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Fact checking.In the last few weeks since election, numerous Left leaning friends have come to me wanting to address the bullying and fear that they have experienced following the election. I’m one of the few Conservatives that many Quorans trust, because I communicate that my views are based on my personal values and a great deal of research. I’ve also written a great deal on bullying in the past and how it hurts people on a deep psychological level for many years. They wanted me to speak about the bullying that is happening to minorities, gays, and immigrants from overzealous Trump supporters, so I thought it fair to try, particularly when a long time friend showed me this:That one came from a friend who I’ve known for years, and communicated by way of another friend of his. It was deeply troubling, especially when my friend told me he was scared for his future and going dark from social media for a while. Obviously, I’ve hidden his name to keep with that wish. For that reason, I wanted to speak out against the violence against Clinton supporters. I wanted to help ease the burden of anger and resentment that history tells us always leads to greater evils, particularly in light of one plea from my friend.But I'm left with a problem. I'm trying to reach out and hear the stories of people who have been hurt by Trump supporters and I am finding out that many of those stories, aren't really happening. I want to be clear, I am sure that a few of them are. I simply don’t believe in world with such passions and millions of people acting together, that there statistically couldn’t be violence, outrage, or some form of social deviance. But the events which have been brought to me, when looking more thoroughly at the evidence available, simply fail the test of rational analysis.One example, a gay man beaten by a Trump supporter in Santa Monica. Now, unwarranted violence is an egregious violation in any situation, but the facts of the case are more complicated. First is the lack of evidence to support the claim that this was, in fact, a hate crime. Though numerous pleas by the Santa Monica Police Department asked the victim to make a police report, he has yet to file an official report. When called on this, the best we have is a hospital release form stating that he did, in fact, receive stitches... but still no police report. I'm thinking this has to do with his second point, that he was involved in altercations with the offender earlier in the night. Given that the victim filed no police report, which would have forced a police investigation including interviews of everyone in a very crowded bar, as well as naming the accused, and in fact, proving a crime was committed (a necessary part of due process) I feel very speculative that what this man is saying happened, isn't actually true. If anything his actions after the fact read that he was involved in a bar fight where his innocence wasn't so purely evident to those who actually witnessed it, lost a fight after an altercation he helped escalate, and then went to social media claiming to be the victim of hate crime. Without providing more evidence, which the victim appears to be unwilling to do, this theory of events is just as plausible as his own testimony.In a second case, a viral picture on social media depicted what appeared to be KKK members marching across a bridge in North Carolina.It was followed with news a few days later of announced marches of the KKK in NC to celebrate victory in Donald Trump. This was even published by MSNBC and CBS. I followed the links where these two sites pointed for the proposed announcement and, while atrocious in content, a simple ctrl-f look-up showed that nowhere on the site were the words "march", "parade", "victory", "November", or "Trump" ever found. There is simply no evidence that this site, cited by the largest of mainstream media publications, ever declared plans to march, or even that anyone had updated the site in years. For all intents and purposes, it appears that both CBS and MSNBC, along with all the others, found simply a racist hate groups that exists somewhere on the internet and fabricated a terrifying story around it. At the very best, they may have just copied and pasted from the first one who started the rumor, a worrisome and indicative display of the state of mainstream media and its power to create fear in the people. The closest I have seen to validate this story at all was from another friend, Ian McCullough, who provided a link to a webarchive saying that the site used to have all this announcement, which I am linking here - Welcome to Loyal White Knights of the KKK Home Page. I know nothing of that web archive, but I’ve given you the link to judge for yourself.Returning to the KKK members on the bridge, not long after, but not until after the damage was done, another image was shared of the same event from a local news broadcast. What appeared to be hoods, were clearly in fact, men and women carrying flags of their state, that when given a gentle wind, formed the infamous vestiges of the horrific triangle hoods we all, I say again ALL OF US, have grown to hate for what they represent. That said, this too, was a false hate crime.That said, there have been numerous accounts likewise circulating the news, though with nowhere near the coverage, of actual cases of hate crimes against Trump supporters, such as:Calls for violence and hate speech rhetoric from the protests, graffiti in their wake saying "Die Whites Die" beneath "F*** Trump,"Now, there is a similar image of racist vandalism on a Church, but I have to invoke one word - proportionality. A major monument is vandalized with hate speech in the middle of major protests with thousands of protesters in witness, but no one stopped it - versus an act of single coward sneaking through the woods at night outside a small town church. There is no comparison, so I don’t want to hear it.Then there was this girl being physically assaulted and viciously beaten for posting a message in support of Donald Trump. The video speaks for itself.A final example, the firebombing of a North Carolina GOP Office.A GOP office in Hillsborough, North Carolina, was firebombed. Outside a swastika was spray painted with the words "Nazi Republicans leave town or else". This didn’t even happen after the election, but in October.I want to be clear. This is terrorism. This was the violent and premeditated destruction of property and threatening manipulation of innocent people by politically motivated actors. They destroyed property and attempted to threaten voters out of the democratic process. This should have been the biggest story in the world at the time, but instead the media reported that Trump was mean. He called the terrorists “animals” which they played as saying that “He’s saying that all Democrats are animals”, a clear misdirection. Other news blamed it on Trump supporters as a false flag attack. Finally, social media reported that a GoFundme started by Democrats raised enough money to have it fixed within hours. See? So who’s hurt? Not a big deal.What if someone was in that building? What if someone were killed? What exactly would the GoFundMe mean then? How much to replace that? Would Clinton supporters have bragged about their kindness and generosity had that happened? What about all the people of Hillsborough who were terrified to vote on November 8th? How does anyone think they felt? Exactly who among you thinks that your GoFundMe means shit to them? Did it buy their sense of safety? Did all the shares on Facebook ease their fears? Well?I am a veteran of the Iraq War and have written extensively on the effects of terrorism. I was appalled that, in a country so deeply affected by terrorism, that it would become victim to the kinds of violent partisan terror activities which defined the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. And by other other Americans no less. It disgusts me that that sort of violence could happen in the United States, and it disgusts me just as much that it could so easily be dismissed and fall out of the public conversation so easily when it, in fact, represented one of the greatest miscarriages of democracy and points of shame in modern American history.While I am trying to find cases of hate crimes caused by members of my own constituency, these crimes against Trump supporters do not suffer from an all important lack of evidence. Many are being reported, that is for sure. According to one news site, more than 700 “hateful” attacks have been reported, mostly by voters of Secretary Clinton. Most of these too fail the test of critical analysis. Far more have been shown to be lacking evidence, than have been shown to be true. But the same cannot be said for the cases I have brought forward about attacks towards Trump supporters. They are clearly evident, if only we acknowledge that these attacks are happening to them too and that the hate applies just as much to Conservatives as it does to others.As I said, I want to write a post declaring the need to withhold bullying and violence by both sides, and if you know of a case where violence has occurred, I hope you will share it so that others can vet it later. Given, however, the lack of evidence to several very, very high profile stories from the left, I'm concerned this may actually be just that; another story. One where salacious and inflammatory tweets capture the terror and outrage many wanted to believe would happen if they lost, and rather than investigate and reported as false by the mainstream media, it is amplified and expanded upon into a boogeyman against Donald Trump and Conservatives, in general.I urge everyone in the coming weeks to look at these events without the emotional bias of fear and anger against those you disagree with and to not share events which you do not believe, through your own reasonable investigation, to be true. I ask my fellow Conservatives to look at these stories coming from the Left and ask, "Is it possible that this heinous action actually happened?" And where you believe it did, to fight it and share how this behavior does not represent our movement. For my Liberal friends, I urge you to ask if these stories you hear could be a lie. What evidence is there that the things you are hearing aren't representing reality, but just articles being used to make you afraid of changes around you by people who don't have your best interests at heart. Finally, I ask everyone to pray for our future, and stand against violence and hatred in these volatile times, as we all pledge to work together for the successful future of the Republic.As for what Conservatives can do to allay the fears of Democrats? First is listen. If they are truly afraid, listen to what they are reporting. If they aren’t fact checking themselves, which many aren’t, fact check for yourself. Remember, it only takes 10 seconds for someone to lie someone else into a state of fear, but you can alleviate that fear if you are willing to put in the few minutes it will take to prove a rumor untrue. When you can, show them the holes in the stories that they’ve been told. When they presume that Trump won’t protect the rights of minorities, show them the times he has worked for the rights of blacks, legal immigrants, the LGBT, and women. When they are scared, know that they are communicating a fear that they gained from listening to a media that has been biased against him since the start of this campaign. It has created a monster that it now has to deal with. Show them this and let them make up their own minds.But part of that is accurate fact checking where you are willing to see that one of us failed terribly. If you find something wrong, something egregiously true which has been done in the name of Donald Trump, show them that you don’t stand for it. Better yet, show them that the 60,000,000 Trump voters don’t stand for it either. While it is important to sometimes hold a mirror to people of the times where they have been given some bad information, other times it's important just to listen with compassion, and where something wrong is found… then you should fight it together.Actually, you know what? We are going to do a challenge. I want all the people who came this far from the Left to see that we, the actual Trump voters don’t hate them. Simply, I’d like everyone who voted with me to just make a simple comment in the comments section.“I voted for Donald Trump and I stand against hate crimes.”Furthermore, I’d like you to share this message on Social Media. Throw in a hashtag #Trumpvotersagainsthate. Make it an undeniable fact that we stand with them and want them to feel safe, because then they are going to have to start doing the same for us.Thanks for reading!For more answers like this check out An Elephant in the Room and follow my blog War Elephant for more new content. Everything I write is completely independent research and is supported by fan and follower pledges. Please consider showing your support directly by visiting my Patreon page here: Help Jon Davis in writing Military Novels, Articles, and Essays.

My first instinct was to answer the same as Shawn Bell - there's very little out there beyond the "tin-foil hat" conspiracy theorist sites (who will make this claim for just about every world leader or person in power, regardless of any evidence or lack thereof) that make any claim to Mandela as a Mason.However, I did find one little gem that did help bring a few possibilities "to light," so to speak. This post: Nelson Mandela, A Freemason, and the End of Apartheid comes from the "Masonology" blog, which is a blog kept by a Mason who goes by the handle "Livingstone" and deals with a wide variety of things, both Masonic and not, but always from a more or less Masonic perspective.According to a thread he references on Reddit, Mandela was made a Mason "on Sight" during a visit to Georgia shortly after he had been released from prison. He was receiving a gift from the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Georgia and the Grand Master of the Prince Hall Lodge in North Carolina was present during the meeting, in which he must have given dispensation to make Mandela a Mason "on sight" - one of the many privileges that the Master of a Grand Lodge has. Mandela was also given a charter to form a Prince Hall lodge in South Africa, of which he was the Worshipful Master for a time (though the blog reports that the Nelson Mandela Lodge may have since dissolved).Being made a Mason "on sight" can have a variety of different meanings - in some areas, it means going through a one-day class and not having to take the same amount of time that is generally required of Masons to pass proficiencies, etc. over a minimum of three months. It might also mean that Mandela was more or less made an "honorary Mason" in some form or other - it would have been up to the Grand Master's discretion as to how Mandela was officially made a Mason, but we can assume that he was at the very least given some form of each of the three degrees, obligated into those degrees, and raised to the Master Mason degree. The blog claims that his wife was also made a member of the Order of the Eastern Star at that time.The Redditor who posted this information stated that he had been in contact with the historian for the North Carolina Prince Hall Grand Lodge and received confirmation of this account, as well as posting some pictures of documentation showing that Mandela was made a brother - most notably, this statement released by the PHGL of NC is at least partial confirmation of the event having occurred, and there is a concurrent account that can be found in Joseph Walkes' book The History of the M.W. Prince Hall Grand Lodge of North Carolina and Jurisdiction, 1864-2000 (pgs. 268-272). Accoring to Walkes, "Mandela was made a Mason at sight by Grand Master, William C. Parker Jr, on June 28, 1990, while Bro. Mandela and his wife Winnie were touring the United States. Immediately after Bro. Mandela was made, M.W. Parker pursuant to his authority as Conservator of Masonry in the Jurisdiction of North Carolina, made Brother Mandela’s wife Winnie a member of the Order of the Eastern Star. Further there was according to Walkes in the above book, an article in the Masonic Journal at the end of 1990 announcing the establishment of the Nelson Mandela Lodge and the Nelson Mandela Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star in Soweto, South Africa." (I found this information through a further link in that Reddit thread - Page on tumblr.com)Short of me contacting the Grand Lodge myself and acting to confirm all these things, this evidence gives me enough basis to state that Nelson Mandela was a Prince Hall Mason. I leave any further conclusions in the air, as there are still some Grand Lodges and jurisdictions which do not recognize Prince Hall Masons as "regular" masonic lodges. Personally, I accept him as a brother and am proud to consider him one more of the many great men who have been Masons.

Here are two who most people never heard of-because the were women!Rose GreenhowKnown from a young age as “Wild Rose,” Rose O’Neal Greenhow ascended the ranks of Washington, D.C., society as the wife of a wealthy and prominent doctor. Her charmed life took a tragic turn in the 1850s, when her husband and five of their eight children died. In the months before the Civil War broke out, Greenhow, a fervent supporter of the Confederate cause, became the ringleader of a growing network of anti-Union spies. Renowned as a charming hostess and engaging conversationalist, she gleaned critical information from politicians and diplomats, passing along their secrets to Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard and other contacts.In July 1861, Greenhow obtained critical information about the Union Army’s planned attack of Manassas, Virginia. She sent her 16-year-old courier, Bettie Duvall, through 20 miles of Union territory with a coded message for Beauregard tucked into her hair. Confederate President Jefferson Davis later credited Greenhow for his army’s success at the First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas).On August 23, 1861, Allan Pinkerton, head of the federal government’s newly formed secret service, arrested Greenhow and conducted a raid of her home. She and her youngest daughter, Little Rose, were placed under house arrest and later sent to prison. Despite her confinement, Greenhow still managed to transmit cryptic notes to Confederate leaders. After her release in 1862, Davis sent her on a diplomatic mission to Europe, where she met with Napoleon III and Queen Victoria, became engaged to a British nobleman and published her memoirs. While returning to America in 1864, Greenhow’s ship ran aground off the cost of North Carolina after encountering Union forces. Trying to escape in a rowboat, she drowned in choppy water, weighed down by gold intended for the Confederate treasury.Belle BoydBorn into a Virginia family with strong Southern loyalties, the celebrated beauty Isabelle “Belle” Boyd became one of the Confederacy’s most notorious spies after a skirmish with a drunk Union soldier in July 1861. According to her own account, the man invaded her home, tore down a Confederate flag and spoke offensively to her mother; enraged, 17-year-old Belle shot and killed him. Acquitted of the crime but closely watched by Union troops, she beguiled her enemies into revealing military secrets, which she then transmitted to Confederate commanders.In May 1862 Boyd was staying in Fort Royal, Virginia, with relatives whose hotel had been taken over by Union officers. She eavesdropped on their meetings through a hole in a door and rode through enemy lines, reportedly dodging bullets along the way, to report to Confederate General Stonewall Jackson. She was imprisoned that July in Washington, D.C., but released a month later; a second incarceration the following year ended with her banishment to the South.Boyd sailed for England in May 1864 to serve as a Confederate courier but was intercepted by Union troops. One of them, a naval officer named Samuel Hardinge, fell in love with the alluring spy and helped her escape to London, where they wed. He apparently died shortly thereafter. Boyd, now a widow and mother at 20, remained in England to compose her memoirs and launch a successful stage career. She later returned to America, where she continued acting, married twice more and lectured on her wartime experiences across the United States.Attribution:Secret Agents in Hoop Skirts: Women Spies of the Civil War