How is it possible Trump Blames the Media?…When it looks like the mail bomb suspect was influenced by Trump’s vitriolic rhetoric, & it was one of those media sources who was the recipient of one of those mail bombs! And the suspect by all appearances seemed to share Trump’s angry rhetoric & was perhaps inspired by it! Plus every person the bombs were addressed to are Trump critics, most of whom Trump has personally/viciously attacked! We shouldn’t be surprised by this, as here at TheVORACS & many other messaging sources out there, we’ve often expressed our concerns as Trump blames the media for anything he doesn’t like & constantly calls them fake news or enemies of the people, warning it could lead to violence against journalists & even put their lives at risk. That looks like what we’re starting to see. And the language he uses to vilify any political opposition is off-the-charts reprehensible!
Does anyone see the coincidence & appalling judgement when Trump praises a Montana congressman last week for assaulting a reporter, even the same week we learned of the brutal murder of a WaPo journalist. And praising that congressman occurred at roughly the same time that bombing suspect was putting his pipe bombs together & mailing them out. Sure, both sides should cool their rhetoric, but America has never had a president who so constantly insults, bullies & demonizes anybody who dare disagrees with him! And his language gets his Trumpeter army so worked up into a frenzy, it shouldn’t come as a surprise at all that someone who shares those bombastic viewpoints might cross the line. In fact, with a prez that constantly feeds that bitter divisiveness, it’s likely to happen again, & again, & again! All politicians want to rile their base & criticize opponents, but the rudeness & demonization in Trump’s bombasts are at a completely different level than Americans have ever seen before.
These midterms are so critically important to rein in a demagogue, I was getting worried the most recent headlines would be a disaster by energizing the GOP base. With Kavanaugh it was a reminder about conservative judges, then the migrant caravan highlighting immigration & the border, which those two hot-button issues were the ones that Trumpeter base cared most about. Then the mail bomb story consumed the headlines, which we’re all thankful nobody was hurt or killed & the guy was caught. It was a scary story & could prompt the risk of copycats, but otherwise could actually turn into a blessing in disguise by reminding anti-Trump voters who our president really is, & motivate them to vote for the midterms. So yes, I’m relieved the mail bomb story replaced the caravan in the headlines, since the migrant scare worked in favor of the GOP. And with this president, keeping a GOP majority in Congress could potentially lead to putting democracy itself at risk (see part 2).
Kudos to the FBI for quick work, the same organization Trump congressional henchmen & the echo keep disparaging. It was a fingerprint that led to the bomber’s capture. And the FBI Director said all the components to detonate a bomb were in each package, so the murder attempt looks real, not a hoax. The kooky conspiracy theorists from the echo that said the bombs were fake or done by leftist-liberals, they were again proven to be what they always are…kooky. But it’s the President of the United States who is our leader & sets the tone, which before, during & after this mail bomb drama, Trump flunked the test. Now rather than an introspective moment when Trump might admit he should tone it down, what does he do instead? Why of course, Trump blames the media! So when Trump does call for unity & says we need to come together, coming from him it rings hollow. No American president has ever caused more angry division & he’s nothing but a phony.
So to review, we have been speculating for a long time how Trump’s angry rhetoric is inflammatory & could lead to reactive violence. We may never know for sure the motives, but I believe the bomber was likely inspired by the president’s barrage of angry rants. When Trump blames the media, he’s blaming the victims since CNN received one of those package bombs. Plus there was an attempt on the lives of business leaders, a famous actor, various political leaders & 2 ex-presidents. That folks is a major story! And Trump more than any other president ever, encourages such violence as we’ve seen repeatedly from his rallies! Not to make light of a scary situation, but if I had a higher profile as a Trump provocateur, I would bravely be honored to have one of those packages sent to me, as long as I would cowardly hope it got intercepted at the post office long before it got here & wasn’t actually built to go off (please excuse my bad humor). Also see two songs at the bottom of part 3 on sending letters through the mail.
These are a few live links about the mail bomb suspect here, plus stories offering thoughts on the dangers inherent in the Trump rhetoric & the way Trump blames the media. Below that are sentences or paragraphs taken from lots of articles the past couple days, so those are also very interesting:
cesar-sayoc-jr-alleged-mail-bomber-threatened-democrats-on-twitter
cesar-syoc-pipe-bomber-donald-trump
trump-owns-the-bloody-crossroads-of-american-politics
donald-trump-forfeited-the-moral-authority-of-his-presidency-from-day-one
Lots of News Stories about this Major Headline
Since our web-hosting company insists we limit our outbound links, this list below has the media source & article title in bold, which you could search the articles you want to see by doing a copy & paste. Under the titles are a short blurb from the article, sort of a tease to get your curiosity up to find the article. The potential for violence through the president’s vitriolic rhetoric & as Trump blames the media is real, so it’s very appropriate to call it out! Don’t worry about offending the echo-crowd, since they’re wrong on everything else & they were wrong on this story too! And for a picture of the suspect’s van, click on the link at the bottom of this list. Most of these articles came out prior to the suspect’s arrest, which the bigger issue here is the way Trump’s angry rhetoric likely seems to incite this sort of violence. So please check out the important short passages from each of these articles:
salon/donald-trump-blames-the-bombing-victims-that-didnt-take-long
Unsurprisingly, after Trump sullenly read a scripted condemnation of the bombing at the White House earlier Wednesday, he landed on a strategy that both minimizes the seriousness of the situation and encourages the bomber: Blaming the victims.
salon/words-into-bombs-donald-trumps-violent-rhetoric-has-consequences
Donald Trump is unapologetic and enthusiastic in his embrace of hateful and divisive language. It is ludicrous for him to now pretend he bears no responsibility for these apparent attacks — although of course he will do exactly that.
salon/trump-is-inciting-violence-and-now-we-have-a-magabomber
Trump’s rhetoric has gotten more violent as his lies have increased in frequency. You practically can’t turn on the TV these days without seeing a clip of Trump at one of his rallies screaming at the top of his lungs about one Democrat or another.
nytimes/trump-attacks-media-bombs
Even as the authorities were finding more pipe bombs targeting his critics on Thursday morning, Mr. Trump turned his fire at the news media. “A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News,”
thehill/trump-says-lock-em-up-after-calling-for-unity
President Trump on Friday repeated the phrase “lock ’em up” about opponents minutes after calling for unity following the arrest of a suspect in a string of suspicious packages sent to prominent Democrats.
thehill/former-mccain-adviser-trump-has-stoked-a-cold-civil-war-in-america
Former McCain adviser Steve Schmidt on Wednesday blamed President Trump‘s rhetoric for the explosives sent to prominent Democrats this week, saying the president has “stoked a cold civil war” in the U.S.
thehill/trump-calls-for-peace-and-harmony-in-wake-of-bomb-threats-urges
In listing ways the country can ease political hostilities, the president did not refer to any of his own repeated attacks on Democrats and the media, instead appearing to blame both for the current state of affairs. Some critics of the president have suggested Trump is “morally unfit” to be president.
thehill/brennan-on-bomb-threats-against-dems-im-hoping-maybe-this-is-a
His rhetoric may influence his supporters to “take matters into their own hands.” “Unfortunately I think Donald Trump has not helped to encourage the type of civil discourse and public engagement, and his rhetoric too frequently, I think, fuels these feelings and sentiments that now are bleeding over into potentially acts of violence,” Brennan said.
thehill/cnn-host-calls-trumps-attacks-on-media-unacceptable-in-wake-of-bomb-attacks
CNN anchor Poppy Harlow said Thursday that President Trump’s attacks on the media are “unacceptable” in the wake of a series of bombs mailed to the network’s offices and prominent Democratic officials. “To be attacked by the president last night and again this morning, it’s unacceptable,”
usatoday/pipe-bombs-make-donald-trump-finally-realize-his-words-matter-column
While I would hate to jump to conclusions as to why these explosive devices were sent, it is important to note the language and rhetoric that has consistently come from the White House about journalists and the media as well as Democrats. Has this become the new normal?
usatoday/obama-clinton-bomb-scare-reminder-credible-media-crucial
While credible news organizations jumped on the story with both feet, as they should, working sources and trying to tie together a lot of loose threads, fringe media (the echo) avoided the middlemen of facts and confirmation.
washingtonpost/how-cnn-became-trumpworlds-most-hated-network
A few hours later, a suspect in those attempted bombings was arrested in Florida. The suspect’s van was covered in stickers offering support for the president. In one corner of one window was a familiar slogan: “Dishonest media / CNN sucks.”
washingtonpost/president-trump-ever-the-victim
It takes remarkable skill, when you think about it, to claim victimhood when your enemies are threatened with assassination. But for President Trump, his state media and his cultish following, victimhood is central to their identity and critical to their mobilization.
washingtonpost/morning-bits-dems-should-avoid-over-confidence
You can be confident he will never get it. “President Donald Trump believes he is being unfairly linked to the pipe bombs delivered to frequent targets of his acrimonious rhetoric and has watched with disdain as the national conversation has shifted to his role in shaping the divisive political environment. Rather than cooling off his tone, he is digging in, two people who spoke to him on Thursday said. Trump has no plans to claim any personal responsibility that he has contributed to the divisive climate surrounding the attempted attacks, the two people said.”
washingtonpost/trump-says-media-coverage-of-explosive-devices-slowing-gop-momentum-ahead-of-elections
President Trump lamented Friday that the news media was more focused on covering “this ‘Bomb’ stuff” rather than politics, a development he asserted was slowing Republican momentum in advance of the Nov. 6 midterms.
washingtonpost/stop-the-mob-mr-president
What hath Trump wrought? Rep. Greg Gianforte (R-Mont.) last year pleaded guilty to assaulting a journalist. President Trump last week celebrated the assault. “Any guy that can do a body slam, he’s my kind of — he’s my guy,” Trump said to cheers. But it’s fair to ask: If a person who assaults a journalist is Trump’s “guy,” might not some unstable person think that, by sending a pipe bomb to a news organization, he, too, is being Trump’s guy?
washingtonpost/the-white-house-has-to-do-more-than-condemn-the-crazies
We are not saying Trump causes bomb threats; we are saying his rhetoric is unlike any of his predecessors, does damage to our democracy and can motivate fringe characters to behave violently. He systematically destroys comity, decency and rationality in the public square.
washingtonpost/the-apparent-attempts-at-terrorist-bombings-were-absolutely-predictable
It’s not just that Trump advocates violence against his political opponents — though he does. It’s that everything about his rhetoric pushes his supporters in that direction, even if the overwhelming majority will never get quite to the point where they’ll actually commit this kind of act of terrorism.
washingtonpost/bomb-scares-and-the-politics-of-the-apocalypse
Trump brands opponents as evil, a word from which many officials in his party recoil. But that characterization finds support among many of his followers, who see a country under attack from what might be called otherness. Democrats, offended and alarmed by so much of the Trump presidency, see the part of America that rallies around the president not just as people with different views but collectively as a threat to the very future of the country.
washingtonpost/trump-is-responsible-for-the-descent-into-thuggery
Moreover, Trump has more power than any single person on the planet to end this downward spiral. He’s in charge, and the responsibility falls on him to restore sanity and civility. (I can barely type the words, recognizing how ridiculous it is to expect Trump to referee the food fight he started.)
washingtonpost/trump-wants-us-to-be-at-war-with-one-another-his-latest-rage-tweets-confirm-it
This says it all. Trump, who has waged a systematic campaign of relentless lies and delegitimizing attacks designed to destroy shared facts and obliterate public faith in the press’s institutional role in our democracy, is now blaming the media for an assassination attempt against it.
washingtonpost/donald-trump-embraces-nationalism-of-the-worst-kind
Trump’s fellow nationalists: Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orban, and the Law and Justice Party in Poland. Like Trump, they also revile the press as the “enemies of the people.” Trump’s followers are in on the joke. They are thrilled by his “politically incorrect” language – code words for racism, misogyny and xenophobia – while publicly denying that he engages in racism, misogyny or xenophobia.
washingtonpost/president-trumps-nefarious-blame-game
Back then we expected our national leaders to take responsibility for the decisions they made, whether the consequences were good or bad for them politically. Now we have a president who doesn’t even pretend to do the same. President Trump will never assume personal responsibility for anything negative that happens as a result of his actions.
reuters/us-usa-packages-trump/trump-blames-news-media-as-two-more-suspicious-packages-are-discovered
One target of the suspicious devices, former CIA Director John Brennan, hit back at Trump on Twitter on Thursday. “Stop blaming others. Look in the mirror. Your inflammatory rhetoric, insults, lies, & encouragement of physical violence are disgraceful. Clean up your act … try to act Presidential. The American people deserve much better. BTW, your critics will not be intimidated into silence,” Brennan said.
huffingtonpost/donald-trump-bomb-tweet
While not an overt conspiracy theory, the president’s Friday claim bore similarity to statements made by several right-wing pundits, including Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh, who suggested Wednesday that the bomb scares were staged for political purposes.
huffingtonpost/sarah-huckabee-sanders-cnn-divide-reaction
Sanders’ response did not go over well on Twitter, where people accused her of hypocrisy, suggested she send the same message to the president and reminded her of all the times Trump has attempted to incite violence.
huffingtonpost/donald-trump-media-suspicious-packages
President Donald Trump on Thursday resumed his attack on what he called the “fake news” media after suspicious packages containing potential explosives were sent to CNN and several high-profile Democrats.
businessinsider/trump-blamed-the-media-hours-after-bomb-scare-threatened-democrats
Trump, who frequently stokes animosity toward the media, journalists, and his political opponents, said the media “has a responsibility to set a civil tone,” hours after the bomb scare put the country on edge.
businessinsider/trump-blames-fake-news-media-for-hateful-after-cnn-bomb-scare
CNN’s president, Jeff Zucker, called out Trump on Wednesday for what he said was “a total and complete lack of understanding at the White House about the seriousness of their continued attacks on the media.” Zucker said that contributed to the incidents this week.
time/donald-trump-bomb-packages-media-politics
The identity of the sender or senders is not yet known, nor is a motive. Trump often criticizes CNN for its coverage of his administration. He has referred to the press as the “enemy of the people,” and his crowds sometimes break into chants of “CNN sucks” at his rallies. Trump also used the opportunity to criticize liberal protesters.
thinkprogress/trump-blames-media-for-attempted-bombings
The president also decried the very kinds of personalized attacks he makes on a regular basis, including to several of those targeted by the bombs. Trump condemned threats of political violence as “an an attack on our democracy itself,” but also said that “the language of moral condemnation and destruction routine” needed to stop. He then proceeded to attack the media directly.
thinkprogress/republicans-who-condemned-attempted-bombings-rarely-speak-out-trumps-anti-press-rhetoric
But, rarely, if ever, have those Republicans spoken out publicly against President Donald Trump as he has repeatedly and aggressively denigrated journalists and political opponents throughout his campaign and presidency. In fact, some have defended or even joined Trump in his often violent rhetoric.
thinkprogress/trump-rhetoric-explosive-devices-clinton-obama-soros-cnn
And, of course, Trump has made his name attacking CNN, tweeting insults about the network’s coverage of his administration, violent videos depicting attacks on the news outlet, and welcoming “CNN sucks!” chants at rallies where he rails against the media and encourages supporters to harass them. Many journalists have reported being threatened by attendees at those events.
thinkprogress/republicans-dont-blame-bombs-on-trump-because-we-didnt-blame-bernie
From praising Rep. Greg Gianforte (R-MT) for illegally assaulting a reporter (“any guy who can do a body slam, he is my type!”), to urging gun violence against Hillary Clinton (“Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish the Second Amendment. If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people — maybe there is, I don’t know.”) to promising his supporters that he would “pay for the legal fees” if they “knock the crap out” protesters, Trump has made advocacy of violence against his critics a staple of his political rhetoric. Rather than hold their party’s de facto leader accountable for that, they are simply opting massive false equivalencies.
thinkprogress/conspiracy-theories-now-conservative-mainstream-attempted-bombings
Meanwhile, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has been doing her best to gaslight the world about the incident. In a tweet on Wednesday, she accused CNN of attempting to “divide America” — ignoring the stunning hypocrisy of how much Trump had incited violence against journalists.
thinkprogress/fox-news-donald-trump-democrats-fox-business-violent-rhetoric
Fox News and Fox Business reached new levels of shamelessness to defend President Donald Trump on Thursday night, invoking conspiracy theories, and Cher, to claim that Democrats are actually to blame for recent violence.
theguardian/trump-insults-bombs-targets-democrats
He went on to blame the media for incivility – but he failed to acknowledge his own rhetoric. On Thursday morning, he stood by those comments. Trump tweeted: “It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description. Mainstream Media must clean up its act, FAST!”
theguardian/trump-media-bombs-cnn-democrats-clinton-obama
And yet even in the midst of a crude attempt at possible mass murder of leading Democrats, when the moment called for humility, peace and unification, the US president could not resist taking a swipe at his oldest foe of all. The media has “a responsibility to set a civil tone and to stop the endless hostility and constant negative and oftentimes false attacks and stories”, Trump blasted.
theguardian/donald-trump-attacks-media-hostility-in-wake-of-pipe-bombs
Brennan suggested he may have been targeted because of his past criticisms of Trump. “His rhetoric, I think, too frequently fuels these feelings and sentiments that now are bleeding over into, potentially, acts of violence,” the former CIA director said during an event in Austin, Texas. He added: “One could make an argument that it has emboldened individuals to take matters into their own hands. So when he compliments individuals who have in fact body-slammed others, or that he’s going to pay the legal bill of somebody who takes a swing at somebody, that can only be seen as encouragement and incitement.”
theguardian/worst-aspect-us-attempted-pipe-bombings-inevitability
Sadly, none of this was really that shocking. The news had an air of inevitability, being the culmination of what has been a hideously violent time in our political culture. Poison is coursing through the US body politic. Violence permeates political dialogue and sometimes erupts at political events. The shocking thing is that some of the violence has been endorsed by the president himself.
theguardian/donald-trump-words-consequences-violent-rhetoric
Both in his candidacy and presidency Trump has made direct appeals to political violence. He has advocated protesters be beaten up at his rallies; tweeted a simulation of himself pummelling the news network CNN, as though in a wrestling match; encouraged police to rough up suspects; and in the week in which the Saudi government conceded that Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in its consulate, he lauded a politician for body-slamming the Guardian journalist Ben Jacobs. So when he says, as he did on Wednesday, “We have to come together and send one very clear, strong, unmistakable message that acts or threats of political violence of any kind have no place in the United States of America”, it rings not only hollow but hypocritical.
theguardian/donald-trump-terrorism-cnn-obama-clinton
We surely do. And that unity needs to start at the top of the political system, inside a White House whose current unity-minded slogan is “jobs not mobs” and likes to talk about the media as the enemy of the people.
thedailybeast/counterterrorism-pros-warn-that-trumps-rhetoric-will-yield-violence
Even if they are unrelated, there remains a danger that the atmosphere Trump’s demonizations have created will yield violence against liberals, Democrats and journalists, some ex-counterterrorism practitioners said. “By publicly demonizing his perceived adversaries at rallies and social media, Trump essentially painted a target on their backs,”
thedailybeast/a-president-who-hates-half-the-country-doesnt-get-to-call-for-unity
We, in turn, still should respect the office of the presidency, but we’d be foolish to respect its present occupant. So: Let’s wait to see what the FBI learns about this mad escapade and properly withhold judgment with regard to culpability. But even as we wait on that front, we are not barred from making certain claims about the atmosphere created by the man who hates half the country he governs.
vox/donald-trump-bombings-clinton-soros-white-house-unify-speech-white-house
He ran for the presidency on a platform of division, drumming up fear among white voters about immigrants, global trade, and changing cultural norms. He vilified his opponent. He promised to be the defender of the white working class. Now he’s trying to save his Republican majority in Congress by stoking the same fears and vilifying opponents again. He needs conflict.
vox/trump-bomb-attempts-media-democrats
During the 2016 campaign, Trump once wondered aloud if there was something “Second Amendment people” could do to stop Hillary Clinton from being able to pick judges — seemingly alluding to violence against the Democratic nominee. And Trump has made light of attacks on reporters, something he did at a rally just last week.
vox/clinton-obama-cnn-pipe-bombs-investigation-trump
Many of the intended recipients of these bombs have been vocal opponents of the president. They’ve also featured prominently in Trump’s relentless attacks on Democrats. Cheers of “lock her up” or “Crooked Hillary” can still be heard at most of Trump’s rallies (and even happened on Wednesday night). Trump frequently bashes Rep. Waters, saying she has a “low IQ.” And he has peddled conspiracy theories about Soros financing anti-Brett Kavanaugh protesters.
vox/trump-blames-media-tweet
According to Trump, “the Anger we see today in our society” is caused not by his own demagogic politics but rather “by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News.”
slate/cnn-sucks-chant-at-white-house-cnn-sucks-sticker-on-apparent-bombing-related-van
So a crowd at the White House was chanting “CNN Sucks” as someone who appears to be the proud owner of a “CNN Sucks” sticker was getting arrested for allegedly sending a bomb to CNN. And, as a bonus, Trump appears to have subsequently encouraged the crowd in chants that suggested George Soros—the liberal donor who was also a target of one of the bombs—should be imprisoned:
slate/cnn-jeff-zucker-trump-sanders
Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer said in a joint statement that “President Trump’s words ring hollow until he reverses his statements that condone acts of violence.” Republican Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake told a CNN anchor on the street in Manhattan, “What the president says matters, and if he were to take a more civil tone, it would make a difference. … The President shouldn’t refer to the press as the ‘enemy of the people.’ We all need to watch the rhetoric that we use.”
slate/fox-news-pipe-bombs-caravan-coverage
Fox does not typically invent things out of thin air. Rather, the network identifies objectively minor stories that hold propagandistic potential, exaggerates their importance to extremes, and covers them incessantly until they begin to seem relevant by dint of sheer repetition. It does this in concert with other conservative media and politicians, either by setting the pace or following their lead. The obsession over Hillary Clinton’s emails, the Uranium One story(remember that?)—Fox repeats irrelevancies until viewers take them as gospel, and then watches as those viewers get angry that the rest of the world refuses to believe. Sean Hannity, as ever, exists in a liminal space between objective reality and paranoid delusion. Carlson and Hannity seemed resentful and disgruntled that actual news had displaced, for a day, their nativist-paranoiac fantasies. Their coverage of the pipe bombs was churlish and begrudging.
slate/mail-bomb-history-political-terrorism
There’s an implication of cowardice in Limbaugh’s diagnosis—is it only liberals who mailbombs, because they prefer to murder at a distance?—but the argument, of course, is ridiculous. Mail bombing, just like other kinds of terrorist bombings, knows no party.
mediaite/cnnt-toobin-trump-has-absolutely-no-moral-authority-in-calling-for-national-unity
Yet, according to CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin, Trump’s words were “ridiculous” considering that POTUS is the “worst messenger” in this situation. “I thought the idea that he is calling for national unity when he just last week was celebrating a congressman for assaulting — criminally assaulting a reporter,” Toobin said as images of the aftermath of the bomb scare at CNN flashed on the screen. “I mean, he is the worst messenger there. Absolutely no moral authority. And he is reaping what he showed.”
mediaite/cnn-chief-jeff-zucker-slams-trumps-total-and-complete-lack-of-understanding-of-his-attacks-on-media
CNN President Jeff Zucker is slamming President Donald Trump and his administration following the bomb threat to his network’s New York offices on Wednesday. CNN had to evacuate their New York headquarters today when they received a suspicious packages via courier. The incident has prompted a great deal of conversation about the deterioration of political dialogue around the country.
mediaite/john-kasich-unleashes-on-trump-in-fiery-screed-he-is-not-capable-of-being-a-unifier
“[I] was hopeful that perhaps he could get to the point where he could unite the country,” Kasich said. “I’ve now become convinced — absent a Damascus Road experience — I’ve become convinced he’s not capable of this. He is not capable of being a unifier. In fact, I’ve become convinced that he doesn’t know how to accept personal responsibility, and always finds somebody else to blame.”
esquire/cnn-bomb-president-trump-attack-media
After all, the president is not merely the most “uncivil” figure in our politics, whose viciousness and blatant disregard for the truth have trickled down to permeate all of our discourse. In this homestretch of the 2018 midterms in particular, it is Donald Trump who is ratcheting up the rhetoric to dangerous new levels.
politico/trump-political-violence-packages
President Donald Trump once suggested that “Second Amendment people” could take matters into their own hands if Hillary Clinton won the election and stacked the courts with anti-gun judges. In 2016, encouraged the roughing-up of protesters at his campaign rallies. Last year, he Trump tweeted a video of himself tackling a man with a CNN logo superimposed across his face, adding the hashtag #FraudNewsCNN. And just last week, he made light of a Republican congressman who was convicted of assault for body-slamming a reporter. Amid disturbing reports that explosive devices were sent to some of the president’s top political enemies by one or more unknown persons, Trump’s critics say he has a reckless penchant for, at a minimum, celebrating violence against his enemies — and, at worst, inciting it.
motherjones/with-pipe-bomb-suspect-in-custody-here-come-the-conspiracy-theories
Even as evidence emerged that the suspect, identified in media reports as Cesar Sayoc of Aventura, Florida, was a registered Republican with a lengthy criminal record, conspiracy theorists posited that he was a “patsy” commissioned by Democrats.
motherjones/trump-blames-media-for-widespread-anger-after-bombs-are-sent-to-his-frequent-targets
Those attacks include the president baselessly accusing Democrats of funding the so-called “caravans” of migrants attempting to enter the United States, and repeatedly describing Democrats as “dangerous mobs.” Last week, Trump lavished praise on the Montana Republican who body-slammed a reporter, labeling him as “my kind of guy.”
motherjones/trump-rally-bombs-bad
Hours after explosive devices were sent to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and CNN, President Trump told a crowd in Mosinee, Wisconsin that bombs are bad, but so is the media.
newyorker/the-dangerously-thin-line-between-political-incitement-and-political-violence
Many details have yet to emerge about the pipe bombs sent to (Soros, Obama, Clintons, Holder, Brennan at CNN, Waters-2, Biden-2, De Niro, Booker, Clapper, Harris, Steyer & also sent to return address of Wasserman-Schultz).
apnews/Bomb threats put spotlight on vitriolic political rhetoric
The discovery of pipe bombs targeting prominent Democratic politicians and CNN is raising the threat of election-season violence largely unknown in the U.S. — and prompting uncomfortable questions about the consequences of leaders’ increasingly vitriolic rhetoric.
apnews/A short-lived call for unity shelved for political barbs
It didn’t last. With the country on edge over a widening pipe-bomb scare, talk of national unity quickly gave way to finger-pointing. President Donald Trump cast blame on the media for fomenting anger in society, while candidates across the country traded partisan broadsides.
apnews/Trump decries violence but calls on media to end ‘hostility’
And even though Trump refrained from mentioning Clinton, his crowd couldn’t resist. They burst into a “Lock her up!” chant during the preshow before he arrived.
yahoo/trump-asks-media-stop-hostility-bomb-sent-cnn
“There is a total and complete lack of understanding at the White House about the seriousness of their continued attacks on the media,” said CNN president Jeff Zucker earlier. “Words matter. Thus far, they have shown no comprehension of that.”
msn/america-has-a-right-wing-terrorism-problem
But things are escalating fast.
nymag/violent-political-rhetoric-can-feed-political-violence
Putting aside blame, however, if political rhetoric in this country continues on its current trajectory, people are going to start getting killed, and then inevitably, the violence will escalate.
nymag/trumps-pipe-bombs-mainstream-media-clean-up-act
The news of a wave of mail bombs sent to various critics of President Trump was a genuinely frightening moment, and in such moments modern Americans instinctively turn to the president to perform the office’s role of ceremonial head of state. Much of the cable-news chatter focused on whether, or for how many minutes, Trump could stick to the dignified script of denouncing violence and advocating civility. The unsurprising answer was: not very long.
thecut/day-after-bomb-scare-trump-supporters-yell-lock-her-up
On the same day bombs were discovered in packages addressed to Hillary Clinton and several other top Democrats, supporters of President Donald Trump packed onto the tarmac at Central Wisconsin Airport in Mosinee, Wisconsin began shouting “lock her up” at the mention of Clinton’s name.
dailykos/Trump-Explosive-Falsehoods-and-the-Bombshells-Fueling-a-Republic-s-Collapse
Civility, the mad man cries, even as he pours gasoline about the house.
See graphics on suspect’s van (no secrets there!):
Help us out Jennifer!
In times of confusion, Rubin has a way of providing clear perspectives, such as these posts from what-if-democrats-are-the-only-democrats:
Many presidents have exaggerated, over-promised and selectively used facts. However, when it comes to making up stories out of whole cloth President Trump has no equal. Rather than call him out or distance themselves from Trump’s lies, Republicans and the right-wing media either attempt to rationalize them or praise him for being so clever. Trump himself defends even the worst lies (e.g., Sen. Ted Cruz’s father was involved in the JFK assassination) with the amoral retort that it all worked out to his advantage. We have seen Trump’s lying in action as he advances two fanciful claims in the closing days of the midterm campaign. He asserts — and his spineless vice president, Mike Pence, repeats it — that Middle Eastern terrorists infiltrated the caravan from Central America. When pressed by White House reporters, he acknowledges there is no evidence. (“Don’t be a baby,” he says when confronting skeptics of his fantastical claims.) The lie is meant to create a phony crisis and scare his base into voting. These are not small, inconsequential matters, nor are they debatable. Trump just makes up stuff, more frequently and more indiscriminately than ever before. When he doesn’t like something or doesn’t want to do something (e.g., distance the United States from Saudi Arabia) he simply lies (e.g., an arms deal with the Saudis is worth $110 billion — no make that $450 billion! Saudi arms deals will create 400,000 . . . 500, 000 . . . no, a million jobs!)
Rampant lying is not merely objectionable on moral grounds. Constant, deliberate, gigantic lies are a tried-and-true method for autocrats to avoid responsibility, disable opponents and override a free and independent press. Here’s how it works. One of the big lies the GOP has used is the prevalence of voter fraud, meaning illegal immigrants voting or voting impersonators. There is zero evidence of this on any scale. However, the goal of “ending voting fraud” then is used to attack a fundamental element of democracy, voting and access to voting. Voting roll purges, disqualification of voting applications, voter ID laws and other tactic suppress voting by minorities and the poor. Caught on tape, Brian Kemp, Georgia’s secretary of state and Republican gubernatorial candidate, says aloud what we have long suspected, according to a report from Rolling Stone magazine. Less voting is essential to their election strategy. “They have just an unprecedented number of that [absentee voting] which is something that continues to concern us, especially if everybody uses and exercises their right to vote — which they absolutely can — and mail those ballots in, we gotta have heavy turnout to offset that.” When one of the major parties decides that bold, unbridled lying and discouraging voting are critical parts of its electorate strategy, it is fair to say it is no longer committed to the principles of democracy, which require acceptance of objective reality and popular control (voting). Democrats should start making this case, and urging voters to reject the systematic sabotage of our democracy.
Journalists seek the Truth
While Trump is anything but! See these excerpts showing Trump has a strange aversion to the truth, which is why he has no credibility with most Americans, found inside theres-no-proof-anything-trumps-proliferating-war-objective-truth:
Whenever someone asks me why media coverage of President Trump is so negative — and it is, irrefutably — I respond with some version of this: There is a fundamental disconnect between reporters and Trump. Reporters are taught from Day One in journalism school that their chief concern is with the truth. For Trump, the truth is far from his primary concern. It doesn’t seem to be of any concern, really, and he often seems to flout it for political gain. This is an irreconcilable difference. Whatever your opinion of Trump, to support him requires overlooking his myriad falsehoods. It requires prioritizing other things — like conservative policy or a desire to shake up Washington — while shrugging off the idea that a president must be truthful in the pursuit of such goals. People are welcome to do that, but it’s undeniable that they are making a bargain.
But this is also true: Trump is increasingly tilting the scales of that bargain against the truth. He’s requiring more and more buy-in from his supporters. And the consequences of that bargain could have extremely long-lasting implications both for our body politic and the very concept of objective truth in American society. Whether by design or because it’s just who he is, Trump has spent the better part of the past three-plus years waging a war on truth. And the pace of this war and the brazenness with which he has waged it have only increased. He’s now responsible for well over 5,000 false or misleading claims as president, according to The Washington Post’s Fact Checker. Rallies this campaign season have featured claims of crowd tallies that were 76 percent and 70 percent false, misleading or lacking evidence.
Other politicians lie, yes. And some media coverage might be too uncharitable to Trump. But he has no political equal on this front. It’s not close. But even more than the sheer number and degree of the falsehoods is Trump’s own commentary on them. He increasingly seems to be tempting his supporters, who already either don’t mind the falsehoods or don’t believe the media’s fact-checking of them, to shrug off the very notion of objective truth. Perhaps the most acute example of this came Tuesday, when Trump was asked to substantiate his unsubstantiated claim that Middle Easterners were among those in the caravan headed from Honduras to the U.S.-Mexico border. “They could very well be,” Trump said, seeming to back off his previously firm contention that they were, in fact, in the caravan. When pressed on the complete lack of proof provided by his administration, Trump added, “There’s no proof of anything.”
This view of Trump’s words and actions has clearly taken hold within the Republican base. The ends justify the means. And it’s not difficult to see why that’s a compelling bargain for conservatives who got tax cuts and just got a second conservative Supreme Court justice out of the whole thing. But what if the means are the complete destruction of universally agreed-upon, nonideological truths and a common sense of right and wrong? That’s got to factor into all Trump supporters’ bargain. And the erosion is proceeding apace.
Lock Him Up!!!
Isn’t it appalling the Trumpian crowd would chant lock her up in the Wisconsin rally shortly after we learned of an attempt on her life? It truly is a cult! But here I thought all those Trumpeters going to the rallies always chanting “lock her up” for the sin of sending unsecured email messages endangering national security, so they must have thought the risk of exposing sensitive info was a serious crime. The difference between Trump & Hillary is that there are indications foreign adversaries have indeed penetrated Trump’s cell phone messages, so maybe it’s time to start a new chant “lock him up!” See these articles & add this offense to the list of numerous Trump crimes:
https://investigaterussia.org/media/2018-10-24/russia-if-youre-listening
Mueller Under the Radar
Not wanting to interject himself in the midterms & with all the other big headlines lately, the Russian probe has been pushed to the back pages. But things could hit & hit hard right after the midterms, so stay tuned since that time is less than two weeks away. But we do see signs plenty is still happening behind the scenes, especially related to Roger Stone. Mueller has caught Stone & his associates in numerous lies. The probe is seeking to pin Stone down about having prior knowledge of the stolen Hillary emails & when they would be leaked by WikiLeaks. Stone is a slippery character, but it seems Mueller is looking to determine if Stone by acting on behalf of the Trump campaign was a main contact with the Russians. And why would Stone insist on seeking asylum or a pardon for WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange? For our Russia update this week, here are the relevant articles:
https://investigaterussia.org/media/2018-10-25/what-stone-may-have-known
https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/why-mueller-could-be-forced-to-indict-president-trump/
https://investigaterussia.org/media/2018-10-25/mueller-and-mystery-appeal
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