[#wellduh]
What, really, is anyone to do with a lede like we get from Mandy Mayfield for the Washington Examiner?
The Jewish attorney who Roy Moore’s wife touted employing in an attempt to fight off claims of anti-Semitism is actually a longtime friend and supporter of Senator-elect Doug Jones, who defeated Moore last month.
When we shrug and say, “Of course he did!” what, really, does that mean?
#trumpswindle | #WhatTheyVotedFor
Chauncey DeVega inquires after a point close to the heart of the #trumpswindle:
What happens when Trump and the Republican Party are done feasting on the “white working class” and their other supporters? When the bones are picked clean, to whom will they turn for a meal? People of conscience know the answer even if it terrifies them.
If a budget is a kind of moral document and a statement of priorities, Trump has shown that he is an enemy of the American people and the common good—including his most stalwart supporters. If Trump is willing to betray them, all others should quake in fear at what he plans for his enemies in the process of “making America great again.”
The question echoes: To call for Main Street over Wall Street, why would anyone vote for Donald Trump? To call for empathy with the working classes, why would anyone vote for Donald Trump? To drain the swamp of entrenched interests, why would anyone vote for Donald Trump?
“One could write off Pence’s surprise at the RFRA-inspired boycott of his state as the natural result of a person who lives in a right-wing bubble. After all, even though he must have known about Indiana’s struggles, North Carolina governor Pat McCrory seemed similarly shocked by the national outcry over the infamous anti-trans ‘bathroom bill’ he signed into law earlier this year. A religious conservative like Pence, even one who worked in D.C. for better than a decade, could easily have been trapped in a bubble of epistemic closure.”
It seems a place to start. Gary Legum’s analysis of why Indiana Gov. Mike Pence would be a poor pick to run alongside Donald Trump certainly had its merits, though in truth we can speculate with reasonable confidence that selecting the Hoosier dullard will not, ultimately, be what sinks Republican presidential hopes. To the other, Gov. McCrory’s infamy has taken an even more compelling turn of late; Steve Benen offers three of the most uncomfortable paragraphs you might read this season:
The point is not to diminish the pain of the woman featured in the ad, who was the victim of a horrible crime. Rather, the point is the disconnect between what happened to Gina Little and the purpose of North Carolina’s anti-LGBT law.
Let’s not forget how we reached this point: city officials in Charlotte approved a broad anti-discrimination measure, which included protections for transgender North Carolinians, allowing people to use restrooms consistent with their gender identity. The Republican governor and state legislature took action soon after, undoing what Charlotte had done.
Five months later, McCrory’s re-election campaign is defending the policy by pointing to a woman who was molested as a child in her home by members of her own family.
This is a sentence that ought to thrill hearts: “America may be closer to a post-gay state of politics than most realize”. Alex Roarty’s report for Roll Call either begs certain questions or else desecrates them; matters of perspective abide.
The St. Jerome Fancy Farm Picnic is an annual showcase for Kentucky’s top politicians to give (they hope) a funny, sharp-elbowed speech at the other party’s expense. While they speak, hundreds of loud-mouthed partisans are encouraged to yell and scream as loudly as they can―as if the American political id was caged in a small pavilion two hours from a major airport.
“I want to introduce myself to Sen. McConnell,” he said, looking over to the Senate majority leader seated a few feet away, who minutes earlier had given his own speech. The Republicans, whose voices drowned out the sound of nearby thunder, chanted “Go away Gray!”
The candidate continued: “He earlier called me a ‘nobody.’ Well, let me introduce myself, senator. I am Jim Gray, and I am the guy who is going to beat Rand Paul.”
What went unnoticed this recent Saturday afternoon was that Gray was probably first openly gay person to speak at Fancy Farm. Records aren’t easy to come by for something that began in 1880, but veterans of the event say they can’t recall an openly gay speaker.
This is how Gray’s campaign has gone: He’s making history, and nobody seems to notice. Or, for that matter, care.
![Detail of cartoon by Mr. Fish, 11 May 2016 [modified].](https://bdthisis.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/mrfish-20160511-fecalmatter-detail-bw-mod.png?w=620&h=260)
With all due apologies to Mr. Fish. Via Clowncrack, 11 May 2016 .
It really is a nifty headline from HuffPo’s Queer Voices.
The detail:
The Obama administration on Friday told schools and colleges nationwide they must allow transgender students access to bathrooms consistent with their gender identity.
The Justice Department and the Education Department, in guidance directed at every American public school district, admonished educators to treat transgender students consistent with their gender identity, regardless of what sex is listed on student records.
The guidance, which cites the gender equity law Title IX, further injects the federal government into a heated debate over controversial anti-LGBT state legislation, including a North Carolina law that bars transgender students from bathrooms that don’t match their birth gender. The Justice Department on Monday filed a civil rights lawsuit against North Carolina.
“No student should ever have to go through the experience of feeling unwelcome at school or on a college campus,” Education Secretary John King Jr. said in a statement.
(Kingkade)
Meanwhile, apparently something goes here about Disney freaking out zealots, and, you know, it must absolutely suck to be a bigot these days. To swallow their prude pride and just carry on with life is a bitter load to face. Still, there are times when it is worth pointing out that some people spend too much effort worrying about other people’s intimate lives; and then there are such occasions we might point out that some people spend too much effort paying attention to Disney. What sort of cruel God―? Oh, sorry, wrong monologue.
Anyway, Disney aside, everyone say thank you.
Thank you, President Obama. Thank you, Secretary King.
____________________
Kingkade, Tyler. “Obama Administration Warns Schools To Allow Transgender Access To Bathrooms”. The Huffington Post. 13 May 2016.
Sieczkowski, Cavan. “Religious Right Is Losing Its Mind About ‘Frozen’s’ Elsa Possibly Being Gay”. The Huffington Post. 12 May 2016.
MEMORANDUM
To: Mike Huckabee
re: Civic leadership
So … Mike―
The two-time Republican presidential also-ran lashed out Erickson, again on Fox News, accusing the conservative of attempting “to blow up the Republican Party.”
“The message that’s coming across is the voters are stupid so we’ll figure out a way to make the decision for you because we don’t trust your decision,” Huckabee complained of Erickson’s anti-Trump effort.
(Tesfaye)
―you do realize, do you not, that sometimes that’s exactly what civic leaders are expected to do?
In our own American heritage we say the Constitution is not a suicide pact. In our human endeavor, we might simply say that civilized society is not a suicide pact. Observably, the Donald Trump phenomenon disdains either expression.
You know, to call Steve Deace a dick is insufficient; it’s too small a word, and not nearly a stiff enough insult.
Still, though: Full vagina?
And people can say what they will about one extreme voice, this, that, and the other, but what is the market calculation, here? Once upon a time this was the sort of thing that put political players on the naughty list, sent them to the penalty box to not be taken seriously at least for a while.
Who exactly is the king of Iowa conservative family values pitching to?
Here’s the thing about the Christian radio host backing Sen. Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign: He’s betting that misogyny sells in Iowa.
What are the chances he’s right?
____________________
Image notes: Top ― Iowa Christian talk radio host Steve Deace appears on msnbc in undated frame detail; background text via Twitter. Right ― Steve Deace message via Twitter explaining that Carly Fiorina went “full vagina” in her opening statement during a presidential debate, 15 December 2015.
Lerner, Kira. “Conservative Radio Host Says Carly Fiorina Went ‘Full Vagina’ In GOP Debate”. ThinkProgress. 15 December 2015.
If I tell you that the headline above Scott Eric Kaufman’s report for Salon yesterday reads, “Michele Bachmann: Refugees coming to America in order to commit ‘rape jihad’ against non-Muslim women and girls”, and would, unfortunately, seem a reasonably accurate description of the wisdom proffered by Our Lady Light Bulb, do any of us really need me to post the detail?
Or is this one of those occasions we can trust that you will click and read, or not, according to your inclination?
Because it really is sickening.
____________________
Image note: Detail of photo by J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo.
Kaufman, Scott Eric. “Michele Bachmann: Refugees coming to America in order to commit ‘rape jihad’ against non-Muslim women and girls”. Salon. 30 November 2015.
Per msnbc:
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has instructed local church leaders that same-sex couples are apostates and that children living with them can’t take part in church activities until they’re adults and leave home, the church told NBC News on Thursday night.
And, really, what can anyone say that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints did not just say for itself?
This is worth reminding: Never alienate the next generation.
No, really. Even if basic decency is too much to ask of Church leaders, one would expect them to at least be smart enough to not do to the future of their congregation what they just did.
____________________
Johnson, M. Alex and Tracy Connor. “Mormon Church bars children of same-sex couples from baptism, blessings”. msnbc. 6 November 2015.
This Is 