Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Giving up is unforgivable.

This blog will pay for itself.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

You cannot love your country only when you win.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

In after Baud. Damn.

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Friday Morning Open Thread – Juneteenth: Respect

Friday Morning Open Thread – Juneteenth: Respect

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  3. 3.

    Joe Falco

    Hey, Athens, GA! Decatur just showed you up! It would really be swell if you would remove your Confederate obelisk!

  6. 6.

    Joe Falco

    So if Juneteenth is on a Friday this year, does that make today Black Friday as well? ?

  7. 7.

    debbie

    @Joe Falco:

    A lawsuit was filed here to stop the takedown of the Christopher Columbus statue in front of City Hall. I think it needs to go, but I’m worried about this turning into a distraction.

  9. 9.

    WereBear

    TImely book, Dixie’s Daughters, has been reissued. It’s about the United Daughters of the Confederacy being responsible for sooooo many of the monuments coming down right now.

  11. 11.

    Joe Falco

    @debbie: I don’t want this pivotal moment in time to be wasted on not fully addressing systemic racial inequalities as well, but I believe we as a society can and should multi-task.

  12. 12.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie: My son told me yesterday that the Christopher Columbus statue was removed from Tower Grove Park in STL. No muss, no fuss, just done.

  15. 15.

    debbie

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Good to know there’s common sense somewhere. Here, Italian-Americans are claiming people are lying about Christopher Columbus’s history. SMH ??‍♀️

  19. 19.

    Bruuuuce

    @Baud: For a long time now, Jefferson has been saved from vilification by the fact that he did some truly great things. But his hypocrisy regarding slavery is going to get amplified now to the point where it can’t be ignored, and probably justly so.

  20. 20.

    debbie

    @Baud:

    It will be interesting how that turns out. It wasn’t so long ago that TX conservatives wanted to remove references to Jefferson from schoolbooks because he espoused separation of church and state.

     

    ETA: Google says this was in 2010, so it was a bit ago.

  21. 21.

    WereBear

    @Baud:

    I was wondering about Jefferson.  He strikes me as someone who’s on the bubble in the statue debate.

     
    Yes, my first reaction was “they likely have a case…”

  22. 22.

    Martin

    Every year I wish my coworkers a happy Juneteenth. Most of them had forgotten (including my black coworkers). It sure would be nice if nobody forgot.

  23. 23.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie:  I was a little surprised at the lack of reaction from The Hill (long time STL Italian neighborhood) which is on just the other side of KIngshighway. I used to know a number of folks there and they took their Italian ancestry very serious.

    @Baud: Squirrels are not to be messed with. I watched it 3 or 4 times before I could see well enough to post the link.

  24. 24.

    Martin

    @Baud: I don’t think so. I don’t mind having statues of people with complicated pasts, so long as everyone is honest about the complications.

    My problem with the confederate statues and with Columbus is that there’s an unlimited amount of denial regarding what they did which is objectionable. I don’t think that’s the case with Jefferson – or at least is much less the case.

    I mean, New Yorkers have had a statue of Stalin for what, 20 years. Nobody celebrates Stalin. Nobody is in denial about what a terrible person he was. It’s just a piece of art.

  25. 25.

    Baud

    @Bruuuuce:

    @WereBear:

    Hypocrisy about slavery at the founding of the country is a different class in my mind than treason in defense of slavery, especially when a lot of statues to the traitors were installed for the specific purpose of institutionalizing Jim Crow.

  26. 26.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: At least Jefferson did some praise worthy things where as all Lee did was kill hundreds of thousands of Americans in order to perpetuate slavery.

  28. 28.

    WereBear

    @Baud: I agree. A fine distinction is about WHO put up the statue, and WHEN, I think. Daughters of the Confederacy is different motivations and messages than an impulse towards democracy and the separation of church and state.

  29. 29.

    Bruuuuce

    @Baud: I agree with you. But, not being darker than tan-pink myself, it’s not my experience nor my opinion that is important at this time. There’s likely to be some amount (greater or lesser) of overreaction with this much pent-up emotion being released, and if there’s some overreach, I think we as a society (and I personally, certainly) can deal with it.

  30. 30.

    Baud

    @Bruuuuce:

    Sure. It’s a legit issue to raise.  But, based on my current knowledge and level of awareness, I also wouldn’t be offended if the answer is “Jefferson stays” after thoughtful and respctful discussion by everyone involved. Jefferson doesn’t seem like the hill to die on IM current HO.

  33. 33.

    low-tech cyclist

    @Baud: 

    They didn’t tell me that racial healing would require reading.

    Or you could watch some of those movies on Adam Davie’s list. There are several that I’m hoping to find the time to watch.

  37. 37.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker: It would save us a lot of time if he did that.

    And to be fair to Trump, everything I do in my daily life is a sign of disapproval of Trump.

  38. 38.

    Joe Falco

    @Chyron HR: We already have Cinco de Mayo, the tradition of white Americans celebrating a holiday for Mexican independence by making it an elevated Taco Tuesday. Although white people could always make Juneteenth an excuse to give Black owned businesses and charities money (that isn’t to say it should only happen one day out of the year).

  39. 39.

    Geeno

    @debbie: It’s likely Columbus wasn’t even Italian. They have bunches of letters between him and his brother, all written in Spanish – not Italian.

  40. 40.

    WereBear

    @Betty Cracker:

    Sweet tap-dancing dingoes, that’s breathtakingly stupid and irresponsible. He might as well hand out infected petri dishes and instruct his cult followers to lick them.

     
    Wait for it…

  41. 41.

    Ken

    @Baud: @low-tech cyclist: From NotMax in the late-night thread, another alternative to reading:

    Notably, HBO is making [Watchmen] free beginning on June 19th, otherwise known as Juneteenth, a day that many people and some companies celebrate and honor as the day slavery ended in the US. Watchmen will be free from June 19th through June 21st on HBO.com. Source

  42. 42.

    Ken

    I’m trying to figure out if Maggie Haberman tweeted that Trump quote with malice, or at least realization that it made him look like an ignoramus.

  43. 43.

    mad citizen

    @Betty Cracker: For the reason of seeing if he has public stuff where signs of dementia might present (yes I’m on that train now), I’ve been looking at his schedule this week.  Seems like he’s taking today off pretty much.  Looking forward to Tulsa to see what mobility, arm spasms and language difficulties appear.

     

    12:30 PM
    Official Schedule

    The President receives his intelligence briefing
    Oval Office
    Closed Press

    2:30 PM
    Official Schedule

    The Vice President meets with the Secretary of the Air Force and the Chief of Space Operations

    Closed Press

    4:00 PM
    Official Schedule

    The Vice President leads a Coronavirus Task Force Meeting

  45. 45.

    Raven

    @Joe Falco:

    The Sons of Confederate Veterans organization has filed a lawsuit against Athens-Clarke Countyto prevent the government from moving a controversial monument honoring Confederate soldiers who died in the Civil War.

    In papers filed to the Athens-Clarke County Superior Court, the group is asking a judge to issue an emergency temporary restraining order prohibiting the Athens-Clarke government from putting the monument in a new place and for monetary damages if the monument is actually moved from its spot at the intersection of Broad Street and College Avenue.

    State law prohibits moving Confederate monuments, with limited exceptions such as to protecting the monument.

    “We hold the services and sacrifices of our American veterans to be sacred and any acts against these heroes and patriots should be deemed by all patriotic Americans as an act of terrorism, equivalent to the atrocities performed by the Taliban and ISIS to erase the heritage and culture in their region,” according to a statement the group released.

    Under a plan made public in Tuesday night’s Athens-Clarke Commission meeting, the government would move the monument to a site near Athens’ only Civil War skirmish, near Barber Creek and the county’s border with Oconee County. According to the staff recommendation, the monument needs to be moved to allow for a plan to improve pedestrian flow and safety at the busy intersection, which meets one of the exceptions the Georgia legislature allows to move a Confederate monument.

  46. 46.

    Ken

    @mad citizen:

    12:30 PM
    The President receives his intelligence briefing

    12:33 PM
    The intelligence heads leave the Oval Office, muttering under their breath again.

    12:34 PM
    Tweeting resumes

  48. 48.

    mali muso

    Happy Juneteenth!  Here in Virginia, it is now an official holiday as of this week, and my workplace immediately followed the governor’s announcement by giving us the day off.  My biracial 3 year old is rocking her afro today and wearing a shirt that says “freedom rocks”.

  50. 50.

    Ken

    @Raven: our American veterans to be sacred and any acts against these heroes and patriots

    Are the Sons of the Confederacy aware that the Confederacy was not the USA, was created in an act of treason, and was soundly defeated by actual patriots at a horrendous cost in U.S. lives?

  51. 51.

    Betty Cracker

    @WereBear: I was at fancy-ish restaurant in Tampa a while back (long before the pandemic), and while I was waiting to be seated, I noticed one of the banquet rooms was occupied by the Daughters of the Confederacy. It was 100% elderly women.

  54. 54.

    Immanentize

    I love the idea of a national Juneteenth holiday.  It is a happy (celebration of liberation) and sad (two plus years too late) occasion. Good for reflection and joy.

    I also think next year we should celebrate “Janty” — the day we ought to be liberated from Trump.

  59. 59.

    Ken

    @Betty Cracker: Trump says some Americans wear coronavirus masks ‘to signal disapproval of him’

    I’ll give him a gentleman’s D+ for that.  He does at least recognize that the need for masks reflects very badly on him. Shows no understanding of why, of course, and gets the motivation completely wrong.

  60. 60.

    OzarkHillbilly

    The Trump Administration Paid Millions for Test Tubes and All They Got Were These Stupid Mini Soda Bottles

    The state officials say that these “preforms,” which are designed to be expanded with heat and pressure into 2-liter soda bottles, don’t fit the racks used in laboratory analysis of test samples. Even if the bottles were the right size, experts say, the company’s process likely contaminated the tubes and could yield false test results. Fillakit employees, some not wearing masks, gathered the miniature soda bottles with snow shovels and dumped them into plastic bins before squirting saline into them, all in the open air, according to former employees and ProPublica’s observation of the company’s operations.
    …………………………………..
    The Federal Emergency Management Agency signed its first deal with Fillakit on May 7, just six days after the company was formed by an ex-telemarketer repeatedly accused of fraudulent practices over the past two decades. Fillakit has supplied a total of more than 3 million tubes, which FEMA then approved and sent to all 50 states. If the company fulfills its contractual obligation to provide 4 million tubes, it will receive a total of $10.16 million.

    Officials in New York, New Jersey, Texas and New Mexico confirmed they can’t use the Fillakit tubes. Three other states told ProPublica that they received Fillakit supplies and have not distributed them to testing sites. FEMA has asked health officials in several states to find an alternative use for the unfinished soda bottles.

    “We are still trying to identify an alternative use,” said Janelle Fleming, a spokeswoman for the New Jersey Department of Health.

    I’ve thought of an alternative use, but torture is against international law.

  61. 61.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: That’s the only thing Martin Luther King ever said, you know.  He had nothing to do with unions or the sanitation workers strike, for instance.  //

    MLK has been almost completely whitewashed to make it more palatable to the powers that be.  I know I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know.  I just felt compelled to say it.

  62. 62.

    WaterGirl

    @Betty Cracker:

    Trump says some Americans wear coronavirus masks ‘to signal disapproval of him’.

    Along with everything else that’s wrong with that statement, his off-the-charts arrogance and vanity are on full display.

  63. 63.

    hueyplong

    @mad citizen: I’ve been on the dementia train for a while and for that reason I’ve really been looking forward to Tulsa.  The pharmaceutical prep required to avoid a major incident will keep him bunkered for days aferward.

    His neurological disease is, like COVID, immune to bullshit and gaslighting.  It will relentlessly take him apart, the only question being the timing.

    Also very relieved that he moved the Cheer For Me Or I’ll Die from Juneteenth to Saturday so as to keep down the number of protesters.  That way it’s just President Depends and his lemmings huffing the spittle-laden air.

    Bought two bags of popcorn this AM just to read the running accounts of it here. [Wouldn’t watch him in real time on a bet.]

  64. 64.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @WaterGirl: I remember a coworker complaining about Black History Month, “When do we get a white history month?”

    “We get 11 white history months, or haven’t you noticed?”

  67. 67.

    Immanentize

    @WaterGirl: Here is something that MLK said that it is less than that “arc of justice” comfort:

    Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, “Wait.” But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five year old son who is asking: “Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?”; when you take a cross county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading “white” and “colored”; when your first name becomes “nigger,” your middle name becomes “boy” (however old you are) and your last name becomes “John,” and your wife and mother are never given the respected title “Mrs.”; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodiness”–then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait

  69. 69.

    Brachiator

    @Betty Cracker:

    Trump says some Americans wear coronavirus masks ‘to signal disapproval of him’

    Sweet tap-dancing dingoes, that’s breathtakingly stupid and irresponsible. He might as well hand out infected petri dishes and instruct his cult followers to lick them.

    Stupid? I’m not sure. Trump knows how to stir up his base, and he is intent on making sure that nothing interferes with his desire to get the country up and running again.

    So, this seems to me to be incredibly petty and cynical.

    I could understand a president, trying to re-open the economy and also continuing to try to deal with the pandemic. But Trump is going to continue to let people die. And his base doesn’t care. Hell, some of the people who will die are part of his base. They will die to satisfy Trump’s infantile ego needs.

    And the GOP and conservative leaders continue to be complicit in this vile, tawdry episode.

    And to some in the media, this is the new normal.

    This is what makes me shake my head and ask if this is a bad dream. We have a sitting president who is deliberately letting people die from a terrible disease, and members of his own party aiding and abetting him. And more upset that the Supreme Court slowed Trump’s attempt to throw young people out of the country to prove he is tough on immigration.

  71. 71.

    LivingInExile

    A question for the historians among us.  It has always been my impression that most of the confederate soldiers that fought were poorer whites that didn’t even own any slaves. True or false?

  72. 72.

    NotMax

    Repeating from last night.

    FYI.

    Watchmen premiered nine months before the recent mass protests against systemic racism and police brutality happened around the world, but the show feels more timely than ever. Now, HBO is making the entire nine-episode series available to anyone to watch for free this weekend.

    …The series starts in Tulsa 1921, demonstrating the events of the Tulsa massacre in which a mob of white Americans attacked black residents and businesses in Tulsa’s Greenwood District.
    [snip]
    Notably, HBO is making the series free beginning on June 19th, otherwise known as Juneteenth, a day that many people and some companies celebrate and honor as the day slavery ended in the US. Watchmen will be free from June 19th through June 21st on HBO.com. Source

  73. 73.

    PsiFighter37

    On an article around DACA, the FTFNYT referred to Cory Gardner as a moderate Republican. In what fucking universe is that asshat, who has voted 100% of the time for Trump, a moderate? Jesus Tapdancing Christ.

  76. 76.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @LivingInExile: Twenty Negro Law

    The “Twenty Negro Law”, also known as the “Twenty Slave Law” and the “Twenty Nigger Law”,[1] was a piece of legislation enacted by the Confederate Congress during the American Civil War. The law specifically exempted from Confederate military service one white man for every twenty slaves owned on a Confederate plantation, or for two or more plantations within five miles of each other that collectively had twenty or more slaves.[2] Passed as part of the Second Conscription Act in 1862, the law was a reaction to United States President Abraham Lincoln’s preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which was issued barely three weeks earlier. The law addressed Confederate fears of a slave rebellion due to so many white men being absent from home, as they were fighting in the Confederate army. The Confederacy enacted the first conscription laws in United States history,[3] and the percentage of Confederate soldiers who were conscripts was nearly double that of Union soldiers.

  78. 78.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    That’s such a lovely thing to read! Thank you!

    (Although with all the talk of masks, I’ll admit I was taken aback for a second at mention of Malala’s degree in PPE.)

  79. 79.

    CliosFanBoy

    @LivingInExile: That;’s not really a True or False question. Technically true but with a tone of caveats.

    1. True because a majority of white families did not own slaves, although the number that did was just under half in SC and MS.

    2. Economically middling families often depended on enslaved labor hired from their wealthier neighbors, especially when it was time for harvest.

    3. Even the poorest white was vested in the slave system. The economy in which they participated was dependent upon it. They hoped to rise up enough in society to own slaves, and, most critically, being white meant you were de facto NOT on the bottom rung of society. Preserving the slave system was necessary to keep you from sliding to the very bottom of society.

    People WILL fight even when, to an outsider, there is no obvious benefit. How many Germans fought for the NAZI regime even if they had nothing personal against the Jews?

  80. 80.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Geminid: As I recall, the saying originated in the Civil War, but I’ll be damned if I can think of a war where it didn’t apply.

  81. 81.

    OzarkHillbilly

    A beautiful piece of writing in this weeks New Yorker by Elizabeth Alexander:

    I call the young people who grew up in the past twenty-five years the Trayvon Generation. They always knew these stories. These stories formed their world view. These stories helped instruct young African-Americans about their embodiment and their vulnerability. The stories were primers in fear and futility. The stories were the ground soil of their rage. These stories instructed them that anti-black hatred and violence were never far.

    They watched these violations up close and on their cell phones, so many times over. They watched them in near-real time. They watched them crisscrossed and concentrated. They watched them on the school bus. They watched them under the covers at night. They watched them often outside of the presence of adults who loved them and were charged with keeping them safe in body and soul.
    ………………………
    Yes, I am saying I measure my success as a mother of black boys in part by the fact that I have sons who love to dance, who dance in community, who dance till their powerful bodies sweat, who dance and laugh, who dance and shout. Who are able––in the midst of their studying and organizing, their fear, their rage, their protesting, their vulnerability, their missteps and triumphs, their knowledge that they must fight the hydra-headed monster of racism and racial violence that we were not able to cauterize––to find the joy and the power of communal self-expression.

    This essay is not a celebration, nor is it an elegy.

    We are no longer enslaved. Langston Hughes wrote that we must stand atop the racial mountain, “free within ourselves,” and I pray that those words have meaning for our young people. But our freedom must be seized and reasserted every day.

    People dance to say, I am alive and in my body.

    I am black alive and looking back at you. ♦

  82. 82.

    Woodrow/asim

    @LivingInExile: most of the confederate soldiers that fought were poorer whites that didn’t even own any slaves. True or false?

    Barely material to the point of the War, much less post-War issues. Seriously.

    Separate out supporting Slavery — and supporting White Supremacy. Lincoln and those soldiers were more alike than we’d like to believe, around the latter. It’s why, as documented in Searching for Black Confederates, the Confederacy resisted mightily integrating Black slaves — or even conscripting their few Black Southern freemen — as  soldiers.

    Now, thru that lens, you can start to grasp what the hell was going on with those soliders. Because the trick is that we elide the fact that there was a massive class divide in the American South. Many of the rich folx loved the idea of War, but the poorer folx were…more divided, and certainly many didn’t want to go fight any war, even if they didn’t care for Black folx.

    That wasn’t just a Southern thing. There were a number of riots around conscription in the North, as well — the NYC riot likely most famous.

    So why did the poorer Southerns fight? That’s way beyond the scope of any mere comment. So, your recommended reading is  Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South. Although I have…issues…with the author’s online presence, her work is truly ground-breaking and consumable about this era and the exact people you’re speaking of. For an explicitly political interview with her on this topic, see here.

    I know I answered what I thought was the underlying question; if I’m off I’ll try to assist. Thanks for reading!

  84. 84.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    From the idiot in the White House. What does this even mean?

    Any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis. It will be a much different scene!

  86. 86.

    JPL

    @Brachiator: He has a big base, in fact most people are surprised how big his base is.    He can afford to lose a few.

    Yes he did brag about his base and threatened the GOP not to abandon him.  (politico)

  89. 89.

    Jinchi

    @Martin: My problem with the confederate statues and with Columbus is that there’s an unlimited amount of denial regarding what they did which is objectionable.

    Confederate statues are particularly offensive, because they were built explicitly in celebration of the Confederacy and with it the right to enslave ‘inferior’ people. The “Lost Cause” is defined as a righteous cause: The south was overwhelmed, but their spirit was not defeated.

  90. 90.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Reclaiming and properly honoring Juneteenth as a national holiday to celebrate the freedom of all Black Americans in the United States is a win for all of America.

    So racists cracker heads murder blacks on the Juneteeth like that massacure Tusla, because that’s what lowlives do. Even more reasons to despise racists.

  91. 91.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    From CNN Politics

    The insistence on pressing forward with reopening and a return to normal, even as cases increase in some areas, has led to concern among some administration officials that Trump and his aides are ignoring an inconvenient truth.

    Ya think?

  93. 93.

    mad citizen

    @hueyplong: Good to see your response, I’m new to being wholly convinced this is happening.  Anyhoo, I might take a look at the rally if I can stand it; or more likely look at tweets from Daniel Dale or others who are livetweeting it.

    I wondered how he played golf Memorial Day (I watched him lean over, place a tee and take a really bad old man swing, but he did hit the ball).  Then when I googled it said dementia patients can play and enjoy golf because it’s just muscle memory, etc.  But I think it will be a tell if he stops golfing (which for him is riding in a cart and stepping out 100 times to hit the ball).

  95. 95.

    Jinchi

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma…

    I get that he doesn’t like protesters and anarchists, but agitators, looters and lowlifes? Why is he picking on his own people?

  96. 96.

    LivingInExile

    Thanks to all for the replies.  Woodrow/asim – I think I see what you are saying.  Didn’t own slaves.  Didn’t want to fight, but still supported white supremacy. Thanks for the links.

  97. 97.

    Jinchi

    @Betty Cracker: Trump says some Americans wear coronavirus masks ‘to signal disapproval of him’

    I expect security at his rally will be on the lookout for these troublemakers. The Trump campaign will hand out masks and then promptly eject anyone who tries to put one on.

  98. 98.

    Kay

    Donald J. Trump
    @realDonaldTrump
    · 36m
    Any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis. It will be a much different scene!

    The Trump Administration should try gassing protesters again. Biden will carry 40 states.

    The low quality hires still don’t understand we’re allowed to protest against them, even given what a disaster it was the last time they attacked Americans.

  101. 101.

    JPL

    @Woodrow/asim:  In GA the poor whites were threatened by the Governor of losing everything if blacks were free.   Boortz used to say secession wasn’t because of slavery, even though it’s stated explicitly when GA seceded.   The asshole lived in Atlanta at the time.

  103. 103.

    debbie

    @Geeno:

    Tell Italian-Americans that. It doesn’t matter where he was from, it’s his actions that are the problem.

  104. 104.

    cmorenc

    As to those obelisk-shaped monuments dedicated to “Our Confederate dead” on the courthouse grounds of county seats throughout southern states: the irony is that the vast majority of those dead (white) soldiers were, in their own way, also victims of the slave-owning elites of southern society, though of course not literally enslaved themselves.  The enlisted foot-soldiers that comprised the bulk of the Confederate armies were mostly small-time farmers, tradesmen, and merchants, not officers from the relative upper-classes of southern society who primarily owned (and directly benefited from slave labor in the economy of their plantations or other larger enterprises) – drawn (or de facto forced) into confederate military service by the jingoistic Confederate-patriotic slogans and appeals promoted by their “betters” and leaders in Southern society.  In short, they were predominately cannon-fodder for the slave-owning classes, with little to no personal stake in slavery.  They died essentially for a cause they themselves had no actual stake in, beyond peer-pressure bolstered by forcible pressure to join Confederate army ranks.

  105. 105.

    NotMax

    @Dorothy A. Winsor – @Kay

    Expect the White House press office will spew out something along the lines of:

    “The statement is not divisive or inflammatory. It is a clear and strong message that foremost the president is always concentrated on the safety of all Americans.”

    //

  106. 106.

    StringOnAStick

    A good friend was verbally attacked by a MAGAT while walking her dog south of downtown Denver two days ago, for the sin of wearing a mask.  “Liberal snowflake” , “fat ugly bitch”, etc.  Lots of gendered insults.  Now that the demented idiot in chief has said that wearing a mask is an insult to him, this shit is going to get even worse.

  108. 108.

    JPL

    @StringOnAStick: A radio DJ was verbally attacked while out in a trendy area of Roswell, GA wearing a mask.    Businesses are already suffering without someone using a platform to bad mouth the entire area.

  109. 109.

    Another Scott

    @cmorenc: The history of Alexandria, VA is instructive to me on this topic.:

    […]

    In an effort to see that Virginia remained in the Union, Alexandrians elected George Brent, an opponent of secession, as a delegate to the February 1861 meeting in Richmond. When South Carolina fired on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, and President Lincoln subsequently called for 75,000 troops to crush the rebellion, the mood of Alexandrians shifted dramatically from accommodation to war. To celebrate Virginia’s vote for secession, James Jackson, the local proprietor of the Marshall House Hotel, raised a Confederate flag to the cheers of a local crowd.

    War fever swept the city, and militia units composed of the town’s youth drilled at the old Catalpa Lot on the west side of the 600 and 700 blocks of North Washington Street. On May 23, 1861, townsmen went to the polls and voiced their approval of the articles of secession by an overwhelming vote of 958 in favor and 106 against.

    Because of Alexandria’s strategic importance as a railroad center and port, federal troops under the command of General Charles Sanford of the New York State militia lost no time in invading the town by land and sea on the morning of May 24, 1861. This same day, a regiment of New York Fire Zouaves, led by Colonel Elmer Ellsworth, landed at the foot of Cameron Street. With a few recruits, Ellsworth proceeded up King Street where he glimpsed James Jackson’s Confederate flag fluttering in the breeze over the Marshall House. The colonel and his retinue entered the hotel, climbed to the roof and seized the banner. Descending the staircase, Ellsworth was shot in the chest by Jackson. In return, the hotel proprietor was shot and bayoneted by Union Corporal Brownell. Both Jackson and Ellsworth were mortally wounded and each quickly became a martyr to his respective cause.

    As Federal forces occupied Alexandria, elements of Virginia’s 6th Battalion gathered in front of The Lyceum, then marched out Duke Street and boarded a train bound for Manassas Junction. On July 10, 1861, these troops were activated into the 17th Virginia Regiment, commanded by local hero Col. Montgomery Corse. They fought valiantly with the Army of Northern Virginia from the Battle of First Manassas in 1861 through the surrender at Appomattox Courthouse in 1865 and suffered tremendous losses over the years of hard fighting.

    The invasion of Alexandria forever changed the social, cultural and economic fabric of the old seaport town. For four years Alexandria was occupied by Union forces; indeed, the city endured the longest military occupation by Union troops of any town during the conflict. Although there was little fighting near Alexandria, the influx of so many soldiers meant that residents would no longer experience the peace of the antebellum period. Upon taking office as Military Governor of Virginia in 1862, General Slough instituted a curfew and a ban on sales of alcohol to soldiers, noting that there had been for days previous, a reign of terror in Alexandria. The streets were crowded with intoxicated soldiery; murder was of almost hourly occurrence and disturbances, robbery and riot were constant. The sidewalks and docks were covered with drunken men, women and children and quiet citizens were afraid to venture into the streets and life and property were at the mercy of the maddened throng-a condition of things perhaps never in the history of this country to be found in any other city.

    […]

    Less than 1000 stupid racist yahoos brought years of death and destruction on around 13,000 of their neighbors.

    Grr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  112. 112.

    Origuy

    The Columbus statue in front of Coit Tower in San Francisco was removed this week. It was erected in 1957, more than three decades after the tower itself was erected. It was a gift of the Italian-American community; I don’t know why they put it there, because Lizzie Coit wasn’t Italian. What I didn’t know before I looked it up was who the sculptor was:

    The statue itself was sculpted by Count Vittorio di Colbertaldo of Verona, one of Benito Mussolini’s hand picked ceremonial bodyguards known as the “Black Musketeers.”

  114. 114.

    bemused

    @StringOnAStick:

    They think anyone wearing a mask is an enemy. Not one maggot going to his rallies will be wearing a mask except for many of the media there. I would be terrified to be at a trump thing. Can’t imagine how media cope being surrounded by insane people. They should get hazard pay for contact with covid spreaders who want to kill them.

  116. 116.

    jonas

    “I did something good: I made Juneteenth very famous,” Mr. Trump said, referring to news coverage of the rally date. “It’s actually an important event, an important time. But nobody had ever heard of it.”

    This fuckin’ guy…

  117. 117.

    germy

    Today we celebrate #Juneteenth, the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the end of slavery in the U.S. In honor of today, I would like to share the story "All Different Now" by Angela Johnson, which sheds a light on the first Juneteenth through the eyes of a young girl. pic.twitter.com/ZG9zoup4yG— Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) June 19, 2020

    oh fuck off https://t.co/fUMvoKpvXS— Imani Gandy ☄️?? (@AngryBlackLady) June 19, 2020

    this lady is a racist ass birther. "we" don't celebrate a goddamn thing with you.— Imani Gandy ☄️?? (@AngryBlackLady) June 19, 2020

  119. 119.

    artem1s

    @Baud:

    And to be fair to Trump, everything I do in my daily life is a sign of disapproval of Trump.

    gotta confess, they have been accusing us for so long of upsetting them on purpose, I’ve decided why not plead guilty to the crime and enjoy the fruits of my labor.

  121. 121.

    Oklahomo

    @debbie: There was a Sopranos episode where a bunch a Tony’s crew and Native Americans got into a beat-down over Columbus Day celebrations.

  122. 122.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Baud: I agree with this. There were many presidents who were slave owners including the most revered founding father, George Washington.
    But those who took up arms to defend slavery against the United States should be treated differently and the statues that came up during Jim Crow to intimidate black people and celebrate slavery should come down.

  124. 124.

    WereBear

    @Woodrow/asim: Danabbit. Why does this always happen when I manage to get enough credits on Amazon to buy a new book?

    But I can’t think of a better subject to study on a day like this one.

  127. 127.

    NotMax

    @germy

    I would like to share the story “All Different Now” by Angela Johnson, which sheds a light on the first Juneteenth through the eyes of a young girl was the first thing to come up on a fast Google search this morning by my staff.

    Fixed for accuracy. //

  128. 128.

    scav

    @germy: AMC Theater? American Morbidity Central Theater!  What could possibly be a more Trumpian and Republican combination of entertainments than that?

  129. 129.

    Geminid

    @germy: an example of why statewide mask mandates are essential. The mask mandate works in Virginia, from what I’ve  seen. If the customers wants to kick about it, the manager can tell him, we have no choice, the Governor’s making us do this.

  131. 131.

    Krope, the Formerly Dope

    @germy: AMC Theater CEO Adam Aron says their cinemas won’t require masks upon reopening because they didn’t “want to be drawn into a political controversy”

    Looks like they got drawn in on the wrong side of the controversy.

  133. 133.

    ET

    OK this off topic a bit and maybe not totally kosher but I had to pass this on to the horde

    Unrest and protests continued for a seventh straight day in the former British colony of the United States as the government vowed to use its military to end the demonstrations, US media reported on Tuesday.

    The protests began in the small province of Minnesota, located in the agrarian ‘Middle West,’ over the killing of an ethnic minority by state security forces.

    …..

    American black minority groups were under a program similar to South Africa’s Apartheid policy until as recently as 1964. Today, the ethnic black community is still detained and killed with impunity by the state security forces and black Americans make up the majority of those incarcerated under the country’s archaic judicial system.

    ….

    MORE from the Thai EnquirerThai Enquirer to get the full effect.

  134. 134.

    CliosFanBoy

    @Another Scott: FYI, what is now Arlington County contributed most of the NO votes.  And Alexandria was very “Lost Causy” for generations afterwards.  Until very recently actually.

  135. 135.

    frosty

    @Another Scott: Baltimore was occupied from the Battle of Pratt Street (April 19, 1861) until the end of the war, so perhaps a month longer than Alexandria?

    Fun Fact: Ft. McHenry was nicknamed Baltimore’s Bastille because that’s where the southern sympathizers were locked up.

     

    @Another Scott:

  139. 139.

    Kay

    Here’s Melania enthusiastically supporting birtherism. It’s funny- it looked terrible at the time, blatantly racist and mean-spirited, but it actually looks worse now:

    An old clip resurfaced on the internet over the weekend of Melania Trump supporting her husband Donald Trump’s claims that former president Barack Obama wasn’t born in the U.S.
    On April 20, 2011, Melania appeared on the Joy Behar Show and backed up her husband’s allegations that Obama wasn’t born in the state of Hawaii like live birth records suggest.
    “It’s not only Donald who wants to see [Obama’s birth certificate], it’s American people who voted for him and who didn’t vote for him. They want to see that,” she argued. Behar then made the point that the birth certificate had already been on display and all over the internet. “We feel it’s different than birth certificate,” Melania responded.

    Nice legacy the Trump’s have. They look worse with each passing year- more backward and classless. Imagine how much they’ll be loathed even a decade from now, let alone “decades”. Future generations will read about this family and be horrified they were ever in power.

  141. 141.

    artem1s

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    The law addressed Confederate fears of a slave rebellion due to so many white men being absent from home

    white washing.  1860’s version of bone spurs.  Plantation owners didn’t want to fight the war themselves.  They were fine with getting a nice shiny uniform and sitting up on a hill and watching others die for them (contrast Gen W.T. Sherman who had THREE horses shot out from under him at Shiloh).  There was effectively no manufacturing base or middle class in the south (thanks to slavery).  There were the slave owners and there were the dirt poor farmers (dirt poor meaning they owned their land but little else).  Lee didn’t just betray his actual country (US), he also betrayed the Confederacy when he effectively refused to leave Virginia/DC area and take his army to where the war was really being lost in Vicksburg and Atlanta.  When they lost Vicksburg they lost the Mississippi supply line and the war.  Sherman finished the job by taking Atlanta and railroads out of the supply line and conditional surrender off the table. Lee sat in Fredricksburg with his thumb up his ass because he was a double traitor who only cared about protecting his own property.

  142. 142.

    Kay

    The Biden campaign should get the clip of Melania endorsing and promoting the racist “birther theory” and put it in an ad.

    She campaigns for Trump. It’s relevant.

  143. 143.

    scav

    @germy: I still don’t think that buys him into any principled moral stand — sounds like a jellyfish.  Furthermore, given the demonstrated ease of the streaming option, I’mp not sure that his “we do the bare legal minimum!” school of cleanliness is going to reassure a portion of his audience (however governed), so it may not be enough from a business perspective either. Didn’t see any mention of controlling crowd size either, so there’s another probably jellyfishing compliance.  I understand businesses have it tough what with all the maskless vigilantes out and in their faces, but I don’t have to admire the doormats (especially the large ones — smaller places are in an even harder. spot).

  144. 144.

    Aleta

    1–“Disclosure”: Sam Feder’s documentary, premiering Friday on Netflix, surveys trans representation in film and TV. It’s a history wrought with painful caricatures, cruel punchlines and dubious erasure. But it’s also a joyful, celebratory journey that chronicles the increasing presence of trans actors and filmmakers in Hollywood, and the difference they’re making for a larger trans community. With Laverne Cox (a producer), Lilly Wachowski, MJ Rodriguez and others.
    https://www.netflix.com/title/81284247

    2–Kenya Barris & Pharrell Williams In Talks With Netflix For Juneteenth Film Musical

    3–Good interviews w/  cast of Miss Juneteenth the movie, which was written & directed  by Channing Godfrey Peoples.

    4–About the movie:

    Miss Juneteenth isn’t so much a history lesson on Juneteenth the holiday as it is a quiet reflection on a mother and daughter. …Writer/director Channing Godfrey Peoples does take the time to explain why Juneteenth is celebrated in her movie. … Miss Juneteenth is not meant to be an explainer for white people; it’s a character-driven drama about a woman trying to get back a life she never initially got to have.

    Turquoise works double shifts at the bar in addition to her part-time work at the morgue.  … Her only hope is that her daughter Kai (Alexis Chikaeze) will win the Miss Juneteenth crown as she did, and receive a full-ride scholarship to any historically Black college and university of her choice.

    Unfortunately, that’s not what Kai wants. Kai wants to try out for the school dance team, and get a dance scholarship to a college where she can pursue her passion.

     

  148. 148.

    NotMax

    @artem1s

    Distribution and basis of wealth was, of course, quite different but the South considered as a region wasn’t necessarily poor per se.

    The 1860 per capita income in the South was $3,978; in the North it was $2,040. Source

    Also,

    Slaves didn’t just work on farms, to be sure. They were hired out in the trades, worked in factories and on piers, and manned sailing vessels. They also built between 9,000 and 10,000 miles of railroad tracks by the time the Civil War broke out, representing “a third of the nation’s total and more than the mileage of Britain, France, and Germany,”…. Source

  150. 150.

    WaterGirl

    @jonas: Years ago I was out having a Sunday afternoon meal at a nice restaurant, and one of the my friend’s kids who was being potty trained had to go to the bathroom.

    One of the parents took him, and as they were walking back to the table afterwards, the boy shouted “I just had a BM!”

    That is Donald Trump, every minute of every day!  Truly a toddler, and not in a good way.

  154. 154.

    Ken

    @NotMax: The 1860 per capita income in the South was $3,978; in the North it was $2,040. Source

    Though as your source notes, a large part of that $3978 was the value of the slaves.

    Also, the source doesn’t say whether the denominator includes the slaves (or perhaps 3/5 of the slaves). If it does not, then they aren’t counting 47% of the population, and the South’s actual per-capita income would be very close to the North’s.

  159. 159.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @frosty: Baltimore was also the site of the first fatalities of the War of Unsuccessful Southern Secession (WUSS), the Pratt Street Riot. (No one was killed at Fort Sumter.) Artillery was sited on Federal Hill, across what’s now the Inner Horror ;^D from downtown, against the possibility of insurrection, pretty much for the duration of the war IIRC.

  161. 161.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @JPL: The stylist wore a mask and a plastic face shield. I was the only customer there. A mask was required for me too. If I hadn’t already been wearing one, they would have given me one and put it on my bill. They made me use hand sanitizer when I walked in.

    I thought that was pretty good. The salon is here in my building.

    We’re all supposed to wear masks outside our own condo, but the stylist told me that residents have arrived in the salon with no mask and claimed it was optional. That is BS, though they may convinced themselves.

  162. 162.

    MisterForkbeard

    @germy: I’d like to thank Trump and the Republicans for making ‘wear a simple mask for the benefit of yourself and those around you’ a controversial item.

    Thanks, fucktards.

  164. 164.

    Gravenstone

    @Betty Cracker: 

    He might as well hand out infected petri dishes and instruct his cult followers to lick them.

    Those are the door prizes at tomorrow’s hate rally.

  165. 165.

    Gravenstone

    @Raven: 

    “We hold the services and sacrifices of our American veterans …

    I think we’ve found the problem with their argument here.

    Listen up, you chucklenuts morons – your forefathers of whom you claim to be so fucking proud affirmatively decided that they were NOT American at that moment in history. You don’t get to pretend otherwise.

  166. 166.

    Gravenstone

    @OzarkHillbilly: 

    FEMA has asked health officials in several states to find an alternative use for the unfinished soda bottles.

    Well, since a lot of used soda bottles end up getting recycled into carpeting material, might as well skip the middle man and donate them directly to the recyclers.

  168. 168.

    ballerat

    @Raven:

    American veterans

    American veterans?? WTF. They were Confederate veterans. Veterans of another country entirely, and traitors to boot. They chose willingly to Not Be Americans.

    Get rid of these monuments, and declare these Confederate coddling organizations to be foreign agencies hostile to the security and stability of the US, and make their members register as foreign agents on US soil.

    Fuck ‘em.

  169. 169.

    jeffreyw

    @ballerat:

    American veterans?? WTF. They were Confederate veterans. Veterans of another country entirely, and traitors to boot.

    No.  Lincoln was adamant about this.  They were not another country, they were not to be treated with as if they were.  They were citizen in rebellion and traitors, yes, but not citizens of another country.

  170. 170.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Immanentize: Correct. IIRC the Governor & most of the legislature spent the Rebellion under arrest. (May have been the Mayor &/or City Council. Lots of elected officials anyway.) No way Mr Lincoln was going to allow the slave state surrounding the seat of the Federal government to secede. (Poorly-known fact: Delaware was also a slave state at the time – dogonlynose why – but with a Unionist governor & Unionist-dominated legislature, never seriously considered secession.)

  171. 171.

    J R in WV

    @cmorenc:

    …the irony is that the vast majority of those dead (white) soldiers were, in their own way, also victims of the slave-owning elites of southern society, though of course not literally enslaved themselves.

    I have to disagree with you on this issue. Anyone forced to risk their lives in war at the point of a gun, as in drafted into combat, is in point of fact, enslaved. I was not technicallly enslaved into the Navy back in 1970, I enlisted in order to avoid being enslaved into the combat arms of the Army or Marines.

    But everyone who was drafted into the Vietnam war was enslaved. That’s my belief. Forced into the military is enslavement.

    Fuck LBJ, and Fuck Tricky Dick Nixon~!!!~

    And back in the Civil War against treason, all the draftees were enslaved, even the Confederates who were drafted. And they did have a draft!

  172. 172.

    opiejeanne

    @NotMax: I can see the Boonslick slave-owning plantations in Missouri, a band running East/West on either side of the Missouri River. Also known as Little Dixie. The Confederate sympathizers mortgaged land in that region to support the militias, some of the land undeveloped, some of it not even owned by the person taking the loan. They damn near bankrupted the state, thanks to Governor Fox Jackson, and then he made a run for it.

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