“Prayer rugs” at the border, my flabby white arse — that was one of the OOOH SCARY ooga-booga Sean Hannity talking points from the summer of 2014.
Some of the ranchers along that border use barbed wire or razor wire atop their fences, and IIRC were turning up abandoned carpet samples that migrants used to get over the wire without injury. When the normal people laughed at Sean’s ‘killer Mooslim!!!’ theories, some numbnut supporter showed up with a no-really-guys ‘prayer rug’ that turned out to be a soccer jersey.
That was the year that James O’Keefe managed to milk the marks by showing up at the border in an Osama bin Laden mask, in case that sparks any recollections.
They’re not in any way smart, these people, but they sure to Murphy the Trickster God are persistent. But then, so is shingles — and at least we’ve got vaccines for shingles.
The Moar You Know
Like I said, last thread:
I live about 30 miles from the border. I’ve been hearing this “abandoned prayer rugs from Muslims” trope – the two pics I’ve seen so far have been a soccer jersey and a typical Mexican blanket – since before 9/11. The GOP and especially FOX have been trying to make this a “thing” for over 20 years. Maybe Trump will finally make it a thing.
The reason is utter bullshit: outside of some very nice, liberal parts of Mexico City, a Muslim that was not hiding their identity would be in serious jeopardy from anyone they met.
WereBear
As always, and forever, they got nuthin’.
Litlebritdifrnt
Let alone the fact that any self-respecting Muslim that managed to schlep his prayer blanket 1,000 miles from Guatamala is certainly not going to abandon it in the desert. You have to wonder how utterly brain dead the supporters of Trump have to be to believe it.
chopper
@Litlebritdifrnt:
after a thousand mile journey with his grandfather’s prayer rug, he sets it down on the ground whispering “you no longer spark joy”. a tear rolls down his face. he crosses the border and walks into a shoney’s.
fin.
rikyrah
There are two groups of GOP reptiles…the Old School kind..and the dopes brought in with Dolt45.
When you read that Buzzfeed article…
I have always believed that the Old School GOPers that worked for Dolt45, like Reince, have been singing like a muthaphucka to Bobby Three Sticks.
The dopes that Dolt45 brought ARE stupid enough to have lied to the FBI and Special Counsel. …and, I include Race Bannon in that.
The snitches are always the ones…like that lawyer dude who worked for The Evil One, but heard that bullshyt with Hope Hicks on AFO, and put in his resignation the moment AFO hit the ground.
The Moar You Know
@chopper: 8/10. You forgot him thanking the blanket for all the comfort it has given generations of his family. Otherwise, note-perfect.
I seriously laughed hard.
Quinerly
@chopper: ?
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah:
I am lost, can you explain.
WereBear
I have long thought that Faux News watchers don’t really believe any of that crap, but find it a perfect excuse and channel for their ever-present rage and spite; which is now shown to be increasing the more they watch Fox.
Which is actually worse. Fox inflicts a mental illness on people who otherwise would not have one.
Brachiator
At first I thought that the right wing nut jobs were making up the “prayer rug” theories out of whole cloth. But it is not surprising to see how some of the dopes irrationally reacted to seeing pictures of protective carpet samples.
It’s sad how events create crazy contexts. Recently, here in California, the cops were called about a woman carrying a couple of rifles. The woman was carrying tree branches from a rain damaged tree.
Sad that there are dopes who desperately need to try to help “prove” right wing nut job conspiracies.
rk
“Prayer rugs”? Weak sauce.
He’s actually going to have to shoot someone on fifth avenue to gain some support back.
Jerry
@Litlebritdifrnt:
This is especially crazy when you factor in that rugs are not even required for prayer.
WaterGirl
@schrodingers_cat: I vaguely know what is being referred to – the hope hicks on the plane reference, that someone smart enough to recognize the danger ahead submitted their resignation with lightning speed afterwards, with speculation about getting out ahead of the near-certain eventual *crash of Trump and his administration.
But I cannot recall the name of the person who resigned or even exactly when it happened.
*I surely thought the crash would have happened far sooner than this.
C Stars
It’s like for a whole demographic of people, their psychological development just halted at 7th grade. Was just reading about the ignorant cretin who shouted “Go back to Puerto Rico” to Rep. Cárdenas. I mean…what is this supposed to accomplish? Short term he gets Booyahs from his good ole boys back in MO, but long term it just makes the GOP look even more racist and backward, right? Who would vote for such a knucklehead? And the prayer rug thing reads like an urban legend that you couldn’t really believe even as an 11-year-old.
I know they’re going down…they MUST be going down…but it feels interminable.
debbie
@schrodingers_cat:
There are so many to choose from, but I believe rikyrah’s referring to this guy.
bemused
@WereBear:
I’ve long thought that their hate and rage is focused on putting liberals “in their place”. I hear it and see it in local rightwingers. Anything liberals might like from arugula to zip lining sets them off. Yeah, I think wingnut media does make people nuts.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
The Hoarse Whisper– anonymous tweeter who I think has said s/he’s a lawyer?– thinks McGahn is key source for Mueller. I find myself dreaming that Al Gore’s old lawyer Abbe Lowell is helping Jared throw everyone else under the bus, with the whispery encouragement of Lady McVanka
Amir Khalid
@Litlebritdifrnt:
I think it was actually a Gutemalan Arsenal supporter. That is slightly less rare than a Guatemalan Muslim.
trollhattan
@chopper:
The internet, she’s-a yours. Enjoy-a!
DanF
ZOMG!!!! TERRORIST FIST BUMP!!
Mike in NC
We laugh at these imbeciles, but paranoia over ‘Mooslim terrists’ and ‘Messican rapists’ is how we ended up with a dimwitted petulant man-child in the White House.
Went out to dinner last night with several neighbors and one of them told me a retired Coast Guard acquaintance has had his pension frozen on account of the Trump Shakedown.
Brachiator
@C Stars:
Also, Trump’s racism is infectious. Puerto Rico is officially a part of the US, but to the right wing goober mind it is a foreign country, and its residents illegal aliens.
Chyron HR
@rk:
He’s
actuallygoing tohave toshoot someone on fifth avenue to gain some support back.CarolDuhart2
Occam’s Razor. More than likely someone carrying a rug is carrying it to have something to sleep on besides the bare earth or to wrap around oneself when it gets cold. Made just about anywhere these days, and are cheap, unlike authentic ones made in the Middle East. Indeed, if you had a rug that valuable, it would have been sold for money a long time ago for enough money for plane tickets and an easier ride to the border.
They are flailing. The shutdown is becoming more unpopular every day. The attempt to scaremonger about the caravan isn’t working either. Once you have made a point that they were designed to influence the elections by pumping in new “illegal” voters, a caravan that is coming nowhere near an election doesn’t fearmonger as well. They are hoping for something-that this group acts up, that there’s a terrorist action somewhere, something that will finally scare Americans into supporting Trump
Quinerly
The Atlantic has a piece up about Trump’s tweeting about the Washington Examiner’s piece regarding prayer rugs. Apparently that same anonymous rancher has other concerns. From the Atlantic piece: “The same rancher also warns that the Border Patrol has caught migrants of other nationalities, including ‘Czechoslovakians.’ Czechoslovakia hasn’t existed since George H. W. Bush was president.”https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/01/trumps-prayer-rug-paranoia/580792/
C Stars
@Brachiator: I love how the new Aeromexico ad just comes right out and makes fun of those people. (I’ve been out of the loop for a while, so maybe you’ve already discussed it):
ETA: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/aeromexico-dna-discount-travel-ad-video/index.html
Dorothy A. Winsor
At the gym this morning, the instructor asked for ideas of what to see in DC during a trip next week. People kept suggesting things like the National Archives or the National Art Gallery, and I kept saying I thought all of that was closed. People aren’t very clear on what’s happening.
M31
@chopper:
brilliant
hahahahahahha
rikyrah
@schrodingers_cat:
WaterGirl laid it out well.
A lawyer, who was listening as Hope Hicks was talking on AFO, on why the emails from Dolt45 Jr would never come to light..while they were making up the lies to sell to the press.
That dude resigned the moment AFO hit the ground. …and, this is someone who worked for The Evil One himself..
He could recognize that this group was gonna land him in jail eventually.
schrodingers_cat
@Dorothy A. Winsor: If they are going to Capitol Hill, Eastern Market is a good place to hang out. You will find the best crab cakes and home made root beer among other things.
Bethesda is nice, as is Georgetown and Silver spring.
Brachiator
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Very interesting in a very sad way.
Zzyzx
My best description is that the government is being run by Fred Colon and Nobby Nobbs of the Ankh Morpork city watch. They get told about the existence of a clumsily obvious clue and say “A ha!” and stop there.
The president has access to incredible intelligence resources. If the best evidence he can produce for a border crisis is an unsourced article that doesn’t even have any photos of these alleged prayer rugs, it’s that much harder to believe that there’s a massive crisis.
MattF
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I’d add the Phillips Collection (near Dupont Circle) and Dumbarton Oaks (in Georgetown).
laura
@WereBear: Fox gives grandpa a boner while serving up the propaganda.
opiejeanne
@chopper: Where would you like your internets delivered?
schrodingers_cat
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Among the Smithsonian institutions, the National Galleries of Art are worth seeing. Archives/Navy Memorial metro stop gets you there.
Also there are many good restaurants within walking distance. There Modern art gallery has a nice cafe in the basement that connects the two galleries with many varieties of gelato. Also the gift shops are excellent.
C Stars
They really do prey on the vulnerable, and I would be willing to bet that more than half of Trump’s base fully believe the insane propaganda (as opposed to the percentage of supporters who understand it as both ridiculous and beneficial to their interests).
I still remember a party a few years ago at an in-law’s house in Kentucky, at which a kindly older man, upon hearing that we were visiting from the Bay Area, became startled and ashen and suggested that we were on the run from the violent rioting and anarchy happening in California due to high gas prices. For a minute there he really believed that we were in Kentucky to escape the terroristic California hellscape he heard about on Fox News, and not just visiting family because it was Thanksgiving. He described images he had seen on Fox, of people fistfighting at the pump, fires breaking out near gas stations…
We assured him there were no riots happening that we were aware of. A couple of years later we heard from my mother in law that he succumbed to Alzheimers. The weird thing is, gas prices are always a bit higher in CA, but at that particular time they weren’t really that much higher. The whole thing was entirely fabricated, but fabricated well enough to really scare a feeble-minded old guy in Kentucky.
Kelly
@Dorothy A. Winsor: We went XC skiing yesterday at a Snopark with restrooms usually maintained by the Forest Service. Surprised to find them clean and the trash hauled away. Mixed feelings. Nice to have clean toilets at a popular spot and don’t want to denigrate the volunteer effort. But filthy restrooms would be a simple example of what’s going on.
FRANK MCCORMICK
@chopper A most excellent snark! Are you sure there weren’t any books left behind as well?
MattF
@MattF: Umm. But also, since the main attraction at Dumbarton Oaks is the huge garden and landscape, it probably wouldn’t be so great in the winter.
trollhattan
@C Stars:
They also pray on the vulnerable: “Dear Lord, grant me access to the pantswetters of this Great Nation so that I may spread manure…er…your great word and harvest your good works, in the form of checks made out to my church. Amen.”
#MikePenceAndMotherCan’tWait!
Frankensteinbeck
@WereBear:
It’s complicated. Think ‘truthiness,’ or as psychologists call it, ‘rationalization’, the foundation of human thought.
@C Stars:
He gets the emotional rush of cruelty. Nothing else is required.
@Brachiator:
This was always true, and frankly even moderate, polite racists like the media think that way. On a test, after a moment’s thought, they would write down Puerto Rico is part of the US. But in their hearts it’s Mexico, and that’s how they react to it.
Origuy
Frankensteinbeck
@C Stars:
When I had to move back to Kentucky, a server in a drive through saw my California plate, asked me where I’d lived in LA, and asked me about the crime rate. He was gobsmacked when I assured him that it wasn’t an issue, and Lexington is worse.
C Stars
@trollhattan: As evidenced by current events, evil+stupid is never a good combination.
But sort of tangentially related, “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” is a really great documentary.
Mike in NC
I glimpsed a short article about how many federal government web sites have not been updated in the past month, so that won’t help people trying to find out if a particular park or museum can be visited.
Bill Arnold
@WereBear:
Yes. Evil.
Immannetize
@MattF: @schrodingers_cat:
I’m not sure that DAW was looking for suggestions, but rather telling a Koan regarding the inability of people she knows to put two obvious things together:
Government Shutdown = Government places are closed….
C Stars
@Frankensteinbeck:
Exactly; I really don’t think geographical accuracy matters an iota to them, nor do any of them likely consider PR to really be a part of the US (starting with Dear Tweeter). I mean, Rep. Cárdenas is from LA, OBVIOUSLY. But his name is Cárdenas and his skin is a bit browner than Rep. Jason Smith’s, so there ya go.
Same thing with the prayer rugs. There are visibly Muslim members of Congress now, so I expect we will see quite a bit of this related scare-mongering. Whatever hook they can hang their racism on, they’ll take it!
Obvious Russian Troll
There was this guy who called into talk radio in Madison in the nineties when I was studying to be a teacher. He went on and on about how dangerous it was to go into the school where he worked. He was terrified he was going to get assaulted going through the parking lot, that the students were threatening the teachers, and on and on.
Later I did some student teaching type of things at that school, and it was just an ordinary parking lot and students were well behaved. The other teachers just rolled their eyes when this guy’s name came up.
opiejeanne
@Kelly: We went to an event in Buffalo, WY last summer, Longmire Days. We were in Montana on the 4th of July but because it was a holiday, on the way to Bozeman the public toilets on I-90 that were open at information centers were a terrible mess because of that one day off. I mean, so bad I almost wanted to find a ditch. Stomach-churning stench. I can almost imagine how bad it is in places like Joshua Tree National Forest.
OGLiberal
I firmly believe that there are people who are clueless enough to believe this crap. But I personally know people who support this idiot president who are too smart and too aware to believe this stuff but will promote it and talk about it. I know they know it’s BS but they’ll forward it on FB, mention it in conversation, use it as justification for racist stuff, etc. Because they are racist. I think the “know it is BS but don’t care because it fits their agenda” are in the majority.
Jerzy Russian
@Quinerly:
That is what the Media and the Deep State want you to believe.
Ruckus
@trollhattan:
You aren’t supposed to give away the main con……
Some people seem to be confused as to why someone would hang around drumpf. I’d think that there are many levels of con, most of which can exist in the same world. How many of the hangers on in drumpf world have a con or two of their own going on? Someone is paying them to lie on TV – guess who. Someone is paying you to act like a lawyer – guess who. Some one is getting paid by us to destroy the institution paying him – now that’s a bigger list. The reason we know about more of them now is that their idol is running the biggest con of all – that anyone would think he’s qualified to be president.
trollhattan
@C Stars:
Bringing to mind the best tshirt in the history of tshirts, which for some reason is still available. Who shall explain it to the children?
C Stars
@Frankensteinbeck: Yeah, my other KY politics story (actually, I have many, but these are just the humorous ones; the other ones actually hurt to talk about) was when the TSA guy at the airport sussed we were from California and started freaking out about Governor Brown. He knew “alot” about Gerry Brown, and felt it was his place to inform us about what a jerk he was. We should have been upset, but it was weirdly fascinating to have this dimwitted toothless guy with a super thick southern accent go on at length about “Moonbeam” Brown’s activities, like some kind of reverse fanboi. My husband and I just sort of giggled and heard him out. We’re elitist snobs, clearly.
Quinerly
@Jerzy Russian: ?
Quinerly
@Origuy: ❤️
C Stars
@Frankensteinbeck: Come to think about it, why ARE Kentuckians obsessed with California? Weird… Is it that it’s far away enough to feel like a foreign country?
C Stars
@trollhattan: That is truly a delightful shirt.
Matt
We’ve got a vaccine for wingnuttism too – a couple of them apply it every week while “cleaning their guns”.
JoeyJoeJoe
@Dorothy A. Winsor: foodwise, my recommendation is Cuba Libre by the Archives metro stop. The mango butter is real good. On weekdays they can enter Capitol Hill office buildings and maybe run into representatives if they like that. I walked past Andy Kim, the guy who knocked off Tom MacArthur, last week . Also good are the Newseum and the Spy Museum, where you can play at being a spy. Also Hill country BBQ has good Texas food and beer
Steve in the ATL
@C Stars: jealousy
Librarian
@Quinerly: “He killed sixteen Czechoslovakians. Guy was an interior decorator.”
wasabi gasp
Devout Muslim terrorist here. Shit happens, I’m always losing my rug. Dude, where’s my Koran.
Chris Johnson
@trollhattan: Pfff. Ok, I’m an old :)
Brachiator
@C Stars:
No, I had not seen this before. Love it!
J R in WV
I too am pretty convinced that “The Wall” for $5 billion is not just a political scam, but also intended to be a slush fund to be raided at will by Trump and his allies. That’s why no blueprints, no bids, no property acquisition program, no surveyors drawing up maps, NOTHING that anyone building even a tiny house would have to deal with.
Hell, to build my tiny cabin in the AZ high desert, I had to have a septic evaluation, hire a builder to make a flat spot and driveway and install the septic system, draw up a “blueprint” using a ruler and pencil on graph paper myself… obtain an offer for roofing material, the list goes on. Even a building permit from the county!!
But for his grand, 2000 mile long, Trump Wall — nothing. No plans, no bids, no specifications, no cost estimates, no surveying, NOTHING~!!!~ So there can’t be any intention to actually build anything, or they would have hired some laid-off Army Corps civil engineer to fake up some specs and plans back in the beginning.
Raven Onthill
As a result of today’s various revelations, I have written, I think, my angriest piece over. Perjury charges? They rape, they steal children, the commit treason, and perjury is what they are being charged with?
Fk that and fk them.
https://adviceunasked.blogspot.com/2019/01/theyre-lying-man-and-fk-monsters.html
NY Robbin
@chopper:
I’m still laughing
JR
@Zzyzx: The idiocy is part of why it works.
Trump is basically running a 419 scam. If he tried a credible scam then people would ask questions