The Ledes

Wednesday, July 2, 2025

New York Times: “The Rev. Jimmy Swaggart, who emerged from the backwoods of Louisiana to become a television evangelist with global reach, preaching about an eternal struggle between good and evil and warning of the temptations of the flesh, a theme that played out in his own life in a sex scandal, died on July 1. He was 90.” ~~~

     ~~~ For another sort of obituary, see Akhilleus' commentary near the end of yesterday's thread.

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Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.

Marie: Sorry, my countdown clock was unreliable; then it became completely unreliable. I can't keep up with it. Maybe I'll try another one later.

 

Commencement ceremonies are joyous occasions, and Steve Carell made sure that was true this past weekend (mid-June) at Northwestern's commencement:

~~~ Carell's entire commencement speech was hilarious. The audio and video here isn't great, but I laughed till I cried.

CNN did a live telecast Saturday night (June 7) of the Broadway play "Good Night, and Good Luck," written by George Clooney and Grant Heslov, about legendary newsman Edward R. Murrow's effort to hold to account Sen. Joe McCarthy, "the junior senator from Wisconsin." Clooney plays Murrow. Here's Murrow himself with his famous take on McCarthy & McCarthyism, brief remarks that especially resonate today: ~~~

     ~~~ This article lists ways you still can watch the play. 

New York Times: “The New York Times Company has agreed to license its editorial content to Amazon for use in the tech giant’s artificial intelligence platforms, the company said on Thursday. The multiyear agreement 'will bring Times editorial content to a variety of Amazon customer experiences,' the news organization said in a statement. Besides news articles, the agreement encompasses material from NYT Cooking, The Times’s food and recipe site, and The Athletic, which focuses on sports. This is The Times’s first licensing arrangement with a focus on generative A.I. technology. In 2023, The Times sued OpenAI and its partner, Microsoft, for copyright infringement, accusing the tech companies of using millions of articles published by The Times to train automated chatbots without any kind of compensation. OpenAI and Microsoft have rejected those accusations.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I have no idea what this means for "the Amazon customer experience." Does it mean that if I don't have a NYT subscription but do have Amazon Prime I can read NYT content? And where, exactly, would I find that content? I don't know. I don't know.

Washington Post reporters asked three AI image generators what a beautiful woman looks like. "The Post found that they steer users toward a startlingly narrow vision of attractiveness. Prompted to show a 'beautiful woman,' all three tools generated thin women, without exception.... Her body looks like Barbie — slim hips, impossible waist, round breasts.... Just 2 percent of the images showed visible signs of aging. More than a third of the images had medium skin tones. But only nine percent had dark skin tones. Asked to show 'normal women,' the tools produced images that remained overwhelmingly thin.... However bias originates, The Post’s analysis found that popular image tools struggle to render realistic images of women outside the Western ideal." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The reporters seem to think they are calling out the AI programs for being unrealistic. But there's a lot about the "beautiful women" images they miss. I find these omissions remarkably sexist. For one thing, the reporters seem to think AI is a magical "thing" that self-generates. It isn't. It's programmed. It's programmed by boys, many of them incels who have little or no experience or insights beyond comic books and Internet porn of how to gauge female "beauty." As a result, the AI-generated women look like cartoons; that is, a lot like an air-brushed photo of Kristi Noem: globs of every kind of dark eye makeup, Scandinavian nose, Botox lips, slathered-on skin concealer/toner/etc. makeup, long dark hair and the aforementioned impossible Barbie body shape, including huge, round plastic breasts. 

New York Times: “George Clooney’s Broadway debut, 'Good Night, and Good Luck,' has been one of the sensations of the 2024-25 theater season, breaking box office records and drawing packed houses of audiences eager to see the popular movie star in a timely drama about the importance of an independent press. Now the play will become much more widely available: CNN is planning a live broadcast of the penultimate performance, on June 7 at 7 p.m. Eastern. The performance will be preceded and followed by coverage of, and discussion about, the show and the state of journalism.”

No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land. -- Magna Carta ~~~

~~~ New York Times: “Bought for $27.50 after World War II, the faint, water stained manuscript in the library of Harvard Law School had attracted relatively little attention since it arrived there in 1946. That is about to change. Two British academics, one of whom happened on the manuscript by chance, have discovered that it is an original 1300 version — not a copy, as long thought — of Magna Carta, the medieval document that helped establish some of the world’s most cherished liberties. It is one of just seven such documents from that date still in existence.... A 710-year-old version of Magna Carta was sold in 2007 for $21.3 million.... First issued in 1215, it put into writing a set of concessions won by rebellious barons from a recalcitrant King John of England — or Bad King John, as he became known in folklore. He later revoked the charter, but his son, Henry III, issued amended versions, the last one in 1225, and Henry’s son, Edward I, in turn confirmed the 1225 version in 1297 and again in 1300.”

NPR lists all of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize winners. Poynter lists the prizes awarded in journalism as well as the finalists in these categories.

 

Contact Marie

Email Marie at constantweader@gmail.com

Saturday
Aug082015

The Commentariat -- August 9, 2015

Internal links removed.

William Broad of the New York Times: "Twenty-nine of the nation's top scientists -- including Nobel laureates, veteran makers of nuclear arms and former White House science advisers -- wrote to President Obama on Saturday to praise the Iran deal, calling it innovative and stringent. The letter, from some of the world's most knowledgeable experts in the fields of nuclear weapons and arms control, arrives as Mr. Obama is lobbying Congress, the American public and the nation's allies to support the agreement. The two-page letter may give the White House arguments a boost...." CW: Really? Why heed he words of people who know what they're talking about when you could listen to Ted Cruz & Mike Huckabee?

Jason Kolnos of the Cape Cod Times: President Obama went golfing Saturday afternoon with Larry David at a Martha's Vineyard club in Oak Bluffs. Looks like David didn't curb Obama's enthusiasm:

Getty photo via Politico.

Presidential Race

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "A planned speech in Seattle by presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders celebrating the anniversary of Social Security and Medicare was scuttled Saturday after protesters from Black Lives Matter took the stage and demanded that the crowd hold Sanders 'accountable' for apparently not doing enough, in their view, to address police brutality and other issues on the group's agenda.... Local reports put the size of the Saturday afternoon crowd in Seattle in the thousands. Sanders was scheduled to appear later Saturday at a large-scale rally organized by his campaign."

... The Seattle Times report, by Jim Brunner, is here. "'If you do not listen to us, your event will be shut down,' one of the protesters told organizers, who relented and said they could speak before Sanders.... The ... protesters refused to let Sanders take the microphone, prompting rally organizer Robby Stern to say the event was over...." (With video.) ...

     ... Updated story: "An estimated 15,000 supporters packed Hec Edmundson Pavilion and an overflow area as Sanders took the stage to thunderous applause and delivered an hourlong populist stemwinder about his plans to wrest the country from the control of billionaires." ...

... CW: These brats really annoy me. Were this my event, I'd have asked the cops to cuff these screamers & carry them away. Bad optics? Fuck optics. They can buy their own damned soapboxes. ...

... ** David Atkins, in the Washington Monthly, come at this from a philosophical analysis that sure beats my visceral reaction (tho the result would be the same): "... if these actions have done more damage than good, the fault lies not with the protesters so much as the event coordinators who have handed the disruptive agents the microphone at these events." ...

... Evan McMorris-Santoro of BuzzFeed: "Hours after Black Lives Matter protesters shut down a Bernie Sanders rally here, the Vermont senator's populist Democratic presidential campaign once again attempted to cast Sanders as the candidate of a modern civil rights movement. Before a crowd of more than 12,000 at the Alaska Airlines Arena on the campus of the University Of Washington, a new public face for the Sanders campaign appeared. Symone Sanders, a volunteer organizer with the D.C.-based Coalition for Juvenile Justice, was announced as the new national press secretary of Sanders' campaign and was tasked with introducing the 73-year-old senator."

Paul Rosenberg in Salon: "... GOP candidates share a dependence on two broad-spectrum lies: First, that they're better at producing overall growth -- for example: Trump boasting, 'I will be the greatest jobs president that God ever created,' or Bush promising '4 percent growth as far as the eye can see' -- and, second, that growth by itself will benefit everyone." Rosenberg identifies six factors that would actually raise the pay &/or benefits of ordinary workers and documents Republican opposition to measures to implement or legislate each of those factors. CW: Condensed & pumped up a bit, this would be a good stump speech; in fact, I believe it is Bernie's stump speech.

Jill Colvin & Bill Barrow of the AP: "Donald Trump on Sunday professed his love for women and said he would be their best advocate if elected president, dismissing the firestorm of his own making that has consumed the Republican presidential campaign. 'I apologize when I'm wrong, but I haven't been wrong. I said nothing wrong,' said Trump, who called in to four Sunday news shows, skipping only Fox News, the network with which he is feuding.... Trump contended on CBS' 'Face the Nation' that it's Bush who has the problem with women, thanks to a comment the former Florida governor made last week when discussing cutting off federal money for Planned Parenthood." ...

She had blood coming out of her eyes. Or blood coming out of her wherever. -- Donald Trump, speaking on CNN Friday night about Fox "News" host Megyn Kelly ...

Trump's base is more the people who used to have season tickets to the Roman Colosseum. Not sure that they vote in great numbers, but they like blood sport. -- John McQuaid, publisher of the conservative New Hampshire Union Leader

... Jonathan Martin & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Even before Friday night, prominent Republican women said they were worried about how female voters would respond to Mr. Trump's prominence on the debate stage, where he defended imprecations like 'fat pigs' and 'bimbo' to describe women -- and his rivals did not chide him. But Mr. Trump's comment Friday night about Ms. Kelly caused a new bout of consternation among senior Republican leaders, who saw it as the latest evidence that they would not be able to fully conduct a primary campaign as long as he was overwhelming the race." ...

... Ben Schreckinger of Politico: "Unlike undocumented immigrants, John McCain or Rosie O'Donnell, the Fox News anchor enjoys a huge following among the network's viewers, who happen to make up the core of the Republican primary electorate. So picking a fight with Kelly -- as Trump did when he chided her during a tough debate question about insults he's lobbed at women, dissed her in the spin room, and tweeted his complaints about her -- carries risks that Trump's other feuds do not." ...

... Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "For decades, Donald Trump has made flippant misogyny as much a part of his trademark as his ostentatious lifestyle.... In a 2006 book, he wrote of women as objectified collectibles: 'Beauty and elegance, whether in a woman, a building, or a work of art is not just superficial or something pretty to see.' He once sent New York Times columnist Gail Collins a copy of something she had written about him with her picture circled and 'The face of a dog!' written over it."

... Maureen Dowd on Donald Trump's remarks about Megyn Kelly (& other women). ...

Zeke Miller of Time: "On Saturday morning, Trump released a statement criticizing [Erick] Erickson [see yesterday's Commentariat], adding anyone suggesting Trump was referring to menstruation was 'a deviant.'... Not yielding any ground, Trump noted that Erickson has a history of making controversial statements about he's had to apologize for. 'Not only is Erick a total loser, he has a history of supporting establishment losers in failed campaigns so it is an honor to be uninvited from his event,' he said. 'Mr. Trump is an outsider and does not fit his agenda.'"

... CW: I'm not at all sure Trump was suggesting that Kelly posed tough questions because she was menstruating, as most reporters & pundits -- including Erick Erikson -- have assumed. Maybe he was, & if so, his remark is not only boorish (it was boorish & petty whatever he meant), it's nonsensical. Kelly's hormonal balance had nothing to do with the nature of her questions. The debate was a teevee show, like "Celebrity Apprentice." It's scripted. Whoever wrote the questions -- the moderators and/or others -- you can bet a panel of Fox "News" suits vetted them before air time. I'm sure Roger Ailes is loving this. ...

... ** Max Fisher of Vox: "... it's hard to believe that this is actually what's going on here, that this is really about sexism or 'decency' at all, given that Erickson himself has a long history of overt sexism that is every bit as bad as Trump's, if not worse.... It's pretty clear that, when Erickson says he is uninviting Trump for sexism, this is a lie. It's obvious from Erickson's own statement that he himself loves sexism and thinks that hating and disparaging women is not only great fun, but that anyone who tells him not to hate and disparage women is themselves a 'feminazi' or, worse, a fun-hating 'male feminist.'... Fox News has employed Erickson and given him a platform to espouse his hatred of women for years. That Fox News then tried to challenge Trump for advocating these same ideas shows the network's role in creating this problem, and its hypocrisy is now pretending to oppose it." Fisher cites numerous examples of Erickson's commentary on feminazis & specific women like Michelle Obama & Hillary Clinton. ...

... Greg Cwik of New York: "... top [Trump campaign] adviser Roger Stone has either been fired (Trump's version) or quit (Stone's). 'Top adviser' is a relative term on the Trump campaign: As Gabriel Sherman reported earlier this week, the staff consists of only 3-4 people at any one time - the number fluctuates as people leave/ are fired -- and this latest development is a continuation of infighting that's been going on for some time." ...

... OR, as the headline to Ben Schreckinger & Katie Glueck's Politico story screams, "Trump camp in crisis." ...

Charles Pierce: " The party has bigger problems than Donald Trump...." ...

CW: After the kiddie debate, Tom Bevan of RealClearPolitics & Charles Pierce both asked Bobby Jindal if, as president, he really meant to sic the IRS on Planned Parenthood, as Jindal had just volunteered that he would. Even though it's against the law for the president to mess with the IRS, Jindal reconfirmed, twice, that he would. Jindal doesn't have a law degree but he has an advanced degree in political science from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes scholar. After the big boys' debate, Pierce asked neurosurgeon Ben Carson how he would pay for the coming Alzheimer's epidemic:

What the hell, I thought. This guy is uniquely qualified to discuss this particular problem. He gave me some boilerplate about his tax plan, and he explained that Health Savings Accounts, started at birth, will cover the costs of the illness. This, of course, is completely bazats. Alzheimer's is going to cost the country approximately $20 trillion over the next 40 years. The estimated cost of unpaid Alzheimer's care -- usually supplied by aging spouses -- was $217 billion in 2014. HSAs are not going to cut it.

... There's the problem, exemplified in the answers to two Pierce questions. He could have asked the other 15 candidates policy questions, & he would have got similarly ridiculous answers. Not one of these jamokes makes sense. Even where they might be experts on a topic, or at least well-versed, their ideologies or misplaced bravado or something has rendered them incapable of devising & articulating rational policies -- on anything. We complain about the media concentrating on style instead of substance, but the truth is that on the GOP side, there is no substance. There is no there there. The public has now become accustomed to these empty suits. No wonder Donald Trump is enjoying such popularity right now: some Republicans like his style. And style has become everything. ...

David Atkins: "Scott Walker ... bizarrely continues to insist that there's some magical alternative solution to abortion in the rare cases where pregnancy threatens the life of the mother.... Scott Walker is provably wrong. There is no alternative to abortion in these cases to save women's lives. Walker lives in a magic fantasyland.... Just as with supply-side economics and deficit reduction, Scott Walker thinks he can ban all abortions without consequently enacting the state-sanctioned murder of every woman with an extreme ectopic pregnancy.... It would be nice if more journalists exposed that fact, rather than simply repeating the fantasies that they assert in their prepared remarks." Atkins suggests reporters, in this case those at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, could just Google the real story of ectopic pregnancies....

Greg Bluestein & Daniel Malloy of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Scott Walker says he's a "visionary." CW: Beam me up, Scottie.

Greg Bluestein: "Texas Sen. Ted Cruz brought his no-compromise message to the RedState Gathering on Saturday, thrilling hundreds of hardened conservatives who flocked to Atlanta with a pledge to reject 'mealy-mouthed statements about acceptance and surrender.' Cruz received one ovation after another...."

... MEANWHILE, Dan Balz of the Washington Post was very impressed with the other candidates' performances: "... this wee's debate was a reminder that the party has able rivals who eventually could take [Trump] down -- and who also could mount a stiff challenge to Hillary Rodham Clinton in the general election."

Beyond the Beltway

Sandhya Somashekhar of the Washington Post: "A police officer in Arlington, Tex., shot and killed a 19-year-old Angelo State University student Friday after responding to a report of a burglary in progress at a car dealership. Christian J. Taylor, 19, was shot after an 'altercation' with an Arlington officer. Taylor was unarmed at the time, police said. He was one of 585 people shot and killed by police so far this year, according to a Washington Post database of fatal police shootings." Taylor was black. ...

... AP: "Police said on Saturday the suburban Dallas officer who shot and killed a college football player during a burglary call at a car dealership had never fired his weapon before Friday's shooting.... Police said [Officer Brad] Miller was a 49-year-old who had been with the department since September and who had been working under the supervision of a training officer since his graduation from the police academy in March. The police statement said Miller had no police experience before joining the Arlington police force." ...

... Nomann Merchant of the AP: "A Texas police chief promised transparency as the FBI joined the investigation into the death of a Texas college football player who was fatally shot by an officer during a burglary call at a car dealership."

AP: "A toxic and orange-brown sludge spilling from a shuttered gold mine into a south-western Colorado river has reached northern New Mexico.... About a million gallons of wastewater from Colorado's Gold King Mine began spilling on Wednesday when a clean-up crew supervised by the Environmental Protection Agency accidentally breached a debris dam that had formed inside the mine. No health hazard has been detected, but tests were being analysed. Federal officials said the spill contains heavy metals including lead and arsenic."

Missed this one. AP (August 6): "Three of the 16 Planned Parenthood facilities inspected in Florida last week were performing procedures beyond their licensing authority, and one facility was not keeping proper logs relating to fetal remains, officials [of Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration] announced Wednesday.... Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates Executive Director Laura Goodhue said in a prepared statement Wednesday night that the licensing violations resulted from the AHCA changing its definitions of gestational periods and that the centers were operating in compliance with Florida law.... Gov. Rick Scott ordered the inspections last week. He said he was troubled by recent videos describing the organization's procedures for providing tissue from aborted fetuses for research."

News Lede

New York Times: "Frank Gifford, a Hall of Fame running back and receiver ... and then became the low-key play-by-play voice of ABC's 'Monday Night Football,' died at his home in Connecticut on Sunday. He was 84."

Reader Comments (6)

The punditry is missing the point (again).

No way are Trump's admirers going to turn on him for what he said about Megyn Kelly. If anything, they're annoyed at Kelly for having the temerity to suggest that Le Donald should not have said what he did about Rosie O'Donnell, and other 'Feminazis'.

I wrote here some time ago that I hoped Donald would not implode before he had inflicted maximum damage on the Republican brand. Ain't gonna happen. He is the Republican brand -- at least to the hard core. To something on the order of 10, and possibly as high as 20, percent of the American electorate, Trump is a hero and is going from strength to strength. They feel that he says what they think, and what the other candidates ought, but don't have the guts, to say.

Without that 10 - 20 percent, no GOP candidate could get elected dogcatcher at his own family reunion picnic. They all know it, and they're scared shitless.

And Le Donald doesn't give a shit about any of them. He doesn't need to. He's self financed, and gets all the attention any politician could dream of any time he opens his mouth. He can tell the oligarchy, and everybody else, to go hump themselves.

He's sitting on top of the world, having the time of his life. And he's not stupid. He knows damn well he's never going to be President. He's already got the next best thing -- maybe better: the power to hog the spotlight, stir the pot, and watch the others cripple themselves with contortions, trying simultaneously to pander to every element of the electorate without alienating that hard core. An impossible task.

If he does run as an independent, he'll annihilate the Republican chances. He's absolutely capable of doing that just to stay in the spotlight, punish the GOP for not nominating him, and for the sheer fun of it. This makes Donald the most powerful politician in America -- he alone has the power to decide who will be the next President. He knows it, and he's going to milk it for all its worth.

It's an egomaniac's dream of paradise. Love him or hate him, he couldn't care less -- only that you can't ignore him. Nothing can touch him, he has nothing to lose, and he doesn't have to do a damn thing. That's power. Not even a President has all that going for him.

August 8, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterD.C.Clark

@D.C.Clark: I hope you're right. I do wonder how many enemies Trump can make before his schtick gets old.

Since I didn't watch more than 10 minutes of the debate, I don't know if the moderators asked tough questions of the other candidates -- that is, questions that forced them to defend their weaknesses. I think the questions Trump is whining about were legitimate. Any person who disparages women the way Trump has should have to answer for his remarks, at least remarks he's made in the past ten years or so.

Marie

August 9, 2015 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Marie,

Le Donald isn't whining, he's attacking. Every time anyone has called him out on anything he's ever said, contradictions and all, his response has always been to double down and counterattack. And he's not going to stop. He's never backed off or apologized for anything, and he never will. Why would he?

August 9, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterD.C.Clark

I would think that the way candidates manage their campaigns would be indicative of the way they would manage, in part, their role as president. One of the things that impressed me early on about Obama was how well he managed his campaign. Someone, say, like Fiorina, when one looks into her history, finds this:

"In May 2015, Reuters followed up on a story initially broken by the San Francisco Chronicle, reporting that "for more than four years, Fiorina dodged her [2010 campaign staffers], some of whom were owed tens of thousands of dollars in back payments." But, "Ultimately, Fiorina paid them."
Moreover, twelve former high-level campaign workers told a reporter they would "never go to work for her again, and a big reason for that being the fact that they didn't get paid for so long" and had concerns that "she may not be so good at handling budgets."[158][159] One former high level staffer commented, "“I’d rather go to Iraq than work for Carly Fiorina again." Fiorina, who Reuters noted has an estimated wealth of up to $120 million dollars, did not personally respond to the report." (Wiki)

The Black Lives Matter group that took over Sander's podium, as important as their message is, need to find another way of communicating. I find their tactics rude and intrusive, but I suppose they feel that's the only way to be heard. I get that––but aren't you then doing exactly what you are accusing the police of doing?

August 9, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

The Black Lives Matter movement is doing important, vital work, but they need to go about it in a more strategic way. Perhaps, as P.D. suggests, they're at the end of their rope--another unarmed black kid was shot this weekend by a white cop "in training" in Arlington, Texas--I guess he passed his "killing unarmed black kids" test--and feel that even the Democrats, many of whom take their support for granted, have been giving them short shrift. This is probably accurate.

And I should add that it's not only the BLM people who need to rethink their strategy. Democrats need to figure out what the fuck they really stand for. They can't just give lip service to groups like this and expect them to keep coming back to a well that dries up when it's inconvenient for party poobahs. Democrats need to be just as forceful in their calls for reinstating the Voting Rights Act and pushing for inclusion of all groups as members of a democracy, as Confederates are in insisting that only the votes of white, far-right Christianist racists and haters matter.

That being said, if BLM Ralph Naders the Democratic candidate, and the Confederates take charge of everything, they will most certainly regret it, although some of them probably feel, at this point, what does it matter? We get screwed by both parties. Yes, perhaps, but one side will screw you; the other side will screw you then kill you then fuck over your surviving family members and all your friends, then dig you up and blame you for your own death. And screw you some more.

They may be able to bully Bernie Sanders off the stage, but were they to try that with Confederates, there's a chance they'd be shot. That is in no way an attempt to say that they need to sit down and shut up. No sir. They do need to speak up, but they need to do it in a more organized and sophisticated way, if possible. Galvanizing black voters around their cause is one way of making sure their message of "Hey, don't forget us" gets through. It will never matter to wingers, but it does matter to some Democrats and should matter to all of them. And all of us.

I recall, as a kid, the power the AFL-CIO had when it came to presidential politics. Under George Meany, the unions made some mistakes (some of which they're still paying for, decades later; but the electoral mojo of unions, and their ability to strike fear into the hearts of winger oligarchs is one of the prime reasons Confederates love Scott Walker for stabbing them in the back), but the ability to hold out the promise of a huge voting block has always carried significant weight. BLM needs to find a way to leverage the power of their community and make the haters and begrudgers pay through the nose.

August 9, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

The Confederate Weltanschauung and the impossibility of a Right Wing apology.

Trumpy the Trumpet refuses to apologize for odious remarks about women (or Megyn Kelly, who, in Trump's Weltanschauung stands in for all women).

This is hardly news.

Erick Erickson, promulgator of an equally, if not even more disgusting Weltanschauung concerning women, as Marie has more than adequately proven, has not the most miniscule basis for attacking anyone else for their misogynistic tendencies.

In an interview with The Atlantic's Molly Ball, Erickson, infamous misogynistic Confederate creep, attempted to differentiate himself by saying that, unlike The Sour Trumpet, HE (woman-loving Erickson), apologizes whenever he disparages women. I was waiting for Ball, whose work I like and occasionally admire, to ask "Then why so many apologies?" At some point, don't people have to wonder why you keep having to apologize for being a sexist scumbag? Doesn't apologizing for a bad act offer the promise of better behavior down the line?

But she didn't say anything like that. This is one reason these assholes feel like they can say the most abhorrent things and get away with it, and at the same time admit to no hypocrisy when they criticize a fellow caveman for the exact same offense.

It's like Bull Connor whacking someone for being a Klansman.

In fact, according to Think Progress, Erickson, who fires out misogynistic puke rockets like a nail gun, has only apologized once--ONCE--for describing a Democratic National Convention as series of Vagina Monologues because the party dared to allow women to speak.

In his interview with Ball, he intimates that he apologizes for every stupid thing he says. Clearly, he hardly ever does which puts him right up there with Trump as a consummate misogynist douchebag.

As bad as Trump is, Erickson is no better when it comes to hatred of women.

Which brings us to the fact of doing and saying stupid, ignorant, and insulting things and the concept of apology.

You may have noticed, over the last, oh, shall we say, 30 years, that Confederates don't apologize for ANYthing. Nothin'. If they run over your three year old's kitten, they'll blame your baby for letting the kitty run out in the street and attack both of you as lib'rul animal rights Nazis. If your son or daughter gets killed or maimed in a war Confederates lied to start, they'll blame them for not being vigilant or appropriately warlike. If you lose your house because of policies they've put in place that allow banks to shove large, heated objects up your rectum, they'll blame you for not understanding how CAPITALISM works

Most of us, at least those of us who aren't prime scumbags, apologize when we do or say something stupid, because no one is immune to stupidity and no decent person is exempt from the requirement to apologize. Except Confederates. Because decency is not a prime mover for them. Never has been.

For Confederates, the worst thing one can do as a political actor, is apologize. For anything. This is why the Troglodyte press has been on a tear about "Obama Apology Tours". These guys are right up there with right-wing Japanese revisionists who refuse to acknowledge that the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombs had a single thing to do with the war they started. Bush and Cheney think along similar lines.

They have no understanding that apologizing for genuine wrongdoing is the purview of the strong. That's because most of these clowns are amoral flaccid flunkies.

The Decider, one of the lyingest, cheatingest, stupidest, slimiest war criminals in the history of American politics couldn't recall a single bad thing he'd ever done. In his warped mind, he's perfect. As perfect as a malignant cancer tumor.

Psychology Today offers a number of reasons why people like Bush and Cheney and Cruz and the Smart Bush and...whichever Confederate you can name, will never, evah, EVAH, apologize. In fact, whenever they say something horrific, it's a "mistake" or their words were "taken out of context" or misconstrued, as if "Legitimate Rape" was just a misunderstanding.

Wingers will never allow themselves to apologize because if they do, they believe their actions, even it they were genuinely at fault, will be taken as an impression of their character: "If they did something bad, they must be bad people".

That possibility can NEVER be allowed. Jesus is perfect. They're perfect. Anyone who says different? SATAN!!!!!

"Non-apologists fear that by apologizing, they would assume full responsibility and relieve the other party of any culpability—if arguing with a spouse, for example, they might fear an apology would exempt the spouse from taking any blame for a disagreement, despite the fact that each member of a couple has at least some responsibility in most arguments."

Except for Confederates. If the Iran deal goes south and Iran eventually develops nuclear weapons and bombs Israel, Tom Cotton is blameless. Blame only redounds to one side, and that side is NEVER on the right. Didn't Reagan once say that?

This offers one reason that no Confederate can ever admit that guns for everyone is a bad idea, and why they MUST insist that every new mass murder is an isolated, one time only affair. They simply cannot allow any mistakes in judgement or moral behavior on their part to be considered when considering a solution to horrible events. They're pure, after all. Jesus loves them and hates their critics, right?

According to an article on apologies in Scientific American, Those who refuse to express remorse" maintain a greater sense of control and feel better about themselves than those who take no action after making a mistake."

And "...adopting a self-righteous stance may feed one's need for power...And will help save face." Sound like Trump? Sound like Bush? Cheney? Walker? Christie...?

But Confederates who are forced to apologize, like Paula Deen after her racist rants, giddily employ the "Everyone does it" tactic in an attempt to draw attention from their personal failings. "I'm not the only racist. Everyone is to blame." Another version of the "Both sides do it" escape clause for Confederate fucknuts.

It's all about power. Wingers can never admit that they're wrong because, in their jaundiced view, it makes them seem weak, and it gives consolation to their enemies. The European Journal of Social Psychology puts it this way: "...the act of refusing to apologize resulted in greater self-esteem than not refusing to apologize. Moreover, apology refusal also resulted in increased feelings of power/control and value integrity, both of which mediated the effect of refusal on self-esteem."

Wingers,who seem to feel the constant pull of victimhood coupled with feelings of loss of power and insignificance, cannot allow even a core tenet of Christianity to brook their sense of righteous indignation and the need to attack anyone who disagrees with them, no matter how immoral or unethical that action might be.

This Weltanschauung, if anyone is interested, exists exactly 180 degrees off from the teachings of Jesus, the teacher 99.99% of these jamokes claim to admire.

So, are these people hypocrites, douchebags, liars, or evil doers\?

I'm gonna say "all of the above".

August 9, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus
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