This weekend marked one year since white supremacists converged on Charlottesville, Virginia and Heather Heyer was senselessly murdered.
A year ago this week, Donald Trump failed to condemn the racism and hatred so grossly exhibited in Charlottesville. Instead, Trump blamed the violence “on both sides.” Ahead of the Unite the Right rally yesterday, Trump again refused to specifically condemn white nationalist hatred, instead announcing that he condemns “all types of racism and acts of violence.”
These are empty words from a president who himself parrots white supremacist rhetoric, and whose administration is teeming with staff and policy alarmingly aligned with the white nationalist agenda.
Stephen Miller, a key architect of Trump’s barbaric immigration policies, has multiple connections with groups and individuals who espouse white supremacist stances, despite the fact that he comes from a family of immigrants. Miller’s own uncle noted his “dismay and increasing horror” at his nephew’s bigoted, racist work in a Politico Magazine piece this morning.
Other prongs of Trump’s racist agenda? The Muslim Ban. Repealing DACA. Intensifying mass incarceration. The refugee bans. Ending TPS. Family separation. Attacks on voting rights. You can thank Stephen Miller and Jeff Sessions for those.
While voices speaking out against hatred far outnumbered the dozens of attendees at yesterday’s Unite the Right rally, it doesn’t change the threat that hate represents to our county. Since Trump took office, there were about 3,000 incidents of extremism or anti-Semitism in the U.S.
So a year after Charlottesville, it’s more important than ever to fight hatred.
See below for some key resources for combatting hatred and white nationalism in America:
- Thread from Progress 2050 with various resources to combat hate.
MICK MULVANEY WANTS TO MAKE IT EASIER TO CHEAT OUR TROOPS.
The Trump administration wants to make it easier for predatory lenders to take advantage of American military service members. The fact that our troops and military families make unique sacrifices and face unique financial obstacles makes them prey for the most scurrilous financial institutions, which is why Holly Petraeus joined the CFPB in 2011.
But Holly Petraeus is gone, and Interim CFPB director Mick Mulvaney plans to ease up on enforcement of the Military Lending Act, “which was devised to protect military service members and their families from financial fraud, predatory loans and credit card gouging.”
This is the same man who admitted to a room full of bankers that, as a Member of Congress, he operated on a strict pay-to-play policy:
“If you’re a lobbyist who never gave us money, I didn’t talk to you. If you’re a lobbyist who gave us money, I might talk to you.”
Now, apparently some predatory lender has said the magic words, and Mulvaney is allowing them to target military members, veterans, and their families, who—according to the Department of Defense—are “four times as likely to be targeted by unscrupulous lenders.”
Nobody gets a pass from paying the price for Trump’s culture of corruption.
TRUMP IS NOT ABOVE THE LAW.
A Trump-appointed federal judge ruled this morning to uphold Robert Mueller’s appointment and constitutional authority as special counsel in the Russia investigation.
Just last week, Rudy Giuliani and the rest of Trump’s personal legal team refused Mueller’s terms for an interview, instead sending back a narrow set of conditions designed to protect the president, inching America even closer to a Constitutional crisis.
With Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court—and his refusal to say he’d recuse himself from any lawsuit related to the Russia investigation—it’s more important than ever that the Russia investigation remain strong.
Remember: if Trump fires Mueller or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, get ready to act. Go to TrumpIsNotAboveTheLaw.org to find an event near you.