Year 2016 — so far — has sucked BIG TIME.
With the passing of Alan Rickman, David Bowie, Glenn Frey, and especially our own EbbandFlow, I think we can agree that this year really can’t get any worse — and that is not me issuing the universe a friggin’ challenge.
Let’s take it easy on ourselves the rest of the year, eh?
This is our daily open thread — Yeesh…
As a human being, you are capable of believing whatever you want to believe whether it has any connection to factual reality or not. For example, while I don’t think either is real, I would believe that The Matrix is real before I believe any crazy story about a mythical being creating the universe and everything in it. At least The Matrix makes some sense and explains better why I seem to encounter several examples of the same kind of thing on my way to work on any given day. Like that car that goes by with one headlight out. I might not see a car like that for several days or weeks, and then one day I’ll see three or four go by me, all on the same drive. Or a car who wants to go slower than I will pull out of an intersection ahead of me before turning off down a side road, but not before another pokey pulls out in front of him, for the obvious sole purpose of keeping me from getting where I want to go in my lifetime. I could more easily accept that these are subroutines being repeated in a computer program than I could that some omnipotent, omniscient Being is trying to send a message to me through bad drivers. (A more effective technique might be to leave a message in green lipstick on my bathroom mirror, knowing that my wife has no green lipstick nor any intention of ever wearing any. I’m more open-minded on the subject.) It makes zero sense to believe in Creationism. And in order for it to make any kind of sense at all, you have to attribute so many contradictory rationales to the Being responsible that it ends up making even less sense. Does God really care if I masturbate or not? Do you really think Jesus never masturbated as a young teenage male? After all, Jesus didn’t find his calling until the last few years of his life. So he wouldn’t have grown up thinking he was God’s personal offspring, or that his “special purpose” really had a special purpose. It just doesn’t make any logical sense. People tell me I say that because I lack Faith, and they’re right. I do lack Faith. Because I need to see evidence, backed by science and observation. It’s true that I will accept something as true just because Neil deGrasse Tyson or Bill Nye says it’s true, but that’s because I know they base their beliefs on evidence, backed by science and observation. And I also know that if evidence based on science and observation proves them wrong, that they’ll change their views. And hearing them explain why they now believe what they didn’t before, I’m more likely to change my views, too. Before you counter with that’s an Appeal to Authority argument, I’ll tell you why it isn’t. First, I’m not arguing any point in particular and telling you it’s true just because NdT says it’s true. Second, I wouldn’t say something is true just because he said it was, but for the reasons he said it was true, which I know derived from evidence based on science and observation (not the millennia-old speculations from scientifically illiterate people.) So I wouldn’t be making an argument that appeals to authority, I would be making one based on the same evidence that appealed to my authority.
But you can’t do that when you insist on accepting something on Faith alone because, by definition, you are accepting it without evidence based on science and observation. And Faith demands that when the evidence proves you wrong, you discard the evidence and continue to believe the now disproved thing. How can anybody live that like? How can you go through life believing things proven to be false, or follow the advice of a book proven to be self-contradictory and scientifically inaccurate in so many ways? As just one example, bats are not birds, no matter what any religious text tells you, even one followed by two major religions. How could such a text possibly be “the inerrant word of God” when it contains such a blatant error? If the error is entirely attributable to the flawed human who put the words to paper, then how can it be considered “inerrant”? And if it was transcribed exactly as God intended, then how could God not know bats are not birds? Something has to give in to logic and reason if it is going to be a valid argument.
In an interview earlier this week with Dana Loesch (a famous conservative who, by standard conservative reasoning, must fear me quite a lot because she actually blocked me on Twitter, and she would say that if I blocked her, it must have been because I feared her), Rafael Cruz, the foreign-born father of foreign-born US Senator Ted Cruz, actually said this when asked if it was “difficult to see people go at” his son
“It is, Dana, but at the same time, you know, if you are not making a difference, if you are not having an impact, nobody’s going to attack you,” he said. “Jesus said, ‘They persecuted me, they will persecute you.’ When you are having an impact on America, those who disagree with you are going to come out lashing at you with everything they’ve got. But you know what, we get encouraged for seeing that we are making a difference, Ted is making a difference, that truth sets people free. And he’s speaking the truth and those who don’t want to hear it are going to lash out.”
I’ll let the fine folks at PoliticusUSA, FactCheck and Politifact recall just a few of the many lies Ted has told, but I want to respond to a few of the inanities his dad said here. I’ll begin with “…if you are not making a difference, if you are not having an impact, nobody’s going to attack you.” First of all, Conservatives (especially the Christian kind) equate attacking a person’s position with attacking the person himself. So when they don’t like someone’s position, they see no problem with attacking the person himself. Being projectionists, it’s what they would do, so they assume it’s what everyone else is doing to them, even when it clearly isn’t. Second, people are attacked and even murdered all the time, and it has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with that person’s impact on anyone else, other than they had the misfortune of being near their attacker at the wrong time. So it is simply, factually untrue that “nobody’s going to attack you” if you aren’t making a difference. This is just pure, delusional, Christian Persecution Complex thinking at work. Raffy then goes on to claim that he and his son “are making a difference, Ted is making a difference, that truth sets people free.” Now I can’t tell if this one is the result of Conservatives not knowing what words mean, not caring what facts are, or a combination of the two, but it’s not true for two reasons. One, nobody’s mind is being changed by the Los Cruz. Nobody is listening to either man for the first time and saying, “You know, he makes a lot of sense. I’m going to start following him.” No, the people listening to them have already made up their minds that what the two men go around saying is true, so they show up to listen for the reinforcement of their own set of beliefs. And, two, Ted isn’t telling the truth (as PoliticusUSA, FactCheck, and PolitiFact have been trying to tell us.) He lies constantly, so how can what he says set anyone free? “And he’s speaking the truth and those who don’t want to hear it are going to lash out.” He’s not speaking the truth, and we are not trying to “lash out” at him, we are pointing out that the things he says all the time are factually incorrect. We’re attacking the things he says, not him personally. Except for the fact that he continues to repeat false things, so we have to question his motives, sanity, intelligence, honesty and character along with them. If Ted would stop repeating lies, nobody would have to attack anything he says, and we certainly wouldn’t have to attack his character. Los Cruz can end the persecution they feel simply by admitting they’re both bearers of false witness. But that’s one Truth about themselves they’ll never face.
This is our daily open thread. Feel free to discuss logical reasoning, something Rafael Cruz might have said, or anything in between.
Tribute to Paul Kantner and JS
Today I’ve decided to switch from politics to something interesting. My old College bud, Denny Green, has evolved to become, in his retirement, a dedicated nature/wildlife photographer. He recently visited a place in New Mexico called the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, a refuge considered to be parcel to that “national network of lands and waters set aside to conserve America’s fish, wildlife, and plants.” It is clearly a haven for wild birds, a haven which I would consider comparable in design and purpose to the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon — but since this post is politics-free, I won’t even mention that place up there.
Anyway, here are some selected early ‘winter’ photos, taken by Denny Green at the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in western New Mexico. They are of the waterfowl most prevalent at the time, i.e. Sandhill Cranes and two varieties of Snow Geese.
–And to bird-lover Ebb, wherever you might be, enjoy!!–
Sandhill Cranes, sunrise, at the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico
Bosque del Apache Sandhill Cranes
Sandhill Cranes
Sandhill Crane
Ross’s Geese, Bosque del Apache
Snow Geese, mating pair
Meanwhile, back in Arizona, some rare ducks popped up late last month at a secluded pond not far from the greater-Phoenix metro area. The first fellow has shown up — alone –each of the last two years. Where he comes from and where he goes, no one knows.
Eurasian Wigeon
American Wigeons, mating pair
Finally, this ‘Red Head Duck’ mating pair, also from a secluded pond in Maricopa County Arizona.
Red Head Ducks, mating pair
So there you have it: waterfowl from a National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico, also some relatively rare ducks from an isolated pond in otherwise human-crowded Maricopa County, Arizona.
Some say cattle (and guns) are more important; I disagree.
All photos ©Denny Green, Tempe Arizona.
OPEN THREAD
The Cosmos is knowable. When childhood curiosity
persists as an adult, it inoculates against others
telling you what to think.
Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) January 25, 2016
Neil deGrasse Tyson summed the ‘dilemma’ of non-thinkers everywhere in his recent response to a fellow who calls himself B.o.B. A flat-earther, also a Rapper, B.o.B.’s flat earth argument is the old and familiar one that’s based upon the notion that the round Earth thesis is a Freemason hoax, now become NASA propaganda. Makes me think that Rapper B.o.B. is either brain dead or a Republican by birth — i.o.w., one whose “childhood curiosity” (assuming that was ever a feature) has been totally and completely co-opted in order to facilitate the option of all those “others” who make their living “telling you what to think.”
Think about that for a second or two, then consider the Malheur Wildlife Refuge mess in Oregon, particularly the notion(s) of the occupying “militia” that the concept of public lands is bogus and ‘unconstitutional’ because, after all, the Bible tells us that God assigned dominion over all the land to mankind, to people — not the gubmint! — for ‘us’ to use as ‘we’ choose. Something like that, undoubtedly made possible by their long-faded “curiosity” and the consequences thereof, whereby all those “others” are now “telling [them] what to think.”
A detailed explanation of just exactly How Hate and Extremism are Baked Into The ‘Patriot’ Militia Pie notes that it helps to visualize the ‘patriot’ movement as a blender where libertarianism, survivalism, right wing stupidity, and messianic Christian beliefs [are] combined with racial and national prejudices to produce a curious admixture, with the results cooked by militant fervor into an absurd and deranged pie . . . from which emanates the myriad of misguided voices that call for the destruction of constitutional authority in the Constitution’s name.
Excellent summation, I’d say, of the consequences implicit for those who have abandoned “childhood curiosity in exchange for “others . . . telling [them] what to think.” They have, in effect, surrendered their minds, their souls, and their lives to whichever obnoxious agenda gets there first. It can be militant racism, antisemitism, white supremacism, neo-Nazism, radical libertarianism, survivalism, right wing stupidity, messianic Christerism, anti-constitutional Constitutionalism, Conservatism, gun nuttery, Republicanism — all of “those” whose collective agendas have zero logical basis but are widely supported, always, by those whose sole purpose in life is the accumulation of wealth, power, privilege, along with the destruction of all who stand in (or near) their path.
Neil deGrasse Tyson’s description of all who are slaves to the dead mind hits the nail on the head. The Cosmos is knowable, after all, but only to those folks who are not BRAIN DEAD!
OPEN THREAD.
White Pebbles
A modern parable
By
Briseadh na Faire
Once upon a time, there was a people who lived on an island with black sand beaches. The sand was black, the pebbles washed in the sand and smoothed by the sighing waves of the ocean were black. But, ever so rarely, a white pebble could be found.
So rare were the white pebbles they were highly valued, and even used in trade amongst the peoples.
Now there lived a young man who devoted all his time to scouring the beaches, looking for white pebbles. After many years, he amassed a basket full, and was considered the wealthiest man on the island.
But he wanted more. Because he spent all his time alone on the beaches gathering pebbles, he had no friends. Because he hoarded his white pebbles, he wasn’t well liked. He wanted to go to a new island, where no one knew him, where people would be impressed by his wealth and like him.
And so he placed his basket in a small boat along with some provisions and set sail. After a few days, his provisions ran low, but he spied another island on the horizon. He immediately set course for the new island.
And ere long, he set foot ashore on a white sand beach. The sand was white, the pebbles were white. But, ever so rarely, a black pebble could be seen.
There, on this new island, black pebbles were so rare they were a valuable commodity. The man’s white pebbles were worthless, and he had to spend many months combing the beaches for black pebbles enough to buy provisions to get back home.
© 2016 Briseadh na Faire
OPEN THREAD
Pop Quiz: How many trees are there in the world?
A) 1 billion
B) 500 million
C) 500 billion
D) 3 trillion
E) 50 billion
Today’s offerings are from two sites whose only thing in common seems to be that they both have the word “Christian” in their names.
First, let’s look at a few things from the Christian Post website (the more ‘persecuted-RW-Christian’ site.)
The Christian Post has sent the 2016 Presidential candidates a list of 12 questions which they feel are most important for the candidates to answer. So far, only two Republican candidates, Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina, have responded.
Here’s Ben Carson’s responses, a few of which I’d like to comment upon:
2. What is marriage, and what should be the government’s interest and role in marriage?
Like many Christians, I believe that marriage is a union between one man and one woman in the witness of God. The government’s interest and role in marriage should be to protect and sanctify this institution[emphasis mine] because it is the cornerstone of our society. Raising families with two parents is key to a child’s development, and marriage is a strong institution that solidifies this crucial social structure. Marriage combines the efforts of two people to provide for and raise children, and gives children two parental figures to love and care for them.
Okay – First, define “sanctify”. According to Wikipedia:
“Sanctification is the act or process of acquiring sanctity, of being made or becoming holy.[1] “Sanctity” is an ancient concept widespread among religions. It is a gift given through the power of God to a person or thing which is then considered sacred or set apart in an official capacity within the religion, in general anything from a temple, to vessels, to days of the week, to a human believer who willingly accepts this gift can be sanctified. To sanctify is to literally “set apart for particular use in a special purpose or work and to make holy or sacred.”
So Carson believes that the U.S. Government has role in every citizen’s marriage, and that role is to make it “holy or sacred”? Does that make the U.S. Government a god? Doesn’t that conflict with the Establishment Clause? If Ben Carson believes that marriage is such a strong institution, why not rail against divorce? Christians get divorced at the same – or higher – rate as any other group, not to mention that divorce is said to be a big sin in the eyes of Jesus. If Jesus thought divorce was so wrong, but didn’t mention homosexuality, why can’t the “key” two-parents-must-raise-a-child be in a same-sex marriage?
10. What are your priorities related to both protecting the nation’s natural resources and using those resources to provide for the nation’s energy needs?
Energy is the life-blood that keeps our economy growing. It fuels the tractors that plow America’s fields. It powers the trucks, trains and planes that deliver American products. And it drives the American people in their everyday lives. If we want to return America to its former prosperity, we need to ensure that America’s energy grid is not only reliable, but affordable. That means looking into all potential energy sources to find the most efficient, most effective and more reliable energy grid possible.
We can’t afford to mandate unrealistic fuel standards or price-inflating renewable mandates. But as these energy sources compete head to head, technological advancements and innovations will help drop costs and raise efficiencies even further.
[and the money quote]
When it comes to the environment, we should be good stewards of God’s resources, but the best way to do that is through market-based mechanisms and private efforts, not via government edicts that destroy businesses and intrude into citizens’ lives.
Yeah, because I’m sure that “God” was thinking of “market-based mechanisms and private efforts” when he told mankind to be good stewards of Earth. And wasn’t Carson just talking about how “government” should have an “interest” and “a role” in a couple’s marriage, i.e., “intrud[ing] into citizens’ lives”, and very personally, I might add? But the “government” shouldn’t be involved in determining how the entire country uses its natural resources, because that would “intrud[e] into citizens’ lives”? Carson has very mixed, and incorrect, notions of what government’s priorities should be.
12. What caused the Great Recession, and what should be done to ensure it doesn’t happen again?
A number of factors contributed to the global financial crisis, but what became clear was that when bankers engaged in highly leveraged financial bets, ordinary taxpayers ended up footing the bill for the big banks’ bailouts.
I believe that certain types of regulations are reasonable for regulating financial markets. For instance, Glass-Steagall was a reasonable piece of legislation after the 1929 stock market crash, and perhaps should be re-imposed in a modified form.
This does not mean that the regulations imposed after the financial crisis were appropriate. In fact, Dodd-Frank is a monstrosity that does not address the root cause of the crisis, imposes heavy burdens on community banks, severely limits the freedom of financial institution to engage in ordinary business and saps economic growth with restrictive government controls.
I believe that when such government regulations choke economic growth, it is the poor and the middle class that are hurt the most.
Carson (or whoever wrote his ‘responses’ for him) must have just skimmed the “U.S. Economic History, Late 20th – Early 21st Century” Cliff Notes(TM), latching on to just enough topical buzzwords and meaningless phrases to put together a few sentences. Too many points there to elaborate on, I’ll let you all pick them apart if you wish.
And here’s Carly Fiorina’s responses. I’m just going to comment on one of them.
10. What are your priorities related to both protecting the nation’s natural resources and using those resources to provide for the nation’s energy needs?
Fiorina: As president, I will ensure that the United States is the global energy powerhouse of the 21st century.
That means reinstating the Keystone XL Pipeline that President Obama rejected. It also means rolling back the regulations from this administration that limit our ability to find resources by imposing regulations on hydraulic fracturing and our ability to be energy independent by regulating drilling on federal lands. As president, I will make America an energy leader through technology and innovation.
No, no, no! Fiorina is just so wrong, it’s hard to believe that she could possibly be serious. Keystone XL, fracking, and drilling, and on OUR federal lands, no less? How does one become an “energy leader through technology and innovation” while relying solely on finite, filthy fossil fuels? Aaarrgghhh!
Let’s turn to the Christian Science Monitor for a few things that are more reality-based and inspiring.
First, I’m sure that you’re all aware by now that Earth may have a new neighbor, as astronomers announced the possibility of a hidden ninth planet.
The evidence for the existence of this “Planet Nine” is indirect at the moment; computer models suggest a big, undiscovered world has shaped the strange orbits of multiple objects in the Kuiper Belt, the ring of icy bodies beyond Neptune.
Next, we can once again thank the Hubble telescope and NASA for showing us the amazing beauty of space, in this article about the Trumpler 14 star cluster. Just don’t let Donald Trump know about Trumpler 14, he’ll probably think that (a) the star cluster is named for him, and (b) therefore he owns it.
Source: Hubblesite.org
And finally, for our Zookeeper, here’s an article discussing why the zebra has stripes. While it appears that the idea that the striping is for camouflage may be incorrect, there is still no consensus on a proven biological reason.
This is our daily Open Thread–discuss whatever you want.
Sad news this morning: Our own EbbandFlow, only a short time after being diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer, has passed on.
I think it’s safe to say that all of us here at TheZoo will miss her terribly. She was always kind and loving, had a great love of family, music, animals — especially birds and her cat, Mel — and she remembered all the Zoosters’ birthdays.
The universe has lost a bright and beautiful light, and Ebb will live our hearts forever.
This is our daily open thread — Please post your favorite music or bird photo in remembrance of Ebb
Liberal Libertarianism was something unknown to me when I took my first test at Political Compass. I was familiar enough with the well-known ideologies of Liberal and Conservative, enough to know I’m Liberal while my father’s Conservative. But I wasn’t aware of the “perpendicular” ideologies of Libertarianism and Authoritarianism, the former being how free you think we should individually be versus how much control over your life you believe your rulers should have (and note that I did not mention the word “government” there.) The Liberal/Conservative scale would be an economic one, while the Libertarian/Authoritarians scale would be a social one. Go there. Take the test. If you never have before, you’ll learn something about yourself and how you compare to some famous historical figures.
I just did and I scored -8.5 on the Economic Left/Right scale (very Liberal) and -8.46 on the Social Libertarian/Authoritarian scale (very Libertarian). Like Gandhi’s views only more so. (But not his courage. Or wisdom. Or sheer animal magnetism.) So naturally I would not be in favor of a very Authoritarian person taking control of the Executive Branch of our government, the ones charged with enforcing the Law. And a Conservative capitalist, to make matters worse, choosing who will rule over the Economy. Nor would a lot of people. Or should you’d think. Or so you’d hope. People with an Authoritarian bent are very scary. They’ll do whatever the person in charge says to do provided they believe the person in charge will accept responsibility for what happens. (Of course, it may not occur to them that the person in charge was lying about accepting responsibility.) In Stanley Milgram’s famous first experiment into trying to answer why WWII German soldiers were so willing to obey orders to murder defenseless people, he found that 26 out of 40 men were willing to administer lethal doses of electricity to a complete stranger just because an experimental socialist told them to. Humans seem to have a natural disposition toward having someone be in authority provided that person was willing to be responsible. We don’t like someone to be in charge who randomly picks people to die every day, and imposes a death penalty on anyone who complains about it. But we like someone who is willing to face the consequences of his actions, assuming the law provides for significant consequences for those actions that do more harm than good. Unfortunately, too many of us may like Donald J. Trump as such an authority figure. Trump is very appealing to the sort of person who gives in to his Authoritarian side. And he’s also appealing to a large group dubbed decades ago by sociologist Donald Warren as Middle Americans Radicals (MARS), who have a lot in common with, but can be distinct from, Tea Party People. This is not good. John W. Dean can explain a little bit about why here and here.
He checks off every box on the list of authoritarian traits. As I have explained on other occasions these personalities are typically male; they are dominating; they oppose equality; they are desirous of personal power; they are amoral, intimidating and bullying, faintly hedonistic, vengeful, pitiless, exploitive, manipulative, and dishonest; they will cheat to win; they are highly prejudiced (racist, sexist, and/or homophobic), mean-spirited, militant, and nationalistic; they tell others what they want to hear, take advantage of “suckers,” and specialize in creating false images to sell themselves. They may or may not be religious, but usually they are both political and economic conservatives and/or Republicans.
You might ask, “Who on Earth would want to be put someone like that in charge of our government?” And the answer would surprise you.
“[A]uthoritarian followers are both men and women, who tend to be highly conventional, always and easily submissive to authority, while willing to work aggressively on behalf of such an authority. They tend to be very religious, with moderate to little education, trusting of untrustworthy authorities, prejudiced (e.g., with respect to gay marriage); they are typically mean-spirited, narrow-minded, intolerant, bullying, zealous, dogmatic, uncritical of their chosen authority, hypocritical, inconsistent, prone to panic easily, highly self-righteous, moralistic, strict disciplinarian, severely punitive; they also demand loyalty and return it, have little self-awareness, and are typically politically and economically conservative Republicans.”
Americans. That’s who. So it’s a good thing our Constitutional form of balanced power government prohibits the kind of tyrannical dictatorship Trump’s opponents fear he’ll bring, and Obama’s enemies claims he has. (FTR, Tyrant Obama’s opponents, if he truly was the tyrant you claim he is, I wouldn’t have been listening to you bitch about him these past seven years, because you would have been taken off the face of the planet. You almost make me wish he was half the tyrant you claim he is. Almost.) A Trump Presidency (as I’m sure he refers to it himself) would be a disaster, and not just because of the type of person he is, but because of the kinds of ideas he outs forward.
A wall? Seriously? And would you believe people lap that shit up? Trump loves Construction. I’ve heard him say it in interviews years ago. He loves to build things. So, naturally, he’d say he wants to build a wall on our southern border. And then has the balls to say he’ll make the country on the other side pay for it. And people believe him! Authoritarians, who may or may not also be racists, white supremacists, and bigots in general, are loving it! Never mind that such a wall would never keep people out. You’d be amazed how far people will go to tunnel across a border. And never mind that no foreign government would be stupid enough to agree to such an arrangement without the threat of military force behind it. Do we want yet another war with Mexico? I don’t.
Then there’s the ban on Muslims entering the country, all because about .005% of the world’s population of Muslims has abandoned their religious beliefs to exert power over a region of the world thousands of miles away. As much as I hate to see anyone brutally rule over another, it’s not our problem as a nation. And it would be even less of a problem if we would stop living with the false belief that we need access to fossil fuels for the foreseeable future. We don’t. And the people who would lose a lot of money should this nation pull its giant head out of its overweight ass and switch to renewable sources of energy (such as Charles and David Koch, to name just two such miscreants) are not the kind of people about whom I could give a pair of fetid dingo’s kidneys. And neither should you.
So, if you truly hate freedom and liberty, if you think we really should have a tyrant in charge, if you honestly believe we all need to have the heavy hand of government crush our spirits daily, then go ahead and vote for Donald J. Trump. I promise you I’ll fight you every step of the way. And I won’t be alone.
This is our daily open thread. Being the Liberal Libertarian that I am, I’ll simply remind you you’re free to discuss any topic you want.
Music for Ebb
Lest we forget —
“We are the ruling race of the world. . . .
We will not renounce our part in the mission of
our race, trustee, under God, of the civilization of the world. . . .
He has marked us as his chosen people. . . .
He has made us adept in government that we may
administer government among savage and senile peoples.”
(Alfred Beveridge, Senator from Indiana, circa 1900)
With that thesis in mind, we do hereby offer a handful of currents which seem to support Herr Beveridge’s “brilliance.”
Kevin Swanson: ‘A Homosexual Ruined The World’
Todd Starnes, Who Questioned Obama’s Faith, Criticizes Those Questioning Trump’s Faith
Tony Perkins: Reagan Would Never Have Negotiated With Iran!
Jim Bakker: Ronald Reagan Told Me Armageddon’s Coming, ‘America Will Become Sodom And Gomorrah’
Gary Cass Explains That Only Christian Men Are Qualified For Political Office
Rick Wiles: Prepare For UN Invasion Of America
Rafael Cruz: Public Education Is A Communist Plot
Carl Gallups: ‘Anchor Baby’ Rubio May Not Be Eligible For Presidency
And since I always try to save the “best” for last, I’ll close with this li’l Nugent gem:
Ted Nugent Wants Obama Executed: ‘He’s The Enemy Of America’
A decorated and dedicated draft-hero-singing-star-NRA-dude like Nugent would definitely know, right? Oh well, we need to remember that underneath all the hate and vitriol lies the love of God. Plus, as Karen Hughes, Dubya’s Undersecretary of State for Diplomacy once pointed out, “. . . our Constitution declares that we are ‘one nation under God’.” So that means all is well, as long as we don’t stray and . . . well, you know. Christian nation and all.
Sigh.
“If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God,
then we will be a nation gone under.”
(Ronald Reagan)
Definitely. Apparently.
OPEN THREAD
There’s a new GOP monster out there,
One that’s emerging from the Narcissistic-Fascist
Ice core that is its heritage, and this day has become:
Trump-Cruz — drip-drip.
Q for America: Whereto from here?
Without doubt, one of the most disturbing aspects of 2016’s Republican Presidential campaign is that its two “leaders” at this point — Donald Trump and Ted Cruz — are politically FAR to the right of that mystical (and poorly defined) boundary that separates American Conservatism from classic European Fascism. Add to that Trump’s indelible and definable narcissistic megalomania — and Cruz’s hyper-religious-anti-government obsession — and what emerges is a potential horror show the world has not seen since, say, 1939.
Number one (currently) in that horror show is the (supposed) billionaire and real estate mogul from New York, Donald Trump. Anyone not brain-dead who’s watched even a video clip from most any of Trump’s campaign appearances cannot help but notice that among all of his myriad undercurrents, two stand tall and proud: Egomania and Narcissism — either one of which could well demand of him, should he become President, some potentially untoward consequences.
A Neuroscientist explains: Trump has a mental disorder that makes him a dangerous world leader
According to a number of top U.S. psychologists, like Harvard professor and researcher Howard Gardener, Donald Trump is a “textbook” narcissist. In fact, he fits the profile so well that clinical psychologist George Simon told Vanity Fair, “He’s so classic that I’m archiving video clips of him to use in workshops.” This puts Trump in the same category as a number of infamous dictators like Muammar Gaddafi, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Saddam Hussein. And although there are narcissists out there who entertain us, innovate, or create great art, when a narcissist is given immense power over people’s lives, they can behave much differently. As the 2016 presidential election grows nearer we must ask ourselves, if elected president would Donald Trump act on the behalf of the will of the people, or would he behave more like a dictator—silencing any dissenting voices, perpetually refusing to compromise, and being oppressive to certain groups? . . . (highlights mine)
Ah, the potential products of Narcissism? Good question. Brings to mind a quote:
The doom of a nation can be averted only by a storm of flowing passion,
but only those who are passionate themselves can arouse passion in others.
And then there’s this, the other side of that same coin:
Ted Cruz’s obsession to destroy America
So far during his candidacy, Ted Cruz has said that if he should become President, he will (at the very least) . . .
Cruz also advocates a budget-busting flat tax, the elimination of payroll taxes and, of course, ipso facto, the eradication of Social Security and Medicare. He also plans to freeze the hiring of civilian government employees and to eliminate the president’s authority to restrict exports of fossil fuels. Because, you know, MONEY!
Ted Cruz obviously fits the radical far-right wing conservative definition of Leader. He may not be the full narcissist that his poll companion — Trump — has proven himself to be, but Cruz remains, as they say, ‘close enough for government work’ to that “leadership” pinnacle. But — mix ’em both together and here’s what will likely follow:
The National Government will regard it as its first and foremost duty
to revive in the nation the spirit of unity and cooperation. It will preserve
and defend those basic principles upon which our nation has been built.
It regards Christianity as the foundation of our national morality, and
the family as the basis of national life. Turbulent instincts must be
replaced by a national discipline as the guiding principle
of our national life.
Grrrrrrrrrr !!!!
GOP + Trump + Cruz ⇒ Narcissistic Fascism, AKA GOP
Oh, and lest we forget their defining model:
they clearly belong to and derive from that historical
Narcissistic Fascist, a.k.a.
A. Hitler.
******
OPEN THREAD
The Traveler and the Disciple
a modern parable
by
Briseadh na Faire
On an ice-blue winter’s morn a long-journeyed traveler strode into a quiet village. Grownups, both proud and humble kept to their paces, bustling about in preparation for the coming holiday. But a young girl, on the cusp of womanhood bounded up to the stranger.
“Hi,” she sparkled.
“Hello” the Traveler returned.
“You’re not from around here” the girl observed.
“I have traveled from afar.” The Traveler paused, looking about. Snow covered much of the streets, and dripped slowly from thatched roofs creating diamond icicles reaching nearly to the ground. The winter sun was warm enough, however, to cause wisps of steam to float above the rooftops. The Traveler pulled back the hood of his forest-green cloak revealing his white hair and sky-blue eyes.
“Are you a Disciple?” The girl casually flicked back a lock of golden hair.
The Traveler paused. He looked at the girl, and at the townspeople who averted his glances. Then he sat down on the stone bench by a frozen fountain. He invited the girl to sit next to him. “What do you hope to learn by asking me if I am a Disciple?”
She squinted her eyes. That was not the answer she expected. She expected a yes, or a no.
“You’re not a Disciple,” she concluded.
“Why do you say that?” The Traveler looked into her eyes.
“Because…if you were a disciple you would have said so right away.”
“And so” the Traveler interjected, “you have judged me?”
The girl sat straight up. This stranger knew some of the words. But still, he didn’t come right out and confess that he was a Disciple.
“You asked if I was a Disciple so you could judge me.” the Traveler continued. The little girl felt her cheeks burn.
“If I said yes” the Traveler continued, “you would have accepted me. But if I said no…”
“Then…” the girl stammered, “then I would know you did not accept our Lord…” She paused, fidgeting. “…that you followed the Deceiver.”
The Traveler leaned on his birch staff and stood, looking to the east where a lone eagle circled against the cerulean sky. “I have heard of this Deceiver.” His back was to the girl. He slowly turned around. “But…”
The girl waited uncomfortably.
“But, if I followed the Deceiver, wouldn’t I have answered ‘yes,’ that I was a Disciple?” The Traveler’s eyes locked onto the girl’s eyes. She felt like he was peering into her very soul.
She thought about what this stranger said. It was true. The Deceiver would lie, about everything. She looked around. On the fringes of the village square she saw townspeople – the grown-ups that had taught her the words to ask – how to tell if one was to be accepted as a friend, a Disciple, and to shun all who didn’t say the right words. But this stranger, this man who didn’t say all the right words, but who knew some of the right words and seemed to know truths her elders never taught her – her head was swimming…
“You asked me if I was a Disciple so you could either accept me as a friend, or not have anything to do with me,” the Traveler sat back down next to the girl.
“Get out of my head!” the girl thought. “You can’t know what I was thinking!” She cupped her hands over her ears burning ears.
The Traveler reached down and took her chin, directing her gaze into his eyes. “It’s alright. You were only doing as you have been taught.” His kind gaze relaxed her and she lowered her hands.
“If believers and deceivers both answer the same way…how do I tell the difference?” The girl’s eyes welled up with tears.
“The only way anyone can tell,” the Traveler replied, “by what they do, not by what they say.”
“I have travelled far,” the Traveler continued, “and have heard of this Lord of yours. I hear he is kind and gentle and wise. But not all have heard of him. When you ask a man who does not know what it means to you to be a Disciple, he will know that his answer will mean you won’t accept him for who he is.” The shadow of the eagle flitted over the Traveler as the great bird circled overhead.
“Tell me, does your Lord demand everyone be a Disciple?” The Traveler asked, standing and extending his left arm.
“N-n-no,” she stammered, “He leaves that choice to everyone. But the elders…”
The eagle swooped down and silently lit on the Traveler’s outstretched arm.
“Wow!” the girl’s eyes opened wide. “Is he your pet?”
“No. He’s more of a companion.”
The townspeople about the square stopped bustling about and gathered in small groups, talking in hushed tones and pointing at the stranger by the fountain.
“You were about to tell me about the elders?”
“They taught me to ask everyone if they are a Disciple. They taught me to stay away from anyone who didn’t confess they were a Disciple of my Lord. They taught me that everyone who is not a Disciple follows the Deceiver – they lie and are not to be trusted.”
The girl paused and frowned. “And you never answered my question.” She folded her arms.
“Ah, but I did. I just didn’t give you the answer you expected.” The eagle spread its wings and lifted itself effortlessly into the air. “That is true,” the girl thought.
“The sun, does it shine only on Disciples?” The Traveler took a couple of steps to the east.
“It shines on everyone.” She answered.
“Disciples, and those who are not Disciples?” His back was to the girl. But the townspeople to the east of the square suddenly broke their little groups and scurried into the nearest shops.
The girl got up from the stone bench and walked over to the Traveler. “Everyone. It doesn’t matter who you are, or what you believe. The sun is the sun. It shines on everyone.”
“And your Lord, is he not like the sun?” The eagle cried overhead.
“What do you mean?” Behind her, the townspeople started moving into the square.
“Well, this is his square, is it not?”
“Yes.”
The Traveler kneeled on one knee so his face was even with the girl’s. “Is it only for Disciples? Or may anyone gather here.”
“Anyone may gather here.” She paused a moment, thinking. Then she walked over to the fountain. “Anyone may drink of this fountain. Anyone may walk the streets.” She turned and faced the Traveler. “My Lord didn’t exclude anyone.” Then she looked at the growing crowd of townspeople. She backed up to the Traveler.
“But not everyone is welcome in the shops of the elders.” She turned and faced the Traveler, tears welling in her eyes. The townspeople halted in the snow. The little girl through her arms around the Traveler, sobbing onto the shoulder of his green cloak. A woman in fine clothes began pushing her way forward from the back of the crowd.
“The elders….they’re not Disciples” the girl whispered into the Traveler’s ear. “I know” he whispered back. The Traveler gently placed his hands on the girl’s shoulders, holding her at arm’s length. He spoke softly, so that the townspeople could not hear. “You won’t have to ask that question anymore. You’ll know what’s in their hearts without asking. And what’s in their hearts is more important than whether one calls themselves a Disciple.” She nodded, wiping the last of her tears with her sleeve.
The woman broke through the crowd and grabbed the girl by the arm. “Come along, daughter!” she commanded.
“You’re not my mother!” screamed the girl, wresting her arm away. “You stole me from my mother when I was a baby!” The townspeople began muttering in hushed tones. In the shadows between shops, a woman in rags, long shunned by the townspeople, began crying.
“She’s my mother!” the girl proclaimed, pointing at the woman in rags. The woman stood, stretching out her arms even though she was still crying. The eagle overhead cried out, too. The girl ran to her mother, leaving behind the woman in fine clothes. The muttering in the crowd grew louder.
Suddenly there was a crack! as the ice in the fountain broke loose, spraying diamond-crystals and mists of freezing water every which way. The group of townspeople turned towards the fountain, and where the Traveler had stood, but the Traveler was nowhere to be seen.
“I love you, mother” the girl whispered in her mother’s ear.
“I love you, too.” The mother replied, as the woman in fine clothes grabbed the daughter’s arms and wrenched her away.
‘What’s in their hearts is more important than whether they call themselves a Disciple.’ Those words echoed in the girl’s ears as the woman in fine clothes pulled her down the town’s streets to the house where they lived. She vowed to herself that she would never again ask anyone if they were a Disciple. And to her dying day, she never did. But she did share what that stranger taught her by the fountain that one ice-blue winter’s morn.
© 2016 Briseadh na Faire
OPEN THREAD
Some updates on the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge situation from the weekend:
Yesterday, DailyKos had this story about Child Protective Services removing Robert “LaVoy” Finicum’s fourfoster children from his Arizona ‘ranch.’ I love the [literal] money quote:
“That was my main source of income,” Finicum said. “My ranch, well, the cows just cover the costs of the ranch. If this means rice and beans for the next few years, so be it. We’re going to stay the course.”
According to Oregon Public Broadcasting:
“That represents an enormous loss of income for the Finicums. According to a 2010 tax filing, Catholic Charities paid the family $115,343 to foster children in 2009…
Since then, Catholic Charities has increased payments for foster care significantly, but it does not itemize the dollar amount the Finicums were paid in subsequent years.”
On Saturday, January 16th, a few members of the Center for Biological Diversity tried to protest the occupation of the refuge. From Raw Story:
“We’re here to speak up for public land, which belongs to the public,” the group’s executive director, Kierán Suckling, said. “These people are trying to take the land away.”
Pete Santilli, part of the occupying group, picked up a bullhorn and started shouting over him, calling the conservationists “communist,” “fascist,” and saying, “You’re under arrest for bull****ting.”
Ah, yes, Pete Santilli. At first I had him confused with Rick Santilli, the idiot whose ranting on CNBC more or less started the Tea Party plague. However, this Pete Santilli seems to be cut from much the same cloth. Pete is the one who, on his radio show back in 2013, spouted the following regarding then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton:
“I want to shoot her right in the vagina and I don’t want her to die right away,” he said. “I want her to feel the pain and I want to look her in the eyes and I want to say, on behalf of all Americans that you’ve killed, on behalf of the Navy SEALS, the families of Navy SEAL Team Six who were involved in the fake hunt down of this Obama, Obama bin Laden thing, that whole fake scenario, because these Navy SEALS know the truth, they killed them all.”
Santilli continued: “On behalf of all of those people, I’m supporting our troops by saying we need to try, convict, and shoot Hillary Clinton in the vagina.”
According to his bio, “Pete Santilli is a Former U.S. Marine, Consumer Advocate, Former Coca-Cola Executive, Corporate Whistleblower, Radio Talk Show Host. Pete Santilli is a professional hell raiser…”
Santilli also led a protest outside the FBI’s temporary setup at the Burns Airport on Saturday. However, it appears that Santilli is merely a supporter of the occupiers:
“Asked about the demonstration outside the FBI’s headquarters, [Robert] Finicum said Santilli is an “independent journalist” and is not part of the group occupying the Refuge.”
On the agenda for today, according to The Oregonian, is a ‘lecture’ by KrisAnne Hall, who is described as “a Florida attorney and radio talk show host” (although she reportedly no longer holds a license to practice as an attorney in Florida.) Ms Hall is planning to ‘sovereign-splain’ the supposed legality of the Bundy-led occupation of the wildlife refuge:
“Her assistant said she will cover two topics: sovereignty of the state and the constitutional limits of the federal government’s control.
Hall is an outspoken critic of the federal government who supports privatization of federal lands.
“The people are not acting lawlessly,” Hall said in [a] video. “It is the federal government that is acting lawlessly.”
For a tutorial on the warped version of the legal belief system that these deluded people are trying to establish, see this post on Friday’s ThinkProgress.
And for continuing updated coverage, The Oregonian puts up a daily “what you need to know” article along with related articles.
This is our daily Open Thread – feel free to talk about anything you like.
Formosan Magpie
Quetzal
Green Jay
Bleeding Heart Pigeons
(Photo source, Buzzfeed)
Thinking of you Ebb, and wishing you well. I hope these pretties made you smile. 🙂
This is our daily open thread — Discuss
After much public outcry, an arrest has finally been made in the terrorist occupation of public property by armed militants near Burns, Oregon. A 62-year-old misinformed man by the name of Kenneth Medenbach was arrested on charges of “suspicion of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, a class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison.” As if things weren’t bad enough for the brain-addled wood carver, he was released pending charges of occupying federal land illegally on the condition that he not occupy any federal land in the future. Oops. And being caught driving around in a federally-owned vehicle reported as stolen is not one of the smarter things Medenbach has done. Two years ago, Medenbach was forced to vacate his business site when local town officials started enforcing solid waste disposal laws. Medenbach was not very good at keeping his property clean, which led to a settlement in which his landlords would agree to give up any hope of recovering the back rent he owed them if he would just leave their property. So he did.
It wasn’t the first time Medenbach had to leave his home. As he wrote in a Jan 28, 2014 Letter to the Editor:
I lost my job and got evicted from my house.
I’ve owned an acre of land in Crescent for about 10 years and decided to move there. It was either that or be homeless.
So I started clearing some areas and moving some storage sheds on the property, and then I saw these “Stop Work” signs on my storage sheds and the number of the Klamath County Code Enforcer. I called the Klamath County Code Enforcer, and he e-mailed to me the things I needed to do.
I found out I can’t do anything without a site plan review. I can’t even cut trees down to prevent a wildfire from going through my property.I decided to do a little investigating, I googled in Klamath County Code. And one of the choices that popped up was Klamath Falls Land Use, Zoning and Planning lawyers. Some more investigating found a lawyer as a Klamath County Planning Commission member. Why?
Planning Commission members are volunteers. Lawyers don’t do anything for free. Then the light came on.
Confusing and strict county codes have to be passed, so bewildered citizens have to hire land use, zoning and planning lawyers. No doubt, a lawyer as a member of the Klamath County Planning Commission is there to pass as many ridiculous county codes as possible to keep lawyers employed and citizens of Klamath County broke or homeless.
Kenneth Medenbach
Crescent
While all that was going on, Medenbach was also trying to get his local state representative recalled for being a lawyer, and believing this was a conflict of interest. Having read his LTE above, one can begin to see that Medenbach does not grasp the role of government in our lives. As it turned out, out of the 4,980 signatures required to successfully get a recall petition on the ballot, Medenbach managed to file zero signatures. Apparently not even his own.
Medenbach is just one of many who believe in the sovereign citizen movement. These are dangerous people because they do not recognize the authority of the federal government (the very government that keeps them safe enough to protest the government keeping them safe) and they believe they have a right to use deadly force to defend themselves against any federal agent trying to deprive them of what they want, which is usually something they’re not legally entitled to have. Like our land. Medenbach once described himself to a newspaper reporter in 1997 as a Constitution Ranger. He’s never liked the government and even went to jail over a dispute over how he used his property. He feels that because he’s not allowed to accumulate junk on his property and build a “dream home” out of old refrigerators and water heaters, that the government is abusing its power and trampling his rights. (They’re not.) He doesn’t believe that building codes carry the weight of law. (They do.) He says, “The Constitution states simply that only the people can pass laws through the electorate.” (It doesn’t, and that doesn’t even make any sense since “the people” and “the electorate” are the same thing, and we don’t pass the laws.) He claims the federal government doesn’t have the right to own property. (It does.) Back then he said he refused to get a driver’s license because it was an infringement on his freedom. (It wasn’t.) BTW, I hope he changed his opinion on that before he was arrested for driving a stolen federal vehicle. At least back then he said he wanted the revolution to be non-violent. He said that eventually groups like his Constitution Rangers would appeal to the mainstream of American citizens. (They don’t.) And neither do his friends illegally occupying our wildlife refuge.
This is our daily open thread. Feel free to discuss Ken Medenbach, the dangerous sovereign citizen movement, the actual US Constitution or anything else you want.
Saw these guys back in PA about three years ago, and found out they are coming to Eugene shortly.
I’ve decided that today my task is a simple one — to pass on some historically relished behavioral hints to the 2016 Republican Party. I have no doubt that they will find many of the hints useful, also some perhaps already tried and tested. Nevertheless, I do feel it is my duty to spread the word, so to speak, in case some of the current GOP office-seekers (those born after, say, 1946) might find something new and enabling.
So to Republicans everywhere: read this carefully, commit it to memory, and let it serve you well!
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.
If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face . . . forever.
The process [of mass-media deception] has to be conscious, or it would not be carried out with sufficient precision, but it also has to be unconscious, or it would bring with it a feeling of falsity and hence of guilt. . . . To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies — all this is indispensably necessary.
The essence of oligarchical rule is not father-to-son inheritance, but the persistence of a certain world-view and a certain way of life . . . A ruling group is a ruling group so long as it can nominate its successors . . . . Who wields power is not important, provided that the hierarchical structure remains always the same.
The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power.
Power is not a means; it is an end.
One does not establish a dictatorship to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.
The object of persecution, is persecution. The object of torture, is torture. The object of power . . . . is power.
Political language . . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.
The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.
Always create an external enemy so that you may take away rights from within, to take more control of your nation.
The fact is that every war suffers a kind of progressive degradation with every month that it continues, because such things as individual liberty and a truthful press are simply not compatible with military efficiency.
All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred, and schizophrenia. When the general atmosphere is bad, language must suffer.
Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits but according to who does them, and there is almost no kind of outrage–torture, the use of hostages, forced labor, mass deportations, imprisonment without trial, forgery, assassination, the bombing of civilians–which does not change its moral color when it is committed by ‘our’ side.
And remember always:
Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.
And so wrote George Orwell, both in his book 1984, and elsewhere. Meanwhile, the GOP creeps ever closer to the mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred, and schizophrenia that long ago became their destiny.
Godspeed, GOP.
Bonus Link: RNC’s Dave Agema: ‘Obama Uses Taqiyya’ And Is A ‘Socialist Dictator’
They catch on fast!
😆
OPEN THREAD
Earlier this week, MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell ran a short piece concerning a robocall that was making the Republican rounds in Iowa. The caller said:
“I’m Jared Taylor with American Renaissance. I urge you to vote for Donald Trump because he is the one candidate who points out that we should accept immigrants who are good for America. We don’t need Muslims. We need smart, well-educated white people who will assimilate to our culture. Vote Trump.”
The next voice on the robocall said:
“I am William Johnson, a farmer and a white nationalist. I support Donald Trump. I paid for this through the SuperPac 213-718-3908. This call is not authorized by Donald Trump”
I did a little digging. First, I searched for “American Renaissance” and quickly came up with this link to Jared Taylor’s Iowa Robocall. When asked if Taylor thought his plea would ‘resonate with Iowans,” Taylor said,
“We’ll see how the vote goes. I think that most official Republicans have no idea how betrayed ordinary white people feel by their country bring turned into something else. Ordinary white folks are sick of having to press 1 for Spanish.”
A real thinker, that one.
Next up, ‘William Johnson,’ the self-identified Trump-supporting ‘white nationalist’ and “farmer” who paid for the robocall via a SuperPac. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center:
William Daniel Johnson was born in Pinal County, Ariz., in 1954. He studied Japanese at Brigham Young University and went on to earn his law degree from Columbia University in 1981. As a young lawyer, he worked for law firms in Japan and South Korea. After a few years, he returned to the United States to live in California, though he would continue to work for Japanese clients throughout his career.
In 1985, under the pseudonym James O. Pace, Johnson wrote the book Amendment to the Constitution: Averting the Decline and Fall of America. In it, he advocates the repeal of the 14th and 15th amendments and the deportation of almost all nonwhite citizens to other countries. Johnson further claimed that racial mixing and diversity caused social and cultural degeneration in the United States. He wrote: “We lose our effectiveness as leaders when no one relies on us or can trust us because of our nonwhite and fractionalized nature. … [R]acial diversity has given us strife and conflict and is enormously counterproductive.”
Johnson’s solution to this problem was to deport all nonwhites as soon as possible. Anybody with any “ascertainable trace of Negro blood” or more than one-eighth “Mongolian, Asian, Asia Minor, Middle Eastern, Semitic, Near Eastern, American Indian, Malay or other non-European or non-white blood” would be deported under the Pace Amendment.
To smooth the process, Johnson proposed that financial incentives be offered to nonwhites who cooperate with the government in the deportation process. Nonwhites who are too old to leave would be allowed to stay, as they were past childbearing age and did not present an obstacle to long-term racial homogeneity. Johnson imagined that black Americans could be employed to help the transition. He wrote, “Because of their physical abilities, the blacks would be the ideal enforcers.” Johnson believed it critical that the amendment be enacted; if not, he said, nonwhites would strip rights from white Americans, potentially leading to a deadly “race war.” For Johnson, the deportation of nonwhites is an act of self-defense, a preemptive strike in defense of real Americans.
A more succinct way to describe him might be to simply point out that William Johnson is an educated (?) hate-filled bigot, a genuine ‘white supremacist’ who has zero tolerance for ANYONE who’s not pure “white.” Seems to me folks who thought like that in days past used the word “Aryan” to describe themselves. Also ‘Nazi.’ But of course that was a totally different era, right?
Well, at least Donald Trump did not, according to Johnson, “authorize” the robocall by the self-admitted white nationalist Jared Taylor, nor did he pay for it with his own campaign funds. He didn’t disavow the project either, a factual tidbit that might suggest, to the untrained mind, that Trump felt no need to back away from a concept with which he agrees, a point suggested and supported by his oft stated and RE-stated anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim xenophobia.
Seems to me the bottom line here is obvious: Donald Trump has snagged the imagination and full support of White Supremacy idiots across the land. Given the ugliness of attitude and the hate-fueled vitriol it took for Trump to gather in and achieve the electoral loyalty of such idiocy, the obvious question seems simple enough, i.e. WHY, in a sane world, is such an attitude not an automatic disqualifier for any public office seeker, much less for anyone seeking to become President of the United States?
I thought we were better than that. Guess I was wrong.
******
“There is a mysogonistic pretty boy endorsed by white supremacist groups
who has descended deus ex machina from his Fifth Avenue penthouse
to out-jive a field of once promising presidential prospects with
an astonishing succession of inflammatory statements . . .”
(Shaun Mullen, C&L)
Indeed.
******
OPEN THREAD
I’m Briseadh na Faire, and I’m running for President. Here are a few of my positions on issues important to the American People today. Between now and November 2016, I will post additional policy and platform statements.
Today’s topic du jour: State of the Union – yeah, right.
I know, I know. By the time you read this, Obama will have given his last State of the Union Address as President of the United States, blah, blah, blah. He will have put a positive spin on all things Obama, all things black, all things from Kenya. And Fox “News” will have unleashed a barrage showing exactly how incompetent and impotent the Reign of Obama has been, replete with quotes from every Republican candidate from Palin to Trump. (FYI, Palin has never, I repeat never stopped running for President of these here United States.)
The penultimate question is, and always will be: “are you better off now than you were before Obama became President?”
The only possible answer is a resounding “NO!!!”
Before Obama became President, we had hope. Hope for change. Hope for a future better than that of our parents. Now, as we approach the end of his eight-year reign as our supreme leader, we are that much older, that much wiser.
We’re still at war in the middle east – only the name of our enemy has changed from Saddam and Al Qaeda and the Taliban to ISIS or ISIL and Al Qaeda and the Taliban. We’re fighting in Syria now, and Iran is still an open question. Iraq? Forget it. It’s a lost cause. As is Afghanistan. Maybe the oil pipeline is safe, but for sure their heroin production is hitting all-time highs (no pun intended).
Ok, so how about here at home? You feel the boost in the economy from the bazillions in bailout money given to the same banksters that robbed us? Neither did I. Nor anyone else making less than, say, a million a year.
Let’s face it, the only thing we got from eight years of Obama was ObamaCare. Republicans can’t repeal it. The Supreme Court didn’t overturn it. We’re stuck with it. It’s a massive gift to the insurance industry, which wrote much of it. But is it Universal Health Care? No. Medicare for all? No. Just another way for insurance companies to skim their profits off of our health care dollars without improving our health care at all. I know, Republicans created this Boogey Monster of “Government Death Panels” and all. But the reality is that private health insurance companies do that every day, every time they deny a claim, deny a treatment recommended by your doctor, to maximize their profits.
Don’t get me wrong. Obama has done some good. He refused to prosecute Bush and company for war crimes and crimes against humanity. God knows he had enough evidence in the public record to convict at least some of the previous administration. But by not prosecuting his predecessors he let the whole world know that the United States of America will act with impunity when it comes to invading countries under false pretexts for the sole purpose of changing their government; that we will torture people with impunity; that we will kidnap people, and hold them in prison forever, without charges, without due process, because we are, above all things, a Nation of Laws, a Nation of Freedom, a Nation of Liberty. Which is why, of course, terrorists hate us.
So, come 2016, vote Briseadh na Faire for President. I’m the only candidate for President who knows what’s best for America; the only candidate who acknowledges up front that I will break each and every one of my campaign promises, and, when I do, you won’t be disappointed!
I’m Briseadh na Faire, and I approve this message.
[BriseadhNaFaireforPresidentisnotaffiliatedwithanyPolitcalActionCommitteenorhas receivedtheendorcementofTPZoonoranyotherindividualbusinessnonprofitorganizationorgod.]
OPEN THREAD
Tonight is President Obama’s final SOTU, and, personally, I’m hoping for a mic-drop moment…or six.
Watch the SOTU live, at 6 pm PT here:
Some position statements from the candidates we love to hate most. These are random quotes and not position papers. Some might surprise you. Research source – ontheissues.org:
.
Donald Trump
Q: Would you cut departments?
TRUMP: Environmental Protection, what they do is a disgrace.Every week they come out with new regulations.
Q: Who’s going to protect the environment?
TRUMP: We’ll be fine with the environment. We can leave a little bit, but you can’t destroy businesses.
Source: Fox News Sunday 2015 Coverage of 2016 presidential hopefuls , Oct 18, 2015
Ben Carson
Protecting environment logical for capitalists & socialists
Greed really encompasses most of the other negative aspects of capitalism, such as lack of regard for the environment. Many of the industrialists who helped propel our country to the forefront of the global economy were much more interested in growing their businesses than they were in protecting the environment. The result? Dangerous pollution and the compromised habitat of many animals. Protecting the environment is neither a Democratic nor a Republican position, but rather it should be a LOGICAL position for capitalists AND socialists, because everyone should be looking out for the interests of future generations and trying to protect their own health as well. If our government were able to identify what needs to be done in our country to protect our environment, and our representatives (who are supposed to be looking out for their constituents) agreed on our policies and followed through on them, it would benefit us all.
Source: America the Beautiful, by Ben Carson, p. 76 , Jan 24, 2012
.
Ted Cruz
Don’t pick winners & losers like RFS’ ethanol in gasoline
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas flat out opposed the RFS [the Renewable Fuel Standard, which requires corn-based ethanol], saying Washington shouldn’t be “picking winners and losers.”
“I have every bit of faith that businesses can continue to compete and continue to do well without having to go on bended knee asking for subsidies, asking for special favors,” he said. “I think that’s how we got in this problem to begin win.”
Ethanol proponents argue that because oil companies own gas stations, consumers are unable to access ethanol and therefore it needs the government’s support to break through oil’s stronghold of the market. Cruz acknowledged that his view wouldn’t be well-received: “Look, I recognize that this is a gathering of a lot of folks who the answer you’d like me to give is, ‘I’m for the RFS, darn it.’ That’d be the easy thing to do. But I’ll tell ya, people are pretty fed up, I think, with politicians that run around & tell one group one thing, tell another group another thing.“
Source: CNN coverage by Ashley Killough, of 2015 Iowa Ag Summit , Mar 7, 2015
More offerings next week.
Let’s start with some recent local news:
Woo-hoo! New York State’s medical marijuana program is now open for business. One of the new dispensaries is in White Plains, NY, about 40 minutes south of us. I think I’ll email the story link to my doctor, who used to say that, if NYS ever legalizes pot, she’ll start her own business. I realize that this isn’t the same as legalization, but it’s a good step in the right direction.
It was recently revealed that Donald Trump had wanted to ruin summer fun for thousands of local children. It seems that, a few years back, The Donald had been interested in turning Playland Park in Rye, NY, into a residential development. Now, a little explanation is in order: when we were kids, the end of many a school year was celebrated with a class trip to Rye Playland–it was fairly close, fairly affordable, and in addition to the rides, it had a decent-sized beach on the Long Island Sound. I feel safe in saying that at least 90% of kids who grew up within a 50-mile radius of Playland has been there more than once. Not to mention that the park has been around since 1928.
I was horrified to read about Trump’s offer in our local Patch online news – losing Playland, a part of our childhood, would be sad enough, but losing it to Trump would have been so much worse. Good thing Trump’s meeting with Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino to discuss the possible development came to nothing:
“I could just imagine the gates of Playland with a big ‘T’ on it, you know?” a chuckling Astorino told The Journal News. “Trumpland.”
Exactly right, Mr. Astorino, and that would be SO wrong!
Next, a few pieces from The Weather Channel:
A traffic camera in Montreal caught a snowy owl in flight. The gif below is comprised of four photos the camera took, which can be seen here in TWC’s article.
Also from TWC for your viewing pleasure, here’s a series of photos entitled “Liquid Mountains”, by photographer Dave Sanford. These are amazing shots of storm-tossed waves on Lake Erie–and take note of Sanford’s apt titles (shown above the upper left corner of the photos) for each of the shots.
This is our daily Open Thread – enjoy, discuss, whatever!
Photos by Zooey
Sometimes, the color of the ocean is unbelievable. I was going through some old photos on my computer — these are from 2011 — and found these in a folder called “Jade.”
I’ve never seen the ocean look like this since then, and I feel lucky to have captured these photos that day.
This is our daily open thread — What’s your favorite color? 😉
TheZoo 