Wed. 4/17: Take the quiz below. Then decide if this is business as usual. 3 actions

Last Friday, President Donald Trump tweeted out a doctored clip of Omar speaking at a Council on American-Islamic Relations charity dinner, where she said, “some people did something,” in reference to the Sept. 11 tragedy. The clip was deliberately taken out of context and has since sparked not only media controversy but, since last Saturday,  has incited literally hundreds of death threats from unpaid but willing amateur assassins eager to do the president’s bidding against a sitting congressperson and her family.

Action #1 – Take the quiz!

Reading comprehension – Who are we’re talking about here?

• The Leader: He is a media figure who gained popularity and controls his country through speeches and publicity. Far from being a consistent and undeviatingly purposeful politician, he is temperamental, changeable, insecure, allergic to criticism, and often indecisive and uncertain in a crisis. There were many occasions in which he nearly came to grief, most notably as a result of his private life.
• His critics: Some see him as an ignorant, unintelligent, vulgar petty bourgeois whose rise to power owed much to his ability to articulate the resentments of his class at the coming of the modern world. Others swear he’s a sociopath, a warped personality, a man who didn’t conform to the normal standards of human behavior.
• His audience: A master of slogans, loud patriotism and stagecraft, he swears to put his country first and make it great again. He appeals to older traditionalists, the lower-middle class, and those Protestant and evangelicals who want a “moral restoration” of the nation.
• His pitch: His speeches uses vulgar comparisons and don’t shy away from the cheapest allusions. Seemingly spontaneous, they are in fact calculated. Full of base allegations and  stereotypes, they are precisely designed to gain maximum attention from the media and maximum reaction from the crowds he addresses. Always attention is re-centered on the threat of destruction of the country’s fabric by dirty, unpatriotic, dishonest minorities and foreigners.
• His fans: His listeners interupt him with chanted threats against his political opponents and he chants with them. He also encourages them when they organize themselves into violent white supremacy groups outside the arenas, looking for minorities to attack.
• Who he hates: He rants against feminists, left-wing politicians, homosexuals, pacifists, and liberal newspaper editors and threatens and then actually does pull out of international organizations. He uses the phrase “enemies of the people” a lot. His government is run by heterosexual white males, he hates non-white minorities and he mocks disabled people.
• His press: He weakens the press through constant pressure and harassment, preferring only a fawning captive press. He prefers a “national press” run by the government.
• His government: He is destroying government oversight agencies, one by one, opening a path for a massive expansion of political corruption at every level, creating a huge kleptocracy of patronage and clientelism. Unless they keep their heads down, civil servants from the previous administration expect to be fired. He is bypassing normal procedures for state appointments and the rules of conduct for the occupants of high office are being scrapped or bypassed in favor of his personal style of rule.
• His opposition: His opposition is divided. Although they won more seats than his party did, they concentrate as much time on fighting each other as they do him. The power of the legislature is gradually being weakened and if he can’t win a court ruling, he work a strategy around it.
• His effects: Education and public life is being re-centered to focus on patriotism, with great emphasis on flag-saluting and a return to religious displays. Voting disenfranchisement is rife, depriving known or potential opponents of the vote, Manipulating the electoral process takes place in a number of ways.

Answer  – Who is this? Pick one.

____ 1. Hitler

____ 2. Trump

____ 3. Both #1 and #2.

____ 4. None of the above.

If you answered #3, congratulations! If you weren’t sure, please take a moment to read this great article by the Nation, which discusses how one leader can destroy a democratic nation. And remember Trump said this. “We’re going to have to do things that we never did before. And some people are going to be upset about it, but I think that now everybody is feeling that security is going to rule. … And so we’re going to have to do certain things that were frankly unthinkable a year ago.” Like demonizing a Congresswoman on social media.

If you answered #2, or #3, you need to do Action #2 below.

Action #2 – Sign the petition – Join hands and start fighting back as a solid unified force.

“Suspend Trump from Twitter and Facebook for inciting violence and engaging in hate speech AND remove his propaganda video targeting Congresswoman Omar.“ – National Women’s March organization

Sign the petition here, report his twitter account here and his Facebook account here for instructions and here for his page.

Action #3 – If you missed Tuesday’s post, click here and do the actions.

Tues – 4/16: Indivisible against hate.

• Action #1 #IStandWithIlhan and make sure your legislators do too.
• Action #2  Support the #NoBanAct Bill against Trump’s discriminatory travel ban.
• Action #3  Support H.R. 1327/ S.546 – the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund. Rep. Ilhan Omar is a cosponsor.