Aug 4, 2019

Trump Got What He Wanted in El Paso Massacre; Is Latest White Supremacist Killing Enough for the Psychopathic President?

Closed Circuit TV obtained by KTSM 9 (El Paso) news channel
shows terrorist identified as Patrick Crusius, 21-years-old,
as he enters the Cielo Vista Walmart in El Paso on Aug 3, 2019.
The gunman, armed with an assault rifle, opened fire on shoppers
at a packed Walmart store, reportedly killing at least 20 people
in the latest mass shooting in the United States. Crusius posted
a white supremacist manifesto echoing Donald Trump's polemics
against perceived dangers of immigrants and asylum seekers
fleeing violence and terror. Crusius praised Trujmp's racist
political effort to build "the wall" along the U.S-Mexico border.
(KTSM 9/AFP/Getty Images)
The latest in a wave of white-supremacist terror attacks in the United States comes days after sustained social media taunts by President Donald Trump directing hatred against ethnic and religious minorities, immigrants, congressional members and civil rights workers.

The current toll out of El Paso is at least 20 dead and dozens wounded, gunned down by Patrick Crusius, who posted an anti-immigrant 2,300-word manifesto on a website moments before carrying out the massacre, (KTSM-TV, (El Paso), Dallas News, Slate).

The emboldened 21-year-old white supremacist echoed Trump's tirades against immigrants and minorities in his four-page manifesto (text here and posted at Heavy.com).

Crusius warned of the danger of a "Hispanic invasion" and stated his objective to "reclaim my country," a formulation of Trump's Make America Great Again racist trope, (Dallas News).

Crusius writes explicitly electoral and political invective, notes Mehdi Hasen in The Intercept:

The manifesto declares [Crusius'] imminent attack 'a response to the Hispanic invasion,' accuses Democrats of 'pandering to the Hispanic voting bloc,' rails against 'traitors,' and condemns 'race mixing' and 'interracial unions.' 'Yet another reason to send them back,' it says.
In other social media, "Tweets on [Crusius' Twitter] account praised President Trump and, in particular, his effort to build a wall along the U.S-Mexico border," reports the Los Angeles Times.

The killer's manifesto's prose and formulation of anti-immigrant sentiment is indistinguishable from Republican talking points.

Writes the killer, (manifesto posted at Heavy.com):

Some sources say that in under two decades, half of American jobs will be lost to it. Of course some people will be retrained, but most will not. So it makes no sense to keep on letting millions of illegal or legal immigrants flood into the United States, and to keep the tens of millions that are already here. Invaders who also have close to the highest birthrate of all ethnicities (sic) in America. In the near future, America will have to initiate a basic universal income to prevent widespread poverty and civil unrest as people lose their jobs.

The killer also echoed Trump's propaganda about "fake news." Writes the killer, "The media is infamous for fake news. Their reaction to this attack will likely just confirm that."

Since Trump declared himself to be a "nationalist" at a political rally in Houston in October 2018, rightwing terror massacres have been carried out at synagogues, mosques and other public gatherings.

Even as white supremacist terror attacks and murders have spiked since Trump assumed office in 2017, Trump has consistently downplayed the violence, infamously taking the side of neo-NAZIs and other white supremacists at the Charlottesville, Virginia 2018 murder and racist rallies, (Los Angeles Times).

But it's not just Trump of course. The modern Republican Party is intimately tied to white supremacy; the two movements are seamless.

"Let us face the facts. This is a harvest. It is the crop of things sown," warmed Ralph McGill after the bombings of a synagogue and a school in the late 1950s. "When the wolves of hate are loosed on one people, then no one is safe."

Trump doesn't read; and can only emit 280 characters of unschooled invective in a single Twitter post. But Trump's campaign rants are hitting home among American racists and the unhinged pack of hyenas gunning down Jews, Muslims, Latinos and anyone else imagined as the enemy,

Trump and Republican strategists may revel in the success of their political work directing hate and resentment against a growing list of undesirables and scapegoats.

The rest of us must not stay silent.
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In our home, we have used the back of old campaign yard-signs (at right) to advocate for peace on our front lawn since the Pittsburgh massacre at a Synagogue last year.

We have noticed an increase in black and brown-skinned folks jogging by or out for a walk during this gorgeous Wisconsin Summer.

Whatever works for you, don't be silent. Not anymore.

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