Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro revealed his list of the five worst presidents in American history in the latest episode of “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/facts" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Facts.</a>”
In the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMWbHKsR9VA" target="_blank" rel="noopener">episode</a>, released on Presidents’ Day, Shapiro highlighted five presidents who ignored the Constitution, destroyed the economy, implemented harmful policies, and contributed to the Civil War. Shapiro also said that two frequently maligned modern presidents, George W. Bush and Donald Trump, deserve to be ranked higher than where many academics place them. 
The fifth worst president was Jimmy Carter, whose one term in office was filled with inflation, gasoline shortage, and the Iranian Revolution. The Soviet Union also invaded Afghanistan after he downplayed the threat of communism during his time in office. 
“That&#8217;s all the stuff he did while he was president. He wasn&#8217;t president for that long as president for four years and four years only. He was a horrible post-president. He built some houses for homeless people. That&#8217;s great. He also hung out with Hamas and actively wrote speeches for uber terrorist Yasser Arafat, claiming that Hamas&#8217; election was actually legitimate,” Shapiro said. 
The fourth worst president is Barack Obama, whom Shapiro said you need to understand if you want to know “where American politics truly went off the rails.”
During Obama’s two terms in office, he presided over a weak economic recovery while Americans became further polarized over race with anti-police sentiment rising to violent fervor in Baltimore and Ferguson. Shapiro also talked about how Obama weaponized the Justice Department to go after his political opponents and completely flipped his views on marriage. 
The third worst president was James Buchanan, who served one term before the Civil War. Shapiro said that Buchanan did much to contribute to the country’s divisions which would soon boil over into war.
“He actually said that while secession was illegal, the government didn&#8217;t have the power to stop it, which led a lot of states to be like, okay, well, then I guess we can leave,” Shapiro said. 
Shapiro&#8217;s pick for second worst president was Lyndon Johnson. Though Shapiro gave Johnson credit for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, he said everything else about Johnson’s administration was a disaster. One of LBJ’s biggest policy flubs was his so-called “War on Poverty,” which Shapiro said has had devastating consequences. 
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“This amounts to spending trillions upon trillions upon trillions of dollars making government encroachment in nearly every area of American life, offering subsidies, threatening prosecution and fines. The government offered instead of prosperity the prospect of intergenerational poverty through sponsorship of single motherhood, through welfare programs that disincentivize marriage,” Shapiro said.
Shapiro’s selection for the worst president in American history is Woodrow Wilson, whom he said was an authoritarian who believed in rule by experts and not by elected representatives. He ripped into Wilson’s support for eugenics, his handling of World War I, his crackdown on civil liberties, his racial policies, and his nationalization of major American industries. 
Wilson was, “a terrible president, economically terrible president, terrible wartime president, terrible president on race, terrible president in terms of structuring a massive federal bureaucracy. Just a horrific president,” Shapiro said. 
He concluded the episode by saying that Trump and Bush were given unfair raps, with Bush’s economic failings rooted in Clinton-era policies and the fact that the Iraq war was broadly supported at the time. For Trump, he noted that most people just complain about his rhetoric while ignoring his successful economic record and peace deals in the Middle East. 
WATCH:
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Facts Intro Still

Ben Shapiro Ranks The Five Worst Presidents In American History In Latest ‘Facts’ Episode

American History

Ben Shapiro

Presidency

A deep-sea expedition group says that it has discovered what appears to be Amelia Earhart’s plane, which went missing after the famed pilot crashed somewhere in the South Pacific during her flight around the world.
Deep Sea Vision, a marine-robotics company, <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amelia-earharts-aircraft-believed-found-184400252.html?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAALYxVCiuhArz9_BAqhiigMqK1mZBmqF-nqfDYH3HfW6L8LC4z-aFEXvlQYzV3rDBQAJRXgURDFHiuaZ2AEDEq6-7NqWCPLUbKoG6Tp4FzPi_xnvEdmKE9u9eHBblU8EI3lZmuU-K9ROCi2a0wMOTQiidAUqofFOBTNiCGoym2fkc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> on Sunday that it has located what it believes to be Earhart’s Lockheed Electra, which went missing in 1937 after taking off from Papua New Guinea. Deep Sea Vision says that it believes Earhart and her navigator got off track because they forgot to take into account the International Date Line leading them to be off target and crash into the ocean.
“This is maybe the most exciting thing I’ll ever do in my life,” Deep See Vision CEO Tim Romeo <a href="https://www.wsj.com/science/amelia-earhart-lost-plane-found-843e9e9c" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> The Wall Street Journal of a return trip to survey the wreckage. “I feel like a 10-year-old going on a treasure hunt.” 
The group posted photos of the wreck on Sunday, announcing news of the find.
“On July 2, 1937, Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan took off from Papua New Guinea, nearing the end of their record-setting journey around the world never to be seen again. Until today,” Deep Sea Vision said.
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Romeo, a former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer, said that the plane appears to be in good condition despite its being in the ocean for over 80 years.
&#8220;We always felt that she [Earhart] would have made every attempt to land the aircraft gently on the water, and the aircraft signature that we see in the sonar image suggests that may be the case,” he said. &#8220;We&#8217;re thrilled to have made this discovery at the tail end of our expedition, and we plan to bring closure to a great American story.&#8221;
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The discovery of the craft was made after the group searched over 5,200 miles of ocean over a 90 day period. The group used the <a href="https://www.deepseavision.com/service-details#wreck-hunting" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HUGIN 6000</a>, an autonomous underwater vehicle, to search massive portions of the ocean at a time.
Dorothy Cochrane, aeronautics curator at the Smithsonian&#8217;s National Air and Space Museum, said that she was looking into Deep Sea Vision’s findings.
&#8220;We are intrigued with DSV&#8217;s initial imagery and believe it merits another expedition in the continuing search for Amelia Earhart&#8217;s aircraft near Howland Island,” she said.

Amelia Earhart Next to Aircraft

Deep Sea Expedition Group Says It May Have Found Amelia Earhart’s Missing Plane

Deep Sea Expedition Group Says It May Have Found Amelia Earhart's Missing Plane

Airplane

Archaeology

History

Pacific Ocean

World

A battle has broken out in Texas between academic historians and hobbyist history buffs — with the hobbyists advocating for exploring history through primary source material, and the &#8220;experts&#8221; opting to push modern far-Left politics.
It came to a head this month after a veteran publisher of Texas history books wrote to a member of the Texas Historical Commission, a government body that runs historical sites, with a list of all the books sold at the gift shop of the Levi Jordan plantation outside of Houston. Of the 23 books sold, few had to do with the plantation, Texas history, or slavery in Texas. Instead, many were modern leftist political screeds or unrelated lamentations about black victimhood in other times and places.
They included books about Malcolm X, an &#8220;Afro-Vegan Cookbook,&#8221; a novel about a black man in Harlem, a book about Chicago&#8217;s black slums, and book by radical black feminist author &#8220;bell hooks&#8221; tackling &#8220;racism among feminists.&#8221; They also included a book from Frantz Fanon, who posits that violence is necessary for &#8220;decolonization,&#8221; about &#8220;revolutionary struggle, and a continuing influence on movements from Black Lives Matter to decolonization.&#8221;
The situation was similar at the nearby Varner-Hogg plantation, where &#8220;White Rage&#8221; and books by Ibram X. Kendi about diversity, equity, and inclusion were being sold.
Michelle Haas, a veteran publisher of Texas history books who chairs a nonprofit called the Texas History Trust, sent this inventory of the books to the Texas Historical Commission. “I attach a list of the books available with the publisher’s description of each,” she wrote. “You may assess for yourselves how relevant they are to the history of Brazoria County.”
&#8220;Why is the State of Texas selling an afro-vegan cookbook at a state historic site? Or fiction about people living in Chicago in the 1890s? What do books written and edited by Ibram X. Kendi have to do with the Varners, Pattons or Hoggs?&#8221; Haas asked in another email, referring to the plantations.
In an internal email, a member of the commission, David Gravelle, agreed that some of the materials &#8220;are not about accurate Texas history, but seem to wander off into present social issues.&#8221; The Commission later pared the inventory at its historic sites — it says for unrelated reasons.
But on December 7, <a href="https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-historical-commission-book-removal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Texas Monthly</a> magazine posted an article with Haas as its main subject. It caused an uproar by twisting the story from one about a woman advocating for more books about Texas slavery at Texas plantations, to one about a white woman who wanted books about slavery banned.
Texas Monthly, writing based on an interview with Haas and a collection of Gravelle&#8217;s emails, said that Gravelle falsely stated that “there is no question these books are not about Texas history.” The outlet attempted to dunk on the official by saying that a whopping one of the 23 actually was: “That description wasn’t accurate: one of the 23 titles on the list, for example, was &#8216;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Remembering-Days-Sorrow-Texas-Narratives/dp/1933337478" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Remembering</a> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Remembering-Days-Sorrow-Texas-Narratives/dp/1933337478" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the</a><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Remembering-Days-Sorrow-Texas-Narratives/dp/1933337478" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Days of Sorrow</a>,&#8217; which features testimony from numerous Texan slaves,” it wrote.
The article’s crux — that Haas and conservatives wanted slavery books banned — rested on the statement that, &#8220;When asked if it was her intention that historical books about slavery be removed from sites, Haas demurred.&#8221;
But that statement was invented out of thin air. The author of the Texas Monthly article, Steven Monacelli, is a <a href="https://thepostmillennial.com/socialist-journalist-sued-by-texas-newspaper-for-defamation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported socialist</a> who was fired from another Texas paper after making <a href="https://dallasweekly.com/2021/02/formerly-black-owned-dallas-express-resurrected-as-right-wing-propaganda-site/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">false</a> accusations against conservatives. Haas recorded her interview with Haas and shared it with The Daily Wire, and the audio shows that he never asked her if she wanted to remove books about slavery — likely because it was obvious from the conversation that she did not. Haas&#8217; entire point, after all, was that books like Ibram X. Kendi&#8217;s are not about slavery.
Monacelli had actually asked her: “Is it possible that the response to your raising these concerns could have unintended effects?” Haas said it was possible, and suggested that as a way to avoid the risk, if they removed a book like &#8220;Roots,&#8221; they should replace it with a book like one about Britt Johnson, a former Texas slave.
The journalist then asked if there were “books that were included on that list that you found to be good representations of the sorts of literature that [Texas Historical Commission] should carry.” Her number-one example was &#8220;Remembering the Days of Sorrow.&#8221; “That absolutely should be there,” Haas told Monacelli.
“Okay. Because I wanted to make sure I wasn&#8217;t getting the wrong impression regarding this list,” he replied. His article, however, did give his readers the wrong impression.
After Haas confronted Texas Monthly editor Dan Goodgame with the audio, the publication made <a href="https://www.diffchecker.com/PyIpgiHR/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">numerous changes</a>, including removing the sentence alleging that Haas refused to say if she wanted to ban slavery books. But the correction appended to the article concealed the actual changes, instead making it seem like a pedantic issue. The correction itself introduced an equally inflammatory charge against Haas that reinforced the article’s central false narrative. The correction itself, which remains at the bottom of the published piece and can be read in full below, states that “Haas emailed a list of books that she objected to.”
<blockquote>“Correction, December 12, 2023: A prior version of this story reported Michelle Haas emailed a list of books that she objected to that were available for purchase at the Levi Jordan historical plantation to Texas Historical Commission Chairman John Nau III. She addressed the email to him and other commissioners, but did not include him as a direct recipient.”</blockquote>
Throughout the interview, as in her email to officials, Haas described how her list was simply a list of all books available for sale, and that she did not object to all of the books. “Here&#8217;s a complete list of the books that are for sale at these particular sites&#8230; here&#8217;s the list of everything that&#8217;s for sale, make of it. Use your judgment to decide if these titles are relevant to Texas history,&#8221; she told Monacelli.
In fact, Haas warned Texas Monthly in advance about getting that fact wrong. “It’s certainly not how certain professors want to portray me as someone who just doesn&#8217;t &#8230; want any bad stuff there. No, I do want bad stuff there,” she said.
Texas Monthly did not return a request for comment, and did not provide The Daily Wire with the public records underlying the story, which Monacelli initially concealed from Haas in their interview before alluding to a list he had received that he wasn’t sure how to interpret. He also said some books the Texas Historical Commission apparently removed were not on Haas’ list, which tended to back up the Commission’s assertion that the books were removed as part of a general inventory reduction. The Texas Historical Commission did not return a request for comment.
Texas Monthly’s article was picked up by other outlets who distorted it even further, leading to a firestorm of threats against Haas.
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&#8220;Those books include: ‘Roots,’ by Alex Haley; ‘Invisible Man,’ by Ralph Ellison; ‘White Rage,’ by Carol Anderson; and ‘Stamped from the Beginning,’ by Ibram X. Kendi. See a pattern?” <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/12/8/2210546/-Texas-Historical-Commission-removes-dozens-of-books-on-slavery-from-plantation-gift-shops" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Daily Kos</a> wrote. “It seems that ‘amateur historian’ and graphic designer Michelle Haas is the source of the movement to remove mentions of historical slavery at Texas’s historic sites,&#8221; it added — a non-sequitur since only one of those books, Roots, is about slavery, and none are about Texas slavery.
Falsehoods poured in from otherworldly places, with the Star Trek actor-turned-activist George Takei morphing it to the claim that books &#8220;written by slaves&#8221; were removed &#8220;after white woman complains.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Texas Commission Removes Books From Plantation Written By Slaves After White Woman Complains <a href="https://t.co/s7U0SJtBVQ">https://t.co/s7U0SJtBVQ</a>
&mdash; George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) <a href="https://twitter.com/GeorgeTakei/status/1736588126473052487?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 18, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Books like Ibram Kendi&#8217;s are not written by slaves, and the audio showed that Haas explicitly advocated for adding a book about a slave, Britt Johnson, and for keeping one based on interviews with former slaves, &#8220;Remembering the Days of Sorrow.&#8221;
Texas State Historical Association
The smear on Haas appeared to be retribution from a larger battle between citizen historians dedicated to researching their state, and academics who are more likely to use history as a vehicle for contemporary leftist politics, and to jealously guard the domain.
The Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), which has been in existence since 1897, is designed to be split between academic historians and laypeople. But in recent years, the board was packed with academics.
Its chief historian, Walter Buenger, used the group to promote racial conspiracy theories,<a href="https://thetexan.news/issues/social-issues-life-family/prominent-texas-historian-says-alamo-represents-what-it-meant-to-be-white/article_56c09758-8fa4-561f-b0ee-2a360db90bd2.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> claiming in 2021</a> that, “The Alamo became this symbol of what it meant to be white&#8230;. It is again tapping into a defense of white privilege.”
TSHA is a private group, but likely the most important history group in Texas, according to Haas.
“Since they need their articles peer reviewed and published, the academics need to control who the peers are doing the review. TSHA has the most important scholarly history journal in the state. They need it, but require full ideological capture and can&#8217;t tolerate differing points of view,” Haas told The Daily Wire.
A businessman, J.P. Bryan, stepped in as executive director to bail out the TSHA after declining membership, perhaps due to the fact that most Texas history buffs aren’t keen on constant denigration of Texas. “We are disenfranchising our non-academic members, who make up 90% of our membership, because they’re not properly represented on the board,” Bryan once <a href="https://thecannononline.com/amateur-historians-turn-the-tide-against-woke-academics/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. But Nancy Baker Jones, the association president and an academic, appeared to want to use Bryan for his financial expertise, then cast him aside.
In March, TSHA attempted to install yet another academic, and became outraged when Bryan suggested that to comply with their bylaws, they should install a layman, the first black chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court, instead. Professor Jeffrey Littlejohn, the co-chair of Sam Houston State University&#8217;s diversity committee, stood up and shouted his displeasure at the prospect of a black conservative history buff instead of a leftist academic, Haas <a href="https://www.texashistorytrust.org/texas-history-news-and-opinion/tsha-illegal-board">wrote</a>.
In May, Judge Kerry Neves <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6174b6bf19cf4223cc28a1d8/t/64877e52d145f22a1f39bcf5/1686601298461/23-CV-0679+-+Order+Granting+Temporary+Injunction.pdfhttps://budgetbook.heritage.org/administration-of-justice/reduce-funding-five-programs-in-department-justice/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blocked</a> the academic packing, writing, “The Bylaws require that the membership of the Board of Directors be balanced substantially between academic and non-academic members. The present Board is not substantially balanced because the makeup is presently 12 academic members compared to 8 non-academic members.”
The two professors behind pushing the media smear of Haas were angry at her for her role in stopping the Texas-history coup by academics. On Facebook, a former junior college professor named Michael Phillips indicated that he and another academic historian, Ben Johnson, were behind the Texas Monthly article, and that, “People who think you can work with Haas and company regarding the TSHA are delusional.”
Phillips was the only academic quoted by Texas Monthly&#8217;s Monacelli, who last year wrote a lengthy article in <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/texas-education-maga-trump-book-bans-1310603/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rolling Stone</a> about how Phillips was let go by a junior college and was suing it alleging that it was in retaliation for pushing leftist politics. On Instagram, the socialist journalist labeled Phillips as &#8220;legendary.&#8221;
<div class="image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-673247" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/12/monacelli-phillips-918x576.png" alt="Steven Monacelli and Michael Phillips / Facebook" width="918" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/12/monacelli-phillips-918x576.png 918w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/12/monacelli-phillips-300x188.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/12/monacelli-phillips-768x482.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/12/monacelli-phillips-1360x855.png 1360w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/12/monacelli-phillips.png 1363w" sizes="(max-width: 918px) 100vw, 918px" /></div>
Though Haas spent a career in Texas book publishing, the outlet called her a mere &#8220;graphic designer,&#8221; implying that because she did not have a Ph.D. in history, she could not ascertain what books were related to a Texas plantation and what weren&#8217;t. That characterization was removed by Texas Monthly after she confronted the editor with the audio.
Haas said that degree-based attack was the modus operandi of leftist academics who chafed because she knew enough about history to offer critiques when they relied on their credentials to push biased information. For example, she said, when Johnson alleged that low voter turnout in 1918 was because of racist voter suppression, she reminded him that the Spanish flu “shut everything down a week before the primaries” that year. “If you&#8217;re such a professional, why do you omit that? And instead of answering, the answer is always: &#8216;Well, you&#8217;re just a white supremacist.&#8217;”
In August, the lawsuit was settled and Baker Jones, the association president, and another academic agreed to <a href="https://www.texashistorytrust.org/texas-history-news-and-opinion/tsha-settlement-battleship-texas" target="_blank" rel="noopener">resign</a>. The <a href="https://www.texaspolicy.com/in-galveston-a-win-for-history-and-against-wokeness/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Texas Public Policy Foundation</a> called the outcome “a win for history — and against wokeness.”
Since then, leftist academics have been in a tailspin at the idea of opposing views, Haas said. “The historians started resigning because they didn’t know what to do. For the past decades or so they’ve just appointed their grievance studies people to the committees and enveloped the whole organization,” she said.
Haas said that history is the domain of all Americans and that activist academics have squandered their credibility by subjugating facts to ideology. She said primary source documents have more to teach people about slavery than contemporary ideologues like Kendi do, saying “we have their words … that’s moving stuff.”
Her <a href="https://www.texashistorytrust.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Texas History Trust</a> has “digitized about 30,000 pages of primary source material so that the public, teachers and scholars can go direct to the source on their phone, for free.&#8221;
&#8220;I put a $25,000 research library in people&#8217;s pockets,” she said. “When I announced the digitization project, the activist historian crew objected. ‘You need an archivist with a Ph.D. to do that!’ No, I really don&#8217;t.”

Celebrities Visit Build – March 10, 2020

Civil War Rages In Texas As Historians Peddle Leftism Instead Of History

Academia

Houston

Media Bias

Texas

Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro showed off his knowledge of history this week while sitting down with Broadcast Cal, star of the <a href="https://www.bentkey.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bentkey</a> original show “Kid Explorer,” who quizzed him on a variety of topics from American presidents to inventions. 
The two discussed the invention of the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell, President Abraham Lincoln, and the American Revolution, among other topics from history. 
During their discussion, Cal asked Shapiro what sport Lincoln was known for, prompting Shapiro to answer “wrestling” and give more background on the athletic prowess of the 16th president.
“He would actually challenge dudes to wrestle in the streets. There are a bunch of stories about people confronting him, being like, ‘Let&#8217;s throw down right now,’ which is totally not what you think of when you think of Abraham Lincoln,” Shapiro said. 
Shapiro also gave more context on the debates between Stephen Douglas and Lincoln, which focused on federal versus state power. 
Historians have “preserved a huge number of these speeches and sort of the back and forth between Lincoln and Douglass and those those arguments are relevant right now on other subjects, actually, not just regarding slavery, because they&#8217;re all about what should be left to the states, what should be left to the federal government, which sort of subjects should be left to the people versus taken off the table by the Constitution,” Shapiro said. 
The two also discussed the shot heard round the world at the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the 1783 Treaty of Paris, and how long Britain’s King George III was in power. 
“Wow, a dominant performance,” Shapiro said after Cal’s final question. “But there are certain things that I didn&#8217;t know. Even I can learn things from the Kid Explorer and so can you. Which is why you should go to <a href="https://www.bentkey.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Daily Wire+</a> and subscribe if you haven&#8217;t already. ‘Kid Explorer’ is a great show for kids. They&#8217;ll absolutely love it.”
<a href="https://www.bentkey.com/">CHECK OUT BENTKEY HERE</a>
“Kid Explorer” is just one of the original shows available on Bentkey, The Daily Wire’s kids entertainment company. Other originals include “A Wonderful Day with Mabel Maclay” and “Chip Chilla.” 
The Daily Wire announced that new subscribers can take advantage of a 14-day free trial by downloading the Bentkey app or visiting <a href="https://www.bentkey.com/">Bentkey.com</a>, giving parents a great opportunity to check out entertaining content for their kids without the woke indoctrination. The code for the free trial is &#8220;UNLOCK.&#8221;
WATCH:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Quizzing Ben Shapiro" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lbAEg03_y9A?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

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WATCH: Ben Shapiro Quizzed On History By ‘Kid Explorer’ Broadcast Cal

Abraham Lincoln

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This is a portion of a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/michael-knowles-defends-colonialism-at-vanderbilt-historys-victors" target="_blank" rel="noopener">speech</a> delivered by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-michael-knowles-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Michael Knowles</a> at Vanderbilt University on Tuesday, November 28, 2023. 
The activist Left — from Hollywood to the newsrooms and especially on campus — has spent nearly two months smearing all of history’s victors as “colonizers” and “settlers.” The reason for this uptick in “anti-colonial” activism is Hamas’ current war with the state of Israel, which the Left has accused of engaging in settler colonialism. And the most prominent defense of the modern Israeli state thus far has been to deny its status as a “settler” or “colonial” entity. 
This, I think, is a bad strategy for a few reasons: first, because the Israeli state manifestly is a settler and colonial endeavor, deriving from the Balfour Declaration of the British Empire during World War I, after which the Brits wrested the territory from the Ottoman Empire; two, more relevant to all of us, because our own nation is similarly a settler and colonial project deriving from the Treaty of Paris, in which the British Empire recognized the United States as an independent nation; and three, because all regimes in history have been established by settlers and colonizers of one kind or another.
Not since Adam in the Garden of Eden have any people sprouted out of the ground. (And in the case of Adam, you might recall, he had a little help.) Borders, nations, and regimes have changed for all of history as people have multiplied, shrunk, and moved around. The aim of the “decolonization” activists is to return land from the people who currently possess it to the people who previously possessed it. That does not seem to me to solve the problem. At best, it only pushes the problem a little bit further back in history.
In 1980, the Supreme Court ruled that the American government had illegally taken the Black Hills of South Dakota — the site of Mount Rushmore — from the Lakota Sioux. The Court ordered the government to pay the Lakota the initial offering price of the land, plus interest, coming out to a total of $106 million.
The U.S. had pledged in the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868 to set the Black Hills “apart for the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation of the Indians,” thus ending Red Cloud’s War. Six years later, however, General George Custer entered the Black Hills amid reports of gold found there. And then, attracted by Custer’s descriptions of the land and the resources on it, settlers began to enter. Initially, the U.S. military tried to honor the treaty and turn the settlers away. But the settlers kept coming, which led President U.S. Grant to tell the military to stand down and stop opposing the settlement.
Eventually, with so many American settlers on the land, the U.S. government decided that the only way to avoid another war would be to pay the Lakota Sioux for the land. Negotiations broke down, Custer led a charge, and the Indians, led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, defeated Custer at the famous Battle of Little Bighorn.
The victory didn’t last long. The Americans quickly defeated the rowdy Sioux. Still, the Sioux refused to surrender. But they also didn’t have any means to survive, having been stripped of their weapons and horses. So in 1876, Congress made aid to the Sioux contingent on their ceding the land to the United States. Some Sioux leaders agreed to a settlement — but not enough to satisfy the requirements of the Fort Laramie Treaty, which led to the Supreme Court case more than a century later.
The liberal Court ruled in favor of the Sioux in 1980 over the objections of the conservative Justice William Rehnquist. Notice, however, that the Court did not order the U.S. to give the land back to the Indians. Not only would such an order have been insane; but it would also have been impractical. It’s American land. A quarter-million Americans live there. Four U.S. presidents have their faces carved on the mountains.
Even the Sioux didn’t accept the decision. They hadn’t waited over 100 years to accept what they considered to be blood money for stolen land. By 2011, the settlement was valued at over $1 billion. The Sioux still would not accept it. Today it’s probably worth somewhere in the neighborhood of a gazillion dollars, when you take into account Biden’s inflation. The Sioux still will not accept it. And it’s a lucky thing they won’t. Because the settlement would raise just as many problems as it would solve.
The reason for that is that the Lakota Sioux did not magically sprout out of the Black Hills of South Dakota. In fact, the Lakota Sioux only possessed the Black Hills for about 100 years — less time, in fact, than the United States has possessed it. The Lakota only acquired the Black Hills in 1776. And the way they acquired it was by moving in from Minnesota and conquering the Cheyennes. So should the U.S. government really pay one billion dollars to the Lakota because we took Lakota land? Or should we just pay it straight to the Cheyenne because the Lakota took Cheyenne land?
Well, hold on. Not so fast. I think you see where this is going. It turns out that those Cheyennes did not just spring out of the ground either. No, no. The Cheyenne only moved in during the 18th century. Before that, the land had belonged to the Kiowa and the Crow before the Ojibwe Indians started taking land from the Lakota, impelling the Cheyenne to start taking the land from the Kiowa and the Crow before the Lakota took the land from the Cheyenne before the U.S. took the land from the Lakota.
How exactly do the anti-colonial activists suggest we decolonize the Black Hills? I’m not asking that just to own the libs, which I’m of course happy to do. But I’d also like an answer. If anyone in this room has an answer, I’m all ears. We’ll have plenty of time during the Q&amp;A for you to solve that problem. What exactly do the “decolonize” activists propose that we do?
The right of conquest has been a universally recognized principle of politics everywhere on earth for all of human history until about 70 years ago, when liberal utopians pretended that a couple of U.N. declarations could fundamentally change politics and human nature and freeze history in place. Today, we are witnessing in real time the futility of such pipe dreams.
Put the current war in the Middle East aside. This is the time of year that the issue of “decolonization” often crops up on its own. And that’s because we’ve just celebrated Thanksgiving. Well, some of us celebrated Thanksgiving. The patriots and the otherwise normal people in this room celebrated Thanksgiving, I’m sure. I celebrated Thanksgiving. I particularly enjoy Thanksgiving because a number of my ancestors were present at the first Thanksgiving. Not on the Italian side; they came over a bit later, my mother used to say on a sardine boat. But on the English side of my family, four ancestors came over on the Mayflower. 
One of them was a Pilgrim, the first doctor in New England: Samuel Fuller. The other ones were considered somewhat less upstanding. One of my ancestors, John Billington, was the first man executed for murder in Plymouth Colony. His friend Francis Eaton, another ancestor, had all sorts of financial problems and died a debtor. And my final Mayflower ancestor, Stephen Hopkins, was so infamous a mutineer on an earlier voyage that his shipwreck around Bermuda served as the basis of Shakespeare’s “Tempest.”
A mixed bag, you might say. But I don’t disavow any of them. Far from it — I just launched a cigar company, <a href="https://mayflowercigars.com/about-mayflower/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mayflower Cigars</a>, in their honor. And we sold out on the first day, I’m happy to report — four months’ work of stock plus as many preorders as we were allowed to sell. Now, side note, if you’re interested, you can enter your email addresses at <a href="https://mayflowercigars.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mayflowercigars.com</a> to receive updates when they’re back in stock. You must be at least 21 years old to order, some exclusions apply. (I think that’s all the lawyers told me to say.)
In any case, I certainly don’t disavow my biological ancestors for much the same reason that we shouldn’t disavow our political ancestors — men such as Christopher Columbus, the Founding Fathers, all the great men who built our nation, namely, because without them we wouldn’t be here. We stand on the shoulders of giants, and the stupid ones among us think that they’re flying.
Why did our ancestors — literal and political — settle this land? Why did they colonize and conquer this far-flung place? The “decolonization” activists will tell you they did so for material plunder. As usual, these liberal accusations are in fact confessions. The libs are projecting, as they often do. Having adopted the fashionable materialism of modernity, these leftists cannot even imagine that one might be motivated by higher ideals. But in the case of the great men of history that we’re discussing — Columbus, the Pilgrims, the Founding Fathers — they were. And the proof of that is that none of them got particularly rich for their efforts. On the contrary, most of them were personally impoverished.
Columbus was never paid what he was owed by the Spanish Crown. Inasmuch as he undertook the voyage across the ocean for wealth, he did so in search of funds for another crusade to free the Holy Land, as the historian Carol Delaney has demonstrated. The Pilgrims of the Mayflower gave up not one but two lives of relative comfort — one in England and another, even more comfortable, in their adopted home in the Netherlands. After they got to America, half of them died before the first winter was through. 
George Washington lost half his net worth during the Revolutionary War. John Adams faced financial problems throughout the war — problems he might have fixed, but he refused, at great personal cost, in order to continue his service in the Continental Congress. Thomas Jefferson died a debtor, and that debt grew in large part thanks to his 40 years in public service.
For virtually all of history everywhere on earth, mere acquisitiveness sufficed to justify wars of conquest. But ironically, the men the leftists call thieves and plunderers were all motivated by higher ideals, up to and including the highest ideal of all: religion, the worship of and service to God.
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Michael Knowles

Giving Thanks For Settler Colonialism 

Colonialism

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The teaching of U.S. history in public high schools has received much attention in recent years. But what about the teaching of U.S. history at our colleges and universities? 
A <a href="https://cai.asu.edu/americanhistory" target="_blank" rel="noopener">newly released commission report</a> from the Center for American Institutions at Arizona State University presents a bleak picture. The imbalanced design of many introductory U.S. history courses guides impressionable students toward the conclusion that America is a failed experiment, leaving many college students with a starkly negative, narrow, and incomplete view of our country’s character and past.
Introductory courses in U.S. history – typically taught in two sections, the first half to 1877, and the second half since 1877 – play an outsized role in our university systems and have downstream effects on K-12 education. Many institutions require that non-history majors, as well as future K-12 teachers, enroll in the U.S. survey to fulfill General Education requirements. The requirement is perfectly understandable. To become informed citizens in our constitutional, democratic republic, graduates ought to have a well-rounded, basic knowledge of the history of our country. For some students, especially foreign nationals, the U.S. survey will be their first and last exposure to a comprehensive history of the United States.
These facts make the <a href="https://cai.asu.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Center for American Institutions</a> commission all the more concerning. The commission on the Teaching of American History included former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, former Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin, and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. Academic researchers for the commission examined syllabi for introductory U.S. history courses at the nation’s top-ranked colleges and universities. The research revealed that foundational topics and themes in U.S. history are frequently absent. Many of the courses were taught through a <a href="https://www.historians.org/research-and-publications/perspectives-on-history/september-2022/is-history-history-identity-politics-and-teleologies-of-the-present" target="_blank" rel="noopener">presentist perspective</a>, examining and interpreting history through the lens of contemporary politics, issues, and concerns. Absent from many of these courses were complexity, nuance, debate, and global context. Instead, many of the courses elevated an overly simplistic assessment of the past, devoid of much of the richness and complexity that characterized each historical period. It would be wrong and misguided if this were pursued in order to paint a false and extravagantly rosy picture of United States history. But in this case, it paints a false and extravagantly negative picture of United States history.
The first half of the U.S. survey, to 1877, covers the colonial period through the Civil War and Reconstruction. One syllabus for the first half of the survey announced that upon completion of the course, students will “grasp how inequality was woven into the nation’s very constitutions.” Another announced that upon completion of the course, students will “see how race and racism is snarled in every part of U.S. history.” Another course at a prestigious state university devoted the first three weeks of the U.S. survey to “ecological imperialism” and “cultural imperialism.” 
“We will spend considerable time learning about major themes that trouble the present-day,” an instructor at the university announced in the syllabus, “including the expropriation of Native American lands; the entwined histories of race, slavery, and freedom; the creation and recreation of gendered economic, political, social relations; and the rise of capitalism.”
The second half of the survey, U.S. history since 1877, is by far the more ideological and biased of the two. Many of the syllabi examined for this study were nakedly political. Most syllabi intensively focused on identity topics of race, gender, sexuality, queer theory, and militant social protest. The predominant takeaway for students in many of these classes was American history as a history of exclusion, chiefly organized around identity.
Neglected topics included basic political history, including various presidential administrations, pivotal elections, and party development. Legal history was generally excluded, as was military history and diplomatic history. Conservatism, of course, was almost universally framed in a negative context. Primary readings from conservative thinkers were rarely assigned.
Absent, also, was any indication that the United States had made real and significant progress on civil rights and race relations in the 20th century. Moreover, there was rarely any indication that the average standard of living, for all people, increased substantially across the twentieth century (better housing, health, education, and technology); instead, students were often fed an anti-market, anti-consumerist narrative about the corrupting effects of capitalism. Social, economic, and technological advancements received virtually no mention; instead, post-World War II America was often portrayed as a period – not of prosperity and expanding freedom – but of greed, decline, sexism, homophobia, and racism.
Many courses ended the semester on a sour note: the “Decline of America” and the “End of the American Empire” were common themes in course syllabi. Students exiting such a course would naturally conclude that the American experiment had failed, that it was never successful, and that drastic, revolutionary activism in the present time might therefore be warranted. Appropriately, the supplemental readings in many of these courses often championed political and social justice activism.
One syllabus, for example, announced that students will learn about the “diversity of American experiences with specific emphasis on race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexual orientation.” The final weeks of the course included the following topics: “Women’s Lib and Second Wave Feminism,” “Native Americans and Red Power,” “Gay Liberation and LGBTQ Activism,” “Chicano Activism and Latino Movements,” “Environmentalism and Green Movements,” “The Triumph of the Right,” and “From Witch-hunts and Communist-hunts to Terrorist-hunts.” 
Another syllabus at a separate university devoted an entire week to, “Final Frontiers: The Cultural War, LGBTQ Rights, and the Fight against Ablelism.”
Besides sacrificing truth for fiction, the extraordinary bias of our introductory U.S. history courses contributes to the erosion of our civic culture. It undermines the noble effort to create a common, shared vision for America’s future. It distorts our shared past, exacerbates divisions within our society, and discourages a fuller understanding of the entirety of U.S. history.
So what do we do? The report includes several noteworthy suggestions.
First, state legislatures should require educational transparency. Academic units at all public universities should be required to make syllabi publicly available and accessible so that we know what our tax dollars are being used to teach. Most syllabi, at most universities, are not available to the public.
But also we desperately need intellectual diversity. One <a href="https://econjwatch.org/File+download/944/LangbertQuainKleinSept2016.pdf?mimetype=pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recent study</a> of the nation’s top 40 colleges and universities, for example, found that among History faculty, there are 33.5 Democrats for every single Republican. That is obviously unacceptable and flagrantly unrepresentative of the public and student body. Upper administrations and deans should insist on faculty searches that are not so narrowly tailored that they rule out candidates who are not ideologically aligned with the orthodox political persuasion. Certainly, at a minimum, DEI statements should be immediately abolished as ideological litmus tests.
Finally, a multi-disciplinary approach – including interdisciplinary degree programs with more expansive curricula – could encourage dialogue across the disciplines and potentially foster greater intellectual diversity among the faculty.
The United States of America is a great experiment in freedom, constitutional government, and well-ordered liberty. But the experiment is fragile. To preserve and maintain it – to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity – we must have robust, vibrant American institutions, including institutions of higher education. Let’s reform the teaching of U.S. history at our colleges and universities.
<a href="https://cai.asu.edu/people">Jonathan Barth</a> is Associate Professor of History at Arizona State University. He specializes in the history of money and banking, in the early modern period, with corollary interests in politics, empire, culture, and ideas.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

University of Washington Suzzallo Library

New Report Uncovers The Sad State Of History Classes At American Universities

Arizona State University

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Daily Wire host and bestselling author Michael Knowles announced the launch of a new Daily Wire premium, handmade cigar line called <a href="https://mayflowercigars.com">Mayflower Cigars</a> on Wednesday, unveiling the new venture on his daily podcast. 
Mayflower Cigars, the latest Daily Wire consumer brand, will provide premium, handmade cigars sourced in Nicaragua and crafted with the guidance of Knowles’ personal taste. Daily Wire’s launch of Mayflower Cigars follows the creation of other Daily Wire brands like Jeremy’s Razors and Jeremy’s Chocolate. 
The cigars are handmade in Knowles’ favorite cigar factory in Esteli, Nicaragua, and were created by Knowles and designers at Oliva Cigar Co. Knowles, a longtime cigar aficionado, revealed that cigars had played a major role in his life, from helping to get him into college to landing a show with The Daily Wire. 
<div class="image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-650549 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/F-bH6-WXUAAnTar-576x576.jpg" alt="" width="576" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/F-bH6-WXUAAnTar-576x576.jpg 576w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/F-bH6-WXUAAnTar-300x300.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/F-bH6-WXUAAnTar-150x150.jpg 150w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/F-bH6-WXUAAnTar.jpg 680w" sizes="(max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px" /></div>
“Cigars are among the few things I’ve loved longer than my wife, whom I first started dating in high school. An essay on my love of cigars helped get me into college. A cigar review convinced The Daily Wire to give me a show. From the moment a family friend gave me my first cigar — a machine-made Cuban — I fell in love with the whole affair: the flavor, of course, but also the ritual and, most of all, the culture,” he said. 
Mayflower Cigars, which come in <a href="https://mayflowercigars.com">two blends and six vitolas,</a> were created in a factory known for producing some of the highest quality cigars in the world. 
The Mayflower Dawn blend is a mild-to-medium-bodied smoke in an Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper, Cameroon binder, and Nicaraguan fillers. It comes in Robusto, Toro, and Churchill sizes. The Mayflower Dusk blend is a medium-to-full-bodied cigar, with an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper, Sumatra binder, and Nicaraguan fillers. The Dusk comes in Robusto, Toro, and Toro Gordo. 
<div id="attachment_650547" style="width: 586px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-650547" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-650547 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/F-bH6-UXQAAvBxj-576x576.jpg" alt="" width="576" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/F-bH6-UXQAAvBxj-576x576.jpg 576w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/F-bH6-UXQAAvBxj-300x300.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/F-bH6-UXQAAvBxj-150x150.jpg 150w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/F-bH6-UXQAAvBxj.jpg 680w" sizes="(max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px" />Mayflower Cigars</div>
The branding for the cigars comes from a mix of Knowles’ family heritage and American history. Knowles had relatives cross the ocean on the Mayflower when the Pilgrims landed in New England on November 11, 1620. 
“Tobacco in many ways built America. Christopher Columbus discovered it on his first voyage to the New World in 1492. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew and sold tobacco both before and after the Revolution,” Knowles said. 
Mayflower Cigars are available today and can be ordered at <a href="https://mayflowercigars.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mayflowercigars.com</a>. You must be 21 years of age or older to purchase tobacco products. Some exclusions apply.

michaelabout (3) (1)

Daily Wire Launches ‘Mayflower Cigars,’ A New Premium, Handmade Cigar Line

Jeremy's Chocolate

Jeremy's Razors

Nicaragua

Thomas K. Mattingly, a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/nasa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NASA</a> astronaut who helped guide Apollo 13 back to Earth after the spacecraft was damaged in space, died on October 31 at the age of 87. 
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-administrator-remembers-apollo-astronaut-thomas-k-mattingly-ii/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> Mattingly’s death on Thursday, describing Mattingly as a hero and praising the astronaut&#8217;s long aeronautic career, which saw him play a pivotal role in several Apollo missions. 
“We lost one of our country’s heroes on Oct. 31. NASA astronaut TK Mattingly was key to the success of our Apollo Program, and his shining personality will ensure he is remembered throughout history,” Nelson said. 
In 1966, NASA chose Mattingly to be part of that year’s astronaut class after which he started working as part of the astronaut support crew and in the development of the Apollo spacesuit and backpack.
“His unparalleled skill as a pilot aided us when he took on the role of command module pilot for Apollo 16 and spacecraft commander for space shuttle missions STS-4 and STS 51-C. The commitment to innovation and resilience toward opposition made TK an excellent figure to embody our mission and our nation’s admiration,” Nelson said. 
Mattingly is best known for his role in 1970 in helping get the crew of <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/missions/apollo/apollo-13-mission-details/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Apollo 13</a> back to Earth after a service module oxygen tank on the ship ruptured causing the astronauts to lose access to electricity, water, and light 200,000 miles away from Earth. Mattingly had been set to travel on Apollo 13, but ended up being exposed to rubella so he was unable to go on the mission. He ended up playing a vital role from the ground.
“Perhaps his most dramatic role at NASA was after exposure to rubella just before the launch of Apollo 13. He stayed behind and provided key real-time decisions to successfully bring home the wounded spacecraft and the crew of Apollo 13 – NASA astronauts James Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise,” Nelson said. 
In 1972, Mattingly <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/thomas-k-mattingly-astronaut-space-pioneer-guided-apollo-13-safety-die-rcna123496" target="_blank" rel="noopener">would go on</a> to be the command module pilot for the Apollo 16 mission where astronauts explored the moon’s Descartes Highlands. 
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Former astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who landed on the moon alongside Neil Armstrong in July 1969, <a href="https://twitter.com/TheRealBuzz/status/1720513070567432554" target="_blank" rel="noopener">praised</a> Mattingly in a statement on X, calling him a friend.
“He was a great test pilot, a Navy veteran, a class act, and a heck of a good man. I’ll always remember him for his natural ability to handle an immense degree of responsibility under pressure without getting rattled – a true professional of the rarest kind. He will be truly missed. Rest in Peace, Ken,” Aldrin said.

Apollo 16 Astronauts

Astronaut Who Helped Guide Apollo 13 Back To Earth Dies At 87

Air and Space

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Virginia Memorial Featuring General Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg

Why The Destruction Of Statues Is A Proxy In The Overall War On American History

American General

Charlottesville

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Matt Walsh

Robert E. Lee

A committee of the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/new-york-city" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New York City</a> Council is set to vote Tuesday on a proposal that could result in monuments to figures like <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/george-washington" target="_blank" rel="noopener">George Washington</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/christopher-columbus" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Christopher Columbus</a> being taken down. 
The proposal before the NYC Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries, and International Intergroup Relations stipulates that public art that depicts someone who has a connection to slavery or “crimes against humanity” be taken down or have an “explanatory plaque” put up. 
“This bill would require the Public Design Commission (PDC) to publish a plan to remove works of art on City property that depict a person who owned enslaved persons or directly benefitted [sic] economically from slavery, or who participated in systemic crimes against indigenous peoples or other crimes against humanity. If PDC determines a work of art depicts a person who fits these criteria and decides not to remove the work of art, PDC would be required to include in the plan steps it will take to install an explanatory plaque next to the work of art,” the <a href="https://legistar.council.nyc.gov/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=6252793&amp;GUID=8AE3AFA6-B96B-4AF2-AEBF-CF4870C824AE&amp;Options=&amp;Search=" target="_blank" rel="noopener">proposal</a> says. 
Republican officials said the proposal is an attempt to erase history and dishonor the individuals who created America. 
“This is little more than an attempt by the radical left to rewrite our nation’s history,” said Republican Councilwoman Joann Ariola of Queens, <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/09/18/nyc-council-advances-bid-that-could-yank-monuments-honoring-washington-jefferson-columbus/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the New York Post. “These men all had an enormous impact on this country, and these statues commemorating their achievements have been in place for decades.&#8221;
“The radical left has been trying to reframe our nation as one born from evil, and it is time we put our foot down and say enough is enough,” she said. “The Founding Fathers and the others who worked so hard to establish this great country should be celebrated, not eliminated from memory.”
There are multiple statues of Washington, the nation’s first president and military commander during the war for independence throughout the city, including one in front of <a href="https://www.nps.gov/feha/index.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Federal Hall</a>, which served as the home to the nation’s first Congress, executive branch offices, and Supreme Court. There are also monuments to Washington in <a href="https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/union-square-park/monuments/1676" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Union Square Park</a> and a <a href="https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/lafayette-square/monuments/1650" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statue</a> of Washington and Frenchman Marquis de Lafayette who fought with the Americans during the American Revolution. 
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Columbus, attributed with first establishing a link between Europe and the Americas, also has several monuments throughout the city, including a prominent statue in Central Park. The explorer has been a major figure for the Italian-American community, which has held him up as a key tie between Italy and the U.S. 
Monuments to Dutch explorer and settler Peter Stuyvesant, Founding Father John Jay, and prominent early New York political figure and Erie Canal proponent DeWitt Clinton could also be on the chopping block.
New York City Officials have already <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/thomas-jefferson-statue-officially-booted-from-new-york-city-council-chamber" target="_blank" rel="noopener">removed a statue</a> of Declaration of Independence author Thomas Jefferson from the city council chambers and a statue of President Teddy Roosevelt <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/problematic-theodore-roosevelt-statue-to-be-removed-from-nycs-museum-of-natural-history" target="_blank" rel="noopener">from in front</a> of the city’s Natural History Museum.

The statue of Washington in Union Square Park, New York city

NYC To Consider A Proposal That Could Mean Taking Down Monuments To George Washington, Columbus

Christopher Columbus

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The White House appeared to blow off criticisms after President Joe Biden became the first sitting U.S. President to not make an appearance at any of the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-plans-to-commemorate-9-11-with-stop-in-alaska" target="_blank" rel="noopener">official memorial sites</a> on September 11: Ground Zero in New York City, the Pentagon Memorial in Arlington, Virginia, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania — the place where passengers brought down hijacked United Flight 93.
President Biden, who was on his return trip from Vietnam, opted instead to stop in Alaska to commemorate the 22nd anniversary of the worst terrorist attacks ever executed on American soil. Vice President Kamala Harris made the trip to Ground Zero in his place.
Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy said that he asked why the president had chosen not to be present at one of the major memorials himself — and the administration had responded with an analogy.
WATCH:
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.<a href="https://twitter.com/pdoocy?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@pdoocy</a> asked the White House why POTUS is not in NYC on 9/11.
DOOCY: &quot;The analogy that I was given is that 22 years after Pearl Harbor, U.S. Presidents were not still going to visit Hawaii.&quot;
Wow&#8230; <a href="https://t.co/KcfD7lf3sz">pic.twitter.com/KcfD7lf3sz</a>
&mdash; Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) <a href="https://twitter.com/DailyCaller/status/1701258679654220206?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 11, 2023</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Our focus the last couple of days has been President Biden, here in South Asia,&#8221; Doocy explained. &#8220;And when I asked a White House official why it is that President Biden was here and missed the 9/11 commemorations at the attack sites, the analogy that I was given is that 22 years after Pearl Harbor, U.S. Presidents were not still going to visit Hawaii.&#8221;
But presidents have continued to visit Pearl Harbor on December 7, although not every year. The late President George H.W. Bush, who served in the Pacific Theater himself, was on hand for the 50th anniversary of the surprise attack in 1991.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Someone tell <a href="https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WhiteHouse</a> comms that Bush 41 was onsite on the 50th anniversary of Pearl Harbor <a href="https://t.co/3PbE4W9VV1">https://t.co/3PbE4W9VV1</a> <a href="https://t.co/oXz0N5Rf3l">pic.twitter.com/oXz0N5Rf3l</a>
&mdash; Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) <a href="https://twitter.com/BonillaJL/status/1701324273288204640?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 11, 2023</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;FFS, GHWB was at Pearl Harbor for the 50th anniversary in 1991. FDR was at Gettysburg for the 75th anniversary in 1938. These places don&#8217;t stop being important,&#8221; Judianna posted via X.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
FFS, GHWB was at Pearl Harbor for the 50th anniversary in 1991. 
FDR was at Gettysburg for the 75th anniversary in 1938. 
These places don&#39;t stop being important. <a href="https://t.co/XghPsB4IfJ">https://t.co/XghPsB4IfJ</a>
&mdash; Judianna (@Judianna) <a href="https://twitter.com/Judianna/status/1701328518926528868?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 11, 2023</a></blockquote>
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To make matters worse for the White House, several pointed out the fact that the 22nd anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack — December 7, 1963 — fell just weeks after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. JFK, a U.S. Navy veteran, had visited the memorial six months earlier in June of that year.
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Uh, presidents WERE still visiting Hawaii 22 years after Pearl Harbor. Here is JFK doing just that: <a href="https://t.co/01QlQNKgkz">https://t.co/01QlQNKgkz</a> h/t <a href="https://twitter.com/thekytikat?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@thekytikat</a> <a href="https://t.co/LzXOHPRkXw">https://t.co/LzXOHPRkXw</a>
&mdash; Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) <a href="https://twitter.com/DLoesch/status/1701321051169226824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 11, 2023</a></blockquote>
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TOPSHOT-VIETNAM-US-POLITICS-DIPLOMACY

WH Blows Off Critics After Biden Skips 9/11 Memorials: Presidents Weren’t Going To Pearl Harbor After 22 Years

WH Blows Off Critics After Biden Skips 9/11 Memorials: Presidents Weren't Going To Pearl Harbor After 22 Years

Joe Biden

John F. Kennedy (JFK)

Pearl Harbor

World War II

A Tennessean who conducted a daring helicopter rescue during the Vietnam War will be awarded the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/medal-of-honor" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Medal of Honor</a> on Tuesday, more than 50 years after his heroic actions. 
Retired Captain Larry Taylor of Signal Mountain, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/tennessee" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tennessee</a>, will be given the award by President Joe Biden for rescuing four soldiers under heavy fire from communist forces during a firefight in 1968. Taylor was deployed to Vietnam from 1967-1968, where he ran 2,000 combat missions and was fired at 340 times, <a href="https://www.army.mil/medalofhonor/taylor/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the Army.
The act that earned Taylor the Medal of Honor occurred on June 18, 1968, during a battle in the hamlet of Ap Go Cong, then part of the Republic of Vietnam. Taylor was the leader of a helicopter light-fire support team that was tasked with helping four soldiers who had been surrounded by communist forces during a reconnaissance mission. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BREAKING?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BREAKING</a>: <a href="https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WhiteHouse</a> just announced that <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/USArmy?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#USArmy</a> Capt. Larry Taylor will be awarded on Tuesday the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MedalOfHonor?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MedalOfHonor</a> for his heroic actions on June 18, 1968, as a first lieutenant with 1st Infantry Division in Vietnam. 
📰 <a href="https://t.co/QOSCDBgMHh">https://t.co/QOSCDBgMHh</a> <a href="https://t.co/j7Xt8vCRfz">pic.twitter.com/j7Xt8vCRfz</a>
&mdash; U.S. Army (@USArmy) <a href="https://twitter.com/USArmy/status/1697623687820615905?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 1, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Taylor and another helicopter provided air support for the soldiers for about 45 minutes before the choppers ran low on ammo and left to scout out an escape route the reconnaissance team was supposed to take. 
He then returned and discovered that plans for a UH-1 “Huey” helicopter to rescue the soldiers had been scrapped “because it stood almost no chance of success,” <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2023/09/01/president-joseph-r-biden-jr-to-award-the-medal-of-honor-3/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to a White House press release.
“Running low on fuel, with the patrol team nearly out of ammunition, Taylor decided to extract the team using his two-man Cobra helicopter, a feat that had never been accomplished or even attempted,” the White House said. “When the team reached the site, Taylor landed his Cobra under heavy enemy fire and with complete disregard for his personal safety. The patrol team climbed aboard, grabbing on to rocket-pods and skids, and Taylor carried them to a safe location before landing them back on the ground.”
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Speaking last year on the anniversary of the rescue, a member of the patrol that Taylor rescued said he did not think he would survive the battle. 
“Who would have bet that any of us would have even the sun come up on the morning of June 19, 1968, let alone the dawns of another 54 years? Words are inadequate to describe your actions, nor my humble gratitude for the many years of friendship given you and me since then, so I will just say: thank you, sir,” Dave Hill said. 
Taylor, born in Chattanooga, also earned the Silver Star, a Bronze Star, 43 Air Medals, and two Distinguished Flying Crosses. After his service, Taylor went into the roofing and sheet metal business.

President Biden Awards Medal Of Honor To Retired US Army Colonel Paris Davis

Tennessean Who Conducted Daring Rescue During Vietnam War To Be Awarded Medal Of Honor

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