I don’t know if this is a Florida quirk, or maybe it’s a thing in all states where Democrats don’t control the state government: our local daily newspapers sometimes scold the state and/or national Democratic Party and urge it to fix things to save us all from Republicans. I’ve written about it here before when …
Religion
Sunday Evening Open Thread: Immigrants Bless America
This post is in: Immigration, Religion, Something Good Open Thread
Watch the whole three minutes here: going to shamelessly steal from eric hoffer here, but nobody hates america like americans. we need new immigrants to love and cherish it pic.twitter.com/NtxSI0byG6 — bearded guy that yells at school board meetings (@CalmSporting) September 18, 2022
Sunday Evening Open Thread: Immigrants Bless AmericaPost + Comments (87)
I get mail asking “how would you feel if New York was full of immigrants”. Also “how would you feel if foreigners were taking a lot of academic positions” https://t.co/Xu4wBJPIRM
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) September 16, 2022
When you meet someone who’s walked thousands of miles for a chance at the kind of life you have it makes you reconsider both your priorities and station in life. These are incredible people, not people to be afraid of.
— Jort-Michel Connard ?? (@torriangray) September 15, 2022
MAGA world seems less angry about immigration and more pissed that DeSantis’s expensive and hateful stunt of sending people to an off-season island didn’t own the libs, who instead did the Christian thing and took in the strangers and made sure they had food and shelter.
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) September 15, 2022
As Republican governors ramp up their transports of migrants to Democratic-run jurisdictions, the practice is getting a mixed reaction from Christian faith leaders. Many of them, especially evangelicals, have largely backed GOP candidates in elections. https://t.co/pOVyWYclZZ
— The Associated Press (@AP) September 16, 2022
More unsubtle scripting from the Trickster God, for those Followers of Jesus:
The name of the migrant who was turned away and then at long last found help in a distant land is MISTER NAZARETH? https://t.co/90DhCvNMl8
— Sam Biederman (@Biedersam) September 16, 2022
Ardenis Nazareth, newly arrived from Venezuela, was standing in a McDonald’s parking lot across the street from a San Antonio shelter a few days ago contemplating his next steps.
After a monthslong odyssey through seven countries he had finally made it to the United States. It was time to banish from his thoughts the worst moments — when he was robbed at gunpoint and people dropped dead of exhaustion beside him as they crossed a lawless jungle, and when he watched helplessly as his friend was swallowed by the turbulent waters of the Rio Grande, just before touching U.S. soil in Texas.
Now Mr. Nazareth had one objective in mind: make money to support the two young daughters he had left behind.
That is when a well-dressed woman who introduced herself as Perla handed him and about 30 other migrants gift cards for the fast-food restaurant, which they gladly accepted. Then she made an enticing offer: a free flight to a “sanctuary,” he recalled, where there were people to help them get on their feet. The place was called Massachusetts.
Was that close to New York, Mr. Nazareth asked. She assured him that it was, and that onward travel would be available, if that is where he hoped to settle. Yet he was surprised when he found himself on Martha’s Vineyard, a small, picturesque vacation destination in the Atlantic. “I thought I was coming to Boston,” he said. “I ended up on this little island.”…
Venezuelans have been fleeing their country amid political and economic turmoil that has caused widespread deprivation. Nearly seven million Venezuelans, more than a fifth of the population, make up the largest international displacement in the hemisphere’s history. Unlike Central American and Mexican migrants who have been immigrating to the United States in large numbers for a long time, Venezuelans are a recent phenomenon and often have no family or friends to receive them.
The U.S. Border Patrol encountered 110,467 Venezuelans along the southern border in the first nine months of this fiscal year, compared with 47,408 in the entire 2021 fiscal year. They now represent the fastest-growing migrant group to the United States…
“I left my country to support my family,” said Mr. Nazareth, a 34-year-old construction worker. He said that since leaving his home country 18 months ago he had tried to make a living in Peru and Chile. But he could not make ends meet, and word spread among his friends that Venezuelans were managing to enter the United States, where jobs were plentiful…
Not exactly a carpenter… but then, when us ‘real Americans’ remember how many of our ancestors had very similar stories, you’d think we’d be a little more humble about our blessings!
Sportsball (Adjacent) Open Thread: Concussion Protocol
This post is in: Balloon Juice, Commentary, Open Threads, Politics, Religion, Republican Politics, Show Us On the Doll Where the Invisible Hand Touched You, Sports
As I understand it — and I do not pretend to understand football as a sport — the suits in charge of College Football just committed some major ‘realignment’. The stories I’ve seen about this have not been positive. Will Leitch, at NYMag, said that “College Football Is About to Change Drastically — and Not …
Sportsball (Adjacent) Open Thread: Concussion ProtocolPost + Comments (114)
I've never seen this in a SCOTUS ruling before. SCOTUS said that the coach was merely exercising his personal right to pray on the field. Sotomayor literally included a photo in her dissent, to prove that the right-wing justices were lying. pic.twitter.com/5MojGVzf6J
— Barney ???? (@barney1776) June 27, 2022
… It’s an unsurprising development from this staunchly conservative (and often overtly religious) court. But it’s one that is worth considering in the context of broader societal trends. The Supreme Court is empowering Christianity as the United States becomes less religious. It’s blurring the line between church and state as Republican officials like Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) advocate for religion to play more of a role in politics.
That demand has a cause. White Christians are a fundamental part of the Republican base of power — and White Christians make up a declining portion of the country and the electorate.…
White Christians are still a majority, as are Christians in general. But this decline undoubtedly contributes to a sense among Republicans that Christians are embattled in the United States. In polling conducted by YouGov in June 2021, 63 percent of Republicans said that Christians faced “a great deal” or “a fair amount” of discrimination — a significantly higher percentage than said Hispanics, gay Americans or Black Americans faced that amount of discrimination.
None of this is to say that the Supreme Court is explicitly trying to backstop the power of Christian or White Christian Americans. It is, instead, to again point out that the imbalance in the allocation of power to more rural parts of the country — and therefore more White and often more Christian parts of the country — helped Donald Trump become president and Republicans to secure a majority of the Senate. That, in turn, helped build a robust conservative majority on the court that reflected a sympathy for allowing overlap between government power and religion. And Christianity…
English expat now living in DC:
UK school sports –
– nobody cares
– coached by divorced dad or indifferent PE coach
– literally nobody can name who's on the teamUS school sports –
– literally only thing to do in Texas
– coach paid 1 million dollars
– players buried in ceremonial tomb at 18 by town— James Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) June 27, 2022
Call me a glass-half-full pessimist, but I don’t think this ‘victory’ is gonna do much to save American football as we know it. There’s also been a recent spate of news stories on the dangers of CTE. I suspect that parents who aren’t completely desperate will be increasingly unwilling to let their kids get involved with the kind of full-contact practices, starting in primary school, that has been regarded as “essential social/developmental training” (… If kids are to progress through the local ‘Friday Night Lights’ school-sports grind, into the college feeder system, which provides the NFL with trained novices without the costly indignities involved with running its own AA / AAA leagues.)
“Nothing against your extremely sincere religious faith, Coach, but I can’t let my kid take the risk of head trauma. Even if he *might* be your winning card against Springfield High, I want him to stay healthy enough to recognize his grandbabies thirty years from now. “
(Of course, the lottery-ticket hopes of those parents desperately dreaming that their physically-gifted child just might be able to rescue the whole family when he turns pro… it’s gonna make the whole system look even more like gladiatorial combat for the entertainment of spoiled couch potatoes…)
Sunday Morning Open Thread
by Anne Laurie| Leave a Comment
This post is in: All Too Normal, Balloon Juice, Commentary, Open Threads, Politics, Religion
To all those across the United States and around the world celebrating Eid al-Adha, Jill and I wish you and your loved ones a joyous holiday filled with community, celebration, compassion, and service. Eid Mubarak and Hajj Mabroor! pic.twitter.com/dKWkWFAD9n — President Biden (@POTUS) July 9, 2022 Belated, but heartfelt, best wishes to those who observe! …
Sunday Morning Open ThreadPost + Comments
A state of perpetual disbelief: A growing number of people in Western nations have lost faith in democratic governance, science and a free press, turning instead to conspiracy theories, dark plots and secret explanations. https://t.co/7yMEn8NgbJ
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 9, 2022
… The distrust has gone so deep that even groups that seem ideologically aligned are questioning each others’ motives and intentions.
On the day before Independence Day in Boston this year, a group of about 100 masked men carrying fascist flags marched through the city. Members proudly uploaded videos and photos of the march to online forums popular with supporters of former President Donald Trump and QAnon adherents, who believe a group of satanic, cannibalistic child molesters secretly runs the globe.
Instead of praise, the white supremacists were met with incredulity. Some posters said the marchers were clearly FBI agents or members of antifa — shorthand for anti-fascists — looking to defame Trump supporters. It didn’t matter that the men boasted of their involvement and pleaded to be believed. “Another false flag,” wrote one self-described conservative on Telegram.
Similarly, when an extremist website that sells unregulated ghost guns — firearms without serial numbers — asked its followers about their July 4th plans, several people responded by accusing the group of working for the FBI. When someone claiming to be Q, the figure behind QAnon, reappeared online recently, many conservatives who support the movement speculated that the new Q was actually a government plant.
This past week, when a Georgia monument that some conservative Christians criticized as satanic was bombed, many posters on far-right message boards cheered. But many others said they didn’t believe the news.
“I don’t trust it. I’m still thinking ff,” wrote one woman on Twitter, referencing “false flag,” a term commonly used by conspiracy theorists to describe an event they think was staged…
“People can’t fact check the world,” said Dr. Richard Friedman, a New York City psychiatrist and professor at Weill Cornell Medical College who has written about the psychology of trust and belief. “They’re awash in competing streams of information, both good and bad. They’re anxious about the future, and there are a lot of bad actors with the ability to weaponize that fear and anxiety.”
Those bad actors include grifters selling bad investments or sham remedies for COVID-19, Russian disinformation operatives trying to undermine Western democracies, or even homegrown politicians like Trump, whose lies about the 2020 election spurred the Jan. 6 attack…
Study finds there is a correlation between race demographic shifts and the “insurrectionist movement.” https://t.co/IVfWffhcho
— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 9, 2022
Science establishes: Water is wet!
… In three separate studies with different methodologies, the belief that the rights of minorities will overtake that of whites, an unfounded conspiracy theory known as the “Great Replacement,” was one primary driver for “insurrectionists,” researchers found.
Statistical analysis showed that for every 1% decline in the non-Hispanic White population, a county was more than six times more likely to send at least one “insurrectionist.”
Another study found those believing that the rights of Hispanic and Black people are overtaking white people increases the odds of being in the “insurrectionist movement” threefold. The third study found that those with the fear that Hispanic and Black people will have more rights than White people increases the chances of being in the movement twofold.
Statistical analysis showed that for every 1% decline in the non-Hispanic White population, a county was more than six times more likely to send at least one “insurrectionist.”
Another study found those believing that the rights of Hispanic and Black people are overtaking white people increases the odds of being in the “insurrectionist movement” threefold. The third study found that those with the fear that Hispanic and Black people will have more rights than White people increases the chances of being in the movement twofold.
“People feel like something is being snatched from them sometimes,” journalist and Race Card Project founder Michele Norris told Dokoupil. “And the irony is, for many of the immigrant families that came there, people were saying the same thing about them when they arrived.” …
Boss Mode Activated
This post is in: Open Threads, Politics, Religion
I’m not into religion and all the made up bullshit and rituals, but I did get a solid cackle out of this: Shorter Nancy Pelosi: I’d like to see your manager, Mr. Cordileone.
Late Night Open Thread: ‘More Catholic Than the Pope’ Is *Not* A Compliment
This post is in: Civil Rights, Gay Rights Are human Rights, Open Threads, Politics, Religion
A Massachusetts bishop decreed that a Jesuit school can no longer call itself 'Catholic' because it refuses to remove flags supporting Pride and Black Lives Matter. My story at @americamag: https://t.co/VtaIxRbzS6 — Michael J. O'Loughlin (@MikeOLoughlin) June 16, 2022 Bishop McManus, and his fellow ‘traditionalists’, made their way to the leadership in an era when …
Late Night Open Thread: ‘More Catholic Than the Pope’ Is *Not* A ComplimentPost + Comments (83)
This is not the first time Bishop McManus has clashed with a Catholic school in his diocese over L.G.B.T. issues.
In 2019, he delivered remarks at a Catholic health care conference in which he said church teaching is at odds with the movement to support the rights of transgender people.
Administrators at the Jesuit-run College of the Holy Cross, which is located in Worcester and has connections to the Nativity School, responded by calling his remarks “deeply hurtful and offensive.” That prompted a reply from the bishop, who repeated his call that all people, including those who are transgender, be treated with compassion and respect. But he stood by his remarks…
"Yeah? Bring it, pendejo." https://t.co/kIpccFL94w pic.twitter.com/GvoDFiesxI
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) June 16, 2022
Speaking of consecrated followers of Ignatius of Loyola, here’s the Pope in Rome:
Lmfao even the freaking Pope hates the trads. https://t.co/kwrqadN7ap
— The Substack of Boba Fett (@agraybee) June 15, 2022
If a full schism develops between the Mother Church under Pope Francis, and the ‘traditionalists’ looking to reinstitute the church they remember from the 1950s (or the one they envision from the 1600s), a major chunk of the rebels’ support in America and western Europe will be people less interested in theology than in revanchism, frankly:
Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Life Goes On, Bumpily As Ever
This post is in: GOP Death Cult, Open Threads, Popular Culture, Proud to Be A Democrat, Religion, Women's Rights Are Human Rights
U.S. President Joe Biden extends Eid al-Fitr greetings at White House reception pic.twitter.com/NLtjSSGZgF — Reuters (@Reuters) May 4, 2022 Vice President Kamala Harris calls the potential Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade an 'assault on freedom' https://t.co/0ata2GjRdH pic.twitter.com/6DXiCIQ7Oj — Reuters (@Reuters) May 4, 2022
Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Life Goes On, Bumpily As EverPost + Comments (161)
The first lady was in New York City for a preview of this year's Metropolitan Museum of Art’s costume exhibit 'In America: An Anthology of Fashion’ #MetGala pic.twitter.com/7JHT9z5bOK
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 4, 2022
Biden says ruling curbing abortion rights could harm other freedoms https://t.co/E168kaDfPx pic.twitter.com/KhyDgoG632
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 3, 2022
It’s like they were a dishonest party full of death cultists, bigots and kakistocrats!
New – Rs want midterm focus on inflation and border – not abortion. Thune: “I don't know that it's necessarily a party issue.”
Cornyn won’t say if he backs TX abortion law. “It's up to the state legislature.” Ernst: “We've got so much other stuff going on” https://t.co/uSWtOODM8V— Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 4, 2022
they seriously went with “Supreme Court in Disarray” https://t.co/7hgezlOHLQ
— counterfax?? (@counterfax) May 3, 2022
Frustrated Indiana conservatives saw some victories in Tuesday's primary but the roughly two dozen so-called liberty candidate fell short in their drive to push the Republican-controlled state Legislature further to the right. https://t.co/Bx49mIC9kk
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 4, 2022
Okay. What’s the bad news? https://t.co/2aLm3ftjCC
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) May 3, 2022
Brittney Griner “wrongfully detained,” U.S. says, signaling strategy shift https://t.co/j50Ob4bFt7
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 3, 2022
For those who observe…
When you think about it, all galaxies are indeed far, far away.
May the Fourth be with you! #StarWarsDay #MayThe4thBeWithYou pic.twitter.com/W9tWNbmKd8
— PSA (@AlphaSierraPapa) May 3, 2022
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