Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Liberal/ Left is noticing secession and that gun control might drive it

The article is titled, "What's with these so-called 'patriots' calling for the breakup of America?"

https://thinkprogress.org/why-do-these-patriots-hate-america-ec1a093a8df6/

In this February 2018 I said that Texas secession would likely have an ignition point with the passage of gun control.

http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2018/02/status-of-texas-secession-secessionists.html#.Wrr3FYjBqiM

With the demonstrations for some type of control of fire arms after the Parkland school shootings it seems from the Think Progress article that this move towards secession to avoid gun control is starting.

It seems that the recent demonstrations for gun control have persons strongly opposed to gun control rattled and talk of secession has begun.

I knew that the protests had been large, but I didn't really think that the students had a chance, but maybe people against gun control are seeing that they do have a chance.

What needs to be remembered about these calls for secession or threats of secession is that they normalize secession. Maybe a person is just blowing off steam, but for what ever reason they talk about secession as a possibility means that this is no longer a taboo topic, or that there is a barrier between them and this position. They have taken this position once, so even if they lose interest, they have done so prior and there is no barrier psychological or intellectual to doing it again. There isn't a need to think through the issue, since in the past they had thought through the issue.

The percentage of people who have discussed secession increases a little or maybe more than a little. A larger population of those more open to secession than before is built up.

Take 'Em Down NOLA, Marching in the street. Item #3

On Sunday, 3/25/2017 we marched through streets in New Orleans and stopped at various monuments that needed to go.

There was no parade permit. The police just stopped traffic along the route so we could pass unhindered. I was able to safely walk backwards into intersections against the traffic lights so I could get Facebook live broadcasting of the group.

The city didn't want any incidents and it was like we had an escort along the way.

I have the video of the parade on Facebook.  My cell phone would lose signal and I would have to restart.

This is the first video.

https://www.facebook.com/edward.sebesta/videos/10157266790959829/

This is the second video.

https://www.facebook.com/edward.sebesta/videos/10157266915554829/

This is the third video.

https://www.facebook.com/edward.sebesta/videos/10157267094869829/


The police barricaded one monument so that the TEDN couldn't use the monument for some action.

At the end of the march we were back at Lafayette Park and we formed a big circle. This is part of the circle.

Click on pictures to see the ENTIRE photo.

This is another section of the circle.

And another section of the circle.

another section of the circle


another section of the circle

A very diverse group of people working for a common goal. People who are going back to their communities and who are fired up to take down Confederate statues and I will be providing research support for all of them.

Take 'Em Down Nola Friday night session, meet and greet 3/23/2018 Item #2

The leaders of Take 'Em Down NOLA spoke to everyone Friday night. There were still people driving to attend starting in the morning so all the attendees of the Conference weren't there yet.

Click on image to see whole thing.



At the end of the session we formed a big circle as a means of achieving group solidarity. This was a big circle, but we had several groups not there yet, but would be there in the morning.





One photo shot didn't get the whole circle in.

These are people really serious about bringing down Confederate monuments across the nation and people making up a support network.

This will be the beginning. As we get a national group going, we will get individuals interested from different cities and they will contact our groups and they will be referred to other interested individuals from their city.


Some liberal Democrats and Leftists finally wise up.

This is the article in Nation magazine.

https://www.thenation.com/article/how-charles-koch-is-helping-neo-confederates-teach-college-students/

The article doesn't mention Marshall DeRosa's involvement with the Abbeville Institute.

https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/?s=Marshall

The problem is that Nation magazine relied on the Southern Poverty Law Center and they won't label negatively the Abbeville Institute.

Marshall DeRosa has a book on the Confederate Constitution also as well as other neo-Confederate books.

https://www.amazon.com/Marshall-L.-DeRosa/e/B001JP40L0

In addition to the books listed at Amazon, he has also contributed book chapters to "A Defender of Southern Conservatism: M.E. Bradford and His Achievements," Univ. of Missouri Press; "Rethinking the American Union for the Twenty-First Century," Pelican Press; "The Politics of Dissolution: The Quest for National Identity & the American Civil War," Transaction Books. Transaction books is at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

The liberal/left and the neo-liberals in particular were always afraid that they might not get an extra electoral vote in the South and so they have ignored this. Also, a large chunk of all these movements contain individuals which haven't really given up on the Lost Cause or the Confederacy and had various degrees of identification with the Confederacy. They think they are liberal and this and that, but mentally they have never left the plantation.

Now, neo-Confederate has gone further on the road to bringing down American democracy and the indifference of the American liberal/left and their whiteness has a lot to do with it.


Monday, March 26, 2018

Take 'Em Down NOLA reads Kevin M. Levin just before confronting Mitch Landrieu: Item #1 TakeEMDownNOLA Series

I was down in New Orleans at the Take 'Em Down NOLA (TEDN) national conference, 3/23-25/2018, this last weekend. It had people from across the nation attending. I will be doing a series of posts on what happened. The neo-Confederate movement is now doomed and it is just a matter of time before the Confederate landscape is gone.

Sunday, 3/25/2018 we had a morning march in the streets of New Orleans to the statues of white supremacists. Then a little later in the early afternoon we went to for lunch. Saturday, the previous day, I learned that TEDN was not happy with Mitch Landrieu taking all the credit.

The plan was that after the lunch we would go to the Mitch Landrieu book signing at 2pm.

During lunch, I shared with them Kevin M. Levin's posting on Mitch Landrieu's book where Levin criticizes Landrieu for taking too much credit for the monument removal. This is the link to Kevin Levin's posting.

http://cwmemory.com/2018/03/24/mayor-mitch-landrieu-and-the-mythology-of-confederate-monument-removals-in-new-orleans/

One of the TEDN leaders was very interested and read it through on my cellphone. I also shared the link. This was good preparation when we tracked down Mitch Landrieu's book signing several blocks away at a museum.

It was on the second floor with tables with linen cloth and African American food servers in an elite space and thus creating plantation optics. You needed a ticket to get up.

I was asked to reconnoiter and find out where it was.

I was able to get upstairs anyways by just walking up and saying no I did not have a ticket, but I was a historian that just happened to be in town and wanted to get a book. I had a nonchalant attitude that I expect to be admitted anyways and it worked.

I did photo documentation of the event and the audience and the food servers and the whole elite thing. Then I went down to report. However, TEDN had decided to come up and I direct them to the book signing where Landrieu was just spinning his narrative.

Malcolm Suber entered into a dialog with Landrieu but his is a very able politician, that is he had some rationalizations for everything. He also spoke to Suber as if he was an acquaintance.

I had explained that Kevin M. Levin was a person who wrote articles for the Smithsonian and The Atlantic and was an establishment figure and Levin saw what Landrieu was doing. I have shared the link and showed the URL of Levin's blog to them. There was a lot of interest and I think some gratification that others were seeing what Landrieu  was doing.

I also explained that though Levin and I am opponents that his blog often has good information. I also explained that Levin got on the train to remove monuments very late in the historical process.

TEDN during the march criticized academics for being missing in action and not challenging the built environment that honors white supremacists. They are right to a great degree, but I was able to show that there were exceptions.

The power of these conferences is that they connect resources. I was able to alert TEDN to Levin's posting. It lets TEDN know that there are people who see their side of this story and are supportive. It encouraged TEDN to continue to assert their narrative.

The following are photos of the event. Click on them to see the WHOLE photo.









Then TEDN appeared. It no longer was just an elite event.



Monday, March 19, 2018

"Deep States" and Secession

There is this concept among the right wing or right populists about a "deep state." I am not sure what the formal definition of "deep state" is, or what would distinguish it from just cliques of special interests in and outside the government. Would the "military-industrial complex" referred to by President Eisenhower be a "deep state"?

It could be that the public now has adopted a term to refer to a bureaucracy that has been built up by special interests ascendant in prior presidential administrations. However, the idea that there is a bureaucracy with its own agenda and disdainful of popular elections is hardly new.

The hugely popular comedy, "Yes, Minister," with its sequel, "Yes, Prime Minister" portrayed a British bureaucracy which had its own agenda and did what it could to thwart the elected officials in any and every way it could. I don't know if it could be called the "deep state" since it seemed to encompass the entire British government excepting the elected officials. The first series ran on BBC from 1980 to 1984 and the sequel from 1986 to 1988. Episodes ran on PBS later.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes_Minister

The movie, "A Very British Coup," has the government attempting to undermine a socialist prime minister, and then when the elections go the wrong way the final scene suggests that the elected government has been overthrown. In this case there is a formation within the government which is actively opposing a socialist prime minister. It was originally a novel published in 1982, and then adapted twice for television in both 1988 and 2012.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Very_British_Coup

The idea that the federal government is working to undermine and subvert the agenda of a newly elected president with a different direction for government isn't new either.

M.E. Bradford, neo-Confederate, paleoconservative, and racist reactionary saw the federal bureaucracy as an active enemy of the new direction of Ronald Reagan and also was very vocal in his concerns that the Washington establishment would undermine Reagan's agenda until it became clear that Reagan didn't really have much of an agenda himself. This was back in 1976 when Reagan was elected.

The above is to show that the idea of a grouping or clique of government officials operating with various levels of conspiratorial methods is not a new concept. It has been abroad in popular culture and now it is called "deep state."

What is interesting is this article at Politico that the majority believe or tend to believe that there is a "deep state."

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/19/poll-deep-state-470282

The results are 27% says the "deep state" definitely exists and 47% believe it probably exists. That totals up to 74%. Who says Americans are deeply divided?

Only 5% said they believe the "deep state" definitely doesn't exist, and 16% said it probably doesn't exist.

The impact on the issue of secession is the relation of the ideas of a "deep state" and "nationalism."

Nation's are elite projects. They were invented with the end of dynastic states to provide a vessel for governance. The statement with the formation of Italy, made by an Italian nationalist, that they have created Italy, and that now they must create Italians, actually applies to most western European states of any size.

If the Nation as a political vehicle is seen as a vehicle that is only beneficial to an elite unbounded by democracy and disdainful of it, the particular national idea loses support. Though secession has the idea that another smaller nation as a political vehicle can be kept from the control of elites because everyone is part of some smaller national identity. Currently the idea to counter the failings of nationalism is to launch another nationalism which can be expected to result in small petty states with small elites. In short the secession idea is to fight the consequence an idea with more of the same with hopes that it will turn out different because our nationality is so special.

Since there isn't really any alternate idea, secession will likely pick up support from the alienated. With 75% of Americans thinking the national government is a "deep state," I don't think that there will be a lot of interest in supporting the national government if it calls for personal sacrifice, and nations often need to consume personal sacrifice.

For secessionists it means that they can expect to have a body of alienated to recruit from. For national governments they will have to largely support themselves with the resources they have and not expect the public to make serious sacrifices if things get difficult. The national government can expect that they have ambivalent support. Historically this is the situation where seemingly imposing states find that their situation is very much at risk.

The federal government's actions against the Bundy Ranch and the occupiers of the Malheur Refuge show a government that doesn't feel they have strong popular support and act cautiously to avoid giving insurrectionists public sympathy. I can only imagine what would be the situation if somewhere there were several hundred people better organized, determined and planning serious insurrection.

This doesn't mean secession is the wave of the future. It just is another indication of the shift in the environment towards conditions favorable towards secessionists. It isn't that you have a big shift in support of secession, though it could be expected that there will be some increase of support for secession, especially if the Democrats are seen as the future of the national government.

The importance is that support for the government will be less. The national government can be packages inside the concept of a "deep state" which sounds ominous instead of the concept of the United States of American which has popular sympathy. A movement composed of a small percentage of highly motivated individuals when faced with a largely apathetic opposition is not in a bad position.

Again, this is just a development, and hopefully will remain an obscure footnote in national history.













Sunday, March 18, 2018

Comical aspects of white supremacy and neo-Confederacy

One thing that you often note about white supremacists is that often individually they aren't very notable in personal achievements themselves. They talk about a white civilization as if there is some such thing and that white people did this or that, but they haven't done much of anything or anything notable in the least.

However, these things done in European or American history are done by individuals who had opportunities in education and personally pushed themselves to do something with their lives white or otherwise. In contrast these type of white supremacists themselves haven't done much with their lives besides gripe.

There is a stereotype that white supremacists are marginal individuals with out of control lives. This is not helpful in combating neo-Confederacy since people overlook educated racists and the neo-Confederate movement is lead by people with degrees and people in the establishment.

However, somethings are just too funny to pass up.

Recently the Traditional Workers Party (TWP) disintegrated. The explanation for the demise of the organization is explained in this Daily Beast article introduction to an article titled, "Neo-Nazi Group Implodes Over Love Triangle Turned Trailer Brawl."
Matthew Heimbach and his spokesman came to blows after Heimbach was caught sleeping with the spokesman’s wife. What’s more, Heimbach is married to the spokesman’s stepdaughter.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/matthew-heimbachs-traditional-workers-party-implodes-over-love-triangle-turned-trailer-brawl?ref=home

The stepdaughter is from a previous marriage of the spokesman. There are these comical elements. Parrot is the spokesman for the TWP.

Parrott stood on a box outside the trailer and watched Heimbach and Jessica have sex inside, according to a police report. When the box broke under Parrott’s weight, he entered the trailer to confront them. Heimbach allegedly choked him and chased him into a house, where Parrott threw a chair at him. Heimbach hit back, choking him into unconsciousness, according to the police report.

The League of the South is inviting the members of the Traditional Workers Party to join their organization.

http://leagueofthesouth.com/statement-on-matthew-heimbach-and-twp/




Wednesday, March 07, 2018

Confederacy loses again, Jerry Patterson loses to George P. Bush for Land Commissioner in Texas

Jerry Patterson interviewed in the Southern Mercury, a racist publication put out by the Sons of Confederate Veterans Educational PAC. That is what the magazine said.

He has been a supporter of the Confederacy.

George P. Bush has been the object of hostility by various pro-Confederate militia and neo-Confederate groups.

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2018-elections/2018/03/06/sid-miller-wins-gop-primary-ag-commissioner-george-p-bush-headed-win-land-commish-race

Jerry Patterson got 29.7% of the vote versus 58.2% for George P. Bush in the Republican primary.

The Texas Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans had this Facebook posting regarding George P. Bush.

https://www.facebook.com/TexasSCV/posts/1614108091970237

This is the link to the "This is Texas Freedom Force" video during the the primary election day where their leader is expecting to see George P. Bush defeated at the polls.

https://www.facebook.com/1318988724858579/videos/1585502844873831/

They have been against George P. Bush for some time now.  This is their Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/This-Is-Texas-Freedom-Force-1318988724858579/

This is another #BOOTBUSH posting.

https://www.facebook.com/1318988724858579/photos/a.1319816784775773.1073741829.1318988724858579/1584351781655604/?type=3&theater

Of course the Texas Nationalist movement didn't like George P. Bush. This is one attack article. There are others.

https://texianpartisan.com/bushs-tangled-web-finally-unraveling/

Support for the Confederacy and the Alamo is certainly down when a Republican candidate in a Republican primary can't get 30% of the vote when campaigning on being supportive of both and the winning candidate being castigated as not supporting either. Turn out in primaries is low and in them ideological forces often have the greatest influence. Not in 2018 in this primary.

I am sure politicians will take note of this, that there really isn't much support for the Alamo or the Confederacy in a Republican primary. Also, Republicans are likely to be more concerned with what appears to be a strong shift to the Democrats in Texas this year and being known to being supportive of the Confederacy certainly would be very unhelpful in trying to counter this shift.


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