The Aftermath (These Days Later)

#epichatred | #WhatTheyVotedFor

The Baltimore Sun reports:

A year and a half after a city panel recommended that four Confederate-linked monuments be removed or altered, Mayor Catherine Pugh decided Tuesday to take them all down — and then watched as crews worked into early Wednesday to tear them from their pedestals.

“We moved quickly and quietly,” Pugh said. “There was enough grandstanding, enough speeches being made. Get it done.”

Pugh said crews removed the monuments unannounced and under cover of darkness between 11:30 p.m. Tuesday and 5:30 a.m. Wednesday in the hope of avoiding the potential for a violent conflict similar to the one Saturday in Charlottesville, Va.

It seems to be going around. On Sunday, Vox spread the word:

White nationalists descended on Charlottesville, Virginia, on Friday and Saturday to protest the city’s decision to take down Confederate monuments. But not only have the protests done nothing to change Charlottesville’s mind on this issue, it’s apparently prompted at least one other city to speed up action to remove its Confederate statues as well.

Mayor Jim Gray of Lexington, Kentucky, made the announcement on Twitter on Saturday ....

Meanwhile, the mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, is seeing fit to challenge his state’s law to protect Confederate monuments. Furthermore, an abysmal white supremacist website that last year named suspected Jews and urged people to “take action” has fled to hidden quarters of the web after major hosting services rejected them, and the notorious neo-Nazi celebrity whose Nazi salutes and praise for Hitler raised controversy that led the newspaper to so openly target Jews is among many alt-right heroes cut off by PayPal after their problematic relationship with the company’s Acceptable Use Policy became unavoidably apparent. And just to make the point, a lede tells us, “At least four people have lost their jobs and several more are under scrutiny following the violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville”.

Somewhere, as wannabe Nazis lit their torches, one turned to another and gleefully predicted how epic it would be, now that they’re here, and will show everyone else just how powerful they are. And it is hard to not be sarcastic: How is all that hopey-hatey working out?

Fast forward to today, and what does tough guy and white nationalist Christopher Cantwell have to say now? Upon hearing the news that the police are looking for him, he released a tear-filled video, pleading for America to understand he was only talking shit before! He didn’t really mean it. Sure he was carrying a small arsenal of guns and told Vice he has been preparing and training for violence, but now? It was all locker room talk, right guys?

(Hayden)

The problem with schadenfreude is that someone is dead. Epic, huh? That is to say, there is a reason white supremacists can only bawl and dig themselves a deeper hole.

Her name is Heather Heyer. She was thirty-two years old.

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Image note: Detail of cartoon by Mr. Fish, 30 November 2014, via Clowncrack.

Bergen, Mark. “Google, GoDaddy Drop Neo-Nazi Group’s Domain Registration”. Bloomberg. 14 August 2017.

Campbell, Colin and Luke Broadwater. “Citing ‘safety and security,’ Pugh has Baltimore Confederate monuments taken down”. The Baltimore Sun. 16 August 2017.

Grenoble, Ryan. “Alabama Sues Birmingham Mayor For Ordering Confederate Statue Hidden”. The Huffington Post. 16 August 2017.

Hayden, Jen. “From racist bully to victim: watch this Nazi leader break down in tears over his imminent arrest”. Daily Kos. 16 August 2017.

LaChance, Naomi. “More Nazis Are Getting Identified And Fired After Charlottesville”. The Huffington Post. 17 August 2017.

Lopez, German. “Kentucky mayor responds to Charlottesville by doing exactly what white nationalists don’t want”. Vox. 12 August 2017.

Miller, Hayley. “KKK Grand Dragon Says He’s ‘Glad That Girl Died’ During Charlottesville Rally”. The Huffington Post. 16 August 2017.

—————. “PayPal Shuts Down Access For Richard Spencer, Other Right-Wing Extremists”. The Huffington Post. 16 August 2017.

See also:

Calfas, Jennifer. “White supremacist site urges ‘action’ against Jewish residents of small town”. The Hill. 18 December 2016.

Gray, Jim. “I am taking action to relocate the Confederate statues. We have thoroughly examined this issue, and heard from many of our citizens.” Twitter. 12 August 2017.