August 16-19, 2017: American Nazi Party Approves of Trump Comments on Charlottesville

 

8/16/17: If you love Trump you assume The New York Times is fake news. Still, the Times tends to quote actual people. If those people are ever misquoted, they seek retraction. 

 

Head of American Nazi Party approves of Trump statement. 

At the Times, reporters begin coverage for the day by defining what the alt-right is and what it stands for. It is “anti-immigrant, anti-feminist, and opposed to homosexuality and gay and transgender rights.” (That sounds a lot like the Republican Party.) Leaders of the movement believe “higher education is ‘only appropriate for a cognitive elite’ and that most citizens should be educated in trade schools or apprenticeships.” 

(I think we can assume the alt-right does not believe dark-skinned people are part of the “cognitive elite.”) 

The alt-right is obsessed with a fear of “white genocide.” The Times explains: 

“White genocide is a white nationalist belief that white people, as a race, are endangered and face extinction [emphasis added, unless otherwise noted] as a result of nonwhite immigration and marriage between the races, a process being manipulated by the Jews,” according to Ryan Lenz, editor of Hatewatch, for the Southern Poverty Law Center.

 

Many neo-Nazi types in Charlottesville carried shields painted with a “14.” The number stands for fourteen words: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.” 

The slogan was created by David Lane, currently serving a 190-year prison sentence for murdering Jewish radio host Alan Berg.

There are Americans who admire Nazism. And many admire Trump. 

 

Well then, who did enjoy Trump’s performance the day before? “Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth,” David Duke tweets. He’s a former leader of the K.K.K. 

Richard Spencer, head of the American Nazi Party, is also impressed. “Trump’s statement was fair and down to earth,” says Spencer. 

Pretty much everyone else is aghast. The commandant of the Marine Corps tweets that there is “no place for racial hatred or extremism in @USMC. Our core values of Honor, Courage, and Commitment frame the way Marines live and act.” This statement makes me proud to say I’m a former Marine.

___ 

 

8/17/17: Julius Krein, founder of American Affairs, explains in The New York Times how he became a Trump supporter. He admits watching one of Trump’s campaign rallies. “I was riveted,” he says. He supported Candidate Trump in dozens of articles and TV appearances. 

Now he admits he was wrong. 

I can’t stand by this disgraceful administration any longer, and I would urge anyone who once supported him as I did to stop defending the forty-fifth president. Far from making America great again, Mr. Trump has betrayed the foundations of our common citizenship. For months, despite increasing chaos and incoherence pouring out of this White House, I have given Mr. Trump the benefit of the doubt.

 

He tried to convince himself that Trump wasn’t  a racist and wasn’t catering to racists. “It is now clear that we were deluding ourselves. Either Mr. Trump is genuinely sympathetic to the David Duke types, or he is so obtuse as to be utterly incapable of learning from his worst mistakes.” (See: 8/16/17.)

___ 

 

8/18/17: It’s a sad day for “alt-right” types (see: 8/15/17). Steve Bannon, self-proclaimed voice of the movement, is ousted as chief strategist for the Trump administration. 

Alex Marlow, editor in chief at Breitbart News, explains the frustration right-wing extremists are feeling with Bannon being tossed: 

The president was buoyed to election by capturing the hearts and minds of a populist, nationalist movement. A lot of it was anti-Wall Street, anti-corporatist, anti-establishment. And now we’re seeing that a lot of these guys remaining inside the White House are exactly the opposite of what we told you you were going to get.

 

Here, the typical liberal might pose a question: What fool was stupid enough to believe the GOP establishment, or billionaire Donald J. Trump – would turn on Wall Street and multinational corporations? 

___ 

 

8/19/17: The White House announces that the President and the First Lady will not be attending the Kennedy Center Honors program scheduled for December. “The president and first lady have decided not to participate in this year’s activities to allow the honorees to celebrate without any political distraction.” 

Good job, Mr. President! You’re finally thinking of others! 

Oh…wait. 

Honorees for lifetime work in art, music, dance, film, television and culture make it clear, in light of Trump’s Charlottesville remarks, they will skip a White House gala normally held in conjunction with the awards. Three of five honorees have said they’d not attend. 

Carmen de Lavallade, a dancer and choreographer, 86, explains her decision to bow out. “In light of the socially divisive and morally caustic narrative that our current leadership is choosing to engage in,” she says, “and in keeping with the principles that I and so many others have fought for, I will be declining the invitation to attend the reception at the White House.” 

So: The gala was going to lack gala. A fourth honoree LL Cool J hadn’t said for sure whether he’d attend. 

The fifth, Cuban-American singer Gloria Estefan, said she’d show up, but only to press the president on his immigration policies. 

Trump chickens out.

November 3, 2019: A "Virtually Impenetrable" Border Wall - And Trump's Twitter Obsessions

 

Twitter was perfect for Trump: posts had to be short and simple and go for the gut.

Way back in 2016, he claimed a Republican primary in Iowa was "rigged."

11/3/19: It turns out drug smugglers can use reciprocating saws to cut through the new bollard walls that the Trump administration is building on the southern border. Mexico, of course, is still not paying for the wall. 

Or repairs. 

Smugglers can purchase the necessary saws for $100 and in ten minutes cut a passage for their drugs and drug mules. 

Asked for comment, the president defends the Great Wall of Trump in exactly the way you’d expect. “We have a very powerful wall, but no matter how powerful, you can cut through anything, in all fairness,” he told reporters. “But we have a lot of people watching. Cutting is one thing, but it’s easily fixed. One of the reasons we did it the way we did it, it’s very easily fixed. You put the chunk back in,” he added. “But we have a very powerful wall. But you can cut through any wall.” 

(Why does this man repeat so often! It’s like he doesn’t even listen to his own jabbering spiels.) 

This is still a bummer, as even Fox News must admit. In a visit to the border in September, Trump bragged about his Great Wall, insisting, it was “virtually impenetrable.” 

Unless you stopped by the hardware store first.

In one case smugglers cut a garage-size hole in the wall.

 

*

____________________ 

“The idea is to stack up so much doubt, emotional appeals, and circumstantial evidence ON TOP of facts that we create a landslide of anti-Hill sentiment that permeates through society.” 

Anonymous

____________________

 

 

THE NEW YORK TIMES publishes a lengthy analysis of Trump’s Twitter obsessions. If you’ve never paid attention, the picture that emerges is one of a petty man-boy, prone to hate, prone to simplify, and happy to lie. 

First, the president tweets a lot. “He needs to tweet like we need to eat,” top White House aide Kellyanne Conway admits. 

 

The president likes to binge on junk language. 

Carrying the food analogy forward, you might say the president likes to binge on junk, with zero intellectual nutrition. More than 2,000 times, he has tweeted in praise of himself. “I’m the best thing that’s ever happened to Puerto Rico,” he said. His hotel in New York City was voted “#1 ‘Best Hotel in the World.’” He has described himself multiple times as “your favorite president,” and even as “your all time favorite duly elected President, me!” Trump also likes to retweet praise from fans. 

The president often makes government policy via Twitter, then destroys the policy just made, all by tapping on his iPhone. Recently, the president of Turkey mocked our “favorite president” for posting a series of conflicting policy twists and turns regarding the Syrian Kurds. “When we take a look at Mr. Trump’s Twitter posts,” he laughed, “we cannot keep track.” 

Neither can the Pentagon.

 

* 

THE TIMES notes that the president “follows” only 47 other accounts. With one exception those accounts echo the hodgepodge of furies and goofy odds and ends of misinformation and conspiracy thinking that warp the president’s psyche. Seven accounts belong to family members. One is controlled by a member of Congress, Rep. Jim Jordan, a fellow traveler in hate and #1 defender of all things quintessentially Trump. 

Fox News hosts, former Fox News hosts, and Fox News shows are well represented. The president follows Maria Bartiromo – Tucker Carlson – Jesse Waters – Laura Ingraham – Geraldo Rivera – and the rotating cast of morning morons at Fox & Friends. He still follows Bill O’Reilly and Eric Bolling, which is telling, since both were axed in the wake of sexual harassment claims. Above all others, the president follows Sean Hannity slavishly. At least 258 times, he has tweeted links to Hannity’s show or thanked Hannity for his treacly support.

 

The president has a number of other Twitter fetishes. He has used more than 1,700 tweets to push conspiracy theories. He has used 1,400 to question the idea that Russia interfered in the 2016 election. He has described the free press as the “enemy of the people,” or, when really angry, the “ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE” again and again. He has used 580 tweets to decry “Fake News” and mentioned “witch hunts” 334 times. Lately, as his paranoia deepens, the “Deep State” is out to get him too. 

Some of the Twitter accounts he follows are harmless, albeit telling. Of all the sources of insight he might choose, his select circle of 47 includes Diamond and Silk, two brainless African American buffoons. He follows Vince McMahon of fake wrestling fame and his own press secretary, Stephanie Grisham. White House banshee Kellyanne Conway is also part of the select circle. 

Conway’s main job on Twitter is to praise her boss.

 

* 

President Trump is a sucker for them all. 

THE PRESIDENT’S CARELESSNESS, when it comes to checking facts, gullibility, and penchant for hate, make for a toxic Twitter mix. Since he follows his eldest son’s account, if Don Jr. picks up a dose of racist poison, dear old dad is prone to spread the poison far and wide. 

Don Jr. follows Stefan Molyneau, a Canadian, who calls “white genocide” a worldwide threat. The president’s oldest child used to follow Lauren Southern, another white supremacist kook. Southern likes to boost the “great replacement” theory, which holds that white populations are being overrun by immigrants. And liberal “global elites” are supposedly pushing the scheme! The president and members of his inner Twitter circle have also retweeted QAnon conspiracy theories. QAnon believers warn that a liberal “deep state” exists and controls the world. It’s a variation of the old belief that Jews dominated international banking behind the scenes – often dripping with the same kind of anti-Semitism. According to QAnon, liberal elites are into Satanism, pedophilia, and cannibalism.

True believers: In utter nonsense.

 

That doesn’t stop members of Trump’s inner circle from following such accounts and feeding the president’s very worst appetites. Don Jr., Bartiromo, Ronna McDaniel (chair of the Republican National Committee) and Rep. Jordan follow at least 50 Twitter users that reference “QAnon” in their profiles. 

Bartiromo has retweeted posts from an account, @QBlueSkyQ, which claimed that top Democrats sexually tortured children to harvest their adrenochrome. If you’ve never heard of the substance, you’re not alone. Apparently, it can have hallucinogenic effects at high doses. But the QAnon folks believe it to be “a life-extending elixir.” Therefore: torture of children. 

Eric Bolling has retweeted political posts from @K12Lioness, another QAnon buff. In June, that Twitter user posted: “The Democrats have lost their minds (andrenochrome) eating baby parts. MY GOD Americans, WAKE UP!”

Yes, Americans, wake up. Because there are all kinds of fruit cakes and haters on Twitter, not to mention “bots” and even Russian intelligence agents, masquerading as Americans. Trump is a sucker for them all. Russian accounts have “tagged” him at least 30,000 times. That is, they link to his account, @realDonaldTrump, hoping he’ll notice their tweets and retweet what they say. This drives traffic in their direction and allows them to build presence and spread the kind of disinformation they like. 

On numerous occasions, Trump has fallen prey to, or retweeted the posts of others who have fallen prey to, Russian agents peddling lies. When a phony Russian account tweeted, “We love you, Mr. President!” he retweeted it with the joy of a simple child. Heavy traffic then flowed toward a phony Russian account.

 

* 

TRUMP first opened a Twitter account in 2009. But it was not till 2013 that he found his calling. And he found it by tweeting and retweeting birther smears aimed at President Obama. 

As the Times explains, 

After Mr. Trump started tweeting on his own in early 2013 – he previously had help from an assistant – he was soon recycling misinformation. He retweeted an anti-Obama account that had tweeted at him, “The birth certificate that you forced Obama to show is a computer generated forgery.” And he spun conspiracies within conspiracies, tweeting: “How amazing, the State Health Director who verified copies of Obama’s ‘birth certificate’ died in plane crash today. All others lived.”

 

According to the Times, it was clear even in 2013, that the worst elements on Twitter planned to twist the medium to suit their needs. Trump, in other words, had come to the right place. An on-line manual offered tips on how to use memes and tweets to batter the reputation of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. “The idea,” the anonymously-authored manual suggested, “is to stack up so much doubt, emotional appeals, and circumstantial evidence ON TOP of facts that we create a landslide of anti-Hill sentiment that permeates through society.” The Russians, if nothing else, were involved in the “anti-Hill” efforts. Trump himself often retweeted misleading information and came to favor hashtags like #CrookedHillary. 

Best of all, the limit of 140 characters per tweet, later doubled to 280, meant Trump’s posts had to be short and simplistic. You couldn’t explain complex policy. Indeed, your best bet was to keep posts even shorter (280 characters often proved too much for Twitter users to plow through) and reach for the lowest intellectual denominator. You had to go for the gut. 

At that, President Trump excels. 

 

FUN FACT: After defeating Mrs. Clinton, Trump promised during a 60 Minutes interview that he was going to be more careful as president. “I’m going to do very restrained, if I use [Twitter] at all. I’m going to do very restrained.” 

Not even close.