“That’s a witch that needs to be arrested and put to death”
Another rung on the fascism ladder:
An official adviser to the Trump campaign has escalated the attacks on Khizr Khan, the gold star father who was critical of Trump at the Democratic convention, baselessly accusing him of being a “Muslim Brotherhood agent.”
The adviser, Al Baldasaro, tweeted a link to an article from Shoebat.com, a fringe anti-Islam conspiracy website. The article also suggests (without any evidence) that Humayun Khan, who was awarded a Purple Heart and Bronze, was a jihadist who joined the military to kill Americans.
…
The piece, written by Theodore and Walid Shoebat, is less of an article and more of a fever dream of conspiracies strung together.
Tell us more about Theodore Shoebat.
In recent days, Theodore Shoebat has also called on the government to execute gay people for sodomy and Hillary Clinton for witchcraft. He also said women who have abortions should be lined up and shot by firing squad.
SAY WHAT???
Let’s look at that last link, to a piece at Right Wing Watch.
Shoebat had particular praise for Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals judge Steven Colloton for issuing a decision in 2014 upholding the constitutionality of the death penalty, which Shoebat again said should be applied to gays … as well as to witches like Hillary Clinton.
“We need judges who uphold the death penalty for evildoers,” he said. “We need judges who would uphold the death penalty for those, not just murderers, obviously murderers deserve death, I think most people would agree with that. But you also have other people who deserve the death penalty, not necessarily murderers; people who are involved in witchcraft, who promote witchcraft. Witchcraft is very, very dangerous, very demonic and look how much destruction it has caused in the United States. Look at Hillary Clinton. That’s a witch that needs to be arrested and put to death. Most definitely. As the scriptures says, I believe in Leviticus, ‘Thou shall not suffer a witch to live.'”
“Homosexuals also need to be put to death,” Shoebat continued, “because it is evil, it is demonic and it is against human nature.”
So to sum up, Baldasaro is an official adviser to the Trump campaign and Baldasaro considers Theodore Shoebat a trustworthy source.
Down, down, down we go.
Ah, Theodore Shoebat and his daddy, Walid.
Walid claims to be a former terrorist (and therefore an expert on terrorism.) The particular terrorist act he claims to have done seems never to have happened. His family back in Palestine say he’s full of shit.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walid_Shoebat
The theocratic Christian right likes him.
Shoebats. That would make a good adjective. “Absurdly, disgustingly authoritarian AND dishonest.” “He’s shoebats.”
Names can be funny, if you try to believe they mean something. Or not, as the case may be.
Yeah, “try and believe they mean something” is not what I was doing.
But your sanctimony is noted.
It’s not sanctimony! Rrr is fond of making jokes, especially puns, which is all the more impressive since his first language is Norwegian. He’s never sanctimonious.
I was just coming back to apologize–I realize I completely misread his comment.
I apologize, Rrr!
<3
Seeing just the headline, I thought it was going to be a story about some minister in Africa, which is the more usual occupational and geographical origin of the witchcraft stories you feature. Wow.
Thanks, Lady & mylady!
Swedish actually, but maybe too fond of the pun and sometimes get carried away.
But I quite like your invention of Shoebats as a descriptive, it brings a vivid mental picture.
‘Shoebats’ even has plausible etymology – ‘bats’ as in ‘he has bats in the belfry’, a very old phrase implying disordered thinking, and ‘shoes-for-bats’ which would be the most useless invention ever.
*smacks brow* Swedish, of course. I keep making that mistake.
Not to worry, O. I’m practically borderline, just over an hour from Norway, and several of my neighbors are Norwegian. We almost understand each other, too ;-)