Confederate statues and Holocaust buildings

While I don't think that any U.S. military bases should be named after men who were traitors (even if Grant's surrender terms offered to Lee at Appomattox arguably let at least the Army of Northern Virginia's officers off the hook, they still were, as were officials of the CSA government), I'm more agnostic on statues.

That's especially true if a statue is not to Lee or Stonewall Jackson, but to the "Confederate war heroes."

I know the history of the United Daughters of the Confederacy erecting these statues, basically in the 1910-20 period. I know the turd-polished history they were presenting. I also know, per such things as the 1913 "great reunion" at Gettysburg, rather than the Lost Cause using a bulldozer to rewrite history, many northern Whites were at least halfway willing, and halfway actively willing, to go along.

Santayana famously said that those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat its mistakes. Maybe keeping the statues visible — albeit with modern explanatory plaques — would help.

Something on Twitter Monday night, or maybe it was Facebook, is part of this thought.

And that's that Germany did not tear down all the concentration camps inside the country. Nor did Poland tear down the true death camps. One can still go to Auschwitz today, of course.

Arguably, this alone hasn't stopped anti-Semitism, or even Holocaust denial, in Germany. It may have helped somewhat. But, Germany also has severe laws against Holocaust denial language, laws that would never fly in the U.S.

And?

Chancellor Angela Merkel's admission of Syrian refugees became the match to light the Alternative für Deutschland gasoline.

Another analogy, per this New Yorker piece, is with 1989 and the fall of Communism. Some eastern European states destroyed anything that even smacked of Leninism. Others took a more hands-off approach. So far, it's hard to argue one has done better than the other, at least where a larger educational effort wasn't applied. In much of Eastern Europe, Communism has been replaced by authoritarianism of some sort, such as in Belarus, or a drift away from democracy has started (Poland, Hungary) or gained steam (Ukraine, and of course, Russia itself). And I haven't even talked about the former Soviet Central Asia.

The museuming isn't a bad idea. That said, in many cities, racists might make a shrine, or try to, out of the now-barren spot on a courthouse lawn. Or they might demand city and county governments spend more money on the museum, put up a pro-Lost Cause sign on those lawns, etc., etc.

One might say: "But there's no statues at any of those places."

And I might respond: "The infamous 'Arbeit Macht Frei' inscription on the gates at Auschwitz is still there." Or, "Lenin's mausoleum, complete with theoretically preserved body, is still on Red Square." (That's not the best example, that one, I know, because Russia had but a limited window of semi-openness and it was largely wrecked by American capitalist grifters conspiring with Russian capitalist plunderers.)

I don't claim easy answers.

So, I refer again to old philosophy friend Idries Shah:

Some people may think him hackneyed. I don't, other than I am even more skeptical of human social psychology than him, and reject the idea of "complete solutions."

Other than the passage of time moving people beyond the desire for "complete solutions" do we get even close to that.

What is the best way, out of more than two sides, with truly moving more of America beyond this past, with making more Americans realize how deeply embedded "Lost Cause" ideas in general, and still-systemic racism in particular, are in America.

That said? More than two sides? I'm not of the position of some leftists who think issues of race almost always ultimately reduce to class, but I at least 50 percent agree with the general idea, if not more.

As far as possible ideas other than the two sides? One would be plaques on these statues that
A. Describe the UDC's history;
B. In any former CSA state, like Texas, where slavery was explicitly cited as part of the reason for secession, quoting line and verse from the secession ordinance.

Or a motion-sensor triggered audio recording that played the same. The advantage of this is, if you just place it very close to the statue or its pedestal, but don't actually attach it, you don't need Texas Historical Commission approval.

Texas progressives talk coronavirus, week 15, as we learn more about its lethality

A separate pullout for coronavirus issues in this corner of the weekly roundup is in place for another week. It will probably be in place for a couple more weeks, as in Texas, we await seeing what "Masks On," on top of the previous rollback of reopening Texas, does — or does not — do.

With that, let's dig in to the latest state, national and global news about the coronavirus. There's plenty of it to look at as new medical news and new nuttery both pop up.

First, how deadly is it?

Newest work on the fatality rate and the spread rate of COVID-19? It's 100 times as deadly as "just the flu." And, James Scott of U Texas, one of the researchers in that story, was expecting just what Texas is currently getting. The New York Times weighs in with its own piece, which among other things, notes that coronaviruses can have a better transmission rate than the flu. It's not clear from reading the two in parallel, but both are referencing the same WHO meta-analysis out of Australia as a centerpiece of their work.

Breaking addition

State Fair of Texas is officially cancelled. How long before wingnuts call the fair's board snowflakes or similar?

Texas

Meanwhile, Gov. Abbott said "masks on"? But will it hold? 

Abbott's already getting pushback from some wingnut counties, not all of them small. Ellis, Johnson and Upshur counties are among those where county judges said they won't enforce the mask order. A county with less than 20 active cases, Cass County, doesn't have to enforce the order IF it opts out. But, Judge Becky Wilbanks claiming Abbott's orders have been ambiguous? Not this one. His previous "blood on his hands"? Yes. Ellis and Johnson counties are both problematic. Both are over 150K and both are part of the Metromess. (Dunno about Johnson, or cities like Cleburne, but Ennis in Ellis County used to be a hotspot of racism to boot.) Smith County? That's Tyler. Over 200K people in the county, and also, a longtime wingnut hotbed of racism.

Denton County Sheriff Tracy Murphree, who looks like some home fries, says he won't enforce Abbott's order, either, and now there's a petition calling for his removal by trial for official misconduct. Petition is here.

Following up on the Bar Lives Matter stupidity from two weeks ago, over Abbott's orders to shutter bars, bar owners are suing the state. Dear bar owners, and a substantial minority of patrons. If bar lives really mattered, many of you bar patrons would get your ass to a sobriety meeting and many of you bar owners would tell those who needed to go that they indeed ... needed to go. Beyond that, as bobbies know, drunks can't socially distance.

Part of the problem of "superspreader churches"? It's superspreader church choirs. And, while I don't think bar owners have a legal leg to stand on, Abbott continuing to exempt churches is hypocritical.
Learn more about the false mask sales world.

The Texas Medical Association has reversed court on an in-person GOP convention (of which it was one of the sponsors) and said do it virtually.

If Abbott isn't primaried, Libertarian wingnut of wingnuts Dan Behrman, without mentioning names, called out Abbott, and has announced he's running for gov.

National and Global

Trump believes the coronavirus will disappear. Just like Hitler believed Gen. Felix Steiner was going to rescue him in late April 1945. As it turns out, a couple of days later, the White House word was that Trump was disappearing himself as the daily coronavirus voice.

Experts say, per my wonderings about summer AC, that indoor airborne transmission is looking like it's more and more part of the issue. Scientists saying this note that WHO is conservative and risk-averse on its medical angles and not willing to adequately consider aerosol transmission, as well as having its funding further tightened by Trump cutting off US funding. (That said, the "conservative and risk averse" is of little doubt to me; sounds just like the UNPCC on climate change.) On the other hand, for less developed countries, WHO saying, in essence, "Masks On," may require a significant financial diversion in controlling COVID. The group of scientists calling out WHO on aerosol transmission is releasing a public letter.

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross' famous, or infamous, or just plain wrong, five stages of death and dying is being used as a cheap counseling tool in the time of COVID. (IMO, her stages appealed to Americans from the start, as our cultural DNA is a country that believes it can always be in control, likes things in black and white, likes quick ways to allegedly get in control, like lists and action plans, etc.)

Tony Fauci's boss, NIH head Francis Collins, talks COVID issues. That said, given that this is the man who saw proof of the Trinity in a waterfall, it should surprise nobody that, from the likelihood of when we get a vaccine to how well Americans are addressing the pandemic, Collins has been smoking some Pandora-level crack.

FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn disagrees with Collins' (and Trump's) rosy scenario on a vaccine. While not a pessimist entirely, he says "year's end or early next year," which I think is still too optimistic.

Hahn also disagrees with Trump on something else. He said it's "still too soon" to say that an in-person RNC can safely be held in Jacksonville. What if people a month from now say it can't? How many people still march into J-ville if Il Duce says march?

Ex-FDA Commish Scott Gottlieb, a voice indirectly critical of Trump while in office, also weighs in, saying that overuse of remdesivir could deplete all the stock the US bought from from Gilead last week.

#BlackLivesMatter in Gainesville, Texas; so does Young Republicans PR

Just a typical Friday night last week in Gainesville, with the delayed kickoff of the Summer Sounds music series, and a few people at the corner of the courthouse square greeting attendees, amirite?

(Update, Aug. 17: The Cooke County Commissioners Court voted to keep its CSA/UDC statue. Blog post coming for later this week.)

What's that at the left hand edge, behind the "White Silence is Compliance" person?

Why, I think that's the base of one of those 100-year old United Daughters of the Confederacy statues.

And it says?

Note: Bobby Lee didn't write that, contra what some may say or have heard. It was actually written by an Oxford don, who'd just done a new translation of the Iliad. In the preface, he included a poem of his which likened the Confederacy to a new Troy. That's the lines you see there. That said, in 1868, he gave a copy of his Iliad, complete with poem, to Slave Marse Robert. (Picture that being said by Shelby Foote on Ken Burns semi-racist by silence Civil War series.)

That said, the lead speaker among young adults at a recent commissioners court meeting only referenced the issue of treason, indirectly, and not race. Also, Tucker Craft said he's a registered Republican and made sure to make that the very first thing he said. And, he pulled out the old BS about the "Democrat party being the party of Jim Crow." As salutatorian of Gainesville High and someone who interned at the county attorney's office, he knows that "DemocratIC" is the preferred usage. And, that most the Jim Crow Democrats went on to become Jim Crow Republicans before they died.

So, sorry I missed the first minute of the speechifying, Tucker, but having heard the whole thing now? Sounds like Cooke County Young Republicans PR first, and anything and everything else second.

Here's the county's video of the meeting. Listen for yourself. His comments start at about the 3:30 mark.



I don't know if the other two speakers were associated with him or the "Progressive Rights Organization" he claims to represent but that doesn't even have a Facebook page. Nor do I know if everybody in the pictures above is affiliated with him. Nor do I know — whether or not they are affiliated with him — they've heard things like what he told the commissioners court and, if they have, if they've parsed his words carefully.

Finally, Mr. Craft was not at the music event last Friday. The people he claims to represent may or may not be these people.

The Gainesville Register had a story about some of the protestors. In it, the group was now called "PRO Gainesville." They have a website and a Facebook group, of which Mr. Craft is NOT one of the admins. The group talks about systemic racism, something Mr. Craft didn't mention. They have a Facebook page, as well as a group. The page is public.

And, I waded through about two dozen posts and more than 200 comments and subcomments. Saw Tucker Craft's name there not once. I went back more than a week before he spoke to the commissioners court. Went back to the June 14 start date of the page. Didn't see a single comment by him. Didn't see a single photo of him, either.

Further update, July 8: I stopped by the courthouse square on the way to Tom Thumb, during this night's vigil. People on "both sides" videotaping each other and more. About 10 Gainesville cops, couple of sheriff's deputies and a couple of state troopers. About 20-30 activists. Half a dozen I'd identify as clearly anti-activist. Three-four pickups with (likely made in China) American flags in their beds. About 20-30 observers of the activists, perhaps half "antis" and half curious. A few were open carrying. The Dallas Observer has more on Gainesville and other exurban areas, including the involvement of Denton County NAACP head Jessica Luther Rummel. Interesting that Granbury, possibly has open-minded people. TOTALLY non-shocking that Waxahachie and Ellis County do not.)

Anyway, Tucker? I walked around the whole square. I don't personally know you, and the time you spoke in court was the first time I'd seen you. Nonetheless, with your hair wave up front, I'm fairly sure I'd recognize you even with a mask on. Especially if you had a PRO Gainesville shirt like others. I didn't see you.

So, Tucker Craft? You're either a huge slacktivist, a grifter for a bit of  local personal fame, or you're trying to derail or co-opt a movement you don't actually represent, and lying to do that, as far as I can tell with this level of searching. And, if you want to really care about justice, you can start at the local level, go to County Attorney Ed Zielinski under whom you interned, and tell him to stop prosecuting low-level pot cases.

I know that I've now hit the borderline between skepticism and cynicism. If I see any new information to modify that impression, I will. But, I'm not going out of my way for it. Using old Republican PR lines is clear evidence of where you come from. As for the PRO Facebook page, per the scientific bon mot, absence of evidence  isn't necessarily the same as evidence of absence. BUT ... under Bayesian-like probability adjustments, enough compilation of absence of evidence points more and more toward evidence of absence.

I mean, you stated in your speech to commissioners that this was their chance to be better than Democrats. You politicized this from the start.

(Update: He signed up for the July 13 public forum, but chose not to speak. In stories in the Gainesville paper, let alone beyond, like the Denton Record Chronicle, PRO founder Torrey Henderson has been interviewed. Michelle Angus has been interviewed. Craft? Not so much.)

Top June 2020 blogging

No. 1 was an old piece, years old, that, perhaps in the light of coronavirus and some states putting restrictions on church attendance as part of social distancing rules, has perhaps become popular with Googling wingnuts. It's about whether or not a college can discriminate, or "discriminate," against a religious organization.

No. 2, timely for the Green Party's national convention this week, and one update on the one person, was my look at convention speakers, with the main focus on Minneapolis City Councilman Cam Gordon and his being a squish in some ways.

No. 9, getting out of order, is also related to the GP convention, and wondering if the party is going to crack up over trans activism issues.

No. 3 is related to the party in the fall, with my kicking the butt of Jesse Ventura for saying he would write in his own name in November.

No. 7, to jump back out of order a bit, is related to the Green Party and my vote in the fall, the second in my pieces (so far) about Green Party censorship on its official Facebook group.

No. 4? I took Matt Taibbi to task for a screed claiming to defend Lee Fang against charges of anti-Black racism without looking at the amount of smoke that indicated at least a small fire might be present, and then going beyond that to agree with Tom Cotton and other things that smacked of his being one of the allegedly outside-the-box media stenos of the left-liberal world suddenly having a partial merger with conservativism.

No. 5? It's fun to kick Ted Rall, especially when he presents a narcissistically easy target.

No. 6, and with his belated "Masks On" order, this may gather steam in days and weeks ahead — does Greg Abbott have coronavirus blood on his hands? In case you can't guess, that's a rhetorical question and you should know the answer but here's the details.

No. 8 is my quick take on Barton Gellman's new book about Edward Snowden and whether or not Gellman can shed some light on some of the massive holes Snowden had in said book.

No. 10? The latest installment in my love-frustration relationship with High Country News.

Texas Progressives and the usual stuff

The political hot stove league is heating up for the duopoly and third parties as well, just in time for summer weather.

The Texas Progressives have got you covered on all of it, so dig in.

Texas politics

Off the Kuff analyzes the latest polls of Texas.

Texas Democrats resoundingly lost their lawsuit trying to restore straight ticket voting. Kuff admits he expected the loss in question, but still appears to favor straight ticket voting in his last line.

The Supremes rejected Texas Dems' request to force vote-by-mail-for-all (NOT related to Medicare for All) for the July 14 primary runoffs. The big picture, for the general election, remains open.

Dikeman vs Hughs, the suit over whether third-party nominees should have to pay duopoly party filing fees in Texas, related to HB 2504, went before a Texas appeals court. Here's video of the hearing. Here's the big ticket background.

G. Elliott Morris throws a little bit of cold water on the positive polls for Joe Biden in Texas.

Noah Horwitz shares a term paper he once wrote about Greg Abbott.

Houston

In Houston, DosCentavos is not a fan of the latest attempt at police reform by committee.

Transform Houston outlines their objections to Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner's task force on police reform.

San Antonio

Mario Bravo calls on elected officials to lead on police reform.

Texana

Doug Swanson's "Cult of Glory," in part because D Magazine ran an excerpt, got the statue of Texas Ranger Jay Banks removed from in front of Love Field. Here's my reviews (five-star!) on Goodreads and Amazon.

In the wake of Tiger King, the Observer looks at the burgeoning world of exotic animal parks in Texas.

National

SocraticGadfly looks at Howie Hawkins clinching the Green Party nomination and the various haters who still don't like it or him.

Election law guru Rick Hasen wants a 28th Amendment guaranteeing the right to vote. As one wag on Ballot Access News asked rhetorically, "Doesn't the 15th Amendment do that?" As I told him on Twitter, ignoring duopoly-party efforts to suppress third-party ballot access makes his column unacceptable.

Shit. Hickenlooper vs Gardiner. The Colorado Green Party has to be bigger than the Texas one, and you all can't get anybody to run for the Senate? (Pictured at left: The North LoDo-distanced "protest area" at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, when John Hickenlooper was mayor. Part of his hatred of the freedom of assembly clause of the First Amendment, matched only by his love of fracking when Colorado gov. I was there on my last day of a vacation the Sunday before the start of DNC week.)

Egberto Willies thinks pergressuves should line up to vote for Status Quo Joe Biden, then demand single-payer. And, people like him as pundits are why Dems laugh out the Overton Window. It's also why he's back off my blogroll.

Goodbye and farewell to Zionist Eliot Engel.

G. Elliott Morris throws a little bit of cold water on the positive polls for Joe Biden in Texas. I threw more cold water on that nationally last week.

 Josh Berthume worries that the seven hours following the end of voting on the East Coast will be the biggest danger to democracy America has seen.

Paradise in Hell has had it with Mike Pence.

Meet the Black officer who was part of the George Floyd arrest (and is charged) and the adoptive White mom of him and two other Black children.

In what sounds like a sick joke, the Navajo Nation is reportedly buying Remington.

The rich get richer, indeed, in part because the IRS audits them less and less.

Global

Meet DDoS, the group replacing Wikileaks, and between reporting leaks from Russia, refusing to fuel the Seth Rich conspiracy theory, and deliberately avoiding the Cult of Julian, seeming to do a better job than Assange.

Feel different? NAFTA was replaced by NAFTA 2.0, called YMCA or the USMCA or something by Trump, yesterday. DeSmog Blog reports on the oil and gas angle. Remember how Andrés Manuel López Obrador, aka AMLO, was going to be a breath of fresh air as Mexico's new leftist-leaning president? Per DSB, he ain't.

Dario Hunter "went there" (and is now pulling Jesse Ventura chickenshit)

Per a link at Independent Political Report, he's ... I"m going to be blunt, Dario ... he's "played the race card."

Here's the video from Dario. You want to listen about 30 seconds in, about the "I got into this race to break down the walls of exclusion ... especially against people who look like me."



Fuck you, Dario.

Update, July 11: Fuck you MUCH FUCKING MORE, Dario.  Dario has announced he is running as an "independent Green." Which, per Andrea Merida Cuellar, of course means "independent." (Given his refusal to work to meet some specific state GP requirements, she doesn't think it will go anywhere. She also confirms the rumor that Jesse-stanners were behind many of the delegate credentials challenges.)

And, let's Twitter-link (can't embed) the video of the new announcement. And comment on a few of the larger stupidities?

Howie's "CIA talking points"? Dario was well coached by either Jesse-stanners or stanners of Jesse-stanners. Attacking Howie for lack of charisma as he seems to woodenly read a list of bullet points? Laughable.

Speaking of? Dario admits being in collusion with Jesse, the Jesse who had already said he would write in his own name:

No reply yet from election admin., Gloria Mattera (ea2020@gp.org) as to whether Ventura submitted the req letter of intent to accept the nom by today’s 12pm deadline. [I had hoped that would give some closure to those still holding on despite repeated refusals. But no answer.]

— Dario Hunter 🏹 (@dario4america) July 10, 2020

Fuck him again. And his Veep, Darlene Elias, is a Berniecrat by self-admission with no special loyalty to the GP. All of this, in turn, officially gives his lie to his statement earlier this year to support whoever the Green Party's nominee was. 

He's also an opportunist, who, per his Wiki page, only joined the Green Party in 2018, likely only for the purpose of a presidential campaign. (Sounds like good company to Jesse Ventura there, too.)

And with that, back to the original thread as Dario isn't worth me wasting more time on his self-centered, solipsistic ass.

The Green Party nominated Cynthia McKinney in 2008. Yes, many people know that the party could do more to attract minorities, but?

Reverse racism is racism.

Especially when Howie's campaign manager, Andrea Merida Cuellar, is a minority herself.

Doubly so when Howie's own Veep nominee, Angeal Walker, is, like Cynthia McKinney, Black.

The Dario-stanners are ignorant of his putting his thumbs on the scale with Ian Schlakman. It wouldn't surprise me if he was one of the organizers of the whispering campaign claims that Howie seeking to run fusion with SPUSA violated Green Party rules. They're also ignorant of him having a hasbara past (and maybe present) and not apologizing for that, either.

Dario has also tried to play both sides of the fence on the trans activists issue. As for fairness otherwise, both Dario and Howie spoke at the 2019 Texas state convention.

And, read the comments at the video link. From here in Texas, Kat Gruene calls his ass out all OVER the place. Once is in response to Dario, who was responding to someone else calling him out for "going there." Said person noted what I did above, plus that Ajamu Baraka was Jill Stein's Veep in 2016 and other things.

Let's start with Dario's response to that:

This video doesn’t actually address racism in the Green Party. (?) It does reference the general political disenfranchisement of people who look like me, something every candidate should have in mind and take into account. But if you’d like me to do a video about racism in Green Party leadership, I certainly could. I’d have plenty of material. 

I responded that he was trying to have his cake and eat it too.

Kat just lit into him over that.

Dario Hunter and i could do one on the use of identity politics and how incapable people get elected to leadership in the gp alllll the time because of their non cis white male identity - electing tech incompetent older women for national committee for example - an almost 98% tech required position - in TX back in the day if you were not white or a woman you could get elected just because of that even if you were at your first green meeting - it became a running joke 

BOOM! And true, as I noted, in response to her.

Baraka noted this problem with GP identity politics "slots" and incapable people. The late Bruce Dixon of Black Agenda Report noted this in spades, time and time and time again.

Here's my blogging about Dixon's take on the "90 day wonders" in 2018. Here's more, from a longer, more convoluted hot take on the GP annual meeting in 2017.

Dario is just a poster child for that, now.

Finally, Dario's lies about state Green Party exclusion and more are all exposed here.

Oh, on my calling Dario out? Per Doug Henwood, being a leftist means not having white liberal guilt, so anybody trying to call ME out? Fail.

This is all just a ramping up of the Howie hatred, but now it's gotten ugly. David Bruce Collins tries to find a more nuanced take, but still doesn't like it. And, I'm inclined to be disinclined to his nuance, as we disagree somewhat on Howie and Russia, and that same "more" link above, disagree STRONGLY about Caitlin Johnstone (and, I suspect, other conspiracy theorizing between points Russia and Caity, though DBC is nowhere near Brains on this, or many other Greens).

I'm still not sure about voting Green in 2020. Howie could screw the pooch on one item at the convention, among other things. And, if he's personally involved, I won't vote for him on the SPUSA ballot line either. (His campaign treasurer, Travis Christal, had one comment on the video; I left him a comment in return, more explicit about that issue.)

Update: The Georgia GP wasn't expelled this year. Who knows in the future? Howie says he doesn't favor expulsion, but plays Just.Another.Politician.™ by not calling it expulsion, and has been a sucker for one-siderism on this issue.

Update 2: Dario wasn't the only assclown among this year's candidates.

Update 3: Michael Trudeau has more of the goods on Dario's bullshit, focusing on his hasbara history.