Billy Graham belongs Statuary Hall about as much as I do. His religion and his actions have in no way contributed to the cohesiveness of our nation; indeed, it has acted against it, as evinced by his attitude toward the American Jewish community.
This is just WRONG in more ways than I care to count.
I guess I'm lucky, I've never had the endurance to sit through one of his sermons uninterrupted. His attitude has always struck me as being pompous and overbearing.
First and foremost, Graham was a performer who entertained a lot of people with very low standards when it comes to objective evidence. He became very wealthy by doing so, and was one of the highest paid entertainers of his generation. Graham always made my skin crawl, and I could never understand why so many were so willing to delegate their thinking to such a creepy man. The best thing I can say about Billy Graham, is that his son is even worse.
Had to look him up to remember who he is. I’m pretty good at not occupying brain-space with twits that are leeches on humanity.
Was slightly disturbed to find out he is a Sagittarius, as am I, but saved since I do not believe in astrology but do like to use it for metaphor.♐️♐️♊️👅
They occupy primo land all over the US. What they don’t pay, the rest of us pick up. Big scam that should NEVER be allowed. They do not feed the hungry…their parishioners do!
Just ridiculous that they get to be tax free as charitable orgs, especially now that they have become SO involved in politics & even funding candidates & lobbying Congress. It’s BS
Fundegelicals doing fundegelical shit. It's gross. Billy Graham popularized the ridiculous "born again Christian" thing too. No need for Jesus to turn your life upside down by changing you into a better person if you follow him, just pray some magic words for fire insurance so you don't go to hell and that's it. That's the entire goal.
Graham's idea of the good news was an entirely spiritual (and therefore worthless) one.
Salvation was a personal and internal matter that ultimately had little bearing on one's conduct or one's moral obligations towards other people.
It would be as if the story of Zacchaeus ended with Jesus staying the night at his house and didn't include Zach's promise to stop ripping people off, repay the people he did rip off, and restore them four-times as much as he stole from them.
It would be as if Scrooge woke up and said, "May God have mercy on me" and then kept being a greedy miser who blamed the misery of the poor on the poor themselves and did nothing to help them.
It's a worthless tool to create a tribe of people convinced of their own moral rightness even as they fail every moral test put to them.
But is it really the PEOPLE of North Carolina who wanted it? Here in Wisconsin, legislation is generated by a horribly gerrymandered Republican-dominated legislature that pays very little attention to what the actual public actually wants (like fair electoral maps, legalized marijuana, big money out of politics, acceptance of federal Medicaid and intercity-rail money, preservation of rural UW campuses, and on and on). We've had literally hundreds of local advisory referenda on these subjects that invariably pass by huge margins of 60-70-80-90 percent. But these didn't go unnoticed in the halls of power. Oh no, they saw them and saw the need to act. So they did. They repealed the state statute that authorized local advisory referenda.
I'm not sure what the story is in North Carolina, but I caution that, just because the legislature is for it doesn't mean that the people are.
Does it matter? "Both parties are the same" or of course students don't get vote. Working people may not be able to afford the time (mandated that your boss allow you, but not that ze pay you) "Why should I pay for those lazy, no-good poor people. So I'm just as poor, but that's just temporary"
The people elect their representatives. That their poor choices in the past resulted in those choices rigging the system to perpetuate the earlier choices regardless of present preferences is a bummer, and par for the course. 🙃
"Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause North Carolina, said, "North Carolina legislators have imposed discriminatory voting maps that outrageously attack the rights of Black North Carolinians. Sadly, racist gerrymandering once again plagues our state and harms voters. We must defeat it. Our voting districts don’t belong to politicians; our districts belong to the people. We must have voting maps that are free from racist gerrymandering and that respect the freedom of all voters."
They are gerrymandered to shit, the daughter of the guy who designed it turned over a thumb-drive (after he died) that said he drew the districts to cut out the black voters getting any say. They have been told to draw fair maps repeatedly but they always dither until it is too late.
Richard, Good point. Hopefully, most understand that there are numerous good people in every red state who are getting screwed by the rescumliCon’s so-called leaders. Tx will flip soon, I think. Lots of Big Blue areas in TX. Just as trump NEVER represented us or our country, people in every state are cheated out of their voices too.
I remember seeing anti-Scott Walker crowds in Wisconsin on the news. (2011) Over a million pro-labor, pro-union protesters converged on the capital, Madison. Farmers drove their tractors in, Michael Moore spoke. He countered the same BS today that the US doesn’t have the money, corporations can’t afford improvements for staff…The People spoke..but were kicked in the ass. Walker arrested state senators who left the state to deny the anti-people Republicans a quorum. Totally outrageous behavior of rescumliCons!
Pretty sure the white anti-Semite was also a racist, so... meet the new bigot statue, same as the old bigot statue? One wonders why they don't just swap out the head and the nameplate and call it a day.
Anti-Semitism is part and parcel of white supremacy. The idiots marching with their Tiki torches were crying about being replaced by the tiny percentage of surviving Jewish people, but they are also all in on the great replacement theory of dark skinned folks replacing them in the USA politic. It's almost as though the two ideas are the same thought.
No! No,no,no,no and no. Maybe in a bathroom in a gas station in the South yes. Billy Graham you still make me sick. Trust me that statue will Not last long. Nope. Really sad to hear this. No!
Right now they have John Winthrop and Sam Adams. Sam Adams everyone knows; Winthrop was an early governor of the colony that basically held it together. Still, how about replacing Winthrop with Donna Summer...or Rob Zombie. :)
You mean, the Satanic Temple. I know for most people the distinction doesn't matter, except confusing the two organizations might be the only cardinal sin in Satanism.
Agreed, the point is good. As a member, I can sayI love seeing the references in comment sections for fighting for religious pluralism, which I think TST does well.
Now you're getting it! Laws in America are based on socioeconomic status. If you're wealthy, the laws benefit and protect you. If you are not wealthy, the laws ensure your poverty and ride roughshod right over you. The intent is to keep the people of color in a subservient role, but they're happy to keep the poor whites just as enslaved as the rest. The more to rule over the better.
Also to keep women in a subservient role & preferably out of the workforce. That’s part of the reason for abortion bans, if a woman is constantly pregnant & having kids to take care of, then she can’t compete with men.
And since there are plenty of Gracchuses that don't understand their contempt of people of color is actually racism in the masses of poor white people, they are willing to sacrifice themselves to keep those people from improving their lots in life. So the status quo rolls on, right on over them.
The folks at the top use money as their point system to figure out who's on top at any given time. Once you understand that bit, everything starts making a lot more sense.
Graham denied making anti-Semitic statements to Richard Nixon in the Oval Office. Unfortunately, those comments of his were caught on tape. When those tapes were played back to him, he lamely claimed he couldn't remember saying those things.
How convenient. Wasn't "I don't remember"/"I can't recall" the mantra Nixon created for his admin for Watergate?
In Reagan's case, his lack of ability to recall things may not have been an affectation. He was suffering from Alzheimer's while he was in the Oval Office.
The fact such talk is accepted in the locker room is a big part of why boys grow up with skewed ideas of relationships (not just romantic) between men and women. Why they think they should press the issue after a woman says no. Even to the point of getting her drunk to 'lower her inhibitions'.
"Graham became America’s minister because he was famous and because both Democrats and Republicans would listen to him. Of course, this had no small part to do with the type of Democrats who entered the White House. Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton were all very comfortable with evangelicalism as southern Democrats. What was really important to Graham was maintaining his position as America’s pastor and he did so by openly cultivating the love of presidents. This wasn’t necessarily that hard most of the time, given the number of southern or conservative western presidents during his lifetime. He was particularly close to Dwight Eisenhower, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon. One president he did not succeed in cultivating, not surprising, was John Kennedy. In fact, Graham had been part of a meeting of big-time preachers in 1960 to stop the horror of a Catholic gaining the White House.
Graham’s closeness with Richard Nixon led him to defend the crook all through Watergate, a serious stain on his record. To help Nixon out during Vietnam, Graham decided to hold a big rally at a university with a conservative student body and then invite the president to speak. He chose the University of Tennessee over Ohio State. There was some disgust among some in Knoxville, but this was the kind of crowd that would love Graham and Nixon to the end.
Not every president liked Graham. Harry Truman took an instant dislike to him when they met and hated him the rest of his life, referring to Graham as a “counterfeit.” It likely didn’t help when Graham excoriated Truman for firing Douglas MacArthur, calling the general “a great man, a great Christian” and believed the Soviets were “jubilant” about his firing. Graham had long spoken out against Mormonism, but when he endorsed Mitt Romney in 2012 (although there was plenty of speculation it was his son Franklin speaking through his aging father), his church did as much as possible to expunge all his anti-Mormon statements from the internet and other sources.
He was always a political person himself, though he resisted the temptation, quite strong, to run for office himself. After all, the money and power are better as the outsider with everyone’s ear. He was asked to run by a group of conservative North Carolina Democrats in the 1950s when they wanted to get rid of Senator Kerr Scott for being soft on segregation, but he turned them down. He was also approached by Republicans to run for president in 1964 on several occasions, before Goldwater won the nomination. More importantly, he wanted Christians to vote. Traditionally, evangelical Christians had often found the political process ungodly and had relatively low voter turnout rates. Graham did much to change that. People such as Jerry Falwell get most of the credit for the politicizing of evangelicals, but while Graham is seen as less grotesquely partisan and horrible than Falwell, he had at least as big a role in this process. To his credit, Graham always distanced himself from Falwell and refused to get on board with the Moral Majority and the extreme partisan politicization of evangelicalism that so dominates the Republican Party today. But much of that is also just Graham getting old. His son would have no such scruples.
Graham also always found ways to increase his empire and his money. He was savvy that way, no question. He had his own pavilion at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York, for instance. He had a famous theological debates of sort with Woody Allen on the latter’s 1969 television special. The entire Graham family is involved in the evangelical grift, most notably his loathsome son Franklin who took over the ministry and moved it back to a hard right. The later period of Billy’s career saw a move toward the right and many speculated whether that was really him or his son controlling the strings."
Strange how there's a pandemic of memory loss... And since it's very contagious lots of people have had it for years and THEY DON'T REMEMBER HAVING IT! So there can't find a cure for it. Some of my family got it and former friends too.
"The chat followed a Feb. 10, 1972 prayer breakfast the two men had attended. The Vietnam War was raging and Nixon was often very focused on his re-election campaign.
I listened as he made a string of bigoted remarks about Jews and what he deemed their undue influence. Graham responded, "This stranglehold has got to be broken or the country's going down the drain." That line was picked up by media at the time and included in some of remembrances following his demise. Most of the conversation was not.
"You believe that?" Nixon said, seeming to be pleasantly surprised with affirmation of an anti-Semitic streak that courses through many Nixon Oval Office conversationsYes, sir," Graham said to Nixon (and H.R Haldeman, the Nixon top aide later imprisoned for his role in the Watergate cover-up, who is apparently in the room for most, even all the conversation).
"Oh, boy," replied Nixon. "So do I. I can't ever say that but I believe it."
"No, but if you get elected a second time, then we might be able to do something," Graham replied.
Graham referenced friends of his own in the press who were Jewish and how they "swarm around me and are friendly to me." But, he added, "They don't know how I really feel about what they're doing to this country."
It got worse. Nixon brought up a topic of which he said "we can't talk about it publicly": the alleged influence of Jews in Hollywood and the press. He references an executive with the 1968-1973 NBC hit show, "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-in," as once informing him that 11 of its 12 writers were Jewish. "
That right?" said Graham. Nixon seamlessly continued by asserting that Life magazine, Newsweek, The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times were among those "totally dominated by the Jews." And, he said, the famous broadcast network anchors Howard K. Smith, David Brinkley and Walter Cronkite were "front men who may not be of that persuasion," but that their writers were "95 percent Jewish."
Nixon, being Nixon, qualified his broadside by declaring that this didn't mean "that all the Jews are bad." But, nevertheless, most were of leftish persuasion and desired "peace at any price except where support for Israel is concerned. The best Jews are actually the Israeli Jews."
"That's right," agreed Graham, who would further aid and abet his host's declaration that a "powerful bloc" of media Jews confronted Nixon "And they're the ones putting out the pornographic stuff," Graham said, thought it's a bit unclear to what he alluded.
When I broke the story in 2002, Graham said through a spokesman that he could not respond regarding the transcript because he didn't remember it. He would later issue a written apology and meet with Jewish leaders. But he forever maintained that he could not recall the conversation."
They actually fought against finding anything to help cuz it was a "Gay disease" and thus god's punishment. Sorry your Dad was caught up in this. KKKons fought Dr. Fauci over this and used Covid as an excuse to discredit him. KKKons never forget and carry grudges forever. Just like their god who is still miffed about an apple.
I lost my best friend, I'm sorry you lost your dad. Some idiot on Robert Reich substack comments, claimed Hillary was to the right of Reagan. I gave the idiot an earfull what St Ronnie of alzheimers was really all about.
My dad left us mentally, years before he died at 76. I think all the schrapnel he had in him in WWll contributed to that. Mom fell and broke her hip and went fast, a year later. That was twenty years ago.
Maybe I'm just feeling crotchety today, but why don't we just get rid of all the statues in the building? Put 'em somewhere else. If we're gonna have statues in the halls of Congress, they should only be of ideals- like Liberty, and Justice (𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘭𝘭, you dipshit GQP cretins!)- rather than of historical figures, regardless of their significance.
Actually, can we just do away with this entire stupid cult of leader worship we have going on, as a country? We build statues of them, we build monuments to them, we desecrate perfectly good mountains with them, we name fucking warships after them... and it's just so... 𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘺. Worse than that, it reinforces the belief that what this country is, and what it ought to be, comes down to the acts of a handful of Great Men (tm)- and it almost always is the men- who saved the rest of us from whatever calamities befell their age (the tyranny of kings, the secession of traitors... the existence of indigenous people, the minorities getting uppity...) by the deeds of Their Great Hands alone.
And I can't shake the suspicion that it is that very mistake, that cultural obsession with hero worship, that is leading us towards the very same things this country always 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘮𝘴 it exists to oppose. Because, if you believe that One Great Man can save us all... then all One 𝘌𝘷𝘪𝘭 Man has to do is convince you that he's the man for the job- and then it all goes down the tubes.
And they keep telling us we have a 50/50 shot of that one evil man taking over this fall. Sometimes I regret that I don't believe in any sky fairies. If I did I could at least make myself feel better by praying to them for stop Mango Mussolini.
If we don't name the warships after leaders, they'll be named after sponsors, like all the sports stadiums (hey, what's a name compared to another .5% in profits)
As far as know, the Capitol's only restriction is "persons notable in their history," plus some weight and size issues because of what the rooms and floors can handle. Doesn't have to be a leader. Or any political figure at all. Tennessee could pick Dolly Parton if they wanted. And a state doesn't have to offer anyone, it's entirely voluntary. Also, I'm not sure there's any specific requirement for realism; if some state decided to put in an abstract art sculpture and said it represented Elvis, I'm not sure the Capitol folks would have much to say about it.
So don't blame the Capitol; it's the states that make the choice of who they honor with this, what it looks like, and it's the states that come up with the money, decide on the artist, how it's going to look, etc.
Having said all that, personally I'm okay with the concept of honoring actual people for their contributions to state history. I would likely take issue with many of the current choices, particularly since the southern states seem to have used this venue to refight the civil war. But the idea of states honoring individuals from the state? Okay by me.
We have the guy who invented the air conditioner and Mary McLeod Bethune.
Mary Jane McLeod Bethune (née McLeod; July 10, 1875 – May 18, 1955) was an American educator, philanthropist, humanitarian, womanist, and civil rights activist. Bethune founded the National Council of Negro Women in 1935, established the organization's flagship journal Aframerican Women's Journal, and presided as president or leader for a myriad of African American women's organizations including the National Association for Colored Women and the National Youth Administration's Negro Division.
Ugh, many of the confederate statues have been taken away so officials are replacing them with religious kooks? Swapping evil for evil.
Speaking of which: I was walking my dog the other day and there was some guy on the other side of the street with two huge Shepherds. They were barking and lunging towards my girl. Then I heard him say “heel Adolf”. Who the fuck names their dog that unless of course you’re a Nazi fanboi. 🙄🤬
This isn't much different in some respects to Shenandoah, Virginia deciding to backtrack and keep the old Confederate names of schools.* No matter how 'traditional' or 'cultural' the significance of some racist or bigot might be, that is not justification of putting up a statue of them. Racism, bigotry, and slavery are not aspects of history worthy of celebration by creating statues, paintings, and other displays; these pieces cannot come down quickly enough. Having one of these obnoxious statues built for Billy Graham is an attempt to move humanity backwards, and I am sick of these behaviors from the conservative Christians who always appear to opt for the least compassionate choice. Billy Graham was a driving force behind the political machinations we see from Christians today, and I think any honest examination of his life and actions would reveal him to be the monster he was. If anything, this particular monster has done little more than inspire others to become monsters just like him, and quite honestly, that is nothing to celebrate in the slightest.
I find it simultaneously funny and infuriating that they're taking down a statue of a white supremacist to replace it with...a statue of another white supremacist. Sure, maybe a less obvious one, but still.
Surely North California has someone in their history who wasn't a white supremacist?
Billy Graham belongs Statuary Hall about as much as I do. His religion and his actions have in no way contributed to the cohesiveness of our nation; indeed, it has acted against it, as evinced by his attitude toward the American Jewish community.
This is just WRONG in more ways than I care to count.
Nothing divides people more effectively or unnecessarily, than religion, and Graham was an expert at it.
Who's next? L. Ron Hubbard???
Don't give them ideas! 😝
😂Truly, Hubbard and the rest of the Von Clan. If the statue of Graham the Con goes up, I hope to see it taken down.
:D
Too bad von danicken is not American, if you want to glorify stupidity I mean.
They have statues of Confederates. They aren't interested in the cohesiveness of our nation unless it's under their boot.
The boot of a mythological god.
I once listened to one of his national sermons. Almost made me nauseous knowing how many people subscribed to this bullshit.
I guess I'm lucky, I've never had the endurance to sit through one of his sermons uninterrupted. His attitude has always struck me as being pompous and overbearing.
(insert SNL character "Mango" yelling "Accurate!" meme.)
First and foremost, Graham was a performer who entertained a lot of people with very low standards when it comes to objective evidence. He became very wealthy by doing so, and was one of the highest paid entertainers of his generation. Graham always made my skin crawl, and I could never understand why so many were so willing to delegate their thinking to such a creepy man. The best thing I can say about Billy Graham, is that his son is even worse.
Just like all the traveling preachers in the 19th century, put on a show, sell a magic ointment, PROFIT!
Joel Osteen comes to mind.
Ken Copeland. Creepier even then Joel's doubly fake smile.
No one is creepier than Kenneth Copeland. Eww.
Copeland makes me think of a serial killer.
Amazing how one can slap Joker facepaint on him and it looks natural.
Had to look him up to remember who he is. I’m pretty good at not occupying brain-space with twits that are leeches on humanity.
Was slightly disturbed to find out he is a Sagittarius, as am I, but saved since I do not believe in astrology but do like to use it for metaphor.♐️♐️♊️👅
I should have been one but ended up a scorpio.
How do we know he isn't?
And his younger clone. Can't remember his name.
Ken Copeland aka Écran de télévision effrayant Man.
Those fake veneers make me shudder.
The greatest tax scam is religion since religions pay no tax,
They occupy primo land all over the US. What they don’t pay, the rest of us pick up. Big scam that should NEVER be allowed. They do not feed the hungry…their parishioners do!
But the people are the church.
Just ridiculous that they get to be tax free as charitable orgs, especially now that they have become SO involved in politics & even funding candidates & lobbying Congress. It’s BS
🎯🎯🎯And you can make up any old bullshit, and claim it is true, and some people will nod their heads and belive it! What a scam.
Fundegelicals doing fundegelical shit. It's gross. Billy Graham popularized the ridiculous "born again Christian" thing too. No need for Jesus to turn your life upside down by changing you into a better person if you follow him, just pray some magic words for fire insurance so you don't go to hell and that's it. That's the entire goal.
gawd served as a template for a. Then mohammed took it and made it even worse.
All the variants of the Abrahamic religions are abominations to humanity.
Espcially when the "fundamentalists get a hold of it and claim their books are to be taken literally, the horror!
Graham's idea of the good news was an entirely spiritual (and therefore worthless) one.
Salvation was a personal and internal matter that ultimately had little bearing on one's conduct or one's moral obligations towards other people.
It would be as if the story of Zacchaeus ended with Jesus staying the night at his house and didn't include Zach's promise to stop ripping people off, repay the people he did rip off, and restore them four-times as much as he stole from them.
It would be as if Scrooge woke up and said, "May God have mercy on me" and then kept being a greedy miser who blamed the misery of the poor on the poor themselves and did nothing to help them.
It's a worthless tool to create a tribe of people convinced of their own moral rightness even as they fail every moral test put to them.
Sure, he was "human" detritus, but that's what the good "people" of NC want to have representing them in Statuary Hall.
Ye shall know them by their fruits. Graham was one of the rotten ones.
When I lived in Virginia and Billy was big on the "silent majority", I had a bumper sticker that said "The Silent Majority is neither."
Funny, I had a sticker like that, only it said 'The Moral Majority is Neither.'
Yours is the correct one, my memory of those days is bit foggy!
👍🏼
But is it really the PEOPLE of North Carolina who wanted it? Here in Wisconsin, legislation is generated by a horribly gerrymandered Republican-dominated legislature that pays very little attention to what the actual public actually wants (like fair electoral maps, legalized marijuana, big money out of politics, acceptance of federal Medicaid and intercity-rail money, preservation of rural UW campuses, and on and on). We've had literally hundreds of local advisory referenda on these subjects that invariably pass by huge margins of 60-70-80-90 percent. But these didn't go unnoticed in the halls of power. Oh no, they saw them and saw the need to act. So they did. They repealed the state statute that authorized local advisory referenda.
I'm not sure what the story is in North Carolina, but I caution that, just because the legislature is for it doesn't mean that the people are.
Repukelicans are out of touch not only with the public but with their constituents as well.
Does it matter? "Both parties are the same" or of course students don't get vote. Working people may not be able to afford the time (mandated that your boss allow you, but not that ze pay you) "Why should I pay for those lazy, no-good poor people. So I'm just as poor, but that's just temporary"
And they will go down. Can’t wait to watch the shocked look on their collective faces!
The people elect their representatives. That their poor choices in the past resulted in those choices rigging the system to perpetuate the earlier choices regardless of present preferences is a bummer, and par for the course. 🙃
No they were gerrymandered to shit,
"Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause North Carolina, said, "North Carolina legislators have imposed discriminatory voting maps that outrageously attack the rights of Black North Carolinians. Sadly, racist gerrymandering once again plagues our state and harms voters. We must defeat it. Our voting districts don’t belong to politicians; our districts belong to the people. We must have voting maps that are free from racist gerrymandering and that respect the freedom of all voters."
https://www.commoncause.org/north-carolina/clip/north-carolina-lawmakers-targeted-black-voting-districts-with-surgical-precision-new-lawsuit-against-maps-claims/
That's what I said. They made poor choices in the past, and now it continues to haunt them.
They are gerrymandered to shit, the daughter of the guy who designed it turned over a thumb-drive (after he died) that said he drew the districts to cut out the black voters getting any say. They have been told to draw fair maps repeatedly but they always dither until it is too late.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/dead-gop-operative-s-files-reveal-north-carolina-gerrymandering-strategy-n1014776
Sadly, they're not the only state dealing with that shite. Wisconsin comes to mind.....
Yep FL too.
Richard, Good point. Hopefully, most understand that there are numerous good people in every red state who are getting screwed by the rescumliCon’s so-called leaders. Tx will flip soon, I think. Lots of Big Blue areas in TX. Just as trump NEVER represented us or our country, people in every state are cheated out of their voices too.
I remember seeing anti-Scott Walker crowds in Wisconsin on the news. (2011) Over a million pro-labor, pro-union protesters converged on the capital, Madison. Farmers drove their tractors in, Michael Moore spoke. He countered the same BS today that the US doesn’t have the money, corporations can’t afford improvements for staff…The People spoke..but were kicked in the ass. Walker arrested state senators who left the state to deny the anti-people Republicans a quorum. Totally outrageous behavior of rescumliCons!
They replaced a white racist with a white anti-Semite.
Brilliant.
Now that's not fair. I'm sure the white racist was an anti-Semite too.
I'm sure he was, but I was struck by the flip-flop.
Just trying to make you feel better!
Pretty sure the white anti-Semite was also a racist, so... meet the new bigot statue, same as the old bigot statue? One wonders why they don't just swap out the head and the nameplate and call it a day.
Anti-Semitism is part and parcel of white supremacy. The idiots marching with their Tiki torches were crying about being replaced by the tiny percentage of surviving Jewish people, but they are also all in on the great replacement theory of dark skinned folks replacing them in the USA politic. It's almost as though the two ideas are the same thought.
LOL!
🎯🎯🎯👍
It's like replacing a broken bicycle with a rusty one: why did you even bother in the first place?
Well, the sculptor made a bundle....
“Progress”
No! No,no,no,no and no. Maybe in a bathroom in a gas station in the South yes. Billy Graham you still make me sick. Trust me that statue will Not last long. Nope. Really sad to hear this. No!
Pas très pratique comme urinoir.
If that's what I think it means-- yes a very patriotic bathroom plumbing fixture. Keeping it clean for the kids.
https://translate.google.com/?sl=auto&tl=en&op=translate
Nani ?
¿ Que ?
Why do you repeat my question ?
I wonder how the Satanic church's legal team feels about that.
They may request equal representation if contacted.
Maybe Salem, Massachusetts, could petition to put up a statue of Laurie Cabot, the Official Witch of Salem.
Witches are far kinder than kkkristers.
Right now they have John Winthrop and Sam Adams. Sam Adams everyone knows; Winthrop was an early governor of the colony that basically held it together. Still, how about replacing Winthrop with Donna Summer...or Rob Zombie. :)
Pop culture? That insults the gravitas of the statues. Kind of like how Sci-Fi movies offend the gravitas of the mostly irrelevant Oscars.
Ahem, you may want to edit your comment 😁
You mean, the Satanic Temple. I know for most people the distinction doesn't matter, except confusing the two organizations might be the only cardinal sin in Satanism.
Yes, damnit. I never use the word Temple in any of context though so I keep forgetting it.
The point itself is good though. They are VERY good when it comes to "equal religious rights" fights.
Agreed, the point is good. As a member, I can sayI love seeing the references in comment sections for fighting for religious pluralism, which I think TST does well.
Ah. I can trust you'll get the message across for me then?
Wat?
You said you're a member, yes? Can you point them to this article?
They also financially assist ppl needing abortions, that’s one of the main reasons that I became a member of The Satanic Temple. 😊
(Someone replied to this with a sentence starting "It doesn't work" but I don't see the reply. Either it got deleted or they blocked me?)
Block doesn't work that way here, actually we are still trying to understand what it does 🤣
It mostly deals with Notes and direct messages near as I can tell. Comments in any author's work are based on that author's settings, I think.
That was me. I had to delete my comment because it kept duplicating and I didn't want to fill the board with repeat posts.
Shorter version: it doesn't work because the state legislature has to decide who it's going to be, and each state only gets two.
Laws in America appear to just be paywalls from what I can tell.
Now you're getting it! Laws in America are based on socioeconomic status. If you're wealthy, the laws benefit and protect you. If you are not wealthy, the laws ensure your poverty and ride roughshod right over you. The intent is to keep the people of color in a subservient role, but they're happy to keep the poor whites just as enslaved as the rest. The more to rule over the better.
Until the guillotines come out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMHCw3RqulY
That anthem is great! Hilarious 😂
Also to keep women in a subservient role & preferably out of the workforce. That’s part of the reason for abortion bans, if a woman is constantly pregnant & having kids to take care of, then she can’t compete with men.
And since there are plenty of Gracchuses that don't understand their contempt of people of color is actually racism in the masses of poor white people, they are willing to sacrifice themselves to keep those people from improving their lots in life. So the status quo rolls on, right on over them.
The folks at the top use money as their point system to figure out who's on top at any given time. Once you understand that bit, everything starts making a lot more sense.
No state is going to try to get anything that TST would recommend.
That's a shame.
I’m a dues paying member of The Satanic Temple.
Franklin Graham is more disgusting than his father! He’s a Trumper 100%
Graham denied making anti-Semitic statements to Richard Nixon in the Oval Office. Unfortunately, those comments of his were caught on tape. When those tapes were played back to him, he lamely claimed he couldn't remember saying those things.
How convenient. Wasn't "I don't remember"/"I can't recall" the mantra Nixon created for his admin for Watergate?
Reagan used this same excuse during Iran/Contra. Interesting how his son turned out to be anti-religious.
In Reagan's case, his lack of ability to recall things may not have been an affectation. He was suffering from Alzheimer's while he was in the Oval Office.
That's two, wonder how many more there have been?
Yes, I really like Ron Reagan’s late night ads for keeping religion out of govt
I don't remember, I don't recall
I got no memory of anything at all
~P. Gabriel
https://youtu.be/efEEe2oGCUc?si=BZvBxB4yrobPCxU5
Had that song in my head when I typed. :)
Touché
This came up in the sidebar when I clicked on that. I barely know who Kurt Kobain is, but *this* is all kinds of wrong.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZRjrUQYu5o
It was just locker room talk.
The fact such talk is accepted in the locker room is a big part of why boys grow up with skewed ideas of relationships (not just romantic) between men and women. Why they think they should press the issue after a woman says no. Even to the point of getting her drunk to 'lower her inhibitions'.
Well, because that is the only way creeps can get any. It's gross, because sloppy drunks are bad at sex, anyway.
Graham was referenced as “the nations pastor.” Probably true for the nation of sheep.
"Nation's pastor" fairly screams constitutional violation.
Kennedy and Truman saw through him.
"Graham became America’s minister because he was famous and because both Democrats and Republicans would listen to him. Of course, this had no small part to do with the type of Democrats who entered the White House. Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton were all very comfortable with evangelicalism as southern Democrats. What was really important to Graham was maintaining his position as America’s pastor and he did so by openly cultivating the love of presidents. This wasn’t necessarily that hard most of the time, given the number of southern or conservative western presidents during his lifetime. He was particularly close to Dwight Eisenhower, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon. One president he did not succeed in cultivating, not surprising, was John Kennedy. In fact, Graham had been part of a meeting of big-time preachers in 1960 to stop the horror of a Catholic gaining the White House.
Graham’s closeness with Richard Nixon led him to defend the crook all through Watergate, a serious stain on his record. To help Nixon out during Vietnam, Graham decided to hold a big rally at a university with a conservative student body and then invite the president to speak. He chose the University of Tennessee over Ohio State. There was some disgust among some in Knoxville, but this was the kind of crowd that would love Graham and Nixon to the end.
Not every president liked Graham. Harry Truman took an instant dislike to him when they met and hated him the rest of his life, referring to Graham as a “counterfeit.” It likely didn’t help when Graham excoriated Truman for firing Douglas MacArthur, calling the general “a great man, a great Christian” and believed the Soviets were “jubilant” about his firing. Graham had long spoken out against Mormonism, but when he endorsed Mitt Romney in 2012 (although there was plenty of speculation it was his son Franklin speaking through his aging father), his church did as much as possible to expunge all his anti-Mormon statements from the internet and other sources.
He was always a political person himself, though he resisted the temptation, quite strong, to run for office himself. After all, the money and power are better as the outsider with everyone’s ear. He was asked to run by a group of conservative North Carolina Democrats in the 1950s when they wanted to get rid of Senator Kerr Scott for being soft on segregation, but he turned them down. He was also approached by Republicans to run for president in 1964 on several occasions, before Goldwater won the nomination. More importantly, he wanted Christians to vote. Traditionally, evangelical Christians had often found the political process ungodly and had relatively low voter turnout rates. Graham did much to change that. People such as Jerry Falwell get most of the credit for the politicizing of evangelicals, but while Graham is seen as less grotesquely partisan and horrible than Falwell, he had at least as big a role in this process. To his credit, Graham always distanced himself from Falwell and refused to get on board with the Moral Majority and the extreme partisan politicization of evangelicalism that so dominates the Republican Party today. But much of that is also just Graham getting old. His son would have no such scruples.
Graham also always found ways to increase his empire and his money. He was savvy that way, no question. He had his own pavilion at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York, for instance. He had a famous theological debates of sort with Woody Allen on the latter’s 1969 television special. The entire Graham family is involved in the evangelical grift, most notably his loathsome son Franklin who took over the ministry and moved it back to a hard right. The later period of Billy’s career saw a move toward the right and many speculated whether that was really him or his son controlling the strings."
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2018/02/billy-graham
It was really not him, the comments were randomly made by an AI.
A-HA! I KNEW it! ;)
Strange how there's a pandemic of memory loss... And since it's very contagious lots of people have had it for years and THEY DON'T REMEMBER HAVING IT! So there can't find a cure for it. Some of my family got it and former friends too.
There are transcripts here.
https://www.usnews.com/opinion/thomas-jefferson-street/articles/2018-02-28/dont-forget-billy-grahams-anti-semitic-turn-with-richard-nixon
"The chat followed a Feb. 10, 1972 prayer breakfast the two men had attended. The Vietnam War was raging and Nixon was often very focused on his re-election campaign.
I listened as he made a string of bigoted remarks about Jews and what he deemed their undue influence. Graham responded, "This stranglehold has got to be broken or the country's going down the drain." That line was picked up by media at the time and included in some of remembrances following his demise. Most of the conversation was not.
"You believe that?" Nixon said, seeming to be pleasantly surprised with affirmation of an anti-Semitic streak that courses through many Nixon Oval Office conversationsYes, sir," Graham said to Nixon (and H.R Haldeman, the Nixon top aide later imprisoned for his role in the Watergate cover-up, who is apparently in the room for most, even all the conversation).
"Oh, boy," replied Nixon. "So do I. I can't ever say that but I believe it."
"No, but if you get elected a second time, then we might be able to do something," Graham replied.
Graham referenced friends of his own in the press who were Jewish and how they "swarm around me and are friendly to me." But, he added, "They don't know how I really feel about what they're doing to this country."
It got worse. Nixon brought up a topic of which he said "we can't talk about it publicly": the alleged influence of Jews in Hollywood and the press. He references an executive with the 1968-1973 NBC hit show, "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-in," as once informing him that 11 of its 12 writers were Jewish. "
That right?" said Graham. Nixon seamlessly continued by asserting that Life magazine, Newsweek, The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times were among those "totally dominated by the Jews." And, he said, the famous broadcast network anchors Howard K. Smith, David Brinkley and Walter Cronkite were "front men who may not be of that persuasion," but that their writers were "95 percent Jewish."
Nixon, being Nixon, qualified his broadside by declaring that this didn't mean "that all the Jews are bad." But, nevertheless, most were of leftish persuasion and desired "peace at any price except where support for Israel is concerned. The best Jews are actually the Israeli Jews."
"That's right," agreed Graham, who would further aid and abet his host's declaration that a "powerful bloc" of media Jews confronted Nixon "And they're the ones putting out the pornographic stuff," Graham said, thought it's a bit unclear to what he alluded.
When I broke the story in 2002, Graham said through a spokesman that he could not respond regarding the transcript because he didn't remember it. He would later issue a written apology and meet with Jewish leaders. But he forever maintained that he could not recall the conversation."
https://www.usnews.com/opinion/thomas-jefferson-street/articles/2018-02-28/dont-forget-billy-grahams-anti-semitic-turn-with-richard-nixon
Big thanks. :)
I have them bookmarked for when some apologist denies them!
I love to see idiots have their noses rubbed in it.
Me too! facts are simply facts.
Fuck Billy Graham. I wished I believed in hell so I could smile that he’s burning in it.
Signed,
The guy whose (straight) father died of AIDS while Graham, Reagan and the rest of their evil bigots twiddled their thumbs (at best)
They actually fought against finding anything to help cuz it was a "Gay disease" and thus god's punishment. Sorry your Dad was caught up in this. KKKons fought Dr. Fauci over this and used Covid as an excuse to discredit him. KKKons never forget and carry grudges forever. Just like their god who is still miffed about an apple.
Exactly.
In a world full of these assholes, be a Fauci.
I lost my best friend, I'm sorry you lost your dad. Some idiot on Robert Reich substack comments, claimed Hillary was to the right of Reagan. I gave the idiot an earfull what St Ronnie of alzheimers was really all about.
I'm sorry about your friend, too.
My mom had both Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. It was 3 painful years of watching her become a total stranger before she finally died.
I'm sorry, that is like losing them twice.
My dad left us mentally, years before he died at 76. I think all the schrapnel he had in him in WWll contributed to that. Mom fell and broke her hip and went fast, a year later. That was twenty years ago.
Maybe I'm just feeling crotchety today, but why don't we just get rid of all the statues in the building? Put 'em somewhere else. If we're gonna have statues in the halls of Congress, they should only be of ideals- like Liberty, and Justice (𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘭𝘭, you dipshit GQP cretins!)- rather than of historical figures, regardless of their significance.
Actually, can we just do away with this entire stupid cult of leader worship we have going on, as a country? We build statues of them, we build monuments to them, we desecrate perfectly good mountains with them, we name fucking warships after them... and it's just so... 𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘺. Worse than that, it reinforces the belief that what this country is, and what it ought to be, comes down to the acts of a handful of Great Men (tm)- and it almost always is the men- who saved the rest of us from whatever calamities befell their age (the tyranny of kings, the secession of traitors... the existence of indigenous people, the minorities getting uppity...) by the deeds of Their Great Hands alone.
And I can't shake the suspicion that it is that very mistake, that cultural obsession with hero worship, that is leading us towards the very same things this country always 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘮𝘴 it exists to oppose. Because, if you believe that One Great Man can save us all... then all One 𝘌𝘷𝘪𝘭 Man has to do is convince you that he's the man for the job- and then it all goes down the tubes.
And they keep telling us we have a 50/50 shot of that one evil man taking over this fall. Sometimes I regret that I don't believe in any sky fairies. If I did I could at least make myself feel better by praying to them for stop Mango Mussolini.
If you believed in sky fairies you'd probably be voting for the Mango Mussolini.:)
Not all faeries are evil, though most sure can be.
Tiffany Aching disagree.
I was referring to my 'nym.😉
That's what you say. May I check with an iron pan ? 😁
Cast iron is bad for my complexion, I'm sure of it. but now I know why I could never get the hang of cooking with it!
I have no pride about it, I'll pray to any willing, and able, deity, a universal distress signal of sorts.
If we don't name the warships after leaders, they'll be named after sponsors, like all the sports stadiums (hey, what's a name compared to another .5% in profits)
Maybe they should be- at least then the corporate stakes in the next bit of adventurism would be hanging out in the wind for the whole world to see.
When are we going to make congresspeople where their sponsors' names on their clothes like race car drivers and football (soccer) teams?
I like it. 👍 ♥️
A sickening trend that tells me the corporation has far too much money, and cheats its employees of a proper wage.
I'll settle for one of these: https://untappedcities.com/2020/09/10/gold-statue-donald-trump-golf-cart/
As far as know, the Capitol's only restriction is "persons notable in their history," plus some weight and size issues because of what the rooms and floors can handle. Doesn't have to be a leader. Or any political figure at all. Tennessee could pick Dolly Parton if they wanted. And a state doesn't have to offer anyone, it's entirely voluntary. Also, I'm not sure there's any specific requirement for realism; if some state decided to put in an abstract art sculpture and said it represented Elvis, I'm not sure the Capitol folks would have much to say about it.
So don't blame the Capitol; it's the states that make the choice of who they honor with this, what it looks like, and it's the states that come up with the money, decide on the artist, how it's going to look, etc.
Having said all that, personally I'm okay with the concept of honoring actual people for their contributions to state history. I would likely take issue with many of the current choices, particularly since the southern states seem to have used this venue to refight the civil war. But the idea of states honoring individuals from the state? Okay by me.
We have the guy who invented the air conditioner and Mary McLeod Bethune.
Mary Jane McLeod Bethune (née McLeod; July 10, 1875 – May 18, 1955) was an American educator, philanthropist, humanitarian, womanist, and civil rights activist. Bethune founded the National Council of Negro Women in 1935, established the organization's flagship journal Aframerican Women's Journal, and presided as president or leader for a myriad of African American women's organizations including the National Association for Colored Women and the National Youth Administration's Negro Division.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_McLeod_Bethune
"Donald Trump. Destroyer Of Civil Rights And Liberties."
https://hyperallergic.com/580934/trump-statue-initiative-living-sculpture/
Those were great. Glad they photographed them for posterity
Ugh, many of the confederate statues have been taken away so officials are replacing them with religious kooks? Swapping evil for evil.
Speaking of which: I was walking my dog the other day and there was some guy on the other side of the street with two huge Shepherds. They were barking and lunging towards my girl. Then I heard him say “heel Adolf”. Who the fuck names their dog that unless of course you’re a Nazi fanboi. 🙄🤬
Perhaps he named it "ironically".😇
Could be worse.
Could be named Achilles.
😂
I’ve gotten so accustomed to Jeff’s names for tfg that I can’t even read that name correctly anymore. When I read it just now my brain says it as
“Heel Agolf” 🤣
Fucking Charlatan
This isn't much different in some respects to Shenandoah, Virginia deciding to backtrack and keep the old Confederate names of schools.* No matter how 'traditional' or 'cultural' the significance of some racist or bigot might be, that is not justification of putting up a statue of them. Racism, bigotry, and slavery are not aspects of history worthy of celebration by creating statues, paintings, and other displays; these pieces cannot come down quickly enough. Having one of these obnoxious statues built for Billy Graham is an attempt to move humanity backwards, and I am sick of these behaviors from the conservative Christians who always appear to opt for the least compassionate choice. Billy Graham was a driving force behind the political machinations we see from Christians today, and I think any honest examination of his life and actions would reveal him to be the monster he was. If anything, this particular monster has done little more than inspire others to become monsters just like him, and quite honestly, that is nothing to celebrate in the slightest.
*Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news-netcast/video/nightly-news-full-broadcast-may-10th-210708549865 about the 11 minute mark, about two minutes long.
I saw this broadcast and was wut??!!
I find it simultaneously funny and infuriating that they're taking down a statue of a white supremacist to replace it with...a statue of another white supremacist. Sure, maybe a less obvious one, but still.
Surely North California has someone in their history who wasn't a white supremacist?
None that would get past the current state legislators.
None the supermajority of republicans would recognize, no.