First of all, its not like this is really a new argument theGOP has decided to put forward following this shooting. Just a few days prior, Eric Trump railed about the hate that has been heaped on him and his father following a report that The Donald had been skimming money from Erics charity foundation directly into his own pockets.

In reviewing filings from the Eric Trump Foundation and other charities, it's clear that the course wasn't free--that the Trump Organization received payments for its use, part of more than $1.2 million that has no documented recipients past the Trump Organization. Golf charity experts say the listed expenses defy any reasonable cost justification for a one-day golf tournament.

Additionally, the Donald J. Trump Foundation, which has come under previous scrutiny for self-dealing and advancing the interests of its namesake rather than those of charity, apparently used the Eric Trump Foundation to funnel $100,000 in donations into revenue for the Trump Organization.

Erics response to this report, which came from that dirty rotten hippy publication Forbes,was to argue that All Morality is gone and these are not even people. But its actually more telling to listen to what else he said because he made this not just personal, but into a specific target attack on the entire Democratic agenda in general.

Asked by host Hannity, Dont you wish you went to Washington so you could deal with this everyday? the presidents son sneered at Democrats.

Ive never seen hatred like this, he responded. To me, theyre not even people. It is so so sad.

Morality is just gone, he continued. Morals have flown out the window. We deserve so much better than this as a country. Its so sad you see the Democratic Party and they are imploding. Theyre imploding, they have no message. You see the head of the DNC who is a total whack-job. Theres no leadership there. And so what do they do? They become obstructionists because they have no message of their own.

Democrats are obstructionists because they have no message of their own? Frankly, the Republicans and the president havent even taken the first steps to try and reach out to Democrats on anything. Demsactually do have some fairly specific proposals on healthcare, but instead congressional Republicans passed a bill without their inputdespite a horrible CBO score and now the Senate Republicans are doing the same thing almost literally under the cover of night using a secret bill that no one has even seen.

I would argue that our agenda is to remain part of the Paris Climate Accord, to further investments in, and support of, clean and renewable energy sources rather than gut them as Trump has threatened, to retain and repair the Affordable Care Act rather than repeal it, to strive to make college affordable if not free, to address the opioid crises by increasing access to treatment rather than cutting that funding, to increase mobility for workers whove lost their jobs by helping them retrain for newly emerging industries rather than cutting that funding orgutting worker safety rules, we would prefer to continue to investigate and reform abusive police departments rather than ignore them and shut down effectivecivil rights enforcementand that stating ourpositions or pointing out Trumps legal and ethical failings doesnt come from a place of hate. It comes from a place of truth.

Most peopledon't criticize Donald Trump because they hate him, obviously excluding the contractors he repeatedly ripped offand women who have accused him of sexual assault,its because they love America and seriously fear what he seems intent on doing to it, and for that matter the rest of the world.

But now, after lastweeks shooting we have Congressional Republicans complaining that their constituents have come up to them and angrily said that theyre trying to get people killed [by repealing the ACA.] They argue thats not fair, and thats just so so mean.

Yeah, well, math, facts and commonsense show that between 25,000-36,000 people per year will likely die if the ACA is repealed without a viable replacement:

Uninsured adults are at least 25 percent more likely to die prematurely than adults who have private insurance. See state-level breakdowns of the 26,100 people between the ages of 25 and 64 who died prematurely due to a lack of health insurance in 2010.

Nearly 36,000 people could die every year, year after year, if the incoming president signs legislation repealing the Affordable Care Act.

This figure is based on new data from the Urban Institute examining how many people will become uninsured if the law is repealed, as well as a study of mortality rates both before and after the state of Massachusetts enacted health reforms similar to Obamacare.

So when people say this, they arent beingmean,theyre being factual. This is not hate speech, thisis criticism. Fact-based criticism.

Civility is generally a good thing. But something I thinkbeing more civil isnt whats really being asked here. Yes, of course, we should focus and be critical of theissues and, where reasonable, refrain from demonizing any particular faction or group. But IMO thats not what these Republicans are asking for.Whats being asked isfor liberals to simplyshut up, and then all will be well.

I dont speak for anyone but myself, but I can pretty much guarantee thats. not. gonna. happen.

After the many previous mass shootings that have plagued the nation, the complaint from the right has typically beenNow is not the time to make things politicalwhen people mention that perhaps the reason so many people are getting killed by guns, might have something to do with the prevalence of guns themselves. In response, theyve often argued that this critiqueis an attack on everyones SecondAmendment Rights. Asking for trigger locks is too much. Asking for comprehensive background checks is too much. Our rights are clearly more important than the lives lost.

It doesnt matter that America averages 33,000 deaths per year as a result of firearms.It doesnt matter that over 60% of those deathsare suicides by people who are perfectly legal gun owners, not criminals, not gangbangers, not terrorists. Itdoesn't matter that the Alexandria shooting was the 154th mass shooting so far this year, and not even the only mass shooting to occur that same day.It doesnt matter that this particular shooter was a legal gun owner, who had a history of violence against women and perhaps that has as much do with his final actions as anything specifically political. We maynever really going to know for sure what his motivations truly were.

But none of that matters because we have to protect our rights, damnit.

Now were told that the real problem isnt that we have more guns in the nation than we have people, its because some people have the nerve to use their First Amendment rights totalk too much and that theyare just too vulgar.

Talking with Fox News, Gingrich pointed fingers at left-wing hysteria that he says has exploded ever since President Donald Trumps election last fall, as evidenced by Kathy Griffins latest stunt in which she held up a likeness of Trumps severed head.

The intensity on the left is very real, Gingrich said. Whether its a so-called comedian holding up the presidents head in blood, or its right here, in New York City, a play that shows the president being assassinated. Or its Democratic leading national politicians who are so angry they have to use vulgarity because they cant find any common language.

Right, so Kathy Griffins joke-failwiththe fake Trump head that hadblood coming out of his wherever and Senator Gillibrand dropping anF-Bomb is why a guygrabbed a gun and went after Republicans?

Remind me exactly who was it that invited Ted Nugentwho once said Hillary Clinton was a Worthless BitchandBarack Obama was a piece of shit and that heand Eric Holder needed their heads chopped off and Hillary Clinton should be hangedto the White House for dinner again?

Then again, maybe its all the fault of Shakespeare?

[Don] Trump Jr. retweeted a report about those witness claims, and he also approved another tweet by a conservative commentator linking the shootings to a recent production of Shakespeares Julius Caesar that depicted the presidents assassination.

Because its not like somebodythought to do the same thing, a modern day version of Julius Ceasar including the assassination of the head of state, when Obama was president.

Except that they did in 2012.

While Delta Air Lines and Bank of America have dropped their sponsorships of New Yorks Public Theater over a President Trump-inspired staging of Shakespeares Julius Caesar, corporate sponsors at the Guthrie Theater had no public reaction to a 2012 staging that featured a black actor in the role of Caesar.

Caesar is stabbed to death in the middle of the play.

I am a person that believes that hateful rhetoric can sometimes inspirenegative outcomes, so Im not ignoring the center of their concern.But I do think theres a difference between strong rhetoric and violently dangerous hateful rhetoric. Theres a difference between strong speech built on facts and hate speech built on lies, and I have my doubts that many ofthe Republicans really know that difference at all.Theyre just using this tragedy as an opportunity to attack the First Amendment rights of those they oppose while taking no responsibility of their own.

For example, there was the time this guy showed up a pizza parlor because someone was promoting a totallyfalse story that Hillary Clinton and John Podestawerelinked to a child prostitution ring. And Imnot just saying he was there because of thatstory.He said he was there with a gun because of that story.

A North Carolina man was arrested Sunday after he walked into a popular pizza restaurant in Northwest Washington carrying an assault rifle and fired one or more shots, D.C. police said. The man told police he had come to the restaurant to self-investigate a false election-related conspiracy theory involving Hillary Clinton that spread online during her presidential campaign.

I for one do not recall Republicans criticizing the deliberate spreading of this false story and finding fault with the media outlets that pushed it without having a shred of proof.But now, today we have this:

Fox News anchor Melissa Francis then played a clip from Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL) who said some of his best friends are Democrats and that the House passes a lot of bipartisan legislation, but its the major issues that lead to political discourse that has in my opinion, led to such an uptick in just hateful, hateful rhetoric of all sides, and I stand here today and say stop. We have to stop.

BERGMAN: I agree with Rodney wholeheartedly in that the hateful rhetoric serves no positive purpose. In fact, today it served a negative purpose. But unfortunately, and Im looking at all the media in the eye when I say this: friendships and cordial relationships dont make good news. So I can tell you, especially as the president of the freshman class of Republicans, we are united along with our Democratic freshman counterparts to bring civility back to the 115th Congress.

FRANCIS: So you think its the medias fault?

BERGMAN: I think the media is complicit if they keep inciting, as opposed to informing.

The media areinciting instead of informing? You mean inciting like telling people what the CBO score for Trumpcare is?Yeah, okay.

I just have to say Im skeptical of Republicans who claim they really want to stop all the hateful, hateful rhetoric on all sides.Its not like we heard all this Kumbahyah talk when it was suggested that somebody may have helpedincite violence against dozens of congressional offices by using a map placing targets on their districtsI didnt hear Republicans saying people shouldnt do that.

Gabrielle GIffords is who said it.

On April 23, 2010, an angry phone call came into a congressmans office in Tucson, Arizona. The voice on the line was a male, on the young side, brimming with fury over immigration. The caller announced he was going to come down there and blow the brains out of the congressman and his staff, an aide later recalled. Then the caller said he would do the same to Mexicans crossing the border. Minutes later, police evacuated the offices of Rep. Ral Grijalva, a Tucson Democrat whose congressional district sits immediately to the west of Gabrielle Giffords. [...]

As several media outlets reported, the door to Giffords Tucson congressional office was vandalized last March after her vote in favor of the health-care bill. But the event that ratcheted up the violent chatter was the April signing of Senate Bill 1070, an Arizona law that gave local police broad powers to discover illegal immigrants.

As shown by the above video, it was Gabriel Giffords herself who brought up the issue of the crosshairs map before she was ultimately shot in head, and fiveothers persons were killed, by a crazed shooter in Tucson later that year.

But rather than denounce rhetoric that actually did promoteviolence and vandalismat the time, instead what we heard back then was Blood Libel.An argument based on the ideathat Giffordsherself pointingout the incitement, was itself asource of the incitement.

To his credit Rep. Steve Scalise himself had much better things to say about Giffords than Palin did.

Still as a result of all this, I dont take these fresh newplatitudes all that seriously. I reallydont think theyre sincere because there have been plenty of chances for that sincerity to be shown, and repeatedly they have failed.

We didnt hearthis call for civility and unity from the GOPafter Sandy Hook which Trump-pal Alex Jones says was a false flag and Paul Ryan said Obama was only talking about it to distract from his failed policies,not after the Holocaust Museum Shooter who was planning to target David Axelrod, or the Knoxville Unitarian Church Shooter,which was an attack on liberals inspired by a book from a frequent OReilly guest, or Dylann Roofs murder spree in Charleston in reaction to the trial of George Zimmerman and right-wing rhetoric about excessive black violencepushed by the CCC and oftenshown on Bill OReillysprogram, or the attempted attack on the Oakland ACLU and Tides Foundation inspired by the overblownrhetoric of Glenn Beck about those organizations, or the Las Vegas cop killers who were from the Bundy compoundand said they wanted to spark a revolution against the government, orthe attack on Planned Parenthood inspired a by phony video by right-wing anti-abortion activists, or the Alt-Reich Nation killer who knifed ROTC Cadet Lt. Richard Collins to death earlier this year, or the Sikh Temple shooter who mistakenly thought the worshiperswere Muslim, or last months terrorist in Portland who killed two bystanders with a knife after harassing a pair of Muslim girls, or the more1,000 Hate crimes that sparked up immediately after Trumps election.

Im not holding my breath that things are suddenly gonna get all unity-like because Rep. Scalise was shot in the hip.Hopefully, he and all the rest recoversafely.But Im terribly sorry I just cant take empty meaningless platitudes like thisseriously.

Or this.

To which I say...

Sure Im a skeptic, but Im not a cynic. Im not saying theres absolutely no hope.If the GOP can take responsibility and apologize for their ownparticipation in this escalating rhetoricthe way that Kathy Griffin apologized within hoursI just might believe them. Maybe.

I might believe the GOP was sincere about harsh rhetoric if it had came up when Trump was saying "KNOCK THE CRAPOUT OF THEM!" tohis rally crowds.

I might believe the GOP was sincere aboutharsh rhetoric if it came up when Trump was saying "I'll pay for your lawyers fees" to beat protesters.

I might believe the GOP was sincereabout harsh rhetoricif it came up when Trump said 3-5 million illegal votes were cast against him.

I might believe the GOP was sincere about harsh rhetoric if they didn't lie about "Voter Fraud" while gerrymandering and suppressing the Democraticand minorityvote.

I might believe the GOP was sincereabout harsh rhetoricif it came up when Trump said Judge Curiel was too racist a Mexican to make a fair decision.

I might believe the GOP was sincere about harsh rhetoric if it came up when Trump said Gold Star Father Khazir Khan was allied with ISIS.

I might believe the GOP was sincereabout harsh rhetoricif it came up when Trump said Mexicans were rapists, killers and criminals. And some, a few, were good people.

I might believe the GOP was sincereabout harsh rhetoric if it they had ever said the same thing to #AltRightbigoted so-called free speech championtrolls like Miloor Richard Spencer.

I might believe the GOP was sincereabout harsh rhetoricif it they ever recognized a terrorist when he's a white guy andhis victims are liberal, black or Muslim.

I might believe the GOP was sincereabout harsh rhetoric if, when Russia wageda CyberWar against America, they wouldnt stick their heads in the sand or else#BlameObama for something he once said to Medvedev.

I might believe the GOP was sincereabout harsh rhetoric if they didn't call the findings of all 17 intelligence agencies and the investigation of18 different mysterious contacts with Russians a "witch hunt."

I might believe the GOP was sincereabout harsh rhetoric if people likeJason Miller werent calling Senator Kamala Harris "hysterical" for asking Jeff Sessionstough questions.

I might believe the GOP was sincereabout harsh rhetoric if it came up when Eric Trump was saying his fathers critics were"not even people."

I might believe the GOP was sincere about harsh rhetoricif so many of them hadntsaid Barack Obama was an illegal alien with a falsified birth certificate, anillegitimate president, a secret Muslim, an Arab,the anti-Christ, a communist, a socialist, a liar, a criminal, a drug dealer, a welfare thug-in-chief, a food-stampPresident, was incompetent, was the founder ofISIS,a fraud, aradical black liberation theology Kenyan Mau Mau revolutionist anti-colonial who simply wasnt smart enough to get into Harvard or become editor of theHarvard Law Review without affirmative action, who neededBill Ayers to ghost-writehis own best-selling book about his own life and fatherbecause hereallyhated America and all it stood forandwhen they werefeeling boldwas really justanother lazynigger.

But none of that has happened. Not yet. We havent heard an apology for any of it either. Im not expecting we will.

As a result I have no intention of backing off the Republicans or Trumpwith what I have to say about them or their policies one iota.I will not be giving them an inch. The state of my dangerously factual liberal rhetoric will remain strong, and it will remain loud.

And to be honest, I lied, Im not sorry about it at all. Not even slightly.

See original here:

The state of my dangerous liberal rhetoric will remain strong and loud - Daily Kos