We — and by “we,” I mean the world — have a problem: the global white supremacist movement and its capacity to commit horrific acts of violence. Here’s how the POTUS is handling it today:
Bring back @JudgeJeanine Pirro. The Radical Left Democrats, working closely with their beloved partner, the Fake News Media, is using every trick in the book to SILENCE a majority of our Country. They have all out campaigns against @FoxNews hosts who are doing too well. Fox …..
….must stay strong and fight back with vigor. Stop working soooo hard on being politically correct, which will only bring you down, and continue to fight for our Country. The losers all want what you have, don’t give it to them. Be strong & prosper, be weak & die! Stay true….
….to the people that got you there. Keep fighting for Tucker, and fight hard for @JudgeJeanine. Your competitors are jealous – they all want what you’ve got – NUMBER ONE. Don’t hand it to them on a silver platter. They can’t beat you, you can only beat yourselves!
Pirro was suspended or shit-canned because of her latest anti-Muslim rant, in which she said that since Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota wears a hijab, Omar is a follower of “sharia law,” which Pirro says is “antithetical to the U.S. Constitution.”
Carlson is under fire this week because of racist, sexist gibbering newly surfaced from old appearances on the “Bubba the Love Sponge” radio show. But Carlson has been busily mainstreaming white nationalist garbage for years from his perch at Fox News.
After the Christchurch massacre, Trump tweeted “warmest sympathy and best wishes” to New Zealand. He has uttered not a word of comfort to the Muslim community there or here.
No one who has been paying attention found that surprising since the source of Trump’s political power is the ability to gin up hate through racist, sexist, xenophobic demagoguery.
Still, since Trump got a shout-out in the terrorist’s manifesto, the Beltway press asked Trump directly if we have a white supremacy problem, and he said no.
ACTING Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney was trotted out on the Sunday shows to defend Trump’s inexcusable response. Here’s what he told Chris Wallace when asked why Trump wouldn’t just deliver a speech condemning white supremacy and anti-Muslim bigotry:
“The president is not a white supremacist. I’m not sure how many times we have to say that.”
Meanwhile, Trump was giving Fox News a pep talk on Twitter to make sure his favorite anti-Muslim bigots and “white genocide” conspiracy theorists don’t get fired. So there’s your answer, Mulvaney.
Now for something completely different: Pete Buttigieg’s beautiful letter to the Muslim community in South Bend after the New Zealand terrorist attack.
This is how a great leader speaks to a shaken community. And that’s how we’ll confront the rising threat of white supremacist violence if we ever recover from this deeply shameful episode in our national history — with unity, and with the decency of people like Pete Buttigieg.
SFAW
Just one day. Just one fucking day without him being a fucking asshole and showing the world what a fucking asshole he is. Is that too much to ask?
Unfortunately, I know the answer is: “Yes, it IS too much to ask. What are you, a moron?”
The Fat Kate Middleton
Beautiful, beautiful letter. When I think of … we’ll, you know what i’m thinking of … I want to weep.
SFAW
Listen, you evil fuck, you know he is, I know he is, most of the world knows he is. So why don’t you STFU and do some actual non-evil work for a change?
Why, yes, I am in a GREAT fucking mood, why do you ask?
matt
I’m concerned about what happens when Trump is gone and the movement around him continues to be one of the two parties in the US.
scottinnj
The Aussies know how to do the right thing as well:
“All major parties will unite to censure Queensland Senator Fraser Anning, accusing him of trying to incite fear and division across Australia on religious grounds in the wake of the Christchurch terror attack.
As Prime Minister Scott Morrison called for the “full force of the law” to apply to Senator Anning, Labor leader Bill Shorten said the reaction of “right-wing extremists” backing the senator highlighted the fringe element supporting him.
It follows Senator Anning’s response to the Christchurch killings on Friday in which he sought to lay blame for the attack on the victims.”
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/major-parties-unite-to-censure-anning-for-christchurch-terror-comments-20190317-p514x4.html
Frankensteinbeck
As a racist, sexist, and all-around hate-driven bigot, he understands what Republican voters want perfectly. I feel like we have turned a corner. The problem is that we haven’t turned a corner to a country rejecting violent white supremacism and misogyny, we’ve turned a corner to where most of those who don’t support it have realized how powerful and pervasive hate is. We do outnumber them, but they’re not going anywhere and we have one Hell of a fight still ahead of us. The first step was admitting we have a problem, however.
Suzanne
Mayor Pete is incredibly impressive, and he seems like a wonderful man and leader. I hope he has a long, successful career in public service. We need people like him.
JPL
Let’s be honest, fake judge was suspended because it was not the appropriate time either stand her ground or issue a fake apology. She was suspended because a white supremacist killed 50 people and wounded dozens of others. The optics were bad.
Nettoyeur
It’s hijab not hajib.
Jay
Young “conservative” males don’t just wake up one morning and decide to become mass murdering Nazis.
They are lead down a long pathway by “gateway” social media influencers, aided by Social Media Corporations who refuse to police their platforms, monetize the hate, and carefully crafted algorythms so that the hate sites dominate the searches, ads, “you might like”.
https://sullyville.substack.com/p/pigs-a-million-different-ones?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=copy
Van Buren
Shorter Mulvaney: Sure he walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, but he’s not a duck, because reasons.
Kyle
Apparently, the Honorable Mayor Buttigieg is a good writer.
The Golux
@SFAW:
To anyone who claims that Trump isn’t a white supremacist, the correct rejoinder is, “Whether or not Trump is a white supremacist is irrelevant. What matters is that the white supremacists believe he is one.”
sukabi
@scottinnj: besides the bipartisan censure will they be egging him as well?
danielx
@SFAW:
Trump response, assuming he had the self-awareness to make one: I gotta be me.
matt
@The Golux: I think the correct rejoinder is ‘Lies and Nazis have always gone together. Fuck you and your lies.’
sukabi
@Van Buren:
Ksmiami
@matt: we take their internet and their guns away under a national emergency
Lyrebird
Thanks so much for front-paging that letter from Boodidgedge.
That’s beautiful.
I called the nearest masjid to where I live and left voicemail saying we are happy they are our neighbors and wishing them all peace and safety. Want to do more… not currently a member of a congregation though.
Already called all my pols back when it was to fight back against the pile-on re: Rep. Omar
There is much more to do, and I find it hard to feel like what I do makes any difference.
Kirk Spencer
@SFAW:
You’ll have to
lie aboutsay it as often as the president acts like one. So, several times a day for the foreseeable future.Luthe
Translated Mulvaney: “The president is not a white supremacist. He is a white nationalist. Can’t you liberals tell the difference?”
karen marie
@The Golux: Thank you.
Jay
@Lyrebird:
They notice you care. That’s what makes the difference.
West of the Rockies
I hope MLK was correct about the arc of moral history… Some days it feels like there are just too many vile people, too much stupidity, avarice, dishonesty, and hatred.
We have far too many people making money by fomenting resentment and fear.
There are farrrr too many people stupid enough who buy into those messages of hatred.
So we must beat on, boats against the current…
Mnemosyne
@The Golux:
Another possible answer is, “Then when is he making a statement condemning anti-Muslim rhetoric and murderous actions? It’s what all of the other leaders who aren’t white supremacists are doing.”
Seriously, I would guess that Kim Jong-Un’s statements about this tragedy had more gravity than this asshole’s.
scottinnj
@sukabi:
Its Australia so maybe he gets a “booting” a kick in the buttocks using a giant boot. Though maybe they compromise on a kick from the Prime Minister instead.
BruceFromOhio
Irrelevant. The white supremacists accept the dumpster fire as a white supremacist.
banditqueen
@SFAW: Exactly. How many recent white, bigoted, white-supremacist right-wing terrorists have cited the *Resident as their inspiration:
–the white terrorist who murdered Jews at prayer in Philadelphia
–the white mail bomber terrorist who recently pleaded guilty
–the white terrorist from the Coast Guard who was stopped before he could carry out his terrorist acts,
–the white terrorist in New Zealand who murdered Muslims at prayer
There is an ugly pattern that the US media and politicians need to acknowledge for the clear and present danger it poses.
Jay
“Australian premier sides with teen who cracked egg on senator who blamed Muslims for New Zealand attack”
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/3193563002
“Over a million people have signed a petition calling for the removal of Australian politician Fraser Anning from parliament after he blamed immigration for the deadly terrorist attack at two New Zealand mosques.”
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/beta.ctvnews.ca/national/world/2019/3/17/1_4339750.html
The Austrailian Parliament is looking at censuring him, kicking him out if possible, and other Australian Senators and Politicians are calling him a Nazi to his face.
low-tech cyclist
@The Golux:
And they believe he is one because his words and actions are consistent with white supremacist beliefs.
I don’t know what’s in anyone’s heart; all I can see is what they say and do. And Trump’s words and actions are pretty damn white supremacist-friendly.
matt
@Ksmiami: I think the Joe Bidens and Dianne Feinsteins and Chuck Schumers of the world wouldn’t allow that to happen. Our two-party system isn’t keeping us from being structurally incapable of opposing Nazism like the Weimars were. We have the same situation with slightly different furniture arrangements.
matt
@low-tech cyclist: Anyone who’s telling you Trump isn’t Nazi trash is lying to your face. There’s no longer a conversation going on.
randy khan
Until he stops acting like one, or at least like someone who sympathizes with them.
zhena gogolia
Everyone should read Sarajevo Blues by Semezdin Mehmedinovic. It’s a collection of prose poems about the siege of Sarajevo (at least they’re prose in English translation). The piece called “Stocking Hat” chillingly describes how your friends and neighbors can turn into terrorists.
https://www.amazon.com/Sarajevo-Blues-Semezdin-Mehmedinovic/dp/087286345X
Mnemosyne
@West of the Rockies:
Keep in mind, MLK was born into the era of “race riots,” aka the burning and destruction of successful African-American communities by whites. We have made enormous strides since then but, yes, it often feels like we’re taking two steps forward and three steps back, because there are still a lot of people like our current president who were already full-grown adults when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 became law and they’re still pissed off that the world changed.
low-tech cyclist
That’s a wonderfully thoughtful and compassionate letter from Pete Buttigieg. I miss having a President who knew the right thing to say at a time like this.
I think it’s too big a jump from being mayor of a town of 100,000 people to President of the United States. But he might be a good running mate for Elizabeth Warren or Kamala Harris.
SFAW
@The Golux:
I wish he had won. Too many racist Floridians to overcome, I guess.
Cermet
@West of the Rockies: Sorry he was wrong; only via abundant and cheap energy did that occur and does that arc make sense for the future. Far too soon that arc will be coming to an end. Far worse, AGW will be thrown into the mix and our future will get very ugly – within fifty years or less, over two, possibly three billion people will be driven from vast areas of the world as those regions become too hot for habitation. Combined with vast famine, starvation even in the western world, loss of all cheap to even moderately inexpensive liquid fuels, combined with every lessening and lower productive land and the world will be fighting constantly. That arc will be not just turned into the wrong direction but broken. Maybe thermo-nuclear fusion will arrive in time or people will realize to switch over to carbon neutral in the next few years – otherwise, this future is baked in.
raven
@West of the Rockies:
We’re the same sad story that’s a fact
One step up and two steps back
Don’t let these motherfuckers wear you down.
raven
@Cermet: Sorry, bullshit.
Ruckus
@The Golux:
It also matters that he speaks like one or close enough like one to be believed to be one and it matters that he praises white supremacists when they do the crap they do or say the shit that normally comes out of their pie holes.
White supremacists = assholes who in a normal world wouldn’t be allowed to walk around free but in a free world get to act and speak praise in defense of their massive inferiorities.
Redshift
Very telling. Why do you think, Mick, that just asking why Trump has never given a speech condemning white supremacists is the same thing as accusing him if being a while supremacist? Why is that the first response that pops into your head, hmm?
Betty Cracker
@Nettoyeur: Thanks — fixed!
@Frankensteinbeck: True.
Redshift
@Redshift: It’s the same mindset that makes them demand the withdrawal of a report (correctly) stating that right-wing domestic terrorists will be a major threat because it’s an attack on Republicans. They know what they are, and they’ll fight to the death to avoid admitting it.
West of the Rockies
@raven:
Thanks, Raven…
We need more people like Obama, Pete B, Kamala, more Parkland students, more thoughtful, enlightened artists, writers, musicians, scientists… We need people to be better, to see with better eyes.
banditqueen
A *Resident tweet from today (NB–goes to the *Resident’s twitter):
I don’t know what he’s screeching about, but contrast that to, say, Buttigieg’s letter or to the NZ Prime Minister’s solidarity with her fellow citizens. A “never happen again” tweet only the selfish, petty, white-supremacist *Resident would send. Horrid and vile.
Ruckus
@randy khan:
How is someone who holds the position of president of a country and speaks like a white supremacist not a white supremacist?
The following is a general statement and not in any way directed at you.
Does he have to announce himself as one or is his speech enough? I’d say the evidence is more than clear here. The white supremacists believe him to be one, we believe him to be one, he speaks like one, he campaigned as one, he (OK his campaign) paid people to come to his “rallies” and listen to and like his white supremacist speeches. He accepted money/assistance from a foreign country that is run by a white supremacist to be elected as one. At what point do we accept that he’s a fucking racist fuck who wants to eradicate all the non whites?
PPCLI
It doesn’t matter how may times you and his other self-deceived bootlickers and enablers say it. Why don’t we hear *him* say it?
How hard can it be to say “I condemn the killing of innocent muslims at prayer”? He can’t even say those words *at all*, let alone say them with even fake sincerity.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
The more I see of Buttigieg, the better I like him. I’m still pulling for Harris, but I think he’d de well as a running mate.
Ruckus
@raven:
How’s that go?
When the going gets tough, the tough get going….
One foot in front of the other, always. You can’t make progress without going forward.
Raven
@Ruckus: who da fuck is “we”?
Ksmiami
@matt: perhaps- but don’t be surprised if our institutions are severely altered after tyrannosaurus resident
MattF
Problem is that Trump’s racism is so obvious that you just have to stand up and say something. I do wonder, though, e.g…. why is he attacking John McCain? Is he just trying to remind us that Trump-world is a sad and bitter place? WTF?
zhena gogolia
zhena gogolia
@MattF:
McCain forwarded the Steele dossier.
matt
@Ksmiami: Our institutions are pretty much garbage. I mean, look at how much corruption one AOC is uncovering in Congress. Look at what McConnell has done in the Senate. Look at our court system. Look at the kind of out and out scamming going on in the VC/corporate world. While Trump is a catalyst for exposing how little our institutions function, I think he’s just the only one bold enough to say out loud what a lot of people already knew. Our institutions don’t meaningfully exist as constraints on fascists.
West of the Rockies
@zhena gogolia:
Honor
Honesty
Innocence
Mo MacArbie
Good on Subaru Greg. I hope he retains some sort of national voice whatever the outcome of the election.
geg6
@banditqueen:
That would be Pittsburgh, not Philadelphia. Usually not a big deal, but I am very familiar with Squirrel Hill and it’s a historically significant American Jewish community.
zhena gogolia
@Mo MacArbie:
I think there’s no doubt about that. He is a keeper.
Ruckus
@West of the Rockies:
There are too many people.
They may be the loudest, they are not the majority. They are screaming loudly because they can, because it discourages those they oppose and because they are losing. Yes I know that’s difficult to see every day but the timeline is not day by day like our lives are, the arc takes a lot longer than that to complete. MLK was a great leader in the crusade to equality, he wasn’t the only one, he’s been gone for quite a while and he is still quoted for his clarity and thought. And we have made a lot of progress. Right now we are in one of those back step periods. But look who is running for our president and how we and the world is reacting to the NZ tragedy and to Trump’s response. We’ve had worse here and are not doing shit about it. The world is doing better. People will and have noticed this. And demand better. We have a young generation who wants change and all we have to do is get the old farts out of the fucking way. And the old farts know it, the ones that agree and the ones that don’t.
Bill Arnold
@The Golux:
@Redshift:
Also, white supremacists believe that denials like this are white lies. (ouch, didn’t see that until typed.)
Bobby Thomson
I can’t believe anyone is still asking about it. Trump absolutely is a white supremacist and reveals it daily.
Ruckus
@Raven:
Everyone who hasn’t been paying attention and hasn’t got a clue. IOW no one here.
There are some other responses that come to mind, most of which I heard in the military and which are mostly racist as fuck.
Mr Stagger Lee
@MattF: I think John McCain is like a character in a movie whose ghost Trump sees everywhere and that McCain is laughing, or perhaps like in the opera Don Giovanni, the Comendatore (McCain ) invites the Dotard for supper.
West of the Rockies
@Ruckus:
Thank you, Ruckus… I needed to hear that.
We DO have excellent new voices piping up: Abrahms, AOC, Pete B. Hopefully, more people will listen.
Lyrebird
found thanks to TiaS
Respect.
oldgold
@zhena gogolia:
Ernest Hemingway defined courage as grace under pressure.
Every damn day the Short-Fingered Vulgarion reminds us he has no grace under pressure.
Today’s gratuitous shot at John McCain’s academic record is a very good example of what a graceless human being Trump is.
banditqueen
@geg6: Thank you-I should have checked rather than go by memory. White terrorists everywhere and anywhere believe that the *Resident has co-signed their acts of terrorism. And the *Resident won’t even deny it. Appalling.
scav
@PPCLI: Even the words dribblng out of the Grand Circus Peanut’s personal mouth condemning violence toward Muslims wouldn’t be worth the warm spit sprayed with them, they are as valueless as the air expelled from Mick’s lungs. Sustained action demonstrating his lack of supremacist-enabling might begin to be somewhat convincing, maybe. Everything else is vaporware given the track record of that biped.
JPL
@MattF: McCain was at least a war hero.. The tiny finger guy has accomplished nothing except to hide his tax returns and grades.
Ryan
“Carlson is under fire this week because of racist, sexist gibbering newly surfaced from old appearances on the “Bubba the Love Sponge” radio show.”
That’s not why Carlson is in trouble. Carlson is in trouble because he got caught, and no one will advertise on his white power hour anymore.
schrodingers_cat
How are NZ’s refugee policies? I know about Australia’s terrible response to the migrant crisis but never heard anything about NZ. Also, I know at least two Indian families that left NZ to come to the United States.
Dorothy A. winsor
@Bill Arnold: Since you say it, Mick, that takes care of it for me. Imbecile.
Sam
The most interesting thing about Trumps rants is that they are completely incoherent. If my children ever spoke the way he tweets, I’d bundle them in the car and take them to the nearest medical center,
He is a walking psychosis. If that doesn’t trigger the 25th amendment then that amendment is a dead letter
Jay
@schrodingers_cat:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refugees_in_New_Zealand
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/03/16/asia/new-zealand-mosque-shooting-victims/index.html
Ruviana
@Cermet: I’ve thought a lot about that phrase and I think *WE* are the moral universe. WE can bend it toward justice. The physical universe is indifferent to us but we can make the changes toward justice. Obviously we also need to address climate change or we won’t be here to bend that arc.
SiubhanDuinne
@oldgold:
For that matter, he has no grace over pressure. He is graceless altogether.
An Outhouse
But the Dems are cowards for wanting to have nothing to do with FOX, right?
Uncle Cosmo
@Bill Arnold: Re “white lies” – accept the award on behalf of your subconscious. (But don’t do it again! :p)
wmd
Reading Mayor Pete’s statement inspired me to donate to a second Presidential candidate. I gave to Elizabeth after she transitioned from an exploratory, now Pete.
It’s early for donating, but not early to start grooming candidates for state legislatures. There is a lot of value at that level as the Census drives reapportionment and redistricting in 2020-2021. Anyone (woman or man) that is showing leadership qualities in civic matters should be getting some social interaction aimed at assessing running.
Uncle Cosmo
@Mr Stagger Lee: I see McCain’s Ghost draped in the wreckage of an A-4E Skyhawk & caped in an American flag, appearing to Needy Amin in the wee hours, rattling the tin & howling Screwwwwwed!! Screwwwwwed!!
But that’s just me…
Skepticat
True dat. It gives me a glimmer of hope.
Amir Khalid
“Warmest sympathy and best wishes”? That is so generic. It sounds like something he cribbed off a greeting card.