;)
The Commentariat -- August 14, 2016
Presidential Race
Maureen Dowd argues that Hillary Clinton is the perfect Republican presidential nominee. Dowd bases her case on Clinton's foreign policy & ties to Wall Street. -- CW (Also linked yesterday.)
Jessie Hellman of the Hill: "Former U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez[, who served in the Bush II administration,] became one of several Republicans last week to diverge from the party and back the Democratic nominee for president. 'I think... Hillary Clinton, is the best for the country. I'm not thinking about it as a Republican. I'm thinking about it as a U.S. citizen,' Gutierrez said...." -- CW
Nikita Vladimirov of the Hill: "Former governor of New York and state Democratic Party Chairman David Paterson said ... Hillary Clinton could have handled the FBI and Justice Department's decision on her private email server with more humility.... '"When the attorney general absolved Hillary Clinton and said that there were no criminal penalties that she would be held accountable for, she goes and basically takes a victory lap with President Obama,' Paterson said.... 'What if Hillary Clinton had a press conference and said, "You know something, I am really happy that there are no criminal charges being levied against me, but I recognize I did a lot of things wrong, I used poor judgment, and I want the voters to know that I have learned a lesson from this situation and I will never be in violation this way again,'" he said. 'I think that would have been a much better message than what went on that day." CW: He's right. Hillary Clinton's vanity & arrogance have made her one of the most tone-deaf Democrats ever to hit the national stage. (Joe Lieberman.)
You know, when I started reading articles about meetings on the tarmac between the spouse and head of DOJ, or how Hillary forgot yet another slate of work-related emails, or how the FBI actually recommended an investigation into the Clinton Global Initiative and DOJ said no, or the curious connections between Ukrainian money and Russian money and the Clinton Global Initiative or the so many things the Clintons have gotten away with without any consequence ... I think we're living in a series of 'House of Cards.' -- Carly Fiorina, Demon Shepherdess & candidate for RNC chair
Harper Neidig of the Hill: "Vice presidential candidate Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said on Saturday that Donald Trump's efforts to avoid paying taxes show that he is not committed to supporting the military. Pointing to reports that Trump's returns from the '70s and '80s show that he paid no income tax, Kaine said the real estate mogul is not doing his part in funding the armed services -- and floated that as a reason why the GOP nominee is keeping his more recent returns secret." -- CW
Even Richard Nixon released his tax returns to the public. -- Tim Kaine, in a tweet
Uh, Not Exactly, Tim. Lauren Carroll of PolitiFact: "Nixon did not release his tax returns in 1968 or 1972. The IRS audited Nixon in 1973, when questions bubbled up about a fishy charitable donation.... (This happened around the same time as the Watergate investigation but was a separate issue.) Nixon said one of his most well-known lines amid this scandal: 'People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I am not a crook.' Nixon eventually released a slew of financial information to the public in December 1973, including the previous four years of tax returns, to try to quell the criticism.... However, [a] congressional investigation ultimately found that Nixon owed $476,431 (approximately $2.3 million in today's dollars) in unpaid taxes and accrued interest. Oops."
Katie Glueck of Politico: "Donald Trump's poll numbers are faltering in deep-red states from South Carolina to Georgia, his organization is a mess in perhaps the most important county in Ohio, and he admits that he has a 'tremendous problem' in Utah, which hasn't gone Democratic since 1964. And yet, on Saturday, Trump is hosting a rally in Fairfield County, Conn., a county that Mitt Romney lost to Barack Obama by 11 percentage points, in a state that hasn't voted Republican since 1988. It's a move that is flummoxing and infuriating Republicans who believe Trump should be spending time and resources in winnable states...." CW: Nothing to be flummoxed about; I'm sure this is somehow a money-maker for Trump.
Paul Bedard of the (right-wing) Washington Examiner: "Republican Donald Trump should win the presidency by a slim margin according to a model that has accurately predicted the popular vote since 1988. Using several standards to make his prediction, Alan Abramowitz's 'Time for Change' model done for the University of Virginia's Center for Politics 'Crystal Ball' shows Trump winning 51.4 percent to 48.6 percent for Hillary Clinton. He added that the model shows a 66 percent chance of a Trump victory.... However, in an unusual move, Abramowitz is throwing his own model under the bus and suggesting that Clinton will win because Trump is so different from past presidential candidates and has such high unfavorability ratings that his election forecast basics can't be trusted." CW: GOTV.
Edward Helmore of the Guardian: "Donald Trump's presidential campaign started recruiting 'election observer' volunteers late Friday, after the Republican nominee claimed the only way he would lose Pennsylvania is 'if cheating goes on' in 'certain areas'. The application form on the campaign website links directly to a page soliciting campaign donations with the text: 'I AM YOUR VOICE.' Trump repeated claims at a Friday night rally, without evidence, that he fears a 'rigged' election perpetrated in part by voter fraud. No Republican candidate for president has won Pennsylvania since 1988, and in 2012 the state’s then Republican government, in court over a voter ID law, admitted in legal papers that its lawyers knew of no instances of in-person voter fraud in the state. The law was struck down in 2014." CW: I'm sure Trump's "observers" will all be very polite, civic-minded people. ...
... Rick Hasen: "With Trump's dangerous and irresponsible hyperventilating about voter fraud and cheating in Pennsylvania potentially costing him the election, it is probably no surprise ... that Trump is seeking 'election observers' to stop 'Crooked Hillary' from 'rigging this election.' However, there's a longstanding consent decree that bars the RNC from engaging in such activities." When the RNC tried to get the consent decree lifted in 2013, The Supreme Court upheld the decree but added a December 1, 2017 expiration date. "If [Trump's] activity violates the consent decree, the DNC can ask for it to be extended for up to another 8 years." -- CW ...
One of the things that this can do is get rogue people riled up. Trump sets the fuse and lets someone else do the explosion. It strikes me as a very dangerous thing to be suggesting, because it does lend itself to the possibility of violence at the polls. It just strikes me as exactly the kind of dirty tricks why the RNC consent decree was put in place in the first place. -- Rick Hasen, to Philip Bump ...
... Update. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump's campaign nationalized the effort on Saturday morning. Now eager Trump backers can go to Trump's website and sign up to be 'a Trump Election Observer.'... Trump's pointed reference to how voters in 'certain sections of the state' [of Pennsylvania] were likely to cheat was almost certainly a reference to a debunked claim that the vote was rigged in predominantly black parts of Philadelphia.... 'I think the question is: What would he be organizing the election observers to do?' Hasen asked. 'He is gathering names based on the idea that these observers are going to stop "Crooked Hillary" -- his words -- from "rigging" -- his words -- the election. That to me does not sound like observation or GOTV [get out the vote].'" -- CW
Gray Lady Outlines Why Donald Trump Must Never Be President. Alexander Burns & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: On June 20, Donald Trump's top advisors, including his children, staged an intervention to urge him to "end his freestyle digressions and insults," and & agreed to rein it in. "Nearly two months later, the effort to save Mr. Trump from himself has plainly failed. He has repeatedly signaled to his advisers and allies his willingness to change and adapt, but has grown only more volatile and prone to provocation since then.... In private, Mr. Trump's mood is often sullen and erratic, his associates say.... He is routinely preoccupied with perceived slights.... On Tuesday ... his brain trust ... again urged Mr. Trump to adjust his tone and comportment.... Mr. Trump ... responded receptively." Then he went out & suggested "Second Amendment people" off Hillary Clinton & a few liberal judges. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... CW: I've been watching a British series about an autistic child with a well-meaning but dysfunctional family. The little boy responds to coaching by acting out the way Donald Trump does. ...
... Harper Neidig: "Donald Trump on Saturday pushed back against [the Times report linked above].... 'I am truly enjoying myself while running for president,' Trump wrote [in a tweet]. 'The people of our country are amazing - great numbers on November 8th!'" "The failing @nytimes has become a newspaper of fiction. Their stories about me always quote non-existent unnamed sources. Very dishonest!" Trump also tweeted. -- CW
... Kurt Eichenwald of Newsweek reviews some of the whoppers Donald Trump has told in sworn depositions. "He never tries to make his lies or delusions or fantasies make sense. He just spews to explain away the inexplicable.... Trump ... [now blames] the media for applying the rules of grammar and sentence structure to him...." CW: Oddly, Eichenwald frames his column in the form of a letter to Paul Ryan, urging Ryan to dump Trump, as if Ryan himself had the personal integrity & love of country to do the right thing. (If he does, he's been hiding it for a long time.) Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)
... Dan Balz of the Washington Post: "The unraveling of Donald Trump’s candidacy continues apace, a long and steady decline since the high point three months ago. If he were deliberately trying to avoid winning the election, he could hardly be doing a better job. The hole he has dug for himself is wide and deep.... Rather than looking at weaknesses in his support and trying to find ways to win a few percentage points among particular groups of voters, his words and behavior do the opposite." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Eli Stokols & Ken Vogel of Politico: "Publicly, Republican Party officials continue to stand by Donald Trump. Privately, at the highest levels, party leaders have started talking about cutting off support to Trump in October and redirecting cash to saving endangered congressional majorities." -- CW
Nicholas Kristof: "Trump’s harsh rhetoric tears away the veneer of civility and betrays our national motto of 'e pluribus unum.' He has unleashed a beast and fed its hunger, and long after this campaign is over we will be struggling to corral it again.... The Southern Poverty Law Center ... issued a report documenting how Trump's venom has poisoned schools across the country.... [A] teacher reported that a fifth grader told a Muslim student 'that he was supporting Donald Trump because he was going to kill all of the Muslims if he became president!'" CW: The SPLC, which tracks hate groups, has pretty much identified a major political party presidential candidate as his very own hate group. That is extraordinary. ...
... Here's the SPLC report titled, "The Trump Effect -- the impact of the presidential campaign on our nation's schools." "Our report found that the campaign is producing an alarming level of fear and anxiety among children of color and inflaming racial and ethnic tensions in the classroom. Many students worry about being deported." -- CW
Trump's "Remix" of the GOP's Southern Stragegy: Robert Jones in the Atlantic: "One glaring, underreported clue about the method behind the post-primary Trump madness is his selection of Paul Manafort as chair of his national campaign.... Along with credentials earned from working with top GOP politicians (and a raft of international dictators from the Philippines to Somalia), Manafort also brought decades of experience as an overseer of the Southern Strategy.... It was Manafort who arranged for Ronald Reagan to kick off his post-convention presidential campaign at the Neshoba County Fair just outside of Philadelphia, Mississippi, where three young civil rights workers were brutally murdered in 1964." -- CW ...
... How Kindly Grandpas Became Hateful Lunatics. Bob Cesca, in Salon, highlights how Trump is successfully exploiting the "right rage" that right-wing media have been stoking for decades: "Since at least the Clinton administration, white men have been slowly indoctrinated and, in too many cases, brainwashed by conservative media and its rather loose grip on reality." -- CW
Trump Magazine Survivor Tells All. (And is lucky to be alive to tell it.) Carey Purcell in Politico Magazine: "I had been at Trump magazine for only four months when my first paycheck bounced. We'd heard rumors of the company's financial troubles, but I had no idea how bad it really was until my landlord called me one afternoon to tell me that my rent check hadn't cleared. I logged into my online banking account and saw, to my amazement, that the magazine I worked for -- the one with the billionaire's name on the cover -- had stiffed me.... It felt like I was living in an Onion article: 'Luxury Lifestyle Magazine Can't Pay Its Own Employees.'... By [the] time [the magazine folded], I had been diagnosed with cancer and -- thanks to Trump -- lost my health coverage." -- CW
Daria Sito-Sucic of Reuters: "U.S. actor and producer Robert De Niro said on Saturday that ... Donald Trump should not run for president because he was 'totally nuts'. De Niro made the comments to a Sarajevo audience as he presented a digital version of Martin Scorsese's film 'Taxi Driver', in which he starred, to mark its 40th anniversary. '... he shouldn't even be where he is, so God help us," De Niro said to wide applause in the Sarajevo National Theater.... 'But I think now they are really starting to push back, the media ... finally they are starting to say: Come on Donald, this is ridiculous, this is nuts, this is insane,' De Niro said." -- CW
Rebecca Morin of Politico: "Mike Pence says he is filing his tax returns and will make them available to the public, even as his running mate Donald Trump refuses to do so. 'When my forms are filed and when my tax returns are released it's going to be a quick read,' the Republican vice presidential nominee said Saturday...." -- CW
Tarini Parti & Rosie Gray of BuzzFeed highlight the "jarring" contrasts between Donald Trump's & mike pence's campaign rallies. "At Pence events, the difference between the two isn't lost on voters. Several contended that the governor 'balanced out Trump' and his sometimes 'rash' statements. One of them, Pittsburgh attorney Tony Kovalchick, said Pence 'brings a lot of experience ... and gravitas to the ticket -- like Dick Cheney did.'" CW: Okay, I'll buy that Dick Cheney part.
Fractured History, Ctd. Rebecca Morin: "Donald Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson on Saturday morning said the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan was 'Obama's war.'... [Pierson said,] '... remember we weren't even in Afghanistan by this time [2007]. Barack Obama went into Afghanistan creating another problem.... Later in the segment, [CNN host Victor] Blackwell fact-checked Pierson's statement, saying that troops invaded Afghanistan in 2001 under President George W. Bush.... Earlier this month, Pierson said it was the policies of Obama and Clinton that killed Army Capt. Humayun Khan. Khan was killed in 2004 during the George W. Bush presidency." CW: Pierson also criticized Hillary Clinton: "It was Hillary Clinton and her incidents in Libya, which was also a reckless decision to create that vacuum." She did not, however, note that in 2011, Trump was strongly in favor of the Libyan intervention, perhaps because he's denied it during this campaign season. It's ridiculous for CNN to continue to invite Pierson to appear on air. -- CW
Other News & Views
Binyamin Appelbaum & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "In nearly eight years in office, President Obama has sought to reshape the nation with a sweeping assertion of executive authority and a canon of regulations.... Once a presidential candidate with deep misgivings about executive power, Mr. Obama will leave the White House as one of the most prolific authors of major regulations in presidential history. Blocked for most of his presidency by Congress, Mr. Obama has sought to act however he could. In the process he created the kind of government neither he nor the Republicans wanted -- one that depended on bureaucratic bulldozing rather than legislative transparency." -- CW
Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: "The hacking of Democratic Party computer systems, widely thought by U.S. intelligence officials to be the work of the Russian government, may be giving Washington a new taste of unconventional Kremlin tactics that have long been employed to influence politics in neighboring European countries. Russia has tried hard in recent years to tug Europe to its side, bankrolling the continent's extremist political parties, working to fuel a backlash against migrants and using its vast energy resources as a cudgel against its neighbors." -- CW ...
... Cory Bennett of Politico: "Hackers linked to Russian intelligence services may have targeted some prominent Republican lawmakers, in addition to their well-publicized spying on Democrats, based on research into leaked emails published on a little-noticed website.... The site [DC Leaks] also includes a small 'portfolio' of roughly 300 emails from Republican targets, including purported emails from the campaign staffs for Sen. John McCain, a 2008 presidential hopeful, and Lindsey Graham, who briefly ran for president during this cycle. Both lawmakers are stalwart critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Also included in the dump are emails from 2012 GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann and party officials in several states." -- CW
Joe Davidson of the Washington Post: "Private prisons -- unsafe and insecure. That's the picture emerging from a Justice Department Office of the Inspector General's report that adds to a growing effort to take the profit out of penitentiaries. The report's central conclusion: 'We found that, in most key areas, contract prisons incurred more safety and security incidents per capita than comparable BOP (Bureau of Prisons) institutions and that the BOP needs to improve how it monitors contract prisons in several areas.'... No remedial action will remedy the basic conflict the profit motive provides when corporations are involved in decisions that directly affect the incarceration of individuals. -- CW
Beyond the Beltway
Aaron Mak, et al., of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "A standoff between police and an angry crowd turned violent Saturday night in the hours after a Milwaukee police officer shot and killed an armed suspect during a foot chase on the city's north side. After an hours-long confrontation with officers, police reported at 10:15 p.m. that a gas station at N. Sherman Blvd. and W. Burleigh St. was set on fire. Police said firefighters could not for a time get close to the blaze because of gunshots. Later, fires were started at businesses -- including a BMO Harris Bank branch, a beauty supply company and O'Reilly Auto Parts stores -- near N. 35th and W. Burleigh streets, a grim and emphatic Mayor Tom Barrett said. He spoke at a midnight news conference at the District 3 police station at N. 49th St. and W. Lisbon Ave. He and Common Council President Ashanti Hamilton pleaded with the public for calm. Barrett promised a strong police presence in coming days." -- CW
Ashley Southall & Eli Rosenberg of the New York Times: "A gunman shot and killed two people near a mosque in Queens on Saturday afternoon, according to the police. A congregant of the mosque, the Al-Furqan Jame Masjid, said its imam was among the victims.... The police said they were still investigating whether the shooting, which was initially reported as a robbery, was a hate crime. The police have not released the names of the victims." -- CW
Way Beyond
Michael Weissenstein of the AP: "Fidel Castro thanked Cubans for their well-wishes on his 90th birthday on Saturday and criticized President Barack Obama in a lengthy letter published in state media." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
News Lede
ABC News: "When Simone Manuel touched the wall to clinch a gold medal Saturday night, it was a moment 120 years in the making. The U.S. women's 4x100-meter medley relay team of Kathleen Baker, Lilly King, Dana Vollmer and Manuel -- winners at the Rio Games on Saturday night -- is being recognized by the U.S. Olympic Committee as delivering the nation's 1,000th gold medal in Summer Olympics history. By their count, anyway. Keeping count of the gold total is not as exact a science as one might think." -- CW
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Reader Comments (13)
Kate,
The advice from Nisky Guy and Marie was stellar concerning your oil industry tinfoil hat guy.
I might add a couple of talking points. First, you might say remind Mr. Low Level Chevron VP flunky that those environmentalists Marie mentioned could have targeted him for all the damage caused by Chevron around the world, especially in the third world where they have destroyed the environments of indigenous peoples and sided with local totalitarian regimes to fly in heavily armed "soldiers" to kill protesters. And those furshugiiner tree huggers would be just dastardly enough to send out a whack job chain mail type email of the kind sent and forwarded by extremely low IQ cavemen who lack the brains to do their own research and the ability to make their own judgments on issues of such import.
You can let him know how bad you feel that anyone receiving such rubbish with his email attached might be likely to think him a lower order moron because of it.
And by way of making him feel better, offer him a radish from the garden, or something. Give it a nice coating of motor oil so he'll feel right at home.
Ah, we know what we can look forward to if we continue to read Maureen Dowd. She'll bid adieu to you know who and sharpen her manicured nails for the first female to take over the reins. Below is an article first published by Vox by Jeremy Shaperio and Richard Sokolsky who know a thing or two of what they speak and what they tell us is a reasoned and intelligent argument of why they think Hillary would NOT be a foreign policy hawk as president. I'd send this on to MoDo but I bet she be digging in her dirt pile and would have no time to read.
Reference will follow below:
Here's the link:
https://www.brookings.edu/2016/08/12/why-hillary-clinton-wouldnt-be-a-foreign-policy-hawk-as-president/
If Trumpskyev is looking for poll "observers", he should simply reach out to his pal, Putin, whose security hackers have been hard at work helping Comrade Trump by continuing to attack Democrats. Has anyone yet heard a syllable of condemnation from those snarling lips about a foreign power attempting to subvert a democratic election in the United States? Oh...what's that you say? Comrade Trump is the one who asked Russia for more hacking?
Never mind.
In the meantime, OL' pal Vlad will be happy to help Donaldavich try to steal, er, I mean "observe" the upcoming election. He's a pro at rigging those inconvenient roadblocks to totalitarian control. Just Trump's speed.
Love the idea of Pence providing "balance" to the Trump horror show. Yeah, like a couple of Tylenol balance out colon cancer. And as an extra knee slapper, we get the wonderful comparison with Dick Cheney who brought "gravitas" to Alfred E. Neumann. Sort of like Joseph Goebbels brought journalistic honesty and integrity to the Third Reich; like a dusting of anthrax powder adds some needed piquancy to any dish; like that asteroid gifted the dinosaurs with light and warmth.
Once again, not (very) sorry for Hitler analogy.
Fuckers.
In want of a Sunday sermon I'm too lazy to supply, turned to Douthat, and this morning was found the Trump candidacy has driven him into uncharted territory, relatively sane commentary. Until, that is, the last four paragraphs where he fulfilled his editorial and ideologic obligations by taking an incoherent swipe at those nasty liberals before signing off.
The first part, though, did make some sense to me. Have long pondered how the revolutionary sixties and early seventies I knew could have turned into the Age of Reagan. Over the years, have come up with some answers, most of them deriving from economic disappointment and racial resentment but had not thought much about sex.
A Catholic boy myself, who did think for a while there (1962-1965?) that Hugh Hefner's wooden philosophizing was worth my time, I'm surprised I missed that sex thing but not surprised that uber Catholic Douthat hasn't, and admit his Sunday thoughts about it made me think anew about the revolutions he writes about.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/14/opinion/sunday/a-playboy-for-president.html?
@ Ken: I was going to respond to Douthat's sexy renderings but taking it in a different direction in terms of conservatism gone amuck, but like you I'm too lazy today–-it's 100 degrees outside and this air conditioning makes me sleepy. Instead you may be interested in what gemli has to say:
"Whenever I want to get the real scoop about the sexual revolution, I always turn to Ross Douthat. Anyone who pontificates to the pope about the sin of divorce, rails against same-sex marriage, condemns contraceptives and abhors abortions is guaranteed to provide a fair-and-balanced opinion on the subject. With lips pursed and finger a-wag, we hear from Mr. Douthat about how the sex of the ‘60s has polluted politics to this very day.
But there’s subtlety in this screed. When it comes to Donald Trump, it’s fair to say that his antics have rendered the G.O.P. D.O.A., P.D.Q. There’s no way to defend a party in whose soil the ignorant weed of Trump has taken root. With the Republicanism being a hopeless cause, the only thing Douthat can do is to paint both parties with the same brush, and attribute the decline of Western civilization to a culture war between two equally corrupt sides.
Somehow the fact that Trump is a throwback to a sexist Rat Pack mentality obligates Hillary Clinton to be an equal partner in crime, supporting the evils of feminism and boomer liberalism.
It turns out that both are at odds with Christianity, whose decline is having pernicious social side-effects. How will we enforce proscriptions against homosexuals? Who will protest against abortion clinics? How will children fare without the tender ministrations of the clergy?
Sorry, Ross. Liberals would love to take credit for creating Trump, but he's your baby. Hope you've got plenty of diapers."
Thanks PD. Didn't bother with the comments (most often the case these days; more laziness w/o your good excuse, perhaps?) so missed Gemli but he and I apparently tripped over the same false equivalency boulder.
Douthat did make me think a bit, though, and this time, while he proved he remained one as I expected, not merely that he's an idiot.
Still, don't think I'll invite him to dinner.
Cogent commentary from Douthat on sex? You mean the guy who finds women desirous of sexual congress disgusting and repulsive? Sorry, Rossie, make your speeches to your collection of blow-up dolls. Mature, well adjusted adults are too busy to listen to your intellectually dishonest and sexually warped and frustrated whining.
I ask again: is it impossible for the Times to find thoughtful conservative commentators who are not demented by sex (Douthat) or sniveling, superior solipsism (Brooks)?
The real problem is likely the fundamental fraudulence and dishonesty of Confederate ideology. It's like trying to make a case for unicorns being the most noble life form whose example we should all strive to follow: if only they existed.
Oh, look! Rossie! I see you have a new girlfriend. What's her name? Fifi? Oh, very nice, very nice. Well, after you and Fifi have some fun you can write your next article lecturing the rest of us on the dangers of sex not authorized by wingnut arbiters.
Can't wait.
Advance admission, Akhilleus, that I'm using you--to put off just bit longer a writing obligation I know will not be so much fun.
But...while defending Douthat was not my intent (I see saying something positive about his column could be taken that way but I would have hoped more likely to have seemed the equivalent of praising Hitler's "Mein Kampf" (had to get that reference in) because I liked one of his sentences), I believe that separating some of the elements of the changes I experienced as a youth and trying to chart their development over time, the ways they converged, diverged and combined, is a useful exercise.
Don't usually find Douthat that thoughtful about sex or anything else. Obviously, the unaccustomed strain proved too much for him and he couldn't keep it up.
As for thoughtful conservative commentary, you're right. It's very hard, virtually impossible, to shoehorn thought and conservative into the same place. Because conservative ideas about race, religion and economics just don't fly in the face of today's reality, they flatly don't fit.
That doesn't mean a "conservative" never has a useful or interesting idea. But very, very seldom.
Back to work.
My thanks to Nisky Guy, Marie, Gloria, MAG and Akhilleus for your excellent comments about how to respond to my hate mailing, rich, paranoid neighbor!
I used Nisky Guy's and Marie's ideas and was careful in my use of "insane conspiracy theories," and "angry, uneducated, fearful people" but did say that "God" IMHO had nothing to do with any of this, and it was more likely Fox News.
Gloria, along with my sister, suggested an altar in the garden, and I am considering the possibility. For now, I am staking my plants with a "cross." I may also consider sending Mr. Chevron the You Tube video of Dixie Chicks singing: "Not Ready to Be Nice," if there are no forthcoming assassination attempts on me.
Thank you again! It is good to have sane friends in this fucked-up political environment, and there are not many around here. Coastal Oregon is quite poor and right wing! Lots of Trump/2nd amendment nuts driving their pickups with gun racks on display. I have been advised by the few liberals here to remove my bumper sticker, so my car is not trashed. It says only: "I AM ALSO AGAINST THE NEXT WAR." Some jerk tried to cross out the "against" and substitute "for," but this only drew attention to the original verb! HA!
Kate,
As someone who grew up and except for the years of my fortunately liberal education have lived happily in a more northerly version of your own "God's Country," I grant there is are downsides to its green and blue beauty. Sounds like your neighbor is one of them.
And if it makes you feel better, no matter where you live, you're bound to encounter the ignorant and the boorish. My wife just called me, detailing one such with someone she had to deal with in certifiably liberal Seattle. Don't know how he will vote, but do know he's both a teacher and a jerk and am only too aware we live in a country where about four out of ten (one hopes no more) will vote for Donald Dummkopf.
Keep smiling.
Has anyone noticed the disparity between the rescue efforts for today's flooding disaster in Louisiana and the "effort" put forth during Katrina in 2005? What could account for the contrast, one wonders!!!
What I watched on TV in 2005 during and after Katrina will stay with me till I die. I truly believe there will be an accounting someday.