Modern Events.

The August 11-12, 2017 Charlottesville tragedy was one of the most melancholy times in American history. It showed the face of evil hate, and it showed the courage of anti-racist activists who stood up against fascists. The racists in the Unite the Right rally included white supremacists, neo-fascists, the Klan, militias, alt right extremists, and neo-Confederates. These evil people wanted to maintain the Confederate monuments and memorials of Robert E. Lee after the decision of the city of Charlottesville to remove such abhorrent images. Confederates were dedicated to maintain slavery and racism in America. Anyone who supports the Confederacy is a racist period. Before the rally, numerous Confederate monuments were removed from public places nationwide in America after the Charleston church shooting massacre of 2015. Many streets were renamed after removing the name of figures from the Confederacy. These victories caused a far right wing backlash. These racists wanted to protect what they deem "Confederate heritage," but a heritage based upon oppression is no true heritage at all. Charlottesville Vice Mayor Wes Bellamy was heroic to stand up against evil. Before the rally, there was the Spencer march on May 13, 2017 to protest the city’s plans to remove the statue of Lee. 

A counter protest took place at the same night too. The Ku Klux Klan held another rally in Charlottesville on July 8, 2017. About 50 Klan members and 1,000 counter protesters gathered at a loud but nonviolent rally; the Klan members left the park after about 45 minutes. In opposition to the rally, the Charlottesville Clergy Collective created a safe space at First United Methodist Church, which was used by over 600 people. On the evening of Friday, August 11, a group of white nationalists—variously numbered from "dozens" to "about 250” gathered for an unannounced (and unsanctioned by the city) march through the University of Virginia's campus. They marched towards the University's Lawn chanting Nazi and white supremacist slogans, including "White lives matter"; "You will not replace us"; and "Jews will not replace us.” The Nazi slogan "Blood and Soil" was also used. Mostly white men were there, and many of them used tiki torches.  Later, a fight happened at the Rotunda, and Virginia State police broke it up. Meanwhile, progressive, anti-racist clergy led a pre-planned ecumenical Christian and interfaith prayer service at St. Paul's Memorial Church on University Avenue in opposition to the Unite the Right rally. The Cavalier Daily reported, "While waiting for rides at Nameless Field after the march, several of the 'alt-right' protesters hurled anti-Semitic, homophobic and misogynistic slurs at several reporters and community members asking them questions. One man asking questions was thrown to the ground and surrounded by marchers after a brief physical altercation." Mayor Michael Signer condemned the alt right gathering, writing the following: "When I think of candlelight, I want to think of prayer vigils. Today, in 2017, we are instead seeing a cowardly parade of hatred, bigotry, racism, and intolerance march."

The Unite the Right rally was organized by Jason Kessler and Richard Spencer. The bigots in the rally had semiautomatic rifles, Nazis symbols, Confederate battle flags, Deus Vult crosses, and they spewed hate. The racists encountered anti-fascist and anti-racist groups. By August 12, 2017, more racism erupted. Some waved Confederate flags, and others held posters targeting Jews that read "the Goyim know," and "the Jewish media is going down.” Protesters also shouted racial slurs and "Jew" when Charlottesville mayor Michael Signer was mentioned, and they waved Nazi flags and signs claiming, among other things, that "Jews are Satan's children." Dozens wore Donald Trump's red "Make America Great Again" campaign hats. Saturday morning worshippers at synagogue Beth Israel, faced with men in fatigues with semiautomatic rifles across the street, and a call on Nazi web sites to burn their building, felt it prudent to exit the synagogue through a back door, carrying their Torah scrolls with them. Progressive religious clergy people sang “This Little Light of mine.” They prayed and linked arms. Harvard professor Cornel West, who organized some of the counter-demonstrators, said that a group of "20 of us who were standing, many of them clergy, we would have been crushed like cockroaches if it were not for the anarchists and the anti-fascists who approached, over 300, 350 anti-fascists". West stated, "The neofascists had their own ammunition. And this is very important to keep in mind, because the police, for the most part, pulled back."

Violent clashes happened among protesters and counter protesters. Virginia then Governor Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency. Those in the location in opposition to the racists were the National Council of Churches, Black Lives Matter, Anitifa, etc. Before the rally, counter protesters obtained permits to gather at McGuffey Park and Justice Park, both less than a quarter-mile from Lee Park. Charlottesville City Council spokeswoman Miriam I. Dickler later stated that counter protesters did not need permits to protest the rally at Lee Park. The Virginia State Police called the rally an unlawful assembly. Street brawls existed throughout August 12, 2017. At around 1:45 pm, a self-identified white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr. deliberately rammed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters about 0.5 miles (0.8 km) away from the rally site, killing Heather Heyer and injuring nearly 40 other people. Heyer was at the location to oppose bigotry and intolerance. Fields fled the scene in his car but was arrested soon afterward; he was tried and convicted in Virginia state court of first-degree murder, malicious wounding, and other crimes in 2018, with the jury recommending a sentence of life imprisonment plus 419 years. The following year, Fields pleaded guilty to 29 federal crimes in exchange for federal prosecutors' agreement not to seek the death penalty. At the rally, one black young person named DeAndre Harris (who was a former special education instruction assistant) was assaulted by racists in a parking garage too. He received a head laceration requiring stitches, a concussion, a knee injury, a fractured wrist, and a spinal injury. The people who did this were Alex Michael Romas, Jacob Scott Goodwin, Daniel P. Borden, and Tyler Watkins Davis. Donald Trump’s response to the tragedy was offensive and disgraceful. He did not initially denounce the marchers explicitly, instead condemning "hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides."

While Trump later stated that he condemned neo-Nazis, his first statement and his subsequent defenses of it, in which he also referred to "very fine people on both sides." There are no fine people on both sides. Neo-Nazis, white nationalists, and Neo-Confederates aren’t fine people. They are evil people. Unite the Right held an anniversary rally on August 11–12, 2018, in Washington D.C. Like the original, the rally was expected to draw large protests from religious organizations, civil rights groups, and anti-fascist organizers. The rally's turnout consisted of 20–30 protesters amidst thousands of counter-protestors. At August 12, 2017, there was a police helicopter crash too. Citing an FBI source, Virginia Representative Tom Garrett has stated that racial divisions fomented by Russian agents contributed to violence at the rally. The Heaphy report criticized the city’s handling of the rally.  The report found that the Charlottesville Police Department had failed to adequately prepare for its events, had a flawed plan of response, and was not properly trained. The report also criticized actions by the Charlottesville City Council, attorneys from the city and state, the University of Virginia and the Virginia State Police. Law enforcement failed to break up fights or take an active role in preventing fights and was instructed not to intervene except in cases of "extreme violence." This decision represented "a tremendous tactical failure that has real and lasting consequences." University of Virginia officials were aware of plans for a torchlight rally by white nationalists but "took no action to enforce separation between groups or otherwise prevent violence." Charlottesville police and Virginia State Police failed to operate under a unified command and did not even use the same radio channel. David Duke defended Trump’s remarks. Nationwide and worldwide, people led candlelight vigils to condemn racism in Washington, D.C., Cambridge, Massachusetts, Brooklyn, Los Angeles, and Berlin. Former Governor Terry McAuliffe and Michael Signer wanted the racists to leave Charlottesville. Signer blamed Trump for fueling racial hatred in America.  Beinart wrote that unlike the alt-right, the members of Antifa are not practitioners of an ideology that advocates the ethnic cleansing of other racial and religious groups nor do they "celebrate regimes that committed genocide and enforced slavery", and Antifa promotes egalitarianism unlike the alt-right.

University of Virginia Center for Politics director Larry J. Sabato, who lives on the university grounds and saw the march on August 11, said that the weekend was among the university's darkest days, stating: "I hope people will put it into context and understand that we had no control over the individuals organizing it, nor the people who showed up. What we can control is our personal and institutional reaction to it. What I saw was pure evil." Atlanta mayor Kasim Reed called for city flags to be flown at half-staff, and indicated he favors renaming Confederate Avenue. German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the violence "horrifying" and "evil" and said: "It is racist, far-right violence and clear, forceful action must be taken against it, regardless of where in the world it happens." German Justice Minister Heiko Maas similarly condemned the violence, antisemitism, and racism of the neo-Nazis at the rally. Trump’s statement to make a moral equivalence of protesters and counter protesters is evil by him. Domestic white supremacist terrorism is the issue. Trump believes that removing Confederate statues was about changing history, which is a lie. Removing statues deal with dealing with reality, and many resources document the evil history of the Confederacy. More than 60 Democratic and Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the United States Senate condemned Trump's remarks. Among those were Senators Bernie Sanders, John McCain, Tim Scott, Susan Collins, Chuck Schumer, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren, Jeff Flake, Orrin Hatch, Heidi Heitkamp, Claire McCaskill, Joe Manchin, Dean Heller and Tammy Duckworth, and House members Robert C. "Bobby" Scott, Don Beyer, Barbara Comstock, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Will Hurd and Gerry Connolly, as well as Ohio Governor John Kasich and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.

 House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said, "The president's continued talk of blame 'on many sides' ignores the abhorrent evil of white supremacism ..." Speaker of the House Paul Ryan stated, "We must be clear. White supremacy is repulsive. This bigotry is counter to all this country stands for. There can be no moral ambiguity." Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee announced on August 17, that he would introduce articles of impeachment against President Trump for his remarks in the press conference, stating that Trump had "failed the presidential test of moral leadership." The racist, anti-Semitic members of the Rise Above Movement had members arrested for evil acts. Many people from the Presidential advisory councils resigned, but they resigned because of pressure knowing full well that Trump have said racist statements long before the events of Charlottesville. A progressive movement in Charlottesville has inspired people to fight for justice. Nikuyah Walker, one of the local activists who charged into a city council meeting days after the rally to confront the city leadership, was elected mayor in January 2018. She is the first black woman mayor of Charlottesville. Also, she has a long legacy of activism in real life and is from Charlottesville, Virginia. So, the future legacy of the city will not be the past. Justice is our goal like always.




The Mueller investigation was one of the most important investigations in American history. It lasted from May 2017 to March 2019. Back in 2016, Senate Dianne Feinstein and House member Adam Schiff said that Russia used efforts to try to influence the 2016 election on September 22, 2016. The Special Counsel investigation documented Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections and suspicious links between Trump associates and Russian officials. Since July of 2016, the FBI has covertly investigated actions by Russian operatives and by members of the Trump presidential campaign. In May 2017, President Donald Trump dismissed FBI Director James Comey, because he was critical of Comey's handling of the Clinton and Russia probes. Within eight days, following a call to action by Democratic lawmakers and revelations by Comey, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Mueller, a former FBI director, to take over the FBI's work. In an NBC News interview, Trump stated that when he decided to fire Comey, "I said to myself, I said, 'You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story.” During a May 10, 2017 meeting in the Oval Office with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, Trump allegedly told the Russian officials "I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nut job ... I faced great pressure because of Russia. That's taken off ... I'm not under investigation."

The Mueller investigation caused a total of 34 people to be indicted. Eight of them pleaded guilty to or been convicted of felonies. These included five Trump associates and campaign officials. None of the convictions or indictments were for collusion by the Trump campaign with Russians to influence the election, nor were any such charges suggested. Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, who had been appointed as National Security Advisor by the incoming Trump administration, was convicted of making false statements to FBI investigators about his conversations with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the presidential transition, and he was dismissed from his position. Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was found guilty on eight felony counts of tax evasion and bank fraud, pursuant to his earlier lobbying activities for the Party of Regions of former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich. He later pled guilty to conspiracy to defraud and obstruction of justice; in total, he was sentenced to over seven years in jail. In February 2018, Mueller's team indicted thirteen Russian citizens and three Russian entities, including the Internet Research Agency (IRA), for conducting social media campaigns about the U.S. elections, and twelve members of the Russian GRU cyber espionage group known as Fancy Bear, for hacking and leaking DNC emails.

In June 2018 Konstantin Kilimnik, Manafort's business partner in Ukraine, was indicted for witness tampering at the behest of Manafort; Kilimnik is suspected of working for Russian intelligence. Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen pled guilty to making hush payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougals. This was in violation of campaign finance laws. He was also convicted for several unrelated counts of bank and tax fraud. Cohen had a change of heart to expose Trump as a narcissist, a racist, and a corrupt person. Campaign adviser George Papadopoulos was convicted for making false statements to the FBI. Russian gun activist Maria Butina was interviewed by Special Counsel investigators, then prosecuted by the National Security Law Unit and imprisoned for spying.  Longtime Trump advisor Roger Stone, who had met with a Russian person offering to sell derogatory financial information about Hillary Clinton, was indicted on seven charges and has pled not guilty. Dozens of ongoing investigations originally handled by the Special Counsel's office were forwarded to district and state prosecutors, other Department of Justice (DoJ) branches, and other federal agencies. When the investigation ended at March 22, 2019, the Mueller Report was submitted to Attorney General William Barr.

Barr acted as the President’s personal attorney instead of an unbiased individual. He defended Trump and said that there was no collusion and no obstruction of justice. That is a lie, because the Mueller report said that it doesn’t exonerate Trump on the issue of obstruction of justice. The report found no collusion of Trump and the Russians, but it did state that Congress has the responsibility to charge Trump with obstruction of justice. The report cited many examples of obstruction. A redacted version of the report was released to the public on April 18, 2019. The report concluded that two forms of Russian interference occurred and "violated U.S. criminal law." Mueller later said that the investigation's conclusion on Russian interference "deserves the attention of every American.” Mueller refused to indict Trump because of an Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) opinion. Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein refused to charge Trump on obstruction of justice. Upon the abolishment of his position on May 29, 2019, Mueller stated that: "the Constitution requires a process other than the criminal justice system to formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing.” In other words, he wants Congress to deal with the process of indicting Trump with obstruction of justice charges. To this day, members of Congress want the whole unredacted report to be released. Some people want Donald Trump to be impeached. I believe that he should be impeached too because of various reasons. There is no question that Trump committed obstruction of justice. Trump has called on people to lie for him, fired people because of the Mueller report, resisted subpoenas, and refused to allowed officials to testify in Congress. Impeachment means that after an investigation, the President is charged with high crimes and misdemeanors (by the House). The Senate ultimately can remove a President from office. Recently, the Presidential candidates of Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren want Trump to be impeached. When you have Republicans and numerous progressives making the case for impeachment of Trump, then Trump is having a real problem. We shall see what the future holds.


By Timothy