Trump Re-Election Campaign Begins

President Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign held its first rally in Greenville, NC on Wednesday, but the campaign actually started on Twitter the previous weekend. Mr. Trump is campaigning against four young congresswomen of color, none of whom are actually 2020 presidential candidates. At the rally he specifically singled out Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who came to the U.S. from war-torn Somalia as a child refugee. “Send her back,” responded the red-hatted crowd.

More:

“At North Carolina Rally, Trump Bets on Divisive Attacks as Way to Bolster Re-election Bid,” Michael Crowley, New York Times

“Trump slams ‘squad’ during North Carolina rally as crowd chants ‘send her back,'” John Fritze, USA Today

“Trump Goads Crowd Into Urging Deportation of Congressional Democrat,” Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine

“Trump refers to Ocasio-Cortez as just ‘Cortez’ because it ‘takes too much time’ to say full name,” Arris Folley, The Hill

“A new poll shows why Trump attacked Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar — and why it could get even uglier,” Aaron Blake, Washington Post

“Trump’s premeditated racism is central to his 2020 strategy,” Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen, Axios

House Votes to Condemn Trump’s Racist Tweets

On Tuesday the U.S. House of Representatives voted to condemn recent racist comments by President Donald J. Trump. Congressional rules prevented members from calling Mr. Trump a racist, but that shouldn’t stop you.

From H. RES. 489
Condemning President Trump’s racist comments directed at Members of Congress.
July 15, 2019

Whereas President Donald Trump’s racist comments have legitimized fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the House of Representatives—

strongly condemns President Donald Trump’s racist comments that have legitimized and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color by saying that our fellow Americans who are immigrants, and those who may look to the President like immigrants, should “go back” to other countries, by referring to immigrants and asylum seekers as “invaders,” and by saying that Members of Congress who are immigrants (or those of our colleagues who are wrongly assumed to be immigrants) do not belong in Congress or in the United States of America.

Read the whole resolution here.

Related:

“Trump’s Tweets So Clearly Racist It’s Spelled Out In Discrimination Law,” Matt Shuham, TalkingPointsMemo

__________________

Short Link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-tr5

Image (“In Case You Forgot”) by Mike Licht. Download copies here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com.

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine

Trump: ‘I’M a racist? YOU’RE the racist!’

President Donald Trump, son and husband of immigrants, has tweeted that four U.S. citizens should “go back where they came from,” even though three of them are native-born children of immigrants, one is a naturalized citizen who came to the U.S. as a child refugee, and all four are women of color who were recently elected to Congress.

There was swift reaction from most Republican officials: [crickets].

Others have rightly condemned the president’s statement as racist. Mr. Trump’s reaction to this criticism was predicable: I’M a racist? YOU’RE the racists!

Some suggested that President Trump should apologize for the racist remarks, and his reaction was likewise predictable: ME apologize? YOU should apologize!

There was evidence that Mr. Trump was paraphrasing recent comments by Fox News pundits, and predictions that the president would continue these racist attacks as part of his 2020 campaign strategy. After all, racism got him elected in the first place.

More:

“Republicans embrace Trump’s racism. Blame them as much as him.” Eugene Robinson, Washington Post

“Trump says he’s not concerned about being racist because ‘many people agree’ with him,” Aaron Rupar, Vox

“Trump Is a Racist. If You Still Support Him, So Are You.” Goldie Taylor, Daily Beast

“Donald Trump’s long history of racism, from the 1970s to 2019,” German Lopez, Vox

“President Trump’s Bigotry Is Part of a Pattern,” Jonathan Bernstein, Bloomberg

“Racism Comes Out of the Closet,” Paul Krugman, Washington Post

“Trump’s America Is a ‘White Man’s Country,’” Jamelle Bouie, New York Times

“‘His only tool is racism’: why Trump’s bigoted tirade could be a vote winner,” David Smith, The Guardian

“Trump Attacks Democratic Congresswomen With White Nationalist Rhetoric,” Chas Danner, New York Magazine

“Trump answers racism accusation with a charge of his own: Anti-Semitism,” Washington Post

“Anti-Defamation League warns Trump to stop ‘throwing around accusations of anti-Semitism,'” Marina Pitofsky, The Hill

“Presidential historian: Trump joins Andrew Johnson ‘as the most racist president in American history,'” Catherine Garcia, The Week

Un-American. Unconstitutional. Unacceptable.

Making people from a minority group wear identity badges, registering them in a database and tracking them. Denying sanctuary to refugees due to their faith traditions and returning them to deadly war zones. Closing houses of worship. Barring valid travelers from entering this country due solely to their religion.

That’s not America.

A man who grew up across the street from his German-American immigrant grandmother should know better. Even one who is an egocentric, bigoted, billionaire bully.

_______________

Short link: http://wp.me/p6sb6-mA1

Image (after a Leytonstone Tube Station passenger) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine

Tea Party Vacation Bible School

Summer’s here, time for Vacation Bible School. This year, Evangelist and presidential candidate Michele Bachmann (R, MN- 6) will lead the classes (the Lord told her to, no doubt). Courses include:

Word of the Year in a Year of Hate

The New Oxford American Dictionary has announced the 2010 Word of the Year: Refudiate. The coinage, a conflation “repudiate” and “refute,” was used by former Temp-Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin to inflame religious intolerance and defend race hatred. Mrs. Palin, a scholarly former sportscaster who attended five colleges, one of them twice, used the word intentionally, first on the Sean Hannity Show and then in a famous tweet.