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Jul. 20, 2019

The Worse Presidents From Washington To Andrew Johnson Part One

Lately, we have been victimized by racial taunts from the current resident, Donald Trump, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC. Trump has verbally taunted 4 ethnic congressional women members of Congress to go back to where they came from. Whatever in the hell that means. Donald Trump has promoted a sense of racial animosity in the nation that had been carpeted for decades. Oh, the racial animus was always there in this nation. The racist hate clouds simply had been hidden away waiting for the right circumstances, or right conditions to be unleashed again.

One of those congressional representatives has requested that the legislative branch of government begin impeach proceedings against Donald Trump. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who represents the 5th Congressional District in Minnesota, said that Donald Trump was the worst President to hold office in the entire history of the United States.
Although, I agree with the ineptitude of our current President. I also agree that he is currently feeding this atmosphere of racial hatred that seems to be elevating in almost region of this nation. There is simply no way in hell Donald Trump is the worst president in this nation's history.

I can understand Ilhan Omar's lack of knowledge regarding this nation's history. She wasn't born in this nation so maybe she doesn't have a true sense of the how terrible many of our former presidents were in regards to promoting racial animosity. This afternoon on my blog I would like to directly address Ilhan Omar regarding some of our past presidents whom I consider far worse than the current president.

You can start with President George Washington, the so-called Father of Our Nation. Well, George Washington owned slaves, many slaves, he considered his slaves property. He also was known to punish physically any of his slaves who didn't adhere to the conditions of slavery. As a matter of fact, read the book the Relentless Pursuit of Ona Judge By George and Martha Washington to get a clearer picture of President Washington's treatment of his property. Especially if one his and his wife's slaves happened to escape from bondage. On the flowchart of worst presidents, George moves ahead of Donald Trump.

You then move to Presidents 3-15 each of whom excluding 2 and 6, the Adam, father, and son owned slaves. These men considered blacks less than human, they were chattel, just like an ox, horse, hog, or any other farm animal. You should know the stories of each of these men, I recommend you read In The Shadow of Liberty which details the lives of Four Presidents and Five Black Lives. This will give you a clearer understanding of how these founding fathers felt about black not-yet-Americans.

Wasn't it during the Milliard Fillmore administration that Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 was passed by the Congress and signed by President Fillmore? Which basically made every white citizen a law enforcement agent of the government able to locate blacks who escaped from slavery and have them returned to that oppressive condition? How about during Franklin Pierce's administration, did not the Dred Scott Decision from the Supreme Court rule blacks had no rights that a white person had to respect. You should read the book, Stamped From The Beginning. The Definitive History Of Racist Ideas In America to better quantify your statement regarding Donald Trump's status as the worst president in America's history. Right now excluding the Adams John and John Quincy, the current scorecard places Trump at position number 14 and we still have many more presidents to evaluate Congresswoman Omar.

Now let's go to the Great Emancipator, Abraham Lincoln, who didn't own any slaves. Yet spoke about the fact that blacks were intellectually inferior to whites, wanted to ship all blacks out of the country and make this nation lily-white. I do give Lincoln some credit for actually doing something about the issue of slavery. Yet, only when he was backed into the proverbial corner did he proceed with the Emancipation Proclamation. Even that historical document was flawed because he didn't free any slaves in the border states. Lincoln also provided an out for the rebel states, if they agreed to put down their arms and rejoin the Union by December 31, 1862, they would be able to keep their slaves. Now, we cannot note how history would've changed had Lincoln not been assassinated on April 14, 1865. So, I at least have to say I'd given a slight edge to Lincoln over Trump because he gave better speeches but he was as racist as Donald Trump no doubt. Representative Omar I'd suggest you read, The Problem Of Slavery In The Age Of Emancipation to get a clearer understanding of Lincoln.

Now, there is no doubt that Lincoln's successor was a far worse president than Donald Trump. Andrew Johnson was a pure racist. he stole the 40 acres and the mule from the recently freed slaves. He attempted almost successfully to put the former rebel confederates back in power. He actually was only one single vote away from impeachment in the Senate. Right now besides the huge slave-owning presidents, I would say Andrew Johnson was the absolute worse president in this nation's history because he stole the economic and educational opportunities from an entire race of black peoples coming out of slavery.
I addition read, David Blight's book Frederick Douglass Prophet of Freedom as he details the vicious racism that embodied Andrew Johnson.

This is Part 1 of my series, worse presidents than Donald Trump. My letter to Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.




Jul. 19, 2019

The New Rules Of The Game

This is no longer a game without guidelines. It doesn’t matter whether the candidate is black, white, red, or yellow. It doesn’t matter if the candidate is democrat or republican. The new rules of our strategic game of winning is whether the candidate is responsive to the needs of our communities, period. You may fool me once, or even fool me twice but eventually I won’t be that fool. We will demand more that fool’s gold because We cannot spend fool’s gold on real needs. So understand this we in our communities are about to rise and wake up, no speak talk needed, we are demanding we solutions for a change.
Please visit my blog for today’s post. Our community need to implement the issues report card pass or fail and score our candidates for a change. We cannot allow them to create fake speak and non action. We must force real talk and concerted action, or throw those wannabe candidates out with yesterday’s garbage.

www.joesmokethoughts.com

Jul. 19, 2019

The Issues Card Can Now Be Digital: Time To Change The Political Game

Yesterday, on The Blackman's Read Aloud Hour while reading Chapter 5 from The Debt: What America Owes Blacks authored by Randall Robinson. Mr. Robinson discussed an idea formulated by the late great former mayor of Atlanta, Georgia Maynard Jackson. The concept was simply Mr. Jackson felt that the leaders and residents of black communities across this country should develop an issues-oriented card that would be distributed to every black person in this country to utilize for every political candidate running for any municipal, state, or federal office that affected the black communities residents, men, women, and children.
 
I was shocked that this formula or concept wasn't implemented. You see the book The Debt was published in 2000. It seemed simple enough to go to the leading black organizations in the country, all the black Greek fraternities and sororities, all the social-economic organizations like the NAACP, CORE, Urban League, all the black religious organizations The National Baptist Conference, SCLC, Nation of Islam, as well as the core leaders of these black mega-churches that are seeded financially by blacks, along with the black educational organizations such as NABSE, and Urban Superintendents and present this political plan that would put the candidates feet black or white to the fire to actually be aligned to a group of 20 issues nationally to gain our support.
 
This would mean that it wouldn't be the candidate's political party that would be of consequence. The deciding factor would be about the candidates, white or black responded to these questions yes or no, in deciding who we would support for election. I mean, it's simple, create a series of 20 questions that affect the black community nationally. Then request every candidate to answer these questions, yes or no, and then grade them individually on their responses to these questions. The candidate with the highest score, whether democrat or republican would gain the support of the black electorate.
 
After the candidate, we have supported gains the election seat. We hold that candidate, black or white, democrat or republican, to his/her word on honoring the pledges made. If the elected candidate jives us or doesn't fulfill working diligently on producing results during that term in office. That candidate isn't supported for reelection. The issues cards would be distributed to each and every black American or coalition of Americans who align together on these 20 yes or no questions. The beauty of these issues cards is now the cards can be digitally produced, as well as produced on card stock. In every session that the candidates are in leading up to the election, they would be quizzed on these vital questions related directly to the community uplift.
 
You see a candidate on the street of any city, USA and pull out the issues cards and quiz them on their position. Surely, if we had these issues cards distributed maybe we would've actually gained something during the past democratic administrations other than speak talk. We may have had candidates willing to actually support issues that are vital to our community's progress. We could've had a President who actually worked for us when we gave that candidate almost 95% of our votes. You think we could've held those candidate's feet to the fire for actual support of reparations? Controlling law enforcement procedures and policies? Creating better educational facilities? Providing true economic and job opportunities? I think personally we would. We shouldn't allow candidates to control, or define our central or universal issues. Those critical issues should be developed by us, for us, and control by us.
 
The candidates, black or white, democrat or republican would now be more responsive to our needs. The Democratic Party could no longer take advantage of our support because that support would hinge on how the Democratic Party actually works to the benefit of the entire black electorate. At one time the Republican Party was our party of choice but over the decades we switched alliances to the Democratic Party. Neither political party actually has responded in kind for our faithful allegiance. The time is now to hold accountable these political parties as well as the political candidates. We need to upgrade our strategies. We cannot simply give out our support and gain nothing. I actually think that creating this digital and printed card of 17-20 core issues will define a new day in establishing political power. What we cannot do is allow the same old candidates with the same old policies to define the issues for us. We must define those issues ourselves. Let's honor the memory of Maynard Jackson now. Let's start to creat these questions now. Let's make sure that 2020 really means change in how we do our political business. We thought hope and change was the deciding factor but that proved to be simply a mirage.
Jul. 18, 2019

July 18, 1863 " The 54TH Massachusetts The Assault On Fort Wag

156 years ago today, a fearless group of 600 African Americans, some born freeman, some former slaves, some escaped slaves lead a glorious assault on Fort Wagner, South Carolina.

This was the true indicator of the bravery that many white southerners and even white northerners were​ lacking in African Americans during that period.​ You see the feeling was that African Americans were lacking the skills and fortitude to distinguish themselves on the battlefield. Surely, the lacked the ability to lead men into battle. Hence, the absolute absence of African American officers during the Civil War.

Yet, Fort Wagner proved the skeptics totally wrong. Because not only did the soldiers of the 54TH Massachusetts perform heroically on the battlefield that night. One soldier, Sargent William S, Carney performed so heroically that his on the battlefield feat was honored by the military's highest battlefield award The Medal of Honor.

So today I honor the memory of those gallant African American soldiers who fearlessly lead the assault on Fort Wagner. These brave men weakened by a relentless march prior to the assault still managed to muster up the resources to fight fearlessly on hot July night.

The reading today comes from the ​website: http://54th-mass.org/july-18-1863, which is Written In Glory: Letters From The Soldiers And Officers Of The 54TH Massachusetts. The epic reading of the actual battle was written by Captain Emilio who ended up as the commanding officer of the 54TH after the enormous losses suffered during the assault on Fort Wagner. ​I attempted to read the words of Captain Emilio in the manner that best describes the atmosphere of the surroundings leading up to and during this intense battle,

Jul. 17, 2019

When Trump Says Make America Great Again, What Do Some His Followers Really Hear

I promised last night that I would put this talk I did in September 2016 on my blog related to Donald Trump's campaign slogan "Make America Great Again, What Do Many of His Supporters Hear".

I think it's an insightful ten-minute discussion related to the implied racism that was promoted by Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

Little did America know just how racist the campaign actually was at the time and how the Russian government was, in fact, encouraging the racism with it fine-tuning activities meant to bring about a Trump presidential victory.

So if you have the time to listen and learn because Trump didn't fool all of us. Nor did Trump's message change from 2016 to now 2019. Trump is still encouraging a message of racial separation and racial divisiveness.

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