Monuments to racism toppling around the world.

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being that machine translation is still very buggy, that would be a surefire tower-of-babble situation and/or a gigantic game of "telephone."

That young Welsh aspie guy on UTube who does "Aspie World" has google translate on his screen as he speaks. And once he opined that "Greta Thunberg's aspergers is her strength". And on the screen it said that her her "ostriches are her strength".

The House has approved a bill to remove statues of Gen. Robert E. Lee and other Confederate leaders from the U.S. Capitol, as a reckoning over racial injustice continues following the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, in Minneapolis.

The House vote also would remove a bust of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, the author of the 1857 Dred Scott decision that declared African Americans couldn’t be citizens.

The bill directs the Architect of the Capitol to identify and eventually remove from Statuary Hall at least 10 statues honoring Confederate officials, including Lee, the commanding general of the Confederate Army, and Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president. Three statues honoring white supremacists — including former U.S. Vice President John C. Calhoun of South Carolina — would be immediately removed.

“Defenders and purveyors of sedition, slavery, segregation and white supremacy have no place in this temple of liberty,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said at a Capitol news conference ahead of the House vote.

The House approved the bill 305-113, sending it to the Republican-controlled Senate, where prospects are uncertain. Seventy-two Republicans, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana, joined with 232 Democrats to support the bill.

Hoyer, a Democrat, co-sponsored the measure and noted with irony that Taney was born in the southern Maryland district Hoyer represents. Hoyer said it was appropriate that the bill would replace Taney’s bust with another Maryland native, the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the high court’s first Black justice.

The House vote comes as communities nationwide reexamine the people they’re memorializing with statues. Speaker Nancy Pelosi last month ordered that the portraits of four speakers who served the Confederacy be removed from the ornate hall just outside the House chamber.

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., said the statues honoring Lee and other Confederate leaders are “deliberate attempts to rewrite history and dehumanize African Americans.″

The statues “are not symbols of Southern heritage, as some claim, but are symbols of white supremacy and defiance of federal authority,” Lee said. “It’s past time we end the glorification of men who committed treason against the United States in a concerted effort to keep African Americans in chains.”

Bills to remove the Taney bust and the statues of Confederate leaders have been introduced in the Senate, although they would require separate votes.

Even if legislation passes both chambers, it would need the president’s signature, and President Donald Trump has opposed the removal of historic statues elsewhere. Trump has strongly condemned those who toppled statues during protests over racial injustice and police brutality following Floyd’s death in May and other police killings.

The 2-foot-high marble bust of Taney is outside a room in the Capitol where the Supreme Court met for half a century, from 1810 to 1860. It was in that room that Taney, the nation’s fifth chief justice, announced the Dred Scott decision, sometimes called the worst decision in the court’s history.

“What Dred Scott said was, Black lives did not matter,″ Hoyer said. “So when we assert that yes they do matter, it is out of conviction ... that in America, the land of the free includes all of us.″

There’s at least one potentially surprising voice for Taney to stay. Lynne M. Jackson, Scott’s great-great-granddaughter, says if it were up to her, she’d leave Taney’s bust where it is. But she said she’d add something too: a bust of Dred Scott.

“I’m not really a fan of wiping things out,” Jackson said in a telephone interview this week from her home in Missouri.

The president and founder of The Dred Scott Heritage Foundation, Jackson has seen other Taney sculptures removed in recent years, particularly in Maryland, where he was the state’s attorney general before becoming U.S. attorney general and then chief justice.

Calhoun, who served as vice president from 1825-1832, also was a U.S. senator, House member and secretary of state and war. He died a decade before the Civil War, but was known as a strong defender of slavery, segregation and white supremacy.

His statue would be removed within 30 days of the bill’s passage, along with two other white supremacists, former North Carolina Gov. Charles Aycock and James Clarke, a former Arkansas governor and senator.

In the summer of 2017, shortly after white nationalists gathered in Charlottesville, Virginia, to protest the removal of a statue of Lee, Baltimore’s mayor removed statues of Lee, Taney and others.A statue of Taney was removed from the grounds of the State House in Annapolis around the same time. And a bust of Taney was removed that year from outside city hall in Frederick, Maryland.

Another Taney bust sits alongside all other former chief justices in the Supreme Court’s Great Hall, a soaring, marble-columned corridor that leads to the courtroom. A portrait of Taney hangs in one of the court’s conference rooms.

Jackson said she believes that what memorials honoring figures like Taney need is context. At the Capitol, the Taney statue sits in the “place where the Dred Scott case was decided,” but the fact he is ”there by himself is lopsided,” Jackson said in suggesting a bust of Scott be added. She had proposed a similar fix for the Taney statue in Annapolis.

In Congress, Taney’s bust was controversial from the start. When Illinois Sen. Lyman Trumbull proposed its creation in 1865, shortly after Taney’s death, he got into a heated debate with Massachusetts Sen. Charles Sumner, a fierce opponent of slavery.

“Let me tell that senator that the name of Taney is to be hooted down the page of history. Judgment is beginning now,” Sumner said. “And an emancipated country will fasten upon him the stigma which he deserves.”

Funding for a Taney bust wasn’t approved until almost a decade later. Today, near the Taney bust, inside the old Supreme Court chamber, there are also busts of the nation’s first four chief justices. The first, John Marshall, is the only person to serve as chief justice longer than Taney and a revered figure in the law.

The eleventh largest school district in the U.S. has renamed a high school formerly known as Robert E. Lee High School after late civil rights icon John Lewis.

Fairfax County's school board voted Thursday to rename the school after the late U.S. congressman. The new name, John R. Lewis High School, goes into effect this school year.

Representative Tamara Derenak Kaufax, who is a boardmember for where the school is located in Springfield, near Washington, D.C., proposed a resolution to remove the Confederate general's name from the school in February.

Several board members clapped and cheered when the unanimous vote was announced.

“The name Robert E. Lee is forever connected to the Confederacy, and Confederate values are ones that do not align with our community,” Kaufax said in a news release.

“I believe that John Lewis’ extraordinary life and advocacy for racial justice will serve as an inspiration to our students and community for generations to come.”

The lawmaker, whose fight for racial justice began in Georgia in the 1960s, died of cancer last Friday. He was 80.

While the nation reacted to his death with an outpouring of grief and accolades, Lewis' name had been on the school district's short list even before last week.

"When parents teach their children what is meant by courage, the story of John Lewis will come to mind – an American who knew that change could not wait for some other person or some other time; whose life is a lesson in the fierce urgency of now," Obama said in 2011, as he was bestowing the Medal of Freedom.

This sentiment was echoed by students and community members in the recent push to commemorate Lewis in Fairfax.

"Change starts at the lower levels of ourselves, then our community then our county," said a community member at the public hearing Wednesday night, local news station WJLA-TV reported.

"We owe it to the trailblazers of history to continue to fight for equality in any way that we can."

Lewis’ death also brought new attention to efforts to rename Edmund Pettus Bridge, named for a Confederate general, that was the stage for a turning point in the civil rights movement. Lewis and hundreds of civil rights marchers were shot at and beaten during a protest march on the Selma bridge March 7, 1965, an event known as Bloody Sunday.

Graffiti spray-painted on a monument to Nazi soldiers in a small Canadian city is being investigated by police as a hate crime – a move that has prompted disbelief among human rights advocates.

Around 21 June, the words “Nazi war monument” were spray-painted on to a cenotaph commemorating soldiers in the 14th SS Division in an Ontario cemetery, the Ottawa Citizen reported.

The cenotaph is located in Oakville’s St Volodymyr Ukrainian cemetery, roughly 40km (25 miles) from Toronto.

Regional police have said they were treating the graffiti as a “hate-motivated” incident – but declined to release the wording of the message.

The 14th division was made up of Ukrainian nationalists who joined the Nazis during the second world war. Members of the division are believed to have murdered Polish women and children, as well as Jewish people.

Because of their role in Ukrainian nationalism, however, the soldiers have been commemorated by at least two diaspora communities in Canada.

It is against the law in Canada to make a public statement which “incites hatred against any identifiable group”. According to police, the “incident occurred to a monument and the graffiti appeared to target an identifiable group”, Constable Steve Elms told the Ottawa Citizen.

But a hate-crime investigation into Nazi sympathizers has confounded at least one prominent human rights expert.

“I am frankly dumbfounded!” tweeted Bernie Farber, chair of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, who added that he would gladly offer a workshop to officers to educate them on the nature of hate crimes – and called for a retraction by police.

“At no time did the Halton regional police service consider that the identifiable group targeted by the graffiti was Nazis,” the police said, instead suggesting it was the Ukrainian community that was targeted. “We regret any hurt caused by misinformation that suggests that the service in any way supports Nazism.”

The investigation comes as countries around the world grapple with difficult questions over monuments to people or groups with controversial or racist legacies. Two years ago, the city of Halifax removed a statue of Edward Cornwallis, a British general who offered a bounty for the scalps of the region’s indigenous Mi’kmaq people.

And in Victoria, the city council voted to remove a statue of John A MacDonald, the first prime minister of Canada and architect of the country’s notorious residential school system.

There are at least two other statues in Canada commemorating Ukrainians who fought alongside German forces. In Edmonton, a statue – partially funded by taxpayers – of Roman Shukhevych, a Nazi collaborator, has received scrutiny after the Russian embassy in Ottawa tweeted about “Nazi monuments” in Canada. There is also a second statue dedicated to the 14th SS Division in an Edmonton cemetery.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has been in the spotlight this week after she agreed to work with President Donald Trump in expanding “Operation Legend,” with plans to send 200 federal agents to the streets of Chicago. Thousands of demonstrators arrived at the mayor’s house Thursday night to protest these plans when, in a surprising twist, they learned about the mayor’s decision to have two Christopher Columbus statues removed from the city’s Grant and Arrigo parks.

The two statues came down early Friday morning, just one week after police violently clashed with protesters at the Columbus statue in Grant Park. Protesters threw fireworks and rocks at police during the July 17 action, and were beaten with batons, tear gassed, and arrested. Miracle Boyd, an 18-year-old youth activist with GoodKids MadCity was assaulted by a police officer while filming an arres

Some are now saying Lightfoot’s decision to remove the statues is just one way to avoid further confrontations over the monuments, particularly ahead of the federal agents that will be deployed in the city. Still, it was a win for Indigenous and Black activists who organized the “Decolonize Zhigaagong” action in solidarity.

The removal of the Columbus statues "comes in response to demonstrations that became unsafe for both protesters and police, as well as efforts by individuals to independently pull the Grant Park statue down in an extremely dangerous manner,” the mayor's office said. The statement added that the statues came down so the city could dispatch “public safety resources” to Chicago’s South and West sides, “where they are most needed.”

Lightfoot's office said on Wednesday that Trump’s federal agents would be coming to the city for the same reason. The agents will reportedly work with the Chicago Police Department “to supplement ongoing federal investigations pertaining to violent crime,” the mayor said in a statement.

Before the announcement of the statues' removal, thousands of protesters marched to Lightfoot’s house, where they chanted “f**k CPD” to the tune of “YMCA,” and sang “f**k Donald Trump.” The action was organized both as a continuation of the ongoing police abolition protests, and amid the mayor’s plans to welcome federal agents to the city.

Black Lives Matter organizers have sounded the alarms over the mayor’s plans to welcome 200 agents to Chicago, looking to Portland, where unidentified agents have kidnapped and brutalized protesters over the last two weeks. A coalition of anti-racist and progressive groups in Chicago, including Black Lives Matter Chicago, GoodKids MadCity, and the National Lawyers Guild Chicago, among others, filed a lawsuit in federal court Thursday in an effort to prevent federal agents from interfering with the ongoing protests.

The lawsuit argues that based on Chicago’s “history of violence against peaceful protestors,” including police violence against protesters in recent weeks, inviting “federal forces to illegally intimidate, police, and falsely arrest peaceful protestors will ignite additional official violence against civilians and a serious constitutional crisis.”

The timing of Lightfoot’s temporary removal of the Columbus statues too conveniently coincides with her agreement with Trump to deploy federal agents to the city. The agents will allegedly work with police to address violence in the city’s most marginalized communities. But Chicago residents and organizers have a close eye on the mayor, as they continue taking their fight against systemic racism to the streets.

"Anti-black racism is now just a political ploy used by white liberals to grab political power. It’s the Democratic Northern Strategy.

Trust me, the purple-haired white liberals holding up Black Lives Matter signs and rioting in Portland and Seattle don’t give a f–k about black people. Those aren’t George Floyd’s friends or family members. Those are people chasing power they were denied in junior high and high school. Only a fool would think they’re going to share their new-won power."


---Jason Whitlock

Workers wielding power tools and huge rolls of bubble wrap carted a life-size statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee and busts of seven of his Confederate colleagues out of the Virginia Capitol late Thursday night and early Friday morning.
House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn (D-Fairfax) ordered them removed from the historic Capitol’s Old House Chamber, the room where rebel lawmakers met when Richmond served as the capital of the Confederacy.

“Virginia has a story to tell that extends far beyond glorifying the Confederacy and its participants,” Filler-Corn said in an emailed statement, condemning the Confederate ideology as based on maintaining slavery. “Now is the time to provide context to our Capitol to truly tell the Commonwealth’s whole history.”

She announced the formation of an advisory group to propose new types of memorials for the Thomas Jefferson-designed Capitol building.

The removals, under darkness and in secrecy, eliminated symbols that had largely escaped the recent public outcry over monuments to racial repression. Richmond’s Capitol Square has been tightly guarded over the past month and a half as protesters have gathered in the streets, night after night, spray-painting statues around the city and toppling some with ropes.

With the state locked in a court battle over Gov. Ralph Northam’s plans to take down a grand statue of Lee on the city’s Monument Avenue, Filler-Corn took a page from Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney’s playbook and simply acted without announcing it first. Stoney has removed more than a dozen Confederate memorials around the city, though a court injunction has prevented him from getting rid of one remaining statue, of Gen. A.P. Hill.

Also Friday, a commission appointed by Northam (D) voted to remove the state’s statue of Lee on display at the U.S. Capitol. Speaking in the group’s online meeting, Northam encouraged the commission to recommend a different figure to stand alongside Virginia’s other representative in Statuary Hall: George Washington.

The removals took place late at night to prevent disruptions and keep the workers safe from any potential protests, Filler-Corn’s office said. A few reporters were allowed to watch part of the process under an agreement not to publish until it was complete Friday morning.
Filler-Corn said her role as speaker gives her authority over decorations and furnishings in the House-controlled parts of the Capitol. Republicans, caught off guard, questioned her reasoning and said House rules do not specifically grant her that power.
“Those who fear the scrutiny of their judgment and challenges to their authority execute consequential decisions in the dead of night,” Senate Minority Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr. (R-James City) and five other top Republican senators said in a joint statement. They called Filler-Corn’s action an “arrogant and unaccountable” effort to “dismantle, destroy, and conceal objects that recall the history of Virginia.”

By 9 p.m. Thursday, busts of Gen. Fitzhugh Lee (who served as governor of Virginia 20 years after the Civil War) and Gen. J.E.B. Stuart sat on pallets near a back door of the Capitol, ready to be crated and loaded onto a waiting truck.

Workers upstairs in the Old House Chamber lifted a bust of Confederate navy leader Matthew Fontaine Maury and set it onto a dolly. With Denslow and a Capitol Police officer looking on, the workers rolled the dolly out into the rotunda and past the famous Houdon statue of George Washington, with cardboard sheets taped down to protect the black and white stone floor tiles.

Also up for removal were busts of Stonewall Jackson, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston and Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Vice President Alexander Stephens. In addition, workers took down a plaque honoring Thomas Bocock, who served as rebel speaker of the House.

At one point workers began removing a plaque beneath a bust of Andrew Lewis, before someone pointed out that the frontiersman was not on the list.

By far the most challenging task was removing the figure of Lee, a 900-pound bronze that stood on the spot where he accepted command of Virginia’s armed forces in 1861. That one came down last, around 4:30 a.m. Friday, Filler-Corn spokesman Jake Rubenstein said.

Del. Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah), the House minority leader, said Friday that he was “perplexed” by Filler-Corn’s decision to take down the Lee statue.

“Unlike the Lee monument on Monument Avenue, this statue is a historical marker,” Gilbert said in an emailed statement. “Another historical reality is that the Capitol building itself served as the Confederate Capitol, a fact that should no doubt force the Speaker’s new Advisory Group to recommend that it be razed to the ground.”

Most of the sculptures were installed long after the Civil War ended. Lee was erected in 1931 after a campaign led by former governor Harry Flood Byrd Sr. The large marble busts of Davis and Stephens went up in the 1950s, gifts of the states of Mississippi (Davis) and Georgia (Stephens).

What started as a noisy but peaceful march in support of changes to police funding and policies turned ugly Saturday when protestors pulled down the statue of John A. Mcdonald in Place du Canada.

The demonstration, which consisted of more than 200 mostly young people organized under the banner of the Coalition for BIPOC Liberation, wound its way from Place des Arts through a steady rain.

Shortly after arriving at Place du Canada, it became apparent the statue of Canada’s first prime minister was a target. The protestors employed banners to hide their actions as they climbed up the base of the statue and pulled it down. The statue’s head fell off when the statue hit the ground

Several dozen police on motorcycles and bicycle accompanied the marchers, but they didn’t intervene when the statue came down. Police did order the crowd to disperse after the vandalism, but police said no arrests were made.

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante posted to Instagram this reaction: “I strongly condemn the acts of vandalism that took place this afternoon in downtown Montreal, which led to the John A. Macdonald statue being torn down. Such gestures cannot be accepted or tolerated.”

Premier François Legault also posted to Twitter: “Whatever one might think of John A. Macdonald, destroying a monument in this way is unacceptable. We must fight racism, but destroying parts of our history is not the solution. Vandalism has no place in our democracy and the statue must be restored.”

Controversy over the statue has been growing recently as Canadians re-examine Mcdonald’s role in Canadian history. He is one of the Fathers of Confederation, but he has been criticized for promoting the Indian Act and immigration policies that restricted Asians.

Last October, climate activists painted the statue blue as part of Extinction Rebellion’s week of protests.

As the U.S. movement to remove monuments celebrating Confederate leaders and European colonizers ramped up, the words “RCMP Rape Native Women/Kill Native Men” appeared on the base of the Mcdonald statue and and tens of thousands have signed a petition to remove the statue.

The Montreal march was part of a nationwide series of BIPOC-branded protests. BIPOC, which is pronounced by-pock, is an acronym for Black Indigenous People of Colour. The term has been around since 2013, but has gained popularity as an umbrella term for a variety of social activists.

The focus in Montreal was supposed to be defunding Montreal police, which is a topic for debate since the question was included in a survey on budget priorities the city conducted earlier this month.

We want the funding of the SPVM to be reduced because all the reforms have been tried and the SPVM’s own researchers have shown there is systemic racism in their own ranks and they done nothing so far,” said Melissa Calixte, an anti-racism consultant. “We’ve reached the point where defunding is the next solution.

“Defunding is a word that scares people, but the key is to reinvest the money in other programs,” Calixte added. “When a person with mental-health issues needs help we don’t send them people with guns, we send them people with training in mental health. Personally, I’d like to think it might be something that would be good for police officers because they are wearing different hats at this moment and they’re wearing hats for which they have no training.”