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In New York City today President Donald Trump signed an executive order to cut red tape on infrastructure projects to make it easier, he said, to construct roads and bridges. He then took questions from reporters, who almost exclusively asked about his comments about the violence in Charlottesville, VA, last weekend. The exchange between Trump and the reporters was lively, with one reporter asking the president, “Are you against the Confederacy?” Trump repeatedly denounced the reporters as being part of “fake news,” saying that the coverage of what happened in Charlottesville would have been better, “If you were honest reporters, which in many cases you’re not.” Trump also asked reporters if they were in favor of taking down statues of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, since both were slave-owners. “You’re erasing history,” said the president.
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Published in: Politics
Loved it. Trump smacked down the fake news reporters hard, just as they deserve.
Mr. President – anyone who marches with Nazis shouting anti-Semitic slogans are not good people. Sheesh.
Jamie, I am going to score you like you score Trump.
Your score : FAIL
I think everyone knows I am a huge critic of the President, but I don’t think Trump said what you think he said, Jamie.
He said that among the protesters on Friday were “very fine people”. Watch the footage from that protest – Nazi flags, chants of “Jews will not replace us” and “Hail victory” (translate that into German if you want to understand the meaning). Anyone who marches alongside people like that are emphatically not “very fine people”.
So if there were people protesting the removal of the statute of General Lee but who weren’t marching alongside Nazis, where would such people fall in your infallible moral judgment?
Was there a separate event I am unaware of?
I don’t know. You’re the one who made the strong moral claim about anyone protesting necessarily lacking good character. Why don’t you tell me? Would it even matter?
If there was a separate event set up so as not to associate with the Nazi led rally then I would not judge those people.
Let us not forget what this even was – Unite the Right. An attempt by the Alt-Right to unite with other elements of the fringe identitarian right including Nazis and Klansmen. Under what circumstances would a good person join such an event? Enlighten me.
Here are some pictures of the participants:
Nothing you are saying even comes close to responding to the points Trump made. No one is saying there weren’t bad folks at the demonstrations, or even that it wasn’t led by idiotic racists, so sending over a bunch of pictures of them doesn’t advance your point. Do you have any pictures of the entire crowd? Were you physically present or have you personally spoken to every person in attendance? You’re really making a very poor argument, both logically and rhetorically.
Trump may be a stupid bloviating gas bag, but in this particular instance, I have seen no evidence that suggests he is wrong about the core of his statement: there were some good people and some bad people on both sides, and the Leftist crowd first broke the peace before one of the Nazi sympathizers committed a heinous murder.
I am starting to think the Trump supporters are right that if the media keeps up with its dishonest attacks, and fails to focus on all of Trump’s many real faults, the man actually does have a shot at getting re-elected.
To be clear, I am from New York and have no love for the Confederacy.
In my opinion anyone who marches with Nazi’s is a bad person. They have no moral center. Period.
Thank you for your expertly regurgitated opinion. I applaud you for your tremendous moral courage and your uncanny ability to pass moral judgment on others without regard to actual facts.
What the hell brought this on? Am I not allowed to have an opinion?
As an outside observer of this one. I think your intransigence Jamie. Inability to see the other view.
I see it and I disagree. Invective and indignity isn’t an argument.
For all his faults, I think the President is trying to diffuse tensions. The media is dishonestly portraying what transpired in Charlottesville–excluding the violence instigated by illegal attempts to stifle protected speech and now they are dishonestly portraying what the President said. You are casting your lot in with them by attacking the President through a straw-man argument of questionable relevance under the facts laid out by the President. (If the President is just wrong on the facts, that’s a different story. But neither you nor CNN/MSNBC are actually making that point.) I pointed out that the relevance of your opinion is diminished because it makes factual assumptions without evidence. Rather than providing supporting evidence of any sort, you just repeated your uncontroversial opinion without grappling with the substance of the President’s comments. That’s not a discussion, that’s blind adherence to your view come hell or high water.
Invective and indignity? Hardly. Just a little sarcasm between friends.
What factual assumption did I make without evidence?
You assumed that every person who attended any of the protests “marched with the Nazis” or something to that effect.
But let’s delve a little deeper into the merits of your “moral” claim. What if someone just marched with the Nazis with a sign that said “These guys are idiots but they have a First Amendment right to protest.”? Would such a person lack any “moral center”? Does the federal judge who issued an injunction permitting the demonstrations to go forward lack a “moral center”?
A disheartening thread to say the least. The truth is what Jonah said on the GLoP podcast. Trump is unable or unwilling to admit he is wrong about anything, and so cannot voice a simple condemnation of violence and murder. It is that simple. I don’t think he is trying to calm the situation and doubt he even cares much to be honest.
Don’t worry Jamie you don’t stand alone. I just don’t have the emotional energy to debate this one.
If there was a low tax, small government, federalism march led by a bunch of nazi’s shouting “Jews will not replace us”, carrying nazi flags, and yelling “heil Hitler”, I stay home.
I also wouldn’t associate with anyone who would go, but that’s just me. I guess I’m weird like that.
If you have evidence of alternative protests that didn’t involve the Nazis I’m open to seeing it. As it now stands there were two protesting factions. The Nazi aligned Unite the Right and the fascist AntiFa thugs. Until then I stand by me assessment of those that protested for the Unite the Right.
Your first question isn’t really connected to my point as that person wasn’t protesting in common cause with them. In fact they would be pointing out the absurdity of their beliefs. As far as the federal government is concerned they are required to issue such permits under the first amendment.
He did voice a simple condemnation of violence and murder. Three times. The Left wants to condemn some violence, but not violence perpetrated by their own. Normally I am on the same page as Jonah, but he’s wrong here and playing right into the hands of the radical Left.
I think I could listen to this guy read a phone book and it would make me smile. Don’t know what it is about him. Maybe it’s the same thing that upsets so many others.
Do you honestly think Pence, Rubio, Cruz or Ryan wouldn’t be getting the same treatment on this issue? It doesn’t matter what actually Trump said. If he condemns (accurately) all perpetrators of violence, he’s conspiring with Nazis. If he clarifies that the Nazis are awful people, he doesn’t really mean it. Whatever he said about this event was going to be attacked and his motives questioned.
Trump is generslly a lying, philandering braggart. There’s a lot to criticize in his actual policy and thin- skinned attitude. But this kind of race-baitng crap is not helping anyone. Slinging allegations of racism dies not elevate the national discourse. The icing on the cake here is that nearly everyone acknowledges that there were two groups of bad actors. But somehow stating this simple truth makes Trump a biggot. If that’s all we on the anti-Trump side have, we’re doomed.
Trump should narrate all the classics into audio books. I’d buy one. ?
“It was the best of times, and I mean it was really great, and it was the worst of times. Sad.”
Dickens with a Brooklyn or Queens accent? I’m in!
Not just Dickens. All the Greats, and I mean All of Them: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, that guy Vizzini. All of the greats. They’ve never been read like this before. It will be so fantastic, you’ll get tired of winning with the classics.