#american theft of Black labor

[ausetkmt]

ATHENS, Ala. — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was born about 40 miles from his great-great-grandfathers’ Alabama cotton farms, worked by slaves a 100 years before.

Like so many long-standing Southern white families, McConnell's forebearers built their wealth with free slave labor and cheap land. Two of his great-great-grandfathers owned more than a dozen slaves, census records reviewed by the USA TODAY Network show.

The Kentucky Republican has known of his family's slave-owning past since at least 1994, when he wrote a letter to a Limestone County judge requesting information about his great-great-grandfather James McConnell, a slave owner, and the settlement of his ancestor's estate.

But his 2016 memoir, “The Long Game,” contains no mention that the "colorful McConnells” he wrote about owned slaves, NBC reported. 

As a child during segregation, McConnell lived on the white side of Athens, where black residents were only allowed to visit for work and were typically paid very low wages.

While Kentucky's senior senator has consistently condemned slavery and racism throughout his long political career, his vocal opposition to slavery reparations in any form has fueled the growing national debate about whether African Americans deserve restitution for enduring centuries of economic exploitation.

"I don’t think reparations for something that happened 150 years ago when none of us currently living are responsible is a good idea,” McConnell said in June. “We’ve tried to deal with our original sin of slavery by fighting a civil war, by passing landmark civil rights legislation. We’ve elected an African American president.”

Mitch McConnell:We paid for 'sin of slavery' by electing Obama

McConnell’s remarks, which made national headlines, came the day before a rare congressional hearing in which Democratic leaders and celebrities sought support for a bill that would establish a committee to “study and consider a national apology and proposal for reparations.”

McConnell did not respond this week to a USA TODAY Network request for additional comment about why he opposes reparations despite the lasting economic damages African Americans suffered from slavery and segregation. 

Records about the McConnell family shed light on the history of the region that residents say is still shaped by the legacy of slavery.

The senator’s family history could be a case study in the way many whites built lasting wealth in part by exploiting the labor of enslaved African Americans.

The enduring legacy of that history lies in the balance sheets, supporters of reparations contend. On average, black Americans own roughly one-tenth of the amount of wealth that white families do, according to Federal Reserve statistics.

David Malone, whose family has roots as deep as the McConnell family in the Limestone County area of northern Alabama, believes reparations are a good idea.

Malone's great-grandparents were slaves, and he remembers his grandparents, who were sharecroppers, telling him how white farm owners kept them poor and in debt.

"I know it would be almost impossible to pay everybody related to slaves," Malone said. "When you think of how many people’s lives were lost working for nothing for 400 years, I would agree it should be done. But how it should be done I don’t know."

'Alabama Fever' drew McConnell's forebearers

In northern Alabama, the McConnell family’s slave-owning history is a common one among longtime white families.

His maternal and paternal great-great-grandparents, James McConnell and Richard H. Daley, moved from North Carolina and Virginia during the “Alabama Fever” years in the early and mid-1800s, census records show.

They were farmers and may have brought slaves with them when they moved, as many white families did.

It was a boom period for the cotton industry, fueled by the revolutionary invention of the cotton gin in 1793, and Alabama had plenty of cheap, fertile land.

In 1838, James McConnell, Mitch McConnell’s paternal great-great-grandfather, bought more than 600 acres, according to Limestone County property records.

The lush land was near the Tennessee River in the northwesternmost corner of Alabama, on the Tennessee state line.

"In that time, the Tennessee River was raging, and there was fertile land that you could pretty much buy for nothing,” said James Walker, a local historian and retired teacher whose ancestors were slaves and sharecroppers in the area. "Alabama became a state in 1819, and the Civil War started in 1861. So, for 40 years or so, slavery was big in Limestone County. Slaves outnumbered the whites."

In 1850, about 17,000 people lived in Limestone County, Alabama, and 8,500 were slaves, said county archivist Rebekah Davis.

"There were a few very wealthy planter families that came here from Virginia and the Carolinas who owned a very large number of slaves," Davis said. "There’s still a lot of black Malones in this county because there was a white Malone who owned lots and lots of slaves. It’s still the most common black name in Limestone County."

Davis, part of a group working to preserve the only black school in Limestone County for decades after the Civil War, said economic disparities persist, but she doesn’t support paying reparations for the decisions of people who lived more than 100 years ago.

In some cases, descendants of slaves have prospered, she noted. The Bridgeforth family of Limestone County is one of America’s most successful black farming families.

"They did have to start one foot behind, and the black section of town is economically depressed," Davis said. "But I don’t think you can equitably say: ‘Your ancestor was worth this much.'"

Opinion:McConnell is clueless when it comes to slavery and how it still affects us

The McConnell family slaves

After NBC News reported earlier this week that McConnell's great-great-grandfathers had owned 14 slaves, he responded by pointing out that President Barack Obama’s ancestors also were slave owners.

"You know, once again I find myself in the same position as President Obama," he said. "We both oppose reparations, and both are the descendants of slaveholders."

A USA TODAY Network review of census documents and local property and accounting records show that slave ownership was passed down through generations and persisted in the McConnell family through the Civil War.

Richard Daley, McConnell’s maternal great-great-grandfather, reported owning five young female slaves in the 1850 U.S. Census Slave Schedule.

But he said that four "mulatto," or mixed race, slaves — ages 20, 18, 4 and 2 — were escaped fugitives. One 22-year-old black woman remained at his farm, the document shows.

In the 1860 census, Daley reported owning another five slaves — a 30-year-old "mulatto" female, an 11-year-old "mulatto" female and two "mulatto" boys ages 7 and 10 or 12.

They also escaped, according to the document, but one 39-year-old black female slave remained.

The names of slaves and receipts of sale transactions are difficult to trace. Slaves either moved with families from other states into Alabama or were purchased at auctions in Montgomery.

Josiah and Jane Daley, the parents of Richard Daley, also owned slaves, according to Limestone County Chancery Court records from the mid-1800s. A property dispute mentions their two female slaves, 10-year-old Nancy and 20-year-old Eliza.

James McConnell, whose farm was next to Daley’s, had four female "mulatto" slaves ages 25, 4, 3 and 1 who all escaped, according to the 1860 census.

But, after the Civil War broke out, James McConnell had numerous slaves, according to his accounts the USA TODAY Network reviewed.

Read more:Sen. Mitch McConnell's family owned 14 slaves in Alabama

$4 for boots; $1,500 for slaves

Mitch McConnell requested some of those records in 1994, nine years after he was first elected to the U.S. Senate.

"I have been researching my family history and would appreciate your assistance,” he wrote in a letter to the Limestone County Archives. “I would like information relating to the settlement of the estate of James McConnell.”

The file the senator requested documented James McConnell’s purchases and sales, administered by his son, Andrew. It served as his will and included a list of heirs to receive payments upon his death.

In 1860, James McConnell paid $4 for boots, $1.40 for “lady shoes,” $3 for two bushels of wheat, 75 cents for a long-handle shovel, and $3 for “1 fine hat,” records show.

The accounts also included slave sales during and after the Civil War.

On April 15, 1863, the ledger noted: "To amount received on sale of slaves Confederate state money $1,500."

At the time, the area was occupied by Union Army troops, which included two local black infantry regiments.

After the war, in March 1867, James McConnell recorded: “To amount received of Elledge by way of compromise of the balance of the amount due on sale of slaves $235.”

Diverging fortunes for blacks and whites 

Mitch McConnell’s family’s prominence is still apparent in Athens, where he lived until the third grade when his family moved for better opportunities.

But there are clear indications that success and equality have come much more slowly for African Americans in Athens.

There is only one black-owned business downtown: The Sweetest Thing Tea Room. 

Black obituaries and funeral notices only recently began being added to the county archives, where white families have long had their loved ones' information recorded.

"Slavery still affects the fortunes of African Americans. On one side of town, there are immaculate lawns and houses with two-car garages," said Walker, the local historian. "On the other side of town, you’ve got rundown shacks and terrible lawns."

Walker remembers segregated water fountains, restrooms and movie theaters.

“It was terrible,” he said. “I never went in the white restroom, but, in the colored restroom, there was paper on the floor, and it was never clean.”

Walker’s great-grandfather escaped slavery and became a soldier before establishing his own farm. But the family struggled, and after graduating from Morehouse College, Walker faced a choice of farming cotton or going into the military.

He joined the Army in the Vietnam War and retired about two decades later as a lieutenant colonel. He went on to teach African American history.

"The Jewish people received reparations from the Holocaust, and Japanese people received money for their internment during World War II,” said Walker, who supports reparations. "This country is built primarily on the backs of African Americans. And the primary difference between African Americans and European Americans today is economics.”

Meanwhile, Mitch McConnell’s former home with its large windows, porch and white picket fence stands on a tree-lined street near the town square.

A neighbor across the street remembered playing with water guns with McConnell as children, according to an Athens News Courier article.

Richard Martin, who is white and about the age as the 77-year-old Kentucky senator, remembers segregation differently. His family also has deep roots in Limestone County.

“When I was a little boy, we had a little club and initiation was you had to drink out of a black fountain,” Martin said. “We thought it was something, that we were tough.

"I was the little white boy who had everything. We had African American folks working for us. But segregation cheated me, too."

Martin said he didn’t make any black friends until he joined the Army, and he wishes it had happened earlier.

Martin opposes the idea of reparations. But he serves on the board working to preserve the former all-black Trinity High School, which was founded by a missionary in 1865 and provided the rare opportunity for black children to get an education. It’s now a community and event center.

‘Watch him, don’t trust him’

Nowadays, race relations are mostly cordial in Limestone County but for a few rare blowups.

Cotton is still a popular crop to farm in the area, but technology has replaced the need for most human labor.

In April, a brawl erupted at Athens High School after a parent started a "Black Lives Matter" chant on campus. When police responded, a fight broke out. A video showed officers hitting several students.

The incident prompted gossip around town for a few days, locals said. But they viewed it as an outlier.

Limestone County Probate Judge Charles Woodroof, who holds the title McConnell’s great-uncle once had, shares a similar family history. His family moved from Virginia to farm the cheap land in the 1800s, and they owned slaves.

But to Woodroof, reparations are an archaic idea.

"I vaguely remember a couple of situations where there might have been two water fountains," Woodroof said. "I know from being in this position and being an attorney here that a lot of people have been highly successful — both African Americans and whites.

"We’re so many generations beyond that. It was part of our history, and we learned it in school. But I don’t experience it.”

But for many descendants of slaves in the area, reparations would bring some long-overdue economic justice, they say.

“It would mean that somebody has finally agreed that we deserve something, and I would give it to my grandkids,” said Malone, whose relatives were slaves and sharecroppers.

"My grandmother never taught me to hate. But she was treated so bad by the white man. So, she told me: ‘Watch him. Don’t trust him, because if there’s something you’ve got that he wants, he will beat you out of it.'"

Opinion:This is how reparations could work, but we're not holding our breath

[commajade]

i had a korean friend (living in korea, not korean-american) who told me once that he thought korean people felt a kinship toward black americans because of their history of being continuously exploited (on the korean side he meant by china/japan/the US). obviously i took that with a grain of salt because i'm not ignorant of korea's relationship to antiblackness but i still think about it a lot.

i think an important distinction needs to be made here in which the people of korea, the people of the korean peninsula, the people of joseon, are an ethnically homogenous civilization with a shared national identity of 500 years under the kingdom of joseon and shared cultural history of 5000 years. the koreans who are able to enact material and ideological antiblackness right now are the ones benefitting from the US neocolony that is the republic of korea and the ones that are diasporic (especially in the imperial core). the dprk has historically been aligned with the ongoing political struggle of black people in the US and the black panther party frequently published the writings of kim il sung.

here's a document from the dprk about US antiblackness and the oppression of the black panther party around 1970.

and if you see here, it's simply on a basis of morality and moral political ideology that the korean people stand with black people in the US, there doesn't have to be emotional commonalities. it is simply political and moral necessity to speak up about our support. we are being oppressed by the same regime of US empire and global white supremacy and racial capitalism, it is of the utmost importance to stand in solidarity with other people in struggle.

it's also very cool to see this kind of document. "trenchantly flaying the US imperialists for their occupation of South Korea" goes sooo hard. the US is indeed "the chieftan of world imperialism, the ringleader of world reaction and the common enemy of the world people." the dprk's political morals are a really refreshing reminder that korean people do not all have the same relationship to global hegemony and there have always been korean people who are against empire and struggling for liberation.

and what you're actually talking about here is about the empathetic resonances between the political struggles of black people and korean people, which do exist. they are there and it's important to feel them to begin any kind of political work as a korean person, though politics should not be based around anecdotal and emotional resonances only. korea was known as the shrimp between 2 whales between china and japan for 5000 years and china's word for korean people is eastern barbarians. many artistic, technological, and cultural innovations credited to china and japan are actually korean. china and japan would kidnap hundreds of artisans and scholars every time korean people invented something they wanted and usually the korean kingdom (unified silla, joseon, etc) was a vassal to china or economically beholden to japan so they couldn't stop it. even cherry blossom trees that are the japanese national symbol were first taken from the silla kingdom. and then planted all over joseon during japanese occupation hundreds of years later to show that joseon now belongs to japan. the constant cycles of theft, labor exploitation, disrespect, and humiliation are present in both peoples for sure. and korea spent decades freeing ourselves from japanese colonization and succeeded, only to be overtaken by US military occupation 3 days later. and then divided in half and made to be in perpetual war with our other half.

there are resonances with black people's constant struggle against institutional, ideological, and cutlural violence that seems to be never ending because of the strength of the US empire and global antiblackness. but both of our people can and will be freed, and the empire is decaying as we speak. we both have a lot of our people working for the colonizer's side but that can shift as well. i believe it. we have the same enemy and we outnumber them, we have been struggling for liberation and will one day succeed.

the important distinction here as well is that black people have singularly been exploited in the form of chattel slavery and the ideological work of whiteness to justify chattel slavery is the racial formation of the entire world. the entire world operates on an economic and ideological system of antiblackness.

i think every korean person coming to terms with the truth of the world needs to necessarily do massive amounts of academic and internal and physical work to come to terms with global antiblackness and our part in it, to redistribute any resources we have and support black people's vital struggle against empire. that is the first step to actual material solidarity, korean people have to make those changes within themselves and their lives first. like to even be able to relate to black people normally without the distortion of global narratives about blackness is going to require a lot of work. restructuring the way you and relate to the world and changing how you move in the material world as a result of that political realignment is deeply necessary for undoing the antiblackness embedded in everyone.

[mswyrr]

re: Ballad and histories of musical genres

Why does Lucy Gray have that accent? A lot of Latinas and people of color have Southern accents! Why is she singing "country" music? The division of folk music in the US into some exclusively white/WASP genres is a racist invention of the 1920s - musician and historian of the topic Rhiannon Giddens has done deep research into that which has raised awareness on it:

A final explanation for Johnson’s absence from the historical record may be the most significant. It involves not his reputation but that of the music he played, with which he became literally synonymous—more than one generation of Southerners would refer to popular dance music simply as “old Frank Johnson music.” And yet, in the course of the twentieth century, the cluster of styles in which Johnson specialized––namely, string band, square dance, hoedown––came to be associated with the folk music of the white South and even, by a bizarre warping of American cultural memory, with white racial purity. In the nineteen-twenties, the auto magnate Henry Ford started proselytizing (successfully) for a square-dancing revival precisely because the music that accompanied it was not black. Had he known the deeper history of square dancing, he might have fainted. (source)

And - specific to Latine identities in the southern US - popular Mexican and Mexican American genres like corrido ballads (which often were highly critical of US imperialism and racism! Telling stories of resistance to Anglo/white supremacist authorities) and Ranchera songs are country music.

Corridos were fast-paced ballads that told culturally significant stories. To the sound of a guitar or a bajo sexto, a twelve-string guitar popular in the Southwest, corridos recounted epic events and retold the story of the cultural conflicts between Anglos and Mexican Americans... Corridos not only provide a graphic record of the injustices that Mexican American suffered—including land loss, cattle and horse theft, and lynchings—but also celebrated outlaws who stood up to defend the honor of the Mexican American community. (source)

Not only is the current rightwing concept of "country music" on highly commercialized radio deeply manufactured, white supremacist, anti-labor justice and a rejection of the kind of pro-equality, class and racial equality conscious music of some earlier white musicians like Johnny Cash, but the whole history of US folk music has been whitewashed and divided up dishonestly.

Lucy Gray played by Rachel Zegler makes total sense! I get why people wanted to see a Roma actress cast, but the people saying it's "weird" to see a Latina with a Southern accent singing country music are just not aware of this history.

I really like these genres and I find this history fascinating and powerful, so the way Collins has written a love letter (or love ballad?? lol) to them and their diversity is exciting and delightful to me.

[odinsblog]

To really understand the legacy of racism and exploitation in the U.S. Agricultural industry, we need to go back to the Fair Labor Standards Act, which became law nearly a century ago, when Franklin D. Roosevelt was president.

This law fundamentally changed working conditions in the U.S., it gave us a minimum wage, a 40-hour work week, overtime pay –you know, the good stuff.

But these benefits didn’t apply to farmworkers, who at the time in the South were overwhelmingly Black.

In fact, you can draw a straight line from slavery, to the Fair Labor Standards Act, to the conditions we continue to see in agriculture today. Nearly a century later, farmworkers across the U.S., mostly Latino immigrants now, are still denied even the most basic federal protections, such as water breaks or access to shade in extreme heat. For many families, the effects of these racist exclusions are real, they’re tangible.

At the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles last year, President Joe Biden outlined his plan to reduce the number of migrants seeking asylum at the Southern border. His administration, Biden said, would help “American farmers bring in seasonal agricultural workers from Northern Central American countries under the H-2A visa program.”

What does that mean for a program that’s already plagued with wage theft and abuse?

Since Biden took office in January of 2021, he’s turned “safe and orderly migration” into a kind of mantra. He says it all the time. And just in February of that year, 2021, the White House assembled working groups to discuss the H-2A program. The idea is to divert asylum seekers from the Southern border and into this program. Here’s Biden talking about the plan last summer:

President Biden: “And on this jobs front, our Department of Agriculture is launching a pilot program to help American farmers bring in seasonal agricultural workers from Northern Central America countries under the H-2A visa program. To improve conditions for all workers.”

Here’s the main issue with that. The Biden Administration wants to offer this temporary worker program to migrants who are seeking asylum at our Southern border. A program that is riddled with abuse and trafficking is being offered to people who are fleeing violence and trafficking. 


“They’re only gonna be able to stay in the United States for 6, 7, 8 months outta the year. What happens during those other months of the year? Uh, they have to go back to their home country and they’re gonna be going back to a country that they fled.


Maybe because they were being persecuted, somebody in their family was murdered, you know, you’re gonna send them back to that situation and you’re gonna send them back to that situation with dollars in their pockets, which I think is just gonna make them targets for extortion.”

—Latino USA, Head Down

• Part 1, https://play.stitcher.com/episode/302009156

• Part 2, https://play.stitcher.com/episode/302310113

[battleangel]

Third Eye Realizations

🧿Abolitionist

🧿Liberation

🧿Justice

🧿Climate Change

🧿Protecting the Earth & the environment

🧿Socialism

🧿Community

🧿Banding together

🧿Pooling our resources

🧿End child hunger & poverty

🧿Eradicate homelessness

🧿Universal medical care

🧿Universal college & coding education

🧿Bodily Autonomy + Womens Rights

🧿Kemet

🧿Ancient Egypt

🧿Isis

🧿Decolonizing the mind

🧿End paternalism + patriarchy

🧿Toxic masculinity

🧿End corporate America

🧿Restoring communities not policing crime

🧿Legalize marijuana & psychedlics

🧿End prison sentences for non-violent crimes (exception financial manipulation where people & families lose life savings like securities fraud)

🧿End school to prison pipeline

🧿End criminalization of normal childhood behavior of black & brown boys in elementary school that leads to juvenille halls, early prison records & sets them up for a life of crime for something they should be getting detention for

🧿End overmedicalization of black women by psychiatry & disgusting abuse of power through misdiagnoses, forcible drugging & forced hospitalizations

🧿Remove Protestant work ethic from public consciousness

🧿Strengthen unions & labor laws

🧿Stop prioritizing profits over people

🧿End preventable deaths from starvation, homelessness & curable illnesses and diseases by providing a universal living (not "minimum") wage, affordable housing & medical care so people stop dying needlessly in the "richest country in the world"

🧿Remove organized religions influence from laws, education systems, public sphere & culture at large as it has caused hatred, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, racism, persecution, genocide, unjust laws, oppression, suppression, indoctrination, brainwashing, forced baptisms, trauma, upheld patriarchy & paternalism, reinforced bullshit feminine ideals, subjugation of women & their forced submission to the "head of the household", dogma, blind faith, zealotry, corruption, grift, theft, "tithes & offerings", sex abuse, emotional abuse, psychological coercion, child abuse, hypocrisies and wars.

🧿Societal realization that feminine doesnt equal women, masculine doesnt equal men, anyone can wear makeup, heels, dresses, business suits, tuxedos, grow facial hair, not shave their legs, have acrylic nails, etc. and it has nothing to do with genitalia, sex or assigned gender at birth and everything to do with Spirit (as the Native Americans know with 2 Spirit), energy and how Source has divinely chosen to manifest itself in each individual soul and that expression of Source is as unique and individual as our fingerprints and if that expression is through gender affirming transitions, surgery, medical care, facial feminization surgery, changes in physical appearance, hormones, drugs then that is how that persons soul has chosen to express themselves in this temporal, corporeal, temporary and physical plane of existence -- the soul, our energy, Source, the divine is what truly matters and noone should question anyone elses unique soul expression which can be expressed and communicated in literally millions of different ways, through body art, body modifications, tattoos, piercings, hair adornments, permanent makeup, the list is literally endless and gender identity expression and gender affirming care is just one of these millions of ways and should not be demonized, hated, feared or legislated against.

🧿Opioids like fentanyl, percoset, oxycontin, etc. are dangerous, harmful and addictive. Millions are addicted and millions have lost their lives for no reason other than to enrich pharmaceutical companies. We can be healed with plants and herbs and we can be healed with our selves and our own inner healing power. We dont need these synthetic, unnatural, harmful & deadlydrugs. They should be made illegal.

🧿Cancer is nothing but a cottage industry and a money making tool -- with all the trillions and trillions donated and decades upon decades of research, where is the cure? Same with arthritis, lupus and other autoimmune diseases. Prescription drugs exist to make pharmaceutical companies richer, thats it.

🧿Satan was made up for Christianity, which is a bastardized & stolen form of kemet, Mary is a bastardized Isis & Jesus is a bastardized & fake ass Horus. There is no hell, hell is never mentioned once in the Old Testament, it was made up later for the New Testament to control and enslave. We are in hell, thats literally where we are now, what else do you call millions of children dying every year of starvation, from homelessness, from completely preventable & curable diseases when Apple is a trillion dollar company? What do you call the Earth dying because of profit and greed and capitalism? What do you call pointless wars over inside government jobs? What do you call genocide, systems of oppression, police killing unarmed Black men with absolute impunity, prison industrial complex, military industrial complex, school to prison pipeline, corporate amerikkka working people to death into literal early graves, money being valued over living human beings with unique souls, forests being destroyed, colonialism, colonizers, government experimentation, MK Ultra, minders, greys, the Bohemian Grove...youre in hell literally now.

🧿Decolonize your mind, heal yourself, commune with nature, unplug and disconnect, exit the rat race, stop treating yourself as a machine when you are a beautiful soul, stop overworking, stop hustling, stop overeating, stop overdrinking -- ethanol is a poisonous depressant, so how do you "drink to have a good time"?, stop overspending, stop overconsuming, stop retail "therapy", tap into yourself, tap into your soul, stop endlessly scrolling and tapping your phone, tap into Source, we are all infinite beings and they treat you like you are an inconsequential cog to be replaced -- if you die today, your job will replace you tomorrow i was a corporate recruiter and saw it happen more than once, listen to ocean waves, float weightlessly in a dark pool, stop listening to 24/7 news, stop being 24/7, youre not 24/7, you have a natural circadian rhythym, replenish your depleted melatonin levels, they treat you like a 5 below knock off when you are expansive & divine, stop killing yourself to make a CEO that doesnt know who tf you are and his shareholders richer they will brush your ass out the door this fall with the estimated 2 million more people being laid off, stop making yourself a number, stop being a statistic, stop being plastic, stop playing their game, be an individual, be yourSELF, know the Self, know Self, know thy Self, cant run away from Self forever, look inside because thats where all the answers are and thats the only place they dont want you to look so you google it but baybee what did people do before google, stop shortening your attention span, you are more than a Tik Tok, read a book, fight the power, fight the machine, take a slow leisurely walk to nowhere to do nothing, stop existing and curating your entire existence for social consumption on social media, you are not a thing to be consumed, you were wonderfully made by Source, you are Source, realize who you are and open your eyes...🧿

[so-much-for-subtlety]

Returning Soldiers (May, 1919)

(W.E.B. DuBois’ editorial in The Crisis about African American men returning from World War One.)

We are returning from war! The Crisis and tens of thousands of black men were drafted into a great struggle. For bleeding France and what she means and has meant and will mean to us and humanity and against the threat of German race arrogance, we fought gladly and to the last drop of blood; for America and her highest ideals, we fought in far-off hope; for the dominant southern oligarchy entrenched in Washington, we fought in bitter resignation. For the America that represents and gloats in lynching, disfranchisement, caste, brutality and devilish insult—for this, in the hateful upturning and mixing of things, we were forced by vindictive fate to fight also.

But today we return! We return from the slavery of uniform which the world’s madness demanded us to don to the freedom of civil garb. We stand again to look America squarely in the face and call a spade a spade. We sing: This country of ours, despite all its better souls have done and dreamed, is yet a shameful land.

It lynches.

And lynching is barbarism of a degree of contemptible nastiness unparalleled in human history. Yet for fifty years we have lynched two Negroes a week, and we have kept this up right through the war.

It disfranchises its own citizens.

Disfranchisement is the deliberate theft and robbery of the only protection of poor against rich and black against white. The land that disfranchises its citizens and calls itself a democracy lies and knows it lies.

It encourages ignorance.

It has never really tried to educate the Negro. A dominant minority does not want Negroes educated. It wants servants, dogs, whores and monkeys. And when this land allows a reactionary group by its stolen political power to force as many black folk into these categories as it possibly can, it cries in contemptible hypocrisy: “They threaten us with degeneracy; they cannot be educated.”

It steals from us.

It organizes industry to cheat us. It cheats us out of our land; it cheats us out of our labor. It confiscates our savings. It reduces our wages. It raises our rent. It steals our profit. It taxes us without representation. It keeps us consistently and universally poor, and then feeds us on charity and derides our poverty.

It insults us.

It has organized a nation-wide and latterly a world-wide propaganda of deliberate and continuous insult and defamation of black blood wherever found. It decrees that it shall not be possible in travel nor residence, work nor play, education nor instruction for a black man to exist without tacit or open acknowledgment of his inferiority to the dirtiest white dog. And it looks upon any attempt to question or even discuss this dogma as arrogance, unwarranted assumption and treason.

This is the country to which we Soldiers of Democracy return. This is the fatherland for which we fought! But it is our fatherland. It was right for us to fight. The faults of our country are our faults. Under similar circumstances, we would fight again. But by the God of Heaven, we are cowards and jackasses if now that that war is over, we do not marshal every ounce of our brain and brawn to fight a sterner, longer, more unbending battle against the forces of hell in our own land.

We return.

We return from fighting.

We return fighting.

Make way for Democracy! We saved it in France, and by the Great Jehovah, we will save it in the United States of America, or know the reason why.

[thechanelmuse]

California Reparations

The conversation on the centuries overdue debt of US lineage-based reparations owed to Black Americans is still going strong from state bills and conferences to articles and panels. Federal reparations is the top goal, but the state ones are being sought as well. The unfinished business of Special Field Order No. 15 plus interest. “Wouldn’t that cause the US to go bankrupt?” Nope. 

I was gonna wait until the final Cali report is released on July 1, 2023. (If you haven’t read the full 400+ page interim report, it’s here. I’ll plug the audio version when it’s finished.) But since there’s a definite number for one aspect, here ya go:

The California Reparations Task Force for AB 3121 — who are leading in the first, pure reparative bill to redress the state-sanctioned terror, genocide, discriminatory laws (Black Codes/Code Noir, Jim Crow), stolen wealth and land theft — are recommending each person to receive $223,200 for housing discrimination ($559 billion - the nation's biggest restitution effort ever…so far). This is only for Cali. 

Shit like this is just...

Reaping the benefits in your house and the bricks your ancestors laid... 

When you get into the liquid assets...  

There’ll be protective policies in place and more because after all... 

There’s 5 steps to reparations under international law: 

Cessation/Assurance of Non-Repetition - like structural and institutional policies

Restitution - like the account for stolen land, property and labor (real or intellectual)

Compensation - like cash

Satisfaction - like a formal apology

Rehabilitation - like free medical care, free education, free legal and trauma services 

Kamailah Moore, Esq., who is the Chairwoman of the AB 3121 California Task Force, breaks it down in this 1 minute 37 second clip from a Revolt Summit panel on held Sept 2022.

Whether you live in Cali or not, if you’re the descendant of free people or enslaved people who were subjected to US chattel enslavement of building this country from scratch and (re)classified under the US caste system as Black or Mulatto, later reclassified as Negro to Colored to Black again to Afro American to African American to Black/African American to “Black or African American” currently, do your genealogy. Prepare. This is not that damn spit test. Get your documents together. 

There are a lot genealogical websites. I use Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org. The latter is thorough than a mf and great for cross verifying what pops up or you trace on Ancestry.com. Also, the Card Catalog option on Ancestry is key. Both headquarters are in Utah. You can physically go to the FamilySearch Center, if you choose. 

Many of us have family members who don’t fuck with the US census or haven’t done it in decades, so the birth certificate and death certificate paper trail will be the route to go leading back to the census record docs. Dig into the National Archive Catalog. Touch those microfilms if you can. We are well documented. The United States governmental corporation is obsessed with us. They keep them receipts like a serial killer keeps mementos. It’s there. The farther back you go, be patient and take breaks. Also, check that old bible. Make note of everyone from safe kept obituaries. Talk to your fam, especially the elders.

SN: I have more research to do, but one day I’m want to break down the Negro and Mulatto part of caste system because that shit is nothing but a bag of trickery and confusion the farther you go back in records. The complexity of paper genocide in classification that you wouldn’t be privy to unless you crack that 1870 wall and keep going back. (I haven’t just traced mine; I’ve been assisting others.) 

Certain words don’t have the same meaning as what we would consider them today. Mulatto, for one, meant more than someone who was half and half. The answers sit in plain sight within centuries back state laws. When I get around to writing it, I’m starting from the most recent one with ol�� Jesse “Cherokee Indian card” Jackson head ass loudly calling for a reclassified people to be yet again reclassified by a misnomer — African American — that we didn’t ask for and looks like an immigrant status. The problem is more than obvious today. Everyone who has differing homelands being classified under the same label as if we’re a monolith...one big nigga 🙃. This is being straightened out.

[leftistfeminista]

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine supported Antifa in its battle against Trump and the Alt-Right, including the antisemitism of the Alt-Right, which MAGA Zionists willfully ally with out of their hatred of Palestine.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine mourns the martyr Heather Heyer and wishes speedy healing to the wounded anti-racist protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia in the United States as they confronted a racist, fascist rally on Saturday, August 12. The martyr and the wounded are part of the global list of those who have fallen in the struggles of all peoples to confront racist powers and they will always be remembered as such.

Contrary to the assertions of some corporate media in the United States, the fascist rally in Virginia in “defense” of a Confederate statue is not a divergence from U.S. ruling politics but a reflection of them. The United States has always been built on the genocide of Indigenous people and the theft of Indigenous land, the genocidal confiscation of Black lives and Black labor and the globally murderous power of capitalism and imperialism.

Whether in Palestine or in Virginia, it is right to resist racist terror, including and especially that of the state. The far right in Europe, the United States and the Zionist movement share information, resources and propaganda against Black, Arab and other movements, peoples and communities (even while the far-right spouts anti-Jewish slogans alongside its anti-Black and anti-Arab hatred on American and European streets) – and the racist state powers and police authorities in the United States and the Israeli occupation are linked together with aid, resources and the common goals of Zionism and imperialism. We must also be united to fight racism, Zionism, capitalism and imperialism in all of our diverse, connected struggles for justice and liberation.

Zionist organizations and movements within the United States have been engaged in long-lasting alliances with fellow right-wing and racist forces around the world. While some are attempting to position themselves after Charlottesville as opponents of racism, these organizations are in fact defenders and proponents of racist oppression, not only in Palestine but in the United States and elsewhere where they have pushed for profiling and repression of Arab, Muslim, Black and other community organizing and even engaged in direct spying and surveillance on a range of anti-racist forces. Just as Israel traded arms and support with apartheid South Africa, the Zionist movement today is deeply engaged with other racist forces as has been vividly displayed on the streets in the U.S., Canada, the UK, Germany and elsewhere.

[mallowmaenad]

my new political ideaology is that I get a device called the dipshit detector that removes self-important white people’s ability to use cellphones for 1 month and I don’t fucking care if this is a fascist dictatorshit i actually would turn joe biden into joe woke and donald trump into pronoun trump if i see one more loud mouthed straighty act like their opinion fucking matters im introducing their shy 9 year old son to my little pony i cant fucking take this shit yes fuck it throw republicans in concentration camps they’re practically begging for it they wont shut the fuck up about how theyre gonna be hunted down and killed wish granted bitch blam blam its wabbit season bitch im sick of liberals im sick of voting im sick of norway if youre even slightly uncomfortable around gay people you should be set on fire black power asian power jewish power latino power and i fucking mean it im not just buying the stupid 30$ tshirt on fckhate.com the worst thing to ever happen in american history is abraham lincoln not publicly executing every confederate general and outlawing slavery full stop we literally live in starship troopers we are trapped in a shitty gmod half life dark rp server yeah I do think you’re basically a terrorist if you go to disney land and i also think that if the first words out of your mouth when the rustbelt gets set on fire is “those dirty rednecks deserve it” ill show you a fucking redneck you fucking yank prick you fucking racist i wish hilary clinton would explode on live tv charitys are fucking fake theyre as fake as those cardboard towns in north korea oppenheimer was a limpdick pussy and fallout is becoming a game franchise that fetishizes the mass genocide of asians and i want todd howard pinned under a large rock for it spec ops the line wasn’t ugly enough there is a conspiracy started by the cosmetics, nutrition and fashion industry in collaboration with the upper class descendants of fucking typhoid “moneybags” marys to fool the masses that fat people aren’t hot as fuck. My body and mind and soul degrade with the week because of yhe shit ass menial labor yhey made me do and the fucking lead in gasoline and world war 1 started a chain reaction of fathers beating their kids and wives because it’s cheaper to buy a gun than go to therapy because we’re fucking warhammer orks without any of the endearing mental stupidity we live in mordor. we live in fucking mordor. it literally does not matter who is president our two political parties are Nazis and Neo-Nazis bernie sanders was the closest thing to a centrist this country has ever seen. capitalism grinds up joy into a paste to divvy out on 500$ gucci toothpicks public urination should be legal rent is theft corporations are agents of satan who is jesus christ who is not jesus of nazareth jesus christ is the poster boy of white supremacy i fucking hate Hamilton white people should listen to MORE rap i want to get my dick sucked at a death grips concert. Laundromats and burger joints where you can get a meal for 5$ are far more important than police stations and walmart. pop anarchists want to personally confiscate your wheelchair uou fuckers treat yhis like a game fuckin e girls with hammers and sickles in their icons arguing about what form of communism or socialism or whateverism is right when bitch that is a pipe dream you are going to die in captivity arguing about which dragon ball z character is the strongest (girl broly) at least go punch a hole in your wall and fuck it to prove you’re human you facebook fetishist jesus christ every other day i want a biblical death just so my fucked up thouhhts mean something i need a fuckingjason vorhees bitch wheres the yandere tea party this is all so fucked up its not fucking real the christian god hates you whoever says otherwise is trying to make you a fucking slave. Mormonism and scientology should be wiped off the map any religion formed after the invention of the gun is a fucking pyramid scheme i wish i was a 9 foot toll shark lady with hugebrealssta so i could fucking knock over thechrystler building

DO 9/11 AGAIN

[furryprovocateur]

you are,

VERY optimistic to say the least,

the main reason most theft is done by those who depretly need it or whatever is because there is some punishment for it,

i understand decreasing the spending on cops and stuff but, we cant have NOTHING!

please tel lme if im misunderstanding you or somehting, but i still feel liek your being VERY optimistic

no, i'm actually fairly cynical as a person, i just think prisons are immoral and only exist to house society's undesirables/political adversaries (i.e. activists, whistleblowers, etc.). prisons disproportionately house people of color (especially black people), disabled people, lgbt people, and poor people. they exist to meet bed quotas and produce slave labor because prisons are a business.

think of the most violent criminal imaginable. someone completely unsafe to be around. someone with absolutely no regard for human life and seeks nothing but subjugation from the people around them. congrats, this person is real and they are a cop. they have access to a variety of ways to murder innocent people and more likely than not will see no jail time for this. meanwhile, we have people being housed for either crimes they did not commit or for things like drug possession, loitering, etc. there is no property offense in the world to me that justifies life imprisonment.

there is nothing "optimistic" about saying this. i'm acknowledging an extremely powerful institution that exists in america and will likely outlive me and everyone i know. i'm a prison abolitionist because if you look at the data and use moral reasoning beyond "do what the law says", prisons are a force of evil that deprive hundreds of thousands of americans of life and liberty.

on a final note:

(source: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/global/2021.html)

this is using data from as recent as 2021. there is no reforming this.

[ausetkmt]

TheGrio: Republican Mark Robinson says Black people owe reparations

Mark Robinson, lieutenant governor of North Carolina, is seen during a Save America rally for former President Donald Trump at the Aero Center Wilmington on September 23, 2022 in Wilmington, North Carolina. (Photo by Allison Joyce/Getty Images)

Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.

Meet Mark Robinson a Republican running for governor in North Carolina who thinks Black people should be paying reparations. It’s bizarre even for the bizarre modern GOP, but here we are. Robinson, 54, is North Carolina’s lieutenant governor, and he seems like a lefty’s caricature of a modern right wing politician. He’s what we would dream up to make fun of the right.

He thinks Covid wasn’t a real threat, systemic racism doesn’t exist and the movie, “Black Panther,” was, buckle up, “created by an agnostic Jew and put to film by satanic Marxists.” The right loves to say the left is filled with Marxists. It’s a weird obsession. Robinson also said President Obama was “a worthless, anti-American atheist who wanted to bring America to its knees and then raise it back to its feet as a European style socialist hell hole.” He also called Michelle Obama “a man.” So, yeah, he’s another Black Republican who’s willing to say racist things. He’s like a grimier version of Candace Owens. And he could be North Carolina’s next governor.

Robinson captured my attention when a speech he gave in 2021 began bubbling up on Black social media. In the speech he said he opposed reparations because no one owes Black people anything. Typical right wing stuff until … he took a turn.

“Nobody owes you anything for slavery. If you want to tell the truth about it, it is you who owes,” he said as if he was speaking to Black people en masse. “Why do you owe? Because somebody in those fields took strikes for you. After those fields were ended and slavery was ended, somebody had to walk through Jim Crow for you. Somebody fought wars and died for you. Somebody lived less than because they didn’t have what you have, and they did it for you. There are people in their graves right now, and they are there because they were willing to stand up and fight for you.” He concluded, “Nobody owes you anything. If anybody owes, it’s you. Because you’ve been the benefactor of freedom, you are the one that owes.” If you want to hear him say this himself you can go here but, you know, it could be triggering to deal with so much internalized racism and tap dancing for white folks all at once.

That said, I don’t totally disagree with Robinson in this speech. He’s actually touching on a feeling I have long had about our ancestors. From those who were enslaved in the early years of this country to those who marched more recently, they have paved the way for us to have the opportunities we have. Our freedoms were bought through battles in the streets and the legislatures. I definitely feel like we owe a debt to the ancestors, and that’s a big part of what he’s saying.

But, I have always believed that my debt to the ancestors meant I had to do something with my life that honored their work, courage and sacrifice. I know many of you feel the same. There are Black revolutionaries who preceded me, and I know my life is better because of their work. I feel like I owe them something. On that, I agree with Robinson. But, typical of right wingers, he’s taken a good idea and leapt to a strange conclusion. 

Where Robinson and I part ways is that I understand that debt is spiritual. It’s something I need to pay forward in my community and my family rather than an actual bill that I should pay. When Robinson combines this very real and beautiful notion of what we owe the ancestors with the idea of reparations, it becomes strange and even gross. And the idea we owe the ancestors something does not eliminate the moral right to reparations.

Just the mere mention of reparations turns Republican brains to mush. They’re supposed to be the party of business. They present themselves as the party that understands economic reality. If you deal in the realm of economic reality, the case for reparations isn’t that hard. Millions of Black people were trapped on slave labor camps for entire lifetimes, and those enslaved people created extraordinary wealth for the people who enslaved them.

Slavery was a major economic driver for the South, the History Channel says. “Slavery was so profitable, it sprouted more millionaires per capita in the Mississippi River valley than anywhere in the nation.” They say if the confederacy had been its own nation, at the start of the Civil War it would have have been the fourth richest nation in the world.  

The wealth derived from slavery was a major driver of the US economy for many Americans.

“By 1840, the South grew 60% of the world’s cotton and provided some 70% of the cotton consumed by the British textile industry. Thus slavery paid for a substantial share of the capital, iron, and manufactured goods that laid the basis for American economic growth. In addition, precisely because the South specialized in cotton production, the North developed a variety of businesses that provided services for the slave South, including textile factories, a meat processing industry, insurance companies, shippers, and cotton brokers.”

The entire U.S. economy grew because of slavery. A lot of people profited from the enslavement of Black Americans. Slave-built infrastructure creates wealth to this day. 

So, let’s put it together slowly. During the period of enslavement, millions of Americans worked without receiving payment. Millions of other Americans benefitted from that unpaid labor and from selling enslaved people. Does anyone see a debt there? This country and its government owe the families of enslaved people. This isn’t a far-fetched idea. This country paid slaveowners reparations for having lost people they enslaved. If we owed slaveowners reparations, then how can anyone argue that we don’t owe reparations to the enslaved people and their families? 

Robinson is as crazy as they come on the right. But unlike right wing loons like Candace Owens and Jason Whitlock, this one has a chance at amassing real power. Stay tuned. 

[kknyah1]

Reparations

The majority of arguments in favor of reparations are based on the idea of reparative justice, which holds that those who have suffered wrongdoing or injustice have a moral right to some sort of repair. This reparation could take the form of an admission of guilt, the return of the offended property, or financial compensation. This will speak predominantly on financial compensation for African-American slavery.

The argument that modern white people are not morally accountable for the suffering of black people under slavery is frequently used in response to calls for reparations for the wrongs of slavery. It is true that no one alive today is responsible for historical injustices committed before they were even born, however they still benefit from it. As we as people still following and contribute to laws and regulations created from historical injustices such as slavery.

Observe now that labor theft is one of the many things that slavery is, as slaves' labor is taken from them forcibly and unjustly. The slave owners use that labor to increase their wealth, which they then pass on to their offspring and subsequent generations. The impoverishment brought on by slavery, particularly the lack of wealth accumulation, affects slaves' children. They are the victims of theft, which is a form of economic exploitation.

Those reparations should be calculated roughly based on the value of the stolen labor monetarily in comparison to the income without the stolen labor. Rectifying theft and the equitable distribution of resources. If you take someone else's labor forcibly and take advantage of them, that is theft.There are financial concerns about determining who is owed what in addition to political concerns about the possibility of escalating racial and ethnic tensions. In general, those who gain from oppression must give up those benefits and compensate the victims.

[holyorthodoxrosaryofthefree]

From Tonya Foster: Early yesterday morning:“Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever”--Thomas Jefferson (3rd US President; enslaver of Black people; rapist (precedent); critic of Phyllis Wheatly). Of course I have, in my heart, air quotes around “my” because of long and continuing American traditions of challenging Black peoples’ ownership of anything, of our bodies, of our labors, of our ideas, of our understanding, of our inventions, of ourselves, of the right to privacy, of consideration, of our grief, of our rage, of our dead, of our dignity, of any legitimacy, of our votes, of our agency, of peace of mind that doesn’t attend to delusions of whiteness (yes, Toni Morrison is right: your racism is a distraction), of a say-so, of solace, of life, of rest, and on…

As American, as apple-pie, this: the wells of anti-Blackness run marrow deep (in the bones and the blood stream) of this nation. How much time and energy during this election cycle was expended chastising Black (and sometimes Brown) folk about what we oughta/should do? There was a pervasive callout of Black folk (men and women) and the policing of how we should vote. The policing of what a Black woman should do, evaluations of her value, legitimacy, ability. While a white convicted rapist felon has been voted into the presidency.

But damn, whiteness is a helluva drug. At what point is there honest public conversation about what this supremacy addiction means for how we legislate? For how we treat each other, for how see each other? For how we live? For who “we” (holding some truths to be self evident) are? When do we call out White folk (women and men across class allegiance) for routinely voting against the democratic interests of the greatest number of folks (locally, nationally, internationally)? Where are the campaigns and ads calling that out for what it is? For calling out folks to do better on behalf of a better future that isn’t just a return to the past?

As it has been, so it is. But, does it have to continue to be so? What does change dies.

Blaming the usual scapegoats was the simplistic democratic party’s (racist) strategy (out right-wing the right) that got us (as a collective, as a field of thought) to the samo samo nowhere that we’ve been trying to climb out of (or so we (who is this we?) claim).

"We" (a provisional party in which I am sometimes subject and to which I'm sometimes subjected as object) voted for slavery in California. Yep. Of course. California also passed Prop 36 which makes shoplifting a felony at the same time that corporate theft of wages, of labor, of time, of investment in the public sphere, of tax monies continues without consequence or comment for the white collared theftocracy.

Apparently, allegiance to Empire and to delusions of white and corporate and national righteousness and supremacy (always read as white and as divinely appointed and determined (Calvinist traditions of divinely favored folk continue) is more important than commitments to justice, to fairness, to basic notions of human decency, and to working to build sane communities. California's votes on slavery and shop-lifting are keeping with national election results.

Of course, “Black faces in high places will not save you” (Ruha) especially if they are fronting and cheesing for Empire and claiming that's a revolution. Especially when there's the claim that the very empire that subjugates has any "investment" or interest in notions of freedom that might ease the conditions of our living with each other, might shore us up as vibrant communities of human and non-human being for as many others as there are.

I tremble for the country that some days is mine too. I tremble for the we designated by my country and by state functions as provisional and as other because of race, because of documents, because of gender, because of class status, because…

In Louisiana, there were celebratory fireworks. Well, we’ll let the lit air be our territory.

[irishfederalreconnaissance]

Ceremonial Enemies ("Chet")

Lennox: The Lancasters, mixed with Saul; slave owners, that direct others to follow their example. The bondsmanship of children, by pedophiles, their circle of influence.

Combs: The Green Gang, rival of the Red Gang; both out of Dumond's household, the Vandal Franks, Richlieau; self not selected by Papacy for Louis and Versailles, "seeing around sides".

Stanley: The Abwehr, opposed to the Marine veterans of World War 2; a Filipino German family, versus a Pashtun nuclear artillery family. Responsible for Hiroshima, the end of Los Angeles and their Water Department; AB, not DARE.

Williamson: The slurred by the Queen Elizabeth I, Shakespeare, for siding Spanish against a High Queen; plays performed in his name, as a crossdressing actor. Boudica, or Shane, the choice impossible; self, with Boudica, not Shane, the Washingtons.

Hayes: The combination of theft of children, and the Chinese autarchy; the refusal of goods of store, as convict labor escaped, instead expecting international law, trade pacts, for conviction of criminals against patriotic war.

Dahmer: The placement of Skorzene, the Strausser, in the Schulzstaffel, having requested Free France, on all ballots; Tomasic, refusing the saviorship of the French people, under the burden of Petain, and the involvement in British of World War 2; the slaughters of Jewish children, in Sisak, for the Futurist movement, and the Black Friars, the orphanage workhouses of England.

Golden: The Crow, a Boston Mafia family, demanding cooperation with MI-6, in events of terror and fear, ranging between the deaths of thespians, and the linkage between holidays and famous events, through criminal act of anarchy.

Lange: The Shah's Students, refusing Salibs, the Harding Rotary Association, in favor of Israeli defense spending; outside of American interest, promoted through Donald Trump, the Blockbuster investment; lost by own hand of Lange, through application of art, to life.

[whitepolaris]

Lost Treasure

Between 1860 and 1900 the state of Oklahoma (or "Indian Territory" as it was then known) saw more than its fair share of greed. In addition to a fairly major gold rush, Oklahoma was the site of illegal cattle dives, bank robberies, and other nefarious activities. When one place hosts so many dishonorable men-even temporarily-it can only mean one thing. Buried loot.

So much gold and money was loved and lost in late nineteenth-century Oklahoma that an accurate calculation of the losses in impossible to estimate. The conquistadors of the American Southwest might be more acclaimed then the lode busters of the Sooner State, but that doesn't make Oklahoma gold any less shiny. In fact, because of the dearth of publicity for hidden Oklahoma gold, you might just have a better chance of finding some.

Just like George Hardsook did in 1913. Hardsook was digging a trench for a new oil pipeline in northeastern Oklahoma when his shovel hit metal. Upon inspection, Hardsook discovered that the piece of metal was a gold coin. He kept digging. After unearthing more than a hundred pounds of gold coins, he laid down his shovel and returned to town. In one day, a poor laborer became a very rich man. He never found out where the coins were from, or why they had been buried.

Stories of lucky people who stumbled upon buried treasure are interesting, but they've not nearly as exciting as stories of treasure yet to be found. These are the stories that give hope to treasure hunters, thrill seekers, and incurable dreamers. With some quality research, a little patience, and a good pair of hiking boots, anyone could become Oklahoma's nouveau riche. Prospective millionaires might want to start in Devil's Promenade.

In 1867, a German man settled in the northwest corner of Oklahoma, just off the Spring River. He was, by most accounts, a paranoid miser, and spent his days fearing for the safety of his life savings. He told his best friend, a local Indian, that he was plagued by dreams of ambush and theft. After years of torment, he decided the best course of action was to bury his fortune.

The German and his gold journeyed to the great sandstone bluff locally known as Devil's Promenade. He returned empty-handed and at peace, claiming that stashing his money finally afforded him a good night's sleep. On his deathbed, the German told his Indian friend where he had hidden the gold. He described a small cave on the side of the bluff, and said that a tin box full of ghost sat on a shelf inside the cave. The German's dying wish was that the Indian tribe use the gold for themselves. The tribe never located the cave to which the German referred.

Treasure hunters who seek the German's gold at Devil's Promenade should make time to stay around after dark for a glimpse of the Spooklight. If you park four miles south of the tristate junction in Ottawa county and look west, you might be treated to the appearance of a tight ball of light. A scientific explanation of the Spooklight has never been conclusively given, but some of the locals say it's the lantern of the German, forever protecting his treasure.

An even larger treasure remains unfound in Cimmarron County's Black Mesa. In 1804, a team of French traders traveled through the Oklahoma Panhandle on their way to New Orleans with six carts full of furs. Underneath the furs were hundreds of gold ingots. After a fellow traveler informed that New Orleans, and all of the land they could currently see, was sold to the Americans, the Frenchmen knew they had a problem. They knew the Americans would confiscate the gold, and so they decided to bury it until they could arrange its safe passage home to France. They never returned to collect their treasure.

The missing gold was legendary for decades after that, but it was not the object of serious quest until a series of markers was discovered in in the 1870s. The Frenchmen had constructed a Roman numeral eleven-XI-out of rocks. Exactly six miles to the east and six miles to the north were two other Roman numeral rock formations. For the better part of a century, treasure hunters couldn't decipher what the markers were triangulating in the barren panhandle. But that's because they never found the fourth marker.

In the mid-twentieth century rancher Cy Strong found the fourth marker, resembling a Greek omega and made from the same rocks the Frenchmen used on the other markers, on his land. The four markers formed a thirty-six-square miles area of nothingness, except for Sugar Loaf Peak in the dead center. Strong was certain the Frenchmen chose Sugar Loaf Peak for their hiding spot, but he was never able to find the cache.

In the annals of lost treasure lore, southwestern Oklahoma's Witchita Mountains appears again and again. In fact, Oklahoma's most mysterious lost treasure is rumored to rest near Elk Mountain behind a giant iron door. The legend began in the 1850s, when a Mexican inherited a map of the Witchita Mountains showing several stones of Spanish gold. After years of searching, he allowed a friend to make a copy of his map and try for himself. The friend formed an expedition, and followed the map to an enormous iron door on the side of hte mountain.

On the other side of the door was a cave containing gold bars stacked like firewood and baskets filled with bullion. Just then, a lookout warned of approaching Indians. The Mexican expedition managed to escape, but when they returned they found that the Indians had resealed the entrance and secured it with a large padlock. They marked the spot, planning to return with a greater number of men, but they were never able to find the door again.

In 1910, the iron door was once again found by a boy named Prince. It didn't arouse his suspicion at the time, but in the years that passed Prince found that he couldn't get the image out of his head. He tried to find the door again, but failed. Ten years later, a group of boys found a large padlock door. One of the boys kept trying to locate the door for the next fifty years, but he never did. A farmer found the door during the Great Depression and ran to town to find people to help him pry it open. He returned to the same spot, but the door wasn't there. over and over, the door returns, and then vanishes again.

No report of Oklahoma treasure is complete without a mention of Jesse James's lost treasure. In Mexico, the James Gang attacked a Mexico party and stole eighteen burros carrying gold. They fled north, only to walk straight into a Witchita Mountain blizzard. After deciding that the gold was slowing them down, they buried the the loot. Jesse James marked the spot by nailing one of the burros' shoes to a tree. The James Gang vowed to return together, and signed a pact etched onto a kettle.

Years later, Jesse James was killed in Missouri. Jesse's brother Frank and another gang member, Cole Younger, separately returned to Oklahoma to recover the gold. Frank was able to locate the burro's shoe, some etched rocks, and other clues left by his deceased brother, but he never found the treasure.

In 1932, a man named Joe Hunter acquired maps that were rumored to lead to the James fortune. The maps led to clues, which led to more maps and more clues. Hunter found the kettle inscribed with the outlaws' contact in 1948, but he died in the 1950s. Other treasure hunters are confident that they have narrowed down the location to the ruins of a James encampment on Mount Pinchot. No one knows for sure how much gold is in the James cache, but most estimate the treasure to be in the millions. -Craig Robertson

[molsons112000]

Black girl McDonald's messed up her order. She called 911. The police came she told the police they screwed up my order. The police went inside and told the people either you fixed her order or we're taking you to jail... It is thief of service.

Theft of services is a crime that occurs when someone receives services without paying for them or providing something in return. This can include a variety of services, such as labor, design, and other professional services. 



People Clerk

How to Sue for Theft of Services - People Clerk

Dec 4, 2023 — Theft of services is usually a type of crime where someone receives services without paying for them or giving something in return, even though they know they're supposed to. This can include a wide range of services, such as labor, design, and other professional services. If you are a business owner, freelancer, or provided services to a colleague or friend and didn't get paid for performing, you are able to sue them in small claims court. In the article below, we provide examples of theft of services, steps you should take before suing for theft of services, and how to take someone to small claims court.

Salvado Law

What does it mean to be charged with theft of services?

Sep 10, 2023 — Theft of services occurs when someone obtains valuable services through deception, force, threat or other unlawful means and does not provide compensation. For example, someone might eat at a restaurant and leave without paying for their food.

Theft of services can involve:

Using force, intimidation, or deceit to obtain a service

Intentionally failing to pay a company for its services

Continuing to take advantage of a company's services until the company demands payment or stops providing the service

Using a communication system, such as a telephone, computer, or cable television system, without payment

Using a public utility service without payment 

In Illinois, theft of labor or services is considered a very serious crime, similar to retail theft, misdemeanor theft, or felony theft. 

Business owners, freelancers, or people who have provided services to a friend or colleague and not received payment can sue for theft of services in small claims court. 

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By the way, this happens everyday.People steal from me. They don't pay me for my service....

Wikipedia

https://en.m.wikipedia.org › wiki

Theft of services

Theft of services is the legal term for a crime which is committed when a person obtains valuable services — as opposed to goods — by deception, force, ...



davidleelegal.com

https://www.davidleelegal.com › the...

Theft of Labor or Services | Aurora Criminal Defense Attorney

Theft of labor or services involves the use of property, labor, or services without proper payment. The state of Illinois considers this a very serious crime, ...

American Legal Publishing

https://codelibrary.amlegal.com › lo...

§ 130.64 THEFT OF LABOR, SERVICES, OR USE OF ...

(A) A person commits theft when he obtains the temporary use of property, labor, or services of another which are available only for hire, by means of ...



LegalMatch

https://www.legalmatch.com › article

Theft of Service: Penalties, Charges and Defenses

Apr 27, 2021 — In criminal law, theft of services refers to a type of crime that may be committed when a person uses a service without providing

So I asked for 4 fire sauce. This is a verbal contract. They didn't give me my 4 fire sauce. They broke the contract.

Investopedia

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Promissory Estoppel Explained, With Requirements & Example

If one party fails to uphold their end of a contract, the other party can withdraw from that contract. Promissory estoppel is the exception to this rule