My mom and brother live in Charlottesville.
I've been visiting my family in this town for almost 30 years.
I know it well.
It's quaint, old and reeks of rich southern charm.
You can literally feel the history in the air.
I love it there not just because my family lives there but also because it's really a special place.
Albemarle County is the home of three Presidents, Madison, Monroe and the most well known, of course, Thomas Jefferson.
Once home to the late Sam Shepard and Jessica Lange as well as to authors William Faulkner and John Grisham and all time favorite celeb, Dave Mathews.
I'm sure I forgot someone rich and famous.. but you get the gist... it's lush with rolling countryside, southern, and beautiful.
It's also a bright blue spot politically.
Charlottesville went for Hillary overwhelmingly in the 2016 election.
Barack Obama snagged the county handily in both 08 and 2012.
It's a pretty progressive town in a traditionally southern state.
A lot has to do with the fact that it's home to the University of Virginia.
Designed by our third President, Jefferson himself.
It's truly an architectural wonder, a masterpiece, with it's signature Rotunda and famous palladium windows.
Prestigious and hard to get into.
Prestigious and hard to get into.
The
University is the Alma Mater to some other fairly notable attendees, (my own
brother), Edgar Allen Poe, the Kennedy bro's (Law School), Tina Fey,
Samuel Goldwyn Jr, Katie Couric and more recently Richard Bertrand Spencer, poster Boy for White Nationalism.
Richard Spencer. Born in Boston in 1978. Grew up in Texas.
Has quite a resume for prestigious schools attended. UVA, Duke and University of Chicago.
Smart cookie.
He is a boyish blonde Aryan right out of Hitlers Youth brigade.
I wondered if this was seriously an intentional look. The clean cut all white boyish spokesman for an all white America. It makes perfect sense.
The prepster white supremacist and now head of the Alt Right Movement that has been mainstreamed by Brietbart and the internet.
Did I mention he's a friend of Stephen Miller?
Of course he is.
I wondered if this was seriously an intentional look. The clean cut all white boyish spokesman for an all white America. It makes perfect sense.
The prepster white supremacist and now head of the Alt Right Movement that has been mainstreamed by Brietbart and the internet.
Did I mention he's a friend of Stephen Miller?
Of course he is.
Read
this interview by his former classmate and Atlantic writer, Graeme Wood to get a
glimpse of what this cocky, clean cut Nazi sympathizer is all about.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ma
https://www.theatlantic.com/ma
It hurt to see the live images Sunday morning of protests gone violent in a place so familiar to me as my own home.
Nazis,
White Supremacists, Confederates, White Nationalists, Southern Priders,
homegrown militias- all the regular uglies coming out to protest the removal
of one fucking statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee.
Unite the Right, with its Nazi like propaganda posters, planned this rally to protest because, well, it's a free country, and in a free society, like it or not, hate speech is protected.
The organizer, Jason Kessler, self proclaimed white nationalist and local activist in Charlottesville, had a bee in his bonnet for a long time about the "liberals' plotting the removal of the Robert E Lee statue.
Jason is a slippery character with a laundry list of less than flattering virtues.
He was convicted in 2005 for shoplifting, obstructing justice and for a
string of failures to appear and register, in addition to numerous
traffic violations and citations.
He helped to unseat the only black City Council member by exposing his racist tweets toward whites.
He helped to unseat the only black City Council member by exposing his racist tweets toward whites.
He's a real piece of far right work and it has been his mission to launch a campaign on liberal Charlottesville.
The rally was organized to protest the removal of a Confederate statue- as now the Confederacy apparently has come to define the Alt Right.
The Civil War. The side that lost and the side that fought to keep slaves. The South will rise again and so will an all white America.
The conflict that divided a fairly new nation and has plagued our country ever since.
Here we are in 2017 never coming to terms with the legacy of the Civil War. ...and all that it stood for.
The conflict that divided a fairly new nation and has plagued our country ever since.
Here we are in 2017 never coming to terms with the legacy of the Civil War. ...and all that it stood for.
The fact Nazi's and White Nationalists, and the KKK have been allowed to spew their hateful message for decades in the US- isn't new.
What is new is the level of which these groups are now emboldened to proudly display their hate and discrimination.
Which
brings me to our new President and how he single handedly opened the door wide to
these groups and gave them a literal seat at the table. If his campaign didn't bring it to our attention the appointment to positions within the White House itself certainly does.
Stephen Miller, Steve Bannon, and ex Breitbart British born/Hungarian tied, least of all American- loathsome creature, Sebastian Gorka.
Gorka's own mother was a Holocaust denier and apparently he has his own connections to a Hungarian Nazi organization.
Miller is the sole architect of the Anti Immigration policy, with a few racist skeleton's in his youthful closet.
A Santa Monica high school video that has been circulating on social media prove he was a racist in his teens after apparently being enlightened to the far right reading of NRA Wayne LaPierre's book.
Bannon the Breibart former editor whiz kid, a freak of biblical proportion with his apocalyptic view of the global order.
The fact he boasted that the dark side especially being like Satan is "power" should make anyone even a atheist tremble in their boots.
Miller is the sole architect of the Anti Immigration policy, with a few racist skeleton's in his youthful closet.
A Santa Monica high school video that has been circulating on social media prove he was a racist in his teens after apparently being enlightened to the far right reading of NRA Wayne LaPierre's book.
Bannon the Breibart former editor whiz kid, a freak of biblical proportion with his apocalyptic view of the global order.
The fact he boasted that the dark side especially being like Satan is "power" should make anyone even a atheist tremble in their boots.
How can these guys even be allowed to work in the US Government helping to form American policy? These men are part of a broader Neo Fascist far right movement. They literally want to dismantle the US government.
It's mind blowing. And Trump has surrounded himself with these types of guys and who knows how many others..
A young woman died Sunday in Charlottesville, Virginia. Senselessly and tragically.
Simply for showing up to protest, exercising the epitome of being "American" and motivated by what she felt was injustice and hate.
Lots of people were hurt and injured.
A town is reeling in shock and will never be the same.
Videos of a black man encircled and beaten by Neo-Nazis in a parking garage.
Chants against gays and Jews captured on iPhones, Nazi salutes and "Heil Trumps.
And then, there was the kid who intentionally plowed his vehicle, Isis style, into a crowd of peaceful protesters killing 32 year old Heather Heyer.
For all the talk of Muslim terrorists, yesterday we witnessed one of our own from middle America- Kentucky or Ohio and learned that white polo shirts and khakis are the new Robes of White Nationalism.
The most ironic thing that struck me was that these groups claim their right to march and rally, boasting that hate is protected under the free speech under the First amendment- and they are right..
But the groups they rally against and target their hate toward also have the right to protest the very hate that is protected. Kind of a cluster fuck of "rights" if you think about it too long.
But the groups they rally against and target their hate toward also have the right to protest the very hate that is protected. Kind of a cluster fuck of "rights" if you think about it too long.
In America you have the right to be a bigot and hate others but when the right to hate turns violent and murderous, then you lose that right.
Why is it necessary to wait until it turns violent and murderous?
Trumps comments on the events of yesterday were lame, weak and reflective of an empty moral compass- of the man himself. They lacked genuine compassion, appeared to be read off a card handed to him and did not call out those who profess hate and perpetuated the violence of the day.
His ambiguity was shameful.
A
bigot and a racist who is a weakling when standing up for true justice.
A man who couldn't and didn't condemn hatred, Nazi's, and racism from the power and privilege of the Oval Office. Or just a con man eyeing his re election and not wanting to throw the ugliest part of his base overboard.
I was repulsed by his campaign and I'm repelled at his lack of moral leadership as President.
Either way, it's disgusting. It's immoral and most of all it simply lacks the American leadership we have come to expect out of our President.
Today after two days he delivered the words we expected to hear, read off a tele prompter with the same lack of compassion and lack of genuine affect.
A little too late will now go down in history.
Today after two days he delivered the words we expected to hear, read off a tele prompter with the same lack of compassion and lack of genuine affect.
A little too late will now go down in history.
I was repulsed by his campaign and I'm repelled at his lack of moral leadership as President.
I
reminisced about Obama and what he would say on a day like Sunday.
Even George Bush who had the agonizing burden of 9/11 under his watch could address a country hurting.
Even George Bush who had the agonizing burden of 9/11 under his watch could address a country hurting.
What
Obama did in fact tweet, was Nelson Mandala's words about the learning
to hate and the teaching of love..a simple, yet profound message that put a
comforting arm around the horror of the day.
When will
enough be enough? When will those in government realize this man is no
leader and isn't fit to lead no matter how many votes he barely
garnished?
What will it take for the Republicans to stand up for common decency?
When will they stand up for their countrymen instead of their shallow political party?
When will those realize he is doing dangerous damage to our unity?
Will it be after another Charlotteville?
Will it be after another Charlotteville?
The ugliest in society have always existed, but they have remained in the shadows of the dark until now.
Sadly, Donald Trump has shined a beam of light on them to be plainly seen.
When will be enough?
