Everyone generally knows that the Pilgrims and the Wampanoags shared a feast in fall 1621, and that early colonial leaders periodically declared days of thanksgiving when settlers were supposed to give their thanks for continued life and – with luck – prosperity.

But this is not why we celebrate Thanksgiving.

We celebrate thanks to President Abraham Lincoln and his defense of American democracy during the Civil War.

Northerners elected Lincoln to the presidency in 1860 to stop rich southern slaveholders from taking over the government and using it to cement their own wealth and power. When voters elected Lincoln, those same southern leaders pulled their states out of the Union and set out to create their own nation, the Confederate States of America, based in slavery and codifying the idea that some men were better than others and that this small elite group should rule the country. Under Lincoln, the United States government set out to end this slaveholders’ rebellion and bring the South back into a Union in which the government worked for people at the bottom, not just those at the top.

“We celebrate thanks to President Abraham Lincoln and his defense of American democracy during the Civil War.”

“Northerners elected Lincoln to the presidency in 1860 to stop rich southern slaveholders from taking over the government and using it to cement their own wealth and power.”

BREAKING: Aaron Dean Is Charged With Murder for Killing Atatiana Jefferson in Her Home

www.nytimes.com

The former Fort Worth police officer who fatally shot a woman through her bedroom window this weekend was charged with murder on Monday and booked into jail without the possibility for bond, according to Tarrant County jail records.

Aaron Y. Dean, the officer, had resigned earlier on Monday, hours before the police chief had planned to fire him amid the community’s growing anger and frustration after the death of the woman, Atatiana Jefferson.

The interim Fort Worth police chief, Ed Kraus, had said in an afternoon news conference that the department was conducting a criminal investigation into the officer’s actions. He said he had reached out to the F.B.I. about the possibility of starting a civil rights investigation.

“I get it,” Chief Kraus said of the widespread public outrage that followed the release of body camera video showing that Ms. Jefferson had been given no warning that it was a police officer who had crept into her backyard, shined a light into her bedroom window and shouted, “Put your hands up! Show me your hands!” immediately before firing a single fatal shot.

“Nobody looked at that video and said there was any doubt that this officer acted inappropriately,” the chief said.

• Both White police officers from Texas. Guyger is from Dallas, 
• Both victims were Black  #RacialProfiling
• Both American citizens were murdered in their in own homes without legal cause — no reason whatsoever!
• Both officers resigned before their trials due to public outrage.

There’s a lot of things that need to change. One specifically? Police brutality. There’s people being murdered unjustly and not being held accountable. People are being given paid leave for killing people. That’s not right

— Colin Kaepernick, Aug. 28, 2016  

Institutional Racism  #RacialInjustice   #KilledByPolice 

Trump’s attack on CNN’s Don Lemon quickly backfires after everyone points out it makes him look even more racist

www.rawstory.com

Donald Trump on Wednesday attacked CNN host Don Lemon for discussing the president’s racist comments during a Tuesday night Democratic debate — but Trump’s latest tirade only served to make him look more racist.

“CNN’s Don Lemon, the dumbest man on television, insinuated last night while asking a debate ‘question’ that I was a racist, when in fact I am ‘the least racist person in the world,‘” Trump wrote. “Perhaps someone should explain to Don that he is supposed to be neutral, unbiased & fair, or is he too dumb (stupid} to understand that. No wonder CNN’s ratings (MSNBC’s also) have gone down the tubes – and will stay there until they bring credibility back to the newsroom. Don’t hold your breath!”

Trump has regularly questioned black public figures’ intelligence, such as when he said that Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) had a “low IQ.”

[In November, 2017] 50 percent of Americans said that Trump held a racial bias against black people. In our new poll, that has risen to 52 percent, more than half, with the percentage saying that they strongly believe Trump to be biased rising from 36 percent to 40 percent.”

— Washington Post,   January 24, 2018

• In 2007, Mississippi Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith cosponsored a resolution praising Confederate soldier's effort to 'defend his homeland'
• In 2018, Mississippi elected racist Confederate Cindy Hyde-Smith to the U.S. Senate — even after she said she attend "a public hanging” and sit “in the front row"  — even after a noose was hung from a tree at the  Mississippi State Capitol