Althouse: It's not Hamilton who's getting ousted. It's Jackson.

April 20, 2016

It's not Hamilton who's getting ousted. It's Jackson.

This is the progression:

122 comments:

Ignorance is Bliss said...: She doesn't look too happy about it.; 4/20/16, 12:44 PM
DrMaturin said...: Replacing a racist Democrat with a gun-loving Republican is my idea of progress!; 4/20/16, 12:44 PM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: I'm going to assume that somebody made sure that a slave like her didn't go for twenty bucks, back in the day.; 4/20/16, 12:51 PM
dreams said...: Not to worry, I'll be leaving no trail of tears over Jackson. I do like Hamilton.; 4/20/16, 12:53 PM
Gahrie said...: I'm going to assume that somebody made sure that a slave like her didn't go for twenty bucks, back in the day.

More like hundreds or thousands of dollars. Slaves were very valuable property.; 4/20/16, 12:53 PM
Stephen Taylor said...: "...very valuable property."

I've read that a grown male, aged 20-25, with no health problems, was worth about $3,000 in the money of their time. Easy to see how planters had all their wealth tied up in the slaves.; 4/20/16, 12:56 PM
Nonapod said...: I don't care what old dead person they choose to put on our paper money. I'd prefer pictures of food, or an oil can.; 4/20/16, 1:00 PM
Alexander said...: As we transcend further down the road of a government occupying by force and subsequently issuing scrip, I approve of removing any associations of my fellow WASPs from this endeavor. Taking Jackson off the bills is a good start, but ultimately unfair to Mr. Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, and Franklin. Being the magnanimous sort, I will even ask for a reprieve for Grant. I only hope that when we reach full SJW and - purely by happenstance - are actually printing bills with five or six zeros on them other than as promotions for lottery tickets, that they be rainbow colored and the front portrait made large enough to include a black, a mexican, a republican, a woman, a cripple, a jew, a muslim, and at least one person claiming the right to be recognized as something xhe is not.

While we're on the topic, let us remove "In God We Trust" from our currency: it is clear that we do not do so, and so the statement is a blasphemous lie.; 4/20/16, 1:02 PM
rhhardin said...: I'm sorry I didn't order that copy of Our Black Foremothers when it came out. A two-fer.

It doesn't seem to be in print any longer.; 4/20/16, 1:03 PM
Bob Ellison said...: That's a heroine. I'd give $20 for that.; 4/20/16, 1:05 PM
rhhardin said...: It reminds me of a grade school Indian river joke.

Do you think she'd come across for two bucks?; 4/20/16, 1:05 PM
rhhardin said...: Put HIllary on the dollar bill.; 4/20/16, 1:07 PM
Unknown said...: Surely not THAT picture; 4/20/16, 1:19 PM
Etienne said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/20/16, 1:21 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: I thought DEMOCRAT Andrew Jackson was a racist and that he murdered innocent Native Americans on the Trail of Tears, and that the modern DEMOCRAT Party cruelly celebrated DEMOCRAT Jackson with the Jefferson- Jackson" Dinners for decades.

Am I wrong about this?; 4/20/16, 1:22 PM
Michael K said...: I prefer the Augustus Saint-Gaudens image on my money.

I have a small collection. I wish it was larger.; 4/20/16, 1:33 PM
Nyamujal said...: I like it. It's a good thing they didn't replace Hamilton.
"I'll be dropping Hamiltons like Aaron Burr" is my favorite hip-hop lyric.; 4/20/16, 1:35 PM
mikee said...: In a few short years when a $20 will be used as small change, we can all talk about remembering when a Jackson was worth something.; 4/20/16, 1:42 PM
Mike near Seattle said...: This is a fatal blow to my plans to write a bluegrass musical called Jackson.; 4/20/16, 1:45 PM
Chuck said...: I would have much preferred James Brown.; 4/20/16, 1:45 PM
TheThinMan said...: Can someone tell me what Tubman's accomplishments were? Aside from escaping slavery: there are many slaves that escaped throughout history. Is Germany putting any escaped Jews on their money?; 4/20/16, 1:46 PM
Chuck said...: This clears the way for Justice Anthony Kennedy to go on the $3 bill.; 4/20/16, 1:47 PM
Hagar said...: Hillary! on the 100 dollar bill would be appropriate, or perhaps better the 1000. Nobody will miss Grover Cleveland, and the way things are going, the 1000 will be the new 100 pretty soon anyway.; 4/20/16, 1:47 PM
Sal said...: Here's a future racial outrage to be covered by MSNBC: Someone finds a twenty in a restaurant cash register where horns and a mustache have been drawn on Harriett Tubman.; 4/20/16, 1:51 PM
Chuck said...: Here's a future racial outrage to be covered by MSNBC: Someone finds a twenty in a restaurant cash register where horns and a mustache have been drawn on Harriett Tubman.

A microeconomic aggression.; 4/20/16, 1:58 PM
Left Bank of the Charles said...: The suggestion is that Andrew Jackson be moved to the back of the $20 to make room for Harriet Tubman on the front. Oh, the delicious irony.; 4/20/16, 2:03 PM
Jaq said...: So when does KKK Grand Kleagle Robert Byrd's name come down?

I don't have a problem with this BTW.; 4/20/16, 2:05 PM
Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...: It's only Wednesday and we've solved our bathroom, locker room and currency portrait problems. God only knows what we can achieve by the end of the week. Who says government can't fix our important problems?; 4/20/16, 2:06 PM
Jaq said...: Speculation about Hamilton's possible mixed race saved him.; 4/20/16, 2:07 PM
AlbertAnonymous said...: As long as this move puts to rest all the issues/whining/micro-macro aggression complaints, I'm all for it. I don't care who has his/her/its picture on the currency (render unto Caesar).

Sadly, though, this will turn into another offense down the road. Why is the picture so bad? Why only $20? Why only one black woman? Where's Pocahontas? Where's Renee Richards? etc. etc. etc. Its a perpetual grievance machine.; 4/20/16, 2:08 PM
Jaq said...: Didn't Hamilton write Federalist 10? Oh the irony.; 4/20/16, 2:09 PM
Brando said...: Weak--Tubman may be commendable for helping a lot of slaves escape, but on the currency commendable? Hell, her actions pale behind those of Frederick Douglass who at least was influential in getting slavery itself ended and transitioning slaves into citizens. The sad fact is no American woman has done enough in our history to earn a place on a major unit of currency, and while that may be as much an indictment of how our society treated women for most of its history, a pandering move like this just looks all the more hollow.

Not that I'm a big fan of Andy Jackson, but he did have a big influence on the direction of this country and his signature triumph was preventing an early secession crisis from taking shape.; 4/20/16, 2:14 PM
William said...: Democrats used to take pride in considering Jackson as one of the founders of their party and as an avatar of their ideals. Schlesinger wrote a laudatory two volume history of his Presidency. He finessed the whole Trail of Tears issue by never mentioning it. For reasons of political correctness he was over praised at one time.......Jackson's virtues remain outstanding and his early life was something truly admirable, but what has he done for us lately.......I can't really knock the decision, but it smacks of political correctness for this generation of Democrats.; 4/20/16, 2:14 PM
madAsHell said...: Can you imagine the slang that will grow up around this new $10 bill??; 4/20/16, 2:15 PM
Michael K said...: In 20 years, maybe 10, we will be getting "Benjamins" as small change. Maybe, by that time, there will be a $100 coin with Hillary on it. Naked, of course.; 4/20/16, 2:16 PM
rehajm said...: Swimsuit Farrah on the $100 and the greenback is the world's reserve currency forever.; 4/20/16, 2:16 PM
Michael K said...: "it smacks of political correctness for this generation of Democrats."

OMG!

Smacks ? Sucks maybe.; 4/20/16, 2:17 PM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: Is that Jackson? I thought it was John Kerry.; 4/20/16, 2:23 PM
gspencer said...: Jackson for Aunt Jemima?

Yuck!

Send her back to the griddle.; 4/20/16, 2:26 PM
Jaq said...: Hey look! We have a Moby channeling his inner racist!; 4/20/16, 2:33 PM
Birches said...: Tubman checks two boxes, kind of like Sotomayor.; 4/20/16, 2:41 PM
rcommal said...: Frederick Douglas thought well of Tubman's efforts.

http://www.harriet-tubman.org/letter-from-frederick-douglass/; 4/20/16, 2:51 PM
rcommal said...: DouglasS; 4/20/16, 2:51 PM
rcommal said...: http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/biographies/harriet-tubman.html; 4/20/16, 2:55 PM
john mosby said...: Why not replace them all with the righteous parties in landmark constitutional-law cases?

$1 - Miranda

$2 - Gideon

$5 - Mapp

$10 - Wong Kim Ark

$20 - Korematsu

$100 - Dred Scott

and of course $500 - McCorvey (have to wait a few years as she's still with us)

As you can see from this almost-random selection, you get a pretty good diversity score while simultaneously celebrating our freedoms.

JSM; 4/20/16, 3:13 PM
Brando said...: "Tubman checks two boxes, kind of like Sotomayor."

And box checking is all this is about. But it also sort of sends a message about the relative importance of famous women in our history, sort of like if your nation's greatest athlete can run the 50K in about a minute and a half. Consider the common denominations:

1) Penny, $5: the guy who freed the slaves and kept the country from splitting apart.

2) Quarter, $1: the first and greatest president who led the continental army and set the stage for future presidents with the right mix of limited power and action.

3) Nickel, $2: the third president who bought Louisiana and wrote the Declaration of Independence.

4) $20: a woman helped a lot of freed slaves escape.

Not that 4) is nothing, but is it even "led the country for four years" or "added some territory to the country" or "signed major legislation" great? It's like the message is "this one is for you women, and you black folks too, and yeah this is the biggest one we could find. Enjoy!"; 4/20/16, 3:13 PM
Ron Winkleheimer said...: Replacing the founder of the Democrat party with a gun toting, devoutly Christian, abolitionist war hero seems like a win-win to me.

Supposedly when a slave owner was trying to sell her she prayed to God to change his heart. When that didn't happen she prayed to God to kill him if he wouldn't change his heart. One week later the man died. You do not want to mess with somebody who can do that.; 4/20/16, 3:15 PM
dbp said...: I like this version; 4/20/16, 3:31 PM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: Sweet. I'm totally going to call them Twubbies.; 4/20/16, 3:32 PM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: Unknown said...

Surely not THAT picture

They should use her picture from the pancake mix ad.

( Yes, I'm going to hell ); 4/20/16, 3:36 PM
traditionalguy said...: Fundamentally transforming America must memory hole the American hero who won or independence from the British Empire.

London is moving here as fast as they can get a connection. And Brits bitterly distane Jackson for what he did to their claims to take back their Land starting with the Mississippi And connecting rivers. That was not a southern slavery issue. It was a Freedom from England issue that mainly saved the Midwest from Canada down.; 4/20/16, 3:43 PM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: Aunt Jemima jokes are, unfortunately, inevitable and certain to be widespread. Enforced political correctness will always inspire transgressive push-back. It's what we do.; 4/20/16, 3:47 PM
Wilbur said...: I'd have no objection to changing it to Fredrick Douglass. Or Booker T. Washington. Or George Washington Carver. Great individuals, all.

Each had their flaws, the same as any human being.; 4/20/16, 3:51 PM
California Snow said...: "Why not replace them all with the righteous parties in landmark constitutional-law cases?

$1 - Miranda
$2 - Gideon
$5 - Mapp
$10 - Wong Kim Ark
$20 - Korematsu
$100 - Dred Scott
and of course $500 - McCorvey (have to wait a few years as she's still with us)"

You forgot Obergefell.; 4/20/16, 3:53 PM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: Douglass would have been awesome. That's one righteously pissed looking Brother.; 4/20/16, 4:01 PM
MountainMan said...: At the time of the Civil War the asset value of all slaves in the country exceeded the asset value of all the existing railroads and factories combined. This is per David Blight's Civil War course lectures at Yale, which are available for free on iTunes university and are quite good if you have an interest. His expertise is in slavey and post-war reconstruction.

Tubman is not a bad choice - again, it's a twofer - but if we wanted an African-American on the bill I would have preferred Douglass. I always liked his comment "The three boxes of freedom are the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box." But Tubman is also a gun-toting Republican, so she'll do.

My most-admired female in American history is Clara Barton. She was a very courageous woman.; 4/20/16, 4:02 PM
HoodlumDoodlum said...: Tubbman's not the worst choice. Still no Latinos on any currency, though....; 4/20/16, 4:03 PM
john mosby said...: Or how about Sexy Diverse Money. None of these bills would be painful to look at:

$1 - Dolly Madison

$2 - Paul Robeson

$5 - Alice Roosevelt Longworth

$10 - Josephine Baker

$20 - Rachel Jackson

$50 - Juan Seguin

$100 - keep Franklin - he was a freak!

$500 - Majel Barrett Roddenberry

JSM; 4/20/16, 4:08 PM
David said...: "I've read that a grown male, aged 20-25, with no health problems, was worth about $3,000 in the money of their time. Easy to see how planters had all their wealth tied up in the slaves"

You are using several adjectives to describe what the slaveholders summarized in a single word: "prime."

Perhaps the occasional spectacular female slave would go for $3k. but in the best of times the price--in the currency of the day--for a prime male was $1000 to $1500 United States Dollars. Much higher in Confederate money as it inflated during the war.

Douglas, a powerful man physically, was not a prime slave. Too rebellious. I would have loved to see him on the currency. Tubman's importance has been exaggerated by history while that of Frederick Douglas has been badly diminished. Jackson, Franklin, Washington, Jefferson etc all had their flaws, but they were persons of great substance. Tubman is a person of great symbolic power.; 4/20/16, 4:15 PM
M Jordan said...: Nice to see they're replacing a Democrat (Jackson) with a Republican (Tubman). Now let's remove Roosevelt from the dime and replace him with Herman Caine.; 4/20/16, 4:22 PM
Titus said...: Does she have a better picture?; 4/20/16, 4:31 PM
David said...: Titus said...
Does she have a better picture?

No, Titus, you asshole. Among other things, she had her skull caved in when an overseer hit her with a heavy piece of iron that he was tossing at a misbehaving slave boy.; 4/20/16, 4:40 PM
Titus said...: Everyone knows she would be a democrat today and he would be republican.

The northern republicans are now democrats and the racist southern cracker democrats are all now pubes.; 4/20/16, 4:42 PM
Titus said...: I hope they can spif her up a but with a nice stylish hat, some hair extensions, and a big rack.; 4/20/16, 4:43 PM
SeanF said...: dbp: I like this version

"Come with me if you want to live."; 4/20/16, 4:44 PM
themightypuck said...: I support anyone as long as they cool in old school engraving.; 4/20/16, 4:45 PM
WillowViney said...: Heddy Lamarr. Actress, genius, engineer, WW2 weapons designer (she invented the underlying technology for WiFi), and a true American patriot.; 4/20/16, 4:46 PM
Anonymous said...: Titus here

http://www.harriet-tubman.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Harriet-Tubman-Moses-of-her-people1.jpg; 4/20/16, 4:49 PM
Bob Loblaw said...: If they simply must put a woman on money, why not someone who had a greater effect, like Emmy Noether?; 4/20/16, 4:56 PM
Fernandinande said...: Mike near Seattle said...
This is a fatal blow to my plans to write a bluegrass musical called Jackson.

Anonymous sources tell me that Jackson will be moved to the $5 bill, because "Jackson 5".; 4/20/16, 5:03 PM
Bob Boyd said...: The $20 will be Barrack Obama.; 4/20/16, 5:14 PM
Laslo Spatula said...: If Harriet Tubman is to be the face why is Althouse showing a photo of Fiddy Cent?

I am Laslo.; 4/20/16, 5:39 PM
Doug said...: The three dollar bill should be zerobama.; 4/20/16, 5:41 PM
David Begley said...: Why not Elvis?; 4/20/16, 5:44 PM
Doug said...: If only Tubman were a transgender Latina!; 4/20/16, 5:45 PM
Birkel said...: Titus, the bigot, strikes again.; 4/20/16, 5:54 PM
Wilbur said...: "Let Lincoln shake hands with Jackson." from Greenback Dollar Bill, a blues classic.
It means it'll cost you $25. I'm partial to the Sam Butera vocal with Louis Prima.

Hey that's a thought - put Louis Prima on the $20. Someone mentioned above there were no Hispanics. There's also no Germans, Italians, Irish, Scandinavians, or any of a number of countries and ethnicities.

We need a bill for every whole number between $1 and $100. One hundred different bills would go a long way toward solving the problem.

I fear we'll be a relatively cash-free society sooner than we think. The government will want to be able to monitor every transaction of money possible.; 4/20/16, 5:56 PM
Laslo Spatula said...: From Wiki:

"
As Tubman aged, the seizures, headaches, and suffering from her childhood head trauma continued to plague her. At some point in the late 1890s, she underwent brain surgery at Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital. Unable to sleep because of pains and "buzzing" in her head, she asked a doctor if he could operate. He agreed and, in her words, "sawed open my skull, and raised it up, and now it feels more comfortable."She had received no anesthesia for the procedure and reportedly chose instead to bite down on a bullet, as she had seen Civil War soldiers do when their limbs were amputated."

I'm good with her on my folding money.

I am Laslo.; 4/20/16, 6:00 PM
Fritz said...: Will we have a trans Inuit before the government abolishes cash?; 4/20/16, 6:29 PM
Jaq said...: Everyone knows she would be a democrat today and he would be republican.

Liberals say that but it was the Republicans who sent an army into the South to end slavery just like it was the Republicans who sent an army into Iraq to try to do something about the suffering there. Maybe it was misguided, or even wrong, but it was the same instinct. Democrats, of course, were on whichever side seemed to give them maximum political advantage at the time.; 4/20/16, 6:47 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: I frankly think that it is absurd. Political correctness run amuck.

The weird thing though to me with all these posts about other bills, is that most of them have died out. We are talking $1, $5, $10, $20, and $100 any more, and that is about it. I sold an ATV for maybe $9k, and ended up with 90 or so $100 bills. Apparently, bigger bills were taken out of circulation because they were too useful for drug dealers (and made it too easy to avoid taxes).; 4/20/16, 6:51 PM
rcocean said...: At least we were spared that fraud Susan B. Anthony or Ditzy E. Roosevelt. They should also name the US Government credit cards after Harriett. That way she could be a credit to her race.; 4/20/16, 7:12 PM
rcocean said...: BTW, you should read National Review's take on this. Amazing for a so-called Conservative magazine. The sooner they merge with the New Republic the better.; 4/20/16, 7:14 PM
Titus said...: Yet now all the racist southern Dixiecrats are full fledged pubes.

Strom Thurmond is a perfect example. And he was kind of a modern day dinge queen.

Johnson was right and Nixon did the southern strategy and Saint Ronnie (praise the lord almighty the most amazing, spectacular president ever, I just splooged a little and can't even get a hardon) gave his opening speech in Philly, Miss.

All those southern black democrats must just be stupid not being pubes.

And now there is not one white democrat in the U.S. senate or house. The New Conferacy mission accomplished.

On a side note we have wild turkey's running up and down mass ave. currently.

tits.; 4/20/16, 7:53 PM
MayBee said...: I like it!!!!; 4/20/16, 7:56 PM
Sal said...: If only Tubman were a transgender Latina!

There are people in Queer Studies departments this very minute researching any possibility that she was bi or lesbian.; 4/20/16, 7:58 PM
Michael K said...: ""She had received no anesthesia for the procedure "

In 1890 this is nonsense. The Mass General is where ether was discovered in 1846.

No wonder the lefties want her on the $20.; 4/20/16, 8:22 PM
Robert Cook said...: "...just like it was the Republicans who sent an army into Iraq to try to do something about the suffering there."

Hahahaha! Don't try to keep peddling that load of Bush lies! (If you say it real fast it almost sounds like "bullshit!")

We went in there to "(preemptively) defend ourselves" against the "smoking gun in the shape of a mushroom cloud!" Don't you remember? Saddam Hussein was a new Hitler with the power and intent to take out the Western World, so we hadda git 'im first, to save ourselves! (It's amazing how swiftly he reconstituted his power, when only months before both Colin Powell and Condi Rice each asserted in separate instances--both caught on film and audio--that Hussein was effectively contained and he had no power to project force against his neighbors in the region.) That's one baaaaaaaad bad man!

But...nope! More Bush lies!

We went there to gain control of the Iraqi oil fields for Western oil interests and to assert our hegemony in the region. In the doing, we have visited great suffering on the people you claim we meant to save from suffering...hundreds of thousands dead and injured, millions rendered into homeless fugitives, a functioning state destroyed, a country formerly free of terrorists now a haven for them. That's what our greed and lies get us...and the Iraqis...blood and ashes!; 4/20/16, 8:24 PM
Comanche Voter said...: Well there are no Jacksonian Democrats left in the Democrat party. And I'm not talking Scoop Jackson, I'm talking firebreathing Scots Irish Old Hickory. He got slashed in the face by a British officer as a young pup, and he never forgot. See the Battle of New Orleans. And he believed in what became Manifest Destiny and created a lot of dead and otherwise displaced Indians to achieve that goal. And now the Democrats are left with the likes of Robert Cook. Jackson would weep at Cook's comment above. We are headed towards a nation composed of Pajama Boys and nanny state kindergarten teachers.; 4/20/16, 8:39 PM
Robert Cook said...: "...he believed in what became Manifest Destiny and created a lot of dead and otherwise displaced Indians to achieve that goal."

You say that like it's a good thing.

I'm not bothered at the thought of a genocidal scum like Jackson "weeping" at my remarks. If I thought he were turning over in his grave I've be well pleased!; 4/20/16, 8:50 PM
rcocean said...: "genocidal scum like Jackson

And you're liberal anti-American scum.; 4/20/16, 9:04 PM
eric said...: It makes me sad that this is the best American representation of black people and/or women, depending on what they are trying to do here.

I guess it makes sense though. We are a victim nation now and I can see how she would be considered a victim.; 4/20/16, 9:18 PM
Anonymous said...: I like the peckerwood meanness of Jackson. He shot Indians, blacks, British, and fellow Amercans without regard to race, creed, color , or national origin.; 4/20/16, 9:23 PM
Oso Negro said...: @Robert Cook - have you divested yourself of all real property or fortune derived from the possession or exploitation of the stolen lands? I am guessing the answer is no.; 4/20/16, 9:30 PM
narciso said...: the irony is we lecture israel ignoring our settler state roots,; 4/20/16, 9:40 PM
Roadkill711 said...: Titus said...

"Yet now all the racist southern Dixiecrats are full fledged pubes.

Strom Thurmond is a perfect example."

The fact is, Strom Thurmond is the only example. Orville Faubus, George Wallace, Bull Connor, Robert Byrd, and all the other racist southern Democrat politicians stayed in the party of slavery, segregation, Jim Crow and the KKK.; 4/20/16, 9:41 PM
narciso said...: not to mention fritz 'too much consuming' hollins, he was actually a presidential candidate in
1984, so yes it's about narrative,; 4/20/16, 9:45 PM
Jaq said...: If it were up to today's Democrats to rid Dixie of the undoubted evil of slavery, it would never happen. Imagine trying to raise an army of them to go fight a war for somebody else's freedom! It would be "It's all lies spread by the corporations who just want to take the South's cotton fields!", "It's none of our business!" They would be spitting on the Johnny as he came marching home, calling him a baby killer and worse, the would be spreading propaganda to undermine the war effort, protesting on every street corner and probably sabotaging the war effort in every way they could.; 4/20/16, 9:46 PM
Gahrie said...: Apparently, bigger bills were taken out of circulation because they were too useful for drug dealers (and made it too easy to avoid taxes).

They're already talking about getting rid of cash altogether for the same reasons.; 4/20/16, 9:52 PM
Birkel said...: The man who ignored the Supreme Court and marched my ancestors to Oklahoma? Good riddance from the $20.

Another racist Democrat gets his two minutes of hate.; 4/20/16, 10:00 PM
Etienne said...: Off topic, but in Paris today a small ceremony (not many people remember WW1) was held to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the:

Lafayette Escadrille

Here's a picture of a B-52 over Paris

My brothers wife's grandfather learned to fly in Avord, France and flew at the front in Lorraine towards the end of the war. The funny thing was, he never flew an airplane again after the war. I would have thought he'd have the "need for speed" again.; 4/20/16, 10:00 PM
Known Unknown said...: I recently wrote to my senator to create the Douglass Dollar. A coin featuring the likeness of one of the greatest Americans to ever walk the Earth.; 4/20/16, 10:08 PM
Known Unknown said...: Coupe-

B-52s are still in service, 50 years later.; 4/20/16, 10:10 PM
Etienne said...: EMD said...B-52s are still in service, 50 years later.

They could easily be replaced by cargo 777's now. Wouldn't be hard to put two rotary launchers in the cabin and eject cruise missiles from 100 miles away.

In the Serbian war, the older B-52's were used to launch cruise missiles from the Med. Never even got close to the war.; 4/20/16, 10:15 PM
Danno said...: I caught some of the Harriet Tubman and Underground Railroad history as I was visiting the eastern shore of Maryland last August. I was doing some genealogical followup on my paternal great-great grandmother who moved there after her husband died and is buried in a small town (East New Market) cemetery in Dorchester County, Maryland. Very interesting stuff, at least for a history buff!

The eastern shore area has a very long history and this part of Maryland had slave-owning plantations and mixed sympathies and allegiances, even though Maryland as a whole remained in the Union.

http://tourcaroline.com/pdfs/underground_railroad_dorchester.pdf; 4/20/16, 10:56 PM
Quaestor said...: The sad fact is no American woman has done enough in our history to earn a place on a major unit of currency, and while that may be as much an indictment of how our society treated women for most of its history, a pandering move like this just looks all the more hollow.

This reminds me of the happily ill-fated Susan B. Anthony dollar and the ridiculous Sacagawea dollar. Anthony was not famous until the Mint put her mug on the famously confusing dollar coin that was only 5% larger than the current quarter. As I understand it Susan B. Anthony was a early feminist. Big deal. Being uglier than a mud fence she had few non-feminist options, did she not? Making a virtue of necessity isn't the stuff of which national heroes are made.

The Sacagawea dollar was a better yet still abortive attempt. The stupid brassy finish at least made that dollar obviously distinct, but the portrait art was stupid if not outright racist. Nobody knows what Sacagawea looked like. No contemporary image of her survives, yet the idiots who designed the coin reasoned that any high-creeked moon-faced female would suffice. The Indian head nickel is a much better homage to the native tribes. At least three real Indians posed for the sculptor James Earle Fraser: The Cheyenne Two Moon, a veteran of the Little Big Horn, Iron Tail of the Ogala Sioux, and one or two unnamed men. This is acceptable because the art represents the idealized image of a Great Plains warrior and not a specific person.; 4/21/16, 12:20 AM
rcommal said...: Eric has left a new comment on the post "It's not Hamilton who's getting ousted. It's Jacks...":

If they simply must put a woman on money, why not someone who had a greater effect, like Emmy Noether?

Oh, for fuck's sake. Eric, if you actually admire Noether, why on earth would you use her and her legacy in such a way?

I can only think this: that you simply must use a woman in this way, even if that means one you supposedly admire.

---

[sheesh]; 4/21/16, 3:07 AM
Robert Cook said...: "@Robert Cook - have you divested yourself of all real property or fortune derived from the possession or exploitation of the stolen lands? I am guessing the answer is no."

I don't own any property.; 4/21/16, 6:13 AM
Jaq said...: So I guess he is posting from the library . What a surprise.; 4/21/16, 6:30 AM
Birkel said...: Ha,ha,ha!

Robert Cook:
You owe me and mine reparations because of what your ancestors did to mine, based on skin color alone. Any objections will be filed in the 'I have a (insert minority) friend here" filing system.; 4/21/16, 6:58 AM
Robert Cook said...: Tim in Vermont:

There are many people who don't own property who have places to live: we're called renters.; 4/21/16, 7:00 AM
Robert Cook said...: "They're already talking about getting rid of cash altogether for the same reasons."

If they move to a cashless society--and I know some are talking about it--it won't be because cash is useful to drug dealers or allows some to avoid taxes.; 4/21/16, 7:13 AM
Robert Cook said...: "If it were up to today's Democrats to rid Dixie of the undoubted evil of slavery, it would never happen."

Just as we did not invade Iraq to relieve the Iraqis of their suffering under Saddam, the Union did not go to war against the Confederacy to end slavery. Lincoln waged war against the Confederacy for trying to secede from the union. Ending slavery was one of the controversial matters of the day that was part and parcel of the growing conflict between North and South--the southern states seceded because Lincoln and the Republicans supported banning all slavery in the U.S.--but war would not have occurred if the South had not tried to secede from the Union. Slavery would have been ended by law.; 4/21/16, 7:23 AM
who-knew said...: So Robert Cook, you admit the Republicans would have ended slavery one way or another. The Democrats were all for it.; 4/21/16, 7:54 AM
Robert Cook said...: @who-knew:

Yes, but this was not in contention...was it?; 4/21/16, 8:27 AM
Fernandinande said...: Brando said...
...a pandering move like this just looks all the more hollow.

It strikes me as somewhere between pitiful and silly.

Bank of Cthulhu; 4/21/16, 9:49 AM
Robert Cook said...: Nichevo:

References to "property" (actually, I was asked about "real property") mean ownership of land, houses, buildings. That's property.; 4/21/16, 10:41 AM
Robert Cook said...: Oh, Nichevo, as to the rest of your comment...what are you going on about? Do you infer that my proper scorn for a genocidal brute means I think all people alive today are somehow complicit in past crimes, and that our personal property should therefore be taken away and handed to...whom?; 4/21/16, 10:50 AM
Anonymous said...: There is so much to comment on, a comment in itself of the poor job schools do of teaching the history of this country.

Ralph Waldo Emerson and others of his time estimated the value of all slaves living in the southern states to be approximately $2 billion. It was a staggering sum at that time but the Civil War cost much more. They suggested a buy-out but the idea went nowhere.

Everyone of you who are reading this need to read a good biography of Jackson, that would be something written before 1975 or so as I have noticed the quality of histories and biographies simply fall off a cliff after that date. Without Jackson we may not have survived as a country. Period (for emphasis).

I notice you all have a perception of Indians to be, that of a people simply acted upon, and not actors which is not true. This is the same perception, I have noticed, that liberals have of ghetto dwellers.

Jackson's triumph of the Bank of the United States is one of many key battles in his life. It's ironic that a banker who saddled the US with debt, who was quick to suggest taxing farmers that spawned a rebellion in the west, the Whiskey Rebellion, Hamilton, gets a pass because the sanitized version of his life is more in tune with today's feminized culture.; 4/21/16, 11:32 AM
Bilwick said...: "Jackson's triumph of the Bank of the United States is one of many key battles in his life. It's ironic that a banker who saddled the US with debt, who was quick to suggest taxing farmers that spawned a rebellion in the west, the Whiskey Rebellion, Hamilton, gets a pass because the sanitized version of his life is more in tune with today's feminized culture."

Hamilton was also the Big Government Guy of his day. (Although Hamilton's idea of "big government" would probably be considered "anarchism" by Harry Weed and other State-f*ckers.) I first noticed how the Hive was taking him to their bosom in that PBS miniseries about the history of New York City. It was Good Guy Hamilton versus the Evil Jefferson for the soul of America. Hamilton wins! Yayyy! Now on to the glorious New Deal!; 4/21/16, 11:41 AM
ELC said...: I'm not sure whether the claim that Abraham Lincoln would be a Democrat today is sincere or sarcastic. I am hoping the latter, for it is a claim based on ignorance and prejudice.

Lincoln would certainly not be a Democrat today, as I show in these quotations from Lincoln's own writings.

http://www.catholiclane.com/would-abraham-lincoln-be-a-democrat-today/; 4/21/16, 2:07 PM
rcocean said...: "Everyone of you who are reading this need to read a good biography of Jackson, that would be something written before 1975 or so as I have noticed the quality of histories and biographies simply fall off a cliff after that date. Without Jackson we may not have survived as a country. Period (for emphasis)."

I'd agree about history and biography quality falling after 1975, although there are exceptions. Jackson was a great man (with Flaws) who had a big impact on the USA. Tubman is just a minor historical figure. Affirmative action in action.; 4/21/16, 6:37 PM