The Example of Ilhan Omar

 

Swalwell: Finally. So I thought, we're going to hold someone accountable for anti-semitism. Surely it's the author of this tweet. Kanye, Elon. Trump… Don’t come here looking at us for anti-semitism. Look at your own damn mirror pic.twitter.com/dTYVinwsWZ

— Acyn (@Acyn) February 2, 2023

The one thing I loved about my Democratic party today was how they stood up for Ilhan Omar, who didn't do anything but be visibly a Black African Muslimah who said certain uncomfortable things out loud that a certain political party could with all the pettiness in the world deny access to the one committee where someone with her life experiences would be a complete benefit. These supportive people dropped so many receipts about the GOP it was like the trashcan next to an ATM. They cut up and brought up some real tea. They said who the extremists are. They called them out by name, and AOC brought her own persepective as a woman of color also derided and threatened at times by her "colleagues" across the aisle.

She still got bounced from that committee, but I think that the GOP made it clear it aways was about themselves, not her. They lockstep denied their colleague her place among them because it was politically expedient to be petty and bounce her. Not because of something she egregiously did a minute ago--but because of something she erroneously said years ago and had since atoned for. 

They made an example of her to prove their thin power-- that they could reject someone because of her identity. This tells me so much more about who they are than who she is. 

UPDATE: This is a day in her world. Because of her so-called colleagues,. Because the right is comprised of the religious wrong, who don't care if Ilhan Omar stays a living person or not.  That is what this pettiness leads to. No one deserves that. Ever. But this is the GOP in action. 

Budget Palin Wants To Be Part of the War on Christmas

 

One of the many ways to be a parent in politics is to not expose your children to the white hot spotlight of the gotdamb culture war, but this is apparently not the choice Lauren Boebert has made. She featured her kids in a gun-brandishing Christmas post in support of Thomas Massie, who was being a whole thing there on the internet for a minute. Yeah, very supportive of....displaying weapons of war to celebrate the Prince of Peace, dumbass. Nice job.

But as Dan Crenshaw (also a thirsty boy) has noted, there are definitely some famewhores in the GOP caucus right now. And Boebert was already being a center-stage clown regarding her jihad-squad nonsense regarding Rep. Ilhan Omar, which she has apparently been working out at the open mic nights that are GOP fundraisers for more than a minute. It's tacky, but it becomes her, like flypaper or a glue trap.

Now, far be it for me to say she's playing at using her own kids and the sacred holy day that is Christmas just to promote her branding, but I will note, that she did get a fundraiser in Las Vegas in support of her Islamophobia, so yeah, definitely.  It's exactly like she goes out of her way to to seek out attention, and is rewarded for it. And she will probably try to benefit herself from getting shut out of her committee assignments, too, because why wouldn't she try?

Because here she is responding to the backlash for her putting guns in the hands of her babies:

Oh noes! A Democrat is attacking her because of Christmas and children and somehow, not because she cynically used her kids to promote guns even while we are a country that has mass shootings, even at schools, even at schools with young kids. Even at schools with young kids really close to Christmas, like the babies of Sandy Hook. 

Ms. 1776 over here thinks her act is cute. But Iola Boylan's evil twin is not cute. It might be half-cute, but it's entirely not what anyone should want in a US Representative. 

Never Gonna Be President

Even though one of the recurring themes of my blog is the widening gulf between the right and the left in this country, it came as a bit of a surprise to me to see a recent story that suggested that Fox News white supremacist and trust fund douche nozzle Tucker Carlson was under serious consideration for a 2024 GOP presidential run.

I mean really, sure, Donald Trump has a lot of BIG White Supremacist and Trust Fund Douche Nozzle energy, but is that the direction they think is....good actually? Because it really sounds like it is. The blather about "blah, blah party bankrupt and blah, blah swamp" really sounds to me like someone uncomfortably assembling a fig-leaf jock strap expecting to get hit in the jollies with the sad truth: The GOP has been selling tax cuts and bigotry for so long it forgot there ever was anything else. And no one stands up for free trade, or talks about the debt, or worries about Russia or national security, or basic fucking competence in the face of a pandemic, because they are all little people milling around Trump, who is an idiot. And they will do the same for Tucker Carlson, who is a younger, better-looking idiot?

The idea should be appalling. But this was seriously put forth, so, let's really look at Tucker Carlson, right the fuck now. Because he's shitting on a Somali-born Muslima congresswoman who is speaking up for ending oppression within various necessary systems (she is not, however, calling for the end of the entire US way of life, but thanks to multiple conservative media outlets and several high-profile elected figures like House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy for letting us know that they consider oppression and the American way of life are so neatly intertwined--I, like Rep. Omar, want to believe we can very well do the American Way without oppression--thanks!) and calling a decorated Thai-American US Senator and veteran Tammy Duckworth every damn nasty thing he can think of.

Tilting at Windmills all Day

It would strain the credulity of any person living a mere five or six years ago to imagine the kind of extraordinarily and bizarrely stupid day we have had the exceptional weird fortune to witness, and it would blast right past every firewall of the belief system of those people to imagine that, of all the unfathomable sheer stupidity witnessed today, so much of it would be just another fucking weekday under the ruling auspices of Mad King Donald that we'd just shrug it off.  It wouldn't be a DEFCON 1 emergency. Helicopters wouldn't be circling overhead at the White House. It's just....

Tuesday.

It's just a fucking Tuesday around here, anymore. Not even Thursday, people. Not even newsdump Friday.

It's just one of those days when the orange-tinted dingus is in rare form and accuses two congresswomen of being profoundly anti-Semitic, mocking one of them for tearing up because she will not be visiting with her grandmother due to a profound personal principle regarding the dignity of her kin. It's one of those days when he then turns around and accuses US Jews of being "disloyal" if they vote for Democrats.

But gosh, he sure said a lot of things today (recorded in this thread by Aaron Rupar, who at this stage, has seen an awful lot), such as reiterating that he really could have ten million Afghanis killed, if he so minded ( he still is not so minded) and offered a repeated belief he has that Afghanistan is why the Soviet Union is now Russia, and that Russia should be in the G-8, and it's only a G-7 and not a G-8 because Putin "outsmarted Obama" which I guess is a weird way to phrase "annexed Crimea" but fuck it, he was rollin'. He also offered an opinion about Kashmir (it's complicated).

Uh, and he's not going to do the background checks thing because the NRA owns his ass (still!) and also the economy is just fine, so people should stop saying it isn't, but in the meantime, yes he would very much like a payroll tax cut, maybe lowered interest rates, you know--a spiff. Which doesn't sound half nervous at all!

And any of those things would have been "Wow! He does not know what he's talking about and says things anyway--is he ok?" Except this is the new normal, right? And then he does this:

He cancels a meeting with the PM of Denmark because she is not going to let him buy Greenland. And if he's not going there to buy Greenland, what is he even going there for? To look at windmills? Because he's Donald Fucking Trump, and he hates windmills. Everyone knows that!

Andy Kaufman never had such dedication to a cringe bit. If this is a joke, damn. 

But if this is not a joke....

Also, damn. 

Petty Tyrants and Their Enablers

Despite previous statements from Israeli Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer to the effect that Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar would be permitted to visit Israel, and WH Spokesperson Stephanie Grisham to the effect that it was "fake news" to suppose that President Trump would pressure Israel not to allow their entry, today Prime Minister Netanyahu effectively banned the entry of the US's only two Muslim congresswomen to that nation. 

The record (Twitter) will show that Trump definitely did exert just a little pressure:

It would show great weakness if Israel allowed Rep. Omar and Rep.Tlaib to visit. They hate Israel & all Jewish people, & there is nothing that can be said or done to change their minds. Minnesota and Michigan will have a hard time putting them back in office. They are a disgrace!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 15, 2019

and one has to ask--if there had been no change in what Reps. Omar and Tlaib stood for last month, or even additional information revealed about them during that time, what in the world changed? Is the weakness that Israel (Netanyahu) would have allowed these US Reps in, or is it rather that, instead of doing so, and possibly correcting any incorrect ideas they may have had or trying to promote a dialogue, he knuckled to the petulant social media demand of the US president because he might be facing a difficult election? (It certainly could be interpreted the latter way).

Of course, Trump's intention, as it has always been, was to demonize the two congresswomen as anti-Semitic because  he's regularly called racist (as I think he should be) and slamming Muslim congresswomen is very much his shit (because he's terrible) and now Netanyahu's spokepeople have to also demonize the two a bit to justify his decision, even though even worse people have totally been let into the country.

That's the thing about enabling petty tyrants--it sometimes does carry a benefit (like Netanyahu appeasing Trump and satisfying hardliners) but you also end up continuing doing their bidding for a loooonnng time. Sometimes people even catch on that you're doing it, And that? Can be some of the weakest shit of all.

For the Record

Today's vote to condemn President Trump's racist remarks regarding the House Democrats' "Squad" may not seem like a lot, but it is. For one thing, it is a highly unusual move for Congress to make, for another, the act of taking this move required an actual violation of parliamentary rules forbidding disparaging the president in order to properly characterize the things that he said.  The point, however, is that what Trump has said, and the final vote, are now a matter of record.

All Democrats, four Republicans, and Justin Amash voted to condemn. We now have a record of 187 Republicans who are comfortable, on record, with what the President said.

So, how do House Republicans want to deal with this matter. I would say, chiefly, they would prefer not to. They do want to complain that Speaker Pelosi "broke the rules" regarding decorum which is just a quaint thing to assert when defending Trump (not the greatest fan of rules or decorum). And Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Rep. Liz Cheney chose to follow Sen. Lindsey Graham's lead and talk about socialism. Because why not distract from the president's racism with a Red Scare (and, I guess, claims about the disloyalty of a certain "dark underbelly" that "pals around with terrorists" while we're at it, to not forget Kellyanne Conway's very busy day)?

In just the way this vote landed along more or less partisan lines, I think feelings about this vote and what it means will likely be interpreted differently by people based on their affiliation. To my thinking, it demonstrates that House Republicans will stick together even if the president's language is egregious, even if his behavior is egregious, for the most part. Time will tell whether this has any effect on the constituencies of those House members later on.

But the point of the exercise wasn't to shame Trump (he doesn't know what shame is) or even to change his behavior (which seems pretty baked-in at this point).  Based on prior behavior, Trump is likely to even double-down. It was to get the reaction of House Republicans down for the record.

And this is now what we have.

But also, just for the record, Rep. Swalwell also made some "unparliamentary speech"--he just quoted Donald Trump:

Holy crap. @RepSwalwell just went on the House floor and listed numerous racist statements made by President Donald Trump. Republicans were NOT happy. pic.twitter.com/Bntwc1LE4w

— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) July 17, 2019

Trump Writes Notes to Himself

It's not necessarily the dumbest thing about Donald Trump, but somehow, just knowing that his handwritten notes to remind himself of the lying smear-job he was going to hit a sitting congressperson with were rendered phonetically ("Al caida") adds a little wry reminder that this is a person who doesn't read, and bases his strong opinions on things "some people" are saying.

Maybe there's a learning issue involved affecting his curious spelling choices, and I shouldn't judge him for that. But I think we definitely can judge a person who doubles down on racism by adding a lie (not for the first time) that associates an innocent person with terrorism because she has the temerity to disagree with him.  

You don't have to like what "the Squad" stands for to understand what he is doing here and know that it is wrong, however you want to spell it.

Malice Towards All?

Everybody, even Trump's biggest fans, knows he surely does have an enemies' list. It likely includes both Democrats and Republicans whose lack of faith he found disturbing.  I've noted that Sarah Huckabee Sanders Tweeted out a supposedly humorous media-based one. But then there's the thirteen, or was it seventeen, or maybe nineteen, Angry Democrats that worked with Robert Mueller--those people, right? But what about the Muslim people he said he would ban from the US, and then did? And the migrants from South and Central America? And his political opponents, whoever they happen to be, who are subject to bratty name-calling and venomous treatment? He fights with even the dead, like the late Senator John McCain and First Lady Barbara Bush. 

Trump is the president of malice towards all. If you can remember back to the 2016 campaign, Trump offered to pay the legal bill for anyone who popped a protester.  

He was proud of a congressional candidate who assaulted a reporter. He encouraged a little bit of police brutality. 

One of the astonishing things he said recently was that US troops at the border couldn't get rough, almost as if he very much would like "someone" to. Like the "Second Amendment people" he wished would do something about his 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton?

At roundtable in Texas, President Trump laments that US troops at the border can't get "a little rough," because "everybody would go crazy ... can’t act like they would normally act -- or like, let’s say, another military from another country would act." pic.twitter.com/q1TPW24Csa

— NBC News (@NBCNews) April 10, 2019

Or consider another recent story, that Trump told CBP Commissioner McAleenen that he would pardon him for illegally shutting down the border to block even asylum seekers.

It's very much like Trump doesn't care to let a little thing like "the rule of law" to get in the way of people doing in his long list of opposition targets because...his sheer egotistic grandiosity, or something like that.

It seems, and has seemed, quite a lot like incitement to stochastic terrorism to me, and it also seems like such regarding Trump's wildly inappropriate Tweet mischaracterizing something Rep. Ilhan Omar said to equate her with terrorism, just because she is a Muslim WOC sticking up for Muslim people's rights.  She proposed the daring idea that not all Muslim people were to blame for the 9/11 attacks, and yet all felt their rights jeopardized. Which is actually true. Which is actually a shame, and something we should take seriously. And yet, she was characterized as not being patriotic enough because she was alleged not to have made the proper obsequies to the fallen?

Given Trump's beyond wretched and self-aggrandizing responses to the tragedy of that day, he's hardly one to address what an appropriate response even should be. He is only being malicious here,  towards a woman of color who as a Congresswoman, has some ability to hold his administration and it's racism and religious bigotry to account.

She is by no means the person in the wrong here. It is Trump, following his malicious and un-presidential course, who is in the wrong. He has operated always from malice.  He is very un-Lincoln-like in this regard.

Actually, I would say he is a racist douchenozzle. I stand with Ilhan Omar. She deserves none of this negative attention for sticking up for those who are denied rights, altogether wrongly. She is the one without malice, here.

Trump knows nothing but malice, and I could pity him for the narrowness and uncharitability  this has given to his worldview.