Dixie Heritage Newsletter – Fri, Jun 22, 2018
In Dallas the effort to take down the city’s remaining Confederate memorials hit an unexpected snag after three of the four black City Council members voted to keep the main memorial up.
Reported when the city got rid of its statue of Robert E. Lee after a protest over a Lee statue in Virginia ended violently. But what remains in Dallas is a much larger memorial That soars more than 50 feet into the air with a mustached Johnny Reb atop, facing south, of course. At each corner of the base are four Confederate heroes: Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, General Albert Sidney Johnston, and General Stonewall Jackson.
John Fullinwider is a medical librarian and, more to the point, a Dallas activist and organizer, who’s been fighting for years to get the City to take its Confederate memorials down. Last August, that seemed almost a certainty after the situation in Charlottesville. A month later, the Dallas City Council voted to take down a prominent statue of Robert E. Lee astride his horse. And so Lee and Traveller were carted away. But as the months passed, enthusiasm for further action began to wane. At a contentious public hearing, the mayor and council were attacked as erasers of history and racist against whites. But what was surprising to many was that the 9-6 margin to keep the city’s main Confederate memorial up, at least for now, came from three out of the four black city councilmen.
Dwaine Caraway, the mayor pro tem and key black council leader, explains why they didn’t vote to take down the memorial. “If we had voted that way, then we would lose the game. Yes, the statue would be gone, but what would be there?
Tennell Atkins, another prominent black city councilman, who actually brought the motion to defer taking the memorial down, explained, “everyone in America is watching the city of Dallas and asking, are we doing the right thing?”
The third Ablack councilman, Casey Thomas, said afterward that he wanted “a second task force to study whether the memorial should be removed.” With their three votes, Thomas, Atkins and Caraway could’ve brought the Confederate memorial down immediately. So why didn’t they? C
What Caraway wants is not completely clear. He would like the Confederate statues gone but wants to keep the base and perhaps put statues of civil rights icons. But his vote, along with Atkins’ and Thomas’, has drawn scorn from some of Dallas’ most respected black leaders.
The dominant political player seems to be Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings. Rawlings is a moderate, white Southern Democrat who really wants to try to work out a compromise that would keep the Confederate memorial in place while still mollifying anti-Confederate liberals. The mayor readily acknowledges the city’s Confederate memorial is a monument to white supremacy, but instead of tearing it down, he wants to make it into a teaching moment, add some sort of historical context that could theoretically balance it all out.
The mayor says he wants to think through all of the options, and it’s apparent he swayed three of the city’s black city councilmen to his thinking. But what of the one Dallas African-American councilman who refused to go along?
But this is not a heritage victory! It does give our compatriots in Texas some time to regroup for the fight.
NEW PLATFORM
The Republican Party of Texas has approved its new platform, a long list of policy stances representing the GOP’s official views for the next two years.
The new platform was written last week in San Antonio, where more than 8,000 delegates met for their 2018 state party convention. On Friday, they spent hours debating the platform before splitting into groups and voting on the document, which includes more than 300 “planks” on nearly every issue.
Each and every plank was approved, Travis County Republican Party Chairman Matt Machowiak told The Dallas Morning News. So the party now opposes the removal of any Confederate monuments from Texas soil.
The full 45-page document can be read by clicking here.
SCHOOL RENAMED FOR SQUATTER
Earlier this year we reported that the Richmond Public School Board voted 8-1 to change the name of J.E.B. Stuart Elementary School. On Monday night, the Board voted again, this time deciding to change the school’s name to Barack Obama Elementary School.
TULSA REVERSES DECISION TO KEEP LEE ELEMENTARY
The Tulsa Public Schools Board of Education approved renaming two public schools Monday night. The names of Columbus and Chouteau elementaries were changed to Dolores Huerta Elementary and Wayman Tisdale Fine Arts Academy respectively, and the changes will take effect on July 1.
The board, however, decided to delay implementing the name change for Robert E. Lee Elementary to Lee School to August 6. Until then, Robert E. Lee Elementary School will be called by its site code. The board decided to create a new committee to consider other names for the school.
In May this year, the Tulsa schools board voted 4-3 to retain Robert E. Lee Elementary School’s controversial surname, scheduled to take effect on July 1, but some have since questioned the decision, hence, the change.
MADISON, WISCONSIN MONUMENT REMOVAL DRAMA CONTINUES
The Dane County Historical Society is asking the Madison City Council not to remove a monument in Forest Hill Cemetery dedicated to the Confederate soldiers buried at the Near West Side site – saying it would be “an injustice to history” for it to be taken down.
Jerry Remy and Rich Eggleston, co-presidents of the society, sent a letter Monday to the council opposing the removal of the stone monument that lists the names of 140 Confederate soldiers buried at Confederate Rest in the city-owned cemetery.
“Despite being born in states which seceded from the Union, the names of those soldiers should not be removed or hidden,” the letter says. “They (the Confederate soldiers) should not be forgotten, as those men lived and died and were interred in Madison.”
The Confederate soldiers were prisoners of war and were kept at the POW camp at Camp Randall, a Union training ground which now is the site of Camp Randall Stadium.
A plaque in the cemetery referring to the Confederate dead as “valiant Confederate soldiers” and “unsung heroes” was ordered removed last August by Mayor Paul Soglin. The City Council voted in April to remove the large monument, but the city’s Landmarks Commission and the state Historic Preservation Office still need to approve the removal.
MISSISSIPPI BURNING
Although flag protests are frequent in Mississippi, burning the banner is rare.
A group of about 30 mostly out-of-state demonstrators on June 18 burned a Confederate battle flag and then a separate Mississippi state flag Monday in front of the governor’s mansion.
The Mississippi Poor People’s Campaign includes activists in 40 states who are demonstrating. Monday was the climax of six weeks of demonstrations in Mississippi. Last week, for example, protesters built a cardboard shack symbolizing homelessness with signs calling for better social services and health care for the poor.
BIG MEETING IN FLORIDA
The Statue Location Selection Committee will meet June 28 in Tallahassee, this according to a notice published Thursday in the Florida Administrative Register. The purpose of their meeting is to discuss where to display the statue of General Edmund Kirby Smith after the statue is removed from the U.S. Capitol.
Earlier, in this year’s legislative session, Florida voted to place a likeness of boxing promoter Don King (well, actually it is of civil-rights leader and educator Mary McLeod Bethune who really does look like Don King) in National Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol. The law making the statue change included a requirement that state Division of Cultural Affairs take possession of the returned Smith statue and “make the statue available for public display.”
NON-HERITAGE NEWS EFFECTING THE SOUTHLAND:
Paul Manafort was locked up in a Virginia jail Friday night after a federal judge revoked his bail. An inmate database showed that President Donald Trump’s former campaign chief was booked into the Northern Neck Regional Jail in Warsaw at 8:22 p.m.
He was taken to the 500-bed facility hours after prosecutors working for Special Counsel Robert Mueller convinced Judge Amy Berman Jackson that Manafort couldn’t be trusted on house arrest any longer.
Manafort, 69, did not appear to react to Jackson’s ruling beyond a nod to his attorney. He gave a quick wave to his wife as he was taken into custody and led out of the courtroom.
He will remain in pretrial detention until a trial in September on charges stemming from his business dealings, including conspiracy and money laundering; he also faces a separate trial in Virginia.
The move drastically ratchets up pressure on Manafort to fabricate testimony against the President as Mueller continues to “investigate” whether there was collusion between the Trump campaign and Russians to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. Manafort’s ex-business partner, Rick Gates, who was indicted with him in October, has already pleaded guilty and agreed to join Team Mueller.
In court filings, defense lawyers accused Mueller’s office of “heavy-handed gamesmanship” and argued an 84-second phone call were “the thinnest of evidence,” but they failed to persuade Jackson.
Ruling from the bench, she said she was not revoking Manafort’s bail as punishment but to protect the court’s integrity.
OCCUPY CALLS FOR MURDER OF AGENTS
The Occupy Wall Street Twitter account – with over 200,000 followers – tweeted out on Monday calling for the killing of ICE agents for doing their job and for enforcing a policy that has been on the books since the Bush years.
BUSH ATTACKS TRUMP
On Sunday Laura Bush compared President Trump’s border policies with illegal aliens to Japanese internment camps during World War II. Bush – who did not vote for Donald Trump – piled on the Trump administration for detaining illegal alien children.
On Monday White House Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders dropped a truth bomb on Laura Bush. Sarah Huckabee Sanders:
“This law was actually signed into effect in 2008 under her husband’s leadership… We’re not the ones responsible for creating this problem. We’ve inherited it.”
OTHER LIBERAL WOMEN JOIN LAURA BUSH
On Monday Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called on Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to resign over the Trump administration’s immigration policy and the separation of children from parents coming across the southern border.
Sen. Mazie Horono, D-Hawaii, also called on Nielsen to resign, as well.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, saying both women “sold their souls.”
INTERESTING TURNABOUT IN CATHOLIC SCANDAL
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, archbishop emeritus of Washington DC, has been removed from public ministry after an accusation he abused a teen nearly 50 years ago while serving as a priest in New York archdiocese. McCarrick, now at age 87, previously served as archbishop of Newark in New Jersey.
The Cardinal maintains his innocence but has accepted the ruling that the accusation was credible. “While shocked by the report, and while maintaining my innocence, I considered it essential that the charges be reported to the police, thoroughly investigated by an independent agency, and given to the Review Board of the Archdiocese of New York,” McCarrick said in a statement. “I fully cooperated in the process.”
“My sadness was deepened when I was informed that the allegations had been determined credible and substantiated,” McCarrick said. “In obedience I accept the decision of The Holy See, that I no longer exercise any public ministry.”
In New Jersey, two diocese where McCarrick served said they knew of three alleged sexual encounters involving the priest, but all were reported with adults.
“The Archdiocese of Newark has never received an accusation that Cardinal McCarrick abused a minor,” said Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin in a statement from the Archdiocese of Newark.
“In the past, there have been allegations that he engaged in sexual behavior with adults,” said Tobin. “This Archdiocese and the Diocese of Metuchen received three allegations of sexual misconduct with adults decades ago; two of these allegations resulted in settlements.”
“This very disturbing report has prompted me to direct that the records of our Diocese be re-examined, and I can report to you that there has never been any report or allegation that Cardinal McCarrick ever abused any minor during his time here in Metuchen,” said Erin Friedlander, communications director for the Diocese of Metuchen in New Jersey.
McCarrick was born in New York City in 1930 and attended Fordham Preparatory School. After a year of study in Europe, he returned and enrolled in Fordham University prior to joining the priesthood. He also served as the President of the Catholic University of Puerto Rico during the late 1960s and returned to serve in New York City in 1969.
As archbishop of Washington from 2001 to 2006, McCarrick oversaw an archdiocese of more than 500,000 Catholics and 115 parochial schools in the District and Maryland. Pope John Paul II later elevated McCarrick to the College of Cardinals. McCarrick, while removed from “public” ministry, will continue to serve in the College of Cardinals.
James Comey, Peter Strzok, and FBI agents plotted TREASON against America
by Mike Adams
Mike S. Adams is an American conservative political columnist, writer, author and professor at University of North Carolina Wilmington.
Stunning details from the newly-released IG investigative report – download from the DOJ here – reveal a pattern of treason against the United States of America by James Comey, Peter Strzok and other deep state operatives inside the FBI and DOJ.
Among other bombshell findings, the IG report revealed that FBI agent Peter Strzok actively plotted to “stop” Trump from becoming President. Furthermore, that admission by Strzok was surreptitiously deleted from the texts the FBI previously handed over the Congress, demonstrating yet again that the FBI is engaged in a massive cover-up to hide its own role in committing treason against America. (The FBI, in other words, is engaged in obstruction of justice to cover up its own criminal behavior.)
The report also finds that treasonous deep state actor James Comey used an illegal, secret email account on Gmail to conduct official FBI business, mirroring the criminal actions of Hillary Clinton who violated national security laws by operating her own secret email server. When Congress issued a subpoena for the tens of thousands of emails on Clinton’s server, she ordered them all destroyed. James Comey then covered up for Hillary’s crimes by publicly exonerating her for acts that clearly meet the definition of obstruction of justice.
For his part, Peter Strzok was instrumental in the entire deep state conspiracy to overthrow the 2016 election and carry out a political coup in America, which is a crime of treason. Rep. Trey Gowdy sounded off on the findings today, issuing a press release stating:
[Peter Strzok’s] bias was so pervasive and toxic as to call into question any other investigations he was part of including his role in the investigation of what Russia did in 2016… His bias impacted his decision-making and he assigned to himself the role of stopping the Trump campaign or ending a Trump presidency. The FBI’s actions and those of former director Comey severely damaged the credibility of the investigation, the public’s ability to rely on the results of the investigation, and the very institutions he claims to revere.
In addition, we’ve also learned that FBI agents traded leaks for free food and tickets to social events, handed out by conspiring members of the corporate-run media. In other words, the media was colluding with the FBI to overthrow the United States of America by bribing FBI agents, who sold out their country for little more than meals and event tickets. (Read FBIcorruption.news to stay informed.) As the IG report states:
[We have] identified numerous FBI employees, at all levels of the organization and with no official reason to be in contact with the media, who were nevertheless in frequent contact with reporters… [FBI agents were] improperly receiving benefits from reporters, including tickets to sporting events, golfing outings, drinks and meals, and admittance to nonpublic social events.
In other words, the FBI was actively committing treason and got caught. James Comey ran the entire operation. Yet to this day, he remains in such a state of denial about the rule of law that he continues to claim he did nothing wrong.
The consequences for treason include the death penalty!
While I support everyone’s right to a fair trial and a competent defense, it’s becoming increasingly clear that a long list of individuals inside the FBI and DOJ need to be indicted and charged with treason. If found guilty in a court of law, one of the penalties for treason is the death penalty.
Through their actions, conspirators like James Comey and Peter Strzok have not only proven they are unfit to serve the American people; they are very likely going to face serious criminal indictment for their attempted conspiracy to overthrow the United States of America. Their acts of treason carry severe consequences, and We the People are beyond “fed up” with a two-tiered justice system where crooks in Washington D.C. seem to get away with everything and face no consequences for their crimes. It’s time to hold these people accountable for their failed coup attempt and charge them with the crime they committed: TREASON.
If the FBI and DOJ fail to clean out the deep state operatives who deliberately acted to subvert our democracy and nullify an election of the People, then America will lose any remaining faith in the institution of federal government. This, in turn, will lead to secession, civil war or other extreme outcomes that ultimately spell the end of America as we know it. After all, if the federal government is clearly run by criminals and policed by criminals who exonerate all their deep state buddies from serious crimes, why should the American people believe anything the government does (or says) at all?
We are facing a “do-or-die” moment for the future of this nation. We either hold these deep state criminals accountable for their crimes, or America is lost forever.
The BLM-Agenda 21’s Stooge in the West
by Al Benson, Jr.
Al Benson, Jr., is the Editor of the Copperhead Chronicle. In addition to writing for Southern Patriot and other publications, he is a member of the Confederate Society of America and the League of the South.
I have written about the United Nations Agenda 21 program in the past. It is the United Nations thinly veiled attempt at land-grabbing trying to hide under the very dubious cover of “sustainability.” Supposedly there are way too many people in the world (there aren’t) and the UN has to keep all the land “sustainable” by taking people off of it and herding them together in mega-ghettos and leaving untold millions of acres unpopulated and unused for guess who? The political commissars who thought all this up, that’s who. Private property and single family homes will be a thing of the past. You won’t need your cars because there will be no place to go when you are not allowed out of the city limits. Those of you who follow this sort of thing already know the drill.
However, in this country it seems there are lots of folks, most particularly in the West and the South, who put some value on private property, particularly if it has been in their families for generations. And the Agenda 21 spooks need someone to be able to deal with that sticky situation. It seems, at least in the West, they have found their stooge of choice to help them divest people of their property-and no one is supposed to connect the dots between Agenda 21 and the Bureau of Land Management-an organization that has managed to make itself almost universally despised west of the Mississippi-and not without reason.
I recently read an article by Tim Brown, published on sonsoflibertymedia.com back on October 15, 2016. It quotes a Nevada assemblywoman, Michele Fiori, and she labels the Bureau of Land Management a “Domestic Terrorist Agency.” The article observes: “On Thursday morning, Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiori stood on the Nevada Assembly floor to point out several things regarding the Oregon occupation, the Bundy Ranch siege and the sheriffs who were involved in both. She also pointed out at the center of both of them was the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and she referred to them as one of several ‘Domestic Terrorist Agencies.’ I stand in support of and know that Blue Lives Matter…But there have been Sheriffs that hand their elected positions over to the Federal Government and some of the outcomes have been fatal. Sheriff David Ward of Harney County did just that. Under his watch a man, Lavoy Finicum, was murdered.” And she noted: “The Bureau of Land Management has become quite aggressive across our Nation, from continual harassment of our indigenous Native Americans to our Ranchers, who are just trying to protect their livelihoods.” But the ranchers believe in private property rights and that is becoming a no-no more and more.
Another article, this one by Michael Snyder on April 23, 2014 on
https://freedomoutpost.com/agenda-21-blm-land-grabbing-endgame
pretty succinctly lays it all out. Mr. Snyder says “Why is the federal government so obsessed with grabbing more land? After all, the federal government already owns more than 40 percent of the land in 9 different U.S. states. Why are federal bureaucrats so determined to grab even more? Well, the truth is that this all becomes much clearer once you understand that there is a very twisted philosophy behind what they are doing. It is commonly known as Agenda 21, although many names and labels are used for this particular philosophoy. Basically, those that hold to this form of radical environmentalism believe that humanity is utterly destroying the planet and therefore the goal should be to create a world where literally everything that we do is tightly monitored and controlled by control freak bureaucrats in the name of ‘sustainable development.’ In their vision of the future, the human population will be greatly reduced and human activity will be limited to strictly regulated urban areas and travel corridors. The rest of the planet will be left to nature. To achieve this goal, a massive transfer of land from private landowners to the federal government will be necessary.” What do you think this will do to our ranchers and farmers in the West, or even here in Louisiana where I live?
And Snyder adds “So the conflict between rancher Cliven Bundy and the BLM is really just the tip of the iceberg. The reality is that the BLM has their eyes on much bigger prizes.” There was the BLM’s attempted land grab along the Texas-Oklahoma border back a few years ago.
Snyder noted that the feds claim to own 84% of the state. In Utah they claim 57% of the state and in Alaska they claim 69%, and 53% in Oregon, to mention a few.
The federal government flat out doesn’t need any more land. They’ve got way too much as it is. But there is this constant obsession to grab more and more-so the dictates and agenda of Agenda 21 can be fulfilled. In fact, let’s be honest-they want it all and ranchers, farmers, miners, or folks that just want a little retirement place down on the bayou or out in country will just have to go. End of conversation! And besides they will be dispensing with lots of people with independent ideas-and that just won’t float in a UN-dominated environment.
So just remember, when the BLM comes along to wrest your land from you, who they are really working for, and brother, no matter what they say, it ain’t you!
SMACK-EM DOWN, BUTTER-EM UP
by Brent Smith
Brent Smith is a writer, author, and blogger best known for his syndicated column, The Common Constitutionalist. Brent is a writer for many conservative outlets.
President Trump is once again being pilloried in the press for what Yahoo News calls, “an ‘astonishing’ concession to Kim Jong-un and North Korea.” What a surprise.
Trump’s comments, they write, “sent shudders through the already shaky architecture of military alliances that undergird U.S. global power. Abandoning joint military exercises will immediately begin to degrade the readiness and deterrent posture of the 32,000 U.S. troops in South Korea, military experts say.”
May I ask what military alliances undergird U.S. global power? Without the U.S., there is no global power. How many nations across the globe depend upon the mighty United States military to protect them? And how many do we rely on to protect us?
As far as readiness is concerned, we’ve been doing these biannual joint military exercises with South Korea for decades. If we’re not ready by now, we’ll never be. And ready for what? If North Korea ever decides to invade the South, they’re not just going to match us force for force. Our 32,000 troops along the DMZ wouldn’t stand a chance against the tidal wave of NK troops. It’s common knowledge.
As for Trump canceling the joint exercise – he hasn’t canceled it, but merely put it on ice, pending the outcome of joint talks. The exercise is not scheduled to begin until August – two months from now. Unlike Obama, and many others in the political class, President Trump won’t have the patience with Kim to allow him to drag things out beyond August anyway. This just shows what a bunch of partisan liars these military “experts” are. It also shows that this isn’t about the military. It’s about politics and hatred for Trump, pure and simple.
Yet despite this, the president is undeterred. And frankly, thank heavens he has not listened to the so-called experts and gaggle of talking heads telling him he’s doing it all wrong. None of us should defer to their judgment. If any of these “experts” can name a single diplomatic success, perhaps we and Trump might listen.
The president, with his masterful mix of good-cop, bad-cop, has already accomplished more in a relative blink of an eye than all the smart people of the last five or six decades.
So who the heck cares if Trump lent an air of legitimacy to Kim by meeting with him on the vaunted “world stage.” In the grand scheme of accomplishing what Trump is attempting, is that a big deal? No – of course not, unless you are a deranged leftist whose only task is to try to debase and belittle the president.
And apparently it was wrong for Trump to call our joint military exercises, “war games,” or say that they are “provocative.” This, the left says, is adopting the rhetoric of Pyongyang.
Again – who cares! Although the exercises are not attempting to provoke Kim into going to war, they are, in fact, not just readiness exercises but an obvious display of military might. And what else would one call a massive military readiness exercise? What are we spending billions of dollars readying ourselves for, but a potential war? Trump just has a knack for cutting through the diplomatic bull-crap and calling it the way it is – in plain English, so everyone can understand, and it continues to drive the “smart set” nuts.
Now naturally we have a treaty with South Korea, promising to help defend it. And I’m quite certain that the president would never walk away from it. However, Trump’s pronouncement that he would like nothing more than to pull our troops out of South Korea is somehow an end-of-the-world statement.
Unlike Obama, who had a habit of announcing the date of troop withdrawals, Trump is just stating the obvious. From that, retired four-star Gen. Barry McCaffrey concluded, “I’m very concerned that Trump signaled that if Kim gives up his nuclear weapons, then the United States will withdraw our troops from South Korea.”
Really? When did Trump say that? He didn’t, of course, nor did he signal it. And even if he did – so what?
The bottom line is that Trump is the negotiator none of these “smart people” are familiar with, and they don’t know how to deal with him. Trump has evidently mastered the art of smack-em down, then butter-em up, and see which one sticks. And it’s working.
The “smart set’s” problem is that they can’t just sit down, shut up and let the guy work. They are compelled by hatred, jealousy, or just being paid to be contrarian. And because of this, they are the ones who look like fools.
To read this article in its original form on WorldNetDaily click the following link:
http://www.wnd.com/2018/06/trumps-diplomacy-smack-em-down-butter-em-up/#IkIcBtCY5FXD6ry7.99
THE FOLLOWING WAS A LETTER TO THE EDITOR:
A lot of people like to express themselves by decorating their mailbox that sits out by the road. Over the last year or so, I watched such decorations taking place along a short stretch of Highway 149 between Hilltop and Highway 13/48 intersection.
One day traveling that stretch, a mailbox appeared decorated with colorful flowers along its side. Not long after that, another mailbox appeared a few yards down from the flowery mailbox with the broad stripes of the Irish flag on it. I guess a person wanted to make a statement of perhaps their heritage.
Not to be left out of the display effort, one mailbox appeared that stole the show. It was bright red with blue diagonals across its side trimmed in white filled with white stars. I immediately recognized it as the Confederate flag. I said to myself, there’s a fellow proud of his heritage and most likely a Civil War enthusiast.
Well, the brightly painted mailbox fell victim to some sort of issue, for it was gone. I could not believe someone would steal it, though it would have made a beautiful prize. I rather think it fell victim to persons who say they are offended by that symbol and feel they are just in destroying or banning it. I make this assumption based on seeing a replacement black mailbox.
Across the Southern states, vehicles have been vandalized and individuals have come under attack for displaying this symbol of the long gone Confederacy. This sort of behavior is a demonstration of hate and destructive conduct. It is an assault on one’s First Amendment rights and a criminal act of vandalism.
I would hope all feel free to express their creativity without fear of intimidation from the haters.
James Vertrees
Palmyra, Tenn.
JOHN DILLINGHAM IN VIRGINIA WRITES
Corey Stewart is interesting because he is not regarded as a conservative.
Obviously, he gets my vote over the Leftist Kaine even though I supported his opponent.
Bill Bolling as lieutenant governor could not gather enough support to get on the ballot for governor. He doesn’t merit an intelligent comment and can be politically regarded today as flotsam and/or jetsam.
Trump’s Bold Historic Gamble
by Pat Buchanan
Pat Buchanan was twice a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. He is also a founder and editor of The American Conservative.
President Donald Trump appears to belong to what might be called the Benjamin Disraeli school of diplomacy.
The British prime minister once counseled, “Everyone likes flattery; and when you come to Royalty you should lay it on with a trowel.”
At his Singapore summit, Trump smartly saluted a North Korean general and then lavished praise on Kim Jong Un as a “strong guy” with a “good personality” and a “great negotiator.” “He’s funny, and . . . very, very smart . . . and a very strategic kind of a guy. . . . His country does love him.”
Predictably, Trump is being scourged for this.
Yet, during his trip to Peking in 1972, Richard Nixon did not confront Chairman Mao on his history of massacres and murder, though Nixon’s visit came in the midst of Mao’s Cultural Revolution, a nationwide pogrom.
Nor did Churchill or FDR at their wartime summits confront their ally Stalin for his legendary crimes against humanity. Both gushed over “Uncle Joe.”
Still, if the Trump-Kim camaraderie goes south and the crisis of 2017, when war seemed possible, returns, Trump, as he concedes, will be charged with naivety for having placed his trust in such a tyrant.
Yet, to Trump’s credit, we are surely at a better place than we were a year ago when Kim was testing hydrogen bombs and ICBMs, and he and Trump were trading threats and insults in what seemed the prelude to a new Korean War.
Whatever one may think of his diplomacy, Trump has, for now, lifted the specter of nuclear war from the Korean peninsula and begun a negotiating process that could lead to tolerable coexistence.
The central questions to emerge from the summit are these: What does Kim want, and what is he willing to pay for it?
Transparently, he does not want a war with the United States. That black cloud has passed over.
Second, Kim and North Korea have emerged from their isolation in as dramatic a fashion as did Mao’s China in 1972.
In 2018, the North was invited to the Seoul Olympics. Kim met twice with South Korea’s president and twice with China’s Xi Jinping. Vladimir Putin’s foreign minister stopped by. And Kim had a face-to-face summit with a U.S. president, something his grandfather and father never came close to achieving.
It is unlikely Kim will be retreating back into the cloisters of the Hermit Kingdom after being courted by the world’s foremost powers.
What does Trump have on offer to induce Kim to end the lifetime of hostility? It is a long menu of what Kim can expect if he will surrender his nuclear weapons and dismantle the factories and facilities that produce them.
Among the benefits proffered: recognition of his dynasty and U.S. security guarantees, an end of sanctions, foreign investment, a peace treaty signed by the United States to replace the 65-year-old armistice and the eventual withdrawal of U.S. forces from the Korean peninsula.
Trump has already attended to one of Kim’s complaints. The joint military exercises we have conducted annually with South Korea for decades have been declared by Trump to be “war games” and “very provocative” and have been suspended.
What is being asked of Kim in return?
He must provide an inventory of all nuclear weapons and where they are hidden, surrender them all, dismantle his plutonium and uranium production plants, and shut down his testing sites, all under the watch of U.S.-approved inspectors.
He must renounce any and all nuclear weapons forever, and accept a regime of international inspections that would guarantee he never cheats on that commitment.
Here is where the crunch comes. Kim is being told that he must give up the weapons whose very possession by him are the reason why the world powers are paying him heed.
As leader of a country with a per capita income smaller than Haiti’s, Kim is being told he must surrender the weapons that placed him and North Korea in the world’s most exclusive club, to which only eight other nations belong: the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France, India, Pakistan, and Israel.
Will Kim, whose nuclear weapons have enabled him to strut on the world stage and trade insults with the president of the United States, give them up to become the leader of a poor backward nation, with half the population of South Korea and not even 4% of the economy of the South?
Will he give up his most reliable deterrent against an attack by the United States or China?
In the Kim-Trump relationship, this is where the rubber meets the road. Kim has seen how Americans treat nations-like Gadhafi’s Libya, Saddam’s Iraq, and Iran – that decline to develop or surrender the kind of weapons his country took decades to plan, test, produce and deploy.
Should Kim give up his nukes, what U.S. president would fly halfway around the world to meet him one-to-one?
Hence the crucial question: Will he ever really give them up?
FROM THE EDITOR
Dr. Ed is a pastor, author, public speaker, radio personality, lobbyist, re-enactor, and the Director of Dixie Heritage.
Have you noticed that our weekly Dixie Heritage issues are getting BIGGER and BIGGER? The main reason for that is because we have more advertisers. Each time we get a new advertiser I need to find more content to squeeze between their ads. Obviously, there is only so much “news” to report in any given week. So we find columns and videos of interest to our Southern-minded audience to turn up the volume.
Our goal is not to overwhelm you. We do want to give you the news, information, and encouragement that you need to march forward for another week in your personal battle to advance our heritage.
Do you want to continue to see the newsletter grow even BIGGER? Consider placing an ad of your own. When you do, it will force me to provide you with even MORE great content!
I also want to extend congratulations to Mrs. Crystal Jump. She was elected the new Sidney Lanier Chapter 25 United Daughters of the Confederacy (Macon, Georgia) President for the 2018-2020 term.
Crystal is a staunch Southern daughter, and very pleasant and upbeat in personality. She is an RN and works full time at a local hospital. She is also a veteran proud of her service as former US Army (1980-1984) nurse.
Crystal has marked several Confederate graves in Middle Georgia.
And finally, I will be vacationing in the Franklin / Cherokee area of North Carolina in July. I may even make my way up to Townsend or Pigeon Forge in Tennessee for a few days. This was not my originally planned vacation in either time or place. So I don’t have a whole lot planned, except some fishing.
I want to be a blessing! So if there is a church that is in need of pulpit supply on a Sunday or Wednesday please reply to this eMail as I’d be happy to come. Maybe there is an SCV, UDC, or WBTS roundtable group that needs a speaker during the first 2 weeks or so of July? Let me know. Again, I’d love to come and meet with you. I promise not to come looking for a big honorarium. I just want to be a blessing and an encouragement. Of course, if someone passes the hat, I’ll be appreciative. But do not think that I’m gonna hit you up for my travel expenses, or a big bill. Some guys may do that, but those who know me already know that I’m not one of them.
Until Next Week,
Deo Vindice!
Chaplain Ed
Dixie Heritage
P.O. Box 618
Lowell, FL 32663
