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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Best Political Ad of the Season, So Far

Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Best Political Ad of the Season, So Far

by Anne Laurie|  October 5, 20216:46 pm| 89 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, local races

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This is one hell of an ad from a Democrat running for Congress. The question is whether people will watch it and share it. pic.twitter.com/QYTpSv8OMb

— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) October 5, 2021

I know nothing else about this man, but the ad seems to be working:

We launched our campaign with the goal of raising $5,000 in the first 24 hours. I was anxious about falling short. Now, we're closing in on 20k.

To everyone who stepped up and helped spread our message, THANK YOU. It's not too late to become a founding donor. Chip in below. ? pic.twitter.com/eCpGKYEbxS

— Charles Graham (@CharlesGrahamNC) October 5, 2021

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Reader Interactions

89Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    October 5, 2021 at 6:49 pm

    Has the season started already?

  2. 2.

    zhena gogolia

    October 5, 2021 at 6:51 pm

    It’s a great ad. I’d like to see all Dems using 1/6 like this.

  3. 3.

    piratedan

    October 5, 2021 at 6:51 pm

    kudos to whomever runs his media outreach.

  4. 4.

    Starfish

    October 5, 2021 at 7:06 pm

    I regret to inform you that Rod Dreher used the term “primitive root wiener” in an article, and I am afraid that I am going to “chunky Reese Witherspoon” after finding out about that.

  5. 5.

    Omnes Omnibus

    October 5, 2021 at 7:08 pm

    @Starfish: It was amazeballs.  He has more issues that National Geographic.

  6. 6.

    Mike in NC

    October 5, 2021 at 7:09 pm

    My wife told me she and her parents — who lived in Springfield, VA — were exploring college possibilities in the late 1960s and Klan billboards were not uncommon in some parts of North Carolina.

  7. 7.

    Ken

    October 5, 2021 at 7:11 pm

    @Baud: It’s always the season for political ads, according to a study by the American Association of Political Advertising Agencies.

  8. 8.

    Benw

    October 5, 2021 at 7:13 pm

    Woot good stuff. Next time I run for Congress remind me to be crusader for special needs kids who grew up in multicultural working class town who kicked the KKK’s ass. Can we clone this dude?

  9. 9.

    HumboldtBlue

    October 5, 2021 at 7:16 pm

    Here is someone who is really bad at communicating even though it’s her job.

    ESPN talking head Sage Steele (bi-racial) has been suspended for really stupid remarks about Obama and Covid.

    Dumbass is out sick with Covid as well.

  10. 10.

    debbie

    October 5, 2021 at 7:19 pm

    Great ad. It needs to be “serialized” and aired on television.

  11. 11.

    Chetan Murthy

    October 5, 2021 at 7:19 pm

    https://www.robesonian.com/news/124003/group-targets-graham-on-abortion-vote

    1. I understand about “lesser of two evils” and for sure, he’s a Dem.
    2. but women’s reproductive autonomy is about as close to a non-negotiable as I have
    3. And so …. this guy isn’t great on that.
    4. OTOH, it was a failed attempt to override the veto, so …. “cost-free signaling to the Deplorables”.  I can get behind that.

    Graham, of Lumberton, and Rep. Garland Pierce, of Scotland County, were the only two Democrats to side with House Republicans in a failed attempt Wednesday to override Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto. The final vote was 67-53, but 72 yes votes were needed to defeat the veto. The Senate voted to override in April.

    I don’t know what his record is like, overall.  But this came across my reader this AM.

  12. 12.

    Enzymer

    October 5, 2021 at 7:20 pm

    Great ad. Glad to see he’s apologized for his anti-trans vote a few years ago.
    viability will depend on how the NC gerrymandering/court appeal turns out & where Robeson County (& neighboring regions that have lots of Lumbees & blacks) ends up. Some possible maps that would be in a swing district.

    NC Republicans are promising to draw a 11/3 R/D Congressional map, which would almost certainly violate the State Constitution. Democrats have a 1 vote majority on the State Supreme Court, so it’s likely going to take a while till things are finalized.

  13. 13.

    Elizabelle

    October 5, 2021 at 7:21 pm

    Wikipedia: The Battle of Hayes Pond or Maxton Riot was an armed confrontation between members of the Ku Klux Klanand the Lumbee Native Americans at a Klan rally near Maxton, North Carolina, on the night of January 18, 1958.

  14. 14.

    Starboard Tack

    October 5, 2021 at 7:23 pm

    If he was a kid in 1958, he’s not much younger than me. Time’s been kind to him. Us’n white folks don’t age so well. Sometimes I catch my reflection in my side eye and wonder who that old man is in my house.

  15. 15.

    Baud

    October 5, 2021 at 7:24 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    If that happened today, the internet would be decrying the end of civilization.

  16. 16.

    piratedan

    October 5, 2021 at 7:25 pm

    @Chetan Murthy: and as always, if there’s someone better, then lets get them to run…

  17. 17.

    Betty

    October 5, 2021 at 7:25 pm

    Great ad, but I understand he is pretty conservative.

  18. 18.

    JPL

    October 5, 2021 at 7:27 pm

    @Enzymer:  Thanks for the comment.   I did look up who represented the district now, but you’re right that it depends on the final outline.

  19. 19.

    laura

    October 5, 2021 at 7:27 pm

    Tell the truth and shame the devil. Way to come out swinging and laying absolute claim to the moral high ground. Candidates and potential candidates should do lots and lots of this in their respective locales.

  20. 20.

    JPL

    October 5, 2021 at 7:28 pm

    @Betty: Look at Enzymer’s comment.   Apparently he has apologized for that vote.

  21. 21.

    Betty

    October 5, 2021 at 7:30 pm

    @JPL: I amended my comment.

  22. 22.

    Chetan Murthy

    October 5, 2021 at 7:33 pm

    @piratedan: And if there’s not, then he’s still better than a Fackin’ Fascist.  100% with you.

  23. 23.

    JPL

    October 5, 2021 at 7:41 pm

    If he were running against Cawthorn, I’d easily donate to his campaign.   My hope is that both Cawthorn  and Greene are tied to the insurrection.   Someone on the inside gave information to those storming the building

    Hope springs eternal

  24. 24.

    The Pale Scot

    October 5, 2021 at 7:46 pm

    WOW

  25. 25.

    Betsy

    October 5, 2021 at 7:47 pm

    That’s the North Carolina I know and love.

  26. 26.

    Feathers

    October 5, 2021 at 7:48 pm

    Skimmed the NYPD Union raid thread, but saw no one mention that a different police union nearly ended up facing RICO charges over ticket fixing a decade ago. IIRC the union was acting as a coordinator for keeping track of fixed tickets. When the cops are up to illegal business, especially on someone else’s behalf, https://gothamist.com/news/police-union-hires-goodfellas-lawyer-as-ticket-fixing-scandal-threatens-to-go-ricoit is likely cleared as OK with the union, if not actively coordinated. One thing to remember is that bad cops who do get kicked out often end up crossing the street and working for the union. Link:

    eta: I’m on my phone, sorry link ended up in the middle.

  27. 27.

    Geminid

    October 5, 2021 at 7:51 pm

    @Enzymer: A federal court redrew North Carolina Congressional districts once recently in a Voting Rights Act lawsuit, and this resulted in  Democrats picking up two new seats last year. So Republicans may not have a free hand in gerrymandering. They also may be playing defense, given the steady increase in North Carolina’s Democratic voters the last few years.

    Congressman  Bishop won reelection last year by around ten points. But Bishop prevailed against Dan McCready in his first election by only two percentage points, so as it stands the NC 9th is not out of Democratic reach.

    Last fall, a commenter here who is familiar with the NC 9th district, and the Lumbee Tribe of which candidate Graham is a member, had some interesting and knowledgeable observations about both. Maybe this jackal will weigh in on the race.

  28. 28.

    Ohio Mom

    October 5, 2021 at 7:55 pm

    It is a great video, wonderfully inspiring history lesson.

    But I remember some other fabulous introductory videos — Amy McGraff or whatever her name, running against Mitch McConnell, comes to mind.

    So put me down as wanting to be cautiously optimistic.

  29. 29.

    Hoodie

    October 5, 2021 at 7:57 pm

    Unfortunately, Graham is one of 11 Dems who voted for HB2, the notorious “Bathroom Bill.”

  30. 30.

    Baud

    October 5, 2021 at 8:00 pm

    @Ohio Mom:

    Good point.

  31. 31.

    Starfish

    October 5, 2021 at 8:04 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    But I ask, whomst among us hasn’t tried to write about circumcision but accidentally ended up writing really racist erotica instead?— ariel gordon (@ariel__gordon) October 6, 2021

  32. 32.

    zhena gogolia

    October 5, 2021 at 8:06 pm

    @Ohio Mom: True.

  33. 33.

    MomSense

    October 5, 2021 at 8:09 pm

    O/T Hanif Abdurraqib was named a National Book Award Finalist – just about a week after he won a MacArthir Genius Grant.

    Amazing.

  34. 34.

    MomSense

    October 5, 2021 at 8:10 pm

    @Ohio Mom:

    This is why I prefer donating to DCCC or DSCC.  They have criteria for fundraising and polling so the $ doesn’t go to candidates who aren’t viable.

  35. 35.

    Baud

    October 5, 2021 at 8:11 pm

    @MomSense:

    Now he’s just showing off.

  36. 36.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    October 5, 2021 at 8:13 pm

    @Geminid: I looked it up yesterday and it’s rated an R +6 or 7 district by Cook.

    trump targeted teh Lumbee vote hard, I forget now on which issue, but as I recall the micro-targeting was pretty effective

  37. 37.

    MomSense

    October 5, 2021 at 8:13 pm

    @Baud:

    He even wears pants.  Jeez Louise.

  38. 38.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    October 5, 2021 at 8:18 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: trump, Robeson County and the Lumbee

    Next to nowhere was this more vividly on display than in Robeson County, where Trump retained the vast majority of the white vote, improved his performance in predominantly Black precincts and all-out romped in Lumbee hotbeds. Trump and his campaign targeted voters regardless of their racial differences with his rural-resonant messages of social conservatism—pro-gun, pro-life, pro-military—and anti-NAFTA broadsides that are catnip for an electorate that blames free trade agreements and globalization for shuttered factories and a sinking standard of living. The campaign also added to the equation a hyperspecific and transactional component: very publicly backing the federal recognition the Lumbee have been seeking since the 1800s. Finally, Trump and his most prominent surrogates kept showing up, a persistence that crested with Trump’s rally in the county seat a week and a half before the election—something no sitting president had ever done here. …

    The Lumbee? “We are Christians, we’re very socially conservative, but we’re also working class,” Lowery told me.

  39. 39.

    JAFD

    October 5, 2021 at 8:21 pm

    Greetings from New Jersey, fellow jackals !
    Received my ballot for next month’s election, filled it out and mailed it along with cable bill this evening.
    Five candidates for governor – Socialist Workers, Green, Libertarian, GQP, and Phil Murphy, who’s favored for reelection, but, in my district, no opposition for State Senator and only one independent challenging for two State House seats.
    Also got letter from Board of Elections. Going to Electronic Poll Books this election, all poll workers have to get to trainig session. Formerly poll worker training sessions were in half a dozen locations around county – I was trying to hit them all – now with all the electronic gear to set up, all poll workers have to come to new Justice Building at the Courthouse Complex for classes. (I can walk there, but for the folk in West Caldwell…)
    We will, however, pick up extra thirty bucks for the attending the class. Will report back after training and after Election Day.
    Hope all of you are happy and healthy, and keeping on with high hope and good cheer.

  40. 40.

    Baud

    October 5, 2021 at 8:23 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Hmm.

  41. 41.

    Geminid

    October 5, 2021 at 8:28 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: One big question I have about this and other races nationwide is whether there will be a post-trump slump in Republican turnout, and if so, how big. We won’t find this out until next year’s election, though. But I think the NC 9th is winnable and wouldn’t write Graham off.

  42. 42.

    Baud

    October 5, 2021 at 8:30 pm

    @JAFD:

    ?

  43. 43.

    Sure Lurkalot

    October 5, 2021 at 8:32 pm

    I received notification that I will be receiving my ballot soon.  I have already received the city’s and state’s informational handbooks.

    This is the way you do it. Easy persistent reminders that you have a civic responsibility  to perform. Full on mail voting with in person options. Drop boxes and locations plentiful. We have to make this the norm and help as many voters as we can participate as is their duty.

  44. 44.

    Mike in NC

    October 5, 2021 at 8:34 pm

    @Hoodie: HB2 is how we got rid of our last shitty Republican governor, Pat McCrory. He caved to the Tea Party cranks and voters were pissed.

  45. 45.

    Adam L Silverman

    October 5, 2021 at 8:42 pm

    @Hoodie: And his apology from this morning. This is the final tweet in a four tweet thread on the topic:

    Today, @CharlesGrahamNC apologized for his HR2 vote: https://t.co/0xjtfzEL4g

    "To the LGBTQ+ community, and specifically to the transgender community who suffered real pain from this bill and the rhetoric that surrounded it, I am sorry." pic.twitter.com/BP2TAlxRnx

    — David Gura (@davidgura) October 5, 2021

  46. 46.

    Enzymer

    October 5, 2021 at 8:44 pm

    @JPL:

     

    @Geminid: I agree. It depends on how the district lines in Southeast / South Central NC get drawn. I’m no expert on that region. Live in the Peoples Republic of Durham, which will certainly get drawn into a highly Democratic district. Durham county (~325,000) generally votes about 70% D in Presidential elections.

  47. 47.

    brendancalling

    October 5, 2021 at 8:44 pm

    @Starfish: and he wrote it talking about a Black classmate.

    Freud would have a FIELD DAY with that one.

  48. 48.

    Geminid

    October 5, 2021 at 8:49 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: The commenter from that area had an interesting perspective on Lumbee society and politics. It sounded like he was a Lumbee. May this jackal wil circle back sometime. This race will be in the news again.

  49. 49.

    Ocotillo

    October 5, 2021 at 8:49 pm

    My “research” is reading the comments in this thread but he sounds like a Blue Dog in the making if he were to prevail in his election.

  50. 50.

    Baud

    October 5, 2021 at 8:51 pm

    @Ocotillo:

    How do we increase our majority without increasing the size of the Blue Dog faction?

  51. 51.

    Geminid

    October 5, 2021 at 8:58 pm

    @Enzymer: I believe that North Carolina will have another congressional district next year due to reapportionment.

    Virginia is getting left in your dust. Those dam’ Yankees are driving their U-Hauls right past us!

  52. 52.

    debbie

    October 5, 2021 at 8:58 pm

    @Ocotillo:

    It’s a very conservative area. Blue Dog beats a GQPer any day.

  53. 53.

    James E Powell

    October 5, 2021 at 8:59 pm

    @MomSense:

    This is why I prefer donating to DCCC or DSCC.  They have criteria for fundraising and polling so the $ doesn’t go to candidates who aren’t viable.

    Sure, but RIGGED!

    Seriously though, you may be right. A lot of us – me included – gave money to Democratic Quixotes last cycle.

  54. 54.

    JPL

    October 5, 2021 at 9:02 pm

    @James E Powell: I think donating to anyone running against MTG is a waste.  Unless during the redistricting, they lessen the republucan hold, it’s throwing away money.

  55. 55.

    gwangung

    October 5, 2021 at 9:03 pm

    @MomSense:

    This is why I prefer donating to DCCC or DSCC.  They have criteria for fundraising and polling so the $ doesn’t go to candidates who aren’t viable.

    But aren’t these the folks who are reliant on consultants? And may not have the best sense for what matters on the ground?

  56. 56.

    Feathers

    October 5, 2021 at 9:03 pm

    Ed Mullins, head of NYPD Sergeants Benevolent Association resigns after union offices and his home are raided by FBI. https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-fbi-sergeants-benevolent-association-raid-investigation-20211005-4mn4i2uf2zh2famn36qyqu6m2i-story.html

  57. 57.

    James E Powell

    October 5, 2021 at 9:05 pm

    @Baud:

    How do we increase our majority without increasing the size of the Blue Dog faction?

    That’s gonna be tough. There are three districts in SoCal that are gettable without needing a troglodyte. Two in OC, and one in the north of LA County. We lost all three in 2020 by very slim margins.

  58. 58.

    JPL

    October 5, 2021 at 9:07 pm

    @Feathers: ha  Twitter told me that they dropped it during the Yankees game.

  59. 59.

    Baud

    October 5, 2021 at 9:10 pm

    @Feathers: ?

  60. 60.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    October 5, 2021 at 9:11 pm

    @James E Powell:

    A lot of us – me included – gave money to Democratic Quixotes last cycle.

    Me, too, Harrison, Bollier, Bullock… but I don’t regret it. The polls were off and we had to try. Kelly, Ossoff and Warnock were long shots, too, and who knows how FL will shake out, but I’m already on a monthly donation to Val Demmings.

  61. 61.

    Dan B

    October 5, 2021 at 9:12 pm

    @Feathers: Yeah, wow!  He knows he’s toast and probably got a lot of the union brass in trouble too.  His future looks very dicey

     

    If I were Mullins I’d want to have a reservation to a non stop trip to a non extradition location.

  62. 62.

    J R in WV

    October 5, 2021 at 9:16 pm

    He looks like he could be a Lumbee member, and the crowd in the ad is everybody from what i could see. So I kicked in a contribution to get him off the ground. We’ve had good luck supporting people running against the odds so far.

    Even as a Blue Dog he won’t vote in a Republican Speaker, just as (spit) Joe Manchin hasn’t voted Turtle McConnell in as Majority Leader. That stuff counts!

  63. 63.

    MomSense

    October 5, 2021 at 9:21 pm

    @gwangung:

    They are looking at polling, number of small donors, overall fundraising and other criteria.

  64. 64.

    Geminid

    October 5, 2021 at 9:21 pm

    @James E Powell: Troglodyte? California 46th District Congressman Lou Correa hangs out in the Blue Dog kennel when he is not at his Santa Ana home. How is Correa  a troglodyte?

  65. 65.

    MomSense

    October 5, 2021 at 9:23 pm

    @James E Powell:

    That worried me about some of the candidates who go viral on social media but don’t have a chance in their districts.

  66. 66.

    piratedan

    October 5, 2021 at 9:29 pm

    Good ads serve a purpose… i look back at Beto and MJ Hegar and while they don’t win, they dispel the GOP myths about who Dems are and help us towards that incremental change. They plant seeds that can take root.

  67. 67.

    gwangung

    October 5, 2021 at 9:32 pm

    @MomSense: If they aren’t based in the area, there’s a good chance they’ll misinterpret the data (polls are infrequent and not that high quality at the district level). And viral social media celebrity will affect the number of small donors, so it swings both ways.

    Consultants are fine and all…but only if they’re based in the state or can make effective use of local experts and viewpoints.

  68. 68.

    Fair Economist

    October 5, 2021 at 9:34 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:R+6 district, but it’s a D+3 country. So only R+3 to overcome. Doable, if tough.

  69. 69.

    Winston

    October 5, 2021 at 9:40 pm

    The reason that Catholic priests only abuse young male alter boys and such is  because the 144,000 selects of the rapture are supposed to be 12,000 of each of the 12 tribes of Isreal and: Revelations 14:

     And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.

    4 These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.

    It’s only men and they could not be defiled by a women. So how does a priestly man not be defiled by a women? He defiles a boy. Leaves it to chance that he might be one of the tribes.

    Seems this has been a fad, not only in the US, but in France over the last 10 or so years. https://apnews.com/article/europe-france-child-abuse-sexual-abuse-by-clergy-religion-ab5da1ff10f905b1c338a6f3427a1c66

    Doesn’t explain why evangelicals thinks they can get away with sexual molestation of women and still be raptured.

  70. 70.

    Kay

    October 5, 2021 at 9:45 pm

    Good ad. I liked how he told the story.

    I went and had blood taken today for testing for a physical and they had a sign on the wall at the blod draw area-  “please tell the technician if you have received the covid vaccine”. I asked her if people told her and she said “most of them”. I asked her if she asks when they don’t and she said “it’s not worth it” kind of bitterly. Ugh. Imagine what they say to her.

  71. 71.

    debbie

    October 5, 2021 at 9:54 pm

    @Winston:

    The number of damaged souls is incomprehensible. I think these and all the other betrayals committed on children through sexual abuse explain why the world’s so fucked up.

  72. 72.

    MomSense

    October 5, 2021 at 9:59 pm

    @gwangung:

    Its not just external polling.  They look at VAN data, internal polling, number volunteer shifts, dials and knocks, contact percentages, number of donors, fundraising totals, etc. Most districts don’t have any external polling until we’ll after funding decisions are made.

  73. 73.

    Winston

    October 5, 2021 at 10:06 pm

    @debbie: Yeah. And  6 members of the SCOTUS are Catholics. Who are raised to believe this kind of stuff.

    eta. Strongly religious freedom but not religious rejectionist.

  74. 74.

    debbie

    October 5, 2021 at 10:08 pm

    @Winston:

    Or look the other way.

  75. 75.

    MomSense

    October 5, 2021 at 10:09 pm

    @gwangung:

    It’s not all consultants.  A member of the House Democratic Caucus always chairs the committee.  Usually their staff members are involved in its management.  All candidates work with consultants.  Their success rate is much higher than the alternatives.

    Rep Sean Patrick Maloney is the current chair.

  76. 76.

    Winston

    October 5, 2021 at 10:15 pm

    @debbie: They are supposedly trying to select the raptured. Those children they abuse and hoping they never are defiled by a woman and they are one of the 12 tribes. How sick is that?

  77. 77.

    Suzanne

    October 5, 2021 at 10:22 pm

    @Starfish:  Dreher is crazy and getting crazier. Where is this piece? At his blog?

  78. 78.

    Skepticat

    October 5, 2021 at 10:28 pm

    @Ken: ​
     

    It’s always the season for political ads, according to a study by the American Association of Political Advertising Agencies.

    to me and my fellow online proofreaders. And we’re actually pretty grateful for that, as we actually get paid to suffer through them.

  79. 79.

    Skepticat

    October 5, 2021 at 10:30 pm

    @Starboard Tack: ​
      My mother’s half-sister who lived to be 81 always said, “I can’t understand why the 18-year-old in the mirror has all those wrinkles.” The same teenager hangs around here too.

  80. 80.

    Winston

    October 5, 2021 at 10:33 pm

    @Skepticat: My niece wanted to minimize her wrinkles so got some botox injections and now her face is lumpy. Vanity. Wrinkles are cute. IMO.

    Of course I am 74 and I love women over 65.

  81. 81.

    Anne Laurie

    October 5, 2021 at 10:38 pm

    @Winston: Nah, I grew up in a Catholic parish where the nuns warned trainee altar boys (including my brothers) never to be alone with a particular priest.  But they didn’t — couldn’t — stop that priest from molesting altar boys who weren’t smart enough to pay attention to the Sisters.

    (If you’ve seen the movie Proof — I was in the next parish but one during the same time period, and every detail is absolutely spot on.)

    There’s plenty of Catholic girls who were abused by their priests, too.  But there were a lot of male victims for two big reasons.  One, priests had more access to young boys (not just altar boys, but parish kids with absent or no fathers). Nobody in the 1950s/60s/70s questioned a priest collecting a coterie of boys or teenagers, or inviting particular kids to travel with them, sharing rooms or even beds.    That wasn’t true when it came to little girls or female teenagers, obviously.

    And two, a lot of priests consecrated during the twentieth century were gay men who, deliberately or not, chose ‘the Church’ as a career where they could hang around in all-male spaces and never get questioned about ‘finding a nice girl & settling down to raise a family’.  There were periodic scandals where seminarians were expelled for developing ‘special friendships’ with each other… but while it was officially taboo for two adult men to get involved with each other, the cultural biases around sexual abuse of children was so strong that the topic couldn’t even be discussed obliquely.

  82. 82.

    Skepticat

    October 5, 2021 at 11:02 pm

    @Winston: ​
      I like to think mine are only laugh lines, and they prove that I’ve had an entertaining and enjoyable 75 years.

  83. 83.

    Winston

    October 5, 2021 at 11:16 pm

    @Anne Laurie: I don’t dispute anything you said. But. a sect of priests who believed Rev. 14 would (could) have planned a strategy of molesting boys (not defiled by women) and perhaps being sons of Israel, to stand by the side of Jesus and be raptured to his side. Their kind. Maybe gays? ( taught that way) But that would be the training. And it’s worked. That they left out little girls and women is because they are not eligible for the rapture. They want virgin men. And so. it’s been the plan for a thousand years to make sure they get enough to fill the criteria.

  84. 84.

    Winston

    October 5, 2021 at 11:35 pm

    @Skepticat: Getting old has its moments. But this pandemic is getting way too old. Cheers to you. Hope you are doing well.

  85. 85.

    Winston

    October 5, 2021 at 11:50 pm

    @Winston: And priests are supposed to be celibate. But does that mean they can’t have homosexual relationships?

  86. 86.

    206inKY

    October 6, 2021 at 5:12 am

    Best political ad of my entire life. Only Obama’s closing pitch in Iowa comes close. This man is presidential material.

  87. 87.

    debbie

    October 6, 2021 at 7:01 am

    @Winston:

    Yeah, no. I don’t know about any of that, and frankly, it’s all beside the point. The actual point is that an industry, in a position of power and with no lack of authority, made a deliberate decision to abuse and rape children. Repeatedly and without consequence for decades. Boston was not an aberration. The Church should be abolished for its abuses of humanity.

  88. 88.

    leeleeFL

    October 6, 2021 at 8:30 am

    @Winston:  weren’t there a group of Muslim Warriors called Janissaries with a similar ethos?  Could be a female writer’s fever dream, but it I do remember reading something years ago?!

    The Catholic church has a lot to answer for, that’s for certain

  89. 89.

    chris

    October 6, 2021 at 9:04 am

    Extremely dead thread but wow…my hometown makes the news! This dude was the baseball coach when I was in high school..LOL Yeah he’s a conservadem but thats the nature of D’s hereabouts.  This place was nothing but D’s til Obama. Hillary/Bill was loved here. But our people (the Lumbees..Lums..we call ourselves) are racist as all get out and a black man as president drove a significant percentage of our people around the bend just like it did white people. All that notwithstanding Go Coach Graham!!!

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