These fucking wankers:
An anti-Muslim activist group is rallying in numerous cities across the country, marching in opposition to Islamic law, which the group believes is a threat to American society.
ACT for America, a lobbyist organization with close ties to the Trump administration that has helped pass state-level bills targeting Islamic law and refugees, organized the protests as a nationwide “March Against Sharia.”
While demonstrators argue they are protecting free speech and defending traditional American values, counterprotesters say the marchers underscore a larger trend of intolerance that is increasingly evident across a politically divided country.
Here’s a background on these nutters from the SPLC, who is also live-blogging this nationwide douchebag cosplay.
Hunter Gathers
It’s never been easier to spot a virgin these days.
Smiling Mortician
That right there is some poorly weaponized stupid.
trollhattan
They are supposedly doing one at a suburban mall in our metroplex. Hope they get the ignore treatment they deserve.
Just. Go. Away.
O. Felix Culpa
All I can say is Wonder Woman was great and these dorks…are not.
sukabi
All the energy these douchecanoes expend on ill-informed hate could power the earth for a generation.
ruemara
The NY VP for the Oathkeepers had a heart attack after riling up the crowd with an anti-islam speech and died. I think the deity is being perfectly clear here.
sdhays
Removing the euphemisms and editing for clarity:
Of course, one could argue that White Supremacy is a “traditional American value”, but there are a lot of things one could say are traditional American values, so being specific is helpful.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
I guess these guys would all be happy to force feed Orthodox Jews the crab dip at parties, right? ’Cause if an Orthodox Jew wants to forgo it, he’s following an un-American law, viz., Jewish kosher law, and, well, we can’t have that, right? Whether they know it or not, that’s what they’re committing themselves to, at least if they have any intellectual integrity–or, indeed, any kind of integrity at all, which, needless to say, they don’t. As you say, wankers…
Keith P.
It’s Donald Trump’s Elite Hacking Force.
EDIT: Props to #2 from the left for co-opting the “Look at my tits!” pose.
debbie
@Keith P.:
“Look at my yellow cape, fetchingly askew!”
bystander
@ruemara: The feel good story of the summer! I hope it gets musicalized starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick.
Suzanne
@ruemara:
The FSM can be a funny bastard.
One of these protests is planned for a park in Paradise Valley, which is one of the swankier parts of the city. It’s also hotter than balls. I would be shocked if anyone showed up, but maybe I am misunderestimating the fear level. Nothing exciting happens in Paradise Valley. I mean, MAYBE someone hits a jackrabbit.
bystander
The guys in that pic make me wish I owned a mobile fried strawberry shortcake concession stand.
scav
It’s increasingly a given that self-avowed fervent patriotism is hard to distinguish from the behavior of people utterly desperate for being on da teevee as a game-show contestant.
ETA: and it is rather hard to escape the thought that they’ve just run from the slide in the background and about to run back, giggling, pushing each other for first dips on the teeter-totter.
bystander
@Keith P.: I believe the term of art is “moobs”.
bystander
@Suzanne:
To quote Aunty American (again): the dildo of consequences seldom arrives prelubed.
hellslittlestangel
See what facial hair and a baseball cap can do to you?
SFBayAreaGal
@O. Felix Culpa: I loved Wonder Woman. I saw the film earlier today.
bystander
The story about the NY Oafkeeper is not as hilarious as previously reported. From buzzfeed:
Brutusettu
I cannot believe that it’s white socially awkward looking dudes taking part in the protest.
Teddys Person
“…men aren’t supposed to grow tits, and yet there they are, atop your little paunch.” ~ Erlich Bachman
Baud
So I guess the strategy here is to make the Muslims feel so sorry for us that they leave us alone?
Oddly enough, it’s not the worst idea the right has come up with.
mapaghimagsik
Is that a neck beard convention?
hitchhiker
I wandered over to see what was up with the Seattle version of this bullshit.
It was a few dozen Trump voters behind a fence and separated from the real crowd by 30 yards and rows of armed police on all sides. The real crowd (maybe five hundred) came to play, with megaphones and noisemakers of all sorts. The plan was to create such a cacophony that the crazies wouldn’t be able to hear themselves think, much less broadcast their stupidity to passersby.
We were organized, happy, and loud. They were Trump voters.
SiubhanDuinne
@ruemara:
For real?
(Edit: N/M, saw updates. Including the “he didn’t actually die” part.)
Gravenstone
@trollhattan: This is the perfect opportunity to literally just point and laugh. Ask them what they’re cosplaying.
Gravenstone
@ruemara: Shame it wasn’t while in the act of riling the rabble. Some might have taken it as a message.
Nah, they’d have immediately claimed he was murdered to silence his voice in these dark and dangerous (in their minds) times.
lollipopguild
@bystander: Say it loud, say it proud-“Manboobs!”
Catherine D.
Hmm, I think I can see the Cheeto dust …
Frankensteinbeck
Trump voters are so much like him. They are SURE that if liberalism is drawing these gigantic marches, they can have a march that is even bigger and shove it in our faces. Then a couple of dozen people show up.
Reminder: We got 2.8 MILLION more votes, and by any measure, they cheated their way to power. We seriously outnumber them.
O. Felix Culpa
@hitchhiker: Well played. Outmaneuver these eejits. And have fun while doing so!
dmsilev
@hitchhiker:
One might argue that not very much noise would be necessary to achieve the goal.
zzyzx
@hitchhiker: I went to the Seattle one too… it was fun until it ended when the black block people decided to mix it up with the idiots and it got violent.
D58826
Some what related in the douchebag category and posted on an earlier thread but still worth repeating
What we really need here is a moment of levity. The link is to a twitter stream about a demonstration in Texas to protect the statue of Sam Houston from ah from ah well I’m not sure from whom exactly. But never mind they are protecting Sam Houston. Apparently they are afraid some liberals will take the statue down because of historical cleansing of Confederate statutes.
Buried in the thread is the fact that Houston was opposed to the Confederacy but you know this is the alt-fact universe. The photos are hilarious of these guys armed to the teeth, some in battle rattle, one looks like he belongs in one of Julius Cesears Roman legions defending the Empire along the Rhine. Of course the beer bellies make it a bit more………..
https://twitter.com/evan7257/status/873565225869598720
Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA
@bystander: I’m stealing that, as soon as I stop laughing.
CarolDuhart2
I wonder if they have ever said what the Muslims here are supposed to do. Probably convert to their form of Christianity and apologize for ever being Muslim I suppose.
D58826
@SiubhanDuinne: maybe the FSM sent him back
Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Don’t give them any ideas.
trollhattan
@D58826:
A virtual Emily Litella moment. “So, they’re not really making Puerto Rico a steak?”
bystander
@Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA: Having stolen it myself, I don’t have legal title to pass. So be my guest!
Adam L Silverman
@ruemara: Here’s a link:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/talalansari/act-marches-anti-sharia?utm_term=.njeAKxEnJ#.fjvdQK4GE
BBA
@D58826: Sam Houston was still a slave-owning piece of shit. I’d be glad to see all his statues torn down. (And Washington, Jefferson, etc., too, just to be evenhanded.)
Citizen Alan
@zzyzx:
I am absolutely certain that the Black Bloc is funded by the Russians, the Koch Mercer crowd, or both.
chopper
@bystander:
their motto should be “semper fudge”.
Adam L Silverman
@CarolDuhart2: The biggest issue is that Sharia is equivalent to Cannon Law in Catholicism. It isn’t law per se, rather it is the guidance and guidelines through which one, including Brigitte Gabriel, is supposed to conduct their religious and spiritual lives. Actual Muslim law is fiqh (jurisprudence) and each community of Sunni adherents actually observe ijma’ or consensus. Each community of Sunnis establishes how they understand and will practice their faith. This is roughly equivalent to the Protestant concept that each community of believers, and for some each believer himself or herself, establishes how they understand and will practice their faith.
Gabrielle, for all that she is physically stunning, is one of the ugliest, most prejudiced, most bigoted people to grace America’s shores. And that is saying something.
zzyzx
@Citizen Alan: eh. I was once 18 myself and while I never was angry, I had friends who were. They’re looking for a fight but are just moral enough to want to find a deserving target…
lollipopguild
@trollhattan: Pretty soon they will want a baked potato.
SiubhanDuinne
CNN tells me via a special breaking news alert that our KKKeebler AG will testify before the Senate Intel Committee this Tuesday.
Heh.
Adam L Silverman
@SiubhanDuinne: Here you go:
hitchhiker
@zzyzx:
Whoa. I had my dog & he wasn’t digging the noise level, so we left after about 45 min.
What happened?
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
So he’s recused himself from appropriations?
Belafon
I just caught a news clip about this. At the one here in Dallas, there was a woman talking about women’s rights, as if her side cared.
It’s not creeping Sharia this country has to worry about, but evangelicalism. The rise in hate crimes is due to whites and Christians, not Muslims.
Calouste
@Citizen Alan: The Russians are interested in finding any extremists in western countries. Left, right, doesn’t matter. Heck, if Evan Bayh called himself an extreme centrist, they’ll probably fund him too.
amygdala
@SiubhanDuinne: The weeks are starting to blur together, you know?
schrodingers_cat
I know logic is not the strong suit of people who organize these sad gatherings, but how exactly are the Muslims going to impose Sharia on the rest of us?
zzyzx
@hitchhiker: This is what I wrote on Facebook.
OK so here’s what went down today. I went to the counter protest on a whim (especially because I didn’t know that today was UW commencement and I had to park up by U Village to get a spot to go to light rail; that was the furthest south without a no parking sign), and to help say, “Not in my town.”
It started out sane enough. Sure we were counter protesting which meant a lot of drowning people out, but as always these days, there were creative signs and people showing their other interests outside of the rally (sports jerseys, geeky references on their signs, etc.). We were diverse – Muslims, African Americans, a few drag queens – and were trying to have fun. The other side had signs too but they all could be summed up by, “I’m scared of something that couldn’t happen in this country without a massive dieoff, the over turning of the constitution, and a complete change in the secularization of our society.”
It was a bit freaky seeing them there, and as a Jew (and – as always in these anti-anti-Muslim protests, there are a TON of Jews as we all know what happens when we let scapegoating go unchecked) unsettling, but then they walked to leave and we all sang, “Na Na Na Na Hey Hey Goodbye,” at them, and it seemed to be over.
Our side packed up to go back to Occidental and I watched for a while when the cops suddenly did this weird thing. They forced us all on the sidewalk and then blocked the path to 5th. I figured that was OK and started to walk back to 4th and the bus tunnel, when I noticed that the protestors had gone around the cops and they were lower down on the hill. The cops had forced us all together by mistake.
Even still, it might have been OK. Some jerk did some over dramatic collapse while making a cliched, “Look at me! I’m a liberal snowflake,” joke. We rolled our eyes and started to figure out another plan, when someone there said that we all should get raped.
That’s what inspired the black blok asshole to let the protestors know that he had a gun that he was legally allowed to carry which he then put his hands on to emphasize. That’s when I shot the Facebook live video until seeing that they did open up a little path for us to get to 5th.
Again I thought about leaving and then had a discussion with a woman a wheelchair. “I’m staying,” she said, “until I know all of the Muslim counter protesters are away from here safely.” And that’s it. I’m white, I’m male, I’m reasonably healthy. I decided to spend the rest of the rally being a shield if needed.
It wasn’t all bad. I had a funny back and forth banter session with an Iranian woman over Ramadan v Yom Kippur and which is worse. I saw some of the remnants of the Rain City Superhero movement (you know, the surreal Phoenix Jones thing from a few years back), which really let me know that this was a tad out of hand. We all walked back towards the rally when I heard some screaming. Again the two groups that were itching for a fight met up. I have some other video that I don’t know if I’m going to post or not. Right after that is when the second Facebook Live video happened. I then saw that the sane people were all packing up and were having plans and I had no interest in watching two groups of angry idiots attack each other so I headed to the Pioneer Square station.
On the light rail back I was checking my messages and a young African American girl of 12 or 13 or so commented on my TARDIS phone case. The whole way to UW – she was going to see her sister graduate – we talked Doctor Who. She made fun of me for being old for having Tom Baker as a favorite Doctor. She wasn’t a big fan of Amy but loved Rory. We both were huge Donna fans. While doing that, I reflected back on those stupid 40 people whose anti-Muslim rally started all of this. Do they have other interests than mocking libtards and yelling at people? The ones on PT and 4chan seem to exist solely as anger machines. I’d much rather be in the camp that talks Doctor Who with strangers than the one that yells at them to leave the country. I guess that’s just me.
Punchline: turned out someone had removed the no parking sticker from the block I was on and I got a ticket. Oh well. At least I can’t say that bummed is what I was when I went back to my car and it was towed.
Belafon
@hitchhiker: The news people tight-focused on the ACT (like children) people so you couldn’t tell how many there were. They mentioned the counter protesters, but didn’t show them.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: No, what he’s done seems to be the equivalent of pulling the band aid off quickly. So he’s sought a committee visit with the Intel Committee where the issues that Comey brought up will be addressed as opposed to having his Appropriations Committee visit about the DOJ budget request and the priorities get derailed.
trollhattan
@Adam L Silverman:
So he won’t be taking refreshing Fifth Amendmints beforehand?
SiubhanDuinne
@amygdala:
Yes. It’s all a blur.
Mike in NC
Only one MAGA hat? Disappointing!
Major Major Major Major
But cosplayers dress up as something they aren’t.
Adam L Silverman
@trollhattan: Who knows.
Arclite
Women’s march: Measured in the millions.
Anti-Muslim march: Measured in the dozens of ones.
Tokyokie
NPR led Weakened Condition (or whatever the Saturday evening news show is called) with this crap. And while the report identified Act for America as a lobbying group the SPLC has designated as a hate group, it didn’t mention that a “lobbying group”-led protest is a Republican operative sending out faxes to news organizations to bait them into covering it. And NPR sure as hell didn’t report on how large the protest was. It sounded like the anti-Muslim crowd (I think it was in Syracuse) included a guy who had a bullhorn whom the counterprotesters drowned out. I’m sorry, but when your big protest draws fewer people nationwide than are lined up to see Wonder Woman at pretty much any multiscreen theater in the country and you’re significantly outnumbered by opponents, it isn’t a story. Liberal media, my ass.
hovercraft
@Adam L Silverman:
Heis mention i the letter of classified information/material means that the testimony will allow him to do so behind closed doors. So he gets to say look I’m cooperating while also being able to hide from all of us. Smart political move according to villagers, but we’ll find out eventually what he’s hiding.
SiubhanDuinne
@Adam L Silverman:
Looks like there are (not surprisingly) a few Senators who serve on both committees: Feinstein for the Dems, Rubio and Collins for the GOP. Maybe one or two more; I didn’t try to do a careful or detailed side-by-side comparison.
No Drought No More
The guys in that photo remind me of the inept biker gang from those old Anette Funiceloo and Frankie Avalon beach movies. Which is weird, because I haven’t seen any of those movies since the year they were first released. Yet, for whatever reason, that’s who sprang to mind looking at that photo. Then again, maybe it makes perfect sense, too.
hovercraft
@ruemara:
Sometimes karma just doesn’t want to wait.
Since I’m sure that the individual was a fine, wholesome Christian, I hope that they were welcomed into the toasty environs beyond the veil for having lived a life demonstrably lacking the tolerance and non judgmental attitude Jesus preached. Seems to me that humanity is better off without him. Condolences to their family.
trollhattan
@No Drought No More:
Eric Von Zipper a.k.a. Buddy Hackett!
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
Check the batteries in thine snark-o-meter.
;)
At this point, suspect he’s brown bagging it as has recused himself from the cafeteria.
hovercraft
@Arclite:
Almost as big a crowd as Twitler’s Pittsburgh not Paris rally!
NotMax
@trollhattan
Close but no cheroot. That was Harvey Lembeck.
Tokyokie
@trollhattan: Harvey Lembeck, not Buddy Hackett. But close enough.
lumpkin
Ever notice that these white supremacy guys all look decidedly un-supreme?
Baud
@lumpkin: Hence the need for a white supremacy belief system.
Another Scott
@BBA: If you believe this piece, Houston was very strongly pro-Union for much of his political career, and was for and against slavery (depending on the circumstances). He certainly was a complex character for the times. One could imagine Lincoln taking similar positions if the South had not decided to take up arms against the Union…
(Google tells me that U.S. Grant was the last President to have owned slaves at some point in his life…)
Just to be clear – slavery was an abomination, especially as practiced by so many in America who pointed to the Bible for their justifications.
Cheers,
Scott.
debbie
Will Sessions be appearing at an open or closed session?
amygdala
WTH? Sarah Huckabee Sanders Tweet from earlier today. Not that it’s any less sensible than what usually emanates from her addled mind, but how is it not a security breach for her toddler to have access to the phone with her Twitter account open on it?
jl
They sure like to dress weird, judging from the pics at top of the post and the links in comments.
I suppose having their hostility channeled towards a complete phantom is better than alternatives.
Though sooner or later they will quite showing up a dippy rallies and at city council meetings (that have zip to with any Sharia Law) and go bother Muslims and other people going about their business.
NotMax
@lumpkin
The
WildRiled Ones.jl
@amygdala:
” how is it not a security breach for her toddler to have access to the phone with her Twitter account open on it? ”
I guess it is a security breach. But can only improve communications if its her three year old who can hack it.
I saw it and I liked the three year old’s work. Very pretty. Nice design.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@lumpkin: WHERE THE FUCK IS YOUR CHIN?
Cheryl from Maryland
These people (mainly guys) need a hobby. A real hobby. Geekdom is too cool now for them to join. Maybe get them into American Ninja Warrior training — they need it.
trollhattan
@NotMax: @Tokyokie:
Ah, Hackett played SZ Matts. And Little Stevie Wonder played Little Stevie Wonder.
trollhattan
@amygdala:
Isn’t the real story is yet another Huckabee generation to deal with? Like rabbits, defective rabbits.
SiubhanDuinne
@amygdala:
This would be a firing offence under any other administration. If one of Obama’s spokespersons had allowed something like this to happen — no matter how innocuous, amusing, cute or æsthetically pleasing the actual tweet — that staffer would have been relieved of his/her credentials so fast they wouldn’t have known what hit them.
Mnemosyne
I may need to get G to shave his beard now that I know that all the Broflakes are wearing them.
Or maybe he should leave it, let them think he’s one of them, and then wither them with sarcasm when they make assumptions.
jl
@Cheryl from Maryland: Might be a good idea, but only if American Ninja Warrior martial arts skills can’t harm animals, plants, persons or property. Which from the tone of your comments seems likely. Would they get to dress up in their own home-made costumes?
lumpkin
Ever notice that these white supremacy guys all look decidedly un-supreme? @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD):
?
jl
@SiubhanDuinne: My question: should the toddler be branded as a ‘Leaker’? Not an idle question given her age, and also because nonsense and childish crime is definitely confidential information in the Trump admin.
amygdala
@trollhattan: I still need my denial about that.
@SiubhanDuinne: Seemed like a rather pat explanation. I wondered if it was a butt Tweet (must resist obvious joke…), and the kid was a better excuse.
Jeffro
@Hunter Gathers: win
jl
@amygdala: A Butt Leak?
SiubhanDuinne
@amygdala:
If SHS had ‘fessed up to a “butt tweet,” she might have had to put up with a few hours of gentle ridicule and maybe a FB meme or two, but there would be nothing to suggest a security breach.
But the minute she mentions her toddler — whether she was telling the actual factual truth, or making it up to try and sidestep the butt tweet stuff — she opens herself up to allowing her secure phone to be, well, less than secure.
Mnemosyne
@bystander:
I knew God didn’t really love us.
Kay
Better late than never, I guess, although that’s not really true. “Better” would have been before a Presidential election. Too late is too late.
What’s the justification for not telling state election officials their systems had been broken into? If there’s anyone who actually needs to know that, it’s state election officials.
Elections are a basic function of government. The United States can’t continue making a huge fucking mess of them. Are they waiting until someone gets in and changes vote totals? There will be actual civil unrest if that happens and people find out about it after the election. If they think the 2016 election was bad (and it was bad- really bad) wait until they have a invalid result.
Mnemosyne
@zzyzx:
Fucking Black Bloc assholes ruin everything. They infest the Bay Area but don’t seem to make it down here to So Cal very often, thank god.
hitchhiker
@zzyzx:
Thanks — for that report & for sticking around to be a sane person in what could have been truly crazy. While I was there it seemed like the cops were WAY over-represented — many more of them than there were Trumpers, by a factor of 3 or 4. Plus ALL the blocks closed around City Hall, interrupting downtown traffic & bus routes, just so a few dozen oddballs could act oddly in public.
Jesus Christ, they’re like those head cases out in Oregon last year, hoping to become martyrs. It’s like life isn’t feeling meaningful or something.
We knew there were a few of these fools around, because King County went for HRC by something like 11 to 1, but I’ve been relaxed knowing that they try to keep themselves out of the spotlight. Starting to wonder how this ends, even if DT makes an early exit of some kind … these people are tasting their version of relevance & they probably won’t want to give it up.
Also, sorry about the travel/parking shit. I live on First Hill, so for me this was just strolling a few blocks.
Mnemosyne
@hitchhiker:
The cops in the PNW are probably a little on edge about the right-wing assholes given the murders in Portland. Even racist cops don’t want civilians randomly stabbing people.
Kay
I hate to be a party pooper but it seems like the public should have taken Hillary Clinton seriously when she was yelling about Russian interference in the election. I guess I’m a little confused why that was dismissed as unimportant by media. People really had a right to know it was true. This idea that she was somehow “blaming” someone by saying it is just ridiculous. They managed to take the biggest story of the 2016 election and make it about Hillary Clinton personally. This isn’t news. It’s People magazine. Who cares why she said it? If it was true and people needed to know it it should have been treated as news. Why did they make it about her?
Mnemosyne
@Kay:
Because she’s a woman, a Democrat, and a Clinton.
I wish it was more complicated than that, but it really isn’t. Scott Lemieux has a good essay today about asshole pundits who still refuse to acknowledge the truth.
If the pundits and MSM admit that Hillary was right about Russian interference, then they have to admit that they fucked up. And they can’t possibly admit to that.
SiubhanDuinne
@Kay:
No pooper! No pooper! You’re the pooper!!
Kay
@Mnemosyne:
Faced with this situation, Jeff Sessions chose to seat a commission on “voter fraud”. The Trumpsters were all briefed on the interference in January, prior to the inaugeration. That’s what Comey said. They all knew. Sessions has this information and rather than shoring up elections systems and offering assistance to states, he announced a commission to investigate black and brown voters. He chose to investigate voters.
JPL
@Kay: I’m still angry, and to have Haberman and the rest of them complain when she points it out, really irritates me. They must be having trouble sleeping at night, and need to reflect the blame on Hillary.
hitchhiker
@Kay:
If there is ever an attempt to rectify that, the storyline will be about how she was such a poor messenger & not about how the press had on blinders about every bloody thing related to her.
D58826
@SiubhanDuinne: don’t get your hopes up it is supposed to be in closed session. That way he can lie off the record
Mnemosyne
@Kay:
Yep. Because Sessions doesn’t care that his side won through cheating, and he wants to make sure they can do it again.
One of the reasons these guys scare me is that they’re acting like there’s no possible way they can lose another election. It makes me wonder exactly what they’ve enabled the Russians to do to our election system, not caring what happens so long as they benefit.
Gvg
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): if you read the actual SPL link on them, they are clearly very anti Semitic too. They think Israel is behind ISIS. In other words they are idiots too.
moops
I’m no fan of Sharia Law, but you don’t have a leg to stand on when you partner up with Christian Evangelicals. Then that means you are fine with religious extremists. All that leaves is race hate that is really behind all of this. Their rhetoric about “Eurabia” is just classic immigration fear like we have seen for a century already. If they want to make the case that the USA needs to restrict immigration and refugees then they *could* itemize the tangible effects Muslim immigration has had on “Eurabia”. I mean, they claim Europe is already overrun and lost to this scourge. Then we should have mountains of evidence that Freedom and Democracy can’t survive a large influx or Muslims. Canada is about 3% Muslim, how has that degraded their Freedom or Rights or any other trait that ACT claims to be preserving?
D58826
@hitchhiker: Sigh. IT is all Hillary’s fault. She talked about it constantly on the campaign trail. If, on the other hand, she had Huma send her an E_MAIL marked ‘Russians meddling in our elections’ and created the ‘Russia fund’ in the Clinton foundation the VSP’s would have given themselves a rupture to cover the story.
Kay
@hitchhiker:
Clinton knows a lot about election process- the nuts and bolts. She helped draft the HAVA after 2000. It’s an operations law- it’s boring and technical. She dove into it. A shit load of people in government don’t really know how elections work. She isn’t one of them.
Oh, well. Maybe she can tell us when they change vote totals next time and then we can run thru her personal faults again and completely ignore the substance. Again.
Mnemosyne
@moops:
Well, all of the countries in the European Union hate Donald Trump and their leaders all seem to hate him, so obviously that’s proof positive that they’ve been totally corrupted by their allegiance Islam. Q.E.D., my friend.
(Though I am sad to find out that the photo of the Scandinavian leaders all holding a soccer ball was not a purposeful mocking of Trump’s glowing orb photo in Saudi Arabia. Or so they claim …)
SoupCatcher
@bystander:
So, an improvement, then?
Kay
There’s case law in Ohio where people argue Sharia law in divorces and child custody. Of course, there;s also case law in Ohio where Christian sects argue religious law in those same areas and no one pays any attention.
There’s REGULAR cases where “medical neglect” of children butts up against (Christian sect) religious law. Once a year at least. But it’s not Muslims. So we just deal :)
Ohio is so afraid of offending religious sects they did this crazy thing where they took it away from judges and gave it to county prosecutors for child neglect and abuse. I had to research it once and got to tell the county prosecutor it was his call- he was horrified- they’re elected and no one wants to deal with this because it’s politically fraught and also just impossible. Angels on the head of a pin and all that. Prosecutors didn’t want it so it went back to judges. It’s like the hot potato.
Mnemosyne
@Kay:
Many states will allow Jewish Torah law in family law cases — I know New York state is one for sure. But, again, that’s okay, because Judeo-Christian.
moops
From what I can see in Europe and Canada, Muslims are aggressively democratic when given the chance. They field candidates and campaign and participate in legislating and all parts of a lively political process.
If there is a problem with Muslims engaging in democratic and patriotic aspects of the USA, it seems more likely that the problem is with our particular approach to these concepts. I will add that I have not, in fact, seen much evidence that there is a problem in the USA with any particular cultural group except that ALL minority groups are underrepresented at all levels of governance.
Kay
Do these guys think it’s okay when Catholic hospitals put women who are dying in childbirth into cabs and ship them across town to a medical facility who will save the mother’s life? If so, why? There’s really nothing as coercive as being flat on your back dying and religious law dictates you probably have to die to save the baby.
I remember when they went crazy over the Muslim cab drivers who wouldn’t take drinkers. A year later they were vigorously defending pharmacists who refuse to do their jobs.
They have to decide. What’s it gonna be?
D58826
It wasn’t that long ago that the governments of Europe were based on the divine (Christian of course) right of kings and they had to go before the Pope for a blessing. And in more recent times most of Europe had (and in some cases) still have state Churches or one Christian sect or another. England is Anglican, Republic of Ireland is (maybe not so much now after the scandals) Catholic and France rigidly secular
D58826
@Kay: I remember my Mom saying back in the 50’s that her Catholic girlfriends didn’t want to have their babies in a Catholic hospital because given the need to chose the hospital would opt to save the baby and not the mother. Oddly my German reformed and later Lutheran mother had both me and my sister in a catholic hospital.n
D58826
cant make this up –
I guess when it comes down to money or religion – money rules
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/qatar-accused-of-supporting-terrorism-hires-ex-us-attorney-general/ar-BBCrFEc?li=BBnbfcL&ocid=iehp
NotMax
@D58826
Republic of Ireland has no official state religion. Its constitution guarantees not to endow any religion or impose any penalties due to religious belief.
Mnemosyne
@Kay:
They have decided. Only white men’s lives are worth anything. Anyone else who gets oppressed — women, African-Americans, Muslim-Americans — deserves it.
Kay
@D58826:
I read a lot about it but too late- I had already had babies. Not in Catholic hospitals but that was just chance. I had a scary delivery once- they call it “falling off a cliff”. It was fine until it wasn’t fine and everyone was running around and I wasn’t at all drugged and I thought the light overhead was the moon. I was going into shock. It is terrifying. My husband was there, thank God. He was barking out orders. He’s good in an emergency. The thing is you are helpless. You literally can’t get up. The idea that there would be some kind of religious debate in that room is just so scary to me. There’s no time.
schrodingers_cat
@NotMax: Didn’t an Indian woman die in Ireland because they refused to abort her dead fetus? She was not Catholic, but had to die for other people’s religious beliefs.
D58826
@NotMax: Wasn’t sure about Ireland since the Church seemed to have, until recently, and iron grip on all aspects of Irish life.
Immanentize
@hovercraft: I think Sessions is picking his forum so he doesn’t have to face Al Franken again in Judiciary.
D58826
@schrodingers_cat: yes and people raised holy h*** about it in support of the woman. Not that it did her much good.
Immanentize
@Another Scott: My understand in from years in Texas and great books (like the Raven) is that Sam Houston was a staunch Unionist and deplored the ill-treatment of slaves, although not in the final measure, an abolitionist.
NotMax
@D58826
Church of Ireland (an Anglican offshoot) has a sizeable presence as well.
D58826
@NotMax: I knew they did in the 6 northern counties that are still aligned with Great Britain just not in the Republic.
D58826
@Immanentize:
which is what made the pro-confederacy demonstration so funny, aside from the fools in their solder suits.
Mnemosyne
@D58826:
They really are so willfully dumb that they think the reason Confederate monuments are objectionable is because they were put up by white people, so therefore any monument to a white person is in jeopardy.
ETA: And yet another piece of evidence that ghosts don’t exist, because otherwise Sam Houston’s ghost would have taken the opportunity to kick all of their asses, but good.
mainmata
@ruemara: That’s awesome. Not wishing for anyone’s death but that’s a pretty amazing outcome.
mainmata
@D58826: Always, of course, but Ashcroft? Does he have any real competence?
Westyny
@SiubhanDuinne: Too bad Franken isn’t on the intel committee. At least I think he’s not. I’d pay cash money to see him work Sessions over one more time.
momus
And yet these four probably wonder why the “white race” is in decline.
SiubhanDuinne
@Westyny:
Oh, yeah! That’d be worth some serious coin.
Haven’t yet read Franken’s new book, but have heard him now on several interviews, and he is solid. Looking forward to reading “Giant of the Senate,” and even more to his eviscerating whatever Trumpoids come before him in committee.
SiubhanDuinne
@Immanentize:
This is probably a really stupid question, but is there ever a circumstance in which a witness (as it might be, say, AG Sessions) would appear before the full Senate and not just a Committee or Sub-Committee?
John Weiss
@Mnemosyne: Oh, golly. I think that you’re right.
Take Jerry Jones, owner of the Cowboys. He’s an egomaniac, doesn’t know that much about American football, on and on. What distinguishes him from the Trumps of the world is that he genuinely loves his team. Trump, on the other hand, captain of another America’s Team, does not love us, including his vile “base”.
In my experience it is poison to work at a job you don’t love; for you and the job.
jw
John Weiss
@Immanentize: Yeah. Believe it or not, that was taught to me in the 6th grade. Texas schools were big on Texas history when I was a kid.
Slavery was practiced in Texas, but support for the Session was pretty weak in Texas. Though Texas did join the Confederacy ordinary Texas folk weren’t exactly enthusiastic.
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
Outside of the cases of impeachment, censure or ejection, can’t readily come up with any.
Amir Khalid
@mainmata:
Ashcroft is (or once was) a well-connected Republican, Trump is a Republican president — I figure they hired Ashcroft for his party connections rather than for his legal expertise.
TenguPhule
@Kay:
I’ll take naked hypocrisy for $500, Alex.
Of course the assholes are going to decide that the only thing that matters is what they want.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
So what’s that first picture, the Ku Klux Klown? At lest two of them look a happy meal away from a heart attack and this is supposed to the Saviors of us hapless whites.
Jinchi
This crowd seems to have a thing for the Iron Cross.