Trump 2.0 - Party of hate

 

I don't know how we come back from this unleashing of hate from the Trump/GOP/MAGA regime.  

WTF, WSJ

Dearborn [Michigan] Mayor Abdullah Hammoud on Friday tweeted that city police increased security at places of worship and major infrastructure points as a “direct result” of a Wall Street Journal opinion piece titled, “Welcome to Dearborn, America’s Jihad Capital.”

[...]

Steven Stalinsky, executive director of the Middle East Media Research Institute, who authored the opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, said in an interview with The Associated Press that he wanted to draw attention to protests in Michigan and elsewhere across the U.S. in which people have expressed support for Hamas since the start of the war with Israel.

  Politico

Well, it IS a Murdoch publication.

...and hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

It's 1930s Germany in America

This is not going to be limited to New Jersey.  We are being presented with a challenge and an opportunity to get it right this time.  Will we be up to it?

UPDATE:

UPDATE 11/5:

The Feds will now have jurisdiction

Impeach him again

The New York City Police Department (NYPD) on Tuesday announced the creation of a new task force dedicated to investigating mounting numbers of hate crimes against Asian Americans, NBC News reports.

The move follows a surge in racial discrimination against Asian Americans as the coronavirus pandemic rages on.

  The Hill

That investigation can start at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington, DC.

There have been rising instances of discrimination and outbursts of attacks on Asian Americans since the onset of the pandemic. In May, Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) said about 100 reports of hate crimes against Asian Americans were being reported daily.

[...]

The task force is currently working on cases without formal police reports but with ample evidence in the form of videos on social media. Loo confirmed officers have “actively searched” for victims in some cases. Several of these recorded attacks involve both verbal and physical assaults in public.

To expand access within the Asian American community, the task force will use translators and other cultural liaisons.

In the Trump era

The New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness (NJOHSP) increased the threat level of white supremacist extremists from moderate to high, according to a report released by the state agency Friday.

The change comes amid increased rates of crimes linked to white supremacist groups, such as a New Jersey man who allegedly conspired with members of a neo-Nazi network to vandalize synagogues in the Midwest.

"The threat from white supremacist extremists is also high due to the number of threats, plots, and attacks in 2019," the report read. "In 2020, white supremacist extremists are likely to cite accelerationism as a motivation for future violent acts, and recruitment efforts promoting extremist ideology continue throughout the State."

The report gave anarchist, anti-government, black separatist, militia and sovereign citizen extremists a moderate threat level. It gave Islamic terror groups such as al Qaeda, Boko Haram, Hamas, Hezbollah and ISIS a low threat level, though the report said that ISIS's inspiration of supporters in the U.S. "makes homegrown violent extremists a consistently high threat."

  The Hill

In the age of Trump

On Saturday night, an attacker stabbed five people during Hanukah festivities at a rabbi’s home in Monsey, Rockland county, about 30 miles north of New York City, in what Governor Andrew Cuomo called “an act of domestic terrorism”. The attack was the latest in a string of antisemitic incidents in the region.

“After the hateful assaults we saw this past week in Brooklyn and Manhattan, it is heart-wrenching to see the holiday of Hanukah violated yet again. We are outraged because the answer is clear: the Jewish community NEEDS greater protection,” Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted on Sunday following the stabbings.

[...]

New York mayor Bill de Blasio urged New Yorkers come together to resist the rise of antisemitism.

“We have snuffed out hatred before and forced it back,” he said, announcing an expansion in efforts to educate the city’s school children on the issue, along with extra neighborhood policing.

[...]

“The challenge is that there are antisemitic tendencies rising up in ways that we have not seen in a very long time” ADL regional director Evan Bernstein told CNN. “This is beyond policing. These are communal problems, societal problems, that we need to get ahead of.”

  Guardian

Hard to do with a "leader" who spews hate on a daily basis.

Visiting Monsey on Sunday morning, Cuomo said the attack was “about the thirteenth incident of antisemitism” in the state of New York over recent weeks, and described the climate of intolerance as “an American cancer in the body politic”.

[...]

The incidents come less than three weeks since a Kosher store in Jersey City, in the neighboring state of New Jersey, was attacked as part of an hours-long assault that left six people dead, including three civilians, one police officer and both suspects.

[...]

Across the US, other recent incidents in which swastikas or antisemitic graffiti have been used to vandalize property include a high school in Encinitas, California; a Boston elementary school; and at a synagogue in Washington DC.

America is failing - Part 2

Pretty sure this is the first time I've posted two Trump inspired hate crimes in one day.   Previous.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

America is failing

On Friday night, an attacker [in Milwaukee] allegedly told Mahud Villalaz to “go back to your country" and threw acid, giving Villalaz second-degree burns. [Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett] said the president’s rhetoric on immigration is used to justify violence against Hispanic people, CNN reported.

"My concern is that more and more people feel that because the president is saying it that this is OK. It's not OK, it's horrible," Barrett said, according to CNN.

"We know what's happening. Everybody knows what's happening. It's because the president is talking about it on a daily basis that people feel that they have license to go after Hispanic people, and it's wrong," Barrett said.

He said in a media availability recording obtained by The Hill said he can't directly connect this incident to Trump because he doesn't know what was on the attacker's mind. But he called the incident "a manifestation of that anger" toward immigrants.

"This anger towards people from other countries is being fed by our president and by his followers," he said in the recording.

[...]

Villalaz, 42, a welder, is a U.S. citizen originally from Peru. He told local TV station WISN that the argument started over parking.

  The Hill

And the guy carries acid around with him just in case he has an argument?

Using Trump as a defense for violence

Trump’s words have consequences, as suggested again this weekend by the El Paso shooter’s virulently anti-immigrant manifesto. The president and his surrogates have argued that he doesn’t direct people to commit violence. But, clearly that can’t be the standard to which we hold the president. There can be no question that his rhetoric has contributed to a dangerous cultural moment in America.

[...]

Already, defendants have begun raising objections to cases that include witnesses who have cooperated with federal authorities (which happens in the majority of federal criminal cases, from gang violence to fraud) because Trump has repeatedly used the biggest megaphone in the country to say that “flippers” (as he calls them) should be illegal. Now, we are seeing the emergence of the “Trump made me do it” defense in criminal cases — or at least the “Trump influenced me” mitigation.

[...]

In May 2019, in State Court in Staten Island, New York, Anthony Comello was charged with the murder of Francesco (Franky Boy) Cali, a leader in the Gambino crime family. In July, his lawyers claimed that Comello was fueled by the conspiracy theory QAnon, and that he “ardently believed that Francesco Cali…was a prominent member of the deep state, and, accordingly, an appropriate target for a citizen’s arrest,” which eventually lead to Cali’s murder. Comello also “believed he was a chosen vigilante of President Trump,” according to his lawyer Robert Gottlieb.

[...]

Cesar Sayoc, who for two weeks terrorized the public by sending almost daily pipe bombs to public officials and private citizens alike based on their political affiliations [...] was caught in 2018 living in a van covered in dozens of Trump pictures and decals attacking the media. In March of 2019 he pleaded guilty to 65 counts, including using weapons of mass destruction and the illegal mailing of explosives with intent to kill or injure.

[...]

[Sayoc's] lawyers cited Trump’s words and arguments in their attempt to secure a lighter sentence. They argued that their client was a cognitively limited, sexual abuse survivor who thought of Trump as a “surrogate father” and came to believe in an “alternative reality” fueled in part by the president’s attacks on his political opponents. Sayoc, his attorneys wrote in a sentencing memo filed in federal court in New York on Monday, was a Trump “super fan” and “began to consider Democrats as not just dangerous in theory, but imminently and seriously dangerous to his personal safety.”

Ultimately, Judge Jed S. Rakoff sentenced Sayoc to 20 years in prison, a technically lighter sentence than what prosecutors asked for although practically speaking, it could mean life in prison for the 57-year-old defendant.This sentence was based largely on the judge’s acceptance of Sayoc’s argument that he did not intend for the bombs to detonate and hurt anyone, contrary to prosecutors' arguments. However, the judge did note that Sayoc’s troubled life, including his infatuation with Trump and his view of the president’s political enemies as demons, played a role.

Sayoc is the most high-profile defendant to at least partially blame Trump’s rhetoric in a court of law. But he’s unlikely to be the last.

  NBC

As a matter of fact...

An attorney for a man charged with assaulting a teen for keeping his hat on during the national anthem is invoking President Trump's rhetoric about respecting the flag.

"His commander in chief is telling people that if they kneel, they should be fired, or if they burn a flag, they should be punished," attorney Lance Jasper told the Missoulian. "He certainly didn't understand it was a crime."

  The Hill

No one's buying that, dude. Stick with "he thought it was okay anyway, because Trump said so."

The attorney is representing Curt Brockway, Montana man accused of slamming a 13-year-old to the ground and fracturing his skull after the boy did not remove his hat during the playing of the national anthem at a county fair over the weekend.

Jasper told the Missoulian that Brockway's family has received “hundreds” of death threats since the incident last Saturday.

I'm feeling skeptical about that, too.

The attorney added that he will seek a mental health evaluation for Brockway, a military veteran who he said got a traumatic brain injury in a 2000 vehicle crash driving home from Fort Lewis, Wash., later receiving an honorable discharge due to disability.

Jasper said the injury specifically affected Brockway’s frontal lobe, which is central to judgment and problem-solving abilities, according to the newspaper.

That could certainly be a contributing factor.

The White House has in the past distanced itself from individuals who claim their actions were justified due to the president's rhetoric.

And will probably get plenty of chances to do the same in the future.

House vote to condemn anti-semitism

From what I read, they voted against it because it didn't specifically call out Ilhan Omar, the Muslim Congresswoman they say is anti-semitic because she doesn't like what Israel is doing to the Palestinians.









...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Where did he radicalized?

A Utah man was arrested on suspicion of two counts of aggravated assault after he allegedly beat a father and son at their tire shop, shouting about how he hated Mexicans and was there to "kill a Mexican." Salt Lake City police said it is unclear if Alan Dale Covington, 50, will be charged with a hate crime following the reported attack at a mechanic shop this week, The Salt Lake Tribune reported Friday. Jose Lopez was warming up chicken soup in the office on Tuesday when he heard his son screaming from the garage, the paper reported. He said he saw a man threatening his 18-year-old son, Luis Gustavo Lopez, with a 5-foot pole. “I hate Mexicans,” the man allegedly yelled. “I f---ing hate Mexicans … I’m here to kill a Mexican.”

The man allegedly began swinging a pole when Jose Lopez jumped in front of his son. Luis Gustavo Lopez tried to defend his dad with a tool bar but was hit in the face and knocked unconscious by the attacker, the paper reported.

His father was hit in the arm and back trying to protect his son.

The attacker was allegedly scared off when another family member came to check on the commotion.

Luis Gustavo Lopez has been in the intensive care unit since the incident, suffering from a shattered cheekbone and eye socket, as well as a collapsed sinus, the newspaper noted.

Doctors implanted a titanium plate on the right side of his face.

Jose Lopez needed eight stitches in his arm and has a bruised back from the attack, the paper notes.

[...]

Salt Lake City police detective Greg Wilking told the newspaper Friday that it appears Covington was under the influence of drugs during the attack.

He may also have "some mental health issues" that "clouded his judgement,” Wilking said.

  The Hill

He may also have been listening to Fox News and his president, and assumed he'd have cover.

Covington, who has previously spent time behind bars, was concerned in lock-up about being attacked by a member of the Mexican mafia — a prison gang mostly based in California.

“He wasn’t really based in reality," Wilking said. “We don’t want to ignore a hate crime if it’s a hate crime, but we don’t want to make it a hate crime if there’s not that aspect of it.”

For the love of Pete.




UPDATE:

Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill told the Salt Lake Tribune that charging Covington with a hate crime would not have been possible.

“Although we want to pat ourselves on the back and say we have a hate crime statute, it’s really not enforceable,” Gill said.

  The Hill

Why not?

Something up his ass

He's going to be nastier than ever from here on out because the midterms didn't show him any love.







Petty whiner is such a good look for a president.  (Not that I feel sorry for Ajit Pai, killer of net neutrality.)

How long before Old Lardass just quits giving a damn at all and blurts out all the nastiness in public that he does in (semi-) private?

And, hey, Whinger in Chief is doing a great job:



...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:



UPDATE 12/3/18:

Can't imagine why

This is how you get yourself a dictatorship.

Nice job America/GOP.

Kansas militia would like Trumpettes on their jury

Three men accused of plotting to bomb a mosque and apartment complex housing Somali refugees asked a federal judge Friday to include prospective jurors from rural western Kansas because they are twice as likely to have voted for President Donald Trump.

A defense motion argues that plans to only summon citizens in the more urban counties closest to the federal courthouse in Wichita is a discriminatory practice that excludes rural and conservative jurors.

[...]

Gavin Wright, Patrick Stein and Curtis Allen are charged with conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and conspiracy against civil rights for allegedly planning to detonate truck bombs in the meatpacking town of Garden City the day after the November 2016 election. Wright also faces a charge of lying to the FBI.

  TPM

I wonder why they chose that date.

“This case is uniquely political because much of the anticipated evidence will center around, and was in reaction to, the 2016 Presidential election,” defense attorneys wrote.

Which sounds like a protest against Trump winning. I'm confused.

Stein’s former attorney told the court in an earlier hearing that his client believed then-President Barack Obama would declare martial law and not recognize the validity of the election if Trump won, forcing militias to step in.

NOW I get it.

Fucking idiots. Couldn't wait a few days to find out? Pre-emptive stepping in.  And what would that have had to do with Muslims anyway?

They also argued the case will require jurors to weigh whether the alleged conduct constitutes a crime or whether it is constitutionally protected speech and assembly and the right to bear arms.

Is that a common defense ploy for bombers?

The gang that couldn't think straight.  Pathetic.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Speaking of crimes

Incidents of hate crimes in the US went up to 6,121 during 2016, seeing an increase of 4.6 percent compared to the previous year, according to data released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Monday.

The crimes committed, particularly against African-Americans, Jews and Muslims, rose for the second consecutive year, with a spike of 10 percent from 2014 to 2015.

[...]

The months leading up to the 2016 election saw an increase in white nationalist activity, with fringe white supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan seeing an increase in membership.

[...]

Saylor, who tracks anti-Islamic incidents throughout the US, said he would "argue that it has a lot to do with the irresponsible rhetoric used by some politicians on the campaign trail".

[...]

Figures from 2015 show that 51 percent of religiously motivated incidents were anti-Jewish and 22 percent were anti-Islamic.

  alJazeera

That surprises me. Although, if I had thought about it, the White Supremacists unleashed by Trump's campaigning could have predicted that.

Trump Administration Finally Responds to Minnesota Mosque Attack

Sebastian Gorka, a senior adviser to US President Donald Trump, told MSNBC on Tuesday that some recent hate crimes were fake.

[...]

When asked by anchors whether the White House would be commenting on the Minnesota bombing that took place in the early hours on Saturday, Gorka said it would but only after an investigation into who was behind the attack.

"There's a great rule, all initial reports are false, you have to check them, you have to find out who the perpetrators are," said Gorka.

"We've had a series of crimes committed, alleged hate crimes by right-wing individuals, in the last six months, which turned out to be actually propagated by the left."

"People fake hate crimes in the last six months with some regularity. I think it's wise to find out what exactly is going on before you make statements," he added.

[...]

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) noted a 91 percent rise in anti-Muslim hate crime since the start of the year.

[...]

Trump has not spoken about the attack on the place of worship but has posted 26 tweets on topics as varied as "fake news", the "failing" New York Times, a senator he described as a "con artist", the ongoing tensions with North Korea, and new job figures.

  alJazeera

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Trump and the White Supremacist Attack in Portland

President Donald Trump said on Twitter Monday that his prayers are with the victims of an attack in Portland, Oregon, more than two days after two men were killed standing up to a man spewing hateful verbal abuse at teenage girls.

Trump’s tweet came from his official account, not the personal Twitter handle that he used throughout the weekend to tweet about his recent overseas trip, the “fake news media” and Republicans’ recent win in a Montana congressional race.

  HuffPo

In other words, Trump still hasn't made any comment. His staff has.

In a report released earlier this month, CAIR said the organization recorded over 2,200 “anti-Muslim bias incidents” in 2016, a 57 percent increase from the year before.

 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Well, What a Surprise

For the Love of Pete

[T]wo teenage girls in Maryland have been charged with hate crimes after they lit a Trump sign on fire. The novel charge is based on the prosecutors treating Trump supporters as the protected group.

  Jonahan Turley

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.