These Exploitations Of The Pittsburgh Attack Deride Its Victims
Yesterday's terror attack on a synagogue in Pittsburgh was committed by a man with extremely anti-Jewish and anti-immigration views. It is third attack on houses of worship in three years.
Like the earlier incidents it is a heinous crime for ignominious reasons.
But there is little sound reason to blame the incident on Trump. It does not justify to falsely claim "increased anti-semitism". To exploit it for a racist driven colonial cause makes a mockery of its victims.
The New York Times reports:
Armed with an AR-15-style assault rifle and at least three handguns, a man shouting anti-Semitic slurs opened fire inside a Pittsburgh synagogue Saturday morning, killing at least 11 congregants and wounding four police officers and two others, the authorities said.
...
The assailant, identified by law enforcement officials as Robert D. Bowers, fired for several minutes and was leaving the synagogue when officers, dressed in tactical gear and armed with rifles, met him at the door. According to the police, Mr. Bowers exchanged gunfire with officers before retreating back inside and barricading himself inside a third-floor room. He eventually surrendered.
From reading between the lines we learn that the killer is not a Muslim. Otherwise he would be called a 'terrorist'. We can also conclude that the killer was white. Otherwise the police would have killed him.
The murderer was extremely anti-Jewish. He was a white supremacist who had the delusion that people of Jewish belief caused all the problems he perceived:
The suspect in the mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue told officers that Jews were committing genocide and that he wanted them all to die, according to a charging document made public early Sunday.
...
Worshippers “were brutally murdered by a gunman targeting them simply because of their faith,” said Bob Jones, head of the FBI’s Pittsburgh office, though he cautioned the shooter’s full motive was not yet known.
Social network posts by Robert Bowers show that the immediate reason for attacking the synagogue was last week's National Refugee Shabbat ceremony by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS):
Hours before Saturday morning's shooting, the account posted again, "HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I can't sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I'm going in."
HIAS is 137 years old organization founded by and for Jews who were fleeing pogroms in Russia. It nowadays supports all refugees. The killers hate for HIAS points to the ideological closeness of white supremacists and Zionists:
On the Jewish far right, the Zionist Organization of America has attacked HIAS and other Jewish organizations for lobbying to admit Syrian refugees to the U.S. and has accused HIAS of doing so for profit.
The NYT tries to connect the incident with Trump:
[The assault] also took place in the wake of the arrest Friday morning of a man who the authorities said sent more than a dozen pipe bombs to critics of Mr. Trump, including several high-profile Democrats.
The pipe bombs, which could not have killed anyone, were sent by a Trump supporting loon in Florida. All were detect before they reached their intended target.
The Pittsburgh killer hated Trump. He rallied against him on social networks as being controlled by Jews. He wrote that he did not vote for him. From his archived tweets (part 1, part 2):
Trump is a globalist, not a nationalist. There is no #MAGA as long as there is a kike infestation.
But the NYT report ignores the killer's anti-Trump stand. It goes on to blame the incident on Trump's rhetoric:
The anguish of Saturday’s massacre heightened a sense of national unease over increasingly hostile political rhetoric. Critics of President Trump have argued that he is partly to blame for recent acts of violence because he has been stirring the pot of nationalism, on Twitter and at his rallies, charges that Mr. Trump has denied.
This ignores that Trump uses the same nationalistic rhetoric that all U.S. presidents use:
At the U.S. Military Academy last year, Obama pronounced unequivocally: “I believe in American exceptionalism with every fiber of my being.”
Nor are anti-immigration positions a Trump phenomenon. It was Obama who was called the "deporter-in-chief":
More than 2.8 million undocumented immigrants have been deported over the last eight years, ...
Extreme nationalism and anti-immigration positions are as American as apple-pie. Hostile political rhetoric in the U.S. is certainly not a one-sided issue. It was Hillary Clinton who spoke of citizens as "deplorable" people. It is only Trump's style, not the content, that differentiates his "stirring the pot" from that of other politicians. To blame this incident on Trump is an attempt to avert that insight.
The NYT also conflates the killers anti-immigration motive with 'anti-semitism' when it cites the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) with a false statistic:
[The massacre] came amid rising anxiety about illegal immigration and in a decade that has seen an uptick in hate crimes. According to an annual report by the Anti-Defamation League issued earlier this year, the number of reported anti-Semitic incidents in the United States surged 57 percent in 2017, the largest rise in a single year since the A.D.L. began tracking such crimes in 1979.
The ADL does not track "such crimes", but any incident its perceives as harassment or threat or "anti-semitic". The extreme rise in the 2017 ADL statistics only appeared because the ADL fudged the numbers, as other Jewish organizations criticized, by including hundreds of threats a unstable Jewish teen made against Jewish institutions:
A 19-year-old American-Israeli man was convicted of making hundreds of bomb threats to Jewish community centers and Jewish schools in the United States, as well as airlines.
...
The hoax threats to the JCCs and other Jewish institutions in the first three months of 2017 forced widespread evacuations and raised fears of a resurgence in anti-Semitism. Kadar’s parents and lawyer have not disputed his involvement in the bomb threats but asserted in his defense that he has a brain tumor and a low IQ.
The ADL not only fudge its numbers but notoriously conflates hate against people of Jewish belief with anti-Zionist activism like the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
The alleged increase in anti-semitism ADL claims is a 'shark story':
The Brandeis Center’s Marcus said some recent reports of anti-Semitic incidents “are what one might call ‘shark stories,’” referring to media reports about shark attacks several summers ago. Many people, he said, “feared that shark attacks were spiking, and experts struggled to identify the reason. At the end of the day, it turned out that such attacks were not increasing at all—there were more stories about them because the shark narrative had caught the attention of influential editors and media outlets.”
Robert D. Bowers was active on the social media platforms Facebook and Gab, a Twitter like service with a minimum of censorship. He posted and reposted lots of anti-Jewish slander. Gab, which is often used by people who are censored elsewhere, reacted immediately after the incident. It archived and closed the account and informed the police. Nonetheless it was immediately censored itself. Paypal, which Gab used to collect donations, shut down its account without giving any specific reason. Such unreasonable reaction will only reinforce the extreme right feeling of being persecuted.
The Israeli government will send its probably most racist member, education minister Naftali Bennet, to exploit the incident for its colonization of Palestine. Bennet boasted about killing Arabs:
“I’ve killed lots of Arabs in my life – and there’s no problem with that.”
He calls refugees who came to Israel "infiltrators". He would have applauded the killer if the target had been some other religious group:
Education Minister Naftali Bennett won the backing of a leading anti-illegal immigration activist Thursday, after he vowed to block plans to legalize hundreds of Sudanese infiltrators.
...
On Thursday, [..], the Jewish Home party, led by Education Minister Naftali Bennett, announced that it would block implementation of the Interior Ministry’s plan to grant residency permits to the 300 Sudanese.
...
"There's no justification for absorbing those infiltrators in Israel."
Israel declared itself an Apartheid state. Its government holds the same extreme rightwing views against 'others' as the attacker in Pittsburgh. Like him it confuses people of Jewish belief with a race. Like him it rallies against immigration. Sending Bennet to exploit the terror attack is a mockery of its victims.
Posted by b on October 28, 2018 at 17:22 UTC | Permalink
next page »@1 "...the Tweeter-in-Chief is very guilty of creating the zeitgeist which he hopes will merely enflame his nutjobs to vote GOP in 10 days..."
Exactly. Trump's anti=migrant position is no secret. He knows it plays well with his base. Got to wonder how he plans on dealing with the migrant caravan when it gets to the border.
Posted by: dh | Oct 28 2018 17:50 utc | 2
#1 You are blaming Trump for creating the 'zeitgeist'?
Trump would not be in office, nor would Clinton have been on the ballot if the US were not the sort of rotten society in which these one man massacres recur on a regular basis and were doing so before Trump had gone through his first bankruptcy.
Along the continuum on which this temple in Pittsburgh is located are the publicly acclaimed attacks on Gaza, the genocide in Yemen and the countless assassinations, such as that in the Ankara Embassy, which make the news in a US dominated world in which, courtesy of Wall St and Washington, a campaign of killings, led by the military and fascist thugs is very likely to begin in Brazil within hours.
Posted by: bevin | Oct 28 2018 17:57 utc | 3
B, just stop with your bullshit he wasn't black so he was spared by cops routine. You are lowering yourself to their propaganda-level of stoking racial fires in this country. How bout you leave your bullshit identity politics obviously reinforced by your location of origin in the land of the blind?
More whites are killed by cops in the US than blacks. Full stop. Don't give me ratios or per centages either. The better correlation would be made then by the issue of poverty and police violence.
I am saying this as someone who appreciates your contributions in covering and exposing our nation's FP. But domestically, you are little more than a tool for the globalists in your understanding of the US' domestic ills. Stop it!
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Oct 28 2018 17:58 utc | 4
I see Paypal has banned Gab.co from their using their banking facilities and Gab has also been thrown off their platform because this man posted anti Jewish rants there. Curious, there are lots of other sites with posts that are less than complimentary to the Jews, yet they have not been targeted for removal. The Jews are murdering unarmed Palestinians with abandon, yet there is no censor of their posts and publications. Its one thing to Barr individuals from a platforms but taking down a site used by thousands is just not on. This is heaven sent for MSM and the government because now they have a new way to silence voices of decent, or as they call it "fake news" if they can marginalized whole sites on the basis that some nut job once posted on it, then the alternative voice is dead
Posted by: john wilson | Oct 28 2018 18:00 utc | 5
Were any of those pipe bombs reported, by the press or investigators, to actually contain explosives?
I haven't come across any report that actually such explosives were found.
So why then call them 'bombs' and not, say, elaborate egg timers?
Posted by: bjd | Oct 28 2018 18:02 utc | 6
Thanks for providing an excellent breakdown of the Pittsburg event and its perpetrator, b! However, Bowers was correct about Jews and genocide as that's what Israel's Apartheid policy aims at--the elimination of all native Palestinians from their native land. That the NY Times attempted to tie the pipebomber with the Pittsburg shooter to implicate Trump only serves to further denigrate it as a credible media source. Indeed, the observation that Bowers differs little from the Zionist settlers he thought he was attacking is significant, but will be omitted by BigLie Media. The underlying hate and violence within the Outlaw US Empire is generated via federal government policy as b notes in an effort to keep the populace divided so elites can rule unimpeded.
Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 28 2018 18:03 utc | 7
Also, you are straining a false equivalency here:
Hostile political rhetoric in the U.S. is certainly not a one-sided issue. It was Hillary Clinton who spoke of citizens as "deplorable" people. It is only Trump's style, not the content, that differentiates his "stirring the pot" from that of other politicians. To blame this incident on Trump is an attempt to avert that insight.
For one, style counts too. And his words are inciteful, against the media, against other politicians, non-white "shit hole"countries and in praise of the very fine people of white nationalism as just a few example.. Two, Hillary [thank dog] is not the President and three, Trump is not merely "other politicians". He is our Dear Leader. There is no way you can point to any other POTUS in recent memory, at least since the dawn of social media and probably as far back as the Civil War/reconstruction era, and make your statement hold up.
Posted by: donkeytale | Oct 28 2018 18:06 utc | 8
Donkeytale 1 "....but also inspires a few other nuttier jobs to cross the line..."
Nuttier jobs have always crossed the line in the US. Mass killings and politicians riding them lie surfers riding waves is part of US culture.
Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Oct 28 2018 18:12 utc | 9
Yes, Bevin, Trump is guilty of creating the zeitgeist which he hopes will merely enflame his nutjobs to vote GOP in 10 days....but also inspires a few other nuttier jobs to cross the line...as collateral damage.
Context matters. There is no other President in recent history who enflames audiences and stirs racial and social animosity as does Trump for the sake of gaining and maintaining political power.
No world leader of the developed world even, in fact, except maybe a few others of similar authoritarion style.
Posted by: donkeytale | Oct 28 2018 18:18 utc | 10
Actually, there is another disturbing trend these two incidents brought to light:
1. Nutters mutter threats on an on-line social media site that is dedicated to free speech of all those banned from elsewhere. The speech is noted but he is not censored (most of the time it is still a "he" though this may change). Eventually one nutter out of who knows how many goes off. next, the social media is being or banned. But not the Twitter and facebook where same nutter posted nutso mutterings.
2. Nutters mutter threats on main social media. Everyone notices they are kind of right wing. Some bring it to the attention of "authorities". Authorities do nothing but media keeps blaming some lady from St. petersburg and a Russian "troll farm". Nutters are not given a ban or warning or even suspended. Some notice that their rantings gather a bit of "support' from other nutters (nutters unite?). Eventually, one nutter goes off. Everyone blames the right and Trump for increasing a climate of "hate".
3. Both types of events happen just before the mid-term when it seems the blue wave is turning into a bit of a puddle.
I hope I am not the only one who notices just how very easy it is to produce a "let it just happen" scenario. TPTB need do absolutely nothing - in fact they are well encouraged to do absolutely nothing. Why stop a coked and loaded gun when a little shoot-'em up helps whatever agenda is being served? not only that but I'd bet there are - at any given time - actors on-line who not only fail to report "danger' but whose job it is to stir the pot some. may be even give a few useful "hints' about where "equipment' and/or "targets' can be found.
Indeed, these scenarios are so obvious and the recent cases so serve the Deeper states that I'd be surprised if this isn't exactly how things are happening.
Especially in a big country like the US which has more than its share of people who live in a state of rage in the margins. Something we rarely acknowledge but we know they are there everywhere, as we each know some of them. They may be the "crazy uncle" at thanksgiving that's really seems to be going off the rails lately; the neighbor who suddenly flips out for no reason and you realize you've been living next to the rage of the caged all these years. They may be an interlocutor on-line who seems to break into a fury for seemingly no reason. They are the co-worker who keeps sharing their fantasies of upheavel, but never quite cross the line, though you suspect it won't take much for them to do just that. They are the people we read about in the papers, who suddenly went off the deep end and killed their or others' family. They are the kid who is obviously troubled and for whom no help is somehow available. These are the people we avoid. We who are not in the margins. We avoid them and hope to gawd it's not one of us or ours who is around when the potential explosion comes.
And in a country like the US with no mental health services for the not well heeled, where intervention is considered interference and where we often have not enough community around that can be called upon, these situations, these people are commonplace. As American as apple pie, you'd say.
And unfortunately, these people that society can't and won't do anything to help or pull out from the margins, can be weaponized. I believe they are - to whatever level they need to be - when convenient.
How's that for a conspiracy theory that's neither a theory not very conspiratorial?
Posted by: Merlin2 | Oct 28 2018 18:19 utc | 11
Peter AU.
Nuttier jobs have always crossed the line in the US. Mass killings and politicians riding them lie surfers riding waves is part of US culture.
Examples of one such surfing POTUS, please.
Posted by: donkeytale | Oct 28 2018 18:20 utc | 12
donkeytale
Hillary did more than call people "deplorable", she stoked the fire of the "resistance": Hillary unleashes the thugs.
Funny how any emotional event causes people to run their partisan corner.
The problem is not Jews, it's Zionists. The problem is not Trump, it's the duopoly.
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Oct 28 2018 18:29 utc | 13
@11 donkeytale
The Trump presidency has been a gift to truth, whether you can see it or not. There are some that are very behind the curve, however, and are choosing to grapple with Trump as a person and not with what a Trump presidency represents.
Did you expect or hope for another in the globalist class, maybe as slick as Barry-O, who appealed to the edumacated coastal elites in his incredibly pompous and phony addresses?
Trump is the antithesis in this Hegelian dialectic. Deal with it, brah.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Oct 28 2018 18:35 utc | 14
Trump did not create the zeitgeist at all, he has just been masterful (sadly) at exploiting it for his personal benefit, above all else.
Posted by: John Zelnicker | Oct 28 2018 18:44 utc | 15
Good analysis, B.
You are afflicting the complacent, if not particularly comfortable, Trump Derangement Syndrome sufferers who resent and resist any perspective that doesn't emphatically insist that Trump is at, or near, the root of all of Amerika's domestic madness.
It's that pathological binary-thinking component of the disorder: in the TDS mindset, it's acceptable to point out that any given social ill, e.g. racism, bigotry, armed violence, etc. has a history and diversity that existed, and exists, independently of Trump's presidency.
However, unless such analysis also explicitly asserts that Trump is uniquely, and substantially, Part of the Problem(s), the analyst will be accused, in effect, of being "soft on Trump".
Without that pointed denunciation, the Trump-obsessed will reduce any attempt to provide a broader and deeper context for understanding the present-day Amerikan horrorshow to an impermissible attempt to "let Trump off the hook".
Keep up the good work. ;)
Posted by: Ort | Oct 28 2018 18:46 utc | 16
Trump and the Republicans will be a problem for most US Americans if or when they cut Social Security (or raise the age), make more cuts to Medicare and Medicaid; and repeal the preexisting conditions clause and eliminate the (huge) Obamacare (health care premium) subsidy.
Any of these actions will hurt a lot of people.
Also Trump is a boor, a bully and a Lee Atwater school sh*t stirrer.
Posted by: fast freddy | Oct 28 2018 18:56 utc | 17
once again the media's fixation on mass shootings involving an AR-15 is followed by...a mass shooting with an AR-15. it's like the old saying "tell people not to think about bananas for 5 minutes and all they'll think about is bananas". makes me wonder if someone at CNN bought stock in the damn things. (AR-15s...not bananas.)
it is ironic that idiots like this guy think of "diaspora" jews the way zionists/israelis (who are about as true to judaism as the saudis are to islam) think of anyone to the left of golda meir. they're all trying to "wipe out our culture with imported darkies derp!"
this lack of awareness when it comes to the actual agendas of people makes me think of a recent story about the mail bomber male stripper: apparently his house was foreclosed on back in 2009 at the behest of a bank run by steve mnuchin - one of his MAGA idol's banker BFFs currently serving in the administration. classic. sayoc probably blamed it on obama at the time.
https://theintercept.com/2018/10/26/cesar-sayoc-foreclosure-steven-mnuchin/
Posted by: the pair | Oct 28 2018 19:02 utc | 18
NemesisCalling - LMAO. Srsly? Ok, I'll bite.
Trump represents himself and expects the little people (IE, everyone except him and his children) to exist only for him, the spoiled daddy-created globalist so-called billionaire who doesn't have a clue WTF he's doing as POTUS besides infotaining and enflaming his racist base, plus giving into the GOP party line on all substantive issues with the result being more of the same as Barry-O, only worse.
Personally, I enjoy him from an infotainment perspective. We are all only infotaining ourselves to death anyway, so Trump's just added comedic grist to enliven our time in hospice care.
Did you expect or hope for another in the globalist class, maybe as slick as Barry-O, who appealed to the edumacated coastal elites in his incredibly pompous and phony addresses?
I expected a globalist (either Trump or Hillary) but hoped for Bernie.
Trump is not antithesis. This is where you are most mistaken. If he were the truth (as you state), there would be stronger social security, Medicare and Medicaid for his base, no tax cuts favouring corporations, LLCs and the very rich.
There would be newly created infrastructure and improved healthcare.
The trade war would already be won and the wealth equality gap would be well on the road to closure.
Posted by: donkeytale | Oct 28 2018 19:22 utc | 19
NemesisCalling says:
Trump is the antithesis in this Hegelian dialectic
the dialectic is fucking skewed. in a sane world it could be, say, almost 10 years since George Bush et al had been incarcerated at Leavenworth for their crimes against humanity. serving at least 30 year sentences they wouldn't even be a third their way to absolution.
a veritable windfall for humanity it could have been.
Posted by: john | Oct 28 2018 19:27 utc | 20
@NemesisCalling #3
“… he wasn’t black so he was spared by cops…
I defend b’s usage. The underlying predicate of cops being trigger happy when it comes to “black bucks” has a truthiness about it. (Nemesis? do you deny this?)
My years of experience as a Police Legal Advisor (in x and y cities) forms my opinion that cops are eager to shoot blacks. Why? for the in-group, draw-blood prestige rewards. Any cop that shoots blacks nilly-willy is a stand-up guy and a cop who will watch your (thin blue line) back.
(Btw, b’ s journalism is cogent, concise, and overall, rather truthful. Now and then he calls the dreadful English “limey’s” and he habitually misspells ‘Netanyahoo,’ who is the duly elected leader of the only democracy in the MENA and who is, nevertheless, a genocidal ice-hole and an anti-semite cork-sucker of the first order, but when b writes it, so what?)
Posted by: A. Person | Oct 28 2018 19:51 utc | 21
A. Person @21--
The Zionist Abomination occupying Palestine is NOT any sort of democracy; rather, it's a plague upon humanity every bit as evil as Nazi Germany and the Outlaw US Empire.
Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 28 2018 20:01 utc | 22
The Pittsburgh attack was conveniently timed to distract US media from another murderous onslaught by Israel on Gaza. The IDF targets included a Gaza hospital.
Pittsburgh - qui bono?
Posted by: Yonatan | Oct 28 2018 20:04 utc | 23
@19 donkeytale
Trump is laying the groundwork for future upheavel. This is what I meant. There is no doubt that Trump is angling for his cut. I have laid out before that at the very least, Trump represents the nationalist resurgence over a globalist hegemony. I applaud this because this is a return to balance. We have not had a more refreshing president in my lifetime.
You misunderstood my post entirely which is suprising for a person as eloquent as you. Trump is a harbinger of truth, whether WILLING or UNWILLING. It makes no difference as long as we get the ball rolling. I will take the warts and all of a quasi-nationalist resurgence over status quo deathmarch towards oblivion.
The people will decide the future and Trump is (perhaps unwittingly) giving birth to a deeper understanding and self-reflection. Growing ain't easy, though.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Oct 28 2018 20:07 utc | 24
@20 john
See my post towards donkeytale. I don't see any disagreement in your post so I can assume you are just stating the obvious that we HAVE to go through something like Trump to get to the other side. That is the OPPORTUNITY of a Trump presidency. It is the question that has been brought forth by his power. When Hegel saw Napoleon come through his town he knew he was witnessing something.
Let us not abandon this question, then.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Oct 28 2018 20:11 utc | 25
@21 person
I encourage you to look at statistics and try to understand that whites are killed more than blacks.
Otherwise, you are just making an off-the-cuff remark about your subjective experience in a very small sample size.
The problem is poverty and the fact that blacks are pawns in a dirty political game...just like other minorities and gays.
Or are all blacks who agree that they have some house cleaning to do just "Uncle Tom's?"
As for my race, I think white trash are even worse.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Oct 28 2018 20:17 utc | 26
@A. Person #21
"he habitually misspells ‘Netanyahoo,’ who is the duly elected leader of the only democracy in the MENA"
First off, B's "misspelling" of Israel's current "genocidal ice-hole" leader is only slightly misspelled: which is actually spelled: Nutandyahoo, but who's to quibble about the first part the "cork-suckers" name anyhoo?
And if Israel really is the "only democracy"in the ME, what does that say about the majority of that countries population when they repeatedly re-erect this highly corrupt and fanatically racist head of state - regardless of the consequences?
Posted by: time2wakeup | Oct 28 2018 20:23 utc | 27
b has banned me (nemesiscalling) from posting here so I won't address your replies donkey, a person, and john.
Wow, b. That is very sad that you would choose this route. Nothing I have written has been racist or laden with ad hominems.
You are stellar when it comes to giving us fungus a little light into the MENA. But your social commentary, especially as it pertains to the US is wanting. I suggest you stick to what you do best and leave my country out of your vengeful and angry gaze.
Others have said that moon is one of the only places that still doesn't resemble an echo chamber. I am sorry to say that I can no longer believe that.
Oh well...on to the next.
Posted by: FormerAdmirer | Oct 28 2018 20:24 utc | 28
thanks for covering this b... i find your comments insightful and want to thank a. person @21 for challenging nemesis callings comments..
it seems to me the dynamic in the usa today is really getting more and more fucked, every year that goes by.... trump isjust one byproductand frankly i like the fact he got elected, as thecheap mask, that politicos like obama, or clinto had on, was harder to swallow for me then trumps literalism and obsession omn money.. may as well have a president that is as ugly and as blatant as the neo con military finacial industry is that is what they call the usa today...and just because i live in canada with squeaky clean buy trudeau, doesn’t mean i think canada is much different... we will probablyget some trump like leader next, which is what allthe neoliberal west deserve at this point... iwish it was different and the was a western leader half as capable as putin, but the are nowhere to be found....
@3 bevin... thanks for saying all that..
Posted by: james | Oct 28 2018 20:25 utc | 29
This, uh, essay amounts to, "Oh, I'm not anti-Semitic; I'm anti-Zionist!", which is essentially a defense of persons like Bowers, or a "while I do not condone... I can understand" argument. Nice.
Posted by: Stompano | Oct 28 2018 20:26 utc | 30
right....one is anti semite, if they are anti zionists.... crazy logic that i can never figure out..
Posted by: james | Oct 28 2018 20:28 utc | 32
We’re all on the same side ! Yes that’s right, we’re the victims of the 1% don’t let them laugh at us here, unite !
People on the right don’t like refugees/imagrents well guess what ! Imgrants / refugees don’t like being that ! Think about it, same side ! Let’s move ahead from the devide and rule .https://mobile.twitter.com/_bexology/status/1055141989354795008/photo/1
Posted by: Mark2 | Oct 28 2018 20:32 utc | 33
@Stompano #27
Congrats on, once again, employing the frequently trotted out propagandist conflation of the ol' anti-zionist=anti-semetic canard. Zero point though for originality.
Posted by: time2wakeup | Oct 28 2018 20:38 utc | 34
The far right appears to be split between pro-Zionist anti-Islamists (Breitbart, Bannon, etc) and anti-Jewish white supremacists (David Duke, Occidental Observer, Vdare and others). Zero hedge publishes Pepe Escobar in the full knowledge that he will get shot down in the comments section in a sort of strange postmodernism. Pepe wrote a great article about Brazil (he is Brazilian) and it got seriously trashed. The Unz Review follows a similar Zero Hedge line of bringing in very serious leftist articles from excellent writers such as James Petras, Diana Johnstone and Mike Whitney and C.J Hopkins who get variously mauled in the comments. But then the core of the website is right-wing and belongs, I believe, to the David Duke, Occidental Observer tendency even though the owner, Ron Unz is Jewish. This has never happened before.
Given that it is election day in Brazil, the most staggering fact for me is that there are 40 million evangelicals in Brazil, and 20% of Latin America is now evangelical. The Evangelicals are another right wing movement which, as it loses momentum in the US, has shifted to Latin America, Africa and even China. What to make of it?
Posted by: Lochearn | Oct 28 2018 21:26 utc | 35
To #21:
"cork-sucker"
That reminded me of an old joke about the three most embarrassing jobs - Sock Tucker, Coal Sacker, Cork Soaker.
Seriously, I agree that the remarks about "terrorist" and "white" were right on target. In that vein, I had to make an image search to verify that the two victims in the Ky Kroger shooting were black. Not a single story I read about the incident mentioned that. Now if the colors had been reversed....
Posted by: Zachary Smith | Oct 28 2018 21:36 utc | 36
Perhaps this tells it all ....
https://medium.com/@m_weddle/live-together-or-die-8223c04f3b43
Posted by: michael weddle | Oct 28 2018 21:45 utc | 37
"This ignores that Trump uses the same nationalistic rhetoric that all U.S. presidents use:"
No, you're really not familiar with what Trump says if you claim that.
Bernard: Do you really need to be reminded that Trump threatened to nuke North Korea? (Reagan's hot mic mistake regards bombing the Soviet Union out of existence is the only utterance from sitting US president that comes close to that statement by Trump.)
So your use of a massive false equivalence undermines your other claims.
Posted by: Jay | Oct 28 2018 21:48 utc | 38
There are mass shooters and there are mass bombers...
There are just babies compare with our old friend Mr. Kissinger.
Posted by: Vitaliy | Oct 28 2018 22:08 utc | 39
In the meantime, another Maga shooter attempted a mass murder at a black baptist church in Louisville, Kentucky. All the church doors were closed, so he decide to randomly shoot an elderly black couple at Krogers. Fleeing the scene of the crime he was overheard yelling ''whites don't kill whites'' to another white man in the parking lot. Of course, the white supremacist was apprehended alive. Funny how cops don't fear for their lives when facing armed White nationalists... Too bad Tamir Rice and countless other innocent black victims don't receive the same treatment.
Posted by: Augustin L | Oct 28 2018 22:14 utc | 40
@john wilson:
"The Jews are murdering unarmed Palestinians with abandon,"
That's an ugly conflation of Jews and Israel.
Posted by: Jay | Oct 28 2018 22:18 utc | 41
Assuming this was not another psyops it seems amazing to me that people cant distinguish between the Israeli government and their lobby which influences policy and elections in the US and the average Jew attending a synagogue.
As with any event I always look at who benefits. Certainly the anti-gun lobby. Zionists have always benefitted from such acts as they use them to get more protection against criticism of their policies (eg legislation to define antisemitism as hate speech which would include criticism of Israel). Remember the NY bombing threats a couple of years ago were coming from an individual said to be working alone in Israel)
Be interesting to learn more about this Bowers. I am skeptical its a psyops at this point because he was taken alive, but who knows.
Posted by: Pft | Oct 28 2018 22:36 utc | 42
Posted by: Jay | Oct 28, 2018 5:48:02 PM | 35
No, you're really not familiar with what Trump says if you claim that.
Yes, right, Trump said squarely "I am a nationalist" and "America above all else". That puts him in a different league for sure. Just imagine Mrs. Merkel uttering in German these 2 phrases, just saying "Germany" instead... ouch.
Posted by: hopehely | Oct 28 2018 22:37 utc | 43
And on a lighter note (humour is good medicine )—- dam I blame the yanks education ! I mean is this for real !! What with all ya guns an’ all !
https://twitter.com/_bexology/status/1055937157834203137
Posted by: Mark2 | Oct 28 2018 22:37 utc | 44
Posted by: Pft | Oct 28, 2018 6:36:52 PM | 39
Assuming this was not another psyops it seems amazing to me that people cant distinguish between the Israeli government and their lobby which influences policy and elections in the US and the average Jew attending a synagogue.
If I understood correctly his attack was against the Jewish organisation that brings immigrants. Because he sees that as the enemy action.
Posted by: hopehely | Oct 28 2018 22:53 utc | 45
Lochearn @ 32:
Some articles on Pentecostalism in Brazil and Latin America:
https://rlp.hds.harvard.edu/faq/pentecostalism-brazil
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/11/14/why-has-pentecostalism-grown-so-dramatically-in-latin-america/
We should not necessarily assume that because Pentecostalism came to Latin America from the US, that it will exhibit the same characteristics or even the same style and level of political conservatism that it has done in the US. It may be succeeding where Roman Catholicism has failed.
Posted by: Jen | Oct 28 2018 22:57 utc | 46
I think any discussion of antisemitism, Zionism, etc. is complicated by historical factors that have defined Jews in various ways simultaneously. They are a 'race', purposefully intermarrying within the group(s) over millennia. They have a distinct culture with its own language and sets of rules. And they maintain an old major religion.
A Jew is probably born one, but there are converts. A Jew may practice/believe all, some, or none of the cultural aspects of Judaism and ditto for the religious traditions. So saying "Jew" is not as descriptive as we assume.
Also, the issues of antisemitism and Zionism are affected by centuries of prejudice, ostracism, and occasional genocide such that Jews with whatever connection to their religion will tend to support some solidarity with it because of this extensive history of attack.
I guess the point is that we tend to focus on the victims of injustice when they are actually quite varied - blacks, women, Jews, etc. - when the point should be finding out why someone is so violent as to attack some probably stereotyped group. How exactly was the attacker aroused so emotionally? What needs correcting in the culture of the attacker, not of the victims?
Posted by: dus7 | Oct 28 2018 22:58 utc | 47
There is enough white guilt misinformation to fill up a Daily Beast column. The police shot the guy. What do you want? An execution at close range to appease your crazed hatred of whites.
If Trump caused this I suppose Obama triggered Omar Mateen or Nidal Hassan. This type of irrational nonsense has more of a home on an MSNBC hack site. Not here.
Posted by: Mike Valens | Oct 28 2018 23:23 utc | 48
@38 -- "That's an ugly conflation of Jews and Israel."
Indeed, it would be more accurate to say something like "People who claim to be Jewish in what is technically Palestine..."
Posted by: imo | Oct 28 2018 23:35 utc | 49
Mike Valens @ 48
Here’s the dudes truck !! I guess the contents does what it saves on the tin !
Posted by: Mark2 | Oct 29 2018 0:02 utc | 50
Posted by: hopehely | Oct 28, 2018 6:53:30 PM | 42
Yes, that's my understanding too. But the media and politicians would rather play the blame game (who incited the shooter?) than address what actually set this guy off.
I also noted a change in narrative in the coverage of this event. TV News seemed to take pains to highlight that Squirrel Hill (the neighborhood where the shooting occurred) is a "diverse community" - as if to say that this was an attack on all non-whites (not just Jews). This spins the attacker's motive without addressing it specifically. Essentially, they side-step the whole "open borders" debate, as well Israeli's closed borders (seemingly the only country where nationalism is acceptable).
Fueling divisiveness is what the duopoly does. When you don't work for the people, you distract and divide them instead. Where is this leading? To public acceptance of abridged civil rights. Isn't that why Kavanaugh was selected for the Supreme Court? Isn't that why his support for the imperial Presidency was ignored in favor of accusations that would create a public spectacle?
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Oct 29 2018 0:04 utc | 51
@45
oh so the cops finally shot a white terrorist in the act of killing people, so that makes it equivalent to all the unarmed black people they've shot, i suppose? how a bout that kentucky grocery killer? amazing how many white people who perpetrate mass murder can surrender peacefully to the cops, versus how many unarmed black, native american and homeless get shot to death or beaten to death by cops.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Oct 29 2018 0:25 utc | 52
@Jen, 43.
If I may interrupt to make a point.
Pentecostals flooding Brazil?
“The rorsching tward did snarfel… like gloms in the sun…
but when the dap did heifel,…. the smarking was begun!”
This is glossolalia. This is the singular fascinating thing Pentecostals do. They speak in tongues. Holy spirit stuff.
Also, Pentecostals crave a charismatic preacher. This is a must. To them, hollering is charisma. So, they crave hollering dictators. They backstroke through benevolent totalitarianism. Imho, Pentecostals are all clinically hysterical.
Posted by: DineroDProfit | Oct 29 2018 0:28 utc | 53
What is often missing in comments is the importance of not confusing Zionism with Zionist “Jews”, Zionists with Jew and Jews with Semites!
Zionism is an extremely radical anti-Jewish ideology that is based on a fantasy of a racial/cultural pure society, as was Nazism and the Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states (excluding Oman). This is not to say that there are not other societies that are racist, such as the US, Japan and India to mention just a few.
Most believers in Zionism are Radical conservative Christians with some 40 million in the US alone. A vast majority of US Christians support Zionism via their voting for Politicians that support Zionism and Zionist “Jews”.
Jews are just those that practice one of the variations of the Jewish religion much like there are various Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox sects. As long as a religion practices an inner form of the religion (e.g. some Sufi Islamic sects) that provides a moral basis for interactions with other in a society there is little harm in religion.
Jews are considered a part of the broad category of Semitic people the denotes a family of languages that includes Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic and certain ancient languages such as Phoenician and Akkadian, constituting the main subgroup of the Afro-Asiatic family.”
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/semitic
“Genetic studies indicate that modern Jews (Ashkenazi, Sephardic and Mizrahi specifically), Levantine Arabs, Assyrians/Syriacs, Samaritans, Maronites, Druze, Mandaeans, and Mhallami, all have a common Near Eastern heritage which can be genetically mapped back to the ancient Fertile Crescent, but often also display genetic profiles distinct from one another, indicating the different histories of these peoples.”
Furthermore, Jews are generally less Semitic than their current neighbors as: “A DNA study of "six Middle Eastern populations (Ashkenazi, Sephardic, and Kurdish Jews from Israel; Muslim Kurds; Muslim Arabs from Israel and the Palestinian Authority Area; and Bedouin from the Negev)" found that Jews were more closely related to groups in the north of the Fertile Crescent (Kurds, Turks, and Armenians) than to their Arab neighbors.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semitic_people
It is important to point out that Benzion Netanyahu (AKA Ben Nitay) may not be Semitic like many of the Jews in the government of Israel. His father was a Zionist Rabbi in Poland named Benzion Mileikowsky who was also a one-time secretary of Vladimir Jabotinsky.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Benzion-Netanyahu
Anti-Semitic Zionist “Jews” are mostly Ashkenazim (only some 40% of these have generic markers for Semitic Jews) and not only are anti-Semitic against the Palestinian Muslims and Christians but are also discriminating against the Ultra-Orthodox Semitic Jews. Furthermore, the Zionist Jews are facing daily protests against their rule from Semitic Jews, Christians and Muslims who are actually citizens of the state of Israel. Recently these protests have increased since the Zionist “Jews” that currently control Israel even passed a bill that officially defines Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people and Hebrew as the country's official language.
Anti-Semitic Zionist “Jews” also do not recognize the Syrian citizenship of the Druze living in the occupied Golan Heights. The refuse to take Israeli citizenship and use a Israeli laissez-passer to travel outside of Israel with the citizenship box left empty.
Likewise, the Zionist anti-Semites suppress three million, mostly Semites, living in open air concentration camps and have killed and wounded some 10,000 as collective punishment with the approval of the West (including Australia).
https://joanroelofs.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/insecurity-blanket.pdf
Posted by: Krollchem | Oct 29 2018 0:29 utc | 54
@b
Would you please tell us when you ban someone whose been commenting at MoA for a long time like NemisisCalling?
I know if I was banned for being a cheeky monster, I wouldn't want my friends at MoA thinking that I got Khashoggi-ed.
Please feel free to delete this OT comment. I put it in this thread as a response to NemesisCalling's comment @25.
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Oct 29 2018 0:42 utc | 55
@ Yeah Obama set off Mateen and Hassan because he's a muslim member of the secret muslim brotherhood and a foreign born american. I still demand to see his birth certificate... I wonder who's the despicable Orange POS who incited legions of deplorables for years ?
Posted by: Augustin L | Oct 29 2018 0:53 utc | 56
@ Nemesisiscalling and FormerAdmirer #21
So you got banned from Moon of A?
Join the club!
There are thousands of us
We have a support group called PunishedMoonofA, and we try to meet up once a month at the Scheltema Bookstore in Amsterdam
Here let us help you
The unwritten rule for how to be a successful commenter at Moon of Alabama is pretty simple
Rule number one: never criticize b
Rule number two: never disagree with b
Rule number three: never forget rule number one or rule number two
Otherwise you run the risk of getting instantly BANNED
The ones who are left, the regular commenters, are the ones who understood these unwritten rules and learned how to always follow them
So if your goal is to become a regular Moon of Alabama commenter, here are some tips that will help you:
1. Always start off your comment by praising b, something like “excellent analysis, b!” or “wonderful insight, b!” or “it’s such a privilege to be allowed to comment on this fine blog, b!”
You could just leave it there and you would have a perfectly acceptable comment by Moon of A standards, but you might want to add a little something, and this is where things get tricky.
First, carefully re-read the article that you are commenting on.
Try to pick out one or two lines and rearrange the wording a little bit (but not too much) and then just echo it back
Study how the regular commenters do this, and soon you’ll get the hang of it.
Good luck!
Oh, and I almost forgot. There’s one final rule…
If you should ever find yourself following b. (aka, Mr Eddy) on the highway, don’t you ever tail-gate him!
Just don't do it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5I7lXV9b88
Posted by: Albert Heijn | Oct 29 2018 1:09 utc | 57
@Jackrabbit: I don’t think @NemesisCalling was banned. His comment was probably blocked by the TypePad spam filter, and he freaked out.
@NemesisCalling: Have you got any message saying that you were banned?
Posted by: S | Oct 29 2018 1:14 utc | 58
Hopehely@42
But he didnt attack the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society who had offices a mile away, he attacked a synagogue and killed mostly elderly Jews having nothing to do with it. Obviously grouping all Jews together as to blame for the actions of a few
Posted by: Pft | Oct 29 2018 1:26 utc | 59
b, Fwiw, following up on JR's comment at 53, I don't believe NemesisCalling was trolling me at all and actually thought his comment was very funny. I didn't feel insulted in any way. I'd like to request a video replay review and see if you might consider overturning the ruling on the field. Thanks
Posted by: donkeytale | Oct 29 2018 1:37 utc | 60
Ok. It was the comment at 4. Calling out racism as identity politics is GOP base dogma, as is the trope "cops kill more whites than blacks". Right and there are more whites than blacks in US prisons too. Standard issue conservative talking points I must say. Which obfuscate the truth of grave mistreatment of African Americans by police in the US compared to whites.
And NemesisCalling did personally attack b harshly. I'm not for banning but he was unnecesarily hostile while poorly making his point. This is OT but wanted to correct my first impression that NC was banned for his comment to me. Clearly not the case.
Posted by: donkeytale | Oct 29 2018 2:16 utc | 61
I will use a news piece link with an altered headline of about 50% fake/vs/real news (on my link description) to illustrate a point:
Eiffel Tower goes dark after Black Sabbath in Pennsylvania
(original keywords:france usa eiffel tower synagogue shooting victims tribute)
If you know what to look for Eiffel tower is a very interesting monument.
It has been in poems, movies even, music video clips from the 80's.
Especially an 1984 video clip (used in James bond trailer since actually 1984. View to a Kill (Duran Duran) extended video version papillion starting scene/accordeon closing scene
Wiki Quote from "A View to a Kill"'s history:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_View_to_a_Kill_(song)
"A View to a Kill" is the thirteenth single by the English new wave and synthpop band Duran Duran, released on 6 May 1985. Written and recorded as the theme for the 1985 James Bond movie of the same name, it became one of the band's biggest hits. It remains the only James Bond theme song to have reached number 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100; it also made it to number 2 for three weeks on the UK Singles Chart.[1][2]In 1986, composer John Barry and Duran Duran were nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for "A View to a Kill". The song was the last track recorded by the most famous five-member lineup of Duran Duran until their 2001 reunion. It was performed by the band at Live Aid in Philadelphia, their final performance together before their first split. Following Barry's death, the band paid tribute as their encore at the 2011
The song is ussualy not categorized under it's initial letter which is A (A view to a Kill) but V. (View to a kill)
Posted by: Greece | Oct 29 2018 2:18 utc | 62
@ s 55
If this goes then yes I freaked out and owe b an apology. It wouldn't be the first time I have freaked out on mOa. I need to take some time off from being a freelance, grade-z geopolitical analyst. Sorry everyone. Didn't mean to hijack the thread.
@ jr 52
That would be nice. I don't expect b to bend over in accomodation or acknowledgement, though.
@ albert 54
"Hi, I'm new here. It has been approximately two hours since my last blocked comment on MoA. Thanks for listening."
Good stuff but can you blame a host who got put on the proporn list?
...
In any case, sorry, b.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Oct 29 2018 2:20 utc | 63
@58 donkeytale
This is my last comment to you because I need to retire from the subject as this is certainly an ongoing offtopic debate.
In my prior post I said not to bring in per centages because it would lead to more per centages that further muddle the issue entirely in favor of disregarding the whole question of cop-on-black violence.
That is that blacks are statistically much more likely to commit violent crime than other races. Stats don't lie my friend and so you must also concede that to live by the sword means you will die by the sword.
Can we save the prison-industrially-complex argument for another thread? There you may have something but when it comes to cops hunting-seeking black prey, I am afraid that you are grasping at straws and are inserting examples that fall into the statistical-anomaly category. Pillars of sand, my friend. There is no policy of kill blacks on the books of law enforcement.
...
Regarding my rebuke to b. He has shown a history of dredging up either the past or parroting msm-driven "social issues" that he has heard about across the pond. Just like I would say that it would be unfair of me to remind b that his country developed the greatest instance of mechanized death in modern history, so I would also like a courtesy of not reliving our sordid history every day or so.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Oct 29 2018 2:39 utc | 64
Duran Duran 2001 (9/11 year) Timeline:
Jan 24: (John Taylor VHS1 video series appearance):Strange Frequency: Room Service
Jan 30: Duran Duran: National Palace, Kiev, Ukraine (Porosenko's house nowadays)
Feb 1: Duran Duran: Olympiyskiy, Moscow, Russian Federation
broadcast live on Russian TV; bootlegged on First Day On Earth and Moscow 2001
Jul 29: Duran featured on Ultrasound show on MTV.
Dec 20: Serious Vanity records releases a 4-CD set called Bangs: Sounds of the 80's, which includes a cover of "Careless Memories" by Kundalini Shock Attack, and Arcadia's "Election Day" by Eric Alexandrakis.
Ok?
More gems on: http://duranduran.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline:2001 for DD fans.
Posted by: Greece | Oct 29 2018 2:40 utc | 65
@51 Krollchem - "...the importance of not confusing Zionism with Zionist “Jews”, Zionists with Jew and Jews with Semites!"
Yes indeed.
True it is that Zionists are the Jews' worst enemies, as Alan Hart pointed out in this talk, titled after his 3-volume book and available on YouTube: Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews
We are familiar now with seeing how many of our confusions are actually caused by the disinformation machine, and the same can be said for the massive conflation that takes place between the notions of Zionism, Jewishness and Semitism.
Trolls come to western discussions all the time to inflame anti-semitism - why would Israel send them to do that? Because anti-semitism is the racism that forms the smoke behind which Zionism can hide.
Zionism essentially uses the Jews as human shields. Like the Wahhabi, Zionism hides behind innocent civilians. And because of the fog of war put out by Zionist disinformation and field-level trolling, few critics can take aim at the Zionist actions hiding behind the Jews, and don't dare shoot for fear of hitting "Semites", so called.
Caitlin Johnstone has an interesting new article on this subject today: On Antisemitism, Critical Thinking, And Conspiracy Theories.
Posted by: Grieved | Oct 29 2018 2:55 utc | 66
Grieved@63
Thanks for the two links! I come to MoA to learn and appreciate your comment and the additional info.
Posted by: Krollchem | Oct 29 2018 3:31 utc | 67
Assuming this was not another psyops it seems amazing to me that people cant distinguish between the Israeli government and their lobby which influences policy and elections in the US and the average Jew attending a synagogue.Posted by: Pft | Oct 28, 2018 6:36:52 PM | 39
You are of the best commenters here.
About the quote, this is not people's job distinguishing anything about the Jews. It's the Jews job to do this for the rest of us.
The cabal/mafia that controls them likes to blur the lines between let's say a Mossad council/or a mafia heads get together with simply being taking part in a jewish synagogue. Jews themselves can't react. The moment they get out of the fold, they get eaten by the wild fauna acting as gatekeeprs out there. The stakes are huge. Global domination sized huge. This is not conspiracy, this is THE WAY IT IS.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabbatai_Zevi
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Shabbetai-Tzevi
This guy's realy crazy story has been relatively white washed and needs actual digging down of what he was actually doing and with whom. It serves as an example. Dig, dig, dig down to more details.
Here is the catch, what this guy was doing, now there are Engineers and Physicists and Programmers (off post/topic insertion here: hello there btw, watching me watching you) and obviously lots of spooks coordinating all those together. They control and maintain and develop what they need to in order to Control US.
Posted by: Greece | Oct 29 2018 3:32 utc | 68
@ NemesisisCalling 61
Rule number four: If you criticize b, always apologize
Rule number five: don't feed the trolls
You broke the rules, you just fed me an after-dinner mint.
Now look at the result:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aczPDGC3f8U
Posted by: Mr Creosote | Oct 29 2018 3:46 utc | 69
b, when The NY Times criticizes Trump's "nationalism," it is using the word in a way that departs from the dictionary meaning and ordinary English usage. By "nationalism" the Times means anti-globalism or anti-neoliberalism. Trump espoused such rhetoric on the campaign trail (as did Sanders) and the Times is now doing its best to depict any economic option other than US finance-debt capitalism as something to be shunned and feared. The aim here is not only (or mainly) to attack Trump, but to delegitimize populist or social-democratic economic policies of the sort that influenced the 2016 election. A Sanders-like economic policy candidate emerging from the democratic primaries is what the powers that be want to prevent most of all. We've been talking in the press about Russia for two years now for a reason, after all. And the reason has nothing to do with Russia.
Posted by: WJ | Oct 29 2018 4:00 utc | 70
NemesisCalling @ 61
No worries. Glad you weren't banned. I did very much enjoy your first comment directed to me in this thread.
Posted by: donkeytale | Oct 29 2018 4:00 utc | 71
Offtopic post: (but is it really?)
feel free to delete mr.b.
[I delete the content of the comment and I BAN YOU for willfully posting offtoppic after being told several times that it will get you banned.
b.]
Posted by: Greece | Oct 29 2018 4:24 utc | 72
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Oct 28, 2018 10:39:22 PM | 61:
I would also like a courtesy of not reliving our sordid history every day or so.
But it's not history, Nemesis. Discrimination continues. Black violence doesn't excuse the many well-known cases where police officers that are not in danger have used deadly force.
And it's not just policing. Minority communities were targeted for subprime mortgage loans in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis. Many subsequently lost their homes because they were too poor to fight the banks. The impact is still being felt:
About 30 percent of black and Hispanic borrowers’ homes in total have gone into foreclosure in the years since the housing market crash, compared with 11 percent of whites’ homes....Minority homeowners bore the brunt of the crash, because subprime mortgage brokers frequently targeted their communities, where it had historically been difficult to get a loan.... One researcher found that Boston brokers disproportionately sold subprime mortgages even to high-income blacks and Hispanics, whose credit ratings should have qualified them for the same traditional 30-year mortgages available to white homebuyers with similar incomes.
it would be unfair of me to remind b that his country developed the greatest instance of mechanized death in modern history
Yes it would be. The country that developed AND USED the greatest machine for death is the USA (the atomic bomb).
If by "mechanized death", you mean to refer to the holocaust, then you fail to recognize that:
1) a large number of Americans supported/approved of Hitler's racism; andFurthermore, the German people suffered greatly for having been misled (more than 5 million dead, a country in ruins, the shame of the holocaust, years of occupation, etc.). In my experience, Germans are very much aware of that history and need no reminding.2) In the 100 years prior to the holocaust, British colonial practices resulted in greater loss of life: over 10 million in India and 1 million in Ireland are estimated to have died from the effects of famines that could have been prevented.
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Oct 29 2018 4:30 utc | 73
donkeytale @ 10 said:"Context matters. There is no other President in recent history who enflames audiences and stirs racial and social animosity as does Trump for the sake of gaining and maintaining political power."
Undeniably true..
Posted by: ben | Oct 29 2018 4:33 utc | 74
@ Grieved with Caitlin Johnstone link...thanks, but
She writes about jewishness as a race which does not exist. There are two jewish things, the religion and the nation/state. When she goes on to write about antisemitism she says it is not complaints against the nation/state but refers to jewishness instead of the religion.
She wrote
"
In reality, the globe-spanning empire which includes Israel and the US is not ultimately controlled by any nation or government, but by a class of nationless corporate and financial powers with no loyalty to anyone but themselves.
"
A class of powers?????..... come on Catlin
She also identifies Jeff Bezos as her example of why the "class of powers" is not jewish and seems to have no sense of plutocrat scale but equating Bezos with those that were running our world before Bezos was born......where is the Fortune 500 trust funds Catlin?
One last complaint I will make is she does not take the opportunity to write about how the identity politics is obfuscating the focus on the private finance cancer in the Western form of social organization (her class of powers)
I am glad she is out there but wish she would improve her game....says a high expectation white noise barfly commenter at MoA
Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 29 2018 4:41 utc | 75
DineroDProfit @ 50:
Do you reckon Pentecostalists are any different from practitioners of religions like Umbanda, Quimbanda and Candomble, where spirit possession is taken for granted in various ceremonies, in Brazil?
Posted by: Jen | Oct 29 2018 4:53 utc | 76
@70 jr
Those are all fair points, of course. I am aware of ongoing institutional CLASS-BASE issues in America, but these are not racist ones.
The sub-prime mortgage issue wasn't predatory against minorities. In fact, you could argue that deregulation of the mortgage industry and being able to trade MBS willy-nilly was the result of the gov't saying, "hey, let's give all those brownies a home!" The loan officers and traders of MBS were going for volume of sales. A sucker was a sucker and the good-intentions towards low-income and bad credit score peoples contributed just as much as banker greed.
...
As I said to donkey...killing blacks on video while of course exhibiting extremely bad optics, I would still argue that these are statistical anomalies, as cold as that sounds, and illegitimate for forming a cohesive narrative, though these instances have been seized upon greatly by dipshits that b is railing against above, but fails to notice in this case of cop v black violence.
...
I love Germans and their philosophers. Does b love America and its culture? Do any of you? Just because we got Carl's Jr. every two blocks, does that mean that Walt Whitman and jazz ain't shit? I don't think so.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Oct 29 2018 5:05 utc | 77
b
I've been coming to MoA since 2006, and have never heard any overt anti-semetism on this site, or even limp wrist Boycott and Divest. Implicating Isreal in 9/11 is always carefully scrubbed and sanitized. But in just the last six months leading up to the US midterm elections, however, I'm banned on BB, H-P and Reddit for discussing real issues with the USA in thrall to PNAC in Mena. And now Gab is just shut down, cold.
It's coming, my friends. Lockdown.
Everyone here who enjoys MoA, let's all agree to 'boycott and divest' any discussion of Jews or Isreal, whatsoever. Nothing we say here is going to change the outcome one iota. We are just stress positioning ourselves, and giving ammunition to the enemy. MoA is one of the last intelligent political, economic and military discussion sites left, and it would be crushing for Those Who May Not Be Spoken Of to take that away.
From this point forward, Isreal is dead to me. Their name is wiped from the map of my history, never to be spoken again. Then we can only pray they don't take MoA down.
Posted by: Anton Worter | Oct 29 2018 5:16 utc | 78
It is my understanding that Gilad Atzmon believes that Jewish tribalism and Zionism are not distinguishable and are synonymous. In other words, that Zionism found fertile ground in the Jewish character to root itself because there exists a serious flaw that always leads to a need for control. I see it this way, perhaps similarly from another perspective: if the majority of Jews wished to put an end to Zionism, they would. If you see a family member oppressing his weaker neighbor day in and day out, why do you continue to condone it unless you feel that stopping it would diminish your own power and your tribal power? Therein lies the flaw; in that not even your humanity, or conscience can supersede or check power therefore it is an abuse of power and that's where Zionism begins and ends and some believe it is rooted in Jewish tribalism.
Why are too many Jews and others who are anti-Zionist under the false impression that Zionism is about a shitty piece of land that Jews have taken over in the ME. Just like Nazism wasn't about Germany alone, neither is Zionism only about Israel. Israel is the mere excuse for the global expansion of Zionist power. Without Israel as the excuse, why even have powerful lobbies like AIPAC and Zionist think tanks guiding the political and public narrative? Because they're not all about community interests; they're about powerful global interests and strategy and therin lies the need for Israel to front that greater ambition.
SO, in fact when Zionists like Dershowitz equate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism they are correct, and it's very hypocritical to pretend otherwise because right now where Zionism stands, with the power it has amassed, the Zionist abuse of power that Jews condone day in and day out, well frankly, it creates a lot of resentment. It creates resentment not only for Zionism but for Jews who just can't seem to condemn it, therefore are equally complicit. You can't muzzle resentment against abuse of power with labels, labelling criticism of such abuse; anti-Semitic.
Now, as far as using force to contain it; that's wrong and ignorant as well, but shaming it and shaming those who sustain it is perfectly legitimate, protesting influence peddling and political corruption and lobbying that subverts democracy and decrying imbalance of power; the 1% ruling everything and everyone, that shouldn't be muzzled as anti-Semitic! That label has become a weapon of subversion and an instrument to punish and ostracize dissent.
No one group should be immunized and protected against criticism where abuse of power diminishes the rights of others while it benefits that specific group.
Oh and by the way, I supported Bernie, even though he couldn't bring himself to be completely honest about Zionism, because I believe he's a non-interventionist and to me he represented the lesser of all evils in the past election. Maybe, he's secretly a recovering Zionist, but won't admit it, and maybe it's because others would consider him a self-loathing Jew and it would end his career. Frankly, I like self-loathing, I like humility. Is there another path to discovering one's humanity? It certainly isn't discovered by clinging to power at the expense of others!
Posted by: Circe | Oct 29 2018 5:37 utc | 79
This killer did not know that you can kill all humanity and animals but you must not kill Jews?
Posted by: ChOdu | Oct 29 2018 6:13 utc | 80
Circe @77
Interesting that you brought Atzmon into this.I think that he is both right and not quite right, when he conflates zionism with Jewish tribalism. To be sure, no one can deny that zionism emerged FROM and GOT propelled by tribalism, or rather, I should say tribal lores. At first, it looked like good old fashioned colonialism feeding off the nationalist/colonialist ethos of late 19th century Europe. At first, in herzl's days, it is probably true that many who later became zionists, wanted mostly a place to call home. Was it always an innocent quest for refuge? for some perhaps. For others not so much. Indeed the vast majority of European jews would have nothing to do with zionism either, until just before WWII, and for many, even after that.
Was tribalism the flaw that led to the zionism we see now (which is as far from anything "innocent' as it can get)? or has Zionism evolved into a Golem, the moster built by a too-smart-for-his-own-good Rabbi who gave it life, only for the Golem to turn on its creator? The creator, which in this analogy is Judaism mixed with the hubris of tribalism.
So what I'm saying is that the Atzmon analogies and theses can be carried too far, when in reality, history was considerably more complex.
these days, there's nothing complex about israel - it has become the moster its original creators tried to save the jews from. Isral has imbued some of the worst of Europe's exceptionalism and wedded it to a rather archaic, anachronistic biblical view which postulates that some people were chosen over others. It's a toxic mix - imperialism, arrogance and exceptionalism.
Unfortunately I must also agree both with you, to some extent (namely that jews give cover to israel and are therefore guilty-by-proxy of the atrocities israel commits0 but i also agree with another commenter above (sorry, forgot who) who pointed out that Israel, or rather zionism, uses jews as a human shield. Both to deflect criticism and to buy time until their little fait-accompli annexations exercise is complete.
To which i will add one more thing, which explains even better the resentment directed at jews: the 1% have also discovered what a fine human shield jews make. lately, the Soros global interventionism specialist have started calling criticism of Soros as hidden anti-seminitism. Nice one, that.
Sometime, one of these days, i will get to ask the jews of America (especially them, but Europeans too) whether they intend to stay hostages forever, or would they find the spirit and the courage to break the yoke. As long as they don't, I'm afraid your criticism will stick.
Posted by: Merlin2 | Oct 29 2018 6:16 utc | 81
The Wahhabi Mullahs of the occupation regime do not acknowledge that the attack was on a house of worship.
Israel Chief Rabbi Won’t Call Pittsburgh Shooting Site ‘Synagogue’ — Because It’s Not Orthodox
Israel’s Ashkenazi chief rabbi came under fire on Sunday for refusing to acknowledge in a newspaper interview that the massacre in Pittsburgh was carried out in a synagogue.The country’s ultra-Orthodox newspapers, in reporting on the event, have also refused to acknowledge that it took place in a Jewish house of prayer because Tree of Life is a Conservative congregation, and they do not recognize the non-Orthodox movements.
In the interview with Mekor Rishon, a newspaper popular in the Israeli Modern Orthodox community, Rabbi David Lau said that “any murder of any Jew in any part of the world for being Jewish is unforgivable.” But rather than acknowledge that the crime had been carried out in a synagogue, he referred to the location as “a place with a profound Jewish flavor.”
@83 b.... those fanatical fundamentalist orthodox are in the ascendancy in israel... no wonder the have so muchin common with the wahabbi in ksa... fanatics seem to flock together...
Posted by: james | Oct 29 2018 8:24 utc | 84
I have to totally disagree with B on this, i.e. that Trump has nothing to do with this shooting. Nonsense. The shooter Bower made numerous posts on Gab social network that he not only hated Jews, but also that he despised HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) for assisting S. American immigrants enter the USA. He knew that HAIS was affiliated with the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh where he killed 11 Jewish worshippers. His last post at Gab before his killing spree-
“HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people,” he wrote. “I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered.”
And who describes South American immigrants as 'invaders' who are 'assaulting our country'? Trump! Who wants to militarize our southern border, talking about it now nonstop in the news? Trump! Don't you see? There is a direct connection between Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric and Bowers. It is undeniable. Here is a quote from Trump-
"In a speech last week, Trump referred to the caravan of migrants heading for the US border as “an assault on our country.” He called it an invasion that threatened to destroy “your neighborhoods, your hospitals, your schools.” In remarks laden with anti-Semitic and fascistic tropes, Trump denounced those who “want to turn the clock back and restore power to corrupt, power-hungry globalists…”
Source-http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/10/29/pers-o29.html
Trumps MAGA base is largely made up of angry alt-right white WASP males, who hate blacks, Muslims, Jews, and South American immigrants, just like Bower. Just look at the Charlottesville 'Unite the Right' demonstration last year: Bower would have fit right in. What were the alt-righters chanting? "Jews will not replace us" and similar anti-semitic tropes and slurs. Trump came to the defense of the Charlottesville alt right demonstrators ("They are defending our historic monuments."). Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric against South American immigrants enabled Bower to go on his killing rampage at the synagogue. Trump sends US military to the border as if we are being invaded (in a cynical attempt to get votes before the mid-terms). Bower, a crazed alt-right extremist went over the edge in this Trump fueled anti-immigrant hysteria. It is irrelevant whether Bower didn't support Trump (because he had Jews in his staff, i.e. he wasn't alt-right enough). Trump whipped up the anti-immigrant hysteria that lead to this tragic shooting. To deny it is nonsense.
Posted by: Deschutes | Oct 29 2018 8:31 utc | 85
@79
Zionism doesn't use Jews as human shields in the conventional sense. Jews aren't sacrificed as a means to an end period, without benefits along the way. Yes, Jews are sometimes casualties for Zionism, get criticized and blamed for Zionism's abuses, but Zionism also offers a lot for their sacrifice. They get protection through powerful platforms such as AIPAC, ZOA and the media that successfully increase the parameters of censorship and one-sided favorable bias and tighten laws all furthering Jewish exceptionalism and there's more. So the perks, the protection, exceptionalism are just too irresistible to sacrifice for rejecting Zionism because it manifests itself as an abuse of power against others. Some do break free, but not enough to make a difference. I'm not sure what it would take to wean or draw Jews away from Zionism. It's like a cult or even the Mob with mob-like loyalty. I read somewhere that Jews in Britain are less inclined to support Zionism, but I just don't buy that; cause they don't mobilize politically against it; they just allow it to advance its agenda. So, it's like they don't like where it's headed but they're too complacent to do something about it. Only a very small minority oppose it with words and action. So for those who don't mobilize against it, what's that then but a complacent acquiescence.
------------------
Just want to bring a different twist on the exploitation of the Pittsburgh victims. First of all, Trump is milking this tragedy as much as everyone else. Trump is first and foremost an opportunist and anyone who doesn't see it needs bifocals. So forgive me if I have no pity that it's being spun to make Trump look bad. Secondly, and it may be cold to bring this up in the context of this recent tragedy, but the Jewish community in general that especially means Zionists have created a PR industry around the Holocaust and Jewish tragedy to the exclusion of all less fortunate groups who have experienced or are experiencing great tragedy that the media and everyone overlooks while days of wall-to-wall coverage is afforded to every Jewish tragedy.
In other words, the left wing and media aren't the only ones exploiting this event.
Regarding the perpetrator. This is an individual who feels threatened not only by the migrants but that together with a group he sees as having too much power made him go berserk. If you notice Hillary won the popular vote by a wide margin, and that vote comprises blacks, a lot of Liberal Jews, and Latinos in large part. So white Christian Conservative America is shrinking and it's only gerrymandering and the electoral college holding up their power right now. It's only a question of time before they lose that power. That's why Trump's brand of fascist-tinged nationalism is so appealing to them because they know that only a fascist-like regime could help them sustain power. I suspect the more insecure, frustrated and powerless they become the more we're going to witness these types of attacks probably next on minorities growing in numbers.
Posted by: Circe | Oct 29 2018 8:35 utc | 86
@61 nemisis calling... thanks for saying all that.... generally i like your posts and think you are a fine contributor, but very occasionally you lose it! this thread is one of those times! cheers james
Posted by: james | Oct 29 2018 8:35 utc | 87
i know this is not moral equivalency, but it sure is depressing reading about palestinians being murdered daily.. and to think the state of israel feels justified in its actions, makes an act like this event in the usa all the more disheartening.... maybe debs could say something about this.... what is mondoweiss saying?
Posted by: james | Oct 29 2018 8:38 utc | 88
Actually, here is every sides two cents on the tragedy and of course Zionists are milking this all the way to keep the sheep very afraid and in the fold.
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/mondoweiss.net/2018/10/responses-massacre-pittsburgh/amp/
Posted by: Circe | Oct 29 2018 8:55 utc | 89
Jewish people in Iran.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKXnKZNQ-FI
Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Oct 29 2018 9:11 utc | 90
The video I linked to @ 94 is a Deutsche Welle doco. Be worth watching for the greasy types running off at the mouth.
Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Oct 29 2018 9:39 utc | 91
@nemisiscalling
You are not banned. Three of your comments hung in the automated SPAM filter and were manually released by me.
@all
No one gets banned here for criticizing me.
One may get banned for personal insults or attacks against other commentators including me.
Members of Netanyahu’s Likud Blame Victims of Pittsburgh Pogrom and Echo the Killer’s Rhetoric
Hours after the massacre in Pittsburgh, a Likud Party email listserv pumped out talking points addressed to “ambassadors of the Likud” that claimed the anti-Jewish shooter “drew inspiration from a left-wing Jewish group that promoted immigration to the U.S. & worked against Trump.”
...
@58 ...the greatest instance of mechanized death until the US military got up to speed - soon after Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, etc. I remind you of that at the risk that some other jerk may be stupid enough to suggest that all Americans are militarist-imperialists as you have done with b simply because he is from Germany.
Posted by: Gene Poole | Oct 29 2018 11:45 utc | 94
NemesisCalling says:
Just because we got Carl's Jr. every two blocks, does that mean that Walt Whitman and jazz ain't shit?
curious juxtaposition. you do understand that jazz is inherently at odds with common American culture, even if it has staked its claim there. why? i guess because it rambles and typically stresses what's not orderly.
Carl's Jr., on the other hand, is an archetype of efficiency. an entirely predictable meal in record time. and 'saving time' is, of course, a credo very dear to Americans.
but, admittedly, it's hard to break down all these cultural dimensions in a comment section.
Posted by: john | Oct 29 2018 11:52 utc | 95
NemesisCalling also says:
Does b love America and its culture? Do any of you?
this is pretty rich, falling as it does, in a thread about another mass shooting...a phenomenon quite unique to American culture.
Posted by: john | Oct 29 2018 12:04 utc | 96
The thing with these mass shootings is that access to AR-15 is so widespread, easy and cheap that almost any one can have one. So, these mass shootings can happen for any reason.
Sure, we can try to draw some patterns (school shootings, church shootings, mental disorders, most shooters are males etc. etc.), but that's not the problem: mass production and distribution of fire weapons is.
@94 John,
There is one point to be made there, namely that jazz is an outgrowth of black American culture; like bluegrass and the blues, it began as a ghettoized formalized expression of a people's sufferings; perhaps all true culture has this at its root. Ironically, then, it would follow that the two main sources of non-manufactured culture in the US are black Americans and traditional southerners. The first of them suffered slavery, the second imposed it; but the second in their turn suffered the imposed poverty and backwardness of a financial "reconstruction" managed by New England industrialists and oligarchs. Blacks and poor southern whites. Their oppressions so different, they remain the two "losers" of American history. And perhaps the only source of whatever distinctly *American* culture there is.
Posted by: WJ | Oct 29 2018 13:36 utc | 98
NemesisCalling @ 24
I just saw this response and agree with it for the most part. I have my own doubts whether the people will decide, especially given the amount of voter suppression and so-called glitches within the electronic ballot box. Not to continue on the racial themes (where I disagree with you, emphatically) but the clear intent of the GOP is to keep minourity voters from attaining power for as long as humanly possible and then when it's no longer possible.....Trump is a harbinger as you say, for the end of liberal democracy.
Yet, I would be standing up and cheering him on if he would only preside the same way he campaigned.....if he had come out of the box, say, with a bipartisan infrastructure bill instead of immediately siding with the nihilistic conservative GOP health care bill which attempted to gut Medicaid. Then he followed up with the heinous tax cut bill. He became not a harbinger but more a standard issue Republican, only worse.
It is still my hope if the Democrats take the House Trump will understand [finally] he needs to govern for all the people, not just his base. He would then become historically relevant, but I'm not holding my breath. Either for the voting result or Trump's turn towards a more expansive view of his role.
Posted by: donkeytale | Oct 29 2018 13:51 utc | 99
WJ
yes, i like your synopsis. indeed jazz, and even rock and roll, were born from the blues, a music born in the cotton fields of the deep south, or perhaps on the slave ships these poor folks were shackled to.
i've often tried to wonder what American culture might be like if it wasn't to such a large extent founded on this slavery???
Posted by: john | Oct 29 2018 14:13 utc | 100
The comments to this entry are closed.
b, the perp blamed Trump.
For not being rightwingingly extremist enough.
Thus, he had to take matters into his own hands, you see.
The general thesis of laying blame for all political violence at the Donald's [small] feet is not exactly correct, however the Tweeter-in-Chief is very guilty of creating the zeitgeist which he hopes will merely enflame his nutjobs to vote GOP in 10 days....but also inspires a few other nuttier jobs to cross the line...as collateral damage.
Posted by: donkeytale | Oct 28 2018 17:36 utc | 1