Today in Disgusting People

This one just floored me, although I supposse I shoulnd't have been surprised -- Fox has been getting even worse, if you can imagine such a thing. From Media Matters, via Joe.My.God.:

GREG GUTFELD (CO-HOST): I do have a solution and it’s a progressive solution. Give the homeless what they want because there is no way you can have a conversation with them.

You can’t reason with the unreasonable. Give them what they want but not in the city. The city allows this to happen. Move them out onto government property and let them run it.

Camp away. Give them the autonomy to truly run their lives into the ground. Harm each other. Don’t harm us anymore.

That’s the only thing you can do because it can’t get any worse than it is now. You got to move them to a place where they can live their lives.

JESSE WATTERS (CO-HOST): So federally funded opium dens where the homeless can kill each other.

GUTFELD: And I volunteer as mayor. I will be mayor of opium town.

The only thing that comes to mind is "morallly bankrupt". That, and "overt Naziism", but the two really go hand-in-hand.

There's video at the link, if yoou can stand it.

Today in Disgusting People

This is actually a catch-up on stories I've een over the past few days, b.ut this one caught my attention this morning. From Crooks and Liars, the Idaho state legislature:

In Idaho on Tuesday, the state House passed a bill that would make providing gender-affirming care to transgender youths a felony—punishable by life in prison. It also includes a provision making it a crime for parents or guardians to permit their child to travel out of state for treatment.

This echoes Texas governor Greg Abbott's order from a fewe days ago, which fortunately seems to be on hold. Via Joe.My.God.:

A state judge blocked Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s divisive order for “child abuse” investigations into parents of transgender children receiving gender-affirming medical care, issuing a statewide injunction Friday as the litigation against it plays out.

It's not just trans youth -- abortion is under attack (again) with the same strategies, plus the "citizen vigilante" provisions, alto pioneered by Texas.

The fact that these bills have no basis in realty doesn't bother Republicans, who are the ones pushing them -- it's all about throwing red m eat to the base. In Abbott's case, it's a pure political ploy, which his re-election committee dubbed a "sure winner".

Look for more of this from the red states.

Thanks, Trump

I went to the Field Museum yesterday -- my last chance for at least two weeks: they're closing again until December 5, maybe longer, depending, in accordance with new guidelines from the state and city because of the new spike in COVID-19 cases. My cousin e-mailed me that the Art Institute is also closed (I had inquired about the "Monet in Chicago" exhibition); the Shedd Aqarium is closed; the Adler Planetarium has been closed, not being set up to encourage social distancing; the Nature Museum, ditto. Also, all Park District facilities, including the conservatories and field houses, are closed.

Lincoln Park Zoo is open, but closes for the day at 3 pm. two hours early.

And COVID-19 deaths have hit 250.000 and show no sign of tapering off. And now the forecast is for 2,000 deaths a day.

Just think how different it would be if we'd had a president who actually did something about the pandemic instead of denying that it existed. And now, of course, instead of trying to ameliorate the second wave, he's trying to steal the election.

The Lower Depths: Oh, Yeah, He Loves the Troops

"Contemptible" fits here, I think. From Politico:

More than 40,000 National Guard members currently helping states test residents for the coronavirus and trace the spread of infections will face a “hard stop” on their deployments on June 24 — just one day shy of many members becoming eligible for key federal benefits, according to a senior FEMA official.

The official outlined the Trump administration’s plans on an interagency call on May 12, an audio version of which was obtained by POLITICO. The official also acknowledged during the call that the June 24 deadline means that thousands of members who first deployed in late March will find themselves with only 89 days of duty credit, one short of the 90-day threshold for qualifying for early retirement and education benefits under the Post-9/11 GI bill.

One. Day. Short.

The looming loss of crucial frontline workers, along with questions about whether the administration is shortchanging first responders, would require a delicate messaging strategy, the official — representing FEMA’s New England region — told dozens of colleagues on the interagency call.

“We would greatly benefit from unified messaging regarding the conclusion of their services prior to hitting the 90-day mark and the retirement benefit implications associated with it,” the official said.

Because it's all about the messaging, which the Republicans have shown themselves to be very good at. It helps that they don't give a shit about these service members -- who have earned the benefits they're being denied,

Scum.

Read the whole article -- the maneuvering of the Trump regime on this is pretty appalling.

Today in Disgusting People

Needless to say, he's a Republican:

In the April 23 post, Antioch planning commissioner chair Ken Turnage II said that coronavirus is like a forest fire that burns “old trees, fallen brush and scrub-shrub sucklings” that drain resources, adding that society will “strengthen” when the pandemic “is all settled.”

“We would have significant loss of life, we would lose many elderly, that would reduce burdens in our defunct Social Security System, health care cost (once the wave subsided), make jobs available for others and it would also free up housing in which we are in dire need of,” Turnage wrote in the post that has since been deleted. “We would lose a large portion of the people with immune and other health complications. I know it would be loved ones as well. But that would once again reduce our impact on medical, jobs, and housing.”

Economy uber alles!

He's not the first to come out with comments like this, and I'm sure he won't be the last. Do I need to point out that we're not a forest? These are human lives he's talking about. If we stopped breeding like flies (yes, it turns out he's a forced-birther), our infrastructure wouldn't be under such a strain. (The only life forms that outnumber people on this planet are insects and bacteria. Good company we're keeping.)

Of course, his post (since deleted) was taken "out of context".

Scapegoating

With Trump, it's always someone else's fault. Especially if it's an international organization:

President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he is halting funding for the World Health Organization pending a review of its response to the initial coronavirus outbreak after the organization criticized his restrictions on travel from China.

Trump accused the WHO of "severely mismanaging and covering up" the coronavirus crisis, specifically the initial outbreak in Wuhan, China. He took particular issue with the agency's criticism of his order to temporarily deny entry to the U.S. by most foreign nationals who had recently been in China. The order was issued Jan. 31, when China was the center of the pandemic.

"With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have deep concerns about whether America's generosity has been put to the best use possible," Trump said. "The reality is that the WHO failed to adequately obtain and share information in a timely and transparent fashion.

"It could have been contained at its source," he added.

That last statement is, at the least, debatable. There's no telling how many asymptomatic carriers had left the region for other parts of the world when the scope of the problem was discovered.

This is telling:

"Well, we're going to be dealing with countries," Trump said, adding that he's going to "channel" that money to places that need it.

Hmm -- let's see -- Russia? Turkey? North Korea? Saudi Arabia? Or just anyplace that has a Trump hotel or resort?

In addition to reflecting Trump's pettiness and vindictiveness, it's also indicative of his willingness to dismantle the world order -- Trump has no use for international agreements that do not reflect his vision of America's interests (read that as "Trump's interests"). The idea of "cooperation" of completely foreign to him. (And, or course, one has to wonder how much of his disdain for the international community is dictated by his allegiance to -- or fear of -- Russia. After all, Trump has alienated our allies, weakened the Western alliances as well as our major international treaties, all of which is to Russia's benefit.)

And withholding funding for the World Health Organization in the middle of a major pandemic -- well, that's sort of par for the course for Trump, who never thinks about consequences for anyone but himself.

Via Joe.My.God.

Today's Must-Read: Quid Pro Quo

Yet another example of the axiom "There is no bottom". This is just the way Trump operates:

As we work to find out the scope and goals of the White House’s seizure of medical goods across the United States, a simpler pattern is coming into view: the White House seizes goods from public officials and hospitals across the country while doling them out as favors to political allies and favorites, often to great fanfare to boost the popularity of those allies. The Denver Post today editorialized about one of the most egregious examples. Last week, as we reported, a shipment of 500 ventilators to the state of Colorado was intercepted and rerouted by the federal government. Gov. Jared Polis (D) sent a letter pleading for the return of the equipment. Then yesterday President Trump went on Twitter to announce that he was awarding 100 ventilators to Colorado at the behest of Republican Senator Cory Gardner, one of the most endangered Republicans on the ballot this year. As the Post put it, “President Donald Trump is treating life-saving medical equipment as emoluments he can dole out as favors to loyalists. It’s the worst imaginable form of corruption — playing political games with lives.”

. . .

Were these a subset of the same ventilators? Like money, amidst the COVID-19 Crisis, all ventilators are fungible. It’s hard to know whether President Trump even knew in this case that his pandemic task force had swiped away five times as many ventilators just days before. Indeed, we still don’t whether this is all a central part of the White House’s crisis strategy – grabbing supplies from blue states to hand out to endangered Republicans or red state allies – or simply a layering of corruption over the general chaos.

Remember when wunderkind Jared Kushner said "These are our stockpiles"? No we know what he meant.

Read it. It's more than infuriating.

Via Digby, who adds:

I think this is the tip of the iceberg. There is going to have to be a full pandemic profiteering commissions after this is over. The question is whether or not the Democrats will be willing to “look in the rearview mirror.”

I'm not aT all confident of the Democrats' willingness to hold Trump's feet to the fire -- although they did impeach him. Of course, with Moscow Mitch in control of the Senate, another impeachment will go nowhere. But if we succeed in booting Trump and his criminal gang out of office in November. . . .

Today in Disgusting People -- A Twofer

Franklin Graham and his minions move to the head of the line:

The group building a makeshift tent hospital for coronavirus patients in Manhattan’s Central Park is asking all volunteers to read and follow a “statement of faith,” including rejections of same-sex marriage and abortion.

As the toll of the outbreak on New York continues to increase dramatically, Mount Sinai Health System has been working with the relief group Samaritan’s Purse to open a 68-bed respiratory care unit that will begin treating patients as early as Tuesday.

Praised by Mayor Bill de Blasio (D), the tent facility is one of several efforts to expand medical capacity across the city: A 350-bed facility is set to be erected at the Queens tennis arena home of the U.S. Open, while a temporary hospital has been constructed inside a Manhattan convention center.

Yet unlike the other projects, Samaritan’s Purse has asked all volunteers working at the field hospital — including health workers — to pledge to 11 declarations, Gothamist reports, including one that defines marriage as “exclusively the union of one genetic male and one genetic female” and another that says “human life is sacred from conception to its natural end.”

The Christian group was founded by Franklin Graham, a minister with a famous preacher as a father and a history of making incendiary comments, and has specifically sought out Christian medical staff for the tent hospital.

I'm surprised they haven't demanded that patients sign the same pledge.

And then there's this:

As some local lawmakers questioned whether LGBTQ patients would receive equal treatment, a spokesperson for de Blasio told Gothamist that the field hospital must adhere to Mount Sinai’s nondiscrimination policy.

“Our record on human rights is clear; and we are confident that the joint effort by Mt. Sinai and Samaritan’s Purse will save New Yorkers’ lives while adhering to the values we hold dear by providing care to anyone who needs it, regardless of background,” she wrote to the news blog.

I think it's telling that the statement came from de Blasio's office and not Samaritan's Purse.

Things like this are, I think, one of the elements that differentiate the loudly religious from normal people: they can't even follow the teachings of Jesus (see Matthew 25:31-46 for a good summary) without attaching strings, on the order of "you must belief what we believe" -- even to volunteer to help those in need.

Add in Jerry Falwell, Jr., who decided to re-open Liberty University:

As Liberty University’s spring break was drawing to a close this month, Jerry Falwell Jr., its president, spoke with the physician who runs Liberty’s student health

service about the rampaging coronavirus.

“We’ve lost the ability to corral this thing,” Dr. Thomas W. Eppes Jr. said he told Mr. Falwell. But he did not urge him to close the school. “I just am not going to be so presumptuous as to say, ‘This is what you should do and this is what you shouldn’t do,’” Dr. Eppes said in an interview.

So Mr. Falwell — a staunch ally of President Trump and an influential voice in the evangelical world — reopened the university last week, igniting a firestorm. As of Friday, Dr. Eppes said, nearly a dozen Liberty students were sick with symptoms that suggested Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. Three were referred to local hospital centers for testing. An additional eight were told to self-isolate.

What did anyone expect?

Once again,that unique combination of arrogance and self-importance that marks the blatantly religious.

How Does "Petty and Vindictive" Sound?

It's always been part of the acting president's make-up, but now it's out in the open. This time the target is Michigan:

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer suggested Friday that a growing rift with the White House is affecting shipments of medical supplies to Michigan amid exponential growth in confirmed coronavirus cases.

"When the federal government told us that we needed to go it ourselves, we started procuring every item we could get our hands on," Whitmer said Friday on WWJ 950AM. "What I've gotten back is that vendors with whom we had contracts are now being told not to send stuff here to Michigan. It's really concerning."

Whitmer didn't say who has told vendors to stop sending medical supplies to the state, but strongly implied the order came from President Donald Trump's administration.

If that seems a little circumstantial, how about this?

During a Friday evening press conference, Trump said he's instructed Vice President Mike Pence, "don't call the woman in Michigan."

"If they don't treat you right, I don't call," Trump said of Whitmer.

If you find this unbelievable, consider again what we're dealing with: a sociopath with severe ego problems whose only talent is duping the unwary. Who thinks he should be president for life.

Via Joe.My.God.

Today's Must-Read: Conservatives to the Rescue . .(Update).

of the economy. This post from Tom Sullivan at Hullabaloo is a good summary of the sickness that is the American conservative movement:

American conservatives faced with addressing the COVID-19 pandemic are grappling with the Trolley problem before our very eyes. The classic thought experiment in ethics involves a runaway trolley headed towards five people who will be killed on the track ahead. But you can throw a switch sending the trolley down a side track where only one person will be killed. What would you do?

As an American conservative, you save the trolley company.

He goes on to look at the Senate bailout bill which, as you might expect, is not oriented toward helping workers, He quotes this tweet summarizing the horror:

THE POSITIONING BEGINS — here are some problems with the bill, as flagged by a democrat.

Big four plus mnuchin meeting this am. pic.twitter.com/dlKVKO7WBG

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) March 22, 2020

They consider it a "Randian act of courage." If said it often enough, but I'll repeat myself: Randian conservatism, also known as "libertariansim", born of the philosophy of Ayn Rand (who, you will remember, had no hesitation about sucking at the government teat when it suited her), is the most morally bankrupt excuse for a philosophy that I've ever run across.

Read the whole thing.

Update: I'm making this a twofer, adding on this post from Digby:

If I’m reading the tea leaves correctly it appears Trump plans to announce that he has personally cured the virus with hydroxychloroquine, the epidemic is pretty much over and everything can now go back to normal. Because he wants that to be true[.]

There's a lot of analysis going into Trump's anxiety about the economy right now. I'll put it simply: If Trump has learned one thing about elections, it's something you may remember from the Bush-Clinton campaign in '92: "It's the economy, stupid." Trump is worried about the economy for one major reason: he's knows damned well that if the economy tanks, his chances of winning in November go down the toilet. And that's what it's all about for him: the election. That's why he's been campaigning for the last three years (aside form the fact that's all he knows how to do -- he has no idea how to govern). It's the ultimate popularity contest. It's ratings.

He thinks he's starring in another reality show.

Still Searching For the Bottom

Yeah. posting has been sporadic -- let's face it, the news is all Trump, all the time, and it's pretty depressing. But the regime keeps finding new lows to sink to:

The Trump administration will move on Thursday to weaken a century-old law protecting migratory birds by dropping the threat of punishment to oil and gas companies, construction crews and other organizations that kill birds “incidentally” in the course of their operations.

With the outcome of November’s presidential election uncertain, the Trump administration is moving quickly to finalize dozens of regulatory rollbacks and other actions to weaken environmental protections viewed as burdensome by industry.

Let's face it, industry finds any regulation "burdensome". And it never occurs to Republicans that those regulations are in place because of past abuses. Ergo, if industry would behave responsibly to begin with, we wouldn't need so many regulations.

And Trump, I think, is running scared -- the more dirt that comes out during the impeachment "trial" (sarcasm quotes thanks to Moscow Mitch), the more his chances of winning in November shrink. Plus, there's always the possibility, remote as it is, that the Senate will vote to remove him. (Watch out for flying pigs.) And of course, there's his pathological hatred of Obama, which translates into undoing every beneficial policy enacted in the eight years previous to his coronation -- excuse me, I mean inauguration. (Hey, did you hear the one about land mines?)

So now we have a whole administration that mirrors its head: petty and vindictive. Not to mention crude and clumsy.

Both stories via Joe.My.God.

There's more on this story here.

Today in Disgusting People

A "Christian," of course. This is what you get from an alternate reality:

“So let me get this straight. Obama is a gay man, married to a dude who looks like Chewbacca, & Chewy gets selected as ‘woman of the year’. Trumps’ wife fluently speaks 7 languages, is a class act of poise & beauty & is an actual WOMAN. Yet she gets treated like the Clampetts.” – Self-proclaimed “Christian broadcaster” Sheila Zilinksy, in a tweet that has over 1300 likes.

Trump's wife? Which one?

I don't, as a rule, comment on people's looks as a way to insult them, but Zilinsky has made herself fair game:

According to an update in the comments, the tweet has been deleted, whether by Zilinsky or by Twitter is unknown.

And these racist assholes just can't get over the Obamas, can they?

Today's Must Read

It seems the good citizens of Spokane Valley, in Washington State, elected a real "patriot" to the state legislature. It turns out he's not such a paragon:

The House Republican Caucus has expelled Matt Shea after an investigation revealed that he "participated in an act of domestic terrorism against the United States."

Shea represents Washington’s 4th District, which encapsulates the area surrounding Spokane Valley. He has since taken to social media to call the investigation a "sham." He wrote on Facebook the people behind the investigation do not "share the same political views". He also announced on Saturday to "look forward to a couple huge announcements early next week."

On Facebook he wrote:

Like we are seeing with our President this is a sham investigation meant to silence those of us who stand up against attempts to disarm and destroy our great country. I will not back down, I will not give in, I will not resign. Stand strong fellow Patriots. Thank you to everyone for the massive outpouring of support prayers! I will continue to defend the constitution against tyranny and fight to protect our God given unalienable rights to life, liberty, property, and the ability to defend the same.

Remember Cliven Bundy, who refused the pay grazing fees for using public land -- our land -- for his cattle? He claimed it was his right because it was his land. Well, Shea was involved in that mess up to his neck, including the armed takeover of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge.

And of course, he's a "Christian" -- he has even called for the execution of non-Christian males. (Why males? I have no idea.)

Somehow, Shea and those like him -- basically, the whole "armed militia" movement -- have got it in their heads that they are "patriots" by participating in armed rebellion against the lawful government. It's worth reading the whole article to get a good take on just how far out there these loons are.

And of course, they love Donald Trump.

Via Joe.My.God.

Today In Disgusting People

This is the sort of thing that Trump has brought out into the open:

A Des Moines woman smoked methamphetamine hours before intentionally hitting a 14-year-old central Iowa girl with her SUV this month, according to court documents.

Nicole Poole Franklin, 42, told police she targeted her victim because the girl "is Mexican." Clive Police Chief Michael Venema shared Franklin's admission at a news conference Friday morning.

She now faces an attempted murder charge and a number of other charges from a racially-charged incident that occurred 15 minutes later.

Community members are calling for Franklin, 42, to be charged with a hate crime because she admitted targeting the girl because of race. Authorities aren't ruling that out.

To be honest, racism has always been part of our social fabric. And now that there's an open racist in the White House, all the white supremacists, neo-Nazis and run-of-the-mill racists are crawling out from under their rocks and going public.

Thank you, Trump.

Via Joe.My.God.

Today in Disgusting People: A Twofer

First, Secretary of "Education" Betsy DeVos (whose family money, you will remember, comes from the Amway pyramid scheme). It seems the DoE wasn't really enthusiastic about cancelling student load debt incurred through scam "educational institutions":

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and her Department of Education (DOE) violated a court order which prohibited the agency from collecting student loan payments from defrauded borrowers–and then she drastically under-counted the number of former students who were impacted by that initial illegal decision.

In a 14-page compliance report filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Tuesday, attorneys for the DOE confessed to unlawfully collecting such payments from nearly 46,000 students (45,801 to be exact) who were scammed by for-profit colleges.

Those students attended various campuses owned by the Corinthian Colleges chain and were enrolled in educational programs which DeVos has personally described as “worthless.”

Note that DeVos is a big believer in for-profit colleges -- especially the "Christian" variety.

And second, none other than Trump's Department of Agriculture, implementing another step in the "Christian" dream: starve the poor:

The Trump administration announced a plan Wednesday to end food-stamp benefits for about 700,000 Americans, issuing a new regulation that makes it harder for states to gain waivers from a requirement that beneficiaries work or participate in a vocational training program.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said the new rule will move more food-stamp recipients “toward self-sufficiency and into employment.”

In an economy in which jobs are vanishing. I guess they can always take the jobs that undocumented immigrants won't touch.

It's not totally draconian:

The work requirement covers “able-bodied” recipients. A U.S. Department of Agriculture spokeswoman said it doesn’t apply to recipients who are over 50, disabled or pregnant, or anyone with a child under 18.

It's still 750,000 people without adequate food.

Both stories via Joe.My.God.

There's No Bottom. Part ?

Long and interesting article by Digby about just what a piece of merde our "President" is. I'll let Digby introduce it:

"The president called out her name as he acted out an orgasm in front of thousands of people at a Minneapolis rally on Oct. 11, 2019"

That's the title of her post. It goes on:

It was one of the grossest moments at any of his rallies and that's saying something. It was so gross that it prompted Lisa Page, the "Lisa" he was mocking in that depraved speech to speak on the record for the first time. She spoke with Molly Jong Fast for the Daily Beast:

That was the moment Page decided she had to speak up. “I had stayed quiet for years hoping it would fade away, but instead it got worse,” she says. “It had been so hard not to defend myself, to let people who hate me control the narrative. I decided to take my power back.”

You have to ask yourself what kind of person -- the president of the United States, for crying out loud -- would behave that way? And what kind of people would applaud and cheer?*

It's worth reading the whole thing -- although it's pretty appalling -- or it would be, if we hadn't become hardened to this kind of corruption over the past three years.

* As for the kind of people who cheer on that kind of disgusting behavior, this post gives a thorough analysis of Trump's narcissistic personality disorder, but this bit is, I think, key to understanding his cultists:

It's a long and interesting article about how he's alienated insiders who tried desperately to help him. That, apparently, tracks with what narcissists usually do. But how can we explain his hardcore, unmovable base? That' the strange part. He attempts to explain it:

Those who can’t point to specific achievements may remain loyal supporters because they hear relatively little that is expressly negative about their hero. If the president shot somebody in the middle of Fifth Avenue, would Fox News even cover it? Trump supporters and Trump detractors live in different worlds. They may not speak to one another about politics, knowing that such a conversation is likely to end badly. They get their news from different sources. They stay faithful to their respective political tribes.

But the crux of the matter—the secret to Trump’s success with the base—may be that if bad news can’t quite pierce the Trumpist bubble, neither, in a way, can Trump. The millions of American voters who adore the president do not have to interact with him directly. Unlike the White House staff, they do not have to endure Trump’s incendiary outbursts or kowtow to his unpredictable whims. As anonymous members of a television audience, they can gaze upon their hero from afar.

If they want to get a little closer, they can attend a Trump rally. In the local sports arena or civic center, they can sit just a few hundred feet away from the president, cheering and chanting. They can express their love for the him in the presence of thousands of others who love him too. They can laugh at his jokes and partake of the anger and disgust he expresses toward his enemies. Excitement fills the arena. What outlandish thing will he do? What will he say to capture the headlines of the next day? A Trump rally is a safe space for Trump supporters. They can sit back and enjoy the performance, because whatever he says cannot directly threaten them. He will be gone tomorrow.

And there it is -- Trump keeps the loyalty of his base because they don't have to deal with him on a one-to-one level. They can just worship from afar.

Today in Disgusting People (Update)

Tony Perkins has been on a roll lately. This hit the news last evening (hide your irony meter):

Father, most Americans have little understanding about euphemistic titles like “Equal Rights Amendment” or “Equality Act.” Protect the American people from deliberately ambiguous and contradictory use of words to mislead and manipulate voters, common in politics today.

That's called "projection". It gets worse:

Protect us from tragically misguided efforts to redefine sacred words like “man,” “woman,” “family,” “marriage,” etc., in an effort to overthrow your created order. May your people arise to teach the nations everything you have commanded us. Restore your moral order to our backslidden nation.

This, from a man who thinks that "morality" is composed of arbitrary rules cherry-picked from the tribal taboos of Bronze Age nomads. (And I'll bet you didn't know that "etc." was a "sacred word".)

And this is also from yesterday:

If the last 24 hours have proven anything about Chick-fil-A, it’s this: It was never about the chicken. For millions of Americans, there was a much deeper significance behind every decision to pull in the parking lot and walk through those doors. It wasn’t about the menu. It wasn’t even about the service.

It was that every time someone ate there, they were making a cultural statement. Chick-fil-A was a business, yes. But it was also a giant rebuttal of everything the bullies stood for. Until it wasn’t.

Maybe that’s why people are in such denial. They don’t want to believe that the place where they felt at home, the place they’d put on a pedestal and invested so much personal capital, betrayed them.

This, of course, follows on Chik-fil-A's statement that they would no longer donate to anti-gay hate groups. (Which, as it turns out, was so much BS.)

So, eating a fried chicken sandwich is now a cultural statement, proving that you're a godly person, or something. Who knew? And of course, when hate groups boycott entities such as Target for their inclusive policies, that's doing god's work. (That, by the way, was a big nothingburger -- yes, Target's stock fell, but it was because of Amazon, not the American Family Association.)

I seem to remember reading about Jesus preaching love, acceptance, compassion, kindness, generosity -- or did I misunderstand?

Update: Another bigot weighs in on Chik-fil-A:

In Aug 2012, I coordinated a national @ChickfilA Appreciation Day after they were being bullied by militant hate groups. Millions showed up. Today, @ChickfilA betrayed loyal customers for $$. I regret believing they would stay true to convictions of founder Truett Cathey. Sad.

— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) November 18, 2019

Hemant Mehta notes:

Huckabee is lashing out at the company for focusing on — I repeat — education, homelessness, and hunger. He’s angry that they’re helping the poor instead of sticking it to LGBTQ people.

Huckabee might do well to remember the words of Christ, as related in Matthew 25:41-46:

41 Then he will say also to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry, and you didn’t give me food to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink; 43 I was a stranger, and you didn’t take me in; naked, and you didn’t clothe me; sick, and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’

44 “Then they will also answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and didn’t help you?’

45 “Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Most certainly I tell you, because you didn’t do it to one of the least of these, you didn’t do it to me.’ 46 These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Criminalizing Humanity

At least, that what Trump's government (such as it is) would like to do. Didn't work:

Jurors found humanitarian aid volunteer Scott Warren not guilty Wednesday of intentionally harboring and concealing two undocumented migrants from the Border Patrol in the remote Arizona desert.

Warren, a longtime volunteer with humanitarian aid group No More Deaths, faced up to 20 years in prison. It was his second trial stemming from his January 2018 arrest in Ajo, about 100 miles southwest of Phoenix.

The 12-person jury in Tucson took just more than two hours to reach a not guilty verdict, striking a blow to federal prosecutors who opted to retry Warren after the first trial ended in a hung jury in June.

“The government failed in its attempt to criminalize basic human kindness,” Warren told supporters outside the federal courthouse.

I wonder if they would have arrested him if he was giving food and water to immigrants from, say, Slovenia.

And his base thinks this is OK. Even -- or maybe especially -- the "Christians" among them.

(Sorry -- couldn't access the full article for some reason.)

Footnote: David Anderson had this comment:

This was not a mistrial. This was not a judge tossing charges. This was a jury saying that the federal prosecutors could not prove that human decency is illegal.

Today in Disgusting People

There seem to be a lot of these popping up lately. And here's another twofer.

First, this person, Rebecca Carlson, who was, she claims, a teacher for 28 years. Appearing on Fox News' Tucker Carlson (natch):

Let’s just take the free lunch program that we have in our schools. It started out being pushed by the unions and their friends for poor children. Well, 28 years ago, I had two students in my class on free lunch. Today almost every single child is on free breakfast and free lunch.

So what the unions are trying to do, they’ve been pushing something called community schools. And in these community schools, we’re giving children free healthcare, we’re are giving them free food, free emotional support, and by the way free political indoctrination for their parents.

If these unions and their friends, their politicians, get their way, they would like our schools to be open 24/7. They want to replace the family and families raising their children with our own virtues, they want to replace that with the state. With union-controlled government-run schools.

That’s dangerous. That’s communism when you think about it.

First off, I think she's a little confused -- she should be blaming Obama, or George Soros, or at least "the Left". I mean, blaming the unions? That's so 1980s.

As for all this free stuff -- you think it might have something to do with stagnant wages against rising cost of living? So that both parents have to work, and if they're lucky they can put food on the table?

And any bets on whether she claims to be a Christian? I mean, what are the odds? What was it Jesus said about feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, all that sort of "liberal" stuff? I think it boils down to "Do it"

I pity any kid who had her as a teacher.

And next, Ken Cuccinelli, well-known racist and white supremacist, also acting director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (and by extension, the entire Trump regime), who now wants to charge people for seeking asylum:

The Trump administration on Friday proposed hiking a range of fees assessed on those pursuing legal immigration and citizenship, as well as for the first time charging those fleeing persecution for seeking protection in the United States.

The rule, which will be published on Thursday and will have a monthlong comment period, would increase citizenship fees more than 60 percent, to $1,170 from $725, for most applicants. For some, the increase would reach 83 percent. The government would also begin charging asylum seekers $50 for applications and $490 for work permits, a move that would make the United States one of four countries to charge people for asylum.

It would also increase renewal fees for hundreds of thousands of participants of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, also known as DACA. That group, known as “Dreamers,” would need to pay $765, rather than $495, for a renewal request. The fee hike comes days before the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on the validity of President Trump’s justification to terminate DACA.

A lot of people have commented on the cruelty of this idea, and that's certainly there, but it's really more bully tactics from the bully in chief. By all means, charge people seeking asylum -- who are the people least likely to be able to pay a fee. This whole thing stinks, but it's all of a piece with Trump's agenda:

Former agency officials and immigration lawyers, however, said the decision to charge asylum seekers erased a long-held principle of not placing a financial burden on some of the world’s most vulnerable people seeking protection.

“There was a recognition that the likelihood of their ability to pay is really in question,” said Barbara Strack, a former chief of the agency’s refugee affairs division under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. “The only way to understand this is as a part of the administration’s campaign of hostility against the asylum program.”

You can bet that Trump & Co. would be more than willing to grant asylum to persecuted billionaires.

And if you're waiting for the outcry from "Christian" leaders, don't hold your breath.

It's worth reading the whole article to get a good picture of just how disgusting and petty these proposed fee hikes are.

Via Joe.My.God.

And a special bonus, courtesy of commenter SoCalGal20 at Joe.My.God.

Could Texas be any more intentional?

Houston voters elect 19 Black women to judgeships.

GOP then introduces bill to replace judicial elections w/governor-appointed judges.

Kicker: Bill would end elections only in counties w/500,000+ people, targeting urban areas like Houston. https://t.co/d3xTwkwQ6A

— Leslie Proll (@LeslieProll) November 8, 2019

They really can't stand to lose.

Today in Disgusting People

Junior, boldly going where any number of websites have gone before:

President Donald Trump's son published on Wednesday the name of the alleged anonymous whistleblower whose complaint fired the impeachment inquiry against Trump, breaking strict conventions for protecting officials who reveal wrongdoing in government.

Amid calls by the president himself to expose the whistleblower, Donald Trump Jr. tweeted the name of a CIA analyst which has circulated online for weeks, and linked to a Breitbart news article implying the person was pro-Democrat and anti-Trump.

AFP could not independently verify the whistleblower's identity and is not publishing the name.

Echoing Breitbart, of course, because it's sooo reliable.

And note this:

Andrew Bakaj, the whistleblower's lawyer, would not confirm or deny the reported name, but said Trump Jr. and others were endangering the person as well as the system built to protect whistleblowers.

"Identifying any name for the whistleblower will simply place that individual and their family at risk," he told AFP.

"It won't, however, relieve the president of the need to address the substantive allegations, all of which have been substantially proven to be true."

This is nothing more nor less than intimidation, threatening not only the whistleblower in the present instance, but anyone else who might be considering stepping forward. "At risk" only begins to describe the possible consequences.

It's also illegal, under several different laws. The most relevant are the Wistleblower Protection Act of 1989 and the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2012.

So, will Breitbart and Junior be prosecuted? With Trump cheerleader Bill Barr heading up the DoJ? Please.

Footnote: And Kentucky's other disgusting senator jumps into the fray:

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) blocked a resolution Wednesday reaffirming the Senate's support for whistleblower protections and accused Democrats of "fake outrage."

Here's where the hypocrisy becomes blatant:

Paul objected to passing the resolution after Democrats refused to drop their resolution and instead pass whistleblower legislation that he introduced earlier that day.

"I support whistleblowers, and I do think they have a role to play in keeping government accountable ... but what we have seen over the last few years is that we have a system that we should continue to refine," Paul said.

He argued that his legislation would "make clear" that President Trump should be able to face his accuser. The measure also would expand current whistleblower protections for contractors.

Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) nailed it:

She added that she was "flabbergasted" by a provision in Paul's legislation that would apply the Sixth Amendment to impeachment proceedings.

"Come forward, but we're going to out you, subject you to threats, intimidation, retaliation," Hirono said, summarizing the impact of the provision.

Note that Paul is another one who has been calling for the whistleblower to be outed.

Via Joe.My.God.

Lucky you -- you get two disgusting people for one click.