From Politico, about the Confederate statues:

[tblue37]

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/08/16/regime-change-in-charlottesville-215500

Regime Change in Charlottesville: If you understand why that Civil War statue really went up, the debate over removing it looks a lot different.

---By ADAM GOODHEART August 16, 2017---

snip

Trump’s presidency is a kind of rearguard action for an America that used to be; his whole campaign promised a “greater,” whiter America that looks a lot like 1924 <when the Confederate statues were put up and the dormant KKK suddenly roared back to life>. The right-wing extremists’ chant in Charlottesville, “You will not replace us,” captures his entire political message in five words. So it should be no surprise when he reflexively defends Confederate monuments and suggests that Lee and Jackson are no different from Washington and Jefferson—ignoring the fact that two of those built the nation, and the other two fought to rip it apart.

Nor is it so surprising that anti-racism activists, seeking to keep the momentum rolling in the face of major setbacks, should try to gain ground by toppling the surviving monuments of white supremacy.

The statues have stayed up for so long because, like so many other features of our everyday landscape, they became so familiar that we hardly even noticed they were there. Some might say the same thing happened with white supremacy: pervasive, familiar, and—at least to many whites—invisible.

Ironically, today’s white supremacist defense of Confederate monuments—and the president’s support—will likely hasten their demise. When neo-Nazis with torches rally around old statues, they highlight precisely the thing their sponsors in the 1920s were trying to veil with history. Suddenly those statues are no longer invisible features of the American landscape. Literally or figuratively, they’re silhouetted against a backdrop of flames.

snip

[Squinch]

1. That seems to be what is happening. They are coming down all over the country.

And the Nazi publications and members are being muzzled on social media, paypal, and in their personal lives.

A high price has been paid by the 35 people maimed by the Trump(Republicanazi) supporter, and of course Ms. Heyer and her family, but some good is coming of the horrors of the week.

[brer cat]

2. I am simply amazed at how many of these

were located in northern and western cities. Why were they approved in the first place?

[Squinch]

3. New York City had TWO plaques for RE Lee! WTF??

[tblue37]

6. Apparently the Daughters of the Confederacy pushed for Civil War memorials

and monuments to Confederate "heroes" all over the country.

[Johnny2X2X]

4. Racism

These statues went up specifically to needle minorities. If you look at their histories, most go up after a major civil rights issue for blacks (good or bad) Plessy vs Ferguson, Brown vs The Board of Education, after these landmark cases, the racists felt the need to rub slavery in the faces of African Americans. It's as simple as that in 99% of the cases.

The statue in Charlottesville was used to mark the line in the town that separated blacks and whites.

[tblue37]

5. Precisely. nt