Trump — a leering, thrice-married degenerate who used to invade dressing rooms to ogle underage beauty pageant contestants and is on tape bragging about sexually assaulting random women — is addressing the Values Voter Summit today. But let’s beg Irony to come down from the ledge because the organization running this shindig, the Family Research Council, is actually a hate group, so it all makes perfect sense.
Via BuzzFeed’s David Mack, here’s a sample of the swag the “Values Voters” receive before hearing the orange shart-cannon’s remarks:
The pamphlet makes the case that hordes of promiscuous gay people are endangering public health by spreading STDs. This may be the one topic Trump could address with authority since he once said STD avoidance was his “personal Vietnam.”
Walking Jack T. Chick tract Roy Moore is also addressing the assembled hypocrites. That the event won’t end with a precision meteor strike is further proof of an amoral universe, in my book. Open thread!
Viva BrisVegas
So what do they want to do about teh gays, distribute free condoms at gay pride events?
If they are doing that, they might as well donate some to schools to cut back on teen pregnancies.
sukabi
Yeah, and like all his other battles, it’s one he obviously lost.
Corner Stone
I have been skimming a few sites looking for the rabid Trump supporters to be crowing about the death of CSR’s, but not finding much volume. Is that because they don’t understand what just happened? Think it doesn’t mean them? Or they are finally starting to wonder if maybe it actually does include them in this sick vengeance twist?
trollhattan
Republicans and fundies are each perfectly happy to use the other to further their causes regardless of how bad a match they are. This makes fundy Republicans internally at conflict, but we already knew that.
Trump doesn’t believe in the doctrines of either group but that matters not, Trump believes in Trump.
germy
The crisis is what this admin is doing to the Affordable Care Act.
Frankensteinbeck
@Viva BrisVegas:
Execute them. They’re considering that for women who have premarital sex, but the consensus is forced marriage.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Viva BrisVegas:
Nope. They’d like their God to erase them from existence.
Viva BrisVegas
@sukabi: Syphilis does cause brain damage and hair loss.
For Trump I think the hair loss was the hardest to take.
MomSense
I never want to hear another word from Christianists about values, morals, scripture — not one word about anything from these jerks.
They use religion as a justification for racism, homophobia, economic greed, and controlling women.
Villago Delenda Est
Every speaker and attendee at this bigot baglenosh needs to be put on a rocketship to the sun to vastly improve the IQ of the nation.
germy
Getting beaten up by a trump supporter.
trollhattan
@Corner Stone:
They understand the effect of which type of automatic transmission fluid in their F150 more than they understand the workings of the healthcare insurance market. This stuff passes so far over their collective heads they don’t even hear a whistle.
Villago Delenda Est
@germy: DING DING DING DING DING
A Ghost To Most
@Villago Delenda Est: I’d settle for shipping the christian fascists to Russia.
Frankensteinbeck
@trollhattan:
The central tenet of all three is hating brown people. Everything else is a sideline, and they agree on most of those, too. Evangelicals do not actually give a damn about stuff like marriage faithfulness or piety except to the extent they can use it as a weapon.
Corner Stone
I like how Trump dangled the beginning of Armageddon as an “interesting” bon mot to this group when he said they would like his Iran announcement later today.
Ajabu
I’m becoming less concerned with the obvious hypocrisy on the “values” level and far more concerned with fact that the Shitgibbon is A) condemning Puerto Ricans to die, B) further increasing the international laughing stock quotient by decertifying the Iran deal and C) destroying the ACA one “executive order” at a time. Not to mention his pissing contest with North Korea.
This fucking imbecilic monster has to go. Soon. C’mon Mueller! It’s orange jumpsuit time.
SRW1
How could he know that those sluts were allowing other guys to dip their dicks in their p*ssies. With rare exceptions honorable womenz don’t do that sort of thing.
Kay
:)
schrodingers_cat
The Values Voters have only one value, Hate.
Value worth emulating== null set.
Corner Stone
@MomSense: Hey, what’s the problem? What do you have against ValueVoters ™ ? They just vote their values, you know.
Kay
I can’t imagine calling myself a “values voter”. The rest of us don’t vote on our values? I beg your pardon? Do you KNOW this, sir/ma’am?
Insufferable.
Ruckus
@Viva BrisVegas:
Not all that hard to deal with a loss that one is too stupid to notice. So yeah the hair would have hurt the most.
Corner Stone
@Villago Delenda Est:
“Everyone! Everyone! Let’s move on to our next part of the event, a tour of the modern day Noah’s Ark Rocket. Just step right in and find a seat so we can start the promo! Don’t worry if it rumbles a little bit, that’s part of the ‘God’s Wrath’ soundtrack we’re working on.”
rikyrah
Showing how completely and utterly phony these frauds are….already knew it, but just to see them fawn over this clown….they have no principles to be respected.
MomSense
@Corner Stone:
I hate their values!
Corner Stone
@germy: Who doesn’t mind a good beating once in a while to keep them humble? It’s like leeches to get out the evil in the blood.
Ruckus
@A Ghost To Most:
Why do you hate Russia so much?
OK I can understand a little, but really the sun is a far more suitable environment for them.
LanceThruster
Wedge issues are played to great effect by the right, mostly because the simpleminded hate nuance. It turns out their base.
It’s straight out of the propaganda model of the Third Reich.
Kay
I might donate to this. I’m cheap, a miser really, so I hope it isn’t some useless slush fund like the liberal voter groups were in 2004- tell me if you find anything hinky.
“Activism” is often corrupt. Obama sort of cleaned house but there were a LOT of grifters in 2000-04. Like a liberal grifter bubble.
Brachiator
@Corner Stone:
Good questions. I watched some of his speech and the crowd seemed to be genuinely happy at Trump’s Obama care attacks. They seemed to be convinced that they are going to get something better.
Somewhere along the way, Trump mentioned God and the crowd went nuts. As long as he panders to them,they will accept anything.
Major Major Major Major
I was distinctly told by my progressive betters (in person!) that Trump was more LGBT-friendly than Hillary.
Also, that Pence would be so much worse for gay people, we shouldn’t want to get rid of the traitor in the White House.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Corner Stone: It’s way to arcane for the Base to understand AND I am pretty sure this EO is really about Conservative Billionaire donor servicing to get them to start writing checks again.
Matt McIrvin
Trump personally proclaimed himself more LGBT-friendly than Hillary, where “LGBT-friendly” was defined as “hates Muslims”.
A Ghost To Most
@Ruckus: Point taken, but yes, I do hate Russia that much for enabling the coup.
trollhattan
@Major Major Major Major:
Hey-Zeus, who could form that thought in a functioning brain?
Betty Cracker
@Corner Stone: I’ve encountered a few on Twitter, and they’re as pig-ignorant as you’d imagine. They’re convinced the reason their health insurance is expensive is because they’re subsidizing layabouts.
@Frankensteinbeck: Controlling women isn’t a “sideline” for these rage-weasels; it’s an organizing principle.
Barbara
@MomSense: It’s worse than using religion as a justification. They are using religion as a fig leaf to cover prejudices and values that have no rational foundation in the religious texts they claim to follow.
And just reporting from my little corner of the world, I have never seen my husband get so animated about something as he has been about what is happening in Puerto Rico. He is shocked and thinks that Trump is abdicating his responsibility under the Constitution. He thinks people should be protesting outside homes of members of Congress to do something. Let’s just say this is unprecedented.
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
What they missed was that he lies all the time so really nothing he says has any meaning. They didn’t even have to get to “policy”- they could have knocked him out at the get-go just on the lying.
A Ghost To Most
Fuck the christian fascists.
Major Major Major Major
@trollhattan: an idiot?
Barbara
@A Ghost To Most: It still amazes me that these people actually think that involving themselves in politics will make their churches stronger in the long run. My husband is actually very involved in a church (that does not involve itself in political causes) and he has told me that the negative halo effect of flagrant religious bullying on public policy is very real. Many people, especially if they are younger than 35, do not believe that Christianity is anything more than a political cult that likes to throw the words of the Bible around to get what they want.
Mnemosyne
Wait, when did straight people become immune to STDs? I missed that news.
Keep in mind that these are the same assholes who refuse to protect their daughters’ lives with the HPV vaccine. They would literally prefer to watch their child die a slow, painful death than admit that STDs don’t actually give a shit who they infect, because they’re bacteria and viruses, not Gawd’s Punishment Visited Upon Sinners!
Hungry Joe
Only once have I spotted a less-than-obvious turning point in American history. That was the press gala at which President Obama directed some humorous, lightly stinging jabs at Donald Trump, who was in the audience. Everyone was laughing good-naturedly … everyone but Trump. Camera zooms in: He’s frozen, and fuming, just FUMING. I thought, “Uh-oh.” I believe that much of what we’re experiencing right now — the dismantling of the country, the ripping apart of the social contract — is in no small part a result of that evening. Trump is determined to obliterate every trace of the man — the INFERIOR man — who humiliated him in public. See what he’s doing, single-handedly, to the ACA? It’s not about health care, it’s about revenge.
Richard Branson said in an interview that in his early days he had lunch with Trump, and all he (Trump) talked about was who had wronged him and how he was going to get even. This is what Trump is. This is ALL Trump is.
Kay
I love these people, I really do. They are literally the last human beings on earth to figure this out. SO slow. A year late and a dollar short. We’re all stuck with him.
Major Major Major Major
@Barbara:
Sooner or later the centuries catch up to you…
hueyplong
Treating Trump as a repulsive freak sometimes is a thing done at the expense of acknowledging that his supporters are also repulsive freaks who chose him over (somewhat or marginally) less repulsive freaks.
It gets more and more difficult to resist a sense of “fuck ’em all.”
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@A Ghost To Most:
Separation of church and state? What’s that?
germy
Mike in NC
Did the Values Voter crackpots all get free MAGA hats? So jealous!
A Ghost To Most
@Barbara: My wife is Lutheran, and was practicing until the lies of the Shrub administration, and the support he got from christians. Her opinion of christians (and religion in general), has gone straight down hill since then.
Where’s my black flag?
Kay
@Mnemosyne:
It’s just such a lie. This is a very conservative county. They don’t schedule school events on Wednesday nights because it’s youth group night. One year in the early 00’s we had a higher teen pregnancy rate than “the three C’s”, adjusted for population. We were Number One.
O. Felix Culpa
Just dropping in (cooking and cleaning house before my parents arrive for the weekend) to say that Trump is an evil fuck.
The evangelicals elected the anti-Christ. That is all.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@germy:
Because they’re white supremacists?
mouse tolliver
Kevin Sorbo (TV’s Hercules) will be speaking at this event. I guess he got tired of being a well-liked star of popular TV show and would prefer to spend the rest of his days making Christmas movies for the Hallmark channel. And in between he can go on Fox and whine about how nobody wants to hire him anymore after he got in bed with a hate group.
hueyplong
@germy:
Economic anxiety, of course.
Major Major Major Major
Repub presidents always speak at these things right?
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
Looks like UNC basketball will go unpunished by the NCAA for funneling athletes to a fake major that required no work…meanwhile that same NCAA may punish an NC State basketball player…for going to a summer class. File under you cannot make this sheet up.
Ruckus
@A Ghost To Most:
Not defending here, although it sounds like it, how many Russians feel the same way about their leader that we feel about ours? Ten? More than half? In Russia they kill you outright, here it’s take away your healthcare, fuck up the air, water, provide no support for natural disasters……. and then you are gone. Sure there’s a lot of collateral damage but those were people of no consequence to them any way so what the fuck does it matter? Russia is more efficient at quelling dissenters, vlad understands that those taxes can be stolen, our moron in chief just doesn’t want to pay the taxes. And it isn’t like the rich haven’t brought all the purchasable politicians and gotten the tax code written in their favor already.
Matt McIrvin
@germy: Because that’s what the religious right is actually about?
JMG
The people at this conference are the people who define God as “the guy like me who hates who I hate and loves me no matter what.” By any historical definition of Christianity, they are heretics. In the 12th century, they’d have been burned at the stake.
germy
hueyplong
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Amen 10x.
Someone tell Cleveland state to duck.
Ruckus
@Hungry Joe:
Bingo!
If you removed the ego all that would be left would be an ugly Edgar suit with a clump of matted orange yarn.
And the world would be a far, far better place. Amazing that one asshole can fuck up so much and so badly.
Ruckus
@Major Major Major Major:
I also believe there are more than a few older than 35 that think the same way.
Amir Khalid
@mouse tolliver:
Funny, I don’t remember Sorbo being in anything popular beyond Hercules. I do remember that the show came from the same people who produced Xenia: Warrior Princess but was nowhere near as good.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Ruckus:
It’s impossible to know what real Russians think about their government since public polling, and much of their media, is under government control. I remember reading an article, in Newsweek or Time I think, a year ago, about how public polling has a become a propaganda tool the Russian regime uses to establish legitimacy.
It’s true that the US is nowhere near as bad as the Russian Federation, but we’re headed there, unless things turn around. The US has a strong tradition of democracy, rule of law, etc. That will take time to break down. In Russia, they never had one to begin with.
Matt McIrvin
@Ruckus: It’s difficult to know how much to trust polls in authoritarian countries, but according to Gallup, Putin has something like 80% approval at home. I’m actually kind of surprised the United States isn’t like that at the moment; I thought we were stupider.
Miss Bianca
@mouse tolliver: It pains me that this guy is such an ass, because now I feel like I can’t even go back and watch either “Hercules” or “Andromeda”, both of which I had enjoyed a lot. Le sigh.
@Amir Khalid: And the graceless fuck had the nerve to complain because “Xena” was more popular than “Hercules” and make sneering comments about “that lesbian show”. So, yeah…fuck him.
Villago Delenda Est
@Brachiator: The key to all this is the magical Obama name. Their hatred of the ni*CLANG* eclipses any direct financial impact this move makes on them.
The Moar You Know
@Viva BrisVegas: They want to hang them all in public and that is not in any way an exaggeration.
Mnemosyne
@Kay:
It’s the same way that death penalty-supporting Catholics sneer at the rest of us that we’re “cafeteria Catholics.” Their deviation from the teachings of the church is principled, unlike our selfish desire for birth control and social justice.
Barbara
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: I no longer watch college sports with the exception of volleyball and gymnastics. The NCAA is too corrupt, and of course, the colleges are utterly compromised. I went to UNC very briefly. I know the woman in the middle of this scandal. She used to watch my dog when I was out of town. She is a nice person who became corrupt to feed a corrupt system. Not to excuse her, but it’s hard to stay honest when the institution you work for doesn’t value your honesty as much as it does its big money sports.
Villago Delenda Est
@Matt McIrvin: You win today’s prize!
A Ghost To Most
@JMG: Seem like pretty average christians to me. It’s the ones who actually follow Jesus’ teachings that are out of step with American christianity.
Mnemosyne
@LanceThruster:
… says the guy who bought into 25 years of right-wing propaganda against the Clintons without ever once questioning it.
You might want to take care of that log in your eye one of these days.
Spanky
@germy: Yeah, I caught that too. So lucky not to have to bother getting re-elected!
Brachiator
After having watched a chunk of the speech, I think this strengthens Trump tremendously with conservative voters. It was also interesting to see how Michael Steele on MSNBC and other commentator just doesn’t get it. They were chortling over the idea of a hypocritical Trump talking to a bunch of religious Christians.
Trump played his greatest hits, but he also effectively summarized his core message. He intends to put America first, and he is willing to battle Congress, Democrats and Republicans, to get it done. He specifically talked about fighting Islamic terrorism, clearly having no patience for those who want to speak more temperately and not offend Muslims by potentially branding Islam the religion as negative.
He is telling his base that only he is on their side. Not Congress. Not the system. And he is going to give them what they want.
Yeah, his promises are either empty or vile. But you could tell that his audience was happy to hear what he had to say. And you could tell that they want more of what he has to offer.
Barbara
@Mnemosyne: They can sneer all they want as the pews get emptier every year. If it weren’t for immigrants, the demographic challenges for the Catholic Church would be every bit as dramatic as they have been for mainline Protestant denominations.
Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA)
@sukabi: Is he syphilitic-brained? It would be irresponsible not to speculate.
No, seriously, it would be.
japa21
@Mnemosyne: So very true. I am beginning to see some changes there, but it is very slow.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Mnemosyne:
…I know it’s tempting and I’m one to talk, but please to provoke this guy. We don’t need another thread derailed.
mouse tolliver
@Amir Khalid: He was on SyFy series that lasted for a while and The O.C. But those shows seem to be fading from memory. I know he has a recurring role on Supergirl. Good luck with that since it has a large lgbt fan base.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Brachiator:
But wouldn’t that make him fundamentally unAmerican and by extension those who support that message?
Spanky
@The Moar You Know:
Slight edit to point out that they are individually too “genteel”, i.e. cowardly, to do it themselves.
A Ghost To Most
@LanceThruster: Knock it off, Doug.
Aleta
⭐️
schrodingers_cat
@Brachiator: IIRC, Islam is the most widely practiced religion in the world. What does the Dotard Despot propose to do?
Mnemosyne
@Amir Khalid:
Other way around: “Xena” was a spin-off from “Hercules.”
What can I say, I like my pop culture Greek myths.
The Moar You Know
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: My sister in law left (was tossed out for Jewishness) with her family when she was twelve. For some reason, decided back in the early 00s to get her citizenship back. Visits there every now and then. Tells me the people, they fucking LOVE Putin. The anti-immigrant, anti-homo, anti-press stuff? All over it. They want more. The only people who don’t like it are the people who think he hasn’t gone far enough. Like an entire society of Trump supporters.
The very few who truly don’t like it are in deep hiding. You don’t discuss that shit in public anymore, or in private. You’ll end up dead.
Last time she was there, she got physically threatened for having a “foreign” accent. Which it isn’t, it’s Muscovite all the way, but about twenty years out of date. That’s how bad their xenophobia has gotten.
eric
For years, there has been a strain of thinking on the Left that Capital would always moderate its excesses to avoid revolution. So, you get something like Social Security. The “solutions” are nowhere near optimal for Labor, but they placated the Working Class to avoid violent revolution. Beginning with Newt, and now through Trump, the Kochs, and the Mercers, there has been a shift. Now, “victory” and purity of thought matter more than enabling the long-term survival of Capital. I suppose, the hardcore Marxists among you jackals may be relieved that we are getting to the end of the dialectic, but would that we get there without a true madman at the helm. I, for one, do not welcome our new overlords. These are men and women in the mold of Joan of Arc. She is their patron saint.
Mnemosyne
@Brachiator:
Fix’d for accuracy. When Trump says “Americans,” he only means white people.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@schrodingers_cat:
What did MacArthur want to do in China?
Hey, there’s a reason he wanted those nukes.
Betty Cracker
@Brachiator: Will be interesting to see if proclaiming oneself president of 40% or so of America is a successful political strategy in the long run. My impulse is to scoff, but who knows? Maine isn’t an especially corrupt, crazy or stupid state, but factionalism among opponents allowed a sentient Storm Front comment thread to win the governorship. (A similar thing happened in Florida, but everyone assumes we’re crazy yahoos, so let’s go with Maine.)
Matt McIrvin
@Brachiator: They were all in for Trump anyway. The racism and authoritarianism are key; it really doesn’t matter whether Trump goes to church or gives a damn about God.
bemused
@Hungry Joe:
Yup. This petty and needy creature knows only one thing and that is he must be universally adored and adulated no matter what he does or says. This isn’t happening mostly due to his own idiot self and his rage is growing by the day. He’s lashing out and attacking practically everyone in sight. My burning stomach I had for weeks after the election did subside but it’s come back in the last week. I’m feeling very uneasy. Something’s got to give.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@The Moar You Know:
Yeah, that’s fucking terrifying. Remind me to never visit Russia. I didn’t think there was a worse place on Earth than the Deep South. Guess I was wrong.
Corner Stone
@eric:
I, for one, am unfamiliar with this notion. Anyone who has been alive since at least Reagan understands that capital only wants to move in one direction.
Ruckus
@Matt McIrvin:
From some I’ve known over the years I seriously doubt that 80%. OTOH I also understand that life is better now, on average than it was not all that long ago. One thing that always got me was the propaganda that we saw about life in the USSR or Russia today. Bread lines, no food in stores, everything parceled out in far less than useful amounts. But if it really was that bad people would be stacked up in the streets like cords of firewood. OTOH how free is everyone here in the US? A black man driving a car or even just walking down the street doesn’t seem to be particularly safe from the government. Do you feel comfortable when you see a cop? How safe do you feel every time you write out a check for your healthcare insurance? Don’t they have universal care in Russia? Why yes, yes they do. It is difficult to compare countries on their day to day living, how people react to their governments, because those governments do different things with and to the people and people probably have differing ideas of what a government should be, based on what their history is.
Brachiator
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
No. Trump supporters, Tea Party types and previous non-voters bought the simplistic BS that Congress is uselessly gridlocked, and almost deliberately do-nothing. And specifically, Congress refused to do what the American people wanted about immigration, terrorism, other issues.
In watching the speech, you could see how delighted Trump was to be able to bash Congress for not passing an Obamacare repeal. And his audience was right there with him. And they loved it when Trump promised to do it himself, and to force Congress to give him what he wants.
Again, we can point out the contradiction and hypocrisy here. Racist fools blasted Obama for being a dictator, for issuing executive orders when Congress refused to act, for taking action that was supposedly unconstitutional.
But these same people love it when Trump does it. Because Trump has convinced them that he is on their side.
I yield to no one in my distaste for Trump. But I promise you that Fox News and Trump supporters will be dining on this speech for months, even if Trump’s agenda falls apart or is opposed.
And again I note how Trump using staged events like this to rejuvenate himself after he has stumbled or had his plans thwarted. Like clockwork, he stages a rally with enthusiastic supporters and feeds on their adulation like a political vampire. Their response also convinces him that he is on the right track.
And he’s got another speech coming later about Iran. God help us all.
BTW, even though the Democrats are still opposing him, some in Congress, especially Speaker Ryan, are doing everything they can to fall in line behind Trump.
gocart mozart
Motion to change the name of the ‘Values Voters Summit’ to the GOTMAIB: the Gathering Of The Morally And Intellectually Bankrupt.
Do I hear a second?
J R in WV
@Barbara:
And where would they get such an idea? From theocratic fascists who use selected bits of an ancient holy book to attempt to force political changes in line with their selected bits? NO, NO, saying it isn’t so!!
That’s exactly what these fundamentalist theocrats are doing. They don’t follow the Christ or his teachings, they use bits from here and there to support their pet dogma, mostly based upon hate of the other folks who aren’t in the church Jesus loves. They are despicable users of weak-minded people who really need help navigating the complexity of religious beliefs in general, and Christianity in particular.
Religious fascists are the scariest fascists around, they want to hurry “evil” non-believers off to hell in the most painful manner, and to harvest their believers for more and more money. And votes, let’s not forget their votes!!!
Trump doesn’t even know the naming protocol for the books of the Bible he claims to believe in, nor the teachings of the Christ he claims to worship. Yet people fall for his line of cheap BS every day. Really weak-minded people, all of them.
FlipYrWhig
@Brachiator: Trump has always been popular among repulsive paranoid idiots. If he’s playing a room full of repulsive paranoid idiots, he’ll always seem like a brilliant genius. That’s why his handlers go out of his way to place him only in rooms full of repulsive paranoid idiots.
eric
@Corner Stone: Yes, it wants to move in one direction, but it understood that there were limits. Go back and look at Reagan compared to now and the GOP then was far more moderated in its excesses and willingness to compromise than it is now. They wanted lots more of the pie, but they understood that they could not get all of the pie. It was an unjust worldview, but one that recognized limits, not out of sense of fairness or justice, but for the survival of the system itself, from which they benefitted the most greatly. Now, it is “release the hounds.”
rikyrah
@germy:
Cause they miss the ‘ Good Old Days’, Joy.
FlipYrWhig
@Brachiator: I don’t see how “the small group of excitable people who have always loved me will be more excited about it and feel affirmed by it” is supposed to pay off as a political strategy. Who gives a shit? I’m sure ham radio enthusiasts get fired up when ham radio enthusiasts speak at ham radio enthusiast conferences too.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Brachiator:
I think I’ve seen this movie before. It doesn’t have a good ending. Something with Weimar in the title.
bemused
@Barbara:
They also don’t want their teens to have access to contraceptives or sex education but just say no. I don’t know if they think they’re scaring their teens into not having sex or their teens will never have sex until marriage because they said they can’t. It must be an awful shock to those parents who find out their teen has contracted an std in the throat.
Duane
The “values voters” and their deluded ilk have proven, beyond any doubt, that they’re hypocritical fools. Their support of Trump has left them with the moral authority of a swarm of gnats.
SatanicPanic
@Hungry Joe: That’s why I’m not willing to assume that there’s any strategy to Trump’s ACA actions. I think he’s just mad, and the ACA happens to be something he can wreck. I suspect a lot of his dumb followers are exactly the same way.
J R in WV
@Spanky:
Pictures are hung, people are hanged. Pet peeve of Mrs J, a better grammarian than I.
Barry
@Barbara: “It still amazes me that these people actually think that involving themselves in politics will make their churches stronger in the long run. ”
It’s clear by now that for a lot of these people, power and oppression are core beliefs.
Brachiator
@schrodingers_cat:
Trump doesn’t do math. In his speech, he declared that he was for America first, and had special love for Israel, screw everybody else. And he is promising to inflame the situation with Iran and piss of our allies who think that the Iran deal is good.
@Mnemosyne:
Yep. And his supporters are OK with this. Latinos don’t belong here, black people are ungrateful moochers, and Asians are suspect if they don’t keep quiet and go along with white America’s plans.
@Matt McIrvin:
It matters that Trump is going to demolish any barriers separating church and state and will allow his base to unleash their Christianist agenda.
Peale
@LanceThruster: Yeah. The powerful wedge issues are not those that divide the GOP from Democratic voters. Its the ones that they can use to divide Democratic voters away from the party and into the GOP that are the problem. Immigration and Gay Marriage have probably served their usefulness by this point. There aren’t huge swaths of Democrats who also oppose gay marriage or want to force immigrants to speak English at this point. The problem, though, isn’t that there are lots of those Democrats left to lose, its that when those issues are the “hot topic” they tend to drive GOP turnout and depress Democratic turnout because as much as they may technically support gay marraige or the Dreamers, those aren’t issues that are top priorities either. Even for the Democratic voters who they would seem to impact the most.
The Moar You Know
@FlipYrWhig: You won’t believe this. I am one. One of the youngest out there, I might add, only in my early fifties. These days, I shit you not, I’ve stopped going to the conventions because inevitably some doddering fucktard (that’s about 90% of hams these days, retired, mean as shit, right wing former engineers) is going to start raving about taxes and moochers and illegals/cartels (here near the border, we get a lot of hams over the border who speak Spanish, and they assume it’s all about drugs and rape) and their favorite pet peeve, HOAs. They can’t even get Boy Scouts out to these things anymore, that’s how bad it’s gotten, like a goddamn retiree community of rage that’s somehow still mobile.
A Ghost To Most
@gocart mozart: IGMFY.
Kay
Puerto Rico. They used radio to find the teachers. Direct human cost of electing Donald Trump. No other President, Democrat or Republican, would have punished these people for being the wrong color.
I think it’s an impeachable offense. Can’t they sue on equal protection or something?
FlipYrWhig
@The Moar You Know: I was just trying to pick an obscure passion and was on the verge of using Parrotheads. No offense meant. Sorry to hear _that’s_ gotten politically sketchy too.
les
@Betty Cracker:
Since it looks like 20% is enough to control the federal gov’t, that looks like a bonanza.
bemused
@SatanicPanic:
That’s what I think too. ACA EO the closet, easiest thing he had in reach to smash. Gotta blow up something with that rage.
J R in WV
@bemused:
And how much worse when they hear that it’s an incurable viral disease, or not responsive to antibiotics? A shame that the “getting what they deserve” happens to their kids, and not to the twisted adults!
Ian G.
I wonder why Hezbollah just doesn’t rebrand as “Values Voters”. I mean, they hate women and gays and give religion as an excuse for doing so too.
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker:
The advantage is with the incumbent. Dubya got re-elected and he didn’t even win the first time around. People and Congress have to react to Trump, and Congress is even less popular than he is.
Will this help him through the first hurdle, the 2018 election? Who knows. But it is working for him now.
Wasn’t Maine the place that had the crazy ass governor moaning about how black drug dealers were coming into the state and defiling all those pure white women. Doesn’t get much crazier than that.
Again, I’m just saying that this little speech was designed to sell Trump to his base, and to other white citizens, and those few nonwhites who buy into his America First BS. And I think the people whose first instinct is to simplistically mock and dismiss Trump have underestimated him again here. He is still a piece of crap, but he is making sure that everyone, including Congress, reacts to his moves.
The Lodger
@Viva BrisVegas: There is evidence that Trump has hair. Not sure about a brain.
Spanky
@J R in WV: Ooooh! I feel the burn from that one, JR!
(Now ex-grammar-nazi)
bemused
@J R in WV:
Pretty sad for those teens with parents and churches who ban sex education. Kids think they’re not having sex if it’s oral and don’t learn about stds. I saw a segment awhile ago about a teen girl who was stunned that she had an std because how could she when she hadn’t had sex. I wonder if those teens are angry or bitter that they weren’t given information from their parents and churches to protect themselves.
Corner Stone
@eric: Sorry, but I seem to recall the 80’s much differently than you. It was an era of excess, of greed, of ostentatious displays of wealth.
The Moar You Know
@FlipYrWhig: Oh jeez. No offense taken. Seriously. And it’s a great example, use it all you like. Only 800,000 left in the US, vast majority of those over age 70, it’s really a fringe hobby and going to get a lot fringier over the next decade as the old guard dies off.
And yeah, I’m utterly horrified over what it’s turned into. I wanted my license since I was ten. Decided I’d have it by my 50th birthday. Did it. Got on the air and…OMG, so not what I expected.
Sad thing is, there’s still a lot of really smart guys out there with some really innovative ideas, and they’re just getting lost in the noise.
Spanky
@Kay:
Any other country’s leader would have earned a one-way trip to The Hague. Not gonna hold my breath about Donnie making the trip, though.
bemused
@Corner Stone:
I definitely remember the 80’s as the start of the me, me, me era.
schrodingers_cat
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: He is going to nuke Indonesia and India? Those are the two countries with highest and second highest number of Muslims in the world. He can’t kill them all. Besides a religion is an idea, and the idea lives on even if you kill those who follow it.
Peale
@Brachiator: Again we’ll see. Democratic voters respond differently to things than Republican voters. I still don’t know what inspires Democratic voters, to be honest. But I remember in October 2010 a few days before the election, Obama giving a great speech to a few ten thousand people in the Ohio State football stadium, thinking that the polls were wrong. Obama is still popular with Democrats and they are so excited to see him that they’ll sit out in a football stadium on a weeknight. And the polls that were indicating a bloodbath for the Democrats were wrong! And then the people left that stadium pumped up and it produced absolutely nothing, indicated nothing and the bloodbath happened anyway.
Maybe the lesson will be that the GOP voters want to help their president succeed and are excited to help and Democratic voters will go out of their way to help him as well. Who knows?
Betty Cracker
@Peale: Did you know you were addressing a “proud” Jill Stein voter at #114? It’s true that there aren’t many Democrats left who oppose gay marriage and hate brown people, but it turns out there are enough splitters on the margins to put Trump in the White House, with a healthy assist from Mr. Putin and GOP voter suppression tactics.
These same folks are very disturbed by the bankster ties of Democratic women like Kamala Harris and Kirsten Gillebrand. It’s been my mission since the election to add enough new / infrequent voters to the rolls to make self-righteous saboteurs like “LanceThruster” irrelevant again.
Brachiator
@The Moar You Know:
Is it still the case that ham operators are kind of a last resort for emergency communication?
I thought your analogy was a great one.
frosty fred
@schrodingers_cat: If I had a nickel for every time I heard a nun say “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church”–well, I’d still be puzzled as to why Christianists think it works any different for any other religion.
Peale
@Betty Cracker: Yep. While it will probably take you five trips to the voter registration website with a non-voter to produce one actual vote next year, its still the best use of everyone’s time right now to do so. We aren’t going to win in Florida with the same voters on the rolls from 2010 and 2014. More different voters, please.
catclub
@Mnemosyne: Zenia was a town in Ohio that got hit by a big tornado.
ETA: Xenia?
The Moar You Know
@Brachiator: Yeah, but the military are the only people left who take it even somewhat seriously. They do a yearly rehearsal, nationwide.
A lot of the old relationships between “official” and “amateur” organizations have gone to shit over the last 30-40 years, so while hams could be helpful, they’re not allowed to be very helpful as the government just wants them out of the way and gone.
I do know that in Dominica and the British Virgin Isles, right now hams are still handling some of the communications as there’s nothing else left. If you’ve got a working transceiver, a car battery and a long piece of wire, you can make something happen. Can’t do that with any other form of modern comms I know of.
The Moar You Know
@The Moar You Know: I should also add that at this point in history, most US hams fall squarely into “keyboard commando” territory and are literally the last people you want at a disaster site “helping out” with anything. Overseas it is quite different.
I also don’t want to smear all US hams with a broad brush: about 10% take the emergency assistance thing VERY seriously and work many hours per week rehearsing and keeping gear in good order for anything they’re needed for. Problem is: they’re a minority.
LanceThruster
@Mnemosyne:
Another one of your many misrepresentations. Pretty much all you’ve got. Seems as if you suffer from reverse Clinton Derangement Syndrome. With you she can do no wrong. I think the progressive assessments of her are more damning than the hypocritical right wing smears. It was her actions that made her so vulnerable, and it cost all of us.
“It’s a huge shit-sandwich and we’re all gonna have to take a bite.”
Brachiator
@The Moar You Know:
I could see that with cell towers out and no electricity, a ham with a generator might be a vital life line.
This reminds me that in my ancient college days, one of the guys in our building would talk to his mother via ham radio once a week.
LanceThruster
@Mnemosyne:
The guy who helped break the Iran/Contra story is not ‘right wing.’ He gets it…even if you don’t.
geg6
@Barbara:
That’s pretty much all it’s ever been. Take out that Jesus guy, who may or may not have been an actual person and not a myth, and that is the entire history of the church.
Mnemosyne
@LanceThruster:
Iran/Contra was 30 years ago. Now Parry is a Russian stooge who’s fine with Russia bombing maternity hospitals because Assad “invited” them to kill his people.
But I realize that you’re unable to recognize reality anymore, so I’ll stop now so I don’t ruin the thread for everyone else.
sheila in nc
@Barbara:
I live in Chapel Hill, although I am not an alumna and I don’t know the people involved personally. But I read the Wainwright Report and a lot of the reporting around it. The commentators I saw on ESPN kept pointing out the real bottom line, and why the NCAA couldn’t act: the course in question was open to all students, not just student-athletes. The course in fact was originally created by someone in the African-American studies department who was trying to provide a “gut” course for minority students from poor high schools; her incentive was to keep them eligible for their Pell grants by making sure that when they had to take hard courses, there was an easy course for them to take also. Over time, the academic advisors for student athletes became aware of this easy course option and started signing up the athletes also. But it was always freely offered in the full course catalog to anyone who wanted to register. The fact that this particular “gut” course was academically illegitimate — the professor who was nominally in charge never met with the registered students, and the submitted papers were not graded by him but by a department administrator — that is a BIG problem, but it is an academic accreditation problem, not an NCAA problem. UNC took steps years ago to deal with the academic issue.
LanceThruster
@Betty Cracker:
Combating irrelevance will be a major hurdle for the Democratic party. #DemExit is not a fluke. Being tone deaf has not done much to energize the base. Presenting GOP-Lite as a choice is no choice at all. They appear to have learned nothing.
Bill Arnold
@Brachiator:
Just wanted to quote this. The pattern is undeniable now that it’s happened enough times.
LanceThruster
@Peale:
GOP is usually quite adept at rallying their base. The disdain for HRC worked superbly to their advantage, regardless of how horrible a candidate Trump was. Schumer’s assurances about how many moderate GOP voters the Dems would pick up to offset the loss of progressive voters could not have been more clueless. But he and Pelosi, are still in positions of party leadership.
LanceThruster
@Betty Cracker:
If a safe state like California is not worth trying to help grow a viable third party, then why bother? Your candidate couldn’t close the deal because of those awful voters. You know, the ones it’s her job to rally and inspire. “Hold your nose and vote for her!” just wasn’t the compelling strategy you Clinton supporters thought it would be. Certainly didn’t help that she thought she could coast to the finish line.
LanceThruster
@Mnemosyne:
Keep effing that hospital chicken, M.
Mnemosyne
@LanceThruster:
The Republican propaganda managed to get you to vote for Stein so, yep, you behaved exactly the way they wanted you to. Good job with that, really.
Betty Cracker
@LanceThruster: Hillary Clinton isn’t ever going to run again. You burned the witch — now enjoy your victory laps while Trump burns the world down. #DemExit right on out the door and into the path of a speeding Peterbilt, you stupid prick. You’re none of my concern.
Mnemosyne
@LanceThruster:
I realize you don’t give a shit about dead Syrians unless you can blame the US for it. Besides, those people were killed by the Russians two whole weeks ago! Why can’t we talk about things Hillary did 20 years ago instead?
Karen
Is stupidity contagious? From some of the comments have been reading by dolt worshipers I end up wondering it is either contagious and dolt is source or every time he opens his mouth his worshipers lose what little intelligence they may have once had.
A friend posted and I commented only to be focus of a shit storm; he is openly and proudly gay and I lack a p*nis so neither one of us should have an opinion
Peale
@LanceThruster: Yo asshole. It was your side going “hold your nose and vote for her.” That’s your mantra. And for months you told us how all your fucking bellyaching wasn’t going to make a difference. Boo hoo hoo. We actually wanted to vote for her and against Trump. Your too cool for school hold your nose bullshit wasn’t what we were up to. Hold your nose is the same stickt you guys have been running around with since forever and its managed to get you jack shit in terms of influence anywhere. Maybe its your side that needs to come up with more positive messaging for yourself since whatever shit your candidates are about, no one seems to buy into them.
LanceThruster
@Mnemosyne: 5
If only Hillary had a bigger war chest maybe she could have overcome fluffing Trump in the first place, eh?
Miss Bianca
@Peale: Yeah, it’s amazing to me how clueless white “progressives” seem to be about how popular (not) their preferred candidates and positions really are.
Mnemosyne
@LanceThruster:
Sadly, having you do Trump’s work for free meant that the extra money didn’t help. Don’t worry, I’m sure your thank-you MAGA hat is in the mail.
LanceThruster
@Betty Cracker:
We can be thankful for small favors, I suppose. But Dems still float neoliberal corporate candidates and specifically chose to return to the same old gravy train. They’d rather lose as long as they’re well funded doing it.
The lesson Pelosi took from the jaw-dropping loss was change nothing. Good luck with that.
LanceThruster
@Peale:
Rigging primaries has consequences. That they felt they even needed to was quite telling.
Boatboy_srq
@Kay: Goes back to their misconception that there are no ethics without Gun-totin’ Capitalist White Jeebus, hence all the unWashed unGodly non-Xtianists must be amoral animals.
Mnemosyne
@LanceThruster:
Yeah, the smarter campaign paid $10 million in kickbacks to their campaign manager. Good thing that wasn’t wasted money!
Mnemosyne
@LanceThruster:
Poor Lance. You just can’t get over the fact that your Personal Jesus lost to a mere woman, can you? You’ve had to create an entire fantasy world where the primary was “fixed,” and you’ll give us links to Republican media to “prove” it.
LanceThruster
@Mnemosyne: 6
How quickly you forget all the free press Trump got from the MSM fluffing him for Team Hillary. Wonder what they’ll do with their MAGA hats?
Mnemosyne
@LanceThruster:
Sorry, this doesn’t make any sense in English. Can you please ask your supervisor Misha to help you with the translation and try again?
Tehanu
@mouse tolliver: Mercifully, Teri Hatcher’s character stabbed his character to death last season.
Aleta
@LanceThruster: What’s telling is that you fell for that lie. And your need to blame others to protect yourself from your own mistake.
germy
@Tehanu: The rest of the cast must have been relieved to see him go. He doesn’t exactly share their values, from what I understand.
LanceThruster
@Mnemosyne: @Mnemosyne:
You don’t need to put quotes around ‘prove,’ Wikileaks provided it, Donna Brazile admitted it. DNC shenanigans was undeniably established and all your Trumpean cries of “Fake news!” won’t change that. My candidate is still out their fighting the good fight…yours wrote a ‘tell fuck all’ book because she needed another payday. Wonder if Bernie is charging the Women’s Convention big bucks for his appearance? Bet his public and private postions match too.
LanceThruster
@Aleta:
Donna Brazile got caught. Clinton did not call her out when she did it, funny that. Rigging a primary and then asking for your vote is like stealing your car and then asking for gas money.
Mnemosyne
@LanceThruster:
Wait, a Russian-funded website released damaging information on Hillary? How unprecedented in this election! I wonder if there was any other Russian interference.
Actually, she didn’t, but since we already know that you get all of your news from Republican and Russian sources, I’m not surprised you believe this.
Of course he is. Were you naive enough to think he isn’t?
Personally, I can’t wait to hear Bernie lecture all of the little ladies about how they’re doing everything wrong, and they need to listen to their Great White Hope rather than doing things themselves. I know that’s the message you want to hear.
Mnemosyne
@LanceThruster:
Yes, I especially loved how Hillary rigged the primary by getting Republican governors and legislators to prevent minorities from voting:
How dare Hillary force those right-wing legislators to suppress Democratic votes just to benefit herself!
LanceThruster
@Mnemosyne:
She admitted to it.
Mnemosyne
@LanceThruster:
Er, no, she didn’t. But I’m not surprised at all that you believed Donald Trump over a Black woman. There’s just something about him that you feel more comfortable with.
LanceThruster
@Mnemosyne:
Primaries are a different issue from general election voter suppression. Dems can’t have it both ways,
Mnemosyne
@LanceThruster:
Lance, what poltical party controls every statewide office in Arizona, including elections? You can take a minute to Google it since you don’t seem to know.
Hint: the name of the party that controls everything in that state does not start with a D. I know that’s a surprise to you.
LanceThruster
@Mnemosyne:
Get bent, hypocrite. You dismiss Nina Turner on a regular basis. The Wikileaks were not altered. The have a perfect track record in that regard. The left cheered them when they were outing Shrubya.
Mnemosyne
@LanceThruster:
Too afraid to Google it, huh? Don’t worry, I’ll Google it for you. You’re welcome.
LanceThruster
@Mnemosyne:
Re: Russians.
LanceThruster
@Mnemosyne:
Hillary paid lip service to the irregularities but not so much as she chose to actually do anything concrete.
Matt
@Hungry Joe:
Building on that: *that’s* what the Trumpkins mean when they say “he says what we’re thinking”. They’ve decided that they hate this country so much that they’ll clap the whole time while it dies.