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"Monday’s wreath-laying at Arlington was, in part, Trump’s attempt to clean up the mess he has created [by disrespecting miltary service and veterans], and to establish some credibility as a champion of men- and women-at-arms. But in the end, it merely served to remind Americans how little he understands about service, sacrifice, and heroism."

~ Charlie Sykes

#Trump #ArlingtonNationalCemetery #Arlington #military #veterans
/2

https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2024/08/trump-dishonors-fallen-soldiers-again/679644/

"Trump’s latest leaves me angry and appalled, that he would denigrate this solemn place for a photo op. How can this man be put back in charge of the country’s military when he clearly doesn’t respect them or what they do?

Remember that Trump got out of serving in Vietnam because of 'bone spurs.'”

~ Dan Rather

#Trump #ArlingtonNationalCemetery #Arlington #military #veterans
/3

https://steady.substack.com/p/a-new-low

"He has called American fighting men and women who paid the ultimate price 'suckers and losers.' He has ridiculed prisoners of war, like the late Senator John McCain. 'He’s not a war hero, he’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured, okay?' Trump said during the 2016 campaign."

~ Dan Rather

#Trump #ArlingtonNationalCemetery #Arlington #military #veterans
/4

"A handout given to visitors titled 'Rules Governing Conduct' specifically prohibits 'political campaign or election-related activities within the cemeteries.' But that didn’t stop Trump’s political operatives from shooting campaign video and setting up photos with their malignant candidate standing over a gravestone, grinning and flashing a 'thumbs up.'"

~Steven Beschloss

#Trump #ArlingtonNationalCemetery #Arlington #military #veterans
/5

https://www.americaamerica.news/p/snapshot-the-further-desecration

"I felt it necessary to follow up on this nauseating, infuriating episode because it encapsulates why we should do whatever we can to elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz—to make clear how done we are with a sociopath who exploits a hallowed place like Arlington, cares not one whit if he’s breaking laws, creates conflict and misery for his own personal benefit, then exacerbates the abuse when the actions are questioned."

#Trump #ArlingtonNationalCemetery #Arlington #military #veterans
/6

Wendell Griffen, an honorably discharged military veteran who has served as a judge and pastor of a church, says,

"We should be offended, but not surprised, that Donald Trump recently visited Arlington National Cemetery for political posturing.

We have seen Trump use the Holy Bible for political posturing, personal branding, and private profiteering."

#Trump #ArlingtonNationalCemetery #Arlington #military #veterans
/7

https://fierceprohetichope.blogspot.com/2024/08/donald-trumps-dishonoring-and.html

"He uses women in his family, notably Melania Trump (his wife) and Ivanka Trump (his daughter) as sex objects.

He used classified material stolen from the White House as personal swagger material.

He wanted to stage a Fourth of July military parade using military personnel and armored tracked vehicles on Washington streets to show his personal power.

Trump referred to flag officers of the U.S. military as 'my generals.'"

#Trump #ArlingtonNationalCemetery #Arlington #military #veterans
/8

"Long before Trump stomped onto the hallowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery to exploit family members of fallen veterans of the U.S. war in Afghanistan at the gravesites of their loved ones, there was overwhelming evidence that Donald Trump is a vicious sociopathic idiot who only reveres himself, his celebrity, his wealth, and his power."

#Trump #ArlingtonNationalCemetery #Arlington #military #veterans
/9

"The latest stunt at Arlington Cemetery is further proof that Trump is an idolatrous buffoon, con artist, judged sex offender, pathological liar, commercial cheat, and convicted felon without any regard for the valor, devotion, and loyalty demonstrated by people who serve in the military, not to mention those who died in service to the nation, and their loved ones."

#Trump #ArlingtonNationalCemetery #Arlington #military #veterans
/10

Is it possible that Trump might eventually apologize for violating legal strictures regarding photographing graves at Arlington National Cemetery for political use?

Not a chance of that, Mark Sumner thinks, since

"Trump doesn’t do apologies, only insults."

#Trump #ArlingtonNationalCemetery #Arlington #military #veterans
/11

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/8/28/2266259/-Trump-s-Arlington-stunt-should-be-a-campaign-ending-disgrace

"The fascist overtones from the Arlington National Cemetery incident are unmistakeable: a presidential campaign run like a gang, with enforcers shoving aside a public servant enforcing the rules and a mob of millions of supporters with a track record of doxxing, harassing, intimidating, & threatening anyone who gets in their candidate’s way, all the while being egged on by the candidate himself."

~ David Kurtz

#Trump #ArlingtonNationalCemetery #military #veterans
/12

https://morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com/p/cemetery-staffer-declines-to-press

"You can’t blame the cemetery official for declining to press charges rather than put herself in the line of fire for continued and unending abuse. She didn’t sign up for that. She’s already been baselessly accused by the Trump campaign of having a 'mental health episode,' being 'despicable' and a 'disgrace,' and not deserving to have her job."

#Trump #ArlingtonNationalCemetery #Arlington #military #veterans
/13

"The erosion of any kind of strong, unified, national, countervailing force to Trump’s public bullying and nastiness only enables and emboldens the thuggery that is central to his appeal and that he has already notoriously used on Jan. 6 to try to retain power."

#Trump #ArlingtonNationalCemetery #Arlington #military #veterans #bullying #thuggery #fascism
/14

"There's something fundamentally broken about Donald Trump, and it was on full display during his recent visit to Arlington National Cemetery. ...

This is where Trump's moral failing becomes most apparent. It's not just that he and his campaign were willing to break the law for a photo op; it's that they were so quick to vilify anyone who stood in their way."

~ Parker Molloy

#Trump #ArlingtonNationalCemetery #Arlington #military #veterans
/15

https://www.readtpa.com/p/trumps-arlington-disgrace-reveals

"The Arlington employee's fear of retaliation wasn't unfounded — it was a reminder of how Trump's influence has twisted the public discourse, where those who uphold the rules are the ones who end up under attack."

#Trump #ArlingtonNationalCemetery #Arlington #military #veterans
/16

"Today, it became known that the family of Army Master Sergeant Andrew Marckesano, a soldier buried next to the grave behind which Trump posed, told the New York Times that they had not given permission for Trump and his campaign to film his gravesite, which appeared in photographs and videos of Trump."

~ Lucian K. Truscott

#Trump #ArlingtonNationalCemetery #Arlington #military #veterans
/17

https://luciantruscott.substack.com/p/trump-manages-to-disrespect-both

"'The Trump campaign staffers did not adhere to the rules that were set in place for this visit to Staff Sergeant Hoover’s gravesite in Section 60, which lays directly next to my brother’s grave,' Marckesano’s sister Michelle told the Times in a statement. Master Sergeant Marckesano served six tours in Afghanistan over the 20-year duration of that war, and died by his own hand in 2020 after a long battle with PTSD."

#Trump #ArlingtonNationalCemetery #Arlington #military #veterans
/18

"A spokesman for Arlington National Cemetery said today that holding a campaign event on its soil not only breaks the rules of the cemetery but is a violation of federal law."

#Trump #ArlingtonNationalCemetery #Arlington #military #veterans
/19

"The Republican Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, reportedly pulled strings to get Donald Trump into Arlington National Cemetery, amid what has become a scandal and a crisis for the ex-president’s campaign to re-take the White House and once again become Commander in Chief."

~ David Badash

#Trump #ArlingtonNationalCemetery #Arlington #military #veterans #MikeJohnson
/20

https://www.alternet.org/trump-arlington-mike-johnson/

@KayseeColorado @wdlindsy

yes, staff

toadies and assorted boot lickers of the "great" orange thing

@benroyce

Ahh, thanks. It's hard for me to comprehend that type of people.

@KayseeColorado

you take a child, and a domineering controllling sadistic parent, and you cajole, berate, hound, abuse, and sometimes literally beat any sense of independence out of that child, to conform rigidly to the parent's determination of their behavior

some kids, to their credit, escape this with a stronger sense of independence than you or i

but others, what you get as an adult is an obsequious fawning person with a defect of identity. they glom onto others and live through others

@AlliFlowers I fully understand. I read commentary today by Will Selber stating that he knew comrades buried in the secton of the cemetery Trump desecrated and is appalled at Trump's desecration of all those graves.

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-arlington-national-cemetery-section-60-politicized

@Tharpa Yes, abuse heaped on abuse. Much is being written about that in recent years as sexual abuse of minors in religious communities has come to light and is being discussed.

@FallsMom Indeed.

@beecycling I think his self-image, his cherished view of himself as a dominant, macho man, precludes every saying he's sorry. What a burden to go through life that way!

@KathyLK I think you're exactly right. People who have served on his team tell us how he mocks his followers behind closed doors, so I suspect he has no problem with mocking veterans and military folks the very same way.

@wdlindsy

He's mocked them in public--remember how he "loves" the "poorly educated."

@KathyLK Absolutely.

@sufferforme "Put it all together and what you have is a man who wants to utilise and mobilise armed forces who he considers losers to serve his own ends."

Excellent. You put your finger on a very important point there.

@Smalltofeds I liked the point with which Tim Miller began his video commentary today:

We cannot refuse to talk about him and what he's doing. We absolutely have to talk about him and what he's doing.

Silent complicity paved the way for Hitler.

@wdlindsy

We are in a different era than World War II. Human frailty is being exploited in advanced technology and mass media.

We must understand and carefully choose our participation in them.

STRATEGIC silence is not complicity. It is a prudent understanding of what we are facing today in preserving the truth.

Volume bytes are not the answer. In fact they are unintentional complicity in themselves.

https://rosecoveredglasses.wordpress.com/2024/08/25/are-americans-truly-independent/

@Smalltofeds I'd say that the era leading up to WWII has a great deal to teach us that we have still refused to learn.

@wdlindsy

Try to imagine the lessons on a platform of today's technology.

@Smalltofeds Is there any other option if we want a viable future?

@wdlindsy

Yes, and it is inevitable. Only the amount of human suffering in the interim is in question.

All wars, including the political war we are fighting with each other internally in our country, must evolve to listening,learning and negotiating, respecting other's values, not beating them over the head with ours.
https://rosecoveredglasses.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-ultimate-form-of-planet.html

@Smalltofeds I continue to say that there are significant lessons from the first half of the 20th century we have yet to learn. I continue to focus on trying to learn those and discuss them with others.

@wdlindsy

I admire your view of history and I agree that it has value. But it must be applied in a manner that recognizes the changes that have occurred in many venues that did not exist at the time that history was made.

Without that transition your message, however valuable, will fall on mute ears to those who do not recognize history if not applied in a manner meaningful the them.

Assuming they will make the transition is a stretch.

https://rosecoveredglasses.wordpress.com/2024/01/02/understanding-the-challenge-of-short-attention-spans/

@Smalltofeds It's impossible to forget history and claim that we really want to build a humane world. Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.

@wdlindsy

The challenge is not in forgetting history.

Most reasonable individuals will respond to communication that explains how history can be applied to the current day and whether or not historical re-occurrence will threaten or further their individual values.

All good, truthful communication is much like sales and marketing. It must be explained in manner that the listener can relate to. The explanation must appeal to the listener's values to educate.

https://rosecoveredglasses.wordpress.com/2024/03/19/values-based-marketing-techniques-for-small-business/

@mamiyaman Yes, can say that again!