Election 2018

[Eric the Green]

(10-27-2018, 09:19 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: [quote pid='39602' dateline='1540625600']

Galen Wrote:

(10-26-2018, 06:37 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: It looks as if the Feds got the creep who mailed bombs with the return address of Representative "Debbie Wasserman Shultz (sic!)", and he was definitely some left-winger trying to blame the Right. He had been at Trump rallies, attired as one would expect.

No, President Trump is not culpable of this directly, but he has yet to recognize that hostile rhetoric can push people on the margin to do extreme violence.

Actually, Trump has made it pretty clear that he is against this kind of political violence.  There are a number of problems that I have with Trump but whatever you might say about his rhetoric he is most definitely not calling for violence.

Interesting that you say this guy is a left-wing guy trying to blame the right. 

I made a goof in writing that post, and I have corrected it.

The problem is that people offered this explanation before the law-enforcement agencies found the likely perpetrator, and that explanation has disintegrated. Sayok is apparently a mentally-disturbed fanatic, clearly right-wing. He is involved in a white nationalist movement despite being a Eurasian (Filipino father, presumably white Italian-American mother) and pretending to be a Seminole (the Seminole tribe disowns him for that cultural appropriation). He has a history of violence.



I doubt that anyone could leave less doubt about his political orientation than he could with this collage of expressions of love for Donald Trump and hatred for his rivals -- until he started sending explosive devices in the mail. Putting an image of Hillary Clinton in cross-hairs of a symbolic gun sight demonstrates murderous contempt.

If guilty as charged, then he is a terrorist. Competent terrorists do not call attention to themselves. Consider that Ted Kaczynski got away with his crimes until he published his "Unabom" Manifesto. Kaczynski eventually got the compulsion to express his 'philosophy' and exposed a uniqueness that led to his arrest. What the Feds learned from the investigation of Ted Kaczynski they could use against anyone less brilliant -- in short, practically anyone.

He could have started a civil war.

His kind rarely shows subtlety in political expressions. I hate President Trump, but I have seen someone with Trump stickers on a farm vehicle. To that person I said, "I hope that President Trump's proposed tariffs do not start a trade war that hurts your income and living standards as a farmer".

But there will be more investigation. The Feds tracked him with his fingerprints and even the postage stamps that he used (stamps can be tracked to at the least the region in which the post office that sold them was, so they weren't looking in the wrong part of the country).

...President Trump has been the worst sort of leader that we could have -- a hatemonger. He has culpability for defaming practically everyone on the left side of the political spectrum, and anyone who fails to toe his line as a Republican. Many Trump supporters believed in his economic policies of tax cuts and privatization that would enrich the rich and supercharge the American economy, that he would endorse justices to the Supreme Court who would allow an abortion ban, outlaw affirmative action, repudiate same-sex marital rights, preserve and promote the death penalty, and allow officially-organized prayer and devotions in public schools. Such people may be exactly the ones who believe that President Trump, unlike wishy-washy conservatives like Reagan or the two Bush Presidents, were unwilling to do. But those people who want a theocratic and plutocratic society (a Christian version of Iran?) are mostly sincere about their beliefs even if those would hurt millions of people. Commies and the Klan are often similarly sincere, and that does not make them right.

Quote:I haven't been able to find any reliable information one way or another on this so I am curious as to your source.

A typo that I have since corrected by adding the word "not". I had heard of that explanation and found it weak in credibility, but I suggested that we let law enforcement find the perpetrator and draw conclusions after an arrest. The presumption of innocence remains for any criminal trial or plea bargain. It looks as if the federal, state, and local law authorities got their man.  
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Quote:  It wouldn't surprise me if this were true but I have no evidence to support such a conclusion.

Some right-wing pundits, including the weighty (but intellectually-empty) Rush Limbaugh have made that suggestion before knowing anything.  

Quote:  The guy that shot up those House Republicans was a Bernie supporter but so far republicans don't seem to blame Bernie for that even though they dislike his rhetoric.  The republicans simply blaming the perpetrator is consistent with their views on people being responsible for their own actions.

Could that have something to do with liberals condemning the attack on Representative Steve Scalise? Bernie Sanders has made statements more political than those of Donald Trump, but much less personal. With Trump, as it was with Fidel Castro, much of the invective is personal.

Is it OK to call THIS ONE "deplorable"?

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