US Politics: Happy Anniversary.

[Phylum of Alexandria]

5 minutes ago, Zorral said:

Much of what drives the support for Hitler spouting rumpistas and the rest of their ilks may well be described like this, from an obituary in the NYT of historian Arno J. Mayer.

Arno J. Mayer, Unorthodox Historian of Europe’s Crises, Dies at 97
A Jewish refugee from the Nazis, he argued that World War I, World War II and the Holocaust were all part of a “second Thirty Years’ War.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/06/world/europe/arno-j-mayer-dead.html

“If Hitler’s worldview had an epicenter,” he [Dr. Mayer] wrote, “it was his deep-seated animosity toward contemporary civilization, and not his hatred for Jews, which was grafted onto it.”

Sorry, what does this article have to do with my summary? I can't access NYT articles.

[Phylum of Alexandria]

15 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

So let us gather in prayer dear brothers and sisters.

And thank the Lord for the peace and quiet. #sorrynotsorry

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Nah, I am firmly in the camp of believers, that he will return and walk the forum in my lifetime. Hallelujah.

 

[Zorral]

37 minutes ago, Phylum of Alexandria said:

what does this article have to do with my summary

The multiplex of reasons for the support of these authoritarian -- your correct statement that there are many streams that lead into that support.  This summary in the obituary of the highly regarded historian included his most controversial historical statement, that it wasn't anti-semiticism that was central to Hitler's thought and support, but his antagonism for the changed, 'modern' world, to which antisemiticism got appended (however, he did not dismiss antisemiticism as a cause by any means, but that it got attached to and helped hold up Hitler's first cause, which is the world isn't as it used to be).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Radical Evangelicals Who Helped Push Jan. 6 to Wage War on “Demonic Influence”
Mike Johnson has deep ties to groups that encouraged the Capitol raid—out of conviction that they’re in a literal battle between supernatural forces of good and evil.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/01/january-6-insurrection-mike-johnson-evangelical-christian-apostolic-reformation.html

Quote

 

.... It’s been three years since the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, and much of the initial public horror at the violence has faded, at least on the right. Polling has found that Republicans are less and less likely to view the Jan. 6 rioters as “violent”; most now think it’s “time to move on.” Some of the insurrectionists have even become martyrs or folk heroes. And perhaps most tellingly, the new speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, was considered one of the primary architects behind the “Stop the Steal” movement.

Johnson’s more genteel way of politics may not fit with the image of a rabid crowd storming the Capitol, but he does have something in common with many of the Jan. 6ers: a profound religious conviction in his own cause. In many ways, Johnson seems like a classic leader of the Christian right. His legal career focused on elevating protections for “religious liberty” over the rights of the LGBTQ+ community. On a more personal level, he hits the traditional cultural markers, taking to extremes, for example, his commitments to marriage and avoidance of porn. Scholars of the Christian right have characterized him as a textbook Christian nationalist.

But he’s also something newer. As reporting from the fall showed, Johnson has deep ties to a movement called the New Apostolic Reformation—a network of politically ambitious church leaders, pulled largely from a kind of Christianity called Neo-Charismatic Pentecostalism. NAR leaders (typically known as “apostles”) have been credited with stoking the large and influential Christian nationalist contingent at the Jan. 6 insurrection.

It can be hard to keep track of all these movements and groups—Neo-Charismatic Pentecostalism, the NAR, Christian nationalism, and so on—and it’s tempting to write it all off as a matter of right-wing Christians getting worked up for Donald Trump. But a new book, focused on the political strategies of Neo-Charismatic Pentecostals, makes the case that to really understand the anti-democratic impulse of some of the Christian right, it’s worth examining the segment that believes in a literal battle for the country between the supernatural forces of good and evil—the segment Johnson already has ties to.

The book is American Evangelicals for Trump: Dominion, Spiritual Warfare, and the End Times, written by André Gagné, professor and chair of the theological studies department at Concordia University in Montreal. It was first published for a French-speaking audience in 2020, and Gagné has recently released an updated version for an English-speaking American audience. ....

 

 

[DireWolfSpirit]

3 hours ago, Phylum of Alexandria said:

I'm someone who wishes we could have a high standard for the office of the president, including the expectation of extensive experience in organizational leadership and hopefully government of some kind. But we don't live in my dream world, we live in a place that's far more driven by celebrity. We have to deal with the world we have, not the world we'd rather have.

In that spirit, here's an example that goes against the conventional narrative: Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a comedian with no conventionally relevant experience becomes the leader of a nation that is suddenly drawn into war--and he's been doing an excellent job rallying his people and his allies to navigate those difficult circumstances. 

The ability for a leader to communicate to a populace where they actually care about what you're saying is a talent that tends to get overlooked when assessing presidential credentials, and it's maybe more important now than ever. Barack Obama had that gift, and Michelle Obama has that too. 

Michelle Obama would be tied for the best President the U.S. has had in this millenium.

And none of the previous would even be a remotely close 2nd.

It would be-

both Obama's

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-Them other posers

Read the commentary on her speeches. Michelle INSPIRES, unlike the majority of American Presidents and she is just what this country would be lucky to have back in the White House.

Eminently more suited than any of the idiots we have to chose from in 2024.

 

[Zorral]

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/01/january-6-insurrection-mike-johnson-evangelical-christian-apostolic-reformation.html

Mike Johnson has deep ties to groups that encouraged the Capitol raid—out of conviction that they’re in a literal battle between supernatural forces of good and evil.

...  we’re in the world of spiritual warfare, where your adversaries are literally understood as being under the influence of demons.

BTW -- These same ilks targeted Michelle Obama as one of the demons.  We have seen tragic stories too, of parents murdering their children because they were taken by demons, among others.  These are the people who believe God has destined them to RULE.

Quote

 

.... What we have seen during the Trump years is that those that were very close to him were often people that embraced these Neo-Charismatic Pentecostal ideas.

What’s new about them, politically? How are they different from what we traditionally think about when we think about the Christian right?

The Neo-Charismatics are part of the Christian right, but it’s different from the old Christian right. The Christian right with the Moral Majority in the 1980s was about certain social conservative values. These people are not the same, because we’re in the world of spiritual warfare, where your adversaries are literally understood as being under the influence of demons.

Why would the concept of demonic influence make such a difference?

It has been mainstreamed as an idea, that Christians are waging a spiritual war against demonic forces in the world that have sometimes taken over their political enemies. And spiritual warfare language leads to, eventually, the possibility of violence. It is not just spiritual; it bleeds into the real world. On Jan. 6, they were blowing shofars, a kind of ancient Jewish trumpet that was sometimes used as a rallying call for battles.

Why engage in that rhetoric and performance if you’re not hyped up to the point where you’re going to do everything you can to make sure that Donald Trump stays in office? You have these people enacting all of these symbolic things that are reminiscent of very violent actions depicted in the Bible: actions of genocide and destruction and overturning of rule. ....

 

Quote

 

.... You make the case that these people aren’t fringe. Are there any Neo-Pentecostal figures with particular prominence? 

Paula White-Cain was very close to Trump during his presidency. There was not a rally where Paula White-Cain wasn’t present, and often opening rallies with prayer. Most of the time, she engaged in what we call spiritual warfare prayer—prayers that are directed against President Trump’s enemies, against the enemies of Christians, implying that these demonic forces have a hold on Trump’s political adversaries.

During Trump’s reelection campaign, there were 20,000 people at the Amway Center [at an Orlando rally in June 2019]. And the first person to show up on the podium is Paula White-Cain. And she’s praying against principalities and powers. To all these 20,000 people, she’s labeling Trump’s adversaries as being influenced by evil supernatural forces. So it’s a way to disqualify Trump’s political adversaries.

What connection did this religious group have to the events of Jan. 6? 

Leading to Jan. 6, they started getting these rallies going on—“Jericho marches.” That refers to a story in the Hebrew Bible in which God has called Joshua to go and circle the city of Jericho and destroy and kill everyone in the city. A lot of these leaders were present, preaching, screaming their heads off about “we’re fighting the spiritual battle against Jezebel,” and so on. Neo-Charismatic Pentecostals with close ties to this idea of New Apostolic Reformation were there.

Many of these Neo-Charismatic Pentecostal leaders that had supported Trump bought into this big lie that the election had been rigged. And they participated in instigating it through their rhetoric of spiritual warfare, that they were battling for the soul of America. ....

 

 

Edited January 8 by Zorral

[Zorral]

In Ominous Sign, Supreme Court Takes Up Emergency Room Abortion Case
The Court also reimposed Idaho’s abortion ban in emergency cases, which had been blocked.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/supreme-court-idaho-emergency-abortion-emtala

[TrackerNeil]

2 hours ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

Read the commentary on her speeches. Michelle INSPIRES, unlike the majority of American Presidents and she is just what this country would be lucky to have back in the White House.

Eminently more suited than any of the idiots we have to chose from in 2024.

I guarantee that, the moment Michelle O. declared for the presidency, her favorables would plummet and half the nation would despise her. Women in politics are popular enough...until they run for some office, at which point they are hated.

[IheartIheartTesla]

Moving away from Mrs. Obama, which is firmly in the realm of fantasy/hypothetical right now (and I said my piece), did I just see that the Supreme Court is taking on the Colorado case disqualifying Trump from the ballot? Hoo boy, if that decision is revealed midsummer, it might light a fire under Democrats. Or Republicans. Or may be a damp squib can-kicking exercise. One of the stupider arguments that falls under the latter "Section 3 disqualifies the insurrectionist from holding office, not from running for office, so that states could not bar Trump from the ballot unless and until he is elected, in which case, he could not take the oath of office"

Unlike the Chinese proverb, I in fact do not want to live in these interesting times.

[Kalbear]

45 minutes ago, TrackerNeil said:

I guarantee that, the moment Michelle O. declared for the presidency, her favorables would plummet and half the nation would despise her. Women in politics are popular enough...until they run for some office, at which point they are hated.

I am reminded of 2012 when there was a large surge of support for Obama to step aside because Hillary Clinton was so incredibly popular and he was facing some bad (at least at the time we considered them bad) numbers. 

They're not nearly as bad as what Biden's are right now, mind you, but the idea of a woman being this great savior of a candidate has been put out there and immediately fails as soon as she starts running.

[Larry of the Lawn]

25 minutes ago, IheartIheartTesla said:

Moving away from Mrs. Obama, which is firmly in the realm of fantasy/hypothetical right now (and I said my piece), did I just see that the Supreme Court is taking on the Colorado case disqualifying Trump from the ballot? Hoo boy, if that decision is revealed midsummer, it might light a fire under Democrats. Or Republicans. Or may be a damp squib can-kicking exercise. One of the stupider arguments that falls under the latter "Section 3 disqualifies the insurrectionist from holding office, not from running for office, so that states could not bar Trump from the ballot unless and until he is elected, in which case, he could not take the oath of office"

Unlike the Chinese proverb, I in fact do not want to live in these interesting times.

They're hearing it beginning of next month

[TrackerNeil]

49 minutes ago, IheartIheartTesla said:

Moving away from Mrs. Obama, which is firmly in the realm of fantasy/hypothetical right now (and I said my piece), did I just see that the Supreme Court is taking on the Colorado case disqualifying Trump from the ballot? Hoo boy, if that decision is revealed midsummer, it might light a fire under Democrats. Or Republicans. Or may be a damp squib can-kicking exercise. One of the stupider arguments that falls under the latter "Section 3 disqualifies the insurrectionist from holding office, not from running for office, so that states could not bar Trump from the ballot unless and until he is elected, in which case, he could not take the oath of office"

Unlike the Chinese proverb, I in fact do not want to live in these interesting times.

The more I hear the arguments against kicking Trump off the ballot, the more convinced I become that it was right to kick him off the ballot. I doubt SCOTUS will agree, but that's basically a conservative policy group so no surprise there.

[LongRider]

1 hour ago, TrackerNeil said:

I guarantee that, the moment Michelle O. declared for the presidency, her favorables would plummet and half the nation would despise her. Women in politics are popular enough...until they run for some office, at which point they are hated.

And the racism and misogyny would be ratcheted up to way past 11.  Not interested in that, the ageism thrown against Biden is more than enough.  

[TrackerNeil]

21 minutes ago, LongRider said:

And the racism and misogyny would be ratcheted up to way past 11.  Not interested in that, the ageism thrown against Biden is more than enough.  

The whole Biden-is-too-old thing is 100% media-driven. Ask people, "Why do you think Biden is too old to do the job?" and you get blank stares, angry dismissals, or a parada of Fox-News bullshit. Trump is nearly as old, but nobody's accusing him of being doddering old fool. 

[LongRider]

33 minutes ago, TrackerNeil said:

The whole Biden-is-too-old thing is 100% media-driven. Ask people, "Why do you think Biden is too old to do the job?" and you get blank stares, angry dismissals, or a parada of Fox-News bullshit. Trump is nearly as old, but nobody's accusing him of being doddering old fool. 

Agree, the ageism is everywhere, even here.

[Phylum of Alexandria]

37 minutes ago, TrackerNeil said:

The whole Biden-is-too-old thing is 100% media-driven. Ask people, "Why do you think Biden is too old to do the job?" and you get blank stares, angry dismissals, or a parada of Fox-News bullshit. Trump is nearly as old, but nobody's accusing him of being doddering old fool. 

There's some percentage of it that's not media driven. I think people, consciously or not, conflate energetic presentation with strength in leaders. If this is true, Biden can easily seem weak, or at least too tired to be effective. But he certainly has good moments. His last speech was excellent, not just in content but in his passionate delivery.

[Spockydog]

13 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

I can't be commissioner because i did some good Inspector work, its a totally different level of responsibility and competence. 

Mate, I really, really, doubt that.

[Zorral]

Roger Stone Spoke With Cop Pal About Assassinating Eric Swalwell and Jerry Nadler

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/exclusive-roger-stone-spoke-with-cop-pal-about-assassinating-eric-swalwell-and-jerry-nadler/

Quote

.... A source familiar with the discussion told Mediate they believed Stone’s remarks were serious. “It was definitely concerning that he was constantly planning violence with an NYPD officer and other militia groups,” the source said. ....

 

[Tywin et al.]

Still cracks me up he has a tattoo of Nixon's face on his back. At least Steve-O's of himself is funny. 

[Tywin et al.]

This is fucking hilarious. Trump's lawyer is talking so fast he's killing his throat. And the judge is calmly explaining things to him, as should be done. People who talk fast are almost always liars.