The falsifications of Donald Trump: Demagoguery and bigotry endanger America’s security
The battleground of the 2016 presidential campaign is rapidly becoming a vast field of falsehoods dissected by sewer trenches of bigotry.
At times, we can react by laughing or with incredulity . . . such as when Dr. Ben Carson talks of the Great Pyramids of Egypt being built to store grain, or that Thomas Jefferson wrote the U.S. Constitution, or when Sen. Marco Rubio strains to explain his personal finances and billionaire patron.
Donald Trump: Thousand of people in Jersey City were cheering collapse of the World Trade Center on 9/11. (Matthew Cavanaugh/Getty Images)
The limit is quickly reached, however, with candidates going over the line into demagoguery, prejudice and outright lies.
The two latest falsehoods have been spread by — surprise! — Donald Trump.
“I watched when the World Trade Center came tumbling down,” he said last week, speaking of 9/11 and collapse of the twin towers. “And I watched in Jersey City where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down. Thousands of people were cheering.”
Why was this cheering never broadcast? Why do the police have no record of it? Because it never happened! Still, Dr. Ben Carson claimed that he “saw the film”. And Trump doubled down on his lie Sunday when queried (gently) by ABC News host George Stephanopoulos.
“George, it did happen on the other side of New Jersey where you have large Arab populations, they were cheering as the WTC came down.” It was, claimed Trump, “well covered at the time.”
The befuddled Dr. Carson chimed in Monday night as Fox News’ Megyn Kelly tried to steer him away from his stupidity. No such luck. Carson revealed an equal ugliness of the soul, saying:
“Well, what we were talking about is the reaction of Muslims after the 9/11 attack and if they were in a celebratory mood. I ws really focusing on that it was an inappropriate thing to do, no matter where they were. They asked me did I see the film? I did see the film. I don’t know where they were. But I did see the film.”
Huh? The reliable, non-partisan Politifact group did a search for all those celebrating New Jersey Muslims. They concluded: “Trump’s recollection of events in New Jersey after terrorist attacks flies in the face of all evidence we can find.
Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson: “I did see the film. I don’t know where they were. But I did see the film.” (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
“We rate this statement ‘Pants on Fire’.”
But Trump doesn’t seem to care. Post-Paris, his lead in polls of the Republican race has expanded. The man’s closest competition seems to be an equally bigoted, Muslim-baiting Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.
Trump was called to account on (of all places) The O’Reilly Factor Monday night on Fox. BillO challenged his retweeting, over the weekend, of bogus homicide statistics exaggerating the rate at which African-Americans kill white people.
“This bothered me, I gotta tell ya,” said O’Reilly, rarely if ever bothered by harsh talk about African Americans. “You tweeted out that whiles killed by blacks — there are statistics you picked out from somewhere — at a rate of 81 percent and that’s totally wrong. Whites killed by blacks is 15 percent, yet you tweeted it was 81.”
Trump tried to blow off BillO, saying: “Bill, I didn’t tweet. I retweeted somebody that was supposedly an expert, and it was also a radio show.”
“Yeah,” O’Reilly responded, “but you don’t wanna be . . . Why do you want to be in that zone.”
“Hey, Bill, Bill: Am I going to check every statistic? I get millions, millions of people.”
O’Reilly seemed to plead, “You gotta, you’re a presidential contender. You gotta check ’em.”
When a Fox News host gets upset at inaccuracies, you know there is something deeply out of kilter.
What’s fundamentally wrong, however, is that the ugly stench of racism and religious bigotry is permeating one of our great political parties, the party of Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower. The stench is translating into ugliness at Trump rallies, where the beating of protesters is reminiscent of George Wallace’s segregationist crusade of 47 years ago.
Quite frankly, racism and religious bigotry pose a much greater threat to the security of this country, to the workings of democracy, than the threat of a Syrian infiltrator or the undocumented worker from Central America trying to keep body, soul and family together.
Driving up Chuckanut Drive recently, I passed what was left of Blanchard, Wash., childhood home of the great CBS journalist Edward R. Murrow. Murrow took on the demagogue-bullyboy of his time, Red baiting Sen. Joe McCarthy. So did columnist Mary McGrory of the Washington Star.
Sixty years later, with newsrooms eroding and media demonized, we need new Murrows and McGrorys to step forward. We have our democracy to defend.
And you should see the piece of ass I got!
"The merely rich are not rich enough to rule the modern market. The things that change modern history, the big national and international loans, the big educational and philanthropic foundations, the purchase of numberless newspapers, the big prices paid for peerages, the big expenses often incurred in elections - these are getting too big for everybody except the misers; the men with the largest of earthly fortunes and the smallest of earthly aims.
There are two other odd and rather important things to be said about them. The first is this: that with this aristocracy we do not have the chance of a lucky variety in types which belongs to larger and looser aristocracies. The moderately rich include all kinds of people even good people. Even priests are sometimes saints; and even soldiers are sometimes heroes. Some doctors have really grown wealthy by curing their patients and not by flattering them; some brewers have been known to sell beer. But among the Very Rich you will never find a really generous man, even by accident. They may give their money away, but they will never give themselves away; they are egoistic, secretive, dry as old bones. To be smart enough to get all that money you must be dull enough to want it." G. K. Chesterton
G.K. Chesterton: "The Anarchy of The Rich"
G.K. Chesterton and Warren Buffett's Class War
Chesterton: Plenty Of Books Denounce Lust But What Of Those That Encourage Greed
http://paxonbothhouses.
G.K. Chesterton: "The Anarchy of The Rich"
G.K. Chesterton and Warren Buffett's Class War
Chesterton: Plenty Of Books Denounce Lust But What Of Those That Encourage Greed
http://paxonbothhouses.
http://paxonbothhouses.
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The Rich Are The Real Anarchists And Sully The World With Their Scum
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