Hadn't planned to post anything before the new year, but there were a few interesting things to clear off my Firefox tabs:
Just Above Sunset has an interesting rundown of a possible impending schism among evilangelicals. All I can add is that I hope he's right, and that we should all be rooting for injuries. I don't want to hear any wishy-washy bullshit about "crises of faith" or any of that nonsense -- either they're on board with this fucking monster, or they understand that he's simply using their faith for his own ends. Like, you know, Saaayyyyy-tn (ay-tn ay-tn ay-tn)?
They can lie to themselves and each other all they want, the rest of us aren't having any of it. The choice before them is simple and clear: follow Jesus or follow Trump. There is no way to do both, and they know it, no matter how much they try to deny it. Grind their hateful bullshit out of politics for good, and then make the shitbag megachurch grifters pay their fucking taxes. Hell, make them pay back taxes. If they own a Gulfstream, they can throw a few shekels to the least among us, like that one guy said a long time ago.
I really don't think a word exists in the English language to describe just how very much I despise the televangelist scum, and I'm not terribly fond of the willing dupes who listen to them either. They're not beneath contempt, they are worth every dram of pure contempt you can spare. The next time they start living the teachings of Jesus will be the first time.
***
When I first heard about the now-notorious Olivia Nuzzi profile of Judy Ghouliani in New York magazine, the initial reaction was a predictable, Christ, when will these morons stop giving this traitor a national soapbox? But Nuzzi is a sharp writer, and her details on this doddering boozehound are devastating. As always, if there's any good to be found in this endless hogshit-lagoon of corruption, it's that competent, ethical people long ago saw Trump for what he was, and so all but the most craven and opportunistic of slimeballs have declined to be his bagmen.
And it's not a joke or an exaggeration: Rudolph William Giuliani is as close to the conventional definition of a traitor as you are likely to find outside #MoscowMitch or #LeningradLindsey. Giuliani is a disgusting, utterly amoral dirtbag who is openly undermining this country's national security interests, to line his own pockets and to distribute propaganda. Journalists need to start treating him accordingly, instead of just inviting him on to take a huge dump on their studio carpet, and then spend the next several episodes smearing it into the carpet while trying to clean it up.
***
Finally, here's another interesting New York profile, this one a photo essay on the growing number of white nationalist crews popping up all over the country. It's an interesting read, although it tends to be underpinned with the false assumptions about "blue states" or states outside the south and Jesusland. I don't know why journos tend (or pretend) to cling to that mythology; pretty much everyone in the country knows already that exurban America, no matter what state, is culturally very different than in the cities.
This is driven very heavily by the reversals of fortune that those areas have suffered since, well, Saint Reagan deregulated everything. Financial crooks, freed from the constraints of borders and accountability, financialized every little thing, sold junk bonds over it, outsourced the manufacturing to some child-labor craphole, and turned around and sold the goods to a generation of unemployed dopes who blamed Meskins for their lives of futility.
It's not difficult to piece together if you just follow the bouncing ball, but for some folks it's easier apparently to commiserate with fellow dropouts, and maybe run a fake Touched by a Predator sting if you're really bored. I'll be damned if I know what you do with these people; their job prospects are limited, what with their bad attitudes, ninth-grade educations, prison records, and um, swastika tattoos. But while there is a component of "economic anxiety" that plays a causal role in all this, the bottom line is that these are just not good people.
I would support a gubmint "gang rehab" type program to help them complete or extend their education, get them competitive in the job market, remove the gang tattoos, and whatever else they might need to get straight. But I bet fewer than half would do it. I don't worry too much about these guys as far as large-scale mayhem; the numbers really don't seem to be there. But that doesn't mean we should ignore them either. It doesn't take that many to become a real problem. They're not ankle-biters, they're smart, organized, and genuinely dangerous.
Just Above Sunset has an interesting rundown of a possible impending schism among evilangelicals. All I can add is that I hope he's right, and that we should all be rooting for injuries. I don't want to hear any wishy-washy bullshit about "crises of faith" or any of that nonsense -- either they're on board with this fucking monster, or they understand that he's simply using their faith for his own ends. Like, you know, Saaayyyyy-tn (ay-tn ay-tn ay-tn)?
They can lie to themselves and each other all they want, the rest of us aren't having any of it. The choice before them is simple and clear: follow Jesus or follow Trump. There is no way to do both, and they know it, no matter how much they try to deny it. Grind their hateful bullshit out of politics for good, and then make the shitbag megachurch grifters pay their fucking taxes. Hell, make them pay back taxes. If they own a Gulfstream, they can throw a few shekels to the least among us, like that one guy said a long time ago.
I really don't think a word exists in the English language to describe just how very much I despise the televangelist scum, and I'm not terribly fond of the willing dupes who listen to them either. They're not beneath contempt, they are worth every dram of pure contempt you can spare. The next time they start living the teachings of Jesus will be the first time.
***
When I first heard about the now-notorious Olivia Nuzzi profile of Judy Ghouliani in New York magazine, the initial reaction was a predictable, Christ, when will these morons stop giving this traitor a national soapbox? But Nuzzi is a sharp writer, and her details on this doddering boozehound are devastating. As always, if there's any good to be found in this endless hogshit-lagoon of corruption, it's that competent, ethical people long ago saw Trump for what he was, and so all but the most craven and opportunistic of slimeballs have declined to be his bagmen.
And it's not a joke or an exaggeration: Rudolph William Giuliani is as close to the conventional definition of a traitor as you are likely to find outside #MoscowMitch or #LeningradLindsey. Giuliani is a disgusting, utterly amoral dirtbag who is openly undermining this country's national security interests, to line his own pockets and to distribute propaganda. Journalists need to start treating him accordingly, instead of just inviting him on to take a huge dump on their studio carpet, and then spend the next several episodes smearing it into the carpet while trying to clean it up.
***
Finally, here's another interesting New York profile, this one a photo essay on the growing number of white nationalist crews popping up all over the country. It's an interesting read, although it tends to be underpinned with the false assumptions about "blue states" or states outside the south and Jesusland. I don't know why journos tend (or pretend) to cling to that mythology; pretty much everyone in the country knows already that exurban America, no matter what state, is culturally very different than in the cities.
This is driven very heavily by the reversals of fortune that those areas have suffered since, well, Saint Reagan deregulated everything. Financial crooks, freed from the constraints of borders and accountability, financialized every little thing, sold junk bonds over it, outsourced the manufacturing to some child-labor craphole, and turned around and sold the goods to a generation of unemployed dopes who blamed Meskins for their lives of futility.
It's not difficult to piece together if you just follow the bouncing ball, but for some folks it's easier apparently to commiserate with fellow dropouts, and maybe run a fake Touched by a Predator sting if you're really bored. I'll be damned if I know what you do with these people; their job prospects are limited, what with their bad attitudes, ninth-grade educations, prison records, and um, swastika tattoos. But while there is a component of "economic anxiety" that plays a causal role in all this, the bottom line is that these are just not good people.
I would support a gubmint "gang rehab" type program to help them complete or extend their education, get them competitive in the job market, remove the gang tattoos, and whatever else they might need to get straight. But I bet fewer than half would do it. I don't worry too much about these guys as far as large-scale mayhem; the numbers really don't seem to be there. But that doesn't mean we should ignore them either. It doesn't take that many to become a real problem. They're not ankle-biters, they're smart, organized, and genuinely dangerous.
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