Month: February 2019

 
From driftglass:

The shattered remnants of the Illinois Republican Party limped into the Bank of Springfield Center last night to momentarily forget their woes by drinking themselves back to 1985 while listening to NRA president Ollie North slander Democrats. From the State Journal-Register:

North headlines Lincoln Day dinner

…

The 75-year-old North, who became president of the NRA last May, also said the “disarm America movement is the best-funded, most sophisticated assault on our American liberties in our history.”

North claimed that an unnamed “unholy troika of tyrannical billionaires” was setting the Democrats’ “far-left socialist agenda.”

“They’re using their vast fortunes to elect enough progressives to turn America into a disarmed socialist dystopia,” North said.

“The hard left in America are socialists. They’re anti-freedom candidates for office. If they succeed in what they’re doing, our lives are going to be adversely affected forever…

Yes, that happened. Probably not to thunderous applause, because the days of thunder for this collection of doddering old Republican losers is long behind them. I imagine instead something like the sound of dead branches rattling against the weather-beaten shutters of an abandoned house at the end of an abandoned road.

An imitation of life staged by and for the unquiet ghosts of a dead party. With a keynote address by the disgraced leader of a pro-gun massacre cult. At an event named after a United States president who was shot in the head and is buried a couple of mile away.

The ironies multiply like tribbles.

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From Max’s Dad:

God knows to some masochistic Democrats, there is no forgiveness for past indiscretions. Meanwhile the Republicans not only ignore racist pasts, they thrive on it. Not that Democrats should thrive on bigotry, but forgiveness is a trait they can certainly use to their advantage.

All I am Saying Is Give Fighting Back A Chance.

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From tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors:

We know that there is a gypsy curse on whoever gives the rebuttal: we’ve endured Bobby Jindal’s Kenneth-the-Page impersonation, and of course the thirst quenching needs of Marco Rubio will be the stuff of comedy legends. Abrams’ rebuttal might become the gold standard of how to do these things well, she spoke from a room, draped in blue, with good acoustics, and had supporters standing behind her. It didn’t look or sound like a hostage tape or a demo reel from an open mic night at a coffee house.

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From Andy Borowitz:

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Using some of his harshest rhetoric in recent memory, President Donald J. Trump came out strongly against intelligence on Wednesday morning.

“I’ve listened to these people with so-called intelligence go on and on, and, quite frankly, it’s a waste of time,” he said. “I know a lot more than people with intelligence do.”

Trump added that he has stopped receiving intelligence briefings at the White House, arguing, “I can do my job without any intelligence whatsoever.”

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From Tommy Christopher:

Donald Trump got more bad polling news this week, including one result that could make him think twice about his threat to shut down the government again: even Republicans oppose using government shutdowns as political leverage, and by a wide margin.

One of the attention-grabbing items in the latest Quinnipiac University poll is the fact that voters now trust Democrats more than Trump on the issue of border security, an issue on which Republicans usually enjoy the advantage.

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From The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser:

Evangelicals are known for pleading with non-Christians to put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Evangelicals have a very narrow view of the world and who will make it to Heaven after they die. Evangelicals are clear on the matter: Catholics, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Liberal Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, atheists, agnostics, humanists, pagans and, well, anyone who is not an Evangelical, will end up in Hell after death. Unless these people, by faith, repent and believe the Evangelical gospel, they are doomed for the Lake of Fire. This is why Evangelical zealots plead with non-Christians to ask Jesus to save them. Evangelicals genuinely don’t want non-Christians to be tortured by God for eternity. Well, most Evangelicals, anyway. I have received countless emails and blog comments from Evangelicals who find it quite satisfying that I will one day meet Jesus face to face and be punished for my sin. Several of them have even prayed for my soon demise. Sooner in Hell the better for Bruce Gerencser, right?

So Evangelicals beg and plead with family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers, hoping that they will be convicted by the Holy Spirit and ask Jesus to save them. Yet, despite this pathos, we unbelievers can’t or won’t embrace Evangelical Christianity. Just because Evangelicals really, really, really want us to be saved doesn’t mean that we lay reason aside and get saved. What kind of salvation would it be if we could be argued, badgered, or emotionally manipulated into believing?

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From CATO’s Julian Sanchez:

This article appeared in The New York Times on January 26, 2019.

For many, Friday’s arrest of Roger Stone, the veteran political trickster and longtime adviser to Donald Trump, was a sign that the special counsel investigation into Russian electoral interference is entering its final phase. Yet there were also several indications that the probe may not be as near its conclusion as many observers assume — and that the true target of Friday’s F.B.I. actions was not Mr. Stone himself, but his electronic devices.

Mr. Stone’s early-morning arrest at his Florida home unsurprisingly dominated coverage, but reports also noted that federal agents were “seen carting hard drives and other evidence from Mr. Stone’s apartment in Harlem, and his recording studio in South Florida was also raided.” The F.B.I., in other words, was executing search warrants, not just arrest warrants. Even the timing and manner of Mr. Stone’s arrest — at the absolute earliest moment allowed under federal rules of criminal procedure without persuading a judge to authorize an exceptional nighttime raid — suggests a concern with preventing destruction of evidence: Otherwise it would make little sense to send a dozen agents to arrest a man in his 60s before sunrise.

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From North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz:

“I don’t recognize her anymore.”

Through choked back tears, a man shared these words today about his 74-year old mother. The last two years have seen their once-loving relationship deteriorate precipitously, now relegated to cold exchanges via text and strained small talk conversations at family gatherings—sandwiched between explosive screaming matches which are often followed by extended periods of radio silence.

He shared screenshots of his mother’s Facebook profile, littered with Alt-Right talking points, discriminatory memes, and effusive tributes to the President—always juxtaposed with hateful diatribes regarding our former President. The racism and homophobia and Islamophobia she generates every day is both shocking and devastating to her adult son.

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From Dorian Estuardo de Wind at The Moderate Voice:

Whatever one may think of Trump’s premature “mission accomplished” declaration on ISIS, a conclusion since contradicted by his own intelligence agencies…

Whatever one may think of Trump’s flip-flopping from “bringing our troops home from Syria “Now,” to doing so on a more “deliberate, coordinated, disciplined” basis as finally prevailed upon by “his generals”…

Whatever one may think of the whole issue of deploying, and keeping, U.S. military troops on foreign soil…

Would it not be correct, appropriate or, at least, “nice” to first secure approval from the host country?

Not according to the ultimate “let’s-make-a-deal-solely-on-my-terms,” self-proclaimed genius.

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