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 . . .

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.