As far as I'm concerned, ANY elected official who abandons the US Constitution they swore an oath to support and defend should be removed from office and never again be allowed to hold power in any form.
The one, which is connected to an anaerobic digester? Which is creating renewable energy ... basically you turn up, you pay a fiver (it's a tenner during asparagus season)
JL Cauvin is the star of Dictator for a Day, the off-Broadway hit from 2024 that prophesized much of the shit storm we're now witnessing in real time, and which you can now rent or buy on YouTube, AppleTV (subscription and Apple device required), or Google TV.
The idea a particular brand of Christianity could be imposed on a country as large and diverse as the United States with a happy ending, is about as dangerously stupid as thinking gets. If the preachers ever acquired the power they seem to think is their due, they would begin killing one another over doctrinal errors almost immediately. Those who see Christianity as the solution to all this country’s problems, evidently know nothing of the history of Christianity.
I have often said that we are fortunate that the leaders of the various Christian cults hate each other more than they hate us. If they ever decided to settle their diferences and concentrate their hatred on the nonbelievers, we'd be in real trouble. If course it wouldn't take long before they started sniping at each other again. More Christians have been tortured and killed in the name of religon by other Christians than by all other religious groups combined.
Millions perished in the Thirty Years War attempting to determine who was, or was not, a TRUE Christian. It was the worst war in European history prior to WWI, which was also fought primarily between predominantly Christian countries.
When discussing the Thirty Years War in history class, I remember the teacher saying that it was a world war. Yes, of course it was not a real world war, but for Europeans it was. The whole of the European continent was affected and involved.
But it's important to bear in mind that it was not just a religious war, it was like all wars about power, religion being a pretext.
Christian Nationalism captured the Republican party almost half a century ago. When Reagan began the process of fusing fundamentalist Christianity with the Southern Strategy, that was the beginning of the end for the pre-fascist GOP. It got a big boost from Bush Jr's "war on terror" nonsense. All of this set the stage for Trump, on openly racist authoritarian dictator wannabe with the MAGA faithful refuse to accept that he is any of those things. After all, they have been conditioned for generations to believe that their leader, whoever he is, is the only thing standing between them and literal hell. They have been conditioned for generations to believe that their party is always correct, and anyone disagreeing is an enemy. Why else would they be so rabidly pro-gun while at the same time demand that protesters against their agenda should be shot and killed if they are exercising that same right? They have been conducting for generations to believe that any government not run by them is by definition tyrannical any government run by them is not, regardless of what the data show.
Of course they are far more willing to believe that violence is necessary. They already think they are in a war against everyone who is different.
"Christian Nationalism has captured the Republican Party." Gee, has it really? I hadn't noticed. [facepalm!]
No, this isn't news, and it's been going on for a while. Indeed, it started long before Ronnie Raygun all but invited the Christian Coalition to fraternize with the GOP, back in the early 1980s. It's real origins may be traced back to the reaction to Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal of the 1930s, and the perceived threats to capitalism that too many corporate executives thought they saw in those programs. I know I cite it often, but Kevin Kruse's One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America is a powerful record of just how the first breaches between State and Church were engineered.
And now, over 70 years later, here we are: a party in power, claiming righteous Christian rectitude and the right to rule as they choose, while either disregarding or attempting to dismantle a governmental model that has worked well if imperfectly for the past two-and-a-half centuries. Yeah, that frightens me, and I suspect many of the regular gang here are equally disturbed. Doesn't stop us from working against it, though.
We have to ... because there is entirely too much to lose here.
"Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them...
There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God's name on one's behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both. I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in 'A,' 'B,' 'C,' and 'D.' Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of 'conservatism.'"
He was a rare Republican to be able to see that the party had let the barbarians through the gate and made a place for them in their ‘big tent’. Especially since even a lot of the GOP thought he was a RWNJ in the 1964 election.
Well, he was also the one who urged the Republican Party to coax the white supremists to leave the Democratic Party and join the Republicans so they could win political power. I don’t think he was particularly virulently racist himself but he thought he had more in common with them, and more critically, that they could be controlled while his sort could rule. Invite the barbarians into the party in order to win elections, unleash their violence against “our” enemies (who are not necessarily actual threats to the barbarians), “fix” the system to favor their continued rule. The problem they have is neither set of “barbarians are all that easy to control. Our problem is none of them share a commitment to democracy.
Reagan, or more likely his handlers, invited in the preachers with promises he never kept or intended to. What began as a ploy to win an election back fired badly when the preachers hung around to largely co-opt the Republican party. We deal with that problem to this day.
Well, if you take the gospels as any sort of accurate record of Jesus of Nazareth, then he said that his kingdom was not of this world.
He told his disciples not to fight and use violence.
Christians, he said, were to be known for their love.
If a servant of the Empire demanded a Christian carry his pack a mile, the Christian was to shame him by carrying it two miles.
A Christian, he said, was to pray for his enemies and to reconcile with those he had harmed before he went to worship god.
Blessed are the ones who make peace. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are the poor. Cursed are the rich. Cursed are the well fed now. Cursed are those who laugh now.
The Republicans have embraced a Christian fascist kleptocracy/theocracy is not surprising considering a huge swath of Americans (white, Christian, conservative)want a strongman to protect what they (Christians) perceive is the loss of their power.
The Christians are having difficulty adjusting to the changing demographics, economics, and social norms. The Christians think by turning it into a fascist kleptocracy/ theocracy that the country will return to a “Golden Ages” (which never existed) that they think had passed them by!
It has been so surreal watching the Nazi Bar scenario play out in US-ian politics. The GQP failed to kick that first goose-stepping shithead out... then they started buying him drinks... then he invited all his friends... and now they're the Nat-C party. It's too far gone. The only thing left to do is burn the whole party to the ground; any actual conservatives left on the political scene will have to start over from scratch if they ever want to get out from under the shadow of the monster they enabled.
I don't think they'll manage it- or, at least, I 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦 they don't. The stink of the giant steaming shit they took on the rest of us should cling to them for the rest of their miserable lives.
Thanks for reminding me that I need to create a reminder for myself to make bacon-wrapped shrimp for lunch on April 3rd (Good Friday). I make sure to eat pork that day to annoy YHVH. I figure the shellfish should be good for extra annoyance points.
I used to love shrimp. Then one night I was on a date with a very nice guy who bought me a lobster and steak dinner. I had never had lobster before, and it was delicious. I finally understood what all the fuss was about.
An hour later I was in the emergency room covered in hives and having trouble breathing because my throat was swelling shut. I received two shots of something that relieved those symptoms, and spent the next day in bed. The guy even wanted to pay the ER bill for me but good grief, it was over $1000 (and this was back in the '80's) and there was no way I was going to let somebody else pay that kind of money. I made financial arrangements with the billing dept and paid it off over a period of months, but I digress....
The upshot of this tale is that ever since that episode, I have not been able to eat shrimp either. I tasted one and immediately felt my throat starting to swell shut. Fortunately the person with me had a bottle of benedryl in her purse. Took about four tablets and that knocked it out. I realized I was now allergic to ALL shellfish, not just lobster.
Never gone near shellfish ever again. I miss the shrimp, though.
I'm lucky that I have no food allergies except for pistachios (that one came out of left field. Fortunately, all it gave me was a mild case of non-irritating hives that faded quickly).
Never heard of Lent until I was in college (talk about living in a bubble). I tried to give up meat for Lent one year just to see if I could do it. (Spoiler alert -- tripped up twice.)
I try to go vegetarian from time to time, but never succeed for more than a few weeks.
I would also think a disconnection from a wider, more diverse society and sources of information and news media. Living in a bubble. AAACK, that would drive me NUTZ!
> "30% of “adherents” say violence may be justified to “save our country” "
Well, I may just have to agree with them on this point. Although, I suspect that our ideas of what it means to "save our country" are diametrically opposed.
-- David Frum, Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic
And isn't that what the current GOP has done? Abandon democracy for autocracy, a unary Executive branch, and embracing Christian Nationalism as a means to secure power for themselves? Whether genuine conservatism has been pushed aside or perhaps adopted these aberrations as a means to an end, I'm not sure it matters. The current reality is that we have one party which gives every indication that they care less for democracy or serving the people than they care about serving themselves and dining on POWER, while the other major party attempts to oppose them in fits and starts.
It can't go on like this, not and have a United States like anything I've known it to be.
For quite some time now, I have wondered about the tragedy of WWII that left so many people dead and so many others scarred for life...and as more and more horrifying information about the concentration camps came out, I remember so many impassioned speeches about how "this must never be allowed to happen again, where one monstrous dictator could rise to power in one country and plunge the entire world into a nightmare that would threaten to destroy civilization itself." Historians and sociologists studied Hitler's rise to power with that aim in mind -- how to make sure this never happens again.
But....
For quite some time, I have had a thought that maybe some of those watching Hitler's rise to power or studying it postmortem, were doing so for the wrong reasons; that powerful conservatives on American shores were secretly wondering how they could employ such methodology for themselves. Even during the Great Depression, FDR was fighting these powerful figures who were sworn enemies of the New Deal, the WPA, or anything that brought relief to impoverished American families, not that they had any better ideas. But FDR and his policies were popular with the American public, and that was a threat, I guess. These conservatives wanted a controlled, docile population.
I came along in the 60's and 70's, and I thought the US was a very strong example of democracy inspiring the rest of the world, so for years I couldn't understand why a government that allegedly cherished free speech and the right to dissent, always cracked down so hard on the Vietnam protesters. Adults kept telling me "because they want to overthrow the government," even though any idiot with eyes in their head could see they just wanted to end the war. All you had to do was read their signs and listen to them. But when I tried to argue this I was quickly shut down and told I didn't know what I was talking about.
Same with Women's Lib, same with the Civil Right Movement. Same with any out-group that challenged the Establishment. Groups petitioning the government for redress of very real grievances, wanting a better future for their kids....slurred by the media, harassed by the police. Made no sense to me. This was supposed to be a free country. But somehow, it seemed like something was a little "off."
I guess all this meandering prose is a way to explain why I have wondered in recent years if there have been those all along -- like from the get-go, even as the US was fighting WWII -- who either wanted to be a Hitler copycat, or wanted to find one they could get behind. When I was a child, what I saw were things that and attitudes that didn't make sense to me, since this was a free country where freedom of ideas and beliefs was supposed to be the central core of our democracy.
Then in the 80's when I was in college, I heard of Neo Nazis for the first time, and I thought it was a joke. How could anyone want to be one of those? Did they sleep through every high school history class they ever took or what?
In intervening decades have meant seeing a lot of things, talking to a lot of people, and a hell of a lot of reading about conservatives playing the "the long game." The more I learned, the less surprising Trump felt; his 2016 win seemed like the end of a decades-long, planned-out scenario organized and teased out by conservative politicians joining up with religious nutcases.
There are those who say this goes back to Civil War, and I think that was definitely part of it, the smoldering hatreds and grievances that were never addressed. Others have said the Nixon Administration with his desire for more executive power was the starting point, the moment when conservatives realized an all-powerful chief exec was what they needed.
But when I read in 2015 about Trump keeping a biography of Hitler on his nightstand, That bit of info stayed with me. At first because I was shocked that this revelation didn't knock him right out of the race. I was back to the question that had bugged the living daylights out of me in the 80's when I first heard of Neo-Nazis. "How can any red-blooded American who knows about WWII think Neo-Nazis are a GOOD Thing?"
This has brought me around to wondering if, after all, was there was an American cadre of ultra powerful far-right figures in the 1930's and 40's who watched Hitler and saw him not as an enemy, but as an "A-HA!" moment. As an inspiration, a blueprint, a model for acquiring absolute power over their own citizens.
I feel like this is an incredibly cynical take, but I have mulled this over for a long time and can't get it out of my head. If this is really off the wall and I'm off my rocker, y'all, please tell me.
Cynical? Not really. Accurate? FAR more likely. It continues to astonish me how many people out there are so screamingly insecure that they feel as though they have to superimpose their will on EVERYONE. It should go without saying that Trump is at the head of that list. What is disturbing are the considerable numbers of people under his name, who have the same ambition.
Presuming we somehow manage to survive Trump and his lackeys, I just hope a lesson is learned from all of this: that we cannot afford to be lackadaisical or indifferent about the structure of our government or who runs it. Trump has taken that indifference and run with it, and the cost of his avarice will continue to have an impact, not just on the United States but the world as a whole, for decades to come.
Have you listened to the podcast called 'Ultra' by Rachel Maddow? She's made two series of about 6 episodes each, I can really recommend them, she's a great storyteller.
In those podcasts she looks into American nazis. Yes, there were American nazis. And she explains the connections and the history, it's really interesting.
I remember a science fiction story years ago where humans were losing a war with some alien crustaceans – until they found out that the aliens tasted just like lobster only better.
(Well to them I guess – I hate the taste of fish.)
Well, there was some flavour text I read somewhere about XCom Terror From The Deep. One particular base had to handle a higher-than-expected number of Lobstermen. Coincidentally, they also had a higher-than-expected requisition of butter.
OT: US government has drops case against Democrats in “illegal” orders video case! (BBC NEWS).
As if Trump’s administration had a case; MAGAS seem to think that Freedom of Speech (without consequences, of course) only applies to them! Well, this shows that it doesn’t, it is a BASIC HUMAN RIGHT for everyone!!!!!!!!!
Aside from the trump regime opposing the constitution and democratic principles , their main goal is to both intimidate their opponents by challenging their rights as well as cost their opponents legal fees and clog the court system with frivolous ‘prosecutions.’
I would castrate them first, then after a month use the gibbet. The wait between the castration and the gibbet would cause (maybe) the fuckwits to consider all their bad life choices. If nothing else, the dread of the wait would cause some psychological trauma, just like the trauma they inflicted on others!
I have been saying literally for 20 years that the goal of politicized and Weaponized— what normal people would call conservative or reactionary religion— is power, money, religious Dominion. And in the age of Trump, revenge on every uppity woman, gay person, non-white person, non-Christian, not male person for being uppity.
My kingdom is not of this world, said Jesus. We’re taking over, say the Nat-C’s. Judge not less ye be judged, says Jesus. There are many unlisted exceptions to that rule in the Bible, says the Nat-C’s. You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free, says Jesus. What is the truth, said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer.
From my essay on the insurrection: “ As a Catholic acquaintance of mine wrote, the religious reich uses the unborn as a shield to protect themselves from any criticism or blowback for everything else they want to do. He wrote: “Because instead of defending the unborn, they have devoted their time and energy to defending every lie, cruelty, sadistic act, racist remark, misogynist bullying, sexual assault, kidnapping, call for violence, and criminal act he has committed. They voted for him this time, not because those things were bugs, but because they were features. If they had really only supported the prolife stuff and not all the other filth. they would have spoken against the other filth. They never did. They either remained silent or, as was far more often the case, they passionately supported it.”
And…
‘ But therein lies the answer as to how we got to this point. Not to put too fine a point on it, but nearly half the this nation is ethically crippled, reality challenged, intellectually deranged, educationally debased, empathetically destitute, morally lazy at best and morally bankrupt at worst. No nation has ever survived this, nor can it, unless the other half stays vigilant and active.
I don’t have an answer to this. This is a moral, intellectual, and spiritual cancer deep within the body politic of this country
I’ve said several times on here that I have come to believe that the people who fit under the big MAGA tent all have the same, likely genetic, personality disorder. And along with authoritarian personalities, they are tribal, easily propagandized (easily hypnotized), and tend to have a deep overlay of generational personality disorders.
Not American but I did visit once and my god the stuff on the radio was absolutely cuckoo for cocopuffs. I kept listening to the station I stumbled across for a while because I just could not believe this shit was for real. But it was. And I don't know about you guys but I would rather die than live under a theocracy of any kind. Mind you as I'm a queer childless disabled woman I'm sure the benevolent church would take care of that in short order.
97.7 FM KCRR (the Pirate station, that's what listeners call it, the station puts up with it).
Classic rock.
OT: They do a two for Tuesday, back to back songs from one group. The last couple of weeks, I have gotten in the car between songs and heard what I thought were one hit wonders. It drives me nuts trying to figure the other song.
Now that's a station I can get behind! I use an app on my phone called Shazam when I can't figure out what a song is; it's really good at analysing what it "hears" and identifying the song and artist.
As far as I'm concerned, ANY elected official who abandons the US Constitution they swore an oath to support and defend should be removed from office and never again be allowed to hold power in any form.
Let them all be ministers in a fading religion.
Prison. They can be ministers in prison for life.
I prefer sending them to the catacombs. Or a mausoleum.
A personal mausoleum.
I don’t know how my mind were there but I’m suddenly imagining Trump’s mausoleum. It’s going to be the tackiest one ever.
Have you seen Hitler's? Trump's should be identical.
The one, which is connected to an anaerobic digester? Which is creating renewable energy ... basically you turn up, you pay a fiver (it's a tenner during asparagus season)
Maybe they can cremate him and place the ashes in a fake gold toilet.
Personally I’d rather he be put in a plastic bag. Sprinkle a couple pinches of gold foil.
They should also be stripped of the right to vote ever again.
Also forbidden from holding office.
Here's a leaked early version of tonight's turd dump by The Orange One, king of Christian Nationalism:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgFiS_WBFmg&t=5s
JL Cauvin is the star of Dictator for a Day, the off-Broadway hit from 2024 that prophesized much of the shit storm we're now witnessing in real time, and which you can now rent or buy on YouTube, AppleTV (subscription and Apple device required), or Google TV.
https://www.youtube.com/@JLCauvin
https://www.dictatorforadayshow.com
They should also be required to swear their oath of office on the constitution!
The idea a particular brand of Christianity could be imposed on a country as large and diverse as the United States with a happy ending, is about as dangerously stupid as thinking gets. If the preachers ever acquired the power they seem to think is their due, they would begin killing one another over doctrinal errors almost immediately. Those who see Christianity as the solution to all this country’s problems, evidently know nothing of the history of Christianity.
I have often said that we are fortunate that the leaders of the various Christian cults hate each other more than they hate us. If they ever decided to settle their diferences and concentrate their hatred on the nonbelievers, we'd be in real trouble. If course it wouldn't take long before they started sniping at each other again. More Christians have been tortured and killed in the name of religon by other Christians than by all other religious groups combined.
Millions perished in the Thirty Years War attempting to determine who was, or was not, a TRUE Christian. It was the worst war in European history prior to WWI, which was also fought primarily between predominantly Christian countries.
When discussing the Thirty Years War in history class, I remember the teacher saying that it was a world war. Yes, of course it was not a real world war, but for Europeans it was. The whole of the European continent was affected and involved.
But it's important to bear in mind that it was not just a religious war, it was like all wars about power, religion being a pretext.
As they used to say in the old days: "Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius"
Coincidence much?
https://www.debunking-christianity.com/2026/02/christian-nationalismthe-danger-that-it.html
I would like to let them fight it out, unfortunately the rest of us becomes collateral damage!
My thought PRECISELY.
How about we let them fight AFTER the Nat-C nutcases have been disempowered and the country has been returned to at least some degree of sanity?
Letting them fight as things are now I suspect would be nothing short of disastrous.
No, that will totally destroy USA and kill a lot of innocent people, not only the mad and evil ones.
Christian Nationalism captured the Republican party almost half a century ago. When Reagan began the process of fusing fundamentalist Christianity with the Southern Strategy, that was the beginning of the end for the pre-fascist GOP. It got a big boost from Bush Jr's "war on terror" nonsense. All of this set the stage for Trump, on openly racist authoritarian dictator wannabe with the MAGA faithful refuse to accept that he is any of those things. After all, they have been conditioned for generations to believe that their leader, whoever he is, is the only thing standing between them and literal hell. They have been conditioned for generations to believe that their party is always correct, and anyone disagreeing is an enemy. Why else would they be so rabidly pro-gun while at the same time demand that protesters against their agenda should be shot and killed if they are exercising that same right? They have been conducting for generations to believe that any government not run by them is by definition tyrannical any government run by them is not, regardless of what the data show.
Of course they are far more willing to believe that violence is necessary. They already think they are in a war against everyone who is different.
I don't disagree, I just know I'm gonna get nightmare tonight.
Spot on, I also said something along those lines as well!
Quote: "They have been conditioned for generations to believe that their party is always correct, and anyone disagreeing is an enemy"
This!
"Christian Nationalism has captured the Republican Party." Gee, has it really? I hadn't noticed. [facepalm!]
No, this isn't news, and it's been going on for a while. Indeed, it started long before Ronnie Raygun all but invited the Christian Coalition to fraternize with the GOP, back in the early 1980s. It's real origins may be traced back to the reaction to Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal of the 1930s, and the perceived threats to capitalism that too many corporate executives thought they saw in those programs. I know I cite it often, but Kevin Kruse's One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America is a powerful record of just how the first breaches between State and Church were engineered.
And now, over 70 years later, here we are: a party in power, claiming righteous Christian rectitude and the right to rule as they choose, while either disregarding or attempting to dismantle a governmental model that has worked well if imperfectly for the past two-and-a-half centuries. Yeah, that frightens me, and I suspect many of the regular gang here are equally disturbed. Doesn't stop us from working against it, though.
We have to ... because there is entirely too much to lose here.
"Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them...
There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God's name on one's behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both. I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in 'A,' 'B,' 'C,' and 'D.' Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of 'conservatism.'"
— Barry Goldwater
Not just yes, but HELL, YES. Goldwater had them dead to rights ... and of course, no one listened.
He was a rare Republican to be able to see that the party had let the barbarians through the gate and made a place for them in their ‘big tent’. Especially since even a lot of the GOP thought he was a RWNJ in the 1964 election.
HYDRA has successfully infiltrated SHIELD.
Good comparison!
Well, he was also the one who urged the Republican Party to coax the white supremists to leave the Democratic Party and join the Republicans so they could win political power. I don’t think he was particularly virulently racist himself but he thought he had more in common with them, and more critically, that they could be controlled while his sort could rule. Invite the barbarians into the party in order to win elections, unleash their violence against “our” enemies (who are not necessarily actual threats to the barbarians), “fix” the system to favor their continued rule. The problem they have is neither set of “barbarians are all that easy to control. Our problem is none of them share a commitment to democracy.
Reagan, or more likely his handlers, invited in the preachers with promises he never kept or intended to. What began as a ploy to win an election back fired badly when the preachers hung around to largely co-opt the Republican party. We deal with that problem to this day.
"Of course we need religion, it's what keeps the poor from killing the rich."
-- Napoleon Bonaparte
Didn’t work in 1789…
And yet 15 years later the very same Napoleon was crowned Emperor of the French at Notre-Dame de Paris in the presence of the Pope of Rome!
And look how that ended!
Well, if you take the gospels as any sort of accurate record of Jesus of Nazareth, then he said that his kingdom was not of this world.
He told his disciples not to fight and use violence.
Christians, he said, were to be known for their love.
If a servant of the Empire demanded a Christian carry his pack a mile, the Christian was to shame him by carrying it two miles.
A Christian, he said, was to pray for his enemies and to reconcile with those he had harmed before he went to worship god.
Blessed are the ones who make peace. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are the poor. Cursed are the rich. Cursed are the well fed now. Cursed are those who laugh now.
B b b b but that's woke.
The Republicans have embraced a Christian fascist kleptocracy/theocracy is not surprising considering a huge swath of Americans (white, Christian, conservative)want a strongman to protect what they (Christians) perceive is the loss of their power.
The Christians are having difficulty adjusting to the changing demographics, economics, and social norms. The Christians think by turning it into a fascist kleptocracy/ theocracy that the country will return to a “Golden Ages” (which never existed) that they think had passed them by!
It has been so surreal watching the Nazi Bar scenario play out in US-ian politics. The GQP failed to kick that first goose-stepping shithead out... then they started buying him drinks... then he invited all his friends... and now they're the Nat-C party. It's too far gone. The only thing left to do is burn the whole party to the ground; any actual conservatives left on the political scene will have to start over from scratch if they ever want to get out from under the shadow of the monster they enabled.
I don't think they'll manage it- or, at least, I 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦 they don't. The stink of the giant steaming shit they took on the rest of us should cling to them for the rest of their miserable lives.
Taco Tuesday lunch and I violated Leviticus 11:9-12.
🦐🍤
Have fun in hell. (I'll save a seat for you.)
Thanks for reminding me that I need to create a reminder for myself to make bacon-wrapped shrimp for lunch on April 3rd (Good Friday). I make sure to eat pork that day to annoy YHVH. I figure the shellfish should be good for extra annoyance points.
I think I will have baby back pork ribs for lunch and shrimp curry for supper on that day!
I used to love shrimp. Then one night I was on a date with a very nice guy who bought me a lobster and steak dinner. I had never had lobster before, and it was delicious. I finally understood what all the fuss was about.
An hour later I was in the emergency room covered in hives and having trouble breathing because my throat was swelling shut. I received two shots of something that relieved those symptoms, and spent the next day in bed. The guy even wanted to pay the ER bill for me but good grief, it was over $1000 (and this was back in the '80's) and there was no way I was going to let somebody else pay that kind of money. I made financial arrangements with the billing dept and paid it off over a period of months, but I digress....
The upshot of this tale is that ever since that episode, I have not been able to eat shrimp either. I tasted one and immediately felt my throat starting to swell shut. Fortunately the person with me had a bottle of benedryl in her purse. Took about four tablets and that knocked it out. I realized I was now allergic to ALL shellfish, not just lobster.
Never gone near shellfish ever again. I miss the shrimp, though.
I'm lucky that I have no food allergies except for pistachios (that one came out of left field. Fortunately, all it gave me was a mild case of non-irritating hives that faded quickly).
Accacia and oats for me.
I always make sure to eat extra bacon all throughout lent.
Never heard of Lent until I was in college (talk about living in a bubble). I tried to give up meat for Lent one year just to see if I could do it. (Spoiler alert -- tripped up twice.)
I try to go vegetarian from time to time, but never succeed for more than a few weeks.
I try to cook vegetarian from time to time, mostly for variety. I have a handful of recipes I go back to regularly.
Uh, oh. You eating shrimp tacos AGAIN??? 😁
I luv shrimp tacos, although last week I had chicken tacos. They had a special on margaritas too so I had one of those with my tacos.🌮
Love shrimp tacos. Love shredded beef tacos. Love shredded chicken tacos. Love brisket tacos! Love chorizo tacos! LOVE TACOS EL PASTOR!
There's a pattern here, don't you think?
I'm not a big fan of shrimp, but I accidentally got some when my fish taco order got messed up. They were awesome. Shout out to Fuzzy's Tacos.
I am making chicken enchiladas for dinner tonight. Went to Costco tonight and got a roast chicken
"Support for Christian nationalism is positively associated with lower education levels and older age."
I'm old, but I had 3 years of junior college. :)
It took that long for you to pass a class? ;)
I would also think a disconnection from a wider, more diverse society and sources of information and news media. Living in a bubble. AAACK, that would drive me NUTZ!
> "30% of “adherents” say violence may be justified to “save our country” "
Well, I may just have to agree with them on this point. Although, I suspect that our ideas of what it means to "save our country" are diametrically opposed.
What they mean is destroy the country.
Further Thought:
𝑀𝑎𝑦𝑏𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑑𝑜 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑚𝑢𝑐ℎ 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑢𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑅𝑒𝑝𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑃𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑦. 𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑. 𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑎𝑙𝑤𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑏𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑢𝑠. 𝐼𝑓 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑤𝑖𝑛 𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑐𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦, 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑎𝑏𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑜𝑛 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑠𝑚. 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑟𝑒𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑐𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑦. 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝐴𝑚𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑠𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑡𝑦 𝑑𝑒𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑠 𝑜𝑛 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑠’ 𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑡𝑜 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑎 𝑤𝑎𝑦 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑇𝑟𝑢𝑚𝑝 𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑑 𝑒𝑛𝑑, 𝑡𝑜𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑎 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑠𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑤𝑖𝑛 𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑠𝑜 𝑔𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑛 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑦, 𝑎 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑠𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑐𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑚𝑜𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑛, 𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑜𝑚𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑙𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑣𝑒, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑒𝑛𝑣𝑖𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒, 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑢𝑝ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑑𝑠 𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑘𝑒𝑡𝑠 𝑎𝑡 ℎ𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑈.𝑆. 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑝 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦.
-- David Frum, Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic
And isn't that what the current GOP has done? Abandon democracy for autocracy, a unary Executive branch, and embracing Christian Nationalism as a means to secure power for themselves? Whether genuine conservatism has been pushed aside or perhaps adopted these aberrations as a means to an end, I'm not sure it matters. The current reality is that we have one party which gives every indication that they care less for democracy or serving the people than they care about serving themselves and dining on POWER, while the other major party attempts to oppose them in fits and starts.
It can't go on like this, not and have a United States like anything I've known it to be.
For quite some time now, I have wondered about the tragedy of WWII that left so many people dead and so many others scarred for life...and as more and more horrifying information about the concentration camps came out, I remember so many impassioned speeches about how "this must never be allowed to happen again, where one monstrous dictator could rise to power in one country and plunge the entire world into a nightmare that would threaten to destroy civilization itself." Historians and sociologists studied Hitler's rise to power with that aim in mind -- how to make sure this never happens again.
But....
For quite some time, I have had a thought that maybe some of those watching Hitler's rise to power or studying it postmortem, were doing so for the wrong reasons; that powerful conservatives on American shores were secretly wondering how they could employ such methodology for themselves. Even during the Great Depression, FDR was fighting these powerful figures who were sworn enemies of the New Deal, the WPA, or anything that brought relief to impoverished American families, not that they had any better ideas. But FDR and his policies were popular with the American public, and that was a threat, I guess. These conservatives wanted a controlled, docile population.
I came along in the 60's and 70's, and I thought the US was a very strong example of democracy inspiring the rest of the world, so for years I couldn't understand why a government that allegedly cherished free speech and the right to dissent, always cracked down so hard on the Vietnam protesters. Adults kept telling me "because they want to overthrow the government," even though any idiot with eyes in their head could see they just wanted to end the war. All you had to do was read their signs and listen to them. But when I tried to argue this I was quickly shut down and told I didn't know what I was talking about.
Same with Women's Lib, same with the Civil Right Movement. Same with any out-group that challenged the Establishment. Groups petitioning the government for redress of very real grievances, wanting a better future for their kids....slurred by the media, harassed by the police. Made no sense to me. This was supposed to be a free country. But somehow, it seemed like something was a little "off."
I guess all this meandering prose is a way to explain why I have wondered in recent years if there have been those all along -- like from the get-go, even as the US was fighting WWII -- who either wanted to be a Hitler copycat, or wanted to find one they could get behind. When I was a child, what I saw were things that and attitudes that didn't make sense to me, since this was a free country where freedom of ideas and beliefs was supposed to be the central core of our democracy.
Then in the 80's when I was in college, I heard of Neo Nazis for the first time, and I thought it was a joke. How could anyone want to be one of those? Did they sleep through every high school history class they ever took or what?
In intervening decades have meant seeing a lot of things, talking to a lot of people, and a hell of a lot of reading about conservatives playing the "the long game." The more I learned, the less surprising Trump felt; his 2016 win seemed like the end of a decades-long, planned-out scenario organized and teased out by conservative politicians joining up with religious nutcases.
There are those who say this goes back to Civil War, and I think that was definitely part of it, the smoldering hatreds and grievances that were never addressed. Others have said the Nixon Administration with his desire for more executive power was the starting point, the moment when conservatives realized an all-powerful chief exec was what they needed.
But when I read in 2015 about Trump keeping a biography of Hitler on his nightstand, That bit of info stayed with me. At first because I was shocked that this revelation didn't knock him right out of the race. I was back to the question that had bugged the living daylights out of me in the 80's when I first heard of Neo-Nazis. "How can any red-blooded American who knows about WWII think Neo-Nazis are a GOOD Thing?"
This has brought me around to wondering if, after all, was there was an American cadre of ultra powerful far-right figures in the 1930's and 40's who watched Hitler and saw him not as an enemy, but as an "A-HA!" moment. As an inspiration, a blueprint, a model for acquiring absolute power over their own citizens.
I feel like this is an incredibly cynical take, but I have mulled this over for a long time and can't get it out of my head. If this is really off the wall and I'm off my rocker, y'all, please tell me.
No, I think that is a good analysis of the rise of the ultra right conservatives not just in United States, but also in Europe as well!
Cynical? Not really. Accurate? FAR more likely. It continues to astonish me how many people out there are so screamingly insecure that they feel as though they have to superimpose their will on EVERYONE. It should go without saying that Trump is at the head of that list. What is disturbing are the considerable numbers of people under his name, who have the same ambition.
Presuming we somehow manage to survive Trump and his lackeys, I just hope a lesson is learned from all of this: that we cannot afford to be lackadaisical or indifferent about the structure of our government or who runs it. Trump has taken that indifference and run with it, and the cost of his avarice will continue to have an impact, not just on the United States but the world as a whole, for decades to come.
Have you listened to the podcast called 'Ultra' by Rachel Maddow? She's made two series of about 6 episodes each, I can really recommend them, she's a great storyteller.
In those podcasts she looks into American nazis. Yes, there were American nazis. And she explains the connections and the history, it's really interesting.
"impoverished American families" In all of the 35 American countries including the United States.
God Bless America?
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/31c6540aaade9b12b1e1e279ac61b2c97b80b600892c16c891c30afa2cdba12c.jpg
Resistance is ... BUUUURRRRPPPP!
*BORRRRRRRG!*
Sound of massive belch by the away team
I remember a science fiction story years ago where humans were losing a war with some alien crustaceans – until they found out that the aliens tasted just like lobster only better.
(Well to them I guess – I hate the taste of fish.)
Well, there was some flavour text I read somewhere about XCom Terror From The Deep. One particular base had to handle a higher-than-expected number of Lobstermen. Coincidentally, they also had a higher-than-expected requisition of butter.
OT: US government has drops case against Democrats in “illegal” orders video case! (BBC NEWS).
As if Trump’s administration had a case; MAGAS seem to think that Freedom of Speech (without consequences, of course) only applies to them! Well, this shows that it doesn’t, it is a BASIC HUMAN RIGHT for everyone!!!!!!!!!
Aside from the trump regime opposing the constitution and democratic principles , their main goal is to both intimidate their opponents by challenging their rights as well as cost their opponents legal fees and clog the court system with frivolous ‘prosecutions.’
Each trump cultist is deserving of the gibbet.
I should clarify. While I would not be averse to either type of gibbet, the Halifax gibbet is my preference for trump pedophile cultists.
I would castrate them first, then after a month use the gibbet. The wait between the castration and the gibbet would cause (maybe) the fuckwits to consider all their bad life choices. If nothing else, the dread of the wait would cause some psychological trauma, just like the trauma they inflicted on others!
Of course, I am not serious (maybe a little)!
NatCs don't worship an imaginary being. They suck the ass of an all-too-real "golden" idol.
They shit all over not only the secular law of the land but their own 2nd Commandment as well.
I have been saying literally for 20 years that the goal of politicized and Weaponized— what normal people would call conservative or reactionary religion— is power, money, religious Dominion. And in the age of Trump, revenge on every uppity woman, gay person, non-white person, non-Christian, not male person for being uppity.
My kingdom is not of this world, said Jesus. We’re taking over, say the Nat-C’s. Judge not less ye be judged, says Jesus. There are many unlisted exceptions to that rule in the Bible, says the Nat-C’s. You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free, says Jesus. What is the truth, said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer.
From my essay on the insurrection: “ As a Catholic acquaintance of mine wrote, the religious reich uses the unborn as a shield to protect themselves from any criticism or blowback for everything else they want to do. He wrote: “Because instead of defending the unborn, they have devoted their time and energy to defending every lie, cruelty, sadistic act, racist remark, misogynist bullying, sexual assault, kidnapping, call for violence, and criminal act he has committed. They voted for him this time, not because those things were bugs, but because they were features. If they had really only supported the prolife stuff and not all the other filth. they would have spoken against the other filth. They never did. They either remained silent or, as was far more often the case, they passionately supported it.”
And…
‘ But therein lies the answer as to how we got to this point. Not to put too fine a point on it, but nearly half the this nation is ethically crippled, reality challenged, intellectually deranged, educationally debased, empathetically destitute, morally lazy at best and morally bankrupt at worst. No nation has ever survived this, nor can it, unless the other half stays vigilant and active.
I don’t have an answer to this. This is a moral, intellectual, and spiritual cancer deep within the body politic of this country
It's a cancer, all right, mutating and metastasizing ... and the surgery needed to excise said aberration will not be easy or without pain.
We've let it go on too long as it is.
Or as I frequently put it ---
People are no damn good!
I think most people are pretty decent. The more tribal they get, the worse they become.
Tribalism is part and parcel of the conservative brain.
It starts when you are always afraid… Murdoch and Faux inculcate them with fear all day, every day.
Tribalism is one of the neurological defects of the consewertive brain.
I’ve said several times on here that I have come to believe that the people who fit under the big MAGA tent all have the same, likely genetic, personality disorder. And along with authoritarian personalities, they are tribal, easily propagandized (easily hypnotized), and tend to have a deep overlay of generational personality disorders.
I believe you've got something there...
Sorry for the typo that I missed. Suggesting pilot should have read “said jesting Pilate.”
I blame it on Jesus.
OMG, I screwedup TWICE.
I blame it on the drugs. Or maybe Jesus.
[TS hands Ben a copy of Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing and giggles!]
I’m still blaming Jesus.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Not American but I did visit once and my god the stuff on the radio was absolutely cuckoo for cocopuffs. I kept listening to the station I stumbled across for a while because I just could not believe this shit was for real. But it was. And I don't know about you guys but I would rather die than live under a theocracy of any kind. Mind you as I'm a queer childless disabled woman I'm sure the benevolent church would take care of that in short order.
97.7 FM KCRR (the Pirate station, that's what listeners call it, the station puts up with it).
Classic rock.
OT: They do a two for Tuesday, back to back songs from one group. The last couple of weeks, I have gotten in the car between songs and heard what I thought were one hit wonders. It drives me nuts trying to figure the other song.
Now that's a station I can get behind! I use an app on my phone called Shazam when I can't figure out what a song is; it's really good at analysing what it "hears" and identifying the song and artist.