Silence Speaks 0
In related news, Josh Marshall points out that
The Shafts and the Spears 0
Elie Mystal explains the dangers of the enablers of evil, those self-styled “intellectuals” and pundits who provide the rationales for hatred and bigotry. A snippet:
The law can confiscate and incarcerate all the spear points in the world, but it’s powerless to do anything about the shafts. The shafts are protected, not by the Second Amendment, but by the First. And the white supremacists hiding in plain sight know that and celebrate that and dare you to challenge them. When you do, they slither up their Free Speech crosses and claim the “high ground.”
Ugly Americans 0
Drunk as a skunk, stupid as a rock:
The 41-year-old American, who was lightly injured in the attack, is now under investigation for violating the law against the use of symbols from banned organisations, Dresden police said in a statement.
(snip)
Public displays of Nazi symbols like the swastika or gestures like the “Heil Hitler” salute have been banned in Germany since the end of World War II.
The polizei are looking for the assailant, who faces assault charges.
Deconstruction 0
In the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Tony Norman argues that the upcoming HBO series, Confederate, has morphed from a what-if to a documentary. He maintains that current events make it clear that the South won the war.
I must quibble. The South did indeed lose the war.
The South won the peace with the deconstruction of Reconstruction and with the deployment of the myth (today it would be called a “P. R. campaign”) of the nobility of the Lost Cause.
Hood and Winked 0
Petula Dvorak puts the blame where it belongs. A snippet (emphasis added):
Except today, there are no hoods.
Donald Trump gave everyone permission to take those hoods off with his winks, nods and refusal to take a moral stand on racial hatred and intimidation during his campaign and during the first six months of his presidency.
In a related article, Austin Gonzalez, who was present in Charlottesville, calls out Donald Trump’s “many-siderism,” which, I reckon, is sort of like both-siderism on siderism growth hormones.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Gather ye politeness where ye may.
Police say the young man and a friend found the gun unattended in a city park. They took it home, and one of them accidentally shot the other.
Out, Out, Trumpled Spot 0
Dick Polman considers Donald Trump’s weaselly reaction to the racist terrorism by vehicle in Charlottesville, Virginia, yesterday. A snippet:
Of course, denying responsibility would’ve made him look even worse, because the sheer weight of the evidence renders him guilty as charged. Yesterday’s spilt blood is on his hands.
Read the rest.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
Leonard Pitts, Jr., argues that one factor contributing to yesterday’s racist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, was our society’s inability to be honest about racism. A snippet:
Like when people say that talking about racism is racism.
Or when they babble pious inanities like “racism goes both ways” and “all lives matter.”
Nor have news media always brought clarity. It was pundits, after all, who kept ascribing Donald Trump’s rise to “economic anxiety” even as his followers were yelling racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic slurs with unbridled glee. And leave us not forget how media have allowed the folks who brought such chaos to Charlottesville to brand themselves under a banal-sounding new euphemism — the “alt-right” — as if they were not the same bunch of mouth-breathing, lowlife racists they always were.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
A fell swoop of politeness:
A bullet hit the man’s finger, went through a bedroom wall and exited into the living room, according to the report. He was treated at a local hospital.
The Trumpled Fan Club 0
Dana Milbank finds unwavering support for Donald Trump in an (un?) expected place. A snippet:
Balderdash.
There is absolutely no reason to think Trump’s support has slipped in the slightest among those who like him best: the 144 million men, women and children of the Russian Federation. A poll released by the Pew Research Center end of June found that fully 53 percent of Russians have confidence in Trump, 67 percent there think he’s a strong leader and 62 percent find him charismatic and well qualified.
