Racist swine and likely Trumpite, Jeremy Christian, after his arrest in Portland. It took Trump four days to say something about his likely supporter's slaying of two Good Samaritans.
Seriously, one wonders how many aides and staffers had to plead with Trump and twist his arms to make a statement about the Portland, OR slaying of two Good Samaritans by a racist swine and likely Trumpie (Jeremy Christian). It took four days and a few tweetstorms on other topics (e.g. to inflate his ego from his trip) before Trump finally said something yesterday about the white supremacist attack in Portland, Ore.
A statement emerged in the morning on the POTUS Twitter account — but not Trump’s personal page, which has nearly twice as many followers — after the Donald kept quiet for days about slaying that left two people dead. Both of them stood up to this unhinged domestic terrorist - as he was called by Mayor Ted Wheeler- after Christian unleashed a full blown racist tirade on two teens - one African American, the other in hijab on a light rail train. The two men intervened: former Army vet Ricky John Best, 53, and Talesien Meche, 23 - to try and talk Christian down from his harangue of the teens and they got a knife in their throats for their trouble. A third defender Micah David--Cole Fletcher- was also attacked but survived. This incident ought to be a warning for future would-be Samaritans prompted to step into a situation - to be sure you have your taser gun at the ready in case the bigot goes ape shit.
Anyway Trump finally released a tweet saying:
“The violent attacks in Portland on Friday are unacceptable. The victims were standing up to hate and intolerance. Our prayers are w/ them,"
Wowser! A twenty second tweet! One wonders how much mental energy and pride it took Trump to expend even that.
A self-identified white nationalist, Christian was caught on camera at a Portland march in April shouting racial slurs and giving a Nazi salute. The same type of salute given by the denizens of the Alt Right. The challenge now for Portlanders is to put the kibosh on an Alt Right hate rally scheduled for Sunday to try to defend Jeremy Christian's "rights" to free speech. That needs to be shut down and recognized for an attempted seeding of more hate.
Beyond that, it was inevitable we'd see the ever increasing diffusion of thuggery and assault endorsed by Trump (during his campaign_, seep into the world at large. As noted by Smirking Chimp.com blogger Jefferson Morley ('How Trump's Thuggish Style Incites And Rationalizes Violence'):
"The president of the United States sets a tone, an example, a style. With Donald Trump, that tone conveys a suffused rage and a violent intolerance that equates questions with insults and disagreement with disloyalty. It is a style that openly sanctions assault on those who dare to dissent.
The seeds were planted at Trump campaign rallies where, according to Politico, the candidate's security detail attracted repeated complaints for use of excessive force and aggression, racial profiling and trampling free speech. The results have now blossomed.
When Greg Gianforte, the Republican candidate for a hotly contested congressional seat in Montana, was charged with "body-slamming" British reporter Ben Jacobs, he was defended by right-wing media organizations. Gianforte gleefully reported he raised $100,000 in donations after being charged, and his supporters condoned the assault.
The entire piece can be read here:
http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/jefferson-morley/73102/how-trumps-thuggish-style-incites-and-rationalizes-violence
Then there was the earlier incident in front of the Turkish embassy where Turkish security goons beat up lawful protesters. As also noted by Morley (ibid.):
"The rationalization for the violence in Washington was the same as in the Montana incident: self-defense. One Turkish bodyguard told the Times the protesters were “terrorists,” who started the fight by punching and spitting on him when he tried to get them to “calm down.” The common Trumpian denominator: the belief that people exercising their free speech rights is intolerable, therefore a violent response is justifiable. "
Conservative talk show gadfly and troglodyte Brent Bozell commented on Fox about Trump’s hostile relationship to the media, saying: “What Donald Trump is saying is, ‘If you hit me unfairly, I’m going to knock your teeth out.’ And that’s what he’s been doing.”
To which NY Times' Charles Blow responded:
"This rhetoric is overheated, violent and dangerous."
Blow also took aim at "the detestable radio host Laura Ingraham" who wrote a couple of cockeyed Twitter posts:
“Politicians always need to keep their cool. But what would most Montana men do if ‘body slammed’ for no reason by another man?”
This sort of diminishing and jokery is typical of Trumpites to justify thuggish behavior. And Charles Blow wasn't having any of it as he wrote:
"Outrageous. Assault is not a game. It’s not a joke. It’s criminal. Any moral person would know better than to treat it so cavalierly. A moral person wouldn’t make a joke; that person would take a stand."
"Outrageous. Assault is not a game. It’s not a joke. It’s criminal. Any moral person would know better than to treat it so cavalierly. A moral person wouldn’t make a joke; that person would take a stand."
Yes, Gianforte’s assault is a glaring display of toxic masculinity in an environment made particularly toxic by the man in the White House and his media bullying. But more telling and more ominous is the degree to which Republicans no longer seem to care, and their increasing ability to and justify.
This is all an outgrowth of Trump’s degradation of common decency.
This is exactly why Repukes and Trump's followers continue to have to define degeneracy down to continue to accept Trumpism's depravity. And they have no choice other than to embrace or at least tolerate that depravity and thuggery so long as they place party over country - to get their vile agenda pushed through. That now trumps equal justice, acknowledgement of facts and respect for the most fundamental ethical principles. And Blow was no less harsh on those who voted for Trump:
"The moment that they allowed themselves to vote for a man who bragged on tape about assaulting women, appeared in at least two pornos, and once joked about dating his own daughter, they surrendered the mantle of morality." The problem, of course, is that these voters - like Trump - have doubtless lost their moral compass, which is why they'd likely have no more problem with the Portland killings than Gianforte's beating of the Guardian reporter.
"In 2012, the moment that they allowed themselves to vote for a man who...bragged about how good he had become at killing people, drones thousands of innocent civilians, destroyed Africa's richest country, turned millions of Libyans and Syrians into refugees, refused to prosecute the CIA torturers, refused to prosecute the Bush administration war criminals, bailed out the Wall Street criminals who crashed the economy, sabotaged real national health care and passed two more "free" trade agreements that have destroyed working class America, they surrendered the mantle of morality."
ReplyDeleteIt works just as well with liberals as conservatives--if not better.
Have to disagree and vehemently reject the false equivalence here. While I've definitely had my gripes with Obama and the Neolib Dems (see numerous previous posts from 2010 onto 2014 etc.) they are not a patch compared with conspiring with a hostile state to overturn an election and even at that- we don't know the full extent of Trump Co's "tentacles" with the Russkies into the banking and other spheres. Including laundering money for god knows what. Obama was no angel, but he had no fraction of the control, power and wealth thay Trump wields and in addition, Trump is an insane asshole likely fully compromised ("kompromat") in ways we've yet to learn.
ReplyDeleteBtw, the "free trade agreements" were bad, but the real source of the appalling state we've reached began with the gross inequality introduced in the Reagan years. Not only with his regressive tax cuts but vast military spending ($2.1 trillion) hurling this nation into debtor status and imposing a GNP "squeeze" on any increases in domestic spending. That was ratcheted up even further after 9/11 when Bush Jr. exploited 9/11 to increase defense spending to 4 % of GDP without any increase in taxes. Dubya also launched the Iraq war based on false pretenses 9Saddam "link" to al Qaeda) leading to 400,000 innocent Iraqis slain according to WHO (World Health Organization) estimates. So any collateral damage via drone kills by Obama pales by comparison.
ReplyDeleteAnd then we beheld the Repukes running up deficits for the unpaid wars in Iraq, Afghanistan. By my reckoning the Repukes beat out the "liberals" ten to one in the disgusting category.