White House's Orwellian attempt to alter record of Biden's 'garbage' smear might be criminal, say lawmakers



President Joe Biden upheld the long-standing Democratic tradition of belittling Republican voters this week, claiming in a videotaped call Tuesday with Voto Latino that Trump supporters are "garbage."

Keenly aware of how damaging Biden's remarks were to Democrats in general but especially to Kamala Harris, who has recently been juggling Nazi accusations and promises of unity, elements of the liberal media attempted to fudge the record. They were not alone, however.

The White House also tried to gaslight Americans into thinking the president said something else entirely. It turns out that doing so not only resulted in a discrepancy between public and official records but was likely illegal.

Citing two U.S. government officials on an internal email, the Associated Press revealed Thursday evening that the White House press office ultimately released a transcript different from that prepared by official White House stenographers.

According to an internal email from the head of the stenography office, the change was made after the White House press office "conferred with the president."

'The Press Office may choose to withhold the transcript but cannot edit it independently.'

In the email, the supervisor claimed that the press office's revisionism constituted "a breach of protocol and spoliation of transcript integrity between the Stenography and Press Offices."

Here is what the White House transcript claimed that Biden said when complaining about comedian Tony Hinchliffe's Puerto Rico joke at President Donald Trump's Oct. 27 rally at Madison Square Garden:

In my home state of Delaware, they're good, decent, honorable people. The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter's — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it's un-American.

This is the version posted on the White House website and repeatedly shared online by White House senior deputy press secretary Andrew Bates.

The addition of an apostrophe to "supporters" radically changes the meaning such that in a world where there was no video of Biden's remarks, Democrats could argue, perhaps with greater success than they have this week, that the president was just suggesting Hinchcliffe's supposed demonization of Latinos was unconscionable garbage.

There is, however, video evidence of remarks, where Biden clearly says:

The Puerto Rican that that I know — or Puerto Rico where I'm fr — in my home state of Delaware, they're good, decent, honorable people. The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters. His, his, his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it's un-American.

The Associated Press confirmed that "supporters" in the original transcript prepared by the White House stenographers contained no apostrophe.

"If there is a difference in interpretation, the Press Office may choose to withhold the transcript but cannot edit it independently," the supervisor noted in the internal letter. "Our Stenography Office transcript — released to our distro, which includes the National Archives — is now different than the version edited and released to the public by Press Office staff."

'The move is not only craven, but it also appears to be in violation of federal law.'

The stenography office supervisor reportedly wrote to White House communications director Ben LaBolt, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, and other Biden officials, "Regardless of urgency, it is essential to our transcripts' authenticity and legitimacy that we adhere to consistent protocol for requesting edits, approval, and release."

The supervisor apparently declined to comment, whereas Bates doubled down, suggesting, "The President confirmed in his tweet on Tuesday evening that he was addressing the hateful rhetoric from the comedian at Trump's Madison Square Garden rally. That was reflected in the transcript."

On Wednesday, House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) penned a letter to White House counsel Edward Siskel, demanding that the Biden White House retain and preserve all documents and internal communications pertaining to the release of the doctored transcript.

Stefanik and Comer suggested that by releasing a false transcript, the Biden White House may have violated the Presidential Records Act.

"Americans were rightfully insulted when President Biden, seeking to boost Ms. Harris's presidential campaign, referred to an enormous swath of the country as 'floating ... garbage,'" the Republicans noted in their letter. "President Biden's vindictive words were unsurprising, given his previous statements regarding people who choose not to vote for his preferred candidate. Unsurprising too were the White House's actions after he said them."

"Instead of apologizing or clarifying President Biden's words, the White House instead sought to change them (despite them being recorded on video) by releasing a false transcript of his remarks. The move is not only craven, but it also appears to be in violation of federal law, including the Presidential Records Act of 1978," added the letter.

The lawmakers also demanded that the White House issue "a corrected transcript with the accurate words."

Biden and his allies should by now be accustomed to correcting the record.

The Biden-Harris FBI recently had to change its crime statistics for 2022. Whereas the bureau originally claimed that violent crime fell by 2.1% that year, it actually spiked by at least 4.5%.

Blaze News reported in August that the Biden-Harris Bureau of Labor Statistics came clean about overstating job gains by 818,000 and was forced to revise down the total in its preliminary annual benchmark review.

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Harris haunted by her revisionism and past attacks on Columbus Day



Leftists have worked feverishly in recent years to deracinate and disorient the population, severing America's ties with its history and vilifying those dynamic figures who paved the way for the United States to ultimately become the envy of the world.

Over the course of this resentment-fueled campaign, iconoclasts and revisionists have changed place names, renamed species, toppled hundreds of statues, melted down busts, removed church windows, advanced bogus alternate histories, dug up graves, and built a parasitic industry geared toward racial division.

The Trump campaign and other critics issued reminders Monday that Kamala Harris has long been a proponent of this campaign — and that Columbus Day is one of her many targets.

Karoline Leavitt, national press secretary for the Trump campaign, told Fox News Digital, "Kamala Harris is your stereotypical leftist. Not only does she want to raise taxes and defund the police, she also wants to cancel American traditions like Columbus Day."

Leavitt appears to have been referring to Harris' indication prior to the collapse of her previous presidential campaign that she would officially change "Columbus Day" to "Indigenous Peoples' Day."

When asked at a 2019 town hall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, whether she supported the controversial name change, the Washington Times reported that Harris first began by talking about legislating to make lynching a federal crime.

'Those explorers ushered in a wave of devastation for tribal nations — perpetrating violence, stealing land, and spreading disease.'

"People did not want to deal and accept and most importantly admit that we are the scene of a crime when it comes to what we did with slavery and Jim Crow and institutionalized racism in this country, and we have to be honest about that," said then-Sen. Harris. "If we are not honest, we are not going to deal with the vestiges of all of that harm, and we are not going to correct course, and we are not going to be true to our values and morals."

Harris added, "Similarly when it comes to indigenous Americans, the indigenous people, there is a lot of work that we still have to do, and I appreciate and applaud your point and your effort, and count me in on support."

On her first Columbus Day as vice president, Harris issued a statement effectively condemning the immigrants who first diversified the continent:

It is an honor to be with you this week as we celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day, as we speak truth about our nation's history. Since 1934, every October the United States has recognized the voyage of the European explorers who first landed on the shores of the Americas. But that is not the whole story. That has never been the whole story. Those explorers ushered in a wave of devastation for tribal nations — perpetrating violence, stealing land, and spreading disease. We must not shy away from this shameful past, and we must shed light on it and do everything we can to address the impact of the past on native communities today.

In 2022 and 2023, Harris doubled down, celebrating the Columbus Day alternate.

Columbus Day, which commemorates the daring 15th-century Italian whose four transatlantic voyages opened the way for European exploration of Americas, is one of 11 official federal holidays.

The Pew Research Center noted that it was first observed as a federal holiday in 1937 — initially conceived of as a celebration of Italian-American heritage and largely the result of lobbying by the Knights of Columbus.

The Knights of Columbus is a Catholic fraternal organization known for its charitable outreach. Not only does Harris want to rename its hard-won holiday, she has suggested that the group's members' Catholic faith disqualifies them from serving in federal courts.

As of October 2023, only 16 American states and the territory of America Samoa observe the second Monday in October as an official public holiday called Columbus Day.

Axios noted that the day is officially known as "Indigenous Peoples' Day" in New Mexico, Maine, Vermont, and Washington, D.C.

President Joe Biden proclaimed Oct. 14, 2024, both "Indigenous Peoples' Day" and Columbus Day.

"President Trump will make sure Christopher Columbus' great legacy is honored and protect this holiday from radical leftists who want to erase our nation's history like Kamala Harris," added Leavitt.

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Trump blasts ‘60 Minutes’ for deceptive cut of Kamala Harris interview



In a week punctuated by disastrous interviews, Kamala Harris' interview with Bill Whitaker of CBS News' "60 Minutes" was perhaps her greatest train wreck.

It turns out that the full and unedited version of the vice president's conversation with Bill Whitaker was actually far worse than what the sympathetic network ultimately decided to air Monday evening.

President Donald Trump's campaign has demanded that "60 Minutes" release the unedited transcript of the interview, suggesting that CBS News is covering up the Democratic presidential candidate's latest blunder.

Keen observers were quick to notice something amiss about the interview, namely that it was heavily edited. These edits appear to serve a singular objective: spare Harris, who is notorious for her word salads, yet another embarrassment and help her come across as coherent.

Critics noted a major difference between Harris' response shown in a preview of the interview and the one presented in the final.

'The word salad was deceptively edited to lessen Kamala's idiotic response.'

In one preview, Whitaker asked Harris whether America lacks influence over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his strategic decisions in the Middle East, prompting a meandering response from the vice president.

Whitaker then states, "It seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening," to which Harris replies:

Well, Bill, the work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by or a result of many things including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region.

Harris' word salad was replaced in the final so that it would appear as if she responded by saying:

We're not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end.

The Orwellian revision is also reflected in the official transcript of the interview on CBS News' page.

Karoline Leavitt, press secretary for the Trump campaign, said in a statement Tuesday, "On Sunday, 60 Minutes teased Kamala's highly-anticipated sit-down interview with one of her worst word salads to date, which received significant criticism on social media. During the full interview on Monday evening, the word salad was deceptively edited to lessen Kamala's idiotic response."

'It is the very definition of FAKE NEWS!'

"Why did 60 Minutes choose not to air Kamala's full word salad, and what else did they choose not to air?" asked Leavitt. "The American people deserve the full, unedited transcript from Kamala's sit-down review. We call upon 60 Minutes and CBS to release it. What do they and Kamala, have to hide?"

CBS News did not respond to Blaze News' request for comment.

Absent a meaningful response from the liberal news network, President Donald Trump wrote Wednesday morning, "I've never seen this before, but the producers of 60 Minutes sliced and diced ('cut and pasted') Lyin' Kamala's answers to questions, which were virtually incoherent, over and over again, some by as many as four times in a single sentence or thought, all in an effort, possibly illegal as part of the 'News Division,' which must be licensed, to make her look 'more Presidential,' or a least, better. It may also be a major Campaign Finance Violation."

Trump has previously suggested that propaganda networks should have the licenses for their individual broadcast stations revoked by the Federal Communications Commission.

"This is a stain on the reputation of 60 Minutes that is not recoverable," continued Trump. "It will always remain with this once storied brand. I have never heard of such a thing being done in 'News.' It is the very definition of FAKE NEWS! The public is owed a MAJOR AND IMMEDIATE APOLOGY! This is an open and shut case, and must be investigated, starting today!"

Senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller noted, "As uniquely disastrous as Kamala's 60 minutes flaming train wreck of an interview is, remember that this is the *most* favorable edit the CBS partisans could make for her."

Donald Trump Jr. tweeted, "Everyone has seen the clipped version of Kamala Harris' on 60 minutes and it's a catastrophe. Imagine how bad the actual interview was before they edited and cut the hell out of as only today's media would!!! We saw the best of the best and it was a disaster!"

CBS News failed to edit out Harris' claim that she owns the same kind of firearm she has tried to ban as well as Harris' defense of her abysmal record on the border. The final interview also includes Harris' desperate on-camera attempt to talk around the question of whether democracy was best served by her making a mockery of it.

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CNN's latest hit piece on JD Vance affords Harris a new talking point — but is undone by buried details



Keen observers have highlighted that buried within CNN's latest hit piece targeting Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) are the seeds of the intended narrative's undoing.

A quad of CNN writers penned a Tuesday piece over 2,200 words long titled "Workers allege 'nightmare' conditions at Kentucky startup JD Vance helped fund."

Their hit piece begins by highlighting Vance's alleged guiding principle for investing in a company: "A business should not only turn a profit, it should also help American communities." The rest of the article is formulated to suggest that Vance's principle(s) failed him when it came to investing in AppHarvest, an agricultural company that proved neither profitable nor helpful.

This carefully constructed and exploitable narrative is, however, undermined by admissions in the CNN article that other publications may seek to gloss over or omit.

For instance, the horror stories regarding working conditions at the company are undercut by officials' sources also cited in the piece. This incongruity alone should kneecap the intended narrative, but even more ruinous to the point CNN is trying to make is its own admission that the business hired migrant workers, faced lawsuits, and collapsed long after Vance had moved on.

The hit piece has, however, already served its purpose, furnishing leftist blogs and mainstream publications with claims to decontextualize and distort at Vance's expense.

The New Republic, for instance, concluded: "With Vance touting his business record as the Republican vice presidential nominee, AppHarvest is another big strike against him and the campaign."

Kamala Harris rapid response director Ammar Moussa has also seized on the article, personally assigning blame to Vance.

"Wow. This is a devastating deep dive into some of JD Vance's business ventures. Not only did this company go bankrupt, he treated workers horribly, making them work in unbelievable circumstances," wrote Moussa.

The Harris campaign has proven itself willing to rewrite history and news headlines for political gain. Although this Orwellian reflex has diminished the need for abettors in the press, the liberal media appears keen to continue producing ammunition for Democrats' various character assassination attempts on President Donald Trump and his running mate.

CNN's latest offering hints at an attempt to try something new — to attack the Republican candidate's business acumen. After all, recent accusations of weirdness have largely failed to stick, and, unlike that of Harris' running mate, Gov. Tim Walz (D), Vance's military record appears untouchable — although editors at Wikipedia certainly have tried.

The company

In the wake of the success of his memoir "Hillbilly Elegy," Vance was reportedly hired by AOL co-founder Steve Chase in 2017 to help his seed fund Rise of the Rest invest in underserved markets. According to CNN, Vance met with Jonathan Webb, the founder of an Appalachian indoor-agriculture company called AppHarvest.

Webb, who had a big idea — "to build an indoor vertical farming hub growing fruits and vegetables, one that was within a day’s drive of most of the US population, and where water and land were abundant" — was reportedly desperate for liquidity, having maxed out his savings and credit.

Vance cut a check to invest in the company as did a number of other early investors. While supposedly named to the board of directors that year, there are other indications he did not formally join until 2020.

During the time he was involved, Vance reportedly drove millions of dollars in capital to the company while helming his own venture capital firm Narya to ensure the success of the agri-business.

The company, which went on to draw investment from other big names, including Martha Stewart and former Impossible Foods CFO David Lee, went public in February 2021 and at one time reportedly saw a total valuation of over $1 billion.

Vance left the company's board in April 2021. At the time he noted on X:

My ability to be useful now that it's a public company is limited, I'm thinking about a political run, and whatever I do politically, I hate the insane reigning political orthodoxy ... so last month, I started talking with other members of the board about stepping down. The basic thinking was: I'm going to keep speaking my mind, and I’d rather do that unconstrained by the demands of a public board. And I thought the company would be better off too.

Despite its promise, the company subsequently hit turbulence, was slapped with multiple lawsuits, and ultimately went belly up.

When AppHarvest, starting down over $341 million in debt, declared bankruptcy last year, its chief financial officer said in court documents that the company was effectively tanked "due to lower than expected yield across all crops, higher than expected costs, and tightening of the equity markets and declining stock prices."

The accusations

CNN reduplicated the 2023 efforts of the leftist climate mag Grist in its hit piece, platforming allegations from a handful of former employees about supposedly demanding quotas and intolerable working conditions, mainly tied to issues with heat in the greenhouse.

Anthony Morgan, another former AppHarvest worker, said that conditions and benefits at the 60-acre greenhouse in Morehead, Kentucky, started off nicely, but deteriorated over time. Morgan alleged that the company progressively cut costs along with some benefits, and production quotas were raised, meaning more time in the hot greenhouse.

"It was a nightmare that should have never happened," said Morgan.

Months after Vance was no longer involved in the company, CNN indicated the company began relying upon migrant labor. These migrant workers were allegedly kept out of sight when politicians and other "bigwigs" toured the facilities.

In the wake of AppHarvest's legal difficulties and ultimate collapse, a number of former employees suggested to CNN that Vance and other board members "should have recognized and responded to warning signs that company officials were misleading the public and their own investors."

"Making the decision to go to work at AppHarvest, like many of us made, the livelihood just went right down the drain," Morgan said. "I blame all of the original investors."

Buried revelations

CNN's hit piece contains numerous narrative-killing admissions and statements.

For instance, while Vance reportedly remained invested in the company, CNN acknowledged that he "stepped down from AppHarvest's board and launched his political career in 2021."

CNN also indicated at the end of the article that "Vance was not named in any of the lawsuits" AppHarvest has been met with.

'This is a devastating deep dive into Kamala's desperation.'

Where complaints over intolerable working conditions and benefit cuts are concerned, the article says that state government inspectors visited AppHarvest facilities on at least three occasions but never issued citations. Furthermore, "Inspectors noted that they observed or heard about safety precautions during their visits, such as mandatory heat breaks and drinks offered to employees."

A Kentucky Education and Labor Cabinet spokesman told CNN that inspections of AppHarvest facilities found no violations of "national guidelines recommended to protect employees from heat-related illnesses, including regular access to fresh drinking water, rest breaks and opportunities to escape high temperatures."

A member of AppHarvest's senior management team told CNN in a forwarded statement:

The allegations made against AppHarvest do not reflect matters discussed at board meetings during JD's tenure — for obvious reasons. AppHarvest implemented robust heat policies when temperatures rose in the summer, months after JD's departure, continued to cover 100% of employees' health insurance premiums until mid-2022, and maintained a workforce dedicated to Appalachia throughout its existence.

Critics have blasted CNN for the article and the Harris campaign for distorting the facts further.

Abigail Jackson, communications director for Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), responded to Harris rapid response director Ammar Moussa's repost of the article, noting, "JD had nothing to do with it. JD was long gone from the company before any of these awful problems arose and CNN decided to bury that critical piece of info at the bottom of their article."

The MAGA War Room account tweeted, "Wow. This is a devastating deep dive into Kamala's desperation. Article literally says none of this happened while JD was a part of the company. Fake news!"

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Abraham Lincoln targeted for theatrical character assassination; filmmaker suggests he was a philandering homosexual



Activists' so-called "Pride Month" is over, but their campaign to queer America is clearly a perennial undertaking. While American youth are a popular target, long-dead American greats are apparently also fair game.

Shaun Peterson, a self-described "director/preditor" from California who has previously worked on multiple Disney projects, is set to debut a so-called documentary film in September that accuses Abraham Lincoln of having extramarital affairs with men.

"As told by preeminent Lincoln scholars, historical recreations and never before seen photographs and letters, the film details Lincoln's romantic relationships with men," says the website for the film. "Lover of Men widens its lens into the history of human sexual fluidity and focuses on the profound differences between sexual mores of the nineteenth century and those we hold today."

The filmmakers made sure there was no mistaking the agitprop nature of the film, stating, "Lover of Men is not only an exploration of gender roles and sexual identity, but also serves as an examination of American intolerance."

According to the trailer for the film, sexuality "through the mid-19th century was far more fluid, but for someone who wanted a political career, it was mandatory that you have a wife."

"If you can accept a queer Lincoln, you can accept queer people overall," says the trailer. "He should inspire us to achieve a true democracy for everyone."

Whereas the new Broadway show "Oh, Mary!" similarly accuses Lincoln of being gay, the LGBT publication Queerty indicated its transvestic playwright Cole Escola readily admits that his play is utterly baseless. The trailer for Peterson's film, on the other hand, adopts a pretense of seriousness about its projection of faddish contemporary notions about sex onto a revered 19th-century statesman.

'I've seen those letters, and they have no homoerotic overtones.'

Lincoln married Mary Anne Todd, a Kentucky woman, on Nov. 4, 1842. Together, they had four children, only one of whom — Robert Todd Lincoln — lived past the age of 18.

While there have been various efforts over the years to paint the American father and husband who issued the Emancipation Proclamation as gay or a "bisexual" — especially by the late gay activist Larry Kramer, who made no secret of his political aim to the New York Times — these appear to have consisted largely of projections, inventions, speculations, and misinterpretations.

One reason people have concluded Lincoln was gay was that he shared a bed with a man on more than one occasion. It's clear from the trailer for Peterson's film that it similarly will lean into the suggestion embraced by other revisionists that Lincoln had a romantic relationship with Joshua Speed, a man whose marriage to Fanny Henning lasted 40 years.

Michael Burlingame, the Naomi B. Lynn distinguished chair in Lincoln Studies at the University of Illinois Springfield, told the Hartford Courant in 2021 that the supposedly controversial aspects of Lincoln's relationship with Speed seized upon by the likes of Larry Kramer would "be a footnote" in his multi-volume biography of the Republican president.

"The evidence I've seen seems insignificant to justify its inclusion," said the Lincoln expert. "I've seen those letters, and they have no homoerotic overtones."

Burlingame suggested, instead, that he had found evidence that Lincoln was infatuated with women besides Todd prior to their marriage.

Charles Strozier, a psychoanalyst and history professor who addressed the false narrative in his 2016 book "Your Friends Forever, A. Lincoln: The Enduring Friendship of Abraham Lincoln and Joshua Speed," told the Daily Beast that it was very common for men to share a bed in Lincoln's time.

"Inns at the time were really just homes where they finished the loft. They weren't hotels like we have now. They were just hostels, where you have the men over here and the women over there," said Strozier.

According to the Daily Mail, Lincoln originally shared a bed with Speed because when he moved to Springfield, Illinois, in 1837, he didn't have enough money to acquire his own bed and bedding.

The Mail noted further that Lincoln would also sleep in the same bed as other lawyers — a common practice for the traveling "circuits" of his time, where up to 20 would share one room.

Doris Kearns Goodwin was another award-winning historian who reportedly poked holes in the gay Lincoln narrative in her biography on the Republican, noting, "Their intimacy is more an index to an era when close male friendships, accompanied by open expressions of affection and passion, were familiar and socially acceptable."

"Nor can sharing a bed be considered evidence of an erotic involvement. It was common practice in an era when private quarters were a rare luxury," continued Goodwin. "The attorneys of the Eighth Circuit in Illinois where Lincoln would travel regularly shared beds."

The late Harvard professor David Herbert Donald, long regarded to be the definitive biographer of Lincoln, also disputed the suggestion — by C.A. Tripp, a gay researcher for Alfred C. Kinsey — that the 16th president was gay. The New York Times indicated that no one at the time had ever suggested Lincoln and Speed were sexual partners — not even his enemies in the yellow press. Donald, like Strozier, emphasized that in frontier times, space was tight and men shared beds. It was not out preference but necessity.

In response to a similar effort — again by Kramer — to paint Alexander Hamilton as non-straight, Hamilton biographer Ron Chernow warned against "ransacking history in service of a political agenda."

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BBC continues its DEI-fication of British history with 'racially diverse' series about the Battle of Hastings



Leftists appear conflicted about Western history. On the one hand, they have endeavored to sever ties with it, tearing down statues, renaming places and species, and digging up graves. Yet, they also appear keen to transmogrify Western history — to rewrite it and reimagine it in order to bolster their contemporary worldview, advance their agenda, or to accommodate the sensitivities of their peers.

This latter impulse to transmogrify history appears to dominate in the United Kingdom where there is a burgeoning genre of revisionist agitprop aimed at either distorting facts to paint Caucasians uniquely as history's villains or to erase Caucasians from the isles' history.

The British Broadcasting Corporation has contributed to this genre for years and has shown no signs of stopping.

The Telegraph recently revealed that a forthcoming BBC historical drama series about the Battle of Hastings — between Anglo-Saxons and Norman-French forces for control of England in 1066 — will be played by a "diverse cast."

"King and Conqueror," a CBS Studios coproduction picked up by the BBC, will apparently feature non-white actors as Anglo-Saxon characters.

"Adding diversity to a high medieval period setting follows the BBC’s 'colour-blind' casting of non-white stars as Tudor courtiers in another upcoming historical drama, Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light," reported the Telegraph.

For instance, Elander Moore, an actor of Trinidadian decent, will play Morcar, son of Ælfgā, the earl of Mercia, and himself an earl of Northumbria, who fought against Viking and Norman invaders.

Jason Forbes, a black English actor from Bristol, will reportedly play a fictional Anglo-Saxon aristocrat named Thane Thomas.

'A cynic might wonder whether such casting is part of a cunning ploy to reinforce the fashionable progressive message that, throughout its history, this country has always been ethnically diverse.'

In the BBC's original announcement of the show, Lindsey Martin, senior vice president of international development and coproductions at CBS Studios — formerly of Netflix — indicated the show would be a "bold and fresh take on a story that has endured for nearly 1,000 years" with themes "as contemporary and relevant as ever."

Historian Zareer Masani told the Telegraph, "Some of us, including people of color, grew up thinking actors ought to look like characters they played."

Masani noted further that it was "absolutely crazy that they've applied this color-blindness to a period when Britain was at its least multicultural, before even the Norman Conquest," stressing further that this approach was "hugely confusing and downright misleading."

David Abulafia, a professor emeritus of history at the University of Cambridge, noted, "Since the whole series will undoubtedly bear little relation to historical fact, I think we shall have to put up with the bizarre notion that there were black earls in Anglo-Saxon England."

"All the more so, since we are no longer supposed to talk about 'Anglo-Saxons,'" continued Abulafia, alluding to the recent name change of University of Cambridge's historical journal Anglo-Saxon England to Early Medieval England and Its Neighbours.

"If they didn't exist, we can do what we like," added Abulafia.

British journalist Michael Deacon noted that, "A cynic might wonder whether such casting is part of a cunning ploy to reinforce the fashionable progressive message that, throughout its history, this country has always been ethnically diverse — which means that, if you object to mass immigration in the 21st century, you're not just racist, but historically ignorant."

Deacon suggested, however, that it is premature to judge the show having not yet seen it but joked about the potential of Harold Godwinson, the last crowned Anglo-Saxon English king, being scripted in the show to dismiss the threat of a Norman invasion as "alarmist nonsense," and stating, "I don't want to hear any more of these far-Right conspiracy theories. In any case, it's vital that we remain open to the world. As any historian worth his, her or their salt will tell you, Britain has always been vibrantly multicultural — ever since the Windrush arrived, in 1948BC.”

'It must not be an up-ended seesaw.'

The casting for "King and Conqueror" is par for the course at the BBC, whose program "Horrible Histories" released a song in 2021 called "Been Here from the Start," which suggested Roman Emperor Septimius Severus, the Aurelian Moors, and the early Britons were black.

The second season of the BBC series "Wolf Hall," an adaptation of the Hilary Mantel novel of the same name about the court of Henry VIII, will reportedly have Edward VI's grandmother Lady Seymour played by an actress of Bahamian heritage. Thomas Wyatt, a Yorkshire man who was the first person to write sonnets in English, will be played by an Egyptian actor.

British author Petronella Wyatt, who claims Thomas Wyatt as a distant ancestor, suggested that "diverse casting, if it is to work at all, must have a logical grounding, particularly in an adaptation of a novel that prides itself on historical authenticity."

"It must also work both ways. It must not be an up-ended seesaw. If the logic of modern casting was followed across the board then white actors should also be given roles on the basis of colour-blindness," wrote Wyatt. "But in our cowardly new world there is no equity or freedom from moral indignation, no all-embracing tolerance, only snorts and objurgations. We have become incapable of imagining honourable intentions in those with whom we disagree."

The genre of revisionist agitprop is not limited to film.

In August 2023, the publisher British Bloomsbury released a children's book entitled, "Brilliant Black British History," which erroneously stated, "Britain was a black country for more than 7,000 years before white people came, and during that time the most famous British monument was built, Stonehenge." The book was promoted in the U.K. by a government-funded group.

Leftists have also not limited their revisionism to matters of race.

Last year, the North Hertfordshire Museum decided to retroactively make Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus "transgender" and assign him female pronouns.

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Disney removes 'problematic' character from meet-and-greets — and no, it's not the park's cross-dressing Evil Queen



Disney has in recent years reportedly taken to having transvestites assume the roles of certain iconic female characters in its parks. Apparently, the company — growing increasingly synonymous with box office bombs — saw an opportunity to deprive actresses of at least one more female role at the Magic Kingdom: Tinker Bell.

Whereas the company evidently sees no issue with mustachioed men in dresses dealing with young children, it reportedly regards the fictional character from J.M. Barrie's 1904 play "Peter Pan," later made iconic in the 1953 Walt Disney film of the same name, as "problematic."

Branding her as such on account of her interest in a member of the opposite sex and likely her femininity as well, Disney has effectively clipped Tinker Bell's wings and thrown her into storage.

That Park Place's Jonas Campbell told Blaze News, "I suspect that Disney would work harder to keep the character in the parks if the Peter Pan & Wendy film that race-swapped Tinker Bell had been more successful, instead of being dumped onto Disney+ and forgotten."

"That attempt at 'updating' the character did not resonate with audiences, and not long after we see a mainstay meet-and-greet character played by young, athletic, white female performer disappear from Disney's biggest resort," added Campbell.

Background

In 2017, Disney CEO Bob Iger told investors, "We can take those values, which we deem important societally, and actually change people's behavior — get people to be more accepting of the multiple differences and cultures and races and all other facets of our lives and our people."

In the years since, Disney has worked ardently to socially engineer the audience Iger feels it deserves. That campaign has involved transmogrifying Disney's intellectual properties and eliminating nonconforming content.

'These stereotypes were wrong then and are now.'

The so-called experts behind the company's Stories Matter team have thought long and hard about what beloved characters are offensive to postmodern sensibilities.

The New York Times reported in 2022 that the Stories Matter experts' thin skin broke when watching episodes of "The Muppet Show" from the 1970s. The offending episodes, like other older Disney films such as "Dumbo," were slapped with disclaimers indicating they contained "negative depictions or mistreatment of people or cultures."

"These stereotypes were wrong then and are now," read the disclaimers.

The professionally offended Stories Matter team also took issue with various iconic Disney characters such as Ursula from "The Little Mermaid" — a supposedly "queer coded" character with skin dark enough to prompt concerns about racism, reported the Times.

Captain Hook from "Peter Pan," a film taken off children's Disney+ profiles for "breaching content advisories," was also deemed problematic. Whereas some viewers might conclude from Disney's depiction of a villain missing a hand that amputees can be morally dynamic like everyone else, the Times indicated executives feared Hook could be interpreted as a slight against the disabled.

Tinker Bell was among the characters slated for destruction because she is "body conscious" and desirous of Peter Pan's attention.

Ousting the fairy

Tinker Bell was not only used for decades in Disney advertisements but was a popular meet-and-greet character at Walt Disney World prior to the pandemic. During the pandemic, however, she disappeared along with all other such characters. Although the various costumed cast members ultimately returned to their posts, Tinker Bell was noticeably absent.

'Tinker Bell is significant to many longtime Disney fans because of her direct association with Walt.'

Inside the Magic recently reported that her signage has been officially removed from Town Square Theater, signaling her banishment from the Magic Kingdom's meet-and-greets. Guests apparently can only now meet Disney's iconic rodent at Bell's former stomping grounds.

According to Inside the Magic, Tinker Bell's presence in the park has more or less been reduced to a silent flyby, a mute cameo on a float, and an old statue.

The Plan Disney Committee indicated in February, "At present, Tinker Bell does not hold a 'meet and greet' opportunity at Walt Disney World Resort. Of course, she does make her evening flight over Magic Kingdom Park at the end of the Happily Ever After nighttime fireworks show!"

Outside the Magic Kingdom, there remains the possibility of a meet-and-greet with the fairy at the Disneyland Resort in California, but that too may change.

Jonas Campbell told Blaze News, "Tinker Bell is significant to many longtime Disney fans because of her direct association with Walt and the identity of the company that holds the IP rights to his name."

"If you look at the Disney+ logo graphic of a semi-circle being formed over the name, that's a callback to the Walt Disney Pictures logo of Tinker Bell flying over the castle," continued Campbell. "Tinker Bell used to appear in the Disneyland TV series and the 'Wonderful World of Disney' with Walt during his segments."

Campbell suggested the timing of Tinker Bell's ouster is strategic.

"I think Disney is taking the opportunity while demand is down for the character," said Campbell. "They closed down the division that made the Tinker Bell / Pixie Hollow movies and specials, and they never brought the character back to Walt Disney World for a meet-and-greet. The character is currently appearing in some parades and as part of the nighttime spectaculars, but I wouldn't be surprised to see this aspect updated as soon as the company can find a different character that current Imagineering fits."

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Pentagon gets its way: Reconciliation Memorial will be removed after judge lifts injunction



Iconoclasts in the previous Democrat-controlled 116th Congress and the Biden Department of Defense are getting exactly what they wanted: the toppling of the Jewish American-designed Reconciliation Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery.

While Judge Rossie David Alston Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia temporarily halted the plan to dismantle the 109-year-old monument, he reversed course Tuesday, giving the go-ahead for the Christmastime toppling.

What's the background?

The group Defend Arlington, affiliated with Save Southern Heritage Florida, unsuccessfully sued in the District of Columbia last month accusing the Army, which oversees the cemetery, of violating regulations in an effort to rush the process and get the monument down by January.

There is an apparent need to expedite the process, given the deadline set for the Pentagon by the Democrat-controlled 116th Congress in its National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2021. Per section 370 of the NDAA, virtually all military assets even remotely linked to the Confederacy are to be removed by Jan. 1, 2024.

After the D.C. federal court dismissed the heritage group's lawsuit, Defend Arlington tried once more in Virginia.

Contrary to claims made by the cemetery, their lawsuit alleged, "The removal will desecrate, damage, and likely destroy the Memorial longstanding at ANC as a grave marker and impede the Memorial's eligibility for listing on the National Register of Historic Places."

Judge Alston granted the plaintiffs a temporary restraining order, expressing concern over the possibility that neighboring grave sites might be disturbed. He hedged by stating, "Should the representations in this case be untrue or exaggerated the Court may take appropriate sanctions."

The cemetery indicated Monday that the Army had begun "disassembly of the monument atop the Confederate Memorial prior to the court issuing the temporary restraining order," but would comply with the order and halt further work.

— (@)

A vacant plinth for Christmas

Prior to Tuesday's hearing, Alston toured the cemetery and inspected the site, reported the Associated Press.

"I saw no desecration of any graves," said Alston. "The grass wasn't even disturbed."

The Trump-nominated judge subsequently issued an 18-page ruling Tuesday evening lifting the restraining order. Alston indicated the plaintiff's allegations about the removal efforts, specifically the suggestion that graves were being disturbed, "were, at best, ill-informed and, at worse, inaccurate."

During the hearing, Alston also questioned Defend Arlington lawyers' claims about the nature of the monument, stating "a slave running after his 'massa' as he walks down the road. What is reconciling about that?" reported Politico.

John Rowley, a lawyer for Defend Arlington, said in a statement obtained by the New York Times, "While we respect the Court’s decision, we continue to believe the evidence shows that in its haste to remove the Reconciliation Memorial, the DoD failed to conduct the reviews mandated by law regarding historic preservation and environmental impacts."

Kerry L. Meeker, a spokeswoman for the cemetery, told the Times in a statement that the iconoclasm would resume immediately and would be completed by Friday.

"While the work is performed, surrounding graves, headstones and the landscape will be carefully protected by a dedicated team, preserving the sanctity of all those laid to rest," said Meeker.

The monument, designed by Moses Jacob Ezekiel, a Confederate veteran and the first Jewish graduate of Virginia Military Institute, will be thrown into storage "until the final disposition has been determined."

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) previously indicated he intends to move the memorial to the New Market Battlefield State Historic Park in the Shenandoah Valley.

The Reconciliation Monument was approved in 1906 by Secretary of War William Taft; commissioned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1910; designed by Ezekiel; and unveiled in Section 16 of the cemetery by President Woodrow Wilson on June 4, 1914.

Both those supportive of and those opposed to the monument's original construction understood it to be signal reconciliation in the aftermath of the Civil War.

The monument, at least as it stood Tuesday, consists of a bronze female figure crowned with olive leaves atop a 32-foot pedestal. The female figure holds a laurel wreath, a pruning hook, and a plow. At her feet is a biblical inscription that reads, "They have beat their swords into plough-shares and their spears into pruning hooks."

Defend Arlington noted in a Meta post, "We are disappointed that American's [sic] had another breach in upholding the rule of law today. Hon. Rossie David Alston, Jr. visited Arlington National Cemetery ex-parte. We expect the crane is moving over the top of Ezekiel's grave this moment."

Controlling the past

If the past three years provide any indication, the removal of the Reconciliation Monument will not placate the left's desire to erase and revise history.

Since the ruinous 2020 BLM riots kicked off, statues of former U.S. presidents including George Washington, Ulysses Grant, and Theodore Roosevelt have been torn down by leftists, both the kind empowered by politicians and the kind empowered by voters.

Statues of Christopher Columbus were officially removed, toppled, or vandalized nationwide, as were hundreds of other statues commemorating consequential historic figures. Apolitical statues such as theWorld War I memorial in Birmingham, Alabama, and the statue of Polish hero Thaddeus Kosciuszko were afforded no exemption.

There appear to be incentives for iconoclasts to stay the course. For instance, vandals who destroyed the Sacramento statue of a historic Catholic missionary were rewarded last month with a substitute palatable to those antipathetic to the region's Christian heritage.

Efforts to sever the present from the past have gone far beyond statues.

Blaze News recently reported that the American Ornithological Society announced on Nov. 1 that it will begin changing the names of 70-80 birds currently named after people next year.

"There is power in a name, and some English bird names have associations with the past that continue to be exclusionary and harmful today," said AOS president Colleen Handel, a biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Alaska.

Biden Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland similarly has been scrubbing place names across the country that include the Algonquin word for woman, as it had been deemed derogatory by activist groups.

Ezekial's erasure wasn't the first and will not be the last under the current administration.

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Judge halts toppling of Reconciliation Monument in Arlington National Cemetery



A Trump-nominated federal judge has halted the removal of the Reconciliation Monument in Arlington National Cemetery, which the cemetery indicated Saturday would otherwise take place by week's end. While the iconoclasts have been momentarily restrained, the fate of the historic monument, also called the Confederate Memorial, remains uncertain.

The group Defend Arlington, affiliated with Save Southern Heritage Florida, filed a federal lawsuit last month in the District of Columbia accusing the Army, which oversees the cemetery, of violating regulations in an apparent effort to rush the process and get the monument down by January.

The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2021 requires that the Pentagon remove "all names, symbols, displays, monuments, and paraphernalia that honor or commemorate the Confederate Sates of America (commonly referred to as the 'Confederacy') or any person who served voluntarily with the Confederate States of America from all assets of the Department of Defense."'

The deadline for such removals is Jan. 1, 2024.

The D.C. federal court dismissed the lawsuit last week; however, Defend Arlington attempted once more to preserve the monument, this time in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, reported the Associated Press.

Their lawsuit reportedly stated, "The removal will desecrate, damage, and likely destroy the Memorial longstanding at ANC as a grave marker and impede the Memorial's eligibility for listing on the National Register of Historic Places."

With ostensibly no movement on the legal front, the cemetery announced over the weekend that the removal of the Reconciliation Monument, also called the Confederate Memorial, was in compliance with both the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Historic Preservation Act and would be completed by no later than Dec. 22.

Additionally, the cemetery claimed that "[d]uring the deconstruction, the area around the Memorial will be protected to ensure no impact to the surrounding landscape and grave markers and to ensure the safety of visitors in and around the vicinity of the deconstruction."

U.S. District Judge Rossie Alston, Jr., threw a wrench in the removal plans, granting Defend Arlington a temporary restraining order on Monday, barring the Pentagon from tearing down the 109-year-old monument.

Alston was reportedly concerned by the possibility that grave sites might be disturbed — a prospect raised by the lawyer for the plaintiffs. Alston also made clear that just as he takes the possibility of such disturbances seriously, he "takes very seriously the representations of officers of the Court."

"Should the representations in this case be untrue or exaggerated the Court may take appropriate sanctions," added Alston.

David McCallister, a spokesman for Save Southern Heritage Florida, indicated the Virginia case is stronger than the case dismissed in D.C. because there is now evidence that the removal underway disturbs grave sites.

Although it won't bring closure, this turn of events may nevertheless bring some hope to those in both parties who have denounced the effort to remove the monument.

Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) and 40 Republicans called on Defense Secretary Austin in a letter last week to suspend all removal activities related to the Reconciliation Monument until Congress finalized the appropriations process for fiscal year 2024.

Clyde stressed that the memorial is exempt from the removal requirement because it "does not honor nor commemorate the Confederacy and that it commemorates reconciliation and nation unity." Additionally, "the Naming Commission's authority explicitly prohibits the desecration of grave sites."

Former U.S. Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) indicated in an August Wall Street journal op-ed that the statue's toppling would signify the desire of a "deteriorating society ... to erase the generosity of its past, in favor of bitterness and misunderstanding conjured by those who do not understand the history they seem bent on destroying."

The Reconciliation Monument was approved in 1906 by Secretary of War William Taft; commissioned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1910; designed by Jewish former Confederate soldier Moses Jacob Ezekiel; and unveiled in Section 16 of the cemetery by President Woodrow Wilson on June 4, 1914.

A hearing concerning the removal has been scheduled in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia for Wednesday.

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Pentagon to tear down Reconciliation Monument in Arlington National Cemetery by week's end despite protest



The Department of Defense has dutifully taken part in an iconoclastic sweep of American history that has left graves dug up, statues toppled, animals renamed, busts melted down, and church windows removed.

Despite significant backlash, it appears no exception will ultimately be made for the Reconciliation Monument in Arlington National Cemetery. Workers will remove the 109-year-old monument this week, providing revisionists in the nation's capital with a gift of absence just in time for Christmas.

What's the background?

The Reconciliation Monument, also called the Confederate Memorial, was approved in 1906 by Secretary of War William Taft; commissioned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1910; designed by Jewish former Confederate soldier Moses Jacob Ezekiel; and unveiled in Section 16 of the cemetery by President Woodrow Wilson on June 4, 1914.

The monument consists of a bronze female figure crowned with olive leaves atop a 32-foot pedestal. The female figure holds a laurel wreath, a pruning hook, and a plow. At her feet is a biblical inscription that reads, "They have beat their swords into plough-shares and their spears into pruning hooks."

Another inscription on the memorial states in Latin, "The victorious cause was pleasing to the gods, but the lost cause to Cato."

Thirty-two figures of mythical gods, Southern soldiers, and civilians are depicted around the base, including two black characters — one holding a baby and the other a slave following his owner to war. The memorial also displays 14 shields representing the 11 Confederate states and the border states of Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri.

The memorial was intended as a monument to reconciliation in the aftermath of the Civil War.

Union army veteran President William McKinley, who supported legislation in 1900 to establish a Confederate section in Arlington Cemetery, proclaimed four days after men from former Confederate states ensured America's victory against Spanish forces, "In the spirit of fraternity we should share with you in the care of the graves of Confederate soldiers. … Sectional feeling no longer holds back the love we feel for each other. The old flag again waves over us in peace with new glories."

The American Conservative underscored that it was long understood to be a reconciliation monument, such that "some Confederate groups at the time opposed the statue and memorial precisely because they opposed the reconciliation that it symbolized. At the memorial’s dedication in 1914, President Wilson praised it as an 'emblem of a reunited people.'"

Arlington National Cemetery highlighted the monument's historic value, noting that it "offers an opportunity for visitors to reflect on the history and meanings of the Civil War, slavery, and the relationship between military service, citizenship and race in America. This memorial ... invites us to understand how politics and culture have historically shaped how Americans have buried and commemorated the dead."

Removal

The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2021, passed by a Democrat-controlled Congress, required the removal of "all names, symbols, displays, monuments, and paraphernalia that honor or commemorate the Confederate Sates of America (commonly referred to as the 'Confederacy') or any person who served voluntarily with the Confederate States of America from all assets of the Department of Defense."'

Congress established an eight-member commission in 2021 and tasked it with renaming military assets in accordance with this requirement. The deadline for such changes and removals is Jan. 1, 2024.

The commission addressed the Reconciliation Monument in its final report on Sept. 19, 2022, recommending that Arlington National Cemetery "remove the 32 life-sized bronze statues from the top of the monument but not remove the entire monument because doing so might damage graves under the structure."

Arlington National Cemetery indicated in March that it had begun preparations for the "careful removal and relocation" of the monument as required by Congress and demanded by Biden's Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

Backlash

There has been significant bipartisan outcry in the face of this particular iconoclastic initiative.

Former U.S. Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), cognizant that the memorial was built "with the sole purpose of healing the wounds of the Civil War," stressed in an August opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal that the statue's toppling would signify the desire of a "deteriorating society ... to erase the generosity of its past, in favor of bitterness and misunderstanding conjured by those who do not understand the history they seem bent on destroying."

Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) was among over 40 Republicans who criticized the iconoclastic initiative, calling on Defense Secretary Austin in a Dec. 11 letter to suspend all removal activities related to the Reconciliation Monument until Congress finalized the appropriations process for fiscal year 2024.

Clyde noted that the memorial ought to be exempt from the removal requirement because it "does not honor nor commemorate the Confederacy; the memorial commemorates reconciliation and nation unity." Additionally, "the Naming Commission's authority explicitly prohibits the desecration of grave sites."

Christmastime iconoclasm

Arlington National Cemetery announced Saturday that the monument had been fenced off and would be removed by no later than Dec. 22. All but the granite pedestal will be taken away.

The cemetery further alleged that the removal is in compliance with both the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Historic Preservation Act, and that no nearby graves or headstones would be damaged during the "deconstruction" process.

"During the deconstruction, the area around the Memorial will be protected to ensure no impact to the surrounding landscape and grave markers and to ensure the safety of visitors in and around the vicinity of the deconstruction," the cemetery indicated in a statement.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) plans to move the memorial to the New Market battlefield state historic park in Shenandoah Valley, reported the Military Times.

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