The York County matter isn't closed -- influenced by one black council member and an NAACP jerk, the [Clerk] now says he won't put the flag and portraits back unless the SC supreme court orders him to. We've got to find somebody able to file suit, and our usual lawyer guy says a mere CITIZEN doesn't have "standing" to -- claims it has to be a sitting legislator.

Dr. Carter, the only actual Southern rights leader left in Dixie, says there were about 25 people in total demonstrating for our side last Sunday and NONE against it. I didn't go up. You see how much legislation matters to liberals. this is the election season they simply became outright communist thugs. We have got to find a lawyer willing to take this, one who'll work free or cheap, maybe contingency. I don't know that they have to be based in SC. We're in great shape here with one of the very few legislators who voted to keep the flag on the pole indicted for beating his wife.

This is another great issue by you -- thanks so much. I forward it with comments to a former SC legislator who's with us. 

A Lutheran church around the corner from me in the medieval style has little shields across the back wall symbolizing each of the original apostles. the St. Andrew one is (in effect) the rebel flag without the stars -- I'm sure I'm the only one to have noticed this.

I know I'm the last person on earth opposing the recent move of Crimea, but I'll do so till I die (attached Nationalist Times article).

Eric Hall recently collected more than 350 signatures showing support for his history teacher, Woody Hart. The same California teacher that was put on paid administrative leave last month, then given an early retirement package, after displaying a Confederate Flag besides a United States flag inside his classroom during a "Civil War" history lecture.

Before that, Hall was under investigation this past November for comments he made to a class about lynching.

"That's part of the reason I think it's so crazy that he's been accused of these things," Eric Hall said. "It's just so off-target of what is the reality."

So off-target, in his eye's, that it prompted the 14-year-old to do something about it. Hall gathered 356 student and faculty signatures at Sutter, hoping to get Woody Hart's job back.

"I just felt like he had been misrepresented, and I felt like it has not been fair to him," Hall said.

The eighth-grader sent his petitions to the Folsom-Cordova Unified School District. 

 

A letter arrived Thursday to Hall's home. In it, the district thanked him for his thoughts and hard work. But it also said Mr. Hart would stay retired.

"I think I am trying to make a point that people are outraged about this," Hall said.

One of the points the letter from the district made was that "personnel decisions should not be based on public opinion."

Hart has had overwhelming support from parents, students, and teachers. But, for now, Woody Hart will remain "retired."

ALABAMA FAST-TRACKING MONUMENT PROTECTION

Wednesday both the Alabama House and Senate versions of the Monuments bill were in committee.

The House version, HB99, is sponsored by state Representative Kyle South. A lengthy public hearing was held Wednesday in the State Government Committee.

Rep. South said that HB99 would create the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act of 2017. In addition to protecting monuments it would also restrict the renaming of streets, towns, parks, schools etc. if the current name has been used for fifty years. South said that there is a process for getting a waiver. The legislation would create a committee to hear the waivers.

South said that he still has some technical issues to resolve. Included in those changes are a 60 day auto approval if the committee does not meet. South told the committee that he would introduce the changed bill in a sub that he will have before the committee upon adjournment on Thursday.

Steve Murray, the Director of the Alabama Archives and History spoke in favor of the bill. He said, "Everyone knows the origins of this discussion" (anti-Confederate backlash after the Charleston massacre) and it concerns Confederate iconography. Murray said that, "the Civil War is the hinge on which all of southern history is based. Everything before leads up to the events of 1861 thru 1865. Everything that has happened since has been affected by the Civil War. Murray said that to denude the landscape of Confederate monuments and memorials would do ourselves a disservice. They have an educational function and it would be a mistake to remove those."

Murray said that the bill takes a reasonable approach, is easily understandable, and says that all monuments would be treated in an equitable fashion

Beth Lang who claimed to represent the Mobile area denounced the bill and called it a vast over reach of legislative authority.

Lang warned of tremendous unintended consequences from this particularly concerning planned work involving the Port of Mobile and the Mobile Waterfront. Lang said that they are aware that there are French, English, and Spanish monuments that could be found buried when they do their work and it is possible that the Port could lose its chicken export expansion if their work was halted while a state committee debated what to do with some discovered statues, which may or may not be there. "Under this bill if we found something in the construction phase we would have to stop construction." Land denounced the bill as an, "Unfunded mandate to cities and counties," and called it, "Well intentioned" and "Over reaching."

State Representative Paul Beckman said, "I carried this bill last session. As a history buff we have to look to our history."

Beckman said that this bill protect civil rights movement monuments, Civil War monuments and monuments to technology in regards to Huntsville. "This is a good bill, it preserves our history."

Rep. Beckman said that he wanted to bass this bill but it needs to be right. He raised several issues including: How do we know the intent of a monument 100 years ago; how is the $100,000 fine assessed; what is the role of the Attorney General; What do we do with an individual versus a municipality? "I want this bill, but I want these little ambiguities cleared up."

Beckman said that he has talked to minorities who want to preserve our history and our parks.

Sonny Braswell with the Alabama Association of County Commissions. Braswell said that from a county commission point of view we think that you have enough to do. That we would have to appear before a committee that you appoint we will never advocate.

Braswell said, "There is not a representative of local government on the committee at all. We will be submitting some ideas on how to have local government represtentation on the board

State Representative John Rogers (D from Birmingham) said that it is totally wrong to be telling cities what to do. "To tell them they can't relocate a monument is wrong."

Rogers said that some wanted to rename the Edmund Pettus Bridge; but he opposed that because, "We want to remember what they did to us on that bridge."

Rogers said. "I am opposed to the bill. You know we are going to fight it on the floor. Cities have the right to decide what they want to keep and what they want to tear down." "We want to remember what they did to us, not you but your ancestors."

Rep. Barbara Boyd (D from Anniston) said, "Why couldn't this be handed by archives and history instead of appointing a new committee who possibly wouldn't have as much historical background."

Murray said that the bill has changed was a legislative committee, then a committee of citizens and now is a blended committee. Murray added that this bill does not apply to federally owned property does not apply to private property strictly state and local

South said that a county would have to file a waiver with the committee to remove or rename a monument

Rep. Ralph Howard (D from Greensboro) said, "I don't think we need the state telling us how we do our business."

Lang warned that there is historical evidence that there is statues and monuments there covered up along the river. Indian artifacts are protected by federal government. City government has the authority over historical artifacts.

Rep. Mark Tuggle (R from Alexander City) said, "If it is federal money you are spending you are going to have to slow down," (if artifacts are found).

Rep. Ed Henry (R from Hartselle) suggested that, "If county makeup changes in forty years they could chose to remove those civil rights monuments I would not want that."

The Committee is supposed to meet today to vote on the bill.

The Senate version of the bill received a favorable recommendation from the Senate committee and could be on the floor of the Senate within days.

Senator Gerald Allen (R from Tuscaloosa) is the sponsor of the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act bill in the Senate.

Sen. Allen said, "I am concerned about politically-correct efforts to erase entire portions of American history, and oftentimes these efforts to remove a statute or a monument are done in haste and without public knowledge. I believe our children and grandchildren should remember history as it happened - the good and the bad. The Alabama Memorial Preservation Act will protect State history for the benefit of future generations."

Maryland blogger settles defamation suit brought by Melania Trump

 

Feb. 7 (UPI) - A blogger in Maryland has agreed to apologize to first lady Melania Trump and pay an undisclosed amount of money for writing "false and defamatory" statements online about her last summer.

 

Webster Griffin Tarpley reached an agreement with Trump's lawyers about a blog post from last August, in which he asserted that the first lady previously worked as an escort and was suffering from a nervous breakdown as a result of President Donald Trump's campaign.

 

"I posted an article ... that was replete with false and defamatory statements about her," Tarpley said in a statement provided by Trump's attorneys. "I had no legitimate factual basis to make these false statements and I fully retract them.

 

"I acknowledge that these false statements were very harmful and hurtful to Mrs. Trump and her family, and therefore I sincerely apologize to Mrs. Trump, her son, her husband and her parents for making these false statements."

 

Trump filed a $150 million suit in September against Tarpley. Britain-based Mail Media, the parent company of the Daily Mail, was also sued for publishing similar claims. The settlement in the Tarpley case resulted in the Trump family accepting an apology and dropping any pursuit for monetary damage from Tarpley. On Monday, Trump's attorneys refiled the libel suit against Mail Media in New York Supreme Court.  

 

Tarpley, 71, previously stated in a blog post last year that the defamation suit was "without merit," but in August, he retracted his original story, writing that although he did not start the rumors about Melania Trump, he should have kept "a healthy distance between innuendo and fact."