Special Opinion by Charles Landis

In the ES  News, May 24, 2019, guest columnist Daniel Fountain writes about why he thinks some still get indoctrinated in the Lost Cause of the Confederacy. He argues it is because the United Daughters of the Confederacy and others have been untruthful about the history of the Confederacy. Mr. Fountain is a history professor, and he should have been more truthful.

There was no referendum on decision of Southern states to secede from the Union. 854 men, mostly wealthy plantation owners, were selected by the state legislators to attend conventions  to decide on secession. 697 voted for and  157 voted against; thus a small group of rich and powerful men (697) decided for 9 million mostly poor people, not the voters.

My grandfather and five of his sons joined the Confederate Army. They had no vote in secession or to fight. Like most, all they knew was South Carolina fired on a Union fort in Charleston, and Lincoln had mobilized 15,000 troops and was going to invade the South. Slavery had been accepted for over 250 years, was legal under the Constitution, and the Supreme Court (Dred Scott) said slaves were property. Note. Until the Revolutionary War ¾ of the immigrants were indentured or bonded, and many did not live much beyond the indenture period. Some of my ancestors (from Palatine) came to America in boats where the death rate was higher than on slave ships.

 My grandfather was severely wounded at Petersburg, and three of his sons were killed. There is a memorial to my grandfather, as captain of the Granville Graves of North Carolina, and the other fallen soldiers. My grandmother and three of daughters (aunts) were among the Daughters of the Confederacy who helped erect this and other  memorials. One of my aunts went on to become administrative assistant to General Omar Bradley when he headed the Veterans Administration. There are countless testimonials to all the good works she did on behalf of veterans of every war from the Civil War to World War II and after. (Including FDR, General Bradley, and awards from veteran organizations).

Yes, slavery was the primary cause of the Civil War, but the primary purpose of Lincoln was to preserve the Union. Lincoln only freed slaves in states in rebellion. HE did not believe the black man was the equal of the white man. He was a segregationist.

A quarter of the Union Army were mercenaries from Germany, Ireland, and Scandinavia. My ancestor’s homes were looted and razed, their crops destroyed, and I have a letter written by grandfather telling of the hardships during the occupation reconstruction. They fought because they were being invaded. Period.

The memorials are not for the Lost Cause but for veterans and all the lost blood.

This opinion is special to the Mirror by Paul Ewell

Interesting story in the Eastern Shore Post written as an attempt to mislead the general population about the facts concerning the Menhaden Industry. I’ve tried to steer clear of politics and controversial issues on here as much as possible but I refuse to keep quiet about this particular issue.

This continual banter about the detrimental effects of Virginia’s Menhaden Industry is nothing more than an attack on the commercial fishing industry as a whole. Why we do we continue to hear so much about this particular industry?

It’s simply because it is the only commercial fishing segment in Virginia not controlled by the VMRC. Neither the VMRC nor the recreational fishing lobby can touch this industry and, quite frankly, it’s driving them crazy (think the Trump Effect for comparative purposes). 

Consider this. The science community (yes, that’s right) continues to contend that the menhaden population is NOT overfished. This is, based on scientific evidence, not disputable. Of course, the recreational folks, many of whom are, in fact, engaged in and dependent on the commercial aspects of the recreational rockfish industry, are continually spouting off about the rockfish population. Rockfish were not overfished.

As any waterman with experience will tell you, generally (though not in every scenario) fish are cyclical. And, they didn’t read that in a book. You can’t replace decades of experience on the Chesapeake Bay with a book. Sorry. Rockfish are on a down cycle.

As a result (yet another turn of events), the crab population appears to be on the incline. Why? There are less rockfish to eat them, of course. Understanding that concept requires no book or decades of experience, just a little common sense.

So, as I read the story in the Post I had to chuckle a little. As you read that story, please remember it is an editorial; an opinion piece and remember those age-old words of wisdom…..opinions are like arseholes. Everyone has one.

Have a good day and to Omega Protein and all others engaged in the menhaden industry, fish on! 

This special Opinion is by Chas Cornweller

Well, the big day has finally come and gone. No, I don’t mean Easter. I am talking about The Mueller Report. All four hundred and forty-eight pages of it. Redactions and all. Two years and hundreds of subpoenas and depositions and god knows how many printed words between the media and twitter accounts. Not to mention the President’s own tweets. And, where are we? Pretty much right where we began. Divided by partisanship and fed unfiltered dis-information versus truth, corruption versus anti-corruption and the balance of power and justice. America, what happened to you? 

In my view, there are two takeaways from this report. One, the Russian government most decidedly did interfere with the 2016 election. It is stated over and over within the report as fact and cannot be refuted. Two, the President of the United States, either by bumbling or fumbling or just a lack of political knowledge and Civics along with basic misunderstanding of the laws and the way justice works within this country and as written within the by-laws of the Constitution, directly tried to hinder and shut down both the investigations into the Russian meddling and the consequent investigation into possible collusion with his election staff and himself with the Russian government. Either of which, Robert Mueller clearly and succinctly instructed Congress to further pursue.

What we got, three weeks ago, was obfuscation from the Attorney General, William Barr. By his interpretation of the document, Barr ended up looking more like the lawyer for the President and not his as appointed position for the people as principal Justice. By his actions and his words, he came across as exonerating the President of any and ALL misdeeds, when the document clearly instructed him to leave that to Congress. Secondly, it appears the administration was shown certain early releases of the document before Congress. Both egregious and unlawful from the vantage point of the Constitution. But, that is the least of egregious behavior emulating from the Mueller Report.

Several members of the Trump administration were directly caught lying about certain circumstances relating to the firing of James Comey. Including Sarah Huckabee’s retraction (to the Mueller investigation team while under oath) of the “numerous contacts” stating their loss of faith with Comey, resulting in his firing. She called it a “slip of the tongue”. That “slip of the tongue” progressed through two days of questioning by the White House press Corps. Secondly, it has been pointed out that numerous times, White House Staffers either ignored, or intentionally did not carry out orders given to them by the President himself, thus saving him from direct obstruction of the investigation. Had they not done so, the President would have been in violation of the law and the duty of oath according to the Constitution. This either shows two things, the President doesn’t know what he is doing, or he is weak as a leader. Or…the third possible outcome; he is corrupt and will stop at nothing to bury or hide or wipe clean his mis-deeds. Only his staff saved him from further damage. There is no other outcome but these three. It is there in the report to read.

Lastly there is this: Mueller writes in his presentation. If we had confidence, after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgement. In other words, there is plenty evidence that the President is guilty of multiple things, it is just not that easy to prove it. However, besides the numerous redactions, there is still ongoing investigations in the Southern New York district into Trump’s financial dealings and numerous loans with Deutsche Bank. Meaning, this report could just be the tip of the iceberg. Just how deep the corruption runs in the Trump financial world, we enigmatically await the answers. Meanwhile, the shouts across the aisle get louder. Scholars of interpretive government scratch their heads and the American public is cast deeper down into despair while our roads and bridges rot and our children’s future grow dimmer by the day.

Is Trump the only cause of this? Of course not. In fact, we are as at fault as he. We put him in office. Handed it to him for a cart load of promises and a pile of dogmatic trifle. All the while, the Russian Troll Union fed us Red-Meat daily and denied us truth. We aren’t intelligent enough to figure all this out and therefore we elect the bland, the weak, the corrupt. The puppets that slowly and deliberately dismantle the real structure of power within this country, our rights as citizens. Trump is a symptom of what is truly wrong with us. We are blinded by the material. We over consume like pigs at a trough. We run ram-shod over third world nations and basically steal their resources. Leave them in ruins when we are done. We occupy over five hundred military bases around the world. We interfere in other’s elections. Yes, we do! We’ve been doing it for some time. We use the Monroe doctrine like a big stick or whip. God help the Western hemisphere nation that dares set its government on course to allow free democracy that isn’t in line with the intentions of this nation’s goals. I could list them, but, you are smart people. Look it up for yourself.  

When the justice system of any nation falls, so fall all rights for that nation’s citizens. This administration, by all rights, has flaunted that justice system in our faces. They’ve lied to us. They’ve allowed our security and our democratic process to be compromised and lied to us about that! They continue to lie to cover up past lies. I’m not asking you to believe me because I write this. I am challenging you to look it up for your selves. I am challenging you to step outside your comfort zone and truly see where America is today. This is not a reality show. This is our future, our children’s future and our grand-children’s future. We are at war with ideology. And the powerful are winning. In Scandinavian countries, today, class are being taught to grade school children on how to detect false information on Social Media. Why do you think this is? Better still, why do you think it is not being taught in American schools? If you think it is unnecessary, then I truly weep for you. And your children. Because the reality is, what you don’t know, can harm you. It can imprison you and it can enslave you. I leave you with this.

“When you are studying any matter or considering any philosophy, ask yourself only, what are the facts and what is the truth that the facts bear out? Never let yourself be diverted either by what you wish to believe or what you think would have beneficial social effects if it were believed. Look only and solely at what are the facts.” Bertrand Russell

ACCOMACK COUNTY SUPERVISORS NEED TO APOLOGIZE FOR THEIR  HYPOCRITICAL REMARKS REGARDING OUR DRINKING WATER SUPPLIES.

This Letter is special to the Mirror by Ken Dufty

During a recent meeting of the Accomack-Northampton Groundwater Committee (GWC),  former Chairman and current Accomack County Supervisor Paul Muhly demanded a retraction from CBES regarding a recent article in CBES Shoreline Newsletter that concluded that the groundwater reserves in the Yorktown Aquifer (where 90% of our drinking water comes from on the Eastern Shore of Virginia) were not “sustainable”.  This demand was echoed the following night by Accomack Supervisor Grayson Chesser at that board’s monthly meeting.

The refrain was broadcast by our esteemed local FM radio station WESR, fueling the fire that CBES had misinformed the public and must “set the record straight”.     Note that at the very same GWC meeting, the Committee unanimously voted to give a groundwater excellence award to Senator Lewis and Delegate Bloxom (deservedly so) for promoting legislation that would encourage increased use of the shallow Columbia Aquifer due to fears that the Yorktown reserves were threatened.  

To wit, the record reflects that all of the information that is in the files and on the table and being actively discussed at the monthly meetings of the GWC fully supports the author of the CBES monthly newsletter article.      The very reason that this Groundwater Committee has been working on getting increased use of the surficial Columbia Aquifer is because they appear to believe that the Yorktown Aquifer which recharges at only a fraction of the rate of the shallower reserves is threatened by salt water intrusion from rising sea levels and over-pumping by the 250+ industrial poultry houses planned for Accomack County.  

Indeed, because of declining reserves of fresh water both in Chincoteague and Cape Charles, those municipalities are reportedly considering expensive desalinization plants.    It has been pointed out numerous times that the same warnings being made by CBES and others about the sustainability of groundwater reserves were similarly disparaged by elected leaders in Virginia Beach in the late ’70’s. 

That smoke and mirror condemnation of the prevailing data resulted in that area running out of water just years later, triggering a half-billion dollar project to pump water from Lake Gaston (75 miles away) before economic development could resume.  

Note we do not have a Lake Gaston to tap, as we are a sole-source aquifer recharged only by rain water-the vast majority of which bleeds to the Bay and Seaside before it can seep into the three lower Yorktown supplies.       

The facts remain that CURRENT studies show that we use about 9 million gallons of drinking water from the Yorktown Aquifer daily and recharge from rain water is about equal to that number. But the projections are that once all of the Industrial Poultry houses come on line in our chicken-saturated county on the northern Virginia’s Eastern Shore, these facilities could suck anywhere from 1.1 to 3 million extra gallons each day from our Yorktown Aquifer. This tips the scale of sustainability, no matter how much fact-twisting is perpetrated upon us by elected officials who should know better.         

So it is clearly Supervisors Muhly and Chesser who owe the Eastern Shore citizens an apology for spreading misinformation in an apparent attempt to appease the poultry industry (in my opinion) and for encouraging us all  to “whistle past the graveyard” as we turn on our taps.  Their statements on the sustainability of our lower groundwater reserves stand in direct contradiction to their near hysterical praise for legislation that will encourage more use of the Columbia and less on our limited Yorkton supplies, and contrast shaply with the committee’s flagship work for over a decade, causing us to ask “if there is no problem with the sustainability of the Yorktown Aquifer, why the drool over getting people off it?”.

This Opinion is special to the Mirror by Trapper Dan.

Aw, come on, give the Mayor a break. He knows that there is a problem because he is getting complaints. The problem is knowing what to do about feral cats. He should have gotten some advice before he said what he did.

Consider a middle ground. There are gardeners who don’t like what happens in their gardens or under their window late at night. Their cats are  licensed, shots up to date, tagged, and not allowed to roam.

There are others who see themselves as on a divine mission to protect the cats and their way of life by feeding. They will happily boil huge amounts of chicken necks for them. They seek vengeance on anyone they perceive as interfering in their pursuit. They will vandalize your car, your boat, and throw rocks through your windows (remember Violent Viola?). Like feral cats, they are a breed apart. The cats are here, it is not possible for them not to be, but the problem can be mitigated. The middle ground is something called population dynamics. If enough breeders don’t breed, the numbers will go down in time. 

This requires a low-key, sustained, and broadly applied cooperative effort. 

Live trapping is legal on private property. Companion animals must be turned over to County Animal Control, Ask them to pick up and return the trap. Do not transport and release the animal elsewhere.  Low-key suggests one trap hidden, such as as under a porch, out of sight, where it wont be rained on. Cats will find it. Chain it to something immovable. The best bait is a small amount of dry cat food in a small dish covered with a mesh so it can be reused. Do not try ry to remove the animal from the trap. 

The more neighbors participating, the better. In time, a sustained and patient effort will show results.

Special Opinion to the Mirror by Paul Plante.

First of all, hand’s down, of course, the most important take-away by far from the Michael Cohen hearing before the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform, the main investigative committee in the U.S. House of Representatives with authority to investigate the subjects within the Committee’s legislative jurisdiction, as well as “any matter” within the jurisdiction of the other standing House Committees, on Wednesday, 27 February 2019, is kudos once again to PR Guru Lanny “I Am The Man” Davis for another colossus of an extravaganza intended to sell a lot of soap, which has again earned Lanny a heap of praise from the Madison Avenue PR crowd, who would know these things better than the rest of us who aren’t in the PR game, but are instead its intended victims, as well as the main-stream media who were handed a blockbuster of a story that they will be able to make hay off of for at least the next several weeks, with this Cohen appearance winning the vitally important ratings game (ratings sell advertising) as the coveted Best Daytime Soap for 27 February 2019.

But seriously, people, when confronted with a Lanny Davis production, how could it possibly be otherwise?

Afterall, not for nothing is Lanny Davis known the the “PR Guru” in the trade, and that is also why he is called “The Maestro,” for how he can orchestrate these things so much better than anyone else in the game, which is why Lanny is on top, a master impresario, and the other ones aren’t. 

Simple math, people – Lanny produces, where the competition just flails around!

Results are what the game is all about, and with Michael Cohen and Committee Chairman Elijah “The Prophet” Cummings on the roster in starring roles, Lanny was assured of great success, and success is exactly what he achieved.

So what makes a Lanny Davis production so much superior to the regular run of insipid and trite daytime soaps the American viewing public is regularly treated to?

Well, dialogue, first and foremost is what the experts all say.

Rhetorically speaking, without blockbuster dialogue, how can you have a blockbuster production?

And the answer is, you can’t, which takes us to the carefully crafted and riveting opening statement of Chairman Elijah “The Prophet” Cummings, because if you don’t have the hook in in the opening lines, people, the audience is going to be channel-surfing again, and you have lost them, to wit:

Today, the Committee will hear the testimony of Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s longtime personal attorney and one of his closest and most trusted advisors over the last decade.

end quotes

Now in the PR game, that is known as the “set-up,” or “the grab,” establishing Michael Cohen as being tighter to Trump than his own underwear, and let me say that in his delivery there, Elijah Cummings is said to have delivered a flawless performance.

Let’s face it, people, even right now, after the breathtaking performance is long since over, he still has us on the edge of our seats there, straining forward to hear the next words coming, saying to ourselves, “holy ****, this Cohen is a dude with the real goods on Trump, and that is a fact,” or at least that is how the main-stream media is playing it, and that is a hallmark of a Lanny Davis production – superior scripting, which takes us back to the well-crafted Cummings opening statement as follows:

On August 21, Mr. Cohen appeared in federal court and admitted to arranging secret payoffs of hundreds of thousands of dollars on the eve of the election to silence women alleging affairs with Donald Trump. 

Mr. Cohen admitted to violating campaign finance laws and other laws. 

He admitted to committing these felonies “in coordination with, and at the direction of” President Trump. 

And he admitted, he admitted, to lying about his actions to protect the President.

end quotes

BING BADA BOOM, people, game is over for Trump, and we are barely even into the show, yet!

This is like being outside the tent where Little Egypt is going to do her thing, and listening to the barker telling us about the show, so we will want to pay good money to go in there and see her do it herself.

This is what sets a PR Guru like Lanny Davis apart from the pack – he has his finger on the pulse of what stirs the blood of the people in America, and he provides it for them, big time, which is why his productions are called extravaganzas, and rightfully so, as we see from the following dialogue, to wit:

Some will certainly ask, if Mr. Cohen was lying then, why should we believe him now? 

This is a legitimate question. 

As a trial lawyer for many years, I’ve faced this situation over and over again. 

And I asked the same question. 

end quotes

Introspection and thoughtfulness, people!

Here we have Lanny establishing the fact in the minds of the viewing public, the all-important at-home viewing audience, that here is a man, who despite being a Democrat, is not just going to go blindly rushing in there, believing every word Cohen says, when everybody already knows that in addition to being quite stupid, Cohen is also a convicted liar, which takes us back to Elijah Cummings, as follows:

Here is how I view our role. 

Every one of us in this room has a duty to serve as an independent check on the Executive Branch. 

end quotes

Actually, in reality, that statement is pure bull****, but we are not talking reality here, people – it’s a daytime soap opera, so what we are after isn’t truth or justice – it is drama!

It’s winter, it’s snowing, the governor told us it is not safe to be out when it’s snowing, so we are bored with cabin fever, and we want to be entertained, and Lanny knows that, so he gave us what we craved, which takes us back to these momentous words from the drama, as follows

Ladies and gentlemen, we are in search of the truth. 

The President has made many statements of his own, and now the American people have a right to hear the other side. 

They can watch Mr. Cohen’s testimony and make their own judgment. 

end quotes

Solemnity, people!

How important that is for the drama!

Elijah Cummings is presented to us as a modern-day Diogenes, also known as Diogenes the Cynic, the Greek philosopher and one of the founders of Cynic philosophy who modeled himself on the example of Heracles, and believed that virtue was better revealed in action than in theory, using his simple life-style and behaviour to criticize the social values and institutions of what he saw as a corrupt, confused society, becoming notorious for his philosophical stunts, such as carrying a lamp during the day, claiming to be looking for an honest man, who was also noted for having mocked Alexander the Great, both in public and to his face when he visited Corinth in 336. 

So there, people, is the first most important take-away from the Michael Cohen, but it won’t be the last, so stay tuned, as the plethora of take-aways from this Lanny Davis production come rolling in, and now, a pause for station identification.

This opinion is special to the Mirror by C. Augustus Landis.

As in the Kavenaugh hearing, due process in the Democrat party playbook does not recognize innocent until proven guilty. Northam played the race card in his bid to become Governor and now the Democrat party’s political due process is to use that card against him. As in the Kavanaugh hearing, the Democrat Party says the political due process is for Fairfax to be forced to resign.

The historical irony here is the great debate between Northam and Gillespie was held in Wise Va., named after Henry Wise, the first Governor of Virginia. Wise was the most important political person in Virginia  in the quarter century leading to the Civil War, the most forceful defender of slavery when in Congress, made a martyr of John Brown, and forced Virginia into secession.

Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, advocated eugenics and cleansing of the negro race. Northam believes in infanticide to end the less desirable will not survive birth.

Both Northam and Wise are democrats.

Res Publica

This Opinion is special to the Mirror by Chas Cornweller.

Lately, I’ve been watching the weather. I have been looking up towards the sky. I’ve caught animated weathermen hawking their brand on my big flat screen. I have been walking about, outside, feeling winter enclose me. All these things have become one large, automatic charge. These changes are real, tangible and felt. I have been watching the weather.

America is at a cross road. We as a people, are at that cross road as well. We have yet to define who we are. The closest we have come, was during the years nineteen forty-one to nineteen forty-five. Collectively, we rolled up our sleeves and set out to a determined and ultimately successful purge of fascism, racism and hate. Purged from two other nations, that is. Not yet from America. That fight was left for other generations. America is at a cross road.

During the sixties, the cracks began appearing. Sons, declared fit for combat, were sent, not as volunteers but as draftees, half-way around the world to fight a civil war in which we had no cause, no justification, no dog in the fight. Only that specter of Communism was used to lure these young men to their deaths. A specter that was created out of failure and lack of understanding between nations and economic philosophies. And from this war, a gap between those that had fought in a seemingly gallant and well-intentioned war and those who were now sent to die in what seemed a senseless and wasteful war appeared. It widened, until those who held the power and made the laws unleashed their dogs with guns and killed young people in the streets and on the campuses. During the sixties, the cracks began appearing.

Behind the scenes, unscrupulous deeds were being done. Plans were laid to disrupt other countries in their personal progresses. Popularly elected officials were overthrown and replaced by ruthless and inflexible rulers. Strength and power ruled the day. Certain portions of the populace disappeared. Others were rounded up, tortured and made to confess to crimes that they had had no part of. Then, they too, disappeared. Behind the scenes, unscrupulous deeds were being done.

Then came the promise in the form of acting. Many great communications came from on high. New laws and a new prosperity would rule over the people. The hospitals for the mentally ill and those challenged by life’s everyday machinations, were emptied. These same people had nowhere to go, but to the streets. Suddenly, the money for programs to educate young children dried up. Programs for veterans of that faraway war diminished. They, too, were abandoned to the streets. A new drug appeared to offer hope and clarity to the poor and disenfranchised. It was the same drug that some of the rich had used previously for creative and physical stamina. But, it was expensive as presented, so the poor revised it. They revised it to make it cheaper and more accessible to their own. This drug became rampant and found its way into the bodies of young mothers and into the communities of the very, very poor. Many of the former hospital patients used it as a way of coping. It was of no benefit to anyone and only brought misery and ultimately death to many of its users. It was a false promise of hope. It was only a promise in the form of acting out a big lie.

I have been watching the weather. Today, the weather is cold and rainy. I have been watching the sky. Endless sets of clouds among a background of grey looks down on me. The air is too full to rain just now. But, it will rain soon. I know it will. I can tell by the patterns of things. Plus, lately, I’ve been watching the weather.