Monday Open Thread | The State of Our Country

Posted on August 14, 2017 by rikyrah

Been thinking about what happened on Saturday.
Some have said that they were saddened by what happened on Saturday.

Me?
I’m just mad as hell. Because, there’s no reason why we should be at this point in time. We should be beyond this mess.
Yet, it seems as if we’re not. But, we are.

While the march was disgusting.
And, the non-response of the Attorney General was disgusting.
And, the non-response of the President of the United States was disgusting. Uttering that garbage all the while having Bannon, Miller and Gorka working IN the White House.

The outrage by decent people was heartening.
The investigations by Twitter warriors to expose those bold enough to march without a hood is heartening.
The diversity of the anti-alt-right crowd marching is heartening.

God bless that young woman, Heather Heyer. May her family be enveloped with support as they go through their loss.

For those of us, on the side of right..never said it would be easy, but we must stand for right.
We must call out those that coddle those that would peddle hate.
Even if we don’t believe a word they utter, folks like the Attorney General and President must have their feet held to the fire.
We must bring every receipt.

For everyone who doesn’t understand why the statues- those symbols of hate- must be taken down, I give you the Mayor of New Orleans:

This entry was posted in 2016 Elections, History, Open Thread, Politics, Racial Bias, racial hate, Racial Oppression, racial terror, Racism, US Department of Justice, Violence and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

103 Responses to Monday Open Thread | The State of Our Country

  5. vitaminlover says:
    August 14, 2017 at 7:55 pm

    Rikyrah, your post was so spot on!

    Reply
  6. SouthernGirl2 says:
    August 14, 2017 at 7:43 pm

    Breaking News: Under Armour CEO Quits White House Manufacturing Council

    https://twitter.com/UnderArmour/status/897250195787964416

    Reply
  7. yahtzeebutterfly says:
    August 14, 2017 at 7:42 pm

    “Texas A&M abruptly cancels planned white nationalist rally”
    http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/texas-aandm-abruptly-cancels-planned-white-nationalist-rally/ar-AAq4fS4?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=mailsignout
    Excerpt:

    AUSTIN, Texas — Texas A&M University late Monday abruptly canceled a planned white supremacist rally on its campus next month, amid bipartisan pressure from state lawmakers who said hatred should be rejected in all forms — despite First Amendment protections.

    An announcement on the House floor by Republican Rep. John Raney said A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp had opted to scuttle the event set for Sept. 11 because of concerns police would be stretched thin providing security. The A&M System confirmed the cancellation and was working on a statement.

    A former A&M student named Preston Wiginton had been organizing a “white lives matter” rally in College Station, Texas, saying he was inspired by Saturday’s “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, when a vehicle plowed into a group of counterprotesters, killing at least one and injuring 19.

    Wiginton said he’d invited prominent white nationalist Richard Spencer to address the Texas rally. Spencer spoke at an A&M event in December, when he was met by hundreds of protesters, many of whom gathered at Kyle Field football stadium to hear music and speeches highlighting diversity and unity to counter Spencer’s appearance.

    Word of the cancellation came hours after Dallas Democratic Rep. Helen Giddings gave a House floor speech while nearly all of the chamber’s 150 members stood beside her. She urged university administrators to “unequivocally denounce and fight against this violent group” adding “all of us in the state of Texas want to say with one voice, Texas will not stand for hate.”

    Rep. Paul Workman, an Austin Republican, added that a petition being circulated for A&M graduates in the House was attempting to “keep this from happening on our campus.” The chammber then held a moment of silence for victims killed and injured in Charlottesville.

    Similar sentiments came from the Texas Senate, which also held its own moment of silence.

    Sen. Charles Schwertner, a Republican whose district includes College Station, has said he had planned to attend a counter protest of the A&M rally.

    Although the group may be allowed to meet on campus, Schwertner said, “The First Amendment also allows us to respond in kind, to stand up and say what we believe as a society, as Americans and as Texans. We should not stand for bigotry, for violence, for racism.”

    Reply
  8. Liza says:
    August 14, 2017 at 6:21 pm

    Bryan Stevenson: We must confront our history

    Civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson tells Michael Holmes the ideology of white supremacy has shaped the U.S.’s history following the violence in Charlottesville.

    http://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2017/08/14/intv-amanpour-bryan-stevenson-charlottesville.cnn/video/playlists/amanpour/

    Reply
    • Ametia says:
      August 14, 2017 at 6:03 pm

      Denards’s a COON.ON.A.POLE.

      Reply
      • eliihass says:
        August 14, 2017 at 7:02 pm

        He’s a bloody disgrace…such an embarrassment…

        A desperately terrible actor…and an over-acting, opportunistic phony…

        He’s been feverishly auditioning forever for an official spot/gig with the treasonous buffoon…and all he ever gets is the one-off invite to be the rare black face in the crowd at the impostor’s 4th of July ‘picnic’ on the White House grounds – for which he shows his gratitude by spending an inordinate amount of time on social media subsequently, humiliating himself …falling all over himself sucking up ….with his lips firmly planted on the flat arse of the imported 3rd wife and daughter-wife, praising them and telling them how ‘beautiful’ they are …He also got a pat on the head at some round table photo-op with the impostor and some random black folks at some Omarosa-engineered 10 minute event…complete with all the 4 ‘blacks’ in the pretend-administration…

        I often wonder about shameless, self-loathing, groveling, hollow black folks like this young man…what happened to cause such an emptiness…such a complete absence of self-respect…

        How the white supremacists must entertain themselves mocking and laughing at the useful idiot he is…

        Reply
  10. rikyrah says:
    August 14, 2017 at 5:45 pm

    I need prayers for my sister.
    I had to bring her to the ER.

    Reply
  11. eliihass says:
    August 14, 2017 at 5:26 pm

    You have to wonder…what’s a man’s dignity worth…

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YB5AWHVuGd4

    Reply
  13. eliihass says:
    August 14, 2017 at 4:28 pm

    “…The irony…when he’s scripted, he’s actually least believable…least authentic…We see the soul of him when he’s flying off the handle…when he’s tweeting…that’s the Trump we know and doubt…the scripted words are right, but they are not believable…”

    Former Rep. David Jolly (R-Florida)
    👌🏻

    PS:

    Someone tell Marc Morial that his well-articulated points would have more heft and ring less hollow, if he stopped playing footsie with elements of the treasonous racist impostor’s kkklan…and stopped allowing himself and the Urban League to be used for ‘diversity’/I love the ‘blacks’ photo-ops to absolve, legitimize and normalize the treasonous creature and his awful brood..

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RYNXmMrdVtM

    Reply
  15. eliihass says:
    August 14, 2017 at 2:33 pm

    “…The mother of the woman killed at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., thanked President Trump on Monday after he spoke out against hate groups for their role in the weekend’s violence.

    “Thank you, President Trump, for those words of comfort and for denouncing those who promote violence and hatred,” Susan Bro said in a statement, according to NBC News…”

    http://thehill.com/homenews/news/346504-charlottesville-victims-mother-thanks-trump-for-denouncing-those-who-promote

    http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/oh-lord-no.gif

    Reply
    • eliihass says:
      August 14, 2017 at 1:16 pm

      Poor baby…

      It’s all that economic anxiety…

      And what better way to protect this great country that belongs entirely to his ilk, than by bombing it themselves..

      Great patriots..

      Reply
  19. Liza says:
    August 14, 2017 at 12:10 pm

    President Trump Addresses Violence in Charlottesville

    WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump bowed to overwhelming pressure that he personally condemn white supremacists who incited bloody demonstrations in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend — labeling their racists views “evil” after two days of equivocal statements.

    “Racism is evil,” Mr. Trump said. “And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the K.K.K., neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.”

    Several of the president’s top advisers, including his new Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, pressed Mr. Trump to issue a more forceful rebuke after his comment on Saturday that the violence in Charlottesville was initiated by “many sides,” prompting nearly universal criticism.

    That pressure reached boiling point early Monday after the president attacked the head of Merck pharmaceuticals, who is black, for quitting an advisory board over his failure to call out white nationalists.
    …
    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/14/us/politics/trump-charlottesville-protest.html

    Reply
    • Liza says:
      August 14, 2017 at 12:14 pm

      So Trump tries again, this time calling out the KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists who “cause violence”. Does that mean Bannon, Miller, and Gorka keep their jobs as long as they aren’t causing violence? The logical next step is to fire them.

      Reply
      • eliihass says:
        August 14, 2017 at 1:06 pm

        The buffoon exists in a selective disconnect that he feels completely entitled to…and the GOP…and the media in general, ultimately enables..

        What with their always immediate chiming in with ‘…but he’s not a politician…and he was never going to be typical…and that’s him just being him…and that’s who he is …and that’s why he was voted in…’

        He’s never ever going to be denied his indulgences…or made to give up anything he doesn’t feel inclined to …including the alt-right cohorts he self-servingly and self-interestedly surrounds himself with ..

        He’s a malignant narcissist if the worst kind …with plenty of witting and unwitting enablers..

        Reply
  21. eliihass says:
    August 14, 2017 at 11:44 am

    Ugh…He’s just so full of shit..

    Reply
  22. rikyrah says:
    August 14, 2017 at 11:22 am

    GOP is more likely to vent ‘personal disgust’ for Trump after Charlottesville
    Accusations that Trump is racist have never made Republican politicians abandon him in large numbers.
    The killing of an anti-supremacist protester in Charlottesville, Virginia, has generated rage toward white nationalists.
    Republicans who are calculating the possible political costs are finding it harder to stay silent.
    John Harwood | @johnjharwood

    Ninety years ago, President Donald Trump’s father was arrested at a Ku Klux Klan march in New York City.

    Forty-four years ago, the Trump family’s real estate company was accused by a Republican-run U.S. Justice Department of discriminating against blacks. The company settled.

    Twenty-eight years ago, Trump publicly called for capital punishment after five black youths were charged with a crime of which they were later cleared. “Maybe hate is what we need if we’re going to get something done,” he told a television interviewer.

    Six years ago, Trump sought to discredit the legitimacy of America’s first black president. He spread the fabricated suggestion that President Barack Obama was born abroad and not, in fact, American.

    Two years ago, Trump opened his own campaign for the White House by denouncing Mexican immigrants. “They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists,” he said.

    Last year, Trump equivocated about the endorsement of a former KKK leader, saying “I know nothing about David Duke” or white supremacists. He said a federal judge couldn’t fairly oversee claims against him because “he’s Mexican.” He selected a champion of the “alt-right” — a term for white nationalist extremists — as his campaign’s chief executive.

    Reply
  23. rikyrah says:
    August 14, 2017 at 11:05 am

    Why Is Racial Hatred in the Process of Exploding?
    by Nancy LeTourneau August 14, 2017

    As I watched the events in Charlottesville, Virginia, unfold over the weekend and tried to grasp the reality that a President of the United States was unwilling to condemn these homegrown Nazis marching in support of white supremacy, I couldn’t help but think that it was only two years ago that another white supremacist walked into a church and gunned down eight African Americans for no other reason than racial hatred.

    That led me to long for the wisdom of our 44th president at moments like this. So I re-watched Obama’s “amazing grace” eulogy for Rev. Clementa Pinckney—and not just the part where he sings. This is how an authentic leader addressed us at a moment when the ugliest parts of our past are shown to be present once again:

    That was the most blatantly anti-racist speech of Obama’s presidency. He used the words of the song Amazing Grace to talk about how perhaps we as a country, stained by the original sin of slavery, might resonate with the fact that we were once lost, but now are found…were blind, but now can see. Sadly, those words were more aspirational than factual, as the events of this last weekend demonstrate.

    Ever since Donald Trump was elected last November, I’ve struggled with how we as a country could go from a president who could talk so eloquently about “we” when describing the role of the black church in this country to our current occupant in the White House. I simply can’t reconcile it in my head. If feels like there has been some gigantic rupture in the space/time continuum.

    With the benefit of hindsight, I’m sure that future historians will be able to explain the connective tissue that ties one event to the other, and there are certainly multiple threads that make up that connection. But I’d like to focus a bit on the question of racism as a way to reach some partial understanding in the moment.

    …………………………………………

    The rhetoric of normalization eventually began to fail because it was challenged by those who had been despised, but were no longer willing to go along with it. Affirmative action programs instituted decades ago began to produce African American leaders, not just in sports and entertainment, but in commerce, education and politics. Demographers began to talk about the day when white people will no longer make up the majority in this country. The Great Recession terrified white people as they were impacted economically in a way that hadn’t happened since the 1930’s. We elected our first African American president. The shooting of unarmed black people became a national scandal and led to the Black Lives Matter Movement. Tim Wise talked about some of these events forming “the perfect storm for white anxiety.”

    Force and hatred were waiting in the wings, ready to explode. That is not a new pattern, as Jonathan Chait described after watching 12 Years a Slave.

    Notably, the most horrific torture depicted in 12 Years a Slave is set in motion when the protagonist, Solomon Northup, offers up to his master engineering knowledge he acquired as a free man, thereby showing up his enraged white overseer. It was precisely Northup’s calm, dignified competence in the scene that so enraged his oppressor. The social system embedded within slavery as depicted in the film is one that survived long past the Emancipation Proclamation – the one that resulted in the murder of Emmett Till a century after Northup published his autobiography. It’s a system in which the most unforgivable crime was for an African-American to presume himself an equal to — or, heaven forbid, better than — a white person.

    Ever since I read that, I’ve thought about the description of “Northup’s calm, dignified competence” as exactly what we witnessed from President Obama. Just as it did during the days of slavery, that was the most unforgivable crime—for an African American to presume himself to be equal to a white person. We should never underestimate how that contributed to the explosion of hatred.

    Reply
  24. rikyrah says:
    August 14, 2017 at 11:01 am

    Oklahoma Three Percent militia man arrested in 1000-pound bomb plot https://t.co/kZEJu68yPG
    — JJ MacNab (@jjmacnab) August 14, 2017

    Reply
  25. rikyrah says:
    August 14, 2017 at 11:01 am

    Trump got the 3am call.
    Slept in.
    Then sided with the terrorists.
    — Oliver Willis (@owillis) August 13, 2017

    Reply
  26. rikyrah says:
    August 14, 2017 at 11:00 am

    It’s all connected & evil. Richard Spencer: “Russia is the sole white power in the world.” David Duke: “Russia is key to white survival.” pic.twitter.com/2FsNFlxzdw
    — • Proud Navy Veteran (@naretevduorp) August 13, 2017

    Reply
    • eliihass says:
      August 14, 2017 at 12:12 pm

      It’s all part of the social media infiltration and disinformation by Russia that’s aligned with and recruited easy targets …

      They’ve even successfully infiltrated and found and pulled in ‘like-minds’ among some so-called ‘christians’…emphasizing shared ‘beliefs’ re: homosexuality and abortion…Nevermind that Russia is one of the most corrupt, immoral and un-christian societies…

      Reply
  27. rikyrah says:
    August 14, 2017 at 10:58 am

    Trump slams Merck CEO after resignation from White House council
    08/14/17 10:47 AM—UPDATED 08/14/17 11:37 AM
    By Steve Benen

    Kenneth Frazier, the CEO of Merck, one of the nation’s largest pharmaceutical companies, announced this morning that he’s resigning as a member of Donald Trump’s American Manufacturing Council. Apparently, the president’s reaction to white-supremacist violence in Charlottesville was simply too much.

    “As CEO of Merck and as a matter of personal conscience, I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism,” Frazier explained.

    With remarkable efficiency, Trump returned fire with an angry tweet.

    “Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President’s Manufacturing Council, he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!”

    It’s hard not to appreciate the irony: Merck’s CEO resigned because Trump wouldn’t denounce white supremacists. The president responded, not by condemning dangerous radicals, but by blasting … Merck’s CEO.

    Reply
    • eliihass says:
      August 14, 2017 at 12:01 pm

      Never slammed Elon Musk or Bob Iger after they too both left his pretend business advisory council following the Paris Agreement withdrawal..

      Black folks need to wake up ..seriously…the idea that any self-respecting black person would sign on to anything with this racist fraud..

      This treasonous buffoon has never had anything but contempt for black folks…including high-profile ‘blacks’ who he only fleetingly schmoozed for whatever purposes they served for his narcissistic agenda…and for only what he could extract from that association..

      Reply
    • eliihass says:
      August 14, 2017 at 1:32 pm

      By the time this is all over, they would have completely taken themselves down…all by themselves ..

      The only upside to this madness –and the various alliances and cohorts emboldened and fueling it, is that it is becoming increasingly clear that many of these bad folks are going down right before our eyes…and entirely imploding by their own doing…and at the hands of their own dubious allies…

      Reply
    • yahtzeebutterfly says:
      August 14, 2017 at 11:55 am

      This White Supremacist hate and the “go-along” White Republicans like the one in the above tweet need to stop! Trump is encouraging all of this by not condemning the White Supremacist/Alt-Right hate and violence.

      Reply
    • eliihass says:
      August 14, 2017 at 12:51 pm

      Same racist folks beyond pissed and now very loudly demanding that everyone immediately join in their warped alternate universe where they continue to viciously attack and dehumanize the historic black FLOTUS, while with straight faces, furiously insist that the imported 3rd wife of the buffoon is an ‘accomplished, very educated, classy, erudite, virginal, good christian, all-natural, 5-7 languages speaking polyglot’ who according to them should be commanding complete attention, interest and the ultimate respect of everyone…And be looked up to and be beloved …because according to them, she’s so, so much more ‘intelligent’, ‘beautiful’, ‘educated’ and ‘accomplished’ in every way than ‘Mooshelle’..

      They’ve stepped up their elevate the imported 3rd wife campaign …even as they’ve also stepped up their outright abuse, demeaning and disrespect of women of color and most non-right-wingers…

      Reply
  31. yahtzeebutterfly says:
    August 14, 2017 at 10:34 am

    KING: Stop saying this nation was founded on faith and freedom — it was founded on violence and white supremacy
    http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/king-stop-nation-founded-faith-freedom-article-1.3410178?utm_content=buffer49465&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=NYDailyNewsTw
    Excerpt:

    As violent, cruel, demeaning white supremacists descended upon Charlottesville, Va., this weekend, and one of the men murdered a woman and injured dozens of others in broad daylight, Donald Trump, the sitting President of the United States, who rose to power with their full support, refused to call them out. Of course he refused. They are his most devoted followers and he has taken great care not to offend or isolate them. Many Republicans, though, did call them out. Senators Orrin Hatch, Marco Rubio and even Ted Cruz made some of the strongest statements from conservatives I’ve ever read on white supremacy, but one consistent and critically important error was present in so many statements from seemingly well-meaning white men. Those statements, over and over again, said something to the effect that “white supremacy has no place in America and that this nation was founded on the principles of faith and freedom.”

    That’s a damn lie. It’s as big a lie as a lie can get. It’s ahistorical. It’s insulting. It’s not even in the ballpark of reality. And when civic and business leaders say that this nation was founded on such warm, fuzzy ideals and principles, it reveals many things — chief among them just how far we are from actually dismantling the systems of white supremacy and white privilege in this nation…

    This nation was built on white supremacy. Its founders owned human beings that they worked to death and raped at will for sexual pleasure. The indigenous people were slaughtered and terrorized for land and profit. Not for years, or decades, but for centuries, this nation exploited and victimized every single person who was not a white man — denying them all the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness — denying them all the right to vote, the right to safety, the right to dignity.

    Reply
  38. rikyrah says:
    August 14, 2017 at 9:31 am

    They never should have invited her in the first place

    …………………………

    Omarosa Manigault Causes Uproar at Black Journalists Convention

    NEW ORLEANS — Omarosa Manigault, an assistant to President Donald Trump, caused a bit of an uproar at the National Association of Black Journalists’ convention on Friday. Though she criticized her boss for seeming to encourage police brutality, she defended the administration in a series of heated exchanges over its relationship with communities of color around the country.

    The standing-room-only event at one of the convention’s panel discussions turned contentious after she began by recounting of how her father and brother were both lost to street violence in Youngstown, Ohio.

    The panel’s moderator, Ed Gordon, a host on the Bounce TV channel, asked Manigault about Trump’s position on policing, particularly his position that police officers not be so nice when arresting suspects, and the revived war on drugs that Attorney General Jeff Sessions wants to wage.

    Reply
  40. rikyrah says:
    August 14, 2017 at 9:29 am

    What you need to know about the solar trade case threatening to upend the industry
    The International Trade Commission will hear arguments on Tuesday.
    SAMANTHA PAGE
    AUG 14, 2017, 9:42 AM

    The federal International Trade Commission will hold a hearing Tuesday on whether solar imports from China are causing “substantial damage” to domestic solar companies.

    The ITC’s determination — and President Donald Trump’s subsequent actions — could be a massive blow to the industry, which has seen double-digit annual market growth over the past decade and now employs a quarter of a million U.S. workers.

    If the tariff is imposed, annual solar installations would likely decrease, triggering a feedback effect: As the solar market contracts, costs come down more slowly, which further decreases the solar market.

    According to the Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA), the industry could lose 88,000 jobs if the ITC accepts Suniva’s proposed tariffs. Analysts from Goldman Sachs and Bloomberg New Energy Finance have also suggested the proposed tariff and minimum pricing requirements would double the price of solar panels in the United States.

    Representatives for the solar industry say the two companies that brought the complaint are responsible for their financial woes. Both companies have struggled recently.

    The case was filed in May by Suniva, a solar panel manufacturer that had accounted for one-fifth of U.S.-made crystalline silicon panels, after the company declared bankruptcy. A month later, another company, SolarWorld, joined the petition, then immediately announced it would lay off more than half of its Oregon factory workers.

    Reply
  41. rikyrah says:
    August 14, 2017 at 9:16 am

    THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 8/11/17
    Trump financial records could come back to haunt him in probe
    David Cay Johnston, investigative journalist and founder of DCReport.org, talks with Rachel Maddow about Donald Trump’s legal exposure through his financial records and why Trump’s legal representation isn’t what one would expect.

    Reply
  42. rikyrah says:
    August 14, 2017 at 9:15 am

    THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 8/11/17
    Rare look at Trump bookkeeping: ‘Extraordinary flim-flammery’
    Rachel Maddow looks at the few times authorities have looked at Donald Trump’s financial bookkeeping and why that explains Trump’s apparently anxiety over the possibility that Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation will include Trump’s finances.

    Reply
  43. Liza says:
    August 14, 2017 at 9:13 am

    Thanks for your insight, Rikyrah.

    I’ve just been taking all of this in, following the story. And all I can add right now is to say that, of course, something like this would happen. Trump is the Birther King, he has a racist history and he ran a racist campaign. He has surrounded himself with racist people and he has pursued racist policies. Of course, the white nationalists are emboldened and ready to act. They have a friend in Trump.

    Well, the chickens always come home to roost. And here they are.

    Reply
  44. rikyrah says:
    August 14, 2017 at 9:12 am

    Donald Trump can’t stop failing tests of moral leadership
    08/14/17 08:00 AM—UPDATED 08/14/17 08:47 AM
    By Steve Benen

    The American presidency, Franklin Roosevelt once said, is “preeminently a place of moral leadership.” It helps explain why Donald Trump is failing so spectacularly: the current occupant of the Oval Office has no real interest in providing moral leadership, or even learning how.

    The president was already scheduled to speak on Saturday afternoon – his remarks were supposed to focus on veterans’ issues – and interest in his remarks grew in the wake of the deadly violence that erupted in Charlottesville, Virginia. This was a unique opportunity for Trump to speak out clearly and forcefully against a societal scourge.

    But instead of being the president America needed, Donald Trump was Donald Trump

    “We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence – on many sides, on many sides.”

    After referencing low unemployment and other economic developments he’s eager to take credit for, the president added, “We must love each other, respect each other, and cherish our history.” Trump then transitioned back to his original remarks, explaining how pleased he with a new law that makes it easier for him to fire people who work at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

    The president made no specific reference to the white supremacists responsible for Saturday’s violence. Trump, preferring to remain maddeningly vague, could’ve condemned neo-Nazis, white nationalists, and terrorists – when someone deliberately uses a car as a weapon, driving into a crowd, no other word is appropriate – but he chose not to.

    Instead, Trump turned his attention to hatred, bigotry, and violence “on many sides,” as if white supremacists and their opponents are equally culpable for the unrest in Charlottesville.

    Reply
  45. rikyrah says:
    August 14, 2017 at 9:09 am

    This Twitter account identifies white nationalists who attended #Charlottesville protests https://t.co/R0ZBYfEdgA pic.twitter.com/StBCWEt2iY
    — New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) August 14, 2017

    Reply
  46. rikyrah says:
    August 14, 2017 at 9:09 am

    Independent: Trump’s Bible study pastor called mothers serving in public office “sinners”.https://t.co/fqqo1bNdAV
    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 13, 2017

    Reply
  47. rikyrah says:
    August 14, 2017 at 9:08 am

    Trump aide: Trump didn’t call out white supremacists because he didn’t want to dignify them https://t.co/wiCoTG2dqn pic.twitter.com/8Gcd1BpJfb
    — The Hill (@thehill) August 13, 2017

    So his attacks on NYT, HRC, McConnell, a Gold Star family, Obama, GOPers are acts of dignity? https://t.co/18vYo1C4SC
    — David Corn (@DavidCornDC) August 13, 2017

    Reply
  48. rikyrah says:
    August 14, 2017 at 9:07 am

    This church elder went to #Charlottesville she was beaten by 8-9 Alt Right #Nazis they Maced someone in wheelchair & threw lighter fluid pic.twitter.com/m0rGBie8oE
    — Patricia Arquette (@PattyArquette) August 13, 2017

    Reply
  49. rikyrah says:
    August 14, 2017 at 9:06 am

    Editorial: “‘Many sides’ didn’t drive a car into a crowd, an evident act of terrorism that killed Heather Heyer…” https://t.co/VgZhEaN0ZP
    — New York Post (@nypost) August 14, 2017

    Reply
  50. rikyrah says:
    August 14, 2017 at 9:05 am

    After Trump’s Charlottesville debacle, Pence admonishes media
    08/14/17 10:00 AM
    By Steve Benen

    Vice President Mike Pence is in Colombia today, where he specifically condemned the American radicals responsible for Saturday’s deadly violence in Charlottesville. “We will not tolerate hatred and violence of groups like white supremacists, the KKK and neo-Nazis,” he told NBC News. “These extremist fringe groups have no place in the American debate.”

    Had Donald Trump said the same thing on Saturday, the White House wouldn’t be scrambling to mitigate the damage done by the president’s fiasco.

    But the vice president didn’t just condemn the racists the president chose not to single out; Pence also tried to redirect the criticisms towards the media.

    Pence said he took issue with “the fact that many in the media are spending more time criticizing how the president addressed the issue yesterday.”

    “Many in the media spent an awful lot of time focusing on what the president said and criticisms of what the president said instead of criticizing those who brought that hatred and violence to the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia,” Pence said.

    It’s a problematic defense. Trump faced criticism – from the left, right, and center – because much is expected from a president, especially after developments like those we saw on Saturday, and Trump failed to clear a low bar. For Pence to suggest everyone leave the president alone, and focus criticisms solely on the white supremacists, misses the point.

    But just as important, it wasn’t just “the media” that recognized Trump’s failure.

    Reply
  51. rikyrah says:
    August 14, 2017 at 9:03 am

    GOP senator: racist groups think ‘they have a friend’ in Trump
    08/14/17 08:40 AM
    By Steve Benen

    In the wake of the deadly violence in Charlottesville on Saturday, Donald Trump had an opportunity to condemn white supremacists and their agenda. He instead denounced hatred “on many sides.”

    Those who might want to give the president the benefit of the doubt have an added challenge to contend with: the context created by recent history.

    Trump, who rose to political prominence by peddling a racist conspiracy theory, was a different kind of presidential candidate in a variety of ways, but his overt use of racial politics was a radical departure from what Americans have grown accustomed to in recent years. In February 2016, for example, after Trump balked at denouncing David Duke and the KKK, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said, “We cannot be a party [that] nominates someone who refuses to condemn white supremacists and the Ku Klux Klan.”

    Rachel had an op-ed in the Washington Post the same day, asking what it said about the contemporary GOP that Trump enjoyed such enthusiastic support from white nationalists and neo-Nazis.

    Republican voters, however, were unmoved. As 2016 progressed, and Trump secured his party’s nomination, the campaign became a source of inspiration for white nationalists, culminating in the KKK’s official newspaper expressing support for the Republican nominee just a week before Election Day.

    Those attitudes haven’t faded.

    Reply
  52. rikyrah says:
    August 14, 2017 at 9:01 am

    After Charlottesville, A Time for Choosing
    by D.R. Tucker
    August 14, 2017

    …………………………

    The hard fact is that the Republican Party has spent the past 53 years pandering to the sort of racial resentment that created Charlottesville. Barry Goldwater was morally wrong to oppose the 1964 Civil Rights Act. He could have helped to heal this country by supporting that bill, but he willfully chose to divide it by opposing the landmark legislation. Ever since, the GOP has willfully chosen to divide this country, to attract every last voter who resented nonwhites being treated as equals under the law.

    This hatred will never stop. It will never leave this country. However, it can be reduced. The first step in doing so is walking away from the Republican Party, depriving this radical political organization of your money and your votes.

    The post-Goldwater GOP has become, for all intents and purposes, a hate group. The targets of its hate are not just people of color, independent-minded women, religious minorities and the LGBTQ community, but the very concepts that truly make America great: love of wisdom, love of democracy, love of science, love of facts.

    If your soul was troubled by Charlottesville, you have to walk away. Not just from the party, but from the party’s media machine. Turn off Fox News. Change the dial from right-wing talk radio. Skip the websites that promote nothing but hatred of those who don’t usually vote for Republicans. Make a clean break.

    If you do, your children and grandchildren will thank you. If you don’t, they will judge you.

    Reply
  53. rikyrah says:
    August 14, 2017 at 8:59 am

    Republican Who Wishes to Unseat Warren Declares: I’m Not A Wingnut! Honest!
    by D.R. Tucker
    August 13, 2017 POLITICAL ANIMAL

    Oh, what a tangled web Trumpists weave when first they practice to deceive…

    Apparently, it has dawned upon the far-right Elizabeth-Warren-sucks crowd that taking Breitbart to heart won’t be enough to unseat the Massachusetts Senator in 2018. To that end, her expected Republican opponent, Trump disciple Geoff Diehl, is now trying another time-honored Republican tradition: attempting to fool the gullible into believing he’s a centrist after all.

    Step one in Diehl’s effort is downplaying his hatred for the Affordable Care Act, as David Bernstein notes:

    The last time a Massachusetts Republican won a seat in the U.S. Senate — the only time in the last 40 years, in fact — the fate of Obamacare was said to hinge on the outcome.

    Scott Brown won, in part, by pledging to be the vote that would kill it.

    That scenario has returned, in dramatic fashion: we just witnessed a Senate roll call in which one more vote would have moved the “repeal and replace” bill forward, likely driving a sizable stake through the heart of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

    Yet, just a few days later, Trump-supporting, friend-of-Brown, Obamacare-opposing Republican Geoff Diehl officially launched his Senate campaign against Elizabeth Warren without drawing any attention to that topic.

    Times have changed, apparently.

    At his campaign launch last Tuesday in Whitman, Diehl barely mentioned his support for repealing ACA. Coverage of that speech, and his subsequent kickoff tour, focused on his emphasis on job creation, tax reduction, veterans’ affairs, opioid addiction, and immigration.

    Diehl has never been shy about the topic in the past.

    Just last November, he wrote the “Yes” response for a Boston Globe op-ed exchange on whether ObamaCare should be repealed.

    But that argument — or any mention of healthcare — is absent from Diehl’s new Senate campaign website. I also could not find a single mention of the issue in roughly 200 tweets and retweets from his Senate campaign twitter account since his August 1 announcement…Healthcare is, by far, the biggest issue relating to the U.S. Senate these days. Yet Diehl — like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell—seems more than ready to move on and leave that topic far behind.

    Reply
  54. rikyrah says:
    August 14, 2017 at 8:58 am

    The GOP Bears Full Responsibility for the Havoc in Virginia
    The madness in Virginia is the natural consequence of decades of GOP normalization of hate and rationalization of racism.

    by D.R. Tucker
    August 12, 2017

    ……………………….

    The man who questioned Barack Obama’s legitimacy as a United States citizen, and who incited all manner and manifestation of hatred before and during his presidential campaign, has no standing to call for unity. It was his supporters who are responsible for this weekend’s viciousness in Virginia:

    …………………………..

    Repugnant, Paul? Was it any more repugnant than when your hero, Ronald Reagan, held his own hate rally in Philadelphia, Mississippi, 37 years ago this month, where he proclaimed his belief in “state’s rights?” Was it any more repugnant than when George H. W. Bush shamelessly stoked racial fears in his 1988 presidential campaign? Was it any more repugnant than when Jesse Helms convinced white voters in North Carolina that nonwhites were taking all the good jobs in 1990? Was it any more repugnant than when Rush Limbaugh proclaimed in 2010 that the Affordable Care Act was a form of reparations?

    No wonder Republicans like Ryan are embarrassed by the chaos in Charlottesville. Their party stoked this hatred for decades, going all the way back to Barry Goldwater’s resistance to the Civil Rights Act 53 years ago. The madness in Virginia is the natural consequence of decades of GOP normalization of hate and rationalization of racism. This is your legacy, Republicans. As you sow, you shall surely reap.

    Reply
  55. rikyrah says:
    August 14, 2017 at 8:56 am

    Priebus warned Bannon: “You’ve got to get people to stop writing this shit, because people know it’s you” https://t.co/dLX2Xsjejl pic.twitter.com/fv4Tu0laGo
    — POLITICO (@politico) August 14, 2017

    Reply
  56. rikyrah says:
    August 14, 2017 at 8:53 am

    Shonda Rhimes Moves From ABC to Netflix With Huge Overall Deal https://t.co/zipSw72Lyp pic.twitter.com/lzvd1IZM8b
    — Hollywood Reporter (@THR) August 14, 2017

    Reply
  57. rikyrah says:
    August 14, 2017 at 8:53 am

    WATCH: @peteralexander’s exchange with @VP on criticism of President Trump’s remarks on Charlottesville pic.twitter.com/A0hS6J510E
    — TODAY (@TODAYshow) August 14, 2017

    Reply
  58. rikyrah says:
    August 14, 2017 at 8:52 am

    Aug 13, 2017
    After Charlottesville: End the Denial About Trump
    E.J. Dionne Jr.

    It should not have taken the death and injury of innocents to move our nation toward moral clarity. It should not have taken President Trump’s disgraceful refusal to condemn white supremacy, bigotry and Nazism to make clear to all who he is and which dark impulses he is willing to exploit to maintain his hold on power.

    Those of us who are white regularly insist that the racists and bigots are a minority of us and that the white-power movement is a marginal and demented faction.

    This is true, and the mayhem in Charlottesville, Virginia, called forth passionate condemnations of blood-and-soil nationalism across the spectrum of ideology. These forms of witness were a necessary defense of the American idea and underscored the shamefulness of Trump’s embrace of moral equivalence. There are not, as Trump insisted Saturday, “many sides” to questions that were settled long ago: Racism, anti-Semitism, discrimination and white supremacy are unequivocally wrong.

    A president who cannot bring himself to say this immediately and unequivocally squanders any claim to moral leadership.

    snip//

    The battles over Confederate monuments, in Charlottesville and elsewhere, reflect our difficulty in acknowledging that these memorials are less historical markers than political statements. Many were erected explicitly in support of Jim Crow and implicitly to deny the truth that the Southern cause in the Civil War was built around a defense of slavery. Taking them down is an acknowledgement of what history teaches, not an eradication of the past.

    But history is also being made now. As is always true with Trump, self-interest is the most efficient explanation for his actions: Under pressure from the Russia investigation, he is reluctant to alienate backlash voters, who are among his most loyal supporters.

    The rest of us, however, have a larger obligation to our country and to racial justice. As the late civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer might suggest, it is time to ask about Trump: When will we become sick and tired of being sick and tired?

    Reply
  59. rikyrah says:
    August 14, 2017 at 8:51 am

    Trump attacks Merck’s CEO Ken Frazier, who is black, for standing up to him on weak Charlottesville response. https://t.co/2TOAtDiTD1 pic.twitter.com/n8V2G0kEBl
    — Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) August 14, 2017

    Reply
  60. rikyrah says:
    August 14, 2017 at 8:50 am

    Now would be a good time for some white CEOs to quit the President’s various councils. It’s a gimme off-ramp of a racist regime.
    — Clara Jeffery (@ClaraJeffery) August 14, 2017

    Reply
  61. rikyrah says:
    August 14, 2017 at 8:49 am

    Why are @LindseyGrahamSC & the WH quietly working their 25 governor strategy to repeal ACA.
    Will tweet thread in AM US time. Follow…
    — Andy Slavitt (@ASlavitt) August 14, 2017

    Reply
  62. rikyrah says:
    August 14, 2017 at 8:49 am

    He’s One of Them
    By JOSH MARSHALL
    Published AUGUST 13, 2017 10:53 AM

    As we get underway today, a few thoughts on yesterday. In addition to going out of his way not to denounce the white supremacist and neo-nazi marchers yesterday, for those primed to hear it (which is the point) the President made a point of calling out and valorizing the marchers. In his at length on-camera comments, in addition to bromides and calling for people to love each other, Trump noted that we must “cherish our history.”

    Here’s the passage

    Above all else, we must remember this truth: No matter our color, creed, religion or political party, we are all Americans first. We love our country. We love our God. We love our flag. We’re proud of our country. We’re proud of who we are. So we want to get the situation straightened out in Charlottesville, and we want to study it. And we want to see what we’re doing wrong as a country, where things like this can happen.

    My administration is restoring the sacred bonds of loyalty between this nation and its citizens, but our citizens must also restore the bonds of trust and loyalty between one another. We must love each other, respect each other, and cherish our history and our future together. So important. We have to respect each other. Ideally, we have to love each other.

    I spent the better part of a decade training as an historian. I’m definitely pro-history. But in context, this is an explicit call-out to the white supremacist and neo-Confederate forces at the march whose calling card is celebrating Southern ‘heritage’ and America’s history as a white country. Zero ambiguity or question about that. And they heard the message. White supremacist leaders cheered Trump’s refusal to denounce them and his valorization of their movement.

    Where does this come from? Who knows who wrote this text for Trump. But many of Trump’s most important speeches were written by white nationalist aide Stephen Miller, who came from Jeff Sessions’ senate office. Miller literally worked with Alt-Right leader (he coined the phrase) Richard Spencer on racist political activism when he was in college at Duke (Spencer was a grad student at the time). This isn’t some vague guilt by association. He’s one of them.

    When Gabriel Sherman asked what he identifies as a ‘senior White House official’ why the White House didn’t denounce the Nazis in Charlottesville, he got this: “What about the leftist mob? Just as violent if not more so.” Maybe I’ve missed some other background comments out of the White House. But I haven’t heard anything that approaches that level of venom about the nazis or white supremacists. When the top ideologues at Trump’s White House look at yesterday’s spectacle, they instinctively see the counter-protestors as enemies.

    Reply
  63. rikyrah says:
    August 14, 2017 at 8:46 am

    The Vise Is Tightening On Paul Manafort, The Mueller Probe’s Linchpin
    By ALLEGRA KIRKLAND
    Published AUGUST 11, 2017 10:40 AM

    As President Donald Trump himself said, the recently revealed predawn FBI raid of his former campaign chairman’s Alexandria, Virginia home sent a “very, very strong signal.”

    That signal, former federal prosecutors told TPM, is that Paul Manafort is the linchpin in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s election interference. Whether the investigation ends up centering on potential financial crimes or possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, those former prosecutors said nailing the goods on Manafort will be key to Mueller’s case.

    From the millions of dollars Manafort reportedly owed to pro-Russian interests, to his bank accounts in the tax haven of Cyprus, to his attendance at a 2016 meeting billed as an opportunity for the Russian government to provide the Trump campaign with information that would damage Hillary Clinton’s chances in the presidential race, to his retroactive filing with the Justice Department as a foreign agent, the longtime GOP operative seems to have a toe in almost every part of the special counsel’s sprawling probe. And a slew of recent reports indicate Mueller’s team is tightening the vise on the former campaign chairman.

    Reply
  64. rikyrah says:
    August 14, 2017 at 8:45 am

    Adviser: Trump Didn’t Want To ‘Dignify’ White Supremacy By Condemning It
    By ESME CRIBB
    Published AUGUST 13, 2017 9:56 AM

    White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert on Sunday claimed President Donald Trump’s failure to condemn white supremacists after violence broke out at a rally in Charlottesville was because he didn’t want to “dignify” the movement.

    “The President not only condemned the violence, and stood up at a time and a moment when calm was necessary, and didn’t dignify the names of these groups of people, but rather addressed the fundamental issue,” Bossert said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

    Trump on Saturday did not remark on the nature of the rally but called the clashes an “egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides” and called for Americans to “love each other.”
    ………………………………

    CNN’s Jake Tapper pressed Bossert to give his own response to the violence.

    “You on this show today have said that you condemn groups and condemn actions and condemn bigotry, but I haven’t heard you say, ‘I condemn white supremacists. I condemn neo-Nazis. I condemn the alt-right.’ I haven’t heard that,” he said.

    Reply
  65. rikyrah says:
    August 14, 2017 at 8:43 am

    Trump Ignores Charlottesville In Early-Morning Tweets
    By CAITLIN MACNEAL
    Published AUGUST 14, 2017 7:49 AM

    In a series of tweets early Monday morning, President Donald Trump signaled that he would like to move past the weekend attack in Charlottesville and his response to the violence, by mentioning issues like trade and the Alabama special election in a series of tweets instead of addressing the violence in Charlottesville.

    In his initial statement on the attack at a white nationalist rally and counter-protest, Trump did not explicitly condemn white nationalists, instead denouncing “this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides.” He has yet to personally clarify his remarks or offer any additional condemnations.

    But Monday morning, he explicitly went after Democrats in Congress.

    The Obstructionist Democrats have given us (or not fixed) some of the worst trade deals in World History. I am changing that fast!

    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2017

    Reply
  66. rikyrah says:
    August 14, 2017 at 8:41 am

    THIS IS OBAMACARE SABOTAGE

    EXCLUSIVE: Trump HHS Severs Key Partnerships For Obamacare Outreach
    By ALICE OLLSTEIN
    Published AUGUST 14, 2017 6:00 AM

    A wide array of groups that partnered for several years with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the White House to promote open enrollment under the Affordable Care Act say this year has brought a deafening silence from the Trump administration, with no sign the partnerships will continue.

    Both representatives of the former partner groups and former HHS officials say the relationships with gig economy companies, youth organizations, churches, women’s groups, and African American and Latino civil rights non-profits were critical to keeping Obamacare’s markets functioning, and their termination is a clear example of sabotage.

    Reply
  67. rikyrah says:
    August 14, 2017 at 8:35 am

    Sexual torture: American policing and the harassment of black men
    In the second part of our series, the author of the acclaimed Chokehold: Policing the Black Man describes how stop-and-frisks are brutal assertions of police dominance on African American men, through sexual harassment, torture and even terrorism
    by Paul Butler

    Here’s what happens when you are stopped and frisked. You are walking to work on a Monday morning. The cop car stops suddenly, two men with guns jump out, and they order you to face the building and put your hands up. They put their hands roughly all over your body, one squeezes something in your pocket and asks you, “What’s that?” You take out your asthma inhaler and show it to him. They pat you down one more time and then they just leave. They don’t apologize. Your neighbors are walking by, some looking at you sympathetically and others like they are wondering what crime you committed.

    You feel humiliated.

    Or you are going to visit your mom in the projects. The lock on the door to the lobby is always busted, and the buzzer to her apartment is broken too. You just hope the elevator is working because you don’t feel like walking up eight flights of stairs. Again.

    You open the door and enter the lobby. Four cops are waiting. You recognize a couple of them from your previous visits to the neighborhood. One officer asks where you are going. “To visit my mom,” you say. “Put your hands against the wall,” another cop says. “Why? I’m just going to visit my mom.” “Trespass” is the answer. You tell them, “I’m not trespassing.” They surround you.

    Now it’s a situation. You put your hands on the wall. They kick your feet to spread your legs wider. They make you take off your cap, they pat you up and down, they touch your private parts. Other people entering the building look away partly to preserve your dignity and partly because they hope that if they pretend not to notice the cops, the cops will pretend not to notice them.

    Nobody coming inside the building uses a key – it would be ridiculous because the lock is broken. The cops write you up a citation for trespass. One of the officers you have seen before pulls you aside and says when you go to court just bring proof of your mother’s address and the judge will dismiss the case. Then they let you go. You hate them with every fiber of your being.

    What does it mean when police go around touching people who are, in the eyes of the law, innocent? Stop-and-frisks are brutal assertions of police dominance of the streets, communicating to African American men through “three ways of feeling a black man” – sexual harassment, torture and even terrorism – that they are objects of disdain by the state.

    Reply
  68. rikyrah says:
    August 14, 2017 at 8:22 am

    Found at BJ:

    Soldiers under Lee’s command at the Battle of the Crater in 1864 massacred black Union soldiers who tried to surrender. Then, in a spectacle hatched by Lee’s senior corps commander A.P. Hill, the Confederates paraded the Union survivors through the streets of Petersburg to the slurs and jeers of the southern crowd. Lee never discouraged such behavior. As the historian Richard Slotkin wrote in No Quarter: The Battle of the Crater, “his silence was permissive.”

    The presence of black soldiers on the field of battle shattered every myth the South’s slave empire was built on: the happy docility of slaves, their intellectual inferiority, their cowardice, their inability to compete with whites. As Pryor writes, “fighting against brave and competent African Americans challenged every underlying tenet of southern society.” The Confederate response to this challenge was to visit every possible atrocity and cruelty upon black soldiers whenever possible, from enslavement to execution.

    As the historian James McPherson recounts in Battle Cry of Freedom, in October of that same year, Lee proposed an exchange of prisoners with the Union general Ulysses S. Grant. “Grant agreed, on condition that blacks be exchanged ‘the same as white soldiers.’” Lee’s response was that “negroes belonging to our citizens are not considered subjects of exchange and were not included in my proposition.” Because slavery was the cause for which Lee fought, he could hardly be expected to easily concede, even at the cost of the freedom of his own men, that blacks could be treated as soldiers and not things. Grant refused the offer, telling Lee that “Government is bound to secure to all persons received into her armies the rights due to soldiers.” Despite its desperate need for soldiers, the Confederacy did not relent from this position until a few months before Lee’s surrender.

    Reply
  69. yahtzeebutterfly says:
    August 14, 2017 at 8:15 am

    Important article:
    “Well-educated elites are no strangers to white supremacy Elites must recognize their culpability in order to destroy white supremacy.”
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2017/08/14/well-educated-elites-are-no-strangers-to-white-supremacy/?utm_term=.08ae0a2e110b

    Reply
  70. rikyrah says:
    August 14, 2017 at 5:14 am

    Good Morning,Everyone 😐😐😐

    Reply

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