Monday, December 04, 2017

EVENTUALLY, ALL REPUBLICAN OFFICIALS WILL BE FORMER (OR CURRENT) INTERNET TROLLS

President Trump wants to send this guy to the UN:
Patrick Murray, a former Army officer and two-time congressional candidate, was nominated by Trump in May to be the alternate representative for special political affairs to the United Nations. Murray's nomination was approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in August and he awaits full Senate confirmation....

On Facebook, Murray praised [Milo] Yiannopoulos multiple times in 2016, writing comments of approval like "Milo rocks," "preach, Milo!," and "clone this guy" while sharing videos of Yiannopoulos denouncing campus safe spaces, arguing that Britain should leave the European Union to stop Muslim immigration and talking about the 2016 presidential election....

In one post, Murray defended Yiannopoulos after he was banned from Twitter for harassing Saturday Night Live performer and Ghostbusters actress Leslie Jones with a barrage of offensive tweets....

In another post, Murray shared an image that suggested being a Democrat was a "mental illness." In another post he called former President Bill Clinton the "the renowned cigar inserter," shared a macro-image of Bill looking at Hillary Clinton with the text overlay, "when you're in prison I'm free to date," and picture of Bill Clinton smiling with the text, "is Bruce Jenner a woman yet." ...

In July of 2016, Murray shared an image on Facebook of a riot with buildings burning. Overlaying the image was a picture of former President Barack Obama and Sharpton shaking hands, with text that read, "Teamwork, it's amazing what you can accomplish when you work together."
Will this derail his nomination? There's no evidence that the Republican Senate has a problem with approving right-wing trolls for important government positions. Remember, Brett Talley, a 36-year-old lawyer who's never tried a case, is still on course to become a federal judge for life, even after the press discovered online posts in which he defended the early Ku Klux Klan, disparaged Muslims, and expressed his envy of a 14-year-old boy who was molested by a 20-year-old baby-sitter.

We've already elected a Republican troll as president, so why shouldn't we assume that future GOP candidates and appointees will routinely be discovered to have trolling in their backgrounds? Eventually it'll be a selling point in Republican primaries, and a résumé item shared proudly by those chosen for appointed positions, don't you think?

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