What I find absolutely hilarious is the poll asking voters who they would vote for; If Hamilton runs as a Democrat, he loses; if he runs as an Independent (while not changing a single thing about his political beliefs), he wins. This is why politics is broken.
Welcome to Kansas. When the heat gets to be too much for Republicans, they run as independents.
The "No Labels" party is running a candidate, too! He's a former KSGOP party official and the director of the Kansans for Life PAC. No Labels, my ass!!
By the way, there is a great book Called Bone of the Bone, by Sarah Smarsh, about growing up liberal in Kansas. She does a great job of pushing back on the idea that states like Kansas are hopelessly Republican.
Thomas Frank, I think, wrote a book entitled “what’s the matter with Kansas“. It was all about how Kansas used to be quite liberal and on the left, but for various reasons, decided to embrace the right no matter how bad the right does for the state.
IIRC the issue goes well beyond Kansas. Pretty much anywhere, if you poll people on their political opinions using descriptions that don't clearly align with a party, then they tend to give more moderate answers. Thus you get the large majority of USAians are in favor of moderate gun control, limited state regulation of abortion, etc. It's only when you clearly align an issue with a party that people then shift to voting based on their party affiliation.
So this guy is just being realistic. Take the party label out of voter consideration, and his moderate views get a lot more traction.
This is also why extremists always use the RINO label on their opponents. It's an attempt to bring party affiliation back into an argument they can't win on substance.
I think it is certainly true that people tend toward moderation in their political beliefs, but that they embrace more extremist or radical positions when party affiliation is thrown into the mix. This is classic identity politics which is the basis for such horrible polarity in this country. A person should be comfortable enough with their political positions so that not only does it not matter whether they align with a D or an R, but people don't view a differing viewpoint as an attack on their very existence.
I'm not really surprised by this, although it's a bit confusing. The modern GOP seems to be entirely alright with Russia. At least, they don't seem to be bothered by Trump's embrace of Russia.
Hamilton's not a progressive firebrand? Given the things he believes in and the stances he supports, he's a raging firebrand in his religion and would be were he a Republican.
I put a link to this in the comments yesterday and my thanks to whomever sent it along to Hemant. The situation is much more nuanced that I had assumed. I truly appreciate how Hemant teased out the relevant aspects.
And yes, the GOP may have (temporarily) cornered the market on hypocrisy. They are shameless.
Yes. University of Kansas in Lawrence and Kansas State University in Manhattan. I've visited both. Had a better time in Manhattan, but wouldn't revisit either.
Republicans don't really care about religion or religious freedom, they care about power. If ending a rule gives them more power, they will try to end it. If enforcing the same rule means more power, they will try to enforce it.
They worship power and authority so long as they are the ones exercising authority.
Many religions base their power on unsubstantiated and controlling fear, so do most politicians.
IMO fear is Part of the natural defensive anxiety in most humans. According to the CDC 25% of Amercians in the United States suffer from GAD. Making it easy for MAGA and religions to win over.
On the one hand, the church seems to be going through all the right motions with regards to Johnson Amendment compliance.
On the other hand, I find it hard to believe that the mere fact that it's their pastor in the race wouldn't sway the voters in the congregation, especially since magachurches tend to be firmly anchored to the charismatic presence of their holy men.
On the 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 other hand, his opponent would be a Republican, and there is literally no choice for any federal office who'd be worse than a Republican right now.
On the other 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 other hand, I don't think having more preachers play at politics is generally a healthy thing for democracy. The wall between church and state really should work both ways in all cases; one should be required to lay down one's religious titles before seeking secular power.
On the 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 other 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 other hand, Republicans are filthy hypocrites and it's funny to see them shitting their pants over the mere 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺 of being spoon-fed some of their own politicking-from-the-pulpit bullshit.
"The Kansas Republican Party believes strongly in the rule of law. This complaint raises serious questions about the separation between the Church of the Resurrection’s religious mission and partisan political activity,”
It’s really sad that so many average Americans buy into the GOP propaganda accusing the Democratic Party of being the devil. Repeating ad nauseum that you can’t be a Christian and vote democratic, or that the democrats are doing whatever evil thing the GOP is actually doing (overspending, destroying the economy, trafficking children, eating babies, the wilder the better and most likely true of the republicans). That no one seems to hear outrageous nonsense and recognizes it as outrageous nonsense. And then on top of that, the average Americans have voted for the GOP for generations in certain states and cannot recognize that their shitty situation is a result of that voting pattern. They still blame the democrats for their failing economy, lack of opportunity, and crumbling infrastructure. How? How can it be the democrats when they have no power to do anything since you keep voting for the GOP? And how can you not see that the GOP openly votes to make everything worse?
Same goes for the federal government, the voting patterns show that when the GOP is in power, more often than not, they have controlling numbers in the house and senate and presidency, but when it’s the democrats in the presidency, there may be a majority in either or both chambers but never enough to beat a filibuster. So when the dems try to make headway the republicans block everything they can, (it was obvious with Obama, but it’s been that way forever) and it makes it look like the dems can’t get anything done. Still the dems do make great change, and when folks get comfortable again they go back to the GOP thinking it is better to switch for switching’s sake.
I’ve commented on this before. Republicans have been in power for over 40 years in the red states, and those states continue to rate pretty much at the bottom of just about every single measure of social well-being that there is. And that simple observation never dawns on them.
As I’ve also observed, Republicans managed to convince farmers that two guys getting married in New York is far more important than the farm bill that the Republicans are going to pass which will, within a few years, result in that farmer losing his farm to big agriculture.
It’s not a coincidence they also rate in the bottom percentile in education. It’s by design, so that they’ll never have the smarts enough to ever make the connection.
That’s why he must run as independent rather than dem. I’m even betting that he thinks he’s Republican anyway, he just doesn’t want to primary the incumbent. Or he’s not a MAGA Republican so he can’t get anywhere that way.
No, that was the hypocrisy meter. "[H]e’s been a supporter of the United Methodist Church’s inclusive position on openly gay clergy members and its decision to allow clergy members to perform same-sex marriage ceremonies." If his positions weren't (somewhat) liberal they wouldn't have batted an eye. Hell, there would have been support for him as a primary challenge to Marshall. After all, the trend in the NSGOP is farther and farther to the right and more and more authoritarian.
OT: Here's a new one, for me anyway. I decided to make roasted vegies and sausage for dinner. I turned on the oven then did all my prep work. Everything was ready to go so I opened the oven door and started to pull out the middle rack. My cell phone slid out of my shirt pocket, bounced off the door and slid into the 425 degree oven. I reached in real quick and pulled it out. No damage to the phone except for a little melting where the corner of the phone hit the heating element. You can barely see it unless you're looking. One small burn on the back of my hand where I hit the bottom rack pulling the phone out. You can barely see it unless you're looking. : )
My sister in Alaska was ice fishing. She reached for her phone, it slipped from her hand, and went right down the hole drilled in the ice. The cell phone store people said that happens a lot more than you might think. Now she has it on a tether when she ice fishes.
And now for something completely different: a MODERATE preacher using his position to sort-of-not-quite-but-damned-near promote his run for political office. Lyndon Baines Johnson must be doing about 5,000 rpm in his grave about now. The amendment that bears his name has been beaten bloody enough by evangelicals as it is, and the fact that the Kansas Republican party has a less than positive take on Hamilton's activities only muddies the waters further.
I have NO idea how this is all going to play out. I DO, however, have the beer and popcorn at the ready!
What I find absolutely hilarious is the poll asking voters who they would vote for; If Hamilton runs as a Democrat, he loses; if he runs as an Independent (while not changing a single thing about his political beliefs), he wins. This is why politics is broken.
You didn’t hear democrats are demons?
Welcome to Kansas. When the heat gets to be too much for Republicans, they run as independents.
The "No Labels" party is running a candidate, too! He's a former KSGOP party official and the director of the Kansans for Life PAC. No Labels, my ass!!
By the way, there is a great book Called Bone of the Bone, by Sarah Smarsh, about growing up liberal in Kansas. She does a great job of pushing back on the idea that states like Kansas are hopelessly Republican.
Thomas Frank, I think, wrote a book entitled “what’s the matter with Kansas“. It was all about how Kansas used to be quite liberal and on the left, but for various reasons, decided to embrace the right no matter how bad the right does for the state.
I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.
"We're off to see the Wizard!"
Bleeding Kansas.
IIRC the issue goes well beyond Kansas. Pretty much anywhere, if you poll people on their political opinions using descriptions that don't clearly align with a party, then they tend to give more moderate answers. Thus you get the large majority of USAians are in favor of moderate gun control, limited state regulation of abortion, etc. It's only when you clearly align an issue with a party that people then shift to voting based on their party affiliation.
So this guy is just being realistic. Take the party label out of voter consideration, and his moderate views get a lot more traction.
This is also why extremists always use the RINO label on their opponents. It's an attempt to bring party affiliation back into an argument they can't win on substance.
I have nothing against voting for moderate Republicans, I've voted for a few in my 25 years living here, but I don't trust pastors.
I think it is certainly true that people tend toward moderation in their political beliefs, but that they embrace more extremist or radical positions when party affiliation is thrown into the mix. This is classic identity politics which is the basis for such horrible polarity in this country. A person should be comfortable enough with their political positions so that not only does it not matter whether they align with a D or an R, but people don't view a differing viewpoint as an attack on their very existence.
Added to my wish list, thanks! Working on a book by Neil DeGrasse Tyson now.
Anything that guy does is outstanding.
Voting for a No Labels candidate is like voting for Jill Stein, but worse.
Worse like fat-shamer Marianne Williamson?
They are spoilers, that always run to help the republicans.
This is clearly a race where followup is MANDATORY!
Welcome to the GOP, where they would rather be Russian than Democrat.
Not a joke or hyperbole, by the way. Actual truth: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/russian-than-democrat-shirts/
I'm not really surprised by this, although it's a bit confusing. The modern GOP seems to be entirely alright with Russia. At least, they don't seem to be bothered by Trump's embrace of Russia.
Yes, that was weird because those guys looked Polish. maybe they don't know their ethnic history.
His polling tells him the exact opposite.
Hamilton's not a progressive firebrand? Given the things he believes in and the stances he supports, he's a raging firebrand in his religion and would be were he a Republican.
“Church of the Resurrection” - aka Church of It Never Happened, aka Church of Make Believe,
aka Church of Some People Will Believe Anything.
aka Church of Hand Over your Wallet.
aka the Church of Give Us Your Children.
aka Church of Fool Some Of The People All The Time.
I put a link to this in the comments yesterday and my thanks to whomever sent it along to Hemant. The situation is much more nuanced that I had assumed. I truly appreciate how Hemant teased out the relevant aspects.
And yes, the GOP may have (temporarily) cornered the market on hypocrisy. They are shameless.
What do you mean “temporarily”? It’s been at least 30 years.
We are relegated to gallows humor for now.
“The Kansas Republican Party believes strongly in the rule of law."
Insert jerking off gif here.
Are there 2 Kansases?
Yes, MAGA Kansas and christofascist Kansas.
Country AND Western!
Yes. University of Kansas in Lawrence and Kansas State University in Manhattan. I've visited both. Had a better time in Manhattan, but wouldn't revisit either.
ARKansas and regular Kansas.
I have another image of Republicans claiming to believe strongly in the rule of law
youtu.be/rrPosTPSXxw
Republicans don't really care about religion or religious freedom, they care about power. If ending a rule gives them more power, they will try to end it. If enforcing the same rule means more power, they will try to enforce it.
They worship power and authority so long as they are the ones exercising authority.
Many religions base their power on unsubstantiated and controlling fear, so do most politicians.
IMO fear is Part of the natural defensive anxiety in most humans. According to the CDC 25% of Amercians in the United States suffer from GAD. Making it easy for MAGA and religions to win over.
On the one hand, the church seems to be going through all the right motions with regards to Johnson Amendment compliance.
On the other hand, I find it hard to believe that the mere fact that it's their pastor in the race wouldn't sway the voters in the congregation, especially since magachurches tend to be firmly anchored to the charismatic presence of their holy men.
On the 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 other hand, his opponent would be a Republican, and there is literally no choice for any federal office who'd be worse than a Republican right now.
On the other 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 other hand, I don't think having more preachers play at politics is generally a healthy thing for democracy. The wall between church and state really should work both ways in all cases; one should be required to lay down one's religious titles before seeking secular power.
On the 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 other 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 other hand, Republicans are filthy hypocrites and it's funny to see them shitting their pants over the mere 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺 of being spoon-fed some of their own politicking-from-the-pulpit bullshit.
...I'm torn.
I guess it's the lesser of two weevils.😇
https://youtu.be/440l8poSQiA
Yes – more of a Hornblower fan myself, but that was a classic pun
Got to hand it to you. That's a handy synopsis. 👏🏼
You're a regular Lakshmi.
"The Kansas Republican Party believes strongly in the rule of law. This complaint raises serious questions about the separation between the Church of the Resurrection’s religious mission and partisan political activity,”
https://media.tenor.com/4pFJ4HBoDscAAAAM/bullshit-smelly.gif
https://i.makeagif.com/media/10-28-2013/tpy8GR.gif
Statements like that are how you break bullshit detectors!
That needle shouldn't have just gone past 3, it should be spinning wildly.
Up to 11 for sure!
It’s really sad that so many average Americans buy into the GOP propaganda accusing the Democratic Party of being the devil. Repeating ad nauseum that you can’t be a Christian and vote democratic, or that the democrats are doing whatever evil thing the GOP is actually doing (overspending, destroying the economy, trafficking children, eating babies, the wilder the better and most likely true of the republicans). That no one seems to hear outrageous nonsense and recognizes it as outrageous nonsense. And then on top of that, the average Americans have voted for the GOP for generations in certain states and cannot recognize that their shitty situation is a result of that voting pattern. They still blame the democrats for their failing economy, lack of opportunity, and crumbling infrastructure. How? How can it be the democrats when they have no power to do anything since you keep voting for the GOP? And how can you not see that the GOP openly votes to make everything worse?
Same goes for the federal government, the voting patterns show that when the GOP is in power, more often than not, they have controlling numbers in the house and senate and presidency, but when it’s the democrats in the presidency, there may be a majority in either or both chambers but never enough to beat a filibuster. So when the dems try to make headway the republicans block everything they can, (it was obvious with Obama, but it’s been that way forever) and it makes it look like the dems can’t get anything done. Still the dems do make great change, and when folks get comfortable again they go back to the GOP thinking it is better to switch for switching’s sake.
Fuck! People are dumb.
I’ve commented on this before. Republicans have been in power for over 40 years in the red states, and those states continue to rate pretty much at the bottom of just about every single measure of social well-being that there is. And that simple observation never dawns on them.
As I’ve also observed, Republicans managed to convince farmers that two guys getting married in New York is far more important than the farm bill that the Republicans are going to pass which will, within a few years, result in that farmer losing his farm to big agriculture.
It’s not a coincidence they also rate in the bottom percentile in education. It’s by design, so that they’ll never have the smarts enough to ever make the connection.
You would think that somebody would make that connection, see how obvious it is. But maybe those people just leave those red states.
Like I said, you need intelligence for that. And they’ve never demonstrated any.
Wait! Wasn’t there that time…
Nah. I guess not.
That’s why he must run as independent rather than dem. I’m even betting that he thinks he’s Republican anyway, he just doesn’t want to primary the incumbent. Or he’s not a MAGA Republican so he can’t get anywhere that way.
"many average Americans" Add one more to the list.
I just assumed you’d figure it out.
Yes, and it makes one wonder.
Thanks
Well, it's sufficient for a lot of people that the people they vote for hate the same people they hate.
He doesn’t sound like a terrible human being, but I still wouldn’t vote for a preacher unless the alternative was far worse.
𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐾𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑎𝑠 𝑅𝑒𝑝𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑃𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑦 𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑝𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑢𝑛𝑓𝑎𝑖𝑟𝑙𝑦 𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑚𝑒𝑔𝑎𝑐ℎ𝑢𝑟𝑐ℎ 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚 𝑡𝑜 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑚𝑜𝑡𝑒 𝑎 𝑝𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑒.
𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑠𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 𝑦𝑜𝑢 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝑖𝑠 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑖𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑦 𝑚𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑏𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔.
No, that was the hypocrisy meter. "[H]e’s been a supporter of the United Methodist Church’s inclusive position on openly gay clergy members and its decision to allow clergy members to perform same-sex marriage ceremonies." If his positions weren't (somewhat) liberal they wouldn't have batted an eye. Hell, there would have been support for him as a primary challenge to Marshall. After all, the trend in the NSGOP is farther and farther to the right and more and more authoritarian.
Can you imagine what Trump would say about Hamilton? Doesn't take a LOT of imagination, really.
"He knows that I need a big beautiful ballroom!"
🤪🤪🤪
pffftBAAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAAHAHA!!!
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f70cbaa60aab767642f7cf5f377c02a592b90d4e6d07de791f2d6fcf58f707bd.jpg
I'd be OK if Trump took a trip to space ... one way.
He could go up in one of his buddy Elon's rockets. The ones marked ACME.
Oh, he’s a space cadet, all right.
He’s definitely a space case.
https://doompatrol.fandom.com/wiki/Casey_Brinke
Well, if that's how he feels... maybe we could arrange him an up-close-and-personal tour of the Sun?
I'd say the poor man is delusional, but he's not poor, and we all know he's delusional.
Collectively.
OT: Here's a new one, for me anyway. I decided to make roasted vegies and sausage for dinner. I turned on the oven then did all my prep work. Everything was ready to go so I opened the oven door and started to pull out the middle rack. My cell phone slid out of my shirt pocket, bounced off the door and slid into the 425 degree oven. I reached in real quick and pulled it out. No damage to the phone except for a little melting where the corner of the phone hit the heating element. You can barely see it unless you're looking. One small burn on the back of my hand where I hit the bottom rack pulling the phone out. You can barely see it unless you're looking. : )
Be careful out there.
I wouldn't hesitate – but I live in NZ and if I burn myself in the oven, it doesn't cost me anything. :)
I hesitated long enough to say 'shit', then went for it.
'shit' - the most common last word on black box recordings.
My sister in Alaska was ice fishing. She reached for her phone, it slipped from her hand, and went right down the hole drilled in the ice. The cell phone store people said that happens a lot more than you might think. Now she has it on a tether when she ice fishes.
I hate cold calls. : )
My biggest lol today.
I seem to recall an ad for a cell phone case with floats so it’ll never sink in water.
OT
https://insideevs.com/news/794295/chinese-ev-headlight-movie-projectors/
okay, the rest of the world is fucked.
You know someone is going to be projecting porn while driving.
Why do you think it was invented.
Where are the poles with the speaker boxes and portable mini-heaters?
(for those of us who are old enough to remember the drive-ins)
There were two in the area. Neither had mini-heaters. Maybe if they did, they could have stayed in business a little longer.
Cool!
The proud history of Kansas republican senators. The stupid runs deep there:
https://americanloons.blogspot.com/2010/06/38-sam-brownback.html
That Brownback has any intelligence is 'just a theory'.
Brownie doesn't understand what a scientific theory entails. And he doesn't want to.
ignorance isn't just bliss to xtians. It's a survival mechanism.
And now for something completely different: a MODERATE preacher using his position to sort-of-not-quite-but-damned-near promote his run for political office. Lyndon Baines Johnson must be doing about 5,000 rpm in his grave about now. The amendment that bears his name has been beaten bloody enough by evangelicals as it is, and the fact that the Kansas Republican party has a less than positive take on Hamilton's activities only muddies the waters further.
I have NO idea how this is all going to play out. I DO, however, have the beer and popcorn at the ready!