Donald Trump’s mouth-foaming press conference is turning out to be a very good thing for this country.
Say what?
Yes, a good thing. For decades now, white nationalists, neo-Nazis and Confederate wannabes have existed on the far flung fringes of society, occasionally popping up at rally here or a parade there. They seemed like cartoon characters – ridiculous and inconsequential, just like the original Nazis. Few paid them any mind, figuring they were simply vaguely pathetic figures who would quickly recede into the worm-holed woodwork from whence they came.
The Charlottesville rally would have been just another one of those forgettable moments, except for two things – the murder of Heather Heyer, run over by a white nationalist, and Donald Trump’s jaw-dropping defense of the hate groups.
From beginning to end, it was a stunning thing to witness from the president of the United States.
Asked why he waited so long to denounce the hate groups, he said, “I wanted to make sure — unlike most politicians, that what I said was correct … You don’t make statements that direct unless you know the fact.”
Oh, really? This from a man who insisted that Barack Obama was a Kenyan and Sen. Ted Cruz’ father might have been involved in Kennedy’s assassination.
Next he said, ““I think there is blame on both sides,” ignoring the fact that one side was there to foment hatred of Jews, blacks and others while the other was there to counteract it.
“I’ve condemned neo-Nazis,” he continued. “I’ve condemned many different groups. Not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me. Not all of those people were white supremacists by any stretch.”
Which is ridiculous on its face. These were people who came from all over the country to march, carry torches and chant “Whose streets? Our streets” and “Jews will not replace us.” If that’s not white supremacy and neo-Nazism, I’d sure like to know what is.
Finally, he said, “You have some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people on both sides … you had a lot of people in that group that were there to innocently protest — and very legally protest, because you know- I don’t know if you know, they had a permit. The other group didn’t have a permit.”
It was such a ludicrous statement that Twitter – Trump’s medium of choice – immediately brimmed with mockery, including this tweet from comedian Patton Oswalt over an image from the movie of Indiana Jones beating up a member of the master race: “Liberal arts college professor brutalizes Nazi, who has a permit. More alt-left indoctrination.”
Many people have called the president’s comments a low point for this country, and I agree.
But they have also forced many to publicly choose sides. For decades now, the Republican Party has softly courted the alt-right vote, in the process legitimizing them. That’s over and done now, I expect.
It’s also forcing the rest of us to wake up to and confront a real and growing threat from a slowly coalescing coalition of alt-right fringe groups. And if you don’t think that’s happening, all you have to do is look at the name of the Charlottesville rally.
It was called “Unite the Right.”
Image credit: Donkey Hotey
And the beat goes on…….. trump should resign before he is impeached.
Shameful. The president, these groups. I feel like I fell asleep and dropped back into the 60’s.
So ashamed of the president. He’s making our wonderful country the laughing stock of the world.
Which might be like letting the germ infested bug crawl out the door before you smash it. There would be some satisfaction in smashing it.
But, it might be more satisfactory to let it go; and let it be smashed by Nature.
And we thought the 60s were crazy. This time the radical is our president.
Did everyone see Trump’s tweets this morning? The man doesn’t know when to quit.
“Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments. You…..”
“…can’t change history, but you can learn from it. Robert E Lee, Stonewall Jackson – who’s next, Washington, Jefferson? So foolish! Also…”
“…the beauty that is being taken out of our cities, towns and parks will be greatly missed and never able to be comparably replaced!”
Can he be any more clueless?
I can listen to and even understand both sides of the Confederate statues story and, but I do not understand the knee-jerk reactions that say “People are trying to erase history!”. History is not being erased. It happened and we all know it happened. Some people say that the Confederacy seceded from and went to war against the United States, and we should not have statues and memorials honoring their leaders except in museums and national parks, and other people say they were great men and should be honored. But times change, public opinions change, even laws change (should we continue to honor people who created laws that harmed people after those laws have been rescinded?).
What it boils down to for me is, most of these statues were erected at a time when Jim Crow laws and the Klan were strong and oppressive forces in the south. The statues were not erected to honor anyone, but to project dominance.
It is easy for white people to look at them and say “oh, it’s just southern pride. It’s not hurting anyone.”, but black people have to walk by these statues every day and be reminded that a large portion of the country still considers them less than citizens and inferior people, and that there was a time when they were considered livestock.
The Civil Ended 150 years ago. Shouldn’t we remove these painful reminders and help our fellow black citizens heal now?
I am not A Trump supporter- but I do not like seeing Confederate statues being pulled down- and I am a northern – born woman.Trump is right-when does that behavior end? Do we take down statues of Washington and Jefferson- they were slave – holders also. Let the statues be a reminder of the healing that this proud country needs to do.The Civil War was also fought for states rights.
Do you see the statues of the founders of the USA and the traitors who waged war against the USA as the same?
Please read the Vice-President of the Confederacy’s declaration of secession. It was definitely about slavery and the differences of opinion between the North and South. The statues were erected during a resurgence of racism and Southern loyalty, and it is probably time that we moved forward as a nation and removed them. History is not being erased, but some things should be moved to museums.
I have a perfect solution to the problem of the statues of the Confederate generals!
Almost all of these are equestrian statues. That is, they depict the generals on horseback. So (here it comes!), let’s take down the generals, and leave their horses in place! Brilliant, no? The perfect compromise.
Stephan Colbert did a skit on just that idea!! Looked good to me. LOL
Oh my goodness! That was my funniest, most original idea in months. I am disappointed to learn that somebody else already thought of it. Oy.
I believe a poll I saw this morning said that 58% of republican voters still back trump. Also the vice pres. says he agrees with him. Amazing is all I can say. My father fought in WWII. Fought against nazis and now people defend them. He more than likely is spinning in his grave! 58% of republicans support white supremist and nazis. Unbelievable. If you support the fool they call their president, than your support everything the idiot believes in.
There are Republicans and there are Trump supporters.
The poll I saw yesterday said 48% of Trump supporters still approve of the job he is doing, and that he has a 34% overall job approval.
No matter the percentage Fred, if you support him you support hate.
Exactly.
“everything else he believes in.” Actually, he does not seem to believe in anything, except himself and his own notions.
So far, no trolls here, today. I want to let you know my new policy for Andrew Heller’s blog:
I will not argue with the trolls’ preposterous,often evil, often semi-literate, ideas, but I WILL insult them personally.
They’ll be here. It takes them awhile to collect their thoughts.
We have a new troll here, who writes the F-word over and over. Did you see that? Andrew was fairly gracious about it, but I hope I never have to read it, ever again.
We do?
Yes. Take a look back at your previous post. There is a guy named Rick who posted on August 14.
MY son sent me this and it must be running on the internet.
Dear God, If you want us to impeach Trump, give us a sign. Like, blot out the sun…. anytime in the next week. Thanks, America.
Your son is brilliant.
Haven’t heard from “Working Dad” probably on he his way back from Charlottesville after packing his white robe and hood away.
I condemn the alt-left Muslim terrorist attack that took place in Barcelona, Spain and join President Trump in pledging to support our Spanish friends.
Do you agree we need to denounce this alt-left Muslim act of terror?
So tell us big man. If you saw a Muslim man walking down the street what would you do?
Dad, Are you happy to appear utterly clueless and ignorant, or did you just sent off a stupid post?
How many, “Spanish friends,” do you have, Dad? Do you speak Spanish with a Castillian accent? Do you you even know what that means?
No, you dope, we do not agree with you. We all are murderous terrorists, and we all want to help ISIS take over the world! All of us Michigan folks in our cozy little lakeside homes actually are Jihadists! Murder and Chaos! Grandparents for the Islamic State! Working Dad for Caliph!
Ah, all is right with the world.
Ted! You and your son are champions! Hilarious! Please, Lord, send us a sign!
I see that Fred, Tom and the other liberal trolls are out in force as usual. They cannot deny the facts that are placed in front of them, so they divert the issue by making inane and insane remarks.
They try infer that someone if off their medications or do not have the same educational level that they supposedly have. There are quite a few other nasty things that they try to imply and use against anyone that does not share there view of the world. If they had there way their would be no 1st Amendment. If you do not kowtow to the party line off to the reeducation camp or even a death camp.
What they fail to understand is that the removal of the statues of the south is that is similar to the book burning by the brownshirts (today known as antifa and blm). If Andrew Heller, Tom, Fred and those who support antifa,blm and sjw believe that the removal of the statues will end the hatred by the blm they are very delusional. When they get through with the statues they will find something else to target. At some point Fred, Tom and others may find that they will become the targets of Blm and others because they also are white.
From what I can discern of Fred and Tom is that they would be against the American Revolutionary war. They would still want the British to rule over us.
The only beating the drums of war is by the left leaning media.
Number of innocent victims of islam so far in 2017: 0ver 5500. The number of victims of a left leaning kkk idiot: 1
I do not rely on the lame stream media to get all my information from. I do not have the contacts that lived in Europe as I did 20 years ago. Most whom have died of old age. The demomedia does not give the full story. One idiot deliberately runs down a bunch of people in Charlottesville and it is immediately reported as an terrorist act. Muslims bomb some train stations, airport terminals yelling “Allah is great, death to the great satin” and our politicians and others hem and haw on whether or not it was an act of terror.
Hey Mr. Party of Lincoln,
Humor us please. Why are you so determined to continued honoring the traitors who waged wars on, and eventually assassinated your beloved party founder?
and now Democrats have burned a statue of Lincoln. Will their hated never end?
What is this horsefrockey about burning a Lincoln statue?
Trump’s poll numbers are so low it reminds me of the night he won the presidency.
This quote sums it up.
“However, what is not only astounding but appalling is that the Trump supporters take a lot of pride in their ignorance, wearing it as almost a badge of honor and associating anything that smacks of intelligence and education as a ‘liberal conspiracy’. For anyone that has studied history, they will quickly recognize that this behavior is nothing new. It is the same mass mob mentality that occurred during every fascist regime”
With respect to North Korea, there is absolutely no threat from their missiles if we simply declare the entire USA to be a “Missile Free Zone”.
You are just flailing about this morning, aren’t you? I understand that you are terrified to admit you are wrong, and are hanging on to your misguided beliefs as tightly as you can, but I promise that once you do admit you made a mistake, we will welcome you with open arms and forgive you.
Daddy, You have made a couple of actually-funny jokes today. Please keep it up.
Some people just have to argue for the sake of arguing with someone else’s opinion. If one person says “I see that as black”, the oth jumps up and down and screams “No, you stupid ignoramous, it’s WHITEWHITEWHITE!” And maybe, it’s a shade of gray.
Sad, shameful, sinful, sorrowful, scandalous, shocking.
How much longer are we going to wait?
How much more silly embarrassing tweeting can we stand?
Hello? Congress? Is there ANYBODY there who will step forward and demand Trump’s resignation-or-impeachment? Hello?
Fred, It is your party (the democratic facists and socialists) that is the party of murderous thugs.
You can start by naming any true republican registered voter that murdered a member of the democratic party. I don not think you can. The only thing that you fred and jim says is make slanderous remarks. You have no facts and figures to back up your claims. Those kkk members pretending to me republicans are rino’s. They are republican in name only. Like some of the rino’s in congress. Run on the republican ticket, promising to voter republican but vote democrat once they are in office.
Like I said in an earlier post you are white, at some point the blm will run out of things to tear down. When thy do they will turn against people like you and attack you.
In their eyes all white people are the enemies of blm.
Why are you so determined to continue honoring the traitors who waged war on, and eventually assassinated your beloved party founder?
While we’re speaking of no facts and figures, if the KKK members “pretending to be Republicans” are RINO’s, (as well as Rino’s in Congress), shouldn’t it be the responsibility of True Republicans to expose them and call them out, instead of just saying “they don’t represent us?” BTW, what is the definition of a RINO? And as for BLM, their message is that they are opposed to racial profiling by police, and that there is a legitimate problem in the African American community that’s not happening in other communities. They are not opposed to law enforcement and not inciting violence against law enforcement. Those who are rioting and looting have been condemned by the BLM (and President Obama). So, while you say KKK and White Supremacists are not acting or speaking for you and other Republicans, you know “for a fact” that BLM are enemies all white people. Oh, and you “know for a fact” that all Democrats are facists, socialists and murderous thugs”.
He is among the people who hold 1.5 billion Muslims responsible for the actions of a few extremists, and expects them to weed out and turn in their bad apples. I don’t think he is capable of processing this logic, much less providing a rational explanation for why the same rules don’t apply to him and his party.
What he is doing is confirming what we already know about Trump supporters. They do not operate on facts or logic. I am actually planning to a website for all the absurd comments Trump supporters have been making. Jim III is providing me with some good material.
When the blm starts speaqking out about all the black on black crime in places in Chicago, Baltimore and the other large cities controlled by democrats, then I might believe their story line. But so long as they do not speak out against black on black crime they have no meaning to me.
Linda, RINO stands for “Republican In Name Only” the politician acts and tries to sound like a republican while running for office, but votes democrat when he/she gets into office.
Does known Republican, Trump supporter and former grand wizard of the KKK, David Duke have a history of voting Democratic?
An organization formed to protest racial profiling and police brutality against blacks has to speak out against all black on black crime as well before you consider them valid. They do speak out against those who act in their name while committing crimes, including rioting and looting. So, until you and all Republicans speak out against all racism, white supremacy hate speech and intimidation, and stop honoring those who fought a war so they could continue to own slaves, your messages have no meaning to me. Oh, BTW, in your earlier post, nice of you to combine foreign terrorism with domestic terrorism in your “facts and figures”.
I have this idea for a new political acronym: HINO. = Human In Name Only. Mr. Trump, and most of the other Republican presidential candidates, and these American Nazi Ninnies, plus our trolls on this web site.. The things they say, the ways they behave??? They do not act like human beings. HINOs!
We need to build a wall on our border, to keep these dopuses from our discussions. At best, these twerps are a waste of time and energy. At worst, they may show up in our neighborhoods with their legal firearms and their ugly tattoos.
If Hillary Clinton supporters stare at the eclipse today, Donald Trump will be impeached!
Tell all your friends!