Cultural revolutions

Irene Triplett had the distinction of being the last person to receive a Civil War pension.  She was 90 when she died last month, her father was 83 when she was born, he managed to fight on both sides -- Smithsonian magazine has the whole story.  You might think we could finally let the war slip into the past, but apparently not.

Protesters in Portsmouth, Virginia, were trying to pull down four Confederate statues when Chris Green was struck by falling sculpture and received a serious head wound.  He was hospitalized and placed in an induced coma.  Perhaps he will be the last casualty of the war.

It would help if the Lost Cause brigade would acknowledge that they're losers.  The country's noisiest loser observed today, "I think I've done more for the black community than any other president, and let's take a pass on Abraham Lincoln because he did good, although it's always questionable, you know, in other words, the end result."  And he's done more for the English language than William Shakespeare, and more for music than the late, great Moe Zart.  Even the weirdly polite Fox News reporter remembered she was black long enough to remind him about Lincoln ending slavery.  Abe, you did good.

Then he did a somersault back into the racism:  "...you had protesting because, you know, they just didn't know...they're following the crowd."  All day Trump's been tweet-screaming about the four-block section of Seattle called Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) vacated by police and run by peaceful protesters, and threatening to send in troops.  The mayor, who is actually there, says, "We could have the summer of love."  Residents say they feel safe.  These things happen in American history.  Someone should tell Trump about the Free State of Jones, which seceded from Mississippi in 1864 and rejoined the Union.  Where's the statue of Newt Knight?

The British (who almost but not quite recognized the Confederacy) bring their own sideways sensibility to the world-wide movement against racism.  Beside the slave-dealer Colson, many statues have been vandalized -- even Churchill in Parliament Square had to be boxed up to prevent further graffiti.  Penny Lane in Liverpool was the inspiration for one of the Beatles' sunniest songs, but it's named for an 18th century slave merchant called James Penny and the street signs have been defaced.  And with suitable absurdity, the BBC's streaming service has removed the Fawlty Towers episode about German tourists.  Not because of concussed Basil's imitation of a goose-stepping Nazi, because of a brief exchange with the Major about a long-ago cricket match against a team from Africa.  It has so little to do with the story that I couldn't remember it at first.  The Beeb should have no trouble snipping out the hateful language of a half-senile pensioner, but John Cleese is not amused:  "If you put nonsense words into the mouth of someone you want to make fun of, you're not broadcasting their views, you're making fun of them."  The BBC broadcast The Big Black and White Minstrel Show, which is exactly what you would imagine, until 1978, but they're censoring Fawlty Towers.

After warning that "full on race riots" might occur and comparing Black Lives Matter to the Taliban, Nigel Farage lost his slot on privately-owned radio station LBC.  I'm all right with that.

In Cork, Ireland, the Gaelic Football team is called the Rebels, and they've just banned the Confederate flag.  The 1861-5 Confederate flag.  That one.  It's a small world after all.  I wonder if the actress Rebel Wilson will be changing her name, like the country band Lady A (f/k/a Lady Antebellum.  I wonder if, in the end, it really matters.  Will it stop police randomly killing black people?  That's what we're all waiting to find out.