Second Jewish cemetery vandalized, this time in Philadelphia

[pbrower2a]

All hate crimes are false flags until proven otherwise. This is always an excellent rule to follow in 2016 America.

This is 2017 America. Barack Obama, as clean of religious bigotry as any President, would have the FBI snooping around southeastern Pennsylvania and southwestern New Jersey. Members of known hate groups would already be called in for secretive questioning. But he is no longer President.

We have had the most fundamental change in American political and cultural life in America since the 1930s, and it is not a "new Birth of Freedom". Many people feel much more free to express primitive hatred.

1. This looks like antisemitism. Too many stones are damaged to suggest a personal dispute or a youthful prank.

2. There are plenty of suspects -- Kluxists, neo-Nazis, and Jihadi  terrorists. This is for local, state, and federal law enforcement to investigate, and the courts to prosecute.

3. Jewish-Islamic relations are very good in America. Islamophobia and Jew-hating have much the same psychological dynamic. Jewish groups have consistently opposed bigotry against Muslims in America.

4. I am not blaming the President.

[pbrower2a]

All hate crimes are false flags until proven otherwise. This is always an excellent rule to follow in 2016 America.

This is 2017 America. Barack Obama, as clean of religious bigotry as any President, would have the FBI snooping around southeastern Pennsylvania and southwestern New Jersey. Members of known hate groups would already be called in for secretive questioning. But he is no longer President.

We have had the most fundamental change in American political and cultural life in America since the 1930s, and it is not a "new Birth of Freedom". Many people feel much more free to express primitive hatred.

1. This looks like antisemitism. Too many stones are damaged to suggest a personal dispute or a youthful prank.

2. There are plenty of suspects -- Kluxists, neo-Nazis, and Jihadi  terrorists. This is for local, state, and federal law enforcement to investigate, and the courts to prosecute.

3. Jewish-Islamic relations are very good in America. Islamophobia and Jew-hating have much the same psychological dynamic. Jewish groups have consistently opposed bigotry against Muslims in America.

4. I am not blaming the President.

You need to understand, pbrower, that under the Trump administration, the Neo-Nazis and the radical right-wing militia groups will not be viewed by law enforcement as any sort of terrorist threat whatsoever. If anything, they may very well be enlisted into the new regime's ever-accelerating efforts to round up and deport poor, non-white immigrants - men, women, and children - in addition to harassing and persecuting potential "terrorists" and their families in their communities and at their mosques, along with aggressively cracking down on "thugs" in the "inner cities" of Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, etc. With Bannon and his ilk whispering into Trump's ear, the possibilities on this front are endless!

I understand this very well. I am not saying that President Trump has direct links to the KKK, neo-Nazis, or militia groups, but those groups have heard him say much that they consider 'empowering'. I contrast the similarly right-wing Ronald Reagan who wanted no part of ethnic or religious unrest and was willing to condemn overt displays of bigotry. Donald Trump is similarly reactionary, but utterly devoid of a moral compass and far more foolish.

Steve Bannon is the power behind the throne, so to speak, as were Lee Atwater and Karl Rove in earlier times -- but Bannon is far more ruthless, cruel, and extremist. It may be Bannon who decides  what "Make America Great Again" -- and that, so far as I can tell, is one in which liberals are utterly irrelevant and perhaps economically ruined.