Well, when Trump rants, raves, lies, and stokes violence…
People do tend to get peeved….
~
But a nationwide review conducted by ABC News has identified at least 54 criminal cases where Trump was invoked in direct connection with violent acts, threats of violence or allegations of assault.
✁
Reviewing police reports and court records, ABC News found that in at least 12 cases perpetrators hailed Trump in the midst or immediate aftermath of physically assaulting innocent victims.
In another 18 cases, perpetrators cheered or defended Trump while taunting or threatening others. And in another 10 cases, Trump and his rhetoric were cited in court to explain a defendant’s violent or threatening behavior.
✁
Thirteen cases identified by ABC News involved violent or threatening acts perpetrated in defiance of Trump, with many of them targeting Trump’s allies in Congress. But the vast majority of the cases – 41 of the 54 – reflect someone echoing presidential rhetoric, not protesting it.
ABC News could not find a single criminal case filed in federal or state court where an act of violence or threat was made in the name of President Barack Obama or President George W. Bush.
The 54 cases identified by ABC News are remarkable in that a link to the president is captured in court documents and police statements, under the penalty of perjury or contempt.
These links are not speculative – they are documented in official records. And in the majority of cases identified by ABC News, it was perpetrators themselves who invoked the president in connection with their case, not anyone else.
If you’re looking for a historical example of a revanchist political minority that kept its foot on the neck of a growing and restive majority, look no further than the defenders of slavery in antebellum America.
In the interest of keeping Black people in a state of intergenerational servitude, pro-slavery politicians in the antebellum period trampled flagrantly and frequently on the civil liberties not only of Black Americans, but of white people who opposed slavery’s expansion.
They shut down the right of abolitionists to use the U.S. Postal Service and the halls of Congress to proselytize against the Peculiar Institution.
They deployed violence and voter fraud to rig elections. To maintain property in human beings, they perverted the institutions of American democracy.
It wasn’t until the Civil War, when many of those pro-slavery politicians rebelled to fight for the Confederacy, that the anti-slavery Republicans had their chance to reverse the damage. And they did it by playing hardball.
✁
These Republicans of the 1860s weren’t angels. Their motives were not uniformly pure. And they didn’t always agree with each other.
But in response to decades of anti-democratic incitement by white politicians from slaveholding states, who represented roughly just 25 percent of the country’s population in 1860, Republicans in the age of Lincoln and Grant united to make the rules work for the majority, even when doing so required rewriting the rules wholesale.
And of course, stoking rancor was a political calculation of Trump and his campaign…
~
Trump’s alternate universe of leftist terrorism
Trump has devoted extraordinary resources to the creation of this universe. Last spring his campaign dumped at least $20 million into ads depicting the terrifying police-free dystopia that Joe Biden would allegedly create.
Many of his senior law enforcement and national security officials lent official credence to an absurdly exaggerated depiction of the leftist threat.
The Biden response to this was to point out that Trump’s “law and order” rhetoric is a smokescreen for deliberately stoking white backlash while working to encourage and politically profit from violent civil strife.
This was illustrated with ads suggesting that Trump encourages white supremacy and vigilante violence by his supporters.
Of course, all of that is exactly what Trump has been doing, as senior adviser Kellyanne Conway revealed when she admitted to the calculation that violence helps him politically.
Yet this wasn’t supposed to be exposed.
He was supposed to get away with stoking white backlash while making the debate all about exaggerated impressions of leftist violence.
Stop Hey What’s that Sound… https://youtu.be/vRdMa5U8M-0
The Conversation: Sorry, severely abridged.
Gail: I know you’re pretty pleased right now, but when do you think we’ll come to our first big parting of the ways of the Biden era?
Bret: Probably when he tries to name Bernie Sanders as his secretary of labor or Elizabeth Warren as secretary of the Treasury. I’m sure there will be something — we already agree far too often as it is.
Gail: So true. On everything from Donald Trump to good red wines.
Bret: I have a good Barolo waiting for your next visit. But I have a hard time imagining that anything Biden will ever do as president will fill me with the kind of visceral loathing I feel for Trump. There’s a difference between disagreement and disgust; between thinking a politician is taking the wrong route to the right destination and thinking he’s taking an insane route to a horrible destination.
Gail: So we’re moving from mutual disgust to partisan disagreement. The whole country can start doing that: Think how happy people will be sniping with their relatives over the holidays about Medicare for All.
Bret: That would be progress. I also think that a Republican Senate might prove to be a blessing in disguise for Biden. It will nip in the bud some of the Democrats’ worst policy impulses, like adding seats to the Supreme Court, while giving Biden an incentive to look for policy openings where he can find some bipartisan cooperation.
Gail: Well, this solves the problem of our agreeing too much. Having a Republican Senate means Biden doesn’t get to do anything he ran on except not being an awful human being. Which is nice, but we deserve a little bit more.
Bret: America needs a successful Biden presidency, and that means conservatives are going to have to learn the art of compromise all over again. That goes for me, too.
Gail: Hey, we may not be able to host the usual Thanksgiving, but at least the holiday spirit lives on in our conversation!
As long as the nation has THE ORANGE IDIOT, Mitch McMafia, MAGAts, and The Repulsican Crime Cult, no one has to worry about hearing “The Sounds of Silence.”
RobinHood over 3 years ago
Did not realize Carman was a Jedi.
Cheapskate0 over 3 years ago
Of course, the question may be – when Trump is quiet, what is he really up to?
Pickled Pete over 3 years ago
Rancor in D.C.. Millions, I hear.
Silly Season over 3 years ago
Well, when Trump rants, raves, lies, and stokes violence…
People do tend to get peeved….
~
But a nationwide review conducted by ABC News has identified at least 54 criminal cases where Trump was invoked in direct connection with violent acts, threats of violence or allegations of assault.
✁
Reviewing police reports and court records, ABC News found that in at least 12 cases perpetrators hailed Trump in the midst or immediate aftermath of physically assaulting innocent victims.
In another 18 cases, perpetrators cheered or defended Trump while taunting or threatening others. And in another 10 cases, Trump and his rhetoric were cited in court to explain a defendant’s violent or threatening behavior.
✁
Thirteen cases identified by ABC News involved violent or threatening acts perpetrated in defiance of Trump, with many of them targeting Trump’s allies in Congress. But the vast majority of the cases – 41 of the 54 – reflect someone echoing presidential rhetoric, not protesting it.
ABC News could not find a single criminal case filed in federal or state court where an act of violence or threat was made in the name of President Barack Obama or President George W. Bush.
The 54 cases identified by ABC News are remarkable in that a link to the president is captured in court documents and police statements, under the penalty of perjury or contempt.
These links are not speculative – they are documented in official records. And in the majority of cases identified by ABC News, it was perpetrators themselves who invoked the president in connection with their case, not anyone else.
~
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/blame-abc-news-finds-17-cases-invoking-trump/story
Ignatz Premium Member over 3 years ago
Yes, there’s rancor. Man-Baby has decided that he’ll hurt America for the sake of his stupid ego.
Silly Season over 3 years ago
If you’re looking for a historical example of a revanchist political minority that kept its foot on the neck of a growing and restive majority, look no further than the defenders of slavery in antebellum America.
In the interest of keeping Black people in a state of intergenerational servitude, pro-slavery politicians in the antebellum period trampled flagrantly and frequently on the civil liberties not only of Black Americans, but of white people who opposed slavery’s expansion.
They shut down the right of abolitionists to use the U.S. Postal Service and the halls of Congress to proselytize against the Peculiar Institution.
They deployed violence and voter fraud to rig elections. To maintain property in human beings, they perverted the institutions of American democracy.
It wasn’t until the Civil War, when many of those pro-slavery politicians rebelled to fight for the Confederacy, that the anti-slavery Republicans had their chance to reverse the damage. And they did it by playing hardball.
✁
These Republicans of the 1860s weren’t angels. Their motives were not uniformly pure. And they didn’t always agree with each other.
But in response to decades of anti-democratic incitement by white politicians from slaveholding states, who represented roughly just 25 percent of the country’s population in 1860, Republicans in the age of Lincoln and Grant united to make the rules work for the majority, even when doing so required rewriting the rules wholesale.
~
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/27/how-democrats-can-learn-hardball-from-the-republicans-of-1861-432698
Silly Season over 3 years ago
And of course, stoking rancor was a political calculation of Trump and his campaign…
~
Trump’s alternate universe of leftist terrorism
Trump has devoted extraordinary resources to the creation of this universe. Last spring his campaign dumped at least $20 million into ads depicting the terrifying police-free dystopia that Joe Biden would allegedly create.
Many of his senior law enforcement and national security officials lent official credence to an absurdly exaggerated depiction of the leftist threat.
The Biden response to this was to point out that Trump’s “law and order” rhetoric is a smokescreen for deliberately stoking white backlash while working to encourage and politically profit from violent civil strife.
This was illustrated with ads suggesting that Trump encourages white supremacy and vigilante violence by his supporters.
Of course, all of that is exactly what Trump has been doing, as senior adviser Kellyanne Conway revealed when she admitted to the calculation that violence helps him politically.
Yet this wasn’t supposed to be exposed.
He was supposed to get away with stoking white backlash while making the debate all about exaggerated impressions of leftist violence.
~
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/10/16/trumps-rage-nbc-town-hall-exposes-an-ugly-truth-about-2020/
William Robbins Premium Member over 3 years ago
Stop Hey What’s that Sound… https://youtu.be/vRdMa5U8M-0
The Conversation: Sorry, severely abridged.
Gail: I know you’re pretty pleased right now, but when do you think we’ll come to our first big parting of the ways of the Biden era?
Bret: Probably when he tries to name Bernie Sanders as his secretary of labor or Elizabeth Warren as secretary of the Treasury. I’m sure there will be something — we already agree far too often as it is.
Gail: So true. On everything from Donald Trump to good red wines.
Bret: I have a good Barolo waiting for your next visit. But I have a hard time imagining that anything Biden will ever do as president will fill me with the kind of visceral loathing I feel for Trump. There’s a difference between disagreement and disgust; between thinking a politician is taking the wrong route to the right destination and thinking he’s taking an insane route to a horrible destination.
Gail: So we’re moving from mutual disgust to partisan disagreement. The whole country can start doing that: Think how happy people will be sniping with their relatives over the holidays about Medicare for All.
Bret: That would be progress. I also think that a Republican Senate might prove to be a blessing in disguise for Biden. It will nip in the bud some of the Democrats’ worst policy impulses, like adding seats to the Supreme Court, while giving Biden an incentive to look for policy openings where he can find some bipartisan cooperation.
Gail: Well, this solves the problem of our agreeing too much. Having a Republican Senate means Biden doesn’t get to do anything he ran on except not being an awful human being. Which is nice, but we deserve a little bit more.
Bret: America needs a successful Biden presidency, and that means conservatives are going to have to learn the art of compromise all over again. That goes for me, too.
Gail: Hey, we may not be able to host the usual Thanksgiving, but at least the holiday spirit lives on in our conversation!
Christopher Shea over 3 years ago
Almost two weeks now. We’ll soon see how long Stantis’s call for less rancor and vitriol holds up under the news that Biden won the election.
mistercatworks over 3 years ago
That sound is reality slowly crystalizing around our delusional President.
kentmarx36 over 3 years ago
As long as the nation has THE ORANGE IDIOT, Mitch McMafia, MAGAts, and The Repulsican Crime Cult, no one has to worry about hearing “The Sounds of Silence.”
PaulKmecak over 3 years ago
Hey, Luke Skywalker! Another Rancor for you to stomp!!
PaulKmecak over 3 years ago
“It’s quiet, Sarge. Too quiet!” — Any war movie, ever
William Robbins Premium Member over 3 years ago
Harry? …