The Guardian

[PAL]

It's all been normalized. The fact that Trump can even run for president with felony counts and all the other stuff going on, some media outlets and I'm talking about those more left leaning have even normalized this.
To address what you say David, I guess it indeed can happen anywhere. What a shattering that would be to have something like that happen in the Valley. It could be a matter of time, however.
We're going to Wenatchee this next week. I asked my husband, what is the best thing to do if in a mall or store and a violent action happens. We concluded, run or hide if at all possible. The first thing I do when I enter a store is find out where the exits are. And this is also in case there is a fire.
Sounds paranoid? It could save our lives.

[Rideback]

Jack Smith's new filing that has been fine tuned to reflect the SCOTUS opinion on Presidential immunity will force Roberts' hand after Roberts declined to address the question of the filing before the court. Roberts declined to address that if the President, in any capacity, ordered Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political foe would it be covered by immunity.

Smith contends that Trump used his Twitter account, that he personally tweeted on (rather than have an aide do it for him) to spread the false claims that the election was rigged and stolen to rile up his followers. He lied repeatedly in order to stoke the violence that erupted on J6. He lied repeatedly that VP Mike Pence had the power but not the courage to decline the certifications. Trump's incitement led his insurrectionists to put up a noose and chant 'Hang Mike Pence'. The Secret Service, Mike Pence and his family all took the threats seriously.

So the question Smith will pose to SCOTUS is if a President is immune from prosecution when he incites violence against not just against a political foe but against the Vice President of the US? The question really transcends the secondary question of whether the President was acting in an official or unofficial role.

Threats of violence are Trump's signature. But by making his threats commonplace apparently he's also opened the door for everyone/anyone to make threats and not be held accountable.

[mister_coffee]

One of the big questions I have (and it leads to several other questions), is when did it become okay to post death threats online?

I will point out that in nearly all jurisdictions, including federally, that is a serious crime, with up to five years imprisonment under the federal statute.

It also doesn't take an enormous amount of brainpower to figure out that with crap like that going on, at some point in time somebody, somewhere is going to get killed. I do not understand why such BS is not nipped in the bud. Even if you choose not to prosecute having law enforcement show up at your home or place of work and counseling you on why such behavior is a bad idea would have a substantial chilling effect. And I chose the word "chilling" precisely because that is what needs to happen.

The fact that most employers would probably fire anybody immediately who was making violent threats online wouldn't hurt either. And seriously, would you want somebody who behaved like that driving a school bus or fixing your car?

It also isn't technically that difficult to trace even "anonymous" posts unless somebody goes to great lengths to protect their identity. Most people don't know enough to do it sufficiently well to ensure they will not get caught. Using a VPN or a burner phone by itself is not at all sufficient.

Here is a scenario that (I think) strikes uncomfortably close to home:

1. You receive some threats of violence or death, either online or in the mail. The threats are intended to be "anonymous" but this is a small community and it doesn't take much brainpower to figure out who the culprit is.

2. You contact law enforcement with all of your information. They don't want to touch it and are unwilling to do anything about it.

3. After shopping at Hanks, you are in your car when the person who threatened you blocks you in, comes up to your window and starts getting in your face. Like a lot of people in the valley, you have a firearm in your car (at least sometimes). So what happens next?

[Rideback]

In Aurora, CO Trump delivers a pure fascist speech, repeating numerous lies about immigration. Aurora officials, just like Detroit officials where Trump also repeated lies are pushing back hard against Trump's lies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjmhaV1DbEc

The violence that he is attempting to incite is now front and center at every rally.

[mister_coffee]

Can somebody give me a concrete example where libs threatened violence because of misinformation?

These things can often strike very close to home. During the early parts of the pandemic (I think in April of 2020) there were threats against Okanogan County Public Health because of efforts to combat the pandemic, most notably contact tracing. Again in spring of 2021 there were threats to "shoot up" the vaccination efforts at Liberty Bell High School.

Also in summer of 2020 during the Black Lives Matter uproar a family was terrorized while camping near Forks, WA because locals thought they were BLM or Antifa infiltrators. I'll give you One Guess as to the skin tone of that family.

https://www.wired.com/story/antifa-soci ... ashington/

We all know who the violent kooks are and it is just foolish to pretend that they aren't.

[Rideback]

Ken, this is not a contest. How do you qualify a conspiracy theory, what makes one to you?
For me, a conspiracy theory is a story based on willful disinformation created to weaponize propaganda that will move its targets to anger, fear and even violence. Historians often use Hitler as an example or modern day Putin for what can happen when the people stop believing the scientists, their media or govt institutions and only believe the word of their self proclaimed leader. Said leader and his enablers will often take a single truth and then ingeniously weave it with commentary they add to create the lie that then works for their propaganda. You've seen this up close when you saw the propaganda that FEMA was out of money because it had used $ to help immigrants and even send to Ukraine...the first part of that story was based on a truth; Hurricane Helene had made a heavy hit on the FEMA coffers and without Congress passing more funding (which at that moment they were refusing to do) FEMA would be out of funding by the election. But the second part, the part about funding being stolen to help immigrants was the part made up by the Trump camp. That just never happened.

Setting the record straight: https://crooksandliars.com/2024/10/mayo ... ontroversy

[mister_coffee]

Oh, yeah, they threaten libraries too:

https://chicago.suntimes.com/2023/9/14/ ... -editorial

[PAL]

The contribution to this issue is to point out the absurd lies and conspiracy theories the far right has about this. The spreading of disinformation is their mode of operation.
The interview points this out.

[dorankj]

Your side was WAY more full of sh**! So maybe you should reflect on your contribution to this issue?

[mister_coffee]

Oh yeah, now we have death threats against meteorologists:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/meteorolo ... nspiracies

[mister_coffee]

During COVID, we had misinformation directed at health care workers and the public health system. With predictably tragic results.

During the 2020 election, we had misinformation directed at election workers and volunteers. With predictably tragic results.

Now we have misinformation directed against people trying to help victims of multiple hurricanes in the Southeast. Again the results will be predictably tragic.

[Rideback]

https://www.scrippsnews.com/politics/di ... nformation
'Here is Liz Landers' interview with Sec. Mayorkas from Friday, Oct. 11, 2024:

LIZ LANDERS: Mr. Secretary, you were on the ground in North Carolina on Thursday. What did you hear from officials there about recovery efforts?

SEC. ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: I heard about the tremendous progress that has been made, but also the challenges that remain. In some remote parts, some difficult-to-access parts of the state, search and rescue continues. But they have made extraordinary progress in delivering water, food and actually begin the recovery process. One of the significant challenges is going to be long-term, the rebuilding of infrastructure, most notably water systems in certain parts of the state.


LIZ LANDERS: What misinformation are officials still debunking there and dealing with the most? Did you hear any mis- and disinformation when you were on the ground?

SEC. ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: I certainly heard, Liz, of the types of myths and disinformation that is being spread, and it's extraordinarily damaging to people in desperate need of assistance. We have heard false information that federal employees, state and local officials are actually planning to take survivors’ property away, and that is leading to a reluctance on the part of survivors to access the immediate relief to which they are entitled and upon which they very well rely. We have heard other rumors that if you accept $750 in immediate assistance, which is intended for commodities, food, and the like, that if you accept that, that is all you are going to receive. That is false and that is leading people to be reluctant to take the in-pocket, in-hand money that would assist them in getting through the immediate next days. Those are just two examples.

LIZ LANDERS: It sounds like disinformation is impacting recovery efforts. Is that what I'm hearing from you?

SEC. ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: It is impacting recovery efforts. It is impacting real people, accessing the real need they really rely upon.

LIZ LANDERS: Is this also leading to any kind of credible threats to these FEMA workers, to the federal workers who are trying to help with the recovery efforts?


SEC. ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: Liz, quite tragically here, too, we have seen threats against federal officials and others, and we've seen hate-filled rhetoric spread not only through the impacted states but elsewhere as well.

LIZ LANDERS: I want to switch gears a little bit to Florida. Has misinformation around the storm started up in that state now that Hurricane Milton has passed?

SEC. ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: Yes, indeed it has. We've learned of false information that is being spread about survivors who are engaging in self-help, in it really being force multipliers, neighbor helping neighbor and threats against them for undertaking that type of assistance. It's really a remarkably damaging and remarkably, quite frankly, as the president so perfectly captured, so un-American.

LIZ LANDERS: A Russian state news agency posted an AI image of Disney World flooded, and that got more than 300,000 views already on Telegram. Are you tracking foreign involvement in spreading disinformation about the hurricanes and the federal response?


SEC. ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: We are. And we're also not just tracking it, Liz, we're closely monitoring whether or not it is being spread. But we are also very active in debunking false information so people understand what the facts really are and what assistance they can really access. We have at FEMA, a rumor page that has been viewed more than 2 million times, I believe, that provides correct information because we are in the business of helping people who have been struck by an extreme weather event like Hurricane Helene, like Hurricane Milton and the many tornadoes that accompanied Milton.

LIZ LANDERS: What is your message to Russia who's spreading this kind of disinformation in large social media channels?

SEC. ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: Well, I have a broad message to cease that immediately. But of course, we have other messages to communicate to Russia as well with respect to any potential consequences of causing our citizenry harm.

LIZ LANDERS: One of the conspiracies that we have heard, and this has been spread by a member of Congress, is about the weather and weather patterns. Do you, Secretary Mayorkas, or does the government control the weather?

SEC. ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: Well, that's beyond preposterous.

LIZ LANDERS: So when you hear a member of Congress say something like that, what is your reaction to that?

SEC. ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: It is preposterous. I don't know what else to say. We don't have time for preposterous remarks like that. You know, our proud history is to come together as one country, united in the service of people in need, especially at times like this, and we need that history to be the present and to continue into the future. We just can't have statements like that, that are just divisive and also, as I mentioned, ridiculous.


LIZ LANDERS: There is always bad information around disasters when there is fast-moving situations and unknowns. What makes this situation during the last two weeks with Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton different?

SEC. ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: Well, Liz, in my experience, both in my current capacity as well as in, you know, many years prior as a federal prosecutor, the false information was really emanating, was really coming from criminal elements to start to exploit individuals for profit. Now we see false information not only by criminals but also by individuals who are just trying to sow discord, who are trying to sow divide in our country and it's extraordinarily damaging.

LIZ LANDERS: I know that part of DHS's mandate is CISA and helping secure elections in this country. Do you think that the devastation and some of this online disinformation around the hurricanes could impact the election and the administration of the election in places like western North Carolina?

SEC. ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: Liz, it's very important to remember that state and local officials are in charge of their respective election processes. What we do is provide support and assistance to them. And I know, for example, from the perspective of North Carolina's election officials, that some of the polling places have been impacted and they are working, of course, quite diligently to make sure that the people of North Carolina have alternative places at which to vote. So, they're very vigilant, very on top of that.


LIZ LANDERS: Can FEMA lend a hand and support that election administration if those local officials ask you all?

SEC. ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: Well, you know, what FEMA's remit is, what its mission is, is to, of course, life and safety, search and rescue, respond to and recover from an extreme weather event. So if, in fact, for example, the flooding caused by the Helene is interfering with access to a particular location that may or may not be used for an election purpose, we could actually support in the removal of debris and provide access. So that's an example of where the two lines of effort may merge. But our remit, FEMA's remit, is in the response and recovery effort.

LIZ LANDERS: Disinformation like 'FEMA is using all their money for migrant housing' is being spread by the former president and also people like Elon Musk. What do you want people to know and how should this administration respond to this?

SEC. ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: That is false information. It is unequivocally, it is absolutely false. No money that has been dedicated to FEMA is being diverted away from FEMA for migrant care. The funding that cities receive for migrant sheltering was separately allocated by Congress. And so that is false information, doing only harm.

[PAL]

If Dems could control the weather, don'tcha think we would start with Mara Lago, and then move on to MTG's, etc.

[Rideback]

First clue is that the patents Reps keep referring to are just that, technology that has never gone beyond the concept.
Second clue is imagining the sheer power it would take to create and then drive a hurricane much less steer it. Building something that could create that amount of energy wouldn't go un noticed and regulated.

[mister_coffee]

Also, I suspect that if you had a decent large-scale weather control technology what you'd do with it out the door is use it as a money printing machine on the commodity futures markets. Unless the people doing that have remarkable discipline I'd expect to see the signs of that in the markets. And you do not.

Since futures markets are basically zero-sum and since we participate indirectly in those markets every time we buy groceries, any such strategy would basically be ripping off farmers and consumers. And again I do not see any evidence of the violent price swings that such a strategy would necessarily entail. Yes, bacon has gotten quite a bit more expensive in recent years, but I'd expect 10 to 1 or 20 to 1 price swings which we most definitely have not seen.

[mister_coffee]

My question is, if there is some super weather control technology out there, why don't MAGA supporters like, I don't know, Elon Musk or Peter Thiel have access to it?

Technology secrets are very hard to keep and basically impossible to keep over the long term. And if you know something is possible you are a long ways towards reverse-engineering it on your own.

Or are MAGA people too foolish and weak to figure this out?

[just-jim]

.

.

[Rideback]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... LtKAHZu6qw

"Whipping up hurricanes to merge with great replacement theory took hardly a week, about the time it takes for hurricanes themselves to form. The overheated atmosphere warmed the waters that were drawn up into the winds to churn them into a menacing storm.

After Hurricane Helene hit, Donald Trump unleashed a whirlwind of humid lies: the federal government was deliberately preventing aid and even water from reaching areas that held Republican voters, “not getting anything”; Kamala Harris “spent all her Fema money, billions of dollars, on housing for illegal migrants”; and Fema was offering only $750 in disaster relief – all false, all debunked by the Republican governors in the affected states. The Republican congressman Chuck Edwards of North Carolina felt compelled to issue a statement to his constituents not to listen to “untrustworthy sources trying to spark chaos by sharing hoaxes, conspiracy theories, and hearsay about hurricane response efforts” and the “outrageous rumors spread online”

Undoubtedly, he had in mind Elon Musk, who accelerated the circulation of the lies on his platform X: Fema “actively blocked” aid and “used up its budget ferrying illegals into the country instead of saving American lives. Treason.” The Fema administrator, Deanne Criswell, called the calculated spread of disinformation “absolutely the worst I have ever seen”, and announced that Fema for the first time had established a webpage for “Hurricane Rumor Response”.

Wild conspiracies about the weather are spreading online. The media can help

“No money is being diverted from disaster response needs,” Fema stated. “Fema’s disaster response efforts and individual assistance is funded through the Disaster Relief Fund, which is a dedicated fund for disaster efforts. Disaster Relief Fund money has not been diverted to other, non-disaster related efforts.”

“Yes, they are literally using YOUR tax dollars to import voters and disenfranchise you!” Musk tweeted.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, the far-right representative from Georgia, leaped in to tweet: “Yes they can control the weather.” She added: “It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.”

In 2018, she infamously blamed a California wildfire on “space lasers” controlled by “Rothschild Inc, international investment banking firm”, a classic antisemitic trope. Now, on 5 October, following up on how “they can control the weather”, she tweeted: “CBS, 9 years ago, talked about lasers controlling the weather.”


Republican leaders instantly fell into line in a demonstration of Trump fealty. The congressman Steve Scalise, of Louisiana, the number two in the Republican leadership of the House, campaigning for Trump on 8 October, repeated his lie: “They use that money helping illegals here that they brought into America.”

By now, Trump’s lies were a typhoon. JD Vance, his running mate, was sent out to stir it up further with an op-ed planted in the Wall Street Journal on 9 October – Rupert Murdoch again predictably handing over his paper to Trump – to echo that Fema funds were being diverted to help illegal immigrants. Vance added a new wrinkle to the conspiracy theory, suggesting that Fema was giving “special treatment” to gay and trans people over ordinary Americans because it held a seminar in 2023 on how those communities can prepare for disasters.

As Hurricane Milton barreled down on Florida, Joe Biden, in a TV briefing on Wednesday afternoon, felt compelled to condemn Trump’s “onslaught of lies” that is “undermining confidence in the incredible rescue and recovery work that has already been undertaken and will continue to be undertaken”.

two men looking at each other
View image in fullscreen
‘JD Vance added a new wrinkle to the conspiracy theory, suggesting that Fema was giving “special treatment” to gay and trans people over ordinary Americans.’ Photograph: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
The political effect of the hurricanes on Trumpism has been to congeal free-floating elements into the racist replacement theory and Hitlerian rhetoric. Trump’s lies set in motion an antisemitic wave in North Carolina blaming Jewish local officials there and Fema administrators for taking the money for illegal immigrants. Of the falsehoods after Hurricane Helene, “30% of the posts on X contained overt antisemitic hate, including abuse directed at public officials such as the mayor of Asheville, North Carolina; the Fema director of public affairs; and the secretary of the department of homeland security. These collectively garnered 17.1m views as of October 7,” reported the non-profit Institute for Strategic Dialogue.


Vance’s inclusion of gay and trans people into the overarching replacement theory fits the intensive Trump negative advertising campaign. Trump has spent more than $15.5m on TV commercials linking Harris to support for trans prison inmates – his most aired ad. In fact, in 2019 she stated she supported gender-affirming care for state prison inmates, according to the law, and responded similarly to an ACLU questionnaire about federal inmates. The Senate Republican political action committee has also invested tens of millions into anti-trans ads against Democratic candidates. Trump’s tagline: “Kamala’s for they/them, President Trump is for you.”

Now, Vance implies, “they/them”, presumably in league with Greene’s “they”, are stealing the funds from the rest of us folks as a nefarious subplot of the great replacement. Adherence to every aspect of the theory proves loyalty to Trump. Vance and Scalise showed how to bend the knee.

Trump’s transition chief on 7 October insisted on this unquestioning fealty to the leader. The self-described adults in the room, or “normies”, of the first term, who saw their mission to be curbing Trump’s lunatic or criminal impulses, will not be tolerated in the second. “Those people were not pure to his vision,” Howard Lutnick, the head of the Cantor Fitzgerald investment firm and the co-chair of Trump’s transition team, recently told the Financial Times. He explained that the “establishment” did not understand Trump’s “objectives” or “intuition” and “thought they knew better”. In the second term, “loyalty” and “fealty” would be the first qualification for consideration.

Both Trump and Vance have stated that the senior federal civil service will be fired for their disloyalty. Consistent with Trump’s “vision”, his appointees would be required to swear an oath of loyalty to the leader above the constitution and laws of the United States. This oath was known as the “Führereid” in Nazi Germany, where public servants had to pledge: “I swear: I will be faithful and obedient to the leader of the German reich and people, Adolf Hitler, to observe the law, and to conscientiously fulfill my official duties, so help me God!” All soldiers had to take a similar oath. Some of those who failed to swear the Hitler oath were executed.

Trump’s Hitlerian rhetoric and threats have ramped up with each passing day closer to the election that will decide whether he will be the president or perhaps a prisoner. When Harris appeared on The View, a daytime TV talkshow with an all-female panel, he demeaned her as a “dummy” and the other women as “dumb” and “degenerates”. Women should be subordinate and submissive. According to his running mate, Vance, women who do not have natural children are essentially worthless, not truly women, unqualified to be teachers, and women over 50 years old have value principally for childcare. “Kinder, Küche, Kirche” – children, kitchen, church – was the policy slogan for the proper place of women in the Third Reich.

Donald Trump’s Hitlerian logic is no mistake
Sidney Blumenthal
Sidney Blumenthal
Read more
The concept of “degenerate” – “entartete” – was a central category in Nazism. Modern art and music were deemed “Entartete Kunst”, or degenerate art, and banned. “Degenerates” constituted a broad swath of people, some of whom were infected with “poison in the blood”, as Hitler classified Jews and Trump counts certain types of immigrants, which is the basis of the replacement theory embraced by both Hitler and Trump. The degenerate also included disabled people, gay people (who wore pink triangles in concentration camps), Gypsies, psychiatric patients and the mentally ill (“behinderte”). Under the program beginning in 1939 of “Vernichtung lebensunwerten Lebens” (“destruction of unworthy lives”), Aktion T4, the mass murder of “degenerates” was launched, officially called “Gnadentod”, or “mercy death”.


Trump openly entertains fantasies of violence and vengeance. He called on 29 September for “one really violent day … One rough hour. And I mean real rough.” He was speaking about shoplifters. He promises the roundup of 11 million undocumented people and camps. In late August, he reposted under a headline “How To Really Fix The System” an image of his perceived enemies in orange prison jumpsuits – Harris, Biden, Hillary Clinton, Anthony Fauci, Bill Gates, Hunter Biden and Jack Smith. He called for the indictment of the congressional members of the January 6 select committee and military tribunals for Barack Obama and others.

a flag in the water
View image in fullscreen
‘Trump’s rhetoric eerily continues to paraphrase Hitler’s, which eludes American audiences.’ Photograph: Bruce Chambers/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock
On 5 June, the Fox News host Sean Hannity gave Trump an opportunity to soften his threat of retribution. “People believe that you want retribution and will use the system of justice to go after your political enemies,” said Hannity. Trump doubled down, saying: “I have every right to go after them.” On 7 October, the Fox News host Laura Ingraham tried again. “A lot of people will say: ‘Well, he’s just going to do to them what he – they did to him back at them.’” Trump replied: “A lot of people say that’s what should happen, right?” Or as Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf: “We had declared one of our principles thus: ‘We shall meet violence with violence in our own defense.’”

Trump’s rhetoric eerily continues to paraphrase Hitler’s, which eludes American audiences. His first wife, Ivana, claimed that a book of Hitler’s speeches was on his bedstand. Trump’s language just happens to be extraordinarily resonant.

Campaigning on the debunked myth that Haitian immigrants in the town of Springfield, Ohio, are “eating the dogs … eating the cats … eating the pets”, Trump used unusual language for him to make his bogus point on 16 September. “Allowing millions of people, from places unknown, to INVADE and take over our Country, is an unpardonable sin,” he tweeted. His reference to “sin” in the context of his racist replacement theory, was, knowingly or not, an echo of Hitler, to convey exactly the same meaning. “The sin against blood and race is the hereditary sin in this world and it brings disaster on every nation that commits it,” Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf.


Lately, Trump has used over and over in speech after speech the same metaphor conflating personal and national humiliation. On 12 August, Trump tweeted: “Kamala has no ideas, and would be an absolutely horrible, RADICAL LEFT, President, laughed at all over the World. We’ve had enough of that!”

On 22 August, Trump continued the “laughed at” meme: “She stands for Incompetence and Weakness – Our Country is being laughed at all over the World!” On 16 September, he tweeted: “THE WORLD IS LAUGHING AT US AS FOOLS, THEY ARE STEALING OUR JOBS AND OUR WEALTH. WE CANNOT LET THEM LAUGH ANY LONGER.” Trump has used variations of this “laugh” meme to highlight national dishonor dozens of time on his Truth Social account.

On 1 October, in Erie, Pennsylvania, Trump said: “What a miserable few years. It’s just been horrible. And people all over the world, especially the leaders, are laughing at how stupidly our country is run.”

On 30 January 1939, Hitler delivered his notorious “prophecy” speech calling for “the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe”. The most memorable image he evoked was of Jews laughing at him and at Germany. “During the time of my struggle for power it was in the first instance the Jewish race which only received my prophecies with laughter when I said that I would one day take over the leadership of the state, and with it that of the whole nation, and that I would then among many other things settle the Jewish problem. Their laughter was uproarious, but I think that for some time now they have been laughing on the other side of their face.”

After Hitler ordered the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question”, he returned to the imagery of Jews laughing in a speech that referenced his “prophecy”. “In Germany too the Jews once laughed at my prophecies,” he said on 30 September 1942. “I don’t know whether they are still laughing, or whether they have already lost the inclination to laugh, but I can assure you that everywhere they will stop laughing.”

The Nazis underscored Hitler’s speech by producing a propaganda poster depicting caricatures of laughing Jews surrounding Franklin D Roosevelt, with the slogan: “Das Lachen wird ihnen vergehen!!!” – “Their laughter will disappear!!!”

On 7 October, Trump returned for a rally at Butler, Pennsylvania, to revisit the site of his near assassination. “And we want to get respect like we had it four years ago, the entire world respected us, they respected us,” he said. “They respected us more than they’ve ever respected us, and now they laugh at us. We can’t have them laugh at us, can we?”