Consider this a continuation of the diary I started a few days ago, when events were unfolding in Charlottesville. I have noticed several of us have been paying attention to the aftermath, and there have been some cogent comments. Let’s hope to continue that.
Again, my intention right at the moment is not to offer an extensive analysis but just to keep up with events as they unfold.
Some things that I hope we can agree on as a starting point:
- The broad coalition of folks who put themselves on the line in Charlottesville this past weekend deserves our respect. So too do those who have attended vigils and demonstrations in solidarity of our counterparts in Charlottesville.
- The folks who are putting themselves on the line are not props to be used to air personal grievances. Right now, none of that stuff matters. What matters is the issue at hand.
Okay. A few things of note over the course of the last 24 hours:
- tRump’s Tuesday press conference can only be summarized by one word: clusterf*ck. He doubled down on the false equivalence of neo-Nazis and what he dubbed “alt-left”. He referred to said neo-Nazis as good people. Plenty of neo-Nazis saw it for what it was: encouragement. Donnie: your David Dukes are showing. Even the NY Post pundits get it.
- In addition Donnie deleting a retweet of an image seen as advocating violence against journalists, there are right-wing sites (FauxNews and Daily Caller, specifically) scrubbing their sites of posts encouraging their visitors to drive through protests. These are sites usually considered part of the “mainstream” as it were of the conservative movement, and they advocated ISIS-style acts of terrorism. That isn’t sitting well with me, to say the least. Shouldn’t sit well with any of us.
- The White House Occupant has no intention to visit Charlottesville: “Why the hell would we do that?”
- At a point in our history where efforts to deradicalize white supremacists are urgently needed, WH aide Katherine Gorka (wife of white nationalist Sebastian Gorka – also a tRump insider) worked to end funding for those efforts.
- tRump’s Manufacturing Council is hemorrhaging members, as CEOs of companies and organizations many of us would usually find ethically challenged have finally had enough in the wake of 45’s more than tacit support of the Unite the Right rally goers. It is almost unheard of for me to give acknowledgement to a big pharma CEO for doing the minimal in the name of human decency. But we live in strange times. Of course there are tons of folks still left on that council. When will they resign? Some pressure needs to be put on them, pronto. When dealing with fascism, those with the most power need to stand up and be counted, rather than silently bicker. A few have stood up. The rest? We’ll see.
There’s probably a lot I am missing. Have at it. One thing: let’s go after the bad folks, not each other.
Onward.
