What an irony to hear Donald J. Trump calling on the nation to condemn “racism, bigotry, and white supremacy.”
No one has done more to inflame racism, to encourage bigots, and to bring White Supremacists into the mainstream than Trump.
No need to recite the evidence. We have all seen it, beginning in Charlottesville when he praised the “very fine people” among the White Supremacists.
Or to remember only days ago when he told four Congresswomen of color to “go back where they came from.”
Or when he referred to Mexicans as rapists and murderers.
Or, or, or.
We can add dozens more times when he let the racists and bigots know that it was safe to come out into the open.
I condemn racism, bigotry, and White Supremacy.
I condemn Donald Trump.
Trump has turned the American Dream into the American Nightmare, bringing all the swamp creatures to sun on the front lawn of the White House and to enjoy his hospitality in the West Wing.
With all my breath, with all my might, I condemn what he has done to our nation, how he has a made a mockery of our ideals, how he has allowed hatred and racism to become the face we present to the world.
World, I apologize. This is not America. We are better than this. This too shall pass, the sooner the better.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I received this email from a friend of mine in Australia. Even Aussies know what is happening and they aren’t deceived by the lying POS that is our president. My friend prayed the night before the 2016 election that Trump wouldn’t win.
…….
“On the news today the 2 shootings that have occurred are just wrong. The orange man is to blame for this. All his hate speech and racism plus anti gun laws have just made this implode in the US. I wonder what his ‘Make America Great Again ‘ means? Innocent people are dying. What is he thinking of?
I hear that he is going to win again because the democrats are fighting among themselves. Help! No!”
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“This is not America.”
Oh, but it is. We’re just usually more charming about our ugliness. But what do you expect from a country that stole land from native populations, displaced and killed said populations, brought in whole other populations as slaves and continues to this day to treat those with different skin colors (and other differences) as less than, marginalized, not-quite citizens? A country that continues, like the British Empire before it, to dominate the globe, especially in non-white areas, invade sovereign nations, oppress and kill the people, all in the name of “freedom and democracy”? Trump is the heart of America and until we reckon with that, we will have Trump. Maybe not The Donald himself, but someone of his ilk, perhaps (and I know this is unthinkable) someone worse.
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I agree that the US does not have a great history. Many continue to think that other countries aren’t quite as good as we are. I am against all the killing and destruction that our military brings and I am distraught at the amount of money invested in ever more advanced forms of killing machines.
I do, however, hope that there are enough of us who can see through all of this hatred and fear and work to have a better future. Many of us on this blog are rising above the garbage and know exactly what is happening.
I’d like to think there is hope for a better future. I don’t know whether or not this is possible. Too much damage has been done in the name of Make America Great Again. Trump doesn’t have a clue about how to make America shine. He contributes to the downfall. I’ve learned that America isn’t what I was told in the fifth grade.
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The only one worse than Trump is David Duke.
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There are plenty of people worse than Trump.
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Please, do not tell Trump that there are people worse than him because then his malignant narcissism will kick in and he’ll turn it into a competition until no one is worse than him.
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It’s a club he wants to be in.
He admires the absolute power of Putin, Jong Il, and if Hitler were alive… him too. He cozies up to them and the miserable racist talk show and officials in the U.S. because they dare to do anything anytime to anyone.
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Given that EVERY country in this world has a history like that, I don’t get your point. In the past, there have been brutal things done by countries. All of them.
There have also been GOOD things done by countries, including this one. So for you to say “what do you expect?” is basically saying that America deserves Trump.
When you say this IS America, you are simply normalizing behavior that we do not accept.
Trump and the entire Republican Party are trying to return to that America you condemn while the vast majority of Democrats who include many people of color are trying to make it better.
Lincoln was far from perfect. LBJ was far from perfect. Obama was far from perfect. Bernie Sanders, who just recently insisted that white people who absolutely refused to vote for any African-American candidate are not racists, is not perfect.
But anyone who is trying to smear all flawed Democrat and progressive candidates as the same as Republicans is not being honest and clearly has another agenda. If you convince voters that all candidates are equally evil by equating flaws of one with racist and xenophobic policies of another, then what is your point?
America is flawed but it is a democracy that has tried to recognize its own flaws and improve. Russia is an evil country where those who oppose Putin find themselves poisoned. The Republican party would be happy to convince voters that having the USA be no different than Putin’s Russia is simply what America has always been. But they are wrong.
Jimmy Carter’s policies were not the embodiment of evil that he was condemned by progressives as being. Some of us can recognize that we were wrong to have been completely fooled by the right wing propaganda directed to progressives that Jimmy Carter was the most evil candidate ever and he would sell out this country to business so even Reagan was “better” than the corrupt Carter.
Carter was a flawed human. Yet electing Reagan was not the same as having Carter as President and our country has suffered for it.
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Well said, NYC
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It sounds to me like what bothers Dienne is the hypocrisy – the “American exceptionalism.” That one feature really muddies politics, in a bad way.
Yes, we [& Brits] subjugated and pillaged the indigenous & brought in slaves in developing the Americas, right along w/ the contemporary Spanish, Portuguese, French & Dutch – not much different than the Romans in Europe more than a millennium before. Kids should be taught that history in that context. Most of today’s voters learned a glossed-over version from school & movies/ TV; they’re vulnerable to myths.
Our wars/ invasions are not precisely Brit-style empire-bldg as Dienne describes them, nor are they about truth & the American way as painted for voters. They have always been about maintaining a balance of global power, and trade. Practical stuff. Plenty of bad moves, some necessary ones. As a major military power, we are the most visible, but often we are carrying the weight for/ acting in concert with allied nations; none of us better or worse.
I too disagree w/ “Trump is what we deserve,” but it’s not a statement normalizing unacceptable views. Most nations have centuries of tribal warfare and atrocities to live down and come to terms with culturally, & few are there yet, it’s a slow process. In times of global economic shift, power centers are in flux, there’s floating insecurity. There are always shameless political opportunists looking to grab power by converting fear to hatred via old resentments. We all have them.
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I disagree. We don’t deserve Trump. No one deserves a pathological liar and narcissist.
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This reminds me of the Norm Macdonald joke wherein he recounts someone’s view that the “worst thing” about Bill Cosby is “the hypocrisy,” to which Norm responds something like, “Really? I thought the worst part was the raping. Then the drugging. Then the scheming. The hypocrisy has got to be way down the list . . . .”
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“It sounds to me like what bothers Dienne is the hypocrisy – the “American exceptionalism.”
That is tragically hilarious since anyone who was bothered by that hypocrisy would despise Trump and the entire Republican Party and would have supported any Democratic candidate in 2016 since that idea of “American exceptionalism” has never been part of the Democrats’ ideology.
On the contrary, dienne and other so-called progressives repeat ugly right wing terms used as propaganda like “identity politics” to attack those Democrats who care about righting the wrongs done to African-Americans in the past. Remember, that is supposedly the Democrats “pandering” and if they mention it then they can be attacked for it.
You just made a perfect post for why anyone should support whoever the Democratic candidate turns out to be. Anyone who cared about the hypocrisy of “American exceptionalism” would have rabidly supported HRC running against Trump. Not posting over and over agains that there was absolutely no difference.
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Marilynne Robinson recently wrote an excellent cover story, Is Poverty Necessary?, for Harper’s Magazine. One passage in particular refutes and puts into context the nonsense our resident commentator spews on a regular basis better than I can. When discussing a book she was working on on environmental racism, she told some American environmentalists about her work:
“The had never heard a thing about Sellafield—it was all over the press—and they were taken aback. Then one of them said, ‘Well, look what did to the Indians!’
“This is another tactic of evasion to which Americans are prone. One enormity (if it is our doing) puts another enormity beneath acknowledgement. I have heard that Indians are as dependent on the biosphere as the rest of us. Their ancestors are by no means compensated by the degradation of the world their descendants will inherit. Does an instance of white people acting badly really cancel out another instance of white people acting badly, though innocents are victimized in both cases? This makes no sense…The actual well-being of these places is imperiled in part by our refusal to see them clearly.”
This constant whataboutism got tired years ago.
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Trump is just like the high-school kid who throws spitballs or knocks someone’s books off a desk or otherwise disrupts class every time the teacher’s back is turned. He continually screws up his ugly, orange face and makes racist, anti-immigrant statements; stokes anti-immigrant feeling among white supremacists; and puts forward racist, anti-immigrant policies, but he usually stops just short of the most bald racist language, preferring, instead, racist policy accompanied by dog-whistles. Then, after making some racist attack–telling congresswomen of color to go back to their countries, for example–he will, just like that high-school kid, deny, deny, deny. Trump: “I am the least racist person. The blacks, they love Trump.” High-school kid: “What? I didn’t do nothing.”
Of, ofc (oh, the irony) even the language this cretin uses to deny racism shows his racism. How many times do we have to listen to him say, at a rally, “Look at my African-American over here”?
Immaturity and disingenuousness. Not the qualities of a statesman, but those of a demagogue. “Hate has no place in America,” the Hater-in-Chief, Dog-whistle Don, hero to neo-Nazis, said this morning. That’s true. That’s why he should resign. And then be placed in detention.
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And shame, shame, shame on those who continue to support this man. These shootings are the completely predictable result of the anti-immigrant hatred that Trump has stoked.
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Counties in which the orange bigot held a rally saw a spike in hate crimes of 226%.https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-campaign-rally-hate-crimes-study-maga-2019-3?IR=T%3Futm_source%3Dfacebook&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=topbar&utm_term=mobile&referrer=facebook&fbclid=IwAR3SsvgGkiY5EjvtH5tS38eDw1EuvXi-0uXinBZdrIFwun9mgrrs6biaYps
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Thanks for the link.
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Shame on those who try to NORMALIZE this man by insisting that he is just reflecting what America has always been.
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They should at least have the decency to wear brown and black shirts with the appropriate armbands.
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Or hoods and robes.
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Great headline, btw, Diane. Best I’ve seen regarding the recent horrors.
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Shared this post.
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Hours after the El Paso shooting, Trump enabler and NRA stooge Moscow Mitch McConnell tweeted pictures of headstones with the names of his political opponents–including that of Amy McGrath, who is running against him.
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Shameless.
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Yes, we are a sick culture, if you will. We are flawed as people and as a people. This country was born out of persecution and oppression, and somehow we became the shining light of liberty and democracy. And though we are still the troubled descendants of darker times, we’ve come a long way.
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Ohio state rep. Candice Keller is in the news for her Facebook post about causes of mass shootings which echoes the ultra conservative right wing. It’s no surprise that she is linked to the Koch’s ALEC. The right hand man of ALEC’s founder is identified as Laslo Pasztor, a former leader of the pro-Nazi Arrow Cross Party in Hungary, which had collaborated with Hitler’s Reich.
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The foul fruit never falls far from decrepit tree. Also glad she’s on the other side of the state from me. Her constituents must be so proud.
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There are those who tell the American people “America is better than this”.
And there are those who tell the American people “America has always been this evil so why is Trump such a big deal?”
The second normalizes Trump as just another in a long line of typical Presidents. And even though LBJ, Truman, FDR, Clinton were all flawed and imperfect, if we simply condemn all those Presidents as equally bad, we normalize what should not be normalized.
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Polly calling the kettle black . . . . . Dracula calling the Devil evil . . . . . Paula Dean calling Ina Garten bad for your health . . . . Archie Bunker calling David Duke a bigot.
PLEASE! . . . . .
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In Archie’s defense, Edith loved him, so there must have been something good about him.
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It’s been a long time since I watched All in the Family, but I seem to recall Archie Bunker becoming less racist and more open minded over the course of the series. And if my memory is correct, I think it was a real change. He wasn’t just mouthing words so he would not sound racist, but he was starting to realize that some of his beliefs were wrong. I hope that by the end, Archie would have despised Trump, his fellow Queens native. But maybe not.
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You’re right. By the time of the show Archie Bunker’s Place he was practically a liberal, but not nearly as much fun to watch. Carol O’Connor, who played him, was a true, dyed-in-the-wool FDR liberal. Which made his portrayal in the early years even better. If you have a chance to see any of the episodes from the first three years, you’ll be surprised (or maybe not) how little things have changed. If it were not for the 70s fashions, you’d swear it was written today. The episode where he goes on tv to rebut an editorial about hijacking and guns could be a contemporary talking point for any NRA-loving pol.
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Boy, the way Glen Miller played,
Every day was Hit Parade . . . . .
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“Songs that made the hit parade.”
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Gee, our old LaSalle was great . . .
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“ran great” . . .
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After all this time, no one could have expected anything different—but President Trump’s response to the deadly shootings over the weekend in Texas and Ohio still had the power to shock. This was his crisis, undeniably tied to his own issues, his own rhetoric, the anger that he’s stoked and rode. Yet where his predecessors moved to console communities in mourning, Trump seems to have neither the willingness nor ability to respond on a human level, opting instead to pop-a-shot paper towels to hurricane victims in Puerto Rico, blame “many sides” for the white nationalist rioting in Charlottesville that left one woman dead. When he finally faced the cameras after the weekend’s carnage, he read adjectives off of a teleprompter, wearing his longest face, condemning racism and white nationalism (finally!), while mostly blaming video games and mental illness. He offered vague promises to fix things— “I am open and ready to listen and discuss all ideas that will actually work and make a very big difference” — but, understandably, given past performance, many people didn’t believe him
After hitting the links Sunday after more than two dozen people were killed hours apart in El Paso and Dayton, Trump on Monday took to Twitter to offer some prescriptions for dealing with the violence. Before that, he’d called the shootings “terrible,” offered his “thoughts and prayers” to the victims, and condemned the shooters — without mentioning, of course, that the man who killed 20 people and wounded several others at the El Paso Wal-Mart Saturday had parroted his talking points on immigration in a racist manifesto he published just before the attack. On Monday, though, he had some ideas he said he hoped would produce “something good, if not GREAT” out of the shootings.
Donald Trump Struggles To Respond To Mass Shootings | Vanity Fair https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/08/trump-struggles-to-respond-to-mass-shootings?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=vf&utm_mailing=VF_CH_080519&utm_medium=email&bxid=5d4366c0f730433d9a4957ec&cndid=58038431&hasha=176f17c4a99f38e31653cb9b47811375&hashb=f8ff628e24c159cce82e067e87e8c8753f74cb3b&hashc=b273294a42a9428518ee718c16b146b42583457cf9343b140e9084ddda900040&esrc=bounceX&utm_campaign=VF_CH_080519&utm_term=VYF_Cocktail_Hour
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The biggest issue with mass shootings is not ideology or hatred, but easy access to weapons and high-capacity magazines that allow shooters to kill dozens or more people in less than a minute. At this point, we have no confidence in our ability to do anything about the weaponry. So I suppose we may as well spend our time condemning white supremacy.
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Many nations have angry people including white nationalists. Every nation has its share of the mentally ill. The difference is that here they can easily get their hands on assault rifles that cause maximum harm in seconds.
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Hard to argue with that concise summary.
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I recall someone saying years ago, something to the effect of, the debate over gun control in America ended with Sandy Hook. Once Americans decided they were ok with the slaughter of children, it was over.
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Americans did NOT decide they were okay. A few powerful Republicans blocked every legislation.
The fight didn’t end at Sandy Hook. What that should have taught voters was that any vote for a Republican was a vote for people okay with the slaughter of children.
Instead, we let a propaganda effort that convinced too many voters that both parties were equally fine with the slaughtering of children when that is simply not true. Only Republicans and a small percentage of Dems are okay with it.
If Obama had a strong Democratic majority in the House and Senate after Sandy Hook, there would have been action taken. I wonder if Susan Collins would have joined in the right wing filibuster to make sure more children were slaughtered in America. I suspect if Mitch McConnell ordered her to prevent gun control legislation so more children could die, Susan Collins would salute him and follow her marching orders. But I think she would have paid the price and been replaced in the next election.
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No, we don’t get off that easily. This is not just about a few bad actors in Congress, “the Republicans,” and gullible people swayed by propaganda.
Here’s some 538 stats on 2018 polls: 66% of Americans would prefer stricter gun control [46% GOP, 87% Dems]. 67%R/ 86%D favor raising purchase age to 21. 84%R/ 92%D want background checks on ALL purchases. Parties in dead heat on banning sale to those w/history of mental illness [87-88%]. 43%R/ 81%D want ban on assault weapons; 53%R/ 84%D say ban hi-capacity ammo mags.
Those #s say 2 things: (1)Corruption runs so high among fed legislators that we can’t pass laws wanted by the vast majority of voters. (2)This corruption ongoing so long – now enshrined in law by Cit-United – American voters have given up.
Time to hit the streets.
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FIRST, you said, “Corruption runs so high among fed legislators that we can’t pass laws wanted by the vast majority of voters”
“The House-passed bills that have ended up in the Senate ‘graveyard'”
There is one Republican Senator responsible for managing the Senate ‘graveyard’, and his name is Mitch McConnell, also known as Moscow Mitch because he also is blocking bills that were meant to strengthen America’s voting machines from being hacked by Russia.
“Six months after the newly elected Democratic majority was sworn into the House, progressive lawmakers are tackling many of their priorities through legislation. But few of those bills are seeing traction in the GOP-led upper chamber, with many ending up in what Democrats have labeled the Senate ‘graveyard’. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has boasted about the pattern, promising to be a ‘Grim Reaper’ for progressive policies in the Senate if the GOP hangs onto the chamber in the next Congress.”
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/449780-a-list-of-the-democratic-legislative-priorities-being-held-up-in-the-senate
Moscow Mitch was also the one that refused to let the Senate vote on a replacement to fill an empty US Supreme Court vacancy early in 2016, even when Obama still had nine months to serve as president. Moscow Mitch bragged about sending Obama nomination to his ‘graveyard’ that, too.
https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-supreme-court-mitch-mcconnell-vacancy-2020-story.html
SECOND: “This corruption ongoing so long – now enshrined in law by Cit-United – American voters have given up.”
And American voters have NOT given up, yet, and I think that in 2020, we will see the largest voter turnout in U.S. history.
“2018’s record-setting voter turnout, in one chart”
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/11/19/18103110/2018-midterm-elections-turnout
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If we had 2 Supreme Court Justices appointed by HRC instead of Trump, Citizens United would probably already been repealed.
That is because there is a big difference between Republicans — including the most “liberal” Republicans — and even the most conservative Democrats when it comes to democracy.
Those who insisted that it didn’t matter whether Trump won since things would be the same must live with their selfish decision that having two right wing Supreme Court Justices did not affect their own lives so they decided it was not important.
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There is no competition here. There is a big issue with racist ideology and hatred AND easy access to weapons and high capacity magazines.
That is also true of terrorist attacks that are committed by non-Americans that are about both normalizing and enabling hatred and access to high powered weaponry.
So I suppose the time is well spent condemning white supremacy and also the easy access to weapons.
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retired teacher’s link from above, Business Insider-quoted research, “U.S. counties where Trump held a campaign rally saw a 226% increase in reported hate crimes.”
Heather Heyer was killed by a white supremacist driving a car who could have veered and killed dozens. I don’t recall that my childhood and the years since were filled with news reports about white supremacist rallies nor actions like those of Root in the South Carolina Church.
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The thing is, this is NOT us, as flawed as we may be, as flawed as we may have been. HE does not represent us. HE is an aberration. HE represents some significant flaws in the nature of our democracy, and especially in our brand of capitalism (pun intended).
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He is an aberration of nature as well as politics. Capitalism gone mad.
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I respectfully disagree. We are a country which has accepted mass murder as part of who we are, and Trump is our leader. We may hate this but it is our reality.
It’s kind of like people who say racist things and then, when called out, say it’s not who they really are.
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Sereia: I’m constantly battling with my brother who believes that liberals are killing babies by supporting abortions. Yet, he has no problem when mass murders occur because he doesn’t want gun control.
Our society is sick and Trump is pulling all the sickness that was hidden under rocks out for it to flourish. It is being demonstrated by an increase of hate killings and bullying in schools. Trump is the face of hatred but the symptoms go deep into society.
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Denials of abortion are about controlling women as property.
Mass murders are only, on occasion, about controlling women e.g. Incels and Neo-nazi’s comments after Heather Heyer was murdered in Charlottesville.
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“We are a country which has accepted mass murder as part of who we are”
Nonsense.
RE: fed laws, poll after poll shows the vast majority of Americans want far stricter gun control. The problem is more widespread: our fed legislators [& many at state level] are bought. They represent donors rather than constituents– biggest donors are anti-govt free-marketeer libertarians & anti-reg, anti-tax corporations. That affects healthcare, public education, environmental laws, gun control, infrastructure, et al public goods. Until we crack that nut, nothing changes.
RE: state laws, my state NJ is 2nd strictest (to CA); our ave gun deaths are less than 1/2 the natl ave (45th of 50 in per capita gun deaths – only NY, MA, CT & RI lower);
more measures about to be passed in NJ legislature. We do not accept mass murder as part of who we are, & have never waited for fed to get a clue. We banned assault weapons here 30 yrs ago, & our handgun owner/ carry/ ammo permit is notoriously hard to acquire.
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Long story short, the GOP MUST be voted out of office everywhere and the Dems need to take back the Senate and the White House and maintain control of the House. The GOP is against gun control, universal health care, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, abortion rights, LGBTQ rights, etc. Vote these scum out of office and especially king scum, Trump.
I will vote for Biden on steroids to get rid of Trump (in the general election).
If I hear another right wing GOP stooge blame the gun violence on video games, gun free zones or mental illness I will throw a brick through the TV. If they are so concerned about mental illness, will they then support universal health care? Ha, ha, ha, not a chance.
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Joe, a suggestion. To save money, find an old discarded TV that no longer works and bring that home and throw a brick through it.
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Good advice Lloyd. I’m almost there, my TV set is over 20 years old, I need to get to the 21st century electronically speaking.
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More suggestions:
Before you throw the brick, make sure to wear eye protection and a mask to filter out any carcinogenic debris and fumes from the TV. No telling what will be released once the brick hits.
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Research says it’s not video games.
https://heavy.com/news/2019/08/video-games-mass-shootings-research-wrong/
I wonder what research says about listening to people who use threats and language suggestive of violence from a platform of high authority.
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Akeademos, who funds the studies that claim the violence is not caused by video games?
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Good point, Lloyd. I’m sure it isn’t healthy, the violent ones.
Nor are some of the Trump family recreations: shooting animals and watching UFC fights. And those are real guns and real fights.
But I think Trump’s bringing it in here is just diversion from his own culpability.
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Trump is all about diversion and attention-getting. I would not be surprised that he has one of those whoopie cushions that makes a loud fart noise when he sits down so he can hijack everyone’s attention to focus on him.
Trump is a coward.
If I could, I’d send Trump on a mission with a special forces team into one of the most dangerous areas on the planet and when they get picked up a few days later, I’m sure we’d discover that Trump had wet and dumped in his pants repeatedly. In fact, at the end of the mission, the special forces troops would be carrying Trump (after cleaning him up and putting an adult diaper on him – the snipers sometimes carry and wear adult diapers because you can’t go to the bathroom when you are in one spot for hours on end waiting for the target to appear. Adult diapers also help mask the stench so the sniper isn’t discovered that way) because Trump was shaking so hard he wouldn’t be able to walk.
But, knowing several former special forces troops who were in combat situations that would curl even my hair, I suspect Trump would never make it back once he revealed how dangerous of a coward he is. His cowardice could get the team killed if they didn’t throw him off a cliff somewhere in Afghanistan.
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I’m not sure the team would ever take him, clutching that Whoopi’s cushion and dragging behind those heel spurs like a relative of Wolverine.
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Whoopie
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A perfect response!! Thank you Diane. Kas
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Thank you for this unequivocal post Diane. Thanks to others for not changing the subject.
If you watch Trump’s performances at his rallies, you can see he is not just spewing forth invitations to violence but also delighting in the process. He is energized by the approval of his audience and to get that approval he will unleash his deep reservoir of bigotry and hatred for “the other ” while grinning and smirking and cocking his head, and spreading his arms wide, fingers open, then applauding himself, cueing the audience to applaud and wave flags for the press cameras–which he loves and loves to condemn.
He is not just a crude, rude, and mean guy with bad hair, with white circles around his eyes, and bad makeup, he ENJOYS targeting any real or imagined critic. He DELIGHTS in saying he could “Stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters.”
Watch his expression as he says this line. Watch his response to one person in the audience. Watch his desperate and dangerous need to be number one no matter what. https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/01/23/trump_i_could_stand_in_the_middle_of_fifth_avenue_and_shoot_somebody_and_i_wouldnt_lose_any_voters.html.
Anyone who makes excuses forTrump amplifies his destructive desire for power. His statement today was so free of any understanding of the disasters in El Paso and Dayton, that he referred to Toledo instead of Dayton.
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“Anyone who makes excuses for Trump amplifies his destructive desire for power.”
I pledge to plagiarize this many times in the future.
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A long shot- Nikki Haley builds her support quietly, behind the scenes but, waits until the last opportunity to get on the primary ballots. She avoids early attacks from Trump. Trump’s given a big payday to drop out or, he stays in and loses to Haley. Dems select Biden, and Haley wins.
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Seth Meyers has taken over the mantle of Jon Stewart. He might even be more than Jon’s equal:
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Yep…he’s pretty darned good.
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Hypocrite in Chief.
So whoopie, he made a speech.
Said predictably, “I’m going to do something – don’t know what it is yet but you watch”
Said “it’s mental health” – and video games (which is such a 1990s excuse) because he’s an expert on everything.
Said it’s the immigrants fault. Then – he’ll do nothing and his base is happy.
Someone should tell him Obama couldn’t solve the mass shootings and gun violence – then he’d be motivated to fix it just to do something PRESIDENT Obama couldn’t.
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If “the problem,” as Trump and the NRA say, is mental illness, then shouldn’t we think of ways to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill?
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Exactly.
I happen to agree with the talking point about extremely violent video games. It’s the one constant between all of the students I’ve taught who are labeled “Emotionally Disturbed”. But if you’re giving a nod to that as a contributing force, why not extend it to keeping the guns and ammo out of the hands of people with those violent tendencies?
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“…why not extend it to keeping the guns and ammo out of the hands of people with those violent tendencies?”
Sometimes it is impossible to determine who is going to do mass shootings. Look at the man who killed in Las Vegas. Nobody suspected he would kill. The only way to safeguard our public is to have strict gun laws for everyone and to outlaw assault weapons. Nobody needs to purchase an assault weapon because the only usage for such a machine is to kill humans.
L.A. Times:
“He was 64 years old and, to those who knew him, showed no signs of mental illness, extreme political views or an unhealthy interest in guns. He liked to gamble, and had bounced around over the years, living in Southern California, Texas and Nevada. But he seemed to have plenty of money, and had held steady jobs as a mail carrier, accountant, auditor and apartment manager.
Stephen Paddock’s last stop was here, in Mesquite, Nev., a modest desert oasis 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas, where he lived in a retirement community with his female partner and kept a low profile, conversing little and maintaining no Facebook or Twitter accounts.”
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No argument here, carol. Just trying to generate a logical extension for those who would disagree.
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gitapik: I figured that was what you were doing but I commented anyway. It’s difficult to get through to people who believe everyone is entitled to purchase all sorts of guns. As in, we must not stop the selling of assault rifles because that stomps on our gun-toting rights as US citizens. It never matters how many people get killed. Their love of guns is a ‘god given right’ and it is established in the second amendment. That is a bunch of hog wash.
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One of his first public reactions was to offer some action on gun control (expanded background checks?) if it was tied to increased immigration reform.
The art of the deal. On the backs of the dead.
What a disgustingly filthy human being.
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We cannot deny that this is the face America shows to the world right now: bigotry, hatred, violence, and mass murder. This is who we are.
We are also a country of love, tolerance, empathy, compassion, and kindness.
We are both. We cannot deny the reality of the ugliness, but we can fight to overcome it.
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Respectfully disagree.
We are not defined by the very worst.
As a country, where roughly half the vote went right to our flaws to deepen the demise of the desperate and damaged, we are officially represented by a grave mistake. BUT we are also in extreme turmoil over this.
I take your point about what we present to the world. But, no, this is not who most of us are, as people. Again, we are not defined by our worst aspects and capabilities. This does not mean we are not culpable. We are in many ways. We must change. We must evolve. We are not healthy. We are not properly taking care of and watching out for ourselves or each other.
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We shouldn’t ignore Moscow Mitch’s part in opposing the legislation on guns that Americans overwhelmingly want. Trump’s mindless talking points are meaningless while he knows the GOP won’t act. The more dissension and chaos in the U.S., the happier Putin is.
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Yes, Mr. President, the people who commit these horrific crimes have a mental health problem. Your lack of mental health is that problem. It’s contagious.
And ready access to powerful weapons–that’s a problem, too.
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Trump: “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending the best. They’re not sending you, they’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists… And some, I assume, are good people,” Trump said while announcing his campaign in June 2016.
Trump is the rotten face of racism.
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El Paso native tried to stop Walmart shooter, saw he targeted Hispanic shoppers
Aaron Montes, El Paso Times
Grant would have escaped injury in the shooting rampage but he tried to distract the gunman by throwing soda bottles at him. That’s when the shooter turned his gun on Grant and put two bullets near his rib-cage.
…Chris Grant’s account of Saturday’s shooting by his family’s telling seems to support the idea that Crusius came to El Paso, specifically to shoot Hispanic people. El Paso is generally made up of 83% Hispanic residents.
“He stated that the shooter was targeting Mexicans and was passing whites, African Americans,” said Laura Hromatka, Grant’s former wife.
Check out this story on ElPasoTimes.com: https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/2019/08/05/el-paso-shooting-man-tried-stop-walmart-shooter/1928443001/
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This is a stupid comment blaming mental illness. Trump needs to stop having ego rallies and ramping up the hatred. The NRA is getting their $30 million worth in their donation to the Swamp Monster. “Guns are not the problem.” BS. Guns kill people. People in other countries have to be laughing at us. They know that guns kill.
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President Trump, who will travel to the Lone Star State on Wednesday, used a 10-minute address to try to steer the narrative after a weekend of carnage and national grief. He championed more mental health treatment and warned against the spread of “racist hate” on social media and the dangers of violence on the internet. He advocated capital punishment for mass shooters, condemned white supremacy and argued that guns are not the problem.
“Mental illness and hatred pull the trigger — not the gun,” the president said while reading carefully from prepared remarks with Vice President Pence by his side.
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This whole blaming mass shootings on the mentally ill makes my blood boil. It’s typical of Trump, or the NRA, or any other bully to target the most vulnerable in society– those w/the least voice, the least govtl support– [illegal immigrants, anyone?]– and lay the blame for society’s ills at their feet.
The idea that we could somehow screen for potential mass shooters among the mentally ill is ludicrous. Here are the 1st 3 stats from “NAMI – Mental Health by the Numbers”
Approximately 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. (46.6 million) experiences mental illness in a given year.
Approximately 1 in 25 adults in the U.S. (11.2 million) experiences a serious mental illness in a given year that substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities.
Approximately 1 in 5 youth aged 13–18 (21.4%) experiences a severe mental disorder at some point during their life. For children aged 8–15, the estimate is 13%.
Paraphrasing retired teacher on another thread, many nations have angry people, including white supremacists, but have few gun deaths. The number of angry people/ white supremacists is dwarfed by the number of those experiencing mental illness– 46million in any given year here. If we continue 2019 at the same rate of mass shootings, we’ll total 434 for the year. 434 shooters is 0.000009 of those experiencing mentall illness in 2019.
As anyone w/any experience w/mental illness knows, the major impact of gun control on the mentally ill will be to decrease the number of suicides.
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bethree5: I’ve mentioned before that I had therapy for 5 years for severe emotional and mental abuse from my mother. I never would touch a gun.
The major one with emotional problems is Trump. Malignant narcissists never do anything wrong. I also believe he is suffering from dementia. He used to be able to speak in complete sentences and made sense.
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“The major one with emotional problems is Trump.”
What about all those voters that still support Trump?
FiveThirtyEight reports that 42.1 pe4rcent of voters approve of this orange maggot.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings/
And real clear politics says that number is 43.4 percent.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_trump_job_approval-6179.html
That is a lot of American voters who also have to have “emotional problems”.
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I think the problem with all of those voters is Fox and Rush Limbaugh.
RUSH: Boy, I’ll bet you’ve been waiting for this hour, folks, to find out what’s going on, what to think of things, and how to feel about it, and your patience is about to be rewarded. Great to have you with us as always. It’s a brand-new week of broadcast excellence hosted by me, Rush Limbaugh, a household name in all four corners of the world. It’s a delight to have you here. Our telephone number, 800-282-2882. The e-mail address, ElRushbo@eibnet.us….
The news reporting’s all over the place. “Donald Trump’s racist tweets, Donald Trump’s xenophobic tweets, Donald Trump rotten, horrible scumbag. Donald Trump racist, Donald Trump blatant xenophobe.” Donald Trump did not mention race once in these tweets. “Rush, it doesn’t matter. The media says he did, and that’s all that matters.”
Well, look. If you’re gonna let the media get away with lying every time they report something, then there’s nothing we could ever do or say. Trump did not mention race. Trump did not even mention color! Trump did not mention people of color! Trump did not tell anybody to go home! He said, “Go home and fix it and come back and show us how it’s done”! These are the people who are constantly threatening or offering to leave if they lose elections, and they never do leave.
He told ’em to come back after they fixed the countries of their national origin. Only one was not born in America, of the four that Trump was targeting, three of them were born here. But it is obvious these women do not like this country. And if you don’t understand that, just stand by, because I’m going to share with you some of the things these babes are saying and have been saying. (interruption) What, are you telling me not to defend Trump? I’m not defending Trump. We’re in the midst of another fake news cycle here! All I’m gonna try to do is bring a little truth to it! It’s all fake news. And it’s really rooted in the fact, when they can’t deal with a Trump truth bomb, they go hysterically nuts…
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Rush Limbaugh is not a lone voice.
“The top ten (media) pundits (another word for liars and rabble-rousers) among Republican activists”
The total percentages for each of the top ten were*:
https://conhomeusa.typepad.com/survey/2010/12/the-republican-grassroots-ten-favorite-pundits.html
This is a dated list from 2010. I wonder if the ranking has changed.
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Uruguay specifically tells about hate crimes of racism and that ownership of firearms in the US is a problem.
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Countries Warn Their Citizens About U.S. Travel After Mass Shootings
The governments of Venezuela and Uruguay issued warnings about travel to the U.S. after the El Paso and Dayton shootings.
…On Monday, Venezuela’s government issued a warning telling Venezuelans to postpone planned trips to the U.S. or take precautions due to the “proliferation of violent acts and indiscriminate hate crimes” (translated from Spanish by HuffPost) that left dozens dead in the two cities in recent days.
The Venezuelan government blamed the “supremacist elite” in power in Washington, saying that violent acts had found “sustenance” in the “racial discrimination and hate” fueled against immigrants. It suggested avoiding crowded places, noting the “inexcusable” and “indiscriminate” possession of firearms by Americans.
It also named several U.S. cities to avoid because of their rates of violence, including Detroit, Baltimore and Oakland, California. Venezuela has one of the highest murder rates in the world.
Earlier this year, the U.S. State Department issued a travel warning against Venezuela amid political unrest in the country.
The Uruguayan government in a statement earlier Monday also warned against “growing indiscriminate violence” in the U.S., largely from hate crimes including racism. Citing Americans’ ownership of firearms, it said to avoid crowded areas, like malls and festivals…
Article: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/countries-travel-warning-us-shootings_n_5d48c7c9e4b01ae816c74da3?ncid=other_email_o63gt2jcad4&utm_campaign=share_email
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None of the following is immoral: Inflaming racism, to encouraging bigots, and bringing White Supremacists.
Praising the “very fine people” among the White Supremacists.
Telling four Congresswomen of color to “go back where they came from.”
Referring to Mexicans as rapists and murderers.
Letting the racists and bigots know that it was safe to come out into the open.
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Here’s a comment from a R winger:
Fox is saying that the killer in Dayton Ohio was a left wing, likes crazy Bernie and Pocahontas. Also just like you, a Satan worshipper. Your so called news is not reporting that. That doesn’t fit the their narrative.
I don’t see how liking Bernie and Warren makes me a satan worshiper.
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If a person is looking for truth or logic at Murdoch’s network, they’re barking up the wrong tree.
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Looks like the issue there is mental health, including an obsession with mass shootings, not political leanings or ideologies.
Fox is just distracting from the obvious culpability of the Republicans and the NRA.
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I had a luncheon with two friends today, both conservative. One Fox watcher stated that Trump had nothing to do with the killings but its the L media that pushes such stuff. I kept quiet.
The Orange Swamp Monster encourages hatred and fear of minorities. People who believe that killing them is making our country ‘whiter’. Can’t possibly be anything wrong with that idea.
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Your friends didn’t keep quiet. Why did you?
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Linda; I’m assuming you are talking to me. [My brother just called me a Satan lover.]
I felt outnumbered. One friend knows exactly how I feel. She watches Fox and knows not to discuss politics with me. It was a friendly lunch and the bad comment went swiftly and we moved on to other topics and mostly laughed at other things.
It was a luncheon paid for by the wife of my financial advisor. [He and their son hates Trump.] I didn’t feel it right to confront the lady since she was paying. I only see her once a year.
It astounds me how divisive Fox is and how much people who watch Fox think Trump is actually doing all sorts of things right. I don’t understand how all the garbage that Trump spews is somehow acceptable. These are highly educated and wealthy women. Why do they like Trump?…Fox ‘news’ lies.
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fyi- They are Trump supporters because they are as selfish as he is.
Just a suggestion-
Next time, ask sincere questions that solicit the reasons for her Trump support. Afterwards, It will make you feel better than your silence. The response often falters as the person tries to construct a rationalization for her answer. Verbalizing forces her to view her answer from the listener’s perspective. You don’t have to follow up by telling her she’s wrong. You are not judging, you are merely curious to understand her.
You won’t change her mind but, you’ll feel better.
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I like your suggestions but HOW does one rationalize the statement that Trump isn’t causing racial hatred? I remember a year ago when my friend said that she liked Trump because he stands up for himself.
I’ve been sending articles to my brother and he continues to say that I’m being influenced by fake news…CNN, NYT, WaPo, NBC, etc. The only ones to listen to are Fox, Hannity and Rush L.
Is there any rationalization with people who don’t have facts and who listen to distorted news? I was considering saying that there was a 226% rise in hate crimes in cities where Trump spoke. I knew that would be considered ‘fake’ news since it wasn’t reported on Fox. It was reported by WaPo…another fake news source.
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Some people support Trump because they see him as the bully acting for them.
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I tolerated a great deal from my in-laws who vote for Rep. Jim Jordan- they are anti-gay and are racial bigots. They are Fox ditto heads.The last straw was when they called to brag that the Ohio GOP had passed a law that enabled them to avoid paying state taxes (true). Their defense of preferential treatment forced me to see them, not as a product of brainwashing but, just plain selfish, people who had no interest in their nation nor their community beyond their own personal gain.
There’s a movie available on the internet, “Brainwashing My Dad”. Salon interviewed the writer/director. He said what distinguishes
Fox viewers is their gullibility and propensity to respond with anger. The tools Fox uses make viewers feel a sense of belonging and the viewers are led to believe that Fox will think for them.
My in-laws’ anger isn’t explosive. They are arrogantly entitled, uneducated and non-thinkers. Fox gives them talking points for their selfishness.
One of their grandchildren attends a state university and another is a closeted gay man. They figuratively crippled both of their children so that they would be unable to survive if they lived away from them.
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Statistic from 2016 presidential election-
Hispanic Catholics voted 67% Democratic vs. 26% Republican
White Catholics voted 37% Democratic vs. 60% Republican
White, ultra conservative Catholics, Leonard Leo (Federalist Society) and the disciples of Paul Weyrich (ALEC and the religious right) sit at the seat of GOP power.
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This just came out from the WH. I guess Trump is expecting great news coverage on his compassion for the innocent people who got killed needlessly. I want to know who wrote this for him. He is incapable of feeling compassion.
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President Trump and First Lady to visit Dayton and El Paso tomorrow
President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump will travel tomorrow to Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, where mass shootings over the weekend claimed more than 30 lives and injured dozens more.
“We are outraged and sickened by this monstrous evil, the cruelty, the hatred, the malice, the bloodshed, and the terror,” President Trump said yesterday at the White House. “Our hearts are shattered for every family whose parents, children, husbands, and wives were ripped from their arms and their lives.”
The President also called for bipartisan action to confront gun violence, condemned the scourge of white supremacy, and thanked law enforcement in Ohio and Texas “who responded to these atrocities with the extraordinary grace and courage of American heroes.”
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One of the roles of the president is to express compassion and genuine empathy after a tragedy.
Reagan did it when the space shuttle exploded, killing the crew.
Clinton did it after the Oklahoma City bombing.
George W. Bush did it after 9/11.
Obama did it after Dandy Hook.
Trump is incapable of empathy. He can read lines from a TelePrompTer. But he is not able to fake actual concern for others. That’s not in him.
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Thom’s blog
The Death of the Middle Class & The Rise of Racism
According to new data from the federal reserve, if current trends of the rich getting richer and the middle class getting poorer continues at their current rate, in 33 years the top 10% of Americans will own one hundred percent of all American wealth. Everyone else will be in poverty and in debt. Right wing billionaires like Donald Trump are cheering this on, calling for more tax cuts on rich people and less power for working people through the continuing destruction of unions and fighting the minimum wage.
They tell us that the problem is not corporate monopoly and rich people taking everything for themselves, but instead brown people from south of the border, black people wanting affirmative action, and women wanting equality, what Limbaugh calls “feminazis.” They are more than willing to tear up the fabric of American society in exchange for what they think will be a permanent position of wealth and power.
By destroying the American working class, they’re fueling class, regional and racial resentment, and then they use that resentment to split us apart and encourage us to hate each other – all so long as we don’t point our fingers at them.
-Thom Hartmann
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The inescapable outcome is why Bernie has to be elected and why he needs a progressive House and Senate.
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The Fed. Reserve chair doesn’t read his own data. He explained to 60 Minutes, the factors that could stop economic expansion-never even mentioned concentrated wealth strangling economic growth.
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The 33 year time frame is shortened if the data didn’t include privatization of public education and SIB’s
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I’ve said this before, and it bears repeating.
Trump and the Republican Party represent a clear and present danger to the Constitution and to the Republic. Their lies and their racism and their willingness to do anything and everything they can to maintain power undermine the core ideals and values of the American Creed. The Republican Party today is the party of white nationalism.
And, as Adam Serwer pointed out in The Atlantic, “the political incentives for theTrump, the conservative media, and the Republican Party have not changed. As long as the GOP sees scaring white people half to death as its path to power, Trump cannot abandon his white nationalism, and the Republican Party cannot fail to defend it…Donald Trump will not change who he has always been. And as long as the Republican Party and the conservative media are committed to defending him, their attempts to join their fellow Americans in eradicating the scourge of white nationalism cannot be realized.”
Public schools have a role to play in all of this, and that role is NOT centered on STEM, or coding, or SAT and ACT scores, or Advanced Placement courses. Instead, public schools — and political candidates — ought to be focusing on democratic citizenship and the values on which it is based: popular sovereignty, equality, justice, freedoms for all citizens, tolerance, and promoting the general welfare of the country.
Unfortunately, there are tens of millions of Americans who do not subscribe to those values.
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Nothing ever improves with the Orange Menace. “failing NYT”, “Radical Left Democrats”, “Fake News”. How I wish he’d just shut up. How sick that people believe the continuing garbage that he spreads. Ruling by Twitter defines a weak mind.
………………………………………………………
Donald J. Trump
Verified account
@realDonaldTrump
Follow Follow @realDonaldTrump
“Trump Urges Unity Vs. Racism,” was the correct description in the first headline by the Failing New York Times, but it was quickly changed to, “Assailing Hate But Not Guns,” after the Radical Left Democrats went absolutely CRAZY! Fake News – That’s what we’re up against…
3:32 AM – 7 Aug 2019
12,023 Retweets 46,698 Likes
6,440 replies 12,023 retweets 46,698 likes
Reply 6.4K Retweet 12K Like 47K
…………
Donald J. Trump
Verified account
@realDonaldTrump
3h3 hours ago
More
..”This is an astounding development in journalism. I’ve never seen it happen before, I’ve just never seen anything like this! Is that journalism today? I don’t think so!” Mark Penn, Former Clinton Advisor. @TuckerCarlson After 3 years I almost got a good headline from the Times!
3,710 replies 8,974 retweets 21,125 likes
Reply 3.7K Retweet 9.0K Like 21K
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Conservative columnist George Will:
“Today’s long — and perhaps occasionally lethal — national embarrassment will continue at least until Jan. 20, 2021. If it continues longer, this will be more than an embarrassment to the nation, this will be an indictment of it.”
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–Fox News host Sean Hannity thinks the solution to mass shootings is more guns in schools and shopping centers. “They should be on every floor of every school,” he said on his show. “We could do that with stores. We could do that in malls. We can do that pretty much anywhere the public is.”
— Another Fox host, Tucker Carlson, said white supremacy is not “actually a real problem in America.” “This is a hoax, just like the Russia hoax. It’s a conspiracy theory used to divide the country and keep a hold on power,” Carlson said on his show.
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Fox News is claiming Brian Williams should have pushed back on a “tin-foil -hat theory” about 8/8 meaning Heil Hitler to neo-nazis. The thing is, it does.
https://www.adl.org/education/references/hate-symbols/88
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https://www.google.com/amp/s/thehill.com/homenews/media/456499-nbc-analyst-trump-re-raising-us-flags-on-aug-8-very-significant-to-the-neo%3famp
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I preferred life back when flashing an “8” sign meant you were a member of the Van Buren Boys.
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Hi Flerp,
8 is the luckiest number in China!
https://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/social_customs/lucky_number.htm
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Hope this is nothing, but I did a quick check on the fact that 88 is often associated with 14, for 14 words involving preserving the white race.
I wanted to see if Trump used 14 words in a speech or tweet associated with the flag order for 8/8. He did. In the third paragraph of the story in the link.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/thehill.com/homenews/administration/456106-trump-orders-flags-to-half-staff-as-mark-of-solemn-respect-for%3famp
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This happens to be 14 words.
“Through our grief, America stands united with the people of El Paso and Dayton.”
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Not the first time for this sort of ‘coincidence’, re: 14 words, within days.
https://www.salon.com/2018/07/06/did-trump-administration-send-a-coded-signal-to-neo-nazis-maybe-not-but-is-that-reassuring/
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Not days. This was from Feb.
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Right now, both Trump senior and junior appear to be losing their minds. Trump makes incomprehensible complaints about misrepresentation of his Ohio visit and Junior says a list of Trump donors “screams” like the shooter’s HS hit list.
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Ivanka: mere inaccurate and misleading diversion.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/08/ivanka-trump-chicago-mayor-lori-lightfoot-argue-shootings.amp
All the Trump boots are on the ground, but they are stuck in a muck of their own making.
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Strange time for a massive showcase of a raid.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/1945960001
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I’ll stick with Mayor Whaley. Lying, delusional Trump sees everyone as loving him.
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Dayton Mayor on Trump Skipping Visit to Shooting Site: Business Owners Didn’t Want Him There
08.07.19
…“I think it was a good decision for him not to stop in the Oregon District,” Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley said. “I think a lot of people that own businesses in that district aren’t interested in the president being there. And, you know, a lot of the time his talk can be very divisive, and that’s the last thing we need in Dayton.” …
Trump had a different take on things, heading to Twitter to say, “It was a warm & wonderful visit. Tremendous enthusiasm & even Love.” “Then I saw failed Presidential Candidate (0%) Sherrod Brown & Mayor Whaley totally misrepresenting what took place inside of the hospital,” he added. “Their news conference after I left for El Paso was a fraud. It bore no resemblance to what took place with those incredible people that I was so lucky to meet and spend time with. They were all amazing!”…
https://www.thedailybeast.com/dayton-mayor-nan-whaley-on-trump-skipping-visit-to-shooting-site-business-owners-didnt-want-him-there?source=email&via=desktop
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Insights, analysis and must reads from CNN’s Fareed Zakaria and the Global Public Square team, compiled by Global Briefing editor Chris Good
Aug. 7, 2019
Why Right-Wing Ideology Is Harder for America to Fight
As the US wrestles with how best to confront white-supremacist violence, Mike Giglio of The Atlantic offers up a concise, if grim, assessment of why it’s been easier for the US to counter jihadist extremism: “The comparison [between the two forms of extremism] underscores a key problem,” he writes, “one that ISIS and al-Qaeda never forced Americans to face: What if the center of an extremist militant ideology is not in some lawless region of the Middle East or South Asia, but in America itself?”
Demonization of immigrants, for instance, is a thread that runs through some strains of American politics—including, as many on the left have noted, President Trump’s own comments. That makes questions of free speech thornier and is likely to raise fears of political persecution on the American right, if the government seeks to counter right-wing ideology. ISIS may have been an easier foe because it held a definable territory that the US could “take away,” Giglio suggests, while white-supremacist violence forces America to look within and fight an ideology that exists, unfortunately, at home.
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Thom’s blog
We Do Have A Mental Illness Problem & It’s In the Whitehouse
Trump, the NRA, and the Republican Party keep talking about mental illness as the core of our problem right now in America. And, indeed, we have a major mental illness problem in our country right now. It’s in the White House. Our president is mentally ill, and until we recognize that, acknowledge that, and begin a national conversation about it there can be no healing or reconciliation.
His lies, his continuous contradictions, and his erratic behavior both domestically and internationally are all symptoms of his severe mental illness. Many of America’s mental health professionals have recognized this, but a serious discussion of the president’s mental illness has not yet moved out of the realm of mental health professionals and into our mainstream rhetoric.
The media needs to acknowledge that we have a disabled man in the White House, and that his disability is putting all of us – literally, the entire world – at risk. One of the most common understandings in the mental health community is that healing starts with acknowledging the cause of the problem; healing in America will begin when we all acknowledge that Trump’s mental illness has torn us apart and poisoned our national and international discourse.
-Thom Hartmann
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— But all 13 Republican doctors either didn’t respond to PULSE’s questions or referenced previous statements on the link with mental illness. Many of those Republicans — Reps. Ralph Abraham and Scott DesJarlais (family medicine), Michael Burgess and Phil Roe (OB/GYN), Larry Bucshon (thoracic surgery), Neal Dunn (urology), Mark Green (emergency medicine), Andy Harris (anesthesiology), John Joyce (dermatology) and Roger Marshall (urology) and Sens. John Barrasso (orthopedic surgery), Bill Cassidy (gastroenterologist) and Rand Paul (ophthalmology) — previously have expressed skepticism of Democrats’ calls for gun control.
Surgeon General Jerome Adams didn’t respond to questions about whether he agreed that gun violence is a public health crisis. “HHS is deeply concerned about violence, including gun violence, that is rooted in mental illness, an area of significant focus to the Department in terms of both research and treatment,” Adams said in a statement. “One of our missions is to help Americans with mental illness find and obtain timely treatment.”
“PULSE CHECK”: Gun violence isn’t really a mental health problem — That’s according to Amy Barnhorst, a UC Davis psychiatrist who studies firearm violence, who said that’s misunderstanding the core issue and looking for retroactive red flags.
“I understand … why it’s easy for people to believe,” Barnhorst said on POLITICO’s podcast, but “just because somebody’s weird or they behave badly … that doesn’t mean they have a mental illness” like depression or schizophrenia or would have met the criteria for a diagnosis.
“It’s a convenient distractor from the other argument, which is that all of these guys do have one thing in common,” Barnhorst added. “And that thing 100 percent contributes to their being able to be a mass shooter, and that’s a gun.”
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Subject: Tell Congress: Ban Weapons of War
Gilroy. Dayton. El Paso. We can no longer stay silent about the horrific mass shootings carried out with military-style weapons, in city after city, week after week, across our country.
Win Without War doesn’t normally work on domestic gun control. But we know as people who work for peace that militarism, and the white supremacy that underpins it, sweeps through every aspect of our society — and gun violence is no exception.
That’s why Win Without War activists have an important role to play in the national conversation happening now about military-style weapons, like the ones used in the past week’s shootings. Because in moments like these, we all have to raise our voices. Or things will never change.
Can you take a moment to demand Congress ban weapons of war from our streets NOW?
http://act.winwithoutwar.org/sign/ban-weapons-of-war/?source=emailshare&referring_akid=4154.321626.fRqm7A&source=taf
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Trump biographer David Cay Johnston: The president’s response to El Paso, Dayton shootings shows he’s ‘deeply mentally ill’ and has ‘no capacity for empathy’
Johnston went on to say, “Millions of people suffer from mental illness. Most Americans at some time in their lives, if they have a white-collar job, have encountered a boss or a co-worker who is nuts but able to function. So I don’t think it should surprise us that within 45 presidents, we finally have one who is deeply mentally ill.”
https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/trump-biographer-david-cay-johnston-the-presidents-response-to-el-paso-dayton-shootings-shows-hes-deeply-mentally-ill-and-has-no-capacity-for-empathy/#.XUx4Yl0aWLI.gmail
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Video: ‘Words matter’: El Paso residents slam Trump’s defense of his immigration rhetoric
El Paso residents protested President Trump’s visit to the city Aug. 7, after a mass shooting killed 22 people at a local Walmart.
https://wapo.st/2Ko8P59
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Amnesty International Issues Travel Warning for U.S.
Amnesty International issued an advisory for persons traveling to the United States a few days after a pair of mass shootings in two American cities over the previous weekend left 31 people dead.
The advisory, published on Aug. 7, was “issued in light of ongoing high levels of gun violence in the [U.S.],” and calls on people worldwide “to exercise caution and have an emergency contingency plan when traveling throughout the USA.”
Amnesty International urged those traveling to the U.S. to:
“Be extra vigilant at all times and be aware of the ubiquity of firearms among the population.”
“Avoid places where large numbers of people gather, especially cultural events, places of worship, schools, and shopping malls.”
“Exercise increased caution when visiting local bars, nightclubs, and casinos.”…
https://www.snopes.com/news/2019/08/08/amnesty-international-warning/
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This is back again. How about the kid zips himself inside the backpack and hopes the killer isn’t using an assault weapon? Yes, this is companies profiting on the fears of parents.
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Bulletproof Backpacks in Demand for Back-to-School Shopping
A growing number of companies are marketing them to parents who are desperate to protect their children from gunmen.
…But Mr. Sheikh acknowledged that the backpacks were less effective at blocking gunfire from powerful semiautomatic weapons, like the ones used at Sandy Hook. And gun-control advocates say there is no evidence that armored backpacks, however carefully tested, would keep children safe during a shooting.
“We’re asking children to stand up to gunmen because lawmakers are too afraid to stand up to the gun lobby,” said Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a grass-roots gun-control organization. “There isn’t a parent in this country that isn’t terrified. These companies are capitalizing on that.”
Mr. Siboni, who runs ArmorMe, said it was unfair to accuse his company of exploiting national fears about gun violence to turn a profit…
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Whoop. Whoop. Big change.
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Walmart Removes Violent Video Game Displays, Keeps Selling Guns
Barbie Latza Nadeau
Correspondent-At-Large
Published 08.09.19 5:21AM ET
Edgard Garrido/Reuters
Walmart stores across America have been directed to remove all displays and signage for violent video games following two shootings inside the retail giant’s locations, but were told that there was no change in policy regarding the sale of firearms, USA Today reports.
“We’ve taken this action out of respect for the incidents of the past week, and this action does not reflect a long-term change in our video-game assortment,” Walmart spokesperson Tara House said in a statement. On Saturday, 22 people were killed inside an El Paso Walmart, just days after a disgruntled employee killed two people in a store in Southaven, Mississippi.
The stores will continue to sell violent video games, a spokesperson added, just not promote them.
Read it at USA Today
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This comes from the NYT. It shows the by-products of the increased gun violence and how if affects children.
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By 2017, Amanda’s toddler’s daycare was holding mass shooting response drills. Staff members practiced locking all doors and windows and keeping the children quiet, so that if one day a gunman came, even the babies would know how to avoid attention. It’s now fairly commonplace for schools across the country to do the same.
And every time they do, that’s another addition to the arithmetic of fear. If one day a kindly therapist tries to convince children who grew up with those drills that they don’t have to worry about a gunman coming to their schools, those arguments will be weighed against a lifetime of practicing responses to a mass murderer on a room-to-room hunt.
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