist Roger Williams as his preaching was not sufficient; and the woman preacher Ann Hutchinson  also exiled, both having to depart to Rhode Island (or Rogues Island).  In New England Quaker missionaries were executed.

     In time, there was a major revival led by xxx, raising the religious temperature shortly before the American Revolution.  After the Revolution, when most colonies/states disestablished their various religions (for which all had had to pay taxes), but the Congregational Church in New England remained the established church there until 1830.

     Yet, it was there that a new church began to win converts, the Unitarians.  Unorthodox in many views, they were also influenced by Transcendentalists from Europe, Unitarians, along with Quakers, utopians, and others partook in early communes.  Emerson had at one point been a Unitarian minister; Harvard Divinity was suddenly Unitarian  On a small scale, just as Jews became the intellectuals in NYC from the 1940s - ?, so the Unitarians were the early "Jews" of the Republic, which then had few Jews.

     If you see the film, Glory, about the xxx54th Massachusetts Regimen, an all black one led by the white Col. Shaw, of a prominent Unitarian family in Massachusetts.  They were staunch abolitionists.  Indeed, as late as 1960?, former Pres. Harry Truman was blaming (not slavery) but the New England busy bodies for causing the Civil War.  Democrats called Truman the Civil Rights President, as he was the first to address the NAACP.  When then NAACP employee, W E B Du Bois, refused to endorse Truman in 1948, W E B was promptly fired by the organization he helped organize.

     Image vs. reality.  I was once quite active in the Unitarian Church in my native New Orleans.  It was one of only 2 such churches that survived the war in the South, one in New Orleans and one in Charleston.  Two Unitarian Churches were founded by a prominent figure - the only American to be Vice President to two different Presidents, John C. Calhoun.  When I looked at a Wikipedia article on Unitarians, I urged them to add the name of Calhoun.  Calhoun was not merely prominent, he was a strong defender of slavery, owned many himself, and pushed the notion of nullification to protect "Southern rights."  Nullification was a 19th century term for defying national law, like sanctuary cities and states today.  Today's Unitarians were probably the ones vetoing any discussion of Calhoun and pro-slavery individuals in their abolitionist wiki "history."  Like it or not, Calhoun founded the Unitarian churches in Charleston and Washington, DC.  But today's left wing seeks to cleanse Unitarian history so one reads only of its abolitionist heritage.  I do not deny the importance of abolitionists, but contend it is better to be true to history than to be politically correct.  Abolitionist Unitarians may have been the large majority, but the pro-slavery minority was important, too.

   PS- I had never seen the Confederate money bills with the picture of Judah Benjamin on them.  I did not notice the denomination of the bills.  I guess one can accurately declare, there were Benjamins (for Judah) long before the Benjamin (Franklins) that were made famous by US Rep. Omar's comments in the 21st century.  Indeed, has a Jew ever been pictured on currency of the USA, or is it only in the CSA?  On 7 Sat. 2026 I saw a repeat of the Gates program on a Milwaukee PBS station.  Now I saw clearly, Judah Benjamin appeared on the Confederate $2 bill.  There are some recent scholars (on google AI)  who might contend he should have been on the $3 bill.  If one traveled in the 19th century and had to sleep over, there may not have been enough beds, and men, like Lincoln apparently on many occasions slept in the same bed with another man.  Probably some occasions when 3 in a bed.  There may have been some snuggling, or even playing around, but I think ir wrong to jump to modern conclusions.  Benjamin's case is different; he was married but his wife resided in Paris, where she apparently played around.  Just as modern changes in attitude toward views of slave owners meant a lower approval rating for John Calhoun, it may be the reason for new questions about Judah Benjamin.  Another reason I am skeptical of the recent speculation that Benjamin was gay - because he was a Jew, he would have come under more scrutiny at the time, especially by wives of those of who were jealous of his position.  Rumor, gossip, can have a powerful effect, ir true, and sometimes if not true.  That the "brains of the Confederacy" or Pres. Davis's "pet Jew" was not fired but promoted seems to work against the supposition of some modern historians.

     There are fashions in history just as there are in women's skirts.  Some may help us to discover truths that contradict the old story; and some that may confuse the issue even more.

      Liberal North, reactionary South.  Recall the draft riots in NYC, beginning in mid-July 1863, working-class whites, mainly Irish, resented a new law exempting those rich enough to pay $300 to be exempt from the draft.  They also resented going to fight to free blacks who would then become competitors with them for jobs.  5-days of burning homes of the rich, and a black orphanage, and attacks killing up to 1,200 people, and stopped only withthe arrival of 4,000 Yankee troops who had just left Gettysburg.  It is easier to write about the good guys vs. the bad, but . . .

   Tonight I watched Part 2 of the H L Gates PBS Series on Blacks and Jews..  I hoped to write a review, but I received an injection in my right eyeball today, and the computer light is too strong - I am crying,  I should have a review up soon of Part 2.

PBS SECRETS OF THE DEAD, WERE THERE WOMEN GLADIATORS? MISSED AN IMPORTANT QUESTION

 I watched the PBS program, Secrets of the Dead, which asked the question, were there any women gladiators in the Roman Empire?  I found it interesting, BUT GREW MORE ANNOYED AS THE PROGRAM CONTINUED.  IT FAILED TO ASK A MAJOR QUESTION.

The Roman Empire lasted several centuries, and was quite large.  How does one attempt to find the answer?  The program did a good job, showing a statue of a woman athlete, which they contended was really a gladiator instead.  The program distinguished between female athletes, more for fun, leisure, and no stigmas attached, compared to gladiators, male or female.  The program did find female gladiator who fought animals, and some may have been part of the program doing what the men did.

I was annoyed because the program never mentioned Galen.  Galen was a physician to the gladiators for a number of years, so he had considerable experience with the wounds suffered by the contenders.  It is one reason his work was cherished long after his death, into the transformed Christian empire, and also into the rising empire of Islam.  Galen had not only been doctor to gladiators, after all many of them were slaves, but he was physician to some Emperors too.

I asked GoogleAI if he had ever serviced a woman gladiator.  The AI reply, in his writings Galen refers to a;ll of his patients as masculine.  This does NOT PROVE that there were no women gladiators.  But if the AI had answered the reverse, it would have proven that there were women gladiators.  By neglecting perhaps the most renowned physician of the Roman Empire, I thought they ignored a major source, one who, if his writings had included women gladiators, would have settled the question   As it turns out, Galen did not mention women gladiators at all, so the program did provide the other evidence they had compiled.  BUT THEY SHOU;D HAVE ASKED GALEN.   Hugh Murray

MORE TO CONSIDER.  I mention the transition of the Roman Empire to a Christian one, and imply Christian Europe, a common association.  But the Roman Empire was Britain and some of Western Europe and the Balkans, all of North Africa, and Turkey and parts of the Middle east.  Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Empire, and the new capitol, Constantinople, was not even in Europe!  Not part of the Roman Empire - much of Germany, Poland, Scandinavia, H7ngary, Scotland, Ireland.  Still, it was a vast empire.  In this empire, Jews and pagans were now 2nd class citizens, and pagan priests no longer paid by the state.  In Egypt, the priests of Amon and the other gods and goddesses lost their income.  Time to get new jobs.  One result, those who read and wrote the pictures on the walls, now did other things, and people forgot how to read the ancient script and pictures.  Not until the early 1800s with discovery of the Rosetta Stone, did the modern world discover a key to the ancient writings.

     Next, as Christianity dominated the Roman Empire, it was not limited to Europe.  One of the most important figures of the early church, Augustine was from Hippo, near old Carthage in North Africa.  Turkey, Judea, Palestine, Syria, Egypt, all became Christian, as did all of North Africa.  In the 400s. though connected to the Library of Alexandria, the female mathematician Hypatia, was killed by fanatical Christian mob.  Her crime; she was a pagan.  (As a child growing up in New Orleans, warm weather, we kids often went barefoot.  When we wanted to cross the street, there was a problem - the street was paved with oyster shells.  Sharp shells.  We crossed slowly and gingerly, trying to avoid a cut.  In high school, I was showing a few Canadian visitors around and took them for a short trip to my neighborhood.  We got out the car, and one remarked, "You pave your streets in souvenirs of the sea?"  He made it sound wo exotic.  I should have suggested he remove his shoes and socks and cross the street, and it would seem far less exotic.)  Hypatia was pulled from her carriage and taken to a church, where she was stripped of her clothing and the used oyster shells to remove her skin, before butchering her to death.  Of course, during the pagan Roman Empire, there were times when in the Arena, Christians were fed to the lions and other animals.  

    In the 600s the new religion of Islam began to expand in a warlike way.  From the Arabian Peninsular is spread, conquering Judea, Syria, Egypt, Libya, Tunis Algeria, Morocco, and on into Europe, most of Spain and Portugal, and even a battle inside France.  The Muslims in power gave tax and other advantages to their co-religionists, and the number of Muslims expanded.  They did not occupy Ethiopia, which remained Christian.  It took until the 1450s, but then the Muslims even conquered Constantinople, renamed it Istanbul, and Turkey became Muslim too.  /the Balkans became mixed, while northern Europe joined the Christians.  In 1492 the last of the Muslim states fell, Spain (and Portugal were free).  That same year the Spanish monarchs issued a decree, all Jews and Muslims in Spain had to convert to Christianity or leave the kingdom.  Some left; some converted, Jews became Moranos; Muslims, Moriscos.  To insure they were true converts. the Grand Inquisitor became a prominent figure in Spain.

NURSING THE WOUNDS OF MINNESOTA???

 A Chinese friend wrote asking me what I thought about the most recent killing in Minnesota, and here is my response.  The Chinese friend was a student of mine in Shijiazhuang a few decades ago. I placed something on my blog after the Good woman was killed - I do not consider these anti-Ice protests as non-violent.  ML King had gone with some others to India to ask about the Gandhian approach to non-violence, which had been used with some success in India.  We did not harass and insult the police.  We were trying to win some sympathy from them.  The anti-ICE crowd does not follow this pattern; they torment, insult, and try to interfere while ICE does its job - rounding up millions of invaders.  For decades they were called illegal immigrants, but then the open-doors elite told the media, the new name was undocumented immigrants.  A person cannot be "illegal."  But a person can be in your home illegally, or in your nation illegally.  But the globalists were using language to invite the world to America.  This is also a way to promote the R Catholic church numbers in the US, and the Pope is all for it.  My view, send the millions who came here to Vatican City.  Of course there are many others who favor open borders, a view found in the European Union, and among many in the American elite who are not Roman Cahtolics.  More illegals in a state during the census will give that state more representatives in Congress, more electoral votes for President, more allocation of federal funds.  And if the illegals can be registered to vote, more Democratic Party victories!  Many who come illegally may be simply poor folks looking for a better life.  But in Minnesota, that may have been the excuse to have federal funds diverted from poor Americans to fake Samali day care centers, translators, auto drivers, none of which really existed and was simply an excuse to promote graft for Dems and their friends.

    Decades ago, when the US soccer team travelled to Central America for a game, the locals would find the hotel where they were staying and make noise all night so the team could not sleep, and would be groggy during the game.  Now the peaceful protestors find where ICE is staying and does the same thing.  They know the license plates to harass the cars of ICE men driving; they do all they can to insult and anger those whose job it is to deport the illegals.  How many days of that hostility has built up in the ICE team when they faced Mrs. Good in her car?  And the kindly male nurse, who went to high school in Green Bay Wisconsin, he goes to a peaceful protest with no ID, and a weapon?  The ICE team is rightly nervous about all the hostile protestors.  These protestors are determined to prevent the immigration laws from being enforced.  They want ICE out of Minnesota, and tens of thousands of criminal invaders to stay.  But their wish is NOT what Americans voted for when they chose Trump over Kamala for President.  Americans want the illegals to go home - to their homeland.

    If the protestors do not want trouble, let ICE do its job in peace.  NO, they want the millions of illegals to stay.  They do not want the law on the books to be enforced.  So they forget peaceful protest and prefer constant harassment, constant hatred directed at people doing their jobs and arresting the criminal invaders.

     I was sympathetic to the Bangladeshi who overstayed his visa in Shij and was caught up indirectly when one of 3 foreigners went after the girl friend of a big shot at Disco City.  When leaving, the 3 foreigners were met with Chinese with knives, and one foreigner was badly hurt.  The only one I knew, a Bangladeshi had simply  run away from the armed Chinese that night to safety.  However, he had overstayed his visa, was then illegally in China, and  was soon after apprehended by immigration police.  Important, we foreigners did not organize a jail break for him.  We simply helped his mother pay for his flight to his home country.

   i traveled to many lands, entering legally; exiting legally.

   East Germany had a famous border, a wall.  If you tried to enter, or exit, illegally, you might be shot and die, and some did so.  When the border came to an end, when the wall fell, so did that nation, which no longer exists.

    No border; no nation.  Soon, no distinction between citizen and "undocumented migrants."  In some areas, because they have children in public schools, they are allowed to vote in School Board elections.  If they go to get welfare, the clerk may inadvertently request them to sign up to vote.  I think, that is the hope of the Dems and the globalists.  That is NOT the hope of most Americans or of Trump.  We want our nation to continue to exist, and to prosper.  We don't want foreign invaders voting and perhaps choosing our next mayor, or President.  How sad that some Americans want to interfere with ICE doing its duty to apprehend the invaders, and then deport them.

    Another reason I favor ICE.   Another reason I favor Trump.  hUGH

   The Pope seems to be in favor of open borders for America.  My question to the Pontiff, would you still favor massive migration if most Protestant nations were poor, and most Catholic ones rich?  Which leads to another question, why is it Protestant nations seem to do better economically than Catholic ones.

     It is truly sad when anyone is killed at street demonstrations.  Or killed by muggers or drivers racing their cars and ignoring pedestrians.  It is also sad when 2 somewhat young people were killed trying to stop ICE from  deporting invaders living inside out nation.  Despite these tragedies, ICE has been Pretti Good at trying to ignore its hateful hecklers and while removing alien invaders.

ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON MAY NOT RUN AGAIN AS DELEGATE IN CONGRESS FROM DC.

 Newser had an article asserting the Eleanore Holmes Norton, elected Delegate from Washington, DC to Congress, may not seek re-election this year.  She has held the post for 18 terms, and there is discussion of dementia.  The Newser story and comments center on the question of should there be term limits, and mental and physical exam requirements.  My view - it is the duty of the citizen voter to make the decision of whether a candidate is physically or mentally incapacitated.  I admit, I think voters can make mistakes - not voting for the lively Trump and apparently choosing Giden instead.  Below is my comment:

There should NOT be upper age limits on electing Congress folks. It is the duty of the voter to distinguish between a lively Trump and a Biden.
Norton did much to reduce the effectiveness of our government long before she was elected to represent DC. I think she was on the EEOC when she began her assault on exams related to work. Both govt., the armed services, and businesses used aptitude exams to find which applicants might best fit in what openings. Norton opposed these because she did not like the results regarding race (and perhaps gender). She totally opposed IQ tests that were very helpful in spotlighting those who did very well despite education in rather poor schools. Again, Norton disliked the results. In effect, she asserted any exam where whites did better than blacks was racist. The result was that to be consitered non racist, a test had to be easy enough so that almost all passed.  Standards had to be lowered to achieve that result.  The result for American society, many competent applicants were not hired, so the EEOC coud demand they hire by race and gender, afterall, they all did well on the exams.  Better to hire dummies than have the civil rights division accuse your firm of racism. Norton paved the road to the disastrous DEI.

                                                                                 .

Age is a problem, but one should be reasonable. I am 87 and wrote this without looking up any thing, tho Norton might have been on the Civil Rights Commission when she did her damage. Running heavy machinery, I would not try, many things, but most of my brain is working. Some folks over 100 are physically active. Let voters choose whom they want as the best candidate, whatever the age, race, gender, disabilities, etc

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TRUMP APOLOGIZES RE: GREENLAND

 President Trump has apologized about his threats to take the island of Greenland, one way or the other.  He admitted, he made a mistake.  What he meant to say, he will take the emerald isle, one way or the other.  He will take Ireland, one way or the other.  As there are 2 greenland isles he confused one with the other.  He could simply say he would take both islands one way or the other, but many people might think then that he was a colonizing aggressor.  Don't want to give people such an absurd impression ot this man of peace.  Afterall, Trump has created a Board of Peace.  Or was it board with peace?

      Anyway Trump will send troops to Ireland and surround the home of Rosie O'Donnell and prevent her from making any more videos criticizing his Presidency.  But Trump reconsidered.  He thought Rosie's attacks on him were so weak, perhaps he should require that she appear on at least one news program daily with her confused denunciations of my Administration.  How pleasant to be President - except when they are literally shooting at you.

(To All, this is a joke.  You might have caught on with the first 2 words: Trump apologized.)  Hugh Murray

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TRUMP. GREENLAND, AND EPSTEIN, a short report from RT

 

Epstein and the US bid for Greenland – the link you probably never knew (RT VIDEO)

The disgraced financier’s Caribbean island of human trafficking horrors was originally purchased from Denmark

RT composite. ©  Getty Images/Rick Friedman;KimKimsenphot

US President Donald Trump’s bid to acquire Greenland from Denmark echoes another land transaction between the two nations – one that ultimately benefited Jeffrey Epstein.

In 1917, Washington paid Copenhagen $25 million in gold (roughly $633 million today) for part of the West Indies, now known as the US Virgin Islands. The sale included a small island called Little Saint James, which was purchased in 1998 by Epstein, a financier with alleged intelligence ties and extensive connections to global elites, including Trump.

Epstein was disgraced for sexually abusing girls and died in a prison cell while awaiting trial. US authorities maintain he committed suicide.

Notably, the original Virgin Islands sale included a US pledge not to object to Danish “political and economic interests to the whole of Greenland.”

Find out more in the RT video report below.

The RT article included a 1-minute YouTube video on the sale of the Danish West Indies tp tje US. but I cannot copy that to this blog.  If you put in the subject matter. you can probably find that short video.  Hugh Murray

UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS? OR CRIMINAL ILLEGAL ALIENS?

    I can imagine someone skiing in Switzerland crossing a national border and not realizing that they were suddenly in France or Italy.  But those who enter the US from Mexico, especially those from further south, they know when they cross into the Us.  They may have paid a coyote, a smuggler of humans, to show them where to cross, where to head once across the border.  They know they are crossing the border, and they know they are doing it illegally.

     Crossing into the US is a crime.  So the new entry individual IS and illegal,  He is a criminal.

     In the late 1980s, I resided in NYC, and often listened to Public Radio's WNYC call-in program hosted by Lennie Lopate.  The topic was immigration, and I called to complain about illegal immigrants.  Lopate corrected me, that the station is no longer to use that phrase.  Hereafter, they will be known as undocumented immigrants.  I was not happy about the change, but told him I would refrain from using the illegal alien terms.  Then I added, so I will discuss the unwanted invaders!  I forget if he hung up on me or not.  All major media soon got in step with the latest liberal version of Newspeak.  Len and I had gone through a year of verbal battles as he defended Tawana Brawley, and I dared question her stories.  After a year of her allegations of a white officer assault on her, she dropped it, and things were settled.  Lopate and most liberals had supported her and her attorney, Al Sharpton, among others.  Today, Wikipedia describes it as a "rape hoax".

     Under Pres. Joe Biden, it seems the whole world was encouraged to come to the US.  I maintain Biden aided and abetted a foreign invasion of this country; certainly grounds for impeachment.  But the Dems, and some Republicans seem to be delighted as vast numbers entered our nation daily.  And under Biden, secret night plane trips to take the illegals to small communities round the nation.

     Trump's America First policies closed the southern border to most immigration.  And he wants to deport the criminals.  Trump speaks of the murderers and dope peddlers, BUT ALL ILLEGAL ALIENS ARE CRIMINALS, by definition.  Some may be nice people just wanting a better chance - BUT THEY ARE CRIMINALS.  They too should be deported to make room for more jobs for Americans, and lower rents for Americans, and provide more time in schools for American children.  Deport the illegals, or have them self deport, and perhaps they may return, LEGALLLY, later.

    So all Americans who believe in America First should support ICE, support the national guards if called up, and generally support a mass deportation policy.  Also, with the removal of the illegals, it will be harder for Democrats to steal elections in future.  Unfortunately, Democrats tend to support the illegals aliens, just as Democrats tend to support criminals.

     Unfortunately, the Democratic Party has become the party of the criminals, by the criminals, and for the criminals.  Deport the illegals, and cripple the Democratic Party.

HUGH MURRAY

                                Add On the Subject

     Being old has its disadvantages, (I'm not going to present my list here), but some advantages also.  When I was young, I recall discussions of immigration, and those wishing to come as immigrants might have to have a sponsor to insure that if allowed into the US, the immigrant would not become a drain on the public.  Either the immigrant must show a certain amount of money to get in the US, or have a sponsor who will pay the immigrants debts if he fails to earn his way.

     I note this because in the discussions about immigrants in Minnesota, newscasters have noted that a large percentage of the immigrants are on welfare.  I forget if they said 30% or 50%, but it was a large pool of immigrants.  My question is how did this happen?  If on welfare, why are the not deported?

     If former Pres. Joe Biden is responsible, and if he was corrupt as some say, make him the sponsor of these welfare immigrants, and make Biden pay for all the welfare granted to these immigrants.  If the US began to raid Biden's accounts to pay for their welfare, I suspect he would quickly prefert that they be deported instead.

      

NEWSER REPORTED A NEW RANKING SYSTEM FOR RESEARCH UNIVERSITES, CHANGES AND SURPRISES

 Newser reported that on a new ranking of research at universities round the world, Harvard dropped to #3, and China won not only the top two spots, but 8 of the top 10, with universities unheard of by me.  I added a comment to the story:

 

Who cares? Does is really matter if China is doing better than the US in new research"  After all, China probably comes in last in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Of course admitting students and hiring faculty because of their race, their sex, their gender to get the proper stats so they look like America, that is far more important than what they know, or what they learn, or what they create. This is so much better than the days when white men imposed their standards all over the campus. Now, free of those restriction and difficult grading systems, students can enjoy music to rapp the ears, dances from near and far, and join the anti-racist, anti-microaggression movement, and put things in perspective. Harvard is now more loving than when it spent so much time on research.

 

    Strange, most of the others who made comments were attacking Trump, as if he caused the decline at Harvard.  Interesting.  I hope the readers enjoy satire.         

 Hugh Murray

 

MORE ON THE INSURRECTIONS AGAINST ICE

This began as a letter to a friend, slightly modified for the blog.

  Here is my response to both of your emails.  When I first saw a video, I thought it looked as if the ICE man shot her after she passed him in the auto.  But lots of people have their cameras to their faces, taking videos.  I suspect more will become available.  But where was the shooter?  Seems he was not visible to me, as her car blocked the view.  The woman had returned to her car, and a cop was at her car door asking her to get out.  She did not.  Her car was blocking both lanes of traffic as she had parked perpendicularly, to block traffic?  And the ICE mission?  I only saw the shooter after she turned onto the traffic lane and was shot.  I did not see her car hit him.  I was told by right wing tv that the first shot hit her windshield from the front, so she was driving toward him, at least for a short time.  Then more shots and car stops.

    She claimed to be a legal observer.  I doubt if any court had given her any special privilege or position.  If one of the protest groups had given her that title, well, it would be coming from a biased group.  Liberal orgs. such as the American Civil Liberties Union try to play to the media that they are impartial, but they are a liberal organization, tho historically they have on occasions defended conservatives.  As she Mrs. Good was trained by an organization whose purpose is to disrupt any attempts to deport illegal aliens, I would  not call her impartial.

    In August 1960 I spent 3 weeks at a training institute in Miami, sponsored by CORE, the Congress of Racial Equality; one day a teacher was Jackie Robinson, first black allowed to play in Major League Baseball; another teacher, M L King.  About 40 of us from throughout the nation, 6 from New Orleans as they were hoping to make a break-through there.   Politically, most of os were mainly on the left, tho Robinson openly supported Nixon in the 1960 presidential election v JFK.  The emphasis, how to protest USING NON-VIOLENT methods.  They supplied us with a book on Gandhi, and a short one of Hindu scriptures.  We had to unlearn natural responses, basically, not to defend ourselves.

   Renee Good attended a left-wing training camp too, on how to obstruct ICE.  I suspect this is Antifa in a new uniform.  As is, ICE members are harassed going to work; their home addresses and phone #s distributed to all who can phone and insult  them, physical attacks on these law-enforcement officers continue to rise.  The ICE man who shot her had to have numerous stitches as he had been dragged 35 feet or 350 feed over the street in trying to apprehend an illegal.  The left-wing is willing to use force to get its way.  The training camps to destroy our law enforcers amounts to a revolutionary training camp.  Mrs. Good was probably trained in insurrection.  Indeed, the many protests now occurring - against enforcing the law - these are insurrections.

    America has immigration laws.  Many enter and depart legally.  But under Biden, and with the support of the Dems, and some Republicans who hope to hire cheap foreign laborers, Biden ignored American immigration laws, and encouraged perhaps 2 million illegals to come into the nation.  Trump is trying to deport most of them.  Here illegally, they should have no rights, but Fed Judges find new excuses to keep them here.  The Left wants them here to supplement the Dem vote (as our voting rolls, in theory just for citizens, now have unknown numbers of illegals voting.)  If Trump fails on this, if the Dems return to control Congress in 2026, he will be impeached again (but not convicted) and the Dems will make sure no more deportations occur, and make 20 languages the official language of the nation.  America will cease to be a nation, but a hodgepodge.  Globalists will be happy, as they generally opposed nation states anyway.  The CIA and the Dems (and a few Republicans favor globalism over nation states.  One major reason I voted for Trump was he opposes the globalists.  The nation states allow development of different paths to what we hope will be a better life.  Different experiments.  I think that better than the one-path globalists.      All the best,   Hugh Murray

ON THE "GOOD" WOMAN OF MINNESOTA

 She and many others have been training to obstruct the enforcement of American laws. They favor the invaders over Americans. Traitor Joe Biden aided and abeted the massive foreign invasion of this country as Dems felt they could no longer count on the votes of American citizens. That is why the Dems want illegal aliens on the voter rolls, along with the dead, and other names to help steal the count.

The main point, those who entered this nation illegally are invaders, and are not supposed to get any govt handouts, should not be enrolled in public schools or universities, and should not be allowed to take away jobs from struggling American citizens. The "good" woman was there to prevent the law from being enforced. Her training led her to make foolish decisions, for which she paid dearly.

Ice should not back down.  Their job is a large one because Biden open flood gates to massive numbers of people from all over the world with little or no vetting.  In Minnesota, the recent scandal of pre-school services, with millions of dollars stolen, is probably one tip of 50 icebergs in other states.

The anti-ICE training camps are in effect camps for training revolutionaries.  America does not need a revolution.  On the contrary, we simply need enforcement of laws already on the books.

-----------HUGH MURRAY

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FROM GRADE SCHOOL DECLENSIONS TO THE FAMILY MADURO

 I forget many of the grammar rules, but recall some.  For instance, the verb 
"go."  It went, I go, you go, he/she/it goes.  For plural: we go, you all go (or familiar) y'all go, they go.  In the USA, there was a contrast in this between the North and South, for the Yankees (Northerners) had no plural of you, which led to confusion in conversations.  In the South< "you all" meant more than one was invited to a party, etc.

Now let's look at a family name.  The leader of Venezuela until today was Nicolas Maduro.  But American forces arrested him and his wife, and they are now facing criminal charges in American courts.  So their name might decline from Maduro to Saduro.  If convicted and imprisoned, their name might again decline and change to Enduro.

And what future?  Here is one possible future.  In perhaps 5 years, then former President still will want to keep active.  Trump invites a wrestling contest, Trump will take on first: Arnold Schwartzenegger, 
  They will battle in the new White House Ball Room.  Trump wins, and then takes on Stallone.  Trump wins again.  Next, he takes on Berny Sanders.  Though tired, the 85 year-old former, former President will next take on a younger competitor.  Trump asserts, We bought Manhattan Island from the Indians for about $24 in trinkets centuries ago.  Now we want to take it back from an Indian again.  If Trump wins, he demands the new Mayor Mamdani, born in Africa but of Indian heritage resign as Mayor. Trump, in his 4th wrestling match of the day, begins strong, then holds his heart and stops moving.  Suddenly, an observer stumbles on the cables, and the media coverage goes blank.  Did Mamdani win and remain Mayor of America's largest city?  Did Trump die?  Or recover.  When the cables blanked out, so did my access to the future story.  We will all have to wait till 2031 to find out those answers.

   The match is broadcast into  prisons, and when the Enduros hear that, they assumed Trump was no more, so they changed their name again, this time to the Cheerios.  And from Ireland and France, a similar note.  Rosie O'Donnell and the Clooneys became Cheerios too.

Everyone holds his breath in the future, will Trump win the match against Mamdani?  Will Trump live?   But we must wait for the answers to that simple story.

Today, in 2026 everyone holds his breath, - for what is Trump going to do today?  Some hate him.  I voted for him in 3 elections for president.  I generally support him, but not always.  Trump is an action president.  

So far so good, but his brash actions?  

So far, so good.  Hope you all worry a bit about the President and his deals - some of which are good, but too much confidence might lead to big, big problems.  Remember when Trump was campaigning for President in 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania, a young man shot at him.  The shooter killed a man in the audience, and nipped the ear of Trump, blood flowing down his cheek.  Had the assassin aimed an inch over, Trump would have died.  Biden had provided Trump a most incompetent Secret Service protection group that day.  A few days later, another man discovered with a rifle on a golf course, waiting to get Trump too.  Anyone who would survive these assassins must get an ego boost.  The feeling: I can do anything; and I can get away with everything.  A wonderful feeling, but NOT a reality.  Trump is leader of the USA, but there are other nations on earth, some quite powerful.  We must not fumble, arrogantly encouraging all the other powerful nations to join in an alliance against us.  As strong as America is, as confident as Trump feels, overconfidence can lead him, and his nation, to disaster.  We are not the world.  We are a rich, free, powerful nation; but even our nation has limits.

Hugh Murray