Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

T R E 4 5 O N

Come on, man.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

I really should read my own blog.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Consistently wrong since 2002

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

John Fetterman: Too Manly for Pennsylvania.  Paid for by the Oz for Senator campaign.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

You are here: Home / Climate Change / How about that weather? / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: “What You Do for the Least of These… “

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: “What You Do for the Least of These… “

by | 167 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

More context, via Esquire:

Anyone who’s glanced at the electric Twitter machine since the sky began to fall on southeastern Texas has become familiar with Jim McIngvale who, under the name of Mattress Mack, owns the Gallery Furniture chain of stores in Houston. Mattress Mack has opened a couple of his stores for people displaced from the storm to come and rest and sleep on his inventory…

Mattress Mack apparently is one of those local businessmen known for his eccentric promotional sense… Now, though, he’s betting long on his fellow citizens, which is pretty much the living definition of citizenship…

Also of Christianity, if what the nuns told me forty-plus years ago still has any currency. Not that Pastor Osteen would take advice from a bunch of women, but I don’t think even the Prosperity Gospel has been able to wholly eliminate Matthew 25:40.
***********

Apart from looking for the helpers (as Mr. Rogers always told us to do), what’s on the agenda for the day?

Reader Interactions

167Comments

  1. 1.

    Cermet

    Rebuild? No; rather move people (mostly the poor and middle class) to high ground out of those flood plains. The message should be “Remove, and allow to return to forest/plains and relocate to higher ground. Doesn’t exactly fit on a poster

  2. 2.

    bystander

    After Katrina there was much discussion of the need to re-engineer all the levies and dams in the Delta. Dutch engineers offered their expertise. Did anything actually happen on a large scale to prevent similar flooding? I imagine the farsighted repubs will see to it that rich people aren’t burdened with Houston’s woes either.

  3. 3.

    opiejeanne

    @Cermet: I don’t think there’s much higher ground anywhere near Houston. I thought I read that the highest point is about 45 feet above sea level.

  4. 4.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @bystander:

    If you’re smart, you’ll study the Dutch approach to water management. We did – before sinking back into lethargy and failing to implement a lot of what we learned. The idea is that places as vulnerable to rising seas as New Orleans and Houston need to learn to live with water rather than fight a losing battle to make it go away, need to get as wily as Rotterdam.

    From Houston, take heed from us Katrina survivors. This is what lies ahead of you
    -Jed Horne

  6. 6.

    Baud

    “What You Do for the Least of These…

    Actually, Trump is the least of all of us, and I plan to continue to treat him in a most un-Jesuslike manner.

  7. 7.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Will nobody think of the poor fire ants?

    There is a new threat to the millions of people in Texas affected by ex-hurricane Harvey: large “rafts” of fire ants that have been spotted floating in floodwaters. Displaced by record flooding, the insects have responded by creating rafts built on top of dead ants to stay on the top of water and keep dry. Hailing from the floodplains of the Paraguay river in South America, the ants are accustomed to flood-prone environments.

    Despite the raft-making behaviour being well known to entomologists (it was observed following hurricane Katrina), images of the ants sailing on floodwaters have caused panic online. A picture of a huge swarm posted to Twitter by Bill O’Zimmerman caused particular alarm.
    …..
    Compounding the risk posed by the flotillas, the naturally aggressive fire ants are more defensive and deliver higher doses of venom when flooded, according to research by Louisiana etymologist Linda Bui.

    Great pics, Video too! at the link. ;=)

  12. 12.

    skyweaver

    Mackingvale is a Houston legend, he’s always been very generous in times of need. We used to make fun of his quirky commercials in the 80s, then the city fell in love with him because he kept showing up in times of need, just like he’s doing now. The Osteen family seems to just me another Texas evangelical megastar family. Every photo I see has that whiff of teeth-whitened desperation in their smiles.

  13. 13.

    kilo50

    Here is what Real Christians are working on. Don’t have time for “the least of these” thing. Too busy writing manifestos:

    A coalition of evangelical leaders released a “Christian manifesto” Tuesday asserting their belief that marriage should be between a man and a woman, and condemning the acceptance of “homosexual immorality or transgenderism.”

    The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood outlined the views in what it called “The Nashville Statement,” and offered it as guidance to churches on how to address issues of sexuality. A group of evangelical leaders, scholars and pastors endorsed the statement on Friday at a conference in Nashville. It was initially endorsed by more than 150 people.

    The “manifesto,” which is composed of 14 beliefs, rejects the idea that “otherwise faithful Christians should agree to disagree” on gay, lesbian and transgender issues. The leaders refer to this mentality as “moral indifference.”

    Sorry From WaPo

  14. 14.

    bystander

    Moanin’ Joe just broke the news that Trump is apparently a racist. I wish somebody would rerun the video of Joe’s reaction when Rob Reiner said the Trump campaign was rife with racism.

  15. 15.

    ThresherK

    Good for him.

    I’m thinking he really isn’t named Mattress Mack.

    To be fair, would you shop at a store called Unpainted Huffheinz?

  18. 18.

    debbie

    I thought I read that Osteen had decided to open his church as a shelter. Is that not true?

  19. 19.

    Baud

    @debbie:

    The megachurch led by Joel Osteen is receiving people who need shelter and also helping evacuees with supplies such as baby food, formula and other shelter needs, the church announced via Twitter Tuesday morning.

    Lakewood Church was under fire after apparently not opening up the church to flood victims. The church disputed online criticism, stating “we are prepared to shelter people once the cities and county shelters reach capacity.”

    http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/29/us/joel-osteen-houston-megachurch-criticism/index.html

  20. 20.

    Kay

    When Amazon announced its acquisition of Whole Foods for $13.7 billion last month, we knew instantly how Wall Street felt, as Whole Food’s stock price jumped 27 percent and its competitors like Wal-Mart and Kroger slid as much as 17 percent. We knew how the tech press felt, as Bloomberg lauded Amazon’s “ruthless genius.” But how do the everyday patrons of Whole Foods feel?

    When I asked an employee stacking organic baby spinach how she felt about the acquisition, she shrugged and said “It’s literally been like four hours. I don’t know.”

  22. 22.

    kilo50

    @Baud: Lakewood Church probably will serve nourishing evacuee food when all the McDonalds and other eaterys run out of food as well.

  25. 25.

    kilo50

    @debbie: All evacuees must say shibboleth correctly, be wearing a MAGA chapeau or be able to speak in tongues on demand,

  26. 26.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Oklahoma isn’t working. Can anyone fix this failing American state?

    A teacher panhandles on a roadside to buy supplies for her third-grade classroom. Entire school districts resort to four-day school weeks. Nearly one in four children struggle with hunger.

    A city overpass crumbles and swarms of earthquakes shake the region – the underground disposal of oil and gas industry wastes have caused the tremors. Wildfires burn out of control: cuts to state forestry services mean that out-of-state firefighting crews must be called in.

    A paralyzed and mentally ill veteran is left on the floor of a county jail. Guards watch for days until the prisoner dies. A death row inmate violently convulses on the gurney as prison officials experiment with an untested cocktail for execution.

    Do these snapshots of Oklahoma show a failing state?

    ….

    It may be hard to believe, but entry-level employees with a high school diploma at the popular convenience store QuikTrip make more than teachers in Oklahoma.

    For four years running, the state has led the nation in tax cuts to education, outpacing second-place Alabama by double digits. Years of tax cuts and budget shortfalls mean that Oklahoma has fallen to 49th in teacher pay. Spending per pupil has dropped by 26.9% since 2008. Things have become so bad that the Cherokee nation, a tribe systematically cheated out of its land allotments in the creation of the modern state of Oklahoma, recently donated $5m to the state’s education fund.

    ….

    Meanwhile, facing another budget meltdown and a teacher exodus, the state raised cigarette taxes to cover the shortfall only to have the supreme court rule the law unconstitutional. Oklahoma declared a revenue failure the second year in a row. “Our situation is dire,” Oklahoma finance director Preston Doerflinger said. “To use a pretty harsh word, our revenues are difficult at best. Maybe they fall into the category of somewhat pathetic.”

    Governor Mary Fallin had an answer: prayer. The governor issued an official proclamation making 13 October Oilfield Prayer Day. Christians were to gather in churches and hope for a little divine intervention targeting falling worldwide oil prices. Fallin quickly back-pedalled when it was pointed out that her proclamation only included Christians. “Prayer is good for everyone,” she reasoned.

    Prayer Day came and went. The price of oil has barely budged since. Three weeks after Prayer Day, however, the earth shook. A 5.0 magnitude earthquake hit the town of Cushing, a place whose claim to fame is the “Oil Pipeline Crossroads of the World”.

    Maybe God had something to say about Oklahoma after all.

  28. 28.

    Lapassionara

    @kilo50: I am fervently hoping that this ship has already sailed, and that the efforts of evangelicals to turn back progress for LGTB folks are doomed to failure. Please, FSM, make it so.

    Good morning, everyone.

  30. 30.

    kilo50

    @OzarkHillbilly: Oilfield Prayer Day. You gotta love the rank derp that the policy is honestly thought to be a solution. I have no sympathy for a state that would cut its own throat and apologize to the Koch brothers for the inconvenience.

  32. 32.

    kilo50

    @Lapassionara: Radical Reactionaries gotta react. SBC is very powerful and many of it’s member church now openly espoused preferred candidates from the pulpit. They have no limits to their inndecency now. They long passed the espousing policies during services bit. They are fired up to roll back the last 25 years so I would not be hoping. Keep fighting.

    Edited for no coffee yet spelling

  37. 37.

    gene108

    @Baud:

    I think it is more tax cuts, because Oklahoma still has a tax rate that is too high and thus scaring job creators from flocking to the state. It is the only logical conclusion as to why any economy fails.

  39. 39.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @Lapassionara: I’m reading Geoffrey Stone’s SEX AND THE CONSTITUTION, which is about the history of culture wars in the US. The Founders were much more interested in keeping government out of issues having to do with sex. The religiously driven fixation on other people’s sex lives rose in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. It’s interesting stuff.

    I thought the ship on LGTB rights had indeed sailed, which was why the trans ban in the military was so discouraging. And of course, I thought the abortion rights ship had sailed too.

  42. 42.

    Gin & Tonic

    Today’s agenda? Off to see the wizard, hoping that he really is a wizard and not just some old guy behind a curtain.

  45. 45.

    Kay

    We had the event for Connie Pillich last night. There were quite a few Republicans there- maybe more because one of their fellow Republicans invited them than they are supporting a Democrat in the governor’s race, but still.

    Pillich was very centrist. No comment at all on Trump other than a eye-roll at the “chaos” in DC. I don’t know if she’s more liberal in liberal areas but someone could easily get to the Left of her in a primary.

  46. 46.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Gasoline and fire. I’d be tempted to be the only boat going about with spare gas and a lighter to torch fire ant colonies…

  48. 48.

    bystander

    @rikyrah: The Morning Joe crowd doesn’t deal well with honesty.

    Chris Christie is on now lacerating Ted Cruz as a liar and a weasel. (No offense to weasels.) Fun when they turn on each other publicly.

  52. 52.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: maybe she was just reading her audience? Or do you think she really is a third way candidate? And is that the way to win in Ohio? I’m curious because I would rather a win than a purity pissing match.

  53. 53.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:
    Someone like Cordray?

    She’s a Democrat, and if she’s willing to go get the votes where Democratic votes are, good luck to her.

    Did you get to discuss voting rights and Husted’s voter suppression tactics?

  58. 58.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I suggest nothing :)

    Pillich is appealing. It’s a “good government” sort of argument. Sadly that was basically Clinton’s argument and didn’t get us far but that sort of “roll up your sleeves and WORK” thing almost makes me feel better – my husband was alarmed at how vehement she was about locking up drug dealers. I thought she needs to read up on Lake Erie environmental issues- I knew she’d get a question, she did, and she wasn’t prepared.

  59. 59.

    Jeffro

    Fuck the fire ants and fuck Joel Osteen.

    The best tweet I have seen so far this morning is ” praying for Houston but all cities matter … see how stupid that sounds ? LOL”

  61. 61.

    Immanentize

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: @OzarkHillbilly:
    I hate fire ants. Impossible to get rid of and their bite hurts like hell. One time, just after we were married, we were visiting my in laws who are rather said Lutherans (Missouri Synod) and I was walking in their back yard with sandals and stepped on a fire ant mound. The little suckers raced up my leg and started biting with their acid bonus. I was hoping up and down on one foot, trying to swipe the devil’s off me while yelling “Jesus Fucking Christ!”. I thought I was alone out there but as I took a revolution of pain-hopping, there were my new in laws standing looking like American Gothic.

    This is the type of praying I suspect a BJ prayer day would inspire.

  63. 63.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    No. No voting rights. She wants a state public option which I thought was kind of interesting so I asked her about that. She thinks Obamacare really set the stage for expansion/improvement in Ohio with even Kasich climbing on board. I agree. It’s a good issue for her. So funny how that changes, huh? Now Obamacare is a plus for them.

  67. 67.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Some may say that this isn’t the time, but based on the images I’m viewing, might part of the problem involve building 6000 sq ft McMansions for silly assed white people to horde vast amounts of useless shit that they neither need nor really use for actual enjoyment under two story interior porticos and 8 foot ceilings across a plain made of filled in swampland and grassy flatlands?

    My assistant actually got pissy with me yesterday. She told me that her parents found a way out of their neighborhood and finally got out after abandoning the notion of saving “stuff” in the first floor. When I said “be thankful that they got out and will be safe”, she actually got angry with me for not focusing on the tragedy of the waterlogged or potentially stolen stuff (she had previously agonized over thieves in boats).

    Too many Texans with money are fucking weird – their priorities are way, way askew. As I always say, Texas got all the worst money scrounging supremacist assholes from Tennessee in the beginning, and the culture metastized into the leadership.

  68. 68.

    low-tech cyclist

    I don’t think even the Prosperity Gospel has been able to wholly eliminate Matthew 25:40.

    I don’t have a link handy, but earlier this year, the abysmal Erick Erickson was claiming on Twitter that this only applied to ‘the least of these’ among our fellow Christians. And he was really patting himself on the back about how he was right about this and his critics were wrong.

    Why are there so many people out there being assholes in the name of Christ?

  70. 70.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    It worked for Trump.

    I know one of the Republicans there quite well and he said “tell me about Pillich”. I said “you’ll like her, she’s very approachable and normal” and he laughed- “normal would be good. Let’s have normal again”

    They’re ashamed of Trump. I knew they would be. For the wrong reasons, in my view, they don’t like the excess and the “tone” but I knew the moderates wouldn’t be proud of him.

  76. 76.

    rikyrah

    @Baud:
    Housing sprawl with no environmental plans?
    Maybe it’s that.
    Maddow had on last night that Houston and its surrounding suburbs was the land mass size of Connecticut.

  77. 77.

    MJS

    @Baud: Because that’s what Jesus preached, “Love one another as I have loved you, but only if local facilities are at capacity.”

  79. 79.

    Immanentize

    @Baud: I can give you an example of the connection. There were these great neighborhoods in Houston proper that were built between the ’20s and the late 40’s with bungalow style houses, usually two bedroom single story on God’s little 1/3 acre. yards, trees, little gardens — you get the picture These were great places for young families, etc. But then a combination of no zoning in Houston and gentrification meant that people with cash came into these neighborhoods, ripped down the small houses and built mcmansions that filled nearly every square inch of the property (no set backs required). What wasn’t covered was mostly paved.

    When you do that too large areas mile by mile over time, the ability to absorb any water is quickly diminished. Houston would have flooded anyway, but the speed of the flooding and the cost of the damage is greatly increased by such building practices.

  80. 80.

    Baud

    @MJS: Look, Jesus said “I am the Alpha and the Omega.” That means someone has to play the role of the Omega. Osteen is just doing his Christian duty.

  81. 81.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Baud:

    The current cable imagery isn’t “little pink houses for you and me” that are flooded, and for which our vast soulsucking maw of middle America white Christians can’t seem to care about.

    These homes are larger – 4000 footers at least.

  82. 82.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: Filling up wetlands and putting up impermeable surfaces (roofs, driveways, basketball/tennis courts, etc) Practically the entire Houston Metro area was a wetland at one point in time. The sprawl is an unforced sin.

  84. 84.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    @OzarkHillbilly: NPR had a story on a very recent Oklahoma teacher of the year who quit and moved to Texas. I think his pay went up a third or so. He and his wife,also a teacher,had their first child and he said they just could not make it on the pay. Meanwhile his replacement a long time Oklahoma teacher said you just have to make do and basically insinuated that the guy who left was being selfish.

  85. 85.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I think Democrats will be all over the map because they’re unsure of what the situation is- it’s not a bad thing, it’s just uncertainty about what approach to take. Pillich hasn’t yet encountered divisions in the base so we’ll see if she goes more toward the base as this goes on. “Centrist” isn’t a BAD bet in Ohio- it’s a 50/50 state.

  86. 86.

    Immanentize

    @OzarkHillbilly: I’ll add that Houston only exists because
    1) Galveston kept getting destroyed by hurricanes (we used to call it the City that Almost Was) and 2) they built the ship channel in toward Houston to protect commerce when Galveston would get destroyed again by Hurricanes.

  88. 88.

    danielx

    Remember driving through neighborhoods in Houston with an old friend who had relocated there (years ago it was) and being taken aback by the lack of zoning. We’re driving through a residential neighborhood – nice homes, decent sized yards, all that and all of a sudden there’s a thirty story high rise in the middle of the neighborhood. I’m all ‘WTF’ and my friend says “yup, no zoning…gotta be care and make sure there’s no open land anywhere close to where you want to live”.

    Strange place.

  89. 89.

    Kay

    Good piece on Detroit mayor:

    Something weird is happening in the Motor City: Government is working. And the guy in charge is about to get re-elected in a landslide because of it.

    Ugh, this:

    Duggan also fought with Clinton’s campaign brass over having full control over her GOTV operation in Detroit. The Clinton campaign suspected he was trying to road-test a reelection machine and decided to go with the same national paid-canvassing company it was using everywhere. She won 95 percent in the city, but turnout plunged.
    In Wayne County, which includes Detroit, Clinton got 77,411 fewer votes than Barack Obama in 2012, in a state she went on to lose to Trump by just 10,704 votes.

  90. 90.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    “Centrist” isn’t a BAD bet in Ohio- it’s a 50/50 state.

    That’s heresy, Kay. It’s only 50/50 because Dems haven’t put up a true progressive.

  97. 97.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @rikyrah:

    A ridiculous temple to self. I tend to find that those purchases tend to be driven by the wives (or ex-wives) of courageous, heroic paper processing insurance brokerage owners, purveyors of gimmicky mortgages and lavishly state educated engineering company executives who pulled themselves up by their bootstraps in the 60s and early 70s when education was state sanctioned and they could make scads of money on government contracts.

  98. 98.

    Another Scott

    We had a good day in Fairfax County, VA yesterday. Special election for an at-large school board seat. The Teabagger that held the seat resigned 10 days before the deadline that would have put the election to replace her on the November ballot. So the county had to spend about $250,000 for a special election.

    It was rainy most of the day. Turnout is usually only ~ 4-6% for elections like these…

    But the Democrat won going away. 2:1. Turnout was up (~ 10-11%). She won every district but one, and only lost that one by less than 10 votes.

    Very good news, and it points in a good direction for the state elections in November.

    Keep fighting, everyone.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  100. 100.

    Immanentize

    @OzarkHillbilly: Texas City… Aka Toxic City. I have a good friend who grew up there on his family’s chicken ranch. He hated chickens so much When I went to lunch with him, he would always order a chicken dish. I asked him one day, what gives? You hate chickens so much yet every meal it’s chicken. He told me that to him every meal meant one more dead chicken.

  101. 101.

    Betty Cracker

    Article in The Hill:

    The White House will shut down an Obama-era rule that would have required businesses to track how much they pay workers of varying genders, races and ethnicities according to a new report…

    The Obama rule would have required employers with 100 or more employees to hand over data on wages to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission with the goal of preventing pay discrimination.

    Ivanka Trump, who is serving as an unpaid adviser to her father in the White House and has pushed for equal pay for women, said in a statement that the “policy would not yield the intended results.”

    “We look forward to continuing to work with EEOC, OMB, Congress and all relevant stakeholders on robust policies aimed at eliminating the gender wage gap,” she said in the statement.

    She knows this how? Ditching the data collection requirement is supposed to somehow improve the gender wage gap? What a steaming load of horse shit.

  102. 102.

    Cermet

    @opiejeanne: My point stands; one does not relocate a city based on 500 or 1000 year events (now rather common it appears …) but does not allow people to live in zones that will be lost every few years no matter the fact that AGW makes every few years 500/yr events – so, even if the 500 year event do occur every ten/twenty years now. If that means most all the city residents are in zones that will be lost every five years, that is a very different issue and must be addressed. If not, then how, pray tell, can anyone, least of all the tax payer’s afford rebuilding houses in those zones that often? Or do we only allow the rich to survive safely and cast off the poor and say, too bad, you lived there and suffer the consequences? No. AGW is reality and it is starting to bite – the issue is to tax the wealthy to pay for its harm and use that to move people to safer ground and replace their losses when even that ground finally is underwater for a while. Then, maybe, the 0.001% will take AGW seriously.

  103. 103.

    Baud

    @Immanentize: I hope no one ever told him about the laws of supply and demand.

    @Betty Cracker: It’ll improve the gap because Trump will lie about their being a gap and there won’t be any data to contradict him.

  104. 104.

    Ohio Mom

    @Kay: When Pillich ran for State Rep, Ohio Dad was a regular campaign contributor even as he sometimes complained that she was too conservative for his taste.

    Still, it was a thrill to finally be represented in Columbus by a Democrat. The fellow who took her place is pure slime.

  105. 105.

    MomSense

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    We all should pay more attention to Mr. Rogers.

    Mr. Rogers is someone who has done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more.

  106. 106.

    Immanentize

    @Baud:

    hope no one ever told him about the laws of supply and demand.

    Oh, we did. But David would just smile — his cousins still owned the family business.

  107. 107.

    Another Scott

    @Baud: McMansions around here are infamous for covering every allowable square foot of the (often) < 1/8 acre plot, either by the home itself or hardscape (driveways, etc.). It increases run-off during rains and certainly would make flooding events worse.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  108. 108.

    Ohio Mom

    @Kay: You have Pillich nailed. What she knows about, she knows about but she isn’t always broadly informed enough.

    That was another Ohio Dad observation, who has followed her career much more closely than I have (every couple needs to divvy up what needs doing).

  110. 110.

    Kay

    @Ohio Mom:

    She talked about that. She’s really proud of flipping a GOP seat. I agree with her there- it’s difficult to do.

    I think the healthcare debate in the governor’s race will be interesting now that Medicaid expansion is such a big success in Ohio. Democrats can run on it, particularly because Republicans have to run AGAINST it in their primary. They all have to run hard Right to retain the Trumpsters.

    It feels to me like it’s changed- like “keep Obamacare” is now the centrist, “bipartisan” position so even middle of the road Democrats can run on strengthening. It’s funny how things play out :)

  111. 111.

    rikyrah

    Georgia State Rep. Jason Spencer warns black attorney she ‘may go missing’ if she tries to remove Confederate monument

    A Republican member of the Georgia House of Representatives issued a veiled threat of lynching to a black former colleague who expressed anti-Confederate memorial sentiments on his Facebook.

    According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgia State Rep. Jason Spencer (R) did exactly that on a Facebook post when former state representative LaDawn Jones expressed a distaste for a photo he took with a Confederate monument.

    “This is Georgia’s history,” Spencer wrote on a post accompanied by a selfie he took with a South Georgia monument to Confederate president Jefferson Davis.

    Jones, who formerly served in the state legislature until last year, questioned whether state tax dollars help pay for the upkeep of the memorial, which includes the house Davis fled to after the Civil War ended. A few comments in, Spencer began making threatening allusions.

    “Continue your quixotic journey into South Georgia and it will not be pleasant,” Spencer replied. “The truth. Not a warning. Those folks won’t put up with it like they do in Atlanta.”

    “I can guarantee you won’t be met with torches but something a lot more definitive,” he continued, responding to Jones’ comment about the store-bought tiki torches used by the white supremacists at the Charlottesville rally earlier this month.

    After another person commented about the differences between Atlanta (a city who has a large African American population) and the rest of Georgia, Spencer agreed.

    “They will go missing in the Okefenokee [swamp],” he wrote. “Too many necks they are red around here. Don’t say I didn’t warn you about ’em.”

    Jones didn’t back down from Spencer’s intimidation.

    “Sounds like a threat of physical violence … is that what we are doing now?” she wrote. “Desperate times call for desperate measures huh? Afraid of what is going to happen in southern GA? I saw those white supremacists crying when sh*t really hit the fan.”

  112. 112.

    Kay

    @Ohio Mom:

    It was kind of nice to have Republicans there. One I know is a an insurance agent so everyone turned to him and laughed when Pillich said “public option” but he admitted there are real issues with health insurance.

    Obviously this group is self-selecting for “reasonable”- they attended a Democratic event- but the whole thing had a good feel to it.

  114. 114.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay:

    It feels to me like it’s changed- like “keep Obamacare” is now the centrist, “bipartisan” position so even middle of the road Democrats can run on strengthening. It’s funny how things play out :)

    Just as Republicans feared.

  115. 115.

    Schlemazel

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    I discovered while living in Florida that I am allergic to fire ant venom. They are very nasty little bastards. THere should be a flotilla outfitted with flame throwers out their torching those rafts

  116. 116.

    Ohio Mom

    @Kay: She must have had a good number of Republicans voting for her for State Rep here in the northeastern suburbs of Cincinnati because there sure aren’t enough Democrats to put her over the top.

    She flipped that seat by knocking on door after door, making sure every contributor got thanked with a hand-signed card, and so on..she did everything you are supposed to, all the way. As you have observed, she is a very hard worker with a lot of stamina.

    IIRC, she was all ready to run for the State Senate but our district was redrawn to exclude her home. What a funny coincidence!

  117. 117.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @rikyrah:

    “While I am shouting about my desire to subjugate you/disenfranchise you/expropriate your business and property/drive you out of the country(all while whiny about your current ability to peacefully participate in civic, social and economic life), I am not currently doing it, nor am I breaking windows or committing acts of violence while rallying others to my cause of eventually destroying you financially, socially and physically. Therefore, my speech is peaceful and you must tolerate me, respect me and be deferential because my race.”

  118. 118.

    rikyrah

    Republicans Will Let America Burn While Holding Out for Tax Cuts
    The core principle of the GOP is to make the rich richer, and that’s more important to its congressional leaders than any U.S. institution

    Their priority will not change no matter what Trump does and no matter how many vastly more pressing problems confront the nation. The core principle of the GOP is to make the rich richer, and that is more important to people like Ryan than any of our institutions. As reality dawns on the naively hopeful GOP members who believed they could “manage” Trump, their willingness to keep the nuclear codes in the hands of a giant toddler says a lot about their values.

  119. 119.

    rikyrah

    Trump Likes to Dig Deep Holes for Himself

    There is no doubt some ideological component that helps explain why the Trump administration has made so few appointments and seen so few confirmations of people to fill out their government. But the fuller story is one of lack of preparedness, a refusal by Trump to consider nominees who have been critical of him, a lack of desire by an increasing number of people to seek employment in his administration, and a lack of qualifications or actual disqualifications among those why were vocal supporters of Trump’s candidacy. The Democrats have engaged in some slow-walking, too, mainly in a reciprocal denial of unanimous consent in the Senate that would speed along the nominees who have been named. On the whole, though, Democratic obstruction explains almost none of the phenomenon.

  120. 120.

    Dupe70

    Mattress Mack is plain awesome. I lived in Houston for 10+ years and always enjoyed his crazy ads and promotions.

  121. 121.

    Immanentize

    @Another Scott:

    My take is: there’s a difference between “speech” and intimidation and incitement and we have to be willing to recognize it.

    I agree but where is that line? I think the ACLU is right to represent Nazis who want to March but not represent those same people if they do so armed.
    How do we get police to protect us from intimidation?

  122. 122.

    rikyrah

    THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 8/29/17
    Houston hazards multiply as flooding worsens
    Stephanie Gosk, NBC News correspondent, talks with Rachel Maddow about the emergency response to the crisis in Houston as flood waters push dams and levees to their limits and a chemical plant is being watched for potential explosion as safety systems lose power.

    THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 8/29/17
    As Houston levees overflow, so do flood evacuation shelters
    Maya Rodriguez, NBC News correspondent, talks with Rachel Maddow about the plight of flood evacuees in the Houston area and the effort to find enough shelter space to accommodate everyone in need.

    THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 8/30/17
    How natural disasters became a presidential test
    Michael Beschloss, NBC News presidential historian, talks with Rachel Maddow about the secondary story that accompanies any natural disaster in the United States: whether the president has responded and behaved appropriately.

  125. 125.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Dupe70:

    It was a good thing to do AND brilliant marketing. He’ll make out for 10 years of goodwill on this gesture alone.

    It was cheaper than ads. Besides, the floor models are usually sold at about 40% of new, and still exceed the wholesale cost. This was super cheap as a really nice gesture.

  130. 130.

    rikyrah

    THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 8/29/17
    In odd move, Mueller subpoenas former Manafort lawyer
    Rachel Maddow reports on the atypical treatment former Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort is receiving from Special Counsel Robert Mueller, including subpoenaing his former lawyer to give grand jury testimony.

    THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 8/29/17
    Trump attorney testimony unlikely in light of Moscow deal story
    Rachel Maddow reports on the development of the Trump Tower Moscow story and how Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen’s role in it raises new questions about whether Cohen will testify to congressional investigating committees.

  134. 134.

    rikyrah

    Trump steered clear of storm victims during Texas visit
    08/30/17 08:00 AM
    By Steve Benen

    The fact that Donald Trump went to Texas in the wake of Hurricane Harvey is not surprising. It’s been common for many years to see presidents travel to areas hard hit by disasters, meeting with officials on the ground, and offering support to victims.

    But reading Politico’s report, it’s clear Donald Trump can’t stop being Donald Trump.

    It was a presidential trip to a deluged state where the president didn’t meet a single storm victim, see an inch of rain or get near a flooded street.

    But the daylong visit, during which President Donald Trump spent far more time in the air than on the ground, gave the optics-obsessed president some of the visuals he wanted, as he checked in on the government apparatus working on relief efforts and was buoyed by a roaring crowd of locals.

    Perhaps the most memorable moment of the day came when Trump marveled at the size of his audience, saying in Corpus Christi, “What a crowd, what a turnout.” Apparently, in the president’s mind, what mattered during his brief visit to Texas was the number of locals who wanted to see him.

  135. 135.

    Mike in DC

    @Cermet:
    Since 6 million plus people live in the Houston metro area, can we agree to stipulate that relocating an entire metropolis is an undertaking of decades, not years?

  136. 136.

    frosty

    @Another Scott: That’s because the Virginia stormwater regulations don’t require stormwater management for single lot residential development/redevelopment, just subdivisions.

  137. 137.

    Schlemazel

    Found this on the FB, thought you all might get a stomach turn out of it:
    The Gettysburg Address, delivered by the 45th President:

    “Four weeks or even seven days ago no one had heard of Gettysburg. I had, but the rest of the country hadn’t. This is a really special place and a special state. What a crowd, what a turnout!
    So here we are, in the middle of this war, okay? The sad thing is that this is long-term. Nobody’s ever seen anything this long. Nobody’s seen this kind of war. Probably, there’s never been something so expensive in our country’s history. But we’re here to take care and it’s going well, we’re going to get this country back and operating immediately. And your governor, Dan Hastings here, I just want to say him and his team are doing a fantastic job. So, Governor, we won’t say ‘congratulations’, we don’t want to do that. We will congratulate each other when it’s all finished. But you have done terrific, and you’ve been my friend too, for a long time. You’ve become famous in the papers these last few days. You have, it’s okay, you have.
    So our soldiers are doing a fantastic job, and when we put this country back together, we want to do it better than ever before. We want to be looked at five years, ten years from now, as this is the way to do it. I will tell you, this is historic, epic what happened here in Gettysburg. But you know what? It happened in Pennsylvania! And Pennsylvania can handle anything!
    I love you guys, what a crowd! What a great turnout!”

  139. 139.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Mike in DC:

    Shit, in Kentucky, we can’t even suggest “leave that shitty, jobless, run down hamlet in an Appalachian hollow so Louisville doesn’t have to keep pumping money into maintaining infrastructure, medicaid and county salaries” without hearing howls of outrage. After a century of those fuckers gerrymandering this city while burrowing through our pockets, they’re sensing backlash coming from ordinarily cooperate legislators. I’m seeing some pieces printed in the hinterlands, talking about how we’re really some kind of team and all the benefit we got from the extraction communities in the past, and how we have to respect their cultural differences and heritage when they change state law to disallow our elitist local fairness stuff, mandates for prevailing wages, expenditures for diversity, blah blah blah.

  141. 141.

    The Moar You Know

    Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale

    I heard this guy on BBC World Service a couple of days ago. He’s doing the right thing and I don’t give two shits about his underlying motivations or lack thereof. He’s doing the right thing and that is to be celebrated.

    He’s no Joel Olsteen, that’s for sure. Few higher compliments can I give a person.

  142. 142.

    Davebo

    Mattress Mack (Jim McIngvale) is a legend in Houston. Came to town with almost nothing, setup furniture store inside a couple of model homes from a bankrupt builder on the side of the freeway. He’s a good guy.

  143. 143.

    Davebo

    Mac also built the West Side Tennis Center that hosts the US Tennis Association.

    Guess the guy digs tennis.

  144. 144.

    Schlemazel

    @WaterGirl:
    Given the world as it is being less cynical just seems to be a recipe for constant disappointment. As a professional cynic I enjoy the rare surprise when cynicism is undeserved.

    @The Moar You Know:
    I think you have that backwards. Not being Joel Osteen is such a low bar that whale shit could clear it.

  145. 145.

    different-church-lady

    @Another Scott:

    Call me naive, and you probably should, but it didn’t occur to me that people would figure out how to game free speech.

    Bingo.

  148. 148.

    different-church-lady

    From the essay @Another Scott linked to:

    Call me naive, and you probably should, but it didn’t occur to me that people would figure out how to game free speech.

    Bingo

  150. 150.

    sukabi

    @low-tech cyclist: Why are there so many people out there being assholes in the name of Christ?

    Pretty sure they are first and foremost assholes, they just use Christ as a shield.

  151. 151.

    germy

    Joy Reid‏Verified account @JoyAnnReid 10h10 hours ago

    These people go to church on the regular, sit in the pews beside you and literally hate the poor and the suffering. They rage at compassion.

    Democrats: do you really think some offer — free college or job training — will win this type of person over? Let them go. Just let go.

    Let them live in their hardness and anger and selfishness and greed. Let them cling to what’s theirs and growl at the needy. Let them go.

  152. 152.

    different-church-lady

    @germy: I don’t know if we should “let them go”, but I do know we should not pander to them.

    There is a difference, and our progressive betters right here at this website have been seen advocating for the latter. And the really weird thing is that pandering to them won’t work anyway. They want hatred, and if you don’t give them hatred they won’t vote Democratic.

    The key would be figuring out how to defuse the hatred. That’s a task that’s above my pay grade.

  154. 154.

    john (not mccain)

    Has Trump complained yet that this really epic storm, unprecedented in the history of America, wasn’t named after him?

  155. 155.

    Schlemazel

    @sukabi:
    As a teen I was an amature magician – and a bad one at that. I was also raised in a religious household & sent to weekly bible class as well as Sunday School. One time some friends from bible class told me about a faith healer & insisted we go see him. I was impressed at what I saw right up until I watched him perform a trick I knew by heart (“your legs are different length but if we pray God will lengthen the short one and you can see it happen!”). Then he pulled a second lame trick that I knew. I pointed this out to my friends and they were pretty upset – WITH ME!

    Had I been a bit less sincere I could have done his act (pretty sure I could have figured out his other tricks) because apparently some Christians want to be taken advantage of. Conmen are everywhere but none get treated as well or given so much leeway as those who profess they were sent by God

  156. 156.

    Mnemosyne

    @The Moar You Know:

    I pretty much guarantee you that McIngvale self-identifies as a Christian (I haven’t read the full stories about him). This is one of those situations where it’s very, very easy to point and say, “This guy is a Christian, Osteen is not.”

  159. 159.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Immanentize:
    I think one important line is whether the group is engaged in intimidation. Forget the Tiki Parades, the alt-right are waging a massive war of sadistic, organized online harassment including threats of rape and death, grotesque racist insults, and actual doxxing. They will only stop if they are afraid, so they must be made afraid. I wish the authorities would do that, but they refuse.

  160. 160.

    Mnemosyne

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    It was established by the Supreme Court that death threats are A-OK and protected free speech when they decided that the vile anti-abortion Nuremberg Files website had a free speech right to publish the home addresses of abortion doctors and mark out the names of the ones who had been murdered, like Bernard Slepian.

  164. 164.

    Captain C

    @gene108: Companies love moving to places with crappy infrastructure and a poor educational system to provide them with future employees. That’s why places like New York and California have no corporate presence whatsoever.

  166. 166.

    J R in WV

    [email protected] 13 or so.

    First, your link is hosed and the reply link branches to the WaPo story about the “Real Christians” and their pathetic and un-Christian diatribe.

    And your first sentence is inaccurate too, I FIFY:

    Here is what Real Christians evil followers of Mammon are working on.

    These monsters masquerading as compassionate ministers preach hate and revenge rather than love and compassion. Every command from Jesus in the New Testament has been broken by these miserable hucksters, grifters , and conmen.

    They are despicable, greedy and power mad, with no good side to be found anywhere.

  167. 167.

    The Lodger

    @Schlemazel: Conmen are everywhere but none get treated as well or given so much leeway as those who profess they were sent by God

    That should be a rotating quote.

Comments are closed.