Crackers

The three degenerates who lynched Mr. Arbery were not hillbillies. I have hillbillies in my family tree, and they lived in the hills. They were related to the Hatfields and left Kentucky, heading for California with a herd of horses, because they "didn't want to die in a senseless feud."

Arbery's murderers are crackers. Originally crackers were cowboys in Georgia near the Florida border. They managed their cattle with bullwhips, which made loud cracking sounds when snapped in the air. 

"Cracker" meant a braggart in Shakespeare's England. In America the term came to mean ignorant, non-elite cowboy or something more derogatory. But some Georgians do take pride in the term. The best known cracker, so to speak, is probably Jimmy Carter. (I don't know what he feels about the term.)

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Harvest

 

Thanksgiving Day became a national holiday in 1863, but harvest festivals have been going on, I suppose, since harvests began. Below is a quote from Edward Winslow describing perhaps the first European/American harvest festival. It does not sum up the relationships, sometimes genocidal,  between Amerindians and European settlers, but it did happen.  

“Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together, after we had gathered the fruits of our labors; they four in one day killed as much fowl, as with a little help beside, served the Company almost a week, at which time amongst other Recreations, we exercised our Arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five Deer, which they brought to the Plantation and bestowed on our Governor, and upon the Captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful, as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plenty."

 

How To Eliminate Racism

 From AlterNet :

When sheriff’s deputies in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, pulled over Octavio Lopez for an expired inspection tag in 2018, they wrote on his traffic ticket that he is white. Lopez, who is from Nicaragua, is Hispanic and speaks only Spanish, said his wife.

In fact, of the 167 tickets issued by deputies to drivers with the last name Lopez over a nearly six-year span, not one of the motorists was labeled as Hispanic, according to records provided by the Jefferson Parish clerk of court. The same was true of the 252 tickets issued to people with the last name of Rodriguez, 234 named Martinez, 223 with the last name Hernandez and 189 with the surname Garcia.

Rittenhouse

 

President Biden was right when he said of the Rittenhouse decision, "Look, I stand by what the jury has concluded. The jury system works, and we have to abide by it." The system worked the way it is supposed to. In this system, if a white boy kills two BLM protesters, a jury's job is to find him innocent. And the president is tasked with agreeing to the free killing of demonstrators by Fascists. Nothing new to see here. 

 

Death by Citizen's Arrest

There is no such thing as a citizen's arrest when the person arrested has not committed a crime. But one of  the oddest defense attorneys in the Arbery trial is claiming that Mr. Arbery committed suicide when two lynchers with shotguns blew him to tatters. "Suicide by citizens' arrest." Perhaps Mr. Arbery had committed no crime in the hope he would be chased and killed? (I'm having trouble developing this argument.)

Today this lawyer welcomed to the visitors' section a rabbi who was a "white woman." The same lawyer had before objected to the presence of black pastors, for unknown reasons noting the genders and races of attendees. 

  

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Johnson

You have probably read that Johnson & Johnson is in the process of dividing itself into two separate companies named Johnson. 

Johnson will consist of the major profit centers of the corporation, the branches that sell drugs at prices about 10 times what they cost in Canada. The other Johnson--someone told me--will continue to administer booster shots every two months (!) and sell white-plastic johnsons.

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Crybaby Killer

Kyle Rittenhouse, the crybaby killer, was driven to the fatal demonstration (from another state) by his mother. I wonder what it was like as they got into the car. 

"Kyle, did you forget your illegally acquired long gun again?"

"No, Ma. It's on the backseat."

"Is it loaded for once? Kyle, don't start the blubbering. You're seventeen, for Christ's sake. Use the Kleenex in the glove compartment. You know, this is exactly why I divorced your father."

"Sorry, Ma."

"You didn't bring your skateboard? Never take a skateboard to a gunfight, Kyle."

"I know that. Really?" 

"When you finish, go straight to your father's. He's expecting you. Don't be late. Text me the final score. And be a gentleman. I didn't raise you to kill any girls."

Black Like Me

I never gave the Kardashians a fair chance. I did watch one of their TV shows for ten minutes. Nothing happened.

I can say this. The Kardashian family originally immigrated to America from the Caucasus. You can't get more Caucasian than that.

The  Caucasus are the mountain range where Prometheus was chained by the Gods to punish him for giving people fire. 

Apparently the Kardashians sometimes wear their hair in cornrows, Fulani braids, etc. They may spray-tan themselves until their skin is the color of good wood stain, and the women have married Black men and now are the mothers of Black children. 

All this has led some entertainers to call attention to what they call  brownface, cultural appropriation and blackfishing. These are interesting words. I hope they have homes in current dictionaries. 

Democracy

The Pew Research center surveyed people in 17 industrialized nations and asked them if the American political system is a good model of democracy. A generous 17% said, yes, it is. 

Of course, there may be room for improvement. I  believe we might score higher as a democracy if in our system the candidate who finishes second doesn't become president.