Civil War 1860s

The Field Of American History Under Vast Attack By Politicians With Evil Motives!

This author and blogger has been a scholar of American history for the past half century, since 1972.

My life has been one of research, writing, publishing, giving interviews, and teaching college and university students the facts, the reality, the truth of American history, in all of its glory but also of its travails and shortcomings.

As any scholar in any field, the essential point is to expand the truth, the knowledge, and the reality of the American past, with no allowance for censorship or interference with what books are promoted in the quest for the truth of the American past.

Sadly, American history was badly distorted until the 1960s, with the “Lost Cause” of the Confederate South being permitted to dominate curriculums at all levels of American education, from elementary level through middle school, high school, and even at universities.

The distortion of the truth about the American past was a crime, finally overcome, and transforming the understanding of America’s past for the generations since the rise of the civil rights movement.

The liberation of knowledge meant not only the reality of the African American past, but also that of Hispanic-Latino history, women’s history, labor history, environmental history, and the role of gender and sexuality, have all become part of the total story of America.

The goal has been to liberate America from a white Christian domination of knowledge, which even left people of other religious faiths, as ignored, until recent decades.

We as a society cannot permit the myths of the past to become predominant again, and to disease the minds of the young, so as to promote prejudice, discrimination, and narrowmindedness!

That would be the prescription for the return of the criminal lies and deceit that affected understanding of American History from the era of the Civil War in the 1860s through the next century!

We are faced with the evil motives of politicians in the Republican Party to revive the past mythology!

I, for one, will NOT allow myself to promote and promulgate anything other than the truth, the facts, the reality of the American past, as I move forward into the future, still dedicated to inspiring students about the total, valid story of the American past!

Reality: Most Anti Abortion States Were Slave States Before 1865!

It is sad but not at all surprising that when one looks at the map of states that have declared war on women’s rights, and specifically on abortion rights, all but three such states are from the “Old South”, the “Confederate South”, and the “Border South” of the American Civil War period!

The states that went to war to continue the ugly institution of slavery now are “enslaving” women and denying them the right to control their own reproductive rights, forcing even those who are victims of rape or incest, or whose lives are endangered, to follow through on their pregnancy and deny them medical and hospital services!

This is done in the name of “religious” indoctrination which should NOT be a factor in human rights in America!

But remember, many elements of organized Christianity endorsed and supported slavery all the way through the Civil War, and also backed Jim Crow segregation for the next hundred years, and even resisted the Civil Rights Movement, and stealthily supported the Ku Klux Klan in many cases!

Looking at the map, and seeing only Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina not restricting abortion rights, but all other “Old South” states and border states Kentucky and Missouri in that infamous group of denying human rights, along with Wisconsin, South Dakota, and Idaho, makes one ready to do everything possible to restore women’s rights to determine their own futures!

US V Nixon; Clinton V Jones; And Now Trump Lawsuit Against January 6 Committee Appeal To Supreme Court!

The Supreme Court has come out with two decisions in the past half century that made it clear of the limits of Presidential power!

In 1974, in US V Nixon, the Supreme Court, including three appointees of President Richard Nixon, unanimously by an 8-0 vote, declared that Nixon had to hand over the Watergate tapes to the Special Prosecutor, leading to the resignation of Nixon from the Presidency within weeks!

In 1997, in Clinton V Jones, the Supreme Court, including two appointees of President Bill Clinton, unanimously by a 9-0 vote, declared that a President had no immunity from civil law litigation in federal court for acts done before taking office. This case involved the sexual harrassment charge brought by Paula Jones against Governor Bill Clinton

Clinton’s evasiveness in testifying in court about Paula Jones led to the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and charges of perjury and obstruction of justice, and his impeachment by the House of Representatives in 1998, although found not guilty by the Senate in the impeachment trial in 1999.

Now, Donald Trump wants “executive privilege” to be in effect to prevent evidence in White House records of what he was doing on January 6, 2021 involving the Capitol Hill Insurrection, to be presented to the January 6 House Committee, investigating the events of that day. President Joe Biden has authorized waiver of such privileges, since Trump is a former President.

Despite having three Trump appointments to the Supreme Court, the strong likelihood is that the Court will, unanimously, reject such arguments, as earlier Courts did involving Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton.

If such does not happen, which seems like a long shot, then the Court will have besmirched its reputation for the long term, and the reputation of Chief Justice John Roberts will be damaged forever.

And that will promote the likelihood of attempts to add four new members to a Court which will be the most condemned and pilloried since the time of Chief Justice Roger Taney during the Civil War!

18 Months Of Donald Trump Presidency, And Crisis Atmosphere Grows

Today marks 18 months of the Donald Trump Presidency.

It has been 18 months of horrors, nightmares, disgrace to the office of the Presidency.

It has seen more corruption and abuse of power than any President in the past, including Richard Nixon.

It has put America into a massive foreign policy crisis, now marked by Trump’s invitation to Vladimir Putin of Russia to come to the White House this fall.

It has put America into a massive domestic policy crisis, as the the New Deal, Great Society, and everything good that Barack Obama did in eight years in office, is being systematically destroyed.

It has created the conditions for a potential Great Depression, with the imposition of tariffs about to explode into inflation of prices, loss of jobs and income, and alienation of all of our major trade partners with his crazy economic policies.

It has created the end of the post World War II alliance system of NATO that won the Cold War, but now the Russian government has declared a cyber World War on America, with a President whose loyalty is clearly with our rivals and enemies.

It has caused disarray among the two major political parties that have been our system since 1854, and now are in danger of total destruction, at least with the Republican Party.

It has demonstrated that the people who are elected and those who are appointed put their own jobs and wealth ahead of the interests of the vast majority of the American people.

It has shown us that our system of government, which allows a Supreme Court for life. It is guaranteed to create social and economic turmoil that will insure the danger of civil war, as the younger generation rebels against the future right wing extremist judicial system, packed with justices and judges who want to take us back to the Gilded Age of the late 19th century, and wipe out the 20th century social safety network that has made us great.

It has divided Americans, with many, including this author and blogger no longer communicating with former associates and friends, when we have discovered how disgraceful these people are. This also includes family members, relatives, who make one realize the old saying, that you can pick your friends, but not your relatives.

Donald Trump is clearly out to destroy the United States as we know it, determined to keep his ethical and moral issues, and his violations of the law a secret that only Vladimir Putin knows, and holds over the head of the 45th President.

The danger of a violent civil war, as we had in the 1860s, is becoming more a reality unless somehow we can turn the tide and excise the cancer of Donald Trump. But sadly, Mike Pence is, in many ways, even worse, with his right wing religious crusade in a nation that was based on separation of church and state, precisely because of the religious extremism of Puritanism in our colonial history. The threat of racial and ethnic and even gender conflict is real, and the power of the National Rifle Association, now shown to be allied with the forces of Vladimir Putin, can bring about violence in the name of profits.

It is hard NOT to have despair as to how this nation survives long term, without major damage to the republic!