We had two more highly publicized incidents of terror this past weekend, both of which warranted nationwide and worldwide attention. Of course, Trump’s janitors of word cleanup, took to the Sunday media shows to redirect blame to video games, Bernie Sanders, Obama and of course mental health. No mention of the President’s rhetoric or his approving winks to those who would shoot strangers because they are black or brown. I can think of two incidents of recent import to this conversation that may have encouraged the El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio murderers.
In early July President Trump held a right-wing social media summit at the White House that prominently featured everyone from Q-Anon proponents to illustrator [Ben Garrison] known for drawing anti-Semitic cartoons. The invitation to Garrison was later withdrawn, not because of the White House’s vetting of its’ guest but because Garrison posted his invitation on Twitter, making it public. The followers of the whacky online theories of Q-Anon are now regularly seen at Trump rallies sporting Q-Anon t-shirts, earrings and other paraphernalia. When the President of the United States lends any credence to groups who believe in the Clinton/ FBI /deep state theories that warn of Clinton child sex rings, he is giving it tacit approval. This inane distraction away from the serious issue of child sex trafficking, led a man to drive hours from Salisbury, North Carolina to Washington, D.C and open fire in a family pizza parlor.
Secondly, when Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher was acquitted over the arguments of his superiors and video evidence of murder, Donald Trump immediately called for the rescinding of achievement medals for the officers who performed their duty and prosecuted the case in a military court. No valid justification has been made as to why these military prosecutors were publicly embarrassed other than the fact, they prosecuted a man who was charged with executing a teenage ISIS detainee. Gallagher’s original contention was that the young man died of combat wounds, but later evidence disputed this assertion.
The correlation…
I spent the weekend simultaneously on the verge of tears and anger. Sad for the loss of so many innocent lives and angry because both shooting incidents reminded me that we have a leader in the White House who has given haven to idiots, racist, and fools. You have to ask yourself if you are exposed to some of the hate-filled sites that spew odious propaganda that fuel hate; what could push you over the edge? How about seeing them feted by the President of the United States in the Rose Garden.
Maybe if you are trying to please your bloodthirst and odium, what better way than to hope for a tweeted praise of encouragement from Donald Trump after murdering someone who does not look like you, sound like you, or is a different color than you. The message from Mr. Trump is not only will I praise and congratulate you, as he did Gallagher in a tweet, but I will go after those who would perform their duty by arresting, prosecuting and possibly jailing you. For those of you looking to excuse the President for his actions, both past, and present, one of the weekend shooters parroted Trump’s words,
Manifesto: "The Democrat party will own America and they know it. They have already begun the transition by pandering heavily to the Hispanic voting bloc..."
Trump to rally: "...Democrats are even trying to give illegal immigrants the right to vote.”
Vote in 2020 for Change.