Mostly overlooked in the “Trump dissed war hero McCain!!!” fooferaw was the venue for The Donald’s remarks: the FAMiLY Leadership Summit, one of James Dobson’s (Family Research Council/Focus on the Family) more recent inventions to grift aspiring political candidates, in conjunction with the rentseekers of the Iowa GOP. You can judge the spiritual veracity of this con by their choice of M.C.; if Frank Luntz actually believed in the Christian Lord of Hosts, as described in the Bible, nothing short of the Judas Solution would come close to atoning for his actions in this lower world. Which doesn’t mean there isn’t a mighty Flock ready to be fleeced, for the glory of Jesus and the profit of the Republican Party…
Here’s Hamilton Nolan, at Gawker, with “Donald Trump Gay Marries Jesus”:
… Inside, thousands of Iowans and hundreds of members of the press corps had come out to see rumpled Republican language whisperer Frank Luntz, sporting garish red and white sneakers with his suit, quiz ten of the major Republican presidential candidates. He quizzed them not just on policy, but on something more meaty: their faith. “Have you ever asked god for forgiveness?” he asked Donald Trump. “Is there ever a time you cursed god?” he asked Rick Santorum. “How many of you think the collapse of the family and culture is the most important issue?” he asked the audience. There was opportunity for much solemn head-nodding.
There is not an inch of space between the candidates. All of them deplore the recent Iran nuclear deal, support the definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman, and want to stop abortion, dismantle Obamacare, and secure our great nation’s borders. If presidential elections were about public policy, they could have all just issued a joint press release on this points and gone home.
The only candidate, in fact, who dares to stray from the orthodoxy of the pack is Donald Trump, who does so out of sheer idiocy. While most candidates use coded dog whistles to signal their racism and xenophobia, Trump just blares it all out. He’s swallowed the dog whistle. Now everything he says is a full-throated bark. It’s all rather entertaining, as long as we all agree he’s never going to actually be elected….
[If Trump drops out], The Average Voter—a being well represented at the Family Leadership Summit, where the crowd was made up of upright Iowans who all looked like maybe they used to own a small local propane business—will have to find another candidate willing to field their questions with such enthusiasm. And what questions they are! The Family Leadership Summit allowed members of the public to ask questions of men who could soon become the world’s most powerful leader, and they did not squander the opportunity.“Are you willing to call the terrorism we’ve been fighting Islamic terrorism? And how will you prevent it from sucking our children…” a white-haired woman asked Marco Rubio, trailing off most unfortunately at the end.
“Tell me how we as businessmen, as employees, can make a CHANGE in this country,” a terrifyingly intense bald, portly man with a Bluetooth earpiece in asked Rick Perry, “before my kids and my grandkids have nowhere to live.”…
“We have judges citing Sharia law. Why aren’t these people arrested? Why aren’t these judges impeached?” an elderly man who looked like he might be farmer, trembling with either rage or fear, asked Scott Walker, who nodded politely. “That is my question.”
No one was on the receiving end of more bad questions than Ben Carson, the neurosurgeon-turned-wingnut darling who has the misfortune of being the only black candidate, and therefore becomes the garbage can into which the Republican party vomits all of its racial confusion. Frank Luntz, after pointing out the lack of “people of color” in the conservative movement, asked Carson, “Why are you here?” After a brief, embarrassing pause, he added, “And I mean that in the deepest spiritual way.”…
For a non-churchgoer, it is rather disconcerting to hear powerful public officials campaigning for such an important job plainly lay out their belief that a magic man in the sky will be the key to all of their efforts. Ted Cruz, who looks like a crooked mortician in cowboy boots, voiced the opinion that the Supreme Court’s decision on gay marriage “will awaken the body of Christ and lift us up to say: we will take our country back for our values.” I don’t know what awakening the body of Christ entails exactly, but it sounds terrifying for non-Christians. (Cruz went on to criticize Iran for being “theocratic.”)
Mike Huckabee, his voice smooth from years of radio work, proposed a simple solution to America’s rash of racist police violence and subsequent riots: magic. “I think people forget: god will heal this land,” he said….
Before you get a gauzy impression of vaguely paleolithic charm — vintage Abe Simpsons preserved in Heartland(tm) amber — this is only the fourth FLSummit. Ben Jacobs, at the Guardian:
… Unlike previous Family Leadership Summits, which had speakers like David Noebel, the author of the 1965 classic Communism, Hypnotism and the Beatles, this was a relatively restrained gathering. There still were some flourishes. A giant picture of a fetus was displayed onstage for a few minutes and rightwing gadfly Frank Gaffney warned of the dangers of an electromagnetic pulse attack on the United States.
But the event was televised nationally on C-Span and was more focused on giving candidates a forum to appeal to conservative caucus-goers than on revving up Iowa evangelicals.
Candidates seemed to compete against each other to demonstrate their opposition to rightwing bugaboos like the nuclear deal with Iran, abortion and gay marriage.
Florida senator Marco Rubio said Isis needed to be “humiliated” and condemned the Obama administration for what he saw as an unwillingness to confront the threat posed by the group…
Wisconsin governor Scott Walker touted his record defunding Planned Parenthood, insisting that actions spoke louder than words and taking a shot at politicians who just give “great speeches on how they are going to defund Planned Parenthood”…
In response to a question from Luntz about what he would say to his parents, who died when the South Carolina Republican was in college and left him raise his younger sister, Graham got emotional and said: “Darline turned out really good.”
It was a rare moment of genuine emotion at a presidential cattle call. Graham, an inveterate jokester, slightly undermined the moment by joking shortly afterwards: “I feel like I’m on Oprah.”…
Benjy Sarlin, at MSNBC:
… Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker repeated his call for a constitutional amendment allowing states to ban gay marriage, a position that puts him at odds with rivals like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio, who oppose taking the fight that far.
“I’ve had this opinion for more than 20 years,” Walker said. “I believe marriage is between one man and one woman.”
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas called out unnamed rivals for being too content to drop the issue as well.
“You know, it was sad to see more than a few Republicans, including more than a few 2016 candidates publicly saying it’s the law of the land, it’s settled, surrender and move on,” Cruz said. “There is something profoundly wrong when republicans running for president are reading from Barack Obama’s talking points.”
Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage, tried to buck up audience members demoralized by the Supreme Court’s decision.
“Did Frederick Douglass give up when he was fighting against slavery?” he said…
“The times are dark, there’s a lot of really bad things happening, but I believe there is still a silent majority out there represented by you today,” Gary Bauer, a leader with Christians United for Israel, told the crowd.
Another leading topic among Iowa conservatives: The Islamic State. Many candidates drew applause pledging to mount an aggressive campaign as president to defeat the Islamic militant group that now controls large swaths of Iraq and Syria.
Asked about the recent Supreme Court decision on marriage rights, Foster Friess, a top donor to conservative causes and candidates, told msnbc his top focus was Islamic radicalism…
“These are religious Nazis, they can’t be dealt with, they have to be degraded and eventually destroyed,” Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said.
Graham was one of several candidates lagging in state and national polls who nonetheless drew a strong positive response. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal whipped the crowd into a frenzy with his appearance, peaking with a line delivered directly to the press seated near the front of the stage.
“I am critical when the mainstream media, they don’t apply the same standards to this president that they apply to the rest of us,” he said…
It’s all fun and games, until you remember that one of these pandering clowns is going to garner at least 46% of the national vote, come November 2016.
ruemara
These people make me vomit before I get through half the article.
Mike J
I wish I could get a question in for the candidates. “Do you believe in transubstantiation or consubstantiation, and how do we go about annulling the marriages of people who believe the wrong one?”
Amir Khalid
I wonder if any of these people who are so concerned about The Threat of Radical Islam have ever come across an actual radical Muslim, or if they could actually list the differences between radical and regular Islam.
Baud
@Amir Khalid:
Did you see my comment from earlier?
Amir Khalid
@Baud:
I’d already seen the BBC story. I thought it was wonderful news.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Mike J: Or…Will you work on Sunday and if so, who will you select as the person to kill you for that sin.
Citizen Alan
I’ve said for years that we could destroy the GOP if we could just get someone to ask the following question at a primary debate: “Do you believe we are living in the End Times, and if so, how will that affect your foreign and domestic policies?” Anyone who said no would get killed in the primary, and anyone who said yes and worse answered the second part would get crushed in the general.
Baud
@Amir Khalid: Really amazing stuff. I’m working my way through a book about how Renaissance scholars found ancient works hidden in monastery libraries. Kind of makes you wonder what else they’ll eventually find, especially if they ever get to digitizing their old collections.
opiejeanne
@Amir Khalid: The vast majority have never met a Muslim.
SWMBO
If my facebook feed is any indication, Bernie Sanders learned his lesson at NRN. His facebook posts have been more social justice equality and less economic justice equality. It’s still there but the social justice aspect has gotten stronger.
BillinGlendaleCA
Another picture I took this evening of Downtown LA.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA: Glad it stopped raining. :-P
Baud
@SWMBO: Good.
Anne Laurie
@Amir Khalid:
The good Christian(ist) attendees? They’ve probably met Muslims, but most of them wouldn’t recognize that unless it were pointed out to them, and the rest would insist that the one guy who runs the local Middle Eastern restaurant isn’t, you know, a Muslim Muslim — the American snark is “But ours is one of the few good ones.” (Be honest, would you make a point of introducing yourself to someone wearing a WWJD? tee-shirt?)
Also, despite all the “It’s in the Koran, ya know!” Snope-ry, the vast majority of American Christians have never so much as seen an actual Koran, outside of YouTube scare-videos. But then, many of these good Christians don’t have all that much knowledge of the contents of their own Bible — even (especially) the ones who talk about it the most.
Barry
@BillinGlendaleCA: “Another picture I took this evening of Downtown LA. ”
Nice.
SectionH
Sorry, no way I’m reading that shit.
Since I can remember, religious people have given me the creeps. The ones I’m most familiar with are Baptists and their ilk. I got dragged to church by father’s side of the family, mostly by my aunt, a woman who could have been the model for wossname cartoon Best Christian, minus the humor, and several others examples before – h/t Jesus’ General.
As a closet Atheist all my life, or at least when I was too young, or in enemy territory, to have an honest voice, I guess the ingrained “keep your head down, and if asked, distract them, and if it comes to it, LIE” was srsly ingrained. I didn’t have a fucking religion to be martyred for, TYVM, so yeah.
And FFS, don’t take this as me comparing this to any racial issues, or even sexist ones (which I can claim as cis female). Not even close for race. At least I could lie. But it always made me miserable.
@Baud: actual history, now that’s cool!
Gene108
I can just picture myself on the stage.
Luntz: Gene108, I know you are here because you are leading in the polls, but you cannot become President. You were not born in America.
Me: Neither was Barack Obama, but that has not stopped him from being President! If a Kenyan can be President, so can I!
And the crowd goes wild….
End scene
BillinGlendaleCA
@Gene108: The President is headed off tomorrow to the place of his birth to find his birth certificate.
David Koch
@Gene108: that actually happened.
fat fuck congressman and sexual harasser Blake Farenthold was on Hardball one night pushing Rafael Eduardo Cruz for president and Matthews decided to have some fun and say how can Rafael serve since he was born in Canada and the fat fuck said “well that didn’t stop obama!”.
SectionH
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZw5AC_re6I
BillinGlendaleCA
@David Koch: Farenthold is a birther and Tweety’s had fun with him in the past. Tweety: “If the President came here illegally not only should he not be President, he should be deported, is that what you’re saying?”. Fat fuck had no answer.
Tree With Water
“Tell me how we as businessmen, as employees, can make a CHANGE in this country,” a terrifyingly intense bald, portly man with a Bluetooth earpiece in asked Rick Perry, “before my kids and my grandkids have nowhere to live.”…
Well, that’s not a bad question. A mere seven years after the 2008 collapse cratered the world’s economy, and the housing prices in the SF Bay Area have managed to spiral beyond insane. Hereabouts, anyway, the question is not what to do for the sake of the next generations. That ship has sailed. The need for housing solutions are urgent. The housing buck can no longer be passed, or leastwise not for too much longer.
Certainly the San Francisco of my youth is gone forever. Now I know how those old time San Franciscans felt, the ones I grew up hearing wax nostalgic about the pre-WW2 city.
Zinsky
To put a finer point on a comment above, I would like to ask these automatons, “if elected, would you re-invade Iraq and also invade Syria to defeat ISIS, since you don’t think we can defeat them by bombing only?” My follow-up would be, “are you willing to re-instate the draft, so that your family members share an equal chance of dying in the deserts of Iraq (or Iran)?” Watch them squirm on the last question…
NickM
I’ve noticed from conservative relatives on my FB feed that all that seems to concern them is taking offense at the right things, not actual, you know, problems that government can solve.
So they don’t like how long it took Obama to lower the flag for the victims of the Chatanooga shooting. Or whether he calls it Islamic terrorism. Or whether trams women must be called women. Or the respect to be paid to the dixie swastika. Or that the media didn’t pay enough attention to when a black guy killed a white guy. And on and on. Nothing that government can fix; just endless offense at trivialities. And at the same time they complain about people who are “PC”.
MattF
@NickM: Well, it’s true that their resentment and fear can’t be fixed– certainly not by any government. In fact, as long as their fear and resentment can be stoked and manipulated in the interest of the leaders and sponsors of Wingnut Nation, it’s only going to get worse.
Gimlet
All of a sudden the news media are covering protests again.
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Some 10 thousand demonstrators gathered in Times Square Wednesday evening in protest over the recent landmark nuclear deal with Iran.
Protest organizers proclaim: “Washington is prepared to give Iran virtually all that it needs to get to the bomb. To release $150 billion to Iran will result in the expansion of worldwide terror.”
Sen. Schumer said in a statement Wednesday that he wasn’t ready to make a decision on the deal yet.
Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. is fiercely lobbying lawmakers to reject the deal. And Republicans are pledging to do just that.
“Because a bad deal threatens the security of the American people, and we’re going to do everything possible to stop it,” said Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner.
Tommy
@Zinsky: For me I’d like to do a Daily Show like video clip reel of all our military experts and often Republicans since like 2002 until recently saying we’d have 100,000 or 250,000 troops trained in Iraq or Afghanistan so they can defend themselves. I don’t have a name for it but very similar to a “Friedman Unit.”
In fact I think it is worse. Two weeks ago the Pentagon was saying after more than 6 months we have less than 600 (no that is not a typo) troops training to fight ISIS. We want at least 100,000. Never going to happen because we keep saying it will, but it never does.
What is the definition of insanity: “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”
Clearly these people can’t defend themselves in any traditional manner that would make sense to us. We should as I think many if not almost everybody here would agree, we tried. We tried again. And again. And again. We should just “cut bait” and get out of Dodge at this point!
prufrock
@NickM: Jesus, this. I can’t decide what is worse, the toddler-like tantrums demanding that Obama pander to their feelings, the total inability to understand context, or the constant current of fear that underlines every political post. It’s depressing that several childhood friends seem to have gone bonkers.
Gimlet
@Tommy:
If the world’s only superpower hasn’t managed to “win” in about 15 years, how long will it take?
MattF
Smoke grenades are standard equipment on a camping trip– amirite?
Applejinx
@SWMBO: Agreed. I’m happy to see it too, but it doesn’t take away from his committment to economics. As far as #blacklivesmatter, this guy was never an enemy. He’s just combative and doesn’t take crap from people, so you can’t immediately get a positive reaction by derailing an event of his.
As I thought, give him a minute to separate the issue from the disruption, and he’ll go with real justice. When you look at it, you really can’t deny that it’s life-or-death urgency quite literally, and the people disrupting have every right to demand to be heard. The fundamental problem is that this shit has gone on for centuries and is briefly getting worse as law enforcement turns militaristic, and we have a shot at getting these voices heard.
Not sure how many times now Bernie has said Sandra Bland but he’s sure behind #sayhername
BillinGlendaleCA
@Tommy: Handsome Joe Biden was right all along, there is no Iraq, partition the sucker into 3 countries.
Tommy
@BillinGlendaleCA: How about it. I almost mentioned in my post they can’t seem to fight for a unified Iraq, but get tribe vs. tribe and they appear to be some really, really bad ass warriors. Fearless!
OzarkHillbilly
For today’s installment of Tone Deaf:
Freddie Gray death: blackface fundraiser planned for indicted police officers
BillinGlendaleCA
Fuck! Bill Kristol says that Trump will fade before the first primary; since Bill is ALWAYS WRONG, Trump will win the GOP nomination.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Isn’t that a good thing?
Aimai
@ruemara: thats about the size of my reaction too.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: It’s good for me.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I was hoping for a 3rd party run.
Singular
The Hamilton Nolan article is hilarious, read the whole thing.
Sherparick
@Amir Khalid: For popular right wing nationalism of the (white) American kind, you just need an “Other.” In the 19th century it was Abolitionism and Perfidious Albion (I kid you not); then for most of the 20th century it was “Communism” and the “Negro;” and now it is “Islam,” “Gays,” “Illegals (a/k/a Hispanic Americans, often accused of being secret Muslims); and of course Blacks (the constant “Other” for purposes of White Supremacy). I often go to the historian John Lukacs (a royalist catholic nostalgic for the Habsburg Hungary of his grandparents) and Eric Hoffer (author of the True Believer) for the words to describe what is really a cult, a cult that has been promoted by the media for the last 40 years and the spending of billions of dollars of self worship and a fetish for militarization, although enjoying the shock and awe from a distance seems the way Rubio, Walker, and Cruz express their nationalism. Also, as Hoffer suggests, it is now far along the path that all mass movements follow, a cult that is more and more a racket, the “Big Grift.” (“Every mass movement begins as a cause, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Same outcome. As long as the Dems win, don’t care how we get there.
Sherparick
@OzarkHillbilly: And of course the story is not complete without the “I am not racist” meme that all these idiots use.
Gene108
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Partition is bloody business.
WW1, WW2, were fought in part by border disputes caused when different chunks of France and Germany were partitioned at the the end of various 19th century wars and WW1.
The India-Pakistan butchers bill is mind boggling.
For South Suddan to come into being a lot of people had to suffer and die.
There has yet to be a peaceful partition of a country.
Kay
I had an older Social Security disability recipient tell me Obama is going to take his guns yesterday.
It’s so funny how people pay attention to national rumors yet completely ignore what is going on in their own backyards. About 3 months ago we had a community forum on the issue of elderly with dementia and guns in the home. The sheriff was involved and my friend Pat who is a retired public health nurse. Home health aides are afraid to enter the residences because some of their clients have issues with recognizing them, the clients have access to guns, and there have been several instances where the home health people were not recognized as “friendlies”. That happened and yet this guy freaks when he reads “Obama, guns, Social Security” on Facebook.
Sherparick
@Gimlet: Wars are good for ratings, at least the opening stages of “shock and awe.” However, after the first six months, the drip, drip, drip of 10-20 body bags coming home every week becomes so boring.
Tommy
@BillinGlendaleCA: That is what I expected from the start and still do. He can finish top 3 in a number of the states up until “Super Tuesday.” After “Super Tuesday,” a ton of Republicans will drop out until you might only have something like Trump, Walker, Bush and a few “hanger ons.”
Once that happens and the votes are not split a dozen plus ways Trump just can’t win any states, but he will keep picking up delegates here or there.
Then he’ll run third party and fuck everything up for the Republicans. It is going to be a glorious thing to watch on many different levels.
Baud
@Kay:
He freaks out because he wants to fit in.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Gene108: The Velvet Divorice(Czechoslovakia).
ETA: Though probably a bit less pleasant(Amir would know more), Malaysia and Singapore.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Still painful enough that Romney refuses to accept it.
satby
@Sherparick: For years I gave Hoffer’s True Believer out to friends to read. He really nailed that mindset, and I hoped that having people read it would inoculate some of the younger ones from the lure of easy soundbyte solutions.
Another thing I do is serve as an area coordinator for a youth exchange program, PAX. We have students from about 70 countries, and are having particular trouble this year placing Muslim students, especially Muslim male students. I wish more people would push past their bigotry or the fear of backlash by their communities; but at the same time I worry about placing teenagers into such potentially hostile environments. What a sad statement on my own country.
Tommy
@Kay: Wow, just wow! I had never thought of a situation like that …. but that is flipping terrifying to ponder what could happen.
qwerty42
…Many candidates drew applause pledging to mount an aggressive campaign as president to defeat the Islamic militant group that now controls large swaths of Iraq and Syria….
What does this even mean? Are they expecting suicide bombers at CVS? We should join Iraq, Iran and the Syrian gov’t to attack ISIS? As has been pointed out (by Larison, among others), ISIS got its foothold from our glorious war in Iraq. And now the same simpletons want this repeated, but on a really regional scale.Would some knowledge (other than Sgt Rock comics) be of use?
OzarkHillbilly
@Gene108:
Well, seems to me keeping Iraq together hasn’t been so peaceful either.
Joel
@OzarkHillbilly: I would say that’s very tonal. Usually they aim for a higher pitch.
Joel
@Gene108: Czech Republic and Slovakia, among other former USSR states (not Yugoslavia, of course).
Kay
@Tommy:
Yeah. They go in alone, so it’s scary for them. The client could be adjudicated incompetent but that’s a really profound step because the client loses all rights and there are so many other methods to watch their finances, etc. – it’s extreme. Too, there’s the risk that people would take advantage and have them adjudicated incompetent to steal from them. The sheriff already stores weapons for people who are under orders not to have them (civil protection orders, like that). They can go get the gun back when they come off the order. The plan is to ask the client or a family member to turn weapons in voluntarily or risk a situation where the home health care aide won’t come in.
Bobby Thomson
@David Koch: For the umpteenth but not the last time, Natural born citizen /= native born citizen.
Baud
Coming soon: Bisonado!
Valdivia
Is there a chance any of the front pagers will encourage us, your captive audience, to call our representatives in congress in support of the Iran Deal? Pretty please? The other side will make use of August to make themselves heard, plus the $20 million they are spending on promoting lies and exaggerations. If we don’t speak up for it it will get buried in the summer silly season!
/rant over
Also: Obama could be going to Cuba as early as January!
chromeagnomen
i had a brief stint as an emt at the cody wyoming hospital. a not insignificant number of admits were tourists getting too cozy with the american bison.
MattF
@Sherparick: Haven’t seen a reference to Hoffer for a long time. Here’s his Wikipedia page. Unusual guy.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I’ve been to Yellowstone a few times, I’ve seen both bear and bison. The bison look mean as hell, the bears look rather friendly. Then again I’m a Bruin, so there may be familial courtesy.
Iowa Old Lady
@Amir Khalid:
I suspect that for many of them there is no difference. Islam is a religion of hate, etc.
qwerty42
@BillinGlendaleCA: Handsome Joe Biden was right all along, there is no Iraq, partition the sucker into 3 countries.
By the terms of whatever treaty was concluded with Turkey in 1919, there was *supposed* to be a Kurdistan, but it did not happen, presumably because it was not wanted by the Brits, the French or the Turks. It would have taken territory from Turkey, Syria (French Mandate) and Iraq (British Mandate). The Kurds in Iran (Persia then), were not included, but I’d assume the Persians did not want it either.
BillinGlendaleCA
@qwerty42: That’s pretty accurate, from what I know. The big problem now is Turkey and to a lesser extent Iran.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Never been. Definitely bucket list stuff. Will keep safe distance from bison and bears.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I’ve been 3 times, once with the Boy Scouts, once with my parental units and once with madame. The first 2 times was in the early/mid 70’s and people(aka idiots) still fed the bears from their cars, that’s were most of the violent encounters with the bears came from.
ETA: Bears become rather unpleasant when you are feeding them and then you stop.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA:
People are dumb.
BillinGlendaleCA
Speaking of bears, this picture freaked out the kid, it’s from Yosemite, not Yellowstone.
raven
@BillinGlendaleCA: Guns in LA!
Patricia Kayden
“Frank Luntz, after pointing out the lack of ‘people of color’ in the conservative movement, asked Carson, ‘Why are you here?'”
Carson must ask himself that sometimes. His exotic-ness has passed its prime.
I guess well into the future, Republicans will find at least one Black man to run for the President so they can point at him and say “See, we have Negroes too”.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I’ve been to Yosemite a couple of times. Beautiful place. Didn’t see bears, but I think I heard them outside my tent one night.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I went with a church group between High School and College. We hiked to and camped in the ‘little valley’ above Vernal Falls. That picture is from out camp site, we also climbed Half Dome.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I’ve been. The backcountry is where the real Yellowstone is.
Patricia Kayden
@Gene108: But shouldn’t that question be asked of Cruz who was born in Canada? But it won’t because he’s the right complexion.
BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: He must have started at UCLA pretty late, I’m 55 and was at UCLA 78-82; he was 60 and was in Westwood in the 80’s?
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
I’m sure. I don’t have those skills, however.
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Glad you weren’t eaten.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Well at that point I was a Bruin(that pic was taken in June and my time at UCLA started in Sept.). They’ll generally leave you alone, unless you have food or get between a mother and her cubs.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: It’s not skills, it’s shape, and I don’t have it either.
Jeffro
That Nolan piece is fantastic – loved this:
He’s 99% correct when he says there’s not an inch of difference between the GOP candidates…it’s just hard to see, since none of the ones for a sensible immigration policy have the courage of their convictions to come out and say so (at least not until the primaries are over).
ThresherK (GPad)
@OzarkHillbilly: We went xc skiing in Yellowstone. There was a snowcat to do the real transporting. Never been in summer, but our trip spoiled me-much less crowded than what I’m led to believe for summer spring or fall.
debbie
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Years and years ago, there was a guy in Marlborough MA who raised bison, longhorns, llamas, and appaloosas. You could stand at the fence and the bison would walk right up to you. It was impossible to look straight into their eyes and not lower your gaze in submission. We are puny beings.
boatboy_srq
@Kay: Ayuh. Bet the person you talked to was one of those who’ll say “but those sick crazy old coots aren’t like ME! I can tell who’s a good guy and who’s not (just by looking at’em).” Ailments like dementia are just another means of Othering people.
Amir Khalid
@BillinGlendaleCA:
What happened in 1965 was the expulsion of a state, Singapore, from the Federation of Malaysia which had 13 states left afterwards. So it wasn’t quite comparable to the break-up of Czechoslovakia into the two nation-states that preceded it.
Differences persist between Malaysia and Singapore. But they live in their own house now and we still have ours. I imagine the situation between the Czech Republic and Slovakia is about the same.
Chris
@Sherparick:
You’re missing Catholicism, which until the middle of the 20th century was one of the biggest if not the biggest American bogeymen; you might call Catholics the original Muslims.
Also don’t forget Freemasons in the early 19th century, the original “liberal elite” (and Communist Internationale and UN One Worlder Conspiracy).
Also… abolitionism and Albion? Really? I thought the British and the Confederate-inclined tended to agree more often than not.
FlipYrWhig
@qwerty42:
Obviously knowledge is never of use with these people.
On the issue at hand, they seem to think that Obama isn’t really trying, and when America really tries to do something, it always works. It’s a neatly rationalized circle. Republicans believe in one foreign policy strategy that isn’t solely a foreign policy strategy, it’s also a worldview: Show Of Force. Show Of Force can’t fail. If it looks like it failed, it’s because the people to whom force was shown didn’t take it seriously because they didn’t respect the force-shower. How do you get that respect back? Why, Show Of Force, of course. SMH.
Frankensteinbeck
Criminy. Over and over, these questions are racism dog whistles. ‘Islamic terrorism’ needs no explanation. ‘Take our country back’ – who’s taking, and from who? Whites, from the black that’s suddenly in charge. Of course, they can’t say that. ‘Make a CHANGE in this country.’ Yes, yes, we know that blacks need to be put back in their place. ‘We will take our country back for our values.’ Those values being a wide range of bigotries. Genocide the Muslims, make it okay to abuse homosexuals again, hurt women (there’s an argument that the whole abortion thing is mostly anti-black, but boy, they do hate women), humiliate the first black president and wipe him from the history books, and kick out the Mexicans.
But “How many of you think the collapse of the family and culture is the most important issue?” is the perfect storm dog whistle, and Luntz must be PROUD. It throws in all the little bigoted beliefs – that black women are sluts who don’t bother to marry the men they sleep with, for example – and gives the audience a big thrill of righteousness. THEIR family values are impeccable, of course. It doesn’t matter how many divorces they’ve had or how much they abuse their children. They are white people with the right beliefs, and the mere question strokes their ego as GOOD people.
@Amir Khalid:
They specifically think that there is no such thing as moderate Islam. Their politicians and media figures openly say on national forums that Islam is not a religion, it’s a political system trying to conquer and destroy us. They say specifically and frequently that Islam is inherently radical. They don’t even dog whistle it. I have heard them on FOX and seen it in transcripts of political speeches. After 9/11, anti-Muslim racism is the one racism it’s socially acceptable to spout openly, and they have leaped at the chance to release spew some of their pent-up venom.
@Zinsky:
That’s an easy question to sidestep. They reject the assumption that American needs a draft. Part of their belief system is that America is so powerful that if we use actual military force and don’t tie our hands by treating enemy populations as human, we can destroy any enemy. They love anything that feeds this arrogant, bullying, racist attitude. Plus, it makes them feel a little better about the supremacy of the white race. They’re getting kiiiinda insecure about that back home.
Mike Toreno
I gained some respect for Trump when he said that Huck is an idiot and a lightweight. Which is worse, for Trump to make an illegitimate slam against McCain, or for Huck to present himself as a foreign policy expert?
Comrade Carter
… Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker repeated his call for a constitutional amendment allowing states to ban gay marriage, a position that puts him at odds with rivals like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio, who oppose taking the fight that far.
“I’ve had this opinion for more than 20 years,” Walker said. “I believe marriage is between one man and one woman.”
What’s the law in Wisconsin? Where has Scotty Walker been while it has become the law? Why is he doing nothing about it?
Scotty Walker, he keeps walking.
Chris
@Frankensteinbeck:
There’s a nice little built-in clause there which is the fundamentalist belief in “salvation through faith alone, not actions.” Briefly, it accepts that all human beings are inherently fucked up beyond all possibility of saving themselves, no matter what actions they do or don’t take, and says that your only hope of salvation is to accept Jesus into your heart and soul, at which point he will recognize you as faithful and save you even though you’re still objectively an unworthy worm.
So, essentially, “good” and “bad” become about whether you’re part of the in-group (the people who have accepted Jesus) or not, rather than what you do and don’t do. (Of course, they reserve the right to define the in-group – people who attend those historically black churches may say they’re Christian, but will usually not be recognized as such, for example).
There’s probably something to be said too, by people who understand psychology better than me, about the cult-like implications of telling people over and over that they are inherently fallen, broken, and unworthy, and that only by uttering the magic words and joining the in-group can your worthless self become worthwhile.
Chris
@Frankensteinbeck:
One of the very few things I liked about George W. Bush is that he said the opposite of this over and over and over when he was president – “no, we are not at war with Islam.” I’m actually slightly terrified of what happens when the next Republican president comes into the White House, because I’d give good odds that he won’t do the same.
ruemara
@Applejinx: how impressive. I’m so impressed that I’ll support whoever isn’t Sanders. The fawning rush to praise him finally turned me.
catclub
@BillinGlendaleCA:
And the reason Turkey is the big problem is that they are an ALLY. If they were the enemy, it would be easy.
boatboy_srq
@Chris: Your description of Xtian values is the most evil perversion of Lutheran doctrine imaginable – but then again we’re discussing FundiEvangelist Xtians, so that probably goes without saying. Despicable, but quite accurate.
eyelessgame
@Bobby Thomson:
Despair thy charm,
And let the angel whom thou still hast served
Tell thee, Barack was from his mother’s womb
Untimely ripp’d…
James E Powell
@Gene108:
True. Partition seems always to lead to the ethnic cleansing which seems always to create or inflate hatreds that then become a permanent part of the political discourse.
Paul in KY
@Gene108: That was like shooting fish in a barrel.
Paul in KY
@BillinGlendaleCA: I think Bernie Sanders would wipe the floor with The Donald.
Paul in KY
@Baud: I hope they don’t put the bison down. The woman should be arrested for child endangerment. A 6 year old 6 yards from a freaking wild bison!!
J R in WV
When I was a Cub Scout got invited to attend the Baptist church at the foot of the hill. I’m sure they believed one good exposure to the TRUTH would save me, but not. I found it false to my ears and my brain, and never willingly did a Baptist service again.
They tried to make me go to Baptist salvation services in Boot Camp, and I told them they couldn’t make me. There was an explosion of ire, because they knew they couldn’t make me. I offered to attend a U/U service, but they didn’t have any chaplains of the Unitarian/Universalist faith, so score.
They made me watch ethics/morality videos for 2 hours every Sunday morning, which just made a guy work on Sundays to watch me watch the TV. Boring. And just showed how they believe you can’t be ethical unless you’re scared into it by the fear of HELL, which is so true of those without ethics. Which is most of the fundamentalist evangelicals, an ethics free, amoral zone.
Bitter Scribe
@Citizen Alan: Or, alternatively: “Do you believe that the ancestors of all the animals on Earth walked off Noah’s Ark, and if you do, should this be taught in junior-high biology classes?”
qwerty42
@FlipYrWhig: …when America really tries to do something, it always works. It’s a neatly rationalized circle. Republicans believe in one foreign policy strategy that isn’t solely a foreign policy strategy, it’s also a worldview: Show Of Force. Show Of Force can’t fail. If it looks like it failed, it’s because the people to whom force was shown didn’t take it seriously because they didn’t respect the force-shower. How do you get that respect back? Why, Show Of Force, of course. SMH.
It is the most naive, childlike view of history I can imagine (and I think you have described it well). I thought some of these guys had advanced degrees and all. Cripes, did they manage to learn nothing in the process. Or did all that “brutal judgement of history” stuff happen to other countries. Not special snowflakes.
Mike G
Who decided the backward-ass hicks of Iowa wield a disproportionate influence in who becomes President? That is my question.
Sam Dobermann
@Gene108:
You forgot the two most bloody —
Palestine — into Jewish Palestine which became Israel and Arab Palestine which became the plaything of the Arab countries until they got bored. Now their fighters are funded by non-Arab Turkey and Iran. None have shown much consideration for the people as opposed to the leaders.
The Southern States and the US where the Southern States and their fans have not stopped fighting even now. They are begging for a restart of open war (Roof for one) and cheer isolated “skirmishes” (too many to list).