The Tripp Lewis Drama Continues -- The Andy Angle

At his Dead Confederates, A Civil War ERA Blog, Andy Hall has allowed four whole comments in response to his post about the Tripp Lewis arrest. Don't know if that's all there was, or if he got more comments but for some reason hasn't posted them.

Over at Brooks Devious Simpson's Crossroads there is, as of the writing of this post,  a whopping twelve comments about the Lewis arrest ... or, at least, twelve that Simpson has allowed through moderation.  And look at this!  Four of the twelve -- fully one third of them -- were authored by Andy Hall!

The comment thread at Kevin Levin's Civil War Memory, though, leads the way with 23 Tripp Lewis comments, as of 6:13 p.m CST on January 17.  And my, my -- five (5) f-i-v-e of them were made by -- you guessed it! -- Andy Hall!

Andy's really into this Tripp Lewis arrest, isn't he?

Now I see where Corey Meyer, not to be outdone and left out, has put up a two-sentence blog post about the incident -- complete with video, just like Levin, Simpson and Hall.  Brace yourself, Corey for a stampede from Andy to your comment thread....

With these four Floggers jumping on the Tripp Lewis arrest bandwagon, can Rob "Tu Quoque" Bakur be far behind? Probably not. He doesn't blog much.  He'll probably content himself to posting to the comment threads on these other blogs. 

It might be interesting to know what prompts Andy's obsession with Tripp Lewis's arrest, and why his flurry of comments about it on other people's blogs....  Any guesses?

 =UPDATE===UPDATE===UPDATE===UPDATE=

Well, Corey's obligatory Tripp post (complete with video) has been up for a couple of days now, and there's still no comments from Andy Hall.  I can't imagine that he's run out of crap to complain about, re: the arrest of Flagger Tripp Lewis.  

I recently found out through my good friend (smirk) on Facebook, Confederate Rebel Kashie, that there's another potential Flogger for me to monitor, though.  His name is Al Mackey. His blog is titled Student of the American Civil War.  Perhaps his status as a student, a learner, explains the absence of arrogance that permeates the "civil war" blogs of academics, even the ones who can't spell or do grammar....

So anyway, I noodled around on his blog for a minute, skimmed his entry about Tripp Lewis.  From just that post, he appears to be an echo chamber for Brooks Devious Simpson (ripping off Simpson's silly name for the Southern Heritage Preservation Facebook Group, The Gift That Keeps On Giving.)  What IS there about fake civil war blogging that renders people incapable of producing original content?

So, I'm scrolling through the blog entry and I get to the comments, and -- lo, and behold! -- guess who posted the first one!  Andy Hall!  What a surprise, huh?

Andy really gets around, don't he? Maybe if he keeps commenting on these Tripp Lewis blog entries, we'll eventually find out what is really behind his fascination with Tripp and the Virginia Flaggers.

Andy Unintentionally Gets It Halfway Right

"The modern Confederate heritage movement’s own self-identity is bound up in being an oppressed minority, under siege and victimized from all sides by political correctness, craven politicians, indoctrinated academics and supposedly South-hating bloggers. It’s a movement that gets its fire from resentment and anger against perceived slights — real or imagined — against people who died long ago, that they themselves never met." -- Andy Hall

What Andy doesn't know, or may know but wouldn't acknowledge if his life depended on it, is that most people in the Confederate heritage movement are white Southerners, and white Southerners are, indeed, an oppressed minority, under siege and victimized by the forces he identified.  But the resentment and anger is not against people who died long ago. The attacks are happening right now, from people living today (some of them quite powerful or at least influential) and they're frequently more than just slights.

Michael Cushman at the Southern Nationalist Network does a good job documenting the anti-Southern bias -- and, yes, hatred -- that permeates U.S. culture.  For example, in the Craven Politicians category, he recently showcased Charles Rangel, a currently living Congressman from New York, who said in a TV interview that Southern culture needs to be overcome. 

It would be interesting to hear Andy's thoughts on Charlie's declaration and Michael's commentary, but I imagine hell will freeze over before Andy writes or speaks a syllable about it....

Feds Again

I've recently noticed on my visitor log visits from the feds to Backsass -- specifically, the Department of Justice.

They used to visit regularly by following a link from my author website links page.  I mean, every time, the referring link was that page, and I wondered, Don't folks at the Department of Justice know how to use Bookmarks/Favorites?  Internet Explorer 8 is perfectly capable of doing Favorites, iddinit?

Several weeks ago, I took down the links page. It was outdated and many of the links didn't work, so I put up a notice that it was being updated. I haven't updated it, yet, though. It will be a leisurely undertaking -- real low on my priority list.

I noticed, though, that the visits from the Department of Justice stopped abruptly after I took the links page down.  It's only been recently that they've found me and started showing up in my visitor log again.

Gee, I hope they don't try to sell me some illegal firearms. I'm not Mexican.  I don't sell drugs (though I do buy headache powders, generic benadryl and ibuprofen, on a fairly regular basis -- it's the allergies and the computer screen that does it, prob'ly, but it's all perfectly legal, from legitimately licensed pharmacies).  And I'm skeered of guns.  Yes, I am a staunch supporter of Second Amendment rights.  But I'm skeered of guns....

The Slow Road Back

Since early summer, Mayish or Junish -- I don't remember exactly when it started -- I've been slowed down by some minor chronic health concerns. Minor in the sense that they're not life-threatening.

But physically, the condition did slow me down considerably. The problem wrought havoc on my ability to sleep and rest and suppressed my appetite (but, alas, didn't result in much weight loss) and also threw a damper on my writing  -- novels and related writing, my blogs and other pursuits such as my author services business, Word Slinger Boutique. After posting on Facebook, I often had no energy or interest in other writing.

I managed to slog through now and then.  I completed several projects for Word Slinger customers and finally got Sweet Southern Boys finished, but didn't complete the video trailer until a few days ago.

The solution provided in mid-summer by my doctor -- a medication typically prescribed for this malady -- was temporary, as he told me it would be. But I have continued learning about the condition on my own and have tried various remedies found online. As a result, the problem has gradually and  intermittently improved since early winter.  I've sent prayers of thanks to God for this blessing -- and prayers of supplication that the improvement continue. 

I've also felt a gradual and intermittently renewed interest in, and enthusiasm for, my writing pursuits, including this blog. I'm considering several changes to Backsass and hope to implement the first one -- Blogger Pages -- soon.  And there are several subjects I've started to cover and hope to get back to (the Flogger's obsession with Tripp Lewis, for example).  So be sure to check back.

____________________
Photo: Dreamstime Free from Dreamstime.com

Orwell Huxley Rag

"Orwell Huxley Rag" from the CD "Politically Incorrect" by Larry Smith. This song was written during the 1990s, during the Clinton Regime, but it's even more appropos now, I think. "Pete, Tom and Dan" refers to Peter Jennings, Tom Brokow, and Dan Rather -- anchors for network news in the '90s. Other than that, nothing much has changed -- except for getting worse.

Many thanks to Brenda and Larry Smith for permission to make a video to go with Larry's marvelously, richly satirical song! I did it solely because I wanted people to hear the fantastic lyrics.

I'm afraid my video/images don't do it justice, and hopefully, one day, I can do the video over, and give the song the images and animation it deserves! But meantime, enjoy as is!

Finish Off Dixie? Hey! Try It!

Taking a short break from bashing the Tripp-bashers to mention a post Michael Cushman has put up at the Southern Nationalist Network.  He discusses  Rush Limbaugh's recent acknowledgment that the US Left wants to finish off the South.

The recent Lincoln movies and filth like Django Unchained are a part of that effort.Whether they know it or not, the attacks of the Floggers on Southern heritage are also a part of it.  I suspect the Floggers do know, and are participating willingly and eagerly.

So anyway, I made this graphic to show that the South is the real strength of America, and the forces that want to destroy America know they have to destroy the South first....

It's probably going to piss off a lot of people.

Crocodile Tears For Tripp's Son

It's been utterly fascinating, as well as appalling, to read the Floggers' posts about the arrest of Tripp Lewis, and the comments of their followers. 

That Levin, Hall and Simpson showcase the arrest on their blogs, as if this is the biggest news in Civil War historigraphy to come down the pike in years -- as if it's news at all -- is mystifying, because it is not news the civil war community is particularly interested in. This "reportage" is the behavior of people whose obsession and motive is ... well, more on that in later posts...

The first thing I'll mention about their criticism is the pretended interest in Tripp's son.  I don't believe for a New York second the moaning and wailing on the kid's behalf.

For example, we have one commenter upbraiding Lewis for "exposing" his child to such "abuse". That's from a commenter who calls himself Bummer and references himself in the third person, Bob-Dole-like, i.e., "Bummer has a hard time watching the video of the father..." 

He thinks Mr. Lewis is mentally ill and prescribes horsewhipping...twice. I don't know whether that suggestion is more progressive and enlightened than recommending, say, a lobotomy  -- or less. You gotta hope Mr. Bummer is not employed in the mental health field, though....

Brooks Devious Simpson informs us that the presence of the child was "no accident." Being a female, I can't actually speak for fathers, but I can make a guess that when fathers and sons do things together -- hunt or fish, toss a baseball, collect stamps, or, as in this case, attempt to honor their ancestors -- most of the time, it's not by accident.  Of course, by using that sort of manipulative language, Simpson is implying that Lewis is deliberately subjecting his son to a hurtful, negative experience.

Andy Hall says that the child's crying on the video is  "deeply painful to hear, for any parent. But it's also infuriating, because he clearly set out to get himself arrested, and challenged the police to a physical altercation, for no particularly good reason, in front of his own child."

Clearly set out to get himself arrested? ("Clearly" appears to be one of Andy's favorite adverbs.  Levin's, too.) Andy doesn't say how he clearly knows this. Are you surprised? Hahaha.  I'm not.  Frankly, I don't think he does know it. He suspects it, based upon his prejudice and bigotry toward the Flaggers in general and Mr. Lewis in particular.

But that's not the same thing as knowing and it sure as heck ain't clear.  It's Andy's opinion, which he clearly elevates to a higher position than knowledge or truth.  So now, a man and his son sharing time and fellowship is "reprehensible behavior" to Andy.  Clearly.

I'm amazed at all the mind-readers among critics of Confederate heritage.  At one point, Levin tells a commenter, "The father clearly wanted a conflict and at one point even looked in his son's direction to ensure that he was getting all of it on video." See? Didn't I tell ya? There's that "clearly" again -- a clarity that exists only in the eyes of the beholder -- or is it accuser?  Yes, clearly both.  Beholder and accuser.

Is Levin himself a father? Is that how he knows what fathers want?  He knows that's the only possible reason a father would have for looking at his son?  Not to make sure he's all right, especially in the development of a negative situation -- but to make sure the camera's rollin'? In fact, that was probably the only time during the whole entire flippin' outing that Tripp looked at his son.  Huh, Kevin....

More comments.  Richard sez, "Having a child involved in this nonsense is f***ed up." (Andy Hall sagely offers a brilliant reply, "Yes, it is.") Somebody who calls himself "Cotton Boll Conspiracy" sez, "How the hell do you undo the damage of having your child see you arrested? Listening to that child cry for his father was one of the most upsetting things I’ve heard in a long, long time." (Again, Andy sagely observes, "It’s horrible — and the entirely predictable result of the father’s foolish actions.")

So ... if Tripp and his son had been tossing a baseball on a ball field somewhere, and cops arrested him for trespassing, or on any other phony, trumped up charge -- would these self-righteous shyster-historians and their sycophantic commenters be offering such lamentations over the experience of Tripp's son?

Transparent and Predictable

As predictably as Old Faithful -- and just as spewy -- Honcho Floggers Levin, Hall and Simpson, have showcased on their phony "civil war" blogs video of a Virginia flagger getting arrested at a Richmond protest.

Don't these floggers have any originality?  Must they always copy each other's content?

I mean, like clockwork they was all OVER this incident -- like white on rice, like moths to a flame, like flies to honey, like stink on skunks -- complete with the video embedded from YouTube.  On all three blogs! To make sure their myrmidon followers wouldn't miss it.

What has the goings on of the Virginia flaggers that got to do with civil war blogs?  Right.  Nuthin'.

Once again, we see demonstrated the obvious motive of these floggers -- not to educate or inform about the civil war, but to spew and badmouth those who see the war, and especially its commemoration, differently than they do.  Every chance they get.

Screenshots You Won't See At Crossroads....

...Or Dead Confederates, or any other of the Flogger blogs...

The Floggers and their comment-thread followers, especially Brooks Devious Simpson, love to showcase what they deem to be indicators of violent tendencies among Southern heritage and Southern independence advocates. But they turn a blind eye toward indicators of violence directed toward advocates of Southern heritage and independence.

Next month, the post below will have been on Facebook for a slap year.  Now, I suppose it's barely possible that Simpson, Hall, et. al., did not see this post.  Possible, but not likely. Not likely at all.  Not when you consider the fine-toothed comb these men use to rake through the groups and comments of Southron folk on Facebook and elsewhere -- especially the Flaggers, and most especially Ms. Hathaway's comments..

No, it seem likely that they did see it and chose not to mention it on their blogs because, well, they just don't care whether violence is threatened against Southron folk.  And if they don't care about the threats, is it that far fetched to assume they wouldn't care if violence itself was unleashed against them?

You draw your own conclusions.

Just Sayin'