Guardian: Trump's Republican party hits new low: relentless exploitation of genuine grief

[arenean]

From today's Guardian, by Jonathan Freedland:

To the serial dishonesty, overt racism and jaw-dropping sexism, we can now add a new, more subtle layer of shame to Donald Trump’s campaign to be president: the relentless exploitation of genuine grief and heartbreaking pain.

The first night of the Republican convention in Cleveland was devoted to a simple theme: Make America Safe Again. But that idea was pursued not by the presentation of a new law and order policy or a fresh military doctrine, but by a procession of grieving parents and siblings, telling of the soldiers or victims of crime they had lost over the past eight years – and blaming Hillary Clinton, along with Barack Obama, for their deaths....

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/19/republican-convention-trump-gop-grief-exploitation

[Koinos]

1. The Republican party is a bottomless pit.

[C_U_L8R]

2. That poor deluded woman

Republican ghouls have totally manipulated her. And it must be said, she's permitted it.
I've never witness something so pathetic and disgusting at the same time.
Shame.

[Wednesdays]

3. The mother of a victim of Willie Horton's

got on the TV talk-show circuit in 1988, spilling her grief. And partially thanks to that, it worked. But at least it wasn't at the convention.

[Bill USA]

5. they couldn't call on Chris Stevens family: they don't blame Hillary but have pointed to budget cuts

..to dept of State (particularly cuts to Embassy Security requests - from Sec. of State, Hillary Clinton)


CHRIS STEVENS’S FAMILY: DON’T BLAME HILLARY CLINTON FOR BENGHAZI

It is clear, in hindsight, that the facility was not sufficiently protected by the State Department and the Defense Department. But what was the underlying cause? Perhaps if Congress had provided a budget to increase security for all missions around the world, then some of the requests for more security in Libya would have been granted. Certainly the State Department is underbudgeted.

I do not blame Hillary Clinton or Leon Panetta. They were balancing security efforts at embassies and missions around the world. And their staffs were doing their best to provide what they could with the resources they had. The Benghazi Mission was understaffed. We know that now. But, again, Chris knew that. It wasn’t a secret to him. He decided to take the risk to go there. It is not something they did to him. It is something he took on himself.
(more)

GOP Rep: I ‘Absolutely’ Voted To Cut Funding For Embassy Security

House Republicans cut the administration’s request for embassy security funding by $128 million in fiscal 2011 and $331 million in fiscal 2012.

~~

Ryan, [Rep. Darrell] Issa and other House Republicans voted for an amendment in 2009 to cut $1.2 billion from State operations, including funds for 300 more diplomatic security positions. Under Ryan’s budget, non-defense discretionary spending, which includes State Department funding, would be slashed nearly 20 percent in 2014, which would translate to more than $400 million in additional cuts to embassy security.
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