Dec 29
2025
A revolution and civil war, all in one
- Share on
The Ken Burns documentary series on the American Revolution that recently aired on PBS is an unsanitized version that they didn’t teach us in school.
The fight for independence was one part revolution, one part civil war, with brutalities on both sides. That was one takeaway.
Others include:
- George Washington was not all that hot of a military strategist, but he was a great leader of men. He was the towering figure of the revolution after the Declaration of Independence.
- Patriot soldiers won the war in part due to their sheer fortitude. The militias and Continental army were not to be messed with.
- The French had more to do with the American victory than commonly believed. Kudos to Benjamin Franklin and John Adams for negotiating their entry into the war.
- The British, primarily for strategic rather than altruistic reasons, were more sympathetic to enslaved Blacks and Native Americans than were the Americans. They were largely successful in enlisting the military support of tribes, who recognized the American’s designs for their lands.
- At the conclusion of the war, the British sought to evacuate some loyalists and Blacks who had fled their masters. Washington and Thomas Jefferson were among the slave owners who objected and they reclaimed their slaves.
A particularly chilling portion of the six-part, 12 hour series involved upstate New York, which was then inhabited by Native Americans who were aligned with the British. Washington ordered the “total destruction and devastation of their settlements.”
During the summer and fall of 1779 Continental troops obliterated 50 towns, destroyed crops and killed without mercy. Native Americans were driven across the state to Fort Niagara. The impact was “profound and permanent.” Genocide is an apt description.
Troops waging war recognized the desirability of upstate and the documentary described the march across the region as a “scouting expedition for future settlement.” This is our roots, people.
Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times writes of another genocide, this one occuring in in Africa.
The one unfolding right now in Sudan, already the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, is especially sickening. A militia long accused of genocide has seized the major city of El Fasher and is thought to have slaughtered tens of thousands of people there in recent weeks.
The atrocities were widely predicted and are the culmination of years of unremitting savagery. They were enabled by an American partner, the United Arab Emirates. Yet under both Joe Biden and Donald Trump, the United States has (along with other nations) refused to take serious steps to stop the mass killing and mass rape.
The New York Coalition for Open Government announced its “naughty-nice list” and it included a number of elected officials from Western New York. The naughty included Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino, Erie County Sheriff John Garcia, the administration of Buffalo Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon, the Town of Evans board and state Sen. Pat Gallivan. The coalition also threw shade at Gov. Kathy Hochul. Erie County Legislator Lindsay Lorigo was the only local to make the nice list.
Bari Weiss, the newly installed head of CBS News, confirmed what many had feared when a right-wing billionaire took ownership of the network. She spiked a 60 Minutes report on the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador.
But, opps, she forgot to cancel the broadcast of the segment in Canada. The network’s parent company objected after it then made its ways to YouTube for a spell before being removed.
CBS, meanwhile, is taking a lot of guff, including this ditty from John Oliver.
Donate to support our nonprofit newsroomFake videos generated by artificial intelligence are starting to flood the internet. Some are transparently bad, others believable if the viewer doesn’t know any better. The tech bros who own social media and YouTube are doing nothing to stop it. Of course not.
These are tough times for the Toronto Maple Leafs. (Boo hoo). Two unthinkable things are happening: The team is stuck in last place in the Atlantic Division and the Leafs are no longer selling out their home rink. That, in the heart of hockey country.
Reported The Athletic:
The Leafs, a team that once sold out every home game for more than a decade, have sold out only six of their first 20 home games this season.
A lackluster start of the season is no doubt part of the reason. Ticket prices, too.
Tickets still on sale yesterday afternoon for last night’s game went for as much as $823 and you’d be hard pressed to find a seat in the lower bowl for under $400. Tickets upstairs in the nosebleeds started at $240, standing room only duckets were fetching $160.
No wonder Leaf fans flock to Buffalo when their team plays the Sabres.
