I'm sorry that the president and his wife are sick, just like I'm sorry for anyone who contracts this terrible virus. But I will not waste one bit of sadness on a man who has been responsible for so much suffering and death of innocent people because of his ego, for one who has absolutely no empathy for another person or situation except himself.
He had choices to make starting in February, and he chose to make the selfish ones and to refuse to accept the blame. Because of him and his propaganda TV station, his followers all over the country then took his lead and made their choices, likely infecting thousands more people. Again, no apology. "It is what it is." That's the first thing I thought about this morning when I heard. He had the chance to be a leader and encourage mask-wearing but instead Tuesday night was making fun of Joe Biden for wearing a mask while trump's family refused to wear them at the debate. He stroked his ego by holding crowded unmasked campaign rallies, because the more screaming people who show up and praise him, the more he feels loved.
But there seems to be a double standard on how we're allowed to feel. I'm not overly sad about trump being sick, but I'm not glad or smirking or rejoicing or anything like that, but then I have to read on FB and hear my neighbors yelling, "They said they're glad he's sick. They hope he dies. Dies!" They! Who is they? Some random person on a twitter conversation, some celebrity somewhere. Maybe a lot of people, but I won't be painted with the same brush just because I think he is a terrible person and inept leader and am not shedding tears for him.
Yet there was pretty clear rejoicing from a LOT of his followers when RBG died, and he didn't wait until she was buried to rush through picking a replacement, one who will close many, many doors for women that RBG worked her whole life to open. And not only women, healthcare is at stake too for everyone.
Now our country is on red alert since we appear weak with our "leader" in the hospital. We're at our most vulnerable, this country of ours, and have no idea what we'll wake up to tomorrow. This is as close as I've ever come to repeating what I said 4 years ago when he was elected, "I just hope he doesn't destroy our country."
This should scare every person concerned about keeping democracy alive in our country. Trump-linked consultant tied to Facebook pages warning of civil war. Link doesn't work but some copy-and-paste.
Comments on their Facebook pages and other materials obtained by the Guardian show that some rank and file Donald Trump supporters are enthusiastically receiving the message that they should prepare for violence against their perceived political enemies in November.
The network is comprised of websites owned and operated by Dino Porrazzo Sr and Dino Porrazzo Jr, whose company, AFF Media, is headquartered in Pinon Hills in California. The pair have been running rightwing websites since at latest 2013, according to DNS website records.
The Porrazzos now run a network of websites that enthusiastically promote Trump, and far right anti-government militias like the Three Percenters, and offer distorted versions of current events. One of their Facebook pages, “Prepare to Take America Back” (PTTAB) at the time of reporting had 794,876 followers. Analysis with social media metrics tool Crowdtangle shows that over the last three months PTTAB posts have been shared over 141,000 times, and on average 9,600 times a week.
At that time, the page’s header featured the logo of the Three Percenters, a decentralized group that the ADL calls a “wing of the militia movement”; a group of armed men in tactical gear; and a modified copy of the US presidential seal.
In general, the page promotes conspiracy theories and criminal allegations about Democratic party politicians, liberal celebrities and leftist protesters, some of which – like persistent claims that Hillary Clinton will be imminently arrested – overlap with aspects of the so-called “QAnon” conspiracy theory movement.
The page makes free use of political memes, but many posts link to a small cluster of rightwing websites designed to appear like news outlets. Increasingly, over the course of 2020, the page has been warning of a stolen election, and suggesting this will lead to civil war.
Repeatedly in September, the page linked to a story on the website Right Wing Tribune, headlined “Radical Left Prepares For ‘Mass Public Unrest,’ ‘Political Apocalypse’ And Possible Civil War Should Be Expected If Biden Loses [Opinion]”, with Facebook captions including “the left wants war”.
The story had a limited basis in fact, in that a number of progressive groups had met in early September to discuss the prospect of civil unrest and political violence after the election with a belief that the violence they were anticipating would be coming from Trump supporters and the far right.well as
The idea that there are this many people who are ignorant enough or evil enough to believe all the misinformation put out by these "publications" is terrifying. Do the people who post these believe what they're reading or do they just blindly post anything anti-democratic? Any idiot can say anything, but people of any intellect are able to find out if it's true before sending it on its way to influence even more gullible people.
Between the Russians actively interfering in the election (again) for Trump and this, it will be a miracle if we survive the aftermath of the election. Our country is already an object of derision and pity all over the world. We're no longer looked at by our allies or enemies as strong and fair but just a country riddled with violence and racism. The freedom of social media has just about destroyed us. Can Russians and white supremist groups and conspiracy theorists elect the leader of our country? They did once, and hopefully it won't happen again.
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