American Presidents, Slavery, and the Confederacy--Which Monuments Should Remain Standing?

It's a fascinating question, when viewed in perspective.

Clyde Wilson of the Abbeville Institute offers that perspective, to wit---only one...all the others have their hands stained (if our politically correct friends are to be trusted).

One wonders, in the end, if all this hysterical semi-historicity has been undertaken to set the stage for an assault on the existence of the Constitution itself...just...sayin'...

In any case, Dr. Wilson's insights follow.

The current pogrom against Southern history and symbols ignores the influence the South and the institution of slavery had on most American presidents. American history would not be the same without it. If the current goal is to purge any reminder of slavery and the Confederacy from the public sphere, then nearly every American president would have to be withdrawn from our historical consciousness. Nineteen presidents either were slaveholders, from slaveholding families, or were married into slaveholding families:
1. George Washington
2. Thomas Jefferson
3. James Madison
4. James Monroe
5. Andrew Jackson
6. Martin Van Buren
7. William Henry Harrison
8. John Tyler
9. James K. Polk
10. Zachary Taylor
11. Abraham Lincoln
12. Andrew Johnson
13. U.S. Grant
14. Benjamin Harrison
15. Theodore Roosevelt
16. Woodrow Wilson
17. Franklin D. Roosevelt
18. Jimmy Carter
19. Barack Hussein Obama

Of these nineteen, thirteen had family members who fought for the Confederacy: Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Jackson, Tyler, Polk, Taylor, Lincoln, A. Johnson, T. Roosevelt, Wilson, and Carter, while Presidents Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson and Bill Clinton all had Confederate ancestors as well. The Clinton campaign crafted Confederate Battle Flag “Clinton/Gore” pins in 1992.

George H.W. and George W. Bush hail from the New England slave trading Walker family.
Barack Obama’s Kenyan family, as part of the Luo tribe, most certainly engaged in the East African slave trade selling Africans to Muslims. This trade was older and more pervasive than the more famous West African trade.

Several presidents were either sympathetic to the South, opposed the War at some point between 1861 and 1865, or had favorable opinions of the South and Southerners in general:
1. Millard Fillmore was sympathetic to Southern slaveholders, favored colonization, and sought peace in 1864. For that, he was labeled a traitor and a Copperhead.
2. Franklin Pierce was sympathetic to the South through close friendships with leading Confederate officials including Jefferson Davis and opposed the War.
3. James Buchanan was sympathetic to Southern slaveholders. His “close friend,” William King of Alabama, influenced his views.
4. Grover Cleveland opposed Lincoln’s war and honoured ex-Confederates by appointing them to high offices, including a Supreme Court Justice.
5. William McKinley used the first “Southern strategy” in American history during the 1896 presidential campaign. His Southern tour led many Southerners to support him over the much more leftist William Jennings Bryan in the election. McKinley spoke of his admiration for Confederate soldiers.
6. William Howard Taft, Warren G. Harding, and Calvin Coolidge all presided over events honouring Confederate soldiers (with Confederate Battle Flags), with Taft speaking directly to members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
7. Dwight D. Eisenhower defended General Lee and Confederate motives during both his administration and his time as a United States General Officer.
8. John F. Kennedy admired John C. Calhoun by classifying him as one of the greatest United States Senators and freely spoke in front of Confederate Battle Flags. He received one as a gift from Senator Fritz Hollings.
9. Richard M. Nixon swept to victory in 1972 with his “Southern strategy” that including Confederate Battle Flag campaign pins.
10. Gerald R. Ford pardoned Robert E. Lee in 1975, an act that would be nearly impossible today.
11. Ronald W. Reagan portrayed sympathetic Confederates in movies as a leading American actor in the 1950s.
12. Donald Trump donated $25,000 to help rebuild Jefferson Davis’s Beauvoir after Hurricane Katrina.

All told, thirty-eight of the forty-three men who have occupied the executive office had ties to slavery, the slave trade, the Confederacy, or held positive views of the South, including the first African-American president, Barack Obama.

Ostensibly, that would leave five Presidents–John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, Chester Arthur, and Herbert Hoover–worthy of emulation according to the acceptable narrative outlined by the modern social justice warriors.

But not so fast.

John Adams was friends with several large slaveholders, including Thomas Jefferson, and tolerated the institution for the good of the Union.

Rutherford Hayes appointed Southerners to cabinet positions, supported reconciliation, and removed federal troops from the South to end Reconstruction.

James Garfield said that racial equality gave him “a strong feeling of repugnance” and supported colonization of free blacks in Africa.

Chester Arthur dedicated the Washington Monument (a shining example of slavery) and heaped praise upon Confederate veteran John W. Daniel during the ceremony.

And while Hoover was a champion of civil rights and supported federal aid for Southern blacks during the terrible flooding of the Mississippi in the early 1920s, he also (supposedly) opposed the New Deal and an enlarged general government with “safety net” authority. In other words, he hated the poor, black Americans among them.

As a result, J.Q. Adams should be honoured around the United States as the only true American free from the stains of slavery, the Confederacy, Southern sympathies, or racism, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created “Equal.”
Of course, he served only one term, did not receive a majority in the popular vote, and won in 1824 through the “corrupt bargain” in the House of Representatives. Perhaps that is because no one could stand the man. Seems the Yankee “Treasury of Counterfeit Virtue” only goes so far toward American political success.

Or better yet, most American presidents have realized that the South, as real America, is key to winning elections.

O Canada! Justin Trudeau Reminds Illegals That Canada Enforces Strict Immigration Laws...Strictly

Therefore, according to TheGreatAndGood of the politically correct universes of academia, press, entertainment, and Beltway--Trudeau is an irredeemable raaaaaaacist!

Sound the alarm!!! Are there any monuments in Canada that bear the name 'Trudeau' for any purpose? It must be torn down forthwith! Is there any news anchor or sportscaster or hockey player who shares that shameful name? Kick him/her off the air, immmmmeeeeediately if not sooner.

Hate speech cannot be tolerated!

To wit...

“Canada is an opening and welcoming society,” he told reporters in Montreal following talks with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar. “But let me be clear. We are also a country of laws. Entering Canada irregularly is not an advantage. There are rigorous immigration and customs rules that will be followed. Make no mistake.”

Sarah Palin Sues The New York Times, Because Enough Is Enough Is Enough Is Enough

The Times repeated, once again, the clearly proven lie that Governor Palin's exercise of free speech resulted in the horrific mass shooting in Arizona that left Congresswoman Gabby Gifford terribly injured, and eleven dead.

A few hours later, they kinda-sorta-maybe retracted the assertion, while pointedly not naming Mrs. Palin as the target of their earlier viciousness, and issuing no apology.

Yesterday, she struck back. A copy of the lawsuit filed may be found here.

OS wishes her every good fortune, and hopes that she gets her day in court, gets her verdict, and gets a jury that sends a painful painful (as in sell bunches of real estate, fire bunches of responsible execs, bleed cash for years paying it all off) judgement against these horrible, horrible people.

Why OS Feels No Sympathy For Kathy Griffin--In Her Own Words

What would have happened if, in December 2008, an actor/TV host/presenter/comedian called Mr. Obama a 'POS' (OS won't quote the phrase exactly), and vowed to 'go after' his minor children.

Outrage would have erupted. Justifiable outrage. Whatever we may think of a person in the public eye, his/her 10-year old children are off limits. They are unwitting participants due to circumstances of birth.

Thus, when Kathy Griffin spouted her nonsense at a December 2016 interview, all the rest of us heard in reaction was the sound of crickets chirping.

OS will even spare his legions of readers the labor of clicking through. This is Mzzzzz Griffin, in her own words.

It’s a question a lot of comedians are asking themselves lately: What should comedy look like during the Trump presidency? “Now more than ever we must absolutely go for all the absurdities,” Kathy Griffin told Vulture at the Equality Now Gala Tuesday night. “For me, that’s Trump and all things Trump. It’s not about trying to be an equal-opportunity offender anymore because Hillary got such a beat down. It’s his turn. So I’m happy to deliver beat down to Donald Trump — and also to Barron. You know a lot of comics are going to go hard for Donald, my edge is that I’ll go direct for Barron. I’m going to get in ahead of the game.”

So, of course, Griffin supported Rosie O’Donnell when she tweeted a video asking if Barron Trump, 10-year-old son of Donald and Melania, was on the autism spectrum. “After the beat down he gave her, she can say whatever she wants to say to that piece of shit,” Griffin said before correcting herself. “Oh, that’s President Piece of Shit.”

OS is curious--Did Mzzzzz Griffin ever have children herself? Perhaps nieces and nephews in her life? People who have some positive role in some child's life don't act like this. 

Don't Mess With Melania: Daily Mail Issues Formal Apology, Pays Damages And Expenses In Libel Suit

Words have meaning, and publishing defamatory false words carries consequences.

The UK's Daily Mail published scurrilous allegations about Melania Trump last summer, which turned out to be blatantly untrue. Mrs. Trump took them to court, and today....

The Mail Online website and the Daily Mail newspaper published an article on 20th August 2016 about Melania Trump which questioned the nature of her work as a professional model, and republished allegations that she provided services beyond simply modelling. The article included statements that Mrs. Trump denied the allegations and Paulo Zampolli, who ran the modelling agency, also denied the allegations, and the article also stated that there was no evidence to support the allegations. The article also claimed that Mr and Mrs Trump may have met three years before they actually met, and "staged" their actual meeting as a "ruse."

We accept that these allegations about Mrs Trump are not true and we retract and withdraw them. We apologise to Mrs Trump for any distress that our publication caused her. To settle Mrs Trump's two lawsuits against us, we have agreed to pay her damages and costs. 

A fair observation to note that this retraction was probably written by lawyers, and probably is verbatim part of the settlement between the parties.

Congratulations, Mrs. Trump. Here's hoping your pushback will have a settling effect upon the press here in the colonies as well.

The Ongoing Trainwreck Of Venezuela/The Tale of Joseph

A nation with every, and OS means every possible reason to succeed, is melting down on the far side of the Gulf of Mexico.

Venezuela has a great location in the world, great tropical coastlines and islands, incredibly rich natural resources, including oil reserves, universities, businesses, a large slice of the population that is educated and productive, etc. etc.

And, it has blown sky-high, as in 'Looosy--Wha' Happened' sky-high. A wealthy country suffering shortages of food and medicine. A government that thinks it will solve all problems by jailing the opposition and neutering the legislative branch.

A banana republic.

The wonderful blogger who (for obvious reasons) writes under a pseudonym at The Devil's Excrement has for years done a marvelous job recording this slow death spiral for the world to read and understand.

So, Loooosy. Wha' actually happened?

In brief, Hugo Chavez happened. He rode the spike in oil prices like a rented mule, spent the nation's wealth like a drunken sailor. Chaos ensued, and he loved it. Some leaders actually thrive on chaos.

Then he died, having believed he would live forever, which he didn't. Nor did he create anything resembling a plan for what should happen after he died, since of course he assumed he was immortal.

Then the price of oil died. And all the unspent money, grafted off, never spent on maintaining the oil fields, came back to haunt. Production dropped,  so Venezuela was well and truly....screwed. No one will sell them anything except for hard currency, and no one will lend them money. And their government has managed to piss off the entire world. It's a recipe for failure, plain and simple.

The Biblical tale of Joseph comes to mind. The Pharaoh had disturbing dreams, and heard that one of the Deplorables in his dungeon had the gift of interpretation. Joseph was hauled up before him and stated the obvious: 'Timez is goood your Pharoahness. Let's store grain and wealth now while we can, because famines happen, and you want to keep your head unseparated from your royal shoulders. Hungry populations get pissed off and take to the streets, and not even you can survive that.' So the Pharaoh put Joseph in charge of the project. Sure as shootin' seven years of plenty were followed by seven years of drought (must have been global warming, right?). Egypt was sitting pretty, with grain to sell to the world, and prospered through the hard times. Joseph ended up as Prime Minister, because he exercised simple common sense, and he was by all accounts basically self-effacing.

So what happened to Venezuela? It was the abandonment of common sense, and the embrace of a charismatic leader who told people what they wished to hear. Now they are headed over the cliff.

It's what is known as a Cautionary Tale.

The book of Genesis ends with the Joseph story. The next book, Exodus, opens with the words to this effect: 'There arose in Egypt a generation that knew not Joseph'. The tale that follows recounts the wheels coming off one of the ancient world's most powerful civilizations.

It, too, is a Cautionary Tale.

Jesse Reminds Us Of Kenneth Clark's 'Civilization'

This must be read and viewed.

What Have We Here? Obama And The Judge, One Day Before The Judge Enjoins The Second Travel Restriction Executive Order

OS does not generally pay attention to conspiracy theories...they tend to not hold water. Conspiracies require the cooperation of a number of parties, and in any group of evil-doers, someone will spill the beans, even if over beers at the local tavern.

So, when the chatter about Mr. Obama's visit to Hawaii and subsequent injunction against the second travel ban issued by a federal judge (appointed by Obama) began to rumble, OS ignored it. He does not look good in any sort of tin-foil hat.

But this time, OS has been proven wrong.

What have we here?

Indeed that is The Wan, with The Judge, enjoying dinner the day before the ruling.

And, ZeroHedge shares this tidbit with us:

The day after Obama's Tuesday dinner in Honolulu, Derrick Watson issued a ruling which effectively stopped President Donald Trump's executive order on immigration from taking effect hours later. Observers immediately protested the ruling, noting that not only was Watson appointed to his position by Obama in 2014, they had both graduated from Harvard Law School in 1991.

Judge Watson's 43-page ruling was issued a mere two hours after hearing arguments on whether or not the immigration ban should be blocked. This would have required Watson to write a page roughly every three minutes, raising questions about whether or not the judge had already made a decision before even hearing arguments from attorneys and had already drafted a ruling. The proximity of the judge to Obama on his vacation just days before the consequential hearing, their lengthy history together and facts indicating that the judge had prepared a ruling before the case even began raise questions about whether or not the former President exercised improper influence in the judge's decision. Barack Obama's representatives have yet to issue any comment on the matter.

Read the bits in red again... Forty-three pages of legal ruling written, edited and printed within two hours? Holy Workaholic, Batman!! That's just plain miraculous, an historic moment in the history of jurispudence!

OS asks his legion of followers--Had that been either of the Bushes in their post-White House years, appearing to influence a matter before a federal court, what would the reaction in the press have been?

Hmmmm?

And, while Facebook Snowflakes are whining endlessly about the costs of securing Mrs. Trump and little son Trump vis-a-vis spending on National Endowment for the Arts: How much in travel and security costs did that shrimp pad-thai set the taxpayer back?

Hmmmm?

Time for some brave soul in the House of Representatives to drop a Bill of Impeachment of Judge Watson into the hopper, perhaps?

Peronistas and Trump's Brigades in Nashville 15 March 2017

David Warren is a quiet, thoughtful, devastatingly good Canadian essayist, and OS enjoys his Essays in Idleness.

This week's post, 'Justicialismo', is especially on-point.

Warren notes that Peronism, which destroyed Argentina, is not simply an Argentine phenomenon. It is a perverse approach to existence that has taken hold in many lands (including ours). It's difficult to disagree with his reasoning.

Moral, intellectual, and material squalour is their chief legacy to a country which was once among the world’s most prosperous and most free. The spiritual equivalent has now migrated to Rome.
This, at least, is the impression I have formed from afar. “Justicialism,” so far as one can read, embodies every sort of rhetorical populism, across the political spectrum, but with a heavy and perfectly consistent bias towards centralized power. It stands for “social justice” — an absolutely imaginary and therefore unattainable ideal. It is on the side of labour and of management, it is Catholic and anti-Catholic, racist and anti-racist, isolationist and aggressive, leftist and rightist and dogmatically nationalist with all the contradictions nationalism entails. Yet it is not unique.
Socialism is leftwing Fascism; Fascism is rightwing Socialism. Other than that, they are the same. They vie for the same voters, and politicians may move comfortably back and forth between their symmetrical (i.e. identical) extremes. The principle underlying both is that the government should control everything, for the government’s idea of the common good. Whether the government technically owns everything is neither here nor there. Indeed, Socialism/Fascism works better, for the government, if private actors can be made to take the blame and the losses for all of the government’s goon-show mistakes. Any “excess” income on which they fall in their government-assigned monopolist stations can then be impounded.

Warren does not counsel despair, rather a creative approach to battling the disease--live like Christians.

How to resist? Not by “proposing alternatives,” which can only be implemented from the top down, through participation in the established political order. That has been tried, repeatedly, and has anyone noticed it has repeatedly failed?
Rather, I think, one resists by creative personal non-cooperation: rendering justice not “socially” to the abstract mass, but individually to your neighbours. With love.

That was from the beginning the “political” genius of Christianity, which undermined dirigiste authority simply by ducking under its radar sweeps; emerging when, under its manifest contradictions, it finally and totally collapsed. Casualties — martyrdoms — must sometimes be taken, but to the ends of Heaven they are all good. Live a free Christian life, in defiance of the modernists, but without telling them.

Spread it by example.

So, OS's legions of readers ask--what does this have to do with The Donald in Nashville?

A lot, actually.

OS reserved tickets for the rally, but life intervened, and he had to offer his spots to others. It was for the best, as the lines for the 6:30 pm rally began to form before dawn outside Nashville's Municipal Auditorium. Thousands stood in blustery winds in 35 degree temps all day for the opportunity to enter for the rally, and cheer for Their President. 

 OS is not in good enough shape for that--getting there, but not yet--and Mrs. OS does not deserve a sick husband. But he watched the RSBN feed of the cheerful crowds, and then the breathless coverage by local CBS affiliate WTVF of the group of a hundred or so angry protestors, manipulated to appear much larger than reality. The constant attempt to paint Trump's Deplorables as an angry rabble just do not pass the laugh test. These folks are, in their own quiet cheerful way, following Warren's advice--living their lives caring for one another, staying as far below the radar as possible, and when given the opportunity, cheering their lungs out for a President who declares he has their back.
 
The Donald's visit to Andrew Jackson's grave was a Big Deal, as Jackson has become the target of much vitriol from Duh' Left. By publicly embracing Jackson, while acknowledging he had some genuine shortcomings (which are undeniable), he signaled that he does not believe that we must be perfect in order to be effective and good; that Jackson did much that makes our life possible today, and he was willing to be wrong at times to make this happen. Just like The Donald. He endorsed Jackson (aka Old Hickory) as a model to emulate, in the good ways, and also an example to avoid in the bad. Of course, the local leftist press was Not Happy, attempting to blunt the effect of the event before it occurred. The thousands waiting in the cold were the best response, as always, to the warm/insured/comfortable/arrogant Great and Good Who Know Better Than All Those Little People.

A final anecdote: Nashville/Davidson county is ringed by a road known as Old Hickory Boulevard--which creates no end of confusion for newcomers, but that's another tale. OS treated Mrs. OS to Thai food at one of their favorite haunts on the western leg of OHB. OS noticed another couple at a nearby table--assumption of husband and wife here--and the lovely lady was dressed in layers with a Trump-Pence shirt visible. OS asked--did you attend the rally? Both answered 'Yes! Why didn't you go? We had such fun!' Chattered on a bit, and then OS posed the question, as the wife was a beautiful black lady, and the adoring husband a white guy, both in their early 30's: It's obvious that it may be a bit of a surprise to see a black lady dressed up like you are. She laughed, and husband chimed in--'It gets better'! Lady beams--'I am an immigrant from Kenya on the path toward citizenship, and I love Donald Trump!' OS sez--you are a legal immigrant, then? 'Yes!' she replies, and beams again. OS recounts that his family and circle of friends are replete with legal immigrants, shakes her hand, and blurts out: 'Welcome to America, ma'am!'

The Peronistas of America simply are wrong, dead wrong, about the culture and nation they attempt to manage, by hook or crook. There is great hope out there, embodied in those folks waiting on the sidewalk, in that couple at the table.

Andy Jackson, Old Hickory, warts and all, would be happy to see this day.

Mr. Ochoa-Puentes, of Honduras, Deported in 2010, Convicted Of Attempted 2nd-Degree Murder in Tennessee in 2016

Mr. Ochoa-Puentes, one of Mr. Obama's 'huddled masses yearning to breathe free', did this.

In August of 2015, Cheatham County Sheriff's Office Deputy William Zimmerlee attempted to pull over Nelson Ochoa-Puentes, 33, for a traffic-related stop near Highway 49 in Cheatham County, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

The TBI said Ochoa-Puentes failed to stop and led Zimmerlee on a car chase into Dickson County where he eventually stopped the vehicle on Bloom Landing Road. Ochoa-Puentes, according to the TBI, reportedly got out of the car and pulled out a gun and pointed it at Zimmerlee. The deputy fired at least one shot at Ochoa-Puentes, striking him in the hand.

The original charge was attempted first degree murder. However, Public Defender Jake Lockert made a successful motion to amend the charge to attempted second-degree murder. The Jury came back Monday night with a guilty verdict for the lesser charge.

He was deported in 2010, ya'll. Nearly murdered a police officer in Tennessee in 2015.

Welcome back to a civilized nation, where he will be sentenced, serve time, and then...

be deported!!

Not pardoned or handed a commutation.

It is worth noting that The Tennessean is now reporting the immigration status of illegal alien felons.
Timez iz changed, ya'll. Amazing what happens when the voters of Tennessee voter overwhelmingly for the GOP...even these libs finally have to take notice.