Jebus! Trump quadrupling down on rhetoric against Democrats.

[Jimmy Higgins]

So Attiah is saying Pelosi made Trump do it. The GOP is saying Omar and Ocasio-Cortez made him do it.

It sounds like no one thinks Trump is capable of a modicum of self-control.

And you can add Chelsea Clinton and Meghan McCain to that list. They are paving the way for this and have no means of distancing themselves from it now that it has arrived

Meghan McCain Feels Trump’s Racism Takes Away Her ‘Agency’ to Bash Ilhan Omar

She then complained that Trump’s hyper-focus on Omar’s race and immigrant roots has suddenly prevented her from personally going after the Minnesota lawmaker as much as she’d like to.

“But the problem right now is, you’re taking away my agency to criticize her policy,” McCain continued. “You’re making this about race, xenophobia, racism. I think any time you’re hitting in a territory where you’re telling any American citizen of a different color than you, to send them back, I too didn’t think this is something I would see in my country, especially going into 2020.”

Meghan McCain: Trump is making it hard for me to take Omar's statements and positions out of context and present her as a member of a radicalized left that doesn't even exist.

 

[ruby sparks]

Here's the clip:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU4XAjAeunk[/youtube]

Man, he becomes a spineless jellyfish when asked to make a stand on anything. I guess he really doesn't have a racist bone in his body.

What I would have said, if I'd been him, is, 'I only suggested they should go back. I didn't mean sending them against their will, that would be awful'.

Furthermore, I would add that the reason I waited so long to restart speaking was not because I was ok with what they were saying, it was because I was actually a bit shocked and didn't know what to say at first. As for not admonishing them, I would have, but I didn't want to start anything, that might have turned into a nasty ruckus in a crowded indoor venue, purely for health & safety reasons'.

 

[ideologyhunter]

He doesn't cue up his lies very well. IMO, his best dodge would be to claim he couldn't understand what they were shouting. I love when he added, 'And I don't agree with it.' The crowd was chanting a shortened version of his tweet at him!!!
(Keep telling yourself, It's only a movie, it's only a movie, it's only a movie.....)

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

So because the KKK wear hoods we can't be sure if Thomas Jefferson was a member or not?

I'm saying that it makes it unclear. You're making the claim that he never signed up for the KKK, but if he never showed his face at any meetings you wouldn't know, so what are you basing that on?

What Jason is trying to say is that while he is against authoritarian governments, if the Trump styled GOP becomes an authoritarian government, he'd be fine with it because they be his type of authoritarians.

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

So because the KKK wear hoods we can't be sure if Thomas Jefferson was a member or not?

I'm saying that it makes it unclear. You're making the claim that he never signed up for the KKK, but if he never showed his face at any meetings you wouldn't know, so what are you basing that on?

What Jason is trying to say is that while he is against authoritarian governments, if the Trump styled GOP becomes an authoritarian government, he'd be fine with it because they be his type of authoritarians.

How did you come up with that bit of nonsense?

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

I asked for clarification ...

What actually happened:

If you're going to claim that Thomas Jefferson was in the KKK you should provide a source.

 

[jab]

Here's the clip:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU4XAjAeunk[/youtube]

Man, he becomes a spineless jellyfish when asked to make a stand on anything. I guess he really doesn't have a racist bone in his body.

. . . just bonespurs

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

I asked for clarification ...

What actually happened:

If you're going to claim that Thomas Jefferson was in the KKK you should provide a source.

And you never did provide a source after your statement.

 

[lpetrich]

The Ku Klux Klan was founded some decades after Thomas Jefferson died. Even then, there isn't any evidence that TJ participated in some proto-KKK vigilante squad.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

What actually happened:

And you never did provide a source after your statement.

Your imagination is the source.

 

[lpetrich]

Trump falsely claims AOC, Omar, Tlaib, and Pressley used slur “evil Jews.”

“[It’s] horrible what they’ve said about our country, these congresswomen,” Trump told reporters outside of the White House. “They can’t call our country and our people ‘garbage.’ They can’t be anti-Semitic. They can’t talk about ‘evil Jews,’ which is what they say. ‘Evil Jews.’ ”

Back in 2012, Israel killed some 57 to 105 Palestinian civilians with Palestinians killing only 4 Israeli ones, and IO tweeted that she wanted people to “see the evil doings of Israel.” But

... Trump has generalized that lawful migrants who arrive here on family visas “can be truly evil.”

Trump repeated a version of his other false claim, that the four congresswomen had called “our country and our people ‘garbage,’ ” at least six times during his talk with reporters on Friday. He had already used that line at a rally in North Carolina on Wednesday, the same rally at which his crowd started chanting “send her back” after a reference to Omar.

However, AOC stated in her SXSW interview some months back that

We’ve strayed so far away from what has really made us powerful, and just, and good, and equitable, and productive. All of these [progressive economic policies] sound radical compared to where we are, but where we are is not a good thing. This idea of 10 percent better from garbage shouldn’t be what we settle for.

Clearly referring to economic policies that she considers failures.

Trump himself has used the word “garbage” to criticize aspects of the U.S.—in 2014, he tweeted, of President Barack Obama, “Everything he touches turns to garbage!” When a reporter on Friday afternoon noted that Trump himself has been very critical of the United States in the past—for instance, he once also defended Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin by saying, “There are a lot of killers. You think our country’s so innocent?—Trump gave a rambling, non-responsive answer.

He is not only the Bigot in Chief, it looks like we may have to call him the Defamer in Chief.

 

[ideologyhunter]

Then there's wonderful Lindsey Graham, who, three years ago, as a relatively honest man, called Trump a kook and race baiter. Now his line is that "Send her back" isn't racist, because "Love it or leave it" isn't racist. Why, O why, Lindsey, didn't you leave the country during the eight frightful Obama years?
Wonderful Republicans.

 

[ronburgundy]

The US has never ever had a leader like this before.

Sure, he isn't telling his followers to go out and kill liberals. The problem is, I don't know how many of them would not... if he did so. 30% of our nation seems to be living in a 1930's pro-fascist world.

Actually, there was a president who was an actual member of the KKK and explicitly racist.

Trump's definitive and repeated racism has made him an honorary member of all white supremacists organizations, whose members correctly view him as a leader of their cause.

It was a century ago though.

Correct, back when white supremacists could be open about it and it not negatively impact their career, even in political office. Today, the people who hold the same views (which as this week has proven is the majority of Republican voters and office holders) have learned that they need to be speak in code and never publicly admit to the white supremacy that is logically inherent to their rhetoric. Ethically, this is not better, but is in fact worse than being a member of the KKK of 1919, b/c of the progress of overall cultural morals and laws in the last century against which those reprehensible views are compared. Being a white supremacists and promoting those views certainly is not better just b/c you also lie about it.

Also, he did put journalists and political opponents in jail.

Similarly, Trump only has not followed through on his repeated threats to jail political opponents and journalists, b/c the society he lives in won't allow him to get away with it. He likely tells his buddy Putin, how lucky he is that he can get away with doing so.

 

[James Brown]

What actually happened:

And you never did provide a source after your statement.

Well, neither did you.

Twice now, you've declared a former president to be a member of the KKK, without naming the man or identifying your source.

All of this Thomas Jefferson derail is because Jimmy Higgins didn't say:

The US has never ever had a leader like this before [in living memory].

Had he said that, then your "ACTUALLY!" derail would have been pointless.

I tell you what. If this anonymous nameless member of the KKK of yours decides to run for another Presidential term, I vow to not vote for him.

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

Well, neither did you.

Twice now, you've declared a former president to be a member of the KKK, without naming the man or identifying your source.

When I said "it was a century ago" I did identify who, although I did not outright declare it to be Woodrow Wilson.

 

[James Brown]

While Woodrow Wilson was insensitive to the feelings of African-Americans, he was not a member of the KKK.

But then neither is Donald Trump, so maybe the two men are practically identical.

 

[jonatha]

While Woodrow Wilson was insensitive to the feelings of African-Americans, he was not a member of the KKK.

But then neither is Donald Trump, so maybe the two men are practically identical.

Wilson still has better hair...

 

[Arctish]

While Woodrow Wilson was insensitive to the feelings of African-Americans, he was not a member of the KKK.

But then neither is Donald Trump, so maybe the two men are practically identical.

Wilson still has better hair...

… and a better approach to resolving international conflicts.

Flawed, yes. But better than Trump's.

 

[lpetrich]

Trump revives the idea of a ‘white man’s country’, America’s original sin | Nell Painter | Opinion | The Guardian - "It can’t be left to black Americans alone to resist the president’s racism. Citizens of all colours need to resist, and embrace activism"

The idea that some US inhabitants deserve the land, deserve to stay and to occupy it, and that others must go – to be exterminated (Native Americans), to be exiled (black people), to be driven out (Chinese and Japanese people), to be barred from immigrating (Italians, Jews and other southern and eastern Europeans), to be removed (Mexicans) and, briefly, challenged as citizens (Irish Catholics) – has changed shape over time in terms of the permitted stayers and the non-permitted exiles.

But the conviction that only some people – that is, white people (however defined) – deserved US citizenship based on race held on for a very long time. After all, the initial US Congress began its work in 1790 by limiting eligibility for naturalisation to the free and the white.

Author Neil Painter had thought that this issue had been settled in the 1970's, but with Donald Trump's presidency, it came roaring back.

The notion that there are two main political parties in the US – one on the centre left, the other on the centre right – no longer holds. For the parties are increasingly defined by their racial politics. Democrats are multiracial multiculturalists. Republicans are the white party.

Even before Trump, the Republican party had been waging a southern strategy for more than half a century, ever more firmly committed to its white identity.

Though there are still plenty of nonwhite Republicans, they might end up feeling like tokens, if not outright unwelcome. Like Mia Love.

 

[ruby sparks]

Trump is almost certainly a racist. I think it's gone beyond giving him much or even any benefit of the doubt. His track record goes back to the 1970's.

That said, I think his racism is secondary. Primarily, he's what I would call a toxic capitalist. If you're a celebrity, or just plain wealthy, or a right wing conservative, or a supporter of strong free market capitalism, the racism will take a back seat. It's just that it 'so happens' that you're not statistically as likely to be one or several of those things if you're either a non-white citizen or a non-white immigrant or potential immigrant.

So when for instance he asked why the USA could not have more immigrants from Norway instead of from 'shithole' countries in Africa (where they 'live in huts') his preferences are primarily to do with financial status and only secondarily or coincidentally to do with skin colour.

He's obviously sexist too, for what it's worth. And prejudiced in other ways. I read that way back he asked his architect to remove the (legally-required) braille beside the numbered buttons on an elevator in one of his residential towers, because as Trump put it 'there aren't going to be any blind people buying these apartments'. But even there, to him, 'blind' probably more or less equates to 'poor'.