Saturday, September 19, 2020

Trump Calls Police's Unprovoked Shooting Of A Working Reporter A "Beautiful Thing"
(It's Merely A Coincidence The Man Is A Brown-Skinned Muslim, Of Course)

Mehdi Hasan, The Intercept: "Putting aside Trump's usual lies and inaccuracies, here is the president praising a police attack on a journalist, a journalist, as 'beautiful' to a cheering crowd, as 'law and order'. How is this not fascistic? How is anyone ok with this? . . . Trump is obsessed with mocking the violence against my friend, the excellent journalist Ali Velshi. Multiple references to him in multiple rallies. Just a coincidence that Ali is a brown Muslim immigrant with - to Trump - a funny-sounding last name?"

Jake Tapper, CNN: "Absolutely heinous. Ali Velshi didn't deserve to be shot by a rubber bullet, anyone celebrating that violence has something wrong with them, and it's twisted for anyone least of all a president to call it 'law and order.' No journalist should find this acceptable."

Richard Stengel, MSNBC: "Do people really want a taunting self-pitying bully for president? Ali showed more physical courage here than Trump has ever demonstrated in his life. And his cheering of Ali being shot is a metaphor for what he thinks of the 1st Amendment."

David French, The Dispatch: "Celebrating the injury of a journalist who was not breaking the law but rather covering a significant national news story is not 'law and order.' It's cruelty and malice. But that's the point, isn't it?"

1 comment:

johngoldfine said...

"Do people really want a taunting self-pitying bully for president?"

We do in Swanville Maine, judging by the number of campaign signs outside people's houses. Actually, 'signs' is a bit of a misnomer. They are more like cult shrines or installation art. Multiple signs. Big American flags. Large Trump banners. Be-decked pickup trucks.

These are the same people who go maskless in the Swan Lake Grocery and sneer and scoff and refuse to step aside in the aisles when they see someone in a mask who apparently is pissing on the sacrifices of all the soldiers who died to keep America mask-free.

I've never been what you call people-friendly, but 'misanthropy' is hardly adequate to describe my disgust and despair.