Teenagers standing up to a sea of white supremacists carrying torches.
Snowflakes my ass. pic.twitter.com/HbQXOlkjrt
— Downtown Josh Brown (@ReformedBroker) August 12, 2017
I have incredible respect for those students. If I was 19 and standing there, I would have punched someone. The discipline and the courage to bear witness and hold onto their values without allowing themselves to respond to clear and constant provocations is incredible.
The kids are alright.
Gemina13
These kids are beautiful, and I want to protect them from the cesspit dwellers surrounding them.
Elie
Their non violence in response is so STRONG. I send them all my love and note their honor to what is important. Wonderful!
Cheryl Rofer
This is so important. I saw “The Singing Revolution” again a few weeks ago. It’s about the nonviolent protests that led to Estonia’s leaving the Soviet Union and precipitating its breakup. People HAD to be nonviolent because anything else would have given Mikhail Gorbachev a reason to crack down. Hardliners were leaning on him to. It seemed to me that we need to be learning nonviolent protest again. It’s not easy. The nonviolent civil rights protesters of the 1960s did a lot of training.
efgoldman
It’s probably not a coincidence that the racist shitbag assholes chose to hold their demonstration when school was not in session and ~22,000 students weren’t on campus.
Phred
These kids are beautiful and will grow to be greater than all of us are.
lamh36
Saw this last night…good for those kids…
The media really needs to make sure to point out that it didn’t start this morning, but started last night when Richard Spencer et al, had their stupid Tiki march…
Phred
@Gemina13: I hear you and understand you.
I’m only happy to know that these kids are beautiful and brave and will grow to be greater than all of us are.
NotMax
Solidarność.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Nothing say American values like torch parades.
Phred
@lamh36: From what I’ve read, last night the police allowed the Tiki Nazis a free hand to attack those at the Thomas Jefferson statue. Why???
debbie
I’m sorry. Everything about those alt-right clowns is hateful and despicable, but marching around with tiki torches makes them look like pussies.
Major Major Major Major
Are their faces down so they don’t get identified and targeted later?
JPL
Thank you for taking time off of your vacation to post that picture. The kids are all right.
Brachiator
@Cheryl Rofer:
Civil rights protesters were protesting against official, often militaristic authority. The alt right fools don’t represent anyone but themselves. Mockery, instead of violence is about all they deserve. And obviously non violence is good lest things spiral out of control and hurt innocents.
ETA. We are coming up on the anniversary of the August 14 partition of India and Pakistan. And of course non-violent resistance was part of the strategy to win independence. Various BBC programs, from the News Hour to the Women’s Hour to various history programs and podcasts have wonderful segments, often with interviews of people who lived through those times or their descendants. Very fascinating stuff.
I hope that people will be able to look back and see that something good emerged from these crazy times.
Omnes Omnibus
@Major Major Major Major: That would be sensible.
NotMax
@Enhanced Voting Techniques
Inherit the Wind – marching backward.
Mary G
Those six or seven students are braver than all the torchbearers plus Trump.
Jeffro
Probably no colncidence that those late-teen students came of age during the years 2008-2016, back when there was a role model the whole country could look up to.
Sort of the opposite of Reagan Babies, if you think about it.
debbie
@Major Major Major Major:
I wonder what statue that is they’re standing around.
debbie
@Mary G:
There’s many more of them, encircling some statue.
PhoenixRising
Where do I click to help sponsor a weekend for John Lewis, Diane Nash and the other survivors of the Nashville sit-in movement to connect with this generation’s best and brightest?
The Fat Kate Middleton
Thank you, you beautiful kids. I am in tears, and feel such hope on this terrible day.
Chris
@Phred:
And yet “thank God for our brave heroic cops” is all over the airwaves. Gag.
InternetDragons
Speaking of respect…I can’t imagine what it was like for this Black officer protecting the Nazis today:
https://twitter.com/NumbersMuncher/status/896519731267727361
Major Major Major Major
@Omnes Omnibus: agree. And upsetting as hell.
opiejeanne
@Major Major Major Major: I was thinking they hid their faces so Mom and Dad wouldn’t see them and worry.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@NotMax: Obviously I misspoke, they are pinning for the 1650s.
Adam L Silverman
@Major Major Major Major: Yes and to prevent them from being sprayed in the eyes with bear (pepper) spray or mace by the protestors.
Adam L Silverman
@debbie: Thomas Jefferson. It is on the U Virginia quad.
The Dangerman
Let’s just melt the statue of Robert E. Lee and make Urinal Cakes out of it.
Jeffro
@PhoenixRising: I don’t know, but Sara Benincasa had a good list up on Twitter of Charlottesville-area charities, churches, and other organizations that help support the community in time of need. You can check that out.
tobie
@Major Major Major Major: According to a Guardian article referenced in the twitter thread, the white nationalists were surrounding counter-protesters and pepper spraying them or throwing lighter fluid in their direction. I don’t think the students are hiding. It’s more likely they’re protecting their faces from noxious fumes.
EDIT: oops…I see Adam mentioned this in #28.
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman: that was my other guess.
opiejeanne
@Adam L Silverman: That’s more likely than my idea.
Ohio Mom
@Omnes Omnibus: Further proof that our side is smarter.
A lot of those Nazis are going to be recognized and identified via social media, and that will follow them around. There is already one twitter feed making the rounds where the tweets are along the lines of “That’s the jerk from our history class!” “He lived in my dorm!”
lgerard
@debbie:
Jefferson
debbie
@Adam L Silverman:
Thanks. They really were very brave.
Steeplejack
@InternetDragons:
That picture is not from today. It is from a Klan rally on July 8, according to the comments.
Peale
@debbie: make your own torches or stay home.
lamh36
Adam L Silverman
@lamh36: It would be better if they opened a domestic security file (domestic terrorism investigation) in the circumstances. But that they’re taking action is a good sign.
scav
@Brachiator: Some photos I just ran across for your India anniversary sidenote.
It helps somewhat to be reminded that the entire nation isn’t ok with this. Enough of them seem placid enough to be tacit enablers to put me in a space beyond words.
Lyrebird
@lamh36: Old reply but I wanted to thank you for flagging that excellent letter from Martin Booman …Longman? I don’t know. Glad I read it.
Will this latest tragedy help the Ryan Coopers notice that we’re still not a post-racial society? Who knows.
Kay
Hope springs eternal at the NYTimes. Maybe Ivanka will ride in and magically turn her father into a completely different and much better person! Any day now ! Could happen!
Next up: General Kelly Will Save Us All, Part IV.
lamh36
@Adam L Silverman:
Somehow I just don’t believe Sessions truly cares if “justice prevails”
sharl
I never thought I would link to a tweet from da share z0ne over here – dsz’s feed is more for the young irony/weird twitter crowd – but if you liked the short video clip of Hitler’s building-top swastika gettin’ blowed up real good in Cole’s earlier post, you might like this as well.
Adam L Silverman
In case anyone was wondering why the white polos and khakis:
Also, here’s our lovely domestic terrorist earlier today prior to committing murder:
trollhattan
Meet our new police chief and remember that most of the country isn’t insane. We’re suffering from a nasty minority having their day in the limelight.
Adam L Silverman
@lamh36: He doesn’t. But the career folks at the FBI, especially the Field Office for that portion of Virginia, the natsec department, and the career natsec prosecutors at the DOJ, as well as the career folks at the US Attorney’s Office for that portion of Virginia do.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Pro-Tip: If you haul your pathetic, underachieving, lily white gamer ass from Ohio to Virginia to march around with assholes who wear swastikas, carry clubs and torches, and shout “White Power” and “Blood and Soil”, you can take that weak shit about “ah wuz skeered when them protestors wuz around muh car” on out of here.
You’re no wide eyed innocent. You were there to do bad things in the name of your “superior”(LOL) race.
efgoldman
@Adam L Silverman:
Also given who the AG is, a large surprise.
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman: if you had told me, before last year, that in 2017 the country would be beset by violent Nazis cosplaying as Donald Trump golfing…
Yutsano
*waves from a hotel room south of Seattle*
Non-violent resistance is indeed hard. Kudos to those kids.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
Thank you for everything today Balloon Juice ?Don’t know what I’d do without this community.
Frankensteinbeck
@Adam L Silverman:
It didn’t occur to me that it would be the FBI, but it would have to be, wouldn’t it? Was Comey replaced? It strikes me that Sessions would be too distanced from the level where the investigation happens to sweep it under the rug.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Adam L Silverman:
If that wannabe Heydrich makes any Pretrial release, he’d better tat up in AB colors here and now.
Of course, he’ll be somebody’s bitch for a few years, even in the AB, but at least he can maybe avoid being randomly shanked by people outside the AB.
Lyrebird
@Adam L Silverman: Do you know what the crossed rolling pins are supposed to stand for? Maybe I should not ask, but I do think that shedding light on these domestic terrorist groups is important.
Mike J
Hey beantown, next week the circus will be in your town:
https://twitter.com/petexnasty/status/896517264131842048
Adam L Silverman
@lamh36: @efgoldman: I want to make another point on this right now that I’ll expand on in a post (eventually). Despite the President’s tepid and thoroughly unacceptable responses today (twitter, press availability, more twitter), having several of these happen in short order is as much a threat to the President, his presidency, AG Sessions, and AG Sessions agenda for DOJ action. Chaos may suit Putin’s ambitions. And, perhaps, Bannon’s. But several of these, showing that the administration cannot just ensure the safety of Americans to protest or counterprotest, but that the President cannot actually separate himself from the white nationalists and white supremacists, regardless of which group they come from, perpetrating acts of domestic terrorism will become fatal to his Presidency. This isn’t 1916-1917 when Wilson could hire a propagandist to convince the vast majority of Americans to accept an authoritarian usurpation of the Constitution because the US was going to and then in a war. This is 2017. You can’t stop the signal. And no matter what the President or Bannon may think, they can’t control the message. You can’t promise law and order while having David Duke at events where his fellow travelers are marching while “Hailing Trump” and then killing other Americans for the lulz.
Mike J
@Lyrebird: If I had to guess (and nobody is making me, but I will anyway) kinder, küche, kirche.
Frankensteinbeck
@Adam L Silverman:
This event certainly seems to have pissed off another set of previously unmotivated citizens. Hoo boy, is my internet hopping with fury.
Kay
Yeah, you’re real credible on civil rights. The man who stood there next to Donald Trump like some grinning idiot elf during all those hate rallies.
Oh, well. There’s always the county prosecutor. Maybe he or she isn’t completely discredited.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: White tennis shirt should be paired with white tennis shorts. And only at the club. //WASP
Adam L Silverman
@Major Major Major Major: As I’ve repeatedly remarked: off the looking glass and through the map.
Adam L Silverman
@Frankensteinbeck: Yes Chris Wray was confirmed as the new Director of the FBI about ten days or so ago.
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
it may be old hat to mention that yes, sunlight is a disinfectant.
Won’t eradicate the infestation on its own, it goes without saying, but far preferable to letting malevolence operate in the shadows.
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman: I guess it’s as good a time as any to play video games.
Adam L Silverman
@Lyrebird: The dipshit had his shield upside down. They’re crossed fasces. Not sure which group the symbol is specifically associated with. The black saltires on a white field are the new League of the South flags though.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: And not after Labor Day!
dmsilev
@Major Major Major Major: There are worse ways to spend time, that’s for sure.
I’m not too big on the ‘blow stuff up or shoot things’ genre, but I’ll happily sink bunches of hours into building-type games.
SiubhanDuinne
@Lyrebird:
@Mike J:
Not a rolling pin. The guy on the left is holding his shield or whatever it is upside-down. The guy next to him has it right-side-up, and the symbol is a stylized fasces (bundle of sticks surrounding an axe).
Kay
@Adam L Silverman:
That is just wild that they dress like Trump. I was thinking about the Michigan Militia during Clinton and how they were so far underground. It was pre-internet so there weren’t all these photos but they weren’t MARCHING wearing the campaign swag of GOP candidates. It was like “oh, it’s those crazy unemployed men with the poorly-printed newsletters”. Of course later they became infamous but there was just no sense that they felt they were part of a mainstream political party even before the violence. They weren’t like “George HW Bush supporters, but in camo with explosives” They were the fringeist of the fringe. The only reason I knew about them was liberals talked about them.
Lyrebird
@Mike J:
Hey it’s a guess.
If I had any access to Rachel Maddow’s staffers, I would want them to bring back the tapes of the then-candidate now UGH president in St Louis. Maddow rightfully highlighted his encouragement of violence towards protesters, but didn’t make much of what I found maybe even more chilling. Creep In Chief said things like, those people, they don’t contribute anything… I saw that and thought, okay Godwin’s Law and all but F&U!K that’s about as Hitlerian as anything I’ve heard a living person say on record other than david duke…
Major Major Major Major
@dmsilev: Yeah, I just bought Factorio.
mouse tolliver
@Phred: I’ve only seen Joy Reid pressing this issue. Everyone else is acting like the police were heroes. Just like some pretended the police didn’t cheer when Trump told them to beat up suspects.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: Yes, but it isn’t just the disinfectant component alone. You can’t be an authoritarian if you can’t actually project authority and enforce it. If Boston goes down the way Charlottesville did, minus the open carriers as that isn’t allowed in MA, it will make things much, much harder for the President, the AG, their supporters and their enablers. I guarantee that Boston PD’s and the MA State Police’s counterterrorism and intel units will be spending the next several days going over every bit of social media and news footage of today’s events. By the time next Saturday’s rally starts they’ll have IDs on a large number of these people.
dmsilev
@Major Major Major Major: Have fun! I just more-or-less finished a long play-through of that, deciding to try my hand at building a really big production operation.
If you’ve just started, there’s a note at the beginning saying that the goal is to build and launch a rocket; doing that will end up taking several hundred thousand resources of various types, which can take a while for a normal-sized production chain to craft into a rocket. A common goal for a big factory is to hit one rocket per minute. I hit about 0.6 RPM, and am well satisfied.
efgoldman
@Adam L Silverman:
I’m sure your right in the medium to long term political atmosphere. In the short term, though, I’m afraid more people are going to get hurt or killed. There’s a certain overlap in the Venn diagram of ammosexuals and right wing assholes. There were lots of visible weapons today in Charlottsville. One of these times, someone is going to feel threatened enough, or amped enough, or drunk enough, actually to start shooting. Then all kinds of shit hits the fan.
Adam L Silverman
@Kay: Ahhh Mike “From Michigan” Koernke. The janitor from the physical sciences building at University of Michigan.
From news reports there were a lot of MAGA hats, as well as t-shirts and signs that mashed up NAZI sayings with support for the President. Say what you will about the fact that they’ve been able to ignore the dog whistle stuff for decades, but this type of stuff is not going to play well with the country club and nice, suburban Republicans. It’s one thing to ignore dog whistles, it’s quite another to have your nose rubbed into the fact that these folks are now the Republican President’s most ardent supporters.
In aikido, and other Japanese martial arts, we often refer to the Zen concept of training as first polishing a mirror and then holding it up to one’s attacker/opponent. This holds a mirror up for the portion of the GOP that considers itself mainstream, respectable, and not racist or bigoted. They are going to be very discomfited by what they see in that mirror.
Lyrebird
@SiubhanDuinne: @Adam L Silverman: Thanks for the explanations!
Sunlight sunlight sunlight. And I wouldn’t trust the current AG to protect anything other than his own hide, but Virginia? Plenty of problems there, like most states, but it’s called home by so many military folks as well as CIA HQ. I think Macmullin just praised Terry Mac (RawStory link) and admitted that the GOP’s been avoiding condemning racism…
Water is wet, I know, but the more conservative Utahns and Virginians and whoevers condeming the Nazis, the better in my book.
Cheryl Rofer
@Adam L Silverman: You may not know exactly which group they’re associated with, but the name “fasces” tells us what the general philosophy is.
AnotherBruce
@Adam L Silverman: Hooray for the “Deep State”.
Adam L Silverman
@efgoldman: Without a doubt. I’ve consistently written here that things are going to get bad in the short term. That people that don’t deserve to be hurt will be. I have not change my assessment.
Adam L Silverman
@Cheryl Rofer: Can’t quite put my finger on it…//
Major Major Major Major
@dmsilev: Yeah, this is obviously going to take some time…
lamh36
there is a picture floating around twitter that is alleged to be the victim in the Charlotteville attack.
So far I haven’t seen it confirmed by any media sources
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: I hear the pivot’s a-comin’!
Cheryl Rofer
@Adam L Silverman:
I would very much like this to be true. It would validate the way I see human beings. But I have seen so much unthinking support of Trump, no matter what, that I am waiting to see how this all plays out.
BTW, Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions has issued a stronger statement than the President did.
Jeffro
@Adam L Silverman: I dunno, Adam. what I got from my RWNJ dad earlier today was some dumb ‘both sides’ crap plus ‘BLM is sending reinforcements’…my air quote “libertarian” brother was remarkably silent all day…
They are nowhere close to taking ownership of what they have supported up to this point.
The Other Bob
Something I have been thinking about lately…
If your church has a Europianized depiction of Jesus on its walls, your church is part of the white supremacist problem.
Cheryl Rofer
AnotherBruce
@Cheryl Rofer: Cruz issued a stonger statement. Of course he’s done this because he’s smarter than Trump. Which is admittedly a low bar.
efgoldman
@Cheryl Rofer:
Who wrote that and what did they do with Evil Leprechaun, tie him up in the basement?
burnspbesq
@lamh36:
Sessions wants justice to prevail–his idea of justice, which bears no resemblance to yours or mine.
Adam L Silverman
@Cheryl Rofer: It isn’t a given, but their moment of truth and self discovery is coming. They will have to decide to stand up as Americans or be recognized for who they are on the basis of their implicit and/or explicit support of what is happening.
Also, it’s a Zen concept filtered through centuries of Japanese martial traditions. It’s not supposed to actually make sense, just sound impressive.//
dmsilev
@Cheryl Rofer:
That’s a pretty low bar to clear.
Adam L Silverman
@Jeffro: Next time you’re at your dad’s, when he’s out of the room, set the parental controls to block Fox News on his cable system. When he asks about him tell him the provider dropped it because of a dispute over concession fees. After a couple of months he should start to return to normal.
And I wish I was kidding here.
Matt McIrvin
@Lyrebird: Some people on twitter say they’re fasces. Shouldn’t that look more like a bundle of rods than a rolling pin?
Adam L Silverman
@efgoldman: It wasn’t his spokeswoman. She’s morally ugly down to the DNA.
gene108
@Phred:
It is the right, proper, and traditional order of things in America for white people, who declare whites are superior, to be able to beat the shit out of people who disagree under the cover of law.
White supremacists only felt the pain after the 1960’s, when the Feds started cracking down on them. And it took the Feds decades, well into the 1980’s and early 1990’s, to take the ability of white supremacists to act with impunity away.
There’s a dark underbelly to this country that was put in the corner and realized if they stepped out things would go badly for them, until Trump came along.
AnotherBruce
@Adam L Silverman: When you are talking about real Blood and Soil Nazis, there’s not a lot of safe space or ambiguity. You have to take a stand. I wonder when the Poltroon in Chief will come to this realization. Also, I’m not confident he will.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
lamh36
I want more of this to happen…time for folks with loud platforms who can certainly afford to more than some poor line worker or broke student, to speak up!
dmsilev
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: ‘on background’? So, their position is ‘We condemn violence, but don’t quote me on that’?
Adam L Silverman
@Matt McIrvin: They’re stylized outlined fasces. If you look at the shield to the left of the alleged murderer you can clearly see that’s what they are.
Matt McIrvin
@Lyrebird:
You know who gets zero credit, though? Nigel Farage. That man just had the gall to cluck about the sadness of Nazi salutes in America. You don’t want them, how about not helping to bring them here?
Matt McIrvin
@Adam L Silverman: I had missed the one that was right side up, with the axe blade.
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
Just keep whistling in the dark! I mean, come on. Every day is stuff like this:
He embraces these people. He finds them and hires them. It doesn’t matter what the job is- he’ll just slot them in anywhere. We’re lucky Clovis isn’t the attorney general. Was probably on the short list.
Ivanka Trump could be the nicest, smartest person in the world and she was never going to save this presidency. This is what Donald Trump is. He doesn’t hide it. He’s never hidden it. If Obama had been an absolute disaster as a human being no one would say “well, his mother in law lives in the White House and she seems nice so she’ll probably change him into a completely different person”. It’s just wacky.
Adam L Silverman
@AnotherBruce: They already have. Not making a clear distinction is sending a clear message. Certainly the folks at the Daily Stormer received a clear message:
sharl
@lamh36: Hmm, maybe an NFL team will rethink matters regarding Colin Kaepernick and sign hi…
Bwahahaha, I crack myself up sometimes.
Mike J
@dmsilev:
Waiting impatiently for Stardew Valley multiplayer. We can start a balloon-juice commune.
Adam L Silverman
@Matt McIrvin: No worries. It’s been a rough week for everyone. But the next time we’ll have to put a formal reprimand in your file.//
Adam L Silverman
@Kay: Clovis is part of AG Sessions circle. He also, from reporting, had a hand in connecting Carter Page with the campaign via Sessions.
Matt McIrvin
@Adam L Silverman: I may have to repeat Murderous Idiot Iconography 101.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Cheryl Rofer:
Mikhail Gorbachev will always be the real hero who peacefully ended the cold war to me. For the USSR, his reforms were too little too late. Maybe 20 years earlier. And it is incredible that non-violence worked back then. I think it’s safe to say that without the backing of the feds, things could have turned even uglier then they were.
Adam L Silverman
@Matt McIrvin: We have an online, remedial course. You can do it in a weekend.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: What gets me is that anyone could have watched Trump’s campaign rallies as depicted on TV and known that his election would egg the Nazis and Grand Imperial Kleagles into running riot, but everyone in the Republican Party is acting like this is some kind of surprise.
lamh36
@Adam L Silverman: Right…
I get that with family sometimes it easier to not confront, but I just can’t accept that. I’m sure the issues that need to be spoken about is different if you’re white than for my predominantly Black family. Overt racism, antisemitic rhetoric, etc, is just not something I have to deal with at family gathering or when I visit my mom or my old uncle.
I’m a firm believer that people will be who they will be, but I’ll be darned if I won’t speak up and speak out to friends and esp family about such things. Even if I wouldn’t change one thing with that speaking up, to do nothing, just to “keep the peace” within the family…no…nope. I am perfectly willing to never be in the presence of family members who refuse to change, and I have no trouble letting my family member know why.
It’s about time for folks to stop just saying “well what can you do…”
??? Martin
Virtually all millennials I interact with (several thousand – large sample) are like this. Gives me great confidence for the future.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@sharl:
Did he leave the 49ers or did they cut him? Does the organization deserve a little extra blame for CK being unemployed? Anyone have any thoughts?
lamh36
Speaking to family…matters…s
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
Any recent updates on the police helicopter crash?
Lizzy L
@Matt McIrvin:
I believe the relevant word here is “acting.”
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@??? Martin:
Young people of several races in that brave circle. I’m glad to see it.
Patricia Kayden
@Ohio Mom: What will follow them around? If they’re not arrested and prosecuted for violence what difference does that make?
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@lamh36:
It’s a rare condition, this day and age
To read any good news on the newspaper page
Matt McIrvin
@??? Martin: There’s a lot of little elementary-school, middle and high-school age white kids who are learning racist bullying from Trump. Another reason to smack this down hard.
On the other hand, they are part of a cohort even more diverse than the millennials, so they’re going to get pushback.
Adam L Silverman
@lamh36: No arguments here. A test is coming for many white people. We will see where they line up once and for all.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Patricia Kayden:
It will make them unemployable social pariahs
Bobby Thomson
@Phred: I have to assume they chose this location because they knew the local cops would be sympathetic.
Adam L Silverman
ruemara
@Matt McIrvin: It’s as fake as their cries of Fake News. You’re watching people who just hate looking at themselves in a mirror.
AnotherBruce
@Adam L Silverman: Fuck Russia, we have to hang this around his neck. Repeat after me, Trump supports Nazi’s, Trump supports Nazis.
Also too, we should hang Russia around his neck. He clearly hates the United States.
Patricia Kayden
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: How do you know that? There are loads of White Supremacists/alt-right folks who are gainfully employed. All of the hundreds who turned up to riot in Charlottesville are unemployable?
I think you underestimate how pervasive the support for racism is in the US. This is how we ended up with Trump.
Adam L Silverman
@AnotherBruce:
. Aren’t we supposed to wait till the 3rd date? I mean I know my social life is a mess, but that seems to have been the rule of thumb that last time I was dating.
Amir Khalid
@Patricia Kayden:
“Shun the Nazi! SHUN HIM!”
It does work on some people.
sharl
@West of the Rockies (been a while): Earlier this year Colin Kaepernick opted out of the second year of his contract with the 49ers to become a free agent, so that was his choice.
I’m not normally a sports guy (to put it mildly), but lamh36’s comment reminded me that lately I’ve been hearing a lot of chatter regarding Kaepernick’s inability to land a contract with a team, and a lot of reporters and pundits/analysts who follow the NFL are rather suspicious of NFL claims that it isn’t related to his now notorious pre-game protest.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@Adam L Silverman:
Some will reveal themselves to be active racist assholes. Some will reveal themselves to be passive racists who won’t denounce white racism when they see it and will continue to blindly or knowingly accept unearned “white privilege”.
Others will denounce and (perhaps blindly) benefit from privilege.
Still others will denounce and strive for a “fair trade” approach to things.
Some fools, such as Omarosa and Katrina Pierson, will ignore shit in the pursuit of power and money and fame. A hell of a lot fewer of them, but it reveals that assholes come in all colors, creeds, and sexes.
GregB
I hit the fever swamps in Twitter. This is all a cock-up from George Soros doncha know?
Plus the driver was really a Bernie guy and a Trump hater too.
Plus melon headed fascist and full potato sack impersonator Alex Jones is all over this false flag story too.
Who could have predicted the world would spin out of control with a rage tweeter with a God complex and a shithouse societal engineer with conjoined liver running the fucking show?
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@Patricia Kayden:
Excellent point. There are racist doctors, cops, professors, house painters, etc. Having a job is no inoculation from idiocy.
Another Scott
@Kay: I don’t know about the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s for the City of Charlottesville, but our state Attorney General – Mark Herring – is a great public servant. And isn’t afraid to speak clearly about what happened:
If there’s a reason for the state to get involved, Herring will jump in with both feet to prosecute these monsters.
Cheers,
Scott.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Patricia Kayden:
After what happened today, I am open to second amendment solutions if peaceful ones don’t pan out
/s
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@sharl:
I think the Rams would do well to sign him. Their QB is young and not very impressive. L.A. has a significant black population and a sordid history of racism; maybe such a hire would be another small step towards cohesion?
sharl
@West of the Rockies (been a while), @sharl:
Here’s a recent show I half-listened to that discussed the Kaepernick situation. There are further links at that post, and also a lot of commenters with the usual sports fan disagreements regarding NFL team owner motivations and competencies, Kaepernick’s merits as a player, the meaning of patriotism vs. standing for the Pledge, etc.
sharl
@West of the Rockies (been a while): Not being a sports person, I’m in no position to offer an informed opinion. But presuming he is NFL-worthy, this would be an opportune moment for someone to pick him up on at least a short-term contract, with (temporarily) reduced criticism, which is always a consideration for corporate suits, even absent legitimate concerns about our national tradition of racism.
Another Scott
@The Other Bob: That’s probably too broad a brush.
Zeinab Badawi of the BBC had a fascinating series on Africa last week or so. In one episode she was talking with some prelate or bishop or something of some ancient Christian church in Ethiopia. She was asking what he thought about some of the pictures of Jesus showing him as white while some of the newer pictures showed him having African hair and dark skin – how did the locals relate to that? He said he didn’t see a problem with it, but he himself always felt that Jesus was a Jew so he believed that he should be portrayed as “white”.
Religion as we see it today is very complex and probably can’t be explained by looking just at what some English or French or German guys did a few hundred years ago.
Cheers,
Scott.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@sharl:
I concur.
Brachiator
@scav:
Very late reply. Thanks very much.
Brachiator
@Another Scott:
Was the interview and response in English?
I thought that some of the early artistic depictions of the Black Jesus came out of the ancient Ethiopian church tradition, so I find this statement about Jesus to be a bit puzzling.
sm*t cl*de
@Cheryl Rofer:
There is the theory that non-violent traditional choral music was how the Baltic states convinced Gorbachev that allowing them autonomy was better than a violent re-assertion of Russian power… and there is another theory (which is mine), which is that it was all achieved by Vana Tallinn, and Russians drinking it, and thinking “People who drink this stuff must be hardcore and really not worth fighting with.”
Also (in the case of Latvia) Riga Black Balsam.
SiubhanDuinne
@sm*t cl*de:
Heh.
Cheryl Rofer
@sm*t cl*de: Or the herbal stuff my Kazakh colleagues gave me. Can’t recall the name, kept the bottle. But it’s in a higher cabinet I’m too lazy to access.
Cheryl Rofer
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: There were a number of factors. Mikhail Gorbachev’s decency and humanity was the biggest. But we can’t forget George H. W. Bush’s (and his team’s) capable handling of things from this side, particularly now when our president is screaming insults at a third-rate dictator.
debbie
@Kay:
And they him. Trump’s their useful idiot.
GHayduke
@debbie: Jefferson
Jim
Amen.