Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

Kim Jong Un of North Korea made a very wise and well reasoned decision. The alternative would have been both catastrophic and unacceptable!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 16, 2017

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Remember the controversy about the expression "Black lives matter"? Anyone who insisted that all lives matter was shouted down and vilified by leftist thugs. The same thing is occurring with respect to violence. President Trump insists that all violence is to be condemned and punished. Leftist thugs shout him down, claiming that only white violence is to be condemned and punished. Trump should ignore the thugs. All lives matter and all violence is to be condemned and punished. It follows that black lives matter and that white violence is to be condemned and punished.

Immediately after the election, I said out loud, “Let the riots begin.” I was not advocating riots but forecasting the inevitability of unrest given President Donald Trump’s divisive campaign and alt-right ideology.

While the White House is mired in disarray and scandal, incapable of working with an equally ineffective Congress, and the president toils to lower his golf handicap on “working vacations,” America is smoldering.

Our “locked and loaded” president is intent on initiating international crises with Molotov cocktail hyperbole. Domestically, Trump has fostered powder kegs while daring his supporters to light the fuses. Fuse lit, white supremacist Trump supporters with Confederate flags and full battle gear wielded their fists, batons and cars on anti-hate counter protesters in Charlottesville. Not surprisingly, Trump’s response was disgraceful.

For those too young to have participated in civil rights and other justice movements of the 1960s, the Trump era again calls for urgent, consistent, peaceful, loud opposition. The women’s and climate marches in Washington, D.C., earlier this year were a start, but it remains to be seen how fervently Americans coalesce to oust Trump and return values and reason to the White House.

I hope it’s before he adds more kindling to the smoldering fire.

Mark Hannifan

Leawood

Note from KBJ: I have changed the title of this daily feature.

For every CEO that drops out of the Manufacturing Council, I have many to take their place. Grandstanders should not have gone on. JOBS!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 15, 2017

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What President Trump said:

I just met with FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation into the deadly car attack that killed one innocent American and wounded 20 others. To anyone who acted criminally in this weekend’s racist violence, you will be held fully accountable. Justice will be delivered.

As I said on Saturday, we condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence. It has no place in America.

And as I have said many times before: No matter the color of our skin, we all live under the same laws, we all salute the same great flag, and we are all made by the same almighty God. We must love each other, show affection for each other, and unite together in condemnation of hatred, bigotry, and violence. We must rediscover the bonds of love and loyalty that bring us together as Americans.

Racism is evil. And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.

We are a nation founded on the truth that all of us are created equal. We are equal in the eyes of our Creator. We are equal under the law. And we are equal under our Constitution. Those who spread violence in the name of bigotry strike at the very core of America.

What his critics at CNN (and elsewhere) say:

• He didn't say it soon enough!
• He didn't say it often enough!
• He didn't say it loudly enough!
• He didn't say it sternly enough!
• He didn't say it convincingly!
• He didn't say it authoritatively!
• He didn't say it in the right tone of voice!
• He didn't mean it!
• He didn't believe it!
• He didn't say it the way I would have said it!

The critics, in their unreasonableness, are ensuring a second Trump term.

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