Mic Wakeup: Bush slams Trump, one celebrity chef’s huge milestone and Antifa vs. Richard Spencer

Impact

It’s Friday. Here are three things you need to know.

George W. Bush had a few choice words for Donald Trump

On Thursday former President George W. Bush took aim at President Donald Trump, making several jabs at the current commander in chief during a public speech without ever mentioning him by name.

During Bush’s speech at a forum sponsored by the George W. Bush Institute, W. said, “We’ve seen nationalism distorted into nativism, forgotten the dynamism that immigration has always brought to America. We see a fading confidence in the value of free markets and international trade, forgetting that conflict, instability and poverty follow in the wake of protectionism.”

Bush additionally unequivocally condemned white supremacy.

“Bigotry or white supremacy in any form is blasphemy against the American creed,” Bush said. He added, “Bigotry seems emboldened ... Our politics seems more vulnerable to conspiracy theories and outright fabrication.”

Oh snap! Do you think Trump will finally do the same? Short answer, no. Long answer, nope.

This celebrity chef just served his 1 millionth meal to Puerto Ricans in need

José Andrés, a Spanish-American restauranteur and chef, is one seriously dedicated man.

Take, for example, his true and unabating dedication to the people of Puerto Rico, who he has been cooking for since Hurricane Maria hit several weeks ago. And on Tuesday, the chef announced that he just served his 1 millionth meal on the island territory.

And Andrés has no plans of slowing down any time soon. As he wrote in a Facebook post Wednesday, “Today our Piscolabis food truck made it to San German to deliver hot meals in southwest PR! #ChefsForPuertoRico goes wherever there is need!”

Amazing! How can I help? The entire operation has relied on donations to Andrés’ charity, World Central Kitchen, so if you’re interested in helping out that’s a great place to start.

The Anti-Defamation League says counter-protesting white supremacists may do more harm than good

The University of Florida may have approved Richard Spencer’s appearance on campus Thursday afternoon, but that certainly doesn’t mean he was welcomed by the entire community with open arms.

“We’re going to cause as much disruption to Richard Spencer as possible,” Gainesville Antifascist Committee organizer Alan Gadze said in a phone interview. “We’re not there to initiate fights with law enforcement, but we will defend our protest.”

And while Gadze and other members of Antifa are well within their rights to protest they may in fact be doing more harm than good, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

Chris O'Meara/AP

“We’ve been doing this type of work for a long time,” David Barkey, the Anti-Defamation League’s southeastern area counsel, said. “When extremists come to town, our general guidance is not to show up.” As Barkey noted, Antifa protesters are simply giving Spencer and others like him a larger platform, and a larger media presence, by being there.

“That’s usually what the extremists want,” Barkey said. “It brings more attention to themselves. It raises the potential of making them look like the victim. That sells well to folks [whom] they want to draw to their movement.”

So, what can be done instead? As Barkey suggested, “Our guidance is [to] have an event someplace else. We talk about making lemonade out of lemons, raising money for a good cause. If the extremists have their event and nobody shows up, that kind of dampens the impact they’re trying to have on the community.”