Friday, May 10, 2019

The Panhandle’s shame: Crowd laughs as Trump jokes about a call to shoot illegal immigrants | Editorial, Orlando Sentinel

Good hard-hitting editorial in the Orlando Sentinel. The Orlando Sentinel compares Herr DONALD JOHN TRUP's ideas to "a contagion."  As FDR said, "War is a contagion.  Quarrantine the aggressors."

Herr TRUMP spoke to hick hack haters in St. Augustine at our Amphitheater in 2016, but I made sure that TRUMP's campaign paid by wire transfer before he took the stage.  Amphitheater Manager Ryan Murphy wisely made sure TRUMP paid in advance, knowing TRUMP's history of cheating thousands of creditors.

Deadbeat dingbat DONALD JOHN TRUMP's Russian-supported appeals to hatred by ninnies, boobies, nincompoops and certified fools in Flori-DUH continued Wednesday in Panama City, where he laughed at calls to shoot immigrants.  

Fascist pig.  

Putin's puta.

Daily expose his works and pomps.  

Impeach him.  

Defeat him.  

Stop him from defying, defiling and destroying our American Bill of Rights and American Way of Life.

















From the Orlando Sentinel:



The Panhandle’s shame: Crowd laughs as Trump jokes about a call to shoot illegal immigrants | Editorial

On Wednesday, a sometimes Florida man visiting the Panhandle got a big kick out of the idea that immigrants crossing the border illegally should be shot.
Donald J. Trump, 45th president of the United States and part-time resident of South Florida, thought a shouted suggestion from the crowd to shoot unarmed people crossing the border was real yuk.
He wasn’t alone. Video from the rally in Panama City Beach showed people in white “USA” hats behind him laughing it up and applauding at the suggestion to murder people, many of whom are fleeing violence in their own country.
Predictably, the president’s supporters will point out that the comic moment was preceded by the president - in noting the difficult task facing border agents - said, “And don’t forget we don’t let them and we can’t let them use weapons. We can’t. Other countries do, but we can’t. I would never do that. But how do you stop these people?”

To which an audience member responded, “Shoot them.”
The president chuckled as the audience cheered. Then, wearing a broad grin, he said, “That’s only in the Panhandle that you can get away with that statement.” Hilarious.
It’s not a first for this president, whose embrace of violence in the past has included praise for a congressman for attacking a reporter, calls at campaign rallies to rough up hecklers and suggestions for cops to manhandle suspects.
It’s become a political cliche to declare a statement or action “a new low.” We’re not going there. We reached a new low several years ago and that’s where we’ve been ever since.
When a segment of the nation can rationalize, laugh off or even agree with a president when he jokes about a call for violence - even one made in jest - that’s not a new low, that’s just our new normal. This is what much of the country has become, for now: mean, simple and undignified.
Panhandle residents have been through a terrible ordeal over the past year. A Category 5 hurricane destroyed their property, possessions, livelihoods and peace of mind. The recovery has been slow, and it must feel hopeless sometimes. They deserve our sympathy and our full support.
You might think that people who experienced first-hand such suffering and deprivation would feel more inclined to empathize with others, particularly Central Americans who are fleeing their countries because life there has become intolerable.
Americans can disagree in good faith about U.S. policies to deal with the overwhelming number of people crossing the border, but can’t everyone agree that a joke about how those people deserve a bullet is cruel, not funny?
Not our president, and not this crowd, who shamed themselves, their region and our state with their mob-like willingness to laugh about murder, even if the comment was intended as a joke.
While their reaction was shocking, we’re way beyond shock with this president, whose assault on decency has spread through our society like a contagion.


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