https://www.newschannel5.com/news/n...000-meant-for-child-burial-garden-he-wont-say Andy Ogles raised money for a memorial for dead babies and then kept the money.
No, really? Seriously? I'm shocked, I tell you shocked!! But at least he tried; you libs just burn them to make electricity!
/threadjack/ Earlier in the week, I was on another social media site when someone said the GOP‘s radicalization didn't begin with Trump but in the 1990s with Rush Limbaugh and the right-wing radio movement. I thought about it and off the top of my head I could think of: Dixie Democrats migrating into the GOP Barry Goldwater's southern strategy. HOesntly I feel this is not as relevant since Trump gave people the impression Newt Gingrich's Contract with America (early 1990s). Ronny Reagan - this is a big one and TBH the next 2 are pretty intertwined. The evangelicals embrace Reagan/GOP Roe v Wade The GOP certainly got a boost from having its own media ecosystem. Still, there was more that happened to create the current crop of GOP legislators of Gaetz, Foghorn Leghorn, MTG, Trey Gowdy, George Santos, Meatball, et. al. Does anyone have any other examples that shaped the GOP? Any other watershed moments that led to Trump and trump-acolyte politicians? /end threadjack/
IMO the respect of norms and basic decorum started its free fall during the Obama administration. That congressman (Wilson I think?) who shouted "you lie" during a SOTU seemed at the time to be a huge outlier. Now this is routine for MTG and Boebert and the rest of the lunatic caucus.
You should pick up some Rick Perlstein. I'm very slowly making my way the The Invisible Bridge. I've checked it out from the library, but now I think I'll just buy it. I want my daughters to read it in 10-15 years.
Buying it is a good idea. Who knows, in 10-15 years, your daughters might be living someplace where Perlstein books are banned from public libraries.
Read Democracy in Chains by Nancy MacLean* and/or Dark Money by Jane Mayer (or a host of other books). The John Birch Society in the 1950's. The real Big One was Brown v. Board of Education The Civil Rights Act *Yes, this book has garnered quite a bit of controversary, especially from (not surprisingly) Libertarians.
Engel v Vitale 1962 was also quite significant for conservative evangelical Christians. It was the decision that banned school-sponsored prayer. From that point on there has been a concerted movement to get God back into the classroom, including through creation science & intelligent design. This decision came one year after "The Genesis Flood" was published, which was the modern springboard for the creation science movement, given it attempted to use science (specifically hydrogeology) to scientifically justify their belief in a young earth.
Excellent point and, again, it came right between with with Brown v. Board (1954) and the Civil Rights Act (1964) (not to mention Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)) to "convince" white, conservative, evangelical Christians that the "world" was turning "against them," since they were no longer the sole masters of America and that other people had rights. Also, Engel v. Vitale is one of the shortest US Supreme Court decisions and a pretty good read. I have it in my Introduction to Legal Studies course, as an introduction to reading a Supreme Court case. Might as well "indoctrinate" the students from the beginning!
F-ing tool This video of Rudy Giuliani humiliating himself for a few hundred bucks on Cameo is the culmination of such a profound public debasement. The attention economy has revealed so many political figures to just be attention-seeking grifters. (h/t @KFILE ) pic.twitter.com/aro07ho8rd— Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) March 17, 2023
As an adjunct to the US centric analysis, i'd also recommend this excellent piece by Jeremy Cliffe on the strange death of moderate conservatism. Something Cliffe touches on is the incoherence of the conservative coalition. Compare that to liberals where since 2018, they came up with an entirely new framework on climate, got all the stakeholders aligned, and actually passed it! The death of moderate conservatism (the dominant gene) ceded the field to the recessive gene in this theory and you can see that in multiple countries - especially in the UK where the Tory party is hopelessly broken between supposed moderates like Sunak and the crazies like Boris, Truss, Braverman etc https://www.newstatesman.com/podcas...ath-of-moderate-conservatism-audio-long-reads
I'd also recommend Dan Pfeiffer's latest book on this topic. Conservative interests have built themselves an entire media ecosystem which extends far beyond Fox.
Am I misremembering or wasn’t one of the concessions McCarthy had to make was that any individual could force a vote to remove him as speaker. What I don’t know was that just caucus members, or the house as a whole? If it’s the latter….Dems need to force a vote over this… It can’t be overstated how dangerous this Tweet is. It’s the Speaker of the House completely disregarding the three INDEPENDENT branches of government—A declaration of war. This is VERY DIFFERENT than individual members of Congress supporting Trump. A watershed moment IMO. pic.twitter.com/PghVkPIsMW— Geoff 🗽🇺🇸⚖️🏳️🌈🗽 (@GeoffBrown82) March 18, 2023 They also need, if they can, to try to force a vote for removal of anyone else (MTG) who is doing this type of shit. First….because this is extremely dangerous. Second, because it will force these so called moderates to pick a side between democracy or this shit. I know the overwhelming majority of GOP reps will toe the line…. But perhaps some, when given the opportunity to jump off the train before the point of no return, may choose that path. I’m probably being hopelessly naive here…but I fear J6 is child’s play compared to the political violence and domestic terrorism we have coming to us in the next few years.
No. Speaker is a Constitutional office. But there’s no point in the Dems calling for a vote because the GOPs would just outvote them. The time to do that would be where they might win, for example, if McCarthy tries to force a default.
BITD with shame and consequences still a thing, it might've helped Carter were it revealed that Team B Actor was using imprisoned American citizens as pawns in a US election. Ronnie was likely going to win anyhow. But the ratf-ing just years after Watergate is so on brand for modern Republicanism. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-n...-sabotaged-jimmy-carters-re-election-telling/
https://news.gallup.com/poll/110548/gallup-presidential-election-trial-heat-trends.aspx Here’s an interesting counter factual…there’s a hostage deal, Carter wins, then Bush Sr. wins as his own man in 1984. Would that have staved off the people under the stairs?
Another counterfactual: Operation Eagle Claw is a success and Jimmy Carter is placed on Mount Rushmore.
Whether it's Ronald Reagan backchanneling Iran to keep American hostages locked up for political gain, or Barack Obama secretly negotiating with Tehran to prevent nuclear war that could end life on planet Earth, both sides have been guilty of sneaking around with the Ayatollahs.— New York Times Pitchbot (@DougJBalloon) March 19, 2023
Right, when the hostages didn’t come home. When they hadn’t yet come home or not come home, it was tight. I posted that in the tweet thread.