August 14, 2017


News and Views


WHEN I WAS YOUNG AND IN COLLEGE, I MADE A STRONG PRONOUNCEMENT OF SOME KIND AND A MAN I KNEW THERE SAID, “COME ON, LUCY. WHY DON’T YOU SAY WHAT YOU REALLY MEAN?” HE WAS SMILING, SO I KNOW HE WASN’T TICKED AT ME. WITH BERNIE SANDERS AND JOHN MCCAIN, I WILL ALWAYS KNOW WHAT THEY “REALLY MEAN,” AND THEREFORE I TRUST THEM. THEY’RE ALSO VERY SMART PEOPLE. EITHER FOR THE PRESIDENCY WOULD NOT TERRIFY OR DISGUST ME. I’M SORRY THAT I CAN’T SAY THE SAME THING FOR OUR CURRENT PRESIDENT.

http://www.politicususa.com/2017/08/12/bernie-sanders-shows-trump-real-leader-responds-racist-violence-charlottesville.html
Bernie Sanders Shows Trump How A Real Leader Responds To The Racist Violence In Charlottesville
By Jason Easley on Sat, Aug 12th, 2017 at 3:34 pm

Photograph -- Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) showed Trump how a real leader responds to racist violence in an American city.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) showed Trump how a real leader responds to racist violence in an American city.

In a statement provided to PoliticusUSA, Sen. Sanders said, “The white nationalist demonstration in Charlottesville, Virginia, is a reprehensible display of racism and hatred that has no place in our society. I am disgusted by the news, and my thoughts are with those in the Charlottesville community and around the country who have been targeted. While this incident is alarming, it is not surprising. Hate crimes and shows of hostility toward minorities have recently been surging. Now more than ever we must stand together against those who threaten our brothers and sisters.”

Instead of addressing the country immediately after the emergency was declared, Donald Trump waited for hours and then said that the violence in Charlottesville was “sad.” A real leader decries the violence and hate. Trump never spoke out against hate crimes. Trump didn’t condemn the people who were marching in his name. The racists have been a backbone of Trump support, so it isn’t surprising that violence caused by his own people is met with the Trump version of meh instead of strong statements and action.

Bernie Sanders showed Trump how a real leader behaves. What Trump is doing is a betrayal of his oath of office and a humiliation of the presidency.

Bernie Sanders, Charlottesville, Charlottesville violence, Sen. Bernie Sanders

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THE FBI IS ON THE JOB. THAT IS WHAT WE NEED. WHAT ABOUT THAT RICO ACT? THIS IS RACKETEERING, I WOULD THINK. THE IDIOTIC AMERICAN LOWBROW MEN WHO GET OUT THERE AND CAUSE TROUBLE LIKE THIS AREN’T ACTING ALONE. THE AMERICAN NAZIS ARE PROBABLY LINKED TO THE EUROPEAN NAZIS, AND SITES LIKE BREITBART, AMERICAN STORMER, ETC. MAKE MONEY ON THE INTERNET ATTENTION. I WOULD BE SURPRISED IF MAFIA BACKING ISN’T INVOLVED, TOO. ANYTHING THAT BRINGS IN MONEY MAY HAVE THEIR FINGERPRINTS ON IT. I HOPE SOME OF THE BIGWIGS BEHIND THIS ARE CAUGHT AND SENT TO PRISON. IF THEY AREN’T ALREADY UNDER SURVEILLANCE THEY SHOULD BE. IT WOULD BE GOOD TO LOOK AT THE NRA AS WELL. THEY ARE OF A SIMILAR MINDSET.

http://bangordailynews.com/2017/08/13/news/nation/fbi-probe-underway-into-charlottesville-white-nationalist-rally-violence/
POLL QUESTION
FBI probe underway into Charlottesville white nationalist rally violence
By Ian Simpson, Reuters
Posted Aug. 13, 2017, at 12:16 p.m.

Photograph -- White supremacists clash with counter protesters at a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Aug. 12, 2017. JOSHUA ROBERTS | REUTERS
White supremacists clash with counter protesters at a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Aug. 12, 2017.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia — U.S. authorities on Sunday are investigating the outbreak of violence in Virginia following a white nationalist rally that killed one person and injured more than 30, presenting President Donald Trump with a major domestic challenge.

The violence in the Southern college town of Charlottesville on Saturday was widely condemned, with many politicians and activists on both the left and right also criticizing Trump, a Republican, for waiting too long to address it and when he did so, failing to explicitly condemn the white-supremacist marchers who ignited the melee.

On Sunday, however, the White House said in a statement that Trump’s remarks on Saturday condemned all forms of violence and bigotry, including neo-Nazi groups and the Ku Klux Klan.

“The president said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry, and hatred, and of course that includes white supremacists, KKK, neo-Nazi, and all extremist groups,” the White House said. “He called for national unity and bringing all Americans together.”

The violence has put fresh pressure on the Trump administration to take an unequivocal stand against that segment of his political base. Some rightists have claimed allegiance to him.

Trump said on Saturday that there was more than one side to the Charlottesville incidents.

“We condemn, in the strongest possible terms, this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides,” he told reporters at his New Jersey golf course, without specifically mentioning or faulting the role of white nationalists.

Virginia police have not yet provided a motive for a man plowing a car into a crowd of people objecting to the white nationalists, but U.S. attorneys and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have opened a civil rights investigation into the crash, an FBI field office said.

Four people have been arrested, including James Fields, a 20-year-old white man from Ohio who is being held in jail on suspicion of crashing the car. The vehicle killed a 32-year-old woman and injured 19 people, five of them critically.

Federal authorities were also looking into a helicopter crash on Saturday that killed two Virginia state policemen aiding efforts to quell the clashes.

On Sunday morning, before the White House statement, Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and White House adviser, appealed on Twitter for Americans to “be one country UNITED. #Charlottesville.” She also posted: “There should be no place in society for racism, white supremacy and neo-nazis.”

Also before the statement, Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado, who chairs the Republican Party’s Senate election effort, called on the president to condemn “white supremacists” and to use the term.

“Calling out people for their acts of evil — let’s do it today — white nationalist, white supremacist,” Gardner said on CNN’s “State of the Union” program on Sunday. “We will not stand for their hate.”

An organizer of Saturday’s “Unite the Right” rally, which was staged to protest the planned removal of Confederate war hero Robert E. Lee’s statue from a park, said supporters of the event would not back down.

“Absolutely we are going to have further demonstrations in Charlottesville because our constitutional rights are being denied,” said Jason Kessler, whom civil rights groups identified as a white nationalist blogger. He did not specify when.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, declared a state of emergency and halted Saturday’s planned rally, but that did not stop the violence.


About 15 people were injured after rival groups fought pitched battles using fists, rocks and pepper spray.

“There is no place for you here,” McAuliffe said, addressing white supremacists. “There is no place for you in America.”

The rally stemmed from a long debate in the South over the Confederate battle flag and other symbols of the rebel side in the Civil War, which was fought over slavery.

The Charlottesville violence is the latest clash between far-rightists and the president’s opponents. At his January inauguration, black-clad anti-Trump protesters in Washington smashed windows, torched cars and clashed with police, leading to more than 200 arrests.

About two dozen people were arrested in Charlottesville in July when the Ku Klux Klan rallied against the plan to remove the Lee statue. Torch-wielding white nationalists also demonstrated in May against the removal.



“SOME OF THE WHITE NATIONALISTS AT SATURDAY'S RALLY CITED MR. TRUMP'S VICTORY, AFTER A CAMPAIGN OF RACIALLY CHARGED RHETORIC, AS VALIDATION FOR THEIR BELIEFS.” THIS FACT HAS BEEN OBVIOUS TO ALL HONEST OBSERVERS OF THE 2016 CAMPAIGN PERIOD. TRUMP CYNICALLY AND CRUELLY MANIPULATED PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT THE MOST SANE INDIVIDUALS IN OUR SOCIETY. I AM USING SANE LOOSELY HERE, BUT I DO FEEL THAT SANE PEOPLE ARE USUALLY AT ANY RATE HONEST AND CIVILIZED IN THEIR DEALINGS. I DON’T MEAN HOW THEY PICK UP THE PROPER UTENSIL AT A FORMAL DINNER OR BEHAVE PASSIVELY, BUT THEY ARE EMPATHETIC AND INTERESTED IN WHAT I THINK OF AS ENLIGHTENMENT OVER MONEY AND POWER.

THIS SOCIETY STRESSES POWER TOO MUCH, TO THE POINT THAT WHEN PEOPLE – ESPECIALLY MEN – DON’T GET ENOUGH RESPECT THEY ARE OFTEN READY TO FIGHT ABOUT IT. WOMEN FEEL SIMILAR THINGS, BUT JUST DON’T USUALLY BECOME VIOLENT LIKE THAT. I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN GLAD THAT I WAS BORN A WOMAN. THE AMERICAN PUBLIC ARE STANDING UP AND SPEAKING OUT FOR DECENCY AND THE TRUE AMERICAN WAY. THAT’S WHAT I LIKE TO SEE!

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/protests-vigils-around-us-decry-charlottesville-white-supremacist-rally/
CBS/AP August 14, 2017, 6:14 AM
Protests, vigils around U.S. decry Charlottesville rally

55 Photos
Photograph -- Protester in Richmond, Virginia waves flag he later planted in mouth of statue of Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart on August 13, 2017 WTVR-TV

SEATTLE -- Protesters decrying hatred and racism demonstrated and marched around the country, saying they felt compelled to counteract the white supremacist rally that spiraled into deadly violence in Virginia.

The gatherings Sunday spanned from anti-fascist protests in San Francisco to a march to President Trump's home in New York.

Some focused on showing support for the people whom white supremacists condemn. Other demonstrations were pushing for the removal of Confederate monuments, the issue that initially prompted white nationalists to gather in anger this weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia. Still other gatherings aimed to denounce fascism and a presidential administration that organizers feel has empowered white supremacists.

"People need to wake up, recognize that and resist it as fearlessly as it needs to be done," said Carl Dix, a leader of the Refuse Fascism group organizing demonstrations in New York, San Francisco and other cities. "This can't be allowed to fester and to grow because we've seen what happened in the past when that was allowed."

"It has to be confronted," said Dix, a New Yorker who spoke by phone from Charlottesville on Sunday afternoon. He had gone there to witness and deplore the white nationalist rally on Saturday that spiraled into bloodshed.

In Richmond, Virginia, protesters screaming "take down the monuments" marched from a downtown park to the beginning of historic Monument Avenue before surrounding the statue of J.E.B. Stuart and planting a flag in the Confederate general's horse's mouth Sunday night, reports the CBS affiliate there, WTVR-TV.

City crews removed the flag just after 1 a.m., the station says.

Roads were blocked and police urged drivers to "proceed with caution" as people flooded the street.

The noisy crowd accosted members of the media filming and live streaming the event.

White supremacist rallies in Va. lead to violence
55 PHOTOS

White supremacist rallies in Va. lead to violence
"Hey CBS, you're endangering lives right now," one protester said.

"Don't [expletive] film!" another protester shouted. "Don't [expletive] film!"

The crowd then began to chant the message and a man on a bike attempted to grab a WTVR camera.

The station's crew backed away and when they turned around, the man on the bike offered a one-finger salute before finally moving along with the crowd.

A WTVR photojournalist was assaulted earlier in the night when the protesters passed by a restaurant.

The photographer, who wasn't working for the station at the time, was using his cell phone to shoot video of the breaking news on Broad Street.

"Stop filming bro," one of the protesters yelled.

"I can film whatever I want," the WTVR staffer replied. "Get out of my face."

At that point, video shows the photographer's phone knocked out of his hands. His phone landed on the ground, but it captured a protester hitting the photojournalist with what he described as a big stick.

Officers responded and the photojournalist was transported via ambulance to a hospital. He received four staples in his skull and was released, WTVR reports.

"This is not a peaceful protest," he wrote.

In Seattle, a rally previously planned for Sunday by the conservative pro-Trump group known as Patriot Prayer drew hundreds of counter protesters. Police arrested three men and confiscated weapons as Trump supporters and counter-protesters converged downtown.

A barricade separated the two groups as police officers stood by dressed in riot gear. Police said they used pepper spray and blast balls to disperse crowds after fireworks were thrown at officers. In a statement, police said they observed some people in the counter protest carrying axe handles and two-by fours as they infiltrated the hundreds of peaceful demonstrators.

In Denver, several hundred demonstrators gathered beneath a statue of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in City Park and marched about 2 miles to the state Capitol. In Fort Collins, Colorado, marchers chanted "Everyone is welcome here. No hate, no fear." One demonstrator's sign said, "Make racists ashamed again."

In New York, protesters marched from several locations in Manhattan to Trump Tower, demanding the president denounce white nationalist groups involved in the violent confrontations in Charlottesville. One sign read: "Call out evil."

Helen Rubenstein, 62, was among hundreds of people who marched through downtown Los Angeles. She said her parents were Holocaust survivors, and she's worried that extremist views were becoming normal under the Trump presidency.

"I blame Donald Trump 100 percent because he emboldened all these people to incite hate, and they are now promoting violence and killing," Rubenstein said.

Charlottesville descended into violence Saturday after neo-Nazis, skinheads, Ku Klux Klan members and other white nationalists gathered to "take America back" and oppose plans to remove a Confederate statue in the Virginia college town, and hundreds of other people came to protest the rally. The groups clashed in street brawls, with hundreds of people throwing punches, hurling water bottles and beating each other with sticks and shields.

Eventually, a car rammed into a peaceful crowd of anti-white-nationalist protesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer. A Virginia State Police helicopter deployed in a large-scale response to the violence then crashed into the woods outside of town. Both troopers on board died.

A crowd gathered on the street where the crash happened for a vigil Sunday evening. They sang "Amazing Grace" and prayed around piles of flowers that mark the spot where Heyer was killed.

Prominent white nationalist Richard Spencer, who attended the rally, denied all responsibility for the violence. He blamed the counter-protesters and police.

Mr. Trump condemned what he called an "egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides," a statement that Democrats and some of the president's fellow Republicans saw as equivocating about who was to blame. The White House later added that the condemnation "includes white Supremacists, KKK, neo-Nazi and all extremist groups."

Some of the white nationalists at Saturday's rally cited Mr. Trump's victory, after a campaign of racially charged rhetoric, as validation for their beliefs. Some of the people protesting Sunday also point to the president and his campaign, saying they gave license to racist hatred that built into what happened in Charlottesville.

"For those who questioned whether 'oh, don't call it fascism' ... this should resolve those issues," Reiko Redmonde, an organizer of a Refuse Fascism protest planned in San Francisco, said by phone. "People need to get out in the streets to protest, in a determined way."



“SANDERS' POST ON HEYER'S DEATH HIGHLIGHTS SOME OF THE FORTHCOMING RHETORICAL ISSUES SURROUNDING THE CHARLOTTESVILLE CONFLICT. HISTORICALLY, IT HAS BEEN DIFFICULT TO FIND ANYONE WILLING TO DESCRIBE INCIDENTS INVOLVING THE FAR-RIGHT AS TERRORISM.”

THIS IS AN ISSUE WE REALLY MUST FACE AS A PEOPLE: ARE WE SERVANTS OF SLYE, GREEDY EVIL, OR ARE WE THE NATION OF THE FREE AND THE BRAVE? WE HAVE TO DECIDE, AND NOW. AS I’VE SAID ONCE BEFORE, THE ENEMY IS AT THE DOOR. WHAT I SEE, TOO OFTEN, HERE IN THE USA IS NOT, DEFINITELY NOT, “CHRISTIAN CHARITY.” DERP*!

https://www.bustle.com/p/bernie-sanders-statement-about-heather-heyer-emphasizes-what-really-killed-her-76260
Bernie Sanders' Statement About Heather Heyer Emphasizes What Really Killed Her
By CATE CARREJO
August 14, 2017


Photograph -- Drew Angerer/Getty Images News/Getty Images

Following her death at the ongoing conflict in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday, Sen. Bernie Sanders offered to Heather Heyer's family via Twitter Sunday afternoon and didn't back down from the real cause of her death. "Our condolences go out to the family of Heather Heyer who was killed by a terrorist as she protested Neo-Nazism and white supremacy," Sanders said, continuing in separate tweets:

Heather sacrificed her life in the fight for social and racial justice. She will not be forgotten. The best way for us to truly honor her memory is to make sure that, every day, we continue that struggle.

Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal from Charlottesville, died Saturday while attending counter-protests for the "Unite the Right" rally. A young white supremacist protester drove his car through a crowd near the University of Virginia, killing Heyer and injuring over a dozen others. There are little to no reports of the condition of the other victims, suggesting none other than Heyer had major injuries. The suspect, who came all the way from Ohio to attend the rally, is now in custody being held on suspicion of second-degree murder, malicious wounding and failure to stop in an accident that resulted in death, according to CNN.

Follow
Bernie Sanders ✔ @BernieSanders
Our condolences go out to the family of Heather Heyer who was killed by a terrorist as she protested Neo-Nazism and white supremacy.
2:19 PM - Aug 13, 2017
977 977 Replies 42,761 42,761 Retweets 152,233 152,233 likes

Sanders' post on Heyer's death highlights some of the forthcoming rhetorical issues surrounding the Charlottesville conflict. Historically, it has been difficult to find anyone willing to describe incidents involving the far-right as terrorism. However, a growing force of prominent figures, including Sen. Ted Cruz and National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster have used that word in connection with the events in Charlottesville.

"I think what terrorism is, is the use of violence to incite terror and fear, and of course it was terrorism," McMaster said Sunday during an interview on Meet the Press. "Certainly, we can confidently call it a form of terrorism."

Heyer herself was a fan of Sanders and campaigned for him via social media. Although she isn't alive to see his tribute, there's almost no doubt that she would have appreciated Sanders' recognition of her work. According to her mother, Susan Bro, Heyer shared many of the same qualities as the social justice-oriented senator.

Bro told HuffPost in an interview:

She always had a very strong sense of right and wrong, she always, even as a child, was very caught up in what she believed to be fair. Somehow I almost feel that this is what she was born to be, is a focal point for change. I'm proud that what she was doing was peaceful, she wasn't there fighting with people.

13 Aug
autumn @autumnklem
if you are not outraged by what is occurring in #Charolettesville , then you are part of the problem!!!!

Follow
autumn @autumnklem
this woman, heather heyer, lost her life standing up for what is right. she is a victim of DOMESTIC TERRORISM. pic.twitter.com/HoqJeulG7w
3:04 PM - Aug 13, 2017
View image on Twitter
2 2 Replies 2 2 Retweets 8 8 likes

Sanders has been a champion of the left throughout the last several years, and seems to have no intention of changing that mission. His ability to speak clearly and say what people want and need to hear has contributed enormously to his success as a politician, and now it's helping people come together in another challenging time for the nation.



SOME INTERNET GROUPS ARE STANDING UP FOR ISSUES AND PRINCIPLES OVER MONEY ALSO; EVEN THOUGH THE SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER SAID THERE HAD BEEN COMPLAINTS ABOUT GODADDY HOSTING THAT SITE FOR QUITE A WHILE, BEFORE THEY NOW DID SOMETHING ABOUT IT. THEY PROBABLY HAD THOUSANDS OF COMPLAINTS THIS TIME, AND DECIDED THAT IT JUST WASN’T WORTH THE HASSLE. IT WOULD ALSO BE INTERESTING IF THEY WERE TO BE SUED OF THE MATTER.

THERE IS DISPUTE OVER WHETHER ANONYMOUS ACTUALLY IS THE HACKER OF THE DAILY STORMER. THE SNOPES ARTICLE SHOWS THE CONFUSION – ONE PART OF WHICH IS THE FACT THAT APPARENTLY ANONYMOUS IS NOT A CLOSELY UNITED GROUP; BUT A GROUP LINKED IN SPIRIT AND CONSENSUS BUT NOT, IT APPEARS IN THIS ARTICLE, BY A FORMAL HIERARCHY. SEE THE INTERESTING SNOPES COMMENTS – IF INCONCLUSIVE – AT: http://www.snopes.com/anonymous-daily-stormer/.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/daily-stormer-being-dumped-by-godaddy-apparently-seized-by-anonymous/
CBS NEWS August 14, 2017, 2:53 AM
Daily Stormer being dumped by GoDaddy

Photograph -- Vehicle drives into group of protesters demonstrating against white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., on Sat., Aug. 12, 2017 RYAN M. KELLY/THE DAILY PROGRESS VIA AP

Web hosting company GoDaddy said Sunday it is cutting off white supremacist website the Daily Stormer after the site posted a scathing article about the woman killed at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday.

At the same time, posts on the site claimed the mysterious web hacking group Anonymous had seized control of the Daily Stormer, but Anonymous later disputed the claim.

In response to a tweet from activist Amy Siskind, GoDaddy tweeted that it had given the Daily Stormer 24 hours to move its domain to another provider for violating its terms of service.

Siskind, who describes herself on her Twitter page as, "President and Co-Founder of The New Agenda. Advocate for women's, LGBTQ rights, equality. Woman behind The Weekly List," had tweeted GoDaddy about a Daily Stormer article about Heather Heyer's physical appearance and what the extremist site depicted as her anti-white male views.

11h
Amy Siskind ✔ @Amy_Siskind
.@GoDaddy you host The Daily Stormer - they posted this on their site. Please retweet if you think this hate should be taken down & banned. pic.twitter.com/fqTtGoTbmn

Follow
GoDaddy ✔ @GoDaddy
We informed The Daily Stormer that they have 24 hours to move the domain to another provider, as they have violated our terms of service.
11:24 PM - Aug 13, 2017
1,849 1,849 Replies 14,021 14,021 Retweets 44,999 44,999 likes

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Heyer, 32, was hit and killed by a car allegedly driven by a man with white nationalist views when the car rammed a group of counter-protesters.

The Arizona Republic says GoDaddy confirmed its move in an email to the newspaper.

The paper also says GoDaddy "has drawn criticism for months for its willingness to provide a domain name for a website 'dedicated to spreading anti-Semitism, neo-Nazism, and white nationalism,' according to the Southern Poverty Law Center."

The Daily Stormer is a neo-Nazi, white supremacist website associated with the alt-right movement. It was pushing the Charlottesville rally.

GoDaddy, founded in 1997 and based in Scottsdale, Arizona, has some 6,000 employees worldwide, according to the Reuters news agency.

Early Monday, the top of the Daily Stormer site featured a purported claim from Anonymous that it had seized control of the site, but other articles and links were still active.

daiklys.jpg
Post on white supremacist website the Daily Stormer, purportedly from the mysterious hacking group known as Anonymous, saying it has grabbed control of the Daily Stormer, on August 14, 2017

There was no known initial comment on any platform from the Daily Stormer.

Later, one Anonymous Twitter feed discounted the claim:

Follow
Anonymous @YourAnonNews
This is likely to be the derps* from dailystormer engaging in a silly troll to woo their clueless base. If we're proven wrong, so be it. https://twitter.com/ivefallenawake/status/896990599286472705 …
3:05 AM - Aug 14, 2017
8 8 Replies 85 85 Retweets 143 143 likes

The Arizona Republic says GoDaddy confirmed its move in an email to the newspaper.

The paper also says GoDaddy "has drawn criticism for months for its willingness to provide a domain name for a website 'dedicated to spreading anti-Semitism, neo-Nazism, and white nationalism,' according to the Southern Poverty Law Center."


OH BOY! A NEW WORD: “DERP.” GO TO THIS WEBSITE FOR A DEEPER EXPLORATION OF THE CONCEPT. THE BASIC DEFINITION IS BELOW.

http://www.businessinsider.com/sorry-haters-derp-isnt-going-away-2013-6, Sorry, Haters: "Derp" Is A Useful Term, And It's Here to Stay, Josh Barro,
Jun. 5, 2013, 10:15 AM 69,014


https://www.google.com/search?q=derp+definition&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS725US725&oq=derp+&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l5.13230j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

informal
exclamation
1.
used as a substitute for speech regarded as meaningless or stupid, or to comment on a foolish or stupid action.
"Lower tax rates and far lower job creation. Derp"
noun
1.
foolishness or stupidity.
"the derp heard outside apparently was only the tip of the iceberg"



I HAVE TO DISAGREE WITH FRANCIS WILKINSON, WHO WROTE THIS BLOOMBERG ARTICLE. BERNIE IS ONE OF THE HALF DOZEN --OR LESS -- OF THE DEMOCRATS WHOM I WANT TO SEE IN THE PRESIDENCY. THEY’RE ALL COVERED IN THE SLIME OF BIG MONEY POLITICS. I DON’T WANT TO SEE THE PARTY SPLIT, BUT IF THEY WILL NOT LIBERALIZE THEIR PLATFORMS CONSIDERABLY, RUN SANDERS FOR PRESIDENT IN 2020, AND APOLOGIZE TO THE ELECTORATE; I WON’T BE SAD TO SEE IT HAPPEN. I’D RATHER VOTE FOR SOMEBODY WHO’S WORTH HIS SALT THAN GO ALONG WITH THE DEMS IN THE VIEW THAT THE WHOLE PARTY IS NECESSARY TO PRODUCE A WIN OVER A MAN LIKE DONALD TRUMP. BESIDES, I’M NOT SURE THAT THE WISDOM OF THE CROWD IN THAT MATTER IS EVEN ACCURATE, BUT I WANT TO STAND ON THE SIDE OF GOODNESS OVER EVIL; AND THE WAY THINGS ARE GOING SINCE TRUMP CAME IN, I DON’T BELIEVE USING THE WORD “EVIL” IS AN EXAGGERATION.

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-08-14/the-tracks-of-democratic-tears
The Tracks of Democratic Tears
The antidote to Trump is not Bernie.
By Francis Wilkinson
August 14, 2017, 8:30 AM EDT

Don't go there. Photographer: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

A bitter fight for leadership of the California Democratic Party won't shake the foundations of the party. The future of Democrats in California, let alone nationally, won't depend on whether a gruff Angeleno named Eric Bauman or a Bay Area outsider named Kimberly Ellis has the role of chief party functionary in the state.

Bauman defeated Ellis by a slim margin at the party convention in May, and Ellis and her backers have been disputing the outcome ever since. "I'm skeptical that this fight means anything outside the proverbial insiders," said former Democratic consultant Robert Shrum, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California. "This is the post-traumatic stress of having lost the unlosable election."

Democrats may have lost an unlosable race to an unthinkable president, but they still dominate in California, controlling every statewide elective office and both chambers of the legislature. Yet the leadership battle in the de facto capital of Democratic America could nonetheless have a corrosive effect.

The story told by the losing side -- at least so far -- of the California Democratic leadership contest has markers that are bound to resonate with certain activists and voters. "Ineligible Votes Swung Democratic Party Chair Election to Bauman," states a June press release on Ellis's Facebook page.

I have no capacity to judge whether Ellis's collection of accusations -- "1 vote from a proxy residing outside the district of his assigning delegate" -- add up to a coup in the state party. But the shape of the story matters, especially because we've heard it all before: The fix was in. The wrong people held sway. The impersonal, moneyed powers-that-be crushed the authentic voice of the people.

It's the same story many supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders told themselves when Sanders lost the 2016 presidential nomination to Hillary Clinton. Sanders would've won but for the nefarious influence of the establishment or unfair rules designed to punish insurgents or improper vote counting that didn’t project what the vote would have been had it been something different from what it was.

There is, of course, some truth running through such refrains. There is something like an establishment, and it is allied with wealthy Democrats. But the policy aims of the establishment are not vastly different from those pursued by Sanders supporters. What differentiates the establishment from the Sanders crowd is experience, capacity and realism as much as wealth.

To use that as the basis of a persecution tale is only one step removed from Donald Trump's lies about millions of illegal votes padding his opponent's total and his warnings, back when he thought he would lose, about a "rigged" election engineered by elites to deny his voters the satisfaction of showering comeuppance and contempt on their deserving targets.

Stories leave tracks. Trump built his tale of American carnage on the Tea Party's ennobling prequel, a story of liberty and tyranny, in which white men play all the heroic parts against dusky freeloaders and pesky women.

Clear thinking from leading voices in business, economics, politics, foreign affairs, culture, and more.

Kimberly Ellis, who supported Clinton in 2016, is one of many Democrats sledding in the narrative groove laid down by Sanders's 2016 campaign. The senator from Vermont is a problem for Democrats not because he is a lefty, but because he is a serial sower of fantasy and discord. An intra-party fight over single-payer health care, which some Sanders acolytes are determined to wage, is a horrible misallocation of Democratic capital when democracy and decency are under assault from the White House and Obamacare is still at risk from both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.

Likewise, some Sanders supporters have looked at the Republican agenda to strip resources from the poor and transfer them to the wealthy, and concluded that they should train their ire on first-term Democratic Senator Kamala Harris of California.

Winnie Wong, a co-founder of "People for Bernie," told Mic.com that Harris is the "preferred candidate" of the party's rich and out-of-touch donors. “These donors will line her coffers ahead of 2020, and she will have the next two years to craft a message of broad appeal to a rapidly changing electorate.”

The specter of a well-funded liberal candidate capable of a "broad appeal to a rapidly changing electorate" is apparently more than some Sanders supporters can tolerate.

Democrats are unlikely to be drawn too far off course by goofy politics. Every party is tempted by false leads when it's out of power. But the influence of the left is growing, and, as a matter of proportion, if nothing else, it probably should be. The left has been shut out of Democratic power for decades and out of American power even longer.

Yet "the left" is no more definitive a label than "Democrat." Sanders is only one component, even as he seeks to dominate the space and expand it, along with the risk of toxic effects.

In Washington we see the product of reckless policy promises and bogus narratives, of resentment and unreality and cries of "rigged!" The Democrats will be of multiple minds until they choose a presidential candidate. But one thing should be clear early on: The antidote to Trump isn't Bernie.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

To contact the author of this story:
Francis Wilkinson at fwilkinson1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Katy Roberts at kroberts29@bloomberg.net



THIS MAN IS PROBABLY MENTALLY DISTURBED, BUT HE SHOULD BE IN PRISON WITH ANTI-PSYCHOTIC DRUGS, RATHER THAN JUDGED INNOCENT AND CHARGED WITH AN ACCIDENT. I WATCHED THAT TAPE, AND WHAT HE DID WAS INTENTIONAL.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/suspect-deadly-virginia-car-ramming-due-court-070406706.html?soc_trk=gcm&soc_src=ecd5e8af-dc90-3332-9efb-d522bf6b8dfa&.tsrc=notification-brknews
Man accused of car-ramming in Charlottesville remains jailed
Associated Press August 14, 2017

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — An Ohio man accused of ramming his car into a crowd of protesters at a white nationalist rally in Virginia will remain in jail - at least until he has an attorney.

Judge Robert Downer declined to set bond at a hearing Monday for James Alex Fields Jr., who faces second-degree murder and other charges, until he has legal representation.

The judge says the public defenders' office informed him it could not represent Fields because a relative of someone in the office was injured in Saturday's protest. Downer said Charles Weber, a local attorney, will be appointed to represent the 20-year-old Fields.

The next scheduled court hearing is Aug. 25, though Fields' attorney could request a bond hearing before then.

Fields was not physically present in the courtroom but appeared via a video monitor. He was seated and wearing a black and white striped uniform. He answered questions from the judge with simple responses of "Yes, sir" when asked if he understood the judge.

He told the judge, "No, sir" when asked if he had ties to the community of Charlottesville.

Fields is charged in the death of Heather Heyer, 32, of Charlottesville. She died when Fields allegedly slammed his car amid a crowd of people protesting the white nationalist rally Saturday. Fields was arrested shortly after and has been in custody ever since.

Fields was fascinated with Nazism, idolized Adolf Hitler, and had been singled out by school officials in the 9th grade for his "deeply held, radical" convictions on race, a former high school teacher said Sunday. He also confided that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was younger and had been prescribed an anti-psychotic medication, Derek Weimer said in an interview with The Associated Press.

In high school, Fields was an "average" student, but with a keen interest in military history, Hitler, and Nazi Germany, said Weimer, who said he was Fields' social studies teacher at Randall K. Cooper high school in Union, Kentucky, in Fields' junior and senior years.

"Once you talked to James for a while, you would start to see that sympathy towards Nazism, that idolization of Hitler, that belief in white supremacy," Weimer said. "It would start to creep out."

Police say Fields drove his silver Dodge Challenger through a crowd of protesters in Charlottesville, killing Heyer and wounding 19 other people. A Virginia State Police helicopter deployed in a large-scale police response to the violence then crashed into the woods outside of town and both troopers on board died.

Fields had been photographed hours earlier carrying the emblem of Vanguard America, one of the hate groups that organized the "take America back" campaign in protest of the removal of a Confederate statue. The group on Sunday denied any association with the suspect, even as a separate hate group that organized Saturday's rally pledged on social media to organize future events that would be "bigger than Charlottesville."

The mayor of Charlottesville, political leaders of all political stripes, and activists and community organizers around the country planned rallies, vigils and education campaigns to combat the hate groups. They also urged President Donald Trump to forcefully denounce the organizations, some of which specifically cited Trump's election after a campaign of racially charged rhetoric as validation of their beliefs. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced late Saturday that federal authorities would pursue a civil rights investigation into the circumstances surrounding the crash.

Weimer recalled that school officials had singled out Fields when he was in 9th grade for his political beliefs and "deeply held, radical" convictions on race and Nazism.

"It was a known issue," he said.

Weimer said Fields left school for a while, and when he came back he was quieter about politics until his senior year, when politicians started to declare their candidacy for the 2016 presidential race. Weimer said Fields was a big Trump supporter because of what he believed to be Trump's views on race. Trump's proposal to build a border wall with Mexico was particularly appealing to Fields, Weimer said. Fields also admired the Confederacy for its military prowess, he said, though they never spoke about slavery.

As a senior, Fields wanted to join the army, and Weimer, a former officer in the Ohio National Guard, guided him through the process of applying, he said, believing that the military would expose Fields to people of different races and backgrounds and help him dispel his white supremacist views. But Fields was ultimately turned down, which was a big blow, Weimer said. Weimer said he lost contact with Fields after he graduated and was surprised to hear reports that Fields had enlisted in the army.

"The Army can confirm that James Alex Fields reported for basic military training in August of 2015, said Army spokeswoman Lt. Col. Jennifer Johnson. "He was, however, released from active duty due to a failure to meet training standards in December of 2015," she said.

Fields' mother, Samantha Bloom, told the AP late Saturday that she knew her son was going to Virginia for a political rally, but she had no idea it involved white supremacists.
"I just told him to be careful," she said, adding she warned him that if there were protests "to make sure he's doing it peacefully."


TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-declares-racism-evil-denounces-neo-nazis-kkk-164751880.html?soc_trk=gcm&soc_src=ecd5e8af-dc90-3332-9efb-d522bf6b8dfa&.tsrc=notification-brknews
Trump declares ‘racism is evil’ and denounces neo-Nazis, KKK
Dylan Stableford Yahoo News August 14, 2017

Photograph -- President Trump gestures while delivering a statement from the White House on Monday. (Photo: Evan Vucci/AP)

President Trump delivered a statement from the White House on Monday explicitly condemning violent white supremacists.

“Racism is evil,” Trump said from the White House Diplomatic Room. “And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.”

The comments came after Trump was widely criticized for only knocking violence from “many sides” at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., where a car was driven into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing a 32-year-old woman and injuring 19 other people. Two Virginia state troopers were also killed when their police helicopter crashed nearby. In his initial remarks Saturday, Trump did not explicitly call out neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan members or other self-identified white supremacists there.

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence, on many sides,” the president said during a previously-scheduled press event at his golf club in New Jersey. “On many sides. It’s been going on for a long time in our country. Not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama. This has been going on for a long, long time. It has no place in America.”
2:48 / 9:57

On Sunday, the White House attempted to clarify Trump’s message, saying that the president “condemns all forms of violence” — including hate groups.

“The president said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry, and hatred,” read the statement issued by an unnamed White House spokesperson. “Of course that includes white supremacists, KKK neo-Nazi and all extremist groups. He called for national unity and bringing all Americans together.”

But lawmakers on both sides of the aisle blasted Trump for not explicitly condemning the white supremacists involved.

“It’s very important for the nation to hear @potus describe events in #Charlottesville for what they are, a terror attack by #whitesupremacists,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., tweeted.

“We reject the racism and violence of white nationalists like the ones acting out in Charlottesville,” New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said in a statement. “Everyone in leadership must speak out.”

“Mr. President, we must call evil by its name,” Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., added. “These were white supremacists, and this was domestic terrorism.”

In his statement Monday, Trump did not use the word “terrorism” to describe the car attack in Charlottesville.

A vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., on Aug. 12, 2017. (Ryan M. Kelly/The Daily Progress via AP)

Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer said Trump bears responsibility for the violence that erupted in his city.

“Look at the campaign he ran,” Signer said in an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “I mean, look at the intentional courting, both on the one hand of all these white supremacists, white nationalists — a group like that — anti-Semitic groups, and then look on the other hand the repeated failure to step up, condemn, denounce, silence, you know, put to bed all those different efforts, just like we saw yesterday. I mean, this is not hard.”

On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, Trump’s national security adviser, said Trump’s denunciation of hate groups went without saying.

“When he condemned bigotry and hatred on all sides, that includes white supremacists and neo-Nazis, and I think it’s clear,” McMaster said. “I know it’s clear in his mind.”

On Sunday, Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and White House adviser, issued a two-part statement on Twitter calling out the hate groups by name.

“There should be no place in society for racism, white supremacy and neo-nazis,” Ivanka Trump tweeted. We must all come together as Americans — and be one country UNITED.”

Read more from Yahoo News on the violence in Charlottesville:
Photographer captures moment car slams into counterprotesters
Trump on Charlottesville violence: ‘To me, it’s very, very sad’
Lawmakers on both sides call for Trump to denounce white supremacists
Scaramucci criticizes Trump’s reaction to Charlottesville violence
FBI probe underway