“The nightmare must end,” the full-page ad in the New York Times announced on Wednesday in bold, block letters. It called on thousands of people to take to the streets. “Nov 4. It Begins.”Less than one year ago, as protesters flooded Washington, D.C., for President Donald Trump’s inauguration, Refuse Fascism materialized, seemingly out of nowhere, brandishing their now-iconic black and white “NO!” posters. Since then, the anti-fascist organization has become a mysterious yet omnipresent force throughout the past year’s wave of protests. As demonstrators have continued to spill into the streets with anti-Trump resentment, Refuse Fascism frequently emerges with signs, shirts, pins, and orators primed with a megaphone. Read more.Source: mic.comantifafar-rightalt-rightpolitics
Sportscaster Bob Costas criticized President Donald Trump Monday for engaging in empty “flag-waving” with his attacks on NFL players who protest racism during the national anthem, telling CNN that patriotism isn’t solely the property of the military. Read more.Source: mic.compatriotismDonald TrumpNFLpolitics
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she’s not going to contest the results of the election, clarifying a comment she made Monday on NPR in which she said wouldn’t rule out questioning the legitimacy of the outcome of the 2016 presidential campaign.“I think no one, including me, is saying we will contest the election,” Clinton said Tuesday during a roundtable interview with Mic in its New York office. “I’m in the very large group of people who believe that, you know, there’s no legal basis, no constitutional basis for that.”However, Clinton also said there are “serious questions being raised by the congressional investigation,” as well as the inquiry headed by special counsel Robert Mueller. Read more.
Coming off one of the most tumultuous weeks of his presidency, President Donald Trump sought a middle ground on Saturday, thanking the thousands of protesters who turned out in Boston to shut down a far-right rally planned there.
It was a briefly conciliatory tone from a president under fire all week for doubling down on equivocating white supremacists and counterprotesters in Charlottesville, Virginia. Trump now faces the question of whether he can sustain a shift away from the “bigotry and hate” he condemned this Saturday.
Trump is back in Washington. With his working vacation over, he will address the country at 9 p.m. Eastern on Monday to outline his approach to the war in Afghanistan. Generals have been calling for more U.S. troops in the country. Read more.
Following the election of Donald Trump, enrollment at Eleanor’s Legacy, a group that helps pro-reproductive rights, Democratic women run for office in New York state, doubled to 60 women, according to its director Brette McSweeney.
National groups also saw a jump, with Emily’s List reporting that 16,000 women had reached out to them since the election, said Julie McClain Downey, a spokesperson with the organization.
Over the next few months, the first waves of progressive, female candidates in the Trump era will face primaries and special elections that will test the enthusiasm and commitment of the activism seen in the days following Hillary Clinton’s defeat.
In many ways, the challenges they face, such as raising enough money to sustain a campaign and running against established men, remain the same as they always were. Read more (8/14/17)
As outcry continues to mount over Trump’s comments, an outstanding question for many Americans is one about policy: What, if anything, will the federal government do to help combat far-right white extremism?
The Obama Administration had implemented at least the beginnings of such a plan but, in late June, Trump’s Department of Homeland Security eliminated a federal grant of $400,000 for Life After Hate, a nonprofit working to de-radicalize neo-Nazis and white supremacists.
The decision received only minimal attention at the time, but has now been thrust into the limelight as Trump’s comments on Tuesday raise renewed questions over how his administration will respond to the violence which directly led to one death and 19 injuries in Charlottesville over the weekend. Read more (8/16/17)
On Wednesday, Virginia Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam strongly condemned Trump’s Tuesdayremarks equating anti-racist counterprotesters with the violent white nationalists.
“They were deplorable,” Northam said of Trump’s comments. “White supremacists and neo-Nazis came to Charlottesville for violence. There’s no question about that. And for the president to say there were ‘different sides’ [responsible for] this — there was only one side, and that was the white supremacists that came into Charlottesville.”
Northam, who is running for Virginia governor on the Democratic ticket, said Trump revealed “his true colors” when he suggested a moral equivalency between the far-right demonstrators and what Trump termed the “alt-left.” Read more (8/6/17 4 PM)
Following a wave of high-profile resignation from Trump’s two primary CEO councils, Trump tweeted Wednesday he was dissolving both the American Manufacturing Council and the Strategic and Policy Forum.
“Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both,” he tweeted. “Thank you all!
The dissolution of the two councils deals a major blow to Trump’s mandate as a leader who would use his business acumen to steer the nation toward economic prosperity. Read more (8/16/17 2:05 PM)
Though Trump tweeted that the decision to disband the groups was his, the Wall Street Journal reported that the industry leaders had chosen to disband before the president’s tweet.
According to the Journal, Stephen A. Schwarzman, Blackstone Group LP Chief Executive and leader of Trump’s Strategic and Policy Forum, call the president on Wednesday to tell him the group was disbanding. Read more (8/16/17 4 PM)
Following a wave of high-profile resignation from Trump’s two primary CEO councils, Trump tweeted Wednesday he was dissolving both the American Manufacturing Council and the Strategic and Policy Forum.
“Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both,” he tweeted. “Thank you all!
The dissolution of the two councils deals a major blow to Trump’s mandate as a leader who would use his business acumen to steer the nation toward economic prosperity. Read more (8/16/17 2:05 PM)
Trump’s threat to end key Affordable Care Act subsidies will result in dramatic increases to insurance premiums next year, an analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released Tuesday found.
According to the CBO, health insurance premiums for silver plans will climb 20% in 2018, one million more Americans would be left uninsured and about $194 billion would be added to the federal deficit if Trump does end the ACA subsidies. Read more (8/15/17)
At a scheduled appearance from Trump Tower in New York City, Trump went off-script to defend right-wing demonstrators and rebuke what he termed “alt-left” for its role in the violence in Charlottesville.
“What about the alt-left that came charging at the alt-right?” Trump said of the counter-protesters with “black outfits and baseball bats” at the Unite the Right white supremacist rally in Charlottesville.
“What about the fact that they came charging with clubs in their hands? Do they have a problem? I think they do.”
Trump defended the Unite the Right rally’s decision to gather in protest of the removal of Confederate monuments, suggesting that this was a slippery slope to toppling statues of founding fathers and slave owners George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Read more (8/15/17 4:45 PM
When Trump announced the creation of the American Manufacturing Council in January, the White House heralded it as a gathering of “the world’s most successful and creative business leaders.”
By the middle of August, at least four of the CEOs on Trump’s American Manufacturing Council would announce their decision to resign from the advisory board. Read more (8/15/17 10:50 AM)
“Racism is evil,” Trump said Monday, two days after the violence in Charlottesville. “And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs — including the KKK, neo-Nazis and other hate groups.”
But for the thousands of people who showed up outside Trump Tower in New York City on Monday evening to protest, the president’s words were a bucket of ice water on a violent blaze in America that was left to burn out of control for far too long. Read more (8/14/17 6 PM)
Speaking Monday, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh told members of the alt-right planning an upcoming free speech rally in his city that they were categorically unwelcome.
“Boston does not want you here,” Mayor Walsh said, addressing those organizing and planning on attending the Free Speech Rally on Aug. 19.
“We’re going to do everything we can to make sure that this demonstration does not happen here.”
Though Walsh did not clarify what those actions might entail, the Boston Herald previously reported that the mayor was exploring “legal and tactical options” to prevent the rally following the violence in Charlottesville. Read more (8/14/17 4:15 PM)
Trump’s approval rating has hit a new low in the wake of a deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
A Gallup poll released Monday shows just 34% of Americans approve of the job Trump is doing in the White House.
It’s the lowest rating he’s seen from Gallup, while the number of people who disapprove of Trump’s performance hit a new high for the Gallup poll, at 61%. Read more (8/14/17)
