Welcome to my TED talk on honoring Confederate traitor Robert E. Lee

[sheshe2]

Well, noted moron Donald Trump, currently squatting in the Oval Office, decided today would be a good day to revisit the comments he made immediately after the Nazi riots in Charlottesville, where he claimed there were “very fine people” on both sides of the protests. He claims he was merely defending those who were silently protesting the removal of Robert E. Lee’s statue.

Link to tweet

Ah, yes, Robert E. Lee was a great general. That’s undeniable. He regularly beat armies larger than his own, until he finally met his match in a general of equal genius, Ulysses S. Grant.

But, despite the myth which has built up around him, one can say that in many instances he didn’t have much care for those who served under him.

Link to tweet

snip

And, of course, we have to remember one salient fact: Lee was offered command of the Union armies by President Abraham Lincoln at the outset of the rebellion. He chose—consciously—to set aside his loyalty to the nation in order to serve the rebels. He chose to serve a cause whose stated aim was to keep millions of human beings in chattel bondage. He chose to help to rip apart the Republic.

Read More: https://www.thepeoplesview.net/main/2019/4/26/welcome-to-my-ted-talk-on-honoring-confederate-traitor-robert-e-lee

This very fine man, a General, according to General BoneSpurs is to be honored and embraced by every White Nationalist far and wide.

From my OP. I will re-post two sentences about this very fine man that the A-Hole admires.

He chose—consciously—to set aside his loyalty to the nation in order to serve the rebels. He chose to serve a cause whose stated aim was to keep millions of human beings in chattel bondage. He chose to help to rip apart the Republic.



There are days that I get so upset that I just want to scream. However I am not sure anyone will hear me.

[underpants]

1. What? Are you kidding?

I don't see any donuts.

Complete ripoff.


😆 just kidding great post.

[sheshe2]

3. Ha.

Thanks...will send ya some donuts, underpants.

[underpants]

6. Is read Serwer's piece before but this penultimate line really hit me.

Tribe and race over country is the core of white nationalism, and racists can embrace Lee in good conscience.

[lapucelle]

10. Did you say donuts?

I have some!

[sheshe2]

13. LOl!

I was waiting for you to stop by and serve up some donuts.

[Aristus]

2. For decades, Grant has lived in the shadow of Robert E. Lee, and derided as a butcher

who only won the war because he had more men and more supplies.

Ron Chernow's recent biography of Grant finally gives the great man the recognition he was due as a superb tactician, and a gifted strategist. Chernow recounts, in bruising detail, Grant's years of personal and professional failure, much of it due to a misperception of his drinking habits. Once the Civil War starts, Grant comes into his own as a brilliant battlefield commander. I remember weeping for joy reading about Grant's long-elusive success, and the acclaim he finally received as the savior of the Republic. He was a much greater man than Lee, by several orders of magnitude, in almost every way imaginable.

[sheshe2]

4. Thanks so much for Grants background, Aristus.

Fact is Lee, not only was a traitor to his country, Lee chose slavery over the lives of his on men.

Brute. Slaver. Traitor. No wonder donnie admires him.

[grantcart]

22. Exactly

He also was considered West Points greatest cadet in horsemanship and excelled in math.

Having served as quartermaster during the Mexican war he showed his great strategic brilliance in the Western campaign by cutting his supply lines and organizing an army that could forage thereby surprising the Confederate at Henry and Donnelly.

A couple of years ago I was surprised to see an old professor of mine publish his excellent biography of Grant (Ron White)

[RHMerriman]

5. Good stuff, but it's worth making the point that Grant wasn't

Good stuff, but it's worth making the point that Grant wasn't the only US general who defeated Lee...

So did Meade (Gettysburg campaign); McCellan (Antietam campaign); and J.J. Reynolds (1861 West Virginia campaign.)

Of course, in all three, Lee was (essentially) on the offensive, and the US commanders on the defensive. Grant's genius is that he (as theater-level commander, since Meade continued to lead the Army of the Potomac) repeatedly defeated Lee when Lee had the advantage of being on the defensive.

Which, it's also worth pointing out, basically gives the defender at least a 2-1 advantage, if not more --- and at no time during the earlier US offensives under McClellan, Pope, Burnside, or Hooker, which were the actions where Lee's reputations was made - did the US forces come close to a 2-1 numerical advantage over Lee's forces, much less the 3-1 generally accepted as necessary for a successful offensive movement.

[underpants]

7. This is why I love DU. You and Blue True have really informed me here.

See post 25.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=12051927

As I've stated elsewhere - I grew up in a household that discussed history. Mostly accurate but my stepfather was a Lost Causer. Not meant as a a damning statement but now I understand the industry that lives off that lie.

[RHMerriman]

9. You are entirely welcome...

You are entirely welcome...

One can only judge historical figures by the standards of the times they find themselves in, but by that standard, the US leaders in 1861-65 are a pretty impressive lot.

The rebs? Not so much.

[prodigitalson]

8. Sherman is my CW hero

He understood that the backbone of the rebellion was the slave owning aristocracy and he fell upon them like the gods' own vengeance.

[RHMerriman]

11. True enough ...

True enough ...

Sherman had few illusions, which was a great strength to the Union cause in 1861-65.

[GulfCoast66]

15. Ironically, when the war broke out, he was president of what would become LSU!

He resigned when the South Seceded. Because he was loyal to the Union. And was not s Southerner.

As a Louisianan I wish he had done his march to the sea from Shreveport to Lafayette.

But of course Louisiana was a non factor once the North captured the New Orleans area. Which was pretty early in the war.

But he had the full measure of the southern Ruling Class.

[RHMerriman]

28. True ... his comments before he resigned were prophetic:

True ... his comments before he resigned were prophetic:

"You people of the South don't know what you are doing. This country will be drenched in blood, and God only knows how it will end. It is all folly, madness, a crime against civilization! You people speak so lightly of war; you don't know what you're talking about. War is a terrible thing!

"You mistake, too, the people of the North. They are a peaceable people but an earnest people, and they will fight, too. They are not going to let this country be destroyed without a mighty effort to save it… Besides, where are your men and appliances of war to contend against them? The North can make a steam engine, locomotive, or railway car; hardly a yard of cloth or pair of shoes can you make. You are rushing into war with one of the most powerful, ingeniously mechanical, and determined people on Earth — right at your doors. You are bound to fail.

"Only in your spirit and determination are you prepared for war. In all else you are totally unprepared, with a bad cause to start with. At first you will make headway, but as your limited resources begin to fail, shut out from the markets of Europe as you will be, your cause will begin to wane. If your people will but stop and think, they must see in the end that you will surely fail."

[link:http://www.hannapub.com/concordiasentinel/stanley-nelson-lsu-general-sherman-s-prophecy/article_4fcc8082-3390-11e4-859b-001a4bcf6878.html|]

[Martin Eden]

19. McClellan was an awful battlefield general

McClellan was overly cautious and hesitant, often believing the rebel army far outnumbered his own when the opposite was true. His Peninsula campaign was a disaster, and Antietam should have been a much more complete victory. By a stroke of luck he had Lee's secret battle plans in advance, which gave him a tremendous advantage. During the battle McClellan fed in his divisions piecemeal, holding an entire corps in reserve. Lee's army could have been crushed with its back to a river before reinforcements arrived.

On top of his severe shortcomings as a field commander, McClellan was a treasonous rat who wanted to oust Lincoln and become a general in charge of the government.

I respect Meade and have great admiration for Grant. Pope and Burnside were incompetent, while the aggressive Hooker totally lost his nerve at Chancellorseville -- turning a golden opportunity into Lee's most brilliant victory.

Lee's biggest mistake as a general was the day 3 assault on the Union center at Gettysburg. His biggest fault was his loyalty to his state of Virginia above the United States -- and leading the fight for one of the worst causes for which anyone ever fought, as Grant noted.

[RHMerriman]

29. Not in disagreement re McClellan...

Not in disagreement re McClellan...

My only point is that he, like Meade (and JJ Reynolds) defeated Lee on the battlefield when Lee's forces were on the strategic offensive, which basically gives Lee a 0 in 3 record in that situation.

McClellan was an able enough administrator, but feel short in almost every other measure of the positions he was entrusted with; and yet, even as a lackluster combat commander, he was able to defeat Lee.

Says more about Lee's generalship as it does anything else.

[lapucelle]

12. An honor to kick and rec this for #7000.

[sheshe2]

16. Thank you, lapucelle.

[bullwinkle428]

14. I'd feel better if Chump honored Erwin Rommel, who was a genuinely excellent tactician that

just happened be part of the Nazi war machine, if he wants to salute those who took up arms against the United States. Rommel met his end when he was implicated in the plot to assassinate Hitler, and was forced to commit suicide as punishment, which probably loses points in Chump's eyes.

K&R.

[Ferrets are Cool]

17. K and R

[2naSalit]

18. K&R

[Dirty Socialist]

20. Does Anyone else get the impression

That Trump, like Lee, is on the wrong side of history?

[sheshe2]

21. Yes.

[smirkymonkey]

23. K&R

He was a traitor and a vile racist. The fact that Trump is honoring him shows that he is exactly the same.

[sheshe2]

24. Yep.

My thoughts exactly.

[UTUSN]

25. K&R for: Outstanding!

[Me.]

26. Here Is A Excellent Article About Lee Entitled

The Myth of the Kindly General Lee

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/the-myth-of-the-kindly-general-lee/529038/

[coeur_de_lion]

27. That was a good article

There is a very active movement to turn him into some kind of saint. He was really a monster.

So of course trump idolizes him. Two monsters.

[Me.]

30. Two Of A Kind Indeed

[sheshe2]

31. No wonder donnie admires him.

They are both evil monsters. Interesting read and shows how much the two have in common. Up to and including separating families.

Wow. Thanks, Me.

[Me.]

32. Separating Families

What is it with these guys?

[sheshe2]

33. I have no clue, Me.

It is beyond my comprehension.