W. Niederhut

Wrong again, Rob. The truth is that "Antifa" is living rent free in your head, and in Trump's. BTW, congratulations on hijacking this discussion of the latest COVID data.

The perils of re-opening are becoming clear-- throughout the country... 😬 Florida and Texas report records for daily highs in new cases https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/world/coronavirus-us-usa-updates.html Meanwhile, Rebekah Jones has established a COVID database that is independent of Florida's corrupt state officials... What Florida Officials May Be Hiding on COVID-19 https://whowhatwhy.org/2020/06/12/what-florida-officials-may-be-hiding-on-covid-19/

Jim, I recall reading your excellent essays on Reconstruction era history (above) in (?) 2018 or 2019. It's a subject that I got interested in during Obama's White House tenure-- because I was genuinely surprised by the shocking hostility to Obama in the South. I thought the country had made more progress on racial equality after the Civil Rights struggles of the 60s ! The point I was making in defending Ulysses Grant's oft-maligned reputation is that meaningful Reconstruction efforts were sabotaged by Andrew Johnson before Grant ever ascended to the Presidency. And compared to Andrew Johnson, (and Hayes) Grant, at least, made some efforts to implement meaningful Reconstruction. A more protracted, aggressive Union occupation of the South after Appomattox would, I suspect, have been a very costly, bloody quagmire. Nor did Grant have a Federal mandate to implement such a campaign. Lincoln was explicitly calling for "charity" for all and "malice toward none." He put Johnson on his 1864 ticket because he was a Border State Unionist. Did the post-war Union have the politic will to sustain such an occupation?

BTW, here's one of the best op-eds I've read in recent years on the subject of the Confederate statue controversy-- an essay by the world's leading expert on Reconstruction era American history, Columbia University Professor Eric Foner. Foner makes a great point about Longstreet and the raison d'etre for these statues. (Reprinting this for non-subscribers to NYT.) Confederate Statues and ‘Our’ History https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/20/opinion/confederate-statues-american-history.html?auth=login-email&login=email by Eric Foner August 20, 2017 President Trump’s Thursday morning tweet lamenting that the removal of Confederate statues tears apart “the history and culture of our great country” raises numerous questions, among them: Who is encompassed in that “our”? Mr. Trump may not know it, but he has entered a debate that goes back to the founding of the republic. Should American nationality be based on shared values, regardless of race, ethnicity and national origin, or should it rest on “blood and soil,” to quote the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Va., whom Trump has at least partly embraced? Neither Mr. Trump nor the Charlottesville marchers invented the idea that the United States is essentially a country for white persons. The very first naturalization law, enacted in 1790 to establish guidelines for how immigrants could become American citizens, limited the process to “white” persons. What about nonwhites born in this country? Before the Civil War, citizenship was largely defined by individual states. Some recognized blacks born within their boundaries as citizens, but many did not. As far as national law was concerned, the question was resolved by the Supreme Court in the infamous Dred Scott decision of 1857. Blacks, wrote Chief Justice Roger B. Taney (a statue of whom was removed from public display in Baltimore this week), were and would always be aliens in America. This was the law of the land when the Civil War broke out in 1861. This is the tradition that the Southern Confederacy embodied and sought to preserve and that Mr. Trump, inadvertently or not, identifies with by equating the Confederacy with “our history and culture.” Many Americans, of course, rejected this racial definition of American nationality. Foremost among them were abolitionists, male and female, black and white, who put forward an alternative definition, known today as birthright citizenship. Anybody born in the United States, they insisted, was a citizen, and all citizens should enjoy equality before the law. Abolitionists advocated not only the end of slavery, but also the incorporation of the freed people as equal members of American society. In the period of Reconstruction that followed the war, this egalitarian vision was, for the first time, written into our laws and Constitution. But the advent of multiracial democracy in the Southern states inspired a wave of terrorist opposition by the Ku Klux Klan and kindred groups, antecedents of the Klansmen and neo-Nazis who marched in Charlottesville. One by one the Reconstruction governments were overthrown, and in the next generation white supremacy again took hold in the South. When Mr. Trump identifies statues commemorating Confederate leaders as essential parts of “our” history and culture, he is honoring that dark period. Like all monuments, these statues say a lot more about the time they were erected than the historical era they evoke. The great waves of Confederate monument building took place in the 1890s, as the Confederacy was coming to be idealized as the so-called Lost Cause and the Jim Crow system was being fastened upon the South, and in the 1920s, the height of black disenfranchisement, segregation and lynching. The statues were part of the legitimation of this racist regime and of an exclusionary definition of America. The historian Carl Becker wrote that history is what the present chooses to remember about the past. Historical monuments are, among other things, an expression of power — an indication of who has the power to choose how history is remembered in public places. If the issue were simply heritage, why are there no statues of Lt. Gen. James Longstreet, one of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s key lieutenants? Not because of poor generalship; indeed, Longstreet warned Lee against undertaking Pickett’s Charge, which ended the battle of Gettysburg. Longstreet’s crime came after the Civil War: He endorsed black male suffrage and commanded the Metropolitan Police of New Orleans, which in 1874 engaged in armed combat with white supremacists seeking to seize control of the state government. Longstreet is not a symbol of white supremacy; therefore he was largely ineligible for commemoration by those who long controlled public memory in the South. As all historians know, forgetting is as essential to public understandings of history as remembering. Confederate statues do not simply commemorate “our” history, as the president declared. They honor one part of our past. Where are the statues in the former slave states honoring the very large part of the Southern population (beginning with the four million slaves) that sided with the Union rather than the Confederacy? Where are the monuments to the victims of slavery or to the hundreds of black lawmakers who during Reconstruction served in positions ranging from United States senator to justice of the peace to school board official? Excluding blacks from historical recognition has been the other side of the coin of glorifying the Confederacy. We have come a long way from the days of the Dred Scott decision. But our public monuments have not kept up. The debate unleashed by Charlottesville is a healthy re-examination of the question “Who is an American?” And “our” history and culture is far more complex, diverse and inclusive than the president appears to realize. Eric Foner is a professor of history at Columbia and the author, most recently, of “Battles for Freedom: The Use and Abuse of American History.”

My impression, from reading Grant's own, fascinating memoir (and other sources, including Princeton historian James McPherson's outstanding Battle Cry of Freedom) is that, at Appomattox, Grant desperately wanted to end the carnage, enmity, and strife of the bloody war. It was Grant who solicited the armistice from Lee, and offered generous terms-- even forbidding any celebrations or disrespectful conduct toward the surrendering Army of Northern Virginia. Grant also respected Lee, personally, on the basis of their service together during the Mexican War. The country was war weary, and greatly traumatized. And most whites in the Northern and Border states (including, unfortunately, Andrew Johnson) were not idealistic Abolitionists, eager to embrace the Freed Men as co-equal American citizens. Johnson, himself, was utterly contemptuous of African Americans. Radical Reconstruction was further undermined by the serious U.S. economic recession of 1873-77 during Grant's second term. The country was broke, and meaningful Reconstruction was expensive. That said, the failure of Reconstruction was a colossal American tragedy, and we're, obviously, still living with the fallout 150 years later.

Jim, The two Presidents who did the most damage to meaningful Reconstruction were; 1) Andrew Johnson, and 2) Rutherford Hayes. Grant's tenure in the White House, from 1869-77 coincided with the implementation of Radical Reconstruction in the South-- a brief era where former slave states actually elected African American Congressmen and Senators to Congress and state legislatures. Grant also deployed the U.S. Army to suppress the KKK (in South Carolina.) But, as Eric Foner documents on great detail, the marginal progress of Radical Reconstruction was completely wiped out after 1877, when Hayes cut a deal with Southern Congressmen (in his election vs. Tilden) to withdraw U.S. troops from the former Confederacy. Hogeboom's biography documents very clearly that Hayes naively believed, for years, that white Southern aristocrats would protect the Constitutional (14th and 15th Amendment) rights of the Freedmen! By 1900, black voters in former Confederate states (including those, like Louisiana and South Carolina with majority black populations) had been completely purged from voter rolls, in counties that had elected black legislators during Radical Reconstruction. Obviously, this battle over disenfranchisement of black citizens is still being fought-- long after the passage of the 15th Amendment and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Shelby v. Holder is an abomination.

I think Trump is "signalling" the core Confederate "virtues" here-- i.e., preserving white supremacy and "keeping the n*ggers down." As for Juneteenth-- the celebration of the (belated) liberation of the slaves in Texas-- it has long been a big deal here in Denver, since a high percentage of our African American citizens came, originally, from Texas. Texas was the last refuge of Confederate slave owners during the American Civil War.

Huh? Throwing words around? Pretending to be a psychiatrist? Au contraire, I was using the word quite precisely in the context of criticizing the new right wing rhetoric about liberal, "virtue signalling." It's ridiculous. Was the term coined by Karl Rove or Rush Limbaugh? Some of us care deeply about matters of social ethics, justice, and the public welfare. It's far more than a mere rhetorical "signal." As for your wacky notion that I am "pretending to be a psychiatrist," puh-leeze! Google is your friend, Robert-- perhaps your only friend? 🙄

"Virtue signalling" is the new, idiotic Republican term for "discussing ethical principles" in politics-- as if discussing ethical considerations is nothing more than a show, or "signal." Only a sociopath would have such a flawed understanding of morality and social ethics. Many Republicans in the age of Trump hate talking about ethics-- mainly because they have none.

Rob, I disagree with your attribution of Spanish Conquistador violence and genocide to the Roman Catholic Church per se. On the contrary, if you study the primary source material, those who endeavored to stop the genocide were Catholic priests and friars-- e.g., Bartolome de las Casas, Diego de Landa, et.al. Compare the 16th century writings of De Las Casas and De Landa with primary source narratives like Bernal Diaz (The Conquest of New Spain) or Cabezade Vaca's account of Panfilo de Narvaez's bloodthirsty explorations of Florida. The genocidal Spanish Conquistadors, like Columbus (Cortez, Poce de Leon, Narvaez, Pizzarro, et.al.) came to the New World in search of gold and self-aggrandizement, not the salvation of souls. As for "erasing history," what we're really talking about is erasing mythology-- replacing mythology with the true, untold history.

Rob, My Italian American first cousin and her husband here in Denver hosted the Knights of Columbus for years-- the guys who sponsored our former Denver Columbus Day parades. Her father, a WWII vet and Denver cop, was my mother's brother. (My grandparents emigrated to Colorado from Slovenia (Austria-Hungary) before WWI.) That said, I agree with Denver's fairly recent decision to change Columbus Day to "Indigenous People's Day." It's a very belated acknowledgement of the European genocide of Native Americans-- something that was as terrible here in the Colorado Indian Territory as in the rest of the Western hemisphere. Howard Zinn (and a few early Spanish historians of the New World) described it accurately-- and it was written out of our triumphal mythology for centuries. The city of Denver stands on the site of a former large Arapahoe Nation settlement-- aptly described by the "Boston Brahman" historian Francis Parkman in his famous 1840s travelogue, The Oregon Trail. Sadly, the Arapahoe, Cheyenne, Crow, and Kiowa people indigenous to this area are largely extinct now. I encountered very few local Native Americans during my 35 year psychiatric career in Denver. (In contrast to the surviving Sioux people in the Dakotas.) As for the Confederate monuments, from what I've read, most were erected during the Jim Crow years of the early 20th century, after the 1915 premier of the movie, Birth of a Nation. That white supremacist mythology film was hailed by President Woodrow Wilson, himself, and led directly to a nationwide reincarnation of the KKK-- even in places like Colorado. The damage done to American society by Birth of a Nation has been incalculable.

Rob, Here's a recent reference on Governor Ron DeSantis's suppression of the COVID morbidity and mortality data in Florida. * The second reference is about Governor Brian Kemp's botched management of the pandemic in Georgia.** The last time I checked, both of these guys were Republicans. *As Ron DeSantis hypes low numbers, Florida may be under-counting coronavirus deaths by up to 58% www.salon.com/2020/05/22/as-ron-desantis-hypes-low-numbers-florida-may-be-undercounting-coronavirus-deaths-by-up-to-58/ ** ‘We’re not perfect.’ Kemp orders review after coronavirus data missteps https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/not-perfect-kemp-orders-review-after-coronavirus-data-missteps/aNVLqvS6kFatyJgD5MBF5L/

Good history article/interview at Vox this week. How racist policing took over American cities https://www.vox.com/2020/6/6/21280643/police-brutality-violence-protests-racism-khalil-muhammad?utm_source=pocket-newtab

The National Lampoon Radio Hour in the early 70s was howlingly funny. I haven't listened to those old radio shows for 45 years, but I still remember them. After Neil Young released his Harvest album, someone on the NL Radio Hour did a hilarious parody of the song, "A Man Needs A Maid," singing, "I need someone to keep my shorts clean," in a high, reedy voice. Then there was, "Ask Dr. Science," hosted by a guy who, had "a Masters Degree...in SCIENCE!" Another bit was the game show, "Catch As Catch Can," where the hosts would throw mystery merchandise off of a building to the contestants below-- including "12 bars of gold bullion that carried quite a load," and, finally, "an Amana freezer!" 🤪

Is this a metaphor for Rob Wheeler's posts? 🤥

Since you asked, I think Trump should condemn police brutality in the U.S., say, "Black Lives Matter," and tear down the stupid fence. But he won't, because his disastrous political career has been predicated on white racist tribalism. As he told the NFL owners after the murder of Alton Sterling, bashing Colin Kaepernick and the BLM protesters, "Lifts me."

But, at least, Nixon and Kissinger never built a 1.7 mile fence around their MAGA bunker... 🤥 White House almost completely surrounded by more than a mile of fencing https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/white-house-almost-completely-surrounded-by-more-than-a-mile-of-fencing/ar-BB158t5Y

Some rare good news during this terrible week in American history... (And I'm not referring to Trump's bogus BLS unemployment numbers from yesterday's bizarre press conference-- where he declared that "It's a great day for George Floyd!") Condemning Police Conduct as 'Disgusting,' Federal Judge Bars Denver Cops From Using Chemical Weapons on Protesters https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/06/condemning-police-conduct-disgusting-federal-judge-bars-denver-cops-using-chemical

Of course not, Ty. I'm a very mature adult who hasn't eaten a popsicle in years! I saw this riddle today on my bubble gum wrapper.

Rob, With your rapier-like political wit, you might appreciate this one. Q. Why did the chicken cross the road? A. To pose for a photo op at St. John's Episcopal Church. 🤪

Read a blurb at the Democratic Underground today (with a document link) claiming that the Trump campaign is now promoting military camo MAGA hats for the "Trump Army." I, sincerely, hope that this story isn't true.

Kirk, Ellison told MSNBC that he was investigating reports of a white male with an umbrella who was filmed breaking store windows with a hammer. (I posted that story here a few days ago.) But I'm still amazed that the video of Umbrella Man hasn't been telecast in the M$M. It, certainly, seems like a big story to me.

MLK had a dream. I'm having a nightmare. 😬 This is like a scene out of a dystopian movie. Soldiers Amassed on Steps of Lincoln Memorial After Pentagon Alert https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/soldiers-amassed-on-steps-of-lincoln-memorial-after-pentagon-alert/ar-BB14YggV

The Beverly Hills stuff is similar to what happened in Scottsdale, Arizona over the weekend, where looters were breaking windows at posh stores, including a Mercedes Benz dealership. Scottsdale? Not exactly an impoverished, inner city neighborhood. It seems like there is an element of class conflict in these riots-- like the storming of the Bastille-- which is not surprising in light of the current layoffs, high unemployment, and 1929-caliber wealth inequality in the U.S.