Like several valued commenters, I can’t help but love this story:
The [North Carolina] state GOP sent out a tweet Wednesday night saying it was “shameful” for Kaine to wear the flag of Honduras during his speech at the Democratic National Convention.
Kaine was, of course, wearing a Blue Star Service pin, which people wear to signal they’ve a family member on active duty during a war or a conflict.
Here’s a typical version:
To the wingnut mind, which is to say the Twitter account of the North Caroline GOP, this subtle and simple acknowledgement of pride and moment in a son’s service was the Honduran flag, and Kaine’s brazen display of that unAmerican allegiance was, and I quote, “shameful.”
To which I reply: Morans!
One additional note: the Military Times article linked above contains an error. It states that “North Carolina Republicans have apologized to Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine…”
Maybe so, but the only acknowledgement of their feckless, incompetent asshattery I’ve been able to find is a thank you to the person who pointed out what Kaine was actually wearing. No contrition aimed at the nominee, his son, or the Democratic Party.
Which is to say that the NC GOP is not merely incompetent, feckless and having trouble peering through its own colon; they’re a bunch of ill-mannered boors whose parents should have (and maybe tried to) raise them better.
ETA: as pointed out by valued commenters Hoodie, Omnes Omnibus, and in a prior thread Raven, the executive director of the state GOP did issue a clear apology to Tim Kaine and his family this afternoon. So my dudgeon was accurate at the time I first read this story, and was superceded by the time I wrote my snark. I regret that error — and exactly none of my disdain for the impulse that produced the initial last-refuge-of-scoundrelism.
TL:DR? “Bless their hearts.”
Image: from this catalogue.
Woodrowfan
In 2008 the righties went nuts over Obama “redesigning the American flag” with a big “O” in the middle!!!
He was in Ohio and it was the Ohio state flag…
BruceFromOhio
Quick to judge
Quick to anger
Slow to understand
Tom Levenson
@Woodrowfan: Forgot that one. Consistency is a virtue or something.
eric
What that means is that the gun enthusiasts in the NC GOP never served and/or never had family serve. Wolverines!
Mnemosyne
They actually did do a full apology — someone linked to it in the thread below.
Some intern’s hand got slapped good.
sam
I would just like to note that it’s not even a misguided “they’re kinda close” mistake. THIS LOOKS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING LIKE THE HONDURAN FLAG. Don’t know how to embed graphics, but according to wikipedia the flag is three strips – blue-white-blue, with a field of five blue stars in the white stripe. Sometimes instead of the stars there’s some sort of gold coat of arms.
I discovered that by literally typing “Honduras Flag” into google. It was the first result. My brain is now broken.
And yes, I had to delurk just to note this.
Trentrunner
(via Twitter) Looks like the Berniebros are planning to turn out in force tonight to heckle during Hillary’s speech.
Fucking MRA assholes, all of them.
Hoodie
Actually they have apologized. Nevertheless, a monumental fuckup in a state that hosts Camp Lejuene.
Omnes Omnibus
Tom, they did apologize and not with a “sorry if you were offended” apology either. Source. h/t raven.
ETA: Damn, my pedantry is slow today.
eric
@sam: you made me do it…..i thought it would irish-italian kinda thing. nope…more like dog-cat.
Anoniminous
The oddest of odd things is this is the Honduras flag.
The nicest way to put it is the good people of the GOP are mentally deranged due to the genetic affects of the Virulent Stupidity gene.
(Discovered, by me, during all too many years of visiting in-laws in NC.)
the Conster, la Citoyenne
Too bad we couldn’t throw the dumbass NC GOPers into this DNC protester’s burning shit show of fail. That would be how I would choose to watch the world burn, you know, for the lulz.
The Dangerman
I’m beginning to wonder if Gary Johnson might take one or more States (maybe Utah if Romney endorses?)
Gravenstone
@Woodrowfan: What I always found most humorous about that particular episode in Morons Today was that one of the loudest voices making the claim was Michelle Malkin – who went to college in fucking Ohio!. Obviously she had no time to actually look around her and see the world she lived in at the time.
slag
On the plus side, now I know what the Honduran flag looks like. Of course, that only makes Republicans look even sillier since that design is as similar to the Honduran flag as Obama’s speech was to Trump Jr’s speech.
Ian
@Woodrowfan:
Reminds me of the dark days when wearing a flag pin lapel (or not wearing one) was clearly a sign of one’s patriotism. It never occured to me before but I am now wondering the overlap of the 08 Obama’s not patriotic enough group coincides with the 09 birther movement.
Tom Levenson
@Hoodie: @Omnes Omnibus: Thanks. Fix’t. See above.
Gravenstone
@BruceFromOhio: I actually have the preceding verse from that song as my ringtone;
Those who know what is best for us must rise and save us from ourselves
VOR
@sam: Wait, you are suggesting someone do research rather than just jump to conclusions? Inconceivable!
MazeDancer
In similar vein of people too hate-filled for their own good, the Busters who screamed “No More War” hoping to drown out Leon Panetta while he was helping prevent potential nuclear war, are being rumored to be texting each other about tonight. Hope this is just another unfounded Twitter rumor.
You may have noticed that some of them hold up accordion-pleated signs. Finally figured out that must be how they smuggled signs into the hall. Because all conventions – and many big political events – have a “no handmade signs” rule for the branding optics.
Mr. Obama last night was so respectful of Bernie and his supporters, I am trying not to let my own rising ire get in the way of my actions. They did behave through most of last night, especially POTUS. And we welcome new energy aiming for a Democratic victory up and down every state ballot, of course. And thank them.
But if those self-absorbed little pinheads interrupt the First Woman Presidential Nominee and Best Qualified Candidate to Ever Run for the Office, I will likely abandon my pacifist leanings and support any accordion-pleating of all of them. Permanently.
You would think that Bernie would understand Chuck Schumer’s idea of what kind of committee assignments he will have from 2017 onward depends entirely on how the Bernsters behave tonight.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: I am not a vampire!
Mnemosyne
@Trentrunner:
As I said in the thread below, by this point, I’m looking forward to it. In fact, I wish a motherfucker would. She knows it’s coming, and she’s had three days to prepare and re-write her speech to accommodate it. Bring. It. On.
Now, if they decide to heckle Chelsea, all bets are off. The only worse crime than that would be heckling Michelle O. or Dr. Jill.
Gin & Tonic
@Omnes Omnibus:
Age creeps up on you when you’re not looking.
Tom Levenson
@MazeDancer:
That’s the problem. I don’t think Bernie has any control over the feral pack of petulant children masquerading as Democratic National Convention delegates in his name.
Trentrunner
Can I be Robin to your Batman?
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Ian:
I discovered a friend had gone full nutter when she posted those idiotic images of Obama not putting his hand over his heart at some event, and not wearing a flag pin – which became full metal gun nuttery and tea party idiocy, so, yes, there’s a strong correlation. A recent article did a statistical analysis of Trump supporters’ beliefs, and the strongest correlation to determine whether someone is a Trump supporter is if they believe he’s a Muslim.
Trentrunner
@Tom Levenson: According to Al Giordano, not entirely: Bernie could revoke the little bastards’ convention credentials. No idea if that’s true or feasible, but it’s what he said.
slag
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: Again with that image! Maybe we can lure the Bernie Babies away from the convention with a van full of garishly dressed men.
Belafon
@Ian: It’s all about whatever it takes to keep Democrats out of office. If we had cloning, it wouldn’t be beneath them to clone a child just to claim that the Democrat had a child out of wedlock.
SiubhanDuinne
O/T, but Charlie Pierce has a sweet takedown of McMegan (also, Trump Junior and BillO).
Ian
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
The strongest correlation is they think Obama is a Muslim? I’m shocked, shocked that blatant ignorant xenophobia is the most common trait amongst his supporters.
Hildebrand
My question is fairly straightforward – don’t the screamers in the hall understand that they are utterly undercutting themselves? People watching the convention are not going to suddenly say, ‘by golly, those people incoherently screaming have changed my mind.’ They are going to say, ‘I wish the screamers would fuck right off.’
sam
@efgoldman: I’ve popped up here and there (and at the NYC meetup!). I just have to be super ranty to start with the comments :)
Quinerly
@Trentrunner:
Pull up the Daily Mail piece about Bern stock folks. I included it in a reply down thread and was put in moderation. It’s must reading. The Bern Feelers have combined efforts with the PENIS Foundation (People Encouraging Niceness in Society). Did the word penis put me in moderation? I didn’t even provide a naked link with the penis reference. As a long time lurker and now recent poster, I need to know these things.?
Tom Levenson
@Trentrunner: Ah. I stand corrected (again!). Hope he does it.
Anoniminous
@MazeDancer:
For the Dead Enders it’s all about the PsychoDrama of the moment. Any issue is merely an excuse to act out. Today is it Sanders. Tomorrow it will be kelp fishing off the Oregon coast.
Tom Levenson
@SiubhanDuinne: Mocking McMeghan is never off-topic. I don’t bother anymore because ISTM she’s slid far enough down the pundit hierarchy as to be unnecessary to poke. But I’m glad she’s still getting what-for from time to time, and none better than Mr. Pierce to deliver the goods.
Trentrunner
@Tom Levenson: Words really cannot express how rageful I will be if those bros heckle the first woman presidential nominee.
slag
@efgoldman: Plus, they’re about to find out the hard way if Obamacare covers burns.
FlipYrWhig
@Hildebrand:
The goal is to distract and embarrass the speaker. There is no other goal or message.
Anoniminous
@Trentrunner:
Once the state party makes a selection of delegates the list is forwarded to the Credential Committee. The delegate goes to the delegate table at the convention, presents the required paperwork and ID, gets their badge, and that’s it. AFAIK the state party is the only authority capable of revoking a credentialed delegate and it has to be for cause.
At least that’s how it used to work.
Bobby Thomson
@Trentrunner: what’s more, St. Bernard refuses to answer whether he asked them not to heckle tonight.
dmsilev
@MazeDancer:
Bernie does know. Unfortunately, however, Senator Frankenstein has built the monster and now that it’s lurching towards the village he has a bit of a problem.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
I will say that that was a very genuine apology. There was clear chagrin, repercussions for the unnamed screw-ups, and pretty obvious regret. JMO.
bemused
@slag:
How in the world could they immediately think it has to be a Honduran flag pin? How do they make these incredible leaps into lala land? All they had to do was take two seconds to check out the real flag of Honduras. Two seconds.
Gin & Tonic
Here’s what the dead-enders are like.
dmsilev
@Gin & Tonic: Yes, well, John Lewis was only an icon of the Civil Rights movement; it’s not like he worked on anything _important_.
VOR
@Mnemosyne: They apparently chanted “Goldman Sachs” to Senator Professor Warren on Monday. Yeah, she’s clearly in the pocket of the big banks – not!
JPL
@slag: I saw that earlier, and it’s hilarious. Trump will use it on the campaign trail though, and his folks will love it, cuz…
Quinerly
@bemused:
Well, Kaine WAS speaking Honduran through most of his speech
slag
@bemused: It’s what happens when you have no taste. Like when you airbrush your convention with black speakers who are incapable of speaking to issues that primarily affect black people. Or you choose Sarah Palin as your vice presidential candidate. Or talk about being a “blue collar billionaire”.
It’s got a star, it’s on a guy who talks about being in Honduras, ergo it’s a Honduran flag.
No. Taste.
Bobby Thomson
@Trentrunner: also, too, that’s how Nina Turner asshatted her way out of the program.
Major Major Major Major
@Tom Levenson:
Well, a foolish consistency is certainly famously known to be *something*…
Howard Beale IV
OT: Jerry Doyle, Mr. Garibaldi from Babylon 5, passed away last night, age 60, cause unknown.
Barbara
It’s like they are playing a game to see how many errors in logic they can make with as little provocation as possible. In this incident they proved they have virtually no knowledge of military paraphernalia (neither did I but unlike them I didn’t even notice the pin) as well as zero interest in investigating to see whether their assumption (flag of Honduras, because Kaine once lived there a long time ago) was correct. But they are willing to go from no information at all to a rapid response conclusion that whatever Kaine was wearing it was evidence that he was “shamefully” unpatriotic. I think this flag lapel pin stuff is utterly stupid. I don’t wear pins of any kind because they rip my clothing and it pisses me off that anyone would use a symbol as a marker of patriotism.
Quinerly
@VOR:
I thought one of the chants to Warren was, “we trusted you.”
Keith G
@Hildebrand:
I am optimistic that there will not be very many, but to your question….it depends who they are and what their stake is. I wonder if the most obnoxious of these were truly focused on Sanders just like I wonder if the most radical PUMAs were truly focus on Hillary in ’08.
There are folks who nurture a raging discontent and when they feel it’s time, they latch on the most handy vehicle in order to fulfill their inner diva….
“But I’m important damn it! I believe in something and I have a voice!”
If they were truly emotionally connected to Hillary in 08 or Bernie now, they would change their behavior to meet the needs of the new reality, as the focus of their support has asked.
In short, there will be a very few who probably have been living a relatively consequence-free life and tonight some of them might continue on that journey.
Schlemazel Khan
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
The picture of the supposed not putting his hand over his heart is not from the pledge but from a scene of the National Anthem. It is not customary to put your hand over your heart for that but the nut bags are not going to let fact get in the way of a smear
Keith G
@Hildebrand:
I am optimistic that there will not be very many, but to your question….it depends who they are and what their stake is. I wonder if the most obnoxious of these were truly focused on Sanders just like I wonder if the most radical PUMAs were truly focus on Hillary in ’08. There are folks who nurture a raging discontent and when they feel it’s time, they latch on the most handy vehicle in order to fulfill their inner diva….
“But I’m important damn it! I believe in something and I have a voice!”
If they were truly emotionally connected to Hillary in 08 or Bernie now, they would change their behavior to meet the needs of the new reality, as the focus of their support has asked. In short, there will be a very few who probably have been living a relatively consequence-free life and tonight some of them might continue on that journey.
MCA1
What I don’t quite understand is this: Even if Kaine’s pin looked sorta like the flag of Honduras (which it didn’t – it kind of maybe looks like Costa Rica’s, I guess, but nothing like Honduras’s), what in the hell level of derangement does one need to be at to think it’s even possible that a man running for Vice President of the United States would be wearing a lapel pin with a foreign country’s flag on it on the first place? The only reason you wouldn’t go look up flags and try to figure out what the pin really was would be that you accept it as within the realm of likelihood that the man would actually do such a thing. That’s just lunacy. Because he spent time there as a missionary, someone just ASSUMED that must be the flag of that place on his lapel pin, because argle bargle unpatriotic Democrat Party Chamberlain derp. Imbecilic.
raven
My folks gave me the one they had in the window and I still have it.
Mnemosyne
@Hildebrand:
Screamers never realize that. Ever.
VOR
@Quinerly: That too. But Charles Pierce reported the “Goldman Sachs” chant.
Schlemazel Khan
@Barbara:
I was on a blog where one of the commenters nym was USMC-something I forget and the icon he chose was the combat infantry badge. One day he was going off about his military experience when I pointed out to him it was a crime to display a military award you did not earn. He was quick to anger so I simply pointed out that the Combat Infantry badge is not issued to Marines, only to US soldiers. A few people piled on & he went away never to be seen again. Some of those guys are stupid beyond belief.
Barbara
@MCA1: As if the convention organizers would have thought about everything down to the color of his tie but overlooked the lapel pin of a foreign country. They sniff outrage like glue and it has a similar effect on their brain cells.
Schlemazel Khan
@raven:
We have our son’s.
burnspbesq
@MazeDancer:
I’m sure he does, but he could get up in front of his erstwhile supporters and explain it, and it wouldn’t make a damn bit of difference.
Mnemosyne
@burnspbesq:
That’s probably why he looked so sulky last night — he’s seeing his influence inside the Senate drip lower every time one of his jackass “supporters” makes a spectacle of himself.
rikyrah
@Trentrunner:
You and me both. Disrespectful muthaphuckas ????
burnspbesq
Sherrod Brown, who got bumped last night because the program ran long, gets the slot right before Chelsea’s intro tonight.
raven
@Schlemazel Khan: This used to be what they looked like. He’ll like to have it some day. I didn’t even know they had it until I was 45.
https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8425/27999442093_e004c8e123_o.jpg
Comrade Scrutinizer
@Howard Beale IV: This gives me a sad,
Metavirus
So the only similarity between the pin and the flag is a star. Uh oh, you know what that means. Mooslim!
/s
boatboy_srq
NC GOP: “Support Our Whoops”
Tom Levenson
@boatboy_srq: You win a dead thread.
The Pale Scot
@slag:
Uhmm.. NO Clue
The Lodger
@Barbara: They didn’t think about the color of his tie. It had a big wide stripe the exact same color as his shirt. It was as if parts of the tie had vanished.
Gelfling 545
@Ian: I have a friend, inckuding on FB, who comments a local radio staion’s FB page from time to time. Now this place is a well known cess pool with a talk show by a former cheesy top 40’s dj who aspires to be Limbaugh Lite. She is, however a tough old broad, retired Army, who likes nothing better than wading in and kicking ass. I am a more timid soul and sometimes she gets me into trouble because I can’t resist looking to see what she said, which is always worth reading and then end up saying something. Anyway, today they ran a clickbait story on the absence of flags at the DNC. I was quite honestly horrified to see how many people STILL believe you can gauge patriotism by counting up the number of flags. I had to point out that any moron ( such as might be himself) could buy any number of flags and this provided no benefit except to the manufacturer, possibly foreign, and the importer. Waste of time, really because, in such circumstances, logic is your weakest tool.
bemused
@slag:
No functioning brain cells.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
I would have been happy to see Kaine wear a Honduran flag pin, though I know he couldn’t get away with it. Shit, as we see, he can’t even get away with wearing a pin that doesn’t even look at all like the Honduran flag.
I would like to go on record as saying how happy I am to at last have a vice presidential candidate who looks like me. Well, to be truthful, he doesn’t look like me, but he did live in Honduras, as I did.
Seth Owen
@Schlemazel Khan: Sweet.
boatboy_srq
@Tom Levenson: Sorry. There’s this thing called employment that keeps me from commenting in a timely manner.