Yup, Trump to Blame for Salman Rushdie Attack, Too

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November 7, 2022

The one thing we all knew for sure upon hearing of the hammer attack on Paul Pelosi was that Donald Trump would be held to blame.  The Democrat-Media Complex (DMC) did not disappoint.

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Where the Complex really showed its stuff, however, was in holding Donald Trump indirectly to blame for the savage August attack on world-famous author Salman Rushdie.  More on this sleight-of-hand in a minute.

As to the Pelosi attack, it was business as usual at the DMC.  I will cite one example out of thousands because it typifies the way the Complex works.  Eight days after the attack, the top item on Google under the listing Donald Trump” and “Paul Pelosi” is this gem from NBC News: “The GOP has Paul Pelosi’s blood on its hands.”

NBC was actually laundering a “THINK” piece by freelance media entrepreneur and campaign adviser Arick Wierson.  In that Wierson advised conservative Jair Bolsonaro’s 2018 campaign in Brazil, it is anyone’s guess who put him up to this hit job.  The article first appeared on November 3.  By that date, anyone paying attention knew that Pelosi’s attacker was a Berkeley loon and illegal alien best known for his nudist activism and his life in a commune smothered with BLM signs, not prime MAGA recruiting territory.

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The subhead clarifies the thesis of Wierson’s article: “After daily assaults by conservative pundits on TV and a nonstop feed of anti-progressive vitriol on right-wing social media, leaders of the GOP should not be able to escape blame.”  If Pelosi had not been hurt, this would be pure comedy.

The problem with “GOP leaders” is that they don’t feed “anti-progressive vitriol” to the “right-wing” social media.  I challenge NBC to produce so much as a mean tweet from Mitch McConnell or Kevin McCarthy.  I may have missed something, but I don’t recall either of the two calling millions of Americans “deplorables” or a “threat to the republic,” let alone holding a bloody replica of Nancy Pelosi’s severed head in their hands.

The DMC’s real target, of course, is mean-tweeter Donald Trump, whose photo is featured under the subhead.  Behind Trump is a crowd of people with their arms raised, the insinuation being that it is a form of Nazi salute.  In his own private corner of hell, Josef Goebbels must be green with envy.

Even Goebbels, though, would have had second thoughts about the Salman Rushdie angle.  I have a very small personal connection to this story.  Some years back, the Chautauqua Institution in Western New York, where the savage attack on Rushdie occurred, banned me from speaking there after I gave a talk questioning why the media gave Muslims a pass they did not give to Christians.

“Islamic extremists in America,” I argued, “have proven to be exactly the bogeyman that the media have long imagined the Christian right to be — patriarchal, theocratic, sexist, homophobic, anti-choice, and openly anti-Semitic.”  The next day, I read in the Chautauqua Daily, “Jack Cashill stepped outside the boundaries of civil discourse.  Several of his comments were not only provocative, but potentially harmful.”

The historically Christian institution has been desperately trying to reach out to Muslims for several decades now. Having convinced themselves that Islam was the religion of peace, the folks who run the place let their guard down.  Security for Rushdie was pitiful.

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Rushdie had spoken at Chautauqua several times in the past without incident.  Understandably, he had refrained from making any “provocative” or “potentially harmful” comments about Islam.  He did not fear the institution’s wrath.  He feared that of the fanatics who have sought to kill him since 1988, when the Ayatollah Khomeini put a fatwa on his head.

In 1991, Islamic extremists did succeed in killing Rushdie’s Japanese translator.  His Italian translator subsequently survived a knife attack, and his Norwegian publisher survived a shooting.  Several bookstores were bombed on Rushdie’s behalf.

Yet in August, when an assassin very nearly stabbed Rushdie to death, the attack made a quick blip in the news and then disappeared — this despite the fact that the attack had international repercussions.  In fact, it prompted the Biden administration to impose sanctions on elements within Iran.

I have a summer cottage in Chautauqua County not far from the institution.  A week after the attack, I was in line at a local grocery store.  A man in a suit — an unusual sight in these parts — was speaking with the check-out clerk about the stabbing.

The man in the suit worked for the public defender’s office that represented the attacker.  I insinuated myself into the conversation.  Embarrassed not to know the attacker’s name — who did? — I persisted nonetheless.  The County Courthouse where he was being held was right across the street.  I asked if I could interview the fellow.

Although I was turned down, the request was not as absurd as it might seem.  Mayville, the county seat of Chautauqua County, has the feel of “Mayberry” about it.  The town has only 1,400 people.  On the day in question, there was no media presence at the courthouse.  None.  The DMC didn’t like this story about “New Jersey man” Hadi Matar.  It reminded the woke just how uncomfortably Islam fit into their multicultural love fest.

Apparently, the FBI has no interest in Matar, either.  The last the media reported on its involvement was two months ago, when the FBI allegedly considered hate crime charges.  The Bureau has not been heard from since — understandable, given how busy its agents have been in silencing PTA moms and rounding up peaceful pro-life protesters.  As to Matar, he is still in Mayville, awaiting trial on state charges.  Those interested in updates on his status will find them only at the Buffalo News.

The major media silence broke two weeks ago, when Rushdie’s agent, Andrew Wylie, gave an interview on his client’s condition.  The wounds were “profound,” said Wylie.  Rushdie has lost sight in one eye and the use of one hand.  Wylie was quick to clarify that the attack was random.  “So, you can’t protect against that because it’s totally unexpected and illogical.  It was like John Lennon[‘s murder].”  This was pure BS, of course.

Had Wylie stopped there, one might think he was just trying to protect his client and himself from reprisal, but he did not stop.

Known with the industry as “The Jackal,” Wylie is arguably the world’s most influential agent.  What he said next in the interview had to resonate with all those media people looking for book deals.

“I think nationalism is on the rise,” Wylie said in explaining the environment facing authors like Rushdie — “a sort of fundamentalist right is on the rise. … From Italy to … throughout Europe, Latin America and the US, where … half the country seems to think that Joe Biden stole the election from Donald Trump.  And they admire this man who is not only completely incompetent and a liar and a crook, but just a farce.  It’s ridiculous.”

The interview in Spain’s El Pais was reported throughout the world.  Editors and publishers within the DMC have an election to win.  Any angle will do.

To learn more, see www.cashill.com.

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.

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