{"id":138609,"date":"2019-04-13T16:23:17","date_gmt":"2019-04-13T22:23:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=138609"},"modified":"2019-04-13T16:23:17","modified_gmt":"2019-04-13T22:23:17","slug":"wielding-9-11-as-a-weapon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/13\/wielding-9-11-as-a-weapon.html","title":{"rendered":"Wielding 9-11 as a Weapon"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The still-pinned professionally produced political attack by <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@realDonaldTrump<\/a> against <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/IlhanMN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@IlhanMN<\/a> does more to insult America and spit on the memory of 9-11 than any comment by her. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/CW6OTY1fof\">https:\/\/t.co\/CW6OTY1fof<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/IStandWithIlhanOmar?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#IStandWithIlhanOmar<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; ***Dave Hill (@Three_Star_Dave) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Three_Star_Dave\/status\/1117142229443731456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 13, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The still-pinned professionally produced political attack by @realDonaldTrump against @IlhanMN does more to insult America and spit on the memory of 9-11 than any comment by her. https:\/\/t.co\/CW6OTY1fof #IStandWithIlhanOmar<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It&#8217;s the terrorists &#8212; the forces of Osama bin Laden&#8217;s al-Qa&#8217;eda &#8212; who intended their 9-11 attacks as a weapon, as a means of dividing and weakening the US and its society, of fomenting a war between East and West, between Christian and Muslim.<\/p>\n<p>It didn&#8217;t quite work. There was war, but it was &#8212; with the help of people like (yes) George W. Bush &#8212; not framed as a war between East and West, between Christian and Muslim, but against the specific factions, forces, and individuals ostensibly behind the attacks (with an opportunistic veering off into Iraq, but that&#8217;s another story).<\/p>\n<p>The rise of Donald Trump and his nationalism, his continuous invective against the Other &#8212; the Muslims, the immigrants, the exploitative allies and trading partners, the city-folk, the gays, &#8220;socialists,&#8221; the transgender, the women, the non-white, the poor &#8212; has all too easily picked up that weapon of fear and resentment and ignorance and tribalism.<\/p>\n<p>And now, with a Twitter attack not just in passing, but pinned to the top of his stream, Donald Trump has picked up that 9-11 weapon that Osama bin Laden laid out for him and is using it as a weapon against someone who represents everything he stands against: a Democratic woman of power who has been democratically elected to oppose his agenda.<\/p>\n<p>In doing so, Donald discredits any reverence America still feels for 9-11. He turns it into a cudgel to use against his opponent. He politicizes it, hugs it to himself like he hugs the American flag, not because it really means anything to him, but because he can weaponize the gesture against others. He diminishes that attack&#8217;s significance far more than Omar&#8217;s in-passing reference to it in an address that wasn&#8217;t even about 9-11. He makes it all about him and his political position and his nationalistic movement.<\/p>\n<p>And he does it at a moment when self-avowed fans of his are being arrested for making death threats against the person he&#8217;s continuing to so prominently attack.<\/p>\n<p>Yeah, Donald, I can recognize the real enemy of America here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trump turns a tragedy that unified Americans into a way to politically attack his enemies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[78,29,10,380,358,1071],"tags":[1177,1830,1831,1077],"class_list":["post-138609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tweets","category-9-11","category-geopolitical-brouhaha","category-nationalism-exceptionalism","category-poor-citizenship","category-trump","tag-1177","tag-istandwithilhamomar","tag-nationalism","tag-trump"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/trump-cpac-2019-flag.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":136144,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/23\/john-bolton-isnt-just-a-dolt-hes-a-danger.html","url_meta":{"origin":138609,"position":0},"title":"John Bolton isn&#8217;t just a dolt, he&#8217;s a danger","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 23-Apr-18 7:43pm","format":false,"excerpt":"At a time when we have no Secretary of State (and the State Dept. has been largely gutted and thrown to the curb anyway), this is the (hand-picked) person who's advising Trump on diplomacy and the dangers of the world. From 2013 until last month, Bolton was chairman of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/John-Bolton.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":135570,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/07\/trump-winning-friends-influencing-people-iran.html","url_meta":{"origin":138609,"position":1},"title":"How Trump is Winning Friends and Influencing People &#8230; for Iran","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 7-Dec-17 3:07pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Will Trump's unilateral decision to move the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem garner some support for him in the US? Maybe, but probably only from people who were already supporting him, and who wouldn't stop supporting him if he failed to do so. Will it hurt US interests in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Ayatollah-Seyyed-Ali-Khamenei.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":133814,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/07\/east-is-east-and-west-is-west-and-ever-the-trump-shall-tweet.html","url_meta":{"origin":138609,"position":2},"title":"East is East and West is West, and Ever the Trump Shall Tweet","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 7-Jul-17 1:13pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Okay, that was sort of a labored headline, but work with me ...The core of Donald Trump's speech in Warsaw was summed upon this tweet on his account:\u275d THE WEST WILL NEVER BE BROKEN. Our values will PREVAIL. Our people will THRIVE and our civilization will TRIUMPH! \u275eAside from the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":136028,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/01\/guess-trump-doesnt-need-farm-vote.html","url_meta":{"origin":138609,"position":3},"title":"I guess Trump doesn&#8217;t need the farm vote","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 1-Apr-18 9:51pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Surprising absolutely nobody (except maybe the President of the United States), China is retaliating on Trump's Chinese aluminum and steel tariffs with 15% tariff on American fruits and nuts (China is the third largest importer of such items, or at least has been) and 25% on pork and other goods\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/american-and-chinese-flags.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":133532,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/24\/trumps-speech-on-islam-and-the-middle-east.html","url_meta":{"origin":138609,"position":4},"title":"Trump&#039;s speech on Islam and the Middle East","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 24-May-17 7:46am","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a few days old, but if you haven't actually read the official text of Trump's speech, it's worth doing so, for a number of reasons.1. An incessant, constant use of religious language. Good vs evil. Blessings. Sanctuary. Multiple times, Trump frames the War on Terrorism less as a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20674,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/04\/06\/unblogged-bits-wed-6-apr-11-1130.html","url_meta":{"origin":138609,"position":5},"title":"Unblogged Bits (Wed.  6-Apr-11 1130)","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 6-Apr-11 11:30am","format":false,"excerpt":"Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries .... U.S. Troops Will Fight Without Pay If The Government Shuts Down - In for a penny, GOP. If you patch all the \"problems\" with a government shutdown by selective bills, then there's no impetus\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Potpourri&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138609"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138612,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138609\/revisions\/138612"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}