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You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Dolt 45 / Normalizing Anti-Semitism

Normalizing Anti-Semitism

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Yesterday the President and the Chair of the Judicial Committee, Charles Grassley, repeatied lies about George Soros. Today Rudy Giuliani joined in this mainstreaming of anti-Semitism.

1) The accusations against Soros come out of organized anti-Semitism. They use Soros as a stand-in for the unacceptable formulations that have been used by anti-Semites for centuries. Don’t use these accusations, and don’t go to websites that promote this stuff.

2) I take this somewhat personally because back in the 1990s and early 2000s, when I was working in countries that had been part of the Soviet Union, the Soros Foundation funded work to help those countries become democratic. The foundation still funds work along those lines.

George Soros grew up in Communist Hungary. He knows what unfreedom is like, which is why he set up his foundation to do that kind of work.

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64Comments

  2. 2.

    Mathguy

    Grassley is a terrible human being that is long past its “Best By” date, if it ever had one.

  3. 3.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    a couple of weeks ago Eric Fredo tweeted something about “shekels”. I suspect he was reaching for “thirty pieces of silver”, but apparently the alt-right like to talk about shekels, so I suspect that’s where Eric picked it up, from wallowing in the internet filth where he feels comfortable, where his father and his family are heroes.

    Trump and those around him, especially Rudi, perversely benefit from a grading curve which dismissing the damage they do because they’re such buffoons, but they are spreading poison throughout our polity.

  5. 5.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Mathguy: I forget who said Grassley is the finest rural county commissioner ever to serve in the Senate. And that was twenty-five years ago. He and Hatch may not be clinically senile, but they are both clearly in decline.

  6. 6.

    prostratedragon

    It also sounds like something that certain Russians would be far more interested in (Soros’s actual activities) than most U.S. Racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny, and such make people such fine tools.

    (Yes, the poor title is lopped off on my desktop, dona eis requiem.)

  7. 7.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    From Twitchy

    None of these people have ever been a YT comments section or 4chan in their lives; or they’re just lying. Invoking Soros’ name is absolutely an anti-semetic dogwhistle. The man’s Jewish and the ones spouting this shit always allude that he’s behind some evil conspiracy. Connect the dots, you morons! It’s not rocket science!

  8. 8.

    Omnes Omnibus

    I cannot believe that we are still dealing with anti-Semitism in 2018. I can’t believe any of this shit.

  9. 9.

    chopper

    when I was working in countries that had been part of the Soviet Union, the Soros Foundation funded work to help those countries become democratic.

    which is why he’s even more of a RW boogie man now. russia isn’t a big fan of him either, which is one reason why you see so many of russia’s american puppets amping up the anti-soros bullshit.

  12. 12.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    @Omnes Omnibus: Anti-Semitism, is as old as Christianity, what is frightening is that the American version, many times dormant and mild compared to Europe, may erupt into something fierce if it is not contained, and Trump Don IL will ignite it.

  13. 13.

    trollhattan

    @chopper:
    Yup. It kind of escaped me that Russia would be reflexively anti-Soros–considering he’s a right wing boogeyman– but since the election and with Vlad’s claws so firmly dug into Trump it seems they would likely be stoking those flames.

    The Twitter fight Roseanne tried to pick with Chelsea was so very odd when she turned on Soros, accusing him of sending Jews to the camps or something. Evidently George Soros annexed the Sudatenland when he was eight.

  15. 15.

    zhena gogolia

    @trollhattan:

    He financed the Open Society initiative, which tried to promote democracy and all sorts of good things in Russia and Eastern Europe. Of course they hate him.

  19. 19.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @westyny: No. I am going to watch old episodes of Top Gear until it is time for the Badger game.

    ETA: Day drinking may come into play.

  21. 21.

    FelonyGovt

    I’m glad my parents and grandparents are no longer around to see this shocking resurgence of anti-Semitism in the US.

  23. 23.

    Yutsano

    What is old is new again…

    This is why I assert my Jewish ancestry even though I’m Baha’i now. We still persist in being the punching bags of hate even though all we do is continue to survive. They don’t like us because we stay different and distinct even while interacting in Christian majority society. We will outlast this bleak moment in history too.

  24. 24.

    The Midnight Lurker

    I’m working my butt off to destroy the world with ‘the liberal agenda’ (around the office we just call it ‘democracy’), and all I got was a t-shirt and some yard signs?! Where’s my check, George? Please call accounting. I need healthcare.

  26. 26.

    SenyorDave

    Where is the ADL on the Soros thing? This anti-semitic garbage has been going on for years, but Trump and his people have picked up the mantle and run with it. I’m Jewish, and IMO any Jew who supports Trump is pretty much a kapo (it is not a compliment).

  27. 27.

    debbie

    @Mathguy:

    Listening to him at the hearings, it was clear he is more than ready to be put out to pasture.

    ETA It’s not just the meanness of his words; he was stumbling, fumbling, and mumbling.

  28. 28.

    SFAW

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    One of the comments from the Kaine Tweet: “If this turns out be a hoax engineered by someone in the Democratic camp to make the Alt-Right look at fault, will it be reported? So often these displays are not done by who you first seek to blame.”

    And the proper response to that is: “If it turns out to be EXACTLY the people we think it is, will you then kill yourself, as a way of atoning for being an anti-Semitic motherfucker who tries to spread lies?”

  29. 29.

    SFAW

    @debbie:

    Listening to him at the hearings, it was clear he is more than ready to be put out to pasture.

    Fish farm, not pasture.

  30. 30.

    NotMax

    “The classics never go out of style.”

    Unfortunately, holds true for a plethora of passions exceedingly more deleterious than fashion, food or entertainment. That these hateful, horrid, brainwashed people have been eagerly granted a megaphone, platforms from which to spout bile and a veneer of (false) equivalence is a stupefyingly saddening mark of our times.

  33. 33.

    Mike in DC

    Sheldon Adelson is the number one individual donor to the GOP, yet I don’t recall seeing his name ever invoked by Democrats in the way that Soros is on the right. That’s one big difference between the parties/bases.

  35. 35.

    MoxieM

    Especially given what’s going on in Hungary right now, really? I mean really?? Has any one of them done as much good in the world as George Soros, despite careers of so-called public service? This bunch of nasty old scrotes needs to FOAD. (I am not level headed today, nope not a bit.)

  36. 36.

    Damien

    You know, for the master race they sure do bitch a lot about how Jews run the world. Feels like after thousands of years of pogroms and wars on us, if we’re still secretly in charge then maaaaaayyyyyybe look in the mirror and really think hard about where you fit into the hierarchy.

  37. 37.

    SFAW

    @trollhattan:

    “Anything I don’t wish to believe is a False Flag!”

    Or is it that they do believe it, but don’t want to let truth get in the way of their Hate?

  40. 40.

    SFAW

    @MoxieM:

    Has any one of them done as much good in the world as George Soros, despite careers of so-called public service?

    Well, Seb Gorka has been in the forefront of … something. Nothing that requires personal sacrifice, but still …

  42. 42.

    Cacti

    Blind rage over anything George Soros related is an easy way to spot a Russian troll.

    I always enjoy shit-talking about how he shorted the ruble.

  43. 43.

    trollhattan

    We had a rash of synagogue arsons in 1999 by two brothers from rural redneckistan California. They also took time from their attacks on Jews to murder a Redding gay couple. A pleasing outcome was knowing this was the judge who sentenced them for their arson convictions.

    Don’t know if things are worse now but they certainly feel more comfortable coming out into daylight.

  44. 44.

    Aleta

    Osaka ended its sister city relationship with San Francisco this week, in protest over the SF Comfort Women Memorial . …

    (CNN) The dispute between the two cities began in 2015 over the Comfort Women Memorial in San Francisco’s Chinatown. … The memorial features the statues of three women standing up and holding hands, one from China, one from Korea and one from the Philippines — three countries where many “comfort women” were from. The statue is accompanied by educational tools that teach about the dark history of “comfort women.”

    “The San Francisco Comfort Woman Memorial is a symbol of the struggle faced by all women who have been, and are currently, forced to endure the horrors of enslavement and sex trafficking,” San Francisco Mayor London Breed said in a statement. “These victims deserve our respect and this memorial reminds us all of events and lessons we must never forget.”

    Osaka Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura announced the official split between the cities in a letter sent to the San Francisco mayor. Although the letter addressed the “unforgivable act that violated the dignity and human rights of women,” it claims Japan was not the only country guilty of “sex on the battlefield,” citing other nations such as the United States, Great Britain and Germany.

    Julie Tang, a retired judge of the San Francisco Superior Court and the co-chair of the “Comfort Women” Justice Coalition, said the women were victims of human trafficking organized by the Japanese government during World War II.
    “It is a Japan problem, because Japan has not owned up to it,” said Tang. Japan “institutionalized” its sex trafficking during the war, whereas other countries did not, she added. “This history is beyond description, and it has to be remembered. It cannot be shunted aside just because Japan wants it so,” Tang said.

  45. 45.

    Hungry Joe

    It’s not like there was WWII, then there was a long period of non-anti-Semitic bliss, and now the Beast is stirring again, Check out Melissa Faye Greene’s “The Temple Bombing” (1996), about the 1958 dynamiting of a synagogue in Atlanta. Damn good book. (Greene also wrote “Praying for Sheetrock.”)

  46. 46.

    O. Felix Culpa

    The R candidate running for New Mexico Secretary of State invoked Soros’ name multiple times in a recent candidates’ forum (and not in a good way). I was stunned, never having encountered this fuckery IRL, and never this openly. The poison is spreading and must be stopped.

  47. 47.

    MisterForkbeard

    @SFAW: Sen Gorka is a veritable storm front of… something. He’s someone who’s getting recognized more and more these days.

  49. 49.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    @SFAW: There are those who believe story of Moses and Pharaoh was bullshit. I guess you can count the Babylonians and the Roman’s as antisemitic, but that was about conquest. The book Constintine’s Sword by James Carroll is an excellent history of Antisemitism in Europe.

  55. 55.

    PIGL

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??:

    I don’t know of any conventional, legal, political means. But I am fairly sure an “over abundance of love” will not do the trick. Extreme violence selectively applied is the only solution I can think of. And because such effective measures are beyond us, I think our civilization is going to fall. And that fall will be forever.

  56. 56.

    Mike in NC

    The KKK and other rioters in Charlottesville last year were inspired to do what they did by Trump.

  58. 58.

    SFAW

    @Mr Stagger Lee:

    There are those who believe story of Moses and Pharaoh was bullshit.

    I’m sure there are also those who believe the sky is yellow and the sun is blue, too, but numbers of believers does not add truth_value to the “idea” that the Jews have not been persecuted since Abraham was a pup.

  59. 59.

    SFAW

    @MisterForkbeard:

    Sen Gorka is a veritable storm front of… something. He’s someone who’s getting recognized more and more these days.

    Perhaps he can join Frederick Douglass, and they can compare note?

    PS: Watch out for typos. That motherfucker is bad enough without being elected to Congress.

  60. 60.

    Dev Null

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I keep thinking that the Operator of our sim has decided to shut down the sim, and while waiting for it to close, is having fun with us.

    Or perhaps this is the means the Operator has chosen to shut down our sim.

  62. 62.

    Bill Arnold

    @Cacti:

    Blind rage over anything George Soros related is an easy way to spot a Russian troll.

    Has any enterprising anti-anti-semite done and published/made available a serious forensic analysis of Russian anti-Soro meme-pushing?
    (Meme in the broad sense of little idea-let designed to infiltrate minds.)
    Curious, since it would be easy to do on a massive scale on Twitter (for example) with temporal analysis. (May look later, after finishing some drywall work.)

  63. 63.

    Mike G

    Cue the neo-cons spluttering with outrage that the warmongering imperialist Repukes they hooked up with to remake wreck the Middle East no longer consider them white. No honor among thieves.

  64. 64.

    RobNYNY

    Soros left Hungary in 1947, the same year that the Communists consolidated power. Born in 1930, he spent much more of his life under Hungarian Fascism (Hungary was already passing anti-Jewish laws and aligning with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy in the early to mid-1930’s) and Nazi occupation (1944-45). He was 14 when Budapest was liberated (more or less) by the Soviets in 1945, and about 17 when he left for the London School of Economics.

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