USA

2020

Presidential Election

Trump Will Do Absolutely Anything To Stay In Office

Facebook & Youtube

Will still carry Trump Presidential Election Adverts

Facebook: prevent violence, protect the vote!

Violent extremists are using Facebook to intimidate voters, and preparing to rally their troops if Trump doesn't win the election.
That's why a huge coalition of civil society groups pushed Facebook to adopt some simple policy changes -- like banning incitement to violence -- ahead of the vote.

2019

UK & USA

TRUMP
Family Apple hasn't fallen far from the tree

Trump's parents and siblings:
What do we know of them?

Fred Trump, was one of seven men arrested in 1927 at a Memorial Day parade in Queens, where 1,000 robed members of the Ku Klux Klan rioted when the Irish-American-led police force tried to prevent them from marching. The arrest was documented in the New York Times two day later, in an account that gave Fred Trump’s name and home address

Police Head Declares Neither Fascist Nor Klan Had Any Place in Memorial March.

NEW YORK TIMES 1st JUNE 1927

Kellyanne Conway's Curious Amnesia About Anti-Irish Bigotry

2018: TRUMP
National Enquirer Had Decades of Trump Dirt. He Wanted to Buy It All.

A recording released of a conversation between Michael Cohen and Donald J. Trump hinted at more than hush money to a former Playboy model.“It’s all the stuff,” Mr.Cohen can be heard saying.
CreditCreditGabriella Demczuk for The New York Times

Donald Trump to almost entirely avoid London during UK visit

SCOTLAND

CNN YANK NEWS

It is time to remove this dangerous man from office.‬

"I have just signed the “Need To Impeach” petition initiated by Tom Steyer of California. Over two million other Americans have also signed it. And that number keeps growing every hour. We all of us must not wait a minute longer to act."

"Make no mistake – Donald J. Trump has NO intention of leaving the White House until January 20, 2025. How old will you be in 2025? That’s how long he plans to be your president. How much damage will have been done to the country, and the World by then? And that is why we must act."

TRUMPILEAKS

"Welcome to TrumpiLeaks. This site provides the most high-powered encryption technology to enable courageous whistleblowers to privately communicate with me and my team."

Cheers to Michael Moore for aiming this direct to his fellow Americans, from 1 Yank to another.

But Michael your Government & especially this president impacts on ALL the World. So ALL of the Worlds citizens MUST Blow The Whistle at this President.

Before his actions

Blow The Whistle on the World.

TRUMPS CHRISTIAN DISCIPLES America's Hate Preachers

Director Hannah Livingston spends six months tracking two of America's most radical Christian hate groups - a notorious pastor from Arizona who has been banned from the UK and a network of preachers who take their extremist message directly to the streets. This film shows how America's constitutional right to free speech allows these groups to spread homophobia and Islamophobia in an increasingly polarised and divided political climate.

Drawing on a literal interpretation of the Bible, the pastor opens new churches in America and influences people around the world by broadcasting his sermons over the internet.

JULIAN ASSANGE Founder Wikileaks & Australian WhistleBlower

This is an abridged version of an address by John Pilger to a rally in Sydney, Australia, to mark Julian Assange's six years' confinement in the Ecuadorean embassy in London.

JOHN PILGER AND ROGER WATERS BACK JUNE VIGILS AND RALLIES FOR JULIAN ASSANGE

4 June 2018 {John Pilger website Article}

On 19 June 2018, it will be six years since Julian Assange was forced to take refuge in the Ecuadorean embassy in London. He had been warned that the US planned an extradition warrant for his arrest.

His 'crime' was that of a scrupulous editor - WikiLeaks had revealed The War Crimes of the US. Today, Julian has never been more isolated, and his health is failing.

Beyond the headlines on Syria, Salisbury,
Yemen & North Korea (E605)

2017

USA's far right have they feel and assume got a president of their wet dreams, with Donald Trump who will finally put their agenda into effect.

While those of us in Europe have oft wondered at the continued capacity of the yanks to produce reactionary presidents, Ronald Reagan, both Bush's. We have blithely assumed that these characters were farther to the right than most of the USA's electorate. To do so was to some extent burying our heads in the sand. For there has been probably from the earliest days of independence, a large indeed substantial base of support for right wing views. Its all too easy for those this side of the pond, to misunderstand just how large an area the USA actually is. The obvious areas of political reaction are 'Down South' but that assumption does not provide the whole picture. Support for right wing views is not solely concentrated within the 'South' it can be found far and wide across the USA, though in smaller concentrations.

A brief look online would show what appear to us extreme examples, where USA Presidents were considered by some as actually 'Left Wing' or even 'Communist' but were still supported, as presumably they were still preferable to the alternative candidates. What kind of deranged opinion could have conceived these presidents in this light?
Those such as the Pastor of Amazing Grace Baptist Church, North Carolina USA. Who since 2009 has held annual Book Burning Ceremonies. I am not here to advertise this religious fruitcake, nor do I know specifically if he has these views of those particular USA Presidents, I simply give him as an indication of some strongly held opinion within the states, he and his parishioners are regrettably not isolated nutters check it out for yourselves.

Marc Grizzard, the pastor of Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Canton, North Carolina, says that he and his congregation. Plan To "Burn Bibles on Halloween" October 31, 2009, the Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Canton, North Carolina planned to celebrate the evening with a book burning, complete with a sign advertising the event. Pastor Marc Grizzard had declared the night would be spent burning any media deemed “satanic,” The pastor and his flock, claiming that the only accurate Bible was the first King James translation, claimed all other editions were “perversions” and therefore had to be tossed into the flame. The 2009 burning was called off due to weather and protesters, and a “book-tearing” was held inside the church instead. Since their original book-shredding event, the church has held an annual destruction of “satanic” materials.

The KKK for instance has never had to rely on solely Republican Party support, personal and financial, its support base has since its inception spread far and wide equally within the Democratic Party. While its fortunes and existence has fluctuated it has survived, and to this day it remains firmly rooted into Southern USA communities, counting members throughout all strata of society, Senators; Congress Representatives; Judges; Police Chiefs; through to the humblest professions. It considers itself as a 'Christian' organisation. Just this second checked online and found this interesting news item from the UK paper the Independent dated Sunday 10th December 2017. Though of an USA incident dating back to January 1977, I think it provides a salutory indication of my general point.

John Pilger has a far better grasp and ability to describe the essential facts that underpin my arguments, for detailed articles please read those shown below, I certainly won't endeavour to replicate these ideas when he does so far better than I. I use this page to outline my own political views on the USA, and I gratefully provide John Pilgers articles as detailed analyses. What must be realised is that its not just what may easily be dismissed as the 'Lunatic Fringe' to the extreme right wing of USA politics, that share some if not all of these bigoted racist opinions. It is NOT being alarmist to say that Trump has managed to tap into a support for ideas that go to the very heart of the USA political system. To illustrate this I'll use what I feel is an ideal example of the English politician, Enoch Powell. It is really uncomfortable for left wingers to admit, but he garnered support across the political spectrum in his heyday in Westminster politics. Many a worker whether a usual Labour or Tory Party voter would have happily endorsed him as a Prime Minister.
My salient point is that he spoke to a deep rooted reactionary aspect of English politics, that owes its roots in the British Empire, and that still forms to this day, the very base and foundations of British Capitalism.

Trump shares so many things in common with Powell, the same identical political ideology that emanates from Colonial attitudes born in the British Empire, Trump actually believes himself to be on a Crusade to lead the USA as a World Colonial power. It may seems strange to us this side of the pond when we consider the States history, that the USA may seek to emulate the British Empire but not so. There is a character steeped in USA political consciousness of Benedict Arnold so much so that even today his very name is considered as the epitome of the 'Traitor' that he is used as the archetype to illustrate the point. The implication being given is that there was universal support for an 'American Republic' and that he was the only rotten apple in the American political barrel. Taint necessarily so.

At the time of the American Revolution, it was English republican pioneer Thomas Paine who was among the first to postulate the consideration of an independent 'America'. At this point in USA history this was a singularly solitary position to take, there was a fair section of people who were not seeking even separation from British rule let alone Revolution. If the English monarch and his Government had been more politically astute, they may well have found some fair measure of support for a more lenient tax regime, and manage to hang on to the colony for a while longer. Indeed I feel Arnold has been a scapegoat for USA politicians remaining so unto today, indeed that there has been to say the least an ambivalent attitude towards its own history in relation to England.

It may indeed be at the heart of the so called "Special Relationship" that is purported to exist between the USA and Britain. Looking at political pronouncements from both Governments its tempting to ask exactly who is the dog and who the tail in this political marriage.

USA Presidents Ronald Reagan and both Bush's loved the whole panoply of monarchy and not simply dressing up for ceremonial or private functions. They all really loved the notion of being King of their particular Castle, this was not a simple throw back to a childhood conceit, but a real life attempt to replicate this within the USA. To a very real extent its tempting to consider who actually 'Won' or 'Lost' the American War of Independence, this isn't necessarily a silly thought as it may seem. What has actually changed politically in both the USA and Britain in the interim?

The same banking and insurance system that had Lloyds of London as a if not the, crucial financial institution underwriting the British empire and its American Colony.

Lloyds is still in place as an important pilar of the British banking establishment and of British capitalism.

It's too easy to simply look at the political and fiscal power base of the current USA, and assume England and Lloyds Bank to be pygmy's in comparison. What Lloyds Bank established within British Colonial rule remained as the foundations for the USA banking system.

Whichever way we look at it the desire for an USA Empire is an effective taking up the baton from the British Empire, with the yanks carrying on from where the English left off.

Political potential indicates an empire of much more clout, though in reality its simply a matter of translating the scope of the British Empire into a 21st century perspective.

Given the political propensity of Trump he shows all the signs of emulating the Roman Empire, or as it morphed, after the Roman emperors conversion to christianity into the Holy Roman Empire. Trump could easily be confused for at least one classic Roman emperor, Caligula with the same notions of megalomania, how soon before Trump classifies himself as God? Instead of just a acting as a demigod?

2016

Private Eye Magazine

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

Elected Donald Trump

Even as a confirmed atheist I could devoutly pray for divine intervention before he is actually inaugurated.

CANDIDATES

HILARY CLINTON & DONALD TRUMP

NON OF THE ABOVE

Recently watching the excellent Richard Prior film Brewsters Millions. Viewing the TV description of the Mayoral Election with the 2 equally reprehensible Candidates, reminded me of the current USA Presidential Elections. Unfortunately the USA can’t rely on a Monty Brewster to show this Election up as the farce it undoubtably is. Sadly Michael Moore has decided to wait until next time, as his preferred Democratic Candidate has been eliminated, he’s reluctantly thrown in his hat with Clinton.

Not long after writing the above seeking similar voices of reason, I tried another perennial favourite of mine John Pilger. How glad I was to read his sage words, not only a ringing endorsement of my own, but as expected his own particular enlightened viewpoint. I had felt besieged by the supporters of both sides as well as of the candidates. I even logged onto the the USA website Brigade, finding the self same clamour and invective everything but common sense.

I am a contrary bod when pressed to choose between 2 'sides' instead of coming down on either, I question why should I choose between 2 to say the least questionable protagonists. Asking just who is making me take this course, and I can't help but look for an alternative answer, not one that is on offer to my jaundiced gaze.

JOHN PILGER had it bang to rights that a key problem with this Presidential Election, was that there was NO one to vote for. As always the illusion given in 'Elections' is of that old chestnut 'Choice' where pray is the 'Choice' in this case.

My abiding remnant of the Obama Presidency is of the perpetual republican furore over anything remotely resembling a 'Liberal' idea. By 'Liberal' in USA terms we here on this side of the pond read something like Fairness and Decency, in the general terms of leading our everyday life, something so basically human, that even Tories could embrace the consideration without altering either their politics or social conditioning. I won't though fall into the trap of assuming that ALL USA citizens share this myopic view of life.

JOHN PILGER ON THE US ELECTION CHARADE

Watch John Pilger interviewed by Afshin Rattansi on Russia Today about Obama's legacy and the current US presidential campaign.

JOHN PILGER ON THE US ELECTION'S SILENT ISSUE

Listen John Pilger interviewed by Flashpoints about the silencing of America as it prepares for war.

JOHN PILGER ON HILLARY CLINTON

Listen to John Pilger on Counterpunch Radio discussing how Hillary Clinton represents a disguised danger and why Donald Trump has provided a convenient bogeyman.

HOW THE LIBERAL CLASS ENABLED THE ELECTION OF DONALD TRUMP

In a filmed interview with Afshin Rattansi, John Pilger describes how the collusion and silence of America's 'enlightened' liberal elite, notably its journalists, helped create President Trump.

THE SECRETS OF THE US ELECTION: JULIAN ASSANGE TALKS TO JOHN PILGER

This interview was filmed in the Embassy of Ecuador in London on 30 October 2016 - where Julian Assange is a political refugee - and broadcast on 5 November. You can watch the full interview here

Next time may be too late for ALL of us Mike.

Society: USA/KKK

Support for the KKK regardless of what may be supposed or asserted to the contrary has always sprung from BOTH the Democrat AND Republican parties, indeed as USA historian Eric Foner observed:

"In effect, the Klan was a military force serving the interests of the Democratic party the planter class, and all those who desired restoration of white supremacy. Its purposes were political, but political in the broadest sense, for it sought to affect power relations, both public and private, throughout Southern society. It aimed to reverse the interlocking changes sweeping over the South during Reconstruction: to destroy the Republican party's infrastructure, undermine the Reconstruction state, reestablish control of the black labor force, and restore racial subordination in every aspect of Southern life."^[53]

The USA is replete with organisations claiming themselves as the natural heirs to Adolf Hitler’s Nazi party, but whatever their credentials the living embodiment of such notions are the Ku Klux Klan.

IGNORANCE & BIGOTRY Instilled and Established in much of the USA psyche and Governance, and all to readily accepted as natural ideas and inclinations.

USA Presidents George Bush Senior and Junior and Ronald Reagan espoused the litany of ‘The Evil Empire’ relating to those un-godly beings hell bent on bringing about Armageddon. Their colourful rhetoric couched in W.A.S.P. {White Anglo Saxon Protestant} terminology was squarely aimed principally at those non Christian nations, Iraq and Iran..
Here we have all too typical examples of world politicians set on gaining the moral high ground using biblical references to indicate their being the prime upholders of Christianity setting forth on The Crusade before the Heathen hordes.

Mirroring the equally inflammatory rhetoric of the Islamic leader such has been used currently by the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is simply attempting to do the same thing in relation to his own religion Islam.

But non of this is remotely new simply a tired turgid re-run of history, winding the clock back to the 11th Century of the Christian calendar The 'Crusades' the papal War against Islam, where the 2 religions Christianity and Islam seemed on a collision course of Mutually Assured Destruction, but BOTH have survived the impact, each of them simply embellishing their own 'history' and religious canon with their own religious Myths and Fairytales.

Demigods of ALL religious and political persuasion have always plundered the religious archives for symbolic references to justify their utterances and actions, one leaders Crusade being another’s Jihad.

USA/Mafia

J. EDGAR HOOVER FBI

J. Edgar Hoover led the federal government’s campaigns against interstate crime for almost 50 years, amassing enormous political power during his career and along the way becoming a reluctant warrior against organised crime. Hoover became the director of what was then known as the Bureau of Investigation in 1924 under President Calvin Coolidge. He maintained the title of director when the reorganised agency was renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1935, and kept the position until his death in 1972. During his tenure, Hoover collected confidential, personal information on many Americans, including presidents, members of Congress and other elected officials, and critics charge that Hoover used this information to embarrass, threaten and blackmail potential adversaries and politicians whom Hoover did not support. In the 1940s and 1950s, Hoover and the FBI led efforts to infiltrate and dismantle left-leaning political organisations, and his tactics – burglary, inciting criminal activity, secret wiretaps, planting false evidence and interception of mail without a warrant – often crossed over into legally questionable or outright illegal activity. Some of those about whom he collected information included civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., whom Hoover considered a dangerous political threat. Hoover sent King a letter claiming to be from a former supporter with evidence of sexual infidelity and which urged the civil rights leader to commit suicide.

Members of the Kennedy political dynasty, including President John F. Kennedy and his attorney general and brother, Robert Kennedy, were also targets of Hoover’s snooping. Hoover’s information apparently included wiretaps of the Kennedy men conducting illicit sexual affairs – and it’s interesting that both John F. and Robert Kennedy were Hoover’s bosses.
Some biographers have suggested that Hoover’s voluminous secret files on elected officials, including presidents Truman, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon, protected him from being fired. Hoover's investigation of the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963 was specifically criticised for failure to investigate potential conspiracies by a special committee of the U.S. House of Representatives in 1976.

President Richard Nixon closeted with key advisers, had held forth on the need to persuade the elderly Hoover to resign. "We have on our hands here a man who will pull down the temple with him, including me." {Guardian newspaperarticle, The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover. 1st January 2012}

House Un-American Activities Committee

List of members of the House Un-American Activities Committee

The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), a committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, investigated allegations of communist activity in the U.S. during the early years of the Cold War (1945-91). Established in 1938, the committee wielded its subpoena power as a weapon and called citizens to testify in high-profile hearings before Congress.

This intimidating atmosphere often produced dramatic but questionable revelations about Communists infiltrating American institutions and subversive actions by well-known citizens. HUAC’s controversial tactics contributed to the fear, distrust and repression that existed during the anticommunist hysteria of the 1950s. By the late 1950s and early 1960s, HUAC’s influence was in decline, and in 1969 it was renamed the Committee on Internal Security. Although it ceased issuing subpoenas that year, its operations continued until 1975.

The Cold War: Investigating the Red Menace

Subpoenas and Blacklists

Targeting Hollywood and Alger Hiss

Hollywood Ten

Hollywood blacklist

The blacklist begins (1946–1947)

The hearings began with appearances by Walt Disney and Ronald Reagan, then president of the Screen Actors Guild.

Disney testified that the threat of Communists in the film industry was a serious one, and named specific people who had worked for him as probable Communists.^[18]

Reagan testified that a small clique within his union was using "communist-like tactics" in attempting to steer union policy, but that he did not know if those (unnamed) members were communists or not, and that in any case he thought the union had them under control.^[19]

(Later [Reagan's] first wife, actress Jane Wyman, stated in her biography written with Joe Morella [1985] that Reagan's allegations against friends and colleagues led to tension in their marriage, eventually resulting in their divorce.)

Actor Adolphe Menjou declared: "I am a witch hunter if the witches are Communists.

I am a Red-baiter. I would like to see them all back in Russia."^[20]

In contrast, other leading Hollywood figures, including director John Huston and actors Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Judy Garland and Danny Kaye, organised the Committee for the First Amendment to protest the government's targeting of the film industry.^[21] Members of the committee, such as Sterling Hayden, assured Bogart that they were not Communists. During the hearings, a local Washington paper reported that Hayden was a Communist. After returning to Hollywood, Bogart shouted at Danny Kaye, "You fuckers sold me out."^[22] The group came under attack as being naive or foolish. Under pressure from his studio, Warner Bros., to distance himself from the Hollywood Ten, Bogart negotiated a statement that did not denounce the committee, but said that his trip was "ill-advised, even foolish".^[23] Billy Wilder told the group that "we oughta fold".^[24]

Many of the film industry professionals in whom HUAC had expressed interest were alleged to have been members of the Communist Party USA. Of the 43 people put on the witness list, 19 declared that they would not give evidence. Eleven of these 19 were called before the committee. Members of the Committee for the First Amendment flew to Washington ahead of this climactic phase of the hearing, which commenced on Monday, October 27.^[25]

Of the eleven "unfriendly witnesses", one, émigré playwright Bertolt Brecht, ultimately chose to answer the committee's questions (following which he left the country).^[26][27]

The other ten refused, citing their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and assembly.

Included among the questions they refused to answer was one now generally rendered as "Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist Party?".^[28][29]

The Committee formally accused these ten of contempt of Congress, and began criminal proceedings against them in the full House of Representatives.^{[citation needed]}

People first blacklisted between January 1948 and June 1950

• Paul Robeson, actor and singer^[100]

The Red Channels list {Names Included}

• Larry Adler, actor and musician

• Leonard Bernstein, composer and conductor

• Aaron Copland, composer

• José Ferrer, actor

• Dashiell Hammett, writer

• Nat Hiken, writer and producer

• Lena Horne, singer and actor

• Gypsy Rose Lee, actor and ecdysiast

• Alan Lomax, folklorist and musicologist

• Zero Mostel, actor and comedian

• Dorothy Parker, writer

• Edward G. Robinson, actor

• Pete Seeger, folk singer

• Artie Shaw, jazz musician

• Sam Wanamaker, actor

• Orson Welles, actor, writer and director

Others first blacklisted after June 1950

• Richard Attenborough, actor, director and producer^[105]

• Harry Belafonte, actor and singer^[109]

• Charlie Chaplin, actor, director and producer^[127]

History

The Crises

Written by Thomas Paine on 23rd December 1776

'THESE are the times that try men's souls.

The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.

What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.'

My how times have changed and not for the best in the USA since Thomas Paine. Writing this brought me to a still highly pertinent Document of Paine’s, especially relevant at this momentous time in USA’s history.

The Crises was written in 23rd December 1776 its words chime down the centuries to remind us of our own mortality.

Thomas Paine

Not strictly an American Founding Father and certainly not emblazoned on Mount Rushmore. But frankly the USA owes as much if not more to Thomas Paine along with his american ally Benjamin Franklin than most of its perceived Founding Fathers put together.

• ❖ 1774 > Paine emigrated with Franklin to the States. Paine’s ideas became instrumental to the fighting spirit of the American Revolution.

• ❖ 1776 > Common Sense Thomas Paine’s published this first major literary work. He deliberately used plain language to speak directly to the ordinary people of America. This work challenged the authority of the British government and the monarchy. It was the first work to openly ask for independence from Great Britain. Common Sense is lauded in the States as simply an ‘American’ publication, but its far more than an American call to arms. Common Sense is an exposition of real Republicanism, and a clear delineation of Monarchy and of its attendant myth, ‘The Divine Right Of Kings’. A point oft missed especially I would guess by his fervent advocates, is that Paine also delineates his consideration of ‘Democracy’ ideas that would hardly be welcomed with open arms let alone hearts and minds of the ‘Fathers Of The American Revolution’. I quote verbatim “Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one”

• ❖ 1776-83 > The American Crises Paine’s subsequent work, a series of essays builds on his ideas developed in Common Sense. This was praised so highly that General Washington found the first essay so inspiring, he ordered that it be read to the troops at Valley Forge.

• The American Crisis: 23 December 1776

• The American Crisis: Philadelphia, 13 January 1777

  • • The American Crisis: Philadelphia, 19 April 1777

      • The American Crisis: Philadelphia, 12 September 1777

        • The American Crisis: Lancaster, 21 March 1778

          • The American Crisis: Philadelphia, 20 October 1778.

            • The American Crisis: Philadelphia, 21 November 1778

              • The American Crisis: Philadelphia, March, 1780

                • The American Crisis: Philadelphia, 4 October 1780

                • The American Crisis: Philadelphia, 5 March 1782

                • The American Crisis: Philadelphia 31 May 1782

                • The American Crisis: Philadelphia, 29 October 1782

                • The American Crisis: Philadelphia, 19 April 1783

• ❖ 1787 > Thomas Paine returned to London.

• ❖ 1790 > Thomas Paine visited France. To be involved in the French Revolution.

• ❖ 1791 > The Rights Of Man Thomas Paine’s refutation of Edmund Burke Reflections on the Revolution in France Edmund Burke’s book strongly appealed to the landed class and sold 30,000 copies. While Thomas Paine’s work sold nearly a million copies. It was, eagerly read by reformers, Protestant dissenters, democrats, London craftsman, and the skilled factory-hands of the new industrial north.

Rights Of Man for me marks Thomas Paine as the Founding Father of English Republicanism, and I would indeed stretch that to Republican Socialism.

• ❖ 1792 > Undeterred by the government campaign to discredit him, Thomas Paine issued his Rights of Man, Part the Second, Combining Principle and Practice in February. {He wrote this on a desk in Thomas 'Clio' Rickman's house, with whom he was staying in 1792 before he fled to France. This desk is currently on display in the People's History Museum in Manchester} It detailed a representative government with enumerated social programs to remedy the numbing poverty of commoners through progressive tax measures. Radically reduced in price to ensure unprecedented circulation, it was sensational in its impact and gave birth to reform societies. An indictment for seditious libel followed, for both publisher and author, while Government agents followed Paine and instigated mobs, hate meetings, and burnings in effigy. A fierce pamphlet war also resulted, in which Paine was defended and assailed in dozens of works. The authorities aimed, with ultimate success, to chase Paine out of Great Britain. He was then Tried by the British Government for Seditious Libel, tried in absentia and found guilty though never executed.

• ❖ 1792 > Thomas Paine answered the sedition and libel charges thus: "If, to expose the fraud and imposition of Monarchy ... To promote universal peace, civilization, and commerce, and to break the chains of political superstition, and raise degraded man to his proper rank; if these things be libellous ... let the name of libeller be engraved on my tomb."{Thomas Paine, Letter Addressed To The Addressers On The Late Proclamation, in Michael Foot, Isaac Kramnick (ed.), The Thomas Paine Reader, p. 374}

IRISH/ LATIN/ AMERICAN / HISTORY

SAN PATRICIO

CUBA AMERIGO