Confederacy becoming identified with idiots

The era of so-proclaimed leftists or liberals who come up with complicated excuses for the Confederacy is coming to an end.

One of the significant sources of support for Confederate monuments and memorializations of various sorts comes from liberals and leftists in the South who still haven't mentally left the plantation. They have their Confederate ancestors and have involved complicated arguments for the Confederate thing they have hanging on the wall or on their mantel.

You read these articles where they have Confederate memoriabilia in a room and their book club  or something is coing over and now they are worried people will get the wrong idea. Of course the real issue is that they will see them who they really are, but the editors of these publications tend to be sympathetic to the Confederate sympathizeer.

That garbage is finally going to be completely extinct.

We are entering yet another stage in which support for the Confederacy becomes identified with fringe characters, delusional characters, and generally fools and idiots, and reactionaries.

This story is all over on Facebook.

sanangelolive.com/news/crime/2020-04-03/report-coronavirus-poster-prank-led-armed-confrontation-dorm-room-angelo-state

Stumpf is from Comfort, Texas, but I don't know if he is associated with the camp out there that hosts the Sam Davis Youth Camp, formerly of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

https://www.gosanangelo.com/story/news/crime/2020/04/03/angelo-state-students-arrested-after-fight-over-covid-19-poster/5113243002/

By the way, South Korean and Taiwan have universal military training. They are trained to fight other soldiers as Shane Stumpf found out. They aren't habituated to subservience to white people either.

This maybe by another Shane Stumpf.

https://gramho.com/media/1853339026410239883

The newspaper article made a point of decribing Stumpf's racist garbage he had on the wall and also that he had on his wall a Confederate flag.

In another venue the governor of Mississippi decided to not support stay at home orders to suppress the coronavirus epidemic but declare an April Confederate History month. Nothing like this makes it clear that Confederate heritage had deep links to stupid.

https://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2020/apr/05/scv-gov-tate-reeves-proclaimed-confederate-heritag/

https://www.salon.com/2020/04/07/mississippi-governor-takes-break-from-pandemic-response-to-declare-confederate-heritage-month/

Whereas in the past the complicated story of the self-identified liberal or leftists with Confederate sympathies might actually get someone to listen, this I think is over now. The very last bit.

As for the general public support for the Confederacy will be further identified with people like Governor Reeves or Shane Stumpf.

COVID-19 and Secession Post two

I don't need to know until early July to start work on my Texas secession book if it appears that Donald Trump is not getting re-elected. On the other hand, secession movements will likely start gaining strength if it becomes really obvious that Trump isn't going to be re-elected. So the earlier I can figure out whether Trump is going to be re-elected or not the better.

I am still struggling with this. I have a couple other projects that are absorbing much of my time so I don't need to be working on Texas secession until I know it is going to happen. I think that there are two things to consider.

The following is an issue only if some treatment doesn't show up. There are anti-virals being tested and there might be one or two that works. Even if one is found, it remains to be seen if it is that effective and can be made available in large quantities and supplied quickly enough. If they can only supply enough for 5 or 10 percent of the cases it will have limited usefulness to stop a pandemic. It will help, but it might just slow the progression of the pandemic.

Vaccines will become available, but I think they won't be available for sometime, long after things have gotten fairly bad.

FIRST THING

I am beginning to believe Trump is not going to be re-elected. There is evidence that indicates that Trump is doing well in the polls and his approval ratings are jumped up significantly.

However, things are still early in this pandemic outbreak. The pandemic is starting to reach the rural areas and smaller towns. Take for instance this city.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/02/us/albany-georgia-coronavirus/index.html

Dougherty County has 85,000 people and have close to the number of Fulton County with one million people.  Rural areas don't have really good health facilities or don't have any.

The governor of Georgia who has resisted stay at home measures is now claiming that he didn't know asymptomatic COVID-19 individuals could spread coronavirus until just recently, which I don't think is going to be believed except by the most credulous.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/georgia-gov-brian-kemp-admits-he-just-learned-asymptomatic-people-n1174976

There is Arizona which isn't taking coronavirus seriously.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/04/02/arizona-coronavirus-pawn-shops-golf-courses-essential-businesses-160043

I think when these other states get really impacted there will be two phenomenon. Trumps credibility will drop. Also, when these states get impacted the credibility of these governors will drop and with it the Republican Party which will also drag down Trump.

If the rural areas have people dying in their houses because there is no medical facilities and bodies stored without refrigeration I think it will have a big impact on support for Trump by Trump supporters. Though they might decide it is all fake news or someone it is a 5G thing or some other lunacy.

When people know someone who has died, a relative, a friend, co-worker, fellow member of a church or organization dies, I think there will be a change of opinion.

But we will have to see.

SECOND THING

Fatality rate is likely to be highest with Donald Trump supporters. The fatality rate is highest with older people. The severity of the impact seems like it is going to be in places where social distancing is being resisted in conservative states and the rural areas.

There are anecdotal reports of older individuals mocking social distancing or defying it to make some type of political point. So you have higher risk individuals engaging in higher risk behavior.

You have Evangelical churches having services with large numbers of people there. They do risk the general public's health, but they more immediately risk the health of their members and their members friends and relatives. By example they also send a message to their members that these health issues are not to be taken seriously.

I don't think fatalities will constitute a number representing a large percentage of voters, but it will have some impact. Winning and losing an election can depend on really small numbers. It might be a state that goes for one presidential candidate rather than another. There could be impacts to other elections.

SUMMARY

We will just have to wait and see. None of the above factors may be the deciding issue. It might be that once things are over, upon reflection, the public may decide that it is a bad idea to have a clown in charge because things can happen. It may be realized that the White House isn't a TV show and needs to be run by someone who is able and has able people on his or her staff.

I am going to start getting ready to write the book. I want to have all the materialss at hand if it is a go.

ADDTIONAL NOTE:

I am safely isolated and avoiding all risks. I will be looking forward to pulling down the Confederacy when this crisis is over.

COVID-19 safety and the Confederacy.

If you go down the article you  will come across a striking map of when the average distance traveled dropped below two miles.  You can see a Confederacy of red with little urban islands of COVID-19 sanity.

A certain type of mentality and historical memory is manifesting itself here.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/02/us/coronavirus-social-distancing.html

DIRECT LINK TO MAP IS https://www.motherjones.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/blog_nyt_coronavirus_stop_traveling.jpg

What is striking here is that many rural areas dropped below two miles way earlier. If you have lived in the country you know that often you just drive further to do ordinary things. The supermarket is in the next town or county over. The post office is a ways away also.

So when I see so many rural areas having dropped below two miles way earlier than the red areas I think that they have really gotten the message. Though it could be some statistical artifact I don't know about.  So understand this is just a speculation.

Secession and COVID-19: UPDATE1:

So before I discuss the topic I want to say two things. I am doing fine and I have enough supplies to stay inside for a considerable amount of time and being retired I don't have to go to work or take other risks.

The other topic will be covered at the end of this post, which is some basic information about COVID-19 with links to some reliable sources of information.

SECESSION AND COVID-19

I have expressed the opinion that as long as Trump is re-elected the secession movements are going to remain without support. I also thought that there was a good chance Trump might be elected. So I haven't revived my writing on the Texas nationalist movement. The manuscript is where it was the night of the election in 2016.

However, we now have a severe national disruption with COVID-19.  Trump has said a series of things which in retrospect look fairly stupid. On the other hand the conservative movementt of the Breitbart type,https://www.breitbart.com/ , are coming up with a counter narrative as to what is happening. So COVID-19 has become fully politicized.

If things go badly, such as the health  care system runs out of hospital beds and really sick people are sent away I think Trump will have very poor re-election chances. I think it hasn't been considered that during a pandemic it might be elderly sick people with the flu that can't get beds because they are taken up with COVID-19 patients.

For example in Texas there is this warning about Texas running out of hospital beds by late April, about 30 days from now.

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/public-health/2020/03/22/hospitals-will-run-out-of-beds-by-late-april-if-gov-abbott-doesnt-order-texans-to-stay-at-home-hospital-group-warns/

Then there is this is the latest count of new cases. (3/22/2020 Dallas Morning News (DMN) Sunday report)It is 36 new cases, with the county's total now reported as 131. Yesterday's DMN report it was 21 new cases with a total of 95. Friday, March 20, 2020 DMN report it was 19 cases, with a total of 74. Thursday, March 19, 2020 there were 20 new cases, for a total of 55. I am not exactly sure if the report is for the day or the report or the prior day.

UPDATE as of yesterday, April 1, 2020 there were 100 new cases and the total is 731. The number of cases is still increasing and increasing at a higher rate.
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/public-health/2020/04/02/were-beginning-to-see-the-curve-rise-dallas-county-reports-record-100-new-coronavirus-cases/

So in three days the number of cases have more than doubled, about 2.5 times. However, this is a limited sample and the climbing numbers of cases might be due  to testing stations being opened so people can stop and get tested.

A week ago last Friday, the known number of cases in Dallas was 18. 3/13/2020, DMN. However, I would not use this data to construct an exponential curve. What I am trying to point out is that there could be in a week alot more cases, many times more cases than at the present.

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/public-health/2020/03/22/dallas-county-announces-second-death-36-new-coronavirus-cases/

If on the other hand there is a surge but it doesn't exceed the capacity of the health care system Trump will not be that badly impacted I speculate. Despite everything stupid he has said his supporters really don't care and they will vote for him. The real issue for them is not getting a Democrat elected and they would be willing to vote for a yellow dog or a sack of potatoes instead.

The other issue about a failing health care system is the health care providers getting sick. If most of the doctors are sick or quarentined along with other health care workers how does a hospital function? If there aren't

So what are the chances of the health care system getting overloaded or too many health care workers getting sick? I really don't know and I am watching day by day. Largely because I need to know if there will be emergency care if I get sick.

There has been alot of really inane alarmism. Mathematical illiterates are suddenly talking about exponential curves and with a few data points projecting millions of cases in 4 to 8 weeks. Besides using a few points to fit a curve and other idiocies these projections are just stupid. I have solved differential equations and in no way does the spead of a virus going to be that simple.

This isn't to say there can't be dire consequences, but I wish to warn people not to believe some these projections. If they use the word "exponential" they are idiots.

The basic problem is that we don't know how many people are out there with COVID-19. Until starting this week there has been little testing. The testing is largely of those who are sick and believe they might have it.

How many people are out there asymmtomatic or mild and spreading it we don't know. It might be quite a lot or it might not be enough to bring down the health care system.  Also, even if it is a lot of people, it  might be with the tough measures being taken it will be controlled.

So I am watching the numbers come in. The amount of testing is going way up and every person tested positive can be quarantined. On the other hand this virus takes some time to start exhibiting symptoms if it does, so we might find out in the next coupld of weeks a lot of people suddenly manifesting symptoms. In general we will have to just wait and see.

One factor I haven't seen discussed is the mortality rates versus age and the political implications. The chance of COVID-19 being fatal to a person contracting goes up stepply with age. It also impacts people with underlying health conditions which tend to go up with age. So though the gross average fatality rate might be about 1% for the general population, for the elderly it seems to be many times higher. Demographically these are much more likely to be Trump voters.

Asian Americans who being high income and who tend to be Republicans are very alienated by Trump's pandering to racist sentiment. It is likely to cost the Republicans a House district or two and maybe a U.S. Senate seat.

I think in about four weeks I think we will start seeing how this will play out politically. Of course even if it doesn't reach disasterous proportions, it might be that voter turn out will be much higher among young people who are finally motivated to vote, and want to vote Trump out.

I think political polarization is going to go way up. People in the cities impacted by Trump's incompetence are really angry.

COVID-19 is likely to be a public health issue right up to election day.

If Trump is not re-elected I think that secession movements will be quite active and get strong support. Not just because Trump is not elected, but because they will see a Democratic Party in power ready to aggressively push their agenda. The Democratic base is angry and will expect the Democrats to move.  This will likely cause a reaction with conservatives.

In the larger picture what is happening is unprecedented. In the end I am just guessing at what the issues might be and how they develop.

By the way there is even a right wing narrative that there really isn't a problem.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/03/ron-paul/the-coronavirus-hoax/

COVID-19 INFORMATION

I would like to dispell those who are talking about fatality rates of 4% or more. The fatality rate for the general population appears to be somewhere between 0.6 to 1.5%.

The high rates reported are due to statistical bias of a skewed sample. So if I had a disease which had many of the people getting it not having symptoms of mild and others severely impacted or fatal it would depend very much on my sampling.

For example if there was an extensive testing of the public so we learned and included in our number those who are sick but don't have symptoms or mild, and we divided the number of fatalities by the total number we would get one rate of fatality.

On the other hand if we just took the number of people who should up at the hospital and divided that number into deaths we would get a much higher rate of fatality. The sample wouldn't include those who didn't have symptoms or were mild or those who weren't bad enough to show up at the hospital.

For other information I direct readers below. I just think people should be critically thinking about what is put out to the public and the fatality rate I find to be a big factor in getting people to panic. The rate is high, and it is many times higher than the flu, but it isn't the Black Death or Ebola either.

This is an excellent link for information about COVID-19. I regularly read them and they are really good in terms of their reporting and also being critical of what might be put out as information. It is fairly comprehensive and will answer any questions you might have.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/03/dont-panic-the-comprehensive-ars-technica-guide-to-the-coronavirus/

Sons of Confederate Veterans diving off the deep end and referring members to John Birch Society magazine, "New American"

The Sons of Confederate Veterans have a website https://www.makedixiegreatagain.com/

With this website they hope to launch a counter-revolution regarding the popular view of the Confederacy. They title it, "The Southern Victory Campaign of the Sons of Confederate Veterans."

As part of this campaign they are publishing The Southern Defender and at their Make Dixie Great Again they have a webpage devoted to this publication. https://www.makedixiegreatagain.com/southern-defender.html

For the section of the webpage for the issues of the Southern Defender is a section titled Supporting Information.

They are links to New American magazine which is published by the John Birch Society.  This is the website.

https://www.thenewamerican.com/

On this page the John Birch Society has it as their publication.
https://www.jbs.org/the-new-american/

https://www.jbs.org/

The John Birch Society was the organization which the founder of National Review William Buckley famously read out of the conservative movement explaining that if the John Birch Society was the face of the conservative movement the conservatives were doomed.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/06/william-f-buckley-john-birch-society-history-conflict-robert-welch/

In my opinion and it seems it has been the opinion of much of the conservative movement that the John Birch Society is not connected to reality.

These are the links on the Southern Defender webpage.

To the right of issue no. 1 are these links with the recommendation to "Download these magazines & articles."

https://www.makedixiegreatagain.com/uploads/1/2/2/2/122298064/tna_americasculturalrevolution_sept18_2017.pdf

https://www.makedixiegreatagain.com/uploads/1/2/2/2/122298064/tna_promotingantifamayhem_oct9_2017.pdf

Next to the special Virginia issue are these links again under the recommendation to "Download these magazines  & articles."

https://www.makedixiegreatagain.com/uploads/1/2/2/2/122298064/tna_savingthesecondamendment_feb17_2020.pdf

https://www.makedixiegreatagain.com/uploads/1/2/2/2/122298064/tna_draggingkidsintolbgtqabyss_aug5_2019.pdf  The cover story is ""Drag"ing Kids into the LGBTQ Abyss."

https://www.makedixiegreatagain.com/uploads/1/2/2/2/122298064/tna_chinasnewaggrression_feb18_2019.pdf

Then there is the comment on the webpage "Watch  & share these videos on Neo-Marxit victories in the Culture War."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pmRpa2Ibkk

You have to skip through a commercial to watch this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEDjLNhxBrs&list=PL56VARtG0Zy_d4F42Bayn-L6HDDHiC2mH

The Sons of Confederate Veterans is an extreme right political organization. It needs to be recognized as such.

New Orleans and Savannah alerted about forthcoming Sons of Confederate Veterans national convention.

So far what we know about the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) forthcoming activities is this.

2020 National Convention in St. Augustin, Florida. Activists there are very aware of this forthcoming event.

https://scv2020reunion.com/    They have pulled the original artwork, but it is in the Internet archive.

https://web.archive.org/web/20190228212854/https://scv2020reunion.com/

2021 National Convention in Metairie, Louisiana. It is a suburbe adjacent to New Orleans. I let them know about his upcoming event. Groups there in the New Orleans area have been notified.

https://www.scv-bcamp130.org/2021-national-scv-reunion

The 2022 National Convention appears to be in Savannah,Georgia, but not much is known about it.  This is the website of the local SCV camp.  http://www.scvsavannah.com/   This hasn't been confirmed, but I did notify local groups to be on the alert.

There is a Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/960467037673144/  in which there is information about the SCV and their activities and ideology and information about upcoming activities and what different groups have done.

We are going to also put in the Facebook group notifications about other neo-Confederate group conventions and meetings.

The United Daughters of the Confederacy convention is scheduled in Richmond, VA, Nov. 5-9, 2020. Typically they hold their convention in Richmond every other year. So the 2022 convention is likely to be in Richmond in November. However, will all the change, any thing might happen. As the climate cools towards the Confederacy neo-Confederate groups are becoming more secretive about their activities.

Again, this is simply to express counter opinions an in no way will I support actions that are illegal.

Major protest against the Sons of Confederate Veterans in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Major protest against the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV). About a 100 people in the protest and the police are called out. This is publicity the Embassy Suites hotel probably don't want for their brand.

https://www.wral.com/police-line-brier-creek-parking-lots-to-keep-protesters-back-from-sons-of-confederate-veterans-meeting/18984041/

This is the article in the local major daily.

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article240765851.html

It got coverage in other TV markets.

https://www.wilm-tv.com/police-line-brier-creek-parking-lots-to-keep-protesters-back-from-sons-of-confederate-veterans-meeting/

The question some people might ask is whether that is a place at which they would like to work. How valid the corporation's non-discrimination policies might be questioned.

Doing more searching I find that the effort opposing the SCV got coverage in the Charlotte Observer.

A prior blog posting I did on this topic where I show that the effort got national attention is:
http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2020/02/stephen-d-lee-conference-protested.html#.XlveI6ieGiM

Sons of Confederate Veterans events aren't automatically going to get a free pass anymore.

Wondering if I got the current status of secession wrong./ "American Secession" by F.H. Buckley

I had concluded that the secession movements in America were moribund unless Donald Trump lost re-election as president. I also tend to think that Donald Trump will get re-elected. So secession movements will have to wait until 2024 to get traction.

However, it was brought to my attention by a colleague the book, "American Secession" by F.H. Buckley.  It is published by Encounter Books and I am not sure  who they are. It seems like they are some type of conservative or neoconservative publisher of the Encounter for Culture and Education non-profit corporation. On the dust jacket, besides the author and title is the warning, "The Looming Threat of a National Breakup."

https://www.encounterbooks.com/books/american-secession/

He is a Foundation Professor at George Mason University Scalia School of Law. He is senior editor at the conservative publiscation American Spectator, he has a column in the New York Post, and has written for a variety of prominent publications.

The author and the book has gotten some fair amount of coverage. Here are some links to news stories about the book.

https://dailycaller.com/2020/01/11/new-secession-movement-growing-america-f-h-buckley-book/

https://nypost.com/2020/01/24/how-to-avoid-americas-coming-secession-crisis/  This article is by F.H. Buckley.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/feb/20/embracing-the-state-secession-movement-make-americ/

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/buckley-is-america-on-the-brink-of-a-third-secession

C-Span had an article. Click on link to see all of the video.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?469400-3/washington-journal-fh-buckley-discusses-book-american-secession



In his New York Post article he says the United States is "overly big." He has neo-Confederate ideas about secession stating, "Originalists on the court might recall that the Framers at their 1787 Convention thought secession was very possible. Almost every delegate conceded that if one region or state wanted to leave the union, it was perfectly possible to do so."

But his focus is on liberal states seceding. 

I have noticed continuing discussion of secession elswhere. There was the idea that counties could secede from Virginia and join West Virginia. 

Here is a Feb. 29, 2020 article about secession in New York State. African Americans have risen to power in the New York State legislature and upstate conservative whites want to secede. 

It seems like a lot of rural areas want to secede and have their small populations get two U.S. Senators. 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/02/26/across-country-rural-communities-secede-states-why-column/4851817002/

Evidently the cause of rural areas seceding from their states is something being pushed by at least one conservative group.

https://thefederalist.com/2020/02/24/virginia-secession-movement-underscores-lefts-growing-contempt-for-rural-americans/

The reason seems to be nothing more than they are on the losing side of an election. Before when they were winning it was fine to be in a big state, but now that they are losing they are whining they want their own state. 

I am sure these proponents for small rural states see the disportionate influence of states like North Dakota (pop. 760,000) and South Dakota (880,000) with the having 4 U.S. Senators, even though  their total is 1.6 million out of 327.8 million. They are over represented about eight times. 

Some elected officials seem to be lunatics on the issue such as the governor of Idaho. 

https://www.corvallisadvocate.com/2020/idaho-governor-digs-rural-oregon-secession-movement-another-county-joins/

So I thought I need to re-think this secession issue. What was I missing? I came up with the following.

1. Trump is not seen as a sure thing for re-election. Maybe secessionists are reving up their movements thinking Trump is not going to be re-elected or maybe just preparing based on the chance that he might not be re-elected.  If there is a good possibility or an appreciable possibility perhaps some people will want to get involved in secession movements just in case. 

2. Some conservatives don't find Trump reactionary enough. Maybe since the country hasn't gone hard right or become a white dominated society yet, some conservatives and racist groups are thinking that they need to have secession to achieve their goals. I don't think this would drive the current revival of secession, though it might be a minor source driving secession talk. 

3. Some want to push liberals out of the nation to secure a conservative American future. This is what F.H. Buckley hints at when he suggests in his New York Post article, "Finally, there’s the president. I don’t think we’d see one who’d want to send in the Army to invade a state. Were he of the other party, he might even look at the electoral map and say, “Erring sister, depart in peace.” If California was an independent nation, the Republicans would have the electoral map locked up. On the other hand, California pays alot of tax money into the U.S. Treasury, is an economic powerhouse, and has a lot of the West Coast as its boundary.

However, I think that the above ideas of secession of a new nation aren't the only secession ideas that need to be considered. The revival of secessionist ideas may not to create a new nation but seize power in the existing nation. 

4. Subverting American democracy by forming rotten boroughs. The term "rotten borough" originates from 18th century politics in which there were boroughs that were very small but elected a member of parliment.  For example there was Old Sarum that had two members of parliment but only seven voters while Birmingham and Manchester had no MPs to represent them at all. See this British Library article. 

https://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/21cc/struggle/chartists1/historicalsources/source2/reformact.html

The thing is that a series of newly created states you could have the U.S. Senate permanently biased towards a conservative majority. Six states of totally rural populations would have twelve U.S. Senators.

There is no reason to believe if a few rural states were carved out of larger states, the effort would be restricted to just six. A quick look at a map would show that you could make two dozen rural states easily which would added 48 senators, and do it without losing any Republican dominated states. Of course the credibility of the American government of being some type of reasonable constitutional arrangement would be defunct in the cities, but I am sure elites and conservatives would justify it. 

I think that this prospect is what is perhaps behind the revival of American secession. 

5. Intimidation of a state government. The threat to secede might be used to intimidate a state government. I think that the Democrats are basically corporate types who dont' want a fuss and don't have the firmness of character to not be intimidated. I think the Malhuer Refugee crisis shows how the Democrats are basically gutless. 

It could be that now secession is a form of expression with bravado of an antipathy to state governments, but what starts out as a shout or bravado can be the first step to being for something in earnest later.

The fact that a member of the establishment, F.H. Buckley, law professor, columnist, not some person living in a tent or rural compound, has expressed this about secession works to legitimize it. 

I think we have reason to be concerned about secession. I have gone over some actions which can be taken against secession and I urge the reader to think of their own. I think that there should be an anti-secession group formed for every state in which there is currently a secession movement or might be a secession movement. I see it a sort of emergency preparation. To get some preliminary organization going, at least getting opponents of secession grouped together, with the sharing of some basic ideas, so an anti-secession movement doesn't have to start from zero if a crisis arises.  

Stephen D. Lee Conference Protested/ National and local news coverage.

Follow up post on the protests is at:

https://newtknight.blogspot.com/2020/03/major-protest-against-sons-of.html#.XlvfqqieGiM

For the longest time the press didn't want to deal with neo-Confedeacy.

However, that has all changed with Charlottesville protest.

One big change is that fighting neo-Confederacy is in the news in mainstream media. Stories which would never of gotten covered are now getting coverage.

For example The Root which was owned by the people who owned the Washington Post and is now owned by Universion Communications has run this story about the Stephen D. Lee Conference in Raleigh, NC. The headline is, "What Better Way to Celebrate the Last Day of Black History Month Than ... a Confederacy Honoring the Confederacy?"

https://www.theroot.com/what-better-way-to-celebrate-the-last-day-of-black-hist-1841993934

The popup tab says Hilton Hotels to Host Confederacy Conference. I am sure that isn't the branding the Hilton Hotel group wants.

Hilton Hotels is mentioned in the headline for this article in the Huffington Post. This article was also run on MSN news site. So it got fairly high national visibility.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hilton-hotel-sons-of-confederate-veterans_n_5e591a47c5b6450a30bd5b81

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/hilton-hotel-to-host-neo-confederate-group-conference-on-last-day-of-black-history-month/ar-BB10wNj9

Blavity has this article. Hilton Hotels mentioned. This is a newsite oriented towards the African American community.

https://www.blavity.com/conference-for-neo-confederates-to-be-held-at-north-carolina-hilton-on-final-day-of-black-history-month?category1=news

It made the local major city daily. The Hilton Hotel is mentioned.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article240670326.html

This is the bad publicity that a hotel chain really doesn't want. Also, imagine the employees that have to tell friends and family that they spent a few days being servants for neo-Confederates.

After awhile hotel chains are going to wonder if this is the image they want.

Completely wrong about Chronicles magazine

I did this blog.

https://newtknight.blogspot.com/2019/08/chronicles-magazine-leaves-confederacy.html#.XlqsKiieGiM

I had said that Chronicles magazine, now run by the Charlemagne Institute had left the Confederacy behind.  I was totally wrong. Some links below.

https://charlemagneinstitute.org/

https://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/

This is the current issue.
https://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/2020/February/45/2/magazine/

The lead cover article is an attack, "Deconstructing the 1619 Project" article series by Brion McClanahan. He does the podcasts for the neo-Confederate Abbeville Institute. At one time he had some official position with them, but that disappeared from the Abbeville Institute website.

https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/

In his bio at the Chronicles magazine website it doesn't mention his involvement with the Abbeville Institute. https://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/2020/February/45/2/contributors/detail/2559/

He does their podcast as well as some articles. You  can find them at this link.

https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/blog/author/brionmclanahan/

These are his articlew at www.lewrockwell.com.  https://www.lewrockwell.com/?s=Brion+

There is a cover article, "The Great Debate: Lincoln's Legacy," by H.A. Scott Trask. He  contributed an article to Southern Patriot, Vol. 7 No. 2, April 2000 of the League of the South. Vol. 6 No. 4 says  he has joined Trinity  Christian College near Chicago, but that is July/August 1999. I can't vouch for the accuracy of this periodical.

These are some of his lectures and articles at the Abbeville Institute. https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/?s=trask

More stuff at Lew Rockwell.
https://www.lewrockwell.com/?s=trask

Then there is a cover article, "Remembering Richard Weaver" which was the leading or one of the leading neo-Confederates of the 20th century, by Jay Langdale. You can listen to his lectures on Richard Weaver at the Abbeville Institute. https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/blog/author/jay-langdale/


Three out of four cover articles are neo-Confederates in content by neo-Confederates..

The fourth cover article is "Remembering Albert Jay Nock," by Joseph R. Stromberg.  You can listen to his Abbeville Institute at this link. https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/?s=stromberg

Hard Right Websites using term "Neo-Confederate" as a term of derision

You know that neo-Confederacy and the Lost Cause are crashing when hard right commentators are using the term "neo-Confederate" as a term of derision.

This is the headline for an item on the Daily Wire.

WATCH: Hammer On ‘Tipping Point With Liz Wheeler’: Sanctuary Cities Are ‘Neo-Confederate’

https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-hammer-on-tipping-point-with-liz-wheeler-sanctuary-cities-are-neo-confederate

Of course the idea of sanctuary cities, countiers and states comes from the ideas of nullification and that derives from John C. Calhoun. So it is a neo-Confederate idea.

What is interesting about this is that the Confederacy is being rejected across the political spectrum. Of course there are still a few hangers on for the Confederacy. Regnery Press for one.

However, Breitbart had dumped the Confederacy as well as American Conservative.

I am not sure what is the reason for the political right dumping the Confederacy and neo-Confederate ideology.  I think basically with Donald Trump as president secession and neo-Confederacy is anti-Trump. Also, Trumps re-election hinges on getting about 10 to 20 percent of the African American vote. There is this whole "Blexit" thing which is about African Americans leaving the Democratic Party. Trump doesn't have to get the majority of African American votes, he just needs to do somewhat better than 5% as in the last election.

Donald Trump in his State of the Union speech made reference to individuals and events in African American history. One Democrat operative warned the Democrats that Trump's efforts to attract African Americans has real potential.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/02/05/van-jones-warns-democrats-trump-is-helping-african-americans-in-real-life/

It is one thing for the leftist, liberal or neoliberal press to denounce the Confederacy, it is another for mostly white conservative groups to not only reject the Confederacy, but use the Confederacy as a source of derision as if it is understood already as a bad thing.

The Lost Cause is really crumbling and neo-Confederacy is crumbling.

I am still supplying journalists with information regarding conservatives who are tainted with neo-Confederacy, but they are fewer and fewer and more and more obscure individuals.

Neo-Confederate Pat Buchanan watching the collapse of neo-Confederacy/ Suggesting Civil War in Virginia over gun control.

I have been swamped with a huge project, but now I am going to have more time to keep track of the neo-Confederates.

UPDATE: 1/15/2020. It has started. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/939b3y/virginia-declares-state-of-emergency-after-armed-militias-threaten-to-storm-the-capitol

There has been a state of emergency declared in Virginia since it has come to light that Militias have threatened to storm the Capitol.

ORIGINAL POST BELOW:

The neo-Confederates are losing Virginia and they aren't happy about it. Pat Buchanan published this article on the Lew Rockwell site. 

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/01/patrick-j-buchanan/the-culture-war-comes-to-the-old-dominion/

The article starts with a proposal by U.S. Congressional House Rep. Wexton to replace Robert E. Lee in the old capitol building with other possible civil rights heroes and also possibly Nat Turner.

Pat Buchanan spends some time denouncing Nat Turner.

Then he leads into the issue of the 2nd Amendment sanctuary counties and gun control proposals by the Democratic controlled Virginia legislature.

But the Assembly will be dealing soon with measures even more volatile.

On Jan. 20, “Lobby Day” at the Assembly, thousands of gun advocates, many openly armed, will be coming to Richmond to protest new gun laws Northam and his new Democratic majority campaigned on and are determined to deliver.

Already, 110 towns, cities and counties in Virginia have created “Second Amendment sanctuaries” where new state laws that restrict gun rights will not be enforced by local authorities.

Buchanan connects neo-Confederate Confederate nationalism with resistance to gun laws, he states, "Virginia is a former Confederate State with strong rural traditions and lax gun laws. Guns represent the strongest, reddest line against demographic changes." 

He states that the a group called the Oath Keepers is sending training teams to Virginia. Also a group called Three Percent is calling on "patriots" to go to Richmond. 

He also brings up the issue of abortion during the last tri-mester which he says is supported by the Virginia Democrats.  

He sees a new secession coming over these issues in Virginia and in the nation as a whole.

Unlike the seven states of the Deep South, Virginia did not vote to secede and leave the Union until President Lincoln issued his call to arms to put down the rebellion after the Confederates fired on Fort Sumter. ... 

Today, it appears a new secession is underway. Virginians are separating from each other over issues as deep and divisive — such as who can take innocent life and when — as those that divided us in 1861. 

As are the rest of their countrymen in this time of Trump.

I think that the potential for violence with the passage of gun control laws by the Virginia legislature as being very real. If violence breaks out what Trump might do will be another factor. He might intervene to overthrow the authority of the state of Virginia.

I have discussed in an earlier posting that the sanctuary movement was a form of secession or nullification and I think the neo-Confederates and other right wing groups are seeing it the same way.

This was my earlier assessment. I think events in Virginia could be explosive. I also think it is a preview of what might happen if Trump loses in 2020 and the Democrats are in control.

http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-sanctuary-movement-secession-and.html#.XhoTPEeeGiM

The Sanctuary movement, secession and nullification under another label. / Is a civil war coming. Status update.

In the United States there have been a series of sanctuary movements. First there were cities and counties and states having sanctuary for undocumented immigrants where one way or the other they defy the enforcement of immigration laws.

However, seeing a good strategy there is now a sanctuary movement for the 2nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution which affirms the right to bear arms.

There is even a sanctuary city against abortion.

Let me list some links for background and then resume the discussion.

For sanctuary cities regarding immigration.

https://www.cnn.com/2017/01/25/politics/sanctuary-cities-explained/index.html

For guns.

https://nypost.com/2019/12/21/more-than-100-virginia-cities-counties-declare-themselves-gun-sanctuaries/

For abortion

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/3k3gq3/lawmakers-are-banning-abortions-in-cities-sanctuary-cities-for-the-unborn

I am not saying that the articles provided above are unbiased or broadly representative. They are there to show you that there are such movements and to give you some background.

These sanctuary movements are nullification pure and simple.  The spirit of John C. Calhoun lives in all of them.

It is profoundly anti-democratic.  Democracy isn't just supporting the government and the laws when you win, it is accepting defeat in an election and the consequences.

These movements are nothing more than the modern day version of "massive resistance." "Massive resistance" was the resistance to the civil rights movement in the mid-20th century.

Nullification is logically incoherent. If you can decide to ignore one law, why not ignore others. Also,  if laws by a national body are to be accepted upon a localities choosing then there really is no point for a national body.

Now nations do have internally autonomous regions and special acccomodations for localities. They are usually spelled out very clearly that the adjustments are for some areas of legislation and governace and not other areas. They exist because of a variety of historical factors.

Nullification is suggested whenever some law or another gets some locality upset and the local politicians seek to gain popularity by supporting it.

Nullification is secession by another way. Instead of formally seperating, you pick and choose what you want and don't want, and avoid any of the military issues. However, you are seceding from national government by parts.

There is a lot of speculation thrown out about a civil war in the United States. I am torn between seeing it as alarmism and between being alarmed myself.

I do seek the sanctuary movement is being a sort of practice for secession. It is defiance of the national law which could be a percursor for defiance of the national governement and identity.

It also gets people consciously involved with defying the national government. It is a practice session for defying the national government generally.

So is civil war coming? I don't know.  I have been seeing one element or another fall in place since Obama was re-elected president in 2012 when there were those secession petitions. Each one element in itself isn't all that significant, but accumulated one by one I think they work together to evolve in the public mind a new attitude towards national identity or more specifically the rejection of it.

If Donald Trump was impeached I think all the interstate highways in the United States would be blockaded by Trump supporters in less than 24 hours. American interstate highways go through long distances of very rural areas which are very pro-Trump. Trump supporters would regard it as the election results of 2016 being overturned. However, I think that the process of impeachment is now stalled at least until the 2020 national elections. Even then, even if the U.S. Senate is controlled by the Democrats, a 2/3rd majority is needed for impeachment. So impeachment is not happening.

If Trump is not re-elected I think secession movements will be revived from their current moribund existence, but if he is re-elected they will remain largely stagnant. I am tending at this moment of writing to think that Trump has a fairly good chance of re-election. I remember that the Democrats were very sure in 2018 there was going to be some massive "blue wave", and in the end it resulted in only getting control of the U.S. House by a slim majority.

However, there are other paths leading to secession movements taking off or a civil war like situation. This where Trump is re-elected, but the Republicans lose control of the U.S. Senate and don't regain the U.S. House. In this case the Democrats still won't be able to impeach Trump, but they will be able to subject him to all sorts of tactics to make his life miserable. There are likely to be endless congressional panels making inquiries about everyone and everything in the Trump administration. It will be ugly. Trump supporters might decide that their election victory in 2016 is being overturned and I can see that leading into real conflict.

This 2nd Amendment sanctuary movement by counties and cities versus state governments is a potential flash point for violent resistance. After this is a movement for guns and the laws are to regulate them which means there is the potential of their denial or being taken away. The possibility of violent conflict or a stand-off involving guns and threats of violence is fairly obvious.

It would be a training ground for armed resistance to a larger governmental movement and if the Democrats win the 2020 presidential election they would likely pass gun laws and I think that a movement of resistance armed with guns will be ongoing.

However, the issue of secession mostly rests on the results of the 2020 elections. There will be developments over time which I think will erode national identity or support for the nation state, but there will merely make it easier for civil war or secession when the historical window opens, but in and of themselves will not drive secession or civil war.

We just have to wait for the election results of 2020.

UNITED DAUGHTERS OF THE CONFEDERACY WARNS READERS ABOUT ANTI-CONFEDERATE CHRISTMAS CAROLS.

UNITED DAUGHTERS OF THE CONFEDERACY WARNS READERS ABOUT ANTI-CONFEDERATE CHRISTMAS CAROLS.

https://newtknight.blogspot.com/2009/12/united-daughters-of-confederacy-on.html#.XgIccUeeGiM

There a lot of interesting things in earlier posts and I recommend searching topics for interesting items.

Sons of Confederate Veterans get sued for alleged fake DCMA.

The details are in this article.

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20191213/23342043576/sons-confederate-veterans-sued-over-bogus-dmca-takedown.shtml

United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) called "KKK-Linked" by "Breitbart"

The title of the Breitbart Dec. 19, 2019 article is, "Nolte: Watch Joe Biden Defend KKK-Linked Confederate Group as 'Fine People,'".

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/12/10/nolte-watch-joe-biden-defend-kkk-linked-confederate-group-as-fine-people/

Wonders never cease.

Joe Biden depends heavily on the support of African American Democrats and I think is the centrist Democratic candidate the Republicans fear.

Also, Breitbart is pushing a BLEXIT movement, a movement of African Americans out of the Democratic Party. They don't need a majority of African Americans to vote Republican to achieve their objectives electorally, but if they can get a 10 or 15% it would help  a lot.

What is interesting about this is that Breitbart is bringing to the public's attention the UDC's history of praising the Reconstruction Ku Klux Klan.

For decades I couldn't get the liberal or neoliberal press interested in this. For decades the UDC was given a free pass. Suddenly, the reactionary right is publishing stuff like this about the UDC.

What it shows is that among conservatives and reactionaries the UDC is seen as something of little consequence and there are opportunities in reporting its racist agenda.

I have noticed that Breitbart isn't defending the Confederacy anymore, perhaps a little and I have missed it.  An insurrection that would have destoryed America doesn't really fit into an agenda where you have the slogan, "Make America Great Again."

I think we will find some UDC members dropping out, but the big impact to the UDC is that younger people aren't going to join when when even the radical right is dumping the Confederacy and getting African American votes is seen as critical to advancing their agenda.

Also, a lot of the population that was really bought into the Confederacy is passing away. A conservative movement needs to look into the future, and they can see there is no future hanging on to the Confederacy.

I think the Breitbart direction maybe in response to this article in the 11/25/2018 article, Washington Post, titled, "The GOP is now the party of neo-Confederates."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-gop-is-now-the-party-of-neo-confederates/2018/11/25/d5d9dd88-f109-11e8-bc79-68604ed88993_story.html

Of course I couldn't get the Washington Post interested in neo-Confederates for decades, but now they are suddenly interested. The Washington Post provided a defense for Obama when he sent a wreath to the Arlington Confederate Monument. 

It is 2019, soon to be 2020, and it seems not one wants the Confederacy and it is a liability the two major political parties want to pin on each other as a means to lible them.

Landscape Reparations. Deracializing the landscape

One of the problems I think with getting rid of Confederate monuments, Confederate named streets is that they are looked at in isolation, instead of considering the entire landscape and realizing it is a white landscape and realizing that there needs to be Landscape Reparations. By the way there is this Facebook page to join if you want to deracialize the landscape.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/661267871019209/

This is my first postcast on the topic.It is the first Version. I am just starting to think through the issue of Landscape Reparations and I am putting out some ideas, but I also ask the listener to share their ideas. (This doesn't mean I am interested in the rantings of white nationalists.) I think the biggest barrier is people thinking that nothing can be done.



This is the companion piece. I will have more podcasts on what can be done regarding the white landscape.

Texas establishment scared of Texas secessionists scaring away investors.

This is the Texas Monthly article in response to The Altantic article about secession.

https://www.texasmonthly.com/politics/texas-secessionists-2019/

This is The Atlantic article to which the Texas Monthly was responding. .

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/12/the-secessionist/600739

Now I have blogged on how the Texas Nationalist Movement has over represented itself and the support isn't as extensive as they claim in terms of activists. However, the Texas Monthly article is wrong and misleading by trying to say the support for Texas secession is miniscule or a trivial few.

They refer to the 2016 Texas State Republican Convention and that the issue was raised, what they don't mention, and don't mention in the article about the state convention for which they provide the link, is that the vote against secession was 16 to 14 with one abstention in the platform committee. This is not a marginal group of people and a reasonable sample group of representative Texas Republican Party leaders.

What is also not mentioned is that Texas Boys State voted for secession.

https://www.chron.com/news/politics/texas/article/Texas-Boys-State-votes-to-secede-for-Union-11247209.php

But more importantly opinion polls have showed a fair degree for support for secession. One of them showed that 60% of Trump supporters in Texas wanted to secede if Hillary Clinton was elected in 2016.

The Texas Monthly article tries to assert that the support for secession is trivial.

It’s not impossible to imagine things like the 2016 floor debate going differently at a future GOP convention—we do live in unpredictable times!—but for now, you can fill a few stadiums with people who like to fantasize about the idea of secession, but that still leaves a whopping 98.7 percent of the state full of people who are happy where they are.

I am not saying that there is a serious mass movement for secession in Texas at this point and if Donald Trump is re-elected in 2020 there won't be for at least four more years.

I am not saying even with Donald Trump not re-elected that it is a sure thing that there will be a mass secession movement.

I am saying two things.

1. This Texas Monthly article is very selective in what it chooses to evaluate the potential for a Texas secession movement in Texas and the extent of support and possible support.

2. Secession movements have a habit of going from obscurity to being significant. As scholars have pointed out nations are imagined. Imaginations are not cast in concrete but are full of flux. Secession is also a topic that is discussed much more now days.  We see nations will real secession movements and real possibilities of secession.

If there is wide spread alienation in Texas from the national government the Texas nationalist movement could suddenly be a mass movement.

What Texas Monthly is scared of is that some fund manager may start thinking things about what their funds exposure is to Texas mortgages. The moment there is even rumor that some fund managers are thinking of limiting exposure Texas real estate mortgages will have to pay a point or have maybe higher down payments or something.

Even worse will be trying to get corporations to locate to Texas when other potential sites will point out that they don't have a secession movement or the potential of armed right wing militias.

Then there is the issue of recruiting talent to Texas. They probably don't want to face even the remote possibility that there children will have to apply to immigrate into the United States. No one wants to move to loony land.

Lengthy article in "The Atlantic" about the Texas secession movement.

The Atlantic has this lengthy article about the Texas secession movement.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/12/the-secessionist/600739/

The article misses entirely that in 2016 they nearly got on the Republican Texas State Party platform a secession resolution. It seems the author didn't do any real indepth research and just wanted to do a colorful type story on an oddity.

I have set up this Facebook group to collect individuals opposed to Texas secession.

https://www.facebook.com/TexansTruetotheUnion/

The biggest problem is that people don't think this effort has a remote chance of success, but they have come close to reaching an objective of getting a secession measure on the Texas primary ballot.

If Trump is defeated in 2020 they will be springing back to life. If Trump is elected they will be moribund.

I have blogged on this prior where I discuss this movement at length.

UPDATE Pro-Slavery theology and the idea of the Civil War being a Holy War in the Confederate Veteran, publication of the Sons of Confederate Veterans

The article detailing how pro-slavery theology and the idea that the Civil War was a holy war, a theological war, is promoted in articles in the Confederate Veteran, the official publication of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) and by officers of the SCV is now online at this link.


http://templeofdemocracy.com/pro-slavery-theology-and-the-civil-war-as-a-holy-war.html

This is also going to be read and released as a podcast. A link to the podcast and a player for the podcast will be added into this blog. So look for the word "UPDATE" in the title.




I think churches in the St. Augustine area will be interested this. The one article which denounces denominations in the South as being betrayers should make every church think twice.