ROTFLMFAHS!!! Triggered much!?

No, I think it’s disgusting the way Republicans groom and indoctrinate kids with intolerance and intentional ignorance.

As noted above, you do not know what the word “indoctrination” means.

Republicans want to eradicate any diversity in thought or action that doesn’t fit their tiny narrow mindset. Republicans want a world where children are taught early on that only cisgender white men are capable of leadership or honest success, and all others are peons or untouchables. That’s indoctrination.
Removing or hiding any diversity to force one “proper” whitewashed syllabus on all students is indoctrination.
Teaching religion or religious morals and ethics is indoctrination.

Teaching diversity is the opposite of indoctrination.

If you want your children to have most knowledge kept from them, to be indoctrinated with ignorance and intolerance, go ahead and send them to school in Afghanistan where your ideas are accepted, and stop trying to turn America into another failed theocracy.

If your ethics and morals are threatened by diversity, they are weak or non existent.
If your world viewpoint is threatened by knowledge, it is ignorant and immature.

If you want to make a real dent in child molestation, close religious schools and pull all Republican teachers who are more than twice as likely to be abusers than the general population, and keep getting caught doing it WHILE whining incessantly about “groomers”.

One more, who is Mark Foley, bob. Why do you know that name? It’s because he was caught molesting 16 year old male congressional pages for YEARS, with many many witnesses and proof, proof the Republican led congress hid and destroyed to shield him from prosecution for child porn. He is still a big wig in your party, still courted by your leaders (much like Epstein), still accepting massive donations from this serial child molester, still wining and dining him and begging for his support. Why? Because so many of them are also child molesters, more caught every week.
Republicans LOVE child molesters and vote for them constantly, almost never voting them out “just because they touched some children” or just because they “covered up for others touching and penetrating multiple children in their care for years allowing the abuse to escalate to hundreds of young victims.” (Jordan).

Remember, it’s a fact that every accusation you make is an admission….we all see it. Your whining about “indoctrination” is, like every complaint, simply more of your own self loathing. There are better ways to deal with that you might have been taught if only your school had been allowed to teach you.

Today MAGA decided to block a veterans suicide hotline by flooding it with calls demanding Jan 6 convicts be released and any that are vets should have their benefits reinstated (insurrectionists that tried to overthrow the government lost their government benefits).
Over 20 vets commit suicide daily. Dozens or more are saved by the VA suicide hotline daily. MAGA was more than happy to see those veterans die for this ill conceived defense of treason.
Not just anti American and anti military, also inhumanely and cowardly targeting suicidal veterans who have nothing to do with imprisoning insurrectionist terrorists.

More death, destruction, and debauchery daily….only from MAGA, the party of human trafficking, treason, and snowflake babies that can’t accept a loss. ROEVEMBER is going to be hard for you.

Thanks to the few honest Republicans who said clearly if they get power abortion will be banned nationwide without exceptions, and contraception, and gay marriage, and interracial marriage, and whatever else they decide they don’t like other people having the right to do….so marijuana will be a felony and blue laws returning. Also thanks to Greene for admitting her ilk want to become a theocracy.

Mark McCloskey, remember him? The terrified snowflake that pulled out guns and threatened peaceful marchers in the street walking past his house? Now running for senator, guess which party. Only one party thinks menacing peaceful protesters with death is something to applaud.
Well, he’s in trouble for claiming to be endorsed by Vanilla Ice and Yang Yang Twins (because of course he isn’t).

This you guy? This yor best? Thuggish violent liars prepared to say or do anything for power. It’s all the right has left.

How you liking Cruz showing off how anti military the right is by celebrating withholding earned medical benefits out of pure spite on the senate floor? Their “excuse” is utter nonsense lies, claiming that the bill was once discretionary spending (meaning at the whim of the current president) and has been CHANGED to mandatory spending. It’s a lie, not one word changed since they voted FOR it in June.
https://videosift.com/video/Jon-8482-s-Response-To-Ted-Cruz-8482-s-PACT-Act-Lies

How about Trump chumming up to the Saudi Royal family, now saying no one knows if they were involved in 9/11 (he had no doubts in 2016 whatsoever, but now they’ve invested hundreds of millions into Trump companies). He was outraged Obama didn’t release the classified 9/11 report, then when he had the secret report detailing their involvement Trump kept it secret (for favors and investments), Biden released it and Trump now pretends he’s never heard of it, doesn’t know if the Saudis are involved, protects them when they murder Americans, and is more than apply to help them try to destroy an American sports league miles from where the towers once stood. Must make you so proud as a patriot.

Fascism, theocracy, and anti Americanism has actually become the Republican Party platform. Only the TrueType totally insane could possibly see their actions, support them, and still think themselves as American patriots. History will judge you harshly, your families will too. Your legacy is treason.

Just to rub it in how much more competent Biden is, today ended the reign of al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri with no civilian casualties, something Trump promised and completely failed to do…so badly he gave up and agreed to surrender Afghanistan unconditionally.

Just to show how anti American and pro terrorist the right is, your talking heads like Carlson are trying to spin the killing of the mastermind of 9/11 as a bad thing that somehow makes us less safe, and are trying to blame Biden for Russia attacking Crimea and Ukraine.

Trump hosts the sponsors of 9/11 while Biden eliminates the perpetrators. Thanks Biden.

BTW, that’s the same dismissive, ignorant, just deny the issue stupidity you tried on the 10 year old rape victim that had to cross state lines to save her own life from the rapist’s spawn growing inside her tiny body.
That didn’t turn out well for your disgusting lying fascist side that’s legislating their (im)morals onto everyone.

Just like then, this is EXACTLY what Texas law is, except for the phone call, because Greg already pre-decided….no abortion is necessary for anyone ever…no exceptions. 9 year old girl raped by dad with a brainless Cronenberg growing inside them, killing them in the process…no abortion. Not if she was raped by satan in an involuntary blood orgy and has the antichrist inside her…she still must carry it to full term.

These are the same people who are trying to turn America into a born again Christian theocracy, want public funds for religious schools (only Christian schools though) who absolutely do not understand this country, freedom, or self determination, or the ban on government respecting an establishment of religion. (Hint, it means 1. there can be no official religion and 2. there can be no law that gives precedent or special treatment to any religion).
This is your team. I’m sure, if Ilhan Oman tried the exact same thing (but with Islam) you would be prepared to burn mosques and madrasas across the nation and deport all Muslims just from the suggestion.

Newt,

This is in response to your comment on my statement about Biden needing to lose in '20.

I recently wrote this as a reply to one of my readers (I write under a number of different names in other places).:

Dear <name>,

>I took some time to absorb what you wrote. It's a lot to juggle. The Atlantic has an article in the July-August issue on the worst and best case scenario in CLO defaults. I'll read more.

I read the article you mentioned, and while it's certainly good, it also misses a very important point that explains the mess we're in: the collapse of Lehman and Bear-Stearns, while catastrophic in their own ways, were not the nightmare that caused the Fed to freak out in 2008 -- AIG was. Had AIG gone under and the counterparty default contracts triggered, we'd be on the barter system right now. We came within hours of not having an economy in the western world. The $700b ($.7t) the Fed coughed up to stop this from happening calmed the panic, but did nothing to resolve the underlying issues. These issues continued to compound during the 2011-2020 stock run-up and now we're at the point where the Fed is throwing trillions of dollars at every piece of bad debt they can find just to keep the whole thing from imploding into an economic black hole. It is important to note that in September '19, the credit markets started freezing because of the debt that was already on the books then, -before- CV-19 started rolling, and it took $3t just to get them unlocked again. Absolutely nothing has gotten better since then, and I would argue things have gotten dangerously worse.

In an odd coincidence, the NYT ran an article today about the looming bankruptcy crisis. They're calling for 30-60 days before things start imploding, but I'll stick to my estimate of ~90 days. There's some talk about extending the $600 benefits (we'll see) and chatter about another stimulus check, but that's kicking the can as well as telegraphing how bad things really are. When the Republicans are getting behind free money, you know we're in some uncharted territory. For all intents and purposes, Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) -- the reason the Fed is backstopping debt and printing money like crazy -- is the hill the US economy will live or die on. Should the US dollar come unpegged as the world's de facto currency or should inflation begin (and there's already worrying signs this is happening), that's game over.

Please don't take anything I say as the Word of God; please do your own research and come to your own conclusions. Everything I've said is an opinion based on my education, experience and way of thinking. Your mileage may vary.

Here is the article I mentioned: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/18/business/corporate-bankruptcy-coronavirus.html -- might be paywalled, but clear your cookies for the NYT and you should be able to read it.


>Frankly, it's the physical danger in my area of the States that concerns me. There are the guns and bullying. During some BLM demonstrations in the Midwest, locals were standing around with semi-automatics. I drive a Prius for the fuel efficiency. Pick up trucks enjoy tailgating, trying to intimidate me. This behavior isn't going to change with a change of President but will get worse is we don't change. This ideological push to takeover the country instead of ruling by compromise started around the same time we came to the US in 1981, Reagan's first year. I was so shocked when I heard talk radio for the first time; this wasn't the country I had left in the 1970s.


And now we come to the giant pile of sweaty dynamite that's just waiting for the right shock to set it off. I could give you a prolonged lecture about how this all started in 1978 with California's Proposition 13, or how David Stockman's tragically prescient warnings were blatantly ignored, but Haynes Johnson does a far better job at this than I ever could in his 1991 book "Sleepwalking Through History", as does Kevin Phillips in 2006's "American Theocracy". Honestly, at this point, the prelude is academic. The reality of the situation is that a large swath of adult Americans are appalling ill-educated, innumerate and devoid of even the most basic critical-thinking skills. These people are now locked out of the Information Economy. They lack the most basic skills required to compete in the 21st century job market and thus will watch their standard of living sink into the abyss. These people are not blind to this fact because they're living with the reality of their situation every single day. They're totally without hope, cut off from all avenues of control over their own lives and they feel utterly abandoned by the very people who're supposed to be helping them. The reason you're seeing bullying and behavior like that is because these same people are totally removed from any avenues of recourse and the only people they can take their anger out on are people like you and me. Their anger is being stoked on a daily basis. FOX News and the GOP are experts at this and have a host of boogeymen to keep the anger from being pointed their way: ANTIFA, BLM (black Americans have always made a perfect target), "coastal elites" and, of course, Liberals.

Trump's election was a warning, not an outlier. Trump was the primal scream of these people and Liberals and the Democrats as a whole chose not to listen because they found the sound so abhorrent. The rage will only get worse and the number of people enveloped by this rage will only grow as economic conditions worsen. At this point, it no longer matters who wins in '20. Winning the election will be like winning the deed to the World Trade Center one second after the first jet hit. The damage has already been done and no steps are being taken to repair it; if anything, people are actively making it worse either through ideological blindness, deliberate malfeasance or outright stupidity. It took almost 50 years to get to this point and the endemic issues will not be undone in a single generation, much less a single election. Until the people who voted for Trump feel a sense of real hope, a sense of control over their lives and a genuine expectation of recourse for their grievances, they will keep right on voting for Trump, or people like him.

My unfortunate suspicion is that this country will rip itself to shreds long before those reforms are enacted.

Side note: the fundamental difference between the United States and Europe is that European history has forced the nations of Europe to live with the consequences of their actions. Not so the United States. Europe has suffered for her sins. Not so the United States. The two bloodiest wars in human history were fought on European soil. Not so the United States. The United States has never faced true suffering, nor has it ever had to live with the ramifications of its own actions. Both these facts are about to change and a nation whose character is built on a mythology of individual action and violence is going to have to face reality. The people of this nation are not prepared for this and they will not like it.

Second side note: many people are erroneously comparing the current situation to the Wiemar Republic. This is a lack of historical understanding. A more apt comparison would be to Spain in late 1935.


>As for re-opening, we could have gotten some control if the "leader" had simply donned a mask and used realistic thinking. People could go back to work more safely, wash hands, stay a certain distance. But his hubris led the way, so now we'll have a roller coaster for months and years that will affect the economy even more. France is a good comparison because they were unprepared also, having slashed the public healthcare budget for the last twenty years. But when they laid down the rules, troops patrolled the streets to be sure they were followed. So far, they've flattened the curve (for now), and used different economic incentives, such as paying part of employees' salaries to keep them employed.

At this point, the pace of re-opening is a difference between very bad and much worse. Had $3t been used to pay the yearly salary of every American, we could have saved lives and the economy, but we didn't. The history of 2020 will be littered with "what-ifs". However, the first thing you learn when studying history is that what-ifs are useless because things are what they are and you can't change that. It's already obvious we're going into a second wave. If previous pandemics are any indication of what's to come, this second wave will be many times worse than the first. The wait for a vaccine is indeterminate, but if we're going for herd immunity, ~70% of Americans will need to catch the virus. To date, ~1.5% have. If the US population is ~330 million, ~230 million will need to catch the virus. Call the mortality rate 2%, that means ~4.6 million Americans will die. That's a lot of dead Americans and grieving families.

Take care,

(my actual name)

Steve Schmidt and Kevin Philips both piss me the hell off.

Both are directly responsible for the dissolution of rational discourse in American politics. Both have done incalculable -- and perhaps irreversible -- damage to America's democracy. Both said damn the consequences when they were conniving to force their toxic ideology on the American people.

Now they both have religion when everything's gone to shit.

To their credits, both have tried to atone for their sins -- Phillips with his book "American Theocracy"; Schmidt with his renunciation of the GOP and everything it stands for -- but the damage has already been done.

Phillips and Schmidt are both incredibly intelligent men and as such, they should have known better. That they're trying trying to clean up their mess is laudable, but that they made it in the first place -- and fucked all of us in making it -- is utterly galling.

RICO will never be used against churches. Kavanaugh's appointment means more and more power handed to churches so long as they are Christian. We are heading to a theocracy, and it'll get worse. Kavanaugh doesn't believe in the separation of church and state, at least keeping the church out of the state and believes in the privilege of the church. Gay rights will go out the door. Give them time to replace one more justice on the court, and it may even become a crime. Kavanaugh believes that neutrality between faith and non-faith matters is in fact hostility against the faith.

Probably? Try 100%. The scary thing is his supporters, the entire evangelical Christians, will walk lock and step with him all the way. They are 100% guaranteed to turn out in force in November 2018, so no Blue Wave, and they are guaranteed to show up in 2020 as well. He has 35% of the voting population that will support everything he ever does. Like he said, he could shoot somebody on live TV and wouldn't lose a vote. He's giving them everything they ever wanted. Everything. We'll be in a theocracy by the time his two terms are up, and then he may become President for life. And yet the liberals keep thinking that sooner or later, he'll trip up... he tries to order the Post Office to increase their rates specifically to Amazon because it's founder owns a newspaper that has said bad things about him, and now has ordered the Justice Department to carry an investigation into his political enemies. He doesn't understand the divisions and separation of power, he thinks being President is like being an owner and CEO of a major company. And the GOP will never do anything to stop him, again because he's got that 35% that is 100% guaranteed to follow him no matter what. He could appear on TV and say "I'm doing everything I can to undo that niger Obama's Presidency... and we all know there's a difference between a black person, like my friend Kanye, and a nigger like Obama" and they'd just say something like they don't share his opinion, but do nothing... he could follow through with his threat to shoot somebody, and they wouldn't care. There can be no overstating the dangers democracy is in right now in the country, that's how bad it is...

@newtboy
gonna have to disagree with ya there mate.

not so much on the speculation in regards to trump involvement,or some kind of capitulation with russia.there quite possibly be some co-ordination between the kremlin and the trump administration.trumps alleged ties with putin may all be true,but until i see some actual evidence,that is all it will ever be;speculation.

and i think chomsky's criticism is a valid one.
the "russia russia russia" drum beating is reminiscent of the republicans and their meth-induced media barrage of "benghazi benghazi benghazi",and even after their precious political whipping tool had been debunked,they STILL beat that drum.

and of course it is hypocritical of the US government to cry about political election interference! america has been interfering with other,sovereign countries democratic elections for decades!

because here in murica' we like our allies to be either be run by despotic leaders,or rigid theocracies,because democracies are hard to manipulate and control.can't be bribing an entire citizenry now can we? we like our foreign allies like we like our meat,juicy and tender and easy pickings.

now i am not here to defend putin.the man is a brutal authoritarian,who may appear to some as a russian patriot,but i just see a ruthless and saavy political player who appeases the only constituency that matters to him.the russian oligarchs,and they OWN that fucking joint.

but it was NATO who began to encroach on russian borders,not the other way around.in fact,as early as the 80's we began that encroachment.we lied to gorbachev,who was removed as president in shame,to be replaced by yeltsin.who was america's pick for their own little tool of the kremlin.

russia's military build-up has been a direct response to our ever-increasing wars of aggression in the middle east.putin has stated so publicly.

russia's biggest export is oil and natural gas,and russia pretty much is the sole provider for all of europe.with our wars in the middle east,and now qatar aggressively seeking to push through their own oil and gas pipeline to sell to europe.(what?you thought yemen and syria were about civil wars and terrorists?).

what did you THINK russia was going to do?
sit back and let their only major export be challenged?

and now that trump,like the buffoon he is,publicly stated that if the baltic states are not willing to pay their fair share towards NATO,then they will be removed.opening the door for putin.

poor latvia...

but lets waste all this time on "russia russia russia",while ignoring the larger implications of a fucking world war.

did russia manipulate US elections?
possibly..probably..
was the trump administration complicit?
possibly..probably..

is their any evidence beside speculation,and coincidence?
nope.

chomsky makes a valid point.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-shifrinson-russia-us-nato-deal--20160530-snap-story.html

If the media had more of this kind of stuff in the past few decades instead of sensationalist or partisan bullshit, we wouldn't be in a position to need it.

It's easy to call media fake - a lot of it has been for a very long time. We who watch and discuss politics videos here would be celebrating Sanders if he was on TV right now talking about how biased a lot of media was.

The left and the right have a lot that makes them different but essentially they want the same things - security, happiness, prosperity. They disagree on how to get those things and that's all ok, but we agree to a level playing field so that things like Hitler, Trump, etc. can't happen. The playing field has to be level for everyone or people get angry. When people get angry under a theocracy or dictatorship they revolt. When people get angry under democracy, they vote for populists.

We need to hope that the playing field can be levelled again. People aren't happy with a rigged system - crony capitalism, profits before people, corporate welfare, tax dodging...

You know how people were saying it should have been Bernie vs. Trump? Well, that's because ordinary people on the left and right saw unfairness everywhere.

The left weren't going to seriously mobilise for a wishy washy weathervane like Clinton. But the angry right had their ideal candidate and they DID seriously mobilise. The kind of mobilisation that has teeth? You only get that when people believe they've got the right guy.

In my opinion, an Ocean's Eleven style heist occurred some time ago involving, basically, businessmen. People who wanted money. The best way to make money was to be involved in politics. So some businessmen joined political parties, or donated money to them and demanded a few favours. A few politicians think, hey i could use some extra money, and make a few promises. This goes on for long, eventually business and politics become the same thing and policies are designed around business and profit.

People aren't happy, the system is rigged. Trump is the immediate problem, but concessions must be made by those with money and power or another Trump will happen. He is a symptom not the cause. Desperate people place desperate votes.

@worm
ha! touche'

i come from a different perspective.
i am the dude sitting on the bench watching the ultra left and ultra right collectively pee themselves,but over such inane,and partisan of political perfunctory reasons.

the ultra left are a gaggle of cry-babies who see racism,sexism and misogyny everywhere,and they openly seek to shut down conversations and discussions by accusation of the very thing they are supposedly fighting for.

the ultra right..however...

are equally detestable in their faux hyper-nationalism,super patriotism authoritarianism.jesus came to earth so you could drive a beamer...but ONLY if your american.

who wet their wee panties at even the slightest thought of a brown person coming to take away their god given right to be a gun toting,cheetos flavored,ignorant twat.

they just LOVE to take credit for accomplishments that they never had a part in,nor had the balls to even attempt.

i am ex-military,and every right winger..and i mean EVERY right winger i know..never served a day.

so i get your point mate.
it is rather hilarious in an existential way,how both the right and left and so unabashedly unaware of their own hypocrisy.

the ultra left have chosen to fight racism,sexism and misogyny by..../drum roll....

shutting down free speech by not only calling everyone who disagrees a :racist,sexist and misogynist,but by also attempting to legislate the very language we use...you know..to communicate.

whereas the ultra right have become such boot lickers due to their own xenophobic fears of everything:different,other and strange that they literally piss themselves at even the mention of brown people,and appear to be willing to sacrifice every civil right,just so they can feel "safe".

they hide behind the flag and hyper-patriotism but thats all bullshit...they are simply trying to hide the pee stains on their camos.they hate brown people with the same viciousness that they hate the godless liberals.

they band together under the banner of jesus,god and country and state..quite loudly..that they will FIGHT sharia law in america.

while seemingly noble,it belies the fact that nobody is trying to impose sharia law in the USA,but holy jesus on a fuck stick,do they drool over the thought of having a "christian" nation,with "christian" values and "christian" laws.

so DOWN with sharia law (which there is no evidence)
and UP with christian theocracy! (which there is AMPLE evidence of).

the hyper ultra political extensions have taken control of my countries political discussion.

a gaggle of bed wetting cry-babies who dominate this hyper-partisan narrative.

and i am just sitting over here laughing my ass off at the almost surreal absurdity of what has become of my nation.

if you still think the fight is between liberal vs conservative,then i submit you have not been paying attention.

you been taken.
you been had.
you have been sold a bill of bullshit goods that has more place on a daily soap opera than in our political discussion.

the simple fact is this:
liberals WON the moral argument,but they never got the memo.
and the conservatives forgot who they were and sought solace in the arms of a corporate jesus with the face of joel olsteen.

my country has now entered the stage of farce.
we are a fucking joke.

but feel free to keep on poking liberals..

and liberals..

keep on poking conservatives.

and i shall sit here feeding the pidgeons laughing my ass off at both of you.

Yeah, keep changing the topic and ignoring my statements.
Ours is not a pure secular democracy, even though it was intended to be one, so not as different from a theocracy as you suggest by far. (that does not mean there's no difference, it means you imply they are near opposites) Perhaps if the clear intent of the founders was the rule, we would be, but it's not.

Try having a religious discussion in the deep south as an atheist and see if you don't feel at risk for your life. In public, maybe surviveable, but get religious people together where they feel 'safe', you'll see the bile and vitriol for the 'other' come out in spades. Hitchens knew full well it was not gone, and that the 'other' was not safe, and that religion doesn't always wear the smiley face even today.
Bye.

Good thing Bernie is not campaigning for any of that. You're not arguing against any of Bernie's policies or what he can realistically accomplish; You're arguing against some imaginary McCarthy era socialist dystopia.

Your straw man attack is basically the equivalent of someone arguing against Ted Cruz because he will turn America into a nightmare medieval Christian theocracy.

If I believed it would have that effect, I could support that.
Unfortunately, I don't believe Americans would ever get off our swollen asses, turn off our TVs, and actually DO SOMETHING PRODUCTIVE, even while our country disintegrates around us.
And even if we could manage it, we are so fractured as a society, the end result at best would be somewhere between 4 and 50 new countries, most of them with despotic leaders and draconian theocracies, and all born from a devastating civil war. There no way in hell we could manage to have a revolution that ends with a single, unified country.

In reality, what's more likely to happen if he's elected is a few large protests that get broken up violently with many protesters 'disappearing', new harsh anti-protesting laws, and President for Life Trump will become the richest man in the world while we become a third world country, bringing the world economy into the toilet with us, which is what the Economist warned against when they just listed him in the top 15 most pressing dangers to the world, ranking a Trump presidency just as dangerous to the planet as fundamentalist terrorism.