Utopia, you are standing in it!

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Northern cities served as the backdrop for confrontations on a scale the civil rights movement had never seen before the mid-1960s. Scarred by widespread discrimination, black inner-city neighborhoods became sites of crumbling houses, poverty, and street violence. Although the black-led movement for social change and equality in the North had a long history, it had not received the same media attention the struggle in the South had

About this series

Wikipedia

Eyes on the Prize is an American television series and 14-part documentary about the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. The documentary originally aired on the PBS network and also aired in the United Kingdom on BBC2. Created and executive produced by Henry Hampton at the film production company Blackside and narrated by Julian Bond, the series uses archival footage, stills and interviews of participants and opponents of the…

As we ponder the abrupt end to Boris Johnson’s premiership, Dr Vivienne Larminie of our Commons 1640-60 section offers a salutary reminder that the sudden collapse of a government is far from unprecedented in British history…

Reporting on events at Whitehall palace on 6 April 1659, weekly newspaper The Publick Intelligencer depicted a harmonious outcome to a potentially dangerous political confrontation. That evening, ‘in one of the publick rooms of audience’, Lieutenant-general Charles Fleetwood and others from the general council of the officers of the armies of England, Scotland and Ireland had presented a petition to Protector Richard Cromwell. The Humble Representation began by stressing the patience and forbearance of forces constituted ‘for the just Rights and Liberties, Civil and Religious of our Countreys, and not as a Mercenary Army’, but went on to state dramatically ‘the crying necessities of the Armies for want of pay’ and their perception of…

The wind and solar industries were founded on myth, built on lies and run on subsidies. The only thing they are capable of producing on a consistent basis are Pinocchio-style whoppers, starting with the notion that wind and solar power are actually good for the environment.

Breached promises about delivering power on demand are met with efforts to shift the blame and more lies about how their failure to do so was caused by a lack of investment in mythical renewable energy storage.

Any challenge about the millions of tonnes of toxic wind turbine blades being dumped in landfills is met with a couldn’t care less shrug, and you’ll get much the same response when it comes to the destruction of forests and wilderness to make way for more solar panels and wind turbines, and the wind industry’s wholesale slaughter of birds and bats.

A cynical form of hypocrisy abounds…

About this episode from IMDb

Episode focuses on black militancy and the roots of the black power movement. Also tracks the influence of ideas of black separatism and black nationalism on a new generation of blacks and analyzes the long-term impact they had on whites who supported the freedom movement.

About this series

Wikipedia

Eyes on the Prize is an American television series and 14-part documentary about the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. The documentary originally aired on the PBS network and also aired in the United Kingdom on BBC2. Created and executive produced by Henry Hampton at the film production company Blackside and narrated by Julian Bond, the series uses archival footage, stills and interviews of participants and opponents of the movement. The title of the series is derived from the folk song “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize,” which is…

Mark Felton – Mark Felton War Stories– July 19,2022

The international effort to bring Japanese war criminals to justice was actively thwarted and sabotaged by the US occupation authorities led by General MacArthur and President Truman’s administration in Washington. Why? Because Japan was needed as a postwar ally of the US to help stop the spread of Communism. But this meant that finding justice for the hundreds of thousands of Allied POWs, internees and local civilians who had been maltreated and often murdered by Japanese troops during WWII was very difficult. Many of the guilty were never charged, while those given prison terms were let out early.

Dr. Mark Felton is a well-known British historian, the author of 22 non-fiction books, including bestsellers ‘Zero Night’ and ‘Castle of the Eagles’, both currently being developed into movies in Hollywood. He has written extensively on Japanese war crimes, POW camps, Nazi…

About this episode from IMDb

From PBS – Ten years after the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, the civil rights leadership has become more sophisticated in its use of protest strategy. Looks at the Selma March in particular

About this series

Wikipedia

Eyes on the Prize is an American television series and 14-part documentary about the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. The documentary originally aired on the PBS network and also aired in the United Kingdom on BBC2. Created and executive produced by Henry Hampton at the film production company Blackside and narrated by Julian Bond, the series uses archival footage, stills and interviews of participants and opponents of the movement. The title of the series is derived from the folk song “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize,” which is used in each episode as the opening theme music.

A total of…

In July 1872, 150 years ago this month, the Ballot Act introduced the secret ballot to all UK parliamentary and local elections. Here guest blogger Dr Gary Hutchison, of the Causes and Consequences of Electoral Violence project, discusses how the secret ballot affected violence at elections. An Interactive Map of over 3,000 violent events, from individual assaults to riots, can be found on their website.

Victorian elections in England and Wales were far, far more violent than has previously been thought. During the last general election before the secret ballot in 1868 there were at least thirty-seven riots, over one hundred smaller disturbances and almost two hundred smaller violent incidents. Seventeen deaths were directly caused by the contests taking place. This state of affairs was, in fact, not particularly out-of-the-ordinary for an election. Violence was a fact of everyday electoral life. Below are two images – Market Square…

On 28 June 2022 the First Minister provided an update to the Scottish Parliament on the Scottish Government’s route map to a second independence referendum. In a debate characterised by entrenched positions and seeming impasse, those plans caused some surprise. First, and whilst stressing her preference to legislate for a referendum on the basis of a section 30 order, the First Minister revealed that she had invited the Lord Advocate to make use of the direct reference procedure in paragraph 34 of schedule 6 to the Scotland Act 1998 as a means to resolve the still open question as to whether or not the question contained in the proposed Scottish Independence Referendum Bill – ‘should Scotland be an independent country’ – relates to reserved matters. In response, the Advocate General for Scotland has confirmed that he will join as a formal party to the case and has argued that…

I’ve written a few columns that explain tax principles, but this video from the Tax Foundation may be the best place to start if you have friends or colleagues who need to learn the basics.

As part of the article that accompanies the video, the Tax Foundation explains that not all taxes are created equal. In other words, some taxes impose more damage than other taxes.

And this chart from the article is a nice summary of the three types of tax, along with the potential damage caused by varying ways of collecting tax.

As a general rule, this chart is totally accurate.

Corporate income taxes, gross receipts taxes (mentioned here), and wealth taxes do a lot of economic damage on a per-dollar-collected basis.

But I want to add a caveat to the first column.

As currently designed, there’s no question that the personal income tax…