Emancipation Proclamation Tulsa Trump

We think of this document, this proclamation, as something issued on January 1, 1863.  Not really.  It was issued today, the Equinox incidentally, and went into effect January 1 of the following year. It offered up a plan for freeing slaves in the states that were in rebellion and as the rebellion was put down in any one state named, the slaves were free.  There is, of course, a LOT more to it than that, but it should show us how a President, armed with war powers as commander in chief, can do something on his own without congress.

This is a map of the states that were in rebellion that were effected by the Emancipation.  Aside from
looking like a current polling or voting map, the takeaway is that it demonstrates a fairly significant chunk of land, a huge fire on the continent, on which Lincoln tossed a moral bucket of fuel.  That fire, or some it, kept ablaze for more than a while and spurts up in awful ways to this day.

I saw clips of the happenings in Tulsa and Charlotte on the news these past days and frankly, they are looking like some endless series of clips where mostly black folks are shot by police during traffic stops. In honesty, if I were black and pulled over by police, I don't know what I would do.  If you do what they say, you can get shot.  If you ignore them, you can get shot.  If you have a license to carry a gun, you WILL get shot.  99% of the police in this country are more than decent public servants.  They are terrific and do a job I wouldn't ever dream I could do.
Some, however, carry a heritage and they get everyone in trouble. By the same token, there is a fair segment of the population, both black and white, who feel victimized generally and have anger dating back to this day 154 years ago.   They were "free" but it was of little consequence.

What we have had in these years is progress and setback, confrontation and disobedience.  There always seems to be someone who will mount the soapbox and incite, either directly or symbolically.
Enter Mr. Trump.

I'll leave you with this observation.  The Presidency is an office with both little and unlimited power; the most significant of which is commander in chief of the most powerful military in the world and in a country that has been in perpetual states of war for as long as I can remember.  Like Lincoln, the president can reach into an almost endless bag of "national security/war powers" tricks and come up with just about anything imaginable or un-.

Think about that for a minute please....click the link below as there is little need to look further.

https://www.facebook.com/motherjones/videos/10153777810687144
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