Trump Marks 9/11 Anniversary by Carrying On bin Laden Legacy
With al Qaeda defeated, the work of threatening Americans with political violence must go on
Sept. 11: To honor slain champion of debate, Trump vows to hunt down everyone he disagrees with … Recently de-expertized FBI on the hunt for suspect described as indistinguishable blob … Unidentified shooters also revealed to have killed 11 people in a boat while they were retreating … Literally no one covered Trump saying right-wing Christian leaders should have more power and voice than you do …
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Twenty-four years to the day after the 9/11 attacks, Pres. Donald Trump is marking the anniversary by carrying on the work begun by Osama bin Laden.
The al Qaeda leader ordered the hijackings on Sept. 11, 2001, in the hope that fear would divide the American people and that their government would abandon rule of law and propagate a culture of fear that would inevitably get turned on and consume its people. Today, Trump and his supporters are just as committed to this work as bin Laden was 24 years ago.
Just last night, Trump responded to Wednesday’s murder of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk by standing firmly against Kirk’s cherished American principles of debate and free speech:
“[T]hose on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world's worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we're seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now. My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity, and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it, as well as those who go after our judges, law enforcement officials, and everyone else who brings order to our country.”
In other words, Trump is committed to punishing political violence with more of it. But vowing to hunt down speakers of speech and funders of speakers of speech is hardly the only way in which Trump is honoring the cause for which bin Laden gave his life.
Much like Pres. George W. Bush also did exactly what bin Laden wanted — stoking fear and attacking people domestically and abroad with such vigor that even imagined sins did not go unpunished — Trump, too, is lashing out without even knowing who’s responsible…
The ManSomeonehunt
Somehow, installing a loyal lickspittle to run the Federal Bureau of Investigation — and purging the FBI of top investigators and some of the world’s most seasoned law enforcement — did not result in a quick capture of Kirk’s killer on Wednesday.
There’s also no sign the FBI benefited from Director Kash Patel forcing out, less than two months ago, the head of the Salt Lake City field office. Special Agent in Charge Mehtab Syed is still special, but no longer in charge, despite being described as a “legendary” agent and “absolutely the best” by a former FBI colleague. Syed, a Pakistani-American woman, was forced out in a purge that included a disproportionate number of women and people of color. (h/t)
Which doesn’t mean that the diversity-free FBI did nothing yesterday. In fact, the FBI implemented unexpected degrees of diversity in its suspects. Much like Trump prematurely blamed political speech, Patel on Wednesday twice announced apprehensions that he should have had some apprehension about announcing.
At one point, Patel posted that “the subject [sic] for the horrific shooting … is now in custody.” And then posted that not. Here’s Patel eating his own shit like a professional trained in eating Trump’s:
Patel’s public whiplash at least brought a nostalgic note to a terrible day, transporting America back to the halcyon days when Patel would merely announce that there was a list of Jeffrey Epstein clients and then that not.
It’s worth noting that this brand of bumblefuckery isn’t necessarily evidence of an incompetent investigation — though it could be! What it definitely is, in the communication of it, is a predicate for any eventual defense team to argue that law enforcement was scooping up suspects in haste and prejudging them. All of which can be used to tell a jury the FBI got the wrong man after previously getting the wrong men.
Nevertheless, it seems that Patel is both undaunted and unsmartened and will keep arresting suspects until one of them turns out to be guilty. Or as guilt-adjacent as Patel can get away with with his credulous base.
Patel was flaunting his incompetence on literally the same day three of the experienced FBI officials he fired were alleging it in court. Their lawsuit charged that “Patel not only acted unlawfully but deliberately chose to prioritize politicizing the F.B.I. over protecting the American people.” Literally the same day Patel was providing Exhibits A and B for the plaintiffs.
The lawsuit — chock full of jaw-dropping competence-dropping — says that before Patel was confirmed as director, the White House accidentally made the wrong person the acting director of the FBI. That person, one of the plaintiffs, was announced due to a “clerical error,” and the White House didn’t correct it.
The error is not without precedent, however, as similar misunderstandings occurred in previous episodes. Of Seinfeld and Three’s Company.
According to the suit, Trump’s former attorney, and then a top Justice Department official, Emil Bove, said the White House was committed to “stoking panic and anxiety within federal law enforcement and other federal agencies.” Osama bin Laden would be proud.
Weirdly, the legion of Trump loyalists running the FBI has not released a name, but the suspect has preliminarily been identified as “anybody.” If videos are accurate, law enforcement is on the lookout for a half-inch tall indistinguishable blob. What they know for certain is that the suspect bears unique characteristics such as having definitely shot Kirk.
Have You Seen This Person?
Meanwhile, TFN has released a list of people we really fucking hope the shooter is not: Undocumented immigrant, documented immigrant, tattooed immigrant, Tattoo, Muslim immigrant, Muslim person, transgender person, transgender leftie person, anygender leftie person, Keith Olbermann.
Either way, Trump’s release last night was premature, as it is most nights. We have no idea of the motive for killing Kirk. In fact, it would be super-helpful if the killer was the Christian brother of someone Kirk forced to have an abortion. We would also settle for the killer being the Uber driver who took Kirk to the abortion punishing Kirk for only leaving a three-star review.
Regardless of the suspect, the American right’s inability and disinterest in assessing facts makes this a perilous moment. Some right-wing leaders are calling for widespread retaliation for Wednesday’s political violence…
…because it took the form of a sudden, individual killing rather than the bureaucratic, institutional government violence they’ve been cheerleading.
In the past 12 months, for instance, 13 people have died in federal immigration facilities. Two of those deaths came to light Wednesday. That’s also political violence.
Trump’s Demons
Congressional Republican leaders offered reassuringly normal responses to Charlie Kirk’s murder Wednesday.
“Political violence has become all too common in American society, and this is not who we are,” said Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) despite repeated this-being by we.
Johnson said, “We need every political figure, we need everyone who has a platform to say this loudly and clearly: we can settle disagreements and disputes in a civil manner.”
Without a shred of the irony for which he’s not famous, Pres. Donald Trump then loudly and clearly said, “[V]iolence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree day after day, year after year, in the most hateful and despicable way possible.” Yes, Newsfucker, he demonized demonizers.
Of course, Trump and his party have demonized women, immigrants, people of color, LGBTQ+ people, cities, the concept of cities, people in cities, pet-eating Haitians, the indigenous people of shithole countries, communists, Marxists, socialists, and Democrats day after day, year after year, in the most hateful and despicable way possible.
Blaming political speech for Kirk’s death before even knowing the motive for Kirk’s death was, of course, an homage to Pres. George W. Bush blaming an entire country for 9/11 that had nothing to do with 9/11.
And just as Bush shitcanned centuries-old American principles previously only shitcanned in secret, Trump honored 9/11 by abandoning cherished American values of free speech.
Some of his most blabby GOP members of Congress called for war against pretty much everyone who rejects Jesus’s message of love. (h/t)
And just as Trump and his cheerleaders called for political violence as retribution for political violence, we learned more about Trump’s own political violence…
The U.S. Military Shot That Boat in the Back, I Mean Stern, or Aft, or Whatever
Remember how Secretary of State Marco Rubio first said that the boat of 11 people the U.S. murdered was headed for Trinidad and/or Tobago? And then Pres. Donald Trump said they were headed for the U.S. — specifically your house — so Rubio changed his mind?
Well, it turns out they were headed for Venezuela. Not at first, mind you. But U.S. officials told the New York Times that the people on board spotted a military aircraft tailing them. So they turned back toward Venezuela.
And then the U.S. bombed them anyway.
At that point, they definitely weren’t heading toward the U.S. as Trump said. So what did the U.S. do after striking the boat, disabling it, and causing casualties?
Send the Coast Guard or Navy to pick up survivors? Ha!
Newsfucker, the U.S. military bombed them some more. And then the administration edited that video of the murders before Trump posted it:
“[O]fficials briefed on the strike said that the video does not tell the entire story. It does not show the boat turning after the people aboard were apparently spooked by an aircraft above them, nor does it show the military making repeated strikes on the vessel even after disabling it.”
This turns the administration’s rationale from one of self-defense to, um, self-offense. AKA murder.
In fact, pre-meditated murder. And then re-meditated murder.
And they’re boasting about doing it again, which in legal terms would constitute pre-re-meditated murder with malice aforethought and stupidity without thought. But why not? It’s not as if Democrats are threatening prosecutions for war crimes.
What Would Kirk Have Wanted?
I wrote last night about why Charlie Kirk’s death is a loss, which doesn’t oblige anyone to mourn for him personally, of course. In fact, Kirk himself apparently would have been okay with his murder. Y’know, in theory.
Kirk said all kinds of shit during his time as a public figure justifying violence (against other people).
He even said that some deaths are an acceptable price “worth” paying for the gun rights the National Rifle Association invented in the 1970s. Earlier this year, Utah passed a law that prevented colleges from banning guns, setting the stage for Kirk to die for his cause.
Kirk’s right that some freedoms are worth dying for. That’s the premise of the Revolutionary War. Live free or die. All that shit.
The problem is there’s nothing gained from the gun deaths we accept. The living free part means that only total tyranny can guarantee total physical safety. And we reject that. Freedom means sometimes bad shit happens — but it doesn’t have to mean we allow easy access to murder sticks capable of tearing open a throat from 200 yards away.
Now, was Kirk a hypocrite about who should have these freedoms worth losing some lives for? Newsfucker, he was.
The government shouldn’t stop anyone from having a gun. But if they’re just suspected of intent to commit a crime later? Fer instance, the government stopping suspected drug boats outside the U.S. by blowing them up? “Pitch perfect,” Kirk said.
And then there was this. “When a government engages in unprovoked, murderous aggression,” Kirk wrote before helping to elect a government that engages in unprovoked, murderous aggression, “they are to blame for everything that results.”
Which was literally the rationale for 9/11. And arguably justifies his own murder.
Corporate Media Silent on Trump’s Call for Theocracy
I’m embarrassed that I forgot to include this in yesterday’s TFN, but in a TFN Bonus Story on Tuesday I flagged absolute and total corporate media indifference to Pres. Donald Trump literally saying that right-wing evangelical religious leaders should have more of a voice than you and more power than you.
In other words, the government should respect an establishment of religion, just like it says not to in the Constitution Trump can be impeached for failing to uphold.
Trump was speaking at the second public “hearing” of his Religious Liberty (sic) Commission, held at the Museum of the Bible, created by the right-wing Hobby Lobby family who gave us the Hobby Lobby Supreme Court ruling allowing companies to violate laws about providing health insurance if they claim their deity of choice wants them to.
As I probably should have mentioned, this principle has its origins in a Democratic law, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which was backed by then-Rep. Chuck Schumer (D-NY). Its heart was arguably in the right place by coming to the defense of two native Americans busted for using peyote in a religious ritual, but it stupidly created the precedent of “You can break laws against X if X conflicts with your religious bullshit.”
So now we have an entire cottage industry, that’s a fuck-ton bigger than a cottage, expanding the religious right’s religious rights to break laws — and marketing it as religious freedom. And Democratic Party leadership still hasn’t called this out for what it is.
Five Quickies
Remember how Israel bombed a U.S. ally this week to blow up talks on Pres. Donald Trump’s peace proposal? I know, it’s been a long week, right? Well, on Tuesday, Trump got on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and criticized him, which is antisemitic when Palestinians or college students do it. Trump reportedly was pissed about the attack on Hamas in Qatar and pissed to find out about it from the Pentagon. Netanyahu said he only had a short window in which to decide on the strike, which translates from Hebrew as, “Go fuck yourself, impotent clown.”
Despite the loss of Charlie Kirk, Republicans on Wednesday did succeed in saving Pres. Donald Trump … from The Epstein Files™. Senate Republicans narrowly beat back an amendment to force their release the way Trump has forced his. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) helped keep the files secret, explaining that she voted against the amendment because it was in the wrong bill.
The House is now just one vote shy of voting to release the files about Jeffrey Epstein not being shy enough. Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-VA) just won a special election and celebrated by signing on Wednesday to the House resolution to force The Epstein Files™ out. Democrats are expected to win an Arizona special election on Sept. 23, which will give Democrats and a handful of Republicans enough votes to defeat the Republicans now defending Epstein and Pres. Donald Trump by keeping the files secret.
Remember how Republicans were thrilled to go up against New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani? And how TFN didn’t buy it1? They’re starting to see they’re gonna need a bigger boat. “[W]e have to be careful what we wish for,” a Republican strategist told The Hill. “[I]t’s still the largest city in the country, and having a mayor that is this far out of step with our worldview is troubling and a problem.” Here’s Mamdani addressing Charlie Kirk’s murder, out of step with their worldview:
A note about the apparently spreading and growing wildfire of political violence. We’ve been here before and made it through. Honest. I promise. It’s largely forgotten now but the 1970s were a football-field-sized hot skillet of insanity and violence. We had active, known terrorist groups carrying out kidnappings and shootings and bombings. Planes got hijacked then with more regularity than planes take off today. But the vast majority of us not only kept our cool, we came up with both punk and disco. Yes, it’s a fucked-up time. Keep calm. Keep dancing.
TCB
I know, the timing is awkward, but I do want to take a moment to mark a milestone TFN hit yesterday for, I believe, the first time. Newsfuckers, welcome to the Million Newsfuckers March…
More than a million TFN views over the past month. And that figure must be accurate, cuz I got it from the Trump Bureau of Labor Statistics. Of course, I’m not naive, I realize this doesn’t represent a million individual people. Two-thirds of those views could be just one person. Looking at you, Clint.
Still, as a psychological milestone, it means a lot to me. So, thanks to each and every newsfucking eyeball that got us here.
It’s evidence that TFN is still growing, despite the onslaught of big-name conventional-wisdom spouters flooding Substack. Here’s one Newsfucker who just upgraded to a paid subscription yesterday and allowed me to share this message:
Thank you, Becky. I literally can’t do it without you. And my goal with TFN is to support you, to assure every Newsfucker every morning that, no, you’re not insane, and, no, we’re not doomed. I can only do this with your support, but so far, enough of you are upgrading every day to convince me TFN is on track to financial sustainability for the long haul. Thank you. E pluribus fuckem.
NEWSFUCKING IN THE WILD Catch me Mondays on The Nicole Sandler Show at 3:30pm eastern, for free, right here.
RESOURCES
Go get ‘em, kids! Remember, it’s not punk or disco, it’s punk and disco…
TFN creator and writer Jonathan Larsen co-created Up w/ Chris Hayes and wrote for Countdown with Keith Olbermann at MSNBC, helped launch CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360° and Air America Radio, and has also worked at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Young Turks.
Anyone remember when I didn’t buy it? Or am I dreaming up a self-serving retcon?
Seriously though, your posts are some of the best politcial writinig out there, in my humble opinion. Thank you for being real and speaking truth in a way that is exciting to read.
Goodbye, Susan Collins. Here's hoping the oyster farmer shows you the door!
BTW, was this the amendment that Schumer added, surprisingly?