Alec Baldwin expresses concern for his family's safety after Trump threatens "retribution" against SNL.

[The Romulan Republic]

https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/tv/ ... ld-n972726

Alec Baldwin on Sunday responded to President Donald Trump's attack of his latest appearance on "Saturday Night Live."

Baldwin reprised his role impersonating the president for SNL's cold open, mimicking the press conference that Trump had given earlier in the week to declare a national emergency in an effort to gain funding for a border wall between Mexico and the U.S.

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Trump did not seem to appreciate the humor in the sketch.

"Nothing funny about tired Saturday Night Live on Fake News NBC! Question is, how do the Networks get away with these total Republican hit jobs without retribution? Likewise for many other shows? Very unfair and should be looked into. This is the real Collusion!" Trump tweeted Sunday.

He followed with a second tweet: "THE RIGGED AND CORRUPT MEDIA IS THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!"

Baldwin responded by tweeting from his foundation's account.

"I wonder if a sitting President exhorting his followers that my role in a TV comedy qualifies me as an enemy of the people constitutes a threat to my safety and that of my family?" Baldwin asked.


Baldwin has played Trump on "SNL" since Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. In Saturday's cold open, he poked fun at Trump's reaction to reporters at press conferences, his politics experience and the recently released results of the president's health exam.

"I just had a great health exam. I’m still standing 6’7, 185 pounds — shredded," Baldwin's Trump said.

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On the intended subject of Trump's real press conference, Baldwin's Trump declared: "We need wall. Wall works. Wall makes safe. You not have to be smart to understand. In fact, it’s even easier to understand if you’re not that smart."

"You can all see why I gotta fake this national emergency, right?" Baldwin said. "I have to because I want to. It’s really simple."

And so it begins. One by one, people will become afraid to speak out, to criticize, or poke fun at the President. Until our media is no different than Russia's or any other authoritarian nation- simply a tool for aggrandizing the President and conveying his message.

[Zaune]

And so it begins. One by one, people will become afraid to speak out, to criticize, or poke fun at the President. Until our media is no different than Russia's or any other authoritarian nation- simply a tool for aggrandizing the President and conveying his message.

Not until one of these blustering threats gets carried out. If he was a competent fascist he'd have better blackshirts than the tikki torch mob.

[The Romulan Republic]

And so it begins. One by one, people will become afraid to speak out, to criticize, or poke fun at the President. Until our media is no different than Russia's or any other authoritarian nation- simply a tool for aggrandizing the President and conveying his message.

Not until one of these blustering threats gets carried out. If he was a competent fascist he'd have better blackshirts than the tikki torch mob.

Um... some of them have been carried out. Not on the scale that would be needed to completely stifle dissent, at least not yet, but multiple people have been assaulted at his rallies, and there was the whole pipe bomber incident, which was carried out by a Trumper and directly targeted political and media figures targeted by Trump. In addition to whatever other incidents have been thwarted by law enforcement before they could be carried out.

And speaking of the tiki torch mob... a woman died at Charlottsville, murdered for being a Left-wing activist, and its pretty much just luck that that car only killed one of the people it hit. Numerous others were physically assaulted and injured.

Edit: Not to mention that if you are a notable or on-line female activist, you are pretty much guaranteed rape and murder threats (though as Gamergate showed, that predated the Donald's campaign).

[Zaune]

Fair point, but if that's what you call an effective domestic terrorism campaign then your standards are pretty low. If Alec Baldwin's house mysteriously explodes next week then that's one thing, but I don't think the alt-right have the competence or the balls for anything as overt as killing a celebrity.

And Trump's already alienated the three-letter agencies by throwing hissy-fits whenever they tell him anything but what he wants to hear and pissed away his family's mob connections by cosying up to the Nazis, so his other options are currently somewhat limited.

[The Romulan Republic]

Fair points, but, a campaign of intimidation doesn't actually have to kill a lot of people to have an effect. All it has to do is make people afraid of what might happen if they speak up. The very fact that Alec Baldwin felt it necessary to raise these concerns shows that Trump's rhetoric, and his base's response to that rhetoric, are having some effect.

[The Romulan Republic]

Though not Trump, here is an example of a Right-wing threat effectively stifling political speech in recent American history:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... ncels-talk

The feminist pop culture critic Anita Sarkeesian has been forced to cancel a talk at Utah State University, after a threat of a “Montreal Massacre-style attack”.

Sarkeesian, who is best known for her YouTube series “Tropes v Women in Video Games”, assessing various anti-feminist trends in gaming, was scheduled to talk at the university on Wednesday, when the unsigned email was sent.

The author of the email threatened that if the talk was not cancelled, they would carry out an attack in the style of the 1989 Montreal massacre, when Marc Lépine murdered 14 women, claiming he was “fighting feminism”.

“I have at my disposal a semi-automatic rifle, multiple pistols, and a collection of pipe bombs,” the letter said. “This will be the deadliest school shooting in American history and I’m giving you a chance to stop it.”

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“You have 24 hours to cancel Sarkeesian’s talk … Anita Sarkeesian is everything wrong with the feminist woman, and she is going to die screaming like the craven little whore that she is if you let her come to USU. I will write my manifesto in her spilled blood, and you will all bear witness to what feminist lies and poison have done to the men of America.”

Initially, Sarkeesian stated her intention to hold the talk despite the threat, but was forced to back down after discovering that it was impossible to prevent guns being taken to the event.

“Forced to cancel my talk at USU after receiving death threats because police wouldn’t take steps to prevent concealed firearms at the event,” she tweeted. “Requested pat downs or metal detectors after mass shooting threat but because of Utah’s open carry laws police wouldn’t do firearm searches.”

The school confirmed Sarkeesian’s explanation in a statement. “During the discussion, Sarkeesian asked if weapons will be permitted at the speaking venue. Sarkeesian was informed that, in accordance with the State of Utah law regarding the carrying of firearms, if a person has a valid concealed firearm permit and is carrying a weapon, they are permitted to have it at the venue.”

Sarkeesian was the subject of a hate campaign before she began the Tropes v Women in Video Games series. A fundraiser on Kickstarter two years ago led to vandalism of her Wikipedia page, a DDoS attack on her website, and the creation of a game called “Beat Up Anita Sarkessian”.

As well as persistent low-level harassment for the past two years, the attacks stepped up a notch in August 2014 when Sarkeesian was identified as one of the key targets of “#gamergate”. Ostensibly a campaign against corruption in journalism but in practice a grassroots attack on feminist critics in gaming, Gamergate has led to at least three prominent women in gaming having to take action over threats of violence.

Zoe Quinn, an indie developer and one of the women targeted, has said that “discussing ethics and fairness is antithetical to a campaign originated in and motivated by a fair bit of misogyny and harassment”.

The state of Utah will issue a concealed carry permit to any applicant who is at least 21 years old, mentally competent, and hasn’t been convicted of a felony or crimes involving violence, alcohol, narcotics or “moral turpitude.” The permit costs $46 and lasts for five years.

[U.P. Cinnabar]

This is sobering, in the wake of the workplace shootings in Aurora, IL today.