[worry]

Azath Vitr (D, on 25 July 2023 - 05:00 PM, said:

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The bottom line of DeSantis' "Stop Woke Act" is to squash all teaching on race that might lead a white child to believe she or he "bears personal responsibility for and must feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress." That's the highest priority of many of these measures, in other states too [...]

I mean, children (even white ones) aren't really their highest priority, but they make the easiest justification for their actual priorities.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

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Fox News' liberal co-host [... m]entioning that she is Jewish, [...] asked, "Would someone say about the Holocaust, for instance, that there were some benefits for Jews, right while they were hanging out in concentration camps, 'you learned a strong work ethic, right? Maybe you learned a new skill.'"

Co-host Greg Gutfeld essentially answered yes.

"Did you ever read 'Man's Search for Meaning'?" he asked. "[...] you had to survive in a concentration camp by having skills. You had to be useful – utility – utility kept you alive,"

Fox News blasted for declaring Jews 'survived' the Holocaust by being 'useful' (msn.com)

[Edit: and by the same logic, they think people who don't have jobs or financial assets don't deserve healthcare, food, or housing, and deserve to die....

Similarly, the 'slavery as a jobs program' propaganda should be considered in the context of ongoing legal slavery in the US prison system:

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13th Amendment [...] "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States [...] "

13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of Slavery (1865) | National Archives

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To reaffirm the penal servitude, Virginia’s Supreme Court declared prisoners “slaves of the state” in 1872.

Penal Servitude: A Reminder about the U.S. Constitution’s 13th Amendment Exclusion Clause | Prison Legal News

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 25 July 2023 - 06:43 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'Trump indicted over efforts to overturn 2020 election'---when I first saw this I thought 'Georgia finally came through' but no:

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The indictment was filed by the special counsel Jack Smith in Federal District Court in Washington.

It accuses Mr. Trump of three conspiracies: one to defraud the United States, a second to obstruct an official government proceeding and a third to deprive people of civil rights provided by federal law or the Constitution.

(4) Trump Indicted Over Efforts to Overturn 2020 Election: Live Updates - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

[Primateus]

So, uh, Americans? I am deeply sorry to inform you that this guy here...

Is your Mayor!


May whatever deity you pray to have mercy on your souls.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Primateus, on 08 August 2023 - 07:04 PM, said:

So, uh, Americans? I am deeply sorry to inform you that this guy here...

Is your Mayor!


May whatever deity you pray to have mercy on your souls.

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“Whereas the Italian use them all their lives so they get bigger.”

Good to know he's still using his cock... and it's getting bigger! Will it fit in his cell?... fill the cell up, hopefully, cramming the remainders of his body through the latrine (so long as he doesn't use it to escape through the sewers)....

[QuickTidal]

I need to know if he was always as crazy as he is now, or if he's suffering the effects of aging and perhaps dementia.....because he didn't seem THIS off the deep end back during his time as mayor and 9/11....like was this stuff just covered up back then with no social media ect.?

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

QuickTidal, on 08 August 2023 - 07:24 PM, said:

I need to know if he was always as crazy as he is now, or if he's suffering the effects of aging and perhaps dementia.....because he didn't seem THIS off the deep end back during his time as mayor and 9/11....like was this stuff just covered up back then with no social media ect.?

That article is about an audio transcript that was leaked to the media... social media didn't play a (direct) role AFAIK.

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Ask Any New Yorker: Rudy Giuliani Was Always This Bad

"A small man in search of a balcony," as one columnist memorably described him. Nothing has changed.

Rudy Giuliani Was Always This Bad, He Just Swapped Manhattan For Ukraine

He's always been pretty bad, but he's probably gotten at least a little worse:

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"His descent was the result of a series of moral compromises made over the years as the temptations of power and money grew," [...] "By the time he reached an advanced age all those compromises left him an empty vessel, filled with a desire for power and little more. Alcohol, and a toxic marriage, were exacerbating factors, though not the cause."

[...] taken in by an old friend, who let them stay at his estate, Mar-a-Lago. No one else would have them.

In the years that followed, Giuliani drank heavily. "He was always falling shitfaced somewhere," [...] On Election Day, 2020, Giuliani[...] did a thirty-minute show for RT, a Russian state television network, where he told his listeners that Hunter Biden served as Joe Biden's bagman, collecting bribes for him. That evening, Giuliani showed up at the White House.

He was "definitely intoxicated," Jason Miller, a Trump adviser, told the House January 6th Committee, when he insisted on seeing the President. And that, apparently, was when he advised Trump to announce that he was not conceding, because the election had been stolen [...]

[...] an unarmed Black man named Patrick Dorismond was shot and killed [by] police [...] He was no altar boy, Giuliani argued—except that it turned out that Dorismond had been an altar boy, and attended Giuliani's own high school [...]

[...] Giuliani happily showed up and egged on the crowd. Many of the cops were drunk and shouted racist slogans. They marched onto the Brooklyn Bridge to disrupt traffic, and the demonstration devolved into a police riot. Giuliani left before the rioting started, but the incident was weirdly proleptic of his actions on January 6th, when he called out "Let's have trial by combat" to the protesters. They took him at his word. Like Trump, he left before the rioting started.

Was Rudy Giuliani Always So Awful? | The New Yorker

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 08 August 2023 - 07:44 PM

[QuickTidal]

Huh.

One of the indicted people in Georgia along with Trump is a guy named Mike Roman (one of his campaign staffers; he's got 7 charges against him, one if which is the RICO charge).

Guess where Mike Roman was in Feb 2022?

If you guessed in Ottawa as a part of the Convoy trying to overthrow OUR govt you'd be correct. And he was once former PM Stephen Harper's co-chair in the IDU. Sounds like foreign interference to me.

An American co-worker also said that it doesn't surprise him as he said Americans didn't give a shit about Canada's politics until the Convoy...and that the Convoy itself had people like Steve Bannon written all over it. So even the political tribalist rot in our country can be tied to American right wingers.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 16 August 2023 - 05:06 PM

[Tiste Simeon]

Seems a bunch of Trump cultists including Giuliani are handing themselves in to a jail and the big orange turd himself might also be doing so.

Naturally the usual nonsense about "attacks on the American people" etc are being spouted, and I have no doubt whatsoever that they'll evade anything resembling actual justice, but if there reason to hope for some good to come out of this?

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Tiste Simeon, on 23 August 2023 - 09:55 PM, said:

Seems a bunch of Trump cultists including Giuliani are handing themselves in to a jail and the big orange turd himself might also be doing so.

Naturally the usual nonsense about "attacks on the American people" etc are being spouted, and I have no doubt whatsoever that they'll evade anything resembling actual justice, but if there reason to hope for some good to come out of this?

We'll get to know how much Trump weighs:

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bookies are all over Trump's surrender [...] letting you bet on what jail officials will put down as Trump's recorded weight. The line currently sits over/under 278.5 pounds, a far cry from the 244 pounds White House physician Sean Conley recorded for Trump in 2020. [...] He has repeatedly fat-shamed his political opponents [...] other arrest-related bets you can make [...] whether he'll smile in his mugshot, and what skintone his photo will show, from "Marm-a-Lago Orange" to "Presidential Pumpkin" and "Impeachment Peach."

You Can Bet on Trump's Weight Ahead of His Surrender to Jail (thedailybeast.com)

With 19 defendants and all the other trials going on they're going to have a hard time finishing before the election. Then Trump will try to argue before the Supreme Court that a president-elect or sitting president can't be tried even in state court... so it'll come down to what they feel like.

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Can a state court try a sitting president for a crime? The answer, I contend, is yes.

The prevailing wisdom to the contrary stems from two memos by the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel. However, those memos address only whether the president can be indicted and tried under federal law. They do not and cannot bind state prosecutors. The distinction is often overlooked by commentators on this issue, but it is a critical one.

Opinion: A sitting president can be tried for a crime in state court (cincinnati.com)

... Supreme Court doesn't follow the law, it judges the law that's been and remakes it in their awful (majority) image... drunk not on beer (not so much, at least) but on corruption, power, and ideology.

[Edit: actually 19 defendants---18 + Trump]

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 23 August 2023 - 10:50 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

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I've always been troubled by the idea that Wakanda, the technological and social embodiment of the Age of Enlightenment, decides who its leader will be based on ritual combat. [...] It's good theater—bad politics. Just like the debates.

[...]

But Americans like competitive sports and so they insist on this sad spectacle. [...] like hockey fans, they are giddy for the inevitable fights. They want to see the gloves fly off [...]

[...] DeSantis: Most cowardly performance of all because he refused to answer any questions directly, always pivoting to some canned slogans like "Reverse American Decline." He spoke in bursts of anger, like a bully threatening us if we don't vote for him. He claimed he wants to teach kids about the Constitution and Bill of Rights while actually undermining them in his policies.

Vivek Ramanswamy: [...] He thinks climate change is a hoax and promotes fossil fuel as the savior of our economy. [...] "This is the way the world ends/Not with a bang but a whimper." Ramanswamy is that whimper. He's a man with no political experience and no substance. He's proposed getting rid of Juneteenth. He wants to raise the voting age [...] These aren't ideas, they're political pranks.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the 2024 Republican Debate (thedailybeast.com)

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Why Is a Hindu GOP Candidate Pushing Christian Nationalism?

[...] Hardline adherents of Christian nationalism, from right-wing activists [...] to Trump-aligned pastors, are tearing down Ramaswamy because of his Hindu faith. Even the flailing Ron DeSantis campaign—which is no stranger to exploiting faith for political gain—has been flirting with attacks on Ramaswamy's religion and Indian heritage.

[...]

With the majority of Republicans voicing support for Christian nationalism—believing that the country should be a strictly Christian nation—candidates in 2024 and beyond are going to need to court these voters somehow. [...]

At the same time, the very ethos of Christian nationalism precludes non-Christian candidates (and frankly, even Christian candidates who fail to adhere to a specific brand of Christianity) from holding significant political power.

Why Is a Hindu GOP Candidate Pushing Christian Nationalism? (thedailybeast.com)

Given how utterly shameless he seems to be, I'm surprised he hasn't just converted to Christianity (or claimed to)---assuming he isn't saving that for later....

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[...] eight Republicans [...] gathered for the cycle's first debate and, with a clear and united voice, denounced one man: Vivek Ramaswamy.

You read that right. With Trump running away with the race and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis behind him in a clear (if tenuous) second, it was somehow the 38-year-old Ramaswamy who took the most direct hits. [...] Chris Christie's was likely the most memorable: After two of Ramaswamy's high-energy, relentlessly locquacious answers, Christie described him as "a guy who sounds like ChatGPT." [...] Mike Pence made a glaringly condescending reference to Ramaswamy "learning on the job," to which the crowd responded with a deserved oooooh. [...]

[...] unlike them, he has not spent decades of his life having to attend pancake breakfasts in East Shitsville County

Vivek Ramaswamy was the GOP debate's Pete Buttigieg, in that the other candidates clearly hate him. (slate.com)

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"I'm the only person on the stage who isn't bought and paid for," Vivek Ramaswamy boldly declared [...]

Ramaswamy's first line—"I want to just address the question that is on everyone's mind at home tonight. Who the heck is this skinny guy with a funny last name?"—[...] essentially plagiarized Barack Obama. Christie, who was on the ball, called him on it. [...]

[...] Ramaswamy took issue with Pence's anti-Putin stance, saying "The USSR doesn't exist anymore." It was reminiscent of Obama's 2012 debate line to Mitt Romney: "The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back." Channeling Obama was, shall we say, an unusual move for a guy ostensibly seeking the Republican nomination.

Republican Debaters Agreed on One Thing: They Hate Vivek Ramaswamy (thedailybeast.com)

At least they could all agree on hating the one person who wasn't Christian... isn't that what Christianity is all about?

[QuickTidal]

Azath Vitr (D, on 24 August 2023 - 12:47 PM, said:

With the majority of Republicans voicing support for Christian nationalism—believing that the country should be a strictly Christian nation—candidates in 2024 and beyond are going to need to court these voters somehow.

Does it blow anyone else's mind that these people claim to be patriots for what The United States stands for, and yet they universally seem to believe that the USA should be a Christian theocracy...going against one of the VERY MOTIVES that the English settlers who left England did so, as a result of lack of religious freedom in that country?

Like the religious motives for settling in the colonies was: The Protestant Reformation gave rise to dissenting sects who aggressively sought to worship according to their own ideas instead of conforming to the religious uniformity required by the Anglican Church. Non-conforming religious sects were persecuted as being treasonous to the king. These people sought to escape to America where vacant land and great distance from the mother country offered them a place to settle and follow their own consciences in religious matters.


So yeah, not patriots at all really, and very much the "follow OUR way, or take the highway" of the place they moved away from.

It would be truly funny if it weren't so sad.

Also, I'd love to know how much of this is demand for a Christian theocratic USA is simply the petulant the death throes of Christianity as an organized religion with 91% of the total US population in 1976, down to 73.7% by 2016 and then further to 64% in 2022. Dropping to just above half its previous highest number in only 47 years is...not insubstantial of a drop. So are the super devout angry and lashing out now? Who knows. It certainly looks that way though.

[HoosierDaddy]

QuickTidal, on 24 August 2023 - 03:01 PM, said:

Azath Vitr (D, on 24 August 2023 - 12:47 PM, said:

With the majority of Republicans voicing support for Christian nationalism—believing that the country should be a strictly Christian nation—candidates in 2024 and beyond are going to need to court these voters somehow.

Does it blow anyone else's mind that these people claim to be patriots for what The United States stands for, and yet they universally seem to believe that the USA should be a Christian theocracy...going against one of the VERY MOTIVES that the English settlers who left England did so, as a result of lack of religious freedom in that country?

Like the religious motives for settling in the colonies was: The Protestant Reformation gave rise to dissenting sects who aggressively sought to worship according to their own ideas instead of conforming to the religious uniformity required by the Anglican Church. Non-conforming religious sects were persecuted as being treasonous to the king. These people sought to escape to America where vacant land and great distance from the mother country offered them a place to settle and follow their own consciences in religious matters.


So yeah, not patriots at all really, and very much the "follow OUR way, or take the highway" of the place they moved away from.

It would be truly funny if it weren't so sad.

Also, I'd love to know how much of this is demand for a Christian theocratic USA is simply the petulant the death throes of Christianity as an organized religion with 91% of the total US population in 1976, down to 73.7% by 2016 and then further to 64% in 2022. Dropping to just above half its previous highest number in only 47 years is...not insubstantial of a drop. So are the super devout angry and lashing out now? Who knows. It certainly looks that way though.

Think about it this way:

Two things in which logic, reasoning, and consistency are fairly easily set aside: politics and faith. Only emotions (or outright stupidity, but I'll give many of them credit for not being stupid) could motivate this dissonance: namely hope and fear and we more commonly see the fear motivation. Fear of the unknown, fear of not enough resources, fear of change, fear of the different... creates tribalism and in-groups and ultimately prejudice that can only be sustained by that cognitive difference.


Thus they set aside the idea of "giving us your tired, poor, and huddled masses yearning to be free" and instead want what is safe, predictable, and clearly has allowed them to be in the power that they must retain in order to feel safe.

Or they are just all assholes.

50/50.

[Tiste Simeon]

The really sad thing is that they truly knew what Jesus said they'd know how repulsed he's be by their hypocrisy, love of money, twisting of religious texts for personal gain, hatred of the poor and destitute, and constant refusal to help the most needy.

And he wouldn't be afraid to call it out.

I'd go so far as to say if Jesus came to Republicans with the same message, they would denounce him as a commie liberal cuck or something equally delightful.

[HoosierDaddy]

Tiste Simeon, on 24 August 2023 - 04:18 PM, said:

The really sad thing is that they truly knew what Jesus said they'd know how repulsed he's be by their hypocrisy, love of money, twisting of religious texts for personal gain, hatred of the poor and destitute, and constant refusal to help the most needy.

And he wouldn't be afraid to call it out.

I'd go so far as to say if Jesus came to Republicans with the same message, they would denounce him as a commie liberal cuck or something equally delightful.

Oh, that's a pretty common assertion amongst the more liberal leaning Christians (of whomst I number myself). How you confuse the message that Jesus came for the sick, the broken, the criminals, etc. and not the pharisees who refused to believed they numbered amongst that group. Honestly though it's pretty dead on similar to what happened with the pharisees then who were blinded by their positions, power, wealth, and privilege in society to what their own God was telling them.

[QuickTidal]

Tiste Simeon, on 24 August 2023 - 04:18 PM, said:

The really sad thing is that they truly knew what Jesus said they'd know how repulsed he's be by their hypocrisy, love of money, twisting of religious texts for personal gain, hatred of the poor and destitute, and constant refusal to help the most needy.

And he wouldn't be afraid to call it out.

I'd go so far as to say if Jesus came to Republicans with the same message, they would denounce him as a commie liberal cuck or something equally delightful.

HoosierDaddy, on 24 August 2023 - 04:34 PM, said:

Tiste Simeon, on 24 August 2023 - 04:18 PM, said:

The really sad thing is that they truly knew what Jesus said they'd know how repulsed he's be by their hypocrisy, love of money, twisting of religious texts for personal gain, hatred of the poor and destitute, and constant refusal to help the most needy.

And he wouldn't be afraid to call it out.

I'd go so far as to say if Jesus came to Republicans with the same message, they would denounce him as a commie liberal cuck or something equally delightful.

Oh, that's a pretty common assertion amongst the more liberal leaning Christians (of whomst I number myself). How you confuse the message that Jesus came for the sick, the broken, the criminals, etc. and not the pharisees who refused to believed they numbered amongst that group. Honestly though it's pretty dead on similar to what happened with the pharisees then who were blinded by their positions, power, wealth, and privilege in society to what their own God was telling them.

And this is the problem, those people who are quietly adhering to their faith like you guys and trying to be the best you you can be on tenets of forgiveness, and kindness and whatnot... a whole swathe of humans in the states (and many other places I assume) are basically cosplaying that faith to get to whatever end they want socially...none of which agrees with said faith.

It's mental.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

And weighing in at... wow.

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215 pounds — nearly 30 pounds lighter than his disclosed weight at the time of his last official White House physical.

Trump’s height, weight and more information from Georgia jail booking - The Washington Post

Huh. I'll bet he did something to bring his weight down for this. Or maybe not. Glad I didn't bet on him smiling for the mug shot:

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Trump’s severe expression here is contrary to what we have seen from other defendants, some of whom have smiled. Trump, during the photo shoot for his official White House photo shortly before he became president, scowled at the camera and told aides he thought he looked “like Churchill.”

(1) Trump Surrenders at Fulton County Jail in Georgia Election Case: Live Updates - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

... though if the bookies expected him to smile, he could've won a bunch of his cronies some money....

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

He looks really Scottish in that one. 'No true Scotsman' perhaps, but I feel sorry for Scotland....

[worry]

He self-reported his stats.

[QuickTidal]

worry, on 25 August 2023 - 02:06 AM, said:

He self-reported his stats.

This. When you're booked you need to write down your stats. He wrote them. They are intended to help identify him. From what I understand there are people who were there who said no one was weighed properly or measured...

There is literally no way he's that...like does he think we can't SEE him?