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On November 2, 1772, Samuel Adams (pictured) and Joseph Warren formed the first Committee of Correspondence, which were instrumental in preparing the colonies from their 1776 breakaway from the British Empire of George III.
On this day in 1859, abolitionist John Brown led a group of 21 men — 14 white, seven black — on a raid of the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (then; since 1863, West Virginia), to capture weapons and initiate a slave revolt in southern states.
Brown’s forces initially captured the armory, which had only one guard on duty that night, but the expected uprising did not occur. Soon the raiders were blocked from any escape by townspeople and local militiamen and then overwhelmed by federal troops sent into the town (commanded by Colonel Robert E. Lee, who would later lead the Confederate armies).
Ten of Brown’s men were killed during the incident; seven were captured, tried, convicted and executed, including John Brown; and five escaped. Two enslaved African-Americans joined Brown’s cause and also died in the fighting. Battling against Brown’s raiders, a Marine and four townspeople lost their lives, including the town’s mayor and a free African-American.
Though the raid on Harpers Ferry was a failure, it set the union on the road to disunion, war, and the end of slavery.
“John Brown began the war that ended American slavery and made this a free Republic,” Frederick Douglass would write in remembrance of this event. “Until this blow was struck, the prospect for freedom was dim, shadowy and uncertain. The irrepressible conflict was one of words, votes and compromises. When John Brown stretched forth his arm the sky was cleared. The time for compromises was gone — the armed hosts of freedom stood face to face over the chasm of a broken Union — and the clash of arms was at hand.”
Print out a commemorative poster:
Congressman Jim Banks is rebuking Microsoft for censoring its LinkedIn account holders who criticize the Chinese government.
This includes users in the United States.
“LinkedIn is pressuring U.S. citizens to remove posts critical of China’s dictatorship because, apparently, ‘regional laws’ compel them to do Xi’s bidding,” Banks tells the Washington Examiner. “That’s a lie. LinkedIn is simply selling out America’s values and national security in order to boost its bottom line.”
The congressman has written to the company, which connects job seekers to job providers.
He demands answers about how LinkedIn cooperates with Chinese censorship.
His allies include Carl Szabo, VP of a trade group called NetChoice. Szabo says that American tech firms “should actively push back on such [censorship] demands. China suppressing the profiles of American users should not be happening.”
Microsoft has a history of aiding and abetting the Chinese Communist Party, Chinazi Party for short.
Although Google withdrew its search engine from China in 2010 rather than (continue to) help China censor search results, the Bing search engine currently operates in China. And you can’t be a search engine in China without helping the CCP to censor.
Microsoft has even provided facial recognition resources used to track the Uyghurs, a Muslim population that the Chinese government has subjected to mass incarceration and torture.
A few years ago Microsoft apparently retreated on that facial-recognition front. But it shouldn’t be doing anything to help the Chinazi government to censor and repress.
Nobody should.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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“This will light up the right.”
So Rollcall, the Capitol Hill newspaper, quoted an unnamed Republican aide.
At issue? Last week’s Senate Armed Services Committee vote to force young women to register for the military draft. That provision is contained in the gargantuan National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
Only five senators voted against mandating draft registration for women — all Republicans.
Two hawks, Senators Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), so opposed the change that they joined the beer-swilling Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in voting against the overall NDAA.
“Our military has welcomed women for decades and are stronger for it,” Cotton explained on Friday. “But America’s daughters shouldn’t be drafted against their will.”
“It’s one thing to allow American women to choose this service, but it’s quite another to force it upon our daughters, sisters, and wives,” said Sen. Hawley, adding “compelling women to fight our wars is wrong.”
As is conscripting men.
This Wednesday, the issue will come before the House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.). “I actually think if we want equality in this country . . .” Speier has argued, “we should be willing to support a universal conscription.”
Speier’s empty homage to “equality” does nothing for women, of course . . . or national defense.
“It’s time to end military draft registration altogether,” tweeted Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), “not extend it.” He joined a bipartisan group — Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) and Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) — in a letter calling draft registration “expensive, wasteful, outdated, punitive, and unnecessary” and urging support for their legislation to end it.
Finally, some common sense.
I’m Paul Jacob.
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(simplified and organized)
1 — Draft the Congress and Leave My Kids Alone (December 28, 2003)
2 — Americans Gung-Ho to Draft Congress (January 4, 2004)
3 — Public Comment at the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service (April 25, 2019)
Overview — https://thisiscommonsense.org/2019/01/01/paul-jacob-on-the-draft/
