Sunday School 5/15/22: Extra Credit

For your Extra Credit, I'm continuing the discussions from the Sunday School classrooms on the shooting in Buffalo, NY which left 10 dead and three wounded.

I decided to see what the Meet the Press panel had to say about things. What's-his-name had Rev. Al Sharpton; Susan Page (USA Today); Matt Bai (WaPo); Al Cardenas, a GOP strategist, and Ashley Parker (WaPo) in for the chat.

Reverend Al started things off, describing where we start t0 address the "toxic stew" of white supremacy, guns, and a "permissive Internet culture" for sharing the toxicity and hate. He said we need to change the tone nationally, and relayed his first thoughts when he started hearing the news out of Buffalo.

President Biden needs to call a summit meeting of Black, Jewish, Asian leaders and sit down and talk about the growing problem of hate crimes, and that this government will not stand by and allow this to happen. 

The tone needs to be such that folks like the perpetrator know that the federal government is watching them, will not tolerate the hate that's being spread, and "will come down on them." And it's not just against Blacks, but Jews, Asians, LGBTQ, Latinos - "it's hate everywhere." 

Cardenas was tasked with talking about how there aren't "enough leaders on the right" to call out the hatemongers.

Listen, there used to be political parties...there used to be serious politicians who would step up and speak out against these kinds of things. When David Duke ran for office, hey, I spoke out as party chairman. Others did. It was well known that he was an individual on his own, not part of a family. Now, it's to the contrary. People keep silent, and that silence is interpreted in ways that are not healthy. I'll tell you this. I'm frustrated in America that we're so incapable of doing things.

He thought, after George Floyd was killed and we had all the demonstrations, things would change. He thought the same after Parkland, and the Pulse nightclub shootings. 

But when you look at this, the frustration in America has to do with the fact that horrific things are happening, government's not doing anything, and political leaders are not doing anything. And that's what the calamity is. 

Parker said "the other component of this, of course, is guns." Tone matters, as Sharpton said; it matters "incredibly."

But then you look at how all of these hate crimes are committed, and they are all committed with guns. And this is an area where Congress has been able to do absolutely nothing. There will be – you saw people you were interviewing talking about sensible gun reform. But you look at Sandy Hook. You look at kindergarteners massacred. You look at Mother Emanuel, a shooting in a church. You look at what happened in Las Vegas at the country music concert. Guns have now touched every aspect of society, and Congress has been able to do absolutely nothing.

Page spoke of the feeling of helplessness we have, after each of these incidents, and said "there are, in fact, things that we could do."

Law enforcement could do more to surveil these toxic sites. Social media companies could do more to bring them down. The news media could do more to cover them. Lawmakers could do more to find some kind of common ground on guns. And Americans could stand up and say, "These shootings, these hate shootings do not reflect America. This is a radical fringe." Americans need to stand up and say, "We won't stand for this anymore."

Bai, who covered Columbine back in 1999, said these mass shootings are "now a part of the culture. It's a recurring thing." And while he agrees with Parker that "Congress has done absolutely nothing," he might disagree with Reverend Al.

...I don't think – and we may disagree about this. I'm certain, you know, I can have a disagreement with a lot of people – I don't think this is a more hateful, more racist country than it was 25 years ago, certainly not 50 years ago. I do think we have a segment of our political leadership that has emboldened and legitimized a very extreme and dangerous segment of our political dialogue. And they have to take responsibility for that. There's a culpability for that. And it is tied to the violence. 

That's the problem, then: that no one takes responsibility for legitimizing the hate; or, the problem is, it's "an organizing tool", said What's-his-name; or, the problem is that it's been "normalized." That last one's what Reverend Al thinks.

You have to remember, this is an 18-year-old that is accused in Buffalo. When he was 15, Charlottesville happened. The president of the United States at that time said, "There are good people, or fine people, on both sides." So, this gives them comfort... a tone was set while this guy was a kid, being impressionable, that this is all right to be marching, saying, "Jews will not replace me." That's what he saw at 15 years old. And he saw it from the White House.

Parker reminded everyone that Joe Biden ran for president because of what happened in Charlottesville. "And now, you look at what's happening, and it feels like nothing has changed. The culture is the exact same." 

Another thing that's the same is that "...a whole bunch of Republicans in Congress" scream about free speech whenever anyone tries to deal with this kind of domestic terrorism, according to What's-his-name.

Page said that free speech is important - but, she said, it's "not a license to endorse things like replacement theory, this terrible, terrible theory that there's an elite, many of them Jews, trying to replace America with a Black and Brown nation to dilute the power of white people. That is un-American."

Bai, who said he's "as close to a free speech absolutist as you're probably going to find," believes that "free speech is threatened in a lot of corners of society," but that speech "demands leadership."

When you have a society that is free, you also have to have a society with leaders who stand up for morality and for the right instincts in the culture so that you don't take things that are on the margins of the society, as you say, and bring them into the mainstream and legitimize them. We have failed on that count. And we continue to fail. And these are the consequences. 

It's "now a part of the culture." "We're incapable of doing things." "The government isn't doing anything." "Political leaders aren't doing anything." "Nothing has changed."  "We have failed. And we continue to fail." "Americans need to stand up and say, we won't stand for this anymore." "And these are the consequences."

It's hard to disagree with them, isn't it?

See you around campus.

Sunday School 5/15/22

Unsurprisingly, the Sunday School classrooms were full of discussion on the mass shooting in Buffalo, NY. 

I'll start with my Governor Kathy Hochul, a Buffalo native, who gave several interviews. Here's a recap of her conversation with Dana Bash in the State of the Union classroom.

Bash described the state of the union as "heartbroken and horrified," not just because of the lives lost, but because the shooter apparently had published a lengthy, hate-filled, racist manifesto before embarking on his mission. 

Hochul talked about that a bit. 

... what is so bone-chilling about it, is that there is the ability for people to write and subscribe to such philosophies filled with hate, the white supremacists acts of terrorism that have been fermented on social media. And to know that what this one individual did has been shared with the rest of the world, as well as the livestreaming of this military-style execution that occurred... in the streets of my hometown, and that is what is so fundamentally disturbing about this, that this is not just a long time ago, members of the KKK would sit in a hall and plot what they're going to do in their community. This spreads like a virus.

She wants social media platform execs to "examine their policies and to be able to look me in the eye" and say they're doing everything possible to prevent the spread of this stuff, and that they're able to take it down immediately. (Twitch, the Amazon-owned gaming platform on which the shooting was streamed, said the video was removed in less than two minutes, but it was available on other platforms where it had been shared hours later.) 

Bash asked how this hate, things like the Great Replacement Theory, which was included in the published screed, is not just spreading online, "it's being pushed by some prominent right-wing voices, and it's been done so for years," can be stopped. The gov said the folks who spread this "need to be called out," and party officials need to

stand up at this moment and call it out and just shame it and to make sure that these people crawl back into their holes and stay there. This cannot be part of our mainstream dialogue here in the United States of America. So, leaders have a responsibility to call it out.

She also talked about her responsibility to protect people when it comes to guns. The laws here are "some of the toughest" in America, 

but the guns are coming in from other states, or the enhanced magazine, which is exactly what happened here, the high-capacity magazine that led to the slaughter of people in my hometown.

There are also illegal guns, purchased legally in other states and brought to NY.

... they end up in someone's trunk. They bring them up I-81. They head into New York State, head over to the Bronx, head over to Brooklyn, head over to the city, or they go to places like New York, Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester. So, that's how it's spreading. Other states do not have the same laws that we have, and people are just crossing those borders.

Hochul's not the first to mention that problem. NYC Mayor Eric Adams mentioned the so-called Iron Pipeline in one of his recent classroom visits. It's an issue impacting cities in multiple states. Sadly, knowing these trafficking routes exist, and doing something about them, are vastly different things.

Down the hall, George Stephanopoulos led his panel in a discussion on the shooting and the hate that drove it in the This Week classroom. Sitting around the table were ABC regulars Donna Brazile and Chris Christie, along with Julie Pace (AP) and Molly Ball (Time Magazine). 

Brazile noted that FBI Director Chis Wray "warned us almost two years ago" that domestic terrorism by white supremacists was a big concern, but that we're not doing much about it. 

 We've got to talk about white supremacy. We've got to talk about the radicalization of -- of kids in this country. We cannot do a "both-sides" argument on this one here because, if we don't begin to address what is happening, it's going to continue to happen. El Paso, what we saw in Charlottesville, what we saw down in Charleston. We have to address it. We have to be vigilant. And we have to root out this type of extremism in our society. 

Christie said this wasn't on his radar when he was a US Attorney (from 2002 - 2008), but it was - "a little bit" - near the end of his second term (in 2018) as New Jersey's governor, where he said law enforcement folks 

started to see more people willing to act out violently, seemingly without any type of heads-up, because they're acting alone. And that's what makes it so difficult for law enforcement. Because, even with good intelligence work, it's really hard if someone is a crazy person who is not doing things overtly, publicly. It becomes harder.

He said it'll be interesting to learn why "we didn't see some of the stuff he was writing and...  posting, and why he wasn't flagged." And he said Wray pointed out the need for all levels of law enforcement to work together, "in a way that flags some of the stuff that's happening on social media and keeps a watch on some of these folks who are going to act out violently." 

Pace responded to George's question about the apparent amount of planning in advance of this, pointing out that it "seemed to happen in spaces where other people were, you know, these online communities right now are really robust" and where, as Christie said, often out of sight of law enforcement. And, she added,

I think it's going to be really interesting to see where the debate goes in terms of what the responsibility of the tech companies will be here but also other people that just exist online in these communities, what is their responsibility? We all get so used to flagging things when we see them in person, but this is sort of the next space, I think, where people need to be more alert. 

Ball, who's a political correspondent, talked about the conversations she has with "everyday voters" and how many bring up how "mad" and "divided" we are.

And this is something that, I think, politicians see it as sort of just cheap, political rhetoric, everybody says, oh, well let’s come together. But people are really taking this seriously, this sense of division and hatred and just all of the strife that we feel. And I think particularly, you know, coming out of COVID, reemerging, trying to come back together as a society, there's so much we need to be doing just to try to knit people together and feel like a country again, feel like a community together...

Christie seemed to suggest we probably won't hear a lot of kumbaya over the coming months, noting that "midterms are particularly divisive." The typical midterm voters are the "true believers" on both sides, which means the pols are talking to folks who aren't as likely to be looking for unity or healing the divide. Rather, we'll likely see candidates doing more hardcore progressive or hardcore conservative communication over the next few months, but said

I definitely sense from being out there and talking to voters, that as we turn the clock from '22 to '24, I think there's going to be a new desire among voters to say, I want to hear from people who have the ability and the record to be able to bring people together rather than divide us. I think there is a desire for that in the country.

Brazile mentioned one of my least favorite things about politicians - "they speak in sound bites. They don't speak in the everyday ordinary language..." 

They're not speaking to open the hearts and minds of a young man, 18 years old -- what drove this child to write a 110-page manifesto where he talks about his hatred of Jews, he talks about starting a war, Jews against non-Jews, and then he starts talking about black people? I'm, like, have you met one? Have you talked to anybody unlike anything you’ve ever seen? No, I don't want politicians to control this conversation.

She thinks the conversation belongs in the hands of teachers, business leaders, and the like, and said "the media has to understand that they cannot be complicit in this conversation. "

We need to have a conversation that doesn't go about the next election. It's just like on abortion. People call me, what do you think about Democrats and abortion? I said, before I was a Democrat, I was a human being, and why not talk about that and not just the next election? No, we need more than politicians to have this conversation. 

Christie's next comments have me wondering what the heck he's smoking. He said he really believes there'll be

a different desire come '24 in terms of hearing something different from people who want to pursue high office because of the violence that we're seeing, because of the division that you are talking about. People are feeling it. They're feeling it at their dinner table. They're feeling it with their own children. They're feeling it at cocktail parties, at sporting events. They don't want to see it. 

Um, does 2020 ring a bell, Governor? The Big Lie? Or 2021, and the insurrection? We've got the former president still spouting the former, and we've got Republicans still denying the latter. Current Republican officeholders, and wanna-be Republican officeholders traipse off to Mar-a-Lago to kiss whatever he demands them to kiss, looking for endorsement, or at least not opposition. And, he's a threat to what Christie's suggesting. Pace seems to agree, saying

-- it's great to think about the prospect of a 2024 campaign that is focused around unity in this country, but, I think, the reality is that we will have some very powerful forces, potentially the former president who doesn't really speak that language and has enormous support from within the Republican Party. So, I think there's a long way to go before we get to that place where we might really have that national conversation that is more focused on unity.  

She's spot 0n with that thinking. After all, we just had a campaign in which the winner, Joe Biden, ran on trying to unite us, and ran into the other party's fully-dug-in position of stopping his administration.  

There's a long way to go, for sure. See you around campus

GOP Challenges are Everyone's Challenges

On Sunday, Nebraska State Senator John McCollister challenged the Republican Party to, well, to #BeBest. 

His plea came in the aftermath of the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, with the El Paso incident looming large, given the shooter's alleged anti-immigration, white supremacist 'manifesto;'  I haven't looked for it online, and won't, so I can't speak to it directly. 

Here's what McCollister posted on his Facebook page:

As you might imagine, his post caused a ruckus, in Nebraska and elsewhere, with pros and cons (probably not literal cons, but you never know) chiming in. Many thanked him for his candor, including more than a couple who wrote about leaving the Rs within the past couple of years; you can randomly connect some dots there and you'd be right, based on the comments. And on the other hand, many people thought he was out of line and that Democrats are to blame for all the evil in the world, including racism because Rs are not racist, Ds are. 

But it was this response to McCollister that sort of sums everything up. It's a press release, tweeted by the Nebraska Republican Party, in which Executive Director Ryan Hamilton suggested McCollister change his registration.  

John McCollister has been telegraphing for years that he has little if nothing in common with the Republican voters in his district by consistently advocating for higher taxes, restrictions on Americans' Second Amendment rights, and the pro-abortion lobby. His latest false statement about Republicans should come as no surprise to anyone who is paying attention, and we're happy he has finally shed all pretense of being a conservative. 

And, Hamilton made a generous offer:

I am happy to send a change of voter registration form along to his office so he can make the switch officially, and start, for once, telling the truth to voters in his district.

Note that the official response doesn't address the point McCollister was trying to get across -  unless you consider calling it "false" to be addressing the point. And regardless of your opinion on Trump and racist comments and white supremacists, McCollister's statement was relatively factual. 

Trump did talk about shithole countries, and he did tell four women of color, three of whom were born here, to go back to where they came from, and it is also true that he is a prolific liar, although it might not be entirely accurate that he lies more than he tells the truth. And of course, we all know the Rs are the party of Lincoln, and many Republicans are better than this.

McCollister is also correct that Republican senators and representatives, certainly those who serve us in the US Senate and House of Representatives, look the other way when Trump and others in the party misbehave, particularly when it comes to issues of race. They've been seen physically scurrying away from reporters, in fact.

Based on the response of the GOP chair, I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that it may also be true in Nebraska that elected officials turn a blind eye when the president says what he says, does what he does, allows what he allows at rallies, and so forth. And I don't think it's a very long limb, either, if the response is any indication.

So, let's compare what happened in Nebraska with what Republicans are dealing with in Ohio.

In a deleted post, state Representative Candice Keller (who lives about 30 miles from Dayton)  complained about liberals blaming the wrong things after mass shootings. And then she pointed a whole lotta fingers at where the blame really lies. Take a look:

And here is how some Ohio Republican officials responded:

• Jane Timken, the state's Republican Party chair, said "Our nation is reeling from these senseless acts of violence and public servants should be working to bring our communities together, not promoting divisiveness." She called for Keller's resignation, calling her statements "shocking and unjustifiable."

• Todd Hall, chair of the Butler County Republican Party (where Keller is running for the state senate in 2020) said that this was a time for "prayer and reflection" not Keller's comments, adding "some want to politicize these events, and I cannot condone such comment and behavior."

Interesting, isn't it? Two states, two GOP elected officials, two different takes on the state of things, and both end with a rejection of the person's ideas. 

The question is, which version of the GOP will win out in the long run?

Sidebar: TGIF 3/15/19

Yesterday's post was about hate, particularly white supremacist hate, which we tend to ignore much more than any other kind.

I wanted to point out a couple of things that are directly related both to yesterday's post, and to why this particular type of hate tends to be ignored.

First: I saw a couple of accounts (and you can watch here for yourself) about a request made by New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to president Trump. Her recounting was that Trump asked what offer of support the US could provide, and she asked him for "sympathy and love for all Muslim communities."

Below are three tweets the president sent about the white supremacist terrorist attack in Christchurch:

In between the first and second tweets about the attack, he tweeted about the "Jexodus" - a new term for me. According to Trump that's what you call it when Jews leave the Democratic Party and join the Republican Party. I'm sure he learned that on Fox News.

Other tweets and retweets yesterday, if my count is correct, included one about Google helping China but not the US; one about the Paris Accord; one about the economy; one about the weather in the Midwest: eight about the Mueller probe; and ten about immigration and his veto of the bill opposing the national emergency declaration to re-appropriate money for the border wall.

At no point did he do what Prime Minister Ardern requested. 

But wait - there's more. Or, less, really.

TGIF 3/15/19

It's hard to even contemplate a TGIF post today, so I'm going to take a different approach entirely. 

There are so many things about this that turn my stomach, not the least of which is that, if you replaced occurrences of New Zealand with America, it could have been written by any number of people right here in the US.

Any number of national known politicians, their extremist supporters, their minions and surrogates who speak as if for them, if not actually for them, the ones who believe there are good people on both sides, or who lament that white nationalist has become a negative term and who espouse that no matter what, the Judeo-Christian society is the best society ever, all others pale in comparison and only ours is blessed by God, or that anyone who is not white must be biased against them, or that people of color or Muslims or Jews are filthy dogs... 

Others, maybe people known to us, including perhaps even family members, who share horridly offensive comments directed at Muslims, or Jews, or immigrants, who fear an invasion or a takeover by Muslims, by Jews, by Hispanics, by immigrants, by people who are not like us, don't look like us, don't dress like us, don't pray like us, don't 'American' like us... 

The police officer, the fireman, the head of your favorite local charity, who post racist information on social media and then complain that it was meant to be private, not public - while at the same time saying that what they posted doesn't represent what they think...

Because when a person shares something like this, it does represent what they think, unless it is expressly stated that it doesn't, at the time it's posted - not later, when it's discovered by someone outside the original intended audience. 

Unequivocally, the statement by the Australian politician does not represent what I think or believe, and I'm deeply offended by it. 

I'm sharing it because I want to remind people who think that this is all harmless, or all in good fun, or just a joke, or not really what they mean to understand that it is really harmful, is not at all meant in good fun, is not a joke, and, honestly, it is what people who say this really mean.

Don't let them fool you again, And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And don't elect them, whether it's to local or state or national office, or to any other position of leadership or authority. 

Just don't. 

TGIF 1/11/19

Well, happy Friday, everyone! How's your week going?

NY's junior senator Kirsten Gillibrand seems to be having a good week - she's hired some new folks and rented some new office space, and she's also traveling to Iowa, we've heard. Based on all of  this, it seems the senator is staring at 2020 on her calendar. Even though, we remember, she made it clear during her 2018 campaign that she had no designs on a presidential race. "I will serve my six year term." she said.

But if she's planning on serving her full Senate term, maybe all of her work now is really just to get her better name recognition for 2024? Of course, at that point, she might be joined in the race by our Sonofa Gov Andrew Cuomo - he's also not running in 2020, he's assured us, but he sure sounds like he's running sometime soon.

Staying in New York,  I really can't tell if Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is having a good week or a bad week. She seems just fine being in the public eye for, well, for being in the public eye. Giving as good as she gets when people say something about her, whether it's an attack from the right or a nudge from the left; whether it's a response to an interview, an attack on her college dancing, even pictures of naked legs (that aren't hers) or just someone deciding to talk about all of the attention she's getting. Which generates more attention, which generates more responses, which generates more attention, and so on.

I'm going to get yelled at for this, I'm sure, but I'd love for her to be getting attention for her work in Congress, not because she is in Congress. And yes, I know it's early, and I know this new class of Dems is the loudest bunch of folks the media has seen since, well, that orange cur rode the escalator, but the proof is not in the press, it's in the pudding.

Trump Charlottesville, Take 2

The president, after being hammered left, right and center for his wishy-washy condemnation of the 'Sad!' actions in Charlottesville on Saturday, took another stab at it today. 

His initial comments, which you can see in their entirety here, did not specifically condemn the alt-right, KKK, Nazi, White Supremacist, White Nationalist provocateurs who were behind the 'Unite the Right' rally that ultimately led to the murder of Heather Heyer, and peripherally the accident which took the lives of Virginia State Troopers Jay Cullen and Berke Bates. Instead, he mentioned the 'many sides' who, by his comments, were equally responsible for the death and destruction. 

An anonymous spokesperson at the White House on Sunday tried to help the president out, saying that those specific groups were included in Trump's comments, even though he didn't actually say name them, or any others. 

So, today he did - after, of course, patting himself on the back about the stock market and optimism, and companies moving back to America, yadda yadda yadda blah blah blah. 

...We will be discussing economic issues in greater detail later this afternoon, but, based on the events that took place over the weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia, I would like to provide the nation with an update on the ongoing federal response to the horrific attack and violence that was witnessed by everyone.

I just met with FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation into the deadly car attack that killed one innocent American and wounded 20 others. To anyone who acted criminally in this weekend’s racist violence, you will be held fully accountable. Justice will be delivered.

 As I said on Saturday, we condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence. It has no place in America.

And as I have said many times before: No matter the color of our skin, we all live under the same laws, we all salute the same great flag, and we are all made by the same almighty God. We must love each other, show affection for each other, and unite together in condemnation of hatred, bigotry, and violence. We must rediscover the bonds of love and loyalty that bring us together as Americans.

Racism is evil.  And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans...

That he can lash out at radical Islamic terrorism immediately, no matter where it occurs around the world and have to be prodded into saying Nazi, KKK and White Supremacist speaks volumes. That his daughter responded significantly more appropriately on Saturday than he did speaks volumes. 

Also speaking volumes? Two members of his American Manufacturing Council have resigned. Kevin Plank, CEO of Under Armour, was the second to leave the group, posting this message on Twitter this evening:

The first to resign was Kevin Frazier, the head of Merck, who offered his statement this morning, before Trump's comments:

Trump's response was predictably quick and predictably personal - in fact, he had to respond twice, some nine hours apart:

We'll have to see how long it takes Trump to attack Under Armour, if he does at all. Kevin Plank, after all, supported Trump shortly after the inauguration, causing a great deal of angst among the company's stable of athletes and personalities. Plank has since commented publicly and politely about the Muslim ban (against) and about Trump leaving the Paris Accord (against), but as a businessman I suspect Trump would understand the need to protect a brand.

However, UA's list of suppliers is prime for a Trump attack: only one American supplier. The rest: Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Columbia, Egypt, El Salvador... you get the drift. We'll have to see if we get a tweet storm tomorrow morning. 

Oh -- speaking of Twitter, I'll leave you with this loving and affectionate shot at the media from Trump.

No Skin in the Game

The president's full statement yesterday afternoon on Charlottesville makes it pretty clear he has no skin in the game. 

A man apparently incapable of speaking with any emotion unless he's talking about himself, bashing others (bad hombres, Muslims, members of the judiciary, his opponents, other Republicans, a Gold Star family, a bona fide American hero, members of his cabinet, former presidents, foreign allies, members of the media, etc.) or gushing about dictators and other horrible people, had this to say yesterday afternoon.  The words are his; the emphasis is mine. 

Thank you very much. As you know, this was a small press conference, but a very important one. And it was scheduled to talk about the great things that we're doing with the secretary on the veterans administration. And we will talk about that very much so in a little while. But I thought I should put out a comment as to what's going on in Charlottesville. So, again, I want to thank everybody for being here, in particular I want to thank our incredible veterans. And thank you, fellas. Let me shake your hand. They're great people. Great people.

Yeah, I guess as president, you should say something about a clash between White Supremacists, or White Nationalists (sorry - it seems they prefer the less direct term) carrying Nazi flags, Confederate flags, some wearing KKK regalia, and counter-protesters, the 'antifa' or anti-fascists. 

 But we're closely following the terrible events unfolding in Charlottesville, Virginia. We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence (on many sides--on many sides). It's been going on for a long time in our country. Not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama, this has been going on for a long, long time. It has no place in America. What is vital now is a swift restoration of law and order and the protection of innocent lives. No citizen should ever fear for their safety and security in our society. And no child should ever be afraid to go outside and play or be with their parents and have a good time.

Many, many sides? Really? What side is it that drove the car into the crowd? Was that many, many sides, or was it just one side?  And whatever are you thinking, talking about children going outside to play or "have a good time" with their parents? Is that what they were showing on Fox News? 

I just got off the phone with the governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, and we agree that the hate and the division must stop, and must stop right now. We have to come together as Americans with love for our nation and true affection-- really, I say this so strongly, true affection for each other.

Have I missed your affectionate offerings of olive branches to any of the millions of Americans you have offended since becoming a presidential candidate (and before).

Our country is doing very well in so many ways. We have record -- just absolute record employment. We have unemployment the lowest it's been in almost 17 years. We have companies pouring into our country, Foxconn and car companies and so many others. They're coming back to our country. We're renegotiating trade deals to make them great for our country and great for the American worker.

An act of terrorism just occurred in Charlottesville, and as president you can't help talking about your record, such as it is, after seven months in office? Do you really think that anyone gives a rat, at the moment domestic terrorism occurred in Virginia, about NAFTA and China? 

We have so many incredible things happening in our country, so when I watch Charlottesville, to me it's very, very sad. I want to salute the great work of the state and local police in Virginia. Incredible people. Law enforcement, incredible people. And also the National Guard. They've really been working smart and working hard. They've been doing a terrific job. Federal authorities are also providing tremendous support to the governor. He thanked me for that. And we are here to provide whatever other assistance is needed. We are ready, willing and able. 

Never mind that some question the response of law enforcement during the altercations before the 20-year old terrorist drove his car into a crowd marching in the opposite direction, including a hands off, stand down approach according to some - just make sure to mention yourself.

Above all else, we must remember this truth: No matter our color, creed, religion or political party, we are all Americans first. We love our country. We love our god.

Never mind that the Unite the Right rally participants apparently don't share your thinking that we all love the same god - nor do many Americans who don't worship 'your' god. Never mind that many of us don't worship a god at all - and we too, are Americans, just like you. 

We love our flag. We're proud of our country. We're proud of who we are, so we want to get the situation straightened out in Charlottesville, and we want to study it. And we want to see what we're doing wrong as a country where things like this can happen.

For starters, I suggest you study your own words, your campaign rallies, your tweets, your interviews, and more. And then study this Michael Jackson classic.  Or, you could study David Duke; he's certainly studied you:

We are determined to take our country back... We are going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump. That's what we believed in. That's why we voted for Donald Trump, because he said he's going to take our country back.

Or, maybe you could study Steve Bannon, or Sebastian Gorka or your friend Alex Jones. Anyway, let's continue with your statement:

My administration is restoring the sacred bonds of loyalty between this nation and its citizens, but our citizens must also restore the bonds of trust and loyalty between one another. 

#WhatTheEverlovingSniff are you even talking about - "the sacred bonds of loyalty" between the country and its citizens? That's truly laughable given your appointments, your pronouncements, your actions, your exhortations of division throughout your official political career.

We must love each other, respect each other and cherish our history and our future together. So important. We have to respect each other.

If you had any skin in this game, you'd know that it is our very history that brought the alt-right and the antifa groups to Charlottesville in the first place. It is our very history - slavery, discrimination, criminalization, and more - that the alt-right and others absolutely do not agree on, will never agree on, and will never 'cherish together.'

And our future is a joint venture only in that it is our future - but it is not, again, a 'cherish together' future in the eyes of many, when one group wants to eliminate the other, oppress the other, stake a higher claim on their Americanism than the other - or it feels that way to the other side, whether it's angry white men like the ones on the alr-right or their opponents like the ones that were mowed down. What history and future are you cherishing, and with whom?

If you had any skin in the game, you would not be spouting emotionless, #MAGAfortunecookiebullshit -- you'd be screaming "radical right-wing terrorism" from the roof of the White House as you did "radical Islamic terrorism" so many times over the years.

Ideally, we have to love each other.

You actually said that? Tell you what -- you go first. Move on us like a bitch and show us the love.

Get rid of the alt-right members of your administration. Take back a single hateful discriminatory, sexist, violent comment you've made just in the last two years. Apologize to a single person - not a whole race, religion, or country - just a single person.

Try loving someone else for a change.