David Rothkopf notes that, though brutal retribution may feel warranted in light of the atrocities Hamas has committed,
"But as the past decades have shown, retribution is not a strategy. It does not achieve security. If it did, the attacks of this past weekend would not have happened. … There is no formula by which the death of innocent Palestinians justifies the deaths of innocent Israelis or vice versa."
"Consider: Over the last several days, Donald Trump has called for the execution of one of the nation’s top generals, threatened prosecutors, mocked the hammer attack on Nancy Pelosi’s elderly husband, and endorsed more extra-judicial killings.
“'I had expected every website and all the cable news shows to lead with a story about Trump demanding the execution of the highest military officer in the country,' the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg told the Wapo. 'If Barack Obama or George W. Bush had done so, I’m sure [the news media] would have been all over it.'”
Then, as Sykes points out, Trump told a cheering crowd of California Republicans that, if elected president again, he'll have shoplifters shot — and the media shrugged their shoulders.
"Last week, the Republican Party’s leading presidential candidate proposed executing suspected shoplifters. ...
Trump’s advocacy of extrajudicial killings was widely covered by newspapers and TV stations in California but generally ignored by the national press. No mainstream TV channels aired or quoted his speech live later that night.”
"Threats against public officials have a long history in the United States. But the data reveals something new: a concentration of threats that began to spike in 2017, corresponding with a general increase in polarization following the 2016 presidential election."
"In 2020, an ABC News study found that since 2015, there were at least 41 criminal cases invoking Trump as inspiration for a violent act or threat of violence. No comparable cases could be found for Trump’s predecessors, Barack Obama and George W. Bush (each of whom served twice as long in office)."
"Twice in the past two weeks, Donald Trump has suggested violent consequences for those who dare to cross him. ...
[T]he rest of us – reasonable citizens and the reality-based press – ought to understand what this violent rhetoric really means. And what it may help to accomplish.
The goal is to throw out American democracy and move to something none of us should want."
"The MAGA Republican party is less like the party that nominated Romney than it is like the party that nominated Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. And it’s a mistake, in my judgment, to minimize the role that fear now plays in assisting and enabling Trump’s continued dominance."
"This is the moment we live in in the history of the American republic, a man who talks like a character out of a dystopian novel about the end of America is the choice of about half of Americans to be the next President."
~ Josh Marshall
And as J. Marshall says, "This is a good moment to appreciate a specific kind of media failure that bears at least some blame for our current national predicament."
Ruth Ben-Ghiat comments on Trump's media-crafted appearance at a South Carollina gun store to buy a gun:
"It is clearer than ever that inciting political violence is Trump’s political project, and his campaign appearances and events must be seen in that light."
"The past few days have reinforced how unhinged Trump has continued to become and how political violence is the core of his message and for many his central appeal.
• Suggested the country’s top general should be executed for treason;
• Threatened retaliation against one of the country’s largest media companies for 'Country Threatening Treason';"
"What did the media do in response to this broadside threat? Yawned. Oh, rather, it ran another story about voters worried about Joe Biden’s age and the price of gas.
The media has an important role in protecting democracy. If it can’t rouse itself to condemn threats against freedom of the press, it will deserve what happens if Trump is elected."
As the prosecutions… have accelerated, so too have #threats against #law enforcement, #judges, elected ofcls & others. The threats, in turn, are prompting…a #legal effort to curb his #angry & sometimes #incendiary public stmnts, & renewed concern about the potential for an election campaign in which Trump promised “#retribution” to produce #violence.
Same procedure as every week 😊 If you know some symphonic/orchestral music you love from rock/metal or any other genre, symphonies, soundtracks you like to share, please do 💞
Some days ago I found this great band from Fuzhou, China called #RETRIBUTION, playing 'epic symphonic folk black metal'...