

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.


Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.

"When someone tells you who they are," wrote journalist Shaun King about the president, "BELIEVE THEM." (Photo: Gage Skidmore/flickr/cc/with overlay)
Late Monday night, just hours after (finally) delivering his "too little, too late" condemnation of "racism...white supremacists...and hate groups"--which critics noted appeared dispassionate and forced--President Donald Trump re-tweeted a message from Jack Posobiec, a well-known right-wing racist and conspiracy theorist, who raised objections to the media's focus on the rampage in Charlottesville, Virginia on Saturday by an alleged neo-Nazi member who killed one person and injured dozens of others.

According to the Los Angeles Times, "Posobiec is well-known in alt-right circles. He was a vocal believer that top Democrats were involved in a child sex trafficking ring at a Washington, D.C., pizza parlor, and that the Democratic National Committee was behind the death of former staffer Seth Rich." NewsWeek reports that Posobiec is "currently helping organize multiple alt-right rallies similar to the one in Charlottesville in cities throughout the U.S. this coming weekend" and "has in the past defended white supremacist Richard Spencer."
As documented by the Huffington Post's Ed Mazza reports, the choice to re-tweet Posobiec was immediately seen by critics as a move "to deflect attention from his belated response to white supremacist violence, but also as an implicit effort to draw attention to crime within the African-American community."
In a column for CNN, Stephen Collinson detailed how the president's "spontaneous moments on race tell us more than the scripted ones." Collinson reports:
Some Trump critics believe that his linguistic contortions are a direct result of a desire to avoid alienating extremists who are sympathetic to his brand of economic nationalism and tough immigration policy while convincing other Americans he decries racism and bigotry.
"He wanted to have his hate cake and eat it," said Cornell William Brooks, former president of the NAACP, on "The Situation Room."
Though Brooks described the speech Monday as a "good first step," he warned it needs to be followed up by policy changes, calling on Trump to stop "signaling and engaging in messaging, racial dog whistles with the Alt-right."
"The fact of the matter is the whistles he blew during the campaign were answered in Charlottesville, and someone lost her life."
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Late Monday night, just hours after (finally) delivering his "too little, too late" condemnation of "racism...white supremacists...and hate groups"--which critics noted appeared dispassionate and forced--President Donald Trump re-tweeted a message from Jack Posobiec, a well-known right-wing racist and conspiracy theorist, who raised objections to the media's focus on the rampage in Charlottesville, Virginia on Saturday by an alleged neo-Nazi member who killed one person and injured dozens of others.

According to the Los Angeles Times, "Posobiec is well-known in alt-right circles. He was a vocal believer that top Democrats were involved in a child sex trafficking ring at a Washington, D.C., pizza parlor, and that the Democratic National Committee was behind the death of former staffer Seth Rich." NewsWeek reports that Posobiec is "currently helping organize multiple alt-right rallies similar to the one in Charlottesville in cities throughout the U.S. this coming weekend" and "has in the past defended white supremacist Richard Spencer."
As documented by the Huffington Post's Ed Mazza reports, the choice to re-tweet Posobiec was immediately seen by critics as a move "to deflect attention from his belated response to white supremacist violence, but also as an implicit effort to draw attention to crime within the African-American community."
In a column for CNN, Stephen Collinson detailed how the president's "spontaneous moments on race tell us more than the scripted ones." Collinson reports:
Some Trump critics believe that his linguistic contortions are a direct result of a desire to avoid alienating extremists who are sympathetic to his brand of economic nationalism and tough immigration policy while convincing other Americans he decries racism and bigotry.
"He wanted to have his hate cake and eat it," said Cornell William Brooks, former president of the NAACP, on "The Situation Room."
Though Brooks described the speech Monday as a "good first step," he warned it needs to be followed up by policy changes, calling on Trump to stop "signaling and engaging in messaging, racial dog whistles with the Alt-right."
"The fact of the matter is the whistles he blew during the campaign were answered in Charlottesville, and someone lost her life."
Late Monday night, just hours after (finally) delivering his "too little, too late" condemnation of "racism...white supremacists...and hate groups"--which critics noted appeared dispassionate and forced--President Donald Trump re-tweeted a message from Jack Posobiec, a well-known right-wing racist and conspiracy theorist, who raised objections to the media's focus on the rampage in Charlottesville, Virginia on Saturday by an alleged neo-Nazi member who killed one person and injured dozens of others.

According to the Los Angeles Times, "Posobiec is well-known in alt-right circles. He was a vocal believer that top Democrats were involved in a child sex trafficking ring at a Washington, D.C., pizza parlor, and that the Democratic National Committee was behind the death of former staffer Seth Rich." NewsWeek reports that Posobiec is "currently helping organize multiple alt-right rallies similar to the one in Charlottesville in cities throughout the U.S. this coming weekend" and "has in the past defended white supremacist Richard Spencer."
As documented by the Huffington Post's Ed Mazza reports, the choice to re-tweet Posobiec was immediately seen by critics as a move "to deflect attention from his belated response to white supremacist violence, but also as an implicit effort to draw attention to crime within the African-American community."
In a column for CNN, Stephen Collinson detailed how the president's "spontaneous moments on race tell us more than the scripted ones." Collinson reports:
Some Trump critics believe that his linguistic contortions are a direct result of a desire to avoid alienating extremists who are sympathetic to his brand of economic nationalism and tough immigration policy while convincing other Americans he decries racism and bigotry.
"He wanted to have his hate cake and eat it," said Cornell William Brooks, former president of the NAACP, on "The Situation Room."
Though Brooks described the speech Monday as a "good first step," he warned it needs to be followed up by policy changes, calling on Trump to stop "signaling and engaging in messaging, racial dog whistles with the Alt-right."
"The fact of the matter is the whistles he blew during the campaign were answered in Charlottesville, and someone lost her life."