Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full article/ op ed.

Adam Serwer has an excellent read on the racist hysteria generated on the far right about the migrant caravan that led directly to the horror at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh on Saturday:

The Tree of Life shooter criticized Trump for not being racist or anti-Semitic enough. But with respect to the caravan, the shooter merely followed the logic of the president and his allies: He was willing to do whatever was necessary to prevent an “invasion” of Latinos planned by perfidious Jews, a treasonous attempt to seek “the destruction of American society and culture.”

The apparent spark for the worst anti-Semitic massacre in American history was a racist hoax inflamed by a U.S. president seeking to help his party win a midterm election. There is no political gesture, no public statement, and no alteration in rhetoric or behavior that will change this fact. The shooter might have found a different reason to act on a different day. But he chose to act on Saturday, and he apparently chose to act in response to a political fiction that the president himself chose to spread and that his followers chose to amplify. (our emphasis)

Leading the racist hysteria as part of that political fiction were those vicious organs of the Big Lie -- Fox "News" and Fox Business "News." Here's a snippet of Josh Marshall's take:

I managed to involve myself this weekend in a tiny eddy in the storm around the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre. As you can see below, early yesterday evening I happened upon this interview on Lou Dobbs’ Fox Business News show in which a guest, Chris Farrell, claimed the migrant caravan in southern Mexico was being funded and directed by the “Soros-occupied State Department.” This is, as I explained, is straight out of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the foundational anti-Semitic tract, first circulated and perhaps authored by the Czarist secret police in the first years of the 20th century.

Here's what Marshall is referring to (video embedded in tweet):

Political scientists are generally not massive Fox News fans, but in our efforts to come across as relatively unbiased, I actually think we downplay the extent to which it is a force for the absolute worst impulses of racism, illiberalism, and extremism in American society. https://t.co/dMKTMERmLB

— Steven White (@notstevenwhite) October 28, 2018

There are National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) ads still running using George Soros ("Connoisseur of Chaos") as the boogeyman responsible for the caravan and other heinous activities.  

It's an entirely unsubtle conjuration of the hoary and hateful lie that wealthy Jews are the puppet-masters of the left, because of course, decent white folk would never espouse liberal beliefs unless they were getting paid to do so. It's totally disgusting, but Republicans are waging an internal arms race to see who can plaster the most bigotry on the airwaves. Right now, the NRCC is winning.

These are lying, vicious agitprop droppings intended to divide by telling us to fear "the other" -- whether brown, black, Jewish, etc. The rotted out Republican Party is immersed in this stinking garbage. Remember that for as long as you live.  And vote, goddammit!

In a column written before the arrest of the #MAGAbomber and before the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre, Leonard Pitts, Jr., writes about the key instigator of violence in America today and his cultists:

This ongoing insult of reality, this daily denigration of truth, is epidemic among Trump’s people. Unable to face what is, they live in a kingdom of lies, seek sanctuary down a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories. Indeed, Trump cultists — Lou Dobbs, James Woods, Rush Limbaugh, Candace Owens and more — have already suggested the bombs were part of a Democratic plot to sway the coming election. [snip] 

Meantime, this guy, this morally deformed 72-year-old brat, had a theory of his own. After bombs were sent to people he has spent years insulting ( “low IQ,” “crooked,” “ignorant”) and to a network he has spent years condemning (”enemies of the people”), Trump tweeted that the “anger” in our society is a result of media’s “false and inaccurate reporting.” 

So in other words, if reporters would just stop challenging him, stop questioning him, stop behaving as if words have meaning and people, memories, all will be well. He probably even believes that.

But the issue here is not news media. Nor is it civility or Republicans being yelled at in restaurants. 

No, the issue is reality and the fact that it becomes no less real because you don’t acknowledge it. That’s what the Trump cult has never figured out. Reality will always have the last word. And you may run from it, but you can never escape. 

Not even down a rabbit hole, not even in a kingdom of lies.

As of this morning, the vile shitgibbon is still at it.  Surprise!

We close as usual with our recommendation to check out the excellent blog link round- up at Infidel 753. He takes care to find some really interesting items that you might otherwise never hear about. Always thought- provoking.

Sunday Reflection: First They Came...

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me

Lutheran Pastor Martin Niemöller's widely-cited poem. Niemöller considered himself a "national conservative" and was an early supporter of the Nazis. He turned against them and was imprisoned in Sachenhausen and Dachau from 1938 to 1945 for his anti-Nazi activities.

Here are the innocent victims of yesterday's horrific massacre in Pittsburgh, PA:

Joyce Fienberg, 75, of Oakland, City of Pittsburgh

Richard Gottfried, 65, of Ross Township

Rose Mallinger, 97, of Squirrel Hill, City of Pittsburgh

Jerry Rabinowitz, 66, of Edgewood Borough

Cecil Rosenthal, 59, of Squirrel Hill

David Rosenthal, 54, of Squirrel Hill

(Cecil and David Rosenthal are brothers)

Bernice Simon, 84, of Wilkinsburg

Sylvan Simon, 86, of Wilkinsburg

(Bernice and Sylvan are husband and wife)

Daniel Stein, 71, of Squirrel Hill, City of Pittsburgh

Melvin Wax, 88, of Squirrel Hill, City of Pittsburgh

Irving Younger, 69, of Mt. Washington, City of Pittsburgh

The Pittsburgh Synagogue Massacre

Symptoms and causes:

... [A]nti-Semitic activity, including hate crimes in schools and bomb threats against Jewish institutions, has been soaring — up an unprecedented 57 percent last year, according to the Anti-Defamation League. That is the symptom. The cause is a climate in which the sentiments of white nationalists and other hate groups are no longer suppressed. 

Hate groups feel emboldened to show their faces in public, as they did when they marched last year in Charlottesville, chanting: “Jews will not replace us.” That, too, had a deadly result. But the president of the United States insisted there had been moral equivalency between the neo-Nazis and those who had shown up to protest them: “There are two sides to a story. I thought what took place was a horrible moment for the country, but there are two sides to a story.”

Given that, what cure is offered by the Very Stable Genius?

Trump says Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh has “little to do with” gun laws, says the synagogue should have “had some kind of a protection” inside the temple, and later blames synagogue for not having armed guards. pic.twitter.com/AWg5AwkEKp

— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) October 27, 2018

There's little question our political climate has devolved by perhaps 150 years -- particularly accelerating since this vile toad and his cretinous fans have infected the body politic.  However, that process has been underway for the past 50 years through the Republican Party as it catered more and more to the vicious smallness and grievances of a core white nationalist base, until it has become their vehicle of expression.  

The process of taking our country back begins on November 6, but cannot end there.  Violent right- wingers (call them white nationalists, alt- right or neo- Nazis too) have been playing a long game, waiting under their rocks to emerge, as Tumulty says above, once emboldened by the vile toad. The protection we need from these creatures does not involve having guns in synagogues, churches, mosques, schools or movie theaters. It involves having a political system that continually neuters and buries such creatures and their malignancy.  Going forward, it must be our life's work.

BONUS:  In a Tweet (deleted after the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre), House Republican Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Reptile-CA) wanted us to know there are three wealthy Jewish Americans trying to buy the election for Democrats --

Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy posted this tweet AFTER a bomb was sent to Soros' house. Up until a couple of minutes ago it was pinned to the top of his profile. pic.twitter.com/FEeKoPolHL

— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) October 24, 2018

As we often say, the sickening rot runs all the way through the Republican Party. Vote. Them. Out.

Alt-Right Loon Kills At Least 8 At Pittsburgh Synagogue (UPDATED)

A gunman, identified as Robert Bowers, 46, walked into the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA, this morning shouting "All Jews must die!" then shot and killed at least 8 congregants:

Congregants near the Tree of Life Synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh were ambushed on Saturday morning by a man who opened fire with multiple weapons. According to on-scene reports, the shooter shouted “All Jews must die” as he was firing into those present. 

At 11:30 ET, news reports indicate that 8 people have died, and 12 are wounded including at least 3 police officers who responded to the shooting. First reports of the shooting came in around 10:45 ET, while the web site for the Tree of Life shows that Shabbat services began at 9:45, suggesting that the gunman may have assaulted the congregation as the service was ending. Reports indicate that four people were killed on the main floor of the synagogue. The shooter then killed more people in the basement of the synagogue. One person may have been killed outside the building.

He's a far- right,  anti- Semitic, anti- refugee crackpot:

Pittsburgh suspect Robert Bowers posted this AM “HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people..I’m going in” https://t.co/2T5c6xdPhC pic.twitter.com/Bj7T7E8Yzh

— Laura Rozen (@lrozen) October 27, 2018

Re HIAS --

HIAS (founded as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) is an American nonprofit organization that provides humanitarian aid and assistance to refugees.

More to come.

UPDATE:  He's a white nationalist QAnon nut, of course.

UPDATE II:  The death toll is now 11.