Streamworks

08/24/2026

08/16/2026

I learned about a horrible thing today: The Zong Massacre

The Zong massacre was a mass killing of more than 130 enslaved African people by the crew of the British slave ship Zong over several days from 29 November 1781.[a] The William Gregson slave-trading syndicate, based in Liverpool, owned the ship as part of the Atlantic slave trade. As was common business practice, they had taken out insurance on the lives of the enslaved Africans as cargo. According to the crew, when the ship ran low on drinking water after a series of navigational errors, the crew threw enslaved Africans overboard.

After the slaver ship reached port at Black River, Jamaica, Zong's owners made a claim to their insurers for the loss of the enslaved Africans. When the insurers refused to pay, the resulting court cases (Gregson v Gilbert (1783) 3 Doug. KB 232) held that in some circumstances, the murder of enslaved Africans was legal and that insurers could be required to pay for those who had died. The jury found for the slavers but at a subsequent appeal hearing the judges, led by Lord Chief Justice, the Earl of Mansfield, ruled against the slave-trading syndicate owners, on the grounds that new evidence suggested that the captain and crew were at fault.

Following the first trial, Olaudah Equiano, a freedman, brought news of the massacre to the attention of the anti-slavery campaigner Granville Sharp, who worked unsuccessfully to have the ship's crew prosecuted for murder. Because of the legal dispute, reports of the massacre received increased publicity, stimulating the abolitionist movement in the late 18th and early 19th centuries; the Zong events were increasingly cited as a powerful symbol of the horrors of the Middle Passage, the transoceanic route by which enslaved Africans were brought to the New World.[3]

The non-denominational Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade was founded in 1787. The next year, Parliament passed the Slave Trade Act 1788, its first law regulating the slave trade, to limit the number of slaves per ship. Then, in 1791, Parliament prohibited insurance companies from reimbursing ship owners when enslaved Africans were murdered by being thrown overboard.[4] The massacre has also inspired works of art and literature. It was remembered in London in 2007, among events to mark the bicentenary of the British Slave Trade Act 1807, which abolished British participation in the African slave trade (though stopped short of outlawing slavery). A monument to the murdered enslaved Africans on Zong was installed at Black River, Jamaica.

08/14/2026

Sean Grayson, the former Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy convicted of m*rdering Sonya Massey, has been denied early release from prison despite a medical evaluation finding his colon cancer is likely to k*ll him within 18 months.

The Illinois Prisoner Review Board voted 3-0 on Friday to reject Grayson’s petition, which sought to end his 20-year sentence after he had served roughly six months of it. Grayson, who fatally sh*t the 36-year-old Massey inside her Springfield, Illinois, home in July 2024 after she called 911 to report a prowler, filed for release under the state’s Joe Coleman Act, a law that allows terminally ill or medically incapacitated inmates to seek compassionate release. A medical professional who evaluated him described his stage 4 colon cancer, which has spread to his liver and lungs, as irreversible and incurable, and indicated he could d*e within 18 months, though the same evaluator found he was not medically incapacitated because he can still dress and feed himself.
Sangamon County State’s Attorney John C. Milhiser opposed the request, writing that Grayson remains a danger to society. In his handwritten petition, Grayson gave no indication of remorse, maintaining that Massey had attacked him with a pot of boiling water before he opened fire, striking her three times.

The board’s decision, reached after roughly ten minutes of deliberation with no vote explanation given, drew applause from Massey’s family and supporters gathered at the hearing. Sonya Massey’s father, James Wilburn, said the panel “did the right thing” and had not allowed “a serious miscarriage of justice.” Her cousin, Sontae Massey, told ABC News the family was relieved but warned the fight isn’t over, saying Grayson “can turn around and he can apply again and again and again,” and that she believes “he will not stop until he is out.”

Grayson’s attorneys have not indicated whether they intend to file a new petition. Under the Joe Coleman Act, inmates denied medical release are permitted to reapply, meaning the board’s decision, while final for now, does not foreclose future attempts by Grayson to be freed before his sentence concludes.

08/10/2026

Now why do you think that is?

08/07/2026

This dude is dead. I feel it. Within a week or so he'll suddenly have something happen and then p**f. End of Hoax. Get on Kalsi, get on that s**t and make some dough of some crooked ass s**t.

I found 5 shady s**ts about Mitch and his post from today and from the post from the physician last month, s**t dont check out:

Peep game

**1. The Office of the Attending Physician is absent from today's statement.** July 27 was jointly released — McConnell plus OAP, and the OAP said explicitly he was **"not yet medically cleared to leave the rehab facility."** Today he's discharged and the OAP says nothing. The medical body that documented "not cleared" is silent on the reversal. That's the largest gap.

**2. Voice collapse.** July 27: forty-two years of Fancy Farm, pork and mutton, "a pretty lonely place to be a Republican," "my, how times have changed," best wishes to the St. Jerome community. Specific, regional, personal, with humor. Today: four sentences of procedural boilerplate. The only personal content is naming Elaine.

**3. "Hospital staff."** He thanks "doctors, nurses, therapists, and hospital staff." He was discharged from a **rehabilitation center**, and the July 27 OAP statement drew that distinction explicitly — "since his discharge from hospital care" — meaning he'd already left the hospital weeks prior. Today's statement thanks staff at a facility he wasn't in.

**4. "During the state work period."** That's Senate insider terminology for the August recess. In July he called it "the first Saturday in August" and talked about a picnic. Today's phrasing is how a staffer writes, not how he talks publicly.

**5. No photo.** July 27 included one dated the previous day. Today has none, and TMZ noted the absence directly.

Lindsey Graham died. McConnell missed the funeral services, held around July 28.

Believe what you will, but s**t don't add up.

08/06/2026

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg supports replacing the Electoral College with a national popular vote, arguing that every American ballot should carry equal weight. Supporters believe the change would make candidates compete for voters nationwide, while opponents warn that major cities and populous states could gain greater influence. Adopting the proposal would require a constitutional amendment.