1). “Cotton Urges Citizens to Forcibly Confront Pro-Palestinian Protesters”, Updated Tue, 16 April 2024, Robert Jimison, New York Times, (reposted at Yahoo News), at < https://sg.news.yahoo.com/
2). “Tom Cotton Says In Arkansas, Pro-Palestinian Protestors Holding Up Traffic Would 'Have Their Skin Ripped Off': Way to de-escalate a situation, dude”, Apr 16, 2024, Charles P. Pierce, Esquire, at < https://www.esquire.com/news-
3). “Republican senator Tom Cotton calls for vigilantism to break up Gaza protests: Outcry as Cotton says those inconvenienced by protesters blocking roads and airports should ‘take matters into own hands’ ”, Apr 16, 2024, Erum Salam, The Guardian, at < https://www.theguardian.com/
4). “Pro-Palestinian protesters disrupt traffic at Golden Gate Bridge, O’Hare airport and other sites across US”, Apr 16, 2024, Joe Sutton and Steve Almasy, CNN, at < https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/
5). “Sen. Tom Cotton on anti-Israel protests: This is a 'revolting display of moral equivalence': Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., says it is 'time to put an end to this nonsense' on 'America Reports.' ”, Apr 15, 2024, Fox News, duration of video 4:46, at < https://www.foxnews.com/video/
~~ recommended by dmorista ~~
Introduction by dmorista: In a completely predictable exercise, of trying to encourage vigilante violence against the far-right's political opponents, the loathsome and despicable Senator for Arkansas, Tom Cotton, urged people inconvenienced by demonstrations that block roadways, to physically confront, remove, and attack the protesters. On April 15th there were numerous demonstrations, most of which involved blocking traffic on major roadways, in support of the Palestinians around the U.S., including 3 in the San Francisco Bay area, 2 in New York and at least one in Eugene Oregon, Philadelphia, and Chicago. Cotton used the typical distortions of those of his ilk, to try to characterize such demonstrators as “criminals”.
While Chatting with Fox News TV broadcasters, he talked about how terrible it was that people going to pick up their children, or fire fighters or police were delayed and inconvenienced. He states that it would OK if demonstrators meekly held signs and waved their banners while standing on the sidewalk somewhere. This is because that would be a totally defanged and ineffectual effort. And of course he tried to portray Israel as a noble bastion of freedom besieged on all sides by enemies.
Not a word passed his lips about the over 30,000 people killed, nor about the hundreds of attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank by the IDF or vigilante settlers, nor about the continuous supply of deadly weapons to the IDF by the U.S. He did not mention Kyle Rittenhouse, the right wing creep who killed two unarmed people and seriously wounded another a few years ago in Kenosha, Wisconsin either.
The first three items present similar reports on Cotton's comments, Item 4), “Pro-Palestinian protesters disrupt traffic ….”, presents a report of the various actions around the U.S. Item 5). “Sen. Tom Cotton on anti-Israel protests: ….”, is a 4:46 long video in which Cotton, while chatting with Fox News "America Reports" personnel, makes all the statements reported in the first 3 articles.
Cotton surely presages increasing efforts to demonize any serious dissent or actions by those who disagree with foreign and/or domestic policies promulgated and/or supported by the most virulent elements of the U.S. ruling class. The demonstrators who put their bodies on the line in these traffic blockades are brave and in the future these tactics might become very dangerous and foolhardy. There are other methods for blocking traffic, the most obvious being to use “sacrifice vehicles” that could be left disabled and parked blocking traffic (with their tire valves cut to flatten the tires). Escape cars could wisk the protesters away to safety with some signs and banners left behind. Such methods would not be as effective as having dedicated people stay with signs and banners, but might become necessary if these sorts of protests continue.
In Cotton's fulminations we see a real life current-day version of the KKK rally in the 2000 movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?. Urging on the street thug level members are the town's leading citizens, their expensive dress shoes visible below their KKK robes. Tom Cotton fits right into that dynamic, despite his typical attempt to portray himself as not Ivy League educated reactionary.
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Cotton Urges Citizens to Forcibly Confront Pro-Palestinian Protesters
WASHINGTON — Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., on Monday urged people whose routes were blocked by pro-Palestinian protesters to “take matters into your own hands” and confront the offenders, endorsing the use of physical force against peaceful demonstrators.
In a series of social media posts after protesters shut down traffic in cities across the country including major roads in Oakland, California, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and near O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Cotton called those responsible “pro-Hamas” and “criminals.”
He also shared a clip of himself during a recent interview in which he said that if protesters had disrupted public roads in his home state of Arkansas, they would have been met with force from citizens.
“Let’s just say I think there would be a lot of very wet criminals that would have been tossed overboard — not by law enforcement, but by the people whose road they are blocking,” he told Fox News in the interview. “If they glued their hands to their car or pavement, it’d probably be pretty painful to have their skin ripped off.”
On Tuesday morning, Cotton posted a video showing a group of men forcibly removing protesters in orange vests from a roadway that appeared to be outside the United States. In the clip, one man is shown roughly dragging a protester off the road by his feet.
“How it should be done,” Cotton wrote.
Dozens of demonstrators who caused the traffic jam at the Golden Gate Bridge were ultimately arrested on Monday. Law enforcement officials said that is how the process is supposed to work, and that people should not take matters into their own hands.
“We don’t encourage any kind of violence,” Officer Darrel Horner, a spokesperson for California Highway Patrol, said in an interview Tuesday. He said drivers who experience any sort of disruption should let the authorities handle the situation, and he noted that even choosing to exit a vehicle to respond could get a driver into legal trouble.
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Tom Cotton Says in Arkansas, Pro-Palestinian Protesters Holding Up Traffic Would “Have Their Skin Ripped Off”
Way to de-escalate a situation, dude.
By Charles P. Pierce
On Monday, some pro-Palestinian protesters blocked the Golden Gate Bridge, a tactic of which I’ve always been dubious, not least because it leaves the protesters vulnerable to the frustrations of people encased in a thousand pounds of easily accelerated metal and plastic. However, I never thought of the peril inherent in having a United States senator encourage such a denouement.
Enter Senator Tom Cotton, the bobble-throated slapdick from the state of Arkansas. From Mediaite:
Arkansas senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) joined Fox’s midday news programming and was asked for his thoughts. “Well, I feel very deeply for all those people who are trying to get to work or trying to pick up a kid. Very worried about the diversion of police resources where it needs to be stopping crime in cities like San Francisco, where firefighters are having to go there when they might have calls for fires out.”
He went on.
“I have to say, Sandra, I agree with you that you have to get to these—these criminals—early. If something like this happened in Arkansas on a bridge there, let’s just say I think there’d be a lot of very wet criminals that have been tossed overboard, not by law enforcement but by the people whose road they’re blocking. If they glued their hands to a car or the pavement, well, probably pretty painful to have their skin ripped off, but I think that’s the way we’d handle it in Arkansas. And I would encourage most people anywhere that get stuck behind criminals like this, who are trying to block traffic, to take matters in their own hands. There’s only usually a few of them, and there’s a lot of people being inconvenienced. It’s time to put an end to this nonsense.”
He later decided to convey these thoughts to the considerable portion of the world that doesn’t watch Fox midday programming. So he took to Xwitter to share them with the waiting world. If you’re keeping score at home, Cotton has moved on from calling on the military to shoot allegedly violent protesters. (Remember that comic episode? The only thing Cotton killed was the career of a guy at The New York Times.) Now he wants non-violent protesters thrown off the Golden Gate, if he can’t have them flayed alive in Bug Tussle.
The rap sheet grows. This guy wasn’t in the Senate for a hot minute before he was writing unsolicited letters to the mullahs in Iran in order to undermine the foreign policy of the Obama administration. And one can ask—quite fairly, I believe—how in the hell does he know what might happen in Arkansas when he spends so little time there? I suppose he’ll cross that bridge when he comes to it.
C’mon, you knew that was coming.
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Republican senator Tom Cotton calls for vigilantism to break up Gaza protests
Outcry as Cotton says those inconvenienced by protesters blocking roads and airports should ‘take matters into own hands’
The Republican senator Tom Cotton has urged Americans to “take matters into their own hands” when encountering pro-Palestine supporters, an apparent call to vigilantism as Israel’s military strikes in Gaza continued despite global calls for a ceasefire.
Demonstrations on Monday by supporters of Palestine blocked roads in major US cities, including New York and Philadelphia; delayed flights at the bustling Chicago O’Hare and Seattle-Tacoma international airports; and caused traffic congestion on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.
Cotton, a Republican, eventually appeared on Fox News and labeled the protesters “criminals”. He also expressed his sympathy for the people whose commutes were interrupted by Monday’s demonstrations, which demanded that the US government drop its military support of Israel.
Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, killing 1,100 mostly civilians and taking hostages. Israel responded with a ground and air onslaught that has killed more than 30,000 mostly women and children as well as pushed the region to famine.
The far-right senator from Arkansas told the Fox News host Sandra Smith that as far as he was concerned, those who deserved his sympathies were “all those people who are trying to get to work or trying to pick up a kid”.
He also said he “very worried about the diversion of police resources where it needs to be stopping crime in cities like San Francisco, where firefighters are having to go there when they might have calls for fires out”.
He soon went further, arguing that people in his state would inflict bodily violence on the protesters, whom he called “antisemitic” and “pro-Hamas”.
“If something like this happened in Arkansas on a bridge there – let’s just say I think there’d be a lot of very wet criminals that have been tossed overboard, not by law enforcement, but by the people whose road they’re blocking,” Cotton said.
“If they glued their hands to a car or the pavement, well, [it would be] probably pretty painful to have their skin ripped off. But I think that’s the way we’d handle it in Arkansas.”
Cotton said he “would encourage most people anywhere that get stuck behind criminals like this who are trying to block traffic, to take matters in their own hands” and solve the problem without involving police.
It is not the first time Cotton had expressed such sentiments. In a notorious 2020 New York Times op-ed headlined Send In the Troops, the senator likened Black Lives Matter protests to a rebellion and urged the government to deploy the US military against demonstrators by invoking the Insurrection Act.
“The Insurrection Act authorizes the president to employ the military ‘or any other means’ in ‘cases of insurrection, or obstruction to the laws,’” Cotton wrote. “These rioters, if not subdued, not only will destroy the livelihoods of law-abiding citizens but will also take more innocent lives. Many poor communities that still bear scars from past upheavals will be set back still further.
“One thing above all else will restore order to our streets: an overwhelming show of force to disperse, detain and ultimately deter lawbreakers.”
At the time, supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement were exercising their constitutional rights to assemble and advocate for social justice after a white Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd, a Black man, in plain view of a cellphone camera.
Cotton argued in the 2020 piece that “a majority who seek to protest peacefully shouldn’t be confused with bands of miscreants”. He also falsely claimed that anti-fascist – or “antifa” – members had infiltrated Black Lives Matter marches, meriting a military response.
Mainstream reaction to Cotton’s op-ed was largely negative, forcing the Times to issue a statement saying that the piece did not meet its editorial standards and should not have been published. The editorial page editor subsequently resigned, and his deputy was reassigned.
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Pro-Palestinian protesters disrupt traffic to Golden Gate, O’Hare airport and other sites across US | CNN
More than 250 people were arrested or taken into custody across the US Monday as pro-Palestinian protesters blocked roads and one of the country’s most famous bridges.
In places from San Francisco and Seattle to Chicago and the East Coast cities of Miami and New York, demonstrators disrupted traffic – including during rush hour – and blocked travelers from getting to major airports to protest the US supporting Israel in the war in Gaza.
On Monday, President Joe Biden, while addressing Iran’s attack on Israel over the weekend, said he remains focused on Israel’s security, reaching a ceasefire in Gaza, freeing the hostages taken by Hamas and preventing the conflict from spreading.
Dozens of protesters blocked rush-hour traffic on the iconic Golden Gate Bridge on Monday morning.
Protesters held signs, including one that read, “Stop the world for Gaza.” Some protesters chained themselves to vehicles on the bridge, authorities said. The bridge didn’t fully reopen for several hours.
Demonstrators also blocked vehicle flow in two other places in the Bay Area, some attaching themselves to drums filled with concrete and rebar, which officials said slowed efforts to reopen roads.
“It was an orchestrated event that they put forth,” California Highway Patrol Chief Don Goodbrand said. “They blocked three separate locations on freeways. They prevented law enforcement, paramedics, ambulances from getting to their points of destination.”
More than 30 people were arrested, according to the highway patrol.
In Oregon, 52 people were arrested after scores of law enforcement officers responded to a protest that blocked lanes of Interstate 5 near Eugene.
Oregon State Police said six vehicles were towed from the scene.
Airline passengers walk around protests to make flights
Roads to two major US airports also became the scene of protests. In Chicago and Seattle, people trying to catch their flights ended up getting out of vehicles and walking to their terminals.
According to CNN affiliate WLS, protesters stopped traffic from moving on a road to Terminal 1 at Chicago’s O’Hare airport during the morning rush.
“Enough is enough. The US government has given us no choice but to disrupt business as usual,” demonstrator Simone Tucker told WLS.
About 40 people were taken into custody, Chicago police said.
In Seattle, protesters appeared to block the road leading to the Seattle-Tacoma airport with several vehicles and demonstrators held a sign reading: “Our taxes are funding genocide.”
KOMO, a CNN affiliate, reported: “Some passengers could be seen walking past the protest, rolling their bags down the road as they try and catch their flights.”
More than 40 people were arrested, an airport spokesperson said.
In Miami, at least two groups of protesters could be seen on opposite sides of a busy street holding Palestinian flags. Police reported seven arrests.
In New York, dozens of people gathered on Wall Street, carrying flags and holding signs. There was also a protest near the Brooklyn Bridge. While some people were arrested, New York police didn’t provide a specific number.
Police in Philadelphia made 68 arrests, a spokesperson for the police department told CNN.
US has provided military aid to Israel
Hamas fighters launched a bloody attack on Israel from Gaza on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 others hostage. Since Israel declared war on Hamas, more than 33,000 people have been killed in Gaza and more than 76,000 have been injured, according to the health ministry in the besieged enclave.
The US has provided support and military aid to Israel following Hamas’ attack, though divisions between the two countries’ leaders have appeared over mounting civilian casualties and the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Here’s how to help humanitarian efforts in Gaza and Israel.
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NB note - the last link to the video won't open on Blogger so please go to this link to see it: https://www.foxnews.com/video/6350977761112
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