US Politics May 2021: Joe Manchin's Choose-Your-Adventure Book

I don't know if the war on critical race theory is being covered in another thread, but our state Legislature became the latest this week to effectively make it illegal for K-12 teachers to talk about systemic racism or to basically do or say anything that makes white kids feel bad. The alleged impetus for the law was a possibly apocryphal tale of a white 2nd-grader who came home from school one day and tearfully asked her mom, "Am I a racist?"

good luck usa

The only solace I can find in any of this — and it ain't much — is that none of this is a new fight. We (by "we" I mean more or less the forces of equality/decency/democracy/labor rights) have been fighting against minority rule by white men since the country was founded. This is just our particular chapter of it.

fuckin' white fragility in action

The alleged impetus for the law was a possibly apocryphal tale of a white 2nd-grader who came home from school one day and tearfully asked her mom, "Am I a racist?"

imagine if the (possibly apocryphal) parent had responded to that question with an actual answer and the kid learned something

Definitely feels like the Democrats need to pit Trumpers and anti-Trumpers against each other.

There are ten of the latter and they all work for think tanks or op-ed pages. Trump increased his share of Republican voters from 2016 to 2020.

but no, better to make it a reactionary cause and make sure that children cannot be taught important lessons in school

xp

Yeah, I had that same thought — if either of my kids came home from school and asked "Am I a racist?", I would be happy for the opportunity to talk about it. (Of course, we talk about it anyway, I'm not waiting for their teachers to prompt them. But I'd be glad if they did.)

it's cool, the government can swoop in and tell teachers what they can and can't say, which was a bad thing when it was allowing them to teach Science in addition Creationism but is a good thing now

Wow America is super racist

― rob, Friday, May 7, 2021

The look on Cruz's face when he realizes the woman is a complete lunatic who believes everything he has been saying https://t.co/PBEuml66us

— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) May 7, 2021

The AC/DC blaring in the background is the icing on the cake.

🐦[The look on Cruz’s face when he realizes the woman is a complete lunatic who believes everything he has been saying https://t.co/PBEuml66us🕸
— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) May 7, 2021🕸]🐦

The AC/DC blaring in the background is the icing on the cake.

That Graham quote is kinda nakedly admitting both that the GOP is effectively on life support and that there is no degradation they won't eagerly suffer in order to avoid kicking the bucket.

Lindsay is talking about himself.

Looks like the woman was a troll?

I mean, it’s still noteworthy and Cruz is obv a spineless weasel

Not sure if anyone else is seeing this, but I'm noticing right-wing Facebook commenters starting to use the framing of "nationalist vs. socialist" in talking about Republicans vs. Democrats. They're leaving off the "white" part of "white nationalist" — and would probably insist that's not what they mean — but the subtext is clear. Doesn't seem like a great trend.

"Christian" also implied there too, of course: https://www.newyorker.com/news/on-religion/a-pennsylvania-lawmaker-and-the-resurgence-of-christian-nationalism

"nationalist" definitely implies white and christian, and also straight.

though i see the new yorker has that covered as well, haha

https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/american-christianitys-white-supremacy-problem

Mastriano grew up mostly in New Jersey, in a military family, and attended Eastern College, a Christian university outside Philadelphia. After he graduated, in 1986, he joined the military, and, as a junior intelligence officer, was stationed at the border of West Germany and Czechoslovakia. Mastriano, like many conservative Christians, came to see the Cold War as a spiritual campaign, applying religious notions of good and evil to U.S. foreign policy. “Seeing awful things in the East, and atheistic, communistic, socialist regimes oppressing people” convinced him of the need for “protecting freedom, the free people of the West,” he told “Crosspoint,” a Christian podcast, in 2018. While deployed, Mastriano often carried a Bible under his arm. “It wasn’t for show,” he said.
In 1991, as the Cold War was winding down, Mastriano was deployed to Iraq to fight in the Gulf War. He believed that he was on the front lines of a new religious conflict, this time against radical Islam. Mastriano’s wife, Rebecca, knew little about his posting, which was classified, and gathered people to engage in what she called “spiritual warfare,” praying that he would prevail against evil on the battlefield. In late February of that year, Mastriano’s unit was about to face Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard, when a sandstorm struck. “Thunder and lightning and rain and sand, and it blinds the Iraqis. We can miraculously see through this silicon and moisture in the air, and we start picking off the enemy,” he said, on the podcast. “Because of this, our small regiment, compared to the armored divisions we were facing, was able to break the back of the Iraqi line and therefore end the war rapidly.” Days later, a ceasefire was announced.

Mastriano believed that this was a miracle, and

deepsigh

Just because you blather on and on about Jesus doesn’t mean you behave according to his very valuable and often otm teaching. Sorry for pointing out the obvious.

Remind me what Saddam Hussein had to do with radical Islam?

The look on Cruz's face when he realizes the woman is a complete lunatic who believes everything he has been saying

i looked for "the look" and didn't see it :'(

i read the gospel of luke again recently and am always taken aback by the number of times that jesus tells everybody to give everything away before they follow him
xp

of course, that is the one metaphor in the bible, and "give everything away" is a metaphor for "make as much money as you can and funnel some of the excess through christian charities, to the degree that it saves you money on your taxes"

he meant "Give It Away" in the Red Hot Chili Peppers sense

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is my body. What I got, you got to get it; put it in you."

Anthony Jesus

Christ, we solved religion in under an hour.

Just because you blather on and on about Jesus doesn’t mean you behave according to his very valuable and often otm teaching.

Yours truly scowling through Charlie Crist's boilerplate speech on Saturday

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/552596-biden-hits-63-percent-approval-rating-in-new-ap-poll

23% of Republicans approve? Higher than I'd expected

xp

amazing

Alfred is the power behind the throne (throne not included).

this man went to a park dressed as if for a chamber of commerce meeting. He wore black buckle shoes.

excellent scowling work

Alfred are you actually scowling directly at the shoes in this photo

lol please someone else emerge. last thing we need is another Gubernatorial term from someone who already was our Governor as a Republican and then later switched parties.

Hell, I’ll take it. Just get DeSantis gone.

I'm cool with Val Demings, though I wonder how safe her and Crist's districts are.

Alfred are you actually scowling directly at the shoes in this photo

― Guayaquil (eephus!)

I was afraid to look at those shoes lest I transform into a Cristian.

Alfred is the power behind the throne (throne not included).

Soto-San!

extremely strong vibes in this photo from Alfred

Crist don't kill my vibe

.@POTUS: "We're going to make it clear that anyone collecting unemployment who is offered a suitable job must take the job or lose their unemployment benefits."

Full speech here: https://t.co/zOJnXufl9Y pic.twitter.com/4B9lKPJWxY

— CSPAN (@cspan) May 10, 2021

fuck this guy

anyone collecting unemployment who is offered a suitable job must take the job or lose their unemployment benefits.

Afaik, unemployment benefits in the USA have always carried this stipulation and still do. The intent of this requirement is fucked up and weights power toward employers, but this is how it has always been structured and it's not about to change any time soon.

why even validate that stupid fox talking point?

It's like he can only go so long without slipping back into stern grandpa mode and hectoring about idleness or weed or something.

I remember years ago I when I was on unemployment, I had to show my 'work search' and where I had gone to look for work (this in CA).. I would just use the phone book and put some random places from the yellow pages. AFAIK, they never checked up on me, or if they did it didn't affect my payments.