Charlottesville…

If anyone actually thought racism was a thing of the past in America and that we should all move on and stop talking about it, they need not look any further than the events of Charlottesville, Virgina over the weekend.

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The Southern Poverty Law Center is calling it “the largest hate-gathering of its kind in decades.”

Friday night’s “White Lives Matter” march was a wake-up call.  Saturday’s violent Neo-Nazi/white supremacist melee’ that left 19 injured and 1 woman dead was an even bigger wake-up call. However, the response (or lack thereof) by Donald J. Trump was an absolute nightmare!
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https://twitter.com/joshua_eaton/status/896194524548091904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fthehill.com%2Fblogs%2Fballot-box%2F346285-far-right-protesters-gather-at-university-of-virginia-ahead-of-saturday

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White nationalists, Nazi’s, Ku Klux Klansmen, and other racist misfits were called to Charlottesville by Matthew Heimbach, a 26-year-old Maryland native who married into an Indiana family and quickly rose to prominence in the white supremacist movement. Their official reason for gathering was to protest the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue from the park that previously bore his name. However, when they all showed up in riot gear while carrying mace and donning makeshift police shields, it didn’t take long to figure out their true game.

“The biggest thing is a show of strength,” Heimbach said prior to the rally. “To show that our organizations that have been divided on class, been divided on religious issues, divided on ideological grounds, can put 14 words — ‘We must secure the existence of our people and the future for white children’ — as our primary motivating factor.”

He added: “I don’t want to fast forward 40 years and look my grandchildren in the eyes and have them say, ‘Why didn’t you do anything to stop this?’”

Yes, America, this is what “oppressed” white men look like.
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https://twitter.com/Tim_Dodson/status/896193840704573440?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fthehill.com%2Fblogs%2Fballot-box%2F346285-far-right-protesters-gather-at-university-of-virginia-ahead-of-saturday

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Chanting “White Lives Matter,” “Take Our Country Back,” and other racial and anti-Semitic rhetoric, hundreds of radicals from around the country descended on Charlottesville with an agenda much bigger than a statue of General Lee.  As their placards boldly stated, they were there to prove that the white race is “THE master race” and to take Donald Trump up on his word to give them their country back.

“We are determined to take our country back. We are going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump. That’s what we believed in. That’s why we voted for Donald Trump, because he said he’s going to take our country back,” former Grand Dragon of the KKK David Duke gleefully told television cameras.

Yes, all the racist and divisive bullshit Donald Trump spewed throughout the campaign, all the violence he permitted and even egged on at his rallies, all the chants of “Make America Great (i.e. WHITE) Again” he and his supporters screamed and shouted, has all boiled up to the surface. These bigots have boasted how they delivered the Oval Office to Trump (and Steve Bannon) and made him the most powerful leader of the free world.  Now, Donald, it’s time to pay the piper.

These white idiots see the rapid “browning” of America (they still haven’t gotten over a 2-term black president). They see their majority status slipping away.  They see their jobs and their economic power slipping away.  And they have no intention of slipping silently into 2nd place.  They are ready for an all-out race war, with Donald Trump as their modern-day General Robert E. Lee.

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So, how did “The Donald” respond to scores of white nationalists completely overtaking a US city and a known Nazi using a car to run over and kill an innocent American citizen? Like the spineless, pathetic, excuse of a leader that he is, that’s how!

During and after the divisive “White Lives Matter” march on Friday night, Trump and his White House cronies remained as silent as a church mouse.  By Saturday morning and while all hell was breaking loose, Trump continued to play the role of a mute. It was only after First Lady Melania Trump tweeted out a personal statement against the violence that “The Donald” felt like he should probably at least say something.

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence, on many sides. On many sides,” Trump said. “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.”

HUH???????

This is the same man who was deeply critical of Barack Obama for not calling Muslims who staged attacks against Americans “Islamic Terrorists.” Yet, he refused to put a label on the Charlottesville evil and call out the dirty bigots for what they really are: “WHITE SUPREMACIST TERRORISTS!”

Throughout the remainder of the day on Saturday, political pundit after political pundit continuously questioned when Trump would finally come around to calling the protesters out as the domestic terrorists that they are. Yet it was all by design.  He never did and he never will.  Here’s why.

KKK leader David Duke was right.  Donald Trump is in The White House today because of all the racists who put him there. They are his base. With an unprecedented approval rating hovering around 35%, Trump is not about to piss off the wind beneath his wings.  So, he appeared in front of the television cameras and delivered a whole lot of mumbo-jumbo that didn’t mean diddly squat.

Trump could have completely condemned the white terrorism with the same fervor that he has summoned against Islamic terrorism — but he didn’t. Trump could have told all the white nationalists, Nazi’s, and anti-Semites to disperse immediately or else he would order the Justice Department to prosecute each and every one of them to the full extent of the law — but he didn’t. Instead, he mumbled some mealy-mouthed dog doo doo about there being violence and wrong doing on both sides.  It was a moment that will go down as one of the most shameful spectacles in American history.

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Sometimes we just need to say it without adornment or finessing.

What we’re watching unfold in Charlottesville, with hundreds of white people bearing torches and chanting about the value of white lives and shouting slurs, is not a “far Right” protest. When you move that far right, past humanity, past decency, past goodness—you’re something else.

You’re not a supremacist, you’re not a nationalist, and you’re not alt-Right.

This is racism.
This is domestic terrorism.
This is religious extremism.
This is bigotry.
It is blind hatred of the most vile kind.
It doesn’t represent America.
It doesn’t represent Jesus.
It doesn’t speak for the majority of white Americans.
It’s a cancerous, terrible, putrid sickness that represents the absolute worst of who we are.

– Jon Pavlovitz

Donald Trump has opened Pandora’s Box and now, the chickens have come home to roost.  The events of Charlottesville are only the beginning.  These white nationalists have spent decades preparing for a race war and to return the white race to the throne of power where (they believe) it belongs.  Now, they are ready to implement their plans.

Too bad the orange-haired ignoramus in The White House is indebted to these bigots, is in over his head, and has absolutely no clue on how to be a REAL leader in the midst of a national crisis.

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OK WASSUP! covers Top News Today:
Charlottesville melee’ is a racial wake-up call.