WSJ's Stable Of Dissemblers and Disinformationists Keeps Churning Out BS

It appears I may have written too prematurely when I opined in my post about Kim Strassel's conspiracy flatulence, e.g.

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2017/07/skewering-another-right-wing-conspiracy.html

that at least Holman Jenkins had pulled back from his own brand of garbage. As I had written:  "goofy as he was, Jenkins at least appears to have moved on to other subjects like trade, tariffs, and Elon Musk."   But alas, that didn't last too long.  By the time of the Weekend WSJ (Sept. 8-9, p. A13) little Holman was back at his personal propaganda mill once more - this time writing swill under the header 'We're Surviving Trump Just Fine'.    Seriously? Not from what Bob Woodward has presented in his recent interviews stemming from the upcoming publication of his latest book,   Fear: Trump in the White House ,

Indeed, in interviews over the weekend and yesterday (CBS, NBC) Bob Woodward warned that too many Americans aren't taking Trump's mental deficits and incompetence in office seriously enough, asserting we need to "wake up", e.g.

Bob Woodward: 'People better wake up' about Trump - CNBC.com

Which elicits the question why little Holman doesn't want his readers to be awake to what's going on, as when he pens such hog swill as "Mr. Trump is functionally, Mr. Obama, without the ambition".

Really, you terminal,  brainless maggot?  How about this:

 "Mr. Trump is functionally Mr. Obama - but minus Obama's brains."

Oh, another choice nugget from Holman: Quoting from Woodward's book, Trump saying "everyone's out to get me", and adding "So at least he is compos mentis about about some things."  Uh no, he is classically paranoid schizoid - when not being incompetent - but still needing to be confined to a rubber room, preferably in straight jacket.

But only at the end do we finally encounter the real reason that Jenkins is committed to spreading garbage like in his op-ed:

"I keep hearing from Trump voters who are satsfied they got the wrecking ball they voted for aimed at the Obama-Bush elite."

Thereby more than justifying Janice's malignant hatred of this human offal (her term is  "vermin")  - the "minority faction" - who tossed the whole country into a shitshow and national nightmare out of pique.   At least Jenkins is honest in his last sentence noting that "at least no president in my lifetime came wrapped in less false advertising".

Righto, which explains why Janice and millions of others are justified in hating the Trumpers even more - because they knew what they were doing - and said 'Bring it on!'

Another dissembling,  putz loser from the  WSJ stable of disinfo specialists is columnist Barton Swaim ('We Are All Aggrieved Minorities Now', p. C8, Sept. 8-9)

Swaim in his piece takes aim at Francis Fukuyama and his book, 'Identity'  while claiming "It's a tough sell on the topic of identity politics which is overwhelmingly a creation of the  left."  Seriously?    

Methinks Barton is either woefully ignorant or unable  to grasp or realize white identity has been around since before the Civil War slave era when slaves were expected to know their place and "Massah" was forever on slave patrol.  If Swaim did know that he'd have been aware white identity has actually metastasized since the Reconstruction era and fueled the excesses of Jim Crow. 

In Trump it reached its apotheosis, with the scumball  being the first ever "president" to appoint an outspoken white nationalist (Steve Bannon) to his national security council.   Hence, Swaim is either appallingly ignorant or stupid when after citing Fukuyama's claim "there are plenty of white nationalist voices that would like to drag the country backward on race," he proffers the rejoinder:

"Oh come on! White nationalism has no purchase whatsoever in American society."

No purchase whatsoever?  Then how did these vile memes spread during the Obama era? 

Again,  Swaim is unable to parse the blatant evidence for white identity and its presumed privilege,  not only in the media but in nearly every other Trump tweet. Oh, as well as filling the federal courts with reactionaries to defend his border policies and praising the Nazis and Johnny Rebs marching in Charlottesville last year as "some very fine people".  So one must conclude Swaim wouldn't be able to locate his ass from a hole in the ground, especially after the latest  White "massah" display in terrorizing Nike after it endorsed Colin Kaepernick's  kneel down NFL displays. See e.g.

The NFL's Ongoing Kaepernick Controversy Shows Much of White America Is Still in 'Slave Patrol' Mode

As Thomas Hartmann puts it: 

"The slave patrols live. 

Just ask any of the people at Nike who answer the phones and are dealing with an avalanche of angry white callers throwing the N-word around and complaining about Nike treating Kaepernick with respect. Trump, Pence, and billionaire Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News are ginning up even more racist hysteria on a near-daily basis.

But this doesn’t come out of thin air. There’s a long history of whites trashing blacks when they protest the systems whites have put in place to keep them down."

All of which is, of course, tied to white identity politics - whether Swam recognizes it or not. Swaim then goes on to bloviate, playing the false equivalence card:

"Whereas identity -obsessed progressives dominate America's universities, media and entertainment industry."

Which is a pile of rank codswallop.  Indeed, three political scientists: John Sides, Michael Tesler and Lynn Vavreck, in their new book 'Identity Crisis', show that issues of white identity drove most white Trump voters. Tied to matters of economics, this identity stamp emerged as "racialized economics" in the parlance of the authors.

 Meanwhile, progressive identity has largely been energized in response to the reactionary identity politics and memes projected by the Right, e.g.


With such odious, infernal ,  white identity excesses the Left and its remaining bastions had no choice but to stand tall and explicate its own identity politics  - well, to protect besieged identities!  Naomi Klein in her recent book, 'NO Is Not Enough - Resisting Trump's Shock Politics'), argued that, pp. 90-91:

"It is short-sighted,  not to mention dangerous, for liberals  and progressives to abandon their own focus on identity politics",

Because:

"To a terrifying degree, skin color and gender conformity are determining who is physically safe in the hands of the state, who is at risk from vigilante violence, who can express themselves without constant harassment and who can cross a border without terror."

Bottom line? So long as the Right embraces identity politics and tribalism  - seeking to stoke their voters using hate and distrust,  we on the sane side  must adopt a counter identity politics - appealing to the angels of citizens' better nature - not their worst.  Those appeals to citizens' better natures then are all about protectively circling the  "wagons" - whether on behalf of the 800,000 DACAns Trump wants to ship out, or the decent Muslims he wants to block from coming in, or the Puerto Ricans he has abandoned as "too costly" for federal assistance after Hurricane Maria. In other words, our tribal identity must be to protect those minorities threatened by the howling banshees of the Right.

Then for the penultimate disinfo scribbler we have WSJ book reviewer Deirdre McCloskey (WSJ Review, p. C9) who knows about as much concerning Adam Smith and his conception of capitalism as the nearest rock.   She writes, for example:

"If you are a compassionate conservative... you will delight in 'Adam Smith: Father of Economics'. If you are what Americans call a 'liberal' you can get along with it, unless you go to full socialism."

Uh, you mean full democratic socialism?  Because if McCloskey had read Smith's  marvelous tome  'An Inquiry into the Wealth Of Nations'   she'd have seen he himself could be regarded as a democratic socialist, as when he wrote:

"there are needs in a civilized society that a barbaric one refuses to address."

Adding:

"What improves the circumstances of the greater part can never be regarded as an inconvenience to the whole"

What improves the circumstances of the "greater part", like the 75 million currently on Meciaid and another 24-30 million on the ACA apart from Medicaid.  And hey, "can never be regarded as an inconvenience to the whole" - so not to be dinged down by benefit cuts to protect Tax cuts!  Maybe little Miss McCloskey ought to pick up Adam Smith's original work from the library and read it sometime!

But the top prize this week for major spin, bullshit and plain poppycock ought to go to William McGurn ('Playing the Civility Card',  yesterday, p. A13) when he actually summoned the chutzpah to first deliver an Oscar Wilde quote:

"A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone's feeling - unintentionally"

Then by an inversion of logic and exploiting the reverse Wilde notion that a gentleman is perfectly entitled to offend intentionally,  McGurn suggests Dotard J. Trump is really a "gentleman":

"Even the most ardent Never Trumper must concede that when this president offends, it's intentional."

But this is the sort of never ending bollocks we have to put up with from the Reich wing media machine, which incessantly churns to misalign the brains and thoughts of millions.   As for the WSJ op-ed pages and even Weekend Reviewe pages, they ought to include a warning label: "Perusing these pages could be detrimental to your mental health if you fail to exercise your critical thinking skills."

Righties Still Delude Themselves About Trump, NFL and Flag Protests

It appears the education of righties is a never-ending task, and at times borders on futility because of their penchant to rely on fake news (e.g. from FOX News) and also fake sports polls and bogus, related sources. How else explain the 'forecasts" of some that - watch out! - the NFL's fortunes will nose dive on account of  not followingTrump's stupid order to fire players for not standing for the anthem. Please! Look at any serious sports site (most of these critics don't even follow football, never have) and you will see ten times as many fans as the "boycotting", bailout losers begging for the latter's season tickets.  After all, if a person is so unctuous and dumb not to use them, why let them go to waste?

And this doesn't come close to their failure to process basic facts! For example, some of these bloggers have quoted Dallas' owner Jerry Jones  about being "against the players' protests"  - and yet - if they'd had a clue they'd have SEEN Jones kneeling with his Cowboys' players on Monday night. How do they explain that? They can't!

These bloggers also highlighted a Steelers' player as the "only one" not to remain the club house as the anthem was played, but failed to note he later apologized for embarrassing his teammates and trying to one-up them.   Again, these sort of miscues demonstrate why all their predictions for the NFL's demise this year - with fake low ratings added in - are basically humbug and horse feathers.

These jokers, who clearly missed Jerry Jones kneeling with his players, also missed the memo that flag protests ARE FREE SPEECH!

As I pointed out in a post from two years ago (July 24):

"in the case Texas v. Johnson (1989) flag burning was upheld as symbolic free speech which could not be curtailed under the 1st amendment. "

And further:

 "In 1990 another conservative congress tried to pass a law to outlaw burning the flag but again it went down.  This was in the case United States v. Eichman, 496 U.S. 310 (1990).  While the Johnson decision only affected a Texas state law this decision was broader. . In the wake of the earlier decision, the federal government  had enacted a law that also prohibited flag burning. In order to try to get around constitutional challenges, that federal law prohibited all types of flag desecration, with the exception of burning and burying a worn-out flag, regardless of whether the action upset others.

The Supreme Court held that this law did not cure the constitutional defect and the same 7-3 majority from Johnson held that the law still impermissibly discriminated upon viewpoint and struck it down."

Logic and good sense dictate that if flag burning is permitted free speech then not standing for the anthem, must likewise be. One is here not burning or destroying a flag but simply passively refusing to posture for its proclaimed principles when it's misused to advance racial discrimination, aggressive wars and economic exploitation. Hence, kneeling for the anthem was Colin Kaepernick's right, in terms of his protests against racism, and  those who complained be damned. We who are aware of the NFL's own rules also know that they do not demand a player MUST  stand for the national anthem.  And yes, that means that free speech protections apply to NFL players, contrary to some misinformed bloggers. Also, the players - as contract agents - are  granted rights and protections that (sadly) ordinary (9 to 5) American workers for corporations are not (as in the case Waters v. Churchill).

Common sense here also tells us that the SYMBOL of a nation cannot have more import or viability than the principles it is supposed to protect.  Nor have soldiers "fought and died for the flag".  You do not fight and die for a piece of fabric, you fight and die for the PRINCIPLES the flag stands for - all listed under the Bill of Rights (including free speech)! That some 'Muricans can't or won't get that through their thick skulls is beyond belief.  It does, however, show what fools they've been played for by Donald Dotard using his weekly dog whistle via tweets.

 In the end this issue should not be about Kaepernick and other NFL players being "un-American" but in fact being Americans and patriots in the fullest sense of all - by holding their nation to account and exercising their first amendment rights just as their critics so proclaim in their assorted blogs.

Sadly, even the Attorney General of this country doesn't appear to grasp the basic principles of liberty and first amendment rights pertaining to the NFL protests- though Jeff B. Sessions pilloried campus displays and protests as violating those rights. Talk about hypocrisy!
 

And now for a hum dinger of a finding related to the Russian exploitation of Facebook to drive fake news, and divide Americans further. It's now been revealed that Trump's pal Putin had recruited Russkie cyber goons to pump and hump on the side of Trump AGAINST the NFL and demanding the players "respect the flag". How's that for irony? Even more, the sunshine patriots blasting the NFL and owners are really now seen in league with the Russians. And they carp and bitch about Kaepernick wearing a "Castro" t-shirt. HAHAHAHAHA!  What's worse,  a guy wearing a Castro Tee or traitors siding with Putin and Russian to undermine this country?

In the end, Trump's anti-NFL dog whistling was all about division, spewing phony patriotism  to jack up his clueless base.  The sooner that base wises up the sooner they ought to see they've all been played for clowns and losers.  Especially after he flat out informed them in January that he didn't care about them, he "only needed their votes".

President Donald 'Dotard' Deserved His Smackdown From NFL Players, Owners

Jags players in London for the Ravens-Jaguars game kneeling to diss the Asshole -in-Chief. Kim Jong Un must really be feeling he nailed Trump correctly as a "dotard".


"The people run this country, not any one individual and it damned sure isn't this guy!" - Le Bron James on Trump's irate tweets that NFL players needs to be fired if they don't stand for the national anthem.

Let's concede the dotard in the White House is more each day morphing into the caricature of the elderly curmudgeon who screams at the neighborhood kids each morning to stay off his lawn. Never mind it's been ravaged by weeds and insects for the last two decades. But this is what the ignorant fool is devolving into as each day it seems he makes more and more enemies.

Thus, it was a marvelous sight peering at wife's laptop stream of the Ravens- Jags game to see the players from both teams in London's Wembley Stadium kneeling after Donald Trump mounted another imbecilic twitter attack. This time not on Kim Jong Un but  on any players who kneel in protest of the national anthem. The asshole actually demanded they be "fired" by team owners - clearly believing he's still acting on 'The Apprentice' where "You're fired!" were the only words he know how to say without looking at a script.

Not long after Trump fired off his tweets, the Cleveland Cavaliers' LeBron James called the dotard a “bum” - starting a tweet response with U-BUM, and Buffalo Bills running back LeSean McCoy called him an “asshole”. Perfect descriptions for a piece of garbage who can't keep his yap out of others' business or at least business that doesn't concern him. Indeed, it shows this jackass is totally unable to do the work that really counts for this nation. But then we knew from early on this job was beyond him. Too many details, too much stuff to master in an extensive government bureaucracy.  Hence, his penchant for becoming a cable TV and tweet addict. See e.g.

http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/donald-trump-stunned-to-learn-presidency-is-an-actual-j-1792215349


And look,  generally I am no fan of tweets or texts which I regard as crude language "cartoons".   BUT if one is using them as retorts to an imbecile who himself acts like a cartoon - then it's fine by me!

Anyway, yesterday was a climactic day for a movement that began with Colin Kaepernick kneeling before a pre-season game 13 months ago and has since prompted a nation to wrestle with questions of free speech and racial justice.  Sadly, most of the morons who've yelped against Kaepernick, as I posted at the time, appeared not to know he was exercising his free speech privileges. In addition, it signified the important meme that the flag is merely a rag unless the principles it represents - such as  free speech- are adhered to.   In the same way, the anthem is merely an arrangement of words sung to a certain melody if the principles alleged to be behind it are not acted upon. This is what Dotard's supporters seem not to get.

To recap the day's events:

Early on Sunday, shortly before his treasury secretary (Steve Mnuchin) insisted the president was not picking a fight, Trump had doubled down on his bellicose remarks at a rally in Alabama on Friday night and anyone could see he was emphatically picking a fight. It's about all this asshole does, whether with Hillary, NFL players, the media, the courts or Kim Jong Un.. The dotard then repeated his challenge to NFL team owners and encouraged fans to stop attending until the owners take action. He barked in a tweet like the mad dog he is:

“If NFL fans refuse to go to games until players stop disrespecting our Flag & Country, you will see change take place fast. Fire or suspend! NFL attendance and ratings are WAY DOWN. Boring games yes, but many stay away because they love our country. League should back U.S.”

Of course, it was totally beyond this dumb piece of shit to grasp that anyone who REALLY loves his county doesn't work with the Russians to undermine an election and get in through the side door. Or maybe better, the trap door in the basement.

Wembley staged the day’s first game, which featured Janice's Ravens. (Who alas were stomped 44-7) .  Around 25 players from the Jacksonville Jaguars and Baltimore Ravens kneeled.  While The Guardian’s Sean Ingle reported that no white players appeared to kneel “many players, coaches and even the Jaguars’ owner Shahid Khan linked arms instead as they stood, showing unity for their black team-mates against Trump”.

Later, at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, several Miami Dolphins players wore black T-shirts supporting Kaepernick before facing the New York Jets. During the anthem, the Dolphins locked arms.  Meanwhile, at  Chicago’s Soldier Field, he Pittsburgh Steelers collectively decided to remain in the tunnel before their game against the Bears .

Team owners also came out with sober words for the moron Trump.  Steelers coach Mike Tomlin told CBS.

“We’re not participating in the anthem today, not to be disrespectful to the anthem but to remove ourselves from the circumstance.  People shouldn’t have to choose. If a guy wants to go about his normal business and participate in the anthem, he shouldn’t be forced to choose sides. If a guy feels the need to do something, he shouldn’t be separated from his team-mate who chooses not to.”


Stephen Ross, owner of the Miami Dolphins stated:

"Our country needs unifying leadership right now, not more divisiveness"

Even NFL commissioner Roger Goodell expressed disappointment with the “divisive” comments while the New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, a close friend of Trump, was among team owners to side with their players. In a statement, Kraft said he was “deeply disappointed” by Trump’s remarks.

Trump made his initial remarks at a Friday night rally for the Republican senator Luther Strange, and what likely really tipped the players over the edge was his use of the SOB epithet. Again, which no true President exercising decorum and dignity would do. This isn't "political correctness" which the Trumpsters seem to yelp about obsessively. It is about the qualities that make a president worthy of respect. But in this case the disrespecting dotard blabbered:

“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!’”

To which all the assembled brain dead zombies roared their approval. But why expect anything different from these yahoos. They don't even recall that back in January Trump insulted them to their stupid faces when he said he didn't give a rat's ass about them, he just needed their votes.

Dotard  also complained about rules introduced to improve safety in the NFL, which has a serious problem with head injuries.  This is a guy that likely hasn't played a down of football - tackle or flag - in his miserable, entitled life.

Finally, I am getting damned sick and tired of Trumpies bellyaching about "real Americans" and those who don't follow their lead who "ought to leave the country".  Hell no, assholes, because this is our country as much as yours.   If you want to bow and scrape before Trump and yelp "Yessiree, Mastuh!" at his every dictum that's your choice. But don't make that a litmus test for who is a real patriot (or American) and who isn't .  The real Americans, for their information, include anyone who stands up to Trump in whatever form of resistance - whether NFL players, NBA players, medical doctors and nurses (fighting for preservation of the ACA), protesters in marches - including the heroes of Antifa (who saved dozens at Charlottesville) and every person who fights to reclaim this nation as a place of decency and honor instead of Trump's cesspool.

Of course, there are some who are just happy as hogs in sewer shit with Trump, his orders and Trumpism. That included Richard Petty, head of NASCAR, who belched "Anybody who don't stand up for the anthem ought to be out of the country, period". Spoken like a true cornpone, Johnny Reb yahoo which is what he and NASCAR are, as defined by historian Joshua Zeitz in his 2002 essay 'Dixie's Victory'.  Zeitz noted NASCAR, along with bible punching and pickup trucks laden with shotguns were carryovers of the Old Confederacy to the modern U.S. - which insinuated themselves despite the South losing the War..  But since we associate the South with traitors we can dismiss Petty's remarks as we do the rest of the crackers that support that line of thought.

We are as much or more a part of this nation, and if the paper patriots don't like it let them move to an autocracy more to their liking! Say like RUSSIA!


See also:

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/p-m-carpenter/75311/trumps-distractions-cant-prevent-his-destruction

Excerpt:

"The sports site Deadspin wrote that Trump's attack on the NFL's new safety rules "demonstrated an already-evident dearth of intellect," which is also the chief characteristic of most Trump supporters. Their tolerance of presidential ignorance and its assorted corollaries appears to be infinite..."

And:

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/harvey-wasserman/75314/it-s-a-lousy-anthem-anyway

• Football legend Terry Bradshaw RIPS into Trump
  

Kathy Griffin's Bloody Trump Head - And The Incredible "Free Speech" Hypocrisy Of The Right

How real is American freedom? More to the point, how does it compare with the freedom that other nations cherish, nations such as Norway, Barbados or Germany? Answering these questions can shed no small amount of light on the freedom we believe we have.

According to David M. Potter, in Freedom and its Limitations in American Life, (Stanford University Press, 1976), people of most other nations understand freedom to be wide ranging and to include freedom to express opinions contrary to the majority, or the societal "norms" and even engage in active dissent. Also, freedom to live as one chooses, e.g. in Barbados 'squatting' is quite legal, so long as it's not near water reservoirs, wells.

To the typical American (p. 7) "freedom" is not so inclusive or expansive but is limited to two concepts: "free and independent" and "free and equal". The first implies "freedom to avoid dependence" , e.g on any higher authority, thereby to attain true independence.This "freedom" is what the Tea Party Brigade incessantly invokes in its rallies to pursue the ultimate goal of "every man for himself" and no "nanny state".

As Potter notes, the other concept, "Free and equal" implies the essence of freedom is:

"Not being different from other people, but rather on a par with other people; not the right to choose between various modes of life, but the right to enjoy a mode as good as anyone else's "

In effect, the first ensures the typical American will pursue no true freedom of thought, but rather freedom from all collective responsibility or accountability (e.g. to a defined commonweal. ) This "freedom to avoid dependence" - which is to say, be "free" of the "Nanny state" has its limits.

Then there is the related issue of freedom of speech.  But especially here, hypocrisy abounds with  the Right often screaming at Leftists for  trying to censor their protected hate speech , e.g. at universities. But then they go ape shit nuts when a lefty evinces her own brand as Kathy Griffin recently did with her fake,  bloody Trump head.

But how shaky the brains of the Right when they get into high dudgeon and posturing outrage! They seem to forget what they did to the image of Obama e.g.



Or:


So please, don't go crying and whining about Kathy Griffin's bloody Trump severed head if you are the least bit ok with the preceding - as much of the victimized Right was in the Obama years. Or, if you accept the preceding images as expressions  of shameful but "free"  speech,   but not Griffin's.

Sadly as William Boardman has noted:

 "This episode speaks volumes about the tortured pathology of American culture in its present mindless form: freedom of thought, freedom of speech are allowed, but only if you exercise them within the walls of your invisible mental freedom prison. Otherwise you risk being an outcast. For Kathy Griffin, that risk is substantial, and it’s all too human of her to abase herself to save her career (if she can). The real sickness lies in the cultural demand for that abasement, which serves as a self-righteous cover for a deeply cowardly refusal to consider what the image means in a country where the majority of people want this presidency decapitated and are told they cannot talk about it except in officially approved and restricted ways. The official culture tries to prohibit depicting the living monster as defeated and slain.

We need to talk about that societal unwillingness to talk about that. The cruel, hideous ruler has long been a universal stereotype and reality."

Regrettably, as Boardman also notes, Griffin apologized at the "grovel" level for her stunt - something the Right's obnoxious cretins would never do. Like Great White sharks they tasted blood in the water, and this opened the door for even more feral attacks on her, just like Ward Churchill endured after his essay "On Roosting Chickens'.  This was an essay written after 9/11 that compared the investment specialists and brokers in the World Trade Center to "little Eichmanns". Every little anti-free speech dunce in Colorado went batshit crazy calling for Churchill's head,  with the university - and the Denver Post - complying in full, demanding his termination. The Post hung Churchill out to dry in a number of editorials and op-ed columns, The guy was convicted (of "plagiarism") and hung, drawn and quartered before he could ask why.  The whole episode showed the "free speech" meme for the hypocritical bollocks it was, because while someone could depict Muslims as "ragheads" in cartoons, he couldn't dare call into the question the U.S. role in inciting blowback - as Churchill did.

And who can forget the spewed hate after Colin Kaepernick took a knee for the national anthem? There we saw it again. The veiled threats that okay, this may nominally be the "land of liberty" but boy, you better had watch out which rights you exercise and look behind your damned back if it's the wrong ones!  Carrying this to outrageous extremes was a  self-proclaimed "World War II and Korean War vet" named Chris Cator who confided to Denver Post sports writer Mark Kiszla that:  "I will buy a one-way ticket for  Brandon Marshall (Broncos anthem kneeling LB)  to any foreign destination he wants."

What's the most galling and aggravating aspect of this whole aftermath, apart from some numskulls blaming it on "Trump Derangement Syndrome? The hysterical screeching of the Right that Griffin be charged with "domestic terrorism" or "making an assassination threat".  Are  you fucking kidding me? It was a tableaux prop explainable as artistic license which anyone who's read the end of 'MacBeth' would recognize - the protagonist bearing the severed head of the tyrant. E.g.  Act 5, Scene 8, lines 53-55:

[Re-enter MACDUFF, with MACBETH's head]
MACDUFF	Hail, king! for so thou art: behold, where stands
	The usurper's cursed head: the time is free:
	I see thee compass'd with thy kingdom's pearl,

In other words, unlike the crude images of Obama lynchings by the Right,  Griffin's invoked an artistic license based on a Shakespearean play.  Of course, most righties wouldn't make any such connection because they've never read any Shakespeare plays.  In the words of William Boardman:

"This is not an actual assassination. It’s not an actual attempted assassination. It’s not even a call for assassination of or even violence against Trump. It’s a far cry from all those right-wing memes lynching Obama. This is an example of artistic license. That’s another trait of free societies. Police states hate artistic license, even when it’s literally licensed."

The fact some Reich wingers might believe Griffin's form of intense speech is a "threat" or "domestic terror"  shows how far the county has descended into a limbo of historical and literary retardation.  Hence, that so many lack ability to do even basic critical thinking whereby one is able to distinguish a stunt using a prop from a genuine threat.  What was Griffin's error, if any? In not explaining the context for her speech.  But should she be crucified for that by the lynch-prone assholes of the Right? No, just as Ward Churchill shouldn't have been crucified for his 9/11 essay by losing his professorship at Univ. of Colorado.

The  pathetic takeaway from all this? Americans talk a good game about "freedom of speech" but have not defined it to a standard that all parties can accept. This means there will always be some who exercise it - such as Kathy Griffin, Ward Churchill, and Colin Kaepernick - who will pay a disproportionate price for so doing if believed to be outside the bounds of an artificially contrived "decency".  This also factors in the inevitable hypocrisy which allows one side (usually the Right) to get away with what in other nations might be hate speech, but if the opposite side tries it, it's met with hysteria and threats.

So much for the "land of the free".

See also:

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/william-boardman/73209/kathy-griffin-with-trumps-severed-head-sets-off-us-denial-storm

And:

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/p-m-carpenter/73247/griffin-and-mahers-outrages-are-nothing-compared-to-that-of-trump

Excerpt:

"If we've not lost our collective mind, we have, at a minimum, lost our perspective and sense of proportion. In the wake of unquantifiable outrage over the Kathy Griffin and Bill Maher kerfuffles, such a bundled loss just might be a proper assessment. I doubt it, but it could be true that America, by and large, can no longer distinguish acts deserving of resolute disapproval from acts deserving of genuine outrage. "