VIDEO: "The Birth of a Nation" (full) - a lesson for our times?

Just about 100% of the reviews you'll read for D.W. Griffiths' masterpiece, The Birth of a Nation focus on the racism, pro-South bias, "glorification" of the Ku Klux Klan, yada yada yada. There is no dbout about the bias, but there is also no doubt that the events depicted are real, a cautionary tale about what happens when you turn society on its head.

In another masterpiece, The Civil War, film-maker Ken Burns quotes a freed slave as telling his master "Bottom rail on top now!" As the film shows, the aim of many radical abolitionists before, during and after the Civil War was nothing less than to make downtrodden black Americans rulers over the privileged whites. To do so, they used rigged elections (in which whites were disenfranchised), mob violence, and occupation of southern cities and states by the federal army.

Sounds familiar, doesn't it? The KKK was undeniably racist, but would not have come into being were it not for the necessity of defending southern society and, dare we say it, civilization, in a country which had descended into chaos. Watching The Birth of a Nation may make some people uncomfortable, but it would be foolish to let the political incorrectness blind us to the realities of the culture war which America experienced then... and now.

 

President Woodrow Wilson is famously rumored to have responded to the film with the remark: "It is like writing history with lightning. And my only regret is that it is all so terribly true." His published works as a historian are closely aligned with the film's negative portrayal of Reconstruction. Some of his writings are even quoted onscreen in certain prints of the film.

Also worth watching (and free of bias!) Mississippi's War: Slavery and Secession, a production of Mississippi Public Broadcasting, 2014.

Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it. (George Santayana)

VIDEOS: Trump emphasizes weakness of Ford's testimony. FBI report to find "no corroboration". Walt predicts Kavanagh confirmation

Triple headline today because I want to tie everything together so the inevitability of the confirmation of Brett Kavanagh as the next Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States will be apparent.

Let's start with President Trump's speech Tuesday night at a rally in Southaven MS. In the style of a trial lawyer addressing a jury, Mr Trump summarized the key questions and answers in the sworn testimony of Christine Blasey Ford, line by line, to show the total inadequacy of her recollection of the alleged assault for which Judge Kavanagh is being pilloried by the anti-Trumpers (whose real agenda is protecting Roe v. Wade and "abortion rights"). In case you missed it, here's the clip they're all talking about.



For speaking plainly and forcefully about the gaping holes in Ms Ford's story, POTUS is being criticized for being insensitive, callous, misogynist, yada yada yada. A Republican senator called his remarks "just plain wrong", without specifying (because she couldn't) what was wrong with what he said. Here's the response from the President's Press Secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders.



This morning it appears that President Trump was not wrong to suggest that the whole Ford assault affair, the whole he-said-she-said circus is nothing more than a Democratic Party tactic to delay the confirmation of Judge Kavanagh, and, in spite of all the sturm und drang, a dog that won't hunt.

The New York Times claims to have spoken late last night with an unnamed official (surprised?) who was briefed on the FBI's investigation into the allegations of Ms Ford (and two others), who told them that the report, now in the hands of the White House, found no corroboration of the sexual assault allegations.

The unnamed official said the FBI contacted ten people but interviewed nine in total, and that the White House concluded that the interviews didn't support the allegations. The Wall Street Journal, citing people who it said were "familiar with the matter" also reported that the White House found no corroboration.

Seems to me that should be about the end of it, even for the Republican ladies and Senator Flakey. Ms Ford has had her 15 minutes of fame. The Democrats got their investigation, and it came up with nothing. Nada. Zip. It will be hard, now, for the doubters to vote against confirmation, which could come as soon as the day after tomorrow. Lifetime pct .988.

Further viewing: Down in The Remnant Underground, Michael Matt has a wholly different take on the Kavanaugh nomination hearings. What he calls the "witch hunt" is all about one thing: liberal America's commitment to human sacrifice and moral chaos. Watch and think!

New Mississippi law makes it no state for queers

Breaking news from Jackson! Mississippi governor Phil Bryant has signed a law that allows private and public businesses to refuse service to gay couples, if serving them would violate the proprietors' religious beliefs.

The intent of the law is to protect those who believe that marriage should be between one man and one woman, that sexual relations should only take place inside such marriages, and that male and female genders are unchangeable. Those people are known as Christians.

The law allows churches, religious charities and privately held businesses to decline services to people violating those beliefs. Individual government employees may also opt out, although the measure says governments must still provide services.

I will pause now to insert my earplugs, against the noise of righteous indignation from the gay rights gang, lamestream media and Hellery Clinton.

Know your Confederate flags

Yesterday the South Carolina state senate, by a vote of 37 to 3, read for the second time a bill to banish the Confederate battle flag from a Civil War memorial on the capitol grounds, and put it in a museum where (the "civil rights" nazis say) it belongs. The bill is to be read for a third and final time today. Then it will go to the state House of Representatives. Click here to read the Reuters report on the rather one-sided debate.

Walt was dismayed [yet again! Ed.], while watching this news on the idiot's lantern, to hear a reporter for a major network refer [yet again! Ed.] to the flag in question as "the Stars and Bars". It is not!!! Would all reporters, commentators, pundits and other members of the chattering classes please look closely at the images below!

The Stars and Bars, shown at the left end of the top row, was the first flag of the Confederate States of America, deliberately modelled on the Betsy Ross flag popularly believed -- although the point is debatable -- to have been the first flag of the United States of America. The seven stars in the canton represent the original seven states of the CSA. More stars were added as more states exercised their right to secede from the Union.

The square flag which flies at the SC Civil War memorial is the Confederate battle jack, more accurately the flag of the Army of Northern Virginia. It's shown at the left end of the second row. The rectangular version, often called "the Southern Cross", was carried into battle by other units, along with a number of lesser-known unit flags, as shown.

The Confederate battle jack was (and still is) popular with the people of the South, and was incorporated into the second and third national flags of the confederacy. It still appears in the canton of the state flag of Mississippi, whose politically-incorrect legislature has so far shown no inclination to remove it. 

African-Americans kill cops; protests NOT expected

Walt remembers what Hattiesburg, Mississippi was like half a century ago, or perhaps a little more. The city fathers were white. The police where white. Most of the general population was black. But everyone kind of rubbed along together according to the natural order of things, and Hattiesburg was a sleepy, more-or-less peaceful burg.

So it was until the folk-song army and agitators from New York came to town preaching "civil rights", integration, an "end to slavery", yada yada yada. Not without a struggle, Hattiesburg did change. Today the mayor, Johnny DuPree, is black, and the police force is integrated. That was proved this weekend as two officers, Benjamin Deen and Liquori Tate, were killed in the line of duty. Officer Deen was white. Officer Tate was black. Both officers were shot dead. Equal in life, equal in death.

Here's how it went down. About 8:30 PM on Saturday, one of the officers stopped a gold-coloured Cadillac Escalade in an industrial area of town for a traffic offence. For reasons as yet unknown, he called for backup and was joined by his colleague. Someone in the Cadillac started shooting and, just like that, the two officers were down. They died of their wounds later that night.

Police put out APBs for two "known felons" -- the words of Mayor DuPree -- Curtis Banks and Marvin Banks. If you still haven't guessed what colour the Banks brothers are, here are their pictures.

You probably guessed it the minute you read "gold-coloured Cadillac Escalade", right? It didn't take long to find them. Warren Strain, spokesthingy for the MS Department of Public Safety, told AP that Marvin tried to escape in a police car, but "he didn't get very far, three or four blocks, and then he ditched that vehicle." No dummy he!

Police arrested Marvin and charged him with capital murder. Also charged with capital murder is Joanie Calloway, who is also, errr, black. Curtis Banks, Marvin's younger bro, has been charged with being an accessory to the murders. Cornelius Clark was arrested yesterday afternoon and charged with obstruction of justice. [I haven't been able to find a picture of him yet. Ed.]

The Hattiesburg incident is kind of a switch on the several recent stories about white cops killing poor, oppressed black people. Well, OK, the Baltimore cops accused of killing Raymond Gray were a mixed lot. Baltimore has a black mayor and an integrated police department, just like Hattiesburg. It doesn't matter. Cops killed a black guy and that's the cue ["excuse", surely! Ed.] for taking to the streets for the customary rioting and looting. And, of course, the customary bleating from the Prez and other Forces for Good about what's wrong with America and how it's somehow all the rich, white people's fault.

Walt would like to know when the protests are going to start in Hattiesburg and Oxford County. When will newly-appointed Attorney General Loretta Lynch arrive to spearhead the investigation into the violation of the cops' civil rights? When will the "Reverend" Al Sharpton come to lead the march for "Justice for Deen and Tate"? When will President Obarmy start wringing his hands on national TV as he calls for reform of America's racist police? Answer to all three questions: probably never!

Further reading:
"Attorney General Lynch Follows a Liberal Formula In Baltimore"
"Why cops shoot so many black Americans"