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Tuesday 15 August 2017

Gone With the Whirlwind (inthesedeserts): The Sudden Fall of the Last Confederate Soldier

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The photographer of this incredible and widely-shared photo should get credit. His name is Andrew Shurtleff (@shurtleff): image via Ari Scott @ariscott, 13 August 2017


 I mean, if you want to keep this as a Confederate memorial, it's at least a fair representation of how they looked in 1865.: image via Punching Nazis @inthesedeserts, 14 August 2017


Earlier in a parking garage in #Charlottesvlle - white supremacists beat this black kid w/poles. [Photo by @zdroberts for @NationofChange]: image via Zach D Roberts @zdroberts, 12 August 2017


#USA One dead at US far-right rally, Trump blames 'many sides' Photo @RichardsAFP #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 14 August 2017


 "No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion...": image via Barack Obama @BarackObama, 12 August 2017


#USA Demonstrators protest against hate, white supremacy groups and US President Trump in Chicago. Photo @joshua_lott #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 14 August 2017


12:24pm @codepink's Medea Benjamin standing in front of a police line outside Emancipation Park.: image via Alejandro Alvarez @aletweetsnews, 12 August 2017


I've seen people get their skulls straight crushed today here in #charlottesvilleduring #unitetheright rally. @USATODAY @indystar @RbtKing: image via Mykal McEldowney @mykalmphoto, 12 August 2017


I've seen people get their skulls straight crushed today here in #charlottesvilleduring #unitetheright rally. @USATODAY @indystar @RbtKing: image via Mykal McEldowney @mykalmphoto, 12 August 2017


I've seen people get their skulls straight crushed today here in #charlottesvilleduring #unitetheright rally. @USATODAY @indystar @RbtKing: image via Mykal McEldowney @mykalmphoto, 12 August 2017


I've seen people get their skulls straight crushed today here in #charlottesvilleduring #unitetheright rally. @USATODAY @indystar @RbtKing: image via Mykal McEldowney @mykalmphoto, 12 August 2017


Earlier at the park: armed militia member pulls a gun on protesters. From footage by @FordFischer. #Charlottesville: image via News2Share @N2Sreports, 12 August 2017


#Charlottesville: A "Unite the Right" attendee pulled a gun (twice) on the crowd. @FordFischer got it on camera: image via Alejandro Alvarez @aletweetsnews, 14 August 2017

 
3:49pm Somebody found a tiki torch from last night and stuffed it with flowers #Charlottesville: image via Alejandro Alvarez @aletweetsnews, 14 August 2017


#Charlottesville: : Jason Kessler's press conference was disrupted by protesters. They chased him out...: image via Alejandro Alvarez @aletweetsnews, 13 August 2017

Nazis, Charlottesville and the President. W/@GlennThrush @ruthbenghiat @DavidAFrench @JamilSmith @zdroberts: image via To The Point @ToThePoint_KCRW, 14 August 2017

 

Charlottesville: image via Nation of Change @NationofChange,14 August 2017

Charlottesville Mayor responds to POTUS asking to study incident in VA: "[Trump] should look in the mirror.": tweet via Face The Nation @FaceTheNation, 13 August 2017


American Nazis in the 1930s—The German American Bund @TheAtlPhoto: Image via Photojournalism @photojoournalink, 14 August 2017  

White Nationalist promised to come back to Charlottesville "1,000 times." Mayor says responsibility is to allow free speech, peaceably.: tweet via Face The Nation @FaceTheNation, 13 August 2017


Several hundred in Oakland marching in solidarity with Cville: image via Julia Carrie Wong @juliacarriew,12 August 2017


 Chicago joins cities around the nation remembering the victims of : image via Scott Olson @olsongetty, 13 August 2017


The United States is in a tailspin. White supremacists are on the march – and have left a trail of blood and destruction in their wake. A march in Charlottesville, Virginia, filled with torches, Nazi flags and chants of “White Lives Matter” culminated in violence that claimed at least one life, and left many more injured.

This is just what many feared the Trump presidency would unleash. David Duke, the former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, supported that view when he said on Saturday that the march “fulfills the promises of Donald Trump” to “take our country back”.

The president was slow to disabuse people of that view. When the nation turned to the president on Friday to condemn the unrest provoked by the “Unite the Right” far-right rally, he instead blamed “many sides”. In other words: he lumped together anti-racist protesters with white supremacists. 

It took more than 36 hours – and a killing believed to have been carried out by a neo-Nazi – for the White House to denounce white supremacists. Although the president prefers to communicate directly with the American people through Twitter, he didn’t do that this time. Instead, the delayed statement was attributed to an unnamed White House spokesperson.

None of this makes sense. Unless, that is, we come to grips with the reality that we are seeing the effects of far too many Americans strung out on the most pervasive, devastating, reality-warping drug to ever hit the United States: white supremacy.

Like all forms of substance abuse, it has destroyed families and communities and put enormous strains on governmental institutions. It has made millions of Americans forsake their God and jettison their patriotism just to get a taste.

High on its effects, its users feel powerful, heady, even as they and everything around them disintegrates. And, as with most drug crises, while not everyone may be strung out, everyone is very surely affected.

In 2017, millions of Americans are hooked on this drug. As clearly as track marks in the arms, the most visible signs are all around us.

The “Heil Trump” salutes at a gathering of white nationalists shortly before the inauguration. An uptick in reported hate crimes across the country. The killing of Lt Richard Collins by a white supremacist in Maryland. The double homicide and severe wounding of Good Samaritans defending teen girls in Portland from another emboldened white supremacist. The nooses found at and near the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

There are other signs, too – signs that this addiction is always lurking, demanding to be fed. The 2016 election brought that into stark relief as voters flocked to Donald Trump, despite his explicit racism or, just as important, because of it. His birther harangues lent him a stature among hardcore supporters that no other candidate could match.

Trump was the antithesis of Barack Obama, and therefore, in the Gregor Samsa world of white supremacy, the most attractive candidate. Yet, odious as he may be to many, Trump is, in fact, only a symptom.

All of his racist rants would have dropped him on the outskirts of the lunatic fringe if it hadn’t been for the way that a major political party had spent decades making white supremacy the Republican party’s drug of choice.

The Republicans, of course, believed that they could control it. Getting a little taste every now and then, the party would swear that it wasn’t hooked, but, inevitably it needed an even more powerful strain each time to feel that high.

In 1968, Richard Nixon dabbled in it when he ran for office on the Southern Strategy, which promised a curtailment of black civil rights in order to woo disaffected white Americans from the Democratic party into the Republican party. And the disaffection ran deep.

No Democrat running for president has won the majority of white voters since Lyndon Johnson legally acknowledged that African Americans were actually US citizens. But if Nixon was like a weekend user binging on “law and order” between detoxes on affirmative action in government contracts, subsequent Republican presidential candidates have bowed down to the drug supreme: there was Ronald Reagan’s “welfare queen”, George HW Bush’s “Willie Horton”, Mitt Romney’s “47%”.

With white supremacy’s current grip on the Republican party, everything the addict once valued has become expendable. Gone from power are moderate Republicans who believed in limited government, fiscal restraint and civil rights. Gone, as well, is the clout of the national security hawks, who put American sovereignty, might, and global leadership first.

Alliances with Nato and Europe now hang by a thread as global white nationalist movements, backed by Trump’s benefactor Vladimir Putin, have worked to undermine democracy in Britain, France and Germany.

Domestically, the picture is just as deranged. The Republican’s flag-waving base and congressional leadership have supported Trump’s denigration of the CIA and humiliation of the FBI. Like a God-fearing suburban soccer mom turning tricks to feed the habit, the symbols of patriotism and love of country have been no match for the addiction.

As long as Trump gives the white supremacists one more Ice raid, one more deportation, one more Muslim travel ban, one more hunt for “illegal voters” in a sanctuary city, the craving is temporarily satisfied. And as with any addict, anything that gets in between the user and the drug has to go.

Republican congressional leaders fully understand. Trump, the pusher with a bad Russian habit, has become a way for the base to mainline. And because their very survival is tied up with feeding their constituency’s constant need for a fix, Republicans, acting like rogue cops straight out of Serpico, have made the decision to protect the pusher, bury his misdeeds, and attack his accusers.

In June 2016, Paul Ryan swore his caucus to secrecy when a meeting with a Ukrainian official led one congressman to conclude that “I think Putin pays ... Trump. Swear to God.”

In October 2016, Mitch McConnell threatened Obama if the president announced that 17 intelligence agencies had evidence of Russian interference in the election. In March 2017, the congressman Devin Nunes sabotaged his own committee’s hearings to protect Trump.

In May 2017, Senator Ted Cruz went after former the deputy attorney general Sally Yates because she had the audacity to issue a warning that Michael Flynn, the National Security Adviser, was subject to blackmail by the Kremlin. In June 2017, the fired FBI director James Comey came into the Republican party’s crosshairs, and many believe special prosecutor Robert Mueller is next.

Republicans have convinced themselves, as addicts do, that they’re still in charge, that they’re getting out of this what they’ve always wanted – tax cuts for the rich, eventual destruction of the Affordable Care Act, a supreme court that will overturn Roe v Wade, and decisively fewer regulations on private industry – but none of these, if they were truly sober and in their right minds, are worth destroying the United States for.

Yet, here we are. We’re not all addicted, but we’re surely enduring the consequences.

Carol Anderson is the Charles Howard Candler professor and chair of African American studies at Emory University and the author of White Rage.


Peter Cvjetanovic, a white nationalist, is upset that this photo of him has gone viral. So be nice: dont retweet this tweet 1000s of times.: image via Kurt Eichenwald @kurteichenwald, 13 August 2017


Id hate 2 be in @unevadareno administration, having to explain Peter Cvjetanovic to incoming freshman and 2 next yrs dwindling # of applicants: image via Kurt Eichenwald @kurteichenwald, 13 August 2017


Annnnd here's a photo of Peter Cvjetanovic (angry torch guy) with U.S. Sen. @DeanHeller (via @BattleBornProg) #GoodAltAltRight.: image via Yes, You're Racist @YesYoureRacist, 13 August 2017


Annnnd here's a photo of Peter Cvjetanovic (angry torch guy) with U.S. Sen. @DeanHeller (via @BattleBornProg) #GoodAltAltRight.
: image via Yes, You're Racist @YesYoureRacist, 13 August 2017



 Annnnd here's a photo of Peter Cvjetanovic (angry torch guy) with U.S. Sen. @DeanHeller (via @BattleBornProg) #GoodAltAltRight.: image via Yes, You're Racist @YesYoureRacist, 13 August 2017


Imagine if these people ever faced actual oppression.: image via Julius Goat @JuliusGoat, 12 August 2017


#Charlottesvlle rally organizer Jason Kessler chased out of press conference by crowd Photo @WinMc and @somogettynews
: image via GettyImagesNews, 13 August 2017



#Charlottesvlle rally organizer Jason Kessler chased out of press conference by crowd Photo @WinMc and @somogettynews
: image via GettyImagesNews, 13 August 2017



#Charlottesvlle rally organizer Jason Kessler chased out of press conference by crowd Photo @WinMc and @somogettynews: image via GettyImagesNews, 13 August 2017

If this guy were any more of a pussy, Trump would grab him. #Charlottesville #AltRight #Kessler: image via CK @charley_ck, 12 August 2017


I don't condone violence in any way, but it does have some sweet justice in watching a woman tackle #Kessler: image via Mary @loistoyou, 13 August 2017

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Probably the most divisive photo from #Charlottesville. How painfully literal. And how far we are from that conversation. @somogettynews:
image via Reading The Pictures @ReadingThePix, 14 August 2017

 
 

Sarah EmersonVerified account @SarahNEmerson 
bless
Reading The Pictures Retweeted Sarah Emerson
Reading The Pictures added,
“If you look closely, there’s an elderly white man standing between Long and his friend.” A backstory…w photographer issues too.
 

 image via Reading The Pictures @ReadingThePix, 14 August 2017


At best, perfect illustration for stories on Trump's inability to say the obvious. #Charlottesville. @AP_Images
: image via Reading The Pictures @ReadingThePix, 14 August 2017



Protesters actually inside #TrumpTower before DT arrival. Interesting and keen when it comes to breaking ranks w the man. Photo @drewangerer: image via Reading The Pictures @ReadingThePix, 14 August 2017

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Variation on outsourcing. #Charlottesville. @somogettynews: image via Reading The Pictures @ReadingThePix, 14 August 2017


emptywheel @emptywheel

Peter Cvjetanovic says, "I’m not the angry racist they see in that photo"
Reading The Pictures Retweeted emptywheel
Reading The Pictures added,
Waiting for one of those protesters to use the phrase, fake news photo.
image via Reading The Pictures @ReadngThePix, 14 August 2017
 

 

One more flaming of the White House. @libe: image via Reading The Pictures @ReadngThePix, 14 August 2017


What of *visual liberty* when white nationalist and state troops start to blur? Photo @VirginiaStatePolice: image via Reading The Pictures @ReadngThePix, 13 August 2017


What of *visual liberty* when white nationalist and state troops start to blur? Photo @somogettynews: image via Reading The Pictures @ReadngThePix, 13 August 2017


Trying not to be clever but this photograph unavoidably elevates role of the press in confronting white nationalism. @AP_Images
: image via Reading The Pictures @ReadngThePix, 13 August 2017


Spear: image via Reading The Pictures @ReadngThePix, 13 August 2017


At least the snapshot's a keeper: #Charlottesville Lee statue w faint but indelible #BlackLivesMatter in the base. Where we are right now.
: image via Reading The Pictures @ReadngThePix, 13 August 2017

O Gone Forever Those Torrid Tiki Torch Terror Nights of Summer (And Fall and Winter and Spring) Now That There's The Restraining Order Next Door!

 

Charlottesville Pinhead Nazi Boys vow to avenge serial dating failures by executing Friday night Tiki Torch Terror ritual "1000 Times, and Then Another 1000, and Then a 1000 More" : photo by Washington Post/Getty Images  via The Cut, 14 August 2017
 
Tiki Brand Does Not Condone the Use of Its Torches by White Supremacists: Sarah Spelling, The Cut, 14 August 2017

Following the use of their signature torches by neo-Nazis and white supremacists in Charlottesville, Tiki brand would like to separate itself from the people who bought their product en masse.

The white nationalists marched through Charlottesville with lit tiki torches on Friday night, ahead of a planned Unite the Right rally on Saturday. The violent crash left three dead and many injured.

Tiki brand posted on Facebook on Saturday that it does not support the Unite the Right rally; rather, its products are meant to bring people together, under the warm glow of a tiki torch.

It’s not the first brand that has made a public statement distancing itself from the alt-right. Fred Perry, purveyor of polo shirts, made a similar statement after the Proud Boys adopted its tops as a uniform.


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White nationalist demonstrators use shields as they guard the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017.: photo by Steve Helber/AP, 12 August 2017

Richard Spencer says Trump should order a federal investigation of Virginia and Charlottesville officials. "He's the big daddy"
: image via Ben Schreckinger @SchreckReports, 13 August 2017


Richard Spencer claims conservatives are bitter because he is more "intelligent" and "attractive" than they are: image via Ben Schreckinger @SchreckReports, 13 August 2017


Richard Spencer: "the conservatives are a bunch of idiots. I don't care about them anymore." " losers" "failures" "pathetic": image via Ben Schreckinger @SchreckReports, 13 August 2017


Richard Spencer on ANTIFA counter-protesters: "we could have killed them with our bare hands"
: image via Ben Schreckinger @SchreckReports, 13 August 2017



Spencer says media "narrative" finally coming around to scrutiny of mayor, Gov. Terry McAuliffe, and police image via Ben Schreckinger @SchreckReports, 13 August 2017



Richard Spencer prepares to give press conference at undisclosed location in Alexandria, Virginia
: image via Ben Schreckinger @SchreckReports, 13 August 2017


Protesters have inflated a Trump rat in front of the Plaza, down the street from Trump Tower.: image via southpaw @nycsouthpaw, 14 August 2017



Protesters have inflated a Trump rat in front of the Plaza, down the street from Trump Tower.: image via southpaw @nycsouthpaw, 14 August 2017



About 300 people just marched down Pennsylvania Ave. against white supremacy after #Charlottesville...: image via Alejandro Alvarez @aletweetsnews, 14 August 2017
 

About 300 people just marched down Pennsylvania Ave. against white supremacy after #Charlottesville...: image via Alejandro Alvarez @aletweetsnews, 14 August 2017

 

...they stopped by the Trump Hotel, where they all chanted SHAME for minutes...: image via Alejandro Alvarez @aletweetsnews, 14 August 2017
 

American Nazi Bund Rally near Yaphank, New York, in 1937.@TheAtlPhoto : image via Bettmann Archive / Getty


A crowd of approximately 20,000 attends a German American Bund Rally at New York's Madison Square Garden on February 20, 1939. At center is a large portrait of George Washington, claimed as an icon by the Bund, who called him "the first Fascist", claiming Washington "knew democracy could not work."@TheAtlPhoto : image via Bettmann Archive / Getty
 

Nearly 1,000 uniformed men wearing swastika arm bands and carrying Nazi banners parade past a reviewing stand in New Jersey on July 18, 1937. The New Jersey division of the German-American Bund opened its 100-acre Camp Nordland at Sussex Hills. Dr. Salvatore Caridi of Union City, spokesman for a group of Italian-American Fascists attending as guests, addressed the bund members as "Nazi Friends." @TheAtlPhoto : photo by AP, 18 July 1937

 
Youths at a German-American Bund camp stand at attention as the American flag and the German-American Youth Movement flag, right, are lowered in a ceremony at sundown in Andover, New Jersey, on July 21, 1937. @TheAtlPhoto: photo by AP, 21 July 1937


Nazi "Bund" camp Nordland at Sussex Hills, New Jersey, anniversary celebration, 1938.@TheAtlPhoto : image via Bettmann Archive / Getty


#USA A woman poses beneath a sign reading 'No drugs or nuclear weapons allowed' at the entrance to a restaurant in Guam. Photo @edwardesjones
:
image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 14 August 2017


Attendance. Kenya, 2017. Sunday service. The make of democracy. #photojournalism #documentary #africa #kenya #religion #color #reportage #afp: image via Marco Longari @mlongari, 13 August 2017


#Turkey A cat poses in a junkyard in Karakoy District of #Istanbul @ozannkosee #AFP
:
image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 14 August 2017


#Afghanistan Afghan labourers shovel coal onto a truck at a coal yard on the outskirts Mazar-i-Sharif.Photo  @Farshadusyan #AFP
: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 14 August 2017


#Thailand Two internet company workers trouble shoot a problem with a network relay box at a neighborhood in Bangkok. Photo @robertoindelhi #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 14 August 2017


#Turkey A man talks on his phone in the Karakoy district in Istanbul. Photo @ozannkosee #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 13 August 2017


#India Hindu devotee takes part in a procession with fruits & holy water hooked on to his chest during 'Aadi' festival, Chennai Photo @ArunsankarKrish
:
image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 13 August 2017

 

#Belarus #PerseidMeteorShower crosses the night sky over an Orthodox church in the village of Bezdezh, Belarus Photo @sergeygapon #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 13 August 2017


#Spain A couple enjoys #PerseidsMeteorShower along the Milky Way illuminating the dark sky near Comillas. Photo @CesaransoPhoto: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 13 August 2017


#Afghanistan Afghan labourers shovel coal onto a truck at a coal yard on the outskirts Mazar-i-Sharif. Photo @Farshadusyan #AFP
: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 13 August 2017


#Kenya Worshippers at the Divine Church of Africa in the Mathare slum in Nairobi attend a prayer service Photo @mlongari
: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 13 August 2017


#Nepal A Nepalese resident looks out from her inundated home at floodwaters at Janakpur. Photo Sajan Malla #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 14 August 2017


#Venezuela An anti-gov. activist stands in front of security forces at a barricade to protest vs. Maduro #Caracas By @rschemidt @AFPphoto: image via Photojournalism @photojournalink, 14 August 2017


A man looks through the window of a church during a service in the Kawangware slum in Nairobi. Photo @tkarumb #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 14 August 2017


#Africa #Kenya elections 2017. Images of burning of shacks and premises in Kibera slum #protests, taken on 12/08/2017 ##photojournalism
: image via Carl de Souza @ CarldeSouza, 14 August 2017



 #Africa #Kenya elections 2017. Images of burning of shacks and premises in Kibera slum #protests, taken on 12/08/2017 ##photojournalism: image via Carl de Souza @ CarldeSouza, 14 August 2017


 #Africa #Kenya elections 2017. Images of burning of shacks and premises in Kibera slum #protests, taken on 12/08/2017 ##photojournalism: image via Carl de Souza @ CarldeSouza, 14 August 2017


#Afghanistan Afghan shopkeeper Naeem, 32, sorts brooms in his shop as he waits for customers on the outskirts of Mazar-i-Sharif. Photo @Farshadusyan #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 14 August 2017


MEDITERRANEAN SEA - Lone migrant rescue ship keeps up patrols off Libya Photo @atzortzinis #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 14 August 2017


MEDITERRANEAN SEA - Lone migrant rescue ship keeps up patrols off Libya Photo @atzortzinis #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 14 August 2017


MEDITERRANEAN SEA - Lone migrant rescue ship keeps up patrols off Libya Photo @atzortzinis #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 14 August 2017
 

MEDITERRANEAN SEA - View of the C-Star, a vessel chartered by a group of European far-right activists opposed to migrants Photo @atzotzinis: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 14 August 2017
 

#Sierra Leone 312 dead as mudslides, flooding sweep through Sierra Leone capital Photo @MohamedSaiduBah #AFP
: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 14 August 2017
 

#Sierra Leone 312 dead as mudslides, flooding sweep through Sierra Leone capital Photo @MohamedSaiduBah #AFP
: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 14 August 2017


#Sierra Leone 312 dead as mudslides, flooding sweep through Sierra Leone capital Photo @MohamedSaiduBah #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 14 August 2017
 

#Sierra Leone 312 dead as mudslides, flooding sweep through Sierra Leone capital Photo @MohamedSaiduBah #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 14 August 2017
 

#South Korea Buses installed with a statue symbolising South Korea's wartime sex slaves began running through the capital Seoul Jung Yeon-Je #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 14 August 2017


#China Tourists are seen in reflection walking on a street in Shanghai. Photo @Chandanphoto #AFP
: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 14 August 2017


Inside the battle for Raqqa, Syria, the Islamic State's de facto capital: image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 14 August 2017


#Raqqa today Smoke billows in Raqa's western al-Darya neighbourhood, on August 14, 2017 DELIL SOULEIMAN / #AFP: image via Delil souleman @Delilsouleman, 14 August 2017 

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