Should Juneteenth Be An Official Holiday?

Given the date gained significance n the wake of the Black Lives Matter protest in the wake of George Floyd’s death via excessive force by the police, should Juneteenth be an official federal holiday?

By: Ringo Bones

With President Trump being tine deaf to the widespread Black Lives Matter protests in the United States and in most parts of the world – I mean Trump even resorted to using a NAZI symbol for his 2020 reelection campaign, the historical significance of Juneteenth has finally been elevated above its previous status as an obscure footnote in history. Unless your history teacher was dedicated enough to let their students know on the date’s significance, Jubeteenth has been seen as nothing more than an “obscure” holiday observed by Texans and African Americans. Sadly and tragically – especially in Trump’s America – Juneteenth is about as obscure as the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre / Black Wall Street Massacre.

Also known as Emancipation Day, the holiday’s significance is on the emancipation of the last remaining enslaved African Americans in the Confederacy and also about the exploration and celebration of African American history and heritage. Originating in Texas, it is now celebrated annually on the 19^th of June throughout the United States - albeit with varying official recognition. Specifically, it commemorates Union Army general Gordon Granger announcing federal orders in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865, proclaiming that all slaves in Texas were free. Although the Emancipation Proclamation came 2½ years earlier on January 1, 1863, many slave owners continued to hold their slaves captive after the announcement, so Juneteenth became a symbolic date representing African American freedom.

Texans celebrated Juneteenth beginning in 1866, with community-centric events, such as parades, cookouts, prayer gatherings, historical and cultural readings and musical performances. Over time, communities have developed their own traditions. Some communities purchased land for Juneteenth celebrations, such as Emancipation Park in Houston, Texas. As families emigrated from Texas to other parts of the United States, they carried the Juneteenth celebrations with them.

On January 1, 1980, Juneteenth officially became a Texas state holiday. Al Edwards, a freshman state representative, put forward the bill, H.B. 1016, making Texas the first state to grant this emancipation celebration. Since then, 45 other states and the District of Columbia have also commemorated or recognized the day. Although Juneteenth is not a federal holiday, most states and the District of Columbia have passed legislation recognizing it as a holiday or observance. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Friday, June 19, 2020 that the date will be marked as an official city holiday beginning in 2021 and will also be a public school holiday. A few days before, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed an order making Juneteenth a paid holiday for state workers. Were they spurred on by the urgency of the recent Black Lives Matter protests?

Does The Novel Coronavirus Have A “Liberal Bias”?

Given the recent news seem to have highlighted CPAC as a “novel coronavirus hot zone”; does the novel coronavirus have a so-called liberal bias?

By: Ringo Bones

Though President Trump has yet to lay blame that the CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) has been infiltrated by a so-called “suicide coronavirus spreader”, during the past few days, the who’s who at CPAC had subjected themselves to self-quarantine after they suspect themselves to be affected by the novel coronavirus. These include Rep. Matt Gaetz, Sen. Ted Cruz, and also American Conservative union chair Matt Schlapp. Although a simple coronavirus test kit could easily have resolved the issue on whether these people are positive with the coronavirus, sadly, through the incompetence of the Trump Administration, coronavirus testing kits are still a rarity on American soil.

Does this mean that the coronavirus has a so-called “liberal bias”? It is yet too soon to know for sure and it might only be a coincidence that the “coronavirus” has made a veritable hot-zone of CPAC during its American leg of its global pandemic just around the time when the WHO had declared it officially as a pandemic. But this “eerie coincidence” had managed to become punch-lines of the monologues of some Jewish comedians in my neck of the woods – especially about the one whose punch-line goes:”…when will the so-called Palestinian Jesus will soon send the coronavirus to AIPAC…”

Are Native American Ancient Burial Sites Blasted For The So-Called Trump Border Wall?

Despite of the presence of some “token” Native Americans in Trump rallies, is President Trump actively desecrating ancient Native American burial sites during the construction of his border wall?

By: Ringo Bones

Since the start of February 2020, red lettered blasting warning signs began to prop up around Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, a remote desert region in southwestern Arizona bordered by Mexico to the south and a Native American reservation to the east. Construction crews have been blasting the hillside while excavators and backhoes clear a path for the towering sections of the so-called Trump border wall fast-tracked by the Trump administration at a pace that worries environmental groups and Native American tribes that sacred burial sites and ancestral lands are now at risk of being irreversibly harmed.

Since 1976, the 516 square mile park – home to more than two dozen unique species of cactus and countless varieties of wildlife – has been recognized as a UNESCO ecological preserve worth conserving. Does the Trump Administration’s wanton environmental destruction and racism know no bounds?

GOP Rep. Steve King: Pro Rape and Pro Incest Republican?

His stance on rape and incest has for some years now made the US Republican Party being ridiculed as the “Rapepublican Party”, is there any “method” to GOP Rep. Steve King’s “madness”?

By: Ringo Bones

Just when everyone expects that the insane cruise that is called the Trump Administration couldn’t get much crazier, the US Republican Party’s nexus of the rape and incest insanity Rep. Steve King made a statement on his absolute opposition to abortion even with the rape and incest exception clauses and stated that whether there would be any population left on Earth if not for rape and incest – a remark that has drawn condemnation from both Democrats and Republicans.

Back in Wednesday, August 15, 2019, GOP Rep. King reasoned that: “What if we went back through all the family trees and pulled those people out that were products of rape and incest? Would there be any population of the world left if we did that? Considering all the wars and all the rape and pillage that has taken place…I know I can’t certify that I was not a product of that.” King said and also added that “I’d like to think that every one of the lives of us are as precious as any other life.” he added. Given that Steve King is a US Republican Party congressman – and not some Game of Thrones fanatic posting an online review of some newly released directors cut – only makes the comments even that much crazier to the average political observer.

Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the No. 3 House Republican, said in a Tweet that the remarks were “appalling and bizarre” and called on him to resign. Back in January 2019, House Republicans stripped Rep. Steve King of committee assignments, an action that took place after an interview in which he appeared to lament that the term “white supremacist” is considered offensive. Maybe the more relevant question to ask is “Who are the ones voting for these terrible people like Steve King or that paedophile Roy Moore into office?”

Could The Hong Kong Pro Democracy Demonstrations Be Avoided?

Despite of the escalation of violence and demands that now include universal suffrage, could the Hong Kong pro democracy protests be avoided?

By: Ringo Bones

Despite projecting an “aura of efficiency” since the 1990s, it seems that the Beijing Government’s relatively unplanned action against existential political threats could well be the reason behind the escalation of the Hong Kong pro democracy protest marches that started as an opposition to the controversial extradition bill back in June 2019. If Beijing planned its operations against potential political unrest that it had dealt since the 1990s akin to that of Sun Tsu’s Art of War, the 10-week long Hong Kong unrests could have fizzled out like the 2014 Umbrella Movement and Joshua Wong would have been relegated as an obscure Hong Kong dissident rather than a global heroic activist who stood up to Beijing. And given that Beijing has since been wary of repeating the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, a little planning could have done much good on the current situation.

Even though some eagle eyed operatives at Amnesty International cite that Beijing’s crackdown on ethnic Uyghurs in its “restive West” probably have started as early as the 1990s, the political exigencies of the post-9/11 world should have given the powers-that-be at Beijing to deal the situation with “refinement” – as opposed to forcibly sending Uyghurs to internment camps to undergo forced indoctrination in the name of quelling global Islamism. During the past few years, evidence emerged, via satellite photos and testimonies of Uyghurs now in political asylum in neighboring countries that what Beijing did to them was tantamount to ethnic cleansing, thus forming part of the raison d’être on the vehement opposition of a majority of Hong Kong residents on the controversial extradition bill.

Remember those staff at the Causeway Bay Books that were allegedly kidnapped by Beijing from Hong Kong to “black sites” in Mainland China? If Beijing didn’t execute this questionable action back in October to December 2015, the controversial extradition bill would have been approved into law while passing below the radar of ordinary Hong Kong residents without a peep. And Beijing appointed Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam would have carried out her rather “boring” and uneventful cushy job and the world at large would have been none the wiser. Too bad Beijing just have to flex its muscles like some bodybuilder overdosing on steroids.

Larry The Cat Versus President Trump?

Even though he served as the “Chief Mouser” of Number 10 Downing Street since 2011, did Larry the Cat managed to successfully put a damper to Trump plans where London protesters failed?

By: Ringo Bones

Ever since serving as Number 10 Downing Street’s “Chief Mouser” after being recruited from Battersea Dogs & Cats Home for his exceptional mouse hunting skills since 2011, Larry the Cat has kept the official residence of the Prime Minister of Great Britain free from furniture and document destroying mice for almost a decade now. And yet, back in June 4, 2019 - the intrepid feline has managed to do what thousands of London based protesters has set out to do – to put a damper on the U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s packed itinerary during his official U.K. state visit.  

By hiding under the underside of “The Beast” – the president’s official armored limousine, it seems like Larry the Cat is not shy at expressing his disdain against President Trump. Maybe Larry the Cat is no fan of white supremacists who do not give a rat’s ass on the less fortunate. Given that President Trump is too fat to reach down under The Beast to shoo the cat away by himself, it looks like Trump finally met a pussy that he can’t grab by himself. Earlier that day, Larry the Cat managed to photobomb the U.S. President’s photo-op with U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May, it looks like this cat doesn’t like President Trump and his politics.

Donald J. Trump’s Diplomatic Pornography: His Guiding Principle In “Making America Great Again”?

A term first coined by Thomas Friedman on US President Donald J. Trump’s ill-advised Jerusalem embassy show, but has diplomatic pornography all along been the guiding principle behind Trump’s “Make America Great Again” plan?

By: Ringo Bones

The world’s top political and diplomatic analysts are probably bemused by Thomas Friedman’s description of US President Donald J. Trump’s Jerusalem embassy show as “diplomatic pornography” when Trump made serious appeasements and concessions with regards to moving the US Embassy in Israel from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem – as in the May 14, 2018 reclassification of the US consulate in Jerusalem as the US embassy in Jerusalem -  despite Jerusalem wasn’t recognized by everyone as the state of Israel’s capital because it is a disputed territory claimed by both Israelis and Palestinians.

It was Thomas Friedman who was the first to use the term “diplomatic pornography” after he tells it like it is during his guest spot on Fareed Zakaria GPS over the issue of Hamas, Israel and President Trump and his  Administration’s decision to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In hindsight, Donald J. Trump’s diplomatic pornography could be described as an ill-advised policy of making political and material concessions without making a corresponding leverage. President Trump could have negotiated for a landmark renewed Israel-Palestinian peace process that the Obama Administration had never achieved in exchange for going along with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s green light on allowing those countries who do so the ability to move their embassies from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Back in the middle of May 2018, Thomas Friedman managed to capture the zeitgeist of this fiasco by stating that “The whole thing is a tragedy. It’s like two bald men fighting over a comb.” And “The embassy event was really just a Republican mid-term prep rally disguised as a diplomatic event…This was meant to fire up the far-right religious base of the Republican Party.”As someone made famous for his iconic business how-to book, The Art of the Deal, Friedman can’t hold back on his bemusement of this ill-advised policy by saying “Trump didn’t do the ‘Art of the Deal’, he did the art of the giveaway…Trump gave away the most valuable diplomatic real estate in the Middle East treasure-box of the United States and gave it away for free. Believe me, in Jerusalem they are laughing at him. In the Arab world they are laughing at him. They can’t believe what a sucker he was to take the bait and give this away for free when he could have used it for a leverage to truly advance the peace process.” Unfortunately, Trump’s “Jerusalem Embassy Diplomatic Pornography” maneuver can also be applied to his lackluster diplomacy on North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un.