What a week this has been in the nuanced-not world of Donald Trump and thugs. First, Roger Stone chimed in Monday, putting judge Amy Berman Jackson next to a clear and obvious cross-hairs symbol in an Instagram post. Now, on Saturday, comes this image. This is a thinly veiled assassination message, just like Stone’s post, nothing more, nothing less. And don’t ever forget who got that ball rolling, none other than Donald Trump with this quote about Hillary Clinton.
“If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the second amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know. But I’ll tell you what, that will be a horrible day.”
Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, where the Sandy Hook massacre took place, tweeted in response to Trump’s comment in 2016, “Don’t treat this as a political misstep. It’s an assassination threat, seriously upping the possibility of a national tragedy & crisis.” That’s what that was and that’s what this is, too.
This isn’t a dog whistle, it’s an air raid siren, and it comes mere days after the wingnut Coast Guard officer with the guns and the hit list. We’ve already had one journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, brutally murdered and the deaths of the other five journalists shot to death last summer in the Baltimore-area newsroom. It is no coincidence that the extremist officer’s hit list contained the names of journalists and prominent Democrats. The opposition party, along with the fourth estate, is considered the enemy of the people, by Trump. He makes no bones about it, either. This isn’t at the level of innuendo, this is blatant and in your face.
And never let it slip your mind, the profound connections between the NRA and Russian money. the Russian threat against America is pernicious and it is pervasive — and images like the one above are just grist for the mill, in a political climate where the government is held hostage by somebody in hock to Vladimir Putin and the NRA.
We are so totally numb to outrage, that nothing sticks to these creeps, and they keep going with this agenda of violent rhetoric — sometimes followed up by actions like the sending of pipe bombs through the mail. What is it going to take, seriously, to make this stop? The death of one of our most valuable leaders, either elected or cultural? I pray not.
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[cross-posted to PolitiZoom]