The dust had not yet settled, the smoke had not yet cleared, and the body count had not yet begun before right-wingers used the terrorist attacks in Brussels to spout their usual brand of bigotry.
Normally, when there’s a mass shooting or an act of right-wing terrorism here at home, conservatives are the first out of the gate admonishing us that it’s “not the time” to “politicize” what’s happened. Apparently, that doesn’t apply to terrorist attacks where radical Islam is involved. Fox host Brian Kilmeade let that double standard slip out when he pointed out that Fox only covers terrorism when it appears to involve Muslims.
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STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): You know what [the Israelis] do? They profile.
LAURA INGRAHAM: Well, they profile and, I’m sorry, but we turned on the television this morning, I started watching you at 6 a.m., it wasn’t a Seventh Day Adventist who carried out the attack. No one in this country would think–
BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): He screamed – You know, the first thing we heard is, after screaming out an Arabic phrase, shots went out, and a bomb blew up. That starts the last 5,000 terror attacks that we opened up our show with over the last twelve years.
And with that, the wingnuts were off to the races.
GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump expanded his proposed security measures. “I would close up our borders to people until we figure out what is going on. Look at Brussels, look at Paris, look at so many cities that were great cities,” Trump said on Fox News.
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Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) actually managed to out-Trump Donald Trump. In a campaign press release, Cruz called for security patrols in America’s “Muslim neighborhoods.”
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"For years, the west has tried to deny this enemy exists out of a combination of political correctness and fear. We can no longer afford either. Our European allies are now seeing what comes of a toxic mix of migrants who have been infiltrated by terrorists and isolated, radical Muslim neighborhoods.
"We will do what we can to help them fight this scourge, and redouble our efforts to make sure it does not happen here. We need to immediately halt the flow of refugees from countries with a significant al Qaida or ISIS presence. We need to empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized.
“We need to secure the southern border to prevent terrorist infiltration. And we need to execute a coherent campaign to utterly destroy ISIS. The days of the United States voluntarily surrendering to the enemy to show how progressive and enlightened we are at an end. Our country is at stake.”
There was some inevitable blowback. MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough slammed Cruz’s proposal for increased policing of Muslim communities as “the exact opposite of what we need to do. It makes us less safe.” CBS host Norah O’Donnell busted Cruz for his utter ignorance. “You don’t even know how many Muslims are in America,” O’Donnell said when Cruz admitted not knowing there are three million Muslims in the U.S., whom he somehow wants to “patrol.”
It was the same just about everywhere on the right.
● Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.), senior member of the House Homeland Security Committee used the attacks to justify shutting out refugees from Syria and Iraq. “Right now, we should suspend all refugees coming from Syria, Iraq and any countries involved in a war where ISIS is a factor,” King told the Washington Examiner.
● Former New York City mayor and failed presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani said on Fox News that President Obama should have cut his trip to Cuba short because the Brussels attacks were his “Pearl Harbor.” (Even though it wasn’t anywhere near U.S. soil.)
● Giuliani also called Hillary Clinton “a founding member of ISIS,” and said that as president he would pardon anyone who tortured.
● Fox News’ Peter Johnson Jr. said the president attended a baseball game with Cuban president Raoul Castro following the attacks because he wanted to look “cool.”
● Radio host Michael Savage asked GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump to advocate closing mosques in America, following the Brussels attacks.
● Fox News contributor Laura Ingraham said that “political correctness can sometimes kill,” and suggested that “political correctness” was to blame for the Brussels attacks.
● Fox News host Ainsley Earhardt asked Lt. Col. Oliver North if it’s a “good strategy” to bomb Molenbeek — a neighborhood in Brussels.
● Fox News guest Zuhdi Jasser said that “this is a war,” and the U.S. needs to “not be afraid to profile.”
● On her radio show, Ingraham attacked Muslim immigrants saying, “Middle Eastern countries have got to be told … we’re cutting you off. … You are not going to come into this country and destroy what’s good about America.”
● Former congressperson Michele Bachmann wrote in a column for WorldNet Daily that God is using acts of terrorism to humiliate President Obama, for skipping the AIPAC conference to go to Cuba.
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Twitter lit up with hatred, as the right-wing’s favorite #StopIslam hashtag popped back up.
And just like that...#StopIslam is trending. pic.twitter.com/XnK8YbDoVN
— Ferrari Sheppard (@stopbeingfamous) March 22, 2016
#Islam does NOT belong in #Christian countries ... #StopIslam #childbrides pic.twitter.com/53vaBV0RfA
— Victor Ericeira (@VictorEriceira) March 17, 2016
Time for liberals who haven't read the Quran to STFU
You're being used & your ignorance is costing life#StopIslam pic.twitter.com/jATjKBlywY
— Jared Wyand (@JaredWyand) March 22, 2016
The best way to #StopIslam is a good guy/gal with a gun.
— Liars Never Win (@liars_never_win) March 22, 2016
Fortunately, #StopIslam stopped trending shortly afterwards, overwhelmed by messages of unity, acceptance, and peace.
#StopIslamophobia & #Respect4All - this is what should be trending today. Humanity is a single family, equal in dignity & rights.
— UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) March 22, 2016
Why can't we all start using #StopIslamophobia instead of #StopIslam *btw, I'm a Christian*
— DeR (@danrem) March 22, 2016
A powerful commandment of Prophet Muhammad. It reminds me that we don't need #StopIslam. We need #StopIslamophobia. pic.twitter.com/cW1Yh1eZ9e
— Dr. Craig Considine (@CraigCons) March 22, 2016
For the visual learners... Demystifying the "majority of Muslims are terrorists" myth. #StopIslamophobia pic.twitter.com/LNHM0D1NVc
— jen miller (@jenerallyspeaks) March 22, 2016
#StopIslam trend is disgusting...#StopIslamophobia You can't blame an entire religion/race for the actions of a few pic.twitter.com/EtXue2ZYOp
— TYSMFizzy&Lauren!!!! (@row1direction) March 22, 2016
#StopIslamophobia pic.twitter.com/3eKdAVgIvd
— κυνικη (@maullido_lunar) March 24, 2016
and y'all still call Muslims terrorists...#stopIslamophobia pic.twitter.com/drBjuZR6kF
— DJ Khaled (@problematicImj) March 22, 2016
I hope..I have faith..I believe #JeSuisBrussels #HumanityhasnoBorders #fightterrorism pic.twitter.com/CgzLaDKMs1
— Elke Vansnick (@elke_vansnick) March 22, 2016
Sending peace all the way to Brussels. The world is shocked by what happened... Enough with this madness already #FightTerrorism
— Elissa (@elissakh) March 22, 2016
We need to know. 🙏#FightTerrorism #TerrorAttacks #NoPlaceforHate #Unity #OneWorld #politics #media #journalism pic.twitter.com/3ntZrP7Qm4
— Anne Lim (@anne_lim) March 24, 2016
#fightterrorism One has to ask "what can we do"? Those silly adds on the subway "See something, Say something" have new meaning.
— World Cares Center (@WorldCares) March 23, 2016
Our thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by the recent attacks #PrayForPeace pic.twitter.com/86IEkahNOS
— Globe Pics (@Globe_Pics) March 22, 2016
#PrayForPeace the world round… #Toge … https://t.co/osjTPIc7h7 https://t.co/osjTPIc7h7
— Rosario Dawson (@rosariodawson) March 22, 2016
#PrayForPeace the world round… #Toge … https://t.co/osjTPIc7h7 https://t.co/osjTPIc7h7
— Rosario Dawson (@rosariodawson) March 22, 2016
#StandWithBrussels: In show of solidarity, US Bank Tower illuminated in Belgian flag colors https://t.co/JwHz8NEw4Ahttps://t.co/RAfxgemESI
— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) March 23, 2016
#StandWithBrussels: In show of solidarity, US Bank Tower illuminated in Belgian flag colors https://t.co/JwHz8NEw4Ahttps://t.co/RAfxgemESI
— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) March 23, 2016
Here’s the best of the rest of the worst in wingnuttery this week:
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● Jorge Ramos is on a roll. First, he blasted Bill O’Reilly for taking it easy on Donald Trump. Now, Ramos has taken Sean Hannity to the woodshed on Hannity’s own show … and Hannity can’t take it! Right-wingers be warned. You don’t scare Jorge Ramos. He will call you out, on your own show.
● It turns out the conservative dictum that parents know best how to care for their child and government should get out of the way doesn't apply when the child is transgender and the parents agree to pursue gender reassignment procedures, according to Jazz Shaw at Hot Air. Defending the signing of a law in North Carolina that invalidates anti-discrimination ordinances against LGBT people (based on a lie), he writes that parents who help children adopt a different gender identity should be treated as "criminal suspects" and that he wants cases against such parents "sent up the chain to the Supreme Court for some final resolution."
● Glenn Beck has found definitive proof that President Barack Obama is literally a “communist puppet.”
● Anti-feminist icon Phyllis Schlafly said in an interview with “Armed America Radio” that the GOP should block any Supreme Court nominee, “until we have a Republican who will appoint somebody in the nature of Scalia.” No word on whether Schlafly just hopes the next president will be a Republican, or if the GOP should block all Democratic nominees in the future.
● Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) told talk show host John Frederick that Congress should move to impeach President Obama if he closes the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. “But I’m telling you, that will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. If he ends up trying to give away Guantanamo, he cannot do that legally, it would be illegally [sic] for him to do that, and if he pulls that, we’ve got to get a new president before the end of the year,” Gohmert said.
● Gohmert took to the floor of the House to explain that he and other Republicans voted against a bill to promote recruitment of women scientists because that discriminated “based on gender.” Gohmert that that “this program is designed to discriminate against that young, poverty-stricken boy and to encourage the girl. Forget the boy. Encourage the girl.” The bill passed 383 to 4.
● Republican lawmakers in Kansas have introduced a pair of bill prohibiting transgender students from using restrooms that match their gender, and one that would pay students a $2,500 bounty to hunt for transgender students in bathrooms.
● Sarah Palin has inked a deal to act as a judge in a new reality TV show next year. The emphasis is on the word “act,” as Palin is neither a lawyer nor a judge, but that’s par for the course for someone whose entire political career was built on turning her ignorance into a virtue.
● The 2016 election just got a lot more fun, but not for the GOP. Sharron Angle is making another bid for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid’s seat.
● Disgraced televangelist Jim Bakker compared presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to Adolf Hitler.
● Oops! Looks like Alabama’s puritanical, misogynist, homophobic governor Robert Bentley got caught in a little phone sex scandal.
● Finally, we have a Canadian specimen of the wingnut species. Upset that Alberta schools adopted policy requiring facilities to accommodate transgender people by allowing to use the bathroom for the gender they identify as, “concerned mom” MH Weibe wrote a rap song attacking transgender kids and decided to share it with the world.
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