Columbus statues? Who’s next? The Rocky statue? He did take down Apollo Creed and Clubber Lang.
Actually on a serious note. They should have erected a “Smokin” Joe Frazier Statue if the city of Philly wanted a real life boxing champ to represent. Racist bastards (Bill Burr famous rant, look it up)
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Never mind. 
Rocky must go. Lol
Philly probably didn’t like what comedian Bill Burr said (it’s hilarious) and finally did the right thing. I’m being facetious.
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Expect more leaks, as well as other more obvious disruptions:
Meanwhile, in Portland:
Apparently, thugs don’t like being called out for their behaviour and act thuggishly in response.
That is completely reprehensible behaviour.
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Putin’s going to make sure his president stays in office, dontcha worry.
Regarding the Confederacy, we don’t have any statues glorifying the generals and leaders from our dark times and still are able to remember quite well. And that from an inhabitant of the universally acknowledged Most Evil Country Of The 20th Century.
Haven’t you heard, that’s the new keeping the peace. Deescalation by breaking bones and using teargas.
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Sigh.
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I’m going to agree with this statement. Since I’m from the UK, I’ll use a recent example from there as reference. I’m honestly not sure that having a statue of a prominent slave owner and trader in the heart of Bristol was helping most Brits remember the evils of slavery. In fact, I’d posit the exact opposite: having the statue in a prominent place says “This guy was a hero worthy of immortalizing”. IOW instead of helping us remember what he actually did and stood for, it distorts the historical narrative and creates a false impression of who he was.
And that’s really the issue with many of the statues celebrating the empire builders in the UK - they built the empire on the backs of a lot of slaves (amongst others). Celebrating such individuals with statutes glosses over that.
What I find interesting about the US situation particularly with Confederate memorials is that a number of them (possibly a significant number) were erected in the early 20th century. The example that comes to mind is ‘Silent Sam’, a confederate war memorial that was located on the main campus of UNC Chapel Hill. It was erected in 1913 following a drive by an independent organization (The Daughters of the Confederacy). It’s gone now, toppled by protesters in 2018, but the controversy over it lingers on. While it was up, however, it was a painful reminder to Black American students attending UNC of the a painful past.
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More informational video, about
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My favourite bit of @VaultHunter101 s article:
The DHS said in a statement Wednesday that federal law enforcement officers are working “diligently and honorably to enforce federal law by defending federal property and the lives of their fellow officers”
I wonder how it looks when they stop their ‘diligence’. Taking batons to babies?
Now this is the view of an outsider, but my impression is that critiquing the US past often leads to the following knee-jerk reflex: [insert person] hates America! This is Un-American! They’re insulting the military/the flag/the Constitution/the country!
Now I don’t mind critique, as long as it doesn’t take the form of shouting ‘All inhabitants of [insert country here] are ■■■■■■■ idjits!’. No country is perfect.
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Are the protesters the “babies” in your remark? Lol 
Regarding the Confederate statues. first of all it’s the wrong way to go about it this is a democracy they were put there by vote. people voted for those statues to be put there they don’t want them there anymore they can vote to remove them and that’s where I stand. The energy behind it all is just completely radical and is unhealthy for society.
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Not always. A lot of the confederate statues went up due to the lobbying efforts of the Daughters of Confederation as noted in the video @paulothead linked. If you didn’t watch it, it’s a bit of an eye-opener. I agree that it’s better to have a democratic discussion within the community. In the case of Silent Sam, there have been efforts from within the UNC Chapel Hill community to remove it for decades, but they were always strongly opposed by the UDC and key State representatives regardless. It wasn’t until that white supremacist rally where a women was killed by some jerk with a car that protesters finally took matters into their own hands. You could say it was overdue at that point.
Here in Toronto, I don’t think any of the statues - past or present - have been voted on by the public. Actually, the way statues or other sculptures get added to the city streets is rather opaque.
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DoC were Democrats
Woodrow Wilson a Democrat.
KKK were Democrats
Should we eradicate Democrats? 
If we’re only concerned about Confederate statues, perhaps y’all would have a point. After all, they fought for the freedom to own slaves. So ■■■■ those guys.
But, Columbus? Statue of St. Louis? Memorials to Confederate soldiers? Catholic churches, statues of Jesus and the Virgin Mary?
Please. We’ve crossed the line from “ok well, I can see why that statue of Forrest would offend you,” to “WHY ARE YOU DESTROYING A STAUE OF FREDRICK DOUGLASS YOU COMMIE SUMBITCHES”
There’s a little bit o’ Taliban in some of these people tearing down statues.
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Oh come on Mick, they are only exercising their 1st amendment rights. Smh
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Yeah, I’m pretty cool with protesting. I’m NOT cool with mobs tearing ■■■■ up. EVEN if the mob has focused their ire on the founder of the KKK and his little statue. Yes, it should be taken down. No, it shouldn’t be torn down by the mob.
Just like I’m not cool with cops beating peaceful people, I’m not cool with people blocking highways (again here, last night). What. The. ■■■■.
We’re rapidly losing respect for the political process in this country. This decade is going to be ■■■■■■■ awful. AWFUL.
EDIT: Also, more and more I’m seeing protestors, especially those in Portland who are confronting the Feds and having their rights violated while they themselves engage in violating the rights of others, demand that the ‘2A’ people join them. And more and more I’m seeing people of the ‘boog’ movement sympathize with them. It’s not going to be too much longer until the radical left and right unite in their hatred of Gubmint. Then the Feds are in for it, as well as the people. It needs to stop right now, and we need to develop respect for one another again. Soon. Please.
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The 2 party system as it exists today is a cancer on society, and should be excised as such. So yeah, politicians that identify as either should be purged. Also, “politician” as a career path/goal should be done away with IMO.
And this is probably an unpopular opinion, but if the civil war was about unifying the country I think it was a bad idea. If it was about slavery being wrong and needing to disappear I think it was just, same as I think our involvement in WW2 would have been justified solely because of the Holocaust. But secession should be a right of the states, with a peaceful and reasonable pathway to accomplish that goal. Why couldn’t we be the N. American version of the EU? Is it perfect? Of course not, but why is it worse than forcing states to be linked to each other even if they appear to have irreconcilable ideological differences?
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DUDE I LOVE THIS. This is right up my alley!!
Yes, states do have the right to leave. I’m not sure Cali is going to be around 20 years from now as a State. They’ll be a nation soon, IMO. And well let them go because it is their right, and OBLIGATION, as a free people to alter or abolish their gubmint as they see fit.
But the Civil War, obviously, was about slavery. The South left because they saw the way the wind was blowing, and the North said ■■■■ you! Get your slaveowning asses back here. Of course the average soldier on either side wasn’t fighting for or against slavery, as the average soldier was a 20-something farmer and poor. So when MEMORIALS - not statues of KKK members - to dead Confederates are destroyed… I’m not mad, but damn it’s depressing. Just a total lack of knowledge and perspective. It’s the ignorance of The Mob and it’s as much of a cancer on this country as the 2-party system. This all ends very poorly IMHO.
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Is that any surprise? People seem to have given up on politicians in general achieving anything positive at all. And the last - how many years is it now? - of political stalemate in the US Congress is almost certainly part of that.
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No. Not even a little bit. In fact, this realization has taken on a weird, unspoken undercurrent in almost every political conversation I’ve had here with Temet, Sun and Paulo (some of the regular American posters). Even more distressing, the same undercurrent exists with family, friends and total strangers out and about. We all know somethings wrong.
Dread. The word I suppose I’m searching for is DREAD. We all feel it here. Both sides, all sides, independents, everyone.
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No, they aren’t. I just cited an example of even more reprehensible behaviour of law enforcement officers.
The DHS say their officers act diligently and honorably. Tell me,
Does this look honorable and diligent to y’all?
The guy getting the stick is a Navy veteran who just asked them if they think their behaviour is constitutional. He didn’t even raise his hands. Well, until they teargassed him point blank.
I may be an old-fashioned hippie, but a law enforcement officer should be able to confidently answer questions after his oath. If his answer is to beat and teargas the person asking him, then that is an answer. Just not the answer of someone enforcing law in a democracy.
Like accepting the outcome of an election?
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