Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush warned rioters who might be planning to target the Alamo in a tweet saying, “Don’t mess with The Alamo.” The Texas General Land Office is responsible for the care and safety of the Texas shrine.

“The Alamo is the Shrine of Texas liberty. And it will be defended,” Bush began in the tweet below. “Rest assured we have already deployed, for several weeks and will continue to do so, the Alamo Rangers in partnership with the SAPD (San Antonio Police Department), The Department of Public Safety, and the National Guard to protect this sacred site.” [Breitbart News]

We are in a civil war. Democrats and leftist corporate socialists/intellectual elites are overtly on the side of the people who would bring down the Alamo. And they’re overtly on the side of the people destroying America’s great cities, replacing the Bill of Rights with temporary anarchy to be followed by literal Communism.

What can you do? Arm yourself literally and intellectually. Do not back down. Be 100 times meaner than the worthless Commie snowflakes trying to destroy us. STOP BEING NICE. Stop being afraid. Push back. Raise hell, simply by being logical and factual.

Leftists foam at the mouth over facts. The soldiers of leftism live on unemployment checks. They’re moochers and parasites, both materially and spiritually. Withdraw your generosity, your patience and tolerance. Let them flounder and fail. Actively support those who will crush them. Vote for Trump, even if you dislike his style. He is the leftist kryptonite. Do all of this. We will prevail.

Michael J. Hurd

Aeschylus Speaks To Me
by Alex Barrientos on June 12, 2020

Written By Walter Borden, M.D., Contributing Writer, Classical Wisdom
Aeschylus speaks to me. Born in Eleusis, a village just north of Athens and the haunting grounds of the goddess Demeter, said to be the goddess of fertility and the harvest. To Aeschylus that was just a myth that masked her true identity—the goddess of grief. When he was a little boy crying at the grave of his grandfather, she’d whispered to him that his sadness and tears would make the soil rich, would bring new life to sprout.
Only the citizens of Eleusis were aware of Demeter’s real meaning—and mission. She’d lost her daughter, Persephone, to a plague, but Demeter felt it as a robbery—her baby stolen by a death she called Hades, god of the underworld. He was the evil of ancient times. She vowed to find her daughter, bring her back, to her arms, to life.
The citizens of Eleusis were sworn to secrecy, never to reveal her grief—it was too agonizing. Their oath of secrecy became the cult of the “Eleusinian Mysteries.”
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As a citizen of Eleusis, Aeschylus knew all that, but he revealed the secret of the mysteries in one of his early poems. For breaking the oath of secrecy he was prosecuted for heresy in an Athenian court under a system of public democratic justice, established by Solon some hundred years prior. Aeschylus was found not guilty. The jury decided that grief outweighed guilt. After experiencing Athenian justice personally, he became its powerful spokesperson.
Orestes
Having killed his mother, Orestes is Pursued by the Furies, by William-Adolphe Bouguereau

Aeschylus later gave Persephone’s mysterious death his creative twist. Plague and death were thought to be a calamity wrought by the gods. The popular explanation was that Hades, the god of the underworld, abducted Persephone. Aeschylus thought this was the storybook way of saying the girl’s dying must have a sinister, but purposeful source. Indeed, even today, do we not explain senseless tragedy by attributing it to evil? Aeschylus said that people blamed the gods when something inexplainable happened. Did it simply mean that to lose someone really close was bad, and could make you feel bad?
In his metaphorical dramatic interpretation, Demeter and Persephone couldn’t accept losing each other. Their bond was so strong; grief endured and lashed them together. They pined, persisted, persevered, and then—a miracle. Their grief-bond seemed to ferment and come alive in a new form. New life sprouted. They called it Spring, the time of fertility. Followed by a time of growth, Summer, and then harvest, Autumn. Cold set in, snow. Winter, the earth rested waiting for the return of Spring. The seasons came to be, cycles of life and death. The “Mystery?” It’s about fertile grief, how grief can bring new life.
Aeschylus’ best writing germinated in his personal tragedy on the plains of Marathon fighting the Persians. He saw his beloved brother, Koryenous, hacked to death by the Persians. He suffered grief which fermented—metabolized—blossomed (sprouted if you will) in his drama.
Salamis
Die Seeschlacht bei Salamis [English: Battle of Salamis], Wilhelm von Kaulbach, 1868.

In 510 BCE, when Aeschylus was fifteen, the tyrant Pisistratus fell and Cleisthenes came to power, instituting a constitution that was the culmination of the movement toward democracy that had begun with Solon a hundred years earlier. Greece and Aeschylus were both in their adolescence, filled with idealism, energy, and enthusiasm. It was a time of hope. Then came attacks by Persia, and the beginning of Aeschylus’s personal suffering. His prime work was conceived after his brother’s death in the Battle of Marathon in 490 BCE. From the bitter sweet victory mixed with his brother’s blood came a passion to find non-violent ways to solve conflict. He knew the need for a system of justice to replace vengeful violence which then became a major theme in his work.
Of his ninety plays, only seven survived. They are all we have of his work, and there is controversy as to when each was written, except the first and the last. The Oresteia was produced in 458 BCE, two years before his death. The first was probably The Persians, the only non-mythological play, written shortly after the Battle of Salamis, in 480 BCE.

Aeschylus’s profound insight was the importance of freedom to speak one’s mind, as a generality, but especially in expressing the pain of loss, that unspoken grief is unresolved grief that can become madness and murderous retaliatory rage, breeding more violence. He is said to have observed that words are like a physician to the mind gone mad. From his own life and personal pain, in the Oresteia, he created a tragic drama that touched the deep need for psychological healing in a people that had experienced overwhelming losses from terrible wars, plagues, cycles of retaliatory violence, and the impact of social changes as the Bronze Age gave way to early modern civilization.
Oresteia
Mosaic of Orestes, main character in Aeschylus’s only surviving trilogy, the Oresteia

Aeschylus was the first tragedian, but also soldier, democrat, social critic, psychologist, and philosopher. Called the religious or moral tragic dramatist because of his focus on crime and punishment and on personal responsibility for destructive behavior, he could more accurately be described as a psychologist of conscience.
As a dramatist of crime and punishment, he was the first to stage a courtroom scene, and he knew personally what it meant to be wrongly accused, since he had been charged with heresy for revealing the secrets of the mystical Eleusis, later vindicated in a law court. His genius combined psychology and sociology in the context of historical development, reinforcing his message with the arts of dramaturgy, staging, poetry, music, and choreography. He marketed justice with appeal to the senses as well as the mind.
There is very little known of a biographical nature except that his father, Euphorion, came from an old aristocratic family in Eleusis, near Athens. Of his two sons one became a dramatist. His sister was the matriarch of a dynasty of tragic dramatists. The lineage raises interesting questions about this family who wrote with so much insight about the importance of relationships and family issues.
Eleusis
Ruins at Eleusis, Greece. © Emmanouil Pavlis/Dreamstime.com

Although the women were invisible, Aeschylus’s sister could not have been an inconsequential person, and her brother’s work portrays some very strong female characters. Athena, who speaks for Aeschylus in the Oresteia, is the play’s most powerful figure, overshadowing Zeus and Apollo. The injustice to women in Greek society and its destructive impact on them and the community is the theme of his Suppliants and a subtheme in the Oresteia.
As an adolescent, he lived through the overthrow of Pisistratus, the murder of the latter’s son Hipparchus, and the establishment of the democratic constitution of Cleisthenes. It was a turbulent time: Persia was mobilizing to attack Attica, the Athenian heartland. Aeschylus became a soldier and fought in the infantry at Marathon and Salamis. The Persians was produced ten years after Marathon and immediately after the victory at Salamis. The Oresteia and Seven Against Thebes are strongly antiwar, and the themes of war’s waste of innocent lives and unresolved grief resonate throughout. In The Persians, he dramatizes the Greek victory as a mastering of a savage hubris latent within the victors. He also attacked the glorification of war in the Athenian celebration of the victory over Persia.
Until Aeschylus, drama was two-dimensional. In the ancient epic/lyric form, there is one actor, the hero, and the chorus, which represents some facet of the voice of humanity. The hero is defined, and engulfed, by external forces that grow stronger as he struggles against them. The character of the hero is almost irrelevant; he is pushed and pulled by destiny’s demons. The chorus, a communal voice with a character of its own, is the protagonist and defines the issues—usually grand communal themes, such as the polis, the defeated and/or the victimized—by focusing them on the single actor through a prism of moral force. Chorus and actor are in reciprocal relation.
Agamemnon
The Murder of Agamemnon by Pierre-Narcisse Guérin (1817)

As the crisis develops and tension builds, the focus shifts. The actor becomes protagonist, the center of the moral struggle, which ends with the hero facing the crisis and making his decision. In the lyric epic, the initial situation never changes. The plot remains the same as in the first ode, when the actor enters and reveals the general situation. There is no moving plot. The only action is the increasing tension within the hero. There is no way to change perspective.
In a creative leap, Aeschylus adds a second actor, which brings movement to the plot and shifts the focus onto character. The second actor introduces new information, such as relevant events that would be impossible for the hero to know, events that may drastically change his circumstances. An old family employee can come onstage with news that the hero’s wife is really his mother, or a messenger arrives to tell him that the presumed dead son is alive and has returned with murder in his heart, or that the opponent he is going to fight to the death is really his brother. The plot moves and thickens. Moreover, interactions between characters add definition and dimension to their development.
In another creative leap, he modified the structure of the trilogy, linking three plays in a series with a unified theme. The concept of linked acts—action over time with continuity of motif—enables evolution of plot and issues associated with the generation of inner drama in the hero. Trilogy, as used by Aeschylus, can best be understood as the ancestor of the three-act play.
Grave of Agamemnon
Electra and Orestes at the grave of Agamemnon. Greek tragedy by Sophocles. ©Ronald Sheridan/Ancient Art & Architecture Collection

Using this structure, he was able to portray the transfer of influences from person to person, generation to generation, within a family and within a people. Change, growth, and decline was brought to life on the stage. He could dramatize the legacy of emotions—a sense of obligation, a sense of guilt—that passed from fathers to sons and daughters and on to future generations. He could depict the harbingers of madness and the long-term effects of grief, abuse, conflict, and violence—thus showing that retaliatory violence, even in the name of justice, only breeds more violence, that oppression of women and children makes them violent in turn, that brutality is destructive to society. He was able to show that unspoken grief results in an inability to come to terms with the past and leads to the reenactment and perpetuation of old conflict and pain. His dramas are the first psychiatric studies.
Aeschylus helped lay the foundation of psychodynamic psychology. He was also a consummate advocate for the incorporation of psychological understanding in democratic justice. He dealt with the issue of criminal responsibility when madness is an element of criminal behavior. Guilt had deep roots in Hellenic culture, stemming from the primitive conviction that the gods—Zeus in particular—would take revenge on any mortal who offended them. In Homer’s time, guilt was associated with the anger of the gods; extenuating circumstances and motivation were irrelevant; psychological issues were irrelevant. Only the act counted, and punishment was absolute. The Furies were the gods of vengeful punishment and could drive the offending mortal to ate, guilt-ridden madness.
Orestes at Delphi
Orestes at Delphi, flanked by Athena and Pylades, among the Erinyes and priestesses of the oracle. Paestan red-figure bell-krater, c. 330 BC.

As psychological understanding evolved, ate was seen as arising within the human mind rather than having been put there by the gods. Furthermore, guilt—and by extension, depression—was seen as impairing thinking and judgment. The orator and legislator Lycurgus (390-324 B.C.), in Against Leocrates, quotes an unnamed poet:
“When the anger of the demons is injuring a man, the first thing is that it takes the good understanding out of his mind and turns him to the worse judgment, so that he may not be aware of his own errors.”
Aeschylus refined this notion into the theory that the guilty could unknowingly seek punishment. Guilt and despair were not seen as visitations from the gods but as an internalized sense of wrongdoing that could rise to the level of ate─that is, reach such intensity that it became insanity.
There are crimes that arise from a sense of guilt, and some criminal behavior is a seeking of punishment. While Solon planted the seeds of psychology in justice; Aeschylus cultivated and helped shape the growth, giving clear and dramatic power to a basic element buried in Solon’s legal code: that the substance of justice includes humanism—that is, compassion, mercy, respect for the person, for the rights of the weak, and at the same time dispassionate psychological understanding.
The transformation of the passion for retaliatory violence into a higher order, a system of rational justice, began in the seventh century BCE and was institutionalized by Solon in the sixth century. Aeschylus dramatized this transformation in the fifth century, distilling and refining the psychological elements of Solon’s justice, giving them a powerful voice. Solon separated theology from the administration of justice for the first time in human history, and took the gods out of the law.
Aeschylus
Roman marble herma of Aeschylus dating to c. 30 BC, based on an earlier bronze Greek herma, dating to around 340-320 BC

Aeschylus used the gods as symbols; his religion is secular, reflecting the evolution of the theology founded on Zeus’s law, “to the doer be done”—the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew “eye for an eye”—into a new institution of justice and a moral code based on human psychology. In the Oresteia, Zeus, Furies, and Apollo are symbols of the old order; Athena is the new; they are clearly dramatic symbols, not to be seen as real deities. As Solon had done with his legal code, Aeschylus dramatically brought the laws of Olympus down to Earth so that they could be seen inside men and women, understood, and elaborated in a system of public justice.
He dramatized the development of mature conscience and its relationship with law. The gods do not direct human actions; the direction comes from within. The individual, not the gods, bears all responsibility, but responsibility is not absolute, as under Zeus’s law, nor should punishment be absolute. The mature sense of responsibility, conscience, is rational—meaning actions directed toward others are determined by reason and empathy tempered by values.
Aeschylus dramatically portrayed the transition of values from gods to parents and the identification with those values within the family. Empathy and parental identification are at the core of a rational sense of right and wrong and the ability to anticipate causing harm. Rationality also means that all relevant circumstances have to be considered, and that there are degrees of responsibility. Circumstances, such as chance, accident, motivations, intent, harm done, and psychological understanding are factored into the equation that the mature rational mind uses in assessing guilt. There are degrees of guilt, and punishment should be proportional. These conditions are integrated in the rational sense of responsibility called conscience. While for the most part conscience and law coincide, they may differ, and even conflict. That is the stuff of tragedy, too,

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Luke 11:13 (King James Version)

The Three Pillars (Academia, Media, and the DNC) has finally got their militant pillar to enforce their cult. The thug groups Certain Black Lives Matter and their sister group of Anarchists will now either beat up or kill anyone who disagrees with the Three Pillars of Propaganda. These are exactly the same people who terrorized the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, and every other communist dictatorship over the last 100 years and now are established in the DNC.

The cult of Communism is burning the cities again as it uses massive moral relativism to justify any crime or assault since they make the rules, they draw the lines wherever they want. There is no God in their religion only manmade worship and rules similar to Islam. When man makes the rules violence and death will always follow and this is what we are beginning to witness.

In a God based faith there is no negotiating of sins since they are written clearly in the Bible. This is why it has worked efficiently throughout the histoir of America. A little French lingo thrown in for Rush. This is also why they have to eliminate the country’s histoir since they have to prove it does not work when it is clear that it has worked better than any other system in the world. To make it not so they have to change the definition of not working to include racism even though America has lost a half a million men deciding that issue.

My family is the perfect example of America’s opportunity. My GGGrandfather fought and died in the Civil War as a member of the Missouri Confederate Cavalry. He died at 53 yrs. old leaving eight children and a widow who eventually died in Arkansas.

Now everyone will claim he was a racist for fighting for the Confederacy even though he had no slaves they will claim he was fighting to maintain slavery. If that was the case, why was he a Quarter Black as his GGrandmother was a free black woman whose African father immigrated to America freely and claimed 750 acres in Virginia? The reason he likely fought is because the North was doing what they were famous for, taxing and strangling the South for their wealth and the South’s poverty.

My family tree as I found recently is the perfect symbol of the beautiful melting pot of America. It is truly a Heinz 57 family with all sorts of nationalities and colors making the Kaleidoscope which represents America. Does anyone believe these thugs we see roaming the streets would welcome the colorful basket which represents America? Of course not, once they take power you see a tyranny which will rape and pillage for their own satisfaction and oppression. This is and never has been allowed in America.

When my GGGGGrandfather came across from England in 1735 as the founding Bray, men were coming over from Europe in droves. They did not bring families since it was generally a single man’s idea and adventure which meant there was a severe shortage of women to begin families. This is why there was large numbers of Native women married as well as adopted marriages from husbands who were killed as the wives would remarry in a clan or group where I found one man had around a dozen adopted wives and 57 children. This is what happens when you are settling a wild country and protecting the children. When you go back to those days there is a rich history of care and compassion for all races.

These are the statues and history the Three Pillars wants to eliminate since it sheds a different light on America. It was settled by people wanting to make as perfect a land as they could make it according to the limitations of man. I would not be surprised if my Black grandfather came over here claimed the land and had slaves work the land, it is how land was cleared and planted in the 1700s. It was how it has been done since the dawn of man and is not a moral decision but a survival one.

Most plantations kept their slaves decades after the Civil War working out a room and board arrangement which looked remarkably similar to slavery to harvest the crops until the invention of the steam engine. Once tractors and harvesters came onto the farms it was the end of much of the slave labor and the workers assisted the machines which of course the Three Pillars do not like either.

Where did all of these slaves come from and why did they have such a strong Christian faith throughout their histoir? The reason is a large share of the slaves were captured by the Mooselips in the 1700s as they conquered the black Christians across Africa. They would conquer the mostly peaceful Christians rape and kill along the way while capturing slaves by the thousands. They were then sold to the slave traders and shipped to America and every other country around the world. This is still being done in many of the countries in Africa as the slave trade is still being practiced in over 150 countries around the world and not a peep from Certain Black Lives Matter.

The real reason for the Civil War was the South wanted to stay more colonial and less Federal. They had large states which wanted to set their own laws and taxation rather than having it decided by the population centers in NY and the NE Corridor and who could blame them. They were not allowed railroads to move their agriculture and treated like second class citizens which eventually made them want to leave the Union. My Forefather fought even though he was a quarter Black which goes against everything the left is saying. He was fighting against the same thing we would be fighting against today which is an oppressive gummit with excessive taxation, same thing the Revolutionary war was about.

The Three Pillars of Propaganda are rewriting America’s history and making it into something it isn’t. They now have a militant wing which is going to terrorize anyone who does not march in lockstep with their version of how bad America is. Anyone who has a history like mine which does not fit their cookie cutter view will be ignored and shunned. Stories of Blacks coming here freely and marrying daughters to white men and then giving them land to raise a family does not fit the storyline and is verboten.

My family is America. It has every race and struggle from the Revolution to the CW to WWII who all had the save yearning for freedom and America. I am proud of all of them willing to put their lives on the line to fight for what they believe. They were all fighting against tyranny and oppression and for the America we have today.

The people we have fighting against America today are the exact wrong people you want in charge of your lives. These are the same people who built the showers and gas chambers in Germany and had the mass gulags across Siberia, they would kill you for wrong speak and everyone knows it. They are for massive oppression and discrimination based on their definitions of right and wrong. These are the people my family has fought since 1735 and I will continue to fight in 2020. They are the slave owners and we are the freedom fighters.

Pray for the election—Saturbrey

Over the last several days, “protesters” have pulled down statues in many cities across the country. A monument to Columbus was torn from its base, set on fire, and tossed in a lake. Another statue of Columbus in Minneapolis was destroyed, despite having been sculpted by an immigrant and given as a gift to the Italian-American community in the city. Several other Columbus statues have been, as the media so innocuously puts it, removed. Confederate monuments have been toppled as well. And now the mob has set its eyes on the Washington and Jefferson monuments. The mob may want to be careful felling those enormous statues, though. One mob member was critically injured on Wednesday night when a Confederate statue landed on his head.

Yet something rather conspicuous is missing in all of these videos of crazed mobs tearing down statues and monuments: law enforcement.

It’s a silly question to ask at this point, but, still, where are the police while these vandals destroy public property and tear down priceless works of art that have stood, in some cases, for a century or more? You almost have to remind yourself that the people tearing down the property actually do not have the legal right to do what they’re doing. You’d be excused for thinking otherwise – does the term “public property” mean that the public can do whatever it wants with it? – however, destruction of property worth more than $500 is a felony in most states. These statues are worth many thousands of dollars, making these mob-led “removals” felony crimes. They are also dangerous crimes, as the man who had his skull cracked open in Virginia convincingly discovered.

But this has been the theme in recent weeks. The police standby while leftist radicals do, quite literally, whatever they want.

In Seattle, a group of radicals have seized control of several city blocks and declared it a sovereign state. They have set up checkpoints and barricades, and uniformed police are barred entry. The police, in fact, were nice enough to abandon their precinct at the rioters’ behest. This is a repeat of what we witnessed in Minneapolis, except in that case the precinct was then ransacked and torched. Somehow, in a civilized country once ruled by law, this has all become a familiar sight. Mobs rampage through our cities, set buildings on fire, destroy police cars, destroy public property, destroy private property, throw bricks, invade government buildings, loot, assault, and murder. And very little effort is made to stop any of these crimes from occurring, or to punish those who commit them.

There is much discussion about “privilege” in our culture. Indeed, the concept of privilege is one of the things fueling these mobs. They would say that privilege is bestowed based on race and gender, and that I, as a white man, have the most privilege of all. Yet I’m fairly sure that if I drove into town right now and threw a brick in a window, or set a retail outlet on fire, or looted a convenience store, or invaded a police precinct, or tried to set up my own “autonomous zone,” or yanked down any statues or monuments I found personally displeasing, I would be arrested on the spot, with little fanfare. And if I resisted arrest and was beaten or killed by police in the process – even if my death was unjust and the result of excessive force – there would be no CNN headlines about it, no riots in my honor, no elaborate displays of performative grief from our elected officials in Washington. Whatever my white privilege gets me, it doesn’t get me that. And it doesn’t provide me a pass that allows me to tear through the city, stealing, destroying, looting, and burning, either.

It seems to me that the greatest privilege on offer in our culture today is the privilege to be utterly immune from the law. This is the privilege exercised by many of the “protesters.” And though some of them are white males, many are not. It is, then, a privilege that is not dispensed based on race, but on ideology. We might call it Leftist Privilege. A person with the “correct” worldview, especially if he is gathered with a group of other correct-thinking people, can do almost anything he wants. The Powers That Be will bend over backwards to accommodate him and meet his demands.

This includes permitting crime, but also much else besides. Consider all of the corporations and brands that have been tripping over each other to express their support for the radical left-wing Black Lives Matter organization. And it doesn’t always take a mob to get this kind of capitulation from our culture’s most powerful forces. HBO’s streaming service pulled “Gone With The Wind” from its platform this week after one correct-thinking individual wrote an op-ed instructing them to do so. This on the same day that Webster’s dictionary edited its definition of “racism” because a young black woman emailed and said they should. These are just the most recent examples of Leftist Privilege. We haven’t even discussed the many extravagant concessions made for the LGBT lobby, including allowing men access to women’s bathrooms, locker rooms, and sports teams, while shaming and silencing any women who express discomfort over this invasion of their privacy.–Matt Walsh

As a white man, I have not seen doors open for me, or exceptions made for me, or advantages given to me, just based on my race. In order to obtain those privileges, I must demonstrate my allegiance to the leftist tribe. I must have the “right” views, say the “right” things, hold the “right” opinions and beliefs. This is what the system truly demands, and this is how it grants privilege. Which is no surprise. Leftist long ago seized control of the system. Privilege is simply one of the spoils of victory. —Matt Walsh

Given the events that have transpired since its airing a few weeks ago, I’m sure if the producers of the mini-series “Grant” had it to do all over again, they’d have made it 8 hours and 4 episodes in length instead of its 6 hours/3 episodes format. The first two episodes did a fine job of detailing Grant’s up-bringing and early years, his struggles through many failures in life, his rise through the ranks of Union generals, and the start of his successful prosecution of the final campaign of the War through Virginia.

But the final 2-hour episode attempted to cover far too much ground: The final, climactic months of the War; Lee’s surrender at Appomattox; the assassination of Lincoln; Grant’s commission to oversee the failed Reconstruction process; Grant’s two-term presidency and his final days finishing his memoirs while suffering with fatal cancer of the throat. It was far, far too much crucially important ground to try to cover in just two hours, especially with at least nine 5-minute-long commercial breaks sprinkled into the mix.

The last two weeks of demonstrations in the wake of the murder of George Floyd; the demonstrations, riots, looting and burning of a dozen major U.S. cities reminiscent of Sherman’s march through Atlanta to the sea; and the burgeoning national debate that is now taking place over policing and race relations cries out for detailed re-examination not of the Civil War or Grant’s presidency, but of that period of Reconstruction which, had it been properly executed by people of good intent, could have unified the nation and put in place conditions that might have avoided much of the racial strife that followed and continues to this day.

If you search your memories you will realize that no one – not even Ken Burns in his great “The Civil War” documentary – has produced a truly thorough recounting of that terrible time in our nation, and which lays true accountability for the horrors that took place. “Grant” gave it very short shrift, as the producers did everything they could to avoid laying any blame a the feet of the title subject and his often ham-handed management of the process.

The one of hundreds of atrocities the series does go into some detail about is the New Orleans Massacre of July 30, 1866, an event in which a band of former Confederate soldiers slaughtered dozens of freed slaves who were organizing themselves to participate in the upcoming elections. That all happened under the not-so-watchful eye of General William Sherman and a garrison of the Union Army before the Reconstruction Act of 1867 had been passed by congress. “Grant” also makes vague reference to dozens of similar incidents that took place all over the South in the subsequent years, but goes into little detail about them.

It also briefly mentions the rise of the Ku Klux Klan during that period of time, but goes into no detail about the fact that the Klan was actually created by the Democratic Party which dominated the Southern states after the 1866 elections, in which the Northern States overwhelmingly awarded control of congress to the Republican Party of Lincoln and Grant. Just as the Democrat Party created Antifa immediately following the 2016 elections, in which the northern states of PA, MI and WI turned Red and awarded the presidency and both houses of congress to the Republicans. There is a pattern to all of this.

Here we stumble right upon the very real reason why Hollywood has been so reluctant to fully explore the period of Reconstruction in documentary format: It is impossible to honestly do so without making the crystal clear, direct connection between the Klan and the Democrat Party. Indeed, it was the rise of the Klan as the military wing of the Democrat Party that rendered Grant’s assignment of executing on the Reconstruction laws an impossible mission. It was too deeply embedded in the Southern culture to be rooted out. The series makes passing mention of the fact that supposed pillars of these communities – doctors, lawyers, farmers and civic leaders – were all engaged with the Klan.

Sadly, that remained the reality in many cities and towns all over the South for well over a century. Indeed, as recently as recently as just 2010 – a bare decade ago – a former member of the Klan – Democrat Robert Byrd of Virginia – held a prominent position of leadership in the United States Senate. Other former Klan members with names like Strom Thurmond, Jesse Helms, William Fulbright, and Ernest Hollings held seats in the Senate in modern times, long after the passage of the Civil Rights bills in the mid-1960s.

Even sadder, the existence today of Antifa as the military wing of the Democrat Party will just as readily ensure that no real reconciliation will come from the debate currently raging in Washington and across our national news media. The simple reality is that those on the radical left who have basically seized control of that Party actively oppose reconciliation and seek violent revolution instead. Congress may pass a few bills and pat itself on the back for doing it, but the real battles are taking place right now in the radical city council of Minneapolis, which is about to disband its police department, and on Capitol Hill in Seattle, where Antifa has forcibly seized control of an 8 square block area, with armed guards preventing the police from entering the area.

Just as we will never receive an honest accounting of the role of the Ku Klux Klan’s destruction of Reconstruction, we will not receive an honest accounting of Antifa, which is working to destroy our nation from within today. Because an honest accounting of either requires the examination of the fact that both destructive groups were the creation of the national Democrat Party.

That is all.

While it might not be popular to say in the wake of the recent social disorder, the true plight of black people has little or nothing to do with the police or what has been called “systemic racism.” Instead, we need to look at the responsibilities of those running our big cities.

Some of the most dangerous big cities are: St. Louis, Detroit, Baltimore, Oakland, Chicago, Memphis, Atlanta, Birmingham, Newark, Buffalo and Philadelphia. The most common characteristic of these cities is that for decades, all of them have been run by liberal Democrats. Some cities — such as Detroit, Buffalo, Newark and Philadelphia — haven’t elected a Republican mayor for more than a half-century. On top of this, in many of these cities, blacks are mayors, often they dominate city councils, and they are chiefs of police and superintendents of schools.

In 1965, there were no blacks in the U.S. Senate, nor were there any black governors. And only six members of the House of Representatives were black. As of 2019, there is far greater representation in some areas — 52 House members are black. Nine black Americans have served in the Senate, including Edward W. Brooke of Massachusetts, Carol Moseley Braun and Barack Obama of Illinois, Tim Scott of South Carolina, Cory Booker of New Jersey, and Kamala Harris of California. In recent times, there have been three black state governors. The bottom line is that today’s black Americans have significant political power at all levels of government. Yet, what has that meant for a large segment of the black population?

Democratic-controlled cities have the poorest-quality public education despite their large, and growing, school budgets. Consider Baltimore, Maryland. In 2016, in 13 of Baltimore’s 39 high schools, not a single student scored proficient on the state’s math exam. In six other high schools, only 1% tested proficient in math. Only 15% of Baltimore students passed the state’s English test. That same year in Philadelphia only 19% of eighth-graders scored proficient in math, and 16% were proficient in reading. In Detroit, only 4% of its eighth-graders scored proficient in math, and 7% were proficient in reading. It’s the same story of academic disaster in other cities run by Democrats.

Violent crime and poor education is not the only problem for Democratic-controlled cities. Because of high crime, poor schools and a less pleasant environment, cities are losing their economic base and their most productive people in droves. When World War II ended, the population of Washington, D.C., was about 800,000; today, it’s about 700,000. In 1950, Baltimore’s population was almost 950,000; today, it’s around 590,000. Detroit’s 1950 population was close to 1.85 million; today, it’s down to 673,000. The population of Camden, New Jersey, in 1950 was nearly 125,000; today it has fallen to 74,000. St. Louis’ 1950 population was more than 856,000; today, it’s less than 294,000. A similar story of population decline can be found in most of our formerly large and prosperous cities. In some cities, the population decline since 1950 is well over 50%, and that includes Detroit, St. Louis, Cleveland and Pittsburgh.

Academic liberals, civil rights advocates and others blamed the exodus on racism — “white flight” to the suburbs to avoid blacks. But blacks have been fleeing some cities at higher rates than whites. The five cities whose suburbs have the fastest-growing black populations are Miami, Dallas, Washington, Houston and Atlanta. It turns out that blacks, like whites, want better and safer schools for their kids and don’t like to be mugged or have their property vandalized. And like white people, if they have the means, black people cannot wait to leave troubled cities.

White liberals and black politicians focus most of their attention on what the police do, but how relevant is that to the overall tragedy? According to Statista, this year, 172 whites and 88 blacks have died at the hands of police. To put police shootings in a bit of perspective, in Chicago alone in 2020 there have been 1,260 shootings and 256 homicides with blacks being the primary victims. That comes to one shooting victim every three hours and one homicide victim every 15 hours. Three people in Chicago have been killed by police. If one is truly concerned about black deaths, shootings by police should figure way down on one’s list — which is not to excuse bad behavior by some police officers.

Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. To find out more about Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at http://www.creators.com.

I’m a conservative, and I agree that black lives matter. Why is this even controversial?

Conservative’s policies, values, and principles have demonstrated over the decades our deep concern and compassion for black lives, black futures, black upward mobility, and black educational progress. Meanwhile, progressive policies put in practice in Democratic-controlled cities across America and the national education system from K through graduate school have created, nurtured, and empowered the most devastatingly racist outcomes in the past century for black Americans.

Why should conservatives take a back-seat on these issues to the failed progressive leftists who have allowed decades of squalor and urban decay from Baltimore to Detroit to Los Angeles while enjoying one-party domination and control? Make no mistake; left-wing Democrats have had free reign and completely unencumbered power to institute any policy they’ve wanted in every major city in America since the late 1960s and look at the state of African-Americans in those cities today.

This is the moment for conservatives to stand up and be heard. Yes, black lives matter. That’s why black voters should give us a chance.

Black education matters. That’s why conservatives decry the failed government-run schools that have devastated opportunities and futures for black Americans for over fifty years. You think it’s hard to fire a corrupt, ineffective cop who abuses his authority because of internal protections and labor agreements? Try firing a lousy teacher with tenure in a government-run school.

If black Americans think we have “systemic racism” in our government, why on earth do they want to hand their children over to that same government and entrust them with their education?

We are conservative, and we believe black lives matter. Defund the government-controlled schools and allow black Americans to use their tax dollars to choose a better school for their children.

Black churches matter. That’s why we conservatives are in favor of empowering black churches and faith-based communities to have private-public programs to tackle societal dilemmas like drug addiction, homelessness and domestic violence. We agree that law enforcement officers should not be the first responders for issues that involve cultural decay and mental health concerns. Criminalizing addiction and schizophrenia is not a construct of the conservative movement; it’s a construct of the political philosophy that all of society’s ills are remedied with a new government program and bureaucracy.

If black Americans think we have “systemic racism” in our government, why on earth do they want to create more government-controlled social programs and community centers and feel-good initiatives?

We are conservative, and we believe black lives matter. Defund government-run social programs run by ineffective bureaucrats and reinvest tax dollars in black churches, faith-based programs, and mental health facilities that have shown to make a real and significant difference for homelessness, addiction, and domestic abuse.

Black jobs matter. That’s why we conservatives want to throw off the shackles of taxation and regulation so that black entrepreneurs can thrive. We want black Americans, whether they wear a blue-collar to work or a white-collar, to keep their hard-earned money so they can spend it on the things that improve their lives and their children’s futures. It’s not a coincidence that the economic decay in America’s largest cities coincides with the highest tax rates in the country. Black Americans want a bigger paycheck, just like everyone else.

If black Americans think we have “systemic racism” in our government, why on earth do they want to continue to empower that government to confiscate more and more of their hard-earned wages and wealth?

We are conservative, and we believe black lives matter. Defund the tax-collecting apparatus in America so that black Americans can keep and spend their money on improving their lives rather than building a bigger government that will abuse its power.

Black families matter. That’s why we conservatives decry the culture of abortion and fatherless families that have grown exponentially in African-American communities. If progressive Democrats value black lives, why are they so eager to fund and promote abortion as a means of birth control? Abortion has devastated the black family, and the modern abortion movement in America was invented by Margaret Sanger, a racist eugenicist who is seen as a hero by the same radical leftists who march for black lives while marching for the killing of black unborn babies.

If black Americans think we have “systemic racism” in our government, why on earth do they want to have that government pay to kill more unborn black babies and encourage welfare programs that replace black fathers in the home with that systemically racist government’s money?

We are conservative, and we believe black lives matter. Defund Planned Parenthood and welfare programs that incentivize fatherless families.

This is the point where the radical Left will tell us that “Black Lives Matter” is about systemic racism in the criminal justice system and police departments need to be defunded and reimagined.

OK. Let’s talk about that.

No conservative in America can deny that law enforcement is capable of abusing their power and behaving as though they are above the law. If you’ve followed the Obamagate saga and the corruption at the highest levels of the Department of Justice and FBI you’d agree that James Comey and Andrew McCabe and Peter Strzok and Loretta Lynch abused their power, infringed on several American’s civil rights and railroaded Gen. Michael Flynn with false charges, bullying, and intimidation.

If the FBI and the Obama White House can be so corrupt and abuse their power so easily without any hint of criminal repercussion (as of now), then why is it hard to believe police officers could do the same?

We are conservative, and we recognize that power and authority can corrupt and government figures from the beat cop to the clerk at the DMV to the IRS auditor to a school teacher to the FBI director to the president of the United States are capable of abusing their power. All government authority figures must be held accountable for their actions and face the same criminal repercussions you and I would face.

Black lives matter. Conservatives agree. We just don’t buy into the solution promoted by the radical leftists that have controlled the governments, schools, and culture that have contributed to the problems black Americans face in their communities. We have a better way.

The solution to a systemically corrupt government (whether it is corrupt due to racism or due to the kind of abuse of power we’ve seen throughout world history whenever a government has control over its citizens) is not to implement more socialist programs that are doomed to fail the communities the Left has been promising to help for half a century.

Every white, liberal politician from Joe Biden to Nancy Pelosi to the Cuomo family has been promising black Americans that if they could just have more money and more control they’ll be able to fix everything, and in Baltimore and New York and San Francisco and Detroit they’ve had their way.

How’s that working out?

The solution is to defund the ineffective, neglectful, and power-hungry government at all levels and empower the individual with their own freedom and their own money to live their lives and make their choices unencumbered by the all-powerful fist of the state.

Black lives matter, and we conservatives want a chance to prove it. What have you got to lose?

When you remove the government’s monopoly on the use of force, in essence you privatize the police. The free market that these leftists do NOT want for anything else is what we get now for physical protection. It’s a free for all. You might call on one police force or gang to protect you; I will pay another. My private police force might be at war with yours. The gang mentality of any urban jungle becomes the normal way of life for everyone. THAT’S what BLM, Antifa and the Democratic Party mean by “social justice”.

If we can’t find a private police force or gang that we like and trust, we simply walk around with guns and protect ourselves. I realize guns will be illegal (under the left-wing banana republic many cities are now becoming), but if my gang (or gun) is stronger than your gang (or gun), then I win. THAT’S how it works when you “defund the police”.

It’s anarchy. Anarchy is as irrational as unlimited government. Anarchy and Communism or Nazism are two sides of the same coin. In each case, force and brutality win over the rule of law, individual rights, private property and private sovereignty over one’s life, body and mind.

Black Lives Matter, Antifa, and the Democratic Party — each one a terrorist group, so far as I’m concerned — want anarchy. The mayor of NYC is a Democrat. He’s now seeking to gradually defund the police. How is the Democratic Party any different than a mob terrorist group? Joe Biden, even though he hasn’t a clue as to what’s going on outside his head most of the time, is clearly just a puppet.

It’s not a misguided means of freedom. It’s a way for radical leftist anarchists to seize control. The rudest, crudest and most extreme radical leftist groups that created violence on college campuses back in the 1960s are now in charge of America’s major cities — for all practical purposes. They’re confident that in a state of anarchy they can seize the control they always wanted, and they will rule by force.

Minneapolis is the first step. If Minneapolis falls, you can expect other left-wing cities and bastions to fall as well. Even Democratic voters — the ones who still like a little money and private property — will be forced to flee.

We now know what Civil War II looks like in America. It’s happening.

Michael J Hurd

A protester raises a fist next to a Black Lives Matter.
A protester raises a fist next to a Black Lives Matter placard.

While it might not be popular to say in the wake of the recent social disorder, the true plight of black people has little or nothing to do with the police or what has been called “systemic racism.” Instead, we need to look at the responsibilities of those running our big cities.

Some of the most dangerous big cities are: St. Louis, Detroit, Baltimore, Oakland, Chicago, Memphis, Atlanta, Birmingham, Newark, Buffalo, and Philadelphia. The most common characteristic of these cities is that, for decades, all of them have been run by liberal Democrats. Some cities — such as Detroit, Buffalo, Newark, and Philadelphia — haven’t elected a Republican mayor for more than a half-century. On top of this, in many of these cities, blacks are mayors, often they dominate city councils, and they are chiefs of police and superintendents of schoolsIn 1965, there were no blacks in the U.S. Senate, nor were there any black governors. And only six members of the House of Representatives were black. As of 2019, there is far greater representation in some areas — 52 House members are black. Nine black Americans have served in the Senate, including Edward W. Brooke of Massachusetts, Carol Moseley Braun and Barack Obama of Illinois, Tim Scott of South Carolina, Cory Booker of New Jersey, and Kamala Harris of California. In recent times, there have been three black state governors. The bottom line is that today’s black Americans have significant political power at all levels of government. Yet, what has that meant for a large segment of the black population?

Democratic-controlled cities have the poorest-quality public education despite their large, and growing, school budgets.

Consider Baltimore, Md.
In 2016, in 13 of Baltimore’s 39 high schools, not a single student scored proficient on the state’s math exam. In six other high schools, only 1 percent tested proficient in math. Only 15 percent of Baltimore students passed the state’s English test. That same year in Philadelphia, only 19 percent of eighth-graders scored proficient in math, and 16 percent were proficient in reading. In Detroit, only 4 percent of its eighth-graders scored proficient in math, and 7 percent were proficient in reading. It’s the same story of academic disaster in other cities run by Democrats.

Violent crime and poor education is not the only problem for Democratic-controlled cities. Because of high crime, poor schools, and a less pleasant environment, cities are losing their economic base and their most productive people in droves. When World War II ended, the population of Washington, D.C. was about 800,000; today, it’s about 700,000. In 1950, Baltimore’s population was almost 950,000; today, it’s around 590,000. Detroit’s 1950 population was close to 1.85 million; today, it’s down to 673,000. The population of Camden, New Jersey, in 1950 was nearly 125,000; today, it has fallen to 74,000. St. Louis’ 1950 population was more than 856,000; today, it’s less than 294,000.

A similar story of population decline can be found in most of our formerly large and prosperous cities. In some cities, the population decline since 1950 is well over 50 percent, and that includes Detroit, St. Louis, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh.
Academic liberals, civil rights advocates, and others blamed the exodus on racism — “white flight” to the suburbs to avoid blacks. But blacks have been fleeing some cities at higher rates than whites. The five cities whose suburbs have the fastest-growing black populations are Miami, Dallas, Washington, Houston, and Atlanta. It turns out that blacks, like whites, want better and safer schools for their kids and don’t like to be mugged or have their property vandalized. And like white people, if they have the means, black people cannot wait to leave troubled cities.

White liberals and black politicians focus most of their attention on what the police do, but how relevant is that to the overall tragedy?

According to Statista, this year, 172 whites and 88 blacks have died at the hands of police. To put police shootings in a bit of perspective, in Chicago alone in 2020, there have been 1,260 shootings and 256 homicides with blacks being the primary victims.

That comes to one shooting victim every three hours and one homicide victim every 15 hours.

Three people in Chicago have been killed by police.If one is truly concerned about black deaths, shootings by police should figure way down on one’s list — which is not to excuse bad behavior by some police officers.

Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University.

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