Five myths about Robert E. Lee

 https://reevesjw.medium.com/five-myths-about-robert-e-lee-d9d6fa331aa

The belief that the Confederate leaders didn’t really commit treason is widely held in America today. In 2017, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly said of Lee, “He was a man that gave up his country to fight for his state, which 150 years ago was more important than country. It was always loyalty to state first back in those days.” Lee himself made a similar argument in 1866, when he said, “Virginia, in withdrawing herself from the United States, carried me along as a citizen of Virginia, and her laws and her acts were binding on me.”

Regardless, of Lee’s and Kelly’s view of the matter, it was always the position of the United States Government that Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and the other Confederate leaders had committed treason, as defined in Article III of the Constitution. On June 7, 1865, Robert E. Lee was indicted for treason by a federal grand jury in Norfolk, Virginia. He faced death by hanging if convicted.

A Current Officer’s Thoughts on Robert E. Lee

 https://angrystaffofficer.com/2017/09/01/guest-post-a-current-officers-thoughts-on-robert-e-lee/

Lee’s Army killed or wounded 1,100 Union Soldiers during the 7 Days Battle, Lee’s first as the Commander of the Army of Northern Virginia. From there, the Union suffered over 1,600 casualties at Second Manassas, 11,100 (2,100 killed) at Antietam, 12,600 casualties at Fredericksburg, 17,000 casualties at Chancellorsville, 23,049 (3,155 killed) at Gettysburg, and the list goes on through the 1864 campaigns against General Ulysses S. Grant, the siege of Petersburg (4,200 losses estimated), and Lee’s final surrender at Appomattox. (See: McPherson, James and James Hogue, Ordeal by Fire: The Civil War and Reconstruction.)

So should Lee’s statue be removed? The simple removal of a statue does not equate to destroying our common American history. It simply sends the message that Americans will not tolerate the honoring of such an intolerant man who was responsible for the deaths of so many Americans. A statue is not “history” in and of itself, but simply a reflection of how we Americans remember our past. Those who see this as a removal of history may be surprised to discover books, perhaps a better means of learning history than a statue.

The Meaning of Oaths and a Forgotten Man

 https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a24208/what-an-oath-means/

"I think that Robert E. Lee, as a traitor and betrayer of his solemn oath before God and the Constitution, was a much greater terrorist than Osama Bin Ladin… after all, Lee killed many more Americans than Bin Ladin, and almost destroyed the United States. What do you think?"

The oath I, and all modern officers swear, runs this way: "I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."

DNA analysis solves mystery of bodies found at bottom of medieval well

 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/08/30/europe/medieval-well-mystery-bodies-scn/index.html

The identity of the remains of the six adults and 11 children and why they ended up in the medieval well had long vexed archaeologists. Unlike other mass burials where skeletons are uniformly arranged, the bodies were oddly positioned and mixed -- likely caused by being thrown head first shortly after their deaths.

To understand more about how these people died, scientists were recently able to extract detailed genetic material preserved in the bones thanks to recent advances in ancient DNA sequencing. The genomes of six of the individuals showed that four of them were related -- including three sisters, the youngest of whom was five to 10 years old. Further analysis of the genetic material suggested that all six were "almost certainly" Ashkenazi Jews.

THE MYTH OF THE KINDLY GENERAL LEE

 https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/the-myth-of-the-kindly-general-lee/529038/

The myth of Lee goes something like this: He was a brilliant strategist and devoted Christian man who abhorred slavery and labored tirelessly after the war to bring the country back together.

Lee was a slave owner—his own views on slavery were explicated in an 1856 letter that is often misquoted to give the impression that Lee was some kind of abolitionist. In the letter, he describes slavery as “a moral & political evil,” but goes on to explain that:

The argument here is that slavery is bad for white people, good for black people, and most important, better than abolitionism; emancipation must wait for divine intervention. That black people might not want to be slaves does not enter into the equation; their opinion on the subject of their own bondage is not even an afterthought to Lee.

Lee’s cruelty as a slave master was not confined to physical punishment. In Reading the Man, the historian Elizabeth Brown Pryor’s portrait of Lee through his writings, Pryor writes that “Lee ruptured the Washington and Custis tradition of respecting slave families” by hiring them off to other plantations, and that “by 1860 he had broken up every family but one on the estate, some of whom had been together since Mount Vernon days.” The separation of slave families was one of the most unfathomably devastating aspects of slavery, and Pryor wrote that Lee’s slaves regarded him as “the worst man I ever see.”

A Pennsylvania Lawmaker and the Resurgence of Christian Nationalism

 https://www.newyorker.com/news/on-religion/a-pennsylvania-lawmaker-and-the-resurgence-of-christian-nationalism

Doug Mastriano, a Republican state senator from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and parts of neighboring counties, was a little-known figure in state politics before the coronavirus pandemic. But, in the past year, he has led rallies against mask mandates and other public-health protocols, which he has characterized as “the governor’s autocratic control over our lives.” He has become a leader of the Stop the Steal campaign, and claims that he spoke to Donald Trump at least fifteen times between the 2020 election and the insurrection at the Capitol, on January 6th. He urged his followers to attend the rally at the Capitol that led to the riots, saying, “I’m really praying that God will pour His Spirit upon Washington, D.C., like we’ve never seen before.” Throughout this time, he has cast the fight against both lockdowns and Trump’s electoral loss as a religious battle against the forces of evil. He has come to embody a set of beliefs characterized as Christian nationalism, which center on the idea that God intended America to be a Christian nation, and which, when mingled with conspiracy theory and white nationalism, helped to fuel the insurrection. “Violence has always been a part of Christian nationalism,” Andrew Whitehead, a sociologist and co-author of “Taking America Back for God,” told me. “It’s just that the nature of the enemy has changed.”

"Robert E. Lee and Me

Donald Trump’s latest excuse for losing doesn’t quite add up

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/10/25/donald-trumps-latest-excuse-for-losing-doesnt-quite-add-up/

At a rally Monday, Donald Trump added a new piece to the "rigged election" puzzle. He said the polls are rigged against him — which he's said before. Then he added another layer: The rigged polls were themselves a form of voter suppression.

In Facebook video, Doug Mastriano thanked pro-Confederate armed men for supposedly defending Gen. Lee statue

 https://www.mediamatters.org/diversity-discrimination/facebook-video-doug-mastriano-thanked-pro-confederate-armed-men-supposedly

The Gettysburg incident is another example of how Mastriano, who is a right-wing commentator and Republican gubernatorial nominee, has been connected to social media-fueled extremism. He has promoted QAnon; he has a “special relationship” with an online “prophet” who pushes violence-filled conspiracy theories; he has shared anti-Muslim content; he has posted an image claiming Roe v. Wade is “so much” worse than the Holocaust; and he has paid social media platform Gab $5,000 for “consulting” work. He also participated in the January 6 insurrection, which was fueled by social media and right-wing media falsehoods. 

Democrat Josh Shapiro receives additional support from Republicans in Pennsylvania gubernatorial race

 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/democrat-josh-shapiro-receives-additional-support-republicans-pennsylvania-gubernatorial-race

"Although I am a long-standing Republican, I am deeply troubled by Doug Mastriano’s embrace of dangerous extremism," Chertoff added. "Josh Shapiro, on the other hand, is a staunch defender of our democratic institutions and will lead Pennsylvania with honor and integrity. I am proud to support his campaign for Governor."

What Is With These GOP Candidates Fawning Over the Confederacy and Saying Other Horrible Things?

 https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/08/republican-candidates-doug-mastriano-blake-masters-gop-confederacy.html

On Monday, Media Matters reported that in 2020, Mastriano live-streamed himself going to the site of the Gettysburg battle and saluting a group of Confederate flag-waving armed members of the public, who were ostensibly there to prevent an Antifa flag burning. (This was, according to the Washington Post, a social media hoax.) Maybe Mastriano just didn’t see the giant Confederate flag waving from the back of the truck when he went up to the group and told them: “Friends, thanks for being here. I’m Sen. Mastriano. … It’s good to see you guys.” Then again, that same day he posted a similar salutation to a man wearing a half-American flag, half-Confederate flag on his back near Robert E. Lee’s statue at Gettysburg, telling him: “You’re looking good there, man. I can’t think of a better cape.”

Pennsylvania candidate Mastriano posed in Confederate uniform at Army War College - a real Trumpian American

 https://www.reuters.com/world/us/exclusive-pennsylvania-candidate-mastriano-posed-confederate-uniform-army-war-2022-08-26/

PHILADELPHIA, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Three years before retiring from the U.S. Army in 2017, Donald Trump-backed Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano posed in Confederate uniform for a faculty photo at the Army War College, according to a copy of the photo obtained by Reuters.

GOP Leaders Endorse Democrat for Pennsylvania Gov. After Republican Candidate Seen Wearing Confederate Uniform

 https://people.com/politics/republican-leaders-endorse-democrat-pennsylvania-governor-after-gop-nominee-scandal/

Several Republicans in Pennsylvania are throwing their support behind a Democratic candidate for governor after photos surfaced of far-right GOP nominee Doug Mastriano wearing a Confederate military uniform.

At least 16 Republican leaders have announced their endorsement for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro, days after Reuters reported that Mastriano posed for a photo wearing a Confederate uniform in 2014, while he was an instructor at the US Army War College.

Trump team likely sought to conceal classified docs at Mar-a-Lago, DOJ tells judge

 https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/30/trump-justice-department-filing-warrant-00054319

 

Prosecutors obtained a search warrant for former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate after receiving evidence that there was “likely” an effort to conceal classified documents there in defiance of a grand jury subpoena, a new Justice Department court filing released Tuesday night said.