Who was surprised by the cancellation of a Trump rally in Chicago? Since he started his campaign -- trashing all Mexicans as rapists and criminals -- Trump has incited and encouraged his supporters to mayhem and violence.
Or as Pm Carpenter put it:
"Nary an American soul nor any world observer had, before last night, failed to perceive what populist Trumpism would someday ignite: factional ferocities, street swarms, reflexive hostilities, fists flying, mobs and counter-mobs."
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When a peaceful Muslim protester merely stood up, said nothing, at a Trump rally, he ordered her OUT! He will tolerate nothing but absolute allegiance to his campaign, as any efficient despot would.
Pm Carpenter:
What we were witnessing last night was, in Trump's always objective view, merely the outpouring of years-long, snowballing, and, most of all, understandable fury at what's become known as the traitorous "Establishment."
Trump's thuggish, overt encouragement of brown shirted violence had nothing to do with last night's brawl of a rally, because, as his surrogates fanned out to proclaim, Trump has never encouraged any such thing — not even on undeniable video tape.
This:
"Men Brutally Assault Hispanic Homeless Man, Say They Were Inspired In Part By Donald Trump. Boston police arrested two brothers on August 19 for allegedly attacking a Hispanic homeless man as he slept outside of a train station. The Boston Globe reported that "his face was soaked, apparently with urine, his nose broken, his chest and arms battered." One of the suspects told the police that "it was OK to assault the man because he was Hispanic and homeless," claiming that "Donald Trump was right, all these illegals need to be deported."
And this:
"On Wednesday, a protester being escorted out of a Trump rally was sucker-punched in the face by an audience member. This was not the first incident in which protesters had been physically attacked -- not even this month. At the Republican debate the following night, Trump was asked about incidents of violence at his rallies, and he blamed the protesters. At a press conference on Friday morning, Trump repeated the same argument he'd made in the past."
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The government didn't shut down Trump's First Amendment right to speak in Chicago, the mobs that he and his campaign have incited to violence did.
But I hope that doesn't continue during the nightmare circus that is the Trumper campaign. I hope the protesters understand they're making things worse by feeding into the violence Trump and his mobs are inciting.
Protest all you want, but do it peacefully, like the brave Muslim woman did. Don't give Trump's brown shirts any more fuel to attack those who reject his racial hatred and violence.
Or as Pm Carpenter urges:
"Protest the beasts — from afar — all you like, but avoid their violent belly. The speech they are free to embrace may indeed be absolute "shit," and by now, in the 21st century, it may fairly be characterized as "unAmerican." But it is more and lastingly unAmerican to shut down speech, any speech, even shitty speech — including speeches by shitheads like Donald Trump."
24 comments:
Gail Collins, who usually hides a seriousness behind deceptively breezy style, closed her column on Trump yesterday like this:
'But the one thing he didn’t backtrack on was his recent statement to CNN’s Anderson Cooper that “Islam hates us.” There were lots of openings. Trump was practically invited to say he meant only radical Islam. Or even to repeat one of his traditional softeners, like claiming he has Muslim friends.
'But Trump just pressed forward: “There’s something going on that maybe you don’t know about, maybe a lot of other people don’t know about, but there’s tremendous hatred. And I will stick with exactly what I said. …”
'Imagine a president coming out with a statement like that. Rubio pointed to Muslim Americans serving in the military, and the Arab countries that were currently cooperating in the war on terror. “Marco talks about consequences. Well, we’ve had a lot of consequences, including airplanes flying into the World Trade Center …,” rejoined Trump.
'That’s it. He’s going all the way. Running for president on an anti-Muslim platform. Good God.'
stupidest comment on today's internet:
"Black Lives Matters is the New KKK."
Yeah. Sure. All those lynchings the BLM people are up to, denying white folks the right to vote, burning crosses on front lawns, torture, murder of white men because they looked at a lady crossing the street, hanging white men from trees and making his mnurder a picnic day for hundreds of adults and kiddies to enjoy.
Yeah. The BLM's are JUST LIKE the KKK, if you're a complete idiot and assh*le who knows absolutely nothing about the KKK.
Obvious a wingnut of low IQ wrote that.
Carpenter is right. This single action -- shutting down Trump's rally -- has, at one stroke, completely neutralized and disempowered the very valid analogy between Trump's violent supporters and the Brownshirts. In fact, it's turned that analogy into a weapon that Trump can, with some legitimacy, use against our side.
On right-wing sites that have for months been dominated by bitter infighting between pro-Trump and anti-Trump wingnuts, today I'm seeing them a lot more unified in outrage at the violent leftist suppression of free assembly. Helping them overcome their divisions is the last thing we should be doing.
Shutting down the rally was basically a hundred-million-dollar in-kind donation to Trump's campaign, and trust me, he's ecstatic about it.
Radical... Didn't take long to figure out where that came from...
The protesters caused the scene in Chicago last night. Their aim was to shut down the rally, and they did. This morning liberal groups are calling for bigger protests at all Trump rallies. So much for free speech from liberals. This was a coordinated effort by groups like Move on (check their site). The hate and intolerance of liberals won't allow free speech, only their speech. You are a perfect example with your censorship policy.
Infidel, you're correct. I wouldn't be surprised if the inciters were actually Trump goons who knew whaat you predicted would happen. It's not an unprecedented tactic.
Anonymous, who I allow to comment here is not censorship nor a violation of anyone's free speech. If you don't understand why that is true, I pity you.
Radical, Yeah. Not surprised. Those are the same ninnies who compare President Obama to Hitler. Y'know, the President Obama who screams at his supporters to punch someone in the face. We've known for a long time those folks are hopelessly oblivious to reality.
Dave, I'm guessing that comment R.P.L. mentioned came from a right wing blogger. They deal in absurdities and believe nonsense. Look at who their nominee will be.
Donald Trump isn’t the destruction of the Republican Party; hes the fulfillment of everything the party's been saying and doing for decades. He's just saying it louder and more plainly than his predecessors and intra-party rivals. And he's saying it with threats of violence to anyone who protests at his rallies.
When push back happened, the thugs who are Trump's supporters scream bloody hell and point fingers at the liberals? They all truly out of their minds. Where was their outrage or criticism when Trump told his goons to beat the crap out of the protesters?
Trump practically begged his supporters to punch people in the face, he even "kiddingly" talked about killing a journalist.
He's the worst in America, and the worst in America are supporting him.
Here's the Trumper kidding about killing reporters.
He says he'd "never do that," but then goes, errrrr, then waved his hand back and forth in a "maybe-maybe" gesture, as if to say (but he didn't DARE say it out loud, only implied it) -- as if to say, wellll, maybe I'd do it. Then he said "No, I would never do it." Just kidding.
Just kidding about killing reporters. That's the creep the TeaPUblicans are hoping will be the next POTUS.
It is not a free speech issue. Constitutionally, only the government is prohibited from restricting free speech.
Bernie Sanders' response to the Trumper's idiotic charge that Sanders is responsible for the disturbances at Trumper's Chicago rally:
What caused the protests at Trump’s rally is a candidate that has promoted hatred and division against Latinos, Muslims, women, and people with disabilities, and his birther attacks against the legitimacy of President Obama.
What caused the violence at Trump’s rally is a campaign whose words and actions have encouraged it on the part of his supporters . He recently said of a protester, ‘I want to punch him in the face.’ Another time Trump yearned for the old days when the protester would have been punched and “carried out on a stretcher.’ Then just a few days ago a female reporter apparently was assaulted by his campaign manager.
When that is what the Trump campaign is doing, we should not be surprised that there is a response.
Here my question... Today Kasich and Rubio came out and condemned the violence and Trumps part in encouraging it.
Why today and not at their debate when they were asked about? Did his words become more incendiary in one day, or is it more likely, they didn't want to condemn him in front of his rabid base and the Tea Party folks?
TAMPA -- Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said Saturday that "There's no doubt" President Obama has helped stoke the caustic rhetoric and violence displayed at recent political rallies held by Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump.
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There is not only no reasoning with these people, there is no understanding them.
"Next time we may have to kill him"
... you get a fear monger to whip his brownshirts into a lather by animating their hatred and then point the finger when the inevitable happens?
The incidents have been numerous and continuous at Trump rallies and he knows exactly what he's doing manipulating his freakin' Insane Clown Posse.
I have yet to hear conservatives called rapists at a Sanders rally. In fact, Sanders has gone out of his way to conduct a positive campaign.
But the hatred is the fault of the left. Can these people ever take responsibility?
Dave, in answer to your question, because they are chickenshits!
"Can these people ever take responsibility?"
No.
The rabid right has been hurling over-the-top, lunatic charges at President Obama for 7 1/2 years non-stop, accusing him of destroying America, hating America, shredding the Constitution, supporting the Muslim brotherhood, plotting to turn America over to ISIS, rounding Americans up and putting them in FEMA camps, and all manner of mentally deranged plots, in addition to insulting and demeaning his wife and children.
Now along comes a belligerent baboon who has no class, who has the maturity of a school yard bully, and who know nothing about domestic or foreign policy. Trump starts his campaign by maligning an entire culture, then goes on to insults a former POW and present senator, denigrates a woman, makes fun of a disabled journalist, and encourages his supporters at his rallies to punch people and even kids about killing reporters. He changes his positions and walks back his words as often as one changes an infant's diaper.
Then people act out at one of his rallies and the wingnuts blame President Obama?
And these people call liberal mentally ill? Yeah. They really do.
Dave and Ducky, I've said the people running against Trump are moral cowards. That explains their reluctance to call out Trump on his thuggery.
David Neiwert explains it perfectly:
"Watching the scenes unfold last night from Chicago and elsewhere, it became obvious that, largely as many of us have feared, Donald Trump is indeed leading the United States merrily down the path to an outbreak of actual, genuine fascism, all without himself being a hardened fascist ideologue, but rather a right-wing populist demagogue. But then again, the two phenomena are only degrees apart, and that is what we are now seeing on the streets of the American political landscape.
Of course, while it was fairly clear that the protesters were peaceful until attacked by the Trump rally-goers, the reality also was that fighting eventually broke out on all sides and there was violence all around. Naturally, that meant that the media were already out there flogging their favorite "both sides do it" narrative.
Never mind, of course, that Trump has specifically encouraged the violence, telling reporters at a press conference that "we need a little bit more of that."
The story we'll be fed as at least "the other side" will be Trump's: that the leftist "thugs" were responsible for the violence. And we all can see where this is going: As justification for further and more intense violence.
There is a long history of this with the fascist and proto-fascist right. Indeed, martyrdom at the hands of the "violent left" was a cornerstone of early Nazi propaganda, of which the above poster is only a small sample."
Jerry, "chickenshit" is a more colorful way of saying "moral coward."
The Moveon anarchists still had no right to shut down free speech
The entire Republican party has taken a hard right and ended up in the gutter. That's good as it's where they belong, these days.
Kathleen Parker, a conservative columnist:
Kathleen Parker warns away the “it wouldn’t be that bad” crowd.
"As Donald Trump continues to surge forward as the most-likely Republican nominee, perfectly sane people are beginning to wonder: “Was there something we missed? Maybe he’s not really so bad.”
Shed that self-doubt and purge the thought. You’re not wrong — and he’s that bad. Just ask the Breitbart reporter who was roughed up at a recent Trump rally. And she’s one of the “good” people. Imagine what happens to his critics once a Trump presidency takes shape.
Nothing makes Trump more acceptable today than yesterday or last week — or six months ago. He is still a boastful, volatile, misogynistic, race-baiting, willfully and strategically ignorant, exploitative fear-monger who is guided by profit over principle and whose hair-trigger temperament has the world on edge."
It is not a free speech issue. Constitutionally, only the government is prohibited from restricting free speech.
So if a bunch of pro-Trump thugs used threats and intimidation to shut down a rally by your favored candidate, or to shut you up personally, that would be OK since they aren't the government?
"Someone will die"
Good piece from Josh Marshall at TPM.
From Huffington:
On Sunday, he went a step further in an early morning post on Twitter: "Bernie Sanders is lying when he says his disruptors aren't told to go to my events. Be careful Bernie, or my supporters will go to yours!"
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Marshall is correct, someone's going to die.
Trump shows no signs of controlling his Insane Clown Posse.
One, it is not a violation of free speech if they do that.
Two, if they do not break any laws in their attempt to shut down the rally, then it is OK. That goes for both the left and the right.
What? You are not in favor of LEGAL protest?
Let the Trump protesters come. They will probably be laughed out of the auditorium.
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