white supremacists – R&R – Reachout and Rebuild

SPLC under attack

David Posnett — Mon, 24 Aug 2020 17:28:53 +0000

This past weekend, the Republican National Committee caved to white supremacist and other hate groups by adopting a resolution titled Refuting the Legitimacy of the Southern Poverty Law Center to Identify Hate Groups.

https://www.splcenter.org/what-we-do

The focus of the resolution is that “the SPLC is a radical organization” that harms conservative organizations and voices through our hate group designations.

This attack on our work is an attempt to excuse the Trump administration’s pattern and practice of working with individuals and organizations that malign entire groups of people — immigrants, Muslims and the LGBTQ community — while promoting policies that undermine their very existence. It comes from the same vein as Trump’s claim that there were “very fine people” on both sides of the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville.

Simply put, it’s an audacious attempt by Trump and the GOP to paper over the bigotry and racism that has been allowed to infect their policies.

This resolution comes at a moment when Trump will argue at the Republican National Convention that he will combat hate and bigotry, despite welcoming the support of QAnon. It also comes days after the indictment of Stephen Bannon, reminding us that Bannon was once the White House chief strategist and senior counselor and CEO of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. And it comes just after our special investigation shined a light on One America News Network’s Jack Posobiec, a reporter at Trump’s favorite network who is aligned with white supremacy and has used his platform to further hate speech and propaganda.

Trump should sever these ties to hate groups and extremists instead of doubling down through this RNC resolution.

The Trump administration has filled its ranks and consulted with alumni and allies from the Federation for American Immigration Reform, an anti-immigrant hate group that has ties to white supremacist groups and eugenicists. They include Julie Kirchner, Kris Kobach, Jeff Sessions and, most notably, Stephen Miller.

The Trump administration has worked with hate groups like the Family Research Council (FRC) to roll back LGBTQ rights. FRC was designated an anti-LGBTQ hate group for decades of demonizing LGBTQ people and spreading harmful pseudoscience about them. Over the years, the organization has published books, reports and brochures that have linked being LGBTQ to pedophilia, claimed that LGBTQ people are dangerous to children and claimed that LGBTQ people are promiscuous and violent.

Anti-Muslim groups have also been welcomed into the administration, including the Center for Security Policy (CSP). Fred Fleitz, a longtime staffer, was appointed the executive secretary and chief of staff of the National Security Council. For decades, CSP has peddled absurd accusations that shadowy Muslim Brotherhood operatives have infiltrated all levels of government.

These extremists are seeking a license to continue spreading their bigotry and will do anything to undermine those — like the SPLC, which tracks and monitors hate groups — who expose their extremist views and oppose their attacks on communities. With this resolution, Trump and members of the GOP (including Lee ZELDIN*) have shown the extent to which they will carry their water.

This past weekend, the RNC also released a resolution titled Resolution to Conserve History and Combat Prejudice – Christopher Columbus. It’s a remarkably transparent statement that hate and bigotry stem from Black Lives Matter protesters. The RNC and Trump did not denounce organizations that promote antisemitism, Islamophobia, neo-Nazis, anti-LGBTQ sentiment or racism. It only criticized the SPLC for challenging those groups.

Outraged? Here are two ways to take action today:

Sign up for our next Power Hour Virtual Phone Bank on August 27. We’ll be calling likely unregistered voters of color in Georgia to share information on how they can register to vote.
Listen and subscribe to our new podcast, Sounds Like Hate. Episode 2 is about the connections between extremists and the Trump administration.

Onward,

Margaret Huang
SPLC President & CEO

added by D. Posnett

Mr. Zeldin Learns the Trump “Two-Step”

David Posnett — Sat, 19 Aug 2017 16:49:35 +0000

How many times is Congressman Zeldin going to try to disavow his embrace of Trump’s pro-white supremacy, without really doing so

By Sally Persons – The Washington Times – Friday, August 18, 2017

Rep. Lee Zeldin said Friday that there were parts of President Trump’s statement on white supremacists that were “factually inaccurate.”

“There should not be anyone, who is a good person, who is participating in any type of an effort that in any way, shape, or form is associated with the KKK and Nazism and all of the evil they represent. There are parts of what the president said that you can say are factually inaccurate. There are other parts that are hard truths. But as far as the factually inaccurate piece, I don’t know of anyone who would be there, who would associate themselves with that particular protest, who are good people,” Mr. Zeldin, New York Republican, said on CNN.

But Mr. Zeldin said criticism of the president, like that from Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, was “a little broader” than he would agree with. Mr. Corker said Thursday at a media availability that Mr. Trump had not shown the “competence” or “stability” of a successful leader.

“Sen. Corker is making a statement that could be interpreted a little broader than I would necessarily agree with. Sen. Corker might have a disagreement on, for example what we just had happen in Charlottesville. Speaking for myself for sure — I’m Jewish — I have zero tolerance whatsoever for any individual that associates themselves with KKK and Nazism and the hatred and bigotry and intolerance evil that is filled within their ranks,” Mr. Zeldin said.

The New York Republican came under fire after posting his support for Mr. Trump on Facebook in the wake of white supremacists protesting in Charlottesville, Virginia, last week. Mr. Zeldin said the president was right for blaming the violence on “both sides.”

Devoid of Emotion & Supported by Zeldin

David Posnett — Sat, 19 Aug 2017 08:06:09 +0000

From the East Hampton Star (letter to the editor)

Devoid of Emotion

Springs, August 14, 2017

To the Editor:

Impeach him.

Trump was oddly devoid of emotion as he read his statement after Charlottesville. Where was his outrage? He lashes out with barely-suppressed venom and fury over perceived slights, but violence meted out by neo-Nazis and white supremacists doesn’t merit condemnation.

Having others in the White House clarify “what he really meant” days later doesn’t cut it. We’ve seen into his heart — it’s a hollowed-out space, corroded by his ceaseless quest for personal glory.

CAROL DEISTLER

An Open Letter to our Fellow Jews

David Posnett — Fri, 18 Aug 2017 12:41:02 +0000

From my friend Larry Smith:

By Michael Chabon & Ayelet Waldman

Berkeley, California, 8/16/17

To our fellow Jews, in the United States, in Israel, and around the world:

We know that, up to now, some of you have made an effort to reserve judgment on the question of whether or not President Donald Trump is an anti-Semite, and to give him the benefit of the doubt. Some of you voted for him last November. Some of you have found employment in his service, or have involved yourself with him in private business deals, or in diplomatic ties.

You have counted carefully as each appointment to his administration of an avowed white supremacist, anti-Semite, neo-Nazi or crypto-fascist appeared to be counterbalanced by the appointment of a fellow Jew, and reassured yourself that the most troubling of those hires would be cumulatively outweighed by the presence, in his own family and circle of closest advisors, of a Jewish son-in-law and daughter.

You have given your support to the President’s long and appalling record of racist statements, at worst assenting to them, at best dismissing them as the empty blandishments of a huckster at work, and have chosen to see the warm reception that his rhetoric found among the hood-wearers, weekend stormtroopers, and militias of hate as proof of the gullibility of a bunch of patsies, however distasteful.

You have viewed him as a potential friend to Israel, or a reliable enemy of Israel’s enemies.

You have tried to allay or dismiss your fears with the knowledge that most of the President’s hateful words and actions, along with those of his appointees, have targeted other people — immigrants, Black people, and Muslims — taking hollow consolation in how open and shameless his hate has been, as if that openness and shamelessness guaranteed the absence, in his heart and in his administration, of any hidden hatred for us.

The President has no filter, no self-control, you have told yourself. If he were an anti-Semite — a Nazi sympathizer, a friend of the Jew-hating Klan — we would know about it, by now. By now, he would surely have told us.

Yesterday, in a long and ragged off-the-cuff address to the press corps, President Trump told us. During a moment that white supremacist godfather Steve Bannon has apparently described as a “defining” one for this Administration, the President expressed admiration and sympathy for a group of white supremacist demonstrators who marched through the streets of Charlottesville, flaunting Swastikas and openly chanting, along with vile racist slogans, “Jews will not replace us!” Among those demonstrators, according to Trump, were “a lot” of “innocent” and “very fine people.”

So, now you know. First he went after immigrants, the poor, Muslims, trans people and people of color, and you did nothing. You contributed to his campaign, you voted for him. You accepted positions on his staff and his councils. You entered into negotiations, cut deals, made contracts with him and his government.

Now he’s coming after you. The question is: what are you going to do about it? If you don’t feel, or can’t show, any concern, pain or understanding for the persecution and demonization of others, at least show a little self-interest. At least show a little sechel. At the very least, show a little self-respect.

To Steven Mnuchin, Gary Cohn, and our other fellow Jews currently serving under this odious regime: We call upon you to resign; and to the President’s lawyer, Michael D. Cohen: Fire your client.

To Sheldon Adelson and our other fellow Jews still engaged in making the repugnant calculation that a hater of Arabs must be a lover of Jews, or that money trumps hate, or that a million dollars’ worth of access can protect you from one boot heel at the door: Wise up.

To the government of Israel, and our fellow Jews living there: Wise up.

To Jared Kushner: You have one minute to do whatever it takes to keep the history of your people from looking back on you as among its greatest traitors, and greatest fools; that minute is nearly past. To Ivanka Trump: Allow us to teach you an ancient and venerable phrase, long employed by Jewish parents and children to one another at such moments of family crisis: I’ll sit shiva for you. Try it out on your father; see how it goes.

Among all the bleak and violent truths that found confirmation or came slouching into view amid the torchlight of Charlottesville is this: Any Jew, anywhere, who does not act to oppose President Donald Trump and his administration acts in favor of anti-Semitism; any Jew who does not condemn the President, directly and by name, for his racism, white supremacism, intolerance and Jew hatred, condones all of those things.

To our fellow Jews, in North America, in Israel, and around the world: What side are you on?

Two-faced Lee Zeldin on White Supremacist Rally in Charlottesville

David Posnett — Wed, 16 Aug 2017 20:35:02 +0000

Zeldin’s bizarre bifurcation of responses to Charlottesville continues. Yesterday he went back to his original position defending Trump and blaming both sides. That weak response is also the one on his website press release page, his official Facebook page and his official Twitter feed. He condemns the KKK and Nazism by name, before going on to blame the violence on both sides: but only on his personal Facebook page and in a letter sent to select donors and the Shelter Island Reporter (now also on the “in the news” section of his website).

Trying to show donors he’ll condemn anti-Semitism, while keeping his core Trump-supporting rightwing supporters happy by calling out both sides?

Contributed by Sue Hornik