- The GOP has never been the better party on the economy, and Trump lies all the time, too;
- Paul Krugman fears what Trump and MAGA will do if they lose in the upcoming elections;
- A church wants to instruct the government on hate speech;
- And a MAGA pastor wants to execute Mike Huckabee.
(Posted 19 Oct from items collected 14 Oct)
“Because he’s a businessman” isn’t the argument they think it is.
Salon, Kirk Swearingen, today 14 Oct: The biggest GOP lie isn’t about elections — it’s the economy, subtitled “For 50 years, the GOP has told Americans they are better on the economy. That was never true”
As Krugman and Brin and many others have been pointing out for years. His followers seem not to have noticed this, either:
Donald Trump lies. Telling untruths is not merely second nature to him; it is of the first order, automatic. He lies as naturally as he breathes.
From his claim to being a great businessman and dealmaker to calling himself not the worst president in U.S. history — which he is, by far — but the best, Trump has spewed a firehose of falsehoods to the public. But he has never reserved his lying only for his political opponents.
He has lied to his MAGA followers about, well, everything — bringing grocery prices down, ending this or that war “on day one,” the value of his cryptocurrency offerings, creating any number of “unbelievable” plans to fix our infrastructure, our healthcare, our economy. All those “beautiful” plans that were never plans but so-called concepts of plans. You know, back-of-the-envelope musings on critical national issues while heading off for another taxpayer-funded golf outing.
Suffice it to say: If you can name it, Trump has lied about it.
And I now take Trump and his MAGA fans as primary evidence of extent humans are ruled by tribal protocols and have limited cognitive ability to engage in the real world.
You can explain things, lay out the evidence, how them the video clips, and they will insist they are right and that the evidence is a hoax. There is no way to get through to them, apparently.
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Paul Krugman wonders what will happen after the midterms, should Trump and MAGA lose.
Paul Krugman, today 14 Oct: Nerobefehl Nation, subtitled “My fears for the next two years”
He recalls Hitler and his “Nero decree”:
It ordered the destruction of Germany’s own infrastructure — supposedly to deny that infrastructure to the Allies, but the obvious purpose was to punish his own country.
And now,
All indications are that Republicans are headed for massive defeat in elections that Trump has deliberately made a referendum on himself: “MAGA, pretend that I am on the ballot.” So what will he do when Americans show what they really think of him?
He will, of course, claim that the election was rigged and try to overturn the results. Assuming that he fails, however, then what?
Loss of Congress will limit Trump’s power, but by no means eliminate it. Above all, he will retain immense capacity to inflict destruction on America, not to mention America’s allies.
With examples of his recent actions, from cutting down trees to destroying the Kennedy Center.
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Absolutely not.
JMG, today 14 Oct: Perkins: Church Should Instruct Govt On Hate Speech
He’s upset by a California law about hate speech training.
First, there is no clear legal definition of hate speech. Whatever the intent, the effect is to give the term enormous elasticity. Who decides when a deeply held religious conviction crosses the line from disagreement into “humiliation” or “vilification” and is then defined as hate speech? Second, California law does not make sufficiently clear how this new mandate applies to churches and religious ministries.
When state officials declare the state needs to train society on what is appropriate speech, all of society is in trouble. Frankly, the state of California should not be instructing the church — the church should be instructing the government on what is right and wrong. California is not merely a laboratory for the Left; it is a warning to the rest of America.
He has it exactly wrong. The churches have every motivation to excuse themselves of everything, and accuse nonbelievers of being hateful.
Don’t the religious understand that people of other religions think just the same way? This is why to some degree the religious are dim. They are supremely arrogant, thinking they are right (with no evidence) and everyone else is wrong.
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One of the current villains of cosmopolitan society.
JMG, today 14 Oct, from Religion News Service: MAGA Pastor Calls For Executing Mike Huckabee
Never mind the details. Why are Christian nationalists so eager to execute people? Very OT thinking, despite MAGA’s purported devotion to Jesus and the American Constitution.
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