Uh No, It Isn't Only "Leftists" Behind The Drive To Remove Confederate Symbols!

Yahoos, driven to frenzy after the odious Confederate flag has been removed from state houses, go batshit nuts waving their own in pseudo-defiance.

It is almost an axiom, especially on historical matters, that when reactionaries have their oxen gored, they respond with hysteria and not reason. We've seen it before, as when the Oliver Stone film 'JFK' came out in 1991, that every scrawny little hack in whatever newspaper (but mainly the "liberal" ones like the WashPost and NY Times) came out violently against it as if Stone had produced a snuff film.. But they merely exposed themselves as screwballs especially since Stone never claimed his film was rigidly historical but rather a "counter myth to the myth of the Warren Commission Report".

We've seen it once more, in the wake of the Charleston massacre, when Confederate Battle flags began being taken down, that the reactionaries by their hysteria have exposed themselves as irrational. For example, EL Rushbo bloviating that "the same people out to confiscate the Confederate flag will go after the American flags next" . This was rightly mocked in a recent piece in The Economist (not exactly a "left" magazine) which observed (June 3rd, p. 22)::

"He ought to read Mr.Roof's manifesto: 'I hate the American flag' wrote the shooter, making its stars and stripes even brighter"

Which is why it was no coincidence that when we saw the Confederate Battle flag taken down in Columbia, SC, nearly all those present and cheering were waving AMERICAN flags, far outnumbering the Rebel regressives holding their Battle flags.

In the response to the spectacle of the Rebel flag being removed in South Carolina, of course,  hysteria has also taken hold amongst its backers, thereby sending their mental processes off the rails into wild distortion and bare bollocks. It is actually kind of fun to watch them melt down in apoplectic, futile fury - knowing there's not a damned thing they can do to halt the process.

For example, in some quarters and blogs the canard is being circulated it is all those terrible "leftists" who are responsible, totally forgetting:

- Nikki Haley who first called for the flag to come down after the massacre is a Republican

- Most of the votes needed to pass the legislation for removal had to come from Republicans (including Jenny Horne a descendant of Jefferson Davis) since a two-thirds majority was needed in the SC state senate and house.

-  In Mississippi, it was the REPUBLICAN Speaker of the House who said it was time to take the Confederate symbol off the state flag.

-  In Alabama, it was the REPULICAN Governor who had 3 Confederate flags removed from state house grounds by executive order.

Beyond these glaring examples, it is real Americans in general who have now had the scales removed from their eyes on our past history calling for its removal (at least to museums where it belongs) not just "leftists". But leave it to the Right to distort current events like they have the past.

Another canard circulated is that "leftists' have stoked the belief that the "Battle flag made poor little Roof  do it" totally misrepresenting the underlying issue and failing to grasp the nature of the Confederate symbols in supporting underlying racism and white supremacy.

This was well clarified in a Wall Street Journal article ('The Right Way to Remember the Confederacy', p. C1, June 11-12) where author William C. Davis pointed out:

"Symbols matter. They say at a glimpse what words cannot, encapsulating beliefs and aspirations, prejudices and fears.. Having no intrinsic value they take meaning from the way we use them, changing over time along with our actions....we know it today as the swastika, and a quarter century use by the Nazis, forever poisoned it in Western culture".

Indeed, which is why you get arrested for flying it - even as a personal choice and outside your own home- in Germany today. No ifs, ands or buts, you go to the slammer and do not pass 'Go'. It should be the same with the Reb Battle flag given how its history has altered.

As Davis notes, the flag originally was carried into battle in the Civil War "because the brilliant red stood out though the smoke of battle"  and it was carried into battle "as an intrinsic affirmation Confederacy's symbols including the perpetuation of slavery".

Davis asserts this image was "protected by veterans' groups from inappropriate political or commercial use" but it didn't last since:

"Soon former Confederate states incorporated it into their state flags, and militant white supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan began deploying it as a symbol of resistance to integration and voting rights,  The worst proponents of white supremacy displayed that emblem while committing unspeakable acts of violence against African-Americans and white supporters of civil rights. They still do. Witness Charleston."

In other words, whatever semi-justified veneer for flying this flag was effectively jettisoned once the hate mongers and white supremacists began using it to support their criminal abominations  - including that sack of shit, Dylann Roof. In the same way the swastika became toxic by odious use to support everything from seizing Jewish property to genocide,  so also did the Rebel flag and all Confederate symbols via slavery, rape and lynchings. The neo-Confederate backers can try to deny this or distort it any way they wish, but those are the facts. Hence, it makes sense all right-thinking Americans  (not just "leftists") now brought up to speed on history would walk away from such symbols rather than embrace them. They'd also demand their removal from their own states' capitols.  Davis again:

"Whatever the flag meant from 1865 to 1940, its use by a white minority of outspokenly bigoted and violent people has indelibly shifted that meaning"

Hence, whatever its former meaning, its use NOW reduces to either that of haters and racist killers, OR jokers who are unaware (or in denial) of the hideous deployment while lynching blacks, raping their women and burning their churches. This is irrespective of the revisionist historical bunkum peddled by FOX nuts like Megyn Kelly, for the consumption of..... Foxites.

Btw, as far as Confederate war monuments go, Davis also points out:

"After the Civil War, Robert E. Lee himself opposed efforts to place monuments on the Confederacy's battlefields"

The author notes "Lee understood symbols" and further counseled that Southerners ought to "obliterate the marks of civil strife and commit to oblivion the feelings engendered."  Lee didn't believe it was historically appropriate or the losers' right to erect monuments to themselves, or to mislead future generations about their "independent" heritage and "rights".

As for the infuriating declaration that right-thinking Americans "ought to have let sleeping dogs lie" or "Rebel flags wave", give me a break! After Charleston and especially the generosity of the victims' families in forgiving Roof, that was no longer feasible and no person of conscience could abide it. The SC flag HAD to come down!

Maybe there will be millions of yokels (including those thousands coming out in its support this past weekend) who now purchase this flag in defiance. and that is their business and misfortune. But short of starting a new shooting Civil War, which I seriously doubt,  there is no problem now about "sleeping Reb dogs being awakened" given that the majority of Americans - including right thinking conservatives as well as leftists - are determined to remove this symbol from public spaces.

See also:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/ed-tant/63010/haters-are-out-there-armed-and-dangerous

And:

http://www.salon.com/2015/07/14/lets_make_the_south_stop_lying_the_rights_war_on_our_history_and_truth_must_be_defeated_now/

Kudos to Jenny Horne For Helping Bring That Accursed Flag DOWN!

Jenny Horne - read the Reb-Flag backing Repukes the 'riot act' about their incessant amendments in trying to block removal of the Rebel Battle Flag.

Thanks to an impassioned speech by Jenny Horne, a Republican member of the South Carolina House and descendant of Jefferson Davis, the accursed Confederate Battle Flag is coming down today from the South Carolina State House. 

Horne started out with a calm complaint:

"We are going to be doing this all summer long," she said after stepping up to the microphone, referring to a stream of amendments (65 in all) hat the flag's deluded supporters were adding to the bill, thereby delaying a vote.

Then, obviously frustrated, she really let loose:

"I cannot believe that we do not have the heart in this body," she said, pausing to swallow her sobs, then raising her voice to shout, "to do something meaningful, such as take a symbol of hate off these grounds on Friday."

She then thrust her finger at the floor with every word of her demand.

"And if any of you vote to amend, you are ensuring that this flag will fly beyond Friday. And for the widow of Sen. (Clementa) Pinckney and his two young daughters, that would be adding insult to injury, and I will not be a part of it."

'Enough about heritage'

And bravo to you, Jenny, for majorly contributing to the removal of this odious flag which will now be retired to the relic room of the Confederate Military museum.  You merit kudos and commendations, never mind how all the Flag howler supporters will be squawking.  With Nikki Haley's signature the damned thing is finally coming down - and now we need to set sights on removing all the other Rebel flags in other Southern states, including Mississippi and Florida. No flag of any state, no matter what its history, should bear this symbol even if it is the size of a postage stamp!

And no, that's not being "politically correct" or "extremist" but merely recognizing these Southern traitors LOST the Civil War! And when you lose -especially after being for a verminous cause - you don't get to fly your Battle flags all over state houses. No, you don't! You can't be like Nazis, who - after all - saw their symbols and flags removed throughout Germany where it is now a crime to fly one.

And please don't anyone hand me the stupid, sophist balderdash about the swastika being an "ancient symbol" used also by Hindus- so we need to remove their swastikas too. We aren't talking about Hindus - who used a different version of the swastika, e.g.


But Hitler and the Nazis adopted a specific form for their flag with a black swastika  (undergoing a 45 degree rotation) centered in a white disk then onto a blood red background, e.g.

The distinction between the ancient Hindu and modern Nazi versions is carefully distinguished in one anecdote cited by Wikipedia:

"When a ten-year-old boy in Lynbrook, New York, bought a set of Pokémon cards imported from Japan in 1999, two of the cards contained the left-facing Buddhist Manji symbol. The boy's parents misinterpreted the symbol as a Nazi swastika, which is right-facing with 45 degree rotation, and filed a complaint to the manufacturer. It also caused a lot of concern amongst fans from Jewish communities. Nintendo of America announced that the cards would be discontinued, explaining that what was acceptable in one culture was not necessarily so in another; their action was welcomed by the Anti-Defamation League who recognized that there was no intention to be offensive but said that international commerce meant that "isolating [the Swastika] in Asia would just create more problems"

Got that, sophists?

In the same Wikipedia references, the background to why Hitler decided on the specific Nazi version is also given:

"In his 1925 work Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler writes that: "I myself, meanwhile, after innumerable attempts, had laid down a final form; a flag with a red background, a white disk, and a black swastika in the middle. After long trials I also found a definite proportion between the size of the flag and the size of the white disk, as well as the shape and thickness of the swastika."

When Hitler created a flag for the Nazi Party, he sought to incorporate both the swastika and "those revered colors expressive of our homage to the glorious past and which once brought so much honor to the German nation." (Red, white, and black were the colors of the flag of the old German Empire.)

Of course, these nuanced distinctions are perhaps too difficult for deluded Johnny Rebs to  grasp or accept, determined as they are to invoke any manner of specious bollocks to try to defend keeping their white supremacy flag flying - but it's not going to work.
 

Americans, especially Southerners, who've long been gypped out of a proper American history education (because of cowardly book publishers appeasing Southern districts and school boards) are now learning - many for the first time - what that flag really stands for. And it's not states' rights.

Thanks again to Ms. Horne for her critical contribution in lending her vibrant, principled voice to this issue, and now let's move ahead with removing the other Rebel  flags and also Confederate monuments! Oh, and let's consider prosecuting history ":professors"  with hate crimes who refer to this anti-Confederacy movement as "hysteria". (As one knucklehead from Keenesaw State University quoted in today's WSJ asserts..)

 See also:

http://www.salon.com/2015/07/10/lets_make_the_confederate_flag_a_hate_crime_it_is_the_american_swastika_and_we_should_recoil_it_from_it_in_horror/

And:

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2015/07/james-loewen-explodes-myths-of-e-thneo.html

YES! That Damned Rebel Flag Needs To Come Down In South Carolina

The despised Confederate flag, cradled by Dylan Roof - which even Mitt Romney now tweets ought to be removed from the South Carolina State Capitol.

The newly released images from a secret hate website manned by racist killer Dylann Roof, have not only revealed multiple scenes of this vermin with Confederate flags -  but also  spitting on and burning American flag. In addition, he displays a disgusting, hate-filled manifesto. (Some query whether he really wrote it, but the sentiments expressed are the same as those he's already divulged, e.g. to his "friends".) The new revelations have been so graphic and sordid to even prompt Republican Mitt Romney to tweet for the removal of the Confederate Battle flag from the South Carolina capitol. Well, at least one major Republican - and a former presidential candidate - has the balls to call out for what's needed! Good on you, Mitt, at least for this!

Kudos are also due to SC State Rep Doug Brannon, another Republican, who has vowed to introduce legislation this December to remove the Confederate Battle Flag from the state capitol. In addition, there has now been an outpouring of demands from SC citizens to "Take down that flag of my ancestors' heritage!"

Getting rid of that degenerate piece of rotten fabric really ought to be no biggie for anyone with a grain of sense and common decency - especially after what the newly released images show.

My wake up call on flags  - namely those of enemies and why they don't merit being hoisted- occurred when I was in Dissen, West Germany in May, 1985. This was not long after our host (Reinhardt) had driven us to the East German border to the town of Allendorf. We emerged from the car and walked to the border near a river bank in the literal shadow of a manned guard tower. There East German soldiers actually (briefly) pointed rifles at our heads. Reinhardt swore he saw them laughing, but my eyes weren't that great. I had to take his word for it.

We did get several shots of the armed guard tower, which featured in several of Reinhardt's slides we all watched later: Reinhardt, me, his wife Elli and Janice.


The slide above shows the armed guard tower, erected (like hundreds of others)  so that any East Germans attempting to escape to the West (West Germany) would be shot on sight. Reinhardt told me even two weeks earlier two had been shot and killed as they tried to get through.  Another slide showed the hated East German flag, the symbol of oppression for millions.

Below, we're seen watching the scenes, including one - slide I've since  lost - of me standing at the near side river's edge, with the guard seen in the tower in the background

When the slide of the East German flag appeared, Reinhardt said: "One day Germany will be one, east and west united, and this flag will fly no more."  By 1990 this had happened, and when we visited Munich and Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 2013 and met Reinhardt again, I asked if any such flags had survived.

He responded, "Yes, in some museums".

He then asked me pointed questions over Spaetzli  and dunkel beer that I could not answer: "How is it that in your country - the U.S.  - you still have Confederate war memorials, but here in Germany no town or village is  permitted a single Third Reich memorial?  Also, how can some of your people fly those crossed bar Confederate flags but here one would be prosecuted if he flew a swastika flag?"

I had no answers - but his questions made sense. Why indeed? The Confederate battle flag, like the Nazi swastika, was the emblem of hateful aggressive losers. After the Civil War, given the South had lost, it ought to have been retired  to museums (like swastikas in Germany)  but instead had found its way to rise above state capitols, such as in South Carolina.

Today it remains the same symbol of hate - as much as the swastika - and this isn't a matter of "political correctness" either - any more than the E. German flag's prohibition was political correctness after reunification. It isn't any coincidence that the hateful turd Roof was captured in photos showing an '88' t-shirt (white supremacist code for “Heil Hitler”) and also the Confederate flag. The two go together like dung and donkey piss.

It also isn't a matter of "subjectivity". NO black man who beholds the Stars n' Bars can see anything other than an evil symbol of oppression and aggression, the same reaction evoked in German Jews who see the swastika or former E. Germans who see the hated flag of E. Germany.

Thus, as numerous media and other voices (including Romney's)  have called for, this flag needs to come down and be retired to a museum with all the other paraphernalia of Southern "heritage".. It was bad enough the damned thing was flying high in the state capitol after the massacre of nine black innocents in Charleston. The very fact that the U.S. and State flags were at half mast - as per decorum - but the Confederate flag remained high, said it all. Silently gave testimony to a state that - though it yearned for unity in the wake of the killings - bestowed benediction on hate by the Battle Flag that flew high.

In the aftermath, assorted namby -pamby talking heads like Lindsey Graham bellyached that it couldn't  be taken down because it was part of "our Southern heritage" but "a compromise might work". This deranged fool also added: "“this is part of who we are. The flag represents — to some people — the Civil War, and that was the symbol of one side.”   Bull pockey!  The East German flag and the Nazi swastika also represented "one side"  in different contexts (Cold War, WWII) but that doesn't mean they're allowed to be openly hoisted in public places any more!

 Will these traitorous supporters  (especially Reepo politicians like Graham) ever get it into their heads they LOST the war? That instead of celebrating their odious leaders - like Jeff Davis and John C. Calhoun and Robert E. Lee- they ought to be hanging their heads in shame? Where does it end?

 I thought is was bad enough when, ten years ago - in an issue of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Review, there was a section devoted to how Southerners were buying KKK outfits and Confederate Battle flags (and other clothing emblazoned with it), for....TODDLERS! How outlandish and over the top can you get? Don't these people understand that the Confederate Battle Flag is an affront to all black people as well as all civilized people with any iota of sensitivity? It is an emblem of the slavery and abuse at the hands of the Southern slave owners!

Still, what pro-Confederate Southerners do with their flags and Rebel paraphernalia on their own time and dime (and in their own homes) is their business. If they want to plaster all the walls in their homes with Rebel flags or photos of Jeff Davis, that's their business. Same with flying it in the front of their own homes. Where I have a problem is when it's flown in a public space, intimating that all citizens of the place or state are agreeable to its hidden messages, oppression, slavery, symbolism for "heritage" or whatever. No they are not! Not any more than flying a Nazi flag would be in Dissen, Germany today.


Some deluded supporters of this piece of antiquated refuse have actually suggested that "it's how it's used that matters". Uh, no, Sparky, it's what it REPRESENTS!

In addition, digging up some obscure image of some poor old black guy carrying this symbol of his ancestors' oppression doesn't prove it's accepted by blacks, or that its position in the South Carolina Capitol of Columbia is justified. It is merely a cheap ploy unworthy of a really thoughtful blogger or commentator.

Sadly, all this shows how far we have to go and the first step for healing in Charleston is getting rid of that damned, demented symbol and sticking it in the back room of a museum.


See also:

http://www.salon.com/2015/06/19/lindsey_graham_the_confederate_flag_is_part_of_who_we_are_in_south_carolina_even_if_its_a_racist_symbol/

Lindsey Graham Needs To Think About His State's Role In This Tragedy

Rebel symps fly their Confederate flags in South Carolina

"I can't explain this. I don't know what would make a young man of twenty one to get so sick and twisted to kill nine people in a church"  - Lindsey Graham,  yesterday

Graham,  asked if he thought it was a hate crime, then went off on a tangent, dredging up "people who are organized to kill others for their religion, especially Christians" - which this massacre in Charleston had nada to do with. Only a posturing imbecile like Graham would fail to see it was all about race. (Though the Wall Street Journal editors also fall into that category!)  Especially as we now know Roof had openly declared  blacks were "taking over the country, raping our women" and confided to a pal he wanted to "start a race war or a new Civil war". This was also a guy who sported white supremacy emblems from two nation states - Rhodesia and Apartheid South Africa - that have been the worst in history for racial separation and white supremacy.

But Roof didn't live in those nations, but in South Carolina. So where's the connection to his hate and what fueled it?  Journalist Eugene Robinson offered the most trenchant observation this morning:

"Very clearly this was about race. That was a state motive. He inhaled this poison from some atmosphere. He got it from somewhere."

The discussion on 'Morning Joe' then finally settled on the still existing racially divisive nature of the place - South Carolina - which still flies the Confederate  battle flag in its state capitol. Aspen Institute leader Walter Isaacson then pointed out one reaction to this crime is "we should take it down".. Indeed.

Expanding on this was author Kevin Alexander Gray last night on Chris Hayes' 'All In'. As he  told Hayes"

"Look, I'm from South Carolina. This state is the ideological home of white supremacy in this country. On our state house grounds we have memorials to Confederate heroes. We have streets, roads, bridges, schools, buildings named after Confederates. And we're on Calhoun Street! They built a statue of Calhoun so high that the freed slaves wouldn't tear it down.

The tourism industry in this city is based on slavery. That young man grew up in a state that reveres its Confederate history. It reveres the fact that the first shots of the Civil War were fired from this city. It reveres the fact that the Citadel, right across town, was built to crush slave rebellions.

That young man was born and lived in a county that is the most Republican in the most conservative state - that if you go places like Swansea and Gaston, you'll see Confederate flags- which theyve  believe is the flag of the white man's country. "

Alexander than made the significant point that while black activists are dismissed as "thugs" and Hispanics as "illegals", white men who brutally kill others are all of a sudden "mentally ill"  - which he noted in disgust was an "overused term". (In fact, statistics show the mentally ill are at least 3 times less likely to wantonly kill than their normal counterparts.)

So what does it all add up to? It configures the state of South Carolina as at least an accessory after the fact to what happened at ".Mother Emanuel" church.  It bears partial responsibility for breeding this kid Roof as a diehard white supremacist sympathizer and pro-Confederate racist hater.  It thus answers Eugene Robinson's question of  the atmosphere from which the kid "inhaled the poison".

And inhale it he did. From the state's resident racists, the  shameless pro-Confederate atmosphere including the Battle flag over the state capitol.

Rationalizers can try to explain this all away as best they can but facts are facts. And we know even a slightly unstable personality - left to percolate in a race hate environment where slave masters are still extolled- will ultimately surrender to the memes and act them out. This is made more certain when the person in question - such as Dylann Roof, is semi-educated. (He left school in 9th grade, as reported last night).

And, of course, semi-educated people are far more likely to believe and accept twisted histories - whether that the Civil War was fought for "state's rights" as opposed to preserving slavery, or that lands of Native Americans were seized in justified conflicts, or that LBJ didn't start the Vietnam War on a pretext, or that the Warren Commission is the final word  on the Kennedy assassination.

We can consult Robert Baum’s textbook, LOGIC, pp. 469-70, to see that explicating necessary and sufficient conditions are practical replacements (in logic) for causes. To refresh memory, a necessary condition is one which, if absent, the entity cannot exist or the event occur. A sufficient condition is one which, if present, the entity must exist and the event must occur.  In this context, we can see that the pre-existing racially divisive atmosphere of South Carolina emerges as the necessary condition . Roof's hatred of African-Americans along with being given a Glock .45 for his birthday was the sufficient condition. Roof's racial hatred of blacks (he adopted the middle name 'Storm' from Storm front) along with his birthday gift of a .45 Glock was the sufficient condition.

Governor Nikki Haley lamented this heinous crime that has "broken the heart of South Carolina". Maybe she could begin to repair it by getting that Confederate Battle Flag taken down and toning down the bitter white supremacist memes still afoot in her state.

See also:

http://www.salon.com/2015/06/18/its_not_about_mental_illness_the_big_lie_that_always_follows_mass_shootings_by_white_males/

The Problem With HS Kids Waving Confederate Flags on Their Facebook Pages

Okay, once more into the breach  - where I will bring up the recent escapade of two East Chapel Hill, NC high school girls who thought it was cool to send up Rebel (Confederate) flags while on a field trip to Gettysburg. To remind readers this was the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War (NOT the "war of northern aggression") and a rout ("Pickett's charge") sure to live in rebel memory as one of the worst. To be blunt, the Johnny Rebs got their heinies beaten so badly that they likely limped all the way back to the dregs from whence they came.

Anyway, the girls also made comments (on their FB page)  to the effect the "South will rise again" . Perhaps they haven't gotten the memo that essentially it HAS, culturally speaking.  Author Joshua Zeitz in his thoughtful article ‘Dixie’s Victory’(in The American Heritage Magazine, Sept. 2002), observed that although Confederates only got as far north as Pennsylvania, their “great-grandchildren have captured America’s culture”. Zeitz then went on to clarify pointing to NASCAR as well as “Country and Western music”, gun fascination- collection and bible –punching religion. In Zeit’z own words:

“In the mid-twentieth century the arrival of Southern rural traditions in the urban marketplace created a new breed of Southland culture that exploded onto the national scene. At the same time, the millions of white Southerners planting new roots in the North introduced the rest of the country to their conservative religious and political culture and to once-regional pastimes like stock car racing and country music. The consequences have been revolutionary.”

As I've noted before, most Southern idiosyncrasies (like NASCAR, country & western music, hayseed dancing) which I have zero use for, are more or less harmless pastimes, so I don't get off on thumping anyone for pursuing them, even fellow Yankees who embrace these "cultural affectations" (afflictions?). I have much more serious issues with the (now much more extensive) embrace of pro-Confederate style politics, including trying to cut the government down to the bone - oh, except to create armies to occupy sovereign nations- and rendering public workers little better than modern day sharecroppers or indentured servants.

So, let's clarify that I have far bigger issues with these political offshoot matters than a couple of Tarheel state high school girls expressing themselves in their own unique way. Indeed, as a fellow blogger noted, they are manifesting their rights to "freedom of speech". The question then becomes:  Are they aware of the possible future costs to that speech - including the use of a variant of Rebel flag- on what most Yankees regard as hallowed ground?

Well, at least one of the girls later recognized her faux pas and scribbled on her FB page a classic "sorry-not-sorry" effusion, stating,

“I’m sorry that my picture offended people and especially since my initial caption (that I changed once I realized people took it seriously), but I’m currently on the Civil War trip learning about the history of our country and this just so happens to be a pretty (expletive) important part of it. We were reenacting Pickett’s charge in which the South lost 85% of their soldiers. These aren’t the Confederate flags in fact, they’re the North Carolina regimental flags. I’m proud to be a part of my state and I’m sorry my photo was so offensive but I find it appropriate in that I’m honoring heroes that fought to protect their home and families. Thanks though.” 

Nice discrimination, girly, re: the Confederate flag vis-a -vis a NC "regiment:" flag,  but I don't know that most yanks would necessarily make any distinctions with the real one! To us, all such crossed bar red flags are Confederate!

Ron Creatore - father of one of the girls -  said his daughter is now “dealing with people threatening her life and calling her some unseemly names,”  so this is not a good moment for the family to go on the defensive about her  actions.  Creatore said, “She didn’t at the time post it with any intention it was going to be perceived as racist… They want to use this photograph and my daughter’s involvement in this photograph as a vessel to promote a particular agenda. I won’t stand for my daughter being suspended because I don’t believe she’s done anything wrong.”

Well neither did Prof. Ward Churchill when he wrote his post 9/11 article "On Roosting Chickens" - comparing those in the twin towers - mainly traders- to "little Eichmanns" He also didn't believe he was doing anything wrong but he paid dearly for that belief in unfettered free speech when he lost his (tenured) job after a selective university witch hunt found evidence for "plagiarism".  This episode showed clearly why the theoretical right to free speech can be curbed, and isn't absolute. This is a lesson the girls and their parents are also learning - and the girls may well learn even more of in the future (more on this later).

Earlier this week, a group of Colorado high schoolers also made national news after they posted a photo on Facebook of themselves on prom night, holding guns and surrounding a Confederate flag. The caption was “The south will rise again.”   So the virus of  misplaced Confederate love appears to be increasing- but that's a separate issue from the fallout that all these misguided  kids are likely to face. Because in this country "free speech" isn't really free, at least in the sense of no future sanctions.

The question is: Are any of these kids aware of the possible future consequences to their current spontaneous free expressions? (Which may merely be done to get attention they're not able to find in a constructive way.)

The most probable blowback  - apart from the immediate social ostracizing and threats (NEVER acceptable!) - is that as adults they may be denied future employment opportunities. As I noted in a number of my previous posts, U.S. employers now -  as a matter of course -  scan Facebook and use Google when considering applicants. They will use those as a basis to exclude applicants if they perceive anything that doesn't fit in with their company or corporate culture.  Thousands of possible job candidates have already been dismissed from consideration based on posing in different stages of undress on their FB pages, or with liquor in their hands. Raising a Reb flag at Gettysburg may not be far behind.

Again, no one is saying kids (especially in high school) aren't entitled to free speech or expression, but they need to be aware that if they post such displays publicly - as on their Facebook pages or via Instagram -  there may be nasty blowback later. Are they prepared for the consequences,  maybe even not getting a decent paying job to pay off that college loan?

What If The Tea Bagger South Had Won The Civil War?

"Remember that had we as a nation followed the Southern model for government and social values up to now, we would not be near the great and inclusive nation that we are today. Remember that 19 red states (as determined by votes in the 2012 presidential election) are given back more in federal revenue than their citizens are taxed. The top 10 states that give more to the federal government than they get back are all blue states.

If you were the CEO of a progressive corporation looking to relocate, would you pick the state where people grow up having basic health care that includes preventive care for which your company doesn't directly have to pay? Or would you pick a state where people can't afford to even get basic preventive care and have high levels of diabetes, obesity, infant mortality, etc.?- Jonathan H. Reilly, letter in today's Colorado Springs Independent.


It is time for the non-Southern American majority, in alliance with many non-elite Southerners of all races, to target and attack every element of the Southern Autonomy Project simultaneously. If the neo-Confederates want to wage political and economic war, their fellow Americans should choose to respond with political and economic war on all fronts, not on the terms and in the places the Southern conservatives choose.- Michael Lind, The South is Holding America Hostage, salon.com



Confederate sympathizers across the land continue to blow noxious clouds of revisionist history on how the South was "wronged", that it was really a "war of Northern Aggression" (never mind the South seceded first) and wow...how great things would have been if the Confederates had prevailed! (Actually, in many cultural-political ways they did, as noted by author Joshua Zeitz in his article 'Dixie's Victory' in the Sept. 2002 issue of American Heritage. From fundie, bible pounding hellfire religion, to run -amuck gun toting and incessant braying by the political class for ever more tax cuts and 'smaller government', the South really has put its odious mark on the nation.)

In fact, we are seeing the attempted revival of the Old Confederacy (certainly its values) play out again on the national landscape with this government shutdown – and as I remarked several blogs earlier – this is an economic manifestation of a Civil War. It is also an effort to racially tar Obama by the diversionary subterfuge tactic of repealing (they call it “defunding”) his signature ACA health care law. Whether hailing from North or South, the Tea Party is the reincarnation of the Confederates who once tried to secede from the Union. They can’t this time, but the next best thing is to destroy the functions of government so totally that – starting with their ignorant base- they will elicit (or try to) millions across the nation to demand Obama and the Dems capitulate - thereby effectively returning the nation to “Southern style” economic governance.

For those lacking a historical bearing here, “Southern style” governance means a basic formula including:

- No church-state separation and bibles admitted in schools as well as creationism taught instead of evolution

- No unions at all, period, in no manner, shape or form

- Minimal government spending on social services, and repeal of Social Security, Medicare

- Massive government spending on anything military, including building as many bombers, fighters and new missiles as possible.

- Total outlawing of abortion as well as contraception and also rendering illegal a host of sexual acts, including masturbation, oral sex.

- Imprisoning all pregnant women who are deemed to be risking the life of their unborn by any “reckless” acts – such as motorcycling, skiing or drinking alchohol.

- Keeping all females barefoot and pregnant, by altering employment laws, in the interest of “biblical mores and family values”

Now , what IF these Tea Bagger miscreants and traitors had prevailed in the Civil War? Let's give their worshippers and many others a bit of a reality check on what the state of the nation would be today. Maybe, just maybe, some will think again about their derelict ideations and realize the best outcome was the one that transpired.

If the Confederacy ‘Tea Baggers’ Had Won:

1) The Trade Union movement would never have originated in the 1940s. Kids would still be toiling starting from the age of 8 from sunrise to sundown. No worker's compensation, no paid time and a half for overtime, no time off for illness, or family problems.

2) Women, if they had jobs at all, would be working for less than half of what males earn.

3)Blacks would never have been accepted into the military or as football or baseball players. (They might have been allowed to play basketball, but who knows?)

4) The Jim Crow laws would still prevail, with separate facilities (restaurants, motels, rest rooms, etc.) for each race. Blacks would continue to have to sit at the back of the bus. Rosa Parks -- had she refused to change her bus seat-- would have been flogged then flogged again, and likely branded.

5) The lowest wages, slave wages, would predominate throughout the land. African-Americans would be disallowed for all jobs other than possibly house servants or lawn workers, landscapers, and even then only be paid by meals or housing - like today's sugar cane workers. No benefits, no health care.

6) Immigration, especially illegal, would be disallowed at the point of guns. Anyone crossing the border of even a light brown color would be shot on the spot.

7) The Confederate Battle flag would fly everywhere. There'd be no Lincoln Memorial in D.C. but rather a Jefferson Davis Memorial, with only whites allowed to visit.

8) There'd be little or no entertainment except for the Confederate Broadcasting System, and the Confederate Movie Network. The latter would show 'Birth of A Nation' on an endless loop, while the former would have all the current news about the great new Confederate strides.

9) Andersonville would never have been closed, and would remain today a Confederate -run concentration camp for those with pro-Northern sympathies.

10) Bibles (KJV) would be mandated in every home under pain of being horse-whipped - or sent to Andersonville!

11) Southern -cum-biblical morality law would rule the land. Eye for an eye justice, and morality from the Old Testament.

12) The military would be the biggest employer and the budgets would be allocated at nearly $1.5 trillion a year. The national debt would be twice what it is now, given the Southern ascendants had forbidden any taxes (thus, no 13th amendment to the Constitution would have been passed). Also, no Federal Reserve. (which originated as part of the 13th amendment).

13) There would be NO Medicare or Social Security. Those would be seen as "Yankee inventions". People would either make do with what they had, or perish. If kind enough, a gentle neo-Confederate would put an oldster out of his or her misery with a shot to the head or a shiv from an old Rebel bayonet.

14) The life expectancy would be 55 for men, as opposed to the median of 75, and 62 for women, as opposed to 78. All the wonderful modern medical inventions that beat back disease, including polio vaccine, flu vaccines, smallpox and typhoid vaccines, as well as MRI machines, CAT scans and colonoscopies...would never have been invented. Cancer and smallpox would be the number one killers along with self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the head.

15) University research would be almost non-existent. As opposed to thousands of universities such as we have now, there'd be maybe 100 in all. The only ones assured of existence would be the Ivies, e.g. Harvard, Princeton, Yale, etc. because of their endowments.

16)Confederate History would be taught at all high schools and universities.

17) Corporal punishment (e.g. paddling using monster paddles 21/2 -3' long) would be mandated nationwide at all high schools for both sexes, as opposed to being confined to mainly Southern High schools (e.g. in MS, AL, GA, NC), as is the case today.

18) Bible reading would be mandated at all high schools nationwide, as well as prayer in schools. Any atheist kids, if they existed or revealed themseles, would get the paddle about every day.

19) Prisons would actually be converted to work farms, and prisoners (for all crimes, including anti-Confederate sentiments, civil rights protests etc.) would be rendered neo-slaves. Forced to work in the fields from dawn to dusk and flogged by overseers at any slight infraction.

20) Barack Obama would never have become president, nor would Herman Cain have beeen able to contend for a spot on the Republican ticket. It's also likely that the most Cain would have risen to in his employment would have been 'pizza delivery boy'- never the CEO of Godfather Pizzas!

21) Neither Barack nor Michele Obama would have received the Ivy League education they did at Harvard. Indeed, they'd each likely have only been able to attend a "Negro college" - if allowed to go at all.

22) Miscegenation laws (e.g. against the races mating or mixing) would apply under pain of instant execution...e.g. flogging then lynching. (Thus, Barack Obama might never have been born).

23) Adult Yankee atheists would be given the choice of leaving the country, or being permanently remanded to a CSA work camp.


See also:

http://www.salon.com/2013/10/07/shutdown_shows_the_civil_war_never_ended_partner/