The Hate Contagion

Even I am at a loss for words after this weekend’s Pittsburgh synagogue massacre, the horror that followed the pipe bombs sent to at least twelve prominent Democrats and the wanton murder of the two African Americans shopping in a Kentucky grocery store by a gunman who spared a white person as he raced to kill saying “whites don’t shoot whites.”  It was only because he couldn’t get into a nearby church that we didn’t have two house of worship tragedies in one week.  Trump’s response to all this, or at least to the pipe bombs and the synagogue killings were some scripted remarks read in that tone he uses when he’s being forced to say things that he doesn’t feel, followed by a return to form, or at least a return to what he said was a slightly muted form to a crowd of sycophants who were more upset about his toning anything down than massacres and pipe bombs. As far as I can tell he didn’t comment on the Kentucky grocery store killing at all but did manage to comment about his own bad hair moment, first apologizing for his orange fluff looking a bit different than usual because of being caught in the rain and then pointing out that it probably looked even better because, you know, he’s Trump and he’s just such a stunner.  And that comment, given its timing, did stun.

The Republican party line is that none of last weeks horrors were at all influenced by Trump’s rhetoric or the hate being spewed by his friends at Fox. Even they know that’s bunk.  Fox Business News’ SVP denounced and cancelled the replay of a Lou Dobbs segment, the one in which Dobbs shook his head in support as his guest Chris Farrell, a board member of the right-wing organization Judicial Watch railed about the George Soros funded caravan of migrants moving toward the US southern border, while calling the State Department "Soros-occupied" territory. This was after Soros, the Jewish billionaire philanthropist, had already received his pipe bomb.  Similarly Congressman Kevin McCarthy, the Republican Majority Leader deleted his “Jewish Cabal” tweet where he said "We cannot allow Soros, Steyer, and Bloomberg to BUY this election! Get out and vote Republican November 6th. #MAGA.” Like Farrell, McCarthy who is likely to replace Paul Ryan as Speaker of the House if the Republicans manage to retain control, had no problem with his timing, he sent that tweet after Soros had already received his bomb, only deleting it once he realized that there were more pipe bombs in the mail.  As to those pipe bombs, Steyer, an Episcopalian born to a Jewish father received one too, his and Senator Kamala Harris’ were delivered late Friday after, the bomber, an avid Trump supporter had already been captured. And though Trump’s contingent, including Rush Limbaugh who claims that the gun target decals with Hillary Clinton’s head stuck onto the bombers van appeared too freshly applied to be real, claim the whole thing is a hoax, FBI Director Wray, a Trump appointee said that the pipe bombs were real, this was no hoax and Attorney General Sessions said that the mail bombing attempt “appears to be partisan.”  And in another damning footnote, political documentary maker Michael Moore shared a video from one of his most recent film’s outtakes of the pipe bomber cheering along at an early Trump rally.  The Pittsburgh murderer, wasn’t a Trump supporter in part because of Ivanka’s conversion to Judaism but his views on immigration and the so called migrant caravans, the ones that are smaller than those of prior years but that Trump magnifies every time he talks about them were the same, so he targeted the Pittsburgh Jewish community for working with the Hebrew Immigrant Aide Society (HIAS) that helps resettle legal refugees, following a long tradition that goes back to the resettlement of Jews from Eastern Europe beginning in the 1880s but now extends to refugees from all over the world.  For his part, Trump keeps tweeting, making it clear that as far as he is concerned he isn’t responsible for the hate contagion, he says the “The Fake News is doing everything in their power to blame Republicans, Conservatives and me for the division and hatred that has been going on for so long in our Country. Actually, it is their Fake & Dishonest reporting which is causing problems far greater than they understand!”  Sadly, many of us do understand, we just don’t agree. He plans to be out on the campaign trail until election day, targeting the most vulnerable red state Senators. He justified his immediate return to politicking in the face of tragedy with another lie, this one claiming that the NYSE opened the day after 9.11; it didn’t.  And tune in Tuesday, when he plans to deliver a speech on immigration policy, conveniently timed to further inflame in the run up to the election.

To the families of Pittsburgh victims Joyce Feinberg, Richard Gottfried, Rose Mallinger, Jerry Rabinowitz, Cecil and David Rosenthal, Bernice and Simon Sylvan, Daniel Stein, Melvin Wax, and Irving Younger, may God console you among the other mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.  And to the families of Kentucky victims Maurice Stallard and Vickie Jones may the light of God’s face shine on you in the darkness of your grief.