Thursday, October 01, 2020

Extremism Researcher Says Trump's "Stand By" Will Be Taken As A Literal "Get Ready" For Civil War; Trump Campaign Attributing A Trump Anti-Gun Quote To Harris; Wallace Actually Thought Trump Would Participate In A "Serious Exchange Of Views" (lol)

Greg Sargent of the Washington Post points readers to comments from Elizabeth Neumann, who recently stepped down as assistant secretary of counterterrorism at the Department of Homeland Security. After the first presidential debate on Tuesday night, Neumann spoke out on Twitter. 
Pressed at the debate to condemn "white supremacist and militia groups," Trump said he would. Then, after Joe Biden pushed him to condemn the far-right extremist "Proud Boys," Trump told them to "stand back and stand by," then immediately pivoted to attacking the left — without condemning either the Proud Boys or white supremacist groups.

A day later, Trump is now claiming that he has no idea who the Proud Boys are . . .

But there is zero doubt that the Proud Boys, who celebrated Trump's initial comments with great joy, as well as other similar groups, will continue taking an undiluted message of empowerment from what happened. . . .

As Neumann recounted, she had a front-row view of the surge of right-wing extremist activity in the Trump era, since it took place on her watch. She said that in her position, she tried to get Trump to take this sort of right-wing extremism far more seriously, yet was unable to do so. . . .

"I concluded after the attacks in El Paso that POTUS was complicit in the deaths of Americans for his refusal to recognize his language was in the shooter's manifesto," tweeted Neumann, who has said she voted for Trump [in 2016] . . . "He was given the opportunity to condemn White Supremacy," she said. "He refused."

What this strongly suggests is that Trump surely knows that all sorts of right-wing extremists and white supremacists out there are paying extremely close attention to his language, both about their potential targets and about the groups themselves.

[Neumann:] "Extremists will assume he was sending them a signal last night."

Here's the final point: It seems likely that Trump and his staff have been extensively briefed on all these nuances — that these groups pay extremely close attention to what he says about their activity, and that hedging or equivocating in response to it only emboldens them further. Yet this continues unabated.

For Republicans, "Law And Order" = White Supremacy

Overlooked In Debate: Trump Boasted About Federal Agents Committing Murder

Is Trump Building An Excuse To Avoid The Next Two Debates (October 15 and 22)?

If Chris Wallace Truly Thought Trump Would Participate In A "Serious Exchange Of Views",
He's The One Who Should Be Drug-Tested; Trump's Next "Serious Exchange Of Ideas" Will Be His First

"What A Waste It Is To Lose One's Mind. Or Not To Have A Mind
Is Being Very Wasteful. How True That Is." (Lou Dobbs Edition) Miles Taylor, Department of Homeland Security Chief of Staff (2017-19):
The president would call us and . . . he would say, "Why the hell didn't you watch Lou Dobbs last night? You need to listen to Lou. What Lou says is what I want to do." So if Lou Dobbs peddled a conspiracy theory on late-night television or made an erroneous claim about what should be done . . . at the border . . . the president wanted us to be tuning in every night. . . . [We were] trying to guard against some of the most severe threats to this country. We can't be watching Lou Dobbs and taking our orders from him, but this happened on a regular basis.

Dumb, Racist, And Lying Is No Way To Go Through Life, Steve

Deliberately Spreading Death To Assuage His Ego

Twenty-seven people infected with COVID-19 were reported dead on Wednesday — the most recorded in a single day in Wisconsin since the pandemic began. Wisconsin also reported another record number of hospitalizations and 2,300 more people infected with the virus.

Guess who's holding two superspreader rallies in Wisconsin this week? Despite his own Task Force labelling Wisconsin a "red zone", Trump will hold two of his public personal therapy session, where he can rant and rave and receive validation through applause.
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