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Mark T's avatar

Claiming Islam is a religion of peace is about as credible as the reporters who stand in front of burning cars and shops and claim "mostly peaceful protestors". Perhaps Bush thought he needed to say that for political reasons but decades of evidence, particularly since the fatwa on Rushdie (and as well as 9/11 itself and the manifesto), proves otherwise.

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RD's avatar

The 'other presidents have tried to heal America' is laughable after a decade of the far Left stoking hatred against the right.

Most people at the center and on the right have basically stayed in their positions as the Left has pulled it's way so far left that they've moved into the stratosphere.

It seems that some still do not realize that the majority now see through the delusion the Left has tried to maintain for the past 10 years, and the reaction of the Right is nothing more than trying to pull those in the Far left back to earth.

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Warden Gulley's avatar

Does anybody remember a viral pandemic which occurred about 5 years ago? Society mobilized, a new type of vaccination was conceived and there was immense opportunity for new medical treatments as a result of Project Warp Speed. Did the President at that time use it as a means of unifying the nation? No. He used it to divide us and set us one upon the other in the most vicious way. And it is still playing out today. It is said that leaders model behavior which is emulated by their followers. If they are noble, honest and just, the populace engages in similar behavior. But this? This is the grotesque destruction of a once great society.

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Randolph Carter's avatar

Yes, we all remember when Trump went on tirades about the "pandemic of the unvaccinated" and yet also suggested that you shouldn't take the vaccine that his opponents cooked up because you can't trust them... That was pretty awful of Trump.

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Randolph Carter's avatar

Almost all federal politicians are principle-free self dealing grifters at this point, and it's weird to pretend that one group of them is significantly better than the others

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Berny Belvedere's avatar

The idea that Trump is insufficiently distinct from his predecessors on matters related to presidential norms and rules, and that his words and actions are more or less continuous with theirs, is a preposterous false equivalence that has, at least in part, prolonged his presence atop our politics. He relies on anti-anti apologetics of all kinds, including the version you're modeling here, to be able to sell to a sufficient number of people that he's within the normal range of presidential behavior—and he's manifestly not.

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Randolph Carter's avatar

LBJ whipped his dick out in front of a group of reporters in reply to being asked why we were in Vietnam, pointed to it, and said "this is why" - what are the norms we're talking about here?

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Berny Belvedere's avatar

Oh, of course, of course. Yes, that obviously means that LBJ and Trump are the same. And also that, when you think about it, there really aren't any norms.

This is what the anti-anti crusade does to the brain—it makes you take the most absurd positions in the interests of normalizing the most committed norm-breaker we've ever had in the White House.

I just ran through a variety of examples of past presidents observing a very particular norm in response to similar tragedies—norms Trump blew past in his crusade for reprisals—and your response is to talk about LBJ's dick.

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Randolph Carter's avatar

Ok, sticking to responses to tragedies, the Bush administration embarked on a 9 year war and shredding of "norms" like the "norm" of a meaningful 4th Amendment in response to the tragedy of 9/11, Biden leveraged the death of George Floyd and other prominent figures from the Racial Reckoning era into claims that Republicans would institute "Jim Eagle" (still pondering that one)... I see Trump as a bad continuation of bad existing tendencies in American politics, you see him as a new kind of bad, we both agree that he does bad things but for some reason you're demanding that people dislike Trump in exactly the way you do. I think he's doing some new things in the corruption and self-dealing arena, but as far as abuse of executive power he's continuing in a long line of degradation of our Constitutional order.

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E. W. Zepp's avatar

After years of trying to excuse or ignore the left’s perhaps some folks just decide not to take it anymore.

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Pablo Neves's avatar

Afternoon, Berny.

I hope a legal colonoscopy is applied to every Soros NGO, every USAID cutout, every Norm Eisen lawfare move, and any other color revolution crap our tax dollars are paying for.

This divisiveness and hatred - on both sides - was paid for by us.

*** Edit: this is @directorblue not Pablo - seems like a Substack error? ***

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Shikha Dalmia's avatar

Yup, and when the next Democratic president comes to power, s/he can do the same to every rich rightwinger who funded TPUSA, unless you think the fascist takeover by this regime is so complete that no Dem is ever going to get elected. PS: I am pointing out the logic of your wish, but sincerely hope Dems don't go this route.

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Pablo Neves's avatar

Too late. Dems already did it.

Look up Arctic Frost today.

I want a lawful remedy to the way Obama weaponized government.

The Illustrated Spygate is a good place to start… 13 episodes up so far.

https://open.substack.com/pub/directorblue/p/the-illustrated-spygate-scandal-part-306?r=ch1ue&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

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E. W. Zepp's avatar

If TPUSA is funding rioting, violent demonstrations, and lawbreaking, of course. Maybe they’d rehire Lois Lerner.

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E. W. Zepp's avatar

There were literally tens of thousands of people attending the rally. The vast majority were guilty of nothing.

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Shikha Dalmia's avatar

I could keep going but you get the point!

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Pablo Neves's avatar

Do you know why your insurance bills went up so much the last few years?

$2 billion in property damage thanks to the Antifa/BLM riots - that our tax dollars helped fund. No insurer anticipated that catastrophic damage.

Steve Scalise and other Republicans were targeted at a baseball field for assassination.

They tried to bankrupt, imprison and then kill Trump.

Dem Melissa Hortman was executed by a Walz employee for voting with the GOP.

But say more about your theories.

*** Again - @directorblue not Pable fwiw ***

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Virginia Postrel's avatar

Bill Clinton definitely used the Oklahoma City bombing as a tool against the Republican Congress. But his use was rhetorical, which was unfair and annoying but not dangerous the way Trump-style vengeance is.

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E. W. Zepp's avatar

So, no one should bother investigating any of this. After all antifa’s just an idea. Amirite?

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