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Consequences.

Words have them.

From The New York Times:

Soldiers opened fire this past Monday on a march of about 1,000 Islamic Shia activists who had been blocking traffic in the capital, Abuja. Videos circulated on social media showed several protesters hurling rocks at the heavily armed soldiers who then shot fleeing protesters in the back...

Early Friday morning, the military responded to the criticism. The Army’s official Twitter account posted a video, “Please Watch and Make Your Deductions,” showing Mr. Trump’s anti-migrant speech on Thursday in which he said rocks would be considered firearms if thrown toward the American military at the nation’s borders.“We’re not going to put up with that,” Mr. Trump said in the clip. “They want to throw rocks at our military, our military fights back.” In Nigeria, Mr. Trump is a popular figure among many people who praise what they regard as his straightforwardness and frank talk despite his reported insult to the nation last year when he said Nigerians in the United States would never “go back to their huts” in Africa.

On Friday, John Agim, a spokesman for the Nigerian Army, said the posting of the video was a response to Amnesty International, which had criticized what it called the military’s use of excessive force.“We released that video to say if President Trump can say that rocks are as good as a rifle, who is Amnesty International?” he said. “What are they then saying? What did David use to kill Goliath? So a stone is a weapon.”

The President* of the United States of America. A shining beacon of strength for murderous authoritarians around the world since 2016.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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