Rampant Racism
Disney is in trouble for "racial stereotypes" when they hosted a performance by a Texas high school marching band. The drill team "wore fringed outfits and yelled 'scalp ‘em, Indians, scalp ‘em' near the entrance to the Magic Kingdom." The phrase is part of the school's "Cherokee" fight song. We are shocked, nay, deeply offended that a Disney would allow anyone to perform their school song in public! How dare they allow anyone to believe that Native Americans ever scalped anyone? Or wore fringed clothing?? What kind of lunacy is this?
Classic Case
A member of Russia's parliament is making demands. He wants Alaska returned to Russia. And reparations for the sanctions the U.S. has imposed as well as the parts of Russia (Alaska) now occupied by the U.S. Oh, yeah, and Fort Ross (a former Russian outpost on the California coast). Well, we're big on reparations, so you know we're all over that. Or not.
One-Upmanship
The Bible says that "The Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives" (Heb 12:6). Wales knows better. They have banned all physical punishment of children. From their perspective, God may be pretty smart, but they're smarter. God may consider it love, but they consider it abuse. "And, please, England," they say, "side with us on this. Don't listen to some silly old God."
News You Can Trust
In 2018 Reuters wrote about Ukraine's "neo-Nazi problem." Today they criticize Russia for claiming that there is a neo-Nazi problem in the Ukraine. I wonder where Russia got the stupid idea that Ukraine had a neo-Nazi problem? If the media is our best source of truth, we're in big trouble.
Indoctrination
A parent was outraged when she saw a video of her preschool daughter chanting in class to remove Biden. "The teacher is indoctrinating her students," she complained. Of course, it was at Turning Point Christian School, a place you send your kids to be indoctrinated, and it would be vastly foolish to suggest that other schools are not indoctrinating your students, but, hey, if it gets a headline. Now, I'm not suggesting this teacher did right. Trying to drag preschoolers into political perspectives seems ludicrous at best. But a parent that is "just in shock" because she sent her child to a school and found she was being indoctrinated is painfully naive.
I'm Shocked if You're Shocked
When Biden pulled us out of Afghanistan and turned the country back over to the Taliban, they and he assured us that they'd certainly retain the rights of women in Afghanistan. So it is shocking, simply shocking, to learn that the Taliban has shown itself to be less than reliable by closing girls' high schools. If you're shocked, I'm shocked. Something about "leaving the fox to guard the henhouse."
Cheaper by the Dozen
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a new law that makes abortions cheaper for people on private insurance plans. Because killing babies shouldn't be nearly as expensive as it is now. As opposed to Idaho's governor who signed into law a prohibition of aborion after 6 weeks. Quite a contrast.
The Cure is Worse ...
A study in the Journal of American Medical Association says in 2020 more people under the age of 65 died from alcohol-related causes than COVID. That's when the cure is worse than the disease.
Funny From Around the News
1. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell bravely declared inflation was "too high" and would require aggressive response. The White House recommends that Americans "stop being so poor."
2. Hillary Clinton tested positive for COVID and asked fans for film recommendations. One high on the list was the 2016 film, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi.
3. Joe Biden said, "There's going to be a new world order out there, and we've got to lead it." Fact-checkers assure you you're a conspiracy nut if that raises red flags in your head.
4. Biden's Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson, said she could not define the word, "woman." She said, "I'm not a biologist." Elsewhere a kindergartener earned a PhD in biology by correctly distinguishing a woman from a man.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to figure out which of those stories were jokes and which were actually true (because, as it turns out, some were).
8 comments:
Rampant Racism
If they could harness the energy of Walt spinning in his grave (or wherever he is), we could once again be energy independent.
Classic Case
Is he Putin's brother-in-law?
One-Upmanship
One never hears from Wales. So sad that when we do, it's stupidity like this.
News You Can Trust
The best argument for staying out of that conflict is the "who should we believe" argument. I don't abide nations invading other nations except in self-defense, but that doesn't mean we should pick a side between them. This conflict has some connection to having agreed to have Ukraine return to Russia all the nukes which Russia placed there during the Soviet Union days. Gun control at its worst.
Indoctrination
On the positive side, for once we're seeing children made to chant something intelligent.
I'm Shocked if You're Shocked
Few of the many stupid moves by Biden demonstrate so well how out of his depth he is as president as what he did in Afghanistan. The real blame, of course, is on all who didn't vote for Trump.
Cheaper by the Dozen
This comparison illustrates the "experiment" of uniting 50 states who each run their affairs in their own unique way. Roe v Wade is an example of how one side of the ideological divide poops on that federalism concept. I believe the right to life applies to all human beings and as such there is no law allowing abortion which doesn't run afoul of that most basic right endowed by God upon each and every person of any age. But that one can move from one state to another whose laws and customs more closely reflect one's own is a good thing. I'd prefer to live where that right to life is most protected, even if not completely so.
"The Cure is Worse ..."
But if one had covid when one drank one's self to death, is that not counted as a covid death rather than death by alcohol abuse? I'm confused.
"The real blame, of course, is on all who didn't vote for Trump."
Like a broken record. And all your complaining doesn't seem to change a thing. Trust me. If the man hadn't alienated so much of his own voter base, he wouldn't have lost.
"Like a broken record."
Such is truth.
"And all your complaining doesn't seem to change a thing."
More's the pity.
"If the man hadn't alienated so much of his own voter base, he wouldn't have lost."
But his base wasn't alienated. His base were those who voted for him because they didn't buy into all the lame reasons the rest gave for not voting for him. They focused on the great results and made the only choice which made sense for the United States. The moral choice.
It's called misplaced anger and it is not becoming of a Christian.
Let's think about this for a moment ... in a logical fashion. If a million voters who didn't vote for Trump had voted for Trump (and the election wasn't rigged), then Trump would have won. Proof! No. If Biden's parents had not had Biden, he wouldn't have been president. True. If Marshal's parents had not had Marshal, Marshal would not be upset today about a million voters who didn't vote the way he wanted. True. But none of these logically take the blame. People didn't vote for Trump. Why? Because of reasons they had, right or wrong. Maybe you'll want to blame the media. But the reason we have bad government at this moment is because 1) a majority of voting Americans (60 million registered voters didn't vote) asked for it and 2) the government they elected is bad. I would lay that, then, at the feet of the American people that asked for it as well as the government that is bad. Look, a bad guy comes into your home, threatens your family with a gun, and shoots someone. Maybe, if you had lunged at the right moment, you might have prevented or forestalled it, but the fault doesn't lie with the bystander; it lies with the criminal who pulled the trigger. The fault here lies with the government that is in place and not the people that did not vote for it.
On a simplistic level Art is correct. If some number of people would have put aside their alienation from Trump, then Trump would have won. It's facile, and simplistic approach, and on that level there's some Truth there.
But. let's look a bit deeper.
Had Trump demonstrated a degree of maturity and self control normally associated with adults, would he not have alienated a number of potential voters?
Had Trump shown greater regard for Truth, would he not have alienated a number of potential voters?
Is not voting an expression of one's values?
Is it possible that Trump could have accomplished what he did, and done so in such a way as to not alienate potential voters?
If someone behaves in ways that alienate people, does not the person who chooses the alienating behavior bear the responsibilities for the results of their actions?
It seems reasonable that Trump had access to extensive polling that told him the effect that his behavior was having on the electorate, yet Trump chose not to adjust his behavior to benefit his election chances.
This notion of blaming others for things people do to themselves is getting old. Dan blames Trump/the GOP for virtually everything he doesn't like, Art blames those who Trump drove away for Trump's loss. Here's a crazy notion. Biden can't get GOP support for anything, because he's chosen not to engage in meaningful/good faith negotiation with the GOP. Trump didn't win because his actions drove off people who otherwise would have voted for him. In both cases we see narcissism/hubris/amorality on display.
The expectation that people will abandon every shred of principle and their values for partisan gain seems like a cheap rationalization from both Art and Dan in order to minimize the faults and failures of their political idols.
You have (rightly) gotten down to particulars (although you left out the blame to be laid on the media as well) and I agree. I was only referencing this tendency I see so many times of people blaming the wrong cause. Too many movies where the killer points a gun at a loved one and tells the hero, "If I kill her, it's your fault." Too many Christians who bemoaned their own shortcomings and feared, "It was my fault that he didn't get saved." Too much misplaced blame. How about "You know, if Adam had never been made, none of this would have happened" and blame it on God? Now, we all see that as stupid, but, yet, it seems perfectly in line with too much of the misguided blame we're happy to throw around. In Trump's case, on top of all that you listed and, in fact, all that Art said, we still have that nagging "Did someone mess with the outcome?" question which, again, shifts blame elsewhere. I'm not sure I see the value in blame here.
Stan,
Obviously, as we're seeing that media narrative (to the extent that it is being proven false) obviously played a role. I'd venture the guess that it probably helped Trump get as many votes as it cost him, because it only made a sector of his supporters more rabid in their support.
Your examples are excellent. To suggest that Trump's actions be mitigated, ignored, or downplayed is simply unrealistic. Further, the only way Trump has a chance in 2024 is to gather the folks he drove away back to his cause. I could be wrong, but it seems like blaming the voters you need to reclaim for everything that's gone wrong since 2020(by telling them how stupid they were) is an absolutely horrible strategy to win them back.
Clearly the circular firing squad model is in fashion in a post Trump world.
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