Until now, I didn’t know it was physically possible to laugh one’s ass off while also shake in fear. Until lately, I didn’t have to read the “deep thoughts” of Donald Trump Jr.
Science will someday isolate the gene responsible for Don Trump Jr.’s triangle shaped brain and head, point on top, obviously).
First, the requisite predicate. People who read this site are, by definition, well-informed, intellectually curious and care for others. Therefore, you surely know that any significant campaign contribution to a candidate for federal office, including the President of the United States for godsake, is a public record that anyone – foreign or domestic – can access from anywhere, anytime. In other words, there is no “doxing” a campaign contributor, because it gets published by law.
Such obvious common sense hid while Don Trump Jr. wandered onto the set of Fox and Friends, his playpen of choice, to throw up stupid with danger, to all Fox favorites.
Donald Trump Jr. told Fox & Friends on Wednesday that the publicly available list of Trump donors that Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) shared on Twitter is the same thing as the hit list the Dayton shooter created in high school.
Appearing on his father’s favorite morning program, the presidential son complained about the amount of criticism that his dad has received in the wake of the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton. After saying nothing the president does will satisfy his critics, Trump Jr. brought up Castro, who was blasted by the right this week for sharing a list of his constituents who gave the maximum donation to Trump.
Catch your breath, friends. I realize that was breathtakingly dumb.
But, I am obligated, as your loyal servant, to set forth why our collective breath threw itself out our chests in a symbolic cry for help.
In high school, the Dayton shooter kept a list of people he planned to kill or rape. Apparently some of his classmates knew of the list. It is unclear to me, and irrelevant to the story, whether he actually shared the names on the list with a few in his class.
As noted above, Castro tweeted the names of rich, Trump-supporting San Antonio residents, those from his own district.
You surely see where this is going. Some media outlets on the far right – including Fox and Friends hosted by folks who stared vacantly at the moron in their midst – believed Trump Jr.’s assessment that the acts were equivalent.
The implicit message is twofold. That Castro is as irresponsible as a suicidal, murderous maniac. And, that Castrol is putting the donors’ lives in danger because progressive anti-Trumpers are known to associate with each other on 8chan and discuss how to utilize their AR-15s to maximum benefit as a genius act to elect Elizabeth Warren
The fact that progressive Democrats are not so obviously associated with mass shootings is not something those who populate the far right care about, nor does Don Jr. who wholly manipulates anyone easy to manipulate. Fox cares only about ratings, stirring up hatred for Democrats is what they do. None of the above care about the truth.
You know the conclusion like you know gravity. The “list” complied by the Dayton shooter was private, we cannot even be sure he showed the actual names to his classmates. We can make a responsible guess that if he had shared that list and it included known people, the other students would likely have called authorities.
Whatever other characteristics the list may entail, they are in no way equivalent. The biggest difference being that the Dayton shooter is (was) no threat to persuade large numbers of people to vote for Democrats, but Castro (especially in Texas) was and is an ongoing threat to Castro’s life, while also dangerous to Republican hegemony in an increasingly purple state.
False information about a Democrat with massive power – like Castro –Â threatens Trump Sr. while creating the perfect pot in which Republicans love to bathe, utterly false soup. The very act that leaves most of the public breathless.
****
Peace, y’all.
I am back from a brief sabbatical. If you like what you read on our quickly expanding website, send links to ten friends. You have far more than ten friends, you are not Fox-watching shut-ins. We will grow together, and surprises are ahead for those who supported us from the beginning.
Jason
Don Jr’s point is stupid…and you always have to wonder if he comes up with the arguments himself, or if sometimes they all meet in committee and come up with this stuff collectively. I’m not sure which is worse.
But I do wonder about the ethics of Castro tweeting a list of donors.
Americans who donate to campaigns are not asking to be in the public spotlight. They don’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy because of disclosure law, but they should be able to expect politicians on either side to respect that they aren’t public figures and don’t deserve to be brought into the debate without a strong reason for doing so.
I absolutely do NOT think that anyone is going to react to this list with murderous intent. At the same time, if I lived in a very conservative area and…say…ran a small business and wanted to contribute to Warren or any other Dem, I absolutely do NOT want the Republican Party taking out newspaper ads or using social media to broadcast my name and contact info. That would absolutely feel like political retaliation, and I would feel that my rights had been violated.
So I would criticize Castro for this. If you want to shame other public figures…wealthy donors who support Super PACs…that’s fair. But naming a retired schoolteacher who gave to Trump is, in my opinion, way over the line of acceptability.
However…I would clarify that I am UNSURE of the ethics here. Having listened to Castro’s defense, he sees this as a proportional response to Trump’s racist ads and tweets. He’s saying that the Trump message is so immoral that we have a right to get involved by pressuring those who are helping fund this message.
Under the model of ardent civic activism, I can certainly see his side of the argument. I think there is a line where we do have to criticize not only an elected person, but their voters or donors.
But I am still concerned about the subjectivity involved. If Democrats were to respond by boycotting the businesses of these donors based on their presumption they have moral authority to do so, I’m concerned that the same thing will happen to Democratic donors.
There are some VERY solid points made in both posts. I don’t agree entirely with it, but I agree very much they need consideration. Thank you – you and others make this work worthwhile. We all learn together.
As a Texas public state employee my salary is public record. The Texas Tribune posts this list. Anybody who wants to can find out how much my salary is. So everything is public. Also don’t pretend republicans are not doing the same thing. This guy George Soros seems to have every donation broadcast and I hear they did the same thing to the Clinton Foundation. Besides, no one seems to care about the retired people, the big discussion is about whether to eat at Bill Miller BBQ and Valero.
Quick correction, Joaquin Castro is from San Antonio. He sent out a list of San Antonio folks supporting trump not El Paso folks.
Damn, even WE cannot trust our sources. I had that even looked up and I KNEW HE wasn’t from there, but I figured it sounded right that he called out the El Paso folks. I used a mainstream site, too. Now I cannot recall which. Will correct. THank you a million times over. We’re experiencing just a couple growing pains. Bear with us, we’re hiring an editor soon.
Just got an email from the Trump campaign signed by Donnie Jr, titled “Look what the libs did.” Yeah, unity is breaking out all over.
You know what’s truly sad is that when we’re finally rid of T Sr., we’re going to be left with Jr and his tribe to try to carry on where their sperm donor left off. Twit Jr. is so full of himself, and he’s got a group of fluffers to stroke his ego. How long will we have to endure the T family before they find another grift to exploit?