| Author | Message | ||
     Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 3905 Registered: 03-2005 |
To all of the non-US folks who visit this board, I apologize for this nihilistic and insane government currently controlling my country. And I humbly thank every person I talked to in cabs, restaurants and bars in London, Dublin and Edinburgh over the last two weeks who simply assumed without asking that I did not vote for this cabal. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8568 Registered: 05-2005 |
As one of those who met you in both London and Dublin, Randy, I did assume you'd voted for Trump. I was just too polite to mention it. | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 1890 Registered: 08-2006 |
Wait, did something weirder than usual happen I didn't hear about about? All I'm aware of is Trump went to Canada and defecated on approximately 60 years of good will and cooperation among our closest allies then jetted off to Singapore, where he cozied up to - and got fleeced by - a murderous dictator. But the occasion of this new thread makes me think I missed something shocking. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 3906 Registered: 03-2005 |
No, Rob. I thought the thing in Quebec was sufficiently shocking. I felt it needed an apology. | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 1893 Registered: 08-2006 |
Oh, I hope you got the sarcasm in my above post, Randy. What happened was mortifying. I was joking that, increasingly, unthinkable things like this are just another week in the Trump administration. Sorry if that didn't come across! | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 3907 Registered: 03-2005 |
Oops. No, I missed it Rob! Duh. I figure we’re all getting so beat up by things that you might indeed think there had to be something worse. Especially at this manic rate. Though i did at least get Padraig, har dee har har. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8569 Registered: 05-2005 |
I was serious. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 3908 Registered: 03-2005 |
Padraig, you have to be winding me up because them's fighting words! Aside from all the unique disgusting aspects of Trump, such as the fact that he waged an expressly racist campaign against my favorite President of my lifespan, there's the fact that I NEVER ever voted for a Republican in my life. The closest I ever got to that was re-registering to R with the idea of voting for John Anderson in the R primary for President in 1980. Then he promptly dropped out of the R primary and ran as an independent. He was more or less the 1980 election's Bernie Sanders, back when there was such a thing as a liberal Republican. And that, my friend, is as close to the filthy Republicans I ever came. Unfortunately I got on the R mailing list because of that brief registration and received unctious Ron and Nancy mailers for probably a half dozen years. Even though I never had any real enthusiasm for her, I sent $1,000 of my painfully-earned wages to Hillary Clinton's campaign. She and Obama are the only candidates I ever did that for. Which means the Democratic fundraisers have been all over me like midges in the summer Scottish highlands ever since. Harrumph! | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 1895 Registered: 08-2006 |
I've voted R a handful of times, always in downticket races, and always for what I thought was a compelling reason. It hasn't always worked out. I voted for George Ryan for Governor of Illinois some years back. Ryan was a classic old school Illinois Republican meaning he was nothing like the Republicans of today (or really, even the Republicans of then) and he was up against a inexplicably conservative downstate Democrat named Glenn Poshard, who was anti-choice. This was considered unacceptable to many Chicago liberals who didn't vote in lockstep with Democratic party and lots of us voted for Ryan. While Ryan did some good things as governor, like abolishing the death penalty in Illinois, he was eventually convicted of racketeering and corruption, etc. and sent to the big house, like so many Illinois governors. He was the high-ranking Republican I ever voted for and the one I liked the best, so it figures he's also a felon. | ||
| Burgers Member Username: Burgers Post Number: 93 Registered: 05-2005 |
Trump is undoubtedly a moron but the reason he’s been inflicted on the world as president of the USA is Hillary Clinton’s sense of entitlement. For a significant number of voters Trump was the lesser of two evils. If I’d had a vote I’d have agreed with them. Virtually any other candidate would have beaten Trump, maybe even Sanders. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8571 Registered: 05-2005 |
In the last few days in Ireland I've encountered a West Virginian who asked me how Trump is perceived in Ireland and remarked admiringly how "homogenous" Ireland is. If that's not a racist dog whistle, I don't know what is. And he's wrong about Ireland, even in the village I'm from. I've also encountered a couple who initially told me they're from Missouri, then I figured out they're actually from southern Illinois. When I asked why they claimed otherwise, they said it was because "Chicago is so big it skews the vote in the state". So there you go Rob, you and your liberal ilk are shaming downstate Republicans (not foul weather Republicans like you) into pretending to be Missourians. | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 1896 Registered: 08-2006 |
Haha, I love that story. Southern Illinois can go pound sand. Those mouth breathers complain about us all the time. Chicago's the only reason they have paved roads and schools, and guess which one of those two they make any good use of. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8572 Registered: 05-2005 |
Rob, that's funny. Both of this couple are primary school teachers. I hope they're not teaching bad geography to their six-fingered charges. | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 1897 Registered: 08-2006 |
That's great, Padraig! You can't make that stuff up! I do think it's odd they told you they were from Missouri. Their explanation aside, I wonder if, when traveling abroad especially, telling people you live in Illinois (even southern Illinois) gets an "oh, Chicago!" response. Given that parts of this big-ass state are a good six-hour drive from the city and a world away culturally (and scenically), I could see how that could be tiresome. Missouri conjures up, well, nothing. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8573 Registered: 05-2005 |
It was very odd. I think they just didn't want to be associated with city slicker liberals. But you're right, the only thing I could think of about Missouri was grandpa Simpson toasting the 49 states and when Lisa tells him there are 50 states he says "I'll be dead in the cold, cold grave before I recognise Missouri." Which, of course, I delighted in regaling my fake Missourians with. Mayor Daley, the riots of 68, Rob Brookman, there's so much about Chicago for downstate Illinoisians to be proud of. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 3910 Registered: 03-2005 |
Poor Missouri. I think of Truman and St. Louis, neither of which seem to be so bad, though I admit I haven't actually BEEN to St. Louis. I remember a friend of mine on a visit there, texting me about how much he thought I'd like St. Louis. The next text I got was that somebody had spilled a drink on him. Illinois is the state which buried all those prissy uptight rules about governmental ethics. And more seriously I really did think it pretty awesome when Ryan abandoned capital punishment. That was a very big deal. | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 1898 Registered: 08-2006 |
Man, I shouldn't be so grouchy, but nothing gets my goat like someone bashing my city. Missouri's a fine place, and St. Louis is cool, although I don't know if I'd recommend it to an LA-based world traveller as a destination in and of itself. I'd forgotten about that Simpsons line. Ouch. And, yeah, Illinois is cesspool of corruption and political incompetence, that's true. But the downstaters own that, too. You ought to get a load of the Rhodes Scholars they send to Springfield. Pull their strings, and all they say is, "hands off my guns!" and "gimme subsidies!" | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 1227 Registered: 08-2004 |
Saw a quote the other day which summed the Trump border scenario: "these people are more upset seeing black athletes kneeling than they are hearing 4-year-olds screaming in terror. just *think* about that." They call themselves Christians, too. It's fucking hideous and when The Vatican starts lecturing on how to treat children it even becomes absurd. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 3914 Registered: 03-2005 |
Jerry, from a purely selfish point of view one of the very few silver linings I have found in this horrible era is the total unmasking of so-called "Christians." As a gay man I was already familiar with the naked malice these folks would exhibit toward my kind but the rest of the populace seldom witnessed that. Since Trump, it has become perfectly clear to everyone that the "Christians" are anything but. Their only interests are power and money. Nothing else. From this time forward whenever a person tries to invoke Biblical text or claims religious scruples as a basis for some political position he or she will be met with gales of richly deserved laughter. When I was in Dublin I was struck by the name of the Department of Justice and Equality. That spoke volumes to me about the ideals of the nation. The U.S. desperately needs a Department of Justice and Equality. | ||
| TROU Member Username: Trou Post Number: 436 Registered: 05-2005 |
Time magazine has published one of the most powerful and refreshing cover I know! | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 1900 Registered: 08-2006 |
I hadn't seen that cover. Wow. | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 1229 Registered: 08-2004 |
I like the positivity in the face of adversity from you, Randy. Progress in Ireland is great and has been proven in recent weeks. I'm sure you are all aware of the rise of right wing politics all over Europe. The whole Free Tommy Robinson oxymoron has become a good yardstick for assessing the dickishness of the individual. It seems like the world is stumbling from one shit situation to another one a constant loop. In this climate democracy itself is at stake and it's difficult to say whether it's worth keeping. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 3915 Registered: 03-2005 |
Jerry, Ireland seems to be valiantly steaming against the prevailing current at this point. They are one of the very few places providing inspiration. Elsewhere it seems that people have been stricken with collective amnesia and will all need to relearn lessons I naively thought were well settled. Democracy is worth keeping because it's all we have. But this does remind us the democracy is only as good as the people. It's the people I'm wondering whether are worth keeping. Thanks for mentioning Tommy Robinson. I hadn't blundered into any articles on him on my own so didn't know who he is. I love the way rightwingers play victim. In the U.S. they've been pulling on that string for at least 25 years. Those poor little people being denied their right to shove somebody else down! Dickishness indeed. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8582 Registered: 05-2005 |
Let's not forget that "Robinson's" real name, the one under which he was jailed in May, is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon. He presumably thinks his moron followers would be suspicious of his real name. He has also previously used two other pseudonyms, Andrew McMaster and Paul Harris. Hopefully Yaxley-Lennon is enjoying his latest stint in the big house. | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 1232 Registered: 08-2004 |
Yaxley-Lennon pled guilty at his trial then asked for donations for his appeal which you can't do after a guilty plea. The man's a genius. He has the backing from luminaries such as Katie Hopkins, Paul Joseph Watsom & Milo Yiannopoulos. Another bunch of low-life's that have monetised being mouthy and abhorrent using the Ann Coulter business model. |