“fear of new immigrants”

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TPM’s KELLI MARSHALL lays out the brief history of the pledge of allegiance:

In his book To the Flag: The Unlikely History of the Pledge of Allegiance, Richard J. Ellis digs further into the nation’s “patriotic” school program of 1892. Ellis writes that the creation of the Pledge actually reflected “two widespread anxieties among native-born Americans” at the time: the fear of new immigrants (especially in the Northeast), and the complacency of post-Civil War Americans oblivious to the dangers facing the country.

Source: The Strange History Behind The Pledge Of Allegiance

Democratic Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders’ correct and overly apologetic summary of the founding of our nation puts this in better perspective.

 

lead and structured settlements

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Over the past two decades, state legislatures and the U.S. Congress have passed measures to protect vulnerable people selling structured settlements. In 2000, Maryland inked the Structured Settlement Protection Act, which enumerated a series of requirements. First, a seller must seek the counsel of an independent professional adviser. Then the proposed deal must go before a county judge, who decides whether that agreement reflects the seller’s best interests. But today, critics say, that measure is failing

Source: How companies make millions off lead-poisoned, poor blacks – The Washington Post

Privatized NJ Lottery: Record Revenue, Worst Returns in 4 decades

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DUSTIN RACIOPPI in NorthJersey.com (via Atrios)

In the past, record sales most often translated to record dollars back to the state for school nutrition programs, education scholarships and housing for disabled veterans, money required to be funneled to the budget by the law that created the lottery itself.

But New Jersey isn’t expecting those record sales to translate to the state budget for fiscal 2015, which ended in June, the first full year since the lottery’s sales and marketing was outsourced to a group that spent heavily on lobbying firms led by Governor Christie’s closest allies.

Source: Record N.J. lottery sales are no windfall; worst returns in 40 years fuel vendor criticism

Lies all around us

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“Lies my Teacher Told Me” is a good book to start folks down the path of doubting the myths, fairy tales and fiction fed to us as history. James W. Loewen, the author of that book, reminds us of the lies in the Washington Post….

For example, South Carolina’s monument at Gettysburg, dedicated in 1963, claims to explain why the state seceded: “Abiding faith in the sacredness of states rights provided their creed here.” This tells us nothing about 1863, when abiding opposition to states’ rights provided the Palmetto State’s creed.

Source: Why do people believe myths about the Confederacy? Because our textbooks and monuments are wrong. – The Washington Post via Hunter at DailyKos

Watch: “Little White Lie”

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I can’t begin to explain this documentary. It’s easiest to just watch the trailer.

Little White Lie tells Lacey Schwartz’s story of growing up in a typical upper-middle-class Jewish household in Woodstock, NY, with loving parents and a strong sense of her Jewish identity — despite the open questions from those around her about how a white girl could have such dark skin. She believes her family’s explanation that her looks were inherited from her dark-skinned Sicilian grandfather. But when her parents abruptly split, her gut starts to tell her something different.

via Little White Lie – ITVS

You can watch it using the PBS App (on iPad, iPhone or Apple TV) or you can buy it on iTunes.