Can We Try De-Exhuming McCarthy, US Politics July 2021

it should have a constantly leaking roof, even though it never rains in heaven

Again, nothing new, but it's just so deeply pathetic that the Bootstrap Nation actively thinks of themselves as victims.

So much of this. My Trumper uncle is a great example of this. He retired before he turned 55 with his firefighter and EMT pension to start a consulting "business" that is essentially whenever he feels like taking on a job, but more often spends his time driving his brand new pickup truck (replaced annually) on one of the thirteen road trips he takes a year, riding his expensive ass Harley up to Sturgis twice a year or out on his boat. By choosing to live in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, he has leveraged his solidly middle class wealth into being able to live like a king out there, yet constantly whines and posits himself as this aggrieved victim who is constantly dodging threats to his livelihood and mere existence.

It's not like this animus was never always there under a veil of yellow cake uranium, compassionate conservationism for that city on the hill.

It's never even been veiled. I'm finally getting around to watching "Show Me a Hero" on HBO (about a public-housing fight in Yonkers in the late '80s), and there's a scene where this whole mob of middle-aged white people is angrily demonstrating against the prospect of Black people coming into their neighborhood, waving signs saying "No Rights for Whites," etc. Just as that article postulates, there's just a constant stream of this white panic and victimhood from at least the end of the Civil War forward.

it's amazing how much it permeates white life, particular white christian life. "they" are out there. who is "they"? you know, the people that scare you. from my dad's last paragraph to me, in an email i easily find by searching for "history of nazi":

"I cannot deny how much my faith has grown through my life and it does not wain. I am in the minority and your path is in the majority. I am getting old and you are still strong."

the christian persecution/whininess thing, always there, but rarely stated so plainly

the effect? the more you say that they're wrong, the more it is clear that they are wrong, the more that their martyrdom grows, and the greater their reward will be in the kingdom of heaven. it's kind of like if you get lucky and land a well-paying job when you're younger. you put money into the 401K, foregoing the 4K display of your dreams and instead investing in the future

Pelosi on McCarthy picks for 1/6 Select Committee:
"I must reject the recommendations of Representatives Banks and Jordan to the Select Committee.
“The unprecedented nature of January 6th demands this unprecedented decision.”https://t.co/GUfdvciODZ

— Drew Hammill (@Drew_Hammill) July 21, 2021

Xp to Karl, that's why I'm not a "religion is fine so long as it's kept private" type atheist: it negatively impacts people's entire worldview and seeps into every facet of life by its very nature.

And the inevitable follow-up:

NEWS: @GOPLeader will pull all Republican members from the Jan. 6 committee in response to @SpeakerPelosi vetoing the appointment of @RepJimBanks and @Jim_Jordan

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) July 21, 2021

"If you won't let our shoutiest assholes waste everyone's time, then none of us are coming! Take that!"

I get a little side-eye from other atheists/agnostics when I go off on religion for similar reasons, but it frustrates me because people think it's just me doing an intellectual exercise ("I'm better than you because I believe in science"), when it's actually that I used to be a "live and let live" atheist until I witnessed more up close and personal the destructive nature of right-wing Christianity and how it is used to deny rights to many people I love on a regular basis.

sure, it was "religion" that pushed back against eugenics movement, but as much as people say "it's just the religious right, they're not real Christians", I don't know that this is a real distinction anymore, given how many Evangelicals flocked to Trump, and showed up on January 6th at the insurrection. when I was a Fundamentalist, some of our members had ideas that usually are found in hate groups, even if that wasn't the norm. even Michael W Smith, one of the leading (re: terrible) Christian pop artists of the 90s, turned out to be a crazy Trump-head pushing election fraud myths, and he was about as traditional a Christian as you could imagine in his prime, not a Sean Hannity kook.

I thought the Dems were pretty clear up front of not wanting any firebrands on the commission...

Lol I haven't seen the name Michael W Smith since the 90s
The "real" Christians (or any other religion's members) give cover and validity to the inevitable crazies.

aw @ Michael W. Smith

poor jars of clay, though. as i understand, they now lead the proud boys

Christianity != Evangelicalism, and even there there's a schism between mainstream evangelicals and liberal left evangelicals.

Like, you aren't in any way, shape, or form describing Unitarian congregations, or most of the Episcopal congregations I've associated with. (Presbyterians, OTOH, get the side-eye.)

Funny how any critique of a religion must be true for every single member of that religion for it to be valid, but we can freely throw around critiques of conservatism that don't come close to applying to every conservative

fwiw I like Unitarian doctrine, a lot of friends of mine are Unitarian.

admittedly haven't set foot in Episcopalian church since I was a kid going to Bible school so I haven't had as much experience with them.

xp
probably shouldn't do that either!

sometimes i get lazy and just say "christians", but i try to say "white evangelical" instead these days, because that's really what i'm talking about

it does seem inevitable that, if you grew up with any particular strain of Christianity, that is the default one for you. I grew up Catholic. It's my default, regardless of how little I go to church. Evangelicals are like some weird concept to me.

It seems with a lot of American white evangelicals, the politics/bigotry comes first, and then the cherry-pick arcane parts of the old testament to support those views... rather than focusing on the new testament and the teachings of jesus with all the tolerance, grace, transcendence, etc.

Funny how any critique of a religion must be true for every single member of that religion for it to be valid, but we can freely throw around critiques of conservatism that don't come close to applying to every conservative

It's almost like they're two separate things.

It seems with a lot of American white evangelicals, the politics/bigotry comes first

Yes, well ... see the history of the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention. The bigotry was the founding principle.

cherry-pick arcane parts of the old testament to support those views... rather than focusing on the new testament

OT: stone the gays
NT: but you don't have to keep kosher

"It's almost like they're two separate things."

It's almost like any two things that have ever been compared have been 2 separate things

yet people keep doing it for some reason

fwiw I had no problem with DJP pointing out the broadness of my statement, which did hyper-focus on Evangelicals a bit (mostly because they tend to be the major type I see that yoke-up with right-wing paranoia)

https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/5c4b4108a358ac6e49188fd5/master/w_1920,c_limit/roy-cohn-sundance-film-opener.png
(Roy Cohn and Donald Trump in a still from WHERE’S MY ROY COHN?)

“In private calls with voting rights groups and civil rights leaders, White House officials and close allies of the president have expressed confidence that it is possible to ‘out-organize voter suppression’” https://t.co/EBGD2o9wDR

— Liz Goodwin (@lizcgoodwin) July 23, 2021

thisisfine.jpg

Lol

https://www.newsweek.com/arizona-gop-audit-director-barred-recount-after-sharing-data-supporting-trump-loss-1612791

Minnesota

Woman with Trump flag pulled over by state troopers after driving across the State Capitol lawn, during pro-Thompson press conference. She’s shouting at troopers “I am a white woman! There is only one race!” pic.twitter.com/jY9iOGWGur

— John Croman (@JohnCroman) July 26, 2021

https://cdn02.nintendo-europe.com/media/images/10_share_images/games_15/nintendo_7/SI_N64_WaveRace64_image1600w.jpg

the heart and soul of the GOP

the new Trump diehard theory is that Joe Biden was repelled from entering 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue by "the military" on inauguration day and has been living in an 80% replica scale model of the White House on Tyler Perry's Atlanta estate. pic.twitter.com/uK7QUFRInl

— K. Thor Jensen (@kthorjensen) July 26, 2021

madea's family insurrection

Also average height of a Biden staffer is 3.5 inches shorter than a Trump staffer, so they can fit in the smaller White House.

a K Thor post is probably a joke btw

A joke is just a reality tweak that a Trumper hasn't thought to espouse yet.

It may be a joke, but the White House/Tyler Perry thing has been out there:

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/mar/17/facebook-posts/no-image-white-house-rose-garden-event-wasnt-taken/

I am troubled, because Biden (or someone resembling him) appeared at an event in my neighborhood two days ago. Then the streets were closed off and a presidential motorcade came through. Like, there were real helicopters and police motorcycles and limousines with flags on them.

Just goes to show the lengths the establishment will go to keep THE TRUTH from THE PEOPLE. It's astonishing.

And now the Tweet has been removed, by the lying fake news media, to cover up the real truth. Wake up, sheeple! Do your research!

Oh, it's back. Mysterious!

The cabal needed to delete some parts that were only on a need-to-know basis. Duh.

the p stands for pissboy fetch me a coozie https://t.co/dG9aum6iyq pic.twitter.com/AGMaKEc28M

— kilgore trout, terminal hiccups patient (@KT_So_It_Goes) July 27, 2021

Enjoying the collective lols at George P Bush, truly the Charles II of the Bush clan.

"i like ken paxton because he commits crimes while in office. reminds me of me!"

i like ken because we're going to murder people together! more than i would have with george p!

https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/5c4b4108a358ac6e49188fd5/master/w_1920,c_limit/roy-cohn-sundance-film-opener.png

wait, this is a picture of donald trump? (guy on the right) xps

looks like a fun party!

i believe so xp

i was watching Angels in America (still am, only on episode 3) and googling for Trump + Roy Cohn, and that pic came up in some article or another. must be real!!

yeah i found it on vanity fair. i think it is real. he and cohn were apparently close friends in addition to cohn being his lawyer. according to unnamed sources in numerous trump tell-all books, trump still misses cohn and unfavorably compares his lawyers to him. they are "weak" where he was "strong" and a "fighter."

their relationship is pretty fascinating. trump seems to have had very few actual friendships in his life, but one of them was with one of the worst people in american history.