Which side are you on?
It was an exceptionally bad week, even by the debauched standards of this Trump-infected society. It's Monday, and we're finding out where, exactly, Americans draw the line.
Remember Matt Drudge? His "Drudge Report" was purveying hardcore rightwing propaganda and outright bullshit long before Breitbart and other imitators. The massacre in Pittsburgh apparently knocked his trademark fedora off, and he's especially peeved at a Fox News pundit called Kennedy and her companions who "laughed and joked their way through a discussion of the political impact of terror. Not even 48 hours since blood flowed at synagogue?" he tweeted. As the comedians say after a tasteless joke, "Too soon?" I don't see Drudge renouncing the words that made him famous, or even acknowledging his role in creating the atmosphere of hate that prevails, but it's remarkable enough that he's even angry. "Check your soul in the makeup chair"? Ouch.
Three-fifths of a Man Sessions was boasting about his anti-refugee work to a meeting of the Boston Lawyers chapter of the Federalist Society when a clergyman got in his face. "Brother Jeff," he said, "as a fellow United Methodist I call upon you to repent, to care for those in need. Remember that when you do not care for others, you are wounding the body of Christ." He quoted from Matthew the admonition to take in strangers; Brother Jeff thanked him for what he characterized as an "attack," but which sounds like an intervention. At that point a Baptist pastor arose to second the Methodist's words, which is pretty amazing all by itself. Something to keep in mind when the evangelicals form a phalanx around Trump/Pence and their latest outrage: some Christians take Christianity seriously.
The show must go on, and the Hustle Hoochie of Pataskala, Ohio went ahead with its "Swastika Party" on Saturday night (free admission with a "haunted hoodie" or a Dead Acres tattoo). But the Pittsburgh-based band Only Flesh drew a line and cancelled their appearance. I don't know what a haunted hoodie is. Do I want to know? Anyway, good for Only Flesh.
Kellyanne Conway drew some sort of line when she fixed blame for the synagogue massacre on...atheists. "The anti-religiosity in the country that is somehow in vogue, making fun of people who express religion. The late-night comedians. It's always anti-religious." So it's all Bill Maher's fault? She can't be talking about Stephen Colbert, a practicing Catholic. The Pittsburgh killer's copious postings express no hatred of any religious group except Jews. Kellyanne, could you possibly be blowing smoke to make your boss's accustomed callousness in the face of suffering appear slightly more human? It's not working. He could have cancelled his show on Saturday night, like Only Flesh. But those crowds won't incite themselves.
David Horowitz was even more specific: "The hate is coming from people like this rabbi [Lynette Lederman, former president of Tree of Life] who insist on demonizing the president." (My italics.) Yeah, and if these Jews insist on causing the war, they'll all be exterminated, said someone or other...short guy, mustache...no, the name's not coming. Besides, the murderer made it clear that he considers Trump way too soft on Jews, so he didn't kill eleven people to please the leader. Sure enough, we read that Trump only mentioned anti-Semitism in one Tweet at the insistence of Ivanka. She's a yenta, you know.
That may be the most twisted line of all: Trump has Jews in his family, and Netanyahu plays him like a fiddler on the roof, fawning and praising so he can do what he wants to the Palestinians. Yet Trump adores, and is adored by, actual Nazis like Steve Bannon and Richard Spencer. Maybe they too consider him a hopeless kike-lover but useful for their purposes. Maybe Zionism and Judaism are farther apart than the Israel lobby wants to acknowledge. Is Trump a racist or merely an idiot? The answer is both.
Maybe there aren't "very fine people on both sides." That line was as clear as the tire tracks on the body of Heather Heyer, but Trump couldn't see it. A shockingly large chunk of the media can't see the line between calling out a lying racist thug and mailing bombs to the people he hates. Over and over, they demonstrate their fairness by demanding "civility" of Democrats while numbly repeating the raving hate tropes of the right ("reporting the news"). When Eric Holder revised the words of Michelle Obama -- "When they go low, we kick them" -- the media went nuts. He was saying, "If they want to play dirty, we'll play dirty, too," but they acted as if Nat Turner had come back from the grave at the head of a zombie army of lynched black people, armed with Kalashnikovs and dirty bombs. By the way, did you know a Bernie Sanders supporter shot Steve Scalise? Oh, dear, Democrats mustn't even talk the talk, or they'll just force more lunatics to send them ordnance via the failing post office.
We are indeed through the looking glass, where all the lines are skewed.
Remember Matt Drudge? His "Drudge Report" was purveying hardcore rightwing propaganda and outright bullshit long before Breitbart and other imitators. The massacre in Pittsburgh apparently knocked his trademark fedora off, and he's especially peeved at a Fox News pundit called Kennedy and her companions who "laughed and joked their way through a discussion of the political impact of terror. Not even 48 hours since blood flowed at synagogue?" he tweeted. As the comedians say after a tasteless joke, "Too soon?" I don't see Drudge renouncing the words that made him famous, or even acknowledging his role in creating the atmosphere of hate that prevails, but it's remarkable enough that he's even angry. "Check your soul in the makeup chair"? Ouch.
Three-fifths of a Man Sessions was boasting about his anti-refugee work to a meeting of the Boston Lawyers chapter of the Federalist Society when a clergyman got in his face. "Brother Jeff," he said, "as a fellow United Methodist I call upon you to repent, to care for those in need. Remember that when you do not care for others, you are wounding the body of Christ." He quoted from Matthew the admonition to take in strangers; Brother Jeff thanked him for what he characterized as an "attack," but which sounds like an intervention. At that point a Baptist pastor arose to second the Methodist's words, which is pretty amazing all by itself. Something to keep in mind when the evangelicals form a phalanx around Trump/Pence and their latest outrage: some Christians take Christianity seriously.
The show must go on, and the Hustle Hoochie of Pataskala, Ohio went ahead with its "Swastika Party" on Saturday night (free admission with a "haunted hoodie" or a Dead Acres tattoo). But the Pittsburgh-based band Only Flesh drew a line and cancelled their appearance. I don't know what a haunted hoodie is. Do I want to know? Anyway, good for Only Flesh.
Kellyanne Conway drew some sort of line when she fixed blame for the synagogue massacre on...atheists. "The anti-religiosity in the country that is somehow in vogue, making fun of people who express religion. The late-night comedians. It's always anti-religious." So it's all Bill Maher's fault? She can't be talking about Stephen Colbert, a practicing Catholic. The Pittsburgh killer's copious postings express no hatred of any religious group except Jews. Kellyanne, could you possibly be blowing smoke to make your boss's accustomed callousness in the face of suffering appear slightly more human? It's not working. He could have cancelled his show on Saturday night, like Only Flesh. But those crowds won't incite themselves.
David Horowitz was even more specific: "The hate is coming from people like this rabbi [Lynette Lederman, former president of Tree of Life] who insist on demonizing the president." (My italics.) Yeah, and if these Jews insist on causing the war, they'll all be exterminated, said someone or other...short guy, mustache...no, the name's not coming. Besides, the murderer made it clear that he considers Trump way too soft on Jews, so he didn't kill eleven people to please the leader. Sure enough, we read that Trump only mentioned anti-Semitism in one Tweet at the insistence of Ivanka. She's a yenta, you know.
That may be the most twisted line of all: Trump has Jews in his family, and Netanyahu plays him like a fiddler on the roof, fawning and praising so he can do what he wants to the Palestinians. Yet Trump adores, and is adored by, actual Nazis like Steve Bannon and Richard Spencer. Maybe they too consider him a hopeless kike-lover but useful for their purposes. Maybe Zionism and Judaism are farther apart than the Israel lobby wants to acknowledge. Is Trump a racist or merely an idiot? The answer is both.
Maybe there aren't "very fine people on both sides." That line was as clear as the tire tracks on the body of Heather Heyer, but Trump couldn't see it. A shockingly large chunk of the media can't see the line between calling out a lying racist thug and mailing bombs to the people he hates. Over and over, they demonstrate their fairness by demanding "civility" of Democrats while numbly repeating the raving hate tropes of the right ("reporting the news"). When Eric Holder revised the words of Michelle Obama -- "When they go low, we kick them" -- the media went nuts. He was saying, "If they want to play dirty, we'll play dirty, too," but they acted as if Nat Turner had come back from the grave at the head of a zombie army of lynched black people, armed with Kalashnikovs and dirty bombs. By the way, did you know a Bernie Sanders supporter shot Steve Scalise? Oh, dear, Democrats mustn't even talk the talk, or they'll just force more lunatics to send them ordnance via the failing post office.
We are indeed through the looking glass, where all the lines are skewed.
posted by Buttermilk Sky at 2:39 PM
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