Ramblings of an Old fart. -

We're Black People Really as Invisible to our Founders as Some Would Have You Believe?

Who Started the Slave Trade in North America? The United States did not exist when the transatlantic slave trade came to North America. * The Timeline: The first recorded enslaved Africans were brought to Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619 aboard a Dutch pirate ship, though Spanish and Portuguese empires had been trafficking enslaved people to the Americas and the Caribbean since the early 1500s. * The Imperial Engine: For over 150 years before the Declaration of Independence, the American colonies operated under British imperial law, which aggressively expanded and legally institutionalized chattel slavery to maximize colonial output. The economic system of the colonies is called mercantilism. Under this system, the colonies were strictly designed to be a giant resource-extraction farm for the British Crown. Thomas Jefferson Jefferson is the ultimate embodiment of the American paradox. He authored the words "all men are created equal" while owning more than 600 enslaved people over his lifetime. * What he wrote: In his Notes on the State of Virginia (1781), he expressed terror over the eventual consequences of slavery: "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever." * The deleted clause: In his original draft of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson explicitly blamed King George III for the slave trade, calling it a "cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty." The Continental Congress struck this section out to appease South Carolina and Georgia. The founders didn't ignore slavery because Black people were invisible to them; they protected them because the Union was fragile. The Northern delegates detested the compromises, but they believed a flawed union was better than no union at all. They made a wager with history, hoping that if they locked the system down for the moment, slavery would naturally die out on its own. Instead, it took a civil war 74 years later to untangle it.

Is Your state selling your personal information from voter registration files?

The short answer is yes, voter registration data from across the country is actively bought, sold, and traded on the dark web. Constella Intelligence The biggest irony of voter roll data is that threat actors don't always have to "hack" the government to get it. In the vast majority of states, voter rolls are legally considered public records. While everyday citizens can't just browse them for fun, political campaigns, PACs, and commercial data brokers can legally buy the statewide voter file directly from state governments. The prices vary wildly by state—ranging from free to upwards of $37,000. Once a political campaign or a third-party data firm buys that master list, they upload it to their own private servers to build voter-targeting models. Because these private political consulting firms rarely have the same level of cybersecurity as a military base or a major bank, they get hacked all the time. While everyday citizens can't just browse them for fun, political campaigns, PACs, and commercial data brokers can legally buy the statewide voter file directly from state governments. The prices vary wildly by state—ranging from free to upwards of $37,000. Once a political campaign or a third-party data firm buys that master list, they upload it to their own private servers to build voter-targeting models. Because these private political consulting firms rarely have the same level of cybersecurity as a military base or a major bank, they get hacked all the time. Cybercriminals break into the servers of these middleman political firms, steal the clean spreadsheets of voter data, and flip them for a quick profit on dark web marketplaces like Russian Market or BidenCash.

Is our mail In Ballot System As Safe and Accurate as They Say It Is

This last week When I checked my Mail, I have a PO Box, which I have had for 12-15 years. I was expecting some mail in ballots for me and my wife, Because Utah mails them out to everyone on the voter roles. There was on e ballot in my box, I thought that’s weird they always show up together. On closer inspection I find that the ballot had the correct address info. But it was not us and we live in a small town, I didn’t recognize the name. As if that wasn’t enough to get me thinking about this, I heard on the news that Toole County here in Utah had some serious screw ups with mail in ballots. You see in a primary election you have 3 separate ballots you know Dems Republicans and unaffiliated. Well the printing company who also mails them apparently got wrong info or they screwed up, you had dems getting republican ballots and vice/versa and then unaffiliated were getting party ballots. So now they are working hard to get right ballots to the right places. Los Angeles County, California (Just Days Ago): On June 2, 2026, election officials launched an investigation after an outdoor ballot drop box at a Department of Public Social Services building in downtown Los Angeles was set on fire.Because it happened between scheduled pickups, only a "limited number" of ballots sustained fire damage, and the county is currently using security logs and tracking data to contact affected voters and issue replacements. CBS News

What Happens When Patriotism falls and People Stop Loving or Respecting Their Country

When a majority of people no longer love or respect their country, the consequences can be both social and political, often leading to instability, weakened institutions, and long-term decline. 1. Erosion of National Identity and Unity Patriotism has historically been a unifying force, but when it declines, national identity can fragment. Gallup data show that national pride is dropping sharply, especially among Democrats and Gen Z, with only about 36% of Democrats now “extremely” or “very” proud to be American AP News [https://apnews.com/article/patriotism-america-national-pride-decline-poll-gallup-0411dd2f28329a6b640d404db8626d3f]. This erosion can make it harder to rally around shared values, weakening social cohesion. Over the last couple of days I have heard about all of the celebrities dropping out of the 250th celebration. I thought how un-patriotic of them. I decided to look into the details and I was surprised by what I found out. I don’t watch the nightly news much because it’s usually not accurate and it’s always partisan. So it is my own fault that I wasn’t aware of two celebrations being planned. Congress Planned the America 250 Celebration and Trump group planned the Freedom 250 Celebration. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, I mean our congress can’t agree on anything but, they actually agreed on a nonpartisan basis for the America 250, good for them. But then as the case is these days the President had to do his own thing. Turns out that the presidents celebration is a lot about money and donations and the Presidents ego. I was very upset with the celebrities when I first heard about this, but now I can understand why. Understanding doesn’t really help that hurt I feel in my heart though. If we can’t even

Dark Money, Big Corporations and Unacountable Governments are doing it Again.

Kevin O Leary accuses Utah Organizers, trying to stop his Huge data Center Project, of colluding with the Chinese and taking money from Them. When O’Leary went on Fox News claiming he had IRS 990 forms proving a Chinese conspiracy, he was making a massive rhetorical leap. What his auditors actually found is completely standard, domestic political "dark money." Just days after O’Leary’s television appearance, the CEO of O’Leary Digital, Paul Palandjian, publicly stepped back from the "China" allegations. He admitted to local media that they had no specific evidence linking the Utah groups to China. Instead, he shifted the focus to demanding "donor transparency" * Senator Jerry Stevenson (Vice Chair of MIDA): Stevenson is a powerful state senator who sits right next to Stuart Adams on the MIDA Executive Board. In legislative hearings, Stevenson defended MIDA’s staggering reach by stating plainly, "Anything that a city can do, MIDA could do." Except, as you know, nobody can vote a MIDA board member out of office. * MAID (Military Installation Development Authority) Basically bypassed the peoples right to public debate and also bypassed our own legislature. They are a Quasi Governmental Agency Accountable to no-one, at least that is the way it appears.