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By David Remnick
I was recently chatting with Patricia Evangelista, a Filipino journalist who is about to publish an amazing book called “Some People Need to Be Killed. ” Evangelista, an intrepid journalist in her thirties, covered the regime of Rodrigo Duterte, a provincial mayor who won the presidency by promising to execute, without trial or arrest, drug addicts or anyone else he deemed a risk to the public. order. Evangelista is not an expert. She was a crime reporter running for Rappler, an independent online site co-founded by Maria Ressa, co-winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize. Every night, Evangelista walked the streets and alleys of Manila to see the ruins of sanctioned violence. in Duterte’s state, riddled bodies chilling in the sewers, bored police muttering uselessly into their radios. She wrote down the names, the stories, taking care to specify the details, her way of honoring the dead and their families. In her longer reports and investigations, she Evangelista necessarily recorded the “achievements” of an elected tyrant who fulfilled his crusade promises. It was honesty written in blood. A Duterte-era vigilante gave Evangelista the title: “I’m not a bad guy,” she said. “Some other people want to be killed. ” According to human rights organizations, Duterte’s extrajudicial attacks have killed more than ten thousand people.
Over time, Donald Trump has been no less fair about his intentions than Rodrigo Duterte. (In fact, Trump is a fan; in 2017, he praised Duterte for “the incredible work” he was doing “on the drug problem. ” No doubt Trump was also pleased that Duterte called Barack Obama “a son “) In recent weeks, Trump has made it clear that his plans for a second term are no less incredible than Duterte’s, no less vengeful or unhinged. We deserve to listen. These are crusade promises. For many years, Trump has hidden in plain sight: he makes no effort to hide his bigotry, his lawlessness, his preference for authoritarian power; On the contrary, he advertises it and, more disturbingly, this reinforces his attractiveness. Furthermore, there is no doubt that Trump has so normalized calls for violence as a political tool that he has incited countless people to act evilly. Trump enjoyed the way he can simply whip up a mob with implicit or particular calls for revenge, from his warning to “Lock her up!” to his smile toward a protester at one of his rallies, “I’d like to punch him in the face. ” He was the inspiration for Charlottesville. The January 6 insurrection was a direct reaction to his call to his followers: “Be there, unleash yourselves!” »During the protests after the murder of George Floyd, Trump asked his advisers, according to former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper: “Can’t you shoot them?” Just shoot them in the legs or something? According to a recent Times article, since the Mar-a-Lago lawsuit last year and the subsequent seizure of confidential documents, which led Trump to express his anger at federal authorities, there have been threats against the FBI by the Array staff. and amenities skyrocketed by more than 300 percent.
Today, Trump has stepped up his rhetoric. There’s nothing I don’t say. Suggesting that Mark Milley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is guilty of an “act of treason,” he advised that the most productive punishment would be execution. flagrant act that, in the past, the punishment would have been DEATH!”)
In a recent speech in Anaheim, California, Trump explained how, if re-elected, he would take on the challenge of shoplifting: “Very simple: If you rob a store, you can expect to be shot on your way out of that store. Trump added: “The news that they’re being removed will be heard in a matter of minutes, and our nation, in a day, will be an absolutely different place. There will have to be retaliation for the theft, destruction and ruin of our country. “country. This is consistent with Trump’s overall vision for law enforcement: He has raised the option of shooting immigrants trying to cross the border. (Immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country,” he said, which is a specifically fascist formulation. )
Trump’s re-election crusade is, by necessity, taking positions in and around various courts, as well as on classic platforms. He opposes a hypocrisy-ridden prosecution formula. In August, a day after a federal judge over the handling of the 2020 election interference case in Washington warned him not to threaten or intimidate witnesses, he went online to post this: “IF YOU FOLLOW ME In New York, the judge in Trump’s civil fraud case, Arthur Engoron, had to include a gag order after the former president baselessly called an employee “Schumer’s girlfriend” and added, “Shame on you!This case will have to be closed immediately!! Engoron ordered Trump to eliminate the position, but of course, the damage had already been done: Word got out, and the clerk of court may be expecting endless online harassment and worse.
Trump shows his deranged brain even in his flippant asides. Addressing California Republicans, he denounced the “crazy” Nancy Pelosi “who ruined San Francisco. “She smiled and improvised: “By the way, how is your husband?Does anyone know? (He (referring, of course, to Paul Pelosi, who last year attacked and was seriously injured by a guy armed with a hammer who broke into Pelosi’s house. )The laughter of the crowd is as haunting as that of the speaker, from whom nothing less can be expected. .
These are not mere anecdotes, “colorful” moments of unforeseen temperament coming from a familiar source. (“Just Donald being Donald!”) No, those moments are the essence of Trump and his campaign. Over the next year, you will rarely, if ever, hear Trump talk about politics. You will hear expressions of rage and impulse. It is tempting to forget them, to dismiss them as inconsequential, repetitive and corrosive. They are so painful to pay attention to, whether because of their hatred or their frequency, that some have argued that the media deserves to forget about them altogether, to avoid mentioning them. But ignoring them probably won’t make them go away. They are in the middle of a ticket that is popular in the polls and threatens much of what is decent or promising in our politics. Trump’s anger is the inspiration for everything from the Proud Boys to sending pipe bombs to political targets, not to mention the deranged habit of much of the House Republican caucus. Meanwhile, the organization of Republicans who compete with Trump for the nomination mildly criticize him. In their ethical cowardice, they seek attention, exposure, or perhaps a position in the new Trump administration.
At the same time, special attention should be paid to contrasting temperaments and values. Last week, Joe Biden delivered an austere and vital speech in Arizona, focusing not on his abundant achievements in economic, domestic and foreign policy, but on the risk he poses to democratic ideals and establishments through his most likely opponent in 2024 and his supporters. Trump, he said bluntly, was not encouraged through the Constitution or human decency, but through “vengeance and vengeance. “The reaction — or lack thereof — to Trump’s relentless risks is no less troubling for Biden. The general silence that followed Trump’s comments about Milley, he said, was “deafening. “
“We all want to remember it: Democracies should not die from a gunshot,” Biden said. “They can die when other people are silent, when they can’t get up. “
It’s possible that Biden simply says that in an unresonant voice. Age has taken away the highest marks from his speech. But what he says, the problems he describes, want to be amplified.
In 2016, when Rodrigo Duterte was running for president of the Philippines, he spoke in the familiar voice of strongmen around the world: “Forget human rights laws. . . Drug dealers, thieves and slackers. . . I’m going to throw them all into Manila Bay and fatten up all the fish there. If he or his security forces were prosecuted, he said, he would have letters of immunity: “Pardon granted to Rodrigo Duterte for the crime of murder, signed through Rodrigo Duterte. “
It is the intellectual universe, the sensibility of Donald Trump, that turns out to be an asset in winning the Republican nomination and that he has a fair chance of returning to the White House. A lot: the rule of law, global and national security, the fate of the environment depends on whether Americans reject their anger or approve of it, and thus make this country unrecognizable. Patricia Evangelista describes herself in her e-book as “a citizen of a country I can’t recognize as my own. “Are you in a position to feel the same? ♦
What to the whale in “Free Willy. “
They thought they had discovered the best apartment. They were not alone.
It is one of the oldest buildings in the city centre. Why not take a look at a backup?
The black leader on the right.
After football stars from top schools were accused of rape, online activists demanded justice.
The oldest temple in the world and civilization.
A comic through Alison Bechdel: the seven-minute semi-sadistic exercise.
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