How far the the country has come in a week, in NRO headlines. pic.twitter.com/IB0jHWwPL8
— William Jordan (@williamjordann) June 28, 2015
The best thing to come out of CNN's #ISISdildo flag fiasco: (via @scotia626) pic.twitter.com/i9Sd9krC7I
— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) June 28, 2015
Looks like everyone had a busy weekend, including the other front-pagers.
What’s on the agenda as we wrap it up?
Cervantes
Hilarious — but are they stupid or shameless?
Keith G
Now that second one is a flag I could get behind.
Or in front of…depending.
Poopyman
@Cervantes: My vote goes for Option C.
Nicole
Just got back from my 5-year-old’s birthday party. A bit rainy, but everyone had a good time. Thanks to overordering food, my husband and I will be on the pizza and cake diet for the rest of the week.
p.a.
@Cervantes: Yes. SATSQ
Cervantes
@p.a.:
Just yes? I was thinking yesser or yessest.
raven
Hi kids this is the bear.
Derelict
Yeah. Sure. Democrats OWN the Confederate flag. Because 150 years ago, a Republican president was not racist, and 80 years ago a Democrat was.
Please to ignore all the dogwhistles, all the emails with pictures of Obama with a bone through his nose, all the “jokes” about serving watermelon and fried chicken at state dinners, all the cracks about “Obamics,” and all the allusions to “darkness” taking over taking over the White House.
debbie
My favorite thing on Twitter this afternoon is Huckabee’s threat of passive resistance to SSM. What’s he going to do, hold his breath until the Supreme Court cries, “Uncle!”?
Hal
Watching some back and forth on Facebook over the gay marriage ruling, and man, some people really need a civics lesson. I’m seeing references to the supreme court passing a gay marriage law, and another wanting the court’s decision to include specific outlines on what people and institutions can be sued over. Uh, call your congressperson, and all of your free-dumbs are already outlined in the constitution.
The level of paranoia and accusations of retribution from the “far left” and of course, militant gays by people is astonishing. Amazing how people seeking equality are assigned such malevolent intent when all people are looking for is to live their lives with the rights so many others enjoy.
Cervantes
@debbie:
Encourage officials not to register or recognize gay marriages?
Mustang Bobby
Just had a really good t-storm cruise through Palmetto Bay on the way to Key Biscayne; lots of lightning and window-shaking thunder, but no power loss and the yard and orchids are very grateful. It’s the first significant rain of the rainy season.
debbie
@Cervantes:
No, encouragement is an action.
Corner Stone
@Keith G: Too soon?
Mustang Bobby
@Hal: Nothing frightens them more than the concept that they’ve lost control over people they thought they could oppress. Oh, shit, now they’re gonna come after us for all the things we did to them!
To which I say, “Listen, honey, you’re a petty and sniveling bigot, but I wouldn’t waste my time pissing on you if you were on fire… or were into that kind of shit. You’re just not worth it.”
Corner Stone
Finally got to use my 2X II extender on the Canon camera gear in full light this last week. Lots of learning to be done there.
Wanted to go to a local rose garden today but it was raining and thundering early, then work decided to butt the F in.
Corner Stone
I love women’s pole vault and I don’t care who knows it.
Keith G
@Corner Stone: Our tribe has always had boundary issues….some would say.
Corner Stone
@Hal:
Can’t wait to see the flood of lawsuits extending from the SCOTUS SSM ruling. Specifically, the gay plaintiffs are going to force full equality in society, or the rwnj’s are going to take their ball and go home on *everything*.
Tree With Water
John Steinbeck put it so well that I’m surprised I never heard it before. If not as prevalent an attitude as it once was, it still hits home about so many. It’s cited in an article by David Masciotra at Salon.com about the highway robbery/rape of today’s American collegians:
“..This seems unlikely to happen in a culture, however, where even most poor Americans view themselves, in the words of John Steinbeck, as “temporarily embarrassed millionaires.” The political, educational and economic ruling class of America is comfortable selling out its progeny. In the words of one student quoted in “The Art of the Gouge,” “they see me as nothing more than $200,000.”
raven
Historic Day for Gays, but Twinge of Loss for an Outsider Culture
Being a washed up old hippie I get it.
boatboy_srq
@Cervantes: Yes. That’s your answer.
ETA: p.a. beat me to it. Still accurate though.
the Conster
@Derelict:
I’m trying to figure out why so many trolls on twitter and FB think that pointing out all the racists used to be Democrats is some kind of “gotcha, libtards.” They’re so fucking dumb.
Corner Stone
@Keith G: “Endeavor to persevere.”
Felonius Monk
@raven: The Bear died in 1981 — if I remember correctly he took straight H thinking it was cocaine. Too bad, it was a good band. Still is, I guess, but not the same as the late 60’s.
ETA: Best when it was the Bear & the Blind Owl.
Cervantes
@the Conster:
Could it be that you answered your own question?
raven
@Felonius Monk:
The Police in Denver
lawd they don’t want no longhairs hangin round
and that’s the reason why
whoo hoo
they trying to run Canned Heat’s reputation down. . .
the Conster
@Hal:
Conservatives see things in black and white – everything is zero sum for them, so they just can’t grok that there can be an expansion of something that doesn’t automatically mean they’re prohibited from the same thing. I’ve had countless back and forths with conservatives that simply can’t respond with anything coherent when I tell them that NOTHING HAS HAPPENED to straights in Mass. after 11 years of SSM. They literally don’t have that cognitive pathway in their brain, because their wiring to hate liberals has foreclosed that possibility.
raven
@Felonius Monk: Hooker n Heat was a mofo.
Germy Shoemangler
@the Conster: They keep bringing up Byrd. And then they lean back, fold their arms and say “gotcha!”
the Conster
@Cervantes:
I guess they think everyone else is as dumb as they are too. I especially appreciate the ones that are trying to school Ta Nehisi Coates. So yes, they’re that fucking dumb.
Germy Shoemangler
Cruising the streets during the summer of love 1967
In honor of the hippies Scalia mentioned in his dissent.
Iowa Old Lady
@the Conster: The evangelicals in Iowa freaked out in 2009, and then gradually just shut up and ignored the whole marriage equality thing. I expect the rest of the country will do that too.
MattF
@Cervantes:
Stupid, shameless, ridiculous, self-refuting. The NRO attitude to history is consistent with their attitude to politics, science, and morality. And that’s not a plus.
debbie
@the Conster:
I’ve loved his responses. Like shooting fish in a barrel.
Germy Shoemangler
@debbie:
on twitter?
Felonius Monk
@raven: Hooker was always good — alone or with just about anybody. But, you are right, Hooker ‘n Heat — wow —- was just listening to some of it yesterday.
the Conster
@Iowa Old Lady:
Weirdly, Lindsay Graham is already making “let it go” noises for 2016.
Also, this:
Gene108
@debbie:
Passive resistance is not the absence of action, it is the absence of violence in resisting oppression.
Refusal to issue marriage licenses would be a form of passive resistance.
FlyingToaster
@the Conster:
This.
I don’t speak with the wingnut cousintariat, but my mom does, and they have a real problem grasping that I don’t want WarriorGirl exposed to their values. Ever. Or at least until she goes away to college.
I started pointing them at this op-ed ten years ago; they really really hate arguing with hard data.
boatboy_srq
@Cervantes: @the Conster: Their perception is that they’re philosolhically standing still, while everything around them is moving Leftward towards Creeping IslamoFascoSoshulism. But it only looks that way, because they’re running Rightward as fast as they can.
MattF
@Gene108: Not exactly, I think. These are government officials– if they can’t or won’t carry out their duties, they should quit.
Russ
Prison escapee Sweat shot and captured, on his way from hospital in Malone NY to UVM Medical Center in Burlington VT
ruemara
Really, really enjoying the freakout, but, I can’t help but worry what the blowback will be. It’s hard to ignore how underreported right wing terror is in this nation and the silence on the issues from the media is awful.
Tree With Water
@raven: Washed up? Cheer up! I would certainly qualify as a hippy in the eyes of Judge Scalia and his political tribe, but I’m just hitting my stride. It’s the dawning of the age of them-or-us (rhymes with “aquarius”) and it’s a jumping jack gas gas gas to see people begin waking up..
Corner Stone
@Felonius Monk:
Is there anything more sad than a solo Hooker?
boatboy_srq
@MattF: You do realise you’ve just called out the entirety of the GOP.
the Conster
@ruemara:
twitter is on the 6 black churches that have been burned since Charleston, and calling out media outlets. But shit, why is that necessary?
FlyingToaster
@MattF:
Or ask for a transfer to the assessor’s desk in the town/county clerk’s office, so they aren’t required to deal with marriage licenses at all. Note: I know someone who did this, after talking to her boss about her religious objections to SSM back in 2004. If she’s triaging the line in the basement of town hall, all of the licensing queries go to the person from THAT desk.
Keith G
@raven: The first “out” gay guys (and eventually female types) I knew were campus activists in the mid 70s. Being inside that group of circled wagons was as comforting as it was eye-opening. Race, ethnicity, gender and economic status were all a distant second to the fact that we were brothers and sisters in arms working on important ideas.**
Our important and necessary progress has had a price.
Here’s to new challenges that can bind us together.
**My celebrations have been subdued as I thought back to the very large list fierce young men (back then) who would have so been partying their queer asses off were they still with us. They really deserved this day. It is sad.
boatboy_srq
@ruemara: Can it be that much worse than Harvey Milk or Matthew Shepard? Because honestly the last century or so has overall been pretty f#cking bad.
Central Planning
I’m looking forward to the short work week. Condolences to those who don’t get a day off.
Gimlet
So any predictions on how the Louisiana rebellion will play out?
Napoleon
@the Conster:
I am convinced that is the most important difference between them and everyone else. Most things really are not zero sum.
Felonius Monk
@Corner Stone:
I guess I walked into that one.
Gimlet
Via Google Finance, Euro/$ at 1.0966 and trending down.
lamh36
Welp, right now I’m watching GhostRider, been awhile since I watched the movie.
Later I’ll be watching the 2015 BET Awards, as I’m sure you all will be too :-)
Omnes Omnibus
Since no one else seems to have put this out there, I guess I need to do it. Coheed and Cambria sing Scalia’s dissents.
ruemara
@boatboy_srq: You guys can be joining us with fires put to your gathering places and targeted killings like the Mother Emmanuel murders. I’m saying that the anger of these people at being so publicly depicted as loser bigots has a longstanding history of violence, so we can celebrate, but we have to keep our eyes open. There’s also the little factor of thinking the war is over because you won a battle. See also; voting rights & access to abortion. Sitting things out because you won a legal battle means you’re fucking fighting the same damned battle all over again in 10 – 20 years.
the Conster
@Napoleon:
Zero sum thinking certainly feeds their very acute sense of victimhood. It’s not enough that they have something, it has to be denied others for them to feel worthy, and the more painfully that denial is experienced, the more they like it. It’s like they never experienced the act of sharing. That’s why I firmly believe conservatism is a mental illness.
FlyingToaster
@Gimlet: 25 days for the “last ditch appeal clock” to run out. Licenses will be issued on or before 22 July.
Mississippi will probably get the “stay” lifted Monday, so Tuesday for MS.
Texas is going to be weirder; some counties are issuing licenses, some are refusing per the state AG; if anywhere is going to require intervention, it’s Texas.
PurpleGirl
Lion Brand Yarn was sponsoring a yarn bombing in Union Square Park with an artist (London Kaye) today, however due to the possibility of thunderstorms it was postponed. While I was looking forward to it, I sort of glad it was postponed because today was also NYC’s Pride Parade. Two years ago I was heading to Union Square Park to meet my client and the Pride Parade caused rerouting of buses, and street closures. (I ended up having to take a taxi down to Houston St and then going up the East Side.)I like the idea of the Pride Parade but sometimes when Manhattan streets are blocked off it makes it hard for bus riders.
ruemara
@FlyingToaster: I’m rather tired of people who love the rule of law – if they agree with the law.
boatboy_srq
@ruemara: You’re saying all this like you think the reaction from the Right is new, unexpected and somehow different. All I’m saying is that the last century / century-and-a-half has been g0dawful in terms of Reichwing bad behavior, and anything that happens now is frighteningly predictable and consistent. You obviously weren’t going out to LGBT gathering places in the 50s, when the breaking up and burning thereof was done by law enforcement and not merely guys in white robes (not that I was but I’ve read my history too).
ETA: This is one thing that drives me absolutely crazy about the various civil rights efforts: everyone seems to think that they’ve got it worse than some other group. We’re all in this together on both sides of this: White supremacists like KKK have no use for either group – they anti-black animus merely gets more play. And when one group is hurt, we’re all hurt – unless like the Reichwing you buy into civil rights as zero sum politicking.
the Conster
@FlyingToaster:
I want to see Abbot sitting in a town hall door, like Dr. Strangelove, while the National Guard comes and picks him and his wheelchair up and carries him out like Homer Stokes in Brother Where Art Thou.
PurpleGirl
@debbie: I’d pay money to see that. Is he going back to the ministry and a congregation? Because he’s a protestant evangelical and in order to be a minister he needs a congregation. He can’t perform a marriage outside of his duties for a church.
Yatsuno
@FlyingToaster: A friend of mine who is a law instructor in Texas just threw the exact law requirement & legal fines these guys are gonna have to pay out the other day in a Skype chat. So yeah. Go for it assholes.
Felonius Monk
@Omnes Omnibus: You have indeed performed a vital public service. Thank you.
Gene108
@ruemara:
I wonder how many in the media cheer on right-wing terrorism? There has always been a subset that’s been O.K. with it. They were probably more out in the open two to three generations ago.
There’s also the subset who do not want to deal with the fact they have colleagues who are racists. You know don’t upset the apple cart sort of mind set.
There are plenty of overlaps between prominent figures and white supremacist groups, like the Republicans who got donations from the League of the South guy. They have to know what they say appeals to the white supremacists.
In short, white supremacists have a lot of reach into places where the VSP are.
Tommy
@Keith G:
Yes that. Many years ago I ran a suicide hotline at a large college. I did it as a student. It was always somewhat strange. I was the preppy guy. Those picking up the phone a group of misfits. But misfits I loved. They never understood how a frat guy could, well, be cool!
I do not know how many times we circled the wagons.
I recall Denise, or he was Dennis coming in for an interview. Transgender. Now this is the late 80s. Not sure I knew an openly gay person much less a transgender person at the time.
She was off the chart in the interview. I said come on into the class. Some people wanted her not to pick up a phone and help. Our misfits got mad. I was like you know what I don’t totally understand her thinking, but she will be good at her job and that is all I care about.
I would later talk to her for hours and hours, her thinking became one of my founding principles.
raven
@Germy Shoemangler: My brother and his family are touring Northern California and he had them take a picture of him in front of the Dead drug bust house in the Haight yesterday,
Shaun Appleby
Greece. Yikes.
boatboy_srq
@boatboy_srq: @ruemara: Additional afterthought: since when is the LGBTQ community “white”? There is a huge LGBT POC community. You’re diminishing that entire group when you draw that particular line.
Matt McIrvin
If the National Review really wants to go there, shall we talk about their history concerning the civil rights movement?
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/08/28/national-reviews-ugly-civil-rights-history/195638
Keith G
@ruemara: I say without snark and with genuine regard that you are absolutely correct on this.
This is causing just a bit of a nervous twitch for me. The Right stays angry and vindictive. Nothing will be reversed, but this might make some local elections harder for the good guys. And those local and state offices is where we need to start making better headway.
Gene108
@PurpleGirl:
When Manhattan streets are blocked off it makes it hard for everyone, with maybe the exception of taking the subway.
And there are plenty of parades, street markets and other things, like construction that can cause street closures.
raven
@Keith G: Every unit I was in from 66-69 had gay guys. Was never much of an issue.
Bill
“The Democrats Created and Own the Confederate Flag”
Please thank whoever said this. If this is something the Republican party believes, it makes the solution so simple. Our problem, our responsibility. If we own it, I think that enough of us agree that we probably should get rid of it.
Problem solved!
ruemara
@boatboy_srq: I like how you’re ascribing to me things I did not say. It’s a magnificent leap, a grand jete. I said, I’m worried because the opposing side does not take culture battle loss well. That’s it.
@boatboy_srq: Again, fantastic jump. At some point, when you’re done with the conversation you’re having with the me in your head, you can look at what I said.
@Keith G: Agreed whole heartedly.
Villago Delenda Est
@Cervantes: Both.
raven
What would happen if the baby ate the scorecard?
Felonius Monk
@Matt McIrvin: But you’re talking about National Review, otherwise known as the American Journal of Apartheid and Oppression.
Yatsuno
@Shaun Appleby: Euro. Dump it NOW Tsiptras!
Tommy
@Bill: I take issue with that statement but OK lets say it is right. As you said then we take it down!
My father has a Phd in Civil War military history. That flag is not a happy thing. As a kid I didn’t go to Dinsey World, we went to Civil War battlefields and walked them.
Dad aminated ……
We killed each other wholesale. That flag is not cool on many, many levels.
Corner Stone
@Shaun Appleby: Should have went Iceland a couple years ago. They can’t collect the taxes the Austerians demand, even if they wanted to. The rest is just BDSM punishment for kicks.
Villago Delenda Est
@Gene108: They cheer it on because they believe it’s good for ratings.
They are totally mercenary in this.
Villago Delenda Est
@raven: When Uncle needs warm bodies to go off and fight in some distant place, gay is never important. It’s only in peacetime that they worry about it…or was until recently.
Villago Delenda Est
@Felonius Monk: I just call it National Socialist Review and leave it at that.
pluky
@Nicole: And this is a bad thing?
boatboy_srq
@ruemara:
Emphasis added.
That translates very clearly as “You aren’t us and haven’t experienced what we have.” You’re describing events here as if nobody else has had a gathering place attacked or loved ones killed or maimed in the battle for civil rights. That’s not a leap: that’s a single step from the language you used. I’ll say it clearly: nobody has exclusive ownership of Civil Rights, the struggle or the casualties. We shouldn’t need to argue about this – but we should also be very clear that the language we use matters.
Again, all I said to begin with is that the reactionaries’ tactics and behaviours aren’t new, aren’t changing, and should be something we’re already prepared for.
boatboy_srq
Unmoderate me (#90) please? Too many links…
Tommy
@Villago Delenda Est: Looking at your comments. I always felt that was the case. If in a fox hole fighting for your life the sexuality of the person next to you didn’t matter so much. Will they fight!
pluky
@Gimlet: Meanwhile, the national news is all NY prison escapee caught!!!
Corner Stone
@Tommy:
You’re a lucky man, Tommy. A lucky man, indeed.
debbie
@Germy Shoemangler:
Yes, on Twitter.
Shaun Appleby
@Corner Stone: Yes but Iceland was not in euro; Greek debt is now held to the tune of $300 billion by European taxpayers, mostly Germans. Haircuts likely for all concerned.
And what of Portugal, Spain and Italy? Methinks we are seeing a milestone of sorts being passed today.
Shaun Appleby
@Yatsuno: We’ll see.The ‘invisible hand’ is frantically waving off a hard landing.
debbie
@PurpleGirl:
I don’t know about Huck, but Glenn Beck, who’s also been talking about passive resistance, will be holding court at a church in Birmingham, AL on August 28, 2015. He fancies himself as the worthy heir to Gandhi and MLK and this will be the beginning of his Moment.
http://yellowhammernews.com/faithandculture/glenn-beck-birmingham-is-going-to-be-the-place-that-restarts-the-country/
I think he’s naming his “restart” Never Again Is Now.
Tommy
@Corner Stone: I am lucky in many ways and meeting her was just one thing.
I was totally confused. She was about 6’5 and 250 pounds. Wearing a dress and makeup. Could have been a line backer for the Bears.
I am like you are a dude right. She explained to me nope. I listened. Learned there was other shit going on in the world and maybe I might learn a little of it I took the time.
We lost a few people in the program because she was “different.” I told them good bye … the door is over there!
Corner Stone
@Shaun Appleby: They never had any choice. It didn’t matter what any elected GR govt wanted. They could never collect the taxes needed to meet the demands. The GR people were just looking at 20+ years of lost everything.
JPL
@MattF: I haven’t read all the comments yet, but if you take office and swear to uphold the constitution, you do it or like you said quit.
Keith G
Just finished watching Gov. John Kasich interview on Face the Nation. Hmmm.
Temperamentally, he actually could be an interesting candidate. His communication mechanics are better than I remembered, and better than other GOPers. He’s a bit rough around the edges and he is not hard line enough for the activist base.
He can be dead wrong with appearing crazy or hateful. That’s a start.
Shaun Appleby
@Corner Stone: Agreed. But how unsurprising to find the Germans asserting arbitrary and undemocratic power:
My take? This was little more than neo-liberal bullying and arguably avoidable. A ‘Lehman moment’ which Germany and others brought on intentionally to punish and humiliate an already suffering member of the EU for their own venal motives.
Ruckus
@Napoleon:
The old saying is everything is black or white. A racist saying if there ever was one. Because you knew which was bad and which was good. But that’s normal for small minded people, those who can’t or refuse to see the world is more than the 2sq ft they occupy. And they have been told over and over for 40 yrs that if someone gets something, in this case SSM, there has to be a deduction from them to make that work. Same story for welfare. It doesn’t matter that the government helping hand is a small portion of the budget, to give someone that block of cheese requires getting it out of their refrigerator.
Tommy
@Ruckus:
I give away a lot of money. I give away stuff I own 24/7. I can do it so I do. I gave this lady that works at the local convenience store a coffee grinder yesterday. She didn’t have one. I had three. I don’t need three. She was stunned. I don’t know her that well, said she should pay me, I was nope just use it. We are cool!
It seems to me there is this Zen thing going on, that everything I give I get back.
different-church-lady
@Cervantes: Third time this week I’ve said something like this: why can’t it be both?
different-church-lady
@Keith G: Is there something you want to tell us?
different-church-lady
And now Democrats want it taken down, and REPUBLICANS won’t let them.
different-church-lady
@Hal:
And to think all of those people are entitled to vote.
different-church-lady
Egberto Willies proposes a Unified Field Theory of liberal over-thinking derp.
PurpleGirl
@Gene108: (I was taking a nap…)
I avoid the subway because of the stairs. I must go down/up step by step, i.e., step. close, step, close, one step at a time. It can ten minutes to go down one flight of stairs. People make rude comments and I feel like I want to trip them up with my cane.
Two years ago, they had closed off all the side streets east and west for a mile or two. Did I mention that to go to the east side from the west side I had to take a taxi down to Houston Street.
Yes there are closures for street fairs and construction, but they are not usually as extensive as they closed that day. Often street fairs have a crosstown break for cars to take.
Usually I will call out NYC for its mass transit, but there are just times that certain situations cause it to be problematic to travel. ETA: Today, I just didn’t want to have to contend with a parade and street closures. Surely you can understand that.
Exurban Mom
@Keith G: Honey, no. He has a horrible temper that reveals his true asshole nature on a regular basis. Google “Kasich insults trooper” and watch him refer to a state trooper who stopped him for speeding as “an idiot.” On camera. (“Don’t you know who I am?)
sdhays
Democrats want the flag taken down and burned (personally, I’d like to see it first covered in human excrement and then lit on fire). So, if we Democrats own the Stars and Bars, then I guess we’re all agreed that the flag should be taken down and burned! The owners want the flag taken down and burned, the non-owners respect property rights. Problem solved!
john fremont
@Derelict: And of course being Sarah Palin’s shoeshine boy. It was just a joke, but Democrats are the real racists because Robert Byrd was in the KKK!