8/16/17: If you love Trump you assume The New York Times is fake news. Still, the Times tends to quote actual people. If those people are ever misquoted, they seek retraction.
Head of American Nazi Party approves of Trump statement.
At the Times, reporters begin coverage for the day by defining what the alt-right is and what it stands for. It is “anti-immigrant, anti-feminist, and opposed to homosexuality and gay and transgender rights.” (That sounds a lot like the Republican Party.) Leaders of the movement believe “higher education is ‘only appropriate for a cognitive elite’ and that most citizens should be educated in trade schools or apprenticeships.”
(I think we can assume the alt-right does not believe dark-skinned people are part of the “cognitive elite.”)
The alt-right is obsessed with a fear of “white genocide.” The Times explains:
“White genocide is a white nationalist
belief that white people, as a race,
are endangered and face extinction [emphasis added, unless otherwise
noted] as a result of nonwhite immigration and marriage between the races, a
process being manipulated by the Jews,” according to Ryan Lenz, editor of Hatewatch, for the Southern Poverty Law
Center.
Many neo-Nazi types in Charlottesville carried shields painted with a “14.” The number stands for fourteen words: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”
The slogan was created by David Lane, currently serving a
190-year prison sentence for murdering Jewish radio host Alan Berg.
 |
There are Americans who admire Nazism. And many admire Trump. |
Well then, who did enjoy Trump’s performance the day before? “Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth,” David Duke tweets. He’s a former leader of the K.K.K.
Richard Spencer, head of the American Nazi Party, is also impressed. “Trump’s statement was fair and down to earth,” says Spencer.
Pretty much everyone else is aghast. The commandant of the
Marine Corps tweets that there is “no place for racial hatred or extremism in
@USMC. Our core values of Honor, Courage, and Commitment frame the way Marines
live and act.” This statement makes me proud to say I’m a former Marine.
___
8/17/17: Julius Krein, founder of American Affairs, explains in The New York Times how he became a Trump supporter. He admits watching one of Trump’s campaign rallies. “I was riveted,” he says. He supported Candidate Trump in dozens of articles and TV appearances.
Now he admits he was wrong.
I can’t stand by this disgraceful
administration any longer, and I would urge anyone who once supported him as I
did to stop defending the forty-fifth president. Far from making America
great again, Mr. Trump has betrayed the
foundations of our common citizenship. For months, despite increasing chaos
and incoherence pouring out of this White House, I have given Mr. Trump the
benefit of the doubt.
He tried to convince himself that Trump wasn’t a
racist and wasn’t catering to
racists. “It is now clear that we were deluding ourselves. Either Mr. Trump is
genuinely sympathetic to the David Duke types, or he is so obtuse as to be
utterly incapable of learning from his worst mistakes.” (See: 8/16/17.)
___
8/18/17: It’s a sad day for “alt-right” types (see: 8/15/17). Steve Bannon, self-proclaimed voice of the movement, is ousted as chief strategist for the Trump administration.
Alex Marlow, editor in chief at Breitbart News, explains the frustration right-wing extremists are feeling with Bannon being tossed:
The president was buoyed to
election by capturing the hearts and minds of a populist, nationalist movement.
A lot of it was anti-Wall Street, anti-corporatist, anti-establishment. And now
we’re seeing that a lot of these guys remaining inside the White House are
exactly the opposite of what we told you you were going to get.
Here, the typical liberal might pose a question: What fool
was stupid enough to believe the GOP
establishment, or billionaire Donald J. Trump – would turn on Wall Street
and multinational corporations?
___
8/19/17: The White House announces that the President and the First Lady will not be attending the Kennedy Center Honors program scheduled for December. “The president and first lady have decided not to participate in this year’s activities to allow the honorees to celebrate without any political distraction.”
Good job, Mr. President! You’re finally thinking of others!
Oh…wait.
Honorees for lifetime work in art, music, dance, film, television and culture make it clear, in light of Trump’s Charlottesville remarks, they will skip a White House gala normally held in conjunction with the awards. Three of five honorees have said they’d not attend.
Carmen de Lavallade, a dancer and choreographer, 86, explains her decision to bow out. “In light of the socially divisive and morally caustic narrative that our current leadership is choosing to engage in,” she says, “and in keeping with the principles that I and so many others have fought for, I will be declining the invitation to attend the reception at the White House.”
So: The gala was going to lack gala. A fourth honoree LL Cool J hadn’t said for sure whether he’d attend.
The fifth, Cuban-American singer Gloria Estefan, said she’d show up, but only to press the president on his immigration policies.
Trump chickens out.
No comments:
Post a Comment