“Feb 22, 2018 · Briefing notes captured by photographers at US president Donald Trump's White House listening session with survivors of gun violence show that he needed to be reminded to say ‘I hear you’”.
As anticipated, the official itinerary for Trump’s forced visit to Pittsburgh will include a visit to police officers in the hospital while Jarvanka does the actual visits of grief for those sitting shivah.
Will other props be deployed, like a yarmulke and some gesture feigning tears, since there needs to be some Bill Shiney objects for the photo-op, because with Trump, it’s about the money shot.
After all, he is “the President of Pittsburgh”, whose Veep’s first choice to say a prayer was a “Jews for Jesus” guy. How best to signal the antisemitic sympathies of the WH by doubling down on a Theresienstadt media opportunity.
When Trump has met with victims' families after mass shootings or natural disasters in the past, he has conveyed a style of empathy that can sometimes feel stilted, particularly when compared to the freewheeling style he employs in most settings. He has yet to deliver a eulogy at a memorial service honoring the memories of Americans slain in gun violence or other attacks.
When Trump met with family members of the Parkland, Florida, high school shooting earlier this year, he was photographed clutching a notecard with handwritten prompts like "I hear you" and "What would you most want me to know about your experience?" -- a signal, at minimum, that some aides worried the usual signals of empathy may not come easily to him.
Robert Bowers, 46, is accused of storming into the Tree of Life synagogue yelling “All Jews must die” and opening fire on members of three congregations holding Sabbath prayer services there.
A federal judge on Monday ordered Bowers held without bail.
The attack, which the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) described as the deadliest targeting Jews in the United States, has heightened a national debate over Trump’s rhetoric, which critics say has contributed to a surge in white nationalist and neo-Nazi activity.
[...]
Members of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community said they would protest against Trump on Tuesday afternoon.
“The gunman who tore apart our neighborhood believed your lies about the immigrant caravan in Mexico,” protest organizers said in an announcement, referring to a group of migrants who are trekking through Mexico toward the United States. “He believed anti-Semitic lies that Jews were funding the caravan”
In a social media post on Saturday, Bowers, the suspect, had accused the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), a group that helps refugees, of bringing “invaders in that kill our people.”
The protest announcement echoed an open letter from a group of local Jewish leaders who told Trump: “You are not welcome in Pittsburgh until you fully denounce white nationalism.”
More than 43,000 people have signed the letter, organized and posted online by the Pittsburgh chapter of Bend the Arc, a Jewish organization opposed to what it calls “the immoral agenda of the Trump administration and the Republican Party.”
www.reuters.com/...
A long time ago, Donald Trump was yapping his butthole mouth about withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement, and he said he had been elected president of PITTSBURGH not PARIS, and all non-braindead people LOLed like "Whatever, President Trash Bag, Pittsburgh didn't fucking vote for your leaky ass either."
Well, it's happening again. Trump has announced that he and Melania and Ivanka and Jared are going to Pittsburgh this afternoon to do God knows what, even though Pittsburgh has clearly said please do not come, as they don't have the resources to both protect the funerals for the 11 Jewish people who were murdered Saturday -- funerals that start today -- and also lay out a red carpet for Trump to barge in, loudly play on Twitter while mourners sit Shiva, and probably throw paper towels at everybody's heads like he did in Puerto Rico, we don't fucking know.
We need to be very clear here in saying that for real nobody wants Trump to come. (Can't imagine why a president who stokes anti-Semitism might not be welcome after an anti-Semitic mass murder that explicitly was caused by anti-refugee fake news Trump said with his mouth, it is a mystery! And yes, his daughter and son-in-law are Jewish and yes, he moved the embassy to Jerusalem, but actually no, that is not the same thing as truly being a friend and ally to American Jewish people, you asshole.)
www.wonkette.com/...