Category: History
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Hawaii Just Declared War on Dark Money
THOM HARTMANN, JUN 10, 2026
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The Citizens United Pendulum Swings
Fast Politics with Molly Jong-Fast, June 1, 2026
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Bill O’Donnell
World War II High School Graduation Taunton Gazette: “After graduating from Coyle in 1943, O’Donnell enlisted in the U.S. Army as a trainee in the Army Specialized Training Program at Brooklyn College” The Army Specialized Training Program The Specialized Training Program sent 200,000 soldiers to 227 colleges for sped-up courses in engineering, medicine, dentistry, psychology,…
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The Ten Commandments in the Classroom
The Louisiana Law Louisiana House Bill No. 71 requires the following text to be posted in all “public elementary, secondary, and postsecondary schools”: “The Ten CommandmentsI AM the LORD thy God.Thou shalt have no other gods before me.Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven images. Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy…
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Minority Rule
Unrepresentative by Design & Neglect House of Representatives A Small and Divided Majority The House Republican majority’s failure to avoid a government shutdown has been blamed on a small group of extremists, as few as five, who would rather tear down than build or govern. But as I began to research the topic, it seems…
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The Doctrine of Discovery
Christopher Columbus’s first landing in America on October 12, 1492 by Dióscoro Puebla, 1862 (Wikimedia Commons) and White Christian Nationalism Doctrine of Discovery It all began with the Doctrine of Discovery. Before the Spanish started the oldest permanent settlement in North America, St. Augustine in 1565. Before the English arrived in Jamestown in 1607. Before…
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Prager University on Slavery
Slave Owners Were Democrats PragerU The Prager University Foundation, or PragerU, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that promotes conservative views. Despite its name it is not an academic institution and does not offer degrees. PragerU has been accused of publishing misleading or false content on climate change, slavery, racism, immigration, and fascism, and promoting anti-LGBT politics. With this reputation to uphold, Candace…
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Republican Authoritarianism and Fascism
President Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021 rally before the White House. Three large screens show a close-up of Trump’s face, looking like Big Brother from Orwell’s “1984.” (John Minchillo, Associated Press) Author, historian, and culture critic Ruth Ben Ghiat was on The New Abnormal to answer the question nobody is asking: What stage of the fascist…
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Read a Slave Code
Because History Makes Ron DeSantis Feel Bad Slave Codes The transcript of the South Carolina Negro Act of 1740 that used to be online at South Carolina Educational Television is now on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. It’s a sign of the times. Slavery in the United States was governed by laws that developed from…
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We Can Raise Taxes
The Politics and Economy are Aligned A survey of tax history, arguments for and against raising taxes, and an exhortation to tax the rich. Why We Need Taxes Unless you’re a disciple of Grover Norquist and want to drown government in a bathtub, you might see taxes as necessary for certain community needs like law and order,…
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An Accounting for Religion
What is Religion? Religion is mostly prehistoric: “The bulk of the human religious experience pre-dates written history.” 30,000 years of pre-history versus 7,000 years written. Prehistoric religious beliefs are credited since 35,000 BC, when burials began to include decoration of the body and accompanying artifacts.[1] Britannica describes religion generally as organized beliefs that guide a relationship…
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Black Veterans Denied Benefits
UNIVERSAL HISTORY ARCHIVE/UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP/GETTY IMAGES Education and Homes One of the greatest benefits from ongoing versions of the GI Bill has been support for college and vocational school enrollment. “As a result, almost 49 percent of college admissions in 1947 were veterans. The GI Bill opened the door of higher education to the working…
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Lost Generational Wealth
The growing gap between worker productivity and pay has been a new source of wealth since the early 1970’s. A much older but similar source of wealth was pocketed by slave owners. A Citigroup historical review of ties to slavery shows at least indirect profits. The company acknowledged that slavery and slave labor “most likely”…
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Productivity, Inequality, and a New Gilded Age
©2002 Ted Rall, Universal Press Syndicate This Ted Rall cartoon of business malfeasance was written after the Enron scandal and the Dot-com market crash, but there has also been quieter profiteering before and since from lagging wages in the entire economy. When I look at the productivity and pay chart below, I see my working…
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Lincoln and Slavery
It sounds ridiculous and unnecessary, researching Lincoln and slavery. But I’m vetting American heroes with an emphasis on racism, and finding surprises and a slow evolution in Lincoln’s words and actions. Lincoln served in the Illinois Assembly and U.S. House of Representatives as a member of the Whig Party from 1834 to 1849. He opposed both…
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My Father’s Dragon
This is not that story.1 This is a story about another dragon, who looked like this: It’s a story about two Komodo Dragons that President Sukarno of Indonesia gave to America in 1964. They were in return for a pair of trumpeter swans that the United States gave to him.2 The Komodo Dragon is now the…
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A History of U.S. Immigration Laws
A History of Racism, Jobs, and Resistance to Change Recent debate over immigration and closed versus open borders raises questions about the American history of immigration. It seems that every native-born citizen is descended from immigrants; even the first Native Americans were new arrivals at some point.2 This article looks at tightening restrictions on immigration after…
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Continual and Fearless Sifting and Winnowing
By which alone the truth can be found Sifting and winnowing is a metaphor for the academic pursuit of truth associated with the University of Wisconsin–Madison, coined by University President Charles Kendall Adams. Professor Richard T. Ely was known to be liberal and pro-union, having published a book on socialism. In 1894 Superintendent of Public Instruction…
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Madison’s Confederate Memorials
This 1981 memorial at Forest Hill Cemetery was removed August 16, 2017. (Patrick Mack/Wisconsin State Journal) A Timeline of Civil War Memorials United States 1857 In Dred Scott v. Sanford the Supreme Court rules that a slave, or a descendant of slaves, is not an American citizen and has no standing to sue in federal court for…
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The Great Recession, Condensed
and with Glossary Subprime mortgages, side bets, greed, and fraud. The causes of the Great Recession were subprime adjustable-rate mortgages, and speculation using financial instruments that leveraged the actual market a thousandfold. In other words, greed and fraud. This is a bare-boned explanation of the greatest economic collapse since the Great Depression. The housing bubble that preceded…
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El-a-noy
Then move your family westward,Good health you will enjoy,And rise to wealth and honourIn the state of El-a-noy. — The Folk Songs of North America, Alan Lomax, 1960 13 In 1819 Patrick Walsh is born in the village of Cooleyhune, rural County Carlow, Ireland. Twelve years later Bridget Brennan is born in the Carlow village of…
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Madison, Wisconsin
Collected Quotes This is Madison. —Mayor-for-Life Paul Soglin, July 12, 2013. Actually, every third Mayor since 1973. The Earth as seen from Madison, Wisconsin— Caption on a postcard c. 1977 30 square miles surrounded by reality— Wisconsin Governor Lee Dreyfus in 1978.1 The land area was 77 sq mi by 2010, with an additional 17 sq mi of water.2,3…
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Freedom of Speech
Freedom of Speech, Norman Rockwell©1943 SEPS, Curtis Publishing Collected Quotes March 27, 2005 In 1912, feminist Margaret Sanger was arrested for giving a lecture on birth control. Trade union meetings were banned. Peaceful protesters opposing U. S. entry into World War I were jailed. In 1923, author Upton Sinclair was arrested for trying to read the…
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Palestine & Israel
Collected Quotes “If You’re Not Outraged, You’re Not Paying Attention” January 22, 2004 Rachel Corrie, 23, before she was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in Rafah, Gaza Strip, March 16, 2003. ( REUTERS) The driver dragged his blade over her a second time while reversing back over her body. Corrie died of skull and chest fractures. (International…
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Bush and the Iraq War
Collected Quotes July 2, 2003 If you’re interested in peace, if you want people to grow up in a peaceful world, all parties must do everything they can to reject and stop violence. 53In response to a Tel Aviv bus bombing (September 19, 2002) If you want to keep the peace, you’ve got to have the…
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Malefactors of Great Wealth
Collected Quotes The Genius Of Capitalism Andrew Jackson on the Rich and Powerful It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes. Distinctions in society will always exist under every just government. Equality of talents, of education, or of wealth can not be…