As we get underway today, a few thoughts on yesterday. In addition to going out of his way not to denounce the white supremacist and neo-nazi marchers yesterday, for those primed to hear it (which is the point) the President made a point of calling out and valorizing the marchers. In his at length on-camera comments, in addition to bromides and calling for people to love each other, Trump noted that we must “cherish our history.”
Here’s the passage … Read More
Touching self-invocation of the ‘real’ Peter Cvjetanovic here. Cvjetanovic was one of the frothing racist bros who was photographed at Friday night’s tiki torch rally …
This angry young man is Peter Cvjetanovic, a student at @unevadareno pic.twitter.com/7rLGJkcT3o
— Yes, You’re Racist (@YesYoureRacist) August 12, 2017
As his photo shot around the world, he told a reporter from a local tv station …
I did not expect the photo to be shared as much as it was. I understand the photo has a very negative connotation. But I hope that the people sharing the photo are willing to listen that I’m not the angry racist they see in that photo.
The problem with the continued begging, ‘why won’t he denounce, why won’t he denounce’ is that at some point, maybe later today, President Trump will go before a podium and read off through gritted teeth a pro-forma denunciation of Nazis and it will seem to a lot of people like it means something when it doesn’t. He’s already made crystal clear where he stands here. The question is how we individually and as a country are going to deal with that fact, not how many more mulligans we’re going to give him. His neo-nazi supporters are truly over the moon that he’s steadfastly refusing to criticize them, even in the face of withering criticism and derision. They get the message. They’re ecstatic. Everyone who doesn’t see this, see that it is intentional, is getting played for chumps.
We finally have an unambiguous and firm denunciation from President Trump, only it’s against the CEO of Merck, Kenneth Frazier, after Frazier resigned from Trump’s manufacturing council over the President’s lack of response to Charlottesville.
Over the last twenty four hours or so we’ve seen reports of numerous white supremacist marchers in Charlottesville who also show up in meet-and-greet type photos with members of Congress and candidates for office. Needless to say, they’re all Republicans. We’re looking into this. But I want to add some context and suggestions about what this means and what it doesn’t. Read More
James Fields, the man accused of killing one woman and injuring 19 others when he rammed counter-protesters with his car in Charlottesville, reportedly had a long history of physical assaults and threats against his disabled mother.
Debates over public memory and the valorization of history are frequently complicated and politically vexed. But on the margins, in extreme cases, they are often pretty straightforward. For any subject of controversy, the first question we should ask is: What is the person known for? How did they earn a place in our collective public remembrance? Read More
I wanted to follow up on yesterday’s post about public memory, the Civil War and Robert E. Lee with some more discussion and documents from the year’s just after the Civil War.
One of the things that all historians do is look for the earliest sources and those closest to events and facts we are seeking to understand. In some ways, this core imperative is more clear in ancient history or any period more than a few hundred years ago because historians of the distant past must cope with what is often the extreme scarcity of sources whereas modern historians often have the opposite problem: the sheer volume of source material that is impossible ever to fully digest and process. But the fundamental task is the same: recapturing the past on its own terms before subsequent events, needs, agendas and memory packaged them for use or simply distorted them for subsequent ages. This isn’t a matter of uncovering lies in most cases. We are constantly in the process of reshaping our history to serve our present needs. Indeed, we are constantly in the process of doing this in our own lives, reshaping our own personal story into a coherent backdrop to the person we are in this moment. Read More
Bob Mueller is reportedly most interested in two Trump mega-developments: Trump Soho in New York City and Trump Tower Toronto. The first has already gotten a fair amount of attention, the latter much less. Here’s our look at Trump Tower Toronto and its links to state-owned Russian bank Vnesheconombank. If Mueller’s interested, shouldn’t you be too? Here’s our report.
After that Trump racist meltdown, it’s hard to believe that Monday was devoted to whether he would say the right thing about Charlottesville.