This morning I retweeted Trump’s own retweeted video of people in Florida yelling at each other, with one screaming “white power” several times, but that tweet been quickly removed by the Prez or his minons:
But you can still see the original on the Rolling Stone site, and I’ve put a version below the screenshot:
The Bad Tweet passed on by tRump. The seniors in their golf carts are feisty (and badly deluded), but there’s also pushback.
Seniors from The Villages in Florida protesting against each other: pic.twitter.com/Q3GRJCTjEW
— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) June 27, 2020
From Rolling Stone:
On Sunday morning, the president of the United States once again showed his racist leanings by retweeting a video of one of his supporters chanting “white power.”
“Thank you to the great people of The Villages. The Radical Left Do Nothing Democrats will Fall in the Fall. Corrupt Joe is shot. See you soon!!” Trump wrote in a quote tweet of the video.
The video showed pro and anti-Trump protesters from a community in Florida screaming obscenities at each other. Less than 10 seconds into the video, a man in a golf cart with “Trump 2020” signs could be heard loudly yelling “white power” at least twice.
Of course, the president’s defenders will likely rationalize the tweet by pretending that Trump didn’t watch the video and was simply promoting his supporters. But this incident is part of a racist pattern by the president that is too consistent to excuse away.
Just recently, Trump has spoken about the protesters in a racist fashion and has over and over used the racist term “Kung Flu” when talking about the coronavirus.
Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) responded to Trump’s tweet on CNN saying that it is indefensible and he should take the now-deleted post down.
To wit:
“He should not have retweeted and he should just take it down… It is indefensible,” GOP Sen. Tim Scott reacts to the video President Trump shared of a man driving a golf cart with Trump campaign posters, chanting "white power." #CNNSOTU https://t.co/76wZzokkUw pic.twitter.com/4zk2rFndcP
— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) June 28, 2020
Although I almost never read Twitter comments, one commenter said it was just a joke on the part of the “white supremacists”. But why did Trump retweet this? He’s not dumb enough to deliberately celebrate white supremacy in this way, but if it was sarcasm, why remove the tweet?
Well, look, I’m not saying anything here that hasn’t been said better by a gazillion other people: Trump is both stupid, a racist, and a totally unfit leader. But have a look at the video tweet before this one disappears as well. And I’m proud of the seniors who are still fighting Trump with everything they’ve got.
h/t: Charles
As I say to all who call Trump’s similar gaffs “just a joke, OBVIOUSLY! Duh!”: No, this was one of rare moments of candor. And leaders don’t joke about such things.
Those Florida seniors are a rough bunch. Getting mowed down by an angry golfer is another way to go I suppose. Pretty sure it is illegal to drive those things on a public road but then, maybe not in Florida.
“The whole problem of these senile delinquents lies in their complete rejection of the values of contemporary society.”–Monty Python
The Villages is different. I have visited there several time and once performed a magic show there. They have normal streets for automobile traffic and parallel roads for golf carts. One can drive throughout the settlement and never use the normal roads. Some of the stores even have recharging station stations in the parking lots.
Reblogged this on The Logical Place.
“…Trump is both stupid, a racist, and a totally unfit leader.”
That’s three things! And you could make it at least 100 if you really wanted to take the time making a list.
and a fanatical devotion to the Pope.
😎
cr
I would bet money he didn’t even watch the video for longer than a second. His attention span is so short, all he saw was the “Trump 2020” sign. Not saying he’s not a monster, but he’s too dumb and self-absorbed to pay attention to what his supporters say outside of his own name. All these screw ups are doing one good thing: demonstrating that it is absolutely undeniable that he is a terrible, terrible president and person. Anyone who can still support him after the last 3.5 years is beyond my understanding. That includes my own mother, who thinks God chose him and that voting Democrat is voting against Christian values. It would be a comedy if it wasn’t so sad and depressing.
Wow those middle aged and seniors are really in each others’ faces (without masks of course because it’s Florida). It was somewhat puerile just yelling insults to one another. The anti-Trump people calling them Nazis was a bit much I think. Of course Trump loves this. This is the level of discourse he has pulled everyone down to. I think the woman saying “fuck Trump” to everyone said it best when the one lady in the golf cart objected to her language and she countered her with a challenge to listen to her own president. Well ya. That’s where he took everyone.
This was at The Villages. I don’t think they allow middle aged people there except to provide services… fix the plumbing, mow the grass, etc.
I think it’s a cultural difference. In Canada we usually see seniors as 65+ where the US Usually sees it as 55+. I remember Americans being annoyed at not getting seniors rates when travelling when I worked at a park as a youth. I think some places in the US even give discounts to 50 year olds (me).
Ok Diana now see I’m also 50 and I REFUSE to be called a senior!
Goodness – it seems like yesterday I was allowed to buy alcohol (which I’m actually very good at) and the next day the damn AARP is sending me a card.
Get offa my lawn!
D.
ps Oh. And I won’t be retiring to the stupid “Villages” in stupid Florida -I don’t even play golf!
LOL I don’t want to be called a senior either or retire anywhere near Florida though many Canadians do.
At 70, I’m now happy that I don’t have to decide between the formal “Senior Citizen,” “senior” or “elder.”
I’m just plain old. (Which is fine by me.)
“Elder” is a good one, eh? Problem with it is that the same honorific is used for Mormon teenagers.
Women are expired after 30 so being old is just another step. I was considered old at 40. I’m 50 now so I’m probably at sea hag status.
Just wait. 😉
Watching this video makes me so deeply sad for our country and what Trump and his gaslighting enablers have done to us. The level of discourse is appalling. I wonder if we’ll ever find our way back to decency?
How the country has descended into divisive acrimony. Thanks to tRump. It is his legacy.
“Thanks to tRump”
You do not think the radical left is also responsible?
tRump is responsible for the radical left, too. He created the environment in which it thrives.
The radical left were very much around before Trump. But now the right have a president who paints all liberals with the same brush.
You leave me very pessimistic and depressed.
No. Trump is a symptom not a cause. He enjoys pouring gasoline on the fire, but he didn’t start it.
Of course it was a joke. Why, can you imagine elderly white people actually being racist? I mean, come on. /s
Somehow black Republicans denouncing Trump has less impact. Rather than making the audience think less of Trump, it makes one wonder how could a black person support Trump or the Republican party in the first place? It’s more about the guy waking up and finally smelling the coffee.
There is not really a home for Black conservatives right now.
The Lincoln Project and Republicans Against Trump?
Yeah, but I mean ones who want to get elected to Congress.
Yes, it’s unclear where the Republican Party goes post-Trump. Assuming he loses in November, does Trump’s hold over the party also fade? One would think so but he’s the King of Grievance. Perhaps he will rally his troops behind how the election was stolen from the “Real Americans”. It all seems unlikely but so was Trump’s election in 2016.
I entertain the hope that A.T. (After Trump) it will be as if a spell were broken and the Republicans will pretty quickly disown this creature and deny ever supporting the guy.
But it is only a hope.
I doubt your hope will be rewarded, not that I know how this will turn out. But I don’t see any way for the Lincoln Project Republicans to “retake” control of the party from the evengelical crazies who support tRump without the least self-doubt. I expect that fracture is permanent. If we’re lucky the Republican Party will shrink to inconsequence. But then what? I haven’t a clue.
Yes, but what would take its place? In many ways, Trump has brought the Republican party’s dirty laundry out in public. They don’t get to lose their “white party” cred just by turning their back on Trump. As many have noted, they were building toward a Trump moment ever since Reagan. In some ways, and in retrospect, George W. Bush was exceptional in that he wasn’t racist, at least not overtly. While Trump is the anti-Obama, he’s also the anti-Bush in many ways.
I think it will be like Reagan. They’ll use his name while changing policies whatever way they see fit.
So, for example, they’ll tell their followers how they’re continuing Trump’s legacy while at the same time stopping all the economic protectionism.
As to whether retweeting the video was “sarcastic”, Ken “Popehat” White’s aphorism comes to mind:
After this presidency, a Democratic president will sit in the Oval Office. No doubt there will be stumbles from this president, maybe an infelicity here or there. You know, it happens.
Wouldn’t it be great that in light of 4 years of trying to gaslight America in endless defense of this orange #$#$&$3, the Republicans are silent about minor flaws in a Democratic president?
I know what the response will be to this wish. I know.
Anything to divert attention from the tripartite crises (health, economic, civil-unrest) Trump has exacerbated, Trump’s repeated undermining of the rule of law, and his arrant inaction in response to Russia’s having put a bounty on the lives of American GIs in Afghanistan.
He fancies himself the master distractor.
I don’t see that the ‘white power’ thing was anything more than just a sarcastic response to an anti-Trump heckler.
Even so, should Trump have retweeted it? Do you think Trump had the nuance you’re suggesting in mind and thought we’d find it funny? The length people will go to excuse this president’s actions boggles my mind.
An explanation I read was that racism is all what Trump has left to wield in his re-election rally.
So I expect more like that.
Nothing like fat old dumb-assed bigots in a golf cart rally. In Florida (where else?). Let THAT thought detonate in your head for a moment. You’d think they can afford a better marketing department b/c the horror of the scene speaks for itself and does not say good things.
All obese old men, no masks.
“Get outta my gene pool!” – I shout but by the looks of it they’re working on just that. 😉
D.A., J.D., NYC
It does appear that there were not very fine people on both sides here. It’s hard to know exactly what led up to this but regardless of the provocation, it’s hard to justify a white power statement. I don’t see either side of this ‘debate’ looking good. No winners in this one but definitely a loser with the white power idiot.