Regarding the WaPo link about assassinating Trump... reminds me of during the elections, AXIOS was publishing 'surveys' saying how Republicans, not specifying MAGA, etc., thought it would be ok to have physical violence if the elections didn't go the way they wanted. And a certain person wrote in the summary to the link to AXIOS that almost half of 'Republicans' believed that. Following the link to the AXIOS 'survey' which did not in fact come close to 'almost half'. In fact, the wording could very well have said "Less than half". And again, there was no distinction between conservatives, Republicans or MAGA voters. Just clumping all together.
And now the liberals - the commenters at the WaPo are primarily left to far left. The comments aren't saying anything negative about assassination "jokes". They all place blame on Trump, etc., etc. As is very typical, w/ the liberals, it's pointing fingers, never taking any blame, never accepting anything could be wrong w/ anything a liberal could be doing or saying.
The envelope gets pushed by both sides - see gerrymandering, for instance. Though it seems that when things get pushed further into the dark, it is usually the warm, inclusive, bleeding-heart progressives.
I am not a Trump supporter. I voted for him for obvious reasons in '16 and '20, but I did not in '24 bc of this very reason, as the article indicates. This is very predictable on the part of the Left. I have always thought it seems unlikely that Trump will make it through his full four years.
Regardless, I can't wait until Trump is out of office. It had been fun watching him make the Progressives' heads explode, but it is too sick & dark at this point to enjoy -- and before the Libs get all haughty, I know that Don can't help himself and he perpetuates this upon himself. Though every reasonable, logical, and consistent person would never think it would get this ugly. It is crazy to think how far 'they' will go.
my thoughts, exactly. And the D's aren't learning, see who the candidates are. Newsom & Harris (again hahaha).
Wouldn't it be hilarious if the next LA mayor is Pratt, a registered Republican, altho he says he's not running on party 'lines', he just wants to quit w/ the lies & wants to make things better. Everyone else is still in single digits. But, when it comes down to it, people will do what they do & push the D button, just 'cause. Same for Governor. The best running right now is Republican Hilton, altho Trump is backing him & I wish Trump would keep his mouth shut.
Overall, if the next administration is run by the Democrats, like I said, they haven't learned anything, they won't want to mend this divisive great country of ours, it'll just keep the pendulum swinging back the other way.
I so hope Rubio gets the nomination over Vance. He seems more grounded, as opposed to escalation and flightiness, which I see Vance being...it would be more of the same that we need to get away from.
No body wants to see Trump killed because no one wants him to be a martyr. Who's to say that the people calling for his killing are liberals? Don't you think he's done enough now that Republicans may want him dead?
Violence isn't the answer and neither are Vance or Rubio. I don't see either party able to do anything good for this country as they are right now. When China says the U.S. is in decline, they are right. You can shout all you want about making America great again, but truth is that it hasn't happened and won't happen as our country is mired in thinking as liberals and conservatives. Without all of us working together, we will continue to fall farther behind other countries.
As for the boxing story, I took boxing once in the early 1990s. It was a class taught by Mark Breland, who won the 1984 Olympic gold medal. The class was really more of an exercise class and not a true boxing class where we had bouts. It was a very hard workout; boxers are in tip-top shape.
The one thing that stuck with me was when Mark said it was easier to teach women to box/fight than men. Women have no preconceived notions about how one should fight/box. Men always The other thing about the class that stuck with me was the smell. No, not stinky bodies! Bread. Eli's Vinegar Factory was close by and their bread baking smells wafted into the studio as we boxed.
I certainly don't want him killed & definitely don't want him to be a martyr. The only link I've read about the assassination "jokes" were from today's link, & Vanest, 27-year-old progressive influencer = progressive is the key word = liberal. Then read on to see how many of his viewers/readers saw that, passed it on.
Both sides have done it, to different degrees, but this article, imo, seems to show it's escalating, & many blame Trump, which to them, makes it OK. Yes, Trump is awful. Yes, many of us can't wait for him to be gone, but we want him to go by impeachment or peacefully in the night. I certainly don't think any conservatives of any degree would be posting anything about assassination.
This reminds me of when Charlie Kirk was murdered, & some were claiming the murderer was right-wing, since his family were Republicans. Subsequent evidence suggests the murderer was very liberal/left wing. People believe what they want to believe.
During the depression, my hub's dad & his brother, to earn $, w/out formal training, would prize fight; earned their keep.
imo, a perfect comment from another place I read everyday: c/p:
""The problem is labeling people..."
Ding! Ding!! DING!! DING!!! DING!!!!
And in a lot more ways than one.
But even in the current context of our politics and times, why in the world should it mater even one iota as to the "politics" of a cold-blooded murderer? Other than to the people who see politics merely as a way to divide and conquer rather than to unite with dissimilar people to overcome differences in an effort to promote the common good of all.
Dead is dead. And I doubt the victim, whoever they may be, really gives a damn about any ideology or the politics of the person who pulled the trigger or sank in the blade or whatever.
Violence of any stripe, but especially political violence - along with any supposedly clever memes or any too-clever-by-half camouflaged comments alluding to the appropriateness of it for the sake of political ends - should be equally and loudly called out and vigorously condemned by partisans, non-partisans and all Americans with a conscience of any stripe, without regard to politics.
Politics may have been a motive in a killing such as Charlie Kirk's. But it is never, ever a bona fide justification, no matter the "side" involved.
Not in this country. Not ever. A fact that's dangerously diluted by the self-serving whataboutism of laying such acts off on the right or the left.
I did not like Charlie Kirk, and for a number of reasons, some of them based on my own politics.
I did not know Brian Thompson.
Nor do I know Tyler Robinson or Luigi Mangione.
But I condemn these two men equally as cold-blooded murderers and don't care one whit about their personal politics one way or the other.
If convicted, I strongly believe they should both spend the rest of their lives locked up in prison. And not just locked up but locked up and doing the hardest time there is to do. (I'm against the death penalty, but not for the reasons one might suspect, and that's a subject for a whole different conversation.)
And it's no secret here and elsewhere that I absolutely loathe Donald Trump. But if someone managed to assassinate him, I'd loathe them even more, and I absolutely wouldn't care whether their motivation was rooted in one side of the political divide or another.
Because political violence of *any type* against *anyone* is only good for dividing our country even *more* than it's already divided by the people like Donald Trump and those among us who wish to profit from us all disliking and mistrusting one another for reasons insufficient to produce such animosity and distrust if not for their efforts to engender such feelings through their lies, damned lies and ultimately meaningless performative politics."
Let me add another c/p quote from a daily I receive/Desiring God: "IDEAS HAVE CONSEQUENCES:
Victor Frankl was imprisoned in the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz and Dachau during the Second World War. As a Jewish professor of neurology and psychiatry he became world renowned for his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, which sold over eight million copies.
In it he unfolds the essence of his philosophy that came to be called Logotherapy — namely, that the most fundamental human motive is to find meaning in life. He observed in the horrors of the concentration camps that man can endure almost any “how” of life, if he has a “why.” But the quote that stirred me recently was this:
I am absolutely convinced that the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Maidanek were ultimately prepared not in some ministry or other in Berlin, but rather at the desks and in the lecture halls of nihilistic scientists and philosophers. (“Victor Frankl at Ninety: An Interview,” in First Things, April 1995, p. 41.)
In other words, ideas have consequences — consequences that bless or destroy. People’s behavior — good and bad — does not come out of nowhere. It comes from prevailing views of reality that take root in the mind and bring forth good or evil.
One of the ways that the Bible makes plain the truth that ideas have practical consequences is by saying things like, “Whatever was written in former days was written . . . [that] we might have hope” (Romans 15:4). The ideas presented in the Scriptures produce the practical consequence of hope.
Again, Paul says, “The aim of our charge is love” (1 Timothy 1:5). The imparting of ideas through a “charge” or through “instruction” produces love.
Hope and love do not come from nowhere. They grow out of ideas — views of reality — revealed in the Scriptures.
Another way the Scriptures show us that ideas have consequences is by using the word “therefore” (1,039 times in the NASB). “Therefore” means that what follows comes from somewhere. For example, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). Or: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). Or: “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow” (Matthew 6:34).
If we want to live in the power of these great practical “therefores,” we must be gripped by the ideas — the views of reality — that go before them and stand under them. Ideas have consequences. So, let’s bring all our ideas under the authority of God’s word."
“This whole comment section whew boy howdy I'm getting a cramp from laughing, especially at one comment that says "dumb as dirt, as mean as snakes". I live in one of those rural towns where 80% worships the fat orange jesus and the other 20% is scared to say otherwise. Faux News does more programming than Microsoft around here and facts have become an irritating outsider that is batted away with a conspiracy theory, like holy water on a vampire. I think one of my In-laws actually hissed at me one day when I presented evidence to contradict their nonsense.”
Darrell, you quote others to back up your awful, divisive beliefs. You are a prime example of someone who will not “give it up”, not want to find compromise , common beliefs. To you, it’s “”you” vs “”us”
There’s a term called sea-lioning. It’s a subtle form of harassment that involves people finding others they don’t like and inundating them with passive-aggressive questions and requests for evidence under the guise of civility and open conversation. “I’m just trying to wrap my brain around this…” followed by a long series of rebuttals and arguments, and if you opt out of the conversation, you’re the uncivil one.
There’s another term coined by a psychologist in the 90s that’s also relevant: DARVO. It’s an acronym: Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender. It’s a subtle form of harassment that’s used by abusers & manipulators. The gist is similar: wait until someone is offended, or worn down, or worse, hurt, and then turn it back on them to paint yourself as the victim and them as the real instigator. It’s a horrible blend of gaslighting, control, and demoralizing blame.
Both are known more generally as bad-faith arguments: arguments made with the intention of misleading or harassing rather than seeking truth or understanding, but masquerading as the latter. Our social need for civility and politeness is sometimes weaponized—especially against people who are expected to be more civil and polite.
This is harassment. And you won’t ‘win’ an argument, and a conversation will not proceed in any meaningful manner.
I’m a firm believer that the world needs to be a kinder place, and there’s a lot of room for that in our conversations, both online and in real life. If someone is genuinely seeking your opinion or compromise, talk honestly and patiently with them. But there should also be recognition that a positive outcome is just not possible in some interactions.
To Critics, Trump Remarks Reveal a Billionaire Out of Touch
The president has never pretended to be an ordinary American, but a recent “truth bomb” has opened him to criticism that he doesn’t grasp the economic strain of his war with Iran.
“Not even a little bit,” he said.
“I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation,” Mr. Trump continued, a stunningly frank admission that came after weeks spent either downplaying the conflict’s economic toll or simply asking Americans to be patient.
Mr. Trump has profited from the presidency like never before. Most recently, his middle son Eric accompanied him to China, raising questions about the lines between government business and private enterprise. Eric Trump leads the Trump family business, which has flirted with Chinese business deals over the years.
A new CNN poll found that 77 percent of Americans, including a majority of Republicans, thought Mr. Trump’s policies had increased the cost of living in their communities.
— NYT
(Looking forward to the personal attacks for this one.)
Millions of people voted for these animal welfare laws. Congress is trying to overturn them.
How the new Farm Bill could keep millions of pigs locked in tiny cages.
Key takeaways
-Most of America’s 6 million female breeding pigs are confined in gestation crates — tiny enclosures that prevent them from even turning around. It’s considered to be one of the cruelest farming practices.
-Voters in California and Massachusetts have voted to prohibit the use of the crates, and prohibit the sale of pork from farms that use the crates.
-The pork industry has sued California and Massachusetts numerous times in a longrunning effort to repeal the laws, and have failed in each court case.
-The industry has also lobbied Congress to pass legislation that would nullify the laws, and they just had a partial victory, with their desired legislation added into the House Farm Bill.
-The fight is now in the US Senate, which is drafting its own Farm Bill.
Regarding the WaPo link about assassinating Trump... reminds me of during the elections, AXIOS was publishing 'surveys' saying how Republicans, not specifying MAGA, etc., thought it would be ok to have physical violence if the elections didn't go the way they wanted. And a certain person wrote in the summary to the link to AXIOS that almost half of 'Republicans' believed that. Following the link to the AXIOS 'survey' which did not in fact come close to 'almost half'. In fact, the wording could very well have said "Less than half". And again, there was no distinction between conservatives, Republicans or MAGA voters. Just clumping all together.
And now the liberals - the commenters at the WaPo are primarily left to far left. The comments aren't saying anything negative about assassination "jokes". They all place blame on Trump, etc., etc. As is very typical, w/ the liberals, it's pointing fingers, never taking any blame, never accepting anything could be wrong w/ anything a liberal could be doing or saying.
The envelope gets pushed by both sides - see gerrymandering, for instance. Though it seems that when things get pushed further into the dark, it is usually the warm, inclusive, bleeding-heart progressives.
I am not a Trump supporter. I voted for him for obvious reasons in '16 and '20, but I did not in '24 bc of this very reason, as the article indicates. This is very predictable on the part of the Left. I have always thought it seems unlikely that Trump will make it through his full four years.
Regardless, I can't wait until Trump is out of office. It had been fun watching him make the Progressives' heads explode, but it is too sick & dark at this point to enjoy -- and before the Libs get all haughty, I know that Don can't help himself and he perpetuates this upon himself. Though every reasonable, logical, and consistent person would never think it would get this ugly. It is crazy to think how far 'they' will go.
my thoughts, exactly. And the D's aren't learning, see who the candidates are. Newsom & Harris (again hahaha).
Wouldn't it be hilarious if the next LA mayor is Pratt, a registered Republican, altho he says he's not running on party 'lines', he just wants to quit w/ the lies & wants to make things better. Everyone else is still in single digits. But, when it comes down to it, people will do what they do & push the D button, just 'cause. Same for Governor. The best running right now is Republican Hilton, altho Trump is backing him & I wish Trump would keep his mouth shut.
Overall, if the next administration is run by the Democrats, like I said, they haven't learned anything, they won't want to mend this divisive great country of ours, it'll just keep the pendulum swinging back the other way.
Bingo! It would be hilarious!
I so hope Rubio gets the nomination over Vance. He seems more grounded, as opposed to escalation and flightiness, which I see Vance being...it would be more of the same that we need to get away from.
No body wants to see Trump killed because no one wants him to be a martyr. Who's to say that the people calling for his killing are liberals? Don't you think he's done enough now that Republicans may want him dead?
Violence isn't the answer and neither are Vance or Rubio. I don't see either party able to do anything good for this country as they are right now. When China says the U.S. is in decline, they are right. You can shout all you want about making America great again, but truth is that it hasn't happened and won't happen as our country is mired in thinking as liberals and conservatives. Without all of us working together, we will continue to fall farther behind other countries.
As for the boxing story, I took boxing once in the early 1990s. It was a class taught by Mark Breland, who won the 1984 Olympic gold medal. The class was really more of an exercise class and not a true boxing class where we had bouts. It was a very hard workout; boxers are in tip-top shape.
The one thing that stuck with me was when Mark said it was easier to teach women to box/fight than men. Women have no preconceived notions about how one should fight/box. Men always The other thing about the class that stuck with me was the smell. No, not stinky bodies! Bread. Eli's Vinegar Factory was close by and their bread baking smells wafted into the studio as we boxed.
Follow the money…
I certainly don't want him killed & definitely don't want him to be a martyr. The only link I've read about the assassination "jokes" were from today's link, & Vanest, 27-year-old progressive influencer = progressive is the key word = liberal. Then read on to see how many of his viewers/readers saw that, passed it on.
Both sides have done it, to different degrees, but this article, imo, seems to show it's escalating, & many blame Trump, which to them, makes it OK. Yes, Trump is awful. Yes, many of us can't wait for him to be gone, but we want him to go by impeachment or peacefully in the night. I certainly don't think any conservatives of any degree would be posting anything about assassination.
This reminds me of when Charlie Kirk was murdered, & some were claiming the murderer was right-wing, since his family were Republicans. Subsequent evidence suggests the murderer was very liberal/left wing. People believe what they want to believe.
During the depression, my hub's dad & his brother, to earn $, w/out formal training, would prize fight; earned their keep.
imo, a perfect comment from another place I read everyday: c/p:
""The problem is labeling people..."
Ding! Ding!! DING!! DING!!! DING!!!!
And in a lot more ways than one.
But even in the current context of our politics and times, why in the world should it mater even one iota as to the "politics" of a cold-blooded murderer? Other than to the people who see politics merely as a way to divide and conquer rather than to unite with dissimilar people to overcome differences in an effort to promote the common good of all.
Dead is dead. And I doubt the victim, whoever they may be, really gives a damn about any ideology or the politics of the person who pulled the trigger or sank in the blade or whatever.
Violence of any stripe, but especially political violence - along with any supposedly clever memes or any too-clever-by-half camouflaged comments alluding to the appropriateness of it for the sake of political ends - should be equally and loudly called out and vigorously condemned by partisans, non-partisans and all Americans with a conscience of any stripe, without regard to politics.
Politics may have been a motive in a killing such as Charlie Kirk's. But it is never, ever a bona fide justification, no matter the "side" involved.
Not in this country. Not ever. A fact that's dangerously diluted by the self-serving whataboutism of laying such acts off on the right or the left.
I did not like Charlie Kirk, and for a number of reasons, some of them based on my own politics.
I did not know Brian Thompson.
Nor do I know Tyler Robinson or Luigi Mangione.
But I condemn these two men equally as cold-blooded murderers and don't care one whit about their personal politics one way or the other.
If convicted, I strongly believe they should both spend the rest of their lives locked up in prison. And not just locked up but locked up and doing the hardest time there is to do. (I'm against the death penalty, but not for the reasons one might suspect, and that's a subject for a whole different conversation.)
And it's no secret here and elsewhere that I absolutely loathe Donald Trump. But if someone managed to assassinate him, I'd loathe them even more, and I absolutely wouldn't care whether their motivation was rooted in one side of the political divide or another.
Because political violence of *any type* against *anyone* is only good for dividing our country even *more* than it's already divided by the people like Donald Trump and those among us who wish to profit from us all disliking and mistrusting one another for reasons insufficient to produce such animosity and distrust if not for their efforts to engender such feelings through their lies, damned lies and ultimately meaningless performative politics."
Have a great weekend Bill and I’ll see you Tuesday.
Let me add another c/p quote from a daily I receive/Desiring God: "IDEAS HAVE CONSEQUENCES:
Victor Frankl was imprisoned in the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz and Dachau during the Second World War. As a Jewish professor of neurology and psychiatry he became world renowned for his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, which sold over eight million copies.
In it he unfolds the essence of his philosophy that came to be called Logotherapy — namely, that the most fundamental human motive is to find meaning in life. He observed in the horrors of the concentration camps that man can endure almost any “how” of life, if he has a “why.” But the quote that stirred me recently was this:
I am absolutely convinced that the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Maidanek were ultimately prepared not in some ministry or other in Berlin, but rather at the desks and in the lecture halls of nihilistic scientists and philosophers. (“Victor Frankl at Ninety: An Interview,” in First Things, April 1995, p. 41.)
In other words, ideas have consequences — consequences that bless or destroy. People’s behavior — good and bad — does not come out of nowhere. It comes from prevailing views of reality that take root in the mind and bring forth good or evil.
One of the ways that the Bible makes plain the truth that ideas have practical consequences is by saying things like, “Whatever was written in former days was written . . . [that] we might have hope” (Romans 15:4). The ideas presented in the Scriptures produce the practical consequence of hope.
Again, Paul says, “The aim of our charge is love” (1 Timothy 1:5). The imparting of ideas through a “charge” or through “instruction” produces love.
Hope and love do not come from nowhere. They grow out of ideas — views of reality — revealed in the Scriptures.
Another way the Scriptures show us that ideas have consequences is by using the word “therefore” (1,039 times in the NASB). “Therefore” means that what follows comes from somewhere. For example, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). Or: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). Or: “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow” (Matthew 6:34).
If we want to live in the power of these great practical “therefores,” we must be gripped by the ideas — the views of reality — that go before them and stand under them. Ideas have consequences. So, let’s bring all our ideas under the authority of God’s word."
“This whole comment section whew boy howdy I'm getting a cramp from laughing, especially at one comment that says "dumb as dirt, as mean as snakes". I live in one of those rural towns where 80% worships the fat orange jesus and the other 20% is scared to say otherwise. Faux News does more programming than Microsoft around here and facts have become an irritating outsider that is batted away with a conspiracy theory, like holy water on a vampire. I think one of my In-laws actually hissed at me one day when I presented evidence to contradict their nonsense.”
— justlivingmylife, WaPo commenter
Darrell, you quote others to back up your awful, divisive beliefs. You are a prime example of someone who will not “give it up”, not want to find compromise , common beliefs. To you, it’s “”you” vs “”us”
There is absolutely no communication with you
🤔😂🤣🙈🙉🙊💩
There’s a term called sea-lioning. It’s a subtle form of harassment that involves people finding others they don’t like and inundating them with passive-aggressive questions and requests for evidence under the guise of civility and open conversation. “I’m just trying to wrap my brain around this…” followed by a long series of rebuttals and arguments, and if you opt out of the conversation, you’re the uncivil one.
There’s another term coined by a psychologist in the 90s that’s also relevant: DARVO. It’s an acronym: Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender. It’s a subtle form of harassment that’s used by abusers & manipulators. The gist is similar: wait until someone is offended, or worn down, or worse, hurt, and then turn it back on them to paint yourself as the victim and them as the real instigator. It’s a horrible blend of gaslighting, control, and demoralizing blame.
Both are known more generally as bad-faith arguments: arguments made with the intention of misleading or harassing rather than seeking truth or understanding, but masquerading as the latter. Our social need for civility and politeness is sometimes weaponized—especially against people who are expected to be more civil and polite.
This is harassment. And you won’t ‘win’ an argument, and a conversation will not proceed in any meaningful manner.
I’m a firm believer that the world needs to be a kinder place, and there’s a lot of room for that in our conversations, both online and in real life. If someone is genuinely seeking your opinion or compromise, talk honestly and patiently with them. But there should also be recognition that a positive outcome is just not possible in some interactions.
🤔😂🤣🙈🙉🙊💩
"....... But there should also be recognition that a positive outcome is just not possible in some interactions."
🤔😂🤣🙈🙉🙊💩
To Critics, Trump Remarks Reveal a Billionaire Out of Touch
The president has never pretended to be an ordinary American, but a recent “truth bomb” has opened him to criticism that he doesn’t grasp the economic strain of his war with Iran.
“Not even a little bit,” he said.
“I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation,” Mr. Trump continued, a stunningly frank admission that came after weeks spent either downplaying the conflict’s economic toll or simply asking Americans to be patient.
Mr. Trump has profited from the presidency like never before. Most recently, his middle son Eric accompanied him to China, raising questions about the lines between government business and private enterprise. Eric Trump leads the Trump family business, which has flirted with Chinese business deals over the years.
A new CNN poll found that 77 percent of Americans, including a majority of Republicans, thought Mr. Trump’s policies had increased the cost of living in their communities.
— NYT
(Looking forward to the personal attacks for this one.)
Millions of people voted for these animal welfare laws. Congress is trying to overturn them.
How the new Farm Bill could keep millions of pigs locked in tiny cages.
Key takeaways
-Most of America’s 6 million female breeding pigs are confined in gestation crates — tiny enclosures that prevent them from even turning around. It’s considered to be one of the cruelest farming practices.
-Voters in California and Massachusetts have voted to prohibit the use of the crates, and prohibit the sale of pork from farms that use the crates.
-The pork industry has sued California and Massachusetts numerous times in a longrunning effort to repeal the laws, and have failed in each court case.
-The industry has also lobbied Congress to pass legislation that would nullify the laws, and they just had a partial victory, with their desired legislation added into the House Farm Bill.
-The fight is now in the US Senate, which is drafting its own Farm Bill.
— Vox