Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Fani Willis claps back at Trump chihuahua, Jim Jordan.

Washington Post’s Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

“They not like us!” (that’s for sure!)

“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickel?”

Republicans would impeach Biden if he bit into a whole Kit Kat rather than breaking the sections apart.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Elections aren’t won by handwringing, cowering, and/or bashing your own candidates.

This really is a full service blog.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

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74Comments

  6. 6.

    c u n d gulag

    They better hide his tombstone.

    Either that, or as a convenience, leave a full toilet paper dispenser by his grave.

  8. 8.

    elmo

    We don’t know that the excommunication was for being insufficiently hateful, and the link certainly doesn’t show that. Could have been for anything. Financial improprieties. Caught with an underage boy. Or girl. Or goat. Gave money to Greenpeace AND Illinois Nazis.

    It would be irresponsible not to speculate.

  9. 9.

    JPL

    Is there proof that he is ill or is this just like looking for a lost plane?

    The President is going to speak about Ukraine at 10:45

  11. 11.

    dmsilev

    He and his spawn showed up here a few years ago to protest something (something about us unleashing Barack Obama on an unsuspecting world. Yes, seriously). And he was greeted by, well let me let the student paper describe it:

    Across the street, the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity brothers lined their porch in bathrobes, awaiting the arrival of the protesters. When they appeared, the brothers stripped off their robes and began dancing to Diana Ross & The Supremes’ “I’m Coming Out,” Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer,” and the Weather Girls’ “It’s Raining Men.” The “Tiny Dancer” lyrics “Jesus freaks/out in the streets” elicited a loud cheer from the crowd on the other side of the street.

  12. 12.

    MikeJ

    Topeka paper has more:

    After Phelps was voted out of Westboro Baptist Church this past summer, he was moved out of the church and into a house, where he was watched to ensure he wouldn’t harm himself, a son estranged from the church said Sunday.

    Phelps eventually stopped eating and drinking, and on Sunday, he was near death, son Nate Phelps said in a Facebook posting. The information also is based on an email sent by Nate Phelps to a Topeka Capital-Journal reporter.

    http://cjonline.com/news/2014-03-16/wbc-spokesman-said-fred-phelps-sr-was-healthy-month-he-entered-hospice

    And still nobody’s really clear on why he was kicked out.

  14. 14.

    Chris

    I have always considered Fred Phelps and his church an irrelevance.

    They’re the “far right” group that everyone can get together and agree to hate, and also who don’t matter a lick. “Mainstream” homophobic churches from Southern Baptist to Roman Catholic have harmed far, far, far more people than these professional trolls ever will, and we still consider them Respectable. The Westboro Baptist Church is to American religion what the Aryan Nations are to American politics – freaks and outcasts whose contributions to harming society are nothing compared to what their Very Serious, Moderate, “Center” Right brethren have done and continue to do.

    Having said that… “a dead asshole is still an asshole.” “He’ll soon be in a better place, and so will all of us.” “I will not attend the funeral, but I will send some flowers and a note saying that I approve of it.”

  16. 16.

    MikeJ

    @Chris:

    They’re the “far right” group that everyone can get together and agree to hate,

    Last time they were here I remember the local media calling them an anti-war group, you know, because they hate soldiers.

  17. 17.

    kindness

    Phelps excommunicated?!? wtf is up with that? Won’t matter much. Karma happens. Karma matters. Sounds like Fred is about to be confronted with a heaping helping of the Karma he incurred in this life as he shed his mortal coil and travels to the next phase.

  19. 19.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    @MikeJ:

    And still nobody’s really clear on why he was kicked out.

    One less person to share in the loot?

  20. 20.

    Ash Can

    Someone here or elsewhere was speculating that Phelps could have been excommunicated because then the Westboro Baptist Church wouldn’t be liable for his medical bills. That sounds like a good theory, but I don’t think anyone outside of the WBC actually knows why he was excommunicated, and the WBC hasn’t said anything about it.

    ETA @Higgs Boson’s Mate: That sounds plausible too.

  21. 21.

    Schlemizel

    @elmo:

    I’d bet on ‘under aged boy’ anyone that is that wrapped around the axle about where 2 consenting men put their manhood has some real suppressed issues he is fighting.

  22. 22.

    Hob

    The Poltergeist resemblance is particularly ironic if you know that Rev. Kane was played by Julian Beck the avant-garde playwright, poet, anarchist, and polyamorous bisexual.

  25. 25.

    CaseyL

    It was my understanding that Phelps’ “church” consisted of himself and his family. If he was kicked out of it, that means the family is splintering (which it definitely was, as at least one of his kids had left and denounced him) – which makes his deep depression more understandable.

    Once he’s good and dead, it’ll be interesting to see what happens to the survivors. Grifting-by-outrage is all they know, SFAIK.

  26. 26.

    Fuzzy

    “Dead as a Doornail” and less relevant. There should be a protest at his funeral that he doesn’t deserve one.

  27. 27.

    MomSense

    I never understood their “reasoning” that soldiers die in combat because god hates gays? It always seemed like 1+1=liver and onions. Makes zero sense.

  28. 28.

    Mnemosyne

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate:

    That was my thinking, too. Or making sure that no one could sue his estate after he dies because, hey, he was no longer a church member, so now you can’t sue!

    There are also some family issues, with other family members leaving the church, so that may have something to do with it as well, especially if said family members would have a claim on a piece of the church.

  29. 29.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    @CaseyL:

    Once he’s good and dead…

    He’s certainly dead. Buried at a crossroads with a stake driven through his heart would be good.

  30. 30.

    EconWatcher

    Would be kind of ironic for Phelps if it turns out God is a tone and buff gay man with a fabulous sense of style. Maybe there was just a miscommunication: It was actually, “God hates flab….”

  33. 33.

    Schlemizel

    @EconWatcher:

    god hates figs!
    Matthew 21:18

    18 Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. 19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered.

  34. 34.

    Chris

    @MikeJ:

    Oh, they love that. Every time they find a “far right” group they don’t like, they try to associate it with the left in order to tar the entire left by association. See also Jonah Goldberg with fascism. Fits the binary worldview of “with us or against us” to a tee.

    @Scott S.:

    Well, you could also argue the flip side of that – that they’ve made it easier for others to be homophobic by telling themselves “hey, it’s not like I’m thanking God for dead soldiers. I’m not one of those crazies, you know.” Much the same way white people with racial anxieties today delude themselves that you can’t be a racist unless you’re burning crosses, lynching people, and wearing white robes and a dunce hat.

  36. 36.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Schlemizel:

    Trying to understand some peoples reasoning is like trying to smell the color 9.

    Hey! Don’t knock synæsthesia until you’ve tried it!

  37. 37.

    WereBear

    Back when DailyKos was more sane, there was a diary with some published transcripts of Daily Life with Fred from a lawsuit between the kids who stayed and the kids who fled.

    Sounded very Moonie: barely fed, dragged around town selling candy, beaten at the slightest provocation, little in the way of furniture, schedules, or even normal speech. And this was before Fred hit upon the crazy-religion/sue-them-for-objecting method of supporting himself.

    I’ll never forget the college classmate who interned at a hospice. He once discussed how the people who were surrounded by family and friends went very peacefully and made him believe in an afterlife.

    The ones who had been mean and cruel and treated their family poorly… that was an entirely different story.

  38. 38.

    scav

    Speaking of Crazy Old Men screaming at things, I’ll bookend this with twittering Australian Murdoch ranting about, telling the Irish what to do in the name of Irish Religious Freedomzzzzz as exemplified in NYC formerly beer-sponsored parades.

  39. 39.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Ash Can: It’s a good theory because it’s a way of severing any legal claims on WBC property, and Medicare comes after your estate when you die to cover the costs of your end of life care.

    Of course, knowing the WBC crowd, Fred might have taken to listening to show tunes and that could be doctrinal grounds for excommunication, too.

  40. 40.

    Xantar

    Any chance there will be people picketing Phelps’ funeral waving signs that say, “God loves you”?

  43. 43.

    Gravenstone

    @Schlemizel: There was no more reasoning behind what the WBC does than applied grift. Their whole shtick is to roll into town, loudly trying to stir up attention and anger. Then when someone takes a poke at a “church” member, or otherwise threatens them, they sue the individual, anyone remotely associated with them, and the municipality where it occurred. Then they live off the inevitable settlements before moving onto the next victim.

    Old man Phelps may have been a legitimate homophobe and racist, but his “church” long ago evolved into an organized con job.

  46. 46.

    Cris (without an H)

    You’ve already seen it all over your facepage, but George Takei says it with class:

    I take no solace or joy in this man’s passing. We will not dance upon his grave, nor stand vigil at his funeral holding “God Hates Freds” signs, tempting as it may be.

    He was a tormented soul, who tormented so many. Hate never wins out in the end. It instead goes always to its lonely, dusty end.

  49. 49.

    WereBear

    I don’t think they will get another generation out of this “church.” It takes a helluva lot of energy and dedication to be that crazy. Without the old man making everyone miserable, do they have what it takes to stay that crazy, or will they opt for something so much better?

  51. 51.

    Mandalay

    @MomSense:

    I never understood their “reasoning” that soldiers die in combat because god hates gays? It always seemed like 1+1=liver and onions. Makes zero sense.

    It makes a lot of sense if you are seeking attention.

  53. 53.

    brettvk

    @WereBear: His daughter Shirley has been the public face of WBC for some time now, and I think she’s probably taken over the church and the grift — if Fred was deposed I’ll bet she was the instigator and the benefactor. I would lovelovelove to know the backstory here. There’s a great filmscript waiting to be written.

  56. 56.

    brettvk

    @brettvk: I guess we’ll have to see if a woman can maintain the homophobia at the right rolling boil; somehow females hating fags just doesn’t have the same resonance. And women aren’t really a good match for christianist leadership anyway. It just doesn’t feel right against the bedrock patriarchy of Bronze Age religion. Shirley and the WBC may retreat from the stage, or discover a new wrinkle to the grift, or maybe undergo a Refomation of some sort.

  59. 59.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @chrome agnomen: Breitbart and Phelps can talk about shit with Reagan, Falwell and Khomeini.

    And keep a place warm for Dick Cheney, should we manage to find and destroy all the horcruxes.

  61. 61.

    satby

    @brettvk: Shirley has absorbed the most vile aspects of her father’s “teachings” and I’ve seen neo-Bircher neighbors stunned by the vitriol she spews.So she can maintain the homophobic cover for the con game just fine.

  62. 62.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    He got kicked out for messing with the little boys?

    It would be irresponsible not to speculate.

  65. 65.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @PurpleGirl: Yup, you’re right. I know that my family’s attorney advised my mother to put the house in her name, alone, as my father’s end approached. Wise move.

  67. 67.

    PurpleGirl

    Early in his life, Phelps was involved with Civil Rights and supported voting rights, etc. What happened that he became so weird no one was able to figure out. I think we should let him just go, however he goes and not make a fuss about a funeral and such. Show is family and followers how little importance he had at the end.

  68. 68.

    brendancalling

    I hope that wherever Fred ends up, gay sex is mandatory. And, like the guy in “Green Eggs and Ham”, he finds out he likes it.

    I will have gay sex in this car/I will have gay sex at this bar…

  71. 71.

    another Holocene human

    @PurpleGirl: There’s a theory that Phelps was raped during a brief stint in the military. Certainly his mother believed something bad had happened to him there. Would explain his violent rage against men in uniform.

  72. 72.

    Jebediah, RBG

    @another Holocene human:

    There’s a theory that Phelps was raped during a brief stint in the military.

    And crusading against sexual assault just wouldn’t make any sense at all. (Of course, grifty-wise, it probably wouldn’t.)

  74. 74.

    Interrobang

    I have an idea what this is about. It’s to cut Phelps off from the church’s (copious) assets so that the atheist kid can’t contest the will and drag out all the allegations of child abuse in discovery and wind up walking away with a huge settlement. Not sure it’d work, and the atheist kid still might be able to do it anyway, but I bet that’s it. I bet a good civil discovery could drag out all kinds of evil shit the Phelps gang doesn’t want seen.

    Phelps himself is/was a lawyer; he’d know all this, I’m sure.

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