[Special] Esquire: This Isn't Funny Anymore. American Democracy Is at Stake.

By Charles P. Pierce:

Damn them all now.

Damn the delegates who will vote for this man. Damn the professional politicians who will fall in line behind him or, worse, will sit back and hope this all blows over so the Republican Party once again will be able to relegate the poison this man has unleashed to the backwaters of the modern conservative intellectual mainstream, which is where it has been useful for over four decades. Damn the four hopeless sycophants who want to share a stage with him for four months. Damn all the people who will come here and speak on his behalf. Damn all the thoughtful folk who plumb his natural appeal for anything deeper than pure hatred.

Damn all the people who will vote for him, and damn any progressives who sit this one out because Hillary Rodham Clinton is wrong on this issue or that one. Damn all the people who are suggesting they do that. And damn all members of the media who treat this dangerous fluke of a campaign as being in any way business as usual. Any support for He, Trump is, at this point, an act of moral cowardice. Anyone who supports him, or runs with him, or enables his victory, or even speaks well of him, is a traitor to the American idea.

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Here is the truth. Nobody called for a moment of silence for Micah Johnson. Eleven U.S. cities are not on the brink of racial violence. He, Trump just made that shit up so his followers can stay afraid and angry at the people he wants them to fear and hate. This lie was a marching order and the Party of Lincoln is right in step with him, straight into the burning Reichstag of this man's mind.

The Full Story (July 14, 2016)

Esquire: WTF Does Trump's Star of David Tweet Mean?

By Peter Wade:

The main image is taken from a graphic the Clinton campaign used the night she secured enough delegates to win the Democratic nomination for president. Beneath that, is a Fox News poll showing that 58 percent of respondents agreed that "corrupt" is an accurate description of Hillary Clinton.

Then there is the pièce de résistance: a Star of David screaming that Hillary is corrupt. In the background, piles and piles of money, presumably from those corrupt sources (Jews?).

It is offensive on so many levels. It evokes negative Jewish stereotypes and misappropriates a religious symbol. And, the graphic design is embarrassing. It looks like an intern threw it together with Microsoft Paint.

The Full Story (July 2, 2016)

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Bonus Article - The Washington Post: Trump draws rebuke for his tweet with an image of Clinton and a Star of David

By David Weigel:

But the image that Trump chose to illustrate his point, which portrayed a red Star of David shape slapped onto a bed of $100 bills, had origins in the online white-supremacist movement. For at least the fifth time, Trump’s Twitter account had shared a meme from the racist “alt-right” and offered no explanation why.

“We’ve been alarmed that Mr. Trump hasn’t spoken out vociferously against these anti-Semites and racists and misogynists who continue to support him,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). “It’s been outrageous to see him retweeting and now sourcing material from the website and other online resources from this crowd.”

The Full Story (July 3, 2016)