Christian Senator Urges Killing Peaceful Protesters
April 16: Cotton urges vigilante violence … Ukraine weapons vote … Trump trial … Trump stock …
Yesterday was a day of national, peaceful protest, as activists and other human beings blocked traffic in cities around the country, calling for a cease fire in Gaza and the end of unconditional U.S. military aid to Israel.
It was, of course, a useless gesture, as blocking traffic for a day isn’t going to change shit. On the other hand, it’s been super-effective so far because it’s not just one day, not one place, and not one action, it’s an ongoing campaign of thousands of people who have successfully moved the policy of the United States and the Biden administration to the left.
And yesterday, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) wasn’t having it.
So Cotton incited violence, explicitly endorsing illegal, potentially deadly vigilantism. He said on Fox:
“I would encourage most people anywhere that get stuck behind criminals like this, who are trying to block traffic, to take matters in their own hands.”
Fox’s person-paid-to-talk-on-TV pointed out that cops have cameras on them and so “can’t obviously hurt somebody.” So Cotton clarified that he thinks pissed-off motorists should conduct their criminal violence before the cops get there:
“[I]t’s time for private citizens who are the ones being inconvenienced here when they’re confronted with these protesters just to solve matters of their own before the police even show up.”
(It’s worth noting that the police the supposedly “tough” “law-and-order” Republicans supposedly revere will tell you very clearly that they do not want civilians using physical force to clear protesters.)
But if anyone thought Cotton’s ill-advised mouth emissions occurred simply because the thinking-sponge in his skull got run over by a moment of rage, after Cotton had time to cool down and think things through, he doubled down.
“I encourage people who get stuck behind the pro-Hamas mobs blocking traffic: take matters into your own hands,” Cotton tweeted. “It’s time to put an end to this nonsense.”
He then edited his Tweet, not to moderate the call for violence, but to direct it, adding “...to get them out of the way.”
This is, of course, a vile and reprehensible thing for anyone to say. And obscenely irresponsible for an elected official speaking to a national audience of dumb people to say.
Cotton is encouraging exactly the same kind of thinking that led James Fields, Jr., to plow his car into Charlottesville, VA, protesters, causing dozens of casualties and killing Heather Heyer.
Now, today, just one day after Cotton said vigilantes should use violence against non-violent protesters, the Supreme Court is hearing a case in which Cotton has asked for officials to show mercy to violent protesters.
Cotton and other Republicans have filed a brief asking the court to dismiss the charges against an ex-cop who assaulted law-enforcement officers inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. So: official mercy for violent protesters convicted of trying to overthrow the government; vigilante death for non-violent protesters, without due process, for seeking lawful change in government policy.
It was Cotton, by the way, who suggested deploying the U.S. military against the overwhelmingly peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters after the police killing of George Floyd.
Longtime Newsfuckers know that I don’t usually traffic in hypocrisy scolding, even when that traffic isn’t blocked by protesters. So why am I today? Because it fits a narrative I’m pushing, obvi!
Cotton is Christian. Or a Christian, if you prefer.
He’s a former co-chair of the National Prayer Breakfast, the performative ritual that its organizers falsely claim brings us together. Cotton has even suggested that one’s religious faith — if they’re Christian, anyway — should be a part of your life all the time (even when you’re on the clock in a job where you’ve sworn to uphold the Constitution). In fact, that was his attack on then-Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AK), another breakfast veteran, for not being Christian enough.
So we have a Christian senator urging criminal violence against peaceful people. It’s a clear rejection of Jesus’s imperative to turn the other cheek and to “love thy neighbor as thyself.” And by the way, Jesus said to turn the other cheek even in the event of assault and battery; if you get slapped in the face. Cotton is advocating murder for giving you an excuse to be late for work and catch the end of Howard Stern.
In fact, Cotton has explicitly rejected Jesus’s guidance, saying in a press release just last year, “The last thing this president needs is more encouragement from Congress to turn the other cheek.” So, y’know, shut it, Jesus.
My point here is not that Cotton is a (morally) bad Christian or even a (qualitatively) bad Christian.
My point is that, as evidenced by Cotton, Christianity is a poor system for producing sound moral reasoning and principled leaders.
Does The Bible have some great stuff in it? Yes! So do most religious texts. So does The Fucking News! But The Bible’s not a book about morality.
Its most notable moral cheat sheet, for instance, the Ten Commandments, is very, very bad. Drawing pictures is not evil. It’s okay to covet.
Even the New Testament is sufficiently compromised as a moral teacher that Thomas Jefferson took a scissors to it, so he could produce a version focused on laudable moral lessons. The word of God is so bad at moral guidance, yall, that a dude edited it!
Throughout history, Christianity and the Bible have been the motive for incalculable acts of individual, organized, institutional, and trans-national violence. It’s past time that we stopped looking to Christianity as a moral touchstone.
And I should note, by the way, that, yes, I’d say the same about most other religions. But especially any whose adherents run the government and talk about how awesome their awesome god is.
And it’s also fair to note that Cotton isn’t a construct of Christianity only. He’s also a product of Harvard College and Harvard Law School. And the U.S. Army. A lot of institutions that occupy positions of power and influence in our society do not teach moral critical thinking well.
One final point about Cotton’s face-hole and the people inclined to embrace his face-hole-spewings. Fields, the guy who took things into his own hands in Charlottesville, eventually apologized.
He was 20 years old when he did it. And, his lawyers argued, he was mentally ill and suffered childhood trauma. In other words, according to the guy who thinks like Cotton, you’d have to be a broken person to think like Cotton.
And what happens to people who think like Cotton thinks is they end up before the Supreme Court today. Or, in the case of Fields, they end up spending the rest of their life in prison.
Johnson Opens Door to Ukraine Aid Vote, Fulfilling (My) Prophecy
As it was foretold in The Book of Newsfucking, lo yesterday it came to pass that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) did announceth that ye olde House of Representatives shall vote on military aid for Ukraine. And the promised land.
We’re expected to see the bills today, and the votes are expected Friday night, a detail that was not foretold by me. The bills reportedly do not include billions of dollars to more-militarize the U.S. southern border (despite the relentless stream of peaceful, law-abiding migrants lowering our crime rates and helping boost the U.S. economy by providing much-needed labor to fuel U.S. productivity).
In keeping with D4FRFP1 Donald Trump’s insistence that the U.S. not “gift” military aid to Ukraine, the money is expected to be approved in the form of a loan, and/or come from seizing frozen Russian bank assets.
Folks who say that Trump is a bought-and-paid-for puppet of Russian President Vladimir Putin, might want to ask why Trump is greenlighting military funding in any form. (If your answer is that Trump’s new Ukraine position is a double-fake double-blind, false-flag misdirect, I can’t help you.)
What matters now is whether Democrats can resist the temptation to pass any Ukraine funding package, no matter how much right-wing garbage gets tossed on top of it. After spending months yelling how urgent the funding is, The Force will be strong with those demanding yay votes on any funding package, no matter how many abortions it bans.
And don’t think I’ve forgotten that the Christian right is looking to Christian-right-ify Ukraine. I haven’t, and I’ll have more to say on it.
UN Orders Israel to Stop Aiding Settler Attacks
Israel and its military must end its active assistance to settlers attacking Palestinians in the West Bank, according to an order this morning from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, which issued the order as if it can issue orders that countries will obey.
Seven Palestinians have been killed, and 75 more wounded, in attacks by Israelis since Friday, after a 14-year-old Israeli boy was kidnapped and killed, apparently by militants.
Israeli settlers, including those who are not allowed by law to settle, have been attacking Palestinians in the occupied territory for years. Often relying on force to claim land and homes. Sometimes with the assistance of the Israeli army.
The U.S. has told Israel to stop it. And has also told Israel it can do anything it wants.
Trump’s Army Greets His Trial in Full Force, at Full Strength
The army of D4FRFP Donald Trump’s supporters showed up at the first day of his first criminal trial yesterday in full force, at full strength, fully prepared to do battle as best they can: Sitting on their asses, not doing shit about jack.
Lucky for them they weren’t blocking traffic, or Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) would have killed them.
Trump has said his trial is part of a plot by Pres. Joe Biden to hijack America’s criminal justice system and use it to imprison his enemies. That would, of course, be a monstrous thing for any leader to do, and is the kind of thing that has inspired freedom-loving, democratic protesters to rise up in the streets throughout history around the globe.
And yet, those freedom-lovers were less rising up than sitting down on the sidewalk yesterday outside the New York courtroom. And the “full force” of Trump’s army consisted of “a few dozen.” And when I said “full strength,” I meant their full strength, as described by Newsmax personality Cara Castronuova, who said, “People are just kind of tired of these trials.”
Got that? Kind of tired of these trials. On the first day. Hooah!
MAGA battle fatigue on day one of the battle tells us a few things. One is that Trump’s army is virtually impotent when it comes to carrying out the kind of violence he and his proxies have attempted to incite. “Let’s you and him fight” is a piss-poor war cry.
But it also tells us how shallow their devotion is, how conditional their credulity. If Biden were actually imprisoning political enemies, there really would be violence in the streets. And, hell, the violence would be bipartisan! (And, yes, the system does imprison whistleblowers, but that’s not Biden corrupting the system, that is the system.)
The scarcity of Trumpists willing even to sit peacefully outside on a nice, sunny day tells us that even MAGA recognize on some lizard-brain level of pseudo-cognition that believing Trump is fun but not fun enough to motivate sustained belief, let alone action. And that has important political implications, too. I hope!
Trump Media Stock Unable to Sustain Performance
Trump Media & Technology Group’s stock price closed yesterday at less than one third of its peak price. Since the company went public last month, its stock price came close to hitting $80 per share. As of yesterday, one share was worth $26.61.
Meaning, unless it recovers, people who put significant money into it got wiped out. Also meaning Trump is unlikely to reap a windfall from it when he’s finally allowed to sell his shares.
The slide is also notable as the first time in recorded history that past performance was, in fact, an indicator of future results.
TCB
NICOLE SANDLER I discussed TFN’s scoop from last week about the Christian right and Ukraine with Nicole Sanders on yesterday’s The Nicole Sandler Show, which which you can check out here. And you can join us every Monday for our weekly “The Fucking News” segment.
You can also stay in touch with me and The Fucking News n Twitter but also on Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, Mastodon, and Spoutible.
Go get ‘em, kids…!
D4FRFP = Disgraced, quadicted, fraudster, rapist, former President.
The Fucker is the best money I've spent in a long time. I even switched my subscription to monthly in order to support the cause. If I had an address I would mail a donation. As a former clergyperson I thank Jon for some great insights.
Tom is cuckoo for coaco puffs and should not be near any levers of power. That goes for the majority of the GOP too.