I learned real, honest history from my public high school teachers, and continued that into UCLA, where Zi graduated at the top of 600 history majors in my graduating class. Our daughters got unvarnished history in their private school, and at UCLA and UC-Berkeley. But there’s the rub. We live in CALIFORNIA, where we are not afraid to acknowledge our past—which includes the Spanish missions and their mistreatment of the indigenous people, our scalp bounties when California was a state, our own slave owning history before we became a state, our mistreatment of the Chinese we brought in for cheap labor, the zoot suit riots in Los Angeles, and on and on.
But a lot of white people in the old Confederacy (and their descendants where they control other red states) can’t handle the truth. It will take demographic change to force the issue. My only solace is the knowledge that when non-whites outnumber them, they will treat history more fairly and honestly than the grotesque white people now in charge. They deserve worse, but marginalization will be humbling enough. It can’t happen soon enough for this 76-year old white male descendant of Southerners on both sides. That heritage is one I abhor. Luckily I live in a state where it isn’t celebrated.
Having a numerical superiority, does not mean the ones with the power will lose power and be marginalize. This nation, this world, must embrace everyone and give everyone a voice and equal footing. This will happen when everyone embraces education, demands that education is truthful and all-encompassing. Too often, people see education only as a step-stone for jobs and economic security. It is one reason for education. However, the reason students study history and literature and the arts and mathematics and science is so when they are adults they will have the knowledge to see that people share so much in common; that they can use logic and acknowledge and push past the biases of their upbring and see through the charlatans of hate, division, and lies.
True as an ideal. The road there is bumpy, though, and as we have learned, humans are very tribal and too often unwilling to act in the enlightened way we both believe they should. That means that in the short term, the authoritarians of whatever stripe must be confronted and neutered, or there will no such road at all.
Most of the problem comes from peer pressure to scapegoat the minority IMHO as individuals, the majority can be persuaded https://rvat.org/
There is a "concurrent majority" in the south that identify with Jimmy Carter and read Faulkner, Malcolm Cowley, etc. Statistics show that about 54% of the voters are right wingers but they control most governments through voter preclusion, intimidation and buying the opposition.
I grew up in Punnsyltucky where most teachers were proselytizing Presbyterians who taught us that we were a Presbyterian nation. We had more Presbyterians per square inch than any other region in the world. Virtually all were Republicans. Most of the Republican "kids" from my class now are registered Democratic, are "independents" or never Trumpers
Some Native American leaders are Republicans, like Tom Cole, who sell their own people short.
I knew Pennsyltucky lawyers who went to Oklahoma to help steal the land. Andrew Mellon won Gulf Oil in a card game. Phillips Petroleum started in my home town. The major benefactor to now defunct Phillips University in Bartlesville, and Phillips Seminary in Tulsa was my neighbor. Phillips 66/ Phillips Conoco. The Seminary is Disciple of Christ, the religion of entire tribes.
how embarrassing for oklahomans like judy woodruff, this celebration of the 'sooners' who broke the rules set for this dubious land giveaway by taking an unfair head start....proudly enshrining that repugnant history in the name of the university sports teams
Why doesn’t SOMEONE consult a gun EXPERT regarding the POSSIBILITY or IMPOSSIBILITY of a bullet coming from an AR-15 rifle striking Trump’s ear and not even requiring stitches, let alone additional head trauma. Others nearby were hit with shrapnel, I.e. “DEBRIS from the bullet hitting the plexiglass, the most likely scenario.
But Trump who likes to LIE and make his crowds the BIGGEST (even though we saw the truth), his presidency the BEST (when in fact he was ranked dead last), would like the public to BELIEVE he took a bullet so he could be a hero in his eyes (even if it wasn’t the truth).
The reality is if he had promoted the banning of AK-15 rifles, it wouldn’t have happened. Bullets from those AL-15 rifles have the ability to travel 600 yards effectively. (From what I understand, they do great damage.). So essentially Trump is to blame.
You would think he would finally change his position. The parents who have lost their children due to these guns tried to convince him. But Trump loves his money from the NRA too much.
I've never indulged in conspiracy theory. But now I'm onboard - it was a convenient set-up that went awry. The naive kid was recruited. He was meant to miss, and then be killed in cold blood (of course he didn't know this part of the plan.) Before rightfully bashing me as a nutter, let me bask in my own delusion about this for a while...
You definitely are not alone! The pic of Donny sitting across from Netanyahu at Mar-A-Lago shows an uninjured right ear. If it was at all gunshot it would still be visibly damaged. The stage blood capsule theory is looking pretty good, and the conspirators are guilty of murder.
I often think the real delusion is the idea that a Trump ally that, with or with Trump's knowledge, would not kill to gain control of the most powerful country on the planet. "It's just one kid and he's dying for a greater cause, (me, Donald). Sadly, I can see it. Murder in pursuit of political power is not uncommon.
In light of the picture from the “summit”, the absence of forensic documentation of Trump’s claimed injury is very suspicious. The idea the whole episode was a set up for his photo op is monstrous.
what are those two squarish looking plexiglass things usually seen to the right and left in front of the person giving the speech? some kind of transparent teleprompter or ambiance enhancement device?...i dunno.....certainly somebody out there in thom land does know
I don't think Trump was hit by a bullet. If he had been I believe his ear would be mangled, but I also don't think it matters much whether it was a bullet or some incidental shrapnel, he came within an inch or two from taking a bullet to the skull. This was a failure of the secret sevice. I hate Trump, but political assassination isn't the way, it would have made him a martyr and prevented his upcoming criminal convictions. History needs him to lose.
I taught U.S. History for 41 years at levels 7-14 in California. I had my students study indentured servitude, slavery, the effects of European contact with the indigenous peoples in the western hemisphere, explored documents and effects of the Trail of Tears and many others as I gave them excerpts from Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. I had them examined the legacies and accomplishments of Africans, women, the LGBTQ community, Asians, Mexicans, and other groups often marginalized by the standard curriculum. California's framework for social science a descent job trying to see that all groups are celebrated.
I am so glad I spent my years teaching in the San Francisco Bay Area, yet I still had my battles. The first was when I taught at a small parochial high school, which had a junior high and elementary school on the same site. The head parish priest announce that the students would celebrate Columbus Day with a mass. So, I went to the headmaster an immediately told him that my students would not be in attendance and gave him a letter for to give the parish office explaining why I could not in good conscience bring my students to mass. A discussion ensued. Finally, a compromise. We had to go. Columbus would be celerated, sort of, but the mass would also celebrate the indigeous people he affected. I was at that school for 18 years and then moved to a high school in what was then the most conservative city in the bay area, Gilroy. There battles included rights for the LGBTQ youth in the schools, freedom of speech, celebrations for the Latino students (67% of my high school's population), and teachers' rights and fair pay.
Besides the social sciences I also taught English, DIgital Design, and Audio-Video production. Naturally, I brought history into all of the classes. Students must have an understabding of history, the good, the bad, and the ugly. An honest understanding of history provides the lens to evaluate the events of today and the future. American slavery, the Zoot Suit Riots, the massacre at Wounded Knee and Sand Creek, the Salem Witch Trials, the murder of the Chinese and Chileans in the California gold fields, the sanctioned apartheid and lynchings in the American South are just a few of the true events in our history, just as the holocaust, pogroms, the Armenian genocide, witch hangings and burnings, the murder and genocide of non-Christians and unorthodox Christians (Thirty Years War, Huegnots, Cathars, Templars, this later also about power and wealth), etc. are true in European history. They are as true as the law of gravity is true. As much as we might want to ignore them, they happened. As citizens we must know that they happened and if makes those of us who are of western European descent upset, good. That is the way we learn. Touching a hot stove is upsetting because it hurts. Good, perhaps you won't touch the hot stove again without protection.
Thank you Tom. I've said from the get-go, that MAGA is simply the Confederacy rebranded. Same states (with some expansion), same failed ideologies descendents of the same people (e.g., Kemp) and the same inclination to enslave. They can't seem to get it out of their system; now they are doubling down on enslaving women, the only target left to them. The idea that this push to re-enslave is about "life," is beyond absurd. Slavery was never about "life," and neither is womb slavery and forced birth.
As absurd as historical revisionism is, the jarring reality is that when the legal challenge(s) to these laws make it up the legal food chain, Trump's right wing Supreme Court is poised to throw the 1st A out the same window they threw the 14th A and the rule of law. When the government can force prayer on school grounds and impose state forced birth, I'm not sure we even have a 1st A or 14th A anymore.
I never thought I'd live to see this in the U.S.; our only hope is for everyone who follows you to make a plan to vote, and to take every friend, family member and neighbor with them to the polls.
I wonder if these White racists are also banning books about the immoral killing of 2 million Vietnamese for 11 years based on lies, racism, greed, and ignorance. And I was there in combat, virtually enslaved to "kill commies for Christ" as they use to say in the Army. In that war, officers were promoted based on body counts, no matter civilians or military. I have given many talks in schools in the 80s and 90s regarding these things. I may be banned now days in certain states. I have watched the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam war try to be whitewashed as a noble, patriotic endeavor by "our heroes" for freedom, also called revisionism. These propagandists even sent me their BS in the mail for donations. And the Pentagon was behind some of this revisionism. The next time I hear "thank you for your service", I will inform the good intentioned purveyor of this nicety that I was forced to kill people who I were no threat to us, with the threat of 5 years in prison, and that it was virtual slavery. To me it would be like saying to a slave "thank you for your service". Being woke is hard work at times. Oh, by the way, I was in General Custer's old unit, the 2nd of the 7th Cavalry of the 1st Cavalry division in 1968. Some of the soldiers referred to our area of operations in Vietnam as "Indian Country".
You need to write a book, or make a documentary about this. I bet you can find a film student who would happily take on this project. I see a trip to the Sundance Film Festival in your future. Truth is needed!!
The inclusion of Greg Palast gave a wonderful perspective. For years, he's been digging for the truth, and his work, shown in his films, is a historical treasure..
Fed. Congressman Emmanuel Cleaver (D) - Missouri (District 5: KC and Jackson/Clay Counties) was on #Fox-noise with “Neil Cavuto” this weekend defending President-elect #Harris against #BLM-claims?
And, you still think #Kamala’s appointment by #Joe isn’t ironclad proof we’ve finally undergone the long awaited “pole shift” so many astronomers have been predicting for decades now?
Well, here it is folks! But, you gotta remember … In times like these, there is still only one way “up!” … “See you at the top!” ~ Zig Ziglar
The United States is moving backwards in time and no on seems to have a plan reverse it or even stop it. It does sound true when this journalist states that these backwards states have one thing on their mind. Turning their states into a white, Christian nationalist territory. Slavery may return for those they deem inferior and women sent home with their rights rescinded. As I said once before, maybe we should give it to them and send them on their merry way. To sink or swim, sink I think. But, we cut them off from any assistance from what's left of the United States. They either make it or they don't. We should also be prepared for when they decide to take what they want beyond their new borders. You know they will.
One of the best ways to stop the evolution of the human race is to erase history. That way the ignorant will repeat it over and over and over again and the rich and the religions like it that way. That is why they are called conservatives! Except it won't work Anymore with global warming or overpopulation.
The way history is taught in public K-12 schools, I am not too worried that kids will be clueless about American racism and history of slavery and violence toward Blacks. That is because history was the most boring class I had. Most kids I talk with tell me it still is. Thus, fascist cleansing of undesired history from textbooks will likely not be noticed much by students of any race.
Regardless, kids will still see, hear, and experience racism in everyday life, so it is not that they will be clueless about the subject. They might bring it up in class and force some discussion of the history.
Fortunately, it is still too early to tell if these fascist textbook purges will endure now that the Democratic lineup for November is younger and more energetic.
In one sense, it is interesting that the descendants are perpetrating a cover-up. The people involved with slavery in this country were really PROUD of the "institution" and their traditions. Sent their boys off and men volunteered to fight and die for it.
The sad truth is people of conscience knew then what they were doing was WRONG. There were plenty of folks here and abroad telling them. Even a child can see stealing someone's labor, liberty and life is wrong. Oh, that's the problem, these kids and college students CAN UNDERSTAND THAT. They deserve to know the history.
I have Viking DNA---I sure as hell don't feel responsible for all that pillage and raping they did. This DCL nonsense is stupid, and they want our kids to be ignorant.
Blacks descended from slaves have been here since our beginning. They are as American as it gets as well as the Natives who were up-rooted, abused and killed. They did the work and there is no reason to "white-wash" our history. Children can handle the truth. Kids are the first to say it when they are not to blame. The cover-up is for the adults that don't want to try to make amends for what this history has wrought to this very day.
What is interesting is that the nationwide assault on education was clearly very well organized across the entire country, and we the public learned of their well-coordinated destruction of education, and continue to as it continues to play out, from them them-selves, released to the media in partialed releases. But there seems to be a paucity of reporting about the media exposing these planned efforts aforehand. How could such a massive coordinated movement escape any discovery intent? And how could such a massive assault on education not be seen by the existing government, warning America what they are going to do instead of actually saying very little after the fact. They left it up to press releases as well.
It seemed to be one side operating and one side doing zip. I am beginning to greatly fear for the safety of Kamala. All of what you read of the calibrated machine-like coordination of so many fascist plans being so successfully implemented, and with little to no federal challenge, all changed by an unplanned resignation to throw Kamala out into their world to change it all. Kamala should be protected by no secret service or police force. Big money should be spent on well-screened but brand new organized entities, a new and trusted preatorian guard. Starting now. Nobody really knows how many people are quaking in their boots, but we do know how they might think in terms of ending this first new threat.
The following was copied earlier today from an email fundraising appeal and petition from:
Americans for Tax Fairness - David Kass 7/28/24
Right now, in classrooms across America, students are being taught that corporate tax dodging "protects employment and job creation." They're learning that workers—not CEOs or shareholders—"bear the burden" of corporate income taxes.[1]
The Tax Foundation, a right-wing group backed by the next generation with trickle-down economic myths that benefit the billionaires and corporations, has launched TaxEDU—a curriculum that's infiltrating high school and college classrooms nationwide. Their goal is to indoctrinate ultra-wealthy at the expense of working families.
TaxEDU materials were used in 1,500 classrooms across the country in 2023 alone. Their "explainer" videos have been viewed over 300,000 times since 2022. The TaxEDU website has received more than 3 million views since 2021.
It’s clear that this isn't just a few isolated incidents. It's a coordinated campaign to shape young minds in favor of policies that benefit the ultra-wealthy. But together, we can fight back. By raising our voices and demanding action from Secretary Cardona and the Department of Education, we can protect our education system from this corporate takeover.
End of copied text
My commentary:
We are decades late in checking the influence of the right-wing radicals and religious extremists in our schools. As I have stated here dozens of times, these people gain access and have undue authority, power, and influence solely because attendance laws create a circumstance whereby the state, despite having no special knowledge, expertise, or ability to control and operate schools assigns officials to positions of authority, oversees every possible aspect of school policy and operation, and determines curriculum, disciplinary rules and guidelines, teacher certification, and virtually anything else that could possibly matter. This has been going on for generations.
The state should assure funding for schooling and protections for the rights, privileges, and safety of students and teachers. If there is to be mandatory attendance and an official curriculum, there will be indoctrination, behavioral modification, obedience training, oppression, and outside influence from commercial interests making up for funding deficits. There will be funding deficits because a system based on coercion must fail to meet expectations and goals and support will be lacking from the public and their representatives who also know squat about education and are not invested in the education and welfare of students. These are bad, unconstitutional, paternalistic, anachronistic, and destructive laws. Somebody, please tell Thom Hartmann.
I learned real, honest history from my public high school teachers, and continued that into UCLA, where Zi graduated at the top of 600 history majors in my graduating class. Our daughters got unvarnished history in their private school, and at UCLA and UC-Berkeley. But there’s the rub. We live in CALIFORNIA, where we are not afraid to acknowledge our past—which includes the Spanish missions and their mistreatment of the indigenous people, our scalp bounties when California was a state, our own slave owning history before we became a state, our mistreatment of the Chinese we brought in for cheap labor, the zoot suit riots in Los Angeles, and on and on.
But a lot of white people in the old Confederacy (and their descendants where they control other red states) can’t handle the truth. It will take demographic change to force the issue. My only solace is the knowledge that when non-whites outnumber them, they will treat history more fairly and honestly than the grotesque white people now in charge. They deserve worse, but marginalization will be humbling enough. It can’t happen soon enough for this 76-year old white male descendant of Southerners on both sides. That heritage is one I abhor. Luckily I live in a state where it isn’t celebrated.
Having a numerical superiority, does not mean the ones with the power will lose power and be marginalize. This nation, this world, must embrace everyone and give everyone a voice and equal footing. This will happen when everyone embraces education, demands that education is truthful and all-encompassing. Too often, people see education only as a step-stone for jobs and economic security. It is one reason for education. However, the reason students study history and literature and the arts and mathematics and science is so when they are adults they will have the knowledge to see that people share so much in common; that they can use logic and acknowledge and push past the biases of their upbring and see through the charlatans of hate, division, and lies.
True as an ideal. The road there is bumpy, though, and as we have learned, humans are very tribal and too often unwilling to act in the enlightened way we both believe they should. That means that in the short term, the authoritarians of whatever stripe must be confronted and neutered, or there will no such road at all.
Karen… excellent commentary!!
Most of the problem comes from peer pressure to scapegoat the minority IMHO as individuals, the majority can be persuaded https://rvat.org/
There is a "concurrent majority" in the south that identify with Jimmy Carter and read Faulkner, Malcolm Cowley, etc. Statistics show that about 54% of the voters are right wingers but they control most governments through voter preclusion, intimidation and buying the opposition.
I grew up in Punnsyltucky where most teachers were proselytizing Presbyterians who taught us that we were a Presbyterian nation. We had more Presbyterians per square inch than any other region in the world. Virtually all were Republicans. Most of the Republican "kids" from my class now are registered Democratic, are "independents" or never Trumpers
Some Native American leaders are Republicans, like Tom Cole, who sell their own people short.
I knew Pennsyltucky lawyers who went to Oklahoma to help steal the land. Andrew Mellon won Gulf Oil in a card game. Phillips Petroleum started in my home town. The major benefactor to now defunct Phillips University in Bartlesville, and Phillips Seminary in Tulsa was my neighbor. Phillips 66/ Phillips Conoco. The Seminary is Disciple of Christ, the religion of entire tribes.
I posted this before. Lefty Okies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ebq-GT3vj4
Not long ago Oklahoma had a Democratic governor, Brad Henry. The Okie from Muskogee, Merle Haggard, had an epiphany.
how embarrassing for oklahomans like judy woodruff, this celebration of the 'sooners' who broke the rules set for this dubious land giveaway by taking an unfair head start....proudly enshrining that repugnant history in the name of the university sports teams
Their fetishized "way of life," IS dying out and no amount of authoritarianism can stop it.
Why doesn’t SOMEONE consult a gun EXPERT regarding the POSSIBILITY or IMPOSSIBILITY of a bullet coming from an AR-15 rifle striking Trump’s ear and not even requiring stitches, let alone additional head trauma. Others nearby were hit with shrapnel, I.e. “DEBRIS from the bullet hitting the plexiglass, the most likely scenario.
But Trump who likes to LIE and make his crowds the BIGGEST (even though we saw the truth), his presidency the BEST (when in fact he was ranked dead last), would like the public to BELIEVE he took a bullet so he could be a hero in his eyes (even if it wasn’t the truth).
The reality is if he had promoted the banning of AK-15 rifles, it wouldn’t have happened. Bullets from those AL-15 rifles have the ability to travel 600 yards effectively. (From what I understand, they do great damage.). So essentially Trump is to blame.
You would think he would finally change his position. The parents who have lost their children due to these guns tried to convince him. But Trump loves his money from the NRA too much.
I've never indulged in conspiracy theory. But now I'm onboard - it was a convenient set-up that went awry. The naive kid was recruited. He was meant to miss, and then be killed in cold blood (of course he didn't know this part of the plan.) Before rightfully bashing me as a nutter, let me bask in my own delusion about this for a while...
You definitely are not alone! The pic of Donny sitting across from Netanyahu at Mar-A-Lago shows an uninjured right ear. If it was at all gunshot it would still be visibly damaged. The stage blood capsule theory is looking pretty good, and the conspirators are guilty of murder.
I often think the real delusion is the idea that a Trump ally that, with or with Trump's knowledge, would not kill to gain control of the most powerful country on the planet. "It's just one kid and he's dying for a greater cause, (me, Donald). Sadly, I can see it. Murder in pursuit of political power is not uncommon.
In light of the picture from the “summit”, the absence of forensic documentation of Trump’s claimed injury is very suspicious. The idea the whole episode was a set up for his photo op is monstrous.
what are those two squarish looking plexiglass things usually seen to the right and left in front of the person giving the speech? some kind of transparent teleprompter or ambiance enhancement device?...i dunno.....certainly somebody out there in thom land does know
I don't think Trump was hit by a bullet. If he had been I believe his ear would be mangled, but I also don't think it matters much whether it was a bullet or some incidental shrapnel, he came within an inch or two from taking a bullet to the skull. This was a failure of the secret sevice. I hate Trump, but political assassination isn't the way, it would have made him a martyr and prevented his upcoming criminal convictions. History needs him to lose.
The cowardly media is complicit and afraid of what Trump will do if he wins the election, there is a lot of back pedaling going on, even in MSNBC.
I taught U.S. History for 41 years at levels 7-14 in California. I had my students study indentured servitude, slavery, the effects of European contact with the indigenous peoples in the western hemisphere, explored documents and effects of the Trail of Tears and many others as I gave them excerpts from Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. I had them examined the legacies and accomplishments of Africans, women, the LGBTQ community, Asians, Mexicans, and other groups often marginalized by the standard curriculum. California's framework for social science a descent job trying to see that all groups are celebrated.
I am so glad I spent my years teaching in the San Francisco Bay Area, yet I still had my battles. The first was when I taught at a small parochial high school, which had a junior high and elementary school on the same site. The head parish priest announce that the students would celebrate Columbus Day with a mass. So, I went to the headmaster an immediately told him that my students would not be in attendance and gave him a letter for to give the parish office explaining why I could not in good conscience bring my students to mass. A discussion ensued. Finally, a compromise. We had to go. Columbus would be celerated, sort of, but the mass would also celebrate the indigeous people he affected. I was at that school for 18 years and then moved to a high school in what was then the most conservative city in the bay area, Gilroy. There battles included rights for the LGBTQ youth in the schools, freedom of speech, celebrations for the Latino students (67% of my high school's population), and teachers' rights and fair pay.
Besides the social sciences I also taught English, DIgital Design, and Audio-Video production. Naturally, I brought history into all of the classes. Students must have an understabding of history, the good, the bad, and the ugly. An honest understanding of history provides the lens to evaluate the events of today and the future. American slavery, the Zoot Suit Riots, the massacre at Wounded Knee and Sand Creek, the Salem Witch Trials, the murder of the Chinese and Chileans in the California gold fields, the sanctioned apartheid and lynchings in the American South are just a few of the true events in our history, just as the holocaust, pogroms, the Armenian genocide, witch hangings and burnings, the murder and genocide of non-Christians and unorthodox Christians (Thirty Years War, Huegnots, Cathars, Templars, this later also about power and wealth), etc. are true in European history. They are as true as the law of gravity is true. As much as we might want to ignore them, they happened. As citizens we must know that they happened and if makes those of us who are of western European descent upset, good. That is the way we learn. Touching a hot stove is upsetting because it hurts. Good, perhaps you won't touch the hot stove again without protection.
You are the kind of teacher we need to educate the next generation. Kudos for all you did!!
Thank you.
Thank you Tom. I've said from the get-go, that MAGA is simply the Confederacy rebranded. Same states (with some expansion), same failed ideologies descendents of the same people (e.g., Kemp) and the same inclination to enslave. They can't seem to get it out of their system; now they are doubling down on enslaving women, the only target left to them. The idea that this push to re-enslave is about "life," is beyond absurd. Slavery was never about "life," and neither is womb slavery and forced birth.
As absurd as historical revisionism is, the jarring reality is that when the legal challenge(s) to these laws make it up the legal food chain, Trump's right wing Supreme Court is poised to throw the 1st A out the same window they threw the 14th A and the rule of law. When the government can force prayer on school grounds and impose state forced birth, I'm not sure we even have a 1st A or 14th A anymore.
I never thought I'd live to see this in the U.S.; our only hope is for everyone who follows you to make a plan to vote, and to take every friend, family member and neighbor with them to the polls.
The evil that truly walks this world could never be if not for toxic omissions. Lying is their morning breath, burying truth - their life's work.
Always important to learn what Greg Palast has excavated from the scrapyard of impounded yesterday's.
Thom and Greg, thank you both for your unrelenting work on behalf of our down-but-not-out humanity.
I wonder if these White racists are also banning books about the immoral killing of 2 million Vietnamese for 11 years based on lies, racism, greed, and ignorance. And I was there in combat, virtually enslaved to "kill commies for Christ" as they use to say in the Army. In that war, officers were promoted based on body counts, no matter civilians or military. I have given many talks in schools in the 80s and 90s regarding these things. I may be banned now days in certain states. I have watched the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam war try to be whitewashed as a noble, patriotic endeavor by "our heroes" for freedom, also called revisionism. These propagandists even sent me their BS in the mail for donations. And the Pentagon was behind some of this revisionism. The next time I hear "thank you for your service", I will inform the good intentioned purveyor of this nicety that I was forced to kill people who I were no threat to us, with the threat of 5 years in prison, and that it was virtual slavery. To me it would be like saying to a slave "thank you for your service". Being woke is hard work at times. Oh, by the way, I was in General Custer's old unit, the 2nd of the 7th Cavalry of the 1st Cavalry division in 1968. Some of the soldiers referred to our area of operations in Vietnam as "Indian Country".
You need to write a book, or make a documentary about this. I bet you can find a film student who would happily take on this project. I see a trip to the Sundance Film Festival in your future. Truth is needed!!
Thom, thanks for hosting Greg Palast. Insightful and informative, as always.
What, a great summary of the real facts as they were are are right now. Thanks Thom and Greg for this history. We need to know.
The inclusion of Greg Palast gave a wonderful perspective. For years, he's been digging for the truth, and his work, shown in his films, is a historical treasure..
Fed. Congressman Emmanuel Cleaver (D) - Missouri (District 5: KC and Jackson/Clay Counties) was on #Fox-noise with “Neil Cavuto” this weekend defending President-elect #Harris against #BLM-claims?
And, you still think #Kamala’s appointment by #Joe isn’t ironclad proof we’ve finally undergone the long awaited “pole shift” so many astronomers have been predicting for decades now?
Well, here it is folks! But, you gotta remember … In times like these, there is still only one way “up!” … “See you at the top!” ~ Zig Ziglar
The United States is moving backwards in time and no on seems to have a plan reverse it or even stop it. It does sound true when this journalist states that these backwards states have one thing on their mind. Turning their states into a white, Christian nationalist territory. Slavery may return for those they deem inferior and women sent home with their rights rescinded. As I said once before, maybe we should give it to them and send them on their merry way. To sink or swim, sink I think. But, we cut them off from any assistance from what's left of the United States. They either make it or they don't. We should also be prepared for when they decide to take what they want beyond their new borders. You know they will.
One of the best ways to stop the evolution of the human race is to erase history. That way the ignorant will repeat it over and over and over again and the rich and the religions like it that way. That is why they are called conservatives! Except it won't work Anymore with global warming or overpopulation.
The way history is taught in public K-12 schools, I am not too worried that kids will be clueless about American racism and history of slavery and violence toward Blacks. That is because history was the most boring class I had. Most kids I talk with tell me it still is. Thus, fascist cleansing of undesired history from textbooks will likely not be noticed much by students of any race.
Regardless, kids will still see, hear, and experience racism in everyday life, so it is not that they will be clueless about the subject. They might bring it up in class and force some discussion of the history.
Fortunately, it is still too early to tell if these fascist textbook purges will endure now that the Democratic lineup for November is younger and more energetic.
THANK YOU GREG!
In one sense, it is interesting that the descendants are perpetrating a cover-up. The people involved with slavery in this country were really PROUD of the "institution" and their traditions. Sent their boys off and men volunteered to fight and die for it.
The sad truth is people of conscience knew then what they were doing was WRONG. There were plenty of folks here and abroad telling them. Even a child can see stealing someone's labor, liberty and life is wrong. Oh, that's the problem, these kids and college students CAN UNDERSTAND THAT. They deserve to know the history.
I have Viking DNA---I sure as hell don't feel responsible for all that pillage and raping they did. This DCL nonsense is stupid, and they want our kids to be ignorant.
Blacks descended from slaves have been here since our beginning. They are as American as it gets as well as the Natives who were up-rooted, abused and killed. They did the work and there is no reason to "white-wash" our history. Children can handle the truth. Kids are the first to say it when they are not to blame. The cover-up is for the adults that don't want to try to make amends for what this history has wrought to this very day.
What is interesting is that the nationwide assault on education was clearly very well organized across the entire country, and we the public learned of their well-coordinated destruction of education, and continue to as it continues to play out, from them them-selves, released to the media in partialed releases. But there seems to be a paucity of reporting about the media exposing these planned efforts aforehand. How could such a massive coordinated movement escape any discovery intent? And how could such a massive assault on education not be seen by the existing government, warning America what they are going to do instead of actually saying very little after the fact. They left it up to press releases as well.
It seemed to be one side operating and one side doing zip. I am beginning to greatly fear for the safety of Kamala. All of what you read of the calibrated machine-like coordination of so many fascist plans being so successfully implemented, and with little to no federal challenge, all changed by an unplanned resignation to throw Kamala out into their world to change it all. Kamala should be protected by no secret service or police force. Big money should be spent on well-screened but brand new organized entities, a new and trusted preatorian guard. Starting now. Nobody really knows how many people are quaking in their boots, but we do know how they might think in terms of ending this first new threat.
The following was copied earlier today from an email fundraising appeal and petition from:
Americans for Tax Fairness - David Kass 7/28/24
Right now, in classrooms across America, students are being taught that corporate tax dodging "protects employment and job creation." They're learning that workers—not CEOs or shareholders—"bear the burden" of corporate income taxes.[1]
The Tax Foundation, a right-wing group backed by the next generation with trickle-down economic myths that benefit the billionaires and corporations, has launched TaxEDU—a curriculum that's infiltrating high school and college classrooms nationwide. Their goal is to indoctrinate ultra-wealthy at the expense of working families.
TaxEDU materials were used in 1,500 classrooms across the country in 2023 alone. Their "explainer" videos have been viewed over 300,000 times since 2022. The TaxEDU website has received more than 3 million views since 2021.
It’s clear that this isn't just a few isolated incidents. It's a coordinated campaign to shape young minds in favor of policies that benefit the ultra-wealthy. But together, we can fight back. By raising our voices and demanding action from Secretary Cardona and the Department of Education, we can protect our education system from this corporate takeover.
End of copied text
My commentary:
We are decades late in checking the influence of the right-wing radicals and religious extremists in our schools. As I have stated here dozens of times, these people gain access and have undue authority, power, and influence solely because attendance laws create a circumstance whereby the state, despite having no special knowledge, expertise, or ability to control and operate schools assigns officials to positions of authority, oversees every possible aspect of school policy and operation, and determines curriculum, disciplinary rules and guidelines, teacher certification, and virtually anything else that could possibly matter. This has been going on for generations.
The state should assure funding for schooling and protections for the rights, privileges, and safety of students and teachers. If there is to be mandatory attendance and an official curriculum, there will be indoctrination, behavioral modification, obedience training, oppression, and outside influence from commercial interests making up for funding deficits. There will be funding deficits because a system based on coercion must fail to meet expectations and goals and support will be lacking from the public and their representatives who also know squat about education and are not invested in the education and welfare of students. These are bad, unconstitutional, paternalistic, anachronistic, and destructive laws. Somebody, please tell Thom Hartmann.