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Another abolitionist’s statue bites the dust… — 35 Comments

  1. Until there are severe consequences for such lawless and destructive behavior, the current progressive iconoclasm is likely to continue, as the cancer of woke leftism metastasizes throughout the land and into every realm of culture, from art museums to opera to publishing. The abject surrender to the mobocracy by almost all authorities who might, conceivably, be positioned to mitigate the current madness, which is applauded by many and is nearly ubiquitous, can only be described as truly dispiriting.

  2. Democrat state. The mobs are the DNC kinetic wing. There apparently nearly was a massacre at a police station with 300 inmates. The rioters threw incendiaries into the entry after the Mayor told the cops not to respond. They managed to put the fire out with extinguishers. No fire department.

  3. Saw this in a comment at JustOneMinute
    MPD is Madison Police Dept, I think

    Vicki McKenna
    @VickiMcKenna
    No one is covering this! MPD command telling cops to STAND DOWN. THIS WAS PLANNED–access to CCB was CLOSED OFF by the rioters around 5pm. Police KNEW the CCB would be firebombed. That’s a FEDERAL CRIME. They did NOTHING. Cops were prohibited from using gas. READ THIS. SHOCKING.

    https://twitter.com/vickimckenna/status/1275856934298701826?s=21

  4. A prediction I am going to make is that before the 4th of July there will be more than one declared autonomous zone in a Democrat City in a Democrat state and there will be a War Lord running it with a small armed force raising the stakes of taking it back to a very high level. 4th of July and I hope I am wrong

  5. Madison is my hometown and I know the Capitol grounds (and the Heg statute) very well. I last lived there in 2009, but still lived nearby until 2013. I recall the virulent public union, anti-Scott Walker protests in 2011. They were unsurprising in a city like Madison.

    This is likewise unsurprising. As I said when I first heard of CHAZ in Seattle (near where I live now…I just traded one lefty insane asylum for another), I’m surprised it took this long. No one should be surprised the sniveling, insipid Tony Evers (who “defeated” Walker by a razor thin margin under questionable circumstances) is barely responding to this anarchy.

    For those who’ve never been, Madison’s capitol square is beautiful: airy, well landscaped and accessible. In summer, it hosts a massive farmer’s market every weekend, beloved most of all for fresh Wisconsin cheese curds. Ah, so many memories…

    And now Antifa is destroying a part of it, anyway. One could say the progressive (and overwhelmingly white) loons who dominate this city have it coming. Maybe. But posterity doesn’t. History is being wiped away, bit by bit, and that is worthy of mourning, even when it happens in the most politically absurd of cities.

    As for state Senator Carpenter….he is an old school working class, labor progressive (and also LGBT). He’s been in the legislature for 35 years (I remember his name when I was a child and I was stunned when I saw it pop up….he’s still there!) Will this be a red pill moment for him? One can hope, but probably not.

  6. You have to face the fact that the old republic is dead. Conservatism is dead. There is nothing left to conserve. There is no getting back to where we were from here. Cortés has burnt the ships. There is no way now except forward. So, what do you want at the end of the ride? I know what I want. I want the evil incarnate Democrat party destroyed. I want their evil, evil leaders arrested, waterboarded and hanged. I want the whole vast international left-wing conspiracy ripped up by its roots. I want the left’s 101st Lawfare Division obliterated down to the last leftist lawyer, the last leftist law professor and the last leftist judge.

    There is more but that is enough for now.

    Chases Eagles

  7. Chases Eagles:

    Oh, so you want to go full Bolshevik yourself? Arrest Democrats, torture them, hang them? I don’t know the answer, but that’s not it.

  8. Neo, I am pretty sure that no one in America WANTED to nuke Japan either.

  9. Sherman didn’t want to fight a civil war either. In fact he kind of lost his mind at first because he knew it was going to be a slaughter.

    From Sherman’s Letter to Atlanta.
    “…You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out. I know I had no hand in making this war, and I know I will make more sacrifices to-day than any of you to secure peace. But you cannot have peace and a division of our country. If the United States submits to a division now, it will not stop, but will go on until we reap the fate of Mexico, which is eternal war. The United States does and must assert its authority, wherever it once had power; for, if it relaxes one bit to pressure, it is gone, and I believe that such is the national feeling. This feeling assumes various shapes, but always comes back to that of Union. Once admit the Union, once more acknowledge the authority of the national Government, and, instead of devoting your houses and streets and roads to the dread uses of war, I and this army become at once your protectors and supporters, shielding you from danger, let it come from what quarter it may. I know that a few individuals cannot resist a torrent of error and passion, such as swept the South into rebellion, but you can point out, so that we may know those who desire a government, and those who insist on war and its desolation…..”

  10. When the destroyers showed up at the Minnesota state capital to pull down the statue of Columbus, it was not a surprise. State leadership knew of the plans hours ahead of time. The destroyers fully expected to be arrested for just attempting it. These details came from one of the few grown-up reporters left in the state. He left the capital building because he figured there was no urgent story.

    But when the destroyers showed up, they were met with a single state policeman, who tried to hand them a piece of paper suggesting they follow established processes. The destroyers refused the paper. The state policeman walked back inside the building.

    The destroyers then wrapped their chains around the stature, and to their suprise, were able to pull it down without opposition. Once the statue was down, two dozen state police filed out and protected the now damaged monument.

    The lieutenant governor, who claims membership in a Minnesota tribe, said she wouldn’t shed a tear. The governor said there would be consequences. There have been none, despite there being enough police on site to arrest the destroyers–who apparently were disappointed to be not arrested. It is well known who the people were, and it happened in daylight.

  11. Chases Eagles, almost no one in America even knew the bomb existed, when it was deployed against Japan. But when it comes down to an expected casualty number approaching a million, versus using the bomb, well, I agree with Truman’s decision.

  12. let me repeat this part…
    …those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out….

    Personally I want peace and free and fair elections. I want my country back. I want law and order and a just and fair court system. We don’t have any of that. If we are lawless then we are lawless. I think we have to destroy those who made it that way.

  13. Gordon, I am not criticizing Truman at all. It was absolutely the correct call. I am pretty sure however, he would have preferred that Japan surrendered without nuking them.

  14. “Maybe the assault on a Democrat state senator was too much even for him.”

    Yes, the mob must not be allowed to attack their enablers.

  15. Neo,

    Madison.com has an article on this and one of the protestors they spoke with did know the statue was of an abolitionist.

    https://madison.com/wsj/news/local/crime-and-courts/protesters-tear-down-statues-punch-senator-set-small-fire-after-arrest-of-black-activist/article_8356b4c1-4dbf-52ff-9d5b-cadb98bf5356.html

    [Get ready to cringe…]
    She said while the Forward and Heg statues stood for good causes and movements, those in power are not taking that same stand with the Black Lives Matter movement. Having those statues prominently displayed in Madison creates a “false representation of what this city is,” she said. “I just hope some people realize that sometimes you need to talk to people in a language that only they understand. Stop trying to make us speak to you in your language.”

    The part about ‘language’ is bizarre. What does she mean? Literal language? Violence? Or her definition of white supremacy which means [as you noted] a statue of a white abolitionist is not acceptable? Seems to be more than one definition.

    How about rather than tearing down statues they propose building statues to famous black people who were part of Wisconsin history? Such as Ezekiel Gillespie [freed slave who helped with the underground railroad] or Val Phillips [the first African American woman elected to a statewide office in the nation]? I know, it’s asking to much to have this person think beyond reactionary destruction.

  16. Neo, that sounds like the cupcake shop owner in the Cleveland area who was outraged her shop was wrecked. She’s on their side!

  17. Time for high velocity lead projectiles. Rubber bullets, tear gas, water cannons, and mace are yesterday’s papers. Kill a few hundreds to save millions sounds like win-win to me.

  18. The John Brown Gun Club and Redneck Revolt(?) anarchists will play the game. Are they willing to die, or just try to kill armed fellow citizens who aren’t Marxists? Video from Seattle area and Lansing show these Marxists using earpieces (non-cell phone) two way tactical radios (?) for communications. Federal response will be necessary if things get kinetic. Just speculating.

  19. I suppose if you believe in the collectivist, socialist vision of the future, you believe that you must destroy the past so you can begin again. “Goodbye, Lady Forward. Goodbye, Col. Heg. We want the next generation to never know you existed.” This isn’t about slavery or the Civil War. This isn’t about anything that happened before today. These idiots want to control the past so they can control the future.

    George Orwell covered this in “1984.”

    The fecklessness of the liberals is playing into the hands of these morons. The liberal response appears to be “Stand down.”

    We must stand up for civilization.

  20. We are witnessing a communist uprising to overthrow the Constitution and the rule of law in general. This is not the time to tiptoe through the tulips. Unleash the dogs of war.

  21. The forgetting, the imposed forgetting, about, among other things, the role of white soldiers in the Civil War is part of the new emphasis of Juneteenth. And the insistence by the Great and The Knowing that the Civil War was not about slavery was/is part of that. Goes back decades. America may never be seen to do anything noble. So it’s about tariffs or something.
    But see Manning, “What This Cruel War Was Over”. She looked at letters from soldiers north and south and found much more concern about slavery than the Great and the Knowing would allow.

  22. “I have a theory (unproven) that part of this statue-wrecking impulse is to destroy all record that in the struggle for black freedom there were many white people who fought and died for that cause.” – Neo

    Agreed.
    https://babylonbee.com/news/updated-less-problematic-history-books-will-only-have-what-happened-in-the-current-year

    But they won’t easily be able to put their mad genie back in the broken bottle.
    https://babylonbee.com/news/i-think-weve-found-all-the-institutions-founded-by-racists-and-we-can-just-stop-looking-for-them-now-says-planned-parenthood-spokesperson-nervously

    However, there is a work-around until the madness passes by!
    https://babylonbee.com/news/cities-successfully-preserving-existing-statues-by-re-naming-them-all-karl-marx

  23. Amadeus48:

    Orwell covered it, but he didn’t make it up. The Soviets were doing it.

  24. Mike K on June 24, 2020 at 7:15 pm said:
    Democrat state. The mobs are the DNC kinetic wing.

    Nope… The dems are stupid thinking they are…
    They are not. they do not serve the dems, the dems will serve them
    They are attacking where things are weakest because of beliefs.

    Someone is going to eat the dems lunch and the surprise on their face…

  25. But wait till the people who fed this monster get to know it better…
    This monster never loved the fringe it made into an army serving its ends…

    The ladies at the core of the conversion in so many ways, are certainly going to regret it once they see what the future is, and it isn’t them (and there is no one to defend them)… (they are already quite confused over their lack of everything they had)

  26. There seems to be some disputation over whether the radicals are serving or controlling the Democrat leadership.
    Doc Zero weighs in on the side of the Establishment, but he may not be correct.
    All good conspiracy theories point to a third party controlling BOTH of them.
    Hmmm.
    https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1275851209044299776.html

    Do not for a moment believe the Democrat Party has lost control of the extremist movement it’s using for political gain. That’s all purely theatrical. The extremists need the indulgence of Democrat city and state officials to carry out their campaign of violence.
    The Democrat Party serves as the political wing of this violent anti-American movement, but it’s also the wing that calls the shots. Democrats can shut this garbage down any time they want to. Of course, they won’t as long as they’re profiting from it.
    I guarantee you will be amazed at how quickly the riots, occupations, and vandalism end if the Democrats get shellacked in November by an angry electorate. If they think voters are holding them responsible for chaos and ruin, or they lose the power to enable it, it will end.
    There will be a few theatrical performances where Democrats express mild misgivings about the worst excesses of the vandals, wonder aloud if maybe they’ve gone too far, offer a little sympathy to voters who are recoiling in disgust, act like they don’t control any of this.
    This is necessary to keep the voters from seeing through the little Sinn Fein/IRA game the Dems are playing with their mobs. Dems don’t want to be held ACCOUNTABLE or RESPONSIBLE for their dereliction of duty. They can’t be seen loudly rooting for the downfall of America.
    Democrat politicians need to act like honest brokers between the mobs and the rest of America, acknowledging the “grievances” of the former and securing “concessions” from the latter. They want to look like peacemakers, interlocutors, bridge-builders.
    But never forget, the Democrats ARE 100% in charge of all this. They have tremendous influence over radical leaders who need a “respectable” political wing to achieve their extremist ends. Dem mayors and governors could suddenly start enforcing the law if they wanted to.
    When it’s time for the violence and destruction to end, Dems will arrange for the radical leaders to be comfortably taken care of. A new generation of Al Sharptons will roll out in their limousines. They’ll be promised seats at the table of power if they play along.
    This is a planned and synchronized political operation. It’s not like the GOP Establishment recoiling from the Tea Party in horror and killing it as fast as possible. Dems are not afraid of populist energy. They wield it like a flaming sword and sheathe it when necessary.

  27. Nobody seems to have much to say about Forward. It’s wonderful. Public figurative sculptures are currently out of favour, to put it mildly, but this is an excellent example, a wonderful blend of naturalism (her head) and idealism (her long, flowing legs).

    It has a historical significance too, in that it is the work of a woman, quite exceptional for the 1890s, and the original statue was financed by public subscription largely raised by women from women. The restored statue, the one which has been toppled, was financed the same way nearly 40 years ago.

    I could find many sour inferences to draw from all this but that would be futile because I know the people who read and comment here are not the people I am angry with. How dismaying to learn from Monatge’s comment above that the people who are responsible for this iconoclasm know exactly what they are doing.

    But on the other hand sour comments are what we all come to conservtive blogs for, so if anyone cares to go to the well known Althouse blog and scroll down a bit they will find that the local art museum is boarded up, but its trustees have encouraged people to paint on the hoardings. Compare the hideous daubs there with the graceful sculpture of Jean Pond Miner.

  28. Neo–the “woke” brigades are doing it right in front of us.

    Enfeebled institutions like NYT, WaPoop, the corporate media, the universities, the inheritors of civilization (authors, playwrights, artists, museums, libraries) are readily bending the knee. I am sure you have gotten the disgusting, fawning emails from arts groups, cultural organizations, and commercial enterprises bowing before “systemic racism”.

    This isn’t about racism. The accusation of racism (flexibly defined) is the wedge to get power. No one would care about the Poetry Foundation if it didn’t have hundreds of million of dollars. Those concerned Poets of Color want to get their hands on the dosh.

  29. h/t Ymar’s post – excellent post about defending the statues of a Southern general who became a defender of the freed blacks after the war — but gets no credit for that.

    https://townhall.com/columnists/scottmorefield/2020/06/22/nathan-bedford-forrest-wins-a-rare-victory-over-cancel-culture-heres-why-thats-a-good-thing-n2571009

    Further, an 1875 speech to a group of black Southerners got Forrest in trouble with Southern racists at the time, mostly because he dared to kiss a young black woman on the cheek when he accepted a bouquet of flowers from her.

    Some quotes from the speech:

    – “This day is a day that is proud to me, having occupied the position that I did for the past twelve years, and been misunderstood by your race. This is the first opportunity I have had during that time to say that I am your friend. I am here a representative of the southern people, one more slandered and maligned than any man in the nation.”

    – “I want to elevate you to take positions in law offices, in stores, on farms, and wherever you are capable of going.”

    – “I am your friend … We were born on the same soil, breathe the same air, and live in the same land. Why, then, can we not live as brothers? I will say that when the war broke out I felt it my duty to stand by my people. When the time came I did the best I could, and I don’t believe I flickered. I came here with the jeers of some white people, who think that I am doing wrong. I believe that I can exert some influence, and do much to assist the people in strengthening fraternal relations, and shall do all in my power to bring about peace.”

    – “When I can serve you I will do so. We have but one flag, one country; let us stand together. We may differ in color, but not in sentiment.”

    – “Go to work, be industrious, live honestly and act truly, and when you are oppressed I’ll come to your relief.”

    Nathan Bedford Forrest, the former Confederate general and alleged Klan leader, said all that in 1875, not 1964. 18-freaking-75. If that’s not an example of someone who’s willing to learn and grow, I don’t know what is.

  30. It’s never about the issue, it’s about the agenda.

    https://townhall.com/tipsheet/bronsonstocking/2020/06/25/rioters-fail-to-topple-emancipation-statue-in-washington-dc-n2571380

    The statue depicts President Lincoln holding a copy of his Emancipation Proclamation as he symbolically frees a slave, shackled and knelt before him. According to the National Park Service, the funds for the 1876 statue came primarily from freed slaves and African American Union veterans. But today’s leftists have decided that the freed slaves built a racist statue because the slave depicted in the statue is kneeling before the white president, which suggests “black people are inferior to white people,” as one protester told Townhall’s Julio Rosas. So that’s why protesters want police to kneel down before them.

    Julio was at the statue on Tuesday when protesters gathered and announced their intentions to vandalize the memorial. A speaker told the angry mob that the memorial was on “stolen land” and warned white people that “we gonna make sure we get what’s owed to us.”

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