Happy Genocide Day!
By louisehartmann
Today is Columbus Day – when lots of Americans get a day off work to commemorate the founding of the “New World” even though it had already been found – and was settled for thousands of years before Columbus showed up. And it’s also a day commemorating a psychopath who arrived in Hispaniola in 1492 and set out to rape, slaughter, and enslave thousands of indigenous people in a manic hunt for treasure.
Fifty years after Columbus landed in Hispaniola – the region’s original 3 million people were completely wiped out.
Happy Genocide Day!
Comments
#2
Good on you, Thom, for airing the real Christopher Columbus and for your article on that subject! Even though I had heard of some of these things before...it is still rather shocking to hear, or read, about it. It needs to be repeated over and over again so those who honor psychopaths and criminals who steal, rape, and murder cannot make heroes and saints of them.
Published on Monday, October 11, 2004 by Common Dreams
Columbus Day Celebration? Think Again...
by Thom Hartmann
#3
The nation's #1 progressive radio talk show host !!!!!!
North , West, South, some other cardinal direction , up , down , and an unmeasurable center. ⊕
Good Medicine.
#4
With reference to boycotting, or in some way standing up to, the consumption orgy of the Holidays... a discussion about this on my NPR talk show in 2001 led us to create the annual Abundance Swap, which averts yet more consumption while preserving the gifting element of the Holidays that a lot of us value. On Dec 11 we'll hold the 10th Annnual Abundance Swap in Ashland, Oregon. One great thing is that the idea has caught on in quite a few other communities across the country. We created a web page with very simple guidlines for starting the Swap in any community: www.abundanceswap.org. Why not get with a few friends and start an A.S. in yours?
Jeff G www.unafraidthebook.com
#5
#6
I enjoyed you redoing your yearly rant on the actions of Chistropher Columbus. I agree with you. I think we should recant the holiday and get all the public workers that have the day off back to work. Given a choice I wonder if said workers could
1. Go to work and reflect on the cruelty of Columbus over 500 years ago.
or
2. Stay home with pay and go to the mall
Hummmmm
#7
It's time to bring back the word DUMPING! For those new to the term, it's the act of exporting goods at prices (or in China's case artificially low currency values) that undercut the competition where they are sold to the point that all their competitors go out of business. It's what Wal-Mart has done to all the small town Main Streets. The term "Dumping" went out of style because it's been lobbied out of the lexicon by US-based corporations dumping Chinese made goods with brands we all recognize. China's strategy is long-term. They can afford to dump things here for a very long time. Long enough to put us all out of work. Dumping is a term with power and history behind it and that's why we need to bring it back.
#8
And we've been doing it ever since....the last 30 years we've been doing it to other countries and now they're doing it here....to "the rabble"
#9
Okay.... I can't be the only one to see the irony of an arguably righteous rant on Columbus' 'psychopathic hunt for treasure' with directions to this blog right over "Free Gold Information Kit".
I'm just sayin'......
#10
I have done the first 2 and can do the third happy CD I agree with Thom
Parti: I identify all categories of Americanswho are genuinley suffering in our current economy. It turns out that there are 200 million of them
PartII: Identify $5.3Trillion in saves and REVENUES (without touching entitlement Programs)to help these 200 million by creating jobs, improving our infrasturcture,education, etc.
Partiii: Organize a tremoundeous groundswellof suport, lead by the very best amongst us, so that Amercia’s relevant legislatonwill be passed by congress or those who oppose it will be voted out of office
#11
Thanks Thom,
For calling Columbus Day what it is - celebration of a genocide. I love giving my people time off the job but this is one holiday we won't celebrate. Make it a movement. Time people understand that re-casting villains as heros doesn't make them less villains. Coumbus murdered a race of people who welcomed him initially. May he rot in hell.
The truth must out. Thanks for your efforts.
HB
#12
Columbus is kind of like Santa Claus' evil twin, bringing slavery and disease to all the good little native boys and girls.
#13
Free gold Information kit, as advertised, in order to purchase space to publish an opinion contrary to an assumption that one can simply purchase a healthy environment. A strange situation in strange days.
#14
happy columbus day. hittin the casino tonight. gettin my rape and smallpox on
#15
as grim as it was that really made me chuckle. think about it, your right, they llived for ever and were gone overnight. grim just grim. hey by the way has any one seen my good ol' american indian?
#16
I'm sorry but to me Columbus Day is another way for those who like to celebrate the "Theft & Colonization" by ancient Europeans. No wonder why many around the world, Love people from the U.S. or other caucasian lands, but Hate the governments that encourage such "Theft & Tyranny" of such lands.
#17
Hey Thom,
You appear to be getting angrier by the day.....what happend to civility? I know, the evil banksters, right wing nut cases, etc etc. It all sucks but really, why all the rant....just as you say,,,,,tag your it. Fire all 545 members of congress, the administration and the courts. Vote in a younger more civil and centrist bunch that can make changes that won't throw out the baby wtih the bath water. We are AMERICANS and I believe in AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM.....been all over the world and every time I get back to the USA I want to kiss the ground. Close the borders, raise the tariffs, buy AMERICAN GOODS vote with my brain and stop the NEA from pumping out functional illerites. Lets find a kinder gentler nation of humans....okay.....? But Thom, keep up your unique style of "listening" with respect to both sides of an issue....there is a common middle ground that will lead us to the "More Perfect Union"...
With all due respect,
Me
#18
Tom, c'mon, you're engaging in hyperbole. Columbus, a psychopath, who set out to rape, slaughter, and enslave? That's laying the blame on one individual for a whole culture. In fact, many of the Natives died because of the inability of their immune systems to cope with European diseases.
This type of overstatement is exactly what us liberals complain about conservative commentators doing, and not seeing the whole picture and taking things out of context.
#19
The other side was and is populated. It's a fact. Live with it.
⊕⊕⊕
⊕⊕⊕
North, West, South, East, Up , Down :
it all comes together in me and you and it all falls apart when you don't include me.
#20
We need to continue to expose Columbus for what he really was and ask ourselves if this is the kind of human being we want to celebrate. Columbus day has got to go, and just as with unthinking conservatives, evolution will eventually take care of it, and all of our historical deceptions. Anyway, I say we have a "Founding Fathers" day instead and celebrate the miracle of the minds that were able to hand us a living constitution- a blueprint for the growth of humanity.
#21
The person deserving credit for discovery of the New world was most likely a very hungry Paleolithic hunter with a very hungry family who crossed the Bering land bridge in search of food. Since then Celts, Phoeonicians, Romans, and others probably made one way trips. Of course we also have Saint Brendan in the 6th century as well as Leif Ericson around 1000AD.
So why is Columbus so important? In my opinion 1492 represents the beginning of continuous transoceanic invasion, some call it migration. I agree with Thom, this lead to the genocide of the "San Salvador"-Holy Saviour!.... region, and eventually massive death all along the entire east coast of North America. As post #19 points out much of this death indeed was caused by Euro-diseases, but history also shows a great deal of cruel inhumanity taking place during "the manic hunt for wealth." Let's not forget millions of African slaves soon took up the slack caused by this genocide.
So I guess Columbus Day reminds me of an ugly constant that has existed throughout all of history. There have always been those evil souls amongst us willing to ignore and trample all manner of dignity and human rights in their blind and reckless quest for wealth and power.... You know who you are!
#22
I =never= in my life would have believed I'd be writing the following, =especially= here, on Mr. Hartmann's site .. but after reading all of the above and more elsewhere, I'm so damn sick and disgusted I simply can't remain silent any longer.
Once again, I'm reading that =ALL= of the ills in the world, bar none, are the direct responsibility of =THE= most Evil of all Evil creatures: white European males. One of the things I 'do', simply because I enjoy it, is read history, both the "official" versions and the versions that start to turn up as the results of archaeological digs, decipherment of discovered 'new' texts, etc, etc. I read nearly all of it .. but have no use whatsoever for "revisionist" faux-history, or "denial" not-history, not even as bird-cage liner.
Yes, people have not been very 'nice' to each other, from pre-history straight through to today. But don't even try to say it's all the fault of this one group or another! The Native Americans/AmerInds/First Peoples/whatever the current PC term is, they were all 'at one with nature' and their 'wars' were more like giant, ritualized "games", huh? How many examples of attempted =genocide= (tribalcide??) will it take for y'all to admit the previous sentence is 'not exactly accurate'?! And it wasn't just 'once or twice', either! // Pull your heads out of your .. 'sands'.
"Anti-semitism" is a bad thing? Yeah, it sure is .. but both the Jews and the Arabs are "Semites"! So, who, or what, are you =really= squacking about, hmmm? And don't even think of playing the 'religion' card? Be honest - presuming you're still capable of and willing to do it - about this: look at the Old Testament and tell me it isn't lousy with examples of deliberate genocides, of massacres of every man, woman and child, etc, etc, and other 'godly practices' that we would find sickeningly abhorent today?! It's not "those evil Jews", either. They weren't doing a thing that almost every other 'tribe' wasn't doing. Slavery? What's your problem -- it's the 'natural order of things'. Smash, grab, and burn? Hey, cool, look what I've got (now). // Again, pull your heads out of your .. 'sands'.
Followers of the "Prince of Peace", the good and gentle "Christians"? Well, for starters, most of them - like, over 95% of them - aren't followers of "Christ", at all. At best you could call them followers of =PAUL=, who wrote letters and worked so very hard to set up an organized and institutionalized religion that, frankly, had very little to do with what "Christ" actually preached and taught!! // Again, pull your heads out of your .. 'sands'.
Oh, and not just those idiot peoples in the various parts of 'The Great Sand Box'. Look at what the 'wimpy socialist Scandinavians' (a.k.a. - the vikings) used to do with anyone they thought for a second was weaker than they were .. and just happened to have something they wanted! Or how about the enlightened, let's-all-sit-around-and-chant-"OM" peoples of South Asia - a.k.a. the "real" Indians. They =institutionalized= human degradation and victimization! Or maybe the 'Greatest/Oldest/Longest Continuing Civilization', the Chinese. Women have never been anything but chattel, and not very valuable 'chattel' at that. For all their facade of civilization and laws and philosophies, they are perfect examples, to this very day, of "I can do anything I want, steal anything I want, because might makes right .. and I bet you can't outrun this arrow if you don't like it." They blatantly =stole= an entire country, are doing their best to destroy the culture, and are doing their best to B.S. the rest of the world into accepting the outright =lie= that the country they stole "has always been a part of China", even though their own historical records =prove= that to be a lie. Slavery of the 'black' man is such a terrible thing and the 'white' man will never be able to repay the social injustice they caused, right? Who do you think raided, captured, enslaved, and sold other 'black' people to the 'white' traders?!
Yeah, sure, I could go on and on and on, covering every single group/race/whatever of people on Earth .. but if you haven't gotten the point by now, you're =deliberately= sticking your head in the sand and had no intention of being open or honest, from the very beginning.
So, was Columbus a "psychopath", or was he simply a man of his times and culture? Before you say 'yes' or 'no', think about what had very recently happened in Spain at that time. In Muslim Spain, it didn't matter what your religion was, as long as you paid your taxes. In the 'new', so-called "Christian" Spain, it didn't matter if you paid your taxes as much as what your religion was: 'meet Mr. Torquemada - he has a couple of questions for you.....!
Also, if Columbus was a psychopath, what were the priests on the mainland, who ordered their warriors to go out and capture others so they could have their still beating hearts ripped out of them and tossed in the fires? Oh, that was different -- that was just "religion".....
=Enough= already! The unthinking hypocrisy here makes me sick! Of =course= genocide is sickening! And you're picking up the first stone .. why, again?
#23
WALL STREET in spite of MAIN STREET.... it was determined we are in another official recession or very close to one and the stock market went up another 330 points today, It smells like 1929 to me, sorry!
All we can do is fight on, all 99% of us!
#24
You make a great argument for the ugly constant I mentioned! Why with all of our knowledge of history do we let the inhumanity repeat itself over and over in order to appease a few mega-rich sociopaths?
#25
You are quite correct on all counts, UD. But since it is Columbus Day, let's give that guy his due. Yes, Columbus, was not exclusively culpable for very bad treatment of his fellow man. Columbus and his merry rapists and sadists constantly played the 'holier than thou, while getting their jollies' cards which was not much different than many other groups of people across the history of the world. They all smugly deluded themselves with their religions and superstitions (many of us think those are redundant terms) which allowed them to kill, rape, and maim because their god wanted them to....or at least sanctified it. And if that isn't a characteristic of insanity, I don't know what is! There is a little bit of Torquemada in all who smugly believe their gods to be truth and all others to be destined for hell. The "believers" continue to overlook the atrocities of their predecessors, dismissing them as mere peccadillos or trying to steer condemnation to some other group.
We incorrectly tend to attribute evil or praise upon focal points rather than spread it out among those most deserving. Hitler didn't act alone, nor did Torquemada...and neither did Bush or Obama yet they all get the attention and labels be it War Criminals, or Murdering Religious Zealot (although Bush may possibly deserve both labels).
The fact that American Indian tribes, or Incas, or Aztecs, or Aftrican tribes were all killing each other or selling each other into slavery, themselves, is not a good excuse for why Columbus, the Conquistidors, or White Plantation owners shouldn't have been justified in their own criminal actions against those people.
Many people tend to accept a limited and sanitized history because to look too carefully they would see a bit of hypocrisy in their beliefs. For instance, the holocaust was a horrible thing but the Jews set up their own holocaust against the Germans in Poland after the Russians crushed the Nazis in Poland. The Jews set up their own concentration camps and beat, raped, tortured, and murdered many 10s of thousands of suspected Nazis or Nazi collaborators. Read "An Eye For An Eye" by John Sack. And the Jews continue a kind of genocide during their occupation of Palestine against the Palestinians.
The Japanese would not even mention in their schools what they had done to the Chinese just prior to WWII. American schools would never mention many of the things in history about the shameful acts of white Europeans who themselves had escaped cruelty from Europe. They would never mention the Trail of Tears nor tell the real story behind the Mexican wars in Texas. Everything was propaganda to make us feel holier and more civilized than everyone else. Can go on and on about the many examples that could be mentioned. But I digress.....
#26
On-line banking...is it safe?
Attacks within the past few weeks:
Hackers stole the following:
$120,000 from a health services company in Alabama
$98,000 from a school system in Indiana
$118,000 from a public institution in Oakdale, Ca.
Don't know if these had anything to do with BofA on-line banking being down but it was more likely just a Denial of Service attack which BofA will not admit to.
The very basic way the hackers have used to steal money from the bank accounts has been to install a Trojan on the user's computer which monitors keystroke..a keystroke logger and the Trojan reports the banking info including the passwords typed in to the hacker. The actual transactions a user has with his/her bank is encrypted but if you have a Trojan with a keystroke logger then the encryption won't help you. The Cyber Criminals enlist "mules", local people who have accounts at the local banks that receives the electronic transfers to their accounts and then the "mules", who get a commission, makes the withdrawls and send the money to the hackers...likely somewhere outside of the US...usually eastern Europe.
"Phishers and
cyber thieves have been casting an unusually wide net lately, blasting out huge volumes
of fraudulent email designed to spread password-stealing banking Trojans. Judging from
the number of victims who reported costly cyberheists in [just] the past two weeks,
many small-to-medium-sized organizations took the bait."
http://www.grc.com/sn/sn-321.pdf
Beware of emails that alert you to ACH Payment Cancelled or Rejected Transaction alerts that appear to be coming from legitimate sources...like your bank.
"As noted in a May 2011 alert from the National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA), that organization has been the subject of sustained phishing attacks via fraudulent messages purporting to originate with NACHA, such as the bogus "transfer rejected" messages reproduced above. According to NACHA:
Fraudulent Emails Appearing to Come from NACHA Action Requested "
http://www.snopes.com/fraud/phishing/nacha.asp
Another scam is via a phone call where the caller claims that "they have detected" that your computer is infected with a virus and that you should get online and connect to their virus checker so they could fix the problem...some people actually fall for this.
#27
Thom ...... Do all history majors get grumpier as they age or is it just you and me ?
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Of, course! We have a whole history of celebrating and honoring psychopaths and criminally insane who just happen to be wealthy enough to bend the propaganda of history to honor them for their murdering and thieving actions. They rarely get thrown in jail or suffer the corporal punishment that others of lesser means and "good breeding" suffer. How much worse was the slaughter of innocent human beings in the Middle East than what Charles Manson, for example, did? Yet, even though Manson deserved his fate in prison, war criminals in the military, industrial, congressional complex and Presidents, and their retinue, deserve not only to be held accountable, and history to reflect that blight on our honor, but they also deserve to be sitting in some dark, dank, prison...like Abu Garaib or Gitmo...and scorned as traitors and criminals.