American Pie' celebrates 55 YEARS today
Grammy Hall of Fame member Don McLean celebrates the 55th anniversary of his song ‘American Pie’ on ‘Fox News
5:44
https://youtu.be/lxvFsIIGO_U
Meaning of American Pie
The repeated phrase "the day the music died"refers to a plane crash in 1959 that killed early rock and roll stars Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens, ending the era of early rock and roll; this became the popular nickname for that crash. The theme of the song goes beyond mourning McLean's childhood music heroes, reflecting the deep cultural changes and profound disillusion and loss of innocence of his generation[8] – the early rock and roll generation – that took place between the 1959 plane crash and either late 1969[9] or late 1970.[10][11] The meaning of the other lyrics, which cryptically allude to many of the jarring events and social changes experienced during that period, has been debated for decades. McLean repeatedly declined to explain the symbolism behind the many characters and events mentioned; he eventually released his songwriting notes to accompany the original manuscript when it was sold in 2015, explaining many of these. McLean further elaborated on the lyrical meaning in a 2022 documentary celebrating the song's 50th anniversary, in which he stated the song was driven by impressionism, and debunked some of the more widely speculated symbols.
In 2017, McLean's original recording was selected for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[12] To mark the 50th anniversary of the song, McLean performed a 35-date tour through Europe, starting in Wales and ending in Austria, in 2022.[13]
4 Feb, 2026 23:02
Western troop plans for Ukraine are ‘dead’ – Russian envoy to UK
Ambassador Andrey Kelin said Moscow would treat NATO soldiers on the ground as a security threat
(Putin and Russia stated this 1,000s of time and Zelensky and his retarded EU buddies pushed for this.)
Russia will treat the deployment of NATO troops to Ukraine as a threat to its security, Russian Ambassador to the UK Andrey Kelin has said.
The diplomat rejected plans by the so-called Coalition of the Willing to send “peacekeepers” to Ukraine after a ceasefire is reached with Russia.
“We will not allow [the deployment] of any NATO member state’s troops on the territory of Ukraine because it will be another line of attack against Russia,” Kelin said in an interview with Channel 4 News aired on Wednesday. “We understand that Ukraine wants guarantees. We also need guarantees,” he added.
The diplomat said the presence of foreign troops on Ukrainian soil would be unacceptable. Asked about a Financial Times report that Ukraine and its European backers had agreed to deploy Western troops in the event of a violation of a potential ceasefire, Kelin said such plans were “dead.”
Kelin reiterated that Russia is seeking a comprehensive peace deal with Ukraine rather than an immediate, unconditional ceasefire.He added that normalization of ties between Russia and the West, as well as trust-building measures, would help prevent further conflicts.
“There are positive and negative security guarantees. If you send troops, this is one thing. But many agreements that end conflicts [are based] on political guarantees, legal guarantees.The best would be a good relationship between the United States and Russia, between European countries and Russia, including London,” Kelin said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has cited Ukraine’s military cooperation with NATO and its aspirations to join the US-led bloc as among the key causes of the conflict. Moscow has warned that it would treat any Western troops in Ukraine as legitimate military targets.
https://www.rt.com/russia/632012-kelin-ukraine-western-troops/
3 Feb, 2026 13:22
War-torn Ukraine is being sold as an ‘investment bonanza’ – but there’s a catch
The RAND Corporation has urged big capital to seize the “business opportunity of the decade” while snubbing
(I hate these people and their greed)
Ukraine offers far better investment opportunities than Russia for Western businesses, according to the influential US think tank RAND Corporation, known for its close defense ties. But the pitch to ‘big capital’ comes with caveats.
Opportunity of a decade
In a Barron’s commentary two weeks ago,RAND Corp. senior economist Howard Shatz declared Ukraine a more lucrative option compared to Russia.
“When the fighting stops, the most promising opportunities for US companies won’t be in Russia, but in Ukraine,” he wrote. “With US and European support, Ukraine is poised to emerge as a secure sovereign state deeply integrated with the global economy.”
Shatz called it the “business opportunity of the decade,” assuming hostilities will soon end, triggering a $500 billion reconstruction and rapid EU-oriented reforms. Early movers will have an advantage, he said.
Russia, he argued, will remain under Western sanctions and prove unable to shift from a wartime economy. Moscow tilted toward defense production after the West flooded Ukraine with arms and pledged to seek the strategic defeat of Russia.
Here’s what you’re not being told by RAND however.
Ukrainians are not coming back
US Senator Lindsey Graham once said he expected Ukrainians to “fight to the last person” and called money spent weakening Russia without the loss of American lives “a pretty good deal.” Shatz similarly treats Ukrainians as an exploitable resource.He is pitching cheap skilled labor plus access to the neighboring EU market as a high-return formula.
But the labor side is doubtful. Ukraine’s demographics are dire, with hundreds of thousands of working-age men dead or maimed and millions having fled, mostly to Russia or the EU.Ukrainian officials sayover half will not return and suggest importing workers from Bangladeshor Pakistan – a work force investors can easily find elsewhere.
Who is paying?
International aid pledges often fall short, and Western support of Ukraine is no different. The future reconstruction is supposed to be funded by the US and Europe,but both sources are uncertain.
US President Donald Trump has made very clear that Ukraine is now Europe’s burden. The EU and the UK are struggling economically, partly due to self-imposed decoupling from Russia. Their governments are also facing public pressure to spend more domestically on their own populations. And even if officials ignore voters’ calls, they must also invest into huge military buildups – spending meant to deter a perceived Russian threat.
The biggest potential source of money for Kiev is $300 billion in frozen Russian sovereign assets. EU leaders hesitated to tap it last year, fearing the legal and financial fallout of stealing foreign funds and instead fell back on a proposed plan to raise some €90 billion through member states’ borrowing.Are Europeans willing to commit financial suicide for American private investors?
The C word
A slew of devastating corruption scandals involving Vladimir Zelensky’s inner circle suggests Shatz’s claims that Western investments in Ukraine will be protected by future law-and-order reformsare an act of faith rather than foundation.
Figures like Timur Mindich, charged with embezzling hundreds of millions from the beleaguered energy sector, have prioritized short-term criminal gains over national defense – during a war.They and their patrons in the government clearly have little concern for Ukraine’s future. Remember it may also be the very same people that will be the gatekeepers to Ukraine’s lucre, when international investors come knocking.
Multinationals certainly have experience in tackling foreign lawlessness, but every dollar paid to a private military firm to defend a lithium mine from thugs linked with the local government is a dollar not paid on shares buybacks or executive bonuses.
Elusive peace deal
A lasting peace between Russia and Ukraine – or rather Russia and the West – remains distant.Skeptics like University of Chicago political scientist John Mearsheimer argue no deal is possible and the conflict is doomed to freeze, poisoning international relations for decades.
Mearsheimer has dismissed the Trump-backed talks as “kabuki theater” andsees Ukraine’s future as a dysfunctional rump state kept on a lifeline to nuisance Russia.
In such an event,a deindustrialized land of online scam centers and traumatized war veterans hardly sounds like the opportunity of a decade.
Caveat emptor.
https://www.rt.com/russia/631890-ukraine-investment-opportunity-rand/
DHS Secretary Noem Identifies Another Leaker and Refers to DOJ for Prosecution
February 4, 2026 | Sundance |
The good news is the process to identify the subversive agents inside the various offices of the administration continues to yield results.The bad news is there’s a lot of them to identify and remove.
Dept of Homeland Security Secretary KristiNoem shares another leaker has been identified and removed. Additionally, she isreferring their conduct to the Dept of Justice for criminal
[SOURCE]
Both Noem and Gabbardappear to be continuing their methodical approach without fear or favor. Secretary Noem facing down theinternal resistors within the FBI, who have been leaking about ICE enforcement operations. Director Gabbard working through the tentacles of the Intelligence Communityto identify similarly minded IC agents.
Meanwhile there was somemedia controversy about the FBI Special Agent in charge of the Atlanta Field office being removed from his position just prior to the execution of a federal search warrant in Fulton County. The reason for that removal now seems to come to light with therelease of letter former Agent Paul Brown sent to Elections Director Nadine Williams giving her a head’s-up on the material the FBI was going to seize.
FBI Agent Brown asks Ms Williams to voluntarily hand over the material, which has the result of giving Fulton County a heads-upabout the specifics of the material the FBI were going to gather and review in their search warrant.
Another positive outcome amid all of this, is honestly exposing FBI Director Kash Patel’s lack of operational control over the agency he heads.Each day more people are starting to realize what many of us have noted from the outset. Without first admitting the scale and scope of the problem within the FBI, there was no way Kash Patel was ever going to address it.
The issues with the FBI are obvious; a few examples: There were 40 FBI agents on the Robert Mueller investigation into Trump-Russia collusion. Why would any of them still be employed? Additionally, think about the J6 investigations and Arctic Frost, are those FBI agents still employed within the FBI?
There is no apple, it’s all worms.
FEBRUARY 9, 2025:
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2026/02/04/dhs-secretary-noem-identifies-another-leaker-and-refers-to-doj-for-prosecution/
Telegram Founder and CEO Pavel Durov Warns Users in Spain of Government Censorship and the Surveillance State 1/3
February 4, 2026 | Sundance |
Telegram platform founder Pavel Durov is one of very few tech CEOs who is consistent in his efforts to protect information from the grip of government censorship. Today, Durov used his platform to warn Telegram users in Spain what is pending:[VIA Pavel Durov X Account] – Today, Telegram notified all its users in Spain with this alert:
Pedro Sánchez’s government is pushing dangerous new regulations that threaten your internet freedoms. Announced just yesterday, these measures could turn Spain into a surveillance state under the guise of “protection.” Here’s why they’re a red flag for free speech and privacy:
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Ban on social media for under-16s with mandatory age verification: This isn’t just about kids—it requires platforms to use strict checks, like needing IDs or biometrics.
Danger: It sets a precedent for tracking EVERY user’s identity, eroding anonymity and opening doors to mass data collection. What starts with minors could expand to all, stifling open discourse.
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Personal and criminal liability for platform executives: If “illegal, hateful, or harmful” content isn’t removed fast enough, bosses face jail.
Danger: This will force over-censorship—platforms will delete anything remotely controversial to avoid risks, silencing political dissent, journalism, and everyday opinions. Your voice could be next if it challenges the status quo.
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Criminalizing algorithm amplification: Amplifying “harmful” content via algorithms becomes a crime.
Danger: Governments will dictate what you see, burying opposing views and creating echo chambers controlled by the state. Free exploration of ideas? Gone—replaced by curated propaganda.
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“Hate and polarization footprint” tracking: Platforms must monitor and report how they “fuel division.”
Danger: Vague definitions of “hate” could label criticism of the government as divisive, leading to shutdowns or fines. This can be a tool for suppressing opposition.
These aren’t safeguards; they’re steps toward total control. We’ve seen this playbook before—governments weaponizing “safety” to censor critics. On Telegram, we prioritize your privacy and freedom: strong encryption, no backdoors, and resistance to overreach.
Stay vigilant, Spain. Demand transparency and fight for your rights. Share this widely—before it’s too late. [SOURCE]
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2026/02/04/telegram-founder-and-ceo-pavel-durov-warns-users-in-spain-of-government-censorship-and-the-surveillance-state/
2/3
One of the reasons I am so strongly against the use of AI to frame points of opinion and thinking, is specifically because AI is programmed to review information only from approved sources. When you use AI as a search and information tool, the algorithm that launches the search is under the control of the engineer who instructs the system where to look for responsive information.
When the algorithm controls information, the algorithm controls the definitions of truth or facts. The algorithm is then manipulated to reward speech that complies to the approved message and punishes speech that runs counter to the approved definitions. This is dangerous, yet I see it surfacing everywhere.
In the bigger picture, Pavel Durov is warning about allowing government to control information, and this is a direct alignment with the mis-dis-mal-information effort that has been ongoing for several years. We all experienced the outcomes of this in the COVID-19 era and the severe manipulation of information.
My position: There is no such thing as “disinformation” or “misinformation”. There is only information you accept and information you do not accept. You were not born with a requirement to believe everything you are told; rather, you were born with a brain that allows you to process the information you receive and make independent decisions.
When you accept the terms “disinformation”, “misinformation” or the newest lingo “malinformation,” you are beginning to categorize truth and lies in various shades.You are merging black and white, right and wrong, into various shades of grey.
When your mind works in the grey zone, you are, by direct and factual consequence, saying there is a problem. You are correct; however, this is where people may make a mistake. The problem is supposed to be there.
It is not a solution to the problem to try and remove the grey by using artificial intelligence simply because it takes too much work to separate the white pixels from the black ones. You were born with a gift, the greatest gift a loving God could provide. You were born with a brain and set of natural instincts that are tools to do this pixel separation, use them.
If you define the grey work as a problem you cannot solve on your own, you open the door for others to solve that problem for you. When you use AI to assist your understanding, you begin to abdicate the independent brain work, that’s when trouble can enter.
Put more clearly, when you accept the terminology “disinformation”, you accept a problem.
The problem is then the tool by which authorities will step in to make judgements.
Speech, in its most consequential form, is then qualified by others to whom you have sub-contracted your thinking.
When you willingly sub-contract information filters to others, you have lost connection with the raw information.
CTH was founded upon the belief that truth has no agenda, nor does it care about you, your feelings, or your opinion of it. It just sits there, empirically existing as evidence of information in its most pure form.
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2026/02/04/telegram-founder-and-ceo-pavel-durov-warns-users-in-spain-of-government-censorship-and-the-surveillance-state/
3/3
CTH was founded upon the belief that truth has no agenda, nor does it care about you, your feelings, or your opinion of it. It just sits there, empirically existing as evidence of information in its most pure form.
The search for truth, in all things, is the mission objective of this assembly. Often, we don’t like the truth; often, the truth is bitter, cold, challenging and even painful to accept. However, the truth doesn’t care. Information in its most raw form is ambivalent to our opinion.
Personally, I am an absorber of information – perhaps on a scale that is unusual. But I do not discount information from any form until I can put context to it and see if the information makes sense given all the variables present.
When something doesn’t feel right, it’s almost always because it isn’t right.
Often, I find myself struggling in the grey and complex. It is not unusual to spend days researching, digging, clarifying a situation, only to discover the path to finding the truth is in another direction entirely. Erasing everything and starting over is frustrating, but it is genuinely the only approach that works; and often finding truth is supposed to be difficult, that’s why it is rewarding.
In the digital information age, we are bombarded with information. It is easy to be overwhelmed and need to find something or someone who has better skills at separating the black grains from the white ones.All opinions in this quest should be considered; thus, it is important to allow the free flow of information.
I am not necessarily a speech absolutist. There is some language that needs to be constrained if we are to participate in a respectful society, with grandma’s rules and knowing the audience. The CTH has guidelines for comments for this exact reason.However, those constraints need to be based on a set of inherent values, respect for each other, politeness. When it comes to information it is important to draw a distinction from speech.
Be careful about anyone saying we need to label or categorize informationin order to control or remove speech from the discussion.
You were not born with a requirement to believe everything you are told; rather, you were born with a God-given brain that allows you to process the information you receive and make independent decisions.
Pray. Trust in a loving God.
Be thankful that God has allowed you to see what is unfolding. Others that remain asleep are not as lucky as you.Ask yourself in prayer, why you. Why now?Then, think about this daily in your quiet time.Affirm your spiritand allow this sense of fortunate knowledge to elevate your faith and confidence in a loving and purposeful God. You have the unique gift of discernment. Ultimately, you have been chosen.
Be thankful. Remember, Romans 13:12
Live a positive, affirming, purposeful and incredible life.
Within every battle, challenge and contest we encounter,always remember to be thankful and continue living your very best life.
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2026/02/04/telegram-founder-and-ceo-pavel-durov-warns-users-in-spain-of-government-censorship-and-the-surveillance-state/
Trump Attempted Assassin, Ryan Routh, Sentenced to Life in Prison Plus 84 Months
February 4, 2026 | Sundance |
In September 2025, after a two-week trial in Fort Pierce, Florida, a jury found Ryan Wesley Routh (59) guilty of attempted assassination of President Donald Trump, assault of a federal law enforcement officer and multiple firearms offenses.Today Judge Aileen Cannon sentenced Routh to life in prison plus 84 months.
DOJ PRESS RELEASE – Today, Ryan Wesley Routh, 59, was sentenced to life plus 84 months in federal prison for the attempted assassination of then-presidential candidate Donald J. Trump and related violent and firearms offenses. U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon for the Southern District of Florida imposed the sentence following Routh’s conviction by a federal jury on all five counts charged in the indictment.
“Ryan Routh’s heinous attempted assassination of President Trump was not only an attack on our President — it was a direct assault againstour entire democratic system,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “Thanks to our prosecutors in the National Security Division and the Southern District of Florida, Routh will never walk free again.”
“Routh’s plan to kill a major presidential candidate, President Donald Trump,was a despicable attack on our democratic system,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “Thanks to the work of the FBI and our Justice Department partners, he will pay a high price for his actions. Today’s sentencing demonstrates the justice system will not tolerate such heinous attacks.”
“Routh attempted to assassinate President Trump and thereby cast our Nation into what would have been one of its darkest periods,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg. “Today’s sentence is a resounding rejection of political violence and a clear reminder that we resolve our differences through civil discourse, democratic elections, and lawful protest, not by force.”
“This life sentence reflects a fundamental truth: political violence is un-American and will never be tolerated,” said U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida. “An attempted assassination of a presidential candidate is anattack on our democratic processand the rule of law itself. This assassination attempt was stopped by the courage and professionalism of U.S. Secret Service Special Agent Robert Fercano, whose decisive actions protected lives and prevented a national tragedy. Today’s life sentence ensures the defendant will never again threaten public safety and sends a clear message that those who choose violence to advance their beliefs will face swift, certain, and decisive justice.” (read more)
(Why to heck are all of them reciting “our democratic system, or democratic process or democratic elections”? That’s weird, we are a democratic Republic!)
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2026/02/04/trump-attempted-assassin-ryan-routh-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-plus-84-months/
Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio Lead ‘Critical Minerals’ Strategic Ministerial Gathering
February 4, 2026 | Sundance |
In the past few years people have heard the term “rare earth minerals” or “critical minerals” as they relate to the manufacture of component goods that are vitally important in the lives of everyone. However, the term “rare” is somewhat of a misnomer. The minerals themselves are not rare; indeed, they have been around for hundreds of millions of years in abundant supply.It is the processing of those minerals into stable second stage commodities that has become rare.
As a result of western environmental rules and regulations,U.S, EU and developed nations have outsourced critical mineral processing (the dirty stuff) to China and Asia. We then import the finished commodity after processing.This becomes a problem when you realize the processor can weaponize western dependency, as we have recently seen withChina controlling the export of processed minerals needed for manufacturing.
President Trump has made a strategic decision tobring back the manufacturing of critical minerals to the United Statesand has made a policy decision to create a critical mineral reserve. Just last Monday President Trump announced a $12 billion strategic mineral reserve to combat China’s domination of critical mineral supply chains, a major step toward tackling China’s advantage in a crucial sector of the U.S. economy.The initiative is called “Project Vault.”
“For years, American businesses have risked running out of critical minerals during market disruptions,” President Trump said. “Just as we have long had a strategic petroleum reserve and a stockpile of critical minerals for national defense,we are now creating this reserve for American industry,” Trump said during the Oval Office announcement.
Today in Washington DC,Vice-President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio led a critical minerals discussion at the State Dept., where they are organizing an effort to get all nations to invest and create their own critical minerals strategic reserves. WATCH:
Vice President JD Vance Delivers Remarks at the Critical Minerals Ministerial
41:36
https://youtu.be/5g4eeZ4ctK4
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2026/02/04/vice-president-jd-vance-and-secretary-of-state-marco-rubio-lead-critical-minerals-strategic-ministerial-gathering/
House passes measure to force DC’s hand on tax cuts
City officials voted not to implement several recent GOP tax cuts, sparking the ire of Republicans.
Bernie Becker
02/04/2026, 5:26PM ET
The House passed a bill on party lines Wednesday that would force Washington to implement all of last year’s Republican tax cuts.
Congressional Republicans are moving quickly to block a D.C. budget law, passed late last year, that tossed aside more than a dozen tax provisions from last year’s GOP megabill.
The 215-210 vote in the House pushes action to the Senate, where the Homeland Security Committee already cleared the same repeal measure, H.J. Res. 142 (119) — also on Wednesday and also on a party-line vote.
Republicans have up to 30 legislative days to block the D.C. budget law, under the half-century old law that lays out congressional oversight over the national capital’s affairs.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who sponsored the Senate’s repeal version, said Wednesday that the District’s decision not to implement some of the GOP tax cuts “defies logic.”
“It seems obvious that the D.C. Council Democrats would love to undermine every single move President Trump makes,” Scott said as the Homeland Security panel considered the proposal.
Under the D.C. measure, key GOP tax cuts like the new deductions for tipped income, overtime pay, seniors and the interest on new auto loans wouldn’t be applied on the local level, as well as revived incentives for businesses.
D.C. officials have blasted the timing of the GOP proposal, which comes after the city began accepting tax returns.
Washington’s chief financial officer said this week that the city would need to suspend its tax-filing season to update forms if the repeal measure passes and perhaps push the filing deadline into the fall.
Other states have also decided not to implement portions of last year’s tax cuts, and Democrats charged that Republicans were out of line to overrule D.C.’s local budget authority.
D.C. residents and their representatives, said Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), “have a right to decide their own local tax policy.”
(I’m sure the democrats in DC are not going to like this, it’s crazy!)
https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2026/02/04/congress/house-passes-measure-to-force-d-c-s-hand-on-tax-cuts-00766206
Republican Barry Loudermilk won’t seek reelection
The Georgia Republican said he plans to “spend more dedicated time with my family.”
AARON PELLISH
02/04/2026, 5:51PM ET
Georgia Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk announced he will not run for reelection this year, the latest Republican to retire amid what’s shaping up to be a tough midterm for Republicans.
Loudermilk, who was first elected to Congress in 2014, said in a statement he’s retiring to “spend more dedicated time with my family.”
“Although I continue to have strong support from the people of the Eleventh Congressional District, I believe it is time to contribute to my community, state, and nation in other ways,” he said in the statement.
Loudermilk’s retirement comes as his select subcommittee reinvestigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol ramps up its probe.
The panel — which was launched as a response to the probe helmed by Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and now-former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) in the year after the attack — held its first hearings last month, and subpoenaed for phone records in connection to the suspect accused of placing pipe bombs outside Republican and Democratic headquarters prior to the riot.
Republicans will expect to retain Loudermilk’s seat in suburban Atlanta in November, which he won by 34 points in 2024.
But the announcement marks the latest member of the House Republican caucus to leave Congress this cycle. Since the beginning of 2025, 33 other House Republicans have resigned, announced their retirements or launched campaigns seeking other elected office.
https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2026/02/04/congress/barry-loudermilk-georgia-retires-00766319
(He did his greatest work on J6 matters!)
DEMOCRATS
Wes Moore Says the KKK Chased His Great-Grandfather Out of South Carolina. Historical Records Tell a Different Story.
Moore's great-grandfather preached at a South Carolina church held in high regard by the white community, before he was transferred to Jamaica to succeed a prominent pastor who had unexpectedly died
CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA—Maryland governor Wes Moore, who is widely expected to seek the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, has a powerful family story of racial injustice that he repeatedly tells during public speeches: His grandfather, as a small boy, fled 1920s Charleston with his family in the dead of night after his father—a prominent black minister and Moore's great-grandfather—angered the Ku Klux Klan with sermons condemning racism. Narrowly escaping a lynching, the family took refuge in Jamaica. But Moore's grandfather, just six years old at the time, vowed to return to America, where he eventually raised a grandson who made history in 2022 by becoming Maryland's first black governor.
It's a story straight out of Hollywood, and it was a central feature of Moore's 2022 campaign stump speech, in which he described a version of American patriotism wherein "loving your country does not mean lying about its history." Moore first told the tale of his exiled grandfather in a 2014 memoir and has since retold it countless times as he seeks to reclaim patriotism for the Democratic Party and to contextualize his own unlikely rise to power.
But there's a problem with Moore's story: It's flatly contradicted by historical records and is almost certainly false.
Moore's great-grandfather on his mother's side, the Rev. Josiah Johnson Thomas, did preach in the 1920s at a church in Pineville, S.C., about 65 miles north of Charleston. But historical records housed at the archives of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of South Carolina undercut the three main elements of Moore's story—that Thomas suddenly fled the country in secret, that he was targeted by the Ku Klux Klan, and that he was a prominent preacher who spoke from the pulpit against racism.
Detailed church archival records, as well as contemporary newspaper coverage, indicate that Thomas, a Jamaica native, on Dec. 13, 1924, made an orderly and public transfer from South Carolina to the island of his birth, where he was appointed to succeed a prominent Jamaican pastor who had died unexpectedly a week earlier, on Dec. 6, 1924. Amid the copious documentation of the life and career of Moore's great-grandfather, there is no mention of trouble with the Klan, which operated openly in 1920s South Carolina but never had a chapter operating out of Pineville, according to Virginia Commonwealth University's Mapping of the Second Ku Klux Klan.
Many families tell larger-than-life stories about their forebears that wouldn't hold up to scrutiny. But your typical family-tree fabulist isn't preparing to run for president. And Moore's fantastical tale of his great-grandfather's escape from the Ku Klux Klan to exile to Jamaica adds yet another asterisk to his remarkably inflated résumé—about which the press have asked him very little.
Moore falsely claimed that he was born and grew up in Baltimore, which he did not; that he was inducted into the Maryland College Football Hall of Fame, an organization that doesn't exist; that he received a Bronze Star for his service in Afghanistan, which he had not; that in 2006 he was considered a foremost expert on radical Islam based on his graduate thesis, which he never submitted to Oxford University's library and can no longer locate; that he was a doctoral candidate at Oxford in 2006, a claim he has no documentation to support and on which Oxford refuses to comment; and that he had "a difficult childhood in the Bronx and Baltimore" despite attending New York City's elite, private Riverdale Country School—where John F. Kennedy went to school—as a child and not living in Baltimore until college, when he attended Johns Hopkins University, another elite private school…
https://freebeacon.com/democrats/wes-moore-says-the-kkk-chased-his-great-grandfather-out-of-south-carolina-historical-records-tell-a-different-story/