R-E-S-P-E-C-T

I grew up in a time when we all respected the person occupying the highest office in the land, our president.  We might have differing political opinions but we all respected the man in the office.  We referred to him as Mr. President.  Civility and proper comportment demanded that respect and, during my lifetime, our presidents were generally worthy.  All that ended on January 20, 2017.

While anyone can challenge his (Trump’s) stance on immigration, implementation of tariffs, commitment to a border wall, his tax cut for the wealthy, his repeals of “anything Obama,” these can all be matters for debate.  What is beyond debate is his child-like behavior and calls for violence against his perceived enemies.

Cowardly Lyin'

In the Trumpian Land of Oz, the Cowardly Lyin’ can’t put two coherent sentences together without resorting to either his bucket of clichés and campaign rhetoric or by reading a script from a teleprompter written by a staffer with some semblance of a brain; the Scarecrow, no doubt.  When left to his own devices the man is the embodiment of hate and racial prejudice. 

Trump Script Writer

He has called for violence against reporters.  He supported Rep. Greg Gianforte’s* 2017 attack on a reporter saying, “any guy who can do a body slam, he is my type!”  When Trump was in school, he claims to have given a teacher a black eye because he felt the teacher didn’t know anything about music, [reference Art of the Deal, 1987].  This last reference seems contrary to his normal cowardly persona, [dodged the draft with bone spurs that showed up as soon as he was draft eligible].  Most of his bravado comes from encouraging others to act.

Trump in Montana praising Gianforte* 

During the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1, 2016, he encouraged the crowd to “knock the crap out of them” referring to protestors, and he promised to pay their legal fees.  Later that month at a rally in Las Vegas, security guards were being “too gentle” with a protestor so Trump said. "I'd like to punch him in the face, I'll tell you."  Many of the Trump rallies have been the scene of fights and fisticuffs.  There are numerous other instances when Trump has encouraged violence against his enemies at his rallies; he does this because he gets applause from his fans.  Trump’s ego needs this sort of affirmation in order to survive.

Violence at Trump Rally in Berkely

Violence at Trump Rally in Arizona

Most recently, one of Trump’s fans took the calls to action literally and mailed over a dozen pipe bombs to the hit list literally dictated by Trump.  Initially, the Trump Media Network, aka Fox News, touted wild conspiracy theories where “the Dems” were mailing the bombs to themselves to distract from Trump’s fight with the caravan of Hondurans who “were bringing crime and strange lethal diseases” to America.  When the perpetrator was revealed as one of their own, they claimed he was paid by George Soros.  There are literally no bounds to how far afield these folks will go to lie to their radical base and provide nourishment for their hatred.

Trump Supporter and Pipe Bomb Suspect and His Van

I guess I never really expected our president to take any responsibility for the fact that his calls for violence would actually boil over into real violence.  I’ve come to expect very little from Captain Cheez Whiz so he rarely disappoints.  The man lives in a self-made delusional world where he can do no wrong.  I like to joke that I’ve never made a mistake; this man-toddler actually believes he is infallible.

I'M DONALD J. TRUMP
THE "J" STANDS FOR GENIUS

Today, another violent hate crime was perpetrated against a synagogue in Pittsburgh.  An assault rifle and three handguns were used to kill at least 11 people.  While hate crimes have been with us for years, recent incidents seem to have been perpetrated by people emboldened by an atmosphere of acceptance promoted by certain individuals on the Right, including the Immigrant-Bashing Carnival Barker.  Trump was asked to comment and he stated that the Synagogue should have had better security.

*Note:  Gianforte pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and paid a $385 fine, completed 40 hours of community service, 20 hours of anger management training, wrote an apology letter and donated $50,000 to the Committee to Protect Journalists, according to the Associated Press. Perhaps the president would like to join Mr. Gianforte.