Riots in the streets of Portland, Oregon. Ivy League college students asking for exams to be postponed so that they may mourn. The severing of relationships. A Manhattan elementary school leading children in a group singing of We Shall Overcome. The single most contentious day in the history of Facebook. Massive unfriending. These are the fruits of Donald J. Trump’s victory … [Read more...]
Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Reign of Inhumanity Ends
As GOP candidate Donald J. Trump surged to victory Tuesday night, Maricopa County (AZ) Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s blatant disregard for civil rights and human decency ended as the 84-year-old six-time sheriff lost his bid for a seventh term as America’s best known and most notorious lawman. Arpaio had been known to supporters as “America’s toughest sheriff,” yet to civil rights … [Read more...]
Ecuador, Velasco, and Covert Ops of the CIA
Jose Maria Velasco Ibarra (1893-1979) came to power for the fourth of five non-consecutive Ecuadorian presidential terms in September 1960. Velasco won decisively by running on a platform that was more populist than liberal. He appealed not only to the left but to the majority. He had received a record 80% of the vote in 1933, his first presidential run. Velasco, however, did … [Read more...]
Waldseemueller and the Map That Named America
In 1507 a German monk named Martin Waldseemueller created a map that would permanently change the world. The cartographer-priest named a newly discovered continent that sat between Africa and Asia. He called it America, as the story goes, after Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian banker and geographer who had sailed the coasts of modern day Brazil and Argentine in … [Read more...]
Grand Theft Thanksgiving
As the Pilgrims sat down with the temporarily peaceful Indians, the eternal rays of the fall sunshine touched the scene of colonial unity that had beset the New World. It was a moment of peace that had followed years of tumultuousness between the savage natives and the religious independents roughing it for Christ. The elongated table, beautifully set with the most voluptuous … [Read more...]