The Day After the Battle of Missionary Ridge

(Formerly titled "First Thanksgiving Day in Chattanooga (Civil War)".)

By “first Thanksgiving Day”, no, I do not mean the harvest thanksgiving meal which the Separatist colonists of New Plymouth shared uncomfortably with their Wampanoag neighbors.  Nor do I mean any of the thanksgivings proclaimed on a one-time basis by a U.S. President after that.  In this case, the “First Thanksgiving Day” means the inaugural event of those that have taken place every third or fourth Thursday of November since.

At the height of the Civil War, in the aftermath of losses of Chancellorsville and Chickamauga as well as the horrific Union casualties at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed that the last Thursday of November would be a day of national thanksgiving every year.  Essentially, it was a public relations move to distract a war-weary population. 

The Confederacy held a similar observance on 21 August of that year for similar reasons.  In that case, the observance in Chattanooga was interrupted by the guns of John T. Wilder’s brigade on Stringer’s Ridge.

* * * * *

I first got interested in the battles the day after the big battles on 25 November when Becky Eaves, historian to East Brainerd and to Concord Baptist Church, told me about how her brothers used to gather up minie balls by the bucket-load to sell as fishing weights.  They gathered them from all over the farm which their parents had inherited from the Blackwell ancestors.  I became even more so after moving to Grays Drive and realizing the Army of Tennessee had probably retreated right through my front yard.

* * * * *

Little did Lincoln know when he made that proclamation on 3 October 1863 that on the day so designated, 26 November that year, the Confederate Army of Tennessee would be fleeing in desparation and somewhat disarray after its disastrous defeat on Missionary Ridge at the hands of the Union Army of the Cumberland.  According to reports in the Official Record of the War Between the States and letters from participating soldiers, there were several engagements fought during the retreat that day.

The day before, Hardee’s Corps of the Army of Tennessee had just been settling down to celebrate Patrick Cleburne’s victory at the “Battle of Tunnel Hill, Tn.” over William T. Sherman at at the northern end of the ridge, when the Confederate line on Missionary Ridge broke in the face of the charge by the Army of the Cumberland against its front and the sudden belated appearance Hooker’s corps from the Army of the Potomac at Ross’ Gap. 

Having saved the day, or so it thought, Cleburne’s Division now found itself assigned rearguard for the withdrawal to Chickmauga Station after having fought in heavy battle from 9 am to 4:00 pm against a vastly superior force.  In fact, Hardee’s entire corps had remained intact and held its positions, withdrawing in good order starting at 7:45 pm beginning with Cheatham’s Division, then Walker’s Division, then Stevenson’s Division, and finally Cleburne’s Division.  Smith’s Brigade of Cleburne’s Division, which had born he brunt of the worst of the fighting, did not leave Tunnel Hill until 9:00 pm.

* * * * *

The first post-Missionary Ridge engagement occurred that evening, between forward elements of Philip Sheridan’s 2nd Division of the 4th Corps of the Army of the Cumberland and unknown elements of the Army of Tennessee, including artillery. 

After leaving the ridge, Sheridan’s division followed the trail over the ridge well past nightfall.  In that time, Bird’s Mill Road followed Talley Road until it veered north, then ran down what is now Old Mission Road (referring to the former Brainerd Mission).  At the point where the road ran over Gillespie Hill, Confederates from the rearguard had set up a number of cannon and a line of infantry, which slowed Sheridan’s pursuit enough that he and his division had to stop for the night at Bird’s Mill and the old mission.

* * * * *

Chickamauga Station, the depot of which stood across the road from the airport terminal, was the designated rendezvous point for the retreating forces after Gen. Braxton Bragg’s catastrophic loss at Missionary Ridge.  From there the next day, the Army of Tennessee began withdrawing in two columns ideally following two separate routes.  Maj. Gen. John Breckenridge commanded one column, with Walker’s Division (under Brig. Gen. States Rights Gist) as its rear guard, while Lt. Gen. William Hardee commanded the other, with Cleburne’s Division as its rear guard.  (Col. John W.) Grigsby’s Brigade of Kelly’s Division of (Maj. Gen. Joseph) Wheeler’s Cavalry Corps divided to protect the two rearguards. 

(Brig. Gen. Lucius) Polk’s Brigade of Cleburne’s Division and (Brig. Gen. George) Maney’s Brigade of Stevenson’s Division, temporarily detached to Cleburne’s Division, were detailed to destroy the vast commissary stores at the depot, but there was too much.  (Brig. Gen. Joseph) Lewis’ Orphan Brigade out of Kentucky, part of Breckenridge’s Division but also seconded to Cleburne, formed the rear of the rear guard, covering for the other two brigades.

* * * * *

The vanguard of the Union pursuit was Brig. Gen. Jefferson C. Davis’ 2nd Division of the 12th Corps of the Army of the Cumberland.  Behind him came the 11th Corps of the Army of the Cumberland under Maj. Gen. Oliver Howard (for whom Howard High School and Howard Elementary are named).  When he learned from scouts the troops of the Confederate reaguard were the Kentuckians of Lewis’ Brigade, Davis made his 1st Brigade under James D. Morgan, also Kentuckians, the forward element of his division.

The first encounter between the two opposing units of Kentuckians took place at a hill north of Chickamauga Station, the same which Polk’s Brigade of Cleburne’s Division had held the day before.  After a brief skirmish, the Confederate Kentuckians withdrew to Chickamauga Station, where soldiers of Maney’s and Gist’s Brigade were vainly attempt to burn everything while stuffing as much food as they could wherever they could.

When Morgan’s Brigade reached the outskirts of Chickamauga around high noon, the Orphan Brigade covered the withdrawal of their comrades in the second encounter of the day.  Once Maney’s and Gist’s Brigades were gone, the Orphans withdrew to Milliken Ridge.

On two knobs on Milliken Ridge, Dupree Hill to the north and Stein Hill on the south, soldiers of Cleburne’s Division had that summer built two redoubts overlooking the station.  Here, the Orphans made their third stand against their fellow Kentuckians, then withdrew.

The fourth and final stand of the Orphan Brigade that day took place in Hickory Valley, which at that point ran between Milliken Ridge on the west and Concord Ridge to the east.  In this, the Orphans held positions on the ridgeside while Morgan’s troops dug in along Hickory Creek, which the Union commanders dubbed Shepherd’s Run after Margaret Shepherd, who came out from Altamede (the Shepherd mansion patterned after James Vann’s Diamond Hill) to scold the Union soldiers for ruining her flowerbeds.  When the Orphans withdrew again, probably along Igou Road, Davis gave the soldiers of Morgan’s Brigade a break.

* * * * *

While this was going on, Howard moved his corps to the left of Davis’ division to sweep wide and prevent straggling Confederates from escaping.  To cover his own left flank, Howard used the 55th Ohio Volunteers (2nd Brigade, 2nd Division) under Capt. Charles B. Gambee.  Gambee and his troops encountered the Orphan Brigade’s 4th Kentucky Infantry under Col. Thomas Thompson at Tyner’s Station.  After a brief encounter from which their opponents swiftly withdrew, the 55th Ohio captured a 1st lieutenant, four privates, and two teamsters.  Howard then moved the corps south down the valley roughly along what’s now known as Silverdale and Gunbarrel Roads (then known as Graysville-Harrison Road).

* * * * *

The largest engagement of the day, and one which could definitely be called a proper battle due to the number of soldiers involved, took place in Concord, or East Brainerd proper.  From the descriptions in various letters and reports of the commanders, this battle can only have taken place east of Concord Ridge, near Mackey Branch.  Sam Watkins of “Co. Aytch” in Maney’s Brigade refers to the stream as Cat Creek while the Union officers called it Shepherd’s Run under the mistaken impression or memory it was the same as Hickory Creek. 

Several references to the encounter’s proximity to Graysville, Georgia (“about a mile”) leave no other option.  The Union Army Cyclopedia of Battles, in fact, gives its location as Graysville, but it was clearly a bit north of there.

Facing their opponents across the creek and fields from a stretch of woods in hastily built rifle pits and breastworks, Maney’s Brigade lined up in what they thought was going to be a suicidal last stand facing Davis’ division.  At the last moment before the battle, units of Grigsby’s Brigade (its three Kentucky regiments) appeared, and settled down to fight alongside Maney’s troops dismounted.  They were supported by one of the Mississippi field artillery units, most likely (by process of elimination) Stanford’s Mississippi Battery.

Seeing the opposition, Davis sent forward his 2nd and 3rd Brigades under Brig. Gen. John Beatty and Col. Daniel McCook respectively.  Supporting them from Concord Ridge were guns from Battery I of the 2nd Illinois Light Artillery.  Davis kept Morgan’s Kentuckians in reserve.  After the engagement had begun, Howard’s 11th Corps arrived from the north.  Howard sent his 2nd Division under Brig. Gen. Adolph Steinwehr to Davis’ right and put his 3rd Division under Maj. Gen. Carl Schurz in reserve.

The fight lasted but an hour as darkness was falling, and at dusk the Confederates gratefully withdrew.  Brig. Gen. Maney was severely wounded in this encounter and remained out of action until returning to command a division under Hardee during the Atlanta Campaign.

* * * * *

While the above engagements were taking place, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker’s command, including the 12th Corps of the Army of the Potomac under Maj. Gen. Henry Slocum, the 14th Corps of the Army of the Cumberland under Maj. Gen. John Palmer (minus Davis’ division), and the 1st Division of the 15th Corps of the Army of the Tennessee under Brig. Gen. Peter Osterhaus, proceeded from Ross’ Gap toward Ringgold down the Old Federal Road hoping to cut off Bragg’s Confederates.  Destroyed bridges and flooded creeks caused serious delays.

While Hooker was stalled at Red House Ford while a bridge was built over the flooded West Chickamauga Creek, he sent cavalry across which encountered Liddell’s Brigade of Cleburne’s Division, commanded by Col. Daniel Govan, which easily turned them back.

When the road to Graysville divided from that to Ringgold, Palmer took his corps to the former while Hooker maintained his path to the latter.

Palmer’s vanguard was his 1st Division under Brig. Gen. Richard Johnson.  Johnson sent his 1st Brigade under Brig. Gen. William Carlin toward Graysville while his 2nd Brigade under Col. William Stoughton went toward Indian Springs, the area around the crossroads of the way to Graysville and the way to Ringgold.

In the dark of early evening, Carlin’s brigade stumbled into Gist’s Brigade, then attempting to cross Chickamauga River at Graysville.  Some fighting ensued, but in the dark no one was hit, and the Confederates were able to escape and ford the river upstream.

Meanwhile, Stoughton’s brigade surprised pickets from Stewart’s Division near the crossroads of the Lafayette and Ringgold roads, capturing some along with their guns, and causing the rest to flee in disarray.

As for Hooker’s column, Brig. Gen. John Geary’s 2nd Division of the 12th Corps of the Army of the Potomac encountered Breckenridge’s rearguard (i.e., Walker’s Division), including (Capt. T.B.) Ferguson’s South Carolina Battery, at Peavine Creek, and a skirmish ensued, resulting in some soldiers and artillery captured.

After crossing Peavine Creek and Chickamauga Swamp, Osterhaus’ division encountered what appeared to be a large body of Confederates encamped and entrenched atop what Geary calls the Pigeon Hills. The two generals formed their troops into lines-of-battle and commenced firing as they advanced.  By the time they reached the summit, the camp was deserted.

* * * * *

Related to the actions of these days was the raid of the 2nd Brigade of the 2nd Cavalry Division attached to the Army of the Cumberland, then under Col. Eli Long.

On 24 November, Maj. Gen. George Thomas, commander of the Army of the Cumberland, dispatched Col. Long and his troops to raid and destroy along the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad. 

That day, as reported Lt. Col. Edward Kitchell of the 9th Illinois Mounted Infantry, the unit involved, troops burned two caissons and tore up the rails at several points near Tyner Station (Thomas reported up the chain that they had burned the station and tore up all the tracks).  Later in the day, they encountered a wagon train coming out of Ooltewah and destroyed it.

On 25 November, while the Battles of Tunnel Hill, Tn., and of Missionary Ridge were being fought to the west, Long and his brigade captured Cleveland, Tennessee. 

On 26 November, Long sent the 3rd Ohio Cavalry under Lt. Col. Charles Seidel to search and destroy along the railroad to the Hiwassee River, Maj. Thomas Patten and the 1st Ohio Cavalry to do the same along the railroad to Dalton, and Maj. George Dobb and the 4th Ohio Cavalry back toward Chattanooga for the same.

At Charleston, Seidel found troops of (Brig. Gen. John H.) Kelly’s Division of Wheeler’s Cavalry Corps, which he drove across the Hiwassee River into Calhoun.  There, Kelly’s command, including (Col. William) Wade’s Brigade and all of the division’s artillery, was firmly entrenched.  Knowing when to quit, Seidel withdrew to Cleveland.

* * * * *

The next day, 27 November, Cleburne’s Division held Taylor’s Gap at Ringgold, Georgia, against Hooker’s entire command, though the main units involved on the Union side were the divisions of Osterhaus and Geary.  While Cleburne and his troops kept Hooker’s men thus tied up, the rest of the Army of Tennessee retreated from Catoosa Station to Dalton.  Cleburne and his men later followed, stopping at Tunnel Hill. 

The same morning, Kelly attacked Seidel’s troops at Cleveland, driving out the federals, then withdrew to Dalton the very same day, to join the rest of the Army of Tennessee.

Equality (for Ungagged 9)

The following is the text of my section of the Ungagged podcast "Looking Backward", which can be found at https://leftungagged.wordpress.com/2016/11/20/looking-backward/ and http://ungagged.podbean.com/e/looking-backward/ .

When Neil gave us the theme of equality, the first thing that came to my mind was the title of the sequel to the 19th century novel which was the 3rd best selling of that century in America, behind Ben-Hur: A Story of Christ and Uncle Tom’s Cabin.  That novel was Looking Backward, written by Edward Bellamy, cousin of co-founder of the Society for Christian Socialism and Pledge of Allegiance author Francis Bellamy. 

Looking Backward has the distinction of being not only one of the first socialist-oriented novels in America but also one of the first utopian science fiction novels dealing with time travel.  The story of the movement inspired by that novel, which I will go into at another time, is one of the reasons why I have decided to start calling America Neverland instead of the Great Satan.

During the primary season, my son David was driving me somewhere and we were discussing the elections.  I had supported Bernie Sanders in the primaries which were so heavily rigged in favor of the would-be coronee, and was going off about all of my reasons, which included such things as drastic income inequality, rule by oligarchy, destruction of the social welfare system, etc.  When I finished, he told me, “You sound just like Johnny”.  His step-father, who liked Bernie but was supporting Donald Trump. 

Though there are certainly plenty of exceptions, I suspect that most of those voting for Trump, the “deplorables” as Clinton referred to them, did so for many of the same reasons as those voting for Bernie, the “basement-dwellers” as Clinton referred to them.  Much in the same way the foot-soldiers of the original Tea Party movement resembled in their grievances the foot-soldiers of the Occupy movement.

So, do not be afraid that with the election of Donald Trump that Neverland has become overrun with folks in white sheets waving Confederate flags and folks in khaki waving the swaztika, because many of them are folk just like me, and, I suspect, like you too.

In their Declaration of Independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain, America’s so-called Founding Fathers wrote, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…”, meaning, of course, that they were male, white, landed property-holders, over the age of 21, and of the fourteen colonies that rebelled, Congregationalist in the colonies of New England and Anglican in the colonies from New York south, the only two of the fourteen not having religious requirements for voting being Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.  And yes, it was 14 colonies not 13, the tiny proprietary colony of Gardiner’s Island almost never being counted.

The tripartite motto of France— in its original form among the Cordeliers Clubs liberty, equality, fraternity, or death—was but one such triad passed around during that country’s revolution, all of which with but one or two exceptions included liberty and equality.  The country only adopted the triad as its official motto with the advent of the Third Republic in 1870. 

Another such triptych, likewise dating back to the French Revolution, made into the original version of Bellamy’s Pledge of Allegiance as “liberty, equality, and justice for all”.  As soon as he wrote it out, however, Francis realized that “equality” in the morning twilight of Jim Crow and in the face of then staunch resistance to women’s suffrage would not go over, so he dropped it before even submitting what he’d written.

As a social value, in the 18th and 19th centuries, “equality” meant equality of rights, specifically civil rights.  But equality thus defined and limited becomes destructive of itself.  I prefer Bellamy’s borrowed triptych to the French motto because without justice equality is incomplete.  Justice in this case means equity rather than criminal jurisprudence, what is often called social justice.  The boxes V mentioned in the post-US clusterfuck podcast demonstrate the difference between equality—all three game watchers standing on boxes of the same size—versus equity (or justice)—all three able to see the game over the fence with their eyes at the same level. 

In both, it occurred to me finally when looking at various spins on this theme, all three are equally outside.  Outside of those able to afford a seat in the stadium.  Outside those those considered socially acceptable.  Outside those considered human.  Even in the scenes showing equity between them, their only equity is with each other.  Like refugees in Europe, America, and Australia, standing on the outside looking in.  Or Palestinians outside colonies of their occupiers.  Or Native Americans outside

Much has been made of President-elect Trump’s declared intent to deport two to three million so-called “illegals” from Neverland.  Not as much note of Speaker of the House Paul Ryan’s saying, “Uh, no, actually, we have no plans to do that”, nor of the fact that by the time he leaves office, Barack Obama will have deported 3.2 million.

One of my favorite quotes on equality comes from American labor activist and socialist icon Eugene Debs, from his statement at his trial for sedition under the same law which the Obama administration has used to persecute and silence more whistle-blowers than any other president in American history.  “Years ago I recognized my kinship with all living things, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on the earth.  I said then and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.” 

As long as our brothers and sisters do not have what we have, do not have what they need to not only survive but thrive, do not have available what should be readily available if all of us took only what we need until everyone has enough, and have to stand beyond the fence looking in no matter how many boxes they get to stand upon, then none of us are free.

Rifle pits, Missionary Ridge, and the doctrine of the military crest

One of the most common criticisms of Gen. Braxton Bragg on the Army of Tennessee defense of Missionary Ridge is that he ordered, or at least allowed to be ordered, the placement of the rifle pits, or trenches, along the actual crest of the ridge rather than the military crest, which would be on the side facing the enemy but just below the edge of the actual crest.  That particular criticism of Bragg is an unfair and inaccurate anachronism.  Two other known placements of rifle pits by commanders recognized for their tactical skill demonstrate that this placement of rifle-pits was the standard practice of the time. 

After the troops of Maj. Gen. Sherman’s command, mostly his own 15th Corps of the Army of the Tennessee, dug in the afternoon of 24 November 1863 on Billy Goat Hill, they did so along the actual crest.  You can still see the remains of these rifle pits along the crest of the ridge above Battery Heights, along with several well-preserved gun emplacements created at the same time.

When the troops of Cleburne’s Division of the Army of Tennessee dug in at first on Trueblood/Tunnel Hill at the north end of Missionary Ridge across Ford’s Gap from Sherman’s troops, they likewise did so along the actual as opposed to what’s now called the military crest.

The reason for the later repositioning of Cleburne’s defences had more to do with the fact that his opponent came from the north instead of the west, necessitating the single brigade of his division in active combat (Smith’s) dig in perpendicular to the original trench in tighter formation just below the apex of the hill at Sherman’s Reservation where the cannons and plaques are now.

Recognized by anyone who knows very much about the Civil War as the best division commander of both armies, had placement of trenches along the actual crest not been standard military doctrine at the time, Maj. Gen. Patrick Ronayne Cleburne would not have employed it.  The remains of those initial rifles pits along the crest of Tunnel Hill are clearly visible at Sherman’s Reservation and better preserved than those at Billy Goat Hill.

The most-often cited as the best division commander of the Union army, by the way, is Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan, then of the Army of the Cumberland.

Notably, one of Bragg’s brigade commanders, Col. Arthur Manigault of Anderson’s Division, dissented in the placement of the rifle pits, only to be told by Bragg’s engineer Capt. John Green that Maj. Gen. Breckenridge, whom Bragg had charged with the belated construction of defense works, had ordered that they be dug along the actual crest. 

Disregarding those orders, Manigault had the rifle pits of his brigade placed along the “military crest” and futilely tried to convince the two commanders on either side as well.  As a result, Manigault’s line held while those of Deas and Tucker on either side collapsed, though his troops had to withdraw to keep from being overrun.

Two days later, Cleburne led his division holding the rear guard for the Army of Tennessee retreating to Dalton, Georgia, from Catoosa Station a mile east of Ringgold.  Knowing he would be facing the entire Union corps commanded by Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker, he placed his artillery in Taylor’s Gap with some infantry support and the bulk of his command atop Whiteoak Mountain on either side.  There, the men dug in at the military rather than actual crest of the ridge and held their positions, inflicting heavy casualties against the attacking forces.

It was, in fact, about the time of the Battles of Tunnel Hill, Tn., of Missionary Ridge, and of Ringgold Gap that the doctrine of a “military crest” came into being.  I posit that this change in military doctrine came about specifically because of the experience of the quick collapse of the Army of Tennessee’s line before the onslaught of the Army of the Cumberland on that day (25 November 1863) due in large part to the blind spots created by the traditional placement, followed by the proven success of their alternate placement two days later on Whiteoak Ridge at Ringgold Gap.

Remember Ronald Reagan?

Remember when Ronald Reagan opened his presidential campaign at the Neshoba County Fair, in the same community in which the three civil rights workers were murdered by the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in 1964?

Remember when the week before Super Tuesday Ronald Reagan gave a “tough on crime” speech in Stone Mountain, Georgia, birthplace in 1915 of the Knights of the Ku Klux, Inc., flanked and backed by white Dixiecrats in front of ranks of black prisoners?

Remember how the Reagan administration sponsored legislation targetting primarily Afro-Americans which increased use of the death penalty, eliminated higher education for inmates, prohibited education assistance for felons, increased money for new prisons, gave money to states for keeping prisoners inside longer, supported the private prison industry, allowed for states to pass three-strikes laws, and barred ex-cons from public housing?

Remember how the Reagan administration sponsored legislation that “ended welfare as we know it” by placing a lifetime limit on welfare benefits, devolving responsibility for welfare to the states and handing them block grants of money, nd instituting a workfare-for-welfare program requirement, drastically cut back on the food stamp program, and all but abolishing Medicaid?

Remember how Reagan pressured his party’s national committee to drop from its platform statements expressing anti-monopoly sentiments that had been there since 1880?

Remember how the Reagan administration sponsored legislation that abolished the prohibition against a bank holding company in one state acquiring a bank headquartered in another state, allowed for media cross-ownership, deregulated broadcast and telecommunications markets, eased regulations on creditors and made it more difficult for clients to sue firms for securities fraud, loosened supervisory regulations over financial institutions and lessened creditor liability, overruled all state laws that regulated savings and loan credit activities, abolished the Glass-Steagall provisions separating commercial banks and investment firms, deregulated over-the-counter derivatives, attempted  to privatize Social Security and Medicare, made it harder of buyers to get out of lender required insurance on mortgages, and made it harder to consumers though not businesses to discharge debts through bankruptcy?

Remember how the Reagan administration sponsored legislation that defined marriage as being between one man and one woman and nothing else?

To all you neoliberals and other pseudo-progressives who have not yet gotten the joke, I have to point out that Ronald Reagan only did one of these things.  The rest came from “America’s first black president”, Bill Clinton, in partnership with his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton.  So, you see, when true progressives and others whom the policies of the Clinton joint-administration have harmed withheld our votes from this year’s Democratic Party nominee or else voted against her, it was not because of misogyny, sour grapes, and contempt for her ability, rather it was because we highly respected her abilities but feared what she would have done with them.

Ronald Reagan may have started the change of the War on Poverty into the War on the Poor, but the Bill Clinton took it to Warp 10 and made it cool.  For liberals, the best gift from the Clintons was that they made it acceptable to be dog-whistle racism-spouting, poor-shaming bigots again and still call themselves “progressive”.

Also, it’s way past time for dynastic politics to end.  No more Rockefellers, no more Kennedys, no more Bushes, no more Clintons, no more of any families who have had several members in political office.  After having spent four years in the Philippines, I learned well what placing such a concentration of power in so few hands can do to a country.

For Veterans/Remembrance/Armistice Day

to strifemongers

to chickenhawks

to war-profiteers

to all those whose idea of patriotism

is sending out young people to die

trying to kill other young people

trying to kill them:

FUCK YOU.

to all those more concerned

with  the profits and interests of corporations

than the cost of permanent war

on individual humans and societies

including our own:

FUCK YOU.

to all those who sow strife and dissension

to divide humans from each other

within artificial invisible boundaries

created for the sole purpose of dividing turf

between wealthy and powerful elites

who then turn those same humans against other humans

on the "other side" of those artificial boundaries

humans who are likewise at the mercy

of wealthy and powerful elites

more similar to the elites on their side

than to humans on either side

including how they manipulate their humans

FUCK YOU.

to all who believe corporations are people

whose money is speech

whose rights to religious freedom trump

that of actual humans

FUCK YOU.

to all whose ideology trumps

concern for human welfare

for liberty, equality, and social justice

FUCK YOU.

And the horse you rode in on.

Rise Up and Abandon the Creeping Meatball

This is Chuck Hamilton, a Yank from Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA, a poet, writer, historian, activist in various causes, and a Scottish nationalist for as long as I can remember.

Remember what Jean Shepherd said about creeping meatballism being the passive acquiescence of people who surrender to the demands of the consumer culture and collaborate in their own manipulation?  In the Great Satan back in the 1960s, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and three of their friends founded the counterculture-oriented Youth International Party whose slogan was “Rise up and abandon the creeping meatball”.  It’s in the yippie spirit, in fact, that I’m now referring to America as the Great Satan, certainly not out of any respect for that chicken-fucker Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who coined the term.  Uncle Sam may be the more common nickname, but in that guise America is the uncle comes to your bedroom at your parents’ house at night with its trousers unzipped.

I remember a story I heard on the radio (remember those), on National Public Radio, I think, about a couple who had this pet chimpanzee, a female they’d named Jane.  There came a point when they couldn’t care for her anymore, and thinking she should be with her own kind, they gave her over to the local zoo.  The first time they came to visit her, she became extremely excited, especially when they gave her a bunch of treats.  They came again and did the same, failing to notice the agitation from the other chimps.  When they returned the third time, Jane wouldn’t come near them, and had clearly been beaten.  Asking the zookeeper what happened, he explained that they should have brought enough for all of the group.

There’s a quote going around falsely attributed to Jody Foster that was actually a computer-generated meme.  Maybe machines are not as stupid as we thought.  The quote goes, “Attacking the rich is not envy; it is self-defense.  The hoarding of wealth is the cause of poverty.  The rich aren’t just indifferent to poverty: they create it and maintain it.”  That’s the end of the so-called quote, but if it had continued, the computer would’ve added that they maintain it through the power of the political state and informal means of social control such as the creation of patriotism and making the poor ashamed of the poverty inflicted upon them in order to maintain the wealth of the few, as if it is somehow their fault rather than the wankers and cunts who have thrust it upon them. 

Another meme I’ve seen in relation to the suffering visited upon Greece by the European Union which should make one have second thoughts about that body, that just because Brexiters were so obnoxiously bigoted does not mean the EU is a good thing anymore than Donald Trump makes Hillary Clinton a good thing or Donald Cameron and Theresa May make Tony Blair a good thing.  This meme, describing the chain of events leading to the crash of 2007 and the ongoing Great Recession, quite accurately describes austerity.

It goes like this: Rich people cause economic crisis.  Rich people demand bail out from state for causing the crisis.  Rich people do better than ever before.  Rich people demand austerity, which is a fancy word for cutting services for the non-rich, to pay for bailing out rich people.  Rich people blame poor people for the crisis they themselves have created, and become angry that poor people think they deserve better, calling for more sacrifice…sacrifice from the poor, that is.

So, the answer to the age-old question of why is there so much poverty in the world, as answered by a computer no less, is that there is poverty because there is wealth.  Wealth is, in fact, is the sole cause of poverty.  Without a greedy few amassing hoards of resources out of the reach of the rest of humanity, there would be more than enough for all.  The needs of the many should outweigh the greed of the avaricious few.

Much is made of the divide between the basement dwellers who supported Bernie Sanders and the deplorables who support Donald Trump.  The truth is that both sets of us are driven by the same underlying motivation; less and less available for the many as the few, the 1%, hoard more and more to themselves.  Like the grassroots of the Occupy movement vis-à-vis the rank-and-file of the Tea Party movement in its early days.  The differences are superficial and ephemeral, just like the illusory divide between grassroots supporters of Brexit and grassroots opposers of Brexit.  The more we buy into this division which is as artificial as any national border, the more we collaborate in our own manipulation and allow the meatball to creep on until it rolls over us like a boulder.  We can’t abandon the creeping meatball unless we first rise up and demand what all of us deserve, a cooperative commonwealth of the many, by the many, and for the many, even the then formerly wealthy whose hoards have been more fairly distributed.

I’d like to close out with a poem I wrote back in 1997 during the dark years of the Clinton machine’s first ascension to the throne of the Empire, which has a liberation theme of sorts.  It was one of my most popular on the local open mike circuit back then.  It’s about emancipation of the mind and the spirit.  It’s called,

Random Thoughts, the day after a really weird night that I spent at Kilroy's Coffeehouse, and no, I'm not on acid

I don't really care whether I go to heaven
Or whether I go to hell

I don't believe in that version of reality

Somehow I think the Otherside

If there is one, that is

Would blow the fucking minds

Of the purveyors of guilt and fear

But even if -- and that's a big IF

The truth does conform

To their mythological paranoid psychosexual fantasies

I'd rather burn with the righteous sinners

Than sing with the sanctimonious saints

At least the sinners are honest

About who they are

They're a whole lot more real

Than the ones who sit in judgment

Over the rest of us outside

Worrying about gossip

And what's "appropriate" and "polite"

Serving the capitalist Leviathan

And the conformist Behemoth

With the labor of their hearts and minds

Buying whatever the creeping meatball

Tells them they need

Eating vanilla food and having vanilla sex

Walking the line in the middle of the road

And getting their spirits squashed like a grape

Give me spice, give me pepper

Give me the odd, the strange, the wonderful

Give me the outrageous and offensive

Give me the culturally blasphemous

Give me the really weird

Give me cookies and cunnilingus

—oh wait....for me that's fellatio—

Give me true freedom and liberty

In all their anarchic, iconoclastic, orgiastic splendor

And speaking of hell

Since James Dobson is on such good terms

With the Almighty

Maybe he can tell me the answer

To a question that's just come to mind...

(And here, existing for a moment

In Never-Never-Land

We have to pretend

That heaven and hell are real)

This is my question:

Where does God send sinners who are masochists?

Certainly not to hell

Where await fire and brimstone

Assorted tortures and all manner of pain

The ultimate experience of S&M

An eternal orgasm stretching to infinity

And speaking of torture and pain

Brings to my mind the scourging,

The crowning with thorns,

And the crucifixion

Certainly Christians must all be sadists

Since seeing the crucified victim's agony

Brings them such orgasmic joy

As they torture themselves with

Autoerotic shame and mental emotional pain

Wouldn't it have been tacky

If the Big Boy himself had been a masochist

Bottom to Pilate's top?

And another thing…

If Jesus Christ really DID take all humanity's sins

Upon himself that day

(And good GOD....where would he fit THAT load)

Why do Christians these days

Give Satan such a bum rap

Laying all their sins

At his feet and at his door

How would you like to be the Devil

Hearing what they say?

A story in the Talmud teaches

That Satan is God's most loyal servant

Testing the faith of his children

By tempting them to sin

Courting ridicule, scorn, and outright hatred

And by offering them a choice

Making real their gift of free will

Courting ridicule, scorn, and outright hatred

Like the prostitute hired by the king

To test his heir and find out his worth

No, it's not false witness that they fear

Coming from the "Father of Lies"

But rather that he'll tell the truth

So they would condemn the Accuser

Who holds up the mirror

Showing them their true selves

Come on, people, grow up

Take some fucking responsibility

Don't scapegoat another, even Auld Hornie

After all, the serpent in the Garden

Was the only one who told the truth

I remember a quote from Isaiah's Song

"He was despised and rejected by men

Wounded for our transgressions

And bruised for our iniquities"

And I get a way far out idea

About an intriguing possibility:

If good and evil are really the same thing

Created by God when he formed light and darkness

Since that quote could apply with equal truth

Though perhaps for different reasons

To Lucifer, son of the morning

Or to Jesus, bright morning star

Maybe, just maybe

They're the same person

Census of Sapient Beings in the Universe, revised

(Revised according updated number of galaxies in the Universe.)

Life on Terra, Planet Earth, has existed 4.1 billion years.

The whole primate genus Homo has existed only 2.8 million years.  The entire H. sapiens species has been around just 200,000 years.  The H. sapiens sapiens race (subspecies), aka “modern humans”, is only 30,000 years old. 

H. sapiens sapiens is the only remaining race of the H. sapiens species, with the other races (H. sapiens denisova, H. sapiens idaltu, H. sapiens neanderthalensis), being extinct.  The other species of the genus Homo—H. naledi, H. habilis, H. erectus, H. rudolfensis, H. heidelbergensis, H. floresiensis—and other genera of hominids—Paranthropus, Australopithecus, Kenyanthropus, Ardipithecus, and Orrorin—have been extinct even longer.

Genetic testing has proven that “modern humans”, H. sapiens sapiens, mated and bred with members of earlier human species at least as old as H. habilis.

A single human of the H. sapiens sapiens race is, on average, 664 billionths (0.000000000664 or 6.64 x 10^-11) km³ in volume, with an average lifespan of 67.2 years. 

There are 7.3 billion H. sapiens sapiens individuals on Terra (Planet Earth).

Forty billion of the 200 billion stars in the Milky Way support Class-M planets and 8-10 billion of these host sapient life analogous to humans.

If Terra’s current human population is the median, there are 61.6 quintillion (61.6 x 10¹⁸) sapient beings in our galaxy.

There are around 2 trillion galaxies in the Universe.

Hypothesizing the Milky Way’s sapient population as the median, there are 123.2 nonillion (1.23 x 10³²) sapient beings in the Universe at any one time.

Think about those statistics next time someone talks about, or claims to be or to follow, the Anointed One, the Chosen People, the Exceptional Nation, or the Elect Species.

A Nation of Our Own (for Ungagged 6)

A recent poll found that 23% of millennials in the USA would rather see a #GiantMeteor2016 hit the planet than either Trump or Clinton in office.  Of course, with either of the two major candidates, planetary extinction is still a possibility, especially with Clinton, whose statements on rebuilding America’s nuclear arsenal and repeated statements on the threat of Russia are eerily if unsurprisingly reminiscent of the bellicose rhetoric of her first political hero, Barry Goldwater.

For those of you who do not know, Barry Goldwater also introduced into the American national political arena in 1964 the dog-whistle racism which featured so prominently in the legislation, policy, and campaigns of Bill and Hillary Clinton and their allies in the 1990s.  Say what you will about the Clintons, they made it acceptable for white American suburban professionals to be white supremacist poor-shaming bigots again and to still call themselves “progressive”. 

Hillary calls herself a “progressive who gets things done”.  Let’s fact-check that statement by looking at the record of the Clinton administration, both acting directly and working through its allies in the U.S. Congress.  Although Bill held the office of President from 1993 to 2001 and made the final decisions in the administration, Hillary was his near-equal partner every step of the way.  It is therefore not unfair to ascribe to her the same blame or credit as Bill for its results. 

The Clinton administration rammed NAFTA through Congress, the first major international so-called free trade pact which devastated the working people of both the United States and Mexico and did not very much for those in Canada either.

It laid the groundwork for the mergers and acquisitions of the 1990s and 2000s, resulting in the current state of six gigantic corporations controlling America’s money supply.

It passed legislation eliminating higher education for prison inmates, prohibiting education assistance for felons, increasing money for new prisons, prohibiting felons from residing in public housing, giving money to states for keeping prisoners longer, supporting private prisons, and allowing for states to pass three-strikes laws.

It passed legislation easing regulations on creditors and making it more difficult for customers to sue firms for securities fraud.

It loosened supervisory regulations over financial institutions and lessened creditor liability to the significant disadvantage of clients and consumers.

It overruled all state laws regulating savings and loan credit activities.

It placed a lifetime limit on welfare benefits, devolved responsibility for welfare to the states, instituted a punitive, demeaning “workfare-for-welfare” program, and greatly restricted the food stamp program in addition to adding similar “work” for the people receiving those.

It deregulated telecommunications markets and broadcast media in a way that allowed mergers to take place that have led to just four corporations controlling all media in the country.

It defined marriage as between one man and one woman, which Hillary vehemently defended as late as 2014.

It attempted to privatize Social Security, but the effort was cut short by the Monica Lewinsky scandal and its aftermath.

It destroyed the remaining provisions of a Depression-era law that distinguished between investment banks and commercial banks, causing the wave of megamergers that lead to the crash of 2007.

It deregulated over-the-counter derivatives trading, opening the door to an explosion in unregulated securities, including the credit default swap.

It made it harder for consumers to get out of lender-required insurance accompanying mortgages.

It almost made it far harder for consumers (but not businesses) to discharge debts through declaration of bankruptcy.  However, Hillary, then running for Senate, convinced Bill to let it die through a pocket veto.  As Senator the very next year, Hillary voted in favor of the bill when it came up again, though it failed due to opposition from her fellow Democrats.  It passed in 2005.

To paraphrase Marx, if this is progressivism, all I can say is that I am not a progressive.

And none of this even begins to touch on her horrific record in regards to Latin America, North Africa, and Southwest Asia as Secretary of State.

Voting for Hillary places a seal of approval on all of the above.  Doing so with the intent of stopping Trump does not change that any more than Obama’s signing statement protesting the provision allowing for the indefinite detention of American citizens without charge in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2014 changed the fact that he refused to veto like he did the bill allowing victims to sue Saudi Arabia over 9/11.

As paraphrased by activist Marty Jezer, storyteller Jean Shepherd said that creeping meatballism represents the passive acquiescence of people who surrender to the demands of the consumer culture and collaborate in their own manipulation.  Both major parties view the human members of the American electorate not as citizens but as consumers, the Democratic National Committee explicitly so as we now know from the Wikileaks of their emails which refer to “Hispanics”, their word not mine, as “brand-loyal consumers”. 

America is not a democracy but an oligarchy, one not of the people but of the 1%, not for the people but for the corporations, not by the people but by the paid servants of those corporations.  Under current conditions, voting in elections is nothing more than the means by which the people lend legitimacy to that oligarchy.  As long as American citizens keep playing the game of Republicans versus Democrats, they will always end with more of the same.

At the end of the 1983 movie War Games, which premiered the same year the USA and the USSR went to and remained at DefCon 2 worldwide for two weeks, Matthew Broderick’s character David Lightman has the computer Joshua, which has taken control of the entire American missle defense system, play itself in tic-tac-toe knowing that it will then extrapolate those results to the program it is currently running, “Global Thermonuclear War”.  After going through every possible scenario with all resulting in the destruction of the entire planet, the computer shuts down, then reboots, saying (to its inventor), “Interesting game, Professor Falken.  The only way to win is not to play”.

America desperately needs a third party, maybe even more than one.  No third party is ever going to have a chance on the national level if citizens do not vote for third parties.  Sure, if enough people vote third party this election, Trump may come to power.  For the United States, this may be a disaster, but for the world, Clinton will be far, far worse.

Recently, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), Reporters Without Borders to Americans, rejected the offer of Big Pharma outlet Pfizer of one million pneumonia vaccines because accepting it would give that corporation cover for charging the outrageous fees it currently requires.  That takes courage, that takes character, that takes honor.  I ask those listening to do like Joshua the computer and extrapolate.  Build a third party, a party of the people, by the people, and for the people, even if it involves short-term setback and personal sacrifice.  Then maybe, just maybe, one day we will have something none of us have never had before: an actual democracy, a nation of our own.

Finally, I want to call out John Oliver for knowingly and deliberately misrepresenting the position of Green Party candidate Jill Stein on student debt and that of her running mate Ajamu Baraka on prisons.  Shame on you, John; your credibility is shot.

Thig ar latha.  Alba gu brath.