Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Bark louder, little dog.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

“But what about the lurkers?”

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

Not all heroes wear capes.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

You are here: Home / Politics / America / A Much Needed Forceful Statement From Justin Herdman, the US Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio

A Much Needed Forceful Statement From Justin Herdman, the US Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio

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Justin Herdman, the US Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, made a blunt, powerful statement today regarding white supremacy and those who adhere to it.

This guy gets it!

Perhaps he can explain it to the President?

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

62Comments

  2. 2.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    The fact that the guy who threatened the Youngstown Jewish Community Center lives so nearby me (same county) disturbs me, though I shouldn’t be surprised. White supremacy knows no boundaries and can pop up anywhere

  5. 5.

    HyperSphericalCow

    “A God-given and inalienable right to be on the losing side of this argument.”

    Oof. I think that this is one of the most powerful vectors of attack against the alt-right/white/whatever – these guys are losers. They are losing. They can thrash around, and do a lot of damage in the process, but so did the OG Nazis in 1944. And look how it turned out for them. We just have to keep up the fight.

  6. 6.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    @Martin:
    Isn’t that like the chicken and the egg?

    Anyway, I really appreciated that Herdman tore down the reactionary interpretation of “free speech” that says they should have the right to an audience.

    Nobody does and it’s not “censorship” to deny a platform to those that preach hatred and encourage violence

  7. 7.

    Adam L Silverman

    @rikyrah: My understanding is that there is more nuance than Maddow is presenting. Specifically, as reported by MSNBC this afternoon, USCIS has stated that they have handed off this responsibility to ICE because it is ICE that determines who is deported. The problem, as MSNBC reported, is that when asked ICE’s response was “this is the first we’ve heard about this”. Based on MSNBC’s reporting this afternoon, USCIS and ICE are now communicating to ensure the program transitions. Or doesn’t. I’ve got the segment queued up, but the clarification comes in when Velshi brings Julia Ainsley on at the 18 minute mark:

  14. 14.

    Adam L Silverman

    ALL HANDS BRACE FOR IMPACT! Twitter meltdown inbound!!!

  17. 17.

    rikyrah

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Silverman,
    I don’t believe in Nuance with these people. They say that ICE will take over…ICE who hadn’t heard of it. We still don’t have an answer as to why this happened in the first place. There is no nuance. Stop giving them any sliver of the benefit of the doubt. Damn it, how many cruelty related immigration stories have I posted in the past 2 years?

  18. 18.

    NobodySpecial

    This attorney is getting fired on Monday, I’ll bet. It would be faster, but Alberto Gonzalez isn’t there anymore.

  19. 19.

    Mike in NC

    Saw a good article online yesterday (Google “From Russia With Hate”) that detailed Putin’s efforts to promote right-wing white nationalism here and in Europe and other places scared out of their minds about brown people. Funding parties in about 15 countries on top of the installing Trump in the (very) White House.

  24. 24.

    Mary G

    Herdman is an ex-partner at Jones Day and was appointed by Trump, so I assume a Republican. God for him. You know there’s going to be blowback.

  25. 25.

    Adam L Silverman

    @rikyrah: I’m not saying there is any real nuance here. I’m just indicating that MSNBC is reporting that this is not exactly as the way Maddow is reporting it.

  29. 29.

    Ohio Mom

    It’s a marvelous speech but the glaring problem is that law enforcement has more than its share of bigots, misogynists, and yes, white supremicists. And they cover for each other.

  31. 31.

    Uncle Jeffy

    @Mary G: Another charge to add to the crimes against humanity charges laid on Trump and Stephen Miller (unless biological warfare has been made legal).

  34. 34.

    James E Powell

    @Ohio Mom:

    Agree completely. We have seen many instances of right wing radicals and unapologetic racists in police departments.

    This guy works for the president. I wonder how long he keeps that job. If he really believed a word of what he just said, he’d resign. It’s not like he will go hungry.

  35. 35.

    waratah

    We need more people like him standing up. The more people in positions of power that speak up the better it is. Republicans as well as Democrats. Would be better if it was before a threat was made.

  37. 37.

    ZeeLizzee

    Apropos of the original post: the guy saying “we are from 100 countries and of 100 faiths” is WHIE and circled by WHITE GUYS. Just saying….

  38. 38.

    Adam L Silverman

    @ZeeLizzee: Yes he is. And yes it would have been nice to have had some people of color and women and women of color up there with him. But the statement was excellent.

  39. 39.

    stinger

    Outstanding speech. Would have been even stronger had the visuals backed it up. Instead, white male Herdman was backed up by 4 other while males. I wish some thought had been given to that.

  40. 40.

    Jay

    Every time there's a new Steve King story I think back to the cowardice of Dems not to push for a censure or straight-up expulsion when they had the chance back in January. He is a ghoulish white supremacist https://t.co/q3uXOLNkdI— Christopher Mathias (@letsgomathias) August 27, 2019

  41. 41.

    Jay

    @stinger:

    It’s either authentic or it isn’t. Dragooning POC for the visuals isn’t the answer, more diversity is.

    Looking at an old group photo from the late ‘80’s of the tech company I used to work for, less than 50% of the people in the photo were white males.

  42. 42.

    BR

    @Adam L Silverman:

    In some ways it’s just as strong without a show of visible diversity. The people he’s speaking to — those who need to hear this message — need to see people like those standing on the stage telling them what’s what.

  43. 43.

    Barbara

    Youngstown isn’t far from Pittsburgh. All these actions are horrifying but I die a little every time I think of someone shooting elderly members of a synagogue along with two brothers with developmental disabilities, in order to “take it to the enemy,” in the neighborhood where my mother grew up.

  45. 45.

    stinger

    @Jay: I didn’t really want POC dragooned for the visuals. I wanted POC to be a sufficiently integral part of the senior leadership that they’d have been there by right.

  47. 47.

    sdhays

    @Jay: How the ever loving fuck is Steve Fucking King the Democrats’ fault? JFC, let the fucking Republicans have some fucking agency for once.

  49. 49.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @Mary G: Doesn’t mumps make men sterile? Modern ‘giving infected blankets to Native Americans’?

    Way to eliminate groups you are afraid of!

  50. 50.

    lgerard

    Madeleine Westerhout resigned as executive assistant to the President on Thursday after Trump learned she had shared information with reporters at a recent off-the-record meeting, during which she didn’t say her comments were off-the-record, according to sources familiar with her departure. Westerhout had discussed White House affairs during the session, which a reporter disclosed to White House staff.

    I would love to know which “reporter” ratted her out

  51. 51.

    Ruckus

    @BR:
    I agree. All white faces making this kind of statement…..
    Hard to say that there aren’t whites who agree with this when it’s all white up there. He was after all speaking to an all white, very racist audience and POC up there would just end up a totally turned off message. POC have been delivering this message most of my life and while it’s made a difference, the people who really need to hear it would just totally tune it out with POC up there. It’s unfortunate that it is true but if you want the message to get out it needs to be people in authority, white people in authority, unambiguously saying it. Which is exactly what this was.

  52. 52.

    Ruckus

    @stinger:
    POC would be a great visual for us, those who have already understood this long ago. We would appreciate the visual and believe it to be better because in a better world that would be better. In the racist world we live in those extreme racists would never hear a word if there were POC up there. I’m not saying that’s proper or right, just that’s the way it is. And even so you aren’t going to change many racist minds with this speech. But it will be better heard by the people who need to hear it most without POC up on that stage. This isn’t you or me saying this, this is the people that racists will have to deal with when they do their shit. That is power speaking to those who revel in power (because the only power they have is hate and guns) and that is all they understand. Bigger power. Power to make their lives more miserable than their already are.

  53. 53.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Perhaps he can explain it to the President?

    Obligatory Upton Sinclair quote: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary bigotry depends upon his not understanding it.”

  54. 54.

    Jay

    @Ruckus:

    So, Whipple, have an advantage.

    Case in point, I have 0 convictions in various protests,

    Consachs has 12, for the same protests.

    I’m white.

    She’s iniginous.

  56. 56.

    Sab

    @Jay: I like you and your posts, but your spelling sucks. And I am making allowance for the Canadian/Brit aspect.

    Iniginous? Mysoginist?

    Sometimes I can’t even guess what you meant to say.

  59. 59.

    bemused

    @Adam L Silverman:

    So Westerhout is out due to blabbing too much insider WH info but she’s not the first nor last to spill stuff that tick’s off trump. Are the other leakers just better at covering their tracks when talking with journalists?

  60. 60.

    Kathleen

    @Martin: I realize thread is dead but I wanted to thank you for this. Mainstream media contribute to this by treating pubs like Breitbart as legit media outlets and using them to attack Dems (“Clinton Cash y’all”, ht HandMag Haberman).

  61. 61.

    artem1s

    at least his family isn’t defending him as a ‘good guy’ this time… His mom’s reaction is what I’d like to see more of in these communities.

    “She thought that he had straightened up and got rid of all that stuff, but once she was shown the one video that prompted everything, she just broke down,” the police chief said.

    I hope Herdman’s message is mostly directed at those who radicalized this kid. This isn’t happening in a vacuum. Rural Ohio has been crawling with neo-nazis, white supremacists, radicalized militia, and second amendment kooks for over three decades now. Unfortunately, there will be plenty of Ohio Republicans calling for Herdman’s job today.

  62. 62.

    Tehanu

    @BR:

    In some ways it’s just as strong without a show of visible diversity. The people he’s speaking to — those who need to hear this message — need to see people like those standing on the stage telling them what’s what.

    Also @Ruckus:
    Yes. They only listen to white males. They need to see white males who aren’t racist jerks.

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