Don't believe me? Google "The Bullet and the Ballot -- Dominic Manno". In 1981, Dominic Manno was a student at the University of Pennsylvania. I had graduated two years earlier and knew Dominic slightly, as he was in a couple of my classes. By 1981, he was a columnist for the Daily Pennsylvanian. It was around this time that President Reagan was shot by John Hinckley. In a column he wrote shortly after that, Dominic wrote something to the effect that his first reaction after hearing the news was hoping that that Reagan died. At the time, he was a young, immature twenty-one year old college student. He did not seem to have an actual death wish for President Reagan. He clearly had no ability to carry out any death wish towards him. The column resulted in the secret service descending upon the University and grilling Dominic over his alleged desire to see Reagan dead. Whether or not he really wanted the President to die of his wounds does not seem to have mattered much. Whether or not a columnist for a college newspaper had the wherewithal, the ability, the desire to kill the President, cause him actual harm or inspire others to try to harm him also does not seem to have mattered much. Dominic had written an article published in a student newspaper of reasonable distribution in which he stated that his initial reaction to the President being shot was to hope for his death.
As a result of this article, it is my understanding that Dominic Manno was hounded out of a career he was hoping for, whatever that career may have been. I do not know ultimately how things turned out for him; however, I had heard through the seventies and eighties student grapevine at Penn that things were not good, and it was primarily because of the backlash to his column.
The moral of the story is that it is not a good thing to threaten or have bad thoughts about anyone, let alone the President of the United States and then to reduce those thoughts to writing to be published...
Unless, of course, your name happens to be Donald Trump (I know, I broke the rule of mentioning his name here in this blog), and you happen to be the one publishing rants wishing for the death of those you deem to be your enemies.
On the offhand chance you spent the Columbus Day weekend happily vacationing on Jupiter, at a pro-you know who rally held at his you-know-who Doral Resort in Florida attended by his son of the same name and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a video was shown. It depicted a Cadet Bone Spurs entering a church, the scene taken and doctored from a 2014 movie, and going on a shooting rampage, gruesomely killing characters who were depicted as CNN and other members of the media he does not like. Included in the video was a montage in which he apparently pistol whips John McCain, who for those remaining on Jupiter is likely still dead anyway, shoots Hilary Clinton, a former presidential candidate and standard bearer of her party, and also shoots Barack Obama. Putting aside the utter tastelessness of this video and the question of why anyone on the entire planet may have thought showing this anywhere, let alone making the video in the first place may have been a good idea, let us consider this much:
1. The video condones killing members of the media, and would seem to suggest that according to this president, encouraging psychopaths in training to kill members of the media is a good idea. Last I heard, this was illegal.
2. The video somehow seems to think it may be funny to show a man who used the excuse of bone spurs which may or may not have actually existed, blugeoning a war hero, who spent years in captivity in Vietnam and then sent on to serve his country as a public servant honorably, even if you did not agree with his politics, which I did not. We will not even get into the fact that somebody thought it was a great idea to show an image of this mighty midget allegedly pistol whipping the image of a man who is already dead.
3. The video encourages shooting Hilary Clinton. The former first lady, senator from New York and Secretary of State. We have first hand knowledge in these parts of just how seriously the secret service takes any perceived threat to Hilary Clinton. Last I heard, making legitimate threats to the safety of Hilary Clinton was illegal.
4. The video depicts and encourages some lunatic to try to kill Barack Obama, the former president and man this buffoon in the White House obviously knows he will never match up with at any level at all. THIS IS ILLEGAL. Thus far, as far as I know there has been no move to interview whoever made this video, whoever showed it at Bone Spurs Doral National, or whoever thought it was a good idea in the first place.
Thus far, he has not condemned the video. His spokesperson has... well, sort of... but he has not. Stephanie Grisham stepping forward with a tweet that the president does not condone violent political videos tells me nothing. Let me hear it from him.
And not in a god damn tweet.
To our Commander in Chief:
If you believe in more of the Constitution than the Second Amendment; specifically, if you believe in the First Amendment.
If you believe it is wrong to show any video that depicts you committing violence.
If you believe it is wrong to encourage violence against the press.
If you believe it is wrong to encourage violence against people you believe are your political enemies, even if they are people who simply disagree with you.
If you believe it is and should be illegal to try to kill or encourage the killing of a former Secretary of State and a former President of the United States.
If you believe all or part of the above, then...
CONTACT ALL OF THE NEWS NETWORKS, EVEN FOX. TELL THEM YOU NEED ABOUT TWO MINUTES OF AIR TIME ON A MATTER OF SOCIETAL IMPORTANCE. GET YOUR ASS IN FRONT OF A TELEVISION CAMERA.
AND TELL US THAT THIS VIDEO IS ABHORRENT AND THAT YOU REJECT EVERYTHING IT STANDS FOR.
Because until we see it directly from you, we will not believe a word of it. What we will believe is that you want somebody to kill members of the media and public servants, including a former secretary of state and standard bearer for the office you now hold, and an ex-president you simply do not match up to, and would be more than happy to see any of them killed.
Dominic Manno was wrong to put his thoughts on the subject out there, even if he did not mean to actually harm anyone. He was twenty-one.
YOU ARE THE FUCKING PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. YOU ARE SEVENTY-TWO YEARS OLD. YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO ACT LIKE YOU KNOW BETTER.
How about you finally show us you do...
