Author: Raymond

 
From The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser:

Evangelicalism is dying. Oh, Evangelicals still make lots of noise and have a stranglehold on the Republican Party, but their grip on America is weakening and, in time, their hold will falter, leading to epic collapse. The Week reports:

While 63 percent of Americans over the age of 65 are white Christians, only 24 percent of those under the age of 30 are, a group far outnumbered by the 38 percent of young adults who are unaffiliated. Unless there’s some kind of dramatic Christian awakening that produces millions of converts, that means that in the future the ranks of Christians in general and white Christians in particular are likely to shrink.

This won’t happen any time soon, but that train is a coming, and nothing can stop it. Younger Evangelicals, in particular, are exiting their churches stage left, never to return. Those who remain tend to be more liberal politically, socially, and theologically, than their parents and grandparents. These cradle Evangelicals will, in time, seek out the friendlier confines of Liberal/Progressive Christianity.

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From Vixen Strangely:

Some of you readers are like me and can remember where I filched the phrase “catapulting the propaganda” from–that was from the Bush Administration. George W. Bush admitted he had to repeat things over and over again for the “truth” to set in in order to “catapult the propaganda”. That word “truth” is a pretty slippery commodity, but the idea of “catapulting the propaganda” pretty accurately described his Administration’s messaging. He let that moment of reality slip while talking about privatizing Social Security, but it more truthfully describes what happened regarding the use of repetition, changing justifications, and outright frauds to create a casus belli for the war in Iraq.

Now, here comes the Trump Administration, no strangers to repeating things that are inaccurate or unclear or perpetrating frauds, talking up the possibility of a threat of war with Iran out loud and in private (looking for their “slam dunk case” perhaps?). Even though our allies indicate that there seems to be no real urgent threat.

All I’m saying is, we have sure as hell been here before, and pretty damn recently, too.

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From Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson:

A proposed amendment to a bill to protect the lives of children who survive attempted abortions is dividing the state’s two pro-life organizations. The amendment, proposed by Sen. André Jacque (R-DePere), is intended to also hold the mother accountable if she participates in terminating the child’s life after the failed abortion.

“My amendment would ensure that SB 175 avoids exempting the mother of a born-alive infant from prosecution for the death of the child for their actions AFTER the child is born, including directing an abortionist to ‘finish the job’ as Virginia Governor Northam and many other prominent Democrats would seem to support,” Jacque said in an email to RightWisconsin on Tuesday.

However, Heather Weininger, the executive director of Wisconsin Right to Life, strongly disagrees with Jacque about the need for the amendment and does not support it.

“I want to be clear: Wisconsin Right to Life does not support Senator Jacque’s amendment. I personally spoke with him and told him we do not support this,” Weininger said in a statement Friday. “To say that if it was adopted the full pro-life movement could embrace saving babies born alive after failed abortions is a blatant lie.”

In an email to RightWisconsin, Weininger said the amendment wasn’t necessary to protect the child and does not shield the mother from charges of infanticide.

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From our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit:

Tariffs are a tax on Americans. Trump cannot be so stupid as to believe that the Chinese are paying the tariffs. So what he is doing is spreading another one of his Big Lies, knowing that his supporters will repeat it and that the mouth-breathing bobbleheads on Fox will obediently repeat it.

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From Robert A. Levine at The Moderate Voice:

What Trump doesn’t seem to understand is that the Chinese will be able to import agricultural products from other nations, particularly Brazil and Latin American countries, replacing US output. And once the trade war is over, the Chinese may not change their pattern of importing and may stick with their more reliable exporters who may in fact be cheaper. The American farmers may lose their Chinese market permanently because of Trump’s easy trade war. And our farmers are not really happy about being subsidized. They want their markets and want to get back to work farming.

The big sticking point in trade negotiations between the two countries is the Chinese government’s use of subsidies to businesses deemed important to their future economy. This is the way the Chinese government has always advanced their economy, stealing technology from the US and other nations then starting their own companies to produce the same goods. They appear to have been willing to cease intellectual theft, but not centrally planned state subsidies to businesses. The market doesn’t determine the winners and losers in the Chinese economy. The government does and supports what they see as vital industries with subsidies. And the government backed off on previous agreements the negotiators had made and refused to put any agreements into law.

One of Trump’s major mistakes was trying to negotiate with China on a one to one basis. If he had included allies in these negotiations, like the EU, England, Canada, Japan, and perhaps Latin America, he could have put much more pressure on China and forced them to make changes in their economy they were loath to make. But Trump said that trade wars were easy to win and now has screwed up the American economy and the public.

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From driftglass:

In New Hampshire, Joe Biden predicts that once President Trump is out of office, Republicans will have “an epiphany” and work with Democrats toward consensus.

Of course, as we out here in the Real World know perfectly well (and as I may have mentioned once or twice or 5000 times over the past 14 years) our political climate has been irreversibly wrecked by the Republican Party for at least the next generation, at this point the very best we can hope for is to contain their madness and mitigate the damage they can do. Which means the rest of us in the not-crazy majority need to start running hard against the entire Republican party as an entity and stop wasting our limited time and energy pretending that figuring out the Trump voter is some great mystery, and that once we crack their code and begin communicating with them in their native language something something “Bipartisanship!”

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From Tommy Christopher:

“The president very much wants to give this speech, it sounds like, from the Lincoln Memorial, and you write ‘The presidents starring role has the potential to turn what has long been a non-partisan celebration of the nation’s founding into another version of a Trump campaign rally,” Camerota said, and asked “I’m just wondering, Josh, I mean what kind of speech would he give?”

“Would he give a presidential speech, or would he give one of these sort of foaming at the mouth speech that we sometimes see at the rallies where they clamor, you know we heard it just last week, where people in the crowd clamor for violence?” she added.

“Well, I think his advisors themselves don’t know what he’s going to say before he gets up there,” Dawsey said.

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From Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger:

Beto O’Rourke was one of several Democrats I was considering supporting for the 2020 presidential nomination. Unfortunately, that is no longer true. His recent statement in New Hampshire has me upset, and I can no longer consider supporting him.

During a house party in Lebanon (New Hampshire), Beto was asked if he would support every candidate of the Democratic Party. His answer was extremely disappointing. He refused to pledge to support every Democratic candidate, saying:

“I can’t take a pledge to support every single Democrat in the country. I need to know about them first, right? Would you want me to make a blanket commitment about people I know nothing about, who I’ve never met?”

That is unacceptable.

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From Neil Bamforth at MadMikesAmerica:

It’s not looking too good is it? The majority who went to the ballot box voted to leave the European Union but we haven’t. It matters not whether you agree or disagree with Britain leaving, the ballot box said we should so, for democracies sake, we should have done, and as quickly as possible. Then, almost three years later, we could have been debating whether it had worked or not.

It might have been disastrous for us, or it might not have been. Democratically, we deserved to find out.

Had it been disastrous, then fine. We could have tried rejoining with our tails between our legs. Embarrassing it might have been, but democracy would have at least been served.

The division regarding Brexit is purely because it never happened.

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From Frances Langum:

In a Fox News op-ed, Bush’s former press secretary tells presidential candidates they should definitely do Fox appearances, but “pull your punches” on Fox hosts.

It’s a desperate plea…with conditions attached?

In a Fox News website oped (Fox link) Perino informs the 20+ Democratic contenders that they MUST come on Fox for the ratings. “You can’t beat Fox News. Literally, you can’t beat it.”

But she also warns Democrats not to attack Fox.

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