Neither will burying the truth under false equivalences between bad words and racism.
By Charles P. Pierce
Esquire (6/21/18)
I was saying to a friend on Wednesday night that what was sustaining me in this time of trouble and woe was reading the works of my favorite uncivil Americans—Tom Paine, Mercy Otis Warren, Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, late-period Mark Twain, a touch of Mencken here and there. Thus, I was able to read this incredible pile of piffle in The New York Times with comparative equanimity, which is to say without lighting my laptop on fire.
Mr. Trump’s coarse discourse increasingly seems to inspire opponents to respond with vituperative words of their own. Whether it be Robert De Niro’s four-letter condemnationat the Tony Awards or a congressional intern who shouted the same word at Mr. Trump when he visited the Capitol this week, the president has generated so much anger among his foes that some are crossing boundaries that he himself shattered long ago. The politics of rage that animated Mr. Trump’s political rise now dominate the national conversation, as demonstrated repeatedly during the debate over his “zero tolerance” immigration policy that separated children from parents apprehended at the border.
Bear in mind—I think the NYT is still a great newspaper that still does great work. There is no better reporter working than Charlie Savage. It has the time and the resources and, by and large, it knows how to use them. Just this week, I’ve linked and commented on at least three stories from the paper that would have flown completely under the radar if the NYT hadn’t dug in on them. But its flaws are obvious and manifest, and they are illustrated clearly by this bit of analysis, which has been flambéed on the electric Twitter machine for nearly a full day. I mean, Jesus, baby jails? If you’re being civil, you’re not paying attention.
I blame Lincoln, actually. If he hadn’t delivered the greatest speech ever by an American president, his Second Inaugural Address, we might not be quite as addicted to premature “healing” as we are. But Lincoln had an excuse. The country was trying to reassemble itself after the incredibly sanguinary effort necessary to crush treason and eliminate chattel slavery. …
(Commoner Call cartoon by Mark L. Taylor, 2010. Open source and free for non-derivative use with link to www.thecommonercall.org )
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“How Democracies Die” Co-author Says Shaming Public Officials Who Cross A Line Does Play A Healthy Role
Harvard professor and co-author of “How Democracies Die” Steven Levitskysaid said during an interview on the Dean Obeidallah radio show:
“Public shaming has an important role. When the members of the government and when a government crosses the line and engages in unacceptable and some cases illegal and immoral behavior, they should be shamed. This is not the government taking action to bar people from restaurants. This is essentially society itself engaging in shaming of people who arguably ought to be shamed. This is not a normal situation, this is not normal politics descending into some type of illegitimate incivility.”
Link to Story and 1+-Minute Audio
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No, Trump Officials Don’t Get To Eat Dinner In Peace As They Imprison Toddlers In Cages
By Jessica Valenti
The Guardian (6/25/18)
Republicans are very worried about “civility” these days. They’re mad that the Department of Homeland Security secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, was forced to leave a Washington DC restaurant after being confronted by protesters, upset that Stephen Miller was called a fascist when the White House adviser was eating Mexican food, and horrified that the press secretary, Sarah Sanders, was asked to leave a Virginia restaurant by the establishment’s owner. Some young Trump supporters in DC are even down in the dumps that they can’t seem to get a date.
We’re told that the left is being intolerant at best, and at worst – as one Fox News contributor put it – a “mob” that is “approaching near anarchy”.
They haven’t seemed to consider the simplest answer: that when you do and defend terrible things, people don’t really want to be around you.
If you’re responsible for the jailing of Latino toddlers, you do not have the right to enjoy Mexican food free from protest.
Republicans are very worried about “civility” these days. They’re mad that the Department of Homeland Security secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, was forced to leave a Washington DC restaurant after being confronted by protesters, upset that Stephen Miller was called a fascist when the White House adviser was eating Mexican food, and horrified that the press secretary, Sarah Sanders, was asked to leave a Virginia restaurant by the establishment’s owner. Some young Trump supporters in DC are even down in the dumps that they can’t seem to get a date.
We’re told that the left is being intolerant at best, and at worst – as one Fox News contributor put it – a “mob” that is “approaching near anarchy”.
They haven’t seemed to consider the simplest answer: that when you do and defend terrible things, people don’t really want to be around you. On Sunday, for example, David Axelrod tweeted that he was “amazed and appalled by the number of folks on [the] Left who applauded the expulsion of [Sanders] and her family from a restaurant”. And the editorial board at the Washington Post, says Americans should “let the Trump team eat in peace”. …
- Appalling Editorial: Washington Post Compares Restaurant Taunting To Far-Right Terrorism — On Sunday [6/24] the anonymous writers of the Washington Post editorial board lobbed a doozy of a stink grenade into the public discourse with an editorial demanding, per the title: “Let the Trump team eat in peace.” It bemoaned that “strong political feelings have spilled into what used to be considered the private sphere.” It grumbled that “social media have blurred the line between work hours and private time.” It pouted, in an odd little aside, how ubiquitous cellphone cameras “make it ever easier to intrude.” All of this was in service to the notion that a small, private restaurant was in the wrong to refuse to serve one of the top public faces of what any informed reader of their own paper could conclude was the most corrupt, and most dishonest, administration in modern American history. … Read the Rest
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Attorney Perfectly Schools Timid CNN Host On ‘civility’ After He Is Shamed For Calling Stephen Miller A ‘white nationalist’
By Edwards
The Raw Story (6/25/18)
NN host Kate Bolduan attempted to claim the moral high ground on Monday by shaming immigration attorney David Leopold after he called Trump adviser Stephen Miller a “white nationalist.”
“Look at the types of policies we’ve seen from this administration,” Leopold advised. “Look who is being targeted by this administration.”
Following a segment where Bolduan condemned a restaurant owner who asked White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders to leave, the CNN spoke to Leopold about President Donald Trump’s call to strip undocumented immigrants of their due process rights. …
Link to Story and 4-Minute Video
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Trevor Noah EVISCERATES The Pansy Ass ‘Civility’ Argument
Conservatives demand “civility” in an attempt to silence critics of the Trump administration and Trevor points out that calls for civility tend to come from people in a position of privilege.