I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

pip57

Waiting to hear from SIIL and niece living in Quapaw, OK.  Thinking of all those in areas hit by tornadoes.  

IllinoisLady

for fun:

Bren-2007

Morning Gals,

It just started raining here.  The thought of all those tornadoes working their way east is really scary.  When the wind and rain are coming down sideways, I get really scared.  Hope Pip's family is safe and well in OK.  Of course Tim has already been on the phone with me this morning, begging me to go in the basement if it gets bad around here.

I did read that the storms are supposed to go north towards Raleigh and then hug the coast going northeast.  Worry about my family in NC.  I don't think my mom or brother have basements.

Sunnyflowers ... Looking for the LIKE button.  I enjoyed Depp in Benny and Joon too.  Just couldn't get behind all the Pirate movies though.  I meant to go check my lilac this a.m. and take a pic, but then it started raining.  I think I have a picture somewhere of the beautiful lilac flowers from last spring.

Hope everyone has a good start to their week.

hugs,

Bren

Bren-2007

Here's the pic of my one lilac ... and Tank's butt.

QuinnCat

GG - Congrats on the twins!  Do you know specifics- identical? Fraternal?

Bren - that's a beautiful lilac.  Love the white outlines on the petals.  We live in lilac country - they're prolific.  They are just blooming now.  Alas, I have the wimpiest lilac in town.

We got down to 28 degrees last night.   My tulips took a hit  My daffodils were on their way out anyway.   My Kale and Collards should be ok, but I'm hoping for the lettuce I just planted.  Suppose to be above 80 mid-week.

 Jackie - so true.  They're running from their racism now.  Racism is alive and well in this country (how much proof does one need?), and you know that those cheering on the SCOTUS's recent decision on AA are right in line because they just a) don't get it or b) are racists and hate that their white advantage has been taken away. 

IllinoisLady

Yes....and then there are the rt. wingers who never were prejudiced, are not now and never will be who see it so easily in everyone else.  It is a long drop when you back off the cliff proclaiming innocence.  Just a musing of mine.  As you say Kam......the evidence is everywhere and come from solid sources and not Faux Farce News. 

Jackie

IllinoisLady

This one must get her facts out of her simple head:

IllinoisLady

Okay....don't let Faux news get a hold of this one.....or have they already:

IllinoisLady

djd

well, I see that the teahadists are screeching about Sterling being a Democrat.  Whatever.  Both side are bad, so vote Republican, am I right?

djd

one more thought...

when the NBA decides to relieve Sterling of his duties as owner of the Clippers, how many progressive, liberal democrats are going to show up armed to the teeth to try and protect him?

RetiredLibby

Well, Donna - that's the difference between the tealiban and Democrats - when a Democrat exhibits racism, we condemn him.  When a regressive exhibits racism, the right applauds and defends him for expressing his all-American values.

djd

RL - you are exactly right...I don't foresee MSNBC making a crusade out of trying to make Sterling into a patriotic hero

djd

oh and how appropriate is it that these most public displays of racism come out right on the heels of our SCOTUS declaring that racism is no longer a problem in this country??

Asshole conservatives who wrote that opinion should feel stupid as hell, but that would require self-awareness...

bluedahlia

IDJUTS!

djd

so, if a lawbreaker thief brings all of his gun-toting friends over for a show-down, the government is supposed to show up with nothing more than papers and a badge in order to bring him to justice?  That's it?  The government employees trying to do their jobs are supposed to be sitting ducks in front of a bunch of armed idiots who would put women in front of them as protection?  Is that REALLY how it's supposed to work?  

djd

and while I am at it, what about the hero of the teahadists, Sarah Palin, making such asinine statements as she did this weekend?  Basically "we should baptize terrorists by waterboarding them" - what a very Christian thing to say!  To compare torture to baptism is absolutely indefensible, but do you hear anyone denouncing her comments?  No - she is a hero and will continue to be given a microphone to spout off her hate and vile at every teahadist event that is willing to pony up her large speaking fees.

I just love that the teahadists are doubling down on their regressive, narrow-minded, non-Christian, racist, anti-women rhetoric.  Sure does make the next few election cycles look good for the Progressives!!

RetiredLibby

Donna, one of the half-term half-wit's sons was in the military - would she say that waterboarding wasn't torture if he had been a POW and had been waterboarded by the Taliban?  Would she have thought it was how the Taliban baptized the Crusaders (which is what the jihadis call Christians)?  Would she have been glad to have her son "baptized" like that?  Would she call it baptism if she (her Rabid Stoat-ness) or any of her children were "baptized" by waterboarding?  She is a vicious, racist, un-American, unpatriotic, seditious empty head of hair.  

djd

Thanks to the "guns everywhere" law recently passed by the state legislature, a gun-toting nut job showed up at a Georgia playground, waving his gun around, "because he could".  I supposed if you confronted the man for scaring the children, he could "stand his ground" and shoot you.  Brilliant, Georgia lawmakers - just brilliant.

djd

RL - you nailed it.  She is indeed very un-American and should be shunned by anyone who claims to be a patriot.

RetiredLibby

People who prance around announcing they are patriots and worship the Constitution, but who insist thst the President is not an American citizen (despite all evidence to the contrary), who applaud the obstruction of laws and the work of the people, who cheered when the government was shut down, who welcome voter suppression laws, who idolize people who break the laws they don't feel like obeying, who advocate sedition, who work to tear down the very framework of laws that made this country even possible - those are the real traitors to this nation.  They are destroying this country step by step. It isn't the undocumented workers we have to fear - they come here for a better life, to live the ideal American dream, to better themselves and their children.  They make this country stronger.  It is the people who want to rig elections, who want to disenfranchise people who don't look like them or vote like them, who are hell-bent on dismantling the democratic structures that keep us a democracy - those people are who we should fear.

crazy4carrots

Are there any Catholic GOP/TPers? They sure won't like today's tweet from the head of their church:

"Inequality is the root of social evil"

~~~Pope Francis, 28April2014

I'm thinking this might well be the beginning of an all-out holy war between Catholics (and like-minded Protestants) and the Tealevangelists.

djd

oh dear...seems that yet another Republican meme turns out to be a lie

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/donald-sterling-registered-republican

RetiredLibby

Glad you saw that, Donna - I saw it but couldn't post the link because I am on my iPad.  So, he is a Republican after all ... I wonder if they will start defending him now?

djd

I am sure they are preparing to defend him as simply being "inarticulate" any minute now.

Wabbit

Hi peeps!  Much to get grumpy about in the world of tea and stupid.  Lucky Indy was 'graced' with the presence of both Sarah, the mouth without a brain, and Ted Nugent, the pants crapping to draft dodge druggie, at the NRA Convention last weekend.   If that's the kind of people they think represent this country, I can see why they think they need lots of guns. 

I've been MIA for awhile.  Was shattered to learn we lost our beautiful Chickadee. 

Pip ... hope your family in OK is safe and well.  Scary weather.  Coming our way later today but not at that intensity.   

Enjoyful

Inarticulate, taken out of context, being denied his freedom of speech, senile, must be right because he's wealthy...

IllinoisLady

Couldn't have said any of the above better myself, but them I usually try to find graphics because I don't always say things as clear cut as they should be. 

Jackie

RetiredLibby

Why Sarah Palin's Sacrilegious Torture Nostalgia Matters

The publicity hound's remarks suggest that there is still a significant conservative pro-torture constituency, and that the taboo against torture has not yet recovered.

Conor Friedersdorf  Apr 28 2014

Over the weekend, Sarah Palin, who Republicans tried to put a heartbeat away from the White House, told a crowd of NRA supporters, "They are not right policies that poke our allies in the eye, coddle adversaries, instead of putting the fear of God in our enemies. Come on. Enemies who would utterly annihilate America! They who obviously have information on plots to carry out jihad. Oh, but you can't offend them. You can't make them feel uncomfortable, not even a smidgen. Well, if I were in charge, they would know that waterboarding is how we baptize terrorists." 

The crowd cheered. 

I can't help but be amused that the erstwhile half-term governor, Fox News commentator, and reality-TV star wants to put "the fear of God" into religious zealots who believe suicide attacks will earn their way into paradise. And I sympathize with the Christians who object to Palin's sacrilegious invocation of baptism. "Not only is this woman, putatively a Christian, praising torture," Rod Dreher complains, "but she is comparing it to a holy sacrament of the Christian faith."

Still, I wouldn't have subjected readers to this especially inane nostalgia for Bush-era war crimes if not for what it could portend. Palin is a pandering publicity hound. She has a keen sense of what sorts of red meat the GOP base will eat up. For its part, the audience seemed receptive.

So one wonders: If the wrong Republican is elected, or if there is another major terrorist attack, will the United States once again force water into the lungs of captive humans (no ticking time bombs necessary) when they stand accused of terrorism? President Obama has certainly made future torture more likely by ending the practice by executive order rather than legislation, and by refusing to prosecute Bush Administration officials for torture, despite a legal obligation to do so. 

Hopefully, future presidents will rule out torture, regardless of their political party. In that case, Palin's barbaric comments won't be a portent of anything. Her speech will merely provide one more illustration of how Bush Administration torturers and their partisans defenders undermined a civilizational taboo. Before they came along, Americans thought of torture as immoral. Now a crowd of NRA conservatives regard "baptism by waterboarding" as an applause line.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/04/why-sarah-palins-sacreligious-torture-nostalgia-matters/361289/

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Emphasis mine.  What the hell have those people become that they applaud someone defending and advocating torture?  What the hell kind of people ARE they?

RetiredLibby

And a fun one from the Maddowblog.  How does it feel being played, suckas? 

A long con for Tea Party PACs?

04/28/14 09:48 AM—Updated 04/28/14 12:47 PM

By Steve Benen

When donors contribute to a political action committee, they generally assume the funds will be used to benefit like-minded candidates in competitive campaigns. But as Matea Gold reported over the weekend, Tea Party PACs are still raising plenty of money, though most of it doesn’t reach the candidates themselves.

The Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund, which blew through nearly $2 million on expenses such as fundraising, polling and consultants in the first three months of this year, is not alone in its meager spending on candidates.

A Washington Post analysis found that some of the top national tea party groups engaged in this year’s midterm elections have put just a tiny fraction of their money directly into boosting the candidates they’ve endorsed.

As a matter of rhetoric, Tea Party groups send out urgent appeals, telling contributors that their generosity will help elect conservatives. As a matter of practice, it’s a different story – the Washington Post, relying on data provided by the Sunlight Foundation, found that the six major Tea Party PACs have spent a combined $37.5 million this cycle, but less than $7 million has gone towards direct support for candidates.

In other words, for every dollar a conservative donor sends to one of the major Tea Party PACs, about 18 cents ends up backing like-minded candidates. For some of the groups, it’s closer to just 5 cents. And what about the rest of the money? That’s a little more complicated, though it appears to go towards paying for salaries, polling, and of course, more fundraising.

Indeed, gone are the days in which the Tea Party “movement” could fairly characterize itself as a rag-tag bunch of grassroots conservatives: “The lavish spending underscores how the protest movement has gone professional, with national groups transforming themselves into multimillion-dollar organizations run by activists collecting six-figure salaries.”

There’s a reason I love this Chris Hayes comment from a while back: “Much of movement conservatism is a con and the base are the marks.”

a good piece over the weekend, noting that this phenomenon on the right “isn’t entirely new.”

Last year, Buzzfeed published a story about Freedomworks that received a lot of attention at the time. Among other things revealed by that reported were such expenditures as $8,000 for a hotel bill for Matt Kibbe, the organization’s President and CEO, staff dining at fancy D.C. restaurants, at least $1,000,000 invested in the organization’s partnership with Glenn Beck’s The Blaze, and a microbrew bar at the organization’s headquarters. All of this was paid out of funds donated by the public, but what it had to do with advancing the organization’s agenda or supporting the candidates it was backing is entirely unclear.

Additionally, Tom Dougherty wrote a detailed post regarding the spending habits of the Senate Conservatives Fund, the PAC founded by Jim DeMint which last year played a prominent role in bringing about the politically disastrous government shutdown. The only conclusion one can reach from Doughterty’s analysis of SCF’s spending patterns is that the group’s mission has nothing to do with advancing Republican candidates.

It’s tempting to think that revelations like these would cause real trouble for the groups involved, but I wouldn’t count on a sudden donor exodus. For one thing, most conservative contributors probably won’t hear about this. For another, many of those who do hear about this may conclude it’s a trick of the “liberal media” to discourage support for Republicans.

And finally, note that folks like Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, and Herman Cain attach their names to sleazy email solicitation programs, which continue to thrive even after being exposed.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/long-con-tea-party-pacs

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<snicker>