As a matter of policy, I don’t normally respond to readers’ comments in the form of a new post. But I suppose there are exceptions to just about any rule so, here goes.
A reader who calls herself Zoe (but in reality, is someone else altogether, but I’ll respect her wish for anonymity and keep her name in confidence) who often takes issue with what is written here. That is her right as a citizen. Everyone has a right to his or her opinion but not to concocting one’s own facts. That is what she’s done with her latest comment and I have to call her out on it.
You can read her entire comment at the end of the post below this one.
At one point, she asks, perhaps rhetorically, “How many times have we seen someone aim a vehicle as a weapon and drive in the direction of a police officer. and that person be charged with attempted murder?”
Well, according to today’s Washington Post (you know, the publication owned by Jeff Bezos that’s not allowed to editorialize against the Trump administration), “A frame-by-frame analysis of video footage, however, raises questions about those accounts. The SUV did move toward the ICE agent as he stood in front of it. But the agent was able to move out of the way and fire at least two of three shots from the side of the vehicle as it veered past him, according to the analysis.”
Zoe then tells us, “The officer has no obligation to “move” other than self-preservation.”
I suppose there’s some validity to that if the officer is stupid.
Then Zoe says, “And let us get down to the core of the matter. Illegals are, by law, not supposed to be here.”
Okay, we’ll concede that but in this case the victim was a U.S. citizen, born and bred. And she didn’t even have brown skin and she was (gasp! blonde).
Now here’s where Zoe reverts to form for the Trumpites in managing to shift blame for anything that goes wrong to Biden when she says, “No country tolerates what the Biden Administration did to this country by allowing this to happen.”
So, now we learn that the killing of an American citizen is Biden’s fault. Don’t you just love the way they always manage to twist things around so that it’s someone else’s fault for everything? But just for fun, let’s turn it around on them and suggest, rhetorically, of course: if this had occurred during the Biden or Obama administrations, Zoe and her friends would be in a state of apoplexy.
Next, she says, “Trump has tricked you people into defending criminals, non-citizens, Narco Dictators, communists, fraudulent behavior in government….”
Afraid not, Zoe. No one is defending criminals and we certainly do not defend Maduro (though we certainly question the act of bombing unknown individuals in boats or invading another country for oil). Nor do we defend non-citizens (though we all, including Zoe, depend on them for roofing, carpentry, landscaping and picking our vegetables and fruits that we enjoy). And just who is defending “Narco Dictators” when the former president of Honduras, Nasry Asfura who was responsoble for introducing 400 tons of cocaine into this country and whose weakening of the rule of law in Honsuras appears to have contributed to the mass emigration of all those “non-citizens” to the U.S. pardoned by Trump? And finally, Zoe, it seems rather hypocritical to accuse anyone of defending “fraud” when one considers all the fraud perpetrated by one Donald J. Trump (Trump University, 5 bankruptcies, setting up a dummy “supply” corporation to avoid paying income taxes (a classic tax fraud scheme) and so brazenly defrauding of a non-profit to help cancer-stricken children as to have the entire Trump family banned from operating another non-profit. Communists, Zoe? C’mon. Whose head is it that can only be found by Putin’s proctologist? Trump absolutely adores Putin and Kim Jong Un. And it was Trump who practically gave away the Nividia Chip store to China’s communist regime.
You gotta love the way you can attack Democrats for every nuance, every hint of scandal while, at the same time, continuing to ignore, gloss over and otherwise condone the sins of one who does absolutely nothing for average Americans while taking care of his billionaire friends.
Zoe, I’m sorry, but you’ve lost touch with reality with your infatuation with Agent Orange.
Louisiana Voice 
Yes, this. I wish I could believe she will deal with the logic you are providing her. Some seem to have had their brains rearranged or had no opportunity to develop any critical thinking skills.
Well said, Tom Aswell! Zoe is clearly lying about some very obvious truths while concocting Mega facts. Sadly we see too much of that these days, and too many folks are ignoring it. Keep up the good work.
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Looks like our intrepid editor has beaten me to the punch. Not to be dissuaded, however, I submit these thoughts for your consideration.
Zoe, the only true thing that you said in this entire screed is that there are laws against interfering with a law officer. Do you know anything else about the law? It has not been established that the woman did that. Trained officers are obligated to de-escalate a situation; the officer who pulled the trigger did move out of the way and I submit he had an obligation to do so. Stand your ground does not apply to sworn officers of the law. Yet he shot anyway. As for his training, we will find out whether he had any, but I am skeptical. You blame the victim, saying she should have not been there. By the same token, none of this would have happened if ICE hadn’t been where they were neither wanted nor needed. Yours is exactly the argument raised by southern racists during the sixties to justify killing of black activists. “he wouldn’t hae gotten killed if he had just remembered his place.” The whole situation reminds me of a guy who goes into a bar looking for a fight and when his target fights back, he shoots him claiming self-defense because he feared for his life.
Trump has tricked us? Who are you thinking Trump has tricked? Are you serious? Narco dictators? Don’t make me laugh. Did you know that the Trump pardoned the deposed dictator of Honduras, convicted in the Southern District of New York by a judge and jury, for sending 400 tons of cocaine to into the country? He is out of jail!
As for fraud, has there ever been a president who has lied on video, audio and paper. lies too numerous to count and who has done more to trash the constitutional guardrails than any of his predecessors? Whose personal life is the stuff of a tawdry dime novel? Who has as many bankruptcies as Trump? As many marriages? Who brags about his sexual assaults? Has any president ever profited from his office more than Trump? Has any president ever accepted a $400,000,000 airplane from a foreign government that wishes favorable treatment from our government? Do you remember the GOP slogan from the 1990s? Character matters. Richard Nixon was merely a criminal, but he had the decency to resign when he was exposed. Trump has no shame or decency and he is truly dangerous to our way of government.
We can agree on one thing, though. People in this country illegally should not be here. We have laws and procedures to deal that and we should follow the laws and procedures. Sowing terror, sending people who have never been convicted of a crime to foreign prisons, deporting American citizens without constitutionally mandated due process, follows neither the law nor procedure.
I have no idea what you mean by your last sentence, but you would do well not to play the hypocrisy card.
Zoe, why do you come here? You have no interest in facts, except alternative facts or perhaps characterization of facts. You have no interest in our opinions, you can only characterize our opinions in order to shoot them down. In fact, you and people like you frighten me, not only because your vote is based on drivel like you have just posted, but on your propensity to violence to people who disagree with you. Next time, make an effort to persuade and we’ll have a civil conversation like Jefferson and Adams had..
Thank you, Mr Packman, and Tom. You both said it perfectly.
It’s good that Zoe posts here. It serves to remind the rest of us that the people who support Trump are utterly bankrupt. Morally bankrupt. Ethically bankrupt. Ideologically bankrupt. Intellectually bankrupt. Spiritually bankrupt. Utterly bankrupt. The ONLY thing Trump supporters believe in is that they are entitled to wallow in their prejudices. They might CLAIM to believe all sorts of things at different times – from “principled conservatism” to their precious Christian “faith” – but the ONLY thing they believe in is that they are entitled to wallow in their prejudices, and they are good with whatever excuse gets them there. Their allegiance to Trump is absolute because he and the MAGA movement are a living, breathing manifestation of all their ignorant prejudices. Their devoutness to Trump is a measure of how much they despise their fellow Americans.
a key characteristic of a personality cult is that it’s members cannot recognize that they are in one.