I guess a lot of people are talking about the Trump supporter who punched a black guy at a rally in North Carolina, yesterday. If you haven’t seen the video, it was a sucker punch thrown at a young man who was in the process of being ushered out of the rally. The Trumpista launched a short right-hook that landed to the eye but really didn’t have much juice on it. I wouldn’t talk a lot of smack about hitting a guy who wasn’t looking and not even being able to deck him. It was actually a pretty anemic performance, although it landed with enough force to cause some lingering soreness.
INSIDE EDITION tracked down the supporter, 78-year-old John McGraw, who was unrepentant.
When asked if he liked the rally, he said: “You bet I liked it. Knocking the hell out of that big mouth.”
And when asked why he punched the protester, he said: “Number one, we don’t know if he’s ISIS. We don’t know who he is, but we know he’s not acting like an American, cussing me… If he wants it laid out, I laid it out.”
He added: “Yes, he deserved it. The next time we see him, we might have to kill him. We don’t know who he is. He might be with a terrorist organization.”
This is just embarrassing all around. John McGraw is clearly Alan Keyes-crazy. I mean, he’s absolutely bug-nuts insane.
And the victim, 26-year-old Rakeem Jones, wasn’t laid out until the security guards tackled him for the offense of being punched in the eye.
Normally, I wouldn’t mock a 78-year-old man for punching like an eight-year-old, but he seems to think he’s some kind of tough guy. I’m only forty-six and I know enough not to tangle with a fit 26-year-old man.
Maybe I ought to give this guy a break since he thinks anyone who doesn’t look like him might be a terrorist, but I hope they prosecute him and he spends some time in jail.
At a minimum, he should be prohibited from consuming right-wing media for the rest of his life.
John McGraw has now been charged after deputies ‘lost track’ of him at the rally. The sheriff’s office said:
Better late than never. Thanks, YouTube.
Like that John McGraw really really really thought the protestor was from ISIS.
I’m glad they are charging him. What a coward to punch someone who has no ability to fight back.
Hell, they abuse reporters from their own bought-and-paid for news outlets.
I’m still trying to figure that one out. Friendly fire?
Aren’t the Breitbart folks in the tank for Cruz?
It has been hard to score and I’ve been watching. Ditto Drudge. All I see is consistent anti-establishment outrage and click-fishing. Beck claims they’re both in the tank for Trump. Breitbart raised a lot of noise over Cruz’s eligibility in January, for example.
Dunno, all smoke and mirrors anyhow. They probably don’t know themselves from one day to the next; though Matt Drudge seems to be playing a long game.
I thought everyone assumed Trump gave Brietbart some six-figure check last summer.
Wouldn’t know. Maybe someone else here monitors the activities on the loony side of the political spectrum, My stomach is too weak to do that.
Correct. They have a lot of misogynist and racist trolls who feed on being purposefully provocative for the sake of pissing off people associated with the socially liberal and cosmopolitan views. Trump is like, their ID.
Originating from Buzzfeed’s McKay Coppins in August. Denied and unconfirmed.
Of course he really thought it!
That’s what drives me nuts about this whole damn phenomenon; the strange way the general public is being viewed and treated by both sides.
I’m not talking about your comment so much as the greater phenomenon: at some point it was decided somewhere that the need to overturn Obama’s programs and threaten his legitimacy was so urgent that it justified using these underhanded, sneaky rhetorical tactics of suggesting that he’s a Muslim (which is just ridiculous); that he’s “a socialist,” that he’s not a natural-born American; that he’s going to take guns away; that he’s an imperialist who wants to declare himself emperor, etc.
It’s all so absurd and beyond the pale that we on the left can’t take it seriously and, more important, the pervayors of all this on the right somehow do it while convincing themselves that it’s some kind of arch game; like it’s using cleverly unorthodox tactics to win a criminal trial or even a high-school debate.
But the direct result is this: a whole population of millions of Americans who literally believe all of this; who’ve got liberalism and “big government” and threats against gun ownership and Muslims and ISIS and black Americans all tied up together into the same ridiculous paranoid threat.
I mean, the fact that a white man punched a black man and justified it by saying “He could have been ISIS” is, of course, on the face of it, flatly ridiculous. But it’s a little late in the game for those of us who’ve been to college and have the erudition to participate in conversations like this one, to be baffled and surprised by this.
Is that one of the major parties can state unequivocally they won’t even consider a Supreme Court nominee of a democratically elected president. And nobody is surprised.
These are the same mooks who walk around with a gilt-leaved and bound copy of the Constitution in their back pockets so they can wave it at the cameras when distracting us from their civic outrage du jour. We aren’t merely citizens, we are also lab rats in a dystopian media experiment.
You make some very good points. Just to say, it’s not just people who aren’t well educated who’ve bought into this ??? whatever it is nonsensical paranoid fantasyland miasma world view. Sadly, I know well educated, well traveled, rather cultured (otherwise) people who would also willingly jump into that mind set. Well they DO exhibit that mind set.
Such people – the better educated, etc – may find it too distasteful to go forth and punch someone, but they are probably every bit as willing to say they agree that the black protestor could’ve been ISIS.
Well, this is the end result of over 30 years of rightwing corporatist propaganda come to roost. Rush Limbaugh and his ilk have been bellowing out this crap for decades, so I guess you’re right… perhaps this McGraw is delusional enough to grasp onto the fantasy that the black protestor maybe could be ISIS.
And yes, it is reflected in the GOP dominated Senate stating that they REFUSE to even accept a SCOTUS nomination from Obama just because they said so. The majority voted in Obama, but it doesn’t matter anymore. These fascists are going to dictate to the citizens how it’s going to be.
Oh dear.
Yeah, education is no protection against what’s now 2+ decades of Limbaugh and NewsMax and Fox. And a little MSM or NPR here and there doesn’t provide enough seasoning, either, because they don’t bother to counteract the stuff that’s so far gone it’s in an alternate reality.
Looks like NPR is falling way short on providing any “seasoning” at all:
Billmon:
LOL.
I remember a time when the conservative relatives repeated Rush’s jokes as a joke, while claiming not to take him seriously. At some point it got serious. And then in ’08-ish in another relative’s kitchen I fell into an embarrassing yelling match about whether Muslims were attempting to impose Sharia law on the U.S. Since then, with very rare one-sentence exceptions, I just don’t talk politics with them anymore. I can’t. And yes, they’re very well educated, they’ve read the classics, they went to good schools and they have advanced degrees.
In their defense, I should say they wouldn’t think a random black guy in Florida belongs to ISIS.
Just that, well, all kinds of people buy into wild political theories.
How can people stand to listen to that garbage? Thankfully, I’ve never heard a second of Rush but did have the unfortunate experience of hearing a few minutes of Ingraham and Savage, so vile and gagworthy as to be toxic to one’s mental health.
We had a guy reading an Ann Coulter book and he wanted to read some passages to us. We told him,”Please no!”. Well, one guy told him flat out, “I don’t want to hear anything from that pencil necked geek!”
I had family and friends, too, who initially said that they found Rush “funny” and enjoyed his “jokes” and that it was all a lark or something. Witnessing their descent into outright bigotry and hatred of “the other” has been frightening. There is no reasoning with them anymore. Facts simply don’t matter.
I stopped having any sort of political discussions with these people in my life quite some time ago. Here and there I will try to put out some factual info in an effort to be educational, but I have to tread very carefully bc brainwashed people are super resistant to being told everything they cling to and believe in is an appalling lie.
A constant diet of propaganda, even if it was originally enjoyed because it was “entertaining,” rots a brain. The daily dose acts like a booster shot to keep it rotted. It may heal over some period of time if exposure to the garbage ceases. It may heal better if the garbage is replaced by unbiased real news, but that’s one of those unknowns. PC speech (no N word) did seem to reduce the prevalence of racism, but as we’ve seen it hasn’t come close to extinguishing it. OTOH, with the prevalence of news/information retaining an anti-POC bias and euphemisms replacing the unacceptable words, racism reinforcers have hardly been absent.
One sibling and spouse did decide to turn off Fox and the Hate Radio stations, although they remain fundie Christians. However, they did stop attending their Family/Fellowship megachurch, and amazingly (!!) sought input from me about what church to attend.
I keep my lack of religion on the down-low with my family, so I was surprised to be asked that question. I gave them some input as best I could. Sadly it seems like the smaller churches, which sometimes (not always) are somewhat less propaganda outlets, are in short supply in this day and age of megachurches.
They told me that they could no longer “handle” the daily diet of angry, hateful, fear rhetoric on Fox and Hate Radio. I congratulated them and explained that I no longer had a tv and sought real news on the internet. My sibling’s spouse enjoys tv but tends to watch nature and history channel shows and mostly surfs through the “nooz” shows.
They seem a LOT happier than my other sibling, who is addicted to Glenn Beck (ugh), Rush, Fox, etc, and belongs to one of those dreadful Jews for Jesus “churches.” This sib is angry all the time and feels mightily hard done by the blahs who’ve ripped them off… this sib lives VERY well; has a huge house that is within their means; travels extensively and often; etc. Yet if you talked to them sight unseen, you would be led to believe that they live in the poor house and work their fingers to the bone and have nothing to show for it bc of blahs on welfare, etc, argle bargle.
It’s truly sad that they’ve been led by the nose to lead a really wealthy life style but be gulled into viewing themselves as somehow poor and ripped off by other poor people. No way to have a conversation with this side of the family. Long gone into delusional nuttiness. I’m sure they love Trump and all thrilled with the blahs being punched in the face, but would turn to you and baldly state that THEY are not racist.
Ugh.
Well, there you go. Anecdotal evidence in support of what quality psych research tells us.
If someone asked me for suggestions about churches, I’d probably ask what they liked most and least about their current or most recent church. Music, preaching, and warm fuzzies from fellowship are major considerations.
Anger is a negative and highly aroused emotional state, and that makes it stressful. Happiness and frequent or continuous high stress are negatively correlated. Stuff, lots of very nice stuff, does little to counteract that sort of stress. Not good for one’s health in general either.
I was going to rec this and then I stopped and thought,”Were they saying that by lifting expectations high and then dashing them, Obama enabled Trump”?
I’m not sating that that is necessarily the case, but it certainly is a serious topic to discuss. It’s not like “Obama is a secret Muslim” or “Hillary ordered the Navy not to come to the embassy’s aid because she hates America” or “Eisenhower was a dedicated member of the Communist conspiracy”.
No it’s because no-drama Obama has been so boring that we’re all craving excitement, and Trump is so exciting. Or something.
Naturally, Steve Benen has the links:
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/republican-blames-trumps-rise-obamas-level-headedness
“WTF happened to them?” They took a decided hard turn Right after the Republicans threatened to take away their subsidy and non-profit status. They’ve never been the same again.
I just listen to Garrison Keillor. And as for public TV,
I just watch for the Britcoms. I love “Doc Martin”.
NPR was the last MSM radio/TV source that I had to finally give up when the biases become too heavy to ignore. Have felt much better for doing so.
In my opinion, NPR was never all that liberal ever, although it’s always been touted as such. I agree that probably up to about 10 to 15 years ago, it was somewhat more objected and certainly presented the nooz in a less shouty fashion.
However the CORPORATION for “Public” Broadcasting took over some time ago, and that put paid to any objectivity as far as I was concerned. At least one of their stenographers, Mara Liason, works for Fox; there may be other Fox employees there. I know there were more at one time. That tells you all you need to know.
Frankly I call it National Propaganda Network. It’s just Fox Lite. You’ll get the same rightwing talking points on NPR that you can get from Fox but told in a more adult fashion is all.
I rarely ever listen to any of the nooz programs; can’t abide them. I listen to some local programming and some of the weekend shows, which remain either entertaining or actually informative.
Never expect any really objective news from NPR. Ain’t gonna happen.
I don’t own a tv and haven’t followed closely the apparently ongoing violence at Trump’s rallies. Doesn’t Trump more or less encourage this type of violence from his fandom?
My very limited understanding is that the violence is launched by Trump’s fans, who attack protestors who are either outside or inside the rally. Sometimes the protestors are shouting at Trump.
My understanding is that Trump encourages his supporters to attack the protestors. At best, Trump does call for the protestors to be kicked out.
All these Trump fans, no doubt, would’ve been extra supportive of the Bundy gang’s First Amend rights at the Malheur Refuge (I read about that). But clearly First Amend rights don’t apply to those who hold different viewpoints.
Again: isn’t Trump mostly voicing encouragement for this type of violence?
Trump is all Ego; his fans are all Id. Of course his fans will act out and some will use violence. (Rand Paul Supporter Stomps On MoveOn Member’s Head (VIDEO) (UPDATED))
They don’t want protesters or anyone else at or to see their Klan Klatches and they’re too inarticulate to make a rational case for supporting a thug politician/candidate; so, they use their fists.
In this regard, nothing different or new about Trump’s fans from that of most GOP candidates. As the biggest bully of the moment, he’s simply drawing most of the hoi polloi thugs. Should the Trumpolooza lose steam they’ll move on to Cruz.
I’ve always felt that a significant fraction of the Right’s angst arises from the stress of wanting to punch know-it-all, smarty-pants Liberals in the mouth but not being allowed. If Trump gives them permission, well… It won’t end well.
I’m guessing they probably believe that their fists constitute a legitimate expression of ‘free speech.’ Seriously, just ask them. Then stand back.
They’ve just been trained and brainwashed to hate on “liberals” just because. At this point, it really has nothing to do with being smarty pants or know it alls or whatever. The broad brush of Liberal equates to the dreaded horrible “Other” who is ruining their precious lives somehow.
But these are the same people who don’t want ANY govt whatsoever, whilst collecting SS, Medicare, and other forms of fed govt dole. So we’re not talking about people who make any sense.
The goal, of course, which has mostly been achieved, is to pit the proles against one another, whilst the 1% massively rips us all off. And so it goes…
Pitting the proles against each other is easier said than done and our current elite are lazy, unfamiliar with history and more greedy than smart.
I live in the hope that these disaffected Righties are persuadable once their adrenalin and testosterone levels subside a bit.
They’ve just been trained and brainwashed to hate on “liberals” just because
I think unless you are easily and quickly identified as ‘ one of them’ using hate speech, talking points or a Trump sticker, it will be equally quickly assumed that you are not on their side.
Not with us automatically means against us.
They are a dwindling demographic, they see Trump as their last chance/hurrah, just as Bernie is seen as Last and Only Hope by progressives.
They may both be right.
Trump Rallys generally have two components.
One component is where Strongman Trump comes out and speaks, which generally gets his followers excited, and gets their adrenaline flowing.
The other component is the interactive segment of the Trump Rally.
I’ve posted this at various sites, and probably here also, but here’s an interpretation of a 2016 Trump Rally, from 1982
Trump Rally 2016: An Introduction to the Strongman!
The Interactive segment of the Trump Rally:
Until further notice the ‘establishment lane’ of the Republican primary nomination should be closed due to frequent pile-ups and fatal accidents.
In another hate crime of sorts,
Buddhist monk attacked after being calling a fucking Muslim
in Hood River, Oregon. That’s about an hour from Portland.
Emphasis added:
Go Buddhism. Looks like the xenophobes still need their lesson in world culture and geography.
The real interesting story behind this one that few seem to remember. Trump told his followers at rallies that they were ok to act this way. Trump stated if they got in legal trouble the almighty Trump will take care of it. I wonder how long this guy gets to sit in jail waiting for a Trump representative to get him out?
This is the story behind the story that might snowball on Trump.
Not so long ago in the grand scheme and here we are again.
I gather that aggressive audience participation has become a big thing in the professional wrestling world.
That’s the place to go when you get tired of being civilized.
Following this episode was the latest Rep debate and the commentary, including from Trump, was that everyone was so ‘civilized’.
Since the attraction of those that are enamored of all things Trump is the WWF-like thumps, slams and body rolls, one might wonder if a ‘civilized debate’ might just be a big let down for the fans so that they realize they missed their WWF moment and decide to go back to their couch..?
Without the mud wrestling aspect, can a civilized Trump and his contenders that some saw last night still hold appeal?
They were likely bored by the “civilized” debate. Have to wonder if it was easier for them to notice that all of the candidates are ignorant nincumpoops.
Doubt it; after all, that audience believes all the crap the candidates are shoveling.
Wouldn’t be too sure about that. Trump as a person and in what he says defies much of what we’re told they believe. The others stick to the standard script, but they sound hollow and trite.
He wants to party like it’s 1956.