CousinIT
CousinIT's JournalAmerican Talibanism Descends Upon the UK
National Conservatism conference, May 15-17, Marsham Street, London.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1657328729683632129.html
Keynote speaker at #NatCon, Heritage Foundation President: “Heritage’s position, to be really plain, is that marriage is between one man & one woman, full stop.” Asked if that means annulling existing same-sex marriages, he says “I hope so. That would be good for civil society.”
What follows is a summary #THREAD of the 'Statement of Principles' offered by 'National Conservatism', a Christian nationalist project of the Edmund Burke Foundation - a lobbying 'institute' founded in 2019 with the aim of strengthening the principles of national conservatism".
Libertarian billionaire Pete Thiel, & Charlie Kirk, founder of university-based culture war outfit Turning Point, is a signatory of the National Conservatism movement’s statement of principles, & has been a speaker at most NCC events.
Karam Bales looks at the senior British Conservatives appearing at the National Conservatism Conference with its international right wing network, from Peter Thiel to Viktor Orbán
https://bylinetimes.com/2023/03/10/mps-links-to-christian-nationalism-revealed/
Selected extracts from the 'National Conservatism Statement of Principles':
1. National Independence.
"Each has a right to maintain its own borders and conduct policies that will benefit its own people. We endorse a policy of rearmament by independent self-governing nations."
2. Rejection of Imperialism and Globalism.
"We oppose the liberal imperialism of the last generation, which sought to gain power, influence, and wealth by dominating other nations and trying to remake them in its own image.
3. National Government.
"We recommend a drastic reduction in the scope of the administrative state... (Where) law & justice have been manifestly corrupted, or in which lawlessness, immorality, & dissolution reign, national Govt must intervene energetically to restore order."
4. God and Public Religion.
"No nation can long endure without humility and gratitude before God and fear of his judgment that are found in authentic religious tradition."
"For millennia, the Bible has been our surest guide, nourishing a fitting orientation toward God, to the political traditions of the nation, to public morals, to the defense of the weak, and to the recognition of things rightly regarded as sacred."
"The Bible should be read as the first among the sources of a shared Western civilization in schools and universities, and as the rightful inheritance of believers and non-believers alike."
"Where a Christian majority exists, public life should be rooted in Christianity and its moral vision, which should be honored by the state and other institutions both public and private."
5. The Rule of Law.
"Necessary change must take place through the law. This is how we preserve our national traditions and our nation itself. Rioting, looting, and other unacceptable public disorder should be swiftly put to an end."
6. Free Enterprise.
"We reject the socialist principle, which supposes that the economic activity of the nation can be conducted in accordance with a rational plan dictated by the state."
"Economic policy must serve the general welfare of the nation. Today, globalized markets allow hostile foreign powers to despoil America and other countries of their manufacturing capacity, weakening them economically and dividing them internally."
"At the same time, trans-national corporations showing little loyalty to any nation damage public life by censoring political speech, flooding the country with dangerous and addictive substances and pornography, and promoting obsessive, destructive personal habits."
7. Public Research.
A Cold War-type program modeled on DARPA, the “moon-shot,” and SDI is needed to focus large-scale public resources on scientific and technological research with military applications."
"We recognize that most universities are at this point partisan and globalist in orientation and vehemently opposed to nationalist and conservative ideas. Such institutions do not deserve taxpayer support unless they rededicate themselves to the national interest."
8. Family and Children.
"The traditional family is the source of society’s virtues... built around a lifelong bond between a man and a woman, and on a lifelong bond between parents and children, is the foundation of all other achievements of our civilization."
"The disintegration of the family, including a marked decline in marriage and childbirth, gravely threatens the wellbeing and sustainability of democratic nations. Among the causes are an unconstrained individualism that regards children as a burden...
...while encouraging ever more radical forms of sexual license and experimentation as an alternative to the responsibilities of family and congregational life. Economic and cultural conditions that foster stable family and congregational life and child-raising are priorities."
9. Immigration.
"Today’s penchant for uncontrolled and unassimilated immigration has become a source of weakness and instability, not strength and dynamism, threatening internal dissension and ultimately dissolution of the political community."
"We call for much more restrictive policies until these countries summon the wit to establish more balanced, productive, and assimilationist policies. Restrictive policies may sometimes include a moratorium on immigration."
10. Race.
"We condemn the use of state and private institutions to discriminate and divide us against one another on the basis of race. The cultural sympathies encouraged by a decent nationalism offer a sound basis for conciliation and unity among diverse communities."
Dems & media are not 'trying to make the Supreme Court appear illegitimate'. It IS Illegitimate!
Democrats & media are not 'trying to make the Supreme Court appear illegitimate'. It IS Illegitimate!This is a juvenile excuse Republicans are using to avoid imposing any accountability on their (yes, their) Court. This is also a clue that the court they packed with Federalist Society (Leonard Leo) picks is in function simply an extension of the Republican Party, not a court of law -- and is thus - illegitimate as a court.
The only entity that can “destroy the legitimacy of the Roberts Court“ - is the Roberts Court itself. The conservatives on it at least are doing a stellar job of it. They didn’t need the help of Democrats or the media to destroy their own legitimacy. I’m not sure Democrats or the media could have done such a great job of it as the conservatives on that court have already done -- and the Republicans who plucked them from a Federalist Society list and put them there.
Pointing out court members’ grossly unethical behavior happens after the fact. The dirty deeds that destroyed their legitimacy have already been done by the members themselves. This is why Republican whining about it is also - illegitimate! Not to mention that several members of that court were putsched there by questionable means to begin with by Leo's rightwing extremist organization with a lot of GOP assistance.
Now Republicans are having a major mad because the American people and some in Congress want the Supreme Court held accountable for their self-entitled, grossly unethical, rapacious, solicitous behavior while seated there.
As we know by now, Republicans cannot get the extreme legislation they want passed in the US through normal legislative processes, so they manipulated the packing of our courts - and especially the Supreme Court with right wing extremists who will do their legislative bidding from there instead -- imposing deadly, ridiculous, extreme (and extremely unpopular) laws upon the American people; laws which would never survive the legislative process. They even overturned 50 years of precedent to do so and have threatened to overturn other settled law as well, slamming the nation into legal reverse. For the first time, rights have been stripped away from 50% of the population in one fell swoop. It’s quite simply forced minority, authoritarian rule over the majority. That “Roberts Court” is the crowbar being used by Republicans to do the job. Of course they're fiercely protective of it.
Now that we’ve learned that those Taliban-like bad actors on the Court are unethical, self-entitled, greedy, haughty, solicitous creeps (not to mention serial rapists, a couple of them), Republicans want only to ensure that they are protected at all costs and never held to account for their blatantly unethical behavior - no matter what. Because they desperately need that seedy extremist contingent to do their authoritarian bidding against the American people that the GOP cannot do legislatively.
They defend that illegitimate Court as vehemently as they defend the only other entity that is as unethical, self-entitled, solicitous and rapacious (or more so) as their right wing packed Court: Donald Trump.
Poor Donald -- the rapey, twice-impeached, government-overthrowing, foreign-leader-bribing, stochastic terrorist and mob boss. We just pick on him so badly, don’t we? Certainly it has nothing to do with his own criminal, entitled behavior. Right? RIGHT.
No one else needs to make that Court appear illegitimate. They’ve done a fine job of that all on their own. You’d have to be entirely blind and deaf not to notice. It’s simply un-ignorable. God forbid they should be held accountable for their rotten, unethical, illegal behavior. In the privileged ‘we make the rules - everyone ELSE follows them’ collective Republican mind, that kind of accountability is only for other people, not Republicans themselves— not the Federalist Society contingent on the Court, and certainly not Donald. This is what actually has them all in a haughty huff. The GOP simply believe ethics rules, laws, norms, and all that petty stuff is only for other people. Not them!
In Republican-world, they make the rules other people have to follow. And how DARE anyone question that! To do so is in the Republican mind, abuse!
They are in their minds, self-declared Kings. It’s the only thing that can explain their pretentious hypocrisy and whining victimhood when anyone questions the blatantly bad behavior from any of them -- behavior that would be completely unacceptable from anyone else outside their privileged realm.
Maybe too, Republicans are a bit sensitive about their Federalist-society-packed court appearing illegitimate - BECAUSE IT IS.
This is my writing from Post: https://post.news/@/sevenbowie/2PKAq8Hdn0m1UQPxNDgLNxtg6Qs
(I am sevenbowie on Twitter and Post)
Boomer Dad explains why America is experiencing labor issues and hits the nail on the head
https://scoop.upworthy.com/boomer-dad-explains-why-america-is-experiencing-labor-issues-and-hits-the-nail-on-the-head-557375-557375
Millennials and Gen Z do not necessarily look up to the boomer generation because a majority of them are condescending, often branding the younger generation as lazy. While the boomers enjoyed a fair wage and were able to live out the American Dream, the same cannot be said of the younger generations. One boomer's child took to Reddit to explain their father's take on the worker shortage and for a change, that's one boomer all of the younger generations agree with. He explained in detail how America took a turn for the worse in 1963, effectively moving money from the hands of the workers to that of the owners.
"My father, a 72 yr old retired school teacher [explained] the reason people don't stay at jobs for a long time anymore is because the only way they can get raises is to change companies," they wrote, before adding that workers were always rewarded for their contributions in those days. "When a company did well, that profit was shared with the employees. Today, 'the f*cking evil business owners' keep it all for themselves," they wrote, which probably explains the income inequality gap in the country.
They went on to add that the U.S. education system hampered the progress of the country and limited the critical thinking ability of Americans. "The U.S. education system is designed to condition us to the bullshit work expectations that exist today (he says this started in 1963). The U.S. education system is inherently and intentionally racist," they wrote before adding, "I love my Dad."
Reddit was pleasantly surprised by his take and showered praise on him. "Seeing it was a boomer opinion in the title I clicked on this expecting to be annoyed. Your dad is refreshingly insightful and on point. Why don’t you grab the old man a coffee or a beer for me and tell him the internet gives him a thumbs up," one person wrote. Many boomers weighed in on the discussion and said they were given an unnecessary rap and added that many supported the younger generation. Another added, "Enlightened boomers are some of my favorite people. Old enough to have an awesome experience and smart enough not to buy the bullsh*t that was fed to them!"
As Rail Profits Soar, Blocked Crossings Force Kids to Crawl Under Trains to Get to School
Big Rail are Republican. Big rail's friends in government are Republican. This is more evidence that their "pro-life" and "we care about kids" propaganda is just a sad, thin pretense. Guns, abortion, dangerous rail crossings - the stance of Republicans on all of these issues clearly tell us that what Republicans care about is MONEY and POWER. Nothing else. They don't care about life or lives. Not of children (born or unborn), girls, women, your life, mine, our family's lives, or even those of THEIR OWN KIDS. THIS - is just another facet of the sadistic horror story that is America under Republican authoritarian "profit-and-power-at-all-cost" rule.
https://www.propublica.org/article/trains-crossing-blocked-kids-norfolk-southern
Recent spectacular derailments have focused attention on train safety and whether the nation’s powerful rail companies are doing enough to protect the public — and whether federal regulators are doing enough to make them, especially as the companies build longer and longer trains.
But communities like Hammond routinely face a different set of risks foisted on them by those same train companies, which have long acted with impunity. Every day across America, their trains park in the middle of neighborhoods and major intersections, waiting to enter congested rail yards or for one crew to switch with another. They block crossings, sometimes for hours or days, disrupting life and endangering lives.
News accounts chronicle horror stories: Ambulances can’t reach patients before they die or get them to the hospital in time. Fire trucks can’t get through and house fires blaze out of control. Pedestrians trying to cut through trains have been disfigured, dismembered and killed; when one train abruptly began moving, an Iowa woman was dragged underneath until it stripped almost all of the skin from the back of her body; a Pennsylvania teenager lost her leg hopping between rail cars as she rushed home to get ready for prom.
In Hammond, the hulking trains of Norfolk Southern regularly force parents, kids and caretakers into an exhausting gamble: How much should they risk to get to school? . . .
I have something to say about the 2024 Presidential election
https://post.news/@/sevenbowie/2OsG9rKwEs5O9NXpQTICwc3Qh0BLook, this isn't entertainment, as much as the media likes to treat it like it's a sports event or rock concert. IT'S NOT. This is about deciding who will lead our country for the next 4 years and beyond. It's about which direction our country will move in the future. It's about LIVES. Everybody's. Even those who are too Fox-bubble stupid to realize it.
Sitting home and refusing to vote because you're not "excited", is bullshit. Honestly GROW UP. Being entertained or 'excited' by politics is like wanting to be 'excited' by a root canal. THAT'S NOT THE PURPOSE OF ELECTIONS! So stop expecting it to be. I mean really. DUH.
Sitting home and refusing to vote because you're not "excited" by the choices on the ballot just ensures Republicans will win. Just to remind you who they are, Republicans are the party that is endeavoring to reproductively and sexually enslave little girls and women by taking away access to abortion (surgical and medication), contraception, and any choice whatsoever about their own bodies and make child marriage (statutory rape) and child labor legal.
Republicans are the party who do not believe in public education (or any education - they prefer religious indoctrination instead). They despise science, & facts, they deny climate change, health science, and want to ignore US and world history. They want to silence, imprison, oppress and kill anyone unlike themselves who doesn't think, act, live and look like themselves. And Republicans will never - no matter what happens - support sensible gun laws in this country. While Republicans are oh-so-worried about somebody taking away their guns, they're simultaneously busy actively plotting ways to take away (or cutting or privatizing) your and everyone else's Social Security, Medicare, and any other form of healthcare in America (except that expensive, ineffective for-profit big insurance driven wealth care - they like that). THAT IS WHAT YOU ARE VOTING FOR IF YOU STAY HOME AND REFUSE TO VOTE BECAUSE YOU AREN'T "EXCITED" by your choices on the ballot.
So yea -- get over your sophomoric idea of expecting to be "excited" about elections. That's not the point. And make SURE you get your butts out and VOTE. Because LIVES depend on it. YOURS. And your family's. And MINE. And if they don't this minute, they WILL at some point. Guaranteed.
THAT is the point. THAT is what "pro-life" means.
Full disclosure: I am sevenbowie on Post, Twitter and Mastodon, so I wrote this.
So he *may* be indicted. How sad...
Not sad that he may be indicted but that it has taken 70+ YEARS for this lifelong criminal to be held to account..for ANYTHING whatsoever. And at that, finally, for lying about paying a porn star. NOT stealing highly classified documents when he left office. NOT for inciting a violent insurrection AGAINST HIS OWN GOVERNMENT, NOT for bribing a foreign official (Zelensky), NOT for DECADES of cheating on his taxes if indeed he's ever paid any at all, NOT for forming American militias into a VIOLENT, full-fledged domestic terrorist regime hellbent on civil war and violence against anyone who disagrees with them politically, NOT for telling well over 80,000 LIES and taking MILLIONS in foreign money during his reign of destruction as POTUS. But for this. THIS? THIS?!
When this kind of sociopath gets off scot-free on a lifelong crime spree and we have ONE judge who can DENY a proven safe FDA approved drug to THE ENTIRE COUNTRY with a single asinine politically-driven ruling, when the highest court in the LAND can be STACKED AND PACKED with extremist, lying political hacks shoved onto the bench by extremist billionaires hellbent on turning women into reproductive slaves and ensuring no one can vote but white conservative males (and ensuring that if they try that their votes won't have any effect), then our so-called "justice" system...ISN'T CAPABLE OF DISPENSING JUSTICE. It is a broken malformed, effed-up to hell and back system that needs MASSIVE reform. ALL of it.
"Supreme", my ass.
I'm astounded by the arrogance of a “supreme” court that demands safety and security for itself even as it hands down extremist rulings which put the safety and security of HALF of the population in jeopardy: girls & women - by rescinding the federal right to safe abortion. Their rulings, both those handed down so far (Dobbs) and those planned, are too extreme to get through congress or pass muster with most voters, which is why they are being funneled through this heavily compromised court by special extremist interests.
This court, already packed to the gills with extremists pushed by the Federalist Society, Judicial Crisis Network and others, and via Senate shittery from Mitch McConnell, is incapable of handing down anything even resembling justice in the United States. They now have their sights set on decimating human rights of our LGBTQ citizenry and removing not only the federal right to safe abortion, but also any federal right to contraception - in order to make a handmaid's tale style of US society a sadistic reality, foisted on a population largely at odds with such extremism.
Speaker Pelosi, AOC and other Democrats in congress suffer threats and injury to themselves and their families which are much more egregious and life/health threatening than anything any justice has suffered, and the reason this is happening is because Democrats in congress are trying to protect the human rights that this extremist-packed court is taking away or plans to take away. What about their security? What about the security of America’s girls, women and LGBTQ citizens whose lives and safety this extremist court has put in jeopardy — or is planning to put in jeopardy with their extremist rulings?
How arrogant is the United States Supreme Court and its leader, John Roberts, to demand security and safety for themselves, even while handing down rulings that DENY these same rights and freedoms to half (or eventually more) of our US Citizens (girls, women and LGBTQ persons).
The arrogance is ASTOUNDING. This court does not - as it denies over half of this country safety, human rights, and personal security - deserve these rights itself anymore than the rest of us do. If girls, women and LGBTQ citizens do not deserve full health care, safety and security, human rights and freedoms -- than neither does any member of the Supreme Court.
The only thing truly ‘supreme’ about this court is its demanded privilege to have security, while it denies the same to millions of others in this country. The only thing ‘supreme’ about this court is its arrogance and indifference as it puts the lives of millions in jeopardy, denies them human rights and seeks to deny full healthcare to half or more of us.
And that’s about it. This court cannot be 'packed'. It's already packed. It cannot dispense justice. In fact, that is not why most of the so-called justices sitting on it were pushed there. This court can do nothing but hand down dangerous, extremist rulings that most of America disapproves of and which cannot pass our law making body: congress. So the court has taken on legislating from the bench, as JCN and other John Birch Society-style and other worse and more extreme organizations have and continue to directly influence them to do.
The US Supreme court must be expanded to 13 justices. It must be held to strict ethical standards which are at once enforceable and immune to congressional manipulation. It must be subject to term limits and case lotteries so that when JCN and others file their passel of amicus briefs in order to push cases onto that court so that 'their' so-called justices can rule on them in the manner JCN wishes them to - these court manipulating outfits will have no knowledge or guarantee that the justices hearing their manufactured cases will be those friendly to their extremist cause. Then and ONLY then will this court be even near capable of dispensing anything resembling 'justice'.
Meanwhile, they are an unelected, extremist, manipulated, unaccountable body of lifetime appointees seeped in privilege, hypocrisy, and a bottomless lack of ethics.
"Supreme", my ass. I don't think so.
About Republican messaging and Republican voters I know...
(CousinIT = @sevenbowie on Twitter, FYI. Bungled my chance to change the name here on DU when it was offered.) . I posted this rant here but decided to make it a separate post.
https://twitter.com/sevenbowie/status/1455889797881466887
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1455889797881466887.html
1/ Republican messaging doesn't take the long view. But the Koch/CNP- driven objectives do. Look at what they've destroyed (literally our entire Democracy) in the last 50 years.
2/ Their 'I got mine fuck you' attitude, which includes "well it's on my kids and their kids to deal with that! I just want to live long enough to escape it!" (climate change for example). I have a RW sister and brother with these attitudes. STATED. Out loud.
3/ AND they have their single issues: for the brother it's taxes and 'big guvmint' and men's rights. The sister's concerns are 'socialism' and 'abortion'. BECAUSE their single issues are their focus, BOTH of them vote against their own best interests.
4/ BOTH live on social security, VA bennies and other so-called socialism - ALL of which WILL BE CUT/GUTTED/PRIVATIZED under our soon-to-be authoritarian/Nazi regime.
5/ But they CONTINUE voting for the Republicans who are going to do this to them AND everyone else regardless. Because: abortion, socialism, taxes, big guvmint and white people grievance. And WHEN (not if) their social security is cut, gutted or gone, they'll blame DEMOCRATS.
6/ DEMOCRATS - who CREATED social security and Medicare - will be blamed for destroying these beloved programs they created. 👉 Even though it was Republicans who actually shoved them into the woodchipper.
My siblings are not smart, focused or really even thinking people.
7/ My sister is one of those white non-college educated women who absolutely would have voted for Youngkin if she could. Brother is college-educated but driven by GRIEVANCE: against taxes, women, government, and how abused and mistreated white men are in America.
8/ THESE are Republican voters. THESE are their thought processes & motivations. I can confirm because I hear it every time I talk to them. They're killing themselves & everybody else with flaming ignorance and are too stupid to even know it. And too selfish to even give a damn.
DU ActBlue Fundraising links for DNC, DSCC, DCCC
With the slow coup threatening our Democratic Republic, Democrats need all the help we can give them. Of course anyone can donate via ActBlue anyway but this is set up for the DU community.
The links will get buried in GD but here they are:
DNC
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/du-dnc
DSCC
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/du-senate
DCCC
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/du-house
'The Afghans wouldn't fight for their country". GUESS WHO ELSE won't fight for theirs? Republicans.
Guess who else won't fight for their country. For Democracy - in fact are hellbent on destroying it.
Reference The Big Lie, Trump and January 6th -- and just TODAY for that matter - the terrorist with the truck bomb was one of them. They prefer isolation and extremist propaganda Big Lies that prop themselves up while destroying others - and palling around with Fascist dictators instead of allying with other Democratic leaders in the World. Trump refused to cooperate with America's allies. He insulted them, pissed them off and pissed on them, while cozying up to authoritarian dictators like Putin and Kim Jong Un.
Republicans in America don't want a 'Western way of life' either (Democracy, a Republic or anything even resembling that). They want an authoritarian dictatorship. Tuckems has been ALL OVER Fox Ohhhing and Aaahing over how Hungary did it. Did I mention January 6th yet? Too bad I'm mentioning it again. What the fuck were those assholes fighting for? It DAMN SURE wasn't America. Or Democracy. Or a Democratic Republic. Or a 'Western' way of life.
Come to think of it, Republicans in America have an awful lot in common with the Taliban (which is why I call them the American Taliban):
1. They want a government based on theocracy (their own extreme biblical interpretations) rather than a Constitution or Bill of Rights.
2. They want complete control over their subjects, even to the point of demanding (legislating in fact) that they not take steps to protect themselves, their children or others from a deadly pandemic that is killing people by the hundreds of thousands. They are against public health policy.
3. They are corrupt to the core and break laws with utter impunity on a daily basis, considering themselves exempt as part of their white privilege. They insist others follow those laws though - when it is politically advantageous to Republicans to grouse that others are as guilty as they are in not doing so. Usually, they're just projecting because - well Goebbels taught that this is a very handy distraction and it works. (always accuse the other side of that which you are guilty).
4. They are habitual liars that would make deals with ANYONE only to subsequently stab them in the back for power or money. ANYONE. They can not be trusted in any way with anything and they prefer dealing with others who have the same attitude to play zero sum games with.
5. They are chronically racist, blaming the spread of the pandemic we are currently amidst of on 'immigrants' and 'blacks'. Along with most everything else.
6. They are chronically sexist and would oppress women in the US just like the Taliban does if they can get away with it. When they tire of blaming brown people for all their grievances, they blame women for them.
7. The believe LGBTQ people should be denied all human rights or killed.
8. They do not BELIEVE (never have in fact) in free and fair elections. They prefer installed authoritarian dictators. Ones that THEY ALONE choose.
9. Bearded men with guns. LOTS of them.
SEE what I mean?
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