AFTERMATH
A Frederick County, Maryland, museum is considering removing the Confederate Flag from its logo. But first, it wants to know what you think.
The National Museum of Civil War Medicine has launched an effort to rebrand itself, and it is asking the public fill out a short online survey.
UNFAIR FOR ALL
Fair for All – a group organized in 2017 is trying to eliminate Confederate Flags from being sold at all County and State fairs.
This past week, the group castigated Cornell University and Cornell’s Cooperative Extension for failing to condemn Flag sales at recent New York State county fairs. So far, Fair for All has encountered fewer successes than it desires in upstate New York. Cornell President Martha Pollack has stated that the University does not control the area fairs. What Is Fair for All?
So far, Fair for All has convinced 10 of the 54 fairs to implement official policies against “hate symbols.”
LOUISIANA UDC GIVEN 90-DAY NOTICE
The Caddo Parish Commission is demanding the removal of the Confederate Monument in front of the parish courthouse within 90 days.
Parish attorney Donna Frazier sent a letter to the United Daughters of the Confederacy giving the group 90 days to remove their monument.
The news was reported by KTAL television.
FLORIDA STILL FIGHTING OVER GENERAL KIRBY SMITH
A letter pushed by Tavares Mayor Troy Singer and supposedly signed by the mayors of Clermont, Eustis, Groveland, Leesburg, Mascotte, Mount Dora and Minneola is asking Governor Ron DeSantis to prevent the statue of a Confederate general that has represented Florida in the nation’s capital for nearly a century from being relocated to the Lake County Historical Society and Museum in Tavares.
Governor DeSantis didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. But remember he is dealing with a hurricane this week.
Sarah Revell, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Laurel Lee, tells us that Department of State officials had not yet received the letter from the Lake County mayors.
Museum Curator Bob Grenier, who has played a key role in the effort to bring the Smith statue to the county, could not be immediately reached for comment on Thursday.
The 9-foot marble statue of Bethune, under construction in Italy, is expected to arrive at the nation’s capital in 2020. Until then, the statue of General Smith will remain in place.
I AINT LEAVING
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said Tuesday, in her first public appearance since issuing a public apology last week for appearing in a blackface skit 52 years ago told reporters that she has NO plans to resign.
“Heavens no, I’m not going to resign. It’s something that happened 52 years ago and I’m not that person. My administration stands on being inclusive and helping people,” the Republican governor said.
The Alabama NAACP on Tuesday repeated a call for Ivey to resign. The group pointed to some of her actions as governor, including signing legislation to protect Confederate monuments and other historic statues from being torn down.
Alabama Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton, who is black, said that he appreciated Ivey “owning” the incident and apologizing for it.
NON-HERITAGE NEWS AFFECTING THE SOUTHLAND:
Oklahoma judge orders Johnson & Johnson to pay $572M for part in opioid crisis
In a landmark case, American drug manufacturer Johnson & Johnson will pay $572 million (USD) for its role in Oklahoma’s opioid drug crisis. The state asked for $17 billion and the company is appealing the ruling.
STORMING THE WHITE HOUSE GATES
In May the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives passed sweeping new “civil rights” legislation for LGBTQ, etc. The Republican-controlled Senate has yet to act, however.
Now Taylor Swift is leading a mob of celebrities demanding that President Trump support the legislation. And we all know how enamored the President is with “celebrities.”
GUN CONFISCATION COMING SOON
The deal has officially been reached. Republicans and Democrats have come to terms on a new Federal gun confiscation program.
The media calls it a Red Flag law, but the technical name for it is an Extreme Risk Protection Order. The “compromise” that was just reached would create a Federal program to help states confiscate their residents’ guns, even if they haven’t committed a crime.
If that sounds unconstitutional to you, it should. It is flagrantly unconstitutional. Extreme Risk Protection Orders work by targeting people who are believed to be dangerous, but before they have actually committed a crime. If a family member, neighbor, friend, co-worker, or even a complete stranger tells police that they think a gun owner is dangerous, that hearsay alone would be enough to justify a confiscation raid.
Legally, the disarmed gun owner has done nothing wrong. But they are disarmed because police worry they could break the law at a later date. In order to get their firearms back, the disarmed gun owner must hire a lawyer and convince a judge that they aren’t dangerous and won’t hurt anyone. Instead of the prosecutors having to prove they are guilty, it is up to the gun owner to prove their innocence. But forget about “guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.” If the judge believes there is even a 50/50 chance that the person is dangerous, then they can extend the confiscation order for up to a year.
Just like that, an innocent gun owner who has never even been accused of committing a crime loses their God-given right to keep and bear arms. They are presumed guilty without the government even having to file charges against them.
And now, the GOP wants to help Democrats take this program nationwide. They want to use your tax dollars to help implement gun confiscation programs across the country to target innocent people. The Democrats want to make this gun confiscation program mandatory, otherwise states would lose access to Federal law enforcement funds.
This is not a drill. Democrats are calling an emergency session to vote on this gun confiscation bill and they have Republican help.
And the first vote is next week!
Don’t let the GOP surrender your gun rights! Send your eMail or call your Congressman before it’s too late and force them to KILL this unconstitutional Red Flag confiscation bill!
In Maryland, a 61-year-old man was shot and killed by police in his doorway last year because he refused to comply with their confiscation order. It turns out that he was innocent, an angry family member turned him into police anyway “to get even” with him.
Last week, Johnathan Carpenter, a Florida resident who had his guns seized because he has the same name as an alleged domestic abuser had to hire an attorney at great expense even though it is clearly a case of mistaken identity. Now he has to wait weeks for a hearing before he is allowed to try to convince a judge that he is innocent. But in the meantime, he is not allowed to own or carry a firearm for self-defense. He has lost his rights.
Today, in a new case in Connecticut, Brandon Wagshol is a 22 year old man who was recently arrested for posting threatening messages on social media. Make no mistake, he is no angel. He hadn’t yet committed any crimes but under Connecticut’s Red Flag law, the threats alone were enough for police to take him into custody. Police confiscated his .40 caliber pistol and .22 rifle, but they didn’t stop there. They also seized his father’s guns as well. Even though they were registered to the father, police believed that the son ‘had access to them,’ so they took them too. Brandon Wagshol is being held in prison until he can find a way to post bond, but his father has still been disarmed pending the outcome of the case, even though he did absolutely nothing wrong.
These are the realities that the President and his new buddies advocating gun control don’t want you to know about.
Every state that has passed a Red Flag law has seen them abused. Angry neighbors, estranged spouses, and disgruntled co-workers have all been caught using this red flag process to ‘get even’ with someone who, legally, has done absolutely nothing wrong. There is now undeniable proof that these laws are abused and violate innocent Americans’ rights.
But this is what both Republicans and Democrats want!
Instead of being innocent until proven guilty, their plan would flip those principles of justice upside down. If someone accuses you of being dangerous, then it is up to you to convince a judge that you are innocent. If the judge doesn’t believe you, then your God-given right to self-defense would be revoked.
And the President along with the spineless GOP are helping them pass this into law!
Don’t let the GOP surrender your gun rights! Send your eMail or call your Congressman before it’s too late and force them to KILL this unconstitutional Red Flag confiscation bill!
As I said, the first vote is next week. Democrats are calling an emergency session to push the confiscation package through committee and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) now says he has enough Democrats on board to push his confiscation package through in the Senate as well.
This is happening. The fight has now reached your doorstep.
Republicans and Democrats are about to pass a “law” that would allow innocent gun owners to have their God-given self-defense rights taken away. This is what the Left has always dreamed of, and now the GOP is going to give it to them.
Please, you must fight back before they rush this through!
An Inside Job
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.
We are approaching the 18th anniversary of the infamous 911 event.
I can remember being at work when it happened, in Northern Illinois, and most folks there had radios on listening in shock to what was going on. I can recall saying to one of my supervisors, “This event is going to contribute to a massive loss of liberty for the American people.” He agreed. And with the Patriot Act, (which I have been told was already prepared and ready to go when this happened) we have experienced a massive loss of liberty.
Now we have old folks being groped in airports and grandma can no longer take her toothpaste on the plane with her because it might be a terrorist weapon, and by now most of you know the drill, especially if you have to fly. We’ve only flown once since this insanity started. We flew out of Jackson, Mississippi. I have a pin in my hip because it was broken years ago and when I went through their scan thing that pin set it off, so naturally they wanted to give me the whole treatment.
I don’t know if it was my grouchy look or what, but the guy that dealt with me was pretty careful and probably did the least he could get by with doing and explained to me what he would do as we went along. Even at that, it is still an invasion of your privacy but because the feds are doing it it’s supposed to be okay. After all, with the misnamed Patriot Act, who has any privacy anymore? And if you still think you do, then I have a big bridge in the Arizona desert I’d love to sell you at bargain rates!
I have a friend in another part of the South who just today sent me a website I would love to have folks go and check out. It is https://www.ae911truth.org It is a site that is operated by a group of architects and engineers that have done lots of research into what really happened to the buildings in New York on 911. Needless to say, what they have found does not square with what we have been told. This group also has a Facebook page. I checked that out, and also their website and they have some videos on there also.
I used the search engine Duck Duck Go to do this. You might try that search engine, as they claim they do not track what you look at, whereas we all know Google does.
These folks do not seem to be wacky conspiracy theorists-no green men from Mars or weekend rocket ships to Venus to get your teeth worked on, and nothing about Area 51.
They seem to look at the buildings that were destroyed from the position of architects and engineers and ask if it could really happen the way the feds tell us it did. And can you really blame folks for questioning the feds? They have lied to so many for so long about so much, from the Lincoln assassination to the Kennedy assassinations to the “weapons of mutual destruction” in Iraq and so much more I can’t begin to recount it all.
But go in and check out the website of these engineers and architects and see what they have to say. It will be worth your time and effort.
A BAD BARGAIN FOR SOCIETY
by Hannah Cox
Hannah Cox is the National Manager of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, a free-market think tank.
On a new podcast called “Confronting O.J. Simpson,” Kim Goldman, the sister of Ron Goldman, who was killed alongside Nicole Brown Simpson, says, “The U.S has a legal system, not a justice system.”
She’s right. And we have a lazy legal system at that.
Less than 50% of all crimes are solved at all, and even fewer go on to trial. Of those, at least 90% of cases that are “solved” are plead out at both the state and federal levels.
Most assume that a person who pleads guilty or confesses to a crime is certainly guilty. Under that assumption, a plea deal – which saves the money and time of a trial while producing swift outcomes – would be a good thing. But we know that assumption is incorrect.
Thanks to emerging technologies, forensic science, and most importantly the work of outside pro bono litigation groups, the nation is uncovering wrongful convictions faster than the media can report on them. To date, we’re approaching 2,500 exonerations, equating to 21,725 years lost by innocent Americans.
Those wrongful convictions occur for a myriad of reasons. About 25% stem from false confessions.
Why would someone confess to a crime they did not commit? Though it sounds contrary to common sense, the forces at work in our system often make it the most practical choice for the accused.
Police are under no obligation to tell the truth during interrogations, and in 25 states, they’re also under no requirement to record their interrogation process. Defendants can also be deprived of sleep during interrogations, which we know leads to a heightened likelihood of false statements, and law enforcement can question individuals for exceedingly lengthy periods of time.
The psychological impact of these techniques is powerful and causes many people to break. But even for those who are able to maintain their mental composure, there are still reasons to take a plea deal when you’re innocent.
While 20% of those arrested chose to go to trial 30 years ago, a mere 3% make the same decision today in large part due to fear of the “trial penalty.” And it isn’t a hollow fear. According to a report by the National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys, in most primary offense categories, the average post-trial sentence was more than triple the average post-plea sentence.
Additionally, for those of lesser economic means, the cash-money bail system often forces them into pleading guilty despite innocence. Under our current system, bail has little to do with the likelihood of ongoing violence and everything to do with a person’s ability to pay. For those unable to pay bail, they are left to languish in jail while they await trial. Even a few days incarcerated can result in the loss of a job, income, property, and custody of children. When facing such circumstances, many individuals will take a plea deal simply because it is the best option they have.
Our founders imagined a system that favored the defendant and protected the individual from an overreaching government. But far from the notion that it is better for a hundred guilty men to go free than for one innocent man to perish, is our current system where innocence is irrelevant.
Prosecutors have accumulated great power in our political and judicial systems, and they often use it to increase their oversight and jurisdiction. District attorneys’ conferences remain one of the most influential lobbying bodies at most state capitals and continue to insist that their influence be expanded. And many continue to claim that they need sentences like the death penalty to wield over defendants and back them into plea deals.
We should push back aggressively on such statements. Not only does the current plea deal system result in thousands of wrongful convictions, it also results in an incalculable social toll. For every person that pleads guilty while innocent, we burden another individual with a record that will follow them around and hinder their ability to work, rent, purchase, parent, and thrive. Those economic and social costs would be astronomical if a dollar amount could be placed on them.
Not only that, but data shows that prosecutors are flat out wrong when it comes to their evaluation of the necessity of plea bargains in the legal process. Alaska, which banned plea deals in 1975, found that guilty pleas continued to flow in at undiminished rates. And in New Jersey, where the death penalty was abolished in 2007, prosecutors say that the repeal has made no difference in their ability to secure convictions.
Plea deals are a bad bargain to begin with. Our efforts should always be in pursuit of truth and justice, not legal expediency. Ridding our system of plea deals would be an excellent step towards the building of an actual justice system rather than a legal apparatus.
AMERICAN LEGION BANS U.S.S. LIBERTY VETS
by Earl Holt
Earl Holt is the Editor-in-Chief of the Citizen’s Informer and the President of the Council of Conservative Citizens.
Last Wednesday at noon at Arlington National Cemetery I attended the annual commemorative gathering of the survivors and friends of the U.S.S. Liberty. The moving service included the ringing of a ship’s bell for each one of the thirty-four American sailors, Marines and civilians that were killed in the deliberate Israeli attack that sought to sink the intelligence gathering ship and kill all its crew. Present were a number of surviving crewmembers as well as veterans like myself and other Americans who are committed to ensuring that the story of the Liberty will not die in hopes that someday the United States government will have the courage to acknowledge what actually happened on that fateful day.
It was the forty-ninth anniversary of the attack. In truth the attack on the U.S.S. Liberty by Israeli warplanes and torpedo boats on June 8, 1967, has almost faded from memory, with a younger generation completely unaware that a United States naval vessel was once deliberately attacked and nearly sunk by America’s “greatest friend and ally” Israel. The attack was followed by a cover-up that demonstrated clearly that at least one president of the United States even back nearly fifty years ago valued his relationship with the state of Israel above his loyalty to his own country.
It was in truth the worst attack ever carried out on a U.S. Naval vessel in peace time. In addition to the death toll, 171 more of the crew were wounded in the two-hour assault, which was clearly intended to destroy the intelligence gathering vessel operating in international waters collecting information on the ongoing Six Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbors. The Israelis, whose planes had their Star of David markings covered up so Egypt could be blamed, attacked the ship repeatedly from the air and with gunboats from the sea.
The incredible courage and determination of the surviving crew was the only thing that kept the Liberty from sinking. The ship’s commanding officer Captain William McGonagle was awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroic role in keeping the ship afloat, though President Lyndon Baines Johnson broke with tradition and refused to hold the medal ceremony in the White House, also declining to award it personally, delegating that task to the Secretary of the Navy in a closed to the public presentation made at the Washington Navy Yard. The additional medals given to other crew members in the aftermath of the attack made the U.S.S. Liberty the most decorated ship based on a single engagement with hostile forces in the history of the United States Navy.
The cover-up of the attack began immediately. The Liberty crew was sworn to secrecy over the incident, as were the Naval dockyard workers in Malta and even the men of the U.S.S. Davis, which had assisted the badly damaged Liberty to port. A hastily convened and conducted court of inquiry headed by Admiral John McCain acted under orders from Washington to declare the attack a case of mistaken identity. The inquiry’s senior legal counsel Captain Ward Boston, who subsequently declared the attack to be a “deliberate effort to sink an American ship and murder its entire crew,” also described how “President Lyndon Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara ordered him to conclude that the attack was a case of ‘mistaken identity’ despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.” The court’s findings were rewritten and sections relating to Israeli war crimes, to include the machine gunning of life rafts, were excised. Following in his father’s footsteps, Senator John McCain of Arizona has used his position on the Senate Armed Services Committee to effectively block any reconvening of a board of inquiry to reexamine the evidence. Most of the documents relating to the Liberty incident have never been released to the public in spite of the 49 years that have passed since the attack took place.
The faux court of inquiry and the medals awarded in secret were only the first steps in the cover-up, which has persisted to this day, orchestrated by politicians and a media that seem to place Israel’s interests ahead of those of the United States. Liberty survivors have been finding it difficult even to make their case in public. In early April a billboard that read “Help the USS Liberty Survivors – Attacked by Israel” was taken down in New Bedford Massachusetts. The billboard had been placed by the Honor Liberty Vets Organization and, as is normal practice, was paid for through a contractual arrangement that would require the billboard company to post the image for a fixed length of time. It was one of a number of billboards placed in different states. Inevitably, Israel’s well connected friends began to complain. One Jewish businessman threatened to take his business elsewhere, so the advertising company obligingly removed the billboard two weeks early.
After forty-nine years, the dwindling number of survivors of the Liberty are not looking for punishment or revenge. When asked, they will tell you that they only ask for accountability, that an impartial inquiry into the attack be convened and that the true story of what took place finally be revealed to the public.
That Congress is deaf to the pleas of the Liberty crew should surprise no one as the nation’s legislative body has been for years, as Pat Buchanan once put it, “Israeli occupied territory.” The Lobby’s ability to force Congress and even the presidency to submit to its will has been spelled out in some detail by critics, first by Paul Findley in They Dare to Speak Out, later by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt in The Israel Lobby, in Alison Weir’s Against Our Better Judgment, and most recently in Kirk Beattie’s excellent Congress and the Shaping of the Middle East.
Congressional willingness to protect Israel even when it is killing Americans is remarkable, but it is symptom of the legislative body’s willingness to go to bat for Israel reflexively, even when it is damaging to U.S. interests and to the rights that American citizens are supposed to enjoy. I note particularly legislation currently working its way through Congress that will make it illegal for any federal funding to go to any entity that supports the Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement, better known as BDS. BDS is a way to put pressure on the Israeli government over its human rights abuses that is both non-violent and potentially effective. As the federal government has its hooks all over the economy and at various levels in education as well as state and local government its threat to force the delegitimization of BDS is far from an empty one.
Existing laws in more than twenty states with more on the way, including most recently New York, punishing entities that support the peaceful BDS movement by labeling BDS as anti-Semitic and making it illegal or sanctionable to support it are direct attacks on free speech. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo stated “We want Israel to know we are on its side.” And it doesn’t stop with BDS. Recently signed trade agreements with Europe were drafted to be conditional on European acceptance of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian West Bank while Israel is also pushing to censor the internet to make material that constitutes “incitement” banned. Incitement would, of course, include anything critical of Israel or its government on the grounds that it is anti-Semitic.
Democratic candidate presumptive Hillary Clinton has explicitly promised to do all in her power to oppose BDS, telling an adoring American Israel Public Affairs Committee audience in March that “Many of the young people here today are on the front lines of the battle to oppose the alarming boycott, divestment and sanctions movement known as BDS. Particularly at a time when anti-Semitism is on the rise across the world, especially in Europe, we must repudiate all efforts to malign, isolate and undermine Israel and the Jewish people. I’ve been sounding the alarm for a while now. As I wrote last year in a letter to the heads of major American Jewish organizations, we have to be united in fighting back against BDS.”
So the treatment of the U.S.S. Liberty should surprise no one in a country whose governing class has been for decades doing the bidding of the powerful lobby of a tiny client state that has been nothing but trouble and expense for the United States of America. Will it ever end? As the Israel Lobby currently controls the relevant parts of the federal government and much of the media change is not likely to happen overnight, but there are some positive signs. If the Democratic Party platform committee under the influence of Bernie Sanders is successful in toning down the usual extravagant praise of Israel – against the wishes of Hillary, one might add – that would be a sign that change is difficult but not necessarily impossible. If Donald Trump wins and holds to his promise to be neutral between Israel and Palestine in negotiations that too would be a marked shift in perception of the conflict. And if the American people finally wake up and realize that they are tired of the entire farce and decide to wash their hands of the Middle East that would change everything. Just imagine picking up the morning newspaper and not reading a front page story about the warnings and threats coming from that great world leader Benjamin Netanyahu. That would be quite remarkable.
FROM THE EDITOR
Dr. Ed is a pastor, author, public speaker, radio personality, lobbyist, re-enactor, and the Director of Dixie Heritage.
It is Wednesday afternoon, Dorian, according to the 2PM update is off the coast of Jacksonville. And today has been a beautiful sunny day with a nice cool windy breeze.
Yesterday we had some rain and Monday our banana trees took a beating from wind. Our internet and power were spotty on Tuesday probably because of problems further down the grid.
But it looks like we missed what was supposed to be the worst storm in history.
That said, in The Bahamas, it may well have been the worst storm in history. And it may yet make landfall in Georgia, South Carolina, or Canada. We will continue to pray for all who have been hit by the storm and for those who live in its path.
If you are a reader of this newsletter and you are effected by Hurricane Dorian please reach out to us. If we are able to route resources or the assistance of fellow southerners to your need we will do our best to do so.
Until Next Week
Deo Vindice!
Chaplain Ed
Dixie Heritage
P.O. Box 618
Lowell, FL 32663
