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© (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2018.2,500 attend Pittsburgh synagogue massacre memorial
By Jessica Resnick-Ault and Chriss Swaney PITTSBURGH©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
53 Comments
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starpunk
Trump has done nothing but sow discord and hatred thru his words and actions. He has used vitriolic exclusionary language, made fun of everyone and everything from quadrileptics to Muslims to PTSD veterans and he has bragged about abusing women, gleefully gloated about loving torture and gushed lustfully about his daughter - he wants to MARRY her! And his juvenile callousness has shown that he IS NOT fit to be in office. He doesn't get his way, Stormy Daniels tells a story and he takes it out on ethnic children by kidnapping them and placing them in concentration camps.
No wonder the Jewish community of Pittsburgh doesn't want this egomaniac to come. George Bush 1, a now-quadrileptic didn't invite him to his wife's funeral, McCain explicitly banned him from his, he wasn't invited to Aretha's and the Royals didn't invite him to their wedding.
And the first thing we can do is put this traitorous illegal POTUS in the slammer for his crimes!
Concerned Citizen
This incident should humble us serve to soften our hearts towards each other. Violence and hate can only be overcome by love.
mukashiyokatta
Take people's guns away from them! Get rid of the guns!
Black Sabbath
Y'all may be surprised, but I don't blame Trump.
I blame anti-Semitism and American gun laws.
To the extent that Trump and the NRA/Republican party promote these two, I blame them.
Trump kind of gives anti-Semitism a pass. Remember Charlottesville "both sides?" And his rhetoric inflames division and and promotes violence.
Trump and the Republicans certainly do everything they can to keep our gun laws what they are....
Hmm.
Y'know what? I do blame Trump. And I blame Republicans.
lostrune2
Bowers thinks Trump is not right-wing nationalist enough:
“Trump is a globalist, not a nationalist. There is no #MAGA as long as there is a [beeping Jew] infestation.”
Serrano
Super, by the way, do you know the synagogue shooter is a never-Trumper?
SuperLib
Nice to see it finally "start" for you guys. We've been enduring pizzagate, Charlottesville, Clive Bundy, the MAGAbomber, death threats to people who speak out against Trump, white hoods and semi-automatics, and a president who cheers violence at his rallies since day 1.
Ad so far I haven't seen any presidential pardons for anyone or comments about how long of them are nice people.
By the way, did you see Lou Dobb's guest last night? Even Fox corporate had to condemned his comments. What lovely people you have in your media.
Blacklabel
So when republicans win the midterms the narrative will be it was “despite” Trump not “because of” him?
Dems are going to lose, you know how I know? I’m not hearing anything about how this election is a “referendum on Trump” like I heard in all the other elections Dems lost. It’s better to just say he has nothing to do with your loss.
HonestDictator
You're so deep in the cage of your own making you don't really pay attention to whats going on around you. Tunnel vision and negative partisan blinders. 90% approval rating in his own party? That's totally not based in reality. The only ones that support Trump in the party are the "loyalist" cult 45'ers. Because Trump wants loyalty to himself, not the citizens of the US. The smart ones are leaving/already left and distance themselves.
My mother is a conservative Christian, and she's realized how toxic this man is after voting for him. And she ONLY votes republican because they're supposedly "anti-abortion". My co-workers that were republican die hards and voted him into office are seriously regretting their decisions and I know quite a few that decided to join a "libertarian" party.
TrumpRegrets etc, there are a ton of people that are sick of this show. So yeah, keep on seeing only what you want to see. Reality is right around the corner, and it will hit you like a mugger in an ally of old NYC.HonestDictator
What a joke, you're trying to blame others for the exact thing you've been doing yourself. There is a word for that which starts with the letter "h".
REAL conservatives have been leaving Trump's GOP because the party is no longer supporting "fiscal responsibility", "efficient government", and other things. Trump is the cause and issue of causing the GOP to go off the rails. And he has spouted enough rhetoric from beginning to end that riled up the white nationalists (and closet racism) to become more belligerent in the first place.
Blacklabel
Words and political affiliations only matter when they can be linked to conservatives and some supposed incitement.
Liberal supporters do something, it has no relationship to the politician they support. Rand Paul was beaten up as a bad neighbor not as a politician. Trump family was sent powder in envelopes, it wasn’t anything harmful and let’s mock them. Liberal Guy shoots republicans on a baseball field, who knows maybe he just hates baseball?
bass4funk
That’s your opinion.
At this point, I don’t think any.
And I answered it
Jimizo
Ok. Not in this instance. So what rhetoric does Trump need to dial down?
It’s a straightforward question to anyone who isn’t looking to avoid answering it.
bass4funk
Well, look it’s from Reuters and I see where this is going, but I don’t think in this instance he said anything inflammatory, if you do, then we just have to disagree, but I didn’t.
Jimizo
You posted that Trump should dial back his rhetoric. I asked for one example of something which was over the top, and you tell me it’s not the thread for that.
The article refers to Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric. It is on point.
bass4funk
If it’s justified and on point, I support it and if it’s Incendiary then I don’t and will call him on it?
No, this is not the thread for that, but in the future I will
Jimizo
Give an example. Whenever Trump comes out with incendiary trash, you either justify or ignore it and invariably post something along the lines of the left are worse ROFL smh.
Give an example of what Trump shouldn’t have said.
Attilathehungry
As for the vitriol, IMHO it is equal. Democratic politicians say stupid stuff (Maxine Waters, Eric Holder) that plays into the GOP's narrative of the left being unhinged and extreme. Trump tweets garbage that the media then spends hours gleefully dissecting and searching for clues to his latent racism/sexism/ageism/...ism. The constant 24 hour media circus is a big factor. The networks need something to fill in their airtime so they analyze and analyze the smallest event to death. Also spend far too much time fantasizing about their own role in democracy and patting themselves on the back for being the protectors of "truth". I long for the time when members of government who opposed each other could argue the issues vehemently all day, then have a scotch that same evening in the same bar.
bass4funk
Ok, if that’s so, then please show me a tape of Booker, Clinton, Waters, Biden, Deniro, Schumer, Holder calling for calm, let’s deal with that reality honestly and sincerely.
Moderator
Readers, once again we ask to avoid using terms like "left" and "right" in political discussions. Such terms lower the level of discussion and widen the political divide.
bass4funk
But the majority of the vitriol is coming from the right, so in their anger and hatred towards this President, the left are far out of they think they can attack him and he won’t respond, so if they back off, they he would back off as well, if they keep it up, so will he.
And the right were being harassed and a congressman shot. The left doesn’t have the moral high ground on this, both sides are effected by this, but the left claiming victim hood? Uh-huh....
No, I’m fair in my criticism, I had said before the President should dial some of his rhetoric back, but the left has well, they need to tone a lot back of what they have been saying and doing.
I’m waiting for the same response about the left. Again, as long as the left refuses to acknowledge they they are equally responsible for a lot of the negative rhetoric that’s been going on in the country.
Attilathehungry
Heretic; Perhaps because rhetoric can't be "deadly". People can be deadly, certain ideologies can be deadly, but the hot air from a politicians' mouth is just that, hot air. Especially in this case when the President is perhaps the strongest supporter of Israel in the Oval Office for several decades.
Toasted Heretic
Have you ever answered a question about your leader and his party without saying "what about the left"?
People are being massacred and the upper levels of the Democrats were targeted for assasination yet he still ramps up the irresponsible rhetoric - and still, you condone it and shift the blame to a party that's not in government or a nebulous creature called "the left" which appears to be anyone who's not behind Trump.
Please, give us a response that solely deals with Trump's aggressive and deadly rhetoric.
Toasted Heretic
Sigh. Jewish people are all colors and sects. You have Ashkenazi, Sephardim, Indian Jews, Iraqi Jews, Egyptian, European Jews, Chinese Jews, Ethiopian Jews, Argentian Jews and so on.
You have extreme, conservative, liberal, socialist - in fact, any political persuasion you can imagine.
And of course, communist. Did all communists support Obama? I don't know all communists but those I do know see him as a liberal and about as far from actual left wing ideals (as the Democrats tend to be) you can get in center politics.
Communists and socialists were amongst the first peope interned in the nazi camps. Some were Jewish and some weren't but we're currently seeing a rise in anti-Semitism all around the world.
Beware of those who claim it's at a low ebb or that racism is barely noticeable.
The number of antisemitic incidents across the US as a whole rose 57% in 2017, according to an audit by the Anti-Defamation League, the largest single-year increase on record and the second highest number since the ADL started tracking such data in 1979.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/28/rising-antisemitism-worldwide-boils-over-at-pittsburgh-synagogue
bass4funk
And why hasn’t the left taken responsibility for their actions?
Exactly, for the most part, this doesn’t happen, the only thing that is of concern is, what was this guys reasoning behind this?
stormcrow
Trump has certainly been busy fertilizing the fields with all of the hateful BS spewing out of his mouth.
I'm paraphrasing here, but Trump said something like: "This shooting is a good argument for more armed guards and people carrying concealed weapons to defend themselves, because it's a very bad world out there, folks."
That's the basic gist of what the president had to say.
Attilathehungry
strangerland: guilt by association is a bullying tactic. Maybe Obama wasn't a communist, but pretty much all communists supported Obama. Is that a fair way to argue? I don't think so. Politicians can't control who chooses to support or revile them.
ChipStar; If not by membership in racist organizations, how do you intend to accurately determine how many actual racists there are in the US? My point is that they have no actual political or social power. Racist laws have been overturned. Racism is frowned upon socially and those who publicly make overt racist statements are shunned by polite society. There isn't much more that can be done, particularly at the level of government.
Strangerland
Sure it does. Trump may not directly support all racists, but pretty much all racists support Trump.
Chip Star
Oh, I see now. You are talking about the number of racists involved in racist organizations. This number is far smaller than the actual number of racists in the US.
Chip Star
Agreed. Why hasn't Trump learned to take responsibility for his actions?
Serrano
"The number of rabid racists in the US is not insignificant and most of them support Trump."
This statement has no basis in reality.
How about we blame the individual for the crime and not somebody else, people need to learn to take responsibility for their actions.
Attilathehungry
They could all fit comfortably into a minor league baseball stadium Chipstar. The KKK is something like 5000 members, active in less than half of the 50 states. Other groups? Even smaller. They are only made significant by the overwhelming attention the media gives them. Ignore them and they will fade away, as they should.
Chip Star
The number of rabid racists in the US is not insignificant and most of them support Trump.
Attilathehungry
I think we need a new version of "Godwin's Law"- you know, the concept of bringing Hitler or Nazis into every possible conversation, even where they have no place. We need a "Donald's Law" version, where everything bad that happens under the sun is Trump's fault.
In this case, the simple fact is that Trump is reviled for his unwavering support of Israel, as well as the Jewish heritage of his son-in-law and grandchildren. To the almost insignificant number of rabid racists in the US, he is not a figure of admiration, but of hatred.
Rabid anti-semitism has been around for centuries. These days, it is at it's lowest ebb in history, especially in the United States. Europe is seeing an upsurge, but not North America.
Texas A&M Aggie
Let's place the blame where it belongs: Trump, the NRA and the GOP -- acting in unison to foster fear, division, bigotry and gun violence. -- comment
This shooting was carried out by a person who is rabid anti-President Trump.
Jimizo
Why do people need assault weapons? To kill more people more efficiently?
Does anyone have a better answer?
rainyday
Interesting. I would have assumed that to most sensible Japanese the source of confusion would by why so many lunatics in America have such easy access to guns, rather than on the arbitrary ways in which racists insist on categorizing people.
Raw Beer
What this nutter did has nothing to do with Trump, IMO.
Trump has many faults, but it's sad to see so many exploiting this sad event to crap on him.
plasticmonkey
This rhetoric sounds familiar. The same crap Trump has been spewing for years.
Kabukilover
There is the reality behind this murderous antisemite’s delusions: eleven harmless old people shot to death in prayer. The youngest was 66. They were a danger to no one. Most, apparently, didn’t even drive.
This was the worst attack on Jews in American history, but the poison that led to this attack has been around for generations. It just needed the climate of right-wing hate to bring it out.
The hateful rhetoric of Trump brought it out. Trump is not antisemitic but he has promulgated hatred against muslims and hispanics and ipso facto supported the so-call Alt Right and while nationalists. Bigotry is like a virus. The rise of antisemitism was only a matter of time.
We can thank the NRA for allowing that sick antisemite to own guns.
Madden
Disgusting, and the fact that the guy was a horrible racist online just shows you the kind of people that exist out there. I'm not necessarily for censorship on the internet but I do feel like there should be some kind of system that exists to report people who write really awful things. I also hate how people can just hid behind "ironic racism" or some nonsense, people who write such disgusting things surely believe it on some level and when they finally decide to take it offline this kind of tragedy happens.
serendipitous1
And again, and again, and again. What a screwed up place the US is. They think having guns is normal. They think the death penalty is a deterrent. How many times before they learn?
lostrune2
They're considered mystics, like gypsies in Europe
Omachi
"Some complained that the confrontational, nationalistic rhetoric of U.S. President Donald Trump has encouraged right-wing extremists and fed a surge in activity by hate groups."
Indeed. Not just some - but rather many or even most. So very sad to see the US in this downward spiral into hate, radical nationalism and anti-immigration fueled by the rhetoric of the President.
yamada1043
And the National Rifle Association (NRA) continues to insist that people kill people and not that guns kill people ... beyond comprehension ... only in the United States of America.
CrazyJoe
Let's place the blame where it belongs:
Trump, the NRA and the GOP -- acting in unison to foster fear, division, bigotry and gun violence.
Schopenhauer
This topic is unfamiliar to Japanese. I did not know the Jewish people are not considered as white people. Are they still thought to be middle-easterners rather than Caucasians? It is an unbelievably long time ago since their exodus from Israel. In their long history, many of them are mixed with other Europeans, I think.
lostrune2
Bowers seems to be a white nationalist - 2 days before the shooting, he wrote on Gab:
“Trump is a globalist, not a nationalist. There is no #MAGA as long as there is a [beeping Jew] infestation.”
Remember, patriotism is loving one's country - nationalism is hating everyone else's
(To Bowers, Jews are like from a different country)
If he's gonna put guns inside Houses of Worship, he can't forget mosques
People can be rational one year, then irrational 2 years from now
rainyday
Oh, so they were targetted because they were conservative and not because they were Jewish?
That is a reprehensible position to take. Trying to expropriate anti-semitic violence to prop up an imaginary narrative of conservative victimhood.
Chip Star
This statement has no basis in reality.
Chip Star
Tragic. Unsurprising, but tragic.