“Army National Military Cemeteries (ANMC) is complying with a Congressionally mandated requirement to remove the Confederate Memorial by Jan 1, 2024. ANMC has complied with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) prior to removal. ANMC completed these processes and is now in the process of removing the Confederate Memorial from ANC. Safety fencing has been installed around the Confederate Memorial and we anticipate complete removal no later than Dec 22, 2023,” said Arlington National Cemetery in a statement on Saturday, pushing forward despite a bitchy letter far right House Members sent to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin demanding he stop it due to a stipulation they put in the new NDAA.

“We write to you today to demand that the Department of Defense immediately suspend all removal activities related to the Reconciliation Monument located in Arlington National Cemetery until Congress completes the Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations process. As its removal does not align with the original intent of Congress, outlined in Section 370 of the William M (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, the House of Representatives took action to prevent the removal of the Reconciliation Monument in the Fiscal Year 2024 Department of Defense Appropriations Act. The Department of Defense must comply with this request or risk denigrating the delicate balance of the principles of separation of powers between Congress and the Executive, outlined in the Constitution,” wrote Georgia MAGA Congressman Andrew Clyde – the “January 6th was a peaceful tourist visit to the Capitol” asshole – in the letter sent to Austin last week.

Another 39 members signed it, including mutants like John “Groomer” Rose, Anna Paulina “Witchcraft” Luna, Ronny “Dr Feelgood” Jackson, Harriet “I’m not George Santos” Hagerman, Clay “I say the N-word in private all the time” Higgins, and Andy “So do I” Biggs. Speaking of signatures, the more important one that hasn’t been inked yet is President Biden’s on the 2024 NDAA, so the reversal of the 2021 amendment to remove the memorial hasn’t been effected yet. It’s not clear when he will, but last year’s was signed on December 23rd, 2022 and the previous one on the 27th, so the monument’s probably already going to be down before the law says it has to stay.

Sucks for Clyde, having to sign off on ridiculously half-assed paeans to “diversity” with “In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson unveiled this new memorial to national unity – designed by a Jewish-American sculptor, the memorial is topped with a woman crowned by an olive wreath to symbolize peace” and “Even President Barack Obama understood the importance of the Reconciliation Monument in the context of what it stands for, unity not division, when he continued the presidential tradition of sending a wreath to the monument in 2009,” only to end up with nothing to show for it.