Alt-Right's Despicability Doesn't Make 'Antifa' the Good Guys

Jonah Goldberg   "Fighting Nazis is a good thing, but fighting Nazis doesn't necessarily make you or your cause good. By my lights this is simply an obvious fact. 

"The greatest Nazi-killer of the 20th century was Josef Stalin. He also killed millions of his own people and terrorized, oppressed, enslaved or brutalized tens of millions more. The fact that he killed Nazis during WWII (out of self-preservation, not principle) doesn't dilute his evil one bit. 

"This should settle the issue as far as I'm concerned. Nazism was evil. Soviet communism was evil. It's fine to believe that Nazism was more evil than communism. That doesn't make communism good. 

"Alas, it doesn't settle the issue. Confusion on this point poisoned politics in America and abroad for generations.

" Part of the problem is psychological. There's a natural tendency to think that when people, or movements, hate each other, it must be because they're opposites. This assumption overlooks the fact that many -- indeed, most -- of the great conflicts and hatreds in human history are derived from what Sigmund Freud called the "narcissism of minor differences." . . .

Was Charlottesville a False Flag?

"The misreporting of the Charlottesville riot. . . "For example, CNN’s Jim Acosta said: “We saw the president’s true colors today, and I’m not sure they were red, white and blue.” This miscasting has been used to demand that conservatives like Bannon, Miller and Gorka be expelled from the White House."

Bob Bennett

"Was the unrest in Charlottesville, Virginia on Saturday, August 12th a riot by white supremacists, as the Media has labeled it, or something even more sinister? Was it a false-flag attack orchestrated by the Left and Democrats to permanently damage the president and compel Americans to view everything through the lens of racism?

"How the Media purposefully misreported the incident

"In the wake of the violence in Charlottesville, the ever-Trump-unfriendly media has focused on the president’s failure to immediately call out those protesting the Robert E. Lee statue’s removal, many—but not all—of whom were white nationalists and neo-Nazis. On the day of the incident, he said, “‘We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides,’ quoted the Los Angeles Times, “then, looking into the camera, he repeated, ‘On many sides.’”

"After a storm of criticism for not calling out the Klan, et al., the next day the White House issued a statement saying “of course” the president had included in his condemnation “white supremacists, KKK, neo-Nazi and all extremist groups,” and that he “called for national unity and bringing all Americans together.” But the press continued to rip him for, as the LA Times put it, “not denouncing the far-right groups that initiated the violence, and the man who drove into a crowd of counter-protesters that left Heather Heyer dead.' ” . . .

President Trump was right, where do we draw the line?

BREAKING! They're About To Take Down George Washington!!!   The slippery slope.
"James E. Dukes, a black pastor in Chicago has written a letter to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel, demanding to remove the names of George Washington and Andrew Jackson from parks on the southeast side of city. " . . .

. . . "Chicago will not be a place that embraces racism, slavery and its treacherous tentacles. But rather, Chicago will be a beacon of hope for a better tomorrow for all its’ residents."

. . . 
"Dukes even suggested to delete Andrew Jackson's name from parks and replace it with prominent black leaders such as Jessie Jackson.

"President Trump was right, where do we draw the line? " . . . 

Destroying monuments: the latest cultural fad. Albeit destructive

The real question, as Trump said, is this: how does removal of statues help blacks get jobs?  How does it help blacks in badly run cities like Chicago, Baltimore, New Orleans, St. Louis, Cleveland, etc., all run by Democrats for years, and all with high crime rates, live in safety?Democrats do not want to debate these questions because of their complicity in slavery and their responsibility for today's poorly run cities.  They prefer the easy way to remove statues. 

 

American Thinker contributors were a treasure trove of wisdom today:

Why remove statues of Confederate soldiers?  "A rational person looking at the status of blacks in the United States would note the great strides made since the Civil Rights Movement, starting with the integration of the Armed Forces by President Truman.  We have laws banning discrimination in employment, housing, education, and other areas.  We have laws and court cases mandating preferences for blacks.  To be called a "racist" today is the ultimate sin and charge, especially for politicians.

"But even though the black unemployment rate is high, the burning issue now is not jobs for blacks or safety in cities like Chicago, but whether we should remove statues of Confederate soldiers from public areas.  Being a resident of a Northern city with no Confederate statues, I never gave this issue much thought.

"If I were black and saw a statue of a Confederate soldier, I would question honoring soldiers who fought for the states in rebellion against the Union over the issue of slavery.  But I would be more concerned with living in a safe area and having a good job or business to support my family.

"The answer is that we honor soldiers and warriors for their bravery, not their politics.  The soldiers did not make the policies that allowed slavery.  The politicians were the ones who allowed slavery to exist until the Civil War and the passage of the 13th Amendment.  And most of the politicians who allowed the evil of slavery to persist were members of the Democratic Party.  The Democrats ruled the Southern states that permitted slavery and ruled the Southern states after the Civil War that permitted segregation and discrimination against blacks.  The Republican Party was formed in 1856 as the anti-slavery party that elected Lincoln in 1860, which caused some states to secede.  The 13th and 14th Amendments were passed by a Republican Congress."  . . .  

Monuments down, cash very low  . . . "Second, the Democrats have chosen two issues that most Americans don't support, i.e. sanctuary cities and bringing down monuments."

WND

America's Racial History in Context  . . . "The white supremacists are rejected by the mainstream media, the entertainment industry, colleges, universities, public schools, and the people, so how did 50 nut cases capture the attention of the entire nation?

"First, extreme leftists went to the rally with sticks, bats, and the hope of having a violent confrontation. They were not disappointed."  . . . 

"Our Founders created a nation. The Confederacy would have divided it. These have two very different places in American history, but history is still history, the good, the bad and the ugly. It should be remembered and studied lest we repeat it.

"The white supremacists and far left seem to want just that -- to repeat history and fight the Civil War again. We must not give them what they want."

Thanks to Democrats for making us aware of our victimhood

How can we visualize the American nation ever rising to the level of greatness as when we stood (at last!) alongside Great Britain and Churchill in WW2, or when we loved the American Union enough to pour out our nation's blood to preserve it?

MSNBC’s Katy Tur shamelessly tries to bait mother of Charlottesville victim into hating on Trump   And succeeds.

Of course, nobody can forget the First Victim who proudly proclaims her victimization at every podium:   

Michelle Obama’s Tales of Racialized Victimhood   . . . "To show how she’s down with The Struggle of post-Ferguson agitators, Mrs. Obama cited a supposedly horrifying incident at a Target store where she was treated, in her paranoid mind, as a subservient. “Even as the first lady,” she bemoaned, “not highly disguised, the only person who came up to me in the store was a woman who asked me to help her take something off a shelf.” 

"A lowly peon asked her for an innocent favor? It’s Jim Crow all over again! ABC News reports that Mrs. Obama said such “incidents are ‘the regular course of life’ for African-Americans and a ‘challenge’ for the country to overcome.” 

"News flash: Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe that it is part of the “regular course of life” of tall people of all colors (Mrs. Obama is 5-foot-11) to be prevailed upon to reach high on behalf of those of us who are vertically challenged. These are not odious “incidents” of racism between slaves and masters. They’re matters of common courtesy between equals." . . .

The party of victims  . . . "Here's what [Romney] should have said: "The Democratic Party has become the party of victims. It is the party of those who stoke the embers of their own victimhood. It is a party that needs victims, even creating new ones when the old ones are no longer victims, and making victims of those who clearly are not."

"That's just an opinion, but an opinion is only as strong as the facts that back it up. And here are 10 examples that back it up:" . . .

Nazis and the left wing

William L. Shirer in The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich claimed that Hitler did not take the label "socialist" too seriously. All that aside:

Tom Trinko  "The normal political spectrum used by liberals and the MSM runs from Nazis on the right to communists on the left.

"That is, it runs from a Jewish-hating totalitarian socialist philosophy on the right to a Jewish-hating totalitarian socialist philosophy on the left.

"Clearly, that's insane, since the extremes are identical.  But it serves the purposes of liberals because it disguises the fascist nature of liberal positions.  It also allows liberals to hang the shame of Nazism over conservatives, who all oppose the big-government philosophy of Nazism as well as Nazis' hatred of Jews.

"A more rational way to describe governmental concepts would be a spectrum that runs from no government to total government or from complete freedom to complete servitude.

"Interestingly, both of those metrics produce the same extremes.

"Anarchy would be the far right providing complete freedom: you can kill and rape to your heart's content, with a complete lack of government.  It is anarchy, after all.

"Libertarianism would be the moderate right, since libertarians have some government and do oppose murder and rape.

"In the center would be representative republics, as described in the U.S. Constitution, where people's rights don't come from the government but where the government has authority over areas of common interest such as trade, human rights, and foreign policy.

"To the left would be liberals' view for America, where the government is still elected, but real power resides in judges and the unelected bureaucrats, and rights come from the ruling class and can be changed depending on what they think.

"White nationalists would be on the moderate left, since they want a powerful central government to punish all non-whites.  Their government would also be left-wing because it would have the power to prevent non-racists from freely associating with the people the white nationalists hate.

"Communism and Nazism would be at the far left, providing no freedom.  You do what the party says or else, and the government controls every aspect of life.

"In this more rational political spectrum, it's clear that liberals are the ones who need to apologize for white nationalists and Nazis, not conservatives."

You can read more of Tom's rants at his blog, Conversations about the obvious, and feel free to follow him on Twitter.

Gettysburg Park Officials: Confederate Monuments Here To Stay

Weasel Zippers

"Thankfully, at least Gettysburg and the National Park Service has sense and understands the importance of history.

HANOVER, Pa. — Despite national discourse on the appropriateness of Confederate monuments, the ones in Gettysburg are not going anywhere, according to park officials.

The movement to take down monuments honoring figures from the Confederacy came to a boil on Saturday when three people died in Charlottesville, Va., during a white supremacist rally to protest plans to remove a statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee.

A man plowed into a crowd of counter-protesters with his car, killing a woman and injuring 19 other people. Two state troopers died when their helicopter crashed as they were monitoring events.

Debates like the one in Charlottesville are not expected to come to the Gettysburg battlefield.

Keep reading…

Gettysburg Photo Album Panoramas; Pickett's Charge

Do not expect Obama to defend American History

Virginia Confederate Monuments at Gettysburg

About deleting history

If we remove hateful symbols, we become historical revisionists like Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, China during its Cultural Revolution, and the Islamic State.  We become destined to repeat the sins of the past, because we deprived ourselves of the ability to remember them.  Steve Postal*

A Story About Deleting History  "My guess is that most of the people bringing down monuments are caught up in a rage and have not thought through just exactly what they are doing.   

"After all, why would anyone bring down a statue that honors the Confederate soldier as just happened in Durham, North Carolina?   

"We can disagree about the war, but can't we honor the men who were drafted or volunteered to fight?  Isn't that what The Vietnam Memorial is about?     

"Speaking of deleting history, Cubans have a lot of experience on the topic. The entire story of Castro's Cuba has been one chapter after another about the elimination of names, photos, or even monuments.     

"Let me tell you the story of Carlos Franqui, who passed away in 2010:

. . . 

"Franqui could not take it anymore. He eventually parted ways when Fidel Castro was forced to support the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia to maintain his annual subsidy. So Franqui managed to get out and spent the rest of his life as an enemy of the regime.

"And then Franqui was deleted from Cuban history and photos. His image was erased in various photos with Castro, as we can see in this example. First, there is Franqui in the back and then there is no Franqui in the photo.

"His role in the "revolution" was deleted and there was no more Carlos Franqui as far as the regime was concerned.  

"And that's what happens when you delete history. You deny future generations the whole story."Silvio Canto, Jr.

*Those who try to erase history  . . . "In August 2015, ISIS destroyed the Temple of Baalshamin (Ba’al, for short) in Palmyra, Syria.  From ISIS’ perspective, the Temple was a pagan symbol of hate and an affront to Islam.  The Temple dates back over 2,000 years, dedicated to the Canaanite god Ba’al.

"If anything, it would have been more fitting if the Jews, not ISIS, decided the Temple of Ba’al’s fate.  Well before the advent of Islam, Canaanites were archenemies of the Hebrews.  But if the Temple of Ba’al still stood today, the Jews would likely have favored its preservation, much like they painstakingly excavate Canaanite artifacts and structures across Israel (see here here here andhere for some examples).  The Temple of Ba’al was a priceless and unique window into the past, a glimpse into the early influences on Western civilization.  Now the world can’t see it.  ISIS took that possibility away from us." . . .

Something rotten in Charlottesville

Cartoons from The Daily Gouge:

Democrats renew calls for Trump impeachment after his Charlottesville response   "Clueless dems should look up how impeachment works."; Lucianne.

Something stinks about Charlottesville   "Evidence is turning up from, of all places, the Southern Poverty Law Center, as well as Breitbart and others, that this character, Jason Kessler, who organized the suspicious and supposed Alt-Right demonstration in Charlottesville, Va. that blew up in everyone's face, is a cunning lefty holdover from the Occupy Wall Street movement and a former Barack Obama supporter.  I smell Soros money, sabotage, and Democrat dirty tricks here." . . . Russ Vaughn

When Liberals Club People, It's With Love in Their Hearts

Thank God Donald J. Trump is our president, and not Mitt Romney, not Marco Rubio and not that nasty woman. 

Ann Coulter  . . . "With any luck, we'll unravel Fields' motives faster than it took the Obama administration to discern the motives of a Muslim shouting "Allahu Akbar!" while gunning down soldiers at Fort Hood. (Six years.) 

"But so far, all we know is that Fields said he was "upset about black people" and wanted to kill as many as possible. On his Facebook page, he displayed a "White Power" poster and "liked" three organizations deemed "white separatist hate groups" by the Southern Poverty Law Center. A subsequent search of his home turned up bomb-making materials, ballistic vests, rifles, ammunition and a personal journal of combat tactics. 

"Actually, none of that is true. The paragraph above describes, down to the letter, what was known about Micah Xavier Johnson, the black man who murdered five Dallas cops a year ago during a Black Lives Matter demonstration. My sole alteration to the facts is reversing the words "black" and "white.' " 

"President Obama held a news conference the next day to say it's "very hard to untangle the motives." The New York Times editorialized agnostically that many "possible motives will be ticked off for the killer." (One motive kind of sticks out like a sore thumb to me.) 

"In certain cases, the media are quite willing to jump to conclusions. In others, they seem to need an inordinate amount of time to detect motives. 

"The media think they already know all there is to know about James Fields, but they also thought they knew all about the Duke lacrosse players, "gentle giant" Michael Brown and those alleged gang-rapists at the University of Virginia. 

"Waiting for facts is now the "Nazi" position. 

"Liberals have Republicans over a barrel because they used the word "racist." The word is kryptonite, capable of turning the entire GOP and 99 percent of the "conservative media" into a panicky mass of cowardice. " . . .

Trump gets it

As President Lincoln once said of the much-vilified General Grant, "I can't spare this man; he fights!".

"Mark Jarrett  "The violence in Charlottesville, and the tearing down of Robert E. Lee's statue there and in Durham, has made me angry and unhappy.  I, like many Americans and Southerners of my generation, have seen the tremendous progress in racial harmony.  I remember the bad old days and do not want to return there, but I also do not like attacks on my ancestors.  Then I listened to President Trump's remarks yesterday from Trump Tower.  Brilliant.

"Trump jumped to the chase.  He gets the progressive mind.  He asked, "Will you tear down George Washington's statue next?  Do you like Jefferson?  He was a slave owner.  Will you tear down his statue, too?  You are changing the history and changing the culture."  Finally, we have a leader who fights back against the tyranny of the culture-changing socialists.

"Trump understands that these actions are warm-ups.  The progressives are tearing down Confederate statues, and they arekicking and spitting on the memorials to the dead because they cannot yet kick and spit on President Trump and his voters.  If they could imprison Trump and deport his voters, they would do that and not worry about statues.  They are lashing out where they can.

"Progressives want a socialist society cleansed of traditional values.  To get power, we, as a country, must reject our heritage of freedom and embrace Marxist values of state control.  That is why they fight so hard to control the teaching of history and why they denigrate the ideals and values of the Founders and the pioneers.

BLM Founder – White Speech Is Hate Speech, No First Amendment Rights

Rick Wells

"The agitator for criminal rights obsessed with racism who started the Black Lives Matter hate group was kicked out of her home when she was 16 by her parents. Her Wikipedia page says it was because she’s a lesbian, something her parents objected to, but it likely had more to do with the huge chip on her shoulder and the matching mouth.

"The name of this skin color obsessed individual is, as unbelievable or fitting as it might be, Patrisse Cullors. She’s a fulltime agitator so she’s right at home on CNN complaining about people who produce, work for a living and don’t believe in communism as an acceptable alternative to the Constitution and individual liberty.

 . . . "In her special edition of the Constitution, the First Amendment text is a little longer. It contains an exclusion for hate speech.

"In her Hoodrat Translation it reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof – unless it’s whitey hate speech.” Whitey hate speech is a concept that wasn’t defined by or likely even known to the founding fathers at the time the Constitution was written, another testament to their genius and ability to anticipate future situations." . . .