Month: February 2017

The story may not be “Fake News.” But it’s just as lame…

Arlington (Texas) preschool teacher fired over ‘Kill some Jews’ tweet, other anti-Semitic posts

BK-I’m very suspicious of the timing of this story, from the Dallas Morning News 2/22/17… about a Muslim woman who tweeted out some anti-Semitic garbage three years ago. This story now appears ….right in the middle of Trump’s inability to forcefully declare his outrage over Anti-semitism. I’ll say why I’m calling BS in a moment.

But first, via Slate, a reminder:
The White House’s statement on the JCC threats read in full:
“Hatred and hate-motivated violence of any kind have no place in a country founded on the promise of individual freedom. The President has made it abundantly clear that these actions are unacceptable.”
Dahlia Lithwick, Slate– It’s worth noting that terrorism and vandalism have absolutely nothing to do with “individual freedom” and that threatening to kill small babies and elderly people is an affront to human safety and dignity, not just “freedom.” The White House statement, you also might have noticed, did not contain the words Jewish, Jewish Community Center, or terrorism or anti-Semitism. This has become something of a tradition for the Trump administration, which failed to mention the existence of Jewish victims in a message issued on Holocaust Remembrance Day. Last week, Trump fielded a question about the rise in anti-Semitic incidents during a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by making another rambling reference to his Electoral College victory and his Jewish daughter and by dismissing the question as unfair. And on Thursday, in the strangest performance to date, Trump told a Jewish reporter to sit down and accused him of lying when he was asked a softball question about the rise of anti-Jewish hate.

BK: The total lack of information on when this woman was fired renders the story lame, at best.

“Spokeswoman Lydia Cisaruk told the New York Daily News that Salem was no longer employed there, but would not detail when the school found out about the tweets and when the activist left.”

This would indicate the events are far in the past, and have no relationship to Trump’s apparent Jewish Problem. You know, the one where he claims he’s the most NON-anti-Semitic human ever (easily verifiable), loves himself the most Israel ever, but courted and encouraged and never really denounced the entire spectrum of Jew-haters of all stripes during his campaign. The guy who loves his Jewish daughter and grandchildren but hires Steve Bannon of Breitbart fame, home of the put-upon White Christian victims of Obamamulticulturalism. Just for fun, add the irony that Bannon made and apparently still makes a fortune off of the most Jewish show ever on network tv, Seinfeld. The bottom line is that this is excatly the kind of anti-Semitism story Trump Suckups, fans, and excusers can embrace: a Muslim spewing the hate. As if the vast, vast majority of anti-Jewish sentiment and activity isn’t by those very deplorable white supremacist Christian Identity neo-Nazi types. The story of the teacher is…. dreck.

WHAT DID THE PRESIDENT NOT KNOW AND WHEN DID HE NOT KNOW IT? IN LIKE FLYNN PRESS CONFERENCE EDITION

 

It’s pretty bad when you get called out by your biggest media cheerleader, Fox News, over complete evasion of the story of the day, fully set up by the White House. This really IS Nazi Germany (oops, sorry for breaking Godwin’s Law there… how about “Soviet-Pravda Era,” or old reliable “George Orwellian”… ok?) kind of stuff. On purpose, questions are taken from two guaranteed in-the-tank “reporters.” As a result, of course, President Ignoramus is not put on the spot and made to feel “uncomfortable” and can simply lapse into repeating campaign boasts “my huge electoral college win” in the midst of generic pablum. One American press question from the Daily Caller, and the other from Sinclair Broadcasting. The Daily Caller is Tucker Carlson’s little right wing tattler sheet.  Promise not to say anything about Mikey Flynn, The Russian Whisperer?  You got it, big guy! 

Sinclair Broadcasting is TRULY the definition of FAKE NEWS. (They own ABC 45 in the Triad) Sinclair is the second largest owner of local tv stations in the country… 154 on their way to 165 outlets.

Via Wikipedia: “On December 16, 2016, Jared Kushner, son-in-law of then-President-elect Donald Trump, stated that it had reached deals with Sinclair to give the company extended access to the Trump campaign, in exchange for airing, without further commentary, interviews with the Republican Party candidate on its stations, which Kushner said had a better reach than cable networks such as CNN.”

Trump was, as he always is at these kind of events, bored out of his mind. Read the statement like it was the first time he’d ever seen it. Low Energy Donald. But the stage-managed questions were beyond anything I’ve ever seen. Mr. Trump…. you’re losing FOX NEWS, although your butt boy Hannity is probably preparing a “very special” Hannity Excuse Squad Special: “Why Trump NEVER Needs To Take a Question From Anyone He Don’t Want To.” Oh, Canada.