monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

@layman,

Another timely quote that tells us more about what kind of man Buckley was: When he argued that Martin Luther King's assassin was likely just following King's own teachings:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DTlxAS9XcAEzaNJ.jpg

3 Replies

@blatham,

blatham wrote:

Quote:
Democrats pulled off a shocking upset to win a rural Wisconsin state Senate seat Tuesday night, triggering alarm bells for Republicans across the state and nation.

Democrat Patty Schachtner defeated a well-known local Republican in a district that President Trump had carried by a whopping 55 percent to 38 percent just over a year ago.

Wisconsin Republicans sounded the alarm about what the results could mean, including that Gov. Scott Walker (R), who faces reelection next fall, suddenly looks considerably more vulnerable than he did one day ago.

Quote:
@ScottWalker
Senate District 10 special election win by a Democrat is a wake up call for Republicans in Wisconsin.
TPM

It's not difficult to see why the Koch brothers' network (arguably now at the center of GOP power) are going to have very good reasons to get rid of Trump and do so without too much delay.

This CAN'T be real news. The democrats haven't even started fawning and crowing about how great all the Bernie Sanders supporters are yet. They haven't even shown their bellies or kissed the rings of all the Jill Stein supporters.

There is NO WAY that Democrats are mounting a comeback without doing all of that.

Or maybe it's like I've stated before, just a normal cycle.

0 Replies

@Walter Hinteler,

The best and surest way to test for Alzheimer's is a PET scan. When my mother started showing symptoms, she suggested to my father herself to get checked out and the doctor had the PET scan done. She was a brave woman. When it was diagnosed, she immediately made out her will. When or if I start showing symptoms, I only hope I am half as brave.

0 Replies

@nimh,

Thanks, nimh. That's a quote I'd not seen before.

1 Reply

@nimh,

nimh wrote:

Another timely quote that tells us more about what kind of man Buckley was: When he argued that Martin Luther King's assassin was likely just following King's own teachings:

Buckley hedges quite a bit (most likely may have) but, either way, he is strongly condemning the assassin (cretin, wildman). and in no way implies that he was "following King's own teaching."

He raises a valid question: At what point, if any, does the proposition that "individual conscience" supersedes all law stop?

What is BAM's answer to that? The ballpark assassin? The 9/11 terrorists?

1 Reply

@blatham,

Quote:

He Leaked a Photo of Rick Perry Hugging a Coal Executive. Then He Lost His Job.

Quote:

As a photographer for the Department of Energy, Simon Edelman regularly attended meetings with Secretary Rick Perry and snapped pictures for official purposes.

Now he is out of a job and seeking whistle-blower protections after leaking photographs of Mr. Perry meeting with a major energy industry donor to President Trump.

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

izzythepush wrote:

Olivier5 wrote:

So the guy can draw a cube and recognise a camel... Good to know!

His trip to Saudi Arabia wasn't completely in vain.

Now thats funny, made me laugh

0 Replies

Trump has accused his best friend, Russia, of helping North Korea evade sanctions. Collusion.

1 Reply

@Brand X,

Subterfuge

0 Replies

@nimh,

I'm disappointed. My estimation of the man has just been lowered considerably, but it isn't the first time. So, apparently, insofar as race was concerned, Buckley was all over the map. In fact, when he launched his political career in the early 1950s, he defended Jim Crow and said that violence for the purpose of preserving it was justified -- something that layman can be proud of. Buckley condemned Brown vs Board of Education (1954) which concerned the case of a black girl who was bussed from the school closest to her home in order to maintain racial segregation in the schools. Remember the school bussing controversy in the 1970s? What hypocrisy!

In this little piece you've copied and pasted for us, nimh, Buckley absurdly blames the victim. (It's an old game. Today victims of bullying in the schools and rape victims are blamed. "They brought it on themselves!") "If only he had kept his mouth SHUT, King would still be alive today." Of course, did Buckley and other leading conservatives ever get upset when segregationists broke the law? When I was born in 1950 and in the years that followed, a white man could murder a black man or a black boy (Remember Emmett Till as just one of many examples?) AND GET AWAY WITH IT. The only time conservatives have a problem with civil disobedience is when they don't support the cause represented by those who are practicing civil disobedience. In other words, it's not a matter of principle. There's nothing noble about it. It's just a matter of hypocritical politics.

Oh, I almost forgot. James Earl Ray was not driven by an extreme belief in the conscience of the individual. He was driven by racial hatred.

I can't help but sneer when I hear of a conservative politician like Donald Trump paying tribute to MLKJr. Trump was a young adult during the last few years of King's life. I wonder what he thought about him then. It's a sad but true fact that King was despised by most leading conservatives (such as Patrick Buchanan) and many other whites. When I was a high-school junior in the spring of 1968, most of my classmates were either conservative Republicans or George Wallace supporters. (Layman would have really liked these people. He would have felt right at home.) Perhaps my memory is faulty, but it seems that there was less joy among my classmates over the end of school at the beginning of summer than there was over the assassination of MLKJr. Of course, historically many of the biggest heroes of right-wingers have been dead radicals.

3 Replies

@wmwcjr,

Now you're calling me a racist, eh, Bill?

Figures, sho nuff.

0 Replies

@wmwcjr,

I always considered Buckley an elitist, pompous a-hole; but like you, never saw such a racist side to him. They were a little more discrete back then!

I knew a black lady who was a student in Topeka, Kansas back in the early 1950's and I was in 2nd grade in Memphis, TN in 1957 when Eisenhower sent the Army into Little Rock, Arkansas to protect black students going to High School. I knew a racist back then when I saw/heard one also! It just didn't make sense to me?

A year earlier (1956) while at a park playing, the "cooled" water fountain had a sign that said "White's Only". There was a sign on the water hose spigot that said for blacks to use. I mentioned that seemed wrong and was told not to worry because blacks weren't even allowed in the park - as if this made it ok. This lack of rational didn't escape me even back then. Layman, Finn, Builder, olldroy would have figured this was proper of course and think it should be law again!

0 Replies

@layman,

Quote:

Buckley . . . is strongly condemning the assassin (cretin, wildman) . . .

Wow! He did?! He really, really did? I'm soooooooo impressed! How big of him!

I can just imagine what many of the conservative right-wing politicians, columnists, and talk show hosts were saying privately when the microphones were turned off. ("That n*gger got what he deserved!")

David Duke has said that he says publicly what many of his fellow Republicans say in private. I remember what that adulterous, thrice-married advocate of traditional moral values Newt Gingrich said when Duke had been elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives. I don't remember what he said verbatim, but I know this was his message: Just watch what you say for a few years. If you don't have a slip of the tongue, you will be welcomed by the Republican leadership. Yes, what morally principled leadership from a morally principled guy! Rolling Eyes

1 Reply

@wmwcjr,

Quote:

I can just imagine what many of the conservative right-wing politicians, columnists, and talk show hosts were saying privately

I'm sure you can! You've often proven that you have a very powerful imagination. ****, I'm thinking you have the ability to read minds, too.

Maybe not as well as Hillary Clinton, though. That women had the ability to read the minds of over 30 million irredeemable deplorables in one fell swoop, I tellzya!

0 Replies

@wmwcjr,

I appreciate you and BillW (and others) sharing tidbits of your experiences growing up in the US during another volatile time period. It adds dimension and perspective.

1 Reply

Signs of more obstruction of justice from WH.

AP Sources: WH directed Bannon silence in House interview

Quote:

WASHINGTON — Steve Bannon's attorney relayed questions, in real time, to the White House during a House Intelligence Committee interview of the former Trump chief strategist, people familiar with the closed-door session told The Associated Press.

As lawmakers probed Bannon's time working for President Donald Trump, Bannon's attorney Bill Burck was asking the White House counsel's office by phone during the Tuesday session whether his client could answer the questions. He was told by that office not to discuss his work on the transition or in the White House.

It's unclear who Burck was communicating with in the White House. He is also representing top White House lawyer Don McGahn in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Tuesday's conversations were confirmed by a White House official and a second person familiar with Bannon's interview. They spoke only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

On Wednesday, the AP also confirmed that Bannon will meet with Mueller's investigators for an interview instead of appearing before a grand jury. A person familiar with that issue confirmed the interview and said Bannon is expected to cooperate with Mueller. The person was not authorized to speak publicly about private conversations.

It's unclear when the interview might occur.

3 Replies

@revelette1,

Quote:

Signs of more obstruction of justice from WH.

Where's the obstruction of justice?

Quote:

Bannon is expected to cooperate with Mueller.

That "expectation" is that he will answer every question asked by the FBI. The white house has made no objection to that, and isn't going to. Did you miss that part?

I can't blame you, I guess. That "obstruction of justice" phrase rolls off the tongue with such ease that it just naturally comes out, whatever the topic is.

1 Reply

@ehBeth,

Thank you.

There are those in this country who would erase the history of Jim Crow if they could. I've read that in Texas (my home state) the Republican-majority State Board of Education has adopted textbooks that have whitewashed this rather unpleasant aspect of our history. (Just think what the outrage would be if German educators whitewashed the history of the Nazi period.) I'm sure the Koch brothers have a lot to do with this. After all, their father was either the founder or one of several founders of the John Birch Society -- a conservative organization that claimed that the civil rights movement of King's time was not fueled by generations of racial injustice, but in reality was a sinister plot hatched in the Kremlin by the Soviet Communists. They tried to ruin the lives of those who actively opposed racial discrimination by falsely accusing them of being Communists -- which is something layman does as a matter of routine. My sister was one of them.

3 Replies

@wmwcjr,

0 Replies

@Walter Hinteler,

I predict that in 2020, Rick Perry will run for the presidency and will, following Trump's example, proclaim that he has the best mind of anyone who has ever been president. Genius level. Or better.

But the important thing there is the firing and the zest for authoritarian style information control.

And thanks for that item. I hadn't run into it.

0 Replies

monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know