The Open Thread for August 14, 2017

A day after President Trump, a Nazi enabler, urged Americans to “come together with love for our nation” in the wake of the Nazi terror attack in Charlottesville, Virginia, now his 2020 campaign has released a campaign ad that labels Democrats and journalists “enemies” and accused them of obstructing his political agenda.  Donald, you, as a supporter of Nazis, are an enemy of the United States, as was Nazi Germany was during World War II.   And good luck trying to pass your budget, the debt ceiling rise, and tax reform without any Democratic support.

The city of Charlottesville was recovering yet reeling Sunday, and yet the anger at their invasion by Nazis, resulting in one death and 35 casualties, was still white hot.  During an ill advised press conference, the Nazi Jason Kessler, one of the organizers of the Unite the Right rally, was literally chased out of town.

Jason Kessler, white supremacist who organized #Charlottesville rally, was just literally chased out of town.pic.twitter.com/EhAySdmOlU

— Rogue CPI (@RogueCPI) August 13, 2017

Late on Saturday night, the Department of Justice said it would launch a civil rights investigation into “the circumstances of the deadly vehicular incident” [I will change that for you Jeff Sessions, it’s called right wing terror attack] that killed one 32-year-old counter-protester and injured at least 19. Two state police officers also died Saturday when their helicopter crashed outside of town as they were assisting with the unrest in Charlottesville. Federal authorities are also looking into the circumstances surrounding that crash.

Michael Gerson: “One of the difficult but primary duties of the modern presidency is to speak for the nation in times of tragedy. A space shuttle explodes. An elementary school is attacked. The twin towers come down in a heap of ash and twisted steel. It falls to the president to express something of the nation’s soul — grief for the lost, sympathy for the suffering, moral clarity in the midst of confusion, confidence in the unknowable purposes of God.”

“Not every president does this equally well. But none have been incapable. Until Donald Trump.”

“Trump’s reaction to events in Charlottesville was alternately trite (‘come together as one’), infantile (‘very, very sad’) and meaningless (‘we want to study it’).”

WATCH: #Charlottesville Mayor @mikesigner joins #MTP and says "This movement has run its course." pic.twitter.com/6D5Bk1Ceio

— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) August 13, 2017

Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci had harsh words for President Trump’s reaction to the violence in Charlottesville this weekend, ABC News reports.

Said Scaramucci: “I wouldn’t have recommended that statement. I think he would have needed to have been much harsher… With the moral authority of the presidency, you have to call that stuff out.”

Scaramucci went on to criticize the influence of the website Breitbart and Chief Strategist Steve Bannon saying that there’s “this sort of ‘Bannon-bart’ influence” in the White House that he thinks “is a snag on the president.”

Dan Balz: “It is remarkable that the president’s average approval rating is below 40 percent at a time when the unemployment rate is at a 16-year low and the stocks have hit record highs this summer, at least until jittery markets reacted to warnings by the president of possible military conflict with North Korea.”

“Democratic strategists are aware of the mismatch between the president’s approval and the state of the economy and hope that the midterm elections will be simply a referendum on the president, as first midterms often are. But if there is no significant economic retrenchment over the coming year, the head winds buffeting Republicans could be reduced.”

For all of eternity when a white person criticizes BLM and talks about respecting police, say nothing. Just roll this video #Charlottesville pic.twitter.com/35RXkuTBWx

— Travon Free (@Travon) August 13, 2017

“When career employees of the Environmental Protection Agency are summoned to a meeting with the agency’s administrator, Scott Pruitt, at agency headquarters, they no longer can count on easy access to the floor where his office is,” the New York Times reports.

“Doors to the floor are now frequently locked, and employees have to have an escort to gain entrance. Some employees say they are also told to leave behind their cellphones when they meet with Mr. Pruitt, and are sometimes told not to take notes.”

“Mr. Pruitt, according to the employees, who requested anonymity out of fear of losing their jobs, often makes important phone calls from other offices rather than use the phone in his office, and he is accompanied, even at E.P.A. headquarters, by armed guards, the first head of the agency to ever request round-the-clock security.”

Here's a photo of the #Charlottesville killer marching w/ a neo-Nazi group (the symbols on the shield are fasces, the root word of fascism) pic.twitter.com/XJIl8AysOH

— Yes, You're Racist (@YesYoureRacist) August 13, 2017

Politico: “Insiders and tax experts say rewriting the tax code will be just as difficult as health care — maybe even more so. While every Republican loves a tax cut, the GOP is divided over how -— or even whether — to pay for them. The fault lines are as much about lawmakers’ parochial concerns as they are about party identity, further complicating the task of cobbling together a majority.”

“That’s not to mention the procedural hurdles that could stall the tax debate, or the crowded congressional calendar that could push reform to the back burner. And with the 2018 election season kicking off in just four months, time is not on the Republicans’ side.”

May every last idol of American Nazism be smashed into dust and may its adherents, sympathizers and facilitators be purged from public life.

— Christopher Hayes (@chrislhayes) August 13, 2017

In case you think my comments against Nazis are a bit much.

Politico: “Insiders and tax experts say rewriting the tax code will be just as difficult as health care — maybe even more so. While every Republican loves a tax cut, the GOP is divided over how -— or even whether — to pay for them. The fault lines are as much about lawmakers’ parochial concerns as they are about party identity, further complicating the task of cobbling together a majority.”

“That’s not to mention the procedural hurdles that could stall the tax debate, or the crowded congressional calendar that could push reform to the back burner. And with the 2018 election season kicking off in just four months, time is not on the Republicans’ side.”

Compare this horrific photo by @zdroberts today of white supremacists beating black kid in Charlottesville to Freedom Riders attack in 1961. pic.twitter.com/dbJbAxoTtM

— Matt McDermott (@mattmfm) August 13, 2017

“Even as the White House this week firmly insists President Donald Trump is determined to seek a second term, a new analysis of polling data shows that he’s caught in a three-way political squeeze in the states that tipped the 2016 presidential race, and will likely decide the 2020 contest…On one front, Trump faces undiminished resistance from minority voters, who opposed him in preponderant numbers last year. On the second, he is confronting a consistent — and, in many states, precipitous — decline in support from white-collar white voters, who expressed much more skepticism about him last fall than GOP presidential candidates usually face. From the third direction, Trump’s support among working-class whites, while still robust, is receding from its historically elevated peak back toward a level more typical for Republican presidential candidates — especially in the pivotal Rust Belt states that sealed his victory…These are among the key conclusions from a new analysis of the state-by-state Trump approval ratings released recently by the Gallup Organization. Those results, based on interviews with 81,155 adults in Gallup nightly tracking polls from January 20 through June 30, found that Trump’s overall approval rating had fallen below 50 percent in 33 of the 50 states.” — From Ronald Brownstein’s CNN Politics post, “In decisive Rust Belt, Trump’s approval is starting to look like Romney’s.”

Tear Them Down https://t.co/zZM4yiU11U

— Susan Gardner (@SusanGDailyKos) August 13, 2017

CNN: “Two senior Trump advisers — one inside the White House and another who recently departed — signaled Sunday that the knives are out for Steve Bannon, President Trump’s controversial chief strategist.”

“The comments come as a source inside the White House tells CNN that White House chief of staff John Kelly has soured on Bannon, a political operative with deep ties to the ‘alt-right’ and the former head of the conservative news site Breitbart.”