Gen Flynn: “We have enemies in our homeland and abroad.”
Ever since the late and great Molly Ivins quipped that she thought Pat Buchanan’s speech at the 1992 GOP convention sounded better in the original German it’s been sort of a parlor trick to compare a ‘hot’ Republican speech to one from this or that fascist dictator. But this speech was really febrile and unhinged. Setting aside the content, consider the wild hand gestures, frequent screaming, the agitated and febrile manner. It was disturbing but also brought together all the themes of violence, death, betrayal and rage that shaped the evening.
It’s like Giuliani has spent the last fifteen years living together with 9/11 in a two bedroom apartment of his mind. It’s a dark picture. He’s lost his balance and maybe his mind.
Scott Baio says he’s not sorry he tweeted that meme calling Hillary Clinton a “c**t.”
The last year for which full FBI statistics on the national murder rate are available is 2014.
The first half statistics for 2015 show a small upturn. But this has happened more than half a dozen times in the last 20 years in the course of the overall fall of the murder rate.
It’s important to note during Sheriff Clarke’s speech that in fact crime of all sorts is at its lowest levels in almost half a century.
Ken Cuccinelli, a prominent stop-Trumper, told reporters tonight that the Trump campaign went as far as to threaten to take away Iowa’s first in the nation caucus if they didn’t back don’t on the rules vote on the convention floor.
Let’s just say it: the theme of tonight’s program is death and devastating loss caused by national outsiders and made possible by the betrayals of political enemies.
The ‘stand down order’ the two guys on stage keeping talking about is the same one the GOP led House investigation say never happened.
8:14 PM: Main takeaway from Baio’s speech was explaining our no moocher policy to new immigrant voters. Now Perry.
8:16 PM: One thing I’m watching tonight is whether any speaker refers to Trump as “Donald Trump” rather than “Mr Trump.”
8:27 PM: The loss Patricia Smith has suffered is unfathomable. And I would grant her anything to emerge from that grief. But it’s one thing to feel and express what emerges from that grief and anger, quite another for others to orchestrate and milk it for political ends. It’s difficult to fathom the sheer level of exploitation and titillation of the GOP rage organ that is contained in this speech. It’s just the most craven level of exploitation.
I’ve never experienced something like Patricia Smith did. But I did experience the closest person to me in my life die a sudden death from catastrophic physical trauma. I can tell you from experience that you look for some thing or person to blame. It’s the closest thing you can grasp on to, not to give meaning to what happened, but simply something to anchor yourself because there’s nothing more horrifying than the anchor-lessness and untethered pain of that experience. Most of us have people to help us work through the mind-deforming pain. They don’t have an echo chamber confirming us and goading us on in our anger for their own political or monetary purposes. The exploitation is beyond belief.