Gentle Reader, you will notice the modifiers in the previous
paragraph: “presumably,” “some,” “reasonable.”
Those words are there because Curmie really doesn’t want to claim as
fact something that isn’t true. If only
the President-elect would be as honest circumspect… but then, he never
was.
True, no intelligent person believes that Donald Trump is
anything but a narcissistic, mendacious, blowhard. His post on the ironically titled Truth
Social is presented here in what Curmie presumes to be its entirety (you didn’t think I’d visit that
site to check, did you, Gentle Reader?):
When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true. The crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before. Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department. The Trump Administration will fully support the City of New Orleans as they investigate and recover from this act of pure evil!
The first thing to notice is that whereas any normal person would lead with his sympathy for the victims, Trump always opens with political posturing; basic humanity is an afterthought, if it shows up at all. Even if the conjecture about “criminals coming in” were accurate, the statement would mark Trump as an absolute asshole. But we knew that, of course. What we didn’t know but certainly should have suspected as a possibility is the fact that Trump’s bluster was 100% wrong on the facts… and that the so-called leftist media scrupulously avoided highlighting his bullshit.
Yes, Newsweek does mention in paragraph five (!) that the suspect, Shamsud Din Jabbar, was a
Texas-born American citizen. Oh, and he
was apparently a US Army vet. Ah, but
the headline proclaims only that “Donald Trump Says New Orleans Terror Attack
Proves He Was Right.” Anyone not reading
past the first two sub-heads might be led to believe that Trump was spewing
something other than his usual brand of xenophobic drivel. Well, anyone who has been asleep for the last
dozen years or so might be so tempted.
Those of us branded as “Trump deranged” by the MAGA apologists, of
course, knew better were prepared to disbelieve a serial prevaricator.
To be fair, The New York Times did (finally) headline their story as “Trump Falsely Suggested New Orleans Suspect Was an Immigrant.” Of course, the MAGA crowd wouldn’t believe the NYT if they said NBA centers are tall. But you can bet the ranch that the truth that Donald Trump yet again made a false allegation will be ignored by most and dismissed as either leftie propaganda or irrelevant by most of the rest. Curmie, unlike Trump, doesn’t claim to be the sole source of truth, but he’s right about this one.
The discussion will (and should) focus on what could have
been done differently and what can be done to prevent a recurrence. The answer isn’t easy. Better training for cops: needed, but not
enough. Stricter gun laws, even if none
of the deaths were caused by shooting (the two wounded cops definitely were): useful,
but not enough. And no, smug asshole right-winger,
no one is calling for tighter restrictions on rental trucks. We need to recognize that we can’t solve
every problem without creating worse ones, but we damned well better do a
little creative thinking.
One side note: Curmie and Beloved Spouse are grateful for a
friend who asked us to look after her cats while she spent the holidays in Maine
with her partner. We otherwise might
well have tried to head to NOLA for New Year’s… and our go-to hotel is about
20 yards from where that truck crashed.
It was almost certainly one of the hotels evacuated by authorities. Curmie is fine with missing that particular
bit of excitement.
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